Meet Omega Women create community through dance company
vol. 103, no. 9
friday, september 19, 2014
Arts Page 5
1 SECTION, 6 PAGES
what’s INSIDE NEWS Admissions office donates to non-profits as alternative recruiting tool Page 3
SPORTS ‘Cats start conference play with rival Incarnate Word
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FRESH
SPORTS Soccer travels to Sam Houston State to open up conference play Page 6
OPINION The Editorial Board supports and encourages new visitation rules
sara bateman Staff Photographer
Freshmen performers in this year’s Freshman Follies rehearse their individual and residence hall acts in Cullen Auditorium on Wednesday night. They will perform in four shows this weekend, one on Friday night and three on Saturday.
‘Road Trip’ to Freshmen Follies Kynzie newman student reporter
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SPORTS Men’s and women’s tennis head to Norman and Las Cruces Page 6
With nearly 400 freshman participants this year, Freshman Follies is ready to get the show on the road, literally. Freshman Follies is a variety show that features hall acts and specialty acts. Hall acts are performances by groups of people, such as singing and dancing. For this act, anything goes. The only requirement is that the theme, “road trip,” is portrayed through their perfor-
managing editor
Marissa Jones worries that aging is upon us
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NEWS U.S. News ranks ACU high in the country’s best colleges Page 3
what’s online VIDEO The arrival of the Summit crowd means less parking for everyone
Read more at acuoptimist.com
mance. Specialty acts can be performed by individual or group talents. This category of the show has a wider variety because it showcases unique abilities and is not limited to singing and dancing. This ACU tradition takes place at the beginning of the year. Freshmen have an opportunity to connect and get involved with fellow classmates as well as those working the show. “Being a co-chair for Follies has been such an awe-
some experience,” said freshman Madison Losher. “I’ve loved getting to work alongside other freshmen and also upperclassmen who have been a huge help in the planning.” The show is expected to be better than those in the past with the promise of a quality stage setup. “We have a really cool backdrop for the ‘road trip’ theme this year,” said Nick Tatum, manager and director for Freshman Follies. “We’re spending more money for the set-up than we ever
have before. It’s going to look more professional, more production-y.” Additionally, a new performance has been added to the show this year. All participants in Freshman Follies will unite for a group specialty act. The group will two-step to the song “She’s Like Texas,” by Josh Abbott Band. ACU facilitated its first school-sponsored dance in its 106-year history just a few years ago after the no-dance policy was lifted. Since then, dancing has quickly been
adopted into student productions and events and has become a prominent part of the university’s most known traditions. Freshman Follies will have four shows in Cullen Auditorium, starting with the $5 discount preview show at 7 p.m. Friday. Three shows will take place at 11 a.m., 1:15 p.m. and 7 p.m on Saturday. Tickets are $10 for adults, and $5 with a student ID. contact the optimist at jmcnetwork@acu.edu
SA finalizes fall budget, 49% to student orgs allison brown
OPINION
TALENT
The 91st Students’ Association Congress passed the fall 2014 budget Wednesday night after adding three amendments to the original proposal. Members proposed and debated seven amendments, but four failed to pass during voting. Each semester, Students’ Association has a $90,000 budget that funds SA and other groups on campus. SA received over $141,500 in requests from student groups. Congress was able to allocate $43,538, or about 49 percent of its budget, to the various student organizations that applied for funds. For nearly two hours,
Congress members and group representatives discussed, questioned, and debated the allocated funds. During the process of debate, some Congress members stumbled through motions and questioning. Rodney Johnson, SA president, and Beau Carter, SA vice president, repeatedly had to interrupt students during question and debate to give instruction on how to properly engage in the session. “We operated off some willy-nilly rules in the past,” said Johnson, senior finance major from Odessa. “We allowed student groups to ask questions to other groups and combat each other and see budget page 3
Mariana Cedillo Staff Photographer
Fabiola Vargas, representative for Barrett Hall, debates against a motion at the Students’ Association fall budget meeting on Wednesday night.
Estimated $260,000 saved on energy bills this year madeline orr editor in chief Turning off the lights at night, replacing old equipment and a strategic partnership have led to an estimated $260,000 in cost-avoidance for the university over the last eight months. Significant savings on energy bills has come after launching an energy saving initiative in January and the addition of Ben Rude, an oncampus Cenergistic energy specialist, in April. Cenergistic Energy Conservation company works
within schools, churches and healthcare facilities to save energy and money on their campuses. According to a Cenergistic press release, it has helped its clients save more than $3.5 billion by reducing their energy consumption by an average of 20 percent to 40 percent. Rude, a 2011 ACU graduate, is employed by Cenergistic, but ACU is his sole client. He said he looks to catch the most savings during nights, weekends and unoccupied hours. He audits buildings late at night and early in the morning to evaluate each building’s performance.
“My main goal is to make sure that things are off when they’re suppose to be off and when they are on making sure they are running as efficiently as possible,” he said. Kevin Roberts, vice president of planning and operations, said the initiative is separated into two categories: mechanical and behavioral. “We can address all the mechanical maintenance side,” Roberts said. “But Cenergistic comes in and tries to help us on the behavioral piece.” Cenergistic gets paid a percentage of ACU’s energy savings.
Abilene Christian University
“You only share with them the savings, the avoided costs,” he said. “So if the savings aren’t as great, or costs go up, their share goes down.” The percentage is calculated by a third-party software called EngergyCAP. It tracks the savings and compares them to historical data from bills, usage and costs. The software also factors out the physical upgrades so vany savings shared with Cenergistic have to come from the behavioral changes. For example, when Gardner Hall received all new LED lighting this summer, that information is entered into
EnergyCAP. It is factored in as a mechanical change and documents that Cenergistic will not receive a portion of those savings. “To make sure that it’s comparing apples to apples, it calculates for weather and building upgrades,” said Rude. “The fact that it comes from a third party means it’s pretty impartial.” Rude said they prefer to use the term “cost-avoidance” when referring to money that has been saved, and “savings” when referring to actual energy usage. see energy page 3