The Women’s Studies program has a new leader.

Seretha Williams, an associate professor of English, is now the interim director of Women’s Studies since Christie Launius left in the summer of 2008.

“We don’t have a search role now,” Williams said, “so I will be in place this year and the 2009-2010 academic year. It’s not a changing, it’s an adding on, (and) I love it.”

As an interim director, Williams is responsible for coordinating the minor program, and she is also chair of the Women’s Studies committee that speaks to different departments on campus, such as the Department of Sociology, Social Work and Criminal Justice; the Department of History, Anthropology, and Philosophy; and the Department of Psychology.

Williams is helped by Rachel Langley, a senior communications major, who has been the Women’s Studies’ student assistant since Fall ’07, and Shannon Bruckner, a senior English literature major, who is the president of the Women’s Studies Student Association (WSSA).

“As student assistant, I maintain and update the Women’s Studies Web site, make flyers and brochures for promotional purposes and help to keep students’ files updated during advising (and) registration,” Langley said.

Langley said that unfortunately not a lot of people are aware of the numerous events that the program offers.

“I think the program is important, but people don’t seem to have a good idea of what it can offer, so it’s easily overlooked,” Langley said. “This semester, there are a lot of events happening that I hope can give the program more publicity among the general student population.”

Williams said that there is Women’s History Month in March, and for the occasion, the program and the Department of History, Anthropology, and Philosophy are hosting a special scholar from Sweden named Bodal Formark. Then, the WSSA is having a conference March 28th on “Emerging Narratives.”

Moreover, Augusta State is University is working in collaboration with the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) to raise money and participate in the production of “The Vagina Monologues.” Thus, a fund raiser has been created to ask people to give their spare change.

The Women’s Studies program is hoping that students and faculty will attend the spring events it has organized, according to Langley.

There have been persistent rumors of “secret tunnels” beneath the surface of campus for many years.

The most popular version of the tunnel mythology contends that underground tunnels were constructed sometime during the Civil War, when the campus was the site of the Augusta Arsenal.

Supposedly, the soldiers stationed at the arsenal constructed a series of tunnels beneath buildings to facilitate the safe movement of people and supplies in the event of an attack.

Many of the buildings that existed at the time are still in existence today. Rains Hall, Payne Hall, Bellevue Hall and the Benet House were all constructed around the time of the Civil War. If tunnels ever actually did exist beneath any of these buildings, they should presumably still exist today.

Chris Murphy, a professor of anthropology, has done extensive research on the archaeological aspects of the campus.

“I’ve heard lots of stories about tunnels,” he said. “We’ve even had one woman claim that she can remember seeing one of the tunnels first-hand when she was a little girl.”

Although the idea of secret underground tunnels sounds like a bizarre and far-fetched fantasy to many people, Augusta State University actually does contain several hidden subterranean structures.

Approximately 10 to 15 feet below Washington Hall lies an underground weapons testing range. The range was built during World War II as a place to test weapons safely.

Access to the old firing range (which is now restricted) was originally granted by entering a door near the stairwell directly across from the university’s bookstore. The door opens up to reveal stairs that lead straight down into the firing range area.

Although the firing range structure is long, narrow and concealed below ground-level, it is not considered to be a tunnel of any sort. “A tunnel is a structure that is intended to connect two separate structures,” Murphy said.

In 2001, the Archaeology Club and volunteers helped to unearth an abandoned well in President William A. Bloodworth Jr.’s garden area of the quadrangle.

According to the Augusta State Archaeology Projects Web site, “Until the summer of 2001, it was not known whether there were any archaeological remains of the well itself surviving,”

However, the well was uncovered and found to be almost perfectly intact.

Much like the underground firing range under Washington Hall, the well is long, narrow and underground. Although the well possesses many tunnel-like characteristics, it is simply not a tunnel.

As the result of meticulous and exhausting research, most experts like Murphy share in the same conclusion about the question of tunnels beneath the Augusta State campus.

“Although I cannot rule out the possibility, I need to see something more concrete before we can prove that they exist,” Murphy said.

The Imperial Theatre in downtown Augusta debuted the documentary “In Their Own Words: The Tuskegee Airmen” on Jan. 17 with two special guests.

Alexander Jefferson and Hiram Little were actual Tuskegee Airmen who fought in the all-black Army Air Corps unit and who were featured in the documentary shown at the theater.

Both men have had experiences that most people could not even imagine.

Jefferson was shot down while flying over France and saw the atrocities of the Dachau concentration camp after its liberation during World War II.

Little worked on the civil obedience act, which helped bring about the desegregation of the United States military.

During the war, the Allied bomber crews nicknamed the Tuskegee Airmen the “Red Tail Angels” because of their record of allowing bombers to reach their targets safely and effectively.

When the men joined the unit to fight in the war, they said they weren’t thinking about their place in history, but just wanted to be up in the sky flying those airplanes.

Their impact was far greater than just another air brigade fighting the enemy during the war. Not only were they fighting foreign enemies in Europe, but the racial battle was also far from over.

The documentary was crafted by a video production company based in Augusta called Bryton Entertainment.

The film was compiled of 28 Tuskegee interviewees, allowing the men to tell their stories in their own words, stories of high aspirations and the will to prevail over historic tribulation.

The show was $15 for general admission and played to a sold-out crowd. A portion of the proceeds went to benefit the Colon-Dryden Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc.

For more information on the Tuskegee Airmen, visit their Web site at www.tuskegeeairmen.org, and to learn more about Bryton Entertainment, visit its Web site at www.brytonentertainment.com.

The men and women’s teams officially began their spring season Jan. 12 at 7 a.m.

They have practiced two times a day, doing fitness with Chris Cooper, baseball associate head coach, in the mornings and practicing tennis in the afternoons.

“It’s hard to wake up early, and the practice is difficult, but I like it,” said freshman Bernardo Fernandes. “I wasn’t used to doing that back in Brazil.”

On the women’s team, there are seven girls with only one freshman, Marina Ferreira, an undeclared major from Brazil. On the men’s team, there are 10 players, but only six players can be on the lineup and seven players overall can travel. Thus, in order to decide who will play the major tournaments, the head coach Michael McGrath has organized an in-home tournament where all the players from Augusta State University have to play against each other.

Both freshmen Bernardo Fernandes and Rafael Milhati are from Brazil and arrived at Augusta State this semester. Fernandes, an undeclared major, said he was practicing tennis before he came to Augusta. Milhati, a business management major, said he was practicing tennis and taking English lessons before he decided to study in an American university.

“I’m excited to play the tournaments and to travel with the team,” Milhati said.

Milhati and Fernandes admit that being on a team where the majority of players is from Brazil has been really helpful until now.

“On the one hand, it’s good because (my teammates) help me a lot,” Fernandes said, “but on the other hand, it’s terrible because I don’t practice my English at all.”

Even though Milhati and Fernandes said they are thrilled to be at Augusta State, they both say they miss their family and friends.

Before they even began their first tournament, the men’s tennis team was ranked No. 21 in the nation.

“I think we’re going to do pretty well,” said Felipe Ramos, a junior business management major. “Our main goal is (to be qualified) to nationals, but first we have to go to regionals.

With the help of a student study group, a new addition to campus can be found near the front entrance to Science Hall.

The new solar panel is a project that an independent study group is working on. This group of students have been working on setting up the panel for about one year.

The students not only worked to find a solar panel that fit their budget, but they were also responsible for assembling the panel when it was found. The group said they have high hopes that the panel they assembled will last for about 10 years.

During the Fall 2008 semester, Jeramy Barry, a senior physics and math double major, prepared a grant that would be the deciding factor for the loan needed to purchase the panel.

Barry explained that a solar panel absorbs the sunlight, which gives it energy and then creates voltage. The voltage is then sent through a series of wires.

The current that is produced through this process is used to recharge the battery. According to Assistant Professor of Physics Hauke Busch, the group has high hopes for the project.

“We are trying to make a hydrogen fuel station,” Busch said. “Actually, another group is trying to make hydrogen on demand.”

Along with being an assistant professor, Busch is also the chairman on the Augusta State University Green Committee. Their mission statement is to increase the energy efficiency of the campus, reduce carbon footprints and promote environmentally friendly projects that will work towards a renewable environment. The committee is always looking for student support and funding to accomplish its goals.

Busch said he is very interested in informing students about the problems our environment is facing everyday. He said he believes that an environmental physical science class will allow students the opportunity to learn and understand the issues of carbon footprints and the effects of population growth.

Although the solar panel on campus has the capability to power students’ laptops, there are still kinks that are being worked out.

Barry explains that the delay is due to the inverter. Currently, the group is awaiting the arrival of a new inverter, which will give students the opportunity to study the reasons why the first one burned out and to make the necessary adjustments.

With such chilly weather outside, it may feel like winter is here to stay, but luckily for Jaguar students, spring is just around the corner and with it comes softball season. The Jaguars’ softball team looks to be headed for a successful season, and the Feb. 7 home opener is quickly approaching.

According to the official Peach Belt Web site, the Jags ended their 2008 season with a record of 28-19. Kayla Hicks, a junior communications major, said that this year the team have set a goal of at least 40 wins. Having that goal in mind, the team worked hard in the off-season to train and prepare, with workout sessions starting at 6 a.m.

Team and individual practices also provided tough workouts in order for the team to be game-ready. This year, the team is made up of five freshman, two sophomores, six juniors and is lead by two seniors, Angii Verbeelen and Danielle Metzger.

“We are ready to win this year,” said Verbeelen, a health and science major. “We have been training so hard, and we all have a common goal: winning the Peach Belt title. There is really tough competition out there, but it’s time for the Jaguars to lead the conference.”

Head Coach Melissa Mullins said she thinks the team and the fans have something to look forward to in 2009.

“This team has big offensive potential,” Mullins said. “We have a lot of girls that are big hitters.”

When asked why she thinks people should come to softball games, Mullins’ replied with, “It’s a fast-paced game, the girls have a lot of heart, put forth extreme effort, plus you get a doubleheader every time.”

In February, the team will jet into action with five home games before a stretch of away games. After traveling for part of the month, the team returns on March 10 in a non-conference matchup against Wingate. Fans need to make sure to get out and see the girls play before April 7, the last regular season home game against USC Aiken.

With the exception of having to conduct the meeting in the cramped Skinner Conference Room in the JSAC, it was business as usual for SGA in their first senate meeting of the semester.

The most important part of the Jan. 15 agenda was the voting and swearing in of a new senate chair. Last semester, Nate Patterson held the position, but he has now transferred to the University of Georgia (UGA) to complete his undergraduate degree.

According to the SGA constitution, the senate chair is the recognized head of the senate and is responsible for maintaining and managing the legislative branch, which includes conducting senate meetings.

The two senate members nominated for the position were Logan Hinton, a finance major who held the position of parliamentarian for the Fall 2008 semester, and Kyle Hodge, a freshman political science major and up-and-coming senator.

Hinton won the vote, which was conducted via secret ballot, and began his term as senate chair at the Jan. 23 meeting.

Hodge, who lost to Hinton for senate chair, will take over for Hinton as parliamentarian for the Spring 2009 semester.

“As parliamentarian this semester, what we’re going to try to do as a senate overall is to build legitimacy amongst the student body,” Hodge said. “So, people, when they think of SGA, they see it as just, you know, a group of students that don’t really have that much say-so, but the truth is (that) the (student body) actually (has) a voice here on campus. So, this semester we’re going to try to convey to (students) that we actually get stuff accomplished in (SGA).”

Hodge said, as parliamentarian, he is willing to work with both the legislative and executive branch of SGA.

“Personally, I just want to bring commitment to the parliamentarian position,” he said. “I mean, I’m dedicated to working with all the senators, the (executive branch), pretty much everybody who is interested in getting stuff accomplished.”

This wasn’t the only important business discussed at the meeting. Andre Goodman, a senior political science major and president of SGA, said during his weekly report that a lot of student government presidents around Georgia were upset at how the state handled issuing the one-time fee of $75 for students this semester.

Goodman said that after the fee was announced, the student government programs at both UGA and Georgia Tech issued letters to the state.

Goodman and SGA Vice President Najhee Jackson, a political science major, were scheduled for a trip to the Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Friday, Jan. 23 to discuss the matter with student government representatives from around the state.

Then it came time to welcome the new senators for this semester. SGA Secretary Brett Parker, a political science major and the sole remaining member of the Committee on Committees, said to the other members of the senate that upon interviewing the four new candidates, he recommends every applicant.

The new senators were sworn in at the meeting. They are Curtis Fease, a junior psychology and criminal justice double major; Barinaada Kara, a freshman chemistry and psychology double major; Aleesha Mincey, a freshman biology major; and Richard Smith, a freshman political science major.

Fease has lofty goals for his term as one of SGA’s senators. He said he wants to make sure that the students are being heard when it comes to important legislation.

“I decided to become a senator to help out the student body and make sure that (the student’s) voice is heard during any type of meetings or anything that is going to affect them in the long run and to make sure they have a say in it and they aren’t being taken advantage of,” Fease said.

Imagine this: you’re sitting in class, and it’s your worst subject. Unfortunately, you have to put more into it just to get by with a “C,” but it looks like you won’t even get that because of one distraction.

While in class, you began to hear whispers. At first it seems unrecognizable, but soon the sounds become words, the words become sentences, and the sentences become a story. A story you could care less about.

Soon the professor’s lecture becomes silent. You see his mouth moving but no sound.

All you hear is how last night’s beer pong game turned into a morning of vomiting before coming to class. You even become nauseated just thinking about this person hunched over a toilet blowing chunks from all the alcohol the night before.

The story keeps going on and on. What do you do?

A.) You can wait until the class is over and approach him.

B.) Advise your professor about the situation.

C.) Turn around and smack him.

D.) Do nothing, and let the problem continue.

Most of us all do the last choice…nothing. How many of you pay tuition out of pocket? How many have loans? Who is here to learn so they won’t make minimum wage for the rest of their lives?

May I suggest that you stand up for yourself and those around you? I’m pretty sure you’re not the only one who is getting annoyed.

I recommend all of the choices above hitting someone.

If your professor doesn’t care about the situation, file numerous complaints to the department.

You are here to learn and succeed. A noisy student or a lazy professor should not stop you from earning your degree.

Remember this quote and don’t let someone say it’s not true: “One person can make a difference.”

“Underworld: Rise of the Lycans” is coming to theaters on Jan. 23, and given how strongly I dislike the previous installments, I can say with complete sincerity that I have absolutely no desire to see it.

The 2006 film “Underworld: Evolution” is without a doubt one of the very worst movies I have ever seen, a rarity of a dud that had me longing for the theater exit after having sat through only 30 minutes.

While the original “Underworld” is certainly miles better than its sequel, it, too, was absolutely insufferable to watch, thanks to its hackneyed and convoluted plot, horrible performances and a particularly ugly visual look.

“Underworld” is one of the rare awful movies that announces its badness from scene one.

After Kate Beckinsale provides us with a stilted voice-over reading, the movie catapults into a bloody, needlessly protracted, bystander-endangering subway shootout between characters we haven’t been introduced to yet, before anyone speaks a line of dialogue.

The plot, as convoluted as it is, involves a 1,000-year-old war between the upper-class vampires and the scruffy, lower-class lycans (aka werewolves), who human beings seem to be unaware of despite the fact that these monsters are constantly having gun/monster battles in public subways and apartment complexes.

The main character is the leather-clad, trigger-happy vampiress Selene (a bland Kate Beckinsale), who, after the subway shoot-out, stumbles upon a conspiracy involving a human doctor named Michael Corvin (the underused Scott Speedman), who holds the key for the Lycans’ victory.

For reasons that aren’t very clear, Selene falls head over heels in love with the ruggedly handsome young doctor, and against the wishes of the temporary vampire leader Kraven (a hilariously bad Shane Brolly), she risks her life and betrays her people to protect Michael from both sides.

Little does Selene know that the thought-to-be-dead Lycan leader Lucian (Michael Sheen) has already bitten Michael, and with the full moon only a few days away, Michael (because of his DNA) will transform into a new sort of werewolf who is twice as powerful as the regular Lycan.

The plot is nonsensical and seems to exist for no other reason than to showcase a bunch of comic-book-inspired visuals. Generally, I don’t mind movies like this; I gave a mild pass to last year’s “Max Payne” because of its style and Mark Wahlberg’s solid lead performance. Yet, the problem with “Underworld” is that it’s not particularly impressive on a visual level. In fact, it’s downright ugly to look at.

Featuring many sets stolen from far superior works like “The Crow,” “Dark City” and the Tim Burton’s “Batman” movies, the entire film is bathed in dark and murky blues and greens, giving the movie a particularly nasty visual polish that becomes absolutely unbearable after a while.

Even worse than the visual approach is the fact that the movie just isn’t scary at all. I know it’s supposed to be an action movie and all, but is one creepy shot too much to ask? With a movie featuring vampires and werewolves, it seems almost criminal for a movie like this to be utterly devoid of scares.

This wouldn’t be too much of a problem if the action scenes were up to snuff, but even they’re depressingly dull and formulaic, relying on “Matrix”-inspired visual gimmicks that do nothing but remind you of just how much better the “Matrix” movies are.

With little to almost nothing to recommend about it, the one thing you can say in “Underworld’s” defense is that it’s miles better than recent action bombs like “Rambo” and “Wanted.” That might not be saying much, but it’s better than not saying anything nice at all.

“The Package” is a Cold War thriller that features a plot so labyrinthine and intriguingly deceptive that following the story becomes one of the movie’s biggest pleasures.

It may take a great deal of patience to get use to, though, since the first 20 minutes of the movie features a series a scenes that seem to have no relation with each other at all. We see a young man arrested by the Berlin police, an assassination of a high-ranking general after a peace gathering and our hero (Gene Hackman) being assigned to transport a Army major (Tommy Lee Jones), which ends up going horribly wrong.

All these elements unfold in such a seemingly disconnected manner that we start to wonder how these scenes connect with each other, or if they connect at all.

Then, suddenly, the pieces slowly but surely begin to fall into place, coming together in a climax that is surprising without ever feeling contrived or forced.

That’s because “The Package” is driven more by character motivations rather than action or cheap contrivances, and the characters here are so well-rounded that it’s much easier to buy into the plot.

Of course, there are some logical loopholes that you have to swallow, such as a couple of villains who seem to pop up during the most convenient moments and our hero escaping rather easily from a military base after being put on house arrest.

Yet, such loopholes are easy to swallow, thanks to Andrew Davis’ stylish and energetic direction and a number of commanding lead performances.

Because the movie relies so much on plot twists, writing a synopsis would be an exceedingly arduous task.

Gene Hackman stars as Lt. John Gallagher, who is assigned to transfer a prisoner (Jones) from Berlin to the States. After making a quick pit stop in the airport bathroom, Gallagher is rendered unconscious in an obviously staged brawl and loses his package.

When informing the prisoner’s wife of his escape, Gallagher finds out that the guy isn’t who he appeared to be, and so he enlists the help of his ex-wife (Joanna Cassidy), who is now a higher ranking officer than him.

That’s all I can tell you about the plot. Assuming you haven’t seen the movie, revealing any more details about the plot would ruin the experience.

Let it be said that “The Package” is a refreshing action movie that has both exciting action and an intelligent plot. Usually movies like this fall apart in the climax, but that isn’t the case here. Davis and screenwriter John Bishop keep the focus entirely on the characters, so that it never feels unmotivated.

And the movie is also carried by some pretty terrific performances. Hackman is as electrifying as ever, bringing lots of humanity to what could’ve been a typical tough guy role, while Jones is both charming and menacing as the mysterious title character. Cassidy, however, is solid but is not given much to do.

The best performance is unquestionably turned in by Dennis Franz, who plays a Chicago cop assisting Hackman and Cassidy in their investigation. It’s almost impossible not to smile every time he’s on screen.