The concert featured nine community and Bradley musicians including Shoebox Stories, the BU Jazz Combo, Gretchen Wolking and the Manchurian Incident.

“I think it [was] a really great event,” said sophomore psychology major and Vice President of the Bradley TWLOHA chapter Ashley Ellerson. “We’re helping raise awareness about the organization for suicide, depression, anxiety and all that. And I think it’s a really great way to get the group known on campus and also bring good

music to people for $3.”

TWLOHA’s mission statement is “a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide.”

Bradley’s chapter was organized at the beginning of last year and has already thrown two concert events helping TWLOHA.

“We had one [benefit concert] last year,” said Kowalczyk. “We had a really good turn out; we raised over $400. For [the] first [time] ever doing this on campus is really great.”

Junior graphic design major Kelsey Lishman helped coordinate the event and said after the success of last year’s event, they knew they wanted to host it again.

“It’s something that we started last year and we just kept wanting to do,” she said. “It’s a way to get local bands here to be heard and a really good way to raise money for the organization itself.”

Ashley Kowalczyk, the president of Bradley’s TWLOHA chapter, said she joined the chapter to support its cause.

“I’ve known about the cause for a few years after reading about it online,” she said. “Some stuff happened in my life my freshman year [that] made me want to get involved with this organization for what they support and what they’re trying to do.”

In addition to collecting an entrance fee, the organization had a merchandise table. All proceeds from merchandise sales will go toward IMAlive, a suicide crisis center.

“[I joined the organization because] I thought [TWLOHA] promoted a lot of great things,” said freshman health science major Alex Giordano.“ I liked what they were supporting and it was something I felt strongly about. When I found out that Bradley had a chapter on campus, I was excited to get the chance to do more with it and promote it more.”

The 6-foot-4-inch senior from Omaha, Neb. has a quiet confidence and, despite individual success, always puts the team and program first.

Bircher has been a well-known commodity in the Missouri Valley Conference, posting a sub four earned run average in his first three years on the Hilltop. He is the Bradley active leader in almost every pitching category including wins, ERA, starts, innings pitched and strikeouts.

But it wasn’t until his strong play this summer in the prestigious Cape Cod League that Bircher began to be noticed nationally.

The ten-team league attracts the best collegiate players from around the country. In 2010, 236 former Cape Cod League players were on MLB rosters.

This summer, Bircher didn’t just compete against the nation’s best, he thrived.

Bircher led the league in strikeouts with 48 and was second in ERA. He was rewarded with all-league honors.

“It’s obviously given me a whole lot of confidence to know I can go out there and succeed against a lot of the best hitters in the nation,” Bircher said. “I’m going to try to use what I learned this spring. It was just a great opportunity and one of the best summers of my life.”

Bircher’s strong play attracted the attention of College Baseball Daily who ranked him the No. 56 player in college baseball.

“It’s an honor [to be named one of the top 100 players in college baseball],” Bircher said. “There are some fantastic players on the list. It’s a great privilege to be mentioned in the same breath as those guys.”

Over the course of his career Bircher said he has grown mentally and physically. He credits pitching coach John Corbin and his teammates for pushing him to get better.

“I’ve gotten stronger in every aspect of my game,” he said. “I’ve been able to throw harder and do more things with my pitches. It’s been a real good environment for growing in every aspect, mental and physical.”

With the 2012 season beginning today, Bircher is focused on the team and turning Bradley into a winning program.

“We have a lot of senior leadership,” he said. “We have good older players as well as some younger talent. We could really make a splash and make a lot of noise in the conference. I think our goals for this season, just like any good team, is to win. Bottom line, we haven’t had a really great season since I’ve been here. It’s time. I’m really excited to see what we can do this year.”

Bircher is all but a lock to be drafted in June’s MLB draft. He has dreamed of playing professional baseball since the first day he began playing the game as a seven year old.

“Ever since I’ve picked up a baseball and you see the guys on TV, you want to be out there with those guys,” Bircher said. “God willing, there’s going to be an opportunity for me to play and if I’m that lucky I just consider it a great blessing.”

Despite tremendous success Bircher said he isn’t concerned with creating an individual legacy in his final year as a Brave. In the end, the only thing Bircher is concerned about is the team.

“I want to make this season a turn around year so we can become a winning program,” he said. “That’s what’s more important to me.”

“Listening to the maintenance people walk around our apartment sounded like people walking through puddles outside,” she said. “All weekend our apartment smelled like toilet water.”

Last Friday evening around 7 p.m., all the first-floor apartments in St. James unit 824 began to flood with sewage, some worse than others.

“We knew something was wrong when my roommate came out of the bathroom and said there was water all over the floor,” Matheys said. “We definitely got it the worst.”

Matheys said Cambridge maintenance workers arrived to check the toilet, but when it wouldn’t unclog they had to check the sump pump.

“They had to check it and pull out whatever was blocking it, but in the process of that, our apartment got soaked,” she said. “That was around 6:30 or 7:30, and by the time we finally had a cleaning crew it was 1:30 a.m.”

After removing water from the carpet, Matheys said the maintenance crew left fans in the apartment.

“Those were there until Sunday,” she said. “But our place still smelled like toilet water.”

After returning to shampoo and suction the carpets again on Sunday, Matheys learned that Cambridge was going to replace the carpets.

“We got lucky because they were good about moving things out of our closets, so nothing was really ruined,” she said.

Senior advertising major Katie Nolan, Matheys’s neighbor, said she was concerned with the electric costs incurred from running the fans all weekend.

“Cambridge said they couldn’t really do anything about the electricity, but at least the carpets will be replaced,” she said. “Fortunately none of our stuff was ruined because we don’t have renter’s insurance.”

Cambridge Property Manager Jason Kesler said the cause of the leak was a backed up water sewer.

In that situation, Kesler said, it is beneficial for a tenant to have renter’s insurance because the complex would not be responsible for covering the cost of damaged personal items.

“But it hasn’t been brought to our attention that anything was seriously ruined,” he said.

Kesler said the company will continue to do follow-ups on the apartments.

“We are going to go in and replace the carpets in two of the apartments, and the other two should be fine,” he said.

As for the tenants’ electric bills, Kesler said covering the cost depends on the circumstances.

“That’s something we would discuss on a case by case situation,” he said.

Kesler said a backup like that has not happened in the past.

“The tenants are frustrated, of course, but with those things you never really know when it’s going to happen.”

The Braves shot a dreadful 0-for-20 from the perimeter, connecting on no threes for the second time this year.

“We’ve been offensively challenged a lot of the year,” coach Geno Ford said. “It’s hard to play good offense when we shoot as poorly as that. We just couldn’t buy one. I thought we battled. It’s hard thing to fight through when we miss as many as we did.”

Bradley dropped to 7-21 overall and 2-14 in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Braves are guaranteed to finish last in the MVC for the second consecutive season.

“We don’t play like a last place team that’s disenchanted and doesn’t have any purpose to what they’re doing,” Ford said. “Sometimes we play like a last place team from the standpoint we just don’t score. We just don’t score.”

With 9:35 remaining in the game Bradley trailed by 18-points but managed to cut the deficit to three with just over a minute left.

The Braves did so without senior leading scorer Taylor Brown who left the game with a toe injury and played only seven scoreless minutes.

“When you’re taking away a guy that can score it’s going to make it a little tougher on other guys to get those easy open shots because they just aren’t available,” Ford said.

Sophomore Walt Lemon Jr. picked up the scoring slack pouring in a game-high 22 points. Sophomore Jordan Prosser scored in double figures with 10 points and also added nine rebounds.

Ford said the team is going to continue to work and try to improve with only three regular season games remaining.

“It’s been the best practice group I’ve ever had,” Ford said. “They come to practice and work. We’ve gotten better. You need to win and we aren’t quite able to do it. We’re hanging and we haven’t thrown in the towel. That’s all you can ask for as a coach.”

Within three months, emergency blue light phones were installed on campus. Since its introduction in 2000, the emergency phones have provided students with a sense of security.

“Emergency preparedness is always a good thing to have,” said senior physics major Ryan Crawford. “It’s better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.”

Earlier in this school year, two additional emergency blue light phones were installed to accommodate student residents living at Main Street Commons. The addition of these phones brings the total number of emergency phones on campus to 75.

Of all the emergency phones, roughly 30 of them are in high traffic areas on campus such as residential halls and academic buildings. The other 40 poles are located on the floors of parking garages and in St. James apartment complex.

Although the Bradley University Police Department is unable to retrieve usage data from the phones, Police Chief Brian Joschko said the phones are used often.

“We have had accidents recorded with the phones, and they are used for the request of services, like a jumpstart or lock out [of a building],” he said. “So there certainly is a value to having these phones.”

Joschko said even though the phones aren’t often used in emergency situations, it doesn’t mean they are not beneficial to the Bradley community.

“They allow a student or visitor a means of contact to have questions answered,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be criminal in nature or be used by a victim of a crime. It is just a means to contact authority, providing a quicker response and a sense of safety and security on campus.”

In 1999, Student Senate passed a resolution requesting the university to install 17 new emergency telephones on campus. The resolution stated that the 17 new emergency telephones would replace the 19 already existing telephones on campus.

“If we have one emergency, if it saves one person’s life or it if benefits that person, then it’s justifiable,” said Aaron Freeman, former All-School President, then student body president, in the Dec. 3, 1999 issue of the Scout. “If someone is unable to call for help, that’s a detriment. We hope to God that we never have to use it, but if it helps even one person, then it’s worth it.”

Vice President of Student Affairs Alan Galsky said safety on campus was not only a concern of Student Senate, but it was a joint concern of the Parents Board as well. He said it took about 60 to 90 days from when Student Senate proposed the resolution to when the first emergency phone was installed.

“It was like they were installed over night,” he said. “I remember walking on campus and thinking ‘Why didn’t we do this five years ago?’ It provided an immediate sense of comfort and security . . . that you could feel and sense.”

After the emergency phones were gradually installed, they were used for both emergency and assistance reasons. Because they were new they were used more often, Galsky said.

“[The phones were installed] before there was any real use of cell phones,” he said. “They were there and people were willing to use them, whereas a person today might feel that it’s just as easy to use their cell phone. I was made aware by the student body that they have been used on a daily basis.”

Vice President of Business Affairs Gary Anna said because the phones were installed at a time when no one carried a cell phone, they were used simply to get in contact with others. And that only a handful of those calls were made in the event of an emergency.

“I remember calling the office from one of the phones just to tell them if forgot something,” he said. “It was just a convenience.”

Today, all calls made to any of the emergency poles are dispatched to the Peoria City Police Department. Depending on the situation, BUPD, Peoria PD and/or the fire department will be dispatched to the location of the emergency phone.

Joschko said the department has made it a priority to respond to every call, so even if a phone is activated but no one is on the phone line, officer will be dispatched to the location.

“I haven’t used one before but [it is] beneficial,” said junior biology major Andrew Kirby. “Especially with all the muggings on campus. If your phone was taken you can use one of the [emergency] phones.”

Each phone is tested by BUPD officers once each week, not only to make sure they work, but to make sure the reception is clear, Joschko said.

Although Joschko said he is not actively pursuing to expand the program, he said adding emergency phones to off-campus streets is a place that will be evaluated because it is a central place where students reside.

“Adding emergency phones off campus is physically possible,” he said. “However in order to place a phone on someone else’s property we would have to handle legal issues and the resident would have to pay the electricity to run the [structure]. It would be a monetary investment, and not a cheap endeavor.”

The Braves are on a six-game losing streak on the road, and have lost 14 consecutive times to Illinois State after dropping an 82-63 contest Sunday.

“The final score was not indicative of what the game was,” coach Paula Buscher said.  “There were several times late in the second half when it was a four-point ballgame on a team that is tied right now for first place in the conference and also has a 23-game home [Missouri] Valley [Conference] winning streak. I feel like we were right there, we just had a lack of execution.”

Bradley trailed 59-55 with seven minutes left before the Redbirds used a 21-6 run to win the game. Senior Leah Kassing led the Braves with 17 points, while senior Mackenzie Westcott closely followed with 13. Westcott grabbed 11 rebounds to complete her sixth double-double this season.

“I think [Westcott is] playing with that sense of urgency that you want all your seniors to play with, and you need to be playing with at this time of the year,” Buscher said. “She’s really stepped it up, and she’s looking for her scoring options more and looking to attack the basket more, which is always a positive.”

With the loss, Bradley falls to a 13-12 record this season and 4-9 in conference play. The Braves sit in eighth place in the Missouri Valley and two games behind seventh.

“It’s all about placement in the tournament,” Buscher said. “But for us, I think it’s continuing what we talked about in the second half of the season, and especially trying to get clicking on all cylinders as we wind down the regular season.”

Last Friday, Bradley lost 77-60 to Indiana State. Bradley led 29-27 at halftime, but a 55 percent shooting percentage by the Sycamores in the second half cost the Braves down the stretch.

Sophomore Catie O’Leary topped the Braves with 17 points, followed by Westcott with 11.

Bradley has three consecutive home games starting tonight against Northern Iowa at 6 p.m. in the arena. Tonight’s game is the ninth annual Pink Zone game with proceeds helping benefit Komen for the Cure. Fans are encouraged to wear pink and the first 500 fans will receive free pink Bradley t-shirts.

“We just have to get over that hump and hit our stride,” Buscher said. “The only way we are going to do that is if we focus on the execution part of our game.”

Senior Director of Public Relations Kath Conver said adding charging stations is part of the university’s sustainability initiative.

“Bradley has installed three auto charging stations in the campus parking decks to serve students, faculty and staff with electric and hybrid cars,” she said. “Two are located just inside the main entrance to the Main Street parking deck. One is located on the first level of the Duryea Avenue deck near the back.”

Vice President for Business Affairs Gary Anna said the charging stations were installed over break, and are now available for use.

“We had an inquiry over a year ago from a prospective graduate student asking if we had a station,” he said. “So we decided it was better to put them now as opposed to waiting too long.”

Anna said the profit will be minimal, but that’s not the goal.

“They are more of just a commitment to sustainability,” he said.

Junior English secondary education major Kara Salmon said she would consider buying a hybrid or electric car in the future.

“I do not have a hybrid or electric car, but I could see myself buying one in the future,” she said. “I think the cost of charging stations is reasonable. If I bought one of these cars, I would want charging stations to be readily available and convenient to use.”

Vice President of Student Affairs Alan Galsky said adding electric charging stations was a logical decision because more and more companies are coming out with hybrids and electric cars.

“I think it makes sense,” he said. “In the future we are going to have more electric vehicles than we do now [on campus]. Everyone keeps saying wait another year, but sooner or later companies like Ford and GM will come out with an electric car that is more affordable. College students would be the population to buy. University people in general might be more open, willing and passionate to buy.”

Conver said the charging stations are easy to use and fairly inexpensive.

“Each station has a screen with simple user-friendly instructions and a universal standard connection,” Conver said. “All major credit cards will be accepted at the stations and the cost is 75 cents per hour for charging. A fully discharged battery can be recharged in three to four hours.”

Freshman game design major Kyle Scherner said he thinks it’s a good idea for students to have electric cars.

“I think it’s a good idea if the campus has a lot of students with electric cars, and the charging stations are in demand,” he said. “Then the school would benefit from them. But if there aren’t many drivers with electric cars, then it would be hard to make a profit [because it’s so cheap].”

Some students said they are happy Bradley is “going green.”

“Having electric charging stations on campus could give Bradley’s campus a competitive edge in terms of being economically friendly and green,” sophomore international studies major Carrie Brinkmeier said. “I think that electric or hybrid cars, while not a solution to 100 percent oil-dependent vehicles, are still definitely an improvement.”

Freshman psychology major Jordyn Cain said she agreed.

“I think having an electric or hybrid car would be awesome,” she said. “It would eliminate pollution from gas, and also save you time and money from refilling your gas tank all the time. Especially with the high prices now.”

Yes, it is definitely something that needs to be worried about.  Men secrete a small amount of fluid prior to their climax. This fluid does contain sperm, even though it is a smaller concentration, and is capable of transmitting diseases such as gonorrhea and chlamydia. This is why the pull-out method is not a very effective method for birth control.

Condoms should be worn all the time, every time. They are one of the most effective forms of birth control and they are the only protection available against sexually transmitted diseases. Condoms do have expiration dates and should not be used past these as it increases the risk of breakage. They should also be kept in a safe place where you are sure they have not been tampered with.

Condoms are now available for free on campus.  Please contact the Wellness office if you need further information on this program.

If you don’t urinate after having sex, can you really get a urinary tract infection?

The short answer is yes. Women in general are more likely to get urinary tract infections because their urethra is shorter, meaning there is less distance from the bladder to the outside world.

Women who are sexually active are at an even higher risk for UTIs. The opening to the urethra and the opening to the vagina are in very close proximity to each other. Sex can be a messy business, and the possibility exists that bacteria could be pushed up the urethra during the act of intercourse.

The theory behind urinating after sex is this flushes the urethra and pushes the bacteria back outside the body before it has a chance to take hold and create an infection. This does not mean that you have to urinate after sex to prevent an infection but it is a good precaution to take, and if you are someone who is prone to UTIs, it is strongly encouraged.

Lin is the same guy that didn’t get recruited out of high school after averaging more than 15 points and seven assists a game for a team that won a California state championship.

The same player who dominated at Harvard but went undrafted in the 2010 draft. He even scored a career-high 30 points and picked up nine rebounds against the University of Connecticut and point guard Kemba Walker, a top-10 draft pick.

Last season, Lin averaged 2.6 points and 1.4 assists a night, appearing in only 29 games and making zero starts while moving back and forth from the NBA and the Developmental League. Two teams have cut him since the end of last season.

This isn’t Tim Tebow and how he willed his team to each victory while performing below average for most of the game. This is Lin, who has scored more than 20 points and dished out more than seven assists in all five of his starts for the New York Knicks. Lin has scored 137 points through his first five starts, the most by any player since the NBA/ABA merger.

Linsanity only continues to improve after he rallied the Knicks  from a 15-point deficit and hit a 3-pointer with 0.5 seconds left in the game against the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday to give New York a three-point victory.

Of course, there are detractors. Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. tweeted, “Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he’s Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don’t get the same praise.”

Yet that’s where Mayweather is wrong. Lin is playing at a record pace regardless of skin color. College coaches never told a black basketball player as skilled as Lin that his only future was walking-on. The first time Lin went to a Pro-Am game in San Francisco, somebody went up to him and said, “Sorry, sir, there is no volleyball tonight. It’s basketball.” No player of any race in the NBA is playing as well as Lin right now.

However, not everyone is a critic. After Jeremy Lin scored a career-high 38 points to go along with seven assists against the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant said, “I think it’s a great story. I think it’s a testament to perseverance and hard work.”

No longer is Lin just a popular Asian-American basketball player. He’s the new trend in New York and across the world. His jersey is sold out, he finally moved to an apartment and left his brother’s couch, and traffic on the Knicks’ website is up 3,000 percent.

Say what you will about how long Lin can sustain the level he is playing at. This is a great story about how a guy overcame each obstacle that was placed in front of him and is now enjoying success against the best basketball players in the world.

That’s the great thing about sports. A player who can be overlooked by everybody shines at the highest level. That’s what sports are all about. Lin seized the opportunity that was given to him, and continues to produce at an all-world level.

Forget how anyone thinks Lin will perform in the future, he’s already a Linstant classic with six different endings and counting.

“We have about $60,000 to spend each semester, but with this increase we will have about $100,000,” Gotto said. “That gets us a much higher caliber of performer but with much less of a gamble.”

The last time the activity fee increased was 2008, but performers’ fees have continued to rise.

“Before the activity fee increase went into effect in 2009, it seemed almost impossible to put on a show that students would enjoy,” Gotto said. “And with this increase, it’ll be easier to get people who have a few hits right now rather than someone who might have a hit afterward or who had hits a few years ago.”

After the fall concert, which featured Taking Back Sunday and the Maine, only sold 1,810 tickets, as compared to 2,750 for Weezer in Sept. 2010 and 2,516 for Mike Posner/Jason DeRulo last spring, Gotto said ACBU had to be careful with funding.

“With Taking Back Sunday, our ticket sales weren’t so great. So we had to be much more cautious with our money for the spring concert,” he said.

But Gotto said things are looking up, especially after seeing spring performer DJ Redfoo of LMFAO at the Feb. 5 Super Bowl.

“Once that hit my radar, it was four or five days before the Super Bowl,” he said. “So it was really exciting to know that a few months after that Redfoo would be at the [Renaissance] Coliseum.”

In selecting an artist, Gotto said, ACBU looks for someone just stepping out on the music scene.

“Weezer was much bigger than any other band we recently brought in, but we’ve been really fortunate to get artists who were really fresh on the music scene,” Gotto said. “We love it when that happens, and it kind of happened with Redfoo [of LMFAO.] They’re exploding on the scene right now.”

The key is combining a well-known name with good timing and a manageable cost, Gotto said.

“We’ve been really holding out for artists who work out perfectly routing-wise,” he said.  “We’ve had to really try to get those big-name performers at a lower price.”

Director of Student Activities Michelle Whited said ACBU has been fortunate with the performers they have booked.

“We’ve typically booked performers who are at a similar caliber, and we’re lucky to get those bands just before they get huge because then their price skyrockets,” she said. “The best example was Goo Goo Dolls in 1999. We booked them right before ‘Iris’ came out. Their price skyrocketed after that, but we had already had at the lower price.”

Gotto, who moved to his new job at Northern Illinois University this week, said he is looking forward to coming back for the spring concert.

“I’m definitely excited for that,” he said. “I’ll be there to help out, but I also know it’ll be a really fun show.”

Tickets for both the general admissions pit and regular seating tickets will go on sale for students on March 26 at 8 a.m. at the arena.

Student tickets will be $10 each and every student can purchase up to 10 tickets with one ID.

Faculty and staff tickets will go on sale March 29 for $20 and general admission tickets will go on sale  April 2 for $30.