acuoptimist.com
Optimist the
Official Opening, page 3
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Vol. 99, No. 40
1 section, 8 pages
STATE
Grass fires scorch Texas burned across the state over the weekend, mostly West of Abilene Managing Editor and in the panhandle. The regional fires prompted TFS to This weekend’s high winds, warm temperatures and low humidity set up its Incident Management Team triggered multiple wildfires across at the regional office in Merkel. Kearney said Sunday’s weather conditions the state and the Big Country. Lewis Kearney, public informa- set the stage for a major fire event. “Sunday you had the compotion officer for the Texas Forest Service, said a total of 120,000 acres nents of high winds, low humidity
Jeff Craig
DANIEL GOMEZ // Chief Photographer
Firefighters track the path of a West Texas grass fire and anticipate the wind as they refill their truck with water from a fire hydrant before returning to fight the blaze.
and warm temperatures,” Kearney said. “When you have an ignition those winds push fires really fast.” Kearney said TFS was called to 30 fires across the state, but was only able to respond to 25 because high winds prevented them from using any aviation assets. He said high see BURN page 4
STUDENT LIFE
The Great and Powerful Woz
Student Activities leader to retire Matthew Woodrow Opinion Page Editor
After five years at her position as coordinator of Student Activities and Organizations, Mauri Westbrook will retire to raise a family as a stayat-home mom. Westbr ook said she Westbrook was excited to be raising a daughter but was also sad to be leaving. “ACU will always hold a special place in my heart, but this is the best thing for our family,” Westbrook said. “I’ve been involved with so many fun and exciting things like Beach Bash, Sing Song and all the social club activities, but the best part is working with students with what they’re passionate about.” Westbrook graduated from ACU in 2002 and then returned in 2006 to become coordinator of Student Activities and Organizations. “My husband and I were moving back to Abilene and we found out this position was becoming open,” Westbrook said. “I knew I loved ACU, and this job fit my interest and skill and it was just one of those perfect opportunities where I could do what I loved.”
DANIEL GOMEZ // Chief Photographer
Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, speaks on topics of academics and the future of technology at the 2011 ACU Connected Summit.
Apple co-founder predicts technology’s future Linda Bailey Editor In Chief
Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple and personal computer pioneer, predicted the future of technology during his onstage Q&A session with Dr. Bill Rankin, director of educational innovation. After starting a social and technological revolution with the invention of the Apple computer, Wozniak encour-
Find more photos and a video of “A conversation with Woz,” and footage of the Rocketboys performance.
acuoptimist.com
aged attendees to be brave as mobile technology continues to get better and change the way people do things in life. He also predicted the majority of books would be digital rather than printed within 20
years and iPhones would further implement the use of voiceactivated commands. Wozniak also presented his ideas for a more innovative classroom, teaching kids to learn by motivating them to learn instead of teaching them facts. “If you cant motivate a student to want to learn, that’s so much more important than what’s in the book,” Wozniak said. And teachers can moti-
vate students in a technology-focused classroom with an emphasis in personalized learning, he said, at least until technology replaces human instruction, that is. But, Wozniak said that hasn’t happened yet. In his life, Wozniak found passion in things he did and went for his dreams, and he encouraged others to do the same. see SUMMIT page 4
see STUDENTS page 4
CAMPUS
Overheard at ACU creates in-campus Twitter
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what they say on its on page. Students are also able Opinion Page Editor to post what they heard on A new social media pres- campus themselves. Scott Kilmer, direcence “Overheard at ACU” is retweeting and posting what tor of Online Marketing, students at Abilene Christian said the site is not being University are talking about. administered by any uniThe site’s administra- versity official but is still tors trawl students walls an interesting forum of and tweets, and then post student voices.
Matthew Woodrow
inside news Dr. Shelly Sanders, assistant professor of English will blog one chapter per week of her novel, That was Everything. page 4
When people have something to say, they go to social media sites. SCOTT KILMER // director of online marketing
“It is not the voice, in an official sense, but we have many people following it to get a feel of what students
are thinking,” Kilmer said. “When people have something to say they go to social media sites, and by reading
website
feature Simple recipes allow Girl Scout Cookie enthusiasts to enjoy the tasty treats even after the Girl Scouts stop selling. page 5
what they say we can get a feel of the general mindset of how people are feeling and what’s going on here.” Overheard at ACU’s Facebook page is liked by more than 300 people and follows more than 180 ACU faculty, staff and students on Twitter. One of its Twitter followers Will Foster, junior
education major from Mesquite, really likes the idea of the site but hope it does not get spammed. “I’ve read several entries and a couple of them are pretty funny,” Foster said. “But I can see it being quickly overrun with people just see TWEET page 4
weather
photo gallery Find more photos of grass fire damage to much of West Texas and the Panhandle on our website, acuoptimist.com.
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