A product of the JMC Network of student media at Abilene Christian University.
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Shining a light on Jigsaw, Norman and pumpkins Halloween happenings around town to whet any guy or ghoul’s appetite, page 4 Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Abilene Christian University Serving the ACU community since 1912 October 24, 2007 WEDNESDAY Vol. 96, No. 17 1 sections, 8 pages www.acuoptimist.com THE Ghana any Change? Group aims to ship medical supplies to students’ home country, Ghana, page 3 Playoff homestretch No. 21 ACU faces difficult challenge for the weekend, and year, for a playoff push, page 8 O PTIMIST By Rachel Davis OPINION EDITOR Raging wildfires threat- ened the safety of one of ACU’s sister schools, Pep- perdine University, in Malibu, Calif., on Sunday. Through emergency notifi- cations, students were able to be safe, and the fires have illustrated how important ACU’s new emergency text messaging system will be in the future, said ACU police chief Jimmy Ellison. Pepperdine students were roused from their dorms early and stayed in the cafeteria and other various central campus locations for most of the day, said Pepperdine student Leslie Reed, junior Spanish and Ger- man major from Atlanta. “For us, it was safer to stay on campus than leave,” Reed said. “Roads were closed, and the winds were so unpredictable that trying to leave would have been more hazardous. Sporadic fires in the [Malibu Creek] Canyon and the highway would have made it very dif- ficult to get out.” Reed said her roommate did leave Malibu and made it to a nearby town, but fires were there as well. “She would have been saf- er on campus,” Reed said. Ellison said when it comes to emergency planning, there’s no way to have a plan for each emergency that may occur. “You can’t have 957 plans for each emergency,” Ellison said. “That’s not re- alistic. You need one plan that is strong enough to ad- dress every need and adapt to everything that might come up. The difficulty with emergency planning is that you can’t have a one-size- fits-all approach.” Pepperdine has its own fire department and a veg- etation barrier around cam- pus that is watered all the time, Reed said. “To get to the campus, a fire would have to burn through wet grass and other vegetation,” Reed said. Ellison said most univer- sities in Texas don’t have their own fire departments, but ACU is fortunate in its proximity to an Abilene fire Southern California fires burn close to home for some By Denton Josey FEATURES EDITOR Lauryn Lewis was shocked to win Homecoming Queen, but she had ACU history on her side. Lewis, senior English edu- cation and integrated market- ing communication major from Houston, was crowned the 2007 Homecoming Queen during Saturday’s football game at Shotwell Stadium. When she heard her name called as the winner, Lewis was surprised. “I was real shocked, I turned and looked at my dad, and we had the same shocked expression,” Lauryn said. “It was so special for me and my family, having them all there to experience that with me. I was so surprised and hon- ored for that recognition. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.” Before halftime, Lauryn and her father, Guy “Mojo” Lewis (’80), were talking in the bleachers about her jour- ney to ACU. Lauryn’s parents, Guy and Holly Lewis, graduated from ACU in 1980 and won the awards for Mr. ACU and Miss ACU. Mrs. Lewis was also on Homecoming court in the Fall of 1979. When she was a baby, her father would sing “Dear Christian College” to her, Lauryn said, and on her first day of preschool, she wore an ACU cheerleading outfit. Queen fulfills lifelong dream By Lauren Sutton COPY EDITOR Conversation about polit- ical issues ranging from so- cial security to global warm- ing remained cordial and a bit humorous as students of both political parties met with two former congress- men to exchange ideas and engage in a politically ori- ented dialogue. Republican Arlen Erdahl, congressman from 1979 to 1983, and Democrat Norman D’Amours, congressman from 1975-1985, answered questions at a College Dem- ocrats forum Monday night to a student audience as part of the program Con- gress to Campus. “I didn’t think it would be so interesting, seeing their knowledge in politics,” said College Democrats presi- dent Donovan Plummer, ju- nior communications major from Mesquite. “They’ve been around, and their analysis and opinions were so amaz- ing. That hour flew by.” Throughout the forum, the former congressmen stressed individual respon- sibility, involvement in poli- tics and global learning. “We tend to be a nation of international illiterates,” said Erdahl, who served as the Country Director for the Peace Corps in Jamaica from 1983 to 1989. “I think it’s also a good reason to be involved in partisan poli- tics. It’s easier to be on the outside throwing rocks, but it’s much more exciting to be involved.” A large portion of Monday night’s conversation dealt with issues related to the 2008 Presidential election. D’Amours focused on the importance of preserving the New Deal, making refer- ence to the health care bill Bush recently vetoed, while Erdahl talked about the need to improve upon the Repub- lican Party for the upcoming election. But both congress- men agreed that though the politicians might disagree on various issues, America is better for having more than one political party. “I would not want to live in a country with one party,” D’ Amours said. “I’d become a Republican before I agreed to having one party.” The congressmen also dis- cussed domestic issues in- cluding social security, educa- tion and America’s response to global warming, and as Former congressmen discuss controversial issues with students BRIAN SCHMIDT SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Shaelee Gibson, 4, rears back as she prepares to hit the strength test game at the Homecoming carnival on Friday in the campus mall area. BRIAN SCHMIDT SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Lauryn Lewis, senior English education and integrated marketing communication major from Houston, reacts after hearing her name announced as the 2007 Homecoming Queen on Saturday at Shotwell Stadium. TODD PIERSALL STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Arlen Erdahl, Republican congressman from Minnesota, and Norman D’Amours, Democratic congressman from New Hampshire, speak at the Congress to Campus event in the Campus Center Living Room on Monday. Folding Up the Big Top ‘Greatest show’ comes to an end By Sara Snelson ARTS EDITOR This year’s Homecoming, “The Greatest Homecoming on Earth,” had no problem stand- ing up to last year’s centennial Homecoming. Jama Cadle, Alumni Events coordinator, said the 2007 Homecoming was com- parable to last year’s, and there may have been a great- er turnout. “Last year, there was so much publicity about it being the centennial year that a lot of people had already visited the campus before Home- coming, so the Homecoming feeling was somewhat for- gotten about,” Cadle said. This year, minor things were tweaked in activities, such as adding another stage for JamFest, and a reunion mixer was added at the car- nival so old friends could see each other more through out the weekend. Not all of the numbers from the weekend are cal- culated, but the alumni of- fice estimates about 2,500 alumni showed up this year for Homecoming, and about 84 students volunteered for various activities. See FIRES page 5 See QUEEN page 5 See SHOW page 5 See FORUM page 5
Transcript
Shining a light on Jigsaw, Norman and pumpkins Halloween happenings around town to whet any guy or ghoul’s appetite, page 4
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Abilene Christian University Serving the ACU community since 1912
October 24, 2007
WEDNESDAY
Vol. 96, No. 17
1 sections, 8 pageswww.acuoptimist.com
THE
Ghana any Change?Group aims to ship medical supplies to students’ home country, Ghana, page 3
Playoff homestretchNo. 21 ACU faces difficult challenge for the weekend, and year, for a playoff push, page 8
OPTIMIST
By Rachel DavisOpiniOn EditOr
Raging wildfires threat-ened the safety of one of ACU’s sister schools, Pep-perdine University, in Malibu, Calif., on Sunday. Through emergency notifi-cations, students were able to be safe, and the fires have illustrated how important
ACU’s new emergency text messaging system will be in the future, said ACU police chief Jimmy Ellison.
Pepperdine students were roused from their dorms early and stayed in the cafeteria and other various central campus locations for most of the day, said Pepperdine student Leslie Reed, junior Spanish and Ger-man major from Atlanta.
“For us, it was safer to stay on campus than leave,” Reed said. “Roads were closed, and the winds were so unpredictable that trying to leave would have been more hazardous. Sporadic fires in the [Malibu Creek] Canyon and the highway would have made it very dif-ficult to get out.”
Reed said her roommate
did leave Malibu and made it to a nearby town, but fires were there as well.
“She would have been saf-er on campus,” Reed said.
Ellison said when it comes to emergency planning, there’s no way to have a plan for each emergency that may occur.
“You can’t have 957 plans for each emergency,” Ellison said. “That’s not re-
alistic. You need one plan that is strong enough to ad-dress every need and adapt to everything that might come up. The difficulty with emergency planning is that you can’t have a one-size-fits-all approach.”
Pepperdine has its own fire department and a veg-etation barrier around cam-pus that is watered all the
time, Reed said.“To get to the campus,
a fire would have to burn through wet grass and other vegetation,” Reed said.
Ellison said most univer-sities in Texas don’t have their own fire departments, but ACU is fortunate in its proximity to an Abilene fire
Southern California fires burn close to home for some
By Denton JoseyFEaturEs EditOr
Lauryn Lewis was shocked to win Homecoming Queen, but she had ACU history on her side.
Lewis, senior English edu-cation and integrated market-ing communication major from Houston, was crowned the 2007 Homecoming Queen during Saturday’s football game at Shotwell Stadium.
When she heard her name called as the winner, Lewis was surprised.
“I was real shocked, I turned and looked at my dad, and we had the same shocked expression,” Lauryn said. “It was so special for me and my family, having them all there to experience that with me. I was so surprised and hon-ored for that recognition. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.”
Before halftime, Lauryn and her father, Guy “Mojo” Lewis (’80), were talking in the bleachers about her jour-ney to ACU.
Lauryn’s parents, Guy and Holly Lewis, graduated from ACU in 1980 and won the awards for Mr. ACU and Miss ACU. Mrs. Lewis was also on Homecoming court in the Fall of 1979.
When she was a baby, her father would sing “Dear Christian College” to her, Lauryn said, and on her first day of preschool, she wore an ACU cheerleading outfit.
Queen fulfills lifelong dream
By Lauren SuttonCOpy EditOr
Conversation about polit-ical issues ranging from so-cial security to global warm-ing remained cordial and a bit humorous as students of both political parties met with two former congress-men to exchange ideas and engage in a politically ori-ented dialogue.
Republican Arlen Erdahl, congressman from 1979 to 1983, and Democrat Norman D’Amours, congressman from 1975-1985, answered questions at a College Dem-ocrats forum Monday night
to a student audience as part of the program Con-gress to Campus.
“I didn’t think it would be so interesting, seeing their knowledge in politics,” said College Democrats presi-dent Donovan Plummer, ju-nior communications major from Mesquite. “They’ve been around, and their analysis and opinions were so amaz-ing. That hour flew by.”
Throughout the forum, the former congressmen stressed individual respon-sibility, involvement in poli-tics and global learning.
“We tend to be a nation of international illiterates,”
said Erdahl, who served as the Country Director for the Peace Corps in Jamaica from 1983 to 1989. “I think it’s also a good reason to be involved in partisan poli-tics. It’s easier to be on the outside throwing rocks, but it’s much more exciting to be involved.”
A large portion of Monday night’s conversation dealt with issues related to the 2008 Presidential election. D’Amours focused on the importance of preserving the New Deal, making refer-ence to the health care bill Bush recently vetoed, while Erdahl talked about the need
to improve upon the Repub-lican Party for the upcoming election. But both congress-men agreed that though the politicians might disagree on various issues, America is better for having more than one political party.
“I would not want to live in a country with one party,” D’ Amours said. “I’d become a Republican before I agreed to having one party.”
The congressmen also dis-cussed domestic issues in-cluding social security, educa-tion and America’s response to global warming, and as
Former congressmen discuss controversial issues with students
brian schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Shaelee Gibson, 4, rears back as she prepares to hit the strength test game at the Homecoming carnival on Friday in the campus mall area.
brian schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Lauryn Lewis, senior English education and integrated marketing communication major from Houston, reacts after hearing her name announced as the 2007 Homecoming Queen on Saturday at Shotwell Stadium.
todd piersall STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Arlen Erdahl, Republican congressman from Minnesota, and Norman D’Amours, Democratic congressman from New Hampshire, speak at the Congress to Campus event in the Campus Center Living Room on Monday.
Folding Up the Big Top‘Greatest show’ comes to an end
By Sara Snelsonarts EditOr
This year’s Homecoming, “The Greatest Homecoming on Earth,” had no problem stand-ing up to last year’s centennial Homecoming.
Jama Cadle, Alumni Events coordinator, said the 2007 Homecoming was com-parable to last year’s, and there may have been a great-er turnout.
“Last year, there was so much publicity about it being the centennial year that a lot of people had already visited the campus before Home-coming, so the Homecoming
feeling was somewhat for-gotten about,” Cadle said.
This year, minor things were tweaked in activities, such as adding another stage for JamFest, and a reunion mixer was added at the car-nival so old friends could see each other more through out the weekend.
Not all of the numbers from the weekend are cal-culated, but the alumni of-fice estimates about 2,500 alumni showed up this year for Homecoming, and about 84 students volunteered for various activities.
See FIRES page 5
See QUEEN page 5
See SHOW page 5
See FORUM page 5
Thanksgiving holidays will begin at 8 a.m. on Nov. 21, rather than on Nov. 20 as the ACU Stu-dent Planner says. This means all Tuesday classes, including eve-ning classes, will meet that day.
Flu season is near. Now is the time to get a flu shot. The Medical Clinic will host a flu vac-cination clinic Nov. 1 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Campus Cen-ter Living Room. The shot costs $25, and it can be charged to a student account or paid in cash or check. Flu shots are also cur-rently available on a daily walk-in basis in the Medical Clinic. For more information, contact Kathy Stokes at (325) 674-2625.
The Shore Art Gallery will host the Biennial Faculty Show until Thursday. The exhibition features works by ACU faculty in the Department of Art and Design. Admission is free, and the gallery is open to the public Mon.-Fri. from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Chameleon Performing Arts Co. is holding auditions Sunday at 9 p.m. The audition for Core
Hip Hop Co. is Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. Core will be choreo-graphed by Heather Edmond-son, ACU grad student, and Ma-rio Thornton, Abilene resident. Chameleon consists of contem-porary jazz and modern dancing. Core is a new hip-hop company that will perform with Chameleon in the annual March show. Sign-ups are taking place at Dance Discovery Studios at South 2nd and Willis.
FilmFest Resolutions, ACU’s
fourth annual FilmFest, will take place November 2 and 3. Film-Fest is a student short-film competition. Students create all aspects of the films as the direc-tors, writers, producers, sound designers, technical directors and production designers. Film-Fest Chapel and the FilmFest premier night show will take place November 2. The Judges’ Symposium, screening of all films and the FilmFest ‘07 con-cert will take place Nov. 3.
Walk to Class DayStudents who live off campus are encouraged to walk to campus to save gas, get exercise and help the environment.
Registration for Spring and Summer 2008 will take place for graduate, Honors and Study Abroad students.
7 p.m.The Call will take place in the Mabee Library Auditorium.
Fall Break
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 clarifications of published news articles will be printed in this space in a timely manner.
About This Page
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Announcements
26 Friday24Wednesday 25 Thursday 27 Saturday
CreditedChapelsto date:
CreditedChapelsremaining:
Chapel Checkup3931
Volunteer Opportunities
Abilene Habitat for Human-ity needs volunteers for the annual Steamboat Challenge on Saturday from 6:15 a.m.-2 p.m. This event includes a half-marathon road race and 35 and 60 mile bike races. Vol-unteers will serve refreshments, monitor the finish line and do other related jobs.
Abilene Habitat for Humanity will host its annual Mall-O-Ween on Oct. 31 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at the Mall of Abilene. Help is needed with games, booths, giving out candy and taking donations.
The G.V. Daniels Recreation Center needs help Oct. 31 from 5:30-9 p.m. Volunteers will help with game booths and will hand out candy. For more information, con-tact Justin Whiteley or Tanya Brown at (325) 676-6443.
Volunteers are needed to read with kids in Abilene elementary schools on a weekly basis. A variety of shifts are available.
The Abilene Preservation League is seeking volunteers on Thursday from 11:15 a.m.-1:30 p.m. to help with the Heritage Steward-ship Luncheon at the Abilene Civic Center. Volunteers will greet guests, show them to their tables and assist elderly guests from the parking lot.
G. V. Daniels & I-CAN will host a Harvest Festival on Oct. 31. Volun-teers are needed from 5:30-9 p.m. to assist with game booths and handing out candy.
Love and Care Ministries, in partnership with Arrow Ford, will hold its annual Mission Thanksgiv-ing on November 16. Volunteers are needed for various shifts from 7 a.m.- 7 p.m. During this time, food, clothing and money donations will be dropped off at the Ford dealer-ship to benefit the homeless and needy. Volunteers will help unload and load these items.
Big Brothers Big Sisters needs help mentoring area children. Each volunteer is matched with a “little brother” or “little sister.” They will eat lunch together for 30 minutes once a week at the child’s school. Help is requested any day Mon.-Fri. around the lunch hour. For more in-formation, contact Jamie Bearden at (325) 677-7839.
9 p.m.Monks coffee shop will host an Open Mic Night until midnight.
10:15 p.m.A Freshman Devo will take place in Beauchamp Ampitheater.
Fall Break begins
Be watching for the new ACU emergency alert system signup links coming soon. The service is free and helps get emergency information out to everyone immediately.Report all suspicious activity to the ACU Police Department at (325) 674-2305.
Mon., Oct. 15, 20079 a.m. Assisted Abilene PD with burglary at 800 N. Judge Ely 9:45 a.m. Booted vehicle on Oliver Jackson Boulevard for multiple unpaid citations 10:55 a.m. Report of vehicle accident near Moody Coliseum, checked, unable to locate 11:40 a.m. Unlocked vehicle at Big Purple Lot 11:50 a.m. Report of vehicle blocked in at Barret Lot, con-tacted owner, moved vehicle 12:50 p.m. Disabled vehicle at Ambler and Judge Ely, vehicle towed from the street 2:15 p.m. Assisted Abilene PD with locating vehicle involved in accident at 500 EN 20th 2:50 p.m. Unlocked vehicle at Bible Lot 3 p.m. Unlocked vehicle at Sikes Lot 6:12 p.m. Jumpstart vehicle at Sikes Lot 8:18 p.m. Unlocked vehicle at 800 Bruce Way 8:20 p.m. Assisted Abilene PD with locating student for criminal mischief report that occurred off campus 9:58 p.m. Noise complaint at Sanders Intramural Field. Advised crowds to cease drums and train horn noises. Com-plied. No citations issued.
Tues., Oct. 16, 2007 8:03 a.m. Traffic stop at ACU Drive and Ambler for speeding 12:05 p.m. Criminal mischief report at Mabee Lot 1:15 p.m. Parking violation at Morris Lot 5:18 p.m. Unlocked vehicle at 2400 Campus Court 6:25 p.m. Unlocked vehicle at Jacob’s Dream 8:07 p.m. Returned found phone to owner 11:26 p.m. Jumpstart vehicle at Barret Lot
Wed., Oct. 17, 2007 7:57 a.m. Traffic stop at EN 18th and Campus Court for disregarding stop sign 8:03 a.m. Traffic stop at 2500 Judge Ely for speeding 8:22 a.m. Traffic stop at 1800 Campus Court for speeding 9:30 a.m. Parking violation at Bible Lot 10:45 a.m. Jumpstart vehicle at Library Lot 10:50 a.m. Unlocked vehicle at EN 16th and Washington 12:30 p.m. Parking violation at 600 EN 18th 1 p.m. Traffic stop at Library Lot for expired vehicle tags 3:20 p.m. Parking violations at West Campus North Lot4:10 p.m. Unlocked vehicle at Bible Lot 8:09 p.m. Incomplete 911 at
700 EN 16th on Lunsford Trail, checked, no one around 9:30 p.m. Report of vehicles block-ing alley at 500 EN 20th, contacted owner, advised to move.
Thurs., Oct. 18, 2007 12:50 a.m. Report of subject soliciting money at EN 11th and Washington, unable to locate 7:41 a.m. Assisted Abilene PD with recovery of stolen vehicle at College Drive and Cedar Crest 8:07 a.m. Unlocked vehicle at Bible Lot 10:40 a.m. Report of suspicious subject at EN 10th and Griffith, unable to locate12:19 p.m. Traffic stop at EN 16th and Campus Court 6:17 p.m. Incomplete 911 at Zellner misdial 7:40 p.m. Incomplete 911 at Zellner, misdial
Fri., Oct. 19, 2007 1:30 a.m. Burglar alarm at Brown Library, accidental trip, all okay 2:10 a.m. Unlocked closet at Teague Building11:35 a.m. Parking violation at Barret Lot 1:15 p.m. Contacted student that left keys in the door of their vehicle at Campus Center Lot11:10 p.m. Noise disturbance at 1900 Morrow, resident agreed to quiet down
Sat., Oct. 20, 2007 12:35 a.m. Report of loud party at 700 EN 14th, resident agreed to quiet down 2:38 a.m. Second complaint of loud party at 700 EN 14th, party shut down, people were leaving 2:45 a.m. Report of loud party at 2100 Campus Court, resident agreed to quiet down 8 a.m. Jumpstart vehicle at Onstead-Packer Biblical Studies Building 8:12 a.m. Burglar alarm at Brown Library, false, alarm reset 8:37 a.m. Unlocked vehicle at 300 N. Judge Ely 10:15 a.m. Assisted Resident Director locked out at Gardner Hall, unable to unlock 11:37 p.m. Report of party in unknown apartment at Univer-sity Park Apartments, advised Resident Director
Sun., Oct. 21, 2007 2:48 a.m. Received several calls reference to party at 2100 Campus Court, resident warned by Abilene PD 3:41 a.m. Assisted Abilene PD with burglary of vehicle at 600 College Drive3 p.m. Assisted Abilene PD with subject arrest in Wal-Mart Lot 8:36 p.m. Assisted Resident Assistant release skunk from courtyard of Morris Hall
Police LogEdited for space
ACU Police Tip of the Week
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 Page 3CAMPUS NEWS
By Chandler HarrisStudent RepoRteR
The Survey of Peninsu-lar Spanish Literature class participated in a service-learning project in con-junction with the Abilene Public Library last Thurs-day. The class, instructed by Dr. Beatriz Walker, as-sistant professor of Span-ish, translated and read a book that Walker wrote.
“My students provided a service to the community in raising awareness of the Hispanic heritage here in our community in honor of Hispanic Heritage month,” Walker said.
This is the first time the foreign language depart-ment has joined with the Abilene Public Library in such efforts, Walker said.
“The students not only reach out to the commu-nity but also learn about the Hispanic culture them-selves through this project. They learned about poli-tics, specifically the idea of liberty versus tyranny,” Walker said.
She said her students’ project shed light on some of the current problems in South America.
“This project provided us
students with a great oppor-tunity to greet the Abilene community bilingually and to share with them what we have learned this semester,” said Adrienne Carpenter, senior Spanish for teacher certification major from Austin. “It also allowed us to share the reality of what has been going on in South America and to raise aware-ness of the problems there. Some of the problems in the government still exist to this day.”
The class has been pre-paring for the reading since the second week of school, Carpenter said.
“We began by choosing partners and translating a piece of the book togeth-er. As the date to present neared, we would practice in front of the class,” Car-penter said.
The class sent invita-tions to public schools and the other universities.
“We presented on two different dates: Oct. 2 and Oct. 18,” said Julie Eichel-berger, sophomore piano performance and Spanish major from Houston. “For the first date, invitations were sent to all the pub-lic junior high and high schools in Abilene. For the
second date, invitations were sent to all the major universities in Abilene.”
The book the students used is entitled, “El Teatro Como Guardian de la memo-ria Colectiva.” Walker wrote this book as her thesis for her dissertation.
“By participating in this project, I not only shared information with the pub-lic, but learned a lot myself about certain events in South American history. Being able to communicate this helped my Spanish and my under-standing of Hispanic culture improve,” Eichelberger said.
Another class of Walker’s, Spanish for Teachers, hosts a “Bilingual Spanish Night” at the Abilene Public Library each Tuesday night through Nov. 13, Carpenter said.
“This is a time where kids who speak Spanish can come and participate in an activ-ity in their native language, while kids who don’t speak Spanish have the opportu-nity to learn Spanish,” Car-penter said.
Anyone with questions can contact Dr. Beatriz Walk-er at (325) 674-2140.
The mission of ACU, which is to educate students for lead-ership throughout the world, was seen through Global Sa-maritan Resources in its Chapel to collect funds for worldwide support and help.
Global Samaritan Resources Student Outreach is a non-prof-it group based in Abilene that sends medical supplies across the world. The group was originally a part of the Healing
Hands organization, but even-tually separated.
“Global Samaritan Resourc-es branched away because we had a different agenda, and we wanted to stay in the Abilene community,” said Samantha Popp, senior political science major from San Antonio. Global Samaritan was started last fall to keep ACU students involved, Popp said.
“The whole idea started in our Internal Relations class, and we fell in love with the bril-liant idea of outreach programs
and mission,” Popp said.The agenda on Monday was
to help ACU student Prince Obuor, senior biology major from Ghana, with his medical mission by raising money to ship supplies back to Ghana to help the clinics with health care. The mortality rate in Ghana is more than twice the national av-erage, according to Obuor. The women and children of Ghana especially need the help of the ACU community, Obuor said.
Tyler Baker, senior social studies teaching major from
San Antonio, said Monday’s Chapel was used to intro-duce the mission that Global Samaritan Resources is try-ing to accomplish. Obuor said the overall hope of the collection is to raise enough money to help connect the old clinic with a new clinic that has better resources.
In addition to money, Global Samaritan Resources would like volunteers to help move into the new facilities.
“We do not just want your money, we also would
like your time and effort, and most importantly your prayers,” Baker said.
The ultimate goal is to be able to help a student every year.
“Tyler would like to get the organization off the ground and every year help a student give back to their home country,” Popp said.
The Chapel on Monday was a start toward fulfill-ing the mission: raising $1,276.16 in the collection to help ship medical sup-
plies to Ghana. Baker said the men of Frater Sodalis were a big help in collecting the money during Chapel.
Global Samaritan Re-sources would like to thank Frater Sodalis for helping with the collection and ev-eryone who donated. For more information about Global Samaritan Resourc-es, contact Tyler Baker at [email protected].
As the fall semester draws to a close, students can begin registering for the 2008 spring semester.
Graduate and Honors Program students can be-gin registration Wednes-day, and seniors, or stu-dents with more than 90 completed hours, will reg-ister Monday. Juniors, or students with 60-89 hours will begin registration Oct. 31, while sophomores, or students with 30-59 hours, will register Nov. 5. Finally, freshmen, or students with up to 29 hours will register on Nov. 7.
Registration for each day
begins at 3 p.m., assuming there are no holds on stu-dent accounts.
Students can register on-line from the Banner tab at myACU by clicking the Stu-dent & Financial Aid but-ton, which allows not only registration, but viewing a tentative schedule along with a class look-up.
Advisors had some sug-gestions that students should keep in mind.
“[Students should be] meeting with their advisors if they need to, planning, looking at the schedule bul-letin and down the road to make sure they are follow-ing their four-year plan,” said Cara Lee Cranford, de-gree plan specialist for the
Department of Journalism Mass Communication.
Cranford also warned against students having great expectations, taking too many hours and then having to drop classes.
“Students should not take more hours than they know they are going to be success-ful with,” Cranford said.
Juniors should take ad-vantage of their leeway of choices said Glenda Weath-erford, degree plan special-ist in the Music Department.
“Finish what you start,” Weatherford said. “It doesn’t matter how long it takes.”
Spring registration approaches
By Sharon RapeljeStudent RepoRteR
Students, staff and fac-ulty learned ways the uni-versity can practice envi-ronmental sustainability at a forum Thursday.
Jim Miller, principal of the firm Holabird and Root, spoke Thursday to students and oth-ers to present ideas on how to make university buildings en-vironmentally friendly.
He spoke about the in-creasing university interest in sustainability, which is the preservation of resources.
The firm has worked with numerous universities in creating buildings that run on renewable resources but are visually no different from any other building.
Jennifer MacGregor, ACU alumnus and Holabird and Root’s director of business development and market-ing, said “sustainability isn’t necessarily something you see; it’s integrated into the buildings.”
Windows, for example, conserve electricity because sunlight can come in.
The sun’s rays can also
be converted into usable en-ergy through photovoltaic panels. Flooring is made from bamboo because it is durable and grows faster than a tree.
Kitty Wasemiller, profes-sor of art and design, said with sustainability there is no end of life. Instead, a circle is created.
ACU has already achieved a level of sustainability. Waste water is used for ir-rigation, conserving the wa-ter in Fort Phantom Lake. The Campus Store uses and sells recycled paper and re-cycling containers are also available on campus.
The firm presented its ideas to ACU President Dr. Royce Money Thursday af-ternoon. Wasemiller said this year Dr. Money announced the university will increase its level of stewardship.
“I thought it was very in-formative; I thought it was
good to hear about so many different options and ways that you can use sustainable design in buildings,” Alina Ernst, sophomore interior design major from Strat-ford, Conn., said.
The firm also spoke on LEED certification, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The United States Green Building Council LEED certifies a building based its on water savings, energy ef-ficiency, sustainability, ma-terial selection and indoor environment quality.
Wasemiller said ACU is beginning to consider LEED certification in the construc-tion of new buildings.
“This is something that I think will continue to grow,” Wasemiller said.
Newly released movies and gross rates for Oct. 19 - Oct. 21.
n 30 Days of Night (R): $16 Million
n Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? (PG-13): $12.1 Million
n The Game Plan (PG): $8.1 Million
n Michael Clayton (R): $7.1 Million
n Gone Baby Gone (R): $6 Million
COmIng sOOn
Movies opening Friday:
n Dan in Real Life (PG-13), starring Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook and John Mahoney. Steve Carell, who writes parenting advice for the local newspaper, is a widower and parent of three. During a family vacation with his brother and girlfriend, Carell falls in love with his younger brother’s girlfriend, and an unusual love triangle happens on their family vacation.
n Saw IV (R), starring Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson and Betsy Russell. Well, apparently the Saw movies are never going to end. In the fourth movie, Jigsaw continues his traps, and the last SWAT commanders continue to dig through the remains of Jigsaw’s hideouts. A new puzzle is found, which tests moral quandaries and threatens with torture traps.
n Music Within (R), starring Michael Sheen, Ron Livingston, Yul Vasquez and Melissa George. This movie fuels the underdog. Richard, unable to pursue his dream of public speaking, enrolls in the government’s guaranteed education program called ‘military service’ in Vietnam. After nine months of fighting, Richard loses his hearing in Vietnam and the world tells him he cannot do anything. He figures it out. With the help of a foul-mouthed genious, a free-loving bombshell and a volatile, alcoholic veteran, Richard sets out to change people’s perceptions toward the disabled.
By Laura TouchetteStudent RepoRteR
A man falls to the ground. The sound of a heavy drum plays. He looks to the sky and covers his head as heavy black cases fall around him. He rises from the ground, a look of determination on his face, as he picks up the cases and walks down the alley. He sets the cases down and pulls out DJ equipment. And he starts to spin. This is the opening scene from Spin (God is a DJ) by Double Edge Films and Jamin Winans, last year’s winning submission to Abilene’s own
film festival. 24 Frames Per Second, a short film festival, is held at the Paramount The-atre in downtown Abilene. The festival is Friday and Saturday night starting at 7:30 p.m.
Eleven films will run on Friday night and 11 on Sat-urday night with the winner being announced at the end of Saturday night. Barry Smoot, artistic direc-tor of the Paramount, start-ed the film festival in 1999.
“I started it because it’s part of the mission statement here to preserve the history of film.” Smoot said. “Also, I wanted to attract a younger
audience to the Paramount.” “It’s innovative program-ming,” he said. The submissions for films come from all over the world. This year, 168 submissions came with a few coming from local artists, Smoot said. There are 22 films compet-ing in the festival. The nom-inees come from as close as Austin to as far away as London and Tokyo. Ben Hernandez, member of a Silence Production, has used his company and coworkers to help market the festival. “We found the festival by searching on the internet for film festivals. We found 24fps
and thought it was a really different thing, especially for Abilene, and wanted to know how we could be in-volved,” Hernandez said.
A Silence Production is
marketing and advertising to the Abilene community, es-pecially to the local college- age audience.
They are using print, Face-book.com and even TV com-mercials to reach a wider au-dience, Hernandez said. “We wanted to be involved, because in the midst of a quaint town like Abilene, we want to show that there is another side to it—a dark side to it that’s kind of fun-ny,” Hernandez said.
In the past nine years, the festival has been a suc-cess, Smoot said. “It’s more of a success in bringing in film work from all over the world,” Smoot said. For more information vis-it the Web site www.para-mount-abilene.org/24fps.
24 FPS preserves history of film
courtesy of roTTeNToMaToeS.CoM
courtesy of IMDB.CoM
courtesy of ROTTeNTOMATOeS.COM
courtesy of roTTeNToMaToeS.CoM
Page 4October 24, 2007
katie gager CHIeF PHOTOGRAPHeR
The Paramount Theatre downtown traditionally features The Changeling on Halloween night.
By Sara SnelsonARtS editoR
Pumpkin PatchCarving pumpkins is a Hal-
loween tradition, and getting pumpkins at a pumpkin patch is much better than getting one at the grocery store.Where: Hwy 277 North and south of the KTX studio.When: Oct. 2-31Time: Open until duskCost: $.50-$20, depending on size.
anson LightsThe story says if you park
your car on this particular de-serted road in Anson and flash your car lights, you will see a light appear back. For the brave ones, keep driving towards the light, and you will see the ghost of a woman with her lantern try-ing to find her kids. This Hal-loween, drive toward the light, and do not just flash your lights. Do it, I dare you.
‘the Changeling’Playing every year on Hal-
loween at the Paramount, The Changeling is about a man who rents an old house to write his music. He does not realize he is not alone in the house, but after creepy disturbances and en-counters, he uncovers decades of lies. He then finds he shares the house with the spirit of a mur-dered child. With the help of his friend, they work to uncover the mystery of the boy who haunts the house.
The theater makes this movie funny with different objects, while everyone attending the movie yells out into the crowd. It is a good and fun movie to see on Halloween. I would recommend every one going once while you are still in school.Where: Paramount TheatreWhen: Oct. 31, 10 p.m.Cost: student ticket $5
trunk or treatSouthern Hills and Highland
Church of Christ are hosting Trunk or Treat for all kids. A good way to get involved in the com-munity and meet families within the church, bring some candy and your car as all the kids come in their Halloween costumes to Trunk or Treat.Southern Hills: Tues., Oct. 30Highland: Sunday, Oct. 28
Fall FestivalThe Abilene Fire Department
and Abilene Police Association are hosting a fall festival and Halloween carnival at Sears Park on Wednesday, Oct. 31 from 6-9 p.m. There will be food, candy, a blow-up castle and fun for all ages. Come with family and friends, and enjoy the Halloween holiday.
Halloween happenings
‘saW IV’Jigsaw is back again, testing people’s morals by setting timed
torture traps. Starring: Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patter-son and Betsy Russell. Rated: R. Runtime: 108 minutes.
Classic Thrillers‘Psycho’One of Alfred Hitchcock’s
best tells a story of a woman murdered by a mysterious per-son at an old hotel. The wom-an’s sister and boyfriend come looking for her and find the peo-ple they run into are not what they seem. Did the crazy, jeal-ous mother kill her, or did her son, who will do anything for his mother, kill her? Starring: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles and John Gavin. Not rated. Runtime: 109 minutes.
Modern Thrillers
‘the shining’A man, his son and his wife become the caretakers of a hotel in
Colorado during the winter. The son sees disturbing visions of the hotel’s past, while the father gets cabin fever and becomes insane. The only thing that can save them is ‘The Shining.’ Starring: Jack Nichol-son, Shelly Duvall and Danny Lloyd. Rated: R. Runtime: 146 minutes.
‘30 Days of night’An isolated Alaskan town is
plunged into darkness for 30 days. While most of the town’s people fled, some stayed be-hind. While in darkness, the town is attacked by blood-thirsty vampires, and those who stayed behind now have to find a way to stay alive in the dark. Starring: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Hus-ton and Ben Foster. Rated: R. Runtime: 113 minutes.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 Page 5CAMPUS NEWS / FROM THE FRONT
By Pete KoehnStudent RepoRteR
Campus buzzed with activ-ity last weekend as Homecom-ing events and activities filled the air. Alumni, friends and family made the annual visit to celebrate one more year of ACU pride.
While students took part in the parade and football game, the alumni had activities all their own.
Alumni had the oppor-tunity to participate in sev-
eral activities throughout the weekend, including a mixer on Friday night, a formal din-ner on Saturday night and a worship service in Chapel on the Hill Sunday morning.
Jama Cadle, Alumni Events coordinator, said most alumni don’t want formal programs.
“We try to keep it light; let them catch up and talk,” Cadle said.
Every year at the conclu-sion of Homecoming, the Office of Alumni Activities conducts a survey to find
out what the alumni thought about the weekend.
“We really listen to their requests,” Cadle said. “We learn every year what we can do differently and better.”
An estimated 2,500 alumni returned to ACU for Home-coming this year, Cadle said. Reunions are conducted for graduating classes every five years, from five to 50 years after the graduation.
“I just had my 10-year, so speaking as an alumni, it al-lows you to reconnect and re-
establish relationships with friends you haven’t seen in a while. There’s something about being home and back on campus,” Cadle said.
Lance Rieder, development program manager, works within the Development Of-fice to develop fundraising projects for the alumni. Rie-der serves as a contact for alumni and also works with alumni volunteers on coor-dinating fundraising events and programs. “The reunions themselves try to reconnect
classmates with each other and to ACU,” Rieder said.
Alumni raised $822,682 this year, with about 26 per-cent of alumni donating back to ACU. These donations enter a fund known as unrestricted giving, which goes where it is most needed by the univer-sity, Rieder said. This often translates into scholarships for current students.
“We have great volunteers that help with the reunion campaigns. They want to help current students like you at-
tend ACU,” Rieder said.The class of 1977 raised
the most money, collecting $148,629. The competition is friendly; the only reward be-ing recognition, Rieder said. The class of 1977 presented Dr. Royce Money, president of the university, with a check for the total at Homecoming Chapel last Saturday.
“We have wonderful alum-ni. They make a huge differ-ence,” Rieder said.
Class reunions raise funds for scholarships, ACU needs
Matt newhouser STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Shota Maedo, junior English major from Japan, proudly strolls with other international students during the Homecoming parade on Saturday.
Happy feet
department station.Reed said she was awak-
ened at 7:30 a.m. by people pounding on her door and telling her to get to the cam-pus center.
Students, faculty and staff stayed in the cafeteria for the morning and were released periodically to re-turn to their rooms to get snacks and homework.
The fires were visible from the cafeteria, and students were issued smoke masks since the cafeteria was hazy from the smoke, Reed said.
“My biggest fear wasn’t the fire,” Reed said. “I was more scared that we were still going to have class on Monday. The ocean was gold from the ash, and the sun shining on it. It was eerie.”
Students received word later in the afternoon that classes were canceled for Monday, much to Reed’s de-light and were allowed back to their dorms.
“I was supposed to have a mid-term… I’m glad that it’s canceled,” Reed said.
Reed said she felt Pep-perdine’s safety plan was implemented effectively.
In addition to smoke masks, a medical care team was in place in the cafeteria,
and Pepperdine’s president, Andrew K. Benton, stayed in the cafeteria with everyone else in case of emergencies.
“People were having prob-lems with headaches because of the smoke,” Reed said. “But our president got up and spoke to everyone and had a really good attitude about ev-erything. He was really reas-suring to everyone.”
Reed said Pepperdine had just recently imple-mented an emergency text message system, similar to the new system ACU has just bought, e2campus, and that was how most of the students were alerted to the nearby fires.
“Pepperdine’s wildfire is a great example or something you need to reach the mass-es immediately about,” Elli-son said. “The system is free to all students, and it gives them an inside route to im-mediate emergency informa-tion. We hope everyone will sign up for the service, it will only be used when sec-onds mean lives.”
Ellison said wildfire dan-gers in the Big Country are very real, and after the wet summer in West Texas, wild-fires may spring up this win-ter once vegetation dries up and winds pick up.
“We’re often in drought conditions here,” Ellison said. “Put that together with our low humidity and mod-erate to high winds, and you’ve got conditions very conducive to fire danger.”
Ellison said the ACU police are on the same radio fre-quency as the Abilene Police Department and the Abilene Fire Department, so they’d be able to formulate a safety plan immediately in case of wildfire danger.
“The list of emergency possibilities is infinite,” Elli-son said. “We just try to have a general and effective plan that can be adapted and tai-lored as specific situations pop up.”
Fires: Chief says plan in placeContinued from page 1
each congressman brought different aspects of these is-sues to light, their response to one another was one of respect and humor. Plum-mer attributed this phenom-enon to the congressmen’s long-term friendship.
“Most of that was some-thing you wouldn’t see be-tween a Republican and a Democrat,” Plummer said.
“They have a history and a friendship, and that overrides a lot of stuff.”
The former Congress members spent Tuesday visiting various classrooms and hitting on issues rang-ing from Roe vs. Wade to immigration.
“I think the students here have a very broad interest,” Erdahl said. “Not only the breadth of interest, but the depth of understanding.”
Erdahl’s trip to ACU marked his sixth campus visit; D’Amours’ visit was his second.
“I saw what to me was a surprising amount of open-
mindedness,” D’Amours said, explaining that while he did encounter some pre-conceptions and close-mind-edness, it was the exception, not the rule.
And the open-minded dia-logue is what keeps the for-mer Congressmen coming to campus to share their knowl-edge and meet with young people, they said.
“There are two reasons to run for Congress,” D’Amours said. “One is because you want to be something, one is because you want to do something.”
The first, he said, is the wrong reason.
Combined, the two men
have more than 20 years of Congressional experience, and they said they are moti-vated to pass along knowl-edge and “build bridges to the future.”
“I want to share that,” D’Amours said.
Managing Editor Kelsi Peace contributed to this story.
Forum: Former Congressmen share 20 years’ worth Congressional experienceContinued from page 1
“My biggest fear wasn’t the fire. I was more scared that we were still going to have class on Monday.
The ocean was gold from the ash and the sun shining on it. It was eerie.”
Leslie reed, junior at Pepperdine university
East North 16th Street and Campus Court were lined with people at 9:30 a.m., cheering on the floats and parade participants.
“I really enjoyed watch-ing the parade and being able to attend everything I wanted to,” said Emily Fol-well, junior interdisciplinary studies major from Abilene. “Last year, I was pledging so I did what I was told. This year, I could enjoy every-
thing Home-coming had to offer.”
The foot-ball game was packed with s t u d e n t s , alumni and family, and an estimated 12,172 people attended the game against West Texas A&M. Despite the hot, windy weather, many fans stayed until the end to cheer on the Wildcats.
“We were all very satis-fied with this year’s turnout and how all of the activities went,” Cadle said. “We are ready to get started on next year’s Homecoming to make it just as great as this year. There are always things we can do better and add on to the weekend, and that is what we will look at and plan on in the next year.”
“All growing up I knew I was coming to ACU, so I al-ways thought it would be neat to follow in that tradition,” Lauryn said.
During the crowning process, she was unable to speak for a few moments, and Lauryn said she even
cried a little bit.“I’m not a big crier, but it
meant so much to me. It was kinda cool to look back and see a dream of 21 years happen in that one moment,” she said. “I was kinda overwhelmed.”
One of the first things Lauryn remembers is seeing her mom taking pictures from the first row and look-
ing into the crowd and see-ing her social club. “The one thing I could see was all of the Squigs ‘cause they stood out in their yellow shirts.”
Lauryn said it was breath-taking to see the packed stadi-um of people. “I took a picture of it in my mind, a snapshot.”
When she walked off the field, all the women on the court
gave her a hug, and Lauryn said that was a neat experience be-cause a lot of the women on court are her good friends.
Lauryn said she was glad to have her brother, father and boyfriend participate in escorting her to differ-ent Homecoming functions. Her parents, siblings and both grandmothers were at
the game Saturday and were able to see her announced queen during halftime.
In her eighth year work-ing with the Homecoming queens, Betsey Craig, assis-tant director for alumni re-lations, said while the voter turnout was similar to years past, it was a tight contest this year. “This was the
closest queen’s race we ever had,” Craig said.
While she is sure everyone was exhausted by the time it was over, Lauryn said she en-joyed the weekend.
“It was a perfect, wonder-ful weekend,” Lauryn said.
“Most of that was something you wouldn’t see between a Republican and a Democrat. They
have a history and a friendship, and that overrides a lot of stuff.”
College Democrats president Donovan Plummer
CADLE
ViewswednesdayOptimistPage 6 October 24, 2007
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The problem:Blackwater, a group of former U.S. military personnel and a private contractor, is basically allowed to do whatever it wants in Iraq without restraint by the government.
Our view:Blackwater is only further blackening the reputation of America in a situation we should never have gotten into in the first place. The State Department continues to pay Blackwater members instead of recognizing its lawless and inhumane actions.
The solution:The U.S. government needs to quickly regulate the actions of Blackwater to prevent more unnecessary bloodshed and eliminate another non-essential aspect of this horrible war.
Blackwater exposes America to criticismUnleashing Blackwater, an armed and unregulated
group of former U.S. military personnel, to represent America in Iraq, exposes the country to easily pre-ventable blame.
The organization, which trains U.S. civilians to supplement the military, touts a belief that it pro-vides service our armed forces cannot.
“We are a professional military, law enforce-ment, security, peacekeeping and stability opera-tions firm who provides turnkey solutions,” ac-cording to the organization’s Web site. In reality, the organization escapes the oversight needed to harness any armed unit.
This gross oversight results in the loss of Iraqi ci-vilian life and further erodes Iraq’s trust of America. Congress has responded, belatedly, only after several documented massacres by Blackwater — including a drunken employee killing a bodyguard and the shoot-ing of eight Iraqis, The New York Times reported.
But the spilled blood rests on the hands of Ameri-ca as much as it does on Blackwater and brings to life a problem President Eisenhower warned the country about in his 1961 farewell speech.
“Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense without peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together,” Eisenhower told America.
At present, the citizenry is neither alert nor knowl-edgeable, and the unwatched Blackwater soldiers are trampling the security and liberty of Iraqi civilians.
The State Department, which contracts the group, could easily halt such bloodshed by refusing to re-new contracts, rather than promoting payoff to appease the Iraqis. Payment for family members of the deceased ranges from $5,000 for one vic-tim to $15,000 for the bodyguard, according to The New York Times, but does nothing to end Blackwater’s crimes.
Also, the Justice De-partment should pros-ecute perpetrators strin-gently, working with the FBI to ensure justice.
In a Congressional report regarding the Military Extraterrito-rial Jurisdiction Expan-sion and Enforcement Act of 2007, Congress took a refreshingly hon-est look at the muddle in Iraq. The report ac-knowledged a failure to investigate reports of “serious incident re-ports” from contractors
and minimal contractor persecutions. As the ink on the report dried, the State Depart-
ment was investigating the deaths of 11 Iraqi civil-ians, allegedly at the hands of Blackwater employees. But oversight without enforcement lacks the teeth needed to stop future war crimes from Blackwater — the Justice Department must enforce change to problems Congress finds.
In June, Rep. David Price (D-N.C.) introduced the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Expansion and Enforcement Act, aimed at closing loopholes in an existing act that allows some private contractors to slip through the cracks.
The Congressional committee’s recommenda-tion would add further force to the bill by requir-ing the Justice Department’s Inspector General to submit contractor abuse and prosecution reports to Congress.
“This requirement is intended to address the Jus-tice Department’s apparent failure to aggressively investigate and prosecute crimes committed by con-tractors over which it currently has jurisdiction,” the report reads.
Such a biting reproof from Congress comes late, but it offers hope of oversight and enforcement of Black-
water and other independent contractors who could continue to display vigilantism during the war.
The bill passed Oct. 4 in the House by a land-slide 389 votes to 30, and after a second reading was ordered on the Senate’s legislative calendar Oct. 5. After Sen. Barack Obama, (D-Ill.) introduced the Senate bill Oct. 4, it was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. We hope the Senate moves quickly.
We like the House report, which says, “It is essen-tial that the Federal Government have a mechanism for holding such contractors accountable in the event of criminal misconduct.” We cannot allow Blackwater to fall under the radar, especially because private con-tractors employ more Americans than government troops in Iraq, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Congress, the State Department and the Justice Department should act quickly and rigorously to reg-ulate and prosecute Blackwater before it unnecessar-ily spills more blood by America’s hands.
While midterms always tend to be a stressful and
s o m e w h a t dreaded time, the colder weather is not the only thing giving students an extra dose of energy dur-ing this hec-tic time in the semester.
From my house near Barret Hall,
I can hear pledges cheer-ing on their prospective social clubs most nights of the school week as stu-dents gather for intramural games.
And who hasn’t observed the excitement and fellow-ship among students and alumni that accompanies the wide array of Homecom-ing activities each year?
Whether you are joining with classmates to create a float for the Homecoming parade, dressing yourself in bright yellow attire to attend
a friendly football game or simply catching up with an old friend over a cup of cof-fee, time with good friends not only makes this stress-ful time of year bearable; it can positively contribute to your overall health.
The Journal of Epidemiol-ogy and Community Health printed that a good network of friends helps you live
longer in old age and im-proves an individual’s qual-ity of life.
In 1992, a research team from the Australian Lon-gitudinal Study of Aging (ALSA) collected a host of about 1500 people to assess to how economic, social, be-havioral and environmental factors affected the wellbe-ing of its participants.
The group was monitored for more than a 10-year peri-od, and results showed that those with the strongest net-work of friends lived longer than those with the fewest amount of friends.
Not only that, the study revealed that friends in-fluence health behaviors, such as smoking, drinking or seeking medical advice about troubling symptoms, as well as effecting moods, self esteem and coping mechanisms during diffi-cult times.
So as the projects pile up, and your list of class as-signments seems to be nev-er ending, don’t neglect to spend adequate time with your good friends because the time invested in mean-ingful relationships will not only give you an excuse to get away from the books, it could contribute to a life-time of lasting health.
Time with friends provides health benefits, relieves stress
State of MindLaurenSutton
Armed with knives and small saws, my roommates
and I began our Satur-day night. Plans for our r o o m m a t e p u m p k i n carving night had been in the works all week, and we proud-ly bought p u m p k i n s , a carving kit and candles
to light the jack-o-lanterns.
After spreading out old newspapers and meticulous-ly washing the pumpkins, we picked up our knives and prepared.
And then: silence.We labored over carving
the top out for a few minutes before one of us stopped and said, “This is really hard.”
As we looked around our small kitchen table, we noticed each one of us was trying to cut the top off our pumpkins differently. Looking at my square-shaped hole, one of my roommates told me I was having trouble because I was
doing it wrong.“No,” I told her. “This is
how my dad always does it.” I can still see my dad cut-
ting a square in the top of my pumpkin and handing me the stringy, gushy inside that still makes me shudder slightly when I grab that first fistful of pumpkin guts.
I remember my mom hand-ing me a cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol to remove the wobbly permanent mark-
er face that remained after I’d carved my pumpkin. And when it was all done, we lined up our pumpkins and took a photo, which would join all the other years of toothy smiles and bizarre pumpkin grins.
I’m sure my parents never thought twice about my five-year-old self watching them do those things, or considered that fifteen years later, those holi-day memories would dictate my own holiday traditions.
We often forget the little eyes that watch us, and how often the little things we do stick with those small eyes for years to come.
ACU students impact the community through an array of ministries — including Tread-away Kids, church youth groups and Big Brothers Big Sisters.
And what for students could be just a few hours in a day could mean an ingrained tradition or attitude to an Abilenian kid.
So as you guide other peo-ple’s children around on Hal-loween, Bowl for Kids’ Sake in
November or don a costume and hit the streets of Abilene next Wednesday, bear in mind your potential for impact.
Who knows what idiosyn-crasy could stick with the little eyes that watch you.
As for me, I’ll continue to cut squares in the top of my pumpkins and take a picture of the finished product, even though I take a picture every year. It’s what my parents al-ways do.
Halloween traditions carry over from childhood
SoarSubjectsKelsiPeace
I’m sure my parents never thought twice about my five-year-old self watching them do those things.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 Page 7SPORTS JUMPS/NEWS
WTAMU 8 23 0 10 — 41ACU 10 7 7 7 — 31
First QuarterACU — Bernard Scott 4 run (Matt Adams kick), 5:17.ACU — FG Adams 20, 4:04 WTAMU — Charly Martin 9 pass from Keith Null (Kolo Kapanui rush), 12:01
Second QuarterWTAMU — Dale Davis 12 pass from Null (John Roberts kick), 12:01WTAMU — Kapanui 18 pass from Null (Robert kick) 8:24ACU — Scott 2 run (Adams kick) 10:23WTAMU — Keithon Flemming 11 run (kick failed), 1:19
Third QuarterACU — Scott 2 run (Adams kick), 10:23
Fourth Quarter WTAMU — A.J. Ruffins 4 pass from Null (Roberts kick) 12:49ACU — Johnny Knox 37 pass from Billy Malone (Adams kick), 8:58WTAMU — FG Roberts 18, 3:34
Team Statistics WTAMU ACUFirst downs 27 21Total net yards 511 436Rushing yards 33-151 24-91Passing yards 360 345Kickoff returns 1-12 4-49Interceptions/Ret. 2-29 1-7Comp-Att-Int 29-47-1 28-49-2Sacked-Yards Lost 1-6 0-0Punts/Avg. 2-30.5 3-24.3 Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-12Penalties-Yards 18-126 12-97Time of Possession 33:57 26:03
Individual Statistics Rushing — WTAMU: Flemming 18-113; Kelvin Thompson 4-30; Wayne McKnight 4-23. ACU: Scott 18-88; Taber Minner 4-4. Passing — WTAMU: Malone 28-49-2. ASU: Null 29-47-1. Receiving — WTAMU: Kapanui 6-101; Davis 5-49; Martin 4-67; Ruffins 4-34; B.J. Vickers. ACU: Badon 10-93; Knox 8-183; Scott 6-40.
WTAMU 41, ACU 31
Wildcats in the postseason hunt after putting a shot past Becky Hilterbran in overtime with an assist by freshman forward Lyndsey Womack.
Southwestern Oklahoma State plummeted to 0-17 overall and 0-8 in conference after the loss.
Despite the win, Wilson said he was not completely satisfied with his team’s performance Sunday.
“We played down to the other team’s level to the point that we gave them three goals,” Wil-son said. “The girls need to play at a level they’re capable of, r e g a r d l e s s of who we’re playing.”
The win over the last-place Lady Bulldogs was the
second match of the weekend for ACU. The Wildcats took on and lost to No. 14 Central Oklahoma on Friday.
The Bronchos, who are in first place in the LSC with an 8-0 record, won a clean 7-0 game against the Wildcats, and outshot ACU 39-11.
“We played an extremely good team. They were tough to handle,” Wilson said. “They were down hill on the second half and we couldn’t stop them.”
ACU’s next tests will be the final matches of the sea-son at Texas A&M-Commerce on Friday and Texas Woman’s on Sunday.
“I hope we’re at our best this weekend,” Pertuit said. “There are two games we need to win and can win to get a shot at the tournament.”
only had four. ACU outper-formed Texas Woman’s in more than just the blocks category. Freshman set-ter Ijeoma Moronu led all players with 42 assists, and sophomore libero Amy Wilson topped everyone in digs with 14.
“We’ve been calling these girls to go above and beyond all of the time,” Mock said. “I’m really proud of the way they played and the way they
accepted the challenge. This was a different setup for us playing at 7 p.m. after foot-ball. They accepted the chal-lenge and took charge.”
ACU travels to Weather-ford, Okla., for its next match against the Southwestern Oklahoma State Bulldogs on Thursday. Southwestern is 10-18 overall with a 2-6 confer-ence record. The Bulldogs are coming off a 3-1 loss to West Texas A&M on Saturday.
Sweep: SWOSU next on scheduleContinued from page 8
with a time of 26:44.38, a finish that Hood said sealed ACU’s victory.
“He really stepped up big for the team since Nico-demus wasn’t there,” Hood said. “He ensured we would win our 17th straight, so Eric did a great job.”
On the women’s side, Cheboi led a list of ACU women that finished in the top 15 of the race.
Junior Mary Mwangi finished third with a time of 22:44.92, junior Hayley Garner finished seventh with a time of 23:33.10 and junior Vanessa Whittle finished 11th with a time of 23:51.68.
Hood said all four of the women showed improve-ment from last season, and Cheboi was unchallenged during the race.
“Loice went out from the very start of the race and established herself as the clear leader,” Hood said. “No one even attempted to go out with her; she led the entire race.”
Hood said Mwangi was in prime position to finish second, but slowed down because of breathing prob-lems and finished strong for third.
ACU’s next meet will be the NCAA Division II South
Central Regional meet in Joplin, Mo., — a meet both the men and women won in 2006.
The meet will be the fi-nal meet before the NCAA Division II National Cham-pionships on Nov. 17, also in Joplin, Mo., and at the last leg of the season, Hood said the key to ACU’s victory is keeping his team in running health.
“We just need to keep ev-eryone healthy,” Hood said.
LSC: Brown fills in for NaimaduContinued from page 8
to the West Texas 39-yard line, but any chance of a comeback was nixed when West Texas safety Kyle Seals picked off junior quarter-back Billy Malone.
“The only thing I can say is you got to give credit to West Texas, their guys came in and made plays,” said head coach Chris Thomsen.
West Texas, who had the nation’s top offense coming into the game, racked up a
total of 511 yards and five touchdowns in their eighth-straight win of the season. Buffs’ quarterback Keith Null threw a touchdown to four different receivers and finished the day with 360 passing yards, while run-ning back Keithon Flem-ming recorded a touchdown and rushed for 113 yards on 18 attempts. Flemming out rushed ACU junior running back Bernard Scott, who ran for 88 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries.
The Wildcat defense strug-gled most against West Texas
tight end Kolo Kapanui, who led the Buffs in receiving af-ter a career-high day in which he caught six passes for 101 yards and a touchdown.
ACU’s offense racked up 436 yards yard of offense and was led by Scott.
Missed opportunities hurt ACU the most in its second loss of the season.
After pulling to an early 10-8 first quarter lead, ACU dropped its lead in the second quarter after West Texas took the lead with a four-touch-down quarter that put the Buffs up 31-17 at halftime.
The Buffs held the lead the rest of the game, and though the Wildcats came within a touchdown of the Buffs twice in the second half, ACU could not find the end zone to tie the game.
The loss dropped ACU’s national ranking in the American Football Coaches’ Association poll from No. 12 to No. 21, while 8-0 West Texas jumped up in rank from No. 6 to No. 5.
Senior cornerback Corey Jordan rams into Buffs wide receiver Carl Johnson during the first quarter of ACU’s 41-31 Homecoming loss to West Texas A&M. Jordan’s hit caused Johnson to drop the pass and forced a third and 15.
OT: Wildcats need wins to reach playoffsContinued from page 8
The ACU men’s and women’s cross country teams successfully defended their LSC titles on Saturday.
acU men Time Place n Serge Gasore 24:47.79 1st
n Julius Nyango 24:47.82 2nd
n Amos Sang 24:50.04 3rd
n Phillip Birgen 24:58.65 4th
n Eric Brown 26:44.38 13th acU women Time Place n Loice Cheboi 22:04.23 1st
n Mary Mwangi 22:44.92 3rd
n Hayley Garner 22:33.10 7th
n Vanessa Whittle 23:51.68 11th
n Lindsay Putman 25:11.72 31st
TOP TIMES
Reese
By Sondra RodriguezStudent RepoRteR
Worldwide Witness pres-ents students with the op-portunity to experience global mission work and to see God in new ways through summer internships.
The program is led by Gary Green, missions coordinator, and Wimon Walker, profes-sor of missions and Bible. Students are sent anywhere from Denver, Colo., to Za-greb, Croatia, in time spans ranging from six to 10 weeks.
Participants complete an ap-plication that will be accepted into January, participate in a retreat, take a Maymester missions course and raise ad-equate funds for the trip.
“Fundraising is often the main reason people feel they can’t do this, but over all the interns they’ve had over the years, they’ve had two that couldn’t make the money,” said Linly Stowe, sophomore Spanish major from Nashville, Tenn., and former Worldwide Witness participant to Mexico City. “They help you with a lot
of the fundraising,”Walker acknowledged the
process as tedious.“We help you put together
letters and packets. Fundrais-ing is tough, but it’s a faith af-firming process of what God provides,” he said.
Prior to departure, students spend time in preparation for the internship. This includes weekly Chapels separated by internship location, a week-end retreat, general activities planned by Green and Walker and frequent follow-ups to make sure the students are go-
ing to the location they want. “Leaders will work with
you to find the best place for you,” Stowe said.
Once the internship begins, participants are immersed in the culture and serve local missionaries and churches. Adjustment to the new cul-ture encourages each partici-pant to discover the role of missions in his or her life.
“We’re hoping that some of the people will feel a call by God to dedicate their lives to cross-culture ministry,” Walk-er said. “We realize not every-
one will, but we believe that even those who don’t go long-term will become people with a much greater sense of the world, much more compassion for the world and will celebrate what God has given us.”
For Stowe, the experience provided relationships that started by the spreading of God’s love.
“I feel like God was giv-ing me the opportunity to say ‘God is love. I just want to be friends with you. I don’t want to get anything from you. I’m here to love you and tell you
that there is a God of love, grace and mercy.’ I was show-ing people love wherever I was,” Stowe said.
Worldwide Witness forces its participants “out of your comfort zone, where you learn to depend on God in new ways,” Walker said.
This experience is avail-able to all majors. Information meetings, applications and classroom presentations are all in progress.
NE St. 4-4 6-10-1ACU 3-5 8-10East Central 3-5 6-9-2ENMU 3-6 9-8SW Okla. 0-8 0-17
Scores
For complete intramural scores and schedules
visit:w w w. a c u o p t i m i s t . c o m
INTRAMURAL ROUNd-Up
n The intramural schedule in the Optimist is subject to change and is not permanent. Any changes can be viewed on the intramural bulletin board in Moody Coliseum.
Angelo St. 4-4 6-17TAMU-K 4-5 11-10Tarleton St. 3-4 11-14TAMU-C 2-5 9-15SW Okla. 2-6 10-18SE Okla. 1-7 6-17ENMU 0-8 4-22
brian schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Senior wide receiver Jerale Badon runs downfield pulling along West Texas A&M defensive back Kyle Seals on a long catch and run for a first down during the fourth quarter of ACU’s 41-31 Homecoming loss to West Texas A&M on Saturday. Badon, the ACU all-time receiving yards and catches record holder, led the Wildcats receiving corps Saturday with 10 catches for 93 yards.
Loss to No. 5 WT slims playoff hopes
By Christina JohnsonSportS Writer
The ACU soccer team kept its playoff hopes alive with a 4-3 overtime victory over Southwestern Oklahoma State on Sunday.
Sophomore forward Jor-dan Reese, who scored twice in the win, put away the game-winning goal of the Wildcats’ third Lone Star Conference victory.
“We needed that win, and the girls knew it,” said Assis-tant coach Thomas Pertuit.
Thanks to the victory, ACU is now 8-10 overall and 3-5 in LSC, and the team needs to win its last two games and get some help from other teams to make the LSC postseason tournament.
ACU is eighth in the 11-team conference and needs
to finish in the top six to earn a spot in the postseason tour-nament. ACU has two more matches left in the season, and if ACU wins out and the teams ahead of them lose, ACU has a shot at making the postseason tournament.
“If we come out playing like we want it this weekend, we have a shot of winning the post season,” said head coach Casey Wilson.
The Wildcats took a 3-0 lead
in the first 17 minutes of the game after goals scored by freshman defender Ashley Si-mon, junior midfielder Jackie Gentile and Reese. But the Lady Bulldogs chipped away at the Wildcats’ early lead and dimin-ished ACU’s lead to 3-2 at half time with scores from Krystal Wright and Jessica Story.
Lady Bulldog Elyse Berta tied the game at 3-3 in the second half with a goal in the 76th min-ute off an assist from Jamie Hil-terbran. Neither team scored in regulation, and Reese kept the
Wildcats sweep past Texas Woman’s By Michael Freeman
ASSiStAnt SportS editor
Nearly 500 fans streamed over from Shotwell Stadium after the Homecoming football game to Moody Coliseum to watch the ACU volleyball team bash Texas Woman’s in three games Saturday night.
The Wildcats hit the .500 mark with the win as its record improved to 11-11 overall and 6-2 in the Lone Star Conference. The Texas Woman’s Pioneers fell to 13-10 overall and 5-4 in conference play.
“I think that our girls were ready to prove to themselves and prove to me and prove to ACU that we’re a fun team to watch,” said head coach Kellen Mock. “We’re just as fun as
watching football.”ACU defeated Texas Woman’s
in a hurry as the Wildcats took the match in only one hour and 13 min-utes. ACU won 30-13, 30-24, 30-22, and posted a team hitting percent-age of .371, while the Pioneers only hit for .067 as a team.
“It was great to play at home dur-ing Homecoming weekend and come out with a win,” Mock said.
Senior outside hitter Abbie Lowry recorded a double-double as she led the Wildcats in kills with 18, while racking up 10 digs as well. Lowry reached her double-double by re-
cording a .417 hitting-percentage. Three other Wildcats posted a hitting percentage of more than .400, includ-ing sophomore middle blocker Krys-tine Cethoute who finished with 11 kills and five assists. Middle block-ers Shawna Hines and Lauren Leone were the other players who hit over .400 as they ended the match with eight and nine kills respectively.
“Everyone was fired up to get out there,” Lowry said. “We could tell from this morning at 9 o’clock when we were at the parade that we were ready for the game.”
Hines and Leone also finished with 2.5 blocks each. ACU had nine total blocks, while Texas Woman’s
Overtime win keeps postseason in picture
By Daniel JohnsonSportS editor
Junior Loice Cheboi won her second-straight Lone Star Conference champi-onship, and junior Serge Gasore picked up his first LSC title as they both helped the women’s and men’s ACU cross country teams suc-cessfully defend their LSC titles on Saturday.
Cheboi’s time of 22:04.23 led the women to their sev-enth-straight, and Gasore’s time of 24:47.79 led the men to their 17th-straight title.
Head coach Derek Hood said the men, running with-out three-time national champion senior Nicodemus Naimadu, stepped up.
“I guess you could say that was the most rewarding part — how our team responded to not having your top run-ner there,” Hood said. “No-body panicked, and nobody was concerned about it, they just went out there and picked up the slack.”
Close behind Gasore’s title-wining time was junior Julius Nyango, who finished sec-ond with a time of 24:47.82, f r e s h m a n Amos Sang, who fin-ished third with a time of 24:50.04 and senior Phillip Bir-gen, who f i n i s h e d with a time of 24:58.65.
H o o d said he was most impressed with the per-f o r m a n c e of senior Eric Brown, who ran in Naimadu’s spot. Brown finished 13th on the 8-kilometer course
Cats continue LSC meet domination
By Daniel JohnsonSportS editor
ACU had its chances against No. 5 West Texas A&M, but the Wildcats just didn’t convert.
In a Homecoming show-down of two of the best of-fenses in the country, unbeat-en West Texas outgunned No. 21 ACU and converted when it counted most for the 41-31 win — West Texas converted
eight of their 14 third down attempts, while ACU only managed two of its 13 third-down tries.
The loss dropped ACU (6-2) from seventh to 10th in the NCAA Division II Southwest regional poll and 5-1 in Lone Star Conference play, but ACU’s playoff hopes weren’t
completely demolished. If the Wildcats win their last three games on the schedule, they still have a chance to make the top six of the poll and re-ceive a bid to the NCAA Divi-sion II playoffs.
“It hurts to lose,” said senior cornerback Corey Jordan. “But it’s the LSC; the race is never done. All we got to do is come back next week and win.”
ACU will face two teams ranked higher in the region
than the Wildcats in its last three games: fourth ranked and undefeated Tarleton State and eighth ranked Mid-western State. If ACU defeats each of the higher-ranked LSC South opponents, and non-ranked opponent Texas A&M-Kingsville, the Wildcats may make the playoffs for the sec-ond-straight season.
“Great teams always come back from losses,” Jordan said. “When you lose, it’s not over.”
In a game that was plagued with penalties — West Texas had 18 penalties for 126 yards lost, and ACU had 12 penalties for 97 yards lost — the Wildcats came within one touchdown of the Buffs until West Texas kicker Jon Rob-erts made it a two-possession game with an 18-yard field goal that gave West Texas a 10-point lead with 3:34 left
Soccer
ACU 4, SWOSU 3 (OT)
Football
WTAMU 41, ACU 31
brian schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Sophomore defensive specialist Amy Wilson digs a ball against Texas A&M-Commerce on Oct. 18.
Volleyball
ACU 3, TX WOMAN’S 0
See SWEEp page 7
See HOpES page 7
Cheboi
Cross Country
brian schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Sophomore forward Jordan Reese squeezes a pass past a Northeastern State defender on Oct. 14. Reese scored twice in ACU’s win on Sunday.
On the Web
n Check out a highlights video of No. 21 ACU’s 41-31 Homecoming loss to No. 5 West Texas A&M at:
www.acuoptimist.com
See LSC page 7
BriefsHomecoming attendance down
from last year
n The attendance at ACU’s Homecoming football game was down from 13,268 last year to 12,172 this year, according to ACUSports.com. Last year, fans showed up to see the Wildcats push its overall record to 6-0 as ACU beat Angelo State 35-7.
