by Schyler Jones | Nov 3, 2020 | News, News Slider
Vandals who tried to destroy the Black Student Union’s message on the Lipscomb bison only succeeded in angering that organization and making it more determined to get its message across. “Honestly, I was ticked off, but not surprised,” said BSU Vice President and Chaplain Trey Phillips. Saturday afternoon, the BSU painted the bison in celebration of the “Educate, Empower, and Elevate” event they held the previous Thursday. They originally planned to paint the bison the day of the event but had to postpone due to rain. BSU’s president, Dorie Harrison, made sure they followed all protocols required to rightfully paint the bison. She went through both Student Life and their sponsor, Asa Bailey, to get permission. When the BSU finished painting the bison, they wrote the time 3:30 p.m. on the back. This was done to comply with a new rule that was put in place last year. It ensures no one could mistakenly paint over the bison within the 24-hour time period in which the approved painting is required to stay on. They had originally painted the bison black, with a raised fist and the acronyms “BSU” and “BLM” below it. On Sunday morning, however, Phillips woke up to find someone had defaced the bison. “BLM” had been marked out and rewritten at the top, with what appeared to be the letter “F” in front of it. “When we got done painting it the first time, I expected the resistance, but you know, it still angered me when I saw that someone did it,” Phillips explained. Phillips sent a picture of the defaced bison to the BSU GroupMe, trying...
by Kathryn Farris | Nov 2, 2020 | News, News Slider, Politics
As the reality of the upcoming election sets in, uncertainty about what the night will look like sets in across the nation. During a global pandemic, the US has had an increase in the number of mail-in-ballots, resulting in questions over when exactly we’ll know our next president. “I’ve read about several scenarios, and nobody really has a definitive answer about it,” says Dr. Marc Schwerdt of Lipscomb’s political science department. “Either the victory is going to be by a razor-thin margin, or we really don’t have a good handle on exactly what turnouts going to be like, and you’ll be able to see a fairly significant victory.” So far, voters have cast more than 94 million ballots for this election, a number that makes up more than 68% of voter turnout in the 2016 presidential election. In Texas, a possible swing state for this year’s election, voter turnout has already exceeded that of 2016. Schwerdt believes that the record number of early voters can be contributed to a rise in total turnout but also fears over Covid-19, he says “Certainly, we are having record early voter turnout, but I think it’s also driven a lot by people who are scared that if they try to go on election day, they’ll have a higher risk of catching something,” “This is happening especially among older voters or maybe more vulnerable voters who have a pre-existing condition of some sort. I also think we will see higher turnout because that just seems to be the trend for the last two or three elections.” However, Schwerdt doesn’t see this record turnout favoring one candidate over another. “What’s concerning...
by Kathryn Farris | Nov 1, 2020 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider
The tradition of Halloweek dodgeball remained strong at Friday night’s SAB tournament, despite an era of social distancing and masks causing a switch-up for the Lipscomb favorite. This year’s dodgeball tournament was moved to Allen Arena to better socially distance. This year’s winners were the “Belmont Boys,” a group of five Lipscomb sophomores aiming to poke fun at our neighbors up the boulevard. “It feels good. We worked really hard and put a lot of work into this, we came prepared and we got the job done,” said the group after their win. The “Belmont Boys” are comprised of Greyson Isenberg, Cody Neill, Blake Crockett, Jeffrey Martin and Jackson Tate. “It really just comes down to execution. We had a plan, so we came out and got the job done.” A gallery of the event, including groups dressed as grandmas, yoga enthusiasts and rednecks, can be found...
by Grant Bricker | Oct 29, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
The Atlantic Sun Conference is doing its best to limit travel and COVID exposure with a new basketball schedule that will keep each school’s 16 conference games, but put weekend series between teams at only one school’s basketball arena. This means that two ASUN teams will play each other twice in the span of one weekend. The teams will also be given a day to rest up in between the games. In the past, each team would have played one of the games at home. One of the main goals of this setup is to reduce travel by the two teams. It’s another example of an effort to further keep teams from spreading COVID-19 by limiting the distance traveled. ASUN men’s basketball starts on New Year’s Eve and will end on Feb. 27. Women’s basketball will begin on New Year’s Day and will come to a close on Feb. 28. Lipscomb’s men’s team will have home series with Liberty (Dec. 31/Jan. 2), FGCU (Jan. 21/23), Kennesaw State (Feb. 4/6) and North Florida (Feb. 18/20). The away series for the men’s will be Bellarmine (Jan. 7/9), Stetson (Jan. 28/30), Jacksonville (Feb. 11/13) and North Alabama (Feb. 25/27). The Lady Bisons will play the same schools but on different dates and at different locations. The home games for the Lady Bison are Bellarmine (Jan. 8/10), Stetson (Jan. 29/31), Jacksonville (Feb. 12/14) and North Alabama (Feb. 26/28). The away series for the Lady Bison are Liberty (Jan. 1/3), FGCU (Jan. 22/24), Kennesaw State (Feb. 5/7) and North Florida (Feb. 19/21). The season will remain conference-only, which is how college football is typically...
by Grant Bricker | Oct 29, 2020 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider
Lipscomb’s Halloweek is having to endure COVID-19 regulations, but the majority of the events that Lipscomb has come to love and know are still happening. Normally, dodgeball would be in the courtyard of Fanning Hall. COVID-19 forced Lipscomb to consider different venues for the event before deciding to change the location to Allen Arena. “The decision was purely based on COVID protocols,” said Lipscomb’s Director of Community Life Kelvin Kelley. “We knew that this is a big part of the Lipscomb Student experience and wanted to ensure that it could happen, even if it looks a little different.” Just because the event location has changed doesn’t mean that the protocols have either. Lipscomb will follow the latest COVID-19 protocols at the event to ensure that no one is able to catch the virus at the event or for it to spread. Allen Arena is a much bigger location than the likes of Fanning Hall so there had to be an extra level of caution, but it’s nothing that can’t be handled. “We will have a contract tracing,” said Kelley. “Also, we will add temperature scanners to entrances. Everyone also has to RSVP for tickets within Allen Arena and must sit in the seat they have reserved.” Unfortunately due to COVID, one thing that has to be changed is the number of people that will be able to attend this event. SGA will allow for 300 people to attend this event via the reservation of tickets. The number of teams that are allowed for the event is currently at 16 teams. While Kelley stated there are no plans as of...
by Lumination Staff | Oct 29, 2020 | COVID-19, News Slider
Tim Ghianni, journalist-in-residence and a Lumination adviser, asked his 21st Century Media students to reflect on the impact of COVID-19 on their lives. Faith, loneliness and worries about infecting their parents are among their tales of studying in the middle of a pandemic. Here are their stories: Never thought freshman year would be covered by masks COVID-19 has caused many changes and problems in our world. Many people have died or experienced serious health complications because, so I always hesitate to share my frustrations with COVID. I realize that other people are dealing with worse than me. But as a college freshman, so many things are changing in my life just because of the transition from high school to college. Then if you add COVID on top of all that, that is a lot of change. My senior year of high school was drastically cut short. I missed out on a lot of things that seniors should be able to do. The biggest being graduation. I was never a person who loved high school, but not getting to walk across the stage in my cap and gown was pretty disappointing. I was able to have a virtual graduation but that just is not the same. Now that I have transitioned into college, I don’t really still feel anger or disappointment about that time, but I do wish I had that memory to look back on. Another major problem that has come with COVID-19 is my freshman experience at Lipscomb. Lipscomb has done an amazing job with keeping us healthy and involved on campus, but there are still some things that...
