The Rambler, Vol. 100 No. 4

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The Rambler

The students’ voice since 1917

www.txwes.edu/rambler

February 20, 2008

Vol. 100, No. 4

NEWS BRIEFS

New attendance policy affects all

In memorium A memorial service for professor Don Spinks will be held from noon - 1 p.m. Feb. 22 in the Polytechnic United Methodist Church chapel. All students, faculty and staff are welcome to attend and share their memeories of Spinks, who passed on Jan. 20. For more information about the service, contact Jessica Krizek at (817) 531-4468.

News Briefs

Get your vote on...early! Early voting for Tarrant County in the Republican and Democrat primaries are open through Feb 29 at 32 different locations. Early voting allows you to vote in any precinct in your county. Texans don’t have to register as Republican or Democrat, but can only participate in one party’s primary. Make sure to bring your voter registration card or valid identification documentation, such a a photo ID, driver’s license, U.S. passport or bitrth certificate. For voting locations, visit tarrantcounty.com/evote. Crushing on Obama? Obama supporters are hosting a rally from 11 p.m. - 2 p.m. Feb. 23 at Dallas City Hall Plaza. The group will be discussing canvass events, high visibility strategies and other outreach activities. Gotta Love Ms. Daisy Theater professor Joe Brown takes the director’s chair for the Artisan Center Theater production of Driving Ms. Daisy, which runs through March 1. Visit www.artisanct.com for full schedule and ticket prices. Reservations are recommended. Curtain call! Theatre Wesleyan presents Alan Ayckbourn’s How the Other Half Loves at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 20-23, with a 2 p.m. matinee Feb. 24, in the Thad Smotherman Theatre. General admission is $8, $6 for faculty and staff and $4 with a student ID. Present yourself Proposals for University College Day applications will be accepted until Feb. 29. Contact Stan Rummel (srummel@txwes.edu) University College Day is April 1. Hatton Sumners Hatton Sumners Scholarship applications are being accepted until Feb 25. Sophomores with at least 60 academic hours completed at the end of this semester and a 3.0 GPA are elligible to apply. HOT JOB opportunities @ Career Services Web Developer, Radio Shack Bilingual Case Manager, SafeHaven Bilingul Clinical Counselor, SafeHaven Marketing/Promotions Coordinator, Dallas Cowboys

SHAMEKA HYATT STAFF WRITER

Poetry & Love Photos by Tiara Nugent

The Aries “Broken Hearts and Fresh Starts” open-mic event drew a healthy crowd of students and English faculty Feb. 14. English professor Karen Hodges and junior English major Martin Garcia were two of the readers during the Valentine’s Day event.

Texas Wesleyan University recently adjusted the attendance policy to add clarification for all students, especially those who are athletes or active in campus organizations. “It holds everyone to the same standards,” said Pamela Rast, chair of the kinesiology department and director of the athletic training program. Excused absences must now go through the provost’s office, and professors are not allowed to implement a stricter policy that that of the university. With the revised policy in effect, students, particularly athletes and members of campus organizations, have to take extra steps to have an absence declared excused. All student absences must be made excused or authorized by University Provost Allen Henderson and requested with a legitimate reason. Concerning athletes and campus organizational members, organization sponsors have to get their student members’ absences approved for an event by submitting their departure and returning times to the provost beforehand. This is taken a step further for athletes. Coaches and team sponsors have to submit team schedules first to the faculty athletic committee for approval, then to the provost. Along with the clarity in procedures to excuse absences for athletes

See Attendance, page 2

Faculty get a change in e-mail with Outlook SHAMEKA HYATT STAFF WRITER

If Texas Wesleyan University faculty and staff want to check their university e-mail off campus, they traditionally log into WesNet … until this spring. WesNet is being replaced by the new and improved Outlook Web Access. Through this current Web-based e-mail system, Wesleyan faculty and staff can check their e-mail more easily and with more features available through the system. Like WesNet, OWA represents an abbreviated version of Microsoft’s Outlook but is much bigger and more appealing to the eye, users claim. To boost client productivity, the new Outlook Web Access has features such as search capabilities, document access, smart-calendar scheduling and decreased number of clicks needed to complete tasks. “It is robust, and a new way to communicate,” said Jose V. Ortega, director for the information and communication technology department. Along with being stronger and more flexible than WesNet, it also is more secure.

“Although WesNet was secure, OWA will surely keep confidential information from getting away from TWU,” said Gary Brunner, infrastructure support specialist. Along with the desire to offer Wesleyan staff and faculty a better off campus e-mail system, ICT’s other motive was to keep up to date with Microsoft. Prior to the implementation of OWA, everything at TWU was configured with Microsoft’s NT server. Microsoft no longer claims this server. Therefore, Wesleyan recently had to migrate to Microsoft’s new server, Active Directory. With the installment of this server, Outlook Web Access came into existence. “When Microsoft gets smarter, we have to get smarter along with it,” said Brunner. The new server will be on all Wesleyan campuses, including Burleson and the law school, by March. “We are one-third of the way through in implementing Active Directory on all TWU’s campuses,” said Brunner.

Deaton, friend dig up dinosaurs in Marmarth COLLEEN BURNIE ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR When talking hobbies, most people think of golf, scrap-booking and cooking. However, Dr. Bobby Deaton, professor of physics, spends his spare time searching, preparing and studying dinosaur bones. “I first got interested in June of 1997,” said Deaton, who took Wesleyan students with him to the land he had leased. Deaton, who paid for each land lease himself, started looking in North Dakota. “You have to first find a site where there are a large number of bones,” said Deaton who was on the search for a triceratops. According to Deaton, a complete triceratops has never been found at the same site, instead, bones are collected from different sites and placed together to form what’s called a composite. Between the years of 1997 and 2001, Deaton dug four different sites, excavating about 200 bones. “There are still holes,” said Deaton of this triceratops skeleton. “I’ve only prepared between 30 and 50 bones. The preparation process for the bones is time consuming and strenuous, taking between 50 and 100 hours each bone. Deaton’s current task is trying to get the

skull complete. According to Deaton, once the bone is discovered, a plaster jacket is placed over it on the site. Then, an exacto-knife is used to clear off the over burden. After working all the way around the bones, the plaster is covered in foil and burlap to keep it safe and then flipped over. After the bone is in a workshop, a miniblaster is used to get the plaster off. “You have to learn how to use a lot of tools,” said Deaton, who has since learned to use the mini-blaster and a welder that is used to make a frame for the bones to sit on in order to construct a frame. “It’s a huge task,” he said. “It really takes forever.” During his time on the leases, Deaton worked with a young man named Tyler Lysom. “Tyler was 14 when I first met him. He had a big blue truck he used to call ‘Old Blue,’ and he lived in the tiny town of Marmarth, N.D.,” said Deaton. Every year when Deaton would work out on his leases, Tyler would help him. During one of his trips out the site in 2000, Tyler made a ground-breaking discovery: a dino-mummy. The dinosaur that had died in

See Dinosaurs, page 2

Photo courtesy of Bobby Deaton

Tyler Lysom inspects one of the findings next to Bobby Deaton, professor of physics (right). Lysom found a dinomummy and was featured on National Geographic last year.


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