Features Page 5
Halfway Home vol. 102, no. 48
wednesday, april 02, 2014
1 SECTION, 6 PAGES
A grad student makes a house his ministry
INSIDE NEWS ACU students apply for the university’s two-year-old nursing program Page 3
OPINION The Editorial Board considers the treatment of the the lost Malaysian flight and those affected by it
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NEWS Summer courses will soon be dropped that don’t meet enrollment requirements Page 3 jarred Schuetze staff Photographer
Student bikers from multiple universities participate in the Tour of Abilene on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, bikers raced around ACU’s campus and around Lake Fort Phantom on Sunday. Men and women were able to compete in different races ranging in length.
SPORTS ACU baseball goes 2-1 in its first Southland Conference
Festival exhibits undergrad research Students present speeches, posters from every field at university research festival logan sartain Page 6
SPORTS ACU softball defeats A&M Corpus Christi in a three-game series Page 6
OPINION Madeline Orr addresses the validity of Buzzfeed personality quizzes Page 4
ONLINE
student reporter The university hosted its largest undergraduate research festival to date yesterday. About 125 presentations were given throughout the day, said Dr. Autumn Sutherlin, director of undergraduate research. This was about 30 more presentations than last year’s festival, Sutherlin said. The purpose of the festival is to give students the opportunity to present the work the put into research-
emily seidel
ACU’s men club soccer team expands and prepares for upcoming games acuoptimist.com
NEWS Upward Bound looks for ACU students to fill summer adivser positions acuoptimist.com
VIDEO In honor of April Fool’s Day, watch the JMC Network’s newscast – Pessimist style.
Read more at acuoptimist.com
jarred schuetze staff Photographer
Students display their research on posters and answer questions in the Hunter Welcome Center on Tuesday. Being recognized was both fulfilling and surprising, Gwini said. “I spent 10 weeks working on this presentation. So, it was fulfilling to be recognized, but I did not expect it.” Gwini said.
“There were some really good posters.” Sutherlin said this year marked the festival’s sixth year of operation and exhibited steady growth in see research page 3
ACU faculty to retire at end of semester student reporter
NEWS
ries of presentations, three oral and two poster: • Oral o Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) o Social Science ing. o Arts and Humani“Research in and of it- ties self is good, but unless you • Poster communicate it to someo STEM one else it loses some of its o Social Science/ value,” Sutherlin said. Arts and Humanities Provost Dr. Robert There were 14 total preRhodes echoed Sutherlin sentations recognized as in his speech before the outstanding. Three were awards were announced. from each category, except “The reason the Dead for Social Science/Arts and Sea is dead is because wa- Humanities poster, which ter flows in, but nothing had only two. ever flows out,” Rhodes Nigel Gwini’s poster said. “The same is true for presentation End Group education.” Functionalization of DiEach presentation rec- block Polymers Used in ognized as an outstanding Making pH-Activatable piece received a prize of Nanoprobes was recog$100. nized as outstanding in the There were five catego- STEM category.
With the spring semester quickly coming to a close, it’s time for ACU to prepare to say goodbye to a few of its most contributive and influential faculty members. At the end of the school year, several staff transitions will take place. Professors Dr. Carley Dodd and Harland Rall will take a multi-year phased retirement. In addition to teaching several classes, they will remain involved on campus
while having the ability to explore other areas of interest. Rall will pursue an extendmiller ed mission field experience, while Dodd will continue to work on research projects. Three faculty members will be retiring at the end of the spring semester: Dr. Chris Willerton, Dr. Emmett Miller and Dr. Paul Varner. Willerton came to ACU in 1970, fresh from earning his M.A. in English at the
College. He became the first director of the program in 1985, but he said most of the credit for founding the program goes to Dr. Dwain Hart’s committee, which had been designing the varner willerton program two years before Willerton was offered the University of North Caro- job as director. He said he lina. He has spent 41 of the jumped on the opportunity last 44 years on the faculty, because his time in the TCU taking three years in be- Honors Program was an intween to complete his doc- credible experience and he toral work at UNC. wanted to help bring the Besides being an out- same thing to ACU. standing teacher loved by “The main thing I his students, Willerton’s brought to the job was stubgreatest contribution to the bornness,” Willerton said. school has been the Honors “It took 25 years to grow it
into the program I’d wanted in the first place. The best proof that I did OK was that the program outgrew me. It became good enough that it needed leaders with more energy and a wider skill set than I had. It was very satisfying to ask the provost to replace me. My successors have been splendid, and so has the administration’s support.” Willerton to spend his retirement continuing to writing his detective fiction, travel to England more often with his wife Sharon see retire page 3
Fifty seniors honored as University Scholars kara stutesman student reporter Last week ACU announced the 50 graduating seniors who received the honor of being a University Scholar. This award is special because the faculty chooses the recipients; it is not something the students sign up for. It’s recognition for the hard work the seniors have put
in throughout their time at ACU, said Parker Gordon, senior music major from Lipan and recipient of the award for the Political Science Department. “It’s not just a matter of checking off the right boxes,” Gordon said. “I took advantage of many opportunities within my departments to be involved. I participated in ensembles like the band and orchestra and worked to start a wind quintet, I
conducted research for the undergrad festival and other conferences, and I took advantage of the honor societies on campus such as alpha chi and phi eta sigma.” Dr. Brenda Bender, chair of the Communications Department and head of the Faculty Senate said this year 72 seniors were nominated. Then the University Scholar sub-committee was able to narrow those down to
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the 50 who received the honor. “26 awards were designated as department awards; the remaining 44 nominations were considered for the 24 at-large awards,” Bender said. “The at-large awards are distributed across colleges based on enrollment.” In order to be nominated for the University Scholar Award, seniors must have maintained a 3.5 GPA or higher, have
participated in research at a scholarly level and have earned 90 hours toward their degree by the end of the preceding fall semester. The University Scholars will be recognized at a special Chapel April 15, during which they will receive their medal to be worn during graduation. Caroline Nikolaus, senior psychology major see scholars page 3