DN|Blog

We’ve fixed it …

Dave Studinski — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 05:29:19 +0000

Many of our avid readers noticed an error with our PDF archive during the Summer and into the start of Fall Semester.

We’ve figured it out.

A small line of code signifying the end date of the calendar needed to be updated. (As it turns out, someone didn’t see a reason to have the calendar run beyond May 30, 2006.) In any event, the feature is now active and working.

Thanks to those of you who wrote us about the problem and for the patience you had while we resolved it.

Cards fall short in NCAA Regional

Sports — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 17:05:30 +0000

LEXINGTON, Ky. – It was almost a fairy-tale comeback for the Ball State University baseball team.

I can’t describe the feeling I had when I walked out of the press box after Matt Singleton struck out to end the game. As a journalist, it is hard to be an impartial observer, especially when you’re covering your school’s team for the school newspaper, but you have to do your best.

I was jittery all through the eighth inning of Sunday’s game, with dreams of the improbable comeback over one of the SEC’s best teams.

Ball State had its chances, but in the end, our pitching failed when we needed it the most. Nine of the University of Kentucky’s 12 runs in the game were with two outs. But give credit to the Wildcats, they have put up a lot of runs this year, and they showed why. Sunday’s game was the 19th time this season it has scored 10 or more runs.

I really thought we were going to tie it up in the eighth inning with Dygert batting and the bases loaded. At that point, he was 3-for-4. After drawing the count to 3-2, Dygert unfortunately popped up weakly to the shortstop.

Regardless, Ball State’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 37 years will be one to remember, even without the desired result.

The jittery-ness for myself was much worse during the eighth and ninth innings of Friday’s game with Kentucky. The Cards missed some opportunities to score early and starting pitcher Ben Snyder was keeping the UK hitters off-balance. When Rogers hit that two-run single to give BSU the lead, it was pure adulation. With Snyder getting out of the eighth inning and then Kyle Heyne slamming the door shut in the ninth, it let the rest of this regional know that Ball State was for real.

The biggest highlight was obviously the chance to witness the biggest victory in the history of Ball State baseball when BSU stunned the Wildcats 3-1 on Friday. Kentucky was ranked eighth in the nation in the Collegiate Baseball poll. It was an unbelievable crowd also, as 3,529 fans showed up for it. Granted, 3,300 were UK fans, but it was a great atmosphere nonetheless.

I can’t say enough about Snyder’s performance on Friday night. He rose to the occasion in the brightest lights possible. He threw eight innings, striking out nine hapless Wildcat batters. Snyder also only allowed four hits (a double and three singles) and one run. The key to Snyder’s success was getting ahead early in the count, dictating the action, as opposed to letting the UK batters take control.

It was a pretty great feeling hearing all the fans and the people in the pressroom talking about how great Snyder pitched. If there ever were a game to put BSU in the spotlight to potential recruits, this would be it.

The total opposite happened on Saturday unfortunately. Playing in the winner’s bracket against the College of Charleston, the Cardinals looked very overmatched. Charleston’s Nick Chigges came into the game third in the nation in ERA (1.44) and pitched like it. He mowed down 13 Ball State batters, a career high. Ball State was swinging at every curveball Chigges was throwing and not even coming close to hitting it. Coming out of the high of Friday night’s win, it looked like they couldn’t match the intensity of Charleston.

Hopefully the events of this past weekend are a stepping-stone to greater things for the Ball State baseball team. The team played as best as they could in arguably the toughest regional in the nation, with the other three teams ranked in the Baseball America Top 25 poll.

Submitted by Phil Friend, sports editor

The spin on racism

News — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 05:54:10 +0000

Racism has been a buzzword around Ball State University’s campus this year.
From people yelling racial remarks out of cars to the many, many events the university and other organizations have sponsored, racism has been a major topic of dicussion.
Less than a month ago, a group of about 75 Ball State students were playing a game of midnight tag on Lafollette Field. The University Police Department received numerous calls complaining of loud noises, so officers went to disband the game. The students were told to leave, and the officers thought they did. However, UPD received more calls later about noise problems. Once again, officers went to break up the group of students who had reformed by Worthen Arena.
Students said the officers were disrespectful and forced them to leave.
Of course these students were forced to leave.
They were disrespecting the community by being loud late at night, and they were also breaking the law by violating the city’s noise ordinance. The officers had every right to tell them to break it up. They had done it once before, and by not listening the first time, the students were showing disrespect for the officers by restarting their game.
Students also said that the officers had been racist by treating the black students differently from other students.
Students held a rally the next day where they marched to the police station while chanting and making speeches about racism on campus. However, when students actually filed complaints about the officers’ handling of the incident, not one complaint referred to racism. If the officers did exhibit some racist actions, why didn’t the students submit a complaint about that? Instead, the complaints addressed the officers using inappropriate language and forcing the students to leave.
The university did as it should have and investigated the complaints. It was proven that one of the officers used profanity when addressing the students. He used the phrases “get the hell out of here” and “get your asses out of here”,” Heather Shupp, executive director of University Communications, said.
The officer was verbally reprimanded, as university rules specify. No evidence of racism was found during the investigation.
A story done by TV station WTHR-13 from Indianapolis on the investigation did not come out and say this was a racism issue, but it was heavily implied.
For example, the story said “13 investigates on the discipline and a noise ordinance that is not so black and white.”
This story, like the story in the Daily News, also addresses the issue of one student, sophomore Jocelyn Jackson. Jackson, who happens to be black, received the one noise ordinance violation ticket during the night’s events. She was walking away from the scene next to freshman Amanda Clifft, who happens to be white. The two woman say Clifft yelled out “Ball State police shoot to kill.”
Officers thought Jackson had yelled it out, not Clifft, so they cited Jackson, the students said. Neither said they thought officers cited Jackson because of her race.
The story on WTHR-13 strongly implied it was a racial issue in its coverage. Footage of two students, one black and one white, walking together was shown with a voiceover saying “two young women walk a path of justice together.”
Everyone is making this situation into a racial issue, but no proof has been given. Complaints were filed, an investigation has been completed, and nothing has been found to say that this had anything to do with race.
If this is a racial issue, and someone has proof, I hope they come forward and share it. If not, I hope people will stop sensationalizing events such as this.
Shame on the TV station for making an already tough situation on Ball State’s campus worse by emphasizing only the negative aspects of this incident and not fairly reporting the story.
-Submitted by Emily Ortman, News Editor

To be blunt …

Dave Studinski — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 06:31:15 +0000

Today is April 20, 2006. It’s 4.20, or depending on how you see it: 420, 4/20, 4-20 or just *giggle.*

We’re not naive at the Daily News, nor should we pretend to be. The staff is well aware of what today’s date signifies to many people, as if the surplus of four-twenty advertisements in our paper today aren’t a strong enough hint. It’s the so-called “International Pot Smokers Holiday.

Some debate went into today’s front page package on salvia and whether we were sending a negative message by publishing the story on 4/20.

“Would we be better off running it one day before or after?” I asked the staff. “No - we’re not ignorant. We know what 4/20 means.”

It’s true - we do. Although the DN staff as a whole may not necessarily agree with the basis for 4/20, it doesn’t mean we collectively disagree with it, either. We’re a mixed group of people, similar to any other sample of students. While we are share a common interest in journalism and news, we still have our own opinions about what’s right and wrong.

We’re not trying to promote 4/20 beyond it’s newsworthiness on a college campus, but we’re not going to play foolish, either. If there’s a most topical day for salvia to be discussed, today is surely that day.

The DN editorial board does agree on one thing, though - ending apathy. Today’s editorial illustrates a more collective feel of the staff, encouraging people on both sides of the drug debate to get involved and express their opinions respectfully and peacefully.

Whichever side you sit on, don’t be afraid to light up the conversation with your thoughts.

Was today the right day to run the package on salvia? Leave us your thoughts below in the comment area.

State-wide Pride

Dave Studinski — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 04:21:11 +0000

On Saturday, Daily News staff members and editors traveled to the University of Indianapolis for the annual Indiana Collegiate Press Association convention and awards ceremony. Overall, The Daily News tied with Indiana University’s Indiana Daily Student for Best Division I Newspaper. That overall ranking is a measurement of the total number of individual awards a respective paper received, with point values awarded to higher placings.

What follows is a list of individual and staff awards for the Daily News, as awarded by The Indiana Collegiate Press Association.

Best Single Issue
- Third Place: Dec. 12, 2005

Best Special Issue
- Third Place: Roll Call

Best Pullout Section
- Second Place: Holiday Tab

Best Non-Deadline News Story
- Second Place: Andy Zeigert, “Boom goes the dynamite!”

Best Investigative Story
- First Place: Justin Hesser, Will O’Hargan, Ross Flint, “Textbook scandal”
- Third Place: Justin Hesser, “Sick Leave”

Best Opinion Column
- Second Place: Dave Studinski, “Livestrong”

Best News Feature Story
- Second Place: Adrian Sharp, “What makes a man?”
- Third Place: Kim Robinson and Emily Ortman, “Student relives hurricane”

Best Entertainment Feature Story
- Second Place: Mary Beth Lehman, “Game over: You’re addicted”

Best Sports News Story
- Second Place: Justin Hesser, “Violators named”

Best Sports Feature Story
- First Place: Sean Stevenson, “Krista Mitts”
- Second Place: Will O’Hargan, “Sweet 16”

Best News or Feature Series
- First Place: Whitney Hoyt, “James Barham”
- Second Place: Staff, “Having it our way”

Best Front Page
- First Place: Shawn Barkdull, “Violators Named”

Best Inside Page
- First Place: Brandon Stuck, “Star Wars, Episode III”
- Third Place: Andy Zeigert, “From grain to glass”

Best News Photo
- Third Place: Matt Berry, “Professor documents Supreme Court history”

Best Feature Photo
- First Place: Nicholas Benner, “A key connection”

Best Sports Photo
- Third Place: Will Vragovic, “Globetrotters”

Best Photo Essay
- First Place: Jeff Furticella, “What makes a man?”

Best Information Graphic
- First Place: Brandon Stuck, “The color of money”
- Second Place: Emily Kuzniar, “Hubble”

Best Illustration
- First Place: Brandon Stuck, “Tiny Adams”

How, not what

News — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 07:22:57 +0000

When I walk into Student Government Association’s Student Senate every week I usually do not know what I will be writing about in the paper the next day. The article usually involves legislation or issues brought up in the meeting. But sometimes, how something happens is more of a story than what happens.
Several interesting things worth writing about came up at senate on Wednesday, but what struck me were the repeated motions to either eliminate or shorten meetings and reports. In the interest of time, senators chose to skip almost all of the caucus and committee meetings and reports.
Vice President Rodney Blount commented on the senate decision during his comments, and reminded senators they have a responsibility to the student body to take the time to discuss concerns.
Student Senate is young at the moment, with many new members. While senate did not abuse the ability to skip sections of the meeting last term, it did happen. This is still the first month of the new terms, and I thought it was interesting how easily the motions to hurry the meeting along were passed.
While important and interesting issues and topics were brought up at senate, it was one of those instances when how the meeting happened stood out more than what happened at it.

Submitted by Erin Moody, chief reporter

Converge for the Better

Dave Studinski — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 03:51:54 +0000

Frequent visitors to the DN|Online may notice a new addition to the top of the site today: the Ball State Media Partners’ bar.
No - not that sort of bar, but rather a series of links representing our fellow student media outlets at the university. (It’s missing from this blog site right now, but we’re working on that.)
Earlier this year, students, staff and faculty in the College of Communication, Information and Media got together to discuss the future of media convergence at Ball State. Out of the numerous brainstorming sessions we’ve been involved in, one of the most liked ideas was the addition of a universal link bar across all the student media Web sites.

As you see, this idea has come to fruition.

Many users noticed the change at the launch of our site redesign earlier this year. Until this school year, Ball State’s student media were distant from one another - rarely working together or socializing. Admittedly, there’s still a long way to go until perfection — but we’re at least well on our way.

NewsLink, WCRD and the DN proudly display the bar as of today. In the meanwhile, Expo’s presence on the Web continues to be developed and Ball Bearings is working on adding the bar to its pages, as well. By the end of the year, we hope to launch an even bigger project that promises to be your first place for news in Muncie and around Ball State.

Since our media partner links have moved to the top of the site, the DN LINKS area will soon transform into something different, providing more “quick links” within the DN site. We welcome your comments for what those links should be and encourage you to e-mail editor@bsudailynews.com with your suggestions.

In the interim, we hope you enjoy these exciting developments in Ball State media.

We certainly are.

Switching package stories

News — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 00:50:22 +0000

Each day, the staff of the Daily News tries to have a package story prepared to fill the main news hole on page one. (That would be the big story in the middle of the front page.) We have planning meetings once a week, along with other smaller group meetings to coordinate these large, usually more in-depth, stories.

The package for Wednesday’s paper was supposed to be an informational graphic about tornadoes. We felt this was approriate because tornado season just started, and Indiana is in what some call Tornado Alley.

However, when we sat down in Editorial Board Tuesday night, with snow covering campus, we had to reconsider our package. Snow doesn’t exactly convey the idea of a tornado, so running a package on torandoes was not as timely or newsworthy as we had hoped.

We decided to hold the tornado package to run on another day, and instead we decided to package our story on the expansion of the Ball State recreational center. This story had a lot of information and interesting to students. The rec center addition has also been a major issue on campus and in Student Government Association.

Overall, our decision to package the rec center was probably a smarter move than trying to run something about tornadoes when it was snowing outside.

Submitted by Emily Ortman, news editor, and Brandon Stuck, assistant design editor

Who will be the next basketball coach?

Sports — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 22:38:18 +0000

The hot topic within the sports program at Ball State University is the search for the next men’s basketball coach after Tim Buckley and his assistants were relieved of their coaching positions. On BSUFans.com, the Ball State sports fan message board, just about every single person you can think of has been thrown out there. There also seems to be some who think Mike Davis, IU’s former coach, should be our next coach. I would say that is pretty unlikely, as he has voiced his issues with mid-majors in the past. Other names thrown out that are pretty unrealistic are Steve Lavin and Rick Majerus.

When we ran the Buckley reassignment story on Thursday, I put together a list of four names that could be possible replacements and I still think they’re four of the most realistic ones. In no particular order:

Ray McCallum - He seems to be the most popular choice. For those who don’t know, Ray coached here from 1993-2000 and took BSU to two NCAA Tournaments before leaving for the head coaching position at Houston. He also played here from 79-83 and is widely considered to be one of the two greatest players ever at Ball State (Bonzi Wells being the other).

Tracy Webster - Tracy played college basketball at the University of Wisconsin in the mid 90s and was a pretty solid Big Ten Player. This past year, he was an assistant coach for Bruce Weber at Illinois, but before that, he was Tim Buckley’s assistant here at Ball State from 2000-2003. He is also cousins with Ball State’s freshman point guard, Maurice Acker.

Rob Evans - To be honest, I do not know too much about him. He was recently fired from Arizona State after eight seasons. The connection is that Ball State’s Athletics Director, Tom Collins, came here from Arizona State in January. I don’t know what the connection is between them, if there is a bond there or if they hate each other, but time will tell.

Andy Kennedy - My personal favorite to be the next coach here at Ball State. He just completed his first season as interim coach at Cincinnati, where the team finished 19-12 and was snubbed of a deserving bid to the NCAA Tournament. Word is that Cincinnati will not retain him. Kennedy did a good job considering he was left very little time to prepare for the season after Bob Huggins was forced to resign, and he seems like he would be a good fit for the Ball State program.

submitted by Phil Friend, Sports Editor

This one’s for the rock gods

Features — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 19:30:52 +0000

Writing at a college newspaper, you’re not quite sure if people react to what you write. Feb. 16 I wrote “Where’s The Rock?” wondering why this campus does not have more major rock concerts. Country is good, but there’s only so much you can take.
One student shared with me his attempt to get an act to come to Ball State University through University Program Board and another group showed up to the meeting he said, and both were shot down. I can’t help the layers and processes that block them from their attempts because UPB has good intentions. However, I’m satisfied to see that people tried and people do care about what they see come to campus. Keep pushing and communicating with these organizations about how you can do a better job presenting your proposal and understanding how it works.
In today’s paper I see that Emens Auditorium will bring indie rocker Ben Folds minus him folding five April 21. Is this the result of students’ efforts or at least the issue The Daily News brought to light about concerts? I didn’t speak to Emens Director Robert Myers about that announcement, but I like my dillusionment to remain. Granted, Ben Folds is not for everyone. However, if you don’t show up and support the concert and what Emens is trying to do, what is the chance that Dave Matthews, Bright Eyes or Red Hot Chili Peppers would come to Ball State University? Little. If convincing you that attending this concert is important isn’t enough from what I wrote, I got a potential consequence that comes in three words: Big and Rich.
Spare us from them coming to our city and saving a horse for the sake of a cowboy.

Submitted by: Charles Schelle –Features