The Los Angeles Loyolan, Volume 90, Issue 32 - February 20, 2012

MON TUE WED THUR 62'- 49" 66'- 53" 70'- 55" 69"- 55" ESTABLISHED 1921 February 20, 2012 Volume 90, Issue 32 Your Home. Your Voice. Your Newspaper. Loyola Marymount University www.laloyolan.com California proposes cut in Cal Grants The potential cuts would affect over 825 LMU students. By Adrien Jarvis Editor in Chief The University is calling upon its community again to help protect the financial aid some students receive. Last semester, the Federal Pell Grant Program faced potential cuts. However, following a national rally against the action, the grants were not only protected, but increased slightly. Now, California has released the proposed budget for 2012-2013, which includes a 44 percent reduction of a different grant many students at LMU benefit from: the Cal Grant award. University President David W. Burcham sent an email to the LMU community regarding the budget cuts last Wednesday, Feb. 15. In the message, Burcham specified the proposed budget “cuts the maximum Cal Grant award for students attending independent, nonprofit colleges and universities.” Additionally, he cited that more than 26,000 students statewide will be impacted, including over 825 LMU students. In response to the potential cuts, LMU is working with the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU) to contest them, including a trip to the state capitol building on March 7 and a rally the same day. LMU’s Director of Financial Aid Catherine Graham, along with two students who have yet to be selected, will advocate directly with legislators there. The AICCU also created an online petition to sign See Grants | Page 4 facebook Search Memes’ popularity surges шнх ШШ ГШ7Ш1Ш Щ Wall E Info Ik Friend Activity (1+) 1Щ] Photos About Use this page to make memes about LMU. Memes that are not used correctly wi... More 1,091 like this 197 talking about this Create a Page Get Updates via RSS Report Page Share Wall Share: |Щ| Post [Щ] Photo ‘Й* Video V UNO TAKE LION Meme photos: Facebook Write something... NEWS ANALYSIS University-specific memes are turning into one of tlie latest Internet tads. By Jay Lee Asst. News Editor Within the past week, Internet memes have surged in popularity as a college trend with students creating Facebook meme pages specific to each university. Before memes’ recent popularity, they were featured prominently on sites such as Reddit.com and 4chan.org, according to the article “College Memes madness: Students posting Non-stop on Facebook” published on Feb. 14 on PBS.org. A meme, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is “an idea, behavior, style or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.” As reported by PBS, Oxford University’s student newspaper defined Internet memes as “humorous images [that] are copied and re-captioned, concisely describing or satirizing the activity of an individual or group.” Ikenna Nwachuku, a freshman biochemistry major, Andrew Carmine, a freshman business major, Kwaku Yeboah, a freshman studying health and human services, and Diego Rodriguez, a freshman biology major, decided to create an LMU Memes Facebook page on Feb. 11. As of Loyolan publication, the page already had 1,091 likes. Facebook and social media seem to be largely responsible for the increased popularity of memes because they are spread from network to network in a viral manner. “All the other colleges had one. All my friends at the other colleges, I’ve seen them liking their meme pages [on Facebook], so I thought it would just be nice if we had one too,” said Carmine. “I feel like everybody has a problem with their college campus,” Nwachuku said. He said memes are a good way to address those problems and concerns, and they are trendy because they reference inside humor specific to different colleges. The memes on the page are special because “nobody knows what we’re talking about unless you go to See Memes | Page 3 Graphic: Alberto Gonzalez | Loyolan LMU collects fewer pints than in previous drives Devin Sixt | Loyolan Senior engineering major Katrina Regan donates a pint of blood during the Centerfor Service and Action's biannual blood drive cosponsored with the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center. This year’s drive Ms short of previous records, collecting 475 pints of blood. By Casey Kidwell Asst. News Editor Over the past few days, St. Rob’s Auditorium has been home to the biannual blood drive sponsored by the Center for Service and Action (CSA) and the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center. The organizer of the event from CSA, Tom King, said there were no changes to this particular blood drive but “Fall [drives] historically are much better than the spring. This drive we’ll probably be about 150-200 pints less than in the fall.” Fall 2011, he said, broke the previous record of 607 pints with 674 pints. King believes that the decrease in numbers is due to the change in energy among students on the LMU campus. A lot of previous donors think that their recent donation keeps them from giving blood so soon afterwards, King said. The Thursday, Feb. 16 donation day was slow, according to King, but he acknowledged some of the records that LMU has made in the past. “Our best spring ever in 2010 we did 516," he said. “I don’t think we’ll get [that] for this drive. We’ll probably end up around 500.” Regardless of the statistics, Anne Marie Lepsat, senior supervisor at the Blood Platelet Center at UCLA and Westchester native, praised LMU participation at each of the drives. “[The] student body is absolutely fabulous. Just amazing. You are all so dedicated and motivated and understand what you’re doing for the patient population. It’s just really a joy for us to come here,” said Lepsat. As a result of this, along with her adoration for the campus itself, Lepsat has dedicated herself to volunteer at one drive a year and has done so for around five years. Both Lepsat and King discussed the students that do not give blood and why they think that is. King said he found some people’s fear of needles as an excuse ironic because “some people who say that have tattoos and I think, ‘Oh, so you’re afraid of needles when it’s helping somebody else?’ People need to be a little uncomfortable when they’re doing good. It’s not always easy doing [that].” Lepsat agreed with King that See Blood | Page 5 CONSTITUTION CONTROVERSY Sparked by the comments of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, two opinion columnists debate the current value of the U.S. Constitution. Opinion, Page 8 Index Classifieds . 5 Opinion . 6 Coffee Break . 9 Л&Е . 10 Sports . 16 Tlx- next issue of the Liyolan will lx- printed on I-Vli. 23,2012. VEGGIE VENTURE TO VENICE Asst. A&E Editor Luisa Barron continues her vegan journey by visiting the "macroboutique" Seed Kitchen. A&E, Page 1 0