Lindsay Conner crowned Belle of the Blue

By WHITLEY ARENS, Opinion Editor

Madison Osborne and Abigail Watkins ran the pageant.

Last Saturday, Feb. 21, Lindsay Conner was crowned 2009 Belle of the Blue as the timehonored tradition once again occured at Georgetown College. The evening’s 15 competitors were Sarah Catron (Anderson Hall), Lindsay Conner (Sigma Kappa), Emily Dodson (Alpha Gamma Delta), Heather Drake (Phi Kappa Tau), Rae Dunn (Flowers Hall), Arielle Evans (Knight Hall), Emily Faulkner (Pierce Hall), Morgan Faulkner (President’s House Association), Kaitlin Johnson (Kappa Delta), Lacey Lamb (East Campus), Megan McKay (Kappa Alpha), Rebecca Smith (Phi Mu), Laura Schumacher (Pi Kappa Alpha), Tara Jo Sword (Lambda Chi Alpha), and Katy Truman (Allen Hall). Due to a cheerleading injury, Kaitlin Johnson was unable to compete.

Faculty committee to reevaluate general education

By WHITLEY ARENS, Opinion Editor

General education requirements are a stipulation with which every Georgetown College student and faculty member is very familiar. On an almost daily basis, students attend—either actively participating or possibly snoozing through—a general education class or two. Likewise, each semester, nearly every professor here will teach a few general education classes. In essence, “gen eds” are not something that neither professors nor students can completely avoid. When asked about general education requirements, it’s likely that everyone will have a different opinion. Students, however, seem to agree on a few things. One: general education classes actually are worth students’ time for the most part. English professor, Dr. Holly Barbaccia also shares this opinion. She said, “I think gen eds are absolutely crucial to a whole education: subjects that seem disparate are in fact connected and prove to sustain, reinforce and illuminate each other. Those connections and that illumination can in turn lead the liberal arts student to increasingly sophisticated ways of understanding the self and the universe. And, personally, I enjoy teaching my own gen ed classes (Comp I & II and Brit Lit Survey I & II). In fact, I’d go so far as to say I genuinely love teaching English classes in the GEP.”

Campus meal options offer students food for thought

By TORI BACHMAN-JOHNSON, News Editor

Food is one of our most basic human needs, and in recent months, the way students meet that need at Georgetown College has changed slightly. In fall of 2008, the meal swiping system was altered. A new software program was implemented that did not monitor meal zones, allowing students to use meal plan swipes at any time, and more than once in each meal zone. Also, during much of the fall semester, students were able to swipe their cards for other students or visitors, using meals they had purchased. Later, the system was changed to prevent multiple swipes in the same zone. Josh Eckman from the college’s food service provider, Sodexo, implemented a system with five meal zones—breakfast, lunch, afternoon cash EQ, supper, and evening cash EQ. As of Dec. 12, students could use their meals once in any of the five time zones each day, purchasing up to five meals each day. However, the student meal plans are non-transferable, meaning that someone cannot feed another person using one of their meal swipes.

Snow and ice close college

By WHITLEY ARENS, Opinion Editor

Snow and ice caused classes to be canceled for four days.

After a dry spell as far as canceled classes were concerned, Tuesday, Jan. 27, the first snow day, was most likely a nice, somewhat- expected surprise for both students and faculty of Georgetown College. Finding out classes had been canceled for Wednesday might have seemed a little too good to be true—two snow days in a row? Thursday’s classes being canceled, making consecutive snow day number three, was something almost no one saw coming. However, it was Friday—the fourth back-to-back day off—that really shocked everyone.

Yes, Georgetown College did cancel classes four days in a row, an occurrence that nearly every student and staff member might have believed to be impossible two weeks ago. Student, Chuck Harris, might have summed up the surprise best when he said, “I was told that Georgetown would never get out for more than one snow day unless Hell froze over…well, I guess it did.” When asked about rarity of this occurrence, Dr. Rosemary Allen, Provost, responded, “I don’t remember any other instance when we’ve had four snow days in a row. Back in 2003, we had an ice storm much like this one, and we had three days in a row with no school. But I’ve been here for 25 years and don’t remember ever being out for four days in a row.”

While the “excessive” amount of snow days may seem a little extreme, in reality they were not excessive at all. The weather—an unsafe mixture of snow and ice—created dangerous conditions on campus. According to Dr. Todd Gambill, the administration “has to balance the need to hold classes with the safety of our college community. Dr. Allen makes the final decision after receiving my input/recommendations. We look at conditions on campus and consider temperatures, forecasts, etc. This past week the parking lots and sidewalks were in rough shape, and we were also worried about tree branches and/or ice falling on people.”

Weather conditions aside, the majority of students were probably thrilled to have nearly a week-long break from classes. Junior Loran Brown definitely made the most of her time off. “I enjoyed it to my fullest by watching movies with friends 24/7, and taking some nice pictures outside. I also enjoyed having free time while my friends studying abroad in Spain were online! It was probably the best week of college, ever,” said Brown. Aaron Ware had a slightlydifferent opinion of the time off—“I enjoyed the free time, but I didn’t get any homework done, so it’s kind of like a win-lose situation.” Some students, like Sophomore Cortney Thorn, enjoyed the lack of classes, but eventually got sick of the snow days— “I enjoyed the first two. After that, I was ready to have class again. I basically got a lot of sleep and watched movies with my roommate.”

Though the four days off were considered a nice break by most students, the snow storm was not fun and games for everyone. Many off campus were without power, meaning a dangerous lack of electricity and heat. Those with power on campus stayed cooped up in their rooms most of the time rather than face the hazardous conditions outside. Sophomore Sheli Woodward tried to stay inside. “I didn’t go out unless I had to.It was way too much work to dig out my car to go anywhere.” Some students with jobs off campus, were forced to face the elements, like Sophomore Michael Cannon, who was faced almost daily with the treacherous drive from his home in Stamping Ground to his job at Radio Shack. However, students definitely weren’t the only ones forced to travel in the ice and snow for a job.

Georgetown College had a plethora of staff—Grounds crew, Campus Safety, Library staff and Cafeteria/Grille workers—that helped support the campus through this weather crisis. Undoubtedly, many people on campus are thankful for the amazing dedication of all of these people. Dr. Allen expressed, “a big thank you to the staff who worked so hard to get us through this crisis.” Some students have made their thanks known as well. Freshman Clare White and friends created a Facebook group—Georgetown College Campus Safety/Caf/Grille Workers: We Salute You!—“to thank [employees] for coming in and keeping us safe and fed, even though it was dangerous for them to drive to work.” In addition to the obvious safety hazards that arose as a result of the ice storm, there have been a variety of scheduling difficulties due to the weather. One of the snow days occurred on Founder’s Day, which, according to Gambill, will not be rescheduled.

Professors will also face scheduling problems as a result of four missed days of class. Although, some consider it easier to deal with snow days at the beginning of a semester rather than at the end of one. According to Allen, “It’s easier to have snow days at the beginning of a semester than at the end of the semester—I know that I’ve already thought through how I can adjust the schedule in my class to make sure that I can still cover everything that needs to be covered. It’s hard on the professors in the lab sciences, since it can be very difficult to make up the lost lab time.”

Hopefully professors and students won’t be too detrimentally affected by the class cancellations, though that might not even be the primary concern of most. The question on many people’s minds is likely—Will there be more snow days or is this the end of the bad weather epidemic for the semester? When asked this, Dr. Allen responded, “Please, PLEASE—no more snow, I pray!”

Dr. Jana Brill’s house was covered in icicles following the freezing rain.

Laura Strange took this photo outside the LRC on a snow day.

Facebook group encourages transparency, action

Students concerned with Georgetown College’s budget and its effects on faculty meet to discuss solutions

By TORI BACHMAN-JOHNSON, News Editor

You probably have a Facebook, some of your professors may be on the social networking site as well, and now Facebook is being used to organize students concerned with budgetary problems and their effects on the faculty of Georgetown College. On Dec. 20, Senior Anna Wiederhold created a “Save Our Professors– Demand Accountability” group on Facebook to unite students in obtaining transparency in the college’s budget and save professors who may not be asked to return next year. She was originally inspired to form the group after all first- and second- year tenure track professors were called in to speak with Provost Rosemary Allen on Dec. 11 and informed that their contracts may not be renewed for the 2009-2010 school year. The college is required by law to give professors this warning in advance. Wiederhold and her friends started talking about the issue, as well as their frustrations with the administration.

Professor’s faith in humankind enhanced at Inauguration ceremony

By DR. DOUGLAS GRIGGS, Contributing Writer

Inauguration Day, 2009:

7:02 a.m. Left daughter’s house in Alexandria, Va.

7:17 Boarded Metro. Got a seat.

7:45 Got off at L’Enfant Plaza with thousands of others. It took 45 minutes to get out of the metro station; chants of “Yes we can” were heard. I could go on with this chronology, but that would only give the scaffolding for one of the high points in my life. Here is the real story: It didn’t feel like a big win at a sports event or some other kind of victory. In fact, when President Bush was first shown on the screen and a few people booed, many other people gently said, “We don’t need that.” Instead there was the greatest feeling of shared anticipation, of accomplishment and of joy, that I have ever experienced. Somehow the two million or so people who were standing in the cold on that Mall felt like we were all sharing the best in each of us — the best than humanity has to offer.

Feature photo

Laura Strange took this photo at a park in Independence, Ky.

Lyric Theater Society performs in Hawaii

By AVA JORDAN, Staff Writer

The Lyric Theatre Society took The Georgetonian with them to Hawaii.

Opera. To many college students, the word is an abstract concept. It conjours up images of people in Viking helmets singing loudly about some dramatic situation or other in a foreign language for hours on end. Dr. Heather Hunnicutt of the music department and Georgetown’s Lyric Theatre Society wants “people to not be intimidated by the word ‘opera.’ Opera is a type of theatre just like contemporary theatre, music theatre and Shakespeare. It can be done well or poorly,” she says, adding that LTS intends to give Georgetown nothing but the best.

Men’s rush takes a more laid-back approach

By VICTORIA ENGELHARDT, Staff Writer

The craziness of women’s recruitment has finally come to an end, and the more laid-back two-week period of men’s recruitment has begun. Each fraternity had a fun, informal party last week and a more dressy formal party this week for potential new members. Freshman JD Vanhoose said he has been having a great time getting to know members of Kappa Alpha better and is realizing that this is a really big decision that will affect him for life.

SENIOR SPOTLIGHT: AUDRA HUGHES

By WHITLEY ARENS, Opinion Editor

Audra and her husband Geoff.

The drive from Lexington, or to Lexington for that matter, doesn’t seem all that long when one is hurriedly making the escape from Georgetown College to the mall or the movies or one of the many restaurants and entertainment venues Lexington houses that help to spice up the weekend. However, imagine that same drive repeated every single day, but change the destination from mall to school. It suddenly becomes much less appealing. This less appealing version of the Lexington commute is something Audra Hughes is faced with nearly every day when she drives from her home in Lexington to Georgetown College. Her daily drive factors into Hughes’ feeling toward graduating; she says, “I’m so excited to graduate. I think that I’m ready to move forward and start planning for and working toward ‘real life’ and a career. However, while I’m excited about being a real ‘grown up,’ it’s also a little scary to think of starting over again somewhere new. I definitely won’t miss the commute from Lexington, though!”