FAU may punish me for providing a free learning experience to its ...

letter from the editorAuthority issuesuniversity presswww.upressonline.comEditor-in-ChiefKarla BowsherJune 10, 2010Listings EditorDiana BurgosPhotos by Liz DzuroManaging EditorGideon GrudoCopy EditorRichard MichalskiMultimediaeditorDevin Desjarlaisart directorLindsey VoltolinePHOTO EditorLiz DzuroOWL NEWS TVEditorKaren “Kat” HerisseAssistant ArtDirectorStephanie ColaianniCopy DESK CHIEFJay GoldbergSPORTS EDITORFranco PanizoBusinessManagerTyler KromeEntertainmentEditorBriana BrammseniorReportersBrandon BallengerMonica RuizSTAFF REPORTERSAlyssa CutterSloane DavisMark GibsonAustin LangSTAFF DesignerRicky MaldonadoSTAFFPhotographerMichael TrimboliADVISERMichael Koretzky777 Glades RoadStudent Union, Room 214Boca Raton, FL 33431PHONE: (561) 297-2960FAX: (561) 297-2106E-MAIL: upress@fau.eduONLINE: www.upressonline.comWant to join our team?E-mail: upress@fau.eduStaff Meetings: Every Friday at2 p.m. in the Student Union,Room 214WANT TO PLACE AN AD?Contact Lew Roberts at(954) 651-1814PUBLISHER:FAU Student GovernmentThe opinions expressed by theUP are not necessarily thoseof the student body, StudentGovernment or the university.Cover Photo Courtesyof the FAU surf clubAssociate Dean of Students Terry Mena was one of the administrators present at the UP’s May 21 staff meeting. He didn’t seemtoo happy when the UP’s former adviser, fired on May 18, offered to work as a volunteer adviser. Mena’s inability to accept free helpshocked alumni like Dori Zinn.FAU may punish me for providing a freelearning experience to its studentsKarla BowsherEditor-In-ChiefSee that column to the left? We call it thestaff box. But this week, it’s just plaintrouble.It doesn’t look any different, andthat’s the problem. This standard staffbox could get me brought up on studentconduct charges. And if that happens, Icould sue FAU.It all started back on May 18. That’swhen FAU fired the UP’s adviser of12 years, Michael Koretzky. He’s ajournalist with 20 years of experience,but Student Affairs had unilaterally decided they were overhim. They cited a reorganization of student media andkicked him to the curb with three days’ notice.Since then, Koretzky has kindly agreed to stick around asa volunteer.“I’ll continue to help you publish the cutting-edgejournalism that has won this paper awards and its staffjobs,” he announced on May 21, his last official day. “I justwon’t get paid for it.”The administrators present for that announcement didn’tsmile or warmly accept this free offer, despite the economicdownturn.Still, they didn’t seem to mind as long as we filedpaperwork for every UP meeting at which we wantedKoretzky to speak.“If that’s the capacity they would like him as, a speaker, Idon’t have a problem with it,” FAU Student Media DirectorMarti Harvey told the Sun Sentinel on May 28. “They’redoing the paperwork, so everything’s fine.”But on May 30, I announced on my new blog, OwlManagement, that I wasn’t going to do said paperworkanymore. I thought FAU was hiding behind paperwork andmaking the rules up as they went along. After all, none ofmy predecessors had to do paperwork for speakers (visit myblog to read their responses).Continued on the next page>>>On the cover: FAU Surf Club member Kenny Keating has some quality tube time in South Africa in the summer of 2005.3 • June 10, 2010 • University Press • www.upressonline.com

Letter from the editor

LETTER FROM THE EDITORIt's not easy being greenuniversity presswww.upressonline.comNovember 9, 2010Editor-in-chiefKarla BowsherManaging EditorGideon GrudoWEB editorTyler KromeART DIRECTORMariam AldhahiCopy DESK CHIEFRicky MichalskiEntertainment EditorBriana BrammSPORTS EDITORFranco PanizoPHOTO EditorLiz DzuroListings EditorZhenya BonchukOWL NEWS TV EditorKaren “Kat” Herissesenior ReportersBrandon BallengerMonica RuizSTAFF REPORTERSAlyssa CutterMark GibsonSTAFF photographerTodd RollerCOPY EDITORRachel ChapnickSTAFF illustratorAdam SheetzI.T. SPECIALISTJames ShackelfordBusiness ManagerChris PersaudADVISERSMarti HarveyMichael Koretzky777 Glades RoadStudent Union, Room 214Boca Raton, FL 33431PHONE: (561) 297-2960ONLINE: www.upressonline.comWant to join our team?E-mail: upress@fau.eduStaff Meetings: Every Friday at2 p.m. in the Student Union, Room 214WANT TO PLACE AN AD?Contact Marc Litt at (732) 991-6353or marc@universityimpress.comPUBLISHER:FAU Student GovernmentThe opinions expressed by the UP arenot necessarily those of the student body,Student Government or the university.Cover Illustration bytyler kromeKARLA BOWSHEREDITOR-IN-CHIEFFAU falsely but perhaps inadvertently claims itsnewest building is certified eco-friendlyThe College of Engineering and Computer Science could be introuble — for trying to go green.FAU claimed their new building earned the highest level ofenvironmentally friendly ceritification, but that’s not true yet. It’s afuzzy situation that varies depending on who you ask.According to a national independent organization called the GreenBuilding Certification Institute, the college may have committedcopyright infringement that could be reported to their legaldepartment. According to their sister organization, the U.S. GreenBuilding Council, the situation is “kind of a misunderstanding.”It all started with one word in “Engineering a building,” anarticle the UP published last month about the college’s newenvironmentally friendly building on the Boca campus.We reported that the building was “certified platinum by theLeadership in Environmental Energy and Design program — anational program that rates buildings on their energy consumptionand environmental impact.”The news of the platinum certification, the highest level thatthe LEED program awards, was all over FAU’s website and evenCollege of Engineering literature.The “Explore FAU Video” webpage (www.fau.edu/explore/Video.php), for example, shows off “FAU’s LEED Platinum-CertifiedGreen Building.” The “Sustainable Construction” webpage (www.fau.edu/facilities/sustain/campusOps/construction.php) boaststhat FAU is “the first university in the state to be a certified LEEDplatinum building.”After our article was published, however, College of EngineeringDean Karl Stevens admitted otherwise.“Thanks for the great article,” he told UP reporter Chris Persaudby e-mail. “We do have one problem and that is the building hasnot yet been certified green; that is in the works. Brenda Coto willdiscuss this with you.”A couple of hours later, Coto—the college’s managing directorof technology and innovation—e-mailed Persaud herself andconfirmed FAU’s mistake.“We are not allowed to say that we are a certified,” she wrote.At that point, I gave Coto a call myself to further discuss thematter.When I explained that FAU’s official website was our source on thecertification, she simply retorted that the College of Engineering’swebpages don’t use the word. When I e-mailed her screenshots ofofficial FAU webpages that still used the word “certified” as ofpress time, she never replied.That’s when I decided to investigate for myself.I called the U.S. Green Building Council. Their customer servicerep told me told to call the Green Building Certification Institute.She explained that while the Green Building Council developed theLEED program, the GBCI actually administers LEED certificates.I still don’t understand why this LEED thing requires twoorganizations or how exactly the two are connected, but GBCIcustomer service rep Noe Flores told me I was better off talking tothe Green Building Council. I told him they told me the opposite,and he was happy to answer my questions anyway.He explained that the process of LEED certification is actually allremote. An entity like FAU registers for LEED certification onlineand then submits third-party documentation like utility contractsand architectural drawings to prove a building is sufficientlyenvironmentally friendly. No one ever comes out to examine abuilding that’s vying for LEED certification.At the same time, he told me that “achieving LEED certificationis a pretty strenuous task.”I didn’t follow his vague logic, but GBCI apparently takes itseriously. When someone falsely claims LEED certification, Floressaid GBCI considers it “infringement” on the LEED program’strademark. “From there, the legal department takes over.”He couldn’t tell me, though, whether FAU’s new College ofEngineering building had yet achieved the certification FAUalready claims. He couldn’t even tell me why he didn’t have theinfo: All he could say was that it meant either FAU wanted it kept“confidential” or GBCI had an “error” in its system.After 20 minutes of details that left me more confused than whenI started, Flores finally admitted that I could have contacted GBCI’spress inquiry department—but only by e-mail. The companyfunctions largely by e-mail, he said.Frustrated, I decided to try the Green Building Council’s pressdepartment.Their communications manager, Ashley Katz, is the one whocalled the situation “kind of a misunderstanding.”At first, she confirmed that the College of Engineering buildinghad not yet achieved LEED certification, explaining that the Bocacampus’s College of Nursing building, which earned gold-levelcertification a couple of years ago, is FAU’s only LEED-certifiedbuilding.But when I asked her to confirm that false claims to certificationare considered infringement and referred to the legal department,she hesitated:“Well, I mean I, I just, I, I don’t think that, I mean, I don’t, I , Ireally don’t know how to, how to, how to phrase this because I’mnot entirely sure that the project isn’t actually certified. I just, itcould be listed under another name.”After our conversation, she looked into the matter further ande-mailed me almost immediately.“I just took a look at the FAU Engineering building website(www.fau.edu/facilities) and see that it mentions that the project isdesigned to LEED Platinum, which isn’t the same thing as beingcertified,” she wrote. “I think that’s the caveat here — it doesn’t saythat it’s certified.”I replied with links to FAU webpages that do say it’s certified,along with a link to a Sept. 2009 New York Post editorial thatcriticized the LEED program, calling it “phony” and part of a greenfad that “isn’t so much a movement as a highly lucrative regime ofpayouts and misinformation.”I specifically asked for an official response from the GreenBuilding Council regarding the links.As of press time, she had not responded.3 • November 9, 2010 • University Press • www.upressonline.com

letter from the editorTrashed but notuniversity presswww.upressonline.comNovember 30, 2010Editor-in-chiefKarla BowsherManaging EditorGideon GrudoWEB editorTyler KromeART DIRECTORMariam AldhahiCopy DESK CHIEFRicky MichalskiEntertainment EditorBriana BrammSPORTS EDITORFranco PanizoPHOTO EditorLiz DzuroListings EditorZhenya BonchukOWL NEWS TV EditorKaren “Kat” Herissesenior ReportersBrandon BallengerMonica Ruizsenior PHOTOGRAPHERChristine CapozzielloSTAFF REPORTERSSergio N. CandidoAlyssa CutterMark GibsonSTAFF photographersTodd RollerElizabeth WhittonCOPY EDITORRachel ChapnickSTAFF illustratorAdam SheetzBusiness ManagerChris PersaudI.T. SPECIALISTJames ShackelfordADVISERSMarti HarveyMichael Koretzky777 Glades RoadStudent Union, Room 214Boca Raton, FL 33431PHONE: (561) 297-2960ONLINE: www.upressonline.comWant to join our team?E-mail: upress@fau.eduStaff Meetings: Every Friday at2 p.m. in the Student Union, Room 214WANT TO PLACE AN AD?Contact Marc Litt at (732) 991-6353or marc@universityimpress.comPUBLISHER:FAU Student GovernmentThe opinions expressed by the UP arenot necessarily those of the student body,Student Government or the university.Cover by adam sheetzphotos by chris persaudtrashyNearly 3,000 stolen issues later, I say props to the cops— and thanks to the thievesKARLA BOWSHEREDITOR-IN-CHIEFIn October 2009, student Nick Letteri waskidnapped and hazed by his fraternity brothers. InOctober 2010, professor Clevis Headley resignedas chair of the department of philosophy.So, what do they have in common besidesFAU?Both were the subject of investigative coverstories in the UP.And both of the issues those stories appeared in were snatched fromour red bins on the Boca campus and promptly relocated to nearbytrashcans this year. They’re our first two issues to be stolen since 2005— and I couldn’t be happier.Of course, I can only say that because the FAU Police Departmenthas handled both cases so well.Last time, they caught the newspaper bandit (a fraternity member)just a few days after he tossed 900 issues.This time, after nearly 2,000 issues were stolen on Nov. 10, theyhad to sit through probably dozens of hours of video footage justto figure out who the bad guys were. But they’ve already made onearrest (philosophy major Yona Rabinowitz) and are looking for thesecond suspect.So, all the side effects of this year’s stolen issues, especially thelatest, seem to be positive:1. More notorietyThe theft has been covered not only by us but by outlets acrossthe country. The Sun-Sentinel, WPTV, a national student media blogbased out of Tampa, and the Student Press Law Center near D.C. haveall written about it now.Last week, I got an e-mail from the Foundation for IndividualRights in Education, a nonprofit in Philadelphia. They had readabout the theft on the SPLC’s website and wanted to make sure “theadministration [is] taking this seriously.”And as the news spreads, so does the UP’s name.2. More readersOur website traffic has been steadily increasing since the summer,but it’s really taken off in the last couple of months.In October, we broke a record, scoring more website hits than inany other month in 2010. This month, we destroyed even our Octoberrecord, increasing hits by more than 70 percent.Circulation is also increasing: This semester’s average has alreadysurpassed last semester’s.I have to wonder if it’s because we’ve started to make a name forourselves. Thanks to a combination of investigative journalism andbreaking news, no one has covered FAU quite like us this semester.The news of professor Headley’s resignation was broken in the UP— and that’s just the latest in a handful of stories we covered beforeany other outlet, including big local names like the Sun-Sentinel andthe Palm Beach Post.And based on the numbers, readers are taking note.3. More proof that Student Affairs isn’t always rightBesides increasing our notoriety and our readers, the theft ofnearly 2,000 issues is also a compliment — one that defies the wordsof certain administrators.If people are stealing our newspapers, it means they fear peoplewould otherwise read them.And with two thefts this year alone, readers are clearly on therise — which puts a lie to the claims of administrators like our ownstudent media director.She’s bashed our numbers and our product all semester when she’ssupposed to have been advocating for us (visit our Owl Managementblog for more details on that). But two thieves willing to risk arrest, agrowing audience, and professional outlets and organizations acrossthe country beg to differ.So, to the FAU PD: again, a job well done.And to Rabinowitz and friend: a thank you well earned.I hope you enjoy your grand theft charge as much as we have. Justdon’t forget to pay up.continued on page 6 >>>3 • November 30, 2010 • University Press • www.upressonline.com

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