The Baylor Lariat

Friday | December 5, 2014

First copy free. Additional copies 25 cents each. Vol.116 No. 48 © 2014 Baylor University

The Baylor Lariatbaylorlariat com

WE’RE THERE WHEN YOU CAN’T BE

By Sara Katherine JohnsonReporter

Santa’s Workshop will visit campus today to bring Christmas cheer to approximately 400 children between the ages of 3 and 5 during an event that includes presents from Baylor cheerleaders, crafts and an appear-ance by Bruiser.

The two-hour long event begins at 10 a.m. and takes place at the McLane Student Life Center. Santa’s Workshop is a student organization made up of a committee of 15 participants. During the fall semester, they fundraised, marketed and organized to host a Christmas party in December for local Waco children by partnering with school programs. Each child in attendance will re-ceive a wrapped toy and lunch.

“Planning is like a waterfall,” Vienna, Va., senior Peyton Starr said. “It’s most difficult to get the first thing done, but the payoff is worth everything.”

Santa Claus will visit the children before their lunches are served, and student volun-teers, including student athletes, will play

with kids during this time.Starr, the program’s director, said money

to provide presents is donated largely by faculty and staff. The money goes directly to buying presents and decorations for the gym.

While some gifts were donated in dona-tion bins around campus, most of the gifts were purchased by the organization. The goal is for kids to receive gifts of about the same quality and size, Starr said.

Santa’s Workshop has more than a 20-year history on Baylor’s campus, but Starr said the way it unfolds changes every year.

San Antonio senior Jackie Hernandez said last year’s event was cancelled because of bad weather.

“Since we didn’t have the main event we drove to the kids and delivered all 650 toys to 650 kids,” Hernandez said, who is also the volunteer and marketing chair.

This year Hernandez is looking forward to hosting the event on campus and seeing it all come together.

By Cody SotoSports Writer

Sleeping bags, tents, poster boards, oversized markers and Baylor fans will flood campus to witness another milestone in school history Saturday morning.

Out of 14 weekend matchups, includ-ing Power 5 conference championships featuring the nation’s top teams, ESPN’S College GameDay will be in Waco for Sat-urday’s Baylor vs. Kansas State showdown at McLane Stadium.

The sports entertainment show built by Home Depot has been on air since 1987 and has toured the country to cover an im-portant game every week during the foot-ball season. Saturday will be the first time a Baylor football team has been featured on the popular pregame program.

The national spotlight will feature two Top-10 teams competing for a share of the Big 12 conference championship title, and it would be the second title in a row for Baylor. This weekend has a lot in store for the Bears.

“We are very honored and excited to be hosting College GameDay,” director of athletics Ian McCaw said. “It is a very ex-citing time for our program and university. We will be able to showcase our beauti-ful campus and our outstanding football team, along with what we believe is the

best college football stadium in America.”The show’s appearance in Waco was an-

nounced Sunday afternoon by ESPN, and Baylor’s social media erupted.

“I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t be-lieve they were actually coming to Waco,” Angleton sophomore Kyle Keeney said. “We’re going to be competing for our sec-ond Big 12 title in a row, so I’m pumped and super excited.”

A chance for a back-to-back title crowning and a national program in Bay-lor territory has the community excited. Quite simply, it is a big deal, senior quar-terback Bryce Petty said.

“This is what you want. You want to be in this position,” Petty said. “If you can’t get fired up for this, then you maybe need to find another sport or something. I think everybody community-wide and school-wide are excited for it and they should be.”

This opportunity is a memory for the Baylor community, and there are already students planning on camping outside for a spot in the student pit.

“A bunch of friends and I are camping out Friday night starting at 5 p.m.,” Austin sophomore Mattie Raiford said. “It’s such a big thing for Baylor. It’s so exciting for all of us as students, so I couldn’t have asked for anything better to happen.”

The entire buildup to this week will provide Baylor with a big platform Satur-

day night, McCaw said.“It will be a wonderful op-

portunity for us to advance the cause of Baylor and have ESPN here in Waco and Central Texas,” McCaw said. “It is also a great platform for us as we finish up the regular season and make a case for the College Foot-ball Playoff.”

Saturday is going to be a memorable day for the

sixth-ranked Bears, and the action all ends with the possibility of another Big 12 championship.

“It’s a very exciting week for us without question because we

By Rebecca Flannery Staff Writer

In light of the new college foot-ball playoff rankings and the Bay-lor Athletics department hiring a public relations firm to help with national media attention, several rumors have spread about the in-tentions of the deal.

Throughout Twitter and on ESPN, commentators have dis-cussed Baylor’s decision to hire Kevin Sullivan Communications, a public relations firm, as a way to boost Baylor in the rankings. How-ever, Nick Joos, executive associate athletic director, said the depart-

ment hired the firm to help with the increased media attention.

“We wanted to bring on some extra assistance on the national level,” Joos said. “We have a tre-mendous media relations staff, but we needed some extra hands to help with the national perspective.”

Twitter comments ranged from accusations that the firm’s pur-pose is to boost Baylor’s ranking in the playoffs to frustration over the most recent posting of Baylor as No. 6 in the NCAA ranking. A tweet from the official Whata-burger account stated that Baylor’s disappointing ranking matches the same feeling as being left out of an

invitation to go to the fast food res-taurant.

Joos said any media coverage on the topic of hiring the firm as an attempt to lobby for a higher posi-tion in the rankings is a misrepre-sentation of their intent.

“It’s a shame that it has become a topic of conversation around the situation,” Joos said. “It’s not [the firm’s] mission to lobby for a posi-tion, but to strictly adhere to assist-ing us with media relations.”

Lori Fogleman, Baylor’s assis-tant vice president for media com-munications, said a high volume

Student protestors march outside the Baylor Police Department. The Baylor NAACP chapter organized a demonstration Thursday evening that had activists through Fountain Mall.

ConstanCe atton | Lariat PhotograPher

College GameDay arrives,hypes up Baylor Nation

BU Athletics hires PR firmto aid in national coverage

SEE HYPE, page 11

SEE PR, page 11

Santa’s Workshop offers kids presents, festivities

SEE SANTA, page 11

Members a various student organizations decorate their trees Thursday in preparation for the tree competition held on Fountain Mall during Baylors annual Christmas on 5th event.

ConstanCe atton | Lariat PhotograPher

Oh Christmas tree

CarLye thornton | Lariat Photo editor

“If you can’t get fired up for this,

then you may need to find

another sport or something.”

Bryce Petty | Quarterback

By Jon PlattReporter

Hundreds chanted, “Don’t shoot! BU!” outside Pat

Neff Hall Thursday evening in a protest against inequal-ity.

The gathering, organized by Baylor’s NAACP, be-gan in front of the Baylor Police Department, where students and faculty together met for prayer, singing, chanting and a moment of silence before marching through campus.

Many activists cited their presence was because of recent alleged police brutality. Often mentioned by marchers were the killing of Mike Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York.

“Even though it happened in Ferguson, it affects ev-erybody,” said Irving sophomore Chelsea Williams. “It’s good to see this happen in Waco because it can happen anywhere. Where’s next? Who’s next?

Approximately 300 students silently gathered to ex-press themselves peacefully.

“I’m standing here because I personally believe there’s a problem with our justice system,” said Dallas junior Laurentyne McGill.

The NAACP planned the movement in response to

Hundreds gather on BU campus

SEE PROTEST, page 11

Baylor Bears have the opportunity to win back-to-back conference titles should they win against Kansas State on Saturday

Sports, B1

Even with finals week and Christ-mas rapidly approaching, average Baylor fans have one thing on their minds: football.

College Football Playoff rankings have caused a whirlwind of debate and put Baylor and TCU in national con-versation. The talk can be narrowed down to one question: if both teams win on Saturday, would Baylor’s vic-tory over TCU be enough to earn a second Big 12 Title? Ironically, if both teams win on Saturday, the decision was made to name them co-champi-ons despite the infamous Big 12 slogan ‘One true champion.’

Emotionally charged, Baylor Na-tion is in upheaval at the decision. Meanwhile, the average TCU fan mocks Baylor through social media, even forming a Twitter account called Baylor Tears.

The rivalry is alive and well on social media. Many TCU fans have revived the old hashtag #BaylorHate-Week that they used the week before the Baylor/TCU game. Of course, Bay-

lor fans responded with the hashtag #PrayersforTCU. Which hashtag is classier is up for some debate.

No matter the outcome, this sea-son has furthered the already-intense rivalry. The competition between the Horned Frogs and the Bears has deep roots. The teams first played against each other in 1899 – 16 years before the first UT vs. A&M game. While ev-ery Bear fan prefers Baylor be ranked higher than TCU, the unfortunate turn of events is only fanning the flame for what is becoming the most important college football rivalry in Texas.

In the history of Texas college football, the average household either sided with the Longhorns or Aggies. The rivalry ended in 2011 when A&M joined the SEC.

Now, Baylor and TCU have the opportunity to rise up and become the household teams. Win or lose, co-champions or one true champion, playoffs or not, Baylor has successfully fostered an intense rivalry. This rivalry is an opportunity for both schools to stay competitive in the Big 12 and NCAA for years to come.

All football games are about competition. However, emotionally charged rivalries seem to foster a high-er level of excellence. If Baylor knows how good TCU is and has an intense desire to beat them, it will make them work harder in the offseason, recruit-ment and in practice before playing them next year.

The Bears will have even more in-centive than usual to stay competitive with their rival.

This rivalry also provides Baylor fans with an opportunity: ignore the noise and stay classy. College Game-Day will broadcast in Waco for the first time ever Saturday. Part of the Game-Day tradition is fans making signs to display behind the broadcaster.

Fans should take this opportunity to focus on the positives about Bay-lor’s season, not on TCU.

Making signs that take digs at TCU will just bring them more attention and make the Baylor Nation seem bit-ter and classless.

Instead, focus on Baylor’s amazing season, elite seniors and show the na-tion that Baylor fans are good sports.

Campus has been abuzz ever since it was an-nounced that ESPN’s College GameDay will be broadcasting live from the banks of the Brazos on Sat-urday for the first time.

The platform is set for a gargantuan matchup between the No. 6 Baylor Bears and a talented No. 9 Kansas State Wildcats team. The game will be broadcast in primetime to national audi-ence on Saturday, possibly the biggest plat-form Baylor has had since the Fiesta Bowl.

Without question, GameDay is one of the most significant things to happen to Baylor from a national perspective. For that reason, Baylor students need to place the emphasis on the positives of Baylor rather than trying to use this stage to disparage other schools.

For all intents and purposes, GameDay is the nation’s first look into Baylor. Robert Griffin III’s Heisman Trophy was the first time that Baylor could be marketed on a national level, but there was less attention given to the university than to just the foot-ball program.

Now, ESPN brings its flagship college football coverage right into the middle of Baylor Nation. Excitement for the foot-ball team is at an all-time high, and Baylor football will get the chance to take national opinion to the next level.

One of the most popular traditions on GameDay is the making of signs. Many Baylor students have talked about using that platform to remind the committee that Baylor beat TCU 61-58.

Baylor and TCU are reviving an intense rivalry that will almost certainly be among the best in college football within the next

few years. But at this point, Bay-lor and TCU have already played their game.

What does pointing to TCU really accom-plish?

The College Football Playoff

committee is well aware that the Bears beat TCU; several members have confirmed that Baylor vs. TCU has been the biggest debate during deliberation. Trying to boil it down to “61-58” makes it sound like that’s all Bay-lor has to hang its hat on.

Baylor has an entire resume behind it and has a huge opportunity to add to it against a top 10 team in Kansas State. Even if the Bears do not make the playoff, they can capture a second-straight Big 12 title.

Forget TCU. Saturday is an opportunity for Baylor

to show off what makes this university so special. ESPN will be right in front of the brand-new McLane Stadium, which head coach Art Briles consistently calls the best collegiate stadium in America.

There are few opportunities for a school to show it has arrived as a football program. Only a certain number of games a week get to be in the spotlight, but ESPN chose to fo-cus this week on Baylor.

And if Baylor takes care of business on Saturday, it will be only the second back-to-back Big 12 champion in conference his-tory, along with a Sam Bradford-led Okla-homa squad.

So why bother giving so much attention to anyone else? It’s Baylor’s time to shine.

Shehan Jeyarajah is a junior journalism major from Coppell. He is the sports editor and regular columnist for the Lariat. Follow him on Twitter @ShehanJeyarajah.

Editor-in-chiefLinda Wilkins*

City editorPaula Ann Solis*

Asst. city editorReubin Turner

News editorMaleesa Johnson*

Copy desk chiefTrey Gregory*

A&E editorRae Jefferson

Sports editorShehan Jeyarajah

Photo editorCarlye Thornton

Web editorEric Vining*

Multimedia ProducerRichard Hirst

Broadcast ProducerAlexa Brackin*

Copy editorJenna Press

CartoonistAsher F. Murphy

Sports writersCody Soto

Jeffrey Swindoll

Staff writersRebecca Flannery

Abigail LoopHannah Neumann

PhotographersConstance Atton

Skye DuncanKevin Freeman

Ad representativesTaylor JacksonJennifer Kreb

Danielle MiltonLindsey Regan

DeliveryNoe Araujo

Eliciana Delgado

*Denotes a member of the editorial board

Meet the Staff

OpinionFriday| December 5, 2014

2 The Baylor Lariat

OpinionThe Baylor Lariat welcomes reader view-points through letters to the editor and guest columns. Opinions expressed in

the Lariat are not necessarily those of the Baylor administration, the Baylor Board of Regents or the Student Publications Board.

To submit a Lariat Letter, fill out the Letter to the Editor form at baylorlariat.com/contact-

information. Letters should be a maximum of 400 words. The letter is not guaranteed to be

published.

Lariat Letters

Editorials express the opinions of the Lariat Editorial Board. Lariat letters and columns are the opinions of an individual

and not the Baylor Lariat.

Editorials, Columns & Letters

Shine, Baylor shine

Editorial

The Rivalry Lives On

Trash Talkin’ Tweets

Baylor: Stay classy as animosity with TCU grows

Lord Hunter @hgreenwood16

There won’t be a drought much longer in Texas, Baylor Tears seem to be filling up the lakes and rivers.

Ted Harrison @tedvidAmazed that the college Football Playoff has us devaluing wins to the point that national media has all but forgotten that Baylor beat TCU

Adam Jachristmas @Adam_Jacobi

People. Beating TCU doesn’t give you license to get whacked by a mediocre WVU and still stay ahead of the Frogs. This isn’t hard.

Ryan J. Rusak @rjrusak

Dear Kansas State, please thrash Baylor so I can eat Whataburger again someday. #gofrogs #riffram #tcu

Chris Wingate @MCWingate

Whilst walking on the Baylor campus, I somehow feel somewhat more entitled #BaylorTears #TCU .@CrybabyBaylor

Baylor Tears @BaylorTears

To my knowledge Baylor has done no wrong and is undefeated this year ... that WVU game was for funsies.

Jonathan @ImSuchABurden

Don’t drink Dr. Pepper this week, it originated in Waco. #BaylorHateWeek

Bradley Charles @1BradleyCharles

Dear TCU lost to Baylor, almost got beat by KU & somehow they jump the defending national champs on a 28 game winning streak? Makes sense?!?

VS

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By Brooks WhitehurstReporter

Dr. Jon Engelhardt, dean of the School of Education, is not without accolades in his final year at Bay-lor. Engelhardt recently received the Robert B. Howsam award, just on the brink of his May retirement.

The Howsam award is a rare lifetime achievement award given on occasion to a deserving indi-vidual who has made significant contributions to education, ac-cording to the Consortium of State Organizations for Texas Teacher Education website.

The Lariat sat down with Engelhardt to talk about his ca-reer at Baylor as it comes to a close and the honor of receiving the Howsam Award.

What does this award mean to you?

There are lots of different meanings, one of those is recogni-tion of Baylor’s role in the state of Texas, and I think that’s important. Some of the things that I’ve been able to do I haven’t been able to do except were it for the institution where I’ve been, and Baylor has been especially supportive in doing all sorts of different kinds of things.

And of course it’s personally re-warding. The way I like to explain it is that most of us work in the garden not for recognition, seek-ing or expecting it, but because it’s the work that’s worth doing. It’s re-ally surprising and exciting when someone actually notices.

How does this award speak to Baylor’s role in the education field?

I think it’s an acknowledgment of the pivotal or potentially pivotal role that Baylor could play in the state of Texas. Texas has a large number of private institutions, and it clearly points to Baylor as a leader among those.

What were some of the signifi-cant moments in your career?

I’d say one of those is that from the time I entered higher educa-tion as a teacher educator, I’ve been working to reform the way teach-ers are prepared in our profession. The schools that prepared teachers, called normal schools, at the end of World War II, as part of the GI bill, were all converted to state univer-sities, and in some cases private.

They all converted what was professional preparation into aca-demic majors, which in many ways destroyed the notion of teacher education, and so my preparation came in that period of time when you heard a lecture about teaching rather than going to do it.

The most significant piece for me looking across my career is having been involved in just about

every major movement to reform and change the way teachers are prepared so that today we call it “clinical teacher preparation.”

Some other things have been building a partnership with the su-perintendents in Waco. Instead of having school districts competing with each other, they’re collabo-rating with each other and trying to strategize for how to improve education and how to influence the Legislature to improve education.

It’s really easy in higher educa-tion to have people in their own little silos where they don’t inter-act with each other, and that’s not who we are as an institution, and not the way higher education is intended to be. I like to think that when one person succeeds, we all succeed, and we should celebrate that together. We raise each other rather than compete with each

other. What does the future of K-12 ed-ucation look like in Waco?

K-12 education in Waco is

poised to address issues of poverty and education outcomes for Waco children like no other time in the city’s history. With its roots in the education alliance, the new work of Prosper Waco, with its triple emphases on education, healthcare and income and productive em-ployment for all citizens, is poised to make an enormous difference in Waco.

Focusing on the education part of this equation, we know that poverty takes a huge toll on many aspects of a quality community life, including the effectiveness of education.

To address one and not the oth-ers is effectively doomed to failure,

or at least to severely limit success. Research has shown when you find ways to positively address the economic lives of all citizens, the educational experience of children of parents living in poverty is sig-nificantly benefited, even with no other intervention.

The role of Baylor in all this is to do its part as a responsible com-munity partner.

How is Baylor approaching the need for teachers among K-12 schools that have students whose first language is not English?

This has been an issue that has

challenged Baylor for some time. The presence of increasing num-bers of second-language English speakers in Texas has never been a surprise to educators. Even a sim-ple-minded look at demographics leads one to the conclusion that this needs to be addressed.

To date, Baylor has addressed this through broad availability of English as a second language preparation for those who would be teachers. Bilingual education, per se, by contrast, requires that instruction in schools be taught, at least for part of the day, in Spanish; this means that fluency in Span-ish for the teacher must be rather strong.

With plans to retire in May, when you look back, what have been some of your favorite things about your career with Baylor?

Probably one of my most favor-ite things was the first day I was here. Robbie Rogers, who is the director of Baylor photography, was taking my picture and he said “Welcome to the Baylor family,” and that became symbolic to me, because Baylor is a family unlike any other institution that I’ve ex-perienced.

Probably that is the most strik-ing thing about Baylor to me. I think that working with people

that are here, the level of sincerity about commitment to accomplish-ing what it is that we’re trying to do, putting students and colleagues first, and really trying to take the high ground. It’s been a wonderful, wonderful experience here.

What do you think your most important contribution to Baylor has been?

To put the School of Educa-tion on a firm footing and to, some would say, reestablish or expand the reputation and respectability of the School of Education and our programs within the broader insti-tution.

I think that addressing the is-sues that existed and then estab-lishing that place of respect for the institution. Close to that is the building of the endowment for the school. It’s nearly doubled in the last seven years or so, and of course that’s not all me, but being par of that, and valuing that and trying to get out there and do that work is important.

Also, the creation of the adviso-ry council for the School of Educa-tion, we have a wonderful advisory council of about 10 or 12 people mostly from Texas, but across the country and they are business leaders, former students, parents, and they have been wonderful, and it’s been a thrill for me to have that group come together.

What kind of legacy do you hope to leave at Baylor?

A legacy of caring. I once had

someone that I worked for at an-other institution that insulted me by saying “Have you ever met an idea that you didn’t like?”

What that person didn’t under-stand was that there may be a lot of ideas that I did like, but there were also a lot of ideas that I didn’t like. What I appreciate are people who are willing to take risks and try new ideas to move things forward.

Dean receives lifetime achievement award

Dr. Jon Engelhardt, dean of the School of Education, recently won the Robert B. Howsam award for his contribu-tions to education. Engelhardt is set to retire in May.

Courtesy Photo



By Abigail LoopStaff Writer

Big business doesn’t always matter.

A new study published by two Baylor researchers reported that small and local businesses have a history of better employee sat-isfaction and commitment com-pared to bigger companies.

Wausau, Wis., doctoral can-didate Katie Halbesleben was the lead researcher for the study.

Halbesleben said the objec-tive of the research study was to find commitment levels of small and big business employees, then analyze their differences or simi-larities.

“We came to find that small businesses have more committed and happy employees,” Halbesle-ben said. “I think this is because in a small business, one is more likely to work with people who become friends or work along-side family members. You have a connection.”

Halbesleben said research was conducted for the study by taking data from a previous Baylor reli-gion survey published in 2010. With 1,714 people represented in the survey, only 763 were used for the study.

While the survey included information on workers’ atti-tudes, beliefs and practices, Hal-besleben made the connection between small and large business employees.

“The people were given state-ments to agree or disagree with, such as how they feel about be-longing to their organization or if they feel emotionally attached to their business,” Halbesleben said. “We found that many of the

workers in a small business had more positive answers than that of those working for a large busi-ness.”

According to the published study, more than half of small firm workers score in the highest commitment category compared to 40.5 percent of large firm workers.

Also, 56 percent of workers in locally owned firms had high commitment scores relative to 38.7 percent of workers in non-locally owned firms.

Dr. Charles Tolbert, profes-sor of sociology, co-authored the study alongside Halbesleben. Tolbert said while it’s always been assumed that small businesses had a higher connection with employees, there was no evidence to back up that claim. Now, when analyzing data from the Bay-lor religion survey, the signs are clear.

“We’re able to see the ques-tions about employee commit-ment and make a connection that hadn’t been made before,” Tolbert said. “We’re able to see how it’s more of a relational employment system than individuals rotating through a large business. People involved with small business know each other, they go to the same churches and they bump into each other at the store.”

Halbesleben said she was glad to be part of a study that helped highlight the connections made in small and local businesses to-day.

“It was really interesting be-cause we’re becoming a more global society with large scale businesses,” she said. “It’s nice to still see the value of small and lo-cal businesses.”

Small businessesboast employee happiness, loyalty

A television news crew walks away from a vehicle caught in an overnight mudslide on Soboba Road near Gilman Springs Road on Thursday in San Jacinto, Calif. Heavy rain triggered flash floods and stranded more than three dozen people in their cars in Southern California.

AssociAted Press

By Christopher WeberAssociated Press

LOS ANGELES — Intense rains took a parting shot Thurs-day at California, triggering flash floods that temporarily stranded more than three dozen people in their cars in inland Riverside County as the state took stock of the effects of days of steady down-pours.

The stranded drivers and city employees in San Jacinto Valley spent the day digging their cars out of mud and cleaning up after the deluge. No one was injured.

The Pacific Coast Highway in Ventura County, closed since an earlier weekend storm sent mud and rocks into the roadway, was open again by late afternoon.

The dwindling storm brought some relief to the parched state, but a new analysis showed how much more rain and snow is needed to pull it from its historic drought.

More than 99 percent of Cali-fornia remained in moderate or worse drought despite rains re-ceived through the end of Novem-ber, national drought experts said.

The data cutoff for the update was Tuesday, meaning most rain and snow from the latest storm was not included.

However, experts said they don’t expect the needle will move much when the latest precipita-tion is tallied.

“One event isn’t going to take away three years of drought,” said climatologist Brian Fuchs of

the National Drought Mitigation Center in Nebraska.

The update shows the Cali-fornia’s drought status was un-changed from the previous week, meaning 55 percent of the state still is considered in the most ex-treme category of drought while 99.7 percent remains in moderate drought or worse.

The past two months have seen several back-to-back rainstorms, and the rain in recent days was among the heaviest that some ar-eas had seen in years.

The system dropped widely varying amounts of rain, ranging from trace levels in some areas to 14.5 inches at Yucaipa Ridge in the San Bernardino Mountains. San Francisco saw 4.3 inches, while 1.5 inches fell on downtown

Los Angeles, according to the Na-tional Weather Service.

The San Francisco Bay Area reached or exceeded normal an-nual rainfall totals for the first time in years.

The storm put downtown Los Angeles slightly above normal for the season to date. Since July 1, it has recorded 2.30 inches of rain compared with the normal aver-age of 2.14 inches by Dec. 4.

Fuchs and other climatologists stressed that California needs to see a consistent pattern of storms to move beyond its driest three years on record.

Along with rain and snow, drought monitors consider the water levels in reservoirs, rivers and streams, soil moisture, and dozens of other factors.

Heavy downpours, flash floods leave California drivers stranded

A6| A7|FRIDAY | DECEMBER 5, 2014www.baylorlariat.comBaylor Lariatbaylorlariat com

CHRISTMASTIME IS HERE!

Children play with props available to use to take pictures with in front of a fireplace scene. Families and Baylor students lined up for an opportunity to take unique Christmas photos.

Jon Platt | lariat rePorter

Students gather to look at the Christmas trees on Fountain Mall that were decorated by various campus organizations. The trees were decorated with ornaments, lights, tulle, pictures,

Carlye thornton | lariat Photo editor

The Columbus Ave. Baptist Church Handbell Choir plays various Christmas carols in Vera Daniel Plaza on Thursday night during Christmas on Fifth Street activities.


Students lined up to take pictures in front of the ornament with their friends.


Kappa Omega Tau lit its iconic Christmas tree in Burleson Quad on Thursday night during Christmas on 5th Street. The tree lighting was one of many events among the Christmas festivities and garnered a large crowd for pictures and fellowship.


Girls examine the handmade jewelry at the Christmas Marketplace during the Christmas on Fifth Street festivities.Jon Platt | lariat rePorter

The live nativity scene re-enacted the night Jesus Christ was born, reminding the Baylor community the reason for the season of Christmas.


Denton sophomore Meryn McClain feeds a small fawn at Christmas on Fifth Street. The petting zoo had an array of animals that children and students could feed and pet at leisure.



The Baylor LariatA8

Flu vaccine may not be as effective this yearBy Mike Stobbe

Associated Press

NEW YORK — The flu vaccine may not be very effective this winter, according to U.S. health officials who worry this may lead to more serious illnesses and deaths.

Flu season has begun to ramp up, and officials say the vaccine does not protect well against the dominant strain seen most commonly so far this year. That strain tends to cause more deaths and hospitalizations, es-pecially in the elderly.

“Though we cannot predict what will happen the rest of this flu season, it’s possible we may have a season that’s more severe than most,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Cen-ters for Disease Control and Preven-tion, at a news conference Thursday.

CDC officials think the vaccine should provide some protection and still are urging people to get vaccinat-ed. But it probably won’t be as good as if the vaccine strain was a match.

Flu vaccine effectiveness tends to vary from year to year. Last winter, flu vaccine was 50 to 55 percent effec-tive overall, which experts consider relatively good.

The CDC issued an advisory to

doctors about the situation Wednes-day evening.

CDC officials said doctors should be on the look-out for patients who may be at higher risk for flu compli-cations, including children younger than 2, adults 65 and older, and people with asthma, heart disease, weakened immune systems or cer-tain other chronic conditions.

Such patients should be seen promptly, and perhaps treated im-mediately with antiviral medications, the CDC advised. If a patient is very sick or at high risk, a doctor shouldn’t wait for a positive flu test result to prescribe the drugs — especially this year, CDC officials said.

The medicines are most effective if taken within two days of the onset of symptoms. They won’t immedi-ately cure the illness, but can lessen its severity and shorten suffering by about a day, Frieden said.

He was echoed by Dr. Richard Zimmerman, a University of Pitts-burgh flu vaccine researcher. Some doctors may hesitate, reasoning that flu season usually doesn’t hit hard until around February.

But it appears to have arrived in many parts of the country already and “it’s time to use them,” Zimmer-

man said.Among infectious diseases, flu is

considered one of the nation’s lead-ing killers. On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, ac-cording to the CDC.

Nearly 150 million doses of flu vaccine have been distributed for this winter’s flu season.

Current flu vaccines are built to protect against three or four different kinds of flu virus, depending on the product. The ingredients are selected very early in the year, based on pre-dictions of what strains will circulate the following winter.

The ingredients always include a Type A H3N2 flu virus. The most severe flu seasons tend to be domi-nated by some version of that kind of flu bug.

The three most deadly flu seasons of the last 10 years — in the winters of 2003-2004, 2007-2008, and 2012-2013 — were H3N2 seasons.

In March, after the H3N2 vaccine strain was vaccine production was underway, health officials noted the appearance new and different strain of H3N2. “This is not something that’s been around before,” Frieden said.

But health officials weren’t sure if

the new strain would become a sig-nificant problem in the United States this winter until recently, they said.

Lab specimens from patients have shown that the most commonly seen flu bug so far is the new strain of H3N2.

Specifically, about 48 percent of the H3N2 samples seen so far were well matched to what’s in the vaccine, but 52 percent were not, the CDC said.

An official with one vaccine manufacturer — GlaxoSmithKline — emphasized that about half the samples do match the strain in the vaccine. He also noted flu seasons can sometimes involve a second wave of illnesses caused by a differ-ent strain.

“We’re at the very beginning of flu season, and it’s quite possible dif-ferent strains will predominate,” said Dr. Leonard Friedland, director of scientific affairs for GSK’s vaccines business.

Thursday’s news follows another problem recently identified by CDC officials, involving the nasal spray version of flu vaccine.

However, CDC officials believe H3N2 will be the most common flu bug this winter.

A sign lets customers know they can get a flu shot in a Walgreens store in Indianapolis. The flu vaccine may not be very effective this winter, according to U.S. health officials who worry this may lead to more serious illnesses and deaths. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an advisory to doctors about the situation this week.

AssociAted Press

During the winter break, the following closures and hour restrictions will apply on campus:

• All residence halls will close 12 p.m. Dec. 17 for non-graduating seniors and 2 p.m. Dec. 20 for graduating seniors. Halls will reopen for the spring semester Jan. 5 for residents participating in sorority recruitment and Jan. 8 for all returning students.

• Administrative offices will continue to operate 8 a.m.-5 p.m Monday through Friday. Offices will be closed Dec. 24 through Jan. 2 in observance of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

• All university libraries will close from Dec. 24 through Jan. 4.

• Baylor Law School will close Dec. 20 through Jan. 4.

• The McLane Student Life Cen-ter will close Dec. 21 through Jan. 4.

• The Student Union Building will close Dec. 21 and Dec. 24 through Thursday, Jan. 1.

*Compiled by Rebecca Flannery, staff writer



By Abigail LoopStaff Writer

Four Baylor students were named winners Thursday in a Fox Sports University program compe-tition that will utilize their market-ing research and data for the net-work.

Nashville, Tenn., senior Tod Zhang, Austin junior Darolyn Pierce, San Antonio junior Ashley Malik and Houston junior Kyle Koch are sports, sponsorship and sales (S3) majors who won the competition.

The students competed in the competition as part of a class project for Dr. Kirk Wakefield, who teaches a consumer behav-ior course. Wakefield said this is the second semester Baylor’s S3 program has partnered with

Fox Sports University program, a program that forms partner-ships between Fox and academic institutions to address marketing, research, technology or strategy challenges that the businesses face.

Students in Wakefield’s class were split into 11 groups and had to develop a communications strat-egy to increase consumer aware-ness of the different FOX Sports networks in the marketplace.

“It makes me proud to see the kids have worked so hard,” Wake-field said. “What they learned in concept, they could use in major media companies. Each presented research and stats for Fox Sports that would bring in more fans and supplied a marketing strategy. I’m amazed at their progression.”

Wakefield said last year’s win-ners had their project brought to

life in a commercial aired by Fox Sports Southwest. While the win-ning team’s presentation was de-scribed as excellent and thorough, Mary Hyink, director of marketing for Fox Sports Southwest, said it was still a difficult choice to make.

“We were very impressed. There was such a high degree of difficulty with this project and they all showed commitment,” Hyink said. “It was a difficult decision for us to make. Out of the 11 groups, there were six very strong ones.”

Marc Sommer, senior director of consumer research program-ming at Fox Sports, agreed with Hyink and said the presentations were phenomenal.

“Every part of every single one of them was impressive,” Sommer said. “They all had great ideas.”

Sommers told the group of stu-

dents that some of them had re-search and prep work like they’ve been working for Fox for two or three years.

He was also stunned that they

covered almost 70 percent of the goals that Fox Sports had them-selves talked about.

“When we started off this pro-gram-developing marketing pro-

cedures- some of you were skep-tical,” Wakefield told the group of students. “But I’m proud with the results. There are many things we liked from each time.”

S3 team produces winning research forFox Sports network

Nashville, Tenn., senior Tod Zhang, Austin junior Darolyn Pierce, San Antonio junior Ashley Malik and Houston junior Kyle Koch formed the group that won the Fox Sports University Program competition.

Skye Duncan | Lariat PhotograPher

By Donna CassataAssociated Press

WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday headed toward pas-sage of a $585 billion defense pol-icy bill that gives President Barack Obama the authority to expand U.S. military operations against Is-lamic extremists in Iraq and Syria.

The sweeping legislation autho-rizes spending for the nation’s de-fense, from construction of ships, planes and war-fighting equip-ment to a 1 percent pay raise for the troops, while maintaining the prohibition on transferring terror suspects from the federal prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the United States.

The bipartisan legislation tra-ditionally garners strong support, but several lawmakers complained that they were barred from a fresh

vote on authorizing military force. In an effort to expedite the bill in the lame-duck session, leadership allowed no amendments.

“These wars deserve a debate,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. “We’re getting more deeply in-volved in the war in Iraq and Syria.”

If passed as expected, the mea-sure heads to the Senate, where Republicans are divided over the inclusion of unrelated provisions expanding wilderness areas in the West. Proponents of the bill hope to finish the bill next week and send it to Obama for his signature.

This year, work on the bill has added poignancy as the chairmen of the Armed Services committees in the Senate and House are retir-ing. Democrat Carl Levin is leaving after representing Michigan for 36 years in the Senate; California Re-publican Howard “Buck” McKeon

is stepping down after a 22-year ca-reer in the House. The bill is named for both men. The overall legisla-tion endorses Obama’s latest re-

quest to Congress in the 4-month-old war against Islamic State militants who brutally rule large sections of Iraq and Syria. Obama

sought billions for the stepped-up operation and the dispatch of up to 1,500 more American troops; the bill provides $5 billion.

The administration also pressed for reauthorization of its plan to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels battling the forces of Presi-dent Bashar Assad. The bill would provide the core funding of $521.3 billion for the military and $63.7 billion for overseas operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, where fight-ing has lasted more than a decade. The bill would prohibit the retire-ment of the A-10 Warthog, the close-air support plane often de-scribed as ugly but invaluable.

The Pentagon sought cuts in military benefits. Lawmakers com-promised by agreeing to make service members pay $3 more for co-pays on prescription drugs and trimming the growth of the

off-base housing allowance by 1 percent instead of the Pentagon’s deeper 5 percent recommendation.

The legislation would change the military justice system to deal with sexual assault cases, including scrapping the nearly century-old practice of using a “good soldier defense” to raise doubts that a crime has been committed.

The bill includes a bipartisan plan crafted by three female sena-tors that would impose a half-doz-en changes to combat the pervasive problem of rape and sexual offens-es that Pentagon leaders have lik-ened to a cancer within the ranks.

The measure would give accus-ers a greater say in whether their cases are litigated in the military or civilian system and would establish a confidential process to allow vic-tims to challenge their separation or discharge from the military.

House nears passage of $585 billion defense bill

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Howard “Buck” McKe-on, R-Calif. listens to a speech Wednesday on Capitol Hill in Washington.

aSSociateD PreSS

By Sarah ParviniTribune News Service

Kim Kardashian may have tried to #BreakTheInternet, but it’s South Korean pop star Psy who “broke” YouTube - or pushed it to its limits, at least.

Psy’s trademark hit “Gangnam Style” is so popular it exceeded YouTube’s 2,147,483,647 view limit.

After reaching that unthinkable amount (if you’re a failed math-lete, that’s more than 2 billion) the counter stopped working.

“We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer ... but that was before we met PSY,” You-Tube wrote in a post on Google+. “’Gangnam Style’ has been viewed so many times we had to upgrade to a 64-bit integer.”

The California company, owned by Google, upped the view counter’s maximum to 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 - that’s more than 9 quintillion.

But YouTube didn’t techni-cally break because of the hit song, Google spokesman Matt McLer-non told CNN.

“It’s just people having fun with the language,” McLernon said.

To have its own bit of fun, YouTube recently programmed the “Gangnam” video’s counter to move backward and forward when viewers hover over it.

“Gangnam Style,” uploaded nearly 2 years ago, was the first video to hit 1 billion views.

Psy pushes YouTube to its limit

Follow us on Twitter!

@bulariat


The Baylor LariatA10

Baylor social work doctoral candidate Melissa Ishio loves her classes. Like other students, she attends lectures, has group discus-sions and meets one-on-one with her professors. But unlike other students, Ishio has been taking them in Japan for the past year.

“When I was in Japan, my time was 14 hours different from Bay-lor’s,” Ishio said, who has moved back to Waco. “Sometimes I have to take classes at 4 a.m. But it’s wonderful I can do distance learn-ing.”

Ishio is one of the students ben-efiting from Baylor’s technology-enhanced education. The integra-tion of online tools into teaching and learning is changing the way students are taught both in physi-cal and distant classes. But will cyberspace edge out the campus as the main learning place for Baylor in the foreseeable future?

Online degrees: the positivesThe Hankamer School of Busi-

ness started its first online mas-ter’s program in May, following the launch of social work online graduate programs last summer. In the spring, the Louise Herrington School of Nursing will pilot an on-line master nursing administration program.

The first group of students in the programs think highly of Bay-lor’s online efforts.

Ishio said she believes learning from online classes, which are held as video conferences, is as effective as learning in a physical classroom. During the lectures, students and professors can see each other and have discussions. Class materials are accessible anytime and if she misses a video class, recordings are available for her to catch up.

Carolyn Meyer, who is in the second year of the online Master of Social Work program, also said she

is having a great experience. Meyer said with the teaching

software, teachers can present the PowerPoint slides to the whole class any time they want, while stu-dents can type their questions into the chat bar as they are listening. Students can also break up into groups..

Meyer said the program allows her to continue her internship while studying. Although she sel-dom talks with the professors face to face, she can easily reach them by phone or by email.

Dr. Gary Carini, associate dean for graduate business programs, said students and faculty in the online master of business admin-istration degree program have also given positive feedback.

Carini said the online pro-grams are the same quality as their on-campus counterparts, only de-livered differently.

“This is another way to teach,” he said. “It’s good for people who can’t go to university Monday through Friday.”

Undergraduate summer courses Carini said the online teaching

environment has generated new teaching strategies for faculty.

Baylor will soon offer online undergraduate classes. For sum-mer 2015, the College of Arts and Sciences is offering seven online general education courses that can be used in most majors across campus, according to the Office of the Registrar.

Pattie Orr, vice president for in-formation technology and dean of university libraries, said Baylor has long been planning for the sum-mer program, which will enable students to take classes at nights and on weekends.

Dr. Steve Reid, chair of the teaching, learning and technology committee, said the online courses will maintain the same quality as traditional classes and the elec-tronic libraries hired two instruc-

tional designers to help faculty members in transforming their classes to online forms based on their teaching objectives.

Orr said students who join the pilot program will provide feed-back, and it’s likely other schools will open online classes covering a wider range of subjects.

She said it’s possible Baylor stu-dents who are studying abroad or

serving in the military will be able to take online classes in the future.

“Before we go too far, we are making sure it really meets the needs of our students,” Orr said. “We need to find out which faculty would like to teach the courses this way and what students would like to take. We want to make sure we are matching these two things to-gether.”

Online interactions: Divided opinions

This trend of digital education is not applauded universally, how-ever. Previous online course takers said online education, if not treat-ed seriously, can become a waste of

time.Covington, La., sophomore

Isabel Collier took several high school and college courses online before coming to Baylor. She said the quality of online courses varies.

“The college classes were re-ally good, but the high school ones were horrible,” Collier said. “The problem isn’t with the idea of on-line school. It’s because it was run

so poorly. There was no video or anything to teach you. They just gave you an online textbook and expected you to learn by yourself.”

She said in some classes, stu-dents were required to participate in online discussions, but they learned little from the process.

“In my high school, students are forced to talk in online classes,” she said. “We had chats every day, but people talked about nothing, because nobody had any specific questions to ask.”

Some faculty members are also in doubt of whether in-depth dis-cussions can happen online.

Dr. Andy Hogue, lecturer in political science, said he doesn’t

think his classes can be taught in the absence of face-to-face dia-logues.

“There is so much to be gained from being able to talk with one another,” Hogue said. “I know there is capability to do that online, but it misses some of the richness of exchanging ideas and engaging in dialogue in person.”

Dr. Marcie Moehnke, senior lecturer of biology, offers video tu-torials to help her students study after class. But she said in-person interactions are more effective in learning biology.

“Biology being such a challeng-ing discipline, it’s important for students to be able to ask questions in class and to have feedback,” she said.

Moehnke said online classes also fail to provide laboratory ex-perience, which is indispensable in biology education. She said al-though virtual laboratories can offer some good instructions, stu-dents learn better when they are doing experiments hands-on.

However, professors currently teaching online courses are opti-mistic about what technologies can achieve. Many said synchronized videoconference is a good ice-breaking tool in the virtual class-room.

Dr. Jon Singletary, associate dean of graduate students at the School of Social Work, said estab-lishing a teaching-and-learning relationship in a videoconference is easier than many people think.

“A few minutes into the video conference, you kind of forget you are talking to a screen,” Singletary said. “It’s live and dynamic. The conversations are meaningful. Dis-cussions are just like you would have in an in-person classroom.”

He said online discussions sometimes work even better. While only a few respond to questions in a traditional classroom, Singletary said every one tends to contrib-ute both verbally or on discussion

board during video classes. “There are ways you get inter-

actions that are just as high quality as in an in-person class,” Singletary said. “It’s a different way of learn-ing, but I don’t think it’s inferior.”

Reid, professor of Christian scriptures, said high-quality in-teractions can be achieved online with tools such as Wiki and online chats, but teachers and students need to invest more time and en-ergy.

“If I were to transcribe every-thing I’m saying and put it online, and have to wait until you tran-scribe and read it, then what took less than a minute would take sub-stantially longer,” he said.

“The big problem is we are not used to it,” Reid said.

A residential future Reid said Baylor started its

move towards Internet in recog-nition of the online work other prominent universities are doing.

But he said online education will not take the place of tradi-tional classrooms. Students at Bay-lor will always be able to see their friends on campus and have coffee with professors.

“We wanted to make sure that we were not being so traditional and missing out an opportunity to provide excellent education for our students just because it wasn’t the way we were educated,” Reid said.

Orr said Baylor would like to have more fully online graduate degrees in the professional schools and fully online undergraduate courses for students who are tem-porarily away from campus. Most of the teaching and learning will be done in the technology-enhanced classrooms on campus.

“Baylor faculty didn’t feel it’s a high priority to do a lot of fully on-line courses,” Orr said. “We really are a residential campus and we are really about serving students that are here in a residential setting, one on one with their faculty.”

By Viola ZhouReporter

Baylor’s College of Arts and Sciences will begin to offer online courses for the summer 2015 semester. The courses that will be offered are listed above. Baylor is expanding its online program after a successful launch of the Hankamer School of Business” online MBA program.


Baylor to expand online classes in summer 2015

FRIDAY | DECEMBER 5, 2014

News


Baylor students show their pride at the game against TCU in McLane Stadium. The Bears will play at home against Kansas State at 6:45 p.m. Saturday.

Carlye ThornTon | lariaT PhoTo ediTor

BU Athletics hires PR firmto aid in national coverage

are down to a one game season,” head coach Art Briles said. “We’ve got a great setting at McLane Stadium and we need to take advan-tage of this great opportunity against a really good football team.”

The three-hour show will begin its live broadcast at the base of the Umphrey Bridge on the South Plaza area at McLane Stadium starting at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning. Stu-dents will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis in the student pit on the ESPN set.

Shuttle services will be available starting at 6 a.m. Shuttles will pick up students and fans from Penland Residence Hall and downtown Waco for transportation to McLane Stadium. Other fans will need to access the stadium from the north side of the stadium on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

A queue begins at 5 p.m. today for stu-dents who want to wait in line to be in the ESPN College GameDay Student Pit. Camp-ing guidelines have been set and are posted at

of media attention often warrants the need for help.

“Sometimes there’s so much de-mand that there’s a need for more hands,” Fogleman said. “We have an extremely competent media team, both for the university and athletics, but sometimes you need all hands on

deck and then some more.”Kevin Sullivan Communications is

a firm with associates in Washington, D.C., New York and Florida. Joos said the athletic department hired them before the Thanksgiving holiday.

“[The agency] draws upon more than 25 years of experience at the

White House, the U.S. Department of Education, NBC Universal, NBC Sports and the NBA’s Dallas Maver-icks,” according to their website.

Joos said the department plans on using the firm through next week.

“I originally just got into it for the wrap-ping of the presents,” Hernandez said.

Wednesday, Santa’s Workshop gathered in the Bill Daniel Student Center building for their annual wrapping party. Hot chocolate and Christmas music was provided to keep spirits high, Starr said. This is the event that drew Hernandez to the group. She said she stayed because it was rewarding to see the kids get the gifts.

Starr said she under ordered on presents this year accidentally, and Wednesday turned into an impromptu trip to Wal-Mart to buy more gifts.

“This is the part that’s all the fun,” Starr said. “The end when we get to buy presents and see the kid’s faces.”

Starr said she was inspired at the begin-ning of the year to try and reach 1,000 chil-dren and 1,000 gifts. Even though this year’s attendance will be short of that, she said it is a good goal for her predecessors to aim for next year.

Starr encourages Baylor Students to drop in and play with kids during today’s event.

Hype from Page 1

PR from Page 1

Santa from Page 1

Students wrap presents Wednesday in the Bill Daniel Student Center for Santa’s Workshop.


problems they see in the police and justice systems.

“I’m here not only as the adviser of NAACP but as someone who wants to see justice brought about,” said Ramona Curtis, director of civic en-gagement. “A college campus is a great time for students to express social movements.”

Dr. Kevin Jackson, vice president of student life, joined the students as they marched through Christmas on Fifth Street activities. Jackson helped to self-police the group and said he was there to show his support and see Baylor students expressing their beliefs

“We want students to be able to ex-press themselves, to be able to express what they’re feeling and what they’re concerns are,” he said.

Jackson also said no movement or march of this size has occurred on Baylor’s campus since he has worked at Baylor. The closest thing, he said, was a protest against the administra-tion bringing Anne Lamott to speak on campus.

“That just shows different people have a different opinion,” he said.

Jackson said the protest was well organized and that the leaders were mindful in policing the conduct.

Students from all classification

gathered in solidarity.“I have dreams. I just want fair

treatment. I just want opportunity,” graduate student Jonathan McKay said.

Mychelle Berry, Lawton, Ok. fresh-man, said she was there to stand for freedom and acceptance. She said her desire to see justice was because she would one day have kids, who might experience these unjust acts against them. She said she did not want to see this happen.

“It affects our generation,” Hous-ton senior Jessica Holum said. “It’s our issue. It affects everyone in some way.”

Protest from Page 1


The Baylor LariatA12

Antwan GoodleySENIOR RECEIVER

BAYLOR FOOTBALL

Kevin Freeman | Lariat Photographer

B1The Baylor Lariat

Friday | December 5, 2014

Sports

By Jeffrey SwindollSports Writer

No. 6 Baylor football was thrown into a whirlwind after Tuesday night’s announcement of the latest College Football Playoff rankings. With just one game left in the regular season, the odds are stacked against the Bears to make it into the new four-team play-off system this year. Regardless of any other result, the Bears must win to be in the College Football Playoff.

On top of Baylor’s shot at playing for a national title, the Bears have the opportunity to win their second-ever Big 12 title. All of this will take place on national television with the famed College GameDay show preceding the 6:45 p.m. kickoff to be broadcast on ESPN.

All eyes will be on Waco for the season finale, which will es-sentially decide the Big 12 Con-ference title and prove the Bears’ worth to the se-lection commit-tee in possibly the biggest game in Baylor history. Quite the mouthwa-tering fixture.

None of it will come easy though. The Bears play the notoriously dis-ciplined No. 9 Kansas State Wildcats (9-2) tomorrow night at McLane Sta-dium. The Wildcats’ only losses this season were against No. 19 Auburn (8-4) and No. 3 TCU (10-1).

"[Kansas State] has done an out-standing job for decades and does it in a unique way,” Baylor head coach Art Briles said. “They believe in what they do and they have tremendous support from the Wildcat community that is almost unparalleled, if you have ever been up to Manhattan. I certainly think they are a program and he is a coach that if you are looking for a flaw or dent in the armor, you are not going to find one."

Baylor offense vs. Kansas State defense

Baylor leads the country in total of-fense (581.1 yards per game) and scor-

ing offense (49.8 points per game). With the amount of talent and sheer numbers, Baylor arguably has the best offense in the country. The Bears rank No. 1 nationally in first downs per game (30.2), and have three of top individual offensive players in the Big 12 -- senior quarterback Bryce Petty, sophomore running back Shock Lin-wood, sophomore wide receiver Corey Coleman.

"Our running game has been go-ing well, so we have to be able to hit some short routes as well,” Coleman said. “Once we hit those, the defense won't play 30 yards back like they have been playing. After we hit those short routes and they come up, we can get them long."

Overall, Baylor’s attack is balanced with both running and passing. Baylor

is third in the nation by averaging 3.5 rushing touchdowns per game and is one of just two teams in the FBS, along with Oregon, that has 30 passing touchdowns and 30 rushing touch-downs. Kansas State’s defense is no easy task, though.

“They are about as sound of a defense as you could ever find,” Petty said. “They don't make mistakes or very rarely do.”

The Bears have the 20th best run-ning game in the country on the back of Linwood’s 1,135 yards this sea-son. The running corps took a blow, though, after sophomore running back Devin Chafin suffered a dislocated elbow against Texas Tech last week. Chafin has been the Bears’ best short-yardage, hard-nosed running back this season, Briles said.

Baylor defense vs. Kansas State offense

In terms of offensive production, the similarities between Baylor and K-State are striking. Quarterback Jake Waters has had an outstanding season with 18 touchdowns, 2863 total yards, and just five interceptions in 11 games f, all of which are almost identical to Petty’s numbers. The only major dif-ference is in touchdowns, Petty has 25 compared to Waters’ 18.

The similarities don’t stop at the quarterback position. They spill over into receiving as well. The Wildcats have two top-notch receivers, Tyler Lockett and Curry Sexton, leading the team in receiving. Baylor freshman receiver KD Cannon and Coleman combine for, again, nearly identical numbers in yards per game. Lockett and Sexton average 14.55 yards per re-ception and are responsible for 2,133 receiving yards this season. Lockett and Sexton are threats that have the ability to break the Bears’ secondary on Saturday night.

“[Lockett] is a very dangerous play-er, and Waters does a great job,” Briles said. “Their scheme makes you cover the field interior and exterior. They do a great job of making you cover all of the eligible receivers with run-pass op-tions. They have some guys they can go to and Waters to me has had a phe-nomenal year.”

One thing the Bears specifically had going for them last week, and the whole season, was forced turnovers. Baylor has forced at least one turnover in all 11 games of 2014, with three or more in four of the last seven.

After allowing the Texas Tech Red Raiders’ freshman quarterback Patrick Mahomes 598 passing yards in the Bears’ narrow 48-46 victory at AT&T Stadium on Saturday, Baylor’s defense is on red alert. The Bears’ pass defense ranks 100th in the nation. Against Wa-ters and his receiving duo, the Bears’ secondary will have its hands full.

"Everything is motivating at this point,” senior nickelback Collin Brence said. “Our team put itself in a position to win another Big 12 Cham-pionship. That is big in itself. Then you add in the situation with the playoffs, and it makes this week pretty big. I was sitting on the couch yesterday, and I looked on Twitter to see that College GameDay is coming. That doesn’t hap-pen every week. There's a lot on the line, and it's up to us not to let that be bigger than the game itself. We have to go out there and act like it is another Saturday. It's a great day to play foot-ball and play against a great opponent."

The game will be preceded by ES-PN’s College GameDay from 8 to 11 a.m. in front of the South Endzone of McLane.


Iowa State (2-9, 0-8) at No. 3 TCU (10-1, 7-1)Iowa State finishes Big 12 play as it plays No.

3 TCU at Amon G. Carter Stadium on Saturday morning

The Cyclones look to avoid a winless confer-ence season as they face bowl-bound TCU. Iowa State has not won since its 37-30 win over Toledo on Oct. 11. Most recently, the Cyclones dropped a 37-24 decision to West Virginia last Saturday. Quarterback Sam B. Richardson threw for 275 yards and two touchdowns in the team’s fifth-straight loss. The Cyclones rallied for 410 offensive yards on 22 first downs in Ames, Iowa.

TCU has the chance to win a share its first Big 12 title Saturday morning as the team hosts its final regular season game. The Horned Frogs smashed Texas 48-10 on Thanksgiving and limited the Longhorns to only 290 offensive yards in the matchup. Quarterback Trevone Boykin was 20-for-34 on the night for 233 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. The Horned Frogs went up 20-3 heading into halftime, and an interception return by defensive end Josh Carraway put the Horned Frogs up by 38 with under three minutes left in the game.

TCU is currently in the Top 4 of the College Football Playoff bracket, but the final pairings will be announced on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

TCU and Iowa State kick off at 11 a.m. on ABC.

Oklahoma State (5-6, 3-5) at No. 20 Oklahoma (8-3, 5-3)

The annual Bedlam series kicks off Saturday af-ternoon as Oklahoma State and No. 20 Oklahoma face off in each team’s season finale at Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla.

Oklahoma State enters the matchup with a five-game losing streak, including their most recent 49-28 loss against then-No. 7 Baylor in Waco on Nov. 22. In the loss, quarterback Mason Rudolph passed for 281 yards and two touchdowns but was intercepted twice at McLane Stadium. The Cow-boys were in the hole with a 42-14 deficit before using its next two drives to cut the lead. Oklahoma State finished with 381 total offensive yards against the Bears.

The Sooners enter their final home game with a 44-7 win over Kansas on Nov. 22. Oklahoma jumped out to a 31-0 start with the help of running back Samaje Perine who finished with 427 yards on 34 carries for five rushing touchdowns in the win. With Trevor Knight still out due to a spine injury, quarterback Cody Thomas only passed the ball for 39 yards on three receptions for the Soon-ers. Oklahoma has won the Bedlam series 11 times in 12 years, including a 33-24 win over then-No. 6 Oklahoma State last season.

Oklahoma and Oklahoma State face off in Nor-man at 2:30 p.m. on FOX Sports 1.

Junior cornerback Chris Sanders runs out of the tunnel before Baylor’s 61-58 win over TCU on Oct. 11. The Bears face off against their second top 10 opponent on Saturday at McLane Stadium.

Kevin Freeman | Lariat PhotograPher

Finish StrongBig 12 RoundupBaylor can capture second-straight

Big 12 Championship against KSU

Kansas State kick returner Tyler Lockett (16) escapes a tackle by Kansas special teams player Justin McCay (19) during the second half of an NCAA college foot-ball game in Manhattan, Kan., Nov. 29. Kansas State won 51-13.

orLin Wagner | associated Press

“There’s a lot on the line, and it’s up to us

not to let that be bigger than the game itself.”

Colin Brence | Senior nickelback

FRIDAY | DECEMBER 5, 2014Sports

The Baylor LariatB2


Baylor men’s basketball used a strong perfor-mance from senior forward Royce O’Neale and junior forward Taurean Prince to take a 66-63 win over Vanderbilt Thursday night at Memo-rial Gym in Nashville, Tenn.

This is the first win since 1949 for the Bears against the Commodores, and Baylor snaps an eight-game losing streak to Vanderbilt. The Bears are now 5-1 in conference challenges, marking a perfect 2-0 record in the Big 12/SEC Challenge.

The Bears finished with a 45.3 shooting ef-fort and were 55.6 percent from the three-point line in a very tight game at Memorial Gym.

O’Neale and Prince combined for 41 points and collected 22 and 19 points individually.

Prince also had five rebounds, four assists and a block for the Bears. Junior guard Lester Med-ford had seven points and added six rebounds, seven assists, and three steals to keep the Bears in front.

Junior forward Rico Gathers only had four points after posting a career-high 23 points in Baylor’s win over Texas Southern Monday night. Gathers contributed six rebounds on defense.

Freshman guard Al Freeman saw quite a bit of playing time and had seven points and added two three-pointers in the win. Sophomore for-ward Ishmail Wainwright added four rebounds for Baylor.

A layup by Prince broke a 12-12 tie halfway through the first half, and the Bears cruised on a 8-0 run capped off by junior guard Austin Mills’ three-pointer to lead 20-12 with 9:09 left in the opening half.

A three-pointer by Vanderbilt’s Wade Bald-win cut the lead to five, but O’Neale secured the jump shot to make it a seven-point lead for Bay-lor. Prince was red hot from beyond the arc and knocked down a buzzer beater, and Baylor went into the locker room with a 34-25 lead.

The Bears came out flat and allowed a 6-0 run to start out the second half. Freeman and O’Neale each hit a three-pointer to extend the lead to nine, and O’Neale went ahead and added another three-pointer.

The game got close in the final minutes, and Vanderbilt’s Damian Jones sunk two free throws to cut the lead to 65-63. Baldwin fouled Med-ford with 14 seconds to go, and Medford sunk a free throw to push the lead to three. Vanderbilt failed at an attempted last second three-pointer, and the Bears took the 66-63 win over the Com-modores.

Baylor men’s basketball sneakspast Vanderbilt 66-63 on road

Junior forward Deng Deng shoots over a Vanderbilt defender during Bay-lor’s 66-63 win over the Commodores on Thursday.

Jae Lee | associated Press

By Jeffrey SwindollSports Writer

Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey has treated the beginning portion of her sea-son as trial run for most of her players. Veterans like sophomore forward Nina Davis, junior guard Niya Johnson, junior post Kristina Higgins, senior guard Alexis Prince and senior post Sune Agbuke are all mainstays in Mulkey’s main rotation. But, for the new players this season, Mulkey has said she is not quite sure how she plans to use each one of them.

The season keeps moving though, even for the No. 11 Lady Bears who are search-ing for an identity at the moment. Their next challenge, and second road game of the season, tips off at 2 p.m. on Sunday against Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss. While the students in Waco are taking in the Col-lege Gameday experience, the Lady Bears will have nothing but business in mind. There is no time to play around because

of the limited amount of games in the pre-conference season.

“I looked at the schedule a minute ago after lunch, and I was like, Gosh, seven games is what we have this month,” Mulkey said. “I want more. Does that make sense? I feel like I need more. I need more game time, I need more practice time, be-cause we just need it, but we are limited on how many we can play prior to conference starting. And then we take the Christmas break.”

Davis, without a doubt, the front-run-ner for the team’s MVP this season, has played multiple roles for Mulkey this sea-son, as opposed to last season, where her role stayed relatively consistent through-out the latter portion of the season.

This season, Davis is up to the high standard she set for herself last season as Big 12 Newcomer of the Year. She is the team’s leading scorer and is nuisance for defenses, night-in-night-out. Against UT-

Pan American Wednesday night, Davis scored 31 points, just one point shy of her career record.

“She’s been starting at the three for us until we can get Kristy back and I can get a rotation like I have it,” Mulkey said. “So, [against UTPA] she was more at the four than she was at the three and she was back in her comfort zone.”

Mulkey is putting more responsibility on Davis’ shoulders, especially now with one of Baylor’s starting guards, freshman Kristy Wallace, out of the lineup for one more game. Wallace is on national team duty with Australia’s under 19 women’s na-tional basketball team to train for the 2015 FIBA Under 19 World Championship.

“As far as the three goes, if my team needs there, I’ll do anything to help the team,” Davis said. “It’s different out there, but whatever the team needs, I’m willing to do.”

Johnson, who Mulkey calls the Lady

Bears’ “quarterback,” returned to play for Baylor on Wednesday night after a one game absence, nursing an injury. Mulkey said the way her team plays without John-son on the floor is clearly different from the way they flow with her on the court. Johnson being out forces Mulkey to play some of her players out of position, which presents a problem in itself. Notably, soph-omore forward Ieshia Small has had to play more point guard while Wallace is with her Australian team and Johnson is off the court for whatever reason.

“When you don’t have your quarter-back, everybody’s got to do a little bit more, and you’re probably not comfort-able playing out of position,” Ieshia is truly a wing player, but she can handle the ball, and I thought she and Imani both did good when I didn’t have Niya. But when you’ve got your point guard and your quarterback back out on the floor, there’s a comfort level there.”

With Johnson on the court, Baylor’s offense is as clean with the ball as anyone. Against UTPA, Johnson dished out 10 as-sists without committing a single turnover. Johnson had to overcome being one game removed from the Lady Bears, as well as her injury pain which caused her to be out in the first place.

“I was just trying to get my groove back [against UTPA] from the game I missed,” Johnson said. “I just can’t worry about the injury. I just have to go out there and play. If I worry about the injury I’m not going to be able to go out there and play.”

Ole Miss (6-2) are coming off of a 98-69 spanking given to them by Western Kentucky on Thursday night. The Lady Rebels will be licking their wounds against the Lady Bears on Sunday. Ole Miss is led by Klara Golden and Shequila Joseph who were the only two to score in double digits against Western Kentucky.

Baylor women taking advantage of non-conference play


The Baylor Lariat B3

Senior midfielder Alexa Wilde jumps up for a head during Baylor’s 1-1 draw over TCU on Oct. 3. The Bears got off to a hot start, including an impressive win over No. 23 BYU on the road. However, Baylor struggled when it reached conference play, finish-ing with a 2-5-1 record in conference. The Bears upset No. 2 Oklahoma State in the Big 12 tourney, but lost in penalty kicks to OU to end the season.


Sophomore middle hitter Tola Itiola leaps for a spike against Baylor’s 1-3 loss to Texas on Nov. 19 in Waco. The Bears finished with a disappointing 14-17 record, including 4-12 in conference. After the year, it was announced head coach Jim Barnes will not return next season.


A Baylor equestrian western rider competes during Baylor’s 14-1 win over Southern Methodist on Sept. 27. The Bears currently sit ranked, undefeated and No. 1 overall in the NCEA rankings after a series of impressive wins, including a 13-7 win over former No. 1 Georgia at home. Senior Samantha Schaefer was named NCEA National Rider of the Month for November.

kevin Freeman | Lariat PhotograPher

Equestrian ranked top in the country

Baylor equestrian reached the top of the national rankings, while soccer and volleyball showed potential for next year

Fall 2014 in Review:


The Baylor LariatB4

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By Ralph RussoAssociated Press

The College Football Playoff se-lection committee will reveal its final top 25 rankings and set the four-team field for the College Football Playoff on Sunday.

Some frequently asked questions about the committee, the rankings and playoff:

How does the committee rank the teams? Is it like the AP Top 25?

No, the process is nothing like the AP college football poll, where vot-ers submit ballots and the teams are ranked using a points system. The committee will create small groups of teams, debate their merits and rank the teams using as many votes as needed to come up with a consen-sus. The committee has been ranking teams weekly since late October.

Why top 25? The playoff only has four teams.

The committee will also create the matchups and pick some of the teams to play in the four other bowl games involved in the playoff rotation. Those games are the Cotton Bowl, the Or-ange Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl and the Peach Bowl. Those teams will be cho-sen using the highest ranked teams af-ter the playoff matchups have been set and considering the contracts certain conferences have with certain bowls. Also, the committee is responsible for choosing the best team from the so-called Group of Five conferences — the American Athletic Conference, Mountain West, Sun Belt, Conference USA and the Mid-American Confer-ence — which is guaranteed a spot in one of the New Year's bowls, no mat-ter how far down the rankings.

Who is on this committee?

The panel is made up of twelve members: Arkansas athletic direc-tor Jeff Long, committee chairman; Southern California athletic director Pat Haden; Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich; Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez; West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck; Former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne; For-mer Stanford, Notre Dame and Wash-ington coach Tyrone Willingham; Former Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese; Former NCAA vice presi-dent Tom Jernstedt; Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Former USA Today sports writer Steve Wie-berg and Former Air Force superin-tendent and retired Lieutenant Gen-eral Mike Gould. Former Mississippi quarterback Archie Manning was part of the committee, but recently had to step down because of some health is-sues. He will not be replaced.

Where will they be meeting?

A resort hotel in Grapevine, Texas, just outside of Dallas.

When will the selections be re-vealed?

Sunday at 12:45 p.m. ET on ESPN.

What should we expect?

Depends on what happens this weekend. The current top four is Ala-bama, Oregon, TCU and Florida State. If they all win Saturday, there's a good chance those will be the playoff teams. If the order doesn't change Alabama would play Florida State at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans and Oregon and TCU would play at the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. If one or more lose, the committee's work gets tougher.

By Ralph RussoAssociated Press

The 12-member College Football Playoff selection committee will gather Saturday in Texas to watch the final weekend of the sea-son play out and then rank the top 25 teams in the country. The top four will compete for the national championship in the sport's first ever playoff.

How difficult the committee's job will be depends on the outcome of about a half dozen games to be played Friday and Saturday.

"At that point, we will have had a season long body of work to evaluate, in addition to knowing who the conference champions are," committee chairman Jeff Long said.

The top four heading into the weekend are in order: Alabama, Oregon, TCU and Florida State. If they all take care of business, there is a good chance that will be the top four on Sun-day, too. Probably. Maybe?

But what happens if things don't go as ex-pected? Let's dive into the possibilities.

What happens if ....Missouri beats Alabama?

The unthinkable — at least for many down South. There is a very real possibility the South-eastern Conference would be left out of the playoff. Missouri is ranked 16th in the latest playoff rankings. That's a long way to go to get in the four-team field. The committee clearly is not loving Missouri's ugly losses (at home against Indiana and 34-0 to Georgia), so it's doubtful it will forgive Alabama for losing to the Tigers and allow the Crimson Tide to back into the field. If the Tigers pull an upset, the SEC is going to need a lot of help. The Crimson Tide is favored by 14.5.

Arizona beats Oregon?The Wildcats are seventh in the rankings,

heading into a rematch with Oregon Friday.

Two wins away from home against the Ducks would be like holding a pair of aces: tough to beat. It could come down to a resume contest between Baylor and/or Ohio State and Arizo-na. Don't bet against the Wildcats making the big jump. The Pac-12 and commissioner Larry Scott are touting their championship as a play-off play-in game. They might be right. Despite losing the first game, Oregon is favored by 14.5.

Georgia Tech beats Florida State?Considering the fourth-place and unbeaten

Seminoles have been dropping when they win, there's no doubt they'd be done with a loss. Georgia Tech is 11th and beating Florida State would mean finishing the season with three straight wins against ranked teams. The Yellow Jackets would probably need Baylor (vs. Kansas State) and Ohio State (vs. Wisconsin) to lose to reach the top four, but considering who those teams are playing, that doesn't seem so like such a stretch. Florida State is favored by 4.

TCU struggles to beat Iowa State?The Horned Frogs got a pass for squeak-

ing by at Kansas last month. That can't happen again against a 30-point underdog at home. If it does, it would open the door for either Bay-lor or Ohio State to replace the Frogs in the top four. With the Bears and Buckeyes in posi-tion to add marquee wins to their resumes, the third-ranked Horned Frogs better exert some

serious game control against the Cyclones.Three of the top four teams lose?

Assuming it won't be TCU, the Big 12 would be looking good to get two teams in the field. TCU, Baylor, Ohio State and Arizona sounds about right in this scenario. If Baylor were to lose to K-State, the ninth-ranked Wildcats could become a viable option, though that sce-nario probably allows Georgia Tech to squeeze through.

Alabama, Ohio State and Baylor lose?This is how Missouri could get in. Assuming

Arizona and Georgia Tech also lose, the final spot with Florida State, TCU and Oregon comes down to Missouri, Kansas State and Wisconsin. Michi-gan State (eighth) and Mississippi State (10th) would likely come back into the conversation, but neither would have the conference champion-ship that those other three would have on their resumes. And what team would have a better win than Missouri if it takes down the committee's No. 1 team on a neutral field?

The top six teams all lose?Long and his crew might have to pull an all-

nighter.The questions with this doomsday scenario

are: Could it allow Alabama to back in? Would Mississippi State and/or Michigan State get in? And how bad will the TV ratings be for a final four of Arizona, Georgia Tech, Kansas State and Wisconsin or Missouri?

TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin (2) throws a pass during the first half of an NCAA college foot-ball game against Texas, on Nov. 27, in Austin. TCU was elevated to the number three team in the nation in the most recent College Football Playoff poll.

Ashley lAndis | AssociAted Press

College Football Playoff frequently asked questions

Playoff scenarios yet to be finalized

Arts & EntertainmentFriday | December 5, 2014

B5The Baylor Lariat

Ready for Christmas?The Lariat is. This semester, the Lariat staff is bringing you a guide to the best in Christmas: movies, music, treats

and fun. (Lots of fun.) This collection of our Christmas favorites can supplement holiday parties, family gatherings or even a warm night spent by the fireside.

CheesyAny films on Hallmark, ABC Family or Lifetime channels

Classic1. “It’s a Wonderful Life”

2. “Miracle on 34th Street”3. A Christmas Story”

Musical1. “White Christmas”

2. “The Muppet Christmas Carol”3. “The Polar Express”

Frosty flicks

Comedy1. “Scrooged”

2. “Home Alone”3. “National Lampoon’s Christ-

mas Vacation”

Modern1. “Christmas with the Kranks”

2. “Bad Santa”3. “Elf ”

Animated1. “A Charlie Brown Christmas”2. “How the Grinch Stole Christ-

mas”3. “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed

Reindeer”

Rom-Com1. “The Holiday”

2. “Love Actually”3. “While You Were Sleeping”

Scary1. “The Nightmare Before Christ-

mas”2. “The Gremlins”

3. “Black Christmas”

Action1. “Die Hard”

Christmas themed films are popular in the newsroom. This list

covers a wide range of genres to satisfy every moviegoer.

What you need

2 1/4 cups flour1 teaspoon baking soda1 teaspoon salt2 sticks butter3/4 cup granulated sugar3/4 cup brown sugar, packed1 teaspoon vanilla extract2 eggs2 cups chocolate or peanut but-ter chips1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

What you do

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees before you begin.

2. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl with an electric mixer.

3. Beat butter, sugars and va-nilla in a separate, larger bowl until mixture is creamy.

4. Combine eggs, one at a time,

in creamy mixture. 5. Add flour, a little at a time,

into mixture.6. Mix chips into dough. Use

chocolate, peanut butter or other kinds of morsels. Mixing chip fla-vors also works well.

7. Use a tablespoon or hands to place 2 inch balls on an ungreased cookie sheet.

8. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Cool for 2 minutes before remov-ing from cookie sheet.

Recipe is from www.verybest-baking.com/recipes/18476/orig-inal-nestle-toll-house-chocolate-chip-cookies.

Original Nestle Toll House cookiesThese cookies have

received the Lariat stamp of approval. A breeze to prepare, fun to make and en-joyable to eat, these cookies make for great company on the coldest (or, in Texas, the most tepid) of winter nights.

Prep: 15 minutesBake: 9 - 11 minutes

Hot cocoa is a great ad-dition to a chocolate chip cookie dur-ing Christmas. We recommend Swiss Miss cocoa, and for those without a sweet tooth, pair-ing the cocoa with sugar cookies or a candy cane can be a nice break from all the chocolate.

Christmas parties are a common tradition that bring friends and family together under one roof to celebrate the joy of relationship during

the holidays. With parties sometimes comes the pressure of provid-ing quality entertainment and fun for guests. Fortunately, there is a plethora of Christmas party games and activities that will bring together holiday party attendees and can be used as a great tool for helping guests mingle with one another.

1. White elephant – This tried and true classic involves one of the best things about Christmas: gifts. Before the event, establish what kinds of gifts will be given. Some versions include purchasing gifts worth a certain dollar amount; setting a theme, such as a color; or contributing

low-priced gag gifts. This helps to ensure gift value is as consistent as possible from person to person.

Participants set their wrapped gifts in a com-mon area, being sure to avoid drawing attention to which gift is theirs. Someone then numbers slips of paper, one per player. Participants draw slips, which will determine playing order. The player with slip number one chooses a gift from the pile and opens it. The next player,

who will have slip number two, can choose a gift from the pile or steal the first player’s present. If the present is stolen, player one

must choose a different gift. After the gift is selected, player three’s turn be-gins.

Game play continues like this until the last player has selected a gift. Players who’s presents are sto-

len cannot immediately steal that present back. Each item may only

be stolen three times; the fourth person to have it in their pos-session becomes its permanent owner.

2. Giftwrap relay – Wrap-ping gifts is often insepara-

ble from Christmas tradi-tion. This game, however, puts a twist on the task. Two to four player are

provided with a box, wrap-ping paper, scissors, tape, bows... and oven mitts.

Each player takes their place before a wrapping station and

waits for a two-minute timer to be-

gin. When the clock starts, players must race to wrap the boxes while wearing the oven mitts. The player who produces the most appealing package at the end of the timer wins.

3. Photobooth – Selfies will surely abound at any good Christmas shindig, so why not provide guests with the perfect location to capture the shots? Cheap backdrops can be made using items such as party streamers, fabric, Christmas lights or paper banners, and props are an added bonus. The mustache-on-a-stick never gets old.

4. Cookie/ gingerbread decorating – Cookie decorating can be used as a contest or just a fun activity. The best part is that it can be altered to fit your needs. Attendees can use homemade, pre-made or store-bought cookies, and the icing can be made in-house or come from a can. Many grocery stores sell gingerbread house and tree kits with all the supplies included. There is even an ugly sweater sugar cookie kit available for purchase.

5. Ugly Christmas sweater contest – With the resurgence of vintage clothing came the famous ugly Christmas sweater. It is quickly becom-ing a staple of the holiday season, with local thrift stores being swept clean of every mothball scented snowman sweater in their possessions. For those who are not fond of purchasing someone’s old knits, some stores now sell new holiday sweaters with intentionally obnoxious de-signs.

The best Christmas sweaters, however, are always homemade, so check out Pinterest for some great ideas for ugly Christmas sweaters.

6. Secret Santa – This is another traditional group present game. Each participant writes their name on a slip of paper and puts it into a container. Some versions of the game even require players to fill out a fact sheet to guide their secret santa while shopping. Each player draws a name and then purchases a gift for the person on their slip of paper. Players bring their gifts to the party without revealing who each santa is. As each person opens their present, they make guesses at who their santa is. At the end, any santsas who were unidentified should confess who they purchased a present for.

7. Heads Up – One of the easiest ways to get party guests to interact is to pit them against one another in a cut-throat competition, other-wise known as Heads Up.

The game is a phone application that involves guessing a word or phrase that pops up on the screen. Players take turns holding the phone horizontally above their foreheads with the screen facing the rest of the players. As words pass across the screen, players give the phone-holder clues as to what the screen says. When the guesser has successfully identified the word, the phone is tilted up to move on to the next word. If the word cannot be guessed, the phone must be tilted down to pass the word. The player with the most guesses in the end wins.

Fiesta favorites

All photos by skye DuncAn | lAriAt photogrApher

If you are on a tight schedule or are not looking for a homemade recipe, pre-made cookie dough will get the job done just as well. Nestle’s Toll House choco-late chip cookie dough is a great tasting option that stays softer than other brands, even days after baking, if stored in an air-tight container.

A few quick tips...

By Rae Jefferson | Arts & Entertainment Editor

“A Very Lariat Christmas” playlist

The Lariat staff compiled a list of its most cherished Christmas tunes, which reflect the individual personalities and interests of our members.

1. “Baby It’s Cold Outside” – She & Him2. “White Christmas” – Bing Crosby3. “Flurries” – August Burns Red4. “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” – John Lowry5. “12 Days of Christmas” – Straight No Chaser6. “Mary Did You Know” – Pentatonix7. “Jingle Bell Rock” – Bobby Helms8. “Baby Son” – John Mark McMillan9. “Do You Hear What I Hear” – Mariah Carey10. “So This Is Christmas” – John Lennon11. “Christmas Eve/ Sarajevo” – Trans-Siberian Orchestra12. “Christmas in Hollis” – RUN-DMC13. “Donde Esta Santa Claus” – Augie Rios14. “Christmas Time Is Here – Vocal” – Vince Guaraldi Trio

Visit BaylorLariat.com for links to all of these songs.

FRIDAY | DECEMBER 5, 2014A&E

The Baylor LariatB6

GONE GIRL [R] 1155 650FURY [R] 1035 150 445 740 1035OUIJA [PG13] 1040 320 800 1010NIGHTCRAWLER [R] 315 1005INTERSTELLAR [PG13] 1140 1245 310 415 640 750 1010BIG HERO 6 2D [PG] 1035 1135 105 335 440 605 710 835 BIRDMAN [R] 1110 155 435 730 1015DUMB AND DUMBER TO [PG13] 1050 1150 120 220 350 450 620 720 900 950WHIPLASH [R] 1250 530

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By Nicollette NilesContributor

When you think of Waco, sushi probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Usu-ally, I just head to the sushi section at H-E-B to get my fix, so when I heard Kuma opened on Austin Avenue, I had to check it out.

I wasn’t sure what to expect.

The atmosphere was contemporary and trendy. The restaurant had an open layout and decor was upscale, although the chairs

and booths were spray painted black and did not look comfy or appealing.

I felt underdressed in my T-shirt and leg-gings. The formal ambience added to Kuma’s upscale atmosphere.

The first thing I noticed was the kitchen and sushi bar were within an eye’s view so customers could watch chefs prepare fresh sushi at the bar.

The staff was courteous, but they seemed a bit disorganized. I didn’t receive my drink until I finished my meal, which was frustrat-ing because it was a Monday and the restau-rant wasn’t crowded.

I placed my order and counted down the minutes until my food came out. It was ex-

citing to see my sushi prepared and all the ingredients looked crisp and fresh.

The sushi did not let me down. It was fla-vorful and delectable. I opted for the spider roll and a fire crunch roll. Each roll had eight pieces. If you enjoy sushi, I recommend try-ing any of their contemporary sushi rolls.

I also ordered a side of pork belly fried rice. The rice was topped with an over-easy egg, which I found unusual.

When I cut into it, yolk soaked my fried rice. I don’t like runny eggs, so that ruined the fried rice for me. If that wasn’t enough, when I bit into one of the pork pieces, which I thought was a pineapple, it was all fat and left a bad taste in my mouth.

At $19, the check wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be.

Considering the amount of sushi that comes with each order and how freshly it’s prepared, I felt like I got my money’s worth from the meal.

My rating for Kuma is a three out of five stars.

I expected the food to be better due to their upscale atmosphere. Even though my sushi was flavorful and the atmosphere was appealing, the pork belly fried rice and ser-vice were below average.

Would I go back to Kuma? Probably, but only for an order of their sushi and maybe an appetizer.

Food REVIEW

By Julia EckardtReporter

As an undergrad at the University of Iowa, Arna Bontemps Hemenway, now an assistant professor in the English depart-ment at Baylor, would drive 20 minutes outside of town to the nearest Barnes & Noble just to peruse through the Discov-ered Author section.

“I would go just to look at the rows of shelves of people who had the Discov-er Award,” Hemenway said. “I was like, ‘Someday I’m going to have a book, and it’s going to be on there’.”

Hemenway said he was determined early in life to one day be accepted into the best master’s in fine arts program - the Iowa Writers Workshop.

After college, rather than jumping right into graduate school, Hemenway moved overseas and worked as a tour guide in Europe and Africa.

While living in Jerusalem, a bus he rode daily was the target of a terrorist at-tack that killed several people just eight days before he arrived in Jerusalem.

“You don’t have it in the front of your mind at all times, but the knowledge that a week ago there were people sitting in the same place that ended up being killed re-ally makes you want to live and experience everything you can,” Hemenway said.

After returning to the United States, Hemenway reached a distinct fork in the

road. He could either return to school to study law or return to his sixth-grade dream of earning a master’s in fine arts.

“On one hand I was really scared about being broke for my whole life, and I was really good at pre-law classes,” Hemenway said. “My heart just wasn’t into it. It sounds crass, but I said to my fiancee, now my wife, ‘I would rather be broke and happy doing something I loved than rich and do-ing something I didn’t care about.”

Achieving his life goal, Hemenway be-came the youngest person accepted into the Iowa Writers Workshop.

It was a period of rapid transition for Hemenway. Two weeks prior to starting school, he married his wife, and in his sec-ond year, they welcomed a daughter into the world.

“I learned what it took to make this your art and your profession; to work at it every day, to come back to the table in the morning when you failed spectacularly in front of all of your friends and are racked with self-doubt,” Hemenway said.

At Baylor, Hemenway said he models his teaching style after mentors from the Iowa Writers Workshop, Sam Chang and Ethan Canin.

Dr. Greg Garrett, professor of English, spoke of Hemenway with high regards.

“Whenever a new person comes into a setting, he can bring new ways of thinking and doing things that can refresh every-one’s ways of thinking and doing things,”

Garrett said.Kansas City, Mo., senior Alex Alford is

a student of Hemenway’s and said his en-couragement and feedback enabled her to become a more confident writer.

“He is never judgmental about what we write or how we right,” Alford said. “He al-ways gives constructive criticism and I am confident that each writing assignment I turn in is better than the last.”

In July, Sarabande Books published Hemenway’s first book “Elegy on Kinderk-lavier”. It is a series of short stories, most relating to the Iraq War, and a novella about the relationship of a couple and their 8-year-old son with a brain tumor.

It was added to the Barnes & Noble Summer 2014 Discover Great New Writ-ers Selection, making it the second life goal Hemenway has set and accomplished.

“When I first went into the store and saw it on the shelf it was really special. It was on of those moments you saw it for years and years and then it happened,” said Hemenway. “I can vividly remember the feeling walking out of a Barnes & Noble wanting it and not knowing if I would ever get that goal, knowing as a writer you can’t control award series’. It did feel awfully good; I’m not going to lie.”

Kuma rolls into town with sensational sushi, subpar service

Love for literature, life shows bookworm way to dream

Dr. Arna Bontemps Hemenway, assistant professor of English, fills his office with memories from travels and his favorite literary works, which includes his novel “Elegy on Kinderklavier.” Hemenway is the youngest person to ever be accepted into the Iowa Writers Workshop.


FRIDAY | DECEMBER 5, 2014A&E

The Baylor Lariat B7

DAILY PUZZLES Answers at www.baylorlariat.com

Across1 Barge, for one5 Go up to one’s ankles9 Saw to a seat14 Launder15 Obi-Wan portrayer16 Maine college town17 Oft-pickled fish20 Kit for Mr. Fixit21 Bygone22 London facilities23 Otologist’s concern24 Cartoon still25 Studious-looking dwarf26 Strikes out29 Educational stage33 Part of a Latin trio34 Subatomic particle35 Colleague of Sonia and Clarence36 Musical dir.37 Feature shared by the women vocalists concealed in 17-, 29-, 45- and 59-Across40 P&L column41 Not from around here43 Word in a dramatic warn-ing44 Shout for the picador45 Keep out48 Bargains49 Blvd. cousin50 Bargain bin abbr.51 Big __53 “So that’s your game!”54 Had a little lamb55 “Just walk away”59 Comes to terms62 Razz63 Ordering aid64 Sea birds65 “Waiting for Lefty” playwright66 Cad’s comeuppance67 Fries, say

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34 “__ Lisa”38 Much of 19- and 48-Down39 Really drops the ball42 Potato spot46 Credit card issuer47 Beats badly48 Magazine with many white dresses52 Actress Hagen53 Aware of54 Court figures: Abbr.55 Horne on stage56 Garr on screen57 Wedding choice58 “What __ could it be?”60 Prov. where the CN Tower is located61 Bus. card number

Difficulty: Difficult

By Jon PlattReporter

Blake Batson, owner of Com-mon Grounds, has a new trick up his sleeve to grow his business in the Waco community.

Batson, along with his team, plan to open an organic creamery, named Heritage Creamery, next door to Common Grounds at 1123 Eighth St.

Following his graduation from Baylor in 2008 with a degree in philosophy, Batson bought the lo-cal coffee shop and took it to new heights.

His additions to the coffee shop – an extension of the shop’s menu, expanding the lot’s entertainment venue and a food truck-style store in downtown Waco, called The Container – furthered him along the path to his current venture.

“We wanted to do something in that location to add value to Com-mon Grounds, to add value to the whole property,” he said. “The first thought was doing a restaurant, and that instantly scared me … I didn’t really want to go fully into food, yet. So we’re thinking, ‘What is similar to coffee with similar margins, similar shelf life?’ Be-cause we already get coffee. And

this idea of doing homemade, lo-cally sourced ice cream came up.”

Initially, Batson and his team planned for an opening in April 2015, but with recent setbacks in renovation he said a soft open is possible for mid-summer, with an official grand opening in the fall.

However, opening in the spring would be ideal, Batson said.

Josh Kulak, general manager of Common Grounds, said being a part of Common Grounds at such a critical junction for the brand keeps him coming into work each day.

With the addition of The Con-tainer, which he helped get off the ground, Kulak said the coffee shop’s customer base is growing, especially since the mobile shop can be moved to big events.

“With the holidays, we’ve been moving it around a lot more,” he said. “People want us at everything.

Kulak said The Container would be set up next to ESPN’s GameDay perch Friday evening and Saturday morning and in Bra-zos Parking during the game.

Kyler Griffith, who works in Common Grounds’ Container, said he expects this weekend’s events to bring in a lot of custom-ers for the mobile unit.

Griffith staffed the trailer at the opening of Waco’s recently renovated Hippodrome and sev-eral events for Antioch Commu-nity Church since. But he predicts nothing will compare to the size and scope of customers on Satur-day.

While The Container feeds the traditional brick-and-mortar location and vice versa, Heritage Creamery will only be connected to Common Grounds by their shared driveway and a common business owner, Kulak said. Batson said he agreed. Even in concerns of layout and design, Batson said he did not see the creamery as a mere extension of Common Grounds. He said the plan is to make Heri-tage more clean and less eclectic looking than his coffee shop.

However, Batson said he hopes customers will enjoy both atmo-sphere interchangeably.

“It will be like an overflow space for Common Grounds,” he said. “My vision, and kind of what I see for the whole place, is: come get your coffee, come over and sit on the back patio behind the creamery and then eat a breakfast taco from the food truck. I want there to be a very complementary synergy.”

Furthering his business is deeply personal work for him, Bat-son said, because he sees it as his calling. The ice cream shop’s name

came was also a personal decision of Batson’s.

“We’ll be working with local farms to bring in produce for the

ice cream making,” Batson said. “So the idea heritage – the heritage of Waco – was the thought behind it.”

Heritage Creamery: Coming SoonCommon Grounds owner plans to open organic creamery next door to coffee shop

Blake Batson, the owner of Common Grounds, plans to open Heritage Creamery in the old location of Harts N’ Crafts. The creamery will be organic and is located at 1123 Eighth St.

Photo by Jon Platt | lariat rePorter


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