by Russell Vannozzi | Apr 5, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
Lipscomb senior golfer Dawson Armstrong knows exactly what he wants to do after graduation. And his plans don’t have anything to do with the Corporate Management degree that he’ll earn in May. Last Friday, Armstrong won the Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour Canada Qualifying Tournament at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The victory secured Armstrong’s spot on the 2018 Mackenzie Tour, a professional stepping stone for golfers dreaming of the PGA Tour. The tour includes 14 stops around Canada this summer, with the top finishers granted exemption for the 2019 Web.com Tour – golf’s top development circuit. “It’s a big burden lifted off my shoulders,” Armstrong said. “The one thing that’s been looming in my mind is that I hoped to play well in the qualifying for the Mackenzie Tour. Now that I’ve done that, the ball is in my court as far as which tournaments I play in.” Armstrong said he hopes to participate in the Web.com Tour in some capacity this season, with dreams of securing his card for the 2019 PGA Tour. “My goal is to get into the Web.com Tour playoffs this year, and hopefully play well enough to be on the PGA (Tour) next year,” he said. “I always want to be the best, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to get there.” Armstrong’s victory did not come easily. He began the final day of the qualifying tournament in a tie for fifth place, but posted a -6, 66 for the come-from-behind win. The Brentwood native capped his performance with a 35-foot putt from just off the green on the...
by Charissa Ricker | Apr 3, 2018 | News Slider
Dr. Gallaher, professor of biology, shared his recent kidney cancer diagnosis in “The Gathering” on Tuesday. Professor Gallaher recently returned to teaching classes after the shocking medical diagnosis near the beginning of March. He spoke to students about his struggles and the belonging he found within the Lipscomb community. “One month ago today I discovered that I had Kidney Cancer,” Gallaher said. “We humans are fragile creatures. The day before I got my diagnosis was like any other day. In an instant it was all taken away.” The week after Dr. Gallaher received the diagnosis, he went in for surgery to have the mass removed. Due to complications, he ended up getting his entire kidney removed and lost a lot of blood in the process. What was supposed to be a couple days in the hospital ended up being a week in the intensive care unit. “I am six-foot-four. I weigh 265 pounds,” he said. “I have lived my life physically imposing, mentally tough. I conquer things. I do stuff that is significant. But in a moment I was weak as a kitten.” After the news of his diagnosis spread throughout social media, Dr. Gallaher said he was contacted by over 300 people in the Lipscomb community and throughout the country. Past students, current students, fellow faculty and other community members offered support while he was in the hospital. “The encouragement I received was overwhelming,” Gallaher said. “God shows up through the kindness of his people. That’s my story that I have been living.” Walking around on campus, Professor Gallaher said people are disengaged and numb in their lives....
by Ellen Butterfield | Apr 3, 2018 | News Slider
Lipscomb University, a Church of Christ school, doesn’t dismiss classes campus-wide for Good Friday, but maintains it has a good reason for doing so. Since the university keeps its students in classes on Good Friday, many out-of-state or international students stay on campus over Easter, without sufficient time to travel home to celebrate with their families. Lipscomb University President Randy Lowry was out of town over Good Friday, so he was unable to comment this year. Last year, Lowry commented he would give the time off if he thought students would actually celebrate the holiday. “If we dismissed for Friday, what would students go do?” Lowry said last year. “If students said, ‘I’m going to go celebrate Easter, and spend the day in meditation and prayer, or at a Good Friday service,’ or whatever, I’d let you out of school in a moment. I don’t believe they’d do that. I believe they’d take a three-day weekend, they’d go home, and there’d be something lost here because our community was not together to celebrate.” The campus celebrates Easter throughout the week with many Resurrection Week activities on campus, with additional chapel opportunities, speakers and worship events. “I think it makes more sense to say, as a community, we’re here on Good Friday,” Lowry said. “We’ll have a service, which we haven’t always done on Good Friday, and invite the community to come be a part of that.” This year, to explain why class is held on Good Friday, the administration, through Kim Chaudoin, the Assistant Vice President with University Communication and Marketing, issued the following statement to Lumination: “In the...
by Olivia Waldorf | Apr 1, 2018 | News Slider, Opinion
“One Size Fits All” — a phrase that makes me, along with most women, shudder. Maybe it’s because I usually don’t shop (and when I do it’s at Goodwill), but I really thought this “One Size” tag had gone away. Sadly, I was wrong. At my new job in retail I have discovered multiple articles of clothing claiming to fit everyone and every body type. So I decided to give it a shot with a pair of dark green leggings. I could barely make it past my knees. At first, I felt embarrassed, chubby and angry, but then I realized that I’m not 12 years old anymore, and I actually have curves now. As women, our weight fluctuates all the time. This is normal, ladies. Whether we’re going through stress or a hard time, or even a really good/exciting phase of life, our bodies react differently to each season. Many thin women can feel threatened by the fact that the majority of people attack stores like Brandy Melville for catering to smaller sizes. But that’s not why these stores are attacked. They are attacked for the limited sizing, scarce variety in model types and even “cookie-cutter” retail associates who work in the front of the store. Even during the interview process for stores like Brandy, a lot of applicants report that the store managers will take multiple pictures of them and what they’re wearing, not saying what the images are for. Ruby Seid, a sales associate for Brandy Melville, said she has noticed this bias as well. “I think, to be honest, the real reason why they hired me is...
by Cole Gray | Mar 31, 2018 | News Slider
Six weeks after a former student gunned down 17 of his classmates at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Lipscomb’s head of Campus Security Patrick Cameron told Lumination Network that students should follow a “see something, say something” policy to minimize threats of violence on campus. “Who sees better a student who is having—let’s say mental health issues, troubles—than their fellow students? They’re the ones interacting with them on a daily basis,” Cameron said. If an active shooter situation arises on campus, he said students should try to reach a safe location, and that if they’re in the path of the shooter, they should do everything possible to “interfere” with the shooter. “If you can’t get to a safe location, and you’re in the path, don’t just sit there.” Cameron said that the security office has “very definitive” plans in place for active shooter situations, though he declined to discuss them in detail. Students can report concerns about fellow students’ behavior, including social media posts or other actions, to the Security Office located in the basement of Elam. He said students should report “anything that jumps out and says, ‘This isn’t right. There’s something going on here that needs to be addressed.’” Those reports are referred to the University’s Behavioral Intervention Team, which is comprised of representatives from the Counseling Center, Veteran’s Services, Risk Management, Student Life, Security Office and Academic Success Center, plus outside mental health professionals. The team would then meet with the student who filed the report, then the student whose behavior was reported in order to assess the threat and determine if further...
by LeBron Hill | Mar 31, 2018 | News Slider, Opinion
When I was a kid, my mom played “Changes” by Tupac Shakur every time we drove around in my hometown of Tullahoma, Tennessee. “That’s just the way it is, Things will never be the same” — lyrics I think about every time I see a shooting of an unarmed black man. Recently, Stephon Clark, 22, was shot and killed in the backyard of his grandmother’s Sacramento home, after police suspected he had a gun. Later, the police discovered it was only a cell phone. In weeks since the shooting, protests were held in Sacramento that shut down a Sacramento Kings game. This week, Clark’s funeral was held in a South Sacramento church, where family and friends said their goodbyes to Clark. He left behind a wife and two daughters. Watching the body camera of the Clark shooting, you can see the policeman chasing him into the backyard, then stopping and taking cover at the side of the house. The two officers then shoot him eight times, mostly in the back. Once Clark is on the ground, you can hear police officers tell him to get up. You then hear one of the officers say “Hey mute?” and then the audio is cut off. The pressure and risk that the police go through in their jobs goes without question. Not all police are bad. But there are other ways to deal with a suspect then to fatally shoot them, and Stephon Clark’s shooting shows a lack compassion from the police. In the video, Clark is shown running away from them and stopped at a considerable distance away from the officers....
