A play you should know ACU theatre performs for one weekend Arts Page 5 vol. 102, no. 41
friday, february 28, 2014
1 SECTION, 6 PAGES
DIAMOND
INSIDE
IN THE
NEWS SAND’s Zumbathon comes back for its third year after being cancelled because of ice
RUFF
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SPORTS ACU baseball welcomes Missouri and Kansas State over the weekend
Two animal shelters offer discounts on animal adoptions
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OPINION The Editorial Board advocates for a change in exercise science credits
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SPORTS Men’s basketball travels to Nicholls State for their last road game of the year
ashlynn anthony Staff Photographer
Rescue the Animals and Abilene Animal Shelter have sales on pets who need a place to call home. The shelter is offering a $20 discount and a $20 rebate to anyone who adopts an animal.
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NEWS Students and professors prepare for the undergraduate research festival Page 3
NEWS ISA will host its annual food fair featuring foods from China, Thailand, and Honduras Page 3
OPINION Marissa Jones asks people to give Comic Sans a break – sort of Page 4
ARTS Find out who was nominated for this year’s Oscars Page 5
NEWS Student bands try out for a place in the annual Spring Fest Page 3
ONLINE VIDEO Watch a recap of this week’s news on the JMC Network’s newscast
Read more at acuoptimist.com
Rachel Fritz page 2 editor Rescue the Animals, SPCA has teamed up with Abilene Animal Shelter to find homes for animals. Abilene Animal Shelter is offering a $20 discount during the month of February, and potentially during March, to anyone who adopts an animal from the shelter along with a $20 voucher for a
mail-in-rebate to spay or neuter the adopted pet. “Basically, what we’re doing is partnering with the city of Abilene in an effort to get animals adopted,” said Paul Washburn, president of Rescue the Animals, SPCA. “The city doesn’t have a budget to advertise for the shelters, so we use our funding to advertise and help get the word out for Abilene.” Rescue the Animals,
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The number of adoptions has tripled since 2008, and the number of animals put to sleep has gone down tremendously.”
“The sales work extremely well,” Washburn said. “The number of adoptions has tripled since 2008 and the number of animals put to sleep has gone down tremendously.” Paul washburn By partnering with lopresident of rescue the animals, spca cal shelters, Rescue the Animals, SPCA is able to avoid euthanizing aniSPCA has conducted this mals who are no longer sale in previous years and able to stay in the pound. saw a positive outcome “We’re slowly bringeach time. ing about a change to how
people view their animals,” Washburn said. “I think they’re realizing they need to find homes for their unwanted animals and do what’s best for the animals instead of taking them to the pound.” The goal of this partnership is to encourage more people to adopt an animal locally before the animals are sent to see adopt page 3
Clogged pipes flood Chambers Hall jesse harper staff videographer The Chambers Hall offices experienced flooding from the clogged sewage pipes underneath campus. The sewage pipes, which collect waste from all over campus, run throughout parts of ACU. The sewage pipe underneath Chambers became clogged and caused the basement offices in the building to flood on Tuesday. Built in 1929, Chambers is one of the buildings on the current campus. It is
slated to be demolished in the next few years and turned into the HalbertWalling Research Center as part of the $30 million science construction project. Dr. Cole Bennett, chair of the Department of Language and Literature, said it was a hectic morning for those who work there. “My office is located in the basement, but I was upstairs when the flooding started to take place,” Bennett said. “Suddenly, people started fleeing upstairs where I was, saying that the basement offices were flooding.”
Bennett said facilities management was contacted immediately after the flooding started and sent a team of plumbers to address the problem. “The plumbers rushed to the scene immediately and began to work on the problem,” Bennett said. “They explained that the sewage pipes had become clogged which caused all the waste to come up through the drains and even toilets in the Chambers basement.” Bennett said actual sewage had flooded Chambers but no major damage was
evident in the aftermath. “There was minimal damage but maximum annoyance,” Bennett said. “The carpets and the walls are definitely the most damaged and only about half the offices in the basement had significant amounts of flooding.” Bennett said WFF Custodial Services, ACU’s janitorial service provider, arrived promptly after the incident. “I was really impressed with how fast they arrived on the scene to service and clean the Chambers basement,” Bennett said. “They
contributed so much with those vacuums that sucked up the sewage water.” Darren Campbell, senior psychology major from Allen, said that he noticed commotion from Chambers that morning. “I saw trucks and plumbers walking towards Chambers Hall, and immediately thought to myself, it was a bit unusual to see more than one plumber on a single job,” Campbell said. contact the optimist at jmcnetwork@acu.edu
Student groups prepare for Film Fest matthew sloan student reporter ACU’s 10th annual Film Fest is in full swing as student teams are working to put together their short films by the March 17 deadline. Ten teams are signed up to compete in the annual competition, which is the most in the event’s history. Teams put together films no longer than 10 minutes that pertain to the year’s theme. Film
Fest’s theme this year is “Shift.” Film Fest co-chair Lucius Patenaude, senior multimedia major from Phrae, Thailand said, “The themes are supposed to be extremely general to get people thinking while also giving some sort of cohesion to everything that is produced. For me, it was pushing for a change. When I wrote my script, I thought ‘how can my characters change?’ and that’s how I went with shift.”
Groups of about five students comprise a team, and each team submits a video for judgement. The films will all be seen at an annual awards Gala scheduled for March 21. Each film is required to have at least three control elements to challenge the students to think creatively when constructing their script. Control elements this year include a gold watch, a bar of soap, a bent spoon, a half-eaten bagel and a spinning top.
Abilene Christian University
Past winners for categories such as “best director” and “best picture” have enjoyed not only bragging rights, but a cash prize as well. “The cash prize this year has not been determined yet,” Patenaude said. “In the past, the awards have gone up to $500 and a cool plastic trophy.” However, many students choose to participate because of the expesee film page 4
Adrian Patenaude
A poster advertises the 10th annual Film Fest.