University Press, April 28, 2016

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UNIVERSITY PRESS Dishman to exhibit senior thesis

The Newspaper of Lamar University

Vol. 92, No. 19 April 28, 2016

Universal Steps

Abigail Zuniga UP contributor The Dishman Art Museum will host “Fragmented Perspectives: Student Thesis Exhibition” from April 29-May 22 with an opening reception on Friday, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public and will feature refreshments, music and free parking.

The Dishman Art Museum during open hours, weekdays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

This semester’s exhibiting artists are Jillian ‘GiGi’ Barker, Jeannette A. Douget, Audra Lacour, James Lang, Billie Rose Smith and María Libertad Vázquez.

“The purpose of my thesis is to celebrate people and pets through art,” Barker, graphic design major, said. “I am a graphic design major but I wanted to include my love for drawing and painting in my thesis.”

Barker has a personal web page, where she sells her work.

“I decided to create a custom illustrated portrait company called ‘It’s Me! by GiGi B,’” she said. “Customers can order cartoon-like watercolor and ink portraits of adults, children and pets.”

Barker also designs logos and business cards, a website and social media pages. The purpose of her thesis is to celebrate people and pets through art.

“My thesis project is called ‘Manifest,’” she said. “I decided to do my senior thesis over effectively branding a clothing company because I have been working in the industry here in Beaumont with a company called L&W Fashions, and in Houston with a company called Exclusive Taste.

“I choose to brand a clothing company because it’s something I am interested in and have had the opportunity to experience the industry. I wanted to explore what it take to start your own clothing brand.”

Taiwanese troupe to present special performance, Tuesday

Dancers from Tainan University of Technology in Taiwan rehearse for this weekend’s Lamar dance concert, as well as a special performance, Tuesday.

Kyle Swearingen UP staff writer The department of theatre and dance, along with the department of global studies and study abroad, will host a special performance, Tuesday, at 7:30 p.m. in the University Theatre, by dancers from the Tainan University of Technology in Taiwan.

Tickets are free and available at the box office the day of the event.

“The delegation is spending two weeks on the LU campus taking dance classes, rehearsing, performing, and sharing their culture with the LU community,” Jeffrey Palis, director of global studies and study abroad, said.

Palis said the performances will be a mix of colorful, traditional Taiwanese dance, enhanced by some more modern compositions that will make for a “breathtaking” exhibition.

“These student-performers are amazingly talented, but perhaps, most importantly, they are our peers,” he said.

“College students from another country who face the same life-study challenges and share the same post-graduation dreams as we do. Getting to know them makes the world seem a bit smaller, which I think is a very positive outcome of cultural exchanges.”

The delegation comes to campus as a result of multi-year contact between Palis and colleagues in Taiwan.

He then contacted Golden Wright, interim chair of theatre and dance.

“I have enjoyed a rewarding relationship with the department of dance at TUT for several years now,” Palis said. “When I moved to Lamar, I brought that important relationship with me. My colleagues in Taiwan contacted me about the possibility for a visit. I then conSee TAIWAN page 2

UP photos by Elizabeth Grimm

‘Dance Unleashed’ to open Friday Elizabeth Grimm UP staff writer

UP photo by Josh Aych

Jeannette Douget hangs her tiles for the Senior Thesis Art Show "Fragmented Perceptions," Tuesday, in the Dishman Art Museum.

Tip-tap. Tip-tap.

That’s the sound of feet hitting the floor as the dancers synchronize their steps. Bodies glide and transition across the stage in what appears to be a seamless effort — though with dance, there is more than meets the eye.

Lamar University’s spring dance concert, “Dance Unleashed,” will be held in the University Theatre, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and May 1 at 2 p.m. The show will include a guest performance by See DANCE page 10

Lamar University dancers rehearse for the dance concert which begins Friday.

LU history professor earns NEH award Caylin Poulter UP contributor Jeff Forret, professor of history at Lamar, has been selected as a recipient of a 2016 stipend from The National Endowment for the Humanities. Forret is one of 84 people awarded the funds out of 808 applicants.

Forret plans to use the stipend to fund research for his fifth book, “William’s Gang: A Slave Trader His Cargo and Justice in the Old South.”

Forret said it was a pleasant surprise to learn he had been awarded the stipend.

“NEH grants are notoriously difficult to secure,” he said. “I had applied for various NEH funding opportunities, probably seven or eight times in the past, mostly for a previous book project, and was never selected. This was the second time I had applied for funding for ‘Williams’ Gang,’ but persistence pays off.

“You take advantage of the comments you can request from

www.facebook.com/UPLamar

failed applications, revise your project narrative accordingly, and try again the next time.”

Forret said he hopes to complete the research for the book this summer.

“I will use the stipend to conduct research at the Library of Virginia in Richmond, at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and at several different archives in New Orleans,” he said.

Forret said he is excited for his upcoming re-

search trips around the country.

“Spending all day in the archives researching, skipping

www.lamaruniversitypress.com

Jeff Forret

lunch, until they close down and kick you out isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, but for historians, that’s what it’s all about — getting your hands dirty in old documents,” he said.

“William’s Gang: A Slave Trader His Cargo and Justice in the Old South” is a legal history of the domestic slave trade, based on the career of Washington, D.C. slave trader William H. Williams.

See FORRET page 2

www.twitter.com/UPLamar

INSIDE

Thursday, April 28, 2016 University Press

TAIWAN

QUOTE OF THE DAY Page 2

“If you would not be forgotten, As soon as you are dead and rotten, Either write things worth reading, Or do things worth the writing.”

— Benjamin Franklin

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April 28

from page 1

Cardinal Jazz Singers Concert

Rothwell Recital Hall 7:30-9 p.m.

April 29

Fragmented Perspectives:

Student Exhibition Reception

Dishman Art Museum 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Dance Unleashed: UP photo by Elizabeth Grimm

Dancers from Tainan University iof Technology in Taiwan rehearse for this weekend’s Lamar dance concert, as well as a special performance, Tuesday. tacted Golden Wright who answered with an enthusiastic, ‘Yes!’ and things started to fall in place from there.”

The visit will not be all work for the delegation, Palis said. In addition to the performance and observation of campus, he said he wants the delegation to experience what the area has to offer

FORRET

and to have a chance to meet with people in a variety of cultural settings.

“If you see them in the dining hall, come say, ‘Hello,’” he said. “We’re also saving time for some local fun. I’m promising them an alligator in the wild, an Astros game, and a stop at Bucee’s.”

The department of global studies and study abroad is continually striving to bring other cultures to the campus of Lamar, Palis said, adding that it aims to show the Lamar community that no matter the place on the globe, people are not that different.

“My office does our best to

bring Lamar to the world,” Palis said. “We plan studyabroad programs during spring break, winter break, summer, and the regular semester. (The Taiwanese exchange) is an example of study abroad in the reverse.

Through this performance, we’re helping to bring the world to Lamar.”

the Louisiana State Penitentiary, and then again while doing research in the Virginia penitentiary records for his book “Slave against Slave.”

“The story was fascinating, but it didn’t have an intellectual home in either of those projects, so I decided to make it the subject of the next book,” he said.

Forret said he didn’t begin researching Williams intensively until August 2014.

“I spent the first year or so reading online newspapers, court records, manifests from slave ships, and several slave narratives,” he said. “The archival portion of my research that I’m doing this

University Theatre 7:30-9 p.m.

Faculty Recital:

Abigail Dueppen, Soprano

Rothwell Recital Hall 7:30-9 p.m.

April 30

Dance Program Auditions

Dance Annex: Health and

Human Performance Complex

from page 1

“(Williams) trafficked in human cargoes from the 1830s to the 1850s, kept a slave pen within sight of the U.S. Capitol, and spent his adult life mired in litigation related to his profession,” Forret said. “I focus on a case from 1840 in which he purchased 27 convicted slave felons out the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond, with the understanding that he was to transport them outside of the United States.”

Forret said he came across Williams twice while doing research for other books. He first came across his story while doing research for an article on slave prisoners in

Spring Dance Concert

summer should be the last of what I need before getting down to the writing.”

Forret said he hopes to finish the book by the end of 2017 and this will be his only book on Williams.

“He’s a fairly elusive character,” Forret said. “He did not keep any diaries, account books or business records that survived, as far as I know, so you have to access him in fairly creative ways. I’ll be ferreting out every last little detail of his life that I can for this book.”

The National Endowment for the Humanities was created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, according

to a release. It supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation.

The number of awards can vary from year to year and in the past five years only around nine percent of applicants were awarded a stipend.

Forret teaches courses on the Old South, slavery, the early republic, antebellum America, and race and sex in American history, among others. He also serves as the graduate director for the history department.

10 a.m.-12 p.m.

Day of Percussion

Simmons Music Building 9 a.m.-5 p.m

May 1

A Cappella Choir and Grand Chorus: Love U Concert

Dishman Art Museum 4-5 p.m.

May 2

Industrial Carillion Concert

Mobil Oil Federal Credit Union 7:30-9 p.m.

UNIVERSITY PRESS • Thursday, April 28, 2016

Page 3

Art of Paper & Glue C , F REATIVITY FAMILY SUPPORT EQUALS SUCCESS FOR Brandianne Hinton UP staff writer “I can’t make glue, but I can make a mean bowl of lactose intolerant cereal.”

Paper maché sculptor Avril Falgout laughed.

“I once managed to set a microwavable waffle on fire,” she said. “I’d be liable to burn down the kitchen making glue, so that’s why my mom makes it.”

Falgout will present her work at The Art Studio, Inc., beginning May 7 with a reception 7-10 p.m.

The show is Falgout’s prize for winning TASIMJAE 2015, the studio’s membership show, where she presented a pair of life-sized 1920s flappers dancing.

The 18 year-old student at the Texas Academy for Leadership in the Humanities may not be able to make glue, but she has become an expert at trying new things when it comes to paper maché sculpting.

“It’s just weird engineering and technical stuff, when I come up with it,” Falgout said. “Like the dancing ladies, they come off the base and can be separated from each other.”

Falgout loves books and uses them for inspiration in colors, patterns and fabric textures.

“I’m super into sewing and textiles and all that stuff, so I’m using these books for fabric ideas for the skirts on some of them because it’s pictures of textiles,” she said, thumbing through the books she’d just checked out from the library. “I don’t take any of these exactly, just certain color schemes or how they do flowers or stuff like that, and I’ll combine a couple of different things, like for painting the skirts.”

One of her life-sized sculptures, a 1780s woman, even features lace-trimmed sleeves, which Falgout fashions entirely of paper.

“My mom goes off on this one telling stories like, ‘She came up with this all on her own.’”

Falgout said. “But I just figured out what I wanted to make, and thought, ‘Yeah, that would make lace.

Yes!’” Falgout said there is no real theme for her latest show, besides that all of the sculptures are paper maché.

“Most of the time, it’s people from different cultures or historical periods, and I’m just kind of jumping around to whichever one I want to make at the time,” she said. “I do have a bad habit of just falling into things without any prior notice.

“Generally, I’m either completely obsessed with something or completely apathetic with it. I very rarely have an in-between with things.”

Falgout is on a time crunch because she said her work has been seen so much already.

“I’m trying to make an entirely new body of work and it’s just not enough stuff,” she said.

“I haven’t counted, but I know that there are at least three lifesized people and several smaller people. I’ve never actually counted how many works will be in the show, but I’m thinking of about nine right now. There’s probably more, I just can’t think of them.”

In addition to her paper people, Falgout has also made paper animals, a horse and an eagle for the show.

She said that with the exception of two sculptures, ‘Janis Joplin’ and ‘Edgar,’ which she finished early and has been pushing through other shows, everything is new. “‘Edgar’ is like this little hippie dude,” Falgout said. “He’s currently in The Protégé show, which is for senior high school students through the Beaumont art museum.”

If Falgout decides she needs to take up space then she might put in some older stuff, but she’s

ALGOUT

Courtesy photo

Avril Falgout works on a paper maché sculpture in her dorm room, in advance of her solo show opening May 7. trying to avoid that, she said.

Falgout has had a string of successful showings and sales over the last few years, including winning the Big Show, an annual juried show at Lawndale Art Center in Houston, when she was only 15, which resulted in several gallery contacts, more shows, sales and exposure.

“I don’t really even know how much I get per sculpture because my mom does all the pricing and takes care of everything,” she said. “She’s my agent, and it works out because I’m

horrifically unsocial. My mom is very social. She just goes after it.”

Falgout says she doesn’t have a social life, and doesn’t mind.

“I mean, I can kind of keep it up for openings, but I’m usually just like, ‘I don’t want to talk to people. I don’t want to be around people,’ she said. “I just like shutting myself in my room, mostly.

“Paper people don’t talk.”

Falgout credits her family with her successes because they have always been so supportive, beginning when she was very young, by sending her to art camp.

“I was just super bored as a child and they were at work all the time,” she said. “So instead of daycare all day, my parents were like, ‘Let’s do something fun for the summer.’ I was always painting and drawing anyway, so my parents were like, ‘Yeah, art camp.’”

Falgout’s parents continue to help her with projects. She said that she has never run out of paper — a horrifying thought for a paper maché artist — because her dad supplies it.

“My dad still gets the newspaper, so I have plenty of paper,” she said. “I have stacks in my dorm room.”

Falgout’s grandfather is a retired welder and artist in his own right with a fullyequipped welding shop on his property. He welds the bases of her sculptures and helps with the armature to keep them balanced.

“We were holding them in the position we wanted them, and he was bringing the welding torch right under the paper sculptures,” she said. “We were amazed that it didn’t catch on fire — amazed and astounded.”

Falgout admits to being nervous about the show and worried that she won’t

finish all of her sculptures in time.

“I work best procrastinating to the last minute, thankfully, so it will probably get done,” she said.

“I’m really bad about procrastinating, and then I’m really good at staying up multiple days with one hour of sleep and no food just to finish. By the time I’m done with it, I’m like, ‘Oh my god, let me just get this over with.’”

Falgout graduates from TALH this May and will attend the University of Edinburgh in Scotland to study art history and Russian studies.

Falgout will be in Scotland for at least three years, but her Russian studies means she will spend at least one year studying in Russia.

Falgout said that while the Scottish dorms are similar to Cardinal Village, she is most excited about the fact that a tea kettle is provided as part of her dorm furnishings.

“They’re tea drinkers, so I probably will survive,” she said.

“If I can just have bread and pears, I probably will be okay— oh, and tea.”

One thing she is “mildly worried about” is not being able to understand her new professors because they will be speaking with a Scottish accent, but she is up for the challenge.

As far as continuing her art work abroad, Falgout had no clear answer about which direction she sees herself going.

“I’m actually really bad at planning things out, and not actually having any plans, so I have no idea what I’m going to be doing in the next five years,” she said. “I mean, until two years ago, I had to ask to go to the bathroom, so I mean, I haven’t had responsibility for very long.”

“One thing is certain,” Falgout said. “I’ll have to learn how to make glue.”

The Art Studio is located at 720 Franklin in downtown Beaumont.

Mail art revives lost form of communication Anna Seguir UP contributor In a society that is becoming more fast-paced, letter-writing and pen pals are becoming a thing of the past. A new twist on this traditional form of communication — mail art — has inspired people from all over the world.

Mail art is a sophisticated version of a pen pal but more artistic. Mail art can be anything ranging from an artistically-decorated envelope to an actual art piece, as long as the mail has the proper postage on it.

Alyssabeth Guerra, Dishman Art Museum assistant at Lamar University, has been part of the mail art community for years and has recently decided to start a group in the Golden Triangle.

“After I graduated college and

moved here I realized it was going to be as good as I made it, and if I wanted to do something I thought was interesting, other people might think it’s interesting too,” she said.

The Killeen native said there are benefits to this exchange of mail.

“I am getting to meet people that I see at events all the time, or people I’ve never seen at all and actually get to know them,” she said. “It kind of forces me to become a part of the community even more.”

Different people are inspired by different things when it comes to mail art, Guerra said.

“My inspirations can come from anything,” she said. “Lately, I have been really into sewing and fibers, so I’m trying to implement that into my mail art pieces, either by adding embroidery or com-

Courtesy photo

Alyssabeth Guerra works on creating mail art.

pletely sewing envelopes from cloth. I also get really inspired by nature and enjoy doing illustrations of animal or plant life.”

Guerra will curate a mail art show at the Dishman Art Museum in September.

“Half of the pieces will be a mail art call that anyone can reply to and it will be made into a giant wall of mail,” she said. “The other half of the art will be from 12 artists that are trail-blazers in the mail art community.

“Some of the artists do decorated envelopes, some of them do sculpture, and some of them do stamps. I am going to have various works by them. All of them do something different, but they’re united by a common purpose.”

Guerra said that anyone interested in submitting work for the September show should mail art to The Dishman Art Museum, P.O. Box 10072, Beaumont, TX 77710, by July 1. Works should be 2D. Anyone interested in mail art can become a part of the local group. Meetings are held at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas on the first Saturday of each month.

For more information, call Guerra at 880-8959, or visit the Dishman Art Museum Facebook page.

Page 4

Thursday, April 28, 2016 • UNIVERSITY PRESS

LU junior sees obstacles as opportunities Kara Timberlake UP managing editor Whether studying chemical bonds or running obstacle course races, William Shipp embraces the challenge.

Acro-Yoga, hiking, mountain biking and tumbling are just a few of the junior chemical engineering major’s pastimes.

“I’ve always just been a really active person my whole life,” he said. “Now, the older I get and the busier I get with classes, I have less and less time to do these things. I’ve learned that taking these breaks to be active really helps me achieve a sense of work/life balance.”

Shipp said he has been athletically inclined since he was a child.

“I did competitive gymnastics when I was younger,” he said. “Practicing five days-a-week, three hours-a-night when you’re nine years old — it was work.

Not that I didn’t enjoy it, but it was really difficult. Now, it’s just a hobby. I didn’t expect that I would continue to do it just for fun.”

Although Shipp stopped attending gymnastics classes after moving to Austin, he found ways to use the skills he learned.

“I was really active in high school — football, swimming and track,” he said.

“I tell people gymnastics is probably the best basis for any sport you want to do because you’re involving the strength, the endurance and the flexibility. I feel like a gymnast could be good at anything because they involve all these aspects of fitness.”

After starting college, Shipp found himself looking

for ways to stay active.

“I really craved that sort of activity,” he said. “It dawned on me that I could look up adult tumbling classes in the area. I found one down the road, and I relearned everything plus more. So now every time I’ve moved since then, that’s the first thing I do — look up adult tumbling gyms.

As a 2015 Beck Fellow, Shipp headed to Shanghai, China, to perform energyrelated research at Tongji University. Outside of the lab, Shipp ended up putting his athletic skills to the ultimate test.

“I got a bunch of the students at Tongji to start playing ultimate Frisbee and through that I found a group of ex-pats that played ultimate Frisbee in the area,” he said. “Someone in the group mentioned that there was this competition called X Warrior, similar to American Ninja Warrior, that was looking for foreign contestants to compete. So I was interested and gave my info, and somehow I got picked out of a group of, like, 200 people.”

“I was the only one from the U.S. There was a girl from Canada, a guy from Europe. So I got in touch with the show and I was trying to be the most interesting person I could. So I was telling them about chemical engineering, about brewing beer, and Spartan races I’ve done. It’s TV so they want someone who is not just physically capable but also has a bunch of weird hobbies.”

After test running the course, Shipp competed alongside more than 70 contestants.

“I think only 10 or 11 passed the course, and I was

Junior William Shipp practices gymnastics moves in the Setzer Student Center Arbor.

UP photos by Kara Timberlake the only foreign contestant that passed the course,” he said. “I competed a few days before I was set to leave China, so I didn’t end up going to the final round in Beijing. But I got to represent Lamar and even wore my engineering shirt.”

Shipp credits his success on the obstacle course to his gymnastic background.

“I definitely had an advantage,” he said. “Gymnastics helped as far as having that body awareness and ability to balance. For example, there was one obstacle where I had to run and jump on a trampoline, and then jump and grab two chains and swing. Just knowing how to jump on a trampoline or a springboard is something that I learned in gymnastics that a lot of peo-

ple struggled with.”

Shipp hopes to continue his passion for as long as possible.

“When I go hiking, I’m running and jumping off trees and climbing on stuff,” he said. “I joke that I’m going to be the 40-year-old guy who’s still doing this, but it’s pretty hard on your body. As much as I love it, I accept that I can’t do this my whole life, as much as I want to be the 60-year-old guy who does backflips” However, Shipp looks forward to passing down his love for physical activities.

“When I have kids one day, I would like to show them the opportunity that gymnastics offers and maybe participate in coaching,” he said. “It would be a fun hobby to do.

Harbor Hospice hosts butterfly release Rain, mud and heat did not stop the seventh-annual Harbor Hospice Celebration of Life Butterfly Release, Saturday, at Tyrrell Park. The community gathered to release hundreds of butterflies in memorial of a loved one who has died. The foundation raises money and awareness of hospice assistance.

Sarah Pontiff released a butterfly in memory of her cousin who was killed by a drunk driver in 2015. “The butterfly resembled her, so when I released the butterfly, it was like I was letting her memory fly free,” Pontiff said. The event also featured a petting zoo, pony rides, bouncy house and face painting.

Photos and text by Allison Pipkins

GOODBYES -30-

5 UNIVERSITY PRESS April 28, 2016

In the days when newspapers stories were printed in long galleys ready to be laid out, the number “-30-” was used to signify the end of the story.

Editor Grant Crawford and managing editor Kara Timberlake are coming to the end of their stories at Lamar University, and, as is tradition, are leaving their own 30s, reflecting on their time at University Press.

Drunk ticket leads Finding fulfillment to career close to home Filled with fear, guilt and a large amount of alcohol, I tried to keep my balance, as well as I could. I was sweating and the room seemed warmer than usual, brighter too. My mind was drifting. Officer Willow of Texas State University’s campus police snapped me back into focus. He was standing in my dorm room. Any moment now I’d be tackled to the ground and taken to the slammer. I was sure it was the electric chair for me, or solitary.

He had just discovered a copious amount of alcoholic beverages in my bathroom.

I was still praying that he wouldn’t look in the closet. He passed me a ticket for possession of alcohol by a minor and handed me another document to sign — probably an admission of a murder confession, I visualized.

The officer gave me and my pals a speech that none of us bothered to listen to. We were probably still too buzzed to pay attention anyway. Seriously, don’t look in the closet. Then he left. ‘Not so bad’, I thought. I was in the clear.

I may not have been sent to the jailhouse that night, but a few months later I was leaving Texas State University and headed home with nothing, except for failing grades. How I managed to get into Lamar, I’ll never know. Anyway, I was home and it was the worst thing that ever happened to me — so I thought.

I started taking classes at LU. It was OK. I sat in the back of the classrooms, and alone in the dining areas. I was an exercise science major for God knows what reason — that was a 30-pound lighter me, though. Healthy or not, the proverbial funk was what I was in. I felt like I’d never find something I wanted to do — no craft or purpose.

One day I was sitting with my advisor. We were attempting to schedule some decent class times when she mentioned taking a one hour lab practicum for the campus newspaper. I was skeptical. I’d never written much. I figured why not? It was only one hour, anyway.

The next thing you know I had changed my major, and I’m sitting at a Lamar football game trying to come up with questions before the post-game press conference. I must have sounded like I was having a stroke, I stuttered so profusely during my first interviews.

My first few stories were missing leads, endings and most of the important information. There were times when I assumed I had quit writing indefinitely — usually days when my story had been wiped clean and rewritten.

I continued to show up, though, and every time I did, I got a little bit better.

I began speaking out more, and became familiar with who I am. Eventually, my stories gained some depth and our editing sessions stopped ending with me kicking myself.

Despite all of my doubts, I joined the University Press staff and worked my way up the ranks. I landed the editor’s gig this semester, which I’m sure Andy Coughlan, director of student publications, is still scratching his head about.

The best thing about being the editor is the sense of accomplishment I get when the last page is turned in every week. Sure, it’s been difficult, and I’ve been known to procrastinate, but in the end it was all worth it.

I never expected to change so much while at Lamar — at the UP. That’s not to say I’m a completely different guy than the one stumbling in front of officer Willow five years ago. I’m just smarter. I once hated the thought of moving back to Beaumont and going to Lamar, but now I realize that it’s one of the best things that ever happened to me.

So, thank you Officer Willow for giving me more misdemeanors than Charlie Sheen my freshman year of college. I wouldn’t have made it here without you, man. Good thing you didn’t look in the closet, though.

-30-

UP Trivia

Each week the University Press staff will compile a series of questions related to the week in history. This week we pay tribute the Prince.

How will you do? Answers are posted right.

1. Prince identified with what religion?

2. How many movies has Prince appeared in?

3. How many Grammys did Prince win?

4. What famous musician/performer did Prince share a stage with at ten years old?

5. Who did Prince grant his first TV interview to?

6. What was the first song Prince learned to play on the piano?

As graduation grows nearer — 22 days to be exact — I’ve been thinking a lot about my college experiences and how much I’ve grown while at Lamar.

To think I almost didn’t come here is unfathomable.

Four years ago, I was looking forward to walking across the stage, grabbing my high school diploma and then leaving my sleepy town to go to college elsewhere.

Growing up near Sour Lake, a small town about 15 miles from Beaumont, I cherished my rural upbringing, but yearned for something more. I wanted more than a view of cows and horses and fields outside my window.

As a girl who had never crossed U.S. borders, much less flown on a plane, I wanted adventure found in places far away.

I kept this all in mind when applying to universities.

While my dreams were large, my checkbook was not. I read articles about former college students who had accumulated tens of thousands of dollars of debt and I did not want to be among those numbers. As I researched colleges near and far, I realized my options were slimmer than I first imagined.

My mom suggested I rethink Lamar, and I almost waved the suggestion away. Then, one day I got a letter in the mail — a letter that promised I could actually graduate debt free — and I caved. I told myself that I would attend Lamar for a year to get my core classes in, save a little money, and then I would transfer to a larger college further away.

Spoiler alert — life had other plans.

What started off as a temporary beginning became a platform for profound individual growth.

Since arriving to Lamar, I’ve studied in Spain, spoken at undergraduate research conferences, interned in Washington, D.C. as one of the 2015 Beck Fellows, become the managing editor of Lamar’s newspaper, the University Press, become a member of the Honors Student Association and Lamar Ambassadors, and served as the Public Relations Representative for the Spirit and Traditions Council.

And these are only just some of the opportunities I’ve had at Lamar.

When I first came to Lamar, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do career wise. However, with help from my professors, I realized journalism was a perfect fit for me.

As an aspiring journalist, I sought out ways to prepare myself for my future field. I became involved with the student newspaper and quickly realized that I was gaining invaluable real-world experience that only solidified my professional goals.

I have become greatly involved in many organizations on campus and have had the ability to step into leadership roles. From these roles, I’ve grown tremendously in capability and confidence.

In an ironic twist, I have actually even come to relish being so close to home. During the four years I’ve been at Lamar, two of my siblings have gotten married, and I have become the proud aunt to four nieces and a nephew. Every time I hold one of these sweet babies, I think how lucky I am to live and learn so close to home.

Even more important, I’m appreciative that Lamar has become my second home. I’ve had countless mentors who believed in me and saw the potential that I didn’t yet see in myself. I’ve had friendships and connections with peers that have profoundly impacted me with their passion and endurance.

When I think back upon my college experience, I see profound individual growth that only could have occurred from stepping outside of my comfort zone, a reality accomplished because I attended Lamar.

I’ve fulfilled dreams and broadened my life experiences. I’ve left home and tried so many new things — things that have molded me into a more confident individual. I wouldn’t be where I am today without Lamar.

Just like my favorite ginger orphan, Annie, said, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

-301. Prince became a Jehovah’s Witness in 2001, calling it a “realization” rather than a conversion.

2. Prince had roles in four films and directed three of them: Purple Rain (1984), Under the Cherry Moon (1986), Sign o’ the Times (1987), Graffiti Bridge (1990).

3. Prince won seven Grammys, which pales to his 32 nominations.

4. After his stepfather put him on stage during one of James Brown’s performances, Prince danced on stage with the Godfather of Soul for several minutes before being removed by Brown’s bodyguard.

5. Prince gave his first TV interview to Oprah in 1996. He was notoriously picky about granting interviews, and often forbade the use of recording devices or even pen and paper for notes.

6. The first song he learned to play on the piano was the original Batman theme when he was 7 years old. In 1989, Tim Burton enlisted him to create the soundtrack for his Batman film, which produced the hit song "Batdance."

Page 6

Thursday, April 28, 2016 • UNIVERSITY PRESS

Video relay aids deaf communication Caylin Poulter UP staff writer Telephone communication between the deaf and hearing communities on campus can sometimes lead to confusion, mainly as a result of the technology involved in making the connections.

Mary D. Clark, deaf education department chair, said she wants the Lamar community to know that talking on the phone with deaf people is not much different from talking to a hearing person.

“Basically, if it’s a signing person to a signing person, like if I were to call someone on my phone, it would just go through and the two of us would sign,” she said. “There are two videos so that we can have direct communication very simply.”

However, if a hearing person and a deaf person are trying to communicate, it’s a little different. American Sign Language and spoken English are different languages. A translator is needed for better communication, especially over the phone.

“If it’s a hearing person and a deaf person, clearly the hearing person doesn’t know how to sign, so that’s not going to work,” Clark said. “They have what’s called a video relay service.”

When one calls a deaf person with a video phone, the call goes through a translator who is signing to the person through

a live video call. When one dials the number, they will hear, “Please hold while I try that number.”

When a deaf person is trying to call, they are communicating through a translator as well.

When one answers, they will hear, “You have an incoming call from a deaf person.”

“It works just like a phone except we have two different languages,” Clark said. “It’s kind of cool because, if you think about it, we have two different languages going and this person in the middle is making the languages flow back and forth.”

Clark said that people on campus who don’t understand UP photo by Caylin Poulter what the video relay system is or how it works, often get con- Diane Clark, deaf education department chair, signs during a recent video relay service call. fused and hang up. phone systems have broken “Just wait a little bit on the preter then voices to the hear- hard time with that.”

Signing people used to have down so many barriers for deaf line and you’re going to have ing person on the other end. someone talk to you that will That’s why her phone number to use a teletypewriter to com- people,” she said. “It made life municate over the phone, Clark so much more accessible.” help you communicate with is different.

“People get really confused said. They would have to type Clark said it has also opened this deaf person in sign lanbecause it’s not an 880 number what they wanted to communi- up more jobs for deaf people. guage,” she said.

“Now a deaf person can take The deaf education depart- so they don’t call her. Because cate to the other person.

“We got video phones and an administrative assistant job, ment representative is Ethel it’s a video phone and it’s going Bulgherini, who is deaf and to a relay service, it has a dif- deaf people were really excited whereas before people would because now we can see each say, ‘I can’t hire her. She can’t uses the video relay service to ferent number.”

When talking to Bulgherini other,” Clark said. “They could answer the phone.’” Clark said. communicate over the phone.

Clark said when someone calls or another deaf person through really communicate in their “Well, she can answer the Bulgherini’s phone, it goes di- the relay system, one does not own language. Video phones phone.” have been around for about 10 Clark said next time you call rectly to an interpreter and her need to talk differently.

“If you were to get one of years.” or receive a call from a deaf phone lights up so that she Clark said video phones and person, be patient and rememknows someone is trying to call those (calls), for example, if you called Ethel, you talk as if the video relay service have ber that you are simply comher.

“The interpreter is there and you’re talking to Ethel, not to changed the lives of deaf peo- municating with someone who communicates in a different signs to Ethel, and Ethel signs the interpreter,” Clark said. ple.

“Video relay and video language than you do. back,” Clark said. “The inter- “Some people have a really

LUPD’s Samford has tips for campus safety Monica Strohschein UP contributor Lamar University, with its more than 14,000 enrollment, is like a small town. And like all towns, there is the potential for crime.

However, officers like Cpl. Jarrod Samford work to keep students, faculty and staff safe.

“There are at least four to eight police officers and two Community Service Officers walking around at any given time on campus,” Samford said. “If you look at cities, like the city of Beaumont, this entire South Park region usually has two to three officers working. This is a relatively small campus and we have twice that of what a city does at any given time.”

Samford said there are more than 30 uniformed police officers that work at Lamar, along with security guards who work at the dorms.

The police officers and CSOs are different from one another.

“The police officers have guns that they carry on campus and the CSOs carry pepper spray along with handcuffs,” Samford said.

The police officers are always on campus.

“We are 24/7, 365 days of the year,” Samford said.

Police officers have to deal with a variety of sit-

uations, Samford said.

“The funniest thing to me is when the preachers come,” he said, referring to the evangelical visitors who shout at students.

“This is an open and public campus. Anyone can come here as long as they have legitimate business here and say what they want due to freedom of speech.

“The guys that are there talking have cameras on them, and they are trying to agitate someone to the point where they can sue everyone involved. Them having the crowd is what is fueling it, so I try to tell everyone to not give them that attention.”

The campus police do not just patrol on campus.

“We have an initiative with the City of Beaumont where we go out into the neighborhoods and clean up out there, because that is where our profits come in,” Samford said.

Samford said he wants the police to be seen as a positive influence in the community.

“We try not to be the intimidating cop,” he said. “Hopefully, we are more approachable and helpful. A lot of people don’t want to come to us because of whatever experience they have had, or whatever the media has fed them to make them think that all cops are demons — we’re not.

That’s what makes us good campus officers.”

Students can call 4911 for any safety issues on campus, Samford said.

“If you’re a danger to yourself or others, that is when we will step in,” he said. “Our officers are pretty good at using discretion, and if you have come to the police because of your problem, we are going to help you.

We aren’t just in the business to take everybody to jail.

“That’s what we can’t make everyone understand — we aren’t trying to get a certain amount of arrests. We are here for the safety of the students.”

Samford said the officers are discreet, but there are certain rules that need to be followed.

“If I had a call from a student where they said, ‘I need help because I’m intoxicated and I need to get back to my dorm room,’ if (that student had) someone with them, I’d rather just send you to your room — but you’re probably going to go talk to student affairs the next day.

“Are you going to get into major trouble for that? No. You’re just going to get a talking to.

We were college students once, too. We understand, but there is a line.”

Samford said that when police officers get noise complaints they

UP photo by Josh Aych

Lamar University Police Department’s Cpl. Jarrod Samford is one of 30 officers who patrol the campus.

try to respond in a reasonable manner.

“Every party that I have showed up to, it’s been, ‘OK guys, look, y’all need to turn the music down and if I have to come back here it’s going to be totally different.’ I’m all about giving warnings,” he said.

Samford said that in the past, there was a

clear difference between day time safety and night time safety. He said that the lights in the Quad used to be “glowy” and that made the campus look creepy.

“Now we have the new LED lighting making them brighter,” he said.

“I feel it is safe walking on campus, but off campus it is still the South

end of Beaumont. Rough people come here looking to prey on college students that are not paying attention.”

Samford has simple advice for staying safe.

“If you’re walking late at night, stay in a group of people,” he said.

For more information, email jarrod.sam ford@lamar.edu.

UNIVERSITY PRESS • Thursday, April 28, 2016

Page 7

Passion for research leads to innovation Brandianne Hinton UP staff writer Manisha Patel loves research. And that passion has translated into developing a portable water filter that she hopes will help countries with severe water contamination.

“I chose to focus on water because when I was reading and learning about it, it kept coming up over and over again about water being the rarest resource in the world,” she said. “So, I knew I wanted to stay somewhere in there.”

Patel designed a portable water filter called ‘Clear Blue’ to help with the global water crisis.

“I wanted to make it portable, because for the majority of developing communities worldwide, their main water source is a river or lake that requires travel to and from, sometimes long distances,” she said.

“Whether you’re hiking up north or you’re in a developing nation, if your only water source is a well, a river or a lake, you need something handy that’s lightweight that you can take around with you at all times, that also filters out most bacteria, metals, dirt and other contaminants. So, that’s where that idea came from.”

Patel said she wanted to create something that not only is portable and effective, but that can be made cheaply and easily, and, ultimately, distributed to communities worldwide.

Currently, Patel’s portable water filter design is in prototype. It’s a nine-inch cylinder with a mouthpiece on one end and a water retrieval vent on the other end with the filter in the middle.

“For the inner filter, there are two stages,” she said. “One is the bio-sand filter, which is more of a simple, traditional filter made of finite-sized gravel and sand, and that gets rid of 99 percent of bacteria, parasites and dirt. The second part of the filter is called activated alumina. Those are basically white, solid circles that get rid of all arsenic metals.”

Her choice for using acti-

vated alumina in the second stage, she said, was based on her research that revealed arsenic as the most common metal in drinking water.

“The biggest places those metals are found in water are in China and India,” she said.

Patel said the hardest part of making the filter was making the exterior.

“I had the materials (for the inner filters) — the activated alumina, the sand and the gravel — but the question then became, ‘How am I going to make a shell for it all, something to hold it?’” she said.

Patel opted for 3D printing the outer shell of the filter.

“3D printing is up and coming. Lots of companies are starting to use it for everything from medical to environmental uses,” she said. “The entire exterior of this filter is composed of 3D printing material, which is made by PVP plastic. So, it’s not only lightweight, portable and durable, but it keeps its shape in most climates.”

Patel said that going into production would be the ultimate goal, but it could take six months to a year, maybe longer, to do all of the field testing.

“Our first step was just to make the filter,” she said. “The thing that we have left is a lot of field testing. It’s an extension of the research. We’ve got to make sure this thing works, and the only sample of water that I’ve picked up so far was in a stream in Katy.”

This week Patel will put her first sample through a machine, which will allow her to see the contaminants.

“Now, it’s getting contaminated water, maybe even water that has actual arsenic and metals in it, and making sure that the filter works,” she said.

Patel said that eventually she hopes to get her filter patented, and into the hands of people who need it.

“Ideally, we would want to do mass production,” she said. “I don’t know how much funding I could get to basically give these out to people, but maybe some charity would be able to do that.

UP photo by Brandianne Hinton

Manisha Patel, Katy junior, demonstrates the water filter she has developed in the lab in the Engineering Building.

But, that’s the future goal, which I haven’t spent too much time thinking about because we still have a lot of barriers to cross first. Until then, I’ll be putting in a lot of time and effort, and getting expertise from professors.”

Patel has presented her research at three conferences this month, including the Clinton Global Initiative University conference at UC Berkeley, the National Conference for Undergraduate Research at University of North Carolina and the Lamar Expo.

“The entire month of April was crazy-busy,” she said. “The first weekend was the CGI conference. My presentation at CGI was a booth, so it wasn’t as nerve-racking because I actually had things to share with them. I brought brochures, fliers and a video that I made to educate the students.”

Patel answered questions about her research and made connections with fellow undergraduates who shared her interest in environmental innovations.

At NCUR, Patel said she got

positive feedback and challenging questions when she did her PowerPoint presentation of her research.

“This was actually my first oral presentation where I had to go up and present exactly what I’m doing,” she said. “I was very nervous. The thing I was most surprised by was there were several chemistry professors that attended that specific event. It was nerve-racking because I wasn’t sure what they were going to think of my ideas because they come with expertise far beyond my reach.”

Patel said her experience at the Lamar Expo was her favorite presentation because it was on her home campus, and she presented to her own professors and fellow Cardinals.

“It went really well,” she said.

“I love this university and I’m so thankful for coming here.

Everything that’s come to be with this school and my experience here is wonderful.”

Patel said, as well as the support she has received from her mentor, Evan Wujcik, the College of Engineering and the Of-

fice of Undergraduate Research, she is grateful for all of the positive feedback she has received.

She said it has helped her see and solve possible problems with her design.

“I have a mental list of everything that can go wrong with this filter,” she said. “But, the feedback I’ve gotten at the conferences is invaluable. I think that’s one of the great things about conferences, because at the end of the day it’s all about sharing your idea and getting a response, and that’s an opportunity I was very grateful to have.”

Patel is slated for graduation next year and hopes to continue her research in graduate school.

“I feel like undergraduate research is such a big part of my life at Lamar now,” she said. “I have made a lot of friends who have the same research interests as me and I’ve collaborated with lots of classmates. There are other aspects of Lamar I am involved with, but research on its own — especially the last year — has been a big part of my experience and life at Lamar, and I really like that.”

Witte Museum entertains, educates REVIEW Sarah Sanders UP contributor In the heart of San Antonio, on the banks of the river, lies the Witte Museum, dedicated to educating the public about history and natural science. Living in San Antonio as a child, I was excited to revisit a place where I spent countless weekends. Returning as an adult, the Witte did not disappoint.

The museum featured three main sections— the HEB Body Adventure, the South Texas Heritage Center and their current special exhibit, “Splendor

on the Range: American Indians and the Horse.”

The HEB Body Adventure is designed to educate visitors about health. One enters at ground level, but the setting feels almost like a treehouse.

There are stations set up to take blood pressure and stationary bicycles, and even an area called “Pull Your Own Weight,” where one sits in a special chair attached to ropes and pulls one’s self up to the top of the structure.

The basement has a teaching kitchen, and a cute little toddler play area filled with giant fruits and veggies.

UP photo by Sarah Sanders

The Native American dress, above, shows bullet holes and tears. The caption next to the exhibit states that the dress was taken from a Lakota woman killed at Wounded Knee.

Going back up past the ground floor and to the second, elliptical machines allow participants to see how long it takes to burn off a soda. Apparently, one has to work out for an hour for one soda — it is a sobering thought. Another area has Velcro vests with organs hanging from strings. I wore one as my companion attempted to reattach all my organs.

My favorite part of the HEB Body Adventure is a relaxation game where two people strap sensors to their heads and a ball in the middle rolls away from the more relaxed person. The goal of the game is to relax enough that the ball goes all the way to your partner. I won twice — surprisingly.

The top floor has a neat little greenhouse and an area that extends over the river with a grated floor so one can see everything below. I have been terrified of this area since I was a child. Avoid this area if you are scared of heights.

The South Texas Heritage Center has two floors of interactive exhibits teaching visitors about Texas history from roughly the time of colonization, a few hundred years ago. Unfortunately, the museum is undergoing renovation so many of the artifacts are in storage.

The most enjoyable part is a dim seating area where one listens to short narratives of several Texas heroes. The display is fascinating because when discussing a person, a case containing an artifact belonging to them is lit up. The neatest artifact is a fiddle belonging to a Tennessee Statesman turned Texas Revolutionary War hero, Davy Crockett, who died at the Alamo.

When entering the “Splendor

UP photo by Sarah Sanders

A pair of Native American baby’s moccasins from the 19th century, part of the Witte Museum’s “Splendor on the Range” exhibit.

on the Range” exhibit, there are two paths to choose from. The first is an interactive area with a recreated Native American campground, complete with historically accurate musical instruments and a teepee for the kids to explore. The other has a life-sized display of a Spanish Conquistador in his armor, mounted on a horse as if leading his men into battle. The contrast underscored the darker theme of what seems, on the surface, to be merely a fun educational experience.

Displays of beautifully beaded shoes and necklaces followed the teepee area, including purses adorned with beaded depictions of American flags.

In the next area, somber ritual dance music plays and the lighting is dimmer. The display is simple. On one side, a tattered dress is a laid out. On the other, a pair of men’s leggings, and between them, a tiny pair of baby shoes. At first glance one admires the craftsmanship of the clothing, and how cute the shoes are.

It was then that one notices the plaque next to the dress. It reads, “Ghost Dance Dress,

1890. Taken from a Lakota woman killed at Wounded Knee, this dress is being exhibited as a reminder of the tragedy that occurred that cold winter day in 1890.”

Similar plaques were beside the leggings and the shoes.

Looking closer, one sees faded blood stains and bullet holes in the dress. The tatters, which moments ago seemed like the simple product of age, were now clearly the result of a knife or bayonet. The tiny baby shoes are a moving reminder of a harsher moment in American past.

The purpose of history museums like the Witte isn’t just to give visitors an exciting afternoon gawking at relics of a world gone by — it is to help us understand the world that we still live in.

The Witte Museum is located at 3801 Broadway in San Antonio.

“Splendor on the Range” runs through Aug. 21.

General Admission is $10 for nonmembers, and free on Tuesday afternoons.

“Splendor on the Range” is an additional $5.

Page 8

Thursday, April 28, 2016 • UNIVERSITY PRESS

Odyssey gives writing forum to millennials Elisabeth Tatum UP contributor Lamar Odyssey gives students the ability to share their personal feelings, and in doing so, they find out they’re not alone The Odyssey is a social content platform operated by parent company Olympia Media Group and is written and produced by students at universities across the US. The Olympia Media Group publishes social news, entertainment, and opinion all written and read by millennials.

The Odyssey was founded in 2009 at Indiana University, and it was originally a newspa-

per. It expanded in 2013 on to 30 college campuses in the U.S. Each campus covers its own campus news updates and lifestyle and entertainment.

Now, there is a Lamar University branch on the site.

Ashley Carlucci, New York junior, became active with the Odyssey when she applied to be a writer on their website.

“I had been reading different articles from The Odyssey since I began college,” she said. “I always loved how they were written by students, for students.

There was always something I could relate to or laugh at.

“I wanted Lamar students to have this opportunity as well. I originally just wanted to write

for the site. I had no idea about all the requirements to do so.”

After some investigating, Carlucci got in touch with the managing editor from the headquarters in NYC. “She emailed me and told me she wanted to interview me,” she said.

After a phone interview, Carlucci received an email a few days later saying she was hired as a writer.

“She then told me that the only problem was that we did not have an Odyssey branch at Lamar, and we would have to start one,” she said. “I was interviewed for the editor-inchief position and a few days later received the email saying

I was hired.”

Carlucci was told that if she recruited 11 writers in a week, the Lamar branch would be able to launch. She got 12.

“The site produces about 5,000 articles per week, and has around 350 communities involved,” she said. “I was worried at first if Lamar would be able to meet the needs of the site, but we’ve actually had more articles produced each week than some major schools across the country, even more than NYU. “I really hope to grow our staff and have all different types of students writing for us, I want the Lamar branch to grow and succeed even after

I’m gone.”

Odyssey has branches in schools around the country.

Since the LU branch was formed, more than 50 articles have been published on the site.

“It gives students a chance to talk about what they truly care about, and it reflects highly on the school since the Odyssey is nationwide on college campuses,” she said, smiling.

“I love being able to help students voices be heard, even if it’s just a “share” on Facebook, The Odyssey was made for millennials by millennials and that’s pretty awesome to me,” Carlucci said.

To apply for the LU Branch, visit www.theodyssey.com.

Deweyville floods impact young married couple Faith Roland UP contributor The Flooding in Deweyville has ravaged the area. When the Toledo Bend Dam was opened, the waters showed no mercy – homes and cars were flooded.

Lamar State College-Orange nursing student, Naomi Williams became a victim of this sudden disaster when her home was flooded with 4.5 feet of water.

“It was our first home as a married couple,” Williams said.

“He bought the house for me as a wedding present, which I had no idea at the time — so it was a special surprise for me.”

Williams was married only nine months ago. She was born and raised in Beaumont, but she and her husband, Zane, consider Deweyville their home.

When the flood waters started pouring in, the couple did what they could to save their belongings. When the warning came, Williams and her husband began loading their car with their most valuable items, but the police soon arrived and told them they had to leave that instant. Their

Courtesy photo

Water reached 4.5 feet in Naomi and Zane Williams’ Deweyville house during the recent floods. packing had to cease.

“At first, reality wouldn’t set in that we were losing our home, but once I saw the pictures of our home underwater it was a devastating feeling,” she said. “I had a couple of cry sessions, but then began finding humor in our situation, kept positive thoughts, and reminded myself that we were still blessed and it could be worse.”

The couple said they were

lucky during the floods. A lot of people in Deweyville had no flood insurance, since they don’t live in flood zones.

Williams’ house was insured, and that will handle most of the rebuilding costs, but some things can never be replaced. Williams and her husband have received plenty of help from their friends, family and community.

Williams said that fellow students have helped her with class

notes when she couldn’t get back and forth. And she and Zane have had a home to stay in for free while their home is unlivable.

Her grandfather let them stay in a house he owns in Lumberton.

She said the situation has restored her faith in humanity.

“I could write a book on the kindness we have received from, not just our families, but also neighbors, old friends and random strangers,” she said.

“This kind of devastation brought out so many good people who care about us. We are very blessed with the great help that’s given to us — it’s truly amazing.

I’ve also realized there are so many wonderful humans in the world.”

Williams said that there is still work to do. She said her body aches from all the lifting she did saving her belongings, and she’s not sleeping well. The couple are living in an RV in their yard until the renovations on their home are done.

“I’ll get a new house out of the deal anyways,” she said. “I already started a Pinterest board for how I want it to look.”

Williams has hope for her community, and said that she and Zane will continue to live in Deweyville. She said she won’t let the situation “rain on her parade,” and she’s excited for what the future holds.

“I just want to say that you probably never appreciate your home, or little space you may live in until something like this happens; then you realize how much you can take this simple thing for granted in life,” she said.

“There is always hope in the situation and we are going to make it, although it hasn’t been ideal to get flooded out our first year of marriage. I believe this experience is just a bump in the road and together we can stick through anything life may bring us.”

The Williamses may have had flood insurance, but many people in the Deweyville area were not so lucky. The Red Cross is seeking donations to help families rebuild.

For more information, contact the Southeast Texas branch of the American Red Cross at 7291717.

Fall 2016 Advertising Deadline September 3 Ask about our semester ad bundles for special booster sections, Homecoming, UPbeat magazine & web Contact Stephan Malick advertising@lamaruniversitypress.com

9

SPORTS

UNIVERSITY PRESS April 28, 2016

Bringing hardware to nest

Members of the men’s tennis team celebrate after defeating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for the Southland Conference tournament in Nacogdoches, Sunday.

LU media relations

Men’s tennis wins Southland Conference tourney Kiara Desamours UP contributor For the first time in school history, the Lamar University men’s tennis team has won the Southland Conference championship. The Cardinals beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 4-1 in Sunday’s final at the Schlief Tennis Complex. The Cardinals finished the season 17-5 overall, 5-0 SLC, and will now compete in the NCAA tournament.

“It’s almost hard to put into words what I’m feeling right now,” head coach Scott Shankles said. “The guys have worked so hard this year, and to see their hard work pay off is such a great feeling.

I’m just so happy for them and our fans.”

Corpus Christi took a 1-0 lead when Kevin Bettendroffer and Arthur Bedel defeated LU’s

Benny Schweizer and Michael Feucht in doubles.

“You have to take your hats off to A&MCorpus Christi,” Shankles said. “They played lights out in doubles and really brought the energy today. I was very impressed with how they played.

We didn’t have any answers.

I don’t think there is anything we could have done differently. They were just playing that well, but we took the break to settle down and get focused on singles.”

The Cardinals came out with a vengeance for the singles matches and took the first set in four out of six matches. However, LU freshman Sebastian Santibanez lost the opening set to Guillaume Rauseo, 7-6 (7-

5), before coming back and taking the point with a 6-4 thirdset win.

When junior Juuso Laitinen won his singles 2-1, the Cardinals only needed one more match to seal the deal and make their way to the NCAA tournament.

Junior Jeandre Hoogenboezem won the first set against Corpus Christi’s Paul Cook giving the Cardinals the advantage. Cook came back in the second set to take it 6-7, but Hoogenboezem finished the match with a 6-3 third-set win to guarantee the Cardinals the title.

“We knew we could control their energy if we got out to good starts in singles,” Shankles said. “That’s all it takes, and we were able to do that. Slowly, we were able to take over the momentum. We sustained that momentum until the end.”

The NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championship selection show will be streamed on NCAA.com, Tuesday, starting at 4:30 p.m.

LU media relations

Michael Feucht forehands the ball during a match against HBU, Sunday, in Nacogdoches.

Cardinal baseball sweeps HBU in 3-game series Jacob Deese UP contributor Lamar University’s baseball team went against Houston Baptist University this past weekend for a Southland Conference matchup. The Cards swept the Huskies in three games.

“We’ve got really physical kids, everyone was great this game,” head coach Jim Gilligan said.

The pitching by the Cardinals allowed the team to be in a good position, coming out of the series with a victory and

poised to move forward.

The two games played on Saturday began with an 8-0 win for Lamar, making it a second complete shutout for senior pitcher, Billy Love.

Holding the Huskies to only two hits in one game is spectacular, Gilligan said.

“What I liked most about his outing is that I feel like I’ve pinpointed mechanically what he does well in good games, and poor in bad ones,” Gilligan said. “This is a very important weekend in that respect. We sure needed that from him today."

LU media relations

Billy Love pitches to a Southeast Missouri batter during LU’s 5-2 victory, Feb. 21.

“Johnson kept the guys at bay, preventing the Huskies from scoring,” Gilligan said. “A guy that was on the bench, Trey Silvers. also did a good job.”

Gilligan noted the quality of his defense, giving praise to juniors Jimmy Johnson, from Palestine, and Trey Silvers from Manvel.

The second game on Saturday proved to be a little more challenging — the Cardinals and Huskies keeping the score neck, and neck throughout.

Reid started the Cardinals off with a three-run homerun to left center field, giving LU an early 3-0 lead.

HBU responded with four runs in the bottom of the first.

They then took the lead in the second, making it 6-5.

The Cards tied it up in the sixth when Stijn van der Meer hit an RBI single to center field. Lamar was able to close the game with their last home run of the evening in the seventh by Jacoby Middleton. For good measure, the Cardinals

LU media relations

An LU baserunner slides into third during Lamar’s 8-0 victory in Houston, Saturday. upped their score in the ninth with an RBI double by Trey Silvers, making the final score 86.

Jayson McKinley started the contest and gave up four runs through just two thirds of an inning, and Travis Moore worked 1.1 frames and allowed the other two runs. Johnson took over in the third inning and shut down the Husky offense, pitching seven scoreless

innings.

“Jimmy just mowed right through them for seven innings,” Gilligan said. “He was just spectacular. He kept the ball low and was able to elevate it when he needed to.”

The Cards will return to action Friday, in the first of a three games series against the University of Incarnate Word, in San Antonio. Opening pitch is at 6:30 p.m.

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Thursday, April 28, 2016 • UNIVERSITY PRESS

Group promotes health Gaming alleviates stress Kara Timberlake UP managing editor Lamar University’s Minority Health Medical Student Association hosted “The 5K Walk to End Lupus Now” in support of the Texas Gulf Coast Chapter of The Lupus Foundation of America, April 23.

“After we volunteered at least year’s walk, Rey Cantu, the director of community outreach and communications for the Texas Gulf Coast Chapter, asked me if my organization wanted to sponsor it,” Lowell Washington, vice president of Lamar University’s Minority Health Medical Student Association, said. “So we decided to do it and it turned out really well.

We ended up raising almost $6,000.”

Washington, Houston senior, said the event was designed to promote awareness of the disease.

“Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease and it can damage any part of the body,” he said. “With lupus, the immune system cannot tell the difference between foreign invaders such as

DANCE

viruses and the body’s healthy tissues, so it creates autoantibodies that can attack and destroy healthy tissue, which can also cause inflammation, pain and damage in various parts of the body.

“More than 1.5 million Americans are diagnosed with lupus, and the effects on individuals with lupus can be life-threatening. Unfortunately, lupus has no known cause and it cannot be cured, which is frustrating.”

Washington said the event was not only aimed toward bringing awareness of the disease, but also to bring the community together.

“People can feel more involved and feel like they are part of something,” he said.

“It’s a starting point. When you become part of this, you want to do more and more and more. It takes a community to make things happen.”

The event had a significant turnout, Washington said.

“It was packed for sure,” he said. “We gave out bananas, greeted everyone and their families, gave them Tshirts and took pictures. I led the walk across campus and

we socialized with the people.

It was a lot of fun.”

The Minority Health Medical Student Association hosts a different walk each year, Washington said.

“Two years ago we did the AIDS walk and last year we did a breast cancer awareness walk,” he said. “We also promote different kinds of health strategies through seminars and events in the Setzer Student Center.

“Recently, we had a social event where we teamed up with the Omega Psi Phi fraternity to talk about sexual health awareness and STDs. Nowadays, you don’t know who has an STD no matter how good they look. So we encouraged them to be careful and to practice safe sex.”

Washington said the organization seeks to advocate health awareness.

“We are based on community service, and we try to reach out to everyone in the community and tell them ways that they can be healthier,” he said. “We want for everyone to realize that to have a happy lifestyle you have to keep up with your health.”

Sir Phillip Potier-Jones UP contributor With the school year coming to a close, students face mounting workloads and the stress that comes with finals and grades. A pair of clubs at Lamar offers stress release through gaming.

The Southeast Texas Fighting Game Community meets Fridays at 5 p.m. in 128 Galloway Business Building.

“The game we’re holding tournaments for right now is ‘Street Fighter 5,’” Roberto Obregon, SETX FGC vice president, said. “The Club meets at five, but the tournaments start at seven.”

Club members aren’t restricted to “Street Fighter 5.” The club also plays “Super Smash Bros Melee,” “Project M” and “Smash 4.”

“If you want to play a game different from the one we’re focusing on, we have a designated area where you can bring your own TV, game console and hold your own tournament,” Obregon said, “Really any fighting game is welcomed.”

Shane Granger, Port Arthur junior, has been attending meetings for about a year. He brings his own game to play.

“Before I started bringing ‘Smash 4’ to play, no one really did or at least it wasn’t very popular there,” he said.

“Going to the meetings and participating in tournaments really helps with forgetting about problems with school

and just focusing on having some fun for a bit.”

A pizza buffet is available for $6 during meetings.

The Cardinal Pokémon League meets in the Setzer Student Center on Fridays at 2 p.m.

“We come together and mostly play Pokémon, but you can play other things,” Joshua Macfoy, Pokémon club president, said.

The CPL holds practice battles and teaches battle strategies.

“Joining the Pokémon League was a great way to make friends and exercise my battling strategy,” Cade Smith, Dallas freshman, said.

Smith has been a member since the fall.

To join either club, they encourage interested students to just show up and play.

SETX FGC has been meeting for two years and the Pokémon Club has been a part of Lamar for three years.

Obregon said SETX FGC will attend the “Texas Showdown” in El Paso this weekend.

“It’s the biggest Texas fighting game conference of the year, a lot of top fighting game players will be there,” he said.

SETX FGC president Tyler Haynes and Obregon will be participating in Street Fighter 5 tournaments and representing Lamar.

For more information, both clubs may be found on Facebook.

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the Tainan University of Technology in Taiwan.

Tickets are $7 for Lamar students, $10 for students, senior citizens and faculty, and $15 for general admission.

Lou Arrington and Travis Prokop collaborated on a piece called “Ice Cream Social.” “(The piece) deals with the way women are viewed in the society and how they have to deal with being a woman,” Arrington, instructor of dance, said. “I did a duet called ‘Primordium.’ It’s talking about early life, abstractly built on the concept of early life forms, growing and morphing — combining to maybe be a totally different form.”

Katelyn Kirk, Beaumont sophomore, said she couldn’t pick a favorite dance because each dance hits on something different. “(Prokop’s) vision for it was really strong women, which they touch on in ‘Ice Cream Social’ — how women are sexualized,” she said. “So in ‘Inertia’ we have the fan, the wind is blowing and we’re drawn to it. It’s very natural.”

Kirk said Golden Wright’s choreography was personal and emotional.

“He shared a little bit of that story with us — with problems, with him and his wife, and various doctors’ appointments,” she said. “There’s certain gestures within the choreography, like in

the beginning when we cover each other’s eyes — don’t look, we don’t want to see the results. We cover the stomach like she’s sick and he’s comforting her, and the ears because she didn’t want to hear what the doctor was saying.”

“Magic” is the concert finale and is choreographed by Brixey Blankenship-Cozad.

“It’s very powerful,” Kirk said.

“It originally was created to fit into her show and it’s about a perfect world. They went around and interviewed people — if you could have anything in the whole world to make it perfect, what would it be? Someone said magic.”

Arrington said that viewers will see different interpretations

from different choreographers.

“I really think that there’s a lot of quality choreography,” she said. “The Taiwanese are bringing two numbers of their own, so the (viewers) are going to get a taste of a different country movement.

It will be really helpful to the dance appreciation students after hearing and learning about these different forms to actually see them performed on the stage live.

It’s going to be entertaining.

Some numbers will be thoughtprovoking and some will be just fun. There will be plenty to keep people interested.”

Arrington said that the show features a large amount of freshmen who have been stretched to

new limits.

“I think there’s just a lot of growth, not only in learning technical skills, but also I know we’re trying to pull artistry out of them, too,” she said.

Arrington said it’s important for dancers to master technique and holding their body correctly, but it’s also about getting to another level.

“You do look stronger when your technique is stronger, but I definitely feel like everyone is trying to pull more emotion out of the performance,” she said. “To me that’s that next level of artistry, of professionalism.”

For more information, call 880-2250.