11/23/15 Issue

@HSUORACLE www.hsuoracle.com

Henderson State University - Monday, November 23, 2015 - Volume 109, Issue 13

SING YOUR HEART OUT HSU hosts open mic night P.8

THE ORACLE

BRINGING 80’S BACK 6

THE ORACLE

Students relive the past to help feed those in need during the holidays

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF – Moe Skinner FACULTY ADVISER – Mike Taylor COPY EDITOR – Madison MacNew NEWS EDITOR – Carmin Wills SPORTS EDITOR – Katie Smith FEATURES EDITOR – Rickey Miller VIEWS EDITOR – Dax Guilliams

PHOTO BY DEE MCKISSICK

PHOTO EDITOR – Joshua Bradley PAGE DESIGNER – Melanie Cole AD DESIGNER – Chris Sharp GRAPHIC DESIGNER – Jordan Jones ONLINE EDITOR – Ashley Smith BUSINESS MANAGER – Coley Henson

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Have an opinion on an issue or response to what we said? Just want to rant about something for a while? Write us at ORACLE@HSU.EDU. We want to hear what you think. Hell, if it doesn’t suck, we’ll publish it in next week’s issue. Try to keep it between 400 and 600 words. Just like your Tumblr, we ignore anonymous submissions.

COVER Caleb Williams performs during Open Mic Night PHOTO BY DEE MCKISSICK

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PHOTO BY DOM CELLA

WHERE THE REDDIES STAND See the bracket for HSU football

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PHOTO BY KRISTINE MOORE

OPEN MIC NIGHT Students take their chance on stage

NOV. 23, 2015

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FROM BEGINNING TO END

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Writing center offers to help students get better grades STORY BY JAMES JACKSON

GRAPHIC BY JORDAN JONES It’s hard to beat the feeling you get when you know you turned in a great paper. You have proofread and corrected all of the simple mistakes. You’re confident that this paper will get you that A or B you have been so desperately wanting.

You look at your paper and see red markings all over the place, which is usually a sign that improvement is needed. You freak out, wondering what to do to possibly fix what you thought was a perfect paper.

Suddenly you remember this place on campus that your teacher raves about every time you turn in a paper – The Writing Center. Located in McBrien Hall, they can help turn your paper from bad to good with a quick visit with their friendly staff.

“We as a staff want to make students feel that they are equal, because they are,”Cheyenne Jones, writing center tutor, said.

The Writing Center is an on-campus resource that is free for students to go when they need help with a paper.

The staff is a group of students, trained to spot simple punctuation errors and major errors like sentence structure and building the idea of your paper.

They provide assistance with a range of work, from graduate dissertations to the typical essay about “What I did last summer.”

“It’s a good place to think and gain understanding if you need help with a project or paper,“ Paige Armond, junior communications major, said.

The staff helps with every step of the writing process, from starting your paper to getting ideas to get the body of your paper going.

They help students with various assignments from papers to presentations and even foreign language.

They have a full staff of tutors in the writing center Monday through Friday and help with tutoring for all four levels of Spanish.

Some of these tutors even have later hours in the library for those students with conflicting schedules.

The Writing Center offers a full computer lab so students have a comfortable environment to get on a computer to type and print their papers. The printing is free as it is in many of places around campus.

“We want students to feel right at home with a noise and stress-free environment to help them with their work,” Jones said.

All a student has to do for this amazing resource is casually walk in and ask for help by approaching one of the student tutors for assistance. Students also have the option of scheduling an appointment if they need a specific time frame between classes.

The writing center has also made it even more convenient by allowing students to be able to schedule appointments online.

This could help any student on the go, a quick three minutes can get you an appointment. Students can go online and simply sign in and schedule an appointment to the writing center from the following link: hsu.mywconline.com.

But if you are on campus, you can just head to room 108 in McBrien and schedule an appointment.

If any student feels that they want to help students with papers, presentation, and Spanish tutoring, then this could be the job for you.

They are currently full on positions right now, but if you are interested you should stop by John Gillette’s office in McBrien 109.

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TRAINING EXERCISES ROTC — Developing Leadership Skills STORY BY DOMINICK CELLA Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist joint Reserve Officer’s Training Corps have a large field training exercise each semester.

Last weekend Lt. Col. Alston-Williams made an appearance at the Lake DeGray training area near the dam and Core of Engineers.

This leadership training exercise involved all the cadets from the joint ROTC program.

“This will be the toughest training we’ll have this semester,” Kyle Merrit, senior physics major and Distinguish Military Graduate, said while discussing the weekend’s events. “It will allow us to push our cadets and determine their skills.”

The leadership training exercise is done each semester in order to prepare MS3 cadets – junior level cadets – for their Cadet Leadership Course, or CLC for short, at Fort Knox. CLC takes place the summer after their junior year and before the cadets’ senior year.

This course is a 29-day training camp in Fort Knox Kentucky. The purpose of CLC is to train cadets at the command level in leadership skills, tactics, land navigation, marksmanship and other officer-related duties.

On top of this intense daily training, each cadet will also be evaluated for his or her officer potential.

The leadership training that took place over the weekend involved two days of drills and hands on training courses.

The first day, Saturday, started early in the morning with land navigation training. This training is broken into three events. The first two events took place during the day and the third at night. There were a total of nine points to be located during the land navigation.

However, the course runs on a

Go/No Go system. Cadets had to find at least four of the five points during the first two events and three of the four on the last.

The cadets ran on a strict schedule: event one, lunch, event two, dinner, event three, sleep. Freshmen and sophomores went out in pairs and juniors on their own.

Each cadet received coordinates, a compass, protractor and a map to navigate the terrain.

This was not the conclusion of the training however.

Day two, Sunday, involved basic battle drills and tactical exercises.

These exercises allowed cadets to be tested on how well the perform objectives and carry out a mission.

This drill used the navigation skills tested the previous day and added in ambush scenarios, reconnaissance and raids.

The cadets had to use their land navigation skills to find points at which they would ambush the enemy or receive contact. Next, they had to perform reconnaissance on an enemy position and raid their position. The cadets were given targets of enemy mortar encampments to overtake.

“We are developing the leadership and decision making skills of America’s future guardians,” Capt.

David Hall, instructor of military science, said.

GRAPHIC BY JORDAN JONES

NOV. 23, 2015

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FORBIDDEN

LOVE

HSU student Jason Eller gets published STORY BY JAE-KUR LOCKHART Jason Eller, senior education major, wrote a self-published book released through Amazon on Oct. 14, 2015 and one might say it is a crazy love story with twists and turns.

It is a book with a title that sits heavily in the pit of the stomach – The Forbidden Love.

“The Forbidden Love is a historical fiction novel that takes place in 1942 Nazi Germany and takes readers to the notorious Nazi detention labor camp Auschwitz in Poland,” Eller said. “[It tells of] a teenage Jewish girl accompanied by her mother and brother, who falls in love with a Nazi SS officer in charge of her labor division.”

What once began as an idea for Eller now came into fruition and has now taken a tangibly distributable form.

“It was not easy, but I just took it one sentence at a time,” Eller said. “It started out as an idea like anything in life, until it eventually became whole.”

As it could very well be expected, it is hard for someone to be a full-time student and author – but it pays off for some in the end.

“It did not come easy,” Eller said. “I am a full-time student, personal trainer and instructor at the YMCA in Hot Springs, father and husband, but I managed to get it done -- and I am very proud of the work.”

In four weeks he has sold over 120 copies -- nearly half of those in the last week.

“The feedback has been great, and I greatly appreciate the support,” Eller said.

He started out writing screenplays [four of which are copy written]. Then after a short time, he realized how hard it was to get things in order.

“I went through months of hard work to get my novel published -- it was well worth the effort I put in,” Eller said.

Eller has not stopped his writing at this one novel. He seems to have more up his sleeve.

“I am currently working on my second novel now, ‘Unchained,’” Eller said.

This newer novel tells about an African slave, who is an agent for the British but gets captured by the Portuguese and sold into slavery. Eventually, he escapes to the north killing several plantation owners along the way. His actions cause him to become the most wanted man in America.

“I started a publication company with my friend, mentor, and editor, Dr. Carl Simpson -- Profundity Publishing,” Eller said. “We then published it through Createspace, an Amazon subsidiary.”

Eller’s goal for each novel that he writes is to educate and entertain at the same time.

“That is why I love writing historical fiction novels,” Eller said. “If someone can say they learned something, and were entertained by my novel, that is all I care about.”

GRAPHIC BY JORDAN JONES

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DANCE AND DONATE Students relive the 80’s for those in need STORY BY CAYLA CHRISTIAN

GET INTO IT — Students get down to business on the dance floor PHOTO BY KRISTINE MOORE Henderson students took a trip back in time to the ’80s this past Thursday to stir up some campus fun.

The Student Activities Board, also known as SAB, invited students to come out, let loose and dance all for the small price of $1 or two canned goods. All proceeds will be donated to those in need for the upcoming holidays.

The dance came about from a team brainstorming on ideas for activities. It was noted that other universities have done things similar and that it would be a great idea to bring the fun to our campus. The whole event took about to months to prepare.

“The turn out was as expected. There were other events going on and it was the first time doing a dance like this,” Bailey Almond, sophomore nursing major, said. “People that came had a blast.”

The ’80s vibe was complete with colorful flashing lights, ’80s music, the funky throwback attire, and the immaculate light up dance floor. There was also a photo booth brought in so that the partygoers could have pictures to go along with all the memories they made that night.

“I thought it was so cool, I just wish more people would have known about it,” April Gaston, junior business marketing major, said. “I thought the floor with the flashing lights was awesome.”

I GOT THIS — Julie Cissell shows off her moves during 80’s night

PHOTO BY KRISTINE MOORE

NOV. 23, 2015

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TURKEY

DAY

The Oracle would like to announce that there will be no newspaper for the week following Thanksgiving.

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Have a wonderful holiday!

2015

For Rent: Pet Friendly Apts 1 block from campus Large 1BR1BA $425-$500 plus utilities www.aperfectplace.weebly.com 501-318-0170

GRAPHIC BY CHRIS SHARP

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MISGUIDED ACTS PERFORM

Students showcase their talents for a short film STORY BY BRI CURRY

JAMMIN’ — Stephon Robinson scratches the vinyl.

As a part of the filming for a short film, mass media student Jasmine Threatt and her cast hosted an open mic on Monday night. Threatt’s film, “Misguided” includes over 10 cast members, a majority of which are Henderson students. Cast members showcased their talents along with other students.

Jamion Burns, freshman theatre major, who plays Blake Ross in “Misguided” played the guitar and performed his original song, “Butterfly.” Mass media student, Caleb Williams, junior mass media major, also played the guitar and performed an original song, “I’m in a slump (can you help me back up?). Both of which left the crowd satisfied.

Another cast member, Matthew White, sophomore English major, did stand up comedy. While some audience members were a bit lost in the jokes, others quickly caught on to the references about his romantic relationship with a woman who doesn’t actually exist.

During a brief intermission, co-host Rahghee Kuwoo and Phillip Lynch, freshman mass media major, who are also cast members, kept the crowd entertained by hosting a “Bet You Can’t Do it Like me Challenge” five audience members competed for bragging rights, only four were serious contenders.

Ta-Gjiyonna DeLoch, sophomore biochemistry major, who plays Rain in the short film, performed an original poem that definitely went over well with the audi-

PHOTO BY DEE MCKISSICK ence.

With Stephon Robinson, freshman digital art and design major, on the turntables, the crowd was definitely alive. Some audience members bounced in their seats while many others left their seats to dance in the middle aisle. After his performance, Robinson spoke briefly to motivate the crowd telling the audience that this is something he has done for six years.

“Never give up on their dreams, and let God guide your paths,” Robinson said.

His words were met with applause and screams for an encore that he gladly obliged.

Kuwoo and Lynch kept the crowd laughing. Pretending that we were now in church, Kuwoo instructed the “congregation” to turn their Bibles to the book of Job, chapter four, the revelation. He then proceeded to quote the Bible saying, “And God said, ‘let there be Cîroc.’”

One audience member yelled back in response, “You’re going to Hell,” but the rest of the audience seemed quite amused.

Although the lecture hall was not packed, the cast considered the show a success.

“I hate that I missed the show, but I can’t wait to watch scenes in the film,” Oyshi Hossain, sophomore pre-physical therapy major, said.

NOV. 23, 2015

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HOSTAGE NEGOTIATION

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Andrea McDaniel directs her senior project STORY BY DYLAN MCNIEL — PHOTO BY JACEY RUSSELL

Do you like a good play full of suspense and drama? Andrea McDaniel, senior theatre major is preforming her senior project a play “Two Rooms” written by Lee Blessing.

There were two performances Sunday Nov. 22 at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on the Arkansas Hall stage. There will also be another performance Monday Nov. 23 at 7:30 p.m.

McDaniel started preparing for her senior project last spring semester. She had to do a lot of research on the background of the play to make sure everything was authentic.

“Directing this has been very stressful,” McDaniel said, “But I think it’s going really well.”

The play is about a hostage situation that takes place in Beirut, Lebanon. The two rooms come into play because one room is holding Michael Wells, played by Matthew Burnett, theatre major, who was captured on a trip to Lebanon. In the other room is his wife, Lainie Wells, played by Shaina Tippet, theatre major, in an apartment outside D.C., along with police and journalist, trying to negotiate to get her husband back.

McDaniel says there is a power struggle that develops between the journalist, Walker Harris, played by Anthony McBride, junior theatre major, and the government official, Ellen Van Oss, played by Georgeann Burbank, junior theatre major and makes for an interesting suspense filled show.

McBride said when the cast list was posted he admitted he was a little surprised and nervous about playing the part of Harris.

“He is definitely one of the most difficult characters I’ve played before,” McBride said. “However, I’m always up for a challenge and I’m so grateful that Andrea has given me this opportunity.”

McDaniel picked this dramatic piece as her senior project because she wanted to provide the actors with a challenging role that they often don’t get to play. The play has an overall serious tone and would be more suitable for mature audiences.

McBride said his favorite thing about “Two Rooms” is the student involvement in the show. The director, actors, crew, and (most of) the designers are students. He thinks it’s wonderful how passionate the students here are to create.

Burbank said it’s been really fun working on this show. She also said she hadn’t had a lot of opportunities to work on dramas so it’s been a nice challenge to her. She enjoyed working with a smaller cast because it allows them to connect more.

“Doing a show that requires so much emotion and vulnerability, it’s nice to have that connection with each other,” Burbank said.

The show is free of admission for anyone who wishes to attend.

Tickets are first come, first serve and you can pick them up at the Arkansas Hall box office.

HE’S GOT GLASS — Anthony McBride sips from a champagne flute on stage

PHOTO BY JACEY RUSSELL

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JESSICA JONES IS MARVELOUS OPINION BY DAX GUILLIAMS — PARODY IMAGE BY JORDAN JONES BASED ON AN IMAGE © MARVEL TELEVISION It’s amazing how so many great TV shows based on comic books there are.

Now, Netflix has aired their second series based on a comic book character and it couldn’t have been more impressive.

“Jessica Jones” had all of its episodes released on Nov. 20 and it was a perfect follow-up to “Daredevil.” In fact, I think “Jessica Jones” is the better of the two shows.

Krysten Ritter was absolutely perfect as Jones and captured her character better than I could have expected.

I think Jones is such an interesting character and her personality in the show matched up so well to how she is in the comics.

The show starts the viewer off in the middle of her career as a private investigator who is just trying to make a living in Hell’s Kitchen after a failed attempt at being a superhero. We see very early in the first episode that she has a troubled past and the main subject of the series quickly comes into play.

Upon taking a case from an older couple searching for their missing daughter, Jones discovers that a man she knows all too well is involved in the girl’s disappearance. The villain of the season is then established as Jones has to hunt down Kilgrave, who is also known as the Purple Man. David Tennant plays Kilgrave and he plays him exactly how he is in the comics, a completely awful person who performs very terrible acts and still does not see himself as a villain.

But as is expected from a series where the Purple Man is the villain, this is a very adult show. Even then, I didn’t think they would go the whole way on certain subjects, but they address them in the first episode.

It took “Daredevil” until its second episode to get to the really dark stuff, so “Jessica Jones” is not holding back.

But even with the very dark, very adult themes, the show still had its moments of comedy. Jones is very quick witted and provides a good insult when someone angers her, although she sometimes messes that up.

Most of the series is played similar to that of a detective drama, which fits in so well with Jones and how she behaves, along with how she sees fit to use her powers.

There were many people who worried that “Jessica Jones” wouldn’t be a good enough show to follow “Daredevil” or stand up with other comic book based shows, but I think it’s one of the best. I don’t think any of them will entertain me as much as “Flash,” but “Jessica Jones” is such a great contender.

One thing that made me enjoy the show so much was that Luke Cage, a very important person in Jessica’s life and a character that is getting their own show also on Netflix, was so involved in the show’s plot.

I think Luke Cage is one of the coolest comic book characters and I loved watching his character be introduced and developed in the show.

If it weren’t for Krysten Ritter being the one to play Jones, Mike Colter’s portrayal of Luke Cage would have stolen the show. So not only does “Jessica Jones” provide a great experience on its own, but it also helps to set up another great series in the future.

As I’ve said with “Daredevil,” Netflix with their original programming is going to cause a huge change to the world of television and entertainment in general.

“Jessica Jones” has proven that will be the case as I feel it did a better job than “Daredevil” did.

And I have confidence that the Luke Cage show and the other original shows Netflix has will also be just as entertaining as the others.

“Jessica Jones” focuses on such important themes such as free will, recovering from abuse and learning to trust others, which is something good storytelling focuses on.

And while so many TV shows, comic books or other forms of media fail to follow these themes, “Jessica Jones” really impressed me with its writing.

And it did all of this while being a lot different than the other comic book based shows. This is something I really enjoyed because Jones is very different from other comic book heroes.

Just like with “Flash” and “Daredevil,” they really got the characters in the show just like how they are in the comics. I had a lot of confidence in this show before it released and I’m glad I did.

I’m really glad Marvel agreed to do these shows and connect their characters and stories together. Now that we have “Daredevil” and “Jessica Jones,” the shows for Luke Cage and Iron Fist are starting to look even better and those are the two I’ve always looked forward to the most.

And since they are all connected, I look forward to seeing Krysten Ritter in the other shows as Jones.

Overall, “Jessica Jones” has amazing characters, an incredible story and focuses on many adult themes very well.

While Netflix has many different shows to choose from, “Jessica Jones” is one of the ones I would recommend the most because it just does everything so well and is so entertaining.

NOV. 23, 2015

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A MESSAGE FROM THE ORACLE BY JOSHUA ‘PACO’ BRADLEY

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FOOTBALL BRACKET Reddies win their first ever playoff game INFORMATION BY KATIE SMITH

GRAPHIC BY JORDAN JONES AND KATIE SMITH 7-0 7-3 14-3 14-6 14-13 21-13 23-13 23-16

Jaquan Cole scored HSU’s first touchdown of the night.

Cougar kicker, Brett Garner, kicked a field goal.

Dallas Hardison had a 1 yard keeper for a touchdown.

Garner kicked 21 yard field goal.

Sioux Falls quarterback, Luke Papilion, scored their only TD of the game.

Mark Czaus caught a pass from Hardison for a Reddie Touchdown.

Reddie defense forced Papilion backwards into the endzone for a safety.

Garner kicked another field goal.

Game Notes Josh Davis led the Reddie defense with 11 tackles. Dondre Wright and Lawson Schulz followed behind with 10 a piece.

Jaquan Cole became the 10th player in HSU history to have 1,000 rushing yards in a season.

Gary Vines, Trevon Del Rio and Tiyun Avery all had interceptions. Avery’s came with 10 seconds left in the game in the Cougar Endzone. The Reddies now lead the nation in interceptions with 28 on the season. It is also a school record.

PLAYOFF GAME OPPONENT: Emporia State Hornets WHEN: Noon

Saturday, November 28 WHERE: Carpenter Haygood Stadium GENERAL ADMISSION: $7 STUDENT ADMISSION: $5