WEDNESDAY August 25, 2004
OPTIMIST THE
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication
Abilene Christian University
Vol. 93, No. 2 1 section, 10 pages www.acuoptimist.com
Serving the ACU community since 1912
Students, faculty return to Abilene:
Team plays scrimmage:
A packed house:
Find out what several students and administrators enjoy most about this time of the year when students returning to school. Page 8
The football team played its Purple and White scrimmage Saturday. Page 10
A large freshman class has caused some freshman women to be housed in Sikes Hall, pushing some sophomores into University Park Apartments. Page 3
Centennial Campaign raises one-third of goal With 28 months to go, $57 million of $150 million raised By SARAH CARLSON COPY EDITOR
With 12 months until the beginning of ACU’s Centennial Celebration and 28 months until the end of the Campaign, everything is on schedule and receiving great response, said
Phil Boone, director of the Campaign. The Campaign has raised more than $57 million out of the $150 million total to be raised by December 2006. The renovation of Burford Music Center is at $736,000 of the $2.5 million needed. Brent Magner, director of development, said a lot of work has to be done to raise funds for the Burford Center, and the goal has been to wrap up the fund
raising this fall. Promotional books went out this summer to alumni and friends of the university, along with a 22-minute film on ACU’s Centennial. The film shows alumni, faculty and students describing why they love ACU and think the Centennial is important, as well as showing footage of the history of ACU and events such as Sing
Centennial parts • Vision: A focus on the univ e r s i t y ’s heritage, as well as its future, 1906-2006 and
from beyond. • Campaign: A massive fund-raising effort that officials hope will bring in at least $150 million for the university by Dec. 31, 2006. • Celebration: A largescale, year-long party to celebrate the university’s 100th year that would include special events throughout the 2005-06 school year.
See CENTENNIAL Page 2
Organizers hope to establish festival as new tradition By LORI BREDEMEYER MANAGING EDITOR
See FILMFEST Page 7
Executive officers look for Centennial projects to undertake By JONATHAN SMITH EDITOR IN CHIEF
As the Students’ Association waits to fill out the 83rd Student Congress with freshman senators, residence hall and academic building representatives, communication is the focus for the executive officers. “We’re trying to flood the channels of communication,” said Layne Rouse, executive president. Elections will be Tuesday, as Congress will look to add five freshman senators, one sophomore senator and all the residence hall and academic building representatives. Petitions for those positions became available Monday and
Planners finalize FilmFest Doug Darby says ACU needs a new tradition to correspond with this new century. He’s counting on this semester’s FilmFest to fulfill that position. Darby, multimedia coordinator, is organizing an iMovie competition between students, faculty and staff that he said he hopes will continue into the future. “Here we are with this tradition at ACU of Sing Song and Freshman Follies, and really doing these grandiose things that are really well done,” he said. “Except here we are entering the new millennium and the next century of ACU, and we thought, what would be a new, cool tradition that will really epitomize the university’s mission of reaching out into all industries and also really appeal to students.” FilmFest will be a “visual media showcase” in which a team of one to five people film, direct, edit and produce a short film and will compete against other teams in three categories: entertainment, information and inspiration. The theme is “Let there be Light.” Apple Computer and the New Media Consortium chose ACU along with five other schools to put on this event, and Apple has donated workstations and cameras for the competition. Nil Santana, instructor of graphic design, designed the FilmFest logo and will help with advertising and designing the awards. He said his main focus in designing the logo was on film. “The design is mainly to reflect a film strip—evoking the idea of film,”he said. “The students will be working with digital, so it’s a contradiction to do
Congress hopes for increased communication can be picked up throughout this week in the SA office. Freshmen can vote early in their residence halls after curfew Monday. Once the seats are filled with representatives, Rouse said they will begin implementing ways of “empowering the future,” beginning with a weeklong training session specifically for new representatives. “We’re trying to create a template of what it means to be a rep and what it means to be a leader,” Rouse said. The week, which leads up to Congress’ Sept. 11 retreat, will include eight training sessions about parliamentary procedure and writing bills. Treasurer Tyler Cosgrove sent budget packets to all student groups this week, which will be due Aug. 31. See SA Page 7
Opening Chapel welcomes students Parade of flags, ceremony inaugurate school’s 99th year By JACI SCHNEIDER OPINION EDITOR
BRIAN SCHMIDT/Chief Photographer
Randy Harris, instructor of Bible, missions and ministry, leads a reformatted nine o’clock devotional at University Church of Christ on Sunday. The devo now includes a stronger emphasis on prayer.
Leaders revamp devotional New devotional format includes stronger emphasis on prayer By CHRISTY GOWER FEATURES EDITOR
Randy Harris, instructor of Bible, missions and ministry, opened nine o’clock devotional at the University Church of Christ Sunday night by declaring the space and time as sanctuary.
“This is sanctuary, and you are free to be as God has called you to be,” he said during the devotional. “Here, you are free; you have freedom.” As part of the changes organizers have instituted this semester in response to decreased student interest, Harris is the speaker. One of the major changes is the added emphasis on prayer, said Dr. Eddie Sharp, minister of the University Church of Christ. “We think that with this
Rhode Island is no longer the lone missing state in ACU’s parade of flags in the traditional opening Chapel. New Hampshire and North Dakota have joined the notorious Rhode Island in its absence from campus. However, the holes that the three states left in the flag procession were filled with flags from new countries and nations that are now represented on campus. Dr. Royce Money, president of the university, welcomed students from Madagascar, Kazakhstan, the Virgin Islands and the American Samoa on Monday in the opening of the 99th session of ACU. The traditional Chapel session opened with the proces-
sion of professors, followed by the flags of all countries and states represented at the university. Students carrying flags from 66 countries and 49 states and U.S. territories marched on the floor of Moody in front of cheering students. Following school tradition, students sang “All Hail the Power of Jesus Name,” during the devotional time. A twist was added to the traditional scripture reading this year. Dino Russos read Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill from the book of Acts, in its original Greek form, with the English translation on the screens. Dr. Ginna Sadler welcomed all new and returning students and faculty to the university. Layne Rouse, Students’ Association president and senior communication major from Midland, introduced the Welcome Week directors and the executive officers of SA. He See CHAPEL Page 7
emphasis on prayer and with Randy committing himself to this, this will be something students will value as part of their spiritual life,” said Sharp, adjunct faculty in Bible, missions and ministry. Sharp said he hopes the emphasis on prayer will make the devo something students will benefit from but added that the devotional will continue to provide a place of worship. See DEVO Page 7
School ranked among top business colleges Each college rated based on emphasis on entrepreneurship By APRIL WARD PAGE 2 EDITOR
Entrepreneur Magazine ranked ACU in the 2004 list of its Top 100 Entrepreneurial Colleges, a ranking system honoring colleges with a focus on entrepreneurship. Monty Lynn, acting dean of the College of Business Administration, said the ranking is
determined by an extensive survey of the academic program and curriculum of each college. “They basically look at the amount of energy and resources a college is putting toward emphasizing entrepreneurship,” Lynn said. “They want to know if a college has a major in entrepreneurship, grad program, entrepreneurship competition, and investment funds to fund students with entrepreneurial ventures.” Lynn said the magazine surveyed around 800 colleges and universities across the nation.
About 250 schools made the final cut for the list. “We were very pleased to be included in that list,” Lynn said. “What the honor acknowledges is that COBA attempts to nurture students to think in creative and entrepreneurial ways.” Business students are exposed to entrepreneurship opportunities beginning their freshman year in the Venture Out project—a learning experience where students create their own mini-businesses. “The students do everything an entrepreneur would do and
take to form a business,” Lynn said. “They form a team, do market research to find out what ACU students want to buy, order a product and then sell it. They have to get a loan from a board of outside bankers and do their accounting statements as well.” Students get to select where the profits from the project will be donated. Since the project began in 2001, Lynn said that more than $16,000 has been donated to local non-profit See RANKING Page 7
BRIAN SCHMIDT/Chief Photographer
Students in the opening Chapel flag parade Monday line up with all the flags from states represented at the university.