The Delta Delta Delta (Tri-Delt) sorority performed their act based on Las Vegas and won Overall Grand Champions in the 2011 Greek Sing event held at Memorial Coliseum, Feb. 6, 2011. Photo by Brandon Goodwin | Staff

Hours of hard work, preparation and anticipation will culminate this weekend as students hope to make a little girl’s wish come true.

The sisters of Chi Omega sorority will host the annual Greek Sing fundraiser with Phi Delta Theta fraternity. The event unites Greeks across campus to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

“Greek sing is the top grossing philanthropy event for Greek Life,” said Chris Weddige, a senior in Phi Delta Theta. “It’s an opportunity for each fraternity and sorority to show their overall commitment and how much they care about the event.”

Weddige said it also is a time for Greek organizations to come together “and share one common bond.”

“It shows that we get things done and raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation,” he said.

The event will be from 5 to 9 p.m. on Saturday in Memorial Coliseum. Admission is $15.

“Each organization will come up with a theme and they have five minutes to dance and act it out,” Kelsey Oliver, Chi Omega’s Greek Sing chair, said.

Oliver said that after raising $124,000 last year, the goal is to bring in $130,000 this year.

“We are assigned a family and we follow their story to see what his or her wish is so we know how to best fundraise for it,” she said.

Oliver said they are raising money for a 10-year-old girl named Reagan, who “has tumors in all of the joints in her body.” Reagan’s wish is to swim with dolphins in an Orlando, Fla., theme park, she said.

During intermission, sisters of Chi Omega and brothers of Phi Delta Theta will perform before they introduce Reagan and her family.

A Silent Auction will also be held at 7 p.m. on Friday at the Crowne Plaza.

“It’s an opportunity to bring out family and friends to bid on gift baskets across 20 tables,” Weddige said. “Items range from gift certificates to a basketball signed by Coach Cal, a signed Randall Cobb jersey and basketball tickets.”

Oliver encourages students to come and watch because it is a spirited and lively event.

“Every chapter puts their all into it,” she said. “It’s for a great cause and you get to interact with the family and see the true purpose.”

A typical room in Donovan Hall. Photo by Quianna Lige | Staff

The residence hall lobbies are welcoming and the bathrooms are pristine. Rooms have movable furniture and tile floors, the common areas have flat screens, and the laundry facilities have plenty of washers and dryers.

This is the campus of Western Kentucky University with privatized housing, which could be an indication of what UK would look like if it decides to privatize its own housing.

Privatizing housing would mean UK would turn all of its dorms over to a private company to rebuild and manage the buildings, said Angie Martin, UK’s vice president of financial operations and treasurer. Turning over housing would mean nicer dorms for students.

“Our students need better housing,” Martin said.

Before 2006, the last dorm built at UK was in 1966, she said, adding that privatizing housing could be a “game changer” for the university.

Change for the better elsewhere
Privatized housing has worked for WKU, said Brian Kuster, executive director of the WKU Student Life Foundation and director of housing and residence life.

The Student Life Foundation is a nonprofit organization that owns the university’s housing.

WKU started the process of privatizing housing in 1999, by creating the foundation to oversee its housing, Kuster said.

The nonprofit allows housing to be separate from the university but also serve the university’s housing needs, he said.

WKU currently has 17 residence halls, and they all have been renovated within the past 12 years.

Kuster said when the first dorm was redone, students camped out to register to live there.

One reason to privatize housing at WKU was to be able to better serve students’ wants and needs, Kuster said, citing movable furniture and tile floors as two highly requested updates.

“You can’t take your students for granted,” Kuster said.

He said redoing the dorms also kept more upperclassmen on campus because they could find a style of living that better fit
their needs.

WKU currently offers three different types of housing: traditional two-person rooms with common baths, suites with shared bathrooms and rooms with private bathrooms. WKU will open its first on-campus apartments this fall.

Kuster said the feeling of campus changed once the renovations began to take place, especially after a road that cut through campus was taken out and replaced with a walking path.

“It still feels like a small campus,” Kuster said, even though WKU has around 20,000 students.

Since the money for housing is generated by students, the nonprofit organization actually makes about $3 million a year,
Kuster said, which is just turned back over to students to offer more amenities, like free copies of USA Today in all the residence hall lobbies, and for future renovations.

On the whole, Kuster said privatizing WKU’s housing has been beneficial for students and the campus.

“It’s definitely worked well for us,” he said.

A campus that’s worked with EDR
Unlike WKU, which created an organization in-house, UK is working with Education Trust Realty, a private firm from Memphis,
Tenn., to turn over housing, Martin said.

The University of Louisville has four buildings on its campus managed by EDR, said Shannon Staten, director of housing at U of L.

She said U of L has had EDR on campus for 12 years and has figured out how to make the relationship work for university and the private company.

While EDR manages some of the residence halls, Staten said students don’t feel a disconnect because the university works in tandem with the company.

She said the bottom line for U of L is that students are not treated any differently because of the building where they live.

UK’s problems

The average age of dorms on UK’s campus is 46 years, said Robert Mock, vice president for student affairs.

Ben Crutcher, associate vice president of auxiliary services, said regular maintenance of UK’s residence halls costs the university about $1 million a year, and projects to update items, like the roofs at the Kirwan-Blanding complex, could cost as much as $2.5 million.

Crutcher said President Eli Capilouto wasn’t impressed when he first saw campus housing.

“Housing — as the president says — has gotten tired,” Crutcher said.

Crutcher also said UK’s campus options don’t match what students want now, like private bathrooms.

Beth Goebel, a biology junior and a resident adviser in Donovan Hall, has lived in three different UK dorms: Kirwan Tower, Baldwin Hall and Donovan.

She said she enjoyed living in Kirwan Tower, but close proximities to roommates made living together difficult at times.

Goebel said she liked living in Baldwin because she could take the stairs instead of relying on an elevator, like she had to when living on the seventh floor of Kirwan.

As for Donovan, Goebel said she liked living there because it has a strong sense of community.

Donovan also has a living-learning community.

“It’s better if you have people who are in the same place you are,” Goebel said.

UK’s changes would include more living-learning communities like the one in Donovan, Mock said.

UK’s plan
UK’s plan to privatize housing has an aggressive potential schedule.

Tom Trubiana, executive vice president and chief investment officer at EDR, said the goal is to tear down the current housing and have new halls built within five to seven years.

Martin said UK is not in the housing business, but EDR is.

The company has been in student housing for more than 50 years, Trubiana said.

“This is what they do,” Martin said. “They’ve built 83,000 beds across the country. We build every 40 years.”

The university currently has 5,145 beds, Martin said, which isn’t enough to meet the demand.
Mock, the vice president for student affairs, said the goal for the end of the project is to have 9,000 beds total.

UK would not see a reduction in the number of beds on campus during construction, Martin said.

The transition would benefit students in several important ways, Mock said. They would have the opportunity to live on campus
longer, which he said studies have shown helps academic achievement.

UK’s relationship with EDR, Martin said, would very much be a partnership.

“We’re looking for a true partner,” she said. “We want it to be successful; they want it to be successful.”

She said the university is working with EDR to make sure the new dorms would match what UK students want.

UK is currently working through Phase I of the project, which includes a new residence hall on Haggin Field catered to honors students.

She said this new hall would actually be two buildings that will house 601 students. The rooms will be “double doubles,” meaning two rooms to a bath, but each student would have more privacy than is currently offered by UK dorms now.

Each room will have its own refrigerator, microwave, and heating and cooling system.

Martin said no dorm would be built higher than five stories.

Why EDR?
Working with a private company would keep UK from reaching its debt capacity, Martin said, because the company would build and manage the new halls with its own money.

EDR came to the table with no debt, Martin said.

If the first phase goes well, UK would turn over all of its housing to EDR, she said. All but seven of the current student housing facilities, including graduate housing, would then be torn down and rebuilt.

The seven halls that would be preserved are: Baldwin, Ingels, Smith, Roselle (New North), Keeneland, Patterson and the Wildcat Coal Lodge, which is still under construction.

While the buildings themselves would be managed by EDR, the residence life aspect will still be managed by the university, Mock said.

Martin said the university realizes students and their families will be concerned about the cost of the new housing, but said UK is working with EDR to keep the cost as low as possible.

She said building the new dorm at Haggin is estimated at $25 to $30 million, and the cost of living there will be determined by how much the construction ends up costing.

Kuster, from WKU, said students living in the new dorms paid about $400 more per semester, and many of those dorms were furnished with air conditioning and carpet that they didn’t have before, in addition to new furniture and other updates.

EDR knows there is a sensitivity to its affordability and the ever-increasing cost of living on campus, Trubiana said.

Still, those at UK believe privatizing housing will be a win for the university.

“I think it will be much better than it is now,” Crutcher said.

Reach Editor-in-Chief Taylor Moak at tmoak@kykernel.com

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Notable among those required improvements: negate physical play and learn to crush, not simply beat, opponents.
Check and check. It appears UK has shifted into fifth or sixth gear in the last five games. Its wins have come by 13, 24, 25, 34 and 20 points.

“I was happy with how we played,” Calipari said Saturday.

And it’s happened because every player has been doing their job in every game (see chart, left, for key improvements). That was another thing Calipari had been waiting to see. Two or three players would show up for games, but never five or six. Now, they’re concurrently clicking.

Pretty telling: when asked about Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Calipari not only complimented him but applauded Anthony Davis, then Marquis Teague, then Doron Lamb, then Darius Miller.

“You’re always just in a bind personnel-wise on the floor,” Florida head coach Billy Donovan said.

Donovan, and the rest of the SEC, are in a pick-your-poison mode, especially with every player consistently turning in good games.

Marquis Teague has made the most improvement. The point guard has cut down on his shots and started running the team. Calipari has again turned a talented freshman and made an effective floor general out of him.

“I feel like I’m the leader of the team,” Teague said. “I’m the point guard, I have the ball 85 percent of the time. I know I have to make the right decisions.”

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist continues to come up in big games. As Davis said, there’s just something about the freshman that makes him shine whenever the game means more. It goes beyond the numbers, too. His energy is infectious, and the rest of the team thrives off his presence on the floor.

“He reminds me of Derrick Rose,” Calipari said, “in that he’s tougher on himself than I am on him.”

And Doron Lamb has provided an element of outside shooting that takes UK’s offense to another level. Donovan said after Saturday’s game that teams, including his own, have to leave UK shooters open because they can’t afford to let Davis and Jones be left alone in the post.

“I’m shooting the ball very well,” Lamb said. “I’m getting a lot of open looks. Hopefully I can keep that up.”

So where does UK turn to next? Maybe a game that’s a little closer.

“What we need to do is have a team come out and go nutty on us,” Calipari said, “and have to respond to that and then hold on to win a tight game.”

Fattening up wallets with rewards cards can lead to filling up stomachs with free food.

Most students and restaurants believe rewards cards are a win-win. A win for the cardholders who get free food after buying it, and a win for the businesses that cardholders visit frequently.

Roxanna McFarlan, a kinesiology freshman, doesn’t have a rewards card to any restaurants, but said the one she has for Speedway comes in handy. She doesn’t think cards from restaurants save her money, she said.

Tres Russell, a business graduate student, disagreed. He has had a rewards card from Qdoba Mexican Grill for several years, and said he loves getting a free burrito now and then.

“I don’t come weekly or anything, but when I’m thinking of Qdoba or Chipotle, I’ll come in Qdoba because of (his rewards card),” he said.

Lucy Vose, the manager at the Qdoba on Euclid Avenue, said to get rewards from Qdoba, people can ask for a card, register online and then get a free drink or chips and salsa just for registering. With the card, customers get a free entree for every 10 entrees they buy.

“We’re actually supposed to ask every customer that comes through if they have (a rewards card) or if they would like one,” she said.

Vose said many people use the cards, but she encourages those who say no to register for one.

“Especially on campus, we see so many people that come in here day after day, and to not have one is just a waste of money,” she said.

Vose said she doesn’t know the exact numbers, but believes Qdoba makes more money now than it did before offering rewards cards that encourage people to eat there frequently.

Subway

David Huston, a computer science junior, has a rewards card to Subway.

Though he doesn’t go there all the time just to get points, he said he chooses Subway over other sandwich shops.

“Given the choice between two equal options, I would pick the one that can give me free things as opposed to one that won’t,” he said.

Subway customers can get a Subway card that earns a point for every dollar they spend. What they get for free depends on the amount of points they have when they redeem them — 10 points gets them a free cookie and 100 points gets them a free premium foot-long sandwich.

Points in between can get them free drinks, chips and more.

Huston said the Subway in the Student Center doesn’t offer rewards.However, the Subway on North Broadway does.

Starbucks

At Starbucks, customers get a “star” each time they pay using their registered, re-loadable gift card. They also can get free drinks for their birthdays.

When someone reaches the “gold” level status, every 15 stars — or 15 visits — will also earn them a free drink. Customers get a personalized gold card and free syrups and refills after they earn 30 stars within a year.

Buying Starbucks coffee at the Student Center location will also put stars on registered cards, although employees weren’t allowed to comment about it to the Kernel.

Orange Leaf

Orange Leaf, a frozen yogurt shop, offers a free Ounce Back card.

Every dollar spent earns a point. Ten points puts a dollar on the card, and customers can save up to $10 on their cards before spending it and starting over. The closest Orange Leaf to campus is the Romany Road location.

Raising Cane’s

Raising Cane’s also offers a rewards program called the Caniac Club.

Members get a free box combo for signing up and free food on their birthdays.

April Walsh, Cane’s manager on South Upper Street, said the rewards cards there get customers more than free food.

“We just gave away tickets to the Miranda Lambert concert,” she said. “Every time you come in it automatically registers you to concerts and tickets. We’ve done basketball games — a bunch of stuff like that.”

Walsh said she also believes the cards are a treat for both customers and the company.

“They’re already buying our food to swipe a card, so there’s nothing that we’re really losing out of it because they actually come here,” she said.

Jamieson Mundy, an art studio senior, has rewards cards for Raising Cane’s, Subway and Speedway. Mundy said if he has a card from somewhere, he doesn’t go anywhere else similar to it. So if it’s fuel he needs, he goes to Speedway. If it’s chicken
he’s craving, it’s Cane’s.

Mundy said he isn’t going to tell people to swipe a card, but said if people already go somewhere, they are missing out on an option that allows them to have free benefits. He used his Cane’s card to get a free meal for his friend when he bought his on Friday.

“It’s ridiculous not to say, ‘All right, I’ll take a rewards card,’ because I’m going to buy it anyway,” he said as he pulled out all three of his plastic Cane’s cards from his wallet. “That’s the thing about this place; this place is addictive … which is why I have three.”

A group of students will invite Lexington Farmer’s Market vendors and loyal patrons to reminisce, by hosting the first ever on-site archiving day on Saturday.

Undergraduate students enrolled in Jeff Rice’s A&S 100 “Eating Kentucky” course, taught through the A&S Wired program, will be recording the oral history of the farmers market.

Jenny Rice, an assistant professor of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Media, organized the event with Jeff Rice and other faculty in the College of Arts and Science.

“I started to imagine a kind of mobile community writing center that would bring students, community members and faculty together in order to contribute to long-term community-building projects,” she said in an email to the Kernel.

Memorabilia and individual recollections over the last four decades will be collected for the first time and will be made available to any interested party at UK’s Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History.

Alexa Arnold, a UK graduate and current assistant market manager of the Farmers Market, said she is excited for Saturday’s event.

“When I was in my undergrad at UK, I wanted to do a lot of research about farmers markets, but there really just isn’t that much out there yet, even though markets have been around for so long,” Arnold said. “So I’m just excited there’s actually going to be real data available for future studies, which means more funding and more availability for small farmers to sell their stuff.”

In his seventh year as executive director of the Lexington Farmer’s Market, Jeff Dabbelt said the market maintains around 70 registered venders throughout the seasons and actually dates back to 1972.

He said “an informal group was selling together with assistance of the city,” and then was “formally incorporated as the Lexington Farmer’s Market in 1975.”

Captivated by the importance the oral recordings could provide contemporarily and historically, Dabbelt addressed working hand-in-hand with the university.

“When we receive a wonderful offer and partnership with UK that will meet their needs and their goals and their efforts to try and educate their students, but also provide this service for us, it was something we had to take advantage of,” he said.

Saturday’s event is the first of its kind, but certainly won’t be the last as Dabbelt discussed plans for an April archiving day.

The Lexington Farmer’s Market is open every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Victorian Square atrium, directly across from the Triangle Park ice skating rink.

Amidst programs for freshman, graduation for seniors, and scholarship opportunities abound for juniors, the sophomore class is often looked over.

UK’s Division of Student Affairs is seeking to change that.

The first ever Sophomore Leadership Fair will take place Thursday in the Student Center Small Ballroom from 12:00-3:00 p.m.

Sophomores are encouraged to attend, take advantage of free refreshments and learn more about involvement opportunities at UK.

“New initiatives such as the Sophomore Leadership Fair provide opportunities for students to focus now on their professional career development,” Rhonda Strouse, director of student involvement, said. “The sophomore year is the ideal time to build a portfolio.”

Involvement is a key ingredient to success in advanced degree programs, jobs, acceptance into special programs and scholarship awards, Strouse said.

This leadership fair also hopes to eliminate some of the difficulties that students may face in their transition from their first to second year.

Becky Jordan, associate dean of students, pointed out that many services are available for first-year students, but few of these programs and services continue into students’ second year.

“We want to enhance the support we provide sophomores, and the Sophomore Leadership Fair is one example of how we can further engage second-year students with the university,” Jordan said.

Many major student organizations will be in attendance at the event, in the hopes that sophomores will be able to learn more about these groups, fill out applications and ultimately become more involved on campus.

Strouse said the time could not be better.

“Now is the time to invest in the multiple involvement opportunities provided by the University of Kentucky,” she said.

February is a chance for some to honor a part of American history.

Black History Month, every February, remembers African Americans and the struggles they have faced, as well as celebrating the contributions they have made to America.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and the Student Activities Board are hosting an event that will educate students about Black History Month by showing a screening of the documentary “Freedom Riders.”

“Freedom Riders” is the story of more than 400 African Americans and white Americans who put themselves in danger to travel together on buses and challenge Jim Crow laws in the 1960s.

Many of the freedom riders were imprisoned, suffered beatings and ultimately risked their lives for what they believed in.

“All students should come out because this is an opportunity to look history in the face,” Ambra Noble, a nursing junior, said. “We want to celebrate those who faced danger and still remained steadfast on their cause. Students should attend what could be a once in a lifetime experience.”

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the “Freedom Riders.” The documentary also received three Emmy Awards.

“I hope students will gain a better understanding and appreciation for those young, brave and selfless individuals that participated in the freedom rides,” Joi McAtee, a political science senior and president of Delta Sigma Theta, said.

Reverend Alphonso Petway will be the guest speaker of the event.

“When people think Black History Month they automatically think MLK,” McAtee said. “I greatly admire MLK, but he never got on that bus, those kids did.”

The screening will be Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m. in the student center small ballroom.

The Student Government Senate on Wednesday discussed the possibility of redistricting or adding senate seats to better represent the student population.

Eli Edwards, a senator for the College of Education, proposed redistributing seats to add a senator from the College of Public Health, which has no representation.

The Redistricting Suggested Plan also includes adding senators for the Colleges of Agriculture, Arts and Sciences, Business, Education and Engineering, which all have either one or two senators currently.

According to the suggested plan, there are 15 senators at-large currently. The majority of the senator redistribution plan was taken from at-large, “because they have the highest representation and can be easily represented by the college positions,” it said.

“We definitely want something to change,” Edwards said. “That’s why we brought it to you now to discuss.”
Senators discussed the possibility of different reallocations than the plan suggested as well as adding more senators to the Senate, which currently has 40.

However, the issue wasn’t up for vote, and senators requested more information for the next meeting. The redistricting plan could change based on further discussion and information, but the Senate should vote on a plan in two weeks.

The Senate also approved giving $2,750 to Greek Sing, a philanthropy event hosted by Chi Omega sorority and Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

In a close vote, 54 percent voted yes, 39 percent voted no, and 7 percent abstained. Some senators expressed concern that students’ fees would be funding an event where only Greeks could participate. Others said just because the event is successful or is for Greeks doesn’t meant Student Government shouldn’t fund it.

Zach Rabold, of Phi Delt, and Kelsey Oliver, of Chi O, presented to the Senate and said the grant would be used to help fund the cost of the event. The event donates its proceeds to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The Senate also voted to approve merging the Cats Crusier budget with its marketing budget and for increasing the salary for Katelyn Banks, the Tally Cats coordinator.

Nolan Jackson was also approved to be on the payroll as the director of Wildcat Interest Group. Jackson and Matt Doane, the former WIG director, are switching roles.

SG President Micah Fielden said both parties are changing their hours in the interest of fairness. Though salary caps for both Jackson and Doane will be the same, Doane is decreasing his hours. The position as director pays $2,500 per year.

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Just in case you didn’t watch or haven’t heard, on Sunday during the Super Bowl halftime show, MIA did in fact flip the camera off. And Madonna did look like she had been thawed out of carbonite, much like Han Solo. But you know what, at least a nip didn’t “slip.” And people, Madge is 53 years old — cut her Vogue-ing ass a break!

I will say, even though I thought the selection of Madonna and her cronies as halftime performers was a little unmatched for the demographic of viewers, the performance itself was nothing short of entertainingly bizarre.

Did you see that dude doing a gymnastic dance on the tight rope? One false foot placement and there goes his manhood.

But let’s get for real. This isn’t Cirque de Soliel. This is football. A rogue game of intense rivalries and colliding slabs of overgrown men.

Call me crazy, but I was hoping for an equally testosterone-pumped halftime performance.

The idea of combining major artists like Madonna and a plethora of young budding stars isn’t a bad call. It’s actually a clever ploy that appeals to the masses, creating the most desirable show.

Along with a mixed collaboration of artists, there needs to be a fine line drawn between production perfection and too much crap happening all at once. A Polytheism theme, really?

First, we need a big name, a pop star that everyone knows. Lady Gaga’s too unpredictably out there to be on the list, so cross her off. Imagine someone like Beyonce-talented and revered. Picture Beyonce belting some song then bam — here comes her hubby Jay Z! Everyone loves a singing couple. And we’ll even Baby Bjorn Blue Ivy to a backup dancer’s chest!

Just kidding.

Next we need a throwback. My votes go to Van Halen, Steve Miller Band or Eddie Vedder.

Ooh, how about Vedder just joins Van Halen for a face-melting version of “Jump”? Yes please. I would suggest Beyonce and the boys combine talent to perform a song, but that’s just too weird — even for me.

Now we need someone to really rally the artists together. Familiar with a man that goes by the name of Paul McCartney? Of course you are, he played the Super Bowl in 2005.

Critics weren’t too big on his condensed classics, but hey, it’s Paul freaking McCartney.

I’ll take a 30-second version of “Hey Jude” any day. But here’s the catch, we’ll have artists like Adele, and John Legend cover some of his hits, only to have him surprise the audience by finishing where they left off, taking it solo for a bit.

There you have it. A pretty awesome, yet entertaining Super Bowl halftime show.

And just so we’re clear — I figured this out in the time it took me to consume my Jimmy John’s Beach Club. It’s not difficult, halftime producer Jamie King. Not difficult.

But what if there were more beds? And nicer living spaces?

If UK sells its residence halls to a private company, both are likely to become reality. The company, Education Realty Trust, would build 3,000 new beds over the next decade, as well as renovate many others, all without needing state funds and approval for their construction.

A similar system worked at Western Kentucky University, when in 1999, it sold its residence halls to a nonprofit that now handles all renovations. WKU’s dorms are newer, better looking and overall nicer than UK’s. They have movable wooden furniture and tile floors that are easier to clean, along with community bathrooms with private stalls for each shower and toilet.

WKU has about 7,000 less students than UK, but a greater number of its students live on campus past their sophomore years. Officials at the university credit that to a better sense of community in on-campus housing and nice, affordable spaces where that community can build.

If UK builds 3,000 new beds, roughly 33 percent of its students could live on campus, compared with 22 percent who can now. WKU can only house 25 percent of its students on campus.

Think of the possibilities. A nice place to live that’s close to class could be a deal breaker for a student who’s on the fence about attending UK. Renovating residence halls wouldn’t be a financial burden on a university struggling with state budget cuts year after year. And the cost for students to live in these nicer halls might not rise by much — at WKU, for example, students saw an average $400 per semester increase, some to live in dorms that included air conditioning and carpet for the first time.

Brian Kuster, the executive director for housing and residence life at WKU, said newer laws would now make what WKU did — transferring its housing to a nonprofit — much harder. So selling them to a private firm seems like the next best thing.

UK could do to improve campus for students, and in a much more timely manner. If UK sells to Education Realty Trust, a new 600-bed residence hall could be available by fall of 2013.

Let’s get the wrecking ball rolling.

In UK’s win over eighth-ranked Florida, the Wildcats proved why they are the number one basketball team in the country.

But, the scary thing is, in the 20 point victory over Florida, UK really wasn’t firing on all cylinders. UK didn’t play bad by any means, but just imagine if every player was playing his best… SCARY!

Firstly, Marquis Teague is playing better each game, earning his first double-double with 12 points and 10 assists, Teague is playing the part of a true point guard, taking shots when he needs to (and he has a good shot, so why not?), and taking care of the ball.

In only 19 minutes of play, mostly because of foul trouble in the first half, Terrence Jones pulled down 7 boards and scored 4 points. He also had one blocked shot and 2 turnovers.

Once again, Doron Lamb was on point behind the arc hitting 4-of-5. Add a couple field goals and a couple free throws, and he’s got another 18-point game.

The always consistent Anthony Davis didn’t disappoint with 4 blocks and 16 points. Those in attendance at Rupp also got a souvenir poster modeling Davis’ impressive wingspan.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was a firecracker as always, playing 39 minutes and earning his fifth double-double of the season with 13 points and 13 rebounds.  Teague said about Kidd-Gilchist’s play, “(Kidd-Gilchrist) steps up for the big games and he gives it his all. He steps up for every game, but he is a different person when we play better teams. He just steps up to a whole different level.” Louisville ringing any bells? Can’t wait to see what Kidd-Gilchrist will come up with come tournament time.

Finally, off the bench, Darius Miller scored 9 points and had 2 assists. Miller might not be the most consistent player in the world, but he is definitely the glue of this UK team. A team player almost to a fault, Miller makes everyone else better. Swift passes, calming presence and a pretty shot make Miller a catalyst on this team. He doesn’t seem to get a lot of credit, but Miller is flat-out good. He is basically unstoppable when he drives and pulls up for a jumper. I’d like to see a lot more of that. He will be a game changer in March.

Kyle Wiltjer and Eloy Vargas also contributed some solid minutes. In Eloy’s case, only 4 minutes, but he earned a pat on the backside from Coach Cal.

Next up, College Game Day at Vanderbilt. With a loud crowd and a terribly awkward court, it is sure to be a good game.

The candidates are John Wilson, College of Medicine; Sheldon Steiner, College of Arts and Sciences; and Terry Conners, College of Agriculture. Voting for the final round will be this week.

The election comes after the unexpected departure of former trustee Joe Peek, who left to take a position at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Peek’s three-year term expires June 30, 2013, and the newly elected representative will serve until then.

Related Link: 4 professors nominated to be faculty trustee

The results are:
John Wilson, 453 votes
Sheldon Steiner, 305 votes
Terry Conners, 150 votes
Donna Smith, 106 votes

Wilson

Steiner

Conners

The Kernel’s Aaron Smith looks into how the Cats continued their dominance against the Gators.

Florida head coach Billy Donovan tried to find as many ways as he could to say, essentially, “THEY ARE SO GOOD!” after his top-10 Florida team lost to a top-ranked UK team by 20 points.

Smith also talks to UK freshman Anthony Davis about his posters that greeted UK fans when they arrived in Rupp Arena.

The poster was modeled after a famous Michael Jordan version — “the greatest basketball player who’s ever played,” said Davis, a Chicago native — and touted the freshman as a national defensive player of the year candidate.

Billy Donovan considers UK to be one of the three elite teams in college basketball.

They’re the three teams considered to be the elite of college basketball. UK, Ohio State, Syracuse — in some order, those three comprise the upper tier.

Sam Rothbauer of the Kernel discusses how the Cats crush Florida 78-58

UK had no trouble guarding the three-point shot it prepared for in its 78-58 win over the University of Florida Tuesday night at Rupp Arena.

Jerry Tipton of the Lexington Herald-Leader highlights the UK defense and how it shut down Florida’s “prolific three-point attack.”

A contest between Kentucky’s defense and Florida’s offense Tuesday night was… no contest.

The Herald-Leader’s John Clay blogs about twenty notes from Kentucky’s 20-point win over Florida.

4. Marquis Teague had his first double-double with 12 points and a career-high 10 assists. Teague’s previous high in assists was nine against Arkansas.

Eric Crawford of the Louisville Courier-Journal wrote a column detailing the Cats ability to bat around Florida like a beach ball.

I’m pretty sure Davis could induce writer’s block if he wanted. As it is, and as you can see, he’s already altered the column. They gave away Anthony Davis posters before last night’s game. As an added bonus, he gave a couple of Florida players the chance to be in one.

ESPN’s Brian Bennett discusses the Cats ignoring chatter of having played a weak schedule heading into Tuesday’s game against Florida.

It sounds weird to suggest that the No. 1 team in the country, riding a 15-game winning streak, had something to prove.

Eric Lindsey of CoachCal.com talks about the impact of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist on a big stage such as Tuesday night’s game against Florida.

“When he gets the ball in that open court and he takes two strides, he’s about at the NBA line in two strides, laying it in through traffic, tucking the ball,” John Calipari said. “He’s pretty good.”

Luke Glaser

By Luke Glaser

Last Wednesday, during a lecture on the endocrine system, a junior student at UK was abruptly and unexpectedly hit with the epiphany that it is all just a meaningless joke, a cosmic prank pulled by intangible forces in the universe.

And I’m not talking about the endocrine system, dear readers.

Said junior, whose name cannot be listed for medical reasons, was struck with this catharsis at 2:34 p.m., local time.

Eyewitnesses said that he looked up from his notes, dropped his pen in a halfhearted, listless manner and stared with blank, empty eyes into a seemingly endless void.

According to sources close to the student, he was struck with the notion that he is but a drop in the ocean of humanity, a microscopic speck upon the leviathan that is the universe.

His notes on sweat glands and the gastrointestinal tract came to a grinding halt as he realized that notes, tests, grades are all pointless entities that suck time away from already severely limited and ultimately meaningless lives.

His lab partner reported  the student began muttering about precious childhood nostalgia as sweat accrued on his forehead, vehemently wishing for a simpler time.

“It was pretty deep stuff, bro,” the lab partner, a purported bro, said. “Fortunately, his sweat didn’t get on my croakies.”
Experts believe this moment of clarity about the inevitability of death and the infinitesimal, unnoticed contribution we all squander our lives trying to make was brought on by several episodes.

“There is very little scientific evidence to support our causes,” said one expert, who was wearing a lab coat and glasses.

“That said, we believe that (name omitted) looked at the total world population, realized that his crowded bus resembled a herd of cattle and read Steven Hawking’s ‘A Brief History of Time’ all in one morning, the poor bastard.”

The student’s fatalistic thoughts were subsequently replaced with the notion that every waking hour, minute and second were bringing him closer to an inevitable death. This notion proved too much for the junior, who interrupted the professor as she cheerily lectured on the thyroid’s relation to the hypothalamus.

“What am I doing!” he shrieked, before tearing off his clothes and running naked out the door. “This is the only life I’ve got!”
Classmates were originally frightened by the spectacle, but wish him a speedy recovery.

“I really miss him,” one girl said. “And he should get better soon. Our healthy diet project is due next week and my life will be ruined if we don’t get a good grade.”

And that, dear readers, is the Lukewarm Truth. Not quite hot, but definitely not cold.

The editors of the Kentucky Kernel neither confirm nor endorse the ideas and opinions expressed in this article. Because, really, who in their right mind would?

You see, Donovan has played three of the perceived elite teams — Ohio State, Syracuse and UK — in college basketball this year, all on the road, all losses.

He wouldn’t give a favorite out of that trio, but he also didn’t hold back from gushing over UK’s abilities.

“In terms of star power, in terms of talent, one through six or seven, Kentucky has the most of anybody,” Donovan said. “They have clearly six guys who will be first-round draft picks.”

Even more than the collection of individual talent — although there’s plenty of that — Donovan liked UK’s mentality. He called it a team’s “disposition,” something innate in a championship-caliber team.

“I don’t know how to describe it,” Donovan said. “A lot of their guys — Davis, Kidd-Gilchrist, Miller — just the way those guys carry themselves, I’m impressed with that.”

He saw pretty much all of them, at one point or another, take a chunk out of Florida’s hopes of victory.

Marquis Teague had an active day, scoring 12 points and dishing 10 assists. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist recorded a double-double, too, with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

“He steps up for every game,” Teague said of Kidd-Gilchrist, “but he is a different person when we play better teams.”

Anthony Davis, playing in front of 24,000 posters of his own face, scored 16 points.

Doron Lamb had a second red-hot shooting night, finishing with 18 points.

All players accounted for, UK played like it was in a different league for the fourth straight game.

“They murdered us,” Florida guard Bradley Beal said, according to a UK release.

UK’s been doing a lot of that lately. Opposing coaches keep going through their checklist of ideas for how to slow down UK, how to negate the variety of strengths it possesses.

None have worked so far.

Florida’s methods certainly didn’t, either. Entering the game, the Gators were supposed to have a good chance of upsetting the Cats with a barrage of 3-pointers.

That didn’t happen. UK set a goal of limiting Florida to eight 3-pointers. Do that, and they might score in the 60s, UK head coach John Calipari said, a beatable number. The Cats did better, as the Gators made a season-low six 3-pointers and shot a season-low 22.2 percent.

UK not only held them in check, but one-upped them, making 9 of 15.

Teague held back from saying UK was unbeatable when it was hitting shots. He didn’t want to go that far with it, only saying it made it “really tough.”

Lamb wasn’t as shy.

“Nah, no way,” he said of opponents’ chances if the Cats are knocking down shots. “It’s impossible.”

That’s about what people are saying when it comes to the chances of taking down UK.

Not only in the league.

In the nation, too.

A dog is working the printing presses in Louisville.

A hound dog that is.

It was about eight years ago when Nick Baute, founder of Hound Dog Press, thought it was time to start his own business in the printmaking industry with former classmate Robert Ronk.

Both Baute and Ronk graduated UK in the art department with a focus on printmaking. Baute said it was a professor who inspired him to begin the company.

“Our professor, Ross Zirkle, encouraged us to think about all the ways of making prints,” he said.

Zirkle, who recently died due to cancer “was a very good man,” Baute said. “He was doing his part to develop non-toxic forms of printing … the bad part is he died of cancer while doing it.”

When working in New York after graduation, Baute soon got tired of working for others and wanted to do more.

“I had been working for other people for three years and I wanted to do this— and the only way to do this making a living was to do it yourself,” he said.

On Thursday evening the printmaking duo will speak about the history of the printmaking process and what it takes to start up a business after college.

The program is in collaboration with the Student Activities Board gallery of printmaking exhibits entitled “Print’s Not Dead: An Exhibit of Letterpress work.”

“This is a great opportunity for students who are in art and out to see how people like themselves can go on to have a successful business after school,” Shannon Ruhl,  SAB director of cultural arts, said.

Artwork from Hound Dog Press will feature fine art prints, linoleum cuts, wood engravings and posters.

Living within a highly technological society, Ruhl said she believes Hound Dog Press offers something different.

“Their messages are traditional, which is different in such a digital world,” she said.

Adding to its uniqueness is the company name, which is derived from a simple place.

“I wish I had a good story for that,” Baute said. “I had a hound dog at one point and no one in New York knew what a hound dog was … seemed like a homage to home.”

The lecture and showcase will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday at the Rasdall Gallery in the Student Center. The Hound Dog Press Exhibit will be on display from Feb. 9 to March 1.

It came down to a vote in the Student Activities Board office, and only a handful of people knew who would be performing in the annual spring concert.

Over the next few days, tantalizing hints leaked out on Facebook as to the identity of performers, though SAB kept the knowledge top secret.

Rumors and guesses were rampant as to who would be singing, but the best was saved for the actual announcement last Wednesday, according to Gigi Goble, the promotions chair for the concerts committee.

“Everyone is really excited about J. Cole and Gym Class Heroes,” she said. “It just seemed like what the student body would enjoy the most.”

Seth Murphy, director of concerts, said that student reactions have confirmed their pick for the spring concert.

“We felt confident that the artists would connect with the college crowd,” he said. “I’m really excited about this one.”

Murphy said the committee sought artists that would appeal to various types of students.

“We’ve had a good history with hip-hop concerts, and we’re looking to branch out to different genres,” he said. “They (the artists) fit together in one show.”

J. Cole, a rapper who released his first album in 2009, has quickly ascended through the music world with songs like “Work Out” and “Can’t Get Enough.” His work has garnered him a 2012 Grammy nomination for Best New Artist.

Gym Class Heroes, whose style Murphy described as “rap and rock,” have been on the music scene since 1997. They have recently been brought to prominence by singer Travie McCoy’s solo career and the band’s collaboration with Maroon 5 in “Stereo Hearts.”

Both Goble and Murphy are excited to be working for students to bring the concert to UK. “It’s gonna be a great show at Memorial Coliseum,” Goble said. “It’s put on by the students, for the students.”

Tickets go on sale today for students only, and range in price depending on seating. Students must have a valid UK Student ID to purchase a ticket, and can present up to four additional IDs for a total of five tickets.

Ticket sales will be open to the general public  Feb. 22.

Sitting or standing, upper or lower, student or anything else, Murphy encourages all to come out for the show.

“It’s a great opportunity to see really good acts at a really small price,” he said.

“Indescribable, really,” Davis said. “I was laughing. I think ESPN was holding a camera on Marquis (Teague) and Doron (Lamb) sitting down, and Marquis was holding the poster and the camera was on it.”

The poster was modeled after a famous Michael Jordan version — “the greatest basketball player who’s ever played,” said Davis, a Chicago native — and touted the freshman as a national defensive player of the year candidate.

But Davis said he wasn’t looking as sharp as he wanted.

“They threw it on me. I was going to get a hair cut, and they said, come to the gym, you got a photo shoot,” Davis said. “I was like, ‘what?’”

Still, Davis (and pretty much every UK fan) liked the finished product. Rupp Arena workers started laying the posters on seats at 8 a.m., according to the Courier-Journal’s Kyle Tucker, and it seemed well worth it.

Even if he hadn’t gotten one for himself by the time he came out for post-game interviews after the game.

“Zero,” Davis said of how many he had scored. “But I guarantee they have some for me.”

UPDATE: I’ve received a ton of inquiries about whether they’re available for purchase. I talked to UK Athletics Tuesday afternoon, and they said they are not.

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or email him at asmith@kykernel.com

Students from across Kentucky gathered in Frankfort on Feb. 7, 2012 for the Rally for Higher Education. Photo by Brian Hancock | Staff

Hundreds of students from state public universities traveled to Frankfort Tuesday to rally for higher education.

With a proposed 6.4 percent budget cut for higher education, tuition increases for Kentucky students are likely.

At UK, the budget cuts could mean a $19.4 million loss in state funding. Such a loss would affect programs all across campus.

Moreover, students could bear the burden of making up the difference in the form of higher tuition.

UK has seen a 161 percent increase in tuition since 2000, according to a Herald-Leader article from Jan. 18.

If tuition continues to increase, it will be more difficult for many of Kentucky’s students to pay for a college education, at UK and other state schools.

Considering all these facts, the Kernel commends the students from all across Kentucky who traveled to Frankfort Tuesday and also those from UK who signed a Student Government petition opposing tuition increases.

We also applaud the efforts of state legislators, who spoke out against budget cuts and for the importance of higher education, including Reps. Ryan Quarles, Richard Henderson and Kelly Flood.

While we may be divided by rivalry, size and distance, this unification of all institutes of higher education is a commendable testament to the importance of securing funding for our and our posterity’s education. Today’s rally is tangible evidence that a voice united is much louder than eight individual universities, and we encourage continued unity in the face of such adversity.

The state government must choose how to spend its money, but it is important for students to let their legislatures know how much cuts to higher education will hurt them.

Two recent Kentucky Kernel columns, and the online comments that followed, show a major issue on campus is the division between Greek and non-Greek students. This disunion has created an unhealthy campus atmosphere that hinders UK’s goals.

Let me first say I do not intend to place blame on a certain group for this divide. I do not think the Greeks are solely responsible, nor do I think this is completely the fault of the non-Greeks. I believe we are all equally responsible for this divide.
Whether we started it or inherited it from previous generations of students, we must be held accountable for the animosity-filled atmosphere that exists. We are all at fault because we have done nothing to change it.

I also do not want to suggest that the Greek system should be disbanded altogether so a Greek/non-Greek divide would not have the chance to exist.

I think it is great that a student can come to UK and find an organization that improves his or her college experience. If that organization is Greek, then perfect. If that organization is non-Greek, then that is OK, too.

Eli Edwards

Rather than focusing on whether Greeks or non-Greeks do more community service or donate more money to charities, we should acknowledge that UK students as a whole are making a difference in the world.

The Greeks were scolded in online comments for only donating “$29.10” per person. While these numbers may not be accurate, still $29 is better than nothing.

We, of course, have no statistics on how much each individual UK student donated to charity, but I would venture to guess that the average would actually be much lower than $29.10 per person. However, as already mentioned, Greek affiliation or lack thereof should not matter.

What should matter is the positive effect that UK students are having on humanity.

We as students can do a lot to help this divide.

First and foremost, we need to evaluate the offensive language we use carelessly. Pejorative terms like “sorostitute” and “GDI” have no place on a college campus. They breed hatred, add distance between students and honestly reflect ignorance. The aggressive dialogue in the online comments is embarrassing to both sides.

Second, we need to acknowledge the countless benefits of all student organizations.

In the online comments, non-Greeks discredited the accomplishments of Greeks and vice-versa. Really, we should recognize the merit of both side’s contributions.

Greek organizations do in fact log many service hours and donate a large amount of money to charity. Their accomplishments should not go unnoticed.

At the same time, many non-Greek organizations, including service and honors fraternities and the Center for Community Outreach, also do a lot of community service and donate to charity. The achievements of these organizations should not be overlooked either.

Finally, we need to realize that we are all the same. We are all UK students. We all bleed red (well, blue). We all have emotions and feelings. We all want to make a difference.

Something as silly as Greek versus non-Greek affiliation should not divide us. Instead, our desire to cause change in this world should bring us together.

I understand this column might accentuate the divide by bringing attention to it. However, I hope by acknowledging the problem, we can solve it.

We have the opportunity to be known as the generation that overcame the divide between Greeks and non-Greeks. Let us make a difference.

Eli Edwards is a secondary English education, English and linguistics junior and a College of Education Senator. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

“That’s not the way we play,” Florida guard Bradley Beal said. “We played terrible. They murdered us.”

The Gators came out storming with six points in the first four minutes before a mid-range jumper fell for sophomore forward Doron Lamb. That six-point lead was the largest lead the Gators would have all game.

A Florida turnover led to a fast-break layup by freshman point guard Marquis Teague, creating momentum to bring the Cats into the game, trailing 6-4 with 15:05 left to play in the half.

But the game was still slow to start, with several early foul calls and turnovers by both teams.

“We started off really slow,” freshman forward Anthony Davis said, “but we always knew we were in it.”

Florida had five turnovers and UK had four, all in the first seven minutes of the game.

Freshman forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was the spark for the Cats, scoring 10 points in the first half and snagging nine rebounds. Kidd-Gilchrist earned his fifth career double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

“He steps up for every game, but he is a different person when we play better teams,” Teague said. “He just steps up to a whole different level.”

UK went to the locker room with its largest lead of the half, leading 38-26.

While the three-point baskets were anticipated from UF coming into the game, the Cats out-scored the Gators behind the arc, shooting 50 percent in the first half while the Gators shot 22.2 percent.

“They know that we are a three-point shooting team and they took our best strength away from us,” Beal said. “We have to find other ways to be able to put the ball in the basket and we didn’t do that.”

Teague recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 assists, and Calipari said he continues to improve.

“He had one play where he broke down, kind of stopped on a play, they had a three in the corner right in front of our bench,” Calipari said. “Short of that, he’s terrific. You can’t dribble around him.”

Coming into the second half, the Cats splashed back-to-back threes while on the other end Davis blocked back-to-back shots. UK expanded the lead 44-30 to start the half.

“(Teague) got (Lamb) those shots,” Calipari said. “That gave us some breathing room, up 12.”

UK continued to penetrate and take the game away from Florida and finished shooting 52.7 percent from the field and 60 percent from long-range, all while holding the Gators to six threes.

“The main focus is to keep winning games,” Lamb said. “The more you win, the better it is.”

Art education junior Vanessa Wright works on a project at Reynold's Art Studio. Photo by Tessa Lighty | Staff

College students across the country spend thousands of dollars every year to earn their degree, but a recent study shows some majors may pay off more than others.

The study, done by the Georgetown University Center on Education and Workforce, found that nontechnical majors such as arts and humanities generally have the highest unemployment rates.

“The unemployment rate for recent graduates is highest in Architecture (13.9 percent) because of the collapse of the construction and home building industry in the recession,” according to the study.

Shelby Tucker, a UK interior design freshman, said she hasn’t let these statistics scare her from her passion.

“I think that if you’re doing something you love and are interested in, then you’ll find a way to make it work,” Tucker said.

Business majors are among the most successful, with the exception of hospitality management, which has been hampered by the slow of the travel industry, the study said.

The economic recession has influenced job availability in recent years.

The study reported that “unemployment rates are relatively low (5.4 percent) for recent college students who majored in health care and education because those majors are attached to stable or growing industry sectors.”

However, availability isn’t the only factor that varies across majors.

In terms of earnings, those who major in subjects related to technical, business or health care fields make the most, with engineering at the top for recent and experienced college graduates, according to the study.

To combat unemployment and help students develop a career plan, the UK College of Arts and Sciences offers the course, “A&S 350: Personal Strengths and Career Development.”

Gregory Bocchino, director of advising and student services for the College ,said many students have expressed great appreciation for the course and the realizations about their future it helped bring.

The idea for the study, titled “Hard Times,” originated during a discussion about the current economic status of the country and world, said Andrea Porter from the Georgetown Center’s Public Relations.

Director of Research Jeff Strohl led the study, along with the Anthony Carnevale, the Center’s director, and analyst Ban Cheah. The researchers are hopeful that their work will help students make more informed decisions about their future
professional lives.

“It is important for us to provide students with information that helps them link their college major to the labor market,” Porter said. “We hope the report will help students understand the realities in the labor market and learn about the skills that might make them more employable upon graduation.”

The voices of the people of Haiti are making themselves heard.

It was just two years ago when the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti and impacted the lives of many businesses, families and schools.

Since the natural disaster made its footprint on the country, the stories of those who survived are hard to come by.

Last spring, Jeremy Popkin, a history professor and a Haiti scholar, invited Claire Antone Payton, a graduate student in the Department of History and Institute of French Studies at New York University, to speak to his class about the events. Payton also has a focus on Haitian History.

It was then when Popkin suggested a collaboration between Payton and the Nunn Center.

At the beginning of last year, UK’s Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History paired with Payton for the Haiti Memory Project.

From June to December 2010, Payton collected more than 100 interviews for the project from survivors of the earthquake in Haiti, who spoke about their experiences during the earthquake and how life has been after.

“I had a little digital audio recorder that I kept in my purse,” Payton said. “For the first few weeks I worked mostly in one camp that was walking distance from where I was living and where I had made some friends.”

The purpose of the project is to preserve and record these stories in the native Creole language, which they were conducted in.

“It’s going to keep a permanent record of the experiences in their own Creole language, since it’s hard for them to leave a record because most of them cannot write,” Popkin said

Payton hopes this project will help contribute to scholars in the future.

“Although I can’t interview the people I want to learn about from the past, I can try to assure that future scholars won’t have the same degree of difficulty accessing these voices from our present,” Payton said.

The Nunn Center hopes to translate the interviews into to English for listeners to gain a better understanding.

“It will have a great value to the general public who is less inclined to speak Creole,” said Doug Boyd, the director of the Nunn Center.

Boyd said the Nunn Center is currently looking to use the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer program to “connect text in transcripts to correlating moments in the audio or video,” making it easier for users to enter keyword searches in the interviews.

“(We are) leaders in getting oral history online in cool, exciting ways,” Boyd said.

A sample of the interviews conducted for the Haiti Memory Project can be heard on haitimemoryproject.org

Florida coach Billy Donovan is in a unique position to compare the trio. He’s played all three, all on the road, all losses.

He didn’t rank them in order — if I had to take a guess at reading his mind, I think he thinks UK and Syracuse are right there with each other — but he had plenty of good things to say about each.

• Ohio State, he said, doesn’t have the length of UK or Syracuse. But their “three-headed monster” of Jared Sullinger, Aaron Craft and William Buford is as good as it gets, Donovan said.
• Syracuse has “every bit as much length and more depth (than UK), so they’re an interesting team.” He also said the Orange’s trademark 2-3 zone would be a “unique” look for UK.
• As for UK, well — “in terms of star power, in terms of talent, one through six or seven, Kentucky has the most of anybody,” Donovan said, who later added that the Cats have six first-round picks.
• So Donovan likes each of the teams, and he said a matchup of any combination of the three would make for a riveting championship game. “I don’t know who exactly would be better,” Donovan said. “The tournament’s a one-shot deal. Anything can happen on one game. But clearly, if UK went all the way, it wouldn’t be surprising.”

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Sandy Bell, Marc Hill and DeWayne Peevy have been promoted to executive directors of athletics for student services, internal operations and external operations, respectively.

The move will fill the roles left by the departure of Rob Mullens and Mark Coyle, who took athletic director positions at Oregon and Boise State, respectively. It will also fill the void left by former Senior Associate Director of Athletics for Internal Operations Lisa Patterson, who went to Oregon as well to take a position as senior associate director of athletics.

“We have structurally changed our senior leadership position based on the assembled group of talent we currently have on our staff,” Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart said. “Some have been awarded special recognition for their work. I want to reward those who have laid the foundation for our success.”

One organization is looking for students to help next year’s freshman class get acclimated to campus.

K Crew is now accepting K Team Leader applications until Feb. 17.

Coordinators Nathan Brummett and Alexa Ackermann are in charge of hiring K Team Leaders and said they have already hired the 2012 Super Crew members.

Ackermann said they are expecting more than 600 applicants this year for K Crew positions.

“We hire about 400 to 430 because we want one K Crew to every 10 new freshmen,” Ackermann said. “As long as you are going to be an upperclassman in the fall of 2012 and you are not committed to a whole lot of other leadership positions, we generally want you to apply.”

K Crew is looking for fun, outgoing people to fill the positions.

“We are definitely going to keep the (division of K Teams by) resident halls because it’s nice when you meet people that live in the same place as you do,” Ackermann said.

Being a K Crew Leader is not just about getting freebies, Brummett said, but helping the freshmen get adjusted to campus and keeping tabs on them throughout the year to ensure they are going their best.

“It goes past just helping the freshmen get free T-shirts,” Brummett said in an email to the Kernel. “We now can help them survive the adjustment to college for their entire first year on campus.”

Brummett said leaders get the satisfaction of knowing they have helped students transition to college.

“The best thing a K Crew leader does is make a difference in the lives of new UK students,” Brummett said in the email.

Because of the commitment needed by applicants, candidates who are hired for the positions must go through two training sessions before K Week activities begin after move-in in August.

Brummett said a mandatory retreat will be held on April 15 for initial training.

The second training is the day before move-in during the fall semester, Ackermann said.

Michelle Ashcraft, assistant director of New Student and Parent Programs, helps Brummett and Ackermann coordinate K Week with the direct of the office.

“We are sophomore heavy,” Ashcraft said. “That, I think, is because they have just experienced freshman year theirselves and want to sort of pass along any advice they did or didn’t receive.”

Ashcraft and Ackermann said returners do not get priority over new applicants and everyone is on an even playing field when applying for a K Crew position.

Being a K Crew leader is a great experience to get in a leadership position, Ashcraft said. She encourages all who are interested to apply.

“The great thing about being on K Crew is one, we have a lot of positions so it’s a fairly easy way of getting involved on campus,” Ashcraft said. “It’s a great opportunity to sort of get your feet wet in a leadership experience.”

For more information about a K Crew position or the application visit uky.edu/KCrew or at one of the tabling events held across campus during the next week. Applications are due by 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 17.

1. John Calipari says defense is the most crucial characteristic of championship teams. UK has it, and it was on full display against Florida, the SEC’s best offensive team. Here’s how the Gators performed compared to their season averages:

• Scored 58 points (averaged 80.1 per game).
• Shot 34.9 percent (averaged 47.2 percent).
• Made six 3-pointers (averaged a nation-leading 10.5 per game), and that was only after some makes late in the second half. The Gators started 2-for-15 from behind the arc.
• Shot 22.2 percent on 3-pointers (averaged 40.2 percent). Its previous low was 25 percent, and it had only made less than 30 percent in a game twice.

Yes, Florida missed some open looks. But UK played its customarily tremendous defense, especially in the stretch from the middle of the first half to the middle of the second half when it took an even ballgame and stretched out a 20-point lead.

2. Which team was supposed to be the one pouring in threes? All the talk leading up to the game centered on how Florida could pull off the upset under a barrage of treys, but it was the Wildcats who hit their open looks. UK shot 60 percent on 3-pointers, and Doron Lamb had his second hot-shooting game in a row, making 4 of 5.

3. This game again showed how balanced UK is. In the first half, Anthony Davis and Terrence Jones had a combined eight points and five rebounds — and UK led a top-10 Florida team by 12 at halftime. The Cats looked shaken in the opening minutes, almost as if it had forgotten what a good SEC team that had comparable skill looked like. But, quickly enough, UK showed that the upper tier of the SEC provided as much of a challenge as the bottom rung of the league has over the first 10 games.

Not much at all.

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Students from across Kentucky gathered in Frankfort on Feb. 7, 2012 for the Rally for Higher Education. Photo by Brian Hancock | Staff

College students from all corners of the state flooded the Capitol rotunda Tuesday to protest recently proposed higher education cuts in the commonwealth.

Several hundred students from the University of Louisville, Western Kentucky University, Morehead State University, Kentucky State University, Eastern Kentucky University, Murray State University and Northern Kentucky University joined over 50 students from UK to make their voices heard over an issue that united them all.  The rally was organized by the Board of Student Body Presidents, which represents the eight public universities in Kentucky.

“Higher education is an extremely important issue, and I’m here today to promote it as best I can,” said Mary Ellen Wimberly, an accounting and finance junior.
During the rally, students clad in their respective school colors listened attentively as their student body presidents, as well as several state representatives, publically addressed the challenge of affordable higher education in Kentucky.

“Each percent increase in tuition acts as a full time tax on [Kentucky’s] students,” said UK Student Government President Micah Fielden, who was first to take the podium. “The burden to pay for college has increasingly shifted to students and their families.”

Gov. Steve Beshear’s recently proposed budget includes a 6.4 percent funding cut for higher education.  Such a decrease would be the 12th in the last 12 years, said Kurtis Frizzell, the student body president at the University of Louisville.  “This is not something we should be willing to accept,” he said.

Rep. Richard Henderson (D-KY 74th District) agreed.  After joining U of L students in taking off his shoes to support their theme of “Education Cuts: Kentucky’s attempt to fulfill its own stereotypes,” he initiated a “Take me back to 1999” chant, which echoed throughout the rotunda.

Frankfort felt students’ presence – literally – as midway through the rally half of the students were asked to move up to the surrounding balconies because there was “too much weight” on the floor.

The commotion did not prevent a continuous stream of speakers from voicing the hopes and demands of those they represented, however.

Jeremiah Johnson, Murray State’s student body president, told a story about a student at his school whose GPA dropped from 3.8 to 1.2 one semester.  When questioned by academic officials why his grades had dropped so drastically, the student replied that he was working 45 hours a week just to pay for the 13 credit hours he was also taking at that time.

“College should not be just a dream for the rich, it should be a dream for everyone,” said Rachel Mollozzi, Eastern Kentucky’s student body president.

UK alumnus Ryan Quarles (R-KY 62nd District) hoped that dream would become more of a reality in the next several years.

“Just a few nights ago, Dirty Harry told us that it was halftime in America.  It’s also halftime in higher education in Kentucky,” he said.  “We must invest in our future or we’ll pay for it later.”

Rep. Kelly Flood (D-KY 75th District) acknowledged that a cut will be coming.  “There is no money,” she said.  “But I say that to you because it’s real and activism is what we need.”

Demetrick K.Coleman, Kentucky State’s student body president, acknowledged this reality, proclaiming, “We are here, and we are tired now.” Much to the crowd’s favor, though, he refused to acknowledge such a substantial cut. “No way, no how, no 6.4!” he announced.

Dustin Robinson, Northern Kentucky’s student body president, was the last speaker of the day.  He challenged students from around the state to take a realistic approach in fighting for higher education, calling on them to contact their state representative.  In an attempt to practice what he preached, Robinson called and left a message for his representative at the podium, much to the delight of all in attendance.

As Robinson departed the podium a chant of “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, These Budget Cuts Have Got To Go!” acted as an end to a spirited and resolute rally.

By the rally’s end Kentucky’s budget situation remained hazy, but the voice of its college students was crystal clear.

“It truly was eye-opening to see how all these public schools could come together in one day to support this cause,” said kinesiology freshman Ethan Stewart.