rambler vol 93 no 20
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The RamblerTRANSCRIPT
The voice of Texas Wesleyan University students since 1917
The RamblerChuck dishes out costumeadvice for the Monster Bash.A&E, page 6
wednesdayOctober 20, 2010
Vol. 93 • No. 20
www.therambler.org
Lady Rams vow to stop losing once team is healthy.Sports, page 5
Wesleyan alumnus returns to read
Jonathan [email protected]
The “master of romantic suspense and urban fiction” made an appear-ance in his old stomping grounds last week.
A crowd of about 20 people gath-
ered Oct. 14 in the Baker Building to hear published author and alumnus Keith Thomas Walker read from his books Fixin Tyrone’ and How to Kill Your Husband. Genesis Press, the largest privately-owned African-American publisher in the U.S. ac-cording to its website, has published
15,000 copies of Walker’s books.Walker received a bachelor’s de-
gree in English from Wesleyan in 2000, which was also the last time he set foot on university grounds.
“Coming through here was re-ally nostalgic, it brought back a lot of fond memories,” Walker said. “I
love this campus. All of you guys, you’re in a great place.”
Walker grew up within walking distance of the university in Poly-technic Heights. He cites Stephen King as the first author that cap-
Program suffering, mentors lackingRachel [email protected]
The Mentor Program is experiencing a shortage of mentors due to the amount of Wesleyan freshman and transfer students requesting the program.
Blair Moore, coordinator of new student programs and transfer liaison, said only 74 mentors are available to more than 150 mentees requesting the program.
“The problem is that the mentor’s are being assigned more than one mentee, and that could affect how good of a mentor they are, and how available they are if they have more than one mentee,” she said.
Freshmen were exposed to the mentor program in their academic success experience classes.
Both transfer students and freshmen are encouraged to
request a mentor, but it’s vol-untary.
“One of the biggest benefits of a mentor is we are guiding the freshman,” said Trent San-dles, sophomore English with secondary certification major and mentor.
Sandles said mentors assist mentees with everyday tasks and tutoring depending upon the subject.
Mentors also guide mentees and make sure they’re on the right path since their first year can be tough, he said.
Moore said she believes the shortness of mentors is relat-ed to potential mentors being overwhelmed with classes or work and feel that another re-sponsibility will be too much, or that they have had a bad experience before when their mentees did not respond to them.
“I had two [mentees] that were both painfully shy, and could have benefited from
it [the program], but I only saw them once or twice,” said Michael Greer-Hall, assis-tant director of the academic success center and learning specialist. “But I couldn’t seem to get them to partici-pate as much as I would have liked.”
Sandles said there aren’t too many disadvantages to being a mentor because both men-
tors and mentees can be flex-ible with their time schedules.
The only disadvantage is mentors can’t give each of their mentees their sole at-tention. Mentors have to split their time between three men-tees, he said.
Moore encourages students who wish to become men-tors to stop by her office in the ASC in the West Library.
Chemistry week coming to campusRachel [email protected]
The American Chemistry Society hosted “Behind the Scenes with Chemistry” Oct. 19 in the mall to start Na-tional Chemistry Week.
The event introduced stu-dents to the fundamentals of chemistry and the American Chemical Society.
“There will be fire, there will be explosions,” said New-ton Hilliard associate profes-sor of chemistry. “We will be demonstrating a wide variety of [chemical] reactions, most of them are high energy reac-tions.”
Hilliard said he has per-formed chemical shows for 22 years.
Hilliard once built fire-works in New Mexico for the event, but Texas law won’t
permit him to do it here. “The purpose of this event
is to show others the chemis-try around us, and that it can be a lot more fun than it can seem,” said Diana Gerrard, junior bio-chemistry major and president of the Wesley-an chapter of the American Chemical Society.
Thirteen ACS members worked on a variety of dis-plays for the event from the beginning of the semester.
New group offers help, strengthens academiaMelissa [email protected]
An organization aimed at improving lives and strength-ening academic programs is now available.
On Oct. 13, Wesleyan’s Do-mestic Victims Advocates group held its first meeting in Carter Conference Room in the SUB. About two dozen students, faculty and staff at-tended to hear Amy Suffield, community education special-ist with The Women’s Center, speak about the services the center provides such as victim services.
“We see family go through the problems of domestic vio-lence, and I thought we, as students, could contribute in a positive way by spreading the word about the ways to get the help needed,” said Ray Cox, senior criminal justice major and president of DVA.
There is a center located in Fort Worth and one in Arling-ton where victims of abuse can receive counseling, and wom-en can get employment and education help.
“Just like all aspects of soci-ety, colleges are not immune from these problems, whether it’s date rape, spousal abuse or child abuse,” Suffield said.
Cox said he hopes to have guest speakers attend meet-ings, as well as hold bake sales and raffles. He also wants to form a line of communication
Jonathan Resendez| Rambler StaffWesleyan alumnus Keith Walker returned to Wesleyan after more than 10 years to read from his urban romance and suspense novels Fixin Tyrone’ and How to Kill Your Husband. Walker’s next book, A Good Dude, hits the shelves Nov. 2.
dora’s provider will not changeShauna [email protected]
Improvement in residential food service and variety are on the Stu-dent Government Association and administrators’ plate this semester.
The SGA passed a bill Oct. 12 al-lotting money for a bi-monthly elec-tion, in which students can elect their favorite employee in Dora Roberts Dining Hall, known as Dora’s. Slated
to begin the first week in November, the recognized employees will re-ceive a framed certificate and recog-nition in the entryway to Dora’s.
“The goal of this is to make Dora’s employees feel more a part of the Wesleyan community instead of do-ing a job,” said Melissa McDuffee, head of SGA’s food committee. “Peo-ple who take pride in their work and take pride in their jobs tend to work harder. That’s kind of the goal of what
this is about.”Kayla Walton, junior exercise sci-
ence major, said she noted changes at Dora’s.
“They’re trying to improve and you can notice it,” she said.
Other issues involving Dora’s in-cluded a response to student sugges-tions, with another $1,000 bill passed to put televisions and a clock inside.
Although changes are coming, McDuffee said the SGA was not
pushing for a switch in food service. “Any type of food service we go to,
we’re going to be getting essentially the same thing,” McDuffee said.
Other ideas presented to the food committee include pushes to make nutritional label information for food, and making Dora’s more acces-sible to those who dine there.
“As chair, we have been discussing new ways we want to take this food committee, because in the past it has
always been used to decide what food will be at our SGA meetings, which we no longer do,” McDuffee said. “So rather it’s what our new direction is, and what we can we be doing.”
Debbie Cavitt, director of purchas-ing, said one of the issues the univer-sity is currently addressing with the current food service provider Ara-mark is a lack of food variety.
food, page 4
author, page 3 dva, page 4
chemistry, page 3
Photo Illustration by Meisa Keivani Najafabadi
Mentor Shortage
Mentors
Freshman Mentees
Transfer Mentees
Mentor Shortage
Mentors
Freshman Mentees
Transfer Mentees
Mentor Shortage
Graphic by Rachel Peel
Opinion2 | October 20, 2010 The RambleR | www.therambler.org
Jonathan Resendez, editor-in-chiefBarry Grubbs, opinion editor Eliana Mijangos, sports editorChuck Fain, arts & entertainment editorDwight Conerway, college life editorMeisa Keivani Najafabadi, photo editorErica Estrada, graphic designer/cartoonistWendy Moore, faculty adviserDr. Kay Colley, faculty liaison
Member of the Texas Intercollegiate Press As-sociation, Associated Collegiate Press, Student Press Law Center, College Media Advisers and College Newspaper Business and Advertising Managers.
Opinions expressed in The RambleR are those of the individual authors only and do not neces-sarily reflect the views of the Texas Wesleyan community as a whole.
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The RamblerFounded in 1917 as The Handout
Publisher: Lamar Smith
What do you think of gay Americans openly serving in the military?
Angelica Choice, freshman nursing
“No matter what your sexuality, you should be
treated equal.”
Robert Talavera, freshman computer science“I just think they shouldn’t have to hide it. If they want to serve, let them.”
Breuntay Reed, junior business
“If you’re going to defend your country, your sexu-
ality shouldn’t matter.”
Ric Barberena, junior liberal studies
“It doesn’t bother me as long as they are doing what they need to to serve the country.”
Shaun Murphy, junior business
“People should be able to be open, but there are still homo-phobic people in the military.”
‘Don’t Ask Don’t tell’ policy faces repeal
Recently, U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips repealed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law en-forced by our military, which for-bids homosexuals to express their sexuality under penalty of dis-charge.
On Oct. 14, the Los Angeles Times reported that Col. Dave Lapan said, “the department will abide by the terms in the court’s ruling, effective as of the time and date of the ruling.”
With this unjust law overturned, brave men and women willing to serve our country can do so with-out fear of being themselves, and America moves a step forward in social evolution — right?
Don’t plan the parade just yet, friends.
Although the law has been over-turned, and though the fact is rec-ognized by our military, the Jus-tice Department has asked Judge
Phillips to set aside her deci-sion until the military is ready to handle the ramifications of this new policy.
If she refuses, the Justice De-partment will send the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Ap-peals to stop the legislation. If the law is repealed, reinstat-ing DADT, then those service
people who have or will come out about their sexuality will suffer the consequences.
This is a slap in the face to all those oppressed by this law and to those who worked so hard to get the law repealed. And what’s the reasoning behind all this?
Why is the government and the military actively trying to get DADT reinstated?
Reasons such as the military’s inadequate or non-existent sys-tem of dealing with this new is-sue and backlash from troops are excuses they cite for wanting the new law repealed. This seems flimsy at best.
It’s hard to believe that the mili-tary isn’t ready to accept homo-sexuals into their midst when ev-ery other major institution in our society already has.
If everyone else has figured out that gay people are not feral, sex-
crazed maniacs preying on the innocent breeders, why can’t the military come to the same conclu-sion?
Some argue that the military is a different sort of job that cannot be compared to anything in the civil-ian world.
They would say that you trust the person next to you with your life, and you should be able to know who that person is. Agreed.
Those who choose to serve in the military do a job that not ev-ery American is capable of or will-ing to do. They go through rigor-ous training and discipline and protect our way of life with their lives.
It follows that anyone willing to take on that sort of responsi-bility should have the right to be who they are, and their colleagues should accept that they are there to perform a serious, important job — not pick up dates and orga-nize dance parties.
Besides, the military has had 17 years to deal with DADT, and al-though this may come as a shock to some, homosexuality existed before the DADT law, meaning the military has always had to deal with homosexuals within their ranks.
And furthermore, what sort of plans will they institute? Sensitiv-ity training? Rules of engagement for a homosexual soldier? Will they section off those gay troops and form a rainbow unit?
All the military has to do is set up a harsh penalty for violent at-tacks on gay troops. That way the troops are safe, no one does any-thing stupid, and no one has to go see a stupid PowerPoint presenta-tion on tolerance.
This situation has gone on long enough.
The repeal of DADT and the policy of allowing gays to serve openly in the military is long overdue in this country.
If someone is going to take a bul-let for our freedoms, they should be allowed to write a love letter to their significant other without fear of retaliation.
The only fair solution I see is to allow gays to serve openly, without this legal booby-trap, or to deny everyone of their sexuality and make any display of sexual orien-tation, gay or straight, a crime punishable by dishonorable dis-charge.
Silent language needs a chance at Wesleyan
How would you define communication?
Communication is a transfer of information exchanged through a com-mon system of symbols, signs or behaviors. This concept seems simple to grasp, right? Today, I am not so sure that it is.
Upon reviewing my de-gree audit, I learned in or-der to obtain a degree in English, I must obtain 12 hours of a foreign language. No problem, I thought to myself. I decided to go ahead and set the path I would take to achieve this goal.
To my dismay, I found my only choices were Span-ish, French and German. What about American Sign Language?
I began to do my home-work, asking questions, do-ing research, and I discov-ered that Texas Wesleyan University does not consid-er ASL to be a foreign lan-guage. So here I am, trying to stir up trouble in hopes that I convince enough people to see this issue the way I do.
This is where communi-cation comes in. Not only will I attempt to convey my
opinions of this unfortu-nate rule that restricts ASL from being considered a foreign language, but I will use a simple definition to prove my point.
As stated before, commu-nication is a transfer of in-formation using a common system. This means that no matter what method or lan-guage you use to transfer this information, it is still communication. When the receiver does not under-stand the method or lan-guage used, this constitutes the method or language used as foreign.
The purpose of foreign language requirements is to expose a student to cul-tures and languages differ-ent from his or her own.
There is no inherent rea-son why this culture and language must come from another country. The cul-ture of the non-hearing community is one far dif-ferent from the hearing community.
Most non-hearing Amer-icans use American Sign Language as a first or sec-ond preferred language. When used as a second lan-guage, they are considered bilingual because they are
fluent in the written Eng-lish language as well. If the deaf can use English as a second language, shouldn’t sign language be consid-ered a second language for the hearing?
Introducing students to American Sign Language has various benefits. Like other foreign languages, it provides our students with the tools they need to im-merse themselves in a new culture. ASL has a complex grammatical structure dif-ferent from the English language, and like Spanish, the language is more com-monly used in our area and would be exceedingly ben-eficial for our students.
Change will and should happen, not always for the good, but it’s necessary for human growth. We should come together, in the name of education, and propose a new foreign language for our required curriculum.
American Sign Language can be beneficial to stu-dents, faculty and the com-munity. This change will allow students to commu-nicate effectively with the deaf community, not only in our area, but wherever they may go.
Chuck FainArts & entertainment editor [email protected]
Tiffany StoneContributing [email protected]
Accommodations must be made for our diverse community at Wesleyan.
College campuses should embrace the changing world and develop ways to teach and mentor teens and young parents how to handle college and life af-ter high school.
Being a mom should not be the determining factor for whether a student at-tends college or not.
With motherhood comes responsibility, not only to the child but to yourself as well. Colleges should not make a student choose be-tween being a parent or a student.
Currently it’s hard to support a child or family on one income. It requires two. Some families can make it on one income, but there are consequences and sacrifices.
As a mother, a student and an employee, it is hard to find balance in my life. If I give one area more at-tention, one or all may suf-fer.
Being a student, a par-ent and a spouse are all part of who I am, and I am glad to wear every one of those hats. However, my
circumstances shouldn’t determine what classes I can take.
Last year I had a fellow student in my business class that made me realize how others may not have the luxury that I have, having family to help out when needed.
If it wasn’t for my fam-ily, or my husband, I don’t know what I would do.
Sometimes without real-izing it, you have impor-tant things placed on the back burner. College cam-puses should find an alter-native to this situation.
Perhaps install a cam-pus day care for children, or some sort of program for school-aged children to participate in while their parents attend night classes.
Another student that I have talked to is also a mom, a student and a wife. She suggested that we of-fer more online classes at
junior and senior levels, so that we can attract more non-traditional students to Wesleyan.
If Wesleyan decided to have an on-campus day care, it would offer a great opportunity for education majors to do their observa-tions, which are required for the majority of edu-cation classes offered on campus.
Some would say it wouldn’t qualify and may-be it wouldn’t, but it’s an idea that I feel our admin-istration should consider.
Most universities strive to make changes and ac-commodate the needs of their students, but not all students have been no-ticed.
With the growing num-ber of non-traditional students enrolling each semester, it seems essen-tial that some changes be made.
Rachel PeelStaff [email protected]
“As a mother, a student and an employee, it is hard to find balance in my life”
Non-traditional students face unique challenges
CampusThe RambleR | www.therambler.org October 20, 2010 | 3
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FREE FREE How shampoo works and the types of chemicals our bodies produce to attract a certain mate are examples of the displays exhibited, Ger-rard said.
Tuan Nguyen, junior biol-ogy major, said, “Last year we had a chem show in the
auditorium at McFadden, sold t-shirts and gave out free pizza, but nothing too big.”
Nguyen said the ACS is escalating its efforts because members want to show peo-ple what the ACS is about.
The event offered free
food. Gift cards to Barnes & Noble, Starbucks, Whata-burger and others were raf-fled off.
“People should come out and watch,” Hillard said. “You’ll see some things hap-pen you don’t normally get to see anywhere but on TV.”
Chemistry continued from page 1
Interim President shares decades-long connection with schoolJonathan [email protected]
It’s Fort Worth, Texas, 1949. The dining hall hums with chatter as the smell of food drifts through the air.
A 6-foot, 22-year-old man with dark hair and light-brown eyes walks through the hall and sits with the up-perclassmen. The young man showered after his afternoon studying and now sports his nicest trousers, shirt and vest. At 175 pounds, he looks small sitting next to 300-pound math professor Fontaine Mathis. However, Lamar Smith weighs 25 pounds more than when he left the Navy in 1946—the year Texas Wesley-an University’s current inter-im president enrolled at Texas Wesleyan College. For more than half a century, Smith and Wesleyan have shared a connection unbroken by dis-tance, time or obligation. The Past
The father of Smith’s first college girlfriend, Beverly Sone, is credited with saving Wesleyan from financial ruin during the great depression. In part, Law Sone did this by recruiting a football team.
“There were no boys, of course, on campus,” Smith said, referring to Wesleyan’s early years when it was known as Texas Woman’s College. “So he [Sone] went over to Weatherford Junior College and he recruited the whole football team to come over to Texas Wesleyan. And for a year or two or three, we had a football team.”
Smith and his roommate were two of only three cheer-leaders in 1950, the year he received his Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan. Although he briefly dated Wesleyan Presi-dent Sone’s daughter, Smith said they parted ways after she moved to Dallas to attend college.
“She fell in love with some-body else over there, and I fell in love with somebody at Texas Wesleyan,” he said.
Smith married Doris Hud-gens in 1951.
After graduating from Wesleyan, Smith enrolled at Southern Methodist Univer-sity to receive his master’s degree in theology. While his wife was pregnant with the first of their three children,
Smith also began working for the city of Dallas and preach-ing at two small churches.
“I really was doing a little too much,” he said.
Not a year after graduating, Smith went back to Wesley-an after President Sone gave him a job recruiting students. In 1951, Smith and his wife moved into a building on campus that been converted into apartments during World War II.
“I would work full time re-cruiting students in the spring and summer, then I’d go to school full time in the fall and winter,” Smith said.
After graduating from SMU, Smith went to First United Methodist Church in Fort Worth because he heard they were seeking a minister.
“The pastor down there was a great preacher, but he had a difficulty getting along with people,” Smith said. “I walked into his office and he said, ‘Can you get along with peo-ple?’ I said, ‘Dr. Foote, I just got out of the seminary, and I don’t know the first thing about running a church. But I can get along with people.’”
The pastor hired him, called the bishop and Smith began preaching as associate minis-ter at the UMC in September 1955.The Present
Fast-forward four decades. After traveling the globe more than 12 times to places such as Israel, Greece, Turkey, Hong Kong and Japan, and heading churches in Texas and Loui-siana, Smith returned to Fort Worth in 1997. He once again assumed the position of asso-ciate minister at UMC.
One more decade finds Smith back at Wesleyan serv-ing as interim president, while the university searches for a permanent replacement to Dr. Harold Jeffcoat, who re-tired in early 2010.
“That usually doesn’t hap-pen for a person his age, but he’s the perfect person,” said long-time UMC member Gerry Grieser. “He’s a person who can bring two parties to-gether to communicate. I can’t think of anybody who can do the job he’s been asked to do better than Lamar could.”
Other members of the com-munity echo praises for Smith.
“I’d do anything for that man,” said Marilyn Cantu, sec-
retary and treasurer for First Street Methodist Mission.
After the death of his wife in 2007, Smith eventually re-kindled a love which origi-nally began at Wesleyan more than 50 years ago with college sweetheart Beverly Sone El-bert, whose husband had died 10 to 12 years earlier.
“I heard that she [Sone-Elbert] was living in Fort
Worth,” Smith said. “So after a period of time, I called and invited her to dinner, and we started courting.”
Smith and Sone Elbert mar-ried in 2008.The Now
It’s Fort Worth, 2010. The cool air in front of the Wes-leyan library hangs quietly as students mill about after class.
In the president’s confer-
ence room, a 6-foot, 83-year-old man with white wispy hair and light-brown eyes sits by himself at the end of a mas-sive wooden table. Dark veins crowd around the knuckles in his hands. One hand holds a pen, the other rests on a Bible. His light brown Oscar de la Renta coat contrasts stylishly with his dark brown slacks. From behind tortoiseshell
reading glasses, Lamar Smith’s eyes scan papers as he pre-pares an introduction for an important dinner he’s attend-ing the following night.
Smith still has an office re-served for him downtown in the United Methodist Church. At Texas Wesleyan University, five miles away, Smith forever has a place reserved in the an-nals of its history.
Top photo Meisa Keivani Najafabadi, bottom photos courtesy of Lamar Smith(Above) Interim Wesleyan President Dr. Lamar Smith took the university’s helm after Dr. Harold Jeffcoat retired June 2010. (Bot-tom left) Smith served in the U.S. Navy for two years from 1944 to 1946 before enrolling at the university, known then as Texas Wesleyan College. (Bottom right) Smith and Beverly Sone smile for the camera at the Sweetheart Banquet on Valentine’s Day in 1947 at the Polytechnic United Methodist Church.
tured his imagination.“I remember in the fifth
grade reading his stuff, and I probably shouldn’t have read it because I think Pet Sema-tary gave me nightmares,” he said. “But it was amazing to me that somebody could sit down and write something, and I could read it, and I could feel so many different
emotions. From fear to sor-row, depression, happiness, joy—every emotion he want-ed me to feel I felt it.”
Although no one else in his family was a writer, Walker said he began taking writing seriously from the fifth grade on.
Walker said he uses his memories from childhood
and adolescence to create backdrops for the stories he currently writes, which con-sist of the struggles urban people face in their normal and love lives.
After a 10-year hiatus from writing and a brief stint teaching at William James Middle School, Walker said he eventually landed a cleri-
cal job with Harris Method-ist Fort Worth Hospital. He worked his way through the ranks to an administrative position on the overnight shift that left him with long hours of free time. This led him to start writing again, he said.
After about 20 failed at-tempts at having his work published, Walker said he fi-nally inked a deal with Gen-esis Press for Fixin’ Tyrone.
“The letters started getting better,” he said, referring to his continued attempts at get-ting published.
Walker picked up five con-tracts which include two books already printed, a third coming in November, and two more coming next year.
Walker’s mother, Jackie Hafford, also graduated from Wesleyan in 2001 with a de-gree in psychology. She said the entire family is excited to see his writing career take flight.
“Just keep writing,” she said to aspiring writers. “If you enjoy it, and it’s your pas-sion—keep writing.”
English professor Dr. Jef-fery DeLotto said he remem-
bers Walker’s writing prow-ess in Colored Rags, a short story about Crips and Blood gang members.
“It had excellent descrip-tion and dialogue,” DeLotto said. “He took his writing se-riously.”
DeLotto said he wasn’t sur-prised when he learned that Walker’s work had been pub-lished.
“Some people who take writing have fun, but you can sense it’s not an impor-tant part of what they do,” he said. “I did not get that from Keith.”
author continued from page 1
$20 flu shots offered to Wesleyan students, faculty and staffJessica [email protected]
Texas Wesleyan University Health Center officials are encouraging Wesleyan community members to prevent the spread of influenza by offering flu shots Oct. 20.
Immunizations can protect against the three most common bugs of the upcoming season, re-search indicates. According to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, outbreaks of the flu can occur as early as October. However, the illness activity often peaks in January or later.
A $20 flu shot will be available to students, faculty and staff from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Oct. 21 in the Fel-lowship Hall of the PUMC.
“Getting a flu shot is an excellent way to reduce your chances of get-ting the flu,” said Paige Cook, Texas
Wesleyan nurse practitioner. “This shot provides protection against this year’s most common strains of flu, including H1N1. It is never too early to get your shot.”
There are two different ways peo-ple can get vaccinations.
The standard shot is an inacti-vated vaccine that is given with a needle, usually in the arm. The shot is approved for use in people older than 6 months, including healthy
people with chronic medical condi-tions.
The alternative is a nasal spray. This type is made with live, weak-ened flu viruses that do not cause the flu. The mist is approved for healthy people between the ages of 2 and 49 who aren’t pregnant.
Whittley Price, freshman business major, said he is not a fan of needles so he will get the spray. “I am going to get vaccinated so I don’t get sick
and have to miss school.”The CDC Guidance for Respons-
es to Influenza for Institutions of Higher Education pamphlet com-pares symptoms of the flu with those of the common cold.
“I hope everyone who is able to get the vaccine goes and gets it,” said Robert Walker, freshman liberal studies major. “I don’t want anyone to spread their germs around where I live and study.”
Campus4 | October 20, 2010 The RambleR | www.therambler.org
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$200 DBDs to your plan and we’ll credit your account with an extra $20• $5.96 per meal -save versus
paying cash at the door!
Block 40
Block 50• 50 all-you-care to-eat meals/
semester• $284.16/ semester• Super Value Stretcher- Add
$200 DBDs to your plan and we’ll credit your account with an extra $20• $5.68 per meal -save versus
paying cash at the door!
• 5 all-you-care to-eat meals/week• $100 Declining Balancing
Dollars• $585.46/ semester (includes
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$100 DBDs to your plan and we’ll credit your account with an extra $25• $6.07 per meal -save versus
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Ram Sample
Willie Wallet• 300 Declining Balance Dollars• $300/ semester• Super Value Stretcher- Add
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Bronze
• 30 all-you-care to-eat meals/se-mester• $150 Declining Balancing Dollars• $324.75/ semester (includes tax)• Super Value Stretcher- Purchase
this membership and we will give you $25 in free Declining Balance Dollars!• $5.82 per meal -save versus
paying cash at the door!Add $ to your meal plan when you get your refund check
“Food service is one of those things that gets talked about—often negative—because it tends to be repetitive, it tends to be a sameness to it,” Cavitt said. “What you can generally go into on a contract is asking that they vary the menu over a three-week cycle. Now that doesn’t mean you may not have rotisserie chicken two or three times in that cycle, but you’ll have something differ-ent with that chicken.”
Brandon Ford, graduate stu-dent in the nurse anesthesia program, said the food doesn’t bother him.
“The biggest con isn’t the va-riety of food, it’s the hours of operation,” he said. “It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever had. The service isn’t terrible.”
Ford said he studies from
about 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Dora’s weekend hours, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., of-ten find him looking for food elsewhere.
“It doesn’t open early enough. I find myself going off campus after I’ve already paid for a meal plan.”
The university is currently in its fifth year of service with Aramark.
Purchasing director Cavitt said although there are other food service vendors, there are not many, and it’s a lengthy process to switch.
“They [Dora’s staff] are in the process of address-ing those issues, and have been very responsive to our needs,” Cavitt said. “If service was horrible, if they were do-ing something horrible, ab-
solutely that would have no bearing on it. But when you have an existing provider who on the whole is doing good work, you’re always bet-ter to try and work whatever problems come up with the provider.”
Before Aramark, the uni-versity used the food service provider Twelve Oaks, and Sodexo before it.
“I think some people who are not familiar with having a contractual service might think changing providers is like deciding to go to the Gap instead of Aeropostale,” Cavitt said. “It’s a much more complicated and lengthy pro-cess. Institutional is never go-ing to be mom’s food. Institu-tional food always has some limitations.”
food continued from page 1
Dinner honors alumni, recognizes achievement
between the DVA, other Wes-leyan student groups and the Women’s Center.
“Texas Wesleyan is a com-munity-oriented campus,.Whenever we see a problem, we want to help,” Cox said.
Greg Gullion, assistant pro-fessor of criminal justice, said the group is needed because all of Wesleyan’s departments need more connections with outside agencies to see what professionals are doing in that field.
“We all need to be able to connect to people working out in the field who are employed,” he said. “If we have a domestic violence advocate group, we should have people who are out in the streets, working in the system that can come in and talk on this topic versus
just going in and listening to an instructor discuss it. It’s nice to balance the approach. You get the academic side and then you get people from the outside. This is how it is.”
Wesleyan is not the only school to form an advocacy group. Suffield said Texas Christian University has a 15-year-old advocacy pro-gram, and the University of Texas at Arlington has an em-ployee who facilitates a similar program.
“With planning, training, monitoring and staying con-nected to the larger communi-ty, other such programs have been successful,” Suffield said.
Suffield said advocacy groups on college campuses make it easier for students, faculty or staff to talk about
problems they have because they know the person involved with the advocacy group or, at least, have seen them around campus.
“Others may not want to talk to people that they know, which is where the referrals to on- and off-campus ser-vices come in,” Suffield said. “I think overall, it’s a good pro-gram for awareness, a support system and a referral system to get anyone the help that they need.”
dVA continued from page 1
Rachel [email protected]
The Fort Worth Club hosted the Wesleyan Alumni Medal Dinner in downtown Fort Worth Oct. 15.
Members of the Board of Trust-ees, honored alumni and their families, faculty and a few student representatives were all in atten-dance.
“I am shocked, humbled and shocked,” said Alumni of the Year recipient Claudia Stepp, class of ’72.
The recognition is awarded to an outstanding alumnus or alumna whose service and loyalty to the university, community involve-ment and personal accomplish-ments merit the honor, according to Wesleyan Magazine.
Stepp has served on the board since 2002, and on March 23, 2009, ground was broken for the Clau-dia Stepp Scene Shop to honor her contributions to the Wesleyan the-atre department.
“I always try to give back more than what’s been given,” Stepp said.
Brian Matlock, class of ’01, was awarded the Young Alumni Achievement Award, recognizing his outstanding personal and pro-fessional achievements after grad-uation.
“When I found out that I won, I was almost embarrassed,” Mat-lock said. “Because you go on in life, you try to do the best that you can for the community and really don’t expect to win anything—so it’s humbling.”
Matlock is currently senior man-ager of Rothstein Koss’ Dallas Of-fice, where he is in charge of the re-gion’s commercial service, he said.
“I’m very honored and can’t wait until I can give back,” Matlock said.
Recipients of the awards are cho-sen by the Alumni Board of Direc-tors.
“They have a nominating com-mittee that will get together and sort through past nominees from the past years, as well as new nom-inees and whittle down the list,” said DeAwna Wood, assistant di-rector of alumni relations.
Meisa Keivani Najafabadi | Rambler StaffBrian Matlock, class of ’01, received the Young Alumni Achievement award for outstanding personal and profes-sional achievements after graduation.
The Women’s Center services:• Clinical counseling for
adult and child survivors• Sexual abuse prevention
training• Support through criminal
justice processes
SportsThe RambleR | www.therambler.org October 20, 2010 | 5
Wear Your Pink
VS
Sid Richardson GymGame starts at 7 p.m.
Support the Rams at Dig Pink night
90 Years of Leadership
1920 2010
Contact Us atPhone: 817-531-7550
Email: [email protected] us at
OC Hall 202 and 204
Lady Rams Basketball plans to push past predictionsBrian [email protected]
Women’s basketball opened its season on Oct. 3 with one thing in mind: conference champions and national rings, said head women’s basketball coach Staci Francis.
Francis also said the team is coming back hungry after a four point loss in double overtime to Southwestern Assemblies of God University in last year’s Red River Conference Tournament.
The Lady Rams have seven returners, three of which were members of the 2010 Red River Athletic All-Conference Team. Junior guard Brittany White re-ceived Honorable Mention All-Conference, junior guard Eliana Mijangos and senior guard Tiffany Adair both received Second Team All-Conference honors.
“We want to be undefeated at home and be conference cham-pions,” said senior guard Shayla Moore.
Francis, who has coached the Lady Rams for 10 years, said the team should be competitive each game.
“Our main goal is to be confer-ence champions,” she said.
The Lady Rams have nine new-comers. Out of those nine, only three are freshmen. Four of the nine recruits come from division one programs.
With trying to win a conference title and become national competi-tors, leadership seems to be a big factor, Moore said.
“Our seniors are our main lead-ers,” Francis said. “With all the new players, the seniors are helping to keep the team on the right path, to win conference.”
The Lady Rams have worked hard in weight training, condi-tioning and full court drills since the first day of school. Videos of team practices can be seen on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/TWURamsBasketball.
Last year, the women tied with the Southwestern Assemblies of God University for second place in the Red River Athletic Confer-ence.
The Lady Rams are picked to finish fourth in conference ac-cording to a coaches poll for Red River Athletic Conference, but after last year’s defeat, they won’t accept anything less than first place and a national champion-ship ring and title, Francis said.
The Lady Rams will kick off their season with an alumni scrimmage Oct. 30 at 4 p.m. in the Sid Richardson Center.
Bryan McDaniel | Rambler StaffFreshman gaurd, Dominque Arthur comes off a screen set by junior gaurd Brittney White during a practice Oct. 14 at the Sid Richardson Center
Record saves fail to save RamsEliana [email protected]
Men’s soccer suffered a 2-1 loss to their rivals, Northwood Uni-versity, but Joakim Soederbaum, senior goal keeper, broke the school record for saves finishing with 248.
The Northwood Knights had an early score, but Ivan Kova-cevic, Wesleyan freshman mid-fielder, had a score assisted by Ri-cardo Aguilera, junior forward.
The rest of the half, the men battled with a tight 1-1 score.
Early in the second half, the Knight’s Gabriel Elizondo was rejected by Soederbaum, but the ball wasn’t recovered, and Northwood took a 2-1 lead.
“It’s frustrating to lose when you dominate the game,” Soed-erbaum said.
The Rams had several oppor-tunities to recover with a tie in-cluding junior mid-fielder Chase Richeson’s corner kick to sopho-more mid-fielder, T.J. Romague-ro. Northwood’s goalie had a last-minute save denying the Rams’ effort and did so again when Ko-vacevic had a free-kick in the 87th minute of the game.
“We played a great game con-sidering our circumstances, and we had our chance to win, and it didn’t go our way,” mid-fielder Aguilera said.
“We’re still confident about our team’s possibilities and to and go to our conference tournament.”
The Rams finished 36-11 in shots, 12-5 shots on goal and 11-1 on corner kicks.
Soederbaum started the game with 248 saves for the season, breaking the school record, and finished with an additional three saves.
“Soccer was one of the main reasons I came to Wesleyan,” Soderbaum said.
“The record reminds me of what a large part of my life soc-cer has been, but it’s hard to be excited about individual accom-plishments when the team is struggling.”
The next Rams’ game will be in Waxahachie against the South-west Assemblies of God Univer-sity Oct. 28 at 3 p.m.
Meisa Keivani Najafabadi | Rambler StaffMiguel Arreguin, senior forward, trails junior defensive mid-fielder, Adam Pierce as they break away
Lady Rams guarantee stop to conference losses
Wesleyan women’s soccer played 50 minutes of a 90 minute game, taking a 3-0 loss to Northwood University.
The game’s first goal seemed to be a mistake when one Ram player tried to head the ball out of the goal and ended up scoring for the Knights.
Christina Zimmerman, senior mid-fielder, had a chance to tie the game in the 39th minute, but missed off the left post.
The momentum of the game didn’t turn around until the second half when Northwood’s sophomore forward, Natalie Carter, scored two back-to-back goals within one minute of each other.
“We were clearly the bet-ter team for 50 minutes, but that isn’t enough in a 90-minute game,” said wom-en’s soccer head coach Josh Gibbs. “Northwood was bet-ter, and they deserved the win. Now we just focus on
LSU-Shreveport.”Northwood led the Rams
18-17 in shots and 8-4 in shots on goal.
“I am proud of my team for their work ethic, playing without two of our starters
and many injuries as well,” said senior mid-fielder Jodi Blowers. “There is no doubt in my mind that once our team is back together, we won’t lose another confer-ence game.”
Meisa Keivani Najafabadi | Rambler StaffSam Greer, right, sophomore mid-fielder, played defense for the first time her college ca-reer, and according to head women’s soccer coach, Josh Gibbs, “she does whatever you ask of her with a smile, and at a very high work rate. She did a fantastic job.”
Meisa Keivani Najafabadi | Rambler StaffJacqueline Wittman, senior mid-fielder, pushes past North-wood’s defense hoping to find some hope for a goal after a quick 3-0 deficit in the second half.
Arts & Entertainment6 | October 20, 2010 The RambleR | www.therambler.org
817-336-HANG • www.hangmans.com
Thrill The World!October 23, 5:30 pm!
See website for details.
happy horror days
Open Fri’s & Sat’s thru Oct 30Plus Sundays Oct 24 & 31And Wed-Thurs Oct 27-28
7 pm til 12 am Fri’s & Sat’s til 10 pm all other nights
I-30 & Forest Park BlvdOne mile west of
downtown Fort Worth
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Melissa [email protected]
Something scarier than midterms is coming to Wesleyan- the annual Texas Vesleyan Monster Bash.
For the third year, the costumed dance will take place at 6 p.m. Oct. 29 in the SUB. The event will feature a costume con-test, a pumpkin chunking contest, free food, raffle prizes, a disc jockey and a ghost tour, said coordi-nator of student activities and volunteerism Michael Chaney.
“It’s going to be a fantas-tic social event filled with lots of fun, lots of people, lots of good music, crazy dancing and lots of good prizes,” Chaney said.
Chaney said he looks forward to seeing a wide array of costumes from scary to funny. Although the event is open to stu-dents, faculty and staff—their young children are not allowed.
“This is an adult costume contest, a college-level par-ty where there might be inappropriate costumes,” Chaney said. “The bottom line is this is a college-level event.”
Baron Yarborough, sophomore business man-agement major, said he’s excited about the event.
“Outside of the class-room, we don’t have many fun events on campus,” Yarborough said. “Mi-chael’s [Chaney] really trying to put more and
more out there, and I think one of our biggest times to hang out as a school is actually the Hal-loween party.”
Joe Brown, professor of theatre and communica-
tion and dean of freshman success, said he looks for-ward to the Vesleyan Mon-ster Bash every year.
“The first year, I went as the oldest living cheer-leader with pom-poms, a
walker and a cheerleading outfit,” Brown said.
Brown also prepares the campus ghost tour. Quentin McGown, Wes-leyan alumnus and Fort Worth historian, directs
the tour.“We do the ghost tour
around 9 p.m. where we go around to the buildings that are known to have spirits or ghosts,” Brown said. “The most famous being the fine
arts auditorium but also the Dillow house.”
There are stories of ghosts haunting the Boyd House, the school of education and the administrator’s build-ing, Brown said.
Texas Vesleyan Monster Bashcoming to scare students soon
This review is the second in a series The Rambler staff is working to bring you featuring potentially overlooked dining spots on East Lancaster Av-enue.
This week’s focus is on Car-niceria La Altena, a taqueria located at 3316 E. Lancaster Ave., just a short drive from the campus. You may be able to judge from its name that we are talking Mexican food, and this taqueria style lunch spot was just what I hoped it would be. Prices are low, the location is close enough to Wesleyan to walk to, and the food is de-licious.
From the street there is
nothing remarkable about the place. The interior is clean and inviting and the large open dining room is tastefully decorated. The menu fits on one side of a single page and features tortas, tacos, que-sadillas, burritos and lunch plates (platillos).
Simplicity is the name of the game at La Altena. You won’t get chips and salsa while you peruse the menu. You will, however, be served a variety of fresh meats cooked perfect-ly, and everything tastes home made. It is worth pointing out that all dishes include a trio of fresh salsas ranging from pico de gallo to a spicy red salsa
and finally a tomatillo blend. Each is so delicious, you’ll wish you had a basket of chips to attack them with.
One of my dining compan-ions went straight for the tacos. Pastor, chorizo and bistec ta-cos were served on fresh-made flour tortillas for $1.25 each.
My other dining compan-ion ordered the torta pastor, which was seasoned pork served on a fresh roll with lettuce, tomato and a side of Mexican rice for $4.50.
After agonizing over the menu choices for a few min-utes, I decided on the special of the day. My selection was the platillo, bistec which in-cluded carne guisada served with rice, refried beans and fresh corn tortillas on the side for $4.99.
We were served in less than 10 minutes and all of the dish-es were delicious. Mexican sodas and assorted soft drinks are available and priced be-tween $1.50-$2, but we were surprised to discover that
iced tea is not on the menu. Barbacoa and menudo are of-fered only on the weekends for $5.99.
La Altena opens for business at 9 a.m. but offers the same menu all day with no special breakfast items available. The place is really a hidden trea-sure in the heart of the Wes-
leyan community. You can get there fast, get served fast and enjoy a variety of scrumptious authentic Mexican meals at reasonable prices.
After lunch, we stepped through into La Altena’s Car-niceria and mini-supermar-ket located under the same roof. Fresh cuts of beef, chick-
en and pork were available in the butcher shop as well as a variety of specialty foods such as fresh tortillas and chichar-rones, pork rinds.
For authentic fresh-made Mexican favorites at a super price, you only need to go a short distance off campus to visit La Altena Taqueria.
La Altena serves up authentic Mexican munchies
Angie Ruiz | Rambler StaffLa Altena offers a variety of authentic Mexican tacos within walking distance.
Event Time/Place
Oct. 21Junior/Senior Recital
Concert: Maroon 5
5:30 pm - Martin Hall
8 pm - Superpages.com Center
Oct. 22
Concert: Bush/Filter
Concert: The Creep-show
8 pm - Palladium Ball-room
8 pm - Lakewood Bar and Grill
Oct. 23 Wesleyan Music at the Modern
2 pm - Modern Art Mu-seum of Fort Worth
Oct. 24 Greater Fort Worth Community Band 3 pm - Martin Hall
Oct. 25 Play: The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
7:30 pm - Casa Ma-nana
Oct. 26 The Virtuoso String Quartet
7:30 pm - Martin Hall
Oct. 27 Concert: Interpol 7 pm - The Palladium
Upcoming Events:
Chuck’s helpful Halloween costume tipsThis hideous thing is supposed to be a cupcake costume. It looks like it needs
to go back in the oven.
The nerd outfit is a classic choice. Some of you may not have to buy anything new for this outfit.
The ninja outfit not only looks cool, none of your friends will know it’s you out trick-or-treating.
Be it cop, nurse or cocktail waitress, a sexy version of any costume choice is always a good call in my book.
Graphic by Meisa Keivani Najafabadi
Barry Grubbs | [email protected]
Arts & EntertainmentThe RambleR | www.therambler.org October 20, 2010 | 7
Good morning TWU StudentsBreakfast Combo $2.50
Breakfast muffin, egg and coffee
After 5 pm. buy 2 foot long subs for $5 each
Right next to campus at 3012 East Rosedale
VESLEYAN
MONSTER
BASH
Free
Food
Drinks&Prizes
CostumeContestPumpkinChunkin Contest DJ&More!!(NoKidsPlease)
Friday,Oct.29
6pm-10pm
@theSUB
Delivered To Your Desk.
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directly to your inbox.
Sign up at www.therambler.org
Jackass 3D sticks to its guns, pushes the envelopeJonathan [email protected]
The kings of disgust-ing buffoonery returned to their stomach-churning antics Oct. 15 in the third installment of the Jackass movie series—this time, in 3-D.
Ten years after the origi-nal television show debut, Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O and Bam Margera all used the film to show the time-lessness of their antics—or the unwavering immaturity of their fans.
In an age where MTV sel-dom shows music videos, Jackass 3D nodded to the channel’s bad boy heyday with an introduction by the pioneering duo Beavis and Butt-head.
With a reputation for larg-er than life introductions, Jackass 3D didn’t disap-point. With the Dickhouse Productions rainbow logo as the backdrop, the gang took turns going through their usual self-torturing rituals during the opening scenes.
Deadline Hollywood, an online entertainment news website, reported Jackass 3D’s opening box office gross at $50 million, showing big pain can rake in big bucks.
According to Deadline Hollywood, not only were Jackass 3D’s opening num-bers more than double the favored flick The Social Net-work, it held on to the num-ber one spot throughout the weekend.
While not exactly pioneer-ing, the movie’s 3-D effects were certainly innovative in the realm of tastelessness. The effects increased the
gross out factor—few things make bodily fluids more ap-palling than feeling like the vomit or urine spilling off the screen is going to land on you.
More notable, however, was director Jeff Tremaine’s constant use of slow mo-tion. With the action mov-ing incredibly slow, audi-ence members could see
every jiggle of the jowl when someone is punched or an-nihilated in any way.
The movie would not be fit of its title if multiple scenes involving animals were not used.
The usual large and ornery animals such as bulls and rams made appearances and did their best to gore the no-torious celebs.
The animal whose perfor-mance shined the brightest, however, was the mammoth of a pig named Bob. No spoilers will be given, but Bob’s scene probably shook PETA up the most.
Jackass 3D stuck to the for-mula, often leaving the audi-ence’s mouths agape while they wondered what would happen next. The whole
movie still initiates an odd desire for the shenanigans to continue nonstop. Sense-less violence? Check. More than 50 percent of stunts involving bodily secretions? Check. Almost constant full frontal male nudity? Check. Scorpions and pooh-coast-ers? Ugh, check.
With audible gasps, groans and laughter from the crowd
from beginning to end, the new Jackass movie lived up to its crass predecessors. Considering the money the film cashed in at the box of-fice, the most for the month of October ever—there’s no reason the film shouldn’t be the third in a line of a dozen movies.
It doesn’t take a jackass to figure that out.
Photo courtesy of IGNThe Jackass crew celebrates the opening of their new 3D adventure.
MOVIE REVIEW
College Life8 | October 20, 2010 The RambleR | www.therambler.org
Religious Life at Texas Wesleyan
Live music with brief time of worship Tuesdays at 12:15 in PUMC Chapel Free lunch after on PUMC 3rd Floor – Room 312
Free lunch and discussion/dialogue Thursdays at 12:15 in PUMC Chapel PUMC 3rd Floor – Room 312
“Faith seeking understanding” – ALL are welcome!
For info: http://www.txwes.edu/religiouslife/index.htm
University Chapel:
Common Meal:
Texas Wesleyan Presents
• October23at2:0
0p.m.
Wesleyan Music at the Modern
ModernArtMuseumofFort
Worth
For more information, visit The Music Department at
http://www.txwes.edu/music/mu-sic/index.htm
or call 817.531.4992
• October24at3:00p.m.Greater Fort Worth Community BandMartinHall
The Virtuoso String Quartet -
Playing Quartets of Haydn and
Brahms
• October26at7:30
p.m.
MartinHall
Visit www.therambler.org or stop by the Rambler Office
located in the OC Armstrong Hall for more details and applications.
Seeking applicants
for the Rambler!
Don’t Miss Your Opportunity!
Hubba, hubba, hubba...Wesleyan Starlett Dance Team and Cheer Squad host their 2nd annual Date AuctionEliana [email protected]
Money flew, numbers were exchanged and deals were negotiated at the second annual Date Auction in Lou’s Pavillion Oct. 13.
The Wesleyan Starlett Dance Team teamed up with members of the cheer squad and mas-cot team to auction off dates with sorority girls, male and female athletes, and regular students to raise money for nationals.
Wesleyan students filled the room after hours of preparation in hopes of getting the highest bid for their dates.
“I couldn’t decide between a skirt and jeans, but I figured the skirt would make more money for a great cause,” said freshman kinesiology ma-jor Dominque Arthur.
Food, drink and cookies were available for participants and bidders. With no entrance fee, bids started at $5 and went up to $100.
The auction heated up when two and three-for-one deals stepped up to the stage. Three men’s basketball players, Jeremy Smith, senior liberal arts major, Jonathan Blake, senior com-puter graphics major, and Jeremy Mayfield, se-nior mass communication major, went for $75.
“It was really awkward being up there, but it was worth it for a good cause,” Blake said.
All participants bought are required to go through with the dates within 30 days.
Robert Tutt, freshman liberal studies major, and buyer of a three-for-one deal with two fe-male basketball players and a female soccer player, said he plans to take them to a party to “avoid any awkwardness.”
The money from the date auction will go to-ward traveling expenses for the cheerleaders, dance team and mascots.
“It was a huge turnout and a big success,” said head cheer and dance coach Carolyn Ikens, “We really appreciate all the support.”
(Far top right) Senior exercise science major Tay-lor Pokluda pushes for a winning bid. (Bottom left) Stefania Quevedo cracks a smile as the bidding wars ensue. (Bottom right) Freshman kinesiology major Garrett White vies for a date. Photos by Meisa Keiv-ani Najafabadi and Jonathan Resendez.