inside Page 3 page 4 page 4 Former tennis coach, provost honored on campus Read how liberal arts education takes on more practical goals Social clubs name future presidents Abilene Christian University Sports page 6 news opinion news acuoptimist.com See more of the Big Country Air Show photos vol. 100, no. 56 friday, may 4, 2012 1 SECTION, 6 PAGES Riding the Ship Wildcats tennis sweeps at regionals, heads to nationals housing Res Life retracts UP email The university’s three newest trustees visited campus Tuesday for an orientation led by the president’s office. The board of trustees elected Carole Phillips, Kyle Hammond and Jim Porter in the board’s meeting during Sing Song weekend and will begin their terms at the June 1 meeting of the board. Phillips, ’83, graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in education and taught kindergarten at Johnson Elementary School in Abilene from 1981-85. Her father is Bob Hunter and she participated in the Hunter Welcome Center campaign. Hammond, ’83, is the CEO of FireWheel Energy, LLC and lives in Midland. He has served on the board of trustees for Midland Christian School. Porter graduated from Texas A & M with a bach- elor’s degree in Industrial Engineering in 1958 and a graduate degree in busi- ness from Harvard in ’63. Porter served on the board of trustees from 1990-2010 and spent a year off of the board before rejoining this year. He’s also served as ad- junct faculty in COBA and co-chair of the presidential transition team in 2010. His daughters Dana Hartstein and Ellen Patterson and his son Alan graduated from ACU in the 1980s. Slade Sullivan, general counsel and secretary, said the board selected the three candidates because they were qualified to serve on the university’s highest governing body. “The board of trustees is always interested in finding people who would be good additions to the board,” Sullivan said. “They go through an annual process for considering people with connections to the univer- sity, and this year they se- lected three people from the pool of candidates.” Kelly Brown, executive as- sistant t the general counsel, said each of the three new trustees brought a different perspective to the board. “Carole Phillips has a long family history at ACU, and her husband Danny was a trustee,” Brown said. “Kyle Hammond brings a lot of business knowledge and is very active in the ACU com- munity. Jim Porter has a lot of institutional experience after spending two decades on the board.” Sophomores will not be able to live in University Park, contrary to an email rising sophomores re- ceived from the on-cam- pus apartments manage- ment Thursday morning. Dr. John Delony, assistant dean for Residence Life Ed- ucation and Housing, sent an email a few hours later to correct the mistake. “At this time, Univer- sity Park is not available for sophomores,” Delony said in the email. “Sophomore students will live in Sikes, Barret, Morris, Edwards and Smith/Adams Halls.” Delony said he will be talking with UP manage- ment to find out how the miscommunication hap- pened. University Park apart- ments are only available for upperclassmen. “At first I was really ex- cited because most univer- sities let you live off cam- pus after your first year and I want my own apart- ment and kitchen,” said Anino Rasaphangthong, freshman accounting ma- jor from Ft. Worth. “Then I was disappointed when I got that second email because my friends and I were hyped to live there.” mark smith managing editor contact smith at [email protected]After an eventful year of dance policy revisions, fes- tivals and amendments, the Students’ Association executive officers will hand over the reins to the 2012- 2013 executive officers this Friday at the Changing of the Guard ceremony. President, Connor Best, Vice President, Julianne Hart, treasurer, Carson Henley and secretary, Katherine Handy will be relinquishing their re- sponsibilities to the newly elected officers Rebecca Dial, president-elect, Dy- lan Benac, vice president- elect and Joseph Austin, treasurer-elect. Congress members and officers will gather at the Fairway Oaks Country Club to eat and participate in commemorative traditions. This year’s officers will also present a plaque to someone who has been a mentor to them and has helped them through their time in office. This is newly Dial’s fa- vorite part of the night. “It really is cool to be able to see who the execu- tive officers really relied on,” Dial said. “I think that’s a very interest- ing aspect just because it gives you even more in- sight into how they were working through the pro- cess of being an executive officer.” Officers then present funny awards to Congress members. Congress members met on Wednesday to vote on an amendment concerning transfer students in execu- tive officer positions. “When we were in- terviewing executive administrators, two of the people who applied were actually transfer students. However, one had only been here for a year, but she’s going to be a senior,” Dial said. “This kind of called to our at- tention that there wasn’t anything about transfer students who were oth- erwise qualified in the Constitution.” This amendment would allow transfer students who are otherwise quali- fied to hold executive offi- cer positions after having attended ACU for one full year. The 25 Congress mem- bers present voted unani- mously to accept this amendment, contingent on whether the student body passes it at the be- ginning of next year. government University Students’ Association officers to hand over reins Three new members join board of trustees marissa jones page 2 editor contactjones at [email protected]contact smith at [email protected]Mark smith managing editor slade sullivan general counsel and secretary The board of trustees is always interested in finding people who would be good additions to the board.” “ Top Left: ACU’s Beauchamp amphitheater is filled with the incoming freshmen class of 2011 participating in the traditional ACU Candlelight Devo- tional. Top Right: Leah Cameron, junior family studies major from Houston and director of Alpha Kai Omega’s act, accepts the trophy for overall winner in the women’s voice division of Sing Song 2012. This is the first year in the history of Sing Song that Alpha Kai Omega has won first place in their division. Center: Alex Wann, ACU alumnus from Wyoming and former Agriculture and Environmental Science major, embraces Dr. Michael Nicodemus, assistant professor of Environmental Science, during a special Monday memorial chapel held for those involved with the bus roll over that took the life of Anabel Reid. Bottom Left: ACU’s first on-campus dance had students swaying to the music Tuesday night in the Bob and Shir- ley Hunter Welcome Center. “Dance in Disguise” was the first implementation of recent changes in the university’s dance policy. Bottom Right: Arielle Collier, vocal performance major from Mesquite, and her father react to being honored as the 2011 ACU Homecoming Queen during the Homecoming football game at Shotwell Stadium. Anino rasaphangthong freshman accounting major from ft. worth Then I was disappointed when I got that second email because my friends were hyped to live there.” “ file photo by daniel gomez file photo by daniel gomez mandy lambright Chief photographer mandy lambright Chief photographer file photo by daniel gomez
Transcript
inside
Page 3 page 4 page 4
Former tennis coach, provost honored on campus
Read how liberal arts education takes on more practical goals
The university’s three newest trustees visited campus Tuesday for an orientation led by the president’s office.
The board of trustees elected Carole Phillips, Kyle Hammond and Jim Porter in the board’s meeting during Sing Song weekend and will begin their terms at the June 1 meeting of the board.
Phillips, ’83, graduated with a Bachelor’s degree
in education and taught kindergarten at Johnson Elementary School in Abilene from 1981-85. Her father is Bob Hunter and she participated in the Hunter Welcome Center campaign.
Hammond, ’83, is the CEO of FireWheel Energy, LLC and lives in Midland. He has served on the board of trustees for Midland Christian School.
Porter graduated from Texas A & M with a bach-elor’s degree in Industrial Engineering in 1958 and a
graduate degree in busi-ness from Harvard in ’63. Porter served on the board of trustees from 1990-2010 and spent a year off of the board before rejoining this year. He’s also served as ad-junct faculty in COBA and
co-chair of the presidential transition team in 2010. His daughters Dana Hartstein and Ellen Patterson and his son Alan graduated from ACU in the 1980s.
Slade Sullivan, general counsel and secretary,
said the board selected the three candidates because they were qualified to serve on the university’s highest governing body.
“The board of trustees is always interested in finding people who would be good additions to the board,” Sullivan said. “They go through an annual process for considering people with connections to the univer-sity, and this year they se-lected three people from the pool of candidates.”
Kelly Brown, executive as-sistant t the general counsel,
said each of the three new trustees brought a different perspective to the board.
“Carole Phillips has a long family history at ACU, and her husband Danny was a trustee,” Brown said. “Kyle Hammond brings a lot of business knowledge and is very active in the ACU com-munity. Jim Porter has a lot of institutional experience after spending two decades on the board.”
Sophomores will not be able to live in University Park, contrary to an email rising sophomores re-ceived from the on-cam-pus apartments manage-ment Thursday morning. Dr. John Delony, assistant dean for Residence Life Ed-ucation and Housing, sent an email a few hours later
to correct the mistake.“At this time, Univer-
sity Park is not available for sophomores,” Delony said in the email. “Sophomore students will live in Sikes, Barret, Morris, Edwards and Smith/Adams Halls.”
Delony said he will be talking with UP manage-ment to find out how the miscommunication hap-pened.
University Park apart-ments are only available for upperclassmen.
“At first I was really ex-cited because most univer-sities let you live off cam-pus after your first year and I want my own apart-ment and kitchen,” said Anino Rasaphangthong, freshman accounting ma-jor from Ft. Worth. “Then I was disappointed when I got that second email because my friends and I were hyped to live there.”
After an eventful year of dance policy revisions, fes-tivals and amendments, the Students’ Association executive officers will hand over the reins to the 2012-2013 executive officers this Friday at the Changing of the Guard ceremony.
President, Connor Best, Vice President, Julianne
Hart, treasurer, Carson Henley and secretary, Katherine Handy will be relinquishing their re-sponsibilities to the newly elected officers Rebecca Dial, president-elect, Dy-lan Benac, vice president-elect and Joseph Austin, treasurer-elect.
Congress members and officers will gather at the Fairway Oaks Country Club to eat and participate in commemorative traditions.
This year’s officers will also present a plaque to someone who has been a mentor to them and has helped them through their time in office.
This is newly Dial’s fa-vorite part of the night.
“It really is cool to be able to see who the execu-tive officers really relied on,” Dial said. “I think that’s a very interest-ing aspect just because it gives you even more in-
sight into how they were working through the pro-cess of being an executive officer.”
Officers then present funny awards to Congress members.
Congress members met on Wednesday to vote on an amendment concerning transfer students in execu-tive officer positions.
“When we were in-terviewing executive administrators, two of
the people who applied were actually transfer students. However, one had only been here for a year, but she’s going to be a senior,” Dial said. “This kind of called to our at-tention that there wasn’t anything about transfer students who were oth-erwise qualified in the Constitution.”
This amendment would allow transfer students who are otherwise quali-
fied to hold executive offi-cer positions after having attended ACU for one full year.
The 25 Congress mem-bers present voted unani-mously to accept this amendment, contingent on whether the student body passes it at the be-ginning of next year.
The board of trustees is always interested in finding people who would be good additions to the board.”“
Top Left: ACU’s Beauchamp amphitheater is filled with the incoming freshmen class of 2011 participating in the traditional ACU Candlelight Devo-tional. Top Right: Leah Cameron, junior family studies major from Houston and director of Alpha Kai Omega’s act, accepts the trophy for overall winner in the women’s voice division of Sing Song 2012. This is the first year in the history of Sing Song that Alpha Kai Omega has won first place in their division. Center: Alex Wann, ACU alumnus from Wyoming and former Agriculture and Environmental Science major, embraces Dr. Michael Nicodemus, assistant professor of Environmental Science, during a special Monday memorial chapel held for those involved with the bus roll over that took the life of Anabel Reid. Bottom Left: ACU’s first on-campus dance had students swaying to the music Tuesday night in the Bob and Shir-ley Hunter Welcome Center. “Dance in Disguise” was the first implementation of recent changes in the university’s dance policy. Bottom Right: Arielle Collier, vocal performance major from Mesquite, and her father react to being honored as the 2011 ACU Homecoming Queen during the Homecoming football game at Shotwell Stadium.
Anino rasaphangthongfreshman accounting major
from ft. worth
Then I was disappointed when I got that second
email because my friends were hyped to live there.”“
file photo by daniel gomez
file photo by daniel gomez
mandy lambright Chief photographer
mandy lambright Chief photographer file photo by daniel gomez
04
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05 06 07Friday Saturday Sunday Monday
All day - Outdoor Track LSC Cham-pionship @ Com-merce
All day - Ping Pong Tournament @ ACU Bowling Alley
Check online for the spring final exam schedule. Go to http://www.acu.edu/campu-soffices/registrar/finalexams to find times and dates of finals.
The Service Action Leader-ship Team wants you to bring your old clothes, room stuff, plastics, cardboard, glass, pa-per and aluminum to recycle. If you bring something to do-nate, you may swap it with other donations. The Year-End Recycling Project will be held on May 5 from 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. in the University Church parking lot.
The ACU Student-Athelete Advisory Committee will be hosting the 2nd Annual Run for Wishes on May 5 from 8 - 9:30 a.m. Register at bit.ly/acurunforwishes. Registration costs $15.
Registration for the National Women in Ministry Confer-ence for the Churches of Christ has begun. The con-ference’s theme will be ‘Part-nering for Good’ and will take place on June 29 through July 1 in the Kansas City area. For more information visit www.womenministrycc.com.
Dr. Sean Pullen will be hav-ing auditions for the ACU A Cappella Choir and the ACU Singers Choir on Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sign up for an audition slot on his office door in Room 132 in the WPAC.
Spots are still available for Nil Santana’s summer pho-tography courses. Art 291-01, Introduction to Black and White Photography is being offered May 14-31. Art 440-01, Digital Art Photog-raphy is being offered July 16-August 2.
Dr. Neal Coates will be teach-ing a special topics class, Poli-tics of Israel, for the Fall 2012 semester. This class will be of-fered Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3-4:20 p.m.
The ACU Parents’ Association is hosting a midnight break-fast that will be held on May 7 from 10:30 p.m. - 12 a.m. in the BEan. Use your meal plan or pay $5 for an all you can eat breakfast. There will also be a live DJ, karaoke, board and card games and door prizes includ-ing a $150 Grand Prize draw-ing at midnight.
Volunteer Opp0rtunities
Abilene Hope Haven needs volunteers from May 4 through May 6 to help in a variety of ways with their annual youth soccer tournament. The event will be held at the Abilene National Soccer Complex at 3025 Maple. Contact Alan Jeter at 325-677-4673 or [email protected] or Kathy Reppart at 325-677-4673 or [email protected].
Ben Richey Boys Ranch is looking for volunteers for their annual Ben Richey Boys Ranch Clay Break Classic on May 5 for shifts throughout the day from 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. Duties will include set up, helping on the clay-break range, clean up and variety of other tasks during the event. Contact Patty Dunn at 325-668-0557 or Karen Martin at 325-668-9554 or e-mail [email protected]. The Abilene Zoo is looking for volunteers to help with general labor such as grounds cleanup and paint-ing any weekday at any time between noon and 4 p.m. The Zoo is located at 2070 Zoo Ln. Contact Joy Harsh at 325-676-6487 for more information.
Child Protective Services needs volunteers for cleri-cal work as well as volunteers who can organize a playroom. Volunteers are needed any weekday any-time between 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Child Protective Ser-vices are located at 3610 Vine St. Background checks are required and are done at the center. Background checks usually are cleared in about two weeks. For more information call V. Danette Cummings at 325-691-8214.
Medical Care Mission is looking for volunteers to as-sist medical or dental staff with patients any weekday from 8:45 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. For more information contact Dave Kraly at 325-676-3104 or email [email protected].
Abilene Hope Haven Inc. needs volunteers to provide childcare while parents are in class, any evening Monday-Thursday from 6:45 - 8:15 p.m. Abilene Hope Haven is located at 801 S. Treadaway Blvd. For more information contact Kathy Reppart at 325-677-4673 or visit www.abilenehopehaven.com/volunteer.
The Abilene Boys and Girls Club needs help any weekday between 3:30 - 6 p.m. helping children of all ages with games, art, gym time, reading and com-puter skills. Locations are 4610 N. 10th St. or 1902 Shelton St. Contact Mark Denman at 325-672-1712 for more information.
Volunteers are needed to enjoy a free lunch with students at Bonham Elementary School on a weekly
basis. This would be sometime between 10:00 a.m. and 1:15 p.m., and would involve spending lunch time with students and having a positive impact on their lives. Contact Jason Shaw at 325-639-3745 or e-mail [email protected].
Meals on Wheels Plus needs volunteer drivers to de-liver afternoon meals to seniors and adults with dis-abilities Monday through Friday between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Drivers must be at least 18 years old and have a valid driver’s license. Training is provided. A Chapel exemption is available if delivery time conflicts with Chapel. Contact Jessica Stewart at 325-672-5050 or email [email protected].
The Big Brothers Big Sisters program is looking for volunteers to participate in Lunch Buddies. Bigs and Littles will enjoy lunch together at the child’s school once a week. Students can earn Chapel credit for each visit. Big Brothers Big Sisters is also looking for volunteers for its Community Based program. Bigs are matched with Littles in a one-on-one relationship and spend four to six hours per month together in the community. To sign up or learn more visit www.bbbstx.org or call 325-674-3113.
New Life Alliance is looking for volunteers to help with their after school program on Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. You will help with snacks, homework, crafts, games and other activities in addition to men-toring and building relationships with youth. Contact Ashley Kee at 325-672-1636 or e-mail [email protected].
The House That Kerry Built is looking for volunteers to assist in the day care of medically fragile children any day Monday through Friday from 8:45 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Contact Dave Kraly at 325-676-3104 or e-mail [email protected] for more information.
Rescue The Animals is looking for volunteers any-time between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., Monday-Friday. They need help around the adoption center with general cleaning, socialization of the animals, helping poten-tial adopters and other tasks. Contact Mindi Qualls at 325-698-7722 or email [email protected]. The center is located at 5933 S. 1st St.
Young Life Ministries needs volunteers Mondays, Tuesdays and weekends from 6-9 p.m. Volunteers will hang out with kids, experience leadership roles, serve others and introduce students to Christ. Young Life is located at 1917 S. 6th St. For more in-formation contact Chuck Rodgers at 325-676-1211
Disability Resources, Inc. is looking for volunteers to assist developmentally disabled residence. Help is needed with activities, art projects, reading books, exercise activities, assisting with vocational training needs and other interactions Monday through Friday from 9 a.m-4 p.m. For more information contact Becky Moody at 325-677-6815 or e-mail [email protected].
Volunteers are needed to read to Taylor Elementary School students Monday through Thursday afternoons at UCC from 3:15-4:30 p.m. Enter through the south entrance. Contact C.G. Grey 325-668-2842.
Da’ Cipher 360, a program for at risk children, is look-ing for volunteers on Monday evenings from 5-8 p.m. at the Rose Park Activity Center, 2625 S. 7th St. Vol-unteers can help in a variety of ways including helping with set up, learning activities for kindergarten-3rd graders, tutoring 4th-8th graders, and assisting with clean up. Contact Alvina Scott at 847-333-7026 or e-mail [email protected].
The Salvation Army is looking for volunteers 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 Salva-tion Army is located at 1726 Butternut St. For more information contact J.D. Alonzo at 325-677-1408 or visit www.satruck.com.
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 in-formation contact Janice Serrault at 325-695-6311 or [email protected].
Access Learning Center is looking for volunteers to help elementary school kids with homework, reading, computers and games. The center is located at 2102 Ambler Ave. For more information contact Bret Hines at 325-670-9727. Call ahead to schedule a time to volunteer.
College Heights Friendship House needs child men-tors Monday - Thursday from 3 - 5 p.m. Contact Dusty Garison at [email protected] for more infor-mation.
For additional volunteer opportunities visit: www.acu.edu/campusoffices/slvr/vol_opps/
announcements
Police Tip of the Week: The ACUPD wishes everyone safe travels and a safe summer.
Weekly Stats for April 24 - may 1, 2012
04/24/12 11:30 a.m. THEFT: An ACU student reported the theft of cash from his dorm room.
04/24/12 12:25 p.m. CRIMINAL MISCHIEF: An ACU student reported a golf ball struck the windshield of his pickup while he was driving westbound in the 800 block of EN 16th Street.
04/25/12 4:35 p.m. BURGLARY (MOTOR VEHICLE): An ACU student reported the bur-glary of his vehicle. A GPS and camera were stolen.
04/25/12 3:05 p.m. THEFT: Two ACU students reported the thefts of their iPhone 4s from the SRWC outside courts.
04/29/12 6:00 p.m. BURGLARY (MOTOR VEHICLE): An ACU visitor reported the bur-glary of her vehicle and theft of a computer from inside the car.
04/30/12 10:18 p.m. THEFT: An ACU student reported the theft of a cell phone from inside the SRWC.
Abandoned Vehicle 1Accident 3Administrative Activity 14Alarm 1Alcohol Incident 1Animal Call 1Assist 5 Attempt to Locate 1Barricades 3Building Lock/Unlock 8Burglary of Motor Vehicle 2Check Building 82Criminal Mischief 2Direct Traffic 1Domestic Disturbance 1Elevator Rescue 1Event Support 3Fight 1 Found Property 3
Information Report 3Lost Property 2Medical Emergency 2Monitor Facility/ Lot 1Motorist Assist: Inflate Tire 1Motorist Assist: Jump Start 6Motorist Assist: Other 1Motorist Assist: Unlock 15Noise Violation 2Other 9Parking Lot Patrol 4Parking Violation 1Patrol Vehicle: Maintenance 4Patrol Vehicle: Refuel 5Suspicious Activity 3Theft 3Traffic Stop 7Warrant Service 1Total Events: 243
Police Log
friday 05.04.123 campus news
Former tennis coach, dean, provost honored
Former ACU tennis coach and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Dr. Dwain Hart was honored for his years of service to the university with an en-dowment in his name.
The Hart Tennis En-dowment Fund was cre-ated by a donation from an anonymous former tennis player. The fund must meet a few require-ments before becoming official but Hart is excit-ed about the prospect of an endowment.
“It’s just the beginning of the program,” said Hart. “He just wanted to start something in my honor. It is phenomenal.”
Hart found out about the honor during a re-union of former players at the Abilene Country Club. The event was put on by Dr. Dickie Hill, professor of kinesiology and nutrition, and Hutton Jones, ACU tennis coach, and featured letters from players, a trib-ute video and served as a celebration of Hart’s 80th birthday.
After arriving at ACU in 1955, Hart served as men’s tennis coach from 1956-1971 and had an overall record of 168-101-5. He became the first chair for the Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation in 1960. From 1971-1979, Hart also served as the women’s athletic di-rector.
However, Hart’s service to the university continued through many roles out-side of athletics.
He was appointed dean of the College of Profes-sional Studies in 1982 and
later served as vice presi-dent of academic affairs as well as provost.
His daughter, Dr. Kerri Hart, is one of three pro-gram directors for the Stu-dent Recreation and Well-ness Center. Besides being influenced in her career choices, Kerri also learned her love for tennis from her father.
“I have played tennis since I was a kid,” she said. “He has had a great influ-ence. I wrote my disser-tation on tennis. I think because of his influence it has just been a continual theme that I have been in-terested in.”
Along with their shared careers and interests, the father and daughter have also shared a similar plan-ning role on campus.
“The neat connection is that the role he had in getting to plan Moody and Gibson, I got to have with the new Rec Center,” Kerri said.
She attributes much of her inspiration to her father and is proud of the distinction he has earned.
“It means an awful lot,” she said. “He put 56 years of his life into the university. It is a great honor.”
Dwain Hart retired in 1997 and continued to work part time as a university liason before fully retiring last August.
“I enjoyed life,” Dwain said. “It was a fun thing to get to work with people. That’s really what it’s all about: helping people.”
The Horizon Team has moved past the initial stage in the process of evaluating where ACU fits in the landscape of higher education. The team pro-duced a white paper in March detailing its find-ings after a large amount of research and discussion around campus. The team is moving on to identifying experiments and ideas the university could consider.
Dr. Mark Phillips, asso-ciate professor of manage-ment sciences and leader of the Horizon Team, said the white paper, which is avail-able on the Horizon Team’s
blog, helped organize the team’s research and move on to the next step in the process.
“We wanted to ensure we were well-grounded in higher education and we wanted to make it avail-able to anyone on campus who would be interested,” Phillips said. “Now and into this summer we’re looking for any new things we could try out in the classroom.”
Phillips said one change that could be experiment-ed with is information de-livery in the classroom.
“There’s a lot of push to move class delivery away from lectures,” he said. “Most people don’t find lecture particularly ef-
ficient or enjoyable, and there’s been a lot of explo-ration in other places to switch things around and have fewer lectures. We want to experiment with things that have proven to work and we won’t take on anything that damages the learning experience.”
Dr. Susan Lewis, mem-ber of the Horizon Team, said the team has been consistently working to-ward its ultimate goal.
“We’ve been meeting with faculty, staff and stu-dents to hear about their ACU experiences and the things they love about ACU and the things they want to preserve about ACU,” said Lewis, associate pro-fessor of journalism and
mass communication. “As we’ve listened to different departments, we’ve been very encouraged. There are good things happening here, and it’s been really interesting to learn about what faculty and students are doing.”
Now and into this summer we’re looking for any new things we could try out in
the classroom.”“
matthew sewell Staff Photographer
J.P. Ralston, sophomore finance major from Plano, performs at the ACU Orchestra concert featuring Paul Piersall Tuesday night in Cullen Auditorium.
friday 05.04.12 4news/sports
Clubs elect presidents for next school year
As the spring semester comes to an end all 12 men’s and women’s so-cial clubs on campus elect their new club officers for the upcoming school year. A social clubs purpose is to give students the op-portunity to feel a sense of brotherhood or sisterhood in a Christ-centered envi-ronment.
Gamma Sigma Phi President, senior biol-ogy major from Keller, was elected at the beginning of March. He ran against five other members Chase Martin, Curtis Christian, Zack Morgan, and Ryan Carroll.
“I was surprised. We
have five great guys run-ning for office and I know that it was a really close race. I feel especially hon-ored and humbled to have been elected out of such a qualified group of young men who would represent the men of Gamma Sigma Phi at such a high level,” Smith said.
Smith hopes to be a good steward of GSP to the ACU and local communi-ty. He knows that as Presi-dent of GSP his actions carry a little more weight than they used to.
“Not only am I acting on behalf of myself, but for the next year all of my words and actions directly reflect my social club, and that is a responsibility that I take seriously. Club certainly is not life, but it
is something that has im-proved my college experi-ence and I hope that it can continue to do the same for future students,” Smith said.
As social clubs are pressed upon the up-
coming sophomore class, Smith is excited for the new pledge class ahead, and cannot wait to serve the ACU and local com-munity with a group of Christ-centered brothers.
Alpha Kai Omega Presi-
dent, Bethany Morgan Ad/PR major from Nocona, was elected in December of last year. She ran against Kristen McBride.
“I was very excited. I have been dreaming of being President of such an amazing club since I pledged. I was also hon-ored. I want to serve the women of AKO in the best way I can, and was happy with the opportunity to do so,” Morgan said.
Morgan strives to re-flect the light of AKO in the best way possible by having a close relation-ship with God, her sisters and others around her. She speaks on the matter of what being President of AKO does to her status around campus.
“I feel like my actions
reflect what people think about our club; not only myself, but all of the mem-bers as well. When you see someone in a club shirt, your opinion is formed by the way they act,” Morgan said.
The new Presidents of GSP and AKO both agree that they want to reach out to other clubs. They believe that clubs have not been very involved in the past with each other, and ac-tivities with each club will help the clubs get together and get to know each other better. They feel honored, prideful in being a part of social clubs, and happy to serve our campus.
Twenty-one teams par-ticipated in ACU’s first co-ed intramural kickball tournament Monday and Tuesday nights.
The tournament was free and open to all in-terested students, said Kenli Edwards, director of intramural sports. It is the only co-ed intramural sport available at ACU.
“I wanted to do co-ed
because we don’t have any other co-ed sports,” Edwards said. “I thought it would be neat for every-one to just sign up with their friends and get a chance to all compete to-gether.”
Edwards said this was the first time they have arranged a tournament of this sort, but there are plans to make it an annual event or to have one at the end of every semester.
“I thought it would be a fun way to end the semes-
ter, to have something that brought you back to your elementary glory days.” Edwards said. “Kickball is something that anybody can play; you don’t have to be great at it.”
Edwards said it offered even more variety to the sports offered through in-tramurals. She said kick-ball was a kind of childlike sport that allowed more people to play without be-ing overly serious.
“I think it’s one of the most fun times you can
have playing something without a lot of pressure,” Edwards said.
Edwards said the co-ed aspect of the tournament also brought about a dif-ferent atmosphere and al-lowed groups of friends to have fun together.
“It brings a little vari-ety to what you’re doing, so it’s not just a movie or hanging out at someone’s house,” Edwards said. “It’s getting out there and playing and having fun with people that you al-
ways hang out with but in a different way.”
Kaleigh Sheffield, ju-nior music education major from Argyle, who was on a team called “Our Kicks Don’t Lie” with a mix of girl and guy friends, said playing with guys gave the game a dif-ferent feeling.
“Guys bring a kind of intensity to it,” Sheffield said. “With girls there are a lot of cat fights.”
Ross Darden, senior ac-counting from Midland,
summarized his feelings toward the tournament on his Twitter profile by posting, “Kickball: I LIVE FOR THIS.”
“I figured this could be just a fun and free thing to do at the end of the semester to kind of wind everything down and to finish out intramurals in a fun way,” Edwards said.
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‘Cats prepare for tourney clash with Angelo State
The Wildcats are preparing for the Lone Star Conference Post-Season Baseball Tourna-ment this weekend at Foster Field in San Angelo. The team has made it to the tournament six out of the past seven years, but fell short last season.
“We’re excited to be back in this tournament,” head coach Britt Bonneau said. “This is a place where ACU baseball is used to being.”
Junior Travis Schue-tze said he is most excited
about the atmosphere go-ing into the tournament.
“There will be more peo-ple at these games which makes it more exciting,” he said. “Every hit and run is bigger at this stage.”
The ‘Cats earned the sixth and final spot in the tourney last weekend after Cameron University was swept by Tar-leton State University.
Despite losing all four games against Angelo State University to end the season, ACU finished 11-17 in the conference (24-26 overall), one game ahead of CU (10-18).
Schuetze has long for-gotten last week’s games.
“We’re on the dance floor now,” he said. “We have to erase the past and move forward.”
The Wildcats will be test-ed early in the LSC tourna-ment as they have to take on the No. 1 seeded Rams Saturday at 7 p.m. The for-mat for the tourney is a six-team bracket with a double elimination.
ASU ended the regular season at the top of the divi-sion with a 36-14 overall re-cord and a 20-8 mark in the LSC. Texas A&M University-
Kingsville (18-10) was two games behind Angelo State.
“Their definitely a team that has a lot of things go-ing for them,” Bonneau said. “They have good arms on the mound, a good bullpen and they hit the ball well.”
The Rams were 15-7 in their last 22 games. They have a seven-game win-ning streak going into this weekend and beat the ‘Cats by a combined score of 46-7 in the last regular season series of the year.
ASU has seven regular starters hitting above .300
on the year. Lee Neumann is at the top of the list with a .398 average. He is tied for the team-lead in home runs (6) and hits (70). Neu-mann is also the leader in runs, doubles, triples and slugging percentage.
Ryan Greer has an im-pressive 52 RBI’s in 50 games played for Angelo. He has swiped a team-leading 26 bases out of 31 attempts.
As Bonneau said, pitch-ing is also a strong suite of the Rams. The team has five pitchers with at least five wins.
Michael Lange is un-defeated this season with a 7-0 record and a 3.46 ERA. Starter Rick Reyna is striking out almost a batter per inning (57 total strikeouts).
“The regular season is behind us,” Bonneau said. “It doesn’t matter what your ERA or batting aver-age is anymore. It’s about taking one game at a time and seeing how far you can go.”
Action: Wildcats battle No. 17 Emporia State in OklahomaIntercollegiate Athletics Association conference championship tourna-ment. The team beat No. 21 Missouri Western 6-5 to win the MIAA tourna-ment after coming from behind in the previous game to beat Missouri Western again.
Emporia State coach Julie LeMaire is in her first year at the helm of
the Lady Hornets, and has done well in leading her squad so far this season.
She was named MIAA Coach of the Year and went 20-0 during confer-ence play after coach-ing at Fort Hays State for three years. LeMarie is 1-1 in her coaching career against ACU.
“Emporia is a great team,” Reeves said. “Ju-lie has done a great job crafting together a pro-gram that will continue to make national head-lines for years to come.”
In the overall series between the schools, Em-poria State leads 7-5 after winning the last three
matchups. The Hornets have won six of the last seven meetings in the se-ries, but this will be the first post-season game between the two schools.
The last time the schools met was in Feb. 2010, as ESU beat No. 17 ACU 8-1 at Wells Field in Abilene.
“Yeah, we are excit-ed to get to play them again,” junior pitcher Caitlyn Crain said. “They have got the better of us recently in the series, but we are excited to square off with them again. They’re very good.”
The Wildcats, on the other hand, have been
struggling as of late. The team has dropped five of its last six games enter-ing the tournament, and is looking to rebound in what would seem the per-fect situation.
“Having the chance to play in this tournament is a big deal,” Crain said. “These teams are the best of the best, and it’s always fun to compete against the best. We have been in a funk recently, but this is a great chance to get out of it.”
ACU is averaging 4.24 runs per game while only giving up 3.31 per game. Junior center-fielder Keanna Winkfield leads the team in batting, boasting a .384 batting average. She also leads the team in hits (61) by a margin of 18.
Junior second base-man Kim Briggs has pro-vided the big stick for the Wildcats, producing 37 RBI’s, 14 more than Sara Vaughn, who is second on the team.
Crain leads the pitch-ers in ERA (2.29), wins (13) and strikeouts (70).
ACU will play either Central Oklahoma or In-carnate Word on Satur-day in the second round of the double elimination tournament. The win-ners will play at 1:00 p.m. with the losers facing elimination at 3:30 p.m.
So, this is it. After four long, tiring, difficult years I am finally at the end of my college edu-cation. While it may have been long, tiring and difficult, it was also very exciting and fun. And though I may have learned a lot about art and journalism, I learned even more about life.
This is the point of which I impart my “al-most college graduate” wisdom to you. Here it goes:
Get involved in some-thing you think is im-portant. For LYNAY, I was required to get 20 service hours per se-mester. My freshman year, I hopped around, volunteering at various organizations. While all of these organiza-tions were doing great things, I did not feel like I was investing myself in them. Then I was invited to the Mission Church’s college program. Ev-ery Wednesday night, a group of college stu-dents go to government-funded apartments and play with the kids. It’s been an amazing experi-ence, one of the best I’ve had throughout college. Push yourself to go out into the community and impact others’ lives.
Don’t let work/school get in the way of main-taining relationships. Whether that relation-ship is with your parents 2000 miles away or your boyfriend two houses down, don’t take it for granted. That relation-ship will help you fight through the rough times at work and/or school. Just as they will be there for you, make sure they know you will do the
same.Don’t be afraid to
sound stupid trying to speak the language. When I studied abroad, I wanted to speak every language I heard. So, I learned little bits and pieces – just enough to ask for directions, help and toilet. I tried to use correct pronunciation. Heaven knows I did not want to seem like a tour-ist because tourists are annoying. However, oth-ers in my group did not really care about this. Instead of trying to learn the language, they’d speak in English and use emphatic hand gestures to describe what they wanted.
“Can I have a little [hand signal for little] glass of water [hand in wave motion],” they’d say. “No bubbles [f lick of the fingers], just f lat [f lat hand moving sideways].”
Needless to say, they annoyed every waiter/waitress we had while in Europe. So, don’t be that way. Wherever you are, really jump into the culture and learn about it. Try to speak their lan-guage, even if you feel silly doing it.
Be forgiving. It is so easy to hold grudges. We are hurt by something and we cling to it desper-ately and let it eat us up. Give it up to God. It’s not easy, I know. But it is pos-sible and is so freeing.
So, there you have it. Those are a few things I figured out through my college years, some of which I only realized re-cently.
After four years of working for the Optimist and sleep-ing through classes, and it is time for me to write my last column and graduate.
ACU has been good to me. I’ve learned a lot in classes and even more working on staff. Fac-ulty members have let me barge into their offices with inane questions and have invited me into their families.
But, for the most part, I have managed to slide through this university quietly, and I will leave with a handful of lifelong friends and a degree. That sounds like a good deal to me.
The idea of this being my last column – last any-thing – for the Optimist is a kind of heavy thought.
It seems like it should be a profound or new take on life. But profound re-ally isn’t my style, so I’m just going to tell you what I learned until this column reaches 400 words then stop. That’s quality.Fake it til you make it
The most important skill in life is to be able to make it up as you go. This should come between godliness and cleanliness in the realm of made up Bible verses. In my expe-rience, whether it is an idea you have or a skill you’re developing, people are more willing to take the time to help someone who is already trying to figure it out than to teach her how to do something or tell her the answer. And you look really smart if
happen to get it right on the first try.Shared ideas are better
Everybody approaches a problem differently. Ex-periences and priorities shape each person’s view of any situation they are presented with. And a team of people building on each other’s ideas will come up with a better solution than one person alone. Sharing the credit is worth it.
The Optimist is one big mess of shared, often half-baked ideas. The ideas are half-baked because we’re
a bunch of over committed college kids, and they are shared because it makes them better. We like to call it convergence.Be able to take criticism
Nobody’s project is per-fect, and the more you like it the more work it needs. I promise.
And at the end of the day if you can’t make it good make it big. If you can’t make it big make it red. That advice is from a fa-mous designer – not me. So you should actually take it.Don’t take yourself too se-riously
You aren’t too impor-tant for anything. Help people out when they ask even if it is something that seems below you. You never know what you’ll learn or when you will need something from them.
Anyway. I’m going to go graduate now. Have fun.
Liberal arts colleges were de-signed to cultivate a habit of critical thinking in students.
ACU seems to be making a consistent effort to keep critical thinking engrained in the curriculum for all ma-jors. Yet, if it is necessary for critical thinking to be an ele-ment added into new things, like the CORE classes, then that must mean that the rest of the curriculum has veered away from a focus on critical thinking.
If the point of a liberal arts education was to learn to think critically, then a fo-cus on more technical and job-related skills in a college would mean that it is not re-ally delivering a liberal arts education.
College today seems to be overly focused on giving stu-
dents professional prepara-tion for their chosen career fields. Students dive deep into their chosen field of studies and get relevant training and are loaded with information. This is fantastic in readying a workforce that is knowledge-able about their field and benefits students so they are not bewildered when they step into their first job.
However, taking it too far takes an institution to more of a trade school structure. At some point, the focus on theory and critical thinking was lost in the core learning structure.
If all of the focus was on learning to think critically, how effective would colleges be in teaching students those skills? Diving deep into issues is not something you can
specifically instruct a student on how to do, it is something that must be guided through assignments that require deeper analysis and ques-tioning.
Students will not learn the practice of thinking criti-cally unless they are pushed to their limits. If a student is pushed to the limits of their conventional knowledge, then critical thinking will come into play to push them to learn more and connect concepts they wouldn’t oth-erwise.
The material presented in courses should be challeng-ing in itself. Learning to ques-tion things requires deeper knowledge and understand-ing of subjects to fuel it to the next level. If students are presented with the training
and information they need in their classes and also encour-aged to apply critical think-ing with the material, then they will benefit from both aspects of the learning.
Critical thinking is some-thing that is best learned in a more focused setting within the field of study that a stu-dent is pursuing.
It is easier for a student to truly understand criti-cal thinking when they are working on something they want to do, something they are interested in. If the critical thinking was incorporated into their major classes, then they would probably find that they have more interest in it and will be more willing to go deeper into research and study. If they are being forced to dive into things they
feel no passion toward or are overly broad, as they might in a CORE class that is generic to all students, they have a higher chance of being un-interested and bored or feel like they are spending a lot of time and effort on an assign-ment that is contrived.
The meaning of a liberal arts education has changed over the years. Schools that keep a focus on critical think-ing may set students back in technical job skills, and
schools that take more of a trade school approach are not producing deep think-ers as they have in the past. It seems that the structure must change in one way or another to support the changing en-vironment at colleges across the U.S. to help students ac-quire all the skills they need in the modern workforce.
Minimally decentJozie SandS
once upon a hannahhannah barneS
Oh Dear, Christian College Ben miller
the issueSmall changes over the years have lead the traditional liberal arts education to take on more practical goals.
our takeThough it is important to give students knowledge that prepares them for a job, we cant separate learning in specific fields from overall critical thinking.
Hannah barneseditor in chief
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Softball plays Emporia State University in the NCAA Division II South Central Sub-Regional in Edmond, Okla. The game begins at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.
The baseball team will face Angelo State in San Angelo for the LSC Tournament Saturday at 7 p.m.
Men’s and Women’s Tennis advanced to the NCAA DII National Championship Tournament in Louisville, Ky. The men play Northern Kentucky at 1 p.m. Wed., May 16, while the women match-up against Indiana (Pa.) Wed., May 16 at 7 a.m.
Golf travels to Jefferson City, Mo. for the NCAA II South Central / Midwest Super Regional Monday through Wednesday. The tournament will be held at the Jefferson City Country Club.
softball
standings
briefings
Player Profile
Upcoming
Senior Nick Jones was added to the ‘also receiving mention’ section of The Bowerman watch list. The Bowerman is an annual award given to the most outstanding male and female collegiate track & field athletes in the nation.
Chloe Susset and junior Amanda Ouedraogo were the LSC’s athletes of the week. Susset qualified for the NCAA Division II Championships in the steeplechase at Stanford’s Payton Jordan Invitational. Ouedraogo won the triple jump at the Penn Relays Carnival last weekend.
Erik Forrister, Parker Petty and Matthew Stark were added to the 2012 LSC Men’s Track & Field All-Academic Team Wednesday. To be eligible for the honor, the student-athletes must have at least a 3.30 grade point average.
Baseball
TeamASUTAMU-KUIWWTAMUTSUACUCameronENMU
Div.20-818-1016-1116-1216-1211-1710-184-23
Ovrl.36-1431-1422-1929-1726-1924-2621-2814-32
Sophomore Lyndi Smith has been lighting up op-posing pitchers this sea-son. The outfield-
er/infielder is batting .342 in 43 games. She has 41 hits and a .389 on-base percentage. In the Wildcats most recent game against West Texas, Smith went 2 for 3.
Teams sweep Regionals
The men’s and women’s ten-nis teams swept the NCAA Division II South Central Region Tournament Tues-day, defeating St. Edward’s and Northwest Missouri State 5-0 each to earn their way into the national cham-pionship tournament.
The women’s team, now boasting a 24-3 re-cord, made their way into the national tournament for the 17th time.
“It was great to win be-cause it allows us to go to nationals and continue our season,” junior Julia Mongin said. “We are very happy.”
After winning the first set on Tuesday, doubles duo Hannah Kelley and Micah Hermdorf were forced into a tie-breaker against Alexan-dra Khadzhyan and Audrey Tompkins. The No. 11 ranked pair won in the third set 7-3, winning the match 9-8.
Sisters Julia and Laura Mongin took on another set of siblings, Rachel and Rafaela Haegele. The Mon-gins won the No. 2 doubles 8-2. Madelyn Walkers and Brittney Reed defeated Mary Bain and Francesca Chahor 8-0 at No. 3, giv-ing ACU a 3-0 advantage going into singles.
No. 37 ranked Micah Hermsdorf easily beat Paige Rachel of the Hilltoppers 6-0, 6-0, and taking the regional championship. Hermsdorf is now 21-4 in singles play, and has won 15 matches in the No. 2 tournament seed spot.
Julia Mongin, ranked second in the nation, was unable to finish her No. 1 match against Alexandra Khadzyan. Mongin was winning 2-1 in the second set after winning the first.
Her sister, Laura Mon-gin defeated Rafaela Hae-gele in the No. 4 seed 6-0, 6-0, claiming another sin-gles win for the ‘Cats.
“I am also very thank-ful that our matches were live,” Mongin said. “Every-one could watch us online, and that was a great op-portunity for our families to watch our matches.”
ACU’s women’s tennis now claims 25 regional titles.
The men’s team beat the Bearcats 5-0, earning their 14th regional title.
Sixth ranked doubles duo of Hans Hach and Nick Plum posted an 8-4 win over Mario Jakovljevic and Jose Ortega, their 13th win of the season.
Alfredo Desiati and Borja Cortes followed with an 8-5 match over Rafael Bugiga and Guilherme Narducci. Michael Mor-ris and Guilherme Gesser continued to ‘Cats success Calvin Patterson and Luis Altimires, 9-7.
In singles, No. 6 Hach de-feated Patterson 6-3, 6-2. This match marked Hach’s fourth victory, and 22-4 overall.
Plum followed with
a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Bugiga. The rest of the matches were unfnished.
Both teams will return to action May 16 at the NCAA Division II National Championship.
The No. 6 women’s team will take on Indi-ana. If they win, they will play in the quarterfinals against a team yet to be determined.
If the ‘Cats can win
both matches, it is very likely they will face BYU-Hawaii in the semifinals.
Julia Mongin likes ACU’s chances to play well in the national tournament.
“Nationals is a great competition that allows us to challenge ourselves with great competitors,” Mongin said. “We may not be the best team in Divison II, but we are tough enough to perform
with the best. The only thing to do is to have fun on the court and give our best each match to reach our victory.”
The men will face North-ern Kentucky in Louisville in Round 16. The Wildcats previously beat them this season, 6-3.
natalie goinsports editor
tennis
destinee hagood stafF Photographer
Sophomore Hans Hach gets ready to serve across the net at the Eager Tennis Pavilion. The No. 6 ranked Hach de-feated Calvin Patterson of Northwest Missouri State 6-3, 6-2 Tuesday.
Golding holds tryouts at Moody
Last weekend, Moody Col-iseum opened its doors to nine basketball players in an open tryout for the men’s basketball team.
“It is the first time we have done that, but hope-fully in the future we can double or triple the num-ber of kids there,” head coach Joe Golding said.
Although the coaching staff is still in the process of evaluating the talent they saw on Saturday, the ‘Cats will have some familiar faces next year in the fifth year senior Desmond Woodberry and se-nior Dosh Simms.
Woodberry is coming off a concussion, but is looking to step into a starting role
Simms will also be in a larger role next year when his responsibilities ont he court will peak his senior year.
“It is up to Desmond and I to get in there and show these new guys how things are done here,” Simms said.
Last year, the Wildcats showed signs of becoming a team marked by defensive intensity and rebounding un-der the new coaching regime. Now bringing in more play-ers that fit the ACU mold has been a priority for the basket-ball program this spring.
“I am trying to recruit a certain type of student ath-
lete that fits the way I want to coach, but also guys that are not going to get in trouble off the floor and represent this great university we have well,” Golding said.
The Wildcats won four times as many conference games as they did each of the last two seasons, and the rebuilding process is in full swing now with several re-cruits signing the dotted line to become a member of Wild-cat Nation next fall.
“I think this year will be different because we will re-ally get to see coach Golding’s fingerprint on the program,” Simms said.
With the pull of recruiting and last weekend’s tryout, ACU should be able to put together a talented basketball team that can compete in a tough conference.
matthew sloansports reporter
men’s basketball
Wildcats excited for regional action
The ACU softball team has made it to the NCAA Division II Champion-ship for the fifth time in eight years and will play No. 17 Emporia State Fri-day at 4:30 p.m. in Ed-mond, Okla.
The Wildcats (29-16, 15-11) are part of a four team South Central Re-gional tournament, host-ed by University of Cen-tral Oklahoma. The Lady Hornets (39-9) will be entering the tournament for the ninth straight year and tenth overall NCAA tournament, and the team is 29-19 overall
in their nine previous ap-pearances. This year, the team is a No. 3 seed fol-lowing another dominant year on the diamond.
“Emporia State is a well-respected program around the country,” ACU head coach Bobby Reeves said. “It seems like getting to the post-season like this is second nature to them, and their experience shows. They have a talented bunch of players.”
Emporia State enters the tournament as the No. 3 seed in the South Cen-tral region, and is coming off of two comeback vic-tories in the Mid-America
