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Softball wins first game of Texas Shootout

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by Parmida Schahhosseini
Sports Writer

The No. 25 Baylor Lady Bear Softball team had its first road test of the season as they squared off against Texas State in the Texas Shootout on Thursday in San Marcos. Baylor didn’t miss a beat as their offense displayed power and speed dominating the fourth and fifth innings to win 10-2. Baylor has now won 10 games in a row and moves to 11-2 on the season with the win.

Baylor’s offensive power was on display again this weekend. Freshman third baseman Sarah Smith and junior first baseman Holly Holl both had 2 RBI-doubles. Smith also hit a bomb for a home run, displaying the transition Baylor is trying to make from a speed team to a power team. Sophomore infielder Jordan Strickland contributed with a 2 RBI-single in the fifth inning.

“The at-bats that aren’t producing hits are quality at bats,” head coach Glenn Moore said. “We’re running pitchers deep in the count, making them throw more pitches. I always talk about that early in the game. If you can force more pitches, you’re going to get on pitchers by the fifth or sixth inning because you’re going to wear them down a little bit and I think they did a great job of forcing some extra pitches and working the count and then maybe not getting the base hit, but having a quality at bat.”

The freshmen had hot bats to start the game with Smith singling up the middle for the first base hit for Baylor. Landrith responded with a bunt, putting the ball between three defensive players for a base hit. Smith advanced to second. Freshman right-handed pitcher Heather Stearns was up to bat next. Smith and Landrith both stole bases on a passed ball, but after back-to-back outs, the inning was still scoreless. Junior left-handed pitcher Whitney Canion responded with three consecutive strikeouts in the second inning to put Baylor back on offense.

After an uneventful third inning, Baylor scored seven runs on six hits in the fourth inning. Holl singled to the right field to start the inning. Freshman outfielder Justine Young pinch ran for Holl. Freshman outfielder Linsey Hays grounded up the middle for a base hit, and Young advances to second. Smith hit the ball over the head of the right fielder for an RBI double. Landrith followed with a sacrifice fly ball to the left, allowing Hays to score. Canion walked after being patient at the plate, and sophomore infielder Jill Reid pinch ran for her.

Junior catcher Clare Hosack reached the base on fielder’s choice. Reid advanced to second, and Smith advanced to third on an error. Sophomore infielder Jordan Strickland walked to advance all of the runners. Smith scored on the play.

Sophomore outfielder Kaitlyn Thumann was on the plate and a wild pitch bounced away from the catcher, allowing Strickland and Hosack to advance a base and Reid to score. Thumann lined out for a sacrifice, which allowed Strickland to advance to third and Hosack to score. Senior centerfielder Kathy Shelton was at bat next and singled to the left center allowing Strickland to score. Holl came to bat again and hit the ball as it bounced off the wall allowing Shelton to score for an RBI double.

Texas State responded after a base hit, where Landrith committed an error, allowing the runners to advance. Texas State followed with an RBI double as the ball hit the wall allowing Baker to score.

Smith began the next inning with a home. Landrith was at bat next and doubled to the right center coming back from a 1-2 count. Reid pinch hit for Canion and drew the walk as Landrith advances to second. Strickland singled down the left field line, which allowed Reid and Landrith to score.

Due to the big lead, Moore put in junior right-handed pitcher Liz Paul to close the game. After back-to-back strikeouts and a groundout, Baylor won the game 10-2. Baylor will play Sam Houston State at 11:30 a.m. on Friday in San Marcos.

Editorial: Help me to help you

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BlackboardComicStudents are expected to do their homework, attend class according to the attendance policy and keep ahead of their assignments and grades.

To do so and keep track of our progress, we’ve been given Blackboard, our one-stop answers website. Professors can post syllabi and document students’ attendance and grades. This wonderful tool can help keep both students and teachers organized — so why doesn’t everyone use it?

Both groups can benefit from this tool, but there are some members of both groups who fail to do so. Those who drop the ball in either group deserve blame.

Professors, students need to monitor their progress. To this end, we need you to regularly post grades, attendance and other announcements on the website for us to see. It will also ensure that these things are being accurately recorded.

For example, if you use a sign-in sheet to take attendance, it is possible that a student could attend class but forget to sign the sheet, or arrive late and miss it. Your records would not reflect the reality of your students’ attendance. What, then, is the recourse for that student? Due to Baylor’s attendance policy, missing class is not something to be taken lightly.

Or assignments — many professors use a “you missed class, ask a friend for your assignments” philosophy. This is all very well and good — students should indeed stay on top of their assignments — but it begs the assumption that a student’s friends in class will be organized enough to know and understand the assignment’s parameters, which may not be the case. It also may be that a student has no friends in the class in the first place. This philosophy takes accountability out of the hands of the student and places it in a third party. This is bad for both students and professors. Instead, it is better to post to Blackboard.

Students, being accountable for your grades, assignments and absences is your responsibility. Using this tool can help you keep track of all of those facets of your academic career.

If you are a student and don’t keep track of your academic life, shame on you. You could contribute to the unwillingness of professors to post. It’s disheartening for anyone to see their hard work go to waste, and perhaps those who don’t have had a bumper crop of non-checker students. The person you’re hurting the most is yourself, however.

There will come a time when we don’t have the convenience of Blackboard, when our bosses are disorganized and we reap the disadvantages of their messy desks and forgotten reminder memos. We will eventually have to learn to organize and orient ourselves to a work environment in which our tasks aren’t laid out for us.

Take advantage of Blackboard while you can, and use the knowledge you gain in accepting accountability to deal with those challenges. When that day comes, you’ll wish you had a Blackboard. Why not make the best of it now?

To those in either group who avoid Blackboard due to a distaste for technology, it’s time to face the 21 century. There is no excuse for you. If you don’t know how to use it, learn. It will make your life easier and not harder in the long run. You can’t escape technology forever.

Professors expect students to be organized and aware — as they well should be. But advance preparation and organization is a two-way street. Professors must give students the tools they need to do so themselves by using Blackboard. Students must in turn use this tool to its fullest potential.

Viewpoint: Grading scale is not unfair

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On Feb. 18, the Lariat wrote an editorial advocating a standardized grading scale.

In general, the article argued that Baylor should not allow professors to require a percentage higher than 90 in order to receive an A.

The basis for the argument comes primarily from a feeling of unfairness. According to the article, a professor “should be able to lower the threshold to earn an A,” but raising it “is deceiving and can really affect students who work hard.”

I disagree. For a grade cutoff to be considered “deceiving,” it must be misleading or confusing to students. “Deceiving” also implies that professors are trying to trick students into receiving lower grades. This is simply not the case. If a grading scale is on the syllabus for the entire semester, there is nothing deceiving about it.

The main reason the editorial did not sit well with me is because of the entitlement language.

The highlighted quote in the article commented on students’ hard work, claiming “we’re shorted when a professor doesn’t give us the grade we would have earned in practically any other class without a skewed grading scale.”

Do we really deserve the grade we think we deserve?

From my experience, we are quicker to call something “unfair” and blame the system before acknowledging our own failures. The mentality that we, as students, get to decide which grades we “should” get from our classes startles me.

Quite honestly, Baylor has a reputation for being academically rigorous. I’m sure we could sacrifice some of our standards in order to increase students’ average GPA; however, that would be ill-advised for our national reputation.

If we are to be truly concerned with learning and educational attainment, we must look beyond our grades on paper.

The Lariat, in conclusion, argues that “at the very least, students should be able to enter a class and know, before a syllabus is given, what an A is.” Why? Where else in life are we able to know the requirements of succeeding before seeing the requirements?

Let’s stop blaming “unfair” grading scales and instead work on motivating ourselves to excel in our classes, whatever it may require.

Danny Huizinga is a sophomore Baylor Business Fellow from Chicago. He manages the political blog Consider Again and writes weekly for The Washington Times Communities.

Viewpoint: Five-day language classes are essential for first-years

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I’m pleased that the topic of language study appeared on the opinions page of the Lariat on Feb. 7, and that the editorial there, “Five-day language classes hurt, not help,” advocated the study of another language for all Baylor students.

What concerned me was the misunderstanding about the value of a five-day-per-week meeting schedule for first-year language classes. In support of this assertion, the editorial stated that students would learn more if they had class fewer days per week. Is this true?

Time spent in class is a function of the learning outcomes that the course is designed to achieve. According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, achieving intermediate proficiency in a “Group I” language (such as Spanish) for a student with above-average aptitude for language learning requires at least 240 classroom contact hours.

That would be the equivalent of four full semesters of 50-minute courses meeting 5 days per week. For “Group II” languages (such as Arabic or Chinese), an estimated 480 contact hours are needed.

Given that we language teachers actually have less time with first-year language students than we would like, we strive to maximize class time to help students practice with the target language. Proficiency in a second language requires such practice.

Baylor students have recently drawn upon their language skills and cultural knowledge to compete successfully for prestigious Fulbright grants. It is my sincere hope that more Baylor students will apply for Fulbrights and other such awards. Many students have been able to build upon their existing skills in language and awareness of cultures through immersion experiences abroad in programs like Baylor in China, Baylor in Denia, Baylor in Germany, Baylor in Madrid, and Baylor in Paris, or the exchange program with Voronezh State University in Russia.

Five high-achieving Baylor language students were recently awarded an Allison Family Foundation Scholarship for Study Abroad in the amount of $12,200 each.

To be eligible for this scholarship, students needed to demonstrate intermediate proficiency in the language and cultural knowledge of the country where they will study (France, Russia or Spain).

Thanks to growing interest in languages at Baylor, modern foreign languages department has recently added minors in Arabic, Chinese, and Italian, as well as a major in Arabic and Middle East Studies.

Learning another language is worthwhile but not easy; first-year language learners need to spend as much time in class as possible in order to gain the requisite proficiency.

The mission of Baylor University is to prepare students for “worldwide leadership and service.” Daily first-year language classes are needed for students to develop the depth of knowledge and skills necessary to function and flourish in a global environment.

Heidi Bostic holds a Ph.D. in French from Purdue University. She has been a member of the modern foreign languages department at Baylor for four years and currently serves as the department chair.

Sudoku solution: 02/22/13

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02-22-13

Crossword Solutions: 02/22/13

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Friday0222

Texas executes man who lit ex-girlfriend on fire

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In this Nov. 15, 2012 photo, Carl Henry Blue looks back at family and friends while being escorted back to jail after having his execution date set at the Brazos County Courthouse in Bryan, Texas. Blue never disputed filling a convenience store drink cup with gasoline, tossing it on his former girlfriend at the door of her apartment and setting her ablaze. Nineteen days after the September 1994 incident, 38-year-old Carmen Richards-Sanders died of her burns. Now, more than 18 years later, Blue, 48, is set to die Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013, evening for what he contended was a prank gone bad and for what prosecutors successfully argued was capital murder. Blue’s execution would be the first this year in Texas, the nation’s most active death penalty state. Fifteen inmates were executed last year. Blue is among at least 12 Texas prisoners scheduled for lethal injection in the coming months. (AP Photo/Bryan-College Station Eagle, Dave McDerman)
In this Nov. 15, 2012 photo, Carl Henry Blue looks back at family and friends while being escorted back to jail after having his execution date set at the Brazos County Courthouse in Bryan, Texas. Blue never disputed filling a convenience store drink cup with gasoline, tossing it on his former girlfriend at the door of her apartment and setting her ablaze. Nineteen days after the September 1994 incident, 38-year-old Carmen Richards-Sanders died of her burns. Now, more than 18 years later, Blue, 48, is set to die Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013, evening for what he contended was a prank gone bad and for what prosecutors successfully argued was capital murder. Blue’s execution would be the first this year in Texas, the nation’s most active death penalty state. Fifteen inmates were executed last year. Blue is among at least 12 Texas prisoners scheduled for lethal injection in the coming months. (AP Photo/Bryan-College Station Eagle, Dave McDerman)
In this Nov. 15, 2012 photo, Carl Henry Blue looks back at family and friends while being escorted back to jail after having his execution date set at the Brazos County Courthouse in Bryan, Texas. Blue never disputed filling a convenience store drink cup with gasoline, tossing it on his former girlfriend at the door of her apartment and setting her ablaze. Nineteen days after the September 1994 incident, 38-year-old Carmen Richards-Sanders died of her burns. Now, more than 18 years later, Blue, 48, is set to die Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013, evening for what he contended was a prank gone bad and for what prosecutors successfully argued was capital murder. Blue’s execution would be the first this year in Texas, the nation’s most active death penalty state. Fifteen inmates were executed last year. Blue is among at least 12 Texas prisoners scheduled for lethal injection in the coming months. (AP Photo/Bryan-College Station Eagle, Dave McDerman)

Michael Graczyk
Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend by dousing her with gasoline and setting her on fire was executed in Texas on Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court refused his final appeal.

Carl Blue, 48, was condemned to die for attacking Carmen Richards-Sanders at her apartment in Bryan, about 100 miles northwest of Houston, in September 1994. He also tossed gasoline on a man in the apartment, but the man survived and testified against Blue.

Blue claimed it was a prank gone wrong, but prosecutors said it was an intentional attack sparked by jealously.

In his final statement, Blue greeted his victim’s daughter, Terrella Richards, as she entered the death chamber viewing area by telling her he loved her.

“I never meant to hurt your mama,” Blue said while strapped to a gurney. “If I could change that, I would. … I hope you can forgive me.”

He then told his parents, watching from an adjacent room, that he loved them and acknowledged he had done something wrong. He said he was “paying the ultimate justice. … It may be crooked justice but I forgive those people.”

He later added: “Cowboy up. I’m fixin’ to ride, and Jesus is my vehicle.”

Blue took about a dozen breaths as the lethal drug began taking effect. He said he could “feel it,” then slipped into unconsciousness before being pronounced dead at 6:56 p.m.

Richards declined to take questions after the execution, but said her journey was over. “I can move on with my life,” she said. “My journey has ended today.”

Prosecutors said Blue walked seven miles from his home to a convenience store, and had been drinking malt liquor and smoking crack behind the store, when he bought 50 cents’ worth of gasoline and put in a “Big Gulp” cup.

Court records said he waited outside Richards-Sanders’ apartment, then when she opened the door, rushed in and told her: “I told you I was going to get you.” He then doused Richards-Sanders and set her ablaze.

When Blue discovered Larence Williams at the apartment, he threw what was left of the gasoline on Williams, setting him on fire.

“He had only one true love in his life … and here she was with another guy,” recalled John Quinn, the lead defense attorney at Blue’s 1995 trial.

Hours after the attack, Blue turned himself in to police.

“When I went to knock, she snatched the door open and had a cigarette,” Blue told police in a tape-recorded statement played at his trial. “I wasted gas on both of them. And she caught on fire, and he caught on fire, and I took off running … I was scared, man.”

Shane Phelps, a prosecutor at Blue’s punishment trial, said Richards-Sanders was trying to start her life over after she and Blue broke up months earlier, “and Carl wasn’t part of that, and that was a problem for Carl.”

In appeals this week, Blue’s attorney, Michael Charlton, argued that it was a conflict of interest for one of Quinn’s co-counsels to represent him in appeals because he likely wouldn’t contend his previous work was deficient. The conflict “resulted in valuable and worthwhile claims not being presented to any court,” Charlton said.

But the Texas Attorney General’s office said the federal appeals were meritless because Blue had waived his right to a different lawyer, negating the conflict claim.

Five years after Blue’s conviction, his death sentence was among about half a dozen in Texas overturned by a federal judge who ruled it was improper for a former state prison psychologist to testify that the black man’s race could indicate a propensity for violence. But Blue again was sentenced to die at a second punishment trial in 2001.

His was the first execution this year in the nation’s most active death penalty state. At least 11 other prisoners are scheduled for lethal injection in the coming months in Texas, which executed 15 inmates last year.

Drew Peterson sentenced to 38 years for murder

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In this courtroom sketch, Drew Peterson, left, watches Will County States Attorney James K. Glasgow during Peterson's sentencing for the 2004 murder of his third wife Kathleen Savio before Judge Edward Burmila at the Will County Courthouse Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013, in Joliet, Ill. Later in the day, Burmila sentenced Peterson to 38 years in prison for the crime. (AP Photo/Tom Gianni)
In this courtroom sketch, Drew Peterson, left, watches Will County States Attorney James K. Glasgow during Peterson's sentencing for the 2004 murder of his third wife Kathleen Savio before Judge Edward Burmila at the Will County Courthouse Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013, in Joliet, Ill. Later in the day, Burmila sentenced Peterson to 38 years in prison for the crime. (AP Photo/Tom Gianni)
In this courtroom sketch, Drew Peterson, left, watches Will County States Attorney James K. Glasgow during Peterson’s sentencing for the 2004 murder of his third wife Kathleen Savio before Judge Edward Burmila at the Will County Courthouse Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013, in Joliet, Ill. Later in the day, Burmila sentenced Peterson to 38 years in prison for the crime. (AP Photo/Tom Gianni)

Michael Tarm
Associated Press

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — Drew Peterson — the swaggering former suburban Chicago police officer who gained notoriety after his much-younger fourth wife vanished in 2007 — was sentenced to 38 years in prison on Thursday for murdering his third wife.

Illinois does not have the death penalty, and the 59-year-old Peterson had faced a maximum 60-year prison term. The judge gave him four years’ credit for time he has served since his arrest.

Jurors convicted Peterson in September in Kathleen Savio’s 2004 death. Neighbors found the 40-year-old’s body in a dry bathtub at home with a gash on her head — her hair soaked in blood.

Peterson is also a suspect in the disappearance of Stacy Peterson — who was 23-years-old when she vanished — but he hasn’t been charged in her case. It was her disappearance that led authorities to take another look at Savio’s death and eventually reclassify it from an accident to a homicide.

Fascination nationwide with Peterson arose from speculation he sought to use his law enforcement expertise to get away with murder.

Peterson shocked the courtroom during his sentencing hearing by shouting, “I did not kill Kathleen!” as he made a statement to the court.

Someone in the court audience responded by shouting back, “Yes, you did,” and the person was then removed from the room.

Earlier Thursday, Judge Edward Burmila denied a defense request to grant Peterson a retrial. Peterson’s current attorneys contended his former lead attorney, Joel Brodsky, botched the initial trial.

Brodsky stepped down from the defense team in November, as his quarrel with Peterson’s current lawyers worsened.

Steve Greenberg was on the trial team and still represents Peterson. Greenberg says Brodsky forced Peterson to take part in a damaging pretrial media blitz and that it was Brodsky’s decision to call a witness whose testimony ended up backfiring on the defense.

Brodsky has called allegations from his former colleagues “a bald-faced lie” and insisted the entire legal team agreed on trial strategy.

A turning point at the trial came when the defense called a divorce attorney who said he spoke to Stacy Peterson before she vanished. Rather than blunting her credibility, the witness stressed to jurors that Stacy Peterson seemed to truly believe her husband killed Savio.

Before his 2009 arrest, the glib, cocky Drew Peterson seemed to taunt authorities, suggesting a “Win a Date With Drew Contest” and then, after his arrest, “Win a Conjugal Visit With Drew Contest.” More recently, his story inspired a TV movie starring Rob Lowe.

The case began with a gruesome discovery. A neighbor came across Savio’s body March 1, 2004. She was face down in her dry bathtub, her thick, black hair soaked in blood and a 2-inch gash was on the back of her head.

The death of the aspiring nurse was initially deemed an accident. After Stacy Peterson vanished in 2007, Savio’s body was exhumed and re-examined.

Drew Peterson had divorced Savio a year before her death. His motive for killing her, prosecutors said, was fear that a pending settlement would wipe him out financially.

Peterson’s personality loomed large over his 2012 trial, illustrated by crowds of bystanders gathered outside the courthouse in a circuslike atmosphere after his conviction last year, cheering as prosecutors walked by and shouting, “Loser. Loser. Loser,” at defense attorneys.

The verdict was a vindication for Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow and his team, who gambled by putting on a case they conceded was filled with holes.

Prosecutors suspect Peterson killed his sandy-haired fourth wife because she could finger him for Savio’s death, but her body has never been found and no charges have ever been filed. Jurors weren’t supposed to link her disappearance to Savio’s death, and prosecutors were prohibited from mentioning the subject.

Peterson has maintained his fourth wife ran off with another man and is still alive.

Prosecutors faced enormous hurdles as they tried Peterson for Savio’s death.

They had no physical evidence tying him to her death and no witnesses placing him at the scene. They were forced to rely on typically barred hearsay — statements Savio made to others before she died and that Stacy Peterson made before she vanished. Illinois passed a hearsay law in 2008 tailored to Peterson’s case, dubbed “Drew’s Law,” which assisted in making some the evidence admissible at Peterson’s trial.

The hearsay — any information reported by a witness not based on the witness’ direct knowledge —  included a friend testifying that Savio told her Peterson once put a knife to her throat and warned her, “I could kill you and make it look like an accident.”

Peterson’s attorneys have said they might appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court on grounds the hearsay law is unconstitutional.

Education considering district-by-district waivers

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In this photo taken Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013, Malachi Stewart, right, high-fives educational assistant Addison Hawk as Ahmed Omar continues with his work in their kindergarten classroom at Campbell Hill Elementary in Renton, Wash. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
In this photo taken Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013, Malachi Stewart, right, high-fives educational assistant Addison Hawk as Ahmed Omar continues with his work in their kindergarten classroom at Campbell Hill Elementary in Renton, Wash. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
In this photo taken Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013, Malachi Stewart, right, high-fives educational assistant Addison Hawk as Ahmed Omar continues with his work in their kindergarten classroom at Campbell Hill Elementary in Renton, Wash. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

PHILIP ELLIOTT
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Education Secretary Arne Duncan is talking with school districts about how to free them from unworkable parts of the federal No Child Left Behind law, signaling he is open to an approach he long tried to avoid.

The Education Department has given 34 states and the District of Columbia permission to ignore parts of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind Law and eight others have waiver applications pending ahead of next week’s application deadline. But that still leaves eight states — giants California and Texas among them — operating under the law and set to fall short of its requirements, such as all students being proficient in math and reading by 2014.

The next step could be allowing school districts themselves to petition for exemptions from national requirements that states are all but certain to fail to meet.

“I’m not saying we are going to go down that path,” Duncan said Thursday before trailing off, “but if we go down that path …”

It seems as though his department is already setting that in motion, however.

California, for instance, failed its first attempt at a waiver and remains a top worry for the Education Department officials.

District superintendents met with federal officials on Wednesday in Washington to talk through options and Duncan joined them for 30 minutes of face-to-face discussion.

“California could reapply. There’s some innings to be played here,” Duncan said, holding out hope just a day after he met with the California Office to Reform Education, or CORE.

That 10-district group includes Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento districts and represents 1.2 million of the state’s 6 million students. It is not representing the statewide California Department of Education.

“My strong preference is to work with states,” Duncan said. “We can manage a portfolio of 50 states. Managing a portfolio of 50,000 districts is lot more difficult.”

But Duncan seems slowly to be softening his opposition to that localized approach to give schools greater control over how to close achievement gaps and lift low-performing schools.

“We’ve given states until the 28th (of February). That’s another week to apply. We’re still waiting to see what states come in,” Duncan said. “Once we get past that deadline, if we’ve had certain places not apply and not show interest, then I think it is incumbent on our team to think through what we do to take that next step.”

Duncan has repeatedly said that he doesn’t want his department to get into district-by-district decisions. Such a shift to approving local projects would potentially add huge workloads to the department and perhaps consume thousands of hours of local districts’ time to assemble the detailed alternatives to improve schools on their own terms.

But the window on that is closing.

The next largest state in student population, Texas, has not even applied for the waivers to No Child Left Behind.

Officials there instead were preparing a broader petition to be exempted from all Education Department mandates, which would include No Child Left Behind. Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Debbie Graves Ratcliffe said the state should have its petition finalized “within the next month or so” but wasn’t pursuing the waivers within the Feb. 28 deadline.

Duncan acknowledges the problems in the No Child Left Behind requirements, first passed into law in 2001 with bipartisan support. In meetings with individual lawmakers and in testimony over the last few weeks, he urged Congress to take up the measure and make adjustments to expectations that no longer are realistic.

If Congress were to update No Child Left Behind, the states would shift to the new national standards — potentially a headache for states that already have set forth on their own individualized plans.

The law expired in 2007 and its requirements have not been updated.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican and former education secretary, said earlier this month that it was Congress’ fault.

“The bottom line is that it expired in 2007 — except for a provision that says if Congress didn’t act, it would continue,” Alexander said during a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee where he is the top Republican.

“And Congress didn’t act, so it’s continuing,” he added.

‘Argo’ seizes momentum from ‘Lincoln’ for Oscars

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Ben Affleck, nominated for best picture for "Argo," arrives at the 85th Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Monday, Feb. 4, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Ben Affleck, nominated for best picture for "Argo," arrives at the 85th Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Monday, Feb. 4, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Ben Affleck, nominated for best picture for “Argo,” arrives at the 85th Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Monday, Feb. 4, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

By Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Historians say the lesson of history is that there’s no such thing as a foreseeable future. Honest Oscar forecasters would have to agree.

When Emma Stone and Seth MacFarlane announced the Best Picture nominees Jan. 10, pundits immediately declared a front-runner. “The contest has come down to one film, and it’s ‘Lincoln,’ an excellent, very popular movie by a great director on a subject that inspires, uplifts, redeems. … It’s the perfect Academy movie,” wrote Wesley Morris, the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic for the website Grantland.

Goldderby.com, which collates the opinions of entertainment journalists nationwide, gave Steven Spielberg’s history lesson a commanding 4-1 odds of winning Best Picture. Online bookmaker Bovada put actual money on the race, giving “Lincoln” 2-5 odds.

In mid-January, “Argo” looked like an afterthought in the best film category. It was a fact-based spy caper with a hefty dose of inside-the-industry humor about Hollywood types who build a cover story concealing a CIA rescue mission to Iran. The film garnered seven nominations, including Best Supporting Actor for Alan Arkin, but not a prestigious Best Actor or Director nod (Best Picture and Director Oscars traditionally go hand in hand).

The movie was undeniably polished and uplifting. Still, it lacked the brio of “Django Unchained,” the moral complications of “Zero Dark Thirty,” the operatic intensity of “Les Miserables,” the gravitas of “Amour,” the life-affirming zest of “Silver Linings Playbook” or the visionary sweep of “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and “Life of Pi.” The Best Picture nomination looked like a symbolic gesture commending director/star Ben Affleck for crafting a good, facile piece of commercial entertainment.

What a difference a month makes. The story of an improbable escape plot has become the unlikely front-runner for Hollywood’s highest honor. Over the past four weeks “Argo” has surged, becoming almost every commentator’s top contender.

The reassessment follows a string of meaningful wins in the run-up to the big show on Feb. 24. The movie won Best Film at the Producers Guild, Affleck won at the Directors Guild and both triumphed at the Golden Globes, Britain’s BAFTAs and the broadcast film critics’ Critics’ Choice Awards. The Screen Actors Guild, the Academy’s largest voting bloc, awarded the “Argo” cast its prize for Best Ensemble Performance. Hedging its bets, bookmaker Bovado boosted “Argo” to the likeliest winner, with odds of 2-7.

This is hardly the first time a dark horse has made a last-minute charge to the head of the pack. Just ask Spielberg about Oscar night 1999. Presenter Harrison Ford looked a little shocked as he read the Best Picture results. The lightweight romantic comedy “Shakespeare in Love” trounced “Saving Private Ryan” even though Spielberg had beaten “Shakespeare’s” John Madden as Best Director.

In 2006, another of this year’s Best Director nominees, Ang Lee, was heavily favored to win a Best Picture prize for his emotionally intense cowboy love story “Brokeback Mountain.” The film swept up critics’ and guild prizes, but lost to “Crash,” a sprawling drama about race relations in Los Angeles that opened to mixed reviews.

Perhaps it shouldn’t have come as such a shock. “Crash’s” huge ensemble cast won the crucial SAG award, and some Oscar observers reasoned that virtually every actor voting for the film shared an agent, manager or publicist with someone on-screen in “Crash.”

Others linked the “Brokeback” backlash to voters’ discomfort with the film’s frank portrait of a gay romance.

This year, it’s not an issue of discomfort, but of which film makes movie-industry voters feel better about themselves. Hollywood adores films about Hollywood, and “Argo” paints its filmmaker characters as brilliant hucksters more adept at the art of deception than even career secret agents.

When Oscar voters applaud a film like this or last year’s love letter to silent-era Tinseltown, “The Artist,” they’re patting themselves on the back. And then there are the intangible factors of personal campaigning. It can hardly hurt the film’s chances that Affleck and the film’s producer, George Clooney, are two of the best-liked, most media-savvy men in film.

Don’t Feed the Bears – Will Baylor be dancing in March

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Greg (@gregdevries3000) and Daniel (@D_Hill80) discuss Baylor hoops, March Madness, the NBA Dunk Contest, and Baylor baseball. Follow the show (@DFTBPodcast) and like our Facebook page.

02/21/13: The Baylor Lariat

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Play the part

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Learn how to convince a potential employer that you are the right person for the job in a “Learn to Interview” workshop from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. today in 403 Hankamer Cashion Building. RSVP for this event in your HireABear account.

Students out to help people achieve their health goals

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Linden, Mich., junior Alex Barbaretta; Colorado Springs, Colo., senior Eric Press; and Linden, Mich., sophomore Shawna Tharp work with Barbell Fitness to help people achieve their health and fitness goals. Ashley Pereyra | Reporter
Linden, Mich., junior Alex Barbaretta; Colorado Springs, Colo., senior Eric Press; and Linden, Mich., sophomore Shawna Tharp work with Barbell Fitness to help people achieve their health and fitness goals. Ashley Pereyra | Reporter
Linden, Mich., junior Alex Barbaretta; Colorado Springs, Colo., senior Eric Press; and Linden, Mich., sophomore Shawna Tharp work with Barbell Fitness to help people achieve their health and fitness goals.
Ashley Pereyra | Reporter

By Ashley Pereyra
Reporter

From barbells to benches, a trio of Baylor students are out to help people reach their full potential.

Linden, Mich., junior Alex Barbaretta; Colorado Springs, Colo., senior Eric Press; and Linden, Mich., sophomore Shawna Tharp are a part of Barbell Fitness, a team dedicated to spreading awareness of health and fitness and bringing the tools to help people succeed.

The website, www.barbellfit.com, was originally a place to schedule sessions with Barbaretta, a personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise.

“That’s really where it started as a place for clients to reach me,” Barbaretta said. “And then I started getting a lot of questions from Facebook and email that they wanted answered. So I thought, ‘OK,’ Eric and I were good friends and he’s like ‘just go for it.’ We started putting more on the website.”

The website features free workouts, recipe ideas, an online store and the opportunity to train with Barbaretta. However, Barbell Fitness is more than just a website.

They post weekly videos on YouTube featuring question-and-answer sessions as well as work out routines, host giveaways on Instagram and offer an avenue through Facebook and Twitter for people to share their success with others.

“We do this thing every once in a while called Flex Friday giveaways,” Barbaretta said. “We did it for two weeks in a row and we had no female entries. So we’re like ‘OK, we’ve got to do something.’”

Last month Tharp was brought onto the team as a fresh, female perspective.

She collaborates with Press and Barbaretta on ideas for work outs that are more appealing to women.

“A lot of times girls, I think, are afraid to work out with weights and go down in the area where the guys are working out,” Tharp said. “But I like to show that it is not that bad and is really beneficial.”

Since the launch in November 2012, their Facebook page has garnered more than 1,200 likes from people around the U.S.

“We are promoters for a protein product called ViSalus,”  Tharp said. “Because of that we have a bunch of connections with people all around the country.”

Barbaretta said he hopes to continue Barbell Fitness even after he graduates. He also hopes to possibly open his own training facility.

“If we can motivate or inspire just a couple of people, you know that’s our goal. To transform lives is the goal,” Barbaretta said. “We have a YouTube channel as well. And we try to get people to interact with that and ask us questions. We actually just drove to Dallas this past weekend. The whole way there we were taking questions from Facebook and all that and answering them through video.”

While Barbell Fitness is made up of students, they utilize their education to inform the public on the correct way to reach their goals.

Tharp majors in nutrition science with a pre-med focus, Barbaretta majors in athletic training with a minor in nutrition science and Press majors in health studies with a concentration in pre-physical therapy.

“We try to push science but also we push experience,” Barbaretta said. “For instance, bro science says eating every two or three hours helps you lose more fat. There’s science that says it’s absolute bogus. So we don’t tell people to go eatsix to eight times a day. As long you go by the calorie in versus the calorie out. Energy balance is what we focus on. But I always say from my experience that I feel better when I eat every two to three hours so, you can experience over science but use the science to support your argument.”

Barbell Fitness posts regularly on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Bomb threat evacuates 700 at A&M’s Kyle Field

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Texas A&M security personnel who wished not to be identified barricade the entrance to Kyle Field after a bomb threat Wednesday Feb. 20, 2013 in College Station, Texas. Texas A&M University is investigating a bomb threat at Kyle Field that prompted the school to issue a "code maroon" safety advisory and close the stadium and nearby buildings. (AP Photo/ Patric Schneider)
Texas A&M security personnel who wished not to be identified barricade the entrance to Kyle Field after a bomb threat Wednesday Feb. 20, 2013 in College Station, Texas. Texas A&M University is investigating a bomb threat at Kyle Field that prompted the school to issue a "code maroon" safety advisory and close the stadium and nearby buildings. (AP Photo/ Patric Schneider)
Texas A&M security personnel who wished not to be identified barricade the entrance to Kyle Field after a bomb threat Wednesday Feb. 20, 2013 in College Station, Texas. Texas A&M University is investigating a bomb threat at Kyle Field that prompted the school to issue a “code maroon” safety advisory and close the stadium and nearby buildings. (AP Photo/ Patric Schneider)

By Associated Press
and Kate McGuire
Staff Writer

COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M University officials are investigating a bomb threat at Kyle Field that prompted officials to issue a “Code Maroon” safety advisory and close the stadium and nearby buildings, displacing about 700 people.

An A&M statement Wednesday says the football stadium and adjacent buildings that were evacuated will remain closed for the rest of the day.

“I was just walking to class on the west side of campus and got a text from the Texas A&M security systems that there was a bomb threat from Kyle Field,” sophomore Chris DeVries said.

A&M says the threat was written on a wall of a nonacademic campus facility. Officials were informed at 10:50 a.m., flashed the “Code Maroon” message at 12:25 p.m. and gave the “all clear” at 7:10 p.m.

“It wasn’t a big deal or anything because we had that threat earlier this year and right now only a part of the campus is closed,” freshman Ashley Wright said.

“People aren’t really freaking out about it,” junior Carly Potz-Nielsen said. “It’s just another concern that students look at on their phones and go on with the day.”

At the time of publication, Texas A&M administration said they were not releasing information about the investigation.

“We’re still investigating and we hope to be operational again in the morning,” a Texas A&M security official said Wednesday afternoon.

Another bomb threat Wednesday prompted officials at Navarro College to close its campus through Thursday.

The 10,000-student junior college in Corsicana is 50 miles south of Dallas and 100 miles north of College Station.

Bill calls for standardized test to graduate

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State Sen. Brian Birdwell
State Sen. Brian Birdwell
State Sen. Brian Birdwell

By Taylor Rexrode
Staff Writer

State Sen. Brian Birdwell is proposing a bill to make sure college students get the most out of their education with one more test before graduation.

Birdwell filed Senate Bill 436 on Feb. 8 in the hopes of instituting a standardized test for all Texas public universities.

Birdwell released a statement about the importance of this bill to the success of Texas students and universities.

“For me, this bill is about ensuring that Texans are able to make the most informed, value-focused decision about where to begin a path to a college degree—all while increasing transparency and protecting academic freedom at our institutions of higher education,” Birdwell wrote in an email to the Lariat.

The bill will mandate that all public four-year institutions of higher education administer the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) to students before freshman year and at the end of senior year of college. The assessment was created in 2000 by the Council for AID to Education, and it measures writing, critical-thinking and problem-solving abilities.

According to the CLA website, the tests helps measure “an institution’s contribution to the development of key higher order competencies” and helps “gauge summative performance authentically.” The assessment scores will help parents and prospective students see how well they perform at a particular public university.

Because it is a private institution, Baylor would not have to implement the assessment should the bill pass.

According to Carol McDonald, president of the nonprofit organization Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas, Baylor operates under the University and College Accountability Network where consumer information about the university is available. Standardized testing measurements are not available on the network.

However, students looking to transfer in and out of Baylor would have to take the exam, even if they only take one part of it. Students taking summer or winter classes at another four-year institution would not have to take the assessment since it is targeted for students who will graduate from the state school.

“If a student started at Baylor and then went somewhere like A&M, they would have to take the exit exam,” McDonald said. “It makes sense that if the state is going to require something like this, they’re only going to do it at the institutions they own and pay for.”

Dr. Jon Engelhardt, Baylor School of Education dean, said he believes this bill will not adequately measure what students learn during their years at their university.

“There are no standardized tests that give an indication of learning,” Engelhardt said. “They measure things we just know. It assumes that what is measured on the test aligns with learning outcomes of the university. Universities are different in their programs and what they’re trying to accomplish. They aren’t just about English and math and critical thinking.”

Engelhardt said he believes that various kinds of tests would be necessary to show learning since there are different levels of understanding.

“The only way to get a handle on learning is through multiple tests and different kinds of tests to see if you get the same answer,” Engelhardt said. “If you want to know if a child understands, you look at different kinds of understanding.”

Rising band Air Review finds its musical niche

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Dallas-based band Air Review will perform at Common Grounds on March 2. Their current album “Low Wishes” is about growing up. Their single “America’s Son” has been gaining popularity on KXT, a Dallas radio station. (Courtesy Art)
Dallas-based band Air Review will perform at Common Grounds on March 2. Their current album “Low Wishes” is about growing up. Their single “America’s Son” has been gaining popularity on KXT, a Dallas radio station. (Courtesy Art)
Dallas-based band Air Review will perform at Common Grounds on March 2. Their current album “Low Wishes” is about growing up. Their single “America’s Son” has been gaining popularity on KXT, a Dallas radio station. (Courtesy Art)

By Ashley Davis
Copy Editor

The Dallas-based up-and-coming band Air Review is coming to Common Grounds on March 2 to play some songs from its new album “Low Wishes.”

The band currently has a single, “America’s Son,” playing on KXT, a Dallas radio station, and has been getting lots of media attention from organizations such as The Dallas Morning News, and the Denton-Record Chronicle.

The Baylor Lariat talked to Doug Hale, lead singer and frontman for the band, for a closer look at how this band has carved a niche for itself and where it wants to go from here.

Q: How does it feel to see your hard work as a band paid off?

A: It’s been very rewarding. We’re really excited to see that we put ourselves out there and people like what they’re hearing. There’s a lot we still have to say with our music, and our goal is to get as much exposure as we can.

Every band has its rough patches, but we’re very unified in our goals and we all want every show to be the best.

Q: What was inspiration behind this record?

A: There isn’t really any one specific idea for this album. Sonically, we have a lot going on. The music people hear may not be as complicated as other bands’ but we put a lot of energy into the music-making process. Some of the electronic sounds in this album are what we’ve been working on the most.

Q: What has been the hardest part about being a serious band in this area?

A: We started writing in 2008, and we were only looking to put out an EP. It was louder and had a more rock ‘n’ roll sound. We got some recognition for it, but we weren’t really happy with the overall sound of the record. I don’t know if our tastes changed or we all matured in the same way, but we got back together and made a totally different sound.

This album is a lot more laid back and kind of leans towards American folk/alternative music. And we like this one a lot more.

Q: Where do you want to go from here musically?

A: The last songs we wrote were “Animal” and “Rebel,” the first and last track on the album. I think some of the sounds and patterns you see in these songs are where we want to go in the future.

We’ve spent so much time focusing on this album that we haven’t thought a lot about the next one. We’re really more focused on hopefully doing some national tours. We’ve never been out of Texas and we have some dates coming up, but we’re looking forward to exposure on a national level.

Q: What kind of messages do you want to send with your songs?

A: The overarching theme of the album is about growing into adulthood. I guess one of the main ideas is that the faith and love and relationships in our lives are always changing. And as we get older we realize they are a lot more complex than we think. There are also memories from high school and adolescence, so it’s a bit nostalgic as well.

It takes people back to high school and those early relationships that shape our lives. I personally find that I know less and less about life, as I’m getting older.

Q: Can you describe your songwriting and compositional process in your rehearsals?

A: Every song is a little bit different. It usually starts on my laptop and I go to a quiet place to clear my head and think. I like to have it strong before I take it to the band, but as a whole it’s a collaborative effort.

No one person does all the work. For most of the songs we all contribute something that’s important to the final idea.

I’m actually a grump about songwriting. I don’t like this part of the process as much as some people. I love to have written something and have people like it, but the actual process just isn’t fun for me. My bandmates get on me and tease me about it, but it’s something I’ve always had a problem with. I get over it and eventually start to feel the music come more organically, but it’s a struggle at first.

Q: Do you have connections here in Waco that led you to Common Grounds?

No, this gig just came to us through our booking agent, but we are really excited to come to Waco. We’ve heard a lot of good things about the music scene here and we hope that people will like our show.

The band will play along with Caleb, Jillian Edwards Chapman and Lonely Hunter at 6:30 p.m. at Common Grounds, located at 1123 S. Eighth St.

Presale tickets are $7 and can be bought at the venue or online at caleb030213-eorg.eventbrite.com. Day-of-show tickets will be $10 at the door.

South Texas may get new med school

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Associated Press

AUSTIN — Texas lawmakers are moving forward with creating a new, unified campus for the University of Texas System in the Rio Grande valley.

Brownsville Rep. Rene Oliveira and other South Texas lawmakers laid out the legislation that would combine two campuses into a single university with a new medical school in South Texas.

The Board of Regents wants to merge Texas-Pan American in Edinburg and Texas-Brownsville and spend $100 million to accelerate plans for a medical school.

The Legislature has already set aside money for the project, but they still have not passed the laws to make it happen.

Oliveira said the new medical school would add hundreds of doctors to South Texas, where they are desperately needed. He said it would take up to two years to complete the merger.

NRA president weighs in on gun control at Q&A

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By Jim Morrison
Associated Press

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — National Rifle Association President David Keene said Wednesday he doesn’t expect a filibuster from gun rights supporters as the Senate prepares to vote on potential gun control issues.

Keene spoke at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum in a one-hour event moderated by CNN chief national correspondent John King, who asked him if the NRA would support efforts to filibuster and block the votes.

“The president wants votes on these issues. We want votes. There will be votes,” Keene said.

King also asked him if the NRA would punish members of Congress who support universal background checks on gun purchases, which he said recent polls show most Americans support, and which the NRA at one time supported but now opposes.
Keene responded: “The answer is yes.”

Keene has become a public voice for the gun rights group in national debates following the December mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. Twenty children and six educators were killed in the Dec. 14 shooting.

Asked why anyone should be able to own an assault weapon, Keene said that classification is subject to wide interpretation and noted that the AR-15 hunting rifle, for instance, is the most popular long arm rifle in the U.S.

“If it’s commonly owned and widely used for legal purposes, then it should be available to the public,” he said.

He also took questions from students at the sold-out event.

One asked which kinds of weapons Keene thought should be illegal. Keene answered “fully automatic weapons,” which are already illegal for private citizens.

Another student who hoped to be a schoolteacher in the fall asked about the NRA’s support of armed guards in schools and the negative impact it might have on learning.

“You can’t always screen people who are going to do something like this, so security makes sense,” Keene said.

University of Texas board of regents under fire

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By Jim Vertuno
and Michael Brick
Associated Press

AUSTIN — House and Senate leaders on Wednesday agreed to create a special committee to investigate the University of Texas System board of regents, as a key senator filed a bill seeking to limit the power of board members.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus agreed to form the joint panel following an emotional speech Dewhurst gave on the Senate floor Monday defending embattled University of Texas President Bill Powers.

Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, said he wants to investigate whether the regents are “micromanaging” their nine campuses.

The joint committee will have subpoena power. Seliger has said it will call for testimony from regents and will likely demand copies of anonymous letters attacking Powers and his wife that have circulated among the regents. The first meetings could come in the next few weeks.

Who authored the letters is unclear. But Dewhurst and Seliger said Powers’ marriage has now come under attack from some regents.

Powers met his wife while she was attending the university’s law school and he was a professor. They married after she graduated in 1981 and have three children.

In a statement, Straus said the committee “will work to ensure that Texas colleges and universities provide an outstanding education for their students, are accountable to taxpayers, and operate within a governing structure that allows them to thrive.”

The terms of three regents expire this month, but the members will serve until their replacements are chosen by Gov. Rick Perry, who has been pushing universities to lower costs for students and improve four-year graduation rates.

The Senate already has confirmation power over the appointments, but the Legislature only meets for 140 days every other year. Regents who are appointed in the interim are allowed to serve until they are confirmed by the Senate.

Also Wednesday, Seliger filed a bill that would prevent regents from voting on budget or personnel matters until they have been confirmed by the Senate.

Dewhurst said he had discussed the investigation over breakfast with Perry and Straus. He said the inquiry will focus on the behavior of two or three regents. Without naming them, he said the regents in question are not near the end of their terms.

Asked about the governor’s role in the controversy surrounding Powers, he said, “I believe Governor Perry’s heart is in the right place.”

Powers has been president of the 50,000-student flagship campus in Austin since 2006 and has been fighting off political criticism of his leadership for more than two years. He is believed to have a slim majority of support among the Perry-appointed regents.

Powers has clashed with some regents over tuition, the roles of research and teaching at universities, the productivity of professors and a foundation that supplements law school salaries.

The university also has recently been embroiled in a fight with former women’s track coach Bev Kearney, who resigned while in the process of being fired for having an inappropriate relationship with a student-athlete a decade ago. The university disclosed that a current assistant football coach was reprimanded but not fired in 2009 for inappropriate contact with a student trainer on a trip to a bowl game.

Kearney has questioned whether her firing was an act of discrimination because she is African-American and a lesbian and her attorney has threatened a lawsuit.

Baylor drops game to Cyclones

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MBB vs Iowa State in the Ferrell Center on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. Matt Hellman | Lariat Photo Editor
MBB vs Iowa State in the Ferrell Center on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. Matt Hellman | Lariat Photo Editor
MBB vs Iowa State in the Ferrell Center on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013.
Matt Hellman | Lariat Photo Editor

By Daniel Hill
Sports Writer

The Baylor Bears lost to the Iowa State Cyclones 87-82 Wednesday at the Ferrell Center on a night where the Cyclones made 11 three-pointers to sink the Bears. Jackson led the Bears in scoring with 30.

“This is a tough loss for us,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said. “Iowa State shot 54 percent from the field. That and our 55 percent from the free throw line was the difference in the game. 82 points is enough points to win, but the other team shoots 54 percent and scores 87. Defensively tonight, that was disappointing.”

The contest started out with senior point guard Pierre Jackson racking up 15 first-half points.

With both teams racing up and down the court, the pace was quick. The Bears struggled to find their man on defense, and the Cyclones made them pay with the barrage of 3-pointers.

Iowa State junior forward Melvin Ejim recorded a double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Cyclones to victory on Baylor’s home court.

Cyclone Senior guard Tyrus McGee played a valuable sixth-man role for Iowa State. McGee knocked down three-of-five 3-pointers and eight-of-11 field goals to lead the Cyclones in scoring with 22 points off the bench.

Things seemed to be going Baylor’s way when Pierre Jackson made an unexpected three pointer to give the Bears a 25-19 first half lead. Jackson was on a fast break and tossed the ball from just inside half court on an intended alley-oop slam dunk to junior power forward Cory Jefferson. The ball ended up going through the net for a 3-point shot.

The momentum changed when the Cyclones tied the game up at 25 with a 6-0 run. The game remained close as Iowa State and Baylor traded buckets to keep the game tied 31-31.

With a tie game, Iowa State then outscored Baylor 10-5 to take a 41-36 lead into half time.

Iowa State extended its lead, but Baylor rallied to go on a 7-0 run when junior forward Cory Jefferson slammed down a two-handed jam and made the free throw after he was fouled. Senior guard A.J. Walton hit a pair of free throws, and freshman center Isaiah Austin had a tip-in to pull the Bears within two points of the Cyclones, 43-45.

The Cyclones would not let Baylor claw all the way back. Clyburn hit two free throws to make it 47-43.

The game truly changed after Iowa State hit back-to-back three pointers from junior forward Melvin Ejim and Niang to take a commanding 58-50 lead.

The Bears got back within six points of Iowa State until the Cyclones all but ended the Bears’ chances by once again hitting consecutive shots from the arc to gain an 11 point advantage, 70-56, before ultimately winning 87-82.
Baylor kept fouling Iowa State near the end of the game with hopes of making a miraculous comeback.

“[Defense] starts with the guards,” Jackson said. “If we do a good job keeping them out of the paint then the other team can’t do a good job of getting to the boards. We’ve just got to do a better job getting offensive rebounds.”

Jefferson had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Aside from Jackson and Jefferson, no other Bear recorded double-digit points.

“It’s very tough,” Jefferson said. “This is a home loss and another loss on our record, but there’s nothing we can change about it anymore. The game is over. We just got to keep doing what we’ve been doing, going back to the gym and practicing on the things we’ve got to work on to prepare ourselves for the next game.”

Austin had a difficult time finding his rhythm in the game and had zero first-half points before scoring eight in the second half.

With the next two games on the road, 4 p.m. Saturday against Oklahoma and 7 p.m. Wednesday against West Virginia, the Bears are going to have to take care of business in enemy territory to shore up their resumé for the Big 12 Tournament and NCAA Tournament.

No. 25 Lady Bears to take on Texas State

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Baylor Softball competes in the Miken Classic against Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013. Baylor beat the Islanders 7-0 and claimed the Miken Classic Title with a 3-0 win over Pacific on Sunday. Travis Taylor | Lariat Photographer
Sophomore outfielder Kaitlyn Thumann slides safely into third base Saturday against Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Baylor won both games against the Islanders, 4-1 and 7-0. The No. 25 Lady Bears are 10-2 on the season. Travis Taylor | Lariat Photographer
Sophomore outfielder Kaitlyn Thumann slides safely into third base Saturday against Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Baylor won both games against the Islanders, 4-1 and 7-0. The No. 25 Lady Bears are 10-2 on the season.
Travis Taylor | Lariat Photographer

By Parmida Schahhosseini
Sports Writer

The No. 25 Baylor softball team will look to improve its record on its first road test against Texas State at 7 p.m. today in San Marcos for the Texas Shootout.

Baylor started the season slowly, despite winning the Getterman Classic on Feb. 10. Their offense couldn’t get going, which put more pressure on the defense and pitching, but Baylor responded the following weekend with offensive speed and power as they got more aggressive and began hitting balls. This contributed to their 5-0 sweep of the Miken Classic, putting them at 10-2 for the season.

“I definitely think we got better than last weekend,” freshman outfielder Linsey Hays said after winning the Miken Classic. “That’s what we’re trying to do, trying to get better every weekend, every game.”

“I think this team plays great on the road,” junior left-handed pitcher Whitney Canion said. “I’m ready for some team bonding, just team time on the road.”

Team time is what the Lady Bears need because they are a young team trying to figure out the right chemistry.

After early struggles, Baylor found its rhythm as it had solid games last Friday to Sunday.

After a rough career start for freshman right-handed pitcher Heather Stearns, the nerves left her and she won her next three starts. She also closed a game against Pacific on Sunday by not allowing any runs.

The freshmen contributed offensively, accounting for 21 of the 47 runs scored this season.

Baylor has been playing more aggressive as they are now ranked 12th in the nation in stolen bases per game. Senior centerfielder Kathy Shelton is 86-of-93 for her career and she plans on adding more as head coach Glenn Moore said his offense needs to play with added aggression.

Baylor’s transition to power offense will give the Texas State defense problems because of their inconsistent pitching. Of their five pitchers, only one has a winning record. While they have scored 35 runs in nine games, they have allowed 43. As a team, Texas State has an ERA of 4.86, while their opponents have an ERA of 2.52.

The Texas State offense has two players with five or more runs compared to four players for Baylor.

Baylor’s defense has been playing well, allowing a total of 15 runs in the 12 games they played this season. The 12 game homestand was beneficial for Baylor as they tried to figure out their identity.

“I believe we got better this weekend,” Moore said. “Our pitching continues to be phenomenal, our defense improved and the hitters delivered in the clutch.”

Baylor’s confidence is growing and it continues to show after big games.

Freshman third baseman Sarah Smith played well in her 11 starts with a batting average of .462. Overall, Baylor has a batting average of .299 while allowing its opponents hit just .137.

Texas State has a batting average of just .256.

Moore expects the same effort on the road that they gave at home.

“I am proud that we won our first two tournaments at home,” Moore said. “I am eager to see how we respond on the road over the next couple of weekends.”

Galeano gets it done on court, in classroom

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By Phillip Ericksen
Reporter

Sophomore Diego Galeano has played as many matches as anyone on the 20th-ranked Baylor men’s tennis team this season.

He readily accepted his role as a utility man, playing with different doubles partners and in various singles spots when head coach Matt Knoll calls his name.

“I play a lot of singles and doubles,” Galeano said. “Sometimes you’re not in the lineup, sometimes you are. I just focus on playing my game every time I can help the team. I should be there and be able to do it the best I can. I want to be one more option for the coaching staff.”

Originally from Asuncion, the capital city of Paraguay, he remembers his parents taking him to practice at nearby tennis courts.

He also played basketball and soccer as a child, but his passion for tennis quickly emerged.

This combination of talent and passion led to a college career at Baylor.

“I decided to play tennis at Baylor because I thought it was the best opportunity for me,” he said. “Not only in the athletic department but also academically.”

Galeano has made the most of his academic opportunity, making the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll last year as a business major.

Galeano shines in both the classroom and the on the tennis court.

He has won every singles match in dual match play this season with victories over Hawaii, SMU, Tulsa, Purdue, Texas-Pan American and UT Arlington.

In these matches, he has played in the bottom two singles spots of five and six.

However, these spots are oftentimes extremely important in determining if the team will take a win or give up a loss.

He attributes his success to constant inspiration from his family.

“My family is the best inspiration I have,” Galeano said. “Everything I do is what they teach me to do.”

When not playing tennis or studying, he enjoys the same activities most Baylor students do.

“I like to play basketball and hang out with my friends and have a good time with friends and family,” he said.

Though he is playing great tennis now, he aspires to even higher goals.

“My first goal is to win the second national championship for Baylor,” Galeano said. “And then I want to be All-American.”

The first championship came in 2004 under the direction of Knoll.

Along with other members of the team, Galeano plans to play professionally.

The big spotlight at Baylor should help him get established on a larger level.

This pressure  helped former Bears Denes Lukacs, Lars Poerschke, Benjamin Becker, Benedikt Dorsch and John Peers all ascend to the professional ranks.

“The reason I came to Baylor is because the tennis program is great, and I want to keep improving my tennis skills,” Galeano said. “I think when I came here I decided to play tennis professionally after college.”

As a team, the Bears are 5-1 on the season, including a perfect 4-0 home record. In its six matches, Baylor has only dropped six matches. The team will next take on North Florida at 2 p.m. today in Jacksonville, Fla. Two days later, the team will travel to Gainesville, Fla., to take on the Florida Gators.

The Bears are currently the 20th-ranked team in the country. The only other Big 12 schools ranked in the top 25 are No. 9 Oklahoma and No. 15 Texas.

Galeano and the Baylor Bears will take on the Sooners in Waco on April 12.

On April 17, the team will head down I-35 to Austin to take on the Longhorns.

Family connection pulls eBay VP for guest lecture

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ohn Pluhowski, vice president of eBay’s Corporate Communications, will speak on at 12:05 p.m. Friday in 254 Castellaw Communications Center. (Courtesy Art)
John Pluhowski, vice president of eBay’s Corporate Communications, will speak on at 12:05 p.m. Friday in 254 Castellaw Communications Center. (Courtesy Art)
John Pluhowski, vice president of eBay’s Corporate Communications, will speak on at 12:05 p.m. Friday in 254 Castellaw Communications Center. (Courtesy Art)

By Paula Ann Solis
Contributor

Baylor students will have the opportunity Friday to meet and speak with eBay’s vice president of corporate communications, John Pluhowski.

EBay advertises as the world’s largest online marketplace.

Pluhowski, who has been with eBay for three years, will speak at 12:05 p.m. in 254 Castellaw Communications Center.

The event will be a casual brown bag luncheon.

Dr. Marlene Neill, lecturer in the journalism, public relations and new media department, said Pluhowski’s background with eBay will prove useful for students from a broad array of majors, though marketing and public relations majors will find this lecture especially useful.

“He will cover what skills are required and how to distinguish yourself from competition, and he will also give information on changes in the industry and what business leaders expect from a PR strategist,” Neill said.

Neill also said Pluhowski will discuss successful communication campaigns he has used in the past at eBay.

Neill also mentioned an interesting fact about Pluhowski – he is a Baylor parent.

Kingwood sophomore Emily Pluhowski is a Baylor journalism student and the daughter of John Pluhowski.

Emily  acted as the ambassador between Pluhowski and the department to arrange for her father to speak at Baylor.

Journalism lecturer Kevin Tankersley wrote in an email to the Lariat that Emily Pluhowski took his class in a previous semester.

“Just through conversation, she told me about his job at eBay. Then I told her he had an open invitation to come anytime and speak, and it worked out that he could be here on Friday,” Tankersley said.

Tankersley said Pluhowski will take questions from the students and the luncheon is expected to last at least an hour.

Tankersley said this event is not solely for journalism and public relation majors.

“This is just a great opportunity for Baylor students to hear what it’s like out in the real world from someone who handles communications with eBay, a very, very large company that happens to run one of my very favorite websites,” Tankersley said.

Pluhowski, who is an alumnus of the University of Maryland and Ithaca College, planned to visit this month to see Emily perform in All-University Sing in Sing Alliance.

Pluhowski will be coming in from Silicon Valley, specifically San Jose, Calif., where eBay headquarters are.

Emily said her father is in charge of much of the hiring in his division and she often goes to him for advice on how to seem more appealing for the future job market.

Baylor students also will have that same opportunity at Friday’s luncheon.

Medical institutions hop on Twitter for exposure

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In this photo provioded by Womenís Memorial Hermann Hospital, a new father signals thumbs up after his wife delivered a baby boy Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013 in Houston, Texas. A routine cesarean section delivery at the Houston hospital went live with the surgery on Twitter on Wednesday, broadcasting snippets of information along with graphic pictures and video, part of a growing and ever more popular trend as hospitals and doctors hungry for clients use social media to promote their services. This photo was posted on its Twitter feed during the surgery. The patient and her family members were not identified in the Twitter feed. (AP Photo/Women's Memorial Hermann Hospital)
In this photo provioded by Womenís Memorial Hermann Hospital, a new father signals thumbs up after his wife delivered a baby boy Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013 in Houston, Texas. A routine cesarean section delivery at the Houston hospital went live with the surgery on Twitter on Wednesday, broadcasting snippets of information along with graphic pictures and video, part of a growing and ever more popular trend as hospitals and doctors hungry for clients use social media to promote their services. This photo was posted on its Twitter feed during the surgery. The patient and her family members were not identified in the Twitter feed. (AP Photo/Women's Memorial Hermann Hospital)
In this photo provioded by Womenís Memorial Hermann Hospital, a new father signals thumbs up after his wife delivered a baby boy Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013 in Houston, Texas. A routine cesarean section delivery at the Houston hospital went live with the surgery on Twitter on Wednesday, broadcasting snippets of information along with graphic pictures and video, part of a growing and ever more popular trend as hospitals and doctors hungry for clients use social media to promote their services. This photo was posted on its Twitter feed during the surgery. The patient and her family members were not identified in the Twitter feed. (AP Photo/Women’s Memorial Hermann Hospital)

By Ramit Plushnick-Masti
Associated Press

HOUSTON— Amy Shireman logged into Twitter early Wednesday to join thousands of people from 60 countries watch live something she had experienced but never seen: a baby boy delivered by cesarean section, in all its graphic imagery.

The live Twitter broadcast brought to viewers by Houston’s Memorial Hermann Health System was the medical institution’s latest foray into a growing trend to gain exposure by showing the world via social media routine procedures that happen daily in operating rooms.

While the Internet and social media have been a part of the medical industry for years, hospitals and doctors are now using it to gain leverage in a competitive market. And what better way to do that than provide people with an authentic online version of the kinds of surgeries they’ve been watching for years on fictional TV shows such as “Grey’s Anatomy,” ”House” and “ER?”

“It’s fascinating to pull back the curtain on the mystery of the OR,” said Natalie Camarata, the social media manager at Houston’s Memorial Hermann Hospital who helped broadcast Wednesday’s C-section as well as two other procedures, including a brain surgery done by Dr. Dong Kim, who gained notoriety when he treated former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords after she was shot in the head in 2011.

Through a variety of matrices that help track online activity, Camarata estimated that 72,000 watched the C-section live on Twitter, while an additional 11,000 viewed it in another format. The viewers were from 60 countries, she said, with the most international followers coming from Germany, Norway and Israel.

During the procedure, viewers tweeted questions, and doctors or staff responded. One viewer from Norway asked about the difference in how the umbilical cord is treated in a C-section. Several tweeted congratulations. In the two hours the hospital was live, it gained more than 600 followers, dozens of them in the first few minutes. Several noted the images were gory, joking they wouldn’t watch it over breakfast.

Shireman, a 35-year-old mother of two from Pittsburgh, was intrigued to see “what was happening beyond the curtain” after having two C-sections herself.

While she had hoped the hospital would focus more on the risks, she said she would watch it again, and would consider watching other surgeries.

“The pictures of watching that baby come out of the womb were just amazing” Shireman said. “I know it was delayed a bit … but it did have that live feel like you were right there in the OR.”

Previously, when Memorial Hermann live tweeted a brain surgery, more than 235,000 watched, more than 280,000 viewed photos and video and the hospital gained 7,000 new followers. With each event, the hospital finds more and different people participating, Camarata said.

“When hospitals did it several years back, the online audience wasn’t fully engaged,” she said. “Now people are living Twitter, living Facebook. It’s part of their everyday life.”

Tyler Haney, the vice president of digital marketing at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said his hospital system has not live tweeted a surgery but also has not ruled it out.

For now, it is focusing on innovative things at the center, like providing the online audience an opportunity to interact with a brain computer interface, which increased traffic from social media outlets by 120 percent.

This trend — which the medical industry latched on to later than others — will only grow, he said, quoting statistics that found 57 percent of people saying a social media connection would have a “strong impact” on their decision to seek treatment at a given hospital.

The Mayo Clinic has been a leader in the field, said Lee Aase, the clinic’s social media director but has opted not to do live events from the OR, feeling that it is voyeuristic and does not provide additional benefits.

The clinic has focused instead on question-and-answer sessions on specific topics.

“People are taking their social network connections with them wherever they go and we certainly are seeing building interest in this,” he said.

Dr. Anne Gonzalez, one of the surgeons who participated in the C-section and is affiliated with the system’s women’s hospital, said social media helps doctors navigate a competitive market.

“There’s a lot of challenges with trying to make patients understand what you think is best for them in a very non-paternalistic way, and I think Twitter helps with that,” she said.

Swedish Health Services, which has five hospitals and more than 100 clinics in the Seattle area, recently live tweeted an ear surgery, said Dana Lewis, manager of digital marketing and internal communications, using only words and photos to reach a hearing-impaired audience.

The hospital also live tweeted a patient going through a sleep clinic and had some 10,000 people follow it in the middle of the night, she said.

“It’s about reaching people where they are, so it doesn’t make sense to have a seminar in the afternoon about not being able to sleep. Why not do it in the middle of the night … when they can’t sleep and they want to find out more about how they can get help?” Lewis said. “That’s the beauty of social media.”

Calif. DMV identifies victims of Tuesday shooting spree

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By Gillian Flaccus
Associated Press

TUSTIN, Calif.  — The first of three people killed in a gunman’s rampage was identified Wednesday as a 20-year-old woman.

Police did not know why she was in the home of the shooter, who lived with his parents and was described by authorities as a video game-playing loner.

Courtney Aoki, 20, of Buena Park was shot multiple times early Tuesday in the home where gunman Ali Syed, 20, lived, said Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino.

Authorities don’t know her occupation, how she might have known Syed, how she got in the house — or what drove Syed to kill her with a shotgun and then leave a trail of dead and wounded as he stole a series of cars and eventually committed suicide at an intersection.

“There is no evidence, no notes that would explain his very bizarre and violent behavior,” Amormino said, adding there was no evidence of a sexual assault and the woman was found fully clothed.

The shootings and carjackings lasted about an hour and created chaos and terror for early morning commuters who were shot at, had their car stolen or saw someone get shot.

In one 911 call, a panicked construction worker reported that the foreman at his business had been shot and one of the company’s trucks stolen.

The man then followed Syed in another truck as he fled on the freeway, telling a dispatcher his location.

“The guy has a shotgun and I need an ambulance too,” the caller said. “There is someone who has been shot. Hurry up! I need an ambulance. Right away. Fast. There’s someone with a shotgun. There’s someone down! There’s someone down!”

Syed was a loner and a “gamer” who spent hours holed up in his room, authorities said.

“He took one class at college and he did not work, so that gives him most of the day and evening and most of the time in his free time he was playing video games,” Amormino said.

A 12-gauge shotgun used in the killings belonged to Syed and was purchased by his father about a year ago, he said.

The rampage began before dawn Tuesday at the home in Ladera Ranch, a wealthy Orange County suburb about 50 miles south of Los Angeles, and ended 25 miles to the north during the early morning rush hour.

Syed killed two more people during carjackings, injured at least three more, and shot up cars zooming down a busy freeway interchange before he ended it by putting the shotgun to his own head as police closed in.

The other two victims were identified as driver Melvin Lee Edwards, 69, of Laguna Hills and construction worker Jeremy Lewis, 26, of Fullerton.

Syed had no criminal history and no history of mental illness or mental disability, said Lt. Paul Garaven, a Tustin police spokesman.

Editorial: Suing for grades could set dangerous precedent

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SueingForGradesComicMost people don’t mean it when they say, “You don’t like it? So sue me.” But one graduate student who didn’t like her grade did just that.

A judge recently ruled against former graduate student Megan Thode, who was suing Lehigh University for $1.3 million in damages as well as to raise a C-plus grade she earned in a class that was mandatory to earn her master’s degree in counseling and human services. Thode claimed the professor of the fieldwork class discriminated against her because she agrees with same-sex marriage and the professor does not.

The judge decided Thode did not provide enough evidence to support her discrimination claim and said she saw no reason to believe Thode’s grade was given for anything other than Thode’s academic performance.

However, had the judge ruled in Thode’s favor, her C-plus grade would have increased and she would have received $1.3 million in damages, which is the amount Thode claimed she would have made in salary as a therapist if she’d been able to get her license in therapy. Thode graduated with her master’s degree in human development and has a job as a drug and alcohol counselor.

We believe the judge made the right decision in this case because a dangerous new precedent could have been made. By a ruling in Thode’s favor, it could cause our ability to sue and be sued to spiral out of control.
Thode is not the first student to attempt to increase her grade by way of a lawsuit, and she probably will not be the last.

In 2007, a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst sued after receiving a C and the case was dismissed. In 2013, two Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law students sued after receiving Ds. Each of these cases were dismissed.

If judges rule in the favor of the plaintiff in cases such as these, they could set a precedent for future cases. A new pattern could emerge of lawsuits brought against universities for subjective grades and the plaintiff wins.

It’s easy to make the case that some grades given in college or graduate school are subjective. Because grades measure activities like critical thinking or writing skills and are given by humans, that element of subjectiveness will always occur while professors are grading papers, tests or other work. It’s why only those who have studied extensively can become professors — they must have the knowledge themselves to grade the works of others effectively.
Discrimination, of course, is wrong. But subjectiveness? It happens.

If Thode were to win a lawsuit that would retroactively change a given grade, it seems almost any student could sue for better grades with the flimsiest claims of discrimination, undermining our entire system of learning. Furthermore, setting such a precedent might encourage professors who are afraid of giving bad grades for fear of a law suit to give good grades, even in cases where they aren’t deserved.

What, then, would be the point? College, unlike middle school soccer leagues, doesn’t offer participation trophies. The point is to prepare you for the workforce, where you must produce to your employer’s standard in order to hold a job. If everyone has a participation degree from college, how would employers know who to hire? A degree would come to mean nothing.

Does subjectiveness sometimes lead to negative consequences for students? Of course. But the alternative is worse: an everyone-gets-A’s world where going to college won’t mean anything because you don’t have to distinguish yourself while there.

Viewpoint: Killer’s last words leave more questions than answers

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Christopher Dorner.

How deeply you live in the Baylor Bubble determines whether or not you recognize this name, or feel anything associated with it.

For those who don’t know, the name belongs to a particularly troubled former Los Angeles Police Department officer. With a frightening arsenal of weapons and military experience, he recently pledged to wage a war on the officers of the LAPD, on-duty or off.

He lived as a fugitive for nearly a week.

Sought in connection with the deaths of four people, Dorner is now dead. His body was burned beyond recognition during his final stand against those he waged war against.

Two of the victims were engaged to each other, and the other two had wives and children. These were four real people, with real lives, whose violent deaths will impact their communities and families for years to come.

Unlike the plots of my favorite crime dramas, this case leaves me with far more questions than answers.

The biggest question in my mind is what do we do with the words he left behind?

“No more Virginia Tech, Columbine HS, Wisconsin temple, Aurora theatre, Portland malls, Tucson rally, Newtown Sandy Hook” and “America, you will realize today and tomorrow that this world is made up of all human beings who have the same general needs and wants in life for themselves, their kin, community and state. That is the freedom to LIVE and LOVE. They may eat different foods, enjoy different music, have different dialects or speak a second language, but in essence are no different from you and I.”

These are the quotes taken directly from the long Facebook post referred to as Dorner’s “manifesto.”

They aren’t exactly the words that I imagined when I heard the phrase “cop-killer at large.”

The majority of news reports describe Dorner’s manifesto as “rambling,” but it seems to me that the messages that he was trying to get across are clear, even remarkably so.

In the manifesto, Dorner names specific instances of corruption from the officers of the LAPD and the specific circumstances surrounding his — in his mind, wrongful — termination from the LAPD.

He lists the names of people whom he felt mistreated him and thanks those who showed him kindness.

In one part of his manifesto, he said, “I am an American by choice, I am a son, I am a brother, I am a military service member, I am a man who has lost complete faith in the system, when the system betrayed, slandered and libeled me.”

In his manifesto, Dorner goes into details about a culture of violence, racism and corruption within the LAPD. He wrote that the drastic measures he would take would be the only way to bring the issues to the forefront.

Sadly, he believed that violence would be the only way to draw adequate national attention to those issues.

“I am here to change and make policy,” his writings said. “The culture of LAPD versus the community and honest/good officers needs to and will change.”

Let’s be realistic for a second.

I’m a student journalist writing for a student newspaper. This is not my big scoop and the Lariat is not sending me to Los Angeles to ask hard-hitting questions or blow the supposed corruption in the LAPD wide open.

I haven’t been to Los Angeles.

I don’t know Dorner, any LAPD officers or the families of Dorner’s victims.

I only have a few questions that I put forward to you, the readers.

Was Dorner right that Americans only move to enact social change in response to violence?

What do we conclude when the words of a man calling for better gun control are supported by his use of gun violence and the ease of which he accumulated his automatic firearms and silencers?

Why is the LAPD only re-opening the case surrounding his dismissal after his death?

How do we treat the words of a violent killer who is asking for a better world?

Josh Day is a sophomore journalism major from Melissa. He is a reporter of the Lariat.

Viewpoint: Pigskin should not be sole point of Sing, or of college

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The prospect of going to Pigskin Revue is not the be-all and end-all.

Sororities, fraternities and organizations across campus have worked tirelessly since the start of the semester to put together their perfect Sing acts, complete with sharp jazz hands and spot-on group vocals.

With judging quickly approaching, performing groups across campus are still working until late hours of the night in full stage-makeup regalia, often times shirking their primary responsibilities as students.

Professors have come to expect that students will be absent—mentally, physically or both—during the days and weeks leading up to Sing. Grades and attendance fall as Sing participants try to catch up on sleep before the next midnight rehearsal.

The All-University Sing tradition, which has been a part of Baylor since 1953, has grown larger and grander with every passing year. With this long-standing tradition comes to pressure to uphold high standards set by performers from years past.

Though it’s admirable to take pride in Baylor’s tradition and student organizations, it’s times like now, with tensions high in performances, that I remember that it’s just Sing. And it’s as simple as that.

The summer before I came to Baylor, I was a traveling colorguard performer. I rode by bus across the country—from Denver to Houston, Atlanta to Indianapolis—performing under stadium lights for thousands of people and competing against other teams from major cities across America.

After each show, I would sleep on the charter bus with my teammates while we drove overnight to the next city. We had a couple hours at our destination to sleep on air mattresses or sleeping bags in gymnasiums, but then it was back to rehearsing from sunrise until it was time to get ready for the next show.

We rehearsed in the heat of summer all day every day from May until August. I put myself through a never-ending cycle of mental and physical pain to keep up with the veteran performers when I should have been enjoying the experience for its own sake.

One of the most important lessons I learned that summer was to step back and prioritize. I wish I had known that every time I messed up, it was just another show and life would go on. It was as simple as that.

I don’t mean to offer my story to downplay the importance of performing arts. I think performing is a wonderful way to build confidence, and performers gain an attention to detail that is unrivaled. But there are more important things to worry about than musical productions like Sing, where the vast majority of student performers are not theater, dance or music majors.

The outcome of this competition will not determine the success of each performer or even the greatness of each organization.

I encourage anyone participating in Sing to step back and gain perspective on his or her priorities this next week. I hope everyone sees the fun camaraderie of Sing and I hope that performers avoid putting all of their time and energy into one fleeting moment of glory when coming to Baylor means that we will have a college degree and a future career.

If doing well in Sing is your be-all, end-all, then we as Baylor Nation might have bigger problems than we realized.

Taylor Rexrode is a junior journalism major from Forney. She is a staff writer for the Lariat.

Crossword Solutions: 02/21/13

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Thursday22113

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