Collegian
The It’s 2015! Where’s my hoverboard? p. 8
Friday, January 30, 2015
Vol. 101, No. 6
The Grove City College Student Newspaper
Bookstore back in business Ben Che
Contributing Writer The word “chaos” is certainly appropriate when it comes to describing the first week of the semester. Adjusting to a new schedule takes the entire week and dealing with the trappings of academia – books, syllabi, course requirements – is a process that seemingly never ends until finals roll around and students pack up for the summer. One unavoidable part of the first week is being forced to participate in the college textbook racket and purchase one’s books for the semester. This process was made especially difficult for many students this year due to a website bug in the myGCC student portal. A helpful link that many students have relied on over the years has been a link on each course page in myGCC to the Grove City College Bookstore website whichhas a search application that lists the books required based on a list of classes that one can input. Recently, however, that link was replaced by a redirect to the bkstr.com domain. Upon searching using the college name, as prompted, the error message “the bookstore website has been closed and is no longer available” would appear. Dr. DiStasi, Chief Information Officer for the college stated that the links to bkstr.com – a site owned by eFollett, a college textbook company and a former vendor of the college’s bookstore – were remnants of the old system. The page was not reflecting the textbook link changes that had been propagated down the site. As of the first week of the semester, the links on myGCC now properly redirect to the Grove City College Bookstore. It is a small step toward ordering the chaos inherent in the first week of the semester, but for many students this semester and next, it will be a much appreciated one.
COURTESY PHI OMEGA SIGMA AND ZETA XI OMEGA HOUSING GROUPS
Dancing through time
The Dance of the Century was hosted on Saturday night in Old Map by the Possums and Xenoids. When not dancing, students captured their classic, decade-inspired looks at the photo booth. For more, see page 3.
A pastor’s choice
Alum struggling with same sex attraction found acceptance at GCC Grayson Quay News Editor
“Identity in Christ is the overarching narrative, and sexuality becomes of secondary or tertiary issue,” Pastor Allan Edwards ’06 of Kiski Valley Presbyterian Church wrote in his blog. Edwards speaks of this issue from a unique perspective. Since his teens, Edwards says he has experienced same-sex attraction but has chosen not to act on it and is, in fact, married to a woman. He and his wife Leeanne are expecting a child in July. Edwards’ story made news early this month when he was profiled by National Public Radio and The Daily Mail. His years as a student at Grove City College played a major role in his decision to share his experience with the world through his blog and the mainstream media. The College is ranked the
number 2 most LGBT-unfriendly school in the nation, but Edwards praised his Christian alma mater as
conflict with my faith.” He continued to struggle with that tension when he began attending Grove City College.
“My expectation was, if I started talking to other guys about this, I’m going to get ostracized and lambasted,” Edwards told NPR. “I actually was received with a lot of love, grace, charity: some confusion, but openness to dialogue.” a place where he was able to share his feelings with his peers and find acceptance and guidance. Due to what he called “negative attention” following the nationally distributed NPR interview, Edwards was hesitant to agree to an open-ended interview with The Collegian, but eventually provided a statement and answered a few questions about his time at the College via email. Edwards told NPR he began experiencing same-sex attraction in high school and came to “a pretty immediate realization that it was in
Edwards told The Collegian that he first shared his struggles with a few friends on his freshman hall only to have “a really negative experience when a fellow freshman tried to cast a demon out of me.” Responding to a comment on his blog that called him “a deceiver and a wolf,” Edwards wrote that the vitriol that many fundamentalist Christians direct at homosexuals and those experiencing same-sex attraction “drives me nuts” and that such comments “don’t actually represent Jesus’s way of calling sexual sinners
to repentance.” Later on, his experience at the College improved. Edwards told The Collegian that as a sophomore he was able to share his struggles with his brothers in the Adelphikos fraternity and found a “brother/mentor figure” in one of his brothers. “[He] really showed love to me by letting me share my heart without condemnation. I wasn’t afraid of being ridiculed by him,” Edwards said. That same year, Edwards also shared his struggles with his Orientation Board Religious Committee team as part of his testimony. “My expectation was, if I started talking to other guys about this, I’m going to get ostracized and lambasted,” Edwards told NPR. “I actually was received with a lot of love, grace, charity: some confusion, but openness to PASTOR 2
Seeing ‘Red’ in Cleveland College theater department takes play to KCACTF
Rebecca Shaffer Contributing Writer
GROVE CITY COLLEGE
The cast of “Red” takes a bow on their reconstructed stage at the Kennedy Center.
Grove City College’s Theater Department had the opportunity this year to attend the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. The festival, which was held at Playhouse Square in Cleveland, Ohio, and hosted by Cleveland State University, is held to promote quality in college-level theatre production. It is a unique event, being the only national one in the country, and it is a top
honor for a college to be invited to participate. Early in December, Betsy Craig, the director of the College’s theatre program, found out that last semester’s play “Red” had been invited. Twelve students went to the festival on Jan. 2, joining about 1500 participants from other schools. The adventure was slightly terrifying at first. Craig said, “It was a little intimidating because you compete with schools that are much larger and almost all that have the-
atre majors and many who offer graduate degrees.” The College’s representatives participated in three events: the Irene Ryan competition, dramaturgy, and, of course, performing Red. The Irene Ryan competition an intense acting competition, with 230 starting contestants being cut down to eventually 16. Two competitors from the College, junior John Laurie and senior Ethan Mitchell, made it into the final round. RED 2
Life
The Lens
E!
Perspectives
Sports
You don’t have to be in a frat or sorority to go Greek at the Main Street Diner. p. 4
From Latin America to Europe, not everyone spent their break at home. p. 6-7
Audience bid “The Last Goodbye” to Middle Earth. p. 5
Obama ending the Cuba embargo a step in the right direction. p. 9
A changing of the guard for the GCC football program. p. 11