OPTIMIST THE
FRIDAY October 5, 2007 Vol. 96, No. 12 1 section, 8 pages www.acuoptimist.com
Mary’s offers tasty treats for your palate Mary’s Paleteria gives locals a taste of authentic Mexican desserts, page 5
Are you well?
Video brings recap of the week’s Wellness Week activities at, www.acuoptimist.com
Drop-kicked
Wildcats lose third straight conference match, page 8
SA tables internal committee By Jared Fields Editor-in-Chief
The Students’ Association Congress tabled a bill to create an internal affairs committee Wednesday after an attempt to immediately take the motion from the table failed. Freshmen Jeareme Mosley, Tony Godfrey and Jared Elk
presented the motion in an attempt to create an ad hoc committee to investigate and check the actions of the SA Congress and Executive Cabinet. The three answered questions about procedure as congress twice extended discussion for the bill before a third motion to extend discussion time failed. Then, sophomore senator Abby
Barnes tabled the bill for a lack of concrete wording. The motion passed, and Jared Elk promptly moved to take the motion from the table. After some confusion and more discussion, the motion failed and the meeting adjourned. Although the meeting adjourned after 7 p.m., SA president Matt Worthington said
the meeting went smoothly. Dr. Jeff Arrington, associate dean of campus life, spoke with congress about developing methods to best communicate with students. “It went way smoother,” Worthington said. “Everybody came more prepared today.” Arrington fielded questions See
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Queens kidnapped
Sing Song could add more acts
By Mallory Edens Page 2 Editor
By Sara Snelson Arts Editor
For the past several years, Sing Song’s upstage performances have consisted of social clubs and class groups. This year, Tom Craig, director of student productions, and Matt Greenberg, senior political science and English double major from Grand Prairie, are encouraging other groups on campus to get involved in Sing Song. “Any club or organization on campus can participate in Sing Song and compete in the men’s, women’s or mixed-voices group,” Greenberg said. The Sing Song rulebook does not specify which groups or organizations can compete; it is open to anyone who wants to participate. “The Big Purple used to have a group compete in Sing Song, and all of their acts were good, and they would win,” Greenburg said. “It would be awesome to have a variety of groups again.” There have been two or three groups who have inquired about competing in Sing Song this year. “If it does not happen this year, it will next year,” Craig said. He said the more students who compete in Sing Song and get involved, the better the show will be. By participating in Sing Song, not only does a student group become known by students, parents, faculty and alumni, but it is granted legitimacy, gains more public relations and is embedded in ACU’s history book. “There are a lot of new groups who have shown interest in doing a down-stage performance, which is awesome, but we really want groups to compete up stage in the three categories and show people what they can do,” Greenberg said. Sing Song directors are chosen in November, which means if a group wants to participate, it needs to decide soon. katie gager CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
See
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katie gager CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
Smith Residence Hall representative Jason Sanchez, University Park representative Casey Bingham and UP representative Caleb Archer listen during Wednesday’s Students’ Association meeting in Hart Auditorium.
Queen nominee Leah Gottlich, senior math major from Coppell, is blindfolded by Charrelle Coates, junior biochemistry major from Clarksville, Tenn., on Wednesday night at the annual queen kidnapping.
The 2007 Homecoming Court has been selected, and 10 senior women are now in the running for 2007 Homecoming Queen. The Court includes Ashlea Allred, psychology major from Bedford; Casey Cope, accounting major from Flower Mound; Katie Eichelberger, marketing major from Houston; Tiffany Gauntt, broadcast journalism major from Colleyville; Cara Gentry, communication major from Granbury; Leah Gottlich, math major from Coppell; Shannon Lair, elementary education major from Apple Valley, Minn.; Lauryn Lewis, English education and integrated marketing communications major from Houston; Shaley Lucas, integrated marketing communications major from Coppell; and Christie Thomas, graphic design major from Austin. “It’s an honor for these young women to be selected by fellow students to serve on the Homecoming Court and to represent the university in this long-standing tradition,” said Betsey Craig, assistant director of alumni relations. Wednesday night, members of the Homecoming steering committee blindfolded and kidnapped the 10 women, taking them to the Alumni Office on EN 16th, which was decorated for the nominees. Each woman was given a picture frame with a jeweled crown on it to commemorate the event and were asked to fill out information sheets on their activities and involvement. Craig said the kidnapping is gearing up toward upcoming events that the Court and the student body will be able to be involved in together. “Selecting the Homecoming Queen nominees is the
kick-off for Homecoming activities, which will culminate with all the major events on Homecoming weekend, including the parade, class reunions, Homecoming Chapel and crowning of the queen during halftime of the Homecoming football game,” Craig said. Homecoming Queen nominees will be introduced in Chapel on Friday. Afterwards, students can go online to view group pictures and vote for Queen. Voting will take place Oct. 10-12 online at www.acu.edu/queen. The nominees will be formally presented with their escorts during Chapel on Oct. 19 and will be presented with the Coming Home Court and the Homecoming Court from 1997 in a Saturday Chapel. Homecoming Queen will be announced Oct. 20. Many of the queen nominees are long-standing friends, and Gentry said it is not really a competition between them at all. “We have a really awesome group of girls, and it’s neat to already have a bond together,” she said. Cope also said it is an honor to be able to represent the senior class with friends. “This is all unexpected; I am just really honored to be nominated,” Cope said. “I have been friends with a lot of [the nominees] for a while, and I think it’s really cool. ... I’m really flattered because just to be comparable to them is an honor.” Many nominees are also excited to come back together again in 10 years as the Coming Home Court. “We get to ask who has kids and is married, and I think that is just so cool,” Lair said. “We just want to honor each other.” Allred said she said she See
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ACU’s YourSecret mimics PostSecret with idea, results By Lauren Sutton Copy Editor
When a student introduced Richard Beck to PostSecret more than a year ago, he began brainstorming ways to use the online phenomenon as the focus of a summer research project. Last summer, Beck, chair of the psychology department, facilitated a group of psychology students in the study of PostSecret, a community art project where anonymous individuals mail in secrets on a single, decorated note card to creator Frank Warren who chooses a specific number of cards
each week to display on his Web site, www.postsecret. blogspot.com. “People were reporting a great deal of healing by it. I wanted to see what was going on about that,” Beck said. “It seemed like people were identifying with [PostSecret] and not treating it as a fish bowl. It spoke to people in some way.” Student researchers spent time studying Warren’s three published books. PostSecret books contain a greater amount of note cards than the official PostSecret Web site. “We found out that most people would send in the se-
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication
crets because they wanted to share,” said Kadie Ausherman, junior psychology major from Haven, Kan. “Some people did it for fun or to get published, but it was mostly about sharing a part of their life. They experienced healing from sending it in, and for a lot of them, it was emotionally difficult to send in their secret.” In order to conduct more research, the student-research team came up with a personalized twist to the phenomenon by creating YourSecret, a project where members of the ACU community can mail in their secrets to ACU BOX 8011.
Many ACU individuals participated in YourSecret after the research group presented its study at a coffee house during Lectureship, and through YourSecret, the psychology students found the submitted note cards to be similar to the ones they studied in Warren’s books. Though much of the research is complete, the group still welcomes secrets that can be submitted to the psychology department or to the listed ACU BOX number. “If you look at the people who strongly follow courtesy Acu psychology department
See
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A YourSecret postcard sent to the ACU psychology department. Postcards can be sent to: The YourSecret Project, Psychology Dept., ACU Box 28011.
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