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Debate provokes discussion
By PAIGE VARNER
This Red & Black
After Sunday's gubernatorial
debate, one that featured three
candidates from different parties,
most University students watch
ing said they would vote non
partisan if they could.
About 25 hands raised when
Audrey Haynes, associate profes
sor of political science, asked the
roughly 40 students viewing the
debate if they would vote for a
centrist party if they could.
Yet some students at the view
ing of the debate in the Miller
Learning Center had made up
their minds to support one can
didate over another.
Andrew Watts, a senior politi
cal science major from Cochran,
said he’s been a Democrat his
whole life.
He said Democratic candidate
Roy Barnes’ policies aren’t that
different from Republican Nathan
Deal’s.
“But he’s still a Democrat,”
Watts said.
Plus, Watts added, if the
University programs help Latino students achieve in college
By MARCUS FLOYD
The Rep & Black
President Barack Obama has created a
dynamic duty for the United States. By
the year 2020, Obama wants the nation to
be the No. 1-ranked country for college
graduates. For this goal to be accom
plished. 3.3 million more Latinos than are
now in college must graduate.
Excelencia in Education, a nonprofit
organization that helps Latinos succeed
educationally, has announced plans to
help Obama reach his goal.
Similarly, the University has been help
ing the Latino community not only in
Athens but internationally. This help
comes from the University’s Center for
Latino Achievement and Success in
Education.
“Unlike Excelencia in Education,
CLASE is a more rigorous program,” said
Pedro Portes, executive director of
CLASE.
CLASE is a group of teachers and stu
dents who help impoverished Hispanics
by using research and development to try
to understand the situation of Latinos in
poverty and overcome the hardships
related to that status, Portes said.
Obama’s approach is well meaning, but
the plan is not one that will systematically
eradicate educational inequality, Portes
said.
He said Obama's administration is not
consulting with educational researchers
who know how to close the gap of inequal
Anthropology department ranked
sixth nationally, eco-focus cited
By JEN INGLES
The Red & Black
Though the University
anthropology department
is tucked away in the back
of Baldwin Hall, it's any
thing but hidden in the
anthropology community.
The department was
recently ranked sixth in the
nation by PhDs.org out of
roughly 100 programs.
The ranking was based
on a variety of factors
including years
taken to earn
degree, job place
ment rate, number
of faculty and stu
dent-to-faculty
ratio.
But department
head Ted Gragson
thinks students
seeking a doctorate
in anthropology may
come to the
University for other rea
sons.
“Most students, in my
experience, come to a place
because they’ve read recent
articles by faculty members
and they sound like some
one they'd like to work
with,” Gragson said.
Faculty members of the
University’s anthropology
department generally pub
lish two articles a year.
At the University’s
Aspirational Peer
Institutions, Gragson said
faculty members usually
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Oeorgia Legislature has a
Republican majority, he wants a
Democrat as governor.
“A divided government is
always a good thing,” he said.
“Barnes might actually stand up
to them.”
Brandon Howell, College
Republicans' campus and com
munity outreach director, said
Barnes has already had his
chance to lead Georgia.
Even though Barnes has said
he reduced class sizes and kept
students in school for 180 days a
year, Georgia’s public schools
still ranked low, Howell said.
Howell said he’s able to over
look, Deal’s financial troubles
because of the recession.
Deal took out a $2 million loan
to invest in his daughter’s busi
ness, but the business went
bankrupt.
Deal said during the debate
he was helping his children, like
many parents will help students
after they graduate.
“I don’t think I wouldn’t have
done the same thing,” Howell
said.
publish fewer than two
articles per year, if they
even publish once.
Gragson said students
may also be attracted to
their program because it is
one of the few that empha
sizes an ecological and
environmental perspective
on anthropology. He
described this perspective
as “human relationship to
environment, but in all its
dimensions.”
The department works
with various colleg
es and departments
across campus, cre
ating an opportuni
ty to study, for
example, not just a
stone tool or an
ancient bone, but
the relationships
between the tool,
the tool’s maker and
the animal from
which the bone
GRAGSON
came.
“It’s not like these silos,
disciplinary silos all across
campus, it’s very distribut
ed. It's very unique by ref
erence to a lot of universi
ties and other programs,”
Gragson said.
And faculty in the
department are taking
advantage of these resourc
es, leading to several excit
ing discoveries.
Ren6 Bob£ recently dis
covered in Africa the oldest
direct evidence of hominlns
making and using stone
ity in education, which is what CLASE is
trying to do.
With the help of students, CLASE hosts
after-school programs that tutor impover
ished students in the Athens community.
In addition, CLASE helps instruct
teachers on how to deal with diverse
groups of students who may have difficul
ties caused by language barriers.
CLASE begins working with students
at the preschool level and follows children
through their academic careers to ensure
the educational gap does not widen for
the students, Portes said.
“I want to believe it will happen and
[Obama] has the tools to make it hap
pen,” said Rene Couttolenc, president of
the Hispanic Student Association.
HSA, the oldest and largest Latino
group on campus, focuses on providing
members with a better college experience
and also brings high school students to
campus to experience new possibilities,
he said.
Couttolenc said a big reason why
Latinos are not going to college is because
they lack the finances and aren’t aware of
the scholarships and financial aid that
could be available.
Separate from CLASE and HSA, the
University is taking initiative and bringing
in a larger number of Latino students
through tutoring and mentoring pro
grams.
The Goizueta Foundation has recently
given funding for bilingual students to the
University and the University has taken
tools. In an article pub
lished in Nature, he report
ed finding animal bones
marked by a stone tool dat
ing from 2.6 to 2.5 million
years ago, before the
advent of homo sapiens.
Another point of pride
for the department is the
high number of students
who have definite commit
ments, such as jobs or
research work, at the time
of their graduation. In 2009,
77 percent of graduates
had commitments.
“We do have a high suc
cess rate," Gragson said.
After graduation, alumni
appear able to maintain
success.
Of the roughly 80 gradu
ates in the class of 2000, 42
are employed in academia,
19 are doing research,
seven are archeologists
doing consulting work and
two are high school teach
ers, as of 2010, said Margie
Floyd, the graduate secre
tary in the department of
anthropology.
Undergraduate students
can take advantage of the
department’s increased
class offerings, several of
which will satisfy the multi
cultural requirement, since
students will study various
cultures across the globe
and how they interacted at
different points in time.
“It’s multicultural in the
true meaning,” Gragson
said.
NEWS
During the debate, Barnes
quipped to Deal, “I don’t trust
your adding on financial mat
ters."
Jesse Jaime, a junior political
science major from Leesburg,
said he’s voting for Libertarian
candidate John Monds.
Jaime said he thinks Deal is a
neo-conservative like former-
President George W. Bush or Karl
Rove who would place too much
power in the executive branch.
And he wouldn’t vote for
Barnes because Barnes has
already proven his record.
“I want someone brand new
with a different ideology to see if
they work also,” Jaime said.
Jaime said he will still vote for
Monds, even though the two
other political parties are leading
in the polls.
“Voting for the lesser of two
evils, especially if they conflict
with my ideology, would be wast
ing my vote even more,” he said.
Howell said Monds clearly
doesn’t have the qualifications to
be governor.
“Monds is a stay-at-home
steps to improve diversity and to prevent
dropout rates from increasing, Portes
said.
In 2008, the University’s population
was nearly 3 percent Hispanic, according
to the 2009 fact book. The University is
nearly 77 percent Caucasian.
“The University is taking proactive
steps to ensure it doesn’t become as mar
ginalized as expected,” Portes said.
Eight percent of the Georgia popula
tion is Latino according to the U.S. Census
Bureau. Portes said 3 percent of the
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A An audience in the MLC listens to a discussion with
professors following the gubernatorial debate Sunday.
dad,” he said.
In Atlanta, where the debate
took place, Student Government
Association President Josh
Delaney asked the candidates a
question he’s been talking about
as long as he’s been president.
He asked if the candidates
would support admitting a stu
dent on the Board of Regents.
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The Red Black | Monday, October 4, aoio
Deal said he didn’t think hfe’d
make that major adjustment.
Monds said he didn’t know
the mechanics of giving a stu
dent that spot, but he wouldn’t
be opposed to it.
And Barnes said he’s not
opposed to it either.
"It might stir things up a little
bit over there,” he said.
Latino community in Georgia is enrolled
in a college or university.
Forty-nine percent of the U.S. popula
tion are college graduates, yet only 9 per
cent of those college graduates are Latino,
Portes said.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that
child poverty has increased.
Portes said poverty is directly correlat
ed with race, which leads to massive
gaps.
“It is unacceptable in a country this
rich,” he said.
,
3