The Rambler Vol.100 No.4

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WEDNESDAY March 9, 2016 Vol. 100 • No. 4

www.therambler.org

OPINION

Older students are on the rise Dalise Devos

dndevos@txwes.edu

The ugly truth about college degrees Students from low-income families often reap fewer financial rewards after they graduate than students from rich families.

NEWS

Beckrich named new head of security Chris Bechrich, a former police officer, takes over the job from Blake Bumbard.

4 |Wednesday | March 9, 2016

CAMPUS

CAMPUS

TheRambler.org | For news throughout the day.

For Ashley Pickett, a 28-yearold senior psychology major, graduating high school was her chance to be free. “I had no curfew, no rules, no adults telling me what to do. It was glorious,” Pickett said. Pickett first attended college after graduating high school as a junior in 2005. She attended Blinn College in Bryan, Texas, for one year before she dropped out at age 18. She worked as a bartender and server for six years before she made the decision to go back to school. “I decided that bartending and waiting tables was beginning to get old, as was I,” Pickett said. “I had to do something to turn my life around.” Pickett enrolled at Weatherford College in the fall of 2012, then transferred to Texas Wesleyan University in 2014, where she is on track to graduate in May with a bachelor of science in psychology. For many college students, Pickett’s story is a familiar one. According to a study conducted Photo by Dalise Devos in 2012 by National Student Clearinghouse, 38 percent of all college Junior marketing major Grace Fisher studies at the Eunice and James West

5 Texas getaways

South Padre Island

Located on the Gulf of Mexico near Corpus Christi, South Padre Island offers an abundance of things to do. You can take surfing lessons, enjoy nightly live music and just soak up the sun at the cleanest and widest beaches in Texas.

Comal River

Where will you spend spring break? New Braunfels is the best place for tubing and camping. Cool off from the summer

Duo to play concert in March Rowan Lehr

rmlehr@txwes.edu

sun while enjoying a four-hour river float down the river. Nothing screams spring break more than a river full of intoxicated people having a great time.

Check out the top five places in Texas to enjoy your spring break.

Images credit to google.com. Design by: Brianna Kessler and Michael Acosta

*Jerell Ellis - SAC Player of the Year

*Brennen Shingleton - SAC Coach of the Year

 COLLEGE, page 3

Library. Fisher is one of many non-traditional Wesleyan students.

2016

spring break

Men’s Basketball SAC Champions!

students in a fall term are now adult learners, which means they are over the age of 25. The study, which looked at enrollment trends of adult learners from fall 2009 to fall 2011, also found that the percentage of these students attending college on a full‐time basis has been steadily increasing. Darren White, associate vice president of Marketing and Communications, expects that this is the new normal. “You’re not going to see a time where adult students are going to decrease from here on out,” White said. White believes that Wesleyan has been well prepared for the growing trend of adult students, while some other schools are just waking up to the idea. The Smarter. Smaller. Promise scholarship is a perfect example, as it focuses on transfer students, many of whom are adult learners. “We understand that adult students are a large part of the incoming student body,” White said. “We want to reach out to them in a way that answers the questions that they want answers to.”

Holi Festival of colors

Come and join Student Engagement for the Holi Festival of colors! This is a Hindi holiday that celebrates the victory of good over evil, and is an exciting time to celebrate love and friendship! Come during free period on March 23rd in front of the library Ma to celebrate with us!

A&E

The Other Side Of The Door is predictable This new horror film set in India offers nothing new in the way of scares or plot.

SPORTS

Jason Plog proves himself in America

Dr. John Fisher and Dr. Bruce McDonald met at Texas Wesleyan in the fall of 1995, but they didn’t perform together until eight years later. Fisher, professor of music 2, said that he and McDonald, an associate professor of religion, work well together when they perform duo-piano, which means they perform on separate pianos that face each other. “2003 was our first performance together,” Fisher said. “We’re kind of a matched pair, similar age bracket and similar backgrounds. “Dr. McDonald has an undergraduate degree in piano from the University of Texas at Austin. My undergraduate was also in piano and it was just a nice fit, so we started playing programs.” Fisher and McDonald’s 11th performance together will be March 31 at Martin Hall. The program will last about an hour and include pieces by Bach, Debussy, Mozart and Gershwin. In 2009, Fisher and McDonald

released The Fisher-McDonald Duo: A Musical Posy, which features selections by Bach, Mozart and Copland, among others. The CD is available for purchase at the Wesleyan bookstore. “We figured, why not?” Fisher said. “Groups that make music together record music together.” Fisher said that the two do more than just play the pieces; they also interact with the audience and McDonald offers light-hearted commentary. McDonald said Fisher is incredibly fun to work with. “We thoroughly enjoy doing the work and work well together,” McDonald said. “It just takes time and of course time seems to be very rare these days, it’s an endangered species.” Dr. Ronnie McManus, professor of Religion and Philosophy, said he is planning to attend duo’s performance. McManus wrote in an email that he has known Fisher for 15 years

 FISHER, page 3

Photo courtesy of Dr. John Fisher Dr. John Fisher and Dr. Bruce McDonald will play Martin Hall on March 31.

Ex-cop is new head of security Gracie Weger Coleman gjweger@txwes.edu

Plog hopes to help lead the table tennis team to its 12th national title.

ONLINE

Meet new Wesleyan football coach Joe Prud’homme

Photo by Gracie Weger Coleman Head of security Chris Beckrich was a Fort Worth police officer for 30 years.

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Every day, Chris Beckrich gets ready to come to his new career at Texas Wesleyan with a smile on his face. Beckrich is Wesleyan’s new director of campus safety and security, and he said he is already enjoying his transition from a career as a Fort Worth police officer, which he did for 30 years, to his new job. “My experience is in law enforcement, so this fit in well,” Beckrich said. Beckrich replaces Blake Bumbard, who left Wesleyan in November to take a position at the University of Texas at Tyler. Beckrich knows Wesleyan and the

surrounding area well, for several reasons. His wife of 29 years, Cindy, graduated from Wesleyan with a bachelor’s degree in finance in 1998. Also, he has spent most of his career in the neighborhood, first as a patrol officer and then, for 25 of his 30 years on the force, as a supervisor of security at the Presbyterian Night Shelter, which is only a few miles west of campus. “I coordinated with the off-duty police and made sure that things got taken care of there at the shelter,” he said. “The department had a presence and if there were any policies that needed to be adjusted they were taken care of.” Finally, Jordan, the oldest of his

 BECKRICH, page 3


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