Abilene Citizen of the Year award goes to Money President Money receives honor from Chamber of Commerce for service, page 8

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

October 17, 2007

WEDNESDAY

Vol. 96, No. 15

1 section, 10 pageswww.acuoptimist.com

THE

Pledges no moreSub T pledges admitted to club without probational period, become full members, page 5

Still kickingAfter splitting conference games over the weekend, the Wildcats still have playoff hopes, page 10

OPTIMIST

By Val ValleOnline editOr

PovertyLink hosted “Venture into India,” an event where Indian cuisine was served, and two fea-tured guests spoke about bring-ing relief to poverty in India.

Linda Engle, founder of Eter-nal Threads, and alumnus Zack Robinson shared their experienc-es with the group about the two different organizations they are a part of, which strive to provide relief to families in India that are impoverished.

Engle began the non-profit organization Eternal Threads in

2000 to bring relief to women and their families in southern India who typically live on $1 a day.

Around 200 women from In-dian villages use their crocheting skills to create totes made of col-orful nylon twine.

After completion of the totes, they are purchased directly from the women, and the women are able to use the proceeds as a means of income to help them purchase such things as water buffalo for milk, food and medicine.

Another portion of the pro-ceeds is used to educate girls in the villages. Engle said that of-tentimes it is the females in the

families who do not get to school because there is no money to send them or to purchase books.

Not only do the totes serve as a way for women to receive an in-come to help their families and fund their education, but Engle said it also has the effect of reduc-ing the social injustices in India such as child labor, prostitution and sex trafficking of women and children. This is because insuffi-cient incomes and debt oftentimes lead to these circumstances.

Engle said customers are “buy-ing hope for women” when they purchase a tote.

Like Engle, Robinson has spent

time helping the people in India through a different organization.

Last summer, Robinson worked for a Christian Micro-Credit institution, Society for Micro Economy Development Ac-tivities, SoFMEDA.

According to its Web site, SoFMEDA began in 1994 in re-sponse the wide-spread poverty of northeast India.

SoFMEDA disperses loans pri-marily to women, who usually use the money for their families. These loans give women the opportunity

PovertyLink offers chance to ‘Venture into India’

By Mallory EdensPage 2 editOr

The Campus Store now car-ries HeartBeat T-shirts, a new line of Fair Trade fashion. The Campus Store held a Grand Opening event Tuesday for the clothing line. As of 5 p.m., 14 shirts had been sold.

The main idea behind the HeartBeat clothing line was to offer students an option to spend their money on some-thing that will go toward a good cause, said Scott Harsh, assistant director of the Cam-pus Store. More specifically, according to the HeartBeat Facebook group, HeartBeat exists to “empower ordinary people with the opportuni-ty to purchase high-quality clothing products that ben-efit their neighbors through-out the world in three ways: equitable compensation for the laborers of the product, providing for the business that markets the product and providing for the global poor through the product.”

HeartBeat T-shirts are Fair Trade Products, which means no one was taken advantage of during production of the product, Harsh said. Accord-ing to the Facebook group, a surge of outsourced labor among major clothing com-panies has caused an increase in poor living conditions for outsourced workers. This practice has contributed to a third of the world living in extreme poverty.

Many times, the purchases people make only contribute to increasing the wealth of the wealthy and the poverty of the impoverished, which has caused “an economic di-vide where just a few people have anything they want in seven different colors, and some people can’t even af-ford to feed their families but once a day.”

With the slogan, “Give a Beat,” the HeartBeat cloth-ing line at ACU will be used

Heartbeat launches T-shirt line

By Laura AcuffStudent rePOrter

Christian speaker, author and theologian Ron Sider spoke Monday night at Chapel on the Hill about so-lutions to poverty in America, advo-cating faith-based programs in part-nership with government to address both the spiritual and material needs of the economically disadvantaged.

“I think it’s true, my friends, that Biblical Christians have an extraor-dinary opportunity to lead the way,” Sider said. “The secular leaders are almost begging us, in fact, to do this. We’ve got a historic opportunity to lead the way that I don’t think we’ve had in many decades.”

Sider’s plan includes the devel-opment of additional, more specific

ministries and improved public poli-cies on the part of the government, in conjunction with various mon-etary rewards for working steadily and responsibly.

“I think that most Americans agree that people who are able to work have a moral obligation to work, and, if they do, work responsibly,” Sider said. “You can be as born again as you want, but if you can’t get a job that pays a family wage, and if the schools don’t work for your kids be-cause you’re black or Latino, you’ve still got big problems.”

Animal and environmental science professor Dr. James Cooke appreci-ated Sider’s proactive stance.

“I’ve heard him speak before, and I’ve read his book, and I think he’s right on target,” Cooke said. “The

Christian response should be much greater than it is. It’s a Biblical man-date. I think we need people like him to come and encourage us to be the best we can be and to make a differ-ence. He is influential, and we need to think about these things. We kind of get complacent and content with our lifestyle, and we don’t see that we can really do anything, but the fact of the matter is that we can.”

Though Meghan Clark, freshman political science major from Olney, agreed that faith-based rehabilitation and charity programs have an impor-tant place in American society, she disagreed with Sider’s recommended close partnership between govern-ment and faith-based organizations.

“I didn’t agree with a lot of his views,” Clark said. “I thought they

were overly idealistic, and I very firm-ly believe in the separation of church and state — that the government should never interfere with church policy or church programs and, on the other hand, that religion should not try to infiltrate the government. I think [faith-based programs] are great, and they’re definitely doing a great service in America and across the world. I just think that when the government begins to give you mon-ey or support, then you become ac-countable to the government to some extent, and if you really want to make this a faith-based initiative, then you want churches to be in control of it, not the government.”

ACU gets dose of Sider at Chapel on the Hill

By Laura TouchetteStudent rePOrter

A long-standing fundrais-ing tradition for Frater Soda-lis will not be happening this year because of conflicts with land.

The Frats’ haunted house

has been a fundraiser for the men’s social club since the 1980s and has always been a highly anticipated event by the members. But this year, the haunted house will not be taking place.

“The land where we had the haunted house last year

is now under new ownership, and the owner feels like hav-ing a haunted house there conflicts with this ministry he wants to use the land for,” said Luke Jackson, senior management major from Fryeburg, Maine.

The owner plans to use the

land for a children’s ministry and feels like a haunted house on the same land is contradic-tory to his mission, Jackson said. They had a verbal com-mitment from the owner, but last week he felt like it was not the best way to promote the children’s ministry he

wanted to use the land for. “I’m disappointed, like a

lot of the guys are, because we were all looking forward to doing it,” Jackson said.

“We are pretty sure we are not having it because we have not found a location,” Bran-don Monroe, senior youth and

family ministry major from Arlington, said. “And with it being two weeks away there is just too much to do.”

Frats say they have been looking around Abilene for different locations to have

Without land, Frats left to cancel haunted house

katie GaGer CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER

Linda Engle, president of Eternal Threads, spoke Thursday night at PovertyLink on her experiences.

todd Piersall STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Ron Sider, author and President of Evangelicals for Social Action, spoke about the role of the church and government in the fight against poverty Monday night in Chapel on the Hill.

See HOUSE page 7

See SIDER page 7

See LINK page 7

See BEAT page 7

5:15 p.m.The Students Association will host an open forum in Hart Auditorium. Attendees are encouraged to bring a friend to this forum.

7 p.m.The Call will meet in the Library Auditorium for a time of worship and praise.

8 a.m.A Prayer Walk will take place, start-ing at “The Cross” trailhead near Sewell Theatre on the Lunsford Trail.

9:30 a.m.The Homecoming parade will trav-el the perimeter of campus.

10:45 a.m.Homecoming Chapel will take place in Moody Coliseum. The an-nual pre-game party, which will be-gin at noon, will follow Chapel in the campus mall area.

2 p.m.The Homecoming football game will take place at Shotwell Stadium. The Wildcats will face the West Texas A&M Buffaloes. Half-time festivities will feature the Big Purple Band and the crowning of this year’s Homecoming Queen.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

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

Groups may send announcements directly to optimist@acu.edu or to the Page 2 Editor at mxe06a@acu.edu.

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

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

About This Page

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Announcements

19 Friday17Wednesday 18 Thursday 20 Saturday

Interest meetings for WorldWide Witness summer internships will be Thursday at 4 p.m. and Friday at 3 p.m. in the Onstead-Packer Biblical Studies Building, RM 130. All majors may attend.

Jennifer McGregor, interior de-sign alumna, will host several speak-ing events on the ACU campus Thurs-day. McGregor, marketing director for Holabird and Root, a prominent architectural firm in Chicago, along with company principal Jim Miller, will make presentations on sustainable ini-tiatives. More information on this event will be available soon.

The annual Homecoming mu-sical, AIDA, will be performed at the Abilene Civic Center Friday and Sat-urday. This year’s musical, AIDA, fea-tures the music and lyrics of Tim Rice and Elton John. Tickets and show times for AIDA are available online.

Notice to Students and Faculty: Thanksgiving holidays officially be-gin at 8 a.m. on Nov. 21, rather than on Nov. 20, as has been reported in the student planner that is sold at the Campus Store. This means that all Tuesday classes, including evening classes, will meet that day.

The Medical Clinic will host a flu

vaccination clinic Nov. 1 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Campus Center Living Room. The shot costs $25, and it can be charged to a student account or paid in cash or check. Flu shots are also currently available on a daily walk-in basis in the Medical Clinic. For more information, contact Kathy Stokes at (325) 674-2625.

The Shore Art Gallery will host the Biennial Faculty Show until Oct. 25. The exhibition features new works by ACU faculty in the Department of Art and Design. Admission is free, and the gallery is open to the public Mon.-Fri. from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

CreditedChapelsto date:

CreditedChapelsremaining:

Chapel Checkup3432

Volunteer OpportunitiesHelp is needed at the Home-

coming carnival on Friday from 6:15-8:15 p.m. in the campus mall area. E-mail jama.cadle@alumni.acu.edu or call (325) 674-2627 for more information.

Help is needed with Home-coming Reunion childcare on Saturday from 5:15-9:15 p.m. with Rainbow Bible School. E-mail jama.cadle@alumni.acu.edu or call (325) 674-2627 for more information.

Abilene elementary schools need volunteers to read with children on a weekly basis. Time slots are available for a variety of days. For more information, go to the Volunteer Service-Learning Center downstairs in the Cam-pus Center by the Bean Sprout.

Ushers are needed for the Homecoming Musical Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Ushers will get to see the musical for free at the Abilene Civic Cen-ter, and volunteers will need to commit to being on time.

Abilene Habitat for Humanity needs volunteers for the annual Steamboat Challenge on Oct. 27 from 6:15 a.m.-2 p.m. This event includes a half-mara-thon road race and 35 and 60 mile bike races. Volunteers will serve refreshments, monitor the

finish line and do other related jobs. All proceeds benefit Habi-tat for Humanity.

Volunteers are needed to conduct interviews with as-signed families in various neigh-borhoods throughout Abilene. ACU students may receive up to five Chapel credits for com-pleting a one-hour training and interviews if they do not already have a Faith in Action exemp-tion. Training must be complet-ed by Oct. 19. For more infor-mation or to participate in these interviews, contact the Volunteer Service-Learning Center down-stairs in the Campus Center by the Bean Sprout.

Mall-O-Ween needs volun-teers. Abilene Habitat for Hu-manity will host their annual Mall-O-Ween on Oct. 31 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at the Mall of Abilene. Help is needed with games, booths, giving out can-dy, taking donations and having a good time with the kids who will be stopping by.

The G.V. Daniels Recreation Center needs help Oct. 31 from 5:30-9 p.m. Volunteers will help with game booths and will hand out candy. For more information, contact Justin Whiteley or Tanya Brown at (325) 676-6443.

6:30 p.m.The annual Gutenberg Dinner will take place in the Teague Spe-cial Events Center to honor distin-guished alumni in the field of jour-nalism and mass communication. This year’s recipients include Pa-mela Ham (’85), anchor and reporter for KWES in Midland; Greg Staley (’92), communications manager for the Travel Industry Association in Washington, D.C.; and Steve Wen Ho Lin (’86), president and CEO for Greater China for the Grey Global Group in Hong Kong.

4:30 p.m.The Homecoming carnival will take place until 8 p.m. in the campus mall area. Wristbands for rides are $3 each, or $2 if purchased between 4:30-5 p.m. The carnival, which features food, music and fun for all ages, is free and open to the public.

4:30 p.m.The 22nd annual Chemistry Circus will feature fire, ice, explosions and colored smoke. The Chemistry Circus is put on by the ACU Chemistry Club and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Admission is free.

7 p.m.Jam Fest, a battle of the bands competition featuring current and former ACU students, will take place on the lawn behind the Zona Luce Building. This event is free.

In the article, “Dance party pro-motes generosity,” which ran in the Oct. 5 issue of The Optimist, MSP Productions was incorrect-ly labeled “Maple Street Produc-tion.” The acronym, MSP, actu-ally stands for “Madison Street Posse.” The article also incor-rectly attributed the dance party to solely playing “eurotech” music, but it actually played all styles of music. Lastly, TOMS Shoes donates internationally, not just to Argentina as stated in the article. The Optimist apolo-gizes for these errors.

Corrections

Wednesday, October 17, 2007 Page 3CAMPUS NEWS

By Sara SnelsonArts Editor

Faculty and staff are be-ing given the opportunity to experience a getaway and practice solitude, silence and prayer.

Suzanne Allmon, director of human resources, and Da-vid Wray, associate dean of spiritual life and co-curricu-lar of the college of Biblical studies have put together a program that gives faculty and staff some time to get away to “renew and re-cen-ter on God,” Allmon said.

This initiative is called StillPointe. Its mission is “to strengthen, encourage, nur-ture and validate individual faculty and staff members in their journeys to find and fulfill their God-given call-ing. Come to the Quiet. An-swer God’s call.”

The retreats explore what it means to move from soli-tude to community to min-istry, and help faculty dis-cover their own strengths and how to use them.

Faculty and staff who have shown an interest in going on a retreat are invit-ed to attend. About 12-20 attend each retreat.

“We keep the groups small for discussion and interac-tion to make more space for God,” Allmon said.

There are three retreats each year. By the end of this year, it is estimated that about 60-80 faculty and staff will have gone on a retreat at some point.

“There is an equal mix of men and women and facul-ty and staff,” Allmon said. “You get to learn from oth-ers on the retreat and expe-rience meeting faculty and staff that you may have not known before this retreat.”

The retreats last Friday through Saturday and are spent discussing solitude, silence and prayer. Then participants will go out and practice on their own.

“We need to take care of our eternal matters. It is easy for us to get caught up in this fast pace life. This slows them down and gives everyone a time of self care, renewal and Sabbath,” Wray said.

Wray facilitates the con-

versations at the retreats and keeps the discussion, ideas and experiences flow-ing among faculty and staff. But most of the time is spent practicing the spiritual disci-plines and getting back one-on-one time with God.

“This is a time to stop and pay attention to God. As long as there is noise, we know we are alive, but when it is quiet it is about us and God and our eternal mat-ters,” Wray said.

Allmon said, “We have received extremely positive feedback from those who have attended. It provided rest and tools to learn and practice spiritual disciplines in everyday lives.”

The retreats are held to help faculty and staff find and fulfill their God-given calling. That needs to start with spiritual discipline, Allmon said.

Faculty retreat renews, refreshes

By Sharon RapeljestAff WritEr

ACU students can make a difference in the lives of refu-gees, slaves, poor people and workers through the Social Jus-tice Coalition.

The coalition, comprised of about eight organizations including ACU for the Interna-tional Rescue Committee, Pover-tyLink and International Justice Mission, will host Social Justice Week from Oct. 29 - Nov. 2.

Each day, organizations will set up booths in the Campus Center after Chapel to inform and recruit students to a cause.

Brandon Smith, senior inter-national relations major from Kansas City, Kan. and president of IJM, said the third Social Jus-tice Week stands out from past ones because of the numerous groups and students involved.

“It’s a perfect opportunity for students to get involved because there all of these dif-ferent groups at one place at

one time, so the students can look at the organizations and compare and decide which or-ganization makes best use of their gifts,” said Rebecca Mal-colm, senior international stud-ies major from Houston and communications officer of ACU for the IRC.

While learning about the or-ganizations, students can buy bracelets and purses.

Abby Trejo, junior biology major from Ulysses, Kan. and secretary of IJM, said the orga-

nization will sell hope bracelets for $1. The money will go to IJM headquarters in Washington D.C. to fund the prosecution of slave and brothel owners and provide care for victims. IJM will also collect change through its “Loose Change to Loosen Chains” campaign.

Cristina Del Pinal, senior business management ma-jor from Fort Worth, said PovertyLink will sell Eternal Threads purses, which are hand woven by Indian women

who use the profits to fund their children’s education.

Students can also give to Steven’s Children by entering the volleyball tournament on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. The cost is $120 for teams of six to 10 people, and the money will go to help the poor in Egypt.

The deadline to sign up is next Friday. To register, stu-dents can contact Abby Barnes at aeb05j@acu.edu or Amanda Crawford at alc06g@acu.edu.

Students can learn further in-formation about each organiza-tion at the Social Justices’ small group Chapel in Hart Auditori-um every Thursday. ACU for the IRC will speak on Nov. 25.

Anyone interested in Pover-tyLink can attend its African-themed meeting in Room 117 of the Onstead-Packer Building for Biblical studies on Nov. 29, at 8 a.m.

Student organization serves people globally

By Grant AbstonstudEnt rEportEr

Campus Conversations, the new format for Tuesday Cha-pel, aims to engage students on a variety of topics. Some-times these subjects cause dif-ferences of opinion, as was the case in Common Grounds.

Common Grounds explores the issue of racism, looking to find common ground on ethnic and cultural diversity. Pleasing students is not its main goal, rather making students aware of the issues involving racism.

“Common Grounds is in-tended to make us aware that we have issues that need reconciliation on all fronts,” Jeanene Reese, associate pro-fessor of the Department of Missions and Ministry and fa-cilitator of Common Grounds said. “We want to look at what in these critical issues draw us together and tear us apart as Christians.”

After several forums, Com-mon Grounds had involved students through discussion

but also presented them with different ideas. However, one such forum created controver-sy among students.

After showing a clip dealing with immigration, students reacted negatively, prompting discussion and even leading to an apology at the following Common Grounds. This reac-tion was opposite of the fa-cilitators goal, bringing people together on different issues involving racism.

“The goal was how can we as Christians frame our re-sponse to immigration,” Reese said. “We wanted to look at issues of race, in-ternationally, nationally, re-gionally and on campus. We wanted to be able to discuss these matters openly and without prejudice.”

Students had mixed emo-tions about the skit, while many were confused as to why it was shown and the purpose it served.

“I believe the main goal was to discuss equality, and it was another way to get people to

discuss racial differences on campus,” Chris Ballard, se-nior exercise science major from Plano said. “It was a good idea but did not go as they planned.”

In response to what happened, leaders of Com-mon Grounds have already made changes for the next time around.

“We have met with students through e-mail, Facebook, and office visits,” Reese said. “There is no attempt to sweep this issue under the carpet. I don’t want students who have different opinions to be hurt for expressing them.”

With changes being made such as moving to 100 stu-dents with a more intimate setting, leaders hope Com-mon Grounds can accom-plish what it was created to do — involve students in discussing the issues of eth-nic and cultural diversity.

Opinions collide over racial discussion

Katie GaGer CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER

James Rhea, senior English and philosophy major from St. Louis, Mo., helps attach siding to a house for Habitat for Humanity during Service Saturday.

Service on the side

E-mail Rapelje at: optimist@acu.edu

E-mail Snelson at: sas04b@acu.edu

E-mail Abston at: optimist@acu.edu

“We keep the groups small for discussion and interaction to make more space for God.”

Suzanne allmon, director of human resources

Page 4 Wednesday, October 17, 2007CAMPUS NEWS

By Katie HowertonStudent RepoRteR

The Honors Student Associ-ation conducted its first Deep Dish Philosophy of the year last Thursday.

Haley Dilling, junior market-ing major from Vero Beach, Fla. said Deep Dish is an open-fo-rum time of discussion with a specific theme facilitated by a guest speaker.

“It’s just a fun thing to do to build community and hope-fully edify each other through discussing different things,” Dilling said.

Each forum consists of one or two faculty or staff mem-

bers initiating the discussion; last week’s speakers were Cole Bennett, assistant professor of English and Scott Self, of Alpha Academic Services. Thursday’s discussion topic was “Spiritu-ality in Secular Music” and was co-organized by HSA members Dilling and Cynthia Michaud, junior children’s ministry and missions major from Abilene. Dilling said during the time they listened to different genres of music and discussed the Chris-tian meanings in them.

“[The Deep Dish Philoso-phy] gives students an oppor-tunity to come and examine and evaluate things they don’t think about on a regular basis,”

Michaud said. Although it is hosted by stu-

dents in the Honors Program, the program is available to all students, faculty and staff. It lasts from an hour to an hour and a half. Pizza is provided at every meeting, giving it the name Deep Dish. Because there is no hierarchy system in HSA, each discussion is completely organized by stu-dent volunteers.

Deep Dish Philosophy has been taking place for almost two years now, and HSA in-tends to host one per month for the rest of the semester.

Deep Dish serves up dialogue

By Luke SimsStudent RepoRteR

For most people, go-ing through the airport or through customs can be a trying ordeal. But for Matt and Akane Thaxton, it be-came a nightmare.

This summer, Thaxton, a senior marketing major from Abilene and his wife, a 2006 graduate from Ibara-ki, Japan, were going on a trip to Alaska with Thax-ton’s family. They drove up through Canada and then tried to cross the Canadian border into Alaska. At that point, they were stopped by customs officials who informed them that Akane couldn’t legally re-enter the United States.

Thaxton said although he is not 100 percent sure, he

thinks the problem was that his wife had an expired visa. While Matt’s family contin-ued onward to a cruise, Matt and Akane had to wait in Vancouver for a week.

Upon his family’s return, they again tried to re-enter the United States, but the U.S. Customs denied them entry after finding out they were married. “They treated her inhuman,” Thaxton said. “It was horrible. The worst experience of my life.”

Akane was forced to re-turn to Japan on June 2, a day before their one-year anniversary.

Matt left for Japan and spent the rest of the sum-mer with his wife, then came back for another year of school. Now, he is trying everything to get his wife returned to him.

Right now they are wait-ing on her new visa and going through mountains of paperwork, he said.

“We are trying to get her visa meeting expedited, to get her home as soon as possible, Thaxon said. “She could possibly be home in November, or if worse comes to worse, May.”

Matt is talking with the office of Randy Neugebauer, whom he described as “in-credibly helpful.”

With the support and prayers of friends and fami-ly, Matt remains optimistic.

“We are talking to con-gress, we’ve hired an im-migration attorney, we are doing everything we can,” he said.

Couple grapples with customs

By Laura TouchetteStudent RepoRteR

“This I Believe” is a project of National Public Radio that KACU adopted for ACU and the Abilene area to allow ACU students to show the town what they believe.

Started by Dr. Kyle Dick-son, assistant professor of English, with the help of Dr. Cole Bennett, assistant pro-fessor of English and the di-rector of The Writing Center, the “This I Believe” series works to teach the genre of writing on a personal level. Students taking Composition and Rhetoric, English 111, may have a teacher who as-signs “This I Believe” essays for class.

The essays are then re-vised, usually by The Writing Center and submitted. The best are chosen, and the stu-dent records their essay for KACU and for podcasts on iTunesU. The Writing Center also encourages submissions from people in the Abilene

community who are interest-ed in writing an essay. One or two people from the commu-nity have participated.

According to The “This I Believe” Web site, the series was started in 1951 by jour-nalist and radio show host Edward J. Murrow. The “This I Believe” show he hosted in-vited any American, from any walk of life, to write a short essay and submit it to the ra-dio station. The only require-ment was that the essay state what the person believed and what the person believed as strong cores and values in their own life.

Murrow was quoted on the Web site as saying the main idea of the radio show was “to point to the com-mon meeting grounds of be-liefs, which is the essence of brotherhood and the floor of our civilization.”

Jay Allison, the series host, and Dan Gediman, the series producer, brought the series back. The series now airs on NPR radio and is produced by

NPR, the Atlanta Public Radio, and This I Believe Inc.

Zach Hill, sophomore pre-med major from Carmel, Ind., wrote an essay for Dr. Chris Willerton, professor of Eng-lish, in the spring of 2007. The essay titled “A Father’s Love” is about the distance between a father and son, Hill said.

“The story was required for my Honors English class, but it turned into some-thing I really enjoyed,” Hill said. “At that point, second semester freshman year, I realized that my relation-ship with my dad was very important to me... it’s very important to me because I have a father and a good father. It made me realize how blessed I am to have a father like him.”

The series runs Fridays on KACU and also are avail-able on iTunes U.

Essays prompt faith sharing

By Chandler HarrisStudent RepoRteR

The Department of Chemis-try and Biochemistry will con-duct its 21st annual Chemistry Circus this Friday at 6:30 p.m. in Walling Lecture hall.

Dr. Brian Cavitt, assistant professor of chemistry, heads up this year’s circus.

“Our purpose for the circus is to provide a little entertain-ment value, while teaching oth-ers about chemistry,” Cavitt said. “The target audience for the circus is fourth and fifth graders, but all are welcome to attend. We will be talking on a level that all can understand and learn from,” Cavitt said.

The entire circus is student-produced, Cavitt said.

Laura Sanders, senior bio-chemistry major from Flower Mound, has participated in the circus for the past five years.

“We work with fire, explo-sions, water and all sorts of stuff,” Sanders said. “We really like to play with fire though.”

Sanders estimated that about 25 students participate, and most work on the experi-ments, but some run sound and audio-visual as well.

“It’s fun because we get to do experiments we wouldn’t normally get to do,” Sanders said. “We get to teach others about chemistry and share what knowledge we have on the subject. Basically, we get to share our love of chemistry,” Sanders said.

Chase Lindsay, sophomore biochemistry major from Houston, said he enjoys the atmosphere and principles of the circus each year.

“It’s a great way to get el-ementary students involved in chemistry. Not only do they have fun, but also they learn,” Lindsay said. “It’s also just a great way to raise aware-ness about chemistry and to peak the kids interests about our field.”

Kim Pamplin, associate pro-fessor and chair of the chem-istry and biochemistry depart-

ment, has been involved with the circus in past years.

“Some of the favorite exper-iments in the past have been exploding hydrogen balloons, putting gummy bears in test tubes full of molten salt, which creates a bolt of fire coming out of the tube and the flam-ing jack-o’-lantern of doom,” Pamplin said.

Pamplin said the audi-ence is usually made of about 150 people, and be-cause it is Homecoming weekend, some alumni who have participated bring their families and children to experience the circus.

Various schools from around the community of-fer extra credit to students who attend. “The circus is free of charge and kid-friendly,” Pamplin said.

Anyone with questions can contact the department at x2176 or Brian Cavitt at x2159.

Chemistry Circus awes, educates

Brian Schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Brian Escochea, junior electronic media major from San Antonio, works with James Bell, keeper 1 at the Abilene Zoo, to clean out the pool in the panther cage for Service Saturday.

A clean sweep

E-mail Touchette at: optimist@acu.edu

E-mail Howerton at: optimist@acu.edu E-mail Harris at: optimist@acu.edu

E-mail Sims at: optimist@acu.edu

Wednesday, October 17, 2007 Page 5CAMPUS NEWS

By Katherine PattonStudent RepoRteR

Sub T-16 pledges were inducted into the club early this year after the first phase ended and before the second phase could begin.

The second phase didn’t fit the way that Sub T pledges, members say, so finishing early was part of the plan. In two weeks, the pledges went through a four –to-five week process.

There are 17 active mem-bers in Sub T and 20 pledg-es, with no de-pledges.

A lot of changes were made to pledging this year, and Skipper Jacob Smith said the Sub T mind set is more acceptable to change.

Smith, a graduate ac-counting student from Abilene, said through Bid Night and throughout pledg-ing he felt like he was re-liv-ing the pledging experience. The men’s club returned to

campus this year after the university suspended the group in 2005 for hazing.

The changes in the pledg-ing rules this year didn’t make anything easier or

harder, just different, Smith said.

All the traditional things are still done the same way, such as the Gob, or pledge’s, mobile float and Grub, Smith said.

Jon Dulaney, junior ac-counting and finance major from Haskell and a new mem-ber of Sub T, said that one of his favorite parts was getting to know his brothers. He said that the community is a huge part of club, and he feels that Sub T does it better than any other club.

Dulaney said he most en-joyed painting the “kill sign,” a Sub T tradition, as well as working on the grub skit.

And members are enjoy-

ing their early entrance to the pledge as other club pledges continue the process.

“It means a lot to them when they’re in club and everyone else is still pledg-ing,” Smith said. “The night they got in was just awe-some. They were surprised they got in.”

Smith said he felt that Sub T was really back.

Sub T-16 inducts members early, bypasses second pledging phase

By Denton JoseyFeatuReS editoR

The Outdoor Club stayed indoors last weekend when the group went climbing at Abilene High School.

Alex Wann, sophomore environmental science ma-jor from Torrington, Wyo., coordinated the event. The vice president of events for the group, Wann also facili-tated the instruction.

The climbing wall was only about 10 feet tall but extended across the gym more than 75 feet. Wann said the group practiced lateral movement because it was a “bouldering/ traverse wall.”

About 20 ACU students showed up, as well as half the Outdoor Club members, and everyone raised their

hand when asked if they had at least some prior climbing experience, Wann said.

Wann spent the past summer as an instructor for an outdoor wilderness ministry and on Saturday, he used the same sequence he taught over the sum-mer. They started with what the basic gear was, how it worked and how to use it.

“We went there and half of it was a clinic and the other half was just hang out and climb,” Wann said.

Andrea Shivers, senior biology major from Keller,

is a member of the Outdoor Club who went because she wanted to know more about rock climbing.

“I’d like to rock climb, but I want to learn more about it,” Shivers said.

Shivers said the day helped. “They teach stuff you can

do on your own and it’s re-ally thorough,” she said. “And you get to do hands-on stuff.”

The main reason for put-ting it on, Wann said, was to do “something fun and to provide an opportunity for people of all skill levels to

get involved with the out-doors and the club because we’re about community.”

Wann also said the skills they learned will be useful on the next event the Out-door Club is hosting.

Over Fall Break, Oct. 26-28, the Outdoor Club will be camping at Camp Eagle on the Nueces River. Camp-ers can go kayaking, hiking, mountain biking, canoeing, rock climbing, rappelling and swimming.

All students are welcome and it costs $25 per person. Those interested should contact the Outdoor Club by Oct. 23. For more informa-tion, go to www.acuoutdoor-club.org.

Outdoor Club climbs, plans camping

By Kimberly PratherStudent RepoRteR

The English Department celebrated its finished stu-dent commons, the Inkwell, with the English tradition high tea and a few words of dedication on Friday.

Now, students can enjoy a relaxing environment with the opening of the Inkwell in Chambers Hall. Also on Fridays, The Inkwell invites English majors to enjoy each other’s company and conver-sation in the afternoon, ac-companied by a cup of tea.

“The Inkwell is a place for English majors to hang out, talk about classes and build community,” said Bill Rankin, professor of English.

The space was obtained a year ago and is now com-pletely finished with comput-ers, couches and decorations.

“The room had been in process, nearly finished for a while, but we finally finished putting up our sign and deco-rations,” Rankin said.

Among the decorations is a Chinese proverb on the wall.

“With the proverb ‘Words

are but air; the pen leaves a mark,’ the idea is talk is cheap, and we want our students to stand by their principles and commit by putting it in writ-ing,” Rankin said.

At the high tea and grand opening on Friday, English majors, faculty, adminis-trators and the Women for Abilene Christian University attended. WACU has made significant donations to the Inkwell, and at the grand opening, the WACU represen-tatives were introduced.

“Our hope is that faculty,

along with English majors, will come together on an in-formal basis and talk about ideas,” Rankin said.

The department says The Inkwell does not have an agenda. Instead, the hope is to build a culture of informal academic discussion and talk about current events. The Ink-well represents student com-munity, and many students have already settled in.

“We have been using this room since the beginning of the semester,” said Heather Brown, English graduate stu-

dent from Victoria. “We are in here hanging out; it’s comfort-able and it feels like ours.”

The Inkwell serves tea ev-ery Friday afternoon, and

English majors and non-ma-jors alike are welcome to stop by for a cup.

English department unveils student commons with cup of tea

matt newhouser STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Beca Clifton, freshman undeclared major from Orlando, traverses the wall at the Outdoor Club’s “Rock Your Face Off” event on Saturday.

E-mail Patton at: optimist@acu.edu

E-mail Prather at: optimist@acu.edu

E-mail Josey at: jdj03e@acu.edu

“[The Outdoor Club] teaches you stuff you can do on your own, and it’s really thorough. And you

get to do hands-on stuff.”

andrea shivers, senior biology major from Keller

“It means a lot to them, when they’re in club and everyone else is still pledging. The night they got in was just awesome — they were

surprised they got in.”

Jacob smith, sub t-16 skipper

ViewswednesdayOptimistPage 6 October 17, 2007

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The problem:A release of letters about Mother Teresa’s confessions of spiritual darkness triggered an attack against her.

Our view:Her perseverance and story are truly admirable, and we believe her story, though flawed, will allow others to see they aren’t alone in their struggles.

The solution:Christians, even Mother Teresa, aren’t perfect. But we can find our strength through being with others that share our weaknesses.

Mother Teresa’s struggles produce interesting debate Mother Teresa’s a fraud. At least that’s what some would like to call her. After the release of letters marked with telling confessions about her spiritual

darkness, the media quickly and without reserve declared this discovery as a bless-ing. Others, on the opposite side of the spectrum, saw a scam finally exposed.

In Daylight Atheism, a Web blog devoted to expressing atheistic views, users unabashedly posted comments proclaiming Mother Teresa as a liar, someone who “needlessly made others suffer” and an atheist.

But articles on major news sites present a stark difference in at-titude concerning Mother Teresa’s doubt and faith struggles. ABC News portrays her as the “patron saint of skeptics.” U.S. News & World Report describes her struggle as “truly exemplary.”

What to make of her — a saint or a fraud? The fact that she stuck with her faith throughout her

50-year drought proves her perseverance, passion and de-votion to a cause.

What would happen if more evangelicals in the lime-light and followers of Christ openly expressed their struggles with Christianity and unleashed the doubts and questions that are kept so tightly concealed?

If highly esteemed Christians told the public the truth and provided a healthy aspect of deal-ing with doubts and questions that plague self-de-clared believers, the disclosures just may bring light into a person’s “dark night.”

James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author of the New York Times opinion article “A Saint’s Dark Night,” tagged it as minister-ing to the “doubting modern world.” And ministering to this doubt-ing world with honesty of expression — struggles and all — draws in those who are already doubting and second-guessing the existence of God.

People find companionship in numbers. Who would not feel more comforted knowing they are not alone in their struggles?

Fraud or not, Mother Teresa’s darkness will cause some to discover the light. And although bringing light to your struggles may run the risk of de-terring some from devoting themselves to Christ, it should be made known that doubts and struggles are part of the Christian walk. Not all things are

pleasing when following Christ. In fact it just outright stinks sometimes — but it never lets you down.

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

I’m not what you would call a “God person.”

I don’t go to church, I rarely pray, I don’t read the Bible and I fre-quent the n o s e b l e e d section of Moody Coli-seum during Chapel.

But de-spite that s p i r i t u a l

synopsis, a recent encoun-ter I had in Washington D.C. pushed me to question my position on God.

While at a conference in the District, I met a home-less man who shined shoes in front of one of the city’s most glamorous hotels.

With a smile on his face and a rag in his hand, he sought business from well-dressed pedestrians pass-ing by.

And more times than others, he was ignored.

Despite being ignored,

he looked content and was not offended by uninterest-ed people passing by or the cab drivers mocking him in front of the hotel; he was just there to do his job.

The first time I spotted the shoe-shiner he was out-side of a restaurant blocks away from the White House — he worked the mornings and afternoons at the hotel and nights at the restaurant frequented by D.C.’s richest.

After introducing my-self, he lost interest when he looked at my feet and saw my street shoes; there was no money to be made from me.

I promised a shoe-shine rain check, and little did I know when I cashed it, much more than a street-side shoe-shine was in store.

The shoe-shiner was in his usual spot on my last

day in D.C., and luckily, I was equipped with the two ingredients needed for ser-vice: dress shoes and $4.

As he buffed and wiped my brown hand-me-down dress shoes the conversa-tion turned from his 27 years of experience shoe-shining on the streets to my experience in D.C.

So I told my story of a summer spent working at Street Sense, a non-prof-it newspaper that covers homelessness in D.C.

And that’s when it happened. For a moment time

froze, the cars on the street stopped moving and the homeless shoe shiner dropped his rag, rose his head and looked straight into my eyes.

He became a theologian. “There’s a reason people

do good things like that,” he said as he glared into

my soul. “And that reason in a higher power, that’s the only place good things like that come from.”

Shocked by the sudden shift of conversation and eerie look in his eyes, I nod-ded my head like a scared child and handed him the $4 in my pocket.

Walking away, a combina-tion of confusion and shock consumed my thoughts.

Had the spiritual rhetoric come from any other source, I would have brushed it off.

But I couldn’t ignore the message of the shoe shiner.

Maybe it was serious eyes or the hurt in his face, but something got through.

I’m not saying I’m ready to lead singing in chapel, but this had to be some kind of a sign, a sign that requires some thought.

Hopefully one day I’ll fig-ure out what happened, but until then it’s the nosebleed section of Moody for me.

D.C. shoe-shine leads to theology lesson

OpinionShouterDanielJohnson

E-mail Johnson at: djj04a@acu.edu, optimist@acu.edu

Last week I saw a friend for the first time in almost a

month. We joked

around, told some stories, d i s c u s s e d the weather (it was warm) and then we ment ioned how rarely we see each other.

I told him I would come visit

sometime soon. He said OK, and we

walked away. I started planning a day

to visit while walking to my car in the old Big Purple parking lot.

I ruled out Monday because it is the first day of the week, and I always look forward to catching up with friends in my section.

Tuesdays and Thursdays

are both out. There’s no per-sonal reason; Moody sim-ply doesn’t host big Chapel those days.

The only options left are Wednesday and Friday.

I would choose Wednes-day to visit, that is, if class or departmental Chapel didn’t take place.

However, if I stray then, it means I’ll go from Monday to Friday without seeing my regular Chapel friends.

Come to think of it, I should relive old times and find my roommate for a Chapel.

But when will I do that?Despite Wayne Barnard’s

best intentions and efforts, many are left displeased with the current Chapel situation.

News just in: the sky is blue on clear days.

The new Chapel changes excited me, and I supported

the changes whenever the topic presented itself.

But now, while I still like the Campus Conversations and changes put in place, I miss the community and com-fort of Chapel in Moody.

I understand why changes were made and the process behind it all and still support it. But like government taxes, a solution will not soon please everyone involved.

Students complained when Moody hosted Chapel ev-eryday. Now, there are com-plaints and Facebook groups wanting old Chapel to return.

Students gripe about how confused they are by the changes and different things to keep up with, but Barnard cannot e-mail students about Chapel. The best way to find Chapel news is on myACU un-der the “Spiritual” tab.

Like a fast-food menu, students want every option when it comes to spiritual-ity. Unfortunately, the Cha-pel office can’t as easily of-

fer those options the same as McDonald’s.

I miss the community and routine of regular, Moody Chapel, but know if it re-turned to last year’s schedule, the campus would miss the conversations in the smaller group Chapels this semester.

Like peace in the Middle East, there may never be a win-win, everyone-goes-home-happy solution to Cha-pel. But the effort put in by the university to explore so-lutions lets students know they are trying.

Until then, I’ll enjoy Cha-pel as is, wherever it is. I just may not see a few friends very often.

Moody not getting its fill of Chapel

Fields ofDreamsJaredFields

I’m not saying I’m ready to lead singing in chapel, but this had to be some kind of a sign, a sign that

requires some thought.

Like a fast-food menu, students want every option when it comes to spirituality.

E-mail Fields at: jrf03b@acu.edu, optimist@acu.edu

Thursdays I spend most of the day in the library and always check out one of the laptops and head up to the Stanley Theological Read-ing Room.

This last time when I asked for a mouse and power cord, I was informed that those items are no lon-ger being checked out be-cause “people keep steal-ing them.”

I felt irritated on a shal-low level at first because I hate the small touch-pads on most laptops.

But then I began to feel a deeper sense of anger, frus-tration and shame.

I am a graduate student with a family and can not afford a laptop right now, so I enjoy the convenience of checking one out at the library.

I am also an alumnus of ACU (class of ‘99) and have a respect for and pride in this institution.

The changes that have been made in the library since I was an undergrad are amazing.

At the risk of sounding like an old man, I wonder if younger students realize the extent of the improve-ments to the library.

No one can tell me I am being moralistic about a gray area.

Stealing for personal gain is immoral and a sin. ‘Don’t steal’ was one of the first laws God instituted for Israel.

But Jesus took it a step further and told his follow-ers that they should be the ones getting ripped off.

“If anyone sues you and takes your coat, let him have your cloak also.” (Matt 5.40) He means that “do not steal” is not enough, but that we should make sure the injury falls on us before someone else.

The people who have stolen a mouse or a power cord probably do not think it is a big deal because ACU has money and can just buy more.

But what they do not re-alize is that they are not hurting ACU, they are hurt-ing other students.

And all the justification in the world does not make stealing right.

I doubt these thieves are selling their booty to feed the homeless.

A saint once wrote, “Theft is punished by thy law, O Lord, and by the law written in men’s hearts, which not even ingrained wickedness can erase.

“For what thief will tol-erate another thief stealing from him? Even a rich thief will not tolerate a poor thief who is driven to theft by want.

“Yet I had a desire to commit robbery, and did so, compelled to it by nei-ther hunger nor poverty, but through a contempt for well-doing and a strong im-pulse to iniquity.”

St. Augustine wrote this after recalling how he stole not some grand thing but some pears when he was a young man.

Augustine believed he stole because he loved evil. We believe we steal be-cause we want to or need to do so. I think Augustine had it right.

I call on those who stole from the rest of us to re-turn what you have stolen.

Not because it is what’s right, it is, but to prove to yourself that you love good and not evil.

Trust has already been broken and will probably not be restored to those of us who did not steal, but this is about you who have stolen, not those of us who have not.

Len Driskell ACU graduate

theology studentlmd97t@acu.edu

Stolen materials penalize students

Letter to the editor regarding stolen laptop materials in the

Brown library.

LETTEr TO ThE EDiTOr

Wednesday, October 17, 2007 Page 7 FROM THE FRONT

the haunted house, but no location seems to have ev-erything they need.

“We can’t have it indoors according to fire code, and there is nowhere big enough that will let us do it outside,” Jackson said.

The haunted house has been used as the main fund-raiser for Frater Sodalis and without it the club needs to find new fundraising options.

“We have been throwing

some ideas around,” Monroe said. “The owner of the land wants to have a Christmas activity, and we have talked about helping him with that. We would also have other little fundraisers.”

Even though Frats are dis-appointed that they are not doing it, they say they un-derstand why.

“Initially, we were mad be-cause he said we could do it, but [we] have to respect them because they think it conflicts with their ministry,” said Jeff

Muszynski, junior marketing major from Gilbert, Ariz.

Frats respect the owner’s decision to not let them use the land.

“As a club, we were an-ticipating this year because it was so successful last year, and we had a lot of fun. But we have to respect the guy’s decision. It’s very noble on his part… I’m glad it will be used for ministry in the future,” Monroe said.

House: New owner pulls backContinued from page 1

E-mail Touchette at: optimist@acu.edu

Despite disagreeing with some of Sider’s fundamen-tal points, Clark valued the opportunity to hear his point of view.

I think [hearing contro-

versial speakers is] a good thing,” Clark said. “I think we really need to address these controversial issues because otherwise we’re going to head out into the world unprepared to face controversies with kind of

the Christ-like view. So I think it’s very important to have key-note speakers on controversial issues.”

Sider: Speaker hits tough issuesContinued from page 1

to start their own business-es or find work. SoFMEDA seeks to help borrowers be-come financially independent through lending loans.

The loans are re-paid by the borrower, and funds are used

to issue additional loans.“The goal is to restore dig-

nity to people,” Robinson said. Anyone interested in pur-

chasing a tote from Eternal Threads can call (888) 487-4549 or visit the Web site at www.eternalthreads.org.

Also, donations can be

made to SoFMEDA by con-tacting the organization at contact@sofmeda.org or vis-iting the Web site at www.sofmeda.org.

Link: Fund ‘restores dignity to people’Continued from page 1

E-mail Valle at: vmv04a@acu.edu

brian schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Liz McCormack, junior sociology and criminal justice major from Moran, removes grass and weeds along the service road for the Abilene Zoo during Service Saturday.

to increase knowledge of the poor and provide a means to care for them.

Also, money generated from sales will be donated to a charity that has been re-searched by PovertyLink, an ACU student organization committed to providing stu-dents with opportunities or practical justice.

The Students’ Association chose to donate funds to Ste-phen’s Children this semes-ter. This faith-based organi-zation works out of Africa to not only disciple, but also provide for, physical needs through job training and ed-ucation, teaching people how to provide for themselves.

Matt Worthington, senior English major from San Anto-nio, came up with the initial vision of the clothing line,

and with the help of Dustin Reid, senior electronic media major from Rockwall, Harsh and Danny Neal, merchandise manager of the Campus Store, HeartBeat was developed.

“We want to create this to be an integral next step to having Fair Trade products to help people,” Worthing-ton said. “We want to be a part of doing what we say we do. You can’t be ignorant about the things you buy. Ignorance is not an option anymore. Buying Fair Trade products and fostering that — we have to do that.”

A multi-faceted produc-tion company, a Silence Pro-duction, has helped find art-ists for HeartBeat designs. Three ACU alumi — Ben Her-nandez, employee of Creative Services; Brent Couchman, an employee of Fossil; and Ryan Feerer, an employee of Fun-ny Garbage in New York City

donated their time to design the T-shirts.

Each T-shirt design created is planned to be exclusive to one semester. Harsh said stu-dents will be able to choose one design to sell until the shirts run out.

Toward the end of each semester, the Campus Store will take an inventory of re-maining shirts to determine whether they should re-order, but the Campus Store will most likely not re-order shirts after November.

This means students who want to purchase HeartBeat shirts should not wait until the end of the semester to buy one. This semester, three designs were chosen, and 144 shirts were ordered of each.

The organization also plans to donate generated funds to a different charity each semester, which they ex-pect to allow students to vote

on. Four or five charities are currently being considered, and Harsh said he hopes that they can find about a “hand-ful” for students to vote on, and that the choice encour-ages students to think about where their money goes.

“Every dollar goes some-where,” he said. “There is al-ways someone trying to eat off that. We don’t always have millions of dollars to throw out to charities, and I hope this helps funnel what we do have to where we want it to go. We may see more knowl-edge of where we see our money going.”

Worthington advertised HeartBeat through several mediums before the Grand Opening event Tuesday. Signs were placed around campus, a Facebook group was cre-ated, and shirts were sold at concerts held at Monks cof-fee shop. A Web site is also

currently being designed for HeartBeat. It is expected to be up in the next few weeks.

The Students’ Associa-tion hopes to advertise the shirts on a local level, but their question right now is how to get HeartBeat to people beyond the Abilene community. Expanding the clothing line to other com-munities will raise aware-ness and give ACU credibil-ity as people see that ACU is taking an initiative toward this Fair Trade idea, the group says.

“We want the shirts themselves to be an adver-tisement,” Harsh said. “And when students go across the country, they are excited to tell what it means and what we are trying to help.”

HeartBeat T-shirts are be-ing sold for $19.99, which Harsh said is more expen-sive than many shirts the

campus store offers. He said that while he knows it is a reality that many students don’t have a lot of money to spend on the shirts, he hopes the clothing line can still be used to raise aware-ness that as consumers, our money can be used to affect change.

“It doesn’t have to stop at T-shirts,” Harsh said. “We are probably just scratching the surface of what is possible.”

Worthington said he hopes to one day be able to also make scarves and purs-es if HeartBeat is successful.

Female T-shirt designs will be available in Novem-ber, and a presentation will be made in Chapel on Nov. 26 about HeartBeat and the new designs.

Beat: Fair Trade clothing line launches with 14 salesContinued from page 1

E-mail Edens at: mxe06a@acu.edu

Shoveling Service

E-mail Acuff at: optimist@acu.edu

A s Dr. Money sat among the crowd listening to a pre-senter talk about

this year’s Outstanding Citizen of the Year and wondering who the Cham-ber of Commerce had cho-sen for the annual award, he marveled at how closely the unrevealed recipient’s life resembled his own.

“[The presenter] be-gan reading the narrative about who the recipient was, and I was sitting there thinking ‘I’ve done that.’ And then I began thinking, ‘Oh my good-ness, this is me,’” said Dr. Royce Money, president of the university.

Indeed, the recipient was Dr. Money.

Money was awarded Abilene’s Outstanding Citizen of the Year in the presence of members from the Chamber of Com-merce, local businessmen, colleagues, friends and even his family who had traveled to Abilene for the special occasion.

Attendee Michelle Mor-ris, vice president for uni-versity relations, was one of several ACU employees who knew beforehand that Money had been se-lected for the award and was invited to take part in the evening’s events.

“I sat near his grand-kids,” Morris said. “They sat quietly, and they were

so patient. It was fun to watch them and to hear them say, ‘Hey, are they are talking about granddad yet?’ It was well deserved.”

From his work at Abilene’s United Way to his involvement in the Chamber of Commerce where he has served on the board for 17 years, Money has been an active citizen in this West Texas community for some time now, and his accomplish-ments were more for-mally acknowledged this month as Money joined a collection of exceptional Abilene individuals who have received this award.

“Because of its breadth and contribution to busi-

ness, it is one of the high-est honors that a citizen of Abilene can get,” said Mike McMahan, president of the Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber of Commerce began presenting the Out-standing Citizen of

the Year award in 1946, and past recipients in-clude Kenneth T. Murphy, chairman of the board of directors of First Financial Bankshares, Jesse Fletch-er, president emeritus of Hardin-Simmons Univer-sity and Dr. John Stevens, former ACU president.

While many people in an array of professions have been chosen as Out-

standing Citizen of the Year, Money said, as a leader in higher educa-tion, he was honored to receive this award from the Chamber of Com-merce, and honored to accept the award from Fletcher, another leader in higher education.

“Higher education is an enormous part of Abilene,” Morris said as she mentioned how the economics, the arts and the volunteer needs of the community are affected by the universities. “I think it’s completely appropri-ate that [an individual] of higher education would receive this award. The Chamber of Commerce

thinks economics, but the universities improve Abilene’s quality of life.”

McMahan explained that the award isn’t given to the person who has done the most through-out a single year, but rather, the Outstanding Citizen award is present-ed to an individual who has worked for consecu-tive years to make a last-ing impact in Abilene.

And Money has con-tributed plenty. The ACU president has served on the NCAA Council, worked as the chair of Indepen-dent Colleges and Univer-sities and authored two books to name several of his accomplishments.

But those who know Mon-ey won’t hear him bragging about his work ethics, his achievements or even the award he recently received.

Instead, Money choos-es to lead by example.

“Dr. Money is a quiet leader who just calls peo-ple to excellence,” Morris said. “He is very humble, and we all know how much good he has done here, but he doesn’t talk about it much.”

Still, Money said he is grateful for the e-mails and the letters he has re-ceived since receiving the recent award.

“When you wind up on the front page of the paper it’s hard to keep it a se-cret,” Money said. “But peo-ple have sent me clippings out of the Abilene Report-er News, and I got a nice plaque that’s at home.”

Morris expressed what an honor it was to see the Chamber of Commerce recognize a person who the ACU community views as a great leader and a great individual.

“We’re all very proud of him and for him,” Morris said. “If you look at the other people who have been named throughout the years, he’s right up there with them.”

October 17, 2007 Page 8

FocusWednesday

katie gager CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER

Dr. Royce Money, as seen in his office, won the Abilene Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Citizen of the Year for 2007.

Citizen MoneyAbilene Chamber honors president

Story by Lauren Sutton, design by Denton Josey

“Dr. Money is a quiet leader who just calls people to excellence.”

Michelle Morris, vice president for university relations.

E-mail Sutton at: les03c@acu.edu

By Michael FreemanAssistAnt sports Editor

The Wildcat volleyball team got back on the win-ning track Thursday night after beating Angelo State in three games in Moody Coli-seum. The Wildcats now own a 9-11 overall record with a 4-2 record in Lone Star Con-ference play. Angelo State dropped to 6-15 overall and 4-2 in the conference.

“The Angelo match was re-ally fun because I felt like we showed good all-around play,” head coach Kellen Mock said.

The Wildcats dominated the match by racking up a team hit-ting-percentage of .200, while Angelo State hit at only .071 percent as a team. The Wild-cats’ efficient play gave ACU a 30-16, 30-25, 30-23 victory. The win marked the fifth time this season ACU has posted a three-game win.

“I thought we played a re-ally great match,” Mock said. “Especially in games one and three, we played excellent volleyball. And it was nice to come home and play like that because that was the caliber of volleyball we were playing at Washburn.”

Previous to Thursday’s win, ACU dropped three straight matches to nation-ally ranked teams at the Lady

Blues Fall Classic hosted by Washburn University. De-spite losing three matches, the Wildcats played well, and continued its excellent play into Thursday’s match.

Sophomore middle blocker Krystine Cethoute finished the match with 14 kills. Senior outside hitter Abbie Lowry also finished in double-digits with 12 kills. Freshman setter

Ijeoma Moronu posted a dou-ble-double of 31 assists and 12 digs. Another freshman, middle blocker Shawna Hines, ended the match with a match-high 4.5 blocks.

“There’s a lot of pride in playing teams in our confer-ence and really working to be the very best in our confer-ence,” Mock said. “What really matters is what you produce in the conference and what you can do towards your post-

season play. We’re not out of anything yet.”

The Wildcats’ next oppo-nent is conference rival Texas A&M-Commerce. The Texas A&M-Commerce Lions are 8-14 overall and 2-5 in the LSC, and are coming off a four-game loss to No. 16 West Texas A&M on Saturday. ACU will get its shot at the Lions this Thursday in Moody Coliseum at 7 p.m.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007 Page 9SPORTS JUMPS

“It was a little bit tough to get into the next competi-tion since we weren’t really expecting it,” Jones said. “We did feel a little strange being there since we didn’t actually win Division II. But it was definitely an honor to go on and represent Divi-

sion II in the Super Bowl.”Squillaci and Rafolomanat-

siatosika made it to the finals of the Super Bowl before los-ing 6-4, 7-6 to Fresno-Pacific.

“We had all the condi-tions to win,” Squillaci said. “But I think that in a higher level, the important points can make a match, and we just didn’t play all of the

important points well.”The women were winning

5-2 in the second set and had three set points before losing to Fresno-Pacific in a tiebreaker.

“There were just a few little points in those games where I thought we could have won the set,” Jones said. “We didn’t play a few games as well as we should’ve. Overall,

though, we played really well. It’s the best finish I’ve seen in my 12-year career.”

Squillaci said while they didn’t win, achieving the No. 2 spot is still something she and Rafolomanatsiatosika are proud of.

“The highlight of the tour-nament was making the No. 2 spot,” Squillaci said. “We are

the No. 2 team in the nation in Division II. It’s something we’re proud of.”

The men’s team of juniors Ryan Hudson and Juan Nunez placed third in the tourna-ment. Nunez and Hudson lost in the semifinals of the tour-nament to the No. 1-seeded Division II team, the Univer-sity of California-San Diego.

Nunez and Hudson went on to win the third place match.

“I know some men have reached the finals, but since I’ve been here, that’s the best finish the men have had,” head coach Hutton Jones said.

Tennis: Women’s team posts best finish in head coach’s tenureContinued from page 10

By Pete KoehnstudEnt rEportEr

A group of ACU faculty, staff, students and their friends and family will compete Friday in the annual Homecoming Golf Classic. The Diamondback Golf Club will host the tournament, which will start with a shotgun shot at noon.

“I’ve probably played in it every year for the past 15 years,” Terry Pope, associ-ate dean in college of busi-ness, said. Pope added that he is looking forward to this year’s competition.

Pope said he enjoys the tour-nament because it gives him an opportunity to spend time with alumni and students.

Mark Lavender, alumni out-reach officer and director of the Homecoming Golf Classic, has been involved in the tour-nament for the last four years.

“Numbers are down this year as far as registration is concerned, around 50 golfers from the usual 80 to 90,” Lav-ender said. “But that happens every five to six years.”

Lavender said he wants to encourage students to partici-pate in this year’s tournament.

“It’s a great opportunity for students that like to play

golf and hang out with friends to enjoy the weather and have some fun,” he said.

The tournament benefits the V.W. Kelly Scholarship, a scholarship that provides fi-nancial aid to ACU students choosing to enroll in graduate school at ACU. The scholarship was started with a $50,000 en-dowment, and through fund-raisers like the Homecoming Golf Classic, the Alumni Of-fice has increased that fund to $100,000 in the last four to five years, Lavender said.

There will be trophies for the first and second place teams, and other prizes for a long-drive contest, and two hole-in-one challenges.

Any player that can make a hole-in-one on a par 3 course will win either a pick-up truck from Hanner Chev-rolet or a motorcycle from Kent’s Harley Davidson.

Participants will be placed on teams of four of their choos-ing. A fee of $100 is required to play, for faculty the fee is $75.

Registration is online at www.acu.edu/homecoming, or by phone at (325) 674-2641. Registration is open until Thursday evening.

Community competes in annual Golf Classic

was more than just another game for junior running back Bernard Scott.

Scott rushed for 231 yards and three touchdowns on only 18 carries, his best outing of the season. Scott, who was named LSC South Offensive Player of the Week for his performance, scored on runs of 14, 62 and 80 yards, and his work on the ground was the third-best single-game rushing perfor-mance in school history.

Head coach Chris Thomsen said he was most proud of Scott for being an all-around back against Angelo State.

“What I’m more proud of him is he’s trying to be a more complete back,” Thom-sen said. “We ask our backs to catch, run and block.”

Scott caught six passes for 63 yards, and Thomsen said his blocking was a big reason why junior quarter-back Billy Malone threw for 383 yards in the win.

Malone completed 27 of 38 passes for 383 yards and two touchdowns. After Saturday’s game, Malone has thrown at least one touch-down in 19 straight games, and the win was his 10th ca-reer 300-yard passing game.

Malone connected with freshman wide receiver Ed-mund Gates for a 56-yard score and senior wide re-ceiver Jerale Badon for a 52-yard score. Badon, who missed ACU’s game against Northeastern State because of an injury, led the Wildcats with nine catches for 149 yards and a touchdown.

“It was good, just to see our guys come out focused and know that if we take care of business and get to keep going to keep our-selves in the conference race,” Thomsen said.

Rams: Scott scores three touchdowns in routContinued from page 10

ACU dominates Angelo in Moody

Katie gager CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER

Freshman middle blocker Shawna Hines and sophomore outside hitter Michelle Bacon block a ball that resulted in a point for ACU during the second game of ACU’s match against Angelo State on Thursday.

E-mail Koehn at: optimist@acu.edu

ACU 14 17 14 7 — 52ASU 0 7 14 7 — 28

First QuarterACU — Edmund Gates 56 pass from Billy Malone (Matt Adams kick), 10:28.ACU — Jerale Badon 52 pass from Malone (Adams kick), 4:21

Second QuarterASU — Daniel Thomas 84 pass from Josh Neiswander (Brad Holcomb kick), 11:27ACU — Gates 38 run (Adams kick), 9:47ACU — FG Adams 22, 7:01ACU — Kebron Lampkin 1 run (Adams kick), 2:46

third QuarterACU — Bernard Scott 14 run (Adams kick), 11:38ASU — Thomas 70 run (Holcomb kick), 11:24ACU — Scott 62 run (Adams kick), 3:18ASU — Sam Tindol 50 pass from Jay Immel (Holcomb kick), 1:20

Fourth Quarter ASU — Chris Fowler 19 pass from Immel (Holcomb kick), 7:13ACU — Scott 80 run (Adams kick), 3:42

Team Statistics ACU ASUFirst downs 27 22Total net yards 707 527Rushing yards 30-324 36-212Passing yards 383 315Kickoff returns 4-94 4-52Interceptions/Ret. 1-0 0-0Comp-Att-Int 27-38-0 20-26-1Sacked-Yards Lost 0-0 0-0Punts/Avg. 1-9.0 0-0 Fumbles-Lost 0-0 0-0Penalties-Yards 9-72 4-67Time of Possession 27:02 32:58

individual Statistics Rushing — ACU: Scott 18-231; Lampkin 7-53; Gates 2-45; Malone 1-(-2). ASU: Thomas 28-199; Charles Amos 1-10; Jay Immel 2-3.Passing — ACU: Malone 27-38-0. ASU: Immel 14-16-1; Neiswander 6-10-0. Receiving — ACU: Badon 9-149; Scott 6-63; Lampkin 3-36; Plummer 2-28; Gates 1-56. ASU: Thomas 3-111; Antwon Williams 3-54; Sam Tindol 2-55; Steven Lawriw 2-5.

ACU 52, AngELO STATE 28

brian Schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Junior running back Bernard Scott rushes past a diving Northeastern State defender on Oct. 6.E-mail Johnson at: djj04a@acu.edu

E-mail Freeman at: mxf04b@acu.edu

E-mail Davis at: red04a@acu.edu

Volleyball

By Daniel JohnsonSportS Editor

ACU has one of the na-tion’s best offenses, and Saturday they proved why once again.

The No. 12 Wildcats picked up their sixth-straight win after racking up a season-high 707 offen-sive yards in a 52-28 deci-sion over Angelo State.

ACU’s offensive explo-sion was the second-best single-game total in school history; the only other time ACU has recorded more than 700 yards was in 1952. The

win was also the third time this season ACU has scored more than 50 points. ACU jumped from No. 14 to No. 12 in the Ameri-can Football Coaches’ As-sociation Na-tional Poll.

ACU’s win was crucial in the Wildcats’ hunt for a Lone Star Confer-

ence championship and a spot in the NCAA Division II playoffs. ACU, now 5-0 in the LSC and 2-0 in the LSC South Division, needs to continue winning to clinch a spot in the playoffs.

“I feel like we’re hitting on all cylinders right now, and that’s especially good going into the West Texas [A&M] game,” said senior linebacker Cody Stutts.

The win kept the Wild-cats undefeated in the LSC, extended their overall record to 6-1 and moved ACU up one spot to No. 7 in the Southwest Regional

rankings, which puts more emphasis on ACU’s Home-coming matchup with un-defeated and nationally ranked West Texas A&M.

No. 6 West Texas moved to 6-0 with a 62-31 win over Eastern New Mexico, and Saturday’s game will be a battle for an upper hand in the South Division.

“It’s not the Super Bowl. It’s just another game we have to win on our route to an LSC Championship,” Stutts said.

The win in San Angelo

By Christina JohnsonSportS WritEr

After starting the weekend with its second conference win, the ACU soccer team dropped its fourth Lone Star Conference loss of the sea-son on Sunday after losing 2-1 to Northeastern State.

Despite scoring first against the RiverHawks and outshooting them 23-11, ACU’s strong offensive attack was not enough to beat Northeastern.

“We dominated 80 per-cent of the game, and that wasn’t enough,” head coach Casey Wilson said.

ACU’s record fell to 7-8 overall and 2-4 in the LSC, while Northeastern State in-creased its record to 6-8-1 total and 4-3 in conference.

Six of the Wildcats’ shots were on goal, while the Riv-erHawks only had two on frame, but Northeastern finished both of its shots on goal.

“We’re gonna have to learn to finish our shots,” Wilson said. “We can’t waste so many opportunities.”

ACU had a 1-0 lead after freshman midfielder Court-ney Wilson scored from 12 yards out on an assist from freshman midfielder Bree Craig in the 51st minute.

But the one-goal lead didn’t last long.

The RiverHawks tied the game five minutes later

when junior midfielder Ashley Badeen put a free kick past ACU sophomore goalie Allison Egan in the 56th minute.

Northeastern midfielder Joanne Spalding scored the eventual game-winning goal after putting away a pass from freshman mid-fielder Ellie Slack in the 74th minute.

The loss to Northeastern wasn’t the only 2-1 deci-sion the Wildcats were part of last weekend; ACU beat East Central 2-1 Friday.

The match was tied at 1-1 until Courtney Wilson put away an indirect-free kick from Lindsey Womack in the 81st minute. The goal was Courtney Wilson’s sec-ond of the game; she scored earlier in the 62nd minute.

“We had more opportu-nities to score this game than on Friday,” Wilson said. “We just couldn’t do

it, I felt like Friday’s team was better than this team.”

ACU is currently ninth in the 10-team Lone Star Conference and has three conference matches re-maining in its season. If the Wildcats win-out, they may have a shot at making the LSC postseason tourna-ment on Nov. 1-4.

“We just need to come in with an attitude to take a step forward and be in the right frame of mind,” Wilson said.

The Wildcats played Di-vision III opponent Hardin-Simmons in a non-confer-ence match on Tuesday, but the results were not available by press time. The match was rescheduled be-cause ACU and HSU’s origi-nally scheduled match on Sept. 25 was cancelled be-cause of weather.

Optimist

spOrtsWednesdayOctober 17, 2007Page 10

Football

Soccer

By Anastasia MathisSportS WritEr

The ACU men’s cross country team took second place at the Chile Pepper Festival in Fayetteville, Ark., this weekend, falling only to meet host, the University of Arkansas.

“Arkansas had the home ad-vantage, they didn’t travel and their coach put a lot of pressure on them to try and win the meet,” said head coach Derek Hood. “Not saying that ACU didn’t run to the best of their ability, but [Arkan-sas] had a lot more running on the line than ACU did.”

Nicodemus Naimadu placed second in the race with a time of 29:34.9. Julius Nyango placed 11th with a time of 30:14.9, Serge Gasore placed 17th with a time of 30:37.8, Amos Sang placed 20th in 30:45.2, then Philip Birgen placed

24th with a time of 31:04.9 and then Eric Brown was 104th with a time of 33:17.7.

“I think that there were a couple of factors that went into our guys placing second or not running as fast as they had in past years,” Hood said. “I think the 10-hour trip that it took to get out there made us a little flat. We had also done some pretty fast workouts in the past week. Our times were a little slower than I would of predicted before the race, but we did well.”

On the woman’s side, Loice Cheboi led the pack by finish-ing 23rd with a time of 21:47, followed by Mary Mwangi who placed 41st with a time of 22:07 and Haley Garner placing 130th with a time of 23:43.

“I was really pleased with the

women’s efforts this race,” Hood said. “Loice and Mary ran a great race. Haley made up some great ground during the last mine, and Lindsey Putman ran two meets this week. She ran with great commit-ment and time. I was also really impressed with Vanessa Whittle because of the way she felt physi-cally, since she has had been hav-ing some stomach problems.”

ACU’s next race is the LSC championships in Commerce on Saturday.

“We trained hard Monday, and will Wednesday and then taper off to prepare for our con-ferences meet,” Hood said. “The workout Wednesday will be long, and fast, but then we will start charging out batteries to defend our championships.”

ACU men finish 2nd at Chile Pepper Festival

Soccer team splits home

matches

Wildcats rack up yards in win over Rams

brian schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Sophomore goalkeeper Allison Egan makes a diving save in front of Northeastern State forward Dani Watson during ACU’s match on Sunday.

By Rachel Davisopinion Editor

Irene Squillaci and Aina Rafolomanatsiatosika just missed a shot at playing in a NCAA Division I tournament, while the men’s doubles team of Juan Nunez and Ryan Hud-son placed third in the D i v i s i o n II bracket of the ITA Small Col-lege Cham-pionships in Mobile, Ala.

The women’s team of Squillaci and senior Aina Rafolomanatsiatosika offi-cially placed second in the D i v i s i o n II bracket of the ITA t o u r n a -ment, but b e c a u s e the team that won, B r i g h a m Y o u n g Univers i -ty-Hawaii, is affiliated with the Mormon church they did not play in a Super Bowl tournament on Sunday. ACU took BYU-Hawaii’s place in the Super Bowl tournament.

The Super Bowl tournament gave teams a chance to play each division represented in the ITA championships—Divi-sion II, Division III, NAIA and junior college teams who won their respective brackets met up to determine the actual tournament champion. The winner of the Super Bowl won a wild-card spot in the Division I ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships.

Women miss spot in D-I tourney

Weekend Split

NSU 2, ACU 1

ACU 52, ANgelo StAte 28

Cross Country

The ACU football team recorded a season-high 707 offensive yards and eight touchdowns in its win against Angelo State on Saturday.

top performers

n Running back Bernard Scott: 231 rushing yards, 63 receiving yard, three touchdowns

n Quarterback Billy Malone: 383 passing yards, two touchdowns

n Wide receiver Jerale Badon: nine catches, 149 yards, one touchdown

n Wide receiver Edmund Gates: 45 rushing yards, 56 receiving yards, two touchdowns.

oFFeNSive oNSlAUght

See RAMS page 9

e-mail Johnson at: optimist@acu.edu

Scott

See teNNiS page 9

brian schmidt SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

ACU cross country runners Philip Birgen, Carson Penepacker and David Webster run in the ACU Cross Country Classic on Sept. 1. e-mail Mathis at: optimist@acu.edu

Squillaci

Rafolomantsiatosika

ACU adds five former players to Sports hall of Fame

n ACU will induct five former student athletes into the ACU Sports Hall of Fame. The event is on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Teague Special Events Center. Tickets are $20.

thursday

volleYBAllACU vs. Texas A&M-Commerce, 7 p.m.

Friday

MeN’S teNNiSTyler College Invitational in Tyler, TBA

WoMeN’S SoCCeRACU at Central Oklahoma, 3 p.m.

n Home games listed in italics

Standings

Upcoming

thursday

volleYBAllACU 3, Angelo State 0

Friday

WoMeN’S SoCCeRACU 2, East Central 1

Saturday

FootBAllACU 52, Angelo State 28

Sunday

WoMeN’S SoCCeRNortheastern State 2, ACU 1

FootballTeam Div. OverallWTAMUTarleton St.ACUMSUAngelo St.

TAMU-K

3-02-02-01-21-20-2

7-07-06-15-22-41-6

ENMU 0-3 4-3

Women’s SoccerTeam Div. OverallCentral Okla.MSUWTAMUNE St.TAMU-C

Angelo St.

6-04-24-34-33-33-3

12-3-18-3-210-46-8-17-86-7-1

TX Woman’s 3-3 6-8-1ENMU 3-4 9-6East Central 3-4 6-8-2ACU 2-4 7-8SW Okla. 0-6 0-15

Scores

For complete intramural scores and schedules

visit:w w w. a c u o p t i m i s t . c o m

iNtRAMURAl RoUNd-Up

n The intramural schedule in the Optimist is subject to change and is not permanent. Any changes can be viewed on the intramural bulletin board in Moody Coliseum.

Scoreboard as of Monday

SCoReBoARd

Briefs

volleyballTeam Div. OverallWTAMUCentral Okla.MSUACUAngelo St.

TX Woman’s

7-06-05-14-24-24-3

22-723-420-39-116-1513-8

TAMU-K 4-4 11-8Tarleton St. 4-4 11-12Cameron 2-4 8-13TAMU-C 2-5 8-14SW Okla. 1-5 9-16SE Okla. 1-7 6-15ENMU 0-7 3-20