The Optimist - Sept. 26, 2008

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

aCU wEaTHER

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Sunday

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Online Poll : What did you think of Summit 2008?

a. It was more student friendly.b. The presentations were dull.c. I was happy to get Chapel credit.d. Too many old people.

acuoptimist.com

Pg 3InsideThis Issue:

ACU soccer team to open Lone Star Conference play Friday

Transfer students react to freshman iPhones and Mobile Learning Initiative

Blowing Hot Air: Balloons to soar into Abilene skies Friday

Pg 5 Pg 6

Optimistthe

a product of theJMC network

Pg. 6 No. 4 Wildcats looking for fourth-straight winFriday, September 26, 2008 :: Vol. 97, No. 10 :: 1 section, 6 pages :: www.acuoptimist.com

By Michael FreemanManaging Editor

While testing audio speak-er levels for his Chapel fo-rum Thursday, Washington Post staff writer Hamil Har-ris playfully grabbed a mi-c r o p h o n e and broke into sing-ing Amazing Grace with Wade Hug-gins, junior worship min-istry major from Abilene and Cullen Auditorium sound technician. Harris’ friendly personality bubbles over to almost everyone he meets, and his message of enjoying life and being thankful was one of the top-ics he covered during his lec-tures at ACU.

“I’m so blessed,” Harris said. “I’m just trying to bring a mes-sage of hope and optimism. It doesn’t make sense to be a prophet of doom and gloom.”

Harris, who is in Abilene as a special guest of the Depart-ment of Journalism and Mass Communication for Friday’s Grand Opening of the JMC Network Student Media News

SA votes to award funds to society

Zak Zeinert :: chief photographer

Firefighters hose down a house that caught fire in the 1400 block of Westheimer Road Wednesday afternoon.

Westheimer fire forces students to relocateBy Kelline LintonChief Copy Editor

A house caught fire Wednesday afternoon in the 1400 block of Westheimer Road, leaving two ACU stu-dents, one Cisco Junior Col-lege student and a married couple safe but with their res-idences gutted and burned.

The house was a duplex with a double-sided dividing wall that separated the two halves. ACU students Philip N. Greer, junior finance and marketing major from Colo-rado Springs, Colo., and Jus-tin W. Isham, fifth year senior from Colorado Springs, Colo.,

See Fire page 5

Zak Zeinert :: chief photographer

Adriana Planes, sophomore art major from Spain, Jessalyn Massingill, junior art major from Abilene, and Cameron Broderick, freshman at Abilene High School, pour iron in a grassy area in front of Teague Special Events Center Monday. The students use traditional cupola furnace techniques to make iron bowls and skillets as part of the Summit Empty Bowls project and presentation.

Bringing the Heat

See Lab page 10

Harris

Exodus, ‘Mountaintop’ to be Summit ’09 focusBy Lydia MelbyArts Editor

Wednesday night concluded an event-filled four-day Sum-mit with a lecture by keynote speaker Chris Seidman, whose message calling for acceptance within the church came from Romans 15.

Brady Bryce, director of ministry events, introduced the last speaker of Summit 2008, commending those in attendance for their interest and attentiveness, saying, “It has been a great sum-mit… we cannot leave this place unchanged.”

Bryce also introduced the theme planned for the 2009

Summit, which he called “On the mountain with God.” The mountaintop theme will tie in to the idea of Summit both visually and spiritu-ally, and the key messages will be taken from Exodus.

“I wanted Exodus, and it fits well to have a visual image of Summit… Mountains throughout Scrip-ture are a place to be with God,” Bryce said. “It will em-phasize spirituality and really emblazon the Summit theme in people’s minds.”

In the past, it has taken al-most all year to prepare for Lectureship, and next year’s Summit likely will follow suit.

Bryce confirmed he had spoken to several speakers who had been requested by students and had “between 10 and 20 others in mind.” A theme verse has not yet been picked, but Bryce said he was considering a verse from Exodus 15 that would follow the theme of meeting God on a mountaintop.

Bryce also said that plan-ning his second Summit will be facilitated, not only by the connections he has made and the leads he already has for speakers, but also by the suc-

cess of this year’s series.“[Summit] went really, really

well. The theme speakers and featured guests were each phe-nomenal. The student partici-pation was amazing as well… they were respectful and at-tentive; I felt like the students did a great job and I couldn’t have asked for more,” Bryce said. “ACU lived out Romans 15 this week…it’s difficult to listen to people you disagree with, to enter into those con-versations, to welcome some-one to campus that you don’t know everything about. But those welcoming times help us grow in Christ, and it just adds to our humility.”

Bryce was not sure whether

any changes to the new Sum-mit format would be made for 2009, but said he would wait for feedback from students, speakers and other attendees. Bryce also said he felt the new Summit format had been fairly successful, and although atten-dance seemed high, Bryce said he would keep the focus on quality for Summit 2009.

“I’d love to have as many people as possible…but I’m not really a numbers guy,” he said. “If we have 100 people come, and they leave encour-aged and equipped to be min-isters in their real-world lives… then I’m happy.”

D.C. writer to speak at News Lab opening

By Daniel Johnson-KimEditor in Chief

The Students’ Associa-tion Congress voted to give a group of ACU physics stu-dents a little help Wednesday.

Daniel Jumper, engineer-ing physics major from Rich-ardson and president of the Society of Physics Students, came before Congress to re-quest $2,200 to help pay for the society’s trip to the Sigma Pi Sigma Quadrennial Con-gress conference in Chicago.

A motion to give the Soci-ety of Physics Students the amount requested passed

35-0-1. The amount given re-duced the overall amount in the Student Request fund—a sum set aside in SA’s budget for Congress to distribute among the student body and student groups—from $10,389.79 to $8,189.79.

The motion passed only after Congress debated the issue for nearly an hour.

Jumper explained to the student congress how the conference would benefit the students who attended and was in line with the ACU mission. Jumper said the

E-mail Melby at: [email protected]

Bryce

See a special section the Optimist staff printed to commemorate Friday’s Grand Opening of the JMC Network Student Media News Lab

inside this issue of the Optimist. To find more information about the JMC Newtork visit

www.jmcnetwork.com or www.acuoptimist.com.

Washington Post staff writer Hamil Harris will speak Friday in Cullen Auditorium as the special guest at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Grand Opening of the JMC Network Student Media News Lab.

When: 11:45 a.m. - 3 p.m.Where: Morris CenterWhy: Grand opening of JMC Network Student Media News Lab

nEw nEws LaB

See SA page 5

Virtuous African Heritage Sisterhood will conduct a blood drive from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Campus Center’s Living Room Tuesday. Students can join other students and faculty for a time of unified intercession Mondays at 7 a.m. at Jacob’s Dream. For more informa-tion, e-mail [email protected].

Pilates for Pink is an event during which Ever FIT and Sigma Theta Chi sponsor a free pilates class Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in the

grass lot across from Jacob’s Dream. For more information, contact Ever FIT at 320-1945.

ACU Wildcats Volleyball will play against West Texas A&M Saturday at 2 p.m. in Moody Coliseum. Come support the ladies as they battle the nationally ranked team. Free T-shirts will be shot out of the air cannon, and students will have the opportu-nity to win food from Papa John’s.

3 p.m.The Soldier’s Tale in the William Performing Arts Center Recital Hall

9 a.m. 8th Annual West Texas Book and Music Festival

4 p.m. ACU Soccer versus Angelo State

6 p.m. - 11 p.m. Entra a la Plaza by the GATA Fountain.

9:30 a.m.Pilates for Pink 2 p.m. ACU Volleyball versus Eastern New Mexico

6 p.m. ACU Football versus Eastern New Mexico State

7 p.m. An Evening with the President. Contact the Admissions office at 1-800-460-6228 for information.

7 p.m.Sundaes on Mondays. Call 674-6562 for more information.

Calendar and Events Volunteer Opportunities

Announcements

Sunday26

Friday Saturday Monday

Key City Kiwanis’ annual fish fry needs volunteers Oct. 3 and 4 at the Abilene Civic Center. Help is needed Oct. 3 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Oct. 4 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. with cooking, serving, cleaning tables and trash pick up. Volunteers receive a meal ticket to eat meals while working. All pro-ceeds benefit local organizations.

ACU’s radio station KACU-FM needs volunteers to act as ushers Oct. 18 for the Prairie Home Com-panion performance in Moody Coliseum. Help is needed from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Breakfast on Beech Street is an opportunity to help set up, prepare and serve breakfast to homeless/lower income people.

Volunteers will have the opportu-nity to talk to those in attendance. Serving time is 6:30 a.m. to 7:15 a.m every weekday with cleanup afterward. Volunteers should be finished no later than 7:30 a.m.

The annual Optimist Club Balloon Fest needs volunteers Thursday through Sunday to help in a variety of ways. Help is needed between the hours of 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. to put up tents, string lights and banners, sell tickets, help in kids’ area and pick up trash.

For more information regarding any of the above opportunities, contact the Volunteer and Service-Learning Center in the Bean Sprout.

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CreditedChapelsremaining:

Checkup

23 43Chapel

Friday, September 26, 2008

Campus Day2

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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 [email protected] or to the Page 2 Editor at [email protected].

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

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

About This Page

Check out videos highlighting the Empty Bowls Project, Summit and Bid Night.

Log on to www.youtube.com/acuvideo to see the changes to on-campus cafes, the Empty Bowls Project and the making of the Optimist, Newscast and Sportscast.

Online Newscast Webcast

In the Freshman Follies photo spread Wednesday, it incorrectly

stated the freshman class as the class of 2013, instead of 2012.

Corrections/Clarifications

By Michael FreemanManaging Editor

Every year, Hispanos Unidos showcases the cultures and tra-ditions of Latin American coun-tries through music, dance and food at Entra a la Plaza. The cultural celebration will be Fri-day around the GATA Fountain from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. as part of Hispanic Heritage Month.

“I think it’s going to be great,” said Stephanie Robles, president of Hispanos Unidos and senior psychology major from Mesquite. “Last year’s was great, and we’re looking to step it up even more.”

Entra a la Plaza debuted in 2005 and was a huge hit. This year will be the fourth year for Hispanos Unidos to host the event. Rosa’s Tortilla Factory, Ta Molly’s, El Phoenix Café, Hernandez Bakery and Alfre-do’s will provide food. Attend-ees can enjoy piñatas and face painting, as well as a mariachi band from Lubbock and the

ACU Milonga Latin Dancing group. The event is free and open to the Abilene commu-nity. Robles said she expects 200-400 people to attend.

Bob Gomez, retired coordi-nator of Student Multicultural Enrichment and Spiritual Life, will be one of the people pres-ent. Hispanos Unidos will hon-or Gomez with a plaque for his contributions to the ACU com-munity and his help in promot-ing Hispanos Unidos.

“We’re still here mainly be-cause he helped us,” Robles said. “Everyone appreciates all of his help.”

Gomez retired in 2004, but

his influence still is present. Robles said Hispanos Unidos is considering producing a “Bob Gomez Award” to pres-ent every year.

“When I was a student, we didn’t know what was going on out there in the Hispanic community,” said Jorge Daniel Garcia, Multicultural Enroll-ment Marketing Specialist and Hispanos Unidos sponsor. “I think it’s really important for students to see role models like Bob Gomez.”

Entra a la Plaza, which trans-lates to “enter the plaza,” already has been promoted via local television, the Abilene Reporter-

News and several Hispanic pub-lications. Hispanos Unidos also has worked on service projects at Dyess Air Force Base and the Abilene Chamber of Com-merce in the past week, which may motivate people from these organizations to attend Friday’s event.

“When this event comes, everyone is really happy to come and be part of this event,” Garcia said.

Dance, food, festivites make up fourth Entra a la Plaza celebration

“Last year’s [Entra a La Plaza] was great, and we’re looking to step it up even more.”

:: Stephanie Robles, senior psychology major from Mesquite and

president of Hispanos Unidos

“”

E-mail Freeman at: [email protected]

HIspaNIC CElEbratION

Hispanos Unidos will provide several forms of entertainment at Entra a la Plaza Friday.

What: Entra a la Plaza.When: Friday from 6-11 p.m.Where: Near the GATA fountain

Transfer students adjust to classes requiring iPhones

“Which of the following qualities best describes Je-sus?” Professor Jeanene Re-ese asked the 30 students in her Bible 101 class, Life and Teachings of Jesus.

However obvious the question might have seemed, Virginia Booker sat quietly in her seat as the rest of her classmates responded elec-tronically. Booker, sopho-more biochemistry major from Fort Worth, is one of many transfer students who were ineligible to receive an iPhone or iPod touch.

“I find it frustrating; I can’t

do exactly what the other stu-dents are doing,” Booker said. “My opinion and my vote doesn’t count. If you don’t have the tools, you can’t par-ticipate, and it’s like you’re not even there.”

Students who transfer to ACU with more than 22 trans-ferrable credit hours are exempt from taking U-100, the required criterion to be eligible for a mobile learn-ing device this year, said Bill Rankin, associate professor of English and member of the LINK Team. But trans-fers must take some other freshman-level courses.

Rankin said, ideally, the team would love to have dis-

tributed the devices to ev-eryone, upperclassmen and transfers alike, but complica-tions stalled any such plans.

The first problem arose when ACU stepped into brand-new territory as the only campus in the country to initiate a mobile learning program. With 660 iPhones distributed in one day, the freshman class’ iPhones and iPod touches alone required wireless nodes saturating the campus for everyone to be on-line. In the future, when thou-sands of students in Moody Coliseum are hitting the In-ternet at the same time, an enormously robust network will be required, and ACU has

not quite figured out how that will work yet, Rankin said.

“If we did it for every-body, it would be even more unmanageable, so we had to choose a smaller group to start with, which wasn’t ideal,” Rankin said.

ACU plans to provide de-vices for incoming freshmen and transfer students each year so that eventually every class can participate in the Mobile Learning Initiative.

“Even then, we’ll have to figure out what to do with the transfers or students who are non-traditional and may just be taking one class at a time,” said George Saltsman, direc-tor of the Adams Center for

Teaching and Learning. The most probable solu-

tion at this point is for ACU to have a pool of loaner de-vices available for part-time students to check out for a semester and then return once they have finished the course, Saltsman said.

Rankin said efforts were made to keep any iPhone and iPod touch designs compat-ible with other technology, like laptops.

“We did not go to iPhone-specific programs,” Rankin said.

In addition, at this stage of the process, no graded work is associated with using the devices; professors are uti-

lizing the devices in class for participation purposes only, Saltsman said.

In the meantime, five mo-bile learning specialists are researching usage patterns and applications to better un-derstand how these devices can be utilized in the class-room, Rankin said.

“Our hope is not that trans-fer students will feel walled out,” Rankin said. “In fact, at this point, everybody except freshmen are walled out, but what we hope is that every-one will help us think through what we need to do and where we need to go next.”

Friday, September 26, 2008 Page 3CAMPUS NEWS

The Optimist Unlimited Club of Abilene will conduct its 14th annual Big Country Balloon Fest this weekend. The Festival is the club’s largest fundraiser and largely deter-mines what activities it can put on throughout the year.

The event begins Friday and will conclude Sunday with the final balloon launch and a cele-bration sponsored by Southern Hills Church of Christ.

People from all over the state and even some from out of state come to take part in this event. Some of the pilots of the hot air balloons also come from out of state, includ-ing Pat Harwell from Louisiana and Ron and Brenda McKinney from Oklahoma.

Police estimate 30,000 people come through the festival, said Robin Hicks, coordinator of the Big Coun-try Balloon Fest.

The festival itself is free, but many activities inside the event help raise money for the Opti-mist Unlimited Club.

The balloons are mostly reserved for sponsors, but one balloon is designated for paying flights.

Even though the event is named for its biggest attrac-tion, the hot air balloons, other sources of entertainment will be available. The festival provides concessions, a 10-kilometer race, a 1-kilometer fun run for kids and many other activities.

The balloons will travel, literally, wherever the wind

blows them. To land, the pi-lots look for an open field to bring the balloon down and then have to truck the bal-loons back to the start.

Tim Durham, a hot air bal-loon pilot who has helped con-duct the event for four years, said, “The only means of navi-gation we have is to go up or down and find a wind current that will take us in the general direction we want to go.”

The Optimist Unlimited Club provides activities and scholarships for youth around the area. The money raised from the balloon fest allows the club to sponsor Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, Special Olympics, Little League Base-ball and Softball teams and many other programs and ac-tivities throughout the year.

“It’s not just our fundrais-er,” Hicks said. “It’s some-thing we do for the commu-nity of Abilene.” Matt Newhouser :: file photo

Hot air balloons light up the night sky at last year’s Big Country Balloon Fest. The Optimist Club Unlimited sponsors the festival, the proceeds of which will fund programs like Boy and Girl Scouts and little leagues.E-mail Tripp at: [email protected]

E-mail Leiphart at: [email protected]

Annual balloon fest raises money for charityBy Brandon TrippStudent Reporter

Heather LeiphartStudent Reporter

It’s not just our fundraiser. It’s something we do for the community of Abilene.

:: Robin Hicks, Big Country

Balloon Fest coordinator

“

”

Friday, September 26, 2008 Page 4SPORTS JUMPS

Tennis: ITA provides good test for Wildcats

Football: Undefeated team to face Greyhounds

E-mail Abston at: [email protected]

E-mail Craig at: [email protected]

Continued from page 6

Continued from page 6

Defensively, ENMU has giv-en up 418 yards a game, over 100 yards rushing and 300 yards passing, while giving up an average of 27 points a game. Linebacker Jeremy Hibbler leads the Greyhounds with 56 tackles and one interception. De-fensive tackle Ronald Green, 34 tackles, and defensive end David Reed, 14 tackles, have recorded two sacks on the season and will lead the Greyhound’s defensive line.

The Wildcats enter the game 3-0, led by the second-ranked offense in the nation, averaging 552 yards a game. The Wildcats also rank No. 3 in the nation in scoring of-fense at 49 points a game. Quarterback Billy Malone ranks second in the nation in passing efficiency with a rating of 200.8. Malone

has thrown for 1,000 yards and nine touchdowns, setting the LSC and ACU record for career-touchdown passes last week in ACU’s victory over Southeastern Oklahoma State after throwing for 317 yards and three touchdowns.

Running back Bernard Scott ranks second in the nation in rushing, averaging 153 yards a game; Scott also has scored six touchdowns on the season. Scott runs behind an offensive line that has given up only three sacks on the season and is helping the Wildcats over 210 rushing yards a game.

“Offensively, I think [the offensive line] is making progress,” said center Sam Collins. “I think we’re a little bit younger because we had a lot of older guys last year, but we have made progress and we are getting every-body on the same page; I

think we’ve made strides in that area.”

Defensively, ACU has given up an average of 303 yards and 17 points a game. Over the last two weeks, the defensive has scored three touchdowns and produced five turnovers. Linebacker Mike Kern has led the Wild-cats the past two weeks, re-turning a fumble 35 yards for a touchdown against Texas A&M-Commerce and returning an interception 99 yards for a touchdown against Southeastern Okla-homa State last week.

“He’s taken over the lead-ership role on defense and has a lot of experience there and is a very smart guy and works extremely hard,” Thomsen said. “He’s a high-character guy, and I’m really proud of what he’s doing.”

Linebacker Eric Edwards leads the Wildcats with 21

tackles and one forced fum-ble in front of safety Nick Fellow, who has recorded 16 tackles and one intercep-tion. Safety Tony Harp has 16 tackles, and defensive end Aston Whiteside and Vantrise Studivant lead the team in sacks with two and a half.

“I think there’s areas we have to come along quickly in because we’re going into South Division play this week, and it’s going to get tough,” Thomsen said. “We have to continue to improve and get better fundamental-ly and know what we’re do-ing with our scheme. We’ve only played three games and we have a long way to go to get better.”

Continued from page 6

Soccer: Cats 4-2-1 in ‘08

couple of minutes into over-time,” Wilson said. “I think we match up well this game-and the team that has more focus will end up on top.”

After finishing eighth in their inaugural season last year, the Wildcats look to improve on that record this year. Their offense was not lacking, ranking third in the Lone Star Conference in goals and fourth in shots; however, the defense ranked eighth in goals allowed.

This season could be a different story, though. The defense has highly im-proved, allowing only four goals in seven games, en route to recording four shut outs. Nevertheless, the game against Angelo State should be a serious test; the Ram-belles rank third in both

goals and shots per game.The Wildcat offense start-

ed slowly early in the sea-son, only posting three goals in the first four games even though it returned all of the offensive weapons from last season. The offense has im-proved during the Wildcats’ win streak with seven goals in their last three games.

The match Friday against Angelo State starts at 4 p.m. at the ACU soccer field.

“We just want to take it one game at a time,” Wilson said. “The worst-case sce-nario for the end of the sea-son is a post-season berth.”

“It’s easier to start high, rather than having to work your way up through the rankings,” Jones said.

After the men’s tourna-ment, the Wildcat tennis team will return to Abilene to prepare the ITA Women’s Central Regional, which will take place at ACU. The women’s team, top-ranked in the Central Region in 2007, will compete in the tournament as well.

Overall, Jones and Walk-er feel the team is prepared and should represent ACU well at the ITA Central Regionals.

Photo courtesy of Creative Services

Defensive end Aston Whiteside recorded three tackles for loss, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and two sacks in the Wildcats’ win over Southeastern Oklahoma State.

Running for glory

Zak Zeinert :: chief photographer

The Wildcat cross country teams competed in the Red Raider Invitational last Friday. The men placed fourth overall while the women placed sixth overall in the team standings.

Emily Jorgenson :: staff photographer

The Wildcats will face Angelo State at home to open LSC play Friday. The Wildcats are 4-2-1 overall this season. E-mail Gwin at: [email protected]

2008 MEn’s TEnnis TEAM

Player Classification

Joey Farias Senior

Ryan Hudson Senior

Hutton Jones, Jr. Senior

Juan Nunez Senior

Bret Proctor Senior

Luke Hawk Junior

Henson Adams Sophomore

Karl Bein Sophomore

Eldad Campbell Sophomore

Brian Joiner Sophomore

The Wildcat tennis team will play in the ITA Central Regional tournament this weekend.

Friday, September 26, 2008 Page 5FROM THE FRONT/CAMPUS NEWS

Fire: University gives students housing By Laura Acuff

Opinion Page Editor

A rumor circulating cam-pus that 17 girls intending to pledge social clubs failed to receive bids Thursday night is unfounded, said Mauri Westbrook, director of student organizations and activities.

“This year, for 2008, what we can say is that every stu-dent that went through the ranking process was matched with a club, was given a bid from a club, an official bid to join that organization,” Westbrook said. “Those or-ganizations want those stu-dents to be a part of their organization, and so through that matching process some people get their first choice, some people don’t get their first choice, but we can say that every student was matched with an official bid from an organization.”

Westbrook said that ac-cording to the Social Club Handbook, available on-line at www.acu.edu, every qualified student who puts forth a “good faith effort” in the rushing process can expect to receive a bid.

GATA President Lynd-say Ice, senior music major from Hurst, also said the rumor was inaccurate and every girl got a bid.

“My feeling is that maybe they didn’t quite understand what happened,” Ice said. “So like the girls that maybe didn’t get their first choice show up at this location to receive their bids, but may-be it wasn’t communicated clearly that that’s what it was. But every single girl who ranked and was eligible received a bid.”

While unsure of the ru-mor’s origins, Ice said con-fusion about GATA bids may have contributed.

Ice said that because GATA is a small club, West-brook allowed them to have two separate meetings to announce bids: one for the girls who had ranked GATA first, and one for those who had not.

“We had all of the girls that ranked us first go to a location to meet with our vice president so that they could get pumped up and excited,” Ice said. “The girls

that maybe ranked us sec-ond or third or whatever went to a different location and talked to one of our sponsors in hopes that she could encourage them to re-ally consider pledging us.”

Ko Jo Kai President Jamie Lyn Spires, senior communi-cation major from Arlington, said she has not heard of the rumor and that every eligible girl is usually given a bid. Even girls found to be unqualified receive early notification.

Alpha Kai Omega Presi-dent Erin Chappell, senior social work and biblical text major from Southlake, also said she has not heard of the rumor. Chappell said forget-ting to rank was the only potential reason she could imagine that would keep a girl from receiving a bid.

The unavoidable nature of the pledging process can sometimes spark discord, Ice said.

“Girls really go into the

pledging and rushing pro-cess and get their hearts set on that one club that they just really feel like that is where they belong,” Ice said. “When they don’t get it, it’s a huge disap-pointment, and they are just upset about it.”

However, Ice said despite any glitches, she has faith in changes being made to the pledging system and the people behind it.

“I don’t know that it’s perfect yet but I really think that Mauri and the student leaders and other people on campus who have an in-fluence over this are really trying to put together the best system possible,” Ice said. “Because either way you do it, some girls are go-ing to get hurt and not get the bid that they want, so I think with this system they really are trying to figure out the best way.”

and Cisco Junior College student Sean Greer, also from Colorado Springs, shared the right side of the house, while Mr. and Mrs. Reedy lived in the left half.

A friend called Mrs. Reedy to tell her about the fire. When she arrived at the scene with tears smear-ing her cheeks, she asked the firemen about her dogs. They were in the back-yard, and no one had seen them yet. After the firemen brought her the unscathed pets, she held one of the small dachshunds closely to her chest as she watched her home burn.

The fire started in a trash bin in front of the house and jumped to the eaves in the roof. From there, it spread to the attics. By the time the firemen extinguished most of the flames, it had de-stroyed one of the garages and both attics.

“It did quite a bit of dam-age to both attic areas,” said Lt. Greg Goettsch, public in-formation officer. “Once it was in the attic, it spread easily because of the ex-posed timbers.”

Goettsch said the fire had the potential for caus-ing injuries and widespread destruction.

“If we didn’t have such a rapid response to this, it could have spread to other properties,” he said.

Police received the first call about the fire at 3:53 p.m., and the first fire engine was on the scene at 3:55 p.m. The firemen had the fire un-der control by 4:33 p.m.

“Within two minutes, it went up,” said Pam Cham-berlin, who lived in the apartment complex across the street from the house.

By the time the fire was almost extinguished, the smell of smoke permeated the street, and piles of burnt rubble cluttered around the outside of the house. Water soaked the grass, and one ambulance and five fire op-erational units blocked the street as more than 10 fire-men worked the scene.

Hundreds of ants swarmed the pavement in front of the students’ feet as the three men sat in a row on a step across from their house, watching the firemen work to battle the remaining flames.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do yet,” Greer said. “I might have to leave school for the semester.”

Jan Meyer, assistant dean of Student Life, and Bob Strader, camp director of the ACU Leadership Camps, were at the Center for Con-flict Resolution when they

saw the smoke behind the building. After arriving at the scene, they met the stu-dents and talked to them.

When Meyer heard Greer had left his cell phone in the house, she gave him her phone to borrow for as long as he needed and said to him, “If you need a place to stay tonight, we can make that happen.”

Meyer and Strader were ready to help in any way they could.

“Anybody would have done the same thing,” Strader said.

Neither Isham nor Greer wanted to use the phone to call their parents, until they knew exactly what had happened.

“It’s a little overwhelm-ing,” Isham said. “I’m a little out of it right now.”

Greer, who moved out of his parents’ house when he was 18 years old, had every-thing he owned in the duplex.

None of the students had renter’s insurance.

“If you don’t have rent-er’s insurance and you have a fire, you are pretty much going to eat the entire loss yourself,” Goettsch said. “The owner of the property will probably have insurance on the property, but that doesn’t insure the contents unless he is living there.”

When Dr. Joel-Neal Thomp-son, vice president and the dean of Student Life, arrived at the scene, he told the men he was there to encourage and support them. He ar-ranged for the students to stay in Smith Hall for free as long as they needed. Thomp-son also is working on sup-plying them with meal plans and textbooks.

As of Wednesday after-noon, the investigators were still looking into the exact cause of the fire.

“It most likely is acciden-tal in nature,” Goettsch said.

He said they do not sus-pect foul play.

“We have to rule out all causes, including manmade causes,” said Lt. Eddy Har-ris, an investigator at the scene. “We will sit down and look at the whole picture.”

Pledging rumors prove unfounded

acuoptimist.com

Go online to see footage of firefighters putting

out Wednesday’s fire on Westheimer Road.

the Society of Physics Stu-dents would pay more than $4,000 out of its own pock-et, and they were only re-questing a small portion of the trip’s total costs.

“It’s a great thing that happens only every four years,” Jumper said. “It’s a forum for scientists and students to have roundta-ble discussions about vari-ous issues in our field.”

But the decision to give nearly 20 percent of the Con-gress’ Student Activity fund, a sum of more than $10,000 set aside in the SA budget to

distribute to student groups for various needs, was not an easy decision for some congress members.

“We need to be consis-tent across the board,” Se-nior Senator Kyle Pickens told the Congress during debate of the motion.

Pickens’ largest qualm was the amount the group requested to help pay for hotel funds and gas costs. Pickens said he did not believe it was fair, since the Congress did not give as much to other student groups for similar costs and trips. He said giving away

20 percent of the fund was not a good precedent to set for the rest of the year.

But other congressmen said the fact the members of the Society of Physics Students raised so much money themselves and planned to hold a campus-wide forum about issues they would discuss at the conference proved it was worth the money.

“I think this is an opportu-nity where we cannot use those guidelines, and it will benefit these guys,” said Kyle Moore, off-campus representative.

Colter Lane, Foster Sci-

ence Building represen-tative, lobbied for his constituents, citing that backing this group was an opportunity for SA to help support students who would represent ACU at a national platform.

“I really believed in ev-erything Daniel [Jumper] presented to us,” Lane said.

SA: Congress awards more than $2,000

Continued from page 1

E-mail Linton at: [email protected]

E-mail Acuff at: [email protected]

Lab, spoke Thursday in a Chapel forum in Hart Audito-rium titled “I am a journalist. I am a Christian. So what?” He discussed the importance of people’s lives and how jour-nalists can balance unbiased reporting with their faith.

“Christianity is not what I write about; it’s who I am,” Harris said. “It makes me want to be disciplined.”

Harris will speak again in a symposium titled “Di-versity and new media. Are you ready?” Friday at 2 p.m.

in Cullen Auditorium. He will lecture how the conver-gence of media is hurting the newspaper industry and how journalists can combat and adjust to the change.

“The media is in one big grocery store,” Harris said of readers’ choices in media. “If I’m going to a grocery store, I’m not just going to buy rutaba-gas because that’s not on my shopping list. Based on what my grocery list is, I’m going to buy what feeds my family. In media, we have to understand that

there’s always going to be bad stuff, but there’s still an opportunity.”

Harris joined the Washing-ton Post in 1992, and worked as a staff writer while also producing news videos. In 2007, he won two Emmys with fellow reporter Ben de la Cruz for their video work on the Post’s series “Being a Black Man.” He has writ-ten the book Career Diary of a Newspaper Reporter, and contributed to the book Be-ing a Black Man: At the Cor-ner of Progress and Peril.

Harris has covered stories

on anthrax attacks, Barack Obama’s former pastor Jere-miah Wright, Pope Benedict’s U.S. visit, Hurricane Katrina and former President Gerald Ford’s funeral. He will be the first speaker in the JMC de-partment’s lecture series this year that focuses on diver-sity in media.

“A camera can’t tell the story; a tape recorder is just a piece of equipment,” Harris said. “Media can’t drive peo-ple; people drive media.”

Lab: ‘Post’ journalist to speak at symposium

Girls really go into the pledging and rushing process and get their hearts set on that one club... when they don’t get it, it’s a huge disappointment.

:: Lyndsay Ice, GATA President and senior music major from Hurst

“”

Continued from page 1

E-mail Johnson-Kim at: [email protected]

E-mail Freeman at: [email protected]

Continued from page 1

SportsFridaySeptember 26, 2008 Page 6

Standings

FootballTeam Div. OverallTarleton St.WTAMU ACUMSUTAMU-K

Angelo St.

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

4-04-03-03-03-12-2

ENMU 0-0 1-3

VolleyballTeam Div. OverallMSUTX Woman’sTAMU-CACUAngelo St.

Tarleton St.

2-02-02-01-11-11-1

16-09-58-511-210-69-6

Women’s SoccerTeam Div. OverallWTAMUTAMU-CTX Woman’sACUCentral Okla.

Angelo St.

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

6-0-14-1-14-24-2-14-2-15-3-1

East Central 0-0 3-3-1MSU 0-0 3-3SW Okla. 0-0 2-5NE St. 0-0 1-4-1ENMU 0-1 4-4

SCOREBOARD

IntRAmuRAl ROunD-up

nOtES

n The ACU golf team won the Northeastern State Golf Classic behind the 1-2 finish of Patrick Hanauer and Cyril Bouniol. Look for more information in Wednesday’s issue of the Optimist.

n Sophomore cross country runner Daniel Maina earned LSC runner of the week honors after finishing third at the Red Raider Invitational in Lubbock. Maina ran the 8-kilometer course in 24:44.05 and led the Wildcats to a fourth place finish in the overall team standings.

4-on-4 SoccerStarts: Tuesday, Oct. 28Sign-up Deadline: Oct. 23Cost: $125 per team

3-2 Softball tournamentStarts: Saturday, Nov. 8Sign-up Deadline: Nov. 6Cost: $80 per team

Cats to play No. 3 in the nation

By Chandler HarrisAssistant Sports Editor

The ACU volleyball team came home this week for two matches in three days at Moody Coliseum. On Thursday, the team played Eastern New Mexico.

Eastern New Mexico was 4-11 in 2008 and had yet to play a conference match before playing the Wildcats. Vanessa Wilcox leads ENMU with 122 kills, while Karen McIntyre leads with 319 as-sists in 2008. The Zias are in the second season of coach Kim Falkenhagen’s tenure.

“[ENMU] really started to play extremely clean volley-ball in the past year,” Kellen Mock, ACU head volleyball coach, said. “They look a lot like us. They may not have been as successful as they had hoped to be this season, but I don’t think that has been because they aren’t a good team. They

have a lot of new faces, and sometimes new faces can surprise you. We hope to have a good match.”

The Wildcats had won six straight matches against the Zias heading into Thurs-day, dating back to the 2004 season. Results for ACU’s match against ENMU were not available at press time.

The Wildcats will play West Texas A&M on Satur-day at 2 p.m. in Moody Coli-seum. WTAMU is 13-2 on the season and played its first conference matchup on Thursday against Angelo State. The Lady Buffs are ranked No. 3 in the nation.

“We play very similar ball,” Mock said. “We have multiple players getting a lot of balls and spreading things out and moving the ball around, just like West Texas A&M does.”

ACU has been playing

outstanding defense lately. They lead the LSC in op-ponents hitting percentage (.108) and sophomore mid-dle blocker Shawna Hines leads the LSC in blocks per set (1.1). Sophomore setter Ijeoma Moronu is third in the LSC in assists (10.14).

Coach Mock said Mo-ronu’s outstanding play has become expected of her each game.

“You are always excited when someone plays well, but we just expect her to perform,” Mock said. “She is hard on herself, but she pushes herself to do great and she is a key difference maker on our team. She is a really outstanding player.”

Both of the Wildcats’ losses in 2008 have been followed by 3-0 victories. Coach Mock said the team have been good at being able to forget about the past and move on.

“One of our goals this sea-

son has been to take things one game at a time, one match at a time,” Mock said. “Out losses have proved to us that anyone can beat any-one on any given day. Both of those teams wanted it more on those days. We just have to get to the next match.”

Mock said the team is made up of several differ-ent kinds of leaders.

“We have some differ-ent things going on for us,” Mock said. Lauren Leone and Amy Wilson are our captains off the court. Ije [Ijeoma Moronu] is our lead-er on the court and Shawna [Hines] is one of our big, go-to players. Shawna [Hines] is a big time motivator and is really making a difference this season.”

Friday

Women’s SoccerACU vs. Angelo State, 4 p.m.

Saturday

VolleyballACU vs. West Texas A&M, 2 p.m.

FootballACU vs. Eastern New Mexico, 7 p.m.

Wednesday

Volleyball

ACU vs. Dallas Baptist, 7 p.m.

:: Home games listed in italics

Upcoming

Saturday

FootballACU 59, SE Oklahoma State 10

VolleyballACU 3, Texas A&M-Kingsville 0

Scores

Wildcats open LSC play with Angelo St.By Austin GwinSports Writer

After a surprising 10-day break, the ACU soc-cer team is ready to face its first conference foe on Friday. Both matches scheduled against Paul Quinn College on Sept. 19 and McMurry University on Monday were cancelled, leaving the Lady Wildcats well-rested to face Angelo State on Friday.

“ [ T h e break] gave us a chance to get some p e o p l e h e a l e d , ” said head c o a c h Casey Wil-son. “We have played some intrasquad games to make up for the two games we missed. I feel like we haven’t skipped a beat.”

The Wildcats have al-most completed their non-conference schedule for the year and will finish it on the road Thursday against Dallas Baptist. Ten of their next eleven games will be against conference opponents. The game on Friday will also be the first conference game for the Rambelles, who come in with a record of 5-3-1. ACU has rebounded after a 1-2-1 start with three straight victories. Last season, ACU shut out the Rambelles in their only match against them, winning 1-0.

“Last year it was a tight game in which we scored a

ACU looks to remain unbeaten against ENMUBy Grant AbstonSports Editor

The fourth-ranked Wild-cats will travel to play Eastern New Mexico this weekend, looking to remain undefeated in their first Lone Star Confer-ence South Division game.

ACU defeated Southeast-ern Oklahoma State last weekend to improve to 3-0 on the season. The Wildcats will travel to Portales, N.M., to play the 1-3 Greyhounds, who are coming off a 38-14 loss to Texas A&M-Commerce. The Wildcats defeated A&M-Com-merce 45-14 in their second game of the season.

“They are like the Texas Tech offense and throw it 50 times,” said head coach Chris Thomsen. “They throw the ball a lot and are very com-plex on defense. They blitz a lot and try to hit you from a lot of angles, so it’s a big chal-lenge this week.”

The Greyhounds come into

the game suffering losses from Southern Nazarene and Southeastern Oklahoma State before last week’s loss to A&M-Commerce. Their lone win came against Southwest-ern Oklahoma State.

The Greyhounds enter the game averaging 270 yards of offense a game, 246 passing and 24 rushing. Quarterback Cory Baker leads the Grey-hounds offense, throwing for 151 yards a game and three total touchdowns this season. Baker has a 52-per-cent completion rate and has thrown nine interceptions on the season.

Running back Joseph Ban-yard leads the Greyhounds with 102 rushing yards on the season with one touch-down. Jessie Poku is the Grey-hounds’ No. 1 receiving threat with 25 catches for 301 yards

Men travel to Maryville for ITA Central RegionalBy Jeff CraigSports Writer

The Wildcat men’s tennis team heads to Maryville, Mo., this weekend for the Inter-collegiate Tennis Association Central Regional Tourna-ment at Northwest Missouri State University.

The match will include both a 64-team bracket sin-gles tournament and a 32-team bracket doubles tour-nament with spots to the NCAA Division II National Championship in Mobile, Ala., on the line. The ACU men’s tennis team finished last season ranked No. 19 in the nation and No. 2 in the region behind only Cameron

University. Assistant coach John Walker hopes his team can continue to build on last year’s success.

“We are hoping that again we can qualify an individual or doubles team to nation-als,” Walker said. “The team of Juan Nunez and Ryan Hudson won doubles last year and we’d like to see that again.”

Head tennis coach Hut-ton Jones also believes in his doubles team’s chances this weekend and feels he has three doubles teams capable of winning the re-gional title.

“The teams of Ryan

Hudson-Juan Nunez, Luke Hawk-Brian Joiner and Hut-ton Jones Jr.-Quinton Peter-son-Paul all have a shot,” Jones said. “I hope Ryan and Juan go out and act like they own the place,” he said of his defending regional champions.

Jones also believes many of his individual players have “as good if not a bet-ter chance of winning as any other school.” Senior and de-fending doubles champion Juan Nunez has made it to fi-nals in singles each of the last two years and has a great shot at victory according to Jones. Assistant coach Walker echoes Jones’ sentiments.

“I am anticipating that we

will have a singles player qual-ify at regionals,” Walker said.

The fall season serves as half of the tennis team’s schedule. The fall, and spe-cifically the upcoming ITA Central Regional, is made up of individual events that have far reaching effects. The spring is when schools compete head to head and tennis becomes a collegiate team sport, and individual results from this ITA Central Regional have great, poten-tial ramifications on the team ranking in the spring. Coach Jones hopes to find success at regionals and ultimately a high ranking.

Volleyball

See Soccer page 4

Football

See Football page 4

Tennis

Emily Jorgenson :: staff photographer

Linebacker Mike Kern (50) helps make a tackle against Texas A&M-Commerce. The Wildcat defense has scored three touchdowns in the past two weeks to help the fourth-ranked team in the nation remain undefeated.

Brien Schmidt :: file photo

Joey Farias and the Wildcats will travel to Maryville, Mo.See Tennis page 4

E-mail Harris at: [email protected]

photo courtesy of Creative ServicesMichelle Bacon (12), Shawna Hines (7) and Britni Golden (13) get ready for a serve against Texas Permian-Basin. The Wildcats are 11-2 on the season.

acuoptimist.com

Check online for highlights from

previous ACu games thoughout the year

Wilson