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(11/30/16 11:00pm)
Every year, the Mercer Singers and Women’s Choir prepare a traditional “Lesson and Carols” performance to hail the coming of the Christmas season. This year, the event will be held downtown on Friday, Dec. 2 and Saturday, Dec. 3 at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church at 7:30 p.m. This is the 22nd year that Mercer’s choirs have performed this concert.
The performance of “Lessons and Carols” originates from an older, widespread tradition beginning in early 20th century England.
“This ‘Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols’ has been adapted from the traditional ‘Service of Lessons and Carols’ held each year at King's College, Cambridge University,” said Stanley Roberts, the conductor of the choir. “This service, itself an adaptation of a service instituted by Archbishop Benson at Truro Cathedral, was first presented on Christmas Eve, 1919, in King's College Chapel, and continues as a much celebrated annual tradition.”
The presentation is primarily a Christian event, focusing on the Biblical narrative that leads up to the birth of Jesus. The evening is broken up into segments of scripture reading and singing.
“The service consists of nine Biblical lessons from both the Old and New Testament that are used to tell the story of the Creation, the fall of humanity, Prophesy for a coming Messiah, Advent, and the Birth of Christ,” Roberts said.
The program has grown in popularity so much that it had to be moved to a larger venue in recent years.
“The service was held on Mercer’s campus for years in Newton Chapel, with two performances each year,” Roberts said. “After recording the Grand Mercer Christmas program for PBS in 2012, the decision was made to move the presentation to a larger venue, and St. Joseph’s Catholic Church was selected.”
Roberts says that St. Joseph’s is a fitting location for “Lessons and Carols” thanks to both its increased size and its beautiful interior.
“The larger space provided four times the seating, the opportunity to use more ensembles, and is a space that contains tremendous aesthetic appeal for those who attend,” Roberts said. “Even at St. Joseph’s, the place is packed each evening.”
The event promises to be memorable and enjoyable for everyone involved. According to Roberts, “Lessons and Carols” holds a special place even with the singers themselves.
“I find that when I talk to former Mercer Singers about their musical memories, they most often say that singing those Lesson and Carols Services are their most memorable,” Roberts said.
(11/20/16 10:06pm)
Around 2:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9, Republican candidate Donald Trump was elected to succeed Barack Obama as the 45th President of the United States of America, defeating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and proving almost every prediction of the election results wrong.
The race was tight, and many states were too close to call for most of the night. This election cycle made it apparent that the American people are divided when it comes to politics. Mercer University is no exception.
There was but one common denominator among reactions to this year’s election: shock.
“Honestly, it came as a shock,” said Robert Delbridge, sophomore. “Not only was I shocked that Trump won, but I was also shocked as to how much he won by.”
It seems that no one expected Donald Trump to actually walk away with the presidency. Even those who voted for Trump were surprised by his victory.
“Although I voted for Trump, I was quite surprised with the outcome of the election,” said Drew Daws, a Journalism major. “This election, I think, will cause the media to take a giant step back on how they predict elections and who they support or show bias towards.”
Some have taken this shock with a certain optimism, regardless of who they supported in the election.
“I wasn’t particularly happy with both options, but after the outcome I still think that Trump will be able to hold the office adequately if the right people are watching over him,” said Tyler Kahale, pre-law student. “Basically, if good people are watching over him, we’ll be fine.”
Many others, however, are not optimistic. They believe that the reason the vote was so shocking was because it finally materializes that which they feared was true about the prejudices of America voters.
“I was upset more by the vote itself, and less by Trump,” said senior philosophy major Anna Bates. “That that many people, consciously or subconsciously, are so opposed to women like Hillary Clinton to vote for someone who is as unqualified as Trump...I definitely cried because of that, because people hate women that much.”
Some are angry, some are scared, and others just feel lost. Social media has become a post-election battle full of hate, denial, and fear. Regardless of Trump’s adequacy to lead this country, tensions are high are Mercer’s campus.
“Never had I felt so lost, or unsafe, or hopeless for the future,” said Shruthi Vikraman, in a Facebook post. “I am so glad that Donald ran for president. You heard me right…He is the man that forced the red Republican pill down my throat and enlarged my worldview to see that I have lived in nothing but a matrix of lies. Someone who once felt so strongly about social progression and acceptance and love is now seeing we had none to begin with.”
(10/28/16 2:58am)
Mercer’s women’s soccer team is diligently preparing for the upcoming SoCon tournament on Oct. 26-Nov. 6. The team had a rough start this season. But after pulling off a six-game win streak, they’ve built some momentum to carry into the tournament.
“It started off slow for sure,” said Maddie Clark, senior co-captain and outside forward/midfield. “But I think that we are definitely starting to jell as a team and work things out.”
Hayley Svede, senior teammate and midfielder, agrees. “The time that we picked it up was a good time to pick it up at,” she said. “I’m happy that we had a rough start rather than a rough end.”
It took work. The team had to come together after several losses and get through the issues that were holding them back from winning.
“Once we hit conference play, we started jelling way better,” said coach Tony Economopoulos. “After the Chattanooga loss, we came together and had a big team meeting about how we could improve things, and ever since then it has been a great run for us.”
One reason the team had such a hard time earlier in the season was that each loss built up like a snowball. The more they lost, the more the team’s unity and morale eroded. It was hard to put the ball in the back of the net, but that isn’t a problem now.
“We’re finally scoring,” said Katelyn Dimopoulos, senior co-captain and outside forward/midfield. “We had trouble scoring in the beginning, but finally it just kind of picked up and we stopped letting in goals and started putting them in.”
The team has high hopes for the tournament.
“The first goal is to get our first round by,” Economopoulos said. “The second is to finish top four and host. Third goal is to finish as high as we possibly can to get a lesser opponent, seating-wise.”
It’s the captain's jobs to lead the team into the tournament, and Dimopoulos has some practical ideas of how to keep her team’s head in the game.
“Keep positive, keep working hard as a team, and just keep playing for each other,” she said. “If you see someone in defense doing really well, you want to do really well in offense.”
This advice coming from Dimopoulos is unsurprising given the compassion the teammates have for one another as they aspire to win the tournament as a team.
“I personally want to see more people get their first goals this season,” Clark said. “I think there is a lot of pressure to get your first goal, and when it doesn’t come early, there’s more pressure. I want them to get their first goal in, so they can get that pressure off their backs and just go.”
The team has one more game beyond the tournament, and then that will be the final game for nine seniors, which is both tough for them and for the team as a whole, for new leaders must rise from among the younger players.
“The class under us is small,” Clark said. “So I’m kind of curious to see if there is anyone from two classes under us that steps up.”
The SoCon tournament begins Oct. 26, with the championship being held in Johnson City, Tennessee. Mercer will face off at home against Chattanooga on Oct. 30. For more details, visit the Southern Conference website at www.soconsports.com.
(10/16/16 5:26pm)
The Mercer University debate team is off to a great start this season. In their most recent competition at the University of Georgia, they made it into the final rounds of the Georgia, British, and International Parliamentary Debates.
They were the only institution to do so, according to a Mercer press release.
“I want you to reiterate over and over that we got second,” said Kyle Bligen, junior, co-captain of the team and finalist in the National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) and World Schools Style (WSS) competitions at University of North Georgia. “We get first so often that sometimes [people outside of debate team] do not understand the validity of certain victories.”
At first, what motivates someone to willingly participate in organized verbal duels with others for fun may not be clear. For Garrett Williams, a sophomore competitor in the WSS elimination rounds at UNG, debate is an “outlet to learn about different ideas as well as express ideas.”
His teammate, Keanu Lowo, a sophomore and qualifier for the NPDA quarterfinals, views debate in a different light.
“I think the actual trips themselves are one of the most fun aspects of the tournaments . . . though when we do win, that’s pretty fun as well,” Lowo said. “We get to go in there and talk about why the other teams’ arguments don’t make sense.”
Jazz Buckley, the team’s other co-captain and finalist in the NPDA and WSS competitions, started debating in high school because she wanted to be a lawyer. She did not expect to do well when she first entered, but Buckley competed on a national level before ever debating collegiately.
“I continued in debate because I generally like the community of people who like to talk about the things I like to talk about,” she said. “They push me to learn more, and to understand more about things that I would not usually be interested in.”
Debate team is not just winning or travelling to different cities, the team said.
It requires a lot of work, and is often misunderstood by those on the outside. Lowo said he recognizes this.
“A lot of people often ask what it is the debate team actually does,” Lowo said. “We, more or less, debate about current events and real world topics . . . the things that you see in the news.”
The potential topics for discussion are virtually endless.
“[We debate about] any social issue. I will say this: Black Lives Matter has been debated, and whenever we debate that, we do not come in second,” Kyle Bligen said. “Anything to do with economics, we debate that . . . ISIS, the federal government, we debate that a lot.”
The team agrees that their coach, Professor Vasile Stanescu — who they affectionately call “Vas” — is essential to their success and unity.
“It was my freshman year, and I was actually taking a class with Vas. He said, ‘Come out to practice. See if you like it,’” said junior Kevin Lee-Alston, a team member who advanced to the International Public Debate Association elimination rounds. “It was a great experience.”
Taylor Cole, a freshman who has only been a part of the team for a few weeks, said she had a rough start to the year.
“I didn’t do as well as I had hoped at UNG . . . [Vas] wasn’t mad,” Cole said. “He just reinforced that it was okay, and that it was a learning experience.”
This not at all surprising considering Vas’ coaching philosophy.
“The way I explain coaching debate is like teaching the honors program,” Vas said. “It’s the best part of my job; I get to hang out with some the smartest people I know and talk about things we care about.”
The team says that their coach drives the van, buys the team Taco Bell and is always encouraging. According to them, he is never harsh and always helps his team members discover and pursue their passions.
Bligen sums up the team’s sentiment in a phrase: “There is no other coach in the nation like Vasile Stanescu.”
(09/29/16 5:52pm)
Mac Power is a sophomore cross country runner from Dallas, Georgia — in all ways, a football town.
“When I went to high school, everybody played football,” Power said.
He tried football out at first, like everyone did, but the two just did not mesh.
Cross country, meanwhile, competed in the same season as football, and while he chose the former, he didn’t take to it right away either. Power had a couple of friends who ran, and they encouraged him to persevere through his tough start.
“I wasn’t too good at first,” he said. “And I definitely didn’t like it.”
The moment of truth didn’t finally find Mac Power until his junior year.
Power said, “My best friend in high school also ran. We weren’t friends at first, but as we began to improve, our friendship began to grow.”
Part of the reason for this growth was the unique nature of their friendship.
“Most friends just sit around and play videogames or whatever,” Power said. “We would go for runs, and go to the running store . . . stuff like that.”
Power’s senior year was somewhat less spectacular in his own eyes than his junior year.
“I remember my senior year of high school. I didn’t have the best time as far as running,” he said. “I didn’t run as fast as I wanted too, and I didn’t want to end there.”
This is what inspired Power to initially walk on to the Mercer cross country team. However, little did he know about the difficulties that awaited him in the year to come.
“I didn’t expect much at first,” Power said in reference to walking on to the team his freshman year.
Unfortunately, he spent most of that year injured and unable to compete, only running two or three races last year before it became too painful to run. Though not officially diagnosed, Power had stress fractures that hurt him even while walking. It was intense at times, Power said.
“It was scary to get out of bed. I didn’t want to get out of bed,” he said.
After about a month in a boot and a season of treatment, Power was able to train for the unofficial men’s track team (Mercer does not have an official team currently) without pain, and feels good about the upcoming year.
Mac Power is someone who sets high goals for himself and achieves them. In Power’s words, “You got to prove the haters wrong.” The determination to come back from his stress fractures is just one of many examples.
Another significant moment in his running career was when he achieved his dream to win first place finish at the Pauland County Championship Track Meet.
“When I first became a runner in high school, I knew that I wanted to get a first place finish at the County Championship,” a goal he accomplished in the 1600m race.
He also has dreams of success in the business world and is a finance major.
Mac Power has raced in three events this season: Strut's Season Opener in Jacksonville, Alabama; the Powerade Invitational in Chattanooga, Tennessee; and the Julius Johnson Invitational right here in Macon. He was Mercer's top finisher at the 5K Powerade Invitational with a time of 16:50.90, ran a time of 16:59.0 at the 5K Season Opener and ran 30:00.77 in the Julius Johnson 8K. The next cross country race is back in Jacksonville on Oct. 1.
(09/20/16 10:18pm)
There is comfort in knowing that you are not defined wholly by your past, and that no matter what you have done before this moment, you are not restricted by those actions. While not unaffected by your actions, you are free to move forward and become the best version of yourself.
However, this freedom has a cost; one’s past innocence does not excuse their present actions. No matter your perceived virtue or supposed success, if you sexually assault an unconscious woman and run when confronted, you may not cry, “I am not a rapist; I just messed up,” for indeed you are, and forever shall be, one who has raped another.
Brock Turner, or as the media has affectionately coined him the “Stanford Rapist”, was released Sept. 2 after three short months in prison.
For the small number of readers who are not self-proclaimed experts on this case and all things ethical, Brock Turner, a three time All-American swimmer attending Stanford University, was convicted of three counts of felony sexual assault for the rape of a 22 year old woman, whose name is not public knowledge. His crimes warranted a sentence of up to 14 years in prison. He was sentenced for a mere six months, and he only served three.
A constant stream of vitriol and boiling hatred came spewing up from the bowels of the Internet for about a solid week and a half after this, which was impressive considering the child-like attention span of the American public. But now, we have the unique opportunity of considering the crimes of Brock Turner in hindsight.
“White, male privilege” is the phrase most commonly associated with this sleight of justice, yet the real, core issue is even deeper than ingrained, cultural bias. Privilege is another symptom of an even darker problem. It is a breed of weakness that demands our attention here.
Brock Turner was not a saint one day and a rapist the next. His life, one of ease and popularity, is one in which his appetites have never been checked at the door, for his hand has never been refused what it desires. The strength of Turner’s spirit was not one tried by fire, if you will. His soul has been fenced in from the hard decisions of life and was therefore not suited to withstand the obstacle of his temptation. This is not to say he is not responsible, but serves as an explanation of his actions.
Some call this privilege, but that is to let him off too easy. To say that it is privilege is to make it innate, unavoidable. If Brock was let off because he was white, then he is not at fault, for he has no control over his skin color. If his guilt is associated solely with his ethnicity, then we withhold from him the grim that his deeds are due. Those who do not find virtue by experience must have another standard, or the law will substitute this plumb line for them.
However, the law also failed the victim, for the judge who was supposed to represent the strong arm of the legal system was also weak. His weakness consists of an inversion of Turner’s. He allows his law to dominate the law he was supposed to represent.
Justice failed the victim of Brock Turner’s passion because the law is not absolute. It depends on the moral fortification of those who execute it.
(09/20/16 8:37pm)
The Student Government Association held their annual bear grant senate in the Connell Student Center Monday.
Representatives from different organizations gathered to learn if their funding requests had been granted for this year. All 45 groups who applied were approved for funding at the meeting.
The proceeding lasted less than thirty minutes.
“Gabriel Gonzales did an amazing job this year streamlining the process. That was the fastest funding legislation that I’ve ever seen in the senate,” said Catie Byrd, SGA senator and member of the fiscal affairs committee. “I have heard horror stories about Bear Grant Senate [lasting] up to five hours before.”
Before the meeting, the fiscal affairs committee met with all 45 organizations to go over their applications, according to an SGA minutes report.
Senators had time to raise any concerns before the meeting. All concerns were cleared the day before the bear grant senate took place.
“It went pretty quickly, more quickly than I was expecting, and it was nice to know that all the senators gave their approval,” said Hannah Keller, president of Mercer’s French club. “They didn’t have many qualms about approving things for us, which is nice. It’s good to know that our club is supported.”
The total funding that could have been allocated this year was $37,010.59. All group applications were approved, which left the bear grant budget at $2989.41 after the proceeding took place.
Bear grant senate takes place once a year but new organizations are eligible to apply for bear grant funding as long as there is still funding in the budget.
Organizations that are still interested in receiving funding can contact Gabriel Gonzales, chair of fiscal affairs.