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Online Poll : Do you feel safe on ACU’s campus?

a. Yes. The ACU police do a fine job.b. No. I stay indoors at night.c. Only when I carry my gun. d. Not if there are freshmen around.

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Pg 2InsideThis Issue:

Faustian Feature: Writer reviews devilish ACU performance

Essence of Ebony promotes voter registration at Rock the Vote event

‘World Famous Bean,’ The Den ammend hours of operation

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Pg. 8 Hitting Regionals: Men win spots, women to compete FridayFriday, October 3, 2008 :: Vol. 97, No. 13 :: 1 section, 8 pages ::

More from the Log onto www.acuoptimist.com or www.you-tube.com/acuvideo to see weekly News casts and Sports casts from the JMC Network News Team and videos profiling various events and

stories around campus and Abilene.

Sub T-16 pledge sent to hospital

Pledges plunge into second phaseBy Linda BaileyStudent Reporter

For almost two weeks, so-cial clubs have tested their pledges by enforcing many rules pledges are required to follow. As pledging intensifies, pledges may struggle to bal-ance the rigors of club and the academic challenges of school.

Matching outfits, pledge pins, binders, baskets, red mirrors, chain links and oth-er objects carried by pledg-es make them easy to spot around campus. Pledges of Ko Jo Kai also can be heard respecting Kojie Park by ex-claiming, “I will respect Kojie Park!” each time they pass the two benches.

“It doesn’t really embarrass me because I know everyone has to do it. I wasn’t the first one to do it and I won’t be the last one,” said Allie Souder,

Ko Jo Kai pledge and sopho-more exercise science major from Arlington.

Next week, the second phase of pledging begins. In the second phase, pledges will be involved in activities such as visiting and getting to know older members. Pledges could spend up to 15 hours per week doing activities, while in the first phase they only were allowed to spend 12 hours weekly.

“It’s really about budgeting your time and keeping your priorities straight,” said Al-pha Kai Omega pledge Abigail Sutphen, sophomore biology major from Houston.

Michael Goodman, Gam-ma Sigma Phi pledge and mathematics major from Keller, said he utilizes time in between lunch and Chapel and after night activities to do homework.

“It’s non-stop action all day trying to get everything done,” Goodman said.

Although pledging can be time consuming, pledges use

different means to keep from being overwhelmed. Souder said she planned her class schedule

Globe watching iACU

By Michael FreemanManaging Editor

ACU raised eyebrows last February when the university announced it would distribute iPhones and iPod touches to its incoming class of freshmen. In fact, it raised eyebrows from ev-ery continent in the world with the exception of Antarctica.

More than 350 magazines, trade publications, newspa-pers, blogs, television stations and news Web sites have pub-lished articles about ACU’s Mobile Learning Initiative.

“It’s just unbelievable the

amount of publicity we’ve got-ten from this,” said Lynne Bru-ton, director of public relations. “Now saying that, it’s not all positive. There are some nega-tive pieces. But really, we’re get-ting our name out there. And the more you get your name out there, even though people are saying negative things, we’re still being perceived by our peer institutions as a leader in mobile technology.”

Some of the national news organizations that have re-ported on the initiative include

Initiative brings attention

There’s not a week that goes by when the phone rings or an e-mail says, ‘Hey, I’m so-and-so from such-and-such school and I’m really interested in what you’re doing.

:: George Saltsman, director of the Adams Center for Teaching and Learning.

“

”

See Globe page 4

See Pledges page 4

ACU police report drop in crime during ’07

By Daniel Johnson-KimEditor in Chief

The Students’ Asso-ciation Congress voted to grant money to help a stu-dent organization attend a conference and appointed two new members to the Congress on Wednesday.

After debating numbers for about an hour, SA voted to give more than $99 per member of the ACU student chapter of the Society for Human Resource Manage-ment to help pay for the group’s trip to the Human Resource Southwest Re-gional Conference in Fort Worth. The maximum SA voted it would provide was more than $1,100 if 12 peo-ple attended the conference,

which will be on Oct. 14-16.Congress decided on the

dollar amount that would come from the Student Re-quest fund—a sum of money set aside in SA’s budget to distribute among student groups—after voting each person on the trip should be required to spend $75 of their own money to attend the con-ference. The motion to allot the funds passed 31-2-5.

Chris King, junior human resource management major from Houston and president of the ACU SHRM chapter, made the case for the stu-dent organization, laying out the expected costs of the conference and the amount he was requesting.

By Brandon TrippVideographer

The ACU Police Depart-ment has released its 2007 Crime Statistics Report to the public in accordance with the Jeanne Cleary Act; crime as a whole has d r o p p e d from previ-ous years in most of the documented categories.

“Fighting crime is a community ef-fort,” said ACU police chief Jimmy Ellison.

The report covers 11 dif-ferent kinds of incidents: murder, robbery, aggravat-ed assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson, forcible sex offenses, non-forcible sex offenses, liquor law vio-lations, drug law violations and illegal weapons charges and possessions.

CrIme ComParIson

Crime 2006 2007

Burglaries: 21 9

Vehicle Theft: 6 1

Arson: 1 0

Sex Offenses: 3 1

Liquor Violations: 3 1

Drug Violations: 3 1

Illegal Weapons: 1 1

To see the complete report, visit www.acu.edu/campusoffices/acu_police

By Elizabeth CoffeeStudent Reporter

Sub T-16 pledge Clint Holm-es was admitted to Abilene Re-gional Hospital at 9 p.m. Sept. 19 after his kidneys started to fail during a pledging activity. Hol-mes, sopho-more youth and fam-ily ministry major from Dallas, was driven to the emergency room by Sub T-16 member Brad Blanks, se-nior accounting and finance major from Haskell.

When Holmes was 15 years old, he was diagnosed with high blood pressure. Doctors determined through tests that it was a hereditary condition, and he was put on medication. After quitting his high school football team because of his condition, he has not had any problems until now.

“I figured I’d be fine on med-icine and I could handle it,” Hol-mes said.

Holmes was released from the hospital Sept. 25. Doctors said his muscle breakdown was blocking his kidneys, and they were functioning at one-third of what they should have been. The blockage prevented his kidneys from filtering properly. If he had not gone to the hospital when he did, he would have collapsed.

Dr. Jeff Arrington, associate dean of Student Life, said he investigated the incident and found no university policies were broken.

“There was no sense in which inappropriate action contributed to that situation,” Arrington said.

Holmes said he had men-

tioned his condition on his health form for pledging but never to any of the Sub T-16 members.

“Going into something like this, he should have made us aware,” said Quinn Powers, Sub T-16 member and sophomore education major from Eula.

Holmes did not want his condition to prevent his participation.

“Letting them know could have helped before it got worse, but I was too stubborn to let anybody tell me that I couldn’t do it,” Holmes said.

Powers said he thought nothing could have prevented the incident.

“If he had been doing any pledge activity for any club it could have happened; our members did as much as they could as soon as they could,” Powers said.

Sub T-16 President Derrick Bibb, along with other mem-bers, visited Holmes every day at the hospital.

“If anybody wanted to see the true character of Sub T-16, then they should have been in the hospital room as mem-bers sat and prayed for me,” Holmes said. “People don’t give them half the credit they deserve for being the men of God that they are.”

Bibb, senior animal sci-ence major from Abilene, said this year’s pledge class has done a good job of rally-ing behind Holmes.

Instead of tearing them apart, the incident has brought them together, Bibb said.

“The whole situation and how it was handled personifies what Sub T is about,” Bibb said. “We don’t leave a man behind. This gives this pledge class the idea of what we are about.”

Jozie Sands :: staff photographer

Ko Jo Kai pledges Kortney Reeves, sophomore nursing major from Abilene, and Breanna Anderson, sophomore undeclared major from Keller, scream “I will respect Kojie Park!” in unison Thursday afternoon.

Holmes

ellison

See Crime page 4

SA decides to help fund student trip

See SA page 4

e-mail Coffee at: jmcnetwork@acu.edu

West Texas Hip Hop Coalition Concert will be at the Abilene Civic Center on Oct. 3. The event will start at 7:30 p.m. Admission will be free along with door prizes and T-shirts.

Students can attend a Dog Grooming and Obedience training seminar at the Abilene Public Li-brary on Oct. 7. Pet Smart trainers will give free instruction on how to maintain a well-behaved, well- groomed pet. Pet owners are en-couraged to attend, but they must leave their pets at home.

TOMS is sponsoring its Style Your Sole concert and documentary at the ACU Mall Area outside of Moody Coliseum. Participants can customize their own pair of white canvas TOMS, and for ev-ery pair that’s is made, another pair will be donated to a child in need; students can stick around for a screening of the TOMS doc-umentary.

The Intercollegiate Tennis Associ-ation WIlson Regional Champion-ships D-ll will be at ACU Friday.

Annual Spirit of the Frontier Fes-tival will be located at Frontier Texas Parade Grounds, 625 N. 1st Street and will begin at 9 a.m. and will end at 5 p.m. on Oct 4-5. This event will have games food and music. The cost of admission is $3 for adults and $2 for students.

This Saturday students can listen to the “All Rachmaninoff” Abilene Philharmonic Classical Concert,featuring Alexander Ghindin on piano. The event is at the Abilene Civic Center at 8 p.m.For ticket prices, call 677-6710 or 800-460-0610.

If students are looking for employ-ment, they can attend the Abilene Job Consortium Job Fair on Oct. 7. It will be at the Abilene Civic Center from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Across the Universe will be pre-sented at the Paramount Theatre on 352 Cypress St. on Oct 10-11. The first showing will be Oct. 10 at 7:30 p.m., and then another one on Oct. 11 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets will be $6 for adults and $5 for students.

2 p.m. ACU Soccer vs. Midwestern

Wildcat Preview Day

4:30 p.m.-9 p.m.TOMS event will be at the ACU Mall outside Moody Coliseum.

6 p.m.Free movie showing of Kung Fu Panda is in Cullen Auditorium. Admission is free for students with ID cards or $1 without ID.

6 p.m.ACU Football vs. East Central Oklahoma, Shotwell Stadium

Start of Wellness Week

6 p.m. Sing Song Host/Hostess Auditions are in Cullen Auditorium. Deadlines to sign up for the audition ended Oct. 1

Calendar and Events

Volunteer Opportunities Announcements

Sunday03

Friday Saturday Monday

Key City Kiwanis annual fish fry needs volunteers Oct. 3 and 4 at the Abilene Civic Center. Help is needed Oct. 3 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Oct. 4 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. with cooking, serving, clean-ing tables and trash pick up. Vol-unteers receive a meal ticket to eat meals while working. All pro-ceeds benefit local organizations.

ACU’s radio station, KACU-FM, needs volunteers to act as ushers Oct. 18 for the Prairie Home Com-panion performance in Moody Coliseum. Help is needed from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The Abilene Preservation League needs volunteers Sat-urday, starting at 9:00 a.m. and continuing throughout the day. Volunteers will clean the debris from a historical home that was damaged by a fire. For more in-formation, contact Diana Burk, at 676-3775.

ACU Alumni office needs volunteers on Homecoming weekend to work the booths at the carnival on Friday from 4:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. or 6:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. Volunteers will man inflatables, paint faces, walk around in Elvis costumes and hand out candy to children. For more information, contact Jama Cadle at Ext. 2627.

Service Saturday is sched-uled Oct. 11. The Service Ac-tion Leadership Team (SALT) will send groups of volunteers to vari-ous sites around the city to help agencies and neighborhoods with different types of needs. Visit the SALT table in the Campus Center during the week before the service date to sign up to volunteer.

Breakfast on Beech Street is an opportunity to help set up, prepare and serve breakfast to homeless/lower income people. Volunteers will have an opportunity to talk to those in attendance. Serving time is 6:30 a.m. to 7:15 a.m. every weekday with clean up afterward. Volunteers should be finished no later than 7:30 a.m.

For more information regarding any of the above opportunities, contact the Volunteer and Service-Learning Center in the Bean Sprout.

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Campus Day2

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

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

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

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

About This Page

This week’s newscast highlights the Rock the Vote event sponsored by Essence of Ebony, and the Burn Room sponsored by Residence Life and physical resources.

Log on to www.youtube.com/acuvideo for a deeper look at the blood drive that was on campus this week.

Online Newscast Webcast

Meal hours change to accommodate eatersBy Lezlee GutierrezStudent Reporter

Being a student enrolled in a night class usually means eating options on campus are limited. Students now can eat dinner at the “World Famous Bean” later because the evening hours have been extended from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. to accommodate stu-dents who stay on campus for night classes.

“Our main goal is to have greater student appreciation of what is offered on campus, so that students can feel like they are getting what they pay for,” said Darren Grace, a loca-tion manager.

Instead of being able to grab a quick meal on campus after class, students usually had to resort to other op-tions when it came to dining. ARAMARK, food provider for the university, and ACU have decided to give stu-dents more for their money by making dining changes around campus.

“We noticed that the Bean has become the cen-tral hub for social gather-ings,” said Bob Willmot, a location manager.

The Bean also altered some of its food choices, gearing the exhibition sta-tion toward vegan and gluten-free items. The uni-versity modified all of the eateries around campus in some way this semester, ei-ther through renovations or

meal exchanges.The Bean is not the only

place to change its hours. The Den also altered its hours by closing at 3 p.m. instead of 5 p.m.

“We were running less than 5 percent of participation dur-ing those hours, so closing earlier now allows us to save food by cutting storage hours, and we are able to plan bet-ter for the production team,” Grace said.

Saving time and money helps students to enjoy events like Sushi Sundays, which Grace said has been a huge hit since it started three weeks ago.

Students also can look for-ward to Wild Wing Wednes-days, which will offer Buf-falo wings at a cheap price in the Bean Sprout. Another planned event is Java City Nights, which will feature dif-ferent activities each night, Sunday through Thursday, from 7pm until midnight. An idea still in the discussion phase is Party on the Patio which will feature fresh bar-beque and “big name” local bands on Saturdays.

“We want students to feel like they can stay on campus to enjoy great food and entertainment,” Grace said. “Offering things like this allows us to keep the students happy, and that creates a great relationship for ARAMARK and ACU.”

E-mail Gutierrez at: jmcnetwork@acu.edu

Friday, October 3, 2008 Page 3CAMPUS NEWS

Students donate lifesaving bloodBy Savannah SheltonStudent Reporter

Students may have seen a lot of blood in the Living Room of the Campus Center this week, but no lives were lost; on the contrary, the blood in the Liv-ing Room quite possibly could save a life.

The Meek Blood Center, which is associated with Hen-drick Medical Center, set up a blood donation station in the Living Room Tuesday where volunteers could donate a unit (one pint) of blood.

The Blood Center usually comes to the campus three to four times a year.

“We are very, very depen-dent on the college students giving blood. Essentially, 100 lives could be saved to-day by ACU,” said Frances Baker, donor recruiter for Meek Blood Center.

The blood that students and volunteers donated Tuesday will benefit Twelve area hospitals.

“Our responsibility is to screen the blood supply,” Baker said.

Because of the spread of AIDS, HIV and Hepatitis C in the last 20 years, donors now have to answer 52 questions, instead of the five that were asked be-fore 1980. The Mad Cow scare in the United Kingdom and Europe from 1980 to 1996 pre-vented anyone who lived there during those years from giving blood for six or more months. Students who traveled to a ma-laria risk area, such as Africa, must wait one year after their travels before donating.

At this time no artificial sub-stitute for human blood exists; it is truly the gift of life that can be given by a healthy person to

someone in need, according to the center’s Web site.

“The process takes about 45 minutes and includes a mini-physical, screening questions and the donation itself,” ac-cording to the Web site.

The two components the center uses from whole blood donations are packed red blood cells and plasma; the shelf life of red blood cells is 42 days, and the shelf life of plasma is one year when frozen.

“Within 48 hours of dona-tion, your blood or platelets will have been processed, tested and ready for use,” according to the Web site. “Two different lives are saved with each whole blood donation.”

For more detailed informa-tion on the science of giving whole blood, double red cells or platelets, visit www.meekblood-center.org.

Essence of Ebony encourages students to Rock the Vote By Laura AcuffOpinion Page Editor

Essence of Ebony pro-moted voter registration Saturday with its Rock the Vote event.

Byron Martin, senior psy-chology major from Mes-quite, who helped with the event, said he estimated around 40 people registered to vote that night.

“I don’t think we were ex-pecting that big of a num-

ber, but we were expect-ing as many as we could,” Martin said. “We still have forms left over. If anybody else needs to vote, we have the forms but we were glad about the turnout.”

Scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m., the event actu-ally began around 6:30 p.m. and featured a step perfor-mance by SHADES and vocal performers, including Alex Howard, Byron Martin and Anna Peters, said Essence

of Ebony president Kenneth Dinkins, junior youth and family ministry major from Toledo, Ohio.

In addition to live enter-tainment, food was provided, and fliers also advertised fellowship and discussion, but Martin said the focus re-mained on voter registration.

“I think the biggest thing that prompted it was the fact that we just want ev-erybody to be able to vote,” Martin said. “Sometimes

people are like, ‘Oh, I have to go home to vote,’ or, ‘I’m not going to be able to vote because I’m not going to be at home.’ Well hey, you can vote in Taylor County too. We always want to be help-ing in that fact.”

Dinkins said the idea to sponsor an event to register voters came from other lo-cal organizations.

“It was kind of started by an idea by the Young Democrats,” Dinkins said.

“They had been doing reg-istration for people to get registered to vote, and it was something we felt that we needed to do, and it was also kind of the work that we were doing. One of the local churches here was do-ing registration too.”

A national organization called Rock the Vote also strives to use “music, popu-lar culture and new technol-ogies to engage and incite young people to register and

vote in every election” ac-cording to its Web site, www.rockthevote.com, but Dinkins said the Essence of Ebony event was affiliated neither with the organization nor any single candidate.

Zak Zeinert :: chief photographer

Dan Grenier, sophomore youth ministry major from Fort Collins, Colo., donates a unit, or pint, of his blood Tuesday.

E-mail Shelton at: jmcnetwork@acu.edu

E-mail Acuff at: lka06a@acu.edu

acuoptimist.com

See footage of students giving blood during this

week’s blood drive

Friday, October 3, 2008 Page 4FROM THE FRONT

Globe: Media outlets around world report on mobile initiative

the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal Online, Business Week, Yahoo!, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes.com, MSNBC and CNBC. The news also has reached the Sydney Morning Herald, the Taipei Times Online and Kronen Zeitung (Austria’s largest newspaper).

“It’s nothing short of amazing,” said George Saltsman, director of the Adams Center for Teaching and Learning. “It’s really ex-citing to have people know ACU. I hope it plays out with students and faculty and anyone that’s involved that when you go in for an interview they’ll say, ‘ACU—that’s a really progressive school. Y’all are doing some amazing things out there.’”

Other universities have contacted ACU about the ini-tiative to learn how they can implement similar technology at their institutions.

“There’s not a week that goes by when the phone rings or an e-mail says, ‘Hey, I’m so-so from such-and-such school and I’m really interested in what you’re doing,’” Saltsman said. “That’s nationally as well as internationally.”

Some schools already followed ACU’s example in mobile technology. The Uni-versity of Maryland handed iPhones to 150 of its stu-dents. Oklahoma Christian University distributed Mac-books and the choice of an iPhone or iPod touch to its students, and Freed-Har-deman University gave its incoming freshmen a Mac-

Book, a choice of an iPhone or iPod touch and both Mac OSX and Windows Vista op-erating systems.

“I hope that it correlates to people knowing who ACU is and having a favorable impression about us being a very innovative and aca-demically strong campus,” Saltsman said.

Companies also adver-tised ACU’s leadership in mobile learning. Google, AT&T, Al-Catel Lucent and Xythos are a few of the cor-porations that reported on the initiative.

Even with all of the pub-licity, there still remain questions on how well the Mobile Learning Initiative will work.

“Since we’re the first ones to do this, everything is unknown,” Saltsman said. “We’ve got a challenge to create a culture of appropri-ate use.”

The first wave of media attention happened in Feb-ruary when ACU announced the initiative; another came in August when the mobile devices were distributed to the freshman class. ACU ex-pects to see more coverage at the end of the semester, Bruton said.

“People are watching us,” Bruton said. “Everybody is waiting to see if this will re-ally work. Is this really of educational value? I’m con-fident we’re going to be able to say, ‘yes’.”

Crime: Alcohol violations rise in ’07 Murder and non-forcible

sex offenses remained at zero this past year.

Burglaries are down to their lowest total in at least the last four years. Ellison attributes the reduction of burglaries—21 two years ago to nine this past year—to stu-dents and faculty becoming more aware of the possibil-ity of burglaries and taking precautions such as locking doors and hiding valuables.

“It’s nice to see the burglary numbers come down after a couple years of intensive edu-cational efforts,” Ellison said.

He also said he hoped to see

the number hold true when next year’s report is released, but added the numbers fluc-tuate from year to year, and no one can never really know what will happen.

Two of the categories, rob-bery and aggravated assault, dropped to zero this past year. Forcible sex offenses and mo-tor vehicle theft dropped from six and three respectively down to one in both crime cat-egories, while in the disciplin-ary actions and judicial affairs category, the numbers for drug law violations dropped from three to just one in 2007.

Although most incident categories were reduced, li-quor law violations rose. The

on-campus arrests for such incidents jumped from zero two years ago to two this past year. Liquor law violations also escalated from nine in 2006 to 14 in 2007. Ellison stated the number of incidents reported in each category is actually each person implicated per in-cident. So instead of 14 sepa-rate incidents, it may be just four or five incidents with 14 people involved.

The crime report is part of the Cleary Act, which re-quires all universities to dis-close certain incidents that happen on the ACU campus, on ACU controlled property or on public property directly adjacent to the ACU campus

such as streets and sidewalks, Ellison said.

Paul Sims, sophomore el-ementary education major from Haskell, said he felt more crime happened on campus than he expected.

“For the university to keep posting good numbers like this, it takes us doing our job 24 hours a day,” Ellison said. “But also, we have to keep re-minding students, faculty and staff that they have got to lock their rooms, lock their offices and they just have to be smart about preventing crime.”

Continued from page 1

Continued from page 1

E-mail Freeman at: mxf04b@acu.edu

SA: Reps take office

If 12 people go on the trip, the overall expected cost would be more than $2,900. King said he hoped SA would help with more than $1,800 of the cost.

“It was definitely nice to get the money,” King said. “But with paying $75 a per-son, it’s weird that they did it that way because there are so many variable costs.”

Initially, King hoped none of the students traveling to the conference would have to pay out of their own pocket, and during debate of the mo-tion, showed concern on the effect SA’s decision would have on members’ willingness to attend the conference.

Treasurer and secretary Rachel Foster, senior human resource management, was at King’s side and helped in ask-ing Congress to support what she called a lucrative chance for students to get exposure to opportunities they would not have at ACU.

“I went to this conference last year and I got two differ-ent internship opportunities offered to me,” Foster said.

Several members of Con-gress had qualms with the fact none of the students at-tending would pay any money for the conference if Congress allotted the initial amount King requested. One key point repeated was that this confer-ence was exclusive.

“It’s important for individu-als to contribute for exclusive conferences,” said Sophomore Sen. Rachel Morris. “I feel like it’s standard to have to give a little in order to gain some-thing for yourself.”

Congress also voted to appoint Randy Woods, se-nior electronic media major from East Falls Church, Va., as a Morris Center Represen-tative, and Jereme Mosley, sophomore communication and family studies major from Houston, as the Sher-rod Building Representative.

Continued from page 1

Pledges: Process aids in building club unity

in anticipation of pledging.“You have to keep your

priorities in line,” Souder said. “You do need to sleep and relax.”

Souder said she thought Ko Jo Kai helped pledges with stress by giving each pledge a “big sis,” an ac-tive member of the club, to encourage them. Many clubs have this tradition, including Frater Sodalis and GATA.

All pledges also have a cur-few at midnight on weeknights and 1 a.m. on weekends.

Club presidents already experienced pledging, making it easier for them to understand the purpose behind the rules, activities and requirements.

“Pledging is really im-portant because it is a time to bond with each other and learn about club

history and traditions,” said Erin Chappell, senior social work major from South Lake and Alpha Kai Omega president. “When you are in club, you see the whole picture and you know what the end result will be.”

Gamma Sigma Phi presi-dent Eric Gentry, senior Bib-lical text major from DeSoto, said pledges will grow indi-vidually through the trials, but it also will create unity for them when they must face trials in life together.

“During the process sometimes it is hard to see that it is necessary,” Gentry said. “Pledging is important because it requires that the pledges unify and develop a sense of brotherhood.”

Continued from page 1

E-mail Tripp at: jmcnetwork@acu.edu

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

Page 5October 3, 2008

ArtsFridayACU music presents ‘devilish’ performance By Paul KnettelStudent Contributor

A uniformed soldier on leave marches towards his home. He stops by a stream to play his fiddle and as he plays, the Devil sneaks up behind him. The Devil, dis-guised as an old man, pres-ents the soldier with an offer he can’t refuse: trade his fid-dle for a book that predicts the future, promising great riches and happiness.

So begins the plot of Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, which was presented by the ACU Department of Music Sunday.

Stravinsky, one of the most influential compos-ers of the 20th century, set to music the libretto by Swiss poet and novel-ist C.F. Ramuz. The perfor-mance, which premiered in Switzerland in 1918, melds together several of the per-forming arts, including mu-sic, dance, theatre, mime and spoken word.

Stravinsky is known for his practice of borrowing musical influences and ideas from a variety of genres for his work. The Solider’s Tale is no exception and includes Spanish bullfighting mu-sic, the Lutheran chorale, the Argentinean tango and American ragtime.

Stravinsky designed the work to be performed by a small ensemble in order to minimize cost and time involved in creating ren-ditions. Hence Stravinsky chose to include only one

high and one low member of each family of instru-ments: violin and bass, trumpet and trombone, clarinet and bassoon and percussion. These contrast-ing pairs of instruments, in conjunction with rapid changes in time signature and rhythm and virtuosic melodies, create a haunt-ing “soundtrack” of sorts to complement the drama the actors are portraying.

The story continues in Faust-like fashion as the Devil deceives the soldier into captivity for three years. The soldier gains much wealth but gives it back to the Devil in order to reclaim his freedom and win over the princess. The moral is simple: be content in what you have because material wealth cannot give you happiness. Although this seems to be turning into a fairytale, the ending is far from happy. The Devil even-tually succeeds in stealing the soldier’s soul forever.

Several local Abilene and Texas professors were featured in ACU’s presen-tation of this dramatic mu-

sical production. The seven piece instrumental ensem-ble was conducted by Dr. Steven Ward, director of bands at ACU, and includ-ed standout performances by Martha Walvoord (Uni-versity of Texas Arlington) on violin and Kristin Ward (ACU) on clarinet.

The three actors did a fantastic job portraying the emotion and intensity of this simple but powerful work.

The narrator, who often has to speak loudly enough to be heard above the mu-sic, relates to the audience the majority of the plot as

it unfolds and also has the occasional key interaction with the other two charac-ters. This crucial role was played by Thomas Ward, assistant professor of the-atre at Baylor University.

Sherry Ward, professor of Theater Marketing and Audience Development at Baylor University, played the antagonistic Devil. Although the character is traditionally played by a male, her por-trayal was skillful and enter-taining, complete with col-orful red robe, long graying wig, wrinkled face mask and a high cackling voice filled

with deceptive slyness. Finally, Doug Berky, a

professional mask and movement artist, took on the daunting role of the Sol-dier. Although his speak-ing parts were minimal, his military uniform, masked face and impressive acting abilities evoked such emo-tional reactions that words were rarely needed.

In the poignant last scene, “Triumphal March of the Devil,” the Devil drags the soldier away from his beloved princess. The Devil did not even have to touch him, however, because Berky’s superb mime and body movement techniques made it appear as though an invisible force was drag-ging him into oblivion.

This jarring final scene ends with the Devil’s tri-umphant last exclamation to the audience, and is made even more unnerv-ing because it is all set to a clashing cacophony of sound that leaves the audi-ence with chills.

If you missed The Sol-dier’s Tale, the ACU De-partment of Music will be providing another unique opportunity to experi-ence a rare performance of classical music with Hei-navanker, a classical choir from Estonia. This vocal ensemble will perform mu-sic from medieval Nether-lands and Eastern Europe on Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. in the WPAC Recital Hall.

BOX OFFICE stats

Top five movies last weekend with weekend gross (Sept. 26-28):

n Eagle Eye (PG-13): $29.1 Million

n Nights in Rodanthe (PG-13): $13.4 Million

n Lakeview Terrace (PG-13): $6.9 Million

n Fireproof (PG): $6.8 Million

n Burn After Reading (R): $6.1 Million

MusIC sCEnE

n Friday, Oct. 3:Play Faire Park’s Music in the Park Series will feature The Tastydactyles and The Moroccan Victory Chant from Waco. The concert will start at 7:45 p.m. and is free with normal park admission.

n Friday, Oct. 3:TOMS Shoes presents “Style Your Sole,” featuring performances from Anchor Ent, Lucas Wright and Jay Burnam. It will include free food and other activities, as well as an opportunity to purchase TOMS Shoes. It starts at 4:30 p.m. in front of Moody Coliseum.

n Friday, Oct. 3:ACU Department of Music to present Rachmaninoff Masterclass, a performance conducted by Alexander Ghindin. The concert will begin at 3 p.m. in the WPAC Recital Hall.

aBIlEnE arts

n Thursday, Oct. 9:October ArtWalk will feature musical performances and an open mic in Minter Park, as well as featuring exhibits by Ford Farr, Rania Mata and Mike Lanier in downtown Abilene from 5:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Photo courtesy of www.savidge.com

Professional mime and movement artist Doug Berky sits dwarfed among some of his unique handmade masks.

Auditions to begin for Sing SongBy Tanner KnauthStudent Reporter

Students will put their talents on display beginning this Mon-day during auditions for host or hostess of Sing Song 2009.

Tom Craig, director of Stu-dent Productions, said the au-dition will be a two-part pro-cess that begins Monday. Of the 45 students who audition, only a few will receive call-backs for a Tuesday audition. From that group, the panel of judges will choose five to seven candidates to perform between acts at Sing Song.

The judges will rank the hosts and hostesses on vocal blending abilities, choreogra-phy and overall stage presence, Craig said.

“We are looking for a group of people who can sing a wide variety of songs, in a wide vari-ety of styles, for a wide variety of audiences,” he said.

Anna Peters, senior min-istry to children and fami-lies and elementary edu-cation double major from Houston, who also served as a hostess in Sing Song 2008, will serve as a co-chair for Sing Song 2009. Despite the large amount of preparation time required, Peters said her time as hostess was re-warding and a great learning and performing experience.

“You have to learn it’s not about you as the host or hostess; you are the com-mercials in between acts,” she said.

Peters also said it was a rewarding feeling whenever

people would come up to her after the show and tell her it was the best Sing Song they had seen in years. She said she hopes this year’s perfor-mance is even better.

She said the difficulty of being a host or hostess is attempting to emotionally attach oneself to a song and perform it in a way both a grandmother and grand-child can enjoy.

Peters’ advice for this year’s hosts and hostesses: “Prepare as well as you can, don’t let fear stop you, show them what you got.”

E-mail Knauth at: jmcnetwork@acu.edu

Upcoming concErt

Experience Medieval Netherlands and Eastern Europe with Heinavanker

n Tuesday, Oct. 7

n 8 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

n WPAC, Recital Hall

n Free Admission

E-mail Knettel at: jmcnetwork@acu.edu

You have to learn it’s not about you as the host or hostess; you are the commercials in between the acts.

:: Anna Peters, senior education and ministry major from Houston

“”

ViewsFridayPage 6

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.

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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: jmcnetwork@acu.edu

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Editorial and Management Board

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Sommerly SimserMult. Managing Editor

Laura AcuffOpinion Page Editor

Zak ZeinertChief Photographer

Colter HettichFeatures Editor

Grant AbstonSports Editor

Lydia MelbyArts Editor

Kelline LintonChief Copy Editor

October 3, 2008

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DeLaina ParkerBroadcast Manager

Molly ByrdPage 2 Editor

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Optimistthe

Kenneth PybusAdviser

Cade WhiteAdviser

Christi StarkAdvertising Manager

“If you can’t say something nice, then don’t say anything at all.” Nancy Pelosi clearly disagrees, and she couldn’t

have proved it at a worse moment.

C r e d i t m a r k e t s continue to fall. Investor confidence is lower than the national limbo cham-pion. God bless War-ren Buffet, even though

his $5 billion dollar injection into Goldman Sachs and $3 billion investment in General Electric hasn’t proved much except that he should have a diamond-studded “The Snow-ball” hanging from his neck.

In the face of this conser-vatively dubbed “economic crisis,” the only entity with enough cash to bail us out now is the Federal Reserve. Everyone knows it, and that’s why a $700 billion, bailout bill was written and couriered to the House of Representatives.

The Speaker of the House—

and second in line to the presi-dency after Vice President Dick Cheney—was granted 90 seconds to speak her mind. Illi-nois Republican Gerald Weller missed the historic vote due to a “family matter,” according to a two-sentence statement. Time waits for no woman or man. The other 443 reps lis-tened closely to Pelosi as they warmed up their voting hand.

She got their attention.“Democrats believe in a

free market. We know that it can create jobs, it can create wealth … But in this case, in its unbridled form as encouraged, supported by the Republicans—some in the Republican Party, not all—it has created not jobs, not capital, it has created chaos,” Pelosi said.

This is why no tomatoes are allowed in the House be-cause, rest assured, Pelosi would have sustained sig-nificant bruises. Never un-derestimate the aim of right-handed Republicans.

But she didn’t stop there. In conclusion, Pelosi added this bit of Democrat cay-enne to an already boiling Republican stew.

“I know that we will be able to live up to our side of the bargain. I hope the Republi-cans will, too,” she said.

The bill failed to pass, 228-205. 133 of the 228 wear a Republican nametag. It did not take long for a handful of Republicans to blame Pelosi’s partisan speech for the bill’s failure.

Oh please.I haven’t seen anything

that melodramatic since the last episode of I Love New York. I don’t care if Pelosi blamed the Republican Par-ty for global warming or the extinction of Dodos.

So what should America learn from this episode? If you can’t say something nice, do not ask Pelosi to speak for you.

Journalists are the watchdogs of government. They take pride in being un-biased and sometimes even

count them-selves as the fourth check in our gov-e rnment ’ s s y s t e m of checks and bal-ances. Usu-ally, they’ve gone to col-lege and studied to earn a de-

gree and their place in the field. Their credibility is on the line with every byline.

Not so for bloggers. These new age authors can be anyone, with or without any number of qualifica-tions. Anyone who can ac-cess the Internet can write a blog. Bloggers don’t have to be educated. They don’t have to be unbiased. They don’t even have to be ac-curate, yet their audiences only seem to grow.

With technology making information easier, faster and cheaper to access than ever before and newspaper readership shrinking, the journalism job market be-comes ever more competi-tive. And bloggers don’t make those remaining jobs any easier.

We compete with blog-gers for stories. We compete to break those stories online. What we don’t necessarily compete for is quality.

While some bloggers may take pains to ensure their product’s accuracy, their jobs aren’t on the line with every unchecked fact. Some might say that gives bloggers the advantage. Why would people read newspapers when free, eas-ily accessible information is obviously more convenient

and cost-efficient than even a daily publication?

Journalists generally con-sider themselves a cut above the average blogger primar-ily because they do adhere to certain levels of qual-ity and ethics. Additionally, their watchdog function also keeps them to higher stan-dards. As a journalist my-self, I have to believe these are important functions.

But with our field on a constant crusade to keep others accountable, who’s watching the watchdogs?

That’s where the blog-gers really shine. Despite their inherent disregard for objectivity and potential inaccuracy, bloggers force newspapers to compete on a new level.

Because of bloggers and other online news sources, newspapers now race to post articles online. Journal-ists work harder to get the scoop before a story hits the Internet. We have to be even more accurate, competing with parties who don’t.

Besides just being a good distinction to uphold between bloggers and jour-nalists, accuracy has be-come even more critical as bloggers actually begin to police newspapers.

For instance, a couple years ago, a blog called Little Green Footballs drew attention to photos of the Iraq War published by Reu-ters, U.S. News & World Re-port and even the New York Times Web site. Some of the photos were clearly staged, showing an individual dead among rubble in one

frame and helping to clear the mess in the next. Oth-ers were obviously “Photo-shopped.”

When we put ourselves on a pedestal, as the final balance against govern-ment distortion, we make ourselves even more prone to corruption. A final check can never exist in a truly ac-countable system. Account-ability must run both ways.

Rather than viewing blog-gers as a nuisance, just one more inaccurate source to correct, journalists should see them for what they are: entertainers capitalizing on the right of free speech, as we all should. Most don’t try to be journalists. But wheth-er or not they have journal-istic aspirations, bloggers generally either deepen the need for honest reporting or reveal dishonest work.

Journalists sometimes complain bloggers use the Internet platform to ad-vertise ignorant, baseless views, but in reality, they’re simply exercising their right to free speech. News-papers have opinions pages to express their viewpoints. Bloggers have the entire Internet. It’s their preroga-tive to post what they want. Journalists need to accept the challenge, do their jobs well and quit griping.

In the famous words of Por-ky Pig, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” And do it better.

Each week the more than 40 students that make up the Students’ Asso-ciation Congress gather

in Hart Auditorium to de-bate and decide how to dis-tribute a treasure chest of funds given to them by the student body.

SA’s budget of more than $70,000 comes from a por-tion of the $70 student ac-tivity fee each student pays every semester. The SA Con-gress distributes those funds to student groups based on budgetary guidelines created by SA officers.

Through this system, stu-dents are taxed, and SA decides how to use the pile of money each student has a stake in—

only a fool would not watch how this money is spent.

Every student on the SA Congress represents a sliver of the ACU student body—whether as a class senator or representative for an educa-tional building on campus—and the actions of SA do not go unwatched; the Optimist covers each meeting, and minutes can be viewed on-line at SA’s Web site (www.acustudents.org).

One vital role of the me-dia in this and other demo-

cratic countries around the globe is to cover govern-mental procedures and af-fairs. The media serves as a “watchdog” for elected officials, reporting to keep taxpayers informed on the dollars their representatives spend and the policies they preach. Likewise, at ACU it is important the Optimist fulfills the watchdog role for SA and the administra-tion. But the words written mean nothing if students do not stay informed on the ac-

tions of SA.To reword a quote from

journalistic legend Edward R. Murrow, “A [student body] of sheep will beget a [student government] of wolves.”

The Optimist covers SA elections, meetings and ac-tions not because the weekly Wednesday SA meetings are thrilling, but because it is im-portant students at this uni-versity know how SA spends their money.

When students run to rep-resent the student body, as executive officers or congress members, the Optimist proud-ly provides a place where stu-dents can find information on the various candidates’ poli-cies and plans if elected.

The SA mission statement reads: “It is our commitment to see every student con-nected, equipped and em-powered. It is the history we continually keep in mind and the future we keep in sight—providing services that ben-efit student life now and in the years to come.”

The Optimist aims to make sure those words are not empty.

Pay attention to SA, read the Optimist and make sure the people we elect do not spend our money foolishly.

Bloggers keep journalists honest

Students must maintain awareness of SA funding decisions

Congressional dramatics halt progress

By Colter Hettich

Running of the Bull

By Laura Acuff

ConscientiousConjecture

E-mail Acuff at: lka06a@acu.edu

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

E-mail Hettich at: clh05d@acu.edu

The issue:SA determines how funds collected from student fees will be spent.

Our view:Students should care and be knowledgeable about what causes and organizations their money is funding.

The solution:Students must take advantage of the inside perspective the Optimist provides concerning SA monetary issues.

We are writing to express our deep disappointment and concern over Dr. Sam Solomon’s visit to campus last week as part of Summit 2008. It was our understanding that

Dr. Solomon was brought to campus to promote inter-faith dialogue between Christians and Muslims from his unique perspective of being converted to Christianity from Islam. In-stead, Dr. Solomon did just the opposite, by sowing hatred and discord.

It is clear from his testimo-ny that was shared on Wednes-day, September 24 at the 3:00 session in Moody that Dr. Sol-omon was raised in a country deeply rooted in one form of

Islam, but not the only form. Yet, Dr. Solomon claimed that his view represented all of the Islamic world while also mak-ing these claims:

•Islam is not a religion;•Islam is terrorism—it is in-

herently violent;•All “true” believers of

Islam want to kill all non-believers;

•All Muslims are deceivers;•There is no room for peace

in Islam;•That Muslims are about

to take over the UK, and the US is next.

These claims are not only false but they engage in fear-mongering and reify all of the stereotypes and prejudices

that exist regarding Muslims and Islam.

It is important to remem-ber that 1/6th of the world’s population are Muslims; this is 6 billion people. It is in-conceivable and intellectually indefensible to believe that all of these people, or even that a great majority or plurality world-wide, wish to engage in deception and warfare against all non-Muslims. Further, by only blaming the faith and re-ligious organization of Islam for Islamic extremist violence, Solomon ignores the cultural as well as socio-economic and political reasons behind the rise of Islamism and Islamic extremism (see Bilgrami 1992;

Krueger and Melckova 2003; Richards 2003; Atran 2004; Fekete 2004; Kepel 2004; Pillar 2004; Savage 2004; Hoffman 2005; Gunaratna 2005; Wright 2006; Franz 2007; Vertigans 2007; and Kfir 2008).

Solomon’s presentation in substance and style under-mines what should be best about education in a Chris-tian university---the empathy to deeply understand oth-ers; the opportunity to dialog with those who are different; and the humility to find com-mon ground among people who God created. Instead, he exhibited an attitude that was close-minded, an unwill-ingness to dialog by ignoring

questions and twisting words, and by patronizing those who disagreed with him.

ACU has worked hard to move past a tradition that is suspicious of outsiders and condemning of other religious views. It is striving to be glob-al, missional, and critical. Dr. Solomon did not contribute to moving those efforts along. He may have tickled the ears of some but, unfortunately, at the cost of misinforming and demeaning students, faculty, and staff while on campus.

Letter to the Editor

Dr. Caron GentryDr. Jaime GoffDr. Fred AquinoDr. Rhonda Collier

Summit speaker’s message differs from advertised dialogue

...SA decides how to use the pile of money each student has a stake in...“

”

Rather than viewing bloggers as a nui-sance, just one more inaccurate source to correct, journalists should see them for what they are...

“”

Dr. David DillmanDr. Joe StephensonDr. Kristina Campos

acuoptimist.com

Go online to hear a podcast of

Hettich’s column.

volleyball this weekend,” Mock said. “We won’t have the luxury of making many mistakes. They are big teams with big blockers, but I think our girls are smart enough to take care of de-fensive weaknesses.”

Mock said the inten-sity level in tournaments is actually higher than in conference play.

“In a lot of ways, the in-tensity increases because it is such a high level of competi-tion you are facing,” Mock said. “They have to play extremely well to beat the teams of this caliber but they are excited to play against such tough opponents.”

The Wildcats are 8-0 this season when playing in tour-

naments. In those matches, the team won 24 of the 28 sets and never had a game ex-tended past four sets.

Mock said the preparation for a tournament is different than a regular match but each team has the same obstacles to overcome.

“The good thing is that ev-eryone has to play the same amount of matches in the same amount of time,” Mock said. “The best way to do well in a tournament is to just get in a groove. If you can do that then you will have a good overall showing. There is not as much pressure in this for-mat, and the girls have en-joyed the tournament set up this season.”

Volleyball: ACU tocompete in Kansas

consecutive regional title; Hudson and Nunez de-feated Northwest Missouri State’s team of Daniel Usieto and Vigit Sehgal (7-6, 7-5) to ad-vance to the finals, where the team of Daniel Pazos and Diego Trojano from Cameron Univer-sity had to forfeit due to injury. Their victory qualified them for the ITA Doubles National Championship in Mobile, Ala., Oct. 16-19.

The singles bracket was won by Marton Zsiga of Southwest Baptist, but ACU finished with two players in the semifinals. Top-seeded Juan Nunez of ACU was upset by the eventual champion Zsiga (6-4, 6-1) in the semifinals, and Luke Hawk finished in the top four, where he was knocked out by even-tual runner-up Daniel Pazos of Cameron University.

Among other Wildcat singles players, Quinton Peterson-Paul made it to the fourth round and was defeated by the eventual champion, Marton Zsiga; John Strahl Jr. joined Peterson-Paul in the top eight but was elimi-nated by his teammate Luke Hawk; Joey Farias also fell vic-tim to Zsiga, who defeated him in the third round (7-5, 6-2); and Bryan Joiner fell victim to runner-up Daniel Pazos in the third round (6-4, 6-2).

The tournament can be con-sidered a success consider five ACU players were knocked out by either the eventual champion or runner-up, and John Strahl

was knocked out by a team-mate in the quarterfinals. Jones was enthused by the depth of his team and felt that only an ankle injury earlier in the tournament kept Juan Nunez from winning the singles title along with his doubles title.

“I felt like Juan was the best there,” Jones said. “Juan is like a thoroughbred, very athletic, but he can get hurt a lot. He rolled his ankle and that affected his ability to sprint during singles play.”

ACU tennis now heads back to Abilene, where it will spon-sor the ITA Women’s Central Regional Championship Friday through Sunday. Last year at the Regional Championship, ACU claimed both doubles team titles in finals, and Jones said he hopes to replicate that success.

“I feel like we’ve got several girls that can win doubles and a couple of teams that can win doubles,” he said.

The women’s team finished No. 8 in the nation last season and returns many of its best players this season. The Wild-cats will bring four doubles teams and eight single players to the tournament. Jones likes his team’s chances but said just as with his men’s team, it will take work.

“They’ve got to play tough and well, with well being sec-ond in importance to tough-ness,” Jones said.

secure the match 2-1. The Mustangs’ offense is potent, having put up at least two goals in six of its eight games so far this season. In an earlier game this season, MSU scored 13 goals. The Wildcats’ “D”

looks to staunch the Mus-tangs’ offensive produc-tion. The defense only al-lowed five goals all season. “We need to continue to play good defense,”Wilson said. “If we play with a sense of urgency, we can control the game and continue to have opportunities.”

“We need to be more consistently aggressive throughout the entire game,” Reese said.

The Wildcats played their last non-conference game of the season against Dallas Baptist University on Thursday. The DBU Patriots were 4-3 entering the con-

test. The game was at Dal-las Baptist, but stats from the game were not available at deadline.

the clear favorite to win. Another tough competi-tor the Wildcats face is Northern Arizona, which is ranked No. 16 in Divi-sion I. ACU men continue to sit atop the Division II national poll with its No. 1 ranking.

Burroughs expects his team to run well against the top Division II teams, but anything better than that would be a great con-fidence boost.

“It is Oklahoma State’s home meet, so they are going to put together a team to win their home meet,” Burroughs said. “After that, I think ACU and Northern Arizona are the favorites.”

These competitions serve as dress rehearsals for the Division II Nation-al Championship meet on Nov. 22, he said.

“The focus of our sea-son is certainly not the Cowboy Jamboree, but this is a good opportunity to give the athletes some experience,” Burroughs said. “They need to know what it feels like to have to bump and run with the opposing runners the first 800 meters. That will help them in November.”

The Wildcats have two more meets leading up to

the LSC Championship on Oct. 25 in Kingsville. The team will host its next meet, the ACU High School Invitational, on Oct. 11 in Abilene. They then will travel to San Angelo on Oct. 14 for the Angelo State Classic. The NCAA South Central Regional will take place in San Antonio on Nov. 8, and the afore-mentioned NCAA Division II Championship will take place in Slippery Rock, Pa., on Nov. 22.

E-mail Gwin at: jmcnetwork@acu.edu

Friday, October 3, 2008 Page 7SPORTS JUMPS

Tennis: Women head home for ITA Regional

E-mail Harris at: tch05f@acu.edu

E-mail Craig at: jmcnetwork@acu.edu

E-mail Abston at: gda04b@acu.edu

Continued from page 8

”

The focus of our season is certainly not the Cowboy Jamboree, but

this is a good opportunity to give the ath-letes some ex-perience.

“

:: Sam Burroughs, head cross country coach

Soccer: Cats’ defense continues strong

Led by Malone, the Wildcats will enter the game with one of the top offenses in the na-tion, averaging 51 points and 526 yards a game. Malone has thrown for 1,237 yards and 11 touchdowns on the season. Behind Malone is running back Bernard Scott, who has aver-aged 151 rushing yards a game and has scored 10 total touch-downs on the season. The wide receiving corps of Johnny Knox, Edmund Gates and Jona-than Ferguson has combined for 880 yards and seven touch-downs. Gates had his biggest game of the season last week, catching eight passes for 164 yards and two touchdowns.

Despite losing Jerale Badon, one of the top receivers in LSC history, the Wildcat receiving corps has stepped up this sea-son after getting Knox back from last season.

“The receivers are not a surprise to any of us,” Malone said. “Last year Gates was lim-ited because it was his first season playing football but he is a big player. Ferguson has re-ally stepped up and he’s filled those shoes.”

Defensively, the Wildcats have given up just 281 yards

and 15 points a game this season and have scored five touchdowns the past three games. Leading the Wildcats is defensive end Aston White-side, who has scored two of those touchdowns and earned LSC South Defensive Player of the Week honors last week after recording four tackles, one sack, one tackle for loss, one forced fumble, one fum-ble recovery, one quarterback hurry and one fumble return for a touchdown.

Linebacker Eric Edwards leads the Wildcats with 26 tack-les and heads a defense that has produced 13 turnovers this season. Safeties Nick Fellows and Tony Harp are second on the team with 19 tackles while linebacker Mike Kern has 18 tackles and two touchdowns.

“It’s pretty awesome that our defense is talented enough to turn turnovers into touch-downs,” Malone said. “Some-times [the offense] wants them not to score, so we can play, but it’s awesome, and they practice extremely hard.”

The Wildcats face the Lions Saturday at 6 p.m. at Shotwell Stadium.

Football: DE Whiteside shines

Cross Country: Wildcats remain No. 1 in nation

Continued from page 8

Continued from page 8

Continued from page 8

Continued from page 8

E-mail Harris at: tch05f@acu.edu

Emily Jorgenson :: staff photographer

The ACU volleyball team looks to improve its non-conference record this weekend at the Pittsburg State Invitational.

n The ACU women’s bas-ketball team was picked to finish second in the LSC South Division in the pre-season poll that was an-nounced Wednesday at the LSC Basketball Media Day. West Texas A&M was picked as the favorite with 14 first-place votes.

n ACU senior for-ward Dejan Sencanski was voted the LSC South Division Pre-Sea-son Player of the Year.

Sencanski averaged 18.0 points and 6.3 rebounds per game last season. The Wildcats were picked to finish third in the LSC South Division.

Cats look to pile up wins

By Grant AbstonSports Editor

The fourth-ranked Wild-cats will look to remain per-fect on the season this Sat-urday when the East Central University Lions come to Abilene for a Lone Star Con-ference crossover matchup.

The Wildcats (4-0) re-mained in the No. 4 spot in the nation following last week’s 56-11 win over East-ern New Mexico. The Wild-cats are tied for first in the LSC South Division with Mid-western State and West Texas A&M. East Central (1-4) is tied for first in the North Division after defeating Northeastern State 55-49 for its first win of the season.

“They are a good running and passing team,” said head coach Chris Thomsen. “They have some explosive players on offense, starting with their quarterback, who is a former Abilene High guy, and he makes a lot of things happen.”

The Lions quarterback, Marcus Johnson, earned LSC North co-Offensive Player of the Week honors after throw-ing for 426 yards and two touchdowns on 28-46 pass-ing, breaking his own school record for yards passing. Johnson leads an offense that averages 373 yards and 22.6 points a game.

The Lions will use a spread offense that features a receiv-ing corps of Nigel Cooper, Jus-tin Goolsby and Tyron Gibbs, who have combined for 701 yards and four touchdowns. Running back Joshua Maldan-ado leads the Lions with 184

yards and five touchdowns.“They are a pretty good

team and scored 55 points last week, even though it was one game,” said Wildcat quar-terback Billy Malone. “Over-all, it will be challenging of-fensively and defensively.”

The Lions will use a 4-3 defense that has given up an average of 447 yards and 44 points, led by defensive end Brandon Hopstein. Hopstein earned LSC North co-Defen-sive Player of the Week honors after recording three tackles for loss, including a quarter-back sack and a forced fum-ble that led to a touchdown

against Northeastern State. Defensive backs Trevor Car-penter and Dionte’ Dean lead the Lions with 23.5 tackles.

“East Central will do some

things on defense that will make us change what we do on offense,” Malone said.

SportsFridayOctober 3, 2008 Page 8

Standings

FootballTeam Div. OverallWTAMUACU MSUTarleton St.TAMU-K

Angelo St.

1-01-01-00-00-10-1

5-04-04-05-03-22-3

ENMU 0-1 1-4

VolleyballTeam Div. OverallMSUWTAMUTarleton St.TX Woman’sTAMU-C

ACU*

*7th out of 14 teams

3-02-03-13-13-12-2

18-015-212-611-79-613-3

Women’s SoccerTeam Div. OverallWTAMUAngelo St.East CentralNE St.TAMU-C

Central Okla.

1-01-00-0-10-0-10-00-0

7-1-16-3-14-3-21-4-26-1-15-2-2

MSU 0-0 5-3TX Woman’s 0-0 5-3SW Okla. 0-0 2-7ENMU 0-1 6-4ACU 0-1 4-3-1

SCOREBOARD

IntRAmuRAl ROunD-up

nOtES

4-on-4 SoccerStarts: Tuesday, Oct. 28Sign-up Deadline: Oct. 23Cost: $125 per team

3-2 Softball tournamentStarts: Saturday, Nov. 8Sign-up Deadline: Nov. 6Cost: $80 per team

Friday

VolleyballACU vs. Central Missouri, 1 p.m.ACU vs. Missouri Southern, 7 p.m.

Women’s tennisITA Central Regional, 9 a.m.

Saturday

FootballACU vs. East Central, 6 p.m.

VolleyballACU vs. Pittsburg State, 4 p.m.ACU vs. Newman, noon

Cross CountryOSU Cowboy Jamboree, 9 a.m.

Sunday

SoccerACU vs. Midwestern State, 2 p.m.

:: Home games listed in italics

Upcoming

Wednesday

VolleyballACU 3, Dallas Baptist 2

Scores

Wildcats head to Cowboy JamboreeBy Chandler HarrisAssistant Sports Editor

The ACU cross country teams will travel to Stillwa-ter, Okla., this weekend for the Oklahoma State Cow-boy Jamboree. The Wildcats will compete against top universities from Division I and Division II.

“We are going to bring pretty much close to our top squad,” said head cross country coach Sam Bur-roughs. “One of our top run-ners, Cleophas Tanui, was hit by a car while riding his bike a week to 10 days ago. He was feeling some muscle soreness, and then a couple days later, he came down with a bug and has missed a good chunk of training. I don’t feel it is right to throw him in there right now.”

The host team Oklahoma State is ranked No. 2 in the nation in Division I and is

ACU at home for MSUBy Austin GwinSports Writer

The ACU soccer team are looking to rebound af-ter suffering a defeat at the hands of Angelo State last Friday. They will play their second conference game at home against Midwestern State on Sunday at 2 p.m.

“Midwestern is a tough, fast team; there aren’t any better teams in the con-ference,” said head soccer coach Casey Wilson. “We need to always play with fo-cus and intensity through-out an entire game.”

The Wildcats can take a few things from Friday’s loss, said co-captain Jordan Reese.

“Friday had lots of posi-tives,” Reese said. “We have moments that we play in-credibly well together. The more we play together the more often they occur. We just need to turn those mo-ments into entire games.”

The Midwestern State

Mustangs come into Sun-day’s match with a 5-3 re-cord but hold a three-game win streak. With the Wild-cats’ loss to Angelo State, ACU falls to 4-3-1 and 0-1 in conference play.

“For the most part, we need to forget about Fri-day,” Reese said. “Sunday we need to just be mentally ready to play our best game of the year.”

Last year, the Mustangs finished 8-2 in conference play after losing in the semifinals of the LSC tour-nament. When the Mustangs and Wildcats faced each other last season, the Mus-tangs won in a close game. The Wildcats had a lead of 1-0, but in the final minute of the first half the Mus-tangs scored to even it up 1-1. In the second half, the Mustangs scored again to

Volleyball team 13-3 after defeating Dallas BaptistBy Chandler HarrisAssistant Sports Editor

The ACU volleyball team defeated Dallas Baptist 3-2 (25-17, 26-24, 23-25, 20-25, 15-13) on Wednesday, boost-ing its record to 13-3 on the season. This was the first time all season the Wildcats played in a match that went five sets.

Junior outside hitter Mi-chelle Bacon led the team with 15 kills, followed by junior outside hitter Erin Curry with 14 kills and sophomore middle block-er Shawna Hines with 12. Sophomore middle blocker Jordan Schilling and fresh-

man outside hitter Jennie Hutt both had nine kills.

Sophomore setter Ijeoma Moronu had a season-high 55 assists. The Wildcats had 10 team blocks. Hines had three solo blocks and four assistsed blocks to lead the team.

Curry added 16 digs to give her a double double. Junior defensive setter Amy Wilson led the team with 26 digs.

The Wildcats hit .194 as a team and kept Dallas Bap-tist to just a .149 mark on the night.

It looked as if ACU might take the match 3-0 as it led in the third set 15-14. Then,

the Lady Patriots won eight consecutive points on their way to the set victory. DBU controlled the fourth set as well and forced the fifth and deciding set. The Wild-cats jumped right out of the gate and took the first four points in the fifth set to pace their 15-13 victory in the final set.

This is the Wildcats fourth-straight win over the Lady Patriots dating back to October of 2000.

The team travels to Kansas this weekend for the Pitts-burg State Invitational. The Wildcats will play four non-conference games in a span of two days.

The team will play Central Missouri at 1 p.m. and No. 14 in the nation Missouri South-ern at 7 p.m on Friday. On Saturday, the team will play Newman (Kan.) at noon and the host team Pittsburg State at 4 p.m.

“It’s a good tournament, not only with teams that are high ranked in their region but also teams that are na-tionally ranked,” said head coach Kellen Mock.

Both Pittsburg State and Central Missouri are nation-ally ranked, Mock said.

“I think we are going to have to play very clean

Soccer

See Soccer page 7

Volleyball

Zak Zeinert :: chief photographer

The WIildcats will travel to Stillwater, Okla., for the Oklahoma State Cow-boy Jamboree. The men’s team is ranked No. 1 in Division II.

See Football page 7

Emily Jorgeson :: chief photographer

Above: A group of Wildcats make a tackle against Texas A&M Commerce. Below: QB Billy Malone passes versus Texas A&M Commerce on Sept. 13 at Shotwell Stadium.

Men win Missouri doubles tourneyBy Jeff CraigSports Writer

The men’s tennis team competed in the ITA Cen-tral Regional Champi-onship last weekend in Maryville, Mo., while the women’s team prepared for its regional tournament this upcoming weekend.

The men’s tournament took place at Northwest Missouri State University and consisted of both a singles and doubles bracket with each bracket champion getting the re-gion’s national spot. The Wildcats had five singles players and four doubles teams that made it to the draw of 64 for singles and 32 for doubles. The Wild-cats also entered the tour-nament with the defending doubles regional champion team of Ryan Hudson and Juan Nunez, who continued their success by winning doubles again. Six Wildcats also made it into the top 16 in the singles bracket.

“Our goal coming in was to show our teams’ strength and then maybe win a title,” Jones said. “We definitely showed our strength by having six of the top 16 players, and the icing on the cake was an-other doubles title for us.”

In doubles match play, ACU entered four of its com-peting doubles teams, in-cluding the Central Regions top-ranked team of Ryan Hudson and Juan Nunez. The defending regional champions came through again, winning their second

Emily Jorgenson :: staff photographer

Outside hitter Britni Golden gets ready for a set against UTPB.

See Cross Country page 7

See Tennis page 7

See Volleyball page 7

Sencanski

Wildcats aim to improve to 5-0 against East Central

Football