The Baylor Lariat WE’RE THERE WHEN YOU CAN’T BE
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THURSDAY | SEPTEMBER 15, 2011
A&E Page 4 Still on top of its game
“The Legend of Zelda” came out 25 years ago but remains one of the best video games of all time
SPORTS Page 5
NEWS Page 3
America’s team
A teddy ‘bear hug’
In the midst of the Bastrop County fire, a new Baylor group uses a popular toy to comfort victims
After the Cowboys’ loss to the New York Jets on Sunday, are Dallas fans right in their frustration?
Vol. 112 No. 10
© 2011, Baylor University
In Print >>
Between the lines The Lariat reviews Sherman Alexie’s 2007 book “Flight,” where the writer asks if violence is really the answer.
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>> Big 12 in review
In the midst of the Big 12 A&M turmoil, the 201112 season is one full of big hopes and uncertain futures.
Page 5 >> Go green with BUS The Baylor University Shuttle helps students save money and the environment.
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On the Web
Body found in Brazos
Setting records, climbing rank Enrollment reaches 15,000, largest in university history By Daniel C. Houston Staff Writer
Baylor’s freshman class earned the highest standardized test scores an incoming class at Baylor ever has and helped drive overall enrollment past the 15,000-student mark for the first time. University enrollment now stands at 15,029 students up from 14,900 in the 2010 fall semester with 3,033 of those being firsttime freshmen, according to a report published this week by the office of Institutional Research
and Testing. Baylor intentionally admitted 226 fewer freshman in this year’s class than last year’s, in part because of the difficulty associated with housing such large numbers of students in the past, said Dr. Jeff Doyle, dean for student learning and engagement. Doyle went on to say on-campus housing facilities are at 98.3 percent capacity, meaning the university has not had an issue with overcrowding in the dorms this year. The IRT report also indicated
Matt Hellman | Lariat Photo Editor
A graph showing growth of enrollment at Baylor in 2010 compared to 2011, with freshman population increasing as well. This year, Baylor has seen its highest enrollment rate in its history, at 15,029.
the percentage of last year’s freshman class that returned to Baylor for a second year was 3.5 percent higher than that of the class prior. The retention rate for last year’s freshman class was 85.4 percent; the year before it was 81.9 percent. “I can’t believe that we went
up 3.5 percent in retention rate,” Doyle said, “which for a school our size is just massive.” Doyle and Dr. Sinda Vanderpool, assistant vice provost for enrollment management, attributed the increase in second-year SEE
RECORDS, page 6
Photo of the day Want more Baylor? Now you don’t have to miss anything with the Lariat photo of the day, only on
Viewpoints “Taking a test on a clicker, especially when students must use the clicker to spell out words and figures, is distracting and unnecessarily time-consuming.”
Bear Briefs
Courtesy McClatchy-Tribune
Saving jobs, securing futures President Barack Obama waves to the crowd as he takes the stage at a rally to support his $447 billion jobs plan Wednesday on the North Carolina State University campus in Raleigh.
West Texas teen accused of faking cancer by juan carlos llorca and linda stewart ball associated press
The place to go to know the places to go
Sic’ em Bears Fresh off the season opening win against TCU, Baylor will return to play Stephen F. Austin University 6 p.m. Saturday at Floyd Casey Stadium. Austin live It’s that time of year again. Austin City Limits is back this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Zilker Park in Austin. Sunday tickets are still available online.
Baylor libraries join new venture By Alyssa Maxwell Reporter
baylorlariat.com
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The body of Joshua Campbell was found in the Brazos River Wednesday just before 6 p.m., according to the Waco Police. Two homeless persons reported the body to the police after seeing it in the river near the suspension bridge. Waco police and fire departments responded to the report and recovered the body. The extraction sight was north of Franklin Avenue. The body was identified as 22 year-old Campbell, who was reported missing by his family Tuesday. Foul play is not suspected, and the body has been sent to Dallas for autopsy. Waco Police did not return a phone call as of press time.
A West Texas teenager who collected $17,000 in donations after telling people she was dying of leukemia and had only had six months to live faces theft charges after police determined she lied about being sick. Nine months later, Ruth Angelica Gomez, 18, of Horizon City is still very much alive and has been charged with theft by deception for receiving donations under false pretenses. “We haven’t found anything that indicates that she does have leukemia,” Horizon City police Detective Liliana Medina told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Police began investigating in June, after someone complained that Gomez claimed she was terminally ill but did not appear to be sick. Gomez collected donations through an organization called Achieve the Dream Foundation, which she created in May under the pretense of helping children with leukemia beat cancer. Police filed state jail felony charges against Gomez earlier this week after subpoenaing her bank records, and the district attorney’s office is reviewing the
Newspaper of the Year | Texas APME
Courtesy Associated press
Ruth Angelica Gomez stands in front of an “Achieve The Dream Foundation” sign May 27 in El Paso, Texas. Gomez, who collected $17,000 in donations after telling family and friends she was dying of lukhemia. Gomez told media she had been in and out of the hospital since age 2.
case before authorities consider any possible arrest. No other suspects were involved, police said. Gomez, a June graduate of Horizon City High about 20 miles east of El Paso, could not be reached for comment Wednesday and it was not immediately known if she had an attorney. Although the website for her
foundation was no longer in service, an archive showed a smiling Gomez sporting a dark T-shirt with her organization’s green ribbon-shaped logo and the tagline: “Behind every fighter there is a supporter. Will you be mine?” Hundreds responded to pleas Gomez made through motivational talks and fundraisers. Among those taken in were stu-
TheLariat
dents at Da Vinci High School, who threw a prom party/fundraiser for her after she told them that she had missed her own senior prom because she was in treatment. It was a dream prom with a limousine, a dress donated by a fancy boutique and Gomez, named queen of the dance. But the end of 2010 was apparently a turbulent time for the teen. After returning from a trip to Kansas City, Mo., Gomez told her church that the cancer she had spent 11 years of her childhood battling had come back even stronger and she would not live to see the summer. She also told Nicole Matsuda, a 28-year-old youth leader at the First Methodist Church and stayat-home mother, that her parents had kicked her out of the house and asked for a place to temporarily stay. “That is something we would do from time to time, we work with a lot of teenage kids,” Matsuda told The Associated Press during in an interview at her Horizon City home in June. “Now I hear that she told her parents that one of my children was sick and that I needed her to come help me,” Matsuda said. SEE
ACCUSED, page 6
Research just got easier for Baylor students and faculty. The University libraries have joined the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), a global resource archive that acquires, preserves and provides access to resources for researchers that are often prohibitively expensive. The center is a cooperative venture of about 250 libraries. By acting together, these libraries can purchase, collect and preserve materials through CRL. The headquarters is located at the University of Chicago. “This means that, by joining CRL, the Baylor community gains access to this diverse collection of primary sources, foreign publications and special print and digital collections,” Jeffrey Steely, director of central Libraries said. The auxiliary collection substantially enhances the libraries’ holdings. There is no space to hold published foreign dissertations here at the Baylor libraries, Beth Elene Farwell, associate director for Central Libraries, said. “The CRL holds the foreign dissertations that we can not hold here,” Farwell said. Having a membership with the center will allow the Baylor libraries to enjoy reduced costs for additional academic resources. In order to be a member, each library must pay an annual fee. Annual dues are “calculated based on a library’s expenditures on library materials,” Steely said. Membership allows Baylor to have “more access to materials we could not afford to buy or house,” Farwell said. Membership “allows us to make a major leap in the resources we can provide to students and faculty conducting research,” Steely said. “This is why we made a decision to prioritize membership in CRL in our allocation of funds this fiscal year.” Last year’s engagement with HathiTrust allowed invaluable resources to be easily within reach of Baylor faculty, staff and students. HathiTrust is a partnership of major research institutions and liSEE
VENTURE, page 6
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