Oscar picks
Turning Japanese
One student’s ideal winners for the
The Birmingham Int'l Festival and SUMO
2006 Academy Awards
restaurant promise a taste of the East
fc See page 3
See page 4
- i - 1
Samford
Shoots, scores
Basketball teams are on the road to
Nashville after Tuesday wins
See page 6
RIMSON
Serving Samford University Since 1915
Birmingham, Alabama
Oxford Speaker
Wednesday. March 1. 2006
Volume 91 I Number 16
Batter Up!
‘Intelligent’
professor
delivers
Melissa Jordan
Campus News Editor
Former Minister to the University Jim
Barnette said let there be discussion over
intelligent design, creationism and evolu¬
tion. And there was.
Monday night, Reid Chapel filled to
capacity with students, faculty and staff and
members of the community to hear a panel
discussion and lecture on intelligent design.
“The discussion [of intelligent design]
gets very readily hijacked, as you have no
doubt observed,” the evening’s lecturer
John Lennox said.
Although a large number of the atten¬
dees were from the Birmingham commu¬
nity, many students came to hear the dis¬
cussion as well.
“I thought [Lennox] presented things so
well," sophomore English major Peyton
Jones said. “I think he definitely, in my
case, provided a greater understanding
about what intelligent design really is. I
think he left the option of creation open,
and he presented his thoughts with real
wisdom and in a way that was humble and
insightful.”
Lennox opened the evening with a lec¬
ture on the importance of intelligent
design and the evidence pointing to it. He
said the conflict is really between the two
worldviews of theism and materialism and
that there are scientists and people of faith
on both sides.
"Science cannot be in complete conflict
with religion or all scientists would be athe¬
ists. The situation is more subtle,” Lennox
said. “The question is with which world¬
view does science sit most comfortably.”
The evening’s sponsor. Executive
Director of Fixed Point Foundation Larry
A. Taunton said, “We saw there were no
civil discussions [on intelligent design].
There were lots of ill-informed discus¬
sions, so we wanted to do this for, excuse
the pun, intelligent discussions.”
“1 wanted to hear more of the intellectu¬
al part,” senior political science major
Chris Reid said. “I had heard a lot about
See LENNOX, page 2
Dana Kaita I The Samford Crimson
John Lennox, from the University of
Oxford, lectured on intetligent design to
a crowded Reid Chapel Monday night.
Negro Classic a
hit at Rickwood
Black Barons take on Bristol
Barnstormers in vintage match-up
Recruitment
revisions
Three-year contract
over ; new plans for fall
Ann Shivers
The Samford Crimson
Samford’s Panhellenic Council set the new fall
recruitment dates at a meeting Tuesday night with
sorority presidents, recruitment chairs and advi¬
sors present.
“This really is the best option for us,” junior
journalism major Emily Sparks said. Sparks
serves as this year’s Panhellenic vice president for
recruitment.
Beginning in September 2006, recruitment will
begin Friday of the third week of classes and cul¬
minate with Squeal on Tuesday night of the fol¬
lowing week.
The decision marks the end of the three-year
trial period in which recruitment was held in the
last half of the fourth week of school.
“We had two other options,” Sparks said. “We
could have recruitment Monday through Thurs¬
day of the fourth week, skip the weekend for the
football game and Family Weekend, and have
Squeal on Sunday.
“Some of the sororities suggested we have it
Wednesday through Sunday of the fifth week, but
there were obvious problems with both of those
options.”
Panhellenic and the Interfratemity Council pre¬
sented their proposal to move recruitment back to
the third week to Vice President and Dean of Stu¬
dents Richard Franklin, who then took the propos¬
al to the administration.
Because Samford has a home football game on
Thursday of the third week, the administration
decided that recruitment could begin on Friday of
the third week at the earliest.
“I’ve made it very clear that I’d rather have
recruijment in the spring,” Franklin said. “I don’t
like having it in the first semester, but [spring
recruitment] can’t happen because of Step Sing. I
want to give students an opportunity to get in and
get settled, so that students and organizations can
make better decisions," he said.
IFC had decided to begin their recruitment on
Friday of the third week before Panhellenic made
its decision.
“We were hoping to see date night come back,”
sophomore biology major and IFC President Nate
Stenstrom said.
“It will be chaos, absolute chaos, having men
and women's recruitment at the same time with
construction and everything else,” said Frank
Parsons, director of Greek Life and Student
Organizations.
“We’re going for the calendar first next year,
and we’re hoping that football and Family Week¬
end will allow for a more ideal schedule,” he said.
Junior English major and Alpha Delta Pi Presi¬
dent Katelyn Williams said that the new recruit¬
ment dates will require flexibility and positive
attitudes.
“Ideally, I think the Greek community would
like to see recruitment placed back at the begin-
See SORORITY, page 2
Gappy Martin
Community News Editor
ESPN watchers weren’t the only
ones catching the Classic Vintage
Negro League Baseball game on
Sunday afternoon.
At the bottom of the fourth
inning, 8-year-old Austin Weldon
fought off his two older brothers to
catch a foul ball during the game in
legendary Rickwood Field, the old¬
est ballpark in the country.
“When I play, I like sliding in
the dirt,” Austin said as he dusted
off his trophy baseball.
Old-fashioned music played
^over the loudspeaker as the three
watched the Birmingham
;k Barons beat the Bristol
:rs 9-8 in an historic re-
’enactment of a Negro series game.
Representing teams from the
1940s, college and minor league
players from Alabama, Connecti¬
cut and Massachusetts relived the
competition between the black
teams and the northern barnstorm¬
ing teams who came to the South
to give the Negro leagues some
competition.
“Because major league baseball
back then was segregated, barn¬
storming teams were one of the
few chances that black teams had
to play white teams,” Phillip Jor¬
dan, managing editor of the Birm¬
ingham Weekly, said. “I thought it
was a great event.”
Both teama^ dressed in baggy
uniforms and used bats and gloves
that replicated equipment used in
the 1940s.
“The costumes don’t matter,”
Nicholas Weldon, 10, said. “It
doesn’t matter how they look; it
just matters how they play.”
Several veteran Black Barons,
dressed in iheir old jerseys, attend¬
ed the game and signed auto¬
graphs. The game Sunday boasted
approximately 4,000 fans.
The game, sponsored by and
aired on ESPN, included the
national anthem performed by for¬
mer Black Baron and country
music legend Charley Pride and
the first pitch by veteran Black
Baron and National League Hall of
Fame member Willie Mays.
“It’s just fun to be out here," Josh
Weldon, 12, said. “Willie Mays was
a pretty good ballplayer."
Mays, who was 17 when he
joined the Black Barons in 1948,
was inducted into the Hall of Fame
in 1979 with 660 career home runs
and two career Most Valuable
Player awards.
“Willie Mays is a baseball icon,
one of the first and most successful
black people in the history of base¬
ball,” senior sociology major and
Samford pitcher Stephen Artz said.
‘To have him at the game to throw
the first pitch is the most exciting
and remarkable thing that has hap¬
pened at that field.”
As director of the Friends of
Rickwood Field, David Brewer
heads up the non-profit organization
responsible for fundraising and mar¬
keting for the 95-year-old stadium.
“The game created a relationship
with ESPN, exposure for the Rick¬
wood revitalization project, and
support from the city of Birming¬
ham and the teams,” Brewer said.
Jordan agreed that the match-up
made locals more aware of the
baseball monument and the his¬
toric roots attached to the field.
“I think that this game probably
got Birmingham, Rickwood Field
and the Negro league more expo¬
sure nationally than they probably
ever had in Birmingham alone,”
Jordan said. “It was good for the
city to learn about it too.”
“This is just long overdue
recognition for those gentlemen."
Brewer said. “It’s good for the
park, good for the community, and
good for the men who played."
Photo courtesy of Kyle Whitmire I The Birmingham Weekly
TIM Black Barons played the Bristol Barnstormers in an annu¬
al reenactment Sunday afternoon for a 9-8 win at Rickwood Field.
Clean up your act
Food, trash left on new football
field threatens expensive turf
Stadium may have further
Crimson
if students continue to litter.
[Annie Murphree
The Samford Crimson
A sticky problem is surfacing
in Seibert Stadium where litter¬
ing on the synthetic turf could
cause injuries and the destruc¬
tion of a million-doilar field.
“You cm use that turf 24
hours a day, seven days a week
and not wear it out, but once
you put things like gum,
chocolate, and toothpaste on it,
you can’t expect your surface
to last very long,” Samford
bead football coach Bill Gray
said.
“We need to make sure to
condition everybody to have
consideration for the field.”
After losing their practice
field last year,
Ле
Samford
football team had no other
choice but to replace the exist¬
ing natural grass field.
“The problem is when peo¬
ple spill substances such as
coke, peanut butter, and sun¬
flower seeds, it becomes very
hard to clean up and cm leave
stains," Bill Mathews, Vice
President of Business Affairs
for the university, said.
In addition to the mainte¬
nance costs, safety hazards
loom for abusing such a luge
university investment.
During warm weather, the
field is sprayed with water to
cool it down.
When the trash mixes with
, son
the water, it can create a. slip¬
pery surface for athletes. If
neglected, even litter on the
track could pose a threat to
those who use it.
"The track is less than a year
old, and if we don’t take care
of it then we will have to
replace sections of it, which is
very tedious and expensive,"
Mathews said.
But those who use the field
for football practice are
severely affected by irrespon¬
sible students and think clean-
See LITTER, page 2
Editorial (205) 726-2998 I Business (205) 726-2474