Saturday Sports Men’s basketball to play at home @optimistsports for live tweets vol. 103, no. 35
FRIday, february 6, 2015
1 SECTION, 6 PAGES
what’s INSIDE NEWS Former First Lady of ACU, Peggy Teague, dies at age 85 Page 3
SPORTS Softball makes roadtrip to Lousiana
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OPINION Take a look at how SA appropriated money to student groups on Wednesday Page 4
SPORTS Stover promoted to assistant head coach after 15 years Page 6 jarred schuetze chief Photographer
Sarah Arrasmith, sophomore graphic design major from Colorado City, Colorado, throws clay for ceramics class on Thursday.
Retention rate at highest in 20 years
OPINION Change is inevitable. Especially while living across the pond says Allison Brown
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Rachel Fritz copy editor This year’s fall-to-spring retention rate is the highest it’s been in 20 years. “We’re really encouraged by putting up a significant record over any previous year that we’ve had,” said Bart Herridge, director of student retention and services. “We’ve gone back 20 years, and we can’t find one close to this.” The fall-to-spring re-
tention rate measures the amount of freshmen who return for the spring semester and is 94.3 percent as compared to last year’s 91.9 percent. “We’re very, very excited to post that kind of number,” Herridge said. “It exceeded everybody’s expectations in terms of what we’re trying to do from fall to spring.” There has also been an increase in the sophomore, junior and senior retention rate for the semester.
“All of our rates are on the rise,” Herridge said. Freshman enrollment from last semester is up to 723 from 693 last spring, sophomore enrollment is at 833 from 809, junior enrollment is at 771 from 713, and senior enrollment is up to 1086 from 1006. Overall, total enrollment is 4,120, down from 4,168, last spring, a common pattern from year to year. Despite the recordbreaking rate, Herridge
said a decrease in the fall-to-fall rate is still possible. “Spring is not always predictive of fall,” he said. “In other words, our real goal is to have strong fall-to-fall – freshmanto-sophomore – retention. A really good spring doesn’t always mean a good fall, so there’s a lot of work left to do.” Many reasons explain why students don’t return to ACU. “A lot of it has to do with the make-up of
each freshman class; this year’s freshmen are different than last year’s freshmen, and every cohort is a little bit different,” Herridge said. But Herridge and his team try to combat that by providing programs and resources for students to plug into. “That’s kind of the baseline you’re working from, and from there you just try to understand which students are likely see enrollment page 3
SA budget tighter for spring than fall
SPORTS Track and Field take off for meet in New Mexico this weekend
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NEWS GST adds two new members to their faculty
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what’s online
brittany jackson managing editor The 91st Students’ Association passed the spring 2015 budget Wednesday evening after seven proposed amendments were made to the budget and one passed. The student organizations budget allocation was decreased by $4,328 from last semester, and SA saw a decrease of five groups requesting funding. SA received a total re-
Men’s clubs prepare their voices for Sing Song
Read more at acuoptimist.com
SA Treasurer Andrew Tate, senior biology major from Abilene, and Chief Financial Officer Cole McClellan, junior accounting major from Parker, presented the budget. The f loor was then opened for a 10-minute question forum for everyone present. Then, the process of amending the budget began, with Congress members proposing different allocations of money. Student members were allowed to speak up about their received funds and
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We were more intentional in our questioning, and also they were not able to take the debate floor.”
Beau carter junior political science major from Farmer’s Brance Executive vice president
proposed uses of them when Congress members asked questions. After the time of inquiry, Congress then moved into a time of debate between members. Following the time of debate, Congress then moved
into voting. Beau Carter, junior political science major from Farmers Branch, agreed with Johnson’s decision. “Really, the only difsee SA page 3
OME partners with BSA for Black History Month rachel fritz
VIDEO
quest of $146,881.30 allocations, and was able to grant $39,210 to student groups. The meeting went according to SA President Rodney Johnson’s new process, which eliminated the opportunity for student groups to take the f loor in debates and facilitated more questioning and action from Congress. He said the process is part of the Congress’s Rules to Order, but has been neglected in the past
copy editor The Office of Multicultural Enrichment has partnered with the Black Students’ Association to facilitate a series of four events to celebrate Black History Month in a new way. OME will conduct a community service project and present the documentary titled There’s a Difference at a Chapel forum. BSA will have a worship service and present a production at the end of the month.
“The focus of Black History Month won’t be as much on historical figures; they’ll be worked in, but that’s not going to be all of our focus,” said Prentice Ashford, director of OME. “It’s not going to be like elementary school where all you learn about is Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and all those inf luential people. We’re trying to give people a look inside black culture, whether that’s through the play or through the documentary or serving alongside us or engaging in our predominant style of wor-
ship.” The service project will be more of an outreach to Ortiz Elementary School, Ashford said. Students will meet at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 6 in the Campus Center Living Room to write personal letters to students. The documentary will be shown at 7 p.m. Feb. 17 in Cullen Auditorium for Chapel credit. Khamise Green, president of BSA, said he hopes the programs will help create unity on campus. The first event, a worship service, will begin at 3 p.m. Sunday at Chapel
Abilene Christian University
on the Hill. The service will feature a choir and pastors from Odessa. To end the month of celebration, BSA will perform in Unchained Memories: BSA Black History Production. “Racial tension is a result of ignorance, and I think that if we educate and show the community what’s really going on and allow them to see in motion how we live as African-Americans, we can grow our community,” said Green, junior music education major from Odessa. Green wrote and pro-
duced the production that will take place at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27 at the Paramount Theatre. “The black history production is less like a play and more like a production,” he said. Written in the script are historical speeches such as Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou. Green said he wrote them in to put the speeches in context of today. The programs themselves promote the idea he is hoping the audience will grasp. see events page 3