LMU to Notre Dame: We can get presidents to come speak at our graduations too!

While Notre Dame tapped President Barack Obama to speak at their commencement ceremony, LMU tapped another president to speak at this year's commencement, former president of Mexico, Vicente Fox. Fox served as president from 2000-2006. What makes the timing of the announcement interesting is that Fox was set to speak at the University of New Mexico's commencement, but the university recently canceled his speech due to logistical and security concerns. Although, word on the street is that students and faculty members were not too happy about the choice and expressed their discontent to the university. Fox is set to speak at a public lecture University of California at Irvine, next Wednesday, and some students plan to protest in response to his visit. I am sure that some LMU students will not be happy with this, but I have to wonder how far those students will go to have their discontent heard. The selection of Fox to speak at commencement is definitely interesting, with the recent events in Mexico, the ongoing immigration debate, are among things that many Americans tend to associate with Mexico as of late.

I wonder what he will say to the 1,200 or so seniors on May 9th. Given the current state of the economy, the fact he worked at Coca-Cola as a supervisor for operations in Latin America, and that the fact he supposedly made major bank during his term, he'll definitely say something about the economy (in case you haven't heard the economy sucks right now). Other than that I wouldn't have a clue what else he would say.

I didn't follow the Fox administration closely but this is certainly a pick I don't have a problem with because it will definitely get the campus community talking ; maybe even the world as Fox is still very much relevant in the public eye since leaving office. I think that this story will definitely make a bigger noise as we get closer to graduation, 37 days and counting.

---Faiza Mokhtar

Photo courtesy MCT Campus

Beating the Election - All Quiet on the Facebook Front

Facebook has been a force to be reckon with at LMU since 2004; it has become part of LMU's social fabric. Facebook certainly made quite the impression a few years later during Campaign Week that Facebook groups and pages have become the standard campaign tool to reel in supporters and more importantly votes. Facebook groups and pages for Presidential tickets and Senatorial candidates were overwhelmed with information about their platform and posed as another way to communicate with the candidate.

As for this year, I cannot really say Facebook groups of the tickets provide wealth of information but really something left to be desired. Going through the Presidential tickets all I read is fluff and not much substance. Every time a ticket mentioned an issue that they wanted to fix, the next question was how? From this, it definitely still needs work. It's disappointing considering that the voter has very little to go on, just a vague promise and a catchy slogan (and sometimes not even that). Although props to the Frontiera-Aiello ticket, they got one new idea that they want to implement "Free CONVOsation" which sounds promising but all they do is mention it.

The goal of these Facebook groups is to provide a complete and clear platform for the student who may not be able (or really wanting) to go to a debate or Town Hall. Providing such information is paramount as disclosure of a ticket's platform is indicative of the accountability they plan to maintain if they are elected. Unfortunately in this case, both tickets fail to do this leaving the voters to scratch their heads and possibly not trust.

Judge for yourself and see if these Facebook groups for the Presidential Ticket fit the bill:

Nick Frontiera and Alexis Aiello for ASLMU President/VP

Katherine BARDIS and Stephanie CHAPLUK for ASLMU PRESIDENT/VICE PRESIDENT

---Faiza Mokhtar

"Beating the Election" is a week-long series that takes the unconventional and satirical route in understanding this year's ASLMU elections.

Photos courtesy of Facebook

Beating the Election - How to avoid the candidate

Happy campaign week! Not really.

Today starts the longest and most annoying week of the year at LMU, ASLMU Elections. I say this having campaigned as a Senatorial candidate 3 years ago, being a campaign manager for 2 years and serving as the Election Chair; so I have been in the business of annoying students in past elections. Rather than hearing empty promises and candidates drone on and on this week, here are four quick ways to avoid the candidates:

1. Do not go to convo - You may think this is easier said than done, but actually it's quite easy to do. The hot spots during convo are Alumni Mall, the Lair and the Lair Patio. Apparently candidates' canvassing to hit up students for votes is concentrated in this area.

2. Sport those elusive white earbuds - based on a makeshift experience I did a few years ago I find that walking around campus with your iPod, that's a sign that you do not want to be bothered and you'll be avoided. So if #1 is too difficult, listening to your iPod is a safe bet.

3. Go to the gym - The gym is one of the "safe zones" on campus during campaign week. Years ago, campaigning at the gym was not allowed so the gym became a "safe zone" from annoying campaigning (because working out is serious business). So if you're thinking about getting in shape or shedding a few pounds, this would be a great week to start!

4. Use the "I'm in a rush!" line - There are times where encountering the candidate is inevitable. However, you can get out of it quickly. I have encountered solicitors, and many surprisingly are polite. They'll ask me if I have a moment and I'll respond with a guilty look, "I'm really sorry but I'm in a rush." Then they let me go on my merry way. Candidates don't want to get a potential voter angry so they'll honor your request and desist.

Use these four tools wisely and campaign week and voting will be just an afterthought.

--- Faiza Mokhtar

"Beating the Election" is a week-long series that takes the unconventional and satirical route in understanding this year's ASLMU elections.

You've Just Been Facebook'd!

Think of getting "Facebook'd" as getting Rick Roll'd on Youtube by a "friend" but really giving your computer an unpleasant surprise and you a major headache through Facebook. I'll let the man in the video explain it to you...


In case in you didn't want to hear the CNN reporter drone on about this, basically you can get a worm on Facebook. How you ask? Essentially, you get a message from one of your Facebook friends to check out a cool (read: very lame) video on Youtube. On YouTube, you're prompted to download a Flash plugin update. Download the plugin and you've just been Facebook'd with the Koobface Worm which is malware on your computer.

Thanks to the Koobface worm (which is book spelled backwards plus "face," how cute), life on Facebook is a bit more complicated; as if we already have enough problems with this social networking tool such as vague and ambiguous Terms of use, "Social ads," annoying photos and note memes and petty Facebook drama. This is a bit overwhelming. My experience on Facebook is not as pleasant as it used to be. It's too late to go back to the days where nuisances such as hacking your account and make unauthorized posts happened on MySpace or better yet when Facebook was available to only users with a college e-mail address.

It was a simpler time, I wish we can return to that. Too bad technology will never allow for that to happen.

---Faiza Mokhtar

Not all P-Safe tickets are created equally

It's high noon and right about now you're out of luck for parking. Cruise through U-Hall: full; Speed through Drollinger: not an open spot in sight; Cringe upon arriving at Hannon lot only to find that there is a parking spot at the opposite end of campus adjacent to the Children's Center. Aside from that debacle, finding parking isn't the only issue but really avoiding that white receipt-like paper folded in your windshield wiper from our friendly P-Safe officer.

There are so many opportunities to be one of the lucky ones to have this paper bestowed upon your car; such as not parking in your assigned spot, parking outside the lines. Shouldn't this lame Dodge Neon get a ticket?

Absolutely it should! Unfortunately, it did not because this parking fail occurred at night so of course leave it to P-Safe to not be around Drollinger at the time to make the ticketing magic happen. Of course, earlier in the day, my car was ticketed. Why? Because I parked in Drollinger and my spot in is Hannon Lot. Call me crazy, but shouldn't our fabulous Dodge Neon here be getting the ticket too? I mean look at how it's parked?!?! It's clearly screwing someone out of an already subcompact spot. Trust me, when Homer Simpson made a parking fail, it was brilliant, this is just annoying. It doesn't matter if this was at night, P-Safe, ticketing should be a 24/7 thing not just something for P-Safe to pass the time from 7:00 am to 4pm on weekdays.

---Faiza Mokhtar

Dead and Gone: Men's Basketball (and their fans)

Unlike T.I.'s single which chronicles his personal metamorphosis during his house arrest, the men's basketball faces the fact that their chances of not being the worst team in the nation and having worst season in school history are pretty much dead and gone. I realized this months ago with the poor shooting percentages, the lack of defense, the ever revolving injury list, and a coach who resigned only go to the NBA shortly after; I stopped caring and believing. With the embarrassing loss against Pepperdine Saturday, it's pretty much a lock now that the men's basketball team is on its way to the record books, but for all the wrong reasons.

Photo: Courtney Toomey/Loyolan

There's another thing that's dead and gone as well are the fans (or lack thereof). The Pepperdine game is one of the biggest games of the year for LMU and that shows in attendance. With the exception last season, since 2002-03 season, on average about 3,000+ of us pack Gersten where the largest attendance was in the 2006-07 season with 4,005. Now I wouldn't exactly say we packed Gersten this past Saturday because only 2,385 of us bothered to show up (I was not one of them). Correlate this with our atrocious record, this will makes sense because honestly who wants to see a losing team? To add, a losing team that has a greater chance becoming a laughing stock than a decent finish. With six games left in the season, this begs the question: Have we left our team for dead and gone? The answer is a resounding yes and hope that next season doesn't suck as much.

In the meantime, you're better off watching women's basketball, where they have a winning record.

---Faiza Mokhtar