INSIDE
Basketball continues to soar
How to deal with finals stress
PAGE 2
Perot Museum opens
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The so-called war on Christmas
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MONDAY
DECEMBER 3, 2012 MONDAY High 79, Low 61 TUESDAY High 77, Low 50
VOLUME 98 ISSUE 45 FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
Holiday highlights at smu Aca-awesome Christmas Concert by SMU Belle Tones 7:30 p.m., December 4 Female a cappella choir, the SMU Belle Tones, will present its Christmas concert in the atrium of the Owen Arts Center, 6101 Bishop Blvd., Free and open to the public. Christmas in France: A Celebration of the Holidays, French-Style 7 p.m., December 5 Join Elizabeth New Seitz of French Affaires for a visual tour of the sights, sounds and tastes of Christmas in France. Registration limited, $69, www.smu.edu/cape, 214-768-2273. Advent Christmas Worship 4 p.m., 8 p.m., December 6, Perkins Chapel Perkins School of Theology in collaboration with Meadows School of the Arts presents its annual Christmas worship service featuring music by the Seminary Singers, Meadows Chorale and organist Christopher S. Anderson.
FACULT Y
SIDNEY HOLLINGSWORTH/The Daily Campus
SMU students and members of community gather Sunday evening to partake in Student Foundation’s annual Celebration of Lights in front of Dallas Hall.
Deckin’ the Dallas Halls JULIE FANCHER Staff Writer jfancher@smu.edu SMU officially kicked off the holiday season last night with the 35th annual Celebration of Lights ceremony on Dallas Hall lawn. The Celebration of Lights ceremony was founded in 1977 by the founding SMU Student Foundation President Mike Miller. “Miller had a vision to illuminate the Dallas Hall quad. He raised enough money to purchase 5,000 Christmas lights and a new tradition was born,” Student Foundation Campus Events officer Eric Sabandal said. The ceremony included several performers singing holiday classics such as “Joy to the World,” “Herald the Herald Angels Sing” and “Joy to the World.” All of the performers are SMU students, including the Belle Tones and Southern Gentlemen, SMU’s female and male a capella groups. For many students and alumni,
the Celebration of Lights is an important tradition and one of the campus’ best events. “It’s really a nice way to kick off the holiday season and it’s an event I can bring my family to,” Susan Howe, associate university counsel in legal affairs, said. Freshman Myles Lee from Louisiana was excited to see what the Celebration of Lights was all about. “I heard about it on the tour when I was a senior. They tell you all about how special it is so I thought I’d check it out,” Lee said. The ceremony began with the St. Paul the Apostle Church Children’s choir singing to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Christmas Cannon.” As the children’s choir sang, the crowd began to fill up Dallas Hall’s lawn almost to the flagpole. Sophomore Mindy McClean was with her friends to see the ceremony for the second year in a row. She said the rain and temperatures last year dampened
their experience, but they were excited to see how the ceremony would be in warmer weather. Despite the warm temperatures, hot chocolate was provided to everyone, as well as candles and programs. The programs included lyrics to several of the songs and the audience was encouraged to sing along. In between performances, Student Foundation President John Angle spoke to the audience and Dr. Steven Rankin, University Chaplin, led the university in prayer. The most anticipated speaker of the night was President R. Gerald Turner. As he does every year, he treated the audience to a reading of The Christmas Story. “It starts the beginning of the holiday season for the campus. I love hearing President Turner read the Christmas story,” Evelyn Ashley, assistant dean of Student Life and Director of Student Conduct, said. Thirty-five years after the original Celebration of Lights, the
program has grown tremendously. Not only have the number of lights decorating SMU grown, from 5,000 lights to 138,000 lights, but the size of the child sponsorship program has as well. Student Foundation and the Cesar Chavez Learning Center have worked together for the past 35 years to sponsor 75 local children. SMU students and organizations sponsor each child during the Celebration of Lights, and brings them a gift in addition to the songs and celebration. Sabandal said, “We had over 125 people apply to the sponsor children. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of the SMU community.” After months of planning, the time finally came for the lights to go on. After junior Rebecca Roose sang the first verse of “Silent Night,” everyone blew out their candles and the main quad was illuminated, officially kicking off the long-awaited holiday season.
DALL AS
Artist Dale Chihuly leaves his mark at Arboretum KATELYN GOUGH News Editor kgough@smu.edu “A little bit overwhelming.” Little more can be said to describe the impact and energy the Dale Chihuly exhibit has brought to the Dallas Arboretum over the past five months, according to Terry LendeckerNimmo. Lendecker-Nimmo, vice president of advertising and promotion at the Dallas Arboretum said that while Dallas is “[Chihuly’s] 11th garden installation,” he is one of Dallas’ first ventures into working with artists “known worldwide.” “We’re never done an exhibit of this magnitude,”she said. The Dallas Arboretum is one of the most well-recognized botanical gardens in the region. Chihuly first approached the arboretum 10 years ago about doing an exhibit, but the administration didn’t think the gardens were ready. It’s something LendeckerNimmo believes may have been an unrealized opportunity. “Well shoot, I wish we would’ve been,” she said. When Chihuly asked again seven years later, the arboretum immediately jumped on the chance to bring such an exhibit to the Dallas arena.
“It’s brought a whole new audience to the garden,” Lendecker-Nimmo said. “We still find people in Dallas who have never [visited]…now they come and they realize this really is a big deal.” With more than 900,000 visitors thus far in 2012 alone, LendeckerNimmo said that membership has significantly increased. She said that such profit from this allows for future funding of exhibits that will put the money to its best and most beneficial use possible. “We’re very good stewards of folk’s money. We want to make sure it’s really tried and true to bring it into the garden,” Lendecker-Nimmo said. And the high visitor volume brings profits and credit that reaches far beyond the Arboretum alone. “It’s really kudos to the city of Dallas,” Lendecker-Nimmo said. “To be thought of for an exhibit of this magnitude—that says a lot about everything we are doing right.” Chris Cockrell, who works in ticket sales for the gardens, said that the growth in “the general crowd and demographic” has been “astounding.” “The exhibit has impacted visitor traffic tremendously,” Cockrell said. She said that she’s seen an increase in attendance by a variety of interest
Courtesy of Gangway Advertising
The Chihuly exhibit at the Dallas Arboretum through Dec. 31.
groups, especially young people. SMU sophomore Brenna Mason attended the special nighttime exhibit, Chihuly Nights, with visiting relatives and left impressed. “I had been to a Chihuly exhibit before but never of this size,” Mason said. “Surprised by the amount of pieces in the exhibit,” the nighttime event allowed Mason to view the sculptures illuminated in light designs to highlight their angles and shapes. “It greatly exceeded my expectations,” Mason said. But Lendecker-Nimmo was quick to assert that the beauty and delicacy Mason and many other guests enjoy at the Chihuly exhibit does not come
without its challenges. “It takes a lot to sustain something like that,” Lendecker-Nimmo said. She said that much credit is due to the Chihuly team itself, and explained that as seasoned professionals working with Chihuly’s installations, “they know what they’re doing.” “They’ve brought us a lot. They’re a great group of folks.” While the Chihuly exhibit will close at the end of the month, LendeckerNimmo said that the arboretum is already excited at future chances to again bring such a strong and influential experience to Dallas. “Will we do another exhibit of that magnitude?” LendeckerNimmo said. “Definitely.”
Courtesy of Paz Beatty
Professor Louis Jacobs, a paleontologist, works with fossils.
Getting to bare bones with campus paleontologist PAZ BEATTY Contributing Writer rbeatty@smu.edu SMU boasts a staff of professors who are considered experts in their field. One professor in the department of geosciences, however, has drawn the attention of not only his peers, but of students from across the globe. Yuri Kimura, a doctorate candidate in the department, said she came all to SMU from Japan just for the chance to work with SMU earth sciences professor Louis Jacobs. “I have wanted to become a paleontologist since I don’t remember,” Kimura said. “I knew about Dr. Jacobs’ work on mice, dinosaurs and more when I was studying paleo in Japan. The work in his early career inspired my interest in small mammal fossils.” From his work in Africa with the National Museum of Nairobi in Kenya to his studies on the origin of the Murinae, the scientific subfamily that includes rats and mice, Jacobs has written a success story of his own. What his peers recognized him for last month, however, were his contributions to education and helping students put pen to paper on their own success stories. Thomas Adams was a graduate student who worked with Jacobs before receiving a doctorate in 2011. Adams’ research in Platypterygius Huene, 1922 (Ichthyosauria, Ophthalmosauridae) from the late Cretaceous of Texas was circulated in Paleontologia Electronica, a publication of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. “When I was graduate student conducting my own research,” Adams said. “[Dr. Jacobs] understood that the student, me, came first and he was second, which allowed me
the opportunity to make my own contribution to science.” More than the work with students on campus, the Science Teachers Association of Texas presented Jacobs the Skoog Cup Nov. 9 for his contributions to kindergarten through 12th grade science education. Bonnie Jacobs, his wife, who he met at University of Arizona where they were graduate students in the department of geosciences and who also teaches in the department of geosciences, said he deserves the honor. “I am so proud of Louis,” she said. “He has accomplished such a great deal as a scientist, has been a wonderful mentor to his students and has been a wonderful father and husband as well.” Jacobs took the lead in his career while their two children were young and, after that, traded off traveling with his wife so they would both get the chance to work in the field. After years in the field, he said his big project now is to understand how the separation of Africa and South America affected life through geologic time. Jacobs has been impressed by the works of his students. “ I worked with the Fort Worth Museum on the Lone Star Dinosaurs Teacher Institute,” Jacobs said, “which took teachers to the field and dinosaurs to our labs where many SMU students worked the bones out of the rocks allowing them to be studied — and named — by even more SMU students.” One of the student-studied dinosaurs will be on display at the Dec. 1 opening of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, the building just off Interstate 35 with the glass escalator sticking out of slanted, mountain-like walls downtown. The event is open to the public, but if students don’t get the chance to go, Jacobs said he encourages students from across campus to stop by the department of geosciences. “Any SMU student, regardless of major, experience or interests is welcome in my labs.”