Halloween brought more treats than tricks on Hender-son’s campus, and for many of the students, the treat wasn’t receiving candy; It was handing it out.

Henderson Halloween is a tradition that Henderson has been hosting for many years. It gives the school a chance to give back to the community in a fun and exciting way.

Many student organizations and organizations from around Arkadelphia volunteer to help out with the event.

Hundreds of kids came out to get candy and show off their costumes, from cowboys to scary creatures.

The families began lining a long time before the event started, and they came for a long time afterwards.

“I love being able to see all the little children getting can-dy and dressing up,” Charde Wade, a senior early childhood education major, said. “It’s also a safer alternative for the chil-dren. Instead of going door to door in neighborhoods, they are in a controlled environ-ment.”

The event has been held in a few different places over the years, including downtown Arkadelphia and the Garrison Center.

This year it was held on the South Lawn, allowing more room for the event and a bigger and more natural background for a spooky night.

“I think it ran a lot better than last year because it was more spaced out,” Michelle Green, a junior early childhood educa-tion major, said. “Last year was pretty crowded since it was in the Garrison, but this year with it being in a more open area al-lowed the traffic of people to flow.”

Henderson decorated the campus to fit the creepy, cos-tume filled holiday.

The campus looked down-right spooky with all of the spi-der webs and ghostly figures hanging from the trees. Trick-

or-treaters walked around well-organized tables and received candy from many different or-ganizations around campus.

Professors and employees of Henderson find it a great place to take their kids trick-or- treat-ing.

Chris Porter, a graduate as-sistant for Residence Life, has been bringing his children for many years, and had a good time walking around the tables with his son, Matthew.

“We just enjoy the atmo-sphere, and Matthew really likes the different tables and all the costumes and candy,” Por-ter said. “It’s good to reach out and just let the community see what Henderson has to offer. We’ve been here for about ten years now.”

The students at the tables seemed to enjoy handing out candy, and a few of them dressed up as well.

“I like seeing all the kids in their costumes. They are so cute. We provide a safe and fun environment for the kids,” Green said. “It allows the community and the campus students and faculty to build a better relationship. It is also a good way to show some thanks to the community for being supportive to the school.”

Henderson Halloween takes a lot of planning, and a lot of work to set up, from getting or-ganizations to volunteer to set-ting up and decorating, not to mention all the candy that has to be bought and organized. One thing is for sure; The event comes together nicely, and it’s a wonderful opportunity for the school.

“I think Henderson Hallow-een is a great event that we host every year,” Kaitlyn Tolleson, a sophomore mass media major, said. “It is a very safe atmo-sphere for the trick-or-treaters and their families. It is very popular and successful each year, and to see that smile on the kids faces make it all worth-while.”

Henderson is looking to en-hance the safety of the campus. A system called Blue Light Phones is soon to be installed to reassure students that in case of an emergency local of-ficials and campus police will be immediately notified to the location of that emergency.

“The Blue Light Phones are a great way to enhance the ac-cess to and responsiveness of our campus police in the event of a campus emergency,” Dan Mabery, director of Residence Life, said.

According to Ramtel.com, the lights work with a flashing strobe. When the emergency button on the Ramtel phone is pressed, it starts to strobe for a specific preset of durations from 1 to 255 minutes.

“The caller and campus police are able to communicate through the system,” Mabery said.

Henderson began the dis-cussion of Blue Light phones during last spring semester and was led by Chief Johnny Camp-bell of campus police.

“There are other campuses that have similar systems and our students will benefit from the knowledge gained from other institutions,” Mabery said.

University of Arkansas in Little Rock also has the Blue Light phone security system. Bobby Floyd, captain of the UALR police, said the UALR campus has had the system for 30 years, starting off with the installation of seven phones to the now 106 that have decorat-ed UALR’s campus.

“At present we have 106 phones across campus and at the Bowen School of Law cam-

pus across town,” Floyd said. “We have several models. All have Blue Lights located above them that strobe whenever the phone is activated except for those located inside elevators and inside some buildings.”

Campus has ordered 10 of the phones so far and five more are being ordered.

The lighting fixtures for the phones are UV resistant, vapor tight incandescent and heat resistance. The fixtures are to withstand most weather condi-tions with these built-in precau-tions.

According to Carthage.edu, Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis. has the Blue Light phone security system.

College community mem-bers are encouraged to use the phones. If they are lost and need directions, have a medi-cal emergency, desire a shuttle during the campus shuttle hours, feel threatened, become a victim or a witness to a crime, or want to report suspicious activity, students and visitors should use the new security system.

“When it comes to campus safety, Henderson will place student safety and security as a priority,” Mabery said.

“We have heard many posi-tive comments about the safety measures that UALR has put in place,” Floyd said. “The Blue Lights phones are one of course.”

At UALR, the system has helped in the rapid reporting of suspicious and emergency situ-ations.

“Rapid police response is be-lieved to have deterred crime at UALR,” Floyd said.

At Henderson, locations for the phones are currently being identified and will be selected based upon traffic flow, popu-

lation density and visual pres-ence.

“Some installations require wall mounting, some are ped-estal mounted and some are in columns located at strategic locations,” Floyd said.

According to Ramtel, Some Blue Light phones are installed on stanchions, which are tall metal posts that are made of 7-gauge heavy metal steel.

“Total costs are not yet avail-able, as the location and in-stallation decision will impact cost,” Mabery said.

According to TheBattalion-Online, Texas A&M has 115 of the phone security systems. Alongside the Blue Light phones, students at Texas A&M use an app called my-GuardianAngel, which has a GPS tracker and a 30-second video recorder. It also, when activated, can send out an im-mediate 911 call while alerting numerous friends and family members that a 911 call was made.

Henderson uses a similar method with Rave Alert. Rave Alert sends a text message and email to students and their parents warning of inclement weather conditions that may cause the school to be shut down or if campus security is being breeched and the school is on lockdown.

“The phones do more than just contact campus police,” Mabery said. “They provide a visual reminder to the ‘bad guys’ that our campus commu-nity has a direct line to the cam-pus police department. This alone can be a great deterrent.”

The ordered Blue Lights have been sent back for repaint-ing, but will be making their debut on Henderson’s campus soon to ensure the safety of stu-dents and visitors.

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Blue Light Phone system to be installed for campus safety

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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2012 HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY VOLUME 105, ISSUE 12

Katie BlairStaff Writer

62/34 62/32 63/34 65/37

PERFECT SEASON The Reddies capped off an impressive season by de-feating in-town rivals Ouachita Baptist in the much anticipated Battle of the Ravine. See page 6 for the game review.

Photo by Ryan Klare

Colbie McCloudStaff Writer

Reddie for playoffs

HALLOWED GROUND Michelle Green, ju-nior early childhood education major, is shown hand-ing out candy to Chris Porter and his son Matthew at Henderson Halloween.

Photo by Katie Blair

Halloween shows community spirit

For the fourth year, Hender-son and OBU hosted the Battle of the Ravine Blood Drive, sponsored by the American Red Cross.

This year the schools donat-ed within just a few units of the same amount.

The healthy competition be-tween the two universities is a great way to support the cause. Each school is given two days to donate as many units, or pints of blood, as possible.

The school with the greatest percentage of blood per total enrollment wins the trophy. OBU has won two of the last three battles.

“The blood drive is one of the few competitions between Henderson and OBU where everyone wins because lives are saved,” Ryan Rogers, junior history major, said.

Since the same amount was donated by each university, the winner came down to total en-rollment.

Because Henderson has a larger student population than OBU, the Tigers won the tro-phy.

The drive was Oct. 29 and 30 on the Henderson campus, and the Red Cross moved to OBU for the next two days.

The American Red Cross is a member of a global network of volunteers that spans 187 coun-tries.

It is a charitable organiza-tion that needs volunteers and donors to perform a mission that, according to their web-site, “prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.”

The organization does much more than collect blood, in-cluding disaster relief, health and safety services, support of American military families and the provision of humanitarian work internationally.

The Red Cross is the largest supplier of blood, receiving 40 percent of the nation’s supply by donations.

They host more than 200,000 blood drives every year.

According to their website, redcross.org, adults have 10-12 pints of blood in their body and during a donation, only one pint is given. One pint can save up

to three lives. “Ninety-seven percent of

those that live to be 72 will need blood or a blood component at some point in their life,” Randy Stribling, a senior donor re-cruiter for the Red Cross, said.

The Red Cross website also states that less than 38 percent of the American population is eligible to give blood. Eligible donors can give blood every 56 days.

That 38 percent is providing for 97 percent of the total pop-uation.

Arkansas is part of the Great-er Ozark Region of the Red Cross and has a potential disas-ter on its hands. The demand for blood in the state exceeds the local supply.

“Only three percent of Arkan-sans are donating,” Stribling said. “We need around 550 units a day in our region, and we collect about 300 to 400. Other states have to make up our short fall.”

Surrounding states like Oklahoma and Missouri have to send blood to Arkansas for use in hospitals. When trag-edy strikes, there is not time to give blood and the supplies are needed immediately. Ar-kansans need to come together to ensure a supply for family, friends and neighbors of the Natural State.

Eligible donors must be healthy, at least 17 years old and weigh 110 lbs.

When blood is used in a transfusion, generally it is not the raw package. It is broken down into double red cells and plasma.

Those students that donated double red cells gave blood, which was separated, then plas-ma was replaced.

This allows volunteers to col-lect greater quantities of what they really need.

Requirements for that dona-tion ask men to be 5 ft. 1 in. and 130 lbs. and require women to

be 5 ft. 5 in. and 150 lbs.The crew left Henderson with

fewer units than were collected last year.

Law prohibits the use of pur-chased blood for health care use.

That means giving plasma for money does not help the sick, but more likely beauty care products.

Suppose the Red Cross of-fered $50 for a single unit of blood. This would surely entice donors.

The problem with that is a monetary incentive would most likely give donors a greater incentive to lie on their ques-tionnaires, the set of seemingly ridiculous questions each do-nor must answer before giving blood, like were you living in Kazakastan between May of 1980 and February of 1982?

They may seem unreason-able, but each question indi-cates a chance that the donor may have tainted blood.

If donors just wanted money, then they may lie on the ques-tionnaire and could be a carrier of tainted blood. That would mean the organization lost that $50 and is left with a nasty bag of blood.

The Red Cross in Arkansas sponsors 15 drives each day in addition to their local donating centers.

These can be tracked and lo-cated at redcross.org. Eligible donors can contact the orga-nization by phone and set up an appointment or call Randy Stribling directly at 501-951-0454

The demand for blood is in-arguable. Stribling gave an ex-ample of one teenage girl that required 100 units of blood in her first 24 hours of admittance to the hospital.

That could have been a cous-in or a friend, a baby sister or a mother.

Individuals have to give now to save someone soon.

For worrisome parents, con-cerned faculty and safety-con-scious students alike, the Stu-dent Government Association’s campus walk offers a venue to express concerns of on-campus safety.

During the campus walk, any campus resident, SGA mem-bers, physical plant directors, chief of university police, mem-bers of campus faculty/staff, parents and students had a plat-form to voice their concerns about issues with safety such as lighting, walking hazards (such as elevated surfaces that can possibly trip a passerby) and problems with traffic.

There is also a survey at the end of the walk to gather input about target areas. These tar-get areas are based upon prob-lems students mention to the SGA.

President Jones, chief of uni-versity police Johnny Camp-bell, director of physical plant John Corley, skilled tradesman Joe May and other faculty were present at this year’s campus walk on Nov. 5.

“We do these every year,” Campbell said. “It’s a good op-portunity to go as a group and see what needs attention.”

The key areas on the SGA’s survey were Caddo Cafeteria, Newberry and Caplinger park-

ing lots, the area in between Mooney and McBrien halls, the Russell Fine Arts Center parking lot across from Smith, the bridge between Foster and Womack halls and the streets in front of Womack and East and West halls.

The walk began in front of Womack hall, moving towards Caddo Cafeteria. The first con-cern was two raised curbs that are in the middle of the side-walk to provide a maintenance hatch for a steam tunnel. It was mentioned that at night, somebody walking and not pay-ing attention could easily trip over the curbs. It also poses a problem for students in wheel-chairs, because they have to use the street. A proposed so-lution was to level the sidewalk in that area.

Outside Caddo Cafeteria, it was noticed that two of the three lights in front of the doors to Caddo Cafeteria were out.

A big concern for this area was lighting. The only light il-luminating the sidewalk out-side comes from inside the cafeteria. Once the lights are turned off inside, this section of the campus is completely dark. The suggested solution was to add lighting on the outside walls of Caddo to light up the sidewalk after the inside lights were turned off.

As the group progressed over the pedestrian bridge over

the highway, it was noticed that several panels were loose and need to be secured. It was discovered that two floodlights were out on the outside wall of Caplinger.

Two lights were also out in the gravel parking lot in front of Newberry.

However, those lights belong to Entergy, which requires the physical plant to get in touch with Entergy to replace the bulbs. Two light bulbs were also out in the Caplinger south parking lot.

It was mentioned in this area that the walkway to Newberry around the parking lot was pitch black at night and needed some sort of lighting. A flood-light added onto the northwest corner of Newberry aimed downwards was mentioned to remedy this problem.

The group moved past through the Caplinger parking lot, then across the crosswalk to walk behind Proctor Hall. The light beside the satellite dish behind the building was not working.

The walk proceeded down the road between the east side of Huie library and the parking lot behind Caddo. The walkway was declared to be too dark, and additional lighting will be needed. The wall already has one floodlight, but it is not enough to illuminate the entire area. There was a suggestion

that the curb on the northeast side of Huie be moved or re-moved entirely. The curb origi-nally bypassed a tree, but the tree is no longer there.

Lighting some features in the south lawn was mentioned to make the campus more attrac-tive at night. Some areas con-sidered were the bell, the cen-turium and “Bench 13” in front of Reynolds.

Also, it would help to bright-en the area up in addition to some lights on the sidewalk from the street entrance to the front of McBrien. It was pro-posed that it would be difficult to get electricity to that area, and the lights would have to be mounted to trees, but it would be possible.

Once the group reached the opposite side of McBrien, an issue was mentioned with the benches. There are several sta-ples in the wood the benches are made of. It was requested they be replaced or repaired.

The workers from the physi-

cal plant stated that the issue was due to students stapling flyers and information to the benches, and not removing the staples afterward.

A possible solution was re-placing them with metal bench-es or by pouring concrete seat-ing areas.

Many lights were out on the quad side of Russell Fine Arts Center, which need to be re-paired or replaced. It was also mentioned about adding more lights to further light up the area.

The walk ended with major is-sues being addressed; the lack of sidewalk on East and West Halls, marking of faculty/staff parking that students are not allowed to park in and the pos-sible addition of speed bumps on roads between the Dunn Center and residence halls, and outside Womack Hall.

“The next big step is to go back and make sure the prob-lem areas receive the attention they need,” Campbell said.

Campus tour illuminates areas for improvement

PAGE 2 NOVEMBER 12, 2012News

Chris IngramStaff Writer

‘Battle’ competition apparent in blood driveZach DuttonStaff Writer

BLOODY WAR Sean Rathburn (left) is shown with Jake Barrett (right) donating blood in a promotion that pits Henderson versus rival OBU to see who can raise the most blood. The Battle of the Ravine isn’t relegated to the highly publicized football showdown between two colleges in the same conference and the same town. The Battle of the Ravine spills over into a blood drive competition as well. Students that contribute can be a part of the Battle and also give to those in need of blood, which is usually needed in droves.

Photo by Zach Dutton

Helpful tips for anxious testers

Tests cause a head-full of anx-iety for students

Study. Tests. Grades. These are the most stressed

about items of a college stu-dent’s life.

If I don’t pass this class am I going to lose my scholarships?

With finals coming up, stu-dents are stressing more and more over passing their tests, figuring out their spring 2013 schedule and having a social life.

“Some anxiety is good. It helps motivate you to study,” Carrie Nichols, counselor, said.

“Anxiety hits me right before the test, not when studying,” Emily Miller, freshman unde-clared major, said. “I start to feel anxious and sometimes it worsens depending on the test.”

The Henderson Counsel-ing Center has several tips for students to reduce their stress levels.

Carrie Nichols has eight ways to help improve anxiety over tests and improve test-taking skills.

She advises students to:1. Improve their skills to fin-

ish tests.2. Incorporate different test

taking strategies.3. Lower stress levels.4. Conquer any self-defeating

thoughts.5. Recognize your past suc-

cesses.6. If your anxiety is so bad its’

affecting your life, seek extra help.

To improve skills to finish tests, reviewing is a key. Re-view daily after your class has covered material.

It’s also recommended to re-view weekly.

Make a report on all the topics your class covered that week.

Rewrite notes even if they are previously typed up, printed and handed to you in your class from the course’s instructor. Before the test, do a major re-

view over everything the test is to cover.

Reviewing in intervals like this helps you to be able to re-member the information and may end up reducing your time to study before the test.

The notes and material will hopefully be easier to read and read faster.

“When you feel your mind start to wander, take a break,” Nichols said. “Cramming ses-sions actually intensify anxiety.”

Incorporating different strat-egies includes ways to come upon answers on a test if you have draw a blank.

Answer choices that typically restate the main word or have a long explanation and are the longest answer choices.

Lower your stress levels. Ex-amine your priorities. Students typically have 15 hours of class-es, a job or two and are involved in numerous organizations.

Decide which things you can set aside and come back to later.

Another recommendation is

to get a hobby. Do something that you enjoy so you can take a break occasionally. Sort your worries.

There are some things that you can do something about and then those you can’t.

“Exercise regularly. Exercis-ing releases endorphins and adrenaline to help you calm down and relax,” Nichols said. “Avoid sugar and caffeine. These substances increase adrenaline and anxiety.”

“Getting sleep is also key to lowering anxiety,” Willica Mor-gan, counselor, said.

Self-defeating thoughts can affect students’ performances in their classes.

There are several types of self-defeating thoughts. Exag-gerating includes words such as never or always, filtering, which is focusing on just the negative, forecasting or pre-dicting events that have not happened yet to have a nega-tive outcome are all examples of self-defeating thoughts.

“Right before tests I go

through feeling like I don’t know what all the teacher cov-ered and how many questions are going to be on the test,” Erik Johannessen, freshman business major, said.

“Write down negative thoughts and turn them into a positive statement such as ‘I have prepared to do the best of my ability and I may not know all the answers, but I will get a good grade,’” Nichols said.

Morgan also suggests deep breathing is a relaxation tech-nique.

Inhale through the nose and expand the stomach outward so it protrudes.

Then, exhale through the mouth with the stomach reced-ing back towards the body.

“You can tell if you’re breath-ing incorrectly if your shoul-ders move up and down,” Mor-gan said.

With finals coming up in just a few weeks, students can use these tips to help lower their stress levels and improve their test taking.

As of Nov. 7, the presidential election is over, and I couldn’t be happier.

But don’t mistake my happiness being for the fact Obama won.

No, my elation is just because the election is over.

And I’m so happy it’s over because, quite frankly, I was beginning to hate people over it.

It really agitates me to log into my Facebook, genuinely wanting to read updates from my friends and being bombarded by politics.

The onslaught of advertisements, video clips, debates, news articles, web pages, Facebook updates, opinion polls, pictures and other propaganda came at me like a barrage of bricks once Octo-ber came around. And up until Nov. 7, it did not recede.

It only intensified, getting meaner, nastier and more vicious in its attacks.

It seemed as if I couldn’t even turn on my television to see what was on with-out being bombarded by brief TV com-mercials saying the generic “If you vote for Candidate A, he will do this and this and this, and that’s bad, so vote for me,” or the also generic, “Candidate B said this and this and this four years ago, and this is what hasn’t been accomplished.”

It gets pretty infuriating, to the point I just hurriedly turn off my TV. I wait for the day when the advertisement be-comes truly outrageous, saying some-thing along the lines of, “If you vote for Candidate C, you will unravel the fabric of space and time, effectively destroying everything you love as well as yourself.”

But what infuriates me more than an assault of political agendas is that I nev-er see such political activism amongst most citizens beyond the presidential election.

I don’t see college students missing class to vote for state offices, or even county offices.

But the fact is, those offices are just as important to the United States as the presidency.

The President is not the only politi-cian that makes decisions that affect citizens across the United States.

For the first time this year, medicinal marijuana was on the ballot in Arkansas. What about issues like marriage equal-ity? Abortion? Taxes? These are more like state issues and local issues than federal legislation.

Would people only vote for, much less care about, these issues if they hap-pened to fall on the ballot during the 2016 presidential election?

From an early age, I was taught to form my own political attitudes and to

research things for myself.My dad graduated with a bachelor’s

degree in political science from the Uni-versity of Arkansas at Little Rock.

I learned about the United States political system at a very young age. Never once did he tell me his belief was correct, or that the other side of the po-litical argument was a bunch of morons.

He taught me to always be a skeptic; never believe everything heard by word of mouth, and to always check my facts twice or more.

I would encourage others to be the same way. In this election, it seemed like multiple people, interest groups, and even news publications failed to take this same attitude.

I can’t count the number of times I would see an argument about either candidate on Facebook, and rather than presenting factual information, the in-telligence of the other side would be brought into question and factual infor-mation gained through credible sources totally devoid from any posts.

It’s also impossible to ignore when those people insulting others are people who you have added to your friend list on Facebook.

It’s enough to make a political activist apathetic to the election.

Instead of ranting on Facebook or other social media about the opposing

candidate, or arguing with our friends about their political attitudes, why not just be quiet, and express our opinion through our vote and leave it at that? Also, why not use the tools we have (such as Google) and check our facts twice or research our own information and take our own stances, rather than base them on what our friends and par-ents think?

Political views are so much like reli-gion; almost everyone has an opinion on the matter.

There are different groups of people that band together to express their be-liefs, and there are those who don’t be-lieve in it at all.

Then there are the skeptics in be-tween who need hard evidence. Every-one has a different opinion, but it’s just that: opinion.

No one knows the correct answer, because there isn’t one. There isn’t one miraculous solution to the nation’s prob-lems.

There are many other ways to achieve the same end.

That is why we have different political beliefs in the first place.

Can’t we all just agree to disagree despite whatever side of the political spectrum we are, and just let our votes decide which way the public feels is best for our country, city, state and county?

NOVEMBER 12, 2012 PAGE 3 Opinions

Colbie McCloudGuest Columnist

Political punditry and it’s effect on apathyChris IngramGuest Columnist

Graciously grateful

Well folks, Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away. I’m sure everyone is frantic, thinking about everything they have to do before the break. And of course finals are just a short two weeks after we come back from stuffing our-selves with turkey and dressing. Oh, what? You didn’t realize they were that soon? My bad. Start studying.

But we all know what Thanksgiving is really for. Say it all together now: Giving thanks.

I’m sure everyone knows this, but it doesn’t stop us all from forgetting to think about how good we have it. Has anyone actually been thinking about what they’re thankful for? Besides their super cute new boots, or like, their to-tally awesome flat screen tv that they found on sale? Lets reflect, shall we? I

know I have been.First, we are all lucky enough to be

going to college and getting an educa-tion. We go to a great school that is big enough to be a community, but small enough where you see friendly and fa-miliar faces all around.

And I, for one, think it’s freakin awe-some that our mascot is the Reddie Spirit. It’s up to all the students to cre-ate that feeling of camaraderie. It’s not a physical being, but you can see, hear and feel it in the pride on our campus. It’s like a ninja ghost.

I know that I’ve complained about where I live in the past, but the truth is I should be thinking about how blessed I am. I’m sure everyone thought I was the laziest person ever when I com-plained about carrying trash down to the basement. I don’t mind at all. The truth is, it makes our hallways look way nicer, especially with the new floors.

Yes, on a bad day you might be able to find things to complain about in your residence hall, but that’s true of any place you live. And let’s face it, most of the things that happen are our own faults. We’re big kids now. We have to learn how to scoop our soggy Ramen out of the sinks. I don’t know what your mama did for you at your house, but here you live with other people. Be considerate.

We all know that the elevators almost always work, and when they do break down it’s a quick fix. And speaking of being thankful, this will get you going: Can you imagine living in Smith or New-berry without elevators? Sure we’d all have super killer thighs and calves that would be the envy of students all over campus, but yikes. Let’s have a moment of silence in reverence for the elevators.

Living on campus is a blessing within itself. You’re right in the middle of the

action, and you get to roll out of bed ten minutes before class starts because you don’t have to search for a parking space.

Besides that, living on campus allows more opportunity to meet people. I’ve met more people by living in Smith than from all my classes I’ve ever taken. It’s a big deal for me.

When people complain that there’s nothing to do in Arkadelphia, I try my best not to roll my eyes and very kindly explain what is going on right in front of them.

We’re lucky to have a school that provides a lot of different activities and events on campus. If more people stayed here on the weekends, then ev-eryone would realize just how truly blessed we are.

I encourage everyone to open their eyes this holiday season and take in ev-erything around you.

Some people in this world would trade

Katie BlairGuest Columnist

‘Skyfall’ mixes the old with the new

In 1962, Sean Connery brought Ian Fleming’s charac-ter James Bond to life in “Dr. No.”

Now, 50 years, 22 films and five Bonds later, audiences are still coming back for more with Bond’s latest adventure, “Sky-fall.”

Directed by Sam Mendes, director of “American Beauty,” and “Jarhead,” “Skyfall” takes everyone’s favorite spy on his most personal journey yet.

While on a mission to recover the identities of spies embed-ded in terrorist organizations, James Bond, played by Dan-iel Craig, is shot and assumed dead.

Back at MI6, Bond’s com-manding officer M, played by Dame Judy Dench, tries to move on with her life after Bond. This isn’t easy with lost the drives and a mysterious at-tacker forcing her to relive her past.

While enjoying his retire-ment, Bond gets word of the attacks on MI6 and M and de-cides it is time for him to get back in the swing of things.

Not quite his old self, Bond goes on the hunt that takes him around the world until he is face to face with Raoul Silva, played by Javier Bardem of “No County for Old Men.”

Both Bond and Silva were agents who worked for M, and they have both been left for dead by the people who were meant to protect them.

Now Silva wants his revenge on the woman who ruined his life, and he will stop at nothing to get it.

Bond must look to his past in order to save M and kill a man that he himself could become one day.

What makes “Skyfall” so great, and one of the best Bond movies, is how three-dimensional the whole thing is. Mendes is an incredible direc-tor who finds a great balance of story and action, giving the

audience a thrilling and beauti-ful Bond film.

“Skyfall” gives the tough spy depth and makes him relatable.

The story would be nothing without the great acting from the cast. Craig is perfect as Bond.

He’s the right mixture of action, drama and comedy wrapped up in one character. He keeps the audience interest-ed, but above all he keeps them entertained.

Of course Bardem stole the movie, much like Heath Ledger did as the Joker in “The Dark Knight.” He does an incredible job of creating a sympathetic villain who serves as Bond’s perfect foil. He is so intriguing and incredibly creepy. A great villain for a great Bond movie.

When talking about a Bond movie the action cannot be left out. “Skyfall” is packed with action and really picks up the slack where “Casino Royale” and “Quantum of Solace” failed to deliver.

Every action sequence in the film puts something at stake and this keeps audiences on the edge of their seat.

What makes this Bond movie stand out from the rest is how beautiful it was.

Much like what Nolan did with Batman, Mendes uses “Skyfall” as a platform to really make a visually stunning action movie.

While many directors tend to sacrifice one or the other, Mendes shows the audience that an action movie can have

great shots and cinematogra-phy just like any Oscar nomi-nated film.

There were a few things off about “Skyfall” that could have been easily fixed.

The movie’s runtime was nearly 2 1/2 hours, and like most long movies, there were a few parts that dragged in the middle.

It’s hard to sit through a long action movie when 45 minutes of it is slow and nothing of im-portance is taking place.

One thing that some of have complained about is the lack of Bardem’s character. Granted, he doesn’t show up until half-way through the movie, but people are writing this off as a waste of a great character.

What makes truly great char-

acters like the Joker, Darth Va-der and the shark from “Jaws” is that they aren’t overused. Too much of a good thing can easily become a bad thing.

Silva’s time on screen was the perfect amount to keep the au-dience interested and creeped out. Anything more than that would have lost that balance.

Overall, “Skyfall” is a great Bond film that is for the fans, but easily accessible to first time Bond viewers.

The mixture between classic Bond and modern Bond is fun to watch. It has everything one could ask for: guns, gadgets, ac-tion, drama and a catchy Adele song that will be stuck in peo-ple’s heads for months to come.

“Skyfall” gives audiences the Bond they all know and love.

PAGE 4 NOVEMBER 12, 2012Features

J.D. Roberts Staff Writer

DR. NO COUNTRY FOR AMERICAN BEAUTY Daniel Craig reprises his role as the debonair hero James Bond in a highly anticipated film brought to the screen by Sam Mendes of ‘American Beauty’ fame and featuring Javier Bardem, who caught moviegoers’ attention with his role in ‘No Country for Old Men.” The film’s expectations may have crushed a lesser film, but the film holds up with enticing action and characters that hold true to the reality established by the stories past of Bond films.

Photos courtesy of

Just because Halloween is over doesn’t mean that our campus can’t have a little spook, and that is exactly what the cast of “Wait Until Dark” took to heart.

“Wait Until Dark” by Freder-ick Knott is one of those ‘good things come to those who wait’ plays.

It starts with a somewhat slow beginning, but then it truly leaps into the story by the second half.

The play is a classic thriller about a man named Sam Hen-drix, who unknowingly gets himself and his wife Susy in a tough spot when he agrees to take a doll from a stranger.

This leads to a horrifying night for his blind wife when its owners try to take the doll and its contents back.

This play was popular with the students and Arkadelphia before the first show even be-gan.

“We had to start a waiting list because the play was complete-ly sold out,” Jeffrey Gilmore, a junior theatre major, said.

There were both returning and new faces on the stage.

Actors Thomas Cooper, Ethan Jones and Adrianna McLeod performed with ease that comes with the comfort of a familiar stage, while newcom-ers like LaDarius Jamerson and Shaina Tippitt took to their roles with a confidence that assures us that they will be re-turning.

Watching the play, an audi-ence member wouldn’t be able to tell that the cast and crew be-gan planning and taking action for “Wait Until Dark” only three short weeks ago.

The actors had a lot of lines to learn, and the crew had a lot to do to get ready for opening night.

“We had auditions at the be-ginning of the semester, but we only had about two and a half or three weeks to rehearse because of other shows and festivals,” Caitlin Stoddard, a junior theatre major and stage manager, said. “I’ve been in all of the rehearsals taking notes, helping with blocking and dur-ing the show I’ll be in the booth calling the cues. I like behind the scenes because I like the whole process of giving your creative input to make the proj-ect.”

“Our scenic designer Whit-

ney Glover has done an excel-lent job of making the set look like a house, and we’ve only had ten days to build it and put it up,” Stoddard said. “So that was hard, but it’s cool.”

The set was indeed astound-ing with a lot of minor details. It was hard to tell that it was only a stage.

Glover also found a way to bring the set back to the 1960s with props, with the help of Ja-son Moore.

There were things like an old icebox and furniture, and even a photography set.

It takes a lot of people to put a play together.

This play was very intricate

and had to create a spooky and scary vibe. The actors, cos-tumes, set, lighting and sound all worked together to create a successful show.

“This play is very exciting and is definitely worth every minute of your time,” Joey Far-ley, a junior theatre major and lighting designer, said. “I was brought to the show as a light-ing designer after my design for ‘The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail’ with a really short three weeks to design and one week to execute my design. It was challenging because the design process is very difficult to re-search and plan everything in that short amount of time.”

The lighting created a lot of unique atmospheres for the dif-ferent scenes.

“I had to give every scene a different mood with all the different shapes and sizes and colors of light we have in our stock,” Farley said.

“Wait Until Dark” has perfor-mances at 7:30 p.m. on Novem-ber 12, 15, 16 and 17.

The box office is open for ad-vance ticket sales and reserva-tions.

Admission is $8, or free with HSU student ID.

“If we do our jobs right,” Stoddard said. “The audience should leave a little freaked out.”

Katie Blair Staff Writer

Latest theatre production designed to thrill audiences

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Create a Diversion! Submit your short stories, poetry, essays and other creative writing, and they could be featured on this page. Send an email to oracle@hsu.edu with the word “creative” in the subject line. Include your name, classification and major.

NOVEMBER 12, 2012 PAGE 5Diversions

On a sunny Saturday after-noon at Carpenter-Haygood stadium, Henderson renewed its historic rivalry with Ouachi-ta in front of a single-game re-cord 12,035 fans.

Throw the win-loss records out, throw the stats out, and throw out anything that has happened this year, because nothing else matters when play-ing a rivalry game.

Anything can happen in the “Battle of the Ravine.”

The Henderson vs. OBU ri-valry is the oldest among any current NCAA Division II insti-tutions.

The first game between the two schools was won by Ouachi-ta College when they beat the then Arkadelphia Methodist College 8-0 on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1895.

Back then the game was tra-ditionally played on Thanksgiv-ing, and both teams made it their homecoming game.

The rivalry has also seen its fair share of ups and downs, as it’s been put on hiatus a couple of times.

The first time in 1951 after Henderson won 54-0, the series was discontinued because a se-ries of pranks got out of control.

The series resumed in 1963 and went 30 years strong until Henderson’s move into NCAA Division II Gulf South Confer-ence in 1993.

They began to play again three years later in 1996, after Ouachita moved into Division II and into the Lone Star Confer-ence.

“What makes this rivalry so special is the history behind it,” Kevin Rodgers, quarterback, said.

“It’s the ‘shortest’ road game

in NCAA, and you don’t re-ally hear about it if you don’t come to Henderson or OBU. Once you get here and learn about the tradition and history though, it’s special.”

With Henderson winning the last two games in the series, the Tigers were faced with a daunting task of trying to end the streak against an unbeaten Reddie squad.

With arms locked, OBU made the visiting team’s tradi-tional half-mile walk, over to the stadium to strap up and play the Reddies for the 86th time since 1895.

The Reddies went into the game Saturday with a 40-39-6 all-time record against the Ti-gers, according to Henderson State sports information.

Looking to notch the team’s 41st win against the Tigers, the Reddies won the opening coin-toss and elected to receive.

The highest scoring offense in team history took the ball on their opening drive in front of a packed house and marched down the field 61 yards for a touchdown.

The drive was capped by a 24-yard touchdown pass from Rod-gers to Robert Jordan for their 10th hookup on the year.

Surprisingly it was Rodger’s only touchdown in a 42-7 blow-out win.

He ended the game throwing for 209 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

The Reddies climbed out to a 21-0 first quarter lead, and had the game well in hand when they went on to a 35-7 half time lead.

The offense scored on its first four possessions of the game, and five of its first six possessions.

In that time the rushing at-tack took over, as the Tigers

saw a steady dose of the Kevin Nichols and Jarvis Smith.

The pair of seniors really did their thing on senior day at Carpenter-Haygood as they combined to rush for 180 yards in the first half and 251 for the game.

“That was really the game plan coming in,” Rodgers said.

“We knew OBU would do ev-erything they could to try and stop the pass, blitzing, drop-ping eight into coverage, and those guys (Smith and Nichols) really stepped up in a big way.”

Smith led the rushing attack with a career-high 191 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown.

Nichols would be outdone on the yards by Smith as went for 60 yards on 17 carries as well.

He would not be outdone in touchdowns though. He had a career-high four-touchdown performance on his senior day.

Another senior who also had

a big day on his senior day was linebacker Maxie Graham.

He had also set a career high having 17 total tackles and add-ing 2 of those for a loss.

With everyone stepping up on both sides of the ball the Reddies improved to 10-0 on the year, giving them their first unbeaten, untied regular sea-son in the team’s rich 105-year history.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet that we’re the first team in the history of this school to do that,” Rodgers said.

“It’s kind of unreal, and it’s one of the greatest accomplish-ments I’ve ever had.”

Usually a senior day marks the end of a season and almost certainly marks the last home game a team gets the pleasure to play.

Not the case for this year’s Reddies though.

With the selection show

picking which teams go to the playoffs on Sunday, Henderson was chosen number two in its super region in the playoffs and will host a playoff game in two weeks right here in Arkadel-phia, also a first in the school’s storied history.

“The fact we get to show people what Arkadelphia and HSU is about is awesome and we’re really looking forward to it,” Rodgers said. “It gives us a chance to step up our game and take it to the next level.”

After a storied regular season that has seen many conference player of the week honors, na-tional player of the week hon-ors, and many records set and broken, the Reddies will contin-ue their season here at home.

Henderson will host either No. 3 seed Missouri Western State or No. 6 seed Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday, November 24.

PAGE 6 NOVEMBER 12, 2012SportsA first: Reddies win every regular season game

MAKING HISTORY For the first time ever in history, Henderson State Uni-verisy goes 10-0 in season not giving up to one team in their conference. Hender-son pushes for a touchdown in the Battle of the Ravine game where they won 42-7.

Photo by Ryan Klare/Oracle

Zachary ZdanowiczStaff Writer