Entertainment
Wednesday, April 17, 2019 twulasso.com
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Campus | Pioneer Palooza
TWU celebrates 118 years By KRISTA SIMPSON
Caitlyn Laky / The Lasso
National News | Admissions Scandal
118 years later, and the Pioneers are still celebrating their school pride. Friday, April 5, Texas Woman’s University threw a Pioneer Palooza on the Denton campus for its 118 birthday. The party took place from 5 to 9 p.m., and it generated a large turnout from the community and the student population. The event featured live music from several artists to keep the crowd entertained. The artists that performed during the Palooza were DJ Boogie, DJ Dupree, Troy Garrick, Kade Trentham and Sawyer. While Palooza-attendees enjoyed the music, there were several activities for them to participate in. Attendees were given the chance to spray paint their mark on a car, have a photoshoot with props available to them or play a game of pick-up volleyball with their friends.
There were also many performances put on by TWU students and members of the community, including a hip-hop dance performance and a “dragon dance” performance. Oakley was at the Palooza as well and walked around greeting anyone who attended. A highlight of the party, however, were the pounds and pounds of crawfish available for students and community members. The crawfish feast was free for TWU students, and open to the community for a price of $11.25. Served alongside the crawfish was gumbo, New Orleans red beans, dirty rice and hush puppies to make it a true Cajun-style picnic. The meal was all-you-caneat, so event-attendees were allowed to go back for as many servings as they pleased. While Pioneer Palooza was put on to bring TWU students and community members together for a
fun time, it was also created as a celebration of TWU and its many years of history. After all, Pioneer Palooza was a birthday party for TWU. TWU was born in 1901, which is when it was known as the Girls Industrial College. The university didn’t become Texas Woman’s University until 1957. According to the TWU website, the school’s mission then and now is “to provide a liberal education and to prepare young women for the ‘practical industries of the age’ with a specialized education.” When TWU first started out, the entirety of the campus was located in the Old Main Building, which still stands on campus. OMB was first constructed in 1903, and it contained classrooms, the cafeteria, professors’ offices and everything else that made up the university. Everything else around OMB was farmland.
Caitlyn Laky / The Lasso
TWU has most certainly grown since then, but not just in the number of buildings the university has. The first graduating class graduated in 1904, and it was a class size of one- Beulah Kincaid. Kincaid graduated with a degree in home-making, which TWU no longer offers. However, it’s degree programs have significantly multiplied in size. Another prominent event to occur in the history of TWU is the acceptance of men into the university. As the school name implies, TWU originally was a college strictly for women. Then, in 1972, TWU opened its doors to men as well. TWU has undergone a lot of change since its birth in 1901, and it is still continuing to grow. Pioneer Palooza celebrates the existence of TWU and the students that it educates
Caitlyn Laky / The Lasso
Admissions scandal costs $25 million in fraud By LACEY CUTBURTH
Fifty people, including Full House actress Lori Loughlin and Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman, were indicted March 12 for a widespread college admissions bribery scandal. Those involved include parents of applicants, ACT and SAT administrators, a test proctor and coaches at universities including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, the University of Southern California, the University of California Los Angeles and the University of Texas at Austin. Prosecutors have claimed that parents of students paid off college test preps to help students cheat by having standins during the test or having proctors correct the missed questions. College coaches were also allegedly bribed to label applicants as athletic recruits. Admissions consultant William Singer was paid by parents a total of $25 million between the year 2011 and February 2019. Boston U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling confirmed at a press conference that Singer used that money to bribe test administrators and college coaches. The 33 parents that were charged are “of wealth and privilege,” Lelling said. Singer claims that Huffman had arranged for her daughter to have a certified learning disability, which granted her extra time in the test room. Once the test was finished, Singer arranged for a specific person to correct Huffman’s daughter’s answers, leaving her with a score of 1420. Loughlin paid $500,000 for her two daughters to be designated as recruits to the USC crew team, even though neither of them participated in the crew. “Singer worked with the parents to fabricate impressive athletic profiles for their kids,” said Lelling. It was stated in the press release that some in some cases, students’ faces were actually photoshopped onto the bodies of athletes. The universities involved have sent out statements to the community about the scheme. “As the indictment makes clear, the Department of Justice believes that Yale has been the victim of a crime perpetrated by its own former women’s soccer coach,” Yale said. “The university has cooperated fully in the investigation and will continue to cooperate as the case moves forward.”
USC sent an email stating that the university had fallen victim to the scheme by a long-term Athletic Department employee, one current coach and three former coaching staff. “We will be implementing significant process and training enhancements to prevent anything like this from ever happening,” USC said in an email to the campuses community. “USC has not been accused of any wrongdoing and will continue to cooperate fully with the government’s investigation.” Stanford made a statement about the scheme claiming that they have been cooperating with the investigation and have taken measures into fixing the problems.
Head sailing coach John Vandemoer has been terminated for accepting payment to recommend two students to admissions. The former tennis coach at Georgetown , Gordon Ernst, was placed on leave in December 2017 after having irregularities in recruitment practices. The university had found that Ernst had violated the admissions policy before he separated from the university in 2018. At the time, Georgetown was not aware of how deep Ernst was in the scheme. They have since been cooperative with the investigation. “Today’s arrests resulting from an investigation conducted by the U.S. At-
torney’s Office in Massachusetts send a clear message that those who facilitate cheating on the SAT- regardless of their income of status - will be held accountable,” The College Board said in their statement. “The College Board has a comprehensive, robust approach to combat cheating, and we work closely with law enforcement as part of those efforts. We will always take all the necessary steps to ensure a level playing field for the overwhelming majority of test takers who are honest and play by the rules.”
To whom it may concern
accepted on someone else’s merits
Expensive University
Anissa Clark / The Lasso
