Department of Journalism and Mass Communication :: Abilene Christian University :: Serving the ACU community since 1912

Pg 4InsideThis Issue:

Former ACU athletes compete in 2008 Beijing Olympics

Ready and Reading: Freshmen eager to read ‘Same Kind of Different As Me’

ACU named ‘Technology Innovator’ for Mobile Learning Initiative

Pg 8 Pg 12

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Log on to www.youtube.com/acu-video to see a short newscast from the JMC Network News Cast staff. The JMC Network News Cast staff will post news, sports, arts and fea-tures casts weekly on the JMC Net-work’s YouTube Web site.

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By Michael FreemanManaging Editor

ACU president Dr. Royce Money assured members of the faculty and staff during his State of the University speech in Cullen Auditorium Wednesday he intends to con-tinue serving as president to see the 21st Century Vision implemented.

“In May, the Board [of Trustees] asked me to extend my time as president, which I am very happy to do,” Money said. “I believe so much in this vision; I want to see it successfully launched.”

But Money discussed more than his decision to stay with the university. He informally began the event by distrib-uting gift cards and joking about staff members’ birth-days. Then after reviewing the Board of Trustees’ plans for the rest of the week and rec-ognizing certain staff mem-bers for their work over the summer, Money spoke about the 21st Century Vision.

The 21st Century Vision is a plan for transforming ACU within the next 12 years into the top university for Chris-tian students. For the next five years, the university has four goals: “to produce leaders who think critically, globally and missionally; build distinctive and innovative programs; cre-ate a unique Christ-centered experience that calls students into community and to extend ACU’s Christian influence and educational reach nationally and internationally,” accord-ing to ACU’s Strategic Plan for 2009-2013.

The exceptional plan is not an original endeavor for ACU because school leaders have been aiming high since the university was founded, Money said.

“Don’t get the idea that we’re inventing this,” he said. “We’re a link in the chain.”

Money wrapped up his State of the University speech with his account of a discussion between two recent ACU Malagasy gradu-ates and an international banking executive when he

Welcome Week starts a ‘rLOVEution’ for incoming studentsBy Lydia MelbyArts Editor

Welcome Week 2008, titled “rLOVEution,” followed the traditional format and includ-ed the usual favorites like the world’s largest game of Twister, the Candlelight Devotional, the free movie and the Freshman Talent Show, as well as the re-turn of the mentor group Olym-

pics and an open mic night. All of these events made

Welcome Week memorable for its participants; however, it’s the changes that were made to Welcome Week and the First-Year program that will make this year revolutionary.

Some of the changes made to the activities were fairly minor, like the addition of a mechanical bull to the pep rally fun or the

removal of the tug-of-war event from the mentor group Olym-pics. Due to weather issues, the Candlelight Devotional and the Paramount movie events were switched, and although this re-sulted in the “Cool Runnings” movie premiering in Moody Coliseum instead of the Para-mount Theatre, students were still enthusiastic about the film and managed to easily fill the

available seats.Other changes to Welcome

Week were more significant and were meant to have last-ing effects on the students’ first year at ACU. The First-Year Program added a session called Campus Conversations, which Eric Gumm, director of Orientation, said were “simi-lar to the Chapel forums from last year [and were] designed

to introduce new students to the kind of intellectual discus-sions that they will encounter in Chapel or in class or just around campus with other stu-dents and teachers.”

Perhaps the most meaning-ful addition to Welcome Week was the voluntary Freshmen Common Reading program. The freshmen who chose to participate received a free copy

of the book the Same Kind of Different as Me, a biographi-cal account written by Denver Moore and Ron Hall, which tells the story of the friendship be-tween a homeless drifter and an international art dealer. Students could participate in a variety of activities based on the readings, including two

See Welcome page 9

Dr. Money pledges to remain president

See Money page 9

Pg. 6 & 7 See photos from various Welcome Week events

By Laura AcuffOpinion Page Editor

3G has come to ACU with the AT&T installation of four 3G towers around campus, ac-celerating the initial plan to equip the city of Abilene with 3G capability sometime in 2009. These towers support the recently launched mobile learning initiative because 3G technologies enable operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced mobile phone services including a faster wire-less connection.

“We’re about a year-and-a-half ahead of the rest of

Abilene,” said Kevin Roberts, Chief Information Officer and director of re-engineering. “So it was kind of just a gesture of goodwill on the part of AT&T to say, ‘Hey, you know what? We appreciate all you’re doing. We will bring these towers up as 3G. We’ll blanket your campus with 3G as well.’”

Of the four 3G towers, two are stationed on top of ACU buildings, and two are located off, but near, campus.

“We work really hard for those towers not to be obvious,” Roberts said. “Aesthetically, we

ACU Mobile MyACU MobilePocket GuideBy using the ACU Mobile Web site at http://m.acu.edu students can find out what is happening in Chapel, find maps and directions around campus and Abilene and have several other resources a finger tap away:

n Information about ACU

n Weekly Chapel schedules

n Upcoming Campus Events

n Maps of Abilene and ACU

n Campus News

n Directory of Students, ACU Departments and Faculty

Whether students are looking for a good place to eat, or need to find the nearest movie theatre, they can access information about a variety of venues in the Pocket Guide feature of the ACU Mobile Interface:

n Local Sporting Facilities

n Museums

n Local Churches

n Movie Theatres

n Restaurants

n Local Art Galleries

Just by tapping their My Mobile icon on their iPhone or iPod touch, students can see how many Chapel credits they have, their meal plan balance and their account balance, but that is only the tip of the interface:

n Class Schedule

n Meal Plan, UniPrint Balances

n Chapel Credits

n Access to Class Folders

n Access to Google Calendars

n Access to Class Documents

ACU WEATHER

Monday TuesdayHigh: 95Low: 72

Wednesday

High: 96Low: 73

High: 97Low: 72

By Daniel Johnson-KimEditor in Chief

Luz Hernandez will miss her red Samsung flip phone, but not that much.After waiting in line Aug. 16 with a multitude of other freshmen and their families,

Hernandez, freshman business marketing major from Sulfur Springs, made her way to an open table where an AT&T representative was waiting to hand her an iPhone — one of the most cutting edge mobile devices in the world, compliments of ACU.

“This is weird,” Hernandez said, while holding her iPhone in her hands for the first time. “I have a friend that has one of these, and he said that you miss the buttons on a regular phone.”

More than 950 freshmen received an iPhone or an iPod touch as part of ACU’s Mo-bile Learning Initiative, an effort to incorporate the Apple mobile learning devices in the classrooms and hallways of ACU. The distribution of the devices began Aug. 16 and is

By Michael FreemanManaging Editor

Freshmen will not be the only people beginning the school year with a free iPhone. About 150 faculty members will be equipped with iPhones or iPod touches to use in their classes this semester.

“I’ve found my colleagues very supportive,” said Dr. Kyle Dickson, associate pro-fessor of English and co-di-rector of the Mobile Learning Research. “Media is not solely about entertainment, but it’s also a key tool in education.”

Many faculty members be-

gan ordering their iPhones shortly after the 3G version went on sale in July. Most have received their iPhones; however, a few are still wait-ing for their iPhones to arrive at the local AT&T store. Fac-ulty, including adjunct and part-time instructors, who will be teaching freshman-level courses had first prior-ity to the iPhones.

“We tried to make sure that people who were teach-ing classes like University 100 had first access to these devices,” said William Rankin,

Abilene Mobile University

Faculty join freshmen, eager to add to initiative

ACU first in Abilene to add AT&T 3G Network

University dishes out more than 950 Apple devices

See 3G page 9See Faculty page 9

August 25, 2008 :: Vol. 97, No. 1 :: 1 section, 10 pages :: www.acuoptimist.com

In Other NewsObama chooses Biden

See Initiative page 9

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama offi-cially announced his selection of Joe Biden, D-Delaware, as his running mate Saturday. Obama appeared with Biden, 65, in front of the historic building where Abraham Lin-coln served as a state legislator and where Obama launched his 2008 presidential campaign.

Source: Associated Press

ACU-Cockerell Art Gallery1133 N. 2nd st.ACU Student Printmaking Show: Collaborative exhibition by Abilene Christian University students.Free Admission through Aug. 31Contact: 325-674-2085

First day of classes, electronic check- in begins.

11a.m.Opening Ceremoniescommence in Moody Coliseum, with the Parade of Flags. Dr. Jack Scott, California State Senator, will be speaking.

Christian Rock BandA Plea For Purging performs at Rose Park Activity Building, 2633 S. 7th St.

Moonlight & Magnolias at 7:30 p.m. in the Fulks Theatre. Call 325-674-ARTS (2787) for tickets Directed by Gary VarnerAugust 28-30.

HHRB Tour StopHomer Hiccolm & the Rocket Boys playing at the University Baptist Church on the corner of Grape and Ambler. Concert starts at 7 p.m.

Calendar and Events

Wednesday25

Monday Tuesday Thursday

Volunteer OpportunitiesInterested in Service? Apply for

the Service Action Leadership Team. Join other students in service to the community and leadership across campus. S.A.L.T. applications are due Friday and are available in the Volun-teer Service-Learning Center, located downstairs next to the Bean Sprout. If you would like to get more involved

with the community, you can also vol-unteer to be a Big Brother or Sister by dedicating a small portion of your time to the local Big Brother’s Big Sisters program, which provides volunteers to be a friend, role model and influ-ence in a young person’s life. You can apply online at www.bbbs.org

CreditedChapelsto date:

CreditedChapelsremaining:

Checkup00 66

Chapel

Monday, August 25, 2008

Campus Day2

acuoptimist.com

26 27 28Coming Soon: Police Log

A log of the ACU Police Department’s daily activities will be printed on this page of the Optimist. The first Police Log will be printed Wednesday.

The Optimist maintains this calendar for the ACU community to keep track of local social, academic and service opportunities.

Groups may send announcements directly to jmcnetwork@acu.edu or to the Page 2 Editor at mab07d@acu.edu.

To ensure that an item will appear on time, the announcement should be sent at least 10 days before. The Optimist may edit items for space and style.

Corrections and clarifications of published news articles will be printed in this space in a timely manner.

See videos of freshmen receiving their new iPhones and iPod touches. Also, view the events of Welcome Week on YouTube.

Log on to www.youtube.com/acuvideo to see a short newscast from the JMC Network Newscast Staff.

Online video Webcast

By Lydia MelbyArts Editor

Campus was flooded Satur-day with exuberant new stu-dents happy finally to be start-ing their college career, but few were more relieved to be in Abilene than Sarah McKnight, freshman communication ma-jor from Weatherfield, Conn.

“My first flight left Hart-ford on Saturday at 5:30 in the morning, and I was supposed to be here at two in the after-noon, but I ended up getting in at 7:00 p.m. instead,” McKnight said, attributing to various flight complications.

Her first plane was late arriv-ing, and her second flight, from Philadelphia to Dallas, was delayed more than two hours because of complications with landing gear, ultimately causing her to also miss her connection from Dallas to Abilene. McK-night arrived five hours later than originally planned, but her admissions counselor was able to pick her up from the airport

and get her to campus without further event.

“Yeah, I was definitely happy to finally get here after all that” she said.

McKnight opted to fly to school instead of driving for several reasons, including high gas prices.

“It would have been hard for my parents to drive me all the way down here because of their schedules,” McKnight said. But her parents may have consid-ered it if gas prices hadn’t been so high, she said.

Although the Energy Infor-mation Administration report-ed that, by Aug. 11, gas prices had fallen about 30 cents from the July 14 peak of $4.11 per gallon, the current national average of $3.65 is still 30 per-cent higher than the average national price was at this same time in 2007, recorded at $2.81 per gallon. This sharp increase in gasoline prices has changed travel plans, whether drastically or slightly, for some students.

Numerous students said

they chose to drive, some from as far away as Georgia and Virginia, because they either had too much luggage for an airplane flight or because they wanted to bring their own cars. The added strain of expensive gas might have affected the average student’s packing deci-sions, as it would be more prac-tical to be able to fit everything they might bring into a car.

Thomas Guest, junior trans-fer student from Dallas, said that the high cost of gasoline meant he had to fit everything into his car, “since my parents weren’t going to help drive me or pay for my gas, and I really didn’t want to have to use a trailer or anything.”

Although several students from the Lone Star State felt “gas pains,” McKnight said she was surprised by how much less gasoline cost here in Texas, because the price in her home-town was around $3.95 when she left.

AnnouncementsIf students are interested in pledg-

ing a social club, they must be enrolled and have completed two semesters of college, have a GPA of 2.5 or higher as well as be on good standing with the university. The last chance to reg-ister is Sept. 3, 2008. If students do not register by Sept. 3, they will not be able to pledge a social club. August

29 is the last day to register for class-es and is the last day to withdraw from a class for a 100% refund. Withdrawal forms can be found in the Depot next to the Bean.

Show goes on after Briarstone closureBy Tanner AndersonPage Designer

ACU’s Theatre Depart-ment has been entertaining and feeding the public with its Dinner Theatre since 1972, but this year the long-standing tradition is going on hold after the department’s caterer, Briarstone Manor ,closed this summer.

The Theatre Department performs two to three din-ner shows a year and was planning to make the play Moonlight & Magnolias its first Dinner Theatre of the year until it heard about Bri-arstone Manor’s closing.

“We’re exploring our dif-ferent options; we’re think-ing about finding another caterer, or whether or not to cease Dinner Theatre peri-odically,” said Adam Hester, professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre.

Either way, the depart-ment will take a year hiatus in order to find the right plan of action; they’ve already in-formed the season ticket holders about the situation.

“To produce Dinner The-atre consistently is amazing; it’s a lot to take in and evalu-ate one of the traditions that connects the campus with the community,” said Hester.

Even though the depart-

ment regrets not continuing the Dinner Theatre tradition, it’s looking for opportunities to turn this negative situa-tion into a positive one. The dinner space was only able to seat 200 diners, while the theatre holds 325 people.

Moonlight & Magnolias, al-though not a Dinner Theatre play, will begin this week. Tickets for Thursday’s event cost $12, and if students wait until opening day at 7 p.m., they can attend the event for $6 if seating is still available.

The play is a comedy and takes a humorous look at the creation of the movie Gone With the Wind. Three men attempt to write the

screenplay for the Acad-emy Award-winning film by locking themselves into a house and secluding them-selves from the rest of the world for five days.

“Movie people are bigger than life,” said Gary Varner, professor of theatre and di-rector of the play “the play is embellished for comedic reasons, but it’s important because Gone With the Wind is one of the most pivotal movies in movie history.”

Anyone wishing to see Moonlight & Magnolias will need to eat a meal before the show.

E-mail Melby at: lgm05e@acu.edu

Some struggle with travel troubles

E-mail Anderson at: tsa04a@acu.edu

About This Page

Monday, August 25, 2008 Page 3CAMPUS NEWS

Page 4 Monday, August 25, 2008CAMPUS NEWS

Mobile learning initiative garners ACU recognitionBy Laura AcuffOpinion Page Editor

Campus Technology maga-zine named ACU a 2008 Cam-pus Technology Innovator in the category of Mobile Tech-nology for the university’s mo-bile learning initiative launch-ing this semester.

Giving some ACU students and faculty iPhones and iPod touches to incorporate in the classroom, the initiative joined numerous submis-

sions from other programs, said Dr. Kyle Dickson, associ-ate professor of English and co-director of Mobile Learn-ing Research, who submitted the application.

ACU’s mobile learning initia-tive earned a top spot among 14 other categories in the peer-review-based publication.

“I think those of us on the iPhone group were just happy to be in such company,” Dick-son said. “It was a really nice surprise that, I guess, vali-

dates the year that we spent preparing for the launch of this programming. I think it was just kind of an encourag-ing, professional validation that this is an exciting step to be pursing and investigating.”

Dr. William Rankin, as-sociate professor of English and co-director of Mobile Learning Research, said the group that headed the mo-bile learning initiative appre-ciated the peer accolades.

“This is something that

we’re really excited about,” Rankin said. “It’s been gratify-ing that the hard work of so many ACU faculty has been rewarded like this, and it’s great to have the larger world acknowledging that.”

The ACU group beat out 274 competitors also consid-ered for this award, he said.

“I think that’s remarkably gratifying,” Rankin said.

For Kevin Roberts, Chief In-formation Officer and director of re-engineering, the award’s

recognition symbolized far more than the praise of a mag-azine dedicated to higher-lev-el education-oriented technol-ogy. It topped off additional worldwide recognition.

“We’ve gotten calls liter-ally from around the globe from other schools, com-panies, newspapers—every-thing from the Wall Street Journal to the New York Times,” Roberts said.

The innovative nature of what the group is doing

helps the recognition of the school, and ultimately, helps the value of an ACU degree, Roberts said.

“As more people recog-nize and know about ACU around the world, the more valuable your degree,” he said. “What comes along with that, and really the rea-son that we do this, is that it helps you, ultimately, when-ever you graduate.”

Project collects food for communityBy Kelline LintonChief Copy Editor

Fifty-three groups consist-ing of freshmen and Welcome Week leaders roamed the neigh-borhoods of Abilene Thursday for the annual Welcome Week service project.

At one time, almost 1,000 students were knocking on doors, praying over houses and handing out fliers as they asked citizens for canned goods, non-perishable foods and monetary donations for the Food Bank of West Central Texas.

The Food Bank serves hun-dreds of hungry children and families in the Big Country. It fights hunger by providing food to non-profit organiza-tions that feed the hungry; such partner agencies include soup kitchens and church pantries. It also uses all cash donations to buy food at a reduced price; for

every $10 donated, the Food Bank provides enough food for 45 meals. In the last year alone, the Food Bank distributed 3 million pounds of emergency food to West Central Texas.

Students last participated in a canned goods drive for Wel-come Week in 2002. Six years later, the First-Year Program and Volunteer and Service-Learning Center decided to use the Food Bank service project again for two reasons.

Nancy Coburn, the director of the VSLC, said, “We did this project because the economy is so challenging right now that many soup kitchens like the Food Bank are striving to meet a greater demand as more families seek their aid, and because the Freshman Common Reading used a book [Same Kind of Different as Me] that touched on how someone could minister through the

service of soup kitchens.”Student groups deposited

the collected food donations at two sites around Abilene—the United Supermarkets on Judge Ely Boulevard and Buf-falo Gap Road. A van from the Food Bank was stationed in each parking lot.

The vans were packed full with bottled waters, boxes of food and bags of cans. Students stood outside the United Su-permarket doors, distributing fliers and explaining the food drive to customers. Several times during the day, custom-ers bought canned goods on the spot or gave the students monetary donations.

Derek Chase, freshman mis-sions major from Southlake, canvassed the neighborhood and handed out fliers.

“We were taking light to other people,” he said. “It really helped everyone to

understand what ACU is all about; it’s not just a school but a community of believers who are going to be active in their faith through service,” Chase said.

The record for the most food collected by ACU students at one time was 20,000 pounds; freshmen achieved this record the first year the food drive was implemented as a service proj-ect. This year, a total of 12,179 pounds of food was collected; this is equivalent to 9,515 meals. No matter the numbers, the project’s ultimate goal was accomplished, Coburn said.

“The point of doing this ser-vice project was to introduce our students to this aspect of ACU life,” Coburn said. “Service is an important part of the uni-versity, and we hoped to spark a sense of service.”

Students hike back to safetyBy Tanner AndersonPage Designer

Two weeks ago, three friends decided to go on a five-day journey to explore and hike trails at Weminuche Public Park in Colorado, but unexpected hiccups and weather complications turned their five-day journey into 10 days of anxious hiking, until they found a group of volun-teer searchers two miles away from the park’s exit.

The men were hungry, but otherwise healthy and intact.

The three seniors, Derrick Bibb, a pre-veterinary major from Abilene; Derek Ware, a management major from Corpus Christi, and Adam Patterson, a finance major from Abilene, planned the hiking trip in an area with which Bibb has been familiar for the past five years.

Unexpected weather condi-tions like snow flurries, light-ning storms and heavy rain damaged certain parts of the trail and made other parts in-accessible. After the students did not return home for sev-eral days, their families be-came concerned. Twenty-five

friends from ACU and Sub T-16, the social club of which all three men are members, focused on making arrange-ments to help their friends in any way they could.

“For five days we tried to figure out where the trail had gone,” Bibb said. “The only time I was really concerned is when we got into some hail and a lightning storm.”

The three students were at such a high altitude, they were able to see lightning strike below them.

Bibb said his parents ini-tially thought the group ran into some weather problems; they were concerned but con-fident the men knew what they were doing.

However, certain facts the newspapers reported about their story never happened. The men were not carried to safety on horseback, and the friends were not able to get out of Weminuche by plac-ing a phone call.

The individual who cir-culated these rumors to the media claimed to be Bibb’s “lifelong friend.” While Bibb did know this person, he said that they were only ac-

quaintances and definitely not “lifelong friends.“

“It took me two hours to remember who the guy was. It’s a little frustrating but more humorous than any-thing,” Bibb said.

In reality, the men found a damaged trail, which they used to retrace their steps to the Continental Divide, a popular hiking trail, and from there they found their way to the trail exit. They ran into some would-be rescuers who walked with them the re-maining two miles and gave them a lift to their vehicle, which was 40 miles away.

“They really lifted our spirits; it helped to see oth-er people, and they also had food for us,” Ware said.

The friends had to ration their food during the hiking trip, so they could sustain themselves for five extra days.

“We all learned a lot of lessons; I’ll go back, but it’ll be awhile,” Ware said. “The whole trip has made me en-joy the little things in life a little more.”

Pete Koehn :: staff photographer

Katie Findley, junior middle school education major from Houston, loads collected food into a van for the Abilene food bank.

Four new summer programs join Study Abroad optionsBy Kimberly PratherBroadcast Assistant

Study Abroad enabled ACU students to trek across the world this summer with the standard programs of Oxford, England, and Montevideo, Uru-guay, and others reached be-yond, expanding to Honduras, Italy, Germany and China.

Eight students from the De-partment of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences vis-ited Honduras in May, and stu-dents from the Department of Art and Design traveled to Ox-ford in May and Florence, Italy, for Summer I. The Department of Accounting and Finance took 26 students to Oxford at the same time as the Psy-chology Department took 15 students to Ludwig, Germany. The program Faith and Litera-ture, which is led by one Bible professor and one English pro-fessor, traveled to Oxford with 27 students during Summer II, and the Education Department visited China during Summer II with eight students.

Brianna Ribble, senior so-

cial studies and education major from Denver, Colo., attended the China study abroad program; she spent a little more than a month teaching English in a Sum-mer Language Program at the International Academy of Beijing.

Students had the oppor-tunity to not just mentor but also to see all the preparations for the 2008 Olympic games held in Beijing. They also vis-ited one of the greatest won-ders of the world—the Great Wall of China.

“It was an amazing oppor-tunity; I got to see a culture completely different than my own,” Ribble said.

Lauren Graham, the Study Abroad Coordinator, said students interested in the opportunity should “go for it” and stay persistent with their goals.

“Students say it sounds corny, but they come back saying it really was the best semester of their lives. It re-ally validates our promotion of a ‘semester to last a life-time,’” Graham said.

Ribble can vouch for it being ‘a semester to last a lifetime’ twice, for she also participated in the Oxford program in spring 2007.

“China and Oxford each had a different focus. The focus on China was on teaching, where as the focus in Oxford was on travel, but both programs showed me a different part

of the world and expanded my global view,” Ribble said. “When you get out of the ACU bubble and enter into a differ-ent culture, you learn about how you perceive others, and most importantly, you learn about yourself,” she said.

Students have said Study Abroad changed them. Aside from the lectures and course work that go with these summer courses, to actually experience the same events and walk the same steps as someone a world away is a life-changing occurrence all on its own.

“Study Abroad is an expe-rience like no other. There are very few people that can say that they have been to the Eiffel tower and the Great Wall of China before they have even graduated college,” Ribble said.

As students prepare to leave Aug. 27 for the Oxford and Montevideo programs, they prepare for a time they also can hope to be a “semes-ter to last a lifetime.”

study abroad

The Study Abroad program now offers these new locations for summer semesters:

n Hondurasn Italyn Germanyn China

E-mail acuff at: lka06a@acu.edu

E-mail Linton at: krl04b@acu.edu

E-mail anderson at: tsa04a@acu.edu

E-mail Prather at: kap04d@acu.edu

Monday, August 25, 2008 Page 5Advertisement

Page 7Page 6

Kat Patton :: staff photographer

Above: Jaimie Howard, freshman animal sciences major from Dallas, and Paige Loukanis, freshman animal sciences major from Magnolia, compete to win pairs Twister. Twister boards almost completely covered the Moody Coliseum floor. Below: Emily Mc-Callum, freshman marketing major from Rockwall, tags an oppos-ing teammate in intramural football.

Zak Zeinert :: chief photographer

A relay team groups together after an intense race at the mentor group Olympics. Before the race, each team selected one member of the group to parade their flag in front of all the freshmen gathered in Elmer Gray Stadium.

Pete Koehn :: staff photographer

Above Left: Jordan Johnson, sophomore psychology major from Flower Mound, tumbles off a mechanical bull during Friday Frenzy. Above: Hunter Clinton, freshman business major from Keller, un-packs his bedding on move-in day. Below: Carson Henley, fresh-man biochemistry major from Colleyville, accepts a can of green beans from Abilene resident Rita Kehl during a service project.

Emily Jorgenson :: staff photographer

Conner Halstead, junior youth and family ministry major from Odessa, and Julie Eichelberger, junior piano perfor-mance major from Houston, wave signs for their group during the opening ceremonies.

Zak Zeinert :: chief photographer

Early-rising freshmen meet at 6:30 a.m. for breakfast and a lesson from Randy Harris, professor of Bible, at the Sunrise Devotional.Zak Zeinert :: chief photographer

Freshmen enter the opening ceremonies accompanied by cheering and the Olympic Fanfare and Theme.

WelcomeWEEKWeek2008

Pete Koehn :: staff photographerPete Koehn :: staff photographer

Kat Patton :: staff photographer

August 25, 2008

The most tiring, sleepless week of the semester — before class even starts

By Kelline LintonChief Copy Editor

Fifty freshmen crowded into the Walling Lecture Hall on Thursday with books in hand, ready to converse and interact academically even though classes had not yet started. They were participat-ing in the first session of the Freshman Common Read-ing, an optional activity that centered on the analysis and discussion of the book Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore.

The book details real-life events about diverse people who come together through the power of God to dramati-cally impact each other.

Although the Freshman Common Reading is not for class credit, 400 students and 80 faculty members have already requested the book. Some freshman class-es, like Bible and University Seminar, also will use the book in their curriculum.

The Common Reading program consists of two freshman group sessions during Welcome Week, a fac-ulty discussion in the Adams Center and an ongoing on-line forum that anyone can

join at acuoffthepage.wik.is. The group forum and blog site encourages students “to go beyond the written words of the book, to take its ideas to the next level and to translate these reading experiences into action—in short, to go Beyond the Page into real life.”

The program concludes with a visit by the authors Sept. 9. Both Hall and Moore will sign books and answer questions beginning at 2 p.m. in Hart Auditorium. This event is open to only ACU students, faculty and staff; the rest of the Abilene community can meet the authors at 7 p.m. in Moody Coliseum.

Freshman participants can also enter a contest centered on the reading by creating and turning in work inspired by the story, like a poem, essay or short film. All submissions are due by 3 p.m. on Aug. 29, and the winner of the contest will receive a $500 scholar-ship; second and third places will receive $250 each.

Dr. Charles Mattis, dean of the First-Year Program, and Steven Moore, assistant pro-fessor of English, led the two Freshman Common Reading sessions on Thursday and Fri-

day. They discussed the main themes of the book, including friendship, race and prejudice, homelessness and prayer.

“This book really struck me because it had so many differ-ent themes, it relates to really important issues that are cur-rent today, it’s relatively easy to read and it’s real and au-thentic,” Mattis said.

Kaytlin Wiseman, freshman communication major from Glen Rose, liked the book be-cause “it was about real peo-ple in our area; it’s a true story with real places you can actu-ally visit.”

The Common Reading was an academic activity that stimulated conversa-tion and interaction.

“We were trying to intro-duce students to the intel-lectual life at ACU; you get to know people a whole lot bet-ter if you talk about deeper issues. We discussed deep im-portant issues that matter to God and matter to the world,” Mattis said.

Amanda Arzigian, fresh-man physics major from Edge-wood, N.M., thought the book went well with ACU’s mission to change the world.

“It really got me to think,” she said. “I saw ways I could

live differently and how some things are neither good nor bad but just different.”

Fifty freshmen attended the first discussion session, and about 40 students attend-ed the second session.

“[The first session] blew me away in terms of the ques-tions, comments and insights. Normally when you do some-thing like this, people are shy, especially on the first day,” Moore said.

The First-Year Program paid for the books and the au-thors’ upcoming visit. Mattis had wanted to start a program like this for some time and thinks eventually the Com-mon Reading may be used in the new cornerstone course.

“What a great opportunity to be with 1,000 other people that have similar concerns for the world,” Mattis said.

Any freshman or faculty member can still request a free copy of the book, and anyone else who wants to participate in the program can buy the book in The Campus Store.

“The whole campus is in-vited [to participate],” Mattis said. “I just can’t afford to buy books for everyone.”

Page 8 Monday, August 25, 2008CAMPUS NEWS

Freshmen connect through new Common Reading program

Fewer graduates than usual walk in August CommencementBy Kimberly PratherBroadcast Assistant

Aug. 8 was not just the start of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, it also was August Commencement—the graduation service that award-ed 38 undergraduate and 39 graduate students their diplo-mas from ACU.

The ceremony started with a benediction and several desig-nated speakers and concluded

with the ceremonial procedure of degrees. Dr. Charles Mattis, dean of the First-Year Program, gave A Charge to the Class.

The College of Arts and Sci-ences, College of Biblical Stud-ies, College of Business Admin-istration, College of Education and Human Services and Patty Hanks School of Nursing all awarded undergraduate stu-dents with degrees, while the College of Arts and Sciences, Graduate School of Theology

and the Patty Hanks School of Nursing distributed diplomas to graduate students.

This summer’s August Com-mencement was smaller than previous August graduations; usually ceremonies average 50 participating undergraduates.

“We are not sure as to why this year’s ceremony was small-er; it could be due to several students who graduated who just were not able to participate in commencement because of

work or other commitments,” said Bart Herridge, director of Academic Records.

The August graduation list always is smaller than May Commencement numbers, but this leaves room for greater per-sonal connections, said Kathy Redman, Student Services and Information specialist.

“The intimacy is what makes the difference. Because it was smaller, it made more of a special, tender moment to see

the students’ smiling faces up close,” Redman said.

This summer’s graduation also awarded the first two grad-uates from the online courses offered at ACU.

August graduation repre-sents an opportunity for stu-dents to finish their last course hours without having to enroll in another complete semester.

“As to why students finish in August, it’s really varied based on the student,” Her-

ridge said. “Many of them simply had a class or two left over that they were unable to fit into earlier semesters, which moved them from May to August Commencement.”

August Commencement, however, does function the same as the May and De-cember Commencements—it opens the door for ACU stu-dents to change the world.

Photo courtesy of Amazon.com

Authors Ron Hall and Denver Moore will visit ACU Sept. 9 to dis-cuss their book, which freshmen read during Welcome Week.

E-mail Prather at: kap04d@acu.edu

E-mail Linton at: krl04b@acu.edu

August 25, 2008 Page 9FROM THE FRONT

Initiative: Mobile devices will cost more than $200K

Money: President recalls Malagasy ceremony

associate professor of English and co-director of the Mobile Learning Research. “We want-ed the faculty who are teach-ing those students to be able to use them in the classroom.”

In preparation for this year, ACU developed an iPhone in-terface specifically tailored to university events and features. Three tabs in the interface include an ACU mobile tab, a personal mobile tab and a pocket guide. For their classes, faculty will work heavily within the personal mobile tab, which contains class information,

Google calendars and the Files folders. Faculty also will have access to their class rosters, e-mail and student attendance via the iPhone. Another appli-cation featured in the personal mobile tab is called NANO tools. NANO tools provides faculty with a quick way to poll their students.

“With one touch, it pro-vides you with everything you need to connect to your teacher,” Rankin said. “People are very excited about this tool and its use.”

Both Rankin and Dickson acknowledged that while many

professors will immediately in-corporate the iPhone into their courses, some may not use it as an educational tool at all.

“This is an additional tool available for faculty mem-bers,” Dickson said. “We’re investigating possible appli-cations for these tools rather than legislating. These tools are not being recommended to every teacher with every kind of teaching style.”

Still, Rankin and Dickson said they were optimistic for the fu-ture of multimedia tools, such as the iPhone and iPod touch, in the education process.

“Ultimately, what we really want this device and program to do is to help students and teachers both be more engaged in exploring the pleasure of learning,” Rankin said. “If you think about it, we’re inherently inquisitive creatures. We want to know how things work. But in a lot of cases, education de-stroys that pleasure of discov-ery, that pleasure of learning, and we’re trying to find ways to bring that pleasure back.”

visited Madagascar last June. Money recounted the gradu-ates telling their story to the banking executive on how

their lives were transformed during their time at ACU. One graduate said when she was a freshman she only had thoughts of earning a profit-able degree, but after gradu-

ating, she now wanted to start a volunteer service cen-ter to rehabilitate prostitutes in Madagascar.

“The rippling effects of what God can do are just

enormous,” Money said. “This university in this little West Texas town is having a global impact.”

Welcome Week discussion sessions, an online discus-sion and even a creative writing contest. The authors themselves will be on campus Sept. 9 to give a Chapel forum presentation that wraps up the reading plan.

The Welcome Week service project for this year was based on the themes of homeless-ness and physical need found in the Same Kind of Different as Me and involved students canvassing Abilene neighbor-hoods to collect non-perish-able food items for the Food Bank of West Central Texas.

“This kind of project has been quite successful in the past.” Gumm said. “Five years ago students collected rough-ly 20,000 pounds of food items.”

still ongoing as freshmen who did not attend Welcome Week make their way to ACU, said Kay Reeves, director of Technology Support and Cus-tomer Service.

“We don’t know when the end is,” Reeves said.

Although the exact number of iPhones and iPod touches distributed among the stu-dents of the class of 2012 has not been compiled, the more popular device between the two was the iPhone. Reeves said more than 600 freshmen chose to upgrade their phone plan and receive an iPhone, while almost 350 freshmen chose the iPod touch. Trans-fer students were not given iP-hones or iPod touches.

An iPhone costs around $199 and an iPod touch costs around $299, but students did not have to pay for the devic-es. Each student signed a Mo-bile Device Program Student Agreement, which laid out the policies of the program and ex-plained that ACU retained all ownership of the devices; the students were granted a “lim-ited license” to use the device. Students who chose the iPhone are responsible for the month-ly phone charges.

“The phone is property of ACU, and they can choose to take it back at any point in time,” said George Saltsman, director of the Adams Center for Teaching and Learning.

The amount ACU will have to pay for the devices is un-known, but it will be more

than $200,000. Kevin Roberts, Chief Information Officer and director of re-engineering, said it is a small price to pay for the educational benefits of the devices.

“Not just us, but literally the world is watching this group of students at ACU and ask-ing, ‘Hey how do you use these things?’” Roberts said.

Students can use the de-vices for everything from an-swering in-class surveys and quizzes, checking their meal and account balances, receiv-ing homework alerts and even downloading the occasional game. Laura Lybrand, fresh-man communication major from San Antonio, said it is up to each individual student to make sure they don’t waste the opportunity to use the devices

and up to ACU to enhance the learning environment.

“It depends on the person,” Lybrand said, conceding that some students may just “play and mess around with” their new devices.

Reeves said the university is going to be active in mak-ing sure students know how to use the devices, and a Team 55 representative is will be available to help each student troubleshoot. During Welcome Week and the first few weeks of school, Team 55 represen-tatives will visit the residence halls and station themselves in the lobbies to help with any questions, Reeves said. On ACU cable Channel 55 video tutori-als on how to use the devices will play around the clock.

Students were trained on

how to use the devices when they were distributed, and Reeves said students can al-ways call or go to the Team 55 desk in the Learning Commons for technical support.

Although the university has established some plans for use inside the classroom, Roberts said ACU will constantly check in with the freshmen and the faculty to get new ideas on how to use the devices in an academic setting.

“My hope is freshmen will go, ‘Can you please stop ask-ing us about these things,’” Roberts said.

Roberts said the university has been fighting the myth that the Mobile Learning Initia-tive is a gimmick to increase enrollment numbers since the announcement in February,

but ACU has taken steps to plan how to use the devices and make sure they are used for more than the occasional Facebook message.

“It’s a tool just like a whiteboard, a overhead pro-jector and a pen and paper,” Roberts said.

Hernandez was more than happy to receive her new tool, but the whole experi-ence was a little daunting for Roger Elliot, a family friend who went through the line with Hernandez.

“When we went to school, they gave you a book and put you in a dark corner,” Elliot said. “They didn’t give you any of this stuff.”

E-mail Johnson-Kim at: djj04a@acu.edu

Continued from page 1

3G: Towers boost wireless Internetwant to make sure they fit in and you don’t even really no-tice they’re there.”

AT&T installed the tow-ers at no cost to ACU, and the university even collects some slight rent by allowing the towers on campus, Rob-erts said.

Previous to 3G networks, 2G, or EDGE, networks cov-ered all of Abilene, and all cellular devices, including iP-hones, can still connect to this older network.

“You’re going to be fine because basically what they did was add the 3G on top of the existing EDGE networks,” said Arthur Brant, network administrator. “With the new iPhones, you can turn off 3G, and it will run on the standard EDGE network, on the second generation network.”

Roberts recommends that students turn off 3G to utilize EDGE.

“On campus, the wireless is always going to be a little bit faster,” Roberts said. “One thing, though too, that we’re telling the students as well: 3G, it is really fast, but it also just flat drinks your battery, whether you’re searching the Internet or not.”

Brant said the advantages of 3G are an increase in speed for data connections.

The 3G towers enable a small radius off campus to maintain 3G capability and give 3G compatible device us-ers greater security in know-ing that if the Wi-Fi failed, their devices could default to 3G without losing coverage, Roberts said.

Wireless Internet and the cellular network are two sepa-rate entities, and the addition of 3G networks may not lend speed to ACU wireless Inter-net, especially since iPhones are programmed to default to Wi-Fi. The iPod touch uses Wi-Fi exclusively.

Even if many iPhone users defaulted to 3G, the differ-ence in speed would be neg-ligible due to ACU’s relatively small pool of participants.

Additionally, the downside to using 3G networks exclusively might outweigh the benefits, Roberts said.

“I haven’t experienced [is-sues with 3G stability], but there’s a lot of [Internet chat-ter], when you read out on the blogs, of the 3G being not as stable, just dropping calls and things like that,” Roberts said. “Again, we’ve not had complaints about that; we’ve not experienced that here, but you don’t hear those com-plaints at all about the EDGE network. It’s an older, more stable network.”

Because the iPhones and iPod touches would be ac-cessing the Internet, ACU has taken, and continues to take, measures to ensure the Wi-Fi is prepared to handle the ex-tra traffic.

“We spent a lot of time this summer revamping all of our wireless,” Roberts said. “We had to rethink and retool our entire wireless network, and part of that was, I guess, heightened because of these devices.”

Despite the addition of iP-hones, the wireless network was in need of an update. Although wireless was avail-able throughout campus, its capability to support multiple users necessitated a boost, Roberts said.

“The reality is, regardless of whether we gave the iP-hones out or not, everybody’s bringing laptops now; people have other smart phones,” he said. “It was the need to have deeper wireless access that was really important.”

Starting with high traffic areas like the Campus Center and the Brown Library, ACU increased Wi-Fi capabilities this summer.

Adding 300 wireless net-work access points, ACU is do-ing its best to supply wireless for the 600 iPhones and iPod touches issued this semester and the 98 percent student population that is already ar-riving at ACU with some type of cellular phone, Brant said.

E-mail Acuff at: lka06a@acu.edu

Faculty: Officials confident in classroom useContinued from page 1

Continued from page 1

Welcome: ACU freshmen have success with service project

Continued from page 1

E-mail Freeman at: mxf04b@acu.edu

E-mail Freeman at: mxf04b@acu.edu

Continued from page 1

E-mail Melby at: lgm05e@acu.edu

Long after the fire from the Olympic Cauldron is extin-guished, the lingering ques-tion will remain—how are we

to perceive the Beijing O l y m p i c s taking place in one of the most oppres-sive regimes in the world?

With the main theme of the Open-ing Ceremo-nies being “peace” and

“harmony,” it seems that the Chinese government is naïve enough to believe the world is as uninformed as their citizens. To China, the Olympics became a way for the government to re-lease their propaganda on a worldwide platform.

The first people targeted were those who stood in the way of China portraying it-self as a pleasant and peace-ful society. China promised to give journalists “complete freedom to report.” Howev-er, China blocked all blogs, news or Web sites the did not agree with it politically.

Just in the past year, Chi-na arrested thousands of petitioners and reformists. Any pro-Tibetan protesters, however mild, were detained and jailed. The Chinese Gov-ernment seemed to believe it could get away with this sort of oppressive behavior. The media and other world lead-ers have let China know their actions were not to be tolerat-ed—up to a point.

That point is where moral obligations end and monetary interests begin. Things get complicated when govern-ments and media find them-selves in the awkward position of criticizing a country with so many Western investments. NBC paid nearly $900 million for the rights to broadcast the games. No one with that much invested is going to ruffle feathers. To be fair, NBC did use its morning news show To-day to highlight concerns over China’s stained civil rights his-tory. These stories were rare compared to the broadcasts from U.S. soil.

President Bush gave criti-cism in regard to China’s hu-man rights violations, but not in China; it was in Thailand.

“America stands in firm op-

position to China’s detention of political dissidents, human rights advocates and religious activists,” President Bush said to a warm crowd in Bangkok.

However, this speech was given days before Bush boarded a plane to enjoy the Olympics himself. Kind of like speaking out against your neighbor’s domestic vi-olence issues on their front lawn before going inside to have dinner with them.

Sophie Richardson, the director for Human Rights Watch, said, “The leadership in Beijing will almost cer-tainly find his comments ir-ritating or objectionable, but

they will clearly understand that the United States will not impose any real conse-quences if they do not make progress on human rights.”

She’s right. China knows that the ball is in its court. Like NBC, America has plenty of financial interest in Chi-na—$504 billion to be exact in treasury securities. That debt at any moment could be thrown out on the open mar-ket, leaving the U.S. economy in shambles. That is something no world leader, regardless of moral obligations, will risk.

Bush was probably wise to be diplomatic. We are severely dependent on China. It is sad though that our financial trou-bles trump our ability to truly put pressure on China.

China has essentially got-ten away with brutally op-pressing its people and the people of Tibet. China has strong economic ties with both Sudan and Iran. Some have even suggested that totalitarian China resembles the Germany that hosted the 1936 games.

For now it seems that after centuries of practice, when it comes to getting away with oppression and dishonesty, China deserve a gold medal.

On any other page of the Optimist readers can find coverage of campus news, the latest updates on ACU’s NCAA Division II sports teams or stories about in-teresting people, events and shows at ACU and in Abilene. But the Opinion Page is a venue for argu-ment, agreement, discourse and discussion.

Each issue of the Opti-mist Opinion page will car-ry an editorial that reflects the opinion of the Editorial Board, will feature personal columns by staff members and will display an edito-rial cartoon. We do this not to slap our opinions on the ACU community or splatter our thoughts on the latest ACU controversy, but to be a public forum of civil dis-cussion for ACU students,

administrators, faculty and staff on global, national, lo-cal and campus news.

The open and public envi-ronment the Optimist Opin-ion Page provides is invalu-able to the ACU community. Although no official Opinion Page existed when the first issue of the Optimist was dis-tributed within the ACU com-munity in 1912, the Optimist was still a public forum for discussion and opinion.

The days of stamping and sending a letter to the edi-tor have been upgraded and enhanced by the ability to instantly comment online or e-mail an opinion, but the tradition of the Optimist Opinion Page remains.

The 2008-09 Editorial Board members come from various backgrounds and represent different views on

issues that shape and shake our community and nation. Because of this, we are able to ensure diverse voices are heard when the Optimist states its opinion on any given issue.

We encourage readers to actively participate in the communal discourse and respond online or send let-ters to the editor to feed dis-cussion. Together, with the opinions of our readers and our staff, we proudly provide a venue in which all voices have a right to comment.

ViewsMondayPage 10

Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Optimist and may not necessarily reflect the views of the university or its administration.

Signed columns, cartoons and letters are the opinions of their creators and may not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of the Optimist or the university.

The Optimist encourages reader response through letters to the editor but reserves the right to limit frequent contributors or to refuse to print letters containing personal attacks, obscenity, defamation, erroneous

information or invasion of privacy.Please limit letters to 350 words or

fewer. A name and phone number must be included for verification purposes. Phone numbers will not be published.

Address letters to:ACU Box 27892

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Editorial and Management Board

Daniel Johnson-KimEditor in Chief

Michael FreemanManaging Editor

Sommerly SimserMult. Managing Editor

Laura AcuffOpinion Page Editor

Pete KoehnChief Photographer

Colter HettichFeatures Editor

Grant AbstonSports Editor

Lydia MelbyArts Editor

Kelline LintonChief Copy Editor

By Alex YorkLebensgefahr Our Olympic view ‘made in China’

August 25, 2008

Opinion Page provides forum for discussion

China has essentially gotten away with brutally oppressing its people.

“

”

Cody VetetoChief Videographer

DeLaina ParkerBroadcast Manager

Molly ByrdPage 2 Editor

Multimedia desk:(325) 674-2463

Optimistthe

Kenneth PybusAdviser

Cade WhiteAdviser

Christi StarkAdvertising Manager

In Your WordsWhat most excites you about

coming to ACU this year?

Will MorganAccounting majorfrom Longview.

“I’m most excited about making lifelong friends while being challenged mentally and spiritually.”

acuoptimist.com

View videos of student responses

for the “In Your Words” questions online at a later date at www.acuoptimist.com

Kimmy McNieceGraphic design majorfrom Abilene.

“I’m looking forward to getting to live on my own in the dorm with 300 girls. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Kyle AndersonPsychology majorfrom San Antonio.

“I’m excited about coming to ACU because I can get a quality education here with a wonderful Christian influence.”

New Bean upgrades memoriesI was a Bean hater. During

meals, my favorite pastime was degrading the very place that gave me nourishment.

In the past, I thought of the Bean as the red-headed step-child; I knew he was there but I did my best to avoid him. The Bean wasn’t horrible or even bad; I just made up my mind that

after my sophomore year the Bean and I would part ways.

This summer, the Bean underwent an extreme make-over, and I had to see whether or not my former memories

of the Bean could be changed as well.

As soon as I walked into the new Bean, the transformation was obvious. Different food sta-tions lined the walls, featuring workers who prepared fresh meals for students; the Bean had several credited chefs on staff from culinary institutes.

“There are so many op-tions; the food I’ve had so far is really great. I’m planning on spending many of my meal plans here,” said Shelby Ot-way, freshman history teach-ing major from Garland.

After patrolling the new

and improved Bean, I talked with several students, and many loved the food as well as the look. Some were con-cerned whether or not the new Bean was too good to be true and whether the Bean could keep up with the great quality of food.

Students shouldn’t worry, since planning began more than two years ago.

“The students really drove this,” said Anthony Williams, Chief Auxiliary Service Offi-cer. “The past couple of years, ACU has conducted 4,000 on-line surveys, focus groups and

formed a committee to prepare for the fall.”

The most encouraging thing to hear is ACU Dining Services’ willingness to always listen to the students, and even though the Bean can’t be perfect, the staff will do their best to ac-commodate students the best they can.

“We do have challenges, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.,” Wil-liams said. “More than 700 stu-dents come to the Bean to eat, but we will work to modify the situation and in the end come out with a great product.”

If you were once like me, a person filled with resentment for the Bean, you should try the new one and see whether or not you can be persuaded to change your outlook.

By Ryan Self

SelfExamination

By Tanner Anderson

People Say I Talk Too Much

Tanner AndersonSr. Broadcast

JournalismModerate

Colter HettichSr. Print Journalism

Moderate

Laura AcuffSoph. Print Journalism

Conservative

Ryan SelfSoph. Broadcast Journalism

Conservative

I thought of the Bean as the red-haired stepchild; I knew he was there, but I did my best to avoid him.

“”

E-mail Self at: rcs06g@acu.edu

E-mail the Optimist at: jmcnetwork@acu.edu

2008-09Editorial Board

E-mail Anderson at: tsa04a@acu.edu

Michael FreemanSr. Print JournalismModerate

Kelline LintonSr. Print JournalismLibertarian

Lydia MelbyJr. EnglishModerate

Daniel Johnson-KimSr. Print JournalismLiberal

Soccer: Wildcats improve depth in offseason from Mesa College and ju-nior Veronica Wilhelm from Mt. San Antonio College.

“Overall it’s a much stronger group depth wise than last year,” Wil-son said. “We’re doing a lot better.”

The Wildcats were picked to finish seventh in the LSC preseason poll after being picked to finish last in 2007.

However, the Wild-cats must finish in the top six to qualify for the postseason tourna-ment. With the added depth and a year of ex-perience, the Wildcats will be looking to make history with their first playoff appearance.

“We really just want to make the conference

tournament and win it,” Reese said. “We don’t want to be the team that almost wins.”

The Wildcats’ season will begin Aug. 29 when they head to Missouri to take on Missouri South-ern. The Wildcats will be tested early with five more road games before their first home game of the season when they face Hardin-Simmons on Sept. 16.

The Wildcats first LSC game will be against An-gelo State on Sept. 26, and the team will play a total of 10 confer-ence games, concluding against Eastern New Mex-ico on Nov. 2.

“The only place kids played flag football was here at ACU,” said Kitt-ley. “New students didn’t recognize it, and it took them three to four games to understand the rules. Kids know what 7-on-7 is, but they have no idea what flag football is when they get here. They will be able to learn and adapt to this game much easier,” he said.

The shorter field al-lows for four games to be played at once as op-posed to two. The ability to play more games si-multaneously means the season will be extended by one game without the need for an extra week of scheduling. The

season begins Tuesday, Sept. 16 and includes one free practice game at the beginning of the season that will not count on a team’s record.

“The changes will be most noticeable to our upperclassmen,” said Kit-tley. “Once the upper-classmen play that prac-tice game, they are going to love it.”

The intramural of-fice will now offer co-ed leagues as well in all sports but one, 5-on-5 basketball. Students are allowed to play on both a gender specific team in champ or rec league as well as a co-ed team. Men’s clubs can com-bine with women’s clubs to form a team in a co-ed league. If a team wins in-

tramural points, both clubs will receive those points.

“Clubs are already talking with other clubs about forming teams,” said Kittley. “It will bring the clubs closer together, make for better camara-derie and double the in-tramural point total at the end of the year.”

Basketball will also take on a new format. Champ league 5-on-5 basketball will stay the same, but the rec league will now be a 3-on-3 style of play.

“If you want to play 5-on-5 basketball and are serious about it, you play champ league,” said Kittley. “The rec league has had too many for-feits, especially in the girls’ league; sixty-one

percent of rec league girls’ basketball games were forfeited last year. We hope this change re-ally helps that dilemma,” he said.

Other sports to be of-fered this year include team tennis, 4-on-4 soccer, a 3-2 softball tournament, volleyball, an outdoor 7-on-7 soc-cer tournament, a golf scramble, a relay track meet and the ACU Rodeo.

Monday, August 25, 2008 Page 11SPORTS JUMPS

Intramurals: New season, new format

E-mail Harris at: tch05f@acu.edu

E-mail Abston at: gda04b@acu.edu

Photo courtesy of creative services

Richard Phillips finished seventh in the 110-meter hurdles in Beijing. Phillips ran for ACU in 2002 and was an outdoor all-America athlete in the 110-meter hurdles before transferring to George Mason.

Continued from page 12

Continued from page 12

Olympics: ACU well represented and also won the 400 at the 2004 University Games. Es-sor continues to work out and train with the ACU track team and will be an intern with the team this year. “There is no way to de-scribe what he brings,” Hood said. “He’s so upbeat but focused and knows what he has to do to be successful.” Essor’s Jamaican team fin-ished eighth in the 4x400 relay last Saturday in a race that saw the Americans take gold.

The fourth ACU athlete that competed is junior Wanda Hutson. Hutson ran on Trinidad and Toba-go’s 4x100 relay team, but the team did not finish its semifinal heat and was left out of the final.

“She is by far the hardest worker here,” Hood said. “She’s our Bernard Scott; no matter how far down we are, she gives us a chance. Having that rock to rely on is a great feeling going into this year,” he said.

While the success of ACU’s track program is well known, it helps to have four athletes that once at-tended ACU compete in the Olympics. Not only does it reflect on the status of the track program, it also will help to attract recruits in the future, Hood said.

“It’s a huge recruiting tool now and shows that the potential is here to move on to a higher level,” he said. “People want to go where there is an opportu-nity for success.”

E-mail Abston at: gda04b@acu.edu

Continued from page 12

2008 soCCER sCHEDULEACU will begin its season Friday when the team travels to Missouri to face Missouri Southern. Their first home game will be Sept. 16 when they play Hardin-Simmons The Wildcats begin LSC play on Sept. 26.

oPPoNENt DAtE/tIME Missouri Southern Fri. @ 7 p.m. Drury University Sat. @ 7 p.m. Texas-Permian Basin Sept. 3 @ 5 p.m. Incarnate Word Sept. 5 @ 6 p.m. John Brown Sept. 12 @ 1 p.m. Our Lady of the Lake Sept. 13 @ 3 p.m. Hardin-Simmons Sept. 16 @ 5 p.m. Paul Quinn College Sept. 19 @ 5 p.m. McMurry Sept. 22 @ 5 p.m. Angelo State* Sept. 26 @ 4 p.m. Dallas Baptist Oct. 2 @ 6 p.m. Midwestern State* Oct. 5 @ 2 p.m. East Central* Oct. 10 @ 4 p.m. Northeastern State* Oct. 12 @ 2 p.m. Central Oklahoma* Oct. 17 @ 4 p.m. SW Oklahoma State* Oct. 19 @ 2 p.m. Texas A&M Commerce* Oct. 24 @ 3 p.m. Texas Woman’s* Oct. 26 @ 1 p.m. West Texas A&M* Oct. 31 @ 1 p.m. Eastern New Mexico* Nov. 2 @ 1 p.m.

Zak Zeinert :: chief photographer

Players listen to head coach Chris Thomsen during practice. The Wildcats are ranked No. 8 by the American Football Coaches’ Association and will travel to Missouri to take on No. 3 Northwest Missouri State Friday for their first game of the season.

n Home games listed in italics * Denotes conference games

Wildcats look to earn first playoff berth in 2008 By Grant AbstonSports Editor

In its first season last year, the Wildcat soccer team won eight games and finished tied for eighth in the LSC. How-ever, this season the Wildcats look to earn their first post-season berth after a success-ful offseason that added 12 new players.

The Wildcats finished 8-11-1 last season under head coach Casey Wilson with a 3-6-1 record in confer-ence play. While the Wildcats made a splash in their first season with eight wins, they believe they have a good shot at earning a postseason spot this year.

“I think we stacked up well last year, but I think with this group and with a healthy unit there is no doubt we can make a run for it and be in the mix,” Wilson said.

One of the major issues that second-year coach Wilson and the Wildcats faced last season was depth; something that comes with any first-year program. But unlike last sea-son, coach Wilson has turned

this area into a strength after adding 12 new players—four defenders, four midfielders, two goalkeepers and two forwards—that will allow the Wildcats to stay healthy late into the year.

In addition to the new re-cruits, the Wildcats will re-turn with key position play-ers along with several other players who earned valuable playing time last year, add-ing to the team depth. Team captains, midfielder/forward Jordan Reese and midfielder/forward Courtney Wilson, will provide valuable leader-ship as well as ensuring the Wildcats’ offense stays atop the LSC.

“We have so much more

depth, and the starting posi-tions are being fought for, so that’s good to have that com-petitiveness,” Reese said.

The Wildcats’ offense fin-ished third in goals last season in the LSC and could be even more potent this year with the new additions. Reese and Wilson, along with forward Lyndsey Womack, accounted for over half of the Wildcats’ goals and assists last season. Wilson earned second team all-LSC honors, while Reese and Womack earned honor-able mention honors.

“I think we’re going to be a lot stronger in the backfield, and we have a formation that plays to everyone’s strengths this year,” Reese said.

One key newcomer will be senior defender Micah Mer-rill-Johnson who transferred after three seasons from Montana State-Billings. Mer-rill-Johnson also was elected team captain and will give the Wildcats strength on defense. Joining Merrill-Johnson on de-fense will be two other trans-fers—junior Anastasia Nelson

SportsMondayAugust 25, 2008 Page 12

Friday

Women’s SoccerACU vs. Missouri Southern, 7 p.m.

VolleyballACU vs. Fort Hays State, 10 a.m.ACU vs. Texas A&M International, 2 p.m.

Saturday

FootballACU vs. Northwest Missouri State, 6 p.m.

Women’s SoccerACU vs. Drury University, 7 p.m.

VolleyballACU vs. New Mexico Highlands, 2 p.m.ACU vs. Findlay (Ohio), 4 p.m.

:: Home games listed in italics

Upcoming

Upcoming

Intramural round-up

olympic dreams

By Grant AbstonSports Editor

While the prestige of ACU’s track and field teams is evident, the program has a greater right to boast after winning men and women’s outdoor national champion-ships in 2008. But this year, the program offers some-thing even more impres-sive—three former and one current athlete representing their countries in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

Richard Phillips, Mar-vin Essor, Delloreen Ennis-London and Wanda Hutson competed in China as they represented ACU’s storied track program. Former ACU athletes Phillips, Essor and

Ennis-London competed for Jamaica, while current stu-dent Hutson represented Trinidad and Tobago.

“It’s tremendous to say we have four Olympians,” said Don Hood, 2007 Men’s National Coach of the Year. “Track and field is so unique, and even though we’re Divi-sion II, we don’t compete at that level,” he said.

Ennis-London, who lived and trained in Abilene until fall 2007, ran track at ACU from 1996-99 and competed in the 2000 Olympics in Syd-ney and the 2004 Olympics in Athens. She is the only hurdler in NCAA Division II history to win all eight hur-dles national championship races in her career at ACU;

she won the 55-meter hur-dles indoors and 100-meter hurdles outdoors all four years. Ennis-London also won the 100-meter hurdles at the Penn and Texas relays during her career.

In Beijing, Ennis-London finished fifth in the 100-me-ter hurdles in 12.65 seconds, just .01 off the medal stand. The same race featured LoLo Jones of the US who clipped one of the last hurdles and finished seventh.

“We stayed very close to her, and she’s fantastic,” Hood said. “She still has the tools to do good things.”

Ennis-London also be-came the second athlete in school history to qualify for three Olympics, joining

Tim Bright who competed in the decathlon and pole vault in the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Olympics.

Phillips ran for ACU in 2002 and was an outdoor all-America athlete in the 110-meter hurdles before trans-ferring to George Mason. Phillips finished seventh in the 110-meter hurdle final in 13.60 seconds in Beijing. Phillips also competed in the 2004 Olympics in Athens but did not qualify for the finals.

Essor is a former ACU na-tional champion who com-peted for Jamaica in the 4x400 relay. He was an in-door and outdoor national champion in the 400-meters

Competition provides Welcome Week fun for freshmenBy Chandler HarrisAssistant Sports Editor

More than 600 freshmen competed in three intramural sports during Welcome Week: volleyball, basketball and football. Each sport consisted of a men and women’s single elimination tournament.

Students played volley-ball and basketball Thursday through Saturday in the dou-ble gyms of the Gibson Health and P.E. Center and Bennett Gymnasium, respectively. Students played football on the Larry “Satch” Sanders In-tramural Fields on Thursday and Friday night.

The freshmen signed up for teams during the check-in

process of Welcome Week at no cost, and upperclassmen volunteered as coaches for all of the teams.

Drew Corbin, freshman marketing major from Port-land, Ore., played for the team The Champs in the men’s volleyball tournament and said, “I signed up for vol-leyball because it is the best sport ever.”

Corbin also enjoyed get-ting to know fellow students on a more competitive level.

“You get to know people on a more competitive level, but in the end, it’s all just for fun,” he said.

However, some students

used Welcome Week intramu-rals to have fun. Laura Quile, freshman elementary educa-tion major from Trophy Club, joined a volleyball team after listening to upperclassmen.

“A lot of upperclassmen told me it would be a good idea, and it seemed like a great way to meet some peo-ple and have some friendly competition,” said Quile.

Clayton Pope, freshman math education major from Abilene, learned from his

brothers who played intramu-rals and took it as a chance to meet people on his hall.

“I had watched my broth-ers play here at ACU, and they had a whole bunch of fun,” said Pope. “I am really compet-itive and like sports a lot and I figured it would be fun.”

Shelby Stone, freshman ele-mentary education major from Fort Worth, participated in the girl’s basketball tournament.

“I signed up because I love basketball and I am making new friends,” said Stone. “It is a great bonding experience.

photo courtesy of creative services Marvin Essor, a former national champion at ACU, is competing for Jamaica in the 4x400 relay in Beijing. Essor was an indoor and outdoor national champion in the 400 and won the 400 at the University Games in 2004. Essor joins three other current and former ACU track athletes in Beijing.

pete Koehn :: staff photographer

Cassie Carver, freshman criminal justice major from Oklahoma City, throws a pass during the Welcome Week football tournament.

Intramurals receives new faceliftBy Chandler HarrisAssistant Sports Editor

ACU intramural sports received a facelift over the summer after adding rule changes, co-ed leagues and changing the format for football as well as a number of other sports.

The sport that will undergo changes first this semester is intramural football. The format resembles the Texas high school 7-on-7 format. The overhaul includes six players on the field per team instead of seven, 12 minutes halves instead of 20 minutes, a 45-yard field instead of an 80-yard field, and touching a player to be down instead of flag pulling.

Danny Kittley, director of in-tramural sports, said this new format will be played at a faster pace than 7-on-7 flag football.

“In flag football, a lot of people don’t run; that was my biggest reason for changing it to be honest with you,” said Kittley. “We want them to know that when you play 6-on-6, you are a vital part of that team, even the center. You snap it and you go out for a route; ev-erything is fast paced and on fire, and I love that about the game,” he said.

Another reason for discon-tinuing the flag football format was injury concerns, Kittley said. The flags are problematic and cause injuries to fingers. Six to eight girls broke their thumbs or suffered finger lac-erations last season attempting to pull flags. It also eliminates disputes over flag guarding, he said.

acuoptimist.com

Go online to see intramural videos from

Welcome Week

pete Koehn :: staff photographer

Sadie Barton, junior midfielder, dribbles past a defender Friday afternoon in a scrimmage against Cisco Junior College. The Wildcats begin their season Aug. 29 when they travel to play Missouri Southern.

E-mail Harris at: tch05f@acu.edu

Soccer

Intramurals

In caSe you mISSed It

tracK and FIeld: The ACU men and women’s track and field teams both claimed the NCAA Division II outdoor national championships. This is the seventh consecutive title for the men and the first outdoor title for the women since 1999. Eight athletes won individual titles, including Billy Walker (110-meter hurdles), Nick Jones (discus), Raymond Radway (400-meters), Daniel Maina (3,000-meter steeple-chase), Camille Vandendriess-che (decathlon), Winrose Karunde (10,000-meters and 3,000-meter steeplechase), Linda Brivule (javelin) and Keva Wilkins (400-meters). Head coach Don Hood was named the Men’sNational Coach of the Year.

BaSeBall: The ACU baseball team won the Lone Star Conference regular season championship and finished runner-up in the post-season tournament. The Wildcats earned a bid to the NCAA Divi-sion II South Central Region Tournament. The Wildcats had two first-team NCAA all-Amer-ica players in leftfielder Mike Elkerson and pitcher/designat-ed hitter Trey Watten. Watten was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers, while Elkerson signed a free-agent contract with the Atlanta Braves. tennIS: The men and women’s tennis teams both qualified for the NCAA Division II national tournament by winning their respective regional champi-onships. Irene Squillaci and Aina Rafolomanantsiatosika were named NCAA Division II all-Americans for their perfor-mance in doubles. Juan Nunez and Ryan Hudson were named top players for the men’s squad.

GolF: The ACU golf team finished second at both the LSC and NCAA Division II South Central region tourna-ments. Their second place finish was their best in head coach Mike Campbell’s five years at ACU. SoFtBall: The softball team finished runner-up in the LSC post-season tournament and earned a spot in regional tournament. Catcher Jessica Shiery became the first ACU softball player to be named first team all-America. Shiery joined centerfielder Leisha Johnson on the first team all-LSC South Division and all-region team.

A recap of ACU’s 2008 Spring Sports

FootballStarts: Tuesday, Sept. 16Sign-up Deadline: Thursday, Sept. 11Cost: $275 per team

ScoreBoard

See Intramurals page 11

See Soccer page 11

See Olympics page 11

I think we’re going to be a lot stronger in the backfield...

:: Jordan Reese, co-captain

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One current, three former athletes compete in Beijing games