The voice of Texas Wesleyan University students since 1917 The Rambler Table tennis puts another national title under its belt. Sports, page 5 Wesleyan’s music program prepares for fall concerts. A&E, page 4 WEDNESDAY September 22, 2010 Vol. 93 • No. 17 www.therambler.org Enrollment increases 15% from last year Shauna Banks [email protected]Students and faculty now have new teams to root for and more resources to take advantage of in the Texas Wesleyan community. Official enrollment num- bers were released Sept. 8, revealing a 15.8 percent in- crease from last year in new undergraduate students. Pati Alexander, vice presi- dent of enrollment and stu- dent services, said this is the sixth year in a row that Wes- leyan has increased in new student enrollment, with the main campus up by 4.2 percent this year overall. The enrollment increase has been attributed to many different factors, rang- ing from marketing to im- proved financial aid in the form of scholarships. “We also changed schol- arships this year,” Alexan- der said. “We increased our scholarships to transfer stu- dents and freshmen. I think the facilities have improved, and the fitness center is attractive to the new stu- dents.” Of the 557 new under- graduate students on cam- pus this fall, 156 are ath- letes. Some of these athletes will fill spots on athletic teams where teammates have graduated, and oth- ers make up the new cross- country and track team. Katie Cowan, junior edu- cation major and pitcher on the Wesleyan softball team, came to the university as a transfer student on an almost full athletic schol- arship, along with several other new athletes. “There are a few more transfers and freshmen,” Cowan said. “I think we are going to be really good this year. Everyone can hit. De- fense is awesome.” Associate Provost Dr. Helena Bussell said she be- lieves the new student out- reach facilities on campus, such as the freshman ad- vising center and academic success center, should also be given some credit for the increased enrollment. “I think it’s because we’re building outreach more so than we have in the past, re- ally trying to reach students and make sure they get the services they need,” Bussell said. “We want to make sure they do well once they’re here. Our academic support services area—they do a re- ally good job.” In addition to undergrad- uate student enrollment, Alexander said the univer- sity has seen an increase in freshman retention from the 2009-2010 school year. Wesleyan is currently up to 66 percent retention, mean- SGA to use iPads to reduce waste Rachel Peel [email protected]Student Government As- sociation plans to vote on purchasing iPad’s for all SGA members in the next two to three weeks in an effort to go green. e SGA members are planning to meet in two to three weeks to pass a bill concerning the use of iPads and the purchasing of lap- tops for approved students. Heath Scott, president of SGA, said if the bill passes, the SGA plans to purchase 15-20 iPads. At $499 a piece, the combined cost for 15-20 iPads ranges from $7,485 to $9,980 without tax. “is is going green,” Scott said. “We will cut out all pa- per usage, we’ll go wireless. ere is no reason why the student government of this university cannot be at the forefront of technology.” Last year SGA wasted more than 2,000 sheets of paper, Scott said. Currently Scott said he is working on pur- chasing the iPads from Apple. “Right now I’m working with Apple to maybe score a discount,” Scott said. Daniel Martinez-Torres, senior psychology major, said, “As long as the student body isn’t being affected by the iPad purchase and the students are allowed to get what they need, then I’m ok with it.” SGA will purchase the iPads out of its budget. e budget consists of 2.4 percent of the general fee paid by students. e general fee is $46 per credit hour or $610 for the block rate (12 hours or more), said Lori Logan, Certified Public Ac- countant Controller said. SGA receives more than $23,000 per semester if ev- ery student enrolled takes 12 credit hours, according to the fall enrollment numbers pro- vided by Pati Alexander, vice president of enrollment and student services, and the per- centage of student fees allot- ted for student government. As of Sept. 15, there are 1604 undergraduate stu- dents, Alexander said. Not all SGA members are on board with the decision. “I love technology as much as the next person, but I feel that we could have saved the money we would spend on iPads for something more beneficial for the students,” said Delvin Hill, sophomore criminal justice major and SGA representative. Some Wesleyan students are also concerned about the decision to purchase the iPad for SGA members. “I think it’s a pretty irre- sponsible thing to suggest, considering there are many other things in campus that need improvement,” said Georgia Johnson, junior lib- eral studies major. English professor takes language tools personal Shauna Banks [email protected]Dr. Patsy Robles-Goodwin works with future educators and bright faces from all walks of life. It is the diversi- ty among these students, and the students they will teach in the future, that she em- braces in her own teaching. Coming to Texas Wesleyan from the University of North Texas, Robles-Goodwin has been the bilingual English as a second language director for the past four years. She began her fiſth year this fall. As a professor in the School of Education, Robles- Goodwin said she strives to give her students the tools they will need to handle di- versity in the classroom once they become teachers them- selves. “I really like her,” said Morgan Yinger, ju- nior education major. “She’s definitely one of my favorite teachers because she brings a lot of her personal experience into the class and relates instead of reading out of the book.” Robles-Goodwin’s classes range from basic level to advanced theory on diver- sity and how it affects today’s educational system. She emphasizes to her stu- dents that diversity and cul- ture are not only defined by people’s skin color, but also from their social economic status, gender, age and reli- gion. “She has taught me the importance of helping the English Language Learner students,” said Rachel Mc- Clinton, senior education major. “Almost every teach- er wants to help all students, but many do not understand how to reach those students. She has given me the strate- gies to reach those students.” Growing up in Lubbock, Robles-Goodwin encoun- tered a different atmosphere where diversity was rarely acknowledged and some educators frowned upon speaking anything but Eng- lish. ese experiences have shaped the way she teaches and allowed her to use her own experiences as exam- ples in her classroom. For the past year, Robles- Goodwin has been work- ing on the first phase of her research about Latina ad- ministrators and their ex- periences. She has visited administrators across Dallas and Fort Worth to record their experiences. Robles-Goodwin’s re- search also includes study- ing optimism about every- day life among Hispanics in the third and fourth grades. Her findings, along with the findings of two other col- leagues from UNT, have al- ready been published in e Tapestry Journal. “ey deal with a lot of issues sometimes because their parents don’t have a job or their parents don’t speak English,” Robles-Goodwin said. “You know, all these things that sometimes we don’t even have to think about. When we finished our study, there was about three or four students whose scores indicated that they were on the verge of severely depressed.” Aſter a year of working on Kickoff comes up short Meisa Keivani Najafabadi | Rambler Staff Wesleyan students, faculty and staff gather to enjoy barbecue during the Wesleyan Signa- ture Student Experience Kickoff Sept. 15. Food disappeared in about 30 minutes, as event organizers had only planned for 300 people. More than 350 showed up for the free food. ENROLLMENT , page 3 ESL , page 3 “ She has given me the strategies to reach [English Language Learner] students. ” Rachel McClinton senior education major
Transcript
The voice of Texas Wesleyan University students since 1917
The RamblerTable tennis puts anothernational title under its belt.Sports, page 5
Wesleyan’s music program prepares for fall concerts.A&E, page 4
Students and faculty now have new teams to root for and more resources to take advantage of in the Texas Wesleyan community.
Official enrollment num-bers were released Sept. 8, revealing a 15.8 percent in-crease from last year in new undergraduate students.
Pati Alexander, vice presi-dent of enrollment and stu-dent services, said this is the sixth year in a row that Wes-leyan has increased in new student enrollment, with the main campus up by 4.2 percent this year overall.
The enrollment increase has been attributed to many different factors, rang-ing from marketing to im-proved financial aid in the form of scholarships.
“We also changed schol-arships this year,” Alexan-der said. “We increased our scholarships to transfer stu-dents and freshmen. I think the facilities have improved, and the fitness center is attractive to the new stu-dents.”
Of the 557 new under-graduate students on cam-pus this fall, 156 are ath-letes.
Some of these athletes will fill spots on athletic teams where teammates have graduated, and oth-ers make up the new cross-
country and track team. Katie Cowan, junior edu-
cation major and pitcher on the Wesleyan softball team, came to the university as a transfer student on an almost full athletic schol-arship, along with several other new athletes.
“There are a few more transfers and freshmen,” Cowan said. “I think we are going to be really good this year. Everyone can hit. De-fense is awesome.”
Associate Provost Dr. Helena Bussell said she be-lieves the new student out-reach facilities on campus, such as the freshman ad-vising center and academic success center, should also be given some credit for the increased enrollment.
“I think it’s because we’re building outreach more so than we have in the past, re-ally trying to reach students and make sure they get the services they need,” Bussell said. “We want to make sure they do well once they’re here. Our academic support services area—they do a re-ally good job.”
In addition to undergrad-uate student enrollment, Alexander said the univer-sity has seen an increase in freshman retention from the 2009-2010 school year. Wesleyan is currently up to 66 percent retention, mean-
Student Government As-sociation plans to vote on purchasing iPad’s for all SGA members in the next two to three weeks in an effort to go green.
The SGA members are planning to meet in two to three weeks to pass a bill concerning the use of iPads and the purchasing of lap-tops for approved students. Heath Scott, president of SGA, said if the bill passes, the SGA plans to purchase 15-20 iPads. At $499 a piece, the combined cost for 15-20 iPads ranges from $7,485 to $9,980 without tax.
“This is going green,” Scott said. “We will cut out all pa-per usage, we’ll go wireless. There is no reason why the student government of this university cannot be at the forefront of technology.”
Last year SGA wasted more
than 2,000 sheets of paper, Scott said. Currently Scott said he is working on pur-chasing the iPads from Apple.
“Right now I’m working with Apple to maybe score a discount,” Scott said.
Daniel Martinez-Torres, senior psychology major, said, “As long as the student body isn’t being affected by the iPad purchase and the students are allowed to get what they need, then I’m ok with it.”
SGA will purchase the iPads out of its budget.
The budget consists of 2.4 percent of the general fee paid by students. The general fee is $46 per credit hour or $610 for the block rate (12 hours or more), said Lori Logan, Certified Public Ac-countant Controller said.
SGA receives more than $23,000 per semester if ev-ery student enrolled takes 12 credit hours, according to the fall enrollment numbers pro-
vided by Pati Alexander, vice president of enrollment and student services, and the per-centage of student fees allot-ted for student government.
As of Sept. 15, there are 1604 undergraduate stu-dents, Alexander said.
Not all SGA members are on board with the decision.
“I love technology as much as the next person, but I feel that we could have saved the money we would spend on iPads for something more beneficial for the students,” said Delvin Hill, sophomore criminal justice major and SGA representative.
Some Wesleyan students are also concerned about the decision to purchase the iPad for SGA members.
“I think it’s a pretty irre-sponsible thing to suggest, considering there are many other things in campus that need improvement,” said Georgia Johnson, junior lib-eral studies major.
English professor takes language tools personalShauna [email protected]
Dr. Patsy Robles-Goodwin works with future educators and bright faces from all walks of life. It is the diversi-ty among these students, and the students they will teach in the future, that she em-braces in her own teaching.
Coming to Texas Wesleyan from the University of North Texas, Robles-Goodwin has been the bilingual English as a second language director for the past four years. She began her fifth year this fall.
As a professor in the School of Education, Robles-Goodwin said she strives to give her students the tools they will need to handle di-versity in the classroom once they become teachers them-selves.
“I really like her,” said Morgan Yinger, ju-nior education major. “She’s definitely one of my favorite teachers because she brings a lot of her personal experience into the class and relates instead of reading out of the book.”
Robles-Goodwin’s classes range from basic level to advanced theory on diver-sity and how it affects today’s educational system.
She emphasizes to her stu-
dents that diversity and cul-ture are not only defined by people’s skin color, but also from their social economic status, gender, age and reli-gion.
“She has taught me the importance of helping the English Language Learner students,” said Rachel Mc-Clinton, senior education major. “Almost every teach-er wants to help all students, but many do not understand how to reach those students. She has given me the strate-gies to reach those students.”
Growing up in Lubbock, Robles-Goodwin encoun-tered a different atmosphere where diversity was rarely acknowledged and some educators frowned upon speaking anything but Eng-lish.
These experiences have shaped the way she teaches and allowed her to use her own experiences as exam-ples in her classroom.
For the past year, Robles-Goodwin has been work-ing on the first phase of her
research about Latina ad-ministrators and their ex-periences. She has visited administrators across Dallas and Fort Worth to record their experiences.
Robles-Goodwin’s re-search also includes study-ing optimism about every-day life among Hispanics in the third and fourth grades. Her findings, along with the findings of two other col-leagues from UNT, have al-ready been published in The Tapestry Journal.
“They deal with a lot of issues sometimes because their parents don’t have a job or their parents don’t speak English,” Robles-Goodwin said. “You know, all these things that sometimes we don’t even have to think about. When we finished our study, there was about three or four students whose scores indicated that they were on the verge of severely depressed.”
After a year of working on
Kickoff comes up short
Meisa Keivani Najafabadi | Rambler StaffWesleyan students, faculty and staff gather to enjoy barbecue during the Wesleyan Signa-ture Student Experience Kickoff Sept. 15. Food disappeared in about 30 minutes, as event organizers had only planned for 300 people. More than 350 showed up for the free food.
ENROLLMENT, page 3
ESL, page 3
“She has given me the strategies to reach [English Language Learner] students.”
Rachel McClintonsenior education major
Opinion2 | September 22, 2010 The RambleR | www.therambler.org
What do you think about Wesleyan’s attendance policy?
Jeanette Martinez, sophomore kinesiology
“I don’t have an issue with it, but some think class
should be optional.”
Samuel Griffith, sophomore music
“It’s a hard policy, and I don’t think it’s fair, but Im going to be here every day anyway.”
Rachel Daniel, junior exercise science
“They are enforcing it more than they used to. Only the athletes get extra time off.”
Moneke Smallwood, senior exercise science
“We pay to go to school, so I don’t think they should have that policy.”
Collier Jennings, sophomore education
“I honestly think it’s fair. Miss-ing class is a waste of time and
money for all parties.”
Jonathan Resendez, editor-in-chiefBarry Grubbs, opinion editor Eliana Mijangos, sports editorChuck Fain, arts & entertainment editorDwight Conerway, college life editorMeisa Keivani Najafabadi, photo editorErica Estrada, graphic designer/cartoonistWendy Moore, faculty adviserDr. Kay Colley, faculty liaison
Member of the Texas Intercollegiate Press As-sociation, Associated Collegiate Press, Student Press Law Center, College Media Advisers and College Newspaper Business and Advertising Managers.
Opinions expressed in The RambleR are those of the individual authors only and do not neces-sarily reflect the views of the Texas Wesleyan community as a whole.
RambleR Contribution Please send all news briefs to [email protected]. Submissions due by noon Friday to see brief in the following week’s issue.
Letters to the editor: The RambleR, a weekly publication, welcomes all letters. All submis-sions must have a full printed name, phone number and signature. While every consider-ation is made to publish letters, publication is limited by time and space.The editors reserve the right to edit all submis-sions for space, grammar, clarity and style. Letters to the editor may be subject to response from editors and students on the opinion page.
“We are not afraid to follow the truth ... wherever it may lead.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Address all correspondence to:Texas Wesleyan UniversityThe RambleR1201 Wesleyan St.Fort Worth, TX [email protected] contact The RambleR
The recent report rank-ing Texas Wesleyan as a Tier I Regional Univer-sity was good news for our entire college com-munity.
Sometimes it seems like bad news is always in the shadow of good news. In this case the bad news is that Texas legislators will be faced with tough de-cisions about state fund-ing for higher education when they meet in Janu-ary.
The Texas Constitution requires that the Legisla-ture budget for no more than the amount of rev-enue that the comptroller certifies will be available.
Gov. Rick Perry and his staff have no choice but to slash the budget, and funding for Texas col-leges will likely be one of the cuts made.
Nearly every institu-tion of higher learn-ing has seen enrollment numbers soar over the past two years. If any-thing is clear, it’s the need for more state fund-ing, not less.
As students attend-ing a private school, we shouldn’t need to worry about such things. That is not necessarily true. Although state funding has a smaller impact on private schools, there is an impact. Tuition Equal-ization Grants are critical to many students attend-ing private schools.
As members of the larger community of North Texas, we should be concerned about the impact these cuts would have on the University of North Texas Health Sci-ence Center as well as other important research institutions.
If Texas makes cuts in funding for colleges and universities, we all lose momentum. The educa-tion of our population has never been more im-portant than it is right now.
The global economic down-turn is uncovering some embarrassing de-tails about this country’s standing among educat-ed societies.
We are playing catch-
up in fields such as sci-ence, engineering and even in medicine.
According to a study by the American Asso-ciation for the Advance-ment of Science, only 17 percent of Ameri-cans view U.S. scientific achievements as the best in the world. If America is going to remain at the top of the heap, our focus has to be on quality edu-cation at all levels. Fund-ing for this important re-search work has to come from the government.
Public-funded insti-tutions across the state are already making cuts and sacrifices due to budget pressures. We do not need to be reminded that tuition has recently increased at Wesleyan as much as it has at any state school.
When lawmakers come together on Jan. 11 to prepare the next budget, they will face a shortfall of more than $21 bil-lion and a constitutional mandate to balance the budget without raising taxes.
There is certainly fear among educators that funding for colleges is in the cross-hairs.
This is not the time for Texas to back off on its financial commitment to higher education. Re-duced funding will al-most certainly result in tuition increases and an overall reduction in the quality of educational programs across the state.
The economic climate in Texas, whether good or bad, will impact the quality of life for the Tex-as Wesleyan community.
Funding for higher ed-ucation is a key compo-nent in making sure we compete and succeed in these challenging times.
We have an obligation to make sure our law-makers know how im-portant this issue is to Texans.
There has never been a better time to send state lawmakers a message about the future of high-er education in Texas.
Staff Editorial
State funding for higher education must take priority
Selfish stunts offensive to all
The American people have spoken: we will not stand for moral injustice in our country.
On Sept. 11, 2010, Terry Jones, the pastor of a small Florida church, made the tough decision to call off the planned burning of the Quran. The stunt was to be held on 9/11 in remem-brance of those Americans lost nine years ago.
The events of 9/11 will forever haunt my mind. Ev-eryone will remember that day and exactly what they were doing when the two towers were attacked.
I agree we need to honor the lives lost in the attack, but the pastor’s plan was not an act of love, but of hate.
If Jones had fulfilled his plan to burn the Quran, it could have sent a negative message to other religious groups about Christians.
Just as some people posi-tion al Qaida as the face of Islam, the bad judgment of
Jones burning the Quran would have painted Christi-anity in the wrong light.
Burning any book is in-tolerable, but to burn a holy book would automatically give countries harboring ill will for America the upper hand and give further justi-fication for their disdain.
If this pastor had followed through with his plan, we would have witnessed a mo-ment in American history that we might one day re-gret.
America would not be known as the land of the free and the home of the brave, but the land of perse-cution.
Battles have been fought over religion since the dawn of time. This act would have been an act of terrorism on Islam. We would then be no better than al Qaida, an orga-nization that threatens others with its radical actions.
America was founded on freedom of religion and
freedom of speech. Al-though we have the right to burn books, that does not make the act morally correct. We should uphold the ideals and beliefs our founding fathers set before us years ago.
“Forgive us our tres-passes as we forgive those who trespass against us.” These words are from the Lord’s Prayer. Forgiveness is a decision we sometimes struggle to make, but if we are to be forgiven, we must first forgive those who have hurt us.
Prayer is the path we should take, not violence. Has violence ever solved a problem? I think not. As a country, we should respect the ideas and sacrifices of those who have come be-fore us. As a Christian, my answer is to pray for those who are lost, for those who have sacrificed so much and for our freedom.
Sept. 11 was one of the
darkest days in American history, but we should not judge those responsible, for their punishment will come when they meet their maker. We should remem-ber those of al Qaida in our prayers.
The decision to call off the burning of the Quran was a smart move on Jones’ part. Peace-loving people from around the globe should be proud of themselves for joining together to protest an act that was morally cor-rupt.
This shows me that there is still hope for the human race, and that no matter our differences of race or reli-gion, our world will one day embrace peace.
Although Islam is not my religion of choice, I believe they are peaceful people who should have a right to express their religious be-liefs without fear of perse-cution, just like the rest of us.
Attendance policy limits flexibility
Prodigies, slackers and students who have a life outside of academia are po-tential victims of an unfair attendance policy that lurks in the Wesleyan catalog.
According to the under-graduate catalog, “When a student has a number of un-authorized absences equal to the number of days the class meets per week, the student may be dropped from the class roll by the in-structor of the class.”
Technically, the rule means that a student who misses the second and sec-ond to last day of a Tues-day-Thursday class for un-authorized reasons could get dropped at the instruc-tor’s discretion.
While most instructors don’t possess the cold heart required to exact such a punishment in said scenar-io—millions of other sce-narios exist. The existence of the rule is a bigger threat than the punishment that
accompanies it. An unauthorized absence
is a failure to attend class for reasons not involving school sports, student gov-ernment, student develop-ment or fine arts.
This means students can-not cut class for music or art festivals or a lazy day with the old lady, common oc-currences for students of all ages, without potential re-percussions.
Even authorized, school-related absences are lim-ited to five for a Monday-Wednesday-Friday class, three for a Tuesday-Thurs-day class and two for a class or lab that meets once a week.
Again, no instructor is go-
ing to drop a hyper-involved student with an A average who misses class because he or she is out winning the university awards.
The unfairness caused by this scenario, however, is the bigger issue. Students thoroughly knowledgeable on a subject shouldn’t have to attend class for fear of a strict rule likely aimed at underachievers.
Likewise, the under-achievers shouldn’t have to fear losing credit hours because they didn’t attend a class as regularly as the students who will someday teach it.
If a student is guaranteed an A or only wants a C, class should be a choice—Wes-
leyan gets paid regardless. Making good grades in
a class is still possible after missing more than three or five days. Even learning, which is the point of col-lege, is still possible pro-vided a student reads and comprehensively goes over the material.
For many of us, basic knowledge over a broad range of subjects and su-perior multitasking skills make us contenders in the job market. And proper time management sometimes in-volves acquiring knowledge in ways besides listening to a person talk for 50 minutes and copying definitions out of a textbook.
I’m not condoning skip-ping class, and I have suf-fered the repercussions of truancy. And yes, most stu-dents aren’t going to learn if they don’t show up.
Still, the archaic rule can give weight to some arbi-trary disciplinary decisions.
“Peace-loving people from around the globe should be proud of themselves for joining together to protest an act that was morally corrupt.”
“This means students cannot cut class for music or art festivals or a lazy day with the old lady, com-mon occurrences for students of all ages, without potential repercussions.”
CampusThe RambleR | www.therambler.org September 22, 2010 | 3
ing 121 of those 2009-2010 freshmen returned for the 2010-2011 academic school year.
With the influx of new students, housing on cam-pus has also seen an in-crease, now at 88 percent capacity, with only 35 spots
remaining among all three residence halls.
Overall numbers, includ-ing the Texas Wesleyan School of Law and the Joint High School Enrollment program rose. The overall head count climbed from 3333 to 3378.
her first phase of research concerning Latina admin-istrators, Robles-Goodwin said she hopes to start the second phase, in which she will visit other regions of Texas.
“In this Latina research, I really wanted to capture their experiences because there’s very few of them,” Robles-Goodwin said. “I wanted to see if there was a difference in Latina admin-istrators if I went to a differ-ent part of Texas.”
When she’s not teaching
or conducting research, Ro-bles-Goodwin gets involved with the community. She is currently a part of the Ki-wanis in Fort Worth, a ser-vice-based group that guides young children.
“A lot of students think all we do is teach, but we don’t,” Robles-Goodwin said. “Teach is just one-third of what we do. One of the other thirds is we have to do a lot of service with the commu-nity. That’s what I love about Kiwanis. Kiwanis is all about helping kids.”
Lisa Scott, developmental math instructor, loves to teach.
Scott has taught at Wesleyan for three years but has taught math for a total of 14 years.
“I taught high school for five years, then I was a stay at home mom 12 years to raise my three boys,” Scott said. “High school teaching is much harder than college teaching. I also spent about 10 years tutoring out of my house.”
Scott said she understands that math does not come easily to a lot of students. She realizes that most stu-dents are sensory learners, they have to learn by three of the five senses: visual, auditory and touch.
“After working with kids indi-vidually for so long, I think they all have kind of the same problem with math,” Scott said. “Most kids that struggle with math, it’s because they’re visual learners. Algebra is not something most teachers teach as vi-sual. It’s just—here’s a series of steps, just do them.”
Scott developed methods that help sensory learners while she was an at-home tutor. The methods have shown positive results.
“She’s really interactive in her
teaching,” said Ray Cox, senior crim-inal justice major. “[She’s] very hands on and understanding that not all of us are gifted in math. She has a spe-cial talent at helping you understand
the different math problems.”Scott said she tries to cover ev-
ery type of learning style every day, while also leaving time for hands-on work with the students.
“I think that’s what makes it suc-cessful,” Scott said. “In developmen-tal math, each student has different issues, so I try to take the time to ad-dress each person individually.”
Melody Bell-Fowler, student sup-port programs and services director, said when she first interviewed Scott, she liked the way Scott talked about math and understood the struggles students go through.
“I have students that will come to me begging for me to sign an over-ride so they can have her,” Fowler said. “But our classrooms are not large enough. It also wouldn’t be fair to her because she would not be able to give the personal atten-tion that she so loves to do. I have had students tell me, ‘I never under-stood math until Mrs. Scott taught me.’”
Giovanni Monsanto, sophomore political science and criminal justice double major, said paying attention in Scott’s class is key, everything else follows suit.
“She’s very good at explaining the processes of the formulas to where it’s broken down simple enough for the class, as a whole, to understand,” he said.
Scott said she loves Wesleyan be-cause she is able to take the time nec-essary with each individual student. Wesleyan enabled her to rework the course so that everyone understands the concepts of the course before the class moves on to the next topic, she said.
Meisa Keivani Najafabadi | Rambler StaffInstructor Lisa Scott helps two of her developmental math students, LaDedrick Minnifield (L), liberal studies major, and Derrick Roussell (R), exercise science major, with math exercises during class.
Texas Wesleyan Presents
• September26
at10:30a.m
.
• October1at7:30p.m.
Wesleyan Sunday
Fall President’s Council Kickoff and
Music Scholarship Benefit Concert
PolytechnicU
nitedMethod
ist
Church
MartinHall
For more information, visit The Music Department at http://www.txwes.edu/music/
music/index.htm or call 817.531.4992
• October8at7
:30p.m.
Guitar Fort Worth: Classical Series @
Wesleyan
MartinHall
Religious Life at Texas Wesleyan
Live music with brief time of worship Tuesdays at 12:15 in PUMC Chapel Free lunch after on PUMC 3rd Floor – Room 312
Free lunch and discussion/dialogue Thursdays at 12:15 in PUMC Chapel PUMC 3rd Floor – Room 312
“Faith seeking understanding” – ALL are welcome!
For info: http://www.txwes.edu/religiouslife/index.htm
University Chapel:
Common Meal:
However you want to study, we have a place for you.
West Library Hours:Monday through Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.Friday 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.Saturday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.Sunday 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Group Individually817-336-HANG • www.hangmans.com
Student Nights!September 24 & 25
Extra $1-Off COMBO Ticket with Student I.D.
happy horror days
Open Every Fri & Sat, Sept 17-Oct 30
Plus Sundays Oct 24 & 31And Wed-Thurs Oct 27-28
7 pm til 12 am Fri’s & Sat’s til 10 pm all other nights
I-30 & Forest Park BlvdOne mile west of
downtown Fort Worth
Jessica GillotteDaily Californian, U. California-Berkeley via UWIRE
A drug currently used to lessen the effects of Alzheim-er’s disease may soon be able to aid healthy adults in per-ceptual learning, according to a study by U. California-Berkeley researchers.
In the study, published Sept. 16 in the science journal Current Biology, UC Berke-ley researchers Michael Sil-ver and Ariel Rokem found a link between the use of the Alzheimer’s drug donepezil and improved attention and memory in adults not affect-ed by the disease while the subjects performed a specific task.
Donepezil, a drug often prescribed to Alzheimer’s pa-
tients, raises the level of one of the brain’s signaling mol-ecules – called acetylcholine – by destroying the enzyme that inhibits its longevity.
“Acetylcholine is involved in many different processes in the brain including volun-tarily devoting focused atten-tion to a particular portion of the visual field when you know something important might appear in that loca-tion,” Rokem, a postdoctoral fellow at the campus Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and lead author of the study, said in an e-mail.
Twelve subjects partici-pated in the study, which had them take a 5-milligram dose of the drug during the first round of five-day courses and a placebo during the second round about two weeks later.
After each round of courses, the subjects took a test that measured perceptual learning by reporting whether two se-quentially presented fields of moving dots were proceeding in the same direction.
“Perceptual learning is the ability to get better at a par-ticular perceptual discrimi-
nation with practice,” Silver, an assistant professor at the School of Optometry and the Helen Wills Neurosci-ence Institute and the study’s principle investigator, said in an e-mail. “With practice, anyone can improve their ability for a given perceptual discrimination, but in our
experiments, subjects taking donepezil during practice show about twice as much improvement in perceptual ability compared to subjects practicing under placebo.”
Silver noted that the study only revealed an improve-ment in attention in the specific task that the sub-jects were given, and more research is needed to de-termine whether the drug would enhance performance in other tasks.
“One analogy is a fruit in-spector who becomes very good at discriminating small differences in the colors of red apples,” Silver said in the e-mail. “This perceptual learning for color discrimi-nation of red may not gener-alize to discriminating colors of green apples.”
Although the effects of donepezil are very beneficial to specific tasks involving vi-sual perception, Silver notes that “it is far too early to say how donepezil may be used in the general population in the future.”
According to Aaron Seitz, UC Riverside assistant pro-fessor of psychology, this is the first study to make a di-rect link between acetylcho-line and visual perceptual learning in humans.
“This research shows promise,” he said in an e-mail.
Read more here: http://w w w. d a i l y c a l . o r g / a r t i -cle/110398/alzheimer_s_drug_may_enhance_learn-ing.Copyright 2010 Daily Califor-nian
Alzheimer’s drug may enhance learning“In our experiments, subjects taking donepezil during practice show about twice as much improvement in percep-tual ability compared to subjects prac-ticing under placebo.”
Michael Silverassistant professor, School of Optometry
and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute
Arts & Entertainment4 | September 22, 2010 The RambleR | www.therambler.org
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Music will soon fill the air on Wesleyan’s campus.
Wesleyan Sunday and the Fall President’s Kickoff and Music Scholarship Benefit Concert are just around the corner.
Wesleyan Sunday is set for 10:30 a.m. Sept. 26 atPolytech-nic United Methodist Church.
It has been a staple of the Wesleyan and Polytechnic
community for more than 100 years, said Frank Leach, retired pastor of Polytechnic United Methodist Church.
Dr. John Fisher, professor of music and department chair, said, “Wesleyan Sunday is a day where Texas Wesleyan and Polytechnic Church get together to celebrate their rela-tionship and history.”
The Fall President’s Kickoff and Music Scholarship Ben-efit Concert is set for 7:30 p.m. Oct. 1 in Martin Hall.
This year Adoramus Cham-ber Choir, a 25-voice ensemble from First United Methodist Church, is scheduled to ap-pear.
“The fall concert is kind of a kick-off to bring donors back to campus, but we invite anyone and everyone,” said Joan Canty, associate vice president for university ad-vancement.
Adoramus is renowned for its interpretations of choral music and is directed by Mark
Burrows, director of music and fine arts at First United Methodist Church.
“We’re very excited about having this particular choir. Dr. Lamar Smith, our interim president, was able to secure them from his home church,” said Gina Phillips, director of development and alumni relations. “This is one of our favorite events, and it’s always very well attended. It’s a won-derful event, and we encour-age everyone to come.”
Wesleyan music takes the stage
Angie Ruiz | Rambler StaffTexas Wesleyan Chamber Singers, directed by Jerome M. Bierschenk, rehearses music on stage at Martin Hall. The group will perform at Wesleyan Sunday Sept. 26.
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SportsThe RambleR | www.therambler.org September 22, 2010 | 5
Texas Wesleyan table ten-nis once again took a Na-tional Title in the 2010 Col-legiate Table Tennis National Tournament, giving them 38 of 52 national championships in the past eight years.
The Rams opened up their season this year by hosting an open tournament the week-end of Sept. 18.
Competitors were sent to Wisconsin for the Badger Open the weekend of Sept.
18-20, where head coach Jasna Rather said she hopes to promote the program and prepare her players for the feel of collegiate events.
“Recruiting is a very im-portant part of what we do,” Rather said.
Table tennis consists of both a varsity and junior var-sity team. Both teams prac-tice together and participate in stamina and reflex training as well as short- and long-dis-tance running.
“There’s good competition at practice so it makes you
get better,” said Jose Barbosa, sophomore transfer from Lindenwood University. Lin-denwood was runner up to Wesleyan in last year’s Na-tional Championship.
Barbosa is one of this year’s players to watch, Rather said. He brings with him a two-time Brazilian Champion-ship in singles, a two-time Latino Team Championship and a doubles win in last year’s national championship.
Rather said another player to watch is Diego Walsh, freshman business major
from El Salvador. Young in age but not experience, Walsh said he came to the Wesleyan team with a Junior Champi-onship win in the 2009 El Sal-vador National Tournament and was part of the Latin American National team.
“I am really excited to see how I perform for the Wes-leyan team and on a colle-giate level,” Walsh said.
Wesleyan has another op-portunity to do well this sea-son, Rather said.
From a Gopher to a Ram to a Colt, Matt Chutchian has moved up the competitive base-ball ladder in his high school, college and now professional career.
After playing baseball for the Grand Prairie High School Go-phers, Chutchian was recruited by coach Mike Jeffcoat at Texas Wesleyan. He spent five years as a business management ma-jor, playing baseball for four of them.
Chutchian came to Wesleyan on an athletic and academic scholarship, recruited by Jef-fcoat off of a recommendation from Chutchian’s high school coach. Although he started as an outfielder for the Rams, Chutchchian soon moved to relief pitcher.
“The first couple of years I didn’t play that much,” Chut-chian said. “The last two years were awesome. I was our team’s closer. Whenever they needed someone to get someone out, I came in.”
Jeffcoat was the head coach for Chutchian’s entire time at Wesleyan, where his pitching skills were further advanced and honed.
“I think Jeffcoat is a very smart coach,” Chutchian said. “He’s been around, and he al-ways asks a lot of questions so he can learn himself. With all those questions, he’s actually teaching us.”
During his senior year with the Rams, Chutchian signed with the San Angelo Colts. He played with the Colts for two months this past summer after graduating from Wesleyan, ex-periencing the professional end
of baseball. “I loved it. It was kind of like
a dream come true,” Chutchian said. “That’s what I was working towards, playing pro ball, and I finally got there.”
Jeffcoat said in addition to Chutchian, last year’s team ended up having five other players who signed with profes-sional baseball teams, including Hayden Lackey, Ryan Reyn-olds, Jerry Fisher, Mikey Horn and Adam Resendez. The base-ball program has had 19 players total within the past four years who signed with pro teams.
“They were an integral part of our team’s success the last couple of years,” said Kevin Millikan, athletic director. “They achieved great things and helped set the expectations higher for the players that fol-low them, in terms of individual and team performance.”
Both Jeffcoat and Millikan have worked with the scholar-ship money available for this year to recruit new players for the upcoming season. Jeffcoat said he thinks they may now have the best team yet.
“Any time you lose such a talented group of seniors, there is an opportunity for others to step up and fill that role,” Mil-likan said. “Coach Mike Jeffcoat has done a great job recruiting and developing players to fill the gaps left vacant by guys like Chutchian and Horn, and I ex-pect that our winning tradition will continue, with sights set on the NAIA College World Series in 2011.”
Chutchian is currently living in the Arlington area, looking to work in the sports industry and hoping to play baseball again in late spring and sum-mer next year.
TWU table tennis picks up where they left off
Jonathan Resendez| Rambler StaffSarah Hazinski practices for singles competition at the Badger Open in Wisconsin Sept. 18-20.
Ian Leggat and Danny Mijovic, former Texas Wes-leyan golf players, will join the ranks of the National Association of Intercol-legiate Athletics Hall of Fame at this year’s NAIA
National Golf Champion-ship.
“This will mark the first time since 1994 that some-one from Wesleyan has been inducted into the hall of fame,” said athletic di-rector Kevin Millikan.
Leggat transfered to Wes-leyan his sophomore year,
majoring in sports man-agement.
Graduating in 1989, Leg-gat took with him two All-American awards on top of his numerous collegiate tournament wins.
Leggat finished second in the 1999 National Gold tournament to his team-mate Danny Mijovic.
Mijovic, a four-year busi-ness administration major, was the only one in NAIA or NCAA to win the na-tional championship four years in a row, Millikan said.
He also won nine colle-giate tournaments and was a four-time All-American in the NAIA national tour-nament.
“Danny had an excellent work ethic,” said head golf coach Bobby Cornett, “at the same time, I don’t know that anyone has worked harder than Ian since I’ve been a part of the program.”
These two Canadians
continued their golfing ca-reers winning various PGA Tours, Cornett said.
Mijovic, currently 49, is now preparing for a PGA champions tournament.
Leggate recently gave up his golf clubs and took a job as a sport agent where he travels between South Carolina and Fort Worth,
Cornett said.“Both Canadians brought
some really good attention to our program,” Cornett said.
Mijovic and Leggat will be inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame at the Nation-al Golf Championship in Silvas, Ill.
Mijovic and Leggat will
both receive awards and are set to give speeches at the function.
“This is something that should have happened a long time ago,” Cornett said. “It’ll be great to see these men interact with the college athletes there and share some of their knowl-edge.”
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Located in Brown Lupton North Wing Monday-Friday 8:00am-7:00pm 817.531.6512
College Life6 | September 22, 2010 The RambleR | www.therambler.org
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Meisa Keivani Najafabadi | Rambler Staff(Top left) History alumnus Len Krieger drove from Houston to serve as master of ceremonies for Friday night’s event. (Bottom left) Sophomore computer science major David Rai sits on the mall with junior accounting major Prash Gurung before the performance. (Above) Music performance major Antonio Walker accompanies junior computer science major Rantanya Smith on guitar while she belts out a tune in preparation for the concert.
Music at the Mall
Wesleyan community takes an evening to watch fellow talent
