liberty champion february 24 2015
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Liberty Champion February 24 2015TRANSCRIPT
Emily [email protected]
Like fishing in a body of water, hackers send phishing emails to stu-dents complete with bait and a dangerous hook. But instead of a juicy worm, students could find malware at the end of a hacker’s hook.
Phishing is different than other junk email be-cause it is “trying to look like something from a trusted source,” Joshua Burch, Liberty University network security techni-cian, explained.
Burch deals with these
types of emails daily. The Information Tech-nology (IT) department has filters in place to stop suspicious sites and known scams from reach-ing students, but Burch said, “the first line of defense in security is the students.”
If a phishing email slips past the IT filter, students are encouraged to report it to the IT Help Desk by calling 434-592-7800 or emailing [email protected]. Some phish-ing emails make it to the inboxes of the entire stu-dent body, while others only reach one or two.
The goal of most phishing emails is to get usernames and pass-words. And places with a large email base like universities, hospitals and large companies are prime targets. But students can be aware of red flags that hackers commonly wave in these phishing emails.
Many phishing emails do not address recipi-ents by name. They begin with, “Dear Email User.” Liberty University knows the names of students and will begin emails by properly saying hello.
Watch out for emails with a warning and a
consequence, such as, “If you do not reply with your username and pass-word, then your email ac-count will be suspended.”
“If you get an email claiming to be from the university that is ask-ing you to verify your username and password for whatever reason, it’s probably not from the university,” Burch said. “And if you ever have doubt, the best thing to do is just call the Help Desk and ask.”
If the email is ad-dressed to you and seems
See EMAIL, A2
Sean Hannity speaks to students about economy, fight against terrorism.
News
A2
Baby Leo ignites heated debate over children with Down syndrome.
Opinion
A5
DI hockey sweeps Beavers in last home series of the season.
Sports
B2
Philosophy professor embraces teaching opportunity in Romania.
Feature
B4
INSIDE THE CHAMPION
Volume 32 | Issue 16 Lynchburg, VirginiaFebruary 24, 2015
SportsFeature
B1B4
NewsOpinion
A1A4
South Pacific opens in theater B4Lady Flames honor four seniors B1
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Courtney russo| Liberty Champion
WINTER WONDERLAND — Students Kayla Morel and Autumn Chesnut enjoy the snowdays that cancelled classes Monday through 10 a.m. Wednesday. (See more snow pictures, including the winner of the Liberty Champion Instagram Contest, on page B6.)
Leah seavers | Liberty Champion
DIGITAL WORLD — Users have encountered email scams.
Leah seavers | Liberty Champion
LUO — Online office in Lynchburg.
t h e c o l d n e v e r b o t h e r e d m e a n y w a y
Phishing scams hunt for preyIT tackles problem of malware constantly plaguing university email accounts
LU online expands to DallasSatellite office opens in Texas
Josh [email protected]
Liberty University Presi-dent Jerry Falwell announced Wednesday, Feb. 18, that the school’s first satellite office will open in Dallas, Texas.
According to Falwell, the idea for the satellite office came from research that showed that students are more likely to attend online
classes from a university close to them as opposed to a university several states away. The purpose of the office would be to offer students short-term intensive courses, as well as to give them an op-portunity to have face-to-face interactions with Liberty Uni-versity representatives. This would prevent students near Dallas from having to travel all the way to Lynchburg
for a two-week course.Despite opening a new fa-
cility in Dallas for online stu-dents, Liberty University On-line will still be accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
JANNEY is the asst. news editor.
Shannon [email protected]
Renowned television and ra-dio host and New York Times best-selling author Sean Hannity, as well as “Duck Dynasty” TV personality John Luke Robert-son, spoke at Liberty University in Convocation Wednesday, Feb. 18. Hannity is the host of “The Sean Hannity Show,” as well as the host of Fox News’ cable news show, “Hannity.”
Before Hannity addressed the student body as the keynote speaker, soon-to-be Liberty stu-dent Robertson took the po-dium to share a short story with the audience. He told of his recent experience with an old, run-down building that he plans to use as a home for human trafficking victims in Louisiana.
Still under construction, Rob-ertson’s building has a lot of work to be done, but he remains hope-ful, as God has moved in every aspect of the process. Robertson encouraged students to donate to the cause. Robertson and his team hopes to end human trafficking in northern Louisiana within six years of the building opening.
The students then welcomed political author and commenta-tor Hannity with a warm round of applause, and he expressed his gratitude to be able to speak at Liberty.
“It’s great to be in a place where I can mention God,” Hannity said.
Before beginning his portion of the Convocation, Hannity donated $50,000 to Robertson’s building for human trafficking.
Hannity began his speech ex-pressing his remorse for the United States’ large amount of
debt owed to other countries in-cluding China, irresponsible men-tality among government leader-ship and, according to Hannity, President Obama’s lack of con-cern for America’s well being.
“We live in a political time where nobody wants to take responsibility for their own actions,” Hannity said.
Hannity described how his grandparents came to the U.S. to fulfill the “American Dream,” in order that their children and grandchildren would have better lives. According to Hannity, how-ever, that may not necessarily be the case today.
“Because of bad policy and politics, … (my generation) may leave this country worse off for all of you than the country we inherited,” Hannity said.
He described America’s rap-
id descent into bankruptcy, especially within social secu-rity, healthcare and the 50 mil-lion Americans living on food stamps, which he noted was al-most 20 million more people than when George W. Bush was president less than a decade ago.
Hannity then described the poor state of the world, including the threat of ISIS, whose actions have included the shooting and beheading of innocent Christians living in the Middle East and jour-nalists covering the carnage. He highlighted Obama’s apparent lack of concern over those ac-tions and Obama’s inability to de-scribe it as, according to Hannity, “radical Islamic terrorism.”
“This is the world you are in-heriting,” Hannity said. “That’s the evil that exists in the world.”
In order to end the message on
a brighter note, Hannity encour-aged students to step up and be the leaders that God has called them to be, whether during peace or seemingly endless evil.
“The country is craving what-ever talent God has given you,” Hannity said. “God put you here for a reason. Your job is to find out what that reason is.”
He reassured the audience that there is no country or economy that cannot be saved. All it needs is better leaders.
“The world needs your leader-ship, and you’re in a position to get it,” Hannity said. “We need your wisdom. We need your pow-er. We need your courage. I want you to be the leadership that’s going to save this country.”
RITTER is a news reporter.
newsA2 | February 24, 2015 | Liberty Champion
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POLITICAL PASSION — Sean Hannity encouraged students during Convocation to be strong leaders.
Hannity visits campusPolitical commentator grapples with important national issues
EMAIL continued from A1
friendly, but still suspiciously asks you to click on a link, read that link carefully. If the address does not end with @liberty.edu, it is not from Liberty.
Some hackers use free websites like weebly.com and wordpress.com to create fake websites using Liberty Univer-sity in the domain name. If a word is hyperlinked so the ad-dress is not visible, students should hover their mouse over it, and they should be able to read the link.
Poor grammar is also a common red flag. Liberty Uni-versity does not send emails riddled with grammar mis-takes, while email scams will often contain poor spelling and sloppy sentence structure.
A spoofed email address is another tactic that hackers use to make recipients feel more comfortable. These emails may seem like they are from a classmate or someone on that individual’s dorm. This can be trickier to detect, so it is best to go by the email content.
Some hackers also send phishing emails to Liberty email users from a fake ac-count resembling a trusted brand like a bank or depart-ment store. If a student no-tices a red flag, he or she can call that establishment and ask if the email is from them.
Liberty IT provides more tips to identify phishing and fraud emails. For a list of cur-rent security alerts and images of “Known Scams,” click on the Security and Phishing Quicklink on the IT homep-age, then the Phishing and Fraud link.
HOOSIER is a news reporter.
Champion CorrectionsThe Liberty Champion strives to accurately
report campus and community news each week. Regretably, several errors in fact in Issue 15 have been called to our attention. In an effort to rectify our mistakes, we have listed each correction and have updated our website, liberty.edu/champion, to reflect the accurate information. The Cham-pion Staff apologizes and will work to prevent mistakes in the future.
In last week’s #WHATSUPLU campus calen-dar, we incorrectly listed the date of the Jon Fore-man concert as Feb. 23. The concert actually takes place Saturday, Feb. 28. All other information for the concert is listed correctly in this week’s calendar.
In an article titled “Franklin fills Vines Cen-ter,” we failed to mention that Liberty’s Student Activities hosted the Friday-night concert.
In the schedule showing the new times for classes in the fall 2014 semester, the last Mon-day/Wednesday/Friday class time was incor-rectly listed as 4:20-5:05 p.m. The correct time is 4:20-5:10 p.m.
In an article titled “Quite a Racquet,” we incor-rectly referred to the LaHaye Student Union as the LaHaye Fitness Center.
In an article titled “Flame train rolling,” we wrote that the Flames baseball team had jumped out to a 3-0 start this season. At the time of pub-lication, the Flames actually had a record of 2-1.
In an article titled “Spring season com-mences,” we incorrectly called the Liberty Department of Theatre Arts’ latest produc-tion “Tales of the South Pacific.” While the novel on which the production is based does bear that name, the title of the play is only “South Pacific.”
Finally, in an article about the recent Ann Wharton Lecture Series banquet, we incorrect-ly wrote that Associate Dean of the School of Communication & Creative Arts (SCCA) Scott Hayes introduced the keynote speaker, when Dean of SCCA Norman Mintle actually introduced the speaker. The article also contained some incorrect information resulting from a misinterpretation of a story told during the banquet.
3/13
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ty Hester | liberty news serviCe
Liberty Champion | February 24, 2015 | A3news
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Debate team heads to KansasLiberty students prepare to compete in upcoming CEDA National Tournament
Taylor [email protected]
Unlike any other university, Liberty University’s debate team has won all the sweepstakes from the Cross-Examination Debate Association (CEDA), the Nation-al Debate Tournament (NDT) and the American Debate As-sociation Tournament (ADA) each year from 2009-2013. This year, the team will be traveling to Wichita, Kansas, to compete in the CEDA National Tournament March 20-23.
The CEDA National Tour-nament is a tournament that is open to all schools and is the big-gest national tournament of the year. There will be around 120 to 150 two-person debate teams competing.
Liberty is planning on taking one to three two-person teams. Megan Edwards and Vida Chiri will be attending the competition. They have been top contenders all year, and Liberty’s Director of Debate Michael Hall believes they have a lot of potential.
“This year is our best chance of winning the CEDA tournament,” Hall said. “Edwards and Chiri have been our top team this year.”
Liberty debaters will be partici-pating in policy debate, which is the longest and oldest form of debate. During this tournament, they will be debating the legaliza-tion of online gambling, physi-cian-assisted suicide, prostitution, marijuana and organ sales.
The teams will be challenged to debate both sides of each ar-gument. According to Chiri, she tries to maintain a Christ like at-titude no matter which side she is debating.
“Even if you disagree, it’s about learning all sides of it all,” Vida Chiri said.
In order to prepare for this tournament, Hall has been help-ing his team prepare new ar-
guments, managing the team schedule and making sure they properly take care of their academic responsibilities.
“To prepare for CEDA, we have a mix of doing things that help us get better so we are peak-ing and we get better,” Hall said. “However, we don’t want to com-pete with school work, schedules and other responsibilities, or they will get burned out.”
This road to the CEDA Na-tional Tournament has been filled with a lot of preparation and is something the whole debate team has been working toward all year.
At the CEDA National Tour-nament, the debate team will
compete in two categories — two-person teams and sweep-stake. The sweepstake award is based on the scores of the entire debate team.
According to Hall, the debate program at Liberty is able to com-pete with any other university. This is due to debate being based on the experience of the debater and not the size of the school.
“Our university has been gen-erous with our program, because they see the value and that our students are able to compete with anyone,” Hall said.
As the tournament approaches, the teams are preparing and prac-ticing. At the end of the day, each
of the debate team members want to do their best and represent the true spirit of debate.
“Debate isn’t what people think it is,” Megan Edwards said. “It has a lot more intellectual rigor. … Debate has much more val-ue and understanding, but not everyone agrees.”
According to Chiri, it is es-pecially important for the Lib-erty debate team to maintain a positive spirit.
“These discussions get heat-ed,” Chiri said. “And we need to maintain a Christ like manner, ap-proaching each debate as a way to share the gospel and being open minded and willing to engage in
tough discussions.”Hall said he is excited to have
his team represent Liberty at CEDA. He is expecting big things from his team. However, after the tournament is over, he cares only about whether his debaters did the best they could. For Edwards and Chiri, he just wants them to end their debating career strong.
“(I would) love to see Chiri-Edwards win the tournament,” Hall said. “They have had such a successful run. … I want them to come out of this tournament hav-ing put an exclamation mark on their careers.”
FROST is a news reporter.
Kevin Manguiob | Liberty news service
COMPETITIVE — The debate team traveling to Wichita must learn to tackle both sides of complex issues in order to win.
Jobs — that is what the Islamic State needs. Jobs.
According to State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf, that is the solution.
But the reality is Islamic State radicals do not need a “shovel-ready,” five-step path to employ-ment. The displaced, abandoned and abused Christians, Yazidis and peaceable Muslims are the ones who need help.
“We need to go after the root causes that lead people to join these groups, … (including a) lack of opportunity for jobs,” Harf told MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews.
Matthews cut her off, remind-ing her that there are always go-ing to be poor people and there are always going to be poor Mus-lims. The truth is, poverty is not the root cause of the Islamic State — religion is.
“What makes these 17-year-old kids pick up an AK-47 instead of trying to start a business?” Harf asked.
The root is a relentless desire to see the Prophet Muhammad’s radical teachings realized. Ac-cording to Quran 9:12, jihadists are called to fight the disbelievers “that they might cease.”
“Pretending that (the Islamic State) isn’t actually a religious, mil-lenarian group, with theology that must be understood and combat-ted, has already led the United States to underestimate it and back foolish schemes to counter it,” Graeme Wood wrote in an editorial in The Atlantic.
How can the U.S. govern-
ment address an issue that it has so far refused to clearly define? Even today, the White House will not acknowledge the Is-lamic State’s religious ramifica-tions, even in the face of their bold action and unrelenting, theologically-charged rhetoric.
“Their only words were, ‘Je-sus, help me,’” Pope Francis said in response to the video of the execution of the Coptic Chris-tians uploaded Feb. 15. “They were killed simply because they were Christians.”
When the jihadi organization uploaded the video, titled “A Message Signed with Blood to
the Nation of the Cross,” Presi-dent Barack Obama referred to the men executed as “Egyptian citizens” and the executors as “ISIL-affiliated terrorists,” do-ing everything he could to avoid acknowledging the religious, Muslim tie.
“At this point, it is beyond burlesque — it’s pathological, it’s clinical, their inability and unwill-ingness to … accurately describe things,” political commentator on Fox News’ “Special Report” George Will said. “The secret of decent, strong communication is specificity.”
Perpetually changing the
strategy and considering these terrorists victims of a poor job market is not going to bring safety to any of the thousands of displaced Christians throughout the Middle East.
In an interview with News-max, Pete Hoekstra, a former Michigan congressman who once chaired the House Intel-ligence Committee, and John-nie Moore, former senior vice president for communications at Liberty University and author of the forthcoming book “De-fying ISIS,” agreed that putting boots on the ground, along with sending lethal weaponry to our
native allies, is the only option.“We’re witnessing a vacuum of
power in the region that is allow-ing literally the most horrific ac-tors in modern times to have all the power and all the opportunity that they want to exhibit as much horror as they want,” Moore said.
Refusing to acknowledge the Islamic State’s motivation and its ultimate goal — a religious caliph-ate of global proportion — will only make that vacuum bigger.
In a Fox News Sunday inter-view Feb. 22, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told host John Rob-erts that acknowledging any tie between Islam and the Islamic State gives the group too much “dignity,” claiming they are “hi-jacking” a religion of “peace and brotherhood.”
While there are peaceful Mus-lims who denounce the actions of this more violent and extreme sect of the Islamic faith, the ter-ror organization’s foundation is religious nonetheless.
“(The Islamic State has) once again committed horrific violence in establishing their religious be-liefs,” Todd Daniels, International Christian Concern regional man-ager for the Middle East, told the Christian Post in response to the 21 executed Christians.
The best help and hope we can bring to all those persecuted be-cause of the Islamic State is not jobs for terrorists, Harf. The best response is to acknowledge the group’s central theological mo-tivation and move forward with clear and pointed action.
GOINS-PHILLIPS is the opinion editor.
Here we go again. Brian Williams, round two.
Last Thursday, Mother Jones, a bi-monthly magazine and online news site, accused Fox News correspondent Bill O’Reilly of making false claims about his reporting experiences during the 1982 Falklands conflict. Wash-ington Bureau Chief David Corn and
Senior Editor Daniel Shulman’s article centers on O’Reilly’s claims that he re-ported from a “war zone” and survived “combat” situations during his time as a CBS News reporter.
Following the release of the article, O’Reilly fired back, offering a rebuttal during his Talking Points Memo in his show “The O’Reilly Factor” Friday night.
While this situation seems very simi-lar to the Williams case, it is too early to tell whether the accusations bear much weight. However, it is not too early to tell that the parties involved in this latest scandal do not seem to be focused on accuracy.
Though critics of Williams were most-ly concerned with whether he is trust-worthy as a news anchor, the O’Reilly/Mother Jones situation has turned into nothing more than a feud, each
party hoping for the other to crack first. In his Talking Points Memo, O’Reilly,
who referred to himself as “your hum-ble correspondent,” acted in exactly the opposite manner, arrogantly scolding Mother Jones and resorting to name-calling while he attempted to debunk the rumors. Then, in response to that rebuttal, Corn and others called O’Reilly out for his behavior and largely ignored O’Reilly’s evidence.
Who knows how many more times Corn and O’Reilly will go back and forth before this fight finally fizzles. Now, instead of focusing on the facts, more attention is being paid to who will win this dispute.
While this situation shows the impor-tance of accuracy and truth in reporting, it is also a picture of what is so messed up with the media. It is no wonder the
general population is so fed up nowadays with us, the members of the media.
How many minutes of each news seg-ment focus on launching attacks at other media members or outlets? Every day, CNN attacks Fox News for its conserva-tive guests and content, and Fox News attacks CNN for its liberal commenta-tors and agenda. At other times, reporters attack each other individually.
Should news agencies not be more concerned with the information they are presenting rather than the content of other, competing outlets?
O’Reilly and Corn, along with his Mother Jones colleagues, should stop trying to merely win an argument. They should stop calling names, and they should worry only about the facts of the story. Maybe then these journalists can focus on the news.
Josh [email protected]
When I decided to cover this year’s Academy Awards, I was ready to rip the cer-emony to shreds. Having watched 70 of the 86 mov-ies that had won the famed Best Picture award, I had grown weary of the way the Oscar game is played.
Too often a picture is awarded for being politi-cally relevant for the time rather than for actually be-ing a fantastic movie. Other times, awards are given to an actor or director out of obligation to make up for the fact that they have been in the industry for a while and should have won an award sooner. And worst of all is the entire concept of Oscar campaigning.
As a viewer, this is frus-trating, because the Best Picture award rarely goes to a movie worthy of the title.
It is apparent that the Academy Awards say far more about the state of Hollywood politics than they do about the endur-ing appeal of movies to the public. The self-glorifying, tedious and overlong cer-emonies that are thrown each year to celebrate the Oscars do little to try to disprove that belief.
With all of that being said, something surprised me about the 87th Acad-emy Awards ceremony — it managed to not be terrible.
I could rant about several of the nomination snubs. It is a crime that critical and commercial favorites like “The Lego Movie” and “Gone Girl” were mostly ignored. And the less said about the lack of racial diversity, the better.
But in a twist from the precursor awards, “Bird-man” took the Best Picture over the anticipated front-
runner “Boyhood.” And as much as I admire the ambi-tion of “Boyhood,” which was filmed over the course of 12 years in order to cap-ture the aging process of its protagonist, the movie was always going to be more of an impressive project than a storytelling masterpiece.
The winners of the act-ing awards were predict-able, but very well deserved.
Most of the acceptance speeches tried to address various social issues rel-evant to the winner’s movie, which could seem like a bla-tant attempt to make their movies look more impor-tant and culturally relevant.
Yet, I found these speech-es very emotionally mov-ing, as most of them were spoken with a genuine con-viction. Patricia Arquette, who won Best Support-ing Actress in “Boyhood,” spoke on the importance of women’s equality and
the sacrifices mothers make in an empowering speech that earned a cheer from Meryl Streep. Best Actress winner Julianne Moore tried to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s when accepting her award, while John Leg-end spoke of racial preju-dices still being overcome today when accepting an award for his song “Glory.”
The most powerful mo-ment came when scriptwrit-er Graham Moore revealed he had attempted to com-mit suicide as a teenager for feeling different. He won an Adapted Screenplay award for “The Imitation Game” and delivered a message about outcasts embracing their uniqueness and the promise that life gets better.
The real surprise of the night was Lady Gaga’s mag-nificent tribute to the 50th anniversary of “The Sound of Music.” People can criti-cize Gaga’s bizarre artistic
choices all they want, but they cannot deny the range and power of her voice.
In the end, this ceremony was better than average. I may try to convince myself that the Oscars are mean-ingless and that I am never going to watch them again, but deep down I know that
I am always going to some-how get dragged into tun-ing in to see what movies the Academy recognizes.
And for that reason, I am glad I did not have to suffer too much this time around.
JANNEY is the asst. news editor.
OPINIONA4 February 24, 2015
by Emily Brown
GooGle ImaGes
STATUETTES — The prestigious trophy was officially dubbed the “Oscar” in 1939.
Faith fuels Islamic terror
Oscars: better than expected
Religion is the key motivator behind jihadists’ violence, not economic woes
The 87th Academy Awards ceremony gets most of the winners correct
GooGle ImaGes
HOLY WAR — The Islamic State’s ultimate goal is to establish a religious caliphate around the world.
“Making your life count starts now.”
T h e s e words spoken by renowned e v a n g e l i s t Scott Daw-son seemed to be woven t h r o u g h o u t each speaker’s message this past week in Con-vocation. Whether you are a re-ality TV star, political figure or
evangelist, we all leave a mark on this life.
Sean Lowe, star of Season 17 of ABC’s “The Bachelor,” participated in a question-and-answer session Monday, Feb. 16, with David Nasser, the senior vice president for spiritual devel-opment. Lowe described how he was able to share his faith and be a light in the midst of the dark-ness of the Hollywood lifestyle. He also encouraged students to remain sexually abstinent until
marriage, regardless of what the rest of the world is doing. Mak-ing your mark for Christ requires living above reproach, regardless of the cost.
Sean Hannity, host of Fox News’ “Hannity,” challenged the student body to be bold leaders.
“Feel the fear and do it any-way,” Hannity told students. “Leap, jump — be the leadership that’s going to save our country.”
With all that is going on in the world, we need Christians
to stand firm, unafraid and un-ashamed. People who do not let fear or anything else stand in the way of courageously living a set apart life in order to leave a mark for the gospel in this life.
Dawson concluded Convoca-tion on Friday by encouraging us to make our lives count for the sake of the gospel.
“Once you get Jesus, that’s all you’re going to get,” Dawson told students. “The rest of your life is about giving him away.”
I want my life to be fully sur-rendered to my savior so that people cannot help but see him in me. This is what I am living for — to make the gospel known in this generation. I want my life to count for the sake of Jesus Christ. I want him to make his mark on my life so that through me, others might see him and start making their life count too.
opinion Liberty Champion | February 24, 2015 | A5
LETTERS TO THE EDITORPOLICIES & INFO
Emily Browneditor-in-chief
Gabriella Fullergraduate assistant Tom Footegraduate assistant
CONTENT
Dave Van Dyknews editor
Josh Janneyasst. news editor
Tré Goins-Phillipsopinion editor
Alex Tichenorsports editor
Nate Haywoodasst. sports editor
Amber Tillerfeature editor
Olivia Browncopy editor
Ash Browndcopy editor
PHOTOGRAPHY
Courtney Russophotography editor
Leah Seaversasst. photography editor
DESIGN
Breann Blackgraphic designer
Meighan Thompsongraphic designer
Josh Gordonsocial media manager
Jomer Bunqueweb manager
ADMINISTRATION
Deborah Hufffaculty advisor
Omar Adams advertising director
The Champion encourages community members to submit letters to the editor on any subject. Letters should not exceed 400 words and must be typed and signed. The deadline is 5 p.m. Friday. Letters and columns that appear are the opinion of the author solely, not the Champion editorial board or Liberty University.
All material submitted becomes property of the Champion. The Champion reserves the right to accept, reject or edit any letter received—according to the Champion stylebook, taste and the Liberty University mission statement.
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Defining the value of lifeParent decision in the birth of Down syndrome son becomes worldwide newsAsh [email protected]
For most families, the birth of a child is a day of great celebration. For Samuel Forrest and his wife Ruzan Badalyan, the birth of their son Leo quickly sparked international news. People around the world have taken sides with one parent or the other as they debate a mother’s responsi-bility to her child and how children with special needs, specifically Down syn-drome, are being treated. It seems to me, however, that the world is focusing on the wrong issue entirely.
Leo was born Jan. 21 in Armenia, according to the Mirror. Within minutes of his birth, doctors informed his parents that he had been born with Down syndrome.
According to ABC News, Forrest claimed he took Leo in to see Badalyan, who promptly gave him a choice — her or their son.
“I got the ultimatum right then,” Forrest said. “She told me if I kept him, then we would get a divorce.”
Badalyan confirmed to ABC News that she had indeed separated from her husband and, after a great deal of backlash on the Internet, finally wrote out her own version of the story on Facebook.
“I had to make the most ruthless decision in my life within several hours,” Badalyan wrote. “The first thing that came to my mind after the diagnosis was that I don’t want my child to live in a country where certain stereotypes domi-nate the lives of people with (Down syndrome).”
Badalyan came to the conclusion that moving to another country with a high-er opinion of Down syn-drome would allow her son to live the life he deserved. She claimed she discussed the issue with her husband, who then informed her a few hours later that he was taking their son back to Forrest’s native New Zealand and she had no say in the matter.
With both versions of the story all over the In-ternet, there is no way of knowing exactly which par-ent is telling the truth. Some people have chosen to paint Forrest as a saintly father
and Badalyan as a heart-less woman who spurned her own child. Others say Badalyan is the true hero, making the heart-breaking choice to give up her son so he could have a better life, while Forrest is a self-centered opportunist who used his son’s condition for his own publicity.
I believe the world has gotten so bogged down in the parent versus parent debate that we have over-looked the real issue here.
Virtually every article I have read on the story had in the headline the clarifi-cation that Leo was born with Down syndrome. The implication here is that it is Leo’s condition rather than the love of his parents that truly makes the story.
If Leo had been born without Down syndrome, it seems doubtful that his mother would have even considered giving him up.
“(Jan. 21) was the happi-est day for me as I finally gave birth to my long-await-
ed son,” Badalyan wrote in her Facebook post.
Regardless of whether or not she gave up her son out of disgust or out of a genuine love, the fact re-mains that there is real dis-crimination against people with special needs, includ-ing Down syndrome. In fact, if Leo had been born
without Down syndrome, it is highly doubtful the story would have ever made it past the local news. But the added element of Leo’s Down syndrome turns this story from mildly sad into international news.
Down syndrome is a genetic condition over which a person has no control. Discriminating against it makes no more sense than discriminating against someone because they are short or blue-eyed or female. I fail to under-stand people who look down on those living with Down syndrome.
Notice I said “living with” instead of “suffer-
ing from.” According to a paper released by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, 99 percent of people with Down syndrome are happy with their lives. The paper also showed that people with Down syndrome tend to increase the amount of joy in the lives of those around them.
But according to Life News, 90 percent of ba-bies diagnosed prenatally with Down syndrome are aborted. One of the most commonly cited reasons for these abortions is that it will be best for the child. Yet this statement is in di-rect conflict with the data, which shows that the ma-jority of people with Down syndrome lead extremely happy lives. It seems to be that the real reason children with Down syndrome are aborted is because it will be easier for the parent.
“I just couldn’t do it, couldn’t be that kind of mother who accepts everything, loves her kid no
matter what,” one mother who aborted her child with Down syndrome said in a Life News article. “… May-be it’s selfish, I don’t know. But I just didn’t want all those problems in my life.”
I believe this is the real reason people have made such a big deal out of Leo’s story — not because a fa-ther fought for his son as any good parent should, but rather because he ac-cepted his child born with Down syndrome. People view Forrest as a hero be-cause he took on the “bur-den” of raising a child who was not considered nor-mal. People are praising him for making the “sac-rifice” of giving up his life to care for a child whose birth country, Armenia, would have discarded him without a second thought. Somehow the fact that Leo has Down syndrome takes Forrest from a father performing his parental duty to a saint on some angelic mission.
I will be honest — this side of our society makes me sick. We place so little value on the lives of those with special needs that we view the idea of raising a child with them as a terrible burden. In reality, it does not matter whether or not a child has special needs. If parents bring a child into
the world, they have the re-sponsibility to love and care for that child.
Regardless of financial and emotional strain, those with special needs are still people. Those who live with Down syndrome are still people, and they de-serve to be treated as such.
It would have been so easy to give up Leo. But Forrest chose to remain in his son’s life. He is a hero if for no other reason than because he refused to walk away when the rest of the world would have been happy to let him. He chose his son. Not “his son with Down syndrome.” Just “his son.”
It is time for our soci-ety to stop arguing over which parent has the more accurate story here and in-stead take a page out of Forrest’s playbook. Down syndrome is not a person’s defining characteristic.
Acceptance of our fellow man should be an every-day occurrence, not a nov-elty worthy of international headlines. That, I believe, is the lesson we should truly be taking from Leo’s story.
BROWND is a copy editor.
GooGle ImaGes
FATHER’S LOVE — Samuel Forrest had to choose between his wife and their son Leo who was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome.
“I believe the world has gotten so bogged down in the parent versus
parent debate that we have overlooked the real issue here.
— ASH BROWND
Taylor [email protected]
“Everything rises and falls on leadership.”
To help students learn to be effective leaders and understand John Maxwell’s famous saying, which has been around since World War II, the National So-ciety of Leadership and Success (NSLS) is an honor society new to Liberty’s campus, which allows students to explore the qualities and necessities of capable leaders.
According to NSLS leader-ship, this society offers students the means necessary to become better leaders. Students will gain new knowledge through leader-ship seminars, learn from success-ful business leaders and network with peers.
NSLS is a nationally recognized society with chapters spanning across the United States. Cur-rently, there are 440,420 mem-bers nationwide, according to the society’s latest research.
The founder and president of Liberty’s chapter of NSLS, David Leite, said his main goal for Lib-erty’s chapter is to train leaders to impact their field. NSLS also pro-vides them opportunities to learn the skills necessary to impact their workplace.
“Many want to be doctors, nurses, write books or be in poli-tics,” Leite said. “NSLS provides stability and enhances a path for them to be successful in their field. This chapter is known for that.”
Leite explained that students from all majors are welcome to join NSLS. This society prides itself on having a variety of ma-jors represented. Undergradu-ate students as well as graduate students are able to be a part of this society.
“The society is open to every-
one,” Leite said. “From nursing to biblical studies, everyone is invit-ed. Our goal is to help you reach your goals.”
To be inducted into NSLS, students must attend a series of nine leadership-training sessions. These consist of three leader-ship seminars, three webinars and three Social Networking Teams.
After those steps are com-pleted, a formal induction cer-emony will be held and students will receive a certificate and all the benefits NSLS offers. The first in-duction ceremony will be held in May 2015.
According to NSLS, the soci-ety offers a plethora of benefits
to its members. These benefits include scholarships, nationwide networking, speaker broadcasts, interview skills, personalized rec-ommendation letters and résumé improvement with lifetime access to these benefits.
Leite said he has taken advan-tage of these resources offered by NSLS. The society created a per-sonalized recommendation letter for Leite when applying for a doc-toral program. He has also ben-efited from the leadership train-ing seminars by getting formal training in leading large groups.
“NSLS has enhanced my lead-ership skills, shown me how to manage time and people, then
unite them toward a common goal, which, in this case, is to help students of Liberty University achieve better professional skills,” Leite said.
Liberty sophomore and chair member of NSLS Tyler Bernas said he has learned a great deal from the society already. He has been working behind the scenes to help prepare the society for the students of Liberty.
“This society has given me a wonderful avenue to expand my skills within my (English) major,” Bernas said. “Not only has it de-veloped the execution of my writ-ing, but the professionalism as well. That’s what I like most.”
According to Leite, NSLS is an official club registered through the Student Government Associ-ation. Currently, Liberty’s chapter can accept 300 members.
NSLS hosted its first event in January in the Terrace Conference Room at the Jerry Falwell Library. The purpose of this event was to make the student population aware of NSLS. The next event will be held at the end of Febru-ary. NSLS will be providing more information for this upcoming occasion.
FROST is a news reporter.
newsA6 | February 24, 2015 | Liberty Champion
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LEADERSHIP — The Liberty chapter of NSLS has offered students several opportunities to develop skills to prepare them for the future.
NSLS comes to LibertyNew, all-inclusive honor society seeks to train students to become leaders
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SPORTSFebruary 24, 2015 B1
Follow @LUChampSports for Flames athletics coverage
Liberty 64, Charleston Southern 53
Sarah [email protected]
Behind a second-half turnaround, the Liberty women’s basketball team came from behind to defeat the Buc-caneers of Charleston Southern, 64-53, earning a 17th Big South Confer-ence victory of the season Saturday afternoon, Feb. 21.
With another conference victory over Charleston Southern (5-22, 1-17 Big South), the Lady Flames (21-6, 17-1 Big South) became the first team ever in the Big South Conference to win 17 conference games in a season. The Lady Flames of 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 were previously tied for the record with 16 conference wins.
More history was made as red-shirt junior forward Ashley Rininger scored her 1000th point, making her
the 15th Lady Flame to accomplish the feat. Rininger recorded a double-double, leading all players with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Lady Flames Head Coach Carey Green said he is proud of Rininger’s accomplishment and her contribution to the team.
“She was really focused,” Green said. “Hopefully in the next year or so, she can add a couple hundred or so to those points. We are thankful she chose Liberty and (for) her con-tinued development academically and physically as a basketball player.”
On Senior Day, in which the game was moved from 7 p.m. to 1 p.m. due to winter weather in the forecast, the Lady Flames found themselves down early 22-26, which progressed to a 31-29 Buccaneer lead at the half.
The Flames shot a mere 10 percent
from the three-point line in the first half, while the Buccaneers were lights out, draining six of 10 three pointers.
“(Charleston Southern) knocked down some key shots and executed their offense very well,” Green said. “We got a little sloppy. I’d like to give them credit to their offense for being good and shooting the ball.”
However, the Lady Flames would not be down for long. The Lady Flames responded right away in the second half with a dominant 21-4 run to take the 50-35 lead.
Redshirt junior forward Catherine Kearney scored eight of her nine points during the Lady Flames run to retake the lead.
According to Kearney, a balanced offensive attack and tough defense were the keys to the Lady Flames’ second half surge.
“I think we really needed to focus on rebounding and coming out with a sense of urgency, not just sitting back on defense, but really going after the ball,” Kearney said.
Green echoed Kearney’s words, as the Lady Flames halftime adjustments were the difference in the game.
“We adjusted specifically to a cou-ple plays that they were running and how to handle screens,” Green said. “I think that took away some easy looks at the basket. It was a combi-nation of a defensive effort and un-derstanding and not turning the ball over and being more effective in the second half.”
The Lady Flames offensive attack and strong inside presence proved too much for the Buccaneers, as they
See STAND, B3
Courtney russo | Liberty Champion
TOWER — The taller junior forward Ashley Rininger (55) skies above Lady Buccaneers forward Brianna Lakes (24) as she reaches for an offensive rebound.
Senior-day standLady Flames continue conference dominance against Lady Bucs
Flames burn BeaversMen’s DI hockey sweeps Minot State in final home stand of ’14-’15 season
Leah seavers | Liberty Champion
FINALE — Freshman Luke Hannon weaves through defenders.
Liberty 3, Minot State 1Liberty 5, Minot State 1 Ryley Rush
Liberty University men’s Divi-sion I (DI) hockey team seniors went out with a bang as they swept their final home series against the No. 3 Minot State University Beavers, Feb. 20-21.
The 11th-ranked Flames — who, until last weekend’s wins over unranked West Virginia University, had not swept a home series since September — hit the ice Friday night with their full roster and consistent lines for the first time in almost as long.
“We’ve had to battle through a lot of injuries this year,” Head
Coach Kirk Handy said. “It’s ex-citing to have our guys back. It felt like for the last couple of weeks practice has been going re-ally well, and it’s nice to see it pay dividends for our guys tonight.”
Those dividends came in the form of a 5-1 game one win for the Flames. Senior forward Ry-ley Egan, assisted by sophomore defenseman Chase Harris and senior defenseman Cam Bakker, kicked off the scoring just over a minute into the game.
Bakker found the back of the net himself just minutes later on a Flames power play, and soph-omore forward Robert Ward scored off passes from Egan and
freshman forward Grant Garvin before the period’s end.
While the Beavers found the back of the net before first in-termission, too, junior forward Bram Erickson restored the Flames three-goal lead in the sec-ond off a pass from junior for-ward Danny Logan. Freshman forward Luke Hannon, recently returned from national team play, capped off the scoring in the fi-nal period with help from senior forward Lindsay LeBlanc.
“It felt like every guy was in the loop tonight, and it was nice to see,” Handy said. “We’re getting
See BURN, B2
sports B2 | February 24, 2015 | Liberty Champion
Tich’s Take Nate Haywood
The Liberty Flames men’s basketball team (7-22, 1-15 Big South) continued its regular-season struggles after falling to the Longwood Lancers (8-21, 4-12 Big South), 78-72, Feb. 17.
In the second matchup between these two teams this season, Longwood wast-ed little time getting on the scoreboard when junior guard Leron Fisher nailed a wide-open shot from behind the arc in the opening minute, giving the Lancers the early 3-0 lead. However, the Flames notched two points after junior for-ward Theo Johnson drove baseline for a quick layup.
After a Longwood turnover, junior forward David Andoh hit a mid-range jump shot over a defender’s outstretched hand, giving the Flames the 4-3 lead.
However, the Flames one-point lead lasted only 10 seconds after junior guard Shaquille Johnson knocked down another three-ball for the Lancers, giving them the lead. The Flames never gained that lead back.
After a Theo Johnson miss, Long-wood looked to increase its lead. How-ever, the Flames forced a turnover, but then turned the ball over themselves, leading to an easy layup for Fisher.
The Flames quickly ended their scor-ing drought after senior forward Andrew Smith hit a baseline jumper for his first basket of the night, making the score 8-6 in Longwood’s favor with 16 minutes left in the first half.
But in the Lancer’s very next posses-sion, freshman Ryan Badowski, who is shooting around 40 percent from be-hind the arc according to longwoodlanc-ers.com, spotted up for an uncontested three-ball, increasing the lead to five.
After Shaquille Johnson made a pair of free throws, Flames freshman guard A.C. Reid sank his 25th three pointer of the season.
Longwood quickly responded with a layup from sophomore guard Darrion Allen, but Reid responded too as he cut the lead down to three with another long ball, his second on the night.
Unfortunately for the Flames, se-nior guard Quincy Taylor, who shoots the 14th best three-point percentage in the nation according to espn.com, did
what he had done all season. He knocked down a three pointer of his own, giv-ing Longwood the 18-12 lead with 12 minutes remaining in the first half.
In the Flames next possession, Andoh missed a contested layup, which Taylor rebounded. He found Shaquille Johnson streaking down the sideline, who then rose up for the emphatic fast-break slam.
Just as most teams have done against the Flames this season, the boys from Farmville, Virginia, went on a devastat-ing run to end the half. But the main perpetrator was not Shaquille Johnson. Instead, Fisher was the culprit.
“(Fisher’s) a good shooter,” Layer said. “He’s a good player. We could not guard Taylor off the bounce, which allowed (Fisher) to get open looks.”
In the remaining 10 minutes of the half, Fisher either scored or assisted on more than half of the Lancers points. But he also hurt the Flames in ways that the statistic sheet cannot indicate. He con-stantly penetrated the Flames defense, causing the Flames to scramble and pro-vide help defense. Quality ball movement from Longwood allowed them to usually find someone open.
“We didn’t guard the bounce very well and we overhelped,” Layer said. “When you don’t guard the bounce, they drew help and had open shooters as a result.”
At the end of the first half, Liberty was
down 13, having only scored 26 points in 20 minutes.
The second half began and the Flames looked to cut into their deficit, but only got it as low as 11.
After a pair of free throws from Theo Johnson cut Longwood’s lead to 11, Tay-lor buried another three-pointer, igniting a 9-2 Lancers run and increasing their lead to 20 with 12 minutes left.
Despite the 20-point hole, the Flames fought back.
“We guarded a little bit better,” Layer said. “We started getting to the free-throw line and attacking the basket.”
Theo Johnson and Liberty rushed the Lancers with an 11-2 run, but the Flames were still down by double digits with around four minutes remaining. Ul-timately, the Flames could not recover, as the Lancers came out victorious for their first win in the Vines Center.
The Flames also fell on the road to the Charleston Southern Cavaliers, 77-67, Feb. 21. Junior guard Joe Retic returned to the court after being sidelined for 12 games with a foot injury. He saw 14 minutes on the court and notched two points. With the loss, the Flames fell to 7-22 overall and 1-15 in conference play.
HAYWOOD is the asst. sports editor.
Lancers clip FlamesLongwood completes season sweep with close win
Kevin Manguiob | Liberty news servcie
FIGHT — The Flames lost a tough battle against in-state foe Longwood Feb. 17.
BURN continued from B1
back healthy, the guys are get-ting going and, man, what a good effort tonight for the guys.”
While Friday’s win was nice, Handy and his team alike were not satisfied with splitting their last outing at home — especially with nationals looming.
“We’re only halfway there,” Handy said. “We’ve got to make sure we win tomorrow, too, and really solidify ourselves.”
The men did just that, battling through a tight, tense game two to down the Beavers 3-1 Saturday, Feb. 21.
The Flames took the lead in an even first period with Ward firing one home off assists from Egan and Garvin.
The Beavers returned with a fury in the second period, freshman goalie Josh Hal-penny standing on his head
to deny all but one shot before intermission.
With under eight minutes to go in the game and the pressure mounting, Egan came up big for the Flames, burying the puck with help from LeBlanc and junior de-fenseman Steven Bellew to restore the Flames lead.
The Beavers pulled their goalie as time wound down, and with four seconds left on the clock, Liberty senior
forward Christian Garland netted an empty-net goal to seal the victory.
“(These games were) a true test for our team,” Garland said. “We had to really want it, and it was unreal to win them senior weekend. … I can’t believe how quick the time has gone, and it’s awesome for the guys I’ve played with for four years to get both of these games.”
Garland, like Handy, noted
increased health and con-sistency as major factors in the team’s success and posi-tive indicators headed into postseason play.
“We’re going into nationals with two huge wins where we all came together and finally meshed as a unit,” Garland said. “I mean, having a sweep of the No. 3 team in the coun-try is huge. … I think now we all believe we can pull it off.”
Handy echoed his players’ thoughts, expressing his pride in the character and maturity all have developed through-out an up-and-down season and a special gratitude for the commitment of his seniors.
“Those eight guys out there have done so much for this program,” Handy said. “It’s been an exciting four years for them being here, and I really feel like the best is yet to come.”
RUSH is a sports reporter.
Leah seavers| Liberty chaMpion
CALM — Goalies Matt Pinel and Cary Byron converse.
Longwood 78, Liberty 72
Alex [email protected]
In 49 states, college basketball is just some-thing that comes on television. People may even go to the games and everything.
But in North Carolina, college basketball is a religion.
Duke and North Carolina (UNC) met for the first time in 2015 on Feb. 18, and the game did not disappoint. Well, unless you are a Tar Heels fan.
The Blue Devils came back from a 10-point deficit with less than four minutes remaining, forcing overtime,
eventually escaping Cameron Indoor Stadium with a 92-90 win. Just another classic game in a classic rivalry.
The hatred between the two is well docu-mented, but there is also tremendous respect, like when a Duke student made up a Duke-blue T-shirt with the word “Dean” adorn-ing the front, honoring the recently deceased UNC coach Dean Smith. Overall, there probably is not a better rivalry in all of sports.
Smith’s death further evidenced the devout-ness of North Carolinians to college basket-ball. Local public schools lowered their flags to half-mast in his honor. The arena named after him on UNC’s campus was packed to capacity for his memorial service. The entire state mourned.
Still, Duke and UNC are only a part of North Carolinian basketball lore. NC State has won two national championships, includ-ing one of the greatest Cinderella runs in sports history en route to the 1983 national title. Wake Forest can claim NBA superstars Tim Duncan and Chris Paul as alumni, and is usually an NCAA tournament fixture.
Still, if you are not a UNC and Duke fan, you are essentially a second-class citizen in the Old North State. Wake Forest fans have had to deal with early tournament exits, despite having guys like Paul and Duncan, along with college stars like Rodney Rogers and Randolph Childress. The Demon Deacons are more than half a century removed from their latest Final Four berth.
And of course, despite growing up equi-distant from Duke, UNC and NC State, I was born into a life of tortuous NC State fandom.
Being an NC State fan among the great blue giants (and even Wake) has not been easy for any Wolfpacker born within the past 30 years or so. I was born in 1992 and have never seen the Wolfpack win a regular season or tourna-ment conference championship. Meanwhile, UNC, Duke and Wake Forest have combined for 35 of the 44 ACC regular season and tour-nament titles. North Carolina and Duke have won the Big Dance a whopping five times in those 22 years. So 23 percent of the time dur-ing my lifetime, either Duke or UNC has won the National Championship. Good times.
Still, NC State fans pile into PNC Arena year after year, game after game, just like Duke and UNC fans, hoping the Wolfpack will vault back into the nation’s elite one day.
And no matter what kind of year a team has, there is the great equalizer awaiting at the end of the year — the ACC Tournament.
The tournament is essentially a holiday in every corner of the state. Even uncool teach-ers will abandon their curriculum for a few hours to let students watch the games.
College basketball is not a game in the state of North Carolina.
It is a way of life.
TICHENOR is the sports editor.
TICHENOR
Emily [email protected]
When athletes go crashing to the floor, audiences are silenced, doing the only thing they know how to do — wait. But in those moments, while everyone else is frozen in fear, athletic trainers, including Liberty’s men’s basket-ball trainer Aaron Schreiner, jump into action.
While athletic trainers are no-ticed when an athlete goes down during play, Schreiner’s work stretches far beyond the confines of the court on game days.
“We’re a profession that I think is served best when we’re not seen or we’re not noticed,” Sch-reiner said. “We’re doing our job and things are going smoothly when you don’t see us. When you do see us a lot, it’s probably not a good thing.”
According to Schreiner, who also works as the athletic trainer for Liberty’s men’s golf team and holds the title of rehab coordi-nator, he can be thought of as a gatekeeper. Schreiner assesses in-juries, communicates with coach-ing staffs and medical profession-als and refers student-athletes to doctors for everything from the common cold to a season-ending injury. A good chunk of Schrein-er’s job also includes working with student-athletes to prevent and rehab injuries.
In addition to the one-on-one work with the athletes, Schreiner
also spends time filling out paper-work to ensure the players on the teams he works with all receive the appropriate care.
“There’s always enough work,” Schreiner said. “I could sit in that office and do paperwork and not get up for probably three days and still have work to do afterward.”
Schreiner said that in the years since 2005, when he earned a master’s of science in clinical Ki-nesiology from the University of Toledo and started working at Liberty, he has experienced the difficulties that come along with
the title of athletic trainer. “One thing that (I have learned)
is if this job isn’t your mission field, it’ll chew you up, spit you out, and you’ll be burned out be-fore you know it,” Schreiner said. “… It will take everything you’ll give it out of you and then ask for more.”
Schreiner explained that dur-ing basketball season, 12-hour days are the norm rather than the exception. However, despite the long hours, he relishes the opportunity to serve others.
“(I)t’s a service profession,”
Schreiner said. “You’ve gotta learn how to serve people, know how to treat people well, under-stand who you’re dealing with. (You have to know that) kids, at times, have disappointments and frustrations, and … you try to work through that and still make them better in the end both physi-cally and emotionally. … If you work really hard and you take care of kids and you take care of coaches, they believe you when you say that you care.”
According to Schreiner, the best part of his job is the
chance to be a part of the path student-athletes travel — from an injury to a full recovery — and the lessons they learn along the way.
“A lot of these guys are perfor-mance-based, and their identity is wrapped up in who they are and how they perform, and injury will take that from you,” Schreiner said. “And I think God is a good God, and he’ll do things to get your attention. He’ll basically say, ‘Do you want to serve me? Do you want to know me or do you want this to just be about you?’ In these moments where you see, I think, the Lord give someone an obstacle to see what they will do through it, and then watch them come through the obstacle and watch them succeed again is really awesome.”
Though “God bless caf-feine” may be the man-tra of a sleep-deprived Schreiner, he says he has no plans to stop serving Liberty student-athletes through his work as an athletic trainer any time soon.
“I think when I’m finally done with (athletic train-ing), I’ll flip burgers somewhere (or) run a family restaurant,” Schreiner said. “I think I’ll be done when I’m done here. But as of right now, I’ve got no other plans.”
BROWN is the editor-in-chief.
Liberty Champion | February 24, 2015 | B3sports
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COLLEGE DAY
STAND continued from B1were never able to gain back their first half lead. The Lady Flames finished with 46 rebounds and 20 second-chance points en route to their ninth consecutive victory.
In a ceremony following
the match, the Lady Flames four seniors, Karly Buer, Emily Frazier, Jasmine Gardner and Ellee Roll-ins, were honored for their contributions to the pro-gram. Kearney said it was an honor to help lead the Lady Flames to victory on a special afternoon for many of her teammates.
“I am just so happy for (the seniors),” Kearney said. “They definitely deserve all the honor that they’ve been given. I am really happy that we were able to come out with a win for them.”
With another victory in the books and the first seed for the Big South conference tournament
already locked up, Rin-inger said these last few games are tune-ups for postseason play.
“(The games give) us another opportunity to continue working on our defense and working on running our offenses, figuring out the things we need to work on and
improve on,” Rininger said. Yet, Green always keeps
the ultimate goal in mind — making it to the NCAA tournament and being successful there.
“The hungry lion hunts best,” Green said. “We are still in the hunt. We want a conference champion-ship tournament win and
to get into NCAAs.”The Lady Flames will
have another opportunity to fine-tune their attack Feb. 24 at home against Winthrop, the only team in the Big South to hand Liberty a loss this season.
RODRIGUEZ is a sports reporter.
Trials and triumphs of trainingAaron Schreiner works behind the scenes to ensure student-athletes’ safety
Courtney russo | Liberty Champion
EXAMINE — Trainer Aaron Schreiner works to rehabilitate injured players.
CALCULUS TUTOR NEEDED
Looking for an upper level student (e.g. math major or
similar) able to provide tutoring sessions twice per
week, 1 hour per session, to a CVCC student currently
taking Calculus.
I can pay $25 per hour and the sessions can be at the
location of your choice.
Please contact Kevin at [email protected]
if interested.
B4 | February 24, 2015 | Liberty Champion feature
Foraging means seeking out and gathering. And there is new ministry ready to do just that — in pink.
Forage Gathering, a startup women’s ministry founded by Elisha Dudley, a former as-sociate director for the Office of Student Leadership (OSL), launched in February.
“Our goal is to gather wom-en,” Kelsey Baker, the commu-nications director for Forage Gathering and a current as-sociate director for OSL, said. “We’re extending our arms. So, we’re foraging. We are forag-ing for women to grow closer to Christ … and to know how Jesus impacts their lives.”
According to Baker, this ef-fort flowed naturally out of the knowledge and wisdom that the Forage team has re-ceived throughout their years in ministry. At a women’s con-ference a few years ago, Dud-ley realized that many women there were turning to Liberty’s ministry leaders for insight.
“Where does the country send (young people) to be-come world changers?” Baker said. “(They send them to) Liberty University. And (OSL)
are the leaders of the leaders, … meaning we’ve had a lot of training to be able to reach this generation, because we do it every day.”
So when it came to starting a ministry designed to equip women with practical, biblical knowledge, it felt like a natural fit for the Forage leaders.
“Our mission … is to gather women in an inviting space, which, right now, is our web-site, and eventually we hope to do actual gatherings, to foster authentic community, … and to pursue a deeper understand-ing of Christ,” Baker said. “It’s a place where women can go and just receive practical truth in all different areas.”
On the ministry’s pink, black and white website, its bloggers plan to address issues that are
relevant to women. Forage’s target age group is 18 to 30, but the Forage team plans to share advice that is practical for all ages, according to Baker.
“I think what sets (Forage) apart from some other things that people are doing is (that our goals) are very practical,” Baker said. “You will (find in-formation) that (is) based in truth as well as (being fun), because that’s a huge thing we enjoy in our friend group — having fun.”
More than just having fun and sharing advice, Baker emphasized the importance of doing those things within community. The Forage team wants to come alongside wom-en in life’s everyday ups and downs, according to Baker.
Through weekly blog posts,
Forage leaders want to tackle issues they view as problem areas for women in the church, like comparing and competing with each other and making poor relationship decisions.
“(Forage) is so practical and so real-life, so authentic, that we’re just going to say, ‘(These issues) are real, and this is how ... we can take steps as a global community to make this better, ’” Baker said.
With topics ranging from in-terviews with Christian artists to advice on self esteem and last-minute decorating tips, readers can expect weekly up-dates on the group’s website, foragegathering.com.
GOINS-PHILLIPS is the opinion editor.
Foreign lectures Jones teaches philosophy in Romania
Ellie [email protected]
Finding a balance between vocation and passion is difficult for most people, but Liberty University Professor Michael Jones has found a way to seamlessly combine his.
Jones, a professor of theology and philosophy since 2005, uses his teach-ing vocation as a way to fulfill his passion for missions. Because of a Fulbright grant, Jones is currently teaching philosophy at the University of Bu-charest in Romania.
“My courses are electives for students who want exposure to the American style of teaching and who want to practice their English,” Jones said. “This Fulbright grant gives me the perfect opportunity to be both a scholar and a missionary at the same time, and hence fulfill both of these desires. … Be-ing blessed with a Fulbright grant made this move possible. I’ve been planning and strategizing for this return to Roma-nia since my first Fulbright in Romania ended in 2002.”
After Jones left Romania in 2002, he returned in 2006, 2007 and 2008 for short-term trips.
In addition to teaching, Jones is work-ing on several publication projects, in-cluding translating a Romanian philoso-pher’s works into English. Jones has also been invited to speak at several other universities in Romania.
Jones and his wife attend a small Ro-manian Baptist church where they start-ed a junior church program. Every other month, they travel two hours east of Bu-charest to a different church where Jones and his wife speak to men and women in separate Bible studies.
“I really enjoy Romanian Baptist churches,” Jones said. “I can’t explain why that is, but it’s true. Part of it is the music, but there’s more to it than just that. Perhaps it’s because Romania has only had religious freedom for 25 years, and hence the people value their reli-gion more than do many Americans. I think this explanation is likely true, since the fervency of the churches seems to have declined some since I first came to Romania 17 years ago.”
After his positive experience in 2002, Jones continues to enjoy his time in Romania.
“I can’t pick out any single thing that is the highlight,” Jones said. “The whole experience has been extremely positive. If it were possible, I’d do this every other year. In fact, that would be heaven. I can’t imagine a better life than being able to alternate years between Liberty and Romania.”
Jones enjoys his time in Romania, but he still misses some things he left behind.
“Most of all, (my wife and I) miss our families, especially our sons and their wives, who are Liberty alumni and still live in the Lynchburg area, and our bas-set hound, Dozer,” Jones said. “I also miss my motorcycles. I miss my col-leagues, (and) Liberty really does have a lot of great people. I miss the Liberty fencing club and the Liberty Jiujitsu club. And I miss playing in the band at Berean Baptist Church.”
Jones returns to Virginia in July and will be teaching again in the fall of 2015 at Liberty.
FRASER is a feature reporter.
Musical debuts‘South Pacific’ opened Feb. 20 in the Tower Theater Emma Jane [email protected]
Despite blustery winds and freezing winter temperatures outside, audiences in the Tower Theater were transported to a sunny paradise as the theatre department opened “South Pacific” Friday, Feb. 20.
Written by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II, the story is set on an is-land in the South Pacific during Word War II. Its plot focuses on two parallel love stories threatened by war.
The story provided cast members with an opportunity to learn more about the war.
For senior Lindsey Register, who plays Ensign Nellie Forbush, the chal-lenge in her role was learning to care for something that happened so long ago.
“I don’t even have grandparents that were involved in World War II,” Register said. “Caring about something I had no experience in was not only the most chal-lenging, but also the most rewarding part of this role.”
Senior Cameron Jones, who portrays Lt. Joseph Cable, had similar thoughts as Register regarding the historical lessons he learned through participating in the show.
“Looking into the history has been so beneficial to me,” Jones said. “Gaining a better understanding of what was going on in that time period, such as fully under-standing the gravity of the war and what that means for my character and how that
would affect his psychology and how he does and approaches things, was one of the most challenging aspects for me.”
Through learning about the war, cast members also gained a deeper apprecia-tion for not only World War II veterans, but current veterans as well.
“To pay homage to the people that made this country the way it was (then) and is (now) is very rewarding for me,” Jones said.
Register also hopes audiences will de-velop a deeper appreciation for service personnel both past and present.
“I think our audiences will take away an appreciation for the people who fought so bravely and maybe a newfound appre-ciation for the veterans they might know — grandparents, great-grandparents or neighbors who sacrificed so much,” Register said.
Relating to their characters emotion-ally was also another learning moment for the cast.
“I find it to be an enjoyable success any time I relate to somebody I don’t imagine I would be able to relate to,” Register said. “I think we both are really optimistic. We both fight really hard to remain optimistic even in hard times.”
For freshman Monica Oquendo-Alva-rez, who portrays Bloody Mary, the chal-lenge was trying to understand the various emotional sides of her character.
“She seems very prideful and confi-dent and is able to persuade anyone to do
whatever she wants,” Oquendo-Alvarez said. “Deep down it’s all because she has a desire and desperation to give her daugh-ter a brighter future. To portray her with a hard exterior but with the motivation of love was the most challenging for me.”
Aside from the historical and emotional aspects of the show, the cast learned even greater lessons about racism and preju-dice, which is something they hope will resonate with the audience.
“Racism was a hot topic when this mu-sical was written,” freshman Joel Zayas, who plays Emile de Becque, said. “Even though the producers were skeptical about adding the topics that address racism, hav-ing it in (the script) reminds us that it’s still an issue today.”
Zayas’ thoughts on racism are echoed in Jones’ own remarks.
“As for some of the issues that are talked about (in the show), it is timeless between then and now,” Jones said.
Oquendo-Alvarez understood the issue of racism as her character is involved in it.
“As the main part of (the racist issue) as a Tonkinese native and being involved in it, it would be very rewarding if the audi-ence understands the underlying message of this show,” Oquendo-Alvarez said.
“South Pacific” runs through March 1. Student tickets are $8 and general ticket prices are $15. Tickets can be purchased online or at the university box office.
MAURER is a feature reporter.
Amber Tiller | liberTy ChAmpion
PERFORMANCE — “South Pacific” depicts the joys and sorrows of World War II through musical compositions.
Equipping womenNew ministry aims to encourage and foster community
phoTo provided
GROW — Elisha Dudley started Forage Gathering online to aid women in their walk with Christ.
JONES
FYI The Fulbright program
is sponsored by the U.S. government and administered by the
Department of State’s Bureau of Educational
and Cultural Affairs. Jones is one of 1,200 U.S.
scholars to receive a Fulbright
award in the past year.
Liberty Champion | February 24, 2015 | B5feature
Ellie [email protected]
Hours upon hours of time spent learn-ing and creating will culminate Feb. 26 when senior graphic designers display their work at the Kaleidoscope art exhibit.
Designers will each show one piece, and according to graphic design students, a wide range of art can be expected.
Kaitlin King, a graphic designer partici-pating in the show, explained the reason for the name Kaleidoscope.
“(Kaleidoscope) is a diverse spread of pieces created by so many talented design-ers,” King said. “One of the reasons we decided on the show being called Kaleido-scope is because you can turn the instru-ment ever so slightly and you get a brand new image. Each artist has chosen a piece that represents his or her unique style.”
Fonts, product designs, illustrations and hand-lettered creations are only a few of the projects students will be showing.
“People coming to visit Kaleidoscope will see all sorts of styles of artwork and lots of creativity popping off the walls,” senior graphic designer Emily Hoover said.
Anyone is welcome without an admis-sion fee, and according to senior graphic designer Carson Ford, the number of se-nior art students that provide work for the exhibit allows for a better experience for all the viewers involved.
“With so many seniors in the design
program displaying their work, there will be a diverse range of styles and pieces to come see and be inspired by,” Ford said.
Another designer, Danielle Heitzman, encouraged Liberty students to visit the show.
“Even though the show is solely graphic design, Liberty students visiting the gal-lery will see different ways in which we de-signers create art through the computer,” Heitzman said.
Although the end products look good, designing comes with many chal-lenges, according to Ford. He also men-tioned the struggles that come with communicating visually.
“Designing can be difficult, because it is more than just solving a puzzle where there is only one possible solution,” Ford said. “There can be many solutions to visual communication. The hard part is finding the best (solution).”
Time constraints can also affect a designer’s ability, according to King.
“(The hardest part) is finding enough time to complete all the artwork that is constantly running through your mind,” King said.
According to King, even though the projects are self-created, designers did not reach their design level without the help of Liberty University graphic design professors.
“I’ve had the privilege to learn from most of the design professors at Liberty,” King
said. “Each (one) has been instrumental in my process to grow as a designer and have inspired me in so many ways.”
In addition to being professional de-signers, Studio and Digital Arts profes-sors also invest in their students, according to Hoover.
“My professors are the best,” Hoover said. “I have learned so much from all of them. However, there are a couple who have definitely poured into my life
and my design —David Meyer and Mo-nique Maloney. They are amazing people and professors.”
The show opens Feb. 26 with an artist re-ception from 6 to 8:30 p.m. All graphic de-sign seniors will be showcased until March 26 in the Liberty University Art Gallery, located in DeMoss Hall room 4069.
FRASER is a feature reporter.
We’re hiring teammates to join The VUE Crew
• Looking for 30 energetic guys & girls of all talents.• $10/hr., 10-20 hours a week, nights & weekends.• 40 hours available during spring break.• Career opportunities available.• Students only.
Apply Online at www.TheVueAtLibertyMountain.com
Senior work displayed Student artists reveal best projects in the month-long show, Kaleidoscope
Photo Provided
DISPLAY — Liberty’s Art Gallery will open the show with an artist reception Feb. 26.
RECORD continued from B6
to sell their records. “So far I haven’t really had to
seek people out, because there are constantly people com-ing in selling their old records,” Condon said.
Price ranges on vinyl tend to vary depending on who the band is and the condition of the record.
“We have a dollar bin and then prices go up (on the higher end) to like $180,000,” Condon said.
There is a nostalgia that vinyl has that draws people in, Condon said. Unlike with CDs and down-loadable music, people like vinyl because it is tangible, and once someone has started buying, it can become addictive.
“You’re committed to it once you start listening,” Con-don said. “It’s not something in the background like put-ting a mix together on your iPod and just forgetting about it. You’re more involved when you’re listening to (records), so I
think that’s what I like about it.”In addition to vinyl, Speak-
ertree also sells T-shirts, cas-sette tapes and a limited amount of CDs.
According to Condon, the life blood of Speakertree is the cus-tomers that frequent the shop each week.
“(The frequent customers) are really (the ones) that keep the place open,” Condon said. “I mean, we have people that come in like three times a week and buy records.”
Speakertree hosts small con-certs in the shop featuring lo-cal upcoming artists from time to time.
“We have different bands play and then we’ll have bands from Richmond, Charlottesville and Roanoke as well,” Condon said. “And if (there is) anyone that we hear about that is passing through (then) we’ll try and get them to play as well.”
Bands that have performed at Speakertree this year include Native Spirit, Fin, Missionaries
and Eureka California.Speakertree is open Tuesday
from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., Wednes-day from 1:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday – Friday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For more informa-tion on Speakertree music store, visit facebook.com/ speakertreerecords.
BUNNER is a feature reporter.
FEATUREB6 February 24, 2015
Ashley [email protected]
Music is an art form, a pas-sion and even a hobby. However, when describing music as an art form, most people probably do not think of collecting vinyl re-cords. For Tim Condon, owner of Speakertree records, collecting vinyl is a hobby that blossomed into a passion and has become his dream job.
Located at 522 Fifth St., Lynch-burg, Virginia, Speakertree re-cords first opened its doors in 2008. But it was not until Febru-ary of 2014 that Condon bought the shop.
“I was friends with the peo-ple that worked here before,
so it just presented itself, and I thought it was the perfect timing,” Condon said.
Condon had an interest in vi-nyl as a teenager, and now he pursues his hobby as a means of enjoyment and employment.
According to Condon, the shop was not doing well when he bought it. But people were inter-ested enough in buying records that the shop excelled for the first few months under his ownership.
“The first three months we were doing awesome,” Condon said. “I had no idea that we could make that much money. Then it just slowly (died) down, and then it (was) just kind of like a roller coaster. You have the good weeks and the bad weeks.”
Speakertree is home to a vari-ety of music with genres ranging from classic to rock, pop and folk. Artists include the Beatles, Mi-chael Jackson and The Civil Wars.
“(We sell) a little of every-thing,” Condon said. “We try to get everyone’s input. I have a notebook that I keep in the store and anyone that doesn’t see some-thing that they wish they would see, then I just try and get in a little of everything and make everybody happy.”
Speakertree receives the major-ity of its vinyl from distributors. Some of the used vinyl the shop buys come from people that come into the shop and are looking
See RECORD, B5
Just for the recordSpeakertree Records owner Tim Condon buys and sells collectible vinyls
Lauren adriance | Liberty champion
HOBBY— Owner Tim Condon took an interest in vinyls as a teen.
w a l k i n g i n a w i n t e r w o n d e r l a n d
courtney russo| Liberty champion
FREEZE — According to the National Weather Service, Lynchburg experienced record temperatures Feb. 20, with the low reaching -11 degrees.
photos provided
SNOW DAYS — (Above left) Two Liberty students, T. Cassidy and S. Stone, won the Liberty Champion Instagram contest with their show of school spirit.. (Above right) Second-place finishers Emily Martin and Callie Lehner enjoyed their days off by making a traditional snowman.
1st Place 2nd Place