OPINION TechNews STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SINCE 1928 McCormick Tribune Campus Center Room 221 3201 South State Street Chicago, Illinois 60616 E-mail: editor@technewsiit.com Website: http://www.technewsiit.com TECHNEWS STAFF Editor-in-Chief Assistant Editor Ryan Kamphuis Hannah Larson Opinion Editor Mike Purdy Campus Editor Utsav Gandhi A8E Editor Ryan Hynes Copy Editor Chris Roberts Layout Editors Kori Bowns Karthik Kumar Swasti Khuntia Chris Roberts Pranava Teja Surukuchi Art Editor Adin Goings Distribution Manager Mike Purdy Business Manager Ryan Kamphuis IT Manager Pranava Teja Surukuchi Financial Advisor Vickie Tolbert Faculty Advisor Gregory Pulliam MISSION STATEMENT The mission of TechNews is to promote student discussion and bolster the IIT community by providing a newspaper that is highly accessible, a stalwart ofjournalistic integrity, and a student forum. TechNews is a dedicated to the belief that a strong campus newspaper is essential to a strong campus community. GENERAL INFORMATION TechNews is written, managed, and edited by the students of, and funded in part by, Illinois Institute of Technology. The material herein does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Illinois Institute of Technology or the editors, staff, and advisor of TechNews.There willbe no censorship ofTechNews publication by the faculty or staff of IIT. Sole authority and responsibility for publication and adherence to the values set forth in this policy rests with the TechNews staff. This paper seeks to bring together the various segments of the Illinois Tech community and strives through balance and content to achieve a position of respect and excellence. TechNews strives for professionalism with due respect to the intellectual values of the university and its community. All material submitted becomes the property of TechNews, and is subject to any editorial decisions deemed necessary. SU BMISSIO NS TechNews is published on the Tuesday of each week of the academic year. Deadline for all submissions and announcements is 11:59 pm. on the Friday prior to publication. Articles, photos, and illustrations must be submitted electronically to the TechNews website at technewsiit.com. EDITORIAL POLICY The editors reserve the right to determine if submitted material meets TechNews’ policy and standards. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters to the editor may be submitted by anyone, but are subject to review by the editor-in-chief. All letters-to-the-editor become the property of TechNews upon submission. TechNews does not accept or publish anonymous letters. ADVERTISING Legitimate paid advertisements, from within or outside the IIT community, which serve to produce income for the paper, are accommodated. TechNews holds the right to deny any advertisement unsuitable for publication. Media Kits are available upon request. Ad space is limited and is taken on a first-come, first-serve basis. Contact the Business Manager at business@ technewsiit.com for more information. LOCAL ADVERTISERS To place an ad, contact us via email at business@technewsiit.com. NATIONAL ADVERTISERS To place an ad, contact Mediamate at orders@mymediamate.com S'.' I.. i.. ILLINOIS INSTITUTE I// OF TECHNOLOGY MIKE PURDY opinion@technewsiit.com TechNews Letter from the Editor: Welcome to IIT! Hello and, on behalf of the staff of TechNews, welcome to IIT! Illinois Tech is a unique place. Be- cause we’re a small school in the middle of the big city, the environment that our school pro- vides to its students is unlike any other. Our student body is just as unique as our campus, which provides many opportunities for IIT students to learn about other cultures and en- joy the traditions of those cultures. IIT is such a wonderfully unique place, and any student who chooses to get out and experience it is guaranteed to have some of the best years of their life. That’s what this issue of TechNews is all about. TechNews, the student newspaper of the Illinois Institute of Technology since 1928, typically only prints issues during the academic year. But this year, for the first time in a very long time, TechNews is printing a summer issue. This summer issue is here to be your one stop shop on life at Illinois Tech and in the city of Chicago. We’ve got all the infor- mation you need to know on campus life, from how to move into your dorm to how to survive the first week of school to what to expect dur- ing Greek recruitment to what athletics at IIT has to offer, and much more. We also have in- formation that will help you know what to see and do in Chicago, and how to see it all! This issue isn’t just for incoming stu- dents. We’ve worked hard on making sure that the info in this issue will help those returning for another year here at IIT. There are many things changing both at IIT and in Chicago in the coming months, and this issue is going to keep you up to date on these changes. This semester isn’t just exciting for IIT, it’s also exciting for TechNews. After months of development, the TechNews mo- Special Summer Issue bile applications are almost ready, and will be rolled out this semester. You will be able to read TechNews and stay up to date on cam- pus happenings on your iPad, smartphone, or tablet. We’re not only excited to roll out these apps - we’re really excited to see the new writ- ers and staff members we get this semester who will help make TechNews awesome! So, on behalf of myself and Tech- News, I’d like to welcome you all to IIT. I hope your semesters go well, and I hope you all have the time of your lives this semester! See you on campus! Sincerely, Ryan Kamphuis, Editor-in-Chief of TechNews Something you’d like to get ofiyonr chest? Email 0pini0n@technewsiit.c0m to sub- mit a Letter to the Editor, or an opinon piece. Presidential race turning into reality show By Hannah Larson ASSISTANT EDITOR You’ve heard all of the nasty com- ments, seen the embarrassing YouTube clips, as well as SNL’s parodies, and I’m not talking about the latest season of Jersey Shore. The political climate in this country has risen as each of the prospective candi- date’s campaign time has gotten shorter. For the record, it’s only 117 days (from TechNews’ publication date) until the 2012 Presidential Election. That means only 117 days for Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama to raise money for their presidential campaigns. Let’s go over each candidate’s cre- dentials and their stances on crucial political issues, shall we? Romney’s resumé contains very few political ambitions. In 1994 he ran for Mas- sachusetts’ vacant U.S. Senate seat against in- cumbent, and political royalty, late Senator Ted Kennedy. He lost the election, even though it was nothing short of a terrible turnout for the Democratic party in that state. His one and only political success was becoming the governor of Massachusetts in 2003, until his term ended in 2007. During his tenure, Rom- ney presided over a series of budget cuts, that eradicated a 1.5 billion dollar deficit, as well as created a state-wide healthcare plan. Romney then ran in the 2008 Presidential election Re- publican primaries, losing to Senator John Mc- Cain (R—AZ). During his multiple campaigns, Romney has cited his experience in Bain Capi- tal, a private equity firm co-founded by Rom- ney, as proper financial experience to run the country. Note the word private. President Obama, served as a an Il- linois State Senator from 1997 to 2004, and a US. Senator from 2005, until his 2008 election to the presidency. Highlights from President Obama’s term has had several notable events. In the honeymoon period, Obama officially closed Guantanamo Bay detention camp, changed several key procedures in the Free- dom of Information Act, and reversed Presi- dent George W Bush’s ban on federal funding for abortions. His foreign policies will prob- ably be what Obama is noted for in history books. In my humble opinion, this is a fight between a wannabe head of state (Romney) and a freshman senator that got a lucky break because of an awesome slogan (Obama). Romney, obviously has experience as an effective chief executive, but not in na- tional politics, while Obama has the legislation skills that makes him an even keeled head of state, and chief legislator. I admire Romney for his utilization of universal healthcare in Massachusetts, but hate him for his social issues. I love Obama for his stance on several controversial subjects, but detest him for his lazy implementation. “Obamacare” should really be re- named “Romneycare” because they’re nearly identical (see the accompanying political cartoon). I mean, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton advocated for this idea during her husband’s tenure as president, even speaking in front of the United State Congress. This growing problem of whether to give every- one access to equal medical care, without the attached strings that come with insurance, is sad. I wholeheartedly believe that a univer- sal healthcare plan, like those adopted in the UK. and Canada, would be a welcome change to the “American” culture (I put American in quotes because Canadians are Americans too, deal with it.) But, before we adopt this, we need universal healthcare laws. It’s legal in 30 states to obtain an abortion. Assisted suicide is legal three states. Medical marijuana is legal in 17 states. This discrepancy in laws throughout the United States is detrimental to creating a universal healthcare program, that allows all American citizens equal access to medical care. The United States Constitution ex- plicitly states that any laws that aren’t speci- fied by the federal government, (i.e. everything I’ve mentioned above) can be decided upon by the state. This applies to a plethora of laws, and also depends based on how each major- ity party of the state interprets the federal law, and how they translate it into their own state constitution. This applies to same sex unions, same sex marriage, and marriage in general. In every state, bigamy and polygamy is ille- gal, but Obama has said that a state’s populous should decide their stance on which sexes may marry. Romney’s gubernatorial state, Massa- Courtesy of blogs. ajc. com /m ike-l uckovich chusetts, approved same-sex marriage in 2004, during Romney’s tenure. Note the word “mar- riage” and “unions” are different (according to some states, like Illinois), but unions between people of the same sex are considered mar- riages in Massachusetts. Obama has stated that he approves of same sex unions, and marriage. In my opinion, Romney is a hypocrite, while Obama is lazy. Of course every president has his flaws (I say his, because this country will not be ready for a woman POTUS until the word “va- gina” can be uttered on a state congressional floor without the representative being banned from speaking, see Representative Lisa Brown (D-West Bloomfield, MI)) but the fact that we live in 2012, and there’s still so many people against these social issues, which are basic hu- man rights. Obama has been compared to Ken- nedy, and then Johnson, on fighting for civil rights for a group of people that has been os- tracized and deserve their rights, but I doubt Obama will really push for any ground-break- ing legislation in his potential second term. His focus will be the economy. The next step in this tremendous campaign, is the candidate that Romney will choose for his vice presidential candidate. We all know that McCain’s final nail in his coffin, was choosing the ill-equipped Sarah Palin as his running mate. Many political analysts have predicted that Romney will choose a running- mate of Latino descent to close the race-gap. And there is still a question if Vice President Joe Biden will join Obama on his 2012 Presi- dential campaign. But, like Andy Cohen of Bravo (the premiere channel of crazy stupid reality shows says), watch what happens.