“It will never be
convenient...just go do it.”
— Lindsey Hightower,
senior, JMC
“I don't think you deserve to
live in this country if you don't
vote.” — Karim Shamsi-Basha,
Photojournalism professor
Volume 85, Number 8
Homecoming makes changes
Past and present will col¬
lide this week as Homecom¬
ing 2000 kicks off.
The Homecoming added
some new twists to the old
traditions. Additions to this
year’s activities include a
coffee house, a pumpkin-carving
contest and a tethered hot air bal¬
loon ride.
Another 2000 homecoming
event will be the 1976 time capsule
extraction and the 2000 Time Cap¬
sule burial at 10 a.m. in front of
Davis Library.
SGA President Scarlett Stewart
said, “ I really feel fortunate this event
landed on the year I am serving as SGA
president.”
The 2000 time capsule will include T-
shirts from every SAC event, the Entre
Nous, 2000 presidential campaign materi¬
als, the 50th anniversary Step Sing
brochure, NCAA Basketball tournament
news, a Birmingham newspaper, Time
magazine, a style magazine, and an SGA
scrapbook.
The capsule will also include personal
letters from Vice President and Dean of
Students Richard H. Franklin, Samford
“Having a week-long event
allows more students to get
involved behind the scenes.”
— Tricia Browning, Assistant
Homecoming Director
President Thomas E. Corts, and SGA presi¬
dent Scarlet Stewart
Activities continue tonight with a coffee
house in the Food Court from 8:30 until 1 1
p.m. The first 200 students in attendance
will receive a free glass latte mug.
Thursday at 4 p.m. students can deco¬
rate the campus with sidewalk chalk and
window paint as well as homecoming
floats. Friday night Sister Hazel will per-
fom at 8 p.m on theWright Center stage.
The performance will be followed by a Pep
Rally and a pancake breakfast
Saturday events include a Barbeque lunch
in the Caf, parade of floats, the cele¬
bration of Crimson’s 85th anniver¬
sary and the homecoming game.
The Bulldogs take on Charleston
Southern at 1 :30 p.m At halftime,
the Homecoming Queen and her
court will be presented. Festivities
will wrap up to tunes of Iambic Un¬
derground at the Me Wane Center.
Five dollar tickets for the dance are avail¬
able in the food court lobby.
Assistant Homecoming Director Tricia
Browning said, “Having a week long event
allows more students to get involved be¬
hind the scenes and includes more of the
student body as a whole.”
Samford hosts PBL conference
Г
The Samford Problem-Based
Learning discussion spread to
more than 600 educators at a
Samford-hosted PBL confer¬
ence.
“Problem-Based Learning
is a method and philosophy that actively
engages students in the learning process,”
said Kristi Arndt, Samford ’s director of die
Center for Problem-Based Learning.
The conference focused on how educa¬
tors can continue to develop, apply and re¬
fine PBL in the classroom
The Conference on Problem-Based
Learning in Undergraduate and Profession¬
al Education was held Sunday through
Tuesday at the Birmingham Sheraton hotel.
Lee S. Shulman, the president of the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement
of Teaching, delivered the keynote address.
The conference also showcased five of
Samford’s eight colleges, plus 51 Samford
faculty members, deans and staff.
PBL has been used extensively in past
medical and graduate school environments
but recently has been integrated into the
liberal arts education of undergraduates.
In die PBL environment, students are
given a problem in order to stimulate fur¬
ther research.
“This is different from the traditional
classroom where you are given all the
background information and then many
times asked to research it from that point,”
Arndt said.
PBL also aims to help students discover
their learning needs as well as give them
experience in dealing with real life prob¬
lems while working in a group setting.
Associate Provost and PBL Coordinator
John W. Harris said, “Students in PBL
classes must master a body of knowledge
in their subject, but because information in¬
creases so rapidly, it is critical that they be¬
come problem-solvers able to function in a
team as well.”
Samford hosted the conference as a re¬
sult of two major grants from the Pew
Charitable Trusts. It was attended by resen-
tatives from eight countries.
The school has received almost two mil¬
lion dollars since 1997 from the Trust to
design PBL courses and document re¬
search.
Debate team places in tournament
The Samford debate team
made up of Jamie Radford
and Clinton South traveled to
Tuscaloosa recently to pull
off a 5th place finish in the
University of Alabama
debate tournament Oct. 20-22.
The team came away with a 4-2 record,
beating teams from Emory University, the
University of Georgia, Louisiana State Uni¬
versity and Georgia State University. South
was named the 5 th best debater in the tour¬
nament .
After working through the preliminary
rounds, Samford’s team lost in the quarter
finals to the team from Arkansas State Uni¬
versity. The Arkansas team went on to win
the tournament.
Samford debate has two teams. Radford
and South make up one team and Kris
Rivers and Chad Ezekiel make up the oth¬
er. “The debate team recruits just like the
basketball team, ” South said.
Kristan Rivers debates against the
British National Debate Team Oct 19
Debaters on scholarship must travel to
four or five tournaments every year, keep at
least 3.0 GPAand do at least one research
project every week These projects make
Partly Cloudy
High 81
Low 59
up the bulk of their research for debates.
South debated in high school, but prefers
college debates. “I enjoy it more because
it’s a lot more in-depth and a lot more com¬
petitive,” he said.
Although debaters are given a list of
about 35-40 possible topics, they are not
sure of which topics they will be debating
until they get to the tournament
“There is basically a lot of quick think¬
ing at the tournament itself,” South said.
At the University of Alabama, Radford and
South debated whether or not more assis¬
tance should be given to the countries in
the greater horn of Africa.
Samford Debate is coached by Ben
Coulter and is directed by Michael Janas,
both of the department of speech communi¬
cation and theatre.
Samford’s next debate will be the
Franklin Shirley Classic Debate Toum»- ')l £
ment hosted by Wake Forest University on
Nov. 17-20.
Crimes
decline on
campus
Recent statistics released
by Campus Safety reveal
that criminal acts at
Samford are on the de¬
cline.
In addition, these acts
are noticeably fewer and less severe
than criminal acts at many other
schools across the state.
Chief Henry Hope, director of Cam¬
pus Safety, said “I think the university
as a whole is pretty much responsible
for maintaining safety.”
The Campus Safety Annual Report
includes crime statistics for the past
four years. On the whole, campus
crime has declined, specifically in ar¬
eas such as petty theft and liquor law
violations.
The number of theft incidents de¬
creased from 72 in 1998 to 42 in 1999.
Similarly, liquor law violations
dropped from 24 to 18, with only 2 in¬
cidents requiring arrest
In an October 25 story on campus
crime in Alabama, The Birmingham
News compared tire crime of four-year
colleges and universities within the
state. These statistics, gathered from
the U.S. Department of Education,
show that Samford ranks among the
lowest of these schools in number of
crimes reported.
In die past four years there have
been no violent crimes with the excep¬
tion of four minor assault incidents
and one sex offense in 19%.
Chief Hope, said he and Campus
Safety “have achieved a plan where
Campus Safety can be looked upon as
a place to turn in times of crisis, for
advice and for direction.”
The release of crime statistics by
colleges and universities comes in
compliance with the Jeanne Clery Act
of 1998. The act, originally the Cam¬
pus Security Act of 1990, requires col¬
lege and university security and safety
departments to fully disclose informa¬
tion regarding campus crime, arrests,
and other incidents.
The act was named for Jeanne
Clery, a student at Lehigh University,
who was raped, beaten, and murdered
in 1986 while in her dormitory room.
Jeanne’s parents then demanded action
after learning that Lehigh had not
properly reported almost 40 incidents
of violent crime prior to their daugh¬
ter’s enrollment
Campus Safety’s annual report also
serves as a safety resource for stu¬
dents. In addition to crime statistics, it
includes safety precautions, important
phone numbers, policies and proce¬
dures, and controlled substance lists.