Working Moms
Class studies possible day care

By Reagan Duplisea
Skiff Staff

Like many other college students, junior social work major Sandra St. Don is often late for class. But unlike other students, it’s not because she partied the night before or slept through her alarm. The mother of two often dashes into class after the chimes have rung because she must drop her children off at day care.
Meanwhile, User Services Manager Kim Weber has to make the daily commute from Denton, leaving her 1-year-old son at day care an hour away. He has asthma, and several times she has had to leave work early to pick him up because of an asthma attack.

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Passenger vans yield to safety concerns
Rollover potential forces athletes to hitch a ride

By Chrissy Braden
Staff Reporter

TCU Administration has put a hold on the use of 15-passenger vans after an April 9 report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed evidence of an increased risk of rolling over when the vans are fully loaded.
Jack Hesselbrock, associate athletic director for internal relations, said TCU mandated the hold April 10 because of the perceived danger of the vans. He said the vans would not be used to transport teams until another study could disprove the study, which concluded the vans were three times more likely to rollover when carrying more than 10 passengers.

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Hope Relay to raise money for Wagner
Funds to benefit paralyzed student

By Kelly Marino
Staff Reporter

The TCU community, family and friends are coming together for the Keith-Ann Wagner Hope Relay Saturday to raise money for Wagner after she sustained paralyzing injuries in a car accident last summer.
Keri McCoy, a junior speech communication major who will be participating in the relay with the Chi Omega sorority, said the event will celebrate Wagner’s courage.

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Christianity sees growing numbers, shift in direction
Change may expand understanding

By Bethany McCormack
Staff Reporter

With the number of Christians in third-world countries increasing rapidly, Christianity is changing. This change can broaden our understanding of religion in America, said Jack Hill, assistant professor of religion and social ethics.
“There’s going to be a greater opportunity for learning from how Christianity is practiced in other contexts to rejuvenate our understanding of Christianity in America,” he said. “It may spark another religious awakening in the 21st century.”

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David Dunai/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
An effort to boycott Marriott Food Services prompted many students to find alternate places to eat. Nearby restaurants like Boston Market saw a bigger lunch crowd Wednesday afternoon.

Searching for Satisfaction
Students protest food disservices in boycott of Marriott eateries

By Chrissy Braden
Staff Reporter

Food Service Manager Imogene Bundage kicked up flyers taped to the ground with the heels of her dress shoes Wednesday. The flyers advertised a boycott of Marriott Food Services.
But the empty tables in The Main at noon showed her efforts were not enough to curb the effect of the boycott, which four students designed in an effort to change what they describe as poor quality, over-priced food and the dining plan increase for students living on campus next semester.
One the organizers of the boycott, Dana Szucs, a sophomore graphics design major, said the group did research on Dining Services, including a survey of 100 students.

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Boycotts Matter
Argue for something important

Wednesday saw a group of students boycotting Marriott Food Services. The protest, aiming for lower prices and a better quality of food, started out as an English project, but it soon turned into a campus-wide activity.
However, at Harvard University, more than three dozen students have occupied the office of university president Neil Rudenstine since April 18. The students are demanding higher wages for the school’s custodians, cooks and other blue-collar workers. And, at Penn State University, more than 100 students spent the night in the student union protesting the reported death threats against its Black Caucus president.
Being able to protest is one of the freedoms granted to Americans in the First Amendment. It’s a freedom people, especially college students, need to exercise when they feel the ruling powers aren’t working for them.

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Nostalgia complex taking over
High school memories are still being made back home in Mo.

By Jack Bullion
Skiff Staff

My younger sister will graduate from high school in a little more than a month, and the repercussions can be felt (at least by me) all the way down here in Fort Worth. It takes very little to trigger my nostalgia complex, but this year, more than ever, my every waking moment seems to be spent in misty-eyed longing for that period of adolescence.
Things are a little more chaotic back at headquarters. Mom fusses over which laptop computer to buy her for a graduation present, while Dad ponders his post- “human alarm clock” existence. Only Bud the family dog remains placid, dreaming only that someone might mow the darn lawn again so he can growl at the lawnmower under the pretense that it’s an unwelcome intruder.

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End of the Roll
Timing hurts sports travel budget

On April 10, the National Highway Transportation Safety Board reported 15-passenger vans are three times as likely to roll over with 10 or more passengers.
TCU owns nine of these vans, and as of April 10 the administration prohibited the use of these vehicles by any campus organization.
Good for the administration.
Good for the university.

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Day Care Debate
On-site childcare facility needed

The assignment was to work for a social change at TCU, a local, state or national level.
The result could be the 22-year-overdue establishment of an on-campus childcare facility for TCU faculty, staff and students.
The students began their endeavor as part of their General Practice with Community class project to make the childcare needs of those in the TCU community known.

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College gives people chance to explore

By Yonina Robinson
Skiff Staff

In May 1997, I graduated from John L. LeFlore Magnet High School in Mobile, Ala. I applied to TCU in June 1997. I was accepted to TCU in July, and I arrived in August. I had never seen TCU when I left home for this “TCU experience.”
Four years have now come and gone, and it still hasn’t hit me that I graduate in less than two weeks. As of this day, the only thing I’m certain of is that I’m going home to Mobile for a week the Monday after graduation. But I leave here with the same inexplicable peace of God that I had when I came my freshman year.

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Years lead to most notable experiences

By Yvette Herrera
Features Editor

Four years. Has it been that long? It seems like just yesterday I flew into Dallas/Fort Worth airport with my mom on an icy winter day in January. When I first came to TCU, not only was I taking a big step by going to college, but I was also leaving my parents in a country I call home — Mexico. I had spent years growing up in Guadalajara, Mexico, and coming to college in the United States seemed like a confouding idea at the time. Things were different in the United States.
The first time I went to buy a pack of Camels at Albertsons, the lady asked for my ID. I couldn’t help but laugh. I hadn’t been carded for a bottle of Absolut Vodka since I was 16, much less a pack of cigarettes. So, when I gave her my U.S. passport, she told me she couldn’t take it. She needed a Texas ID.

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Student copes through rehab

By Erin Munger
Skiff Staff

Lying with her back on a mat in the TCU athletics weight room, she strains to roll over onto her stomach. Once there, she rests before trying to sit back on her knees. With her mother and a trainer spotting her, she moves into the position. She extends her left arm, then her right with a look of sheer determination on her face.
Now, the hard part. She moves her hips from left to right flexing her tender back and abdominal muscles that have been idle for about nine months.

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Women’s tennis travels confidently to WAC tourney

By Ram Luthra
Staff Reporter

Head women’s tennis coach Roland Ingram said he doesn’t want to compare last year’s Western Athletic Conference championship-winning team to this year’s, but he does make the connection that this year’s squad can successfully defend the WAC crown.
“These women will be bright-eyed and have their hair bushy-tailed and be ready to go,” Ingram said. “They are going to win the WAC by going out and playing like they have nothing to lose.”

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Opera at TCU

By Laura McFarland
Skiff Staff

For most people, “Hansel and Gretel” is a fairy tale that remains a distant memory from their childhood, but this Friday the tale will be brought to life by the TCU Opera Theater.
Richard Estes, associate professor of music and the opera theater director, will direct the English version of Engelbert Humperdinck’s German opera.
“Hansel and Gretel” will run at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday in Ed Landreth Hall Auditorium, with different students performing the major roles Saturday. The TCU Symphony Orchestra, which has been working on the score for more than two weeks, will accompany the students.
“In an opera, you can’t make up how long it takes to deliver a line,” Estes said. “All of the timing of the drama is dictated by the music. With the opera, you have to make the timing of the composer work.”

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Reviews
Dynamite Boy and Midtown

By Victor Drabicky
Skiff Staff

These bands are playing together at 7 p.m. today at The Door in Dallas.

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In the metroplex

See story for listings of local restarants and upcoming events in the metroplex.

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