“I feel like they treat us like we are in middle

school.”

“I think they should be more frequent.”

“I like them, but I think they should be more

often.”

“I think they create good community in dorms.”

Liz Prillaman, senior

Johnathan Rehner,sophomore

Meredith Slee,senior

“I think it’s good for girls and guys to interact.”

Nick Ziemann,sophomore

WWW.ASBURYCOLLEGIAN.COMThursday, November 4, 2010

The Asbury CollegianVolume 96, Issue 9

How do you feel about open dorms?

Lawson Harrell,sophomore

Dr. John Charalambakis, a for-mer tenured professor at Asbury, filed a complaint Aug. 3 in the Jes-samine Circuit Court suing Asbury University and specific members of the administration, board of trust-ees and faculty.

In the most recent court record, Asbury requested the court to or-der the lawsuit to proceed immedi-ately to mediation.

Asbury spokesman Brad John-son said in a statement to the Colle-gian that “the University disagrees with the allegations that have been made in this action. The plaintiff’s decision to pursue litigation is tru-ly regrettable.”

On Aug. 24, the defendants sub-mitted a motion for a more defi-nite statement which requested the court to order “Charalambakis to reframe his complaint, so that it is clear what he is accusing each Defendant of doing” and to clarify other aspects of the complaint.

Jeremy Rogers, an attorney with the Kentucky Press Associa-tion said, “it’s not uncommon for the defendant to file a motion for a more definite statement” after a complaint is filed. Generally, it gives the defendants a clearer understanding of the allegations brought against them by the plain-tiff.

Charalambakis voluntarily filed an amended complaint on Sept. 27. which the defendants answered on Oct. 13.

When defendants answer a com-plaint, Rogers explained, the defen-dants either admit or deny certain allegations made in the complaint. In this specific answer made by the defendants, Asbury set forth 14 de-fenses and responded line by line to Charlambakis’ complaint.

The next stage of a civil lawsuit is typically the discovery phase. Discovery is when the attorneys of both parties seek out as much information as possible about the situation.

This stage “will take different

amounts of time depending on the case and depending on how the parties want to litigate the case,” Rogers said. It is possible that the discovery stage could last a few months or even years.

Rogers said, “At some point a party may file a motion with the court to set a trial date. Until that happens there probably will not be a trial date, and there probably will not be a discovery schedule unless the court orders one.”

It is possible, though, that the lawsuit will not go to trial. Rog-ers said, “A very small percent-age of civil lawsuits actually make it to a trial. The majority of them are settled; a great many of them are dismissed by courts for lack of evidence or for failure to make an actual legal claim the law recog-nizes.”

Whether this particular lawsuit will settle outside of court is un-clear at the moment. For now, Char-alambakis is suing Asbury and

Mediation requested in lawsuitCourt records show response to amended complaint

By Riah LawryNews Editor

See Lawsuit | 2

Homecoming events kicked off the Halloween weekend with concerts, sporting events and a medieval style

pumpkin launch. Other events for parents and alumni included Asbury’s own sitcom and various alumni competi-

tions. Wilmore also celebrated the weekend with Treats on Main, a fun celebration for kids of all ages that included

lots of candy and costumes.

Tyler Hoff | Collegian Graphic

Allison Smith celebrates senior night with teammates on Friday, Oct. 29.

Rebecca Baker | Collegian Photo Tyler Hoff | Collegian PhotoA little girl participates in Wilmore’s Treats on Main Saturday, Oct. 30.

Rebecca Baker | Collegian Photo

Asbury Eagle poses with the ball girls at the women’s soccer game on Friday, Oct. 29.

Zach Wilson | Collegian Photo Rebecca Baker| Collegian PhotoJosh Braun fights for the soccer ball during the Saturday, Oct. 30 men’s game. Sarah Bruner and Mitch Yoder are crowned homecom-

ing king and queen on Saturday, Oct. 30.

Sushi review: Page 6The exploration of eating raw fish

Check out Assessment day prize results

Page 2

*Survey allowed voting for more than one choice.

News2 Contact News Editor Riah Lawryat riah.lawry@asbury.edu The Asbury Collegian | November 4, 2010

lucy allencourtney ashcraftzachary bennetttamara brownnorma calicotttimothy chinnmatthew citakmary clarkkatie crockershelby delkkeri eustisleslie ferrellskylar forristerchristie gleasondavid haddocklauren hazlettbrittany howardbrittni jarviealexander johnsonadrianna kellynathan kuhlmelissa landonelizabeth lawrence

sara lokarandrew millerdenise morananna mozleycaressa oakesamber parsonsjohn paynenicholas personettaustin powellrebecca richardsanna rimelspachkristen rustdiana sanchezkenton senaalexandra sizemoredavid stilessarah taberjacob vandereemselizabeth vandervennetstephanie wadecathrin walkerjohn webbsarah werner

Assessment Day

Prize Results

Congradulations to the winners!

The Amazon gift cards have been sent to all winners through the College Post Office.

Professor Peter Kerr’s Public Relations Theory and Practice class is presenting a fall festival and drive-in movie on Saturday Nov. 13 to benefit The Nile, a local maternity home located in Versailles, Ky.

The event, called Fall Back into the Past, is a combination of a fall festival and a drive-in movie featuring “Back to the Future.”

After many weeks of hard work, the class secured a drive-in movie theater located off Harrodsburg road that is willing to show the feature presentation at a significantly discounted rental price. The fall festival will begin at 3:00 p.m., with the movie to follow and will occur at Wilmore’s Free Methodist Church. The entrance fee is $7. The drive-in movie will take place at Twin Hills Drive-In in Harrodsburg, Ky. It will cost $5 to enter.

Each year the Public Relations Theory and Practice is assigned to host an event that will benefit a charity. This year’s event will ben-efit The Nile in Versailles, Ky. The Nile is a maternity home that gives women and chil-dren in unsafe situations a safe place to go. While the residents are staying at The Nile, they go through a program that helps them grow in three areas: spiritual, personal and professional. This program helps residents either obtain their college degree or go into the workforce. According to The Nile’s website, the goal “is [to] return to society a self sufficient, emotionally stable, educated woman that develops into a productive citi-zen.”

“We just felt they were so small and we have a cause to make them known,” said ju-nior Samantha Locke, sub-leader of the Pro-motions committee.

Besides helping the Nile, this event also helps the students taking PR classes. Profes-sor Peter Kerr explained in an e-mail inter-view: “This event gives students hands-on application of PR skills, the opportunity to serve and benefit a great cause, and results in a powerful resume bullet and experience talking-points for job interviews.”

The drive-in and fall festival also ben-efit the students of Asbury. These events will provide the students with something to build stronger friendships. It is an opportu-nity for brother/sister halls to meet and for

friends to bond. In addition to the creation of stronger friendships, the event also allows university students to get to know the sur-rounding community. “We just want to com-bine both the community and the school,” Locke said.

When first given the assignment, the class began to brainstorm ways to raise money. “We came to the conclusion that we really liked a two-part event,” Locke said. The first event will be a fall festival. The festi-val will included old-time games like brown bag races and newer activities like inflatable toys. The second event will be the drive-in movie. At first, the class struggled to come up with a theme. Finally, the class voted on “Fall Back into the Past.” This combines both the ideas of autumn and the movie “Back to the Future.”

There was also some discussion as to where and how the movie was to take place. For speakers, there were ideas on either using a radio station or placing a mass of speakers around the cars. However, on Fri-day the location and times of the events were finalized. Before this finalization Locke said, “You might feel like this is uncertain, but I feel we have a bigger God who is go-ing to orchestrate a lot of big things through this.”

“I am proud of the Public Relations The-ory and Practice class for all their efforts al-ready invested in this event,” Kerr said. “ I hope all Asbury will turn out to support it and have a great time.”

More than just a day off, Assessment Day is in place to let the students of campus express their opin-ions on campus issues. This year’s Assessment Day was on Wednesday Oct. 20.

This isn’t just for the Ad-ministration’s benefit—the school hosts assessments as a part of a Southern Associa-tion of Colleges and Schools requirement to accredit As-bury as a University. In the past couple years, Asbury Administration chose to can-cel classes on Assessment Day to allow students to take the assessments without in-terfering with their classes.

In the past, the assess-ments were mainly com-pleted digitally. This year, in addition to emailing out the assessments to the ma-jority of the student body, the school implemented focus groups. Each group consisted of no more than 20 people who focused on 24 separate areas of campus life and policies.

And the responses are helpful. Registrar Bill Hall, part of the Assessment Day committee, explained that the previous assessments have led to change in several areas. Specifically in the area of the registrar’s office. “The registration process went from being completely on paper to almost entirely on-line because of student feed-back,” Hall said. The regis-trar’s office also changed its office hours because of stu-dents’ answers.

Paul Stephens, another member of the Assessment Day committee, also saw changes on campus. He listed several major changes

such as responsibilities of the Students Center stew-ard, the improvement of the Aldersgate lounge, the remodeling of the Johnson lobby—all of which have oc-curred due to the My Voice surveys.

Stephens emphasized the importance of listening to the students during Assess-ment Day. “It is helpful for faculty and staff to under-stand students and to know their experiences,” Stephens said. “Our students feel over-whelmed. We have to ask ourselves the way in which we will responsibly respond to that.”

Stephens hopes that the students will benefit from the changes taking place. He also emphasized the care that all the people involved in the assessment process have for the students.

Senior Nathan Crum thinks that the assessments were partially effective. “I believe if a suggestion is convenient or correlates to an idea that they were plan-ning anyway then they more readily act on those. But if it is outside of those boundar-ies it is more or less fulfill-ing a SACS requirement,” Crum said.

He felt that he could an-swer the surveys honestly because the school truly wants to listen to its stu-dents. “I am honest and sometimes blunt when I an-swer, but I also commend and praise certain aspects of Asbury and faculty.”

Crum says he realizes that his answers this year will have more effects for his friends who will still be at Asbury after he gradu-ates. “After I’m gone, I like to think my assessment in some way makes it better for my friends that are still

here,” he said.When asked about the

addition of focus groups this year, Stephens ex-pressed his satisfaction with them. “They allow us to get in deeper conversation with the students about specific issues and elements of cam-pus,” Stephens said. “Also, the regularity of the surveys allows us to meet the needs on campus.” This combined with the focus group an-swers is what causes change to occur.

Hall and Stephens both thought the turn-out this year was good. “Around two thirds of traditional under-graduate students partici-pate in some form, whether through focus groups or on-line assessments,” Hall said.

Hall said they would like to get up between 80 to 85 percent campus participa-tion in the future. They are looking at new ways to im-plement assessments into the classroom to encourage more widespread participa-tion and save time. “If you had an assessment every so often in a class for one of the areas such as residence halls or the registration pro-cess, you are going to have a higher percentage of partici-pation on the students part,” Hall said. He also said this would save students from having to sit for a few hours in front of the computer tak-ing the surveys.

Though students are not always informed on what changes Assessment Day brings, Hall wants to make sure they know they are heard. “We do read the comments, and we make the changes, but we don’t always tell the students ‘Hey, it’s because of what you said in assessment day that caused the change,’” he said.

Drive-in movie, fall festival:

Event on November 13 to benefit local maternity home

Tyler Hoff | Collegian Photo

Samantha Locke and Michael Rosecky advertise Fall Back into the Past on Saturday, Oct. 30 at Treats on Main in Wilmore.

By Katrina AndersonSenior News Writer

the other defendants for several reasons. These are set forth in the amended complaint in which Char-alambakis, who was born in Athens, Greece, said he “received unfavor-able comments about his national origin and his accent” from certain defendants and was harassed be-cause “he questioned Defendant Asbury University’s administrations practice of hiring unqualified pro-fessors and failure to comply with required academic standards.”

On Nov. 3, 2009, Charalambakis filed a complaint with the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights “al-leging discrimination based on the Plaintiff’s national origin.”

In the answer to the amended complaint, Asbury denies discrimi-nating against or harassing Char-alambakis and alleges that the “de-fendants’ conduct toward Plaintiff was based upon legitimate nondis-criminatory motives unrelated to his membership in any protected class.”

Charalambakis was placed on probation later on in November and alleges certain defendants told him “that if he did not withdraw his com-plaint it would violate the terms of his probation”—an allegation As-bury denies.

According to the motion for a more definite statement filed by the defendants, Charalambakis “was placed on probation when issues arose concerning the nature and conduct of some of his outside busi-ness interests.”

Charalambakis alleges he com-plied with the terms of his proba-tion, and as a result, he “terminated his relationship with several of his clients and suffered financial dam-ages.”

Asbury’s answer to the amended complaint admits that Charlambakis “executed an agreement in connec-tion with his probation” but denies the remainder of the specific allega-tion.

In February 2010, the KCHR con-tacted Charalambakis, “asking if he wanted to modify his Complaint and add the charge of retaliation,” which he chose to do.

His contract was not renewed in March 2010 and was therefore effec-tively terminated June 30, 2010. His career at Asbury lasted 19 years.

Charalambakis appealed the ter-

mination and alleges Asbury refused to give him a “fair hearing review of his appeal of termination.”

Asbury denies the allegation, and the motion for a more definite state-ment mentions a “faculty appointed chair of two Faculty Appeals Com-mittees that reviewed the Univer-sity’s decisions concerning Charal-ambakis.”

Charalambakis also alleges that certain defendant’s actions consti-tute a breach of contract and goes on to say the defendant breached the covenant of an implied duty of good faith and dealing.

As a result, Charalambakis is su-ing the defendants for compensa-tory and punitive damages as well as damages “for embarrassment and humiliation.”

He also claims compensation due to “damage to his personal and professional reputation.” This, he al-leges, occurred when certain defen-dants published statements about him “to the student body at Asbury, business consultants of the Plaintiff and other faculty members at As-bury.”

In the defendants’ answer, they “assert truth, privilege and lack of publication as complete defenses to Plaintiff’s defamation claims.”

Furthermore, Asbury requests the court to dismiss Charalambakis’ complaint and require the “matter to proceed immediately to mediation, before further costs of litigation are incurred.” Asbury alleges that ac-cording to Charalambakis’ employ-ment contract, “he is required to mediate this dispute prior to litiga-tion.”

Rogers said, “Mediation is just a settlement conference and par-ties get together typically with a mediator—a neutral third party who doesn’t have a stake in the case.” Al-though the majority of civil lawsuits settle before a trial, Rogers said, “mediation is just an avenue to try to settle, and sometimes you settle with mediation and sometimes you don’t.”

The defendants have also re-quested that the court afford the Defendants “damages and costs for Plaintiff’s breach of contract” as well as “costs incurred in defending this action, including attorney’s fees.”

As of Oct. 27, nothing more has been filed in the Jessamine Circuit Court.

Civil lawsuit proceeds in circuit court

From Lawsuit | 1

After the assessment:evaluating effectiveness

By Annie BurnhamContributing Writer

There are all sorts of ways we witness to people. It can be as simple as sup-porting a friend in a time of need or as big as volun-teering your time to rebuild an area struck by a natural disaster. Maybe your main means of witnessing is tell-ing your story; maybe you witness through your ac-tions; or maybe you travel with the intent of witness-ing or evangelizing. What-ever you do to witness to people, to be the hands and feet of Jesus, there are some methods that work better than others.

I think the least ef-fective way to share the message of God’s love and Jesus’ death for our sins is to stand in a pub-lic area and preach. Don’t get me wrong—we all need a wake-up call now and then. And perhaps there are people who are reached by the evangelists on street corners. I really hope so. However, I feel it is safe to say that it is easy to think of Christians as crazy and Bible-thumping

when they are standing on a street corner and bellow-ing about turning from sin in order to avoid burning in Hell.

Before I go any further, I should tell you that I be-lieve followers of Christ are called to live differ-ently than the culture of which we are a part. We are in this world but not of it. We are set apart, but we should also be vulner-able and open to others so that we can connect with them. On the first day of Great Commission Congress, Oreon Trickey spoke in chapel about connecting with people so that we may be able to share the good news with them. If we come across as crazy and over-zealous, people will not want to get to know us. They will not find anything we say credible. They won’t even give us the opportunity to build relationships and to share our story.

All of that to say that street-corner evangeliz-ing is not the best way to share the good news, in my opinion. It may have been effective a few decades ago, but it is not effective

now. This past Halloween weekend, I encountered two different groups on two different occasions preaching the good news on the street. I found it un-settling that one of them was holding a sign that

read, “Fear God. Repent. Turn or Burn.” Rhyming and wordplay are not go-ing to draw people. It is weird and a poor evangeli-cal tool to tell people that they are going to burn in Hell for their sins.

People go on the defen-sive when someone starts telling them about the bad consequences that their sin is going to get them. One man was standing in a busy street during a Hal-loween parade, speaking into a bullhorn about sal-vation. There is a time and a place for everything, and yelling into a crowd about salvation can come across as kind of desperate and crazy. Desperate and crazy won’t build relationships or get you friends.

I must digress a bit, but not too much. The use of the word “fear” on the sign mentioned above can of-ten confuse people who do not know God or have no theological education. We fear God in that we recog-nize Him as sovereign and all-powerful. We recognize that He is an omnipotent, just God who is also full of mercy and grace. Some-one who does not know God will be turned off by the idea that they are sup-posed to fear God because the word fear has negative connotations with it. Fear implies that the subject they fear can bring them harm. They may feel that

they are being told to fear God because He will hurt them if they sin. Once again, a negative way to get people thinking about God.

This is not to say that people are never reached by street-corner evange-lizing. One life saved is enough to make any ef-fort put into witnessing worth it. I’m also not say-ing that going out into a community with the intent of sharing the good news is a bad thing. I’m saying that bellowing about re-pentance and redemption can sometimes turn peo-ple off from the message. Some churches go out and perform simple acts of kindness to witness, such as buying strangers’ cof-fee at coffee shops (which many times leads to con-versation) and passing out candy door-to-door on Halloween simply because they can. People notice things like this, and it is a great way to open the door for conversation. There are many, many ways to witness. Get creative and you’ll get people’s atten-tion. Get crazy and you’ll scare them away.

With tuition already over $10,000 per semes-ter, I think it would be wise for Asbury to allow students to save money wherever possible, includ-ing allowing them to live off-campus. Since Asbury is a traditional, residential four-year private univer-sity, Asbury requires the majority of its students to live on-campus. As-bury strongly believes in the community life that it offers and believes stu-dents should have the full residential experience and be immersed in Asbury’s community life.

Unless you are one of the few students that fit into the exceptions that include being married, over the age of 23, a fifth-year senior, independent, live with a relative or par-ents or have a place to live where you work for your room, you probably live on-campus. Although there is an appeals process where you can request to live off-campus, Associate Dean for Residence Life Joe Bruner said, “Most of the time, if they [students]

apply, they get denied.” With the cost of tuition

already as high as it is, is it possible that students could be saving money when it comes to their room? A traditional dou-ble room at Asbury costs $1,635 per semester per occupant. When averaged out to a monthly cost, this comes down to almost $409 per month, when you count a semester as four months since we are only on-campus the second half of August and leave at the beginning of December.

How does $409 a month compare to the cost of liv-ing off-campus? According to information on the Col-lege Board website, “Living off-campus can be cheaper than university housing.” It is possible to find cheaper housing off-campus, but sometimes other costs are overlooked. “You’ve got the security deposit, first and last month’s rent, utilities, furniture, furnishings, appliances, cleaning supplies, grocer-ies and transportation, College Board said.

If you look at specific homes that have been for rent in Wilmore, you can get a better idea at how

much you can save by liv-ing off-campus. One home for rent within a 10-minute walk to Asbury’s campus is only $595 per month and can spaciously house five people. This comes down to $119 per person each month. Another $50 per person will more than cover utilities, Internet and cable. This brings the cost to $169 per person each month, which is still

$240 less per month than what it costs to live in the dorm.

Another home for rent close to Asbury is asking for $1,000 per month, but it can house eight people. This comes down to $175 per person per month in-cluding utilities, Internet and cable. This is $234 cheaper each month than living in the dorm, which comes down to $936

saved per semester. At this cost per semester, you could save $7,488 over the course of four years.

Renting a home isn’t the only way to save money living off-campus. Senior Jason Blasing re-ceived permission to live off-campus because of his age. He shares an apart-ment in Wilmore with one other Asbury student. “My housing is a two-bedroom apartment, and we’re pay-ing around $300 a month between the two of us,” Blasing said. At that price, a student would save $8,288 during their four year college experience.

These costs of living off-campus don’t include the cost of furniture, transportation to Asbury, cleaning supplies and other day-to-day needs, although there is no way one person would spend almost a thousand dollars each semester on these things, especially if the cost is split with the other people living in the home.

This also doesn’t take into account summer and winter break, where we spend around four months off-campus. We don’t have to pay for our dorm room

during this time, but if you lived off-campus you would have to pay because most rentals require a yearlong lease. Unless you wanted to stay in Wilmore during winter and summer break or found a student who needed a place to stay during this time, it may not be the best option.

Living on-campus isn’t always bad. It allows you to grow lifetime friend-ships with your class-mates. They become your best friends.

Junior Annie Burnham said that living on-campus is “a good way to get to know people on-campus.” Asbury community life is an experience that you’ll never get to participate in again, but is it worth the cost of living on-campus? This should be a question that every student is able to ask himself, but Asbury doesn’t even give us the option.

Maybe there is a way to compromise between the two extremes. Is it neces-sary or beneficial for stu-dents to live on-campus for the full four years at Asbury? Although it’s re-quired for most students, a lot of students feel that

the rules are too constrain-ing and that it should be easier to live off-campus. Blasing said, “I think it’s good that they have rules to keep people on-campus, but I think the rules are a little strict.”

“I think it’s definitely right of them to make freshmen and even soph-omores live on-campus because too much change and too much freedom can probably be a bad thing,” Burnham said. “Between junior and senior year, I think that’s a time where the school should be push-ing you to become more independent and reach adulthood.”

“We don’t sit back and go, oh, let’s make a lot of money off the students,” Bruner said. “We’re always price-conscious.” Even though they try to make residential life as cheap as possible, at the end of the day, it is still cheaper to live off-campus in most situations. Asbury should be aware of the difference between the price of living in a residential hall and living off-campus and al-low more students to take advantage of the opportu-nity to save money.

opinion 3The Asbury Collegian | November 4, 2010Contact Opinion Editor David Bruner at david.bruner@asbury.edu

The Collegian welcomes letters to the editor from students, faculty, staff, alumni and other mem-bers of the reading public.

We reserve the right to edit for length, accuracy or clarity. We will make every effort to involve the author in this process.

The author’s name, mailing address and phone number should be included in the letter.

The Collegian will not print letters without this information.

Unsolicited letters become the property of the Asbury Collegian.

Letters may be submitted through the Asbury University Post Office or by e-mail to david.brun-er@asbury.edu. The deadline for each issue is Sat-urday at 5:00 p.m.

Laura LaffoonExecutive Editor

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The weekly editorial, written by a member of the Editorial Board, does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Collegian staff.

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Laura Laffoon, Collegian executive editorLeah Girard, Collegian managing editorRiah Lawry, Collegian news editorDavid Bruner, Collegian opinion editor

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The Asbury Collegian, established in 1914, is the weeklystudent newspaper of Asbury University in Wilmore, Ky.

Editorial Board

Editorial: Political nihilism is no answer for America during midterm elections

Fiery preaching prevents people from listening to the Gospel

Opening off-campus living would save students moneyBy Kelsey PetersonContributing Writer

By Jesse PowellSenior Opinion Writer

If all goes according to the media hype, the Re-publicans will have made significant gains in Tues-day’s elections; they may have even taken over the House. I understand that politics these days run in quick cycles, and it would make sense that there would be backlash two years into Obama’s first term. However, taking a look at Republican (and Tea Party) rhetoric in the lead-up to this election gives me serious doubts that the right has made a legitimate case for their ability to lead Congress.

Of course, it’s no secret if you read my work that I’m a liberal. So it would stand to reason that I

wouldn’t want the Republi-cans to gain control of the House. This year, though, I’m actually a little fearful of what will happen if they do, which is not a feeling I’ve had before. I trust that our system of checks and balances will serve as a corrective to any of the more extreme conservative policies that Republicans would like to put in place, so I’m not afraid of that. What I’m afraid of is what I’ve come to see as a politi-cal nihilism inherent in the Republican message.

I’m talking about the proliferation of anti-gov-ernment rhetoric that has run rampant in this cam-paign season. The refrain I keep hearing is “We want smaller government and fewer taxes.” That sounds nice and patriotic on the surface, but it’s cynical at

its bottom. This cynicism is revealed when Republi-cans are pressed on actual policy. People ask candi-dates what alternatives they would offer to Demo-cratic legislative efforts, and they simply talk about keeping the government “out” of health care, envi-ronmental concerns and individual lives. All this proves is that Republicans have lost their faith that government can do any-thing productive, so they basically want to stop its machinery to prove their point. In fact, John Boeh-ner, the Republican House minority leader, has spe-cifically said that if Repub-licans win the house, they will block every single one of Obama’s legislative ini-tiatives. This shutdown would be especially dan-gerous during a time when

the economy is still unsta-ble and we are involved in two foreign wars.

This nihilism also re-veals itself in the cottage industry that has grown up around anti-Obama propaganda. According to “The Daily Beast,” some 46 books have been pub-lished in the last two years demonizing Obama’s poli-cies as well as Obama him-self. They have lovely titles such as “The Manchurian President,” “The Roots of Obama’s Rage,” “The Post-American Presidency” and “Crimes Against Liberty.” What these books do is create an Obama who is an “Other” that has some sort of deep-seated rage against America and is working to singlehandedly undermine the country. These books are based on fear and nothing else. They

then present the conserva-tive movement simply as “not-Obama” to account for why Americans should vote for conservatives. In another act of nihilism, conservatives define them-selves by saying what they are not, instead of what they would actually do if in power.

I am aware, by the way, that liberals waged similar smear campaigns against President Bush. These at-tacks were just as unfair and stupid as the anti-Obama ones. I think that there was enough to criti-cize about Bush’s policies without the need to crass-ly attack him as a person. The industry of venom is a bipartisan problem; it just happens to be more strongly active in the con-servative movement right now.

So, if you wake up on Wednesday morning to a new Republican majority in either part of Congress, be prepared for at least two years of political inac-tion. If they stand by their rhetoric, they may simply shut down government action in necessary areas to appease their anti-gov-ernment supporters. With nothing as their position, we can expect nothing from them. If Republicans do win, my sincere hope is that they will realize that their rhetoric is empty and that they will finally articulate some sort of al-ternative course of actual governmental policy. Even if I disagree with those policies, they will at least provide something better than the nothing I hear in every word of their cam-paign speeches.

By David BrunerOpinion Editor

Brother Jed Smock preaches on the sidewalk between the cafeteria and Aldersgate on Friday, October 29.

Jesse Powell | Collegian Photo

“[The decision to live off-campus]

should be a ques-tion every stu-dent is able to

ask himself, but Asbury doesn’t give us that op-

tion”

Your ThoughtsRevealedA weekly look at Campus Pulse responses

ZACK: What gets the campus in a buzz almost as much as a new engage-ment or a weird chapel speaker? Open dorms. Guys and girls hanging out in each others’ rooms, watching movies, playing various board games, not dancing to music; sounds like a party, all right. A party that happens every other blue moon. A party that will surely be sched-uled at the same time as that thing you love. Who doesn’t plan their week-ends around the chance to potentially talk to a mem-ber of the opposite sex? Well, everyone else in the world because it’s some-thing that should be an everyday occurrence.

COURTNEY: Let’s face it, there are some serious problems with open dorm. And not just the “eww, these guys smell bad” kind of problems, either.

Z: There are so many problems, in fact, we need-ed two writers to cover them all! That’s right, la-dies and gentlemen, Court-ney LeMay, who normally writes for those other bor-ing sections, has chosen to join me for the first ever Writer’s Block Party!

C: Wait, I had a choice?

Z: No! That’s what makes it so great. Now, back to open dorms. If there was one word you could use to describe your typical open dorm, what would it be? Mine would be “uncomfortable” or “I’d-rather-be-doing-some-

thing-else-but-I-feel-obli-gated-to-be-here-ing.”

C: “Awkward.” And I’m not the only one who feels that way. Brandon Rein-hardt, RA of Trustees 2nd East, used the word when summarizing his feelings of the current nature of open dorms (except he added, “And I just leave whenever I can.” Ouch).

Z: I equate open dorms to visiting your kids, but only under your ex-wife’s supervision. It’s like, “Look, honey, I just want to take the kids to the circus one day, alright? I want to see my daughter’s sweet smile and hear my son’s laugh this month. Please.” That’s how depressing open dorms are.

C: Open dorms have the potential to be fun, don’t get me wrong—I love be-ing invited to Johnson to play Rock Band as much as the next girl; it’s common knowledge that the room acoustics are better on that side of campus. But, the fact is, open dorms are so infrequent that half of the time there is spent in finding the rooms you were supposed to hang out in an hour ago (3/4 of the time and even longer for the labyrinth common-ly referred to as Kresge, if you count the extra time necessary to escape from the minotaur). That’s only for finding one room, and staying in just one room for the entire open dorm is one of the quickest ways to make enemies with pretty much the rest of campus. “Why didn’t you come see me while you were visiting her? Is my room not good enough? I thought we were friends!”

Z: The problems are only exacerbated by the fact that more introverted students tend to be re-duced to quivering, jelly-boned wimps when just thinking about talking to a... a... a girl! But can you really blame them? Men and women are treated like two disagreeable beta fish who need to be eter-nally separated lest they kill each other (or worse). This fosters unhealthy and inorganic growth in relationships with the op-posite sex. Perhaps this is the cause of the “Ring by Spring” phenomenon—the distorted view we have of how relationships should work leads us to believe we’ve fallen in love with someone because we en-joyed playing Yahtzee or charades together, so we should get married! Now! And then things don’t work out because they re-alize they don’t really have all that much in common and get divorced, which leads to the aforemen-tioned divorce scenario. Don’t you see what you’re doing, Asbury? You’re tearing families apart and

preventing little Johnny and Samantha from going to the circus with their lov-ing father!

C: Little Johnny Sim-mons, when interviewed about the problems with open dorms, said, “I don’t know what that is, but I just want to see my daddy again.” Samantha was not available for comment.

Z: And the only thing that’s more of a travesty than these children grow-ing up in a broken home? The scheduling of open dorms. On literally ev-ery occasion, open dorms have conflicted with cam-pus-wide events. All three of Glide-Crawford’s open dorms—yes, three, before either men’s dorm gets two—have been on week-nights (I don’t feel it needs to be explained why this was a mistake), and Trust-ees’ open dorm coincided with an artist series. Kres-ge’s first open dorm oc-curred at the same time as the significantly more fun T.A.G. Masquerade, and “Kandyland” took place on a Tuesday, a night reserved

exclusively for “Glee” and finishing up my articles.

C: And Johnson’s Shock-toberfest ‘10 doesn’t even count as an open dorm because, well, the rooms weren’t open. But don’t think we’re only complain-ing here; we feel we have a solution! Originally, we intended to propose a sys-tem which would have an open dorm every weekday, which would alternate (e.g., Kresge gets open dorm Monday, and then Tues-day the following week) so that no dorm had a fixed day of the week, and then on Friday have all dorms open, or something to that effect.

Z: But that sounds a little complicated, doesn’t it? And it doesn’t really solve the whole problem of having to schedule where you’re going to go on what night (what if it’s Kres-ge’s night but you want to hang out with some of those fine GC babes?). It increases the quantity of open dorms, but not nec-essarily the quality.

C: That’s why Rein-hardt’s simple proposal (and I don’t mean the “hide the ring in her chocolate cake” kind) of open hours is the obvious answer. Ev-ery weekday from seven to 10 all dorms are open. Is that really so unreason-able? It eliminates virtu-ally every possible com-plaint concerning open dorms, and seemingly, the only downside is for the resident assistants. When asked about the potential extra work, Reinhardt ad-mitted, “If I were solely looking at my personal wants, I would say ‘I’d rather not,’ but I feel that

part of being an RA is lay-ing down my wants for the good of the community.” Whoa, somebody sacrific-ing their time for others? Egad! “An RA has to be on duty anyways,” he con-tinued, “and it wouldn’t be much different than right now.” Except, you know, people would actu-ally be satisfied with open dorms.

Z: Perhaps the only other disadvantage is that of students’ privacy, or if you’re one of those people who clean exclusively for open dorms (and your room is in constant state of petrifying filth otherwise). But it’s not like someone is going to be in your room every single night anyway; there may be heavy traffic for the first week or two, but how many are coming daily once this becomes standard procedure? Fif-teen? Besides, that’s why our doors have locks on them: keeping people out when you need to study (or because your room looks like Ke$ha spent the night) is as easy as the push of a button, literally.

C: And it seems just as easy to improve open dorms. Aldersgate has had open hours for years with no major problems; why couldn’t this apply to the other dorms as well?

Z: But regardless of how silly or impractical you may feel our ideas sound, I think we can all agree that something needs to change. Please, think of the children!

opinion4Contact Opinion Editor David Bruner at david.bruner@asbury.edu

The Asbury Collegian | November 4, 2010

By Zackary Brewer and Courtney LeMayHumor Columnist and Senior Features Writer

Writer’s Block Party: With dorms wide open

“I wish it were possible to have an open dorm on a Friday or Saturday when there are no tests to study for or papers to write.”

—Jordyn Rhorer, freshman

“I think open dorm in GC on Thurs-days is a terrible idea. Most of the SLAs have Koinonia then, and we are the only dorm that doesn’t have it on weekends.”

—Annie Burnham, junior

“I wish that we would get at least a week’s notice on open dorms. Also, why can’t open dorms end right before com-munity hours (10-15 mins before)? Why do they usually end almost an hour be-fore?”

—Ron Cole, sophomore

“We should be able to go into any dorm as we please. I’m 21 years old; I don’t need to be treated like a child.”

—Kyle Erwin, sophomore.

“Not everyone has to participate in open dorms, but if they don’t happen, then no one can. Giving people more op-portunities to participate is a much bet-ter alternative to reducing or eliminating that opportunity.”

—Brian Troyer, sophomore

“Make it less like a prison visit.”

—Jeffrey O’Field, senior

“I feel like Glide-Crawford has so many open dorms because they’re all boy-crazy...”

—Taylor Dekker, freshman

For answers to the crossword puzzle check out our website

www.asburycollegian.com

Features 5The Asbury Collegian | November 4, 2010

Contact Features Editors Anna Leon and Ciara LeRoy at anna.leon@asbury.edu and ciara.leroy@asbury.edu

“One dollar entrance fee or get in free with a costume” was the story I’d heard about this al-leged “Halloween Rock Concert,” so I was con-cerned as my roommate Julia Hudson and I headed down the streets of down-town Wilmore in our ci-vilian clothes. However, there was no need to fear. As we walked through the Art Studio doors where the concert was to take place, the only costume we saw was some guy in a poncho; for the record, I still don’t know if he was in costume or not.

As I looked around, I took in the extreme Bohe-mian theme of the room. This was my first time in the Art Studio, so I gazed at the painted floors, art-strewn walls and vari-ous gadgets with morbid fascination. Everything screamed “artsy,” from the small bicycle wheel that spun whenever the door opened to a painting of an American Indian warrior with a fist going through his gaping mouth straight out the back of his skull.

The guy who was col-lecting people’s money as they entered (who was also a member of the band “Absalom Absalom”) was sitting at a desk that had

pedals attached, like a desk-bicycle hybrid, and he pedaled away as if in the midst of a relaxing workout session. I tear-fully parted with my $1 bill into a Styrofoam cup, which I later realized read “Bluegrass Family Health” on the side. This was quite an operation they had go-ing here—a high-end Bohe-mian operation.

The concert was sup-posed to begin at five o’clock; however, due to some technical delays, the concert began closer to 6:30. Julia and I had mean-while gone to Subway, so by the time we returned, swinging our six inches of deliciousness beside us, more people had shown up in costume. I looked around in satisfaction to find a Robin Hood, a milk maid/Pippi Longstockings crossbreed (I’m not posi-tive which she was), a Ge-ico Gecko, a vampire com-plete with red contacts and a long leather jacket, two ninjas, a Hawaiian girl, an Alaskan Explorer (this is another debatable cos-tume. It could have simply been that Sam Kim was wearing a big furry parka and his khaki wilderness expedition hat for kicks) and last but certainly not least, a girl with green hair, a pink, skull-covered onesie and a Spiderman sports bag. How these

three things correlated, I do not know. However, she looked hilarious in all her flannel glory.

People continued to stream in through the front door, and soon I was struggling to breathe properly, as a result of the oppressive crowd and the overwhelming smell of the incense they were burning. Just when I was thinking the concert would never begin, the vampire men-tioned earlier grabbed a mike and announced they were going to get started. Thus, the struggle began, with us all bunched into a single mass and craning our necks in futility to see all the band members at once.

The vampire (whose name was Faith Diamond) was the lead singer of “The Satellite Giants,” who happened to be the first band of the night. She proceeded to introduce all the band members, saying that the bass player had a “Ph.D. in funk” and ex-pressing the dedication of the electric guitarist, who was to play the whole con-cert with a broken thumb. I looked over to find him hunched over his guitar with his pin-straight hair streaming over his eyes, and I thought I was looking at the back of his head. A colossal bandage the size of a cucumber protruded

where his thumb should have been, and I wondered how he’d make it through the whole thing without bursting into violent tears. My eyes travelled to the right and realized the pon-cho-wearer I’d seen earlier was actually the keyboard-ist.

As the music started, I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. The key-board added a unique, slightly-retro sound, which sounded incredible in their cover of “Electric Feel.” During the song, which was originally by MGMT, people all around me were hopping up and down and screaming the lyrics (or muttering random vow-els when the words were lost to them) with gusto. They also played the song “Gideon” and dedicated it (apparently “as always”) to Gideon Maki, a guitarist in the band “Absalom Absa-lom.”

As they head-banged their way through several songs, some original and some not, I looked around to see the ill-lit room puls-ing with energy. I put my hand to my stomach and realized that the vibra-tions were reverberating through my entire body. As the band concluded, one guy close to me com-mented, “Man, that was some serious rock.”

“Absalom Absalom”

went next, and the lead singer said after their first song that if anyone need-ed to use the bathroom, they were welcome to walk through the “stage” (really the back corner of the room) where they were playing, go up the back stairs and use the graf-fiti-splattered bathroom at any point during their performance. So during the next couple songs, as the members of the band closed their eyes, played the xylophone, popped a squat on the floor (it’s true) and swayed in aban-don to the music they were playing, various specta-tors guiltily wove through the band, dodging guitars and swaying bodies, and sprinted up the stairs to the bathroom.

At this point during the concert, Hezekiah Crocker, who felt the need to dress up after arriving at the con-cert, ran all the way back to his room to glue a beard to his face. “I was Samuel L. Jackson from Pulp Fic-tion,” he said. “Me and my mutton chops were jam-min’ out to the miraculous musical melodies of [the] maestros’ masterpieces.”

A small bouncy ball also emerged at some point, which floated periodically through the crowd. How-ever, as always, there was one section that refused to participate, and the bounc-

ing always stopped in their pessimistic section, like a fun-sucking black hole. “Absalom Absalom” played all-original songs and were selling their t-shirts and CDs at a table near the back. All of their album covers were home-made because of printing costs, so each case was unique and had a different picture on it.

The final artist that performed was not a full-fledged band, but rather a DJ named Justin Bausher, who sat on top of a lad-der “so he could see [us] dance.” He played several original techno songs over the speaker while mem-bers of the crowd dis-played their dancing (or in some cases, awkward con-vulsing) abilities. I left be-fore he finished; however, people were still content-edly swaying to the deep pulsing when I exited.

All in all, it was a terrif-ic evening where residents of Wilmore were able to display their true talents and colors while jacked up on Halloween candy and adrenaline. Everyone left happy but exhausted from all the spasms that involuntarily escaped their bodies in response to the intense rock. And oh, in case you were wondering, the electric guitarist with the broken thumb didn’t cry—not a single tear.

By Rebecca PriceContributing Writer

Wilmore bands rock Halloween

Nearly every one of us kids who grew up loving books—everything from Dr. Seuss to C.S. Lewis to Edgar Allan Poe—eventu-ally hit some temporary point in our young lives when we felt we had read everything worth reading. When I entered this phase during the eighth grade, my mother pulled an old musty book off of the shelf and handed it to me; on the cover there was the small black-and-white por-trait of a solemn-looking man smoking a pipe and sporting a strange sort of plaid cap with ear flaps. Thus many of us were at some point introduced to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective Sherlock Holmes.

Upon learning that Warner Bros. planned to release a film in December of 2009 about the stalwart sleuth of legend, I and doubtless many other Hol-mes fans were intrigued. We flocked to theaters to see what had become of the famous private eye, and ergo you are reading about the result.

Guy Ritchie’s adapta-tion of underground inves-tigations and astonishing intellect was nothing if not entertaining. Supported by an extremely unique score (courtesy of Hans Zimmer, the legendary composer of The Lion King, Gladi-ator, Pearl Harbor and many other stellar works), this film provided a com-

plex mental maze for its audience to purposefully lose themselves in. But as much as I would like to praise this film for what it did right, I’m afraid it also deserves just as much criticism for what it got wrong.

The search for original-ity in the 21st century has provided impressive inno-vation on this well-known subject, particularly when it came to exposing the brilliant mind behind the legendary exposure of various criminal acts. Any-body who has been at all exposed to the escapades of Sherlock Holmes will be delighted to know this film diminishes none of his al-most supernatural smarts; in fact, the audience is of-ten given enjoyable peeks inside the daring detec-tive’s head. However, as much as we are shown inside of Sherlock’s mind, we are also withheld from it. Much of the informa-tion that he uses to solve the case is never told to the audience until he is in the act of utilizing that information. By the end of the film, I felt quite gipped by not having a fair chance to try to solve the mystery myself. Doubtless I would have failed miserably, but I will note that even an incarnation of Holmes himself sitting in the the-atre probably would have been frustrated with the inconsistent information divulged throughout the plot.

Also, as I watched the

film digress, I found my-self noticing the telltale signs of unnecessary com-puter animation dancing across the screen in front of me. People, animals, sometimes entire sets were almost definitely digital, and rather than en-joying it, I was saddened by it. The very form and substance of the city of London was lost in a sea of digitalization before me and was plunged into a world of surrealism so deep that I found myself neither compelled nor desiring to believe in the escapades unfolding be-fore me. If the street that Holmes was running down was obviously not real, then why should I believe that he was? And if he did not appear to be real, then why watch?

And another thing: the

city itself. Rather than appearing as the factory-filled, industrial London of the early twentieth centu-ry (the setting established by Sir Doyle), Guy Ritchie pulled Holmes back in time by three or four decades to the very beginning the Industrial Revolution. I’m unsure as to why he did it, but the result was a story somewhat disconnected from the other Holmes enigmas.

Another factor also served to separate this film from the others pre-ceding it: the mystery it-self. Rather than being a mere battle of wits and fists like the previous rid-dles offered by Sir Doyle, the plot of this movie was based more on medieval paganism. Forgive me for asking, but since when does Sherlock Holmes in-

vestigate cases having to do with masochism and conflict of religions? What happened to the good old days of “whodunnit,” in-stead of “howhedunnit”?

But I won’t be complete-ly cynical; other elements missing from earlier mov-ies featuring Holmes (who also happens to hold the Guinness World Record for “most portrayed movie character”) have been re-vived as well. Until 2002, Sherlock’s impressive repertoire of martial arts skills and habitual sub-stance abuse—his “only vice” according to Dr. Watson—were largely sup-pressed or pushed to the background. In this 2009 adaptation, Guy Ritchie embraces the idea of an athletic intellectual alco-holic and produces a Hol-mes that is perhaps closer to the original than even some of us readers might have guessed. Everyone’s favorite charismatic ge-nius is drugged, engaged in fisticuffs, intoxicated, dueling, sloshed, boxing, tipsy, thrashed or just plain wasted for almost half of the movie—a role that seemed somewhat fitting for Robert Downey Jr., if you ask me. The ac-tor portrayed the manner-isms and pizzazz of Sher-lock Holmes better than I expected he would and perhaps better than many other thespians. However, there was one unsettling thing about Downey that I simply could not escape throughout the entire du-

ration of the film: his ap-pearance.

I’m sure most of us would agree that great acting doesn’t depend on somebody’s appearance, but I will be perfectly frank: he did not look like Holmes. Jude Law may not have resembled Watson when he was originally cast for the role, but at least he grew a mustache and somewhat attempted to take on the weighty role. And that’s part of act-ing, isn’t it: resembling the character? Robert Downey Jr., on the other hand, kept his frazzled hair and his dilapidated beard and, in essence, did nothing to look like the heroic Hol-mes of legend. In fact, if he and Watson had been given different names, the connection between this film and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s driven detective would have been much more blurred—almost nonexistent, in fact.

All in all, the film was mildly enjoyable. Witty in-tellect and intriguing com-bat do well to keep the au-dience interested, and I’m sure that the absence of a certain infamous plaid hunting cap was, for some people, a bit of a relief. But looking back on the entire film, I find myself wishing that Holmes had kept that charming little hat. At least then I would have been able to remember who he was supposed to be.

By Rica WiersemaStaff Writer

Solving the mystery of “Holmes”

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Marie-Claire Dejarnett | Collegian Photo

Marie-Claire Dejarnett | Collegian Photo Meredith Knowlton | Collegian Photo

Ian McAfee | Collegian Graphic

Asbury students and kids alike donned their best costumes Tuesday, October 26 for the

“Kandyland” trick-or-treat event at Kresge Dorm.

Top left: Neighborhood children play a game at Kresge Kandyland.

Bottom left: Sophomore Andrea Jones hands out candy to young trick-or-treaters from the community.

Far right: from left to right Elizabeth Moore, Samantha Pillar, Carlyn Rayburn and Catherine Flowers pose in their Halloween costumes.

Features6 The Asbury Collegian | November 4, 2010

Contact Features Editors Anna Leon or Ciara LeRoy at anna.leon@asbury.edu or ciara.leroy@asbury.edu

A flick of the wrist and the die drops to the table with a stutter. The anxious onlookers crowd around the table where the roll-er’s fate lies on one of its twenty sides. The roller sighs, relieved; the wrong number was rolled, and he is freed from any obli-gation to lick the floor or pay everyone in the room five dollars. Meanwhile, the crowd gathers around the next participant, bar-gaining for what the next dare will be.

This game of chance has recently swept across campus, bringing students together for the thrill of uncertainty and the ex-citement of potentially seeing friends perform crazy tasks. The dice game originated on Johnson Sec-ond East, the “Wolfpack,” with Mark Laufenburger’s

100-sided die, but soon they had 20-sided dice, according to sophomore Zachary Bennett. With one guy selling these dice for only one dollar, the game quickly expanded, and dice game veterans contin-ued to creatively contrive new dares.

Playing the dice game is fairly simple. One person suggests a dare, such as having to camp out over-night in Johnson’s park-ing lot, If a certain number or numbers are rolled, for this example let’s use two and 10, and if the other person accepts this chal-lenge, he then rolls the die. If he rolls anything other than a two or 10, he does not have to do anything, but if he gets one of those numbers, things get inter-esting. The person must do whatever he agreed to or face the consequences. What are the consequenc-es? “The consequence is,” Bennett said, “if you agree

then you roll it and you re-fuse to do it, you owe ev-eryone that is present five dollars.” This is rather ef-

fective in keeping people from backing out of their dare. Even with a potential reward if the person backs

out, Bennett’s favorite part of the dice game is that feeling when the correct number is rolled for some-one to do something. “It’s an unparalleled feeling, and it’s hilarious whenev-er it happens,” he said.

The dares vary in in-tensity and entertainment value, but they almost al-ways make for good sto-ries. Bennett had to shave his armpits and yell in chapel—“Yes, that was me,” he admitted. “It’s a really dangerous game,” said sophomore Becca Richards, who had to get a henna tattoo on her face.

Bennett has more chal-lenges still to complete because of the dice game. At the end of No-Shave No-vember, he and two other guys will shave everything but a circle of hair on each side of their faces for three days. He also has to sit next to the road for four hours with a sign that says “Will Work for Nachos.”

“I can leave early if some-one brings me nachos,” he said.

However, none of these challenges are quite as strange as the man who swallowed a die. (I don’t know why he swallowed a die, perhaps he’ll fly?) Greg Weinberger, a senior, had difficulty swallowing a 20-sided die in the cafete-ria, but he succeeded, add-ing that he has not seen the die since that day.

Stunts like these make many people feel hesitant about this game. “Don’t play the dice game,” sophomore Dylan Schatko warned from across the cafeteria. Even Bennett admitted to understand-ing why some dislike the game, but this won’t keep him and his friends from rolling the die. “I’m not go-ing to give it up. It’s just too much fun,” he said.

Raw fish takes me to my happy place, so a few friends and I celebrated my eighteenth birthday by eating sushi at a local res-taurant, the Nagasaki Inn on Redding Road in Lex-ington.

When you first arrive at the Nagasaki Inn, you might share my original impression. “This place is in a renovated strip-mall—sketchy!” However, don’t be fooled by the restaurant’s humble ex-terior; within this seem-ingly sub-average edifice lies a veritable Shangri-la. Enter, and you will see a masterful fusion of contemporary industrial and classic Asian design. Along the high ceiling, red arbors zigzag among uber-modern pendant lights. The flooring is dark wood and multi-leveled, creating unique dining alcoves; the booths are light pine lit by traditional-style lanterns; and classic Japanese art pieces, such as stylized images of court geishas, are everywhere.

Despite the restaurant’s impressive interior, I was still concerned because I couldn’t see the sushi bar. I always prefer to watch the chef prepare the sushi so that I know the fish has been properly stored and handled. Squinting at the menu in the dim ambience, I moved so my friend Re-becca Landry could return to her seat. “Dude, this place is legit,” she said. She related how, on the far side of the restaurant, she had seen dining rooms with traditional low tables. But what about the food? I stopped frowning at the menu long enough to see two obviously Japanese dinner parties enter the restaurant. Instantly, I lost my fear of food poisoning; they wouldn’t eat here if the fish was bad.

If you’ve ever eaten at a sketchy sushi bar, then you know the true impor-tance of proper refrigera-tion. Thus, I do not recom-mend that you order sushi at the mall food court or in between a Laundromat and your friendly neigh-borhood Kroger. It’s just a bad idea. Either the fish is still frozen and you end up eating a tuna-popsicle, or even worse, the fish is too warm and you get a lovely case of food poisoning.

Yet, these digestive ca-lamities are entirely avoid-able; you just have to re-search. Personally, a good Asian restaurant may be discerned by the review words courteous, friendly

and clean; such buzzwords typically indicate that the restaurant owners and their employees take pride in their work. Moreover, a true sushi chef considers his food to be artwork. He treats every roll as a mas-terpiece, carefully select-ing the freshest fish, the stickiest rice and the most striking arrangements.

Sushi is art, and art can be expensive. It’s easy to get carried away and order $50, but sushi is filling. At most, you might be able to eat $20 worth. Plus, your dorm refrigerator wasn’t designed to store edible raw fish; therefore, if you get a doggy bag, you need to eat the leftovers within 24 hours, just to be safe.

Not sure what to order? Ask the waiter. A good waiter like Ronny Lee of the Nagasaki Inn will ask the sushi chef to make sug-gestions and will provide his own preferences. He will also know the cardinal rule of new sushi eaters—start safe. If you’re new to sushi, try simple rolls such as the Philadelphia Roll (my and Ronny’s fa-vorite), which consists of smoothly flavored salmon, cool avocado and cream cheese wrapped in sticky rice with a dusting of ses-ame seeds. Whatever you do, don’t start out with the more extreme dishes like uri, or sea urchin.

But what if you want to try more than two types of sushi? What if you want to be adventurous yet eat something safe? Try get-ting together a group of your more exploratory friends and order all dif-ferent kinds. That’s what we did.

Soon you’ll learn that each roll is different, from aesthetic design to subtle flavor nuances. For exam-ple, I was a little concerned when my R.A. Stockton Brown ordered the Kim-chee Roll. In case you don’t know, kim-chee is Korean fermented cabbage, like sauerkraut except smelli-er. I still have nightmares about the odor wafting up from my grandmother’s basement freezer—the one she kept specifically for reeking cabbage and other unmentionables. I asked Stockton if she was nervous. “Not in the least,” she said.

Then the waiter brought her order. It looked fairly normal, but I was still wor-ried. What if she hated it? Would she be turned off from sushi forever?

Imagine my surprise when her eyes lit up and she said, “That’s delicious! It’s delicious! Here, try it!” I squinted at her. (On a

high school trip to Spain, my chaperones tricked me into eating pickled pig’s ear; I’ve distrusted author-ity figures ever since.) I de-cided to risk it; after all, I could get her back later.

Thankfully, the sushi was delicious. The addi-tion of the kim-chee lent the roll a unique sharp-

ness of flavor, neither spicy or sour, simply tasty. However, if rotten cabbage isn’t adventurous enough for you, you can order the Fire Dragon Roll “BBQ eel, cucumber, avocado with fish roe, spicy tuna, scal-lion and spicy sweet soy sauce on top.”

The Fire Dragon Roll

was my new adventure for the evening. I tried not to think about the way live eels look as I bit into the roll. To my surprise, it tasted like chicken, no joke. It tasted like barbe-cued chicken with a fish-like consistency. Scarlett Toney, seated to my left, compared it to alligator meat. Once again, I tried not to over-think it.

Maybe that’s the key—don’t over-think your or-der. Courtney Harris, who had never liked sushi in the past, decided to go ahead and order the Las Vegas Roll, “Spicy cooked salmon, cream cheese, avocado, deep fried in tempura batter with spicy sauce on top.” She loved it! Ironically, the spicy sauce on top tasted vaguely rem-iniscent of Big Mac sauce; it’s still one of my favorite rolls, though, mostly be-cause the smooth richness of the avocado and cream cheese complements the crunchy spiciness of the outer shell. (This cooked

roll also dispels the west-ern myth that all sushi is raw fish; in fact, it’s deep-fried sushi.)

Finally, if you’re not big on eel, salmon or tuna, you can order a super-mild roll, such as the California Roll—avocado and cooked crab meat wrapped in rice. Surprisingly, this simple little roll has a uniquely fresh flavor, a freshness rooted solely in its sim-plicity. It’s especially good with a little wasabi on top, but be careful! Most people can’t stand more than a tiny bit of the spicy green stuff.

If you’re looking for a classy restaurant for a date or even a place to eat with some friends, a sushi bar is the way to go, and the Nagasaki Inn is flying first class. Oh, and if you don’t want to pay as much, go during lunch and get one of the chef’s specials—de-licious and cheap.

By Courtney LeMaySenior Features Writer

A good day to [roll the] die

By Emily HowleContributing Writer

Japanese restaurant reels in authentic sushi flavor

Tyler Hoff | Collegian Photo

Several Asbury students have fallen prey to the dice game craze and have had to carry out bizarre dares.

Rebecca Landry | Collegian Photo

The Nagasaki Inn serves a variety of sushi choices, from the safe to the spicy.

Pumpkins fly into history

John Payne | Collegian Photo

John Payne| Collegian Photo John Payne| Collegian Photo Tyler Hoff | Collegian Photo

Saturday evening, Trustees Third East, bet-ter known as Third Nerd or N3rd, made history as their annual pumpkin trebuchet launch earned a spot on the official home-coming schedule for the first time.

Left: Alum James Guth-rie, Junior Matias Von Bell and Junior Alex Caldwell arm the trebuchet while alum Lee Clements docu-ments the proceedings. Below Left: N3rds con-gregate around the trebu-chet. Below middle: The sun casts long shadows as the trebuchet lets go of its payload. Below: A pump-kin turns its face towards the audience as N3rds watch flying missles.

A candid look at the game of chance sweeping across the campus

Sports 7Contact Sports Editor Susannah Bretz at susannah.bretz@asbury.edu

Men’s basketball off to rough startBy William Houp

Contributing Writer

Men’s Soccer

Asbury University 2Cincinnati Christian University 1

Asbury University 0Covenant College 1

Asbury University 0Campbellsville University 1

Asbury University 1Georgetown College 1 (2OT)

Women’s Soccer

Asbury University 6Midway College 0

Asbury University 10Berea College 0

Asbury University 3Cincinnati Christian University 1

Asbury University 2Campbellsville University 1

Men’s Basketball

Asbury University 52Tennessee Wesleyan College 94

Women’s Tennis

Asbury University 9Alice Lloyd College 0

Asbury University 9Campbellsville University 0

Asbury University 9Indiana University East 0

Asbury University 6Midway College 3

Asbury University 0Indiana University Southeast 5

Women’s Basketball

Asbury University 51Bethel University (Tenn.) 69

Asbury University 50Freed-Hardeman 74

Asbury University 36University of the Cumberlands 78

Women’s Volleyball

Asbury University 3Indiana University Southeast 1

Asbury University 3University of the Cumberlands 1

Asbury University 3Indiana University East 2

Asbury University 3Pikeville College 0

The women’s basket-ball team suffered their second loss of the season Oct 30, 74-50, to nation-ally ranked number nine, NAIA division I, Freed-Hardeman. Although the Eagles compete in NAIA division II, this was the Eagles second game on the road against a nation-ally ranked NAIA division I school in two days.

The Eagles were down by nine at halftime and were able to rally together during the second half to get within five points. Ac-cording to freshman Sa-mantha Burr, who added five points for the team, they were unable to pull out a win due to loss of momentum.

Junior Lakin Griffith led the team with 22 points and 13 rebounds as the Eagles kept the rebound-ing match close at 39-34, Freed-Hardeman. Griffith said, “I believe we played pretty good for our second game. We played a higher division team and really stuck with it and didn’t get blown away.”

For the second straight game, turnovers have hurt Asbury the most with 26 on Saturday. The Eagles have had 47 turnovers in two games. Asbury shot 40 percent from the floor while holding Freed-Har-deman at 44 percent. The

Eagles shot six of 14 at the free-throw line.

Laura Carroll, a sopho-more point guard, scored the second most points for Asbury at 12. Asbury collected five assists as a team, and Carroll had two of them. “I think I speak for everyone on the team when I say we left the game proud of our ef-fort,” Carroll said. Carroll went on to say that their best aspects as a team Saturday were their effort, rebounding and defense; however; there were times where they struggled with keeping their composure. Nonetheless, Carroll and Griffith both agreed that the team chemistry is continuing to improve. “We are all like a family,” Griffith said.

Although the women’s basketball team was hand-ed their second defeat on Saturday, Head Coach Bart Flener had nothing but positive remarks about the women’s performanc-es. “Our team showed a lot of grit and determina-tion, as we competed very well. I know that our team got better this weekend,” Flener said.

The Eagles’s next game is Nov. 5 against Western Carolina. After seven away games, the team will host their first home game against St. Catharine Col-lege on Nov. 22.

The men’s basketball team traveled to Athens, Tenn. on Oct. 30 for their sea-son tip-off against the Tennessee Wes-leyan College Bulldogs. The Eagles played hard, but they struggled, entering half-time down 49-25. In the second half, the Eagles’ rally came up short, and the Bull-dogs won 94-52. This is the fifth straight year that the Eagles have lost their season opener.

Coach Will Shouse said, “We didn’t shoot well. Mentally, we need to realize that we can’t shoot well in every game, and we have to work around that,” he said. “We knew them [Tennessee Wes-leyan College] well. They did exactly what we expected, but they do have some post players that we were not used to.” The Eagles scored 25 points, making 22.2 percent of their shots on eight-for-36 shooting in the first half. They improved in the second half when their percentage increased to 31.3 percent, hitting 10 of their 32 shots. “Our missed shots carried over to both ends of the floor,” Shouse said. “We panicked when we got down,

and instead of being poised and trying to fight back, we tried to hit all the big shots.”

The Bulldogs shot 62.5 percent in the first half, but when the Eagles’ defense toughened, the Bulldogs’ shooting per-centage fell to 48.1 in the second half. Commenting on the defense, Shouse said, “We have to guard the post better. We were trying to deny the post, so we could stay out of foul trouble,” he said. “But their shots were falling. They were 30 for 45 in the post. We did do a good job stopping them on the perimeter.” The Bulldogs shot a dismal 12.5 percent from the three-point line in the first half, which carried into the second half, the Bulldogs shooting only 33.3 percent. The Eagles shot 26.7 percent from the three-point line in the first half and 38.5 percent in the second half. Senior Phillip Morrison said, “We were forcing shots. We started off on a bad foot, and it turned into a snowball effect. They played aggressive, and we didn’t have our composure,” he said. “[The Bulldogs] were excited for their first game, and they were eager for the home crowd.” Morrison led the team with nine points on two-of-nine shooting.

He was also tied for the most three-point-ers with two shots.

Sophomore Adam Delph said, “We weren’t patient. Everything we did wrong they capitalized on. And the little things added up, like screening hard and transi-tion defense.”

Shouse said that he substituted in a

lot of players to develop the depth on the team. The Eagles’ bench scored 21 points in the game. “We need to come out pre-pared to play,” he said. “We need to be ready coming off the bench and not after playing for three or four minutes. This resulted in more mental mistakes than a lack of effort.” The Eagles only turned the ball over 15 times, and they forced the Bulldogs to turn it over 17 times. Se-

nior Jamal Morris led the team with four steals, and five other players had one or more steals.

“I am trying to take this game for what it’s worth,” Shouse said. “The game was on the road, and our team has some players who have not played away yet.” He also said that the team was anxious. “There were some first game jitters. We are better than we played on Saturday.”

Asbury travels to Spring Arbor, Mich. on Nov. 5 for the Jamieson-Allen Tip-Off Tournament. Four teams are invited, and Asbury plays against the Madonna University Crusaders. Shouse said, “I am more worried about our playing than our opponents. We have to take the emphasis off of them and apply it to us, so we can get in the habit of doing what we need to do,” he said. “This upcoming game is a test to see where we are.”

Morrison said, “We are looking to re-deem ourselves this weekend and make some adjustments. We need to do what we know we can do,” he said. “It is the beginning of the season, and team chem-istry takes time to build.”

By Brittany HowardContributing Writer

Women’s basketball

drops second straight

The Asbury Collegian | November 4, 2010

Volleyball team gains experience from alumni

“It is the beginning of the season, and team chemistry

takes time to build.”

Phillip Morrison, senior guard

AThLETic SchEDuLENovember 4 - November 11

Women’s Basketball

Nov. 6 @ Tennessee Wesleyan College

Nov. 11 @ Kentucky Christian University

Men & Women’s Swimming & Diving

Nov. 6 @ Lindsey Wilson

Men’s Soccer

Nov. 5 & 6 KIAC Tournament

@ Asbury University

Women’s Soccer

Nov. 5 & 6 KIAC Tournament

@ Berea College

Women’s Volley-ball

Nov. 4 vs. Berea College

Men’s Basketball

Nov. 5 @ Madonna University

Nov. 6 @ Jamieson-Allen Tip-off Tourna-

ment

Men & Women’s Cross Country

Nov. 6. KIAC Cham-pionships @ Asbury

University

ScORE uPDATEOctober 20 - November 2

Rebecca Baker | Collegian Photo

Junior Dena Busse and senior Lauren Budde block a spike from Asbury volleyball alumi in the match on Saturday.

Senior Kat Barennes digs a serve in the Eagle’s match. Junior Natalie Young spikes the ball against assistant coach alumnus Tina Marye.

Rebecca Baker | Collegian PhotoRebecca Baker | Collegian Photo

Sports 8The Asbury Collegian | November 4, 2010Contact Sports Editor Susannah Bretz at susannah.bretz@asbury.edu

By Susannah BretzSports Editor

Homecoming game ends in tieEmotions ran high as As-

bury’s men’s soccer team (3-9-4) battled hard in their homecom-ing game against Georgetown (3-13-1) on Saturday, which ended with a 1-1 tie after two overtime periods. This is the Eagles’ fifth tie and the most they have had in school history.

The first period remained scoreless, despite nine shots from Asbury and three by Georgetown as both teams fought aggressively for posses-sion of the ball. The game’s first goal was made in the 50th min-ute as Georgetown player Aldo Torres beat Asbury keeper Dy-lan Fouts with a strike. Ten min-utes later, sophomore Jonathan Rehner scored Asbury’s goal with an assist from senior Evan Duszynski, bringing the Eagles to a tie with the Tigers. When neither team had managed to score again by the end of the 90 minutes, the game went into two overtime periods. The Eagles cre-ated great opportunities during overtime as they took six shots compared to Georgetown’s one. When neither team was able to make another goal, the game ended in a tie—the Eagle’s fifth tie of the season.

“You could tell this was a very emotional game with home-coming, senior night and last game of the regular season,” Coach Ben Andrews said in an email interview. “The mental focus wasn’t completely there, and with our schedule, we can’t afford to not be one hundred percent focused.”

“We possessed the ball well, which is what we’ve been work-ing on all season,” junior Adam Hicks said. “I was really glad that the fans got to see that and not just us kicking the ball around. I was expecting for us to win this game since it was senior night and everyone was out there to play for our seniors and give it everything we had. We did, but we just couldn’t finish every chance, and in that game, that was what it would take to win,” Hicks said.

“We came out flat in the first half and didn’t get over that, but we finished well,” Duszyn-

ski said. “We got down 1-0 and came back. I felt like we should have won as a team, but we just got unlucky. Even though we’ve struggled at times this year, ef-fort is never an issue.”

“Although we gave up a weak goal, we fought back in the sec-ond half and started to follow our game plan,” Andrews said. “We started to create chances and became more dangerous. Unfortunately, the score doesn’t care who dominates the shot chart, just how many you ac-tually finish, and for us, it was only one.”

The Eagles did dominate the shot chart, taking 28 shots to Georgetown’s eight, 12 corner kicks to Georgetown’s three and 18 fouls to Georgetown’s 21. As-bury keeper Fouts had a total of three saves and allowed one goal, compared to Georgetown’s four saves and one allowed goal.

“This team possesses many strengths … [and] the strength that was shown on Saturday night was resilience,” Andrews said. “I thought the guys en-dured a tough game that chal-lenged them physically, men-tally and spiritually. Physically, they never gave up. They kept

knocking at the door; unfortu-nately, we just could never put the game away.”

“My expectations for this season were high even though I knew we had a very tough sched-ule,” Duszynski said. “My expec-tations remain high. We come into every game knowing that we’re capable of winning. That’s obvious because we’ve won some interesting games and lost some interesting games. I really thought we could win this game. The work ethic is not the issue. If anything, it’s a lack of focus rather than lack of effort.”

“My God, my team, myself” has been the motto for the Eagles this season, which is “something that’s really difficult to accom-plish,” Duszynski said. “This is difficult because at the end of the day, as soccer players, we’re all battling for positions on the field—and all trying to serve each other and God.”

Living out this motto has “been hard since we all come from different backgrounds,” Hicks explained. Hicks has al-ready noticed that “we’ve grown together by having our coach and each of us demand more out of each other—and by putting God

and our teammates first before ourselves. In past years, it hasn’t been as much of a team as it was smaller groups; this year we’re gelling as a team. I think that will help us in the tournament.”

“Coach Andrews is a young coach, but he’s also a great coach—one of the best I’ve ever had. He really knows the game,” Hicks said. “By Andrews’s set-ting this vision for the program, we do not want to be seen just as a soccer team, but as a group of Christian athletes doing things for God’s good.”

“It’s really easy to get wrapped up in the tough-guy shenanigans in sports today,” Andrews said. “This year though, I’ve really challenged the team to be dif-ferent and to take pride in that difference.”

“As a whole, the team is more dynamic this season than it has been in the past,” Hicks said. “We all have a lot of differ-ent styles, and our coach has put us where our style works best for the team. In the past, I don’t feel that each person’s strengths were used to the best of their abilities, but now we’re really shining through.”

“The team’s dynamics are

quite a bit different this season than they have been in previous years,” Duszynski said. “There’s a lot more continuity between the upper and lower classmen. We’ve done things off the field that we haven’t in the past, like soccer camps and service pro-grams. On the field, we’ve fo-cused more on playing games and having fun than on tactics, which makes soccer a lot more enjoyable for us.”

“I feel like it’s a brand new team this season,” senior Nick Kerhoulas said. “We’re playing differently this year, and the team is onboard with this new style of playing. It’s a fresh start, even though the record does not show it. Coach Andrews is doing great things for Asbury’s soccer program. I’m excited to see how the team will improve over the next few years—because I know they’re going to.”

“Before the season started, we set challenging goals,” An-drews explained. “I knew that talent we had on the team and that our potential was huge. I also knew that we play one of the toughest schedules around, and it was going to take a mis-take-free season to reach those goals. With my team, I always ex-pect to win. We are good enough to have beaten any team on our schedule. The same was the ex-pectation going into Saturday night and will be the same going into the KIAC tournament. With that said, never do we expect to just show up and get the win. It’s a 90 minute effort (and for five times this season, a 100+ minute effort). Our best level has to be present this weekend in order to win.”

The Eagles will host the 2010 KIAC Men’s Soccer Tournament on Friday, Nov. 5 and Saturday, Nov. 6 at 7 pm. Cincinnati Chris-tian and Mountain state play in the first semi-final at 5 p.m. on Friday, while Asbury will play the winner of the Brescia and Be-rea match at 7:30 p.m. Come out and bring your enthusiasm for your fellow students and sup-port our Eagles as they compete in the KIAC Tournament.

Women soar in final home game

Zach Welch, Jonathan Rehner and Trent Popp celebrate Rehner’s goal in Saturday’s homecoming game against Georgetown.

Tyler Hoff | Collegian Photo

It took a while for the action to start in Satur-day’s women’s soccer game, but at the end, the Eagles trumped the Camp-bellsville Tigers 2-1.

The first half ended with little action from ei-ther side; with the score tied at 0, there was great pressure to get the game moving. And the Eagles re-sponded. Within minutes of the second half start-ing, sophomore Rebecca Batey scored, bringing the fans to their feet.

Asbury scored a sec-ond time with fewer than 20 minutes remaining in the game. After an at-tempt was blocked, fresh-man Andrea Hasik picked up the ball and scored. This was Hasik’s first goal of the season and for As-bury.

A little over a minute later, Campbellsville re-sponded with its own goal past senior Bethany Rus-sell who was only in goal because typical keeper, Maegan Rogers, had sus-tained a head injury in the previous game. Despite not playing her typical po-sition, Russell managed to prevent any more goals from being scored, though the Tigers pushed several times in the last few min-utes.

According to sopho-more Aly Crawford, there was a clear division in how the game played out from the player’s side. “Our de-fense played more in the first half and our offense more the second,” Craw-ford said. This difference is what caused the scor-ing to occur later on in the game.

The Eagles took 16 shots compared to Camp-bellsville’s nine, two corner

kicks to Campbellsville’s seven and six fouls to Campbellsville’s six. As-bury had a total of four saves with one goal al-lowed compared to Camp-bellsville’s eight saves and two goals allowed.

While this game was a

major part of the home-coming festivities, that status was not the real motivator for the team to succeed. “It was more be-cause it was senior night than homecoming that we wanted to win, Crawford said.

This game was of great importance, especially for the seniors. “It’s your last home game and that means you want to win,” Russell said.

But being part of home-coming really added pub-licity and fans to the game.

“We had more people at that game than the whole season combined,” sopho-more Katie Wilson said. It was really great to see sup-port from the students—“usually it’s just Lower Glide that’s out there.”

The Eagles play next in

the KIAC Tournament on Nov. 5 and 6 at Berea Col-lege.

Asbury’s seniors embrace after being honored with flowers at the end of the homecoming game against Campbellsville.

Rebecca Baker| Collegian Photo

Sophomore Kara Selle heads the ball in Saturday’s game. Asbury won the game over the Tigers, 2-1.

Sophomore Aly Crawford defends the ball in Saturday’s game.Maddi Ury | Collegian Photo Rebecca Baker | Collegian Photo

By Leah GirardManaging Editor