BY J I L L I A N CA R PEN T ER StaffPhotographer
Sumpringterfa l Strikes Again
The common phrase, "If you don't like the weather in Kentucky, wait a minute," seems to hold quite a bit of truth in it How is it possible that the weather can be sunny and warm on Monday, yet icy by Wednesday and humid and rainy by Friday? Some people mention ideas that the mountains around us are the reason that the weather behaves the way it does. I personally prefer to sum all the seasons to "Sumpringterfal" and leave it at that. Other than that, however, there isn't much of an explanation that has, as of yet, been offered to tell us why the weather seems as if it has a rather indecisive mind of its own While we can't find the dial that changes the weather and lock it on sunny in the 70's indefinitely, we can do some things that soften the blows the sharp weather changes can deal its victims
One of the most important things you can do is check the weather every day You might have been able to check the weather on Monday and be set for the rest of the week before, but that isn't the case here in Kentucky. On Monday, the weekly forecast may suggest rain for Friday, but by Wednes-
day, that Friday prediction will probably make a drastic change that still might be far from what the weather is really going to be. If you can, check the weather before you leave your home or dorm room in the morning You'll thank yourself after realizing you need to make a drastic outfit change to account for what's really going on outside.
Not only does the weather change drastically from day to day, it can also fluctuate during the day. Because of this, you always carry a jacket or coat of some sort. It doesn't matter if you think you will wear it or not, because chances are, you will On more than one occasion, the temperature has dropped twenty degrees or more in the span of an hour or two. Even if it's sunny and warm outside, it's probably best to prepare for a possible second Ice Age
Of course, random cold spells aren't the only extreme and sudden weather changes that are likely to happen in this area It is also very normal for the temperature to increase drastically, or to have sudden rain when the day started out sunny without a cloud in sight In general, it's best to keep articles of
clothing fit for every season ready to go in your closest It isn't abnormal to start the week wearing shorts and a t-shirt, then transition to a heavy coat with gloves and boots, and finish the week off with an umbrella and rain boots No one wants to be left to go out and face the weather with the wrong clothing. You don't have to bring your entire wardrobe from home. Just keeping at least one outfit fit for each season would be enough When the weather doesn't seem to conform to the seasons during the year, walking to classes can become quite a pain, especially if you don't know how to prepare for the weather
It seems like a horrible thing to endure, right? As long as you keep a close eye on the weather and have the supplies to be ready for whatever weather the day may throw at you, you can get from class to class with ease
BY H A Y L E Y DAV IS SocialMedia Coordinator
It was a quiet Friday afternoon, seemingly sunny and definitely carefree, as I entered Dr Trickettâs office which was filled with classical muse and no grading of papers A few plaques, a few pictures, and a whole lot of questions later, Dr Trickett, a professor of psychology at UC, revealed the truth about the level of difficulty with his tests, the best mix of majors, and what itâs like working in a psychiatric hospital
H : W h a t i s t h i s d e p a r t m e n t l i ke ? C a n yo u kind of tell me the basics?
T: The psych program here really has an overall goal of getting students prepared for grad school If you stay in this field, in order for you to practice as a psychologist or whatever, you have to have at least a master âs. Now that doesnât mean that all of our students go to grad school âabout 60 percent do And some go straight into employment, you know, for a mental health center or something like that, because with a bachelor âs all you can pretty much do is entry level work. We have a lot of double majors like business and psychology, or biology and psychology, so theyâre going to med school; so, our main job is getting them ready for grad school If you look at our major, it really kind of gives you an overview of everything you can do is psychology. The sixteen hour core is set but beyond that you really kind of design your own major based on what it is that you want to do. Clinical Psych is probably one of the biggest divisions of Psychology, so for it youâd take the two counseling courses offered and Abnormal Psych and Personality Theories etc You kind of design your major based on what it is that youâre in-
Psycholo gy Depar tment R evealed:
terested in We donât have true tracks, but we have recommendations of classes you would need to take for grad school in general.
H: How long have you been teaching here?
T: For seventeen years.
apist in psychiatric hospitals while I was working on my doctorate and then I worked for a private counseling center for a while, and then I spent ten years working for community mental health center here in Kentucky, as an adolescent substance abuse therapist
H: Now what brought you here â where are you from?
T: Iâm originally from West Virginia, and I actually went to school here back a hundred years ago when it was still Cumberland College And I was a Psych major. Then, I went away and did grad school and worked out in the field for, almost twenty years, and then came back. There was a vacancy in the faculty so I started teaching
H: So, deïŹne âexperience.â
T: Well, I worked as an aid and then as a ther-
H: Whatâs it like working in a psychiatric hospital?
T: Itâs really interesting â thereâs never a dull moment And, when I was working in the psychiatric hospital I was also going to school, so it was go to class, learn about disorders, and then go to work, and learn what it is in real life
H: What made you want to become a professor?
T: The whole time I was doing doctoral work I actually taught a graduate class, while I was
working at the psychiatric hospital, and then one day a week I taught a course called âMinistry with the Psychologically/Mentally Illâ and it was the pastoral students [that] would come over from the seminary and spend all day at the hospital and I would work with them on how to work with folks that had psychological problems; probably did that for about five years And I just enjoyed the teaching part of it. And then I taught adjunct for Union College and LMU for nine years before I started full-time here So, I would work my day job at the mental health center and then teach classes in the evening.
H: Tell me about your family.
T : My wife works for the Whitley County school system All three of my kids are grown, so my youngest is in PhD program at UK My son is married and is a youth minister in Texas and his wife is a licensed counselor, and my oldest daughter is married to a law enforcement officer⊠and, I have 2 grandkids.
H : W
teach?
T: We each kind of have our specialties Dr Stephens, for example is kind of the research/experimental/human factors specialist, so he teaches the two research design courses and things like Learning and Cognition, and Senior Seminar⊠Ms. Whitaker is working on her PhD and I think sheâs really gonna end up specializing in the developmental part of psychology⊠Dr. Turner is a school psychologist by training so she teaches AdultDevelopment, Learning Exceptionality, Testing, and things like that⊠Iâm the designated
a Q&A with Dr. Tricket t
clinical person so I teach the counseling courses and I teach Abnormal and also teach Personality Theories And because of my background I also teach Psychology of Religion And then I teach the courses no one else wants to teach, like Phsio and Forensics and things like that.
H: Rumor has it on the street that you â re the hardest professor⊠clarify this for me.
T : I will own up that my courses are pretty challenging and I have pretty high expectations, and I do grade pretty tough on terms of writing, um, but we all do over here. I think in this department writing is really something that we emphasize, and we emphasize good writing and mostly it requires to you think your way through; if you donât think your way through it, it comes out not being very wellwritten. We probably are sticklers, and you know, as far as tests go there would be some who say mine are the hardest and then there are some who like them because they say, âI know what to study for â so that would probably vary from student to student
H: Whatâs your favorite class to teach?
T: Wow, thatâs tough I probably enjoy Psych of Religion just because that class really, allows a lot of discussion and dialogue You have to ask really kind of challenging questions in that, and itâs kind of fun to watch the students grapple with those questions and come to grips with some things Itâs a really interesting class. I like both of the counseling courses, probably Counseling Psych, the second course is one of my favorites The more they learn about it, the less they want to do it;
either the ones who survived or the ones who are really interested in it take the second class, so it becomes an interesting course
H : N ow h ow â s t h e M o n d ay/ We d n e
s d ay
schedule been working?
T: Itâs been working well. The feedback from students has been almost all positive â Iâm not sure if they like the format the way it is or if they like not having class on Friday, not exactly sure which one it is. But, weâve done some preliminary research and havenât seen any difference between final exam scores in the regular courses and the hybrid courses⊠so, why not? And, weâre still working out some kinks as far as delivering them because it makes the professor have to modify what information you present in class and what information you let the students do on their own It certainly does make the students read their textbooks more so we see it as an advantage I donât know that the students do
H: How has this depar tment changed over the years?
T: Weâve added some courses but the major itself really has not changed in itself a lot; we have begun emphasizing things more and more, and research is something weâve emphasized more that may be probably one of the things thatâs changed is that we have more students doing independent research now than we ever have before Used to be maybe one, two students a year, because theyâre not required to do it so they just do it on their own, not required We probably have six or seven or eight students a year now and so thatâs a big change. We have added some specialty
classes like Sports Psych and Forensic Psych because weâre getting departments and other majors that see Psychology as kind of a blend, so things like Forensic Psych seemed to be a smart addition We have so many athletes on campus that Sports Psych seemed to be an interest and both courses tend to be fairly popular⊠until they take them and find out how hard they are [Laughs ] But they really are interesting courses⊠so because of the demographics of the school, we have added courses but the major itself, really, weâve tried to maintain consistency with the American Psychological Society says. We canât offer all of the courses, a whole course in Motivation and Emotion or have our own rat lab, but for the most part we offer the courses that APA says.
H: What are your hopes for the depar tment?
T: Weâre moving toward upgrading our facility so we can do more research Weâve added a counseling lab upstairs where we have a room inside a room with a two-way mirror so we can record sessions and some of our doctoral students can come down and do testing⊠can get live supervision⊠stuff like that Weâre also gonna use that upstairs and start adding to our lab Weâve just put in a request for some biometric equipment so we can do EEGs, so students who want to do biometric research can Those are some things weâre hoping to do more of. I guess probably the thing, weâre always looking for ways to improve how we deliver the material I think our students leave here very prepared for grad school However, sometimes, if you look at them on paper, somebody coming out of UC as opposed to Stanford or whatever,
they may not look as good on paper, so weâre trying to augment some of the things we do and how we offer courses so that even on paper our students really can compete with students who come from much larger schools I think in terms of their ability to perform almost to a person when they go to grad school, if they get in, theyâll write back and say, âIâm much better prepared than my peers They donât know what an APA paper is, or theyâre still clueless about research design, or whatever â Right now we have 118 majors in the Psychology program, so itâs not a huge major, but itâs a pretty good number of Psych majors.
H : Is there a best mix between Psych and another major?
T: You know, I donât know that thereâs a better I think Psych really matches well with lots of disciplines. We have a lot of folks that are going into med school, and because the MCAT has a huge Psych section, that having a lot psych classes either as a minor or a major can really help Um, we have Psych and Business, Psych and Communication, Psych and Religion. I donât know that we have a whole lot of Psych and English and Psych and History; we have Psych and Education, but, I donât know that thereâs a bad major or bad coupling it just depends on what your career goals and likes and dislikes are Unless youâre gonna go into a field that has absolutely nothing to do with people, then Psych is probably a good match for a major or minor for you
Feb. 22nd, MarkWhittfrom Lifeway speaks for BCMWorship atGatliffChapel.
Feb. 18th, Comedian JoshSneedgives a vividspeechatGatliffChapel.
Feb 24th, UCFreshman Scholar Banquetis heldin cafeteria
On the rea l: Friend ship
BY AU T U M N CO ON E Y StaffWriter
Anais Nin put it beautifully when she said, "Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born " Friendship is a type of relationship between two people who care about each other But such a dry definition doesn't do the concept of friendship justice. A friend is the first person you want to call when you hear good news A friend remembers that you don't like pickles on your sandwich A friend will accompany you on the most boring of errands and make them seem fun In other words, friendship is wonderful. And throughout the years and across time the virtues of having friends That's not to say friendship is easy, though It demands time and effort, and it requires that people put someone other than themselves first sometimes But in exchange for that work, a friend can provide an immense amount of support and comfort in good times and in bad
When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand Many qualities are necessary
for a good friendship, including honesty, trustworthiness, loyalty and unconditional acceptance. A friendship should make both people in the relationship happy; both people should have fun when they spend time together To be perfectly frank, that's a tall order Human beings can clash very easily, which is why it's hard for some people to maintain many friendships. It's possible that friendship can exist between two people at one stage of life, but life changes and personal growth may make friendship impossible at another stage It can be hard to meet the people who would make the perfect friend. But when you find that friend itâs like finding the salt to your pepper, the jelly to your peanut butter, the shoe to your lace, the beat to your heart, the sun to your shine and the voice to your song I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let's face it, friends make life a lot more fun
G od still loves us
BY JOE Y KO O GL ER StaffWriter
Imagine messing up in the worst way possible I mean, youâve really done it this time Maybe you accidentally slept through your date at the sockhop with your gal, or hit a baseball right through Old Man Jenkinsâs window; I donât know I mean, you probably didnât do those things because youâre in college and itâs 2014 But who knows? The point is that youâve really messed up. Then, imagine that you go home to your parents or start talking to your girlfriend or whoever youâve wronged in this situation You start to apologize, but halfway through youâre heartfelt apology full of remorse; they stop you and say, âIt doesnât matter I still love you â Perplexed, you ask them, âBut, why?â Then, while making solid eye contact with you, they gently respond, âBecause I have to â
Now that isnât exactly what you want to hear in that situation, and it definitely isnât comforting. Never in a million years would I seriously try to console someone with those words. Yet the guilt and shame that we feel after sinning against God convince us that He responds to our sin in that very way Satan whispers in the back of our minds every time, âGod is ashamed of you. He only loves you because He is God and He has to.â
Let me tell you something right now God doesnât love you because He has to God loves you because He is love 1 John 4:8 gives us that proof when it reads â God is love â I donât know if youâre like me and you spend time sulking in your sin, telling yourself that God struggles to love you, but that is a lie God has loved since the dawn of creation and He has not once stopped loving you since Godâs love for you doesnât begin when you accept a relationship with
Him Accepting the gift of salvation and living for Christ is a reciprocation of the love that God has given you your entire life. Listen to the words of Isaiah in this passage:
"For this is like the days of Noah to Me, when I swore that the waters of Noah would not flood the earth again; so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you nor will I rebuke you âFor the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will not be shaken," Says the LORD who has compassion on you â Isaiah 54:9-10
God is not angry with us when we sin and He is not ashamed of us. He is nothing but love.
The words of that passage are so powerful Even mountains and hills can fall apart, and He will still love us He knows we are sinners He knows weâve turned our backs on Him at times But He has never turned His back on us. Right now, if youâre like me, you are letting your sin get in the way of truly serving God Stop sulking and feeling sorry for yourself because you think God really has to fight to love you He doesnât even break a sweat when it comes to loving us
Let go of that fear, accept the love from God that will always be with you, and follow Him down the path leading to His glory and your salvation
BY S OL OMON W H I TA K ER StaffWriter
Legendar y
The M.H.U, Myth Hunter Unit, is a team of highly trained professionals based out of Washington D C that hunts creatures deemed imaginary. These creatures, such as Bigfoot and trolls, are categorized as imaginary for the protection of the general population Every day, a creature somewhere in the world goes on a violent rampage and when that occurs the M.H.U. is there to bring the situation to a peaceful resolution. A black SUV makes its way up the curvy back-roads of Virginia âSo, what kind of trouble has this thing been causing?â asked the guy in the passenger seat as he stared at the huge, misshapen footprint image on the tablet in his lap His name is Samuel Reilly, the tracker of the group
âApparently it has been taking livestock from the surrounding farms But when the farmers went out searching for the animals nothing was found in the woods I think that we have a troll that has taken up residence in a cave somewhere out here, that way people wouldnât be able to find it It would explain why no remains have been found â stated the man driving the SUV. This man is Jack Ryder and he is the information specialist/leader of the group Some people call him âThe Human Dictionary â
âWait, thereâs a troll,â exclaimed the guy in the back seat as he leaned forward to weigh in on the conversation Jay OâNeil, the rookie/firearms specialist of the group, was still adjusting to the fact that imaginary creatures actually existed. The rest of the trip consisted of making plans for possible scenarios involving trolls, but nothing could prepare them for
what was going to happen.
The SUV pulled into the parking lot of the George Washington National Park Visitor âs Center. They quickly grabbed all the equipment they would need and went inside to talk to the ranger who had taken the photo of the footprint After getting the location, they quickly made their way up the Signal Knob Trail. The trail went on for two hours and then they found the area the ranger circled on the map The footprint was a big, three-toed image that was imprinted in the wet, moist earth âJudging by this footprint I think this thing is pretty massive,â stated Samuel
âHow big are we talking?â asked Jack, knowing the answer would be one he wouldnât like.
âI measured it out and the foot print is twenty-five inches long According to the M H U handbook, the troll is probably twenty-feet tall, give or take a foot.â
âAnd here I was hoping it would be a gnome, but the bigger they are â
âI wish it was a gnome, theyâre small and friendly from what I hear,â interrupted Jay The other two stared at him A startling realization was flooding Jayâs head when the ground started shaking with mini earthquakes.
âQuick, behind that huge rock,â ordered Samuel They swiftly ran behind the rock and looked up In full view was a twenty-one foot tall troll. It was the same color as grey stone and lanky with dead skin shedding all over its body
âWell, I guess we donât have to worry about finding it
anymore,â said Jay as he slowly pulled the flare gun out of its holster âShould I blind him?â Before anyone could stop him, he fired the flare right at the trolls face. As soon as it hit the troll, the creature let out a piercing screech and looked in their direction
âJay, run!â exclaimed Jack as the troll started rampaging towards them. As soon as they started running they realized that a cliff was up ahead, but there was no time to make another plan of action The troll swung his arms wildly, barely missing Samuel. As they approached the cliff âs edge the troll uprooted a small tree mid-stride and the team ducked as it flew just a few feet over top of them Then the troll tried to stop and grab Jack, but he quickly dodged and watched as the trollâs hand nearly grabbed him Unfortunately for the troll, it had created so much momentum in its stride that it could not stop itself from falling over the cliff.
âThat went better than expected,â stated Jay as they all collapsed to catch their breath The other two stared at him with disdain. âIs there a specific name for a troll that big?â asked Jay as he looked over the edge of the cliff at the troll below After resting, they made their way back to the SUV
The Ranger inquired what the creature was and Jack firmly told him that people needed to stop feeding the bears They quickly filed into the SUV and started the drive back to headquarters.
Pho t o by Su ne R i e ve r s
