Intramurals are back Prepare for the Optimist’s Rec & Champ coverage
vol. 103, no. 6
wednesday, september 10, 2014
IM Page 2
1 SECTION, 6 PAGES
what’s INSIDE NEWS COBA gets a summer facelift and new furtniture Page 3
SPORTS ACU football loses 27-21 to Northern Arizona
PURPLE REIGN
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OPINION The Editorial Board speculates the innovation of Apple’s announcement
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SPORTS
jarred schuetze Staff Photographer
Four senior players lead the way for ACU soccer this year Page 6
Members of Wildcat Reign, a student-led spirit organization, cheer on the women’s volleyball team Monday night in Moody Coliseum with flags, pom poms and body paint.
Wildcat Reign leads fan ‘Yell Night’ Bryan Maier and Trey Jackson, leaders of Wildcat Reign, said they plan to do Yell Night before Section F of Moody erupt- each home football game ed with nearly 300 rau- to rouse the student body. cous cheers and enthusi“Students can adjust astic antics on Friday at Yell Night into whatever 11 p.m. they want it to be, this is Yell Night, organized just a skeleton,” said Jackby Wildcat Reign, pre- son, sophomore graphic pared the student section design major from North for the football game on Richland Hills. Saturday evening. The They took the Texas student section leaders A&M Midnight Yell model instructed the students and made it their own, on chants and cheers to said Maier, sophomore be used at specific times mathematics teaching during the game. major from St. Louis.
elijah evans
staff reporter
NEWS Students attend the West Texas Fair and Rodeo throughout opening weekend Page 3
OPINION Linsey Thut shares her first Comic Con experience and the hunt for Spidey Page 4
linsey thut
Fike moves and UCC college ministry undergoes changes in leadership
Page 3
what’s online VIDEO A donated Pepsi food truck gets an overhaul from the MakerLab
Read more at acuoptimist.com
and we need a Division I crowd.” Maier and Jackson sharply executed Yell Night by combining the trademark freshman excitement with the connections and savviness of upperclassmen. This mix was on display Saturday night at the football game, where Jackson and Morgan Knight, freshman kinesiology major from Longview, led the student section in continuous cheers through the entire game. “God blessed me with
a big voice and a lot of energy, so I try to use it in every way I can,” Knight said. “I’m just going to try to get everyone fired up.” “The game was a lot of fun,” Jackson said. “The students played a big role in the last few minutes of the game with the blocked field goal and the final drive. The louder we are, the better our Wildcats play.”
contact evans at ece12a@acu.edu
New course focuses on sexual minorities features editor
NEWS
The Wildcat Reign leadership created a list of cheers to be used at every game. The list included Highways and Byways, the alma mater, the fight song, I Believe That We Will Win, and the classic chant from Remember the Titans. “I’m most excited to start new traditions, to get everybody hyped about the games, and to have a strong-spirited student section,” said Grayson Dampier, freshman student section leader. “We are a Division I school
A new psychology course called Sexual Minorities: Identities and Communities is being considered for a general education course. The class, taught by Dr. Robert McKelvain, currently has 15 students. McKelvain said the point of the course is to teach students about how sexual minorities and mainstream culture interact.
“Members of sexual minorities are people who have differentness in regard to some aspect of sexuality and who the majority disadvantage because of those characteristics,” McKelvain said. McKelvain said the course focuses on three different types of sexual minorities: those with developmental sexual disorders, transgender persons and the gay and lesbian community. He said problems in society arise because people misunderstand sexual minorities.
“An important problem in understanding sexual minorities is that our views of them are so simplistic and stereotyped,” McKelvain said. Research, he said, is the way to defeat this misunderstanding. “It’s a course about what we know from research in behavioral sciences,” McKelvain said. “We challenge stereotypes with research evidence.” McKelvain said many people have a fear of learning about sexual minorities because they do not
want people to assume they approve of it. “Perhaps we are afraid that if we work to understand, someone will think that signals approval, but those things are different,” McKelvain said. Dr. Richard Beck, chair of the Department of Psychology, said he sent an email to the administration to request the course be a general education course that could satisfy the social sciences credit. “This is obviously a cultural issue dealing with sexual minorities and how
they fit into the larger culture, so we asked for it to be added,” Beck said. “That way, a student from any major, even if they didn’t have elective room, could take it.” Dr. Robert Rhodes, provost of the university, said the course is still being considered as a general education course because there are a few details that need to be worked out. “I have some questions not specific to this course, see Course page 5
Judge Ely accident causes traffic issues ed to Hendrick Trauma Center, where he was later pronounced dead at 12:03 p.m. by Justice of the Peace A collision with a traffic Sparky Dean. light on Judge Ely Boule“ACUPD responded to vard left one man dead the call for two reasons,” Tuesday. said Jimmy Ellison, ACU Matthew Wright, 41, chief of police. “It’s a busy was driving down Judge intersection close to camEly when he collided with a pus, and it looked like it school zone sign and then would be a fatality.” a traffic signal, resulting in According to the APD heavy damage and fatal in- report, witnesses said juries. Wright pulled out of the The accident occurred United Supermarket parkat 9:56 a.m. Tuesday morn- ing lot and “proceeded ing. Wright was transport- to go south in the north-
abigail runnels page 2 editor
bound lane.” He drove over the curb, crashing into a school zone sign before reentering the road and driving in the wrong direction. He hit the signal light pole on the NE corner of the EN 10th Street and Judge Ely Boulevard intersection. Wright was trapped in the wreckage of his pickup truck for several minutes until Abilene Fire Department extracted him and was able to transport him to the hospital. All witnesses said it appeared Wright was expe-
Abilene Christian University
riencing a possible medical episode, as he was leaning over the steering wheel while his vehicle continued southbound on Judge Ely. Though it is not yet known what kind of medical condition he was experiencing, it has been confirmed by police that alcohol was not a factor in the accident. “This is an APD investigation,” Ellison said. “They are looking at medical causes for the accident, and there will probably be an autopsy performed
since alcohol has definitely been ruled out as a cause.” For the remainder of last week and the early part of this week, the intersection was turned into a four-way stop so the traffic pole could be replaced. On Monday afternoon, though, the City of Abilene Twitter account confirmed “the intersection of N. 10th and Judge Ely is back up and running.” contact runnels at anr11a@acu.edu