WEDNESDAY
February 10, 2010
Vol. 93 • No. 4 ONLINE:
www.therambler.org
The Rambler The voice of Texas Wesleyan University students since 1917
West 7th Movie Tavern tops sister locations. A&E, page 5
New senior forward provides more ammunition. Sports, page 6
$7,000 scholarship still available Jonathan Resendez
jlresendez@mail.txwes.edu
With the deadline nearing, only four students have picked up applications for the Hatton W. Sumners scholarship. The scholarship offers chosen students up to $7,000 a year, or $3,500 a semester. According to the application, students who have completed 60 hours by the beginning of the fall term, have a minimum 3.0 GPA and
have “a record of participation in campus or civic activities that benefit the university and/or community at large” are eligible. “The Sumners Scholars program is one of the most prestigious scholarships at Texas Wesleyan,” said Deborah Roark, director of grants and research. “Although the financial support is great, our scholars will tell you that the best part of the program is the opportunity to hear from nationally and internationally known
leaders and participate in a variety of policy and leadership conferences.” Roark refers to the Hatton W. Sumners Distinguished Lecture Series, where scholars have privately met with former U.S. presidents, queens and prime ministers, among other notable figures. Cecilia Hill, junior history major with an emphasis in secondary education, was selected as a scholar last April. “The application is the easy part,”
she said. “Getting the paper work, transcript and writing the essay was fun. The hard part is the interview.” Generally, 30 to 40 students apply and the in-house selection committee whittles them down to 10, Roark said. Based on the strength of the application package, about six interviewees meet with trustees from the Hatton Sumners foundation who choose three scholars. The committee asks general questions as well as specific ones pertain-
ing to the applicant’s transcripts, Hill said. The committee noticed she dropped biology twice and asked her to explain the blemishes, which were the result of increased responsibility at work. But being prepared for the interview helps. “I educated myself on the foundation and Hatton Sumners and the rest just came,” said junior criminal
Game Time
Chick-fil-A sandwich selling will continue Jonathan Resendez
jlresendez@mail.txwes.edu
Rachel Horton | Rambler Staff Stephanie Darbo, senior political science major and Blu Cru member, prepares for the basketball games. See story on page 4.
‘Blu Cru bleeds blue and gold’
Fans of the Chik-fil-A sandwiches sold in the SUB on Tuesdays and Thursdays are in luck. The sandwiches will continue to be sold until the end of the year. Whether they return in the fall is up to the director of dining servicess, said Jeremy Kirwan, operator of the Chick-fil-A at Ridgmar Mall, which supplies Wesleyan. “It’s all up in the air right now,” he said. “But we are more than willing to [come back].” The sandwiches are sold on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sandwiches cannot be sold past that time due to quality and hold time issues, Kirwan said. Wesleyan enrollment isn’t high enough for a permanent on-campus location, he said. However, a fall return could offer more options. “Right now, it seems to be going real good,” Kirwan said. “Maybe we’ll start offering chicken biscuits during breakfast hours.” Shawn Robinson, SUB store supervisor, said the sandwiches fly out of their hands. “We can’t keep them,” he said. “Some people get here 30 minutes early placing orders.” The orders vary depending on previous sales and don’t sometimes last long, he said. “It’s off the chains,” he said.
Worm caused campus-wide PC issues
Marriage help offered at Wesleyan
Conner Howell
mhowell@mail.txwes.edu
Melissa Bates
mdbates@mail.txwes.edu
Love is in the air, and that love can get a little stronger. The state certified marriage education course, Growing Love in Christian Marriage, will be offered at Texas Wesleyan University from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 6 in the Baker Building. The state of Texas authorized this course as one of many offered in the state providing skills to support a lasting and healthy marriage. The cost is $7.50 per couple. This cost covers the continental breakfast, snacks and a book. Participants can be engaged, married, dating or single. “Some people have even re-
SCHOLARS, page 3
Rebecca Moore
peated the class just to refresh the information they learned,” said Gina Phillips, director of alumni relations. The GLCM course topics include commitment, communication, conflict management, companionship and lifestyle, career and finances, children and parenting, community networks and compass for the future. Couples begin by answering the In-
MARRIAGE, page 3
At the beginning of January, a computer worm known as Conficker breached the system network at Wesleyan’s main campus. Randy Boone, senior user support specialist, has been worked to eradicate the worm since its first detection in the Wesleyan system. “A worm is a malicious piece of software that will use exploits on a computer to install itself onto other computer systems and then cause a degradation in computer resources,” Boone said. Unlike a virus, Boone said the Conficker worm, which is a pun on the word “configure” combined with the German version of a well known curse word, uses the autorun features on a computer to automatically spread itself
“The first thing Conficker does is infect any portable device connected to the machine.” Randy Boone
senior user support specialist throughout a network. “The first thing Conficker does is infect any portable device connected to the machine and modifies the auto-run files on that device,” Boone said. “So that when a user accesses the device, [the worm] will install the virus onto the computer.” Boone said Conficker’s other modus operandi is through manipulating the scheduled tasks of the computer itself. Normally when a computer is turned on, it runs specific programs automatically through a scheduled tasks
feature. Users also can schedule their own tasks to run automatically on the machine as well. Boone said Conficker will upload its own auto-run features through scheduled tasks and download files from the Internet onto the computer, thereby infecting the computer with the worm. Boone said when users restart their computers these scheduled tasks begin, and the computer is infected all over again. “So we’ve been taking steps to clean out all the scheduled tasks, disable scheduled tasks
and clean out the auto-runs,” Boone said. This means that when students insert flash-drives into computers on campus, they would have to manually access that drive instead of waiting for the menu to pop up on screen. Boone said the help desk services department first became aware of the worm’s presence on Jan. 14, the day after classes started. Wesleyan uses VIPRE antivirus, a product of Sunbelt Software, to protect its system network, and it was VIPRE that alerted help desk services to the breach in security. Barry Simpson, director of help desk services, said the IT department hasn’t pinpointed exactly how the worm originally infiltrated the system, since it could have been
WORM, page 3