Strummin’ Solo Student works toward musical future
vol. 100, no. 11
friday, september 30, 2011
Arts page 5
1 SECTION, 8 PAGES
destiny hagood staff Photographer Lauren Lockyer, freshman graphic design major from Winter Springs, Fla., holds a Monarch butterfly in the area surrounding the McGlothlin Campus Center. Millions of Monarchs have begun their journey to Mexico, with Abilene as a stopping point in between. The Monarchs migrate from Canada to Mexico, a 3,000 mile trip.
university
Registrar floats death for dead day jozie sands opinion page editor Changes proposed to the finals schedule allow students to take fewer exams each day and have more time between exams by eliminating Dead day. Any changes approved by the University Undergraduate Academic Council and provost would not be implemented until the Spring 2012 semester, at the earliest. The proposed finals schedule is still being modified, but as it stands the schedule allows a full two hours for each testing
period, increases the break between exams to 30 minutes, adds an hour break each day for lunch and eliminates Dead day. This is the first revision suggested to finals week in at least 30 years. The UUAC requested that the schedule be evaluated during a regular policy review. Bart Herridge, registrar and director of academic records, crafted the new schedule after consulting universities in the area and ACU’s sister schools. Out of the schools Herridge benchmarked, ACU is the only university that cancels an entire day of classes during the week
of finals. Some have a “dead week” where classes still meet, but exams are not given. “The original intent for dead day was for faculty to be in their offices so students could come by before finals began and ask questions, develop concepts or whatever they need to do to get ready for a final exam,” Herridge said. “Anecdotal evidence suggests that this doesn’t happen anymore.” The current finals schedule is stressful for students and faculty, said Herridge. It only allows students fifteen minutes to change classrooms, crams
as many as three exams into a day and rushes faculty to get grades in by the following Tuesday. “The purpose of finals is not to measure stress, it’s to measure performance and mastery of the learning outcomes of a course,” Herridge said. “That’s better demonstrated in a situation where students have one or two finals a day than when they have three or more.” Adding a day to the finals schedule decreases the likelihood that a student will have to cram three or four exams into the same day, Herridge said. It also allows for an empty
hour during each day for students to eat lunch or do last minute studying. The changes are unnecessary, said Desmond Brown, sophomore computer science major from Houston. Dead day is needed so he can become fully immersed in studying and groups can meet more easily since no one has class. “We need dead day for the extra studying, and two hours in a class isn’t needed if you are prepared for the test,” said Brown. contact Sands at jgs07a@acu.edu
Wednesday’s front page article on block tuition was incomplete. The conclusion of the story, as well as a few other stories, were not provided due to an error by the printer. We apologize for any confusion. These articles may be found at acuoptimist.com
homecoming
‘Excessive campaigning’ nullifies nomination votes Marissa ferguson online editor Citing “excessive and aggressive campaigning,” the offices of Alumni Relations and Student Life have voided all Homecoming Court nominations made before Wednesday and extended the deadline until Friday. In an email Wednesday, the alumni office urged students not to campaign or block vote, two things commonly practiced by social clubs. Samantha Adkins, senior alumni relations officer, said the insistent campaigning during the first part of the week was difficult to miss. Although social club pledge
were the most obvious campaigners, she said, non-club members campaigned excessively as well. “It was getting just a little out of hand,” Adkins said. It has happened on many levels over the past 15-20 years, but for some reason it just became more visible this year.” Excessive campaigning may include but is not limited to making Facebook groups, passing out fliers, block voting, voting more than once or collecting student’s banner numbers to place nominations. The last item is subject to penalties laid out in the Student Guide. GATA president Morgan Myer, senior psychology major from Richardson,
said her club did only what has been done in years passed and had pledges change their profile pictures on Facebook. “We’re really having to go through our handbook and make sure everything is OK because now [Student Life] is cracking down,” Myer said. “Instead of going by what people did years before, we now have to go through all that fine print.” After deciding to discard the nominations, Student Life is following up with individuals and organizations who violated the nomination process, said Dr. JeanNoel Thompson. “I feel very comfortable in how we’re addressing it as an office, and I feel that
those we are talking to are being extremely responsive in understanding the importance of making sure there is complete integrity in such a process,” said Thompson, vice president and dean of student life. He would not name the individuals and clubs being contacted. “We’ve approached those that we feel were inappropriate in this manner, and they’re responding in the way that we would hope they respond.” Thompson said he is most concerned about the possibility that students shared their banner number. “The potential identity theft side of that is that, unfortunately, bad things hap-
pen when somebody else has your information,” he said. “That’s something, as a staff, we’re talking about. How do we get our hands around perhaps what might be a broader campus-wide student issue. We will certainly address that.” Adkins said the aggressive campaigning is not unfair, but unbecoming of Christians. “Homecoming nominees should be somebody that the student body sees as a person who represents ACU well – that they stand up for what we believe in,” she said. “I think with aggressive nomination, it just looks like it’s all about the crown, and that’s not how it should be.” Since the new nomina-
tion process has been enacted, Myer said she hopes to see a broader range of people selected. “I’m hoping that people can nominate people from all different groups instead of just the largest groups on campus getting the people out there just because they have the most numbers,” Myer said. “I hope other students will get the chance to get on Court that maybe wouldn’t have with the old process.” To cast your nomination, visit acu.edu/queen by 5 p.m. today. The Court will be announced in Chapel next Friday. contact ferguson at mlf10a@acu.edu
inside sports
opinion
video
news
Women’s soccer hopes to continue their 13game winning streak
Read why Dead Day is such a vital part of finals week
Follies helps to build community and friendship among freshmen
SA discusses block tuition with Kevin Campbell on Wednesday
acuoptimist.com
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