Shortly before leaving for this nine-day tour of Italy, Francois, an older French comrade, former band-mate and phenomenal harmonica player told me that Venice, “ah, its beautiful but expensive.” Rome, the coliseum is breathtaking, but there are so many people, it is hard to take it all in. But, Florence is marvelous and wonderful.

Oh, and the jazz clubs, he said, with my expectations leveling, are world-class. Jazz, in these days, is more popular in Europe than in the states.

Francois has toured the seemingly endless cobblestone streets of Bella Italia more than most, or at least more than anyone I knew. So, if there were any preconceived ideas about what the boot would kick my way, they were put there without consent from our conversations.

Admittedly, what he said about Venice and Rome, I experienced to be true.

Somewhere, on the chilly boat ride from Jesolo, a small, local, resort island outside of Venice, where Hotel Canova, our first, was located, to the dock of pastel-colored brick in Murano and the engineering mastery where I was about to step, I huddled as much as I could, unprepared in a thin, black cardigan, hoping to find Francois’ insights to be untrue.

Unfortunately, he was right.

Venice fulfills every expectation of beauty. Romance is tangible there; it complements the city like sea plants atop the brackish-water canals supplement the sinking paradise. Gondolas weaving between buildings and beneath bridges are, well, something everyone has to do in Venice. Pigeons, gosh, they are feisty and everywhere, but they have as much right to St. Mark’s Square as couples pausing to kiss.

Yet, there is more than beauty. As one tour guide put it, the city is starved of young educated workers, who can’t secure the limited tourism jobs available and who find the cost of living elevated. Although tourists delight in the city’s enchantments and history, locals worry about foundation problems and increasing prices.

Likewise, the same could be said for Rome. The sites are must-see. Vatican City is marvelously put together with halls after halls of monuments filled with rich-colored murals and chiseled marble sculptures. Not to mention, the rush of thousands filling the streets and chapels for Good Friday and Holy Week services can make the Godless reverent.

In the city center, down from Plaza Venezia and the Spanish Steps and to the side of the Coliseum, archeologists have been hard at work bringing the Roman Forum back up to life. When I saw an ancient ruin, I had to ask myself, “Is this real?” Against the backdrop of renaissance and modern buildings, it just seems divinely placed, and in that moment an unbearable weight of history hits you in the face.

But what also took me by surprise were the incredible amounts of people. All roads lead to Rome, and all of those roads are filled with tourists. Everyone is snapping a picture, yet few can really frame the moment.  I’m not positive how many times I was asked to take a picture of someone in front of the Trevi Fountain, but I know that at least ten of them were for Italian tourists. As far as me being a tourist, I don’t know, it made me feel OK.

In Florence, expectations were happily met. I could pack up and move there tomorrow. The locals are charming, most tourists are done by 7 p.m., and the city is yours all night.

Each night there the mission became to find a jazz club. At first, that mission seemed impossible.

After dinner on the first night, a feast of tortellini and steak, we pulled together a few waiters, and in broken Italian, which probably sounded more like fluent Spanish, we asked if they knew the name of a club.  They knew nothing, and neither did anyone that night; they only suggested places where DJ’s spun tracks, nothing live.

The next day, while turning down a street a couple blocks away from the Duomo, we passed by a music store, and that’s when the thought hit me that it might be best to ask someone in the store where a jazz club could be.

The guy behind the counter couldn’t give an answer but directed us upstairs to the Jazz section where we finally got what we needed.

Jazz Club Firenze on via Nouvo di Cacchini is what he wrote on a tiny sheet of notepaper. It was the legend we had been looking for to guide us in this mad scavenger hunt.

We had a place, now just to get there. Back at Hotel Meridiana, we decided to meet up around 9:30 p.m. and check out the club. I asked the hotel clerk to call them and make sure they were open. He said the line was dead, but nothing out of the ordinary for bars. He knew for a fact this place was open the week before. He made a call for a cab and shortly after half past we were gone.

I got really giddy during the cab ride. I felt my face smiling in ways I never knew possible. And to make the most of the five minute ride, I thought about how much simpler finding a club would have been had I just asked Francois for a name.

Anyway, the cab stopped, and the driver pointed to a red door, a beautiful red door, one filled with band posters and names etched into it; home, at last.

We enjoyed the night, and much more happened than I have space to describe. It was a blues jam session, so I got to sit in on the drums. Francois was right.

Every semester the Jaguars Activities Board (JAB) hosts the Pig Out, in an effort to bring students together, and all though the event has had many themes, this year it went Greek.

The Pig Out tradition has been going on for at least 15 years. Every semester around midterm JAB gathers faculty and staff to basically throws a giant cookout, serving free food.

There are also giveaways, activities and music going on while food is served. This semester, JAB decided to throw the PigOut during Greek Week on campus, allowing for more activities to be added to the event. Students are usually positive about the event proven true by big lines in the Breezeway.

“I think it is a great opportunity to meet other students and to have a nice day on campus,” said sophomore Political Science major, Roberta Oliviera.

Jessica Haskins, Assistant Director of Programs, said every year around 1,500 students come to the PigOut funded through student activities fees. Haskins said she thinks it all started because of a need to bring faculty, staff and students together for a day and spend time with each other, so the PigOut got built into a tradition.

“Outside there will be an event called Initial This,” Haskins said, “which is a giveaway where the students can either put there initials on it or they can put their Greek letters on it. There will also be a physical event called Gladiator, it will be an inflatable where people can get up on and fight each other.

Also, Greek Week is doing a food eating contest and a toga fashion show in the Amphitheater with each Greek organization represented. They are dressing up in togas and there will be judges to judge the outfits.

The PigOut has been very successful since the start, the students like the free food and, according to Haskins; the event keeps growing every semester, so much so, they had to order an extra amount of food.

“I think the whole concept is very fun since it is a way to get your friends together and eat outside,” said second year graduate student, Luiza Pires. “Although, I don’t particularly like the food served.”

Not all student opinions on the event were positive, some citing that the event seems unnecessary financially.

“Even though it is a nice opportunity to get together with other students and have a free lunch,” said, junior marketing major Liv Pettersson, “sometimes I wonder if it is really necessary to spend all of that money on giving free food away.”

Gina Thurman, assistant dean of students, has been working with the PigOut since it started and said she feels the focus should be just fun.

“Usually faculty and staff volunteer to cook and serve the food, just to make it a fun experience for the students,” Thurman said. “It is designed so that right after midterms it gives students a chance to relax, blow off some steam, and get ready to buckle down for the rest of the semester,”

Every semester Thurman cooks and helps to serve the food to the students and she said it is a different experience, offering her a chance to interact with students on another level and special atmosphere, “a break from the regular job.”

“Sometimes when I see students in my office…,” she said, “they are usually in trouble, so it is nice to be able to get out and see students in a different view.”

Just as they did almost four years ago in Beijing, as part of the jaw-dropping opening ceremony for the Olympics, Ballet Folklórico de Antioquia Colombia captivated Maxwell Theatre patrons Saturday night, staging for the local community unstinted dances and inexhaustible energy.

Ballet Folklórico de Antioquia Colombia is a company of dancers, musicians and artists who work together to project expressions of Colombian folklore and promote intercultural dialogues by using dance as a common language.

The event was the overwhelmingly successful realization of a conscious effort for Hispanic associations and the Lyceum Series, promoting international culture to first Augusta, then the United States, and finally abroad.

Through snapshots of the country’s musical and dance prowess, the show brings light to the indigenous, European and African roots, cutting out the modern image of drugs and violence that has framed the South American nation.

“The stereotype people have made, is that being Colombian is equal to a problem with drugs,” said associate professor of Spanish, Pedro Hoyos-Salcedo, who came to the states in pursuit of what he termed unlimited academic resources. “They are legends that are out there. Black or false legends as we call them. I feel well represented as a Colombian when I hear of the Ballet, and the same is true for people from of all levels, whom I talk to.”

National pride does not fault the Colombian.

Contrary to their American counterparts, Colombians are usually much more aggressive conversationally, like the Valdesian punch in coffee of whose production they are second in the world. Speech patterns for natives favor a quicker rate and a more in-your-face approach, opposite the American “space bubble”, leading to something Hoyos-Salcedo called, a “choque cultural”, or a culture shock when he arrived here 20 years ago.

In Colombia, he said, believe it or not, the sun has do to a lot do with they way they carry themselves. Two seasons – wet and dry – are all Colombia gets.

“There are sidewalks everywhere, he said. “It’s not like here where no one can walk to get where they want to go. I am not saying these things are bad, they are just different from our culture.”

Even more different, and a growing field of study for linguist and sociologist alike, is the emergent subculture of “broken-Spanish” speaking Latino’s born to immigrant parents, fighting to understand their brand of the language and their roots.

In recent bilingual studies from the Penn State University Center for Language Science, researchers discovered that not only does the first language influence the second and vice versa, but also knowledge of a speaker’s ability to switch gives them more control of their linguistic environment and an advantage culturally in terms of juggling information.

This was true for another Colombian-rooted professor on campus.

Christopher Botero, assistant professor of Spanish, spent five years living in Colombia and some summers, after his parents, who gave birth to him in New York hoped that speaking the language at home and being around family in Bogota or Medellin, Colombia would help solidify any rough edges culturally or linguistically.

He was young when he traveled, reuniting with family and friends, never dipping too far into the formal school setting for his language acquisition.

It first hit home to him that the Spanish he spoke and the Colombian he was wasn’t of standard when in passing conversations many noticed something was off.

“They called me gringo,” he said. “Something that I just had to accept. Everybody has their accent, and natives pick up on it. I say something one way and they look at me and say, ‘ you are not from here.’”

Not only did native Colombians pick up his accent, but they also noticed his customs.

Once when shopping, Botero went to pay for his items with a credit card.  After the cashier had rung up the goods, she took the card and proceeded to ask for identification. Now in Colombia and in several nations worldwide, it is typical for no one to be able to purchase items with credit unless they obtain what is called a cédula, or identification card.

When the cashier told him and later the manager that there was no way they could accept his payment he said he was confused about the irrationality of the situation and why they could not just take his card.

“It was just me being my version of gringo,” he said. “Displaying yourself in that manner just isn’t very Colombian. It wasn’t trying to fight, but just to give my point.”

It wasn’t necessarily that he caused a scene with his actions either, but implied it in his body language and tone.

Back home, and in the office walled on the third floor of Allgood Hall, between colleagues, Hoyos-Salcedo and Wes Kisting, Botero, is labeled a heritage speaker, a term stuck to all Latino’s who learned Spanish from the a place outside the homeland, and a misnomer Botero isn’t necessarily proud of.

The term, he says, and its inferior connation has caused something of an attitude for Latinos. Nationwide, in the Bronx or Washington Heights, or Chicano groups in the Southwest or even locally, awareness of their culture is growing, and they are not flattered by attempts from cultural purists who say what they are is not genuine.

The easiest place to notice sprouts of amalgamation, for Botero, is linguistics, where anyone with even a fundamental knowledge of Spanish can spot terms that demonstrate the effect of cultural proximities. For instance, many Caribbean populations influenced by American culture have adopted the verb, “guachar,” meaning to watch; a clear stretch from the traditional verb, “mirar.”

These developments are not bad, contrary to purist thought, just proof of contact with other cultures, not unlike ethnic mixes in Spain among Castilian and Basque populations, and a reality that language and culture are forever changing.

Botero said growing up he thought being less accepted on either side was comical and took relief in that fact that to his American peers he wasn’t all white and to Hispanic friends he wasn’t 100 percent gringo.

For him, a Colombian family, or any other Hispanic group living in an American city, the cultural values are still different from a resident of Bogota, and what the Ballet offers still has its place.

“First, above all, to listen to Latinos and others, and have people think that our cultures are all the same is interesting,” he said. “Being Colombian, even though I’m not directly from the nation, is especially and specifically important to be aware of.  These ballets, the poetry and the music are all showing things that we cannot demonstrate well enough in our classes. They are important, but they don’t necessarily represent the communities of Latinos born in the United States.”

The continued study and honest representation, artistic or academic, of Latino culture and of historic truths in and out of Latin America is, for both professors, imperative to combating ignorance and furthering a conscious understanding of language and identity.

Hoyos-Salcedo says the growth he has seen since 2000 in the CSRA is proof Augusta is getting where it needs to be concerning Hispanics.

“Augusta is putting itself in a good place for the future,” Hoyos-Salcedo said. “Growth of Latinos here is very strong; a perfect example of what it takes to be an ample and complete representative of the culture.”

I kinda’ knew, but I chose not to bring it up.

All the signs were there, it should have been spotted earlier; the camoed-out truck, the sub $2 cigarettes, and the “y’all and smile” combo greeting at the door.

A trip to Club Argos, Augusta’s nightlife hotspot for the gay and lesbian community Wednesday night served as a haunting reminder that’s the Garden City’s nightlife, irrespective of gender is, for me, overtly country and tirelessly repetitive.

The event itself showcased designs by Jen Ell’s Revenge under the title Rock It Recycled. Money earned from the show was donated to Augusta Pride.

The expectation however, was that the club be more of mode. But, how fitting of an Augusta club to not see the typical demographic of Southern animosity toward the gay community and unknowingly, I think, combine the two.

There is not enough strength inside me to access the vocabulary trapped inside my lexicon to describe the scene in the club, a place where the eye is less pleased by vibrant décor and edgy aesthetics, rather forced to focus on low-scale lighting and Budweiser flags draped over the bar saying, “Be Yourself,” as if everyone there did not already know how.

On the stage, fashion sets consisted of reasonably ready-to-wear outfits – retro ones – reusing garb from old, like 80’s spandex or the loose-fitting styles of the grunge heyday.  Nearly 15 models, held together style combinations impressively some more consistent, others there to have a good time, and for that we can’t fault them.

Is it odd, that when eyes became bombarded by some of the whitewash-jean jacket/frilly-shirt combinations, I swore to myself I had seen a professor wearing it?

Music accompanied each set, with Alanis Morissette’s, You Oughta Know, receiving the most sing-alongs and deafening the room.  I’m not sure why it was such a hit and there is probably some deeper significance I am missing.

Energy rarely faulted. But, At times it felt like two different things were happening; bar orders and posh deliveries. This asymmetrical division found its way over to the catwalk; it appeared the straight had more poise and exclusivity and the gays a less-firm grasp on showmanship and appeal, prompting folks behind me to yell out, “Stay there, work it for a minute,” is if to say stop strutting aimlessly and doing your own thing.

There were clearly those –the table behind me- that took the night less as a local fundraiser and more as a glamour moment. They made their presence known after the show, gliding onto the dance floor wearing those brand names all of us are unsure how to pronounce.

But all their hopes were crushed for any semblance of Milan or Paris, when irony, the bastard child of fate would have the bigger or healthier (work with me here) models or those less accustomed to heels, stumble over themselves multiple times.

Fittingly enough, it is always the person stereotypically out of place that gets the most attention.

Really, it is just so odd to see Carhart (I do hear they are cozy) in a place like this. I know, I carried my fair share of awkwardness walking into Argos, but at least I did so with a cardigan.

There was clearly no high fashion ambience, and few from here will go on to squeeze in tighter stitching.

Augusta does not fully comprehend the world of fashion, though they are getting their, much like the nation does not understand all the facets of the gay plight, but they are getting there.

But, Augusta does have something to be proud for understanding, they how know how to “git-r-done.”

Ricardo Azziz retracted from previous Town Hall statements made last week saying the foundation for this consolidation should not be defined in terms of business, rather opportunity.

Ever since the Board of Regents (BOR) voted in favor of the merger a month ago, faculty and staff from both universities have raised questions about the future name, brand and cost for what Azziz called an enterprise in Town Hall meetings.

“This is not about making the Augusta State campus, as we call it today, smaller,” Azziz said on Jan. 12 during a Town Hall meeting to address concerns about the BOR’s then recent vote to merge the two universities. “That would be foolish. Dr. Bloodworth and I do not want that; neither does the Board of Regents. They’re trying to make a bigger enterprise. This consolidation in particular is about a bigger enterprise.”

Changing his tune to academia, Azziz later told Bell Ringer reporters the focus of this “merger” was not about the business of the universities, but expressed his focus and the general focus to be solely concerned with making a bigger and better institution with a wealth of opportunity for all those involved.

“We prefer to call this a consolidation because merger sounds like the two universities are businesses,” he said. “Conditions on the ground are different.”

Azziz said he wants to be competitive and aggressive both in pursuing the best interests of GHSU, but he also said he and current August State president William A. Bloodworth Jr. can offer ideas and direction for the new university, however, “at the end of the day, the Board of Regents will be the ones to make the large and final decisions.”

Although some students and faculty have notions the identity of the current Augusta Statewill soon fall victim to the corporate, medical world, regardless of who decides on it, Azziz tried to put those fears at ease.

“There is not a desire to ‘medicalize’ the university,” he said. “Student growth is not at GHSU. The reality is the growth will occur in basic core and in liberal arts.”

Emphasizing nothing but positives, Azziz said in addition to the merge “bringing better value, better recognition, better pride and more opportunity,” are the basis of his mission for the unnamed university.

“I want it (the new institution) to be competitive,” he said. “I want us to grow in an efficient way.”

And while the word efficient may have different meanings to many people, Azziz clarified his definition to mean “growth potential.”

“Efficiency does not equal cost cutting,” Azziz said. “We have an opportunity to provide students and faculty with better value for what they get here (at ASU). I think everybody has an opportunity to gain here.”

In further clarification, Azziz said he does not see the gains and the potential value from this consolidation to come by way of staff reductions, eliminating positions or salary cuts.
But the Associated Press reported, just days after the merger decision was voted on, they had attained a BOR document saying that salary cuts were on the way. Conversely, the GHSU president informed Bell Ringer reporters salaries were not a discussion between the BOR and himself.

“When duties are reduced, salaries may change,” Azziz said. “We want to be fair.”

Fair, meaning if job duties are reduced to significantly less than before, salaries would be adjusted accordingly.

The AP article did not explain which eight schools, out of the four set to merge, would experience the bulk of position cut backs, nor could the reporter be reached for comment.

“It would be simplistic to say there will be duplications,” Azziz said. “ASU and GHSU are lean organizations with little waste. Titles will change; seats in the bus will change and some may decide they don’t want to be a part of this and want to leave.”

Azziz put into metaphor the concerns of Augusta State Public Safety staff as expressed to their director Jasper Cooke. Their concern is that between the two universities, overlap, the one clear sign pointing to job cuts, seems inevitable.

“I told my folks just work on skill-set and let the rest go,” said Director of public safety Jasper Cooke. “(In our department) there will probably be only one position replicated and that will be me. I’m a big boy. Don’t sweat. I’ll take care of myself.”

If anything, public safety will need to staff more once the two universities become one. Cooke
said, through the past several years, with budget cuts being handed down left and right, his department has done a lot with the little given to them.

“At the end of the day, you are still going to need parking services and will have a reason to have police officers around,” Cooke said.

As far as job elimination goes, Azziz said he understands the concern people have toward outsourcing maintenance or food service positions when the new university gets going.

Outsourcing has been used for the health system (hospital), something Azziz saw as a job-creator for the community, but does not foresee its function for the new school.

“The transition team will help to decide the organizational structure of the university,” he said. “Over time, leaders will make decisions on outsourcing.”

Established leaders for this consolidation, those who see the upside and will work hard, are the people Azziz is looking to as the prime audience to help sell his vision.

After moving into the second-floor suite in Rains Hall last week, Azziz said he will have a presence on campus in the coming weeks and months in order to sell the vision of this comprehensive research university. To do this he will come together with working groups to find the most efficient ways to combine programs and transition smoothly.

“We understand there are trust issues,” Azziz said. “Trust takes time to sell. We can try to help them trust us. It should be our vision. The president has to sell the university; you have to be inspiring.”

Sometime back in high school, at a talent show with his ‘homeboy’, Ajay Miller, attempted to spit his first live verse, but not before nerves got the best of him.

Miller, who had only been writing poems, nothing real serious, watched his friend do his thing and when it came time for his, he froze.

He said he tried to compose himself, only to freeze up again. He said he even tried pulling out his verses, but that didn’t help. Frustrated, he threw the mic down and walked away.

Miller, now 24, has picked the microphone back up in the underground of rap music, hoping to rise to mainstream.

“Before I didn’t have my own purpose,” Miller said, looking back on his amateur attempts. “I was rapping things that weren’t relevant. I was pretty much a follower. I realized that wasn’t my personality. (So now) I have begun writing what was coming from my experiences and me personally. That’s when music became real to me.”

The real quality he spoke of is one grounded in a military upbringing that had him raised in Germany, and influenced by service life here in Augusta. These influences are evident in quasi-digital funk, and surprisingly soulful, “Just Being Me,” one of his self-produced tracks that includes this poignant lyric, “they say a rapper will never make it out of the AUG, I don’t give a’. I’m just being me.”

Being himself has led Miller to critical observations of the state of hip-hop. Miller said he thinks rappers are blinded to the things in their own house or their own neighborhood, and never really look anywhere else for the creativity that makes their music, what he called, intelligent.

“A lot of people that are black don’t listen to techno, and I love it, he said. “These guys didn’t get a chance to experience Europe, if I can bring that into my music I’m giving a different genre a chance to be heard.”
Miller gently channels the techno pulse; doing so at a rate tolerable for the 808 saturated listeners.

Example; “STFU”

Listenership has grown quickly for Miller, and his fan base, steadily establishing.

Early on, Miller has performed open-mics at Sky City, made radio appearances on AM frequencies in Atlanta and FM, locally on Power 107, and toured, at his own expense, in clubs all over the Southeast.
His biggest acclaim yet was in a competition in Los Angeles. Last fall, Miller flew to California to perform for over 2,000 people in a 5-round competition called RACKS 2 RAP.

Miller was eliminated in the third round, but called the event a success due to the fact that he made it that far as an outsider.

Back home, in Grovetown, Ga. and across the South where he is trying to grow, he continues to make contacts with producers and promoters to get his music heard.

But what is waiting for him in the underground of rap is this critique that in the hip-hop world there are too many kids with a home recording studio, autotune and Beatsaudio, cats like Mac Miller, Wiz Khalifa and Tyler the Creator who are making headway in a less conventional manner, leaving no room for “grassroots” efforts.

Miller said in the underground you have to be discovered by big names and sound like the moguls, or worse cosign with a star on a record, all while never being heard for your pure, original talent.
As he has combated the critique previously, he self-promotes.

“The music I make isn’t underground still, its pre-ready, friendly to the commercial markets,” he said.
Indeed, his unique lyrical structure is instantly palatable. Perhaps it’s the relaxed, southern draw, T.I-esque, but his lyrics pace out over the rhythm crisply and fall plump over quarter note crashes.
However, for all intensive purposes, his music is still pink in the middle, under-produced, yet definitively tolerable.

For best results, give it a few minutes, warm up to it and let it play on the palette with combinations that seem just as unorthodox as the chef who concocted them.

Start with, “I Just Want You to Know,” the hook is nice – a synonym, in this case meaning “appropriate” or “where it should be” at this point in the rap game – as Miller put it.
“These lyrical verses are ready to be gobbled up,” he said.

Funding and fan support are the current challenges for Miller, but it won’t be long before he is feasting on the fame of a tough industry, having his cake and eating it too. -

- Ajay Miller’s debut mixtape, “Practice Makes Perfect,” is available on iTunes and Reverbnation.

A block party concert featuring Hip- Hop artist Jus Nice and information sessions showcasing campus organizations are just a few of the many pre-merger planned events announced by Student Activities, Jan. 10, as part of their spring schedule.

The Office of Student Activities spent the previous year attending conferences, meeting with students and reviewing budgets to form the spring calendar.

And Student Activities Assistant Director for Programs, Jessica Haskins, said the goal is to make sure the office had a diverse group of programs that would in some way reach every student.

“Participation is high,” she said, referencing the numbers she received for fall attendance. “It’s way beyond what we expected.”

Haskins said Student Activities, working in conjunction with the JAB Board, have planned the semester’s programs with a listening ear toward student concerns about a lack of quality, big-draw events, or worse, none at all.

“They do a fair enough job all things considered,” said T.J. Schumann, senior political science major, and secretary for the Political Science Club. “One thing I would love to see, are more acoustic shows like they had in the past.”

Haskins said she attends the National Association of Collegiate Activities conference each year with students, where performing acts audition and colleges can choose to bring them on campus. She added that from there, with student input and addressing budget concerns, she decides on whom to bring on campus to perform.

“We keep things spread out so we don’t have entertainment events (concerts) back to back, “ she said. “We feel that is unnecessary. We also have budget that is not as big as most students would like it to be.”

Also, a concern for many students is how programs and events will shape up given last week’s unanimous decision by the Board of Regents to merge Augusta State and GHSU.

Schumann said he has been watching local news feeds and understands that the upcoming months, both academically and socially will be important to the student body.

“Any kind of shake-up at an administrative level, is going to have an effect at the student level,” Schumann said.

All events are planned at least two months in advance of a semester, Haskins said.

Haskins added she does not feel the merger will have any effect on the semester’s student participation, and because no plans have come out yet about how the merger will take place, she said all the office can do is move slowly.

Events get underway quickly for students, with Lip-ioke, a lip-syncing karaoke event, Jan. 19 in the JSAC Coffeehouse.

JAB events usually occur once every week, while the office of Student Activities tries to have on event each month.

Homecoming Week festivities, Lyceum events, and Family Fun Series, which includes a trip to see the Harlem Globetrotters, as well as all other planned concerts and events are listed in the spring 2012 Program Guide available in the Office of Student Activities.

Three years ago, Jaguar forward Travis Keels arrived on campus, like most big men, softspoken and undersized, but to his coach, offseason hard work has changed both areas remarkably.

Since his arrival, Keels has fielded questions regarding his weight and strength. As a freshman redshirt, he entered at 6–foot-9, 175 pounds, but now as a junior, on the brink of what the coaching staff hopes to be a “senior type season,” and back healthy from off season ankle surgery, Keels weighed in at 206 and had improved his bench press by nearly 70 pounds.

Dip Metress, Jaguars head coach, said Keels’ ankle injury was an unlucky injury and may have led to many of the questions surrounding his strength and health, or the perception that Keels is frail and injury prone.

“There’s all this talk of is he healthy or will the ankle be OK,” Metress said. “He is healthy and has looked good in practice so far. We expect him to be a presence in the post and a vocal leader insofar as he does the things we ask of him.”

With no official strength and conditioning coach on staff for the Jaguars since the departure of Robbie McKinlay last spring, much of the workout regime Keels went through was self-inspired.

“It went well,” Keels said. “When I first got here, I was not at my best size. Mostly my training schedule was lifting, or as much as I could do having to be on crutches. It was getting the timing back and the flow of things that have helped get me here.”

The increase in size and strength for Keels could not have come at a better time. Questions surrounding the physical presence he can be inside are heightened, as the Jaguars’ lack of size and depth in the paint they were blessed with in previous years has taken a hit. Now, inside scoring, rebounding and post defense are all big concerns for Metress and his staff, as well as upperclassmen, like Keels, becoming vocal leaders to the 11 newcomers.

Being vocal is something Keels said he has had to continue working on.

Off the court, Keels has a reputation as one of the nicest athletes, and around the Jaguars he is considered one of the best kids this program has ever had. The niceness he has shown off the court and the way he carries himself have led him to put in extra concentrated time working on his presence and vocal leadership.

“He talks more on the court than he does in class, I’m sure,” Metress said. “He has gotten much better over the time he has been here.”

Metress said Keels does so many things well for the team that exemplify his leadership.

“(On the court), I think I can definitely be the biggest help rebounding, on defense, and as a vocal leader,” Keels said. “I am very defensive- minded and I let the offense come to me. The way our offense runs is not going to change my role much. Sure, I try to utilize my quickness, being undersized, but I still have to let the offense come.”

Moving forward, Keels has set a goal to play within the concepts of the offense. He said he hopes to improve on his six points-pergame and 2.7 rebounds-per-game average he saw in 30 games last season.

In regards to offense, Metress said at this point – the point being in practice after a recent scrimmage and two weeks until the Nov. 16 opener against Paine – individual roles have to be understood and the team has to get “some things” worked out defensively; they will have a better understanding of how their offense will shape up once they are solid defensively, he said.

“If you would have asked me before the scrimmage, I probably would have had a different answer,” Metress said of his reliance on a motion offense due to the number of guards at his disposal. “We went into the scrimmage with some things we needed answers to, and we didn’t get a lot of the answers we wanted.”

As far as Keels’ role within the offense, Metress said he hopes to utilize him, “believe it or not,” on the perimeter some this season.

“He’s a low-mistake guy and not high profile,” Metress said. “He just does the things we ask of him, and we will put him in situations where he can be effective.”

No one discusses humility and service enough.

For more than two years now, I have been relieving myself in the very well-kept urinals and stalls of the University’s restrooms. Each time I finish, I wash my hands (just in case there was ever any doubt). To dry my hands, I usually use the blower or pat my pants.

I would be remiss, however, if I did not admit that with the exception of the superblowing, semiautomatic-rifle dryers we have on some floors of certain buildings (the ones that make fart noises out of the excess skin on your hands), I often think it would sure be nice to dry my hands completely with a nice warm paper towel before I have to pick up the essay to be turned in and scoot out the door. But, I take it for green-friendly reasons, we rely on air dryers.

On Oct. 11 and 12, when the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents (BOR) came in and respect for student presence went out, amidst the Secret Service logistics, and the freshly touched-up walls and furniture, Augusta State saw fit to put out Kleenex boxes on the counters for the doctors and administration of Georgia Health Sciences University (GHSU) and the distinguished hands of our sacred governing body.

I’m not sure if we were trying to out-spirit GHSU, shouting “We got more hygiene, we got more hygiene how about you?” or if the lonely Kleenex box was an effort to quietly compete for more funding, because they are clearly kicking our butt in all the science fairs, but was it necessary?

Any given student would hear of this situation and probably respond in outrage by the fact they are forced to rely on the strength of a dryer’s ability day in and day out, but members of the BOR get special drying privileges. (Bless our higher-ups, for they did not see fit to provide personal hand towels.)

There is also the crazy, farfetched, applied strain of thought that says the Board of Regents previously voted in tax-dollars and University fees to cover this expenditure in their budget; what forethought.

Strangely enough, I’m not in that camp, because honestly, I found both GHSU representatives and BOR members to be much friendlier than our own, and primarily, for the sake of this column and all the eco-friendly people, I would at least like to not make one group of people angry with me.

I completely understand not having paper towels for students because, as our own editor-in-chief reported last issue, Jaguars seem to have a knack for missing the trashcan.

So my beef is not with Augusta State leadership in that respect.

As I left the first floor bathroom on the first day of meetings, I noticed an administrator watch a fellow coworker and an employee that is clearly not as high up as he backs out of the double doors stumbling, with spatula, tongs, drinks and silverware, and Chef knows what else in her hands. Instead of helping her, or even asking if she had it OK, he took his right arm out from that classic, “Iam- in–leadership” folded-arm position, and spoke into a Walkie-Talkie.

Hey, I admit to be no better than the said administrator because I watched too, but given, she wasn’t my coworker and I had no future benefit in a work relationship that warranted showing her any kind of respectful service or appreciation, I stayed put.

Furthermore, I have no clue what he could have been saying on his Walkie-Talkie, or better yet who of equal importance with a Walkie-Talkie he could have been saying it to, as everyone in any sort of leadership position at the school was less than 30 feet from him.

I love how we can honestly hand someone a nametag, keys and a Walkie-Talkie and call them important.

What is important? And maybe the school should reevaluate who is in leadership. Are men and women in authority who realize what it took to get that nametag and Walkie-Talkie able to humble themselves and kindly serve those under or alongside them?

President Bloodworth put it best as he addressed the crowd of board members and distinguished representatives, when in organizing the line for the lunch buffet, he looked over to a friend and colleague and told him he should have not sat so close to the food, because today, the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

The Felice Brothers, a folk, country, rock blend, based out of Catskills, N.Y. had no expectations as to what a first show in Augusta, Ga., on the Christmas-light stage of Sky City would be like.

Simply put, they probably weren’t expecting a crowd of at most 50 people, of whom 1/3 won’t remember the surprisingly rhythmic show or the dance moves they pulled off (for everyone else there is Facebook).

Still, there was the lonely, die-hard fan that covers their music locally and at one point had the microphone shoved in his face to sing along. He did not pass it up.

The band members, as performers, moved on stage like a da Vinci’s Last Super.

The fiddle player, stage right, Greg Farley, was bent over most of the show switching in between the fiddle and a sample pad; on piano and accordion, James Felice, instinctively leaned left over and over again, as if someone’s shoulder was there to lean on; bassists, Christmas Clapton, spent the track time when he was not singing on his knees tucked over; the most normal – if by this point is even possible to be saidlead guitarist, Ian Felice, stood straight up, drenched in the blood-red spotlight, intently dragging his lyrics behind the stomp of the drummers kick; Dave Tuberville, kept time with ghost eighth notes on the right hand instead of the high-hat.

Midway through the show, James Felice, looked to the crowd and said, “maybe after the show, we can sit down in a circle and talk about how we all need to act better.”

For all of their stage presence, the pounding intensity of their tunes, haunting melodies from the accordion and pleasant shrieks by the fiddle it was not matched by crowd presence.

How this is their first time in Augusta, Ga., defies logic.

To go right out and say absent Augustans missed the show of the year would be a stretch – not too far of a stretch, one fan publicly apologized for the rest of Augusta “totally missing this” – but what would be best to say is that music junkies of the area and the Felice Brothers are a perfect match.

The whole ambience in Sky City kind of took the feel of that familiar scene in Titanic where Jack and Rose dance in the immigrant quarters, a scene that could easily be replicated at a backyard reception for a Summerville couples wedding.

Their music, especially tunes like, “Ponzi” and “Fire at the Pageant” are very folk-driven and country-grounded. Indeed their music has been described as a revival of Americana and in many ways achieved that, but at times though, the group seemed to be off-kilter, playing hip-hop samples in between song changes. Generally, the Felice Brothers were too hip to be country, but too country to be hip, a label that does not fall far from the target description of Augusta.