RA Interview Process

            The process to help select residential advisors, Carousel, is scheduled for 23 March.

            Residential advisor applications are due Friday, Feb. 22. Those who attend Carousel are chosen from the applications.

            Carousel is a team effort organized and operated by the Residential Life Staffing Committee.

            “Carousel is a several hour long process where we are basically looking at how potential RAs interact with one another,” said Caitlin McCowan, assistant coordinator and Staffing Committee member since 2010. “Every applicant that is invited to attend is observed by Res Life members, professional as well as student RAs.”

            This process is used like a group interview, to see how they interact with one another, how they communicate. Res Life members want to see how potential RAs approach situations that are uncomfortable and challenging, whether or not an applicant has a sense of humor and how they can voice their opinion.

            “[Carousel] is helpful as an RA because as an RA you are put in an unlimited number of situations, and for situations we always have a guideline or a procedure that helps you in how to handle that,” Said McCowan.

            Situations RAs deal with range from roommate disputes to depression and suicide issues or rape.

Current New Hall North RA Michelle Best has been an RA for three years. “I’m one of those people that needs to be involved to be an awesome student,” said Best. “I love my job.”

“Carousel is cool, very different from any other job interview you will have. It is a good way to start to see your real personality, like I’m not a competitive person but I am more a lead from behind. I thought at the end of the day, it did not go so well but they called me and said I had done well,” said Best.

            “We want to see how you think on your feet,” said McCowan.  

            Another current RA is David Harbison. He is in his second semester of being an RA in Warf residential hall.

            “I asked a lot of questions about Carousel so I knew what was going to happen,” said Harbison. “In the big Carousel, there were five activities and you could tell which one relate but then there were some smaller ones that I’m not sure where they came from.”

            Carousel is useful to see how individuals handle situations that he or she is not used to handling and can give Res Life a sense of who will be best suited for the position.

            As of now, any student can apply to be an RA but it is highly encouraged that students wait until they have completed their freshman year so they are adjusted and have a good balance in their on-campus life.

“For me the hardest thing about being an RA is time management,” said Best. “Your residence come to you when they have a problem but they don’t always remember that you have class or other previous time commitments.”

For each residence hall, approximately 6-12RAs as employed by Tennessee Tech and Res Life expects to hire about 35 new RAs for the Fall 2013 semester. Currently, there are 71 RAs on campus between the 13 residential halls and Tech Village with 2200 people living on campus.

“Being an RA has a lot to do with interpersonal skills and their ability to think quickly and work in a group, no matter if it is with other Residential Life members or students in the dorms,” said McCowan. “Carousel gives us a very brief gleams of what that is and it’s also important to know that RAs, when they are hired, they do about seven days’ worth of training before students come back.”

Carousel is a tool used to see if an applicant is willing to learn and to see if they can be trained in the way that will best suit the situation.

“Res Life kick starts friendships and when I was a freshman I remember someone was always down in the lobby,” said Harbison. “I just wanted to help freshmen transition and start getting involved.”

Carousel is a common use in universities and has been used at Tech for several years. However, the staff does make minor adjustment to the program to improve its function and to keep it current.   

“I feel we have always employed involved students, we’ve always had willing students who have a pretty strong work ethic to help us out with Res Life,” said McCowan.

            

Free Zumba

            The Educational Programming Committee will be hosting a free Zumba workout for students Feb. 12 at 6 p.m. in Memorial Gymnasium.

            The Educational Programming Committee is still searching for a nutritionist to speak about healthy eating and fitness.

“We want to promote fitness especially with New Year’s resolutions still on students’ minds,” Melvin Buchanan, assistant coordinator in Residential Life said. “We also want to promote healthy living because of the state that the nation is in with health right now.”

            The Educational Programming Committee is just one of four committees within Res Life; the remaining committees are Service, Residential Relations and Staffing. Each committee has a specific set of tasks for which they are responsible. The two committees students have the most involvement with are service and educational programming.

Last year the Educational Programming Committee hosted a guest speaker on self-defense.

“It was a lot of talking, but he said he would come back to demonstrate,” Buchanan said.

However, the committee wants to keep things fresh and include new ideas. If an idea is successful, they will continue the same event.

This year a brainstorming group decided on Zumba

“Everyone really likes it,” Buchanan said. “It’s a fun way to incorporate fun and fitness.”

Buchanan added that the workout is about 30 minutes so those attending who are not fitness junkies do not have to worry about being winded.

“Just have an open mind and have a good time,” Buchanan said.

Anyone is welcome to join; the only requirement is that athletic clothes be worn.

How To Kill Two Birds With One Stone

At the start of a new year and a new semester, we often set resolutions to make ourselves better. Most of the time those resolutions involve getting in shape and staying fit. The problem becomes that we get lazy or we may not have been completely committed in the first place.

In America, weight loss and fitness is the number one resolution made each year and each year less and less people meet their weight loss goals. On top of having resolutions made, students are already preparing themselves for spring break.

Brontë Mckinnon asking The Fit worker, Jessica Walker, about the fitness classes available this spring.
Photo courtesy of Kimberly Manning

So, how do you “kill two birds with one stone”? With two issues like this, it is easy.

After reading the advice of many a health-nut, doctors of all sorts, and those that speak from personal experience, these are the best ways to stick with your resolutions and get fit for spring.

Goals

First, make sure that whatever it is you want, be specific about your goal(s).

Being too general with weight loss or fitness can become overwhelming. Issues can get down played which may lead you to think that it will be fine to hold onto 10 or 15 extra pounds that you gained in the cold months and from the stress of the fall semester.

Lacey Hunt (left) and Kenzie Winecoff biking in The Fit together.
Photo courtesy of Kimberly Manning

Also, make sure your goals are reasonable.

Don’t expect to lose 50 pounds in only two months. Your body needs time to adjust and rest. A change from not working out to working out every day will only stress your body. It is natural in today’s society to want and expect instant results that are not likely.  

One more thing to keep in mind when setting your goal(s) is to set a time frame.

 For those that resolved to get fit and lose weight, the proper time frame is within a year, but make small goals throughout. For instance, plan to lose four to five pounds a month which should allow your body enough time to rest and recover like it should.

Diet

There are mixed opinions on whether or not dieting is beneficial for your body. The best way to get healthy and not starve yourself is to forget about counting calories and eat things you know are good like fruits and vegetables, protein-packed nuts and eggs, and watch how many breads you eat and drink plenty of water.

Meats hold a lot of protein but take it easy on the fatty red meats and try to eat more fish and chicken.

Drink plenty of water.

Water helps flush out toxins, hydrates your system and helps with weight loss.

So how much water should you be drinking? According to the Institute of Medicine and the Mayo Clinic, men should be consuming roughly three liters, about 13 cups, a day. Women should consume roughly 2.2 liters, about nine cups, of water a day.

This is a good base but everyone varies on what their bodies need, and your body will let you know what it needs and when. Remember that if you are thirsty then your body is already dehydrated.

A major key to being healthier is to listen to what your body is trying to tell you.

Workouts

The Tennessee Tech Fitness Center is particularly roaring this season. There are hundreds of students and faculty members toning up, getting in shape and staying fit. This can make squeezing in time for a workout difficult.

Don’t let the crowd overwhelm you.  Find a time that works with your schedule when there is not such a rush at the gym. Going at the same time every day will help you build a routine and will help keep your body motivated and consistent.

A group of friends spending their Saturday afternoon in The Fit (From the left: Andrew Robinson, Greg Evans, and Brontë McKinnon)
Photo courtesy of Kimberly Manning

An hour workout is only 4 percent of your day.

For more photos from Kimberly Manning :http://www.facebook.com/KimmyManningPhotography

Little Video

This is a letter I submitted to the Knoxville News Sentinel about a teacher I had in high school that has been removed from his teaching position at the high school to a position that the middle school.

Dear editor,

I am writing this letter in response to stories previously published in May of this year concerning a high school teacher at Lenoir City High School, James Yoakley.

I understand there is quite a delay with my response, but I was attending school. I am about to enter my fourth and final year at Tennessee Technological University where I major in journalism. I did not choose to be a journalism major lightly, I did not choose this major because it was easy and I did not choose to become a journalism major because I wanted to try something new.

The reason I am a journalism major is because I have a passion for this study that I hope to one day make my career. This passion started my freshman year at Lenoir City High School, when I enrolled into a course called cub staff. It was the prerequisite for being on the school’s journalism staff. 

At that time Yoakley taught English and cub staff.

I learned to write better stories, ask better question and learned to communicate better. But from that class I understood better what I wanted to do. I applied for a staff position for the following year, which I found out I had received at the end of the year, along with the knowledge that Yoakley would be the new journalism advisor.

Over the next three years, I was tried, failing and succeeding many times over, and was guided by my fellow students and of course Yoakley. He never once stopped the progress of a newspaper meeting to make sure we did or did not cover a particular story; he never talked about his political or religious opinions to ensure that we learned to form our own; and Yoakley never made the L’Cean yearbook or Panther Press newspaper about him, his issues or his agenda.

When I look back at high school now, I don’t think about the football games or the basketball games, I don’t think about homecoming week or dances, I think about the memories I made in room 217 with the journalism staff members from 2006 to 2009. I think about how I became a better person who was learning about my future career. I think about how I could not have asked for a better teacher, leader, or friend than James Yoakley.

When I came home this summer to read about how a student wrote a piece for the L’Cean about a gay student who graduated this year and that my beloved teacher was being blamed for it, it broke my heart. Not only was blame laid on his name for the yearbook article, but also for a story in the Panther Press about prayer being in public meetings. Both pieces and the choice to print them were made by students, not a teacher.

Yoakley made a statement in a previously printed article that the yearbook is made by students for students. I could not agree more. As I stated already, Yoakley did not limit the subject of our stories, not once.

I understand that the story in the L’Cean about a young man, who is gay, has already accomplished so many things in his life. The article, about getting through the struggles of high school while also being gay, upset many parents. But despite that some may not wish to know that there are persons of different sexual orientation who live and work in their community, is not a reason to put a teacher under fire because of his own personal life.

The gay student was and is a part of Lenoir City High School and its history, whether people like it or not; and he is not the first nor will he be the last.

I regret that I was unable to speak to the School Board when Yoakley and his job as a high school English teacher and the journalism advisor was called into question. I regret not being there to stand up for the teacher who has ultimately changed my life because he introduced to me to what I hope will one day be my career.  I regret that the narrow-minded views of closed-minded people have removed Yoakley from his position as a high school teacher and have taken away the future of an unknown number of students who may never know what I was so blessed to have experienced as a student of James Yoakley, the L’Cean and Panther Press advisor.

I know that he will now be teaching at Lenoir City Middle as an English teacher, but I’m not sure the Yoakley I knew will be happy away from the subject he enjoyed sharing, away from the students who need him and away from his true passion, journalism.

Here is the link to the original article.

And better still here is the ending result of what happened.

Passed the Class

Lindsey Wallace

Group 2

Review Story

Passed the Class

            No matter the seat, your body vibrates with the mixture of excitement and the roar of the bass being broadcasted over the many speakers. Lights of all different colors flashed on cue to the lyrics and rhythms of Dev and Gym Class Heroes, though they were not alone on the stage, Outasight opened the evening to a reluctant crowd in the Hooper Eblen Center at Tennessee Tech on Tuesday, April 24. Student Government Association reported giving out 3700 tickets prior to the event. Playing both songs made famous by radio play lists and songs that are not so popular, to songs that were shouted by the crow at the top of their lungs, the night could be called a success but there were a number of factors not in the favor of a true success. At the end of the night, those in attendance had bounced and sang along with the fading glow sticks only remaining from the night’s excitement.

            The spring 2012 S.O.L.O. concert sponsored by the Student Government Association S.O.L.O. bill fund was composed of three different artists, each with a style of their own, Gym Class Heroes featuring Dev and Outasight. In the previous semester, students voted for the artists they wanted in the pop genre. After LMFAO, first choice, was unable to fit the trip into their revised schedule, Gym Class Heroes, second choice, were invited.      

Starting the night with up and comer Outasight, it was hard not to notice his struggle with

the audience, which I believe was a result of his music not being which as popular as he had

planned for the college audience. He and his keyboard accompaniment were alone on stage trying with everything they had to get the crowd ready for Dev, who was scheduled to come on next. Toward the end of his portion of the show, he played his new release Now or Never and his hit song Tonight Is the Night. Most of his time on stage was spent on unheard songs that he would tell the crowd to bounce or jump to, but because no one really knew his songs it was an empty request to the crowd. 

            Next up was Dev, but before she made her way to the stage her DJ there to pump up the crowd which might not have been an issue had they not spent twenty minutes in between acts. That lull seemed to encourage the crowd to die down. However, the DJ did succeed in getting the energy of the crowd back up by playing hyped up songs that everyone has heard on the radio. One thing that did begin to annoy about his warm up was that he would talk to the crowd to request particular reactions and each time he spoke the music stopped completely and his voice alone was coming over the sound system and this happened a half dozen times. The crowd was both relieved and excited to finally see Dev take the stage in her tight black sleeveless top and retro bright floral pants.

            Dev really embodied what a college concert should be, her high energy was contagious throughout the whole building, transforming what students call The Hoop into a real concert feel. She never stopped once during her time on stage to make empty requests like her DJ and previous artist, but instead she focused on her sound and her music and just had a good time. One of her most popular songs, released in March 2011, Bass Down Low was not saved for last as most artists do when they may not be as well known, yet that was not the case for Dev. She had the crowd excited no matter the song simply because she didn’t let someone not knowing a sing or two change her performance.

            The time had come for the headliner, Gym Class Heroes, to take the stage after yet again an extended period of time where the crowd began to die down and time passed into the later hours of the night. The group gave off a vibe that I translated as they didn’t care too much to be there but they played the show with energy and charisma that made the wait a little worth it.

            All the while, lights and bass and other factors either helped or hurt the concert experience. In my opinion, the lights were too much and took away from the show. During both Dev and Outasight, there was a strobe light set up and each time it was turned on, it blinded anyone who wasn’t on the floor because it was being blocked by the DJ booth. Another factor that seemed to take away from the show was the crowd. They was loud and excited but the crowd was small. Although 3700 tickets were handed out, only about 1800 were in attendance, with about 220 concert goers on the floor. I had a feeling that “dead week,” the last week of classes before finals when no more tests or other assignments are supposed to be given, was playing a role in the attendance.

            “This was not the most opportune time,” Ashley Humphrey, SGA Treasurer, said. “But you live and learn, with artists’ schedules and securing other things.”

            But despite the short comings, the concert was not a failure.

            “Overall, it was a good, fun concert,” Humphrey said. “Good variety, students got a more

well rounded show. And I thought the artists were good at engaging the crowd.”

            I suppose I do agree with Humphrey and the nameless chatter on campus that the concert was a success and that it doesn’t hurt that it was free. I believe, however, that Dev was a better artist and performer than any of her companions and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing her again.

VF April Review

Return to Sunnylands

By Bob Colacello, Photography by Todd Eberle

I really enjoyed this story. It started out with a quote from First Lady Nancy Reagan and then into lots of descriptions and details about the estate. The author put in the great descriptions and scenes from visits over the years and the layout of the home, as well as, a great description of the former home owners Walter and Lee Annenberg.

I think it is so amazing that their home was visited by and used by so many persons of importance. It makes me want to do something huge to get an invitation to visit such an amazing place that has really impacted the history of this nation, in my opinion from what was shared in this story.

I just think what this couple did and are continuing to do through their foundation is wonderful and I wish that one day I may be able to visit such a magical place.

Inside Sunnylands