O UAC H I TA
B A P T I S T
U N I V E R S I T Y
SINCE 1890
the
FEATURES | 3
SIGNAL
02.02.18
BACK TO SCHOOL Denis Sullins’ unique college experience
Vol. 126, Issue 13
www.obusignal.com
OBU alumnus, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee visits campus By ETHAN DIAL Online editor
Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and Ouachita alumnus, visited campus Monday starting with presentations to communications students and education students, and ending with a school-wide lecture on running for president. Although his two campaigns for president were the lecture’s primary topics, he also discussed the benefits of his education from Ouachita. “You’re going to get a great academic preparation. You’ll be challenged intellectually and that’s important,” Huckabee said. “You’re building relationships that are deep bonds, the likes of which I never see anywhere else among students who go to any university.” Recounting his time here, Huckabee encouraged students that they would make incredible relationships that would be beneficial in the future. “The friends that I made here are still lifelong friends,” Huckabee said. Regardless of one’s current friendships, Huckabee believes that Ouachita creates a community among all of its students, even those one
doesn’t know. “I meet somebody from Ouachita and there is instant camaraderie,” Huckabee said. When it comes to the election, Huckabee made many jokes concerning his defeat. Although he did make positive remarks regarding President Donald Trump, he had negative comments concerning how the media covered the other candidates throughout the election and his campaign. According to Huckabee, Trump received 90 percent of media coverage when it came to the 2016 election. The rest of the candidates had to share the remaining ten percent and typically were only covered if they opposed or attacked Trump. “It is hard to get your message out there when you are utterly ignored,” Huckabee said. The media therefore played a huge role in determining whose message was heard. They were only concerned with “ratings” and the “money” that comes along with it. “You as American citizens were basically completely mislead, not by Donald Trump,… [but] by the media,” Huckabee said. Huckabee also discussed how citizens were ready to
Hannah Smith z Photo lab MIKE HUCKABEE, former Arkansas Governor, Republican Presidential Candidate and Ouachita alumnus, speaks to an audience in Ouachita’s McBeth Recital Hall. Huckabee spoke on a number of topics including his time as a Ouachita student, his subsequent career in Arkansas politics, his career in the news media and his two campaigns for president.
have someone who wasn’t a politician in office. Trump gave those Americans a voice, showing that he was ready to go in and make changes. Despite his loss, Huckabee is sure that it was God’s will for him to run. He encouraged everyone to shoot for their dreams, even if they wouldn’t reach them. Huckabee said he was not
Berry Bible Building undergoing renovations, set to open fall 2018
planning to run for office again, but he did give advice for those who were wanting to run. He told them to be true to themselves and their relationship with the Lord. “The Christian faith is able to survive and thrive in any environment,” Huckabee said. Huckabee seemed most thankful for the education he received at Ouachita and
Ouachita hires Meyers as new Sports Information Director By CODY POE
By ANNI WILLIAMS
Staff writer
As students return from winter break, they’ll notice an obvious change to the campus landscape. The Berry Bible Building, which houses the Pruet School of Christian Studies, is currently undergoing renovations. These renovations are scheduled to continue throughout the rest of this semester and into the summer. In the meantime, where are the biblical studies professors? How did they transition to their new offices? “Students are still trying to figure out where we are, I think,” Dr. Daniel Hays, the director of the Pruet School of Christian Studies, said. “We notified them all early on as to where their advisors were. We’ve got signs up. Faculty, in the syllabus, can put down their new location.” For students looking for a Christian studies professor, their best bet is the bottom floor of Lile Hall, though philosophy faculty can be found in the science building, and Honors professor Barbara Pemberton has moved to the Honors lounge on the third floor of McClellan Hall. The transition to these new offices was thoughtfully and carefully executed. “We planned as well as we could,
One of Ouachita’s most recent hires is the new Sports Information Director (SID), William Meyers. Meyers comes from Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, Tenn., where he spent more than five years working in the sports information department. A sports information director is a position that requires a lot of work and a keen eye for detail. “Ouachita is very similar to Carson-Newman, in that they are both Baptist liberal arts colleges. I like getting to work on a smaller campus where everybody knows everybody,” Meyers said. “I felt that Ouachita was a place for me to help gets students involved in an industry they might not have known existed.” A sports information director has a variety of responsibilities, including keeping stats up to date and accurate for the coaches and the NCAA, as well as media publications and news releases that the school’s athletic department releases. Making sure that each sport is given equal coverage is also part of the duties of the sports information director. The sports information director essentially serves as a public relations specialist for a college’s
Staff writer
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Andy Henderson z Photo lab CONSTRUCTION CREWS are working diligently to rennovate Berry Bible Building. Berry is expected to repoen for classes in the fall semester of 2018, with professors expected to return to offices by August.
started talking about it a long time ago,” Hays said. “We’ve gotten a lot of help all across campus. We’ve a whole host of people to thank. To help give us office space and help give us classrooms everyone across campus pitched in.” As Hays detailed the moving process, he explained the biggest challenge of moving: finding a place for books. “You’re worried about your books, that you’re in a facility that’s got heat and air and not just a storeroom somewhere.” Hays went on to say that, thankfully, “Tim Knight in science gave us a room up in the top of the science building that was heat and air controlled. So, Dr. Knight
made that available to us back in September and so we started using our student workers and we were boxing up books. We moved quite a few books over there into that room throughout the semester. A lot of us took books home. You know, that’s our problem, we have a lot of books.” “For the last two weeks or so we had all the maintenance facilities workers pitched in and they picked up some trucks. We boxed up stuff and either moved it over to the temporary office or we put it in the Chapel.” The transition took a lot of manpower. Yet all seem to be in agreement that the hard see Berry z 2
noted that students will look back on their time here and be grateful for it. “No matter what you think…I believe that in time you will truly embrace the notion that the smartest decision you have made in your life up until now was to become a student at Ouachita Baptist University. I know that it was the smartest decision that I made.” n
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athletic department. Meyers stated that he has many goals for his new position here at Ouachita’s athletic department. Some of Meyers’ short-term goals are to create both pregame and post-game graphics, to generate more student involvement with the sports information department and to have a multi-camera shoot for all sporting events. His long-term goal is to grow his position into a department. During his time in college, Meyers had the opportunity to do some sports coverage and developed many memories while doing so. His experience covering sport sin college is what eventually led him to pursue a career in college athletics. “My freshman year of college, I wasn’t covering the game itself, I was keeping statistics for the home radio booth at the time. But, my first college game as a student worker was watching legendary Head Coach, the late Ken Sparks get win number 300 in his career. That was probably the moment I realized I wanted to work in college athletics in some way.” Students interested in a future of broadcasting or reporting about sports are strongly encouraged to get in contact with William Meyers. You can contact him by email or making an appointment with his office. n
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