the optimist - 12.05.12
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A product of the JMC Network of student media at Abilene Christian UniversityTRANSCRIPT
Abilene Christian University
ACU gets gnarlyBoarding beckons
bored students
FeaturesPage 5vol. 101, no. 27 wednesday, december 5, 2012 1 SECTION, 8 PAGES
NEWS
acuoptimist.com
‘Mingle and Jingle’ gets campus in the Christmas spirit
VIDEO
INSIDE
acuoptimist.com
Student Life Leadership Team honors outstanding seniors
NEWS
Page 4
Bible professor reflects on Psalms lament in book
NEWS
Page 4
SA visits with Mark Lewis, votes to give Edwards Hall recycling bins
NEWS
GATA spreads Christmas cheer to overseas mission
Page 4
acuoptimist.com
Study Abroad early deadline applications due on Friday
NEWS
Page 3
Vespers concert to feature orchestra, choir
NEWS
ONLINE
acuoptimist.com
Fishing club preparing for bass-fishing event
NEWS
photos by mandy lambright chief photographer
Top: Children around Abilene got to sit down with Santa near Jacob’s Dream during ‘Mingle and Jingle’. Left: Hannah Lytle, junior marketing major from Abilene; Abbie Baird,
sophomore vocal education major from Leander; Nick Tatum, senior family studies major from Plano; and Austin Anderson, senior pre-dental major from Flower Mound, per-
form “Silent Night” with Aaron Watson at ‘Mingle and Jingle’. Right: Adam Carpenter, senior finance major from Little Rock, Ark., decorates his own cookie at Christmas Slam.
finals
Dead Day will be make its return on Monday after leaving campus for one se-mester. The World Famous Bean will also host a Mid-night Breakfast with karaoke and door prizes that night.
Dead Day, the Monday before the beginning of fi-nals, is a day set aside for studying and rest before finals begin. Administra-tion removed the break last year, but new provost Rob-
ert Rhodes re-instituted the extra day after hearing stu-dent feedback.
“I am so happy Dead Day is back because now I can relax and not be as stressed on Sunday night because I know I can sleep in and study for one extra day to prepare for my final exams,” said Hollie Derrick, junior Ad/PR major from Monahans.
Some students are excit-ed about the longer week-end that Dead Day brings.
“It is awesome that Dead Day is returning, I love three
day weekends and it makes Monday a tolerable day of the week that I won’t mind waking up for,” said Aaron Tobias, junior kinesiology major from Plano.
Not every student will use the extra day to study for finals, however.
“When I was a fresh-man and we had Dead Day I remember all we did was hang out in Mabee and watch movies all day,” said Jackson Regas, junior psy-chology major from Sugar Land. “None of us studied but it was fun and I’m glad
to see it coming back.”Catching up on sleep is
a big priority this late in the semester that many stu-dents will take advantage of.
Many students are excit-ed about Dead Day’s return, but that isn’t how every one feels about the Monday be-fore finals.
“I could go without hav-ing Dead Day, I wouldn’t mind getting my final exams over with quicker. Dead Day just means I have to stay in Abilene that much longer,” Austin Pretiger, junior social work major from Atlanta.
Midnight Breakfast at the World Famous Bean, however, is something ev-eryone can enjoy. Karaoke and door prizes have been included in past Midnight Breakfasts.
Nolan Bryan, sopho-more youth and family ministry major from Lub-bock, said, “I love eating breakfast, I love winning door prizes, but I especially love singing karaoke.”
Dead day to return for finals weekprice bahacallstudent reporter
page 6
The Editorial Board considers the pros and cons of having only Church of Christ faculty
OPINION
Page 8
Men’s basketball team loses on last second layup
SPORTS
Page 7
Women’s basketball team defeats Eastern New Mexico
SPORTS
Charity Presents, an NBA acrobat group and President Schubert were all part of ACU’s second annual Christmas Slam Tuesday night, giv-ing students a time to mingle be-fore finals week.
It came two nights after “Min-gle and Jingle” put campus in full Christmas spirit with Santa Claus,
“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and an acoustic Aaron Watson Christmas concert.
Drawing in crowds from campus and the Abilene community, Moody Coliseum was filled before the wom-en’s and men’s basketball teams faced off against Texas A&M-Com-merce. The Students’ Association and ACU athletics event gave away gift cards and free food provided by campus clubs and organizations.
Brock Neiderhoffer, junior ad/
PR major from San Antonio, was one of many students who do not regularly attend games, but made it out to celebrate the season.
“This is the first game I’ve got-ten to go to this season, but I’d say there are more students than nor-mal,” he said.
Those in attendance were re-minded this to be the season of giv-ing, with discounted tickets avail-able with unwrapped children’s toys and canned goods.
The basketball acrobats, Team BIG AIR, highlighted the evening, performing slam dunk stunts for the crowds.
Of course, no holiday event would be complete without Santa Claus, who posed for pictures with children and nostalgic college students trying to forget the finals week before them.
Holiday spirit Slams, Jingles campusgabi powell
student reporter
The semester-long search for the permanent dean of the College of Arts and Sci-ences has finally reached its end.
Dr. Greg Straughn will serve as the permanent dean of the college, begin-ning Jan. 1. He has filled the position in an interim ca-
pacity since the sum-mer, as well as during the 2009-10 school year. He also served as interim provost last
school year.Dr. Robert Rhodes,
provost, sent an email to all faculty and staff
Tuesday afternoon to tell them he had appointed Straughn to the position after the search comittee recommended him.
“Dr. Straughn is a unique and gifted leader,” Rhodes said in the email. “We have witnessed his diligence in each of his administrative roles on campus during the past few years.”
Straughn was one of
two finalists for the posi-tion until late last week. The other finalist, Dr. Murel Jones, withdrew as a candidate before he was to visit campus for an inter-view. Jones will continue in his position as dean of the School of Arts and Hu-manities at Elizabeth City State University.
Straughn said while he is relieved to no longer have the interim tag in his
title, he has a lot of work to do. He is looking forward to continue working with colleagues in the College of Arts and Sciences.
“I am excited to help craft a strategy for the col-lege that will improve the student learning and fac-ulty support,” he said.
Interim named dean of CASadministration
mark smitheditor in chief
straughn
contact smith [email protected]
contact the optimist [email protected]
contact the optimist [email protected]
5 6 7 8Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
10 a.m. Big Brothers Big Sisters Basketball Tournament
5 p.m. Women’s Basketball at Tarleton State University
7 p.m. Men’s Basket-ball at Tarleton State University
7:30 p.m. Christmas Vespers Concert at First Baptist Church
4 p.m. Student Asso-ciation of School Psy-chologists - Demolish Domestic Violence Car Bash
6 p.m. Freshmen Ac-tion Council Christmas Social
9 p.m. Campus Ac-tivities Board Christmas Scavenger Hunt
7:30 p.m. Winter Band Concert
Police Log
2@acuoptimist
The Optimist
Wednesday 12.05.12 2
Announcements
Around Abilene
Dec. 5
5:30 p.m. Bring four non-perishable food items and re-cieve a free dessert with your meal from the TSTC Culinary Institue.
Dec. 6
6 p.m. Christmas Lane, presented by the Abilene Services Council, will be at the Abilene State Supported Living Center. Santa will be present and concessions will be sold.
Dec. 7
5:30 p.m. The Cottonwood Country Musical will be at the Cottonwood Community Center. The kitchen will be open at 5 p.m.
Dec. 8
10 a.m. The Craftapalooza and Junk Market will be at Abilene Civic Center. Admis-sion is free. It will feature arts and crafts, jewelry, retail boutiques, home decor and more.
Students interested in joining The Wild-cat Reign can sign up at thewildcatreign.com. The Wildcat Reign aims to provide students the ability to facilitate Wildcat pride on campus and serves as a linking point between students and Wildcat ath-letic events.
Registration for the Dallas Marathon is open at http://www.dallasmarathon.com/register-to-run/. The marathon will be Dec. 9 in downtown Dallas.
Connections Cafe is now open in the Business building. La Popular breakfast burritos and Mission Lazarus coffee are among many of the new items on their menu.
ACU Leadership Camps is accepting 2013 camp staff applications starting Dec. 10 in Room 10 in the lower level of the Campus Center. Positions include counselor, first aid staff, office assistant, worship leader, videographer and pho-tographer.
Reserve your Spring 2013 textbooks on the Campus Store website. There are no extra charges and your order is guaran-teed to be accurate. Order before Dec. 31 and you will be able to pick them up the week before classes begin.
The Career Center is accepting registra-tions for the Spring 2013 D!SCOVERY program. The deadline to sign up is Jan. 23, by 5 p.m. Contact the Career Center for more information.
Midnight Breakfast will be on Dead Day, Dec. 10 starting at 10:30 p.m. The grand prize drawing of $150 happens at mid-night. Use your Meal Plan or pay $5 for entry.
Big Brothers Big Sisters is having a three on three basketball tournament Dec. 8 at 10 a.m. in the Rec Center. Entry is $35 per team with all procees going to Big Brothers Big Sisters. Cash prizes will be given to the first and second place teams.
Volunteer Opp0rtunities
The Center for International Education is looking for conversation partners for international students to practice Eng-lish, conversations and cultural learning. Partners meet for one hour each week at a time and place determined by the partners. For more information contact Laura McGregor at 325-674-2821 or [email protected].
Center for Contemporary Arts needs a gallery assistant to greet patrons, an-swer phones and answer basic questions about the Center and its programs. This opportunity is open Tuesday-Friday. The Center for Contemporary Arts is located at 220 Cypress Street. For more information contact Jessica Dulle at 325-677-8389 or visit: http://www.center-arts.com/.
Rescue the Animals is seeking volunteers to take pictures and videos in preparation for the launching of their new website as well as maintenance of the site after the launch. This opportunity is open Mon-day, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. For more information contact Kathy Walker at 325-677-7722 or [email protected].
The National Center For Children’s Il-lustrated Literature is looking for vol-unteers to greet patrons, assist with art activities, sell books and make visitors feel welcome. Help is also needed for special events like Artwalk and exhibit openings. The NCCIL is located at 102 Cedar St. For more information on times and dates contact Debby Lillick at 325-673-4586 or visit: http://www.nccil.org/index.htm.
The Christian Ministries of Abilene: Food Pantry is searching for volunteers to greet and interview neighbors, do computer entries, shop with neighbors, take grocer-ies to vehicles, bag, stock and pick up orders on Mondays and Fridays from 9:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. and 1 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. and on Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. The Food Pantry is located at 701 Walnut St. For more information contact Becky Almanza at 325-673-1234 or [email protected].
The Christian Service Center is seek-ing volunteers to help assist with filling requests for items such as clothing, bed-ding, kitchen utensils, etc. from the dona-tion center, sort and organize donations and occasionally pick-up donated items. Volunteers are needed every weekday and the first Saturday of each month between 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. For more information contact Roberta Brown at 325-673-7561 or at [email protected]. For more information on the program visit http://www.uccabilene.org/ministries/csc.htm.
The Food Bank of West Central Texas needs volunteers to help sort and stock food and other items any weekday Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. The Food Bank is located at 5505 N. 1st St. For more information contact Janice Serrault at 325-695-6311 or [email protected].
Meals on Wheels Plus needs volunteer drivers to deliver afternoon meals to se-niors and adults with disabilities Monday-Friday between 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Drivers must be at least 18 years old and have a valid driver’s license. Training is provided. For more information contact Samantha Barker at 352-672-5050 or visit http://mealsonwheelsplus.com.
The Salvation Army is looking for vol-unteers for a variety of needs including sorting and pricing items in the thrift store, helping in the kitchen and/or doing yard work. Times are flexible. Volunteers are needed throughout the week Monday-Saturday. The Salvation Army is located at 1726 Butternut St. For more information contact J.D. Alonzo at 325-677-1408 or visit www.satruck.com. The House That Kerry Built is looking for volunteers to assist in the day care of medically fragile children any day Mon-day-Friday from 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. or 3 p.m. - 5 p.m. Contact Keith Loftin at 325-672-6061.
The International Rescue Committee is seeking volunteers to work with refugees who recently moved to the U.S., teach-ing English, helping with homework and mentoring. Contact Susanna Lubango to make an appointment at 325-675-5643.
The Covenant Place of Abilene is seek-ing volunteers to lead singing and/or play piano for residents. For more information contact Ann Erwin at 325-793-1144.
University Place is seeking volunteers to help with the resident birthday party for residents the third Wednesday of each month at 2:30 p.m. For more information contact Linda Tijerina at 325-676-9946.
Breakfast on Beech Street is seeking volunteers to help set up, prepare and serve breakfast to homeless/lower income folks any Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 5:30 a.m. or Tuesday at 5 a.m. B.O.B.S is located at First Christian Church on 3rd St. and Beech St. Service times must be scheduled in advance. To serve on Mondays contact Jody Depriest at 325-669-3312 or [email protected]. To serve on Tuesdays contact Allen Daugherty at 325-660-6949 or [email protected]. To serve on Wednesdays contact Jane Harvey at 325-695-0092 or [email protected]. To serve on Thurs-days contact Margaret Beasley at 325-692-4149 or [email protected]. To serve on Fridays contact Rachel Brown at [email protected].
Eternal Threads is seeking volunteers to help with packing and organizing shipments, labeling products, errands and cleaning any weekday from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. For more information contact Pam Early at 325-672-6000 or [email protected].
Christian Homes & Family Services is seeking volunteers to do minor landscap-ing such as raking, trimming bushes, minor apartment repairs and general upkeep Monday-Saturday from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. For more information contact Shay-lee Honey at 325-677-2205 or [email protected].
The Abilene Public Zoo is seeking volun-teers to help clean/feed animals, assist zookeepers and assist with educational classes any weekday any time between 12 p.m.-4 p.m. They are also seeking volunteers to help with general labor such as grounds cleanup and painting any weekday at any time between noon and 4 p.m. For more information contact Joy Harsh at 325-676-6487.
Hill Resources is seeking volunteers to encourage and entertain mentally de-layed individuals Monday through Friday any time between 10 a.m.-2 p.m. For more information contact Michelle Es-pinoza at 325-673-3346 or [email protected].
The Oaks at Radford Hills is seeking vol-unteers to participate in activities, go on outings and provide social stimulation for residents any day at any time. For more information contact Michelle White or Sonia Serrato at 325-672-3236.
Rescue the Animals is seeking volunteers to work at the adoption center doing a variety of tasks including cleaning, social-izing and grooming the animals Monday - Saturday from 1 p.m.-5 p.m. For more information contact Mindi Qualls at 325-698-7722 or [email protected].
St. John’s Episcopal School is seeking volunteers to paint metal playground equipment anytime Monday-Friday after 3 p.m. and Saturday anytime. For more information contact Rebecca McMillon at 325-695-8870 or [email protected].
The CAC Department is seeking volun-teers to participate in Special Olympics, by helping mentally/physically chal-lenged people play games and sports Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. For more infomation contact Angel Seca at 325-690-5235.
For additional volunteer opportunities visit: www.acu.edu/campusoffices/ccsl/ministry-service/volunteer-opportuni-ties/
Chapel checkup
100
Students thinking about their future can now ap-ply for next semester’s D!SCOVERY program.
The D!SCOVERY program is for students who need help finding answers to the ques-tions about the future that college raises.
“We were told to dream up what you want to do with your life,” said Hailey Thomp-son, senior Ad/PR major from Allen. “As a senior, I still say that to myself.”
Thompson also said the course gives you freedom to imagine where you want
your life to go.D!SCOVERY is a five-week
program held multiple times throughout the school year. It focuses on three main topics to help students find direc-tion: deciding, confirming and narrowing.
The course’s main focus is helping students select a ma-jor. Though there are many undeclared majors in the pro-gram, there are also students having doubts about the ma-jor they chose.
“I heard this was a good resource to figure out what to do,” said Brian Lang, fresh-man accounting major from Abilene. “I hope to find out what I like to do and try to pursue that in a career.”
The class focuses on the spiritual aspects of choos-ing a major as well. Profes-sors help students find con-firmation that their major aligns with the skills God has given them.
Lastly, D!SCOVERY goes beyond the college years, helping students narrow their options down to a specific ca-reer which is available within the major they have chosen.
The program helps stu-dents live up to the ACU mot-to of finding ways to affect the world in exceptional, innova-tive and real ways.
D!SCOVERY uses scripture to discuss the idea of having a call and a mission. It also pro-vides personal assessments
that help students explore their skills and interests, as well as up-to-date informa-tion on matching career paths with those interests.
“I think everybody should have to do it,” Thompson said. “It was really fun learn-ing about myself.”
The program also provides a face-to-face appointment to help students fully under-stand the information they have found and determine what majors and careers to look into.
Students who are looking to uncover their skills and interests can sign up for this course on the ACU website at http://www.acu.edu/campu-soffices/careercenter/students/
discovery/.The application asks
students to fill out what obstacles are keeping them from deciding on a career or major, a list of majors
they are considering and a few other details.
Wednesday 12.05.123 campus news
Orchestra, choir to perform in Vespers
Rehearsals for the Christ-mas Vespers Concert began in October for both the ACU Orchestra and Choir, who have been working hard for this seasons upcoming show.
This year’s Christmas Vespers Concert is Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the First Bap-tist Church of Abilene on 1333 N. 3rd Street. Admis-sion is free for everyone.
This years 6th annual concert theme is “In Terra Pax”, which translates to “Peace on Earth,” and has been a tradition since 2007. This concert involves about 180 performers, which are mostly ACU students.
The choir, orchestra and vocal soloists will feature the movement In Terra Pax by English composer Ger-ald Finzi this year. There will be hymns and carols,
which will involve audience participation.
The Christmas Vespers Concert involves more than just music in the perfor-mance. There will also be li-turgical readings, scripture and poetry.
“The atmosphere is a beautiful and sacred time of great music, celebration and reflection on the sea-son,” said Dr. Steven Ward, director of bands and or-chestra of music.
Ward will be involved in this performance, along with Dr. Paul Piersall, inter-im director of choirs, who will conduct the choir.
“It’s my favorite concert of the year,” said Phillip Jackson, sophomore music education and vocal perfor-mance major from League City.
Jackson is a tenor in the ACU A Capella choir, and this is his second year to be a part of the Christmas Ves-pers performance.
“Paul Piersall is a very fine conductor and every-one should come see what all he has done for us as a choir,” Jackson said.
Special guests at this concert include Dr. Jack Reese from the Graduate School of Theology, Dr Ste-phen Johnson, dean of the Honors College, Dwane Swearingen-Meeks, assis-tant professor of theater, harpist Megan Li and Hye-Jean Choi, assistant profes-sor of organ at Hardin-Sim-mons University.
“Christmas Vespers has become one of the truly special events in Abilene during the Christmas sea-son,” Ward said.
Ward said he expects 600-800 people to attend this concert from ACU and the greater Abilene com-munity.
music
kirsten holmanstudent reporter
contact the optimist [email protected]
D!SCOVERY program opens for studentsacademics
Maggie Marshallstudent reporter
contact the optimist [email protected]
mandy lambright chief Photographer
Soo Hun Yoon, freshman biochemistry major from Sierra Leone, performs “Gangnam Style” with Santa during halftime at the Christmas Slam event in Moody Coliseum.
wednesday 12.05.12 4News
Professor reflects on lament in new book
Dr. Glenn Pemberton has written a book, titled Hurt-ing with God, addressing the need for Christians to be honest with God about their pain.
Hurting with God, which was published in June of this year, focuses on the lament psalms that make up 40 percent of the 150 psalms in the Bible.
“When we look at the book of Psalms, most peo-ple think, ‘Oh, it’s about worship and praise,’ and in fact there are more la-ment psalms in the book of Psalms than any other form,” said Pemberton, former chair of the De-partment of Bible, Mis-sions and Ministry and associate professor of ministry.
Pemberton said he started writing Hurting with God because of his experience in teaching college students about the book of Psalms.
“I’ve taught the book of Psalms to college stu-dents for 15 years now, and I’ve always noticed how college students re-spond to the language of lament– that they’ve never seen this before,” Pemberton said. “When I have the students write their own psalms, most of them every semester, with maybe one excep-tion, will write a lament because they’ve never heard of the language before, and they’re des-perate for a language to be able to speak honestly with God about the pain in their own lives.”
While the book is “about teaching the lan-guage of this lament as a
language of prayer,” Pem-berton said, Hurting with God is also about his ex-periences with pain and lament and his learning from the lament psalms.
After Pemberton start-ed writing the book, he had a stress fracture in his left foot in 2006 that took a long time to heal. How-ever, after the fracture healed, the pain didn’t go away and got worse. Pemberton learned that it was related to the nerves in his foot. He endured five surgeries on his foot, dating from 2007 to 2009, which included a neuro-
stimulator implant.All this time, the pain
in his foot continued to worsen and began spreading to his right foot.
In early 2011, Pember-ton found an out-patient program at the Baylor University Medical Cen-ter where he said he spent four weeks doing “physi-cal therapy, counseling, education, water therapy teaching us how to live with pain that’s not going to go away.”
“Because of that, I came back and started to use the tools that I had
been taught to help man-age the pain that was there,” Pemberton said.
Pemberton rewrote the manuscript for his book and finished it in the summer of 2011.
“Going through all the things that I went through and continue to deal with are very difficult on my faith, and it’s difficult to maintain a healthy rela-tionship with God when everything around you is falling apart,” Pem-berton said. “But what I’ve learned and what the book tries to show people is that for those of us who are in pain, we’re not ex-pected to keep singing all the happy songs that just do not fit where we’re at. There’s another lan-guage, in fact, there’s a lot of different languages for people of faith to talk to God.”
Dr. Dana Pemberton,
chair of teacher educa-tion and Glenn’s wife, gave him early feedback on Hurting with God dur-ing his final edits.
“It’s the message of the book that resounds with me. That when people are in pain they need a lan-guage to stay in contact with God,” Dana said. “They need to know that those feelings of fear and anger and confusion and even hopelessness are normal. And you can’t hide them from God so why not just talk to him about it and have an hon-est relationship?”
Glenn said the first chapter of the book can be found through the book’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/Hurt-ingWithGod.
Faculty
Kyle Knappstudent reporter
contact the optimist [email protected]
WWW accepting applications for summer
Applications for World Wide Witness are official-ly due Jan. 14 for summer of 2013, but the applica-tion process has already begun.
WWW provides ACU students with the oppor-tunity to travel to other parts of the world and be ambassadors for Christ. World Wide Witness also sends students to places within the United States. Through these summer internships students ex-perience cultures outside of their own and apply themselves as servants in the mission field.
“They give their hearts to Jesus and the people they serve; they get the satisfaction of serving
those that are often mar-ginalized,” said Larry Henderson, missions co-ordinator for World Wide Witness.
There are over 60 loca-tions on every continent available to students. Students can serve in a number of ways regard-ing agriculture, teaching, orphanage care, church planting, homelessness, anti-trafficking, sports ministry, campus minis-try and more. Summer in-ternships usually last 6-10 weeks.
The application pro-cess includes filling out an application, a spiritual bio, getting references and an interview. Once accepted, students must take a three credit hour upper level Bible class during the spring semes-ter before their departure.
The required class is BMIS 391 Service in Global Con-text, specifically geared to train students who plan on taking short-term mis-sions. Students are also prepared spiritually.
Students who complete the application process think the requirements are worth it.
“My absolute favorite experience in Thailand was the few days we got to spend working at the local orphanage for HIV/AIDS positive children, Agape,” said Ali Hayes, sophomore elementary education ma-jor from Abilene. “Those precious kids loved to see foreigners. Their precious smiles and sweet spir-its showed me the true meaning of God’s love. Even with their sickness, they still had so much joy and love for the Lord.
Experiencing these few days changed my life and taught me the true mean-ing of a joyful heart.”
Hayes visited Chiang Mai, Thailand last sum-mer with ACU students Ri-ley Thannum, Katie Green and Charlie Holt. Most days consisted of spend-ing time with the head missionary, quiet time every morning, living in community with the stu-dents of Chiang Mai Uni-versity and people from the local church, teach-ing free English classes, participating in a baking class and small groups with the church.
“This summer showed me that I cannot do every-thing on my own. There is absolutely no way I could spend three months across the world and not believe God made it hap-
pen for me,” Hayes said. “God filled my heart with His love for the Thai peo-ple. He completely took over my life this summer and I realized I am noth-ing without Him.”
WWW has sent stu-dents to other places in the world like Ghana, Bolivia, Egypt, Uganda, Zambia, Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, Ar-gentina, Honduras, Peru, Russia, Turkey, and even New York and Oregon.
About 59 students have already sent in applica-tions before the Thanks-giving break, but Hen-derson anticipates more applications will be sent in before school is out for Christmas break.
“I would tell anyone and everyone to go. You only have so many more summers where you are in
charge of your life,” Hayes said. “Thailand was ab-solutely the most outra-geous, spontaneous thing I have ever done for myself and I learned more about myself and my Lord in three short months than I ever had before.”
Missions
Kirsten Holmanstudent reporter
contact the optimist [email protected]
SA votes to give Edwards recycling bins
The Students’ Association voted to provide recycling bins for Edwards Hall in their meeting Wednesday.
Blair Agan, Edwards Hall representative, intro-duced the bill to Congress. Agan, sophomore commu-nications and political sci-ence major from Lake Jack-son, addressed the lack of recycling opportunities for Edwards residents with Area Coordinator Curtis Smith and fellow Edwards Hall Representative Da-vid Sanderson. Ultimately, Agan decided Edwards would best be served with a formal set of recycling bins that cost about $550.
“I’ve talked to some of the residents that live in
Edwards and they said that if they did have bins, then they would recycle,” Agan said. “They have no reason to recycle now, because there are no bins there.”
On Nov. 8, Congress members voted to allo-cate $550 to Morris Hall for recycling bins. While the bill passed overwhelm-ingly, students did raise concerns over consistency with other bins on cam-pus, transportation of dis-posed recyclables, the high cost of recycling-specific bins and the possible fu-tility of the grassroots re-cycling efforts on campus. Agan’s bill received similar push-back.
Several students said they would prefer a top-down recycling effort backed by the adminis-tration. Andrew Saucedo,
Onstead-Packer Biblical Studies Building repre-sentative, said it is SA’s responsibility to encour-age a change in university policy.
“I think there’d be more efficient ways to do this, but since there’s noth-ing being done, let’s do something about it,” said Saucedo, junior biochem-istry pre-med and Chris-tian ministry major from Tyler. “That’s what we’re here to do.”
After discussion and debate, the bill passed by a wide margin. SA now has $500 remaining in the con-gressional project fund.
Mark Lewis, who has served as assistant dean of spiritual life and chapel programs for 18 years, also joined the meeting for a general discussion about
Chapel.Chapel has been con-
ducted daily since Sept. 11, 1906. Originally, students met Monday through Sat-urday at 7:30 a.m. and were allowed 15 absences. Comparatively few univer-sities in the United States still have daily, required chapel. Lewis said chapel is but one aspect of what defines a university as Christian-oriented.
“Chapel is not what makes a university Chris-tian,” Lewis said. “It has been an intentional part of forming faith in students, as well as in faculty and staff, to have a daily chapel program.”
Much of the conversa-tion revolved around fac-ulty participation in cha-pel. Faculty and staff are required to attend Chapel
on Mondays and have re-served seating in the lower-third of Moody Coliseum, but many Congress mem-bers expressed desire for increased faculty-student assimilation. Lewis said he would be interested in possibly modifying fac-ulty chapel requirements and seating arrangements, but praised President Phil Schubert’s decision to in-volve faculty at all.
“I thought it was really a wise decision not to say, ‘You must go to Chapel five days a week like the stu-dents.’” said Lewis. “That seems very reasonable. As a result, it seems the ma-jority took that very seri-ously.”
SA meetings are open to all students. Meetings are conducted on Wednes-days at 5:15 p.m. in the On-
stead-Packer Biblical Stud-ies Building Room 114.
Students’ Association
JoSHUA GARCIAsTAFF reporter
contact GARCIA [email protected]
Several representatives did not attend the meeting on Wednesday
Gabe Elorreaga, senior class vice president
Simon Jowett, senior class treasurer
Asim Dobani, McKinzie Hall representative
Stevon Carr, COBA representative
Emily Dosa, Gardner Hall representative
GATA spreading cheer to Phillipines
The women of GATA have undertaken Operation Christmas Child for the first time by putting shoe-boxes together for chil-dren in the Philippines.
Samaritan’s Purse is the international relief association that puts on this program every year around Christmas time. By filling a shoebox with toys, one can provide Christmas gifts to a child in need.
“The gifts provided in these boxes are their entire Christmas,” said GATA chaplain Kelsey Woodbridge.
While this is the first year GATA is participat-ing in Operation Christ-mas Child, many mem-bers said they wouldn’t
be surprised if it became a service the club partici-pated in annually.
“We were all so excited for it and really loved get-ting to do it so hopefully we can keep it going,” said Kaitlin Ballow, junior English education ma-jor from Henderson and member of GATA.
“I think we were really wanting to get back to the fact that GATA is a service oriented group,” said Ra-chel Smith, junior English major from Wiggins, Colo. and GATA member. “We really wanted to focus on that this year, especially around Christmas time because that’s a time that a lot of people need help.”
Woodbridge, junior elementary education major from Austin, sec-onded Smith’s statement when she said, “Opera-tion Christmas Child was
the perfect way to get in-volved in service through-out the world during the holiday season.”
Woodbridge wanted to encourage the rest of campus to join in and donate a box of toys. If students are unable due to time constraints, they can go to www.samari-tanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/ and click on Build-a-box. From there they can donate $30 and Sa-maritan’s Purse will make the box for them.
“It’s a great service and I like that we are get-ting back to our roots as a club,” Smith said. “If the club is just there and it’s not serving something bigger than itself, it’s kind of like ‘why are we here?’”
social clubs
kara stutesmanstudent reporter
contact the optimist [email protected]
Larry Henderson Missions coordinator for
world wide witness
They give their hearts to Jesus and the people they serve; they get the
satisfaction of serving those that are often
marginilized.”
“
Dr. Glenn Pembertonassociate professor of ministry
I’ve taught the book of Psalms to college students for 15 years now, and I’ve always noticed how college
students respond to the language of lament.”“
wednesday 12.05.125 featureS
Skateboarding offers creative outlet for Abilene residents year-round
any students share a com-mon complaint, that there is nothing to do in Abilene. But for those interested in picking up a new recre-
ational sport, skateboarding beckons.“Skateboarding has always been there
for me and I’ve never said I was bored,” said Johnny Thornton, who has been skating for most of his life. “Bored people are going to be bored anywhere. It’s their lack of creativity that’s keeping them from doing something.”
Johnny Thornton, skater and owner of Primal Skateshop located at 2642 Post Oak Road, said all it really takes is a skateboard, a parking lot, a concrete parking block and a friend to easily kill four hours without ever getting bored.
“It’s free, fun and good for the soul,” Thornton said. “When people ask why I skate it’s like asking me, ‘Why would you want to have any fun in your life?’.”
Nic Noblique, artist and former pro-fessional skateboarder who resides in Clyde, said skateboarding can teach someone a lot beyond balance and some cool tricks.
“There’s something to be said for some-one who takes the time to learn, and who focuses enough to teach themselves how to do something,” Noblique said.
Noblique, who started skateboarding when he was seven years old, has a long history of skateboarding. He placed top ten in Vans’ Warped Tour and rode for Sector 9 Skateboards. He has owned and operated skate and snow retail shops across the country and engineered a new center point concave skateboard that is now used by major skateboard manufac-turers nation-wide.
“It’s not easy,” Noblique said. “When you see these guys out there that are do-ing tre-flips down 20 step stairs and slid-ing down 15 foot rails, these are things that not only require a certain level of determination and stamina, but you also have to have a lot of brains.”
Despite the positives, the skate culture has received a lot of negative attention over the years. “No Skateboarding” signs plague some of the city’s best concrete spans and, in some larger cities, skaters can get ticketed for cruising down the wrong sidewalks.
Noblique said a lot of people label skate-boarders as punks, but he believes skaters are the next generation of leaders.
“Sitting around and playing video games isn’t going to get you anywhere,” Noblique said. “But getting out there and teaching yourself something is going to give you a much better future. All the kids I grew up skating with went some-where, and that is pretty amazing.”
Additionally, Thornton said he has no-ticed that skateboarding helps people build up their self-confidence.
“There are kids that come into my shop that won’t say a word to anyone and they’re all shy,” Thornton said. “And they’ll start learning some tricks and you’ll notice them instantly become a lot more outgoing and interactive because their confidence is way up.”
Gallen Pierce-Lackey, 27-year-old Tex-as native who will be staffing the Youth With A Mission Boarders Discipleship Training School this January, said he ap-preciates the ministry opportunities that skateboarding provides because of the way that it brings people together.
“Skaters are a community. Jesus loves community,” Pierce-Lackey said. “When we bring skaters together and live our lives within the reality of heaven, we welcome heaven and the Spirit into the skate culture.”
Pierce-Lackey said he experienced his first true Christian discipleship with his former boss at Quiksilver Skateboarding through being taught how to skateboard.
“The alternative culture is rebel-lious because they feel the need to vali-date who they are and what they do,” Pierce-Lackey said. “We as the church are warming up, but have been very guilty of focusing more on changing them instead of showing them Jesus by bringing heaven and loving them. Je-sus loves skateboarding and football; he loves hardcore music and contemporary Christian music. We have to stop brand-ing one culture or style as ‘best’ or ‘cor-rect’ or ‘Christian’.”
Thornton also said skateboarding was not as dangerous as people tend to think.
“People worry about falling off a skateboard, but at least they’re not run-ning into each other really hard like in other sports,” Thornton said. “I’ve never understood that double standard or why they think skateboarding is so much more dangerous than football or base-ball; it’s a misconception.”
Noblique said skateboarding is not only healthy and a useful and environ-mentally friendly means of transpor-tation, but it offers the opportunity to form deep friendships and to join a very unique community.
“There’s a brotherhood for sure in skateboarding,” Noblique said. “You get a couple guys who have determination, who feel the same drive, emotion and work ethic over something, and those are the people that will bond together.”
Thornton said skateboarding is an ac-tivity that overcomes any language bar-rier and cultural difference. He said you can go anywhere in the world and find that the skateboarding community is re-ally tight-knit and it is a sport that allows for interaction between generations.
“I’ve seen that the older skateboard-ers are always willing to help out the younger skaters when they’re learn-ing and they’ve always got a pointer for them about foot placement and all that. They love teaching new skaters things,” Thornton said. “And when you see them learn a trick, you’ll know why.”
Once skateboarders start it, is hard for them to stay away, especially after they get a taste of the variety of skate spots across the nation. Even Abilene has a public concrete skate park of its own lo-cated at Rose Park. Thornton also main-tains an indoor skate park complete with a half pipe, quarter pipe, rail, vert ramp and pyramid that are available for use. He even hosts occasional skateboarding competitions and organizes out-of-town skate trips.
On the ACU campus, the population of longboarders has been growing. Thorn-ton said that even he has begun to warm up to longboarding.
“But skateboarding is way more cre-ative,” Thornton said. “There’s nothing like the art behind skateboarding.”
samantha sutherlandfeatures editor
contact Sutherland [email protected]
Top Left: A skateboarder prepares to drop in from a tail stall on one of Primal Skateshop’s mini ramps.
Top Center: Skateboarders take turns on the half pipe at Primal Skate-shop’s indoor skatepark.
Above Left: Some Abilene skateboarders hang out while taking a break in between skateboarding sessions outside of the shop.
Above Right: Dillynn Newman, a skateboarder from Abilene, catching some air as he jumps over the coping between ramps on Primal Skate-shop’s half pipe.
RIght: A group of regulars hang out outside of Primal Skateshop located at 2642 Post Oak Road in Abilene.
Photos by Asia Todd
M
‘TIS THE SEASON TO BE
SHREDDING
ACU’s Church of Christ identity has been a signifi-cant influence on the uni-versity since it was founded in 1906. However, as times have changed, it seems beneficial for ACU to break from tradition slightly in or-der to accommodate non-Church of Christ faculty and staff members.
The first apparent ben-efit is that of diversity. From the professional standpoint, ACU has the potential of los-ing some respect in the aca-demic world if it does not uphold a certain amount of diversity among faculty and staff members. Requiring new hires to be Church of Christ, a denomination that is sometimes lower in diver-sity, limits the potential for diversity in applicants.
Also, the Church of Christ requirement can hinder some high-quality faculty members from applying to teach at ACU. Though the quality of the current ACU faculty is great, other can-didates that would make good additions may be over-looked simply because they might be a Baptist or non-
denominational rather than Church of Christ. Situations where better-qualified can-didates are turned down be-cause they do not fulfill this requirement can take away opportunities for students to learn from many com-petent, talented professors across the nation who are not Church of Christ.
A professor of a differ-ent denomination would not lead to many palpable changes in a non-Bible classroom. How often do art or biology professors discuss denomination-spe-cific theology?
Instead, if the university is given the ability to hire who is best for the job re-gardless of denomination, doors would be opened up for many faculty members who were previously ruled
out to contribute to ACU.Thirdly, ideas that are chal-
lenged are known to become stronger. When surrounded by like-minded people, it is easier for students to accept beliefs without questioning them for themselves. Stu-dents who are able to defend their beliefs have the oppor-tunity to grow in faith. There are always going to be stu-dents that gain or lose faith in college. Students should be given the opportunity to be strengthened instead of sheltered.
Finally, if the university is intent on reflecting the ‘real’ world, it is important to ex-pand the thoughts and be-liefs that are present on cam-pus. Currently, 45 percent of ACU students are Church of Christ and the outside en-vironment does not mirror this ratio. Faith will be chal-lenged in the real world and it is better to begin exposing students to new mindsets in an environment where they can be mentored by a variety of Christian denominational backgrounds.
Overall, allowing non-Church of Christ faculty and staff members will en-hance, rather than inhibit, the ACU students’ Christian education.
Many students, profes-sors, alumni and staff of ACU have expressed concerns with a possible change in current hiring criteria. Their concerns are well founded. By hir-ing non-Church of Christ faculty and staff, ACU can expect negative effects as a result of the change.
Many parents send their children to ACU not only because it is affili-ated with the Church of Christ, but because their sons and daughters will be surrounded by a 100 percent Church of Christ faculty that will ref lect the same beliefs the fami-ly finds in their home con-gregation. By hiring from outside of the Church of Christ, many parents will see a university that has strayed from its upbring-ing and no longer ref lects their denominational be-liefs.
This change of percep-tion could lead to a de-cline in enrollment that will negatively effect rev-enue and tuition prices on campus.
As it currently stands, ACU separates itself from many other Christian col-leges throughout the na-tion. We remain one of the few colleges that requires its faculty to be Church of Christ. By shifting away from tradition, we would simply be removing one of the aspects that helps dif-ferentiate our university from others.
Pepperdine University remains the only Church of Christ university to re-move this requirement and their Church of Christ student enrollment sub-sequently dipped 5 per-cent. This may seem a far cry from ACU’s current
demographics, but this clearly ref lects a possible future for our university.
Whenever a person or entity steps away from its founding morals to con-form, there is one question that will always be raised: where does it end?
Even though this pos-sible change represents only one small aspect of the university, we have seen many similar chang-es in recent years.
Through the end of a ban on dancing at school sanctioned events and a relaxation of curfew, ACU has been taking small steps away from the foun-dation the university was built on.
As we continue to see conformity slowly chip away at the founding ide-als of our university, we have to wonder at what point we will decide it has to stop. In the future we could see a university that is Christian only in name.
As the university works towards a decision, it must be aware of the po-tential repercussions of such a change.
EVAN’s marks evan marks
6WEDNESDAY 12.05.12Opinion
Mark Smitheditor in chief
marissa jonesmanaging editor
david singeropinion page editor
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asia todddesign editor
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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 let-ters to the editor but reserves the right to limit frequent contributors or to refuse to print letters containing
personal attacks, obscen-ity, 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 27892Abilene, TX 79609
E-mail letters to: [email protected]
published by the department of journalism
and mass communication
editorial and management board
editorial and Letter Policy
The complicated and soul-sucking process to get a passport has made me lose some hope in society.
The first sign that there was something soulless about the process was when they told me not to smile.
Smiling is apparently banned in passport pictures to help facial recognition machines in airports, but I think there is something deeply wrong with forcing a large number of people not to smile.
13,125,829 people have applied for passports this year, so 13,125,829 Ameri-cans were told not to smile.
So much for the pursuit of happiness.
While taking the actual picture, it was hard not to smile. I ended up with a pretentious kind of smirk on my face instead.
Once I had my picture, I went to the post office to try to get a passport.
Attempt number one:I stepped up to the desk
and handed the official my paper work– birth certifi-cate, license, several pages of information.
“Do you want to hear the good news or bad news first?”
Not inspiring words.“I guess the bad news,” I
replied.“Good, because there is
no good news.”Apparently my birth cer-
tificate was missing some information that would make it hard to get my pass-port at this juncture.
I was missing the letter ‘I’ to be exact. This letter in-dicates whether or not I had been born in a hospital. I was in fact born in a hospital but for some reason my birth certificate was missing it.
She sent me to the De-partment of Health Services who said they couldn’t help me and said I would have to order a new birth certificate from the place I was born and wait three weeks. All because I was missing the letter ‘I’.
Attempt number two:I decided to go back to the
post office and plead. I was running out of time and get-ting desperate. They denied it again. I finally received my correct birth certificate.
Attempt number three:This time the passport
gods were pleased with my offering. They sent it off saying it would probably come in on time. This was a stressful time for me. Es-pecially because I was plan-ning on studying abroad in Oxford next semester.
I was cutting it a little close to the deadline.
Luckily, it came in the mail Saturday.
contact the optimist [email protected]
contact the optimist [email protected]
contact JONES [email protected]
EDITORIAL EDITORIAL
Diversity, academic integrity a benefit Far from ACU’s idealsour takeThe requirement for faculty to be Church of Christ members is beginning to take a toll on the university’s diversity. The criteria also prevents many otherwise qualified professors from having the chance to give our students the best education possible.
our takeOne of the things that continues to seperate ACU from other universities is the foundation on which it has op-erated for over one hundred years. However, this could be only a part of the recent changes that continue to lead the university astray.
hashtagACU
@hrjones13
@redanteggs
@EmileeShamblin
@em_brynn
@DaneBressert
@marafleet
@megankateteel
@morganmyer
11:23 a.m. Dec. 4
9:54 a.m. Dec. 4
3:37 p.m. Dec. 4
9:31 a.m. Dec. 4
10:41 a.m. Dec. 4
8:43 p.m. Dec. 3
10:19 a.m. Dec. 4
8:59 a.m. Dec. 4
Guy who booed me during introductions the first day of my freshman year is speak-ing in chapel today.
“Speaking of prison rape, here’s another story...” Dr. Richard Beck
VS fashion show tonight. Girls.. Don’t act like you don’t wish you owned a multi-thousand dollar all sequined/crystal set of underoos.
OMG I JUST SAW PRI-VATE PARTS#wearalongerskirt
You’re not hood, you go to ACU.
My roommate on Song of Solomon: “I dunno. It kinda reminds me of sexting.”
Meanwhile at Star-bucks: 8 mommies in yoga attire, 2 college theology majors, 1 awkward 1st date for 2 divorcees, & a mom nursing by herself.
Couple next to me in the ACU library: “Babe, how much memory does a 15 minute video takes up?” “I think like a beta-billi-byte?” No.
COLUMN
My passport has turned me into an existentialist
THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID
MARISSA JONES
By shifting away from tradition, we would simply
be removing one of the aspects that helps dif-
ferentiate our university from others.”
“
Retaining heritage,or opening options
Since the ACU Board of Trustees released its identity document, board members, administra-tion and faculty members have begun informally discussing whether we should keep or change ACU’s longstanding policy of hiring only Church of Christ members for full-time faculty positions.Here are two takes on the topic.
Students should be given the opportunity to be
strengthened instead of sheltered.”“
wednesday 12.05.127 sports
Last second layup sinks ‘CatsThe ‘Cats are looking to up their game after los-ing against Eastern New Mexico University on Saturday. The team suf-fered their first loss of the conference, 62-60.
“We just didn’t play very well and that’s on me,” head coach Golding said. “I didn’t have our team prepared.”
Since the redemp-tion game against Dallas baptist on Nov. 20, when the team won 75-73, de-fense has been the focus for the Wildcats.
Coach Golding plans to make defense the ma-jor focus for the entire season.
“We have to able to play good defense,” he said. “The other night, I thought defense kept us in the game against East-ern New Mexico.”
Senior center Ste-ven Werner led the team with 13 rebounds, senior guard Eric Lawton had two consecutive three-pointers in the second half, and senior guard Elliot Lloyd and junior forward Cornelius Cam-mock were two of the top scorers in the game.
“You have to just come out and play hard no mat-ter who you play,” Lawton said. “Every game in the conference is going to be pretty tough, you have to always come out with the same intensity.”
With the comeback of senior forward Dosh Simms, the Wildcats are anxious to have their re-turning seniors be a vital
piece in shaping the rest of the season.
Simms played well against the Greyhounds, nailing successful layups in the second half, push-ing the wildcats to a lead around the eight minute mark in the second half.
“We got so many new guys.” Golding said. “We’re trying to fig-ure this out and we’re still a work in progress, through December as we get into second semester, by January, we’ll have an idea of where we’re at.”
Tuesday, the Wild-cats took a little break to spread the holiday spirit, at the second annual Christmas Slam. Both the women’s and men’s team played Texas A&M Un i v e r s i t y- C o m m e r c e and enjoyed a half time performance from Team Big Air, a high perfor-mance acrobatic basket-ball group.
The Christmas Slam included a visit from the jolly man himself, Santa Claus and a toy drive for Arms of Hope, an orga-nization reaching out to disadvantaged children and families.
There were many give-aways for the ACU fans, and a special Christmas blessing from President Phil Schubert as well.
The Wildcats are back in action Saturday at Tarleton State Univer-sity. The game begins at 7 p.m.
men’s basketball
curtis christian Staff Photographer
Senior forward Dosh Simms extends to the basket for a layup in Moody Coliseum. The ‘Cats were defeated by ENMU Saturday, 62-60. Simms was four of eight shooting and had eight points.
brittney johnsonsports reporter
contact johnson [email protected]
Fan poll to determine LSC Era Starting 5
The ACU Athletic depart-ment is currently con-ducting a fan poll to deter-mine which Wildcats will be voted to the Lone Star Conference Era Starting 5 men’s and women’s bas-ketball teams.
The poll is in honor of the ‘Cats 39th and final year as a member of the Lone Star Conference. Fans will be able to vote from Thursday, Nov. 29 through Tuesday, Jan. 29 when ACU plays West
Texas A&M University at home.
Results will be an-nounced at the beginning of the Wildcats’ home doubleheader against Tarleton State University Saturday, Feb. 9.
Those who wish to participate can either vote online at acusports.com or with a paper bal-lot, available at every home game.
The ballots are divided into six categories: men and women guards, for-wards and centers. Bal-lots only include the stu-dent-athletes who played
for the ‘Cats while they were in the LSC.
The men’s basketball team began competing in the Lone Star Conference under head coach Wil-lard Tate in 1973-74. The women joined the league in 1982-83 with Burl Mc-Coy as the coach.
While voting, fans are told to select just one cen-ter, two guards and two forwards, which will cre-ate both a men’s and wom-en’s starting lineup. The older fans who have been watching ACU basketball for decades will have some difficult choices to make.
For the men’s guard spots fans will have to choose between two-time first team all-conference selection Randall Moore, 1980’s star Floyd Logan, Rodney Lee and David Baxter among others.
Lee led the Wildcats in scoring twice in the early 2000’s, while Baxter holds the record for most points scored in a single game in Moody Coliseum with 44.
Forwards in the men’s category include: Co-rey Stone, the top career scorer at ACU with 1,848 points, Rodney Fedell,
the third-best rebound-er in ACU men’s history and current Director of Athletics, Jared Mosley. Mosley scored over 1,457 points from 1995-99.
The women’s forwards will not be an easy deci-sion either. They include: all-Americans Jackie Bu-cher, Claudia Schleyer and Jennifer Clarkson.
Another top contender is Pat Bidwell, considered one of the program’s best 3-point shooters, Jamie Meyer who scored over 500 points in her career and Caroline Omamo. Omamo led the team
in rebounding for three straight years during the late 1990’s.
Fans are encouraged to look through the men’s and women’s basketball record books to help them with their vote. The re-cord books are attached and available with the online ballot. A ballot received that contains more than one center, two guards and two forwards will be marked void.
basketball
contact isaacs [email protected]
edward isaacssports editor
Hot: Dickinson scores 25 points in win from the field, including 42 percent from beyond the arc.
“Everyone on this team can contribute,” Head Coach Julie Good-enough said. “Anyone of these girls can play qual-ity minutes. We focus on playing team basketball, and that’s exactly what we have.”
The Wildcats jumped out to an early 22-6 lead with 10:30 left in the first half. They were able to push the lead up to nine-teen before ENMU went on a 15-8 run to close out the half and cut the score to 38-26.
“We jumped out to a big, early lead and didn’t handle the lead very well,” Goodenough said. “We need to practice staying focused and in-tense, regardless of the score. Stay in tuned with doing the little things correctly.”
After a rejuvenated half time break, the Wildcats were able to
play great defense. They forced ENMU into dou-ble teams, bad shots and turnovers. The Lady Zias were forced to put up bad shots deep into their shot clock possessions.
“When we as a team start talking on defense, it becomes very intense,” Marquez said. “So we just talked and kind of took away most of their op-
tions that we knew they were looking for.”
The Zias were nev-er able to get back into the game as the Wild-cats held a fifteen point lead for the majority of the second half. Thanks to smart play down the stretch, ACU was able to notch the win.
“We were able to get stops and started talk-ing on defense,” Marquez said. “We kept scoring like we know how to do and played smart ball. We just played ACU bas-ketball.”
women’s basketball
from page 8
contact zepeda [email protected]
paige otway Staff Photographer
Junior forward Renata Marquez shoots a layup in Moody.
renata marquezforward
acu women’s basketball
We kept scoring like we know how to do and played smart ball. We just played ACU basketball.”“
paige otway Staff Photographer
Freshman guard Kynzie Newman drives to the basket in Moody Coliseum Saturday against Eastern New Mexico University. The Wildcats won 74-56. Newman has 31 points on the season and is averaging 7.8 points per game.
Wednesday 12.05.12 8sports
The men’s basketball team will face Tarleton State University Saturday in Stephenville at 7:00 p.m.
The women’s basketball team will also play Tarleton State Saturday on the road starting at 5:00 p.m.
standings
briefings
ex- factor
Upcoming
Sophomore forward Sadie Dickinson was named the women’s basketball LSC offensive player of the week for her perfomance this weekend against Eastern New Mexico and West Texas A&M. Dickinson led the team in scoring in both Wildcat victories.
Senior center Steven Werner was named the men’s basketball LSC offensive player of the week for his performance in the Whitten Inn Classic. He averaged a double-double of 19.0 points and 14.5 rebounds.
Senior midfielder Julie Coppedge was named to the 2012 Capital One All-America Division II Women’s Soccer Third Team Wednesday. Coppedge is also a two-time Lone Star Conference Academic Player of the Year and a CoSIDA Academic All-District 6 selection.
men’s basketball
TeamMSUENMUWTAMUACUUIWTAMU-KTSUCommerceCameronASU
Div.2-02-01-11-11-11-10-00-00-20-2
Ovrl.5-25-37-14-24-34-34-15-23-32-4
Houston Texans defen-sive back Danieal Man-ning had three total tackles Sunday’s 24-10 win against the Ten-nessee Titans. Manning has 55 tackles, two interceptions and three forced fumbles for the season.
Rams running back Daryl Richardson rushed for six yards on three carries and had three catches for seven yards against the San Francisco on Sunday. St. Louis defeated the 49ers, 16-13. Richardson has 457 yards and 85 carries this season.
women’s basketball
TeamACUCommerceUIWTSUASUMSUTAMU-KTWUWTAMUCameronENMU
Div.2-01-02-01-02-01-11-10-20-20-20-2
Ovrl.3-13-15-23-24-35-13-22-52-61-50-6
Wildcats storm past Zias
Thanks to a career night from sophomore Sadie Dickinson, ACU was able to best ENMU with a final score of 74-56 in Moody Coliseum Saturday.
The win gives the Wildcats a 3-1 record (2-0 LSC) and keeps the Lady
Zias searching for their first win of the year, as they fall to 0-6.
“We just really kept tak-ing it to them,” junior Re-nata Marquez said. “We would have stretches where we were unstoppable then some stretches that we got too comfortable and al-lowed ENMU to chip away. In the end our stretches were too much for them.”
Dickinson came out on fire, scoring the first ten points of the game for the Wildcats. She fin-ished with a game high 25 points (8-13 FG, 5-8 3PT) and also added eleven re-bounds.
“My teammates were the main reason I was able to play at such a high level,” Dickinson said.
“We’ve worked hard
in practice on hitting the open player and that’s exactly what we did. The confidence we have in one another is enough to help anyone knock down some shots. I really owe it all to my teammates.”
ACU also received help from junior Mack Lank-ford, who finished with 13 points, four assists and five rebounds to cap off a
well-rounded game. Se-nior Kelsey Smith was one point away from a double-double, as she chipped in nine points, 11 rebounds and a huge three point shot that turned into a big momentum shift for the Wildcats.
ACU finished the game with 45 percent shooting
women’s basketball
daniel zepedasports reporter
see hot page 7
Goodenough signs first D-I class
The ACU women’s basket-ball team will have five new faces for their inaugural season as a Division I team.
November 15th, head coach Julie Goodenough signed her first division one recruiting class during the early signing period, giving the ‘Cats size to go along with their depth at guard.
“The five players that we have signed already are very talented and we feel like they are division one athletes,”Goodenough said.
“We are getting a lot big-ger with this class and a lot
taller. They will meet some needs we have with gradu-ation, it will help us main-tain our size or even get a little bit bigger.”
The signings helped spark interest in the en-tire program, and coupled with their blistering start in conference play the entire Big Country is dreaming of successful years to come.
“I have been at the divi-sion one level the last nine years and I have enjoyed coaching at that level and was excited to come to Abilene Christian Univer-sity and be here for this transition,” Goodenough said. “It is really exciting for our student athletes
and for the ACU commu-nity to have a division one school here in West Texas.”
The Wildcats only guard in the 2013 recruiting class is Alexis Mason. They also added Sydney Shelstead, Erin Maxwell, and twin sisters Lizzy and Suzzy Dimba to the Abilene Christian family.
Among the many talent-
ed players these recruits will be able to look up to is sopho-more Shannon Sanders, who played division one basket-ball last year before suiting up for the ‘Cats in 2012.
“The girls are a little bit bigger, and the game is a little bit more fast paced,” Sanders said. “I would tell the new girls coming in to just not let
things get in your head.”The Wildcats were look-
ing for a specific type of player to fit into coach Good-enough’s aggressive style of basketball, and she thinks the young players will be able to match her intensity.
“To be an impact player at the divison one level you have to be extremely com-petitive,” Goodenough said.
“I talk to our players now and tell them you have to be a junk yard dog. You have to be mean and have a little grit to you. So that is what we look for.”
matthew sloansports reporter
women’s basketball
Bonds should not be in bondage
It has been five years since one of the greatest hitters of all time retired from the San Francisco Giants, and he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
Barry Bonds is the all-time leader in homeruns, and has a record seven MVP awards. That is more than Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle combined.
Bonds is one of four play-ers to ever earn 40 steals and 40 homeruns. He was walked 2,558 times, over
200 times in 2004 alone.The steroid cloud sur-
rounds Bonds, and he be-came the poster boy for an era of guys that were using performance-enhancing drugs. But to say that he was not one of the best hitters in the history of baseball is ridiculous.
In his 22 years in the Majors, Bonds stole over 500 bases and had an OPS of over 1.051. Bonds hit over 600 doubles, and he came up as a center fielder, and went on to win eight gold gloves in the outfield.
It is easy to say that he was a cheater, and cheat-ers should not get in. Fine, but he played 15 years in San Francisco, which is far
from being an easy place to hit the ball out of the park.
In fact, it is one of the best pitchers parks in the Major Leagues. Yet Bonds hit 40 homeruns eight times with his home park being AT&T Park.
Let’s also remember that those Home Runs were not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. Those balls were landing in the ocean.
People had boats parked outside of right field in hopes of getting a souvenir, and they were widely successful.
Bonds won the Silver Slugger award five straight times… twice. From 1990-1994 and then again from 2000-2004, he won the award a total of 12 times.
For those of us into sa-ber metrics, Bonds had a double-digit WAR three
times, and a WAR eclips-ing 9.0 six different times.
In his only World Series appearance, he hit four homeruns, walked 13 times, and had a batting average of .471. I would consider that clutch in the fall classic.
So we can be mad that he cheated, and that he did not respect the game. We can be mad that he was not a good example for the children and that he was rude to the media. But to keep the greatest hitter of our generation out of the Hall of Fame is a crime in itself.
column
contact sloan [email protected]
contact sloan [email protected]
julie Goodenoughhead coach
acu women’s basketball
We are getting a lot bigger with this class and a lot taller. They will meet some needs we have with
graduation.”“
write so hard
universitymatthew sloan
The steroid cloud surrounds Bonds, and he became the poster boy for an era of guys that were using
performance-enhancing drugs.” “
Dickinson has career night in blowout victory