Alumna Releases Second Album (March 2012)

Photo Courtesy of Allison Cornell

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Alumna Allison Cornell released her second Christian album Feb. 28 on iTunes. The five track extended play album, “Backwards Now — EP,” includes two songs written during her time at Ouachita.

“[The song] ‘Family’ was birthed out of my experience of community at Ouachita,” she said. “‘Our Blessed Hope’ is based on Titus 2-3. …I wrote it after leaving my Women in Ministry class where we had meditated on that passage together. So much of my music is tied to my Ouachita experience, so I was definitely a little homesick the week the EP released.”

Cornell said the theme that runs deepest on the album is that of hope, especially for those in difficult and trying circumstances and that there is an assured and “blessed” hope that all of us can wait for: Christ’s return.

“I want my music to be a vessel for truth,” she said. “All of my songs — the good, bad and the ugly — come from my personal experience of walking with God. My heart’s desire is that people would find comfort as they listen, that they would be reminded that they aren’t alone and, most importantly, that it would draw them closer to God’s heart.”

When Cornell spoke of the role writing has for her, she described how her songs evolve from ideas into music. She said they start out as “really sloppy journal entries.”

She said her time spent in Nashville working on the album gave her an extended opportunity to write and work through her thoughts and ideas.

“Writing is a way for me to process what the Lord is doing in me or saying to me,” she said. “I love the actual [writing] process and putting the song together, but a majority of the process for me is internal. My favorite part of the process is starting off with a really sloppy set of ideas and then watching all those little pieces come together to make a song.”

Cornell said the Ouachita community gave her “a chance to cultivate her gifts in a safe and encouraging environment.” She said she is grateful for the opportunities she had to play music here and has fond memories of performing on campus.

“One of my favorite memories was playing a show with Don Schaffer of Waterdeep in the Tiger Den,” she said. “There were less than 15 people there so we unplugged from the sound system, pulled a bunch of chairs into a circle on the floor and just shared a time of music and worship together. It was my last chance to play at Ouachita as a student, and it’s a cherished memory.”

Cornell said the house show environment is her favorite to perform at because it is more communal. She said it is a shared experience where people leave feeling like equals.

“What makes music so rewarding for me is to see the comfort it brings to other people,” she said. “I love music, but I really just love people and sharing the experience of music with them.”

In addition to Cornell’s time spent at Ouachita, she draws support from her producer, Ginger Ludlow, with whom she worked with heavily in completing the album. Cornell said Ludlow helped her work through a lot of the ideas she had and bring them to completion for the album.

“I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to work with someone else musically and put our two brains together,” Cornell said. “Ginger is really creative and talented. She took the EP to a place that I could have never taken it on my own. I’m really grateful God allowed me to work with her.”

“Backwards Now- EP” has been met with large success on iTunes. Receiving reviews such as “a great album of Christ-centered worship” and “a beautiful work of art,” the album made it to the front of the iTunes Christian and Gospel page in the “Albums Under $8” section.

“So in love with this,” said Bianca Pastrana, a friend of Cornell’s in an iTunes review. “Allison has such a beautiful voice, and her songs are filled with so much truth and wisdom. I am so proud to know her and call her a friend. She has blessed my life not just with her music, but with the heart behind everything she does. The Lord is using her to bless the lives of everyone around her.”

Out of all of the customer ratings for Cornell’s album, “Backwards Now” has received five out of five stars.

Cornell is currently living near Dallas. She leads worship for a monthly women’s Bible study in Denton, Texas, called “The Flock” and also at women’s events for her church, Cross Timbers Community Church in Keller, Texas. She also leads worship at different girls’ retreats about once a month.

“I’m always trying to write and write and write and write,” she said. “I am leading worship here in Dallas and plan on continuing to play shows in the Dallas area whenever I can, but for right now I want to invest time in writing songs and cultivating that skill. Eventually I’d like to record again, but right now I’m just really excited that this EP is out and that the people I love get to enjoy it.”

“Backwards Now – EP” is available in the iTunes Store for $4.95. For more information about her music, visit Cornell’s Facebook page.

Biology research may help prevent tuberculosis, leprosy (March 2012)

 

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A group of Ouachita freshmen biology students are participating in a lab isolating and characterizing bacteriophages. The lab and class is part of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Science Education Alliance grant, a program designed to enhance the undergraduate biology experience of students by providing them with an authentic research experience. The freshmen enrolled in this program captured these phages from samples they took from soil and by isolating and characterizing their DNA, they are able to analyze it to find its genes.

“At the beginning of last semester, we went out and collected a soil sample,” said Dustin Walter, a freshman biology major. “We were looking for a phage that infects a certain type of bacteria called microbacteria. And what we were doing throughout last semester was trying to isolate the phage from the soil and purify it until we had just one type of phage that reproduced really well.”

The research done in this lab will be used to help combat diseases that are growing increasingly resistant to antibiotic treatment.

“This is the little cousin to the bacteria to that causes leprosy and tuberculosis,” said Dr. Nathan Reyna, assistant professor of biology. “The idea behind it is that these phages are killing this organism. If you can understand how viruses kill this particular bacteria, you can use it as a treatment for tuberculosis and leprosy.”

This program requires students to be actively engaged, though they are mostly responsible for their own work.

“Howard Hughes [designed] this lab to have a lot of self involvement” Walter said. “You have to be in charge of what you do. [Dr. Reyna and Dr. Plymale] are there to oversee the lab, and if you have any questions you can ask them and they can point you in the right direction, but ultimately, you’re the one who chooses what you have to do each day and how much you have to work and what you have to do to meet your deadline.”

According to Reyna, the process is an “active inquiry based lab.”

“The students are actually doing their own thing with one goal in mind,” he said. “That is to identify a new bacteria phage. [These phages] live in the soil, and there are literally billions of them that haven’t been discovered. So there’s a good chance that a student can go out and get a piece of soil, isolate it, go through the processes to characterize and learn what’s there and it’ll be a phage that no one has discovered before.”

Last year, Reyna — along with Dr. Ruth Plymale, assistant professor of biology — went to a Howard Hughes Medical Institute facility to receive training for this lab. They learned the necessary procedures to conduct the lab and teach the freshmen.

To recruit freshmen for the lab, the department sent out letters and flyers to the incoming biology majors.

“We told them about the program and composed a letter and an FAQ page and invited them to apply,” Plymale said. “The application process wasn’t used to rule out people, we had them apply because we wanted to know whether they had enough initiative to [do so].”

The application process also involved the freshmen writing an essay.

“Howard Hughes’ saying is that we need to start working with these kids as soon as possible,” Reyna said. “They recommended that we choose freshmen. That way you can build on that and do even more with them when they’re seniors. We didn’t have any GPA requirements or anything because we feel like this method will help anybody learn. And all we really wanted were biology majors and [people] that [were] inquisitive in nature. It’s amazing how much they’ve already learned. We had two students present research at the state capitol, and there were faculty from other universities talking to [them]. They were amazed at the level of understanding they have of science and genetics.”

The Howard Hughes grant allows Ouachita to receive supplies necessary to conduct the research for the lab.

“We do not get money directly,” Reyna said. “What we get is all the supplies we need to carry out this lab. And that’s quite a bit; we’ve probably blown through about $8,000 this year. They paid for all the training we received. They flew Dr. Plymale, myself and a teaching assistant out to their facility three times last year. And they’re paying for us to go back this June with a student to make a presentation to a group of these people.”

Over the winter break, a phage discovered by freshman biology major Sara Carr was sent to the Howard Hughes facility. Under the name OBUPride, it had its DNA genome sequenced, a process that would have cost Ouachita about $3,000 were it not for the grant.

In being selected for the Howard Hughes grant, Ouachita was chosen to participate in this program along with 14 other schools. Howard Hughes accepts seven large schools and seven smaller schools. Some of these larger institutions were Ohio State University, Florida University, Washington State and Brown University. Ouachita is the first school out of Arkansas to be chosen. The entire biology department had a role in writing the grant, with Dr. Tim Knight, professor of biology, acting as the “editor-in-chief,” according to Reyna.

“Even though we’re the one’s physically in the lab with the students, it has really been an effort of the whole department and the whole School of Natural Sciences,” Plymale said. “There has been a lot of support across campus. Even over in Cone Bottoms — President Horne, Dr. Poole, Brett Powell — they’ve all been incredibly supportive even though this is a bit different than the traditional way of doing classes. I cannot even imagine trying to do it if the rest of our department and school were not supportive of what we’re doing.”

Baptist Missionary Banquet marks 40th year (March 2012)

 

 

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Ouachita held the 40th Annual Arkansas Baptist Associational Missionaries Banquet in Walker Conference Center on Feb. 22, hosted by President Dr. Rex Horne and his wife Becky.Established in 1972 by then-President Dr. Daniel R. Grant and then-Vice President for Development Dr. Ben Elrod, Ouachita holds the banquet to show appreciation for the work of associational missionaries who serve in the 42 regional associations of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.

“The first banquet was begun when the forerunner of the Pruett School, the department of religion, had a meeting where the associational missionaries were invited to come, and they were promoting the beginning of a pastor’s conference,” said Phil Hardin, assistant to the president for administration. “The Pruett School puts on a pastors conference every September. And when that was being initiated and the associational missionaries were being told about it, they were invited to campus to learn about it. In combination with that meeting, Dr Grant and Dr. Elrod sponsored the dinner at which time they made this first award and began the program in 1972.”

There are 42 of these associations in the state of Arkansas, and an association missionary is hired to help guide and lead their efforts. They are regional groupings of churches who cooperate together to do local missions in their area and are affiliated with the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. They will often sponsor ministries in their area for the local churches to be involved in collaborative efforts to host backyard bible clubs, vacation bible schools, disaster relief programs, area wide revivals and training for people in those churches.

“The purpose of having the banquet is for Ouachita to tell these people that we appreciate what they’re doing,” Hardin said “Their work with the associations, and by extension all the churches of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, strengthens their work and their ministries. One feature of the banquet is to present an award to one of the associational missionaries who has been identified as doing outstanding and exemplary work in recent years. This is our way of saying thank you.”

At the banquet, Horne spoke to the group of associational missionaries and commended them for their efforts for the state of Arkansas.

“This is such an important time to be serving the Lord in the way that he calls us and directs us,” he said. “And he has called all of you [associational missionaries] to have a particular ministry and a close relationship with the local church. There is no organization in God’s Kingdom more important than the local church, and you’ve had the opportunity to deal with a number of [them]. So, the responsibility that you bear is a burden that you share that not many people can understand, so we thank you for the work that you do, and we commend you for continued service in God’s kingdom.”

This year’s Associational Missionary Award went to Gary Glasgow, the associational missionary at the Liberty Baptist Association. Glasgow has served as associate pastor for Immanuel Baptist Church in El Dorado. He has served as minister of education and outreach for the Central Baptist Church in Magnolia, Ark., as well as the administrative associate pastor and minister of education at First Baptist Church in Collierville, Tenn. In 2000, the Liberty Baptist Association called him to serve as associational missionary. Glasgow’s work for the Liberty Baptist Association includes having developed a strategic planning process that led to the strengthening of existing ministries in addition to new ones. He served as a key contact with Project South and a joint venture with Arkansas Veterans Affairs to help reach out to veterans. The Liberty Ministry Center has also expanded his work in providing clothing, food and financial assistance for low-income families.

“It is an honor for me on behalf of all the associational missionaries in Arkansas to receive this reward,” he said. “I think I can speak for all of us in saying that we are so thankful to have a school like Ouachita Baptist University. It’s a privilege that we have this relationship and partnership with such a fine Christian institution, and what a blessing it is to serve in this state as associational missionaries.”

The banquet also featured musical performances by freshman musical theater major Todd McNeel, senior vocal performance major John Tneoh, sophomore vocal performance major Victoria Mantooth and junior music major Alyssa Reynolds. Dr. Danny Hays, dean of the Pruett School of Christian Studies, spoke about Ouachita’s efforts to empower students who will go on to be future church leaders and ministers. A number of seniors from the Pruett School were also present. Grant, who served as president of Ouachita from 1970 to 1988 and co-founded of the Arkansas Baptist Associational Missionaries Banquet, also spoke at the event.

 

Photo by Heather Ellis.
Caption: Dr. Daniel Grant, president of Ouachita from 1970 to 1988, speaks at the Arkansas Baptist Associational Missionaries Banquet.

Arts Center features local Black History Month Exhibit (Feb. 2012)

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Throughout the month of February the Arkadelphia Arts Center is hosting an exhibit on Black History Month featuring local black artists, celebrities and authors.

According to its brochure, the exhibit features “musicians through the ages,” antique items used throughout the last century, photographs, books and posters of early Arkadelphia, an Underground Railroad quilt pattern exhibit, a DVD presentation of sorghum making and a taste sampling of the sorghum. There are also books and book signings of local authors and art by local artists. A few professional collections will be on display, one of which features memorabilia of former Los Angeles Rams tight end, Terry Nelson.

“What we wanted to do is to promote Black History Month by bringing actual history into the Arts Center — histories about the people who lived here and helped build Arkadelphia,” said Farrell Ford, the vice president of the Clark County Arts and Humanities Council. “This is all being done for our community.”

Ford was heavily involved in bringing this exhibit together. She applied to the Ross Foundation to receive a grant so the Arts Center might be able to conduct the events throughout the month.

“You can write a grant for whatever you might need as long as it falls within the criteria, and there is a significant emphasis on education,” she said “So this is an educational event and is a huge teaching-learning process. It also aids the diversity of the community.”

Because of Ford’s efforts, the Ross Foundation funded $4,000 to the Arts Center to pay for this month’s events. Ford has been an artist all her life, she paints with acrylics, watercolors and oils. She has also done fiber art and was formerly a potter.

“There is a spirit of art in everyone,” she said. “And art has been alive since the first cave man took a rock and scratched it on a wall. That spirit permeates everybody. They may just be someone who wants to look at [art] or someone who wants to be an artist, but [it] moves people. Whenever people see art, an emotion is evoked within them. It may be good or bad or something else but it will always evoke an emotional response.”

In working with the Clark County Arts and Humanities Council, Ford helps to promote local arts and humanities organizations, including the Arkadelphia Poets and Writers Guild, the Caddo River Art Guild, the Clark County Historical Association, Clark County Public Schools and both the Ouachita Baptist and Henderson State Universities art departments.

“We serve as an umbrella for all the art schools and organizations in the county,” she said “We first brought these organizations together because they wanted to have a part with what we do. What we do is promote these organizations. This specific exhibit is a historical one, so we cooperated with the Historical Association. And of course, anytime we have fine art, we have the Caddo River Art Guild that helps with us. So whatever we have in here, it’s in relation to these art societies. We’ll have meetings, workshops, sanctions and exhibits in here in cooperation with them.”

Other activities and events during the month of February that are open to the community include an “Authentic Soul Food Supper” on Saturday, Feb. 18, from 5-8 p.m. at the Arkadelphia Senior Adult Center CADC at 1311 N. 10th St. Prices for the meal are $12.50 for adults and $9 for children. There will also be an “Evening of Negro Spirituals” on Sunday, Feb. 26, at 5:30 p.m. at Greater Pleasant Hills Baptist Church at 1600 Caddo St.

For more detailed descriptions, visit http://www.arkadelphiaalliance.com.

Photo by Nicole McPhate.

Seven students selected for Sigma Tau Delta conference (Feb. 2012)

 

 

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Seven Ouachita students will be going to New Orleans on March 4 for the annual Sigma Tau Delta Convention. Sigma Tau Delta is the International English Honor Society, and its central purpose is to confer distinction upon students of the English language and literature in undergraduate, graduate and professional studies.

“Seventeen people in Arkansas got accepted to go to the conference and seven of them are from OBU,” said Jason Curlin, a junior English major and member of Sigma Tau Delta. “This is a conference where about a thousand people will be present.”

To have been accepted to go to the convention, Curlin and the others sent up to two submissions, one fiction and one non-fiction. If at least one of their submissions was chosen, they were invited to attend.

At the convention, the students will read their writing submission in front of a group of other Sigma Tau Delta members, answer questions and talk with the group about their work.

“It’s helpful to listen to the forthcoming English majors of America,” Curlin said. “These guys are the ones who will be writing books and the newest literary criticisms. It’s good just to hear what’s out there.”

The students also have the opportunity to hear from at least six different published authors, attend workshop sessions and also experience New Orleans.

“An English major going to the Sigma Tau Delta convention parallels a Trekkie going to a Star Trek convention,” said Dr. Amy Sonheim professor of English. “You’re with people who love what you love. Everybody wants to talk about poetry and authors.”

Sonheim is also the Sigma Tau Delta sponsor. In her duties as the sponsor she “gathers, encourages, promotes and applauds,” she said.

“Our English majors are brilliant,” she said. “So every year we have English majors who I gather together and I say, ‘Don’t forget to submit an essay or poem or short story you’ve written to the national convention.’ Then I promote it and they fine tune what they’ve done, and then I end up applauding [them].”

Dr. Sonheim said she is very impressed with the writing English majors and members of Sigma Tau Delta produce.

“We just have really great responses from our students,” she said. “Two years ago, a Ouachita student won the best paper award for the whole convention.”

In addition to Curlin, the students attending the convention are Dielle Short, Emily Davis, Ellen Eubanks, Bethany Kohl, Jody Persson and Marrissa Thornberry. Of these students, only one has been before.

“Last year we went to Pittsburgh, and we all went to each other’s sessions and heard each other read,” said Short, a senior English major and student president of Ouachita’s Sigma Tau Delta chapter. “You had the option to go to any session, but we wanted to go to each other’s. Then we explored Pittsburgh.”

Short was accepted to go to the convention because of her critical response essay submission.

Short’s duties as president primarily focus on organizing and calling the meetings. The other officers are vice-president Kelli Wilson, secretary Bethany Kohl and historian Jody Persson. Emily Davis and Andrew Sweatman serve as editors of “Scope,” Ouachita’s literary journal.

On the Sigma Tau Delta website, one member wrote this about her experience at the convention, “I could not have anticipated the culminating effect of being in one stimulating discussion after another.”

Short spoke similarly of her own experience in Pennsylvania last year.

“The experience of going, in and of itself, was just awesome,” she said. “You make closer connections with people you don’t necessarily hang out with. Last year we didn’t have the Sonheims with us; it was just five girls going off to Pittsburgh alone. I had all sorts of classes with them, but I hadn’t spent much time with them outside of class. We bonded and made some good connections. We had a lot of great talks. I found out a lot about myself in the three days I was there.”

 

Photo courtesy of Daniel Schwen.

 

One Acts showcases student directed plays (Dec. 2011)

 

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The One Acts Play Festival is an annual production put on by the Ouachita Theatre Arts Department that features student-directed short plays. On December 8 and 9 at 7:30 p.m. in Verser Theatre, the six seniors who are directing the plays will see a semester’s worth of hard work come to fruition as their one act plays are performed.

“It’s in some ways our capstone course,” said Dr. Daniel Inouye, assistant professor for theatre arts and the play directing instructor. “All the other classes they’ve taken kind of lead up to what they do in this class.”

In his experience with teaching the play directing to the students, Inouye tries to impart how to approach a show as a director, how to develop a concept for the show and to take that concept and make it work within an actual production for audience members.

“It is very much a sort of hands-on class,” he said. “So a lot of it is just giving [the students] the opportunity to experience what it’s like to be a director – to take something from its inception all the way through to the actual performance. Some people don’t realize the extent of the amount of work that’s put into a production. There are usually [several months] of research and analysis before you actually start putting the show on its feet, so to speak.”

When the students do the analyses for their selected shows, they take a checklist with them as they look for certain elements in each of the units of their play.

“Play analysis takes [a long time] to get done because you literally go in line by line and analyze each individual aspect of the play,” said Jacob Watson, senior musical theatre major. “Once you’re through with that, you do tons of research on the style of the play. And then we do a style analysis and proposal where we tell the class that this is the style we’ll be performing in.”

Watson will be directing the play known as “Waiting” by Ethan Coen. He described it as a dark comedy mixture of absurdism, realism and existentialism.

After the student directors finish the analysis of their acts, they put a lot of time and effort into the casting. Since the One Acts Play Festival features six different productions, casting the roles was different than what is seen in a normal setting. During auditions, the directors had their individual rooms and the actors came into the room of the play they wanted to be a part of and conducted their audition.

“We had some 80-100 people audition for each of us,” said Moriah Patterson, senior musical theatre and theatre education major. “In my show, I only have four parts, and most of the other shows have very small casts as well. So it was a very difficult process, and seeing all these talented peers of ours made it that much more difficult as we had to narrow it down and decide on who’s perfect for each role.”

Patterson is directing is a comedic piece called “Wanda’s Visit,” written by Christopher Durang.

As the directors began to formulate who they wanted to have cast in their play, they ran into some conflict as some students auditioned for more than one performance.

“I had 82 people audition for me,” said Kathryn Kellogg, senior musical theatre and mass communications major. “And of course all the other directors have about the same number of people auditioning for them as well. So the crazy part is that you’re sitting there with the other five directors and there’s this black board and you put up your first ideal cast list. And as the others do the same, you start to see all the names that you have on your cast list appear on the others’ cast lists.”

Naturally, the directors cannot share actors for each of their plays. So what they would do in some cases was to barter and trade certain actors for the roles the directors wanted them to be cast as. In all cases, one change in their cast would mean a dynamic change for the entire scheme of their performance.

“I’ve loved working with the cast,” Watson said. “I have picked them for very specific reasons, and they have done nothing but prove over and over that they are the right cast for [the play]. But something you never want to do as a director, and especially as someone coming from the acting side of it, is you don’t want to step on what the actors are doing. It’s always tough to find the line between giving them direction and just telling them what you want them to do.”

As well as focusing on individual actors, the student directors must also be mindful of how the play performs as a whole.

“I feel like we had a really great rehearsal the other night,” Patterson said. “We had kind of gotten in a slop of how we were [performing] it – we were playing it just for jokes. Everything was funny, but not as funny as it could be. And so we had a rehearsal the other night where we played the show very seriously. And we thought it was going to be absolutely ridiculous, but it turned out to be this wonderful dramatic play, so now we have to go back and find that medium [between the two].”

Outside of guiding their actors in their performance rehearsals, the directors are also in charge of scheduling practice times, designing their sets and costumes and figuring the lighting and sound effects.

“We’re all so incredibly busy,” Kellogg said “I’ve really enjoyed directing and getting to work and making it all come together as my own vision as well as staying true to the original playwright.”

Kellogg is directing a play called “Unprogrammed,” written by Carol Mack. She is also directing the spring play “Eurydice,” written by Sarah Ruhl.

“It’s been so challenging trying to have everything come together and working around everyone’s schedule,” she said. “Opera was [two weeks ago], and I had two people involved with that. Then [we had] Thanksgiving so we couldn’t rehearse. And we’re all involved with Festival of Christmas, so it’s a lot of rushing to get things done. But then there are those moments when everyone is able to be involved and everyone’s onstage doing whatever it is that they’re doing and you’re able to guide them and create something. That’s the best part.”

 

Photo by Sarah Sparks.

Then & Now: Campus Dining (Dec. 2011)

 

 

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It was not until 2001 that Ouachita saw the opening of the Commons, Chick-fil-A and Starbucks. Given the history of Ouachita and how long the college has been around, these places are still pretty new, especially for many faculty and staff members.

“We had a cafeteria — that’s all there was,” said Dr. Joe Jeffers, dean of the Patterson School of Natural Sciences. “We didn’t have a Chick-fil-A and no Starbucks, only Birkett Williams Cafeteria; nor did we have the amount of choice there is today. We could choose to eat what was there or not to eat at all.”

Jeffers attended Ouachita from the fall of 1962 to the spring of 1966. He returned in January of 1972 and has been here ever since.

“When I returned in January of ’72, we had more but still nothing like we have now,” he said. “And over the years the food has progressively gotten better with more variety. Opening up the Commons was an overnight sea of change in terms of what was available. All of a sudden we had pizzas, a new salad bar, a burger grill and, of course, the regular main line. I don’t think the international line came until later.”

Only recently has the cafeteria been open on Sunday evenings, so students who wanted to eat dinner on Sundays had to go someplace else.

“We had a place called Connie’s located near 10th and Caddo Streets that we’d regular,” said Bill Vining, former Ouachita head basketball coach and athletic director. “But back in those days you didn’t go out and eat very much because most of us didn’t have cars and there weren’t many places you could walk to. The thing about Connie’s was that he had the best chicken fried steak that I’ve ever had up to this day.”

Vining graduated from Ouachita in 1951. After serving in Korea and being awarded a Purple Heart he came back to Ouachita and served as the head basketball coach and the assistant football coach. In 1956 he became athletic director in addition to coaching. He eventually retired in 1989 from his coaching position and remained as the athletic director from which he retired in 1996.

“I came from a family where whatever they put on the plate was what you ate,” he said. “You didn’t have a choice nor the chance to say ‘I don’t like this.’ So what little they had was fine to me with one exception: the slimy okra.”

Vining said one of the benefits of being in football or basketball was that you had tables already set up for you and a student waiter at each of those tables.

“They’d have the food already out and you’d pass it around the table family style,” he said. “I thought all that was good except when the other students came in for the main line, they could look at and watch you. I was never really comfortable with that.”

In terms of the social aspects of dining, certain groups of students would flock to certain areas of the cafeteria.

“It was much more pronounced than it is today,” said Dr. Keldon Henley, vice president for student services. “There was a salad bar that divided the dining area and there were social strata that were defined by which side of the salad bar you would sit on.

“On the left side you would have those that considered themselves on a higher social plain. And on the right side of the salad bar were mostly freshmen and then the various different groups who had their own social networks.”

Henley graduated from Ouachita in 1986 and returned as an administrator in 1993. While he was here as a student, the dining service was contracted to a group called Saga, which was later sold to Marriott. Marriott then merged and became known as Marriott-Sodexho, eventually dropping the “h” and becoming known as just Sodexo.

One of the former food service directors was a man named Walter Kehoe, who was described as a “character and a half” by Jeffers. One of the things Kehoe would do for the students was to come dressed as a Twinkie, which many people still at Ouachita pleasantly recall.

“Walt was very friendly,” Vining said. “He would walk around and visit with the groups. He also was a wise-cracker. You’d say something to him and he could crack a million and one back to you. You could visit and have fun with him because he was pleasant to be around. As far as I know everybody liked him and really had a good time with him. He was especially good to our athletes at pre-game meals.”

Needless to say, campus dining has changed significantly over the years, especially with the opening of the Commons.

“I like to kind of take ownership of the food service and align it with the university’s expectations,” said Jon Fitzgerald, the general manager for Sodexo at Ouachita. “I mean, it’s college food service, so it’s not like you’re going to Ruth Chris or anything – although we can cater like that.

“You have to hire the right staff, which is something that I think we’re moving towards in the right direction. You need to get to know the kids, know their expectations and you have to [hire] the right people who can do that.”

In order to meet students’ expectations, food services has comment cards outside of its office in the Commons. Fitzgerald also meets with a food committee of about 15 students from freshmen to seniors who bring to their meetings much of what their peers are saying about campus dining.

“I’m also trying to introduce some changes,” he said. “We’re at the point in the year now where the meals are becoming a little monotonous. I’ve put Vivian at breakfast so the students will have some form of breakfast cooked to order. The other night we had a Mexican style thing going on. We [just had] Thanksgiving which [was] amazing and we’ll see Christmas dinner coming up soon. We’re going to have a huge 22-25 foot Christmas tree coming in from a local tree farm that we’ll have set up.”

Some of these changes and new concept introductions will also affect the self service Chick-fil-A in the Evans Student Center. There are plans to remodel Chick-fil-A next summer so that it will include new features.

“You guys are really going to see some changes next fall,” Fitzgerald said. “I can’t say what all that is yet, but we have some new stuff coming – I’m really excited.”

New Wrestling Complex is Dedicated to Greg Hatcher (Oct. 2011)

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Ouachita commemorated the opening of its new wrestling facility in a ceremony this afternoon.The new complex is the culmination of more than a year’s work by contractors, school administration and the members of Ouachita’s wrestling program. The building housed Ouachita’s Facilities Management department for 40 years before being renovated and remodeled for the wrestling program, which is barely more than a year old.

“We quickly realized that the university did not have an available structure to accommodate the practice space needed by the team,” said Brett Powell, vice president of administrative services. “We looked at several options but none of them were sufficient, so we started working on temporary and long-term solutions.”

As vice president for administrative services, one of Powell’s responsibilities is making sure that there is adequate space for university activities, and though the wrestling program is still very young, he has been heavily involved with this project.

“Fortunately, we had just completed a storage building at the Facilities Management complex that was still vacant and close to the size we needed,” he said. “[But] since Facilities Management planned to move into the building once the rest of the complex was completed, we knew this was only a one year solution.”

The old Facilities Management building, located behind Sturgis Physical Education Center, was constructed in the 1970s and was exactly the size needed by the wrestling team, but there were two significant issues: first, the building itself was showing signs of four decades worth of wear; second, the interior was divided into office spaces, which did not fit the space needs of team.

As renovations went under way, all that was retained of the original building was its skeleton. The exterior was given new metal siding and all the interior finishes were renovated. New walls, floor coverings, plumbing and ceilings were put into the structure.

“I named this project the ‘diamond from a lump of coal,’” said John Hardman, facilities director. “From what the building was when we moved out of it to what it is today, I am truly proud of what was accomplished.”

Hardman’s responsibilities in the project included contacting sub-contractors, gathering pricing, inspecting the work done and the works in progress, submitting changes to the administration and head coach and assigning work to the Facilities Management staff that had not been awarded to the other sub-contractors.

“I basically served as general contractor for the project,” he said. “The facility was finished on time, with a better product than expected. What we actually achieved was a perfect product for wrestling.”

In fact, the finished complex rivals that of most Division I schools.

“It’s much easier to get excited about practice when you have a brand new facility to walk into everyday,” said Kevin Ward, the head wrestling coach. “The great thing about this place is that it’s an entire complex dedicated to our team. We squeezed in as much as we could into the space to give our athletes a facility that has almost everything they need. We have a study lounge, an athletic training room, a TV lounge within the locker room, a coach’s office and more than 3,500 square feet of wrestling space. I think we got all we could out of the building. Hopefully, this is the start to building a great wrestling program that the entire OBU community can be proud of.”

During the renovations, the members of the wrestling team were forced to sacrifice a place to practice wrestling at the beginning of the year. Their exercise came from lifting weights and running.

“At my old school, I could never even dream of having a facility as nice as ours,” said Aaron Butler, senior Spanish education major and member of the wrestling team. “I think our team has been blessed with the tools to make big things happen, and now it’s only a matter of time before we start showing that.”

Now the team has a cardio and weight area, two full size showers, a steam room, a training room with a cold tub and therapy tables as well as a laundry room.

“Our new complex will give us the space and resources needed to grow into what the program has the potential to be,” Butler said. “From here, our program will only get better. I can tell you that we are very thankful.”

The benefits of this new complex will be felt across the entire university. It will serve as a valuable recruiting asset to the team and attract athletes who might not have considered Ouachita in the first place.

“When you bring more students onto campus it really helps the spirit of the place,” said Dr. Rex Horne, Ouachita’s president. “It [also] helps in the growth of the university, the disciplines we have, the enrollment in our different schools and it has this ripple effect that just spreads out across the line.”

Horne has been involved in the wrestling program since its inception. It was first mentioned to him by a close friend of his. Horne eventually got the program approved by the Board of Trustees, and it has taken off from there.

He gave an address at the dedication along with that same friend, Greg Hatcher, to whom the complex was dedicated. Hatcher’s name was not revealed until the ceremony, and it has been the opinion of most everyone involved that this man is a friend of the university and has spurred the rise of wrestling in the state of Arkansas through his contributions to the Arkansas Wrestling Association. Without Hatcher, Arkansas would not have high school wrestling. Hatcher has been instrumental in bringing wrestling to Ouachita, including hiring a coach, recruiting student athletes and making it possible for the program to have a permanent home.

“I speak often of making a difference,” Horne said. “And this program [is doing] just that.”

Photo by Heather Ellis

Freshman group latest Tunes addition (Sept 2011)

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Tiger Tunes is one of the most anticipated events in Ouachita campus life. Not only does it provide a medium to raise funds for student scholarships, but it allows students to work together to practice and perform shows for the cause. This year, Tiger Tunes will be marked by the addition of a freshman group, something that has not happened in the show for a long time.

“The idea originated in a conversation last fall after we realized we had so much interest from freshmen and limited opportunity for their participation,” said Rebecca Jones, the Ouachita Student Foundation (OSF) sponsor for the group and instructor of speech communication.

“Because it seemed that the interest was so high last year, Student Services, Campus Ministries and OSF staff and students met to consider the possibility of adding a freshmen group to Tunes. We thought there would be a strong response and we were really excited by the number of students who decided to participate.”

The freshmen will be allowed to compete in Tunes because they are officially recognized as a campus entity and they have a university sponsor, unlike the Fourth Floor Guys group in the 2009 show. Their theme will be the Oregon Trail. The group includes about 70 freshmen and they practice Monday through Wednesday on campus from 8-11 p.m. and on Thursdays from 6-9 p.m. They also have a weekend work day.

“I think it’s incredible for more freshmen to be able to participate,” said David Sypult, a sophomore business major and member of Kappa Chi. “It gives the Kappas more competition and cause to make our show even better.”

Although Sypult did not sign up last year, two of his friends did and were unable to participate because of the limited opportunities available for freshmen.

Brandon Vining, a freshman history and secondary education major who is participating in the freshman group, has never been to a Tiger Tunes show.

“After talking with people from Ouachita and seeing it online … I couldn’t resist [the opportunity],” he said.

Vining also felt compelled to participate after he learned that OSF uses the money for other students.

“As someone who is here because of very generous scholarships, I know the value of things like Tiger Tunes to ensure that this incredible school is available to others in the future,” he said.

Freshman music and mass communications major Tyler Rosenthal knew he wanted to be involved in Tunes however he could.

“I’ve attended the last two Tiger Tunes shows and both looked like so much fun,” he said.

With both of his majors and his involvement with Ouachita Sounds plus Tunes practice during the week, Rosenthal has found that developing time management skills is a necessity, as other freshmen might be intimidated by such a schedule.

“Having enough time for everything as a college student is difficult enough as it is; my schedule is very tight and sleep is always appreciated,” Rosenthal said. “What has to stay in the forefront of the mind is the end result. Everything will be worth it once the groups start to take their places and the lights hit the stage.”

Junior English major and group director Jessica Scoggins applied through the Campus Activities office spring semester of last year. In a general interest meeting held in Berry Chapel, more than 100 freshmen came.

“We were shocked at how many freshman were interested,” she said.

As director, Scoggins is involved in every step of the show. She said that practice is the least time-consuming activity eclipsed by prop and costume making.

“That being said, my team is absolutely amazing,” she said. “Sam Cummins and Chad Bullington choreographed the whole thing with just a little input from me. My head of costumes, Danielle Wilson, has been in my room sewing with me every chance we get. Jake Coffman, who is in charge of musicality, has done an amazing job figuring out parts and working out the pitches. So while I’ve had a hand in all of the show construction, my leadership team has been a huge part of the entire process.”

In working with the freshmen, Scoggins noted their enthusiasm and willingness to work hard.

“They have totally taken every note and critique in stride and worked so hard,” she said. “They seem to love the show, and take a lot of pride in the whole thing. They’re incredible.”

Picture by Jason Pullano.

Organizations offer students various service opportunities (Sept. 2011)

 

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Service is an idea to which every Ouachitonian commits themselves to. President Dr. Rex Horne often speaks to the student body about being difference makers, and Ouachita’s dedication to service is something that often makes a difference in the lives of students and community members.

“We commit to service by enrolling as students here,” said Reuben Cash, a senior accounting and business administration major.  “We have been extremely blessed to attend this institution and we have a duty to give back to others because of it.”

Cash, a member of the Tiger Serve Day (TSD) leadership team, believes the best thing about TSD is it empowers the students to give back to the community.

“TSD is the most visible and effective day of servant leadership in Arkadelphia,” he said. “On this day, the campus comes together as a team with the goal of service in mind, which exemplifies the spirit of OBU in a special way.”

According to Judy Duvall, assistant director of the Elrod Center for Family and Community, TSD is “hands down the signature event.” On Saturday, Sept. 24, and Saturday, March 31, 2012, Ouachita students, faculty and other staff will hit the streets of Arkadelphia and engage in a variety of tasks from house cleaning to landscaping.

Jenna Lindsey, a senior kinesiology major who participated in last spring’s TSD, wanted a way to reach out and get involved in the community. With a group of fellow students, she went to a widower’s home and scrubbed the outside of his house, raked leaves, moved large branches and cleaned up his property.

“The best part of my day was when we went into Mr. Hickman’s house and had a gospel worship hour,” Lindsey said. “A few guys were on guitar, one was on the bass and Mr. Hickman played his harmonica and sang hymns. It was truly a [testament] to his love for the Lord.”

As is seen with Lindsey, the relationships Ouachitonians establish in their commitment to service are what truly bless and reward them.

And there are more ways than just TSD in which students can do their part for the community. America Reads/America Counts is one such opportunity, where students meet with an elementary student in either first or third grade and tutor them in either math or reading.

“In our lessons the children and I read books, practice spelling and writing and we do lots of fun activities together,” said Katelyn Mustain, a senior diatetics major who tutors at America Reads.

Mustain’s responsibilities include spending about half an hour each week with two different children, three times per week, aiding them in their ability to read.

“One of my favorite memories was from last year,” Mustain said. “One boy in particular would always bring me a gift from the book fair. He brought me several erasers and pictures he had made.”

Other opportunities include ElderServe, where students spend time with a local elderly person, and TranServe, where students document community service hours on their transcript. Students who wish to become involved in volunteer service can inquire at the Elrod Center.

“Serving others gives us the opportunity to show Christ to our community,” Duvall said. “Certainly we are commanded to share the gospel but people are impacted more by what we do than what we say. When we serve others we are demonstrating very clearly the love of God, and it’s powerful. Serving others takes the focus off of me, my problems and interests and places it on them. In the end that’s very satisfying.”