Kanye West conspires to improve ratingsOpinion, page 2

The voice of Texas Wesleyan University students since 1917

WEDNESDAYSeptember 23, 2009

Vol. 92 • No. 16

ONLINE: www.therambler.org

The RamblerLULAC reaches out to communityCollege Life, page 6

Jonathan Resendezjlresendez@mail.txwes.edu

More than 50 students, faculty and admin-istrators wined and dined last week during the ceremony honoring the authors of Uni-versity Scholars: Proceedings of University College Day, 2008.

The book, published by Texas Wesleyan University Press, is the final product of stu-dent and faculty projects on various topics. Last year, 14 students and four faculty mem-bers’ pieces were published on subjects rang-ing from neuroscience and education to di-versity in South Africa.

“A lot of the themes I teach in my diversity class could be seen throughout my travels in Africa,” said Patsy Robles-Goodwin, whose experiences were published.

Dr. Stacia Neeley, assistant professor of lan-guage and literature, served as editor for the 2008 edition. She said the highlight of the evening was listening to how everyone went from the project for University College Day to the actual piece.

“It was a big love fest,” she said, referring to the students’ and teachers’ praise of one an-other.

The authors set to appear in the 2009 edi-tion were also announced at the reception.

Parisian scores with writingAndie Massingilladmassingill@mail.txwes.edu

Loic Morvannou is living his American dream, even though he grew up in Paris, France.

Morvannou has been fas-cinated with foreign culture, especially America, all of his life.

“Americans aren’t afraid to try,” he said. “They are more open-minded than the French.”

Morvannou is hoping to give his goal a try. Combining his great passions of writing and basketball, he hopes to find a job writing about bas-ketball and possibly coaching too.

His first step in achieving these goals has been to start blogging on www.basketses-sion.com for Reverse maga-zine, based in France.

On this blog, Marvannou reports his experiences in America, including every-thing from student life to the drills he runs in his daily bas-ketball practice. He also blogs about his encounters with America and its culture.

He’s becoming more and

more familiar with that cul-ture. This is Morvannou’s third time here. He traveled through San Diego, Las Vegas and Los Angeles last year and Miami the year before.

Attending Texas Wesleyan now as a freshman, Morvan-nou is on a one-year scholar-ship playing shooting guard for the Rams junior varsity basketball team.

“I am here to learn the lan-guage and play basketball,” he said.

Playing basketball is an ac-complishment in itself since Morvannou was born with an ailment that resulted in six surgeries on his feet before the age of 3. He wore special shoes and braces until he was 12.

“I worked very hard at re-habilitation and therapy as a child and take really good care of myself now,” he said.

Having played basketball in France since he was 7, Mor-

vannou likes how Americans play basketball with brute strength and physical force instead of the strategy used in the French game.

“I try and combine my strat-egy with my strength when I play basketball here,” he said. “Soccer is the biggest sport in France, but basketball is sec-ond. We did not have school teams, but we played on city leagues.”

Morvannou likes the men-tality that is required to keep up with the American games and practices.

“It is a huge advantage to be able to work out every day and really work on your skills,” he said. “We didn’t have that op-portunity in France. I like the coaches here too. They make you take the sport to a higher level.”

While he had already com-pleted a business degree when he graduated from high

school, Morvannou knew that he wanted to do something besides have a career in busi-ness.

Morvannou said his real passion is writing. He is fas-cinated with many forms of writing and wanted to com-bine that interest with basket-ball for his career.

Studying journalism is a part of the 16 hours he is tak-ing while at Wesleyan.

Although English classes

were required in France as a part of the school curriculum,

“I mostly taught myself the language by listening to American music and watch-ing American movies,” Mor-vannou said.

Despite his preparation, English is still a challenge for Morvannou.

“I hope to begin thinking in English instead of French,” Morvannou said, “because listening to the teacher and

having to quickly translate in my head gets a bit confusing. “It is easier to understand the teachers because they talk a bit slower than the students and use less slang words.”

With three options for schools in America, Morvan-nou chose Texas Wesleyan over Kentucky and West Vir-ginia because he preferred attending a school that was

Wesleyan preparesfor H1N1Jonathan Resendez jlresendez@mail.txwes.edu

With scattered outbreaks of swine flu popping up nation-ally and locally, Texas Wesley-an’s office of Human Resourc-es is preparing for the worst.

Department heads and su-pervisors have received mem-os advising them to purchase and encourage the use of sani-tary wipes as well as report any flu-related employee ab-sence in an effort to spot early warning signs.

According to the Wesleyan flu response procedure guide-lines, students, faculty and staff who show flu-like symp-toms and have a fever should remain at home and out of contact with others. They should do so until the fever subsides without the use of fever-reducing medication.

If the threat of an outbreak is imminent, the office of stu-dent life will distribute pack-ets via e-mail, U.S. mail or hand delivery providing in-formation from local health authorities on preventative and safety measures to follow.

According to the memo, faculty, staff and students are to report absences due to the flu to either the office of the provost or office of human re-sources.

Students affected by the flu will be given a reasonable amount of time to complete their coursework, according to the memo.

The CDC advised that tar-geted groups for the H1N1 virus are people age 24 and under, pregnant women and others who, due to other health issues, are susceptible to the flu.

“I’m not worried at all. The symptoms are exactly the same as the regular flu so I’m really not that worried,” said Blake Circle, law student.

Laura Rosser | Rambler StaffAlumni Martin Garcia and Tiara Nugent and senior Renee Rosser sign copies of the UCD publication as President Harold Jeffcoat looks on. Contributors were honored at a reception Sept. 17.

Andie Massingill| Rambler StaffLoic Morvannou (left) said he prefers the open-mindedness of America to France.

“I am very proud of her. She has really found her way. I will find mine too.”

Loic MorvannouSophomore

 LOIC, page 4

Autograph, please?Contributors sign books, share at UCD reception