The Echo: April 4, 2014
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TAYLOR UNIVERSITY Weekly Edition Students raise the roof Page 4 Baseball You are the voice. We are the Echo. warms up Page 8 Since 1913 1 Volume 101, Issue 20 Friday/Thursday, April 4 - April 10, 2014 TheEchoNews.com HEADLINES Evicted The spring break team faced unexpected obstacles in Russia. Page 3 Carpenter’s Hands tackles house build A manual labor opportunity is coming to Taylor. See how you can help a needy family. Page 4 “Noah” is a floater, not a sinker It’s controversial and a little formulaic, but “Noah” is a visually astounding film with deep spiritual themes. Page 6 A poem of lament and hope Emotions are low after white plate increase in the DC, meaning it is no longer the lucky plate. Page 7 Photograph by Tabitha Hillebrand Students gathered at the TSO job fair last Tuesday night to learn about the different positions available in TSO for next year. Softball scorches through conference Mosaic Night. All of these beloved said Steve Austin, associate dean of of Faith and Culture (IFC) Programs. TSO uses first-ever job Taylor traditions are brought to you the Center for Student Leadership Student Senate, Inter-Class Council fair to spur interest in by TSO (Taylor Student Organization). and the director of student programs. (ICC) and the Office of the Student TSO cabinet positions On Tuesday night TSO hosted the “We’re essentially interviewing and Body President all are student select- first-ever TSO job fair in order to hiring for our whole entire office. That ed positions. Kathy Weatherspoon Hannah Haney showcase different job opportuni- means all positions need to be filled.” does the hiring for the Leadership News Co-Editor ties within TSO to the student body. TSO is comprised of 11 different Program, but all other hiring is done “We have anywhere from 100 to organizations, such as Student Ac- by students, according to Austin. Nostalgia Night. Airband. Nation- about 115 student leaders in our office, tivities Council (SAC), Intramurals, TSO continued on page 2 Head coach Brad Bowser has his team’s al Student Leadership Conference. and no one is guaranteed a spot back,” Global Engagement and Integration bats scorching the rest of the Crossroads League. Read about TU softball’s latest dominant doubleheader. Page 8 DegreeWorks WEEKEND WEATHER works for you Today New DegreeWorks program 58° aims to make advising easier Liz Syson 31° Contributor Saturday The rollout of My Taylor University 52° Degree heralds an end to stressful hours of pouring over course lists, 30° adding up credits and scouring grad- uation requirements for tiny but vital Sunday details. This degree audit program, made available on Thursday, March 59° 16, allows students to see their degree requirements and current progress 42° at a glance. “For quite some time, there’s been dissatisfaction among students with the whole advising process,” said Ed- Screenshot provided by Katelyn S. Irons FOLLOW US win Welch, director of institutional DegreeWorks hopes to simplify advising by moving the process online. research and associate registrar. “We the way academic advising sessions feature, which allows students to cre- expects the Physics and Engineering @TheEcho_Taylor average that we have to return 50 per- are carried out. ate four-year plans, is included in the Department to continue using iG- @TheEcho_Sports cent of (graduation) applications be- “It allowed me to work quickly program, though it is not as well-de- rad until the four-year plan feature cause of errors.” with my advisees to determine where veloped as the audit features. Accord- of My Taylor University Degree is ful- they were in their degree program(s) ing to Welch, it should be ready for ly functional. and to figure out which classes they use by fall 2014. My Taylor University Degree is “With DegreeWorks han- should take,” said Tom Nurkkala, as- Students in the Physics and Engi- available to all students and faculty, Facebook.com/ dling the details of degree sociate professor of computer science neering Department have previously though due to FERPA laws it will not TaylorUniversityEcho and engineering, who used the sys- used a program called iGrad for advis- be available to parents. Students and progress, my hope is that tem last fall in a pilot group. “With ing and for creating four-year plans. faculty included in pilot test groups there will be more time for DegreeWorks handling the details of This system, originally designed by have given enthusiastic feedback. communication, vocation- degree progress, my hope is that there Ken Kiers, department chair and pro- “It’s awesome,” said junior Kayla will be more time for communication, fessor of physics, was further devel- Gotha. “It’s really convenient.” al advising and mentoring vocational advising and mentoring oped by Nurkkala and his Software The project has been in progress CONTENTS during advising sessions.” during advising sessions.” Studio students during the spring since January 2013 and has included The program, which updates data and summer of 2013 and was used as extensive testing, pilot groups and every 24 hours, includes a color-cod- the primary advising tool in the Phys- training for advisors. The registrar’s News .........................Pg 1, Pg 2 Welch hopes that the new program ed list of which courses fulfill which ics and Engineering Department last office is still working out details in the World & National ........ Pg 3 will cut down on those errors by al- requirements, a GPA calculator and semester. program’s function and invites stu- Life & Times ........Pg 4, Pg 5 lowing students to see clearly all of a “What If ” feature. Students can Unlike iGrad, My Taylor University dents to email [email protected] A&E .....................................Pg 6 their requirements before the time use the “What If ” feature to see the Degree accesses the university’s offi- with any errors they may discover in Opinions ........................... Pg 7 comes to submit graduation applica- exact requirements of a potential cial database to track which cours- their audits. Sports .................................Pg 8 tions. The system should also change change in major or minor. Another es students have completed. Kiers TheEchoNews.Com NEWS STORIES, PHOTOS AND VIDEO QR READER Scan with QR reader Scan by QR Code City The library has added a phone charging station with eight adapters into the main floor of the building, which will serve to increase the frequency of students’ use of the facility, as well as its overall effectiveness. Dead phones are no more 2 TheEchoNews.com NEWS April 4, 2013 FRIDAY TOP FIVE NEWS EVENTS OF THE WEEK Fort Hood shooting: Psychiatric issues Supreme Court Won’t Stop Texas Five dead as 8.2 quake hits off Chile US TV host David Letterman to retire Death Toll In Washington ‘fundamental underlying causal factor’ Execution Over Drug www.usatoday.com in 2015 Mudslide Rises To 30 www.cnn.com www.abcnews.go.com www.bbc.com www.time.com TSO is composed of a variety TSO continued from page 1 of very unique organizations. Juniors Kehlay Dunah and Cory Learn about each office and Chea, the new Student Body President ONLINE (SBP) and Student Body Vice Presi- contact the current president dent (SBVP), will hire the non-elect- for more information. ed presidents that will comprise the TEASER executive cabinet, alongside Dunah, Office of the Student Four the hope Chea and the Executive Secretary. Taylor alumna Julie Hedberg went to Body President: The new presidents will then hire Haiti expecting to work with children in Builds relationships with members of their individual cabinet. orphanages. Instead she ended up listening the student body and While student involvement in SBP/ to the children’s tales of abuse—and rescuing them from their situations. Monday communicates between students and SBVP elections was low, both in voting administration. Headed by Bri Leever numbers and candidates, steps have (SBP), Jake Owens (SBVP), and Noelle been taken to insure that it won’t be Dean of Students Skip Trudeau Smith (Executive Secretary) a possibility for other TSO positions. believes that TSO provides a great Media and “I should have been sending out way for students to get involved on Marketing Services: emails back in January, getting peo- campus. ple back into it (SBP/SBVP elections), “It’s not the only way (to get in- Serves Taylor by using trying to get everyone to have an in- volved) . and I think students should media to advertise and terest,” said current SBVP Jake Owens. be really careful that they choose market TSO events across campus. “We kind of got a late start on it .” wisely what they get involved with Also publishes News of the Day. Head- The job fair is TSO’s attempt to and student government is one of ed by Christian Kiedrowski. drum up interest in cabinet positions. those good ones,” Trudeau said. Integration of Faith “This was the first year we’ve Dunah and Chea are excited to and Culture (IFC) ever done the fair,” Owens said. “Bri Photograph by Tabitha Hillebrand see what people will bring to TSO Programs: (Leever, current SBP) and I are try- MESA is just one of many TSO cabinets looking to hire new members. next year. Facilitates campus-wide ing to come up with a way that this “We’re really excited about building discussions about art and faith. Work continues to happen after we’re other conflicts. senators for this upcoming year. this team for next year because we’re to bring different films, concerts, art- gone. If it happens more than once a “Any time a Taylor student has an While TSO offers events for stu- going to get to spend a lot of time to- ists and lecturers to campus.