Oracle The
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012
New cafeteria
HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY
Consulting company paid to boost student enrollment Colbie McCloud Staff Writer
Photo by Kaitlyn Tolleson
NEW HEIGHTS A construction crew is shown
working on the newest addition to Henderson’s campus, the new cafeteria. The cafeteria’s construction is entering the last stages of construction.
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VOLUME 105, ISSUE 13
How can we get more students to come to Henderson and how do we keep the current students here? This is the question that inspired campus to enlist the help of the CREDO enrollment management company. CREDO visited campus from Nov. 6-9. In an email sent to faculty and staff from Dr. Maralyn Sommer, interim provost and vice president of Academic Affairs, Sommer stated that campus must find a way to increase student numbers through better retention and recruiting. An additional 50 students, for example, would generate about $300,000 in new revenue. “Over the past few years Henderson has grown,” Dr. Lewis Shepherd, vice president of Student and External Affairs, said. “The number of first time freshman has decreased, but transfer students have increased. Thus our enrollment has been flat.” CREDO analyzed all the criteria on the first time freshmen before they came to campus. “We sent them every document we had involving admissions, enrollment, financial rewards, acceptance letters and more,” Lewis said. Their research was called admitted student research. They also sent out a questionnaire survey to every student. Each participant was given a RedBox rental movie, and two lucky participants won a Kindle Fire. “The survey included three groups: matriculated Hender-
son students, matriculated other university students and people who did not attend college,” Lewis said. Some respondents of the survey actually took time to write out comments on what students want and expect out of a university. “I sat down and read every comment that was submitted,” Lewis said. “The number one expectation was to be able to leave here with a degree that will get students jobs. Second, to have a faculty that is committed to them. And third, students want to be able to have scholarships and financial aid.” The CREDO consultation cost Henderson $82,500, which equals out the cost of 16.5 students for a year. On July 19, a payment of $23,500 was made to CREDO, and then on October 23, another payment was made of $13,250. “The contract pays for itself,” Lewis said. CREDO met with different departments on campus, including administration, admissions, faculty and others. “Between the team members who were here, they have over 100 years of collective experience in admissions at different universities,” Allan Ford, admissions counselor, said. “I thought they did a fairly decent job articulating their recommendations.” The enrollment management consultants gave 57 recommendations to increase enrollment, but did see some methods of recruitment that were already implemented that they liked. “They complimented the
warm work ethic and consistency of the admissions office,” Ford said. “They thought that the admissions office’s newer methods of communication, social media, would continue to go over well.” “They did suggest a few avenues we could try to better connect with prospective students, like making more telephone calls and trying to develop new ways to get the students to our campus,” Ford said. Recommendations include revising some of Henderson’s recruiting and admissions processes. “They said we need to update our admissions software to better meet our needs and to hire another admissions person,” Sommer said. There is currently a vacant admissions counselor position that CREDO has suggested be filled. A person to plug in data is also a personnel issue they thought would be of interest for Henderson. “We receive about 4,000 applications for one year,” Lewis said. “90 percent of these are submitted online and all applications are manually done. They suggested that we had an immediate software change. We were still processing applications on August 15 of this year after people had already started taking classes and were on campus for last year.” It was also suggested that Reddie for Henderson Day be repeated throughout different times of the year.
According to state law, any teacher with one student in their classroom who needs to improve their English proficiencies must have this ESL endorsement training. Sixteen specialist presenters from around the country come each year to host sessions in the academy. This year, Correia had 73 in attendance at Henderson for the academy, as well as 73 in Little Rock. In her ten years directing the academy, Correia has trained more than 1,900 Arkansas public school teachers to receive ESL endorsement training. “My life is about working with English language learners, teachers, students, parents, families, colleagues and community,” Correia said in a press release. “ESL students walk into my classroom, right into my heart.” Aside from the three hats she wears at Henderson, for 12 years Correia has been a lifetime member of the ARKTESOL board, one year serving as president. “Not only is she a gracious, giving teacher, but she is also a generous spirit who will drop everything to help another human being,” Christine Smart, assistant director for the Center
for Language Proficiency, said in a press release. Smart and Denise Thibodeux, administrative assistant for the Center for Language Proficiency, are Correia’s left and right arms. Appreciation doesn’t just stem from Correia to her staff, but goes right back the other way. “I was the nominator,” Smart said. Smart, along with Thibodeux and many of her students, submitted more than 80 pieces of evidence as to why Correia is the greatest ESL educator in Arkansas. Being the nominator, Smart knew Correia had won the award months before the conference, yet still managed to keep the secret. Even before the presentation of the award, Smart gave subtle clues that she was up to something. As the announcer read submissions in support, unbeknownst to her, of Correia, she sat amazed at the profound effects the winner had on their students and coworkers. When her name was called as the winner, complete shock ran over Correia’s face. In 1996, Correia was an “Outstanding Educator in Arkansas of Adult Education” and in 2012, educator of the year.
“You never know as a teacher where your impact ends because it’s exponential,” Correia said as she accepted the award. Correia has made profound accomplishments in ESOL education, in Arkansas and at Henderson, and luckily for future teachers and students, she does not plan to stop.
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English as a second language educator honored with award Zach Dutton Staff Writer
Index
For over 40 years, from Korea to Alaska and back to her native state of Arkansas, Mrs. Julia A. Correia has devoted her life to her students. Finally, she’s been recognized for it. Arkansas Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ARKTESOL) presented Correia with their first ever “Outstanding Educator of the Year” award at the Fall 2012 ARKTESOL conference. “This is a defining moment in my life,” Correia said. “I feel like this is the ultimate achievement that I could ever ask for because my passion is all about students.” While living in Korea in 1972, Correia began doing what she does today without knowing it would be the beginnings of her life’s work. When she returned to the United States, she found there was a field for what she had become passionate for, ESOL. Correia lived in Alaska for 12 years soon after leaving Korea, and during her stay there, she taught students from 60 countries looking to improve their English proficiencies. Since moving back to Arkansas, Cor-
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reia has made quite a name for herself. As founding director of Henderson’s Center for Language Proficiency, she has made the university a central name for ESOL education in Arkansas. Correia explained that Arkansas is home to 45,000 students needing to improve their English proficiencies, with 85 percent of those being Spanish speakers. Even more remarkable, the other 15 percent are comprised of students who speak 80 different languages. “We have international students, and we’ve had students from 24 countries in the past 13 years that have come to improve their English proficiencies,” Correia said in her acceptance speech. She is a member of Henderson’s Teacher’s College where she teaches four ESL endorsement courses to graduates and undergraduates. Perhaps her greatest project is the ESL Academy she began in June 2003. The academy is 13 consecutive, 12-hour days that is based on her four ESL endorsed classes. This is meant to train public school teachers on how to properly manage and provide for ESL students.
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Photo courtesy of Joe Correia
¿PARA MI? Julie
Correia was the only one shocked at her recent award for ESOL education.
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News Briefs
News
November 19, 2012
Cafeteria making strides of progress
On Monday, November 19, the Student Nurses Association will be holding a meeting in the Nursing Building at 12 p.m. During the meeting, several hospitals will be coming to share information about their specific hospitals and job opportunities. There is a $15 charge to join SNA per year., but there is no cost to attend the event. Also on Monday, the Multicultural Affairs Film Night will take place in the Garrison Lecture Hall at 7 p.m. Beginning on Tuesday, November 20, classes will let out for the Thanksgiving holidays. They will pick back up next Monday, November 26. Upon returning back from the holiday break, the Intramural Raquetball sign-ups will be coming to a close. All teams are required to sign up by Thursday, November 29. The Fall Choreography Showcase will be on Thursday, November 29, at 4:30 p.m. in the Arkansas Hall Dance Studio. The dancers will be showing their own contemporary pieces. Some of the works shown during the showcase will be picked to also be shown in the HSU Dance Company in Concert. The audience is strongly encouraged to give feedback. There will be a Lake Degray Mountain Biking Trip on Thursday. The trip will be at the Iron Mountain Trailhead starting at 5 p.m. Friday Movie Night will pick back up the Friday after students return from Thanksgiving break. On November 30, ‘The Possession’ will be playing in the Garrison Lecture Hall. The movie starts at 7:30 p.m. If you miss the Friday night showing of the movie, there will be a matinee show on Sunday at 3 p.m. Carol of the Lights will be on Monday, December 3, on the South Lawn. The event will begin at 7 p.m. The Holiday Choral Conc ert will take place on December 3, in the RFA-Harwood Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m. The Seasons of Light will be on December 6 and December 13 at 7 p.m. in the Planetarium. Tickets are $1 with a student ID and $3 without one. There will be no late entry.
Photo by Kaitlyn Tolleson
SUCH GREAT HEIGHTS Construction crews are making leaps of progress in the building of the 20,000
square foot new Henderson cafeteria. With the building’s foundation in place, a plywood roof is being added along with several other additions.
Transfers make up most of new students Jeffer y Gilmore Staff Writer
with 352 transfer students. Ginger Otwell, research associate in the Office of Assessment and Research, provided the student counts. There were many firsts in the admissions office this semester. “I never get to give out all of my transfer scholarships, but this year I did,” Jennifer Wright, transfer counselor, said. So far there have been two of the focus groups held. The first was comprised of commuting transfer students and the second was filled with transfer students who live on campus. The Henderson administration was surprised by the large influx of transfer students to this year’s incoming students, since so much time and effort is spent on recruiting high school seniors, as evident by the multiple counselors for new freshmen and one for all transfer students. “We’ve had a steady increase in new transfer students for 10 years now, but we just want to know what caused the jump,” Wright said. “We want to know what we did right so we can do it again and more, and also what we didn’t do right so we can fix it and get it right to keep these numbers up,” Shepherd said.
The most common reason for the need to transfer was graduation from a junior college, however the main reason for choosing Henderson was the money. “I got a scholarship for Henderson,” Jonathan Eagle, junior biology major, said. “I wanted to go out of state, and Arkansas gives Texans instate tuition,” Gabriale Kitier, sophomore biology major, said. “Henderson was the lowest price close to home.” The students were asked to fill out a questionnaire on the transfer process, what they liked, what could be done better, what caused the most strife and the general feel of the process. The students were encouraged to be blunt and bold. The number of scholarships was the primary complaint. Henderson offers a transfer scholarship similar to all universities. It encourages continued education, but loyalty to your university. To apply, a transfer student cannot have taken more than 15 hours at any university. This disqualifies many transfer students who come to Henderson for financial reasons. “I didn’t know about [transfer scholarships], but it wouldn’t have mattered because I went
to OSU [Oklahoma State University] for two years,” Latissa White, junior theatre major, said. Some students at the focus group were slightly confused as to why they were not allowed to apply for certain scholarships that were not listed as “freshmen only” scholarships. “Those scholarships are based on test scores, and after 15 hours of college we look at GPA not ACT,” Wright said. Another question was whether or not transfer students should have their own Heart Start. Heart Start provides some valuable information about Henderson’s processes and heritage, but is all mostly geared toward freshmen. Transfer students have had previous working with schools and know a lot of the process already, and many are upper classmen, so attending Heart Start for enrollment is futile, because most of the upper level classes are filled up in April. A transfer student Heart Start was suggested for the Spring Break week. The students mostly spoke on how they truly felt cared about during the whole process, securing Henderson’s place in their hearts as “the school with a heart.”
Also, to acquire parents’ contact information and contact them Colbie McCloud with information on the school is Staff Writer a suggestion from the consultants. “CREDO thought that students Also, they said to add an events who come for Reddie for Hendercoordinator position. son Day could spend the night in
the dorms with current students and then help at the Reddie to Serve Day to get a college experience,” Lewis said. The consultants are going to be working alongside faculty and staff to fix any major issues.
“They’re an experienced group,” Ford said. “They have the capability to provide a different perspective for us as recruiters and admissions personnel. Hopefully, we can use their guidance to take Henderson to new heights.”
This year Henderson enrollment was up overall, but not in every area. To address this occurrence, Dr. Lewis Shepherd, vice president of Student and External Affairs, has held focus groups on a new sub-population; the transfer students. Last Wednesday the second of these focus groups was held in the Garrison Center. Every year colleges and universities must report to their states’ department of higher education on the number of new, retained, graduated and dropped students. If the number of new students falls or stays stagnate for too long, part of the school’s state, and possibly federal, funding gets cut. During this year’s report, the Henderson admissions office noticed something strange. Although the new student rates were up, the number of new freshman was down. The cause for the increase was in a very unusual place; incoming transfer students. Last school year, Henderson welcomed 827 new freshmen along with 309 transfer students. This year however, Henderson gained 781 new freshmen
Enrollment consultation continued
Opinions
NOVEMBER 19, 2012
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Don’t feed the trolls: Here, have this thanks Ryan Klare Columnist
I don’t know what shared action ties your family together, but every family has one. Sometimes it’s the love for a sports team or maybe an activity like gardening. Sharing interests brings you all together and builds relationships like nothing else. In my family, the sport is food and Thanksgiving is the Superbowl. In the days leading up to the Thursday of reckoning, every member of the family begins to subconsciously decrease the amount of food they eat at every meal. This is a genetic response to generations of Thanksgiving anticipation and happily requited hunger. This is especially difficult since, through the week, every household within the family is gathering the ingredients and constructing what will later bring you happiness, then pain, and then shame. I was probably 10 years old or so before I realized
that not everyone assembles their entire family like a gourmet Justice League for Thanksgiving. I’ve been blessed with a large family who has made every Thanksgiving I’ve experienced an event worthy of yearlong excitement. We celebrate with my mom’s side of the family. She, being one of seven, is just part of a force that just thinking about can raise your blood sugar. Every one of my aunts and uncles are from a time where sinfully delicious ideas come from real know-how and experimentation and not Pinterest. These are the only people I can trust with the task of making the horrible smelling puke-gourd you would call a pumpkin into some sort of edible dish. Thanksgiving always takes place at my Aunt Wanda’s house. She, by strength and endurance that can only be directly from God, takes on the unenviable task of preparing the majority of the dinner. The rest of the family brings additional sides, desserts, and a personal challenge to obliterate the unfortunate
honeysuckle white adeptly prepared by years of love and experience. That’s when things get real. We all come together a little over and hour before we eat, so that everything can be arranged on the counter, poised to be assaulted. The time before you’re allowed to eat on Thanksgiving is the longest stretch of time of the year. You try and distract yourself with football, but the whir of the electric knife carving through succulent flesh keeps bringing you back to your self-inflected starvation. You can smell it. You know it’s just right. You see the knife-wielder snag a sliver of breast meat and you no longer care about how much the Cowboys are losing by. At this point, you need all of your willpower to not attack the turkey like a Bumpus hound. When the “amen”s have been said, the attack is launched. To attempt to have everything is reckless and, frankly, a suicide mission. Stick with what you can handle and you’ll make it home okay. Conversation is pretty lim-
ited during the meal, with most sounds being guttural responses to the mindbending greatness of the food, the highest tier of compliment being, “UHHHHHMMPPPHH”. After the dust settles and cranberry sauce stained napkins are tossed into the comically clean plates, we all find a cushioned area to digest and pray for forgiveness for our gluttony. Obviously, Thanksgiving is about more than the gift of food. It’s become our excuse to condense our appreciation for what we have into one day and that’s beautiful in it’s own way. Outside of staggering amounts of food being consumed and huge balloons, there are still some true thanks being given. Most of us at Henderson are lucky enough to have everything we absolutely need, as well as extras. That, and there are few times you can be more thankful than when you are surrounded by family and a large portion of turkey is surrounded by your stomach.
Petraeus affair and the role of biographers Hillel Italie Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) ‚The affair between retired Army Gen. David Petraeus and author Paula Broadwell is but an extreme example of the love/hate history between biographers and their subjects. Even before their outing led to Petraeus’ resignation as CIA director, Broadwell had been criticized for the rosy tone of “All In,” which The Associated Press described in 2011 as “part hagiography and part defense” of his strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan. But as long as biographies are written by and about human beings, scientific precision will remain an ideal. The stories of famous women and men often are colored by rapture and disenchantment, confusion and bias. “As with psychiatrists, same with biographers, you shouldn’t sleep with your subject,” Blake Bailey, the prize-winning biographer of authors John Cheever and Richard Yates, said with a laugh. “The ideal case is to have no assumptions. ... But it is possible to write a great book and have strong opinions. (‘Eminent Victorians’ author) Lytton Strachey, the father of all modern biographers, had a very distinctive voice and a very distinctive perspective ‚Äî a person looking down from the world at a great distance, quite disparagingly, but with vast humor that informs every word.” Broadwell conducted extensive interviews with both critics and supporters of Petraeus, but the finished story was overwhelmingly positive. She is far from alone in allowing personal or professional regard to shape a biography, especially when the subject cooperates. Flattering books come out all the time, whether a biography of Dick Cheney by Weekly Standard writer Stephen Hayes or Chris Matthews’ “Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero.” Years spent together, as Broadwell had with Petraeus in Afghanistan, can make the biographer’s experience intensely personal, whether sexual or not. Walter Isaacson did not avoid the unpleasant side of Steve Jobs, but acknowledged he had bonded strongly with the dying Ap-
ple CEO. Doris Kearns Goodwin was an aide to Lyndon Johnson who sometimes took notes while the ex-president lay in her bed, a relationship that she called platonic and described in her book on him, “Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream.” Some relationships end in court. Jimmy McDonough spent years working on an authorized biography of Neil Young, only to have Young withdraw support and attempt to stop publication, leading to mutual lawsuits and delay in the release of “Shakey,” which came out in 2002. Some biographers seem energized by perceived sins, like the late Albert Goldman and his takedowns of Elvis Presley and John Lennon. Others use scholarship to build up or pick apart a figure from the distant past. Jon Meacham’s new biography of Thomas Jefferson praises him as a subtle and effective politician, while a competing book, Henry Wiencek’s “Master of the Mountain,” faults Jefferson as a calculating slave holder who tolerated brutality. David McCullough has likened the biographer’s choice to picking a roommate, one you must live with for years. McCullough himself abandoned a Picasso book out of distaste for the painter’s private life and chose men he related to for his two Pulitzer Prize winning presidential biographies, Harry Truman and John Adams. Former JFK aide Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. won a Pulitzer for “A Thousand Days,” his book on the Kennedy administration. But his reverence for the late president led Gore Vidal to dismiss “A Thousand Days” as a “political novel.” Biography often is the art of reconciling opposites. Robert Caro, the prize-winning biographer of New York municipal builder Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson, has taken on men who have both inspired and dismayed him. A former investigative journalist, Caro sees his job as collecting as much information as possible and only then forming opinions. There is no such thing as “objective truth,” he says, but there are enough “objective facts” to bring you close. For his Moses and Johnson books, Caro has relied upon countless documents and interviews. He has labeled his Johnson series, begun soon after the president’s death and
still going, as a narrative of darkness and light, of the basest cruelty and the noblest achievement. His Moses book, “The Power Broker,” was another epic of greatness and destruction and even more complicated to write because he actually interviewed Moses. “You were awed by seeing the scope of his vision as he talked about it to you and explained it to you. You see him standing in front of this map, with a yellow pencil and sharp point, just gesturing toward this tri-state area that he sees as one entity and has a vision for it,” says Caro, whose book was harshly criticized by Moses, but won the Pulitzer in 1975 and is now standard reading. “But I was simultaneously talking to the people he had displaced, hounded them out of their homes. You have to show both of these things, his genius and its effect on people.” Authors have followed paths they never imagined before starting a book or encountering the subject. Edmund Morris was a prize-winning biographer of Theodore Roosevelt, but the chance to write about a living president led him to take unusual license. Granted years of access to Ronald Reagan, Morris was left so mystified that he inserted a fictionalized version of himself into the book, “Dutch,” as a way of making sense out of the president. Jane Leavy, author of a well-regarded biography on Mickey Mantle, said she had a hard time starting the book because of her childhood worship for the New York Yankees star. She decided the best way to move ahead was to acknowledge up front her memories, and map out the life of the flawed and troubled man she came to know and to hear about. “He was multidimensional and far more complicated than the hagiographic biographies I read in school or the dark stories about him being a womanizer and an offensive drunk,” she says. “No one is one way or another. The fact he was horrible to his wife doesn’t invalidate his skill. So the task became why he treated people the way he did. And that’s the biographer’s job.”
Text talk: How useful is that digital buffer? Katie Blair Guest Columnist
There’s beginning to be a fine line between texting and normal real-time conversation. Eventually texting conversations could be more common than calling someone or having a face-to-face conversation. In fact, I’m pretty sure that a lot of people prefer texting to calling people on the phone, and where is that leading us? Into a world full of ‘LOLs’ and ‘IDKs’? Sure, texting gives us time to think of clever responses before we answer, but in my opinion it’s slowly leading us into a situation where people don’t know how to communicate face to face. The next generation is in danger of only knowing how to communicate through technology. I’m not trying to pretend like I’m innocent of texting more often than calling, but I do try to text in complete sentences. I really hate it when
someone texts with bad grammar. And my pet peeve: people not knowing the difference between ‘your’ and you’re. That drives me up the wall. And how many times has someone completely misread someone else’s “tone” through a text? Well, it isn’t that hard seeing how you can’t read the other person’s facial expressions or body language. Plus, so much of someone’s personality can be seen by their use of kinesics while telling a story. Gestures and posture can easily give nonverbal meanings to a simple sentence, whereas just reading a line of text can be translated in so many ways. Many of which are not intended. I know some people find it less awkward to text people they don’t know very well. Heck, I even hate calling places to order food or calling to get information (really just because I know I’m awkward). But what about relationships? You can’t possibly figure out someone’s personality through just text
messages. I mean, yeah it takes uncomfortable pauses out of the equation, but what happens when a couple goes on that first date? They won’t know what to do if an uncomfortable silence occurs. I never thought I’d see the day when teachers and professors have to remind their students that “text talk” is not acceptable in papers, but they have to now. I’ve even heard professors say that they have a problem with students emailing them in abbreviated words and horrible grammar. Wow. I’m afraid for future generations. Isn’t college a place where we’re supposed to be preparing for our professional lives? If we’re practicing communicating in these ways at school then how will we do it any differently when we have to go get big boy and big girl jobs? I don’t think our future employers will be impressed when we shoot them an email and it looks like we’re talking to our best friend with incomplete sentenc-
es and words. It’s a waste of our education if we practice communicating this way. And I don’t even really want to go far into how cell phones in general are affecting communication these days. Don’t get me wrong, cell phones are extremely handy and useful. But how many things have we missed because our noses were buried in our phones? When we’re with our friends and family how much of that time is spent looking at our phones? I know I’m guilty of it. I mean geez, we can’t even walk without texting anymore. And by the way, if you’re walking and texting and you fall or run into something, you better believe I’m going to laugh. That’s just ridiculous. Yes, I’m guilty of such things too. Let’s just all keep in mind that yes, there’s a huge world within technology, but there’s an even bigger and more beautiful world when you take your attention away from your phone.
Features
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NOVEMBER 19, 2012
‘Lincoln:’ Four score and a half J.D. Roberts Staff Writer Many will say that summer is the best season for movies. This may be true of big budget, eye candy but it is the fall and winter that really bring the movie worth seeing. With the exception of the latest Twilight movie, this movie season is looking out to be a great one now that Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” has finally hit the big screen. No matter how much people argue or debate there is one thing that most can agree on, Abraham Lincoln is one of the greatest, and most interesting, presidents of all time. Based on the book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” Spielberg’s film takes a look at the months leading up to Lincoln’s, played by the incredible Daniel DayLewis, assassination. These last few months were the most critical in his time as president as he fought for the passing of 13th Amendment while dealing with the pressure to make peace with the south. While Lincoln had many loyal supporters, there were those who did not care for him or his goal to end slavery. This made it difficult to pass the amendment. So he and his staff decide to buy the votes they need from various members of the House of Representatives. Lincoln and his followers must compromise and make great sacrifices to get what they want and to pass the amendment before the nation is lost in the war with itself. Spielberg is a storyteller and one of the best in the business. With classics like “E.T.,” “Jaws” and “Jurassic Park,” along with historical pieces
Photos courtesy of DreamWorks
MORE PERFECT UNION The latest film from Steven Spielberg, “Lin-
coln,” unites the history of one of America’s most storied presidents together with modern cinema. The cast is filled with distinguished actors, many of which have won or been nominated for Oscars. including “Schindler’s List” and “Munich,” Spielberg has taken audiences on adventures through his imagination and through history. There is no doubt that “Lincoln” is one of his biggest challenges to date, but somehow Spielberg manages to take a
story most people know and give it new life and depth. He takes this great historical figure that people see as godlike and makes him a man. He gives dimensions to a man who has been seen as two-dimensional as long as he’s been in the history books.
Lincoln was a flawed man who had to choose what he thought was best for the country and sometimes he didn’t always make the best choice. He was a father, a husband, a lawyer and human, and Spielberg reminds everyone of that. “Lincoln” is such a perfor-
mance driven movie that relies on all the actors to play their roles almost perfectly. Of course Day-Lewis is exceptional despite the huge responsibility he had of portraying the legendary president. He really fleshes out the character so well and brings aspects to the table that most would have overlooked or forgotten. As a method actor, he immerses himself in the role and never stops being Lincoln until the end of the movie. The other actors were great as well. Sally Field holds her own next to Day-Lewis and makes Mary Todd Lincoln so heartbreaking and makes the audience fell the pain she goes through. Tommy Lee Jones and James Spader give deep but also entertaining performances, while David Strathairn does an incredible job portraying Lincoln’s right hand man and voice of reason William Seward. One disappointing aspect of the movie was John Williams’s score. Audiences will be expecting music that is moving and exciting that will be unforgettable but what they get is something short of generic and bland. “Lincoln” isn’t for everyone. Most people would rather go see “Twilight” or do some other brain damaging activity. Spielberg put a lot of time and effort creating a movie that is worthy of the 16th president and audiences should be willing to give it a shot. It is an informative and moving piece of film, art and history that will have people leaving the theater feeling a little closer to the man that saved the nation from one of its darkest times. “Lincoln” is a great film about a great man.
Professor lauded for Henderson teaching and comic expertise Colbie McCloud Staff Writer In addition to an undefeated football season, students can also have pride in the fact that Henderson is also home to award-winning teachers. One of those teachers is professor of communication Randy Duncan. Duncan received the 2012 Teacher of the Year Award from the Arkansas Council for Teachers of English Language Arts, or ACTELA. This award is given to one teacher from different levels of teaching, from elementary through college. Duncan received the award on Nov. 8 during a luncheon in Little Rock, according to a press release on the Henderson website. “I teach communication courses, some of the more
theoretical ones such as rhetorical theory. But I also teach classes about movies and comics. I think it was teaching the comics that brought me to their attention, because usually it’s just English teachers who get their awards,” Duncan said. “I guess I have a foot in each world because I’m teaching a graphic novel class this spring. I’m teaching it not only as a literature class, but also as a communication class.” Before teaching at Henderson, Duncan taught for a year at the University of Vermont. “I was married at the time, and my wife was going to go to school,” Duncan said. “We found we were misinformed and my wife couldn’t take classes free of charge. I was just at an entry level job, and it was the most expensive college in the country at the time, so her tuition would have been more
than my salary.” Duncan’s move to Henderson was a stroke of luck, due to a professor leaving shortly before his arrival. He has taught at Henderson for 26 years. “I’ve been at Henderson for a little bit more than a quarter of a century,” he said. Duncan teaches the graphic novel seminar class for spring semester, under communication special topics. This is the first time it is being offered for students to take, and is also cross-listed as communication and mass media. “I want to continue doing the graphic novel seminar on a regular basis,” he said. “I would probably continue doing that and have a different theme or focus each time I taught it.” He also plans to teach other classes that could be considered to deviate from the
tradition of communication classes, classes involving communication in social media such as Facebook and Twitter. “I just started teaching about strategic digital media, which is taking those ideas about persuasion that have been around for thousands of years and applying them to the communication forms people use now,” Duncan said. “Strategic digital media isn’t added to the curriculum yet, but I think it needs something that deals with the more contemporary means of communication.” Duncan required students to create a LinkedIn profile for business and professional education instead of typing up a traditional resume. He felt that the importance of using such media is growing. “The thing about communication is that it is always changing,” Duncan said.
In addition to the ACTELA award, Duncan has also received an M. Thomas Inge award for the best paper presented at the Popular Culture Association conference in the comics-related field. He was also nominated for an Eisner award. “It’s like the Oscars for movies,” Duncan said. Also, Duncan recently received the Inkpot award at Comic Con 2012. The award is given by Comic Con International, and has had recipients such as Stan Lee (the creator of heroes such as Spider-Man and The Avengers for Marvel) and Steven Spielberg. “It’s almost like a lifetime achievement award, and it makes me feel old, for contributions to various popular arts,” Duncan said. “I like to tell people that Spielberg won one last year.”
NOVEMBER 19, 2012
Diversions
PAGE 5
Think you have what it takes to make it in The Oracle? Send us a cartoon or other diversion to Oracle@hsu.edu Create a Diversion! Submit your short stories, poetry, essays and other creative writing, and they could be featured on this page. Send an email to oracle@hsu.edu with the word “creative� in the subject line. Include your name, classification and major.
Sports
PAGE 6
NOVEMBER 19, 2012
Home-field advantage and GAC accolades for HSU Zachar y Zdanowicz Staff Writer
The Reddies will host their first ever home-playoff game this Saturday at CarpenterHaygood stadium against the 3rd ranked Missouri Western State. Henderson comes into the playoffs ranked No. 2 in its region and got a first round bye in the playoffs because of it. They were at home this weekend watching the No. 6 ranked Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs take on the No. 3 Missouri Western State Griffons in a thrilling 3 overtime game that ended with the afore mentioned Griffons winning 57-55. Missouri Western State is in the playoffs for the 4th time in school history, and for the 3rd straight, but got their first overall win in the playoffs last week against the Bulldogs. The Griffons come into this week’s game pretty comparable to Henderson as far as stats go. They come in ranked 17th in yards per game, compared to Henderson at number 3. Henderson is the highest ranked scoring offense in all of division II, netting 53.3 points per game. Missouri isn’t far behind though, as they average 42.7, good for 7th in the nation. The teams are also neck and neck in terms of points given up, Henderson 20th, and Missouri 24th. Needless to say paper says this game is evenly matched and looks to be a good one. Henderson opens the playoffs as one of six teams to still be undefeated. Ashland University, Colorado State-Pueblo, University of New Haven, Winston-Salem
University, and Minnesota State-Mankato (a team Henderson could possibly face next round) are all of the other unbeatens still left in the playoffs. More than likely if the Reddies were to win the game Saturday they would face the Minnesota Mankato Mavericks the next Saturday, Dec. 1. They would travel to Mankato located in the southern portion of Minnesota. If this doesn’t happen though, and the Mavericks are upset by Northwest Missouri State, Henderson would be the higher seed, and trump the No. 4 NW Missouri State Bearcats, and get another home playoff game. This is all speculation though, as a lot of things could happen that would determine home-field. The only thing etched in stone however, is the National Championship game which will be played in Florence, Ala on Dec. 15. During the Reddies off week, they were able to get the players they need healthy and sit back and enjoy some honors they received. The honors came from the top down, as head coach Scott Maxfield was awarded the Great American Conference Coach of the Year. In his eighth season of work Maxfield has compiled a 49-34 record for the Reddies, and led them to their first undefeated, untied season in school history. The next honor was a nobrainer, as quarterback Kevin Rodgers was named Offensive Player of the Year in the in the GAC. Rodgers set the Henderson single-season touchdown re-
Womens basketball win first home game Kaitlyn Kitchens Sports Editor Lady Reddie basketball played their first home game Wednesday night at the Duke Wells Center where they won against LeTourneau 101-58. Kaci Bailey received her first career win as a head coach. The Lady Reddies started the game off with a 12-0 lead. By half time in the game the Lady Reddies had an outstanding lead of 54-29. In the first half the Lady Reddies shot fifty eight percent (19-of-33) from the floor. Additionally, they were seventy one percent (12-of-17) from the free throw line. The second half did not disappoint. The first seven minutes of the second half the Lady Reddies went on a 21-0 run over LeTour-
neau Univeristy to bring their lead to 75-29. From that point on, the Lady Reddies would maintain at least a 41-point advantage throughout the end of the game where they had a 43-point lead victory. All 11 Lady Reddies who played, scored at least two points each. Vanessa Pieper, Krystal Beachum, Shareka Maner, and Destiny Smith all had double-figure scoring. Pieper ended with 15 points, Beachum also with 15 points. Maner ended with 25 points and Smith ended with 16 points. Maner also pulled down a team-high of 11 rebounds. lady Reddies will next play Novemeber twentieth away to face LeMoyne-Owen College. The game is set for 5:30 pm. Additional reporting by Daniel Gallegos
Photo courtesy of Steve Fellers
PLAYOFF BOUND Coach Maxfield addresses the team after the win over
OBU. The team is riding high into the playoffs, but the coach and team hope to keep their heads down and power ahead into the playoffs. cord this year, with 40, and also has the career touchdown mark by a quarterback with 49. Rodgers was a standout this year throwing for over 3,500 yards and completing 68% of his passes this year. Two more GAC honors were Defensive Player of the Year, which was won by Henderson linebacker Maxie Graham as he led the league in tackles per game, and totaled more than 100 tackles on the season, and also Tim Llewellyn. Llewellyn was awarded with the GAC Freshman of the Year. He compiled 37 tackles, an
interception and a fumble recovery on the year. The Reddies not only came away with those awards, but a slew of offensive and defensive players were named to the AllGAC teams. The First-Team All-GAC selections were QB Kevin Rodgers, WR’s Robert Jordan and Dustin Holland, Center Kelton Hays, OL R.J. Taylor and Cherokee Streetman, DT Robbie Aldridge, LB’s Keaton Stigger and Maxie Graham, and Returner Israel Valentine. The Second-Team selec-
tions were RB Jarvis Smith, DE Glennon Bobo, CB Wesley Brady, and Safety Jeremy Williams. Honorable Mention selections were WR’s Elliot Hebert and Darius Davis, OL Doug Despain, and Safety Chuck Obi. Many of the Reddies starters if not all had a tremendous year this year, and hope to continue building on a chance to go to Florence to play for a national title. Tickets for the game will be $10 for adults, and $5 for students and children, with a start time of noon set for Saturday.