COLLEGIAN THE CA M ERON U N I V ER SIT Y
Monday, April 4, 2005
News
Informing the Cameron Family Since 1926
Group provides volunteer opportunities By Sarah Warren Staff Writer
CU grad student earns publication and award for a personal non-fiction work. PLEASE SEE PAGE 4
A&E
Habitat for Humanity has been in Lawton since 1996 and providing homes for the needy ever since. Biology junior Kim Bratton is spearheading the effort to gain more volunteers here at Cameron. Bratton has been involved with the volunteer program since she was a sophomore in high school and is looking forward to getting more CU students involved. Bratton includes CU students of all ages in her recruiting effort. She looks forward to having everyone participate so Cameron can eventually have it’s own collegiate chapter. “Since Cameron is unconventional we want everyone involved,” she said. “What the collegiate chapters do is fund raise so we can eventually start our own builds,” Bratton said. Bratton has helped on many builds and hopes to spread the word of Habitat for Humanity’s efforts through flyers and meetings. “We’ve built four or five houses since I’ve been on board; it’s a fun experience,” she said. “We have a meeting scheduled for April 14 at 7 p.m. at the Cameron Campus Ministry,” Bratton said. Habitat for Humanity is a volunteer program
aimed at building homes for those in need. Tanna Vu, who is in charge of public relations for Habitat for Humanity, says that the program tries to do as many projects a year as possible. “We’ve only been doing about one a year. But this year is a little unusual. We have a women’s build, collegiate challenge and a blitz build coming up shortly. We’ve built eight homes this year and we have room for more potential,” Vu said. One of the problems the home building projects face is the lack of participation or volunteers. According Lawton’s ofPhoto by Scott Pratt fice manager Jewell Tieyah, the Men on a mission: Volunteers work on a Habitat for Hutime spent on finishing homes manity project on “C” Avenue. can be a difference of a couple of months. only eligible to participate in the collegiate chal“It all depends on the volunteers; sometimes lenges, they have the opportunity to work on we get a truck load. With a good turn out it any Habitiat for Humanity project. could take up to three to four months and we “We try to have a collegiate challenge once only work on Thursday, Friday, and Saturdays,” Tieyah said. According to Vu, Cameron students are not Please see PROJECTS, page 3
Campaign trail Writer surprised at Bari Koral’s new CD, “Confessions of an Indiegirl.”
Staff Writer
Sports
Photo by Anna Politano
PLEASE SEE PAGE 8
Jenny Jackson puts up a campaign sign in front of the Davis Student Union with the help of her parents, Tony and Debbie Jackson, and running mate Johanna Brenner. Campaigning for Student Government Association positions began Wednesday. Candidates’ platforms are presented on page 2, Students may cast votes tomorrow at the Student Activities Building, or register their votes by logging onto CAMSIS.
As students prepare to vote in CU SGA elections, the candidates offer their ideas. PLEASE SEE PAGE 2
Office: Nance Boyer 2060 Phone: 580•581•2261 E-mail us at : collegian@cameron.edu First Copy Free - $.25 for each additional copy Contents © The Collegian 2005
The Area Health Education Center’s (AHEC) mission is to improve the quality of health care in Oklahoma’s rural and urban communities. Cameron University’s Southwest AHEC provides seminars and classes to educate the Lawton community and CU students who are interested in healthcare careers or further knowledge of health issues in a wide range of areas. Kelley Hall, director of Southwest AHEC, applies this mission to the parenting classes that AHEC is currently providing at CU. “Knowledge is power and I would go to [the parenting classes] myself, even without having had children,” Hall said. “If we can help people learn
how to be parents, then we are equipping our community for what lies ahead.” Held in South Shepler Room 402, the parenting classes began March 21 and will continue each Monday from 7-9 p.m. through May 9. The next session will be April 4 and the facilitator, Jan Wicker, will be instructing on discipline techniques and parenting the difficult child. Seating is limited, so it is recommended that students call SWAHEC at 580.581.2284 to register beforehand. Furthermore, all participants are required to pay a $20 fee per class. Hall said that students taking courses or majoring in human ecology, education,
Please see TOPICS, page 3
Fort, Collins win national championship By Dawn Holt Staff Writer
Voices
SWAHEC educates on variety of topics By Lauren Slate
PLEASE SEE PAGE 6
Aggie men and women take home victories in matches against Oklahoma Baptist University.
Volume 78 Issue 22
While most students were enjoying spring break either relaxing or catching up on studies, Cameron University had a debate team competing in the Phi Kappa Delta (PKD) National Debate Tournament and Convention at Webster University in St. Louis, Mo., where CU students took top honors in more than one category. Zach Fort and Sarah Collins, both communications juniors, won first place and the national championship in open parliamentary debate. Fort and Collins successfully won seven debates before making the final round, but the debates were not easy. “Our hardest debate was over the topic of the Japanese Constitution against Northwest Nazarene University,” Collins said. “We really didn’t know much about the resolution concerning the Japanese Constitution, but we pulled through.” In the finals round, Fort and Collins won with a split vote of 2-1 against Boise State University. “We knew a lot about the last topic,” Collins said. “We had researched and prepared a case dealing with Iran’s uranium weapons prior to the competition.” Collins said they had prepared many cases in order to be ready for the competition. Collins and Fort have been a team for three years and have debated together in parliamentary debate since they were freshman. Parliamentary Debate consists of two teams. One represents the government and the other represents the opposition. The two teams flip at
the beginning to decide which team represents a side. Once sides have been determined the teams have fifteen minutes to prepare for the debate and approximately 45 minutes to debate the resolution. In addition to this top award in parliamentary debate, Cameron had winners in other categories. Fort won 1st place in the National Championship in Dramatic Interpretation. Bethany Beck, political science freshman, and Melinda Rust, speech/communication sophomore, won 4th place in Novice Parliamentary Debate. Besides those top awards, the team also received high honors. Fort and Collins received the All-American award. Only nine students out of all Phi Kappa Delta student members were awarded this honor, which was based on their transcripts and resumes listing honors, awards, volunteer and service experiences, along with letters of references. Phi Kappa Delta also recognizes individuals with Superior Gold and Excellent Silver Awards. The superior gold is given to the top 10 percent at the competition and the excellent silver is given to the next 30 percent. Collins received superior gold in impromptu speaking; Fort was superior in prose and interpretation and poetry; Jonathon Hooks, speech/ communication freshman, received excellent silver in interpretation and superior gold in prose interpretation; and Beck and Rust received excellent silver in novice parliamentary. At the end of the competition, CU won 10th
Courtesy Photo
With honors: Zack Fort and Sarah Collins show the awards they received at a recent debate tournament in St. Louis, Mo. place out of 72 universities in the overall sweepstakes, 7th place in individual events sweepstakes and 7th place in debate sweepstakes. Not every student can enter in this competition. The contestants in the competition have to
Please see DEBATE, page 7