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Interfraternity Council adopts new statement By Michael Davis A new mission statement aimed at showing support for TCU, its leadership and the direction the university is heading was adopted Tuesday by the Interfraternity Council. According to the statement, the IFC’s mission is “to promote the development of gentlemen through scholarship, service and leadership in the bond of brotherhood in concordance with the values of the university.” Walker Moody, Interfraternity Council president, said the IFC decided to write the mission statement to lend support to the university and its leadership, and to show the IFC thinks TCU is moving in the right direction, he said. “It gives us direction and brings us back to the principles these organizations were founded upon and reaffirms those principles,” Moody said. He said the entire process was surprisingly conflict free. The only problem came in trying to narrow down the values the IFC wanted to denote in the statement. “It was hard to decide on a set of two, three or four values,” Moody said. “There were so many.” The IFC drew upon ideas from the existing mission statements of each fraternity. But the IFC mostly tried to model their own mission statement after TCU’s new mission statement adopted this summer. According to TCU’s statement, the goal of the university is “to educate individuals to think and act as ethical leaders and responsible citizens in the global community.” The process of developing a mission statement began at a retreat prior to men’s Recruitment and was developed over a couple of days. But the statement is not an effort to correct any particular problem
with the fraternity system, Moody said. “We had the largest (Recruitment) ever this year,” he said. Dobeski said the council’s overall reception of the mission statement was positive. “The entire council was pumped,” he said. The mission statement will not only help facilitate Recruitment, but will also put TCU’s IFC in good standing when it competes for the Jellison Award at the Mid-American Greek Council Association, Dobeski said. The Jellison Award is given to the best IFC in the Midwest. “The Greek community is very receptive to what’s going on,” he said. Fred Coleman, a sophomore business major in Phi Kappa Sigma, said he was unaware of the changes but thinks it will enhance the IFC’s reputation. Tom Sullivan, director of fraternity and sorority affairs, said the students produced something they can believe in and be proud of. “It is nice to see student leaders take the ball on something like this,” he said.
Michael Davis CDC recommends meningitis vaccination By Elise Rambaud Sharing a drink or a cigarette may seem harmless, but these casual habits may increase the risk of contracting meningococcal meningitis. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College Health Association recommends that college freshmen be aware of the risks of meningococcal meningitis and the benefits of getting a vaccination. Burton Schwartz, a medical doctor at the TCU Health Center, said he is not aware of any cases of meningococcal meningitis at the university in the past five years. The likelihood that an incoming freshman would bring a case of meningococcal meningitis to campus is very small, he said. The disease is transmitted through intimate contact with infected droplets of respiratory secretions, Schwartz said. He said common habits such as sharing drinks, cigarettes and lipstick as well as kissing and being exposed to coughing and sneezing can spread the disease. According to the Texas Department of Health, the risk of incidence is
higher when large groups of people without previous contact are brought
together in places such as military barracks and college dormitories. There was considerable amounts of drinking and sharing of a pacifier which had been dipped in the drug ecstasy at the rave, said Lasher. “Users of the drug want to clench and grind their teeth, so they will often use a pacifier to chew on,” Lasher said. The young woman is recovering and has been released from the hospital, Lasher said, and no additional cases of meningitis from the rave have been reported so far. The college health association defines meningococcal meningitis as a rare, but potentially fatal bacterial form of meningitis that affects the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Neisseria meningitidis, the bacterium which causes the disease, is carried in the respiratory secretions of 25 to 30 percent of the population, but rarely causes outbreaks, said Bobby Jones, epidemiologist at the Tarrant County Health Department. Some people are carriers, but never become infected, he said. There were 14 reported cases of meningococcal meningitis in Tarrant County in 1999, and only one so far in 2000, Jones said. According to the college health association, outbreaks usually occur
in late winter or early spring. Recommended by the CDC and the college health association, the Menomune vaccine is 85 percent effective against four kinds of bacteria (A, C, Y, and W-135) that cause about 70 percent of meningococcal meningitis infections. Immunity to the disease develops within seven to 10 days and should last three to five years, according to the college health association. Schwartz said the vaccine is not effective against viral meningitis. The college health association lists high fever, neck stiffness, nausea/vomiting, lethargy, rash, severe headaches and sensitivity to light as early symptoms of meningitis. According to the association, an untreated case of meningococcal meningitis can lead to shock and death within hours of the first symptoms. Meningococcal disease can result in hearing loss, kidney failure, amputation of limbs and permanent brain injury. To treat meningococcal meningitis, effective antibiotics are available, but treatment must begin immediately.
Elise Rambaud Events calendar moved online By Tyson Trice Some couldn’t survive without it while others would use it to prop a window. The purple TCU Calendar/Handbook has been replaced by an online calendar located on the TCU home page while the student handbook has been converted to a booklet. The old calendar/handbook included a calendar, a day planner and the student handbook of university rules and regulations. Rick Barnes, director of special projects to the division of student affairs, said the new online calendar can be instantly updated and provides the TCU community with a less expensive alternative. “That purple binder cost the university almost $50,000 a year to produce,” Barnes said. “It wasn’t necessarily because of budget reasons that it was done away with, but it assisted with the decision. It was a lot of money being spent on something that we didn’t think was being used widespread.” However, English professor Richard Enos said he thinks the old calendar should still be used along with the online calendar as a supplement. “There are many times I’m not in reach of a computer,” Enos said. “The old calendar was a tangible way of coordinating my day with TCU events.” Enos also said the calendar included things other than just a calendar, such as religious and cultural holidays and interesting quotations. “A calendar isn’t really the right name,” Enos said. “That makes it sound like it wasn’t a very big loss. It was more of an educational tool. That tangible thing is now replaced by something electronic. Why not have both?” Sophomore advertising/public relations major Tim Newman said the old calendar wasn’t always used by students but was a good resource to the TCU community. “I think the hard copy was more effective,” Newman said. “Even if I didn’t want to know, the hard copy calendar was right there looking at me. Now I can completely forget the online calendar exists. If the actual hard copy calendar is in your hands, you can’t forget that.” Barnes said TCU may see a portal system in the future for the calendar and e-mail. A portal system could integrate the TCU student calendar, day planner and handbook online with other student services. “We’re talking about a pretty expensive investment, but also an investment of time and effort on behalf of the university to provide that,” Barnes said. “That has been discussed, (as well as) meeting formally with at least two portal companies over the summer.” Barnes said implementation of the portal would take at least one year. Campus events and activities can be included on the online calendar by e-mailing a detailed description of the event to the campus life office at campus.life@tcu.edu.
Tyson Trice Annual art show begins Saturday By Wendy Meyer The 18th annual “Art in the Metroplex” exhibition at TCU will display 28 art pieces by several young artists and a few well-known Fort Worth artists from Sept. 9 to 29. Featuring former TCU students, the exhibit will display all types of art work in the J.M. Moudy Exhibition Hall in Moudy Building North. Admission is free. “This show is unique because it is not a commercial show,” said Ron Watson, chairman of the art department. “It is an important feature of Gallery Night and something artists here look forward to.” “Art in the Metroplex” will open on Gallery Night, when art dealers and galleries open all gallery shows on the same night. Pieces are not sold from the “Art in the Metroplex” exhibition. If a viewer wishes to purchase an art work, they may obtain the artist’s phone number. Annette Carlozzi, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Jack S. Blanton Museum at the University of Texas at Austin, chose the pieces to be in the show based solely on the slides that artists sent in of their work. Résumés and artistic experience were not considerations
when Carlozzi chose the anonymous slides. “I think this show is a very important aspect of Fort Worth Gallery Night because it usually features rather young artists,” said Watson, who installs and arranges the art work for the show. Horowitz, a former teacher of the art department and interior design department, has an acrylic on wood piece in the show entitled “Split.” She described it as a split between purple and green colors with construction nails hammered into the piece from the middle to the top. It has buttlerfly wings on top of the wood. “‘Art in the Metroplex’ is a very important exhibition for my professional growth and it is such an important show for the metroplex,” Horowitz said. Well-known Fort Worth artists Daniel Blagg, Nicholas Wood, and Janet Tyson have pieces in the exhibition. Blagg, who will feature his piece “Mockingbird” in the show, has entered this exhibition three times. He said the exhibition is an important show because of its accessibility to the public. “Museums tend to shy away from realism and ‘Art in the Metroplex’ is a public forum that doesn’t do that,” he said. This year the show will be smaller than last year’s in terms of the number of pieces that will be shown. Last year there were 40 pieces and this year there are 28, though Watson said this year has some larger pieces. Prize money ranging from $100 to $1,000 encourages people to enter the show. Funding for the show is raised by an application fee and by money TCU raises in the community. The show is co-sponsored by the Templeton Art Center, which helps compile slides during the summer to send to the juror, who chooses the art for the exhibition.
Wendy Meyer |
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