by Bridgette Begle | Sep 26, 2013 | News Slider
Regardless of where they are in their academic careers, Lipscomb students now have the option to not include a minor in graduation plans. Lipscomb announced to students Friday, Sept. 20, that a minor would no longer be a requirement to graduate, but the 126-hour minimum is still in effect. Dr. Randy Bouldin, the Associate Provost for Academic Development, said the process began about a year and a half ago when the academic leadership team looked at other schools for guidelines and decided what would be the best for students. “We voted to do away with the minor requirement for graduation, but we had to decide how we were going to implement it,” Bouldin said. “There were several options we could have taken. We could have said this was only going to apply to incoming freshman next year, or implement it in the spring.” Ultimately the decision was made to let the new criteria apply to every student. “We have not eliminated the possibility of a minor,” Bouldin said. “But now a student has more options.” The goal of this new system is to let students customize their course load to a greater extent. “You have the capacity now to use those hours in ways that might be better than if you had to choose an 18-hour minor,” Bouldin said. This new “flexibility,” as Bouldin calls it, lets students do their own academic programming. He points out that an education is a huge investment and university leaders want students to get the most out it. Bouldin said he’s not worried about students taking too many electives, becauses he has faith in their integrity. Also, “it’s the...
by Bridgette Begle | Sep 3, 2013 | News Slider
Students entering the 2013-2014 school year may have immediately noticed the changes to Lipscomb’s meal plans upon returning to campus. In the past, Sodexo, Lipscomb’s dining company, offered meal plans with a set number of Bison Café meals and dining dollars per semester. This year, Sodexo has changed the meal plans to offer a set number of meals per week and a set number of dining dollars per semester. The company has also added the Bison Bucks system, a program that allocates funds to be used at select Lipscomb and off-campus locations through the use of new ID cards. Although the meal plan for Village residents is the only one that currently includes Bison Bucks as a part of the package, any student can purchase Bison Bucks with their own money online. As this is the first semester for Bison Bucks, some students are currently contemplating the benefits of taking part in the new program. According to Wolcott Fary, Lipscomb’s Food Service General Manager, there are three main benefits to Bison Bucks. Budgeting: “It’s geared to you personally,” Fary said. Fary suggested that is a good way for students to budget their money by knowing exactly how much they have to spend. Future specials: Although there are no automatic price reductions on products bought with Bison Bucks, Fary ensures that this is an investment in these restaurants, and he foresees some specials for student’s benefit could be added in the future. “The restaurants, as we get rolling with it, will probably run some specials that will only be available to folks with Bison Bucks. That will be up to them specifically,”...
by Bridgette Begle | Mar 4, 2013 | News Slider, Sports
Seeking greater recognition for Lipscomb sports teams, the athletic department is expanding its use of social media. Garner Goode, director of sales and marketing, says LU athletics, while examining all forms of social media, is particularly taking aim at the use of Twitter to represent — and spread the word — about every team. He said he’s working on getting a Twitter account set up for every sports team. There is also one main profile that is @Lipscombbisons that serves as an overall account to post about every team. Goode says that by having individual team accounts, it lets fans follow specific teams more closely. A new program is up and running and can be activated through www.bisonsmobile.com. Go to the website on your smart phone and follow the directions to activate it. This will let you have instant stats right at your fingertips. The Bison Perks is a new rewards system that gives fans the opportunity to win free prizes by attending events and tweeting certain things and using specific hashtags. To learn more about the Perks visit http://www.bisonperks.com. Overall the department is developing new social media outlets every day and making it easier for fans to follow their favorite teams and, at the same time, build awareness of Lipscomb’s athletes and athletics. These are the Twitter account set up so far: @bisonbaseball — Baseball @lu_softball — Softball @LipscombUtrack – Track/ Cross Country @ladybisonsoccer – Women’s Soccer @luMsoccer – Men’s Soccer @lipscombvball – Volleyball @LipscombWBB – Women’s Basketball Go follow your teams to get constant updates from games and team events. Social Media in LU Athletics1 from lumination Network on...
by Bridgette Begle | Feb 15, 2013 | News Slider, Sports
After nipping at the heels of the school record in prior meets, the Lady Bisons’ distance medley relay team broke the mark at the Hoosiers Hills Invite in Bloomington, Ind. on Feb. 9. Previously, the four athletes had come within three seconds of the record, but at the meet, they made one final push and crushed the standing record by 11 seconds. The distance medley relay is a four-leg race of varying lengths, beginning with a 1,200-meter leg, followed by distances of 400, 800 and concluding with 1,600 — a mile. Starting off the race for the Bisons was freshman Madi Talbert, who finished in 3:41. Sophomore Brenna Thompson finished her 400 in 58 seconds. Junior Katie Bunker, who ran the next leg, said at that point, she was not sure if they were even close to the record. She said the team was so far ahead of the pack that they virtually were running alone, which, according to Bunker, made for tough pacing. Thompson agreed. “Madi was in front when I got the baton, and then we were still in front when Katie got the baton, so we weren’t really running with other people,” Thompson said. “So, we didn’t know how fast we were going. We were kind of worried we had gone slow.” Junior Dani Walker ran the last and longest leg of the race. It was while she was out on the track that her teammates realized they were on record-setting pace. “While Dani was running, Brenna and I were standing on the inside [of the track] thinking ‘I hope we didn’t run slow,’ and screaming...
by Bridgette Begle | Feb 5, 2013 | News Slider, Opinion, Sports
On Feb 3, the men turned on the TV to watch the Super Bowl game and the women turned on the TV for a Beyonce’ concert. But, a mutual motive for both men and women was to watch the much-anticipated Super Bowl commercials. These commercials tapped into a range of emotions for many. I literally dried tears after sentimental spots and clenched my stomach after hilarious spots If I had to pick the most talked about commercial, my bet would be on the Ram “Year of the Farmer” commercial. First of all, they absolutely nailed in for the southerners. This commercial put a personal rope around everyone who has ever been to the South. Personally, I would love to hear the opinion of a Northerner. This year, Doritos played to the audio of their commercials. It’s America, we love eating and we like the sound of eating. Doritos played on father-daughter bonding of this cheesy snack (“Fashshionista Daddy”) and also packed in dogs and cute kids in, “The Road Chip.” Both of which got the job done. My personal favorite of the Doritos was the “Goat 4 Sale” spot. I loved the progression of love and connection between the goat and the owner and the inevitable fall. The dude buys a goat because of the mutual love for Doritos, but when the owner is done with the Doritos, the goat is far from it. When the crunching by the goat gets to him, the owner is caught by the goat making a “4 Sale” sign and it’s up to the viewer what happened next. The highlight of that reel was...
