Wesleyan volunteers clean up clutter.College Life, page 4

The voice of Texas Wesleyan University students since 1917

WEDNESDAYApril 21, 2010

Vol. 93 • No. 11

ONLINE: www.therambler.org

The RamblerTheater department labors on ‘Working.’A&E, page 5

Report outlines changes for housingJonathan Resendez jlresendez@mail.txwes.edu

The results are in: Wesleyan student housing is in need of a facelift.

In early March, the university hired a team of consultants to find a way to increase revenue from student hous-ing with a focus on Wesleyan Village.

“We felt like we needed an extra set of eyes from outside to come in and look at our whole housing module,” said Pati Alexander, vice president for enrollment and student services, “and

give us recommendations on how to improve it.”

John White and Bambi Harris, with 30 years of experience in university housing and real estate each, used fo-cus groups to see what students like and dislike about living on campus.

“We offered suggestions for the improvement or addition of services including housing policy, student development programming, facil-ity, landscaping and maintenance and food service,” Harris said.

The report suggested revising the

meal plan to have more cash value spread throughout campus. Working out a deal with Aramark to provide food over the breaks was also a sug-gestion.

“I would feel much better about that,” said Jacob Lyons, freshman busi-ness management major. “More choic-es would be better, so we don’t have to spend all our time at one place.”

The consultants agreed with the fo-cus group results that students find the Elizabeth and Stella Hall lobbies unap-pealing.

“We already knew this, but it was good for the board to hear it,” Alex-ander said. “The students said, ‘No-body wants to hang out in the lobbies because it’s kind of drab and ugly and boring.’”

Certain changes stemming from the report have already begun such as changing vending contractors be-cause several vending machines in the dorms hadn’t worked properly.

Another change is the hiring of John

New criminal justice degree opens doors for studentsMelissa Batesmdbates@mail.txwes.edu

Texas Wesleyan will offer a degree in criminal justice be-ginning June 1.

Currently, criminal justice is an emphasis offered under the sociology major.

“We needed the new crimi-nal justice degree to improve the marketability of our stu-dents,” said Dr. Greg Gullion, assistant professor of sociolo-gy and criminal justice. “A lot of students who graduate with

a sociology - criminal justice degree have had difficulty getting careers. A lot of these people want to go to work in law enforcement, and the em-ployers don’t even know what a SCJ degree is.

“Why should they hire someone with a SCJ degree when they could hire some-one with a CJ degree,” he asked.

SCJ students have the op-tion to remain with their cur-rent degree or switch to the new major, and 99 percent of

them have chosen to switch over, Gullion said.

Brenda T. Matthews, chair of social sciences, said the criminal justice major is an asset for the social science de-partment.

“All of our programs are growing, and the CJ major is expected to grow by 50 per-cent within a few years,” she said.

The new degree will not add any time to a student’s stay at Wesleyan.

A student graduating in De-

cember can switch to CJ and still graduate. Students gradu-ating this May, however, are not eligible for the new major.

Lavena Hernandez, senior SCJ major, is graduating in May and said she is hoping that the deans will recon-sider since she and other SCJ majors have taken the same classes that the new degree is requiring.

Allison Tidwell, senior SCJ major, said employers are

Book rentals available in fall

 HOUSING, page 3

 DEGREE, page 3

Rebecca Moore | Rambler StaffGiovanni Monsanto (left), freshman political science and criminal justice major, won first place for his poem Phantom Sights. Kevin Keathley (top right), se-nior religion major, performs Heath Ledger’s “Joker” (top right). Eric Welch, sophomore kinesiology major, won second place for covering John McMillan’s Oh How He Loves.

Rebecca Moore

Wesleyan’s Got TalentStudents shine during university’s talent showStory on page 4. Video at therambler.org

Rambler ArchivesDr. Greg Gullion said the number of jobs in the criminal justice field will increase 27 percent in the next 10 years.

Conner Howellmhowell@mail.txwes.edu

Students can save 50 per-cent or more off their new textbooks when they rent them from the Wesleyan bookstore starting next fall.

Wesleyan recently signed on with the organization Rent-A-Text to offer the rent-al program to students.

“The pilot stores that tried [Rent-A-Text] saved students over $2 million by renting textbooks,” said Jana Hemp-ling, Wesleyan textbook su-pervisor.

Hempling said students will pay a rental fee and can high-light and mark in their books and still bring them back on the return date.

“I would definitely use it,” said Melissa Tice, junior ath-letic training major. “Not for every class, but for the ones that are major-related.”

Students also have the op-tion of returning or keeping the book but will be charged the remaining balance of the book should they keep it.

Tiffany Bowie, sophomore exercise science major, said she likes the idea because sometimes teachers won’t even use books.

“Some teachers have us buy them, and we don’t use them,” she said. “We spend so much money on the books, and we get way less when we re-turn them even if we haven’t touched them.”

Hempling said she’s still waiting for more information from Rent-A-Text on the final procedures of the program, but once everything is final-ized, she hopes students will use the bookstore more often.

“I know there are other places to buy your books,” Hempling said, “but when you’re supporting your book-store on campus, money is going back to your school.”

Opinion2 | April 21, 2010 The RambleR | www.therambler.org

What would you do for Wesleyan’s next talent show?

Leslie ElstonJunior Music

“Probably singing, I’m not really good at anything else, that’s why I’m a music major.”

Phillip BlocklingerJunior Exercise Science

“Bear wrestling.”

Angie ArmendarizSenior Education

“The only talent I have is that I used to break dance when I was younger...”

Dustin McAlphinFreshman Religion

“I would teach you how to seduce a whale.”

A.J. FentonSenior Theater

“Wear my shades and sing Corey Hart’s I Wear My Sunglasses at Night.”

Jonathan Resendez, editor-in-chiefChuck Fain, opinion editor, arts & entertainment editorConner Howell, college life editor, special projects editorJoakim Söderbaum, sports editorRebecca Moore, photo editorRachel Horton, multimedia editorKelli Lamers, faculty adviserDr. Kay Colley, faculty liaison

Member of the Texas Intercollegiate Press As-sociation, Associated Collegiate Press, Student Press Law Center, College Media Advisers and College Newspaper Business and Advertising Managers.

Opinions expressed in The RambleR are those of the individual authors only and do not neces-sarily reflect the views of the Texas Wesleyan community as a whole.

RambleR Contribution Please send all news briefs to twurambler@yahoo.com. Submissions due by noon Friday to see brief in the following week’s issue.

Letters to the editor: The RambleR, a weekly publication welcomes all letters. All submis-sions must have a full printed name, phone number and signature. While every consider-ation is made to publish letters, publication is limited by time and space. The editors reserve the right to edit all submissions for space, grammar, clarity and style. Letters to the editor may be subject to response from editors and students on the opinion page.

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The RamblerFounded in 1917 as The Handout

Publisher: Harold G. Jeffcoat

Rebecca MoorePhoto editorrmoore@mail.xwes.edu

Chuck FainOpinion editorcmfain@mail.txwes.edu

Recently, a wave of bur-glaries has hit Texas Wes-leyan parking lots. Shards of tempered glass are still scattered about the campus from recent crimes, mak-ing students afraid to leave their vehicles unattended.

Wesleyan students need to know what’s being done to make this university a safe and secure place to learn.

Recent e-mails circu-lated throughout student and faculty e-mail accounts stating that as of April, 10 burglaries occurred on campus parking lots.

However, the e-mails aren’t doing anything.

Last semester the 2009 campus security report stated there had been six burglaries for that year and 19 burglaries on or around the Wesleyan campus since 2007.

The school has taken steps towards addressing the issue, such as hiring security firms to assess Wesleyan’s security situ-ation, getting neighbor-hood police officers to pa-trol the campus night and day and a three to four year project that will boost safety measures through lighting, cameras and per-sonnel.

This is not a criticism of the individual security per-sonnel.

But when students such as freshman Robert Tutt say, “Security is predictable in their laziness,” or fresh-man Kesha Carter says, “I think they’re being cheap about campus security,” ad-ministrators should realize that security’s overall im-age is not up to par.

To call security lazy and cheap may be a speculative and vague criticism of this university’s efforts to ensure student safety. But the is-

sue behind those criticisms stems from a lack of com-munication on the univer-sity’s part.

One e-mail about bur-glaries from the office of communications and the registrar’s office is not enough definitive informa-tion for students to know that something is being done.

The number of burglar-ies are continuing to rise, and students need a real person to talk to, not an of-fice.

And if e-mail is the only preferred method of communicating security situations on campus, then perhaps someone is being lazy,and it’s certainly not the students.

There are steps students can take to discourage thieves, like hiding valu-ables out of plain sight.

However, even when students observe all the precautions suggested by campus security, students like A.J. Fenton, who took the precautionary advice she was sent via e-mail, are still getting ripped off. And, according to Fenton, it’s all happening right under the noses of security personnel.

True, students are re-sponsible for their personal property, but they need to feel comfortable parking and leaving their vehicle on campus.

If Wesleyan wants to see continued growth and re-tention, then administra-tors need to start having open forums to address stu-dent concerns about safety. Sending out e-mails obvi-ously doesn’t work, as hard as that is to believe.

Wesleyan needs to do more than give an electron-ic response to a very real and potentially growing problem.

Staff Editorial

Security issues go unresolved

Textbook rental is music to my wallet

Ladies and gentleman, the rumors are true and the posters are up. The Texas Wesleyan Bookstore is officially going to begin textbook rentals next fall. Hal-lelujah!

Textbook Supervisor Jana Hempling issued an e-mail recently announcing the new program.

With Texas Wesleyan’s new “rent-a-text” program, students can save money up front.

This is music to my ears. I struggle every year with textbooks because they are so expensive. I don’t buy online out of fear that my credit card number will get stolen.

So usually, I am forced to go with-

out a book or two every semester due to lack of funds. Textbook rentals are becoming very popular, and this is a great way for Wesleyan to jump in on the trend.

Bookstore manager Barbra Sherman said, “I’m very excited; I think it’s going to be a good thing for students ... They could save up to 50 percent a semester.” She also said that, just like textbooks you purchase, some of the rental profits will go back into the university as com-mission.

Hopefully, the alternative of renting the textbooks will fuel students’ desire to do business with our campus book-store and help to support our school’s profit.

There is no disclosure on price ranges yet because books have not been cho-sen for the fall.

However, Web sites like Colleg-eBookRenter.com run as low as $35 per rental period, a huge difference in buying a brand new edition.

Professors will be given a list of

available texts that Follet can provide as rentals. Or, if the professors agree to use their texts for four consecutive semesters, they will be able to choose their own texts.

There are so many benefits to rent-ing your textbooks that buying used is becoming yesterday’s news. Renting your textbooks is a great way to recycle and be eco-friendly.

You can mark and highlight in your rentals, just like books you own.

And you feel way better if you never open that algebra book because you’re not spending a fortune on a paper weight.

Plus, when you’re renting from the Wesleyan Bookstore, you won’t get in trouble waiting for your books to be shipped.

There’s no denying that Wesleyan is moving up with the times. This easy new solution in acquiring textbooks is a no hassle and a no brainer, and I can assure you I will be first in line.

Texas Board of Education deserves a suspension

Recently, a board of elected officials gathered to decide what Texas textbooks for grades K-12 would include in their pages.

Why is this so important? Aside from the fact that these sort of events don’t occur that often, Texas textbooks are used by most every other school in the U.S.

This is because of the large amount of textbooks Texas pur-chases for its densely populated schools. It’s cheaper to buy the already mass-produced Texas textbook than to have an indi-vidual one printed for your state.

The fact that the textbooks come from Texas doesn’t really bother me. Texas is not the backward, window-to-the-past that most of the country thinks it is.

Many fine things have come out of Texas, such as Jamie Foxx and Wes Anderson, NASA and Austin’s cutting edge music scene. It also has some fine institutions of higher education, and experts in various disciplines who spend their lives studying to become experts in their fields.

Unfortunately, none of these experts were present when the Texas Board of Education – an elected body of partisan politi-cians – decided to revise history.

There in lies the problem. Even their status as elected officials wouldn’t be so bad if personal politics didn’t play a role in decid-ing what America’s children learn. And it doesn’t stop at forcing political views on public school children. These newly revised textbooks also force religious views onto our nation’s youth.

Some of the new additions (and subtractions) are as follows: A greater emphasis on the conservative revival of the 80s and 90s, highlighting groups such as Eagle Forum, the Moral Major-ity and the NRA.

McCarthyism is now portrayed in a positive light; “capitalism” is now “free-market;” the Great Society programs of the 60s, which includes the emerging rights of women and minorities, is denoted as having detrimental social consequences; and coun-

try and western music will be added to the list of the nation’s important cultural movements – while hip-hop is removed from that very list.

All of this is ridiculous, some of it perhaps a bit frivolous, but when you consider what they want to do to Jefferson and why, it becomes all the more terrifying.

Thomas Jefferson, primary author of the Declaration of In-dependence and third president of the United States, has found himself in trouble with the Texas Board of Education as of late.

He is another bit of history swept under this conservative carpet because of his views on the separation of church and state – and of religion in general, while at the same time exag-gerating the founding father’s Christian beliefs.

The rationale in this thinking, thinly veiled as it is, is that the Constitution never states explicitly that there should be “a separation of church and state;” therefore, Jefferson should be punished for his ideals.

Let me tell you why this is wrong. First off, the great thing about our Constitution is that it is a living document, written in vague terms to change with the times. Now, the First Amend-ment of the Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

According to America’s current interpretation of the Consti-tution, the word “respecting” in that sentence means not only regarding, but also consulting. That means there should be some sort of wedge between government business and religious affairs – a separation, if you will.

As long as we’re redefining amendments, let’s go on down the page to the Second Amendment, which states Americans (or, arguably, only those in the militia) have the right “to keep and bear arms.”

What are arms? The Oxford American Dictionary defines “arms” as “a weapon.” That seems pretty open to interpretation. Does that include guns?

Are they not just talking about big sticks, or knives? A paper-clip could be a weapon in the right hands. How about a vile of acid? That’s a weapon, right?

Do Americans have the right to go to Starbucks with a vile of acid or a pouch full of anthrax on their hip? See, creative inter-pretation is fun.

But I digress. This whole ordeal, while not good by any stretch

of my imagination, is not as extreme as it could have been. Having such power in the hands of these petty individuals with agendas, it’s amazing more damage hasn’t been done.

However, this could just be the beginning. If this keeps up, there’s no telling what will be in our school books in the next 20 years. Everyone has their own point of view, a way that they’ve found for the world to make sense to them.

Whenever someone goes against that idea, we’re usually up-set, and a bit offended.

There’s a need people have to make others see their point of view, and while this sort of reasoned personal maxim or set of beliefs is an important part of human nature, it shouldn’t have a place in the classroom.

The classroom should be a place to present the facts of the situation, the who, what, when, where, why and how, and let the student reach his or her own personal conclusion.

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The odder the title, the bigger the turnout.

Two students and a professor presented “Nuts, Sluts and Per-verts, Part II” to a packed room as part of Wesleyan’s University Col-lege Day.

The three-part presentation cov-ered child molesters, cults and the misconstrued popularity of Al Ca-pone by popular culture.

Lavena Hernandez, senior crim-inal justice and psychology major, gave the first part of the presenta-tion over child rape.

“I have a passion for children victims of crime,” Hernandez said.

Her interest in the subject was sparked after seeing multiple cas-es of child abuse while working for the medical examiner’s office.

“It’s a very interesting topic that needs to be researched so all of us can come together to find solu-tions,” she said.

To the nervous laughter of the audience, Hernandez recom-mended incarcerating child rap-ists then torturing them to save on prison costs.

“When the crime of child rape is committed, do these heinous criminals have the capabilities of being rehabilitated,” she asked. “Do we lock them up or let them rot? Or do we save them with treatment for their low self-esteem and lack of self-control; formulat-ing tests they achieve for future release back into society and cross our fingers they do not recidivate with the same crime.”

Allison Tidwell, senior sociolo-gy major, followed Hernandez and spoke about women in cults.

“When a cult leader is looking for a member to participate, they want the best and the brightest,” she said. “In the majority of cases, there is usually some kind of life-changing event that has happened to this person that has caused them to become involved in this form of behavior.”

Lisbeth Cervantes, freshman criminal justice major, said she found the presentation over cults fascinating.

“To know there’s still cults today, and 5,000 [of them],” she said, “I was astonished by that.”

The presentation concluded with Dr. Greg Gullion’s presenta-tion “Al Capone: Social Construc-tion of a Gangster Superstar.”

“When you think about gang-sters, this is typically the guy ev-erybody thinks about first,” he said.

Gullion spoke about Capone’s rise through the Chicago mob and

dispelled many misconceptions about Capone.

“A lot of people think he died in prison,” he said. “They actually released him because he had con-tracted syphilis.”

Capone more than likely con-tracted the disease while running a prostitution house for the Five Points Gang in New York City, Gullion said.

Gullion was a founder of the original “Nuts, Sluts and Perverts” that ran during last year’s UCD with Dr. Carol Johnson-Gerendas.

The final name came from a brainstorming session in which more timid titles were thrown around.

“We thought ‘nuts, sluts and perverts’ would bring people in even though that wasn’t the en-tire content,” Gullion said. “We thought the university would fire us, but we ended up having the largest session last year.”

very confused as to what a SCJ degree is.

“The job market is much better and more open to you if you’re a straight CJ student,” Tidwell said.

Gullion said the number of jobs in criminal justice will increase by 27 percent in the next 10 years.

“There will be a huge in-flux of students coming to Wesleyan in CJ because they

know it’s going to pay off ca-reer wise,” he said.

The criminal justice field has become more academic, and they need good, quality people who are very highly educated and want to go out and make a difference, he said.

“We need good people that know what they’re doing,” Gullion said.

Gullion said he is very excit-ed about this degree because

of his passion for teaching CJ and seeing students succeed.

“I love teaching students here at this university, and anything that I can do to help students be successful and get a bachelor’s degree here and then leave the school and get a really fun career, I’m all for it,” Gullion said.

For more information con-tact Gullion at jgullion@tx-wes.edu or 817-531-6503.

DEGREE continued from page 1

White as interim housing di-rector until April 30.

White put his vision for change into effect immedi-ately.

“In our experiences, mar-keting is more than just send-ing out brochures and telling people to live on campus,” White said. “It’s how you treat your customers. It’s the little things you do while you live on campus and what students tell other students.”

White said he and Harris noticed very active students desiring the “college experi-ence” who didn’t feel like they were getting it at Wesleyan.

“They want a place they can hang out in—that they can

have fun with,” he said.Most students can’t or don’t

want to hang out until later at night after most of the ser-vices offered by Wesleyan are closed, White said.

The consultants noticed sev-eral vacant areas in Stella that could serve as group study or music practice rooms.

“[We want to ] find out what the students want to use the room for and do something with it,” White said.

Students were also con-cerned with the cleanliness and maintenance of the facili-ties, the report showed.

“My opinion is that they’re not very clean at all,” said Cara Lumpkin, freshman biology

major. “The poor janitors have to do what they can.”

Lumpkin said the dorms were old and that the dirtiest parts of them were the com-munity bathrooms.

White rewrote job descrip-tions and moved responsibili-ties around to create a more efficient system for keeping tabs on maintenance.

There are plans in the works for maintenance to keep track of work orders.

White said when he first asked how to find out if a work order had been completed, the answer was “when the student stops complaining.

“That’s not how it’s sup-posed to be,” he said.

HOUSING continued from page 1

‘Nuts, sluts and perverts’ returns

Rebecca Moore | Rambler StaffLavena Hernandez offered the solution of imprisoning and torturing people convicted of child rape during her UCD presentation.

Ram Jam unites Texas Wesleyan

University College Day

Rebecca Moore| Rambler Staff

Students and faculty gather at Ram Jam to enjoy food, free T-shirts and the live music of Zane Williams April 15.

College Life4 | April 21, 2010 The RambleR | www.therambler.org

Conner Howellmhowell@mail.txwes.edu

Heaps of brush lined the curb on Collard Street as stu-dents went on filling garbage bags around Wesleyan for the Campus Cleanup project.

The event coincided with the Cowtown Great Ameri-can Cleanup, which encour-aged student groups such as the Wesleyan Accounting Society to pick up litter in ar-eas of their choice as part of a citywide event for Fort Worth.

Karen Avelar and Maricella Wells, two student members of the Society, were the orga-nizing forces behind their lo-cal cleanup project.

“We just started a volunteer service [subcommittee] in the Accounting Society this se-mester,” said Wells, a senior accounting major.

Wells said when she ap-proached the group about creating the subcommittee and promoting the group’s volunteer services, Avelar, also a senior accounting ma-jor, immediately joined in.

“We’re both pretty involved in doing volunteer work,” Avelar said, “and it means a lot to me to let the community grow and not damage it.”

Wells and Avelar later pitched the idea of a campus cleanup project to the remain-ing members of the group.

The president of the Ac-counting Society, Joshua Stone, said he wanted to help with the project when he heard Wells’ and Avelar’s cleanup proposal.

“It sounded like a good idea,” Stone said, “[Avelar and Wells] brought up a bunch of ideas, and this is the one that stuck the most.”

With the group support they needed to move forward, Avelar and Wells proceeded to coordinate the event through the student life office and the city of Fort Worth and put their plan into action.

The results of their efforts would show themselves at 9 a.m. April 10 when close to 20 other participants came to clean up Rosedale.

Everyone split into two groups. Wells took one group and circled the Wesleyan campus at a one block pe-rimeter picking up litter and trash. Avelar took the second group to work by the railroad bridge on Collard Street.

The two groups spent the day stuffing trash bags, rip-ping down vines and sawing off limbs.

Avelar’s group tugged and

pulled their way through all the ensnaring tendrils and vines that had overrun the fence by the Allied Iron Works warehouse, while Wells made full circle towards Collard, trash bags in hand.

Stone drove around be-tween both groups making water stops and handing out granola bars and other quick snacks.

Throughout the day Fort Worth police officers circu-lated between the two groups acting as escorts.

At one point Neighborhood Police Officer Steve Jackson left his vehicle to help Avelar and the other group members finish removing the rest of the overgrowth by the bridge.

“This is the first time since I’ve been involved with Wes-leyan for the past few years that a student group has got-ten together and done such a good job and wanted to come

out into the community and be a visible presence,” Jackson said.

When they finished, the group completely uncovered the overgrown mural that a Girl Scouts troop had painted there more than 10 years ago.

“We’re trying to get the Girl Scouts back involved,” Avelar said, “but next semester we will paint the bridge and the wall if we get to that.”

After 1 p.m. rolled around,

both groups met at the new Subway on Rosedale and re-cuperated from their long day of beautifying the area.

People chatted about their plans for the remainder of the weekend and reflected upon what they had done for the community surrounding Wesleyan.

“I didn’t imagine it was gon-na be this much work,” Avelar said, “but it’s been a great ex-perience.”

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Wesleyan held its second annual “Wesleyan’s Got Tal-ent” event on April 16.

Ten students auditioned for the event, but only seven per-formed the night of the show.

Dean of Freshmen Joe Brown, Assistant English Professor Dr. Carol Johnson-Gerendas, and Dr. Ibrahim Salih, political science profes-sor, were the judges for the evening.

Freshman political science and criminal justice double major Giovanni Monsanto won first place for his poem Phantom Sights.

“I was trying to figure out what I wanted to write about,” Monsanto said, “and coming up with different themes and genres, and I just sat down and just wrote.”

But Monsanto’s reading im-pressed the judges.

“I really appreciated Giovanni’s words.,” Johnson-Gerendas said. “Words mean

so much to me and listening to him … just knocked me over.”

Third place winner and sophomore political science major Donelle McClaine sang Alicia Keys’ Diary.

“I chose the song because I love Alicia Keys,” McClaine said, “and I thought it’d be a fun song to display my talent with because no one here re-ally knows that I sing.”

The talent show continued with Julie Hutson and Eric Welch. Hutson sang Realize by Colbie Caillat and Welch played backup on guitar.

“I’ve always liked that song, and I think it fit my voice best. I really like the artist. It was fun. I enjoyed it,” Hutson, ju-nior political science major, said.

Welch, a sophomore kine-siology major, said Julie was going to sing to a CD and then asked him if he knew the song. He said he did.

“So I started playing for her then decided to do my own bit,” Welch said. “I tried to back her up and harmonize with her, but I don’t know if I did it too well.”

Welch won second place for his performance of Oh How He Loves by John McMillan.

“I’m always looking for new songs to play, and when I tried out I’d found that song, and I enjoyed it a lot,” Welch said.

Senior religion major Kevin Keathley acted out scenes as Heath Ledger’s “Joker” from The Dark Knight.

“I had this prepared in No-vember 2008,” Keathley said. “I had to watch Heath Ledger on the DVD for the physi-cality of it. I’m a self-trained method actor. I just look and imitate.”

“It’s amazing how much tal-ent we have,” Johnson-Geren-das said. “I love it.”

Team up to clean upWesleyan students give Rosedale a makeover

Talent shows at Wesleyan

Conner Howell | Rambler StaffNeighborhood Police Officer Steve Jackson helps a student clear away brush by the railroad bridge on Collard Street.

Conner Howell | Rambler StaffRipping down vines and sawing off limbs was team effort throughout the entire day.

Arts & EntertainmentThe RambleR | www.therambler.org April 21, 2010 | 5

Theatre Wesleyan is ‘working’ this spring

Chuck Faincmfain@mail.txwes.edu

Theatre Wesleyan’s 56th annual mu-sical Working punches in at the Thad Smotherman Theatre this spring. Both humorous and heart wrench-ing, Working tells the tale of 23 real-life people with vastly different jobs and vastly different outlooks on life.

Working was a book before Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso adapted it into a musical. The literary version of Working, written by journalist Studs

Terkel, consists of interviews with varying individuals about the work they do.

During the interview process, these ordinary people revealed extraordi-nary things: revealing the joy, pain, sorrow, regret and pride people feel for their work and themselves.

While not able to include every char-acter from the original book, Working the musical stays true to those charac-ters represented.

Most of the dialogues, and even the songs, are verbatim accounts of Ter-

kel’s interviews. Wesleyan alumni Debbie Brown and

Mike Skipper direct. Skipper is the Tony award-winning producer of the current Broadway hit, In the Heights, as well as Avenue Q. Brown has worked in local, national and interna-tional theaters and was a cast member of Casa Mañana for 15 years.

“I’m delighted to return to my alma mater to co-direct Working with one of my favorite fellow alums, Mike Skip-per,” Brown said.

Students are glad to have them as

well.“It’s been a great opportunity work-

ing with professionals like Mike and Debbie,” said sophomore theater ma-jor Sarahi Salazar, stage manager for Working. “They make my job much easier.”

The show runs April 22–25. The box office opens at 1:30 p.m., April 13th. Box office hours are 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Tuesday - Friday the week of the show and one hour before curtain. Call 817-531-4211 for performance and ticket information.

Courtesy of Erica MaroneyTheatre Wesleyan’s spring musical gets to work all the live long day.

April 211956 -Elvis Presley’s Heart-break Hotel, becomes No. 1

1977 - Broadway play Annie opens

April 221976 - Barbara Walters be-comes first female nightly network news anchor

1991-Johnny Carson an-nounces he will retire

1993 - Who’s Tommy opens at St. James Theater

April 241950 - Peter Pan opens at Imperial Theater NYC

April 251979 - Rock ‘n’ Roll High School premieres

1985 - Big River opens at Eugene O’Neill Theater

Birthdays: Iggy Pop - April 21, 1947

Robert Smith - April 21, 1959

Al Pacino - April 25, 1940

Carol Burnett - April 26, 1933

DeathCesar Chavez - April 22, 1993Richard Nixon - April 22, 1994

Lucille Ball - April 25, 1989

Thursday George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, House of BluesSherlock Holmes: The Melodrama, Pocket Sandwich TheatreWorking, A Musical, Theatre Wesleyan - Law Sone Fine Arts

FridayAnnie (The Full Musical Version) Teatro delle MuseBugs Bunny on Broadway, Morton H. Meyerson Symphony CenterPink Martini, Bass Performance HallWorking, A Musical, Theatre Wesleyan - Law Sone Fine Arts

Saturday Prairie Fest, Tandy HillsFine Arts Film Series: Science Fiction!, Dallas Public LibraryHamlet, Bishop Arts Theater CenterWorking, A Musical, Theatre Wesleyan - Law Sone Fine Arts

Sunday

Spring Festival in the Japanese Garden, Fort Worth Botanic GardenA Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer, Rose Marine TheatreMichelangelo’s First Painting: The Torment of Saint Anthony, Kimbell Art MuseumWorking, A Musical, Theatre Wesleyan - Law Sone Fine Arts

Monday Performing Arts Fort Worth Presents Body Art, Bass Performance HallThe Lonesome West , Stage West

TuesdayThe Beauty Plays by Neil LaBute - Fat Pig, Dee and Charles Wyly TheatreAs Tall as Lions, Bear Hands, House of Blues

WednesdayBone Thugs-N-Harmony, House of BluesDeath of a Salesman, Dee and Charles Wyly TheatreThe Music of Andrew Lloyd Weber, Fair ParkLes Claypool, Lakewood Theater

Upcoming Events:

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Eunice and James L. West LibraryTexas Wesleyan University

Rambler Review: Notable notes from this week

Jacqueline Wittmanjrwittman@mail.txwes.edu

The Starlett dancers are preparing for the first an-nual Spring Dance Showcase at Texas Wesleyan Univer-sity April 23. The dancers join with the Boys and Girls Club of Fort Worth.

Many of the dances the Starletts will perform are from their experience at the Universal Dance Association Spirit Camp this past summer in San Marcos.

The Starletts came out of camp with distinguished hon-ors including traditional fight song recognition, home pom recognition, 11 blue individu-

al ribbons, two red individual ribbons and an overall team superior gold.

“This year has been great because our dancers have gone above and beyond,” said Carolyn Ikens-Owen, direc-tor of dance. “We started the team in 2008, and last year was a complete positive turn-around for the program. We represent Wesleyan well and have become another quality program on campus.”

The Starletts dance team in-cludes junior captain Margo Wring, junior Amber Sanders and freshmen Yvette Rodri-guez and Kesha Carter.

Wring wanted to include the Boys and Girls Club of

Fort Worth in the showcase to open their eyes to the art of dance.

“I figured it would be a good way to give back and incorpo-rate kids from our commu-nity,” Wring said. “I wanted to help them realize they can do anything once they set their minds to it and try.”

The girls from the Boys and Girls Club range from ages 8 to 12.

“It’s all about fun and creat-ing the potential for the girls to become interested in dance and Texas Wesleyan Univer-sity,” Wring said.

The Starletts have been practicing with the girls since the beginning of April.

A variety of dances will be showcased such as jazz, hip hop, pom and lyrical. Each Starlett, except for Rodriguez who is out due to injury, will perform a solo dance.

The Starletts will also per-form with the girls to Boom Boom Pow by the Black Eyed Peas. The routine is a home routine the Starletts per-formed at camp, with a few alterations to make the rou-tine more kid friendly for the young girls.

“We want to show them that there are young women in the community who can make a positive impact in their lives and surround them with good role models who perform as

dancers and students,” Wring said.

Ikens-Owen said the girls are the future of Wesleyan.

“The girls are a part of our community, and our Starletts are great mentors to them through dance,” she said. “They are teaching the girls the importance of education and giving them the oppor-tunity to learn other activities that are fun and rewarding.”

The showcase is intended to get the community involved and attract groups such as the Polytechnic High School dance team and local dance studios to join in future show-cases at Wesleyan.

For next year, Wring already

has a vision: to get a dance camp started at Wesleyan that will lead to a larger summer showcase for the community.

“Summertime is when kids get in the most trouble, and it will be a way for them to get off the streets,” she said.

While the Starletts main appearances are at the Ram’s basketball games, they are also looking to attend other sporting events next semester.

“The Starletts are willing to support any department on campus to represent the uni-versity in a positive manner,” Ikens-Owen said.

The free performance is at 7 p.m. April 23 in Martin Hall.

90 Years of Leadership

Contact Us atPhone: 817-531-7550

Email: stugov@txwes.edu

Visit us atOC Hall 202 and 204

1920 2010

Sports6 | April 21, 2010 The RambleR | www.therambler.org

Jacqueline Wittmanjrwittman@mail.txwes.edu

Toby Rochau started young. “I started to play soccer at age 4 with

my older brother who needed a keeper in our backyard,” Rochau said. “I like the pressure of knowing I can lose the game or win the game and the intense feeling I get from it. You have to be a special per-son to be a keeper, and I want to share that with others.”

The senior goalkeeper and captain of Texas Wesleyan’s men’s soccer team now wants to share his passion for goalkeep-ing through coaching, and he hopes to play in a competitive soccer league. Ro-

chau is scheduled to graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in business mar-keting and a bachelor’s degree in busi-ness management.

Rochau is an international student from Frankfurt, Germany, and has been a student and soccer player at Wesleyan for four years. He traveled to America in 2002 as an exchange student and was placed into Grand Prairie High School as a junior. He was goalkeeper for the Go-phers a year before returning home.

After completing high school in Ger-many, Rochau returned to the States to pursue a bachelor’s degree.

“I wanted to attend a college near Grand Prairie in order to stay close to my host family and my friends from Grand Prairie,” he said.

Four years at Wesleyan can bring about many memories, but Rochau said he will always remember defeating Oklahoma City University, the No. 6 nationally ranked team in the NAIA, 2-1 in his se-nior year.

“We fought together as a team, and it was a unique experience to beat our ri-vals, especially a nationally ranked team,” Rochau said.

Rochau had eight saves on nine shots on goal in the match, which led to the first Ram soccer victory over a top-10 team in Wesleyan history. The win over Oklahoma City also led the Rams to a 6-0 winning streak in the beginning of the season.

“Toby’s work ethic and commitment to the team was shown every day in prac-

tice, and he was the ideal captain for our squad,” said senior defender Jorge Pine-da.

Rochau was ranked No. 35 in the NAIA division one in saves per game at 5.85 and named RRAC men’s soccer de-fensive player of the week for Sept. 7-13.

“Toby is a coach’s dream because he does what you ask of him, and he is a great goalkeeper,” said Gaspar Martinez, head coach of the men’s soccer team.

Away from soccer and studies, Rochau interns at ESPN radio in the promo-tions and marketing department. He also works part-time as a journalist for Spox.com, a German online sports Web site, covering the Dallas Mavericks games, fo-cusing on forward Dirk Nowitzki who is also from Germany.

After graduation Rochau plans to pur-sue a career in sports marketing/man-agement or complete his master’s degree.

“Toby is a go-getter kind of guy and he will do very well for himself after Wes-leyan,” Martinez said.

His teammate agrees.“I was fortunate to get to know Toby

for three years on and off the field and his continuous efforts in the classroom have made his future bright,” Pineda said. “He is headed in the right direction, and he will be successful in life.”

Rochau said he knows he will be leav-ing something special behind to pursue the career he has worked hard for.

“I will miss playing as a team and see-ing my teammates and the Wesleyan community on a regular basis,” he said.

Game Time/Place

Thursday Baseball vs.Oklahoma City Univ.

4 p.m.LaGrave Field

Friday

Baseball vs.SouthwesternAssemblies of GodSoftball vs. Huston-Tillotson University

2 p.m.LaGrave Field5 p.m.Sycamore Park

SaturdaySoftball vs.Univ. of the SouthwestBaseball vs. University of Houston-Victoria

NoonSycamore Park1 p.m.LaGrave Field

TuesdaySoftball vs. Langston UniversityBaseball vs. LSU-Shreveport (LA)

1 p.m.Langston, OK4 p.m.LaGrave Field

“I don’t want to shoot my mouth in my foot, but those are games we can win.”

Sherman Douglasfootball legend

The Weekly Sports Quote

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UpcomingSports:

Joakim Soederbaum | Rambler StaffThe Wesleyan cheer and dance teams held tryouts April 18.

WesleyanWeek-in-Sports

• The Lady Rams Softball team (23-12 , 15-3 RRAC) hosted Bacone College April 17. The game was halted due to rain at the bottom of the third inning with the score at 3-3.

• The Rams Baseball team (21-19, 8-0 RRAC) took a run-shortened 10-0 win against Northwood University April 16.

Showcase highlights Wesleyan Starletts

Toby Rochau

Time to graduate, Rochau has firm grip on his future