Features page 3 Oklahoma at War
Sports page 7 Aggie Baseball
A&E page 5 Minute to Win It
THE C A MERON UNIV ERSIT Y
Monday, January 23, 2011
Collegian w w w. a g g ie c e nt r a l .c om
Volume 86 Issue 12
Academic Festival continues with Robin Wright
Photo courtesy of CU Public Affairs
By Elijah Morlett Managing Editor
Cameron University’s major triennial event, the Academic Festival, continued on Jan. 19 with award-winning journalist and foreign policy analyst Robin Wright. The festival, “Afghanistan: Its Complexities and Relevance,” features five speakers over the academic year, covering major issues in a country that is filled with controversy. Wright is the fourth speaker of the series. CU President Cindy Ross said that it is great to have a person such as Wright at the event.
“Afghanistan is a nation shrouded in mystery that has been catapulted to the world stage,” Ross said. “Cameron University is honored to have renowned foreign policy analyst Robin Wright share her perspective on this compelling central Asian country.” Wright has reported from over 140 countries on six continents. She has written for “The Washington Post,” the “Los Angeles Times,” “TIME,” “The International Herald Tribune” and several other outlets. Wright touched on several areas of Afghanistan, highlighting major issues that existed before and during the American occupation of the country.
One major issue is the treatment of women in the region. Wright claims that while the area has some benefits for women, the drawbacks are much more prominent. “Women of Afghanistan have been deprived of so many rights for so long,” Wright said. “It is one of the worst places to a be a woman.” Wright believes that times are changing. She said that women are slowly starting to mark a new era in society. “We’ve crossed a threshold where
women understand that they can be a part of change,” she said. “This is the beginning of empowerment.” Another issue that Wright addressed was the current transitions of power in the area. For Afghanistan, the issues are coming from the United States. “[The US] is good at military strategy in the country, however we are lousy at rebuilding Afghanistan as a new nation and new government,” she said. “I hope that I’m wrong, but it seems that our good intentions were interrupted by bad planning.”
See ACADEMIC FESTIVAL Page 2
Students celebrate holiday with service By Amanda Goemmer Newswriting Student
Photo by Amanda Goemmer
A day on, not off: A CU student cuts down cedar trees in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. Several students used their day off from school to do community service around the area.
On Monday, Jan. 16, while many were at home relaxing in bed, more than 400 students and faculty members from Cameron University joined community volunteers to celebrate the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Martin Luther King Jr. Day honors fallen civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Martin Luther King Jr. Twenty project sites in need of service were scattered across the city and surrounding areas, including Pioneer Park Elementary School, Elmer Thomas Park, and the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. Along with the day of service, former U.S Ambassador and congressman, Andrew Young visited the CU campus for a press conference, and was also the key speaker at CU’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration banquet later that evening. The day kicked off early, with most volunteers arriving at project sites by 9 a.m. At Pioneer Park Elementary School, students and members of the Lawton community added some fresh paint to the interior of the building. Meanwhile, volunteers at Elmer Thomas Park scoured the landscape for trash and unwanted debris. More than a dozen members of Cameron’s International Club volunteered to work at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. According to Donna Phillips, a long-time volunteer at the refuge, the students provided a much-needed and often surprising service to the park. “Anything not native to this area, we try to eradicate.”
Phillips said. “They’re going to be cedar lopping.” Today, the students were helping to eradicate an invasive species of salt cedar trees, which, if allowed to proliferate, would overrun the refuge and potentially annihilate the oak tree population. Each student volunteer received a heavy-duty pair of gloves and a pair of hand-held pruning shears. After a brief discussion on how to properly recognize and cut down the invasive saplings, students went to work. International Club member Minh Le, a Vietnam native, spotted the first cedar tree. The green foliage stood out clearly from the golden brown leaves of the nearby oak trees. As instructed, he knelt down and cut the salt-cedar sapling completely at the base to ensure that it would not continue to grow. The group cheered, and then scattered. They had limited time and were very excited to begin the long day’s work. While the International Club was snipping saplings, other volunteers worked at various stations throughout Lawton. According to Steve Sassaman, CU’s Student Activities Specialist, the service projects were wrapped up at around 1 p.m. By that time the International Club members had successfully disposed of roughly 2,400 salt cedar saplings. This is the second year that Cameron students have celebrated the Martin Luther King holiday by volunteering at the refuge, and their work is very important.
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Greek life gaining momentum on campus By Teewhy Dojutelegan News Editor
Greek life at Cameron University has continued to evolve over the years. There has been a significant increase in recruitment of members in the past three years. Greek organizations are gearing up for another round of recruitment, also called rush, for the spring semester happening in a few weeks. Former president of the Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity and former Greek Council president Tommy Smith, a Public Relations senior, describes rush as a time when members of Greek organizations meet interested individuals. “Rush is that period when we meet potential members,” he said. “Then there is also a kind of informational meeting where you talk about the specifics of Greeks.”
According to Kevin Stieb, current president of the Greek Council on campus, Greek life is the attempt of someone to be a part of something better than themselves. Steve Sassaman, Student Activities specialist and adviser to the Greek Council described the ideal Greek as people who best exemplify the meaning of social excellence. “The ideal members are those men and women who are willing to go out of their way to make meaningful connections with everyone they come in contact with,” he said. “They must also have a passion for community service” Sassaman also said Greek membership gives a chance for a person to affiliate with a group of like-minded people. “Membership in a Greek letter organization provides an affinity group of others who embrace the individual’s values,” he said. “They also provide an opportunity to
further develop their leadership skills.” Stieb said every organization has its own set of rules concerning recruitment. “Every organization has its own requirements,” he said. “The only broad statement you can make is that you are a Cameron student and in good standing with the university.” According to Stieb, membership dues usually about $200 to $700 depending on the Greek organizations are used to fund events on campus. “[Dues] often go to help with campus-wide events, brotherhood or sisterhood events,” he said. “They also go towards offsetting the cost of going to regional conventions and insurance carried by the organization.”
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