Any of you who frequent the west end of FSU’s campus have certainly noticed (and been regularly inconvenienced by) the new building going up beside Wildwood Hall. This new building – dubbed Wildwood Phase II – is the latest addition to campus housing and will be connected administratively with the original Wildwood building. Currently it is slated to open for residence in the Summer semester of 2012, and judging by the rapid progress they’ve made over the course of the past year there don’t seem to be any concerns of delay.

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If you’ve seen the Evil Dead movies, then you’re in for a treat.  A few years ago some brilliant souls transformed Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead movies into a raunchy musical with plenty of gore that’s sure to please audiences. While it helps if you have seen the movies, it is not necessary to understand the plot. When a story begins with five college students heading to a deserted cabin in the woods it is pretty obvious where it is headed.  Those who have seen the movies should be able to recognize some of their favorite lines.

*Take note that the infamous “tree rape” scene is absent from the musical.

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In July, Seminole Dining’s Park Avenue Diner was converted into a Denny’s All-Nighter. As a former Park Avenue employee and a current Denny’s employee, I witnessed the changes first-hand and have heard quite the mix of opinions by students, faculty, and others around town.

Park Avenue Diner was a 1950s style diner with a jukebox, a huge counter space, and a tight-knit family of workers. The combination of these things along with all the loyal customers gave the Diner its own unique personality. The food itself was just adequate, but although it sometimes took too long to be served, the overall experience ensured that people kept coming back. From restaurant-wide standing ovations at two in the morning to the infamous streakers running through the dining room at random times throughout the semester, you never knew what to expect when you walked in the front door.

While the transformation into Denny’s did away with the original character of the Diner, it also brought forth its own. Our “Denny’s All-Nighter” is currently the first and only of its kind. While most locations have a Late Nite Menu, similar to that of the Diner, the All-Nighter provides the same menu no matter what time of day it is. Although relatively similar to the Diner’s menu, there are now more options including paninis, sweet potato fries, smoothies, blended coffee drinks, pancake puppies, and vegetarian options (Amy’s Veggie Burrito and a Veggie Breakfast Burrito). The only loss suffered food-wise is that the Freshman 15 is no longer available. In addition, this Denny’s is music-themed. With flat screens for music videos and speakers blaring great music, Denny’s is really trying to portray a new look. The set-up of the restaurant is a mix of both modern and retro styles. The goal is to attract more customers and so far it seems to be working.

Due to the increase in business, the restaurant has become too big for its shoes. The main area is cluttered with mismatching tables that create a maze to get through, the kitchen and management is understaffed and overworked, the dish-pit should be three times its current size, and there are more servers on staff than there are tables in the restaurant. Despite this, the restaurant as a whole seems to be improving by the day. At this rate everything should be in order and running smoothly in the near future. A group of “Regulars” is even starting to form. But right now in the midst of chaos, we servers are doing our best to uphold the Diner’s memorable reputation. The place is different now, but it has the potential to be just as good.

A DJ set featuring current hip-hop and R&B music prefaced a panel discussion of the question “Does Hip-Hop Hate Women?” as students gathered and took their seats in the HCB lecture room on Feb. 18.

Rap Sessions, a national tour led by CEO Bakari Kitwana that brings hip-hop activists, scholars, and artists to cities across the country in hopes of presenting dialogues of difficult issues facing today’s hip-hop generation, organized the event.

“This is the first time that we’ve done something of this magnitude,” said Sakeena Gohhgen, a Florida State University senior and Master Coordinator for the Black Student Union. “We’ve had small seminars, but to actually bring some professionals out, it hasn’t happened.”

Several cooperating campus organizations hosted the event, including the Black Student Union, the Hispanic/Latino Student Union, the Women’s Center, the Center for Multicultural Affairs and the Center for Liberal Studies.

A discussion among the panelists, based on questions posed by Kitwana, took up the first 40 minutes. Topics of conversation included Reggaeton and its lack of popular female artists, as well as professional criticisms of the recent film “Precious.”

After that, the floor was opened up to the audience and students were given the opportunity to ask the panelists their own questions. The final question of the night was “Does hip-hop as a culture hate women? Or, is it a lack of education on the history of hip hop that contributes to the apparent hate of women?”

Joycelyn Wilson, a member of the panel, and Scholar of Humanities, Leadership, and Hip-Hop Studies in the Morehouse College African American Studies program, gave the final response of the evening to that question.

“I don’t think that hip hop hates women,” said Wilson. “I think that hip-hop just provides a space to diagnose issues that exist outside of hip-hop.”

Wilson explained that in answering the question, one must first define what hip-hop is, already a complicated and problematic endeavor.

“Hip-hop for me might be something different for another generation that see themselves as hip-hop,” said Wilson. “When you look at hip-hop as a community of practices, rather than just a culture, then you’re able to look at different people, and what they do, how they practice, how they do hip-hop.”

Wilson also recognized the important role hip-hop plays in providing African American culture with means for dealing with gender issues.

“If you look at gender politics among a community, you’re going to always have, in any community, that space where you want to have men and women negotiating themselves, negotiating their space in a very complex way,” said Wilson. “Hip-hop does that, so while we have this situation of issues between black men and black women, we have issues between black men and black women in hip-hop because we have issues between black men and black women in the African American community.”

Students also found the topic more complex than it first seemed.

“When I heard the question, I was kind of like, it’s an unfair question,” said Briana Henderson, an FSU senior. “If you ask, ‘Does-hip hop hate women?’ then you have to ask, ‘Does society as a whole hate women?’ And ‘What is hate?’ There are so many sub-questions that come off of that.”

Overall, the event was received well by the attendants.

“It opened up my mind that [hip-hop] is a platform, because hip-hop is a way of expression, and through hip-hop, you can express how you’re feeling,” said Chazmen Geames, a graduate of Florida A&M University. “I think it really does open up a platform to address the social issues that we have.”

Others saw it as an opportunity to soak up the wisdom of the experienced.

“I loved it,” said Henderson. “I mean, our generation needs to learn how to sometimes just sit and listen and learn, instead of trying to talk all the time and trying to do stuff. We’re the microwave generation, we want everything done right now, right now, let’s do it—no. Take your time, listen to what people who have been there before you have done, dissect it, and then move forward.”

The other members of the panel included Raquel Z. Rivera, a writer, professor and current researcher at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, New York City; Tim’m West, a black, gay and feminist artist, author, and producer; and Joan Morgan, an award-winning journalist and author of When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip Hop Feminist.

The diverse opinions and backgrounds present mirrored the diverse audience in attendance.

“I was very, very, very impressed with the crowd,” said Gohhgen. “It was a diverse group of people—all ages, all races, genders. I was amazed at how many people stayed until the very end.”

To absorb the insight and experience presented by the panel and wrestle with them through the tough questions facing today’s hip-hop generation was an opportunity not taken for granted.

“Rarely do we have a panel discussion of people who have been in the trenches, who are literally dropping knowledge,” said Henderson, who herself is a past member of the BSU executive board. “It’s just nice to hear what people outside of this ivory tower called college have to say about what people are saying, up the street, on the other side of the country. It’s nice to hear that.”

Sen. Bob Graham gave a lecture on the potential of an attack similar to that of Sept. 11 on the United States and what needs to be fixed in our country’s intelligence on Tuesday, Feb. 9. Hosted by the College of Social Sciences, the lecture asked, “Eight Years after 9/11 – Are we Safer?”

For Graham, the answer is no. After his work with the Joint Inquiry in 2003 and 10 years of service on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, including 18 months as chairman, Graham has accrued a great deal of knowledge on the subject.

Graham believes the U.S. is too concerned with looking in the "rearview mirror" to focus on future threats.

“A familiar pattern regarding U.S. intelligence has recurred,” Graham said. “We have become fixated on the rearview mirror to the exclusion of what is coming toward us.”

Graham is currently the chairman of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, whose purpose is to further the work of the 9/11 Commission. The Commission’s’ report, titled “World at Risk,” was published in 2008 and came to some alarming conclusions.

“It is more likely than not that such a weapon will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere before year-end 2013,” Graham said.

A second attack could leave the country stunned.

“When he asked ‘If we went to code red, would you know what to do?’ I don’t feel like anyone even knew,” sophomore finance and management major Ashlee Darby said. “There was a wide range of ages here, and for even the older people not to know what to do—that was the scariest thing.”

Not satisfied with researching solutions only within U.S. borders, Graham traveled to the U.K., which, according to him, has a reputable and admirable system of counter-terrorism intelligence.

According to Graham, Scotland Yard had asked their public, “If you were a terrorist and you wanted to deliver a bomb in a neighborhood terrorist city, what do you think they would use?” Many respondents suggested an ambulance, because they believed most people would defer to one. The U.K. government then searched the country and found hundreds of unaccounted for ambulances and now have started a system to keep tabs on each one’s location.

Graham said that intelligence research in this country must model after the U.K., and get the people involved.

“Senator Graham raised a yellow flag on this issue. It is something that Americans should be concerned about,” senior criminology major Sam Lyons said.

Despite the challenges ahead, Graham said he remains optimistic about the America people’s potential to overcome the terrorist threat.

“I believe that the American people when informed of their status and realizing the consequences, will act. I am optimistic that we can turn that ‘No’ into a ‘Yes’ and in doing so, make our families, our neighborhood and our nation a safer and more vibrant place.”

Recently, the Florida State Leach Center invested 43 thousand dollars in five new stationary bikes and several other exercise machines. It was reported in the FSView that these bikes have more sophisticated training characteristics than the existing equipment, and will help cut down on waiting time during peak hours. It is no wonder that FSU has struggled to extend their reputation beyond the realms of athletics and partying with such near-sighted spending. The purpose of the exercise bikes is reportedly to provide a more leisurely activity while improving students’ cardiovascular fitness (the article informed us that there was no conflict with the FSU Cycling team, who have their own training facilities).

Couldn’t these same goals be achieved by making the FSU campus a fun and safe place to ride your bike to, from, across and around? So much could be done to improve and encourage biking around campus, given the vast (and growing) amount of paved land which FSU owns, and a parking crisis which is the bane of students and administration alike.

First and foremost, FSU should show a basic respect for the existing bike infrastructure by improving it. Many road markings are missing, unclear or faded out. New students might not realize that there is still a bike lane on West Call St, as it has been buried from sight by roughly two inches of dirt and construction debris for about a year.

Even parking is a headache for cyclists. Ever see those bikes locked to fences, signposts, and trees? That’s not always a sign of a lazy rider. The Stone and Student Life Buildings have capacities of around four hundred people, but only five to 15 spaces for bikes. The football stadium accommodates over 40 thousand people, but has limited bike parking for significantly less people. All of this adds up to the implicit policy that cyclists don’t matter.

I realized this when I was given 40 minutes to await treatment in the lobby of Thagard Medical Center, using toilet paper to stop the bleeding from five deep abrasions on my arms and leg – my reward for not anticipating a girl in a car running the stop sign at a crosswalk. (I wondered if tetanus could be fatal.) Recall a Federal Highway Department study from the year 2000 in which Florida lead the nation in cyclist deaths, accounting for over one-sixth of the national total. Nearly three times the fatalities of third place Texas.

Much can be done. Creating new bike lanes, bike traffic signals and signage make motorists more cautious and aware of the shared nature of the roads and lead to more people opting to take more trips to school by bike. FSU should also install parabolic mirrors at congested intersections with blind spots and pavement hazards. These have long been standard traffic equipment in Europe and Japan, proven to reduce road conflicts of all kinds. They are especially important for lower-visibility vehicles like bikes and scooters. Mirrors prevent many motorists from inching through stop signs by giving them a clear view of the traffic they wish to merge into. Most cars don’t stop until they are five to ten feet beyond the stop sign, because they cannot otherwise see the traffic coming down Murphree. A perfect place for these would be where Chieftain Way ends at Murphree Dr., behind Bill’s Bookstore on Tennessee.

Also, a small, centrally located bike maintenance and repair center where students can pump their tires and get some patches would be a big help, too. Such services are common at large schools on the west coast, and the University of Florida has one in Gainesville. Incidentally, Gainesville is often cited in planning research as a very bikeable city. It would seem that the Noles struggle to compete with the Gators in more than just high-profile, conventional athletics.

Regular exercise should a vital part of everyone’s life-particularly in this age of skyrocketing obesity. 60 years ago, more than 60 percent of children rode their bikes to school: today, that figure is only 10 percent. Over the same period juvenile obesity has quadrupled. The other age group with the most significant obesity increase is the twenty-somethings.

Every semester I am forced to pay 64 dollars in “transportation fees,” whether I drive or use the buses. If the school is collecting that money from everyone, that means well over two million dollars are available each term. Surely that could pay for some of the aforementioned infrastructural improvements, which would transform FSU from one of the more treacherous urban cycling terrains into a safe, bikeable campus. With millions of dollars, they could subsidize student bike purchases, provide free lights, or a bike loan system that works like a library account (such systems are enjoying skyrocketing success in cities like Barcelona and Copenhagen).

I think it is time for FSU to disclose how such ample funds are used, and do more than just spout rhetoric about making a bike- and pedestrian- friendly campus in their statements and plans. Rather than a focus on holistic, healthy campus community living for students, these policies at FSU reinforce the derelict, egocentric consumer values which have become the modus operandi of the very youth who are supposed to form the intellectual and professional corps of this country’s future.