THE STERLING KANSAS BULLETIN * THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2011, PAGE 7*
The offical student-run newspaper of Sterling College
Volume 115 issue 1
Getting to know:
Dr. Raymond Anderson
By JON FAULKNER Staff Writer
Sterling College freshman class start their journey on the front steps of Cooper Hall Photo by Courtney Huber
Starting the year with spirit By Sarah Tucker SGA President
When I stepped onto campus in the middle of August for my final year at Sterling College, I could tell something was different. I felt a new vibe in the air, and this vibe has remained throughout the start of the fall semester. After pondering about the change, I finally concluded that the difference is an increase in school pride. I’ve made a few observations that scream school pride to me. 1.) Over 60 students volunteered to be on Orientation Staff. They returned a week early and completed campus service projects to help prepare to welcome the new students. 2.) Students are buzzing about the first SC athletic events, and each team is embracing the support and getting involved on campus like never before. A new student even showed up to Highland Games in a kilt! 3.) People are hanging out in the Union, enjoying making memories together before homework piles up.
Speaking of classes, how about the new faculty and staff on campus!? In addition, thanks to everyone for taking the email debacle in stride, and understanding that small inconveniences like this now mean better results in the future. SC Warriors, here is my challenge to you: Embrace the pride that is building on campus, and help it develop throughout the year. Support the athletic teams. Go to events and perfomances and gently correct people when they get down on your college. Warriors, we have something special here. Take pride in each day and remember that you are what make this college great. As the Student Government President, I’m excited to watch the pride in Sterling College grow. SGA has many plans to continue enhancing the student experience and improve the campus. I hope you will continue to be involved in all of the great things that SC has to offer and that you take ownership in making SC great! Go WARRIORS!
If you are in the Arts and Communication building this semester you might see a new face teaching communications classes. His name is Dr. Raymond Anderson, and he’s the new communications professor here at Sterling College, replacing Dr. Don Frick in a full time capacity. Dr. Anderson comes to SC from Jamaica, with a degree in Marine Biology from Regent. He worked in business management for a large fishing market, and then as he got older he began to find his interest in media being renewed so he decided to go back to school to get a degree in media. During his time in school he was asked by George Fox to build up their communications department. Since then he has worked in churches in Jamaica but felt like he needed to go back into teaching so he applied to work at the Oregonbased American Intercontinental University. After teaching there for a while he felt like he needed to go some-
THISWEEK New IT department initiated through e-mail server collapse Today. Fuel @ 8 PM
Friday. Volleyball Sterling vs. Southwestern College 7 PM Saturday. Cross Country @ Tabor Women’s Soccer vs. Northwestern College 2 PM Men’s Soccer vs. John Brown University 3 PM Football vs. Southwestern College 6:oo PM Sunday. Chapel @ 7 p.m.
NEWSBITES
Sterling Drinking Water
In a letter sent out to all Sterling residents by the Sterling water company it was said that Sterling’s drinking water contained an unusually high amount of uranium and was dangerous to people with certain medical conditions. It might be time to start considering bottled water instead of the drinking fountains.
Editor Wanted Have experience in journalism? Interested in layout experience? Want to help run the STIR? Send an email to tluisi01@sterling.edu or fsquires@sterling.edu. We look forward to your application.
By TIM LUISI Editor-In-Chief
After two weeks of desperate scrambling on the part of the Sterling College IT department that saw four power outages, a loss of one of the school’s hard lines, and a total network crash, campus email services have finally been restored to SC. “Woohoo, we get to sleep!” Director of Information and Technology Mykeal Pitts said. “It [restoring the email] feels great. It has been a long long week.” Dealing with older hardware and a very limited amount of RAM, the IT Department, which was itself a completely new staff from the last semester, had predicted that a crash was not only possible, but also extremely likely. “We have too many single points of failure on this network, across the entire campus, across the entire network,” Pitts said. “The day I walked in, the first thing I looked at was, ‘single points of failure everywhere.’ From the begin-
ning our goal has always been, ‘we can’t have all these single points of failure; not like this.’” Calling the crash, a ‘catastrophic failure’ and ‘the worst situation’ that he had seen in over twenty years of working in the internet field, Pitts knew that the system would require much more than just a patchwork job like had been done in the past; it would require a complete upgrade of the system. “The corruption was just so deep that even doing all the recommended steps, everything that you’re supposed to do, we’d run into issue after issue after issue,” Pitts said. “Both the server crashed and the database crashed, not just one or the other. So one problem was leading to another problem and that’s why we ended up having to rebuild the whole thing.” Having successfully accomplished upgrading the entire system in less than a week, Sterling can now move forward with some very exciting technological
additions for the campus including new printers for the dorms, the ability for students to print files directly from their personal computers to the library printers, and a segmenting of the system that will make everything on the school’s network run faster. SC should be able to stream video online at a previously unthinkable speed and Moodle and email, also, should both be operating at an efficiency unlike anything SC has ever known. While all of these are exciting developments, perhaps the most important is that SC should now be able to handle the growth that the college has been pushing for in recent years. “Everyone’s going to see a huge performance increase,” Pitts said. “With the support of the faculty, staff, the vice presidents, and Dr. Maurer, that’s what they want. They want us to be moving into the 21st century with this network, and we’ve got to, to support the students the way they need to be supported.”
where in the mid-west and that is how he ended up at Sterling College. What does that mean for you and I? It most definitely means an improved Communication department, which has struggled to keep a consistent professor in the past. One of the areas Anderson hopes to build up is in media production. “I want to see a Media Major… one that emphasizes multimedia, media ministry, and sound design,” Anderson said. Anderson also said that he was looking forward to continuing to work with students like he did previously in Oregon. “I want to be a part of forming young minds” Anderson said. “I really like the servant leadership aspect of Sterling College.” I hope that you are looking forward to what Dr. Anderson is to bringing to Sterling and that you will make sure if you get the chance you stop in and greet the newest addition to the Sterling Staff and family.
SC Freshmen Demographics
Number Enrolled: 206 Freshmen: 133 Transfers: 73 Average Freshman High School GPA (fully admitted): 3.3 Average Freshman ACT (fully admitted): 22.2 Average Transfer GPA: 2.94 Number of Alumni Kids: 14 Residents: 192 Commuters: 14 Valedictorians: 3 Female: 89 Male: 117 Baptist: 31 Non-Denominational: 30 Catholic: 26 Methodist: 15 Presbyterian: 10 The new students represent twenty-four states, with 91 from Kansas, 28 from California, and 17 from Texas. For the last three years, 25 randomly chosen incoming students have taken an evaluating writing test. On a scale of 0 to 6, 2011’s representative sample scored an average of 3.875 on the essay. The sample of students enrolled in 2010 and 2009 scored 3.727 and 3.5 respectively
PAGE 8 * THE STERLING KANSAS BULLETIN * THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2011
stir.sterling.edu
S S
SPORTS & OPINIONS
The Weekly Sports Wrap By ERIK DAHL Sports Editor
The Warrior Women’s Soccer team wrapped up a tough week against some stiff competition finishing 1-2 after a trip to Nebraska. On Tuesday the women played host to a Strong Bacone College team that came ready to play. After four injuries to Warrior players and 1-0 lead in the first half, Bacone capitalized by adding three more goals leading to a 4-0 shutout. Over the weekend, the Lady Warriors drove to Nebraska for a two game set. On Friday, the women played York College in York, Nebraska. A good offensive attack and solid defense helped Sterling to a 3-0 victory. On her first game back off injury, senior Paige Farmer earned her first shutout of the season. To wrap up the road trip, the women dropped a game to Concordia University in a 2-0 loss. Also on the trip was the Men’s Soccer team. The men didn’t fare as well as the women, dropping both their
games over the weekend. The men and women’s teams both play on Friday; the women host Southwest Oklahoma and the men, looking for their first win of the season, travel to play John Brown University. Playing four matches during the week was the Women’s Volleyball team, going an even 2-2 on the week. The ladies took on conference rival Friends University Tuesday in what turned out to be a real grudge-match. After winning the first set in decisive fashion and dropping the second and third sets, Sterling fought to win the fourth set and forced a fifth set. The deciding set was a grueling test for both sides, but Friends came out on top. On Thursday the Warriors took on another KCAC rival in Tabor College. This match was another heartbreaker for Sterling as they lost again in five sets. The weekend fared much better for the lady’s when they won two matches against Central Christian and McPherson, earning them their first
conference win of the year. The Lady Warriors host Bethany College on Wednesday and Southwestern College on Friday. The Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams traveled to Lubbock, Texas Friday for the Texas Tech Red Raider Open. The Men’s team, running an 8k race, were led by sophomore Jared Reimer and freshman Cody Rodriguez who both moved there names up in the Sterling record books. Reimer moved to third on the list with a time of 28:21 and Rodriguez up to eighth with a mark of 28:40. The Warriors top-5 runners all ran under 30:00, which had only been done by 15 other men in the last 12 years. On a very long 5k course, senior Sara Doll, followed closely by senior Jillian Linnebur, led the Women’s team. “We are in shape and getting faster,” said coach Jack Dillard. “Times should start dropping for both the men and women.” Both teams run next at Harvey County East Lake for the Tabor Invitational on Saturday.
TOP: A group of Warrior runners make their way through a grueling 8k course in Lubbock, TX. Photo by Hans Nickel BOTTOM LEFT: Sophomore Ciara Ramos tips a ball over her opponents during tournament play last weeken. Photo by Hans Nickel BOTTOM RIGHT: Junior Anely Laguna shields the ball from an opponent against York College. Photo by Hans Nickel
Your Sparkling Talking Cinema With Tim Death Coming album review Falling
Up
By JON FAULKNER Staff Writer
In a year that has seen the return of many great names in Christian Music it is good to see Falling Up give an addition to that list. After 2009’s “Fangs” it seemed like the band had all but dissolved, but 2011 sees the return of Christian Radio’s favorite alternative Rock band with the release of “Your Sparkling Death Cometh”, an independently released full length album that does not fail to deliver. Although the album is a bit lengthy, with the shortest track being just under four minutes and the longest just over six, and there are no real radio friendly tracks, the album still shows that the band can play their instruments. It also displays the band’s ability to grow and branch out into different styles while staying true their own individual sound. Fans of the bands earlier music will find just enough of the sound on tracks like “Circadian” and “The Light Beam Rider” that made earlier albums popular, while new fans will find the diversity in the tracks very desirable.
Lyrically, Falling Up couldn’t have gone deeper if they had tried. Each and every track has a message to be heard, exploring the darkest places of the soul and showing how the light of the gospel penetrates us. “The Light Beam Rider” deals with our ability to destroy others but then shows us that grace is present when we act out. “Oceans” speaks to the heart but also serves as a great worship song. “If your hearts and ocean I will drown, under the waves, I will find love”, the song proclaims. “Blue Ghosts” goes deeper into the transformative work on Christ while also talking about his returning. Each song also discusses the theme of God’s grace and how it works in our hearts. If you are looking for an album that will encourage you and challenge you or just one with good music and lyrics you don’t have to look any further than Falling Up’s Your Sparkling Death Cometh. In short, this is a nearly perfect example of the writing ability and musicianship of this great band! Rating 5 out of 5 (ARL 9/10)
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Editor-in-Chief.....................................................................Tim Luisi Assistant Editor..............................................................Ryan Corwin Sports Editor........................................................................Erik Dahl Staff Writers..........................................................................Tim Kerr Jon Faulkner Vance Stegman Photographers......................................................................Tim Luisi Hans Nickel Faculty Advisor.............................................................Felicia Squires Contact us: E-mail: stir1@sterling.edu The Stir is produced by Sterling College students and printed weekly in and by the Sterling Bulletin, Sterling, Kansas. We seek to serve the Sterling College community with news and information. We work toward goals of honesty and integrity while always seeking the truth. We also work with an understanding of service to a Christian community. Letters to the editor must be signed and legible. Letters are subject to editing for style and spelling and will be printed at the editors’ discretion. Letters should not be longer than 350 words. Letters must be received by 3 p.m. the Tuesday before the print date (Thursday). Opinions presented on the Opinion page do not necessarily represent the views of Sterling College. Address letters to The Stir, SC Box 8, 125 W. Cooper, Sterling, KS 67579. Email submissions are accepted and must be sent to stir1@sterling.edu.
The Beaver starring Mel Gibson
As a film fan there is probably nothing more frustrating then beginning a movie and loving what you are seeing, only to witness it take a wrong step and continually unravel the longer it keeps going. Unfortunately and despite an incredibly gutsy and moving performance at its core, The Beaver is one such film. Starring Mel Gibson, Anton Yelchin, and Jodie Foster (who also directed the film), the film tells the story of Walter Black (Gibson), a man who struggles to find meaning in his life. In the films own words “It was as if Walter had died and had forgotten to take his body along with him.” Ready to kill himself, he is stopped only when he hears a voice come from a beaver puppet;; his voice. Taking on this new persona of the beaver, Black is able to see life through fresh eyes and tries to make amends with the people in his life who he has hurt including his estranged wife (Foster) and son (Yelchin). When focusing on this part of the story, the film is engaging and thought provoking, thanks mostly to Gibson himself who gives a career best performance here and one that is entirely worthy of Oscar attention. Gibson takes what could have been an absurd portrayal and makes it feel entirely genuine instead. Whenever he is onscreen and no matter how ridiculous some of his dialogue may be (more on that in a second) the audience will be glued to him, an actor giving two different performances simultaneously: one as the charismatic bea-
ver and the other as the silent Walter who is desperately trying to reemerge. There is a subtlety and skill here that has seldom shown through in Gibson’s career. Instead of just playing another version of himself he is truly digging to find a character and he succeeds wildly, bringing forth layers and emotions that bury anything else in the film. If this were only a character study, it would be one of the best films of the year. Its script, however, seems to
want to be something more ambitious: a message to all depressed people that there is hope out there. Unfortunately by trying to make this larger point, the film includes a host of subplots, each more generic than the last and characters that are far closer to caricatures, each coming with their own grocery list of quirks that only help to take away focus from the one great thing the film possesses. The people surrounding Walter are not real;; they are annoying and useless, much like the film’s biggest problems: its editing, script and direction. Whenever the film seems to actually be building to something, it cuts away, content to let these pivotal moments happen off- screen. What could have been potentially brilliant becomes lost among a host of frustrating montages and terribly clichéd moments. The pacing too is poor, going far too fast at the beginning and end of
the film and never allowing true character development to take place.The music that drowns out several key moments doesn’t add anything to the film and just as pointless are the inane camera angles that Foster chooses to employ, making it look as if nothing was preplanned for the film, but was just thrown together on the day of shooting. As muddled as the technical work on the film is, it seems to have even less of an idea of what it wants to say, having no clear message for its audience other than a very generic hang in there. This is especially insulting, since the character the audience is supposed to identify with in the film, clearly states at one point that this message is worthless, but it is the one the filmmakers choose to tell its audience anyway. By the time it reaches its cringe worthy final moments, the audience will have lost all interest, annoyed by the writer’s apparent apathy towards his own subject and Foster’s incompetence behind the camera. Gibson is a revelation in this film and it is worth checking the film out on his merits alone, but it is nothing if not a shame that the rest of the film could not have lived up to his standards, hiding what should have been one of the most acclaimed performances of the year under a pile of poor decisions and choices that would have been more befitting of a student film than one made by one of Hollywood’s supposed elite. Initial Rating: 4/10