ABILENE, TAYLOR COUNTY, TEXAS. WEDNESDAY FEB. 27, 2013 Vol. 101 The World Is Full Of Beauty.–Open Your Eyes And See. Dean of students to leave ACU, student life planning reception OLD IS THE NEW NEW. Looks a bit different today, huh? One hundred school years ago, just six years after what would become ACU was founded, the Optimist was born. The front page of Vol. 1, No. 1, looked just like this one today, except the entire page was one opinion piece by Robertson Lafay- ette Whiteside, the president emeritus of the university, on the dangers and responsibili- ties of education. The headline and story de- sign style, shown below, were incorporated in later issues. In that opening column, Whiteside wrote that a college-educated person, an intellec- tual giant, without a personal duty to God can be corrupted to further his or her per- sonal gain, and as Christians we ought to stay rooted in the Bible’s teachings so we may use our education responsibly. As the reader, now 100 years in the future, flips through the rest of the eight-page issue, he or she will notice many more differences. The entire issue featured small, simple headlines and literally no photos. Ironically, many of the advertisements in that first, im- age-less issue are for photo studios and de- velopment. Nine ads for Tyson & Coffman, which ap- parently was a general store out in Clyde that sold everything from shoe repair to Japanese rugs to furniture, are thrown in in the middle of pages to separate stories. They looked just like several short news briefs, and would be confusing in today’s newspapers. “Don’t forget Tyson & Coffman when you want photos. Clyde, Texas,” read the ninth and last ad at the bottom of Page 8. The university’s president and adminis- tration used to write quite a bit of the pub- lication’s content. In other stories, they were referred to with the title “Bro.” The inside pages also included a lot of unsigned opinion, poetry and new briefs that were more brief than news. The Optimist’s editor in chief and assis- tant editors had yet to be selected at the time of that first issue, and a short piece on Page 4 called for students to apply to be on staff: “If you would like to be the editor or one of the assistant editors … you had better get on the ground early and get to work.” Also in that original issue, published on Aug. 1, before the school year started, is a call for readers to subscribe for the full year for a whopping 50 cents. It promised that the next issue would be “particularly interest- ing to all who have an interest in the school” because it would include how the semester began, school news, as well as “all the jokes concerning the students,” and would be flooded with college spirit. But we don’t know how the next issue ac- tually looked. A fire in the old administration building destroyed a lot of the college’s records in 1929, leaving us with only one issue on re- cord before 1916. Thankfully, it is Vol. 1, No. 1. It’s all very interesting, at least for those of us carrying on the tradition. Looking back on our predecessors’ work is enlightening as we see how much media, and this school, has changed over time. At the time of the first issue, the school had just started using the Abilene Christian College name, but wasn’t accredited as a ju- nior college yet. Its campus was in downtown Abilene, and fewer than 300 students were enrolled. Of course, this is impressive con- sidering six years earlier, our dear Christian college opened as the Childers Classical In- stitute, with an enrollment of 25 students in grades 1-12. However, the lede (beginning of a story) for a front page news story more than 84 years ago shows some things never change: Jan. 31, 1929: ‘Pre-Law Club Is Organized For Students:’ “A. C. C. not only has preachers, teach- ers, doctors and pretty girls; but it also has lawyers.” This front page of this edition, the first in our four-issue “Throwback Series,” is our tribute to those who did the same work in the 100 years before us. The front page design is the only change. This and our next three is- sues will still include all of our usual news, features, arts, opinion and sports coverage of the day. We’ll also include gems from past eras –some of our favorite interesting or funny headlines and stories from back in the day –on the Opinion page. After all, we do have “all the jokes concerning the students.” – By Mark Smith, Editor in Chief Tyson & Coffman for tailor work. Clyde, Texas. NUMBER 40 Senior leads class in sing song sweep, reflects on favorites campus manAgement responds to feral cat population Academics, athletics preparing for impact of division I move The World is Full Of Good. Cheer Up. Quit Knocking. Abilene Christian University Dr. Jean-Noel Thompson, vice president of Student Life and dean of students, an- nounced last month that he will leave the university in March. The Office of Student Life plans a reception for all ACU faculty, students and staff to join in saying goodbye at his farewell reception. The reception will take place on March 5 from 2:30-4:30 p.m. in the Campus Cen- ter Living Room. All guests are welcome to come and go as they please. Tina Fleet, associate vice president for Student Life, said, “The Student Life Depart- ment has prepared a presentation to honor him at 3:15 p.m.” Thompson has been the vice president for Student Life and Dean of Students at ACU since June 2007. He is joining Faulkner Uni- versity in Montgomery, Ala. as the vice presi- dent for student services. Before Thompson joined ACU he served as the vice president of student life and dean of students at Grove City College in Grove City, Pa., and as the vice president of student life at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Ariz. Thompson earned his bachelor’s degree in organizational communication from Arizona State University. He also earned a master’s degree in student affairs in higher education from Colorado State University and a doctor- ate degree in higher education and student af- fairs from Indiana University. Thompson has also taught at both the graduate and undergraduate level as an as- sistant professor at each of the institutions he has worked. Thompson and his wife, Tonya, have sev- en children and are active members of the Southern Hills Church of Christ in Abilene. “Jean-Noel has been an integral part of the ACU management team, and has done a wonderful job assembling and leading one of the best student life organizations in the na- tion,” said Dr. Allison Garrett, executive vice president. “We wish him and his family every success in this transition.” As the vice president of student services at Faulkner, Thompson will oversee the dean of students, student life/activities, residence life, career services, campus security, stu- dent counseling, intercollegiate athletics and health services. –Story by Christina Williamson Sanctify will have a Dance Benefit Work- shop in order to raise money for victims of the Jan.25 accident, Rebekah Cherniss and Deanna Romero. The workshop will be March 2 from 12:30-3 p.m. Cherniss and Romero were members of Sanctify last semester. “They loved to dance, and they loved to just be around,” said Byron Martin, director of the Office of Multicultural Enrichment. “They loved Sanctify.” During the first lesson, participants will be taught the hip-hop dance Cherniss and Romero first learned with Sanctify. The dance lesson will also have a free-styling ses- sion and a devotional. Lindsay Palmer, sophomore psychology major from Houston and organizer of the ben- efit, got the idea after hearing of the expenses Continued from Page 4 of the Feb. 22 edi- tion of the Optimist. To see the beginning of this feature on Nick Tatum, grab a copy of that issue from last week or go to acuopti- mist.com On top of directing the Senior Class, Nick Tatum, senior family studies major from Plano, also served as the assistant di- rector for Trojans this year. “I was up till at least 3 a.m. for most of Sing Song,” he said. “The last two weeks of Sing Song were particularly rough this year.” Saturday night before the curtain rose, Ta- tum gathered the senior group one last time to pray, thanking God for the four-year bless- ing of performing with the class. “It was little things like that that made being in his group so worthwhile, even more than the trophies and awards,” said Courtney McGaha. But a fourth trophy won later that evening did not hurt. Tatum said the fourth and final win that night was surreal. “I couldn’t believe it was finally over,” he said. “I was mostly pumped that the pressure was finally going to be lifted, but I was also sentimental about participating one last time as an undergraduate student.” A four-time championship felt like justifi- cation for the many, long hours spent in sing- ing, choreography, costume-constructing, set-building, said Elle Whitaker, senior man- agement major from Plano. “Having won all four years makes Sing Song into more than just a good memory, it turns the competition into a bonding experi- ence that I can’t put into words but will never forget,” she said. Even with all his hard work, Tatum makes it known the seniors’ success was not a sin- gle-handed task. “There is no way that a Sing Song director can be successful without some solid, capable assistant directors,” he said. “Our acts have been successful because of the hard work these friends have done over the past four years.” Whitaker acted as the choreographer for the class acts since freshman year, attend- ing meetings, helping with song selection, developing themes and “acted as the devil’s advocate for all of Nick’s crazy and brilliant ideas,” she said. “Moses and the plagues? No questioning and no worry. We knew Nick could show us how to pull it off. Recreate an entire film? No fear, Nick knows us well enough to help us make it work.” The group members’ confidence in their director gave Tatum’s creativity full reign in creating the routines. “If we hadn’t had him as a director all four years, I don’t know if we would have found someone willing to take the same risks and, in turn, create some of the shows to the same level as we did,” McGaha said. Even with the promise of a sweep, Tatum admits moments of wanting to switch gears by trying something else. “I’ve always wanted to be a Sing Song host, and even considered trying to direct the Trojan act during my junior or senior year,” he said. “But in the end, I decided to stick with our class acts because of the great expe- rience I knew that I would have.” His commitment to the class act was partially what led to the group’s cohesion, Whitaker said. “One of the best parts of class Sing Song over the years has been the familiarity and feeling of coming home that comes with the act,” she said. “That community has been fostered due in large part because of Nick and his consistency as a director.” ACU’s Facilities and Campus Manage- ment Department has come up with a plan to keep the campus safe from an overpopulation of cats. They are calling it the Feral Cat Ini- tiative. For many years ACU has struggled with cats wandering in and remaining on campus, but actions are finally being taken. With a new Trap-Neuter-Return program, campus management will humanely capture the ani- mals, have them spayed/neutered, vaccinated for rabies and then returned to campus. Corey Ruff, executive director of facilities and campus management, is a main advisor for the initiative. “TNR stabilizes the feral cat colonies, im- proves and protects their lives, and benefits the campus and the feral cats,” Ruff said. “Many of these feral cats on campus are the offspring of stray cats that have been aban- doned.” Ruff said Dr. Dale Hembree, a local vet- erinarian, is partnering with the program by taking the cats to his clinic and determining whether they are in good enough condition to be spayed/neutered. Each cat is then ear- tipped for identification and given a rabies shot. The entire process is completed within a matter of hours, ending with the cats’ return to campus. ACU Police Chief Jimmy Ellison is aware of the growing problem, despite not being di- rectly affected by it. “There are some people that think the cats are cute. And they want to feed and take care of them,” Ellison said. “But they wouldn’t want 50 stray cats living out on their back porch at their home. So why do they want them living in the alley on campus?” The purpose of the program is not to im- mediately eliminate the feline population, but to control it. Another step in this plan is to regulate the food supply of the cats. Marty Farmer, the facilities manage- ment’s carpenter, and his students are cur- rently building stations that will be filled with food and water for the cats. They are also in search of people, perhaps those who are already feeding the cats, to volunteer as feeders specifically for the program. Through these actions, the cats will be encouraged to hunt rodents, snakes and birds as if they were in their natural habitat. Any one interested in helping by volun- teering their time, skills or money for the program can email the group at feralcats@ groupmail.acu.edu. –Story by Brittany Jackson Almost a month after Lindsey Smith lost her life in a car accident, ACU students, faculty and staff gathered in Bennett Gym to celebrate her life through her passion for two-stepping at the Red Boot Roundup. The dance was put together by students who were close to Smith with the help of Stu- dent Life and the Students Association. Zach Stromberg, junior psychology and business financial management major from Putney, Vt., helped organize the dance. Stromberg said he was impressed at the amount of work and commitment given by everyone involved. “Everyone put their heart into this dance, and without it, the dance wouldn’t have been When ACU joins the Southland Confer- ence next fall, athletics is not the only depart- ment that will feel the effects of the move to a new conference. Academics will feel a defi- nite impact of the adjustment as well. “The reason the new standards are being put into place is there are quite a few students who are playing sports for Division I institu- tions who, academically, are struggling and they’re not making it in college and they’re actually dropping out,” said Kevin Camp- bell, chief enrollment officer. “So the college presidents are actually trying to increase the standards so that student athletes are more even par with the remaining student body on an academic preparation standpoint, but also to try to improve the retention and graduation rates of student athletes.” Students eligible under the current stan- dards, but not under the new standards, will still be able to be admitted under an academ- ic redshirt, which would give the student a year to bring their GPA up, but would make them ineligible to participate in athletics for that period. “At the Division II and Division III level, there is a disparity amongst the academic qualifications and the preparedness of the student athletes versus the overall popula- tion, so one of the main drivers behind mov- ing to Division I as to close that gap between our athletes and the current students,” Camp- bell said. Campbell said 30 percent of current bas- ketball and football players in D-I schools nationwide will not be eligible academically under the new standards coming in 2016. Under the new standards that will come along with the move to the new conference, a student’s GPA and SAT or ACT scores would be put onto a sliding scale to determine their eligibility. In addition, transfer students will be re- quired to have received their associate’s de- gree before transferring to a D-I institution. “It will also improve our overall student pool; our recruiting is very, very likely to improve,” retired professor of English David Merrell said. “It gives us a chance to raise our expectations for everyone.” Merrell said that he believed that, compe- tition-wise, ACU was also a much better fit in Division I in most sports. “The big thing is not changing our aca- demics, it’s changing our competition’s aca- demics,” Merrell, former chair of the Aca- demic Requirements Committee, said, “The schools in that conference are accepting stu- dents that look more like our students than the schools in the conference we’re leaving. Most of our student athletes are going to be eligible in Division I too, because our stan- dards suggest that.” The value of an ACU graduate’s resume would also increase, because of the recogni- tion that comes with Division I, Merrell said. In Division II there are 23 conferences, and in evaluating the university’s standings in the division, they found that the Lone Star Conference, which they were a part of, ranked 22nd, based on academic accomplish- ments, graduation rates among athletes, and ACT and SAT scores. “I think it makes the academics more dif- ficult; I think it makes getting in more dif- ficult, but it also attracts more people,” Sa- mantha Pettit, senior special education major from Vancouver, Wash., said. According to an article on Southland Con- ference’s website, ACU has produced dozens of academic All-Americans, as well as 30 NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship winners. Sanctify to offer workshop to benefit accident victims Red boot roundup attracts more than 500, raises nearly $5,000 (Continued on page 4) (Continued on page 5) (Continued on page 3) (Continued on page 3)
Transcript
ABILENE, TAYLOR COUNTY, TEXAS. WEDNESDAY FEB. 27, 2013Vol. 101
The World Is Full Of Beauty.–Open
Your Eyes And See.
Dean of students to leave ACU, student
life planning reception
OLD IS THE NEW NEW.
Looks a bit different today, huh?One hundred school years ago, just six
years after what would become ACU was founded, the Optimist was born.
The front page of Vol. 1, No. 1, looked just like this one today, except the entire page was one opinion piece by Robertson Lafay-ette Whiteside, the president emeritus of the university, on the dangers and responsibili-ties of education. The headline and story de-sign style, shown below, were incorporated in later issues.
In that opening column, Whiteside wrote that a college-educated person, an intellec-tual giant, without a personal duty to God can be corrupted to further his or her per-sonal gain, and as Christians we ought to stay rooted in the Bible’s teachings so we may use our education responsibly.
As the reader, now 100 years in the future, flips through the rest of the eight-page issue, he or she will notice many more differences.
The entire issue featured small, simple headlines and literally no photos. Ironically, many of the advertisements in that first, im-
age-less issue are for photo studios and de-velopment.
Nine ads for Tyson & Coffman, which ap-parently was a general store out in Clyde that sold everything from shoe repair to Japanese rugs to furniture, are thrown in in the middle of pages to separate stories. They looked just like several short news briefs, and would be confusing in today’s newspapers.
“Don’t forget Tyson & Coffman when you want photos. Clyde, Texas,” read the ninth and last ad at the bottom of Page 8.
The university’s president and adminis-tration used to write quite a bit of the pub-lication’s content. In other stories, they were referred to with the title “Bro.”
The inside pages also included a lot of unsigned opinion, poetry and new briefs that were more brief than news.
The Optimist’s editor in chief and assis-tant editors had yet to be selected at the time of that first issue, and a short piece on Page 4 called for students to apply to be on staff:
“If you would like to be the editor or one of the assistant editors … you had better get on the ground early and get to work.”
Also in that original issue, published on
Aug. 1, before the school year started, is a call for readers to subscribe for the full year for a whopping 50 cents. It promised that the next issue would be “particularly interest-ing to all who have an interest in the school” because it would include how the semester began, school news, as well as “all the jokes concerning the students,” and would be flooded with college spirit.
But we don’t know how the next issue ac-tually looked. A fire in the old administration building destroyed a lot of the college’s records in 1929, leaving us with only one issue on re-cord before 1916. Thankfully, it is Vol. 1, No. 1.
It’s all very interesting, at least for those of us carrying on the tradition. Looking back on our predecessors’ work is enlightening as we see how much media, and this school, has changed over time.
At the time of the first issue, the school had just started using the Abilene Christian College name, but wasn’t accredited as a ju-nior college yet. Its campus was in downtown Abilene, and fewer than 300 students were enrolled. Of course, this is impressive con-sidering six years earlier, our dear Christian college opened as the Childers Classical In-
stitute, with an enrollment of 25 students in grades 1-12.
However, the lede (beginning of a story) for a front page news story more than 84 years ago shows some things never change:
Jan. 31, 1929: ‘Pre-Law Club Is Organized For Students:’
“A. C. C. not only has preachers, teach-ers, doctors and pretty girls; but it also has lawyers.”
This front page of this edition, the first in our four-issue “Throwback Series,” is our tribute to those who did the same work in the 100 years before us. The front page design is the only change. This and our next three is-sues will still include all of our usual news, features, arts, opinion and sports coverage of the day.
We’ll also include gems from past eras –some of our favorite interesting or funny headlines and stories from back in the day –on the Opinion page. After all, we do have “all the jokes concerning the students.”
– By Mark Smith, Editor in Chief
Tyson & Coffman for tailor work. Clyde, Texas.
NUMBER 40
Senior leads class in sing song sweep,
reflects on favorites
campus manAgement responds to feral
cat population
Academics, athletics preparing for impact
of division I move
The World is Full Of Good. Cheer Up. Quit Knocking.
Abilene Christian University
Dr. Jean-Noel Thompson, vice president of Student Life and dean of students, an-nounced last month that he will leave the university in March. The Office of Student Life plans a reception for all ACU faculty, students and staff to join in saying goodbye at his farewell reception.
The reception will take place on March 5 from 2:30-4:30 p.m. in the Campus Cen-ter Living Room. All guests are welcome to come and go as they please.
Tina Fleet, associate vice president for Student Life, said, “The Student Life Depart-ment has prepared a presentation to honor him at 3:15 p.m.”
Thompson has been the vice president for Student Life and Dean of Students at ACU since June 2007. He is joining Faulkner Uni-versity in Montgomery, Ala. as the vice presi-dent for student services.
Before Thompson joined ACU he served as the vice president of student life and dean of students at Grove City College in Grove City, Pa., and as the vice president of student life at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Ariz.
Thompson earned his bachelor’s degree in organizational communication from Arizona State University. He also earned a master’s degree in student affairs in higher education from Colorado State University and a doctor-ate degree in higher education and student af-fairs from Indiana University.
Thompson has also taught at both the graduate and undergraduate level as an as-sistant professor at each of the institutions he has worked.
Thompson and his wife, Tonya, have sev-en children and are active members of the Southern Hills Church of Christ in Abilene.
“Jean-Noel has been an integral part of the ACU management team, and has done a wonderful job assembling and leading one of the best student life organizations in the na-tion,” said Dr. Allison Garrett, executive vice president. “We wish him and his family every success in this transition.”
As the vice president of student services at Faulkner, Thompson will oversee the dean of students, student life/activities, residence life, career services, campus security, stu-dent counseling, intercollegiate athletics and health services.
–Story by Christina Williamson
Sanctify will have a Dance Benefit Work-shop in order to raise money for victims of the Jan.25 accident, Rebekah Cherniss and Deanna Romero. The workshop will be March 2 from 12:30-3 p.m.
Cherniss and Romero were members of Sanctify last semester.
“They loved to dance, and they loved to just be around,” said Byron Martin, director of the Office of Multicultural Enrichment. “They loved Sanctify.”
During the first lesson, participants will be taught the hip-hop dance Cherniss and Romero first learned with Sanctify. The dance lesson will also have a free-styling ses-sion and a devotional.
Lindsay Palmer, sophomore psychology major from Houston and organizer of the ben-efit, got the idea after hearing of the expenses
Continued from Page 4 of the Feb. 22 edi-tion of the Optimist. To see the beginning of this feature on Nick Tatum, grab a copy of that issue from last week or go to acuopti-mist.com
On top of directing the Senior Class, Nick Tatum, senior family studies major from Plano, also served as the assistant di-rector for Trojans this year.
“I was up till at least 3 a.m. for most of Sing Song,” he said. “The last two weeks of Sing Song were particularly rough this year.”
Saturday night before the curtain rose, Ta-tum gathered the senior group one last time to pray, thanking God for the four-year bless-ing of performing with the class.
“It was little things like that that made being in his group so worthwhile, even more than the trophies and awards,” said Courtney McGaha.
But a fourth trophy won later that evening did not hurt.
Tatum said the fourth and final win that night was surreal.
“I couldn’t believe it was finally over,” he said. “I was mostly pumped that the pressure was finally going to be lifted, but I was also sentimental about participating one last time as an undergraduate student.”
A four-time championship felt like justifi-cation for the many, long hours spent in sing-ing, choreography, costume-constructing, set-building, said Elle Whitaker, senior man-agement major from Plano.
“Having won all four years makes Sing Song into more than just a good memory, it turns the competition into a bonding experi-ence that I can’t put into words but will never forget,” she said.
Even with all his hard work, Tatum makes it known the seniors’ success was not a sin-gle-handed task.
“There is no way that a Sing Song director can be successful without some solid, capable assistant directors,” he said. “Our acts have been successful because of the hard work these friends have done over the past four years.”
Whitaker acted as the choreographer for the class acts since freshman year, attend-ing meetings, helping with song selection, developing themes and “acted as the devil’s advocate for all of Nick’s crazy and brilliant ideas,” she said. “Moses and the plagues? No questioning and no worry. We knew Nick could show us how to pull it off. Recreate an entire film? No fear, Nick knows us well enough to help us make it work.”
The group members’ confidence in their director gave Tatum’s creativity full reign in creating the routines.
“If we hadn’t had him as a director all four years, I don’t know if we would have found someone willing to take the same risks and, in turn, create some of the shows to the same level as we did,” McGaha said.
Even with the promise of a sweep, Tatum admits moments of wanting to switch gears by trying something else.
“I’ve always wanted to be a Sing Song host, and even considered trying to direct the Trojan act during my junior or senior year,” he said. “But in the end, I decided to stick with our class acts because of the great expe-rience I knew that I would have.”
His commitment to the class act was partially what led to the group’s cohesion, Whitaker said.
“One of the best parts of class Sing Song over the years has been the familiarity and feeling of coming home that comes with the act,” she said. “That community has been fostered due in large part because of Nick and his consistency as a director.”
ACU’s Facilities and Campus Manage-ment Department has come up with a plan to keep the campus safe from an overpopulation of cats. They are calling it the Feral Cat Ini-tiative.
For many years ACU has struggled with cats wandering in and remaining on campus, but actions are finally being taken. With a new Trap-Neuter-Return program, campus management will humanely capture the ani-mals, have them spayed/neutered, vaccinated for rabies and then returned to campus.
Corey Ruff, executive director of facilities and campus management, is a main advisor for the initiative.
“TNR stabilizes the feral cat colonies, im-proves and protects their lives, and benefits the campus and the feral cats,” Ruff said. “Many of these feral cats on campus are the offspring of stray cats that have been aban-doned.”
Ruff said Dr. Dale Hembree, a local vet-erinarian, is partnering with the program by taking the cats to his clinic and determining whether they are in good enough condition to be spayed/neutered. Each cat is then ear-tipped for identification and given a rabies shot. The entire process is completed within a matter of hours, ending with the cats’ return to campus.
ACU Police Chief Jimmy Ellison is aware of the growing problem, despite not being di-rectly affected by it.
“There are some people that think the cats are cute. And they want to feed and take care of them,” Ellison said. “But they wouldn’t want 50 stray cats living out on their back porch at their home. So why do they want them living in the alley on campus?”
The purpose of the program is not to im-mediately eliminate the feline population, but to control it. Another step in this plan is to regulate the food supply of the cats.
Marty Farmer, the facilities manage-ment’s carpenter, and his students are cur-rently building stations that will be filled with food and water for the cats. They are also in search of people, perhaps those who are already feeding the cats, to volunteer as feeders specifically for the program. Through these actions, the cats will be encouraged to hunt rodents, snakes and birds as if they were in their natural habitat.
Any one interested in helping by volun-teering their time, skills or money for the program can email the group at [email protected].
–Story by Brittany Jackson
Almost a month after Lindsey Smith lost her life in a car accident, ACU students, faculty and staff gathered in Bennett Gym to celebrate her life through her passion for two-stepping at the Red Boot Roundup.
The dance was put together by students who were close to Smith with the help of Stu-dent Life and the Students Association. Zach Stromberg, junior psychology and business financial management major from Putney, Vt., helped organize the dance. Stromberg said he was impressed at the amount of work and commitment given by everyone involved.
“Everyone put their heart into this dance, and without it, the dance wouldn’t have been
When ACU joins the Southland Confer-ence next fall, athletics is not the only depart-ment that will feel the effects of the move to a new conference. Academics will feel a defi-nite impact of the adjustment as well.
“The reason the new standards are being put into place is there are quite a few students who are playing sports for Division I institu-tions who, academically, are struggling and they’re not making it in college and they’re actually dropping out,” said Kevin Camp-bell, chief enrollment officer. “So the college presidents are actually trying to increase the standards so that student athletes are more even par with the remaining student body on an academic preparation standpoint, but also to try to improve the retention and graduation rates of student athletes.”
Students eligible under the current stan-dards, but not under the new standards, will still be able to be admitted under an academ-ic redshirt, which would give the student a year to bring their GPA up, but would make them ineligible to participate in athletics for that period.
“At the Division II and Division III level, there is a disparity amongst the academic qualifications and the preparedness of the student athletes versus the overall popula-tion, so one of the main drivers behind mov-ing to Division I as to close that gap between our athletes and the current students,” Camp-bell said.
Campbell said 30 percent of current bas-ketball and football players in D-I schools nationwide will not be eligible academically under the new standards coming in 2016.
Under the new standards that will come along with the move to the new conference, a student’s GPA and SAT or ACT scores would be put onto a sliding scale to determine their eligibility.
In addition, transfer students will be re-quired to have received their associate’s de-gree before transferring to a D-I institution.
“It will also improve our overall student pool; our recruiting is very, very likely to improve,” retired professor of English David Merrell said. “It gives us a chance to raise our expectations for everyone.”
Merrell said that he believed that, compe-tition-wise, ACU was also a much better fit in Division I in most sports.
“The big thing is not changing our aca-demics, it’s changing our competition’s aca-demics,” Merrell, former chair of the Aca-demic Requirements Committee, said, “The schools in that conference are accepting stu-dents that look more like our students than the schools in the conference we’re leaving. Most of our student athletes are going to be eligible in Division I too, because our stan-dards suggest that.”
The value of an ACU graduate’s resume would also increase, because of the recogni-tion that comes with Division I, Merrell said.
In Division II there are 23 conferences, and in evaluating the university’s standings in the division, they found that the Lone Star Conference, which they were a part of, ranked 22nd, based on academic accomplish-ments, graduation rates among athletes, and ACT and SAT scores.
“I think it makes the academics more dif-ficult; I think it makes getting in more dif-ficult, but it also attracts more people,” Sa-mantha Pettit, senior special education major from Vancouver, Wash., said.
According to an article on Southland Con-ference’s website, ACU has produced dozens of academic All-Americans, as well as 30 NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship winners.
Sanctify to offer workshop to benefit
accident victims Red boot roundupattracts more than 500,
raises nearly $5,000
(Continued on page 4)(Continued on page 5)(Continued on page 3) (Continued on page 3)
27 28 1 2Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
All Day - Whitten Inn Baseball Classic
9 a.m. ACU Men’s Tennis vs Temple
2 p.m. Metamorphoses - ACU Theatre
3 p.m. ACU Men’s Tennis vs Baylor
5 p.m. Softball vs Em-poria State
5:30 p.m. Women’s Basketball vs TAMU-K’ville
6 p.m. Baseball vs Cameron
7 p.m. Softball vs St. Mary’s
7:30 p.m. Metamor-phoses - ACU Theatre
7:30 p.m. Men’s Basketball vs TAMU-K’ville
All Day - Whitten Inn Baseball Classic
All Day - Career Cen-ter Mock Interviews
3 p.m. Softball vs Oklahoma Panhandle State
6 p.m. Second Chance Dance - Student Social Work Association
6 p.m. Baseball vs Eastern New Mexico
7 p.m. Softball vs Em-poria State
7:30 p.m. Metamor-phoses - ACU Theatre
All Day - EST Group interviewing in Career Center
All Day - Whitley Penn Interviews on CAmpus
10 a.m. Men’s Basket-ball at Incarnate Word
12 p.m. ACU Men’s Tennis vs University of Southwest
All Day - Free tax preparation is available by appointment at the West Central Texas Center for Economic Opportunity, 1102 N. Third St. Call 325-672-8980.
Feb. 28
7 p.m. The Mitchell County Senior Citizens dance will be at the Colorado City Civic Center. Mike Porter and Kevin Rainwater will perform. Ad-mission is $5.
Mar. 1
7 p.m. A candle lighting ceremony will be held at Abilene Civic Center to hon-or those that perished during the Holocaust, those that survived and those that liber-ated. Special Guest Speaker Max Glauben will return to speak about his experiences as a Holocaust survivor.
Mar. 2
10 a.m. Auditions for “Abilene Idol” will be open in the Dil-lard’s Courtyard at the Mall of Abilene. Advance entry is $20, or $25 at the door. Finalists will advance to the March 23 competition. For information, call 325-673-7464.
Spots are still available on Spring Break Campaigns going to various locations. For more information contact Liz Lurz at [email protected], Wilson White at [email protected] or stop by the SBC office in Bible 322.
Abstract submission for the Undergrad-uate Research Festival is now open. The 5th annual ACU Undergraduate Research Festival will be Apr. 4-5. To submit your abstract or get abstract writing 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 Pin-terest. Go to pinterest.com/acucareer-center to begin following the boards from the ACU Career Center Pinterest today.
Submit your poetry, short fiction, nonfic-tion, photography and other art works to The Shinnery Review, ACU’s undergrad-uate 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 15.
Student Social Work Association is host-ing the Second Chance Dance in Bennett Gym March 1 from 7-10 p.m. Admission is one hygiene product to donate to the do-mestic violence shelter.
ACU Department of Music host the Brock McGuire Band, the finest in traditional Irish music on Feb. 28 at 7:30pm in the WPAC Recital Hall. There will be a short lecture at 7:00 p.m.
ACU Theatre presents Metamorphoses Feb. 28-Mar. 2 in Culp Theatre. Tickets are $12. To purchase a ticket call 325-674-2787.
The Office of Multicultural Enrichment and Black Students Association presents “Ruth” the 14th annual Black History Pro-duction on March 1-2 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 in advance in the Campus Center or $7 at the door.
Sanctify is having a workshop benefit Mar. 2 at 12:30 p.m. in the SWRC. Tickets are $3 in advance in the Campus Center and $5 at the door. The money will go towards the Sanctify show and Deanna Romero and Rebekah Cherniss.
Volunteer Opp0rtunities
The Center for International Education is looking for conversation partners for international students to practice Eng-lish, 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].
St. John’s Episcopal School is seeking volunteers to paint metal playground equipment anytime Monday-Friday after 3 p.m. and Saturday anytime. For more information contact Rebecca McMillon at 325-695-8870 or [email protected].
Center for Contemporary Arts needs a gallery assistant to greet patrons, an-swer phones and answer basic questions about the Center and its programs. This opportunity is open Tuesday-Friday. The Center for Contemporary Arts is located at 220 Cypress Street. For more information contact Jessica Dulle at 325-677-8389 or visit: http://www.center-arts.com/.
Rescue the Animals is seeking volunteers to take pictures and videos in preparation for the launching 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 Il-lustrated Literature 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 located 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 Christian Ministries of Abilene: Food Pantry is searching for volunteers to greet and interview neighbors, do computer entries, shop with neighbors, take grocer-ies to vehicles, bag, stock and pick up orders on Mondays and Fridays from 9:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. and 1 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. and on Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. The Food Pantry is located at 701 Walnut St. For more information contact Becky Almanza at 325-673-1234 or [email protected].
The Christian Service Center is seek-ing volunteers to help assist with filling requests for items such as clothing, bed-ding, kitchen utensils, etc. from the dona-tion center, sort and organize donations and occasionally pick-up donated items. Volunteers are needed every weekday and the first Saturday of each month be-tween 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. For more information contact Roberta Brown at 325-673-7561 or at [email protected]. For more information on the program visit: http://www.uccabilene.org/ministries/csc.htm.
The Food Bank of West Central Texas needs volunteers 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].
Meals on Wheels Plus needs volunteer drivers to deliver afternoon meals to se-niors and adults with disabilities Monday-Friday between 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Drivers must be at least 18 years old and have a
valid driver’s license. Training is provided. For more information contact Samantha Barker at 352-672-5050 or visit: http://mealsonwheelsplus.com.
The Salvation Army is looking for vol-unteers for a variety of needs including sorting and pricing items in the thrift store, helping in the kitchen and/or doing yard work. Times are flexible. Volunteers are needed throughout the week Monday-Saturday. The Salvation Army is located at 1726 Butternut St. For more information contact J.D. Alonzo at 325-677-1408 or visit: www.satruck.com. The House That Kerry Built is looking for volunteers to assist in the day care of medically fragile children any day Mon-day-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 seek-ing volunteers to lead singing and/or play piano for residents. For more information contact Ann Erwin at 325-793-1144.
University Place is seeking 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.
Breakfast on Beech Street is seeking volunteers to help set up, prepare and serve breakfast to homeless/lower income folks any Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 5:30 a.m. or Tuesday at 5
a.m. B.O.B.S is located at First Christian Church on 3rd St. and Beech St. Service times must be scheduled in advance. To serve on Mondays contact Jody Depriest at 325-669-3312 or [email protected]. To serve on Tuesdays contact Allen Daugherty at 325-660-6949 or [email protected]. To serve on Wednesdays contact Jane Harvey at 325-695-0092 or [email protected]. To serve on Thurs-days contact Margaret Beasley at 325-692-4149 or [email protected]. To serve on Fridays contact Rachel Brown at [email protected].
Christian Homes & Family Services is seeking volunteers to do minor landscap-ing such as raking, trimming bushes, minor apartment repairs and general upkeep Monday-Saturday from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. For more information contact Shay-lee Honey at 325-677-2205 or [email protected].
The Abilene Public Zoo is seeking volun-teers to help clean/feed animals, assist zookeepers and assist with educational classes any weekday any time between 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 information contact Joy Harsh at 325-676-6487.
Hill Resources is seeking volunteers to encourage and entertain mentally de-layed individuals Monday through Friday any time between 10 a.m.-2 p.m. For more information contact Michelle Es-pinoza at 325-673-3346 or [email protected].
For additional volunteer opportunities visit: www.acu.edu/campusoffices/ccsl/ministry-service/volunteer-opportunities/
Chapel checkup
for Cherniss and Romero.“There’s a lot of bills that
they’re going to have to pay, and so we just thought we could help them out and support them because we’re all a big family,” Palmer said.
Palmer said Sanctify ex-pects to have two more les-sons in the spring that will teach different dances.
Martin said everyone is invited to participate in this fundraiser and no experi-ence is necessary.
“All you need to do is show up and be ready to move,” Martin said.
Despite their absence this semester, the members of Sanctify keep in contact with the girls.
“We text them, we face chat with them and we miss them a lot because it’s just not the same,” Palmer said.
Palmer described Rome-ro as being a “tiny diva” and Cherniss is notorious for her sense of humor.
“They made a huge im-pact on our practices be-cause they would crack ev-eryone up,” Palmer said.
The group anxious-ly awaits Romero’s and Cherniss’s return to Sanctify.
“Since they’ve been gone, there’s definitely a different feeling in the at-mosphere,” said Jacob “KP” Kilpatrick, junior Ad/PR major from Mesquite and captain of Sanctify.
“Yeah, it’s just been a gap,” said Palmer. “We’re
just waiting for them to come back, but they’ll be back soon.”
The dance lessons will
cost $3 if students buy them before the benefit. Lessons can be purchased online at http://lsp10b.wix.com/sanc-tifybenefit or in the Campus Center this week from 11 a.m. -2 p.m. Tickets will be $5 at the door.
Story by Linsey Thut.
as perfect as it was.”The night began with
two stepping to live mu-sic from Muddy Creek and segued into two of Smith’s favorite skits by seekers of the word and a dance by Sanctify. After that the crowd continued two step-ping until participating in worship together at the end of the night.
Two stepping was one of Lindsey’s passions. Lindsey taught many ACU students how to two-step, including Stromberg. “She always had a huge smile on her face no matter how many time I messed up, as long as I was having fun.” Stromberg said. “We couldn’t think of a better way to honor her than by promoting one of her greatest passions: two stepping.”
Katrina Kelly, junior fam-ily studies major from Mes-quite did not know Smith, but still felt the love for her
in the room. “I thought it was amazing to see the ACU community come together to do something for Lind-sey,” Kelly said.
Two stepping was not the only reason for the night. The Lindsey Lee Scholarship Fund was ac-cepting donations at the door. From the over 500 people who went to the event, $4,700 was raised for the scholarship fund. The success of the night has al-ready set plans into motion to make the dance into an annual event.
The night was a time for the ACU community to stop and remember the beauti-ful life Lindsey had. Strom-berg said “there were times of reminiscence, laughter, tears and joy. The only thing that was missing was a dance with Lindsey.”
Sanctify workshop to benefit accident victimscampus
events
adrian patenaude staff Photographer
Cameron Morris, junior youth and family ministry major from Alvin, and Tori Moore, junior biology major from Katy, dance together at the Roundup.
ACU has officially recog-nized Third Culture Kids as a student group.
“Third culture kids” (or TCKs) is a term coined by sociologists in the 1960s to describe children of families that had become increasingly mobile and displaced.
TCKs are people who have spent a significant part of their formative years in two or more countries and yet do not feel like they identify fully with any specific culture. This includes someone whose parents or guard-ian worked in the mili-tary, as a missionary or another job that required international travel.
ACU’s TCK group was first started four years ago by students looking to make a connection with others by eating together and talking about their experiences abroad. Over the last few years it has grown into a group with 50 members.
The bi-monthly meet-ings take place on Sun-days. They feature a din-ner made by a small group from Southern Hills Church of Christ, or an ethnic potluck brought by each member. After din-ner the group discusses their intercultural experi-ences, such as differences in dating, church and ad-justing to new cultures.
Dr. Carley Dodd, pro-fessor of communication and dean of the graduate school, hosts the meetings
and is the staff sponsor.“The TCK group is re-
ally a safe haven and sup-port network to come in and meet people just like you, to come in and make that adaptation more effi-
ciently and to find friends who already get all this and kind of go from there,” Dodd said. “It’s not meant to be an isolated refuge from everyone else, it’s meant to be another piece in supporting folks that come to college.”
Vanessa Whitt, (’10) from Cebu City, Philip-pines, continues to sup-port TCKs even after her graduation.
“The TCK group is a community where stu-
dents can feel welcome regardless of their cultur-al background, and, for lack of a better term, feel somewhat normal,” Whitt said. “Students can share their life stories, talk about their frustrations, learn from others on how
to cope with issues like personal identity, and even discuss matters of faith.”
Joe Quigley, senior computer science ma-jor from Guatemala City, Guatemala, said he feels like the group is a small family, bonding through movie nights, game nights, a retreat, and cul-tural potlucks.
Peter Cariaga, gradu-ate student in the Master of Divinity program from Cebu, Philippines, en-courages any student to visit.
“If people have lived outside of their passport country for any number of years, we welcome them to come. If their friends who grew up in Abilene, Texas, now attend ACU want to come, absolutely.”
Cariaga said. ““If peo-ple read this article who haven’t grown up outside of the country but are still interested to come, they’re welcome. In fact, we’d love for other folks around the campus to come. While some of our conversations don’t apply to everyone, we want to be an inclusive group.”
Asia Todd, junior mul-timedia major from Chi-ang Mai, Thailand, is the president of TCK. Stu-dents interested in get-ting involved with TCK can email Todd at [email protected], or request to join the ACU TCKs group page on Facebook.
Seekers of the Word, the on-campus religious drama group Lindsey Lee Smith was a member of, leads a song of worship at the Lindsey Lee Smith Red Boot Roundup.
Dr. Carley Dodddean of the graduate school
It’s not meant to be an isolated refuge from everyone else, it’s meant to be another piece in supporting folks
lindsay palmersophomore psychology and art major from houston
We just thought we could help them out and support them because we’re all a big family.”“
The Holocaust Remem-brance is being hosted at the Abilene Civic Center on March 1 at 7 p.m.
Max Glauben, a survivor of the Holocaust, will be returning for a second year as a guest speaker to tell his amazing story. John Critvas, a veteran of the 12th ar-mored division, who liber-ated a concentration camp, will share his experiences. Kimhun Dam, a survivor of the Cambodian Genocide, will also be speaking.
Jennifer Lenches, the project coordinator for 12th Armored Division Museum,
who has been organiz-ing the memorial, invited Glauben to speak at their event last year and was so overtaken by his story, that she invited him to speak again this year.
“Glauben is the reason we are having the event on the first, because it was the only time he could fit [the museum] into his sched-ule,” Lenches said. “His sto-ry is not one to be missed or one you can sum up in a quick sound bite.”
Dam is a U.S. history teacher at the Academy of Technology Engineering Mathematics and Science High School in Abilene. She met him through her son, who happened to have him
as his professor last year, and the stories he shared blew them both away.
The memorial will begin with flags posted by the col-or guard from the Abilene ROTC program and then a candle lighting ceremony.
Glauben will speak first, and then Critvas, then Dam, and then if time permits, a couple other veterans that were prisoners of war will speak.
Lenches said she be-lieves the reason it’s so im-portant to remember what happened in the Holocaust is because remembering history will prevent you from making the same mis-takes.
“There are multiple reasons why we fought in World War Two, but the main reason was to stop the atrocities,” Lenches said.
Lenches also said she is proud to work for such a meaningful organization, and hopes everyone will come Friday to remem-ber the reason behind why American fought against in-justice back then, and why the nation must continue to fight against injustice to-day.
“The first step to ‘never again,’ is to ‘never forget,’” Lenches said.
In the final stages of her doc-toral study, an ACU instructor is researching the perspec-tives and consumption stages of smoking addictions.
Cherisse Flanagan, direc-tor of the ACU Psychology Clinic and instructor of psy-chology, specialized in the health aspects of psychology.
Flanagan is currently in the data collection period for her dissertation, en-titled, “The Role of Viewer Orientation and Consump-tion Level in Smoking Cue Reactivity.” She is working with a team of four gradu-ate students at the Presby-terian Medical Care Mission to collect data on smokers.
“My study is looking at the role of factors of cues in a smoking population,” said Flanagan. “In the re-search, pictures of smok-ers and smoking are shown to a sample of dependent smokers. They rate how the pictures make them feel: whether the pictures has an emotional response or not; whether the pictures make them crave smoking or not.”
Flanagan is trying to iden-tify whether cues have a re-action on smokers to have a cigarette. With smokers there are certain cues that compel them to smoke. Through her research, smokers will learn to identify and control the cues in their environment to reduce or even stop smoking.
To further her research, Flanagan discusses portray-ing different perspectives to her test subjects using first and third person pictures that pertain to smoking. For example, watching a person smoke or viewing a cigarette from a person’s hand has dif-
ferent effects on the smokers. On another level, the pictures will show different stages of a cigarette. The cigarette is seen freshly lit or almost gone.
Graduate assistant Kate-lyn Thornton, counseling psychology major from North Richland Hills, said, “The test subjects are disgusted by the smoking images. They are ei-ther sad or ashamed to look at the pictures because they would want to quit, but can’t. This shows how strong the addiction is.”
“I have been struck, in this research, from the amount of people, who readily admit to smoking, expressing shame,” said Flanagan. “I show them smoking cues. Pleasant ones. Not pictures of decrepit lungs or cancerous mouths. Even so, people are still em-barrassed and wished they could stop.”
The study on smoking cue reactivity does overflow to other areas of addiction. People addicted to different kinds of substances are going to be reactive to cues around them. Individuals struggling with obesity pair food with certain emotions that moti-vates them to eat more.
Flanagan said, “Tobac-co in itself kills 15 million people in a year. On average smokers die 13 to 14 years sooner than non-smokers.”
The data collection has been ongoing for three to four weeks. With almost all of her needed results, Flanagan and her students are on their last week of the data collection phase. After one year of work, Flanagan is finishing her dis-sertation and is looking for-ward to being reviewed for her Ph.D. in mid-March.
wednesday 02.27.13 4news
was much more stringent and aligned much more closely with the broader academic requirements and aspirations of ACU.”
According to its website, while successful on the fields
and courts, the Southland Con-ference has repeatedly demon-strated its commitment to the academic and athletic success of its student-athletes. In the last six years, no other Divi-sion I conference has improved its Academic Progress Rate as well as the Southland Confer-
ence and the academic progress the league has shown ultimate-ly leads to higher graduation rates for the student-athletes.
“I would tell you that aca-demics was one of the primary, if not the most significant rea-son for the change and that is because we felt that Division II participation really was misaligned academically with what we were trying to achieve broadly as an institution,” Schubert said.
In an article on their web-site, Southland commissioner Tom Burnett said, “Abilene Christian is an accomplished institution, excelling in aca-demics and athletics, and is well-positioned to succeed in Division I and the Southland Conference.”
For more information about the Southland Conference, visit its website at www.southland.org.
Story by Brittany Williams.
Academics preparing to go D-Icontinued from page 1
Clinic director studying addictions to smoking
faculty
paige otway staff Photographer
Freshmen Haley Dale, nutrition major from Decatur, and Michelle Lytle, marketing major from Abilene, fight the strong winds and snow flurries Monday afternoon.
Abilene Christian Univer-sity Press partnered with the Grace Museum on Thursday to release the book, Abilene Stories: From Then to Now, an anthology written about Abilene over the past 130 years.
In the ballroom of the Grace the editors of the book, Glenn Dromgoole, Jay Moore and Joe W. Specht gathered with over 200 Abilene locals, history buffs and authors of some of the book’s storie s and their experience creat-ing the book.
The book is a collection of 107 stories from 70 differ-ent authors, documenting Abilene from the frontier era up to the closing of Harold’s BBQ a few years ago. The edi-tors worked with ACU Press to design and coordinate the publication.
“It’s really about the heri-
tage and cultural signifi-cance of Abilene,” said Ryan Self, ACU Press publicist. “This is part of our series of Texas history books, but this is our first book that is really local to Abilene.”
Dr. Leonard Allen, direc-tor of the ACU Press, Doug Williamson, editor of the Abilene Reporter-News, and all three of the editors spoke at the event. Then re-freshments were served and signed copies of the book were for sale.
Past and present ACU fac-ulty contributed to Abilene Stories: From Then to Now, including Dr. Charlie Marler, senior faculty of journalism and Dr. John C. Stevens, for-mer president of ACU. Arti-cles from early editions of the Optimist were also included.
“Some of the tales in this book are pure history and some of them are just peo-ples’ thoughts about Abilene, but I like to think of it as a community scrapbook,”
Moore said.The first half of the book is
chronological, starting with before Abilene, early Abilene, the military years and on. The second half is construct-ed around different themes such as churches, schools, culture, letters, sports and even weather.
“One of the things we tried to do was find cul-tural diversity in the book,” Droomgoole said.
Topics range from the first hanging in Abilene to praying for rain to Billy Ol-son’s world records.
“The flavor of Abilene is in this book. It’s not a cook-book, but it’s delicious,” Wil-liamson said.
Abilene Stories is cur-rently available for $27.99 at the ACU Press office, Texas Star Trading Co., and Amazon.
out of every person in the room,” Marhall said. “Whether he is challeng-ing you to have better dic-tion or keeping you trying to keep you humble, he is not only trying to help you be a better singer or performer, he is trying to help you be a better per-son.”
Under the conducting garb of Queen Elizabeth, cupid, Moses, The Wicked Witch and then Glenda, Tatum’s four-year award-winning run as Sing Song director has been an en-riching opportunity.
“Nothing is more re-warding than utilizing your God-given talents to take a group of indepen-dent people and use their skills to produce some-thing memorable and outstanding,” he said.
Nick Tatum’s favorite act of the senior streak successes? The junior act of Moses and The plagues.
“What beats parting the Red Sea?”
Story by Gabi Powell. Page design by Powell and Mark Smith.
Top: Tatum directs the freshman act in Spring 2010. Left: Rebekah Horton, senior marketing major from Weatherford dresses Tatum as Glenda the Good Witch, which he wore under his Wicked Witch of the West outfit and changed into during the act. Right: Tatum waves to the crowd as the Queen of English. Below: Tatum directs the senior class’ winning act, “There’s No Place Like Home.”
mandy lambright chief Photographer
OPTIM
IST FILE PHOT
O
OPTIMIST FILE PHOTO
Television has become a vital part of many people’s lives. Adults and children alike spend a lot of their time sit-ting in front of a screen.
The amount of television that our generation con-sumes keeps going up, but the quality of the television that is aired on the networks is going down.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, kids spend more than seven hours a day watching TV, playing on computers, cell phones and other media. Preschoolers are believed to be in front of a television for more than 32 hours a week.
What children watch now does not compare to the television shows we used to watch when we were kids.
TV shows such as “Ses-ame Street,” “The Magic School Bus,” “Liberty Kids,” “Cyberchase” and even “Blue’s Clues” were cartoons that were entertaining but at the same time they were educational.
We also spent many Sat-urday mornings anticipating the antics of “Tom and Jerry,” “Looney Toons,” “Pinky and
the Brain,” “Animaniacs” and “Hey Arnold.” They were all shows that did not necessar-ily have educational mean-ing, but were interesting, well-made and enjoyable classics.
When we turn on Car-toon Network or Nickelode-on today, cartoons especially are not as “family friendly” as they used to be. Some car-toons are inappropriate and many others are just stupid.
The Regular Show and Adventure Time are two shows from this generation that are popular today yet are not very appropriate for children. Though the shows are rated “PG,” they contain inappropriate language, sex-ual content and inappropri-ate humor.
What happened to shows that had some sort of sub-stance?
The Parents Television Council did an analysis of more than 100 episodes of programs on Disney Chan-nel, Cartoon Network, Nick-elodeon, Nick at Night and Adult Swim. They found over 1,500 incidents of explicit sex, drugs and offensive lan-
guage.Back in the heyday of Yogi
Bear, the Flintstones and Bugs Bunny, parents did not have to worry about what their children watched. They knew cartoons were usu-
ally safe, though sometimes comically violent.
In our childhood, par-ents could feel moderately comfortable about us watch-ing “Recess” and “Doug” (Spongebob, however, was
another story).When you turn on a TV
now, you realize cartoons of this generation do not com-pare to the ones that we used to watch as kids. They are far more crude, lame and have
no overall substance.Let’s go back to the days of
“Rugrats” and “Arthur.”
There are simply not enough hours in the day, especially when you’re a college student.
The days of the week are spent balancing classes, jobs, homework, friends and (somewhere in there) eating and sleep-ing.
It’s important to find balance, but trying to cram all of that into a sin-gle day is difficult. Giving each activity the atten-tion it deserves is next to impossible.
Something has to be sacrificed, but cutting back on one necessary activity can affect the
others. For example, to keep grades up and have a social life students can give up sleep. But that just leaves them grouchy and dozing off during class. Maintaining a social life and still getting enough sleep means grades suf-fer, which leads to stress and worry about the fu-ture. And making the grade while getting a rec-ommended amount of sleep means sacrificing precious time with other human beings. It’s the domino effect.
Now there are people out there who can do all of these things and do them
well. They keep up their grades while having a so-cial life, working two jobs, getting plenty of sleep and squeezing in time to just be awesome. Props to them. Way to master the art of time management.
It’s during those late nights and sleepy morn-ings when the realization sets in: the teachers in kindergarten had it right.
Nap time wasn’t a punishment, it was a re-ward. Sometimes taking a time-out was neces-sary to keep you (and ev-eryone else) from going insane. And field trips made would-be ordinary days extra special.
It’s time to revert back to the days of kindergar-ten, when life seemed simpler. Time for each specific activity was carved out of the day. Snack time, nap time, re-cess, music, reading and
learning all fit into the hours spent in a typical kindergartener’s day.
The teachers were pre-paring their students, teaching them that it is possible to accomplish a lot in a single day, or even in a few hours. It’s still possible, even with the busy life of a college stu-dent. It’s all about master-ing time management.
There are still lessons to be learned from kin-dergarten. Achieve as much as possible with the available time, and don’t hesitate to squeeze a field trip into that busy schedule.
Nap time and field trips are the two things that unfortunately didn’t make it into the college curriculum.
evan’s marks Evan marks
6WEDNESDAY 02.27.13Opinion
column
Editorial
Kids TV needs a throwback makeover, toothe issue
Children’s television has gone from educational, or at least entertaining and well-produced, to inappropriate and stupid.
our take
Producers and writers need to step back and focus on creating quality cartoons rather than a lot of dumb ones.
DISTURBANCEIN THE FORCE
MELANY COX
Lessons learned from kindergarten
hashtagACU
Mark Smitheditor in chief
josh garciamanaging editor
Mark Smithopinion page editor
melany coxonline managing editor
asia todddesign editor
lindsay palmerarts editor
gabi powellfeatures editor
taylor langstonsports video director
john edward isaacssports editor
Matt sloanassistant sports editor
Madeline Orrcopy editor
Cara Kramarcopy editor
katie greenepage 2 editor
mandy lambrightchief photogrpaher
Deanna Romerostaff photographer
curtis christianstaff photographer
Paige Otwaystaff photographer
Adrian Patenaudestaff photographer
Lucius Patenaudechief videographer
Brance armstrongstaff videographer
JP Festastaff videographer
Denzil Limstaff videographer
Stephen Reyesstaff videographer
evan markseditorial cartoonist
marissa jonesoxford correspondent
Wyatt morganarts writer
anne-marie coffeepage designer
cheryl baconfaculty adviser
cade whitefaculty adviser
cara lee cranfordadvertising
newsroom
(325) 674-2439
sports desk
(325) 674-2684
photo department
(325) 674-2499
advertising office
(325) 674-2463
multimedia desk
(325) 674-2463
subscriptions ($40/Year)
(325) 674-2296
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
12:11 p.m. Feb. 25Snowing in Abilene. #nodaysoff #grindthegrind
2:12 p.m. Feb. 25My weather motto’s always been: if it’s cold, it needs to snow. New motto: if it’s gonna snow...it needs to be BLIZZARD-Y
It’s so windy and dark outside I feel like we’re about to head to Oz. #snowtease2013 #cmon
2:59 p.m. Feb. 25
@GabeGuerra
3:04 p.m. Feb. 25Ok, this weather is gonna have to calm down. IT’S RUINING MY FRAT SWOOP.
Some of our favorite pieces we found from the 1910s-’20sThrowback excerpts
@RAR_Wildcat15
@miss_kdlawrence@emmystatus
12:17 p.m. Feb. 25
Silly Texans. This does not count as snow.
4:25 p.m. Feb. 25That awkward moment when you doze off in class and then have a huge twitch. Luckily I played it off as a hair flip so maybe no one noticed
Literally just started a short answer test with “well this is awk-ward...” It’s a rough life. #crushedit
7:37 p.m. Feb. 25
@davidisinger
1:48 p.m. Feb. 25
Its a put-your-shoes-on-at-the-stoplight-on-the-way-to-school kind of Monday.
@MorgBear62 @addiefs
5:50 p.m. Feb. 25The RA 15: (n) the weight you gain from eating all the delicious and tempting junk food your residents make you.
Chris Harrison didn’t come announce the “final rose.” I was so confused, not all of us can count to 2. #thebachelor
2:30 p.m. Feb. 20Wednesday, january 1, 1919
BECAUSE YOU ARE A COLLEGE GIRL“You walk calmly into some drug store, poke out a check, quite likely endorsed on the
wrong end, at the clerk and expect him to cash it. He al-ways does, sometimes ask-
ing casually whether you are from A. C. C. or Simmons. Then he goes back to his
work with a faint smile on his face, wondering if col-lege girls ever grow up.”
THURSDAY, january 8, 1920
STUDENTS WHO REMAIN DURING HOLIDAYS HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS “After three long months of toil and worry, on Dec. 17 we students were set free to enjoy several days
as we pleased. This was accepted with much plea-sure as the last few days had been spent in taking
exams. However there were a few of us left and of course we had our share of the fun … We spent
much time in making the candy but, oh my! it was good.”
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1916
“A. C. C. is not a prison. Plenty of clean wholesome recreation, fun and plea-sure are provided for every
one, and we are a happy, jolly, satisfied lot.”
@megankateteel
11:31 p.m. Feb. 24Some people have Oscar parties. We have parties that involve sit-ting in a silent room & drawing naked people at midnight. #artmajor-problems
@mrebekahdillon
11:02 p.m. Feb. 25
Of all the girls ever on the bachelor I think I’m the most like Catherine. @BachelorABC #quirky #beautiful #shesmyfa-vorite
[No headline]
THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 1921
“The G.A.T.A. Club will be one year old Saturday, Jan. 16, 1921. A celebtration will be held.
... Good eats were enjoyed by those present and a jolly good hour of merriment fol-lowed.”
G.A.T.A. CLUB NOTES
wednesday 02.27.137 sports
Wildcats beat down BulldogsThe lady Wildcats faced off against Butler Uni-versity this past Sunday, Feb. 24 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
They continued their winning streak, going 7-0 against the Bulldogs, making this their sixth straight clean sweep of a victory.
Julia Mongin defeated Stephanie McLaughin 6-0, 6-3.
Micah Hermsdorf took on Caroline Hedrick with a 7-6 (7-1), 2-6,6-0 win. Hannah Kelley chal-lenged Kristen Haeber-lein, claiming victory with a 6-0 straight.
Duo Brittney Reed and Mongin defeated Brit-tany Farmer and Hedrick 8-1 moving the pair up in the ranks, pushing them
4-1 to the top position.Making a huge impact
this weekend was the doubles of Kaysie Herms-dorf and Laura Mongin as they matched up against Butler’s Laura Shull and Sienna Reuter, serving an 8-1 victory.
With this win, the la-dies made a new record this season, 21-2, overall doubles.
The team were suc-cessful in all of their singles matches as well as their doubles match-es making their season 7-1 in conference, No. 1 in the regional area and No.3 nationally.
While still on the road, the women’s team took their game to Lexington, Kentucky, where they played a double header Tuesday morning against Northern Kentucky Uni-versity and University of Kentucky.
The team will play a double header here in Abilene next week, as they face University of Southwest and Barry University.
The men’s team had a week of rest, giving injured Borja Cortes and a few oth-ers a chance to heal.
While they played no matches over the week-end, they will be back in action this week, playing a double header against the University of the SouthWest and the Uni-versity of the Texas Perm-ian Basin.
This weekend the team will be travelling in-state to Waco, playing Temple Col-lege and Baylor.
They will also travel to Austin, to face off against St. Edwards.
tennis
curtis christian Staff Photographer
Sophomore Guilherme Gesser backhands a ball in Teague during a tennis match.
The ACU softball team left their own Wells Field humbled after their loss to the Falcons of University of Texas Permian-Basin.
The Falcons flew into the double header this past weekend with a 1-11 record, but left 2-12. The ‘Cats started Saturday off with the first game ending on the eight-run rule, 10-2.
The bats were in full
swing the first inning as the team combined with three hits for seven runs.
The game ended in the bottom of the sixth when Madison Buckley led off with a triple, and scored when Courtney Flanary reached first on an error by UTPB third baseman Cene Padilla.
The second game did not go as smoothly as the first. With a five-game win streak, the ‘Cats lost 3-2. The offensive end didn’t support the efforts of the
defensive end the ‘Cats seemed confident.
But, it goes to show that ACU has to play well on all cylinders to beat any team on their schedule.
The ‘Cats were humbled
back into the loss column after starting pitcher Pey-ton Mosley struggled to find her rhythm. Toward the bottom of the UTPB lineup, Leslianne Ericson, belted a full-count pitch to the gap of right-center-field. The shot plated Jackie Guzman and Kati Walker to make it a 3-1 game.
“We came out pretty strong in the first game and then by the second game I think we got a lit-tle too relaxed and com-placent,” senior pitcher
Caitlyn Crain said.UTPB’s starting pitch-
er, Janessa Martinez, could not have had a bet-ter performance.
The ‘Cats were held to just two hits and no runs over four innings. The ‘Cats could not find her strike zone until the fifth inning when Demi McNul-ty doubled and made her way home on a single by Sara Vaughn to stalemate the game at 1-1.
The team would have liked to continue their streak
heading to the Midwest-ern State Classic in Wichita Falls, but the No. 22 Wildcats dropped to 10-6 overall.
The ‘Cats look to start another streak with a busy weekend in Wichita Falls, as they face Oklahoma Panhandle State Univer-sity, Emporia State Univer-sity, St. Mary’s University and Northeastern State University.
Relief: ACU gives up three runs late at homecould not keep New Mex-ico’s hands tied. Lambrix, who took over in the sixth, gave up a one-out solo home run to left field in the eighth that cut the lead to 4-3. He then walked the next batter and allowed a triple to tie the game at 4-4.
“We just weren’t able to bounce back after we gave up the home run,” Bon-neau said. “I think that was the turning point.”
After an intentional walk to set up a double play, New Mexico High-lands smacked a single to left field for the go-ahead run. The Cowboys retired the final 10 Wildcats in or-der to end the series with a 5-4 victory.
Starting pitcher Austin Palmer was strong through five innings of work. He gave up two hits and just one run while striking out
three. Before this start, he was 0-1 with a 10.38 era in two starts.
“He really bought into going out there and pitch-ing his off-speed and us-ing his fastball when he
needed it,” Bonneau said. “We were glad to see that. We were all disappointed in his first two outings.”
Friday night, the ‘Cats opened up the weekend with a 15-5 drubbing at
Crutcher Scott Field. The team recorded 14 hits and was helped by nine walks, four errors, two wild pitches, two hit by pitches and a balk.
ACU also tied the sin-
gle-game team record for stolen bases with nine. The last time this happened was in 2011 in a game ver-sus Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
Oddly enough, the Wildcats had only one extra-base hit the entire night, which was record-ed by leadoff batter Seth Spivey.
Spivey (2-3), catcher Rodge Macy (2-4), Schue-tze (2-3) and Duarte (3-3) all had multi-hit games. Sophomore Tyler Eager drove in three runs.
Southpaw starter Ty Taylor (1-2) tossed 5.0 strong innings, striking out six Cowboys and limit-ing the team to two runs. Brady Rodriguez threw two scoreless innings in relief of Taylor.
The two teams played a doubleheader on Satur-day. The ‘Cats were 10-run-ruled 11-1 in the first game
but came back to shut out NMHU 5-0 in the second contest.
Game two starter Carter Hahn improved his record to 2-0 after shutting out the Cowboys over 5.1 in-nings. Hahn danced out of trouble in the second, third and fourth innings and stranded seven base runners total.
Schuetze went 3-for-6 in the doubleheader. He is leading the team with a .474 batting average.
The team hosts the ACU/Whiten Inn Classic this weekend. The squad will play games against Tarleton State (Thurs-day), Eastern New Mexi-co (Friday) and Cameron (Saturday).
Sweep: Women dominate, men steal firstguys,” Lofton said. “I told them, ‘You freshmen are go-ing to have to step up,’ and they did. They were huge.”
The men’s team also got wins from freshman Johna-than Farquarshon in the 55 and senior Baptiste Kerjean in Saturday’s weight throw.
Geary, who was the out-standing runner in the 2012
LSC outdoor meet, raced three times Sunday and crossed the finish line first every time.
“I just had to have faith in myself that I would make it through the day,” Geary said. “Our coach said it would come down to the 4x4 and the triple jump. We had to give it all we had to win, and that’s what happened.”
Abilene Christian is leav-
ing the LSC in 2013 after 40 years to return to NCAA Division I in track and field in the Southland Confer-ence. Its appearance in the LSC indoor track and field
Travis Scheutze swings at a pitch Sunday at Crutcher Scott Field. Schuetze had two hits.
Caitlyn crainstarting pitcher
acu softball
We came out strong in the first game and then by the
second game I think we got a little too relaxed.”“
mandy lambright chief Photographer
Head Coach Ken Collums celebrates a big play in Cowboy Stadium last fall as part of the Lone Star Conference Showcase. ACU won the game against Tarleton State 31-28 after a late touchdown.
The men’s tennis team plays a double-header Wednesday at home starting at noon against the University of Southwest and the University of Texas of the Permian Basin
The women’s basketball team plays at Incarnate Word at 5:30 p.m. today.
The men’s basketball team plays in San Antonio against Incarnate Word Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
The baseball team hosts Tarleton State Thursday at 6 p.m.
women’s basketball
standings
briefings
Who’s Hot
The volleyball team announced their first division one signing class this week. ACU will welcome three new players into the fold for the 2013 season.
The Lone Star Conference post-season basketball tournament starts March 6th and runs through March 9th. The ACU women’s team has a chance to be the one seed of the tournament with a strong finish.
Senior jumper Amanda Oue-draogo won the Lone Star Confer-
ence indoor triple jump with a distance of 43 feet and half an inch. Ouedraogo’s mark will go into the ACU record books. Her jump qualified for the sixth best jump in the entire NCAA this year, and her win helped ACU claim the indoor championships.
The ACU football team’s schedule is set for their inaugural Division I sea-son in 2013 as an inde-pendent team.
Since ACU is not able to play a Southland Con-ference football schedule until 2014, the athletic department had to fill an entire schedule of games instead of a couple of non-conference games to start the season as usual.
“I think one of the best things we have done is our scheduling,” head coach Ken Collums said. “I work for some pretty smart guys,
and those guys put together a full schedule from zero. They communicated with me on all these games. We know there are going to be tough waters, but we are going to go trade blows with all of these teams.”
The Wildcats will play 11 games in 2013, head-lined by an October trip to New Mexico to take on the New Mexico State Lobos.
New Mexico State is a member of the Football Bowl Subdivision, mean-ing that they play at college football’s highest level.
“We are going to be play-ing against a team that numbers wise as far as scholarships will have us outmatched,” Collums said.
“We will have to show up and play really well to have a chance to win the game. If we are healthy we should go in there and play well.”
With a venue such as New Mexico State, the Wildcats will be in unfa-miliar territory, but the players are excited to play on such a large stage.
“I have been a part of some big games my pre-vious school (Louisiana Tech),” Tight End Noah Chesier said. “The envi-ronment is awesome and fires me up. I believe ev-eryone will need to bring their focus and their A game every game.”
ACU plays their first three games at home be-
fore hitting the road for seven of their last eight games spanning four states during their road trips.
Although ACU is moving up a division, they will face a couple of familiar foes in McMurry, Tarleton State, and a pair of matchups against Incarnate Word.
“When we got into this it was a monumental task just to get games,” Collums said. “Whether we will keep playing Tarleton or not in the future when we have a full Southland Confer-ence schedule I don’t know. It has been a really good matchup in the past and should be again next year.”
Incarnate Word is also moving from the Lone
Star Conference into the Southland Conference, meaning that the Wildcats and Cardinals will be see-ing a lot of each other for years to come.
ACU will host the Car-dinals in October before travelling to San Antonio three weeks later. Last sea-son, The Wildcats beat the Cardinals 24-12 and former ACU quarterback Mitchell Gale broke the Lone Star Conference passing record.
The Wildcats open the season August 31st against Concordia College at 7 p.m. in Shotwell Stadium.
football
Football team’s first D-I schedule to be independentmatthew sloan
The Abilene Christian Track and Field teams dominated this weekend as they swept both team titles at the Lone Star Con-ference indoor track and field championships.
The women’s team took first convincingly, posting a score of 150. The men’s team edged out second placed Texas A&M Kingsville 125-123 for the title on the final
day of competition. ACU’s men’s team came
into the final day of compe-tition trailing, but was able to rally and take the LSC championship.
“This has been a long, hard fight,” head coach Roo-sevelt Lofton said. “I told our team that we may not be the deepest, but we are the most talented.”
The women’s team cap-tured their first LSC title since 2008. Out of the four-teen members on the squad, there were six individual
wins, including the 4x400 relay (3:45:41).
Senior Amanda Oue-draogo took first in the triple jump and set an ACU record with a 43 ft. 0.5 in.
Her winning jump came on her final attempt to sur-pass defending Division II outdoor champion Kearah Danville of Angelo State.
Junior Reyare Thomas captured two individual victories. In the 55, she re-corded a 6.96, and in the 200, she posted a 23.97. Freshman Elea Diarra won
the 400 (55.47) to add to ACU victories.
“We got a lot of big points across the board,” Lofton said. “I’m proud of them.”
The Wildcat men’s team, winner of the last nineteen LSC outdoor titles, captured five individual events and the 4x400 relay.
Senior Jordan Geary won the 200 (21.25) and 400 (48.22) and pulled the 4x400 team to victory in the final 10 meters by passing Kingsville anchor Anthony Washington on the inside to
finish in 3:15.62 to the Jave-linas’ 3:16.17.
Freshman Luke Woods was a surprise winner in the heptathlon with 4,520 points after heavily favored teammates seniors Parker Petty and Matthew Stark failed to clear a height in the pole vault to receive no points and fall to fourth (Stark) and fifth (Petty). The men’s team included ten freshmen of the entire 23.
“We have so many young
track and field
daniel zepedasports reporter
see sweep page 7
Late inning struggles prevent win
The Wildcats were five outs away from lassoing up the Cowboys of New Mexico Highlands Uni-versity over the weekend. However, NMHU scored three runs in the top of the eighth inning on Sun-day to earn a split of the four-game home series.
“You know what, sometimes you do a lot of good things and you still lose,” said head coach Britt Bonneau.
ACU dropped to 7-6 overall after the weekend
and have split all three of its four-game series this season.
The ‘Cats led Sunday 2-1 until the Cowboys knocked in a two-out run to tie the game 2-2 in the top of the sixth.
The team answered in the bottom half with two runs after fresh-man Heath Beasley came through with a clutch two run single to left field driving in Travis Schue-tze and Chuck Duarte.
The squad held that 4-2 lead for 1.1 innings but closer Aaron Lambrix
baseball
mandy lambright chief Photographer
Outfielder Heath Beasley dives into home plate to score a run at Crutcher Scott Field.
