Newspaper Page Text
Monday, September 19, 2005
spelmanspotlight@spelman.edu
Hungry,
Homeless
Need Help
Atlanta Mayor, Shirley
Franklin, enforces new
panhandling law.
SPORTS
Black actors
take control Intramural
of the movie sports come
industry to Spelman
SSGA establishes recre
ational sports league.
m. •;
FEATURE
Commuter Student
Issues
Features section explores transportation
problems, financial hardships and staying
connected with life on campus.
P3
ENTERTAINMENT
Morehouse hosts
Trey Songz
Audience gives cool reviews to this up and
coming artist.
P4
WELLNESS
Spelman promotes
healthy living
Wellness writer gives overview of Spelman’s
health initiatives for the school year.
Spelman helps displaced students like Xavier’s Michellee Moss, left, a freshman from St. Louis and friend
Shannette Cofield from Los Angeles.
Katrina’s survivors find
safe haven at Spelman
Evan Seymou,
Staff Writer
Hurricane Katrina has run its course,
but the devastation it left behind is far
from over. Over 500,000 New Orleans
residents have been forced to evacuate,
leaving behind all of their possessions,
and in some cases, even their loved
ones.
New Orleans mayor, C. Ray Nagin
estimated that thousands have perished
as a result of the disaster and over $25
billion in aid will be needed to rebuild
the city.
As President Bush said in his nation
al address on Aug. 30, "This recovery
will take years," and the Spelman com
munity is doing its part to make that
process a little bit easier for a few
HBCU students.
Students from Dillard University and
Xavier University, both located in New
Orleans, were evacuated from their
schools on Saturday, Aug. 27. Like
many of the hurricane survivors, they
have migrated to Atlanta.
Rae Lundy, a senior psychology / pre-
med. student from Xavier, has come to
Spelman to try and register for the
semester so that she can graduate on
time. She is among a few others. The
week after evacuation, Lundy called
Spelman, hoping that she would be able
to attend on a provisional basis.
"I called Spelman a couple of days
ago, but I did not hear back from them
until 10:45 p.m. last night, when they
told me to come here and [they would]
see if they could get me in,” said Lundy.
“I had started to lose hope.”
Lundy is still waiting to hear back
from Xavier about their plans for stu
dents in the upcoming months. At this
point, students like Lundy do not know
how they are going to pay for Spelman
if they are accepted. All of their finan
cial aid has already been released to
their respective schools.
Lauren Jones, an Atlanta native and a
senior at Dillard, waited in line along
side Lundy.
“Spelman has been helpful in getting
me back into school, and I need all the
help I can get,” said Jones. "[Dillard's]
entire campus is flooded, and there is
probably nothing left of the school. My
see Katrina on Pg 2 »>
Spelman students compete
P8
Looking Ahead
A quick look at some upcoming events.
The Rededication of Sisters Chapel,
Career Fairs, comedy shows and more.
P7
Anesha Williams
Staff Writer
In the very heart of Spelman College,
there are six young ladies who success
fully shattered the boundaries and
stereotypes of African-American women
by doing what they do best—computer
programming.
Aryen Moore-Alston, Brandy Kinlaw,
Ebony Smith, Karina Liles, Ebony
O’Neal and Shinese Noble make up the
Spelman Robotics Team, also known as
the SpelBots. With the assistance and
guidance of Dr. Andrew Williams, the
students wrote a series of complex algo
rithms, which allowed them to program
Sony AIBO ERS-7 robots (which
resemble four-legged dogs) to play soc
cer.
As much fun as this may seem, the
students had to make the robotic
canines kick, block, pass the ball and
execute strategies all on their own, while
playing against other teams of robotic
canines.
However, the Spelbots did not stop
there. They showcased their computer
programming skills using their robots at
the RoboCup U.S. Open from May 7-
10 at Georgia Tech.
In addition to this competitive expe
rience, the Spelbots traveled to Osaka,
Japan to compete in the International
RoboCup 2005 Four-Legged Robot
soccer competition from July 13-19.
“The experience in Japan was a little
awkward because we were the only
blacks there. The opposing teams
would watch how we conducted our
selves and we observed how they con
ducted themselves,” said Ebony
in Japan
O’Neal, a junior computer science
major.
Japan may have been something of a
culture shock, but the girls could not
help being proud.
“It was a blessing to qualify for the
competition. There were no other
blacks in competition. We were the
only all women team and the only
HBCU [represented],” said Ebony
see Spelbots on Pg 2 »>