WEDNESDAY October 5, 2005
Optimist the
Vol. 94, No. 14 1 section, 8 pages www.acuoptimist.com
Among nation’s best
Giving back
Winning ways
The cross country teams fares well against D-I competition, page 8
The Foreign Language Department offers to buy new bike racks, page 4
The Wildcats win their 14th straight match this weekend, page 8
Hunter won’t seek re-election n After being diagnosed with cancer, Bob Hunter will end his more than 20-year career as a state representative when his term finishes in January 2007. By JONATHAN SMITH Editor in Chief
Bob Hunter announced last week he would not seek reelection for his seat as Texas State Representative for the
71st District when his term ends in January 2007. Hunter said he had every intention of filing for re-election at the end of this year; however, after doctors discovered he had prostate cancer during a routine checkup in September, Hunter, senior vice president emeritus of the university, said he decided instead to devote more time to his family and the university.
During the next 40 days, Hunter will undergo radiology treatment at Hendrick Medical Center, and after that, he will help the development Hunter team of the university’s Centennial Campaign to raise funds for the
university. “President [Royce] Money had been asking me to consider helping him personally with the development team of our Centennial Campaign,” Hunter said. “This will enable me to have even more time to help him. I’m very excited about the fact that I can be of help.” See
HUNTER page 7
Bob Hunter at ACU • 1956 — Came to ACC as director of special events • 1969 — Became vice president for public relations and development • 1986 — Elected in a special election to State House of Representatives • 1992 — Became ACU’s senior vice president emeritus • 2005 — Announced he will not seek another House term.
Street work almost done n Although work on Campus Court soon will be complete, students can still expect construction along the road for the jogging track and Barret Hall.
Freshmen finish Follies
By TIFFANY TAYLOR Features Editor
BRIAN SCHMIDT/Chief Photographer
Women of Nelson Hall’s third floor perform their Freshman Follies skit based on the late 1970s at ACU. Freshman performed the show five times throughout Friday and Saturday, and many students’ parents and families visited for the show. Each act portrayed a different decade in the university’s 100-year history. See page 5 for more photographs and a story about this year’s show.
Queen nominees prepare for crowning n Students can vote on the Homecoming Queen Wednesday through Friday online, and the winner will be announced during halftime of the Homecoming football game Oct. 15.
By SARAH CARLSON Arts Editor
After watching her friend be blindfolded and kidnapped during last week’s Ko Jo Kai meeting, Kelci Young had only a matter of minutes
before her friend’s captors came looking for her. Young, senior integrated marketing and communication major from Franklin, Tenn., was in the middle of explaining instructions to
her club for a pledging activity when she was whisked away to the Alumni Office where she, along with nine other senior women, learned they had been nominated for Homecoming Queen.
“I was really surprised,” Young said. “I was very honored and glad that I got to do it with Meg [Goggin, senior history major from Fort Worth].” See
QUEENS page 7
KACU sets $30,000 goal for pledge drive n ACU’s National Public Radio station earns about half its yearly budget from listeners through pledge drives in the fall and spring semesters. By NATHAN STRAUS Student Reporter
KACU is running another pledge drive for another semester. A pledge drive for a na-
tional radio station is intended to keep the station operational for a certain amount of time, and the goal for this semester’s pledge drive is $30,000. Terri Peterson, KACU’s membership director, said as a nonprofit organization, KACU must raise about half its budget from listeners. “Because National Public Radio stations don’t run a lot
of advertisements, they have to acquire a lot of their funds from their listeners,” Peterson said. John Best, general manager of KACU, said the pledge drive allows the members of KACU to support the station. “It’s very important for us to have community support because if we don’t make $95,000 a year, we will go off the air.”
Students are helping out with the pledge drive as well. Peterson said KACU has students come and take phone calls made by people who are pledging money to KACU. The students then enter the names of the people who called and how much money they pledged into a computer, and the information is recorded. Peterson said KACU gets be-
tween 40 and 50 calls a day. Best said national radio stations run a small number of commercials, which forms a streamlined environment where vital information reaches the listeners quickly. “They like the programming, and the uncluttered environment,” Best said. See
KACU page 7
Workers walked back and forth across Campus Court on Monday and Tuesday carrying torches to melt white plastic strips used for crosswalk lines into the new asphalt. After completing 10 crosswalks on Campus Court, workers for Little Manufacturing, a subcontractor working on Campus Court, will begin to lay down street buttons and reflectors, said Ronnie Hagar, co-owner of Little Manufactory. Using a pattern of three buttons to every one reflector, Hagar said his group will create a turning lane down the center of Campus Court. Work is ahead of schedule, Hagar said, and his group will finish its part of the construction project after sawing open the asphalt under the light where Campus Court meets Ambler Boulevard, allowing technicians to install a traffic loop for the automatic changing lights. However, Little Manufactory is only a part of the construction work taking place on Campus Court. Bontke Brothers Construction Company, which won the contract from the City of Abilene, has subcontracted parts of the project to groups including Little Manufactory. Students have complained about road work and construction spilling out on to the road, said Jimmy Ellison, chief of the ACU Police. Complaints often come to his office, and Ellison said he’s sorry he can’t help aggravated students. “I just laugh,” Ellison said, “Do you think the police department chose this time to do this?” Landscaping for Bontke is being done by Masterscapes, whose bulldozers have begun to obstruct traffic on Campus Court. Corey Ruff, landscape supervisor for Masterscapes said his work should finish in less than three weeks. The army of bulldozers are required so workers can loosen and extract dirt that had previously been comSee
WORK page 7
Habitat house completes GSP project n After raising more than $22,000 through a 60-hour softball game in the spring, members of Gamma Sigma Phi now work to complete a house for a single mother of three. By DANI LINTHICUM Staff Writer
Men in cargo shorts and Gamma Sigma Phi grub T-shirts swarm over the fresh foundation of 2966 Orange St., nailing together walls and erecting
them, slowly but surely building a house and the hope that comes with it. They are sweaty, dirty and unshaven, but they are clearly enjoying themselves. “This is what guys do,” said Patrick Vincent, senior finance and English major from Arlington, “it’s what we love.” The building of this threebedroom, two-bathroom home is the completion of GSP’s Insanity for Humanity project, which
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication
began with a 60-hour softball game last spring. Through support of the Guiness-world-record-breaking game, GSP raised more than $22,000—enough to cover its share of the housebuilding project. According to the Habitat for Humanity Web site, Habitat International is a nonprofit, nondenominational Christian housing organization, and it has built more than 175,000 houses, providing shelter for
nearly 900,000 people in 100 countries. In Abilene, Habitat for Humanity is a vibrant organization that gives many service opportunities to students and housing for those in the community that need it, and Andrea Chauser is one of many whose lives have been touched by others generosity. Chauser, a single mother, See
HOUSE page 7
EMERALD McGOWAN/Staff Photographer
Patrick Vincent, senior finance and English major from Arlington, cuts studs for the Habitat for Humanity house that Gamma Sigma Phi began last week.
Abilene Christian University
Serving the ACU community since 1912