The Los Angeles Loyolan, Volume 90, Issue 21 - December 1, 2011

THUR FRI SAT SUN 64"-49" 63 '-49' 58"-47° 59"- 44" ESTABLISHED 1921 December 1,2011 Volume 90, Issue 21 Your Home. Your Voice. Your Newspaper. Loyola Marymount University www.laloyolan.com Debate team keeps winning reputation LMU defeats Ivy League competitors in international tournament. By Brigette Scobas Asst. News Editor “It’s a really strange hobby ... [and one] that takes up a lot of time,” said Loyola Law School student Dearbhail O’Crowley regarding her involvement with the award-winning LMU debate team. But O’Crowley, along with the 15 other members of the LMU debate squad comprised of undergraduate and graduate students, said that does not let that hold them back from their passion for debating, especially after a semester full of notable rankings at a variety of tournaments in the United States and Europe. Visiting professor of communication studies J.J. Rodriguez has coached speech and debate for 12 years. His involvement with the LMU debate team began in 2007, and Rodriguez says that he has since seen the team continue to achieve success. “Loyola debate has ranked among the most successful programs in the country for nearly half a century and among the best programs in the world for several years. This season has been particularly remarkable,” Rodriguez said. The LMU debate team takes part in three different types of policy debate, posting winning records in all three policy debate formats, including American Parliamentary Debate Association, British or World Parliamentary Style and National Debate Tournament. This is O’Crowley’s first semester at LMU. She is an international student from Ireland, who came to the University on a debate scholarship before even realizing the strength of the team as a whole. “They’re certainly one of the best American schools [and] probably the third in See Debate | Page 4 Graduate lawstudent Dearbhail O'Crowley (above) left her home country of Ireland to attend LMU on a debate scholarship. Monika Kim | Loyolan High winds cause campus-wide power outage At approximately 7:10 p.m. last night, a power outage occurred across campus due to high winds. The glass windows in Pereira Hall's entrance shattered because of the wind (pictured above). The Department of Public Safety sent updates to the community throughout the night. At approximately 8:1 5 p.m. the power was restored. For the full story, turn to Page 2. Students discuss need for LMU transparency Junior Alex Quintana seeks support from campus leaders to place a student on die Board of Trustees. By Tierney Finster News Editor According to the University’s centennial webpage, “The goal of the centennial is to celebrate LMLFs past and project a clear vision of its future.” However, this year of celebration has left some students asking for a clearer vision of LMUs current financial and administrative practices, and for some students, this means attempting to acquire student representation on the Board of Trustees. “One hundred years. We have made it this far. ... I have not met an LMU student who does not love [the Univeisity], but to a certain degree there are two cultures here at LMU,” said junior business major Alex Quintana. “There’s a culture that students create for themselves through [involvement in] certain organizations and participation in on- campus events, and then there is a separate administration which we don’t really partake in.” Quintana acknowledges the University’s attempt to involve students in the making of important decisions but believes the current system is doing so in an “inadequate" fashion. He believes that the University’s operations need to be clearer to students and more student representation is needed in LMU’s executive decision-making. “Currently, transparency is an issue that is at the top of the lists of concerns of most students I speak to, including organization leaders and certain ASLMU senators," Quintana said. ASLMU Director of Intercultural Affairs Sean Krimmel and ASLMU Senator Corey Meador, a senior screenwriting major, agreed that there could be a greater degree of transparency in LMUs affairs in some ways. Krimmel and Meador met with a representative from the Controller’s Office to discuss LMUs financial practices this year but acknowledged that their- opportunity was verv rare. See Transparency | Page 3 Kensie La'anyane | Loyolan Junior business major Alex Quintana wants a student representative on the board of trust¬ ees. He is also president of the College Demo¬ crats at LMU. Waitlist system disappoints some students Associate Registrar says students have yet to hilly utilize new registration feature. By Angelica Cadiente Public Editor As LMU finds itself more than halfway through the advanced registration season, many students may already find themselves through with the anxiety associated with registering for classes. However, the worry that comes with not being able to register for a particular class or getting enough credits to qualify for full-time student status is an issue that persists for some. Hoping to alleviate some of this stress, LMU announced and implemented a new waitlist feature to go along with hundreds of courses [see “Registrar adds waitlist feature,” in the Nov. 7, 2011 issue of the Loyolan]. According to Robert Nitsos, the associate university registrar for Student Records Systems, there are over 400 undergraduate and graduate-level courses with waitlists. Those courses are spread across all colleges and various departments. Nitsos added, “It was purposefully limited to a smaller number of courses because this is the first time we’re doing it, and we want to make sure everything is going to work out.” The various colleges then decided which courses to offer waitlists for, and the Office of the Registrar made the waitlist feature available to those courses. Though students were notified of the waitlist feature on Nov. 9 via a campus-wide email from the Office of the Registrar, it does not appear that this new feature is being utilized by many students. As of Nov. 29, only 16 courses out of the 400 had active waitlists. In addition to that, only approximately 30 to 40 students were actively on a waitlist. Nitsos suggested that the low numbers could be a result of the possibility that “the courses haven’t filled up enough to where we need a waitlist yet.” He also added that “maybe later in the week or next week, we’ll really see some more use of it. I expect that you’ll start seeing messages go out more frequently once advanced registration is completed and through the holiday break up through that first week of class as students are really trying to get into the sections they want.” Before the implementation of LMU’s waitlist feature, some students found themselves using a third-party website, GetThatClass.com, which offered a similar service of notifying a student via text message and email if a closed course reopened. However, during this registration season, See Registration! Page 4 SHOULD GRAPHIC LABELS BE PLACED ON CIGARETTE PACKS? Two opinion columnist debate new FDA proposals. Opinion, Page 7 Index C Classifieds 5 Opinion . . 6 A&E . . 9 •Sports . . 16 The next issue of the biyolan will lie primed on December 8, 201 1. THE PERSONAL SIDE OF AIDS “Stages of AIDS” weaves in personal testimonies from members of the LMU community. A&E, Page 9