With the help of a 45-foot long display, one new political student group was trying to show the campus community the national debt is growing.

Instead, it went missing.

A newly formed political advocacy group, the UMD Young Americans for Liberty, created a “debt clock” made of wooden panels to track the nation’s deficit — which now reportedly stands at more than $14.2 trillion — and placed it on the mall near McKeldin Library on Thursday.

But when a windstorm Sunday caused the panels to collapse, group members moved them to Stamp Student Union. By Monday afternoon, the debt clock had disappeared.

The culprits, group members said, were members of the university administration, who removed the display because the group is not officially recognized by the Student Government Association.

Although Jonathan Schaeffer, the group’s outreach director, said he doesn’t think the debt clock will be coming back any time soon, he said it was important to visualize how deep the deficit has become for the entire university community.

“The idea is for people to acknowledge that the debt is the size that it is,” Schaeffer said.

Members of the group said paying attention to the deficit is both a national and a personal responsibility.

“As college students we must begin to prepare for … personal financial independence,” club member Jonathan Cothran wrote in an email. “For the first time in our lives, monetary and financial policy has direct impact on our livelihood.”

Club members said they were looking to inform students who may not have previously known about the deficit.

“We’re not going to be able to revolutionize everyone’s thinking just by erecting this ridiculous looking sign on campus,” Schaeffer said. “The intention is to get a dialogue started.”

— Molly Marcot

James Franco, Natalie Portman and Danny McBride won’t be gracing the campus with their presence any time soon, now that the university has officially lost a contest to bring the premiere of Your Highness to the Hoff Theater.

But the students who voted in masses won’t be left empty handed — the university’s sixth place overall finish was enough to garner a free advanced screening of the film, which will be held Thursday at 9 p.m. at Regal Cinemas Royale 14, located at the University Town Center.

While some students were disappointed by the missed opportunity, many were still happy to have participated and to receive a free screening.

“Of course I voted; I love James Franco,” senior psychology major Keith Mallery said. “It’s still pretty cool that we get a free screening, though.”

Junior government and politics major Tyler Lucero voted because he “loves Natalie Portman,” but said that wasn’t the only reason.

“Anything that can put the university on the map, I’m glad to be a part of,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to seeing it,” sophomore electrical engineering major Nick Keenan said. “It would’ve been cool if we had won though.”

The screening is sold out.

— Spencer Israel

For the next few weeks, student groups across the campus will be putting their hearts and soles into a philanthropy project that collects old shoes for those without.

In a university-wide collaboration, The Sneaker Cartel, the Student Government Association, Residence Hall Association, Greek fraternities Sigma Nu and Delta Phi Epsilon, The Love Movement, and Major D.C. have placed boxes in dormitories all over the campus for students to discard sneakers and sandals to be given to Soles4Souls — a nonprofit, Nashville, Tenn.-based charity that recycles shoes.

“As a sneaker enthusiast myself, I started to realize that the amount I had collected had become superfluous and selfish,” said senior marketing major Justin Sanit, co-president of The Sneaker Cartel. “So many people have never had one pair of shoes, let alone the amount I have accumulated.”

The group started collecting new and used boots, sneakers and flip-flops Wednesday and will continue until May 2. The footwear will be refurbished and sent to impoverished and disaster-ridden areas where people especially need shoes, Sanit said. According to the group’s fliers, “Your extra pair could be their first.”

“We thought that doing a shoe drive would be extremely fitting to the purpose of our organization,” Sanit said. “Many of our members collect sneakers and have excess footwear that could be donated, and so that’s how the idea started.”

The group also plans to host a concert before the semester ends where students can bring a pair of shoes to donate for their cost of admittance.

Some students were excited about the concept of donating shoes for a good cause.

“This sounds like a really great idea,” sophomore biology major Valerie Dawson said. “Soles4Souls has done some really great work, and I really like everything they’re doing.”

Dawson said she plans to go home and gather all of her old shoes to donate.

“I have so many extra pairs at home,” she said. “I have to go home and get them.”

— Erin Egan

To most university students, the images of Japan’s devastation flashing across CNN and the front pages of newspapers are foreign yet heartbreaking pictures of tragedy.

But to junior economics major and international student Hiroshi Sasakura, it’s home.

Sasakura remembers waking up Friday morning to a barrage of Facebook messages from worried friends, asking if he and his family were OK. Confused, Sasakura checked his Yahoo page, and that’s where he first saw the news of the Tohoku earthquake.

“My first reaction was, ‘Oh, another earthquake,’” Sasakura said. “People in Japan, they are used to it.”

But it was not just another earthquake. The 9.0 magnitude quake triggered a massive tsunami that devastated the coasts of Japan, wiping out entire villages. As of Thursday night, almost 6,000 Japanese people have been reported dead and almost 10,000 missing, according to the National Police Agency of Japan. The numbers only continue to rise.

Sasakura’s first instinct was to call his friends and family in Tokyo, and he was thankful to find out they were all fine and Tokyo was spared from most of the destruction. This was more than he could say for one of his friends, whose home he said was located right at the epicenter of Friday’s earthquake and who has not yet been able to get in touch with her family.

But with a looming nuclear crisis growing — as nuclear reactors rocked by the quake continue to overheat and leak radiation — Sasakura still fears for those he loves.
“These past few days — Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday — I was so concerned about my family,” Sasakura said. “I can only worry. I cannot do anything. I feel helpless, useless.”

But Sasakura, who is the president of the Japanese-American Student Association on campus, has been hard at work alongside fellow students this past week doing whatever he can to help. On Monday morning the JASA held a fundraising sale of onigiri — or Japanese rice balls — at Stamp Student Union and managed to raise over $1,300 for the Japanese Red Cross.

While Sasakura said his plans to return to Tokyo for spring break have been canceled for now, he wishes he could be there with his family and friends to do more for those who have been devastated.

“I’m lucky that I’m not there,” he said. “But at the same time, I’m not there to help someone else.”

— Leah Villanueva

“Your burning desire for each other could lead to a burning STI if your not-so-nimble hands break the condom while trying to put it on.”

It is listed as the No. 1 reason against mixing sex and alcohol in a new University Health Center flyer that recently debuted in the Eppley Recreation Center.
Some students had mixed reactions to the advice given on the flyers, though most agreed the information was comical.

“Well, I would say some of the information I definitely believe came from the Health Center,” sophomore business major Mike Schwartzman said. “The other stuff is just funny and not necessarily health related. Plus, especially because we are in college, a lot of students are just going to blow this off and do what they want anyways.”

Sophomore marketing major Melissa Morral said she ultimately believes students will disregard the information.

“I feel like as much as it might be true, it won’t affect the way people act,” she said. “They just won’t remember all of this when they are drunk.”
Some students said the flyer might have been more beneficial if it were less comical — but the laughter was not lost on them. Several said the humorous flyer made them talk about mixing alcohol and sex, even if it didn’t change their minds.

Here is the full the list of why students shouldn’t mix drinking and fornicating:

1. Your burning desire for each other could lead to a burning STI if your not-so-nimble hands break the condom while trying to put it on.

2. Impaired depth perception. You lean in for a kiss and smack your lips right into … the wall.

3. Slurred speech. How sexy is it to hear ‘Aaahhhh Lough Yew’ from your drunken partner?

4. If you spend all your money on booze, there won’t be enough left to spend on your date.

5. Lack of judgment. When under the influence of alcohol, you may lose your inhibitions. You may be more likely to do something you would not normally do (i.e. have sex, have unprotected sex, etc.)

6. Alcohol dehydrates you. Not only does this affect your breath, but it diminishes vaginal lubrication. Ouch.

7. Alcohol increases sexual desire and decreases sexual performance. Enough said …

8. Consent. When someone is intoxicated, they are unable to give consent.

9. Acquaintance rape is not sexy. Sexual assaults can be directly related to alcohol consumption.

10. Vomit. The body’s natural process of eliminating excess alcohol includes vomiting. How sexy is it to vomit in a partner’s mouth or on his or her body during sex?

— Maria Romas