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10.10.18 | Vol. 127, Issue 5 | www.obusignal.com
TWIRP takes OBU by storm with club classics, new events alike By SARA PATTERSON Staff writer This week at Ouachita, various clubs have been putting on themed dances for students to enjoy during this year’s TWIRP week. TWIRP, an acronym meaning “the woman is required to pay,” is an annual event that encourages girls to ask guys to be their date to any of the TWIRP dances. TWIRP is put on by a variety of campus organizations, including Campus Activities Board (CAB), Campus Ministries, Student life, as well as the women’s social clubs on campus, including EEE, Tri Chi, Chi Delta, Chi Mu and Chi Rho Phi. Each of these events has a cost of three dollars for a single ticket and five dollars for a couple‘s ticket, excluding Barn Bash, which is a slightly more expensive ticket to cover a full meal for attendees. The Campus Activities Board started the week of dances off this Sunday night with a foam pit party in the village circle, complete with a bubbly soap pit, music and neon lights. On Monday night, the women of Chi Mu hosted a “Geezer ’s Night Out” in the Tiger Den, where students amusingly dressed up as
old people and played typical old people games. This dance in specific is all about the odd costumes and resulting funny pictures. Tri Chi put on an 80’s night last night. Students dressed in their most exaggerated 80’s outfits and danced to a playlist of iconic music from the decade. Tonight, the women of EEE are hosting students at a 50’s themed dance. Students are invited to wear poodle skirts, take pictures with nostalgic props and dance to classic 50’s music. The women of Chi Delta will host a Luau-themed party on Thursday night. This event will take place outside near the sand volleyball courts on campus. At this dance, students can wear Hawaiian shirts, grass skirts and leis and participate in a variety of Hawaiian-themed activities, such as the limbo. On Friday night, Campus Ministries is putting on the Barn Bash, a western-themed dance that takes place at an actual barn around the area. At this event, students come dressed in their western style clothing and enjoy a traditional southern meal and lots of square dancing. To end TWIRP week, the women of Chi Rho Phi are hosting a
“Nerd Prom” on Saturday night. This dance, complete with funny costumes and awkward dancing, gives students a chance to “let [their] inner geek wave its flag,” according to Tim Harrell, the director of Student Life. Harrell has overseen the coordination of TWIRP week for the past few years, but this campus tradition has been around years before his time. No one on campus actually knows how long TWIRP week has been around, but considering Harrell attended the event in the 90’s as a Ouachita student and remembered hearing of the event’s long history then, it has probably existed for an impressive number of decades. TWIRP has always been enjoyed by many Ouachita students, which is probably why it has remained such an integral part of the Ouachita student body culture over so many years. Harrell believes that TWIRP is consistently “pretty well attended” because of the fun, low-pressure nature of the events. “It’s just a silly night, there’s not anything you have to do except find some silly clothes to wear for the event,” Harrell said. TWIRP week “creates a space” for genuine fun and silliness
School of Business First Fridays return, features alumni, leaders in the field By ASHLY STRACENER Staff writer About once a month, the School of Business provides an invaluable resource for students through their First Friday speaker series where students can gather at Young Auditorium at noon to listen to a speaker who has found success in the world of business. Depending upon scheduling, the speakers may not always present on Fridays. “It’s really been a neat program for us,” Dr. Bryan McKinney, dean of the School of Business, said. “One of my hopes is that we just introduce students to different areas of business so students can see what they’re drawn to. We try to have people of all backgrounds and of all sectors of business. We’ve had bankers, accountants, family or small business owners, presidents of publicly traded companies and all kinds of different people come.” McKinney continued by saying that students often find helpful hints on careers. “I think a lot our students have begun to form areas of interest based of some of these talks,” McKinney said. While some speakers are alumni of Ouachita, McKinney stated that there are others who may not be alumni, yet have some valuable stories to share.
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“We just want students to grow from the experience, so there are plenty of speakers from over the years who have come and not been Ouachita graduates,” McKinney said. “However, most of them are, just because we want to show students that you can be super successful as a Ouachita graduate, so I think it’s kind of encouraging to a student to see Ouachita graduates doing great things in the world.” “It’s not a high-level, technical discussion about anything,” McKinney said. “We always ask people to just share their story, talk about how they got to where they are today, what some of the opportunities have been in their journey and what opportunities there are for entry-level students and what the challenges are. I often encourage them to share some life lessons with students. If it’s an accountant and a student knows that he doesn’t want to do accounting, they can still learn from the life lessons.” The speaker series began this semester with Aaron Beam, cofounder and CFO for Health South, who actually spent some time in prison for corporate fraud. He was able to use his story as a cautionary tale, and McKinney invited Dr. Eubank’s ethics class to the lecture. “I would love for anybody who wants to come, to come,” McKinney said. “I try to target groups
outside of the business school that I think might have an interest based on the background of the speaker.” “One of the things that I think is special about Ouachita is the access that students have to the good things that are here,” McKinney said. “At big schools, they’ll have presidents of publicly traded companies come and speak to their students, but they’re going to be in an auditorium with close to a thousand or more people sitting there. And if you’re in that audience, you might as well be watching it on YouTube, because you don’t have a chance to connect with that person.” “I think that’s a neat thing about Ouachita, because it’s in a setting where these students can actually engage with the speakers, not just hear them,” McKinney said. “The speakers are always gracious with their time. Normally, there’s 20 to 25 minutes of the talk and then 15 or so minutes of questions and answers with the group.” These lectures are also a great way to make connections and possibly get a job or internship. “These people routinely give their contact information or direct our students to their H.R. people and say, ‘Shoot the resume out, and I’ll be happy to put in a good word for you,’” McKinney said. “At the end of the day, I want it to be impactful for the students,” McKinney said. n
Alex Blankenship z Photo lab editor THE WOMEN of Chi Mu lead TWIRP participants in line dances at “Geezer’s Night Out” in the Tiger Den. This event is one of six events in this year’s TWIRP schedule.
among college students, Harrell said. When living in a small and often quiet town like Arkadelphia, it is important for Ouachita organizations to find ways to bring students together and encourage community on campus. TWIRP has been a historically great way to do just this. Students, especially freshmen, have a great opportunity to meet each other throughout the week at
these TWIRP events. There’s no deep meaning behind TWIRP’s mission, according to Harrel. It simply provides students with something that is “very fun in nature and very lighthearted.” TWIRP week has remained popular at Ouachita through generations of students because of the quirky and fun community that it invites students to experience with one another. n
Traffic Court to meet monthly for students with parking violations By ASHLY STRACENER Staff writer Once or twice a month, Student Senate offers Traffic Court for students who wish to argue their traffic tickets. Students can select a time on their info portal, come into the Student Senate office on the third floor of the student center and argue their case in front of a court of elected peers. “Our job is to take off unfair traffic tickets for people,” Evan Nelson, a senior business administration major from Little Rock, senior class president and head of Student Services Committee, said. “We’ve been running it for a few years but we’ve only had one traffic court this year,” Nelson said. “It’s just a place for us to help stuff be fair for students when it comes to traffic tickets.” “We try to do it the first and third Wednesday of every month,” Evans said. “It’s from 12:15 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. “ However, due to activities and breaks falling on these dates, traffic court is only going to be held once a month this semester and will return to normal during the spring semester. While students may receive the verdict to simply pay their fine, students may argue their case and receive a waiver of their ticket or a reduction in the fine. Unfortunately, sometimes students may receive a double fine which is when campus police may ticket
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a vehicle twice in one day which are often found as unfair and one ticket will be waived. While traffic court may have once been a way for students to slip out of paying tickets, Nelson wants students to know that this is no longer the case as the traffic court committee is determined to be completely fair in their rulings. “We have a committee of six senators who sit on the court,” Nelson said. “We like to follow the handbook as strictly as we can and try to adhere to the parking rules. And campus police has also done a great job this year of taking pictures every time there’s a violation. We have a system where we can go and click on it and see the picture of what they did wrong, what time that occurred and all of that. So we know we’re not lied to.” “We welcome anyone,” Nelson said. “Even if you think you may be in the wrong, I mean it’s only going to be five or 10 minutes, might as well take a chance to get your ticket wiped off because we try to be fair but not harsh. We don’t want to be harsh. We understand that parking sometimes can be hard and sometimes you get confused and that’s why when we send out traffic court emails. We try to send out the parking map as well because not everyone wants to dig through their handbook.” “I would suggest that if you have a ticket and you want to or think you have a chance of it getting taken off, then please come to Traffic Court,” Nelson said. “We’re here to help you.” n
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