january 18, 2012
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Rambler NewspaperTRANSCRIPT
The voice of Texas Wesleyan University students since 1917
The RamblerFirst-class mail now changed to 2-3 business days.News, page 3
Women’s basketball sitting at fourth in conference.Sports, page 8
wednesdayJanuary 18, 2012
Vol. 95 • No. 1
www.therambler.org
classes! For more information, call 817-531-7589.
Presidential inauguration fast approachingTristian [email protected]
Although Frederick Sla-bach has been serving as president for the past year, the time has finally come to celebrate his inauguration.
The inauguration will take place 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Investiture Structure, Park-ing Lot A. In the days lead-ing up to it, there are various special events going on in the Texas Wesleyan community to honor the inauguration.
“I think it’s a very excit-ing and positive event,” said Marcel Kerr, inauguration subcommittee chair.
Kerr said she is excited
for students who will be in attendance.
“It’s a very rare event for students,” she said.
From 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Jan 23, there will be a special reception for Sla-bach at the Texas Wesley-an School of Law. All law school faculty, staff and alumni are welcome to the event.
The faculty and staff at the law school, who know Sla-bach from his time as dean on the campus, wanted to reach out to the rest of the Wesleyan community.
“It was very important to recognize him,” said Debra Barnett, event coordinator
for the Texas Wesleyan Law School.
Barnett said it will give the law students a chance to meet and interact with the president.
“The faculty and staff felt strongly about being bond-ed with all of the Wesleyan family,” Barnett said.
On Jan.24, two events will take place. The first event, set for noon to 1:30 p.m in the Baker Building, is a pub-lic interview between Dr. Hector Quintanilla, dean of School of Business Admin-istration, and Global Mar-ket CEO Tompe Hall. They will discuss how issues such as religion and culture af-
fect business in the Arabian Gulf. The other event is a concert by the music depart-ment set for 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. in the Eunice & James L. West Library.
At 2 p.m. Jan. 25 in Lou’s Place, a faculty scholar’s re-ception will be held. It will showcase the creative works of the Wesleyan faculty. A lecture on interdisciplinary research will also be given.
At 7 p.m. Jan. 26, an eve-ning concert will be held in the Brown Lupton Cam-pus Center. Musical group, Maiden Texas, will be per-forming. Maiden Texas is a Texas-born singing trio; two of the members work on the
Texas Wesleyan campus. During the morning of
the inauguration on Jan.27, from 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in the Polytechnic United Methodist Church, a morn-ing service will be held.
At 8:30 a.m in Martin Hall, former U.S. Secretary of State, Madeleine K. Al-bright, will speak and also sign books prior to the inau-guration ceremony.
John Veilleux, vice presi-dent of marketing and com-munications, said the inau-guration is a very important event.
“It is a chance to celebrate the community and make new friends,” he said.
Veilleux said he wants stu-dents to know the celebra-tions will not be at any cost to the students or university. All funds for the celebration were attained through fundraisers.
Carla Tennison, senior po-litical science and pre-law major, said she is optimistic about the inauguration and appreciates having Slabach as university president.
“He seems to be really in-volved with the students and it seems like he cares,” Ten-nison said.
For more information about events, please visit www.txwes.edu and click on schedule of events under The 2012 Inuaguration.
Students contribute to charity collections
Eco-friendly light bulbs may brighten Wesleyan campus
Shauna [email protected]
In the midst of a recover-ing economy, campus-wide efforts to help both the two- and four-legged Polytechnic Heights community members have resulted in success.
This past holiday season, organizations across the Tex-as Wesleyan campus hosted various drives to help those in need, ranging from collect-ing coats for students at local elementary schools to collect-ing dry pet food for the Fort Worth Humane Society.
The Accounting Society at Texas Wesleyan filled three large boxes with 100 pounds of canned food, boxed food and toiletries. All items were do-nated to SEARCH Homeless Services, an organization that helps thousands of men, wom-en and children move from the streets into safe jobs and stable homes each year.
Junaid Khan, president of the Accounting Society, said the group also worked with Omega Chi, a Christian orga-nization on campus, to donate toys for Omega Chi’s annual Christmas party, where vari-ous needed and wanted pres-ents are given to children in the Polytechnic community.
“We raised slightly more than last year,” Khan said. “What probably motivated people is knowing that no matter what a person’s finan-cial situation is, there is al-ways something that can be done to help and every little
bit can make a difference.”With an aim to aid the elder-
ly within the community, the staff in the Eunice and James L. West Library hosted their eighth annual event with the Meals on Wheels Giving Tree. Anyone who wanted to donate could choose stars from a tree in the lobby and purchase wish items ranging from scarves to bags of dry dog food for pets.
This past holiday, library staff collected 325 gifts, 63 bags of pet food and $125. Sheri Parker, coordinator of library operations, said the numbers for gifts and pet food lowered slightly from last year, but the cash amount collected doubled.
“The economy, along with so many other collections this year, seemed to be the rea-son the numbers were down,” Parker said. “Having a wider selection of donation options is great for the students, staff and faculty on campus.”
Staff and Faculty in the School of Arts and Letters hosted their fifth annual Bear Hunt this past December, and are still receiving various stuffed animals at the start of this spring semester. So far, 278 stuffed animals have been col-lected, with hopes of exceeding their 300-bear goal.
Elizabeth Hennessey, ad-ministrative assistant to the dean in the School of Arts and Letters, said these stuffed ani-mals are donated to the Fort
Alejandra [email protected]
An array of bright, eco-friendly light bulbs called Light Emitting Di-ode (LED), illuminated rooms on campus from Nov. 30 to Dec. 16.
The LED lights were installed in Classroom.Next, room B26 in in the Eunice and James L. West Li-brary, and the Human Resources office, room 101 in the Administra-tive Building. The LED lights were an experimental 3-week trial orga-
nized by Kenneth Dunson, facilities operations director, and Dr. Bruce Benz, associate professor of biology and chairman of the Blue Plus Gold Equals Green Committee. Dunson and the committee collaborated be-forehand to brainstorm ideas to re-duce the amount of energy used at Wesleyan.
“Our goal is to do as much green initiative as we can across campus,” Dunson said. “Anything we can do to lower our carbon footprint.”
Dunson returned the LED light
bulbs to the distributer, LEDs Un-limited LLC, on Jan. 9. The distribu-tor then returned them to their man-ufacturer, Seesmart.
Manny Lopez, regional sales and recruiting manager for LEDs Unlim-ited LLC, said LED lighting has many benefits, such as lower maintenance, no mercury, no ultraviolet rays, little heat and a significant amount of en-ergy is saved.
“[It is] the easiest way to reduce energy and go green at the same time,” Lopez said.
In the time the LED light bulbs were here, students, staff and faculty were asked through a mass email to check out the lighting and reply with their opinion. However, not many responses were entered.
“We didn’t get the quantity of feed-back from students, faculty or staff that I was hoping for,” Dunson said in an email. “The feedback we did get was basically neutral, meaning everyone could take them or leave them.”
Dunson said he thinks the reason
few people submitted their opinion is because the trial was done too close to the time of Christmas and finals.
Christina Martinez, senior para-legal studies major, agrees with Dunson.
“They should have done it at the start of the semester instead of dur-ing finals,” Martinez said. “Nobody was paying attention to anything but studying.”
Slabach and family ride in Stock Show Parade
Meisa Keiviani Najafabadi | Rambler StaffAt 11 a.m. Jan. 14, Frederick Slabach, univerisy president, and his family rode in a Wesleyan horse-drawn wagon at the annual Stock Show Parade in downtown Fort Worth. Willie the Ram, Wesleyan cheerleaders and alumni also attended the All Western Parade. The parade marked the first day of the 116th annual Stock Show and Rodeo. Only horses and other livestock were featured in the parade, no motorized vehicles were used.
Lighting, page 3
Christmas, page 3
Opinion
It’s Dec. 31 — students are on their phones updating their Facebook statuses and sharing their New Year’s res-olutions. We watch the ball drop and kiss our significant others as the clock strikes midnight.
Our new resolutions are in first gear and nothing can stop the excited feeling of a new year. Two weeks later, we are sitting on our couches and repeating to ourselves we can get back on track tomorrow.
There are a few of us who do follow through with our resolutions, but, for the most part we tend to fall back into our old habits within the first two weeks.
Every year we make reso-lutions to lose weight, study harder, be nicer to our fam-ily or get more involved in
our com-m u n i t i e s . These reso-lutions can be accom-plished and we should try our best to achieve them.
A c c o r d -ing to www.huffington-post .com, the reason for our failed resolutions is because we are lacking en-ergy. Over and over we say we are going to eat better, get healthy and live on the edge, but we never actually take action. Instead, we make ex-cuses. Somehow it is never our fault.
The Huffington Post’s web-
site also says we tend to blame our failed attempts on lack of time instead of lack of energy.
However, I do believe time is a factor and the best solu-tion is to make a schedule, hopefully keeping our reso-lutions on track. A schedule can increase productivity and gives us a better chance
of actually accomplishing our resolutions.
Another problem people have is materialisitic ten-dancies, especially when it comes down to our goals. We rely on cars, houses, elec-tronics and social networks to fulfill our happiness and satisfaction. If we have more
energy we can apply these new resolutions to our daily lives.
The only way we can have more energy is through dis-ciplining ourselves. We must make sure we get the recom-mended amount of sleep, keeping stress to a minimum, eat healthy and exercise.
When we make it a point to change our lives for the better we will start to see a more improved version of ourselves. Whether we have improved our health, per-sonal life, grades or activi-ties, we will feel more confi-dent in the goals we plan to accomplish in the future.
2 | January 18, 2012 The RambleR | www.therambler.org
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Opinions expressed in The RambleR are those of the indi-vidual authors only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Texas Wesleyan community as a whole.
RambleR Contribution Please send all news briefs to [email protected]. Sub-missions due by noon Friday to see brief in the following week’s issue.
Letters to the editor: The RambleR, a weekly publication, welcomes all letters. All submis-sions must have a full printed name, phone number and sig-nature. While every consider-
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“We are not afraid to follow the truth ... wherever it may lead.”
— Thomas JeffersonAlejandra Garcia, editor-in-chief Shauna Banks, opinion editorStephanie Randall, sports editorJordan Twine arts & entertainment editorMeisa Keivani Najafabadi, photo editorBrandon Loredo, multimedia editorErica Estrada, cartoonist/photographerWendy Moore, faculty adviserDr. Kay Colley, faculty liaisonFrederick Slabach, publisher
The Rambler
Thumbs up to Dora’s new Asian bar. We often opt for the pizza when nothing else strikes our fan-cy, but this new found Asian cui-sine is right up our alley!
Thumbs up to a whole week of the Spring semester already be-ing over. We weren’t eager to jump back on the bandwagon of end-less classes and papers no one re-ally wants to write, but the time is flashing by, and that’s how we like it!
Thumbs up to Bradden Van Noy (SGA president) and Melissa Mur-nane on their engagement. We know you’ll make a stunning bride and groom at your wedding. Keep him in line Melissa!
Rambler Ratings
Shauna BanksOpinion Editor/[email protected]
New year calls for self discipline
Gift giving gets complicated
...and you can take that to the Bank (s)!
Stuffed lions, and tigers, and bears — oh my!
Like your mom always told you when you got clothes for gifts as child, it really is the thought that counts when giving and re-ceiving gifts for any holiday.
With Valentine’s Day re-ally not so far off, the ques-tion of what to get my other half looms over me like an unpredictable cloud.
He’s not as easy to impress with gifts as I am. Even as an adult, I adore the stuffed bears that say “I love you thissss much” and a nice box of chocolates, or those silly candy hearts that urge the recipient to “be mine.”
Even though I’ve yet to come up with anything to give a 28-year-old man for a holiday that he would rather forget existed, I have come to a different realiza-tion: gifts are not always all they’re cracked up to be.
In many instances where I’m expected to buy gifts, it often ends up being more stressful than enjoyable.
Christmas has to be the biggest culprit. What the heck do you really buy for Nana, who already has 25 frames that say “World’s Greatest Grandma,” candles decorating every nook and cranny of her house and enough kitchen gadgets to fill two kitchens? (A Tony
Romo T-shirt and Cowboys drawstring bag it turns out. Who knew?)
This past Christmas, my boyfriend and I decided we would limit the amount of money spent on gifts. How-ever, I actually do enjoy get-ting gifts for people I care about — and with my new found love for couponing, a free or nearly free gift is just that!
The Black Friday bug bit me in the hiney and did not let go for most of that day. Nothing made me more proud than the deal I scored from Best Buy — a $600 lap-top for $299! Low and be-hold, my boo actually need-ed a laptop, so it was just perfect. Well, so I thought.
It was of course all smiles and crazy levels of excite-ment upon him opening the laptop on Christmas Day. After all, he was running on a laptop so old, it still worked best when used with a dial up connection. Yikes.
That’s where it all went wrong. Less than a week af-ter it had been pulled from the box, we were struck one morning with the realiza-tion that it had a cracked LED screen. Of course I sped like a bat out of hell back to Best Buy, demand-ing an exchange. But no sir-ree. No returns accepted on what they deem to be “ac-
cidents.” So now, that “Heck yes! Score!” moment, has turned into a $300 ouch.
After shaking my fists and moaning and groaning, I re-alized it really wasn’t some-thing worth getting that up-set over; it was just a simple item.
I really hadn’t lost any-thing in the grand scheme of things. I still had the love of my life home and safe, my silly dogs yip-yapping around me with their new 97 cent tennis balls and most of my sanity.
So the moral of the story is this: if a gift has you wish-ing you could pull your hair out, maybe a gift isn’t the best idea.
But on the other hand, some of the simplest gifts that call for the least amount of money and zero stress can bring the biggest smiles and enjoyment (just ask all four of my dogs).
Christmas came and went, and my favorite gift was without a doubt the fancy looking ink pen I got, with silly beagles pictured on the casing. Remembering that I adore our dogs was the true gift in that.
So in the end, even though most people may not truly ever believe it—it really is the thought that counts. And you can take that, to the the bank!
Rolandra WestStaff [email protected]
freeimageslive.com | CourtesyPeople all over the world have made their New Year’s resolutions and are vowing to stick to them. The real question is: can they accomplish them?
Campus comment: What do you think of Wesleyan’s new website?
“It looks a lot better. It’s more updated.” - Phillip Chavez, freshman, exercise science major
“I don’t like the email. I like the design but I don’t really pay attention to it. I just get on and off.” - Garrison Hawley, sophomore, English major
“It’s easier to navigate. It was hard to find how to pre-register at first but now they have everything set up.” - Madalyn Rus-sell, junior, theatre major
“I like it, but what I found confusing was there was no tutorial on how to work it. Many people were confused about it.”-Amanda Moten, senior, history major
Thumbs down to the circus the race for the presidential repub-lican nominee has turned out to be. Perry bombs his debates, Cain can’t seem to keep his hands to himself (so all those women say) and Bachmann drops out of the race before the primaries even be-gin.
Thumbs down to the people who decided not to walk the extra few yards to the dumpster to deposit their trash over the holidays in West Village. The patio bares no resemblance to a dumpster, and we know you’re all smart enough to realize that. Besides, we all need to work off those holiday calories, right?
Erica Estrada| Rambler Staff
NewsThe RambleR | www.therambler.org January 18, 2012 | 3
Shauna [email protected]
Speedy mail through the United States Postal Service will soon be a thing of the past.
According to their web-site, the USPS will be imple-menting changes to delivery services later this spring. Those changes include first-class mail having guaran-teed delivery in three days instead of one.
The changes first began to circulate last September and are part of a broad re-constructing of the USPS, which could include the closing of more than 250 processing facilities and the elimination of approximate-ly 28,000 jobs.
Sandra Orta, junior crimi-nal justice major at Texas Wesleyan said she does not think the change is going to have good long-term effects.
“It is just going to push people more to go paperless and use other forms of com-munication,” Orta said.
According to their web-site, the USPS will save an estimated $2.1 billion annu-ally thanks to the changes planned.
“I think that USPS is do-ing what they can to survive in this tough economy and it is completely understand-able why they are trying to
cut back,” Orta said. “But I do feel that it will impact the people that order things online or that send out pack-ages via USPS.”
Other students at Wesley-an do not use their local post office often enough to be too upset over the changes to come.
“Personally, I hardly use the post office,” Melondy Doddy, senior comparative religion major, said. “All of my bills are online. The post office is useful [for] receiv-ing credit cards [and] gov-ernment documents, such as passports and sentimental holiday cards.”
Bryan Michler, senior el-ementary education major, agrees with Doddy.
“I don’t think this will impact anyone too much,” Michler said. “I do not use USPS for fast deliveries be-cause I do not have faith in the USPS. I don’t know any-one who uses USPS for fast deliveries. If I need some-thing shipped fast I use UPS or Fed Ex.”
Although the change has not been slated officially, the USPS is also considering getting rid of Saturday mail delivery.
“I don’t think that Satur-day mail will affect the mail system,” Doddy said. “The only thing I look forward to in Saturday mail is potential
sales flyers from stores, but the deals are now received through email and websites.”
Senior elementary educa-tion major Neni Moore said she thinks Saturday delivery
should not be eliminated.“They will lose money if
they do close on Saturday,” Moore said. “There will also be more mail to deliver on Monday too.”
This potential Saturday mail delivery change has also raised some concern for postal carrier health.
“I wonder what the impact will be on the environment
not having that many vehicles in service for a day,” Michler said. “But I bet the amount of mail that the person deliv-ers increases and their bags might be heavier.”
Student’s agree, next-day delivery no longer needed
Dunson said they are currently looking at prices from several different companies and the next step in the process is for the Building and Grounds Committee, a sub-committee for the Board of Trustees, to ap-prove or disapprove. If approved, the Board of Trustees will make the final decision.
Dunson said if the Board of Trustees ap-proves, the LED light bulbs will probably
only be placed in the parking lots for out-side use.
Jazmine Moore, sophomore accounting major, said more efforts need to be done to help the environment and switching to LED lighting is a good way to start reduc-ing energy.
“It’s good for the environment,” Moore said. “The less energy we use, the better.”
Worth Police Department to give to children in crisis situations when the officers are on call.
“The animals provide a little comfort for the children and give them something to hold onto and hug until the situation is resolved,” Hennessey said.
Other efforts included The Rambler’s Pet Food and Supplies Drive, which collected
eight bags of dry dog food and various toys and supplies for cats and dogs at the Fort Worth Humane Society.
Kappa Delta Pi, a School of Education honor society, also collected several coats and jackets for children in local elementary schools, helping to contribute to the biggest giving season the Wesleyan community has ever seen on campus.
Meisa Keivani Najafabadi | Rambler StaffThe United States Postal Service is discontinuing next-day delivery due to revenue loss. First-class mail will be moved to a 2-3 day standard.
Lighting continued from page 1charity continued from page 1
4 | January 18, 2012 THE RAMBLER | www.therambler.org C�����Van Noy prepares for political career, family Rolandra [email protected]
With only four months left until the end of the school year, Bradd-en Van Noy, Student Government Association president, is pumped up and ready to go.
Van Noy has served as SGA since last August, but with all his responsibilities he still finds time to volunteer at Daggott Middle School and make time for his studies.
Van Noy said he is ready to get out there in the real world by tak-ing his education to a higher level. He plans to continue his education and get a degree in law. He said the schools he is considering are Texas Wesleyan Law School and South-ern Methodist University.
“I don’t want to travel too far from this area,” Van Noy said. “Texas Wesleyan is a very big pos-sibility.”
Van Noy said he wants to work and become financially stable and in five years he plans to establish a career in politics.
“It all depends on where God is going to lead me,” Van Noy said. “That is the deciding factor.”
Van Noy said he not only loves his job, but he also loves his school.
“I spent a semester at Uni-versity of Texas at Arlington, it doesn’t compare to Wesleyan,” Van Noy said. “I love it here [and] I wouldn’t have chosen any other school.”
Brenton Flowers, senior crimi-nal justice major and SGA vice president, described Van Noy as an all-around good guy.
“Bradden realizes that being president of Student Government Association is an honor and that the student body trusts him to represent us and he is doing that,” Flowers said. “Anything he feels may be beneficial to the students, he is working on getting it accom-plished and so far he has.”
Besides furthering his life with career goals, Van Noy also made changes in his personal life. He proposed to his now fiancée, Me-lissa Murnane, junior education major.
“On New Year’s Eve, Bradden proposed right at midnight while the song ‘New York, New York’ by Frank Sinatra was playing,” Mur-nane said. “My family is from NY, and we love visiting, so it made it that much more special.”
Murnane said she and Van Noy are not only best friends, they are soul mates.
“Bradden is such an inspiring guy, he has been through a lot in his life and that has just made him stonger as a person,” Murnane said. “He can make anyone smile no matter what the situation.”
“On New Year’s Eve, Bradden proposed right at midnight ...”
Melissa MurnaneJunior education major
Erica Estrada | Rambler StaffBraden Van Noy, Student Government Association president, discusses 2012 plans. This will be Van Noy’s last semester serving SGA.
SGA turns unused lo� into gaming entertainmentJordan Twine [email protected]
Students now have the opportunity to play video games while on campus thanks to the Student Government Association.
� e grand opening of the Game Lo� , located upstairs in the Student Union Building, took place at 12:15 p.m. on Jan. 12. New additions in-clude two game systems, an Xbox 360 with Xbox Live and a Kinect and a PlayStation 3. A ribbon cutting pre-ceded the festivities.
Brenton Flowers, senior criminal justice major and SGA vice president, proposed the idea of making a game lo� to SGA. Flowers said he felt the
upstairs lo� area could be put to bet-ter use.
“� e lo� wasn’t really being used,” Flowers said. “� e only time we saw students up here was with their laptop or sleeping.”
Flowers assisted in the game selec-tion and said he aimed to please a di-verse group of gamers.
“We tried to get games that ap-peal to every student,” Flowers said. “Hopefully we did that.”
Bradden Van Noy, SGA president, helped turn the idea into a bill.
“Everyone in SGA was real sup-portive of it,” Van Noy said. “As far as student government goes it went through really fast.”
Van Noy said they are planning
gaming events such as a Call of Duty tournament, for students to enjoy in the near future.
“We would like to have organiza-tion tournaments,” Van Noy said. “I’m really excited about it, especially the Call of Duty tournament.”
Lanysia Harrison, freshmen mass communications major, said she thinks it will be a great place for stu-dents.
“You can sleep in your room or the library so it’s good to know we have a place where there is something to do and it’s fun,” Harrison said.
Students can check out gaming equipment in the Student Project Center located upstairs next to the Game Lo� , a school ID is required.
Erica Estrada | Rambler StaffLucas Hoss, senior criminal justice major, selects which video game he is going to play during the Game Loft’s grand opening Jan. 12.
The RambleR | www.therambler.org January 18, 2012 | 5 Campus
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Academic center readies students for success Tristian Evans [email protected]
The Academic Success Center, lo-cated on the first floor of the Eunice and James L West Library, provides tools, such as tutoring and work-shops to help students succeed.
Everyone in the center, from stu-dent tutors to professional staff, have dedicated their time to help-ing students reach success in their classes. Michael Anne Greer, learn-ing specialist, said it is important for students to have academic help and encouragement outside the classroom.
“I think to get the full college ex-perience it has to extend beyond what you get in the classroom,” Greer said. “When students come
in here to work with the tutors or to work in groups, it expands what they’ve been doing in the class-room.”
Greer said she hopes the Academ-ic Success Center helps to encour-age things like analytical reasoning and critical thinking because she believes they will serve the students well in their classes.
One of the services offered at the Center is tutoring in all levels of math, writing, logic and history.
“We survey the students and we ask them what subjects they would like to see tutored,” Fowler said. “And then, based off those results, we try to add or do what we need to do to find people to tutor [that subject].”
Fowler said they are very selective
about their tutors. She and Greer ask each department to suggest their best students, and if those stu-dents are interested in the positions, they are brought in for a mock tu-toring session.
Lisa Puente, senior English major, tutors students in writing.
“I love when I can help a student understand basic grammatical er-rors and how to correct them in order to make their future writing pieces more effective.” Puente said in an email.
She also said she thinks the Cen-ter is fun and laid back place.
Beginning last semester, some tutors began helping students over Skype.
“This way they can phone a tutor and Skype in and they can actually
watch the tutor work through the problem,” Fowler said.
There are currently two tutors who do Skype tutoring. Fowler said the Center will continue to use Sky-pe because students have benefited from its inclusion.
Staff in the Academic Success Center also hosts, Lunch Box Workshops. These workshops usu-ally take place around noon.
Professors and faculty from around the campus are brought in to help give students tips on every-thing from note taking and studying, to how to navigate Ramlink. They also offer the Transformation Work-shops, which are aimed primarily at transfer students trying to learn the ins and outs of the university.
“Students have come in and [be-
cause] it’s a new environment, some-times they don’t fully understand how their credits transfer so we do a working shop on “Understanding My Degree Plan,” Greer said.
Fowler said the center would not exist without the students and they do their best to accommodate the student’s different learning styles and support their needs.
The Center is also looking into hiring tutors for students who at-tend weekend classes.
“We’re constantly changing our schedule. We’re constantly chang-ing our tutors, to meet the students needs,” Fowler said. “We really do listen to what they tell us in person or through email or through our surveys so that we are making the changes they ask for.”
Jeremy Hunt | Rambler StaffBill Watson, faculty development specialist, takes time to visit with Wesleyan faculty and staff during a Jan. 10 farewell party.
Jeremy Hunt | Rambler StaffDr. Amy Collier, director of Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, socializes with Wesleyan faculty and staff, during a farewell party for she and Bill Watson Jan. 10.
Wesleyan Community shows appreciation to departing staff
6 | January 18, 2012 THE RAMBLER | www.therambler.orgA��� � E������������
Texas Wesleyan University
The Department Of MusicAnd
Present
Martin Hall
For more information,visit http://www.txwes.edu/music/music/index.htm or call 817-531-4992
Music Department Inauguration Showcase Concert
Eunice and James West Library
January 24, 12:15 p.m.
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MADE producers come to WesleyanJordan Twine [email protected]
Looking for your dream to come true? MTV producers will be present for a casting call � ursday, Jan 19.
MTV producers search for college students who are look-ing for a chance to make their dreams come true. � e casting call will take place at noon in the Student Union Building.
Nathan Johnson, one of the producers from the
show, reached out to Michael Chaney, coordinator of stu-dent activities, volunteerism, and Greek adviser, about host-ing interviews at Wesleyan. Chaney said this was an oppor-tunity for the students he could not turn down.
“When I was contacted by him, I was like, ‘yes, what can I do to set this up?’” Chaney said. “‘What day? � e 19th? OK that’s quick but, yeah!’”
The show is a spin-off from the series Made but
will have a different focus. “� ey don’t know what title
they’re going to give it yet,” Chaney said. “� ey’re still coming up with all the con-cepts and looking at how all this is going to work. A lot of that may be determined by the students they select.”
Candidates must appear to be between ages 18-26.
Interviews will be approxi-mately 10 minutes long and students interested are advised to pick up a casting call packet
from the Student Life O� ce in the SUB. Packets contain questions they may be asked in order for students to prepare ahead of time.
Social Rams will conduct an activity forum in conjunction with the casting call before the interviewing process begins. � e forum is for students to share ideas with Social Rams about events they would like to see implemented.
Students must stay for the duration of the forum in order
to sign up for an interview time with MTV.
Giovanni Monsanto, junior psychology and criminal jus-tice major, said the activity fo-rum will help students grasp a better idea of what Social Rams are involved in.
“� e objective is to get people to show up for the forum and cast ideas of events they would like to see,” Monsanto said. “� at’s what the Social Rams’ program is for.”
Joshua Dunk, freshman the-atre major, said this could be a
once in a lifetime opportunity.“� ere are a lot of talented
people at this school,” Dunk said. “� is could be the breakthrough that person needs to make it.”
A� er the activity forum, students will sign up for in-terview times which will take place until 5 p.m. If there is an abundance of students and the producers are not able to see everyone, MTV will set up an-other day to come back so ev-eryone has the opportunity to be interviewed.
Fort Worth hosts annualWestern parade downtownMeisa Keivani Najafabadi
| Rambler StaffThe Fort Worth Stockyard show and All Western Pa-rade took place downtown, Saturday Jan. 14. There were more than 2,000 horses and 100,000 spectators for the event. The parade began at 11 a.m. and was free to at-tend. The parade is held each year preceding the fi rst stock show. This year there were more horses that participated than any other year. (Left)University president Frederick Slabach and his family, along with others, represented Texas Wesleyan at the parade, which started at the Tarrant County Courthouse.
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo sure to exciteAction, murder and mys-
tery take center stage in Da-vid Fincher’s “� e Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”
Based off the bestsell-ing novel, the movie tells the story of a recently dis-graced journalist, played by Daniel Craig, hired by the patriarch of one of Swe-den’s wealthiest families to solve a decades-old mystery surrounding the disappear-ance, and possible murder, of his niece Harriet.
As Mikel begins to wade through all the secrets and lies of the Vanger family, he takes on an assistant, Lis-beth Salander, the infamous girl with the dragon tattoo.
Lisbeth is an introverted young woman with a dark past and a violent temper. In her early twenties, she’s still considered a ward of the state because she is viewed as being unable to take care of herself. She is also a brilliant computer hacker and researcher ca-pable of digging up infor-mation on anyone.
After the two team up they realize that Harriet’s disappearance is connected to a string of murders against women with biblical names. As the investigation heats up, so does the relationship between Mikel and Lisbeth.
� e Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an entertaining � lm full of action, mystery and danger.
The intricate plot, deal-ing with generations of se-crets from a very powerful and deadly family makes the movie interesting and will keep viewers guessing until the very end. There are many plot twists and none of them can be eas-ily predicted by the view-ers. The final fate of Har-riet herself is a twist both shocking and well played.
The cast of the film are all excellent in their roles, but none of them shine more than Rooney Mara, who plays Lisbeth.
The role of Lisbeth could not have been an easy role to play, but Mara does so with ease. She is believable as a calmly psychotic young woman, who you do not
want to cross. Lisbeth Salander is, in a
word, badass. Whether she is beating down a street punk in a subway station or enact-ing revenge on her sexually abusive legal guardian, she does not hold back.
� ese scenes are very graphic and disturbing at times, but serve the purpose of developing the characters personal arc.
Overall, the movie is a winner. It is well plotted, well written, and well-acted. It will de� nitely leave view-ers hoping that the next two books in the series make it to the big screen as well.
Tristian [email protected]
Photo by Baldur Bragason. © 2011 Columbia TriStar Marketing Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | Courtesy
Rooney Mara stars in Columbia Pictures’ The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, also starring Daniel Craig.
S�����THE RAMBLER | www.therambler.org January 18, 2012 | 7
Ram sports o� cials add two women’s teamsStephanie [email protected]
Two new sports were re-cently added to the Texas Wesleyan Athletics depart-ment; Women’s Golf and Women’s Junior Varsity Bas-ketball.
Kevin Millikan, recently appointed director of new sport development, contrib-uted to the addition. Millikan said he is now in the process of creating a budget and also � nding recruits for the teams to come play for Wesleyan. Steve Trachier, athletic direc-
tor, said the new programs will be funded by Wesleyan. Only golf is a scholarship sport. J
JV basketball will be used to create additional oppor-tunities for Wesleyan student athletes. � e addition of these sports will not a� ect funding for other sports at Wesleyan, Tracheir said.
He said the new sports additions provide great op-portunities for Wesleyan to compete with other teams in Wesleyan’s conference.
“Golf is one of the sports we felt had the resources to
provide a program for,” Trachier said. “It provides a
competitive situation to com-pete in, and that was what we were looking for.”
Trachier said he will over-see the preparation for wom-en’s JV basketball and Mil-likan will run women’s golf. Trachier said both he and Millikan have enough expe-rience with the two sports to provide a stable foundation.
Milikan said Wesleyan’s lo-cation, facilities and various other resources available in Fort Worth give the women’s golf team a chance to make
a positive impact from the start. He plans to add six to seven players to the roster, and compete in approxi-mately four tournaments per semester.
Millikan said he is excited to be a part of bringing this addition to Wesleyan.
“I think we can be very successful and represent the university at a very high level,” Millikan said. “� e op-portunity not only to coach, but, to have this team at Wes-leyan has certainly been a long time coming.”
Milikan, who is also co-
head men’s golf coach, said that team has been success-ful in the past years and he hopes to create a competitive atmosphere for women’s golf.
“� e success that the men’s team has created will de� -nitely bene� t to the women’s team success,” Millikan said.
Katherine Rosenbusch, sophomore Volleyball player, said she is bittersweet about bringing more women’s sports to Wesleyan.
“I think it is great we are adding more women’s teams [to the department] so that it is a little more balanced,”
Rosenbusch said. However, she is worried
that it will a� ect funding and recruitment of other women’s athletic teams.
“On the opposite side, considering that funding is already low, adding more teams might hurt the abil-ity to recruit better athletes,” Rosenbusch said.
Rosenbusch said she has never had the chance to play golf before.
“If I played golf, I de� nitely would be interested in join-ing the team I think it is a great opportunity,” she said.
Rams Basketball clench 12-3 recordStephanie [email protected]
� e Texas Wesleyan Men’s Basketball team competed in nine games over the Christ-mas holidays. � e men are sitting at fourth in confer-ence play, sixth in the nation and 11-4 midway through the season.
� e break started o� with two back-to-back wins. � e Rams defeated Louisiana State University Shreveport 79-73 in triple overtime.
Eric Frederick, forward, led the team with 30 points and 21 rebounds. Oscar Gri� n, guard, contributed 20 points and nine rebounds, and Bri-an Talley � nished with 17 points in the win. Jazz Hol-man, guard, contributed � ve points, seven assists and 11 rebounds.
� e Rams competed against Florida International University Dec. 10, � nishing 72-68. Ronnie Moss led the Rams with 25 points, while Gri� n added 18 points and eight rebounds. Frederick contributed 11 points and seven rebounds. Talley � n-ished with 10 points as well.
� e Rams had back-to-back wins and then ended up with two losses. � ey were defeat-ed 88-80 by Alabama State University and 79-58 by Uni-versity of Saint � omas.
� e Rams quickly bounced back going on a four-game winning streak. � e Rams headed over to New Orleans to compete in the Big East tournament and defeated Westminster College (79-75) and Dillard University (81-72).
In the game against West-minster, Frederick led the team with 26 points and 10 rebounds. While Gri� n trailed him with 21 points 7 Rebounds. Moss added 14 along with Talley’s 11.
� e Rams defeated two conference teams to seal their four-game winning streak. � ey took on Southwestern Assembly of God University Jan. 5 � nishing with a triple digit win 102-86.
Moss led the team with 34 points, six rebounds and four assists. Adding to Moss, Fred-erick put up 21 points and 15 rebounds. Talley contributed 12 points. Stephane Mudiay, forward, and Holman gave
the Rams a boost o� the bench. Mudiay contributing 11 points along with Holman adding nine points, three re-bounds and seven assists.
� e Rams then took on Texas College Jan. 7 and came out with a victory � n-ishing 83-76.
Frederick led the Rams with 25 points and 12 re-bounds. Talley added 21 points and seven assists, while Moss contributed 20 points and eight rebounds. Gri� n contributed 14 re-bounds and scored seven points.
Closing out the break the Rams su� ered from a loss to Our Lady of the Lake Univer-sity � nishing 120-98. Fred-erick led the team with 33 points, while Moss added 30.
Gri� n � nished with 14 points. Terry Waldrop, head coach, said the team is mak-ing improvements across the board.
“I think our chemistry is improving and we have so many new players that it just takes time for them to get to understand how to play to-gether,” Waldrop said.
Waldrop said he thinks
the players have to make a bigger commitment on the defensive and rebound-ing details in order for the Rams to get to where they want to go.
“I believe this team will em-brace the challenge and you will start to see those things improve,” Waldrop said.
Jazz Holman, sopho-more guard, said they played well over the break.“We worked hard and got it done,” Holman said.Oscar Gri� n, junior guard, said the team demonstrated a lot of progress.
“We improved a lot as a team playing defense togeth-er,” Gri� n said. “Us playing together and being at the right spots, and getting the ball to the right people at the right time has improved.”
Gri� n said the chemistry is getting better but some improvements can be made to reach their ultimate goals. “We have to continue to work hard and play hard the entire game,” Gri� n said.
� e Rams will host the University of the Southwest at 7 p.m. Jan. 19 in the Sid Richardson Center.
Meisa Keivani Najafabadi | Rambler StaffEric Frederick (1), junior foward takes it to the hoop on two Houston-Tillotson University defenders. Federick drives to the goal and slam dunks the ball for a easy two.
University College DayApril 11, 2012
IMAGINE. CREATE. CONNECT.For more than 20 years, University College Day has offered a forum for students, faculty members, and staff to share their scholarly and creative endeavors. During a special day of presentations, a shared sense of belonging is fostered within the Texas Wesleyan community. University College Day also serves to connect our campus with the world, supporting active learners as they think critically to engage one another in reaching out to local and global communities.
Submissions Due: Feb. 2, 2012Forms are online at www.txwes.edu/academics/ucd
S�����Stephanie [email protected]
� e Texas Wesleyan Women’s Basketball team competed in eight matches over the Christmas break. Currently sitting at fourth in the conference, the Lady Rams are 10-4 overall midway through the season.
� e break kicked o� with a loss in overtime against Louisiana State University Shreveport on Dec. 3, � nishing 83-78. � e Lady Rams scored two back to back wins with an 84-77 win in overtime against Southwestern University, and 76-62 win against the University of Saint � omas Celts.
Head coach Bill Franey said the team played well in this game and came out strong.
“Everyone stepped up and played really good basketball, we were very pleased with the end result,” Franey said. “It was a great team ef-fort, everyone came together made things happen.”
Franey said the Rams captivated both halves against the Celts and back-to-back three’s from Emma Fradette started a run for the Rams opening the second half. � e leading scorers for the game against the Celts were Brittany White with 16 points and 10 rebounds and Octavia Mul-lins with 14 points and 15 rebounds.
� eir next match was their � rst chance at a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I school, Prairie View A&M Univer-sity.
� e Lady Rams led most of the � rst half but lost in the � nal min-utes of the game � nishing 69-57.
Following this game, the Lady Rams dominated against Hardin Simmons, � nishing 71-56. Octavia Mullins led the Lady Rams with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Kristi Al-exander had 13 points and eight as-sists, while Nicole Terral added 13 points and six assists.
� e Lady Rams continued on to play Southwestern Assembly of God University and came out with a win � nishing 69-47. Kayla Mc-Cray, sophomore forward, said the match against SAGU was a great game, especially since they are our rivals.
“Overall this game and the games over the break went really well and our team chemistry has improved,” McCray said. “As a team we should keep working on defense and ex-ecute our o� ence more.”
� e Lady Rams beat SAGU. Brit-tany White contributed to the win leading the Rams with 17 points to go with � ve steals and four assists. Raven Alexander contributed 13 points, and Kristi Alexander added in 11 points in the win.
With back-to-back wins, the Lady Rams added another win to the book against Texas College finishing 78-64. Alexander led the way with 20 points and 10 re-bounds.
McCray contributed 18 points and seven boards, and Brittany White � nished with 12 points.� e Lady Rams closed out the break on Jan. 9 with a loss to Our Lady of the Lake University with a score of 82-75.
Nicole Terral led all the way with 18 points. Kristi Alexander con-tributed 15, and Brittany White � nished with 11 for the Lady Rams.Bre’Untay Reed, senior guard, said the games overall went well and each game helped the team to im-prove.
“From defense to execution or playing as a team as a whole im-proved and we trust one another,” Reed said. “� e chemistry is de� -nitely starting to develop and we are learning our roles.”
Reed said they need to keep working hard and playing good de-fense.
“When it comes down to it execution is what is going to keep us continuing to win.”� e Lady Rams next game is against University of the Southwest at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 19 in the Sid Rich-ardson Center.
8 | January18, 2012 THE RAMBLER | www.therambler.org
FREDERICK G. SLABACHa s t h e 2 0 t h P R E S I D E N T o f
TEXAS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
The Inauguration of
I n v e s t I t u r e C e r e m o n yF R I D AY, J A N U A RY 2 7
11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
mornIng Prayer servICe 8 – 8:30 a.m.Polytechnic United Methodist Chapel
Former u.s. seCretary oF statemadeleIne K. albrIghtPresentatIon and booK sIgnIng 8:30 – 10:15 a.m.Martin Hall
Free lunCh For all students 1-2 p.m.Sid W. Richardson Center
All StudentS, FAculty, And StAFF Are InvIted—Don’t Miss This Historic Event at the Covered Pavilion
on Wesleyan Streetwww.txwes.edu/inauguration
The Inauguration of
Baseball team members anxious for upcoming 2012 season
Lady Rams secure 7-2 conference record over break
Emma [email protected]
� e Texas Wesleyan baseball team is gearing up for the be-ginning of its 2012 season and the players are ready to start.
In the 2011 baseball season, the Rams � nished with an overall record of 31-23, 20-10 in confer-ence play. � e Rams will start the season o� with their � rst game at 2 p.m., Jan. 29 at LaGrave Field in Fort Worth against Southwestern University.
Derek Vaughn, redshirt ju-nior, said the team feels like it can only improve from the 2011 season.
“We feel like we could have done better, but this year’s ex-pectations are much higher with the new additions to the team,” Vaughn said.
To keep their hard work and focus going, the Rams have been practicing throughout the week and various times at Sycamore Park.
“We’ve been practicing, con-
ditioning and working out as a team ever since school has started back up,” Vaughn said. “Our talent level is much high-er this year so players not only will be competing against oth-er teams, but our players will be competing against fellow teammates for starting roles and playing time and in turn this will make us much better.”
Vaughn said the team is looking better than ever.
“We’re looking more consis-tent this early in the year and
our depth throughout the line-up is much stronger,” Vaughn said. “We’ve picked up some key players in certain positions that will bene� t the team tre-mendously.”
Dillon Wilson, senior psy-chology major and le� -hand-ed pitcher, said he is con� dent in all of the players and the Wesleyan baseball team has the opportunity ahead that some teams only dream about.
Wilson said not only have the players been preparing
for the 2012 season, but the coaches have been preparing, too.
“� ey have been there for us since day one,” Wilson said. “� ey help us keep our minds on what we can achieve at the end of this season with the guys we have.”
Christian Soberanes, senior business marketing major and shortstop, said he also shares the goals of the senior players.
“We all have a common goal to win the World Series,” So-
beranes said. “We understand this could be our last year to play the sport that we’ve been playing since we were 5 years old.”
Alex Padilla, junior crimi-nal justice major and catcher, said the 2012 baseball season should be fun.
“As long as we all work hard to keep each other accountable and not try to do too much, we have a really good shot at a conference championship and go deep into the playo� s.”
Meisa Keivani Nafabadi | Rambler StaffBrittany White (1), senior guard, fi ghts off her defender and drives to the
basket aginst Houston-Tillotsin University on Jan 14.