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Students reveal themselves at the STD, Aries and Zeta open mic night.College Life, page 4
The voice of Texas Wesleyan University students since 1917
WEDNESDAYNovember 18, 2009
Vol. 92 • No. 24
ONLINE: www.therambler.org
The RamblerBasketball team has strong recruiting class, experienced underclassmen.Sports, page 6
Standing Proud
Burleson campus neighbors collaborate to provide fundsJonathan [email protected]
The historic campus isn’t the only Texas Wesleyan cam-pus immersed in a commu-nity.
The Texas Wesleyan Burle-son site is located in the heart of Burleson, about 16 miles south of the historic campus. The city of Burleson, popula-tion 34,000, has expressed an interest in higher education by creating the Burleson Op-portunity Fund.
The BOF is a scholarship collaboration between the city of Burleson, Burleson Inde-pendent School District, Hill College at Burleson and other community sponsors.
Texas Wesleyan is listed as a 2009 platinum sponsor after donating $500 to the BOF.
The BOF guarantees a one-year, 100 percent tuition-and-fees scholarship to students
who attend Hill College at Burleson and live in the Bur-leson area.
In the spring of 2008, a class profile conducted by the office of institutional research listed Hill College as a top feeder school for Texas Wesleyan.
Dr. Harold Jeffcoat, Wes-leyan president, also believes an increasing number of stu-dents who get their associate’s from Hill College are coming to Wesleyan to finish their un-
dergraduate work.“It’s commendable for the
city of Burleson to encourage its citizens to continue their education,” he said, “not only at Hill College and Wesleyan, but at other schools as well.”
The BOF hosted a fund-raiser for its program this month at the Premiere Cin-ema in Burleson that raised more than $9,000 from the VIP passes alone.
A portion of all the pro-
ceeds from regular priced tickets and concessions went to help the fund. VIP passes
were sold for $35 and came with red carpet treatment that included paparazzi photos,
prizes and a chance to mingle with a Marilyn Monroe im-personator.
Program provides laptops to studentsStephanie [email protected]
Leaders at Wesleyan often speak about the need to train students for a global economy. The effort is growing younger.
The Generation Hope lap-top program launched last month to prepare sixth grade students to compete in the global economy. The 16-week program is the vision of Roy Brooks, member of Weslyan’s board of trustees and Tarrant County commissioner.
“Generation Hope is a sym-bol of the great things that can happen when the community works together,” Brooks said.
Generation Hope supports core classroom curriculum, but its main focus is math and science. The classes offered to the sixth graders are digital video production and edit-ing, Web design, robotics and video game design.
Dr. Bobby Deaton, Wes-leyan professor of physics, helped develop the curricu-lum for Generation Hope.
“The program is intense,” Deaton said. “My main con-cern is that these are sixth grade students. This program would be difficult even for Wesleyan students.”
Participants of Genera-tion Hope will attend classes twice a week on their own campuses. They will also meet
93 percent of TWU students pass barJonathan [email protected]
Only two other Texas law schools received a higher passing rate on the bar exam than Texas Wesleyan this past July.
The Texas Board of Law Exam-iners reported that 139 first-time Wesleyan examinees passed the bar exam. The passing rate was 93.29
percent, beating out all other Texas law schools except for Baylor and Texas Tech.
“The Texas Wesleyan Law com-munity – faculty, staff, students and alumni and friends – is proud to cel-ebrate the success of our graduates on the Texas bar examination,” said Frederic White, dean of the Texas Wesleyan School of Law, in a univer-sity statement.
First time bar examinees from Wesleyan Law’s neighbor to the east, Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, received a first time passing rate of 90.99 per-cent.
“Bar exam performance varies from exam to exam,” said Stephen Alton, associate dean for evening di-visions programs and law professor. “Our students are working hard, and
our faculty are working hard. Taking the bar is something we take seri-ously.”
With a passing rate of 91.14 per-cent in July 2007, the recent pass rate is a record for the Wesleyan school of law.
Everett Chambers, director of aca-demic support and adjunct law pro-fessor, credits well-motivated and diligent students with the perfor-
mance increase. “Students are better motivated af-
ter seeing past dips in the passing rate,” he said.
Chambers teaches a bar exam re-view course at the law school. The class simulates portions of the bar and gives hands on experience.
“It’s not just an exam, it’s a four part test of skills and materials,” he said.
HOPE, page 3
Courtesy of Sally EllertsonBurleson Mayor Ken Shetter (front row center) joins Hill College students at the fund-raiser.
“It’s commendable for the city of Burleson to encourage its citizens to continue their education, not only at Hill College and Wesleyan, but at other schools as well.”
Dr. Harold JeffcoatWesleyan President
John Liontos | Rambler Staff
Laura Rosser | Rambler Staff
Laura Rosser | Rambler Staff
The Wesleyan community celebrates the unveiling of a 5-foot, 300-pound ram statue Nov. 12. The bronze ram was purchased by Student Government Association as
part of its initiative to increase school spirit. It stands outside of the SUB.
Opinion2 | November 18, 2009 The RambleR | www.rambler.org
What is your favorite Thanksgiving food?
Brenton Flowerssophomore criminal justice
“beer, dressing and sandwhices”
Denika Swoopessophomore biology
“pumpkin pie”
Eunice Nicholsonsenior journalism
“mashed potatoes”
Tara Catessenior pyschology
“fresh baked pecan pie”
Jeremy Burnettsophomore spanish/math“fresh baked green bean
cassarole”
Jonathan Resendez, news editorLaurence Sheehan, opinion editorConner Howell, college life editorJoakim Söderbaum, sports editorChuck Fain, entertainment editorLaura Rosser, photo editorRachel Horton, multimedia editorLaShawnda Mayhorn, social media directorDaniel Bravo, advertising managerKelli Lamers, faculty adviserDr. Kay Colley, faculty liaison
Member of the Texas Intercollegiate Press As-sociation, Associated Collegiate Press, Student Press Law Center, College Media Advisers and College Newspaper Business and Advertising Managers.
Opinions expressed in The RambleR are those of the individual authors only and do not neces-sarily reflect the views of the Texas Wesleyan community as a whole.
RambleR Contribution Please send all news briefs to [email protected]. Submissions due by noon Friday to see brief in the following week’s issue.
Letters to the editor: The RambleR, a weekly publication, welcomes all letters. All submis-sions must have a full printed name, phone number and signature. While every consider-ation is made to publish letters, publication is limited by time and space.The editors reserve the right to edit all submis-sions for space, grammar, clarity and style. Letters to the editor may be subject to response from editors and students on the opinion page.
“We are not afraid to follow the truth ... wherever it may lead.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Address all correspondence to:Texas Wesleyan UniversityThe RambleR1201 Wesleyan St.Fort Worth, TX [email protected] contact The RambleR
(817) 531-7552Advertising Inquiries:(817) 532-7582
The RamblerFounded in 1917 as The Handout
Publisher: Harold G. Jeffcoat
The United States military is having more than a ridicu-lous time in Afghanistan. At what point do we leave other countries and begin focusing on our own?
Our unemployment rate has topped 10 percent, and there are several states that do not have any money for a 2010 budget.
Ambassador to Afghani-stan Karl Eikenberry has told President Obama there is no use sending more troops due to the corruption of the current Afghanistan govern-
ment, according to CNN.com. So why are we there?
To stamp out corruption? To destroy a mass drug trade? Well, if so, then we are al-ready looking at an epic fail.
We can’t even keep the drug trade under control within our own borders, much less control the prob-lems with our friends to the south. We have been battling a drug war with for a number of years.
The Top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has requested more than 40,000 more troops. Another report requested 34,000 more troops to add on to the 68,000
troops already in Afghani-stan.
Members of our govern-ment to plan to send more than 100,000 troops into a country where there is no victory. In a time of a $10 trillion deficit, economic failure and the highest un-employment rate seen by our generation, I say bring our boys home.
Get the Afghan govern-ment ready and pull out and return to the U.S. Unfortu-nately I fear in the darkest parts of my mind, Maj. Hasan will not be the last internal attack on U.S. troops on U.S. soil.
Laurence J. [email protected]
Abandon the Afghans
President Barack Obama calls reinventing healthcare a “defining struggle of his generation.”
While healthcare reform isn’t a new idea, it’s been a hot topic for debate in recent months. People from all corners of the United States still find themselves confused on the whole matter.
Students in particular are blaming the media for some of the confusion.
Obama told about 15,000 college students at a Univer-sity of Maryland campaign–style rally that they must resist scare tactics and false accusations to remake the na-tion’s healthcare system.
“I feel like I understand what’s going on in a super-ficial sense,” said Trisch Doenges, junior English major at Texas Wesleyan. “There’s a lot to decipher, and I understand that there’s only so much you can put in those news bites. I’m still confused on what the media is trying to convey.”
While Doenges admits to being confused, she’s also battling whether or not she
supports healthcare reform. “I don’t know if I support
it or not,” said Doenges. “I do think that there needs to be something to make healthcare affordable. We’re spending more healthcare insurance now than we actu-ally need.”
People aren’t just blam-ing the media for stirring the pot of confusion, they’re also blaming its source; The United States Government.
“You can’t just sit there and blame the media,” said Dr. Ibrahim Salih, professor of political science at Texas Wesleyan. “It’s too easy to ignore what’s really going on and blame one source. I blame the government for poorly educating the Ameri-can public.”
Salih talks about the many ways people can become more self aware of the issues.
“There are so many re-sources and tools available for the public. It’s beyond me why so many people choose not to check their facts first before they jump and make a judgment,” Salih said.
“The best way to become more informed is to watch every news station you can. Check out resources online.
Talk to you local politicians. Go to the library. Do every-thing you can because it’s up to you on what you want to know,” Salih said. “The infor-mation is out there, you just have to find it.”
One of the issues in the
confusion seems to be the government is going to be giving away health insurance to everyone.
“Let me clear this up for you,” Salih said. “First, our government is not going to be giving away health insur-ance to everyone. What they are trying to do is create an affordable plan for the middle class.”
Salih goes on to explain that Obama means well but is missing key points when explaining healthcare reform.
“He’s informing us but he could dig deep further into the plan. We are curious and want to know what’s going on,” Salih said.
For Dr. Ronnie McMannus, professor of religion at Texas Wesleyan, healthcare isn’t
just confusing matter but an ethical one.
“I understand the basic concept of healthcare. The question that arises in my mind is this: Is healthcare a right or a privilege?” Mac-Mannus said.
“If it’s a right, then we have a certain duties and responsi-bilities to make sure every-one has accessibility. If it’s a privilege, then it becomes a financial discussion.”
McMannus decided that healthcare to him is more of a
moral discussion rather than a financial one.
“I choose to make this a moral discussion,” Mc-Mannus said. “Because of my choice, this discussion becomes a right. I think we have to make a choice. Are we only concerned for our-selves or our brothers?”
He said he believes it comes down to the “Golden Rule” mentality.
“I would hope there’s someone concerned for me. I do not want to be a part of a community that does not accept people.”
McMannus shares the be-lief that both the media and the government are to blame for causing the confusion.
“It’s embarrassing with all the scare tactics both media and political parties are do-ing,” McMannus said.
“It’s confusing because you hear different agendas from everyone,” he said. “I know this is an issue of money to everyone. You forget people when this becomes an issue of money.”
On the financial side, Dr. Sameer Vaidya, associate dean and associate professor of management gives his side of healthcare.
“I know there is a big finan-cial fear that is on everyone’s mind,” said Vaidya. “In my opinion – the government does not have a good track record. Look at how the post office, [Department of Motor Vehicle] and welfare systems are run.”
He said it’s the perfect time financially to bring change, but it’s going to be tricky.
“We are spending too much money,” Vaidya said. “Something does have to be done. I just don’t like how it’s being presented.”
People are confused every-where. Fingers point to the media while others wag their fingers toward the govern-ment.
It seems there is plenty of room for the finger to point to both.
There are many view points and opinions people have on healthcare, but most agree that presnetation and communication are lacking.
One thing is for certain, however, and that is that change is needed.
“Change is a vital part of life. Healthcare needs it badly,” Doenges said. “If no one does anything, I’m gonna have to beat some people up.”
Scare tactics: the healthcare confusionJohn [email protected]
“I understand the basic concept of healthcare. The question that arises in my mind is this: is healthcare a right or privilege?”
Dr. Ronnie McMannusProfessor of Religion
Kimberly [email protected]
Money. It’s something every-one loves to have. But they don’t want to be told how to spend it. Financial aid is like having money in your hands, but you, the student, cannot choose how and when your financial aid is dispersed.
At the beginning of the fall semester, there is a list that informs students how much financial aid they are allotted for the entire year. Each year, the financial aid varies.
Sometimes there are subtle decreases in financial aid – a couple of hundred of dollars or a more significant change of a thousand dollars. It both-ers me that students cannot get a locked amount. If there is a change, it should increas-es and not decrease.
Furthermore, juniors and seniors who have proved themselves through their grades should get priority and receive more financial aid money. When a student becomes a junior or senior, the chances are very high they will continue and gradu-
ate from Wesleyan. I’m puzzled because in
past years enrollment has not been as high and students still did not see an increase in their financial aid. I contacted the financial aid office about the issue, and I was informed that it is not up to the school, it is up to the government.
The school knows students are struggling, and they should offer more grants or scholarships to make up the difference.
Furthermore, when students are granted finan-cial aid, it belongs to them. Despite this, students do not get to choose how their own financial aid is distributed. I take great issue with this be-cause students’ finances vary from month to month, and from semester to semester.
It should be up to the student to choose to hold some financial aid money for another semester and distrib-
ute it how one pleases. Also, in December, many
seniors graduate, so what happens to their financial aid? The financial aid office informed me that it goes back into the pool for other students. However, every student I talked to has never received an increase in their financial aid after the month of December. Everyone with financial aid should see some type of increase in financial aid after December, even if it is a subtle change.
Also, if December gradu-ates were able to choose how their own financial aid was distributed, many would have very little debt accumulated from their senior year.
Financial aid should give students the opportunity to choose how their aid is divided each semester. The helping hand of financial aid should be there when it is needed the most.
Financial AidMoney not in your hands
“When students are granted financial aid, it belogs to them.”
CampusThe RambleR | www.therambler.org November 18, 2009 | 3
Career services offers students choices
Andie [email protected]
Columbine, Virginia Tech and now Fort Hood. These massacres have people won-dering why individuals com-mit these heinous crimes.
Such tragedies often seem to have no rhyme or reason to those left to pick up the piec-es. The law can clearly say the perpetrators are wrong, but the field of psychology seeks to give an answer to the ques-tion of how these tragedies can be avoided.
“As psychologists, we are
trying to understand the mind of a criminal,” said Jer-emy Newton, professor of psychology.
Newton is embarking on teaching a special topics class for the second time at Wes-leyan. It’s a course that goes beyond forensic psychology.
It covers the gamut of courtroom proceedings to police behavior in regards to the techniques and the steps involved from a psychological standpoint.
“People are always interest-ed in profiling of the criminal mind,” Newton said.
That topic, as well as the FBI profiling system, is covered in the course.
“There are a lot of empiri-cal findings now concerning psychological studies that are relevant to the law that we will cover,” Newton said.
The first time the class was taught, the Virginia Tech massacre occurred.
“It was a very untimely trag-edy for my students,” New-ton said. “We wiped out the schedule and went over the details of the calamity. As un-fortunate as that was, it really showed the need for more re-
search in this area.”The more subtly interest-
ing things include discussing police line-ups and why wit-nesses pick the wrong person. Eye-witness memory is an important aspect of the law and yet is very sketchy.
“With the stress of the situ-ation and the way the police ask questions can taint peo-ple’s responses,” Newton said.
Also covered are poly-graphs and why the results from these tests are not ad-missible in court.
Many other topics will be offered in the course such
as false confession and why someone would be motivated to say yes when they were not responsible for the crime.
“Many times now we are seeing that people are not be-ing coerced to confess, but are more interested in the noto-riety of being an infamous character,” Newton said.
The course will touch on this aspect, as well as the over-all psyche of criminals.
“The big challenge is to un-derstand that the percentage of insane people committing crimes is actually very small,” Newton said.
This class is not just for psychology students, New-ton said. It is also useful for pre-law students and political science students who would benefit from the history of psychology and how it has in-fluenced courtroom reason-ing.
The course requires no pre-requisites.
“’Legal’ or ‘illegal’ are terms of the law, but with psychology there is more of a spectrum of different types of behaviors that we will study,” Newton said.
at Texas Wesleyan one Satur-day a month for instruction. Graduate students from Texas Wesleyan and Texas Christian University will teach the pro-gram along with coordinators from the Crowley, Everman and Fort Worth school dis-tricts.
The sixth grade students will earn ownership of an
M&A Companion Touch PC through a point system for completing community service and extracurricular school activities.
Generation Hope will also have a cultural impact. Each student will be partnered with a pen pal from a different country in order to improve their communication skills
and give them a cross-cultural understanding.
The Marion J. and Marie N. Brooks Fund created Gen-eration Hope to help develop the whole child. Several cor-porations, foundations and institutions also support the program. Michael Board, ex-ecutive of AT&T Texas, will help lead the project.
HOPE continued from page 1
Psych professor explores criminal behavior
Jonathan [email protected]
Whether it’s post-grads looking for a career or fresh-man looking for a part-time job, career services offers help.
Career services has more than 350 potential student employers, including local namesakes like Alcon Labora-tories and Northwestern Mu-tual, on file sorted by major.
Sherri Mata, director of ca-reer services, said plenty of the companies or organiza-tions the department is cur-rently working with would sit down and interview a student at once.
“They’d be 100 percent will-ing to come in and talk to or schedule a meeting with the students,” she said.
This was not always the case.
Mata came to Wesleyan in 2004 when her career services office wasn’t much more than a desk and a computer.
After reviewing the na-tional standards for university career services, Mata asked,
“What is supposed to be hap-pening?”
Mata said her first prior-ity was getting employers on board. Dr. Harold Jeffcoat, Wesleyan president, agrees.
“When career services starts to have employers vis-iting our campus wanting to recruit the top of our students to go to work,” Jeffcoat said, “that’s when I know career services is really doing well.”
Jeffcoat said career services’ current location, in the SUB, is an improvement over the old offices in the library.
“They have more overall space,” he said. “They aren’t encapsulated in the library.”
Apart from locating pos-sible positions, career services also helps with resumes, con-
ducts mock interviews and helps unsure students find their calling. This is done through the use of various tests which can rank the top 10 most ideal positions for a student.
“Research shows that if you get into a career you get into and actually like, you’re au-tomatically going to be more successful because you’re go-ing to do a good job,” said Mata, referring to students who pick the more lucrative degrees.
Coridon Laws, biology stu-dent scheduled to graduate in December, utilized career services throughout her time at Wesleyan.
“When I first came, I was in desperate need of money,” she
said. “I did the career assess-ment to see what jobs would be good.”
Laws eventually asked ca-reer services to e-mail her alerts for part-time jobs in the
area that related to her field. Laws was able to land a job
with TALEM as a wet chemis-try analyst. She learned about Talem, a local environmental testing company, through the
career services e-mail alerts.“I credit career services 100
percent,” she said. “They have helped me throughout my en-tire career.”
“I credit career services 100 percent. They have helped me throughout my entire career.”
Coridon LawsSenior Biology Student
Jonathan Resendez | Rambler StaffRobyn Fisk, college and career counselor, Lorena Gallegos, coordinator of student and employ-ee relations, and Sherri Mata, director of career services, help students with career needs.
FALL 2009 FINAL EXAM SCHEDULE
All final exams will be held as scheduled, and no exceptions will be made.
Day/Date of Exam Regular Class Period Hour of Exam
Saturday, November 21 Track A class periodSunday, November 22 Track A class periodSaturday, December 5 Track B and C class period
Track B and C class period
Thursday, December 3 4:30 pm TH 4:30 pm(Final exams for Wed & Thurs evening 6:00 pm TH 6:30 pm classes) 7:00 pm TH 7:00 pm
4:30 pm W ** 4:30 pm6:00 pm W ** 6:30 pm7:00 pm W ** 7:00 pm
Friday, December 4 9:25 am TTH 8:00 am10:50 am TTH 10:30 am1:30 pm TTH, 1:30 pm T lab 1:00 pm
Monday, December 7 9:00 am MWF 8:00 am10:00 am MWF 10:30 am1:30 pm F Lab 1:00 pm1:30 pm MW, 1:30 pm M lab 3:30 pm4:30 pm M 4:30 pm6:00 pm M 6:30 pm7:00 pm M 7:00 pm
Tuesday, December 8 8:00 am MWF 8:00 am3:00 pm TTH, 1:30 pm TH lab 10:30 am3:00 pm MW, 1:30 pm W lab 1:00 pm4:30 pm T 4:30 pm6:00 pm T 6:30 pm7:00 pm T 7:00 pm
Wednesday, December 9 8:00 am TTH 8:00 am11:00 am MWF 10:30 am12:00 pm MW or MWF 1:00 pm
Please Note:
** Note: the Wednesday evening classes will be moved to an alternate location for the Final Exam. Instructors will notify students of room change.
Any online course exams requiring students to meet on campus are scheduled for4 pm and 6 pm on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 4 & 5. Students should check with theirinstructor for date, time & room confirmation.
Sunday, December 6
Students with conflicting exam times should consult with the professor for arrangements.
College Life4 | November 18, 2009 The RambleR | www.therambler.org
Josephine [email protected]
Wesleyan students seek a chance to better the world by joining the Invisible Children organization.
Invisible Children is a glob-al organization working to stop the civil war in Uganda and the forced enlistment of child soldiers.
“It seeks to end the human suffering of the people af-fected,” said Rebecca Moore, political science major.
Moore said she learned about the Invisible Children group by watching its videos through Facebook and was touched by the reality of the children’s suffering.
“Being a compassionate person on human suffering, I started analyzing a possibility of an end to the war,” she said.
Moore said she joined IC and networked with thou-sands of others who had the same goal of ending the war in Uganda.
One fellow Wesleyan stu-dent who shares Moore’s ini-tiative is sophomore political science major Felicia Nunez.
“I hope to see an end to the war and the problem solved amicably. It is not right for anyone, especially children, to be forced into a war,” Nunez said.
Last year, Moore and Nunez attended a meeting of the an-ti-war crusaders in Austin.
“There were over a 150 rep-resentatives from all over the world,” Moore said. “All with the same goal of ending the 23- year LRA war in Africa.”
Moore said she plans to get more involved with Invisible Children and has applied for a roadie position with the IC and hopes to secure the posi-tion.
Nunez said she has applied for an internship to work for the Invisible Children organi-zation as well.
“This will help me work closely in ways to bringing
change,” she said.Roadies travel to assigned
regions around the world in sticker wrapped vans. They share newest IC media to hundreds of students.
But Moore and Nunez want to involve the Wesleyan com-munity with the IC as well.
Moore said Wesleyan has signed up as a contributor to fund the organization.
“We hopefully are soon launching a book and T-shirt sale at Wesleyan that will help raise funds,” Moore said.
Moore said she encourages Wesleyan to participate as a whole by giving donations and promoting the IC orga-nization through social net-works.
“The [Invisible Children] organization seeks 150,000
signatures by December 2009 to have the end of the war de-clared by the White house,” Moore said.
Moore said donations are mainly used to build schools and rebuild homes that were destroyed as a result of the war. They also support former child soldiers and rehabilitate them and support children with families suffering from
the HIV/AIDS pandemic.She said schools with the
greatest contributions will be able to send some of their stu-dents to attend an all expense paid trip to Uganda to witness the usage of their funds.
Hand-made bracelets from Uganda will also be given to contributors.
Students and student groups alike recognize the op-portunity that contributing to Invisible Children presents.
Risa Lewis, a junior political science major, said Wesleyan can help bring a lot of change by signing up and contribut-ing to the organization.
Heath Scott, president of the Student Government As-sociation, said it is important for Wesleyan to support the cause Invisible Children ad-vocates.
“Contributing toward the IC is a great cause for Wes-leyan,” Scott said. “I support the cause and it’s in my inter-est to negotiate for an increase in the funding of the IC by SGA.”
Moore said that a $1,000 bill has been presented to SGA for approval, as a kick off for Wesleyan contributions.
“I am hopeful that Wes-leyan will come together and make this thing happen,” Moore said.
Scott said the bill is up for debate, and he is anticipating its approval.
“I encourage all students to use their social networks and inform all their friends,” Moore said. “Together we can end the war and make a dif-ference.”
Stephanie [email protected]
With the smell of Thanks-giving turkey and mashed po-tatoes right around the corner, Wesleyan students look ahead to the season of Christmas trees, lights and gift giving.
As finals approach, Texas Wesleyan students look for-ward to the holiday break as an opportunity to relax from the stress of homework, tests and projects. The holiday season will also give students time to spend with family and friends.
Sandy Gonzalez, a junior history and pre-law major said she plans to spend the holiday break visiting her sister Gabriella Gonzaga in Orange County, Calif. It has been three years since they last saw each other.
During her stay Gonzalez said she also plans to visit Dis-neyland and Universal Stu-dios Hollywood.
“I’m super excited about go-
ing! It’s like being a kid again,” Gonzalez said.
But, regardless of whether Gonzalez goes to these tour-ist destinations, her favorite part of the holidays will be to spend quality time with her family.
“On Christmas my family gets together and we cook tur-key,” Gonzalez said. “We also eat buñuelos, tamales, posole and other Mexican foods.”
Samantha Greer, a fresh-man biology major and soc-cer player for Texas Wesleyan, will also leave the dorms to spend Christmas with her family.
“I live about 20 minutes away, and all of my family is close, so we just hang out and cook,” Greer said. “My dad, mom, sister and I always have a really big dinner on Christ-mas.”
Her favorite part of the holi-days is that no matter how old she and her sister, Morgan, have grown, they still stick to the same Christmas tradi-
tions.“We make cookies and
watch Polar Express,” Greer said.
International student, Ar-mando Villarreal, a junior finance major, is looking for-ward to the holiday break after finals so he can visit his family, friends and girlfriend in Los Mochis, Sinaloa [Mex-ico].
“We usually have a big din-ner at my grandparent’s house on Dec. 24,” Villarreal said. “On New Year’s we usually go to our family beach house in Sonora [Mexico].”
Villarreal, a golf player at Texas Wesleyan, will also take advantage of his time in Sinaloa to practice a lot of golf because of the great weather that is expected there.
Even though each student’s plans for celebrating the holi-days differ, they can all look forward to a chance to tak-ing a break from school and hopefully sleeping in a little longer.
Laura Rosser | Rambler StaffRebecca Moore and Student Government President Heath Scott discuss SGA issues. Rebecca Moore remains an active partici-pant in the Invisible Children organization and also serves the Wesleyan community as a member of SGA.
Invisible Children
WANTED
Seeking applicants for ALL positions in the Spring 2010 semester
The Rambler is looking for YOU!
If you are interested and would like to applyplease visit www.therambler.org
or stop by the Human Resources Officelocated in the Administration Building
Don’t Miss Your Opportunity!
Sharing the season
Sensual Soliloquies Special guest from The Fort Worth Poetry Slams Mike Guinn, and Vice President of Zeta Phi Beta Courtney Hickerson hosted the Open- Mic Night Nov. 13. The event saw a mixture of skits, poetry readings and songs themed with love, relationships and sensual exploration performed by Wesleyan students and members of the Fort Worth Poetry Slams.
Wesleyan students unite under common cause for peace
Conner Howell | Rambler Staff
Arts & EntertainmentThe RambleR | www.therambler.org November 18, 2009 | 5
Chuck’s Cheap Thrills: Student discount dealsChuck [email protected]
These are tough economic times and blah, blah, blah. I won’t bore you with another summation of our nation’s economic situation. As students, we’re no strangers to tough economic situations, as our wallets are always stretched thin regardless of how the over-all economy is doing.
So, once again, through the tireless efforts of the Chuck’s Cheap Thrills team, we present another money-saving scenario – using your student ID.
We all whip out our Wes-leyan IDs at the movie theaters to get discount tickets, but did you know what else your student ID can get you?
For starters, Microsoft is of-fering a generous discount on its new version of Windows.
I know, I know. I’m just as ticked as all of you for the release of Windows 7 on the heels of Vista (an especially hard blow to those of us who have purchased a computer in the last few years), but I think they’re trying to make up for it, to us students, anyway.
From now until Jan. 3
students can purchase Win-dows 7 Home Premium or Professional for $29.99. You can also get the 07 Microsoft
Office Ultimate for $59.95. Apple offers student deals
as well, but it is usually in the way of a 10 percent discount on selected items. Go to www.win741.com or www.apple.com for more computer discount deals.
Another source for cheap thrills is www.studentrate.com. This site requires you to create an account, but they don’t require any personal information such as credit
card or billing address, only a valid school e-mail address. It’s completely free, and once you’ve signed in there’s an array of dis-
counts available.Some dis-
counts are in the form of a print-able coupon, some have online codes that give access to these savings secrets.
Businesses such as T-Mobile, Nike, Sketchers, Target, Wal-Mart, Gap and Old Navy are all there just waiting to save you money. Discounts vary from the meager 10 percent to a whopping 50 to 75 percent. Go to www.studen-trate.com to see what’s available.
There’s also student rush tickets available at local theaters such as Bass hall, Casa Ma-nana and Circle Theatre. These are usually half
price or less and are available usually an hour or 30 minutes before curtain – with a valid student ID.
Many restaurants, fast food places, bars, bookstores, muse-ums, retailers, travel agents and car rental places offer a variety of student discounts as well.
Before you put money down on anything, you should always remember that magic phrase, “Do you offer any student discounts?”
Mixing up MozartMusic prepares opera workshop
Amanda [email protected]
The Texas Wesleyan music department’s opera work-shop will present Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte on Nov. 24 at Martin Hall.
The opera workshop is a class aimed at vocalists, which teaches techniques
for presenting opera. As part of the class, an opera perfor-mance is given at the end of the semester.
This year the class is pre-senting an abridged version of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte. Cosi Fan Tutte is a com-edy about two friends who scheme to test their lover’s fidelity by posing as foreign-ers.
“This is quite a larger proj-ect than we’ve [done] up to this time in my five years,” said Julie McCoy, associate professor of music. “This is new territory for us.”
Because the opera only has six characters, each role has been multi-cast by the 19 students. Each character will wear a specific color throughout the perfor-
mance to help the audience differentiate between them.
“The continuity is estab-lished by the costuming,” McCoy said.
Senior vocal performance major Ashlie Averyt, who is one of the performers play-ing Dorabella, enjoys the ap-proach.
“It has been kind of crazy but really fun,” Averyt said.
“It’s going to be really fun to watch.”
The opera will be present-ed in English, and admis-sion is free. McCoy believes it will be accessible to the audience.
“[Operas are] really sto-ries about what people go through still to this day,” she said. “They really have to do with human nature.”
X marks the spotAmanda Edmondson [email protected]
Looking for a place to ex-press yourself? The Open Mic Night at the Coffee X Spot is the place for students to let it all out.
Located on the corner of Wesleyan and Rosedale, the Coffee X Spot, which opened in March, started the open mic night as a way to bring students and members of the community into the coffee shop.
“[We wanted] to let people know we were here,” said Donna Griffin, co-owner of the Coffee X Spot.
Participants can come and perform poetry or any other form of personal expression. Performers are not limited in the language or type of perfor-mance they choose. The own-ers advise parents that this event may not be suitable to younger audiences.
“It’s free expression,” Griffin said. “We don’t limit them.”
The first poetry slam drew a large crowd. According to Judy Birdow, an employee at the Coffee X Spot, it was good company coupled with good poetry.
“I had such a good time,” she said. “It didn’t really feel like I was working.”
Despite the turnout at the first event, the Coffee X Spot has had trouble sustaining the crowd.
Veronica Richard, co-owner of the Coffee X Spot, empha-sizes that they are still learning and trying to find the best way to serve the school. They’ve even added a karaoke night.
“We’ve got to find a night that works best for everyone,” she said.
Photo courtesy of Amanda EdmondsonThe music department prepares to perform Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte on Nov. 24.
Photo courtesy of dreamstime.comThank you God for student discounts. Now send me a car.
Sports6 | November 18, 2009 The RambleR | www.therambler.org
“When you get that nice celebration coming into the dugout and you’re getting your ass hammered by guys—there’s no better feeling than to have that done.”
Matt StairsMLB pinch hitter
Game Time/Place
Wednesday JV Basketball vs.Eastfield College
7 p.m.Mesquite
FridayWomen’s Basketball vs. Lubbock Christian UniversityMen’s Basketball vs.Arlington Baptist C.
5 p.m.Lubbock
7:30 p.m.Sid W. Rich.
Monday JV Basketball vs.Arlington Baptist C.
6 p.m.Dallas
Tuesday
Women’s Basketball vs. Mid-America Christian UniversityMen’s Basketball vs.Oklahoma City Univ.
6 p.m.Sid W. Rich.
8 p.m.Sid W. Rich.
Upcoming Sports
WesleyanWeek-in-Sports
•The Lady Rams Volleyballteam(16-17)sufferedaseason-ending3-2(22-25,19-25,25-16,25-23,15-11)losstoOurLadyoftheLakeUniversityinthefirstroundoftheRedRiverAthleticConferenctour-namentNov.13.Duringthetournament,theLadyRams’AngelicaArroyoandKristenVenhuizenreceivedhonorableall-conferencehonors,KaitlynLoweswasnamedsecondteamall-conferenceandBrittneyPerson,DestinyClemonsandChelsyCov-ingtonreceivedfirstteamall-confernecehonors.CovingtonalsoreceivedthehonorofDefensiveSpecialistoftheYear.
•TheLady Rams Basketball team(1-2)suffereda68-50losstoEvangelUniversityNov.13.TheLadyRamsthendroppedagame70-52toRogersStateUniver-sityNov.14.
•The Rams Basketballteam(2-3)lost75-59toOklaho-maBaptistUniversityNov.10beforefollowingupwithwinsagainstSouth-westernAdventistUniver-sity(119-60)Nov.13andSterlingCollege(70-68)Nov.14.
Looking for a place to call Home?
Housing is still available on campus
Singles Doubles
Dorms and Apartments
All to yourself! Get a roommate!
Stella, Elizabeth, and Wesleyan Village!For more information
Contact Residence Life at817-413-5000
The Weekly Sports Quote
Daniel [email protected]
Good teams rebuild, whilegreatteamsreload.
Thatisexactlythecasewiththe Texas Wesleyan men’sbasketball team.The team iscoming off another impres-sivewinningseason,postinga29-5recordandreachingtheSweet 16 in last year’sNAIAnationaltournament.
Head Coach Terry Wal-drop knows that hard workisaheadfortheRamsif theywishtocontinuetobeatop-tierprogram.
“Following a 29-5 season,we certainly have our workcutoutforus,”hesaid.
Waldrop wasted no timeafter last year’s heartbreak-inglossintheNAIANationalTournamentandlookedtore-loadhissquad.The87-75losscame at the hands of McK-endree University in a closegameinlastyear’sSweet16.
The team lost four seniorsincluding First-Team All-American Chris Berry. Thisyear’seditionfeaturesastrongrecruiting class and experi-enced underclassmen. The
recruitingclassincludesthreetransferstudentswholooktomake an immediate impacthavingplayedatNCAADivi-sionIprogramslastyear.
JeremySmith,junior,comesfrom nearby University ofTexasatArlingtonisexpectedto see playing time immedi-ately.JeremyHavard,a6-foot-8-inch junior from HoustonBaptist,andJeremyMayfield,a 6-foot-10-inch junior fromtheUniversityofAlabamaatBirminghamlooktoaddsizetotheteam.
Allwasn’t lostwith thede-partureofBerry.All-Confer-ence forwards Terrell HenryandHectorMukweyiarebackfor their senior campaignsandlooktoaddtothesuccessoftheschool’sbasketballpro-gram.
Henry, a senior communi-cationmajor, looks tofill theleadershiprolethatBerryhadlastseason.
“TryingtoreplacesomeonelikeChrisBerryisalmostim-possible because of the typeof player hewas,” he said. “IfeelthatIneedtobemoreofaleaderthisyear.Hector[Muk-weyi] and I have to step up
andprovide thatsenior lead-ershipthatwehadlastyear.”
TexasWesleyanhasbecomeapowerhouse inrecentyearsunder Waldrop. The Ramshave114wins inthe lastfiveyears placing them third asone of the most successfulbasketball programs at anycollegelevel,trailingonlytheUniversityofTexas(129)andTexasA&MUniversity(119).
“Iamveryhumbledthatwearementionedwithsuchpres-tigiouscoachesandprogramsas those,” Waldrop said. “Ibelieve it says a tremendousamount about the characterand commitment of the stu-dentathleteswehaverecruit-edandalsoourcoachingstafftobeable to sustain thesuc-cesswehavehadonthecourtthelastnumberofyears.”
TheRamsbeganconferenceplay Dec. 17 versus WileyCollege.All home games areplayed in theSidRichardsonCenter,andadmissionis freewith a student ID. Formoreinformationonthemen’sbas-ketball team, visit the homepage at www.txwes.edu/athletics/m-basketball.
Courtesy of the athletic departmentSenior Terrell Henry
Courtesy of the athletic departmentSophomore Ashley Bringol
Daniel [email protected]
Coach Stacy Francis andthe word “success” go hand-in-hand.
Last season Francis sur-passed the105victorymark,becoming women’s basket-ball’s most winningest coachatTexasWesleyan.This year,FrancisandhersquadlooktoaddtothatsuccessandmakeaseriousrunattheRedRiverAthleticConferencetitle.
“Six players left, and sevenreturned,” she said. “I expecttheninenewtransferstudentsto bring experience and en-ergytotheteam.”
The woman’s basketballteam kicked off the regularseasonwitha64-62winoverSt. Gregory University butknowsthatthereisstillalotofworkaheadofthem.
TheLadyRamshavesevenreturningplayersand10newfacesthisseason.Theteamisconsideredtobefairlyyoung,having only four seniors onthe17-womanroster.
“Once the team chemistryforms,Ibelievewewillbesuc-cessful,”Francissaid.
Sophomoremarketingma-jor Ashley Bringol said thatthemajordifferencebetweenthis year’s team and that ofyears past is the number ofnewplayers.
“Theteamchemistryisstillbuilding, but we still plan tomake it tonationals this sea-son,”shesaid.
AndsheknowsFranciswill
bethereeverystepofthewaymaking sure this team has asuccessfulseason.
“Playing for such an ac-complished coach is a greatfeeling,” Bringol said. “Herknowledgeandexperiencere-allygivesusconfidenceinthesystem. She has affectedmeasaplayerbymakingmebe-comemorepatient.”
AlsonewtothefoldisAs-sistantCoachBillFraneywhobrings more than 35 yearsof high school and collegecoaching experience to the
LadyRams. Franey, a gradu-ate of Southern Illinois Uni-versity,hasan85percentwin-ning percentage at the highschoolandcollegelevel.
The Lady Rams openedconferenceplayagainstWileyCollegeDec. 17.Their homegamescanbe seenat theSidRichardson Center. Admis-sionisfreewithastudentID.
For more information onthewomen’s basketball team,visit the home page at www.txwes.edu/athletics/w-basket-ball.
Jacqueline [email protected]
Haveyoueverwonderedwhat’sgoingoninthegameorwhythatcrazyfanisyell-ingatthereferee?Worrynomore.
We have the insider’sguide tobasketball inorderforyoutolearntherulesandlingoofthegame.
Nowyouwillsoundlikeaprowhenyoucheerandyellat the basketball game.Getout there, join in the fun,andcheeronyourRams!
For the complete guide,visit www.therambler.org/sports.
The Game
• The game consists oftwo20minutehalves.
• Thegamebeginswithajumpball(tipoff).
• Theplayerschangeendsbeforethenextgamebegins.
• Each teamgets four75secondtimeoutsandtwo30secondtimeouts.
• If a player is fouledwhile shooting, she getstwo free throws if the shotdoesn’t go in or one freethrowistheshotdoesgoin.• If a team commits tenormorefoulsinahalf,thentheplayerwhowasfouledisawardedtwofreethrows.
Basketball Lingo
“Alley-Oop”An offensive play when
one player throws the ballnear the basket to a team-matewhojumpsandscoresabasketinmid-air.
“Layup” A close-range shot made
on the move by using onehand tobounce theball offthe backboard and into thebasket.
“Charging” Anoffensivefoul;whena
playerpushesorrunsoveradefensiveplayer.
Guide to the Game: BasketballWaldrop looks to return to the national ball scene
Women’s basketball building, Francis brings in experience
