Sing Song is back for some fun in the sun. The “Sing Song Vacation” theme will give fans a two-and-a-half hour break from the busyness of their lives to relax under a beach umbrella. Crowds will fill Moody Coliseum to watch the 10 social clubs and six mixed voices acts perform acts ranging from TV remotes to the Wiz- ard of Oz. “This show is all about fun,” said Tom Craig, director of student productions. “We’re trying to give people a break from all the stresses of the day-to-day.” The six hosts and hostesses will perform hit songs by the Go-Go’s, Chicago and the Beach Boys, among others, each of which will have a direct relation to the theme. Craig said the talents of the hosts and hostesses have meshed and blended to- gether extremely well, and the variety of musical styles will make for a very enter- taining show. “They’re going to give us some great shows,” he said. “They’re looking really good.” Craig said the upstage acts will also have a greater emphasis on creatively relating their performances to “Vacation.” “On Friday night, the judging category is originality,” Craig said. “The theme element in the originality category is weighted more heavily. Elements like creativity in general went down for connection in theme to go up.” Saturday night’s show sold out on Wednesday. The Saturday afternoon show Abilene Christian University Pages 4A - 5A inside Pages 3B, 7B-8B Page 6B Pages 4B-5B For news from around campus, turn to: Despite shortcomings, CORE is worth the investment Five Score and Seven Years Ago: A look at how much campus has NEWS OPINION FEATURES acuoptimist.com See more shots of “Sing Song Vacation” on our website and Flickr page PHOTOS friday, february 17, 2012 2 SECTION, 18 PAGES Judging elements encourage upstage acts to incorporate more of “Vacation” theme And the Winner is ... Hal Hoots returns to predict winners and runners-up ALL I EVER WANTED VACATION above photos by mandy lambright chief Photographer Mark Smith editor in chief vol. 101, no. 37 friday, february 15, 2013 2 SECTIONs, 16 PAGES Page 6A Sing song News Band Director to play iPad in show Zeta Rho surprises competition with baked goods Rec Center becomes green room Hosts, hostesses ready for shows Three men going for sixth, seventh Sing Song victories Alpha Kai to defend first title Page 6A Page 3A Page 7A Page 6A Page 3A Tom Craig director of student productions This show is all about fun. We’re trying to give people a break from all the stresses of the day-to-day.” “ see theme page 8b stephen reyes staff Photographer mandy lambright chief Photographer mandy lambright chief Photographer mandy lambright chief Photographer
Transcript
Sing Song is back for some fun in the sun. The “Sing Song Vacation” theme will give fans a two-and-a-half hour break from the busyness of their lives to relax under a beach umbrella. Crowds will fill Moody Coliseum to watch the 10 social clubs and six mixed voices acts perform acts ranging from TV remotes to the Wiz-ard of Oz.
“This show is all about fun,” said Tom Craig, director of student productions. “We’re trying to give people a break from all the stresses of the day-to-day.”
The six hosts and hostesses will perform hit songs by the Go-Go’s, Chicago and the Beach Boys, among others, each of which will have a direct relation to the theme.
Craig said the talents of the hosts and hostesses have meshed and blended to-gether extremely well, and the variety of musical styles will make for a very enter-taining show.
“They’re going to give us some great shows,” he said. “They’re looking really good.”
Craig said the upstage acts will also have a greater emphasis on creatively relating
their performances to “Vacation.”“On Friday night, the judging category is
originality,” Craig said. “The theme element in the originality category is weighted more heavily. Elements like creativity in general went down for connection in theme to go up.”
Saturday night’s show sold out on Wednesday. The Saturday afternoon show
Abilene Christian University
Pages 4A - 5A
inside
Pages 3B, 7B-8B Page 6B Pages 4B-5B
For news from around campus, turn to:
Despite shortcomings, CORE is worth the investment
Five Score and Seven Years Ago: A look at how much campus has
NEWS OPINION FEATURES
acuoptimist.com
See more shots of “Sing Song Vacation” on our website and Flickr page
ACU Theatre presents its winter musical comedy, [title of show] in Fulks Theatre Feb. 15-16 and 22-23. For tickets, call 325-674-2787.
Spots are still available on Spring Break Campaigns go-ing to various locations. For more information contact Liz Lurz at [email protected], Wil-son White at [email protected] or stop by the SBC office in Bible 322.
Order your official Abilene Christian University ring at the Campus Store Feb. 15-16 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
The 6th annual Student Art Contest for Summit is open for submissions. The ACU Ministry Events Office calls any current ACU student to submit their original art-work, photography, drawing, painting or other creation to visually communicate the 2013 Summit theme: Mar-gins. Submissions must be received digitally to [email protected] by Feb. 15. One se-lect work will be awarded a cash prize of $100 and used to advertize the 2013 Sum-mit.
Abstract submission for the Undergraduate Research Festival is now open. The 5th annual ACU Undergradu-ate Research Festival will be Apr. 4-5. To submit your ab-stract or get abstract writ-ing tips and information on the review of abstracts go to the Research Festival Blog at blogs.acu.edu/researchfest.
The ACU Career Center is now on Pinterest. Go to pin-terest.com/acucareercenter to begin following the boards from the ACU Career Center Pinterest today.
Submit your poetry, short fic-tion, nonfiction, photogra-phy and other art works to The Shinnery Review, ACU’s undergraduate literary arts magazine, for a chance to be featured in this spring’s edition. Email submissions to [email protected]. Deadline for submissions has been moved to March 15th.
The ACU Wind Ensemble and Concert Band concert is Thursday, February 21st at 7:30 p.m. in Cullen Auditori-um, featuring music by inter-nationally recognized com-poser-in-residence Carter Pann. Admission is free.
2/05/2013 9:24 a.m. ACUPD responded to an auto-pedestrian accident involving 2 ACU students at EN 16th and Campus Court. 2/06/2013 2:49 p.m. During an ACUPD traffic stop the driver was found to have an active warrant. The driver was arrested and taken to the Taylor County Jail. 2/06/2013 4:55 p.m. A student reported the theft of his bicycle from inside the Don Morris Center. The theft took place within a 30 minute time span.
2/08/2013 5:00 p.m. An ACU student reported criminal mischief [multiple key markings] of her vehicle while it was parked in the Big Purple lot from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. 2/11/2013 4:17 p.m. ACUPD received a re-port of a suspicious male in a truck adjacent to Lunsford Trail. Investigation revealed that the male had been urinating inside his ve-hicle in view of passing witnesses. He also had an outstanding municipal warrant; he was arrested and transported to the Taylor County Jail.
Chapel checkup
The Center for Inter-national Education is looking for conversation partners for interna-tional students to practice English, conversations and cultural learning. Partners meet for one hour each week at a time and place determined by the partners. For more information contact Laura McGregor at 325-674-2821 or [email protected].
Rescue the Animals is seeking volunteers to take pictures and videos in preparation for the launch-ing of their new website as well as maintenance of the site after the launch. This opportunity is open Mon-day, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. For more information contact Kathy Walker at 325-677-7722 or [email protected].
The National Center For Children’s Illustrated Lit-erature is looking for vol-unteers to greet patrons, assist with art activities, sell
books and make visitors feel welcome. Help is also needed for special events like Artwalk and exhibit openings. The NCCIL is lo-cated at 102 Cedar St. For more information on times and dates contact Debby Lillick at 325-673-4586 or visit: http://www.nccil.org/index.htm.
The Food Bank of West Central Texas needs volun-teers to help sort and stock food and other items any weekday Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. The Food Bank is located at 5505 N. 1st St. For more information contact Janice Serrault at 325-695-6311 or [email protected].
The House That Kerry Built is looking for volunteers to assist in the day care of medically fragile children any day Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. or 3 p.m. - 5 p.m. Contact Keith Loftin at 325-672-6061.
The International Rescue Committee is seeking volunteers to work with
refugees who recently moved to the U.S., teach-ing English, helping with homework and mentoring. Contact Susanna Lubango to make an appointment at 325-675-5643.
The Covenant Place of Abilene is seeking volun-teers to lead singing and/or play piano for residents. For more information contact Ann Erwin at 325-793-1144.
University Place is seek-ing volunteers to help with the resident birthday party for residents the third Wednesday of each month at 2:30 p.m. For more information contact Linda Tijerina at 325-676-9946..
The Abilene Public Zoo is seeking volunteers to help clean/feed animals, assist zookeepers and assist with educational classes any weekday any time be-tween 12 p.m.-4 p.m. They are also seeking volunteers to help with general labor such as grounds cleanup and painting any weekday at any time between noon and 4 p.m. For more infor-mation contact Joy Harsh at 325-676-6487.
The CAC Department is seeking volunteers to participate in Special Olympics, by helping men-tally/physically challenged people play games and sports Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. For more infomation contact Angel Seca at 325-690-5235.
For additional volunteer opportunities visit: www.acu.edu/campusoffices/ccsl/ministry-service/vol-unteer-opportunities/
Weekly Stats for week of Feb. 5-FEB. 12
Abandoned VehicleAccident Administrative activity Alarm AssistBicycle patrol Building lock/unlock Check building Citation IssuanceCriminal Mischief Criminal trespass warningEscortFoot PatrolFound PropertyInformation report Investigation follow upLost property Medical EmergencyMental health concernMonitor facility/lot
Motorist assist: Jumpstart Other UnlockNoise violationOtherParking lot patrolParking violation Patrol vehicle: Maintenance Refuel Prowler Random patrol Report writing Suspicious activitySuspicious personTheft (non vehicle) Traffic stop Welfare Check
Total Events: 253
friday 02.15.133A sing song
SWRC serves as holding area for students
Gyms A - C in the Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center are currently re-served for Sing Song, while other facilities are ready for many visitors.
The three gyms will serve as a holding area for all the upstage groups.
“The [performers] wait
there until it’s time to warm up, then they move to the concourse, go on stage, perform, then re-turn to the gyms to wait for the finale,” said Tom Craig, director of Student Activi-ties and Productions.
“Having a space like the gyms is of great value to us because it’s the only space large enough where we can assemble a cast of 1,500 and rotate them on and off stage,” Craig said. “And it’s fun. In
the gyms you get to visit with your friends.”
The gyms will be closed Thursday through Saturday but will reopen Sunday.
“For as long as Sing Song has been in Moody Coli-seum, we’ve used the gyms in this way. We call it the Sing Song rotation…moving from the gyms to the con-course to the stage and back again,”said Craig.
The rest of the SRWC, however, is open to visitors.
They will be hosting an open house Thursday through
Saturday. Joel Swedlund, ex-ecutive director of the SRWC,
said visitors can sign in to the guest registry and give them-selves a tour of the center or an employee of the SRWC may take them on a guided tour. Visitors are also wel-come to come and utilize the facilities to exercise for free. Any non-ACU student must sign a waiver prior to work-ing out. This will allow them access to SRWC classes or use of the equipment.
“Any age can come in and tour,” Swedlund said,
“but [visitors] must be over 18 to workout, unless it is during family time.”
Family time is Saturday 9a.m. - 3p.m. and Sunday 3 - 5p.m.
Sing Song is a very busy time for the SRWC, but they are excited to wel-come visitors and be a part of such a rich tradition.
Kaios prepare to compete after last year’s victory
After winning their first Sing Song title in club his-tory last year, the women of Alpha Kai Omega are once again practicing cho-reography, decorating cos-tumes and singing their hearts out.
Kylie Hanna, senior English major from Van-couver, Wash., is the direc-tor of the Alpha Kai Omega Sing Song act. Hanna said the act has about 75 wom-en participating.
Alpha Kai’s act last year caught the audience’s atten-tion with six costume chang-es. Hanna said they wanted to do something different this year.
“We felt like that was something we did and we didn’t want to do that again, so we decided to go in a dif-ferent direction,” she said.
This year the club will be portraying the life of a T.V. re-mote control.
Hanna said she didn’t think about becoming the club director until she was approached with the offer. She said, as director, there have been many good mo-ments.
“The moment that the music finally clicked for the girls was really awesome,” she said. “Just the realiza-tion of it all coming to-
gether was really awesome, and I couldn’t do it without the girls because they have been so encouraging the whole time, and it’s just been really great to work with these girls.”
Lydia Miranda, sopho-more elementary education major from San Antonio, is participating in Sing Song for the first time. She said her first Sing Song experi-ence with Alpha Kai has been “awesome.”
“Everybody said I was go-ing to be tired,” she said. “I’m not feeling it yet; that’s prob-ably going to change this week. I’m sure I’ll feel it later, but it’s been a lot of fun.”
Miranda said she chose to participate in Sing Song be-cause she has been involved in music her whole life. She said her grandfather directed several Sing Song shows and she grew up going to Sing Song. She said she is “excited to finally be a part of it.”
Rachel Easley, junior psy-chology major from Belton and president of Alpha Kai Omega, said last year’s vic-tory was one of the best mo-ments of her life.
“I still get goosebumps thinking about it,” she said. “We actually just went and watched the video like, three times last night, so I still think about it all the time. Good times.”
Because of the victory last year, Easley said she feels Al-
pha Kai has a lot to live up to this year.
“It was such a great expe-rience,” she said. “I think one of our big goals is just to be competitive and to be proud of our act and to glorify God through that. So that’s going to be our goal and our mis-sion and I hope we have a lot of fun up there, but it’s defi-nitely intimidating following last year, but I am really excit-ed and looking forward to it.”
Abigail Talley, junior bi-ology major from Tanga, Tanzania, and vice presi-dent of Alpha Kai Omega, said she is excited because this year’s act is different from the winning act last year.
“Even though we have good memories from last year and winning, it’s re-ally exciting, this new act and new director. I think people do have high expectations, but I think that’s a good thing because that’s making us work harder this year.”
Talley said this year’s act is coming together well.
“It’s always chaotic and you kind of panic when it’s the last practice and it’s like, ‘Oh my goodness we don’t have this.’ But it’s all coming together really well and I’m very very excited about the end result.”
Kylie Hanna, senior English major from Vancouver, Wash., leads Alpha Kai Omega in its Sing Song perfomance Wednesday night.
What was originally sup-posed to be a trumpet solo transformed into a technology showcase for the Jazz Ensemble in this year’s Sing Song perfor-mances.
Derek Brown has been the director of jazz stud-ies for over four years and is directing the Sing Song band for the fifth time this year. After discover-ing the app Bebot, Brown decided to use his iPad to recreate a tune from “Good Vibrations” during a Beach Boys medley. Be-bot acts as a synthesizer, mimicking an electronic instrument known as the theremin.
“The app is pretty fun to play with and re-ally simple to use,” said Brown, instructor in saxo-phone and music theory. “You just slide your finger left or right to alter the pitch, and up and down for the volume.”Brown said it didn’t take him
long to add the solo to the medley.
“It didn’t really take any extra rehearsal time to add this,” he said. “In the future, with the way popular music seems to be headed, I could see us experimenting more with electronic instruments or effects.”
Brown will be perform-ing the solo in each Song Song performance during the first song after inter-mission.
“It’s just a short little solo, but it’s a pretty fun little effect,” Brown said.
friday 02.15.13 6asing song
mandy lambright chief Photographer
Members of Zeta Rho bring back the fanny pack during Wednesday’s performance.
ZP spreads cheer in the form of cookies
Zeta Rho continued its ef-forts to bless other clubs on campus through cook-ies last week. Each wom-en’s social club received an assortment of cookies on Feb. 6 during Sing Song practice, courtesy of two Zeta Rho members.
Sarah Holley, a sopho-more social studies for sec-ondary education major from Spring, was one of the Zeta Rho members to deliver cookies.
“It’s a Zeta Rho tradi-tion to bring cookies dur-ing pledging and Sing Song because we want to bless other clubs and we do that
through cookies,” Holley said.
The women in all the so-cial clubs had a positive reac-tion to the Sing Song practice interruption. “They applaud-ed us and everybody said thank you,” Holley said. “It’s one of the things we’re known for, and it’s really fun.”
Lori Eddy, a junior speech pathology major from San Antonio, and a member of GATA social club appreciated the cookies brought by Zeta Rho.
“Cookies make every-thing better so it was a wel-come break from singing and songing to stop and have a cookie,” Eddy said.
The foundation of Zeta Rho is one of service. The club started the tradi-
tion of baking cookies for other social clubs during its first semester back on campus last Spring during their pledging.
“We want to be a club that blesses other people
and other clubs, and this is one of the ways we do that,” Holley said.
This semester Zeta Rho continued this tradition
despite having its own Sing Song act.
Other clubs notice the way Zeta Rho has gone out of its way through de-livering cookies.
“I though it was really sweet of them to take time out of their busy sched-ules to make cookies for all of the clubs,” Eddy said.
Men’s social clubs have not been left out of this tradition. All the men’s clubs recieved their own cookie assortment from Zeta Rho later on in the week during their Sing Song practices.
Jazz Ensemble director uses iPad app to create unique solo
On Saturday, ACU police of-ficers will be stationed in parking lots across campus to help bring order to chaos.
Tom Craig, director of student activities and pro-ductions, said Sing Song will bring thousands of guests to ACU.
“Friday night, Sing Song will bring about 2,000 guests to campus,” Craig said. “The Saturday 2 p.m. show will bring about 3,600 guests to campus. Saturday night, we’ll have about 4,400 guests.”
ACU police have been tasked with parking duties. Lieutenant Randy Motz has been working for ACU for nine months. This will be his first Sing Song.
“The good news is Sing Song is very well attended. The bad news is we only have a limited amount of parking spaces,” Motz said.
On Saturday, portions of the Teague and Big Purple parking lots will be sectioned off for VIP, valet and handi-capped attendees. An ambu-lance will also be stationed in Teague in case of an emer-gency.
“Saturday’s really chal-lenging because you have an earlier show and you have the President’s Circle Dinner in between that show and the evening show,” Motz said. “You have a lot of moving parts.”
Motz said drivers may want to drop off elderly or handicapped individuals at Moody before parking. He also said it would be helpful for students and young adults to park farther away.
“I just really would like to ask and encourage the younger people to consider parking farther away from Morris and Big P and some of those areas that are close to Moody, so as to allow senior citizens to park a little closer,”
he said.Motz said attendees
should park only in desig-nated parking spots to ease traffic congestion.
“If they start parking out-side of designated parking spots, it starts clogging up those lanes and makes it dif-ficult for people to get in and get out,” he said. “Not every-one’s going to get the parking spot they want. Obviously, if you arrive early, you’ll have a better chance. If you arrive five minutes before the show, it’ll be more difficult. Some will have to walk.”
Motz said both officers and attendees should be pa-tient and courteous to keep the process as smooth as pos-sible.
“The biggest thing is it’s Sing Song. Have a good time,” Motz said. “Arrive early, be patient on the way out.”
Nathan Nix, junior computer science major from Austin, solos on the saxophone mid-song.
Visitors bring police parking challenges
derek browndirector of jazz
studies
The app is pretty fun to play with and pretty
simple to use.”“
Joshua Garciamanaging editor
Three seniors going for golden runs
Depending on the results of this year’s performanc-es, these three seniors could become some of ACU’s most winning stu-dents ever.
This year Lucas Alde-rete, senior family studies major from Taylor, Bobby Kyle Holden, business marketing major from Frisco, and Matt Sand-erson, marketing and finance major from Lub-bock, have the chance to be a part of their sixth and seventh winning Sing Song acts.
These three have been a part of their class act since their freshman year, as well as Gamma Sigma Phi club act, since the three pledged in 2010.
“If we win both this year, we’ll have gone sev-en for seven,” said Alde-rete. He went on to say, “With practice time alone, we will have put in three hundred hours for Sing Song, not including plan-
ning, costumes or dress rehearsals.”
Not only would a win this year be a unique ac-complishment for these three, it would also be big for the senior class act as a whole.
“If the senior class wins, it will be the sec-ond time in ACU history for a class to have a clean sweep” said Tom Craig, di-rector of student activities
and productions.The last time a class
won outright four years in a row was from years 1995 through 1998 according to the Past Winners page on ACU’s website.
“When you put it that way it makes it pretty ex-citing. Around this time we’re kind of tired of prac-
tice, but once the perfor-mances come around, you just have to leave it all out on the stage,” said Alde-rete.
Not only has the se-nior class won the past three years, GSP has been a dominant force in Sing Song throughout the past decade, having won ten times since 2000. If both the senior class and GSP can pull out a win this
year, Alderete, Sanderson, and Holden “…will be in a very elite group if they can achieve that status,” said Craig.
Lucas Alderetesenior family studies major from bobby
If we win both this year, we’ll have gone seven for seven. With practice time alone we will have put in
three hundred hours for Sing Song, not including plan-ning, costumes or dress rehearsals.”“
friday 02.15.137A arts
Hosts, hostesses to take audience on trip to remember
With Sing Song week upon us, the host and hostesses practice late into the night - perfecting their pitch, preparing their choreography and performing their parts. In the blur of their busy week, the stars share their experiences.
The 2013 Sing Song host and hostesses consist of six students, all with unique styles and personalities combined to create a one-of-a-kind show.
Austin Anderson, junior biochemistry major from Flower Mound; Abbie Boyd, junior early childhood education major from Austin; Bree Hembree, junior vocal performance major from North Richland
Hills; Jace Reinhard, senior theatre major from Greenville, Ill.; Amanda Jarufe, senior theatre major from Coppell; and Jarrett Ward, senior vocal performance major from Houston will grace the stage as this year’s hosts and hostesses.
“Life for us doesn’t stop,” Hembree said. “We have almost no breaks, but I love every minute of it. Being a music major, I already sing nonstop, but lately I have been truly consumed by it.”
Ward echoes a similar feeling.“This week has been filled with time
in the dance studio and with our vocal coach,” Ward said. “Our days are long but very productive and rewarding. It’s going to result in an awesome show.”
The host and hostesses agree the combination of voices this year is one
sure to please audiences.
“The show has brilliantly arranged music that showcases our six unique voices,” said Jarufe. “We absolutely love singing together and have a great blend. One of my favorite moments is singing in a trio with Bree and Abbie. It’s so much fun to make harmonies with their voices. Everyone should come see the show this
weekend because I promise you will walk away singing at least one of our songs.”
These students were born to perform. Both Hembree and Ward said they were singing before they could talk, and Jarufe recalled singing in home videos at age 3. This lifelong passion will be evident through the performance.
“The Optimist readers better brace themselves, because it’s going to be a wild ride,” Ward said. “I have heard all the songs a million times at this point but they still blow me away.”
This week has been filled with time in the dance studio and with our vocal coach”“
photos by mandy lambright Chief Photographer
Above: Austin Anderson, junior biochemistry major from Flower Mound; Abbie Boyd, junior earlly childhood education major from Austin; Bree Hembree, junior vocal performance major from North Richland Hills; Jace Reinhard, senior
theater major from Greenville, Ill.; Amanda Jarufe, senior theater major from Coppell; and Jarrett Ward, senior vocal performance major from Houston are this years hosts and hostesses.
Below: Host and hostesses run through Sing Song 2013 with their backup dancers
MUSICAL GETAWAY
friday 02.15.13 8Asing song
ALL PHOTOS BY mandy lambright chief Photographer
The Trojans act salutes the audience during their Sing Song act.Brock Niederhoffer, junior Ad/PR from San Antonio, leads Sub T-16 in “Sub T Style.”
Alexander Hill, junior biology major from Allen, and Kristin Holz, junior physics major from Chicago, perform during the Swing Cats’ dance.
Jessica Welshans, senior music major from Spring, directs the Sigma Theta Chi act.
The ACU softball team will play a double-header in Tucson, Arizona Friday against Grand Canyon University at 10 a.m. and Nova Southeastern University at noon.
Saturday the softball team plays a double-header against Regis College at 9 a..m and the University of New Haven at 11 a.m.
The men’s and women’s tennis teams play a double-header against Hardin-Simmons University at 9 a.m. and Western New Mexico University at 2 p.m. both matches are at the Eager Tennis Pavilion.
The women’s basketball team plays at Cameron University at 2 p.m. Saturday.
The men’s basketball team plays on the road against Cameron University at 4 p.m. Saturday.
women’s basketball
standings
briefings
Who’s Hot
Upcoming
Former ACU cross country runner Fabian Wessel-Terharn passed away earlier this week in Germany. Terharn was a German native and had returned last semester to live there.
Former ACU wide receiver Johnny Knox was released by the Chicago Bears this week. The former Pro Bowl kick returner has not played since Decmber of 2011 due to a severe back injury. Knox announced that he is retiring because of his health.
men’s basketball
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Senior tennis player Hans Hach has been on a tear to start the season. Hach’s ex-perience on the first line has showed in the early going, as he is 6-1. The Culiucan, Mexico native has put together a solid run as of late, winning five straight singles matches, all of them from the number one slot. Hach is also 6-1 in doubles matches with a couple different partners, and 5-1 when playing on the first line. The men’s team is currently 3-4 on the season, but expects to have a big year.
New logo ushers in new era ACU has revamped its ath-letics logo. After 15 years, the university has replaced the old Willie and brought in a more consistent brand for the school.
“This has been a two year process,” said Ron Hadfield, assistant vice president for university communication and editor
and graphic designer for ACU Today magazine.
“We were asked by athlet-
ics director Jared Mosley to begin a process of looking at a redesign on the universi-
ties athletics logo,” he said. “That has not been done in 15 years. He (Mosley) want-ed to do some updating and we did as well.”
“The current Wildcat we have is very detailed,” Mos-ley said. “It’s almost impos-sible to reproduce that on apparel and embroidery and it look good.”
Hadfield said the logo re-design was not a result of the move to NCAA Division I in the fall of 2013 or the South-
land Conference invitation since this process started before there was a D-I plan in place.
“We wanted to put a new face on ACU athletics and build some new energy for the fans, players and coach-es,” Hadfield said.
Hadfield and his mar-keting team in the Office of Creative Services decided to hire Rickabaugh Graphics
athletics
edward isaacssports editor
Lankford breaks ‘StangsThe Wildcats captured a huge win in Witchita Falls against Midwestern, 85-72 behind another huge night from Junior Mack Lank-ford. Lankford scored a season-high 33 points in the win, after scoring 31 points against Tarleton last Saturday.
“She [Lankford] was just in that shooter’s zone and she was amazing out there,” head coach Julie Goodenough said. “She showed a lot of tough-ness coming back into the game after hurting her ankle so I was really proud of her and of just how the overall team played.”
Lankford’s 33 points came off 10-16 shooting, including 5-9 from three-point land. She also was an impressive 8-9 from the charity strike with five steals.
Junior Renata Marquez had 14 points and 6 rebs., while freshmen Kynzie Newman and Whitney West added 10 points each. Sophomore Sadie Dickinson had 9 points in 20 minutes.
“I felt like our team was very confident coming into the game and we real-ly believed we could come in and compete against a really great team,” Good-enough said.
The Wildcats went into halftime with an impres-sive fifteen point lead, and was able to even push the lead up to nineteen with 17:39 left in the game.
MSU went on a 23-11 run after Lankford left briefly due to an ankle injury to cut the score to 64-57 with 9:31 to play. Al-though being outrebound-ed 45-24, the Lady ‘Cats were able to hold on and secure the win.
“We did give up a few runs, but the important thing is how we responded to adversity,” Goodenough said. “We were able to get
back to our playing style, pushing the pace and knocking down threes.”
The ACU win snapped Midwestern’s eleven game win streak and tied the Wildcats for first place in the LSC with Midwestern. Both teams
are 18-4 and 13-3 in the Lone Star Conference. Since the tough loss to Eastern New Mexico, the Wildcats have won three in a row, including the first and second ranked teams in the LSC.
“After every loss, we use
it as a learning experience to get prepared for the next team,” Goodenough said. “I always tell them ‘enjoy the win now, but be ready to get back to work tomorrow’.”
ACU will play their next game on the road due to
Sing Song weekend. The Wildcats will take on Cameron University in Lawton, Okla. at 2 p.m. on Sat. Feb. 6.
women’s basketball
mandy lambright Chief Photographer
Shannon Sanders takes a jump shot from the paint in Moody Coliseum against Tarleton State in a home victory.
Wake up CallOne linebacker goes down with an injury and is done for the year. A second line-backer injures his ankle; out for three weeks. The third string player suffers a concussion and is also out for at least a couple of weeks. The head coach is now forced to start play-ers he would rather not have running around the field, at least not in crucial games. Sound unrealistic? Head football coach Ken Collums and his Wildcats had to deal with a multi-tude of injuries this sea-son on the defensive side
of the ball including at the linebacker position.
It quickly became obvi-ous his team did not have the personnel to deal with a large number of injuries, especially on one side of the ball. Players had to be moved around to unfamil-iar positions to accommo-date all the mishaps. This is what life would be like at a private Christian uni-versity playing Division II football under the annual block tuition plan.The Plan
There are currently two primary pricing models used in higher education. One of these is a per-credit model, which was used at ACU before block tuition was enacted. The other is
called a block model. Un-der the block model, stu-dents pay one flat rate for tuition and they can take a block of hours within that rate. ACU’s plan is based on 30 hours and al-lows students to take up to 36 hours across an entire year for one price. Many private and state univer-sities have moved to the block tuition plan.
“We decided to do an annual block tuition plan so students could take 15 hours in the fall, 15 in the spring and six in the sum-mer and still take full ad-vantage of the block,” said Kevin Campbell, Chief En-rollment Officer. “Students
Division I
mandy lambright chief Photographer
President Phil Schubert shakes hands with D-I reps.
Edward isaacssports editor
see tuition Ipage 2b
King Felix, superstar and role model
In a time when the sports world is is focused on jump-ing to big markets and snatching up all they can, Felix Hernandez is a breath of fresh air.
Hernandez may be the best pitcher in baseball, but
because he is stuck in sleepy old Seattle, only die hard fans know about his domi-nance.
The Mariners have not been good for ten years, but every fifth day the team is worth watching because the king takes the mound.
Sure, he could have made the jump to the Yankees or Red Sox, chasing the big-
time endorsement deals. However, Hernandez does not want to relocate his fam-ily and abandon the organi-zation that drafted him.
So when Hernandez got his seven year $175 million deal, the sports world saw something incredible.
Most people will look at that contract and snear, complaining that athletes
make too much money, and they may be right.
What I saw was a man that has done everything the right way being reward-ed for his hard work.
In his press conference, a tearful Hernandez prom-ised that he would not let anyone down.
He did not throw a party with his money or parade
around like a spoiled per-son, he cried because of the faith the organization showed in him.
Thank you king Felix, for showing us what it means to be a role model in the sports world.
the block,” said Kevin Campbell, Chief Enroll-ment Officer. “Students felt that taking 18 hours a semester was too much for them to still have a so-cial life and be involved in other activities.”
The goal of block tu-ition is to shorten the time it takes students to earn a degree, ultimately sav-ing them and their fami-lies money and reducing the amount of debt after graduation. This plan also lets families know the exact amount they
are going to pay in any given year. In the past, parents would have to guess the amount based on how many hours their son or daughter was tak-ing that semester.
Campbell said the ef-fect annual block tuition has on athletics depends on the sport. Overall though, he likes what it has done for the athletes.
“It affects the sport more than it does the athlete,” he said. “The athletes that are on scholarship will be get-ting a little more now. A few of the sports have had to be more creative in how they use those scholarship dollars, but in theory it should be good for the athletes as well as the students.”
Part two of this story will run in Sunday’s issue.
friday 02.15.132b sports
‘Cats stumble in Witchita FallsThe men’s basketball team traveled to Midwestern State in hopes stealing a win on the road, but could not finish off a furious comeback, and lost 60-55.
The first half was a de-fensive battle, as both teams shot below 35% from the field. The ‘Cats went into the locker room down only five points on the road 30-25.
“I thought we played re-ally well defensively,” head coach Joe Golding said. “I think they shot 37% for the game or something so way down on their average, so defensively we played re-ally well.”
The second half started with a bang for the Mus-tangs, who raced ahead and left ACU down by as
many as 17 points with nine minutes left to play.
That is when the Wild-cat defense clamped down and the men in purple and white started knocking down some shots, spark-ing a run.
“In the second half we pressed them a little bit and sped up the game, and got some easy buckets and some open looks,” Golding said. “We just don’t have the depth to press like that the entire game, so that makes it a little tough.”
ACU chipped away at the Midwestern State lead until an Eric Lawton three-pointer knotted the game up at 55-55 with only two minutes to play.
Unfortunately, another close game slipped away from the Wildcats in the final minutes of play, and leaving ACU at 5-10 in the Lone Star Conference.
Lawton finished with a game high 17 points. El-liott Lloyd had 13 points, and his first half shooting kept ACU within strik-ing distance. Freshman Parker Wentz also had 10 points off the bench, and Dosh Simms grabbed 12 rebounds.
“Elliott shot the ball re-ally well in the first half,” Golding said. “It is tough to finish on those guys be-cause they are big and very long. We had some looks but we couldn’t finish in the first half. In the second half Parker hit some threes and
we got more open looks.”Despite the loss, the
Wildcats still have a chance to make the LSC tourna-ment with a good finish.
ACU is currently one game back in the win col-umn for a qualifying spot in the tournmanet.
The ‘Cats have three games remaining, starting with a road trip to Cam-eron University Saturday afternoon.
“We have to find a way, that is the only mindset to have,” assistant coach Brian Burton said. “These guys are playing hard and giving everything they have. We have to create some good favor so that we can get some breaks and get to Allen for the tournament.”
men’s basketball
Curtis Christian Staff Photographer
Steven Werner makes a post move in Moody Coliseum.
ACU welcomed 18 new football players to the Big Country in their inaugu-ral Division One recruit-ing class, including a tal-ented group of offensive playmakers.
The two quarterbacks head coach Ken Collums and his staff will welcome to the fold have dual threat abilities that the Wildcats have not seen in quite some time.
Will Weathers played his high school ball at Brook
Hill Academy in Tyler, while Kade Munden took snaps for China Springs High School in Waco.
“I put a premium on finding guys with the abil-ity to run and move around because we’re probably go-ing to add some quarter-back run concepts to what we do offensively as we move up,” Collums said. “Both of those guys bring that ability to the table.”
The program also found three running backs to take the rock in the fu-ture. De’andre Brown from Lewisville, Randy Gober from La Vega High School
in Waco, and transfer Her-schel Simms from Abilene High School.
Simms will not be al-lowed to play in 2013 be-cause of NCAA transfer regulations, but will suit up for the Wildcats in the 2014 season.
“All three of those guys really anted to be here, and each of them are upper-level running backs,” Col-lums said. “I’m looking for-ward to getting them all on the field and seeing what we’ve got.”
The ‘Cats also brought in a wide receiver from Lan-caster that played a couple
years at nearby Cisco Ju-nior College. Cedric Gilbert is a 6’2’’ 220 pounder that will cause problems for de-fensive backs right away.
“We haven’t had a wide receiver like Cedric, and we’ve had some great ones,” Collums said. “His ability to adjust to the ball will give the quarterback freedom to get the ball out there and let Cedric go get it.”
The bulk of the of-fensive recruiting class for ACU was offensive linemen. The ‘Cats will welcome five new faces to the O-line, including high school teammates
Austin Hisler and Riley Mayfield from Cedar Park High School.
The other three line-men are Sam Fodale from Evangel Christian Academy, Chance Rieken from Com-fort High School and Hayden Wall from Hallsville.
“What we went after in this recruiting class was length and athleticism, and we got that,” offensive line coach Sam Collins said. “All those guys are great com-petitors and they all want to be a part of an O-line that is really good.”
Now that recruiting is over, the coaching staff is in
the process of preparing for spring practice, where they will start building for their first Division One football game in the fall.
“Once recruiting is over what you have to do is start investing in the guys you have on your team,” Collins said. “Our biggest goal is to start coaching those guys and developing them. Make sure they are doing well in their classes as well as developing them athletically.”
Logo: ACU releases new look for D-Ito design the new Wildcat. Rickabaugh is located in Ohio and is one of the lead-ing design firms for col-legiate athletics programs in the country. They have worked with schools like Baylor, Ohio State, Texas, Vanderbilt and the Uni-versity of Wisconsin.
“Eric Rickabaugh did an outstanding job working with us,” Mosley said. “It was nice to be able to lean on them and not have to figure this out on our own.”
ACU began meeting with Rickabaugh in 2011. The company did market research and held several meetings with Hadfield and his team to talk about what the school envi-sioned for a logo.
“We had focus groups of more than 100 people to look at the preliminary designs that they did,” Hadfield said. “The groups
consisted of student-ath-letes, coaches, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and friends of the athletics programs.”
The official primary colors of the logo are ACU Purple and white, the same as the old logo. The official secondary colors include: ACU Gray and ACU Silver although making the sec-ondary color gray or silver is optional. Black can be used as the support color, as a background for the logos or as a trim color on apparel.
Hadfield said they have already started working
with the coaches and their uniform representatives so that they have jerseys for next season. Athletes will not be sporting their new jerseys until next fall.
The Moody Coliseum floor is scheduled to be refurbished this summer. The floor will be sanded down to bare wood and then repainted. The new Wildcat logo will be paint-ed at midcourt.
The ACU Board of Trustees plans to review and approve a revised Board Policy Man-ual in its meeting on Friday.
Dr. Barry Packer, chair of the Board, said the ex-isting manual is somewhat outdated and the Board has
been working on the revi-sion for the past six months.
“One of the positive outcomes of this revision will be that the Board of Trustees will focus a greater proportion of its time on ensuring that graduates of ACU have the capacity to think and act critically, missionally and globally,” Packer said.
Packer said the Board is ordering its policies around four categories: policies about ends and results; policies that limit the uni-versity president’s authority about methods, practices, situations and conduct; policies that indicate how governance is linked to management; and policies that dictate how the Board
itself will operate.Packer said the Board is
not radically changing its policy, but restructuring it to be more effective.
“The significance of the Board of Trustees’ impacts and potential impacts on ACU and those it serves re-quires that the Board pro-actively define and demand successful organizational
performance, not react to and ratify it,” he said. “This restructuring is intended to enable the Board to function more effectively and provide greater leadership for ACU.”
Dr. Phil Schubert, presi-dent of the university, said the students are always at the heart of the Board’s discussions, even if its de-cisions and changes don’t
initially affect them.“The students will be the
center of the conversation and the focus of the answer to the questions,” Schubert said, “But I don’t know that students will see any shift or noticeable differences.”
Enrollment for the spring is only slightly down from the fall semester, with the total number of students being reduced to 4,037 from 4,371.
The retention rate for the 2012 freshmen cohort, initially consisting of 958 students, is similarly high at 90.1%. Bart Herridge, direc-tor of student retention and services, said 75.8% of these freshmen are expected to re-turn next fall.
“Lower enrollment cre-ates financial pressure on the university due to lower tuition revenue,” Herridge said. “We are addressing these pressures in prudent ways, primarily through ex-pense savings and by not fill-ing certain open positions.”
Herridge said the admin-istration is working to not only retain current students but make the university more appealing to potential transfer and graduate stu-
dents. Numbers for both of these categories declined this fall.
“We survey every student who leaves ACU. The most common reasons identified are financial concerns, ‘fit’ with the university and that ACU does not have the stu-dent’s major,” Herridge said. “All of these are areas of con-cern for the university and we are working hard to ad-dress them.”
The total number en-rolled in fall 2011 was 4,558. However, 2011 also had one of the smallest freshmen classes in several years with only 864 enrolled. Allison Garrett, executive vice presi-dent, said a slight drop be-tween fall and spring semes-ters is normal.
“This is due to students graduating in December and also to a few students who decided not to return to ACU for the spring semester,” Gar-rett said. “A drop from the fall to the spring semester is ex-pected and something that every institution sees as part
of the normal enrollment cycle.”
Garrett said interest for next semester’s enrollment is high.
“Our admissions staff has been working hard to assure strong fall enrollment,” Gar-rett said. “While it is still too early to provide definite pro-jections for next fall’s fresh-men class, the interest level we are seeing as evidenced by campus visits and appli-cations is up over last year.”
John Daily, sophomore marketing major from Rich-land Hills, transferred to ACU this semester. He said he loves the environment.
“It truly feels like a place where people care about each other and where it’s completely normal for Christians to express their faith,” Daily said. “I feel like my teachers are at this school because they actually want to help me succeed.”
friday 02.15.133B news
New science building planned to replace Chambers
Plans are underway to con-struct a new science building on campus.
Dr. Robert Rhodes, pro-vost, led a faculty-only meet-ing on Monday afternoon to present some details on upcoming changes, also in-cluding Mobile Learning and a new master’s degree in ki-nesiology and nutrition.
Dr. Allison Garrett, ex-ecutive vice president of the university, and Dr. Jeff Ar-rington, associate vice presi-dent for Student Life, led the section on the new academic building.
Garrett said several peo-
ple on campus have been discussing the prospect with an architecture firm since a feasibility study was done in 2011, but they are still in the early stages of planning.
The new building, as it is currently foreseen, will be lo-cated where Chambers Hall is now. Chambers, which houses the departments of English and psychology, was built more than 80 years ago.
“Although Chambers is a building with a lot of history, it’s a building with accessibil-ity issues,” Garrett said.
Garrett said the early plan is that Foster Science Build-ing will be renovated to offer spaces to house other aca-demic departments. How-ever, these changes are not
going to happen any time soon.
“We are still a long time away from the start of con-struction,” she said.
Garrett said fundraising and specific department planning still need to take place before construction, which will take a while, starts. Some departments will be in temporary quarters until the project is completed.
Also during the meeting, Dr. Joe Bell, associate profes-sor and chair of kinesiology and nutrition, presented a new Master’s of Science in Occupational Therapy. If it passes faculty vote during the next week, it will undergo the accreditation process from summer 2014, when the first
cohort will start, through the summer of 2016.
“Shortly after we’ll be up for our final accreditation,” Bell said.
This would be the first Master’s degree in the de-partment.
Bell said student interest has been high, from both in-side and outside ACU.
“Our current undergrad students are very interested and we’ve received calls from people all over the place ask-ing about it,” Bell said.
Rhodes also spoke about the second phase of Mobile Learning, which will move away from iPhones and iP-ods and focus exclusively on iPads.
Meeting also details new Mobile Learning phase, kinesiology master’s degree
mark smitheditor in chief
4BFRIDAY 02.15.13
McKinzie Hall Mabee Hall The Music Building
Above: Aeriel view of campus-1930
Originally located in downtown Abilene, ACC’s growing student population called for a new location. In 1927, the current campus site first opened. Now ACU, the university has been undergoing changes ever since.
Big Tex makes an appearnace at ACU Homecoming 1955.
Last week, the United States Postal Service announced it will stop delivering first-class mail on Saturday. The new plan will go into effect Aug. 5.
In 2012, the postal ser-vice reported a $16 billion loss.
The postal service is ex-pects the change to save about $2 billion a year, the
effect might not last long.After Aug. 5, Saturday
mail delivery will cease for street addresses. How-ever, packages will still be delivered six days a week, delivery to P.O. boxes will remain the same and post offices will remain open on Saturday.
That’s the equivalent of more than 34 billion first-
class stamps.Because Congress took
too long to respond, USPS had to resort to drastic mea-sures. Instead of delivering and picking up mail six days a week, they will now only
deliver 5 days a week.If Benjamin Franklin, the
first Postmaster General, learned of the direction the postal service is heading, he’d be disappointed. With the help of the Continental
Congress, Franklin estab-lished a postal system to serve the colonies in 1775. In those days, the postal ser-vice was the sole source of long distance communica-tion. Now, letters and other
forms of personal are be-coming more scarce. How-ever, the rate of shipping packages has increased.
Stopping first-class mail on Saturdays might be a good idea to save money,
but it arrived too late.USPS should have taken
measures to save money earlier, so they wouldn’t have to restrict their service.
The postal service is a government entity. If the government were to allow the postal service to have more freedom, perhaps it wouldn’t have to resort to such desperate measures. The costumers are no longer a priority. Money is.
The new policy is an in-convenience for individu-als. Waiting for items and mail to be shipped is already annoying, but now ship-ping time will take longer. Customers who want their
mail shipped and delivered quickly will now take their business to other shipping companies.
The postal service has been delivering on Satur-day since 1863. After all that time it will be difficult to ad-just to a new schedule.
USPS’s responsibilty is to deliver the mail. While the decision may prove cost ef-fective, USPS is demonstrat-ing weekness in the face of a changing era of communi-cation and inconveniencing customers.
My Spanish teacher told me I had one of the worst Spanish accents she’d ever heard. She said this to me in front of the whole class af-ter I had answered a ques-tion. Strangely enough, my eagerness to speak in a foreign language just hasn’t quite been the same ever since.
Part of the problem is I can’t roll my tongue. This is a pretty quintessential part of the language. Arriba, rá-pido and burro are all use-less.
When people discover my affliction, they always
think they will be the one to finally fix me. Somehow they have the cure to my ailment. They make me say a certain word or noise over and over. But no one can fix me. I am beyond help. I will never be able to roll my r’s, and I’ve come to terms with the it.
For the most part.Sometimes when people
roll the ‘r’ in my name, I’m overcome with jealousy. My own name is a curse to re-mind me of my inadequacy.
Another part of my in-competence is due to my ir-reconcilable whiteness. Any
word that requires even a little bit of pizzazz dies in my mouth.
So in Barcelona, I fit right in.
One of the great things about the world is most of it can speak at least a little English. This is a selfish, Anglo-Saxon thing for me to love, but it makes my life exceptionally easier.
But of course in Barcelo-na, I encountered a number of people who didn’t speak much English. Actually they didn’t even speak Spanish.
Barcelona’s regional language is Catalan. Barce-lona resides in a territory in Spain called Catalonia. A large group from this region wants Catalonia to become a separate country from Spain. This nationalism permeates the city–flags and signs hang everywhere, people call for indepen-
dence on street corners, chants shake the stadium at football games. People are very passionate about this, and it’s contagious. You can’t help but feel a little passionate yourself. It’s frightening and exciting how infectious it is.
But the language, Cata-lan, is very similar to Span-ish, so sometimes I was forced to try and commu-nicate with my appalling accent. I’m not sure if some of the smiles I received were just friendly or were cover-ing up their deep amuse-ment.
On a scale of Charlie Brown to Beyoncé in how confident I feel about my accent now, I am definitely still a Charlie Brown.
I wish I could go back and take CORE over again. Not because I enjoyed it, but be-cause I didn’t.
The Cornerstone course for incoming freshmen is not a popular one; it especially wasn’t in the fall of 2010.
Students’ complaints ranged from the abstract foundation of the material to the sometimes uncomfort-able subject matter. Different instructors taught different materials in different ways, making students in some classes work harder for an A than others.
It was not a perfect sys-tem, and the university real-ized that. Administration lis-tened to students and made some changes.
But if the students had their way, this general edu-cation curriculum would be thrown out all together. The course requirements were reduced and courses were condensed and improved, but students still have to pass several semesters’ worth of CORE classes.
And that’s a good thing.Reminiscent of common
child-parent arguments, ad-ministration essentially told the student body, “We know what’s best for you.” The stu-dents may continue to re-spond negatively, but here’s some advice: get over it. Try to get the most out of it.
I didn’t hate CORE, but I really didn’t like it. Cor-nerstone seemed pointless and too difficult. I thought that even before I heard that other classes watched TV in class, for educational purposes apparently, while I was unsuccessfully trying to study Shakespeare.
The workload in the next
semesters of CORE weren’t much easier, but the classes became more interesting and more applicable. I went into them a skeptic, came out a better critical thinker.
The CORE Community course, which is now paired with the Identity course, brought different political philosophies to question and criticism. Ideologies, not political partisanship, de-tailed four different ways of coexisting in large and small communities. Stripped of the democratic/republican argument, the political views presented all had strengths and weaknesses.
I hated politics. I didn’t know what to think about it, other than that it just seemed like irresponsible politicians arguing about how they are always right and everyone else is always wrong.
I got a lot out of Commu-nity, more than in the other CORE classes. I learned to think for myself outside of the confining box the two conventional American par-ties have established.
The initial semester of Cornerstone had its setbacks and shortcomings, as with any new program, but it was still worth it. I wish I had giv-en it a second chance.
I’ve heard better respons-es from lower classmen. To those of you still resistant to the challenging, abstract material, give it another shot. Let it provoke new ideas and thoughts. Let it interest you, even if it doesn’t seem rel-evant now. It will be soon.
Snow, rain nor heat ... except on Saturdaysthe issue
The United States Postal Service announced it will stop delivering first-class mail to street addresses beginning in Aug.
our take
The new policy might prove cost effective, but it will cause an inconvenience to customers.
Make the most out of CORE
OXFORD COMMA
MARISSA JONES
WELL, THISIS AWKWARD
MARK SMITH
The tale of a tongue-tied traveler
hashtagACU
@tarababank @kbays11 @jwardtenor@gabersgguerra
10:11 a.m. Feb. 12
11:38 a.m. Feb. 13
1:31 p.m. Feb. 14
This will be the first year I’ve ever had plans for Valentine’s Day. Thanks, Sing Song! #IsThatAwe-someOrPathetic? #both?
@treytres3@Quarters3
11:29 a.m. Feb. 14
2:02 p.m. Feb. 13
Do I have a date for Valentine’s day? Yes. February 14th.
You know it’s #Sing-SongWeek when you are perfectly capable of dozing off during band rehearsal while playing.
About to get my first manicure/pedicure. Just one of the many things I am willing to do in the name of Sing Song.
kelly knight starting the class with singing slim shady. it’s like she read the last four hours of my mind
11:50 a.m. Feb. 13
Mark Smitheditor in chief
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Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Optimist and may not necessarily reflect the views of the university or its administration.
Signed columns, cartoons and letters are the opinions of their creators and may not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of the Optimist or the university.
The Optimist encourages reader response through let-ters to the editor but reserves the right to limit frequent contributors or to refuse to print letters containing
personal attacks, obscen-ity, defamation, erroneous information or invasion of privacy. Please limit letters to 350 words or fewer. A name and phone number must be included for verification purposes. Phone numbers will not be published.
Address letters to: ACU Box 27892Abilene, TX 79609
12:06 p.m. Feb. 1410:21 a.m. Feb. 14 Judging the guy with
Valentine’s balloons filling the back of his truck.
Brace yourselves. Single girl probs posts are coming.
Today, all my teachers are sounding like the teachers on Charlie Brown. #wawa #sing-songweek #exhaustion
Why am I more excited to see what #SubT has for #singsong13 than any other club? #Pitch-Perfect
“Remember, its not thug sing song.” -Tom Craig #singsong2013
I’m trying to think of something worse than glitter right now and I can’t.
After Aug. 5, Saturday mail delivery will cease for street addresses.”“
@em_brynn
3:50 p.m. Feb. 13Death by sing song.
friday 02.15.13 6b
FRIDAY 02.15.137B news
Dinner to include university’s top donors
Saturday night, the uni-versity’s top donors will dine as the highlight to a weekend honoring Presi-dent’s Circle Members.
This year, nearly 550 are set to attend the spe-cial annual dinner. With a meal created by Aramark chef Tony Domingue, a message from Dr. Schubert, times of thanks-giving for God’s generos-ity and student entertain-ment, university sponsors will spend an evening in ACU community and fel-lowship.
Saturday’s dinner will also feature a showcase of
student talent, with per-formances from Omega, SHADES and Sanctify dance groups, as well as students from the ACU Theatre department to perform during the din-ner.
Established in 1969, the President’s Circle is purposed to bring to-gether those strongest financial supporters and thank them for their in-vestment in the futures of the university and ACU’s students. Invita-tions to the President’s Circle are those who have given $1,000 or more in the 2012 calendar year to any initiative on cam-pus. Besides members of the President’s Circle, this
count also includes mem-bers of the Heritage Soci-ety, families who have al-ready made plans to bless ACU with a gift from their
estate.Rendi Hahn, campaign
coordinator, is part of the committee that has been planning the event for several months.
“We have so many do-
nors who are not interest-ed in recognition, but they do want to know how their gifts are changing stu-dents’ lives,” Hahn said.
“This event gives them the opportunity to meet stu-dents, hear their stories, and share time with other philanthropists who love ACU and her students. I always leave encouraged
and excited about all that God is doing.”
Zack Morgan, a senior biology major from Keller, is a member of the Student Alumni Association who will help host the event. Sixteen student represen-tatives from SAA will greet and converse with guests throughout the evening.
“It is important that the donors are able to walk away from the night with a name and a face they can associate with and know that their donations really are making a difference in the lives of individual people,” Morgan said.
Hahn said the dinner is equally beneficial for stu-dents as well.
“This encourages our
donors as they have the opportunity to meet stu-dents whose lives are changed by their generos-ity - and it blesses those student ambassadors as they see the generous hearts of our donors,” she said.
Jennifer Ellison, direc-tor of University Events, said, “This year’s event will be spectacular - but we don’t want to spoil the surprise for our guests. Let’s just say that the in-novation that character-izes ACU will be evident in every part of the dinner.”
We have so mant donors who are not interested in recognition, but they do want to know how their gifts
are changing students’ lives.”“
Pipe bursts in Edwards Hall
A busted pipe in Ed-wards Hall led to an un-expected Monday night, when the men of Edwards had to struggle against waves and gushes of wa-ter throughout the south wing.
On February 4, around 10 p.m. a simple air-conditioner leak turned into a major flood. When several students found a considerable sized pud-dle in the second floor of the south wing, physical resources was contacted while a trash can was used to contain the leak-age. Residence Assistant for Edwards, Jake Hall, junior English education major from Springtown, received calls from his residents that the seepage
was getting worse.“A physical resource
employee, who was fixing the leak, was starting to rip-off the insulation for the pipe and as soon as he did that, one of the main joints for the air-condi-tioner pipe just popped,” Hall said. “It started pour-ing down like Niagara falls.”
Matthew Bornmann, sophomore finance ma-jor from San Antonio, said, “I was about to take a walk, when a guy asks me whether I had seen the waterfall in the stair-well. I followed him into the stairwell and it is just a mess of water. I opened the door into the second floor and it was just rain-ing in that hallway. I could see and hear that a pipe had burst.”
The burst pipe was lo-cated on the ceiling of the
second floor. The water seeped through the walls into the first floor. It did not affect the third floor.
Hall said a physical resource employee had to use his hand to try to stop the flow while wait-ing for more assistance to come. A broomstick was used as a temporary plug before approximately 10-15 physical resource employees and profes-sional cleaners came to the scene. The employees and cleaners worked night and day to vacuum and redirect the flow out of the building.
Students that were af-fected received very little damage. Most of the per-sonal belongings that got wet were clothes on the floor. Moreover, Curtis Smith, area coordinator for Edwards Hall, and his wife were forced to move
out as the flood poured into their apartment.
“For as much water as there was, there was very little damage,” Smith said. “We are just very blessed for how much help there was and the little dam-age.”
Curtis and his wife stayed in a hotel for a few nights before moving back in to their apartment. Residence Life, even though there was very little damage, reimbursed those that were affected. Work has been ongoing to change the carpets in the building. Areas that were flooded were blocked off and humidifiers and fans were used to dry the ar-eas.
Student Social Work Association conducting second chance prom
The Students’ Association begins funding conference requests
SPCA celebrating 15 years of West Texas service with dinner and dance
Highland Church of Christ of Christ gives students chance to preach
Pre-law scholarships available for Texas Tech, Baylor and Pepperdine hopefuls
Images of Aging photo contest underway
The Shinnery Review accepting submissions
Director of Recruiting and student start workout group for under-priviledged kids
Chapel series serves engaged couples
Senior art majors display artwork in downtown Abilene
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Members of the freshman class act play pirate on Wednesday evening’s dress rehearsal.
ACHS building dynasty
With only a few games left, Michael Bacon, head coach for Abilene Christian High School varsity basketball team, and his players are fighting hard to make it to the state championship game for the second year in a row.
If the ACHS Panthers con-tinue with the winning streak they have right now, then in just three more rounds of playoffs, the Panthers will be on their way to the state tour-nament.
Bacon played point guard and shooting guard for the Panthers and graduated from ACHS in 2008. He be-gan coaching the Panthers last year along with assistant coaches Colby Carr and Nick Smith.
“Coaching is really the only job I’ve ever wanted to have and getting to coach at my high school is even better. It’s like home,” Bacon said.
Not many of the players on this year’s team were part
of the team last year.“Coaching this year has
been very different. We’ve had to reteach and be a little more patient, which isn’t one of my best things,” Bacon said.
The Panthers are a young team. Players who were only practice players last year have had to step up and be thrown into the fire. One player that has shown improvement is Trevor Tyson, senior at ACHS.
“My favorite thing about playing for the Panthers is the family aspect and the rela-tionships we have with each other,” Tyson said. “I know ev-erybody on the team is giving it all they have so why should I give any less.”
Despite the hardships, Ba-con constantly reminds his team there is some light at the end of this tunnel.
“If all the players stick with it and buy in, it will all pay off,” Bacon said. “Life will be pretty good if we win again.”
sports
Summit to return to New Testament with Luke
A theme has been chosen for the 2013 Summit lec-tureship. “Margins: Fol-lowing Jesus at the Edge in Luke’s Gospel” will focus on marginalized people that Jesus ministered to in the book of Luke.
Summit will start Sept. 15 and will last until Sept. 18.
“We’re picking out peo-ple at the fringe that are in this gospel and really bringing them center stage to emphasize discipleship and following Jesus,” said Dr. Brady Bryce, director of ministry events.
The past two Sum-mit themes, “Intimacy” and “Enough,” have been from the Old Testament. In 2011, the theme was from the book of Isaiah, and in 2012, from the book of Ho-sea.
“We’re due to come
back to the New Testa-ment,” Bryce said.
Summit draws crowds of up to eight thousand students and off-campus visitors yearly, and this year promises to be no different. In the past Sum-mit has attracted big name guest speakers such as Shane Claiborne and Max Lucado.
“We have a number of big name speakers this year … we will [announce] them March 7 in the Adams Center,” Bryce said.
Because the first adver-tising for Summit 2013 will take place at Leadership Summit over the weekend, there hasn’t been much in-formation made available to students.
“I haven’t heard any-thing about this coming Summit yet, but I’m sure I’ll be excited about it,” said Jake Jacobson, senior Biblical text major from North Richland Hills.
However, as the se-
mester progresses and the names of speakers are re-leased, students will have much more information made available to them.
Summit 2012 has re-ceived lots of positive feed-back, much of it directed at Walter Bruggemann and the message he was able to bring to last year’s discus-sion, as well as ideas for themes in upcoming years.
“I have been to Summit the past four years. This past year I really enjoyed Bruggemann. I went and heard him both times he spoke,” Jacobson said.
Bryce is looking for-ward to the change in fo-cus.
“I’ve been here [at ACU] for six years now, and this will be our first look at a Gospel and so it’s just really time to focus in on Jesus,” Bryce said.
A small airplane with one pilot and no passengers crashed in Callahan County, nearly eight miles northeast of Abilene, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety report. The pilot was not injured.
Frank Leroy Bell, 75, of Tuscola, was flying his 1970 Beechcraft 60, a twin-en-gine, five-passenger plane that measures less than 34 feet long, toward Abilene Regional Airport when he ran out of fuel and crashed. He was trying to land in a plowed field about half a mile south of TX-351, but hit some mesquite trees.
Four bikes have been report-ed stolen to the ACU Police Department this semester.
One of these thefts oc-curred in University Park; another occurred at the Don H. Morris Center. Two of the bikes were stolen from off-campus residences. Three of the thefts occurred in Febru-ary. ACU Police has no leads or suspects.
Six bikes were reported stolen last spring; fifteen were reported stolen this fall. Smith-Adams was a notable
problem area last semester, with half a dozen bikes hav-ing been pilfered from the residence hall’s parking lot.
No one who reported their bike stolen or missing provided a serial number. Sergeant Thomas Valdez said without a serial number, a stolen bike is almost impos-sible to recover.
“All we have is the de-scription or the make or the model of the bike, but no serial number,” Valdez said. “Bicycles are pawned or sold by pawn shops all the time, all over the city, all over the state.”
Valdez said u-shape steel
locks are harder to defeat than cables.
“Some of the other flimsi-er ones, it doesn’t take much to cut them,” Valdez said.
Lieutenant Randy Motz said students should keep their bikes locked, record the serial number and keep their bikes monitored.
“The number one person to prevent bike theft is the owner,” Motz said. “Lock it up, don’t leave it here all sum-mer.”
Most bike’s serial numbers are located on under the bot-tom bracket, near where the pedals meet. Motz said stu-dents should take a picture
of their bike and flip it over to record the serial number as well. Missing bikes should be reported as soon as possible to ACU Police.
Theme: Shows to beginis expected to fill up 80 percent of the available seats, about 3,700, in Moody, and about 2,000 people will see the Friday night show.
The winners of the men’s voice, women’s voice and mixed voice categories will be an-nounced at the end of the final show on Satur-day. Each winning group will receive $1,000 for the charity it chooses before the shows.
The Friday night show is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. and tickets cost $16.
The Saturday afternoon show will begin at 2 p.m. and tickets cost $18. The Saturday night perfor-mance, which will begin at 8 p.m., is sold out.
The shows are dedicat-ed to Lindsey Smith, the 20-year-old junior Ad/PR major from New Braunfels who died in a car accident last month.
Next year’s Sing Song’s theme will be “What About Love?” because the first night of shows will be on Valentine’s Day.
