A product of the JMC Network of student media at Abilene Christian University.
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Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Abilene Christian University Serving the ACU community since 1912 WEDNESDAY IN THIS ISSUE CAMPUS Switching it up Changes have been made to the way Chapel operates in personnel and structure, page 4 Serving others The first Service-Expo will begin this week in the Campus Center, in an effort to get students involved in serving others in Abilene, page 7 The O PTIMIST SPORTS Slam dunk The ACU men’s basketball team claimed its first conference game after beating Angelo State on Tuesday night 92-76, page 10 January 24, 2006 Vol. 95, No. 30 1 section, 10 pages www.acuoptimist.com • • Winter wonderland Abilene’s first ice skating rink has closed down for the season after being open for nearly two months and raising money for Habitat for Humanity, page 4 ONLINE Shooting hoops Midway through the men’s and women’s basketball seasons, find out well the teams have done and how they prepare for games online at: www.acuoptimist.com On the upswing Collegegrad.com announced Monday that 2007 graduates will be entering the work field at one of the most opportune times—entry level positions will be up 7.3 percent this year for college graduates. Of the businesses surveyed about hiring habits, 60 percent said they expected to hire more college graduates than normal, 20 percent said they would hire the same amount and 20 percent said they would hire less. -UWIRE SPEED READS n Staff and administration extended the dates for adding or dropping a class to allow students the flexibility to change schedules without penalty. By MORGAN WILLIAMS STUDENT REPORTER Winter weather condi- tions were a factor in de- termining dates to add or drop classes for the spring semester. The original dates to add or drop a class with a 100 percent refund were extended to Tuesday. Weather conditions didn’t allow some students to re- turn to school by the origi- nal first day of the Spring 2007 semester on Jan. 16, leading to a delay in the start of classes. Bart Herridge, associate registrar, said, “the staff and administration felt it was important to extend this time and allow students the opportunity to make changes to their schedules without penalty.” A group of staff mem- bers met to make sure this process could be done and what it would impact. “We were satisfied that this would be a positive change,” Herridge said. Herridge said the most significant change from the original dates is a shorter pe- riod for 80 percent refunds. University extends add/drop policy BRIAN SCHMIDT SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Zeb Abbott, freshman exercise sports science major from Harper, plays pool in the McKinzie Hall lobby during some downtime on Tuesday afternoon. BRIAN SCHMIDT SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Construction crews dug trenches along the sides of Sikes Residence Hall in preparation for the summer renovation plans to expand. Because of the winter delays, the dates to add or drop classes were extended to benefit students: n 100 percent refund through Tuesday n 80 percent refund Wednesday through Jan. 30 n 60 percent refund Jan. 31- Feb. 2 More information can be found on the registrar’s Web site off ACU’s homepage. new add/drop dates See POLICY page 9 n The local ice cream parlor closed its doors indefinitely in november. no plans have been made yet to relocate elsewhere in abilene or texas. By DANIEL JOHNSON SPORTS EDITOR ACU students who want customized homemade ice cream will have to travel across town to Cold Stone Creamery as the fate of com- petitor Third Rock Creamery remains unknown. The space-themed ice cream parlor and coffee shop on Judge Ely Boule- vard closed its doors in November after a decline in business. “Everyone just stopped coming in,” said former day manager, Doug Clement. Third Rock opened in No- vember 2005 and despite an initial jump of constant business, Clement said the profits and number of regu- lar customers kept reducing as the year went on. “I sat there and watched it go down,” Clement said. “I was doing the bank deposits and they just kept getting smaller and smaller.” For now, Third Rock’s doors, which opened to long lines of college stu- dents, are closed with a sign that reads: “Third Rock Creamery will be closed for re-location.” Clement said owner Rob Lord has not contacted him on the specifics of Third Rock’s relocation. Lord, a resident of Hous- ton and graduate of Hardin Simmons University, was unavailable for comment. Clement said he was sur- prised Lord decided to close the parlor suddenly and ex- pected the business to be around for a while. “I was expecting the place to be booming like it was,” Clement said. “I didn’t real- ize [Lord] would call me out of the blue and tell me to Third Rock closes Abilene locale See SHOP page 9 n The Students’ Association updated its web site this week to better accommodate groups wanting to submit budget requests for the spring semester. By KELSI PEACE FEATURES EDITOR Filling out a budget request form just got easier, thanks to the new Students’ Associa- tion Web site, which allows student organizations to sub- mit budget requests online. The online version is the third generation of budget software created by SA that allows users to fill out their requests by answering a se- ries of questions. “We feel like we’ve finally gotten it down to what needs to happen,” said Tyler Cosgrove, Groups submit budget requests online See BUDGET page 9 n A committee of eight professors from various departments continue the selection for position for dean of the College of Arts and sciences, which begins Fall 2007. By KELSI PEACE FEATURES EDITOR The only thing harder than filling some “big shoes” is de- ciding who should fill them. With the announced re- tirement of Dr. Colleen Dur- rington, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Search and Review Commit- tee formed to determine who will succeed Durrington as the next dean. Dr. Carley Dodd, com- mittee chair and professor of communication, said the committee will meet with the College still in search of dean See DEAN page 9 Making the cut Seven women and two men provisionally qualified for the National Indoor Championship at the West Kittley Invitiational in Lubbock on Saturday, page 10 n Construction began during the Christmas break preparing sikes Residence Hall for its summer renovations, which include adding more space to the rooms. By MICHELLE JIMENEZ COPY EDITOR Preparation for renovation has begun at the sophomore female residence hall, Sikes Hall. Trenches circling the pe- rimeter of the building mark the beginning stages of the remodeling process that will resume in the summer. The trenches, meant to ex- pand the foundation, are only one step in a major renovation that has been months in the planning. A list of improvements to be added to Sikes include an increase of community spac- es on the second and third floors; a study room for men and women on the first floor; an expansion of the kitchen, desk manager office and the resident assistance office; addition of washing and dry- ing machines in the laundry room; and an extension of the students’ rooms. Sikes’ exterior also will be made to resemble the newest residence hall on campus, Bar- ret Hall. Windows will be re- modeled and shutters added, replacing the nonfunctional balconies of the building. Rebecca Cates, resident director of Sikes, said she is excited about the improve- ments that will take place during the summer. “I think the way Sikes is constructed [now] it’s Crews begin Sikes face-lift “Everyone just stopped coming in.... I was do- ing the bank deposits and they just kept getting smaller and smaller.” Doug Clement, former day manager Behind the eight ball See SIKES page 9
Transcript
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Abilene Christian University Serving the ACU community since 1912
WEDNESDAY
IN THIS ISSUE
CAMPUS
Switching it upChanges have been made to the way Chapel operates in personnel and structure, page 4
Serving othersThe first Service-Expo will begin this week in the Campus Center, in an effort to get students involved in serving others in Abilene, page 7
The OPTIMIST
SPORTS
Slam dunkThe ACU men’s basketball team claimed its first conference game after beating Angelo State on Tuesday night 92-76, page 10
Winter wonderlandAbilene’s first ice skating rink has closed down for the season after being open for nearly two months and raising money for Habitat for Humanity, page 4
ONLINE
Shooting hoopsMidway through the men’s and women’s basketball seasons, find out well the teams have done and how they prepare for games online at:www.acuoptimist.com
On the upswingCollegegrad.com announced Monday that 2007 graduates will be entering the work field at one of the most opportune times—entry level positions will be up 7.3 percent this year for college graduates. Of the businesses surveyed about hiring habits, 60 percent said they expected to hire more college graduates than normal, 20 percent said they would hire the same amount and 20 percent said they would hire less.
-UWIRE
SPEED READS
n Staff and administration extended the dates for adding or dropping a class to allow students the flexibility to change schedules without penalty.
By MORGAN WILLIAMSStudent RepoRteR
Winter weather condi-tions were a factor in de-termining dates to add or drop classes for the spring semester. The original dates to add or drop a class
with a 100 percent refund were extended to Tuesday. Weather conditions didn’t allow some students to re-turn to school by the origi-nal first day of the Spring 2007 semester on Jan. 16, leading to a delay in the start of classes.
Bart Herridge, associate registrar, said, “the staff and administration felt it was important to extend this time and allow students the opportunity to make
changes to their schedules without penalty.”
A group of staff mem-bers met to make sure this process could be done and what it would impact.
“We were satisfied that this would be a positive change,” Herridge said.
Herridge said the most significant change from the original dates is a shorter pe-riod for 80 percent refunds.
University extends add/drop policy
brian schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Zeb Abbott, freshman exercise sports science major from Harper, plays pool in the McKinzie Hall lobby during some downtime on Tuesday afternoon.
brian schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Construction crews dug trenches along the sides of Sikes Residence Hall in preparation for the summer renovation plans to expand.
Because of the winter delays, the dates to add or drop classes were extended to benefit students:
n 100 percent refund through Tuesday
n 80 percent refund Wednesday through Jan. 30
n 60 percent refund Jan. 31-Feb. 2
More information can be found on the registrar’s Web site off ACU’s homepage.
new add/drop dates
See POLICY page 9
n The local ice cream parlor closed its doors indefinitely in november. no plans have been made yet to relocate elsewhere in abilene or texas.
By DANIEL JOHNSONSpoRtS editoR
ACU students who want customized homemade ice cream will have to travel across town to Cold Stone Creamery as the fate of com-petitor Third Rock Creamery remains unknown.
The space-themed ice cream parlor and coffee shop on Judge Ely Boule-vard closed its doors in
November after a decline in business.
“Everyone just stopped coming in,” said former day manager, Doug Clement.
Third Rock opened in No-vember 2005 and despite an initial jump of constant business, Clement said the profits and number of regu-lar customers kept reducing as the year went on.
“I sat there and watched it go down,” Clement said. “I was doing the bank deposits and they just kept getting smaller and smaller.”
For now, Third Rock’s doors, which opened to long lines of college stu-dents, are closed with a sign that reads: “Third Rock Creamery will be closed for re-location.”
Clement said owner Rob Lord has not contacted him on the specifics of Third Rock’s relocation.
Lord, a resident of Hous-ton and graduate of Hardin Simmons University, was unavailable for comment.
Clement said he was sur-prised Lord decided to close the parlor suddenly and ex-pected the business to be around for a while.
“I was expecting the place to be booming like it was,” Clement said. “I didn’t real-ize [Lord] would call me out of the blue and tell me to
Third Rock closes Abilene locale
See SHOP page 9
n The Students’ Association updated its web site this week to better accommodate groups wanting to submit budget requests for the spring semester.
By KELSI PEACEFeatuReS editoR
Filling out a budget request form just got easier, thanks to the new Students’ Associa-tion Web site, which allows student organizations to sub-mit budget requests online.
The online version is the third generation of budget software created by SA that allows users to fill out their requests by answering a se-ries of questions.
“We feel like we’ve finally gotten it down to what needs to happen,” said Tyler Cosgrove,
Groups submit budget requests online
See BUDGET page 9
n A committee of eight professors from various departments continue the selection for position for dean of the College of Arts and sciences, which begins Fall 2007.
By KELSI PEACEFeatuReS editoR
The only thing harder than filling some “big shoes” is de-ciding who should fill them.
With the announced re-tirement of Dr. Colleen Dur-rington, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Search and Review Commit-tee formed to determine who will succeed Durrington as the next dean.
Dr. Carley Dodd, com-mittee chair and professor of communication, said the committee will meet with the
College still in search of dean
See DEAN page 9
Making the cutSeven women and two men provisionally qualified for the National Indoor Championship at the West Kittley Invitiational in Lubbock on Saturday, page 10
n Construction began during the Christmas break preparing sikes Residence Hall for its summer renovations, which include adding more space to the rooms.
By MICHELLE JIMENEZCopy editoR
Preparation for renovation has begun at the sophomore female residence hall, Sikes Hall. Trenches circling the pe-rimeter of the building mark the beginning stages of the remodeling process that will resume in the summer.
The trenches, meant to ex-pand the foundation, are only one step in a major renovation that has been months in the planning.
A list of improvements to be added to Sikes include an increase of community spac-es on the second and third floors; a study room for men and women on the first floor; an expansion of the kitchen, desk manager office and the resident assistance office; addition of washing and dry-ing machines in the laundry room; and an extension of
the students’ rooms.Sikes’ exterior also will be
made to resemble the newest residence hall on campus, Bar-ret Hall. Windows will be re-modeled and shutters added, replacing the nonfunctional balconies of the building.
Rebecca Cates, resident director of Sikes, said she is excited about the improve-ments that will take place during the summer.
“I think the way Sikes is constructed [now] it’s
Crews begin Sikes face-lift
“Everyone just stopped coming in.... I was do-ing the bank deposits and they just kept getting
smaller and smaller.”
doug clement, former day manager
Behind the eight ball
See SIKES page 9
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Calendar Events& The Optimist maintains this calendar for the ACU community to keep track of local social, academic and service opportunities.
To ensure that an item will appear on time, the announcement should be sent at least 10 days before. The Optimist may edit items for space and style.
Corrections and clarifi cations of published news articles will be printed in this space in a timely manner.
About This PageWednesday, January 24, 2007
Announcements
Volunteer Opportunities
Purple Friday
6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.Free Movie Night in Cullen Auditorium showing “Invincible.”
7 p.m.“Exhibit A” Senior Art Show on display until 9 p.m. at the Shore Art Gallery.
7 p.m.Homer Hiccolm and the Rocketboys play at Monks Coffeeshop.
10 a.m.Service Expo until 12:30 p.m. in the Campus Center.
9 p.m. Seekers of the Word auditions in the Onstead-Packer Biblical Studies Building, Room 130.
10 a.m.Service Expo until 12:30 p.m. in the Campus Center.
7:30 p.m.Seekers of the Word perform in the Bean Sprout to benefi t its Spring Break Campaign.
6 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.Intramural Waterball Playoffs in the ACU Swimming Pool.
2 p.m.Women’s Basketball team plays Texas A&M Kingsville in Moody Coliseum.
4 p.m.Men’s Basketball team plays Texas A&M Kingsville in Moody Coliseum.
26 Friday24 Wednesday 25 Thursday 27 Saturday
The deadline to sign up for Five-on-Five Basketball is tomor-row. The cost per team is $125. Games will begin Monday.
ATTENTION ALL MAJORS! In-terested in studying while traveling for a month this summer? You could visit London, Australia, Ireland and
more! There are a variety of classes offered that directly transfer to ACU. Scholarships are available. The deadline to sign up is Sunday. Con-tact Ed Timmerman for more infor-mation at [email protected].
Are you looking for a Summer Job? Check out ACU`s Summer
CreditedChapelsto date:
CreditedChapelsremaining:
Chapel Checkup06 66
The West Texas Homeless Network needs 50 volunteers to-day and tomorrow to help with the Point in Time Homeless Survey. Volunteers will be trained to work in teams and will be assigned to a specifi c place. For more informa-tion, call (325) 673-8211 weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. or e-mail [email protected].
Noah Project, a center for vic-tims of family violence, has a number of volunteer opportunities available. These include coverage of the crisis hotline and helping with day-to-day operations. Volunteer training class-es will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 1, Feb. 6 and Feb. 8 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. You need only attend one. For more information, contact the Vol-unteer Service-Learning Center in the Bean Sprout.
The Betty Hardwick Center needs help in their offi ce answer-ing phones, fi ling, copying, running errands, etc. For more information, contact the Volunteer-Service Learn-ing Center in the Bean Sprout.
Abilene Hope Haven needs volunteers in a variety of ways. Jobs vary from daytime hours to evening hours and include helping with children, answering phones and doing offi ce work. For more information, contact the Volunteer Service-Learning Center in the Bean Sprout.
Adaptive Recreation Services
needs people to assist with physi-cally and mentally challenged par-ticipants Mondays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. For more information, contact the Volunteer Service-Learning Center in the Bean Sprout.
Hendrick Retirement Village needs volunteers to plan a Valen-tine’s Day party for residents, deco-rate and clean up. The party will be Feb. 13 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. For more information, contact Jennifer Green at (325) 690-1400.
The Beltway Park Baptist Church Preschool Department needs two volunteers on Feb. 3 from 10 a.m. to noon to paint a wooden countertop and door. Paint and all supplies will be provided. For more information, contact Sandi Muniz at (325) 692-6540, ext. 127.
Big Brothers Big Sisters needs young women willing to volunteer their time Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in a program called Y-teens. Y-teens will allow young women from Abilene High School the opportunity to mentor girls from Franklin Middle School. Through activities and ser-vice projects, this program will em-power young girls with knowledge about life skills and build self-confi -dence while creating an atmosphere for learning and emotional growth. For more information, contact Erin McMullen or MC Jennings at (325) 677-7839.
Camp Job Fair on Monday from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. in the Campus Center mall area. Representatives from 20 camps will be on cam-pus to interview and hire staff for this summer. For more informa-tion, contact Joel Swedlund at [email protected].
Want to make a difference on campus? Come to “ResLife: Caffein-ated” in the Hilton Room on Tuesday at 5:15 p.m. to get free coffee and desserts, play some games, win some prizes and learn more about ministry opportunities. Applications are available in McKinzie West and on the Employment Opportunities section of the ResLife Web site.
The fi rst Service Saturday of the year will be Feb. 3. Students may sign up Tuesday through Feb. 2 in the Campus Center ticket windows.
What do Tupac Shakur, Lau-ryn Hill and Kanye West have to do with Jesus? Come fi nd out Thursday evenings. “Jesus and the Hip-Hop Prophets” will take place at 8:30 p.m. in the Onstead-Packer
Biblical Studies Building, Room 128. For more information, contact Matt Worthington at [email protected].
Looking for an adventure this summer? Come intern with Dry Bones in Denver. Dry Bones is a ministry that works with homeless youth living on the streets of down-town Denver. The ministry needs four city interns and one mountain intern who will facilitate youth groups backpacking in the mountains and working in the city. Visit the Web site or contact Rebekah Duke at [email protected] for more information.
WorldWide Witness is now ac-cepting applications for more than 40 summer internships around the world. Apply online at www.worldwidewit-ness.org. For additional information, contact Gary Green or Wimon Walker at [email protected].
Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) meets Wednesdays at 5 p.m. in COBA, Room 315, for those in-terested in sharpening business skills, entrepreneurial, leadership skills and service to the community.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007 Page 3ADVERTISEMENT
n Although Chapel will remain the same, students can expect to see several new faces this semester while Dr. Wayne Barnard teaches in Oxford, England.
By MALLORY EDENSPage 2 editor
Chapel will undergo chang-es this semester because of the absence of Dr. Wayne Barnard, university dean of Spiritual Formation, who is in Oxford, England, for the se-mester, and Shane Hughes, co-ordinator of Chapel programs who resigned on Jan. 3 to take a campus ministry position in Fort Smith, Ark.
Barnard has already planned Chapel for the semester and said he will continue to moni-tor the planning and implemen-tation of Chapel from England. However, because his absence
limits his involvement in day-to-day affairs, he has put together a team that will be in charge of implementing Chapel. The team includes Mary Kay Knight, administrative coordinator; Jer-emiah Gibson, senior youth and family ministry major from Gar-land; Peter Nolte, senior theater major from Seattle, Wash.; Nate Lollar, first-year student of the Graduate School of Theology from Tucson, Ariz.; Brian Es-cochea, sophomore electronic media major from San Antonio; and Ashley Hansen, first-year master of education in higher education graduate student from Corinth.
Barnard said he hopes to stay in near-daily contact with this team, but he has set aside tasks for each member.
Knight, Barnard’s assistant, will coordinate the staff and the
office of Spiritual Formation, which includes Chapel. She will also prepare all announcements and prayer requests.
Gibson will coordinate the worship portion of Chapel, including the worship lead-ers, worship teams, prayer leaders, Scripture readers and PowerPoint.
Nolte will serve as a techni-cian, running PowerPoint and video presentations.
Lollar will coordinate the set-up of Chapel, including “Come to the Quiet,” contemplative prayer services which will now be offered twice monthly.
Escochea works in the of-fice and is responsible for data entry and maintaining at-tendance records and Chapel exemptions.
Hansen is Barnard’s gradu-ate assistant and will continue
to help him with teaching as-signments in the College of Education and Human Services and with coordinating his class. She will also help in the office with special projects.
Though it is hard for him to be away, Barnard has full confi-dence in the team.
“I absolutely love being here in Oxford; it’s one of my favorite places. However, it is difficult being away from ACU,” Barnard said in an e-mail. “When your life has been poured out into a place like ACU, it’s tough to feel disconnected, especially with Chapel [being] a daily event in the lives of students.
“I’m confident in the team I have assembled. These are ca-pable students and staff who love Chapel as much as I do. I know that they are prayerfully considering their work, and that they know how central Chapel is to the ACU experience.”
More people will also be re-sponsible for presiding over Chapel in week-long intervals, including Dr. Dwayne Van-Rheenen, Dr. Jack Reese, Dr. Jeff Arrington, Bob Booth and Mark Lewis.
“I think the most difficult aspect [of being away] is hav-ing shared leadership from presiders,” Barnard said. “We have great people standing in the gap, but it’s difficult to pre-side for a few days or a week at a time. There’s a flow one develops as a daily presider in Chapel, because a daily pres-ence provides a consistent and comprehensive view of the life of the campus.”
Dr. Bob Strader, director of leadership; Dr. Charles Mattis, dean of the First-Year Program and Dr. Barnard will preside live from Oxford via video feeds. This will be the first time ACU has ever attempted video feeds from Oxford, and they are high-ly anticipated.
“I’ve planned two Thursday Chapels which will be con-ducted by students and faculty studying abroad in Oxford and Montevideo,” Barnard said. “Also, we’ll pilot these feeds by me presiding one week in Cha-pel. We’re using iChat technol-ogy with MacBookPro comput-ers. I’m really excited about these opportunities and being able to expand our abilities with future Chapel presentations.”
Only a few changes will come to the Chapel schedule. There will be theme Chapels on Mondays and various speakers on other days. On theme days, speakers will present on differ-ent topics as related to the se-mester theme of “God’s Will as a Way of Life.”
Thursday group Chapels will continue to meet. Come As You Are will meet in Chapel on the Hill, but the 18:38 group Cha-pel, which met last semester in Hart Auditorium, will not meet this semester.
Anyone not involved in small group Chapels will meet in Moody Coliseum, which will now host various student, staff and faculty speakers rather than the Rob Bell videos that were viewed last semester.
Barnard has high hopes for Chapel this semester, and be-
lieves our community can begin sharing more deeply in fellow-ship and in the understanding of God’s will as a way of life.
“I think the first week in Cha-pel has proven that in a brief period of time, such as Chapel, we can raise questions which create further conversation throughout the day,” Barnard said. “Such conversation is vi-tal as people struggle together with the pursuit of truth and understanding. We sharpen one another through our shared experience and through work-ing together to understand one another’s experience.
My hope is that Chapel can engage students, staff and fac-ulty in conversation and think-ing that will continue in the classroom, in the campus com-mons and in our relationships with each other.
“Specifically this semester, I believe that focusing conver-sation on the will of God as a way of life will challenge us to rethink our views of the nature of God, his desire for relation-ship with us and how he works in our daily lives.”
More information concern-ing Chapel can be found on the ACU Web site at www.acu.edu.
If anyone has a question or concern relative to ACU busi-ness, they may contact Mary Kay Knight by e-mail at [email protected], or by phone at (325) 674-2854.
n Despite first-year weather difficulties, the Abilene Ice House plans to be back next year, prepared and ready to make several additions.
By TODD PIERSALLarts editor
Along with students and faculty, the Abilene Ice House laments the recent cold fronts that produced icy roads and below freezing temperatures—but only because they wished the chilly weather would have come sooner. Efforts to tear down this year’s ice skating rink began Sunday.
Karen Mendoza, events co-ordinator for Habitat for Hu-manity, said the first year went well for the ice skating rink, but because of bad weather, the rink was forced to close 14 of its 57-day season. However, Mendoza said these trials will
only help in making the rink better for next year.
“We aren’t sure yet how we did until we total every-thing up,” Mendoza said. “But we learned a lot for do-ing it next year.”
Mendoza said next year the rink will probably have a later start on the calendar and a few additions might be made, including a possible cover for the rink depending on funding from sponsors.
Overall, Mendoza said she was glad to do something for the community, as were many of the volunteers, including the Dyess We Care Team.
Gordon Storey, founder of the Dyess We Care Team, provided the Ice House with volunteers who fought the warm weather to keep the ice frozen. However, Storey said helping the community was well worth it.
“It was the children,” Storey said. “When we open the gates the children were smiling, thanking us.”
However, it was “a bit of a relief” to be done, said Storey who was only one of around 200 people that together put in over 1,700 hours of work in order to bring ice skating to Abilene.
Storey said that the 1,700 hours doesn’t even include all of the time spent setting up advertisements.
Storey, like all who are involved in the Dyess We Care Team, works full time at the Dyess Air Force Base. The volunteers of the We Care Team use their off duty hours to help the el-derly with small house re-pairs, and this year they decided to be apart of the Ice House.
“It was hard to get out of one uniform and jump into another,” Storey said. “You kind of get your life back.”
Storey said the major-ity of the bulk from the Ice House was removed Sunday and the rest will be moved throughout the next week.
Abilene Ice House closes after first year
emily smith CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
Sharde Henley, junior business management major from Houston works on a poster at the Bean Sprout on Thurs-day.
“It was hard to get out of one uniform and jump into another.”
Gordon storey, Dyess We Care team
Dean Barnard’s Chapel absence to provide new faces
Hands on
Wednesday, January 24, 2007 Page 5CAMPUS NEWS
n Dr. Mimi Barnard will be changing positions when she returns from Oxford to move to the Adams Center where she will be Faculty Enrichment Director.
By LAUREN SUTTONOpiniOn EditOr
Beginning in Fall 2007, Mimi Barnard will step down from her position as Residence Life Director to fill the position of Fac-ulty Enrichment Director, which is linked to the Ad-ams Center for Teaching Excellence.
The position of Fac-
ulty Enrichment Director, which was previously held by Gary Tucker before his transition to working with ACU Worldwide, involves as-sessing and meeting the needs of ACU faculty as well as showcasing and encour-aging excellent teaching techniques.
Last year, after assess-ing each department, The
Adams Center for Teach-ing Excellence constructed a campus-wide needs anal-ysis, which they refer to as “the life model for faculty engagement.” This model integrates different as-pects that the Adams Cen-ter believes are needed to encourage positive teach-ing: focus, innovation and leadership.
As Faculty Enrichment Director, Barnard was cho-sen for this position to make this model a reality by fostering positive rela-tionships between faculty
and students. “We needed someone
who has a passion for teaching and learning, and Mimi does,” said K.B. Massingill, executive direc-tor for the Adams Center. “She has worked hard to learn students’ needs and the dimension between students and faculty.”
Her studies in student, faculty collaboration and the encouragement of ACU faculty led Barnard to ap-ply for the position; she was one of 12 applicants.
“All of this led me to
think seriously about the contribution I could make to the institution I love from a different vantage point,” Barnard said.
Barnard, who is current-ly in Oxford, will begin her new job next fall, and the Adams Center is excited to have her work for them.
“We are a very team-ori-ented organization,” said Massingill. “It’s a fun place to be and have team fo-cus. We are excited to have Mimi and complete the team.”
The position for Resi-
dence Life Director has not yet been filled, and while Barnard is sad about leaving this position, she said she is pleased with the work that has hap-pened in Residence Life under her leadership.
“This is a bittersweet time for me—leaving some-thing that has been fun and challenging but looking to-wards new opportunities to make a difference at ACU,” Barnard said.
Barnard leaves position in Residence Life for Faculty Enrichment
n LaShae Grottis, Director of Student Services and Student Multicultural Enrichment, will leave ACU on June 1 to begin her new position: motherhood.
By ASHLEY ROBINSONStudEnt rEpOrtEr
After seven years of ser-vice to ACU, LaShae Grottis is preparing to say goodbye. Although her departure will be a significant loss to the minority student body, it is also a bitter-sweet change. It will be time of celebration, as LaShae and her husband Sherwin Grottis, will be wel-coming their first child.
LaShae Grottis, director of Student Services and Student Multicultural Enrichment, serves as a liaison for the mi-nority students on campus. She assists with recruiting minorities and creating pro-grams that will teach diversi-ty on campus. She also works to develop more diverse stu-dent organizations.
Grottis’ maternity leave will begin April 9. She will be gone for seven weeks, but will return in a consultant-type role.
“My plan is leave for good at the end of the semester,
but I will come back to school the last week in May to help the new person transition into this position,” Grottis said.
Her last official day will be June 1.
“It was a decision my husband and I made even before we got married,” Grottis said.
Her LegacyLeaving the university will
not be easy. Grottis is deeply rooted in the multicultural enrichment program and its efforts to diversify ACU. In addition to her duties as di-rector, Grottis also assists in other various organizations and events on campus includ-ing: Essence of Ebony, Virtu-ous Women of African Heri-tage Sisterhood, ISA, and the Black History production.
Eric Mallet, junior commu-nications and Christian minis-try major from St. Louis, said, “La Shae has such a presence on campus. [She] is a strong pillar of faith and wisdom; I am going to miss her.”
Mallet, former Essence of Ebony president, has known Grottis for almost three years.
“She means so much to ACU, and as far as to the Af-
rican American students, as a mediator and liaison be-tween students and faculty,” Mallet said.
Jeff Arrington, Assistant Provost for Student Learning and Associate Dean of Cam-pus Life, said that she will be a great loss to the university.
“She is a very elegant lady that draws students to her,” Arrington said. “She has pioneered quite a lot of work on campus concerning diversity issues and multi-cultural enrichment.”
“I know that getting mar-ried and motherhood is a part of her life dream,” Arrington said. “I am happy for her per-sonally, even though profes-sionally it is a loss for us.”
Filling Her ShoesFiling Grottis’ position will
not be easy. Grottis and Ar-rington are working with a panel of faculty and staff that will interview and narrow down the best candidates. From there they will make a hiring decision to determine the most qualified applicant for the position.
Arrington, who already has about a half dozen ap-plications said, “The most
important thing is to have the right person and not just a person.
“We want this new person to have focus and energy and be able to have influence and make changes,” Grottis said. “We want him or her to be a person who can relate to students and help them to build on things that we have already begun.”
The new director will need to address subjects of race with people of all backgrounds.
“It is important that new director will not be too tim-id to approach the subject of race on campus.” Mallet said. “Rather, that they are objective in their opinions and not just the support the minority students but to also enrich the awareness on the ACU campus.”
The office of Multicultural Enrichment is looking for an individual that can communi-cate and connect with ACU’s minority student groups: Af-rican Americans, Hispanics and international students.
“This position requires personal experience and skills to be a credible voice among faculty and adminis-tration, to be able to be effec-
tive,” Arrington said. Both Arrington and Grot-
tis agree that the new direc-tor will need to be aware and sensitive to issues dealing with race. Their goal is to get someone who is a minor-ity in sense, without actually being only African American or Hispanic.
“It is critical that this per-son be able to communicate and engage with students of color,” Arrington said.
Arrington said he would like to see hiring of a quali-fied applicant overlap with Grottis’ departure so that she will have time to work with that individual.
The Next LevelGrottis’ departure will
also serve as a time of tran-sition for the university. Even though the university will be losing a valuable em-ployee, it is also presented with the chance to step up cultural awareness and ac-tivity on campus.
“I really believe that this is a great opportunity for the university to go to the next level of change,” Grottis said.
The university must now work to create a more di-
verse curriculum that will help prepare students for the real world.
“We must ask ourselves, is our diversity where we want it to be? And does the diver-sity of our administrative staff match our students and the mission of the university itself?” Grottis said.
As the university contin-ues to grow, so will Grot-tis and her husband as they transition stages in their life.
“This is a new part of our relationship and marriage,” Grottis said. “We are very excited, and we are ready to meet the baby.”
Grottis said that she will miss working at ACU.
“I’ve had a really good ex-perience. Its been challeng-ing at times, but I feel good with what I have done.
“I have gotten to do every-thing that I wanted to do. I’ve gone to school, got a masters degree, traveled and made contributions to all of these positions and I’ve lived in lots of places, “ Grottis said. “Now I’m ready to face the challenge of motherhood.”
ACU bids farewell to multicultural director, pioneer
Nearly half of your life will be spent consuming media during 2007, which
m e a n s w a t c h i n g TV, going online, lis-tening to the radio or music and read-ing. That’s what the U.S. Census Bureau pre-dicted in its “Statistical A b s t r a c t
of the United States: 2007,” released Friday.
The Bureau’s Statistical Abstract released each year since 1878, provides stats junkies with information on social, political and economi-cal realms of Americans’ lives.
In an USA Today ar-ticle, the author listed more statistics regarding how much media Ameri-cans will consume this year, including: Ameri-cans will spend 65 days in front of the TV, 41 days listening to the ra-dio, more than a week of browsing the Internet and another week read-ing a daily newspaper.
While it is fascinating to see how much Ameri-
cans rely and want infor-mation at their finger-tips, it also saddens me to see that watching TV is at the top of the list. Television itself is not bad, and there are many worthwhile shows to add in to a weekly rou-tine. But what about the invaluable information that can be gleaned from reading a good book?
A cognition profes-sor published a report recently that listed the benefits of reading. Even
if a person achieved only one of these benefits in a lifetime, reading would still be worth it. Among the benefits she included were: 1) Reading expands your vocabulary because books and written mate-rials use rarer vocabulary than what is found in ev-ery day conversation, in the classroom or on TV; 2) The more one reads, the more knowledge one gains about a variety of topics ranging from history, general knowl-
edge, politics or sports; 3) Reading makes you smarter. An avid reader’s IQ is found to be higher than that of people who don’t read often; 4) Read-ing helps people to both write and concentrate better; and 5) avid readers tend to be more flexible in thought and open-minded.
This year Americans are expected to spend more than $55 billion on books. Here is a list compiled from the World Book poll by the Museum, Libraries and Archives Council with books that every adult should read before they die. Not ev-eryone may agree on the books listed here, and one may want to add a few of their own.
Regardless, these books can be a starting place to begin a reading jour-ney. Books can be found for free at one of three libraries in Abilene, or for relatively cheap pric-es at a used bookstore on Butternut Street. Pick up a good book and reap the benefits.
1. To Kill a Mockingbird 2. The Bible3. The Lord of the Rings 4. 19845. A Christmas Carol 6. Jane Eyre7. Pride and Prejudice8. All Quiet on the Western Front 9. His Dark Materials Trilogy 10. Birdsong 11. The Grapes of Wrath12. The Lord of the Flies 13. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time14.Tess of the d’Urbervilles15. Winnie the Pooh 16. Wuthering Heights 17. The Wind in the Willows 18. Gone with the Wind 19. Great Expectations 20. The Time Traveler’s Wife 21. The Lovely Bones 22. The Prophet 23. The Alchemist24. The Master and the Margarita25. Life of Pi 26. Middlemarch 27. The Poisonwood Bible 28. A Clockwork Orange 29. A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Books to Read
Page 6 January 24, 2007
the issue:ACU policy is that students must attend 80 percent of a class to pass, but students are often docked points on their final grade because of personal attendance policies of particular professors.
our view:If students have not violated ACU’s attendance policy their grades should be dependent on their work and not their attendance.
the solution:Be aware of ACU’s attendance policy. If you have had points deducted in a class, talk to the professor about his policy to see if adjustments can be made.
Professors violate aCU attendance policyEvery student knows
the feeling of having one extra absence affect his or her grade. For many professors the difference between three and four absences is enough to de-duct a letter grade.
The attendance poli-cy in the Student Guide states that students must attend 80 percent of their classes to pass. It says nothing else about at-tendance. No mention of four absences being more significant than three can be found.
ACU has one attendance policy, but within the col-leges, departments and individual professors are numerous attendance poli-cies. This creates confu-sion among the students. Much like federal law sets a standard throughout the
country, so should an atten-
dance policy be made that holds the same stan-dards for ev-ery class and professor.
B e cause ACU keeps students ac-countable for their absenc-es, why do professors feel the need to make atten-dance more valuable than it needs to be?
Students are responsible enough to make decisions about class attendance without punishment from a professor. The grade a student ultimately receives should be all the encour-agement or punishment he needs without the add-ed grade deduction from a professor.
Attendance is important to students when missing a class means getting behind
or missing a quiz grade. However, high school is in the past and students can make their own choices about class attendance.
Professors sometimes think enforcement of a strict attendance policy forces a student to be more disciplined and learn to cope with the “real world.”
In reality, strict poli-cy only makes the stu-dent feel more like a high school student again who can’t make responsible de-cisions about himself.
Professors feel attendance is vital in class participation and the students’ chance to
stay up to date with the material.
A class with a pro-fessor who has a slack attendance
policy lets the student decide when to come and when not to come to class, thus feeling more like an adult. A student can deal with the consequences of not going to class.
Classes with an atten-dance policy outlining how many points each absence costs conde-scend students, turning them off from the pro-fessor and the class for restricting their freedom in decision-making. It is impossible to assess the value of a missed class on a point scale.
Students should be al-
lowed to make their own choices regarding class attendance. A student’s grade should depend on their own competence and understanding of the ma-terial. Passing grades along with a solid understanding of the material should not be hindered because of what the professor thinks are excessive absences.
ACU prides itself on be-ing a university of caring students, faculty, profes-sors and so on, but with the caring needs to come a sense of letting go. Pro-fessors should loosen the reins and let students pass or fail because of the work they have done. Not for the classes they attended or not.
Spend time investing in a good book
She is barely over five feet tall now, and osteo-porosis has claimed her body, stooping her shoul-
ders and b r i t t l i n g her al-ready frag-ile bones. When my g r e a t -g r a n d -m o t h e r w a l k e d into my p a r e n t s ’ house on Christmas
Eve, I was as- t o u n d e d by how much the past few years have aged her.
The great-grandmoth-er I remember would sit for hours by the pool at her condo, watching my younger brother and I entertaining ourselves by jumping in repeated-ly. After swimming, we would go inside for din-ner. My mom and great-grandparents would laugh and talk.
She’s is in her nine-ties now, and still regularly dies her hair a dark au-burn. On her left wrist, my great-grand-mother wears a thick pearl bracelet every day. The bracelet hides her wrist bone, which healed skewed after a bad break many years ago. She un-failingly presents me with a check and a card for Christmas and my birth-day; my grandmother writes them now because her mother can’t see to read or write.
While no one else will observe her white hair, crooked wrist or inability to see, they all exist none-theless. But there is still more to this woman.
She spent four days with us at Christmas and passed most of them sit-ting quietly on the couch. She can’t read, do cross-word puzzles or watch TV. So she listens. She lis-tened to a tiresome polit-ical debate among a fam-ily that represents many
political perspectives. She listened to us while we played Mad Gab.
I think I only held a conversation with my great-grandmother once during her stay. One af-ternoon, I sprawled on the couch to read Wicked; she sat on the other end and looked out the window. When she asked what I was reading, I explained that I had seen the Broad-way show in Chicago earlier this year, and her face lit up. She launched into a lengthy explana-tion of the plays she and my great-grandfather had attended on a trip to New York, describing and critiquing the music, cos-tumes and acting.
The content of our con-versation was not as im-portant as the reminder it sent me: she is a woman who has lived a life rich with experience and love, a life that has witnessed
countless a d v e n -tures, trag-edies and successes. Yet at the end of it all, there she sat, lis-tening.
Out of all my memo-
ries of my great-grand-mother, her gracious hostessing, her attention to detail and her sacri-ficing spirit, I am most moved by the memory of her silence. I hope some-day to practice what my great-grandmother does so easily: listening. The kind of listening that makes the speaker feel as if he or she is all-impor-tant. The kind of listen-ing that isn’t seeking an opportunity to dominate the conversation.
She may appear to be a fragile, elderly woman. But I know there is so much more to my great-grandmother—she is in fact, so strong, that she is able to just listen.
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 letters to the editor but reserves the right to limit frequent contributors or to refuse to print letters containing personal
attacks, obscenity, 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.
1. To Kill a Mockingbird 2. The Bible3. The Lord of the Rings 4. 19845. A Christmas Carol 6. Jane Eyre7. Pride and Prejudice8. All Quiet on the Western Front 9. His Dark Materials Trilogy 10. Birdsong 11. The Grapes of Wrath
12. The Lord of the Flies 13. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time14.Tess of the d’Urbervilles15. Winnie the Pooh 16. Wuthering Heights 17. The Wind in the Willows 18. Gone with the Wind 19. Great Expectations 20. The Time Traveler’s Wife
21. The Lovely Bones 22. The Prophet 23. The Alchemist24. The Master and the Margarita25. Life of Pi 26. Middlemarch 27. The Poisonwood Bible 28. A Clockwork Orange 29. A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
sUggested Reading FRoM WoRLd Book PoLL
The more one reads, the more knowledge one gains about a variety of topics ranging from history, general knowledge, politics or sports.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007 Page 7CAMPUS NEWS
n Twenty local organizations will be in the McGlothlin Campus Center Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for the semi-annual Service Expo to recruit volunteers.
By RACHEL DAVISStudent RepoRteR
Students looking for ways to serve in the Abilene com-munity need look no further.
The Volunteer and Ser-vice-Learning Center will conduct its semi-annual Ser-vice Expo Tuesday, Wednes-day and Thursday in the Campus Center.
This semester, the Expo will host about 20 Abilene organizations looking for volunteers, said Rita Harrell, administrative assistant in
the Volunteer and Service-Learning Center.
“This is just a great op-portunity for a lot of these places to be exposed to the ACU students and for the students to see how they can volunteer and meet other’s needs,” Harrell said.
A few of the organizations scheduled to appear are the Alzheimer’s Association, Big Brothers Big Sisters and Love and Care Ministries. Dif-ferent organizations come each day.
“A lot of students aren’t even aware of the needs some of these people have,” Harrell said. “Most of these people rely on volunteers be-cause they’re non-profit or-
ganizations, so we just want to try and let the students know where the opportuni-ties to serve are.”
Harrell said the Expo was a great way for new students and students who don’t know their way around Abilene to find ways to serve. Many stu-dents are required to have service hours for classes or scholarships and it helps them out as well.
Most of the organizations scheduled for the Expo have participated before, but this time students will see new faces. Wesley Court, a retire-ment center, and Imagine Enterprises are coming for the first time.
Imagine Enterprises, an
organization that provides benefits and planning and assistance for disabled per-sons, recently received a new grant to aid them in helping teenagers and young adults with difficult backgrounds.
“We’re looking for mentors for these teens,” Rosemary Burks, project coordina-tor for Imagine Enterprises, said. “We’re really hoping we get some students that want to participate with us.”
Big Brothers Big Sisters is an organization that comes every semester to the Expo.
Jamie Bearden, public re-lations director for Big Broth-ers Big Sisters, said, “People are always seeking us out to volunteer. This way, we can
come to the school and let them find us.”
Big Brothers Big Sisters re-cruited about 100 volunteers in the fall, and they typi-cally do recruit fewer in the spring, but they are hoping for a lot of new volunteers to help out, Bearden said.
The first Service Expo was held in 1999, and Har-rell said she didn’t know how many volunteers there have been each year but thinks it has helped to promote awareness of ser-vice opportunities in the Abilene area.
Students exposed to opportunity at Service Expo
n The Communication Department’s Speaking Center in the Learning Commons will help students with presentations, PowerPoint and interview skills.
By ATSUMI SHIBATApage deSigneR
The Learning Commons will begin a new service next week to assist with various presentation and communi-cation skills.
The Speaking Center, organized by the Commu-nication Department, will help students with informa-tion management related to speaking presentations, PowerPoint and interview-ing skills. The center pro-vides summary materials for outlining, research content and delivery. It also offers communication practice ses-sions and feedback, accord-ing to the Learning Com-mons press release.
The center is staffed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednes-day from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m., Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., Friday 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday afternoon and evening until 10 p.m.
“We want to serve stu-dents,” Tucker said. “We try to create a new environment for students.”
Tucker said more students began to use the library since it was renovated last semester.
The number of students assisted at the library dou-bled, Tucker said, and more professors began to use the library as well.
“That’s what we want,” he said.
Tucker also said he expects the Speaking Center will bring more students to the library.
Keri Crawford, senior crimi-nal justice major from League City, is one of the students who
use the library to study or to use computer lab.
Crawford said she thinks the Speaking Center will benefit students.
“I think it will be a good opportunity,” Crawford said. “Students should take advan-tage of it.”
Tucker said he thinks the university didn’t have a similar service in the past.
“It’s extremely important that people speak profession-ally,” Tucker said.
He said the library has over-come some of the biases such as having a Starbucks and al-lowing food in the building.
“We have to re-evaluate how students learn outside the classroom,” Tucker said.
Students can drop in or make an appointment at the Speaking Center desk in the Learning Commons.
Different organizations will be available each day during the Service Expo in the McGlothlin Campus Center.
n Red Crossn Big Brothers Big Sistersn Christian Service Centern Communities in Schoolsn HEROn Hendrick Friendship Housen International Rescue Committeen Love and Care Ministriesn March of Dimesn Noah Projectn ACU Outdoor Clubn Volunteer and Service-Learning Centern Betty Hardwick Centern Day Nursery of Abilenen Food Bank of Abilenen Imagine Enterprises
hELP WANTED
n Unite, a Tuesday night service for college students, hosts more than 200 college students at its non-denominational service. An estimated 50 percent are from ACU.
By CAMILLE PAINTERStudent RepoRteR
At Fountain Gate Fellow-ship Church, Jeremy West prepares to close the Unite weekly service of worship. He plays the final song, says the closing prayer and looks into the crowd of more than 200 young adults. Nobody moves. The auditorium is silent for a moment. Finally, some-body yells, “one more song.” West puts his fingers back on the guitar strings, and the worship continues.
“People just don’t want to leave,” Jeremy West, senior English major from Garland, said smiling.
This hesitation to leave may seem atypical for most church services, but at Unite, a Tues-day night service for college-
aged Christians, excitement stretches limits and the desire to stay is a weekly occurrence. The last four services extended past the closing prayer, one of them lasting until 11:30 p.m.
Unite leader Brandon Hawk said he has noticed a difference in students today compared to two years ago when the group first formed.
“There is an excitement and an expectancy to see God move, not just four songs and a sermon and we go live life,” said Hawk, college minister at Kingdom Life Fellowship Church. “It’s something that’s real and it’s powerful and changing. That’s where God is and that’s what we’re experi-encing at Unite.”
Daniel Oppong, sophomore integrated marketing com-munications major from Lake Dallas, said Unite brought him more clarity on God’s love and his identity in Christ.
Oppong said that while much of the focus in churches
has been on sin, it should be on what we can do now that we’re saved.
“You just spend your life doing spiritual pushups to get back in God’s graces and basi-cally you live a life of perform-ing for God rather than living in his unconditional love,” Op-pong said.
Oppong and West agreed that one has to encounter God personally to be truly passion-ate, a side effect the two have experienced while being active with Unite.
“When my mind and my heart is living in eternity and living by the Spirit, I can love Jesus everyday, and everyday is a good day because it’s not about the circumstances,” West said.
Oppong said while in Unite, he found acceptance of God’s love takes the pain out of bad situations.
“It provides you that secu-rity. That’s what people need—the love of God—and once you
get a revelation in that and you’re able to be secure in that, just live in it,” Oppong said. “Life is great all the time, it’s just great because you’re se-cure in his love and you know his prophecy, and that’s what you live by.”
Like most church services in Abilene, Unite runs on a basic itinerary, starting with fellow-ship at 7:30 p.m., getting seat-ed at 8 p.m., singing a couple of songs, going over announce-ments, listening to the speak-er, and so forth, but Unite has no set ending time. And unlike most services, Unite is multi-denominational.
It is the corporate col-lege service for six different churches: Kingdom Life Fel-lowship, River of Life, New Hope, Fountain Gate, Morning Star and Faith Deliverance, but the membership does not stop with these six. There are also many members from Beltway Baptist and other congrega-tions who worship with Unite
regularly. An estimated 50 percent of the students at Unite are from ACU.
The mixture strengthens the group, Hawk said.
“The judgment goes out the window and there’s love and acceptance and I really think God looks down on that, and it makes him smile when that takes place,” Hawk said.
Oppong said limiting a church by denomination and time is putting it in a box.
“Sometimes if you take God out of church nothing will be different about the service so rather than putting a limit on it, we just take him at his word,” Oppong said.
West agreed. “You need to be willing to do whatever it takes to experience God,” West said. “If we need to be there un-til midnight, we’re going to be there until midnight; if we got to stand on our heads, we’re going to stand on our heads.”
Unite was not made for stu-dents to act crazy or stay out
late, but sometimes that can be a symptom of passion.
“It’s like being with your girlfriend,” West said. “If you really like her, you don’t want to be like, ‘OK, two hours are up. Get out of my car now. Thank you.’ If you enjoy God and you know that he enjoys you it’s not work, it’s fun.”
This is the type of atti-tude, Hawk said, he can sense around campuses and congre-gations this semester.
“One of the dreams God has given me in my heart is just to see 10,000 college kids from all different denominations and all different backgrounds worshiping together weekly and experiencing God together in a powerful way,” Hawk said.
“I guarantee you one of these weeks this year we’re going to end up staying up all night,” West said.
Students ‘Unite’ at non-denominational worship service
ed double digits: Ross with 18, guard Tiago Souza with 17 and forward Igor Vrzina with 10.
“I think we just played good defense,” Alexander said.
That defense held the LSC’s second highest scorer, for-ward Marcus Hubbard to only
eight points and tallied a sea-son best 20 steals. The 6-foot-9 Hubbard, who averaged 22.4 points-per-game, failed to take advantage of the height advantage over the Wildcats.
“We responded well to ad-versity,” Copeland said. “Ev-erybody stepped up it was a really big thing.”
Angelo State is now 6-11 overall and 1-2 in confer-ence.
In order to make the post-
season ACU must continue to win to cancel out their 0-2 start.
“We need to try and put something together from here,” Ross said. “We got to take it one game at a time.”
The Wildcats’ next game will be at home against Texas A&M-Kingsville on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Page 8 Friday, January 24, 2007CAMPUS NEWS/ SPORTS JUMPS
n Lauren Hart will publish her first book ‘The Heart of Hadassah,’ which was written as a class project. The book will help women learn from Esther to reveal their true identity.
By MICHELLE JIMENEZCopy Editor
Lauren Hart, senior inte-grated marketing communi-cations major from Austin, is in the midst of publishing her first book of devotion-als, which began as a class assignment.
Last semester Hart was en-rolled in a class entitled “Media and Religion” where Dr. Charles Marler, professor emeritus and senior faculty of journalism and mass communication, had each student create a project that combines media and religion.
Hart settled on a book of devotionals based on the Old Testament story of Queen Esther.
Hart’s book, The Heart of Hadassah, is a 30-day devotion-al that is meant to encourage women to step out from hiding
and reveal their true identity. Esther was chosen as the
main subject for Hart’s de-votional because she too hid who she really was, Hart said.
“Esther is one of two books in the Bible about women,” Hart said. “As Christian wom-en it is important to know their story … We can learn from her and the mistakes she made and know she is strug-gling like the rest of us.”
Hart breaks down the 10 chapters of the Book of Es-ther as she focuses on dif-
ferent aspects of the story while remaining factual.
“My book is suppose to help you partner with the Bible,” Hart said.
Jennifer Fuentes, class of ‘06, helped design the layout and the cover for the book.
Last semester Fuentes displayed a painting of her silhouette titled “Esther” at her senior art show. Hart said she came across the painting and knew she had to meet with Fuentes. Thus began the collaboration.
“It all started with a painting,” Fuentes said.
She and Hart both agreed that God had a hand in put-ting them together to work on the project.
“God can divinely bring two people together ‘for such a time as this,’” Fuen-tes said, quoting a phrase from the Book of Esther.
Currently, the female so-cial club GATA, where Hart is the club chaplain, has plans to use the book of devotion-als for its spring retreat.
“I wanted to reach out to the girls in GATA some-how,” Hart said.
Hart plans to sell her book in the future but is not certain on the price.
“I just want to give it out to people as cheap as possi-ble,” Hart said. “I want them to be blessed by it.”
For more information on buying a copy of the devo-tional, e-mail Hart at [email protected].
Senior IMC student to publish 30-day devotional book
playoffs for waterball in the Spring, but is a little confusing for some of the teams that are playing in it,” said Grant Cunningham, senior Biblical Text major from Abilene and captain of the Frater Sodalis social club team.
“Playing in the spring se-mester definitely is hurting us because we are going to the first game without two of our best players, two key players,” Cunningham said.
“But we are going there to have fun and to win.”
Rescheduling the water-ball playoffs to the Spring semester won’t interfere with finals or midterms, said Luke Kittley, freshman undeclared major from Abilene and crew chief for the intramural sports.
“Dealing with teams and explaining to all of them was the hardest part of all,” Kittley said.
“That’s just life; you got to be flexible,” Hardcastle said. “There are things that
are not in our control, when it come to facilities.”
Basketball is the next sport on the spring sched-ule followed by a golf shoot out, 3-on-3 basketball, vol-leyball, indoor soccer, out-door soccer, team tennis, softball and club track meets.
Waterball: Playoffs confuse teams
Continued from page 10
rebounds. Forward Lacey Blau also contributed nine points and eight rebounds. But in the end, the Lady Buffs pulled away with the 12-point victo-ry. With the win, West Texas
A&M improves its winning streak over the Wildcats to seven games.
ACU’s mediocre first half in Saturday’s game is not novel. Lately, the Wildcats have had problems playing intensely for the entire game.
But, coach Lavender is opti-mistic that ACU will be able to pick up the pieces and play well against Texas Woman’s.
“I think it’s a mental thing for us right now,” Lavender said. “It’s just something we’ve got to overcome. But, I
think we’ll figure it out.” The Wildcats will play Tex-
as Woman’s on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Women: Buffs hold onto winning streak Continued from page 10
Guard Cortnie Ross goes up for a shot over two Angelo State defenders. Ross scored 18 points and had four steals in the Wildcats 92-76 win over Angelo State on Tuesday.
n Construction on Phase II of the bike facility may begin this summer if funds are available. The project, which began in 2001, will be completed in three phases.
By LAUREN SUTTONopinion Editor
The more ecologically minded demographic in Abilene will soon have a new way to enjoy healthy, pollution-free transporta-tion as the city continues to work on the proposed bike trail.
In 2001, Abilene began looking to create a bike fa-cility that would be broken up into three stages and completed throughout the next several years.
The first phase, which has been completed, was to build a track that runs from Judge Ely Boulevard to Highway 80. The second phase will take the path past Highway 80 to East South 11th Street. Con-struction on the second phase will begin this sum-mer if funds for the project are in place. The bike trail will be completed in the third phase, which splits the path at East South 11th Street, running past the
Abilene Zoological Gardens and Nelson Park in one di-rection and Cal Young Park in the other direction.
However, construction of the hike and bike trail has been postponed indefi-nitely because funds from the Department of Texas Transportation were di-verted from the project to homeland security.
“Money tends to drive most things, but anytime you are looking at retrofit-ting a trail or street into existing infrastructure, there will be obstacles,” said Cody Marshall, a de-sign engineer for the hike and bike project.
To complete the project, the bike trail will interfere with an existing railroad crossing south of Business 20. The city has decided to create a separate bridge for pedestrians to allow for greater safety. Mar-
shall said a large portion of the estimated $2.4 mil-lion project will be used to build the bridge.
Jeff Armstrong, devel-opment services manager for the city of Abilene, said while many cities have created bike facili-ties, Abilene’s emphasis is to create awareness of dif-ferent types of transporta-tion.
“I hope people will use the bike trails, and then others can see what it is and how it works,” Armstrong said. “It creates a senses of community. When you see people moving around and not just metal boxes moving around, it creates a more vibrant community.”
“I hope people will use the bike trails and then others can see what it is and how it works. When you see people moving around and not just metal boxes moving around, it creates a more vibrant
community.”
Jeff Armstrong, development services manager for the city of Abilene
Wednesday, January 24, 2007 Page 9FROM THE FRONT PAGE
shut down.”According to the small
business advice Web site, www.allbusiness.com, half of all small businesses fail within the first four years.
The local ice cream par-lor lasted a little more than one year.
Former night manager, Zach Smith, said he thought the business failed because it tried to do too much.“My guess is it was spread too thin,” Smith said. “We tried to be a ice cream par-lor/coffee shop/serving ba-gels and cold drinks.”
Smith said because cus-tomers rarely bought most items on the menu, numer-ous expensive machines were never used.
Smith said if the business focused on only making ice cream it would have cut costs dramatically and kept the business afloat.
Nathan Hathorn, sopho-more business management major from Abilene, said he rarely went to Third Rock because it was too expen-sive for his budget. Hathorn did not think the quality of the ice cream was worth the price they charged.
Although Lord eventu-ally plans to relocate Third Rock, Smith is not convinced of the business’ future in Abilene.
“I think it’s done for good,” Smith said.
Shop: Low saleshurt businessContinued from page 1
SA Executive Treasurer. Cosgrove said in the past,
computer programs would shut down while students were filling out their forms and learning the complicated software proved to be too time-consuming.
Casey Thomas, senior accounting major from Wenatchee, Wash., submits the Wildcat Kid and Spring Break Campaign Budgets.
Thomas said the old method presented several problems: the previous year’s budget couldn’t be saved, the program had to be re-learned each year and each person could submit only one budget.
Thomas, who had completed half of her budget request form for this semester, said the on-
line version is easier to follow.However, she said it’s frus-
trating because changes can’t be made to one part of a line item — the whole line has to be deleted.
The online form cannot be saved, it must be completed at one sitting.
Thomas said she contacted Cosgrove about the problems, and Cosgrove said he planned to talk to the program’s creator to make corrections.
“I think this program’s a great improvement to what it was,” Thomas said. “There are still more kinks to work out … but it’s really going to be ben-eficial in the long run.”
Cosgrove said the online re-quests will make the adminis-trative side of budget requests less complicated as well.
Requests will be printed out in a uniform format.
In the past, Cosgrove said he had to walk some groups through the process. The questions the online version asks should eliminate confu-sion, he said.
Originally, requests were due Monday; however, because the Web site was not available until after Martin Luther King Day, Cosgrove said the date was moved to 5 p.m. Wednesday.
As of Monday afternoon, Cosgrove said he had not re-ceived any questions or com-plaints. He also said he hadn’t received any e-mails confirming a request had been submitted.
After submitting their re-quests, organizations still fol-low the same procedures they have in the past.
Officers meet with either Cosgrove or Kevan Kirksey, SA Chief Financial Officer and sophomore financial manage-
ment major from Tyler, to review the requests, discuss fundraising, prioritize items and work on grant writing, if necessary.
Requests are then put be-fore Congress where the 50 members make a final deci-sion and designate money to organizations.
“We look at what [organiza-tions] are asking for, how ef-ficient they are and if they’re good stewards,” Cosgrove said.
Some groups requests are not met, but “a lot of groups have become realistic,” Cos-grove said.
The new Web address is www.acustudents.org, and the budget request form is located under the SA Budget link in the Treasury section.
Budget: Process to become easier nowContinued from page 1
provost later this week to re-ceive its charge, final direc-tions and specific criteria.
The committee is composed of eight professors from dif-ferent departments within the College of Arts and Sciences.
According to the universi-ty’s advertisement for the po-sition, responsibilities include “recruitment and evaluation of staff and faculty; curricular planning and development; professional development; strategic planning; budget management; encouragement and support for excellence in teaching, research, service and grant-writing; and over-sight of the national accredi-tation for programs.”
Dodd said the advertise-ment appeared in the Chris-tian Chronicle and the Chroni-cle of Higher Education.
For now, “the number of applications and nominations
changes every few days,” said Provost Dwayne VanRheenen, which makes it difficult to de-termine how many applied.
Candidates for the position have come from within the university as well as from out-side it, VanRheenen said.
While specific criteria for the position has not been de-termined yet, certain general guidelines exist for selecting a dean, Dodd said.
For example, candidates should have a Ph.D. in a field within the college, the ability to work with people and lead-ership experience, Dodd said.
“There are a lot of ways to measure leadership,” Dodd said, explaining that leader-ship experience can be in the form of a coordination posi-tion, chairing a department or leading within a church, com-munity or research field.
“Obviously, you want man-agement, direction and vi-sion,” Dodd said.
Applicants submitted a list of five references, a cur-riculum vitae, which includes transcripts, a resume and a list of publications and a let-ter of purpose.
After reviewing the ap-plications and nominations, Dodd said he expects the committee will interview the top candidates before making a recommendation to the pro-vost, who will then make the final decision.
“I’m sure we’ll be blessed with some good candidates,” Dodd said.
The position will begin in fall of 2007. Applications and nominations can be sent to: Office of the Provost, Search Committee for Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Abilene Christian University, ACU Box 29103, Abilene, TX 79699-9103.
Dean: Final selection to be made soonContinued from page 1
Students expecting cred-it balance refunds should not be affected. Credit bal-ance refunds will still be posted on Wednesday as originally planned.
Students taking on-line classes are able to abide by the new dates for adding and dropping classes as well.
After Tuesday, stu-dents can go about drop-ping classes by filling out a withdrawal from class form available in the Registrar’s Office, the Depot and in most
advisers’ offices.Students having diffi-
culties in the banner sys-tem should contact the Registrar’s Office.
Eric Lemmons, senior Christian ministry major from Tucson, Ariz., said Team 55 will not be of much support with prob-lems in the banner system.
“Team 55 is a front line support who can redirect information,” Lemmons said.
very difficult for people to come together,” Cates said. “Commu-nity space is really important to have to encourage students to come out of their rooms.”
The renovation will also help bring the building up to code by adding rooms for disabled students.
Scott Colley, project man-ager of the renovation, was not available for comment.
Third Rock Creamery closed its doors in November because of low sales numbers. A sign was posted on the door that says it is closed for relocation, although no further plans have yet been made.
Continued from page 1
Wednesday
WOMEN’S BASKETBALLACU at Texas Woman’s, Denton 6 p.m.
Saturday
WOMEN’S BASKETBALLACU vs. Texas A&M Kingsville, 2 p.m.
MEN’S BASKETBALLACU vs. Texas A&M Kingsville, 4 p.m.
n Home games listed in Italics
Saturday
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
West Texas A&M 62, ACU 50
MEN’S BASKETBALLWest Texas A&M 78, ACU 69
Tuesday
MEN’S BASKETBALLACU , Angelo State
Super Bowl Starter
n The Chicago Bears and rookie Danieal Manning are Super Bowl bound after the Bears defeated the New Orleans Saints 39-14 in the NFC Championship game Sunday. Manning recorded one tackle in the game. The Super Bowl appearance will be Chicago’s first since 1985.
n Seven women and two men athletes from the ACU track & field teams provisionally qualified for the Indoor National Championships in Boston at the season’s first meet.
By JARED FIELDSManaging Editor
Expectations for the first indoor meet of the year are to achieve personal goals and compete well.
But the ACU track team re-turned with nine provisional qualifiers from the Wes Kit-tley Invitational in Lubbock this weekend.
Seven women and two men earned spots for the national indoor meet. Only one athlete, Sasharine McLarty, earned spots in two events, the 55-meters and 200-meters.
“I didn’t really plan for it but eventually it just hap-pened,” McLarty said.
McLarty, a 200 and 400-meter sprinter, said she didn’t know she was being entered in the 55-meters until before leaving for the meet.
“They told us before I left here,” McLarty said. “It was my best time.”
Head coach Don Hood called McLarty’s performance a “pleasant surprise.”
“We knew she was good but I was impressed with how fit she was coming in,” Hood said. “She has more in her.”
Three pole vaulters also earned provisional marks: Angie Aguilar, Elizabeth Buyse and Kyle Dennis. Agui-lar cleared a height of 12-5.50 feet, and Buyse a height of 11-5.75 feet. Dennis qualified with a height of 16-1.75 feet.
“Kyle was a foot and a half under what he has jumped before,” Hood said. “He’ll get accustomed.”
Triple jumper Vladyslav Gorbenko earned the second qualifying mark for the men with a jump of 50-10.00 feet for second place at the meet.
Cross-country champion Nicodemus Naimadu placed fourth in the mile with a time of 4:21.34.
Hood said it takes distance runners longer to get into shape and he’s not worried
about the results.“Nicodemus had sinus
problems so he’s going to be fine,” Hood said. “He was 10 seconds faster than he was in this meet last year.”
Hood attributed the suc-cess at the meet to his team’s dedication during fall work-outs. While the teams were far from full, those who went proved themselves to Hood.
“I know our fall workouts were much more intense than the year before,” Hood said. “I hope it’s just an increase in intensity on their part, they trained a lot more than last year.”
Hood didn’t keep athletes out because of any problems, he said some events, such as the mile relay, just need more time before they can be ready to compete.
“We need two or three weeks of training,” Hood said. “By Nebraska and Arkansas our team will fill out a lot.”
The Wildcats don’t have a meet this weekend and will return to competition Feb. 2-3 in Lincoln, Neb. or Lubbock for the Texas Tech Open.
SportSWedneSdayPage 10 Wednesday, January 24, 2007
SCOrEBOArd
Standings
Upcoming
INTrAMUrAL rOUNd-Up
Upcoming
BASKETBALL
Sign up Deadline: WednesdayAmount per team: $125Season Begins: Monday
WATErBALLTournament finals Thursday. View complete schedule on intramural board.
n The intramural schedule seen on the Optimist sports page is not final and is subject to change. Any last-minute changes can be viewed on the intramural bulletin board in Moody Coliseum.
n The women’s basketball team will attempt to win its first road game since Nov. 18 when ACU takes on Texas Woman’s on Wednesday.
By MICHAEL FREEMANonlinE Editor
The ACU women’s basketball team has a troublesome monkey on its back; The Wildcats have not won a road game since Nov. 18.
The Wildcats will have an opportu-nity to cast the chimp off Wednesday when they take Texas Woman’s Uni-versity in Denton.
“Playing at [Texas Woman’s] is al-ways kind of good for us,” said head coach, Shawna Lavender. “We usually have more fans there than they do. It’s almost like a home game for us.”
Lavender said the would-be home game is an advantage for the Wildcats.
ACU averages 76 points per game and is undefeated at home. But on the road, they average only 61 points.
“When we’re playing our game, there aren’t a whole lot of people that can beat us,” Lavender said.
One team that was able to beat ACU was West Texas A&M on Satur-day. The Wildcats fell to West Texas 62-50 in Canyon.
ACU got off to a slow start, and was not able to catch up to the No. 16 team in NCAA Division II rankings. The loss sets the Wildcats at 11-7 on the season and 2-2 in conference competition.
“We came out a little timid and kind of let them push us around a lot in the first half,” Lavender said. “Against a great team like that, you can’t afford
[to] dig yourself a hole.”In the first half alone, the Wild-
cats turned the ball over a total of 22 times. ACU shot only 21 percent (4 of 19) in field goal shooting as the Lady Buffs went into halftime with a 28-12 lead.
However, the Wildcats did not go down without a fight.
“We made a good run at them in the second half,” Lavender said.
The second half featured an of-fensive surge by the Wildcats. Late in the game, ACU pulled within eight points.
Guard Alex Guiton led the way with 15 points, while center Audrey Max-well recorded her sixth double-double of the season with 10 points and 12
Conference continues in Denton
n The finals of the ACU intramural waterball tournament, which was postponed in the fall, will be played Thursday night in the pool in Gibson.
By BLESSED MATAIStudEnt rEportEr
For two months waterball has been on standby because of the burned pump that forced the pool in Gibson to close for two weeks.
Although the burned pump was fixed four days before finals of last semester, the tournament was postponed.
“We choose to wait because
we needed a week to do the playoffs,” said Susan Hard-castle, intramurals sports ad-ministrative coordinator. “We could have started the play-offs in the fall semester, but we didn’t want to interfere with finals.”
Fourteen teams were re-scheduled to play in the play-offs that will have a duration of three days.
The tournament began Mon-day, games were played Tues-day and will end Thursday.
Waterball is usually played during the fall semester, but
because of the damaged pool pump, the intramural sports office had to move it to the spring semester.
“Starting the playoffs for waterball in spring will not interfere with our schedule; it only pushed us back one week.” Hardcastle said. “[It] wasn’t a big deal because we start basketball next Monday, and because of the weather, we are not even sure about the exact dates for basketball.”
It may not be a big deal for the intramural office to do the
Waterball championships Thursday
BRian SCHmidT SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Forward Audrey Maxwell goes for a shot against an Eastern New Mexico defender on Jan. 18. ACU won the game 72-67.
n The ACU men’s basketball team pulled in a must-win game against rivals Angelo State on Tuesday. ACU is 1-2 in conference after the 92-76 win.
By DANIEL JOHNSONSportS Editor
The ACU men’s basketball team faced a must-win situa-tion Tuesday night.
A loss against rival Ange-lo State would have dropped them to 0-3 in conference and dashed any reasonable hope of making the regional tournament.
“Coming in we knew we
had to win,” said guard Cort-nie Ross. “We didn’t want to dig ourselves a hole; We had to win.”
The Wildcats executed when it mattered and kept their postseason hopes alive by downing Angelo State 92-76.
“We really needed this one,” head coach Jason Co-peland said.
The win is ACU’s ninth at home and extended the Wildcats’ record to 1-2 in conference and 10-8 overall. ACU is now tied with Angelo
for fourth in the Lone Star Conference South division.
“We take pride in not los-ing here,” guard Norman Al-exander said.
After going into the half with a 48-38 lead, the Wild-cats’ outpaced the Angelo Rams and led throughout the second half by as much as 20 points.
Guard Philip Brooks post-ed a double-double with 25 points and 10 assists. A ma-jority of Brooks’ 25 came from the free-throw line where he was 12-15. Brooks
Cats conquer rams
gaRY RHOdES CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Guard Philip Brooks gets fouled while driving to the basket against a slew of Angelo State defenders. Brooks recorded a double-double, 25 points and 10 assists, in the Wildcats’ 92-76 win Tuesday.
Women’s basketball
Track & Field
Men’s basketball
Nine qualify for indoor nationals at opening meet
Waterball
NIne ACU track and field athletes provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division II National Indoor Championships in Boston on March 9-10. n Sasharine McLarty, 55m, 200m
n Shawna-Kaye Thompson, 60m hurdles
n Angie Aguilar, pole vault
n Elizabeth Buyse, pole vault
n Keva Wilkins, 400m
n Denise Morgan, 800m
n Kim Prather, 55m
n Kyle Dennis, pole vault
n Vladyslav Gorbenko, triple jump
INdOOr NATIONALS QUALIFIErS
Scores
View a video update on the ACU men’s and women’s basketball teams seasons so far at www.acuoptimist.com.
