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

WEDNESDAY

IN THIS ISSUE

CAMPUS

Mission mattersThe Halbert Institute for Missions will sponsor the Broom Colloquium on Thursday and Friday to honor the Broom family, page 3

The OPTIMISTFebruary 28, 2007Vol. 95, No. 40 1 sections, 8 pages www.acuoptimist.com• •

Cold cashStudents wishing to study abroad in fall 2007 may be eligible to apply for a $5,000 scholarship, page 3

SPORTS

Grand openingACU graduates opened a women’s fashion accessories store in downtown Abilene and featured a 24-hour grand opening, view it online at www.acuoptimist.com

Jumping to new heightsAngie Aguilar broke the Division II Indoor pole vaulting record this weekend, page 8

FEATURES

Home on the rangeJames Francies, the first black man to ride a trail with the Houston Fat Stock Show and a proponent of black history shares his cowboy tale, page 5

ONLINE

Serving the soulStudents joined together last Thursday for “Soul Food”, an annual event where students enjoyed fellowship and food from various cultures, page 3

Breezing throughThe women’s tennis team swept both Division I opponents this weekend 6-1 against Stephen F. Austin and Louisiana Monroe, page 8

n Ryan Massie debuted as the director for the spring play “The Miracle Worker” last Thursday. The play concludes this weekend with performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

By ANDREA LUCADOStudent RepoRteR

The student-run production “The Miracle Worker” opened Thursday in Fulks Theatre under the direction of first-time director Ryan Massie. Each year, the theatre department selects a student to direct his own play, and this year Ryan Massie, senior theatre major from San Antonio, was cho-

sen to direct “The Miracle Worker,” a play by William Gibson about Helen Keller, who was deaf and blind, and her teacher Annie Sullivan who de-livered her from darkness.

Professors in the Theatre Depart-ment chose Massie in October af-ter an interview process. Although Massie has directed seven produc-tions at ACU, this is his first full play to direct.

Massie said on nights they had rehearsal, which began Jan. 16, he would spend from 6 p.m. to mid-night working on the production. Emily Savage, senior theatre major from Keller, said the show really is

all about the director’s vision. Savage, who played Annie Sulli-

van in the play, said she had a hard time at first taking direction from a peer but learned “directing isn’t all about age.”

“We have to all be in it together or it won’t happen,” she said.

Everything from lighting to direct-ing to make-up was run by students for this production, and Savage said nothing was completely finished un-til the evening before opening night.

Jenavene Hester, sophomore theatre major from Abilene who

Student directs ‘Miracle Worker’

EMILY SMItH CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER

Mike Chapel, superintendent of Campus Crest Construction, shows the tresses being constructed on the new Grove apartments on north of Ambler Avenue on Judge Ely.

n Despite competition moving in next door, University Park Apartments director Patricia Hail-Jackson says UP is not threatened by the new complex that is expected to be completed by August.

By CAMILLE PAINTERStudent RepoRteR

University Park Apartments is making changes while competition down the street sprouts.

UP packaged all expenses into one payment offering free laundry, paid

electricity up to $30 and new furni-ture. This new policy deducts depos-its for residents. Not only will UP get rid of the security deposit for a lease on an apartment, but it will also take away electricity deposits because of the shared electricity company.

Although the Grove apartments, the new competition down Judge Ely Boulevard, offers a washer and dryer in each unit, Patricia Hail-Jackson, UP Apartments director, said the laun-dry system at UP could still be seen as a better benefit to residents.

“The fact of having a washer and dryer in your room is nice, but en-ergy-wise it’s going to cost you more money,” Hail-Jackson said. “They’re going to see that that washer and dryer is going to generate extra elec-tricity; plus we have a boiler room that does all the heating of our wa-ter. University Apartments pays that expense, and they’re going to have individual hot water heaters that are going to mark part of that electricity bill.”

The idea of bringing in new fur-

niture came with the University Park director considering the benefits of the Grove.

The fact that the Grove is a new property is going to be enticing, Hail-Jackson said, but UP is getting all new furniture and is guaranteed to be ready for residents to move into in the fall.

“We know we’re here and we’re ready for you to move-in in August,” Hail-Jackson said.

University Park prepares for competition

n Students can participate in the final Service Saturday of the semester this weekend, but other opportunities will be available in April.

By KARIE SCHMIDTStudent RepoRteR

On Saturday, students will once again get the chance to serve the Abilene community by participating in Service Saturday.

Starting Wednesday through Friday in the campus center, students may sign-up to volunteer at various Abilene agencies.

So far, the chair of Service Saturday, Brittany Baumgartner, senior political science major from San Antonio, and co-chair Michelle Tonkin, sophomore biochemistry pre-med major from Victo-ria, British Columbia, Canada, expect be-tween 50 and 70 students to volunteer.

Students have the opportunity to serve many agencies including Hendrick Friendship House, Windcrest Alzheimer Association, Abilene Convalescent Cen-ter, Global Samaritan Resources and Abilene Hope Haven. Additional sites may be added to the list before Saturday. At the sites, volunteer work can range from manual labor and childcare to visit-ing with residents.

Individuals who participate in Ser-vice Saturday will receive service hours. There will be site leaders for each agen-cy, and a service log sheet will be avail-able. Students, however, may bring their own service sheet if they need hours for a specific class. Service log forms may be found in the Volunteer Service-Learning Center office located in the Bean Sprout.

“I believe students should participate

Saturdaymarks final service day

n Smaller clubs like GATA and Delta Theta took advantage of new Sing Song rules this year that allowed clubs to bring in performers outside the club to help competition.

By CAMILLE PAINTERStudent RepoRteR

Lindsey Smith sang with the GATAs in front of a large crowd for the second time this Sing Song season. But it was the first time she competed as a GATA.

“My cousin was a member of GATA last year, and she called me and asked me to be a part of their act,” said Smith, soph-omore elementary education major from Tyler.

GATA was one of the first clubs to take advantage of this new flexibility Kendall Massey, director of student produc-tions, drew in to the Sing Song regulations. Smith was a tes-timony to many changes and

resurrected traditions.“Because we’re a smaller club,

last year we sought permission to have other people come join us,” said Courtnee Hembree, GATA member and Sing Song co-chair. “And this year the management team voted on it and every club can bring in peo-ple outside their club.”

In the past two years, Massey not only has adjusted the rules to allow clubs to recruit people outside its organizations to represent them, but also delet-ed the requirement for a mini-mum number of people to rep-resent a group for the group to compete.

Small club members have found the changes favorable. Many of them have taken ad-vantage of them.

“I want people to be in-volved in Sing Song if possible, and if someone has the ability,

Sing Song changes boost small clubs

brIan ScHMIdt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

The women of GATA perform during Sing Song 2007 as ladybugs. For the past two years the club included performers not in GATA for the show.

See UP page 4

See SING SONG page 4

See PLAY page 4See SERVICE page 4

Protecting online reps Cheaptickets.com has created a cheap-o-meter for college students wanting to go to a top destination for a low price during spring break. The top 10 locales students are heading to are: Miami; Cancun, Mexico; Daytona, Fla.; San Jose Cabo; Ba-hamas; Key West, Fla.; Ja-maica; Acapulco, Mexico; Panama City; and South Padre Island. South Padre Island was also named the best spring break value destination for 2007.

-source: UWIRE

SPEED READ

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Calendar Events& 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 optimist@acu.edu or to the Page 2 Editor at mxe06a@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 clarifi cations of published news articles will be printed in this space in a timely manner.

About This PageWednesday, February 28, 2007

Announcements Volunteer Opportunities

Weekend Campaign to San Antonio.

10 a.m.Broom Colloquium in the Learning Commons.

4 p.m. and 7 p.m.The baseball team plays Southeastern Oklahoma State at Crutcher Scott Field.

7 p.m.International Justice Mission forum in Cullen Auditorium. This will count for two Chapel credits.

8 p.m.‘The Miracle Worker’ is performed in Fulks Theatre.

9 a.m.‘Huddled Masses’ Walk and Vigil begins at the park across from the Abilene Convention Center. This walk to Haskell Prison was inspired by the story of Suzi Hazahza and her imprisoned family at the Rolling Plains Regional Jail in Haskell and will be used to free Suzi, her family and other mistreated immigrants. The walk will end with a Texas Independence Day Vigil at 3 p.m. on Saturday near Haskell Prison at 118 County Road 206 in Haskell.

Last day for graduate students to apply for May graduation.

Deadline to sign up for Intramural volleyball. Each team is $100. Games will begin Tuesday in Bennett Gym.

11 a.m.Broom Colloquium for Missions and Global Christianity in Chapel on the Hill.

6:45 p.m.Broom Colloquium in Hart Auditorium.

8 p.m.‘The Miracle Worker’ is performed in Fulks Theatre.

Weekend Campaign to San Antonio.

Service Saturday

7:30 p.m.“The Complete Word of God (Abridged)” presented by the Fletcher Players in Cullen Auditorium. This play is a unique interpretation of Bible stories and characters performed through slapstick comedy.

8 p.m.‘The Miracle Worker’ is performed in Fulks Theatre.

02 Friday28 Wednesday 01 Thursday 03 Saturday

Want to get away? Join the Weekend Campaign to San An-tonio this weekend. Students are heading out Friday to work with the Christian Hope Resource Cen-ter. Come to the Campus Cen-ter ticket windows to sign up by Thursday, or e-mail Amanda Taylor at ajt04a@acu.edu.

GATA women`s social club is hosting a garage sale Saturday starting at 8 a.m. at 4072 N. 10th between Willis and Pioneer. Come check out the deals and help GATA raise money for an out-of-town formal.

A virtual reality alcohol aware-ness program will be available on campus from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday. This is a national touring High Impact Alcohol Aware-ness Program that is designed to heighten awareness of the dangers of intoxication. It involves a motion-based simulator that can accom-modate up to 12 passengers at a time. The module is inside a semi-truck which will be parked on cam-pus. Using a multimedia fi lm taken from a fi rst person perspective, rid-ers will experience the sensations of being at a party where drinking is taking place and of driving drunk afterward. Each ride lasts about fi ve minutes.

The graduate program in speech and language pathol-ogy is applying for reaccredita-tion from the Council on Aca-demic Accreditation (CAA) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). In accordance with the CAA policy on Public Comment, the program invites interested parties to at-tend a meeting on Thursday at

4:30 p.m. in Room 117 of the Don Morris building. This meeting will be facilitated by CAA site visi-tors to address how the program is meeting the standards for ac-creditation. A copy of the stan-dards and/or the CAA`s Policy on Public Comment may be obtained by contacting the Accreditation Office at ASHA, 10801 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, 20852, calling ASHA`s Action Center at 1-800-498-2071 or accessing the documents on ASHA`s Web site at http://asha.org/about/credentialing/accreditation/. Additional informa-tion regarding the time and location of this meeting may be obtained by calling Dr. Brenda Bender, program director, at (325) 674-2074.

The Abilene March ArtWalk will be March 8 from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in downtown Abilene. This event, spon-sored by Ballet Abilene, will feature free art activities, live music, dance performances and demonstrations, drama performances and more. For a schedule of events or more informa-tion, contact the Center for Contem-porary Arts at (325) 677-1171.

The Women for Abilene Chris-tian University are accepting schol-arship applications through March 23, 2007. The scholarship is for $1,000 a semester for the 2007-08 school year. For a copy of the application or more information, e-mail Samantha Adkins at samantha.adkins@alumni.acu.edu.

WorldWide Witness is now accepting applications for more than 40 summer internships around the world. Apply online at www.worldwidewitness.org. For additional information, contact Gary Green or Wimon Walker at witness@bible.acu.edu.

CreditedChapelsto date:

CreditedChapelsremaining:

Chapel Checkup31 41

Sign up for Service Saturday in the Campus Center ticket windows through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Join in volunteering for a variety of needs in the Abilene community.

Big A Club of City Light Com-munity Ministries has an urgent need for volunteers to ride buses and vans with elementary-age children and to help with Bible studies. This takes place on Wednesdays from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Contact the Vol-unteer Service-Learning Center in the Bean Sprout for more information.

Meals on Wheels needs vol-unteers to deliver meals to se-niors and adults with disabilities. This usually takes about an hour, and students can have one day of Chapel per week excused for this service. Contact the Volunteer Ser-vice-Learning Center in the Bean Sprout for more information.

McKenzee Cheng, an interna-tional student, would like a female volunteer to help her pronounce vo-cabulary for her sociology class on Monday and/or Tuesday afternoons. If interested, contact McKenzee at (325) 669-7800 or at yxc06a@acu.edu.

Opportunity to Interact with Older Adults: On Thursday, an older adult aging conference, “Live Long & Love It,” will be held in the Abilene Civic Center. Students are needed to assist older adults at dif-ferent times in the morning and at noon. Contact the Volunteer Ser-vice-Learning Center in the Bean Sprout for more information.

Girl Scout Troop #1550 needs young women who want to make a difference in young girls’ lives through Girl Scouting. The girls are from un-derprivileged homes, and they need positive Christian infl uences in their lives. Volunteers will help conduct meetings, including arts and crafts. Help is needed every Thursday from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. until May. For more information, contact Diltzie An-drews at (325) 673-6379.

Big Brothers, Big Sisters is look-ing for young women willing to vol-unteer time and energy mentoring in a program called Y-teens. Through activities and service projects, this program will empower young girls with knowledge about life skills and

will build self-confi dence while creat-ing an atmosphere for learning and emotional growth. Help is needed every Thursday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Franklin Middle School and Lincoln Middle School. For more in-formation, contact Erin McMullen or MC Jennings at (325) 677-7839.

Day Nursery of Abilene needs help setting up for their annual Mexican dinner, prepare and serve food and clean up. The dinner will be held on March 24 at the Abilene High School cafeteria. Help is re-quested from noon to 10 p.m. For more information, contact Pat Peck at (325) 670-0002.

The Betty Hardwick Center needs help in their offi ce answering phones, fi ling, copying and running errands. For more information, con-tact the Volunteer Service-Learning Center in the Bean Sprout.

The Christian Service Center needs help maintaining its furniture room. This might include picking up donated items or delivering furniture. It is helpful to have a pickup truck. For more information, contact the Volunteer Service-Learning Center in the Bean Sprout.

Wesley Court needs volunteers to work in the gift shop and assist with inventory Mondays through Fri-days from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Two- to four-hour shifts are requested. For more information, contact Susan Conwell at (325) 437-1184.

Abilene Zoo needs volunteers to help on the weekends with spe-cial events. Volunteers also needed to help clean and feed animals, assist the zookeeper and assist with educational classes. Call to set up a time to help. Requested hours are anytime Sunday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call Doug Hotle at (325) 676-6451.

Abilene Hope Haven needs vol-unteers to baby sit from 6:45 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays. Help is also needed working the front desk from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays and helping in the offi ce from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays through Fri-days. For more information, contact Colleen Rud at (325) 677-4673.

ACU Police Tip of the WeekProtect your identity online. Change passwords often and avoid post-ing personal or identifying information on Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

Monday 02/19/20079:21 a.m. Placed cones at Nelson Lot for construction11:27 a.m. Unlocked vehicle at University Parking Lot 3:35 p.m. Assisted Abilene Police with burglary in progress at 800 Vista 4 p.m. Medical emergency at Gib-son Health and P.E. Center, student taken to Clinic for allergic reaction 6:02 p.m. Contacted skateboarders at Brown Library area, advised to leave campus 6:31 p.m. Contacted skateboarders again at Business Lot, advised to leave campus 8 p.m. Parking violations on main campus 9:58 p.m. Parking violation at Mor-ris Parking Lot

Tuesday 02/20/2007 8:12 a.m. Traffic stop at EN 10th and Griffith for speeding 8:18 a.m. Traffic stop at EN 10th and Griffith for speeding 2:08 p.m. Refueled vehicle 4:00 p.m. Parking violations on main campus 8:35 p.m. Burglar alarm at WPAC, checked all okay 10:25 p.m. Noise violation at Uni-versity Park, contacted resident to turn music down

Wednesday 02/21/2007 7:54 a.m. Medical emergency at EN 10th and Griffith, subject refused treatment 8:21 a.m. Traffic arrest for war-rants at EN 10th and Griffith 8:35 a.m. Assisted Abilene Police with disturbance at Wal-Mart 9 a.m. Traffic stop at Grape and Sandefer, one subject arrested for warrants 10:28 a.m. Found package in the road at Bible Lot, delivered to Gibson Health and P.E. Center 11:33 a.m. Parking violation on Campus Court 4:15 p.m. Parking violation at Gardner Lot

Thursday 02/22/2007 1 a.m. Disturbance between two students at University Park Apartments1 p.m. Parking violation on ACU Drive 1:58 p.m. Parking violation at McKinzie Lot 2:13 p.m. Parking violation at Sikes Lot 5 p.m. Parking violations on main campus 9:25 p.m. Report of suspicious subject on Judge Ely & Cloverleaf, checked unable to locate anyone 9:33 p.m. Report of loud music at Elmer Gray Stadium, contacted coach at Stadium, PA system music was turned off

9:52 p.m. Burglary of a Motor Vehicle at West Campus Lot

Friday 02/23/2007 1:49 a.m. Found item turned in to the Station for safekeeping2:19 a.m. Gave access to Brown Library to retrieve item 7:54 a.m. Traffic stop at Judge Ely and Stamford for speeding 8:15 a.m. Traffic stop at 1400 Campus Court for speeding 9:50 a.m. Cut off lock on com-puter at Sherrod Don Morris4:20 p.m. Parking violation at University Church Lot 4:25 p.m. Traffic hazard in the road way at 1500 Judge Ely, cone was moved upon arrival9:30 p.m. Unlocked vehicle at Bible Lot 10:10 p.m. Returned found item to owner at Moody Coliseum

Saturday 02/24/2007 12:40 a.m. Loud party at 700 EN 14th, contacted resident turned volume down 9:25 a.m. Unlocked vehicle on Oliver Jackson Blvd 11 a.m. Report of transformer that blew up at 1500 Rountree, checked area with Abilene Fire Department, unable to locate 12 p.m. Report of power outage at Sherrod Apartments 1:15 p.m. Jumpstart vehicle on ACU Drive South 2 p.m. Unlocked vehicle at Big Purple Lot 2:30 p.m. Spoke with female reference to possible theft 4 p.m. Unlocked vehicle at WPAC Lot 11:40 p.m. Traffic stop off cam-pus for disregarding stop sign

Sunday 02/25/2007 5:48 a.m. Parking violation at University Park Lot 10:45 a.m. Refueled vehicle 11:21 a.m. Contacted subjects selling dogs at vacant lot on Ambler, advised of no soliciting on ACU property 2:30 p.m. Assisted Lost Preven-tion Officer at Wal-Mart with shoplifter arrest 3:30 p.m. Loud music at Univer-sity Park Apartments, contacted resident will turn music down 6 p.m. Traffic stop at EN 18th and Campus Court for disregard-ing stop sign 6:14 p.m. Traffic stop at EN 16th and Campus Court for speeding 7:06 p.m. Report of loose dog on Judge Ely, Animal Control not available 9:15 p.m. Traffi c stop at 900 EN 16th 9:40 p.m. Traffic stop at EN 18th and Campus Court for disregard-ing stop sign

Police LogEdited for space

Wednesday, February 28, 2007 Page 3CAMPUS NEWS

n The Broom Colloquium, an annual forum, will take place Thursday and Friday to probe important issues relating to missions and global Christianity.

By MORGAN WILLIAMSStudent RepoRteR

The Halbert Institute of Missions, the Department of Bible, Missions and Ministry and the Graduate School of Theology will sponsor the first Broom Colloquium for Mis-sions and Global Christianity on Thursday and Friday.

The Colloquium is an annu-al forum that deals with issues relating to missions and global Christianity. Its purpose is to help students live their lives as world Christians.

Phillip Jenkins, who is a distinguished professor of history and religious studies

at Pennsylvania State Univer-sity, will be the primary guest and speaker. Jenkins has writ-ten 20 books, including “The New Faces of Christianity: Be-lieving the Bible in the Global South” and “The Next Chris-tendom: The Rise of Global Christianity,” which will be the two main focuses throughout the course of events.

“The colloquium brings together being global and missional in a powerful and focused way,” said Dr. Christopher Flanders, assis-tant professor of missions. “This is why so many peo-ple have become very ener-gized about the event.”

The Colloquium is also meant to honor Wendell and Betty Broom. Wendell is an as-sistant professor emeritus of missions in the Bible, Missions

and Ministry Department.“Mr. Broom is a very val-

ued person in the commu-nity,” said Katrina Willis of Faculty Enrichment in the Adams Center.

“There may not be a single person who has had as big an impact on missions in Church-es of Christ and particularly at ACU and in terms of missions education as Wendell Broom,” Flanders said.

The Colloquium is a univer-sity-wide event involving all departments. Anyone planning to attend the Broom Colloqui-um must RSVP at RSVP2AC@acu.edu, or call extension 2455. A schedule of events can be found on the ACU Web site under the Halbert Institute for Missions homepage.

Colloquium to discuss missions

n Students enjoyed food, a movie and friendship through cultural awareness at ‘Soul Food Dinner and a Movie,’ held by the Office of Student Multicultural Enrichment.

By CASSIE LEHMANNStudent RepoRteR

Thursday evening, the Of-fice of Student Multicultural Enrichment hosted a classic night out with a cultural twist.

“Soul Food Dinner and a Movie” is an event on campus, usually taking place around Black History Month, where students are invited to come and enjoy a home-cooked pot-luck dinner and a thought-pro-voking movie about cultural understanding.

Takisha Knight, senior English major from Lake Charles, La., helped orches-trate the event.

“The point is to meet new people,” Knight said. “My favorite part is … the relationships, talking and everyone enjoying the food and each other.”

Johnathan King, fresh-

man business marketing major from Frisco, attend-ed the event.

“Soul food is any food made with love that the cooks put their heart into,” King said.

Elizabeth Van Vleet, ju-nior criminal justice ma-jor from Colorado Springs, Colo., also attended and said she enjoyed the soul food.

“I don’t know what this is, but it’s so amazing,” Van Vleet said.

The dish, which Knight cooked, is called cornbread dressing. It was one of the many entrées and side dishes in the potluck dinner. There was also sausage, jambalaya, pot roast, corn-on-the-cob, cornbread, rice, brownies and peach cobbler. To wash it all down there were pitchers of lemonade and red Kool-Aid.

When everyone finished eating, the venue moved to a more suitable room for viewing the movie. This year, the movie was Akeelah and the Bee, staring KeKe Palmer, Laurence Fishburne

and Angela Bassett. “We try to find recent mov-

ies not everyone would have seen that are important for race relations,” Knight said.

Akeelah and the Bee is the story of an 11-year-old girl with the gift of spelling and her strive to win the National Spelling Bee Contest. The sto-ry’s themes of transcultural friendship, community and de-termination, reveal Akeelah’s individual development.

The movie facilitated part of the evening’s purpose.

“People get this chance every day,” Knight said. “It is a chance to meet and get to know people, enjoy conversa-tion, eat, talk, have conversa-tions where people are free and open to discussion.”

Because Knight will be graduating this year, she said “the future of ‘Dinner and a Movie’ is in the hands of strangers. We hope to have new events that will encour-age more people to come.”

Soul Food gathers students

E-mail Lehmann at: optimist@acu.edu

n Students who are U.S. citizens can apply for the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to receive financial support to study abroad during fall 2007.

By YURI SUDOStudent RepoRteR

A new chance is available for students to study abroad through a new scholarship. Students are eligible to ap-ply for the Benjamin A. Gil-man International Scholar-ship if they attend a two-year or four-year public or private college or university and re-ceive a Federal Pell Grant.

An informational meeting will take place Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Mabee Library Auditorium.

The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship of-fers an essay writing com-petition for the award and is sponsored by the U.S. De-partment of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Af-fairs. Any student who is a U.S. citizen can apply for the

scholarship to study abroad. A total of 777 scholar-

ships of up to $5,000 will be awarded this academic year to undergraduate students to study abroad along with awards of $4,000 for two- to four-year colleges. Applica-tions will be accepted from students participating in study abroad programs dur-ing fall 2007, according to the Web site.

A statement of purpose es-say, a follow-up project pro-posal essay and other criteria such as country of destination, length of study and purpose for studying abroad will be con-sidered for this award.

This academic year, a new scholarship is provided for students who receive the Gilman Scholarship. The recipients then will be eligi-ble to receive an additional $3,000 Critical Need Lan-guage Supplements.

“As far as I know, it’s the first time to have a meeting,” said Sally Stevens, senior Eng-

lish major from Ruston, La. This meeting was Stevens’s

idea because she wanted to tell other students about this scholarship and her study abroad experiences. Stevens received the award last se-mester for the ACU Study Abroad Program to Monte-video, Uruguay. She applied the $4,000 to cover the extra Study Abroad Program fee.

“If I could not get this schol-arship, I could not go to study abroad,” she said.

Stevens invited students from all of the universities in Abilene to apply for the Gil-man scholarship. Depending on the size of the school, the scholarship award is given to one to three students in each school on average.

For more information, visit the Benjamin A. Gilman Inter-national Scholarship Web site at www.iie.org/programs/gil-man/index.html.

Study abroad scholarship available

LACI ADKINS STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Davy Rakotonarivo, senior political science major from Madagascar, studies the chess pieces.

Making a move

E-mail Sudo at: optimist@acu.edu

E-mail Williams at: optimist@acu.edu

Page 4 Wednesday, February 28, 2007FROM THE FRONT

Joshua Harris, sophomore youth and family ministry and biology double major from Wichita, Kan., said the move-in situation does give UP an advantage.

“For the fact that the Grove isn’t even put up com-pletely yet, yeah I think UP’s a better option right now,” Harris said.

Hail-Jackson said an-other benefit UP has over the Grove is it offers nine-month leases and allows a rent-free summer.

“We do the nine-month contract. If you’re going to be with us for the next year, just

put your stuff in your room and store it; it’s a small fee that we charge in the sum-mer, and you can just leave your stuff here.”

But Hail-Jackson has done the figures several times to compute that with University Park’s all-around lower rates and proximity to campus, and UP should still get a high rate of renewals, Hail-Jack-son said.

“I don’t know that it’s going to hurt our renewals because we’re almost $100 cheaper on rent. If [students] moved they’d have to move their stuff out and take it home for the three months. So I think we’ll do fine on our

renewals,” Hail-Jackson said.Hail-Jackson sees more of

a threat of losing part of their new junior leasers.

“[Sophomores] lived in the dorms for four semesters, so they’re looking to get off campus. We normally don’t retain … 25 percent of the res. hall residents,” Hail-Jack-son said.

Hail-Jackson has only a vague projection on how the Grove will affect UP’s business.

“At this point I couldn’t even guesstimate because they don’t have a finished product,” Hail-Jackson said.

UP: Grove doesn’t worry UPContinued from page 1

E-mail Painter at: optimist@acu.edu

if someone has the passion to get on stage and do it with 20 people around them, they should,” Massey said.

Before last year, a group that wanted to perform in Sing Song had to have at least 35 members on stage to compete. But last year Massey gave the smaller clubs more freedom to qualify and compete.

Under the new rules, 75 percent of the people in a certain act on stage must be members of the club repre-sented in that act. The rest can be non-members.

GATA member Courtney Hembree calculates it an-other way.

“If we have 30 GATAs on stage we can have 15 non-GATAs that would bring on for a total of 45,” and that can be calculated up to the maximum of 120 partici-pants, said Hembree, junior broadcast journalism major from Abilene.

The mood was pump-ing, the lights were on, the crowd was attentive and in the midst of all the acts with the formulated hands and harmonized voices, a pack of pirates invaded.

Pi Kappa, with 22 partici-pants, was the smallest group on stage last year.

“We had a couple of people at the time who weren’t offi-cially club members and were part of our act,” said Dan-iel Gray, last year’s Pi Kappa Sing Song director. “Campus Life wasn’t very supportive of us having non-members, but Kendall was perfectly OK with it.”

Although Pi Kappa added a few non-members, the group still knew it would be difficult to compete with their small numbers.

“We went into it with the mindset that we weren’t go-ing to get the best score but we were going to go ahead and try to do a good show and hope that people enjoyed it,” said Gray, senior social work major from Collierville, Tenn. “We put a lot of effort into the lyrics, and we tried to do really good lyrics that fit into the song.”

This act looked much dif-ferent from any of the others, even disregarding the small number. Their arms were not locked to the same planes as arms in other acts, and their feet were not glued to the floor. These pirates swayed and “yo ho ho-ed” in unison.

“We were 20 guys and when you got a group that small you really can’t do four-part harmony, even three or two part, I mean we pretty much had to be [in] unison,” Gray said. “If you’re under 30 or 40 peo-ple it’s hard to get your voices to fill up the colise-

um like that. You have to be able to essentially scream your singing and still make it sound beautiful as far as win-ning Sing Song.

“Kendall said, ‘You guys are a small club; you got plenty of space there, just use the stage and move around,’” Gray said.

So they adapted their show to fit their form.

“And the judges tore us up for that,” Gray said.

Small groups should aim for a different goal than the big clubs, said Pi Kappa presi-dent Robert Caskey.

“You can put on a good show, you just know you can’t really compete,” Caskey said. “You would have to be miracle singers and do all the motions somehow and make it into some giant show with a whole bunch of props or something, but you’re not going to win if you’re a small club.”

Massey said he still believes smaller groups have a chance.

“There is the ability to win with a small group, yes, especially if you’re entertain-ing. If you’re entertaining the crowd, that matters,” Massey said. “That’s a big deal.”

Other small club mem-bers agreed with Caskey that their sights should be set on entertaining the au-dience rather than reaching for high scores.

Julie Vazquez, Delta Theta Sing Song director, said she thinks clubs with smaller num-bers are at a disadvantage.

Delta Theta had 33 partici-pants in its act this year, three of them non-members.

“As a club we’re not unre-alistic about it because 33 of us compared to 120, there is a big difference,” Vazquez said. “But we still have a good show, and I think we are still very entertaining. That is re-ally the whole point of Sing Song anyway.”

GATA member Smith said even if the added numbers don’t help the club win, they help the club perform.

“We looked good last year, but we still got last place be-cause we were so small and we couldn’t project,” Smith said. “But I think that it helps with the volume definitely, so it gets the audience more excited.”

Massey said small clubs can be just as good at enter-taining the audience as big-ger groups.

“Nobody wants to get up there and do something that’s not worthy of being up on that stage, so if they’re going to do something that’s good, then why not let them do it,” Massey said.

Although the smaller clubs have struggled to compete, the boost of the new rules does more than only help them amplify its sounds with numbers.

“It’s a great opportunity for people who are thinking

about pledging to see how a club really works because it’s not just fine and dandy all the time,” Vazquez said. “There’s tough spots, but in the end the goal is to push through and work as a team, and in the end, everybody can be happy together.”

Many smaller club members said they believe most of the benefit of the bottom cap is in their possibility for publicity.

“It is kind of a way to let other people know this is what we’re all about,” Smith said.

Gray said the Pikes wanted the same thing.

“We got the exposure and that’s what we wanted to do; we wanted people to see who we were as a club and just en-joy a good show,” Gray said.

Vazquez said Delta Theta’s No. 1 benefit from this is get-ting its name out there.

The overall goal is just to become closer as a club and portray that closeness and that unity on stage once we get to Sing Song,” Vazquez said.

In Massey’s years as a col-lege student, he saw another benefit. He had many friends who participated in acts with the Knights and got to see what it was like being in a so-cial club atmosphere.

“We think it’s a good thing because it allows them to ex-perience social clubs on dif-ferent sides,” Massey said. “A lot of times a person’s very first experience with a social club could be pledg-ing and that can be positive or not, but Sing Song is, gen-erally speaking, a very posi-tive experience.”

From a student’s perspec-tive, the non-members will get a more honest view.

“Sing Song is definitely the time of year where peo-ple don’t have masks on,” Vazquez said. “In rushes and stuff like that it’s very easy to just be there, but in Sing Song true colors come out whether they’re good or bad.”

“It’s kind of like a spring rush,” Hembree said. “Not really, but it’s a good way to talk to freshmen.”

Lindsey Smith has experi-enced it from both sides.

“I didn’t really feel a part of the club yet,” Smith said of her first experience singing with GATA. “But they really took me in, and that’s one of the deciding factors that re-ally lead me to pledge GATA ... I already had some rela-tionships there and I knew that I would get along well with that group.”

Now that Smith is a mem-ber of GATA, she gets a new perspective.

”It’s fun to be on the other side of it and be able to encourage those girls,” Smith said.

Sing Song: New rules give small groups moreContinued from page 1

E-mail Painter at: optimist@acu.edu

in Service Saturday because it is a great way to show the community the spirit of ACU and of Christ,” Tonkin said. “As Christians we are called to serve those around us, and Service Sat-urday is a great avenue to pursue this calling.”

Time for participation in

the service projects vary be-tween the establishments, but most sites meet from at least 9 a.m. to noon; some sites meet later in the after-noon. Most service projects last three hours.

For more information, students may go online to check the Service Action Leadership Team Web site at http://www.acu.edu/stu-

dents/salthome.html or check with the SALT office located in the Bean Sprout.

With the semester waning, this is the final Service Sat-urday of the semester. There will, however, be numerous chances for willing individu-als to participate in service to ACU and the community.

Service: Various times for studentsContinued from page 1

E-mail Schmidt at: optimist@acu.edu

plays Helen in “The Miracle Worker,” said that with a new director things take more time. The theatre stu-dents are used to professors like Adam Hester, chair of the Theatre Department, di-recting them, so a student director called for some ad-justment.

“It’s been a great experi-ence for all of us,” Hester said. She said everyone in-volved with the production was so willing to work, in-

cluding she and Savage, who both did extensive research to learn how to play their parts. Hester said she even studied how animals, like go-rillas, move because before Helen learned how to com-municate, she was very ani-mal-like in her movements.

The cast and crew were not left completely on their own when preparing for “The Miracle Worker.” Mike Fernandez, assistant profes-sor of theatre, was the fac-ulty adviser for the play and mentor to Massie.

“Every step of the way I was there as a sounding board,” Fernandez said.

He said he was there to answer Massie’s questions and attended the last week of rehearsals, observing and giving notes.

“I’m very proud of the work our students have done,” Fernandez said.

“The Miracle Worker” will be Thursday through Satur-day. For tickets, call (325) 674-ARTS.

Play: Cast adjusts to directorContinued from page 1

E-mail Lucado at: optimist@acu.edu

Page 5February 28, 2007

James Francies, 76, asks a very direct question he said he likes to ask and waits for eyes to shift

downward and people to squirm uncomfortably.

“What would this world, or [the] United States be like, had it not been for slave labor?” he asks, never releasing eye contact. “Ever thought about that?”

Then he laughs, allow-ing the listener to breathe, because James, too, knows the power racial issues possess to cause discomfort. He explains the history behind to-day’s term “African American” as an example of the way things have changed and how complex race has become.

“When I was born, I was born a little colored baby,” James said.

James was born in 1930, before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. presented his “I Have a Dream Speech,” where King used the words “black” and “white” to refer to skin color. James said after the speech, society would call him a black man until Jesse Jackson’s 1988 bid for presidency, where he was referred to as “African American.”

James is a virtual black history textbook. He cites dates and names with an astonish-ing precision and is avidly researching African American involvement in early rodeos.

James’ theory is that Andrew “Bone” Hooks rode in the first rodeo in 1863. In all likelihood, James said, black cowboys rode broncos be-cause the event would have been considered too dangerous for white participation at the time, James said. He’s still hunting for his evidence.

A trail to progressJames is no stranger to the life of a cowboy.

In fact, he was hailed as the oldest active trail boss in 2002, after more than 40 years spent on the trail.

But perhaps the most impressive detail about his history as a trail boss is the way in which he got his start.

In 1956, James approached the Houston Fat Stock Show about joining the trail ride that had started four years earlier in an attempt to renew interest in the stock show. Accord-ing to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, (the name changed in 1961), at www.hlsr.com, four men comprised the Salt Grass Trail Ride, which is the show’s original trail ride.

James would be the first black man to join the trail, and James said the man he spoke to warned him, “I can’t give you no protection.”

What the man meant, James explained, was that on the trail anything could happen — a drunken man could rope him for enter-tainment, fellow riders could light matches between his toes while he slept or someone could urinate in his boots.

“They’ll strictly do it you,” the man told

James, “because you’re of a different race.”

Instead, he suggested James start a trail with other black cowboys and James agreed.

James approached the pres-ident of Prairie View College with his plan: create the Prairie View Trail to lead away from the university, giving it a purpose and offer-ing graduates a chance to stay connected to the agriculture world.

James got his trail, promising to prohibit al-cohol on the trail and to “maintain a high degree of respect.”

“For 42 years, we never had not one problem,” James said. “Of all the trail rides that we made, I don’t know of anything that brought a discredit to that college. That was a great achievement.”

Over the life of the trail, James estimates about 60,000 riders have ridden the trail — a staggering number considering that the first year James set out with six other riders, a wagon and a driver.

The trail has spurred changes over the years, with James involved in breaking down racial barriers.

In 1963, trail riders with the Houston Live-stock Show and Rodeo arrived in Houston for a parade and faced heavy traffic that sent the show to request that the city allow the trail riders to camp in Houston Memorial Park, which was formerly the U.S. Army’s Camp Lo-gan during World War I.

When the park’s owners, Will and Mike Hogg, sold the land to the city in 1925, James said they wrote a mandate.

“In that deed, right today, it says that no Ne-gro or black would ever camp all night in Me-morial Park,” James said. “It’s still there, but it’s smeared over.”

James said he watched the mayor, presi-dent of the rodeo, police chief and councilman gather to debate where to send the Prairie View Trail riders.

In the end, they were granted a 200x200 foot area in the park that James remembered as “bog-gy, boggy, boggy.”

James woke the next day to find the National Guard, sheriff and police surrounding the camp, James said he assumed, for protection.

“The next year when we came in, they gave us a spot over there with all the other trail riders,”

James said. “And I found that to be interesting.”People packed together to watch the pa-

rade, James said, holding up his interlocked fingers to demonstrate the crowd’s density. James said he could hear them murmuring, “Where’d those darkies come from?” and he added, “They called us everything.”

Mostly, James laughs at the ignorance. He recalled only one incident of blatant racism, where a white man spurred his horse ahead of the Prairie View riders, declaring, “I’d die and go to hell before a bunch of n****** are getting ahead of me.”

Nearby, a 13-year-old girl had her foot in the stirrup, and the sudden movement star-tled her horse. The girl hit her head on the ground and later died.

“I guess that was the only really racial incident that I encountered in 42 years. And of course it was what he was saying,” James said.

As of 1992, the Prairie View Trail became the front trail in the park, and James said me-dia and visitors were always brought to the Prairie View camp.

“That’s one instance that I can say I saw desegregation and interrelations work with-out any bloodshed and without any really open confrontation or protests,” James said. “It opened the doors, and we never had any protests … it just came about.”

Sharing the knowledgeIn his riding days, James and the other

cowboys stopped at schools along the trail to teach the children about life on the trail, ac-cording to the livestock show’s H Magazine. Today, James shares his expertise in Abilene’s Black History Museum.

The museum was was moved to the G.V. Daniels Center four years ago, where visi-tors peruse photographs, literature, inven-tions and newspaper clippings to the back-ground noise of the rowdy bingo players in the adjacent room.

This year’s turnout left James a little disap-pointed, he said, but in years past, many enthu-siastic schoolchildren have enjoyed the museum

he so passionately advocates. “For some reason, when we talk about Black

History Month and the way that things are chang-ing now days, it’s really leading away and sweep-ing a lot of stuff under the rug,” James said, add-ing another of his direct questions: “Why are we sweeping it under the rug?”

But James will tell it like it is, and he said in the four years he’s been in Abilene he hasn’t seen great interest in Black History Month. However, he added that he understands the reason for it.

“It’s hard to take interest or hold to something that you know nothin’ about,” James said.

With plans to partner with Frontier Texas! next year, James seems optimistic that he will be able to encourage interest.

Jeff Salmon, Frontier Texas! executive di-rector, said the plans are still tentative and probably won’t become a reality until 2009. The museum alternates its temporary dis-plays, and in 2008 will feature a women’s his-tory display, Salmon said.

This year, Frontier Texas! has a black histo-ry display that Salmon said is primarily pho-tographs and text; James and other people from the G.V. Daniels museum helped with the display, Salmon said.

This year, the G.V. Daniels Black History Month museum is humble but filled with infor-mation. Countless articles featuring James and the Houston Stock show are spread across a table in the back, and James grins from a pho-tograph, dressed in the chaps and cowboy hat he said he loves. The museum is quiet except for the occasional shout from the room next door, and James’ explanations. But he doesn’t keep talking about his accomplishments.

Instead, he points out an ironing board, which, he explains, is just one of 145 items he knows of that have been invented by blacks.

And, of course, he asks what life would be like without the inventions and their in-ventors, never releasing his gaze. And then he laughs.

Black History Month museum exhibits important inventions whose inventors were black. Other inventions include an ironing board and brush.

James Francies participated in desegregating Houston’s Memorial

Park, and today he shares his knowledge of black history.

Story by Kelsi PeacePhotographs by Emily Smith

Design by Kelsi Peace

James Francies is an advocate for Black History Month, and will talk to anyone about the most important issues.

James’ favorite cowboy hat, used while he was the Prairie View Trail boss for 42 years.

E-mail Peace at: knp04a@acu.edu

The cowboy way

Page 6 February 28, 2007

Energy conservation aids universeGlobal warming and

the need for energy con-servation are upon us.

OK so they have been for some time, but after former vice president and 2000 presidential can-didate Al Gore reheated the public’s awareness of environmental respon-sibility with the Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” it is the most convenient time to take action, even at ACU.

Beyond the simple methods of recycling bins and picking up litter around campus, ACU can prove it is empathetic to-wards environmental is-sues by choosing to pow-er its campus through a practical and environ-

m e n t a l l y safe meth-od: wind turbines.

President of the Out-door Club Beth McEl-wain, senior education major from Farmersville, has been gathering signa-tures for a petition calling ACU to switch from its en-vironmentally damaging method of burning coal to the renewable source of wind through the use of turbines. The Optimist supports this solution and so do more than 200 students that have already signed the petition.

Though initially tur-bines are expensive they pay for themselves by

providing a renewable resource — a resource that isn’t scarce in Texas.

According to the Amer-ican Wind Energy Associa-tion, Texas is No. 2 in the nation behind North Da-kota in the list of the na-tion’s top 20 states with wind energy potential. Al-though California was the first state to harness wind energy potential, Texas and 15 other states have greater resources to use wind as an energy source.

Texans are taking ad-

vantage of that poten-tial — Texas leads the nation with 2,768 wind power proj-ects — even

here in Abilene. Dyess Air Force Base, lo-

cated on the south side of Abilene, receives energy from the world’s largest wind farm. According to the Energy Intelligence Group Inc. the wind farm became operational in Oct. 2006 and now fulfills 100 percent of Dyess’ energy needs.

Baylor University, an-other Christian campus, recently signed a 10-year deal to use wind power to help provide the 735-acre campus’ electricity needs.

In conjunction the Wisconsin-based energy company, WPS Energy Services, Baylor officials estimate that the univer-sity will shave $2 million off its usual $13.5 mil-lion energy bill.

These nearby examples prove that wind source is a feasible and practical option to powering a community like ACU. If the wind of West Texas can power a university larger than ACU and an one of the largest Air Force bases in the nation, why not us?

As a Christian university, ACU is called to take care of the earth God has given us. And this is the best op-portunity to do so.

One of the things I care about most is a comfort-able sleep. When I was liv-ing in the residence halls,

those sol-id, rest-less, spring mat t ress -es hurt my back and dis-turbed my dreams. So my sopho-more year, I bought a soft mat, more pil-lows and

warm blankets to put on my bed. Now living off campus, I still try to help myself sleep well and wake up feeling refreshed.

I know some people may not care about this as much as I do. I know some people stay up late on weekends because they feel like it’s such a waste to spend hours of their fun weekend sleeping. But there are some reasons why I care so much about sleep.

It is said that people spend about one-third of their average lifetime sleeping. If I sleep seven hours each day and live for 80 years, the total sleeping time will be about 23 years. When I first heard about this fact, I realized I didn’t want to waste 23 years of my life feeling uncomfort-able. I don’t want to wake up in the morning and feel even more tired.

For the past few years, I often got sick during every school year. Sometimes I even felt depressed and

easily irritated. Every time I went to see a doctor, I was told I needed to sleep well. At first, I didn’t be-lieve it would fix my condi-tion, but it did.

As I tried to do what I was told, I felt better each day. And more than any-thing, I realized having only three to four hours of sleep was the primary reason for my sickness. Know this is not only hap-pening to me, but to many students at ACU.

The National Sleep Founda-tion states sleep affects how we look, feel and perform on a daily basis and can have a ma-jor impact on our overall qual-ity of life. Sleep helps com-plete all of the phases needed for muscle repair, memory consolidation and release of hormones regulating growth

and appetite.Also, more

than 100,000 car crashes in the United States each year result from drowsi-ness, accord-ing to discov-er.com.

It is your own choice not to sleep and feel sick, but it could involve and hurt others. You can hurt some-one’s feeling by being in a bad mood from being sleep-less. This is why having a healthy sleep is important not only for you but also for your social life.

It’s just sleep, but we can’t live without it. If we have to sleep for 23 years, let’s seek ways to enjoy the time.

E-mail Shibata at: axs03d@acu.edu, optimist@acu.edu

A Different Voice

Atsumi Shibata

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

Abilene, TX 79699

E-mail letters to: optimist@acu.edu

Editorial and letter policy

Published by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication

Newsroom:(325) 674-2439

Sports desk:(325) 674-2684

Photo department:(325) 674-2499

Advertising office:(325) 674-2463

Subscriptions ($40/academic year):(325) 674-2296.

Online:www.acuoptimist.com

Editorial and Management Board

Mallory SchlabachEditor in Chief

Jared FieldsManaging Editor

Michelle JimenezCopy Editor

Lauren SuttonOpinion Editor

Emily SmithChief Photographer

Kelsi PeaceFeatures Editor

Daniel JohnsonSports Editor

Todd PiersallArts Editor

Shelby CoatesVideo Editor

Christi StarkAdvertising Manager

Kenneth PybusAdviser

ACU can prove it is empathetic toward environ-mental issues by choosing to power its campus

through a practical and environmentally safe method: wind turbines.

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

Cole WilliamsLet Loose

ViewswednesdayOptimist

If I sleep seven hours each day and live for 80 years, the total

time sleeping will be about 23 years.

Find time for a good night’s sleep

For many, the winners of Sing Song 2007 were an un-wanted reminder of Sing Song problems of the past.

Many students, aside from members of Sigma Theta Chi and Gamma Sigma Phi, held out hope that ACU might fi-nally create a fair, equal and unbiased playing field for other Sing Song participants.

Sadly, we were once again let down.

Siggies swept every catego-ry, including costumes. They wore a piece of beige felt with silver sparkle — and they called it a french fry.

From the stage the “fries”

could easily have passed for fence posts, pieces of un-cooked bacon or band-aids.

Somehow those costumes seemed to outshine GATA’s shimmering ladybugs and Alpha Kai Omega’s festive Christmas elves.

Somewhere there must have been a costume line item for “sentimental vote.”

In the men’s division, GSP was allowed to change perfor-mance, though regulations in-fer that clubs are not allowed to change even the color of its socks after the Wednesday night rehearsal.

Yet, GSP brought in new props each night and the di-rector significantly changed his costume Friday night to enhance their presentation.

From the outside, it ap-pears as though rules are re-defined each year in order for

these two particular clubs to dominate.

Rumors have it, the losing clubs might boycott Sing Song altogether next year. Why show up? If ACU continues to hire alumni affiliated with social clubs as “non-biased” judges, this monopoly is sure to continue.

Would hiring judges with no relationship to ACU ruin Sing Song or would it remove the room for “sentimental voting,” requiring fair play from all involved? If there are no politics involved, why were clubs not given score sheets?

Why are Sing Song co-chairs allowed to make presentations to judges re-garding other clubs efforts? Could a Siggie present the essence of the Kojie pro-gram with the same amount

of emotion and enthusiasm? Why put anyone in the posi-tion to do the impossible?

It’s not the directors or the judges’ fault. It’s the fault of those who are entrusted with making and keeping the Sing Song rules. They have creat-ed a system that is designed to fail.

To many of the losing par-ticipants, this 51-year tradi-tion has become too political. It seems to some the outcome justifies the means, to others it’s an unfair game that’s no longer fun.

Tiffany Gauntt junior journalism major from Colleyville tmg04c@acu.edu

Make Sing Song fair for all clubsA letter to the editor in response to the 2007 Sing Song results.

LEttEr tO thE EDitOr

It bothers me to hear people going around saying how they, their class or their club were robbed during the awards for

Sing Song. Students go around talking about how much harder they worked than other direc-tors, but honestly who can say they worked harder?

Are we comparing how hard we worked by hours spent, or by how much of your heart and soul you put into your act? Be-cause as it is, Sing Song doesn’t need directors who aren’t will-

ing to spend long hours work-ing on their acts, and who don’t want to make it memorable for the people they are work-ing with, and clubs and classes don’t need people in their show who don’t care about the act, who aren’t willing to put the time required for learning and performing the show.

Yes, everyone involved in the

show worked very hard. Lots of people are always upset by the fact that their show didn’t win, but Sing Song is not supposed to be about wining. It’s about bonding together as a club, as classmates, as ACU students glorifying God.

Do you really think alumni come back to Sing Song be-cause their act won? Alumni

and parents come back for the memories.

If we’re so consumed by the fact that our acts did or didn’t win, then we’ve completely missed the point of Sing Song because it’s not about wining or losing. It’s about the memories you make with friends. If we can look back and say we’ve deep-ened our friendships with fel-

low classmates and maybe met one or two people we might not have met otherwise, then why do we insist on cheapening Sing Song with our petty attitudes?

Courtnee Hembree junior journalism major from Abilene

A letter to the editor in response to the 2007 Sing Song Results.

LEttEr tO thE EDitOr

Club member argues Sing Song not about winning

the issue:Because of the affects of global warming, many communities and university campuses are looking for alternative ways to provide energy.

Our view:Making ACU a turbine-powered campus would helps preserve the earth God has entrusted us with.

the solution:Support McElwain and other students involved in making ACU a wind-powered campus by signing petitions and offering your services.

and carried a slim halftime 32-31 lead. ACU clawed back to a 44-39 lead early in the second half, but went ice cold down the stretch, not scoring a basket within the final 8:59 of the game.

“I thought the first half we did a pretty good job defen-sively,” Lavender said. “We just played a little bit flat in the second half, and really just got beat by team that played like they wanted it more.”

ACU’s season ends with an overall record of 17-12. Central Oklahoma, who im-proved its record to 15-12 with the win, will play the winner of the West Texas A&M-East Central match-up in the second round.

ACU qualified for the play-offs last Thursday when East-ern New Mexico eliminated Midwestern State from post-

season contention with a 69-46 win.

Without the pressure of try-ing to make the playoffs, the Wildcats finished the regular season with an 81-70 victory over Texas A&M-Kingsville on Saturday at the Steinke P.E. Center in Kingsville.

“We had different players step up Saturday,” Lavender said. “It’s always nice to finish the regular season on a win and hopefully carry that mo-mentum into the conference tournament.”

Guard Kristee Davidson put up a career-game of 22 points against Texas A&M-Kingsville.

At the end of the regular season, ACU had made the LSC Postseason Tournament for the first time since the 2004-05 season.

for Saturday were canceled after a severe thunderstorm blew the tarp off Sarpey Field and left the field flooded.

“We were in a situation where, even if we stayed an-other day, they felt like it would just be too much to play on,” said head coach Britt Bonneau.

ACU’s only win of the week-

end was a 15-5 victory in the second game of the series.

Despite giving up five runs in the first two innings, Bonneau stuck with starting pitcher Matt Davis and wait-ed for him to calm down.

“I just rolled the dice, and once he started putting up zeroes, we left him in,” Bonneau said.

Davis pitched the next two innings without giving up a run, and the Wildcat

bullpen didn’t allow another run in the remaining three innings.

Designated hitter Doug Banks led the Wildcats with four RBI and two hits.

One negative conse-quence of the game was the loss of J.J. Pacheco.

Pacheco dislocated his shoulder in game two, and Bonneau said he will be out for 3-4 weeks.

Shortstop Trey Watten

said the loss of Pacheco’s consistent bat and good-base running will hurt the Wildcats.

“That’s a big loss for us; he’s a great lead off hitter,” Watten said.

Pacheco has started in all 14 of the Wildcats games and is tied for second in the LSC for stolen bases with seven.

ACU dropped Friday’s first game after Northeast-ern broke a 5-5 tie in the fifth with a six-run inning. The Wildcats failed to close the gap in the final two in-nings of the game.

“We kinda let them hang around,” Bonneau said.

Bonneau said ACU had trouble getting hits early and it came back to haunt the Wildcats in game one.

“That game just got out of hand there late in the game,” Bonneau said.

And playing well in the first game of a series is something Bonneau said his team has struggled with this season.

“We got to figure out how to play game one; that’s the game that’s giving us trouble even at home,” Bonneau said.

Redmen pitcher Matt Averitt pitched all seven in-nings and only allowed five hits and struck out three ACU batters. The loss was pitcher Chris Wiman’s first this season.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007 Page 7SPORTS JUMPS

brian schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Outfielder Mike Elkerson rounds third base and head towards home against East Central on Feb. 16. The 11-3 ACU baseball team is tied at No. 9 in the nation after going 1-1 against Northeastern State in Talequah, Okla., on Friday. ACU’s next series will be a four-game series against Southeastern Oklahoma State on Friday.

Out: Season ends in quarterfinalsContinued from page 8

E-mail Freeman at: mxf04b@acu.edu

Ninth: Pacheco injures shoulder

Continued from page 8

E-mail Johnson at: djj04a@acu.edu

now it hasn’t really hit me.”Also at the meet, shot

putter Kelli Clement earned a birth to the indoor na-tional meet by improving her personal best by more than three feet with a throw

of 46-6.75. Her throw ranks her 11th in the nation. With her continued improvement, Clement has high goals for Boston.

“The competition defi-nitely makes me step up,” Clement said. “I want to score points for my team.”

Clement said adding a throw of between 47-48 feet “would be really nice.”

Liga Klavina improved her throw in the shot put with a distance of 46-10.25, ranking her seventh in the nation.

ACU will not compete in any meets before the NCAA

Division II Indoor Champion-ship in Boston on March 9-10.

Aguilar: Indoor Nationals next meetContinued from page 8

E-mail Fields at: jrf03c@acu.edu

said it has improved over the past week.

“I think we focused better during the course of the two Friday games which led to us scoring consistently during the two games,” Wilson said. “Those were two tough teams, and to come away with two wins is big for us.”

Wilson said the team is still trying to work on better at-bats and not watch so many strikes go by.

The Wildcats have started to score more consistently during games, but its weak-est innings so far this season have been the first and sec-

ond innings during games. The team is definitely stron-ger toward the middle and end of its games. Overall, the team has scored only four runs during the first and the second inning and has scored 11 runs in the fifth and the sixth inning.

“I think we are starting to realize our potential right now and the timing is about right as we start conference play this weekend,” Wilson said.

The team will travel to Den-ton this weekend to take on Texas Woman’s University to begin inter-conference play.

Softball: LSC play begins FridayContinued from page 8

E-mail Davis at: optimist@acu.edu

system and the level of com-petition.

“I think we got a good core group coming back,” Cope-land said. “But I understand we still have some progress to be made.”

On paper, Copeland made progress in his second season as head coach, picking up two more wins this season than his first at the helm. ACU was 8-19 during Copeland’s first year, but out of its 10 wins, only one was during confer-ence play.

“I think obviously we were a little disappointed with the way conference went,” Co-peland said. “We improved though, not as much as I hoped, but I think we made some solid steps in the right direction.”

ACU lost to Kingsville after failing to bounce back from a 21-point second half deficit.

ACU was able to pull with-in four twice in the last 45

seconds but failed to take the lead in the final moments of the game.

“We just dug us a real big hole early in the game, and we started to fill the hole and couldn’t quite fill it all the way,” said guard Riley Lambert.

That hole began at halftime when ACU was down 49-37. Kingsville extended its lead to as much as 21 points until ACU went on a scoring surge.

ACU shot 15 of 27 from the floor and chipped away at Kingsville’s lead. Senior for-ward Igor Vrzina led the Wild-cats in scoring with 20 points and 12 rebounds. The loss was Vrzina’s, guard Tiago Souza and guard Norman Alexander final collegiate game.

Forward Cam Holson, a two-year starter, is confident

the lessons learned from this year will help ACU build to-wards a winning program.

“I think we realized that the more we play together and as a team the more success we’re going to have,” Holson said.

The biggest hole Cope-land needs to fill during the recruiting season is a post. ACU lost its initial starting post Marcos Hubner early in the season and Vrizna will no longer be eligible.

“We need to go sign two big guys that can help us,” Copeland said.

Offseason: Post main priority Continued from page 8

E-mail Johnson at: djj04a@acu.edu

“We improved though, not as much as I hoped, but I think we made some solid steps in the right direction.”

Jason copeland, head basketball coach

n The ACU women’s tennis team picked up two easy wins over Division I opponents this weekend. ACU defeated Loiusiana-Monroe and Stephen F. Austin.

By MICHAEL FREEMANOnline editOr

The ACU women’s tennis team trounced two Division I teams in Nacogdoches on Friday. The Wildcats beat Louisiana-Monroe and Ste-phen F. Austin, both by the scores of 6-1. With the two wins, ACU, who is ranked No. 5 nationally, has an

overall record of 7-2. The ACU men had the weekend off, but played Texas Tech on Tuesday. Texas Tech is ranked No. 34 in the Divi-sion I national poll.

“We have nothing to lose,” said head coach Hutton Jones of the match-up against Tex-as Tech. “I’m just kind of cu-rious to see if we can scare them a little bit and put them in a situation where we might pull an upset.”

The highest ranked team the ACU men have ever

beaten is Texas-San Anto-nio, who was ranked No. 68, in 2001.

On Friday, the women blew through their competi-tion in the Stephen F. Austin Invitational. The victories extend the Wildcats’ win streak to four matches.

“I am very pleased with our 6-1 wins,” Jones said. “It just shows how, I think, we’re getting better.”

In the two matches, the Wildcats won all of its dou-bles matches. And other than the two singles losses, ACU dropped only two sets

in the other 16 singles and doubles matches.

“I feel like our doubles is very strong,” Jones said.

Jones said he feels all of his women doubles players play like their the No. 1 pair on the team.

Despite the dominating wins Friday, Jones said he would have preferred the overall matches to be closer. Even though the team scores were 6-1, Jones said some of the individual matches were highly competitive.

“We want to be comfort-able in a struggle,” Jones

said. “We did have some struggles. It’s just that we came out ahead in almost all of them, so we never were close in a team score.”

Both teams will be back on the courts on Saturday when the women play Tyler Junior and Tarleton State and the men play Tyler Ju-nior and New Mexico Mili-tary. The upcoming matches will be played at the Eager Tennis Pavilion.

n The ACU baseball team jumped up two spots in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper national poll after splitting a two games with Northeastern State on Friday.

By DANIEL JOHNSONSpOrtS editOr

A thunderstorm rained out the last half of the ACU baseball team’s series with Northeastern State this week-end, but it didn’t stop ACU from climbing two spots in the Collegiate Baseball News-paper national poll.

ACU is tied at No. 9 with Franklin Pierce after going 1-1 against Northeastern in Talequah, Okla., on Friday.

The two games scheduled

n Pole vaulter Angie Aguilar set a new Division II record at the Oklahoma Christian Indoor meet. ACU’s track and field teams will not compete until the NCAA Indoor Championships.

By JARED FIELDSManaging editOr

The ACU track and field team boasts the top pole vaulters in the nation after a record-setting weekend at Oklahoma Christian.

Angie Aguilar highlighted the weekend by setting a NCAA Division II record in the pole vault with a height of 13-7.00. She beat the record, set just one

week earlier, by half an inch, or one centimeter.

“I’ve just been waiting for it to happen,” Aguilar said.

Aguilar now sets her focus on the indoor national meet in Bos-ton on March 9-10. She wants to clear 14 feet at Boston, five inches higher than her current record.

“It’s exciting to go to a big meet like that and know there’s that kind of competition,” Agui-lar said.

Another women’s pole vault-er, Elizabeth Buyse, set a per-

sonal best with a height of 12-6.00, which ranks her sixth in the nation and earned her a trip to Boston.

On the men’s side, Kyle Den-nis’ jump of 17-0.75 made his height the top mark in the nation. Although his height is tops in Di-vision II, Dennis is not satisfied.

“I’m hoping to go to nationals and jump 18 [feet],” Dennis said.

For now, Dennis said he’s try-ing to concentrate on nationals.

“There’s definitely a lot of pressure there, but I can’t think about it,” Dennis said. “Right

Friday

BASEBALLACU vs. SE Oklahoma State, 4 p.m. (DH)

SOFTBALLACU at Texas Woman’s 5 p.m. (DH)

n Home games listed in italics

SportSWedneSdayPage 8 February 28, 2007

SCOrEBOArD

Standings

Upcoming

INTrAMUrAL rOUND-UP

n The intramural schedule and points seen on the Optimist sports page are not final and subject to change. Any last-minute changes can be viewed on the intramural bulletin board in Moody Coliseum.

MEN’S BASKETBALLTeam Div. OverallMSUWTAMTarletonTAMK-UENMU

Angelo St.

9-39-37-56-66-64-8

20-617-918-919-812-149-17

ACU 1-11 10-16

WOMEN’S BASKETBALLTeam Div. OverallWTAMTarletonAngelo St. ACUENMU

MSU

14-08-68-68-65-95-9

25-316-916-1017-1114-1212-14

TX Woman’s 5-9 11-16TAMK-U 3-11 8-19

Scores

Friday

WOMEN’S TENNISACU 6, Louisiana Monroe 1ACU 6, Stephen F. Austin 1

BASEBALLNortheastern State 10, ACU 5ACU 15, Northeastern State 5

SOFTBALLACU 8, Incarnate Word 0ACU 5, Central Oklahoma 4

Saturday

MEN’S BASKETBALLTexas A&M-Kingsville 92, ACU 87

WOMEN’S BASKETBALLACU 81, Texas A&M-Kingsville 70

Tuesday

WOMEN’S BASKETBALLACU 66, Central Oklahoma 63

Scoreboard as of Tuesday

BASEBALLTeam Div. OverallACUENMUAngelo St. TarletonTAMK-U

WTAM

0-00-00-00-00-00-0

11-38-46-56-64-52-5

SOFTBALLTeam Div. OverallAngelo St. TarletonTAMK-UACUENMU

TX Woman’s

0-00-00-00-00-00-0

18-25-110-58-69-106-11

WTAM 0-0 4-8

Women’s tennis

Upcoming

INTrAMUrAL BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS

See intramural bulletin board for schedule. Tournament ends Monday.

VOLLEYBALLDeadline: Thursday

Cost: $100 per team

Begins: Tuesday

Track & Field

brian schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Senior forward Lacey Blau grabs a offensive rebound against Texas Woman’s on Feb. 20. Blau played her final game as a Wildcat in ACU’s 76-57 loss to Central Oklahoma in the quarter finals of the Lone Star Con-ference tournament. Blau recorded 15 points, three rebounds, six assists and one steal in the game.

Aguilar breaks Division II pole vault record

n The ACU men’s basketball team ended its season with a loss to Texas A&M Kingsville on Saturday. ACU finished its season at 1-11 in the LSC South and 10-16 overall.

By DANIEL JOHNSONSpOrtS editOr

A 92-87 loss to Texas A&M-Kingsville on Saturday capped off the ACU men’s basketball team seventh-straight losing season, but head coach Ja-son Copeland is confident his team gained one thing from its 10-16 season: experience.

Copeland said ACU will have seven players returning next year with experience play-ing with each other, Copeland’s

Ninth straight loss ends season

n The ACU women’s basketball team ended its season with a 76-57 loss in the quarterfinals of the Lone Star Conference postseason tournament.

By MICHAEL FREEMANOnline editOr

The Wildcats’ playoff run ended sooner than they would have liked it to as ACU fell to Central Oklaho-ma 76-57 Tuesday night in Edmond, Okla.

It was the second time ACU has ever lost its open-ing game in the Lone Star

Conference Post-Season Tournament; the only oth-er time being in the 1999-2000 season when ACU lost to Southeastern Okla-homa 72-71.

“Central played better than we did,” said head coach Shawna Lavender . “We didn’t play like it was either ‘win or go home’ and Central played like that. We played tentative in the second half, and really just let Central take us out of our game.”

Guard Alex Guiton led the Wildcats in scoring with 16 points, followed by forward Lacey Blau, who had 15, and center Audrey Maxwell, who finished with 10. Blau, a se-nior, played her final game as a Wildcat on Tuesday. She finished the game with 15 points, three rebounds, six assists and one steal.

The Wildcats started strong by jumping out to an early 9-0 lead, but the Lady Bronchos of Central Oklahoma bounced back

Cats out of tourney

brian schmidt FILE PHOTO

Pole vaulter Angie Aguilar set a new NCAA Division II In-door pole vaulting record at the Oklahoma Christian Indoor meet Saturday.

Win lifts ACU to ninth in nation

n Despite two canceled games because of Saturday’s wind storm, the ACU softball team went undefeated at the ACU-CBS round robin Classic on Saturday.

By RACHEL DAVISSpOrtS Writer

Saturday’s weather forced the Wildcats to cancel the second half of the ACU-CBS Round Robin Classic, but the team won both of its games Friday in the first half.

The team, now 8-6, was scheduled to play Incarnate Word and Central Oklaho-ma in the second half of the Round Robin Classic; how-ever, both teams decided to leave early because of Satur-day’s dust storm, leaving ACU with no one to play.

“It would have been nice to get Saturday’s games in to give our pitchers some more innings,” said head coach Chantiel Wilson. “But we plan to inter-squad a couple times this week to make up for those missed games. We are always disappointed to have games canceled, especially when we are trying to build some momentum, but it was nice to get the two wins on Friday to get us going.”

The 19th-ranked Wildcats took on both Incarnate Word and Central Oklahoma on Friday and won both games. ACU, now ranked fourth in the LSC South, beat Incarnate Word in an 8-0 shutout and beat Central Oklahoma 5-4.

In the shutout, senior pitcher Sarah Vidalin pitched five innings and gave up only three hits and two walks. The games on Friday put ACU at sixth in the conference in pitching with an overall ERA of 2.78 and ninth in the con-ference in batting with an av-erage of .275.

So far in the season, the team has had issues with consistent scoring and batting, but Wilson

Wildcats win two despite wind storm

Women’s tennis team downs D-I challengers

See OFFSEASON page 7

See NINTH page 7 See SOFTBALL page 7

See AGUILAr page 7

E-mail Freeman at: mxf04b@acu.edu

Women’s basketball

See OUT page 7