Sports Page 6
Sims comes home vol. 103, no. 4
INSIDE SPORTS Soccer team reaches .500 over the weekend.
wednesday, september 3, 2014
1 SECTION, 6 PAGES
Football brings an Abilene native back
FAIR WEATHER
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OPINION Two letters to the editor present opposing opinions on the infamous Yik Yak.
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Features One student spent her summer thriving on Capital Hill.
jarred schuetze staff photographer
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News Three students play show at the House of Blues Dallas last weekend.
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SPORTS Volleyball loses first three games under new head coach. Page 6
The West Texas Fair and Rodeo sets up the carnival at the Taylor County Expo center south of Highway 36. The fair officially opens Friday night and runs through next Saturday, Sept. 13. Events include tractor pulls, gunslinger challenges and petting zoos.
Rhodes seeks grad program changes madeline orr editor in chief A proposal to create a College of Graduate Studies has been presented to the Board of Trustees, said Dr. Robert Rhodes, provost of the university. The current graduate school facilitates graduate programming across current colleges and department but doesn’t oversee faculty or new development. “It’s a little premature and a proposal versus a
elijah evans
NEWS
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NEWS Lynay brings special guest to campus for women students. Page 3
largely in place and a there might be a few programs that would be interested in moving underneath the college structure,” he said. “New graduate programs don’t have to exist just within the current departmental college structure, which can be a burden on programs and can limit interest in growing programs.” Dr. Stephen Johnson recently transitioned from a half-time dean to the full time dean of the Graduate School. Rhodes
said this was part of the strategic planning and call for more graduate support. Rhodes said his goal is to have a decision about next steps in place for the November board meeting. “We’ve proposed it to the board and it’s something that we’re going to be coming back to them for more conversation,” he said. Rhodes said new undergraduate programs such as nursing and en-
gineering that have been well-received but that the graduate programming needs more tending to. “We’ve often had an approach where graduate programming came as a sidepiece. We have great graduate programs, but for good reasons, we have really focused on undergraduate program development and there is a way to do both well,” he said. contact orr at mco10b@acu.edu
Rushees required to attend all club teas staff reporter
Rachel Brown, study abroad coordinator, takes job at Wheaton College.
definitive plan,” Rhodes said. “We’re thinking about as we grow new graduate programs we need a structure to support them and oversee them.” Rhodes said he is proposing that the university move to a model of a graduate college instead of the current graduate school. What he is not proposing is all current graduate programs or graduate faculty move underneath the new college. “We would keep those
Rushing officially began Sunday, accompanied by a couple of significant rule changes regarding rush attendance and voting. Starting this year, the Office of Student Life has made the women’s clubs teas mandatory for all women registered to pledge. Mark Jackson, associate director of student organizations and programs, said many of the women in the past had only attended one or two of the teas and rushes.
“The rushing process, to us, is about checking out every club and finding which club is the best fit,” Jackson said. Samantha Jeffries, sophomore communications major from North Richland Hills, attended teas on Sunday. She said rushees were given a card to be stamped at every club’s tea. If they did not turn the card back into Jackson then they would be dropped from the pledging process. “It didn’t bother me that we have had to go to all the teas because I think it’s better in helping everyone find the club
that’s best for them,” Jeffries said. “I’m excited for all the changes that have been made to the rushing and pledging process.” Voting was also revamped this year. All clubs will vote three times, followed by three rankings. “In the past, we’ve done it where the prospectives come to me and rank on a sheet of paper, but this year we will do it totally online,” Jackson said. There will be a 13-hour window for ranking to occur. Voting will take place at acu.edu/socialclubs. Registration will also
be earlier this year for men. Men’s registration deadline for pledging is Sept. 12. Jackson emphasized men must register online by this time or they will be irrevocably ineligible for pledging during the fall semester. Jackson said he hopes social clubs will become the largest entity on campus this year – even larger than the freshman class. He expects it will happen, with 340 women and 122 men registered to pledge. “I’d love to get over 400 total,” Jackson said. Gamma Sigma Phi expects to host around 80
men at their rushes, said Gabriel Guerra, psychology major from Edinburg. Guerra was less sure about the size of GSP’s pledge class, though. “Our number of pledges typically don’t exceed 42-45, but we had a particularly large pledge class of 56 last year, which makes it tricky to forecast the number of guys who are wanting to take part in our pledging process,” he said.
contact evans at ece12a@acu.edu
Mobile learning initiative phases out iPhones VIDEO Brantly Houston speaks in departmental chapel about his uncle Kent Brantly and the media.
Read more at acuoptimist.com
the mobile learning initiative, clauses in the contracts were changed and updated to fit the current The class of 2016 was technology needs of stuthe last class to receive dents. iPhones as incoming Kevin Roberts, vice freshmen. When the mo- president of operations, bile learning initiative said the contract signed began in 2008, students by juniors who received signed a contract saying iPhones did not include that after two years, they the clause about receivcould receive a new de- ing replacements after vice upon returning their two years. old one. However, over Some students, howthe years with each new ever, say they weren’t class that participated in aware of the changes and
Allison Brown
managing editor
anticipated receiving new phones this year. Katy Westerlage, junior speech pathology major from Fort Worth, said she was unaware her class would not be receiving an update. “I know a lot of people were wondering about it,” Westerlage said. “The other classes before us got upgrades, even the seniors last year when the program had stopped. I just assumed we would too.”
Abilene Christian University
Last year’s juniors received iPads for their upgrade, even though incoming students weren’t given a device. The program, over time, has been phased out as more students come into ACU with their own devices. “We knew at some point in time, the program would come to an end,” Roberts said. “We just didn’t know when it would be.” Roberts said now the
focus of mobile learning is shifting to the tablet platform, with certain classes on campus requiring iPads as a necessary course material. As for the iPhones, Roberts said, “Two things started happening: everyone has one now, and tablets provide a much better learning platform.”
contact brown at akb12b@acu.edu