| Cracked WAC Joining C-USA progressive move
Within two weeks, we will know for sure whether or not TCU will make its best conference move to date. Over the past five years, TCU has fallen out of a crumbled Southwestern Conference and joined a feeble Western Athletic Conference. Now they may have the opportunity to add to a flourishing Conference USA. C-USA is made up of the athletic teams from Alabama-Birmingham, Cincinnati, DePaul, Houston, Louisville, Marquette, Memphis, North Carolina-Charlotte, Saint Louis, South Florida, Southern Mississippi and Tulane. Army and East Carolina joined C-USA to play football alone. The conference spans 13 states, but more importantly, encompasses 12 major media markets. C-USA and Fox Sports Net have reached a five-year deal, in which Fox features a C-USA game of the week every weekend of the football season. As a member of the Bowl Championship Series, C-USA is guaranteed access to a BCS bowl if one of its teams' final national ranking is No. 6 or better. In four seasons of basketball, C-USA has sent 25 men's and 17 women's teams to post-season tournaments. C-USA is one of the seven equity conferences that has direct representation in the NCAA governance structure. C-USA commissioner Mark Slive has been given full authority to explore expansion possibilities for the next two weeks. If, as speculated, TCU is granted an invitation to join C-USA, the Frogs' athletics will have the opportunity to get one step closer to Chancellor Michael R. Ferrari's mission statement: "To be a prominent private university recognized for our global perspective."
Media missing the real story The stories are becoming too commonplace. A mentally deranged day trader goes on a tirade and murders his wife and family before shooting his co-workers. A massive earthquake in Turkey claims thousands of lives and leaves even more buried alive. A plane crash in Argentina kills 69 people ... and the list goes on. How real is this to everybody? Now hold on, I'm not going to launch into the proverbial Skiff columnist diatribe of "we all live in the TCU bubble and don't care about anything," but I'm asking instead for us to think about the reality of these worldwide occurrences and how they affect our society. Does what we see in the daily newspaper have any bearing in our personal lives? (Assuming, of course, that we see something other than the grocery store tabloid headlines that scream, "Elvis returning to establish Millennial Kingdom.") Do we realize these stories aren't merely printed words on a page or does our momentary sympathy for the plight of others fade gently away as we flip over to "Garfield"? We have become rapidly desensitized to events outside of our personal tangible worlds and this is because very little surprises us anymore. These "far away" happenings are so detached from us, we don't get the truth of what actually happened. Watching Platoon and actually being in the Vietnam War definitely share similarities, yet are at the same time farther apart than I could ever comprehend. Sadly, the media all too often have the tendency to bludgeon us with a barrage of sensational stories coupled with flashy 30-second sound bytes that propagate our apathy instead of awakening our empathy. What happens in Turkey once the cameras are gone and reporters have moved on to stories about George W. Bush Jr. allegedly inhaling glue fumes 50 years ago during an intense kindergarten assignment? Somewhere, halfway around the world, people are desperately sweeping together the remaining fragments of their lives while news anchors utter clever axioms such as, "Clean up begins after (insert disaster here) has shattered the lives of the people in (insert place here), leaving (death/destruction/chaos) in its wake. But in other news, people aren't wearing enough hats " The sadness and despair are the harsh realities we don't often see, but so desperately need to see because they are real even if they don't directly impact us. Storms ravaging the nation receive names to personalize them, but the end result is short of laughable. I await the day I hear Tom Brokaw talking about how Heatwave Frank and Partly Cloudy Day Larry are making the average lives difficult for Americans across the country. On a lighter note, if we're going to give personalities to the fickleness of Mother Nature, let's at least assign some nicknames worthy of the true temperance of these storms. I mean, "Dennis" and "Emily" just won't cut it. They sound like an amiable friend you just happened to miss seeing at the bar but somebody else informs you, "Oh by the way, Dennis dropped by earlier to say hello, leaving 50 people dead and thousands others without homes or electricity." We need names that strike fear into the hearts of people, like Hurricane Brunhilda or Hurricane Thor. On the other hand, there's also a fine line of sensationalism between replacing the cutesy names with the aforementioned cooler ones, but I'm not really sure what it is. Hey, I'm only a writer. I don't have all the answers, just most of them. Likewise, the media inevitably trivializes its news by jumping from story to story, gently numbing our lives to the point where disasters and tragedies become no more different or interesting than last night's Yankees score. We should all work on developing a reality perspective and understand that these stories are real life, that we are all just a news feature away from similar circumstances in our own worlds. But then again, perhaps I'm just a little jealous. I am, after all, still waiting for Hurricane Kevin.
Kevin Dunleavy is a junior advertising and public relations major from Spring, Texas. Television in the eye of the beholder With the new fall TV schedule announced and gearing up to launch, a lot of questions come to mind for college students. One such question is: How much time should I waste this semester watching television? Giving up television, though, is hard for a society that has been suckled by it - whether it be dismal reality we're watching or far-fetched fantasy. Who knew the antique road show on PBS would take off like it did? Then again, who knew the biggest television controversy of the summer would be over delaying the air date of the season finale of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" due to the excessive depiction of school violence? Are these ideas warping our mind, distracting us from our productive lives and turning our minds into gelatin? A new study recently reported that even educational programming is harmful for the development of kids' minds more than we ever realized. I would disagree, though, saying that my little sisters (who are TV addicts) know more about the real world because they've watched a lot of television. They fell in love with Eric of "The Little Mermaid," and they cried for Simba's dad when he was betrayed by his brother. These situations reinforce social priorities in our minds and keep our minds stimulated about what we would do if we were to face those circumstances. Sure, they may get better grades if they spent the time learning their multiplication tables instead of memorizing Pokémon, but what good is the ability to solve a Rubick's cube when you can't even make someone laugh at a party? But television shows can sometimes act more as an escape rather than selected reflection of the more interesting tidbits of life that we should learn from. In the same way, they can shape a vision of life around those who stay in their homes, they can also shape an unattainable state of existence. Can you honestly say that over the past six years of your life (the average duration of a television show) that you have stayed with the same group of people? Tight television casts give us reliable friends every week that we know will entertain us or that we care about when problems arise - something that is hard to find in real life. They rarely forsake us. In the course of human events, we will all be hurt, betrayed, loved, belittled, conquered, humored and obsessed over. The difference with television is that we can walk away. Television takes on different roles for different people. For some, it is something to talk about at the water cooler in the morning; for others, it is the replacement of a best friend who will always be interesting enough to stick with. Whether through tears of laughter or tears of pain, they will be there for a while. Still others look to it for a panacea from their own life's troubles or depression. For everyone, though, I would argue that television has influence on our lives in more ways than we can imagine. People watch "Will & Grace" because it's funny, yet they are probably becoming more tolerant of homosexuals. They watch "NYPD Blue" because it's dramatic or action-filled, yet they become more sympathetic to law enforcement. Influence of television is sometimes intrusive, yet sometimes vital to our development. With the influx of ideas and characters in our minds, we have escaped the farm-and-hunt mentality and turned instead to seek out our passions that may have been exposed to us during a 30-minute segment. So if you feel like television makes you happy, watch it, but don't just watch it because there's nothing else on. One of the hardest lessons for a new college student to learn is how to juggle his or her schedule. Are work, school and friends more important than finding out if Ross and Rachel are going to stay married? That depends on you.
Jeremy Hoekstra is a junior computer science and math major from Burleson, Texas. Messages of hope missing when women excluded from ministry Doesn't it seem peculiar that there are so few women serving as leaders in the ministry? It appears that many faithful servants of the church are being unnecessarily excluded. What a waste of talent! For the first time in centuries, women in the Church of England are being ordained as pastors, or "vicars." Anglicans used to be part of the Roman Catholic Church, but Henry VIII wanted to get a divorce 500 years ago, and the Vatican refused his request. Henry split off from the Catholic Church and made himself head of the Church of England. Sadly, the split continues today. Bringing women into church leadership has caused an uproar among the male vicars, and many left the church. With the Vatican's blessing, the Roman Catholic Church welcomed a reunion with the disgruntled vicars. Many of the clerics became Catholics again with their spouses and families. So much for celibacy! In the United States, members of the Anglican Church are Episcopalians. In July 1974, 11 women were ordained as priests. Until that time, it was against church law, although the decree was subsequently changed. Episcopal women have met a high standard as capable leaders of congregations across America. The patriarchal leadership of the church will not give up. Four Episcopal dioceses in the United States, including Fort Worth, will not ordain women as priests. The 50 churches in Fort Worth, Denton, Arlington and Wichita Falls have no women in leadership positions. The bishop of the diocese, the Right Reverend Jack Iker, will not hear of it. Right here in the buckle of the Bible belt rules a man who has let time pass him by. There are many reasons why women should be leaders in the church. Women are human beings and must be regarded with much respect. The knowledge and understanding women bring to ministry is invaluable, and a woman's experience is important to the ministry of the church. In pastoral care, perhaps it is best for a woman to minister to another woman. What about preaching? Should women preach? Yes, of course. Some of the most powerful voices in the pulpit are feminine. Christians miss positive and provocative messages of hope when women are excluded from preaching. Fundamentalists believe women should have no right to have authority in the pulpit. Such an exclusion in the 20th century is shortsighted and thoughtless. The church should allow no one to silence responsible persons from preaching the gospel. Of course there are many other success stories where women have dynamic ministries. There should never be a defensive effort to rationalize a place for a woman's ministry. Members of the Christian community should recognize that women have as equal and substantive a mission in the world as men do. It is not just the Episcopal church that discourages women. Many denominations and individual congregations put the kibosh on the careers of promising women in the ministry. This impediment happens when a congregation undermines the authority of a female pastor. On other occasions, congregations simply will not take a woman's work seriously. There is much work to be done in God's kingdom. Wouldn't it be exciting to see the church take the leadership role in championing the equality of women by setting a better example?
David Becker is a graduate student at Brite Divinity School from Pueblo, Colo. Letter to the editor TCU students should live up to Horned Frog ideology "Be proud to be a Horned Frog." We have all said it. And we all mean it. We have a lot in which to take pride - in academics, in athletics, in student organizations and in our campus. Mostly, though, I have encouraged people to be proud of our school because of the quality of the people who go to school here. But occasionally student behavior embarrasses us all. On Tuesday of this week the lead headline of the SMU student newspaper was about a fight and verbal harassment of SMU students by some TCU students last Saturday night. Police reports from SMU arrived at TCU shortly thereafter. It is hard to be proud of that. We have read reports in the Skiff about student arrests and other forms of misbehavior. These do not, nor should they, engender pride. When you become a TCU student, your actions reflect on every member of this community. We may wish this were not so, but it is. At SMU some TCU students have created an image about TCU that now all of us share. We should be sharing the image everywhere of what is right about TCU students: the image of those who contribute thousands of hours of community service, those who attain significant academic achievements, those who work to pay the tuition bill, those who mentor new students, those who commit untold hours to making TCU a better place, and those who put their considerable talents on display for the community to appreciate and enjoy. TCU is a place that stresses our commitment to one another. It is a place where we should all celebrate successes. It should not be a place where the actions of a few embarrass others. Frankly, this student body deserves better than that. Our expectations of each other should be higher than that. Don Mills Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs |
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