Month: September 2012

The Martin Museum of Art will host a photography exhibition by Keith Carter from 4:15 to 5:15 p.m. on Thursday…

Baylor Carillonneur Lynette Geary will play a recital in memory of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks at 5…

DAVID ESPO and ROBERT FURLOW

Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — His re-election in doubt, President Barack Obama conceded only halting progress Thursday night toward fixing the nation’s stubborn economic woes, but vowed in a Democratic National Convention finale, “Our problems can be solved, our challenges can be met.”

“Yes, our path is harder — but it leads to a better place,” he declared in a prime-time speech to convention delegates and the nation that blended resolve about the challenges ahead with stinging criticism of Republican rival Mitt Romney’s proposals to repair the economy.

He acknowledged “my own failings” as he asked for a second term, four years after taking office as the nation’s first black president.

“Four more years,” delegates chanted over and over as the 51-year-old Obama stepped to the podium, noticeably grayer than four years ago when he was a history-making candidate for the White House.

The president’s speech was the final act of a pair of highly scripted national political conventions in as many weeks, and the opening salvo of a two-month drive toward Election Day that pits Obama against Republican rival Romney. The contest is ever tighter for the White House in a dreary season of economic struggle for millions.

Vice President Joe Biden preceded Obama at the convention podium and proclaimed, “America has turned the corner” after experiencing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Obama didn’t go that far in his own remarks, but he said firmly, “We are not going back, we are moving forward, America.”

With unemployment at 8.3 percent, the president said the task of recovering from the economic disaster of 2008 is exceeded in American history only by the challenge Franklin Delano Roosevelt faced when he took office in 1933.

“It will require common effort, shared responsibility and the kind of bold persistent experimentation” that FDR employed, Obama said.

In an appeal to independent voters who might be considering a vote for Romney, he added that those who carry on Roosevelt’s ers

His re-election in doubt, President Barack Obama conceded only halting progress Thursday night toward fixing the nation’s stubborn economic woes, but vowed in a Democratic National Convention finale, “Our problems can be solved, our challenges can be met.”

Now, students don’t have to worry about being late on account of the Baylor University Shuttle system.

The university has implemented a new shuttle schedule that should eliminate many of their travel woes, including an after-hours route for students who stay on campus through the late evening to early morning hours. The red, blue, gold and downtown area shuttle routes have been modified and total service hours extended.

The Army psychiatrist charged in the 2009 Fort Hood massacre twice offered to plead guilty and “accept full responsibility” for the crime earlier this year, his lead defense attorney said Thursday.

Baylor is getting greener all the time.

Sustainability coordinator Smith Getterman and the Baylor Sustainability Committee have seen to that.

Both Getterman and the sustainability committee will continue to work for improvement, although great strides have been made so far. The campus became Styrofoam-free at the beginning of the semester.

Students at Baylor are more than likely to see at least one Baylor Mainstage production in the four or more years while they are enrolled.

The Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center, between North Village and the Baylor Sciences Building, almost always has banners hanging from it that advertise the newest big musical or theater production.

The Jazz Age is still alive and swinging thanks to the Baylor Jazz Ensemble.

Directed by Alex Parker, a senior lecturer in jazz studies, the band’s season begins Saturday with “A Moonlight Serenade,” an all Swing Era concert that features a “re-creation of what folks in the 1940s heard on radios, in nightclubs, on 78-rpm records and from the hotel ballrooms of their day,” according to a brochure published by the Baylor School of Music.

Bill Clinton delivered a 48-minute stemwinder to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night that was so mesmerizing even Republicans praised it. But after the huzzahs for Clinton fade, save a little nod of affirmation for Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK, a Roman Catholic social justice group. She did not speak long — about seven minutes. Her delivery was not particularly powerful. But with the moral authority of her calling, she did something that has sorely needed doing for some weeks now.

First things first: I love my girlfriend.

But playing intramural ultimate Frisbee with her? I wasn’t totally convinced. In the mad scramble to meet the three-woman requirement for our “Boom Goes Da Dynamite” ultimate team, we found a quidditch player, an intramural referee and, yes, my girlfriend, who has never played ultimate Frisbee in her life.

Fellow students, we all remember a time when we checked Facebook five times a day, each time taking 30-45 minutes scrolling through other people’s statuses and photos. Some of us have proudly narrowed that down to two times a day now. And only for about 10 minutes each (hopefully).

The last time the stock market was this high, the Great Recession had just started, and stocks were pointed toward a headlong descent.

But on Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average hit its highest mark since December 2007, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index soared to its highest level since January 2008 in a rally that marked a milestone: American stocks have come almost all the way back.

The Brothers Under Christ Island Party bill avoided a potential wipeout at Thursday’s meeting.

Ultimately the BYX bill was passed unanimously with the vote of the 27 senators present. Opposition to the bill came during its review by the finance committee. In a decision of two affirmative and three against, the committee did not want to recommend the bill for passage because of concerns about the amount of funds requested.

Gold medal. Gold star. Gold… water?

Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship workshops are being held from 5 to 6 p.m. Sept. 25 and Oct. 16 in the C206 Baylor Sciences Building.

Students interested in applying for the Goldwater scholarship should attend, but attendance is not mandatory.

Laboratory tests show that globs of oil found on two Louisiana beaches after Hurricane Isaac came from the 2010 BP spill.

Tests run by Louisiana State University for state wildlife officials confirmed that oil found on Elmer’s Island and Grand Isle matched the biological fingerprint of the hundreds of millions of gallons of oil that spewed from BP’s Macondo well.

The Texas Transportation Commission has approved the 85 mph speed limit for a 41-mile-long toll road near the increasingly crowded Interstate 35 corridor between Austin and San Antonio. The road runs several miles east of the interstate between two of the state’s largest metropolitan areas. And while some drivers may be eager to put the pedal to the metal and rip through the Central Texas countryside, others are asking if it is safe.

The 2012 fall semester has the largest international student population in Baylor’s history, according to the school’s Center for International Education.

Over the past few years, there has been an increase in Baylor’s appeal to students living in other parts of the world. More than 500 international students are attending Baylor this fall, and more than 300 of that number are returning students.

The Baylor volleyball team has been busy traveling lately.

After being in Hawaii last weekend, the team is now in Louisiana for four games in two days in the Big Daddy’s Invitational.

The Baylor women’s soccer team will travel to Denton and San Antonio this weekend on their second road trip of the season.

The Bears protected their house last weekend against Nebraska and McNeese State, and they will look to do the same against the University of North Texas and The University of Texas at San Antonio.

North Texas started the season 6-0, though it has yet to play a team ranked in the top 25.

The Baylor Jazz Ensemble will perform a swing concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Jones Concert Hall of the Glennis…

Robert Griffin III is preparing to face the New Orleans Saints in the Redskins’ season opener Sunday, but the key to upgrading his training efforts may be back at Baylor.

“He practices a lot and can’t have the whole defense out there every time,” said Dr. Michael Korpi, professor of film and digital media. “His dream was that he could go into the practice facilities, even without a receiver, and practice against a defense and be able to tell if the pass was completed or not.”