OPTIMIST
@acuoptimist The Optimist @acuoptimist
EASTER Students prepare for three-day weekend to celebrate Good Friday and Easter.
A student publication of Abilene Christian University since 1912
Thrusday April 18, 2019
Volume CVIII, Issue XXVIII Title IX
Opinion
As the Title IX pendulum swings to preventing sexual assault, the university’s Title IX office is required to work on internal resolutions to maintain compliance.......................................Page 2
The Editorial Board believes the acomplishments of SGA this year should dictate their success rather than being criticized for a few missed promises...........................................................................Page 6
F S S M T
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Sports After 21 years with the university, Lance Fleming informed the department he would be leaving his position as the associate director of athletics to work with AISD.......................................Page 4
Photo by LEXI WALTER | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
CAMPUS NEWS
Jenna Williams, junior advertising and public relations major from Flower Mound, talks to other club members and rushees at All Club Rush Wednesday afternoon in the campus mall area
Wasson, Amare talk goals amidst executive win LAUREN FRANCO EDITOR IN CHIEF
Lauren Wasson and Tsion Amare won their elections for executive president and executive vice president of Student Government Association, respectively, Friday evening. Wasson, junior political science and business management double major from Denton, won with 58 percent of votes (723) over Arnold Charles, sophomore political science major from Dubai, who received 524 votes. 10 students abstained. Amare, junior social work major from Dallas, ran uncontested, winning
with 89 percent of the votes (1114), and 143 students abstained. “I really just have no words,” Wasson said. “It’s like you’ve worked hard for something and it’s really cool when you get to see that come together. It was really fun, especially to win on a team, because we were both were working so hard.” Wasson and Amare ran on the same ticket with a “Big 6” platform. The primary issues they focused on included: a student wellness program, parking, mental health awareness, school spirit and athletic involvement, internship housing and class projects (specific projects that im-
pact and benefit a students’ respective classification). Though their administration doesn’t officially start until next semester, Wasson and Amare said they’ll continue working on things they’ve already started, like working with the Medical and Counseling Care Center, figuring out parking app FoPark logistics and internship housing for the second half of summer. “We’re probably going to be working on [FoPark] really soon because we want to get that rolling over the summer,” Wasson said. “But there’s all sorts of things I’d love to get started on. I’m ambitious.”
Amare said they want to begin achieving their goals of minority representation in the next week as they begin hiring their executive cabinet. “This week, as applications started closing, I made sure to send the applications to ISA and OMA so that students in those groups know the opportunities that are presented to them,” Amare said. “We want to make sure we’re hiring a diverse staff because there’s capable leaders in every single background.” The duo will hire five positions – chief of staff, treasurer, chief financial officer, marketing director and secretary.
The new administration officially takes over on Dead Day. From that point forward, Wasson will transition into a summer-long internship required for presidents. Current Executive President Ty Kelley said he was proud of all of the candidates, including runner-up Arnold Charles, who set a precedent as the first-ever international student to run for office. “I hope we can continue on a trend of involving all students, especially in leadership roles like SGA promoting their involvement, but overall I think both campaigns went very well,” Kelley said. “They
were respectful to each other and they were genuinely happy for each other no matter what the outcome was.” Kelley said he hopes the duo continues some of the traditions started this year, and improves on the shortcomings of SGA from his term in office. “I’ll be meeting with her about going over what went well this year and what didn’t and areas that we need to keep improving and areas that we’re really strong in and hopefully communicating that directly to her,” Kelley said. “Hopefully, that will give her more inspiration for what to do next year.”
COBA, JMC earn reaccreditation after site team visits LAUREN FRANCO EDITOR IN CHIEF
The College of Business Administration and the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication earned reaccreditation for the next five and six years, respectively. Brad Crisp, COBA dean, said there are set standards to meet and more generally, three “buzz words” – engagement, innovation and impact. In January, three professors from Millsaps College, Butler University and Pacific University visited campus to conduct a peer review of the college. At the beginning of April, they received word
that their reaccreditation had been accepted. Crisp said he wanted to emphasize that accreditation is an expectation – a level of quality necessary to operate in order to compete with students and make sure that employers want hire graduates. In addition, he said this was the first year the online business programs have been reviewed. “Our peer review team asked questions, but they were really impressed by it, so it was nice to be through the first review process with this group,” Crisp said. Crisp said the site team emphasized ACU is the “most mission aligned
university” they’d been to. After talking to faculty, students and alumni, they recognized that people attend the university for academic quality. Crisp said there are always recommendations on what to do better over the accreditation period. This year, they recommended that as the university launches new online programs, those would be covered by the same partnership that are done with online graduate programs. In addition, they said to look at expectations around faculty research. “None of those things become our criticisms,” Crisp said. “They’re just seeing what you’re doing now and encouraging you
to keep looking at that and continue it.” Kenneth Pybus, chair of the Journalism and Mass Communication department, said to be accredited, a department has to compile a document that studies every aspect and answers questions about how professors are teaching the subject matter, how money is being spent and how faculty is being paid. “Being accredited is a lot of hard work,” Pybus said. “It’s worth it because you’re able to say we’ve proven that what we’re doing is what we ought be doing.” The national accrediting body for the department includes 100 other JMC de-
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partments from across the country. At the university, JMC has been accredited in all three majors – advertising and public relations, journalism and multimedia – since 2001. Last semester, three faculty members from other universities including Kent State, Washington and Lee and the University of Washington, visited Abilene for four days to assess the department. During their time, they met with students, faculty, alumni and administrators. The three unanimously proposed to the board that the department met all nine standards inctluding curriculum, scholarships, service and facilities.
“They offered some areas where we could improve, where we need to put some attention and we’re looking at ways where we can do that,” Pybus said. Two areas of improvement include making sure the department is teaching writing well and scholarship. Pybus said though ACU is a teaching university, they should strive to do research, be present at conferences and publish academic content. The site team gave recommendations to the AEJMC committee, who voted unanimously to recommend reaccreditation. The vote goes to the full council on April 26.