Week highlights cultural awareness

By Jessica Cervantez
Staff Reporter

Singing, dancing and food will highlight this year’s International Week in an attempt to raise multicultural awareness on campus.
Raquel Torres, a junior e-business major and International Week chairwoman, said this week will allow international students to share their culture and customs with American students.
“This week-long event is to celebrate different aspects of culture,” said Torres, an international student from Colombia. “It is a time to bring different cultures together that are represented at TCU.”

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Holiday causes problems for some students

By Bethany McCormack
Staff Reporter

Monday marked the beginning of an important religious holiday for Muslims, but because it is not an official university excused absence, some Muslim students had to choose between class or celebration.
“This day is not an excused day away from classes, but I took the day off for prayer because my religion comes first,” said Awais Mazhar, a senior computer science major. “It’s important to me even if it is not officially recognized by the university.”

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Students react to empathy dinner
Pi Kapp event focuses on disabilities

By LaNasha Houze
Staff Reporter

Fort Worth officials, TCU administration, staff and students gathered at the second Pi Kappa Phi Empathy Dinner Monday night, the last event in the fraternity’s PUSH philanthropy week.
Brian Casebolt, director of the philanthropy event, said the event was held to raise awareness and to break down the stereotypes of individuals within the TCU community about people with disabilities.
“This event is not a fundraiser,” Casebolt said. “Instead, it is to raise awareness. People with disabilities don’t want you to sympathize with them. If we can get the participants to feel and understand this then we have accomplished our goal at the dinner.”

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Pre-law program begins
Organization helps students prepare for law school

Skiff Staff

Since TCU does not have a law school, a new program is being developed to help students who are interested in going to law school, said Carolyn Barton, a coordinator for the program.
The State Bar of Texas Pre-Law Student Affiliate Program is a new affiliate of the State of Texas Bar Association. It has been embraced by 15 Texas universities, including TCU, in an effort to provide the tools needed to help students interested in attending law school.
Donald Jackson, a political science professor and lawyer, said TCU students interested in law school need an outlet that can provide entrance by application into the State Bar of Texas Association.

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Successful scholar
Student given one of 35 Fulbright Scholarships

Skiff Staff

Mahatma Gandhi said people must represent the changes they want to see made in the world. The lifestyle of Fulbright Scholar Amy Thompson reflects this philosophy, said her mother, Barbara Thompson.
Amy Thompson, a senior French major, recently received the scholarship awarded by the French Ministry of Education. She is one of 35 students awarded a teacher assistantship scholarship from a pool of 263 national applications submitted by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

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Class vs. culture
Recognize other religious holidays

Do you know what Eid-Ul-Adha represents to those who believe in the Muslim religious doctrine?
Apparently, neither does the administration of TCU. Or at least they just don’t think it’s important.
Eid, one of two major holidays in the Muslim religion, celebrates Abraham’s submission to God when he was called to sacrifice his son Ishmael. The holiday began Monday and lasts three days.
Although many high schools across Texas count the celebration of Eid as an excused absence, TCU doesn’t follow suit. Instead, it asks Muslim students to attend class as though their religion isn’t as important as Christianity.

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Bush’s family deserves privacy
Media should respect personal lives of president’s daughters

by James Zwilling

Last week, the Associated Press, the TCU Daily Skiff and nearly every other news agency around the United States reported that William Ashe Bridges, TCU freshmen and friend of first daughter Jenna Bush, was released to a man believed to be a Secret Service agent after a brief holiday at the county jail.
According to the reports, Bush and Bridges both attended an off-campus party Feb. 25 where Bridges was arrested and cited for public intoxication and underage possession of alcohol.
Four days later, when the story first broke, newspapers and television stations alike had the first glimpse into the life of the first family’s 19-year-old twin daughters.

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‘Butt Bill’ good for Maine, smokers

by Laura Head

There are some states you don’t hear about until they do something a little bit wacko, like Florida’s presidential ballots or South Carolina’s secession from the union.
In similar fashion, Maine is getting its 15 minutes of fame through lawmaker Joe Brooks’ so-called “Butt Bill.”
According to Monday’s USA Today, the Returnable Tobacco Products Bill is aimed at snuffing out cigarette litter by adding a nickel surcharge to cigarettes to be refunded when the butt is returned.
Next up on the list of bills to be considered by the Maine legislature: the Returnable Bubbalicious Products Bill and the Returnable Single Shoe Products Bill.

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Matthews’ arrogant attitude hurts his fans

by Emily Ward

Imagine a successful and extremely affluent rock ‘n’ roll band arriving in Dallas for the last concert of its summer tour. It’s about 8 p.m. at Texas Stadium as the lead singer steps up to the microphone to sing the opening number. His voice echoes around the arena as he realizes the place is completely empty.
Does this sound just a little strange? How about another scenario.
The same band has just produced its fourth studio album, and the day has arrived for music store employees everywhere to clear the shelf and make room for the upcoming compact disc. Despite critics who claim the album is the group’s best to date, nobody shows up to cough up the dough for the CD.

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Letter to the Editor
Libertarian philosophy interest group not represented on campus

Seniors celebrate title despite loss to SMU

By Kelly Morris
Associate Sports Editor

As freshmen, senior guards Jill Sutton and Amy Porter wished huge crowds would one day fill the seats of Daniel-Meyer Coliseum to cheer on the Frogs.
That dream came true Saturday as the TCU women’s basketball team closed the regular season with an 87-79 loss to Southern Methodist in front of 6,369 fans, the second-largest crowd ever to watch a TCU women’s basketball game.
A sell-out crowd of 7,262 people was in attendance when the Frogs played Tennessee Nov. 27, but most of the fans were in Tennessee orange that night instead of TCU purple.
Sutton said Saturday’s crowd was well worth the wait.

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Frogs secure No. 4 seed
Win puts Tubbs’ record at 13-2 against SMU

By Matt Stiver
Skiff Staff

As he walked from the Moody Coliseum floor Saturday, men’s head basketball coach Billy Tubbs reached into his pocket and slipped on a pair of glasses.
Yellow-tinted, wrap-around safety glasses.
Given the fact the Frogs just defeated Southern Methodist 84-76, Tubbs said he only exercised caution.
Following a 92-79 victory at SMU on Jan. 11, 1999, Tubbs was pelted in the eye with a penny as he walked off the court.
“They’re just taking care of me,” Tubbs said of the university trustees who supplied his eyewear. “The only thing is they weren’t prescription goggles. I couldn’t see where I was going.”

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Frogs baseball whips wild weekend

By Brandon Ortiz
Skiff Staff

Facing a pitching staff that had walked 90 and hit 35 batters in 137 innings, head coach Lance Brown said he knew his team could be in for a wild weekend.
Nobody knew it was going to be this wild.
The Frogs (11-6) swept a doubleheader from Texas-Pan American (1-17), outscoring the Broncos 30-7 on 23 hits and 16 walks in the two games.
Brown said he had prepared his team for a wild pitching staff.
“We knew coming in they had some pretty good arms but have had trouble throwing strikes,” Brown said. “We knew we could not swing at too many pitches, and we had talked about that Friday.”

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Cheating Cheats Students

By Natascha Terc

Casually glancing at a friend’s exam, forgetting quotation marks or submitting the same paper for two classes may seem harmless, but they are all forms of cheating.
On most campuses, more than 75 percent of students admit to some cheating, according to the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University — and students at TCU are no exception.
Michael Russel, associate dean of Campus Life, said there are both intentional and unintentional instances of cheating.
“I think students sometimes don’t know that they are breaking a rule,” Russel said. “Students who write a paper for one class and later submit it to another don’t always realize that’s cheating.”

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Photo Illustration by Tim Cox