For many Americans, thinking of Kuwait may spark thoughts of the First Gulf War.
However Dr. Alessandra Gonzalez, an alumna and research fellow with the Baylor Institute for the Study of Religion, thinks of feminism. Gonzalez is the author of the book “Islamic Feminism in Kuwait: The Politics and Paradoxes.” It brings the paradox of feminism in this small Middle Eastern country to the forefront.
Gonzalez said she became interested in Islamic feminism while searching for a topic for her dissertation.
During her search, Gonzalez said she noticed that women in Kuwait weren’t granted full political rights — meaning the right to vote and run for office — until 2005. Gonzalez wanted to know why.
“I wanted to know what had motivated these women to fight for their political rights within their faith and tradition,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said Kuwaiti women are heavily influenced by the society and culture they live in, which is traditionally conservative. Many of these women, she said, many women still want to maintain some traditional values, although they want equal rights.
“We all have outside factors that influence our personal decisions,” Gonzalez said.
Through surveys and interviews, Gonzalez found younger Kuwaitis want to combine traditional and modern values in their approach to feminism.
“The youth I talked to hold both modern and traditional values,” Gonzalez said. “There’s still a desire to maintain some identity with the past.”
Gonzalez traveled to Kuwait and did her research through a combination of 1,000 surveys given to Kuwaiti college students and 30 in-depth interviews with both men and women about women’s rights. Gonzalez said initial research for the book took two years, and it took two more years for her to write, edit and publish the book.
Dr. Paul Froese, who served as the chair of Gonzalez’s dissertation committee, said Gonzalez wrote the book in an attempt to describe a phenomenon frequently misunderstood in the West.
“Feminism comes in different forms,” Froese said. “There’s not one route to greater gender equality, just like there’s not one route to greater democracy.”
Surprised by her findings, Gonzalez said she had to reconsider many of her own views about Islam and women’s rights in the Middle East.
“These women are agents of their own change and don’t need to be saved,” Gonzalez said.
In addition, Gonzalez said some men are helping women gain more rights in Kuwait.
“I think one of the greatest analogies I was told is that the country is like a family,” Gonzalez said. “Men and women work together.”
Gonzalez said while she uses the term Islamic feminism in her book, many people she interviewed were hesitant to identify as feminists.
“Many people didn’t say they were feminists,” Gonzalez said. “They were more likely to say ‘I’m for women’s equality’ or ‘I’m for women’s rights.’”
Most women Gonzalez surveyed or interviewed were concerned about the issue of economic independence.
The more conservative aspects of the culture often encourage women to stay at home — which can limit their ability to work or learn skills.
“Equal pay laws are on the books, but it’s sometimes difficult for women to get jobs because they don’t have the necessary skill sets,” Gonzalez said.
Some other important issues to these women were access to education and professional training and personal status laws, she said.
Personal status law is the body of law covering issues such as marriage, divorce and child custody. In Kuwait, this type of law is deeply rooted in the holy books of Islam, the Quran and the Hadith. The Hadith consists of sayings attributed to Muhammad, but not stated in the Quran.
Gonzalez said she hopes her book is helpful to anyone who wants to learn more about faith and women’s rights in another country.
She said she thinks that possibilities can open up when people take the time to see an issue from another viewpoint.
“As American feminists have their debates I think we can learn from these women to take progress slowly and check in on ourselves. An element of self-criticism is healthy.”
Students anonymously attend the Fourth Annual "Blind" event, hosted by the office of the external vice president, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011 in the Barfield Drawing Room of the Bill Daniel Student Center. Students were blindfolded, seated and then joined by a member of the Baylor faculty who facilitated open discussion on race, ethics, religion, politics, gender, sexuality and socioeconomic status.
Jed Dean | Lariat Photo Editor
Students anonymously attend the Fourth Annual “Blind” event, hosted by the office of the external vice president, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011 in the Barfield Drawing Room of the Bill Daniel Student Center. Students were blindfolded, seated and then joined by a member of the Baylor faculty who facilitated open discussion on race, ethics, religion, politics, gender, sexuality and socioeconomic status. Jed Dean | Lariat Photo Editor
By Taylor Rexrode
Staff Writer
After a restful spring break, students will come together with eyes closed and minds open for the sixth annual Blinded event and Justice Week.
Blinded, hosted by Baylor’s International Justice Mission and Student Government, will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday, March 18, in the Barfield Drawing Room of the Bill Daniel Student Center.
Blinded is an open forum that brings together students and faculty from across the university to talk about diversity issues, including race, sexuality, religion and socioeconomic status. Students are blindfolded and then put in small groups to talk about these topics without knowing the identity of other group members.
Faculty members lead the discussions and are not blindfolded. These facilitators rotate to other groups to start new topics.
Woodville sophomore Kristyn Miller believes the blindfolds help to bring equality and comfort to each small group.
“The blindfold breaks down a metaphorical wall that you can’t see past,” Miller said. “When you are taking away vision, you’re more apt to give a more personal testament of yourself. Ideally, it will break down the barriers of these students and their insecurities so they can talk more openly.”
Justice Week will continue the rest of the week by raising awareness for people oppressed around the world.
Students will have the opportunity to hear from keynote speaker Katariina Rosenblatt from 6 to 8 p.m. March 19 in Barfield Drawing Room. Rosenblatt, a Truth Panel speaker through the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, will speak to attendees about the importance of social justice awareness, particularly in regards to human trafficking. According to their website, the Truth Panel honors Sojourner Truth and uses its collective voices “as a means of prevention, comfort and empowerment for those that have been trafficked for sex and labor exploitation and to keep those that haven’t from ever knowing this crime.” The Frederick Douglass Family Initiative is an apolitical and non-religious organization that works toward securing freedom for all people.
Rosenblatt endured human trafficking and domestic violence from ages 13 to 17 while living in Miami. She recently created There is H.O.P.E. For Me, a volunteer organization. H.O.P.E. stands for healing, opportunity, purpose and empowerment of sexual abuse victims.
The Justice Week feature on Wednesday, March 20, will be the Tunnel of Oppression from 6 to 10 p.m. on the second floor of the SUB. The tunnel will feature types of oppression, including racism, poverty, immigration and sex trafficking, portrayed artistically in skits, interpretive dance and spoken word.
“It’s going to be really artistic,” Houston senior Dalychia Saah, Justice Week chair, said. “It’s meant to see oppression in a different light.”
The event on Thursday, March 21, called Stand For Freedom, will last for 27 hours, from 1 p.m. Thursday through 4 p.m. on Fountain Mall. Students will take a stance against injustice by participating in all-night activities. Student organization Engineers with a Mission will also display four houses at Stand for Freedom to represent poverty in four different countries.
Chloe Toohey, co-adviser for Baylor’s International Justice Mission chapter through the office of community engagement and service, said the 27 hours have significance for remembering victims.
“You’re standing for 27 hours for the 27 million estimated slaves trafficked in the world today,” Toohey said.
Oso’s Frozen Yogurt at 215 Mary Ave. will host the final fundraiser for Justice Week from 4 to 7 p.m. on Friday.
The majority of donations will be collected at Stand for Freedom but cash or check donations will be accepted throughout the week.
Baylor’s International Justice Mission chapter plans to raise $2,700 during the week. All proceeds will go to help victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of oppression through the International Justice Mission national office.
Toohey said these events are important to raise awareness and gain support for the International Justice Mission.
“You’ll see pockets of individuals that take an interest or have a passion for social justice issues,” Toohey said. “It’s really hard and there’s not an organization other than IJM that strictly focuses and makes such a powerful statement about the issues. Justice Week is a great time to culminate these issues and raise awareness and hopefully find those students and bring them into the mission.”
EDITORS NOTE: For this event we are not asking students to stand for 27 hours, the event is happening over a span of 27 hours and there will be speakers, musicians, games, etc during this time span which students can come and go as they please. We are asking students to come participated for as little or long as they like and to donate to the cause.
Softball vs Illinois State at Getterman Stadium on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013.
Matt Hellman | Lariat Photo Editor
Softball vs Illinois State at Getterman Stadium on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013. Matt Hellman | Lariat Photo EditorBy Parmida Schahhosseini
Sports Writer
It has been less than a week since the No. 17 Baylor Lady Bears made a statement and upset No. 3 Arizona State 6-2 in the last game of the Wilson DeMarini Invitational on Sunday in Tempe, Ariz. Baylor will play a three-game series against Purdue, beginning with a double header at noon on Saturday and concluding with a game at noon on Sunday in Getterman Stadium.
Purdue is on a five-game winning streak after defeating Texas A&M Corpus Christi twice, Texas State twice and North Texas.
If Purdue beats Baylor, it would be its first win over a ranked team in six tries this season. The Boiler Makers are batting .278 for the season and have six players batting .250 or higher. At .453, outfielder Andie Varsho has 11 RBIs, 12 runs and 12 stolen bases. Second baseman Ashley Burkhardt leads the team with 16 runs scored and has eight RBIs.
Purdue’s pitchers have combined for a 1.92 ERA and 84 strikeouts. Sophomore Lely Moore has a shutout to her credit and has struck out 31 batters in 47 innings. Sophomore Alex Whittemore won her only start with a .50 ERA, striking out 11 players in 14 innings.
Baylor has won 18 of its last 19 games, including an upset against the Sun Devils.
“We are playing well as a team right now and getting better,” head coach Glenn Moore said.
Junior left-handed pitcher Whitney Canion is still working on her pitches after coming off an ACL tear last season. However, Canion is still effective with a 1.18 ERA and 92 strikeouts. Senior Courtney Repka is undefeated with a .44 ERA. Freshman right-handed pitcher Heather Stearns has yet to lose a game after her first start and is pitching effectively with an ERA of .90 and 54 strikeouts.
“I just think Heather coming in, in a closing situation, [it] was nice to see her do that,” Canion said after a game against Pacific. “We all have to learn how to close a game and seeing her close a game like that was good.”
Baylor’s offense combines speed and power, posing a dual threat. The team is batting .318 on the year.
Despite stranding runners, Baylor has been able to score runs, putting pressure on other teams. The at-bats for Baylor have been consistent. Sophomore outfielder Kaitlyn Thumann, with a .418 batting average, leads Baylor in runs with 22. Thumann also has 28 hits, two home runs and 14 RBIs.
Senior center fielder Kathy Shelton has also been productive, batting .378 with 14 runs, 28 hits and 14 RBIs. Freshman third baseman Sarah Smith has contributed 11 RBI, 11 runs, 27 hits and three home runs with a .491 batting average.
“We have more confidence up to the plate,” Smith said.
Redshirt freshman outfielder Linsey Hays has been giving Baylor the production it was looking for on offense with her power swings.
She was named Big 12 Player of the Week for the first time in her career, and she is the first freshman to receive this award in 2013. Hays played a strong game against Arizona State, going three-of-four with two RBIs and a home run. Hays leads Baylor in home runs with four, and RBIs with 15.
The Baylor Track and Field Team practices at the Hart-Patterson Track and Field Complex on Wednesday, February 6, 2013.
Travis Taylor | Lariat Photographer
The Baylor Track and Field Team practices at the Hart-Patterson Track and Field Complex on Wednesday, February 6, 2013. Travis Taylor | Lariat PhotographerBy Maleesa Johnson
Reporter
Baylor track and field is sending 10 athletes and one relay alternate to the 2013 NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., this weekend.
Altogether, the team is scheduled for six events, including three individual women’s events, two individual men’s events and one men’s relay.
On Feb. 23 and 24 at the Big 12 Indoor Championships, 28 members of Baylor track and field earned 39 All-Big 12 honors.
This included two All-Big 12 honors earned by 15 of the competitors for the women’s team, and 19 All-Big 12 accolades earned by 13 of the men.
After a fourth-place finish at the Big 12 Indoor Championships, with a record-setting six event titles for Baylor, the Bears have been buckling down for one of the biggest meets of the season.
“You always want to try to place as high as you can,” head coach Todd Harbour said. “We’ve had a lot of success indoors over the years, a lot of top four finishes. We’re ranked 25th and 27th, so it’s always nice to try to exceed those expectations and exceed your rankings.”
If these athletes perform to the caliber that they have in past NCAA Indoor Championships, it should be a successful meet for Baylor.
Six returning competitors have earned All-America honors previously for this meet, including Justin Allen, Blake Heriot, Drew Seale, Erin Atkinson, Tiffani McReynolds, and Skylar White.
Of those athletes, Atkinson, Seale and McReynolds have made All-American status within the last two seasons.
“I feel good,” Harbour said. “We’ve got a good group, you know, veterans. Skylar [White] has been there before and done it, Erin [Atkinson] was there; they were both All-Americans last year. Blake [Heriot] knows what it’s all about, so we’ve got a good group going. We’ve got some young ones too; this will be Felix [Obi]’s first time.”
After returning from an injury last year, junior hurdler Tiffani McReynolds has had a successful season thus far.
She has the second-best mark in the NCAA for the 60-meter hurdles this season with a time of 8.02. Two weekends ago, she won her third straight Big 12 title and has yet to lose a 60-meter hurdle event this season.
Additionally, McReynolds holds all top ten records for Baylor in this event.
“I feel a lot better practice-wise than I did last week and the week before conference,” McReynolds said.
During her freshman year, McReynolds placed second at the NCAA Indoor Championships. This year, she is going into the event as No. 2 in the nation.
“I’m really excited,” McReynolds said. “Hopefully I can go ahead and take the title this year.”
One of the athletes to earn a title at the past Big 12 Championship was junior sprinter Blake Heriot, who has big hopes for this meet.
He won the 200-meters with career-best time of 20.77, the ninth-fastest mark in school history and the fifth-best in the NCAA this season.
His title earned Baylor its sixth Big 12 Indoor title in the 200-meters and Baylor’s first title in this event since 2009.
“I’ve been so excited this week,” Heriot said. “Hopefully I can get the win and score more points for the team. Those are the things I want to accomplish.”
Additionally, Baylor’s throwers, Atkinson and White, will join the team for this meet with a combined five wins for the season so far. The men’s 4×400-meter relay team also joins the ranks.
Unfortunately, the team will have to compete without senior sprinter Everett Walker due to an injury.
Obi, a triple jumper, is Baylor’s highest-ranking male entering the NCAA Championships.
Baylor baseball beat Louisiana Tech 5-4 at the Baylor Ballpark on Wednesday, March 6, 2013.
Travis Taylor | Lariat Photographer
Baylor baseball beat Louisiana Tech 5-4 at the Baylor Ballpark on Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Travis Taylor | Lariat PhotographerBy Daniel Hill
Sports Writer
The Baylor Bears host Illinois this weekend for a three-game series. Illinois and Baylor will square off today at 6:35 p.m. and then Saturday the two teams will meet for a double-header. Game one on Saturday is at 2:05 p.m., and the back end of the double-header is scheduled to start at 6:35 p.m. at Baylor Ballpark.
After struggling at the start of the season, the Bears have turned it around and gained some momentum by winning five of their six games to give them a 7-6 record.
“Yeah, it felt good definitely to be over .500 and to grind it out,” senior third baseman Cal Towey said. “I feel like our last three games have been played pretty well, grinding out AB’s and counts. Pitchers have been throwing strikes.”
The Bears’ bullpen has been solid this season. When the Bears are leading after the sixth inning, they are 5-0.
As a team, the Bears pitching staff has a 4.42 ERA and are holding opponents to a .219 batting average.
“We have a lot of guys out in the bullpen and a lot of not heralded names, but we do have a lot of guys who contribute and perform and do their role,” junior left-handed pitcher Doug Ashby said. “That’s something [assistant] coach [Trevor] Mote works with us all on. He wants us all to be individuals. He doesn’t want cookie-cutter pitchers. My role is just to keep the ball down in the zone and to throw strikes so that’s what I was able to come out and do.”
Offensively, the Bears have benefited from timely hitting and positive plate appearances with a team batting average of .273. Senior right fielder Nathan Orf leads the team in batting average at .479. Orf and junior second baseman Lawton Langford are tied for the lead in runs scored with 10 runs each.
Illinois is an aggressive team on the base paths and boast a heavy pitching rotation of right-handed throwers.
“They are running a lot and we are going to see three right-handed starters,” Baylor head coach Steve Smith said. “They are running more than I would have expected a Big 10 team to do, with all due respect. No slight intended there.”
Last season’s Baylor squad relied on mashing the ball deep and hitting towering home runs. This year’s team relies more on contact and positive plate appearances to generate offense.
“It’s a very different team,” sophomore first baseman Duncan Wendel said. “It’s all contact hitters now except for Cal [Towey] and a couple of other hitters. It’s really just sticking with everybody’s approach of single, get a hit here and get a hit here. Instead of get the big hit here that’s the double or whatever. We’re just trying to be who we are.”
Baylor’s starting pitcher tonight will be junior right-handed pitcher Dillon Newman. Newman has a 1.62 ERA and is 2-0 in over sixteen innings of work.
For the first game on Saturday, senior right-handed pitcher Max Garner will take the mound for the Bears. Garner is 1-2 with a 2.79 ERA this season.
On the back end of Saturday’s double-header, Baylor’s starting pitcher will be sophomore right-hander Austin Stone. Stone has one loss on the season and a 6.43 ERA in seven innings of work this season.
“I think right now we’ve got two guys in Garner and Newman that have been pretty consistent, particularly Dillon,” Smith said. “I think Austin is going to be fine. I think Austin is just young and still trying to figure it out a little bit. The other guys are a little bit older and more savvy.”
Last season the Bears experience unprecedented success on the diamond. Smith believes this year’s team can duplicate that same level of success.
“I think we’ve played okay. I think offensively, we’re competing well at the plate,” Smith said. “I think on the mound, when we’ve gotten good starting pitching, that’s kind of set the tone for the whole game. I think there are still improvements to be made there. We’re what eleven, twelve, thirteen games into it? Honestly, we are not too far away from where we were a year ago at this same time. So hopefully we can continue to progress and get to where we were last year.”
He is an intense man with a dynamic speaking style, who makes big, dramatic gestures to underscore his points. In lecture halls, he jumps around the stage, electrifying his audience with the near-manic energy he brings to his passion for teaching. Lynn Tatum is a senior lecturer in the Honors College, teaching mostly religion classes — a subject which he has loved for decades. But religion isn’t the only subject that excites this impassioned professor.
Academic freedom, or the right for a professor to teach, write and research in his or her discipline is important to Tatum. Tatum fights for academic freedom as a member of the national American Association of University Professors (AAUP). He currently serves on the AAUP’s six-person executive committee of the association of state conferences, traveling regularly to speak on academic freedom.
For Tatum, a Baptist, the issue is personal.
“Baptists were born out of dissent,” he said. “And so theologically, I think it’s important that we have the right to disagree, otherwise we’re not real Baptists. So you have to have that space where dissent and conversation can occur.”
But that’s very uncomfortable to some Baptists because of Christianity’s focus on orthodoxy, or correct belief. Many who feel that orthodoxy must be maintained come into tension with openness and inquiry.
Unlike those who believe students should be told what to think, Tatum said he believes professors should teach them how to think for themselves. Free discussion is essential to this process — hence, his belief in academic freedom.
His fascination with academic freedom and its connection to good teaching began when two areas of his own interest collided.
“In the late ‘70s, early ‘80s as Baptists were going through a theological war over, essentially, freedom of thought,” he said.
At the same time, Tatum became fascinated with the Middle East. It was a time when growing fears over the Palestine Liberation Organization had reached a head, and the organization was regarded as a primary enemy of the United States.
“After having lived over in the Middle East, I became convinced it wasn’t black and white, that in fact, these are complex issues, and if we’re going to make any progress there, you’re going to need to have that ability to have a range of opinions and discuss,” Tatum said. “So these two areas of controversy: Middle East studies and religion, had people telling me I shouldn’t say certain things about the Middle East or about religion. And so it absolutely convinced me of the incredible importance of academic freedom.”
Resistance to academic freedom might have several causes, he explained. All new knowledge is, at first, controversial, and those with a vested interest in the old and traditional might resist the transmission of the new. But just because knowledge is new is no reason to shy away from it; in fact, Tatum said he wants others to embrace, discuss and study it.
“When a professor is doing their job in a true atmosphere of academic freedom, you can trust that your professor is telling you the best that they know, not what will a.) get them a raise, or b.) keep them from getting in trouble, or c.) keep them from getting fired,” Tatum said. “And there are people out there who want to see religion professors fired if we’re not teaching exactly the right thing.”
That’s nothing new to Tatum, who says that his no-holds-barred attitude towards openness has caused some to ask for his removal from campus. Once, a local pastor called for his firing and he’s received several angry letters. In one letter, Tatum’s methods were described as “crap.”
“Professing Christians who are in authority […] should not corrupt the minds of young believers,” the letter reads.
Tatum doesn’t see his methods as corrupting anything. In fact, he said he believes exposing students to new ideas, even new ideas that may shock them, is best done in the right environment.
“I think for students to struggle through … is exactly what young Christians need, and our job is not to protect them from dangerous ideas, but to help them work through scary ideas in a setting that’s supportive, at least in my case, taught by a Christian Sunday school teacher, a Bible expert. Where else should students be exposed to these ideas?” he said.
Robert Darden, an associate professor in the journalism, public relations and new media department, echoed Tatum’s sentiments.
“If not a university, then where?” Darden asked. Darden and Tatum are old friends who met after Tatum began teaching at Baylor.
Darden, who believes Tatum is a “prophetic voice on campus,” said he admires Tatum’s championing of academic freedom, which has come at “great personal expense.” In his approach to free discussion, Tatum echoes the guidelines of both the AAUP and journalism, Darden’s own field, he said. Tatum’s students seem mostly pleased with his thought-inspiring methods.
Darden credits this to Tatum’s irrepressible personality.
“He’s a cock-eyed optimist. He’s very funny,” Darden said.
The majority of ratings for Tatum on the popular professor rating site RateMyProfessors are overwhelmingly positive. All ratings on the first page placed him at “Good quality.”
However, despite rating him highly, one student from a religion 1301 class seems to disagree with his teaching style.
“Don’t take him if you are easily offended or don’t know how to defend your Faith,” read the rating, posted on Aug. 2, 2011.
Others disagree. A member of the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core, Tomball junior Sabrina Bosiacki took a class from Tatum in the fall that dealt with the Middle East.
“I think Dr. Tatum was a great teacher because of his dedication to academic freedom, and I was lucky to have been in his class,” Bosiacki said.
She said she felt comfortable in Tatum’s class.
“His teaching style was very effective for the subject material. It helped me learn about the Middle East by thinking about it, rather than just hearing about it,” she said.
Bosiacki, too, said she feels open discussion is crucial to learning — after all, it helped her in class — and that students should be exposed to debate and controversy.
“Students should not be allowed to live in ignorance of certain truths just because the subject was controversial. We all came to college for a reason, and hiding truths to protect the delicacies of some students is wrong,” Bosiacki said.
Like Bosiacki, Tatum said in his own days as an undergraduate, he benefitted from the principles he defends today. Tatum grew up active in his church, he said, and that interest in religion followed him to Baylor, where he received his bachelor’s degree. He decided to study religion because his thinking on the subject had been stimulated by some of his professors.
“I came here, had some fantastic professors in religion that scared the heck out of me,” Tatum said. “They got me thinking about very serious questions that both fascinated and frightened me.”
In ‘74, Tatum went on the very first Baylor in Israel program as the result of a mistake. Originally scheduled to go to the Soviet Union, a trip which fell through, Tatum said he received an offer to go to Israel instead. After a war broke out in Cypress while he was there, the airports in Israel were shut down and he was stuck. A five-week trip turned into a majority of his summer, but Tatum was not upset by the delay.
“I loved it,” he said. “That’s when I confirmed this is what I wanted to study.”
After his graduation from Baylor, Tatum began graduate work at Claremont College before moving on to Duke University. Baylor invited him to come back and teach while he was still finishing his Ph.D., he said.
He only had a bachelor’s degree the first two years he taught, although he finished his dissertation while here. Tatum said he discovered his passion for teaching during that time.
“I actually discovered, really quite by accident, that I was …quite good at it,” he said. “I don’t know anybody who enjoys teaching more than I do.”
For the most part, Tatum said he loves nearly all aspects of teaching, except for grading.
“They pay me to read books, to talk about stuff I want to talk about, and meet with interesting students,” he said. “It’s unbelievable.”
His favorite part?
“Seeing the light go on in a student’s eyes is fantastic. Part of it is autobiographic. I can remember, and I can point to specific classroom experiences where I walked into a classroom, and when I leave forty-five minutes later, I’m different. I had some of those professors,” he said.
“I think occasionally it happens,” he said. “The work is to try to make it a better world. And my job — society pays me in order to produce better human beings. More thoughtful people, more insightful people.”
Tatum said this is important, because those in the job market are looking for those who don’t just have a degree, but have “struggled with issues of right and wrong,” a crucial part of a Baylor education.
“Even in business, what you hope is that Baylor graduates aren’t just looking for the bottom line, because even our business graduates have struggled with issues of right and wrong. I’m part of that tradition. Each of us, a little, bit rubs off this rough edge and that rough edge, and challenges a student to think a little bit … that’s my job. It’s not just about transmitting knowledge,” he said.
Tatum said he encourages students to challenge themselves by asking the hard questions.
“You know the old Socratic phrase ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’ Well, the unexamined life is just kind of dumb, to paraphrase it,” he said.
Tatum, who said he gets an “adrenaline rush” from a good discussion, said he wants the conversation to spark something in students.
“I think being in a classroom where the conversation is crackling …it hardly gets better than that.”
No. 5 midfielder Lisa Sliwinski attempts to steal the ball during the matchup against Nebraska on Friday, Aug. 31, 2012 at the Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field. The Lady Bears outscored Nebraska 3-0.
Sarah George | Lariat Photographer
No. 5 midfielder Lisa Sliwinski attempts to steal the ball during the matchup against Nebraska on Friday, Aug. 31, 2012 at the Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field. The Lady Bears outscored Nebraska 3-0. Sarah George | Lariat Photographer
By Larissa Campos
Reporter
After nearly two months of traveling to different tryouts across the country, former soccer players Lisa Sliwinski and Hanna Gilmore may have found a new home playing professional soccer.
Sliwinski and Gilmore finished their senior seasons with 10 and seven goals respectively.
The newly formed National Women’s Soccer League was founded after the fold of Women’s Professional Soccer in 2012. The league has eight teams spread out through the United States and is expected to begin this season sometime towards the end of spring.
Sliwinski was invited to attend the preseason of four different professional women’s soccer teams, the Chicago Red Stars, the Washington Spirit, FC Kansas City and Portland Thorns FC.
After thinking about it, Sliwinski pursued the offer from FC Kansas City over the other teams.
“I think Kansas City really liked Lisa’s ability to be versatile,” head coach Marci Jobson said. “But I think they are looking to play her as a strong post-up forward.”
Sliwinski said she is excited to pursue the opportunity but is more excited for the reputation it’s building for the soccer program at Baylor.
“Hopefully now future players will see Baylor as a place to prepare you for the next level,” Sliwinski said. “It was perfect timing for us that the league started right after our senior year season. I just hope it motivates other players to take their careers beyond college soccer.”
Although the invitation to the preseason practices is a big step towards playing professionally, it does not solidify a place on the final roster for the girls. Teams release final rosters after preseason practices.
“This invite is pretty much a foot in the door,” Sliwinski said. “We are all really excited about the opportunity but now is when the real work starts.”
Gilmore was also asked to attend the Chicago Red Stars preseason practices.
After spending the last two summers training in Chicago, Gilmore said she couldn’t have picked a better place to begin a new chapter in her life.
“There isn’t really a player that works harder than Hanna does day in and day out,” teammate Kate Beaudoin said. “I don’t think anyone deserves this opportunity more and I’m looking forward to seeing her do big things.”
At the beginning of February, senior Carlie Davis was also invited to preseason practices with Portland Thorns FC and said she is glad her former teammates are joining her on the road to professional soccer.
“Lisa and Hanna have been my training partners and the two that inspired me to pursue a dream,” Davis said. “I am so happy we are doing this together but will also be on separate journeys in three different cities.”
As part of the Waco Independent Media Expo on Thursday, Mar. 7, 2013, the band Johnny's Body performs at Common Grounds at 7p.m.
Matt Hellman | Lariat Photo Editor
As part of the Waco Independent Media Expo on Thursday, Mar. 7, 2013, the band Johnny’s Body performs at Common Grounds at 7p.m. Matt Hellman | Lariat Photo Editor
The music festival began slowly with Common Grounds staff members composing a large amount of this audience, along with a small handful of music supporters.
One of the first people to perform was the Common Grounds live event coordinator Wes Butler.
Butler played a number of acoustic songs he has written for his wife throughout the course of their relationship, including one called “Heart Beats Harder.”
“It’s an old song,” Butler said. “It’s from right when my wife and I first started kind of dating and we were both going through some baggage. I feel like we kind of had some walls up and the song is essentially saying, ‘I want to fight for this. Show me yourself.’”
Butler said he considers himself an acoustic pop and rock artist, and lives in Waco with his wife, working at Common Grounds, taking the stage every now and then, and traveling and leading worship for student events.
Another act early on in the expo was Kat Dixon; vocalist, guitarist and mandolin player for the local band Married with Sea Monsters.
Dixon played a glossy, black electric guitar, singing in a blues style reminiscent of artist Adele. All but one of her songs were original.
“I would just love to not have a day job,” Dixon said. “I just want to write music all the time. That’s what I want to do for a living.”
Dixon expressed herself not only through her music, but through her clothing as well, sporting a long floral dress, her red hair formed into dreadlocks, adorned with an antique-looking tiara and pearl style beading.
“I pretty much just open my jewelry box each morning and try to fit as much on as I can,” Dixon said. “I figured I was playing a show at two in the afternoon. I thought I might as well be as ridiculous as possible.”
Dixon said she exposes her emotional struggles through her lyrics. Her guitar twanged her voice projected, her songs winding through blue notes. Later in the day, Andrew Sullivan, another acoustic pop and rock musician, assisted on the cajon, a box-shaped percussion instrument manipulated with the hands and heel of the foot, by his one-shoed percussionist, Rick Harn, played.
Sullivan is a professional musician from Dallas and sells his music on CDs and through forums like iTunes.
The lack of audience didn’t seem to dissuade Sullivan. He had a cheerful disposition.
“I graduated and started writing music, and I’m paying all the bills right now,” Sullivan said of himself and his family. “We’re happy and I’m playing several times a week. So I may not be Dave Barnes or something like that, but I’d like to be.”
More people were present for the rock music of Austin-based group Quiet Company, whose music pierced eardrums with the sound of guitars, keyboards, drums, a red electric trombone, and a melodica — a modified form of the harmonica that looks like a mini electric keyboard and is powered by the musician blowing into a tube.
Had the band chosen to call themselves “Beard,” their name would have been less contradictory to their presentation. Each of the five members sported a similarly-styled brown beard; a style the band bares thanks to the influence of the bearded lead singer, said Matt Parmenter, the band’s bass guitarist.
The band emoted with every note. Lead singer Taylor Muse leapt and twirled around the stage with his guitar, flipping his hair and bowing deep, waving his hand in the air, running his fingers over his scalp.
“Last time we played here, I fell off the stage,” Muse said after almost tripping over a rug on stage.
All of the band members played emphatically. “We always seem to have the ability to win crowds,” Parmenter said. “If they haven’t seen us before, they tend to enjoy what they see. I don’t think that’s an arrogant statement; it’s just, like, an observation. I feel like we’ve got a pretty energetic live show”
Quiet Company and its members broke a record at last year’s Austin Music Awards, winning 10 awards at the event, including best drummer, best producer and best indie rock band, Parmenter said.
When almost no one answered when Muse asked the band’s audience members how they were doing, Muse said with a smile, “Kill yourselves.” However, he revised the previous statement later, when he cultivated a laugh from the audience, and said, “OK, live.”
The Casey Donahew Band will perform at 9 p.m. Saturday at Whiskey River nightclub.
(Courtesy Art)
The Casey Donahew Band will perform at 9 p.m. Saturday at Whiskey River nightclub. (Courtesy Art)
By Kate McGuire
Staff Writer
For students who aren’t leaving for spring break until Sunday, they can go see the Casey Donahew Band, a popular country/Texas Red Dirt band that has been traveling across the country for the past couple of months.
Sam Badar, owner of Whiskey River, said he is getting prepared to have Donahew and is expecting a sold-out show.
“Casey played last year in October in Bell County Expo Center and they had 7,800 people,” Badar said, “so we are expecting at least 2,000 people. Our capacity is 2,000 people so we’re expecting max capacity.”
Tickets are available at Cavender’s Boot City, Basic Bits Leather Company, Appaloosa Trading Post and the Whiskey River box office.
Pre-sale tickets are $15 and tickets are $20 at the door.
The band first originated when Donahew, a student at the University of Texas at Arlington, started playing for local nightclubs like the Thirsty Armadillo in Fort Worth and released his first CD, “Lost Days,” according to the Casey Donahew Band website.
His then girlfriend and now wife, Melinda Donahew, started booking gigs for Casey Donahew around Texas. After the release of his second CD, “Casey Donahew Band,” which sold 32,000 copies, Casey Donahew became a mega indie-red dirt hit, according to the Casey Donahew Band website.
Donahew talks of his success coming from those who inspired him.
“I’m a big Elvis fan and a big Garth Brooks fan,” Donahew said. “Pat Green really lead me towards Texas music. They have been inspiring us, really motivating us to get out there and play. Leading the way in the industry.”
The band released five albums and one Christmas single. His newest single, “Whiskey Baby,” will be released in a few weeks.
Donahew said he believes their music speaks to others and is appealing due to the multicultural background of the band’s members.
“We have our own blend of musicians that come from a lot of different backgrounds,” Donahew said. “We write songs that people can relate to and that’s what draws them in.”
Donahew said “Fallen” is one of his favorite songs.
“For some reason, that song still strikes a chord somewhere in me and the fans still seem to enjoy it,” Donahew said.
The Casey Donahew Band has played in Waco several times before, beginning in 2006, Donahew said.
“Its one of the major college towns in Texas,” Donahew said. “That seems to be where we spend a lot of our time playing.”
Donahew has advice for college musicians trying to make it in the music/entertainment business:
Donahew said, “The music business is a tough business. Just keep writing songs and watch your money.”
Badar said he strongly believes music can change the lives of kids and youth.
He said he wants to be the club where college students can experience a stress-free environment and enjoy new, up and coming acts.
This Feb. 28, 2013 photo shows a visitor viewing the National Mall from the Lincoln Memorial looking towards the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol in Washington. There are probably more free things to do in the U.S. capital than nearly any other major city in the world. The most popular museums and the zoo are free, thanks to government funding, as well as the picturesque memorials and monuments. With so many free options, the biggest challenge might be narrowing down what to see.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
This Feb. 28, 2013 photo shows a visitor viewing the National Mall from the Lincoln Memorial looking towards the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol in Washington. There are probably more free things to do in the U.S. capital than nearly any other major city in the world. The most popular museums and the zoo are free, thanks to government funding, as well as the picturesque memorials and monuments. With so many free options, the biggest challenge might be narrowing down what to see. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Every year, Baylor’s dept of political science offers the Washington, D.C. Internship program to 10-15 students. Students are selected to work with representatives and committees in Congress, departments in the executive branch and other associations.
These students will work during the summer in Washington to fulfill their required duties for the internship and the program, including attending the two-day Poage-Mayborn Washington Seminar, keeping a journal of everyday experiences, and submitting a recap paper at the end.
Students who join the program receive three credit hours for its completion.
Students in the program may serve in a variety of places, such as Capitol Hill, the White House, Supreme Court, government agencies, nonprofit organizations and lobbying firms.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for our students to get engaged, especially civic engagement,” said internal vice president Brian Kim. “We have been advocating for this in student senate and it is one of major initiatives by the student body officers.”
Dr. James Curry, the undergraduate director of the political science department, Bob Bullock, professor of public policy & administration and director of the Washington D.C. internship program, said he found students who participate in the summer internship tend to stay in Washington and work.
“Because so many of our graduates have gone to D.C. for their careers, we enjoy a phenomenal number of alumni supporters of the program. These graduates have chosen to give back to the university and to its current students,” Curry wrote in an email to the Lariat. “The alumni are very helpful to prospective interns by assisting with internship placements and mentoring.”
These alumni work with current students to provide connection, communication and education, helping students to create mentor bonds with the alumni.
“Working with Dr Curry, who wants to get students involved in different internships, helps students work with our alumni all over the country,” Kim said.
This fits into Baylor’s new 10-year vision – Pro Futuris, which began in 2012 — of global expansion and education coming through alumni beyond the classroom, which is discussed in the first pillar of the vision.
In addition the program expands opportunities for “students to engage with community, state, national, and international leaders,” another objective listed in the first pillar.
Dr. Kevin Jackson, vice president for Student Life, said programs like the D.C. Internship Program are helping to further that vision.
“Whenever we can get our students with legislators and educators, it causes a win -win situation. Students receive interaction with these people and Baylor gets recognition. This expands our presence in D.C., around America and around the world,” Jackson said.
Jackson said he believes the D.C. program offers the potential of international expansion of the influence of Baylor by taking students out of the classroom and engaging them in an environment where they can network with international leaders and their D.C. mentors.
“Judge Ken Starr is very supportive of these programs to advance Baylor’s influence in the world,” Jackson said. “Pro Futuris has charged each department. These are the early stages for the departments to begin this vision.”
The program is available primarily to those who major in the political science department, because students receive credit for political science classes, Curry said.
Students must pay tuition, living, transportation and miscellaneous costs. The tuition is between $5,350 and $5,900, while housing and transportation must be found and provided by the student.
Information and support on attaining these necessities will be provided by Curry.
Scholarships for tuition may be available through the Mayborn Foundation.
He lives in Dallas now, but his legacy remains with Baylor.
Currently a successful lawyer in Dallas, 27-year-old Hunter Lewis liked Baylor so much he spent years here and remains involved as an alum.
Lewis earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Baylor University in 2007, and graduated from Baylor Law School with a Juris-Doctor in 2010.
During his time as an undergraduate in the fall of 2005, Lewis helped found the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity Theta Kappa chapter at Baylor, making it the first chapter to be colonized after the centennial celebration of the fraternity.
“I wanted to be part of something new and different,” Lewis said, as he praised the fraternity’s social element, service-oriented, Christian background.
Thanks to his work, along with that of his fellow founding members, the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity Theta Kappa chapter now boasts over 70 members.
“He was a good ambassador for Pi Kapp and Baylor,” Ryan Ruska, fellow Pi Kappa Phi fraternity Theta Kappa chapter alumni and friend of Lewis, said.
Lewis was also a member of the Baylor Student Congress during his freshman and sophomore years, and after the organization’s name was changed to the Baylor Student Senate, he served as a student senator during his junior and senior years.
Lewis was also a member of the Baylor Ambassadors, who are responsible for assisting Baylor in lobbying its local, state and federal officials as well as hosting public officials that visit Baylor.
As a Baylor Ambassador, he lobbied the Texas Equalization Grant before both houses of the Texas State Legislature, to provide scholarship money for students in private schools.
After graduating law school and spending a few years working as a family lawyer in Dallas, he wound up at Kinser & Bates, L.L.P., where he currently practices matrimonial law exclusively. Kinser & Bates L.L.P. focuses on such family law matters as divorce, prenuptial agreements, and child support, among others.
Lewis has co-authored several articles in his professional career. Most notably, Lewis co-authored the “Evolution of Texas Property Law” with his boss Katherine A. Kinser. In this article, Lewis helped explain the evolution of property laws in Texas over the last 50 years, which saw many changes, including Texas becoming a no-fault state in divorce cases —a factor that affects his own practice.
In addition to his career as a lawyer, Lewis is an active member of several professional associations including the Dallas Bar Association, The Dallas Association of Young Lawyers, the Annette Stewart Inn of Court, The Dervish Club and the Royal Order of La Fiesta.
Lewis has made sure to stay very involved with Baylor as an alum as well. He often returns to Waco to watch football games and to reconnect with his friends in the Baylor community. Lewis and Ruska have season tickets to Baylor’s football games.
“We just have fun coming back,” Ruska said.
He is also still very involved with the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. Lewis is the Chapter Advisor for the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity chapter at the University of North Texas, and he still comes back to Waco and works with the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity Theta Kappa Alumni chapter as a member of its Board of Directors.
“His passion for Pi Kapp and Baylor are unmatched by anyone I have ever seen,” Ruska said.
He was one of the founding members of the Baylor Law School Alumni Association Steering Committee in Dallas, which he described as a really good way to keep the Baylor Law community connected.
More recently, Lewis has joined the Baylor Young Professionals program in Dallas, with which he said that he is seeing a lot of promise. This program helps graduates from 10 to 15 years out of college mix, mingle and build connections.
“What we aim to accomplish network-wide is that every Baylor alum has a chance to plug back into Baylor,” Derek Stephens, Assistant Director of Young Graduates and Online Communities, said.
Student government hosted two prominent Baylor figures during the weekly meeting Thursday.
Dr. Kenneth L. Hall, senior vice president for university development and strategic initiatives, spoke in depth about his life and his role at Baylor.
“We live in a totally different world,” Hall said, as he reminisced about growing up in rural Louisiana and seeing the world change so much.
After retiring from Buckner International, Hall was asked by Baylor President Ken Starr to join his leadership team. Hall accepted the position in October 2012.
“I have the most unique job at Baylor,” Hall said. His position did not exist before he was appointed to it by Starr. “My job now is to try to figure out ways, with the leadership at the university, and various decision committees how we can do things that not only need to be done, but can be done and be sustained long-term.”
Student government also hosted Chris Holmes, the assistant general counsel at Baylor. Holmes sought to clarify what the current laws in Texas say regarding concealed carry on Baylor’s campus.
“It’s a fairly complicated area,” Holmes said. Senate Bill 182, if passed, would make it legal to carry a concealed weapon, provided the carrier has obtained a CHL through the proper legal channels, on public and private college and university campuses. Baylor, as a private institution, would be allowed to opt out of the law, Holmes said.
Student government passed four bills Thursday as well.
Senior Blessing Amune briefly discussed a bill that she had authored that would allocate $696.90 from the student government allocation fund to help the Delta Epsilon Psi fraternity fund the reception costs for the third annual Juvenile Diabetes lecture.
Fort Worth sophomore Dallena Nguyen discussed a bill that she had authored that would allocate $5,162.37 to fund the Relay for Life at Baylor, which also passed.
The student government also voted in unanimous favor of allocating funds for Stepping Out 2013.
Trying to stop Internet piracy is like playing a never-ending game of whack-a-mole.
One site may shut down, but in no time, it will be replaced — and the sites and those who frequent them just keep coming.
Music, videos, e-books, software, photos and comics are downloaded illegally several million times a day, according to torrentfreak.com, a site that reports on copyright and piracy news.
Since the dawn of the Napster days, the government has constantly said that it will shut down piracy operations, but the most the government manages to do is pick one person and make an example out of them.
Aside from the government taking on The Pirate Bay Company, a major website that facilitates the peer-to-peer file sharing of torrent files and magnet links, most of the major crackdowns have targeted small-scale pirates, who are most likely 14-year-old techie boys in their rooms downloading the latest music and movies to share with their friends.
Internet service providers and the entertainment industry threw their latest punch at pirates on Feb. 25 when they called for the “Copyright Alert System.”
It is currently unknown what type of punishment each service provider will use, but under Verizon’s proposed plan—which was ironically leaked on the internet last month—subscribers who are found to be illegally sharing content will be sent six electronic warnings, as reported by a monitoring service working on behalf of copyright owners, and if they fail to comply, they could temporarily lose Web access or have their Internet speed slowed to a crawl for two to three days.
While things such as the “Copyright Alert System” could possibly deter small-scale operations or individuals, it is not likely to do anything to large operations.
Because it is not possible to slow Internet access indefinitely and many pirates operate from multiple ISP addresses based overseas, all the government and these service providers are doing is pushing them to find more creative ways to obtain and share their content.
There are too many holes in this plan. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. And time has proved again and again that there is a will to download free illegal content across all platforms.
Piracy, though, doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
Take the HBO show “Game of Thrones,” for instance. It was named the most pirated show on television in 2012.
Last week, its director spoke in favor of piracy, saying piracy is partially responsible for the “cultural buzz” that the show needs to survive.
The show is clearly not hurting because of the piracy; it is only fueling the purchase of related merchandise. Thanks to those illegal reproductions of its episodes, it reaches an audience of more than those who subscribe to the HBO channel.
While sharing copyrighted content is definitely not ideal or legal, you would be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t taken their fair share of songs from Limewire.
Online media sharing is not going to go away any time soon.
While the government and the entertainment industry have tried to keep up, the people they should really be trying to stop will always be a step ahead. It’s useless and ineffective.
Instead, entertainers should concentrate on pushing show or music related merchandise. It’s time the government, service providers and entertainers stopped waging a war against an action that is a fact of life.
Piracy is here to stay — but service providers and entertainers won’t be unless they keep up with the times and concentrate on merchandising.
Remember, physical merchandise is much harder to steal.
Imagine yourself lying on an ice-cold bed with tubes running throughout your body as you begin to wonder if you’re going to make it. You stare out the window wishing you could be free and enjoying life. While this may sound depressing, it is the sad reality for many cancer patients.
Cancer is a deadly disease that affects not only the millions of people who are diagnosed yearly, but their friends and family as well. Cancer has impacted most people in one way or another. Researchers are looking for cures but have yet to find one.
The only positive news thus far is the increased number of survivors. According to an article by the National Cancer Institute, there is a decline in death rates among several cancers, such as lung and breast cancer.
However, without a cure, there is always the risk of a relapse. Despite the numbers, the number of diagnoses for certain cancers is increasing. We need to step up as individuals and help find a cure, because in one instant your life can be changed.
February was National Cancer Prevention and many organizations spread awareness in various ways. For example, the Lady Bears Basketball team played in the “Sic’em for the Cure” game against TCU to spread awareness for breast cancer. They encouraged fans to wear pink for support.
I am not a doctor, nor do I ever wish to be one (mainly because I’m not called to be a doctor), but that doesn’t mean I can’t help. For me, cancer is personal because I have lost many people to this disease.
That is why I decided to do Relay For Life at Baylor. Not only do I participate in the event, but also as a committee member I get to help plan the event with other members.
This experience has been one of the greatest events I have participated in because I really am making a difference. Last year, we had a speaker come and talk to us about how the American Cancer Society helped when he had cancer.
He mentioned the fact that cancer treatment has improved significantly as doctors are learning more. The advancements in medicine in the past two years are astounding due to all the money that goes to research.
It may not seem that way, but number of survivors proves it. We have a long way to go before we find a cure, but at least we are still trying. We owe it to the patients and their families.
One doesn’t have to be in a laboratory trying to find a cure; a simple donation can do the trick. Spreading awareness, participating in cancer walks, participating in the Relay For Life event at Baylor, all of that can make an impact. People are in hospitals wondering if they can see another day, the least we can do is help in any way we can.
Those people might be strangers, but what if they weren’t?
Think of it this way: Last year Invisible Children made a video and tried to start the Kony 2012 movement, a campaign to make an obscure criminal more known to the world. While it lasted a short time due to certain circumstances, it still got people’s attention.
It went viral and exploded on social media and most importantly it got people talking. Why can’t cancer awareness explode like that?
Cancer affects everyone around the globe, so doesn’t it deserve that kind of attention? Has it been around so long that people overlook it? Imagine what would happen if everyone cared and did something.
Parmida Schahhosseini is a junior journalism-public relations major from Houston. She is a sports writer for the Lariat.
At Baylor, sometimes the names can be a bit confusing.
For example, the English department is located in the Carroll Science Building, there is no fountain on Fountain Mall and nobody knows what the name Minglewood Bowl has to do with that patch of grass behind the Martin Parking Garage.
Another area of campus, known mostly to a few old-timers, seems to be fated to have its namesake fade to the same obscurity as Mr. Minglewood — Emo Park.
Walking by the area now one might hardly notice it. A broad concrete walkway under the spreading oaks bridges the gap between the SUB and Carroll Science.
The name that the area’s original inhabitants gave it translated roughly to “that place where the big ugly fountain is.”
Unfortunately the fountain the original Baylorites were referring to survives in name only. Archaeologists believe it was destroyed some time before electronic records could document it.
The park was given its proper name by the renowned naturalist John James Yarborough, who first observed the large flocks of emos that inhabited the park. Yarborough described his first encounter in his journals:
“I walked some distance from the main dwellings of this place and came to a glen of oaks. While walking beneath their great boughs, I was startled from my reverie by the sobbing cry of some great bird. On further investigation I discovered the source of the sound — a flock of large black birds perched along the path. Their disheveled, glossy black plumage with pale skin showing beneath has led me to the conclusion that these are the birds which the locals refer to as Emeauxs [sic]. I must return soon with my net-gun to retrieve a specimen. If I am successful, this will be the first specimen described in detail by western science. It will be a joy to have it under my dissection knife.”
Yarborough became the first western scientist to describe the species known as Emo Despairicus, from a single adolescent male that he managed to capture on the journey.
Older members of the Baylor community will remember these majestic animals perching on the concrete slabs, strutting around the park and performing their elaborate courtship rituals.
On rare occasions, birders at Baylor would be treated to the sound of the emo’s mournful song lifting over the morning mist. It would rise and fall, without any real point or melody, but on foggy Baylor mornings that haunting cry had the power to chill your soul.
Unfortunately, shortly after their discovery the emo population started to decline.
Scientists still debate as to what caused this to happen. Some claim it was due to the inability of the species to reproduce, but that seems unlikely as the population suffered from low growth rates for years before their extinction.
A more likely explanation is that they were muscled out by one of the invasive species that has colonized the area.
Visitors to the park today will notice the large population of hipsters that has swept over the surrounding area. Their hammock-shaped nests fill the trees every spring. With so many hipsters competing for space, the emo population was more than likely edged out of existence.
This seems to be the norm for American fauna. By the folly of our ancestors we have traded the mighty buffalo for the pedestrian cow, the passenger pigeon for the infuriating rock dove and the noble emo for the nattering, preening hipster.
It is our duty to take action now so our children will have more of our natural heritage than just a name.
Rob Bradfield is a senior journalism major. He is the assistant city editor for the Lariat.
Security Council members vote for tough new sanctions against North Korea for its latest nuclear test, during a meeting at U.N. headquarters Thursday, March 7, 2013. The unanimous vote by the U.N.'s most powerful body sparked a furious Pyongyang to threaten a nuclear strike against the United States. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Security Council members vote for tough new sanctions against North Korea for its latest nuclear test, during a meeting at U.N. headquarters Thursday, March 7, 2013. The unanimous vote by the U.N.’s most powerful body sparked a furious Pyongyang to threaten a nuclear strike against the United States. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
By Edith M. Lederer and Hyung-Jin Kim
Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council responded swiftly to North Korea’s latest nuclear test by punishing the reclusive regime Thursday with tough, new sanctions targeting its economy and leadership, despite Pyongyang’s threat of a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the United States.
The penalties came in a unanimous resolution drafted by the U.S. along with China, which is North Korea’s main benefactor. Beijing said the focus now should be to “defuse the tensions” by restarting negotiations.
The resolution sent a powerful message to North Korea’s new young leader, Kim Jong Un, that the international community condemns his defiance of Security Council bans on nuclear and ballistic tests and is prepared to take even tougher action if he continues flouting international obligations.
“Taken together, these sanctions will bite, and bite hard,” U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said. “They increase North Korea’s isolation and raise the cost to North Korea’s leaders of defying the international community.”
The new sanctions came in response to North Korea’s underground nuclear test on Feb. 12 and were the fourth set imposed by the U.N. since the country’s first test in 2006. They are aimed at reining in Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile development by requiring all countries to freeze financial transactions or services that could contribute to the programs.
The resolution also targets North Korea’s ruling elite by banning all nations from exporting expensive jewelry, yachts, luxury automobiles and race cars to the North. It also imposes new travel sanctions that would require countries to expel agents working for sanctioned North Korean companies.
The success of the sanctions could depend on how well they are enforced by China, where most of the companies and banks that North Korea is believed to work with are based.
Tensions with North Korea have escalated since Pyongyang launched a rocket in December and conducted last month’s nuclear test — the first since Kim took charge. Many countries, especially in the region, had hoped he would steer the country toward engagement and resolution of the dispute over its nuclear and missile programs. Instead, the North has escalated its threats.
Immediately before the Security Council vote, a spokesman for Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry said the North will exercise its right for “a pre-emptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors” because Washington is “set to light a fuse for a nuclear war.”
The statement was carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, which issued no comment after the vote.
In the capital of Pyongyang, Army Gen. Kang Pyo Yong told a crowd of tens of thousands that North Korea is ready to fire long-range nuclear-armed missiles at Washington, which “will be engulfed in a sea of fire.”
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. is “fully capable” of defending itself against a North Korea ballistic missile attack.
Experts doubt that the North has mastered how to mount a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.
The North Korean statement appeared to be the most specific open threat of a nuclear strike by any country against another. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the threat “absurd” and suicidal.
North Korea also has threatened to scrap the cease-fire that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. It has a formidable array of artillery near enough to the Demilitarized Zone to strike South Korean and American forces with little warning.
The top U.S. envoy on North Korea, Glyn Davies, cautioned Pyongyang not to miscalculate, saying the U.S. will take necessary steps to defend itself and its allies, including South Korea, where it bases more than 30,000 U.S. forces.
“We take all North Korean threats seriously enough to ensure that we have the correct defense posture to deal with any contingencies that might arise,” Davies told reporters.
Rice said “the entire world stands united in our commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and in our demand that North Korea comply with its international obligations.”
China’s U.N. Ambassador Li Baodong said the resolution reflects the determination of the international community to prevent nuclear proliferation, but he stressed that its adoption “is not enough.”
“The top priority now is to defuse the tensions, bring down heat … bring the situation back on the track of diplomacy, on negotiations,” Li said.
The resolution stresses the Security Council’s commitment “to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution” to North Korea’s nuclear program and urges a resumption of the long-stalled six-party talks involving both Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.
South Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Kim Sook said North Korea’s threats and inflammatory statements will be dealt with “resolutely.”
“North Korea must wake up from its delusion of becoming a … nuclear weapons state and make the right choice,” he said. “It can either take the right path toward a bright future and prosperity, or it can take a bad road toward further and deeper isolation and eventual self-destruction.”
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin also warned that “new threats or trying to build up the military muscle in the region … might be taking us away from the need to resume six-party talks,” which he added must be an international priority of all countries.
In addition to the sanctions, the resolution bans further ballistic missile launches, nuclear tests “or any other provocation,” and demands that North Korea return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It condemns all of North Korea’s ongoing nuclear activities, including its uranium enrichment.
It strengthens inspections of suspicious cargo heading to and from the country, calls on states to step up “vigilance” of possible illegal activity by North Korean diplomats.
To get around financial sanctions, North Koreans have been carrying around large suitcases filled with cash to move illicit funds. The resolution expresses concern that these bulk cash transfers may be used to evade sanctions. It clarifies that the freeze on financial transactions and services that could violate sanctions applies to all cash transfers as well as the cash couriers.
The resolution identifies three individuals, one corporation and one organization that will be added to the U.N. sanctions list. The targets include top officials at a company that is the country’s primary arms dealer and main exporter of ballistic missile-related equipment, and a national organization responsible for research and development of missiles and probably nuclear weapons.
___
Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea. Peter J. Spielmann at the United Nations, Robert Burns in Washington and Foster Klug in Seoul contributed to this report.
In this photo provided by Miraflores Presidential Press Office, mourners pay their respects as they file past the glass-topped casket containing the remains of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez lying in state at the military academy in Caracas, Thursday, March 7, 2013. Chavez died of a massive heart attack Tuuesday after great suffering and inaudibly mouthed his desire to live, the head of Venezuela's presidential guard said late Wednesday.
(AP Photo/Miraflores Presidential Press Office)
In this photo provided by Miraflores Presidential Press Office, mourners pay their respects as they file past the glass-topped casket containing the remains of Venezuela’s late President Hugo Chavez lying in state at the military academy in Caracas, Thursday, March 7, 2013. Chavez died of a massive heart attack Tuuesday after great suffering and inaudibly mouthed his desire to live, the head of Venezuela’s presidential guard said late Wednesday. (AP Photo/Miraflores Presidential Press Office)
By Paul Haven
Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Hugo Chavez’s body will be preserved and forever displayed inside a glass tomb at a military museum not far from the presidential palace from which he ruled for 14 years, his successor announced Thursday in a Caribbean version of the treatment given Communist revolutionary leaders like Lenin, Mao and Ho Chi Minh.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s acting head of state, said Chavez would first lie in state for “at least” another seven days at the military academy where he was brought Wednesday.
A state funeral will be held Friday attended by 33 heads of government, including Cuban President Raul Castro and Iranian leader Mahmud Ahmadinejad. U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat, and former Rep. William Delahunt, a Democrat from Massachusetts, will represent the United States, which Chavez often portrayed as a great global evil even as he sent the country billions of dollars in oil each year.
Maduro said the ceremony would begin at 11 a.m., but did not say where.
“We have decided to prepare the body of our ‘Comandante President,’ to embalm it so that it remains open for all time for the people. Just like Ho Chi Minh. Just like Lenin. Just like Mao Zedong,” Maduro said.
He said the body would be held in a “crystal urn” at the Museum of the Revolution, a stone’s throw from Miraflores presidential palace.
The announcement followed two emotional days in which Chavez’s supporters compared him to Jesus Christ, and accused his national and international critics of subversion.
A sea of sobbing, heartbroken humanity jammed Venezuela’s main military academy Thursday to see Chavez’s body, some waiting 10 hours under the twinkling stars and the searing Caribbean sun to file past his coffin.
But even as his supporters attempted to immortalize the dead president, a country exhausted from round-the-clock mourning began to look toward the future. Some worried openly whether the nation’s anointed leaders are up to the task of filling his shoes, and others said they were anxious for news on when elections will be held. The constitution mandates they be called within 30 days, but the government has yet to address the matter.
“People are beginning to get back to their lives. One must keep working,” said 40-year-old Caracas resident Laura Guerra, a Chavez supporter who said she was not yet sold on Maduro, the acting head of state and designated ruling party candidate. “I don’t think he will be the same. I don’t think he has the same strength that the ‘comandante’ had.”
At the military academy, Chavez lay in a glass-covered coffin wearing the olive-green military uniform and red beret of his paratrooper days and looking gaunt and pale, his lips pressed together. In a nod to the insecurity that plagues this country, mourners had to submit to a pat down, pass through a metal detector and remove the batteries from their mobile phones before they entered.
As they reached the coffin, many placed a hand on their heart or stiffly saluted. Some held up children so they could see Chavez’s face.
“I waited 10 hours to see him, but I am very happy, proud to have seen my comandante,” said 46-year-old Yudeth Hurtado, sobbing. “He is planted in our heart.”
Government leaders had been largely incommunicado Wednesday as they marched in a seven-hour procession that brought Chavez’s body from a military hospital to the academy. They finally emerged before the cameras Thursday but offered no answers.
Asked when an election would be held, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said only that the constitution would be followed. He continued to refer to Maduro as “vice president,” though he also said the rest of the government was united in helping him lead the country.
The foreign minister also struck the defiant, us-against-the-world tone the government has projected, which some critics fear could incite passions in a country that remains on edge.
“They couldn’t defeat him electorally, they couldn’t assassinate him, they couldn’t beat him militarily,” Jaua declared. “Chavez died as president … Chavez died the leader of his people.”
Just hours before the 58-year-old president’s death on Tuesday, Maduro expelled two U.S. diplomats and lashed out at opponents at home and abroad. He implied that the cancer that ultimately killed Chavez was somehow injected into him by his enemies, a charge echoed by Ahmadinejad.
While Maduro is the clear favorite over likely opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, the nation is polarized between Chavez supporters and critics who hold him responsible for soaring inflation, a growing national debt and a jump in violent crime.
Opponents have also questioned the government’s allegiance to the rule of law, arguing that Maduro is not entitled to become interim president under the 1999 constitution. They have also criticized the defense minister, Adm. Diego Molero, for pledging support for Maduro’s candidacy despite a ban on the military taking political sides.
Ana Teresa Sifontes, a 71-year-old housewife and opposition sympathizer, said Chavez did some good things for the nation’s poor. But she said he had mismanaged the economy and showed more interest in regional grandstanding than governing.
She said she hoped his death would bring change.
“Why do we have to pay for Cuba?” she asked, referring to the billions in Venezuelan oil Chavez sent to Havana each year in return for Cuban doctors and other experts. “Why do we need them here?”
Venezuelan officials have yet to say what type of cancer he suffered from, but details were emerging of the former paratrooper’s final hours.
The head of Venezuela’s presidential guard, Gen. Jose Ornella, told the AP late Wednesday that Chavez died of a massive heart attack after great suffering.
“He couldn’t speak but he said it with his lips … ‘I don’t want to die. Please don’t let me die,’ because he loved his country, he sacrificed himself for his country,” said Ornella, who said he was with the socialist president at the moment of his death Tuesday.
In Washington, State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. hoped the upcoming vote would be held on a level playing field, and lamented the expulsion of the American officials.
“We are obviously disappointed by these false accusations levied against our embassy officials,” Nuland said. “This is part of a tired playbook of alleging foreign interference as a political football in internal Venezuelan politics.”
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Associated Press writers Eduardo Castillo, Fabiola Sanchez, Frank Bajak and Christopher Toothaker contributed to this report.
South Korean soldiers work on their K-9 self-propelled artillery vehicles during an exercise against possible attacks by North Korea near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Thursday, March 7, 2013. North Korea vowed Tuesday to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War, citing a U.S.-led push for U.N. sanction over its recent nuclear test and ongoing U.S.-South Korean joint military exercise.
(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
South Korean soldiers work on their K-9 self-propelled artillery vehicles during an exercise against possible attacks by North Korea near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Thursday, March 7, 2013. North Korea vowed Tuesday to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War, citing a U.S.-led push for U.N. sanction over its recent nuclear test and ongoing U.S.-South Korean joint military exercise. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
By Edith M. Lederer
Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Thursday vowed to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States, amplifying its threatening rhetoric hours ahead of a vote by U.N. diplomats on whether to level new sanctions against Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test.
An unidentified spokesman for Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry said the North will exercise its right for “a preemptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors” because Washington is pushing to start a nuclear war against the North.
Although North Korea boasts of nuclear bombs and pre-emptive strikes, it is not thought to have mastered the ability to produce a warhead small enough to put on a missile capable of reaching the U.S. It is believed to have enough nuclear fuel, however, for several crude nuclear devices.
Such inflammatory rhetoric is common from North Korea, and especially so in recent days. North Korea is angry over the possible sanctions and over upcoming U.S.-South Korean military drills. At a mass rally in Pyongyang on Thursday, tens of thousands of North Koreans protested the U.S.-South Korean war drills and sanctions.
The U.N. Security Council is set to impose a fourth round of sanctions against Pyongyang in a fresh attempt to rein in its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the current council president, said the council will vote on the draft sanctions resolution Thursday morning.
The resolution was drafted by the United States and China, North Korea’s closest ally. The council’s agreement to put the resolution to a vote just 48 hours later signaled that it would almost certainly have the support of all 15 council members.
The statement by the North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
It accused the U.S. of leading efforts to slap sanctions on North Korea. The statement said the new sanctions would only advance the timing for North Korea to fulfill previous vows to take “powerful second and third countermeasures” against its enemies. It hasn’t elaborated on those measures.
The statement said North Korea “strongly warns the U.N. Security Council not to make another big blunder like the one in the past when it earned the inveterate grudge of the Korean nation by acting as a war servant for the U.S. in 1950.”
North Korea demanded the U.N. Security Council immediately dismantle the American-led U.N. Command that’s based in Seoul and move to end the state of war that exists on the Korean Peninsula, which continues six decades after fighting stopped because an armistice, not a peace treaty, ended the war.
In anticipation of the resolution’s adoption, North Korea earlier in the week threatened to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War.
North Korean threats have become more common as tensions have escalated following a rocket launch by Pyongyang in December and its third nuclear test on Feb. 12. Both acts defied three Security Council resolutions that bar North Korea from testing or using nuclear or ballistic missile technology and from importing or exporting material for these programs.
U.S. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said the proposed resolution, to be voted on at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT), would impose some of the strongest sanctions ever ordered by the United Nations.
The final version of the draft resolution, released Wednesday, identified three individuals, one corporation and one organization that would be added to the U.N. sanctions list if the measure is approved.
The targets include top officials at a company that is the country’s primary arms dealer and main exporter of ballistic missile-related equipment, and a national organization responsible for research and development of missiles and probably nuclear weapons.
The success of a new round of sanctions could depend on enforcement by China, where most of the companies and banks that North Korea is believed to work with are based.
The United States and other nations worry that North Korea’s third nuclear test pushed it closer to its goal of gaining nuclear missiles that can reach the U.S. The international community has condemned the regime’s nuclear and missile efforts as threats to regional security and a drain on the resources that could go to North Korea’s largely destitute people.
The draft resolution condemns the latest nuclear test “in the strongest terms” for violating and flagrantly disregarding council resolutions, bans further ballistic missile launches, nuclear tests “or any other provocation,” and demands that North Korea return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It also condemns all of North Korea’s ongoing nuclear activities, including its uranium enrichment.
But the proposed resolution stresses the council’s commitment “to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution” and urged a resumption of six-party talks with the aim of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula “in a peaceful manner.”
The proposed resolution would make it significantly harder for North Korea to move around the funds it needs to carry out its illicit programs and strengthen existing sanctions and the inspection of suspect cargo bound to and from the country. It would also ban countries from exporting specific luxury goods to the North, including yachts, luxury automobiles, racing cars, and jewelry with semi-precious and precious stones and precious metals.
According to the draft, all countries would now be required to freeze financial transactions or services that could contribute to North Korea’s nuclear or missile programs.
To get around financial sanctions, North Koreans have been carrying around large suitcases filled with cash to move illicit funds. The draft resolution expresses concern that these bulk cash transfers may be used to evade sanctions. It clarifies that the freeze on financial transactions and services that could violate sanctions applies to all cash transfers as well as the cash couriers.
The proposed resolution also bans all countries from providing public financial support for trade deals, such as granting export credits, guarantees or insurance, if the assistance could contribute to the North’s nuclear or missile programs.
It includes what a senior diplomat called unprecedented new travel sanctions that would require countries to expel agents working for sanctioned North Korean companies.
The draft also requires states to inspect suspect cargo on their territory and prevent any vessel that refuses an inspection from entering their ports. And a new aviation measure calls on states to deny aircraft permission to take off, land or fly over their territory if illicit cargo is suspected to be aboard.
___
Lederer reported from the United Nations. Foster Klug in Seoul contributed to this report.
Men’s basketball will play Kansas University on Saturday at the Ferrell Center. Tickets can be obtained at www.baylorbears.com or in the Bill Daniel Student Center box office.
June 1 is the deadline to turn in applications for the alternative loans in order for the loan to apply to the fall 2013 bill. More information can be found at www.baylor.edu/sfs
Cisco senior Zach Maxwell, Director of Operations for the Baylor chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas, on Wednesday, March 6, 2013.
Travis Taylor | Lariat Photographer
Cisco senior Zach Maxwell, Director of Operations for the Baylor chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas, on Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Travis Taylor | Lariat Photographer
By Taylor Rexrode
Staff Writer
The Baylor chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas and students for concealed carry aren’t going down without a fight.
Cisco senior Zachary Maxwell, director of operations for the organization, started a petition as a way to show his support for Texas Sen. Brian Birdwell’s bill for on-campus concealed carry.
Senate Bill 182 was submitted on Jan. 17 and would allow concealed carry on public college campuses. Private universities have the choice to opt out.
Dr. Blake Burleson, senior lecturer of religion, and Dr. Robin Wallace, a professor of musicology in the School of Music, took a petition of 120 signatures to Birdwell’s office on Feb. 18 to show faculty opposition to the bill. The petition has since grown by 50 signatures.
Within the past two weeks, the petition has accumulated around 450 signatures. He plans to take the petition to Birdwell’s office on Thursday.
Maxwell said his petition is meant to show that students don’t necessarily agree with Burleson and Wallace.
“Just because a couple Baylor professors decided to send a petition, it doesn’t mean that all of Baylor agrees with it,” Maxwell said. “You have to look at the perspective of the students because we’re the ones that matter. We’ve had an overwhelming response to our petition.”
Rockwall freshman Forrest Davis, treasurer for the Baylor Young Conservatives of Texas chapter, said he hopes the petition will show Birdwell the voice of Baylor students.
“I’m hoping he would realize our voice on the matter,” Davis said. “We have our own voice and our own opinion. There are people on this campus that support Birdwell and support his bill. We don’t just allow Dr. Burleson to speak on our behalf.”
Maxwell introduced the petition to the Young Conservatives of Texas chapter and the organization started gathering signatures on Feb. 20.
Maxwell said the professors, by signing the petition, are “taking away safety” by not allowing students to defend themselves and by leaving faculty unable to keep their students safe.
“They are putting my life in their hands,” Maxwell said. “What are they going to do if a shooter is to come on campus? Are they willing to stand in between me and the shooter? Are they going to throw a dry erase marker at them?”
Davis said he wants students, faculty and staff to understand what he considers the reality of campus concealed carry.
“I want them to know more than just the common misconceptions,” Davis said. “It doesn’t mean there will be outbreaks on campus where someone takes out a gun and starts shooting. This is a defense mechanism, not an offensive measure to settle disputes.”
The Texas College Democrats released a statewide petition on Monday in opposition to Senate Bill 182. At the time of publication, the number of signatures on the petition was unavailable.
Bushland junior Trenton Garza, president of Baylor Democrats, helped put together the petition.
When asked about the Baylor Young Conservatives’ reasoning behind the petition, Garza says it’s “stating the obvious.”
“Of course not everyone is going to be opposed to concealed carry on campus,” Garza said. “When you do a petition to show there is a little support for a radical idea, you’ll find a few people but that doesn’t change that the policy should somehow govern over the majority’s preferences.”
Plano senior Adaobi Ekweani, president of Baylor Democrats, agrees that there are many different opinions on campus but thinks professors should have their opinions considered over those of students.
“You have to be 21 to carry a gun and most of our campus won’t be 21,” Ekweani said. “The people that would be directly affected would be our professors, so their opinion should be weighted a little more than the undergraduates that are signing the petition.”
Monisha Randolph, a certified running coach stretches on the track.
(Courtesy Art)
Monisha Randolph, a certified running coach stretches on the track. (Courtesy Art)
By Sanmai Gbandi
Reporter
In honor of Women’s History Month, the of multicultural affairs department welcomes author and certified distance running coach Monisha Randolph.
Randolph will speak today about women’s health and unhealthy fashion trends in a workshop titled “Fit: The New Fabulous.” Those who attend the workshop can learn about realistic fitness goals and will also gain knowledge about online fitness sources. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be at 6 p.m. today in the Bobo Spiritual Life Center.
Randolph is the author of the book “Runner’s Revelations: How Running Changed My Walk.” She blogged throughout her training, which she then turned into the book. The book’s website states that the book allows the reader to witness her growth as an athlete, philanthropist and servant of Jesus Christ.
Randolph is also a personal trainer and running coach. She uses a holistic approach to motivate her clients to learn the different dynamics of running. Annelise Hardegree, a graduate apprentice in multicultural affairs, and planner of the event, said young women should know the difference between healthy and unattainable.
“I think it is paramount that young women be able to tell the difference between the unrealistic expectations placed on women by the media and what it means to truly be healthy,” Hardegree said. “On top of that, I think it is extremely important for young women to be able to discern between some of the health trends that are popular in today’s culture that may or may not actually be good for them.”
Hardegree said she believes that celebrating Women’s History Month is important because seeing how other women have succeeded in the past can be empowering for women today. This workshop is a part of a few events happening during the month of March to celebrate Women’s History Month. A list of the events can be found at www.baylor.edu/multicultural.
“I think it’s important to celebrate Women’s History Month because it helps raise awareness among all people of the history of how women have overcome adversity and unequal treatment in America, but it also helps empower women today,” Hardegree said. “When we look to women in the past or present that are doing great things for others and for society, it helps young women see that their goals are also achievable and that they can make a difference.”
Women’s History Month was originally a weeklong celebration of women that started on March 7, 1981. Over the years, and with petitioning by the National Women’s History Project, the week turned into the entire month of March.
The Temple of Hephaistos looks over the ancient Greek agora, or market, which was the civic, political and commercial center of Athens.
The Temple of Hephaistos (left) sits on a hill that overlooks the ancient Greek agora, or market, which was the civic, political and commercial center of Athens.
(Howard Shapiro/Philadelphia Inquirer/MCT)
The Temple of Hephaistos (left) sits on a hill that overlooks the ancient Greek agora, or market, which was the civic, political and commercial center of Athens. (Howard Shapiro/Philadelphia Inquirer/MCT)
By Josh Day
Reporter
“Master Greek this summer!”
These bold words line the top of the flier for the classics department’s intensive program.
The Baylor Intensive Greek summer program aims to provides a solid grounding in both classical and Christian Greek. For 10 weeks, a student beginning as a novice can participate in the on-campus program and walk away with 12 credit hours — the equivalent of four semesters of Greek classes. By the end of the sequence, a student would be prepared for junior-level Greek courses in the fall semester.
“It’s a pretty radical change from what we’ve done in the past,” said Dr. Jeff Hunt, lecturer in the classics department. “We’ve done an intensive program, but it has been sort of a condensed version of what we do during the semesters. This is a considerable overhaul.”
Four members of the classics department faculty — Hunt, Dr. Jeffery Fish, Dr. Simon Burris and Dr. Timothy Heckenlively — will lead the students in a reworked Greek program that the four say will be more immersive than past programs.
Burris said the immersion will come through consistently speaking, reading, and thinking about Greek on a daily basis for the 10 weeks.
“What we’re going to be doing is putting a student in a situation where he only has Greek to worry about, all day, every day for an entire summer,” he said. Instead of the standard focus on memorization of words and phrases, the program emphasizes comprehension before anything else.
“It’s done in a way that helps you understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it,” said Fish, the program’s director.
The first five weeks of the course will feature readings with a more simplified version of ancient Greek, with the students reading the text phrase by phrase. At the same time, students will be learning how to differentiate different aspects of Greek grammar, word structure and suffixes.
“Within two weeks, the student has absorbed enough grammar to read some straight Herodotus,” Burris said. Herodotus was a historian of ancient Greece. His works were chosen as a starting point because the form of Greek he uses in his works is similar to, but simpler than classical Greek. Another characteristic of the program is its focus on a wider variety of Greek texts than the normal fall and spring Greek courses.
Despite it being the first year to implement the new summer teaching method at Baylor, the classics professors are confident that their 10-week program will succeed. For one, Burris learned how to speak Greek through the very method they are using during his time as a University of Texas at Austin student.
The program has already succeeded in other universities including the University of Texas at Austin, where the program was conceived by Gareth Morgan, a late professor of classics at the school.
However, Heckenlively said he believes the program will be a particularly good fit for Baylor because of Baylor’s mission. In order to make his point, he called upon the motto emblazoned on the Baylor seal, “Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana.”
“Is this for Texas? Yes. But even more than that, the reason that the Baylor classics department is so committed to this is because this is that other half of the Baylor mission statement. This is for the church too,” Heckenlively said.
He went on to explain that the majority of New Testament, central to the Christian faith, was originally written in Greek. “The one ancient language we cannot forget is Greek,” he said. With the class meeting a minimum of four hours a day, the summer program is not intended to be taken lightly.
Heckenlively said that although there are no formal prerequisites, the program is for students who are truly serious about learning Greek. The applications for the Baylor Intensive Greek program are on a rolling deadline. The application can be found at www.baylor.edu/learngreek.
Starting Friday, Texas DPS patrols will double in number and focus on high-risk areas at times when crashes are most frequent, according to Texas DPS.
Last year, Texas DPS made more than 1,000 DWI arrests during spring break.
The total does not include the DWI arrests made by local police departments around the state. For example, the Austin Police Department made 226 DWI arrests during spring break, March 10-18, last year alone.
When a person signs up a Texas driver’s license, he or she consents to take sobriety tests of breath, blood or urine when stopped under suspicion of a DWI, said D.L. Wilson, Department of Public Safety trooper based in Waco.
If a person is pulled over for a DWI, troopers give the driver these options — a breath, blood or urine test. Drivers have the right to refuse a test, but their license will automatically be suspended for 180 days.
If given probable cause, such as smelling alcohol on the breath of a driver, troopers can escort them to a nearby hospital and request a blood search warrant from a judge.
If the blood-alcohol content of a person of legal drinking age is 0.08 percent or over, they will be charged with a class B misdemeanor.
If it is over 0.15 percent, he or she will be charged with a Class A misdemeanor. If a child under 15 is present in the car, the driver will be charged with a felony. There are also different requirements for a person under 21.
If the driver is under 21, the officer only has to smell alcohol on their breath to have probable cause.
Those under 21 with any detectable amount of alcohol face receiving a Class C misdemeanor for driving under the influence.
In the Texas penal code, boating while intoxicated is treated similar to a DWI.
Boaters found to be above the legal limit of a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 will be charged with a Class A misdemeanor and a required minimum confinement of 72 hours.
In all cases, the driver’s license will be suspended and a fine issued.
Jail time depends on the level of the offense, but typically, first-time DWI offenders can serve time anywhere from three days to six months. DWIs are not limited to alcohol.
Drivers can be charged with a DWI if they are suspected of being high on illegal drugs or even prescription drugs, Wilson said.
“We’re seeing a lot of problems with prescription drugs and medication driving, “ Wilson said.
Baylor Police chief Jim Doak expressed his concerns about Baylor students on spring break.
Doak said he is concerned with the possibility of Baylor fatalities due to drowsy driving while on spring break.
He said that some students try to drive beyond their physical limits. Students are advised to stop and take a break every couple of hours in order to avoid drowsiness.
“We pray all of our students are making solid decisions while heading out on spring break,” Doak said.
Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, center, gets a hug from Dorothy Troglin, a supporter of Rapert's bill that would ban abortions if a heartbeat is detected 12 weeks into a pregnancy, after the bill passed a vote in the House Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor at the Arkansas state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark., Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013. Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe said Thursday hell sign into law legislation prohibiting insurers from covering most abortions in an exchange created under the federal health care law, as lawmakers advanced a separate measure banning the procedure 12 weeks into a pregnancy.
(AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, center, gets a hug from Dorothy Troglin, a supporter of Rapert’s bill that would ban abortions if a heartbeat is detected 12 weeks into a pregnancy, after the bill passed a vote in the House Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor at the Arkansas state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark., Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013. Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe said Thursday hell sign into law legislation prohibiting insurers from covering most abortions in an exchange created under the federal health care law, as lawmakers advanced a separate measure banning the procedure 12 weeks into a pregnancy. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)By Andrew DeMillo
Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas lawmakers overrode a veto Wednesday and gave the state the most restrictive abortion law in the country — a near-ban on the procedure from the 12th week of pregnancy onward that is certain to end up in court.
A day after the Republican-led state Senate voted to override Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe’s veto, the GOP-controlled House voted 56-33 to do the same. Only a simple majority was needed in each chamber. The vote comes less than a week after the Legislature overrode a veto of a separate bill banning most abortions starting in the 20th week of pregnancy. That bill took effect immediately after the final override vote, whereas the 12-week ban wouldn’t take effect until this summer.
Abortion rights proponents have already said they’ll sue to block the 12-week ban from taking effect. Beebe warned lawmakers that both measures are likely to fail in court and that the state would end up wasting money defending them if they became law.
The measures’ supporters, who expected court challenges, were undaunted. “Not the governor, nor anyone else other than the courts, can determine if something is constitutional or unconstitutional,” Rep. Bruce Westerman, a Republican from Hot Springs, said in urging his colleagues to override Beebe.
Bill sponsor Sen. Jason Rapert, a Republican from Conway, watched the vote from the House gallery and said a number of law firms have offered to help the state defend the laws in court, if it comes to that. “The eyes of the entire nation were on the Arkansas House of Representatives today,” he said.
Beebe rejected both measures for the same reasons, saying they were unconstitutional and contradicted the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion until a fetus could viably survive outside the womb. A fetus is generally considered viable at 22 to 24 weeks.
“The Arkansas Legislature has once again disregarded women’s health care and passed the most extreme anti-women’s health bill in the country,” said Jill June, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.
The 12-week ban would prohibit abortions from the point when a fetus’ heartbeat can typically be detected using an abdominal ultrasound. It includes exemptions for rape, incest, the life of the mother and highly lethal fetal disorders. The 20-week prohibition, which is based on the disputed claim that a fetus can feel pain by the 20th week and therefore deserves protection from abortion, includes all of the same exemptions except for fetal disorders.
Baylor baseball beat Louisiana Tech 5-4 at the Baylor Ballpark on Wednesday, March 6, 2013.
Travis Taylor | Lariat Photographer
Baylor baseball beat Louisiana Tech 5-4 at the Baylor Ballpark on Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Travis Taylor | Lariat PhotographerBy Daniel Hill
Sports Writer
The Baylor Bears defeated Louisiana Tech in walk-off fashion 5-4 on Wednesday night. In the bottom of the ninth, the Bears were trailing Louisiana Tech 3-4 and scored two runs in the frame to come away with the 5-4 victory.
The Bears scored one run in the bottom of the first inning. Senior third baseman Cal Towey and sophomore first baseman Duncan Wendel got on base by drawing walks. Sophomore left fielder Adam Toth singled to right, and Towey was able to score from second to give Baylor an early lead.
In the bottom of the second, Baylor tacked on two more runs to gain a 3-0 advantage. Sophomore center fielder Logan Brown bunted for a base hit down the third base line. Towey drove in Brown by roping a single to center field that almost hit the Louisiana Tech pitcher. Wendel followed up Towey’s RBI single with an RBI single of his own. Wendel singled to center to score junior second baseman Lawton Langford.
In the top of the third, Louisiana Tech’s offense started to gain some momentum. Junior left fielder Sam Alvis powered a deep solo home run to left field to give Tech its first run of the game. The next batter, junior right fielder Taylor Burch, doubled to right field. Senior center fielder Corey White hit an innocent grounder to Baylor freshman left-handed pitcher Sterling Wynn. Burch, who was on second, ran for third base and Wynn misfired on his throw to third and the ball went into field foul territory. This throwing error allowed Burch to score and cut Baylor’s lead to 3-2.
In the top of the fourth, Louisiana Tech tied up the game at 3. Sophomore catcher Jacob Derouen doubled deep to the right center field gap. Tech’s next batter, senior second baseman Austin Hedges, singled to center, which moved Derouen to third base. With runners on the corners, Louisiana Tech hit a grounder to second base and was thrown out at first. Derouen was able to score on the play.
Louisiana Tech took a 4-3 lead in the top of the fifth inning. Sophomore outfielder Colby Johnson hit a grounder to short, and Baylor senior shortstop Jake Miller fielded the ball cleanly but made a throwing error to first base. The error allowed Johnson to advance to second base. Johnson scored later in the inning.
In the bottom of the ninth, down 4-3, Baylor rallied to claim the victory. Langford worked his way to first with a walk. Towey blasted a liner to first base and the first baseman got his glove on the ball, but it deflected into right field. On the hit, Langford was able to go from first to third. With Wendel up at the plate, Langford scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at 4. Then Wendel roped the ball to center field for a single and Towey scored the game-winning run to give Baylor the 5-4 walk-off win.
“I was really looking for a fastball because he’s been throwing me sliders all game and luckily I got a fastball and was able to do something with it,” Wendel said.
On the mound for the Bears, Wynn gave up only earned runs. Senior right-handed pitcher Kolt Browder went for three innings and conceded only one run. Junior left-handed pitcher Doug Ashby pitched the remaining two and two-thirds innings.
“You know both Ashby and Colt had been struggling and Doug hadn’t pitched in about two weeks so you don’t know what you’re going to get when you do something like that, but both of them were pretty sharp today,” head coach Steve Smith said.
Ashby held Louisiana Tech to zero hits.
“It was an earlier game and I actually had class until about 3:20 so I got out here and the game was about to start so I went behind the field to warm up in the first,” Ashby said. “But it’s just something that you prepare for every night and before every game. Just get your mind ready for it. Today I felt really good.”
Baylor’s three, four and five hitters (Towey, Wendel and Toth) each had two hits on the day. Towey scored two runs, and he and Toth each had one RBI. Wendel had two RBIs.
The win gives Baylor a 7-6 record. The Bears play this weekend against Illinois for a three-game series at Baylor Ballpark.
Kidron Flynn carries a dropped dog to an Iditarod Air Force plane during the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Wednesday, March 6, 2013, at Nikolai Airport in Nikolai, Alaska. (AP Photo/The Anchorage Daily News, Bill Roth)
Kidron Flynn carries a dropped dog to an Iditarod Air Force plane during the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Wednesday, March 6, 2013, at Nikolai Airport in Nikolai, Alaska. (AP Photo/The Anchorage Daily News, Bill Roth)By Rachel D’oro
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — No one who races sled dogs is going to get filthy rich any time soon, even if they win Alaska’s 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
The prize for winning the sport’s premier race is only $50,400 and a new 2013 Dodge Ram pickup truck. That doesn’t even cover the annual dog food bill for many competitive mushers, who keep dozens of dogs in professional kennels geared to breed the sturdiest, fastest runners.
Many mushers rely on sponsors, part-time work and prizes from smaller races. Others work in seasonal jobs in tourism, construction and commercial fishing. They skimp on luxuries — one couple even hunts moose to keep food on the table.
It’s all to maintain a passion that is being played out this week in the Iditarod, which kicked off with a ceremonial start in Anchorage on Saturday. The competitive portion of the race started Sunday in Willow 50 miles to the north.
“I’ve got a hundred sled dogs. Each dog eats well over $1,000 worth of food every year,” said defending champion Dallas Seavey, of Willow, who was in 11th place Wednesday. “The $50,000 cash prize covers half my food bill for the year, and that’s when you win the biggest race in the sport.”
Mushers can pick up a little cash along the way to the finish line in the frontier town of Nome on Alaska’s wind-scoured western coast.
They are rewarded for being the first to reach certain villages dotting the trail — including $3,000 in gold nuggets for being the first to arrive at the halfway checkpoint at the ghost town of Iditarod. Earlier in the race, a $500 air travel credit goes to the first musher to arrive at McGrath.
That honor went to veteran musher Aaron Burmeister, who pulled into McGrath at 6:29 p.m. and left three minutes later.
Burmeister, of Nome, was in sixth place Wednesday as he took his mandatory 24-hour rest at the next checkpoint in the village of Takotna.
In the lead was four-time champion Lance Mackey, who blew out of Ophir 23 miles past Takotna at 5:45 a.m. Wednesday to begin the 80-mile run to the next checkpoint at the ghost town of Iditarod. Mackey has not yet taken his 24-hour layover.
Before the race, Mackey said he has two major sponsors, one for dog food and another for clothing. The Fairbanks musher gets kibble and clothing from them.
But he has to scrape by for the money he needs to maintain his 80-dog kennel and pay his dog handlers.
To do it right takes him at least $5,000 a month, he said. He hasn’t won the Iditarod since 2010, and has seen the number of sponsors drop off.
His dogs used to command high prices when he sold them. Now he can’t give them away, he said.
Mackey, who also has won the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race four times, is doing what he loves, but doesn’t expect to ever acquire great wealth from it. No one does.
“There’s people like myself that try to make a living off of racing dogs,” Mackey said. “I’ve been as successful as anybody, and I’m still as broke as ever.”
Veteran musher Aliy Zirkle, who placed second in the Iditarod last year, shares adult racing dogs with her husband, Allen Moore, who won the Yukon Quest in February. Both are running in the Iditarod.
Zirkle, who was in seventh place Wednesday, chose the top 16 dogs for her team while Moore is running a second team, more for the training of the dogs than to compete.
Their dogs get robust support from corporate and individual sponsors. Zirkle and Moore also strive to live debt-free.
They built their own home in the interior Alaska community of Two Rivers.
To keep food on the table, they hunt for moose each fall and have a garden in the summer.
“We are not broke,” Zirkle said. “But we don’t live high on the hog.”
Every year, the Iditarod is criticized by animal advocates as being an event that is cruel to the dogs, even lethal, and an event that they are forced to run.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says at least 142 dogs have died since the Iditarod began in 1973.
In 2011, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration cancelled plans to recruit potential employees in Alaska with a publicity campaign during the Iditarod.
The Washington Post reported at the time that the recruitment plans were abandoned under pressure from PETA, but an agency official said the TSA wanted to ensure taxpayer money was being used wisely.
Mushers and race supporters say the race celebrates world-class canine athletes that have been conditioned through diet and training to perform at the highest levels of health after decades of research and advancements in animal care.
There have been no dog deaths in the race since 2009, when six dogs died, according to Iditarod chief veterinarian Stuart Nelson.
Dogs are not forced to perform as critics contend, Nelson said.
“If a dog doesn’t want to run, it’s not going to run,” he said. “If a dog doesn’t want to run, there is no advantage to have it on a team.”
