Cento columnist does a little spring cleaning
Billyblues: Where the River Meets the Mountains
SAC survey helps leaders improve campus life
Students, get your head out of the sand
George Bush and the Russian Dude, A Picture Worth a Few Words
By Libby Isley
Special to the Cento
After spending winter term in Vietnam, I returned to Centre with hopes of finding Sutcliffe undergoing the stages of its long awaited, promised renovation. No such luck.
Instead, I returned to McReynolds, where after the treacherous ice melted in the courtyard between my dorm and Old Centre, construction equipment showed up in the neglected little garden.
At first, I thought maybe something was going to be done to make the area safer. It could use some lighting and generally be more open (call me paranoid, but I can’t help thinking such a dark, secluded area would be an easy place for a creep to hide and nab an unsuspecting student).
However, the workmen who began jack-hammering with such regularity at about 8 am each morning appeared only to be attacking the wall closest to Cowan
As I passed through the area one day, I ventured to ask one of the workers what was being built. With a mischievous twinkle in his eye, one of the men replied that they were building a place to put the ashes of deceased people. I laughed off his remark, relatively sure that he was just dismissing me as some girl who couldn’t tell a Phillips from a flat head.
Granted, what they were making looked to me more like outdoor mail slots than anything else, I knew he was kidding. As if there would ever be a place to inter human ashes on Centre’s campus! Ha!
The mysterious project continued. On the way to my car a few days later, a different worker pointed at the large duffel bag I was dragging behind me through the site and inquired whether I had a body in it.
Kindly offering that if that was the case, he could probably pull a few strings and swing saving me a spot in the wall for my victim. Save a spot? For a body? Incredulous, I asked if he was kidding. Nope.
Apparently, he was “dead” serious (pun intended). There have been requests that a place for interring the ashes of deceased Centre alums be established on campus.
Yes indeed, the remains of former Colonels that wish to literally be a part of Centre forever can be placed in the wall of the courtyard between McReynolds Hall and Old Centre.
According to Walter Gooch, there are 84 “niches” in the wall, the correct term for which is now “columbarium.” Each niche has room for two interments.
The purpose of the place is “to provide a place for individuals who want to be interred and have made significant contributions to Centre to choose to do so,” said Mr. Gooch. Such an option would be open to alumni, faculty and friends of the college.
John Frazer, a member of the Board of Trustees, is chairman of the project. His committee is responsible for developing the criteria for internment. Plans for the renovation include decorative benches, landscaping, additional lighting (hurray!) and wrought iron gates that will remain open so the area can still be used for through traffic.
The visitors’ parking lot, which was redesigned last year, was renovated with visitors of the columbarium in mind.
Don’t get me wrong, school loyalty is a good thing. Centre alums, commonly known as “Centre Mafia” certainly show devotion to their alma mater through a variety of endowments, donations, and commemorative gifts, but ... a columbarium?
Never mind how McReynolds residents feel about living above a veritable cemetery or how those who live on the North Side will feel about cutting through the garden late at night.
What happens when a tour group of prospective students is led through the garden only to encounter grieving relatives or memorial wreaths?
Will the reaction be “Wow, these people really couldn’t get enough of Centre!” or “These people are really weird.” What happens when it’s time for an actual memorial service?
Whether or not services will actually be held in the garden is still to be determined, but if they are allowed I can just see myself parking in the visitors’ lot to carry Wal-Mart bags and barging in on a eulogy. Talk about a social faux pas? UVA has a columbarium in addition to having Thomas Jefferson buried on campus.
I’m neither for nor against the project. I’m just rambling because I thought Centre students would be interested in Centre’s newest postgraduate option. What’s next? Warehouse weddings and honeymoon packages? Back to top...
Cento columnist does a little spring cleaning
By Ben Costley
Cento Features Columnist
This is typically the time of year when people finally get up the motivation to get their act together and clean up. Now I’m not just talking about cleaning the room before Mom and Dad come down for a visit. Spring cleaning also involves tying up all those loose ends, or maybe even getting a couple skeletons out of the closet.
I have a little Cento spring cleaning to do, or, in other words, a couple things I would like to clear up.
I’ll start with my most recent article on the lazy days of spring. Sorry I wrote that one right before the first round of tests!
Upon further review of the subject, I’ve decided that spring is a time to bear down and hit the books.
Keep those grades up, and ... Oh, who am I kidding? You can’t expect to study all the time during the spring, so here’s a compromise. Pull your favorite furniture out to the back porch and study outside. It’s not as bad as it sounds.
My next clarification involves the greatness of the GranPappy Deep Fryer. Let me tell you, it’s great for the first couple of weeks. Then you get to the point where the oil really needs to be changed.
Everybody wants it changed, but nobody is going to do it! Now, not only do you have nasty, disgusting, dirty oil in the fryer, but it somehow manages to take over every single appliance within a five foot radius of the demonic device.
My coffee has tasted like French fries for about three months now. This was about the time when ol’ GranPappy started beating the living daylights out of my Mr. Coffee with the automatic drip. And don’t even get me started on the toaster. In conclusion, use the GranPappy for three weeks, and then exorcise it from your personal living space. Damn that 20/20 hindsight!
That about does it for the spring cleaning, so now it’s time for a fresh start. Since I have a clean slate, I might as well start back out on the fringe. This one is probably going to come back and haunt me.
My suggestion for the spring is to check out Napster (if you haven’t already). The firewall hasn’t gone up yet, so get in while you can.
Once you’ve joined this heralded music community, you should look for an artist named Wesley Willis. He is one of the most talented musicians I have heard in a long time, and his magical musical formula is enjoyed by millions all over the world.
Here’s his secret. This man walks out on stage with nothing but his Yamaha keyboard. The rhythm is set to “Country Rock 4,” and the tempo is adjusted accordingly. Wesley then proceeds to sing his siren’s song of whatever strikes him at the moment.
Hit topics include “I Whooped Batman’s Ass,” as well as the world famous “Cut the Mullet.” Oh, and of course every song is closed with the phrase “Rock over London, Rock on Chicago,” and then some catchy advertising slogan, such as “Poloroid: See What Develops.”
Be sure to listen for Wesley’s newest hits, and I’ll be giving more suggestions soon. “Rock over London, Rock on Chicago. Mitsubishi: the Word is Getting Around.”Back to top...
Billyblues: Where the River Meets the Mountains
By Glenn Jackson
Special to the Cento
If you’re gonna have the blues, you’d better hope you get the kind that makes you this happy.
Local trio Billy Blues, whom you may remember as Halfway Home, brings us their debut release with twelve tracks of genuine American blues.
The members take turns at the mic and writing, coordinate fine harmony, and wring sweet notes out of their hollow-body guitars.
Our own Mark Lucas gleans inspiration from Muddy Waters and John Hammond. His catchy licks on the resonator guitar bring back the vintage sound you’ve been missing, while his memorable tunes like “ Jesus Is My Whiskey” and a tribute to the “El Camino” leave you humming cheerfully.
Mike Norris claims Lonnie Mack and Bill Monroe-Mike’s slick harp playing (check out the solo on my favorite, “Pretty No More”) is all the brass the blues needs.
Dig the playful lyrics for “Wonder Mart Woman”, and I’m sure you’ll identify.
Colin Ratiere, who co-wrote several selections, nods to Reverend Gary Davis and Robert Johnson.
Those greats’ effect on Colin is evident in his pushy, cool Delta vocals.
These fellows proudly reside in Danville, and recorded with true-to-style percussionist & producer John Missik at nearby Palisades Studio. This is good-timin’ music.
Lighthearted tracks like “Pill for Every Ill” and “Put Your Clothes Back On” are sweet for tapping feet or cruisin’ around. Don’t get me wrong, though; it’s fun, not corny: “Pretty No More” & “Halfway Home” are introspective, while “Jesus Is My Whiskey” is spiritual in my book.Back to top...
SAC survey helps leaders improve campus life
By Chris Domaleski
Special to the Cento
Few issues are discussed as frequently or fervently as the perceived quality of “campus life” at Centre.
While the term “campus life” refers to many important areas (food, parking, residence halls, etc.), for the purposes of this article it is intended to describe “social life” in particular. That is, what opportunities exist for students to relax, socialize and simply have fun at Centre?
After all, a campus environment that offers students appealing choices for enjoying their time out of the classroom is one that is more likely to have a stronger sense of institutional community.
Such structured activities may also combat problems like alcohol misuse, giving students healthy options for enjoying their free time. Many other important outcomes could also be listed.
To make progress towards these outcomes, important questions need to be answered. How do students prefer to spend their free time? What do they do now? What don’t they do, but would if it was available?
It is against this backdrop, that the Office of Student Activities and the Student Activities Council decided to put together a survey to assess the perception of past programs and to help decide which future events would be most successful.
Input was sought, and received from others on campus. Members of the Student Life Office, campus leaders from other organizations and members of the College Council Subcommittee on Student Activities all provided many helpful suggestions to draft a complete and effective survey.
A fairly comprehensive questionnaire was created and distributed to resident students via the RA staff last November. The results of this survey are in and I think it is very illuminating.
It seemed worthwhile to share this information as broadly as possible, if for no other reason than to generate a dialogue about this important facet of campus life. Anyone may access the complete results at the following website: http://personal.centre.edu/~domalesk/. I encourage you to do so.
Here are a few highlights from the survey results:
By and large, most students are pleased (or not displeased) with campus life at Centre. Only 15 percent of the responding students feel that campus life is less than satisfactory or unsatisfactory, while 54 percent feel that it is very good or excellent. The remainder, 31 percent, rated campus life as satisfactory.
What do people do for fun at Centre? The number one rated item was “informal social activities with friends”, which rated a 4.24 on a scale of 1 to 5. The second most desirable activity was “attend activities sponsored by social fraternities and sororities”, which scored 3.79. These items were followed by Norton Center events (3.30), athletic competitions (3.01), SAC or Warehouse events (2.84), events sponsored by campus organizations (2.82), leave campus to have fun (2.63), and stay in room to watch TV, play games etc. (2.55). Among other conclusions, we might deduce that Centre students enjoy getting together, support Greek life, and generally prefer to stay on campus.
Most students stay on campus during the weekends. Only 22.5 percent of students report leaving campus for the weekend more than once per month. Would those that leave stay if better programs were offered? The results are mixed; slightly fewer than half of the respondents said “probably yes” or “definitely yes” (46.7 percent).
What events do students want to see more of? Midnight Movies at the Danville Cinema rated the highest (4.39), followed by bands/concerts (4.27) then movies on campus (3.78).
Students are receptive to outings with faculty members and would welcome more interactions in a “social setting” with faculty. Fully 67.4 percent of students say there should be more opportunities to attend an excursion or event with a faculty member and 30.4 percent are satisfied with present opportunities. Only 25.5 percent of students feel they have enough opportunities to interact with faculty outside the classroom. I think this reflects the student’s high regard of our excellent faculty.
What should we do with this information? First, the information needs to be shared. Many campus leaders will be receiving copies of the survey results and can use them to start discussions concerning what actions are appropriate or feasible to pursue. In many instances, survey results will simply validate the success of existing programs. I also know that the College Council Sub-Committee on Student Activities plans to examine these results, with particular attention to the encouraging feedback regarding faculty involvement.
Furthermore, I am pleased to report that SAC has already planned many activities for spring term that reflect the preferences reported on the survey. Three more Midnight Movies have been scheduled for the winter and spring terms for a total of five this year. This is up from two last year and one the year before.
Band events rated second highest. SAC has two such events on the schedule: Fly-Away and Carnival. Three band events were sponsored or co-sponsored by SAC this past fall. Also, I know that Student Congress is currently discussing the feasibility of hosting a band event of their own this spring. Back to top...
Students, get your head out of the sand
By Kyle Brothers
Student Congress President
I made a comment at dinner last week that I wished Centre had more special events that got students talking and thinking. All too often, I sighed, we students get too comfortable in our tiny world thinking about our own tiny problems. It seems the only problems we can imagine changing lie on our dinner trays.
It seems I was wrong.
Take a look at your Notesworthy this week. On Wednesday night, filmmaker Brent Scarpo presented a convo entitled “Journey to a Hate Free Millennium,” in which he delt with the hate-crime murder of Matthew Shepard and the shootings at Columbine High School.
On the same night, CHARGE hosted a “evening of Education and Enlightenment” on the oppression of women and girls in Afghanistan. Today, they are hosting an all-day protest against this system.
Next Monday, CentrePeace is hosting a Latin America Banquet. In the meantime, they are collecting donations of school supplies for the Chiapas region of Mexico, which has experienced a long history of oppression from the Mexican government.
On this coming Tuesday, the Boyle County Health Department is sponsoring a blood drive and bone marrow registration. You can save someone’s life by donating your blood, or, if you are interested in a deeper commitment to saving others, you can become registered in a national database of bone marrow donors. If you are found to be a match for a patient needing bone marrow, you will be called on to donate your own.
Also announced in this week’s Noteworthy is the Centre Activism Festival, which will be held on April 14. This event will be a chance for a wide variety of organizations on campus who have their minds on things other than Cowan food to share the work they do. In addition, the Centre Activism Festival will feature some great bands and food.
Not appearing in Notesworthy, but worth mentioning, is the Diversity Student Union’s Birmingham Pledge. The Birmingham Pledge is a short declaration that individuals can make to free their thoughts and words from racial prejudice. They will be in Cowan every other Tuesday during lunch and dinner until May inviting students, faculty, and staff to sign the pledge.
What do all of these events have in common? They show that students are thinking outside of our small, sterile campus.
This is all my own subtle way of challenging you to get your own head out of the sand. I think we all enjoy our time here and have a great college experience. At the same time, it would be a shame if we left here after four years having changed only in the amount of knowledge we possess. If we don’t get shaken up by the world a little bit, and shake it back for good measure, our time here will have been a waste of a huge amount of time and money.
Interested in starting your own organization to wrestle with a problem in the wider world? Student Congress budget requests will be accepted for the rest of the month. If you are interested, you can register your organization with Chris Domaleski on the third floor of the Warehouse, and them submit a budget on the Student Congress web page.Back to top...
George Bush and the Russian Dude, A Picture Worth a Few Words
by Shaun Smith
Cento Features Dude
This may shock some people. Those who know will sit silently while reading this article and the others will shake with alarm and yell with excitement. So to get to the point and all, I want to let everyone know of a little secret that I learned while studying abroad. Many struggle with the problem of being underage, but for you I have a solution. A legal, limitless, safe way of getting all messed up on the weekends.
Carrots. You heard it right folks, carrots. There is a natural stimulant in carrots that creates symptoms similar to the affects of alcohol. I know what you’re saying, “So how come when Mom stewed carrots and made me eat them, I never got messed up?” Those were the bad kinds of carrots. Do you really think your parents wanted you to get all loopy back then? Well, I mean, MY parents didn’t want me to get messed up, they were always under the impression that I was going to get a well-paying job and take care of them far into their old age. So maybe that wasn’t the best assumption they’ve ever made, but oh well, you know?
So back to carrots, right? So basically you have to eat a lot of carrots. Start really early in the day, even take some carrots to class. Do you really think your Professors are going to think twice about some dude eatin’ carrots? So by the time you get done with class and everyone is getting ready to binge drink, you should have a pretty good carrot buzz goin’. Eat more carrots and this will heighten the effects.
The best thing about getting messed up on carrots is that if you get one of those juicers, and you make a S----load of carrot juice, you can even take it around to the parties in a cup and no one will know the better. It seems odd that no one has ever known about this until now. I was talkin’ to one of the “locals” and he was acting drunk, but he smelled like carrots. So I asked him about this and he explained the whole deal to me. Apparently he was brought up in an alcoholic family and didn’t want to deal with the pains and struggles of alcoholism in his own adult life. So while he was in college, he went on a quest for a suitable, legal, non-habit forming solution. This is when he found the carrot. Well, I mean, he didn’t FIND a carrot, but he was lead in the direction of the carrot.
So by now you’ve probably figured out that I’m making most of this up, but believe you me, this article is proba bly more entertaining than the Associated Press article that was going to be in here instead. It was about some computer or something.
While I’m breaking character here, I might as well go and explain that I’m pretty pissed about the whole Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Association Awards thing here in the past month. Somehow, the geniuses in charge over there didn’t seem to enjoy a heart-warming tale of a boy, some beer, and a bonfire. Nor did they enjoy the story of a boy and his cross-country move to Kentucky. What the hell is their deal?
So now I’m writing about nothing and there ain’t a damn thing they can do about it. Also, I’m running out of room. So I’ll close with a few intelligent thoughts.
Carrots may not get you messed up, but PT Barnum once said something really smart about “suckers” and about “being born in a min ute” or something to that effect. My parents bought stock in carrots at my request. So if carrots don’t do well, then Your ol’ buddy Shaun is in some trouble at home. They tell me and tell me, “You should come home more often!” But Leapin’ Lizards, they already sold my bed, what is a boy to do? Also, I really wanted to have a picture with my article for once, so here’s one of a smilin’ George Bush, just somethin’ that makes me happy. Back to top...