Dec 3, 2014 - between Moore Science, the Dining Hall, and the new Coffee House. 2) Solar panels to power small yet highl
The
Clarion
Volume 80, Issue 13
www.brevard.edu/clarion
Web Edition
SERVING BREVARD COLLEGE SINCE 1935
December 3, 2014
will no longer be about educating the campus community about school policies, but instead to, “educate students what to look out for.” Another initiative the school has taken is the new ‘SafeWalk’ program, which has been formed by students of Brevard. The program, which came to student attention on Tuesday the 2nd of December in a campus wide email, is an attempt to prevent students from walking on their own around campus. Should it succeed, the SafeWalk program will allow students to phone volunteers from anywhere on campus, who will then come and collect the student, and escort them to wherever they need to go. D’Anna said that, “Larger colleges have this program,” and was happy to see students engaging in the matter. It was asked whether or not the SafeWalk program has come as a result of an urgency for more protective measures, to which D’Anna replied, “the first instance brought the urgency for change,” and continued by saying, “anything like what has recently happened can only heighten that urgency.” After speaking about this, D’Anna was keen to make sure that students understood that this
is a “safe campus,” and that to keep it that way, anything suspicious should be reported to campus security. D’Anna confirmed that local police will continue to work with the school in an attempt to find the assailant from both attempted assaults, and will continue to work towards creating a campus where the students, “can feel safe.” It appears that steps were already underway before the second attempted assault, and that these steps may be being accelerated in light of recent events. Whilst this occurs, the message from the school to students is to, “be aware,” and to “report anything that may appear suspicious.”
Security measures increase after 2nd attempted assault By Calum McAndrew Staff Writer
Friday, Nov. 28 at just after 5:00 p.m., Director of Safety and Security on Campus, Stanley Jacobsen, e-mailed the campus community regarding a second attempted assault on college grounds. The email stated that at about 10 p.m on Wednesday, Nov. 26, slightly two weeks after the first attempted sexual assault that a white male, approximately 6 feet tall, attempted to assault a female student on King's Creek Loop, near the baseball field. This description is very similar to the one given from the victim of the first attempted assault on campus, and just like in the first instance, the student fought off her assailant. Students suggested at meeting that there may be further meetings regarding assault on campus, a notion that Dean of Students Deb D’Anna confirmed. When asked what kind of steps the school were taking to prevent further assaults, D’Anna confirmed that more informative sessions will take place, “in the spring.” D’Anna went on to say that these sessions will be entirely different from the first ones, as they
Let’s get cracking
‘The Nutcracker’ performed in Ingram Auditorium This past Sunday, Nov 23, BC hosted a wonderful abridged performance of “The Nutcracker” in the Ingram auditorium. “The Nutcracker,” a ballet that was first conceived in Russia in 1892 by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, is extremely common during the holiday season and a very famous ballet overall in America. This particular performance was conducted by a group of dancers from the Brevard Ballet School, which offers ballet classes for those in age groups ranging from age three to adulthood. The ballet was directed by Angie Wells, who also founded the ballet school, and was done wonderfully. Wells’s magnificent choreography along with the efforts put forth by the dancers in
rehearsal resulted in a great performance that was enjoyable for all audience members. The background and costumes were also very well designed and detailed. The nuances of the show did an excellent job of drawing in the audience and created an ecstatic atmosphere for the performers as well as the parents and relatives of the dancers. Overall it was an excellent performance that left everyone in attendance wanting more. I hope that next year the Brevard Ballet School can come back to BC to perform again. And this time I’d recommend that if you did not get to see this performance you should definitely come witness their immense talent!
Spring Theatre productions announced
The Theatre Department is excited to present two shows during the Spring 2015 semester. The first show is the senior project of BC student Karen Bennett. Bennett will be directing the play, “Freud’s Last Session”. Written by Mark St. Germain, the play depicts a fictional conversation between psychoanalyst Dr. Sigmund Freud and Christian author C.S. Lewis. During the conversation the two intellectuals engage in a battle of wits related to faith and deliver some riveting ideas. Bennett is looking for two male actors to fill the roles of the play and the auditions will be held today, December 3, 2014. Another event to look forward to, BC’s Music and Theatre Departments will be joining forces to produce the musical revue “Some Enchanted Evening,” which will feature the music of the beloved Rogers and Hammerstein. This will be a collection of some of their most loved works from musicals such as “The King and I”, “Cinderella”, “Oklahoma”, “South Pacific”, and more. The auditions for this will be after winter break. Those intending to addition should prepare by having rehearsed the required two 16-bar cuts from musicals before 1960.
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Campus News
The Clarion
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December 3, 2014
Environmental sustainability contest winners announced
By Robert J. Cabin Contributor
This past September, BC’s Environmental Issues Committee launched the “First Annual Environmental Sustainability Contest.” We invited students to submit their ideas for how to make the College more sustainable, and offered $100, $50, and $25 gift certificates at the campus bookstore to the top three entries. We were thrilled by the fact that over 70 students entered this contest! After extensive review and discussion, we selected the following three winning entries: First Place: Natalaya Gryson, “Billion Dollar Green Challenge.” Second Place: Dale Huffman, “Small-Scale Solar Power.” Third Place: Emily Crowley, “Compost Food Waste.” We then sent the administration a short list of sustainability initiatives based on or inspired by these three winning entries and some of the other top proposals. We are happy to report that this list was enthusiastically received, and that the administration has pledged to implement at least one of these initiatives by the end of this academic year. In fact, the administration has already begun exploring ways in which we might employ the Billion Dollar Green Challenge model to support sustainability initiatives at BC in general. The basic idea here is that we raise outside funds and/or loan ourselves money to kick-start energy efficiency projects to reduce our energy consumption and lower our utility bills. We then use the money saved by these projects to repay our loan and invest in additional energy and money-saving projects. The administration is also excited by the prospect of implementing one or more small-scale solar power demonstration projects on campus. Such projects could help educate the greater BC community about the feasibility of solar power, and help inspire us to eventually implement larger, more substantive projects. Fortunately, thanks to a $5,000 solar power grant written by geology professor Jim Reynolds and another $5,000 previously donated by SGA, we already have a decent chunk of change to spend on this initiative. Our short list of potential solar power projects included the following three ideas: 1) A solar-powered kiosk that would provide electricity to charge phones and other devices.
We could install this kiosk in the green space between Moore Science, the Dining Hall, and the new Coffee House. 2) Solar panels to power small yet highly visible devices on-campus such as the bell tower clock (we could put a panel on each of the lower, smaller roofs facing Beam, which might also generate surplus electricity to power the lights by the fountains and/or other fixtures), one or more of our athletic scoreboards, and the electronic bulletin board facing the road behind the Porter Center 3) Solar-powered trash compactors. These compactors use solar power to reduce trash volume by up to 80%, saving money, labor, and precious landfill space. Many students proposed ideas for improving the sustainability of the Dining Hall, such as composting our food waste and buying more local food (including growing some of our own). The administration is now analyzing the feasibility of different composting techniques included in our short list of sustainability initiatives. They have also been working with our food service provider to find ways of getting more local food on the menu, including the creation of a campus herb garden that could supply us with fresh herbs throughout the academic year. Finally, another popular topic was creating a more pedestrian and bike-friendly campus. These ideas included free bike programs and covered bike racks, stricter parking regulation and enforcement, and “no car” days on campus. Once again, because many of these proposals dovetailed nicely with the College’s current plans, the administration has been more than willing to consider incorporating these kinds of creative ideas into their general vision for the future development of our campus. The quality and quantity of the proposals we received in this Sustainability Contest, combined with other recent events such as the strong fossil fuel divestment movement on campus, suggest that sustainability is becoming an increasing important component of this College. We applaud these efforts and encourage everyone who cares about these issues to speak up and get involved. Meanwhile, we have already begun planning for next year’s Second Annual Sustainability Contest, which we expect will be even bigger and better than this year’s contest. If you have any ideas or suggestions, we’re all ears! Cabin is an associate professor of ecology and environmental science and chair of the Environmental Issues Committee.
Freshmen host successful community fundraiser By MacKenzie Samotis Staff Writer
BC’s First Annual Turkey Trot was a success! On Saturday, Nov. 22, the Freshmen Honors Enrichment class organized and hosted a 5K marathon on the BC Campus. The group chose to support The Sharing House in Transylvania County, attempting to collect donations of both food and money for the cause. The students’ countless hours of work and organization paid off when the day of the race arrived, having twenty participates, along with many money and canned food donations. The 5K was not the only event associated with The Sharing House that Saturday. All over the county volunteers were posted at local businesses promoting The House and the donation event downtown. Each year The Sharing House reaches out to the community in efforts to help replenish their food pantry for the upcoming holidays. The money and food raised from the Turkey Trot, along with the other events, went towards helping a family in need have a Thanksgiving dinner. BC was proudly represented on Saturday through the acts of these student leaders, who helped lend a hand in the fight toward ending hunger in Transylvania County.
December 3, 2014
| The Clarion
Sports
BC cross country finishes season strong By Savannah Cox Staff Writer
BC runners wrapped up their season two weekends ago. The Tornados ran at the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships. The NCAA Southeast Regional Championships were hosted by the University of Montevallo in Montevallo, Alabama. The women's team was eligible to compete as a team at the Regional Championships. They placed 21st overall out of 26 teams competing. Quite like past races, Junior Hannah Cook posted the top performance for the Tornado runners. She finished with a time of 24:13:93, coming in at 38th place. Heidi Kaartinen and Leah Jostes also had strong performances, as they finished roughly two minutes behind Cook.
This race was a 6k race instead of the typical 5k. This tacked on an extra 0.62 miles that they had to run. The men's side did not compete as a team. Instead, Freshman Hissan Kiprono, competed as an individual runner for the Tornados. Kiprono finished in 44th place overall with a time of 33:34.96 in the 10k race. His time was just three minutes slower than the meet's fastest runner. Mars Hill took the title for the men's side, and Montevallo tallied the most points for the women. The Tornado runners will add a few athletes to their roster as they head into indoor track season. Thrower, jumpers, and sprinters will join the squad for the remainder of rate school year. Due to the change in coaching staff, the track schedule has yet to be released. Coach Norm Witek will release and updated schedule in the coming weeks.
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Photo by Ashley Lowe Hissan Kiprono during the Men's 10k Race
Overholt’s individual efforts outshine losses By Sam Marlow Sports Editor
Although the season was disappointing, the BC Football Team’s offense rewrote the record books in offensive production, ranking number 6 in total offense among NCAA DII teams. BC ranked at the top of the list in red zone offense scoring 94% of the time. Jordan Ollis led the team with 1224 yards, ranking at spot 18 among NCAA DII players. With 16 touchdowns on the season, including a 228 yards performance earning him most rushing yards in a game by a BC player, Ollis surpassed the BC single season rushing record held by teammate Kelvin Jeeter, who rushed for 899 yards this season including the team’s longest run at 76 yards. Senior Quarterback Tanner Wright rushed for 627 yards and eleven touchdowns, and threw for an additional three touchdowns. Andre Overholt led the team in all-purpose yards boasting 1,432
yards total with 1,014 on kickoff returns including a 54-yarder against DI opponent Liberty. He is also the first Tornado ever to be named to the Capital One Academic All-District Team, holding one of two running back slots on a 23 person team selected from the Southeast, a significant achievement for both Overholt and BC. The award, selected by Sports Information Directors, recognizes student-athletes for their work in the classroom and on the field, qualifying recipients for the Capital One Academic All-American Award that will be awarded in early December. No stranger to academic achievement, Overholt maintains a 3.68 GPA and has been named to the Dean’s List each of his six semesters at Brevard. He has even received a Meritorious Academic Performance award by the Business and Organizational Leadership faculty. Volunteering as a youth group leader in Tryon, NC and a serving as a tutor, Overholt is a leader in the community as well. “He sets a standard for all of BC” head football coach Paul Hamilton said about Overholt.
Photo courtesy of Andre Overholt Zac Queen (left) and Andre Overholt (right)
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Arts & Life
The Clarion
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December 3, 2014
Top 5 worst Christmas movies
End of the semester got you down? Watch these “classic” Christmas flicks for some truly mindless ... fun? By Michael Heiskell Staff Writer
There are a plethora of amazing Christmas movies. Happy, yule time treasures that we all grew up with. Sadly, none of these movies fit those categories. To set the mood for the holiday season, I threw myself into a pit of terrible Christmas movies over the Thanksgiving Break. Long story short, it was a depressing break that made me emotionally afraid of Christmas and film in general. With the utmost regret and trepidation, here are the top five worst Christmas movies of all time. Number 5: “Jack Frost” I watched this movie when I was a kid and loved it. I have learned never to re-watch those beloved classics because often they don’t hold up when you have reached adulthood. This is, of course, the case with Jack Frost, which is full of awkward acting, hilarious special effects and a laughable storyline. It’s not too hard to say that Michael Keaton is better than this. Number 4: “Jingle All the Way” Another film I loved as a kid that has been ruined, “Jingle All the Way” is about Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad fighting over a toy during Christmas and I’m making this sound way better than it is. Schwarzenegger has the comedic chops of freshly squashed road kill and Sinbad seemed like he regretting signing on for this movie instantly. Don’t forget it has the academy award worthy acting of Jake Lloyd, who most notoriously played Anakin Skywalker in “The Phantom Menace”. Lovely. Number 3: “Fred Claus” Vince Vaughn plays Santa Claus’s older brother, who is a Christmas sceptic and a repo man. You had me at Vince Vaughn…. Is under a list of things that you will never hear me say. This movie is a travesty and a blight on the careers of respectable actors Kevin Spacey, Paul Giamatti, Kathy Bates, and Elizabeth Banks. Also Ludacris is in it. Number 2: “Santa With Muscles” Out of all of the movies I begrudgingly watched, this one was the most painful. This film stars Hulk Hogan as a man who gets amnesia and thinks he is Santa. This film has it all: evil scientists, orphanages, car chases and magic crystals, everything we all love about Christmas. As far as former wrestlers turned actors go, Hulk Hogan is by far
Stills from "Santa Clause Conquers the Martians"
the worst and that is really saying something. Any category where Hulk Hogan is present is a losing category to start with. Number 1: “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” Yeah, you read that title right. “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” is one of the weirdest concepts for a film that I have ever heard. So poorly made that it almost hurt to watch it, but it was utterly hilarious. Most of it is unintentional
humor of course and it fits the category of so-badits-good. I just never really thought a movie like this would exist but I’m certainly glad it does. It transcends levels of good/bad and creates a third category all to itself. There you have it. For whatever it is worth, these are the worst five Christmas films I have ever had the displeasure of watching. I think that for all intents and purposes my Christmas joy has been squelched as I settle in the dusty aftermath of holiday cinematic tragedy.
