WEDNESDAY April 13, 2005
OPTIMIST THE
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication
Abilene Christian University
Vol. 93, No. 48 1 section, 10 pages www.acuoptimist.com
Serving the ACU community since 1912
Beginning a new streak:
Getting crafty:
All in a night’s work:
After having their 15-game winning streak snapped, the Wildcats won three in a row. Page 10
Students can purchase, sell or display their work at a crafts fair Thursday in the Bean Sprout beginning at 7 p.m. Student bands also will play. Page 4
Leticia Abila works late hours as the night shift supervisor of custodians. Page 8
Sculptor’s dream on hold Maxwell awaits funding to begin construction of ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ By MALLORY SHERWOOD FEATURES EDITOR
Jack Maxwell’s dream balances in his office on a miniature pedestal beside a model of an architectural garden and among other sculptures he has designed, waiting for completion. Maxwell, chair of the Art and Design Department, has been busy designing and con-
structing a sculpture and a garden-like surrounding area based on the Genesis 28 account of Jacob’s dream at Bethel. So far, he has made a miniature six-foot model. Administrators approached Maxwell in 2003 about designing a piece of art that would remember the legacy of people who have served and contributed to the university, said Jim Holmans, executive assistant to the president. Since then, Maxwell has created a dream but not just for himself.
“I liked the idea of Jacob’s dream and of his ladder,” Maxwell said. “It was a dream image, but I thought that ‘dream’ could mean a lot of different things. It is a dream for me to have a monumental thing of a spiritual nature on campus.” Maxwell said the idea came to him after the university received a donation of more than $26 million from the estate of Grace Woodward, an alumna of ACU. See SCULPTURE Page 7
Club attempts to break record Sixty-hour softball game to raise funds for Habitat houses By MALLORY SHERWOOD OPTIMIST STAFF/File photo
A miniature of Jack Maxwell’s sculpture, “Jacob’s Ladder,” sits among other sculptures he has designed in his office.
FEATURES EDITOR
They’re not just crazy. They’re insane. And that is how they like it. Forty members of Gamma
Students applying, waiting for grad schools
Sigma Phi plan to break a world record by playing a 60hour softball game during Insanity for Humanity. They want to raise more than $68,000 for Habitat for Humanity in Abilene. This year is not the first that members of GSP have tried something unorthodox to raise See CLUB Page 9
Senator voting will be online Election delayed two days to fix problems with e-vote system
Med school acceptance rate for ACU students higher than average
By JONATHAN SMITH EDITOR IN CHIEF
By JACI SCHNEIDER OPINION EDITOR
For some students, graduation is not the end of education; some will continue on for several more years in various graduate schools. Thirteen students will begin medical school later this year, said Dr. Perry Reeves, professor of chemistry. Eighty-five percent of students who applied to medical schools were accepted, he said, although the national average acceptance rate is only 37 percent. “We have good students who prepare themselves,” Reeves said. Also, five students will attend dental school, four will go on to physical therapy school, two to veterinary school, two to optometry school and one each to physician’s assistant school See GRAD SCHOOL Page 7
DAVID LEESON/ACU Today
Lorinne Burke-White, Hillary Mudroch, Brandon Johnson and Ben Grant talk and eat in the home of Bill Redfield (right) on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana last June. Students can interview Thursday and Friday to participate in the program that allows students to spend the summer in south central Montana on the reservation.
Summer program taking reservations Students to interview for internship with Crow Indians By JACI SCHNEIDER OPINION EDITOR
Interviews for summer internships at the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana will be Thursday and Friday. Students who participate in the program will spend the
summer in south central Montana living with a Crow family, mentoring Crow children and developing relationships with the Crow people, said Dr. David Gotcher, associate professor of sociology and social work and the university liaison for the reservation. This will be the sixth summer that the university sends students to Montana, Gotcher said, and this year, room is available for up to 10 students.
Program needs new director Study Abroad Program will not send students to Montevideo in fall By CIANA HARDWICK STUDENT REPORTER
Officials in the Study Abroad Program will hire a new on-site director for the Montevideo, Uruguay, facility, and coordinators in the Art and Design Department are planning a tentative study abroad trip to Oxford, England, during the summer of 2006. Students will not be able to study in Montevideo in the fall because the new director will be moving to the site, and faculty and staff will make trips to the site for training seminars. Interested students should consider applying for the spring semester, which is open to about 30 individuals, said Kevin Kehl, director of the Center for International and Intercultural Education. The current on-site director of the Montevideo program is moving back to the United States with his family
after living there for 11 years. His children are growing older, and he is ready to come back and allow them to attend American high school, Kehl said. He said Montevideo is a special program that provides “lots of cultural opportunities.” People relate Uruguay to Mexico, but the country is actually difKehl ferent from Mexico and more like Europe, he said. The program is also unique because of the close relationNichols ship facilitators have with a local church, which provides a “built in language learning resource because members of the church are eager” to help the students learn Spanish, he said.
Annie Nichols, Study Abroad coordinator, also spoke highly of the Montevideo program and of Dana and Warren Roane, the retiring on-site directors. They were a “big, big asset to help this program begin,” she said. But she remains optimistic about the new director. Change is always hard, she said, but the new director is being chosen through an “indepth and prayerful decision.” Two professors from the Art and Design Department hope to generate an interest in Study Abroad among students during the summer. Ronnie Rama, assistant professor of art and design, and Mike Wiggins, assistant professor of art and design, are preparing to lead a tentative trip to Oxford, England, during Maymester and Summer I in 2006. Although organized by the Art and Design Department, the trip is open to anyone who can fit the nine hours of art and design-related classes into See ART Page 7
“This is an evangelistic opportunity for students to live Jesus to the Crow kids,” Gotcher said. Throughout the summer, Gotcher said students form relationships with their host family and a small group of children they work with. Many activities involve outdoor adventures, including rafting, rock climbing, canoeing and camping. The internship is paid for
through gifts from the reservation and the university’s urban studies program. Students’ salaries will cover cost of living and travel expenses, but Gotcher said he encourages students to ask their churches to support them as well. “This program has made an impression on the Crow Reservation,” Gotcher said. “ACU is about to be the only See CROW Page 7
Groovin’ to the music
BRIAN SCHMIDT/Chief Photographer
The percussion ensemble performs “Samba Batuchada,” a traditional Brazilian song. This piece opened the ensemble’s concert, which focused on traditional and folk music, Monday in Cullen Auditorium.
The Students’ Association and Web Integration and Programming will finally unveil electronic voting Wednesday after Chapel as students will be able to vote in class senator elections on my.ACU. Elections were slated to begin Monday and end Wednesday, but problems found in the electronic voting program pushed SA elections chair Patrick Leech, sophomore history major from Tuscola, to delay the elections two days. “We decided it would be best to move back the day of voting to use e-vote and follow through with what we said we were going to do,” Leech said. During testing of the e-vote program last week, Leech said problems arose when trying to allow students to vote for certain groups of senators. Students are supposed to vote for class senators in whichever class they qualify, but students can decide which class they will vote with based on either their years or hours. With Scantron balloting, students simply could place their ballot in the box that corresponded with their class. With e-vote, the computer only allowed students to vote with a class based on hours completed. Leech said to solve this problem, he sent out a mass e-mail Monday allowing students the opportunity to respond and choose to vote with a different class in which they qualify. When the problems were discovered with the system, Leech said he reported those to Dr. James Langford, director of Web Integration and Programming, whose team fixed the problem. See ELECTIONS Page 7
United begins selling alcohol Proximity to university, elementary school does not prohibit sale By TIFFANY WILLIAMS COPY EDITOR
For the first time since it was built, the United Supermarkets, located on Judge Ely Boulevard,
has begun selling beer and wine. “Basically, we just made a business decision based on what our competitors are doing,” said Paul Evans, regional vice president of United. He removed all speculation that the store did not previously sell alcohol because of its proximity to a Christian university. “I wouldn’t say it had much
to do with the university,” he said. “The decision was made not to sell when we purchased these stores, but now we have more space to sell it.” He said the store was licensed to sell beer and wine but not liquor, and the new merchandise has benefited the store. See UNITED Page 7