WEDNESDAY Jan. 27, 2016 Vol. 100 • No. 1
www.therambler.org
OPINION
Need a job? Get the app Dalise Devos dndevos@txwes.edu
Stereotyping Muslisms is getting out of control It is becoming common to use derogatory words and statements against Islamic people.
NEWS
A job is an app away More and more people are finding jobs through apps such as Uber and Lyft.
CAMPUS
Miles Straiton needed a part-time job with flexible hours, where he could work as needed and not have a set schedule. Straiton, a Fort Worth resident, turned to Lyft, an app-based taxi service, to meet that need. “I can work whenever I want and based on my availability,” Straiton said. “I can turn it on for an hour to make a little money and then turn it off and go to a movie. It’s convenient and easy and I don’t have to worry about dealing with a manager or any other normal work-related hassle.” Straiton also works full time as a crew member at a Trader Joe’s in Fort Worth, but needed the extra income to help cover his car payment and student loan debt. He loves the “easy money,” and he’s not the only one. More and more people are beginning to take advantage of the flexibility and benefits of app-based employment through services like Lyft. According to a study released in May 2015 by Requests for Startups, a business newsletter, an estimated 40 percent of the American work force
will be contractors or freelancers, rather than traditional full-time employees, by the year 2020. And according to a separate survey released in October 2015 by Freelancers Union and the online work marketplace Upwork, the number of freelancers who earn 10 percent or more of their income through socalled “sharing economy” platforms like Lyft has almost doubled within the past year. Uber, another app-based taxi service, is a perfect example. According to Forbes, Uber has grown its active driver base from practically zero in mid-2012 to more than 160,000 at the end of 2014, and the number of new Uber drivers has more than doubled every six months for the last two years. The trend is dubbed the “1099 Economy,” so-named because freelancers typically provide a 1099 Form when filing their personal income taxes, rather than a W-2 form used by workers with traditional full-time jobs. These tax benefits, along with the freedom of the job, are what attracted Nicholas Franda to app-based employment. Franda, a former Texas Wesleyan
New year, new you
mabrueggemann@txwes.edu
Find out the top resolutions of 2016 and common traditions from around the world.
Julian Rodriguez, a sophomore and music education major, was elected last semester as president of the Nu Beta Chapter for Kappa Kappa Psi at Texas Wesleyan University, a national honorary society and fraternity for bands. He is currently KKPsi’s vice president and plays flute in the Texas Wesleyan Music Department, and his goal is to become a vocal music therapist for special needs children with autism and learning disabilities. His interest in music therapy started 10 years ago when he used music as an aid for his little sister, Gabrielle, when she was seven years old. “She had a learning disability and couldn’t focus which made her par-
A&E
The 39 Steps brings laughter to the Thad Smotherman Theatre starting Feb. 11.
SPORTS
Fersing and four others to be honored The 2016 Texas Wesleyan University Athletic Hall of Fame Induction will be Feb. 5.
ONLINE
Wesleyan to remain gun free Texas Wesleyan joins TCU, SMU and others in opting out of S.B. 11.
student and Fort Worth resident, works about 30 hours a week as an Uber driver and enjoys the lack of direct management. “With Uber, you are mostly your own boss, which is nice,” Franda said.
Even though Franda’s weekly income with Uber is slightly less than what he made previously working as a server in a restaurant, he would still recommend app-based employ-
APP JOBS, page 3
Student uses music as therapy Michelle Brueggemann
Theatre Wesleyan kicks off the spring semester
Photo by Dalise Devos John Bartell is an Army veteran who works for an app-based company.
Photo by: Michelle Brueggemann Julian Rodriguez is a flautist.
ents doubt her learning skill,” Rodriguez said. “I was able to know her strengths and weaknesses and helped her develop her learning disability after playing my music.” Rodriguez learned there was a “healing power of music.” “There was a soothing nature to it,” Rodriguez said. “To be honest, I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just singing and playing my flute.” Years later, when he was in high school in Fort Worth, he worked as a party host for six months at a Chuck E. Cheese’s and worked primarily with special needs children by assisting them at their parties. “When I started working with more special needs kids, it just kind of sparked in my head about pursuing it professionally,” Rodriguez said. His desire to do music therapy as a job became stronger at the same
time, when he found out music therapy was a field of study for college. Rodriguez said participated in the all-region band and choir during his junior year of high school, and the all-state band and choir in his senior year before graduating in the spring of 2013. He was a four-time state soloist and got a passing score in the University Interscholastic League Solo and Ensemble contest, where he sang for judicators and was then able to advance to the state contest held at the University of Texas at Austin. In his senior year, Rodriguez received an award from UIL for Most Outstanding Vocalist and received one of the highest scores of the day in the competition, he said. In between his senior year in high school and freshman year at Texas
JULIAN, page 3
Wesleyan to add two new sports? Ricardo Cortez rcortez@txwes.edu
Texas Wesleyan adding football and lacrosse would both enhance student life and increase university revenue by the first year of intercollegiate play, according to President Frederick Slabach. In a memorandum sent out to faculty, staff and students by Dean of Students Dennis Hall in December 2015, Slabach wrote 34 small colleges and universities have added football since 2008. Doing so, he wrote, can mean generating “significant revenue net of all expenses” at small colleges and universities at the NAIA or NCAA Division III level. Slabach will be announcing whether or not Wesleyan will be adding football and lacrosse sometime this spring, said John Veilleux, vice president for Marketing &
Communications. The decision of whether or not to add football and lacrosse was debated several times last semester, including at two “listening sessions” attended by faculty, staff and students. Here are some key aspects of adding football and lacrosse: The Grille Works will be converted into a new weight room, accessible to all athletes, and will be moved in the Baker building, Veilleux said. Adding both sports could bring in as many as 200 students, Veilleux said. The football team would take a two year phase-in approach. This means that the football team will be present on campus its first year but will not be playing any official NAIA games. Only in its second year will Wesleyan take on a full NAIA season, Veilleux said. The lacrosse team would begin competing this fall, Veilleux said.
The football team would most likely play at Herman Clark Stadium, a multi-use stadium in Fort Worth, Slabach said during the first listening session. Wesleyan would play in the Central States League, a mixture of both the Sooner Athletic Conference and the Red River Conference, Slabach said during the same session. These teams include Arizona Christian University, Bacone College, Langston University, Lyon College, Southwestern Assemblies of God, Texas College and Wayland Baptist University, according to the memorandum. “The first year will be seen as a ‘leadership class,” Slabach said in November. “This class will see a recruitment of between 50-75 students. It will be a redshirt season meaning no games will be played. Just practice and scrimmaging within the team.” In its second year, the football
team will play a full season in the NAIA, Slabach said. In terms of recruitment, other colleges that have added football such as Wayland Baptist University, Bacone College and Southwestern Assemblies of God have seen classes big as 200 students. As much as $626,000 will spent on the football team its first year, including staff, equipment, uniforms, transportation and renting Clark Stadium, Slabach said. But these costs will be paid for by the additional tuition revenue of the 75 new students. “At the NAIA level the revenue comes from the students who want to attend,” he said. “So as more students come to play so does the tuition revenue.” Year one of football at Wesleyan won’t cost anyone anything extra,
FOOTBALL, page 3