OPTIMIST THE
FRIDAY January 14, 2004
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication
Abilene Christian University
Vol. 93, No. 29 1 section, 12 pages www.acuoptimist.com
Serving the ACU community since 1912
At the box office:
Survey says:
Odessa Gaines an AD:
Arts editor Sarah Carlson looks back at her favorite movies of 2004. Page 7
More than 60 percent of faculty and staff participated in a survey that measured their satisfaction with working at the university. Page 8
Former head football coach Gary Gaines turned in his resignation last week. Page 12
KRBC pulls its NBC programs from Cox cable Local NBC affiliate wants 30 cents per subscriber per month By JACI SCHNEIDER OPINION EDITOR
Students who live on campus will not be able to watch Saturday Night Live on Saturday or West Wing next Wednesday. And they might not ever be able to watch those shows or many others on campus or in Abilene without purchasing antennas. Cox Communications, the cable provider in Abilene, and KRBC-TV, the NBC affiliate in the area, are at a stalemate in negotiations over whether Cox can transmit KRBC to its subscribers. “There is a very real possibility that we’ll never be on Cox cable,” said Gayle Kiger, vice president and general manager of Nexstar Broadcasting Group in Abilene, which owns KRBC and KTABTV, the CBS affiliate. Cox could no longer air KRBC beginning Jan. 1 because the cable company would not pay a requested 30
BRIAN SCHMIDT/Chief Photographer
Bonnie Buchanan, junior fine art studio major from Lubbock, prays while listening to Brent Pennington, missionary in Thailand, speak via phone about the Dec. 26 tsunami during Chapel on Wednesday. Students raised more than $4,000 to send as tsunami relief.
Students give more than $4,000 Relief funds will be sent with Healing Hands, missionaries By JACI SCHNEIDER and LORI BREDEMEYER STAFF WRITERS
The effects of the earthquake and tsunami Dec. 26 in South Asia that devastated a dozen countries and killed more than 150,000 have reached around the world to ACU. Students have donated more than $4,000 since Chapel on Wednesday to aid
victims Chapel “People have been reminded that life is very fragile.” of the that being tsunami. Larry Henderson, missions coordinator in the Department of Bible, Missions and Ministry in ThaiD r . land and Wayne working Barnard, dean of Campus help with the relief efforts. to help the people there has Life, said during Chapel that “We felt it was appropriate been a “sobering experience.” the money will go to Healing to have an actual time in our “Most of the people are Hands International in Chapel schedule where we still talking about it,” he said. Abilene and missionaries respond to this disaster,” “My students don’t know working with local churches. Barnard said. “There are peo- what to think about it; there’s The service included a live ple who don’t have a connec- just a heaviness.” phone interview with Brent tion — their churches aren’t ACU also has connections Pennington, an ACU alum- doing anything like taking with missionaries in Phuket, nus who works as a mission- collections — and they just Thailand, a city hit heavily by ary and English teacher and don’t have a place to give the waves. Loren and Penny lives with his family in their money, so we wanted to Hollingsworth are the grandBangkok, Thailand. He trav- provide that.” eled to southern Thailand to Pennington said during See TSUNAMI Page 10
cents per subscriber per month to KRBC. Cable companies pay fees of up to $3 for stations like ESPN and MTV, but few pay for local broadcast stations. According to federal law, a cable company must have permission from a broadcast network in order to offer it to subscribers. Broadcast networks including NBC, ABC and CBS, air for free over public airwaves. In each market, the network can have a local affiliate. KRBC is NBC’s affiliate station. The dispute began when KRBC’s contract expired with Cox at the end of 2004. KRBC wants to be paid for its programming. “We do not pay for programming that is free, overthe-air broadcasting,” said Morris Wilkes, vice president and general manager of the West Texas division of Cox. “They don’t pay to use the airwaves that the public owns,” he said. “Yet they’re demanding that Cox customers pay for what non-Cox customers pay for free. See DISPUTE Page 10
Arrington moves to Campus Life as associate dean Former associate dean of Arts and Sciences chosen for new position By JONATHAN SMITH EDITOR IN CHIEF
Dr. Jeff Arrington was appointed associate dean of Campus Life last week — a new position that will oversee four areas of the office. The director of each area in Campus Life — La Shae Sloan in Student Services, Mark Lewis in Student Life, Dr. Jan Meyer in Student Leadership and Dr. Mimi Barnard in Residence Life Education and Housing — will report directly to Arrington. Arrington, who had served eight years as the associate dean of the College of Arts and Science, will be the first to have the position, which Dr.
Wayne Barnard, dean of Campus Life, said he has thought about creating for more than two years. “I was just needing some help overseeing Campus Life,” Barnard said. “There’s the daily view and the long-rangeplanning view, and Jeff will be responsible for the long-range planning.” Moving from a role that dealt mostly Arrington with academic curriculum to one that oversees learning outside of the classroom, Arrington said he hopes to create a “closer partnership for student learning” in and outside the classroom. “I hope to accomplish an See ARRINGTON Page 10
University begins planting pecan grove Administrators say trees will improve entrance to campus By SARAH CARLSON ARTS EDITOR
Construction on a new pecan grove along Judge Ely Boulevard, across from the main entrance of the university, began during the winter break, and the trees will be planted in the fall, said Kevin Watson, associate vice president for administrative services, in an e-mail.
“This will improve the look and feel of campus as you drive up,” Watson said. “Long term, we want to improve the campus at the main entrance.” Plans to improve the campus landscape have been in development for some time, he said, and potentially 60,000 to 65,000 cubic yards of soil will be brought in from the WalMart Supercenter construction site at the intersection of Highway 351 and Interstate 20 to build a berm enclosure, or a mound of earth, on the east side of Judge Ely. Bob Nevill, director of
Physical Resources, said in an e-mail that the soil, 13,000 cubic yards of which is already at the grove site, is surplus material from the Wal-Mart site and comes at no cost to the university. He said irrigation and turf grasses will be placed in the area during the spring and summer before the trees will be planted in the late fall during ACU’s centennial. “The orchard is not a direct part of the Centennial Celebration,” Nevill said, “but we hope that it can be a significant feature of the celebration.”
Watson also said that construction on the new A.B. Barret residence hall on Campus Court is going well, and the middle section of concrete was poured Wednesday. The hall is still scheduled to be finished Aug. 1, which means the construction crew will work weekends and long hours, he said, adding that it wouldn’t hurt if the weather helped out. “With the weather turning colder this week and next, it could delay us some,” Watson See WORK Page 10
EMILY CHASTAIN/Staff Photographer
Work on the foundation of the new A.B. Barret Hall, being built across from Brown Library, continues this week.