Ann Hefferin, My Roommate and Friend

By: Catherine Bruno

As the academic year comes to a close, I see it fitting to write a tribute to my dear friend and roommate Ann Hefferin.

I met Ann during our freshman year of high school. We became fast friends and were together all the time. Our high school boyfriends were best friends too and the four of us spent countless hours together.

Ann and I shared very similar morals and values. We never got into arguments and were always on the same page. Although we spent most of our time together, we never ran out of things to talk about, in fact it seemed like there wasn’t enough time in a day to talk.

The friendship we had didn’t stop after senior year; we decided to go to UCF and room together. We put down our housing money before most of our classmates had even decided which school they were attending.The thought of living together, being on our own, and starting college together was something we couldn’t wait to start.

After attending Summer B at UCF together, we moved in early to our dorm in Lake Claire. We went on the LEAD Scholar’s REEL Retreat the week before school started. Once school began on Monday it felt surreal living together. We shopped for our bathroom and room accessories months in advance and finally, we were all settled in our new place. Ann and I bought our books for the semester, went grocery shopping, and had mapped out our agendas for the week by that first Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday August 24th, Ann decided to go out to a party with Delta Delta Delta at the Sigma Chi house.

When Ann came home she mentioned that she had a few drinks, which was a first for her, but she was fine. I was anxious to hear about her night and asked her all about it. She took out the trash in the kitchen, ate a little snack, and then got ready for bed. We talked for a while before saying good night to each other around 12:30am.

The early morning, which is forever etched into my memory, began at 3:14am. I was woken by pounding on my door and at first I was so disoriented I didn’t know where it was coming from. Finally I shouted: “Who is it??” Ann replied: “Catherine it’s Ann I need help.”

When I came out of my room I found a sick and exhausted Ann. She kept telling me that she was really sorry and that she didn’t know what was wrong.

Ann’s symptoms escalated from a stomach ache to chest pains and at 3:53am I called 911 for help. By that point, Ann had stopped breathing and the voice on the other end of the line gave me instructions to perform CPR. The rescue team and I were able to get Ann’s heart beating again. However, once she was transported to the hospital, her heart stopped a final time and the emergency team couldn’t revive her.

The long awaited autopsy results did very little to ease our sorrow. The final verdict was Group B Streptococcus, a bacterial infection that entered Ann’s blood stream and caused her organs to shut down. any questions were left unanswered due to lack of medical research which added to our heartache.

Ann’s passing left a giant hole in my heart, and as President Hitt said at the Eternal Knights Memorial Service: “It will never be filled.”

With every day that passes I wish Ann were right here with me. I lost my roommate, my classmate, and most importantly my best friend. There is an emptiness that rests inside of me that will never go away. I cherish all of the memories we made together and look at pictures of the two of us to keep me going. Words can’t describe my sadness and I long for the day when we will be reunited in heaven.

Ann’s passing has taught me to be thankful for my life and not to sweat the small stuff. I live by the words of her favorite Bible verse: “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength” – Philippians 4:13

I’m extremely grateful for my family and friends, the Hefferin family, the Bishop Moore High School community, and the UCF community. Without your love and support I would not have been able to complete this academic year. Thank you and remember Ann. She was a beautiful person inside and out. Her spirit will forever live on in those who knew and loved her.

Knightnews.com got in contact with Karisa Workman, an established communications teacher here at UCF, who says selling notes has been especially popular in the Nicholson School of Communication.

“Faculty members are upset with these students,” she said. “The information a teacher presents is their intellectual property, and it’s unfair for students to be selling it.”

She goes on to explain how this could impact students in upcoming semesters.

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“Some teachers have called students into their offices individually. Some have changed their class policy. I even get the impression that teachers are complaining to the Office of Student Conduct, which could mean putting students up for academic review,” Workman said.

According to the UCF Rules of Academic Misconduct, “Selling notes, handouts, etc. without authorization or using them for any commercial purpose without the express written permission of the University and the Instructor is a violation [of UCF Rules of Conduct].”

Will we see students being more harshly disciplined for using these online marketplaces in the future? It’s very possible. Knightnews.com will keep you updated as news breaks on this topic.

If you know of anyone who has been investigated by UCF for selling notes, email us at news@knightnews.com so we can learn more about this.

Panama City Beach

This is the most popular destination for college students in Florida. It attracts tons of students from UCF, UF and FSU each year, and for good reasons. For one, the beaches are truly beautiful. On top of that, Panama City goers rage to no end. They enjoy concerts, massive beachside parties, and hitting up the many local bars and clubs at night. Last year, celebrities from the cast of Jersey Shore and The Real World and music artists like LMFAO and Roscoe Dash even showed up to party here.

Cruises to the Caribbean and Mexico

Another very popular option students are taking this year: cruises. With group rates and vacation packages available, it’s not too hard to find a cruise that fits a student’s price range. It’s obvious what goes on during these three to six day excursions: drinking, partying, good eats, and relaxation.

Cancun

Cancun is still a top choice for college students during spring break. If you want to spend your time partying it up on some of the most stunning beaches in the world, this is the place to go. Much like Panama City, there will be all out ragers by the beach and the pool that feature guest DJ’s and contests. At night, students will enjoy Cancun’s world renowned club scene. It gets crazy, and the clubs often stay open until the sun comes up. Oh, and the big kicker here? the drinking age is 18!

Miami and South Florida

Since a lot of Floridian college students hail from South Florida, many have decided to head home this spring break. But that doesn’t mean they won’t have any fun. The party scene in Miami tends to get pretty exciting during this time of year. Not only will partying on the beach be awesome (drinking is allowed) but the famous South Beach nightlife will be in full swing. DJ’s from all over the world will be heading to Miami this year to perform. The only place in south FL you’ll want to avoid is Fort Lauderdale. According to this article and some unhappy spring breakers over the past few years, Fort Lauderdale isn’t the college spring break destination it used to be.

At Medical Marijuana Bash you will find informational presentations, exciting cannabis games and prizes, and helpful NORML members to answer any of your medical marijuana questions.

In addition, Medical Marijuana Bash has a surprise guest: Elvy Musikka, one of only four Federal Medical Marijuana patients in the country, will be in attendance! Elvy is an incredible woman with an incredible story, so don’t miss your chance to meet this activist icon. Come out to Medical Marijuana Bash to play some games, win some prizes and meet great people – but most importantly – to learn about the varied and vast medical benefits of cannabis.

The event is at the UCF Student Union Pegasus Ballroom today from 11:00am to 3:00pm.

Visit NORML@UCF here: http://normlucf.com/

Enter Brian Tewes, who happened to be granted the special privilege of flaunting the inaugural Stewie head in the student section of last Wednesday’s UCF men’s basketball game against Memphis. The UCF Athletics section has been handing out various “big head” posters of Knights basketball players, as well as cartoon characters and celebrities during basketball games.

The only problem was Tewes and the Stewie head poster were nowhere to be found after the postgame madness.

“I stormed the court like everyone else and took the cut out with me similar to how the other students who were given them did,” said Tewes.  “Afterwards, I didn’t see who gave it to me so I went home with It and hung it on my wall.”

UCF premiered five cut out heads, featuring Stewie, Darth Vader, Justin Bieber, The Most Interesting Man in the World, and Daniel Tosh.  During the circus that followed, collecting the heads was not easy.

“We went through the crowd to collect them and realized that Stewie was missing,” said Assistant Director of Fan Development Samantha Nemeroff.  “We thought it wasn’t going to be found, but by chance, our intern’s friend was taking pictures for Valencia’s newspaper and had taken enough of the crowd for us to spot him.”

Nemeroff and the UCF marketing team decided to make the search for the Stewie head fun by making a themed wanted poster of Tewes with a Wild West flair.  It featured several shots of him throughout the game with the Stewie head and offered a reward for its safe return.

Not even 15 minutes after the pictures were posted, with the help of UCF Nation, the culprit was found.  Dan Antonino, or “Knight Fan Dan”, is a friend of Tewes and spotted the picture of him as soon as it was posted on Facebook.

“I called him as soon as I saw it and posted a link to his Facebook of the picture,” said Antonino.  “Seeking the prize, I went with Brian to return the head and was awarded three t-shirts.”

The cut out heads of celebrities and cartoon characters was inspired by an Indiana Hoosiers basketball game that the UCF marketing team had watched.  The cut out heads are traditionally used to distract the opposing team during free throws and are a way of making the crowd even more raucous.

“Our goal is to have those five heads showcased at every game, but we encourage students to make their own as well,” said Nemeroff.

The marketing team is calling for even more crowd participation with the cut out heads and will look to collect them prior to the games completion to ensure this mishap does not happen again.  As for Tewes, he is happy things have returned to normal as his time as a UCF outlaw was short, but exciting.

“I couldn’t believe they went to such an extent,” said Tewes.  “It was very creative getting the poster out there, and this was definitely one of my best college moments so far.”

UCF will play their first home game since the Memphis thriller Saturday against Southern Miss at 7 p.m., where Stewie and the gang will make their triumphant return.  Hopefully this time he’ll make it home without any trouble.

Several key issues being rallied against included rising tuition at public universities, cuts to the Bright Futures Scholarship program and the passing of bill HB1355 which is said to hinder students’ ability to vote.

Check out the video of the “Occupy UCF” protesters trying to make their point.

KnightNews.com found out why — a car was engulfed in flames on Alafaya Trail, north of University Blvd.

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KnightNews.com is working to find out how this happened, if there were any injuries during this fire and who owns the car.

Check back for updates, and remember to email us breaking news photos or video to news@knightnews.com. You can also text us tips to 407-5-tip-UCF.

Eight Republican Presidential Candidates met in Tampa, FL last night in what became a very heated debate.

For the eight contenders, this was sure to be a debate filled with fireworks, and it was. For the CNN Tea Party Debate (second debate in less than a week), this was expected to be a fight between the two front runners, and it didn’t disappoint.

Rick Perry and Mitt Romney showed that this race is about them, and that it is most likely to stay that way throughout the primaries. CNN did a good job with getting the candidates to actually debate each other.

With past debates, moderators would ask the question and the candidate would respond, last night was different. Wolf Blitzer, who was the only moderator of the evening, did a good job allowing the candidates to go back and forth, truly debating with one another.

How did the candidates themselves fare?

Mitt Romney: Governor Romney didn’t have a spectacular night, but he didn’t need to. He came in to the debate polling second behind Rick Perry. During the debate, Romney hit Perry hard on the executive order he signed in Texas which required girls to get the Gardasil Vaccine, which is proven to prevent some forms of the Human Papilloma Virus.

At one point, Romney was forced to defend his mandated health care program in Massachusetts. The other candidates pressed him on the fact that President Obama’s health care reform legislation was modeled somewhat off of the Massachusetts Plan. Romney has to continue doing what he is doing, because for the most part, it is working.

Rick Perry: Rick Perry had the toughest night out of the eight candidates. He was forced to defend his record on just about everything, including the HPV Vaccine, and immigration.
In my opinion, Governor Perry came into the debate the front runner, and he left the debate as in the front of the pack as well. The crowd had a mixed night with Perry, but they know they he is the best candidate for the Tea Party. Even though some things on his record are questionable, he has the record as Texas Governor that would make him a formidable candidate against Obama.

Herman Cain: Cain the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO had a strong showing on the night. He once again showed that he is the anti-politician candidate. For the most part it resonates with voters. He continues to bring up his 9-9-9 economic plan, which he says is the best way to get America working again.

Michele Bachmann: Probably had the most to gain from last night’s debate, and she did. Coming into the debate, Bachmann lost most of her numbers in the polls. After Perry entered the race last month, her poll numbers have been steadily dropping. She hit Perry the hardest out of any candidate on the stage. They will continue to duke it out until the Iowa Caucuses roll around, unless she starts losing money and is forced to drop

Newt Gingrich: Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich continued to show what a policy heavyweight he is. When Blitzer asked him a question, he was ready to go immediately. Newt knows he is unelectable and has no chance at winning the nomination, but when he speaks there is no other person that I would rather see up against Obama that Gingrich. Another thing I love about Gingrich is that he refuses to attack the other candidates. In the MSNBC debate last week, the moderators tried but he wouldn’t bite.

Rick Santorum: Former Senator Santorum had one of the strongest performances of the night. As a candidate with little chance of getting the nomination (he is starting to realize that) he showed that he was going to hit the front runners, hard. He hit Perry hard on the HPV vaccine, and immigration. Santorum at this point is trying to make a case for Vice President, but it’s still way too early to be talking about that.

Jon Huntsman: Huntsman once again proved how irrelevant he is in this race. On some policy questions, he showed that he could hang with the rest of the field, but unfortunately Huntsman tried to be a comedian, and it fell flat. Huntsman is consistently polling between 1 and 2 percent in polls, and he is going to stay in the basement for the foreseeable future.

Ron Paul: I will not waste your time writing about Ron Paul. Last night he alienated everyone who isn’t on the Ron Paul Crazy Train. He basically blamed 9/11 on the United States. From what I could tell, it was the only comment of the night that received audible boos.

As a Republican, I couldn’t be happier about this field. If Obama keeps going in the direction that he is going, any of these candidates could beat him. For the time being though, we will look at Romney and Perry and assume that this is a two man race.

The next debate will be broadcast by Fox News, and will take place at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando.

When I first got into journalism, I was excited to dig into investigative journalism and work through different public information officers and sources to get the truth for the students. Unfortunately, I went on to find out that those aren’t always the stories I would get to report.

There is nothing worse for me than to have to write about someone young dying. Especially when alcohol may have been involved, and in some cases, the death could have been avoided, like in a DUI crash.

Whether it be the recent death of John Grosso, who we later learned was over the legal limit, or even Chelsea Torres, who died in an accident on her 21st birthday in a wrong-way crash, these accidents could have been avoided.

I applaud UCF for requiring new students to take a course on alcohol education, but in all honesty it’s not enough — just like the task forces of police that raid bars aren’t enough. As students, we need to look out for each other. The students are going to be the ones to solve this problem, not the administration or the police forces.

At the same time, the recent action to suspend all “wet events” by the UCF Greek Council is one of the worst decisions anyone could make. This wont stop people from drinking, it’ll stop fraternities and sororities from registering their events with alcohol. That means instead of having all the tough measures about security, and steps to check ID’s to prevent underage drinking, there will be more under-the-UCF-radar house parties and pre-games, where underage drinkers will have an easier time getting to alcohol.

Remember when US government officials tried prohibition in the 1920′s? How did that work out for them?

We all think that something so tragic can’t happen to us, until it’s too late.

I also want to make another thing clear: Medical Amnesty can save lives and it’s a shame that the University of Florida has it, but the state’s largest university here in Orlando doesn’t.

The University of Florida describes its Medical Amnesty Policy as this: “The Medical Amnesty Policy is designed to encourage students to make responsible decisions and seek prompt, professional, medical assistance and treatment in serious or life-threatening situations that result from alcohol and/or other drug abuse such as alcohol poisoning or drug overdose. MAP seeks to diminish fear of disciplinary and conduct sanctions in such situations and to encourage individuals and organizations to seek needed medical attention for students in distress from alcohol and drug use.”

Medical Amnesty would help make it easy for students to call 911 when their friends have too much to drink, or may take an illegal substance, instead of putting off the potentially life-saving call because they’re afraid of the consequences their friends may face for it. We should remove the obstacles that get in the way of saving lives like others in the state, because nothing is more valuable than life.

To sum it all up, in this journalist’s opinion, Student Government officials should work with the Golden Rule Review Committee and Vice President of Student Development and Enrollment Services Maribeth Ehasz to catch up with other state universities and enact a Medical Amnesty Policy. Greek Council should end its ban of all safely organized and registered “wet events,” and students should learn from the tragedies of the past to help solve this major issue affecting universities across the nation.

Although we don’t know whether Ann had too much to drink that night or not, we know her death has caused our campus to reconsider how we deal with the college drinking problem faced across the country. We owe it to Ann to make the right changes, in our personal choices and at the university-level. Changing policies to make the UCF drinking situation even more dangerous than it is only makes this tragic situation worse. But enacting Medical Amnesty to truly make students safer, will help Ann’s impact on UCF last forever, even though her time on campus was much too short.

It’s time we all stand up and do the right thing — in honor of Ann.