WHAT'S INSIDE
GRADUATES
Read the complete list of undergraduates and graduates in the class of 2017. Section B
FEATURE
OPINION
Seniors look back at what they will miss the most about Abilene. Page 4
Dr. John Willis wrote a letter of encouragement to the graduating class. Page 6
SPORTS
Construction on the Wildcat Stadium is going to heat up over the summer. Page 8
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Friday, May 12, 2017 Vol. 105, Issue 32
A student publication of Abilene Christian University since 1912
PICTURE THIS ERIKA BOLADO WEB EDITOR
Parents take photos of graduates on their iPhones at the 2016 Commencement Ceremony last May.
Commencement ceremony to honor grads BY HALEY REMENAR EDITOR IN CHIEF
The 2017 Commencement ceremony will honor 559 undergraduates and 168 graduates in Moody Coliseum Saturday. Graduates from the College of Arts and Sciences will be honored in the first ceremony at 11 a.m. The second ceremony will start at 3 p.m and will honor graduates from the College of Biblical Studies, the College of Business Administration, the College of Education & Human Services, the College of Graduate and Professional Studies and the School of
Nursing. Graduates, their guests, and faculty and administration will gather in the mall area outside Moody for a reception following the ceremony. Out of the total 559 undergraduates, 67 percent are female. Sixty-four students will graduate cum laude with a GPA of3.9 through 4.00; 76 will graduate magna cum laude with a GPA of 3.75 through 3.89; and 70 will graduate cum laude with a GPA of 3.6 through 3.74. A total of 104 students will graduate in the Alpha Chi National Honor Society.
With 45 graduates, nursing ranks as the largest major and also the most popular major for females. Dr. Becky Hammack, dean of the School of Nursing, said the large number of nursing majors matches the national trend of many students studying nursing because of the current and future nursing shortage. The school has had more than 120 majors each year, although the school only started in 2012. Nursing majors can't take nursing courses until their junior year, so Hammack said the department provides faculty mentors for freshmen and
sophomores. "We are very proud of our program and our students," Hammack said. Other popular majors for females are psychology, marketing, kinesiology and communication sciences and disorders. The most popular majors for males are accounting and finance, management, engineering, marketing and kinesiology. English and mathematics are the smallest majors with just five students. More than 83 percent of the undergraduates are from Texas.
SENIORS BY THE NUMBERS Read senior class statistics and commencement awards . Page 2 The most popular states are California, Colorado, Oklahoma and Washington while the most popular countries are Thailand, Mexico, Rwanda and Malaysia. HRR13B@ACU.EDU
Engineering majors help community BY CHELSEA TWOHY COPY EDITOR
Seniors in the Department of Engineering and Physics have spent the last academic year developing, designing and constructing projects for clients in Abilene and the Metroplex as part of their capstone course. Dr. Lori Houghtalen, assistant professor of engineering and physics, and Ray Smith, the engineering lab supervisor, are the co-directors of Senior Clinic, the capstone course required of engineering seniors. Students in the class worked on five different projects, Houghtalen said. Their goal was to work with and accommodate the expectations of industry clients as well as those of their instructors and faculty coaches. Houghtalen said the most rewarding thing about
working with students is, “seeing them succeed at a very challenging project and the confidence they develop as a result.” "This group of seniors is only our second graduating class in the engineering program, and they have accomplished amazing things," she said. One of the teams worked with Enproctec/Hibbs & Todd, a civil, environmental and geotechnical engineering firm, in developing a transportable water filtration prototype that could be used on-site to test the effectiveness of various types of filtration media. Members of the project included senior engineering majors Clint Taylor from Temple, Adam Gordon from Spring Branch and Vicente Rojas-Aguirre from Torreón, Mexico. Taylor, the project team leader, said the most rewarding part about the
“
They had nothing but good things to say about it. They said we exceeded their expectations” CLINT TAYLOR SENIOR ENGINEERING MAJOR FROM TEMPLE
project was when his team “actually got the thing built and we saw that all of our calculations and work had paid off with a low percent of error." “It was also nice that when we presented it to the client, they had nothing but good things to say about it. They said we exceeded their expectations,” Taylor said. On average, each team spent 40 hours a week outside of class working on these projects. “It was like a part-time job,” said Taylor. The four other projects
include the transmission and reception of very low frequency radio waves, an aerial platform capable of analyzing crop health, a device that tracks the locations of physical assets dispersed across more than 6,000 acres while using solar panels to recharge, and an automated meat smoker that maintains a smoke temperature input, along with controls to monitor and report the temperature in up to four different meats in the smoking chamber. The projects will be demonstrated from 10 a.mnoon Friday in the Bennett Gymnasium. Houghtalen encouraged students to attend the showcase if they have “an interest in working in a field requiring problem solving, design, drawing and/or professional communication.” CLT15A@ACU.EDU
W W W. A C U O P T I M I S T. C O M
WERDERICH
KELLEY
BLANCHET
SA executive cabinet chooses next admin, CFO and CCO BY MIKAELA CLINTON STAFF WRITER
The Students’ Association executive cabinet hired a new executive administrator, chief communications officer and chief financial officer for the 2017-18 year. Shelby Werderich, junior marketing major from Montgomery, will be executive administrator; Ty Kelley, junior information technology and management major from San Antonio, will serve as the CCO; and Alex Blanchet, junior financial management major from McKinney, will continue to serve as CFO after occupying the position this semester. SA president Danny Burke, junior marketing major from Seymour, Indiana, said as far as abilities go, “there are two characteristics that stand out,” SEE CABINET PAGE 2