5 things to read this morning
April 15, 2014
1. In the dark: Hate crimes go unnoticed
Nick Gilyard doesn’t walk by himself at night anymore.
What happened to the Miami senior two weeks ago may have been classified as a hate crime, according to KRS 532.031. The state statute makes the acts of aggression against a person “intentionally because of race, color, religion, sexual orientation or national origin” a felony.
Lawyers say the act seems to fit the description of a hate crime. Gilyard is still affected by it.
“I walked down Kentucky Street, then through campus, so I had to walk back past where it happened,” he said. “Just like, being outside in the daylight, honestly everyone that I walked past — I just felt like things looked different, it just felt different. I feel different.
“I feel like nobody knows what happened to me last night and it just felt so weird.”
Gilyard was walking back from his Spirit Masters meeting to his apartment on Kentucky Street to grab books to study with a friend at The Registry apartment complex. He was in black slacks, carrying his briefcase.
“I was barely 1,000 feet from the Kentucky Street Apartments and a black SUV was riding past me,” he said. “And as it approached, I saw the guy roll down his window, and then from the passenger side a guy started to hang out the window,” — he hesitates before he repeats the words — “he yells ‘You stupid fucking nigger!’
2. Osborne ends 46 year era at WKU
When John Osborne first came to WKU, he wasn’t fully prepared to be a student.
Osborne, vice president of Campus Services and Facilities, visited WKU as a high school senior from Louisville in the spring of 1968 with his best friend, Billy Burton. Burton was offered a scholarship to play basketball at WKU and Osborne, a basketball player also, decided to go with him.
Osborne himself was not offered a scholarship, but was told by John Oldham, the basketball coach at the time, he could try out for the team as a walk-on.
But basketball wasn’t the only reason why he wanted to go to WKU.
“…I didn’t want to get drafted,” Osborne said. “Vietnam was going on in 1968 in a big way and the country was in enormous turmoil.”
3. Greeks get dirty at annual Tug battle
Several tuggers compared the anxiety and buildup of each pull to war on Friday afternoon at the L.D. Brown Ag Expo Center as fraternities and sororities battled it out during Tug.
Tug teams entrench themselves in a muddy pit and pull against one another for three minutes, and whichever team has more rope on its side at the conclusion of that time is the winner.
Last year’s fraternity champion, Delta Tau Delta, came in third place this year after defeating the brothers of Alpha Tau Omega.
Louisville senior and DTD brother Nate Allen was on the rope for the first time this year.
“I feel like we could have done better, but AGR and Farmhouse are really good,” Allen said. “I think we gave it all we got.”
4. Miss Omega highlights full-figured women at annual pageant
Today, there aren’t many pageants that highlight different shapes and sizes with regard to beauty, but one pageant is changing that.
Omega Psi Phi fraternity hosted the Miss Omega pageant, which is geared toward plus-sized women to show off their beauty.
The pageant was held at Downing Student Union. Doors opened at 5:30 p.m., and the pageant started at 7 p.m. Seats started to fill instantly with friends, family and loved ones supporting the 10 glamorous contestants who have been practicing for the pageant for more than two months.
5. EDITORIAL: Plummeting Polls
SGA represents a government for and by the students. The President represents us at the Board of Regents, they provide organizational aid and without them the library hours wouldn’t be open late during finals week. They were also instrumental in getting Einstein’s to be open later this semester. A move that has been met with praise.
Students should want to vote for SGA candidates who will continue to do those things.
By the numbers, WKU’s main campus has nearly 5,000 students living on campus and 21,000 students overall.
That means that out of all the students who have walked by SGA advertisements, only 22 percent of our campus signed onto TopNet to cast a vote.
