Students’ Association electing new officersSA vice president interviewing candidates before campaign, page 3

Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Abilene Christian University Serving the ACU community since 1912

August 31, 2007

FRIDAY

Vol. 96, No. 3

1 section, 10 pageswww.acuoptimist.com

THE

About a girl‘Star-Spangled Girl’ never lags in this eccentric and overwhelmingly funny play, page 5

Suiting upACU opens at Central Oklahoma in unfamiliar role as favorite, page 10

OPTIMIST

By Kelsi PeaceManaging Editor

Brenda Van Dunk, 61, wrote prayers on her lec-ture notes — an illustration of what co-workers say was a deep commitment to her faith and her career.

“[It was] all done under the umbrella of ‘This is for the Lord,’” said Susan Clark, asso-ciate professor of social work.

Van Dunk, assistant pro-fessor of social work, died May 20 after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Born in Hackensack, N.J., on Feb. 27, 1946, Van Dunk earned a bachelor’s degree from Montclair State Uni-

versity in 1971 and a master’s in social work from Syra-cuse Univer-sity in 1976.

She es-t a b l i s h e d and direct-ed the Davis House/Youth Consultation Service, a treatment center for psy-chiatrically diagnosed chil-dren, before coming to ACU in 1990, where she and Clark met as new profes-sors. The two women had offices next to one another for 15 years, during which time Clark observed Van

Dunk’s passion and dedica-tion to her work.

“I think she had a heart for all people, but I think she felt real committed to sup-porting the African Ameri-can students,” Clark said.

Van Dunk was actively in-volved in the National Asso-ciation of Black Social Work Educators as well as the Na-tional Association of Social Workers, the Academy of Certified Social Workers, the North American Council of Christian Social Workers and the Council on Social Work Education.

She spent 10 years spon-soring a student social work club on campus, spending

after-hours time with stu-dents in the organization, Clark said.

Van Dunk’s students saw her as a mentor, but also knew her courses were chal-lenging, said Jean Isom, as-sistant professor of social work. Last year, Isom took over Van Dunk’s classes, and she said it gave her a new picture of Van Dunk.

“It gives you insight,” Isom said. “Brenda had an excep-tional ability to think about the product that would come out of the class.”

From the prayers pen-ciled in the margins to the

Van Dunk: Dedicated to God, work

By Mallory EdensPagE 2 Editor

With the recent minimum wage increase from $5.15 to $5.85 per hour, ACU depart-ments are facing budget delib-erations to decide whether or not to cut back on employees.

According to the Fair Mini-mum Wage Act of 2007, which President Bush signed into law on May 25, the minimum wage will stay at $5.85 an hour until July 25, 2008 when it will rise to $6.55 an hour. On July 25, 2009, it will rise to its final amount of $7.25

an hour. Kelly Young, chief fi-nancial officer, said he thinks the gradual increase will help with future budget planning.

“It’s been a lot of years since the minimum wage has gone up,” Young said. “They knew they needed a pretty big increase, so they did the three-year increase. Overall, the view we have taken is that everyone can try to deal with this first year’s pressure, and then we can plan for the future better. We aren’t anticipating any real impact this year.”

Wage increase leads to budget problems

By Daniel JohnsonSPortS Editor

The Shockley family returned from their summer vacation to find a hoard of crickets filling the bathroom shower and covering the kitchen floor of their apartment in Sherrod Hall.

The crickets slipped through the holes and cracks in the walls and doors of their apartment while the Shockleys were gone, and Troy Shockley, an ACU alumnus, had no choice but to clean out the apart-ment himself. He knew from expe-rience if he called the Residential Life Education and Housing Office nothing would get done.

“I had to get in there with a brush and bleach, and I told [my wife] to not even look because she would get sick,” Shockley said. “We’re just out here by ourselves.”

The apartment complex that houses about two dozen ACU stu-dents and their families is plagued with leaks, broken lights, broken doors, a lack of laundry facilities and, residents say, a lack of securi-ty. All the while the rent has contin-ued to go up and the list of needed repairs and services grows longer.

As of Thursday, John Delony, newly appointed director of Re-sLife, said he was presenting a proposal to Dr. Royce Money, presi-dent of the university, to end Sher-

rod as a residential facility. Delony said residents don’t need to worry, if the action is approved, it will not be immediate.

“What people need to know is that Sherrod is on ResLife’s radar,” said Delony, newly appointed direc-tor of ResLife. Delony, who has only been director of ResLife for three weeks said Sherrod has moved up on the ResLife priority list, and the university will take action, pending approval by the president.

“It would be irresponsible for me not to take an active role in this,” Delony said. He added that he planned to meet with residents to see what the problems are at Sherrod.

The residents’ rent for 2007 was raised to $595 from $570 last fall, and the Shockleys and other resi-dents wonder why. Little to no re-pairs or improvements have been made to the facility, and the Sherrod on-site director, the residents only connection to the university at Sher-rod, has not been replaced since leav-ing in the middle of the summer.

“One of the biggest things is there is no on-site director,” said Seth Shaver, graduate student in the College of Biblical Studies from Tyler. “If we run out of laundry cards, we have no one to go to; we have to go all the way to the ResLife

Residents fed up with Sherrod

By Jared FieldsEditor-in-ChiEf

Faculty and staff are taking the first steps to see whether ACU pursues becoming an iPhone university. At this early stage, the first steps are looking more like a golf shot.

“It’s just like that $1 million hole-in-one thing. I’ll pay my dollar and take a swing,” George Saltsman said. “The ball’s in the air, and that’s looking pretty good. I have no idea if it’s going to land in that hole or not, but it’s kind of exciting to see the ball going in that direction.”

Saltsman, director of Educational Technol-ogy in the Adams Center for Teaching Excel-lence, Bill Rankin, associate professor of Eng-lish, along with others want to bring Apple’s new iPhone to campus.

Those leading the charge met with faculty and staff Thursday at lunch to discuss the proposal to Apple and future steps regarding the iPhone.

Saltsman, Rankin and Dr. Kyle Dickson, as-sistant professor of English, presented on pod-casting in a similar luncheon that took place Wednesday. The lunch focused on podcasting and ACU’s use of iTunes University. Last year only a dozen or so faculty used iTunes U. Of them, most were in the distance learning pro-gram through ACU WorldWide.

This year, Saltsman said about 60 faculty members, or about one-fourth of the total fac-ulty at ACU, will podcast for their classes.

Nearly 70 faculty and staff members inter-ested in testing the iPhone attended Thurs-day’s luncheon in the Campus Center Living Room to hear about the iPhone’s possibilities. Faculty and staff must submit proposals to re-ceive iPhones for a two-year commitment to be a part of a research team dedicated to find-ing the usefulness of this new product. Friday is the deadline for applicants to turn in the proposal. It is not known exactly how many will be selected for the research group.

Katie GaGer CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER

Troy Shockley’s nearly two-year-old daughter sweeps up a cricket Wednesday as a daily ritual.

iPod + ACU: iPossible?

Van Dunk

See iPod page 7

See SHERROD page 7

See VAN DUNK page 7 See WAGE page 7

JOrDaN BLaKeY PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

The annual Ben Richey Boys Ranch Chili Super Bowl, which is held in Buffalo Gap, needs help Saturday and Sunday selling tick-ets and working in the kids area.

There is an urgent need on campus for trans-typists for a hearing-impaired student. This requires sitting with the student in class and taking notes on her personal laptop. Class times are Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to 1:20 p.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:30 to 2:50 p.m. Contact Mattia Bray at (325) 674-2554 for more information.

Texas Family Institute needs volunteers Tuesdays from 6 to 9 p.m. at various locations begin-ning Sept. 15 to help baby sit for families who have a parent de-ployed to Iraq.

A Teen Conference will be held at the Abilene Civic Center Sept. 15 between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Volunteers are needed to as-sist with classes and cleanup.

The Office of Ministry Events needs volunteer ushers at Lec-tureship Sept. 16 through 19 from 6 to 8 p.m. to help guests find seats and help elderly or disabled guests with the stairs.

Labor Day

9 p.m.Seekers of the Word will hold an interest meeting in the Onstead-Packer Biblical Studies Building Room 130.

Electronic check-in closes

Last day to register for classes.

Last day to withdraw from a class for a complete refund.

6:45 p.m.Dinner begins for Fall Dinner Theatre. Tickets for dinner and the show, ‘Star Spangled Girl,’ are $25.

8 p.m.‘Star Spangled Girl’ will be performed in Fulks Theatre. Tickets for the show only are $12. For tickets, call (325) 674-2787.

8 p.m.‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’ will be shown in Cullen Auditorium. Admission is free of charge with a student ID. Candy is $.25, and drinks are $.50.

7 a.m.A garage sale will be held at 1310 Piedmont Drive to benefi t the Little Hands Big Hearts organization in Honduras to help fi nish building a perimeter around its building.

8 a.m.Cross Country Classic at Sherrod Residential Park.

6:45 p.m.Dinner begins for Fall Dinner Theatre. Tickets for dinner and the show, ‘Star Spangled Girl,’ are $25.

8 p.m.‘Star Spangled Girl’ will be performed in Fulks Theatre. Tickets for the show only are $12. For tickets, call (325) 674-2787.

“The Next Generation: Contemporary Expressions of Faith” art exhibit opens at the Shore Art Gallery. The travelling exhibit features 25 Judeo-Christian artists.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Calendar Events&

The Optimist maintains this calendar for the ACU community to keep track of local social, academic and service opportunities.

Groups may send announcements directly to optimist@acu.edu or to the Page 2 Editor at mxe06a@acu.edu.

To ensure that an item will appear on time, the announcement should be sent at least 10 days before. The Optimist may edit items for space and style.

Corrections and clarifi cations of published news articles will be printed in this space in a timely manner.

About This Page

Friday, August 31, 2007

Announcements Volunteer Opportunities

03 Monday31 Friday 01 Saturday 04 Tuesday

Don’t forget to electronically check in this week. Any student who fails to do this will be dropped from all classes they are signed up for. Elec-tronic check-in will close Friday.

Any student interested in pledging a social club must regis-ter by Friday at noon. Go to www.acu.edu/social clubs to register. Stu-dents must be in their second year and meet eligibility requirements listed on the Web site to register.

Join the new outdoor exercise classes. Forever Fit includes class-es focusing on cardio workouts, yoga, pilates and core strength. Classes for the fall are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 6 to 7 a.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30 to 7 p.m. These classes cost $25 per month for either the 6 a.m. or the 5:30 p.m. classes,

or $35 a month for access to all classes. Nutritional counseling and wellness services are also avail-able. Visit www.foreverfi tabilene.blogspot.com for more information.

Sign up to play in a new ACU orchestra ensemble. The ensem-ble, the ACU Camerata, is headed up by the music department this year. The Camerata will play chamber orchestra literature and will perform one concert per semester. The class meets Fridays from 2 to 2:50 p.m. Students who are interested in being a part of this group should contact Steven Ward at steven.ward@acu.edu as soon as possible.

Interested in Service? Apply for the Service Action Leadership Team, also known as S.A.L.T. Join other students in service to the community and leadership around

campus. S.A.L.T. applications are available in the Volunteer Service-Learning Center, located down-stairs next to the Bean Sprout, and are due Sept. 7.

Attention all student groups requesting funds from the Stu-dents’ Association for the fall se-mester. Budgets are due no later than Sept. 7 at 5 p.m. To submit a budget, use the program located on the Students’ Association Web site, www.acustudents.com.

Lectureship will be held Sept. 16 though 19. The theme for this year’s Lectureship is ‘Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly: Messages from Micah.’ The afternoon schedule will now feature workshops on topics includ-ing gospel and culture, justice and mercy, marketplace faith, missional leadership and youth ministry.

CreditedChapelsto date:

CreditedChapelsremaining:

Chapel Checkup04 62

Corrections:In the sports article “Cats win fi rst home game” that ran on August 29, the by-line incorrectly attributed Sports Editor Daniel Johnson with writing the story.

The attribution should have gone to Sports Writer Christina Johnson. In the article, “a Silence Production tries new things, gains popularity’ that ran

August 29, Ryan Feerer’s name was misspelled as “Feere.” The Optimist apologizes for these errors.

By Rachel DavisOPINION EDITOR

They’ve played on ACU’s campus numerous times. They’ve even toured the South and played in places like Memphis and Nashville. But this time, the members of Homer Hiccolm and the Rock-etboys are aiming for an op-portunity that would certainly skyrocket their careers.

The band is in a contest to play at Austin City Limits, and at press time the end re-sults weren’t available, but they’ve kept a solid top 5 ranking since the beginning.

“I definitely can see this contest becoming a catalyst for other things,” said Bran-don Kinder, (’06) the band’s lead singer. “Tons of people go, and it’s a great chance for a lot of exposure.”

Austin City Limits is an annual music festival where big names in the music in-dustry perform. This year’s lineup includes performers like Bjork, The Killers and headliner Bob Dylan.

“There are so many great bands,” Kinder said. “Coming this far has been really flattering.”

During round one of the contest, the band stayed at No. 1 or No. 2 out of more than 100 other bands and made it through to the next round by having all of their fans vote for them on the Web site. In round two, judg-es picked the top 20 for vot-ers to vote on in round three. After round three ends, the top five bands will go to Austin to play for judges, and the band that wins there gets to play in the contest.

“I think we would be a re-ally great fit for the festival,”

said Philip Ellis, senior man-agement major from Van and the band’s drummer. “It would definitely propel our vision of making this band our full-time jobs.”

“Even though we haven’t made it there yet, we’re still getting contacted by a lot of people,” Kinder said.

ACL isn’t the only new thing the Rocketboys have going on. The band also plans to release a new five-song EP on Sept. 27 called “Sing, Bird, Sing.” The CD includes the songs “Do I Wake or Sleep,” “As People Often Do,” “Secrets and Numbers,” “Heartbeat,” and “Old Dahlonega.”

“We’re really looking forward to [the release] be-cause we haven’t had a stu-dio recording in two years,” Kinder said.

“I think it is the most representative CD of ours so far,” Ellis said. “Every-thing about the CD has been thought over, and we just really put our blood and sweat into it.”

Along with the CD re-lease, there will be a CD re-lease concert, and the band plans to play with Lovebeat and Comrade. The location hasn’t been decided yet, but Kinder said they’re working on finding a good place for the concert.

Ellis said he’s excited the band has so much go-ing on right now and said he really hopes they make it to ACL.

“But if we don’t make it there, we’ll still just contin-ue to play music and have fun doing it,” Ellis said.

Homer Hiccolm aims for Austin

E-mail Davis at: red04a@acu.edu

Friday, August 31, 2007 Page 3CAMPUS NEWS

By Kelsi PeaceManaging Editor

Campaigns will soon reach full swing as Students’ Association senator and rep-resentative hopefuls prepare for the Sept. 11 elections.

And this year, election chair and SA vice president Daniel-Paul Watkins will in-terview candidates in per-son as part of a front-end screening process to be sure the candidate is prepared to follow election rules.

While Watkins cannot stop a candidate from run-ning, he did say he could ad-vise against it if a candidate does not seem to be willing to make the time commit-ment or comply with elec-tion rules.

Petitions have been avail-able in the SA office in the Bean Sprout since Monday, and Watkins said he has not met with any candidates who caused him concern.

Watkins, who writes the election rules and proce-dures, struck the ability to dock votes from candidates who violate rules from the document, a move that came after last year’s congress struck down legislation he co-wrote to remove the rule.

“We go to Abilene Chris-tian University,” Watkins said, “It’s the ‘Do the right thing’ theme.”

To avoid any confusion, Watkins said he wrote the procedures as clearly as possible, concluding “The intended meaning of the

rules and procedures in this document are at the discre-tion of the Students’ Asso-ciation Congress, the presi-dent and vice president of the Students’ Association, and the elections chair.”

The call for members of the SA Congress to uphold a higher standard reflects a general movement for the organization, Watkins said.

“We’re calling everybody to a higher standard.”

This includes, Watkins said, expecting Cabinet members to wear business casual to all meetings and expecting Congress mem-bers to attend meetings. Last year, Congress could not vote on several issues because not enough mem-bers were present.

“People are going to be held accountable for the things they do,” Watkins said.

Candidates vying for po-sitions as senators, resi-dence hall representatives or academic representatives are required to obtain sig-natures from 10 percent of their constituents or a mini-mum of 15 signatures.

To acknowledge their ac-ceptance of the rules, can-didates deposit $10, which will not be returned if the candidate receives a viola-tion, and will then be used at SA’s discretion, accord-ing to the rules.

As candidates plaster walls with posters, they must bear in mind their budget limits—$60 for class senators and representa-

tives and have all materials pre-approved by the elec-tions chair.

The difference between a senator and a representa-tive, Watkins said, is that a senator address broader is-sues for the class as a whole, while the representative may focus on more specific issues, for instance, install-ing an air hockey table in a residence hall lobby.

Students can vote af-ter Chapel until 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and results will be an-nounced by 8 p.m. Wednes-day. If necessary, run-offs will begin after Chapel until 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

SA interviews candidates, prepares for vote

By Denton JoseyFEaturEs Editor

While most ACU students are gone for the summer, international students visit campus for three weeks.

Thirty Japanese students from Ibaraki Christian High School in Ibaraki, Japan, lived in University Park Apartments and attended classes. In the evening and on weekends, they took trips to see the local culture.

Dr. Harland Rall, assis-tant professor of foreign language, is in his second year as director of the pro-gram. Jeff Haseltine, assis-tant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and as-sistant professor of foreign language, and Randy Voss, ICHS program sponsor and English as a Second Lan-guage teacher, both taught in Ibaraki and started the program in 1995.

“ T h e y wanted those students to have a study abroad ex-posure,” Rall said.

The pro-gram was created for intercultural, cross-cultural communication.

“You learn so much more when you go to the country and live in the country versus mere studying about the lan-guage and culture,” Rall said.

A highlight of the program for the Japanese students is the opportunity to interact with ACU students on a daily basis while they are learning English.

Rall said the high school students enjoyed the con-tact of student tutoring, and their English improved while they were in Abilene.

“The small segment of fac-ulty that teaches the courses,

plus the conversation tutors, build friendships for life, quite frankly,” Rall said.

In an effort to help oth-ers go to Japan, an endowed scholarship, the Voss-Hasel-tine Endowed Scholarship for Asian Studies, begins.

It will generate money to help ACU students go to Japan for language and cul-ture or possibly even China and Korea. The scholarship would be worth $1,000 to $1,200 a year.

“When the international studies major came, we only had majors with concentra-tions in Europe and Latin America,” Rall said. “Begin-ning this year, we are official-ly approved to offer majors in East Asia and the Middle East. We want to help more students engage the world.”

Rall said he estimates 15 of the 30 Japanese students attending ACU were a part of this program. He said three

to five students go back ev-ery summer and decide to come to ACU for college.

“They like ACU as a cam-pus, they like Abilene as a city and the people; something clicks and they want to come back,” Rall said.

Haruka Kanasumi, fresh-man art major from Ibaraki, Japan, is one of those stu-dents. She came in the sum-mer of 2005 when she was 16. She said talking with Ameri-can people was the most fun.

”It was very helpful to know American culture and in studying English,” she said.

Seeing Abilene for the first time was memorable for Kanasumi.

“It was my first time to come to America, so I thought this was America,” she said. “Everything was bigger than in Japan.”

Not only do the students enjoy the program but also the tutors. Sarah Martinez,

graduate student in the Eng-lish department from Victo-ria, was a tutor this summer.

“Every day we would spend one hour with the students doing conversation to help them with their Eng-lish,” Martinez said.

Martinez, like the Japa-nese students, also visited ACU while she was still in high school and remembers thinking how cool it was to see the Japanese students around campus.

“It’s really interesting get-ting to know them just as people and also as people from another culture,” Mar-tinez said. “It was definitely something that changed my perspective of people in gen-eral, not just Japanese people. There are things in common with all cultures, and it’s hard to realize until you come in contact with them.”

Japanese high school students experience universityE-mail Peace at: knp03a@acu.edu

E-mail Josey at: jdj03e@acu.edu

Rall

Friday, August 31, 2007Page 4 CAMPUS NEWS

myACU tailored to student needs

Campus clinic adopts new systemBy Mallory Edens

Page 2 editor

The campus medical clinic will soon adopt a new digital electronic records system, PracticeIT, which will eliminate the need for paper records.

ACU will be the first uni-versity to use this system, and medical clinic staff members are anxiously awaiting its arrival.

“I think it will be better quality and quicker service,” Kathy Stokes, medical clinic office manager, said. “Right now we just have a schedul-ing system and have paper records. The Doc has to dictate his notes. [With Prac-ticeIT,] when a patient calls, we won’t have to find their records, put them on hold, call the Doctor and then take the call. The doctor can just take the call immediately and pull up their files on the com-puter. It will be a great benefit to students, and we could get back into seeing staff again.”

PracticeIT is going to supply the system, and they are working with Da-vid Gibson to make Practi-ceIT and Banner interface together. Because ACU is the beta test site for Practi-ceIT, the school is getting a good deal on the program.

“We are going to help them test out all the bugs,” Stokes said. “We are get-ting a $40,000 to $50,000 system for a lot cheaper.”

Going digital means virtu-ally all paperwork will be elim-inated, as all scheduling, bill-ing, and prescription orders will be done on the computer.

“The only thing students will have to do is fill out their HIPAA forms and medical re-lease form,” Stokes said. “Then we will scan those in, throw [the forms] away and they will be kept in the computer.”

Students will also be able to enter their information on-

line and email it to the medi-cal clinic. This means patients will spend less time sitting in the waiting room and filling out information before every doctor visit.

“We are trying to make it easier for students to get in and have quality care without having to worry about docu-

mentation,” Stokes said. “We are trying to make everything more efficient but keep the one-on-one attention Dr. Rec-tor gives. ”

There are other benefits to the system. Follow-ups can be faxed, and a student can di-rectly call their pharmacy to get refills through a system called e-script, instead of hav-ing to go through the doctor.

“It will allow for quicker ac-cess and no waiting,” Stokes said. “All they have to do is call their pharmacy to reauthorize refills, and the doctor won’t have to handwrite scripts anymore. The e-script system will allow prescriptions to go straight to the pharmacy of their choice.”

The medical clinic can even send student information to other schools over the com-puter when needed, like if a student transfers schools.

Stokes said these timesav-ing tools are important to have for students.

“I think anything [is great] that we can do to help the kids and keep them out of the emergency rooms, which are more costly than the clinic, or waiting until Christmas to get their parents to schedule them an appointment,” she said. “You don’t want to let

things go too long.” The system will also help

the clinic avoid losing files, which is one of their biggest problems, Stokes said.

During the visit, Dr. Tony Rector will be able to present three- to four-minute videos to patients to help them better understand their conditions

and health care options. The only paperwork the Doctor will have to use now, Stokes said, is any supplementary educational pamphlets he wishes to pass out.

The clinic has other goals for the future once this sys-tem is installed.

“We can dream all we want. It’s just finding the ways and the means to do that,” Stokes said. “I can see working around students’ schedules as a possibility, maybe text mes-saging or calling people before their appointment so all they have to do is sign in and walk back. I am hoping the medical clinic and the counseling cen-ter will be a part of the [Sports Recreation Center] so it will be easier for people to find us.”

The medical clinic is also looking at other technology that they would like to adopt. Stokes likes the idea of getting aqua therapy and work site wellness programs.

“Anything we can do to decrease the amount of time people are away from work will only benefit the ACU community and them-selves because they will be healthier,” she said.

E-mail Edens at: mxe06a@acu.edu

By Rachel DavisoPinions editor

ACU should soon be a fea-tured university on iTunesU, a program that allows universi-ties to post lectures, student work and just about anything pertaining to the university.

iTunesU allows universities to have space on the iTunes music store, and once ACU gets all of its content on the site, it will be on a featured list on the iTunes store, said George Saltsman, director of educational technology.

“It’s a really valuable piece of real estate,” Saltsman said. “The fact that we’ve got our ma-terial and educational content up there is amazing.”

Currently, about 45 courses have posted class-related ma-terials on the ACU iTunes site, and several more professors have shown a lot of interest in the new technology, said Car-

men Foster, ACU’s webmaster. “We’ve got enough con-

tent now to submit to Apple to be a registered site,” Fos-ter said. “But we had to take it slowly at first—anytime you take on a technology initiative like this, you need to roll it out in stages.”

ACU is one of the first 100 schools that Apple asked to participate in this program. The site includes content pro-fessors put up for classes, an ACU community area, special events, chapel speeches and other student resources. Even ACU bands O Scarlet and Hom-er Hiccolm and the Rocketboys have some songs on the site. One English professor is us-ing essays from his class for podcasts and plans are in the works to extend that opportu-nity to Abilene residents.

“Apple really wanted a lot of content available to the public,” Saltsman said. “Their intentions

all along have been to open the doors to the public and put aca-demic content out there.”

The site allows anyone to listen to lectures from several different universities across the country and provides a whole new way to network from school to school.

“You can get a Harvard de-gree without even having to pay the tuition,” Saltsman said. “Part of the 21st Century Vision is giving a higher quality educa-tion. We want that to be evident and we feel this is one of the most public ways to show it.”

In June, some ACU staff met with the head of the iTunesU program and talked about changes and opportunities for ACU to be a part of iTunesU.

“It’s definitely spurred a lot of innovation and creativity on campus,” Foster said.

E-mail Valle at: vmv04a@acu.edu

By Val Valleonline editor

The recently changed myA-CU has been up and running for over a week now, and the feed-back has been largely positive.

“The biggest benefit [of my-ACU] is the ability to custom-ize,” said David Gibson, direc-tor of computing services.

Gibson is referring to the capabilities that allow users to change the look and feel of their myACU. This in-cludes choosing how many columns users want on their page, or even what color they prefer their myACU to be. Users can even decide what content they want on their page, including their favorite Web sites.

“We wanted to give people the ability to decide what’s important to them, while still keeping the old stuff

like The Depot tab, and ACU news”, said Gibson.

But even some of the old features have been updated to make things more convenient for students. For instance, students can now purchase campus cash or their parking permits on myACU, instead of having to go to The Depot to make changes.

Gibson said there are plans to make more changes like this that will help things become faster and more convenient for students.

For Scott Delony, alumnus and digital media specialist for strategic marketing, the new myACU is definitely about con-venience and customization.

“It’s a time saver”, said Delo-ny. “All I have to do is visit one Web site instead of like five, be-cause I’ve customized myACU to link to other Web sites I view

on a daily basis.”Though, Delony admits

that the new myACU can be a little confusing to those who are used to the old ver-sion of myACU.

“Some of the terminology needs to be explained, may-be through some tutorials” said Delony.

So far though, there are no plans in motion to create a tu-torial. However, Gibson pointed out that there is a help link in the right corner on the home page for users who are hav-ing trouble getting used to the new myACU.

“It is our hope that we have implemented a way for stu-dents to want to keep coming back to myACU”, said Gibson.

iTunesU to feature ACU on list

E-mail Davis at: red04a@acu.edu

““We are trying to make it easier for students to get in and have quality care without having to

worry about documentation.”

Kathy Stokes, medical office manager

Friday, August 31, 2007Page 4 CAMPUS NEWS

myACU tailored to student needs

Campus clinic adopts new systemBy Mallory Edens

Page 2 editor

The campus medical clinic will soon adopt a new digital electronic records system, PracticeIT, which will eliminate the need for paper records.

ACU will be the first uni-versity to use this system, and medical clinic staff members are anxiously awaiting its arrival.

“I think it will be better quality and quicker service,” Kathy Stokes, medical clinic office manager, said. “Right now we just have a schedul-ing system and have paper records. The Doc has to dictate his notes. [With Prac-ticeIT,] when a patient calls, we won’t have to find their records, put them on hold, call the Doctor and then take the call. The doctor can just take the call immediately and pull up their files on the com-puter. It will be a great benefit to students, and we could get back into seeing staff again.”

PracticeIT is going to supply the system, and they are working with Da-vid Gipson to make Practi-ceIT and Banner interface together. Because ACU is the beta test site for Practi-ceIT, the school is getting a good deal on the program.

“We are going to help them test out all the bugs,” Stokes said. “We are get-ting a $40,000 to $50,000 system for a lot cheaper.”

Going digital means virtu-ally all paperwork will be elim-inated, as all scheduling, bill-ing, and prescription orders will be done on the computer.

“The only thing students will have to do is fill out their HIPAA forms and medical re-lease form,” Stokes said. “Then we will scan those in, throw [the forms] away and they will be kept in the computer.”

Students will also be able to enter their information on-

line and email it to the medi-cal clinic. This means patients will spend less time sitting in the waiting room and filling out information before every doctor visit.

“We are trying to make it easier for students to get in and have quality care without having to worry about docu-

mentation,” Stokes said. “We are trying to make everything more efficient but keep the one-on-one attention Dr. Rec-tor gives. ”

There are other benefits to the system. Follow-ups can be faxed, and a student can di-rectly call their pharmacy to get refills through a system called e-script, instead of hav-ing to go through the doctor.

“It will allow for quicker ac-cess and no waiting,” Stokes said. “All they have to do is call their pharmacy to reauthorize refills, and the doctor won’t have to handwrite scripts anymore. The e-script system will allow prescriptions to go straight to the pharmacy of their choice.”

The medical clinic can even send student information to other schools over the com-puter when needed, like if a student transfers schools.

Stokes said these timesav-ing tools are important to have for students.

“I think anything [is great] that we can do to help the kids and keep them out of the emergency rooms, which are more costly than the clinic, or waiting until Christmas to get their parents to schedule them an appointment,” she said. “You don’t want to let

things go too long.” The system will also help

the clinic avoid losing files, which is one of their biggest problems, Stokes said.

During the visit, Dr. Tony Rector will be able to present three- to four-minute videos to patients to help them better understand their conditions

and health care options. The only paperwork the Doctor will have to use now, Stokes said, is any supplementary educational pamphlets he wishes to pass out.

The clinic has other goals for the future once this sys-tem is installed.

“We can dream all we want. It’s just finding the ways and the means to do that,” Stokes said. “I can see working around students’ schedules as a possibility, maybe text mes-saging or calling people before their appointment so all they have to do is sign in and walk back. I am hoping the medical clinic and the counseling cen-ter will be a part of the [Sports Recreation Center] so it will be easier for people to find us.”

The medical clinic is also looking at other technology that they would like to adopt. Stokes likes the idea of getting aqua therapy and work site wellness programs.

“Anything we can do to decrease the amount of time people are away from work will only benefit the ACU community and them-selves because they will be healthier,” she said.

E-mail Edens at: mxe06a@acu.edu

By Rachel DavisoPinions editor

ACU should soon be a fea-tured university on iTunesU, a program that allows universi-ties to post lectures, student work and just about anything pertaining to the university.

iTunesU allows universities to have space on the iTunes music store, and once ACU gets all of its content on the site, it will be on a featured list on the iTunes store, said George Saltsman, director of educational technology.

“It’s a really valuable piece of real estate,” Saltsman said. “The fact that we’ve got our ma-terial and educational content up there is amazing.”

Currently, about 45 courses have posted class-related ma-terials on the ACU iTunes site, and several more professors have shown a lot of interest in the new technology, said Car-

men Foster, ACU’s webmaster. “We’ve got enough con-

tent now to submit to Apple to be a registered site,” Fos-ter said. “But we had to take it slowly at first—anytime you take on a technology initiative like this, you need to roll it out in stages.”

ACU is one of the first 100 schools that Apple asked to participate in this program. The site includes content pro-fessors put up for classes, an ACU community area, special events, chapel speeches and other student resources. Even ACU bands O Scarlet and Hom-er Hiccolm and the Rocketboys have some songs on the site. One English professor is us-ing essays from his class for podcasts and plans are in the works to extend that opportu-nity to Abilene residents.

“Apple really wanted a lot of content available to the public,” Saltsman said. “Their intentions

all along have been to open the doors to the public and put aca-demic content out there.”

The site allows anyone to listen to lectures from several different universities across the country and provides a whole new way to network from school to school.

“You can get a Harvard de-gree without even having to pay the tuition,” Saltsman said. “Part of the 21st Century Vision is giving a higher quality educa-tion. We want that to be evident and we feel this is one of the most public ways to show it.”

In June, some ACU staff met with the head of the iTunesU program and talked about changes and opportunities for ACU to be a part of iTunesU.

“It’s definitely spurred a lot of innovation and creativity on campus,” Foster said.

E-mail Valle at: vmv04a@acu.edu

By Val Valleonline editor

The recently changed myA-CU has been up and running for over a week now, and the feed-back has been largely positive.

“The biggest benefit [of my-ACU] is the ability to custom-ize,” said David Gibson, direc-tor of computing services.

Gibson is referring to the capabilities that allow users to change the look and feel of their myACU. This in-cludes choosing how many columns users want on their page, or even what color they prefer their myACU to be. Users can even decide what content they want on their page, including their favorite Web sites.

“We wanted to give people the ability to decide what’s important to them, while still keeping the old stuff

like The Depot tab, and ACU news”, said Gibson.

But even some of the old features have been updated to make things more convenient for students. For instance, students can now purchase campus cash or their parking permits on myACU, instead of having to go to The Depot to make changes.

Gibson said there are plans to make more changes like this that will help things become faster and more convenient for students.

For Scott Delony, alumnus and digital media specialist for strategic marketing, the new myACU is definitely about con-venience and customization.

“It’s a time saver”, said Delo-ny. “All I have to do is visit one Web site instead of like five, be-cause I’ve customized myACU to link to other Web sites I view

on a daily basis.”Though, Delony admits

that the new myACU can be a little confusing to those who are used to the old ver-sion of myACU.

“Some of the terminology needs to be explained, may-be through some tutorials” said Delony.

So far though, there are no plans in motion to create a tu-torial. However, Gibson pointed out that there is a help link in the right corner on the home page for users who are hav-ing trouble getting used to the new myACU.

“It is our hope that we have implemented a way for stu-dents to want to keep coming back to myACU”, said Gibson.

iTunesU to feature ACU on list

E-mail Davis at: red04a@acu.edu

““We are trying to make it easier for students to get in and have quality care without having to

worry about documentation.”

Kathy Stokes, medical office manager

Newly released movies and gross rates for August 24-26.

n Superbad (R): $18.0 Million

n The Bourne Ultimatum (PG-13): $12.4 Million

n Rush Hour 3 (PG-13): $12.2 Million

n Mr. Bean’s Holiday (G): $10.1 Million

n War (R): $10.0 Million

Coming SoonMovies opening Friday:

n Halloween, starring Tyler Mane, Sheri Moon Zombie, Scout Taylor-Compton, William Forsythe. As a child, young Michael Myers com-mitted one of the worst crimes imaginable. He has now grown into an emotionless man deter-mined to escape back to his home town of Haddonfield and complete the murderous mission he began so many years ago.

n Death Sentence, starring Kevin Bacon, Garrett Hedlund, Kelly Preston, Aisha Tyler. Nick Hume (Bacon) is an executive of a company with a perfect life, until one ungorgetable night he witnesses something that changes him forever. Trans-formed by grief, he will stop at nothing to avenge his family.

n The Nine, starring Ryan Re-nolds, Hope Davis, Melissa Mc-Carthy. These three actors play in different scenarios, which include a troubled TV star, a show tracing a sitcom and an acclaimed video-game designer. These all compro-mise the movie, and all three char-acters find their lives intertwining in mysterious ways.

Box offiCe StatS

Page 5August 31, 2007

ArtsFridAyOptimist

‘Star Spangled Girl’ intensely funnyBy Sara Snelson

Arts Editor

“What are the chances of a guy like you and a girl like me ending up to-gether,” Lloyd Christmas asked Mary Swanson in Dumb and Dumber.

Mary responds, “I’d say more like one out of a million.”

Lloyd, obviously a whiz in the love department, says, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance.”

In ‘Star Spangled Girl,’ Norman, one of the main characters, becomes love-stricken and obsessed with Sophie the minute he sees her and follows in Llloyd’s footsteps along the path of stupidity and rejection.

‘Star Spangled Girl’ is about two eccentric left-

ists, Norman and Andy, played by Jeremy Varner and Ben McLemore, pub-lish a failing magazine called Fallout, dedicated to fighting “the system” in America. The play takes place in San Francisco in the 1960s, which would explain why Norman and Andy are fighting “the sys-tem.” Vietnam did not do good things for the ’60s.

Sophie, played by Tabitha Ray, who just moved in next door, is a spastic, Southern girl who is peppy, witty and stuck in her own political, America-is-No. 1 way.

The entirety of the play, Norman remains obsessed and bedeviled by Sophie. And when I say bedeviled, I mean stalking to a creepy extent, somewhat like

Facebook.com. Lucky for Sophie, the Internet was not around, and Norman could not look at her hun-dreds of pictures. Nor-man mopped her floors, watched her through tele-scopes, smelled her and followed her to work. You know, all of the usual “I’m in love” routines.

Now, this might be fine with Sophie if she felt the same way about him. How-ever, she despises Norman and his sinister ways of going about her. He gives her insulting gifts, such as a box of canned foods and follows her to work. The result is Sophie losing her job and Norman taking an unwanted trip to the po-lice station.

While Norman is mop-ping floors and oblivious to everything around him, Sophie, who you think hates Andy throughout the entire production, ends up falling in love with him, but she has no idea why. They are con-stantly bickering with each other because they have absolutely nothing in common and are on opposite ends of the po-litical spectrum. I guess what they say is true, “op-posites do attract.”

The play continues on with constant bickering, broken dishes, handcuffs and death threats, which adds to the amusement of the overwhelming love triangle.

This dysfunctional story is full of constant humor

and never stops to take a breather. Every character adds their own unique and comical attitude while they all continually bump heads.

I wondered through-out the entire produc-tion if they would ever stop fighting with each other. It was like watch-ing a political debate or Bill O’Reilly, which is somewhat annoying and should always come with earplugs.

This comedy is exceed-ingly amusing and over-whelming to the audi-ence’s eyes and ears. The actors exceedingly portray their obscure characters and never leave a dull mo-ment in the production.

‘Star Spangled Girl’ runs this Friday and Sat-urday and Sept. 7-8 at Fulks Theatre and begins at 8p.m.

Katie GaGer CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER

Jeremy Varner, Tabitha Ray and Ben McLemore all bickering in ‘Star Spangled Girl.’

Katie GaGer CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER

Ben McLemore and Jeremy Varner fight over the housewarming cake they received. e-mail Snelson at: sas04b@acu.edu

ViewsFridayOptimistPage 6 Friday, August 31, 2007

Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Optimist and may not necessarily reflect the views of the university or its administration.

Signed columns, cartoons and letters are the opinions of their creators and may not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of the Optimist or the university.

The Optimist encourages reader response through letters to the editor but reserves the right to limit frequent contributors or to refuse to print letters containing personal

attacks, obscenity, defamation, erroneous information or invasion of privacy.

Please limit letters to 350 words or fewer. A name and phone number must be included for verification purposes. Phone numbers will not be published.

Address letters to:ACU Box 27892

Abilene, TX 79699

E-mail letters to: optimist@acu.edu

Editorial and letter policy

Published by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication

Newsroom:(325) 674-2439

Sports desk:(325) 674-2684

Photo department:(325) 674-2499

Advertising office:(325) 674-2463

Subscriptions ($40/academic year):(325) 674-2296.

Online:www.acuoptimist.com

Editorial and Management Board

Jared FieldsEditor in Chief

Kelsi PeaceManaging Editor

Lauren SuttonCopy Editor

Rachel DavisOpinion Editor

Katie GagerChief Photographer

Denton JoseyFeatures Editor

Daniel JohnsonSports Editor

Sara SnelsonArts Editor

Camille TurnerVideo Editor

Christi StarkAdvertising Manager

Kenneth PybusAdviser

Val Valle Online Editor

In Your WordsWhat do you think of the new Campus Center renovations?

Katy GallowaySenior social work major from Coppell.

It’s nice, but the lines are still crazy and it’s too crowded.

My first impression was, “Dang.” when I opened the door.

Jordan LyonsSenior missions major from Tyler.

I think it’s good because it’s more spacious and I like the tile floors.

Angelica MendozaSophomore nursing major from Tuscola.

Alex YorkLebensgefahr

The issue:The Campus Center renovations dramatically changed the layout of the first floor.

Our view:The Optimist thinks the university did a good job of listening to the students and their needs that they expressed through surveys.

The solution:We hope the administration continues to listen to student opinions on projects like this and take our input seriously.

Campus center renovations benefit student bodyBravo. This is the sound

of the Optimist applauding the university for bearing in mind students and their input when Dining Services unveiled the renovated Mc-Glothlin Campus Center.

While the Optimist is wary of becoming the university’s cheerleader, such obvious ef-fort—and success—deserves some praise.

Aesthetically, the reno-vations took the Campus Center from a vaguely ‘80s era to a more modern time with easy-to-clean tile floors and actually accessible res-taurants. Even better is the

ease at which stu-dents can still walk t h r o u g h the Campus Center if they are not eating or sit with friends if they are.

For the first time, students have a place to eat where they will not be smothered by those waiting in line for the Bean or displaced by Bean Sprout patrons. There is plenty of room to eat, stand in line and walk.

The much-anticipated Quiznos finally materialized on campus, providing stu

dents the healthier fast food alternative they have been pleading for in countless Zoo-merang surveys and campus favorites like Chick-fil-A and Freshens remained.

Prices seem to be com-petitive, and so far lines have not been unmanage-able—even during the post-Chapel rush.

The renovations opened up the Campus Center and gave it a feeling reminiscent

of many college campus’ stu-dent centers.

And per-haps the great-

est news is that this change is only the first half of pro-posed renovations. The World Famous Bean is slated to undergo a drastic change in summer 2008, bringing food preparations from be-hind the scenes to where students can see them, An-thony Williams told SA last spring.

Complaints about the Bean are pervasive among many students, and we can

only hope the changes to the Bean will prove as positive as those to the rest of the Campus Center.

As the 21st Century Vi-sion moves forward and administrators select in-vestments that support their mission, we hope they continue to seek out stu-dent opinions—and listen to them. In the meantime, we’ll be enjoying the new Campus Center.

We hope they continue to seek out student opinions— and listen to them.

Every Saturday during the fall, there’s only one thing on my mind: college football,

and more s p e c i f i -cally, Gator football.

The sad-dest day of the year for me is the day after the BCS na-tional cham-p i o n s h i p , and I realize there’s no more foot-

ball for several months. This year, I even started a countdown until the begin-ning of the season.

I was born and raised as a Gator fan, and in my opin-ion, there’s almost no great-er thing to live for than that first season opener.

The thrill of the game

(OK, maybe the season opener isn’t that thrilling), the joy of victory—it’s my addiction. But the sad thing is that football is and al-ways has been considered a man’s sport.

What’s so wrong with girls sitting down on the couch, remote in hand, and getting ready to enjoy a Saturday filled with great sport and athleticism? Why is it that almost every time I wear a T-shirt supporting my team, I’m asked if I even pay attention to its games?

Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I don’t know anything about football. I can tell you that the SEC football championship as it is today began in 1992, and I can tell

you who won that champion-ship every single year since.

By the way, Florida has the highest number of SEC championships since 1992, but that’s not a plug for how awesome they are or anything like that.

I can even sit down and analyze why a team just can’t use a passing offense and why some teams just need to stop running the same five plays every single game (oh Mike Shula, that was only part of your downfall).

I also can give you sever-al reasons why the BCS sys-tem needs to be completely revamped—yes, a Florida Ga-tor fan is against the BCS.

My weekend free time during football season is

devoted to watching games and ESPN commentary.

Therefore, I submit that while I am female, I know more about football than a lot of males do, and I pro-pose an end to the sexist football-related prejudices that have held our society imprisoned for so long.

Guys, it’s time for you to give the girls a little more credit. Realize that some of us do pay attention, and you might just get a great conversation out of us.

Girls, it’s our time to step up and break through the gender barriers that have held us back for so long. It’s time to reclaim the couch and remote control—maybe even the chips and dip, if no one’s looking.

Football not just for the guys anymore

Work InProgressRachelDavis

I propose an end to the sexist football-related prejudices that have held our society imprisoned for so long.

E-mail Davis at: red04a@acu.edu, optimist@acu.edu

E-mail the Optimist at: optimist@acu.edu

A nameless Iraqi dentist opened my eyes to the daily tragedies of the Iraq War.

He doesn’t disclose his name, and his English isn’t perfect, but his blog, “The Last of the Iraqis,” is an insightful and mind-blowing ac-count of a life surrounded by death.

In his blog, the dentist who lives in Baghdad, Iraq, describes his daily interactions, fears, hopes, desires and thoughts he encounters in the war-ravaged region. And wheth-er he explains his daily fear of death or tells his account of a city f l o o d e d with AK-47s, his posts de-scribe the horrid life this coun-try has forced upon him.

Before the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003 to spread democracy and re-move the “Axis of evil” our president declared a danger to America, this man was a prominent dentist in his mid-20s who enjoyed many of the same things we do here. He helped his patients in Baghdad and even went out to eat with his wife, but once our country entered, everything changed.

He no longer has the free-dom to walk to work with-out fear of death, and the concept of a normal life has been eroded by his personal encounters he describes to strangers on the Internet.

“On my way to the clin-ic, I amuse myself with the same routine thoughts,” he said in a post titled “Daily

Life in Baghdad.” “Will this “misery ever end? Will Iraq be peaceful again? How long can we tolerate? When will I die? Will anyone find my dead body and be buried respectfully as I deserve?”

Sure, I’ve watched, read and ignored countless sto-ries and specials about Americans and Iraqis dying daily in a war our country continues to disagree on. I’ve screamed my opinions in political discussions with friends and strangers. I’ve even slapped my head in frustration with an adminis-tration that is convinced this war is worth fighting. But be-fore discovering the dentist’s blog, I never considered what it would be like to fear death on a daily basis.

“As I dress for work other questions assail me,”

the dentist described in a post that was published in the Washing-ton Post. “How will I die? Will it be a shot in the head? Will

I be blown to pieces? Or be seized at a police check-point because of my sect, then tortured and killed and thrown out on the sidewalk?”

It’s too easy to slip into a routine and forget our country is fighting a war that never should have been waged. But this doesn’t change the fact that the Iraq war is a problem, and no matter how many news re-ports we ignore, this prob-lem is a problem my genera-tion will be defined by.

I don’t have a solution, and I don’t know if pulling out will fix anything. But I do know that no one deserves the life the Baghdad dentist lives.

Iraqi blog gives new perspective on war

RaceWarsDanielJohnson

E-mail Johnson at: djj04a@acu.edu, optimist@acu.edu

I never considered what it would be like to fear death on a daily basis.

I think it looks really nice. I like how open it all is.

Madison SaniukSenior political science majorfrom Arlington.

Friday, August 31, 2007 Page 7 FROM THE FRONT

office on campus.” Delony said plans are in the works to re-place the on-site director, but nothing has been finalized yet.

“This is our only option right now,” Troy’s wife, Rox-anne, said. “I wouldn’t mind living in these conditions if you didn’t raise the rent ev-ery year.” Roxanne, a senior interdisciplinary major from Billings, Mont., and mother of nearly two-year old daughter Elisabeth, sent a response to an e-mail that ResLife sent Sherrod residents announc-ing the rent raise.

“If the rise in rent doesn’t include any new privileges, what is the justification for the increase?” Roxanne asked in the e-mail.

The Shockleys said since moving into Sherrod in 2003, the university has re-paired one thing—a broken door. Meanwhile the origi-nal 2003 rent of $530 has increased $65. Sherrod was built on Cedar Crest road in 1973 and opened in 1974, but despite being 33 years old, residents have made many and paid for many of the repairs to the apartment.

Troy built a fence and

planted grass so his daugh-ter would have a safe place to play. Shaver painted cabi-nets and other neighbors have built storage facili-ties to increase the amount of space.

In addition to the complaints about repairs, Sherrod residents say they don’t feel safe.

The laundry room, which is located in a vacant apart-ment unit and has only two washers and dryers, does not have any outdoor light-ing. Roxanne said she doesn’t do laundry at night because of this. Residents said they also have reported numerous car break-ins, and strangers often knock on doors late at night to beg for money.

“Nothing changes,” Troy said. “You see [ACU] build-ing a pond; they’re doing all these projects on campus, but these things haven’t been touched since the 70s.”

Although action may be on the way, for now, Troy and his two-year old daugh-ter will have to deal with the crickets themselves.

“Every morning, we go on cricket patrol,” Troy said.

Kelsi Peace contributed to

this report.

Sherrod: Complex to take priorityContinued from page 1

E-mail Johnson at: djj04a@acu.edu

It is up to each depart-ment to independently de-cide how many people to employ given their budget. Young said he does not ex-pect many people to be let go because many depart-ments are already paying their employees $5.85 per hour or more.

“Because the minimum wage increase did not come until the budget [for the year] was set already, we told the departments they would have to deal with that inter-nally,” Young said. “Each de-partment is going to have to decide for this year if it can afford its current level of staffing. That doesn’t neces-

sarily mean anyone is going to cut back at all.”

He also said not only minimum wage workers will see increase in pay.

“You’ve got to start look-ing at everyone at the uni-versity,” Young said. “You don’t just raise up the mini-mum wage workers’ [pay]. You raise up people who are above minimum wage as well because they will expect to still make more than mini-mum wage. That includes most students and workers in the university.”

He said while the demand for more money will come from all workers, students will be most impacted by the wage increase because only a few jobs that will

have raised pay are non-stu-dent jobs.

The university is work-ing to adjust the budget so that all departments can have some sort of addition-al funding for the next two minimum wage increases in 2008 and 2009.

This way, departments will not have to give up many workers or cut back on other expenditures.

While Young does not see the change leading to lost

jobs, he said he does see the potential for outside compa-nies that ACU uses on cam-pus, like the WFF custodial service, charging the school more for its services.

“Construction costs can go up,” he said. “Our clean-ing contact will go up be-cause they have many peo-ple above minimum wage.”

Because the WFF charges are going up, the university is looking at its options for WFF services.

“Most of this will only af-fect us in the current year,” Young said. “It’s possible we will have some differ-ences in the cleaning sched-ule that we can absorb in the following year.”

ACU has not heard from Aramark as to how this will affect food services.

Young also said one of ACU’s biggest competitors for student workers is res-taurants that pay and allow tips. He said he does not know if the minimum wage

increase will prompt more students to work on campus or how student job interest will play out.

“I think it’s too early to tell because it happened over the summer,” Young said. “We will have to see what happens in the com-munity and with students and where they will fall out. Who knows what they’ll do. We just don’t know yet.”

Wage: Departments deliberate employee cut-backs, budget issuesContinued from page 1

E-mail Edens at: mxe06a@acu.edu

well-planned lecture, Isom said Van Dunk presented a thorough class that clear-ly involved a great deal of effort.

“She was soft-spoken,” Isom said, “And slow to speak… but she also thought very carefully be-cause she thought words were very important.”

When Van Dunk came to Abilene, she left be-hind family in New York and New Jersey to respond to God’s call to be social worker, Clark said.

And when she wasn’t at the university, Van Dunk continued to serve and lead in the Abilene community, especially among the black community, Isom and Clark said. Van Dunk lived with her dear friend and room-mate Roberta, helping to raise Roberta’s niece and launching her own ministry–similar to Meals on Wheels–from her home, Clark said. The women also ran a chil-dren’s summer camp from

their home. And Van Dunk could

also fight. “She could be feisty,”

Isom said. “She could stand up for herself.”

Isom recalled times when Van Dunk would argue with her, doing it so nicely that Isom said she hardly real-ized what was happening until it was over.

“You always knew where you stood with Brenda,” Clark said.

Van Dunk was diag-nosed with cancer in 2000, Clark said, and she turned to God for strength and never gave up.

“She was a fighter,” Clark said.

Isom said at a memorial service the stories women from the community shared presented a new insight into Van Dunk’s life.

“The community lost a leader,” she said.

Van Dunk: A beloved leaderContinued from page 1

E-mail Peace at: knp04a@acu.edu

The selected members will research how to use the iPhone in the future and its application in the classroom and on campus.

“Is it the next generation tool or is it just a toy that’s a really cool consumer de-vice but has no use in the classroom?” Saltsman said.

The group, consisting of Saltsman, Rankin and oth-

ers, hopes this research d i s c o v e r s whether the iPhone and higher edu-cation can be a success-ful match.

As part of this research, ACU launched its own blog Thurs-day, iThinkEd.com, which is geared toward sharing ideas on how technologies like podcast-

ing and the iPhone can better higher education.

At Thursday’s lunch, Rankin made the point that the iPhone is not a threat to old technologies, but it is also not a panacea.

The idea presented at the lunch was to give both sides of how the iPhone will be looked at 20 years from now. The iPhone as used in higher education could be revolutionary or not.

Rankin and others want the faculty to explore those sides.

Rankin quoted Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, who in 1993 said he had no use for the Internet.

“Person after person after person in the heart of this stuff just couldn’t imagine what [the Internet] would be like in the educational insti-tution,” Rankin said. “Well, that’s where we are right now

… we’re going to try to dream those dreams that transform education in the future.”

Rankin said the university must take more steps, be it three or 20 steps, before they can know how it culminates.

Rankin uses the golf shot analogy to summarize how he sees the future unfolding.

“The trajectory so far has been right on the money,” Rankin said. “But there’s a lot that could happen be-

tween here and there, and the winds are gusting.”

Even if all this research leads to a dead-end, Rankin said it would be worth it.

Saltsman agrees, “We do think that goal is reachable, but we’ve got to take those steps to get there.”

iPod: Faculty, staff discuss iPhone proposal, podcastsContinued from page 1

E-mail Fields at: optimist@acu.edu

Saltsman

KATIE GAGER CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER

Troy Shockley and his two-year-old daughter stand in the laundry room at Sherrod. Residents complain the facility is too small.

“Because the minimum wage increase did not come until the budget [for the year] was set al-

ready, we told the departments they would have to deal with that internally.”

Kelly Young, chief financial officer

Page 8 Friday, August 31, 2007CAMPUS NEWS

By KIMBER WOLFORDStaff Writer

The new semester brings changes to cam-pus, including a bicycle patrol headed by the cam-pus police department. Jimmy Ellison, chief of the ACU campus police, said the department has had a bicycle patrol on and off for the last few years.

“We had some me-chanical issues with our old bicycles over the last school year, and that’s why you didn’t see much bike patrol last year,” said Ellison. The depart-ment purchased two new Trek bicycles in May and recently finished purchas-ing the rest of the neces-sary equipment, including helmets, police stickers, bike uniforms, headlights and tail lights to make the bicycle patrol ready.

Many students might

question the necessity of having a bicycle patrol on campus. “The reason we decided on a bicycle patrol is because it is very valu-able, not only as a crime prevention tool but also as a public image… a bicycle patrol officer can get plac-es that an officer in a car cannot fit,” said Ellison.

“If a student or indi-vidual were up to some-thing and they had a bike, the police would be able to keep up with that person’s pace,” said Sarah Whitworth, fresh-man psychology major from Houston.

The campus police are also trying to keep a stron-ger public image with the ACU community as well as the Abilene community. “With the advent of the Lunsford Walking Trail, there are more and more people using the trail, es-pecially in the late evening

and nighttime hours,” Elli-son said.

“We just felt like it was important to have more of a visual and person-able presence on the trail areas, and it’s not just on the trail areas; we use the bikes around campus and parking lots,” Ellison said. Many of the stu-dents at ACU are mov-ing out of their parents’ houses for the first time. Naturally, this would cause nervousness in people because for their safety as well as the safe-ty of their belongings.

“As long as I follow the safety guidelines, I feel like my things will be safe but only if I do my part to keep them safe,” said Kate Huggins, freshman biochemistry major from Abilene. “The Police De-partment does a good job, but you always have to wonder being on a col-

lege campus.” Ellison said the only trend in crime the department is notic-ing early into the semes-ter is a rise in car burglar-ies. “We’ve probably had eight to 10 cars broken into over the past two months on campus.”

According to the de-partment, the suspects in these burglaries peer into a car window looking for a purse, wallet, laptop or any other item that ap-pears to be of any value before smashing the car window and running off with the item or items. The burglars predominately choose the afternoon to evening hours to strike. Ellison said that the ACU Police Department is ac-tively investigating all cases of car burglaries on or near campus. “This is very consistent with what the city of Abilene police department is seeing all

across the city, it’s not just at ACU,” Ellison said. Ellison advised students concerning safety for themselves, their vehicles and their possessions.

“There are dozens of crime-prevention tips that you could give people… staying safe on campus is no different than staying safe anywhere else.”

Most importantly, to prevent car burglaries, Ellison said to lock your car, park in lighted area and keep your valuables out of sight. To prevent other types of thefts from occurring, Ellison sug-gests locking your dorm room, even if you are only going to be gone several minutes. Students have to do their part. Ellison also added that one shouldn’t go out walking at night alone, should always use lighted exercise trails with a group, carry a cell phone

and let someone know where they are going and when they expect to be back. The bottom line is that is if someone sees something that appears suspicious on or around campus, they need call the ACU Police Department.

The ACU Police Depart-ment is on patrol 24 hours a day seven days a week with officers on bicycles predominately patrolling during the afternoon to early evening hours.

“The addition of the bike patrol is just another example of ACU trying to provide the best product we can for law enforce-ment and safety,” Ellison said. “We like to consider ourselves leaders, and this is just another exam-ple of us trying to go the extra mile to provide the best service possible.”

ACU campus police increases consistent bike patrol

By RACHEL DAVISOpiniOn editOr

This summer, thousands of children from across the country came to ACU for Leadership Camps.

Four of the camps, Kid-Quest, Learning to Lead, Mpulse and Kadesh, took place on ACU’s campus. An-other camp, Cross Training, was in the mountains of Si-papu, New Mexico.

“Our summer camps pro-vide age-appropriate curric-ulum and experiences, adult role models with strong faith and leadership and a variety of projects integrat-ed with recreation to help campers of all ages grow spiritually and develop life skills,” said Dr. Jan Meyer, director of ACU Leadership Camps, in a press release. “In all the camps, the camp-ers are challenged to act out

their faith in their everyday life, and they’re equipped with the knowledge of how to do it.”

The camps had about 1,920 campers this summer, which is a typical number, Meyer said.

“We’ve been at capacity for about four to five years,” Meyer said.

Campers had the op-portunity to be involved in games and activities geared toward cooperation and team-building skills, small-group discussions about Christianity in everyday life and leadership challenges.

“The mission of ACU Leadership Camps is to inspire Christian commit-ment and action in the hearts and minds of a gen-eration of youth to impact the world with the message of God’s love and redemp-tion … one camper at a

time,” Meyer said.Each camp had a differ-

ent theme this summer. Kid-Quest’s theme was based on C.S. ... Lewis’ “The Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe” and Learning to Lead’s cur-riculum was based on Ja-cob’s story so the campers could take full advantage of Jacob’s Dream.

“[The sculpture] was a definite visual reminder about their week at camp,” Meyer said.

Mpulse campers had the opportunity to pray for individual countries and send video messages to those countries. One group of campers took the project one step farther and raised $500 for the country to buy Bibles.

One of the weeks, Bran-don Green, a player for the NFL team Seattle Se-ahawks came and helped

with the camps.“He grew up coming to

Kadesh and just loved it,” Meyer said. “He’d been want-ing to come back so badly, and it finally worked out with his schedule.”

The Kadesh campers worked with the theme of identity. On the first day of camp, the campers wore white robes to blend in with everyone else.

“It was to help make the point of ‘Who am I?’,” Meyer said.

Meyer said there was no way to pick just one out-standing moment.

“When you get to do what we do, encouraging children and teaching them to spend time in the word and show-ing them Christian com-munity, it’s a great feeling,” Meyer said.

Leadership camps promote faith, growth

By LAUREN SUTTONCOpy editOr

This summer, 10 ACU students traveled to northern China to spend

time with orphans in the cities of Beijing, Langfang and X’ian.

The trip, led by Dr. Wayne Barnard, univer-sity dean of spiritual for-

mation, was thought up after Barnard and a group of Christian delegates went to China to visit government officials. His intrigue for China was sparked.

“I fell in love with China last year,” Wayne said. “It was an amazing experi-ence to meet with the high government officials, but I attended an underground church and met social workers for adoption agen-cies. A lot of things that need to happen in China are beyond us, but this was something tangible that students could take part in.”

The group arrived in China in late July and for the first ten days, the

team worked in China’s capital, Beijing.

Barnard and students worked with internation-al adoption agency Chil-dren’s Hope Internation-al. The agency brought 50 orphans from the countryside, and the ACU group spent time playing with, teaching and taking the children to Chinese landmarks like the Great Wall and the Summer Pal-ace in Beijing.

“We were all students, so that was pretty cool because we had differ-ent backgrounds,” said Katie Barnard, sopho-more history major from Abilene. “It was cool to use different majors and specialties to minister to

different children.”After their time in Bei-

jing, the group traveled to X’ian where they lived and worked at an orphan-age run by several women associated with the under-ground Chinese church.

“It was Mother Teresa kind of work,” Wayne said. “I was so proud of the students. We learned to make dumplings. We sang to them, and they cried... I preached and they sang. All in secret.”

The group spent the rest of their time in Lang-fang where they worked with the Philip Hayden Foundation, a home for special-needs children run by John and Lisa Bentley, former ACU student.

Katie said that cultur-ally, Chinese children are well behaved, but ACU students got the children in trouble some-times because the chil-dren wanted to spend time and play with the American students.

In regards to future trips to China, Wayne said he plans to lead a group ev-ery summer, and he wants to continue to tell the Chi-nese about Christ.

“I felt God’s protec-tion the whole time,” said Wayne. “We were our-selves. We were asked why we were here, and that led to the story of Jesus.”

Students participate in journey to China to work with orphans

katie gager CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER

James Woodroof, sophomore undeclared major from Nashville, plays frisbee by the Zona Luce Building on Wednesday.

E-mail Wolford at: kaw06a@acu.edu

E-mail Sutton at: les03c@acu.edu

E-mail Davis at: red04a@acu.edu

Here comes the throw

Friday, August 31, 2007 Page 9SPORTS JUMPS

E-mail Johnson at: djj04a@acu.edu

Continued from page 10

championships. Only three other athletes in NCAA history have won three in a row. If Naimadu wins a fourth individual title, he will be the only player in NCAA history to do so.

“That will really be the biggest achievement that I’ve achieved in my college career,” Naimadu said. “In preparation for it, I’ll just have to prepare as if I have never even won any other race before.”

There will be even more pressure on Naimadu this year because of the historical impact, Hood said.

“It’s going to be a special season for Nick,” Hood said. “He’s got a lot of pressure on him, but then again if anyone could handle the pressure, Nicodemus has shown that he can handle it. He’s a very talented athlete.”

This year’s women’s cross country team is also talented and will have the chance to go further than they did last season.

“We’re really excited about the women,” Hood said. “I look at last year’s team compared to what we have this year, and we’ve just got so much more depth than we had last year.”

Usually, the ACU women have four or five consistent runners, but this year the

team has twice that many, Hood said. One consistent runner ACU lost to gradu-ation last year was Ohla Kryv’yak, who will be a grad-uate assistant this season.

“Having her not out there competing is going to be a challenge,” Hood said. “It’ll be interesting to see who steps up to replace her

leadership on the team.”Still, even without

Kryv’yak, the Wildcats have the goal in mind to place in the national top 10.

“I feel really excited about the women’s program,” Hood said. “I think also that they’re going to be much more suc-cessful than in year’s past.”

The Wildcats will begin

its season this Saturday at the ACU Cross Country Clas-sic. Teams from Eastern New Mexico, Tarleton State, Mid-western State, Angelo State, Northwood University and the College of the Southwest will all be competing. The women will run a three-mile race starting at 11 a.m., and the men will run a four-mile

race beginning at 11:45 a.m.“We use that meet to knock

the rust off of everybody,” Hood said. “We don’t put a whole lot of stock into it. Our objective isn’t to run fast in September; our objective is to run fast in November.”

Home: Teams prepare for run at national title Continued from page 10

of the national tournament and owned a record of 34-7. Later at 6 p.m., ACU will get a look at Texas A&M International. Texas A&M International entered the Heartland Conference last sea-son and is now a regional op-ponent to ACU.

“The scariest opponent is actually the Division-III school, Trinity University,” Mock said. “They are an excellent volley-ball team. They’re pretty much the best D-III in Texas.”

Last week’s tough tourna-ment in Florida should be good preparation for this weekend’s three competitive matches, Mock said.

“I think all three present a big threat in different ways,” Mock said. “We’re going to have to focus on doing our best to present the best line of attack.”

Volleyball: ACU plays three on the roadContinued from page 10

E-mail Freeman at: mxf04b@acu.edu

snagged 14 of his own for 131 yards and one touch-down and Morris recorded 42 catches for 539 yards and three touchdowns.

“A lot of guys know what they’re doing,” third-year head coach Chris Thomsen said. “But that doesn’t guar-antee anything.”

ACU was already guar-anteed two solid running backs for 2007 with pre-season all-American selec-tion junior Taber Minner and senior Chancy Camp-bell, but Thomsen expanded his options in the backfield by adding junior college transfer Bernard Scott.

“Running backs take a big beating,” Thomsen said. “When we played in our play-off game last year, Chancy and Taber were pretty beat up, so that just shows you need more than just two backs.”

Scott, a first team National Junior College Athletic Associa-tion all-American, led Blinn Col-lege to a NJCAA national cham-pionship and 12-0 season and Thomsen said he will most like-ly start in the Wildcats opener against Central Oklahoma.

Scott is joining an ACU

running game that is already one of the best in the LSC. Minner ran for team-leading 818 yards, 12 touchdowns on 136 carries, and Camp-bell ran for 654 yards and nine touchdowns on just 110 carries.

Tackling leadersThe Wildcats’ defense

has three good reasons why 2007 should be a hard year to score against ACU: Pre-season all-Americans Car-penter, Jordan and senior linebacker Cody Stutts.

Thomsen said all three will be the leaders of the Wildcat defense, and all three were dominant at their positions in 2006.

“It’s an honor to be looked at in that sense,” Carpenter said of being a leader of the defense. “But it also means when the time comes to make the play you gotta step up.”

Carpenter, who played linebacker his first two sea-sons at ACU, did more than step up during his shift to defensive end in 2006; He led the LSC in sacks (nine), sacks per game (.82) and tackles for loss (15.5) and tackles for loss per game (1.41). Jor-dan, who started 30 games

in his first three seasons at ACU, recorded 32 tackles, a team-high four intercep-tions and one touchdown in 2006. Stutts meanwhile led the team in tackles in 2006 with 94 and earned second team all-LSC honors. But the biggest advantage may not be their personal performances but the experience they bring to the different positions on the field.

“Having someone to lead in each position helps,” Car-penter said. “That way you know everyone should be doing their job.

Although ACU may be starting 2007 as a favorite to win, preseason rankings don’t matter much to Thom-sen. What matters most is meeting the potential he said he knows his team has.

“Preseason rankings are just a starting point, and there is no reason to put much stock in them,” Thom-sen said. “It’s about what you do in 2007 not what you did in 2006.”

ACU’s first home game will be against Southeastern Okla-homa State on Sept. 15.

Football: Wildcats kick off season away from home

brian schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Senior defensive back Bobby Tatum catches a ball during defensive drills in practice Aug. 23. ACU will take on Central Oklahoma this Saturday at 6 p.m.

“It’s about what you do in 2007, not what you did in 2006.”

chris thomsen, head football coach

brian schmidt FILE PHOTO

From left to right, Vanessa Whittle, Denise Morgan, Ohla Kryv’yak and Mary Mwangi run in last year’s ACU Cross Country Classic. Kryv’yak will not be on this year’s team as a runner, but as a graduate assistant. This year’s ACU Cross Country Classic will be held this Saturday at Sherrod Park. The first race will begin at 11:00 a.m.

E-mail Freeman at: mxf04b@acu.edu

Optimist

spOrtsFridayFriday, August 31, 2007 Page 10

Saturday

CROSS COUNTRYACU Cross Country Classic, 10 a.m.

VOLLEYBALLACU at Trinity, 2 p.m. ACU at Texas A&M International, 6 p.m.

FOOTBALLACU at Central Oklahoma, 6 p.m.

Sunday

WOMEN’S SOCCERACU vs. College of the Southwest, 2 p.m.

Wednesday

WOMEN’S SOCCERACU at McMurry, 4 p.m.

n Home games listed in italics

SCOREBOARd

Standings

Upcoming

Tuesday

WOMEN’S SOCCERACU 3, Texas-Permian Basin 0

FootballTeam Div. OverallENMUMSU Tarleton St.ACU Angelo St.

TAMU-K

0-00-00-00-00-00-0

1-01-01-00-00-00-0

WTAMU 0-0 0-0

VolleyballTeam Div. OverallWTAMUTarleton St.TAMU-KENMUAngelo St.

ACU

0-00-00-00-00-00-0

4-13-13-22-30-40-4

Women’s SoccerTeam Div. OverallACUMSUWTAMUTAMU-CCentral Okla.

East Central

0-00-00-00-00-00-0

2-02-02-01-01-0-11-0-2

Angelo St. 0-0 0-0NE St. 0-0 0-1ENMU 0-0 0-2SW Okla. 0-0 0-2TX Woman’s 0-0 0-2

Upcomingn The intramural schedule seen on the Optimist Scoreboard is not the final schedule and is subject to change. Any last-minute changes can be viewed on the intramural bulletin board in Moody Coliseum.

Scores

Fall sports

FLAG FOOTBALLStarts: Monday, Sept. 10Sign-up Deadline: Thursday, Sept. 6Cost: $275 per team

SOFTBALLStarts: Monday, Nov. 5Sign-up Deadline: Thursday, Nov. 1Cost: $150 per team

WATERBALLStarts: Friday, Nov. 30Sign-up Deadline: Thursday, Nov. 29Cost: $100 per team

BriefsACU Athletic Training staff

recognized by the Lone Star Conference

n ACU’s athletic training staff was honored with the 2006-07 Athletic Training Staff of the Year Award for the LSC South Division. ACU’s program is led by J.D. Dunavant with help from Amber Scharf, Elizabeth Heyer and Billy Abbe.

Scoreboard as of Thursday

INTRAMURAL ROUNd-Up

By Michael FreemanAssistAnt sports Editor

The ACU volleyball team will have a chance to pick up its first win of the sea-son Friday and Saturday at the Alamo City Invitational in San Antonio. After last week’s Florida Southern In-vitational, the Wildcats are 0-4 on the season. ACU is looking to bounce back as

it plays three in-state teams this weekend.

“It should be an oppor-tunity for us to focus more on our side of the net,” said head coach Kellen Mock.

Unforced errors in serv-ing and receiving played a critical role in the Wildcats’ first four matches. The team

worked in practice this past week at reducing those er-rors and learned from last week’s losses to Florida Southern and Hillsdale Col-lege, nationally ranked No. 5 and No. 10 respectively.

“I think our girls have re-ally been tested,” Mock said. “They’ve come out of the tournament with a good at-titude, and they’re striving

to get better at the things we’re struggling with.”

ACU begins the Alamo City Invitational on Friday at 7 p.m. against Incarnate Word. Incarnate Word fin-ished last season with a record of 9-23, but coach Mock said she expects the match to still be competi-tive. Incarnate Word is 2-3 this year and has already

downed Eastern New Mexi-co, a Lone Star Conference rival of ACU’s.

Saturday, the Wildcats are scheduled to take on Trinity at 2 p.m. The Trinity Tigers are ranked No. 7 na-tionally in Division-III vol-leyball. Last season, Trinity reached the quarterfinals

Volleyball team looking for first win of season

By Michael FreemanAssistAnt sports Editor

Senior Nicodemus Naima-du from Narok, Kenya, is thankful for the opportunity he had to run with the Wild-cats for the past three years.

“When I was given that o p p o r -tunity to come and run here and study, I really had to appre-ciate it,” N a i m a d u said. “Back home, no-body can give you that. Af-ter being given that chance here at ACU, I don’t know what I can say. That is re-ally something that can go with you for the rest of your life.”

But this season, Naima-du and the men’s cross country team will have a chance they have never had before—a chance to defend a national crown.

Last year, the men’s cross country team won

the NCAA Division II Cross Country national champi-onship. Also last year, the women’s cross country team captured the South Central regional title for the first time since 1982. At the end of the season, head coach Derek Hood was named the NCAA Division II Men’s Coach of the Year.

“Last season was a dream season,” Hood said.

Over the summer, the cross country teams have been training to have anoth-er dream season this year. The men ran 60-70 miles per week, while the women ran 45-50 miles per week this summer. The results of the training are evident, even now, Naimadu said.

“I can see that there has been much improvement than the last year I’ve been here,” Naimadu said. “Right

now, the way they are run-ning, they are running bet-ter than I’m running. They are really focused.”

On the men’s team, all but one of last year’s five all-American players is return-ing. And new recruit Amos Sang from Eldoret, Kenya, will fill in that fifth spot.

“We have the ingredi-ents to be another nation-al championship team,” Hood said. “And also the guys that I have that are new to the team and those that were on it last year that weren’t all-American are really looking strong. We’re going to be even stronger than last year, which is saying a lot.”

One of ACU’s stron-gest players is Nicodemus Naimadu, who has won three consecutive individ-ual national cross country

Teams begin season at home

By Daniel Johnsonsports Editor

At ACU’s season opener in 2006, the Wildcats were the underdogs.

They were picked to finish sixth in the Lone Star Confer-ence South Division, hadn’t won a season opener since 1998 and hadn’t posted a winning season in three years. Nobody knew how good the ACU football team could be, not even its players.

“We didn’t know we were good last year,” said senior defensive end Travis Carpen-ter. “I mean, we knew we had some players who worked hard, but we didn’t know what we could really do.”

But in 2007 everything is different.

The Wildcats are coming off an 8-3 season that is one of the program’s most suc-cessful seasons in almost 30 years. ACU is picked to win the LSC South and are already nationally ranked No. 11 in the nation by the American Football Coaches Association and No. 16 by d2football.com preseason poll; the Wildcats are ex-pected to win.

“Success is the only op-tion,” Carpenter said. “It’s not necessarily about win-ning, but we have two goals: to be the most prepared team in the nation and to play together. If we do those things, wins will come.”

ACU will open its sea-son against the University of Central Oklahoma in Ed-mond, Okla., Saturday and with a long list of returning starters from the program’s first playoff season since 1978 and impressive trans-fers that can make an imme-diate impact, 2007 could be the second-straight winning season for the Wildcats.

“Our main focus is a championship,” said senior corner Corey Jordan.

Returning starters to spareJunior quarterback Billy

Malone prefers the underdog role. But after throwing for 27 touchdowns, more than

3,000 yards, only throwing six interceptions and post-ing five 300-yard passing games in 2006, his under-dog days may be over.

“It’s more fun when you’re the underdog,” Malone said.

2007 will be Malone’s third year as the Wildcats’ starter and with a receiv-

ing corps that is filled with other returning starters that already know the Wildcat offensive scheme, the LSC South Preseason Offensive Player of the Year said his third should be his best.

“We’re expecting a good sea-son, nothing less,” Malone said.

Malone’s main target in 2007 may be the man five catches away from becom-ing ACU’s all-time leader in receptions: senior wide re-ceiver Jerale Badon.

Badon is also 253 yards away from the all-time re-ceiving yards record and had five 100-yard receiv-ing games in 2006. Despite struggling with a knee in-jury in 2006, he posted a career season in catches (63), touchdowns (five) and yards (973). But Badon isn’t the only experienced option Malone will have.

Returning for the Wild-cats are all-LSC South 2006 selections: junior fullback Chris Conklin, junior tight end Trey Simeone and re-turning No. 2 receiver Chris Morris. All three offered op-tions for Malone in 2006, and all three were reasons why the Wildcats finished third in NCAA Division II for passing offense.

Conklin caught 14 catches for 218 yards and four touchdowns, Simeone

different ExpectationsACU has nine returning senior starters for the 2007 season. n Jerale Badon

n Travis Carpenter

n Corey Jordan

n Jacob Passmore

n Cody Savage

n Cody Stutts

n Bobby Tatum

n Quintin Wilson

n Nathan Young

A SENIOR SqUAd

brian schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Wildcat freshman forward Lyndsey Womack rears back for a shot-on-goal during the first half of ACU’s 3-0 victory over UT-Permian Basin on Aug. 28. ACU will play its third game of its inaugural season against St. Mary’s in San Antonio on Friday. So far, ACU is 2-0 with four goals scored.

Kicking again

brian schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Junior running back Bernard Scott rushes for a gain during basic running drills Aug. 23. Scott, a transfer player from Blinn College, is expected to start for ACU in the season opener against Central Oklahoma on Saturday.

Naimadu

Volleyball

Cross Country

Football

“We have the ingredients to be another national championship team.”

derek hood, head cross country coach

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See FOOTBALL page 9

See VOLLEYBALL page 9