Tyler Jones

NCAA student-athletes can now profit off their fame nationwide

November 26, 2019 by Tyler Jones Leave a Comment

After the NCAA board of governors passed a law to allow college athletes to profit off their fame in several states such as California, Florida and Colorado, they voted unan- imously on a similar agree- ment nationwide on Oct. 29.

The board has asked the three divisions of the NCAA to create the necessary rules immediately in order to have them in place no later than January of 2021.

Bill Jurgens, Florida Tech’s athletic director, stat- ed that he does not have an opinion at this time, due to this information just being released, and the fact that the NCAA is still looking into this matter.

According to TIME, the NCAA needs to determine how athletes can profit off of their name, likeness and

image, while also maintaining rules regarding amateurism.

Jake Hahn, a junior on the lacrosse team, said he thinks that for these rules to be effec- tive, the NCAA would have to redefine the term of amateur- ism in college sports.

“I think the main thing that categorizes an athlete as a professional is that they get paid to play their sport,” Hahn said.

Hahn then explained that an athlete can’t be both a professional and an amateur at the same time.

He elaborated that the hard thing about allowing student athletes to make money off their name is the fact that once that student starts making money, it’s hard to say if they can still be considered an amateur.

Johnny Poret, a sopho- more on the football team, said he believes that players

should be paid based on the amount of money they bring into the school.

“Big time players bring in big time money for schools because people want to come watch them play,” Poret said. “The more money a player brings in, the more money that player should receive.”

How universities will assist students in profiting off of their name and likeness has not been decided.

Both Hahn and Poret brought up the suggestion of personal jersey sales, or team equipment inside the univer- sity’s bookstore or on their website.

As far as recruiting is concerned, Hahn said he believes that this new rule will potentially have no impact on the smaller Division II and Division III schools, but could have an effect on Division I schools.

Hahn went on to explain that the high quality athletes, such as those who are considered four or five star recruits, won’t have an interest in coming to Florida Tech, as they have the opportunity to

pursue Division I schools. With just a little over a year until this rule will be put in play, much more informa- tion regarding rules and regu- lations from the NCAA itself

are still to come.

Florida Tech drops in national ratings

October 1, 2019 by Tyler Jones Leave a Comment

While last year, Florida Tech came in at 177 for national university rankings, according to ratings released a few weeks ago from U.S. News, Florida Tech has dropped to 202.

Although some may be concerned about the 25 spot decrease, it didn’t seem to bother Wes Sumner, Florida Tech’s vice president for Marketing and Communications.

Sumner explained that many considerations are taken into account, such as the academic performance of freshmen, alumni donations, class size and a number of other factors.

However, Sumner also explained that the biggest reason Florida Tech dropped in the rankings was due to something called the Carnegie Classification system.

This system acts as a framework for classifying universities throughout the nation.

“The Carnegie Classification changed and allowed a large number of additional universities in at our Carnegie Classification,” Sumner said. “This means that the new universities got added ahead of Florida Tech, meaning that our relative ranking fell.”

Despite this year’s rankings, Sumner stated that the university as a whole remained constant, or even improved in all of the ranking factors, and still remains a tier one best school for over a decade.

Students such as Riley Dolan, a sophomore in mechanical engineering, believe that smaller classes, high quality professors and job opportunities in the local area have helped contribute to that title.

“When I first started looking at colleges, I was trying to find a university where I can not only be successful in school, but find success quickly once I graduate,” Dolan said. “Florida Tech is known for their engineering programs, and companies like Harris and Northorp Gruman are always looking for interns as well as new engineers.”

Dolan went on to say that most other universities in the state don’t offer the same amount of quality or opportunities that a smaller tech university can offer to their students.

Jordan Neely, a junior in civil engineering, also said that the class size and the technology that is accessible through the university is what causes Florida Tech to be viewed as a tier one school.

“I don’t think that many other universities have the ability to offer the high availability of technology that Florida Tech can offer to their students,” Neely said.

Neely went on to explain that while other universities may have the same technology capabilities of Florida Tech, they often have a larger student body, which could make accessing those capabilities more difficult.

Sumner stated that one of the university’s core values is a lifetime commitment to student success, and despite what the rankings may say students such as Dolan and Neely feel like that value is being maintained.

Vandalizers strike Downtown Melbourne during Hurricane Dorian

September 18, 2019 by Tyler Jones Leave a Comment

While many Melbourne residents spent Labor Day weekend hunkering down for Hurricane Dorian, others had a different agenda.

On Wednesday, September 4, around 3:13 a.m, an unidentified individual broke the front windows to the Railroad Emporium in Downtown Melbourne, according to a Melbourne police report.

According to another Melbourne police report, there was an unrelated shooting on NASA Boulevard that same night.

These are just a few examples of crimes that tend to occur during storms.

Joshua Livasy, a senior in physics and a Melbourne native, said this issue needs to be solved.

“These storms have the potential to bring catastrophic damage to our communities as it is, but then you have people who use these disasters as a way to loot and vandalise local businesses,” Livasy said. “I think local law enforcement needs to find ways to keep a closer eye on the communities during these storms.”

Livasy also said he thinks keeping Downtown Melbourne safe and clean is very important not only to the city, but for the students of Florida Tech as well.

“Downtown Melbourne is not only a historical landmark here in Melbourne, it’s a place where many students here at Florida Tech go to enjoy themselves,” Livasy said. “But if the city of Melbourne doesn’t do a better job at keeping these communities safe, I think over time students won’t feel safe going there.”

However, other students, such as Jacob Mondoro, a sophomore in business management, think that regardless of what law enforcement tries, these kinds of crimes will continue to happen during hurricanes.

“Law enforcement can only do so much once the storm actually starts to affect us,” Mondoro said. “Once we start feeling the major effects of the storm, most of the local law enforcement does what we do and hunker down until it passes. It’s not until things calm down that responders start patrolling the communities again.”

Mondro also mentioned that the last thing business owners should have to worry about during a storm is whether or not their businesses are trying to be broken into.

“As a business owner, your concern in this time of crisis should be on whether or not the storm is going to cause damage, not if another person is going to damage your building,” Mondoro said.

With just a little over two months still left in the hurricane season, there’s still potential for more storms to come, and Livasy and Mondoro said they believe that local law enforcement needs to find better solutions for protecting these businesses and making the community a safer place to live.

Men’s Lacrosse Sets Sights on SSC Title

April 9, 2019 by Tyler Jones Leave a Comment

Currently sitting at a 6-3 record this season, the Florida Tech Men’s Lacrosse team has their eyes set on EmbryRiddle this Wednesday in hopes of keeping their dream alive of winning the Sunshine State Conference.

After losing two straight games, the Panthers were able to defeat Palm Beach Atlantic by five goals this past Saturday.

This was the first of five straight inter-conference games to finish out the season.

Goalie Jake Hahn said the team is locked into focus and ready to secure the SSC.

“The remaining five games are all sunshine state conference games and we know that these are games that we must win to keep the dream alive,” said Hahn. “Our conference is very competitive within itself to the point where anybody can beat anybody on any given day.”

The Panthers have a 2-2 SSC record and need to win the remainder of their games and the University of Tampa to lose a game in order to win the conference’s regular season title.

However, the goal doesn’t stop there; Ryan Lepp, a defensive player on the team, said that the team has aspirations of ultimately making it into the NCAA tournament.

After the team fell short of their goal last season of winning the SSC, the team felt that there needed to be a change in mentality, according to Hahn.

However, with just two conference loss this season, the Panthers have taken a different mental approach that has led to their success this season.

“The mentality that we brought to those games was that we thought we could easily beat those teams that we ended up losing to, which is not the case this year,” said Hahn.

Hahn mentioned that his captains and coaches have placed an emphasis on discipline and not underestimating the opponent, regardless of their record.

With the recent success, the team has also noticed a steady increase in fan attendance at home games.

Lepp said the recent success and their style of play this season is the reason for the increased turnout.

“I believe that we had such a great turnout against Rollins, which was our most recent home game because students were excited to see us go up against a good team in our conference,” Lepp said. “I believe that our next home game will bring an even bigger crowd because of the exciting comeback-style victory that the students got to experience on that day.”

The teams next home game, as well as their senior night, is April 20 against Florida Southern.

The lacrosse team encourages fan support as they close out the season and make a push for the SSC title.

Staff member exploring motorcycle leasing possibility

March 26, 2019 by Tyler Jones Leave a Comment

Faculty members at Florida Tech have recently looked into motorcycle dealerships around town that offer leases for students in need of transportation.

The main vehicles they looked into were electronic and gas-powered scooters, as well as motorcycles.

The discussion occurred about a month back according to David Beavers, an electronic lab manager.

Beavers wanted to find an affordable solution for students without personal transportation on campus.

“There are at least five companies in town that offer gas and electric scooters and bikes at relatively low cost to students,” Beavers said. “This is something the sustainability folks would be interested in, especially the electronic motorcycles.”

However, since this would not be a program run by the school, students would still be responsible for getting their own motorcycle’s license and corresponding insurance.

Students around campus such as Diego Gonzalez, a junior in mechanical engineering, agrees on this idea being brought to light.

“If I knew about this when I was a freshman, I could’ve saved a lot of money by not having to buy a car,” Gonzalez said. “I definitely recommend any incoming freshman or student without a vehicle to make the investment if they have the money to do so.”

Gonzalez also mentioned how motorcycles are much better on gas, as the insurance is usually lower.

Additionally, it is easier to find parking spots around campus.

However, students such as Jake Gaier, a senior in business, said this could potentially turn into a bad idea for an inexperienced motorist.

“I’ve been riding dirt bikes and motorcycles for most of my life, and in my experience, I’ve met unlicensed motorist who ride better than people with motorcycle licenses,” Gaier said. “I think if students who have little to no experience on these bikes start leasing them to use, it could result in a lot of accidents around campus if they’re not careful.”

Gaier suggests that students who don’t have the experience of riding motorcycles should first start out on scooters, due to them being cheaper, having less power and being a little safer.

If you’re interested in leasing a motorcycle or scooter, places such as Space Coast Harley Davidson, Suzuki Motors and Honda of Melbourne are a few places to start.