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WALL ST.
CAMPUSCT
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication :: Abilene Christian University :: Serving the ACU community since 1912
acU weaTHeR
Friday SaturdayHigh: 85 Low: 65
Sunday
High: 82Low: 65
High: 82Low: 64
Online Poll : Are you worried by the economic
downturn?a. Yes. I watch the stocks daily.b. No. It will work itself out.c. Yes. I’m ready for Depression II.d. What economic downturn?
acuoptimist.com
Pg 4InsideThis Issue:
No. 3 Wildcats looking to remain undefeated this weekend
Male student dresses as Kojie pledge, fools handful of gullible students
‘World Famous Bean’ tightens security after students sneak by
Pg 4 Pg 8
Optimistthe
a product of theJMC network
Pg. 5 Sex, Love and Rock ‘n’ Roll: Movie mixes messageFriday, October 10, 2008 :: Vol. 97, No. 15 :: 1 section, 8 pages :: www.acuoptimist.com
More from the Log onto www.acuoptimist.com or www.you-tube.com/acuvideo to see weekly News casts and Sports casts from the JMC Network News Team and videos profiling various events and
stories around campus and Abilene.
Obama adviser talks religion, politicsBy Daniel Johnson-KimEditor in Chief
Dr. Shaun Casey, senior reli-gious adviser for presidential can-didate Sen. Barack Obama, urged ACU students throughout the day Thursday to rethink the Chris-tian’s role in politics — Christians must participate in the political process, he argued.
Casey, an ACU alumnus and associate professor of Chris-tian Ethics at Wesley School of Seminary outside Washington, D.C., came to ACU and spoke to numerous classes, at a lun-
cheon and at a Chapel forum ti-tled, “Rendering to Caesar: Chris-tians in American Public Life.”
Casey began working for Obama in July as part of his faith outreach staff — an effort by the Democrat-ic ticket to take evangelical voters and their influence on the race seriously. He has traveled across the country to talk to evangeli-
cal voters about Obama’s policies and how they may appeal to some evangelicals.
He received his bachelor’s de-gree from ACU in 1979 and has three graduate degrees from Har-vard University — a Master of Di-vinity, Doctorate of Theology and Master of Public Administration.
“If you’re interested in politics, religion and the media, you are liv-ing through the most interesting period in my lifetime as well as in your lifetime,” Casey said.
Casey repeated throughout the day that polls show issues evan-gelicals care about are no longer
limited to the “hot button” issues of abortion and same-sex marriage that have defined the evangelicals’ party affiliations in the past de-cades. Instead some evangelicals, specifically younger believers, are shifting their focus to issues like poverty and global climate change. And Casey argued the Democratic Party offers policies that some view can help affect those issues.
“The old caricature of evangeli-cal voters is they only are about two issues; it’s all about abortion and it’s all about same-sex marriage,”
By Michael FreemanManaging Editor
The U.S. stock market has ridden a roller coaster of ups and downs in the past year — from the record-high Dow Jones industrial average closing price of 14,198.10 last October to the 777-point drop Sept. 29, the worst sin-gle-day drop ever. The recent turmoil on Wall Street has not only been felt lo-cally, but globally.
“The stock market primarily is strug-gling now because of fear,” said Terry Pope, professor of finance and associate dean of the College of Business Adminis-tration. “And what we’re experiencing is going on all over the world.”
The current market crisis was sparked by housing loans made to people who could not afford to pay off the loans.
The federal government has tried to rectify the crisis with the passage of the $700 billion bailout Oct. 3, and is planning to loan money to struggling corporations and banks.
“It has certainly been a very difficult period with some unprecedented chang-es in the market,” said Jack Rich, senior vice president and chief investment offi-cer. “There’s clearly a substantial amount of stress in the system right now, and nobody really understands how that will play out.”
ACU students could feel the results of a troubled market in a variety of ways, but family savings accounts and unemployment rates would be two of the most prominent effects, Pope said. The national unemployment rate is currently at 6.1 percent, up from 4.7
percent just one year ago, according to the Associated Press. For graduating students, this means it will be more dif-ficult to find a job.
“There will be jobs out there; you will have to work harder to find them,” Pope said.
The ACU Endowment also may feel the effects of the stock market.
Six chosen to host ’09 Sing Song showBy Laura AcuffOpinion Page Editor
After the second round of Sing Song host auditions, se-nior Donovan Plummer knew he had botched it. He e-mailed his accompanist, thanking him for his help. Then Plum-mer waited on the phone call to make his rejection official.
“I was probably about 99 percent sure I did not make it and I had accepted that,” said Plummer, communica-tion major from Mesquite. “I was just waiting to really hear it and to get on with my life. I didn’t try out with the intention of this making or breaking me. I was like, ‘well, that was fun, but I’m clearly not Sing Song material.’”
The phone call never came, and Plummer had to e-mail his accompanist again, this time for helping him earn a spot among this year’s six Sing Song hosts and hostesses.
Along with Plummer, Coy Greathouse, Adrienne Linge, Jessica Patterson, Jennifer Rasco and Sam Souder all made the cut in a two-part audition process that includ-ed vocal performances, sight-reading and choreography, said Tom Craig, Sing Song’s managing director. Judges evaluated individual perfor-mances as well as group dy-namics, looking for a group of five to seven students who performed well together.
“The hosts and hostesses are a very talented group,” Craig said. “It’s always exciting
to see the talent that we have on campus. This group is no exception. They are extremely talented in very many differ-ent ways, and that will be the exciting part of Sing Song this year, to see how that talent comes to life onstage.”
While Sing Song began in 1956 with an emcee, hosts and hostesses were soon inte-grated because of their added entertainment factor, Craig said. They serve to provide additional amusement for au-diences by singing with cho-reography for exactly three minutes between each act, al-lowing each competing group the same amount of time to transition onstage.
“Very quickly, the host and hostess numbers grew into a very exciting part of the show in and of itself,” Craig said. “They create the atmosphere for the show. They help de-velop the theme for the show. They create a package that has grown into a big Sing Song tradition.”
By Tanner AndersonPage Designer
While a mass of students were on their nightly sojourn to University Church for an-other Wednesday night ser-vice, 10 other women started their own journey inside the Alumni Relations office.
At 9 p.m. Wednesday, the ACU women were escorted to the alumni office and hud-dled around a table, wearing purple blindfolds to start the Homecoming Queen nominee
“kidnapping” ritual. Some of the nominees were retrieved from pledging activities and other areas around campus.
“It’s definitely an honor; I don’t feel like I should be nominated because there are so many great girls,” said Sar-ah Sparks, senior marketing major from Memphis, Tenn.
“I looked around the table after they took the blindfolds off, and it was exciting to see the other nominees,” Sparks said. “We’re all pretty good friends, and it was fun to think
that 10 years from now we’ll be able to do this again.”
Friday during Chapel all of the nominees will sit on the floor in the front row seats in Moody Coliseum and admin-istration will introduce them to the student body.
Now that students have selected this year’s nomi-nees, voting for Homecoming Queen will begin Oct. 15-17. The Queen will be crowned during halftime at this year’s
Jozie Sands :: staff photographer
Dr. Shaun Casey, senior religous adviser for Sen. Barack Obama, speaks with students during a lun-cheon in the Mabee Library Auditorium Thursday.
From
Weak economy may impact ACU community
Nominees kidnapped, elections to begin Oct. 15
See Host page 4
Zak Zeinert :: chief photographer
Sydney North, senior marketing major from Bedford, Sarah Sparks, senior mar-keting major from Overland Park, Kan., and Valerie Walker, senior management major from Sulphur Springs, laugh during their kidnapping Wednesday night.
See Adviser page 7
Only One can win
Ten women were chosen to be on the 2008 Homecoming Court
n Hayden Hueyn Kylie Jenningsn Sarah Lanen Suzanne Langstonn Sydney Northn Anna Petersn Jennifer Rascon Sarah Sparksn Jamie Lyn Spiresn Valerie Walker acuoptimist.com: See footage of the Homecoming Court kidnapping
acuoptimist.com
See a video of Dr. Shaun Casey’s visit to campus and
Chapel forum
See Economy page 4
See Court page 4
Abilene
New York City
ToI was probably about 99 percent sure I did not make it and I had accepted that.:: Donovan Plummer, communication
major from Mesquite
“
”
Across the Universe will play at the Paramount Theatre Friday from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The cost is $5 for students.
Wellness Week invites students to come relax and have a good time with inflatables in the mall area outside Moody Coliseum Friday. The day will feature an inflatable rockwall and inflatable boxing for students to enjoy.
The Office of Multicultural Enrichment will present a runway
celebration highlighting the hottest looks of all seasons in Ajisai. Four Seasons, an Asian fashion show, features styles from Japanese designer CoCoLuLu and other Asian designers. The event will be in the Teague Special Events Center Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. in collaboration with National Breast Cancer Awareness Month to celebrate fashion and fight for the cure. Admission is free, but donations are welcomed. For more information, please contact the
OME office at 674-2067, Mallorie Frank at (214) 208-0364 or by e-mail at [email protected].
FilmFest Interest Meeting Thursday, Oct. 9 at 5:30 pm in the Living Room of the Campus Center.They will discuss important information about the upcoming workshops and spring competition guidelines.
Public Exhibition Program is Paramount Theatre’s internationally recognized short film competition
for student and independent filmmakers. It will present the 2008 Official Selection Films on Oct. 24 at 7 :30 p.m. For more infomration, call 676-9620 or visit http://www.paramount-abilene.org.
Essence of Ebony will present “Verbal Balance” in Cullen Auditorium on Oct. 16 at 7 p.m.
1 p.m.ACU Soccer at NE Oklahoma
7:30 p.m.Across the Universe at the Paramount Theatre
Wellness Week
Ghost Tours shares ghostly tales relating to the history of the Buffalo Gap Historic Village lynchings, death and decay. Call 572-3365 for more information.
6 p.m.Dodge RAM-bunctious Friday Night! at the Abilene Dragstrip
Wellness Week
Service Saturday
Downtown Dayz promotes outdoor music, sidewalk sales, working artists, walking history tours and more. Call 672-9696 for more information.
Wildcat Preview Day
7 a.m.Prayer at Jacob’s Dream
8 a.m.ACU Golf at the Territory Classic
7:30 p.m.Across the Universe at the Paramount Theatre
Calendar and Events
Volunteer Opportunities
Announcements
Sunday10
Friday Saturday Monday
St. John’s Episcopal School needs volunteers at various times from Oct. 20 to Oct. 26 to help set up, run booths and tear down its carnival.
The annual G. V. Daniels Recre-ation Center Fall Festival needs volunteers Oct. 31 from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Volunteers will as-sist with game booths and hand out candy to kids. Appropriate costumes are allowed.
The ACU Alumni Office needs volunteers to help with various aspects of the Homecoming Carnival Oct. 24 from 4:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. or 6:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. Help is needed to control the inflatables, paint faces, hand out candy or walk around in Elvis costumes. ACU’s radio station KACU-FM is seeking volunteers to act as ushers Oct. 18 for the Prairie Home Companion performance in Moody Coliseum. Help is needed from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Rose Park Recreation Center needs volunteers for its Hallow-een Carnival Oct. 31 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. This will be a safe al-ternative for trick or treaters, and volunteers are needed to operate booths and pass out candy.
Service Saturday will allow stu-dents to sign up in the Campus Center after Chapel on Friday for the next service day. A number of sites will be available.
The Grace Museum is always in need of volunteers. Volunteers play a vital role in the daily oper-ation of the museum. The minute visitors walk through the door, the experience in the museum relies on capable and trained volunteers. For more information
about volunteer opportunities at The Grace, please call 673-4587.
The Center for Contemporary Arts needs volunteers to greet patrons, answer phones and help with gallery shows. Three hour shifts are offered every Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and/or 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The gallery is located on 220 Cy-press St. in downtown Abilene. For more information, contact-Saybra Giles at 677-8389 or check out the organization online at http://www.center-arts.com/
Abilene Hope Haven, Inc. needs volunteers to baby-sit while parents are in a class. Volunteers can help any Monday through Thursday from 6:45 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. The company is located at 801 S. Treadaway Blvd. For more information, contact Christine Spillers at 437-0611.
House of Faith needs volunteers to participate in the after school Backyard Bible Club Tuesdays, Wednesdays and/or Thursdays for elementary children. Also, it needs assistance with its new Thursday Xodus program for middle school kids. Call and ask for different club locations. Contact Denise Davidson at 370-3642.
Find out volunteer opportuni-ties by visiting the Volunteer and Service-Learning Center’s Web site at www.acu.edu/vslc and clicking on Volunteer Opportu-nities. For more information or to sign up to help, contact the Volunteer and Service-Learning Center in the Bean Sprout.
CreditedChapelsto date:
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This week’s newscast highlights the week-end’s soccer game, football game, tennis matches and cross country meet.
Log on to www.youtube.com/acuvideo for a deeper look into Kasey Pipes’ forum and the TOMS “Style Your Sole” perfor-mance.
Online Newscast Webcast
Non-profit organizations benefit from social clubs’ fundraisersBy Katie HoffmanStudent Reporter
Social Clubs are begin-ning the fundraising season not only to fund their own personal activities, but also for the benefit of non-profit organizations.
Sigma Theta Chi spon-sored a Pilates class Sept. 27 to raise money for breast cancer research, while Al-pha Kai Omega’s candy sales and Frater Sodalis’ annual haunted house will both start in the next few weeks.
Gamma Sigma Phi also is actively engaged in fund-raising efforts.
Eric Gentry, president of Gamma Sigma Phi, Brad Miller and Conner Holstead, service activities coordina-tors, said GSP is a service leader in the ACU commu-nity. Every other year the members sponsor a service project. Last year, the club had a fundraiser for the Os-teogenesis Imperfecta Foun-dation to help the cause
of Mark Phillips, a faculty member whose son suffers from this brittle bone dis-ease. Working as a team, they mailed letters and e-mails asking for people to sponsor the club members as they played volleyball for eight hours straight at the end of the year. GSP raised $16,200 for the cause.
Although this year is not a year for a large-scale fundraiser for GSP, some provisional members are traveling to a church plant in Odessa that is meeting in a country club and needs work. The project, like all their activities, will encour-age friendship among the members while helping a cause bigger than the club or even ACU.
Gentry said club service is not an administrative mandate, yet these young men of God choose to serve “because [they] think it is an important part of being a Christian brotherhood;” ser-vice learning and leadership always will be a part of this
club’s holistic experience.Galaxy also is dedicated
to service and it too strives to impact the lives and hearts of the community through fundraisers that provide huge monetary sup-port to individuals. Galaxy sponsored the Kirk Good-win 5k Run every year since 1982 as a means of raising money to provide scholar-ships to students and their families who, due to medi-cal bills, have trouble nego-tiating college tuition.
Luke Cochran, Kirk Good-win run director for Galaxy, said the run is open to all students, faculty, staff and even Abilenians. Last year the club raised $11,000 for a student who could not remain in school without monetary help after the stu-dent’s mom passed away. Although the run started in 1982 out of remembrance and dedication to Kirk Goodwin, a first-year pledge who had died tragically in a car accident while driv-ing home to Dallas, the club
continues the legacy thanks to the support of his family, who still remain involved. For the last three years, the family attended the run. Taylor Sturgis, president of Galaxy, said both club and family are thankful for each other’s support.
The fundraising run be-gins in front of the Adminis-tration Building and snakes through the surrounding neighborhoods. Entry for the race costs $10, which in-cludes the popular T-shirt.
Last year’s turnout was around 300 people. Al-though this year’s run is still in the planning stages, the club is mailing contact letters to alumni and local and national businesses, asking for donations for prizes and scholarships. The event probably will take place April 4, but the date is subject to change.
E-mail Hoffman at: [email protected]
About This PageThe Optimist maintains
this calendar for the ACU community to keep track of local social, academic and service opportunities.
Groups may send announcements directly to [email protected] or to the Page 2 Editor at [email protected].
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.
Friday, October 10, 2008 Page 3CAMPUS NEWS
Student art provides nourishment for needy childrenBy Chelsea HackneyStudent Reporter
During Summit, about thirty students participated in the Empty Bowls Project, creating ceramic and iron pieces to be sold at an auction for charity.
The project was the first time the Department of Art and Design attempted such an event. Jack Maxwell, chair of the department, said the night was somewhat disorganized and rushed.
“So much work goes into these pieces; people that haven’t done it have a hard time understanding how hard it is,” he said.
Some of the clay pieces were not finished until the morning of the auction itself.
“You could hear the pieces pop at the auction because
they were still cooling,” Max-well said.
He also said the event gar-nered much more attention than anyone expected, since it was not highly publicized.
Geoffrey Broderick, the pro-fessor in charge of the iron pour, said, “Most people didn’t even know about the iron pour, but they saw what was happen-ing and came over to see what was going on.”
After that, word began to spread. Maxwell said he re-ceived calls all afternoon on Wednesday, asking about the auction.
With the large number of visitors on campus, the event received a lot of at-tention. Most of the visitors were either on campus for Summit or members of the Abilene community.
Despite the rush to complete everything, the auction was a great success; people were very interested in the pieces, Max-well said, “because of the beau-ty of the work but also because it was for a good cause.”
Every piece was sold, some for as much as $200, and a total $1,563 was raised and donated to the Food Bank of West Cen-tral Texas.
The donations will be used to provide supplies for several programs, according to the Web site for the Food Bank. Besides weekly and monthly food dis-tributions, the Food Bank also runs a Kid’s Café, which pro-vides dinner Monday through Friday for underprivileged children who most likely will not receive it at home, as well as the Backpacks for Kids pro-gram, providing food for the
weekend in ordinary backpacks for at-risk elementary school students.
Maxwell and Broderick both said they hoped to host events like this in the future, possibly even influencing other artists to get involved with charities by bringing them to campus or taking ACU students to events around the country. Broderick said projects like this can cre-ate a ripple effect, inspiring stu-dents and other artists to look for ways in which they can use their gifts to serve others while still having fun.
“We provide the connec-tion,” Maxwell said. “We can make a tremendous difference in the world.”
Zak Zeinert :: chief photographer
Students use traditional cupola furnace techniques to make iron bowls.
E-mail Johnson-Kim at: [email protected]
SA members seek change with bikes, books and fundraisersBy Daniel JohnsonEditor in Chief
Students may soon see ben-efits coming their way as two Students’ Association Con-gress members announced Wednesday their plans to im-plement changes at ACU.
Aaron Escobedo, educa-tion building rep., and Kyle Moore, off-campus rep., both explained to Congress how they were researching and net-working with ACU staff mem-bers to bring benefits to ACU students – Escobedo hopes to encourage ACU to implement a bicycle renting program, and Moore hopes to extend the Brown Library hours during fi-nals week and the week before finals week.
Both Congress members ex-plained their research and goals to the SA Congress at Wednes-day’s SA meeting in Hart Au-
ditorium and both expressed how their initiatives would aid students on campus.
“We’re seriously looking into this; we’re really trying to make this work,” Escobedo told Congress.
Escobedo said he was co-operating with Anthony Wil-liams, director of retail and campus store manager, to ex-amine other universities’ bicy-cle rental programs. He said he would like to see a program for which, ideally, ACU purchases bicycles that students could rent by charging it to their student account. Although Escobedo conceded there was much work and analysis still needed to be done – taking trips to other Texas universi-ties and surveying the student body on the program – he add-ed he was optimistic about the program’s benefit of provid-ing students with alternative
modes of transportation to curb rising fuel prices.
“I’ve talked to some stu-dents that said, ‘Yeah,’ and I’ve talked to others that say, ‘I already have a bike,’” Es-cobedo said. “It’s about gaug-ing students’ response.”
Moore said he was work-ing with Mark Tucker, dean of library and information resources, to extend the li-brary hours by three hours during the final two weeks of the semester. Moore argued extending the hours these two weeks, weeks he believed students used the library the most, would be invaluable to the student body.
But Moore expressed con-cern and explained that de-spite Tucker’s eagerness to participate, SA must help find students willing to work those extra hours the library would be open.
“If they can’t do that, it’s not going to happen,” Moore said.
Also at the meeting, two representatives of the ACU campaign to raise funds to donate to the United Way of Abilene – a nonprofit or-ganization that collects and yearly distributes more than $2 million to various Abilene nonprofits – appeared before Congress to ask how to in-volve students in their goal to raise more than $50,000 for the United Way.
Samantha Manski, assistant director of the Volunteer and Service-Learning Center, and Chris Sargent, foundation of-ficer for the ACU Foundation, urged SA to help them find a way students could partici-pate in the fundraising effort. Sargent suggested a one-time event that would happen in the month of November.
“We want to keep it sim-
ple and preferably a one-shot kind of deal,” Sargent told Congress.
Other issues Congress discussed in Wednesday’s meeting:
n Sing Song Co-Chairs Pres-ton Woolfolk, junior inter-national studies major from San Antonio, and Charrelle Coates, senior biochemistry major from Clarksville, Ten., discussed Class Senators’ role in choosing Class Directors for Sing Song 2009 Class Acts. Senators will nominate can-didates from their class who will be then be interviewed
and chosen by the Sing Song production staff.
n Research and Develop-ment Committee updated on the discussions with adminis-tration on how to increase re-cycling options on campus.
n Internal Affairs Com-mittee discussed work on amending the process SA uses to examines requests for money from the Student Re-quest Fund.
We want to keep it simple and pref-erably a one-shot kind of deal.
:: Chris Sargent, foundation officer for the ACU Foundation
“”
E-mail Hackney at: [email protected]
Page 4 Friday, October 10, 2008CAMPUS NEWS
Sneaky students steal free mealsBy Sondra RodriguezStudent Reporter
Some students no longer worry about rationing their weekly meal plans; instead, they sneak into the “World Fa-mous Bean” for free.
Mary Bowman, supervisor of the Bean, said this has been a problem since 1997, and she has seen it more this year be-cause of the remodeling that took place during the sum-mer. However, not much has changed to increase the staff’s ability to monitor and control the issue.
“All we can do is watch—that’s the only monitoring we have,” Bowman said. “It’s a con-stant deal, and it’s really hard because the students wait until we are swamped to sneak in.”
Bowman said she has seen students sneak into the Bean by walking in with students who swiped their cards, by tell-ing staff they already swiped their cards and left to use the restrooms, or even by jump-ing the bushes to get into the back doors.
“We have regulars,” Bowman said. “I’m not sure what their situation is, but it’s really not fair to the other students who have to pay.”
Sometimes a police officer will stand in the Bean’s entrance to help staff, but Bowman said they still need more help from both people and technology.
“I really wish we had the fi-nancial means to install cam-eras,” she said. “I think it will benefit the university as well as Aramark. Monitoring is so hard because right at 11:30 when we open we have lots of students lined up, ready to eat, and there are only four of us working.”
Staff members are trying to implement policies to keep better track of who has swiped already, but Bowman said these are interfering with prior poli-cies in the Bean.
“We’re trying to get students in the habit of leaving their cards when they go to the rest-room, but then they get mixed up with the to-go cards,” she said. “The bathroom around the corner and the side doors really make it a problem. There’s no way of telling if they’ve already swiped in or not.”
Students also have noticed the issue.
“I’ve noticed that it would be really easy to do,” said Liz Cof-fee, sophomore advertising and public relations major from San Antonio. “I think it’s really upsetting and I’m really disap-pointed in the students who would do that.”
Bowman said she does not know the situation of stu-dents who repeatedly sneak into the Bean, but stressed the fact that “this is a Chris-tian environment.”
Coffee agreed and said she hopes students will stop taking advantage of the easy accessibility.
“ACU has gone through so much to make our options bet-ter,” Coffee said. “I feel that stu-dents who abuse that are being very disrespectful to the efforts being made.”
ACU branch of IRC offers refugees second chanceBy Cody VetetoChief Videographer
Students can help dis-placed people from other countries without ever leav-ing campus through the stu-dent organization ACU for the IRC that works with the Abilene branch of the Inter-national Rescue Committee.
IRC assists refugees in be-ginning new lives by settling them in the United States.
When this organization first started, its original goal was to aid the German refugees and families dur-ing World War II.
“It’s kind of a neat way to think globally and act lo-cally,” said Madison Sanuik, president of ACU for the IRC and senior international rela-tions major from Arlington.
Sanuik discovered the local IRC branch through a class assignment but quick-ly found herself deeply in-volved in the organization.
“When you do something like this, it kind of tran-
scends your motivation,” Sanuik said.
She volunteers by working with a family from the Demo-cratic Republic of the Congo and has spent about an hour a week with this family since February of 2007.
Chelsea Hackney, junior political science and interna-tional relations major from Midlothian, is the ACU for IRC’s communication offi-cer. She said she likes work-ing for such a committee.
“When people get involved, they stay,” Hackney said.
The reason refugees set-tle in Abilene is because of the low cost of living.
The U.S. government gives a certain amount of money to the refugees for beginning living expenses; the funds are later matched exactly by the IRC. Sanuik said the financial match ba-sically forces the IRC to in-volve a community.
IRC also provides refu-gees with steady volunteers that help them at least once
a week with integration; vol-unteers may teach English, aid children with home-work, assist with grocery shopping or even spend a relaxing day at the park with the family. Volunteers insure the IRC’s continued involvement, and ACU for the IRC help students to be-come such volunteers.
“We need people who are willing to volunteer for more than just one Satur-day,” Hackney said.
To sign up to mentor a refugee family, which is a commitment that requires at least one hour every oth-er week, students can talk to Sanuik at the Social Jus-tice Chapel in the Biblical Studies Building, Room 117 on Thursdays or attend an ACU for the IRC meeting on the first or third Sunday of every month; students also can e-mail Sanuik at [email protected] or Hackney at [email protected].
Male student jokingly joins Ko Jo Kai pledges last week By Lydia MelbyArts Editor
Every year a number of stu-dents go through two weeks of carrying binders and dressing a certain way according to the criteria of whatever social club they are pledging. Although most students do not really enjoy the dress part of pledg-ing and probably would not do it willingly, exceptions always arise to every rule. Students may have seen this exception around campus, and while vol-untary ‘pledge dress’ would be unusual enough, what re-ally caught the eye was not so much that he was wearing club-prescribed clothes, but rather which club the male student’s attire matched.
From Oct. 1 to Oct. 4, Jer-emy Varner, junior theatre ma-jor from Abilene, wore brown pants, brown shoes and a brown belt, as well as a beige polo left over from the days Ko Jo Kai, the women’s social club, required their pledges, called NuNus, to wear. Varner also had a fake pledge pin that was soon replaced by an offi-cial one, and even made him-self a ‘NuNu binder’ to match the other pledges.
“It started out as just kind of a joke,” Varner said. “I just thought it was funny, and my friends did too.”
Varner said he found the discontinued NuNu polo more than a year ago at a Goodwill store, and although he wore it once last year dur-ing pledging, nobody really noticed because he wore it with regular clothes.
“But this year, I thought to myself, I have brown pants and brown shoes and a belt. What’s to stop me from mak-
ing my own pledge pin and a binder and showing up to all their meetings? So I did,” Varner said.
Jamie Lyn Spires, president of Ko Jo Kai and senior com-munication major from Arling-ton, said she went to the Kojie meeting after Chapel on Oct. 1, the day Varner began his es-capade, and was surprised to see him there.
“I look over and I see Jer-emy, and everyone around him looked really serious, and he’s standing there doing his Sing Song face with a fake pledge pin and a beige polo and brown pants and shoes on and a binder that looked like everyone else’s… and in a seri-ous moment, I just died laugh-ing, I didn’t know what to do,” Spires said.
Varner kept up his charade until Monday morning, and in addition to wearing his NuNu clothes and attending the meetings after Chapel, he went to the Siggie-Kojie intramurals game Thursday where he cho-reographed the NuNu half-time show and also attended the Kojie Grub and performed in two of the NuNu skits.
“I respected Kojie Park and I respected the clock in the Bible building, and the best part was, I was respecting with girls who had no clue who I was, but they just went with it because I acted so into it,” Varner said. “A lot of the Nu-Nus didn’t know what was go-ing on… and I mean, I would have been confused myself if some random person showed up dressed completely to fit that was very obviously not the same gender.”
Varner said most people knew it was a joke, although he said he had “at least some people on campus halfway
convinced” that co-ed pledg-ing was now an option.
Bethany Bradshaw, sopho-more English major from Henderson, said from the be-ginning she was sure it was a joke, but also said, “there was so much other stuff going on [in phase one of pledging], he did help make things a little less stressful.”
Varner said he would be open to pledging Ko Jo Kai if co-ed pledging was an option in the future, but Spires said she does not think that would ever happen.
“I think they would have to just start a new club alto-gether because of the tradi-tions that all the social clubs have now…it would just be way too difficult to change it all,” Spires said. “There are just things you do in wom-en’s clubs that men probably wouldn’t enjoy, and vice ver-sa, because, you know, men and women are different.”
However, both Varner and Spires said they enjoyed the whole experience.
“I started to see more into the club of Ko Jo Kai, and it was the first time I really broke through the stereotypes and got to know these people, and they were awesome,” Varner said. “They were so welcom-ing and treated me like part of the group, and I did not expect that Wednesday morning when I put on my NuNu shirt.”
Despite the warm feelings all around, Bradshaw did have one criticism.
“I didn’t think it was fair that he got to be a NuNu but didn’t have to wear panty-hose,” Bradshaw said. “Be-cause that really is the worst part of it all.”
E-mail Rodriguez at: [email protected]
E-mail Veteto at: [email protected]
E-mail Melby at: [email protected]
Zak Zienert :: chief photographer
Stephen Booker, sophomore accounting major from Houston swipes in to the “World Famous Bean” after Chapel.
Page 5October 10, 2008
ArtsFridayTop ten movies last weekend with weekend gross (October 3-5):
n Beverly Hills Chihuahua (PG): $29.3 Million
n Eagle Eye (PG-13): $17.7 Million
n Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist (PG-13):
$11.3 Million
n Nights in Rodanthe (PG-13): $7.3 Million
n Appaloosa (R): $5 Million
n Lakeview Terrace (PG-13): $4.5 Million
n Burn After Reading (R): $4.1 Million
n Fireproof (PG): $3.9 Million
n An American Carol (PG-13): $3.6 Million
n Religulous (R): $ Million
Coming Soon in Abilene:
n Saturday, Oct. 11:Playfaire Park is sponsoring its fourth annual SOLID Groove Music and Arts Festival, featuring Max Alan & the Voo-doo Brothers, The Truth Unfold, The Rockin’ Extensions, The Happy Fat Band and SOLID, for which the festival is named. Tickets are $8 pre-sale and $10 at the door with a $5 cooler charge.
n Friday & Saturday, Oct. 10-11:The Paramount Theatre in downtown Abilene will be showing Across the Universe. Showtimes are Oct 10 at 7:30 p.m., and Oct. 11 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
BOX OFFICE STATS
MUSIC SCENE
Choir enchants ACU audienceBy Paul KnettelStudent Writer
Imagine a sextet of four men and two women, dressed in the timeless black and white robes of monks, marching along through green hills to the sound of their voices blending together in perfect harmony. Heinavanker Ensemble, who performed on campus Tuesday night, brings to the stage all of these elements, except the hills, which are easy to visualize as one listens to and watches its incredible performance.
The a capella group from Estonia performed a number of hymns, half of which came from the famous 15th century Estonian composer Johannes Ockeghem, and half from Es-tonian folk tradition. Ockeg-hem’s work is representative of early Renaissance masses and motets, polyphonic sacred music in Latin that is perpetu-ally going from dissonance to
consonance and ending with beautifully resolved cadences. The traditional hymns are more folky; they are slightly upbeat with sharp syllables and stac-cato notes, giving a lilt to their rhythms that nearly invokes the audience to march along.
Under the direction of Mar-go Kõlar, who also sings in the ensemble, Heinavanker gave a stunning performance, the six voices perfectly singing intri-cate harmonies and highly or-nate melodies. Without the use of microphones, the six voices enveloped the entire hall in sounds evoking emotion that spoke for itself, even without the translated lyrics provided in the recital program.
The highlight of the show was, appropriately, the final piece, Loomiselaul (The Cre-ation), a pre-Christian Estonian runic song about a bird that builds a nest and lays eggs, which hatch into chicks that become the moon, sun, world,
stars and rainbow. While the music in itself was beautiful and moving, what really made this piece stand out was the performance method. During the song, the before motion-less ensemble, marched in a circle around the stage, their feet emphasizing the staccato syllables sung at each step. Still they kept in perfect time and harmony with each other, even as the piece modulated from key to key. Finally, as the music reached a climax of intensity, the group came together in a circle, pulsing in and out to the beat, and then returned to their original horizontal line, still swaying back and forth until the end of the song. After this impressive final piece, Heina-vanker received a well deserved standing ovation for its abso-lutely beautiful performance, perhaps the best this reviewer has experienced at ACU.
ABILENE ARTS
E-mail Knettel at: [email protected]
By Blake PenfieldStudent Writer
People always are coming up to me and asking, “How can I be sure that I have a soul?” Just constantly. It’s ridiculous. Well, now I have an answer for them. If you can sit through Nick & Norah’s Infinite Play-list without smiling, then you have no soul.
Remember those John Hughes’ movies from the ‘80s? Ferris Bueller? Six-teen Candles? The Breakfast Club? Mix those with the in-die vibe that propelled Juno to absurd heights of success and you’ll get this movie. Now, I didn’t say the movie was great – but it will cer-tainly get you smiling.
Superbad’s Michael Cera stars as Nick, and Kat Den-nings stars as Norah (hence the title). The film tells the story of two high school se-
niors in New York who have never met but are, of course, destined to be together. While the story in itself isn’t really the draw here, it does a good job of facilitating what makes Nick & Norah so enjoyable.
This is a movie about how people relate with people. Gasp! A teen romantic comedy about relationships? Seriously, this movie goes a lot further into how people connect to one another than almost any other teen romantic comedy I’ve seen. It’s not just about sex, and that’s really a major point of the entire movie. The premise of the flick is people want to be seen by others as people – not just as a means to sex. This isn’t Bring It On or How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days. This movie’s got some brains, and the points it attempts to make are admirable.
The only problem with pursuing these lofty ambi-
tions is the demands of the market. The movie builds its point about relationships by displaying the more market-able mistakes people make in such relationships. Not that this is a terrible thing, but it does seem to make the overall theme a little schizophrenic. The ending of the film also is problematic for what it tries to achieve. The movie critiques the cultural idea that sex is the ultimate goal in any het-erosexual relationship, yet it can find no other way to ce-ment its central relationship without sex. It really dampens the point the movie attempted to drive home.
Michael Cera plays the same character he has portrayed since Arrested Development’s George Michael Bluth. He is beginning to show himself as a bit of a one-trick pony. That being said, it’s still a really funny, honest and immensely
enjoyable trick. Cera will make you laugh in this movie and he really does a great job acting as the sympathetic, confused, sensitive male lead.
Kat Dennings is an actress I had never even seen before this movie, and, wow. I have no idea where she originat-ed but I hope she is here to stay. It is hard to overstate how much charm, wit and immediate magnetism she infuses into her character. You will wish you could walk onto the screen just so you could grab some dinner with her and make fun of the waitress together.
As the title would suggest, the movie’s soundtrack is un-deniably awesome. The col-lection of tunes the creators brought together work per-fectly to coalesce the varied events of this one night into a dream-like quality. Constant barrages of excellent songs
slam into your eardrums and hypnotize you into a gleeful stupor.
The camerawork keeps the pacing smooth throughout the movie. Night shots of New York streets laced with traffic lights and shining billboards bring out the Friends-style of the Big Apple the rest of the country has grown to love. Again, the cinematography achieves an effect that best can be described as dream-like. The bright lights blur and act as a terrific context to the characters the film portrays.
If you liked ‘80s teen flicks, go see this movie. If you liked Juno, go see this movie. If you can get past the film implod-ing on its own theme, I abso-lutely have no problem recom-mending this one to you. Go see this movie.
‘Nick and Norah’ charm the Big Apple
E-mail Penfield at: [email protected]
ViewsFridayPage 6
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October 10, 2008
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Optimistthe
My boyfriend and I have two very different hobbies: I read books, he plays on-line games. But I am never
one to turn down the chance to try some-thing new, so last week I grabbed a c o n t r o l l e r and entered the World of Warcraft.
W i t h i n one hour, I came to un-derstand the
gamer’s excite-ment, the thrill of conquest and the satisfaction of discov-ery. I was a priest, a rogue or a paladin: any role was possible with the click of a mouse.
I like playing games but usually limit myself to board games or cards.
Play me at Phase 10 or Clue, and I can give you a run for your money, but the on-line world was unexplored territory beyond my atten-tion. My busy schedule with classes and work meant no time for virtual diversions, but maybe games were ex-actly what I needed in such a hectic life.
This revelation came to me after I re-read the same sentence in my English text-book at least 40 times. I knew enough was, well, enough. My boyfriend’s laptop glowed in-vitingly. I needed the break, so for the next two hours, I ran around in a three-dimen-sional world and fought mon-sters, mined for gold and found treasure chests. When was the last time you did something so adventurous?
World of Warcraft may not be your “cup of tea.” Perhaps you are an avid fan of Final Fantasy X1 or Halo. Maybe you, like I once did, disdain the online world for its stereotypical gamer image (think South Park episode “Make Love Not Warcraft”).
Either way, entertainment is essential for everyone. It is the spice of life. Allow some time each day to en-joy yourself even if your di-version from the mundane world is as simple as flying a kite or as complex as a Massively Multiplayer On-line Role-playing Game.
The United States in 2008 hardly resembles scenes from Cinderella Man, O Brother Where Art Thou and
Road to Per-dition, but you wouldn’t know this listening to the constant q u e s t i o n s about an on-coming Great Depression from the me-dia and poli-ticians.
There will not be a 25 percent unem-ployment rate. There will not be mile-long bread lines filled with thousands of families who cannot support them-selves. There will not be an-other dustbowl.
After the Great Depres-sion, we learned many les-sons on how to avoid an-other financial catastrophe. Thanks to FDR and the New Deal we now have the FDIC to insure banks up to $250,000, Social Security to ensure workers will be able to re-tire with dignity and many unemployment benefits pro-tecting those who lose their jobs from being unable to support their families.
In 1929, losing your job was almost a death sen-tence. Men were usually the sole breadwinners for their families. Many had to give up their children or beg for food to stay alive. Families packed what little they had into wagons and roamed the country in search of work.
This is not the reality of 2008.
The current unemploy-ment rate according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics is 6.1, not 25 per-cent as it was during the early 1930s.
The U.S. economy has grown 3.3 percent in the last quarter, which is con-gruent with the average growth rate of 3.4 percent since the Great Depression. Overall, the median price of a new home is up 1.3 per-cent since December 2007, according to the U.S. Cen-sus Bureau.
Why would we be led to believe we are headed for another Great Depres-sion, that we will soon see
firsthand what conditions were like in 1929 when life was at its bleakest for the American economy?
It’s an election year.Not to say this pande-
monium is all hype, but the bad economy has done wonders for the Obama campaign. He currently has a nine point lead in a daily Gallup Poll.
Obama recently claimed the “percentage of homes in foreclosure and late mort-gage payments is the highest since the Great Depression.”
Right now, 6.4 percent of mortgages are delinquent to some extent, and 2.75 percent are in foreclosure. During the Great Depres-
sion, the rate of default for homes was 50 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Comparisons of foreclo-sure and delinquency rates were not even tracked until 1979, according to the Wash-ington Post. Obama’s state-ment simply is not true.
However, the statement this is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depres-sion may be a fair one.
The important word here is “since.”
The $700 billion bailout underscores the precarious situation of our economy. Credit between banks and companies virtually has come to a halt, stifling any kind of growth.
One thing is for certain: the economy is not healthy. Many have lost their jobs, an estimated 760,000 in 2008, according to CNN.
People are feeling the strain of a sluggish econo-my, but to say this country is headed for another Great Depression is simply ir-responsible and is the one thing that got us into this mess in the first place.
With midterm exams, cold weather and flu season fast approach-ing, students might
feel more depressed and fall into unhealthier habits than at other times of the year.
In October, the combined load of academic and social tasks starts to interfere with quality of sleep, eating and lei-sure activities. The absence of a close getaway makes it even worse; more than six weeks separates us from Thanksgiv-ing break, and Fall break is too short to take a breather.
Because the university cares about the well-being of its students throughout the semester, Wellness Week
comes in the nick of time as a reminder for students that healthy habits can be enjoy-able and compatible with a college student’s schedule.
Monday through Friday, ACU promotes the 2008 Well-ness Week’s theme “Come to the Well and Thirst No More” to inform and interest students about perspectives of accessible spiritual, emo-tional and physical well-be-ing. In other words, students may learn that having a
healthy lifestyle can be fun and not time-consuming.
Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the mall area in front of Moody Coliseum, students have the opportu-nity to relax and have fun at several stations such as a dunking tank, rock wall, bouncing boxing, bungee run, Velcro wall, obstacle course and other activities. Earlier this week, they also could learn about practical ways to improve their eat-
ing and exercise and how to avoid stress.
When this operation of sen-sitization is over, students will remain the masters of their daily health-related choices. Students already know pro-crastination leads to sleep de-privation and extra stress, eat-ing what’s at hand may become harmful in the big picture and a lack of exercise upsets en-ergy levels; however, only few make necessary changes.
Knowledge and resources help only if you use them; ulti-mately, the responsibility falls on each person’s motivation. People often make changes only when the danger is im-minent. Who’s to blame them
– us? We live in a society that promotes immediate comfort and pain-avoidance.
Given these conditions, it takes discipline and determina-tion to stick to an assignment schedule, a workout plan and a healthy diet; it takes much more to face the possible life-
threatening consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle.
Wellness Week provides great tools and inspiration; whether to use it or not relies on personal commitment.
Economic comparisons prove sensationalistic
Responsibility for individual wellness falls solely to individuals
Online gaming unlocks amusing possibilities
By Kelline Linton
Got Your Grammar Talk
By Ryan Self
Self Examination
E-mail Self at: [email protected]
E-mail the Optimist at: [email protected]
E-mail Linton at: [email protected]
The issue:Midsemester brings fatigue and sickness as students struggle to keep up with academics and extracurricular activities.
Our view:ACU annually offers a valuable resource through Wellness Week by providing the knowledge and tools necessary to obtain general wellness.
The solution:Individuals must take responsibility and utilize Wellness Week resources.
acuoptimist.com
Log online to hear Self podcast his column.
In 1929, losing your job was almost a death sentence... Many had to give up their children or beg for food to stay alive... This is not the reality of 2008.
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Within one hour, I came to understand the gamer’s excitement, the thrill of conquest and the satisfaction of discovery. I was a priest, a rogue or a paladin: any role was possible with the click of a mouse.
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Colter HettichFeatures Editor
Kelline LintonChief Copy Editor
Cody VetetoChief Videographer
DeLaina ParkerBroadcast Manager
Molly ByrdPage 2 Editor
Kenneth PybusAdviser
Cade WhiteAdviser
Christi StarkAdvertising Manager
Knowledge and resources help only if you use them...“
”
Everytime we sing the song “Create in Me a Clean Heart,” I do the ex-act same thing.
When we get to a certain line in the song, I think to myself, “Huh?”, stop sing-ing, take out my Bible, turn to the 51st Psalm, read it and look back at the screen confused.
This part occurs at the beginning of verse 12 in the Bible, which we sing as, “Restore unto me the joy of my salvation.” If you will turn to Psalm 51:12a, you will find that we’re misquoting Scrip-ture everytime we sing this. “Restore to me the joy of your salvation.”
Thanks to biblegateway.com, I was able to com-pare all the major English translations of this verse, and the only one that is close to what we sing is
The Message, which says, “Commute my death sen-tence, God, my salvation God.” Note that it still does not call salvation “mine,” rather refers to God as “my salvation God?”
Why does this matter? Because salvation does not belong to us.
In another song we sing the words of Revelation 7:10, which say, “Salva-tion belongs to our God.” A footnote links this verse to Psalm 3:8, which, in my Bible, says, “From the Lord comes deliverance.”
I’ve been trying to come up with a reason why the psalm is misquoted at every Christian assem-bly which I attend and
all I can come up with is that someone might have misheard “thy” (the song used to say “thy” instead of “your”) as “my”, and ev-eryone else followed suit.
It is a fairly innocent oversight, but I believe it is also a significant one that should be corrected.
If you would like to read more about the difference between God’s salvation and our salvation, you can go to http://www.lproof.org/Devotions/2006/Joys-Bedrock.html and read Beth Moore’s article on the subject. God bless.
Letter to the Editor
Lisa Whitefreshman worship ministry major
from Dallas
Hymn lyrics spark dispute
to be ‘screative’, or cre-ative in the attacking third of the field. ‘Screative’ is a fun word we use within the team to define our team philosophy. Ultimately, we need to be confident, not only with each other, but with ourselves.”
Coach Wilson feels this weekend’s games are im-portant.”
“The players know that
we are getting to a point in our schedule that this weekend’s games are must-win games,” Wilson said. “Just like soccer, in any other sport you got to score to win. If we don’t produce right away we may have to move people around to get a spark.”
yards a game while ranking No. 1 nationally in points scored with 54 points per game. Quar-terback Billy Malone ranks first nationally in passing efficiency, averages 318 yards a game and threw 18 touchdowns.
Malone will pass to a trio of receivers who combined for 1,049 yards and nine touchdown. Gates ranks sec-ond in the LSC, averaging 116 yards a game and scored a team-high five reception touchdowns. Johnny Knox added 19 receptions for 298 yards and two touchdowns, while Jonathan Ferguson caught 16 passes for 284 yards and two touchdowns.
“Our offense is one of the best in the nation,” Lewis said. “We have great senior leader-ship and some explosive play-ers that can make explosive plays any time in the game.”
Running back Bernard Scott enters the game as the leading rusher in the LSC, averaging 146 yards a game. Scott has run for 734 yards and 10 touchdowns while adding 19 catches for 387 yards and four touchdowns. Scott is the No. 1 all-purpose runner in the nation, averaging 224 yards a game, and ranks first in the LSC in scoring.
“Last year I had a break out game against Angelo and found my rhythm,” Scott said. “Hopefully, I can have another good game.”
As impressive as the of-fense has been this season, the defense matched them step for step. The Wildcats lead the LSC in scoring defense (13.8), turnover margin (7) and sacks, averaging four a game. ACU also leads the nation in rushing yards allowed, giving up just 44 yards a game. The Wildcats also scored a defensive touchdown in four straight games and have totaled six on the season.
Linebackers Eric Edwards (28) and Lewis (25) lead the Wildcats in tackles, while de-fensive ends Vantrise Studivant and Aston Whiteside are tied for second in the LSC with 4.5 sacks. Studivant also leads the LSC in fumbles forced, while Whiteside leads the confer-
ence in fumbles recovered with three. The Wildcats have forced 19 turnovers, six interceptions and 13 fumbles recovered to lead the LSC.
“We practice hard and have a lot of depth in the front seven,” Lewis said. “It helps us keep ev-eryone fresh, and every player has a better impact.”
After opening at No. 2 in the regional poll, the Wildcats will try not to look ahead to next week’s game against No. 4 nationally ranked West Texas A&M, who jumped the Wildcats in the regional poll. The Wild-cats will take on Angelo State Saturday at 7 p.m.
featuring some of the NCAA’s best Division I teams. While successes such as these may be considered achievements for other programs, Burroughs ex-pects more.
“We as a team need to focus our energies on the national championship on Nov. 22,” Burroughs said. “We need to take a step back and look at the entire picture.”
The Wildcats begin their push toward another national
championship with not only a long-term philosophy in place, but also fully healthy men and women’s squads. Burroughs said he feels his men’s team is talented and balanced with five All-Americans.
“Overall our five All-Amer-icans are within arm’s length of each other,” Burroughs said. “Daniel Maina, Amos Sang, Serge Gasore, Julius Nyango and Cleophas Tanui have all overcome minor in-juries but are all healthy with no major injuries.”
In preparation for the con-ference race in two weeks, the teams will be focusing on train-ing and conditioning. However, Burroughs plans to send some individuals to meets in San An-gelo and at the University of Arkansas. Burroughs said his men’s team should have no challengers on the conference level and fully expects an 18th straight conference title from them. However, he said he has his eyes on two programs na-tionally that could prove a chal-lenge to the team.
“Adams State and Hard-ing University present two challenges; we are feeling the pressure from them,” Bur-roughs said. “We are enjoy-ing the pursuit of our goal. This is really the only ex-pectation I have. We need to enjoy the 364 days leading up to the national champion-ship as well. We have to keep our eyes on the prize for the entire season.”
Friday, October 10, 2008 Page 7FROM THE FRONT/SPORTS JUMPS
Football: 3-3 Rams look for upsetContinued from page 8
Soccer: ACU looks for first conference victoryContinued from page 8
Cross country: Cats going for 18th straightContinued from page 8
Host: Duties include physical training
Continued from page 1
E-mail Abston at: [email protected]
E-mail Cantrell at: [email protected]
E-mail Craig at: [email protected]
Casey said to a group of jour-nalism and political science students Thursday morning.
“What they’re finding is your basket of moral and political concerns are lon-ger than that,” he said.
Casey fielded questions from students at the vari-ous speaking venues, and students asked questions ranging from Obama’s po-sition on abortion and the candidate’s connection with his former pastor Rev. Jer-
emiah Wright to how Chris-tians should be involved in public service.
Casey said Obama be-lieves abortion can be pre-vented by providing aid to lower income mothers who may choose to have an abor-tion because they are un-sure if they will be able to provide healthcare or have the income to raise a child.
“As Christians, what we have to do is ask the hard pragmatic question: how can we really reduce abortions in America?” Casey said.
But he argued no party was perfect and each evan-gelical should examine what issues are important to them and vote accordingly.
“No party platform rep-resents the whole Gospel,” Casey said.
Laura Smith, senior po-litical science major from College Station, attended a luncheon where Casey con-versed with students and was at Monday’s Chapel forum featuring former speech-writer for President George W. Bush, Kasey Pipes. She
said the political discourse on campus and views from both men who have ties to D.C. were beneficial to the ACU community.
“I think it’s always healthy to see both sides to get opin-ions from both sides of the spectrum,” Smith said. “We [Christians] need to engage in what’s going on in our world and we cannot be seg-regated or partitioned from the rest of the world.”
The endowment is com-prised of funds the univer-sity has received over the years, which have been in-vested into a highly diversi-fied portfolio.
“It impacts the value of the endowment,” Rich said. “But because of our diversi-fication, generally when the market goes down, we don’t go down near as much, and we’re finding that’s the case right now.”
Last June, the university reported the endowment values having a 4.6 percent
annual return despite the S&P 500 dropping 13.1 per-cent during the same period. However, Rich said he does not expect a similar outcome considering the poor national economic status, but many of the university’s managers re-port monthly or quarterly, so the university does not have current specific information on the endowment.
The price of oil also was affected, and gasoline pric-es dropped significantly. Thursday’s average price in Texas was $3.21, down from $3.50 last month, according to www.texasgasprices.com.
As of Thursday afternoon, the cheapest price available in Abilene was $3.06.
“The prices in oil are com-ing down, so that’s a positive impact,” Rich said. “Instead of close to $4 a gallon, we’re probably going to be paying something under $3 in the next two or three months.”
While students can look forward to lower gas prices, they can also not worry about any reduction in student loans or employment on campus. Both should not be adversely affected, Pope said.
Despite the market’s status, this may be the time to look
into investing, since stock prices are low, Pope said.
“If you have some money to invest, rather than run from it, you might look at it as a good buying opportu-nity,” Pope said. “It always has, always will, go through cycles. That’s the nature of free markets. At some point, it will start back up.”
With prospective students and returning alumni visiting campus for Sing Song, Craig said the hosts and hostesses’ acts target three different generations: prospective and current students, parents and grandparents.
“They sing pop songs that hopefully will appeal to sev-eral different demographic groups,” Craig said. “You may hear something that is very current and on the radio now. You may hear something from the ‘80s. You may hear some-thing from the ‘50s or ‘60s, but that’s our audience.”
Next steps in the prepara-tion process for Sing Song in-clude song selection, costum-ing and a fitness regime being developed by members of the Department of Exercise Sci-ence and Health.
“To be a host or hostess, it’s very demanding physical-ly because you are basically, through your choreography, doing an aerobic workout for two hours onstage and try-ing to sing at the same time,” Craig said. “It’s easy to lose your breath.”
Hosts and hostesses will begin meeting in the next few weeks. After Thanks-giving, when musical ar-rangements are finalized, the group will begin re-hearsing at least a couple of hours every other day, Craig said. Following a retreat to learn music over Christmas break, the spring semester brings an even more intense schedule, including prac-tices potentially as long as two hours daily in addition to whatever extra practice the individuals desire. How-ever, Craig said practices are structured around the students’ schedules.
“We are very cognizant about their time,” Craig said. “They are students, and it’s very important to us that we always keep the academic fo-cus first. We’re not here just to have fun, although it is a lot of fun.”
Scheduled for Feb. 20-21, Sing Song 2009’s theme is “Believe.” Advance tickets will be available for purchase dur-ing Homecoming, and online tickets will go on sale Nov. 3.
Court: Nominees involved in various ACU activities
Homecoming football game.“It took 30 minutes to
round them up, and we kept them there for 45 min-utes. It’s a mix between an informational meeting and congratulatory meeting,” said Betsy Craig, director of Alumni Relations.
That evening the nominees were informed of their Home-coming weekend schedules and received bags filled with an assortment of gifts.
“It’s not a hardcore thing; it’s a fun thing, and the girls usually enjoy it,” Craig said.
Once Craig tallied the votes, she started doing
homework on the nominees in order to decide how and where to pick the girls up for Wednesday night.
“I called different areas and events that they were involved in. I contacted clubs, friends and different departments, Craig said. “In previous years it took a lot longer to round up the nominees.”
Craig said all of the girls are highly involved with ACU in some way, wheth-er it is a social club, their major or another extracur-ricular program.
Economy: Stock market drop affects endowment
Adviser: Alumnus advises Sen. Obama
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E-mail Freeman at: [email protected]
E-mail Acuff at: [email protected]
E-mail Anderson at: [email protected]
E-mail Johnson-Kim at: [email protected]
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Continued from page 1
By Grant AbstonSports Editor
The No. 3 ranked Wildcats look to remain undefeated when they play Angelo State Saturday at Shotwell Stadium in a Lone Star Conference South Division matchup.
The ACU Wildcats jumped to No. 3 in the nation after defeating East Central Univer-sity 66-7 last weekend to im-prove to 5-0. Previously top-ranked Valdosta State lost to Delta State to bump the Wild-cats up a spot in the national rankings. Angelo State enters the game 3-3 and 1-1 in the South Division after defeat-ing Eastern New Mexico 25-13 last weekend.
“[Angelo State] is play-ing really well defensively, and nobody has scored a bunch of points on them,” head coach Chris Thomsen said. “I think they really im-proved on defense from last year and I think that’s why it will be a typical, tough South Conference game.”
The Rams enter the game ranked seventh in the LSC in total offense and 10th in scor-ing offense, averaging 307 yards and 18 points a game. Angelo ranks fourth in rush-ing offense at 149 yards a game and will feature the 20th ranked national rusher in Dan-iel Thomas; Thomas is averag-ing 133 yards a game and has scored four touchdowns.
“They are pretty much a running team, and we predict them to run on us,” lineback-er Bryson Lewis said. “They have two good running backs, a big physical offensive line, and they had success last year running on us.”
Quarterback Will Mezger has thrown for 646 yards and five touchdowns with three in-terceptions to lead the Rams. Mezger will throw to wide re-ceivers Sam Tindol, Drew Pe-terson and Robert Boone, who have combined for 586 yards and two touchdowns.
Defensively, Angelo State features the No. 1 defense in the LSC, allowing just 255 yards a game while ranking second in scoring defense,
allowing 15 points a game. Linebacker Ian Ritchey leads the team with 41 tackles. The Rams have totaled 14 sacks on the year led by defensive linemen Cody Smith and Dustin Arthur, who lead the team with 2.5.
“Angelo runs an I-forma-tion like a pro-style team,” Thomsen said. “They have three really good running backs and will look to run at you and control the ball.”
After scoring 66 points last week, ACU will feature the No. 1 offense in the LSC and the second-ranked of-fense in the nation. The Wildcats are averaging 540
Remaining perfect
n The Wildcat football team’s next two games will be broadcast locally. The Wild-cats will play Angelo State on KRBC-TV and West Texas A&M on KTAB-TV.
n Senior cross country runner Julius Nyango was honored as the LSC Men’s Cross Country Runner of the Week. Nyango finished eighth at the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree last weekend. Nyango finished the 8,000-meter course in 24:23 to lead the Wildcats, who are the second-ranked team in Division II.
SportsFridayPage 8 October 10, 2008
Standings
FootballTeam Div. OverallWTAMUACU MSUTAMU-KAngelo St.
Tarleton St.
2-01-01-11-11-10-1
6-05-04-14-23-35-1
ENMU 0-2 1-5
VolleyballTeam Div. OverallMSUWTAMUTarleton St.TX Woman’sTAMU-C
ACU*
*7th out of 14 teams
3-02-04-13-13-12-2
19-318-314-614-711-614-6
Women’s SoccerTeam Div. OverallWTAMUCentral Okla.Angelo St.NE St.TAMU-C
MSU
3-02-02-01-1-11-11-1
9-1-17-2-28-3-12-5-27-2-16-4
TX Woman’s 1-1 6-4ENMU 1-2 7-5East Central 0-2-1 4-5-2ACU 0-2 4-5-1SW Okla. 0-2 2-9
SCOREBOARD
IntRAmuRAl ROunD-up
nOtES
4-on-4 SoccerStarts: Tuesday, Oct. 28Sign-up Deadline: Oct. 23Cost: $125 per team
Friday
tennisLSC Fall Individual Championship, Wichita Falls, 9 a.m.
SoccerACU at East Central, 4 p.m.
Saturday
tennisLSC Fall Individual Championship, Wichita Falls, 9 a.m.
FootballACU vs. Angelo State, 7 p.m.
Sunday
SoccerACU at Northeastern State, 2 p.m.
:: Home games listed in italics
Upcoming
Friday
VolleyballCentral Missouri 3, ACU 0Missouri Southern 3, ACU 1
Saturday
FootballACU 66, East Central 7
VolleyballACU 3, Newman 0Pittsburg State 3, ACU 1
Sunday
SoccerMidwestern State 1, ACU 0
Scores
Squillaci claims single title, second in doublesBy Chandler HarrisAssistant Sports Editor
The ACU women’s tennis team competed in the Wilson/ITA South Central Regional this past weekend at the Eager Ten-nis Center. The Wildcats came into the tournament with the No. 1 ranked doubles pair of senior Irene Squillaci and soph-omore Jaclyn Walker. Squil-laci also competed as the No. 2 ranked singles player.
In singles play, Squillaci won the tournament, defeat-ing the No. 1 seeded player, Zuzanna Osinska of North-eastern State, in three sets (3-6, 6-2, 6-1). The Wildcats had five of the eight quar-terfinalists and three of the four semifinalists. For her performance, Squillaci ad-
vances to the ITA National Championships in Mobile, Ala., on Oct. 16.
In doubles play, the pair of Squillaci and Walker was defeated by the Northeast-ern State’s pair of Osinska and Emina Spirtovic (4-6, 6-4, 10-5). The Wildcats won the first set and led in the second set 3-0 and 4-2 be-fore the Riverhawks took the final four games of the set, propelling them to victory in the third set.
“It’s not that we didn’t play well; I just feel like we didn’t play our best,” said head coach Hutton Jones. “I am really excited about the depth of our team. In the end, our success as a team probably hurt us in the dou-bles final match.”
Before playing in the doubles final, Squillaci played two three-set singles matches and then had only a 30-minute break to catch her breath.
“I believe Irene and Jaclyn are the best doubles team in the region,” Jones said. “We needed to hit on all cylinders to win and didn’t quite do that, and that’s why we came up short in that final match.”
Jones said while he was not 100 percent satisfied with his team’s performance, he was glad ACU was send-ing one player to the ITA Na-tional Championships.
“I feel like we should have taken both titles,” Jones said. “We kind of ran out of gas in doubles, and the oth-er team played real well.”
Jones is excited to see how Squillaci performs at nationals.
“I don’t know if I have ever witnessed Irene not be-ing in a match,” Jones said. “There is no bail out position in these events. There are no easy matches. You’ve got to be at your best in that tour-nament because every point is heavily contested.”
Eight girls will compete in the championship, where each girl plays three matches in a bracket format.
“She just needs to go out there and enjoy it and play fearlessly,” Jones said. “Irene has this other level that she can go to. When she finds her energy and her focus, she is really fun to watch.”
Soccer team on road for conference matchupsBy Ryan CantrellSports Writer
The Wildcat soccer team will travel this weekend to Oklahoma for a pair of confer-ence games. Still seeking their first conference win, the Wild-cats will square off against East Central University and Northeastern State and should face a high level of competi-tion against both teams.
“I can see both East Cen-tral and Northeastern to be solid teams,” head coach Casey Wilson said. “I can ex-pect them to be a team like Angelo State, somewhere around that level.”
The Wildcats will take on the Tigers of East Central Friday at 4 p.m. On paper, it sets up to be a great match while both teams are look-ing for their first conference win. The Tigers are 0-2-1 in
conference and 4-5-2 overall, while the Wildcats are 0-2 in conference and 4-5-1 overall. The Wildcats will have their hands full because the Tigers are still unbeaten at home. The Wildcats will look to du-plicate what they did last year when the beat the Tigers 2-1.
The Tigers are led by Whitney Watts, who has four goals this season, and Kimberly MacKenzie, who has three goals and two as-sists. Jackie Gentile leads the Wildcats in scoring with four goals while co-captain Jordan Reese leads the team in assists with four.
The Wildcats will play their second match of the weekend against Northeast-ern State on Sunday at 2 p.m. Northeastern State is 1-1-1 in conference and a 2-5-2 re-cord overall. The RiverHawks are led offensively by Kris-
tina Marshall who leads the team with five goals, one of which was a game-winner.
The two games will be vi-tal for the Wildcats, who have struggled so far in confer-ence play. They want to turn things around and pull out of the conference cellar in hopes of making a playoff push. De-fensively, the Wildcats are strong, leading the confer-ence with only seven goals allowed. However, the Wild-cat offense is still struggling while Jackie Gentile and the offense will be key to turning things around.
“The main thing we need to do is score,” Gentile said. “Our defense is awesome, but we aren’t as aggressive offen-sively. We all know how to get the job done because we are very talented. We just have
Zak Zeinert :: chief photographer
Quarterback Billy Malone threw for 357 yards and five touchdowns in ACU’s 66-7 win over East Central University Saturday. Malone will lead the No. 1 scoring offense in the nation as the No. 3 Wildcats play Angelo State this weekend at Shotwell Stadium.
Emily Jorgenson :: staff photographer
Jaclyn Walker serves during the ITA Championship last weekend.E-mail Harris at: [email protected]
No. 3 Wildcats put 5-0 record on line against Angelo St.
Runners focused on titleBy Jeff CraigSports Writer
The Wildcat cross country team has a light schedule the next couple of weeks leading up to the Lone Star C o n f e r -e n c e C h a m p i -onship on Oct. 25. The break in sched-ule pres-ents an opportuni-ty to look back and examine the first half of the season.
The fall of 2008 has been a time of change for the cross country team which has seen an influx of young talent, such as freshman Charles White. The Wild-cats also added a new head coach in Sam Burroughs. Yet change has not affected the cross country team’s tradition of excellence and expectations of success; ACU’s new coach said he knows the tradition and ex-pects nothing less.
“All of the letters we send out say ‘A Tradition of Excellence’ on the top,” Bur-roughs said. “This is a class program nationwide across all three NCAA divisions. There is no program that wins like this one.”
With 17 straight Lone Star Conference titles and two straight NCAA Divi-sion II National Champi-onships, winning has be-come the standard for the Wildcats. Already this year the team has finished with a team title at the ACU Classic and showed its national prominence by finishing fourth at a meet
See Cross Country page 7
Zak Zeinert :: chief photographer
Micah Merrill-Johnson tries to get past a defender in Sunday’s game against Midwestern State. The Wildcats play East Central on Friday.
Burroughs
See Football page 7
See Soccer page 7
