M
ETHODIST
C
OLLEGE
Pride
Fayetteville, NC
Vol. XXXV, No. 11
Wednesday, April 1, 1998
Golfers make strong showing in spring break tournament
By Sonya Sparks Murdock
Staff Writer
While many college stu
dents headed south for spring break
to soak up some sun and party off the
winter blues, the Methodist women’s
golf team had other reasons for trav
eling to Florida: two golf toumaments.
And while most spring
breakers came back with only sun
burns and empty wallets to show for
their week in the Sunshine State, the
Lady Monarchs returned to campus
with a strong second place showing
and a tournament champion, Tracey
Gage.
Gage, a junior majoring in
physical education, shot 75-73 to win
the NIU Snowbird Intercollegiate Golf
Tournament March 12-13. The tour
nament, hosted by Northern Illinois
University, was held at the par 72
Pebble Creek golf course in Tampa,
Florida. Gage is a third-year team vet
eran from Stanberry, Missouri.
Bemie Krick, Head Golf Pro
fessional and Director of Instruction,
served as interim coach for the
women’s team at the tournament.
“Tracey gave a very gutsy perfor
mance,” said Krick. “She overcame
the adversity of a really bad start (to
win the tournament).” Krick explained
that Gage was three over par after the
first two holes, but she had a great
second round. After the last 16 holes,
she was two under par, thanks to four
birdies.
Gage’s performance helped
the team walk away with a second
place finish in spite of a bumpy first
round, after which Methodist was tied
for fourth place with a score of 318.
“They turned it around on the sec
ond day,” said Krick. “The scores
were like night and day.” The
women’s second-round score of 305
was the lowest team round of the tour
nament.
Krick acknowledged the
“tremendous team effort” of the five
team members who participated in the
tournament. JuniorTanice Nilson was
the lowest tournament competitor on
the first day of play, with a score of
74. Sophomore Stacy Smith shot 73
on the second day, while freshman
Melanie Tipts shot 78. Carol Brogan,
another freshman, “fought both days
and really came through,” according
to Krick. Brogan improved by five
strokes in the second round.
But Krick credits co-cap-
tains Gage and Nilson with motivat
ing their teammates to come back in
the second round. “Tracey and Tanice
did an outstanding job of keeping
everybody up through the tourna
ment,” Krick joked, “All I did was
drive.” The team evidently felt differ
ently. At a post-tournament cookout,
the women presented Krick with a
team picture to honor him for his one-
week coaching effort.
During his one-week stint as
the women’s team coach, Krick also
accompanied the golfers to Orlando,
where they placed tenth at the Peggy
Kirk Bell Invitational. Eighteen other
teams, primarily Division I, partici
pated in the March 9-10 tournament.
Methodist was one of only a few
teams that represented Division III in
Sec GOLF, page 2
Monarch debaters score big at competition
o
Daniel Charpentier and Greg Thomas won the final round of the American Debate Association's Novice National
Championship on a 3-0 decision at the University of Georgia. The team of Susanne Graves and Alexis Parmenter
reached the **sweet sixteen** round at the JV cross-examination competition, where they lost a very close 2-1
decision to Cornell University. Debate Coach John Humphreys received national recognition as the recipient of
the 1998 Robert Lambert Award for outstanding service to the American Debate Association. (Photo by Bill
Billings)
New minor in paralegal studies offered
Staff Report
A new minor in paralegal studies will be of
fered beginning this fall at Methodist College.
No particular major is required in order to
minor in paralegal studies. The most important skills
are strong reading, analytic, and writing skills.
The job market and demand fof paralegals
has been strong in recent years. Some career facts
about this profession include:
•a national salary average ranging between
$32,000 to $35,000 annually;
•high job satisfaction reported;
•interesting topics such as criminal law and proce
dure, family law, litigation, investigation, and interviewing;
•paralegals are employed in law firms, courts, public
defender and district attorneys’ offices, governmental agen
cies, and many business.
Courses to be offered in Fall 1998 are:
•Law 200: Introduction to Paralegal Studies, Fridays
at 12 noon, one semester hour credit.
•Law 320: Research and Writing, Tuesdays/Thurs
days at 2 p.m., three semester hours credit.
For more information about a paralegal minor, con
tact your advisor or see Mrs. Theresa Clark in T123 or Dr.
Suzan Cheek in T224.
€
Masieicm
L
The Lady Monarch golfers captured second place at the Snowbird Intercollegiate Tournament March 12*13. From left lo
right are interim coach Bernie Krick, Melanie Tipps, Stacey Smith, Tanice Nilson, Carol Brogan, and Tracey Gage. (Photo
courtesy of Tanice Nilson)
Commuter students’ voices sought
for improvement in campus services
By Amanda Fellers
Editor
Commuter students make up
half of the day student population.
They pay the same $ 15 student activ
ity fee as resident students. The word
is, however, that commuters aren’t
reaping the same benefits as resi
dents.
Commuter students got the
chance to talk about what it’s like to
be commuters and how the college
can improve the college experience for
them outside of the classroom at a
campus meeting held March 23.
Carla Raineri is the chairman
of the committee who sponsored the
commuter forum. She described com
muter students as a part of the “Meth
odist College family.”
“We don’t know how to ad
dress the needs of commuters,”
Raineri said. “We’re hoping for some
solutions.” Raineri let the students
take the floor in search of those solu
tions.
Lea Metz, vice-president of
the Student Government Association
and Mary Johnston, secretary of the
Residence Hall Association, offered
possible solutions to commuters’
needs.
“We do look out for our
commuters’ concerns and we do lis
ten to what commuters have to say,”
Metz said.
Metz invited students to visit
the SGA office, located in the Student
Union, during their office hours of 9
a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday, Wednes
day and Friday.
Johnson suggested an even
bigger solution—a commuter associa
tion similar to the Residence Hall As
sociation.
“If you guys could come to
gether as a student body, that would
be awesome,” Johnston said.
Jol^iston encouraged com
muters to develop a voice—a voice for
the commuter students.
After Metz and Johnston
spoke, the meeting shifted to open
discussion, and commuters began
making suggestions for improvement.
Pat Bryant, a nontraditional
student, suggested a common area for
commuters. “I am here from 8 a.m. to
11 p.m.; I have no place to go,” she
said.
Other students also voiced
the concern of needing a place to go
See COMMUTER, page 2
Yearbooks: A dated proposition?
By Lisa Bertagnoli
College Press Service
More and more colleges
around the country are coming to the
same conclusion: yearbook popular
ity just isn’t what it used to be. Sales
of The Hilltop at Marquette Univer
sity, Milwaukee, were so sluggish that
the school now publishes its book on
CD-ROM. Other institutions, such as
the University of Nebraska and Ball
State University, have abandoned
yearbooks entirely. Even the Univer
sity of Missouri-Columbia’s Savitar,
known for its excellent photography,
stopped publishing the year the book
turned 100, only to return a year later.
Those who watch such
things blame slumping yearbook sales
on changing student demographics
and tighter student budgets. Older
students who are in college part-time
or who start a few years after being in
the real world don’t buy into campus
life the way those fresh out of high
school do, says Tom Rolnicki, execu
tive director of Associated College
Press, Minneapolis. And international
students have never heard of and
don’t particularly care about the year
book tradition. As far as cost goes,
Rolnicki suspects students would
rather spend $50, the cost of the aver
age yearbook, on things like beer and
pizza. “There’s some delayed gratifi
cation involved with a yearbook pur
chase,” he notes.
Potential yearbook buyers,
however, aren’t the only problem. It’s
the yearbook staff themselves.
“They’re not creating a need for buy
ers,” Rolnicki said. “They think the
tradition is enough.”
Linda Putney, advisor to
Kansas State University’s thriving
The Royal Purple yearbook, agrees.
Putney keeps a mental collection of
what she calls “weird things” schools
did to their yearbooks to satisfy their
own creative ambitions, not necessar-
See YEARBOOK, page3
Suicide: serious problem for college-age people
By Dawn Melvin
Staff Writer
Suicide claims the lives of
more young people than any other
cause except automobile accidents.
Each year, approximately 5,000Ameri
can young people kill themselves,
approximately one every 90 minutes.
This rate is three times what it was 25
years ago.
Suicide attempts, including
those which end in death, often re
flect the individual’s mixed feelings
about the action. The individual sees
death as the only solution to current
problems, but at the same time wishes
an answer could be found which
would allow them to live without the
problems.
According to the Harvard
Mental Health Letter, more years of
life is lost to suicide than that of heart
disease and cancer.
The suicide rate among
people ages 15-24 has increased dra
matically in recent decades. Twenty
percent of males and 14 percent of
females in this group have committed
suicide. Suicide attempts by people
are among the most common causes
of hospital admissions for people un
der 35 years old, and it is the most
common among the elderly.
The causes of suicide can be
depression, schizophrenia, alcohol
use, and other drug use. Depression
is considered the leading cause of
suicide. Other factors linked to’sui
cide may include a person who l^as
lost a family member to suicide, indi
viduals who have a low level of thd
brain chemical serotonin, and serious
illness.
■'The best way to treat indi
viduals who are thinking about sui
cide is to treat the underlying causes.
People usually have talk therapy or
medication and sometimes both. It is
important that they get the help they
need,” said Darlene Hopkins, direc
tor of the Methodist College coun
seling center.
According to psychiatric ex
perts, many of the signs of suicide
are the same associated with depres
sion, including changes in eating and
sleeping habits, withdrawal from
friends, family and regular activities,
persistent boredom, difficulty concen
trating, neglect of personal appear
ance, alcohol and drug abuse and acts
of aggression, rebel I ious behavior and
disobedience.
“You never leave a person
alone who is showing signs of sui
cide. You stay with them and talk to
them until help has been arranged,”
said Hopkins.
Emotional support is impor
tant for a person thinking about sui
cide. A suicidal person needs to know
that you care. Ways that you can give
a suicidal person support are to reas
sure the person that he or she does
have someone to turn to, not lectur
ing or pointing out all the reasons a
person has to live, and trying to make
a contract with the individual to talk
to you before he or she commits sui
cide.
Twenty percent of all suc
cessful suicides were alcohol abus
ers and 70 percent of all successful
suicides were caused by depression
and manic depressive disorder.
Women are more likely to
attempt suicide, but men are usually
See SUICIDE, page 2
INSIDE
study finds shortage of minority coaches
--page 2
Monarch golfer defies the odds to make the team
-page 3
Group se6i(s to expfose athletes’ dark sides
-page 3
What makes a great (and not so great) professor?
-page 4
We’re like, destroying the English language
-page 4