The Optimist Print Edition 09.29.17

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Noble Kings won’t take pledges for fall semester Page 2

FEATURE

FIRST FEMALE STUDENT GOES TO PAPUA NEW GUINEA Page 4

A student publication of Abilene Christian University since 1912

Friday, September 29, 2017 Vol. 106, Issue 06

SPLASH TO CLASS

CHRISTI LIM GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Grace-Kelly Muvunyi, junior nutrition major from Rwanda, enters the Campus Center on a rainy Wednesday afternoon. She and other students try to stay dry in wet weather.

CALENDAR 9/29 •

Bid Night

ISA Volleyball Night 8:30 p.m. Gym D

9/30 •

Volleyball v. New Orleans at 1 p.m.

10/3 •

National Night Out hosted by ACU PD at 6 p.m. in the Mall Area

Shinnery Review Poetry Slam at 7:30 p.m.

10/6 •

Cabinet cooking class

BOX OFFICE SEPTEMBER 22-24 1. Kingsman: The Golden Circle $39,023,010 2. It

$29,757,494 3. The LEGO Ninjango Movie $20,433,071 4. American Assassin $6,255,617 5. mother!

$3,290,780

23

DAYS UNTIL

HOMECOMING NEWS

MABEE WEST WINS FRESHMAN FOLLIES Page 2

Endowment fund exceeds yearly expectations BY EVAN RODRIGUEZ WEB EDITOR

In 1991, when Jack Rich joined the university as chief financial officer, the endowment was valued at $50 million. Fast forward to today, and the endowment currently sits between $395$400 million with Jack Rich serving as the chief investment officer for the endowment. The investment strategy for the endowment has gone through many iterations since the 1940s. In the ‘40s,

Endowment Returns

the endowment consisted mainly of royalties interests in oil and gas, with some still providing value to this day. In the 90’s, investment were made into primarily fixed income assets, such as stock and bonds. Nowadays, the endowment is invested in a plethora of asset classes ranging from public equities in domestic and emerging markets, hedge funds, private equity, real estate and fixed income assets. Notably, the endowment also manages a 25,000-acre

ranch in West Texas and has been working for the last three years on ways to monetize the property. “We are actively working on a wind farm on that facility” Rich said. “We are opti-

mistic that it will actually be started in spring to summer of next year.” Rich said that the most worriesome economic factor going forward, which might impact the endow-

In July 2016, Wholly Cow received a commercial loan of $30,000 from Western Bank with a 6.75% interest rate. According to court documents, Western Bank sent a notice of default letter to the Wholly Cow holding company on Jan. 20, 2017, claiming the monthly payment had not been made. The company owed to Western bank $725.00 per month to be paid over 47 months, according to the lawsuit. Western Bank filed a commercial debt lawsuit in Texas’ 42nd District Court against Wholly Cow on Feb. 20, 2017, claiming to have received no response to the notice of default letter, according to the lawsuit. A

month later, on March 22, a sign was posted on the doors of Wholly Cow stating that the store would be closed “until further notice.” Wholly Cow owner Andy Nuncio, who was also named in the suit, could not be reached for comment, and the Taylor County Court records did not list an attorney for Nuncio or the Wholly Cow corporation. Michael Rodriguez, former manager of the restaurant, would not comment on the record. Wholly Cow employed many ACU students during its five years of operation. Tabitha Culpepper, an employee for a year and half and a 2015 graduate, said that she started to experience shorter shifts and

was not being scheduled as much. She finally made the decision to quit because she was not making enough money. Lauryn Westbrook, another employee who experienced shorter shifts and reduced hours in the final months of the restaurant’s operation, said she understood tips from the cash register tip jar were intended to be used for monthly meetings and employee-of-themonth honors. “In the seven months I worked there,” Westbrook, “we never had an employee of the month or monthly meetings.” A Lubbock attorney representing Western Bank, John Shanklin, said the restaurant owners to

*Benchmark calculated using the performance of the All Country World Index and Barclays Global Aggregate. With 70% of the benchmark calculated from the ACWI and 30% from the BGA.

one-year annualized return

three-year annualized return ACU Endowment

five-year annualized return

ten-year annualized return

Benchmark*

ment, is the potential over valuation of the U.S. stock market. “The conversation in the endowment world is that things look like they are over valued, especially in the united states,” Rich said “We have a pretty diversified portfolio, we have wide spread investments so hopefully we could weather that slow down.”

EMR16C@ACU.EDU

Wholly Cow faces lawsuit over $30,000 loan BY EVAN RODRIGUEZ AND MADISON FICHTNER

The owners of Wholly Cow, which closed its doors in the Radford Hills Shopping Center last fall, are facing a lawsuit filed by its financiers. Western Bank of Lubbock sued Wholly Cow Burgers Abilene South LLC over an unpaid debt of $29,315.12. Wholly Cow closed in late March after not opening some days and early closings throughout the beginning of the year, said former employees. At the same time, the company’s south Abilene location, which has been converted from a Wholly Cow restaurant to a Wing Machine restaurant, closed about the same time.

date have not responded to the lawsuit. In general, if a defendant fails to respond to a court citation in a consumer debt lawsuit, the plaintiff will ask the court to enter a default judgement against the defendant, though Western Bank’s lawyers have not done so. “As to why they closed, if you can’t pay your debts, you’re going to be closed,” said Shanklin of Lubbock’s McCleskey, Harriger, Brazill & Graf LLP. According to the Taylor County Appraisal District, the south location owed $2,513.48 to Taylor County in unpaid property taxes. OPTIMIST@ACU.EDU

SA passes budget, funds memorial for Schuetz

BY HALEY REMENAR EDITOR IN CHIEF

The Students’ Association Congress passed bills at its weekly Wednesday meeting to fund a memorial and tithe 10 percent of the fall budget. Rachel Jones, junior class president, wrote a bill to give $750 to help build a memorial for Celina Schuetz. Schuetz died in a car accident on the way to

Abilene in August. “I know that she holds a very near and dear place in many hearts at ACU,” said Jones, junior communication major from San Antonio. “I also think that it’s really important to recognize students who have passed away, because ACU is such a family that there really is something missing.” SA will choose the type

of monument to build later, but Jones said it will probably be similar to the plaques made for Katie Kirby and Casey Ellis, two students who died last year. Kevin Shurtz, College of Arts and Sciences representative, wrote the bill to tithe a percentage of the total budget with the SEE CONGRESS PAGE 2

W W W. A C U O P T I M I S T. C O M

PHOTO BY HOLLY DORN

SA executive cabinet is Ruhika Roy (right), Danny Burke (middle), Julia Kennedy (left).


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