A first of its kind event aims at increasing student enrollment.

Campus tours are a common occurrence for prospective students and faculty to see the campus, but on March 16, Augusta State University held a new and unique type of campus experience. During this tour, interested students were able to visit more than what is covered by the typical campus tour, said Scott Argo, the assistant director of admissions.

“We do campus tours every day, Monday through Friday at 10 (a.m.) and 2 (p.m.), and we average about six or seven people at each time slot throughout the week,” Argo said. “We have a lot more students visiting campus than I think a lot of our current students, faculty and staff realize, but they are just here for a campus tour, and then they go on their way.”

Because more students are visiting campus, something new was needed to entice students to apply to the school and follow through on completing their application, which is where Futures Friday came in. There has been a slight increase in applications for next year, but for those students who apply, there are still a lot of requirements they need to complete the process, Argo said. Some of the requirements included turning in SAT scores and taking the compass test, which is a big requirement for Augusta State, and could have been completed during Futures Friday.

The date for the event was chosen after discussing it with associates, such as counselors in Columbia County, because it was a Friday and a furlough day for Richmond County, therefore making it easier for students to attend, Argo said. This event was a “build your own agenda” day, meaning students could choose what they did during the day.

“What we (wanted) to do is open an invitation to students to come visit campus, but not just take the regular campus tour,” Argo said. “We actually (did) five different tours instead of two (tours). It’s been a joint collaboration with a bunch of different campus departments. The testing center (opened) up for compass in the morning, housing (opened) up for tours, and financial aid (did) a presentation for students.”

The financial aid presentation took place Friday morning in front of a crowded room of prospective students and parents. One of the presenters was Amy Barnett, the HOPE administrator, who said the presentation covered multiple areas of financial aid.

“We mainly just talked about the general aspects of financial aid, the different types of aid, such as Pell Grant, student loans, work study, and we covered basics of the process of filing your FAFSA, reviewing it for errors and the verification process,” Barnett said. “We also covered our Satisfactory Academic Progress policy, (and) briefly mentioned HOPE and other scholarships.”

Because the presentation covered a lot of information, there was a lot for the students to take in, but the audience had a positive reaction to everything, Barnett said. The audience was attentive, with some taking notes and asking questions during and after the presentation about different scholarships, FAFSA and other expected questions.

The financial aid presentation was just one part of the event participants could attend. An online agenda was created where students could register and select what they wanted to visit that day. The students could choose to visit one specific area of campus or they could go to multiple locations, such as the testing center, student housing and even the JSAC food court, Argo said. By allowing interested students to visit different departments, the campus is working on attracting more students.

“What we are trying to do is increase our appeal,” Argo said. “We have a lot of students who apply to Augusta State and a lot of those students end up being accepted and enrolling. But there (are) a large number of students who apply who never finish the application process for one reason or another. There are many reasons a lot of students don’t finish the application process – they may choose another school; they may realize they aren’t going to meet our requirements so they don’t follow through; there’s several military students, so they might get deployed. We work with those students to either withdraw their application or move it to a different term as best as we can because our job is to get students in the school. So that’s why with Futures Friday, we are looking at what has been a problem for students. A big focus has been, compass is offered during the week, (and) it’s hard for some of our high school students to come take compass.”

During the event many students took the compass test, which will help lower the number who have to take it during the summer, said Tyler Werrick, an admissions recruiter and coordinator of the duel enrollment program, who had several jobs during the day.

“My role in it initially was to get notice out,” Werrick said. “We promoted it probably for about 2 months prior to the event. When it came time the students selected what they wanted to be a part of, (and) I made suggested schedules for them. On the day I basically held the fort down here (Benet House) and ran just to check on everybody and make sure everything was going smoothly, which it did. It was a very successful day.”

During the day, a lot of questions Werrick said he received were basic ones concerning what documents students still needed to send in and how to arrange schedules. Some sent requests for their transcripts while on campus and some even applied for admission, which helped make the event a success, especially because more students attended than predicted.

“We had twice as many students (than) we expected when we were planning (the event) show up,” Argo said. “We had all together over 225 visitors to campus, a lot of that included parents. There were over 140 students (and) about 100 of them were local and the other 40 or so were a group from out of town. We saw students from the Savannah area, the Atlanta area (and) the Athens area, but a majority were local, so we were very excited about that.”

Approximately 75 students were already accepted to Augusta State as a result of the event, Argo said. With the success of the event, he said it would like to host more in future, with one in each term next year. By having one in early in each semester, the event will occur before different deadlines, so it can better assist students by adding more workshops, as this event occurred after several deadlines.

Overall, Argo said the event was successful because different departments across campus pooled together to help with the event and rose to the occasion. Barnett shared similar feeling to Argo and said she liked the idea of Futures Friday.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Barnett said. “The more we can get out there and talk to people and inform them (about) ASU stuff and financial aid, I think is always a positive thing.”

For the longest time I could not figure out what to write about for this column, when all of a sudden, it came to me one day while I was driving to school.

During this drive, the driver of a big truck cut me off despite the fact that there was plenty of space behind me for him to turn into the lane.

After he cut me off, instead of driving normally in the school zone we were in, he decided to repeatedly slow down and spin the mud off his tires in an obnoxious way while attempting to splatter my car with mud. Then, to top it off, he was constantly breaking and staring in his side mirror looking back at me to see where I was. It appeared he was laughing at me and trying to see my reaction to his action.

Another incident occurred when I was waiting in the suicide lane to turn to left. The lane I was in was one where drivers could turn right or left on either side of the road, but with this lane, drivers primarily turned left at the light onto another road. However, I was going to a restaurant that required me to make a left to the opposite side of the road, against oncoming traffic. Since it was rush hour, there were a lot of cars on the road, and I became surrounded by cars facing me wanting to turn at the light but could not because I was in the way. Instead of just waiting for me to turn and get out of the way, the first car facing me decided that it would drive on the wrong side of the road, into oncoming traffic, just to pass me. The driver could not wait another minute or two for me to turn out of the way and safely proceed in the turn lane; instead he decided to risk the lives of themselves and anybody who was in a car around them by driving on the wrong side of the road.

These two incidents angered me but also made me realize just how much I hate driving and how many people out there have done things similar or worse than this that are dangerous. There are also other incidents that occur on the road that bug me, but I can deal with those.

With the instances that are tolerable, the first one is when I am at a stoplight and the person behind me pulls up so close they are only an inch or so away from the back of my car. So I pull up a little bit and they pull up again. Why would somebody do this? It only gets you an inch closer to your destination; it is pointless.

Another thing that bugs me is when a lane ends and merges into another lane, and it has always been that way, but drivers still decide to stay in that lane and attempt to merge over at the very end of the lane. This really annoys me because if you know the lane ends, why do you have to drive in it until the very end and what makes you think I will let you in? If I had to wait in traffic to get up to that point in the correct lane, why would I let you cut in front of me when all you did was speed up to the front?

Even though these are only some instances when I have witnessed bad driving skills, I know they are not the only times. But these moments could have quickly turned into something worse because of the carelessness of the drivers.

I’m not saying I’m the perfect driver, I’m sure I do some stupid things every now and then. But what I am saying is be careful out there and mindful of others on the road because one little mistake could cost you or somebody else their life.

From a Young Age:

Behind the image of a successful doctor is a person who enjoys working with his hands and spending time with his family.

This man is Ricardo Azziz, the president of Georgia Health Sciences University, and future president of the newly merged universities. Azziz, a native of Uruguay, had an interesting childhood, where he moved from Uruguay to Costa Rico to Puerto Rico. By growing up in different countries, Azziz said he developed a unique perspective on life.

“It also gave you a level of uncertainty about time and place, so that you needed to be sure you had a very strong internal foundation and emotional foundation because you couldn’t count on being in the same place forever,” Azziz said.  “You couldn’t count on knowing your friends for 20 years. You couldn’t count on really understanding the culture of the place that much; you had to actually adapt fairly quickly.”

As to why he constantly moved around as a child, Azziz said it was due to his father’s choice of a lifestyle, even though in the beginning, he thought it was for another reason entirely.

“Well, for a long time I thought maybe my dad was a spy,” Azziz said jokingly. “But the answer is no. My dad is a physicist, and he really is sort of almost nomadic in his approach to life. He just sort of, after a little while gets up and moves. Although, by the time I was 32 I had moved 32 times in my life and I have no idea why exactly he decided to move that much.”

This constant moving around also created some very important events in Azziz’s life. One of those events involved him being sent back to his home country at age 10, to be taken in by his 16-year-old aunt who he had never met before and other relatives in Uruguay.

“My father, in order to make sure that I didn’t lose any time in school, sent me to Uruguay by myself with my nine-year-old brother,” he said. “I had been living in a very protected environment in Pittsburgh, going to Catholic school, and so that was something that was extraordinarily different to me. I was all of a sudden free and could roam the small town on a bicycle. It was freedom.”

Although there was a newly found freedom for him and his younger brother, there was a lot of resistance they encountered being from the United States and living in a foreign country.

“At the same time I was also part of that hated Yankee group, this was in the late 60s when there was a tremendous amount of revolution going on in South America,” Azziz said. “So I was also the enemy at that particular time.”

Besides being considered an enemy during his time in Uruguay, Azziz also witnessed an important event that affected his life.

“Later on, a couple years later I ended up being the sole living witness for the kidnapping of an ex-minister of agriculture in Uruguay by the urban guerilla movement at the time. That was of course very impressive on me because it really just highlighted the fact that one day you’re here and the next day you’re gone.”

Personal Passions:

Traveling is something that Azziz has continued to do throughout his life and has become a way for him to bond with his oldest daughter Ashlee, a sophomore communications major at Augusta State University. She said traveling is something they have done together for many years, and those trips have made some of her favorite memories with her father.

“Every summer, he and I go on a trip out of the country together,” Ashlee Azziz said. “We’ve been doing that since I was 12. We’ve gone to Denmark, London, Buenos Aires (and) a lot of places. It’s really helped us just get closer because I am older than my other siblings by six and eight years, so it is more difficult. It’s been really good to be able to spend some alone time and quality time with him during the summers for the last six or seven years.”

Besides influencing an enjoyment of travel, Azziz said his parents were a big influence on him artistically. They were very artistic and involved with graphic arts, but because they were self-trained, they did not pursue a professional career in art. However, they did believe art was a way to enhance society, so they made sure art and music was a part of their lives.

As an artist himself, the university president has an extensive collection of his pieces done in his preferred medium of choice.

“I do pen and ink for reasons that actually are unclear,” Azziz said. “But I will tell you it probably it began because in my early years. I did a lot of cartooning, and I did a lot of work doing cartoons for newspapers and those kind of things.”

He said his perspectives come from all the traveling and moving he has done, because it allows him to see things differently and create his art. When it comes time for him to create his works, he has two different approaches by either putting an image from his head onto paper, or simply letting his mind rest and have his hand to the work.

Cynthia Azziz, his wife of 15 years, said when her husband is working on his pieces he enjoys playing different types of music to help set his mood.

“When he does make the opportunity he is very excited,” she said. “He gets everything else set up so he doesn’t have to stop once he gets started, and he always works to music, always. It seems like he goes for old bands like ZZ Top, people of this nature who typically have a lot of rhythm, a lot of changing. I have no idea what that does for him, (but) I always enjoy it because that’s from my era.”

Azziz said he also does creative writing, in several fields, but when he’s not busy working on his art or writing, another major hobby he enjoys is working on cars, which is something he has done since he was a child.

“I love old cars, I tend to like to work on them,” Azziz said. “I don’t particularly get them to just sort of store, I work on them. My biggest project ever was a 1957 Chevy truck that I did a complete frame off restoration and a number of other cars. I love restoring things, I like fixing things.”

His wife said her husband worked on his 1957 Chevy truck for 13 years and would not put anything on it that was not original. After restoring it to pristine condition they moved to California and had to sell the Chevy due to the lack of parking spaces. Cynthia Azziz said when he is working on cars he develops a certain type of attitude.

“It (working on cars) is a love of his,” his wife said. “He helped his father work on cars growing up, they were always doing something to work on the cars, (either) preventative maintenance or something to make them work better. It wasn’t necessarily restoring cars like he (did) with the ‘57. It’s something he enjoys very much.”

His Career: Another Personal Passion?

Besides working on his art and cars, Azziz also enjoys spending time working on his creative writing.

“I do a lot of scientific writing and I’m extensively published in that area,” Azziz said. “Some people may not consider that to be very creative, but there is some creativity involved in that. But I also have a number of writing projects that I’m working on at my home related to various parts of my life and perspective.”

The writing projects he is working on vary and will cover different events and important things for him that have occurred throughout his life, Azziz said. Some material for his writing includes his patients, because they have stories that he said he believes need to be told.

“My specialty is really examining women who have excess hormones and what you would commonly call many women who are bearded,” Azziz said. “I have a tremendous compassion for these women and really, I think that their stories need to be written, and that’s something I’m working on.”

When these writing projects will be completed is uncertain, but projects similar to this will always be on Azziz’s horizon in the future.

“He says he can see himself slowing down, but whatever he’s doing, I can guarantee he’ll be very busy and work hard at doing it,” Cynthia said. “I think the word retirement for him is completely different definition from what most people would classify as retirement and I don’t see him being retired in 10 years either. Whatever he’s doing, he’ll go in full steam ahead. If we ever get to the point of retiring, I see him still teaching part-time and having plenty of time to do art and write.”

Azziz has a love for work and learning that is admirable. His daughter said it leads her to wonder, just like her step-mom, if he will actually retire.

“I don’t know if he’ll ever retire, honestly,” she said. “He says he wants to, but he loves working too much. Even when he says he’s retiring, he says he wants to go back to school and get a master’s in art history (and) I definitely see him doing that. That’s one strange thing that I wish him and I had in common, I like school but he loves school.”

What the future holds for Azziz is unclear, but in 10 years he said he hopes he will still be in Augusta.

“I hope that I am here, at this great new university; that we will look back, and we will be very proud about all the things we have accomplished,” Azziz said. “The fact that the students will be incredibly proud about what we have been able to achieve.”

His daughter however, has a different idea concerning the future of her father.

“I see him as the president of Harvard or some ivy league,” she said. “I think that’s what he will do until he retires. I think that this (the merger) is his job of the century. My dad loves to fix things. He’s not the type of person that wants to go to a university that’s already the best. He wants to go to a university that he can make the best and that’s actually one of the main reasons he choose to come here was because he knew he could take something that isn’t great and make it amazing.”

“I know you want to feel like you were the first to get the information out there, but it doesn’t matter if you’re the first when you’re giving out wrong information.”  

As May 12 approaches, the time comes for me to start saying good-bye to school and all the friends I have made throughout the years.

Even though I still have classes to complete this summer, I will soon be a college graduate and trying to survive in the real world. This idea frightens me because I have been in school for so long and makes me wonder if I am prepared enough to handle the real world. But before this day comes and I walk across the stage to receive my diploma, I have started reminiscing about everything I have learned and accomplished in my years at Augusta State University.

What I consider to be my biggest accomplishment during time here is becoming a writer and eventually the chief reporter for The Bell Ringer. I also know some of the best times I had during my years here were while I was in my final year on The Bell Ringer staff during the meetings and production weekends that I attended.

The reason for this is because I am a journalism major; these were the people who were in my all of my classes and I was constantly around. They were the people who I would see all the time, especially during the newspaper meetings, so some very good friendships developed.

They became the people I would hang out with after a class and would help me with assignments if I needed it and vice versa. They were also the people who understood all that I was going through while trying to complete assignments, and who became, especially my fellow seniors, a support system in a way because we were all in the same boat.

But as the time for me to graduate approaches, I wonder what the future holds for me, where I will be and who will be involved in my future career.

Because I want to move to New York City and work in either theatre or travel writing, I know the chances of still seeing all the friends I made during my years in college is slim to none, unless everybody moves with me. I have a feeling that will not happen, but hopefully somehow I will still stay in contact with them.

Whether it is through Facebook or emails or visiting at each other’s weddings, we will find a way to stay in touch and hopefully get together to discuss what everybody has done and what they plan on doing in the future.

Because what the future holds for me and where I’ll be is uncertain, I do not know who or what I will be involved with. But I know that the friendships I made and people I met during my college years will always be there to support me and I will do the same for them.

“Sometimes it’s the story lines and how in-depth the games are made. Other times it is just a time filler, whereas a long time ago you might’ve read a book or played outside and used your imagination.”

Gamers and the people involved in the business, like Robert Steele,  owner of Level Up in Martinez, Ga., carry a love for video games that justifies long hours of play, current sales numbers and the mass-hysteria come Black Friday over products.

To help people get their fix of games, Steele opened Level Up where gamers can play a slew of video games to their hearts content. The gamers who come to the store vary greatly in age, from dads with their sons, to men in their 70s, one specifically who Steele said needed work done on a piece of equipment. During the week, approximately 15-20 patrons visit the location, but on the weekends, the store sees much more action.

“On the weekends, I can’t count,” Steele said. “There are so many people in and out Friday and Saturday nights, it’s hard to keep up with the exact number. My capacity is 50, and I hit that several times in the last two weeks.”

While there are some people who visit every day and stay for limited hours, the gamers who only visit once a week stay for an extended period of time, Steele said.

“The folks that are coming in every day, they might only have an hour or two to play,” Steele said. “The folks that are coming in on Friday and Saturday night are staying from whenever they get here until whenever I close.”

Level Up owns more than 600 games, ranging from shooter games and strategy games to the Kinect game, in which the gamers ’ body is the controller, Steele said. They also have 3-D games, a pool table, PS3, X-Box and Wii games, with one of the most popular game being “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” on the X-Box and “Battlefield 3” on the PS 3. A myriad of video games is just one of the reasons why gamers come to Level Up.

“It’s a combination of a couple of things,” Steele said. “I would think a passion for video games is one of them. That’s sort of the whole idea of the place, is to get groups of people together to play those types of games. The other thing is, (it) is something cheap that you can go do before, say you have classes in the morning, you can go play for two hours and then you get to go to work that afternoon. It’s just like a break.”

To help gamers with their passion, once a month Level Up hosts an all-nighter when they are open for about 13 hours. There was one held Feb 18, and Steele said about 60 people attended on and off throughout the night. Around 15-20 stayed the whole 13 hours.

One of the gamers who attended the event was 18-year-old Andrew Hull, who said he comes to Level Up usually on Friday nights every week for about seven hours.

During the week, Hull said he does not play as many video games but is usually logging an hour each day for four days a week. The longest he ever played a game straight was when he played “Final Fantasy XIII” for six hours because he had nothing better to do.

Even though Hull plays video games throughout the week and for multiple hours at a time, he said playing games has not affected his life too much. Video games allow Hull to feel calm and relaxed, he said, because it allows him to do whatever he pleases without having to worry about the consequences. The only hiccup is when he gets stressed from a sub-par run. Hull considers video games a passion of his, nothing to obsess about.

“I like them, but I won’t get to the point where if someone says they don’t like it I won’t argue with them,” Hull said. “(Besides playing video games) I hang out with people and we usually do what is spur of the moment.”

While Hull might have a passion for video games, Cory Wells, a 23-year-old gamer, said gaming is neither a passion nor obsession, but more of a mixture of the two.  Wells said he plays video games every day after he gets home from work at 6 p.m. and plays until about two or three in the morning. The reason he plays for such a great amount of time is he has nothing to do when he is not working. Wells has played some games straight for numerous hours, and playing games has impacted parts of his life.

“When Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind came out I was up for about 36 or 37 hours on it,” Wells said. “It was amazing. It doesn’t affect work any because (it’s) nowhere near as important as work,” Wells said. “But I could say it’s affected my social life. I don’t go out as much. But when you talk to people over games that are online, you really don’t need to go out that much.”

When he is playing games, typically RPG’s, Wells said he has a tendency to zone-out because he is very connected to the characters.

“I love to play them, but I kind of get fidgety if I go for a few days without being on,” Wells said. “It’s kind of like a drug.”

Other gamers, like Cameron McNeil, a 21-year-old gamer, have a different view on video games. McNeil said he has been to Level Up every weekend since he first discovered the store.

McNeil said over-playing video games has affected his sleeping patterns, at times making him unable to do anything due to exhaustion. When playing games, he stays up all night and spends whatever money he has on them.

“I just like the escapism,” McNeil said. “I like the sense of accomplishment.”

Whether it’s a plaque or a ceremony, people can be honored in many ways, but what about with a quilt?

That is exactly what the Breman Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum did when the organization created the Women of Valor: The Legacy Quilt. The purpose of the museum is to preserve and collect the history of Jewish life in Georgia and Alabama, said Pat Pugrant, a volunteer and coordinator of the Women of Valor Quilt Program, and one way it is doing that is with the quilt.

“I began working on this project because I found there were many women who were ordinary folk in their time and did things that were needed in their community,” Pugrant said. “Nobody really honored them for the work they did and the role models they portrayed. So Sandy Breman, who is the archivist of the Breman Museum, asked me if I would do a quilt to honor these women.”

For the project, 11 women whose work occurred between 1850 and 1950 were chosen and put on the quilt, Pugrant said. As to why a quilt was chosen to represent the women and not in another way, there was a certain reason for it.

“We wanted something permanent so their legacy would perpetuate, it would continue,” Pugrant said. “What I have done is, I have traveled around since it was first introduced in 2004 to many different communities all over Georgia, North Carolina and Florida storytelling about these women. I’ve spoken to school groups, church groups, Synagogue groups, senior citizens, young children, anybody who would like to listen to me. I would relate the lives of these women to my audience, so everybody would see these women were actually role models, and they could think about them in their daily life and be able to be like them.”

Pugrant and the quilt first came in contact with Augusta State University when she contacted Reese Library looking for information about certain women, said Carol Waggoner-Angleton, the special collections assistant.

“Ms. Pugrant contacted us originally. She was doing research to do a similar type of quilt, and we worked on material on a Ms. Rose Nachman,” Waggoner-Angleton said. “(She) was active in Augusta (between) 1912 to 1940, especially the Augusta Women’s Club in some of the Jewish Synagogue circles. She was also fairly active in the women’s suffrage movement before 1920. In fact, that’s when her name first gets in the paper, she’s doing events and things to support passage of the 19th amendment.”

During this encounter the Women of Valor quilt came up, Waggoner-Angleton said. From there, its visit to Augusta State was scheduled.

“She mentioned the Women of Valor quilt, and I said ‘oh, that would be a wonderful thing to bring to Augusta’ and she goes, ‘oh, well I can do that, when do you want to do it?’” Waggoner-Angleton said. “So, we set it up for March specifically because March is Women’s History Month.”

On March 20, the quilt made its appearance at Reese Library, where Pugrant gave a presentation about the quilt. During her visit to Augusta State, Pugrant said she was excited to be at the University and give her traditional presentation about the quilt and the story boards for each of the women. But, she also had some more news to add to her presentation about a second quilt being made.

“We are going to (be) honoring someone on the second quilt who is from Augusta,” Pugrant said. “I’m very excited to be able to tell how people reached out and helped one another in the community because I know that theme permeates this quilt, and I know that people in Augusta are very kind and caring for one another.”

The woman on the second quilt will be Rose Nachman, the woman who put Pugrant in contact with Augusta State in the first place, and her work during the flood of 1929 will be featured, Pugrant said. This quilt will be completed around late summer or early fall, and the quilt is being made for a particular reason.

“It’s important to note the role of women because women didn’t get the right to vote,” Pugrant said. “It was very unusual for a woman to actually be able to speak out in public. So many of these women disregarded the fact that it wasn’t common practice and went ahead and did what they believed in because one person has to care for another.”

While Pugrant was looking forward to visiting Augusta, one person who was looking forward to hopefully seeing the quilt and learning about the idea behind it is Leah Ronen, the executive director of the Augusta Jewish Federation and the Augusta Jewish Community.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea; I think it’s fabulous,” Ronen said. “(I’m looking forward to) learning about who’s on it and why those particular women were chosen. I’m assuming because the Bremen Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum is in Atlanta, they focused on people who weren’t originally from Atlanta but ended up in Atlanta. Although I think it’s a wonderful idea and certainly because the museum is in Atlanta, it’s wonderful to focus on women of valor in the Atlanta area; I would love to see a follow up to that quilt.”

A follow up quilt is being made, and with this one, Ronen said she would like to see a broader variety of women on the quilt because of the appeal it could have toward audiences.

“There are some pretty incredible women around North America,” Ronen said. “It would be nice if they were on it. I like things like that. I would like to be able to see it and see what these women looked like and learn more about them.”

Since she has traveled across the Southeast with the quilt, Pugrant said there is one part of her job she greatly enjoys.

“I love to watch the expressions on the faces of the audience,” Pugrant said. “It is the most motivating and exciting experience because I have had people relating to things I’m talking about and when you look at someone you can see they are really understanding what you’re saying and they’re really tuned into it.  That’s what this quilt does. It really captivates your attention and makes you really think how you can better the world of today and tomorrow as well.”

“I see my game improving mostly by adjusting to different things around here. We’re constantly playing different courses.”

A three-day tournament on their home course left the Lady Jaguars’ golf team with a second-place finish.

Over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend, the women’s golf team hosted and participated in the Insperity Lady Jaguar Intercollegiate at Forest Hills Golf Club, where 14 teams competed. After the first day of play, the Jaguars were tied with Purdue University for second place with a combined score of 299 and stood one stroke behind the leading team, the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).

The second day of the tournament ended with the team earning a combined score of 289, placing them in sole possession of second place. UTSA, which had a score of 286, continued to set the pace, while Purdue slipped to third place behind Augusta State University after posting a score of 293.

During the second round, Lady Jaguar Casey Kennedy, a sophomore health and physical education major, registered a score of 69, leaving her 3-under-par for the day. This score, combined with her 73 from the first day, moved her into first place individually heading into the final round.

The third and final day of the tournament ended with the Lady Jags shooting a combined score of 298, placing them in third for the day, behind Purdue with a score of 295 and UTSA with a score of 296. During the third round of play, Paula Reto from Purdue shot an 8-under-par 64, setting a record low round for the tournament and placing her first individually with a total score of 207. Following 10 strokes behind Reto in the runner-up position was Kennedy from Augusta State, with scores of 73, 69 and 75 for a combined total of 217.

Kennedy said she enjoyed the feeling of getting second place but noticed what she needed to improve on.

“(It feels) pretty good,” Kennedy said. “I came in first before this round (on March 17), and I didn’t play my best today. It was kind of a struggle. I hit the ball well, (but) I just couldn’t make any puts. The girl who won, she lit it up out there and even if I played well, I think she still would have came out with (first place), so I can’t really complain.”

To work on improving her game, Kennedy said she has a plan.

“We’ll have regular practice, and I’ll just work on what I need to,” Kennedy said. “I need to work on putting after today. I putted well; I just couldn’t make any. I just (have) to work on the 15-footers and try to make those before our next tournament.”

When all the scores were tallied after the final round, Augusta State came in second with a total of 886, six shots behind the winning team, UTSA, and one stroke ahead of Purdue.

Even though Augusta State came up short of notching its second win of the spring, Kory Thompson, the coach of the Lady Jags said she was happy with the results at her team’s home event.

“I’m really proud,” Thompson said. “We’ve gotten second (at the Lady Jaguar Intercollegiate) for, I think, the last four years. We were hoping for that win, but they still played great.”

Just like Thompson, Kennedy was also pleased with the results, even though she had higher hopes for the team during the tournament.

“I was looking forward to winning,” Kennedy said. “We came in second, so I can’t really complain about that. We beat a team that was better ranked than us (Purdue), so we’re going to move up in the rankings, which will really help.”

Another player who also thought the team played well was Christine Duschek-Hansen, a sophomore finance major, who shot a 76, 73, 76 and tied for 14th. She said she enjoyed playing in the tournament.

“It was great,” Duschek-Hansen said. “The conditions (were) really good; it was good weather, and the course was in good shape. (There were) good teams and we knew we could win, (and) we played pretty well.”

To prepare herself for each round, Duschek-Hansen said she went through her routines, which included mentally preparing for the round, playing well, staying focused and knowing what to work on. She said there is always something to do to improve her game and prepare for the next tournament.

Thompson has a similar outlook and hopes to come in first at Forest Hills next year. She said one area her players will focus on is their short game because it can make or break a round and can always be improved.

With two second place finishes under the Lady Jags’ belt, one for the team and one individually, Thompson said she enjoyed the week of the tournament.

“My favorite part was (just being at the) home course and (having) so many supporters out here and over 50 volunteers,” Thompson said. “We had more fans than (volunteers) come out and support us. It was just a really good week and I think everyone enjoyed it as far as the teams. We had a cookout on Thursday night and hosted family dinners Friday night, so it was just overall a really good week.”

“…always keep your passport in a safe location and separate from your other belongings, because no matter how safe you think it is, there is always a chance it can be lost.”  

My first time travelling overseas, the worst thing happened to me that could happen to anybody: I lost my passport.

The first time I went to Europe was for a 15-day trip in high school, and the second day into the trip I discovered that I lost my passport somewhere in Venice. Since I was no longer in possession of a passport and had no way to leave the country, I had to file a police report about it being missing and then go to the U.S. Embassy to get a new one.

To get to the police station, my tour guide had to accompany me because I had no idea where to go and do not speak a word of Italian. While there, the officer questioned me through the tour guide about where I lost it and other questions similar in nature. Once we were done the next step was for me to go to the U.S. Embassy and get a new one.

Getting the new passport was the part that scared me the most because I had to get an appointment with the Embassy, and I was not sure if that was going to happen. Luckily, I was able to get in, and this visit was one of the most nerve wracking things I have ever done.

Upon arriving, it appeared that my tour guide was not going to be able to come with me, but because I was a minor at the time, they let her accompany me. We had to leave all of our electronics at the door and received a ticket to use to pick them up on the way out. After filling out some paper work and while waiting to get my new passport, my tour guide told me that she had to run to her bank and would meet me outside. So now I was left to fend for myself, and after waiting a little bit longer I got my new passport. Alone, I headed downstairs back to the main entrance, where I attempted to communicate with the guards at the entrance in an effort to get my belongs back. This proved to be a difficult feat because of the language barrier and the fact my tour guide had the ticket.

Finally, after communicating through some broken English, they understood me and returned my belongings. They then went on to tell me that I could either stand next to them and wait for my tour guide or go stand on the street corner by myself. Obviously I chose to wait next to the men with guns and not by myself in a foreign country. After waiting for at least an hour, my tour guide finally showed up, and we met up with the rest of group.

This experience taught me a very important lesson that I am going to share: Always keep your passport in a safe location and separate from your other belongings because no matter how safe you think it is, there is always a chance it can be lost.

They put on their dancing shoes for good cause.

On March 1, Le Chat Noir hosted a Latino dance fundraiser to benefit the American Heart Association. During the evening-long event, attendees were able to participate in a salsa dance demonstration, where they could put their new salsa skills to the test afterward. The salsa lessons were provided by instructors from Superior Academy, and it was asked to instruct the class because it is one of the few locations in town that teaches social salsa, said Jason Herrera, the owner of Superior Academy.

The fundraiser was organized by Analia Loria, a junior faculty member at Georgia Health Sciences University and a team captain for the American Heart Walk. She said she planned the benefit as a way to raise money for the American Heart Association walk on March 3. For the past three months, there were a slew of fundraisers to raise money, and this event was the final one before the walk. The choice of what kind of fundraiser to have was a fairly simple one for Loria because she herself is Latino and knows a lot about the dance.

The two days before the event, Loria said she hit the pavement and went all around downtown with flyers asking for donations for the fundraiser and was able to get close to 12 donations. The donations allowed them to give every attendee a raffle ticket when they entered the establishment. Le Chat Noir was chosen because of its location to the downtown area.

“We were (looking at) several locations, like (asking) quotes for how much to rent, and we got a good deal here,” Loria said. “They were not picky about many, many things regarding details and (were) helpful. Obviously we had to negotiate what we can do, what we cannot, what they are suppose to be doing (and) what we are suppose to be doing. But it was the most accessible place that we had to deal with, so finally we decided to just (have it) here. Also because I used to come here (for) different events, I was familiar with many people, the manager, the DJ, so it was just perfect.”

The event included a disc jockey, but the night was completed by free salsa lessons taught by instructors from Superior Academy. One of the instructors was the salsa director of Superior Academy, James McIver, who said teaching the Caribbean-rooted dance at fundraisers is enjoyable.

“It’s the best thing because it allows us to share with people who ordinarily wouldn’t walk into the salsa school,” McIver said. “Being able to go into the general public and different venues and (have) different opportunities (that) give people who really are open-minded (a chance) to try something new and have a good time.”

When it comes to teaching people salsa for the first time, McIver and Herrera said it is pretty simple.

“Salsa is very easy to learn,” Herrera said. “Individuals will partner up with anybody around them and we will direct them through basic steps, basic turns (and) basic musicality. People will be dancing by the end of the first class.”

For Simone Kennard, one of the patrons in attendance and a member of Lorias’ team for the heart walk, the combining of steps and rhythm was more difficult than learning them individually. Kennard said it was a fun event, so she was happy to volunteer and participate in the salsa lesson, even though she was apprehensive at first. But despite this nervousness, she said she would pursue salsa lessons in the future and has already discussed signing up for more lessons with her husband.

Loria said there were about 65 people in attendance, and the event raised nearly $1,200.

“Because we did everything right up to the moment that SACS was going to come to our campus, we’re in a really excellent position to be able to go through consolidation.” -Raymond Whiting

New consolidation delays visit from SACS.

With the consolidation of Augusta State Uni-    versity and Georgia Health Sciences University, Augusta State will no longer be visited by SACS in March, which means that a Quality Enhancement Plan is no longer required, according to Wesley Kisting, assistant professor in the Department of English and Foreign Language and director of the QEP. However, Augusta State still has plans for the future of the KNIT program.

“The QEP we developed called Knowledge Integrated, or KNIT for short, is going to move forward,” Kisting said. “(It will be) fully funded for the full five-year term as a university initiative. So, its status has changed, but our intention to implement it and its’ basic design have not. Basically, what that means is, we’re moving forward with it because we now see it as an excellent idea worth implementing and worth funding, but not because SACS requires it for us to be reaccredited.”

The consolidation of the two universities cancels out the reaffirmation process Augusta State was about to go through.

“ASU is no longer getting reaffirmed as ASU, we’re moving directly to the consolidation phase, which operates by a different set of guidelines, so SACS doesn’t require a QEP under those guidelines,” Kisting said.

Raymond Whiting, professor of political science and associate vice president for institution effectiveness, said the ruling for the original visit would have never been done and going through the accreditation did not make sense. One reason was financial because site visits cost around $32,000 to $36,000.

After this decision, a letter was sent for a one year delay on the reaccreditation visit until Georgia Health Sciences University and Augusta State are fully merged.  Also, a new prospectus, which outlines the plan for the new university, will be created for the Commission on Colleges to look at.

“Right now because we did everything right up to the moment that SACS was going to come to our campus, we’re in a really excellent position to be able to go through consolidation,” Whiting said.  “Georgia Health Sciences University went through their full reaffirmation last year, we were prepared this year.  Both institutions have already gone through (the process), we have all the data, we have all the information, we’re well prepared.”

Being prepared included having a QEP in place, but now it is not required by SACS, Kisting said. The reason for this is because of the consolidation, and the univeristies have not had a chance to evaluate the learning problems of the students at both schools because they have not yet combined into one institution.

“The deficiencies our students have here (at Augusta State) might not be the same as the deficiencies they have down there,” Kisting said. “To ask two institutions to go through that rigorous self-assessment before they even become one makes no sense. The simpler way to put it is consolidation resets the SACS clock or time-frame, so we almost certainly will be asked to do a QEP in future reaffirmations, but probably not in the next five years after we’ve consolidated. But five years after we’ve consolidated, then probably we’ll be back to the normal reaffirmation process where you do have to have a QEP.”

Where Augusta State is concerned, they do not want to waste the idea and wait five years to implement the QEP, Kisting said. So, they are taking this former requirement and adding it to the curriculum.

“We don’t want to abandon a good idea just because we are no longer required to implement it,” Kisting said. “The reason it began as a plan that everyone was serious about implementing because they wanted to improve student learning. So that intention has not changed just because are not going to be reaccredited by SACS or because we’re not going to stay ASU.”

Besides it being a good idea, Kisting said another reason it was decided to continue with the KNIT program is because of the support it received from the faculty and administration at Augusta State and GHSU.

“The leadership at Georgia Health Sciences University has heard about the plan and essentially agreed this is a good plan that benefits everybody because it strengthens our core curriculum,” Kisting said. “So, they understand the costs that we predict for the plan, they understand that the faculty has bought into the plan here. They realize that some of their faculty may want to participate in this plan, although we teach most of the core. They’ve expressed several times their commitment in making sure it’s implemented and funded for five years.”

Some of the faculty at Augusta State was hesitant about the initiative because other initiatives have come and gone before, Kisting said. But the leadership is serious about this program and its implementation.

“I think this is the perfect signature program for the new university we are becoming,” Kisting said. “It’s a commitment to improving the core curriculum experience that will appeal to lots of colleges and universities nationwide. It’s a very simple, very affordable and I think a very well thought out strategy for making sure that students see stronger connections between their core classes, learn a little better what some of the personal and interpersonal benefits of knowledge are and will also build a much stronger sense of campus community, which is something that both of our institutions will benefit from in the long term.”

While the KNIT program is being implemented, the merger is also moving along and to keep it moving, there is a consolidation steering committee consisting of 21 people, which has community members and people from both institutions with staff, faculty and student representatives.  There is also a consolidation action team beneath it, Whiting said, which consists of eight people and four from each university.  However, the community members within the consolidation groups did not get picked because of any business or financial affiliation.

“They’re not there representing the bank,” Whiting said.  “They’re there representing a member of the community who has been involved in education.  So, they’re individuals who have been a member of our foundation or a member of the foundation down at GHSU or have been active in supporting the university in another way.”

During this process with the consolidation groups, steps have already been made to make this merger a reality.  Ricardo Azziz, president of Georgia Health Sciences University, spoke for about 20 minutes at the Augusta State University faculty meeting Thursday, March 8, about the mission statement, vision and values for the new university.

A new mission statement, vision and values are required by SACS to accredit the new university, Azziz said. These statements show SACS the new university has a plan for the future. It was created by group effort, with little involvement from the two presidents.

“Dr. Bloodworth and I had the least input into that,” Azziz said. “It really had to do with the group and again the group is partly the working group that has been appointed by the chancellor and there is a staff group that prepares material for that working group of the chancellor.”

The mission statement, which is broad and descriptive, is longer than traditional mission statements because it covers the consolidation of the two universities, Azziz said.

The vision statement, however, is shorter than the mission statement, but revealed a large vision for the new university.  For writing the values, Azziz said since many of the values between the two universities were similar, and it was fairly simple for the group to write the seven values, which are collaboration, compassion, excellency, inclusivity, integrity, leadership and scholarship.

“We want to be a destination, we want to be a place where students come here and say ‘I want to go to Augusta to train,’” Azziz said. “You want to have a place that patients say ‘I want to go to Augusta to have my care’ and that’s the vision. We want to be world-class, we don’t really want to say well we want to be as good as our neighboring institution or we want to just as good as our counterparts across the state, we want to be world-class.”