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Baylor Lariat W E ’ R E T H E R E W H E N YO U C A N ’ T B E

FEBRUARY 2, 2018 Opinion | 2

FRIDAY

B AY L O R L A R I AT. C O M

Arts & Life | 6 New news frontier

Be an ally

Title IX office should offer student involvement options.

Sports | 9 & 10

Weekend meet

Track and field will face stiff competition in Michigan this weekend.

Lariat’s new broadcast newscast offers a behind-the-scenes look.

Personality, Tested

Bailey Brammer | Editor-in-Chief

Professor discusses personality tests, says they give less insight than some expect THOMAS MORAN Staff Writer Personality tests are all the rage in modern media. Popular sites like Buzzfeed offer countless quizzes and tests for entertainment purposes, while more scientifically based tests like the Enneagram and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator attempt to offer insights into the inner workings of individuals. With such a broad variety of options, are such tests credible? And if they are, how should participants utilize the results? Baylor department of psychology and neuroscience associate professor Dr. Alex Beaujean specializes in psychological assessment and measurement and quantitative methods and in his opinion, not all personality tests are created equal. “They can be credible and can be useful, but not all personality tests that are available are either credible or useful,” Beaujean said. There are a few instances in which personality tests are beneficial, Beajuean said. The first is in administrative situations. In his view, specific jobs are tailored to specific personality types and having that information can be helpful during the hiring process.

“For example, say I need to hire a party planner and I have 100 people apply for the position,” Beaujean said. “I would probably want to focus on the applications from people who are more extroverted than introverted, people who get energized by being part of social interactions.” The second context in which personality tests can be useful is in a clinical environment, though the may look different from tests easily found on the internet Beajuean said. “These types of tests tend to do well in identifying people who are having some major difficulties in their life, such as having a lot of anxious thoughts,” Beaujean said. “These types of personality tests have to be interpreted and used by licensed psychologists and are used as part of a larger psychological assessment.” Beaujean said many personality tests have little scientific backing which, in the academic world, deem them nearly worthless. “Ideas of personality that are not grounded in science,” Beaujean said. “For example, the enneagram personality system is very popular — especially in religious colleges and institutions … There is little peerreviewed evidence available to support the

system … Consequently, making decisions about individuals based on their enneagram number/type, at best, is probably a waste of time.” Beyond being non-academic, some personality tests and interpretation of their results can be harmful Beaujean said. “At worst, it could cause some major harm such as interpreting people’s types as the areas where they ‘need to come to Christ and seek transformation,’ which was touted in a recent article about enneagrams in Christianity Today,” Beaujean said. Houston sophomore Kathryn Sadler enjoys personality tests in a casual way and avoids giving any personality test too much say in her day-to-day life. “I think personality tests should not define your personality,” Sadler said. “They should inform you on maybe why you make decisions or maybe why you think the way you do. But you should never let your personality test stop you from growing as a human being.” Sadler attributes the popularity of personality tests to the way they allow us to better understand ourselves and how we connect with others.

PERSONALITY >> Page 8

Title IX: Former BU employees subpoenaed MICAELA FREEMAN Staff Writer Attorneys in the “Jane Doe” lawsuit filed against Baylor University have subpoenaed former police chief Jim Doak and former athletic director Ian McCaw for documents related to accusations in the suit. Subpoenas for Doak and former Baylor employee Migdalia Holgersson were filed on Wednesday in United States District Court in Waco. Court records show McCaw, former senior associate athletic director Todd Patulski and former Title IX investigator Ian McRary all received similar subpoenas on Jan. 26. The subpoenas issued to them only required documents, not court appearances, and are common in court. Baylor has also issued these types of subpoenas in the past. A spokesperson for the university declined to comment on the matter. McCaw, Patulski and McRary all are now employed at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. Doak worked for Baylor for 28 years and retired as police chief in 2014. Holgersson was a client relationship manager at Baylor, according to a school news release from 2011. The lawsuit is one of six Baylor is facing over allegations regarding sexual assault claims, some allegedly occurring more than 10 years ago. The subpoenas are for a lawsuit filed by a group of survivors of alleged sexual assaults using the pseudonym “Jane Doe,” represented by attorneys Chad W. Dunn of Houston and Jim R. Dunnam of Waco. The evidentiary requests are asking Doak and Holgersson for all communications and documents pertaining to claims of sexual assault alleged by a student, faculty or staff member of Baylor and any documents to or from Pepper Hamilton, the law firm that conducted Baylor’s investigation into the alleged sexual assaults. The subpoenas also asked for documents Doak and Holgersson provided to Baylor Law professor Jeremy Counseller, who conducted an internal school investigation concerning Title IX and sexual assault related issues, as well as all documentation regarding their separation from Baylor University, including settlement agreements. The subpoenas served to McCaw, McRary and Petulski also ask for similar documentation. The subpoenas say Doak and Holgersson have until Feb. 20 to provide the named documents.

Students reach finals in Disney design competition REAGAN EBB Staff Writer A group of three Baylor students was one of six teams selected as finalists in the 27th annual Walt Disney Imaginations design competition. Walt Disney Imagineering executive and Disney Legend Marty Sklar created the competition in 1991 to develop students in creative careers for potential employment with Imagineering in the future. The prompt for the challenge changes ever year, and this year teams were instructed to bring an abandoned town back to life through design. All finalists were flown to Walt Disney Imagineering’s Vol.118 No. 33

headquarters from Jan. 2226 in Glendale, Calif. for a five-day, all-expenses-paid trip. During the trip, finalists met and worked with current Imagineers, interviewed for internships and presented their ideas to a panel of Imagineering executives for awards. Baylor’s team consisted of Katy senior Andrea De Oliveira, League City senior Erin Saylor and Coppell junior Josh Martin. Their project was titled “Lion City,” which is based on the thousand-yearold Chinese city Shi Cheng. Shi Cheng, which means Lion City in Mandarin, was a wealthy, lively city during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The city was purposely flooded in 1959 to create a reservoir and

a hydroelectric dam, which helps power neighboring cities today. In 2001, a Chinese government exploration found that most of the city’s architecture remained intact, despite the flooding. “We are absolutely thrilled to have been able to go and present our ideas,” Martin said. In their design, people enter the city through HydroGliders, a device that the team designed similar to a helicopter combined with submarine, which gives visitors an overview of the original city. Once the guests have entered the city, they have several options to explore. “Within the city we had multiple different activities, including scuba diving

Photo Courtesy of Disney

OUTBREAK Katy senior Andrea De Oliveira, League City senior Erin Saylor and Coppell junior Josh Martin are finalists the 27th Imaginations Design Competition. This is Baylor’s third year competing but first time reaching the finals.

through the ruins, making a spirit animal that can follow you around the park and be your guide and a roller

coaster,” Saylor said. The main attraction, called Dragon Dynasty, is a dragonthemed, dual-tracked roller

coaster where the two tracks race to gain control of the city.

DISNEY >> Page 8 © 2018 Baylor University


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