THE OREDIGGER

The student voice of Mines since 1920

Volume 95, Issue 3

November 18, 2014

Presidential search creates opportunity for continued improvements

Lucy Orsi
Editor-in-Chief

On Friday, President Bill Scoggins announced his plans to retire

from his position at the end of the
2014-2015 academic year. Since
taking over as president in 2006,
Dr. Scoggins has confronted several
obstacles and seen Mines through a
signicant transition. As the Board of
Trustees begins the search for new
candidates, they should consider the
strengths and weaknesses of the
Scoggins administration and attempt
to nd a new president who can strike
a balance between the two. Furthermore, the Board should attempt
to include faculty input at all stages
of the process in order to promote
shared governance on campus.
Before determining the characteristics the Board of Trustees (BOT)
should prioritize in the presidential
search, it is important to evaluate
the last administration. The president
who will follow in Scoggins footsteps
will need to pick up where he has left
o as well as deal with some emerg-

ing issues. The next presidents challenges can be broken down into three
impact groups: nancial, student,
and faculty.
Financial Impact:
In their email to campus, the
Board highlighted many of President Scoggins achievements over
the last eight years, but stated that
his leadership was most apparent as he helped navigate Mines
through one of the worst nancial
recessions in the history of this state
and nation. Indeed, Scoggins is
frequently praised around campus
for his nancial prowess and role in
helping move the institution towards
its current financial stability. The
Board credited Scoggins success
to his foucs on diversifying [Mines]
revenues and reducing the impact of
state budget cuts. In order to investigate this claim, The Oredigger collected historic budget data from the
schools website (http://inside.mines.
edu/Budget_Information). Figure 1
shows the various revenue sources
the school has relied on historically

and their percentage of the schools

annual revenue. Note that this data
set excludes revenue contributions
from the CSM Foundation.
Based on the data in Figure 1, the
school has faced declining support
from the federal and state governments. In order to counteract this,
the school relied primarily upon increasing tuition for both residents and
non-residents. Even within the tuition
category, the school had to grapple
with decreased state funds. The
Colorado Opportunity Fund (COF),
which is responsible for subsidizing
tuition for Colorado residents, has
decreased over the past eight years.
In fact, as shown in Table 1, the
percentage of Mines tuition dollars
provided by COF have declined from
12.34% in 2006 to just under 4% in
2014. In order to counteract this, the
school has had to increasingly rely on
student tuition dollars.
Continued at Tracking changes
in tuition and student outcomes
on Page 6

Figure 1: This chart shows the various sources of revenue

in terms of their percentage of the total revenue brought
in for that year. The data was pulled from BOT approved
budgets.

Table 1: This table shows the percentage of Mines tuition

dollars coming from the Colorado Opportunity Fund.

The Oredigger reviews the

MME Department on page 9!

The Oredigger reviews the

Geophysics Department on page 8!
Favorite Professor?

What was the easiest class?

Check out our photos of

rock climbing and concerts
on page 12!

Mines conforms to new

Share a Green
SaVE, Title IX requirements Ride with eThos!

Anonymous
Staff Writer

Colleges nationwide are required

to have policies that deal with discrimination based on gender, sexual
assault, and sexual harassment.
There are two main laws that address these problems: the Clery Act
(updated by the Campus SaVE Act),
which requires colleges to report
crimes, and Title IX, which deals
with gender based discrimination. If
colleges want to receive any federal
funding, it is required that they abide
by these laws.
The Clery Act requires all colleges
to publish an annual security report,
to have a public crime log, to
disclose crime statistics for any
incidents that occur on campus, in
areas that are directly adjacent to
campus, and at some non-campus

facilities (such as Greek housing).

These statistics are gathered from
campus police or security, law
enforcement, and other school
ocials. The Clery Act also requires
that a campus issue warnings
about crimes covered in the Clery
Act which pose a serious and/or
ongoing threat. However, statistics
that are released under the Clery
Act only reect the numbers which
are reported, and therefore can
be inaccurate due to the fact that
many sexual crimes go unreported.
At Mines, the numbers in the last
couple of years have been between
zero and two. These numbers are
possibly inaccurate and not very
enlightening because these are
only the crimes that are reported,
not necessarily all the crimes that
occurred.
The Campus Sexual Violence

Elimination (SaVE) Act updates

the Clery Act. It essentially covers
violence that occurs on campuses
against women. This includes
domestic violence, dating violence,
sexual assault, and stalking. All of
this is required to be disclosed in
an annual campus crime statistic
report. Under the SaVE Act, people
reporting victimization are provided
with written rights. Campuses
are also required to adopt student
discipline procedures, including
notifying victims of their rights.
Campuses also have to have policies
to address and prevent campus
sexual violence. The Campus SaVE
Act was updated early in 2014.
Title IX has also been updated in
the past year. Originally passed in
Continued at Title IX Changes
on Page 3

Magnus Chun
Staff Writer

It is well known that driving an

electric car is much greener and
better for the environment than
driving a regular car. Tim Prior,
owner of the eThos car sharing
company, wants to take this a step
further, by incorporating car sharing (think of this as renting cars).
Prior holds a masters degree in
urban planning from the University
of Wisconsin, enjoys spending
time looking at maps and reading
zoning codes, and most people
would call him a car guy. Prior
said, The quickest, simplest solution to me is the electric vehicle.
There are more outlets in the world
than gas stations.
Prior decided to start his company in Golden for a few reasons.

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

First of all, Golden is an environmentally friendly city and he

hopes to create awareness of
being environmentally friendly to
the people living in Denver. In fact,
not many people know this, but
there are actually many electric
car chargers around the Denver
area and most are free for public
use. In addition, Prior announced
that eThos will invest in solar and
wind power to create electricity to
power the electric cars. This will
reduce the US carbon footprint.
Were all car lovers in this
country. Its hard not to be, its
part of our culture, Prior said.
Its almost a part of our American
identity.
Continued at eThos Offers
Green Ridesharing in Golden
on Page 3

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page 2

november 18, 2014

Magnus Chun, Staff Writer

Amsterdam, Netherlands - Astronomers at Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Center in Amsterdam have
captured evidence of magnetars (stars that create seismic waves, like earthquakes) having frequent eruptions,
called bursts. This will open up potential for a wealth of new data to help understand how neutron stars are put
together, according to Dr. Anna Watts, an Amsterdam astrophysicist. Watts points out, Starquakes [magnetars]
can release as much energy as magnitude 23 earthquakes on Earth.

California, USA - Researchers at University of California, San Francisco have

found new genes that play a role in causing
autism. Scientists identied 60 genes with
a greater than 90% chance of increasing
a childs autism risk. The researchers say
these genes appear to be clustering around
three sets of key biological functions: development of synapses in the brain, creation
of genetic instructions, and DNA packaging
within cells. Dr. Matthew State, chairman of
the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, believes
that the most important thing to take away
from the studies is a new knowledge base.
Instead of focusing on environmental factors, he says these studies are focusing on
what happens inside of the brain.

Oredigger Staff
Lucy Orsi
Editor-in-Chief
Emily McNair
Managing Editor
Taylor Polodna
Design Editor
Connor McDonald
Webmaster
Amos Gwa
Business Manager
Katerina Gonzales
Content Manager
Jared Riemer
Content Manager
Karen Gilbert
Faculty Advisor

Zurich, Switzerland - A team of physicists at ETH Zurich have designed a small MRI
machine that can detect a structure over one
million times smaller than structures previously
detected: it now can detect a single hydrogen
atom. The team replaced the electromagnetic
coil with a diamond sensor chip in a uorescent
microscope. The diamonds used had nitrogenvacancy centers located just a few nanometers
below the surface. The MRI machine was able
to get an optical readout from those spots,
which the team used to determine the location
of individual hydrogen atoms, to one angstrom.
The team hopes to study x-ray crystallography
using this small yet mighty MRI machine.

Har ha-Tsom, Jerusalem - Researchers and

scientists at Hebrew University of Jerusalem have made
a signicant breakthrough that represents a stride in
the development of DNA-based electrical circuits. The
scientists made their DNA-based wires by absorbing
four DNA strands onto a mica substrate. They were
then able to accurately and reproducibly measure
the currents owing through these molecules, which
ranged from 10 pA to over 100 pA. Furthermore, the
current travelled distances greater than 100 nm. Lead
scientist Dr. Danny Porath says, This research paves
the way for implementing DNA-based programmable
circuits for molecular electronics, which could lead to a
new generation of computer circuits that can be more
sophisticated, cheaper and simpler to make. There
will be signicant hurdles that the scientists will need to
overcome before a functional circuit can be made from
these results. However, this discovery will push the eld
of molecular electronics in the right direction.

Headlines from around the world

Magnus Chun, Staff Writer
Election Day was November 4
and the Republicans were the
big winners. 62% of elected Governors in the US are now Republicans, 56% of the elected House of
Representatives are Republicans,
and 52% of the elected Senate is
Republicans (CNN). Republicans
swept state legislative races by
winning control of more than 68
legislative chambers, largest since
1920 (CNN). In addition, Ms. Mia
Love narrowly won election to a
House seat for Utah, becoming
the rst black woman to represent
the Republican Party in Congress.
For Colorado in the Senate, Cory
Gardner (Republican) defeated
Mark Udall (Democrat) by 48.5%
to 46.0%. Governor John Hickenlooper (Democrat) was re-elected
as governor defeating Bob Beauprez (Republican) 49% to 46%. The
governor became the only Democrat to win the statewide contest
and one of the few bright spots
for the Democrats. This is a moment and an opportunity to seize
the day and to move forward,
Hickenlooper said, Not to dwell on
the wedge issues that too often divide us. Hickenloopers opponent
Beauprez acknowledged, There
just arent enough options to get
us across the nish line. Beauprez
said that he failed to capture the
energy and could not oer a fresh
face for voters.
US president Barack Obama
is sending 1500 more soldiers
into Iraq to train Iraqi and Kurdish forces to ght ISIS. This
would double the original number
of American troops that are stationed there. Congress has agreed
to fund $6 billion to ght against

ISIS. The President took these

decisions at the request of the Iraqi
Government and upon the recommendation of Secretary Hagel and
his military commanders based
upon the assessed needs of the
Iraqi Security Forces, the statement said.
Robert ONeil, former Navy
SEAL and the killer of Osama
Bin Laden, recently was in an interview where he nally revealed
the secret of who actually killed
the mass murderer. However, he
does not care if people believe him.
The most important thing that Ive
learned in the last two years is to
me it doesnt matter anymore if
I am The Shooter. The team got
him, Robert ONeill said in an audio interview. ONeils action to go
public is actually quite controversial
because it violates an unspoken
military rule that military personnel
should not seek attention for their
service.
After a month has passed and

43 college students still have

not been found in Mexico City,
the Mexican government has declared them dead. Tens of thousands of demonstrators protested
for more action from federal authorities to nd the students who have
been missing since late September.
Although the case has not been
fully investigated, investigators are
saying kidnapping is likely the case.
The missing students were training
to be teachers in the southwest
Mexican state of Guerrero when
they vanished under mysterious
circumstances. Its shocking because there are 43 students missing and they still havent found
them, said Ana Maria Salazar, a
former policy advisor for President
Clinton who also worked at the
Pentagon as a deputy assistant
secretary of defense. And as they
are looking for these students they
are nding more mass graves and
nobody knows who these people
are.

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

Local News
A Mines student was rescued from an old mine Sunday
night. Fourteen students were
exploring an old mine west of
Tunnel 1 on Highway 6 when
one of the students got stuck
while trying to leave the mine.
The Golden Fire Department
rescued the student with assistance from the Mine Rescue
trailer.
Replacement
equipment
for a Peak Internet facility was
delivered Monday. One of the
companys facilities recently
burned down and was a total
loss. Peak Internet is urging
customers not to download
large les to prevent service
disruptions.
The Denver city auditor has
found that sloppy accounting
practices, lack of oversight,
and poor record keeping have
cause the cost of the Denver
International Airports hotel
and transit center to skyrocket.
The auditor has said that the
nal cost has now ballooned
to $737 million, $237 million
above the citys original budget.
A car almost sunk in Cherry
Creek early Sunday morning
when a driver ran a red light.
The car hit another vehicle and
a telephone pole before falling
down an embankment.
A bull may have caused a
crash Sunday morning. A truck
crashed on Highway 24, and
the driver blames the bull he
was transporting. He says that
the bull started moving around
in the trailer, which led to the
rollover.

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november 18, 2014

page 3

Melodic Miners Concert

Title IX Changes

Katy Dykes
Staff Writer

Anonymous
Staff Writer

At first it would seem like a pretty

regular afternoon in the library with
students scattered around with piles
of books and frantically typing on laptops. But off to the side a small gaggle of nine girls is in the corner of the
Boettcher Room wearing matching
black polo shirts embroidered with
the words Melodic Miners on a music staff. The ladies cluster together,
giggling nervously as students, teachers, and faculty gathered to hear their
tunes. As 12:00 rolls around the girls
straighten up and stand in a line. A
pitch pipe is played quietly and suddenly a beautiful chorus breaks free.
Toes are tapping, hips are swaying to
the beat as the bouncy backup to the
Little Mermaid classic Kiss the Girl
enters the library.
The ladies performed a total of
eight songs, all in a four part a cappella, meaning that there were no instruments involved, only singing. The
songs ranged from Disney classics
to Barbershop hits from the 1950s.
When asked afterward, the group

said that their favorite songs varied

depending on the person. Many preferred the classic a cappella songs,
while others gravitated toward the
well-known Disney songs.
The range of songs was surprising:
the group transitioned from bouncy,
snapping songs like pop classic Lollipop to slower ballads like Royals
by Lorde without hesitation. Soloist
Nichole Pisierra channeled her inner
Aretha Franklin in one of the groups
performances: Signed, Sealed, Delivered, Im Yours. Soloists Bethany
Simonson and Bethany Klinkerman
serenaded the audience with I Wanna Hold Your Hand.
One striking thing about this group
is their camaraderie. As they sing they
smile and giggle and move with the
music. This is no solemn choir for
sure. These ladies clearly love singing and one another. Their backup
abilities were excellent. Its no easy
feat to emulate an entire orchestra
using only vocals. The girls created a
beautiful, rich, four part melody with
both the highs and lows intertwined
and represented. All of the solos were
done beautifully with great pitch and

rhythm.
The Melodic Miners are involved
in the singing Valentines that many
know about around campus. In February, students and staff can purchase
a valentine for a small fee and have
anyone be serenaded by the a cappella group. And they mean anyone
(professors included!). This is part of
a fundraising for the group, and also
just for the enjoyment of anyone who
wants to let their sweetie know that
they love them, or publicly embarrass
them in front of their entire lecture hall.
The singing Valentines will go on sale
near the beginning of February.
The Melodic Miners will be performing several times in the next couple of months both on campus and
off campus. They will be participating
in the Mines Choir concert on campus on November 21 at 7:00 pm.
They will be taking part in the Golden
Candle Walk on December 5 at 5:00
pm. And they will be performing as
part of the Denver Zoo Lights on December 11 at 5:00 pm. Make sure to
come out and support the Melodic
Miners and the Mines music department!

on ozone and climate change. Her research will specifically focus on the jet
stream over the Pacific Ocean.
Earth has two different ozones:
the one over the Pacific Ocean and
the one over the Atlantic Ocean. The
jet stream over the Pacific is easy to
analyze as it blows from west to east
and is more conducive to her pollution study. She chose to analyze the
Pacific jet stream and ozone because
of all the pollution coming off of Asia,
mainly China. This pollution from China
includes things like Nox and Vox along
with carbon dioxide and the particle
are getting into the jet stream and
in turn getting into the layers of our
ozone. In order to determine what/
if any effect the jet stream has on climate change, Gonzales is looking at
where the jet stream meets with the
West Coast of the United States as
the jet stream blows pollution as far as
California. The amount of pollution the
jet stream transports is not affected by
latitudes as mentioned earlier, but as
it hits North America, the jet stream

strengthens in the mid latitudes and

picks up speed, which causes the
variations in pollution delivered at a
certain location.
Gonzales hopes to find some conclusive evidence from her study. She
believes the model will show that the
latitude of the jet stream does not matter, but the speed of the jet stream
does. The speed affects the intensity and standard deviation of pollution within the jet stream. If speeds are
higher, it creates a cyclone-like effect
that provides polluted air one second,
then clean air, then polluted air again
because the jet stream sweeps the
pollution in different waves at different speeds. The variation in speeds
changes the standard deviation of pollution delivered by the jet stream. By
the end of this semester, she hopes to
quantify what derives ozone. For next
semester, she will look at how the jet
stream specifically transports pollution
and hopes to find the relationship between the jet stream and pollution and
how /if it affects climate change.

drink and do drugs while their baby

was sleeping. This unsurprisingly
ends in disaster. What is supposed
to be hilarity ensues. The movie
misses that by a long shot.
Neighbors is supposed to be
a comedy. Putting it in the category
of comedy is a disgrace to other
comedies that are actually funny
and well done. Theoretically, sexual
humor can be funny, but the movie
replies solely on sexual humor
and graphic sex, both of which
are unnecessary and distasteful,
to make the audience laugh. The
humor is so crude that it is at the
point of being uncomfortable. There
is also a certain lack of respect for
other human beings as people are
constantly being degraded in various
ways. It is supposed to be funny, but
the movie fails on that account.
There is an extreme amount of
drugs, alcohol, sex, and swearing
in Neighbors. In moderation, it
might have been all right. However,
it was borderline promoting the idea
of doing drugs, and not just a small
amount, as if it was not illegal and

frowned upon in most aspects of

society. The idea of binge drinking
along with taking various (illegal)
drugs is glorified. This is actually
repulsive and a terrible influence
on most people watching it, as if
college-aged people need more of an
incentive to act irresponsibly. The sex
scenes are unnecessarily graphic,
and while they try to be funny, they
are instead sloppy and disgusting.
All of this is quite the unappealing
combination of elements.
This movie is not worth anyones
time. Shirtless Zac Efron is probably
one of the only highlights of this movie,
and that can be found in another
setting with a little less sexism,
crude humor, and unnecessary sex
scenes. The plot is mediocre at best
but that is being generous. There is
little or no cinematic quality and even
though that is to be expected of most
comedies, it is not even remotely
well put together. Neighbors could
be considered funny if offensive,
distasteful jokes make you laugh
and you do not mind blatant sexism,
irresponsibility, and awful acting.

GP Senior studies climate

Jared Reimer
Content Manager

For Mines seniors, their final year

at Mines can be a stressful time. Not
only are students trying to figure out
what to do upon graduation, but they
are also usually in the middle of senior
design projects. In the geophysics department, students choose their own
projects to research for one or two semesters and, while geophysics is usually concerned with what is beneath
the earth, the students are allowed to
explore different fields and research
what interests them. The Oredigger
sat down with geophysics student
Katerina Gonzales to ask her about
her research.
Gonzales is continuing upon research she started in the summer of
2013 at Colorado State University and
will be performing her research over
two semesters. Her project is the study
of surface, ozone, and climate change
and she is designing a model that will
analyze the effect the jet stream has

Neighbors a disgrace
Anonymous
Staff Writer

Neighbors cannot be described

as anything short of terrible. The
acting was bad and the script was
worse. Seth Rogen was not any better than usual, and yes, Zac Efron
has a nice face, but this movie did not
do much for his acting career. Rose
Byrne and Dave Franco also appear,
but they do little for the movie. The
plot, two new parents move in next
to a frat house, was questionable to
begin with and did not do the movie
any favors. Like a lot of movies these
days, the trailer pretty much included
all of the remotely funny parts, which
meant the actual movie was quite
disappointing.
The premise of the movie is that
there are two new parents and they
move into a house that happens to
be next to a fraternity that parties
often. Of course, they decide to be
cool and hip and go over and join the
party instead of calling the cops. As
if any sane parent with a small child
would be irresponsible enough to go

Continued from Page 1

1972, Title IX requires that no
one, on the basis of sex, should
be discriminated against, excluded
from, or denied the benefits of any
educational program or activity that
receives federal financial assistance.
It is essentially gender equity in the
area of education. There are ten areas that are addressed by Title IX:
access to higher education, career
education, education for pregnant
and parenting students, employment, learning environment, math
and science, sexual harassment,
standardized testing, technology,
and sports.
In May 2012, the Policy Prohibiting Sexual Harassment was issued
at Mines. This policy covered both
sexual violence and assault. It has
been updated to be the Policy Prohibiting Gender-Based Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, and Sexual
Violence. It was amended August
29, 2014 to comply with new federal
policies. With the additional guidance
from Title IX and the updates to the
Campus SaVE Act, there are now
more requirements for campuses to
keep all students safe. The content
of the new policy is not very different
than the old one, but there is more
concerning gender discrimination
and addressing it. Gender discrimination is defined as treating someone in a negative way because of
that persons gender (or the persons
gender identity or expression). Sexual harassment is considered a form
of gender discrimination and allegations involving sexual harassment
are covered by the Mines policy. The
policy also covers sexual violence,
including rape, sexual assault, sexual
abuse, sexual battery, and sexual
coercion. It also has the potential
to cover domestic violence, dating
violence, and stalking because those
crimes can be considered sexual
violence. The full policy can be found
here:
http://inside.mines.edu/POGO-Student
There are two procedures in
place to address sexual harassment
and sexual assault complaints, one
for employees and third parties and

one for students. The procedures will

remain in effect, but the school is in
the process of revising both procedures. As of October 20, 2014, the
Department of Education published
final regulations regarding requirements for sexual assault procedures.
The school is revising both procedures so that they are compliant with
the regulations and also clear and
understandable to the schools community. The deadline to update the
regulations is July 1, 2015, but the
school intends to have new procedures in place before that deadline.
There will be changes to the procedures, but the reporting aspects
will probably not have very many
changes. There are multiple ways
to file a complaint (such as filing a
criminal complaint with appropriate
law enforcement agencies). One of
the possible options for reporting
sexual assault is to fill out an Anonymous Sexual Violence Reporting
Form. However, very few people fill
out these forms because it is hard
to make it anonymous and turn it in
directly. There is also the option to
file an official criminal complaint. The
Department of Public Safety will not
release any identifying information to
the media/public if a criminal complaint is filed. Right now, filing a criminal report and filing charges through
the Code of Conduct are two ways
of regaining control and holding the
perpetrator accountable. If a person
wants assistance on making a decision on whether or not to file criminal
or school charges, there are very few
resources available right now, so the
process mainly goes through one or
two people on campus. With changes to procedures, this may change.
To report or talk about gender
discrimination, sexual assault, sexual harassment or any other sexual
crime, there are two confidential
sources on campus, the Health
Center and the Counseling Center.
If sexual assault, harassment, or violence is reported to any other person
of authority on campus, they are required to report it. With these new
policies in place and with changes to
the reporting procedures coming in
the near future, hopefully the number
of sexual crimes on campus will drop
lower and it will be easier to report
sexual crimes if they do occur.

eThos Offers
Green Rideshare
Magnus Chun
Staff Writer
Continued from Page 1
So far, he has purchased 13
vehicles made from an electric
car manufacturing company
based in Los Angeles called
Coda Holdings, Inc. which filed
for bankruptcy in 2013. He is
offering two types of cars for
renting currently, the 2013
Coda Sedan and the Tesla
Model S. The Sedan has a 125
mile range and a 31 kWh battery pack, while the Tesla Model S has a 200 mile range and
a 60 kWh battery. The Tesla is
only available for half day rentals.
Prior encourages drivers to
choose eThos for a plenty of

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

reasons. One of those reasons

is that eThos offers fixed hourly
rate, instead of mileage-based
charging, for rental, starting at
$7/hour and goes to $4.5/hour
after 1 hour. Basically, the
more you drive, the less you
pay, said Prior.
With the nations total car
purchase on a decline per year
basis, is it time for energy efficient cars to step up, especially those that run on electricity? Priors goals for eThos
is to foster efficiency in commuting, generate local energy,
and to be able to educate people about how driving electric
cars can be better for the environment. eThos Electric Car
Share Company is located on
the corner of 19th and Jackson
Street.

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page 4

november 18, 2014

Chemistry Seminar - Dr. Xiaotai Wang

Katy Dykes
Staff Writer

CSM was honored to hear

from Dr. Xiaotai Wang on Friday
in his lecture on computational
mechanistic studies of transitional metal-catalyzed synthetically useful organic reactions.
Dr. Xiaotai Wang has been a
professor at the University of
Colorado-Denver since 1997.
His last lecture at Mines was over
10 years ago on the synthesis of
metal frameworks. Since then, Dr.
Wang has been attracted to the
field of computational chemistry.
Dr. Wang said that he was drawn
to this field because of its utility in
providing insights into the designing of new molecules. He is currently researching the synthesis
and of metal-organic frameworks
(MOFs) with newer structures and
a whole host of useful properties.
Dr. Wang worked in computational chemistry, a branch of
chemistry involving computer
simulations of chemical structures to assist in solving different
chemical questions. Dr. Wang
noted that there are two main divisions of computational quantum

chemistry: wave function based

and density function based.
Dr. Wangs research looked
at how metal catalysts could be
improved to obtain different arrangements, or stereospecific
molecules. Specifically, Dr. Wang
and other researchers wanted to
synthesize Z molecules as opposed to E molecules. These
two letters are used to describe
to position of different larger
groups of molecules in relation to
a carbon-to-carbon double bond.
If the molecule is Z, then the two
groups are on the same side
across the double bond. If the
molecule is E, then the molecules
are diagonal from one another
across the double bond.
This stereospecificity might
seem quite nit-picky, especially
when the product being examined
may contain hundreds of other
molecules, but the two different
orientations can immensely affect
how a catalyst works. If a catalyst
is meant to adhere to a binding
site, the slightest difference can
cause the whole reaction to take
much longer or not occur at all.
This is especially important when
looking at catalysts used to syn-

thesize functional polymers or

pharmaceutical molecules.
It is well known among chemistry students that transition
metals make excellent catalysts
for organic chemistry reactions.
There are several reasons why
this is. The first is that they have d
orbitals, giving them the ability to
form complexes and activate organic molecules. They also have
different oxidation states, which
facilitate the transfer of electrons.
This is the basis of redox catalysts. Dr. Wang looked at several different catalytic reactions
of interest. They each involved a
metal catalyst (such as Ru or Pd)
resulting in carbon double bonds,
single bonds, or bonds to hydrogen.
These catalysts can be used
in what is called olefin metathesis. This involves olefins, or
carbon chains containing double
bonds, being broken apart and
swapping pieces with another
olefin. Dr. Wang calls it a change
your partners dance. This reaction was discovered in the 1950s
but not fully understood or explained until the 1970s when
Yves Chauvin proposed the first

My Career Path: Anita Peil

Mines SWE Founder (Chevron Lecture Series)

Magnus Chun
Staff Writer
Dr. Anita Peil, a graduate from
Colorado School of Mines with a
BS in Mineral Engineering Chemistry in 1971, recently gave a speech
regarding the career path that she
chose and how it has impacted her
and her ideas. Dr. Peil founded the
SWE section at Colorado School of
Mines and served as the first president. Then, she went on to obtain
a PhD in Food Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After her studies, she went on to
work in the pharmaceutical section and now currently has over
30 years of global leadership in
both public and private companies
across the world.
No one is there to help you.
You have to do it yourself. Dr. Peil
has a familiarity with being independent. She started her career in

Switzerland working for Ciba-Gelgy and in the Development Drug

Regulatory Affairs department as
a group leader. She says that a
group leader was one of the lowest
positions at the global headquarters.
After working there for ten
years, she decided to move on
and went to Munich, Germany to
help startup an European headquarters for Fujisawa. She was a
board director for regulatory affairs.
This was the most challenging job
for her because she was part of
the company creation, strategy
and operations, and being able to
manage in the national and international level. After seven years of
hard work, she was ready to move
on again.
For the next two years, she
worked for Almirali in Spain, Debiopharm in Switzerland, and as a
Biomedical Researcher at Rock-

efeller University in New York City.

Currently, she is consulting for
two companies, ALP Pharma Consulting in Switzerland and Europa
Rx in London. She is in charge of
consulting in the areas of strategy formulation/implantation, drug
designation, drug delivery, and
international operations for those
two companies.
If you are interested in starting up a company and looking for
strategies, Dr. Piel recommends
visiting this guidebook: http://web.
mit.edu/tlo/www/downloads/pdf/
inventors_guide.pdf. This pdf guide
outlines 10 steps to commercialization which starts at research and
ends at revenue. More information
can be found in the guidebook. In
order to succeed in your plans,
Dr.Piel suggests, it is up to you to
define success and when you what
to do that, but nothing can stop
you, once you have.

yourself for the icy winter that is

surely coming and eat some pie
and enjoy the lovely fall weather.

can be made from scratch)

Whipped cream (optional)

Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Jacqueline Feuerborn
Staff Writer
Nothing says fall quite like
a tasty piece of pumpkin pie.
Halloween tends to bring out
pumpkins sitting on peoples
front steps, and fall in general
brings out pumpkin flavored
everything. But there is nothing
quite so traditional as eating a
piece of pumpkin pie while wearing a scarf and probably some
hot chocolate, coffee or tea in
a mug nearby. Whether or not it
is a tradition or brings back nostalgia, or even if you have never
had it before, it is a great treat
any day. It seems weird that we
cook up what is technically a
vegetable into a delicious sweet
pie but there is no arguing that it
is a phenomenal creation. Brace

Ingredients:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz.) LIBBYS 100%
Pure Pumpkin (or some other
generic grocery store pump
kin)
1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTL
CARNATION Evaporated Milk
(or some other generic gro
cery store evaporated milk)
1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup vol
ume) deep-dish pie shell (can
buy frozen or refrigerated or if
feeling super ambitious they

Directions:
1. Mix sugar, cinnamon, salt,
ginger and cloves in small bowl.
Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in
pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.
2. Pour into pie shell.
3. Bake in preheated 425
F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce
temperature to 350 F; bake for
40 to 50 minutes or until knife
inserted near center comes out
clean. Cool on wire rack for 2
hours. Serve immediately or
refrigerate. Top with whipped
cream before serving.
4. Hide in room with fork and
entire pie. Eat pie without letting
anyone else know it was made.

plausible mechanism of the reaction. Because the direct addition

of two alkenes has such a high
activation energy, it is forbidden
and cannot occur just on its own.
Chauvin proposed instead that
the d orbitals in the double bond
of the catalyst could interact with
those of the double bond of the
carbon to form a lower energy
intermediate. This means that
the activation energy is lowered
significantly and the reaction
can occur. Piggybacking on this
research, in the 1980s Robert
Grubbs and Richard Schrock
made well defined catalysts that
supported Chauvins mechanism. For their research and discoveries, Chauvin, Grubbs, and
Schrock were awarded a Nobel
Prize in chemistry in 2005.
Prior to 2011, there were only
three generations of Grubbs
catalysts that had been discovered and produced. These were
Grubbs I, Grubbs II, and GrubbsHoveyda. Each catalyst was
unique and modified slightly each
time to fit different needs. All 3
are still commercially available today. All of them work by the same
mechanism and produce no ste-

reoselectivity, meaning that E and

Z compounds appear in relatively
the same amounts. However,
many researchers were looking
to find a catalyst that would result
in just Z isomers for the synthesis
of natural products and functional
polymers.
This is where Dr. Wang and
his fellow researchers come in.
Through much experiment, they
were able to make a breakthrough in 2011 and create a catalyst with 95% conversion to the
Z isomer. Through much trial and
error and many failed attempts
at deducing the transition states,
Dr. Wang made several discoveries on how these catalysts work.
He was also involved in the development of several other new
catalysts that can give mostly Z
isomers. Dr. Wangs research and
development has been published
in several scientific journals for
the past couple of years. He had
a paper published in JACS earlier
this year. Now he is pushing onward to the next ongoing project:
ligand promoted carbon hydrogen activation and functionalization and isolating intermediates in
this process

Harmonic Happenings:
Vintage Silk Band
Katrina San Nicolas
Staff Writer
While the Arthur Lakes Library is generally a silent place
to study, the upbeat sound of
smooth jazz drifted throughout the building one Friday afternoon. Vintage Silk Band, a
four piece jazz ensemble, energetically performed a one hourlunchtime show in the Boettcher room as part of the Concerts
in the Library entertainment series.
With saxophone solos and
fun lyrics, Vintage Silk Band
aims to put a new twist on
popular songs from the 30s,
40s, 50s, and today. The quartet of musicians consists of Jim
Jones on guitar, Bryan Siebuhr
on bass, Tamara Montoya as
vocalist, and Andy Snyders on
saxophone. While the band
members have diverse interests
and all levels of musical experience, it is clear that they enjoy
playing together and appreciate
each members unique contribution to the music. Jim Jones
and Tamara Montoya previously
performed together and later
met Andy Snyders and Bryan
Siebuhr in the Denver area to
form Vintage Silk. While a jazz
band might seem out of place at
an engineering school, Fridays
concert was actually the bands
second appearance at Colorado School of Mines, and Bryan
Siebuhr (bass) is a Mines alum.
Sharply dressed and ever
upbeat, Vintage Silk performed
everything from Al Greens
classic Lets Stay Together
to Leonard Cohens romantic
and calming Dance Me to the
End of Love. With each classic choice, it was interesting to
see how the musicians embellished both the melody and the

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

lyrics, keeping the song familiar

enough to sing along to but also
making it entirely their own. The
quartet also debuted their version of My Ideal, an insightful
tune about the odds of a person
walking right past his or her soul
mate, for the audience of Mines
students and faculty.
As the concert progressed,
the group moved on to songs
like All of Me, originally by
Gerald Marks, and Tracy Chapmans Give Me One Reason to
Stay Here, becoming progressively more comfortable with
the audience as the show went
on. One great aspect of the
music is that with only three instruments and just one vocalist,
Vintage Silk is able to include
lots of musical solos and fun
harmonies. Additionally, the instruments balanced vocals very
well, and the overall sound of
the music was not at all harsh
or piercing, but full-bodied and
mellifluous. Vintage Silks characteristic style is perfect for
studying, softy singing along, or
simply appreciating.
Concerts in the Library is a
relaxing and entertaining lunchtime experience for Mines students and faculty alike. At a
school with such a pronounced
math and science focus, taking
a break to listen to an upcoming
band, musician, or songwriter
can be an incredibly effective
form of stress relief. Additionally, the artists appreciate school
support, and the concerts contribute to the sense of community on campus.
To learn more about Vintage
Silk Band or the Concerts in the
Library program, visit the bands
website, www.vintagesilkband.
com, or contact Wendy Shortridge, Arthur Lakes Library
technician, at (303) 273-3699.

november 18, 2014

f e a t u r e s

page 5

Algae: Fuel of the future? Tech Transfer

Magnus Chun
Staff Writer
What does one think of when
he hears the word, algae? Many
people think of how algae grows in
aquatic environments and cause the
many pool/pond owners problems.
Those people have to encounter the
problem of trying to remove algae
from their aquatic environments.
Pool owners are constantly frustrated about the large amounts of algae
in their pools. However, this amount
of algae may actually benet society
when looking at it from a dierent
perspective.
Algae is becoming a promising
renewable biofuel, which is a
substance that can be converted
to oil. Scientists have used various
mechanical and chemical methods
to extract oil from it and convert it
to fuel that is actually viable. Today,
the U.S. uses about 150 billion
gallons of gasoline a year, and 50
billion gallons of diesel and jet fuel,
says Philip Pienkos, group manager
of the applied science group at
the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory. Can algae biomass
be trusted over the other biofuel
alternatives?
Many people do not think so.
Algae is far from a perfect solution.
It will take anywhere from ve to fteen years for algae to be produced
on a scale that would be meaningful
to the nations fuel needs. Theres
a signicant amount of capital required for algal oil producers to
scale up to commercial meaningful
quantities, says Jim Rekoske, general manager at Honeywells UOP
division, which provides technologies to the gas processing, rening
and petrochemical industry. In addition, trying to grow concentrations
of fuzzy and green organisms is like
trying to balance the water in a sh
tank. The water needs to be just the
right temperature and right amount

of carbon dioxide to not have exponential growth spurt. Invasive species can also invade and choke up
the algae growth. Finally, the biofuel
process is expensive. A gallon of
the fuel extracted from algae costs
a whopping $33.81 dollars, according to Solix Biosystems, an algae
biofuel company situated in Fort
Collins. The production cost is so
high due to the energy required to
circulate gases to grow algae and
to dry out the biomass.
However, algae biofuels are not
as untrustworthy and frustrating as
most people think. Although algae
biofuel is expensive and time consuming, algae can be considered
an alternative for fuel source due to
its streamlined process, low carbon
emissions, and its ability to replace
US oil exports.
Crude oil can be processed into
many dierent types of oils, such
as petroleum. In order to make
crude oil, algae in the biofuels follow a pretty simple process. Lipids
are extracted from algae biomass
and go through chemical processing to create crude oil. The algae
biomass is grown in photobioreactorstriangular chambers made
from sheets of polyethylene plastic
(similar to a painters dropcloth).
The photobioreactors keep the algae oating on the top of the water,
which maximizes algae growth. It
also keeps invasive species out of
the algae population.
Algae biofuel land usage is not
what it seems when compared to
other biofuel feedstocks. An average acre of algae within the algae biofuel industry can produce
15,000 gallons of biodiesel each
year. By comparison, an average
acre of corn produces 420 gallons
of ethanol per year, and an acre of
soybeans yields just 48 gallons of
biodiesel per year. Michael Atkins,
CEO of Ocean Technology and Environmental Consulting, exerts that

the amount of land for growing algae is small yet yields much higher
biomass. Another CEO, Douglas
Henston of Solix Biosystems, argues, If we were to replace all of
the diesel that we use in the United
States with an algae derivative, we
could do it on an area of land thats
about one-half of 1 percent of the
current farm land that we use now.
In addition, algae grow through
a process called photosynthesis,
which takes in carbon dioxide. Because algae biofuel is essentially
carbon-neutral, the carbon emitted
when it is burned had just recently
been absorbed as food, which
means that the net carbon dioxide
emission is essentially the same as
if the algae had never been grown.
Algae-based bio-diesel has a GHG
footprint that is 93 percent less than
conventional diesel (US Department
of Energy).
Carbon dioxide emissions of algae biofuel are low when compared
to other biofuels. As a matter of
fact, algae biofuel produces negative carbon emissions which mean
that carbon dioxide is taken away
from the atmosphere for the growth
of algae. However, biofuels such as
corn and soybeans emit 81-85 kilograms/megajoule of energy and
49 kilograms/megajoule of energy,
respectively. In this way, if algae
biofuels were used more, carbon
dioxide emissions would decrease
drastically.
Although there seems to be evidence supporting that algae biofuel
may not be the best way to produce
oil, algae biofuel seems to be better
than other biofuel alternatives. The
problems of algae biofuels are being solved and, in the future, biofuel
may be the best alternative for oil.
This is through the renovation of algae biofuel storage (photobioreactors), large amounts of oil produced
per acre of algae, and low carbon
dioxide emissions.

the workshopsomething that

she still enjoys immensely. Armed
with this interesting degree, she
chose to complete her education with an MBA from the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton
School of Business.
There are two ways to run
your career, Leslie contends.
You can know what you want
to do at age 10 and then work
to accomplish that, or, you can
not know but follow opportunities that pique your interest.
Leslie denitely identies with the
latter philosophy. Newly graduated and having never been out
of the country before, Leslie followed a strange opportunity to
travel to India for 6 months designing steam valves as a product design engineer. While she
soon discovered that this was not
the job for her, Leslie did enjoy
working in the factories of India
and stayed in the country with a
new job modernizing designs for
an Indian container company. In
her time with Eagle Flasks, she
designed 12 new products (one
of which was named after her!),
interviewed countless consumers, and ultimately, learned more
about how cultural dierences
and expectations fundamentally
impact the engineering process.
While she teaches two sections of EPICS I this semester,

Leslies main responsibility at

Mines is to facilitate changes in
the entire program. My goal is to
make EPICS the one in a million
program that students love to engage in and faculty love to teach.
Changes will include shifting the
course focus from lecture and intensive technical writing to a creative problem-solving approach,
linking EPICS I, II, technical
courses, and Senior Design more
eectively, and most importantly,
giving students the ability to approach and x future engineering
and science challenges.
The skills that todays engineers and scientists need most
are persistence, user empathy,
and the ability to focus on the
details when needed, explains
Leslie. While the changes to the
EPICS curriculum will work to develop these in students, modications to the program will certainly
take time. One of the most challenging aspects of Leslies role
as a leader of change is that the
sheer scale of EPICS makes it difcult to implement improvements
eciently and in a timely-manner.
This years EPICS design project,
engineering a residence hall for
international students studying
English at Mountain Language
Institute, is an example of a realworld engineering dilemma that
requires students to focus on hu-

A witty tale of deceit

Emily McNair
Content Manager
When the beloved president
of Kershaw University died,
the faculty fell into a state of
worry. Their pet projects were
coming under more scrutiny
than they had ever imagined.
From the secret army project
to create soldiers who did not
need sleep to research in the
lifestyle of laboratory rats, no
laboratory was safe from the
prying eyes of newly-instituted
president Mark Winner. However, this is only the beginning of the problems at Kershaw. Scheming professors,
a scandal that nearly closed
the medical school, and so
much more have the potential
to damage the reputation of a
university that is only beginning to turn itself around.
While this storyline sounds
ridiculous, Daniel S. Greenberg manages to turn it into
the captivating novel that
is Tech Transfer: Science,
Money, Love, and the Ivory
Tower. This novel dives into
the depths of the politics surrounding academia with tales
of greed, lust, and chaos.
While Tech Transfer is meant
to be a satirical commentary
on university politics, some
readers may have trouble differentiating fact from fiction.
Greenbergs skill at crafting
such an engrossing story really brings Tech Transfer to
life.
However, as great as the
story may be, it is often hard
to follow for those searching for a typical plot. Tech
Transfer is not a typical fiction book - the plot is written

similar to a nonfiction novel

with little dialogue and long
character descriptions. The
story advances through narration, not dialogue, as some
readers may be accustomed.
Although this story is not necessarily the easiest to read,
it is certainly interesting and
is often unpredictable. The
frequent introduction of new
characters as well as complex
situations will certainly keep
many readers on their toes.
Sadly, these new characters are often introduced
with
lengthy
descriptions
that seem out of place and,
in some cases, leave much
to be desired. Typical fiction readers expect to learn
about the characters through
dialogue, not a long list of attributes and history, and this
is where Greenberg fails. If
he had allowed readers to
learn about the characters as
they read the story, it would
be a much more engrossing
read and likely attract a much
larger audience. As it is, the
characters are extremely flat
and readers may have difficulty falling for them. Greenberg
never gives a reason for readers to care about his characters, making his novel difficult
for many to read.
However, if one can move
past the poor character development, Tech Transfer is
a wonderful, witty read that
dives into the depths of university politics. While it may
not be extremely rewarding to
those with little or no knowledge on the subject, it is certainly an eye-opening read
with enough scandal to hold
ones interest.

Faculty Spotlight: Leslie Light - EPICS Prof

Katrina San Nicolas

Staff Writer

From designing lunch boxes

for consumers in India to working in Silicon Valley, Leslie Light is
an engineer who has experienced
the career many Mines students
dream of. Ocially the Teaching
Associate Professor and Director
of EPICS, Leslie Light is now using her engineering experiences
to enhance the EPICS design
course sequence here at Colorado School of Mines.
I never dreamed of being a
professor, Leslie says with a
laugh. Originally from Cleveland,
Ohio, Professor Lights love of
math and science led her to pursue a degree in engineering at
Stanford University. As she was
listening to a panel of Stanford
professors from dierent engineering disciplines one day, Leslie was inspired to study Product
Design Engineering, a unique
spin on Mechanical Engineering
that includes aesthetic features
and human factors.
A lack of human connection
is the reason that there are so
many poorly-designed products,
Leslie asserts. Product Design
Engineering also fosters creativity
and allowed her to spend plenty
of time interacting with technology and designing products in

man-centered
problem denition
while
carefully analyzing technical details.
I
found
Golden
before I found
Mines, Leslie says on
her
journey
to professor.
Ive roamed
the world and
its the only
town that has
felt like a longterm home.
While
she
didnt plan on
connecting
with School
of Mines, living in such
close proxim- Leslie Light is working on refocusing EPICS.
ity to campus while working in an college students, following her
International Development Role passion for creative thinking,
produced an opportunity through conscientious design principles,
the Humanitarian Engineering and engineering with care alDepartment, which eventually lows Leslie to make a dierence
led to her integral role in the EP- in the lives of Mines students evICS program today. Im so glad ery single day. Leslies advice for
I was open to the opportunities engineering students at School of
that I would have missed had I Mines is not to restrict opportubeen too single-minded about my nities out of fear or unfamiliarity,
career, she recalls. Even though but to allow curiosity and passion
she never imagined teaching to take you to new places.

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

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page 6

november 18, 2014

Tracking changes in tuition and student outcomes

Lucy Orsi
Editor-in-Chief

Continued from Page 1

The result has been a significant
increase in the tuition paid by students. Figure 2 shows the amount
of tuition and fees each year from
2005 to 2014. Note that the tuition
rate for resident students reflects the
discount provided by COF and has
been adjusted for inflation.
Since 2005, tuition has increased
an astonishing 68 percent for residents and 32 percent for non-residents. Fortunately, the amount of students receiving financial aid has also
increased. During Scoggins tenure,
the percentage of entering full-time
students who received financial aid
increased from about 76 percent in
2005 to roughly 88 percent in 2013
(Figure 3). The average amount of financial support received by students
also increased. Figure 4 shows the
distribution of financial awards Mines
students received. The data shows
a troubling but unsurprising trend of
shrinking governmental support and
increasing student debt. The average
amount of institutional grants provided to students on financial aid increased marginally over this time period but could not keep pace with the
increase in loan availability. In 2013,
the average student took out roughly
the same amount in loans as he/she
received in institutional grants.
There are obviously additional
metrics with which to evaluate the
Presidents impact on the schools
financial standing. Not the least
of which includes the fact that Dr.

Figure 2: This figure shows the increase in both resident and

non-resident tuition and mandatory fees. All data was found
on the Finance & Administration section of the schools
website and was adjusted for inflation. Data is shown in 2014
dollars.

Figure 3: This figure shows the increase in the percentage

of entering full-time students who received financial aid
from the federal government, the state/local government or
Mines. This data was found in the IPEDS reports published
online at nces.ed.gov/ipeds.

Figure 4: This figure shows the composition aid packages. The bars represent the average
amount of that particular of type aid received by full-time, entering students. The average was calculated based on the total number of students who received aid, not the total number of full-time,
entering students. This data was pulled from the IPEDS reports.
Scoggins has overseen in excess of
$230 million dollars invested in new
buildings, facilities, and other capital
improvements. He has been fundamental in transforming and updating
the physical infrastructure of the campus in order to ensure that students
continue to receive a cutting edge
education.
At the other end of the extreme,
President Scoggins has led the school
through three record-breaking years
of philanthropic donations. According
to reports published by the National
Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUB), the
schools endowment grew roughly 36
percent between 2005 and 2013 and
based off on reports from the CSM
Foundation, it has already grown an
additional 15.7 percent in 2014. Figure 5 shows the market value of the
endowment, adjusted for inflation, at
the end of each fiscal year.

Student Impact:
President Scoggins impact on
students extends beyond the financial burden of tuition. Over the past
eight years, President Scoggins has
navigated the school through many
changes including an academic restructuring that led to the birth of the
college system and a push to convert
Mines to a residential campus.
According to data published in the
Integrated Postsecondary Education
Data System (IPEDS) reports, Mines
housing capacity has increased 53
percent since 2005. This data was
collected before the completion of
Elm Hall, so this number actually underestimates the expansion of campus housing ushered in by President
Scoggins.
In addition to developing housing
options, Dr. Scoggins pushed the
university to increase student services and support. In fact, under Scogginss leadership, inflation-adjusted
spending on Student Services and

Academic Support has increased

59 percent and 138 percent respectively (percentages based on inflation
adjusted data). These increases were
used to expand the resources available to students, such as the Center
for Academic Services & Advising
(CASA).
These changes were all aimed
at improving academic outcomes
for students. Two metrics can be
used to measure the impact of these
changes. The first is retention, which
represents the percent of first-time,
full-time students who return to Mines
for their second year. Retention rates,
which can be found in Figure 6, were
calculated using data from the IPEDS
reports. Under President Scogginss
tenure, the schools retention rate increased from 86 percent to 92 percent.
The second metric is graduation
rates. According to the email sent
out by the Board, the graduation rate
under Scoggins has increased from

Figure 6: This figure shows the increase in retention rate.

Retention rates were calculated within the IPEDS reports.
68 percent to 75 percent. However,
according to the data published in
the IPEDS reports, the 6-year graduation rate has only increased from 67
percent to 70 percent. Meanwhile,
the 4-year graduation rate increased
from 39 percent to 41 percent. Figure
7 shows the year-to-year graduation
rate found in the IPEDS reports.
Finally, President Scoggins impact on the student experience can
be seen in the changes he helped
implement to academic faculty. Since
taking over, enrollment has grown
nearly 34 percent and the student-tofaculty ratio has increased from 14.7
in 2005 to 15.3 in 2013 (this ratio
was calculated by dividing the total
full-time undergraduate enrollment by
the number of instructional staff using data found in the IPEDS reports).
This number, however, does not tell
the full story. Since Scoggins took
over in 2006, the number of teaching faculty on campus has increased
12 percent. Increasing the number of
teaching faculty on campus is representative of the schools emphasis
on teaching as well as its desire to in-

crease interactions between students

and faculty. Because teaching faculty members do not have research
requirements, they are able to focus
entirely on developing their courses.
Figure 8 (see page 7) shows the percentage of academic instructional
staff considered to be teaching faculty from 2002 to 2012.
President Scoggins successfully
led the school towards financial stability in the face of diminishing state
and federal support at the same time
as investing in campus improvements, expanding student support
systems and working for a more dynamically integrated faculty/student
experience. However, these changes
came with a cost, a substantial portion of which is now being borne by
the students themselves in the way of
personal debt. The next president will
need to be as creative in confronting
this troubling scenario as President
Scoggins has been in confronting the
challenges of his tenure.
Continued on next page.

Figure 7: This figure shows the annual 4-year, 5-year, and

6-year graduation rates. These numbers reflect data found in
the IPEDS reports after qualifying exclusions were applied to
the base group.

Figure 5: This figure represents the market value of the CSM

Foundations Endowment in millions of dollars. The data was
pulled primarily from the National Association of College and
University Business Officers (NACUB) annual Total Market
Value report. The data for 2014 was pulled from the CSM Foundations website.
w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

n e w s

november 18, 2014

page 7

Shared Governance and CSMs Next President

Faculty Experience:
At the beginning of this year, tensions between the administration and
the academic faculty flared up. There
was an anonymous letter condemning the administration and a faculty
climate survey that portrayed dismal
results. Given the Presidents announcement on Friday, evaluating
the current administrations leadership styles seems relatively pointless. Rather than critique the current
administration, however, this article
aims to identify areas where the next
administration should focus its energy,
specifically in regards to the concept
of shared governance.
Based on data from the IPEDS
reports, since President Scoggins
took over in 2006, the total number
of instructional staff has increased by
nearly 30 percent. This increase was
a result of key budgetiing decisions as
well as successful faculty searches.
Figure 9 shows the percent of faculty
searches that have resulted in filled
positions since 2006. The average
fill rate from 2006-2013 was a solid
81 percent. However, this number
only reflects the percent of approved
searches that were successful. The
Oredigger was unable to determine
the number of faculty search requests
that were denied by the administration
during this same time period.
The increased faculty did not alleviate much of the workload, however,
since these increases were accompanied by a 34 percent in enrollment.
Meanwhile, the salaries of most Mines
professors, see Figure 10, have been
relatively flat. The stagnant salaries are
largely a result of the budgeting constraints imposed by the 2008 financial
collapse. Professor salary raises are
generally correlated with state mandated raises for classified staff, which
were lowered significantly due to
statewide budget cuts in 2008.
Professor John Dorgan spoke
with the Oredigger about faculty salaries and argued that the flat wages
were responsible for some of the
faculty dissatisfaction. According to
Dr. Dorgan, it speaks volumes to the
dedication and commitment of the
faculty that they went four years with
no pay increases without any disruption to the operation of the University.
As the school continues to prosper
financially, this issue may grow in its
relative importance to the schools
faculty. Retaining cutting edge professors for subjects that pay well in
the private sector requires some effort
at competitive pay. If Mines wants to
retain the status gains enhanced by
Scoggins, it will have to step up in
terms of professor compensation.
In addition to the influx in new faculty members and students, Scoggins
introduced the college system in August of 2011. This new reorganization
created three colleges: the College of
Applied Science and Engineering, the
College of Engineering and Compu-

Table 2: This table shows some of the significant results from the
faculty survey broken into subgroups based on campus leadership.
The survey was distributed via email in April of 2014.

Figure 8: This figure displays the composition of Mines

instructional staff. The data points represent the percentage of instructional staff (tenured, tenure-track, teaching
faculty) that is teaching faculty. This data was pulled from
the IPEDS Reports. Note that this calculation did not include instructional staff without faculty status.
tational Sciences, and the College of
Earth Resources, Sciences, and Engineering.
Each college is composed of
between four and five academic departments and is led by an academic
Dean. When the Oredigger spoke
with the universitys provost, Dr. Terry
Parker, he explained that, managing
the breadth of fields and degrees in
a manner that produces excellence
in academic and research programs
requires Deans that strategically manage and advocate for their college.
According to Dr. Parker, before the
college system, Mines had 13 separate and very different departments vying for resources with little coherence
in terms of strategy. Much has been
said about this new structure and the
purpose behind it. In fact, tension over
the college system is a microcosm of
sorts for some of the issues between
the faculty and administration.
In April of 2014, the faculty senate conducted a climate survey in
order to gauge faculty morale. Nearly
80 percent of the faculty responded,
and the results of the survey were

troubling. Approximately 35 percent

of all faculty identified themselves as
very or somewhat dissatisfied. Dissatisfaction rates were highest among
tenured faculty, of which 47 percent
identified as dissatisfied. Similarly, 38
percent of all faculty and 41 percent
of tenured faculty, indicated they were
very or somewhat likely to leave
Mines in the next three years.
According to the faculty senates
analysis, 66 percent of the individuals who identified themselves as dissatisfied cited a desire for a more
supportive work environment as the
largest factor in their dissatisfaction.
Meanwhile, 47 percent, 45 percent
and 44 percent of the dissatisfied
individuals identified paperwork/bureaucracy, campus politics, and departmental politics, respectively, as
extensive sources of stress. When
all of the surveys participants were
asked about their feelings towards
decision-making on campus, the results were even worse. Table 2 shows
how responses varied by faculty role.
The survey was extensive. It was
composed of 50 questions and took

Figure 10: This figure displays the average salary for differenty
academic faculty positions. Salaries have been adjusted for
inflation and are represented in todays dollars. This data was
collected from IPEDS reports.

Figure 9: This figure shows the percentage of successful faculty searches. A successful faculty search results in the hiring
of a new faculty member. This data was provided by the Office
of Academic Affairs.

20-30 minutes to complete. However,

it has received a fair amount of criticism. The survey itself was a modified
version of a survey given to the faculty at Boston University (BU). Since
this was the first survey of its kind
at Mines, the faculty senate had no
benchmark to compare the results
to and instead compared them to the
results from BUs College of Engineering. BUs results were much more
favorable than Miness, including only
a 25 percent dissatisfaction rate and
only 19 percent of faculty saying they
were likely to leave the institution in the
next three years.
This comparison, however, may
not be entirely fair. Boston University is
a private college and has an inherently
different decision making framework.

*Among 64 CSM faculty who in 2013 were department heads, served as directors of programs or institutes, or served in other administrative capacities, e.g. assistant department
heads, as identified by their answers to Question 5 of the survey. Committee chairs and
course coordinators are not included in this tally.
** Among 10 CSM faculty who identified themselves as department heads in 2013 on
Quesetion 5 of the survey. Results may include some who are no longer department
heads or exclude some who are currently serving.

Furthermore, their survey was conducted in 2007, before the economic

collapse of 2008, which forced colleges around the country, to cut costs
across the board. Additionally, the
faculty senate acted independently
in conducting the survey and did not
reach out to any experts in the field
of surveying for advice on best practices. As a result, some of the surveys
questions have been criticized for
prompting negative responses. It is
unclear whether the senate intentionally avoided outside guidance, but
faculty senate meeting minutes from
January and February 2014 reveal the
senates concern that faculty would
not participate unless they were certain the results were confidential. By
acting independently and emphasizing their commitment to confidentiality, the senate hoped to appease
many of these concerns.
Faculty Senator Ken Osgood responded to some of these criticisms
at the faculty forum hosted by the
senate on September 23rd of this
year. He conceded the survey is not
perfect, but argued that it is incontrovertible that it says there is a problem on campus that we need to talk
about and we need to find long-term
solutions for. Furthermore, some of
the surveys responses confirmed
the senates fears that faculty would
not answer without a guarantee of
anonymity. Even with the senates assurances, 14 percent of respondents
chose not to identify their department,
12 percent did not say how long
they had been at Mines, 15 percent
chose not to identify their gender, and
19 percent chose not to identify their
race/ethnicity. Written comments also
indicated concerns about confidentiality. For example, one participant explicitly said, I want to remove some
identifying characteristics [from this
survey] because I fear retaliation.
Senator Osgood further supported the validity of the surveys results by
pointing specifically to the responses
of people in leadership positions. Dr.
Osgood stated when we look at
those views we find that people who
are in leadership positions are actually
more likely than faculty as a whole to
be disillusioned with decision making
on campus. This suggests that when
we talk about dissatisfaction on campus we are not talking about some
disgruntled minority. Its simply not
statistically supported. These are the
folks who are running departments
and programs. These are the proverbial middle management at Mines
and when only 9% of them believe
that decision making is collaborative
and transparent or efficient, when
14% think its fair or when 16% think
it reflects sound priorities and relevant

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

data, we have to have a conversation

as a community about whats going
on.
Some faculty, on the other hand,
are concerned that the survey is magnifying dissatisfaction. Tracy Gardner,
professor and assistant department
head in chemical and biological engineering said, my concern is primarily for the young faculty. I dont want
them to come into an atmosphere
that is primarily negative. Id like them
to know that there are still people who
are positive and like it here...I think everybody came here in the first place
because they were excited about
research and about teaching...The
more we can remember that amidst
everything else, the better thats going
to be for the climate as a whole.
Despite these concerns, the survey has sparked many discussions
about the decision making process
on campus and ways to increase
facultys role in governance. The concept of shared governance and what
it implies is itself a heavily debated issue. In reality, there is only one governing structure at Mines, and most
universities for that matter: the Board
of Trustees. Colorado statute affords
the Board with the control and management of Mines, but in practice
they delegate much of the day-today decision making to the President.
Shared governance then is not a legal
mandate, but rather an idea of how to
govern best.
At the faculty forum, Professor
Wendy Harrison, who has extensive
experience as both an administrator
and a professor at Mines, spoke specifically to this issue. She explained,
decision making made by a very
small number of people is a model
that we see in the corporate world...
It works if the decision makers are well
informed and if they seek and value
input in the process of making decisions...The other end of the spectrum
is shared governance. The weakness
of truly shared governance, where everything is by committee, is that you
cant get anything done. So, there has
to be a balance...In the end, some decisions must be made by a single individual. They have a cost, a risk, and if
you dont make those decisions, you
dont take the risks that advance your
communitys efforts...What I see right
now...is a huge swing towards uninformed corporate decision making
and we need that swing to go back
towards what faculty and academic
communities value so greatly, which is
shared governance.
Continued at Meaningful Changes
on page 9

page 8

g a m e

r e v i e w s

november 18, 2014

Enter the Fields of Justice: Destiny: Good Gunplay

Doesnt Equal Good Gameplay
League of Legends
Kathy Cheng
Staff Writer

Popular among computer

games, League of Legends is
an online game that connects
gamers all over the world.
Consisting of multiple servers,
the game is accessible in
Oceania, Latin America North
and South, Russia, EU Nordic
and East, Turkey, Brazil, and
EU West. The fourth season
ends November 4th with the
5th season around the corner.
Gameplay and Modes:
There are four maps that a
player can access; Summoners
Rift, Crystal Scar, Howling
Abyss, and Twisted Treeline.
The main objective of the
game is to destroy the enemy
nexus. The method is done
so in similar manners in the
Rift, Abyss and the Treeline.
However, in the Crystal Scar,
the nexus destruction is slightly
different.
Summoners Rift, the classic
format of the game, allows the
individual to pick a champion
- someone with unique abilities
and play style - to battle
against other champions. This
map has three main lanes
separated by two forest areas.
The regular style, as of now, is
to have one champion in the
top lane, one in the middle
lane and two in the bottom
lane; the fifth roams the two
jungles that separates the
lanes, destroying the monsters
to level up. To get to the nexus,
a player has to destroy a series
of guard towers - turrets and an inhibitor. The game is
over when the health bar of
the nexus is reduced to zero.
Twisted Treeline is extremely
similar, but instead of 5 v 5, it
is 3 v 3.
Howling Abyss is a map
where
the
player
does
not select his or her own
champion.
The
computer

randomly selects a champion

for the player to play from
the players champion pool;
this may include champions
from the free week rotation champions that can be played
with owning them - or that have
been bought -either through
influence points* or actual
money. Besides this initial
change in champion selection,
the mode follows Summoners
Rift and the Twisted Treeline
but instead of three or two
lanes respectively, the Abyss
is just a straight line with one
lane.
Crystal Scar is the only
mode where the player does
not destroy turrets to reach
the inhibitors and the nexus.
Instead, the players capture
turrets and once 3 of the
5 turrets are captured the
health of the enemy nexus
crystal will begin to drop.
However, the turrets can
always be recaptured, starting
a dangerous cycle of capturing
and battling to keep ownership
of them.
Chat Function:
Incorporated in the game
is a chat function that allows
the players to communicate
to their team and if desired
to the opposing team as well.
Messages can be typed and
plans can be communicated
using this function or, more
popularly, are to use outside
chat systems - I.E. Skype,
Curse - which can overlay the
game itself.
In addition to these chats,
pinging is an effective way to
communicate with the players
team. There are pings for
targeting, falling back, caution
and missing enemy. These
allow the other players to know
what someone wants done or
if their opponent is missing in
action.
Review:
League of Legends is a fun

game. The game is formatted

to allow the players to utilize
tactics and communications to
beat the opposing team. For
example, taking a lane where
there is initially a 1 v 1, it is
possible to turn it in the allys
teams favor by jumping the
solo enemy with 2, 3 or even 4
allies. It allows people to meet
through long distances and
teaches players collaboration
and communication methods
that are flexible for the various
team compositions created
through champion selection.
But as fun as the game
is, there are some major
drawbacks.
The one main drawback to
the game is that it is online. It
allows players to connect but,
in addition, it becomes another
place for online harassment
that can and has occurred
during the game itself. Players
will insult others that have
died a lot during a short time
or for not doing the job that
they were supposed to do. In
some cases these insults and
harassments become Go kill
yourself or Uninstall. For the
most part, it is unclear as to
whether or not the former of
the two quotes are directed at
the game or in real life.
Another
issue
of
the
game is that it can get old
relatively quickly. Because the
various modes have the same
objective, the play style can
get redundant. Using different
champions will prolong how
quickly this occurs but long
term, continuous play will lead
to boredom.
Overall League is an
interesting
and
engaging
way to pass time. The game
allows players to beat others
the same way athletes win in
sport competitions. Its social
game and chat, and like all
chat groups, caution should be
exerted on upon their use.

Ethan Meeks
Staff Writer

The job of a marketing team is

a precarious one. Previous to the
release of most high budget AAA
games, there is a notable increase in
advertisement for the coming product,
be it on TV, Facebook, Twitter, or any
other popularly consumed medium.
The purpose behind this is almost
as straight forward as they come: generating consumer interest in the product with flashy and well directed trailers
in order to inflate early sales. However,
this fundamental method of increasing
sales often tends to influence customers opinions of the final product when
it stops being a scripted trailer embellished by imagination and starts being
numerous interactive pixels.
Over-hype is a terrible sickness that
has crippled many a game in the past
that failed to live up to the lofty expectations created by a good marketing
team, a fancy logo, and a small dash
of consumer idealism. Symptoms include, but are not limited to, crushing
disappointment, passionate outcries
regarding the integrity of the producer,
steadfast arguments denying the existence of flaws within the product, and
excessive amounts of smug indifference for those that predicted this outcome a mile and four yards away.
Destinys failure is not that it is
a below average game overall. On
the contrary, the streamlined, action
packed gunplay and tasteful variety of
weapons will entertain any hard-nosed
FPS player for some amount of time.
In addition, the gorgeous graphics
and multilayered environments do an
admirable job of caressing the players
eyeballs as they gundown waves and
waves of strikingly similar NPCs.
But, this is where the game starts
to quickly lose its well polished sheen.
Repetition runs rampant throughout
almost every facet of the game from
the copiously reused set pieces to the
rehashed and reskinned bits of cannon fodder thrown forward to soak up
and regurgitate bullets like demented
vacuums. Headshots are essential
if auto rifles are beneath the players
consideration, and when going on a
strike mission, make sure to bring a

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

small snack because that boss at the

end has in fact eaten the whole box
of Wheaties including the cardboard.
In terms of plot, the game might
as well not have one. In game lore is
restricted to a pitifully small number of
cutscenes that are four parts atmosphere and one part dialogue to very
brief, pre-mission infodumps. The majority of the lore is contained within so
called grimoire cards that each contain interesting snippets of information
to help flesh out this unknown world
and culture the player has been introduced to.
Cool right? Too bad these cards
cannot be accessed in game. Unlike
in a game such as Skyrim where the
lore is sprinkled throughout the world
in readable books, Destiny forces the
player to stop playing and hop his/her
happy tuckus online to view this lore
essential information. This completely
interrupts game flow and forces players to break their immersion if they
wish to learn about the world to increase their immersion in the setting.
The loot system is has its fair share
of troubles as well. Being based solely
on level and a dice roll, loot drops in
Destiny reward grinding low leveled
NPCs over taking on the high profile,
combat-intensive strike missions that
resemble the traditional dungeon runs
of more MMORPG oriented games.
Additionally, the system does not allow interplayer trading, even when loot
drops have a chance to be outside of
the players current class and therefore
unusable. With the late game leveling also being solely dependent on
the light attribute of the players armor, progress in late game turns into
a tedious grind fest that encourages
the player to stand in front of an easily
exploitable enemy spawn point with a
rifle for hours on end.
For the first ten or so hours of
gameplay that it takes to complete
the main storyline, Destiny is a game
that is well above average relative to
most FPS games even with its notable
flaws. However, as it stands, late
game is a combination of repetition
and tedium that make the game more
like a chore than is often expected of
video games, especially of the FPS
variety.

n e w s

november 18, 2014

Meaningful Changes
Lucy Orsi
Editor-in-Chief

Continued from page 7

Harrisons comments identify the
key tension between shared governance and unilateral decision-making.
Put simply, unilateral decision-making
is faster. Building consensus, on the
other hand, takes time. In evaluating
some of the decisions made during
President Scogginss tenure, the issue of expediency emerges as a key
issue. Many of the realities of Scogginss time have demanded fast decisions. However, such turbulent times
also call for a greater effort on the part
of the administration to stabilize and
support its community.
One of the more frequently cited
concerns among faculty is the turnover rate of department heads (DHs)
and the appointment process employed by the administration when
a department head steps down. Of
the thirteen DHs who were acting in
2006, only one of them is still leading his department. In 2012, all of the
colleges had been formed and permanent DHs had been appointed to
all of the new/modified departments.
Yet, since 2012, there have been nine
official leadership changes in seven of
the fourteen departments. Transitioning between leadership is a natural
part of the reorganization process, but
these numbers represent a significant
source of instability. (Note that department head data was collected at the
end of each year and may not reflect
transitions that occurred in the middle
of a term).
In the wake of a department head
stepping down the Provost generally
appoints an interim or acting department head. Since 2006, there have
been 12 interims/acting department
heads. In the interest of expediency,
this process does not always include
input from affected parties. As such,
it can cause resentment, especially
when 25 percent of the interims appointed since 2006 eventually assumed the role of department head. If
leadership transitions during the year
were included in the calculation, this
number would be even higher. Furthermore, the process of appointing a
permanent department head can be
cumbersome and often leave interim
department heads in these temporary
positions for extended periods of time
For example, the Petroleum Engineering department has had only
one department head since 2006 and
three interim department heads. Before taking over as Dean of CERSE,
Dr. Ramona Graves acted as the
acting department head of Petroleum Engineering in 2007, the interim
department head in 2008, and the
official department head from 20092011. In the wake of her promotion to
Dean in 2011, Dr. William Fleckenstein
was appointed as interim department
head. Dr. Fleckenstein served as interim department head for two years; the
same amount of time that Dr. Graves
served as the official department
head. There is a limit on the length
of time one individual can hold interim
status, and of the eight professors
who were appointed to interim status
between 2006 and last fall, five were
in their positions for the maximum
allowable time (2 years). Given the
duration of such appointments, the
administration should take the time to
build consensus within a department
before appointing anyone to the head
position.
At the faculty forum, Dr. Jeffrey
King, a professor in the Metallurgical
and Materials Engineering department, identified the administrations
preference for fast decisions. In a

conversation with the Oredigger after

the forum, Dr. King explained his position, stating a lot of the problems we
are seeing are a consequence, over
the last several years, of allowing the
perceived need to make decisions
quickly out-weigh the need to follow a
truly deliberative process...which has
led to many faculty feeling under-valued and dis-empowered. According
to Dr. King, if things are done right,
taking the time to be deliberative, and
truly involving people in the decisions
that matter to them, we are usually
going to get pretty good results - even
though it may take longer.
Kings argument clearly resonates
with much of the faculty at Mines. Yet,
there do seem to be multiple instances
over the past 8 years in which the administration worked hard to promote
dialogue with the faculty. For instance,
when the administration was working
to develop the strategic plan in the
spring of 2013, they hired a consulting
group to host five campus forums to
solicit feedback from the Mines community. Over 250 people participated
in these events and those unable to
attend were encouraged to submit
input via email. It is unclear how the
administration incorporated faculty
feedback into revisions and updates
to the plan, but it is a key example of
the administration reaching outside of
their offices for feedback.
For some reason the administrations efforts in this regard are rarely
considered in the picture faculty members paint of the administration. Faculty Senator Lincoln Carr addressed
this issue in his statement at the joint
meeting between the faculty senate
and the board. According to Carr, A
lot of the [administrations] thoughts
are really good, but then faculty dont
know what the thoughts are behind,
for example, the college structure. To
them it looks like just another layer
of bureaucracy that makes their lives
much more difficult. He argued that
the solution was communication,
drawing on his own experience on
the Presidents Cabinet in which he
learned about the administrations
initiatives on campus. The next administration should prioritize persistent
communication with faculty in all of
their efforts across campus.
Ideally, the new college structure
should strike a compromise between
the need to make decisions fast and
the need to listen to faculty input.
Creating an intermediary between the
administration and the departments
should enable the administration to
more efficiently seek input through
the Deans. However, when asked to
rate their agreement with the statement the creation of the colleges has
made my professional life better only
14.5 percent of all of the survey participants agreed and 48.6 percent
somewhat or strongly disagreed.
Rather than seeing their Dean as a
resource to communicate with the
administration, faculty members have
expressed frustration with the added
level of bureaucracy. In the joint meeting, senate president, Dan Knauss,
jokingly explained that, where it used
to be one fight, now its two fights.
In response to this criticism, the
administration acted quickly to empower the Deans. In an October email
to faculty, Provost Parker expressed
understanding that there has been a
sense that the colleges have moved
individuals one step farther from decisions that are important to them.
Dr. Parker announced the administrations plans to actively increase
authority, responsibility and accountability for the Deans and communicate these to the campus. Additionally, he formally announced that the
Deans would now have full authority

on certain budgeting and hiring decisions. It is too soon to determine the

effectiveness of these changes, but it
is unlikely that this will be the last major
obstacle to overcome in the new college structure. As the board evaluates
candidates for presidency they should
emphasize flexible and open-minded
leadership traits that will enable him/
her to effectively guide the evolution of
the college system.
While it is important for the board
to select a president who can help
rebuild relationships with faculty, there
is arguably a better way for the university to embrace shared governance.
At the joint meeting, the faculty senate seemed optimistic about the new
line of dialogue that the meeting had
opened with the board. However, this
is not the first time the faculty senate
has reached out to the board. For
example, according to BOT meeting
minutes published online, the 2010
faculty senate president, Mark Eberhart, attended multiple Board meetings. In March 2010, the Board and
Professor Eberhart discussed the
importance of improving communication between the board and the
faculty senate. Both parties agreed
to develop a plan for enhanced communication. At the next meeting, Eberhart expressed faculty desires to
feel involved in governance and once
again emphasized the need for better communication with the board,
the Board welcomed such efforts.
In January 2011, Professor Eberhart
again informed the board of the senates desire to foster more interaction
between the two groups. The lesson?
Talk is cheap. If the faculty senate
truly wants to improve governance on
campus, and if the board is serious
about pursuing changes, the two parties should work together to conduct
the presidential search.
At the joint meeting, Chairman
of the Board, James Spaanstra was
eager to discuss concepts of shared
governance. He informed the senate
that the board was looking to them
to come up with some principles
we can get our heads around. According to Spaanstra, most of the
Board members havent been in the
academic community, so [the shared
governance] concept is a little foreign.
Earlier in the meeting, Senator Carr
stated Mines is a very different kind of
place...We have a really different model here, so I dont think we have to be
like other schools. I think we can chart
our own course forward. Indeed, the
senate should chart its own course by
pushing for as much input in the presidential search as possible.
According to cached versions of
the Mines website, in 2006, the board
invited only one presidential finalist to
interview on campus. While the board
did arrange to have Scoggins meet
with campus and community groups,
it is unclear how they solicited feedback from these events. This issue
of processing stakeholder input and
communicating the rationale behind
decisions has been a key issue with
the current administration. The board
now has the opportunity to set an
example. Improving communication
structures and increasing shared governance should begin with the leadership of the board. Furthermore, if the
new president can get the buy-in of
the faculty before assuming the position, he/she will stand a much better
chance at improving faculty morale
and increasing effective communication with faculty. As a final note, the
Oredigger would like to commend
President Scoggins for an impressive
eight years of leadership, not to mention his open-door policy with, and
continual support of, this newspaper.

page 9

Treasure Island

An Ironic Experience at Mines

Katrina San Nicolas
Staff Writer
Colorado School of Mines
and theater productions are
two phrases not frequently
found in the same sentence, but
avoid telling that to the members
of Mines Little Theater. Amidst
Calculus class, Physics homework, and plenty of Engineering Design, students involved in
Mines Theater wholeheartedly
performed the classic play Treasure Island last weekend. While
the performance was far from a
Broadway production, the enthusiasm of the actors made the
experience light-hearted and humorous
for all involved.
First
published as a
novel in 1883
by
Robert
Louis Stevenson,
Tr e a s u r e
Island
is
the tale of
Jim Hawkins
encounters with
pirates and treasure, struggle to find
trustworthy friends, and
ultimately, symbolic journey of
self-discovery. Freshman Connor Sweeney played young Jim,
participating in the adventure
as well as narrating his experiences to provide background
for the audience. While at times
his lines were unclear, Sweeney
did a nice job highlighting Jims
character transition from a shy
boy who stays at his parents
inn to a fiercely independent and
courageous young man with a
hint of pirate influence in his nature.
Other notable performances
included Aaron Bileks impressive rendition of Long John
Silver, Eric Schalchs hilarious
performance as the crazy Ben
Gunn, and the band of pirates
never-ending antics and actionpacked stunts. Hobbling around
the stage with a parrot on his
shoulder, Bilek was not hindered
by Long John Silvers lack of
limb, but made up for the physical disability with great stage
presence and a surprisingly
good pirate accent. From peel-

ing potatoes and talking about

philosophy with Jim, to calling
himself a gentleman of fortune
instead of a pirate, Bilek embodied the cunning and tricky
nature of Long John Silver from
beginning to end. Likewise, Eric
Schalch captivated the audience
with an almost over-the-top performance as the mentally insane
Ben Gunn, who only wants a
piece of cheese. Schalch did
not shy away from the demands
of the character, but wholeheartedly shrieked with evil laughter
and choked on his long-awaited
favorite food.
Ironically, the play was
wrought with several technical difficulties that
detracted from the
overall quality of
the show. Set
changes took
an
almost
unbearable
amount
of
time,
and
the
sound
effects, while
very impressive, occasionally
covered important
dialogue between the
characters. The sets were
also slightly sparse, and at one
point, several props fell over in
the middle of a scene. Bad timing with the actors microphones
also led to several deficits in plot
development, which made the
experience slightly confusing.
By far, the best part of the
play was the actors incorporation of humor throughout the
show. From Billy Bones obsession with rum, to the pirates
enthusiastic singing and hip,
hip, harr!, to a silly swordfight in
which one sword snaps in half,
Mines Little Theater had the audience laughing from curtain to
curtain. The action scenes with
pirate battles and Jim Hawkins
dramatic jump from the ship
were also very well done and
entertaining to witness. Overall, Treasure Island illustrated
the importance of having artistic
and creative outlets at a school
like Mines. When the actors are
having a great time and the audience is too, any play at engineering school can truly be considered a success.

Tips from the

CSM Sustainability Committee

Andy Bartleet
Guest Writer
1) You can save energy and
money by using the cold water
settings on your washing machine instead of the warm water settings.(Unless your current
load absolutely needs the warm
water to eliminate a specific kind
of stain/heavily soiled area) You
can also go even further and cut
your drying time as well as save
energy and money by using wool
dryer balls instead of commer-

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

cial dryer sheets. You can either

make these a onetime purchase,
or make your own!
2) Be that person. Although
it may not seem like much, going out of your way to pick up a
small piece of trash on campus
has huge benefits. By being a
great example to others on your
school, you can be the change
to a cleaner, nicer campus. So
please, take those extra two
seconds and make your campus
just a little bit nicer. Every little bit
makes a difference.

g e o p h y s i c s

page 10

What does the

department say?
Katerina Gonzales
Content Manager
The Department of Geophysics is one of the smaller departments on campus, and according
to Prof. Terry Young, department
head, that small community is
what students say makes geophysics stand out among departments at Mines. Young explained
that compared to other earth
science and geophysics departments at schools across the
nation, the applied geophysics
focus and ABET-accredited Geophysical Engineering bachelors
degree make Mines geophysics
distinct.
The total number of students
has been growing during Terry
Youngs time as GP Department
head: from 50 undergraduate
students and 50 graduate students in 2000 to about 140 undergrads and 85 grads today.
When asked what he tells
prospective students considering geophysics as a major, Prof.
Young starts by telling what Geophysics the profession looks like
and the career opportunities with
a degree in geophysical engineering.
When prospective students
ask Prof. Young about geophysics, he tells them about the profession and what typical career
opportunities exist for Mines
graduates. Most geophysics majors go on to work in the energy
industry after graduation. Young
then explains what geophysics
looks like as a discipline and curriculum. In addition to courses
specific on geophysical methods, geophysics majors take
courses heavy in math and computer science, but the curriculum
also boasts quality opportunities
for field work, including the fourweek field session.
Students who enjoy physics,
math, computer science, field
work, or a combination of those
are usually the ones who declare
geophysics as a major. According to Prof. Young, the issue he
faces when advising a prospective student is figuring out if the
student leans more towards the
engineering side or science side.
Although the bachelors degree
is in Geophysical Engineering,
not many take the FE exam; only
those going into more geotechnical or environmental disciplines
do. Youngs advice to students
after declaring geophysics is to
keep their options open since
the departments curriculum pre-

pares students well to go into

either the engineering or science
side of geophysics.
The career prospects after
coming away with a degree from
the Geophysics Department
are good, as the average starting salary in the Career Centers
most recent report is $72,815.
Young says that while the undergraduate employment rate has
been nearly 100% every year,
minor fluctuations can change
the overall percentage due to the
small size of graduating classes
(the class of 2014 and 2015
both have class sizes of about
30). The percentage of graduate
students finding employment is
almost always 100%, however,
with a growing number of companies preferring that the entrylevel employees hold masters
degrees. However, Young says
that despite the preference for
masters degrees, companies are
more likely to take bachelors students from Mines because of the
reputation of the program.
Mines geophysics is most
well-known for the quality and
innovation of oil and gas exploration research, but Prof. Young
also highlighted some other areas of research in the department. Jeff Andrews-Hanna leads
the planetary geophysics lab
and has done research on the
moon and Mars with grants from
NASA. Ed Nissen leads a group
that studies tectonics with LIDAR. Andrei Swidinsky researches electromagnetics for marine
gas hydrate exploration. Fluids
and hydrogeophysics are the
focus of Andr Revils research,
but he also studies volcanoes in
Europe. Whitney Trainor-Guitton
will be arriving to the faculty next
Fall and adding to the diverse research done in the department
with her geostatistics and value
of information studies.
When asked what he is proud
of, Prof. Young said, I think the
faculty is extraordinary. Im proud
to be associated with them. He
also cited the international reputation of the department as a
highlight. He also assured that
despite the departments recent
growth, they are trying to maintain the friendliness of the department and approachability of
the faculty. Young went back to
say that it was the quality of the
faculty and the spirit or atmosphere of the department that he
is most proud of overall in Mines
geophysics.

i n

r e v i e w

november 18, 2014

What was the easiest class?

Favorite Professor?

Favorite class?

How much time on average do you spend

doing major related coursework each week?

Undergraduate Student Faculty Ratio: 12:1

Graduate Student Faculty Ratio: 7:1
Combined Student Faculty Ratio: 9:1
Total Number of Students:
Undergraduate: 140
Graduate: 85
Average Undergraduate Starting Salary: $72,815

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

november 18, 2014

m m e

i n

r e v i e w

What was the easiest class?

page 11

What does the

department say?

Jared Reimer
Content Manager

Favorite Professor?

Favorite class?

How much time on average do you spend

doing major related coursework each week?

The Oredigger sat down with

Ivar Reimanis this week to discuss
the Metallurgical and Materials
Engineering Department (MME) for
the latest installment of Department in
Review. Doctor Reimanis has been
a professor at the Colorado School
of Mines since 1994 and is currently
the MME interim department head.
He received his B.S. in materials
science from Cornell, a Masters from
the University of California-Berkeley,
and a PhD from The University of
California-Santa Barbara. He then
did post-doc studies at the Max
Plank Institute in Germany and Los
Alamos National Lab.
The Oredigger asked Dr. Reimanis
to sell his department to incoming
freshman. First and foremost, he
wanted to highlight what the outcome
of receiving a degree in MME would
do for a student. Materials and
metallurgical engineering is not usually
a very well-known major among
incoming freshman, so Professor
Reimanis wanted to highlight the
diversity of work a person can perform
with an MME degree as well as talk
about the two paths students usually
take upon graduation. The first path
is to continue on to grad school and
receive a M.S. in materials science,
then either continue on to get a
Ph.D and proceed into academia
or go to work as a researcher for a
National Lab. Those who receive
their Masters degree typically go
into some sort of research based
field. The second track would be to
go straight to work. Those who only
have a B.S. typically go straight to an
industry job. For an MME graduate,
there are opportunities to work with
large companies in a multitude of
industries. It is a very versatile major
and students from Mines have
received jobs with mining companies,
the aerospace industry, tech industry,
and prominent research laboratories.
For those with an interest in physics,
chemistry, and math, or even those
who only like one of these subjects,
this is a major where they can
utilize their interests and study the
application of different subjects.
Materials
and
metallurgical
engineering is the study of materials
like polymers, metals, and ceramics,
and their applications. By studying
the micro-structure of a material,
the behavior of the material can be
altered at a micro-level to create
super materials. Upon receiving a
degree in MME, students will know
how the aforementioned materials
are made, and will have learned about
the structure and micro-structures
of materials. Dr. Reimanis also
wanted to highlight a few different
applications for materials science: for
those with an interest in both MME
and mining, the field of extractive
metallurgy may be of interest since

extracted metallurgy takes mined

ore and extracts the useful materials
within. The field of ceramics is huge
in the MME industry and ceramics
have many different applications from
armored plates to glass.
There are 163 undergraduate students in the MME department and
in order to receive a degree, 138.5
credits must be completed. There
are 18 teaching faculty (9 tenure track
professors) and 12 research faculty
in the department. Women make up
approximately 30% of the department. There are around 100 graduate students at Mines, and all those
completing a thesis track degree are
supported with stipends to help pay
for their degree; in fact, most thesis
based masters students have their
entire degree covered through research stipends. The MME faculty
are all very well known and respected in the industry, and last year they
brought in around 10 million dollars
in research money for the department to help cover the cost of grad
students. Upon graduation, approximately 10-15% of Mines students will
continue on to graduate school, while
the rest will look for jobs.
Professor Reimanis wanted to
highlight the involvement of industry
within the department. Recently,
the largest ceramics manufacturing
company in the world, CoorsTek,
donated $26.9 million to the
Colorado School of Mines. CoorsTek
is based out of Golden, CO and is
just down the street from Mines off
10th and Ford st. The Coors family
owns CoorsTek, and their donation
was the largest gift to Mines in the
history of the university. Of that $26.9
million, around $20 million is to help
build a new physics building, in which
there will be a brand new materials
engineering lab. The gift also
generated fellowships with CoorsTek,
and provided the department with
research money and a new $1.5
million electron microscope.
Those within the department are
currently researching many things.
Recently patents were filed for a
process that takes organic waste
like corn husks and turns the ash
from this material into glass. A 10year project is currently in the final
stages that looked at creating ultralightweight steel for industry use and
Mines won an award for their manufacturing of ultra lightweight steel. Not
only is a degree in MME a versatile
degree, it is also a major full of passionate students.
In addition to sitting down with
the Interim department head, The
Oredigger surveyed a number of
upperclassmen within the MME
department asking them things like
who is your favorite professor and
how would you rate the department.
The purpose of this is to compare
what the students have to say to
what the faculty and department
statistics say.

Number of Undergraduate Students: 153

Number of Graduate Students: 100
Male to Female Ratio: 3.5:1
Employment Rate: 100%
Average Starting Salary for a BS: $63, 614
Average Starting Salary for a Masters: $69,614
Average Starting Salary for a Ph.D: $87,246
Student to Faculty Ratio: 5:1
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page 12

s t u d e n t

l i f e

november 18, 2014

CONCERT PHOTOS: CURT DENNIS/OREDIGGER CLIMBING COMPETITION PHOTOS: MICHAEL RODGERS/OREDIGGER

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

november 18, 2014

b o o k

r e v i e w s

Thirteen Moons The Magicians

Thirteen Moons by Charles
Frazier tells the story of Will Cooper, a twelve year old orphan that
goes on a wild adventure. Will is
sold into indentured servitude and,
as part of his service, he is ordered
to travel to the edge of the Cherokee Nation, where he will manage
a trading post. On this adventure
he inevitably encounters all kinds of
unexpected adventures. One of the
foremost being when he loses his
horse, his sole companion and his
only mode of transportation. However, in his search for the horse, he
meets interesting new characters,
such as Featherstone, a renowned
horse thief. He engages in a game
of chance with Featherstone, who
upon losing sends Will running for
his life. The run in with Featherstone,
though, isnt a complete loss because it is there that he meets Claire,
the woman he would come to love.
He eventually makes it to the trading
post where he will befriend the Cherokee chief, Bear. These events will all
lead to more change and upheaval
as Will finds his way through life.
This is the perfect book for anyone that loves a good historical fiction novel that is strife with confusing
narratives, bizarre time jumps, overly
flowery writing and random character introductions. The book starts
with an elderly Will narrating. Perhaps
the format of the narrative is meant
to convince the reader that Will has
Dementia or Alzheimers or perhaps
it is just poorly written. Either way,
Will introduces random characters,
with paragraphs describing them,
then moves on to the next character
description with seemingly no connection. Once past the initial thirty

pages of random character descriptions from an elderly Will, the reader

will find themselves immersed in the
story of Will as a child. However, beware of the abrupt change from Will
telling his own story to a third person
perspective of his time as a child.
Congratulations to anyone who
can get passed the confusing narrative and abrupt perspective
changes, but the hardest part to get
through is the incredibly flowery language and descriptions that Charles
Frazier uses in overabundance. Is
it really necessary to have an entire
page long paragraph describing the
contents of a room that the main
character then immediately leaves
and is never mentioned again? In
addition to the excessive descriptions of unnecessary things there
is also a complex flowery nature to
the way the entire book is written.
It makes the book hard to interpret
and some sentences have to be
read at least ten or more times until
it is possible to tell what the author
is saying. Generally, it is just a hard
book to read for anyone.
Overall, these writing flaws, predominantly the confusing narratives,
bizarre time jumps, overly flowery
writing and random character introductions, make it a very difficult
book to read. Finding it can take
three times longer than usual to read
each page is a deterrent to reading it
but for anyone who can make it past
the first sixty pages of this book,
Wow. Just, wow. That is a feat in
itself so please congratulate yourself. For everyone else, even getting through the first few pages is an
achievement so good job! Last but
not least, for the readers who never
even picked Thirteen Moons up off
the shelf, you are perhaps the wisest
of us all.

Anonymous

Katherine Vs announcement
that she and Colin should just
be friends. Impressively, Greens
characterization of the Katherines manages to reveal more
about Colin than the girls themselves. Colin is a self-described
washed-up child prodigy and
enjoys reading, reciting random
facts, and anagramming words
and phrases. However, Colin is
also deeply insecure and this is
reflected in his relationships with
the Katherines. As a protagonist, Colin is interesting because
he views the world yearning to
understand it with math and science, yet sometimes overlooks
the obvious. Hassan, Colins best
friend and his chosen companion
for the road trip, is well developed
as a contrast to Colin, but Lindsay, a girl that Colin and Hassan
meet on the road trip, is a disappointingly two-dimensional character.
Beneath the quirky humor and
easy-to-read prose, the novel
highlights several deep themes,
including the search for life purpose among young adults, the
frail nature of high school relationships, and the complexity of
love. As an almost genius, Colin
is searching to develop a mathematical formula to predict the
length of his relationships. The

formula includes popularity, attractiveness,

dumper/dumpee
tendencies, and introvert/extrovert differentials, along with a
scary number of trigonometric
functions. While Colin is able to
get the formula to work for his
past relationships with the Katherines, it fails when applied to his
current relationship with Lindsay,
illuminating the theme that relationships are in a category that
falls far outside the realm of logic
and mathematics.
All in all, John Greens An
Abundance of Katherines is a
creative and unique masterpiece,
bringing variety to a genre often
criticized for being entirely too
predictable. The book is a stark
contrast to Greens The Fault in
Our Stars, but it lacks none of
the deep emotion and compelling storyline that made this sad
novel about terminal cancer such
a nationwide phenomena. Colins
adventures will also challenge
readers to think about how they
can define themselves through
relationships with others while
still having a separate identity.
As Colin fears How do you just
stop being terrified of getting left
behind and ending up by yourself
forever and not meaning anything
to the world? Open this wonderful novel and find out for yourself.

The Magicians is the first book

in a trilogy written by Lev Grossman
and published in 2009. Its sequel,
The Magican King, received much
acclaim, and the final installment,
The Magicians Land, was just published this year.
The Magicians follows the life
of Quentin Coldwater, a brilliant high
school student who has a good family, good friends, a promising future at
an Ivy League college, and a life he
sees as mundane and miserable. After a series of flukes and strange occurrences, Quentins world changes
completely when he is invited to attend a school to learn about magic.
All he needs to do is prove he is
worthy by taking a magic test. The
events that follow present Quentin
with a world beyond his imagination, an adventure of his most amazing dreams, and a villain of his worst
nightmares.
Upon the first glance at the back
of the cover to read the synopsis of
this book, many may choose to set it
back on the shelf, claiming it sounds
as though it would be rife with badly
masked and poorly written Harry
Potter fan fiction. However, readers
who look beyond the cover are in for
a rich treat. Lev Grossmans story is
original, far more complex, and much
darker. If Harry Potter is a flagon of
warm and cheerful butter-beer, then
The Magicians would be a strong
shot of whiskey. Combining rich
metaphors, vivid imagery, and the
language of a hilarious, uncensored
college student, Grossmans writing
is most certainly made for intelligent,
cynical, and open-minded new-adult
readers.
The small, one-hundred-student
magic college Quentin is invited to

An Abundance of Katherines (spoiler alert)

Katrina San Nicolas
Staff Writer
While it is never pleasant to
be dumped, high school student
Colin Singleton has a relationship
history to rival even the nastiest
of breakups. Beginning with his
first girlfriend in the fourth grade,
Colin has dated a total of 19 girls
named Katherineand unfortunately been dumped by every
single one. When Katherine VIV
(also known as K-19) breaks his
heart, Colin sets out on a road
trip of self-reflection to escape his
sheltered town, analyze his relationship history, and just maybe
figure out why the Katherines
are ruling his life. Written from
Colins perspective and alternating between his past and present
experiences, John Greens An
Abundance of Katherines is a
hilarious and light-hearted read
guaranteed to appeal to the heart
of any math and science nerd.
Katherines drink black coffee, are slightly bossy, and never
go by any nicknames, yet Colin
keeps falling for them over and
over again. Greens characterization of Colins girlfriends is hilarious albeit extremely unrealistic.
As the story progresses, readers can just picture Katherine Is
fourth grade assertiveness and

attend, Brakebills, additionally appears to be the equivalent of what

would happen if Mines were a school
for magic rather than engineering.
Brakebills selects only incredibly intelligent students willing to challenge
themselves to the extreme for a subject that is simultaneously demanding
and worth it. Quentin realizes very
quickly that there is always someone
smarter than him or better than him at
magic. Contrary to seemingly-easy
wand-waving at Hogwarts, magic at
Brakebills involves intense lectures

COURTESY VIKING PRESS

Jacqueline Feuerborn
Staff Writer

on all kinds of languages, with heavy

emphasis placed on painful hand
movements and ancient intonations.
It requires long hours of studying, and
Brakebills is famous for difficult exams. Part of the reason this book will
be so enjoyable to readers at Mines
may stem from their ability to relate
to Quentins hard journey through his
college education.
Throughout the book, there is a
running theme of searching to find
something better instead of enjoying
what there is and taking life at face

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

page 13

value. Quentin has spent his whole

life looking for a way not to be miserable and sees his opportunity to learn
magic as a panacea to all of his problems. However, he quickly learns that
there is a dark side to magic that will
make him wonder whether it is better to stay with the misery he already
knows or risk suffering more in his
search for greener grass. Quentin
is ultimately presented with the opportunity to travel to an alternate
world through a portal concealed in a
magic button. He makes the choice
to risk it all for an imagined utopia
he is incessantly searching for, and
the novel does not hold back on the
violent, terrible, and wonderful consequences for his decisions.
This book would make a great
read for someone looking for a series to start; however, a word of caution must be issued: many may see
Grossmans style of not sugar-coating the horrors life can present as realistic and refreshing, but others may
find some of the scenes in this story
somewhat disturbing.
Regardless, it could be said that
The Magicians presents a very
true and relatable story about finding oneself in a world that has hope,
beauty, fear, and death. It makes the
profound statement that not everything has a happy ending, which is
a very different representation than
what has previously been seen in
the magical fantasy genre. The book
presents life lessons on actions and
identity that seem extremely applicable to life as a new adult, and it does
so by calling upon ones understanding of pain, love, and humor. If, like
Quentin, you wish to take a chance
on the unknown in search of an escape from your world, perhaps pick
up this book and try your hand at
some magic.

COURTESY PENGUIN YOUNG READERS GROUP

page 14

f e a t u r e s

Hidden Remains: Chapter 5 - Awakening

Kathy Cheng
Staff Writer

The sun had just kissed the horizon when the birds hushed their
daily calls; the howls of the wolves
died and the owls fell silent. The
darkened sky gained an orange
hue even as the wind shuffled the
leaves that remained on the trees.
The foxes abandoned the forests
surrounding the Seine Mountains
and in a distant forest a sword began to hum.
Deep within the mountains, a
boy stirred. His peaceful slumber was disturbed by something
he did not know, something that
shook his core and awakened his
soul. He knew that he had a duty
to fulfill.
He flinched as he emerged from
the cave that had been the place
of his slumber for a millennia. His
hand raised to the block the rays
of dawn and his eyes squinted to
see the path. He didnt know what
he was going to do. He didnt even
remember why he was asleep in
the first place. But something told
him that he wouldnt be able to escape his destiny for a second time,
despite the fact that he didnt even
remember the first.
His bare feet sank in the mud
and his hands pressed against
the surrounding trees as he tried
to regain his footing. He could feel
the fear that plagued the life in the
forest. But what terrified him the
most was the aura sweeping the
land. He didnt know what it was,
but he recognized it. He had to do
something.

Most of the time, a new member has mastered the techniques

of his or her clan before they were
exiled. On the other hand, almost
all of the new recruits were older
than their newest member. He still
had the techniques of the Protectors, he just lacked the experience to execute them proficiently.
So when one of the more skilled
members agrees to train him, the
others garner to watch; though not
to learn the techniques of the most
sacred clan.
The watching members of clan
laughed as the former Protector
pulled himself up wincing as he
put weight on his right ankle. His
opponent chuckled quietly, picking up the fallen blade. You cant
charge at an opponent of Isidores
caliber, Siven shouted, picking his
way to the two. Isidore focuses
mainly defense, reacting to his
opponents every move. Charging
head first against an opponent like
that can only work if you are as
skilled as or more skilled than him.
I see, Itel murmured gently,
accepting the blade from the elder
Loner. I dont believe weve met.
Im
Itel, the former Protector, the
black haired man chuckled, nodding a greeting in Isidores direction. I was one of the party that
found you. Its good to see you up
and about.
Itel flinched, a hand moving to
rest against his recently mended
ribs. Thank you, he murmured
softly following his two elders to a
nearby table. Siven nodded, smiling gently at the two words that
were referring to more than just his

advice.
Dont mention it. The trio fell
into a comfortable silence even as
the chattering of the clan filled the
morning.
I dont get it, Itel stated, his
quiet words barely reaching the
ears of his two elders. Why dont
you ask me why I did what I did?
Why did you help me in the first
place? And why are you letting
me stay here, when I have already
caused so many problems?!
Because weve been in the
same position. Itel glanced at
Isidore, sapphire eyes remaining
steady as he met his juniors stare.
Intentions have been misunderstood and we know whats its like
to be constantly questioned. We
know what its like not to have a
home and wonder if every day if
going to be our last. Nilast and I
were 24 and 23 respectively when
we left our clan and we had a hard
time adjusting. Youre younger
than that. We dont want you to
feel what we felt back then. If it
means waiting for an explanation,
then so be it.
Itel bit his lip, his brown locks
covering his eyes as Siven laid
a hand on his shoulders. You
should be warned though. If that
trust is betrayed, this clan will not
give you another chance. The only
mercy that will be given is a quick
death. Itel nodded, his eyes still
covered as he took in their words.
Are you done scaring him yet?
The trio jolted in surprise, their
eyes swinging to stare at the white
haired woman that stood a short
distance away. When I agreed to
let him out to get some fresh air,

sparring was not on the list. And

warnings about the clan rules were
most definitely not included in the
fresh air description! The two
older men looked sheepish as Itel
jolted in guilt.
Rhea.... The words died in
Isidores throat at the glare the
younger woman sent him. Well
see him back to his tent. Rhea
nodded in agreement, forcing the
two older men to stand, pushing
Itel in front of them.
Once they were out of her earshot, Siven sighed, a hand running
through his hair. Sheesh, she really lives up to the healer reputation.

Isidore chuckled and even Itel

had a small smile gracing his face
as the trio arrived at his tent. You
better get some rest Itel, especially
if you dont want Rhea to tie you to
the bed . The teen nodded, slipping past the flaps that Siven held
open.
The gathering occurs every 6
months. Every clan would send
a representative and issues that
had risen would be settled then.
The Liaru clan was never invited,
being nothing more than a rumor
and composed of traitors and deserters. But it didnt mean that they
didnt send their own representative to report back any news. Nilast sat, perched in the branch of
a tree overlooking the clearing, out
of eyesight but within earshot. His
sharp eyes only picked up one form
he recognized: Roland, the Protector that he had forced back several
days ago, stood in the clearing, his
form tensed judging by the death
grip he had on his sword.

november 18, 2014

Shall we start? A woman,

dressed the shades of green
spoke, her voice hushing the side
conversations. I believe all the
clans are now represented? Why
did you call this emergency gathering Roland? We were not supposed to gather unless for the
most dire of--
The Blade of Sorrows has
been stolen, Roland cut her off,
his eyes scanning the stunned
crowd. One of our most promising members joined the Liaru clan,
bringing the relic with him. The elders of the Protectors raised the
alarm and wished for me to alert
the remaining clans to remain cautious. There is no telling where they
will strike next.
You mean the remaining artifacts are in danger? a man
dressed in shades of grey questioned. You think they will target
the clans possessing them?
Roland shrugged. We never
thought the Blade of Sorrows
would be stolen and look at where
that got us. We need to stay alert
and not take chances. The last
thing we need are rogues and traitors possessing the ancient relics,
especially when they know how to
use them. Think of the devastation
they could cause.
The group collectively cringed
before an old man stepped forward, a younger one supporting
his weight. The Liaru Clan cannot
hold the ancient relics. They are far
too dangerous even more so in the
hands of those who know how to
use them. Our top priority is to reclaim the Blade of Sorrows.
Yes, Head Elder!

Lordi - Scare Force One album review

Curt Dennis
Staff Writer

SCARE FORCE ONE: The title

track, Scare Force One, is a fast
blend of classic metal and Halloween, perfect for a band like Lordi,
who don bloody masks, horns,
and chains on stage. Scare Force
One relies on a creepy, unique
riff to blend each section, though
it sticks to its classic metal roots:
straight, driving chords; synth
backings; full, stadium vocals on
the chorus. While the chorus has
a happy tinge, the rest of the song
makes up for it with a creepy,
scary vibe, which seems to be
Lordis fort.
HOW TO SLICE A WHORE:
Usually, synths are hard to incorporate into a metal song in an
aggressive manner; Lordi uses
synths in How to Slice a Whore
to accentuate the verse and carry
it forward. It is great that the verse
works so well, as the chorus is not
quite as catchy as the other tracks;
it feels more rushed, whereas the
verse seems perfectly, creepily
paced. Of course, the synth helps
with that. And unfortunately, the
lyrics are gruesome as the title
makes them appear to be. Maybe
it is the censors!
HELL SENT IN THE CLOWNS:
As How to Slice a Whore fades
out, Hell Sent in Clowns fades in.
Any title with clowns in it would
disappoint without any circus elements, and luckily Lordi quenches
the circus thirst instantly with a circus theme to introduce the track.
It is metal, it is fun, and it will make
any coulrophobe shiver. But the

circus does not stop at the intro.

Oh no, the entire song incorporates those eerie circus sounds,
and if one thought the lyrics would
be tame, he is wrong. Not only are
the appropriately frightening, they
have a whole the clowns are coming chant thrown in, presumably
for kicks and giggles.
HOUSE OF GHOSTS: Following a clown song,
House of Ghosts
has an impressive
transition: it almost
has a circus vibe to
it. Almost. It is slower, but not quite a
ballad; being song
number 5, that is
expected. It is slow,
and as far as instrumentals are concerned, it combines
that scary flavor
with a more classical tinge. There is
not any huge solo,
though the vocals
are spot on with
creating a creepy
vibe,
especially
during the bridge:
wide, flowing vocals right beside
you.
MONSTER IS
MY NAME: With a perfect intro
and perfect lyrics, it is just a perfect
song. Really though, from what the
rest of the album has showed, the
intro is unexpected: straight vocals
saying . . . well, listen to the album
from the beginning and laugh at
the sudden change of tone. The
entirety of the song, save for the

bridge, does not have quite the

creepy, unsettling vibe, which is
unfortunate since, up to Monster
Is My Name, Lordi has done a
great job of making eerie sounding
tracks.
CADAVER LOVER: With one
of the best intros on the album,
Cadaver Lover gets back into
the groove of frightening minor

AMENS LAMENT TO RA II:

Track 8 is just a guitar solo transitioning the album to the bottom
half. But it is a beautiful guitar solo.
NAILED BY THE HAMMER
OF FRANKENSTEIN: With more
experimental breaks, the second
half of the album starts off aggressive, fast, and in-your-face. While
it is not as haunting as the rest of
the album, it is still a
fun, fast song with a
chorus that, after a
few listens, will stay
with you.
THE UNITED
ROCKING DEAD:
Finally, Lordi starts
off a song with calm,
but building, guitars
and drums. What
do they build to? I
am not quite sure
as the buildup never materializes into
anything . . . though
they do change
rhythm afterwards.
That is cool. The
synth ends up following the lyrics in
this song, though
the verse is a bit .
. . awkward, rhythmically. Luckily, the
COURTESY AFM RECORDS 5:46 second song
riffs. The arena-vocals and sta- does not repeat the awkward
dium-chanting and ominous in- rhythm too much, and instead restrumentals really make this track peats the chorus (which is a pretty
stand out, especially considering standard thing to do . . . so no surit follows a more generic-sounding prise), which, with the slower temsong (for Lordi). While there is a po of the song, is one of the catchilacking in dynamics on this track, est on the album. And though the
there is not a lacking of sing-along song might have one too many solyrics.
los, it is a strong track for the end

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

of the album.
SHES A DEMON: I take back
anything I said about what song
has the best intro; this song has a
fast, horror piano intro that sounds
like a sped up movie soundtrack
(Halloween to be exact . . . and
how appropriate). The arrangement is really well done, and so is
the heavy intro, with its dual guitars
and epic drums. The vocals come
in a bit coarse, changing the tone
completely, though after the initial
shock, they work. Occasionally
throughout the verse, Lordi goes
back to the cool, creepy sounding riffs, but overall, they seem to
abandon it after the intro. Unfortunate.
HELLS KITCHEN: Nearing the
end of the album, Lordi greets us
with what sounds like a small choir
of children singing and laughing.
And that is the song. Perfectly terrifying.
SIR, MR PRESIDEATH, SIR!:
The final song. The horror tone
seems to have disappeared from
this song, as it is simple, classic
heavy metal. The vocal rhythm
does not quite fit in with the rest
of the song, but the guitar work is
powerful, and the ending wraps up
the album uniquely.
Overall, Lordi has a pretty decent album in their disposal. The
mixes are a bit rough (the vocals
are really drowned out in almost
every song), but the ominous instrumentals definitely keep the ear
and mind awake. Just as classic
heavy metal with a horror tinge
should do. The album comes out
November 4th.

november 18, 2014

f e a t u r e s

Geek Week

page 15

of
the

Kathy Cheng
Staff Writer
Amanda Casner is the perfect
blend of geek and nerd at Mines,
from loving physics to loving Harry
Potter. In her second year at Mines,
she has found her groove in the
Mines community and also is a TA
for Physics I.
Why did you decide to come
to Mines?
It was actually the only school
I looked at. I came here on one of
the preview days and actually talked
to a few of the physics majors and
they showed me around the physics stuff and I just totally fell in love
and like I want to go here. It was
the only school I applied to, and the
only school I looked at, and now Im
here.
Where did your love of physics start?
Actually, in middle school. We
did basic, really basic kinematics
like Newtons Laws and stuff like
that. and I just remember that our
teacher was really cool--we were
doing like a ball rolling down a hill
and he made it the most exciting
thing ever. and that made me really
want to take physics in high school
and it loved it more, and I just like
it more and more the more I learn
about it.
What is your favorite thing
about physics this semester?
I think just how many facets
there are to it. Because I think when
people think of physics, they think,
Oh, Newtons Second Law...I drew
so many free body diagrams in
Physics I, which is true, but theres
also E & M, theres also quantum
and relativity... Im in digital circuits
right now and its like electrical stuff,
but its also physics. Its just cool
to see physics applied to so many

situations and how many parts there

are to it, and I think that is really cool.
How has the TA experience
been?
I really enjoy it. I love being able
to explain it and I love when the students ask questions that I cant really answer, because that gets me
really excited and thinking about
things that I didnt think about when
I was in Phys I. So its like learning it
again, except deeper. Its really cool.
Was there a time in your life
when you realized you were a
nerd?
Yes! There was like that moment. I was in high school, and
one of my friends asked me to help
them with homework. It was some
sort of math or science, I dont remember. But I ended up just getting
so into their homework, that I did it
for them and actually enjoyed doing it [laughs]. And that was when
I knew that I was destined to be a
nerd forever.
Favorite superhero?
I want to say Thor, because hes
kind of a badass, but Im also not
as familiar with Marvel and superheroes. But Thor is pretty awesome,
and his hair is glorious.
Who would be your favorite
character from Middle Earth?
I like Sam Wise because he is so
loyal and he never gives up on Frodo
even when Frodo wants to give up
on himself. And same is so humble
and so caring and that whole scene
at the end of Return of the King and
theres dramatic music and ash in
the sky and hes like, You can do it,
Mr. Frodo! Its pretty great.
Do you think theres a difference between a geek and a
nerd?
Yes. Ive actually had this discussion with people before. I think
a nerd is someone generally who

...Amanda Casner, Sophomore: Physics

everyone knows is smart and it to worry that Oh, those liberal arts
kind of awkward and like the typi- majors are going to judge me, becal engineering student. I associate cause they dont exist here. And
geek with more of like the Trekkies everyone has that shared pain of
and the people who are into fantasy, Epics and NHV and everyone has
geeky stuff. I guess in a nutshell, so much in common and we can
nerd would be more academic while shamelessly be engineers.
a geek would be more like fiction.
What gets you through the
We definitely have nerds and geeks late nights as a physics major?
at this school, and you can definitely
Dove chocolate for sure, but the
be both. But I do think theres a dis- dark chocolate. And also my pumptinction.
up song is Battle Cry by Skillet. If
What is your favorite equa- I feel like Im just going to fall over
tion?
and die, I just put on that song and
Is this a real question? [Laughs]. it gets me pumped again. That song
This is not something I came pre- gets me through studying a lot.
pared for. Im going to go with the
Future plans?
relationship between potential and
Im not sure how Im going to get
kinetic energy, because I think its there, but at some point Id like to
cool that something has energy no end up in education. Im not sure
matter what. Even if its not moving, whether I want to do high school or
weve got potential,
and then its moving, and we can get
it back...I think thats
cool though.
What has been
your favorite class
so far?
Modern physics.
That was the class
that I walked into every day and expected
to get my mind blown,
and then had my mind
blown by how much
my mind was blown.
It was so great. And
that class just gets
you so pumped about
everything you dont
know about physics.
What do you like
best about Mines?
I really like that
were all engineers
and I can just shamelessly be a nerdy engineer and not have Amanda Casner outside of Meyer Hall on

college level. I think being a TA has

me leaning towards college. Im not
sure the route Im going to go with
that...I think eventually Ill get a PhD.
But right now I just want to graduate.
Do you have any advice for
Mines students?
As long as you find something
that you are passionate about and
that you get excited about, then you
will be successful. If you find yourself in a major in where you hate all
your classes, its probably not the
major for you. But as long as theres
that one thing that keeps you going,
hold on to it because its going to
get you places.
Favorite quote?
If our God is for us, who can be
against us? Romans 8:31

KATHY CHENG / OREDIGGER

a beautiful Fall afternoon.

Cooking Corner: Charming Cherry Pie

Katrina San Nicolas
Staff Writer

With tart red cherries, a sweet

cinnamon sauce, and melt-in
your-mouth pastry crust, this pie
is a perfect fall favorite. Unlike
many recipes, this one calls for
a homemade crust and a filling
made on the stove. However,
the delicious finished product is
worth every minute spent cooking.
Even as a dessert, this cherry pie includes all of the health
benefits of cherries themselves.

Cherries are low in calories and

fat, high in potassium, fiber, and
antioxidants, and have even
been shown to reduce muscle
pain and increase the quality of
sleep. Fresh cherries are only in
season for a few months, but using canned cherries for the pie
preserves these health benefits
and allows for a delectable fruit
dessert any time of year.
Crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated
sugar

COURTESY MINDMATRIX

teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted bak
ing butter
cup vegetable shortening
1/3 cup water
teaspoon vinegar
1 large egg yolk

Filling:
2, 16-ounce cans of red tart
cherries (pitted)
cup cornstarch
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon unsalted baking
butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Sugar Cinnamon Final
Touch:
1 large egg white
2 tablespoons granulated
sugar + 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Approximately 12 servings
1) Preheat the oven to 375
degrees Fahrenheit and begin by
preparing the piecrust. In a large
bowl, combine the flour, sugar,
and salt. Mix well with a fork or
whisk.
2) Cut the butter and shortening into -inch cubes; add
these to the flour mixture and
combine with a pastry blender

until the dough resembles large

breadcrumbs.

pan and set the cherries themselves aside.

3) In a liquid measuring cup,

combine the water, vinegar, and
egg yolk, and whisk for at least
30 seconds. Add about half of
this liquid mixture to the flourbutter mixture and continue
mixing the crust with the pastry blender. The finished dough
should be moist enough that it
can easily be formed into a ball,
but not so moist that it sticks to
your hands. It may be necessary to add more of the wateregg mixture to the dough until it
reaches this consistency.

7) Add cup of the sugar

and the cornstarch to the saucepan, and cook over medium heat
until the mixture comes to a boil
and is thick and bubbly (approximately 3-5 minutes).

4) Split the dough into two

disks, one slightly larger than the
other. With a rolling pin and wax
paper, roll the larger disk out to
approximately 12 inches in diameter and 1/8 inch thick, and use
it to line an ungreased, round pie
pan.

8)
Add the vanilla extract,
remaining cup sugar, baking
butter, and cinnamon and simmer for an additional 2 minutes.
Finally, add the drained cherries
and mix the filling well.
9)
Pour the filling into the
piecrust and top with the second
crust. Crimp the edges decoratively and prick the top several
times for ventilation.
10) If desired, brush the entire
crust with egg white and sprinkle
with the sugar-cinnamon mixture.

5) Roll the second disk out to

approximately 10 inches in diameter and 1/8 inch thick, and set
this aside.

11) Cover the edges of the pie

with tin foil and bake for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake for an
additional 25 minutes.

6) To prepare the filling, drain

both cans of cherries but reserve
all of the cherry liquid. Pour the
cherry liquid in a medium sauce-

12) Make sure to allow the pie

to cool for at least 3 hours, and
serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

page 16

f e a t u r e s

november 18, 2014

The Oredigger goes flying with iFly Denver!

Lucy Orsi
Editor-in-Chief
On Friday, October 17, three
Oredigger staff members were
invited to the Grand Reopening
of iFly Denve. Our paper sent
three staff members: Connor
McDonald (top right), Ronald
Kem (middle left), and Lucy
Orsi (middle right). At the event,
each of our representatives
suited up and jumped into their
wind tunnel to give indoor sky
diving a try!

iFly Denver, formerly known

as Skyventure Colorado, is one
of 32 iFly facilities operating
around the globe. iFly Holdings
is based in Austin, Texas and
leads the world in the manufacturing, sales and operations of
wind tunnel systems for recreational indoor sky-diving, competitive skydiver training and
military training. iFly has successfully flown over 6 million flyers.
Indoor sky-diving is made
possible by a vertical wind tunnel. This technology was origi-

nally used by the military and

professional skydivers for training. Four powerful, high-efficiency axial fans are mounted
at the top of the building, channeling air down the side tunnels
into the basement, and then up
through the floor of the 12-footwide circular flight chamber,
creating a strong upward draft.
This upward draft, which ranges
in speed from approximately 80
to 175 miles per hour (depending on the weight and expertise level of the flyer,) creates a
stable, wall-to-wall airflow that

pushes guests aloft and makes

it possible for them to fly.
In addition to competitive
and recreational sky diving, iFly
markets their facilities to educational providers. The company
thinks that giving kids a chance
to experience the thrill of skydiving in a safe and controlled
environment will help get them
interested in all of the science
and technology behind the wind
tunnel.
In fact, a class of students
was actually at iFly Denvers
grand reopening event. After

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

the students got a chance to

fly in the tunnel, their teacher
taught a lesson about terminal
velocity. To help the students
visualize the concepts, iFly divers adjusted the speed of the
air in the tunnel in order to float
different objects. These objects included a bottle of water
which iFlys divers subsequently
queezed in order to show how
water droplets behaved in the
tunnel.
iFly Denver is located in
Lone Star Colorado and can be
reached at (303)-768-9000.

r e v i e w s

november 18, 2014

Erica Dettmer-Radtke
Staff Writer

page 17

The Maze Runner is

based on the best-selling
young adult novel by James
Dashner. Like so many movies before it, it is distinctly
about a dystopian future,
think along the lines of The
Hunger Games and Divergent, although that is not
revealed until the end of the
movie. Like many movies
based on books, The Maze
Runner does not always
accurately reflect the book
that it is based off of. That
is probably to be expected;
it is rare these days that a

young, primarily male, cast.

Dylan OBrien (Teen Wolf),
Thomas
Brodie-Sangster
(Love
Actually,
Game
of Thrones), Will Poulter
(Were the Millers), and
Kaya Scodelario (Skins) all
take main roles in the film.
Their acting is certainly not
where the film is lacking and
they bring the characters to
life.
The beginning of the movie begins with Thomas (Dylan
OBrien) being brought up
into a large field, which he
later learns is called the
Glade by the boys who live
there, in a service elevator
with no memories of what

pied by a large group of teenage boys, who do not behave

in the way that teenage boys
would usually behave. They
subsist on supplies from the
service elevator and what
they can harvest and make
from the Glade. The Glade is
surrounded by a huge maze
filled with strange creatures
called Grievers. To top all of
that off, there is apparently no way out of the maze,
even though they have been
searching for the three years
that they have been there.
Thomas, of course, causes

him and the other boys.

Thomas has flashbacks from
before he was in the Glade.
These flashbacks are not cinematically well done. They
are a bit confusing, granted
they are supposed to be, but
they could have added more
to the story, instead of taking away from it.
A group of teenage boys
being stuck together is a
situation that is reminiscent of Lord of the Flies.
However, this group of boys
does not really react in a
way that would be expected
of a group of teenagers being stuck together in one
place. Instead, some of their

Glade and they are all seemingly unscarred by the fact

that there are people that
go into the maze and never
return. The fact that some
of the boys do not want to
leave the Glade is also questionable, because not many
people want to stay stuck
in a place that they do not
know anything about.
All of the plot technicalities aside, The Maze Runner has almost non-stop
action, so it is great for action lovers. The special effects are well done, like most
movies these days. The acting is good, the actors play
their parts well. Even if the

movie really encapsulates

the book it is based on.
Directed by Wes Ball, The
Maze Runner features a

has happened to him. Thomas is quickly taught the ways

of the Glade by Alby, the boy
in charge. The Glade is occu-

problems in the Glade. Hes

too curious and wants to
leave a little too much. There
is a lot of tension between

interactions seemed forced

and perhaps a little unrealistic. There has never been
serious violence within the

premise of the story is an

overdone plot, it is worth the
watch if only for the cast and
the action.

COURTESY NETFLIX

What really sets the show apart

and makes it rather revolutionary
for an adult animated comedy is
its remarkable depth. Nowhere
on earth will one nd a animated
horse nearly as complex and 3-D
as Bojack. The shows depictions of
depression and remorse are almost
universally relatable and have actual
emotional impact on the viewer.
Bojack in all his weaknesses is
essentially a depiction of the failing
and awed nature in all of us. It
points to a show thats trying to be
more than just an animated comedy,
but a dark humorous depiction of life
itself.
Even through all of the gags and
comedy the show seems to biding
its time for the next moving and
passionate blow, making it into a
sort of inverse Shakespearian play.
More imaginative than this is how
the characters, even in the rst
season, change dramatically. This
gives the show actual meaning,
a trait quite unlike other relatable
shows in the genre, like Family Guy
or American Dad. Even seemingly
uncomplicated characters like Mr.
Peanutbutter who would have
been all too easy to leave obtuse
and 2-D come out of the season
with multidimensional personas
after making statements like, The
universe is a cruel uncaring void, the
key to being happy isnt a search for
meaning. Its to keep yourself busy
with unimportant nonsense, and
eventually, youll be dead. Character
developments turn characters on
their head and leave the audience
reconsider their opinions and the
meaning of the show itself.
After season one, Bojack Horseman is already showing remarkable
promise in its rst twelve episodes.
With all twelve episodes ready to
binge watch on Netix, its a show
that goes above and beyond the
call of duty. With its often dry, witty,
humor and stark depictions of life
and depression Bojack Horseman is
a must watch. In the end, Bojack
Horseman will catch you with its
humor and then keep you around
through its poignant signicance
through its complex characters.
That is, of course, if viewers can get
past the gregarious, omnipresent
beastiality that is a horse having one
night stands.

Despite beastiality Bojack

Horseman delivers...

Frank Knafelc
Staff Writer
For some people life is one
giant kick in the urethra. This quote
proves to be a dening portrayal of
Netixs new original series Bojack
Horseman. Cleared for its second
season almost immediately, it is an
adult animated comedy by Bob
Waksberg that follows the ctional,
semi-famous, 90s sitcom star
from Horsing Around, Bojack
Horseman, as he struggles to
deal with his muddled spiral into
unimportance. Voiced by Will
Arnett, each thirty-minute episode
covers Bojacks often drunken
escapades through a Hollywood
where humanoid animals and
mankind live in perfect ignorance.
Bojack,
an
anthropomorphic
horse, lives with his freeloading
houseguest Todd, voiced by
Aaron Paul (yes, from Breaking
Bad), in an upper class abode in
the Hollywood hills. While not in a
drunken stupor Bojack is struggling
to write his memoir with the help
of his ghostwriter Diane, voiced by
Alison Brie, and his agent/girlfriend
Princes Caroline, a cat voiced by
Amy Sedaris. These characters
along with Bojacks happy go lucky
nemesis Mr. Peanutbutter, Paul F.
Tompkins, provide the basis for story
development, character growth,
and, of course, the enormous
amounts comedy.
At its base, Bojack Horseman is
not a very new idea. There has been
more than enough on television
about the gilded Hollywood life,

forgotten movie stars, and we

can all agree the adult animated
comedy niche of television is by far
overpopulated. Even so, Bojack
Horseman takes these ideas
and does something remarkably
dierent. To start, as a comedy,
Bojack Horseman is actually quite
witty. A discerning eye will often
pick up on rather comical things in
the background such as Bojacks
Not Porn computer folders or
Princess Carolines catnip coee.
While some of the jokes may fall at
for audiences, the superior voice
acting coupled with the charismatic
characters can make even some of
the routine things quite funny, like
Todds rock opera escapade. The
really nice thing about the shows
humor though and what truly sets it
apart is that it all plays a part in the
story.
Unlike other adult animated
comedies that throw as many
irrelevant jokes as possible at their
audiences in an eort to make things
stick, Bojack Horsemans humor
all plays along with the storyline and
the backdrop. Even matters that
might seem mildly o topic at the
start come back in later episodes
as inside jokes or even venues.
One example is when Bojacks
sitcom show daughter turned pop
star, Sarah Lynn, shows up and
showcases her self-destructive
new life style with a catch phrase to
match, Suck a dick Dum-shits! The
phrase then shows up with repetitive
hilarity in the following episodes as
various other characters use it in
increasingly absurd situations.

COURTESY MOVIEPILOT.COM

SENIOR GIFT
MAKE A GIFT
to The Mines Fund or to the
area that means the most
to you.

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

Triple your gift! President and Mrs. Scoggins,

and Mines alum and Presidents Council Co-Chair
Jeff Johnson 78 will match your gift 2:1.

DEADLINE
APRIL 28
Mines Senior Gift on

giving.mines.edu/students

page 18

f e a t u r e s

Geek Week

november 18, 2014

of
the

...Patrick Nichols, Freshman: Computer Science

Katrina San Nicolas

Staff Writer
A physics genius who tops six
feet by more than a couple of inches, Mines freshman Patrick Nichols
is proud of his status as a math and
science nerd. Originally from the
east coast, Patrick found a love of
computer science long before he
discovered Mines. This week The
Oredigger had the opportunity to
learn about Patricks unique talents
in juggling and unicycling, experience at Mines thus far, and future
plans in computer science.
[Oredigger]: Where are you
from and what led you to come
to Mines?
[Nichols]: I am from the small
town of Newfields, New Hampshire.
I was actually born in Berkeley,
California, but we moved to New
Hampshire when I was five. As for
what brought me to Mines, both of
my parents are Environmental Engineers and Mines is especially prominent in that engineering field. Then
I got an email from Mines and decided that it was the college for me.
Why Computer Science?
Computer science didnt really
enter my life until my junior year of
high school. We had a technical
high school paired up with the one
I attended and junior year I took my
first computer science class there
and really enjoyed it. I took the
secondary level of that my senior
year. I thought about following in
my parents career footsteps briefly,
but the environmental engineering
scene never appealed to me too
much. My interests are in the more
basic sciences like math, physics,
and ultimately, computer science;
they are more straightforward and
there is less room for error.
What is the best part of Computer Science for you?
I really like solving problems
and Computer Science gives me
a unique set of tools for solving a

variety of problems. Ordinarily, if I

wanted to add say, 2000 numbers,
Id be sitting at my calculator for
hours plugging them in. With computer science, I can get them all into
a list, write a program, and run it
within half an hour. Then, you can
apply that logic to bigger, more intricate problems as well. Computer
science is a tool to solve problems
ranging from people, to engineering, to structures.
In what direction do you
eventually want to take the
computer science degree?
The thing that most interests me
is algorithm discovery, which is, for
example, knowing that January 1st,
1800 was a Wednesday, and then
using an algorithm based on that
specific date to figure out any day
of the week even centuries later. It is
a linear set of steps that can solve a
problem given a certain amount of
information.
How about careers?
Im not fully sure, but I think I
want to go into software design
consulting, a field where people
who need to build a certain type of
software can hire me to help them
do that. I love that I would get all
sorts of variety, but I would probably
have to build up to that career because of the amount of experience
it requires.
Rumor has it that you are
trying to grow some bacteria
in your roomwhats the story
there?
Its for Chemistry because my TA
offered extra credit for cool science
things. For my project, you take Epsom Salts (magnesium chloride),
paper as an electron acceptor, and
mud, and pack them all into a jar to
create an electron gradient that kickstarts the microbes, so the bacteria
in the mud can grow really quickly.
Eventually the theory is that they
create really cool bright splotches of
color in bacteria columns. Unfortunately, no success yet.

What has been your favorite

class so far and why?
Thats hard (laughs). Either
Physics or Intro to Comp Sci, but
I wouldnt necessarily say thats
because of the subject matter because I really like the subject matter of every class that I am taking!
Alex Flourney and Keith Hellman are
just two very good professors and in
my opinion that goes a long way in
whether or not a class is good.
Do you have any special or
random talents?
I can juggle decently well. I tried
learning to unicycle for a while and
got passably good at it. I sail and
boat very well, and I can also speak
French and play guitar.
How many things can you
juggle?
On a good day, five.
Why juggling?
Oh man, thats a story! In 7th
grade of middle school, my dad
was messing around in the kitchen
and he grabbed two apples and
started flipping them around in his
hand and I thought that looked really cool so I took a couple of tennis
balls and spent the next week tossing them, dropping them, annoying
my parents, the whole deal. I eventually got fairly good at that and then
my dad, who can juggle fairly well,
showed me a few more tricks like off
the wall, off the floor, stuff like that.
Then I met my soon-to-be high
school best friend and he could also
juggle and it turned into this friendly
rivalry of who could one-up the
other until junior year when we were
both desperately trying to juggle five
balls and not really getting it down.
Eventually the learning curve got a
little bit overwhelming and we both
stopped.
What is your favorite mathematical or scientific concept?
Let me think for a bitthere are
a lot of them! The coolest/weirdest
thing in my opinion is that in calculus 2 (and I still have no idea how

istry as a mere subject but as a

puzzle. In response to each question, she asks, Can we figure out
the puzzle?
She follows the example set by
her PhD advisor at the University of
South Carolina. His actions told her
that it wasnt about him and his reputation and his career. It was about
me. She advocates the same ideology, becoming a warm demander.
The students know I care while
demanding that they have to work.
They know I have high expectations
and will help them through it.
To meet that standard that she
has set for herself, she makes her
office more accommodating to the
students, offering them candy and
posters to look at when they go to
see her. To me, candy is a way to
make students less nervous when
they come into office hours. She
loves seeing the students one on
one when she can focus just on
that one student and what he or she
needs. I want them to come talk
me. I like getting random students,
any students. I need students more
than students need me. They give
me purpose.
To her, CSM 101 is a class that
allows her interaction with students

that she does not get in a lecture ing to work well. Think about what
hall. I get to have 25 students that you love and enjoy and do not think
I get to know personally. It is a small about the money. Go to some of the
class and interactive. She likes outside speakers that are brought
students and she tries to let them in. Talk with the faculty and see what
know, It is okay to interrupt me dur- they do or what their friends do.
ing the day.
This advice leads to an exploration
Dr. Falconer knows that a major- of the careers available and does
ity of the students are afraid of pro- not limit the roads that are possible.
Dr. Renee Falconer is a teaching
fessors, unsure of how to approach
them for help in studies or advice. professor that thrives on the stuFor many faculty, they are just as
uncomfortable talking to you as you
are to them. Because most of the
students are worried about individually talking to a professor they tend
to forget that faculty are human
too.
To the freshmen that have not
decided their majors, Dr. Falconer
tells them, Explore all your options. There are so many cool and
amazing things that you can do for
a career. Explore all your options
and keep your mind open. We only
know the big categories. Explore
and keep an open mind. It is not
about money! It is hard to not think
about the money especially when
the future is taken to account. However, Falconer advises, You can do
any job if you love it. But even doing
a job for a lot of money is not go- Renee Falconer with fire. Need

this works) is that if you take the integral of an infinite area, and rotate
it around an axis, you can somehow
end up with a finite volume. Thats
pretty amazing!
Are you involved in any clubs
or organizations here on campus?
Well, juggling club of course. We
gather in Ballroom C on Thursdays
from 5:30-7:30 PM and its really
fun. Depending on whether or not
we have amateurs or experienced
jugglers, we either spend the time
teaching or just doing ridiculous
stunts. We do this thing called jousting where everyone has three clubs
and the goal is to walk around the
room trying to maintain your pattern
while disrupting others. We also do
this thing called juggling volleyball
where you have to start with two
volleyballs and then catch a third
in your pattern and throw it back.
I am also in the Ballroom Dance
Club and the Oredigger Leadership
Community.
Favorite movie and band?
I really like the Lord of the Rings
trilogy because I am a big fan of the
epic fantasy scene and I just love
the film score from that movie. Definitely not The Hobbit though. My
favorite band is Great Big Sea.
What is your superpower of
choice and why?
Conventionally I would probably
do flight because that has always
been a dream of mine. Interestingly
enough, I was planning on going
into aeronautical engineering until I
decided Mines, which doesnt have
aeronautics. Ive always wanted to
fly around. Unconventionally, omniscience (the ability to know everything) would be pretty cool for very
obvious reasons. I would pass every
exam, no problemeven at Mines!
Do you have a favorite nerd
story?
In my Computer Science class
in high school, they gave out what
was officially the Langdon J. Plum-

mer award for the student from

each program who most exemplified the traits needed in that career
field. I got it in Computer Science,
but that class was already a bunch
of geeky, nerdy kids and I was the
geekiest and nerdiest of them all so
my friends started calling it the King
of the Nerds award.
Ive heard that you enjoy
cookingdo you have a signature dish?
I just cook pasta for the most part
because I really like pasta. Growing
up, my parents were often gone
until 5 or 6 at night, and if I didnt
make dinner then we wouldnt eat
until very late so as soon as I got
old enough I started cooking once
or twice a week. I learned that if I
cooked stuff that I liked to eat, we
got to eat that, so of course thats all
I learned to cook.
If you could travel anywhere
in the world, where would you
go?
Probably someplace in Europeeither Switzerland or Italy.
They are both staggeringly beautiful with friendly people and good
food. I especially like the mountains
of Switzerland because I like hiking,
skiing, and spending time outdoors
and Swiss food is this mix of German, French, and Italian that is just
incredibly good. And yes, I am traveling for the food.
Do you have a favorite quote?
Ive always liked The journey is
the destination.
Who is your hero or role model (real or fictitious!)?
This is slightly unconventional,
but I dont really have a role model.
However, the person I most look up
to is the person that I think I could be
if I had done everything right in my
life. Obviously I have made mistakes
and that person doesnt really exist,
but I like to think that I live each day
trying to get closer to being the best
version of me that I can be. My dad
is definitely pretty great too!

Faculty Spotlight: Professor Renee Falconer

Kathy Cheng
Staff Writer

Loved by a majority of her students, teaching professor Renee

Falconer imparts on her students
more than just the chemistry that is
taught in her classes. She welcomes
all of her students with open arms
and an open office, and makes the
courses she teach about them and
their learning experience rather than
her. With a BS and a PhD in chemistry, she teaches Chemistry I and
Chemistry II and makes CSM 101
an enjoyable and fun class.
Renee Falconer grew up in a
small town in western Pennsylvania.
Everyone knew all their neighbors.
It was a small town and comfortable. No one locked their doors
and everyone knew everybody.
Her childhood was not one where
her parents would just answer the
questions. Both my parents were
elementary school teachers. They
made me figure it out.
Her interest in chemistry was first
sparked during her years in high
school. I blame it on my chemistry
teacher. He was the first teacher to
challenge me to think outside the
box. She does not think of chem-

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

dents she teaches. She loves the

Mines campus. Theres still a range
of student abilities but what I love is
that the students are so motivated
and dont give up. Students are my
lifeblood. Her office doors are open
to more than just her students; they
are open to the entire campus student body and she offers candy to
any student that walks in and introduces themselves to her.

KATHY CHENG / OREDIGGER

we say more?

november 18, 2014

m i x e d

b a g

page 19

Keurig Coffee
Machine
Frank Knaflec
Staff Writer

In 1995, the young college student and entrepreneur John Sylvan was hung over an ATM machine suffering tunnel vision, heart
palpitations, and feeling extremely
woozy. After contacting his physician, he was ordered to the emergency room. Doctors soon discovered that Sylvan was drinking
no less than thirty to forty cups of
coffee a day! Little did they know
though that young Sylvan and his
roommate Dragone were on the
verge of redefining how America
drinks her coffee.
Nearly two decades later, after
struggling from small office to office and piecing together machine
after machine, Sylvan is at the
head of a billion dollar company
with huge potential. The Keurig
Coffee maker is without doubt the
space-age coffee maker of the
next generation. Simply put, the
Keurig is a coffee machine for the
on-the-go worker and doer.
The Keurig coffee machine
uses K-cups to create single mugs
of coffee at a time in a period of
less than a minute and thirty seconds by user measurements. This
process is remarkably fast considering that it also heats the water in
this time frame as well as brewing
it. The K-cups come in over 250

varieties and allow for the creation

of all different varieties of coffees,
teas, and hot chocolates. Following this impressive lineup is the
various types of reusable K-cup
devices that allow the users to use
the Keurig to take any homemade
or off-the-shelf beans and use
them in the Keurig machine to the
same speedy effect.
Most surprising about this machine is that even with its high
speed and seeming universal
brewing capabilities is its quality.
While varying greatly from type to
type, one can almost guarantee
that coffee from this machine is
going to taste as commendable
as possible for each brand.
No device is without its flaws
however, and the greatest of
these for Keurig is cost. Having to
pay to play hits hard with this luxury machine, with the machines
themselves running around 200
dollars apiece and K-cups being
up to eighteen times as expensive as using a drip machine. As
a college student, this is a heck
of an investment for quick coffee every morning. However one
can be hopeful that with a simple
ask many may receive it as well
intended gift. As a gift with the
edition of the reusable cup, the
Keurig can become quite an enjoyable and relatively inexpensive
machine.

Take your Mines Pride for a Drive

Purchase your Mines license plate today:

MinesAlumni.com/MinesPlates
Buy online or come to the alumni association at the Coolbaugh House (17th & Maple St.)

Cost: $75 tax-deductible donation + $50 DMV Fee

Ride with Pride brought to you by:

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

page 20

s u d o k u

c h a l l e n g e

Sudoku Challenge!

november 18, 2014

Killer Sudoku Puzzle - Hard

The rst person to post a picture

of their solved Killer Sudoku
puzzle (right) on our Facebook
page wins a $20 Amazon gift card!

Killer Sudoku:

Sudoku - also known as Number Place - is a

logic-based, combinatorial number-placement
puzzle. The aim of Sudoku is to enter a number
from 1 through 9 in each cell of a grid, most
frequently a 99 grid made up of 33 subgrids.
Each row, column and region must contain only
one instance of each number. The puzzle contains sub-regions with specied sums. No number can be repeated within a sub-region.
www.sudoku-puzzles.net
Asterisk Sudoku Puzzle - Medium

Sudoku Puzzle - Hard

More Puzzles:

www.sudoku-puzzles.net

www.sudoku-puzzles.net

Even-Odd Sudoku Puzzle - Medium

More Puzzles:

www.sudoku-puzzles.net

www.sudoku-puzzles.net

The Sudoku variant above is called Asterisk Sudoku. It contains an

additional area of nine specially marked cells. Those nine cells must also
contain the digits 1 to 9 exactly once.
The Sudoku variant at right is called Even-Odd Sudoku. In this variant white cells must contain oddMore
digits
and gray cells must contain even
Puzzles:
digits.
www.sudoku-puzzles.net
www.sudoku-puzzles.net

w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t