Bryan College Triangle

Alex Green
Assistant Online Editor

I’m just a guy writing a column. I get asked frequently if I am a student here and have paid every rate for food in the cafeteria and Lion’s Den. I almost got a staff discount once, too.

The truth is that I arrived at Bryan as a student last semester, but I have been at and around this school since I was a kid. My parents often drove my sister and I around the campus on our autumn Sunday afternoon cruises.

After some post-graduate adventures, I have landed here and am here to stay – hopefully until graduation. These are my thoughts on a place that I love not only as a student but as a piece of my home, Dayton. I’m not always right, but I am the one writing the column. Enjoy.

Mr. Palmer recently showed his Communication Ethics and Issues class a video about the Light’s Golden Jubilee, an extravaganza celebrated in October 1929 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the electric light bulb – thank you, Mr. Palmer; that is good stuff.

The jubilee was centered around the person of Thomas A. Edison, great American inventor and father of the electric light bulb. At a certain moment during the festival, Americans coast-to-coast were asked to switch off their lights in recognition of Edison, a giant among giants by the Dearborn, Mich., party.

The men who had come to acknowledge this titan of his times included President Herbert Hoover, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, industrialists John D. Rockefeller Jr. and J.P. Morgan and Edison’s admirer and auto revolutionist Henry Ford.

Today, I reluctantly acknowledge that giants are extinct. We Americans look back with swelling pride and awe at those figures of our past because they are like fossils, uncovered in the now bleak and deserted forests of the past. We reconstruct their impact and influence and put them on display in our museums. Read full story »

Reporter Shane Vicry talks about the cold, hard reality of having a football team here at Bryan / Photo by Maddie Doucet

Shane Vicry
Triangle Reporter

In August at the Rhea Students Appreciation and Orientation Dinner hosted in Latimer for incoming freshman from RCHS and their parents, President Livesay made one of the biggest and most stunning announcements in Bryan college history.

Following guest speaker and former Rhea County football coach Micah Ruehling, Dr. Livesay moved towards the microphone with a pep in his step. Grinning from ear to ear, the president had the look of a man swelling with pride for what he was about to reveal. The room was abuzz as the first few words fell from Livesay’s lips.

“I have a huge announcement for you all this evening; one only a handful of people are even aware of.”

Curiosity abounded, but no one in attendance could have imagined the magnitude of what came next. Read full story »

The King is Dead
The Decemberists
Released January 2011
Capitol Records

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by Anna Kat Thomas
Staff Writer

“Raise a glass to turnings of the Season” sing The Decemberists on their new album, “The King is Dead,” which is exactly what they did. In 40 minutes, the group created something quite powerful out of their newest album that release in January 2011.

For this album the group has stepped away from the complex story-telling songs that they have so-long been known for. The Decemberists have integrated the sounds and musical influences that lead singer/songwriter Colin Meloy began with in his pre-Decemberists days into their new album.

Photo courtesy of lintcoat.com

In a recent article in “Rolling Stone,” Meloy said the return to the authentic R.E.M. sounds is “our natural form. It’s what we did early on, except we liked challenging ourselves, toying with structure and having a sense of humor.”

“The King is Dead” has left the lengthy ballads of “The Crane Wife,” the rock-opera feel of their last album, and scattered music style for a definite and unified album that returns to the indie-folk sound of their roots in the Pacific Northwest.

Opening with “Don’t Carry It All,” led by a strong harmonica tune and carried by a chaotic but blended mix of instruments, the tune has an uplifting feel.

With all the changes in their sound, there is something the band has not lost, and that is the powerful yet sobering lyrics its songs are characterized by.

While Meloy tackles different issues in each song of “The King is Dead,” the unifying principle of the CD is that it is filled with emotion shown through the interesting metaphors and catchy rhythms.

In the second to last track on the album, “This is Why We Fight,” he belts: “Come the reek of bones/Come attrition/Come hell/This is why/Why we fight.” The emotions in these lyrics come alive through the passion in Meloy’s voice.

This same passion can be heard to a slower tune in the last track of the album “Dear Avery” when he sings, “There are times life will rattle your bones/And will bend your limbs.”

Though R.E.M.’s guitarist, Peter Buck, describes the album as “a fulcrum [and] now they can go anywhere,” Meloy sees it quite differently.

“A crossroads,” he told “Rolling Stone.” “I don’t know that I can go back to the long-form songs…But to continue making records like “The King is Dead,” which is going back to a more comfortable way of writing—that’s not a good thing either.”

Though the album consistently climbed the charts, Meloy and the rest of the band have decided this is a perfect time to walk away for a while.

Drummer John Moen, bassist Nate Query, guitarist Chris Funk and multi-instrumentalist Jenny Conlee are okay with the break, each wanting to spend time with their families and side projects.

So why take a break when the new album is doing so well? In the article Meloy said, “We made this album…because I love the songs, and I thought people would like to hear them…when we come back, it will make sense. I will hear a new voice.”

In “The King is Dead” the Decemberists found a new sound. Though they stuck with their usual instruments such as the harmonica, piano, fiddle etc. the album lacks the clutter that seems to fill many of the other albums. All-in-all the band has blended genius lyrics, their interesting sound and pleasing rhythm which make it a wonderful CD.

By Daniel Jackson
Staff Writer

Bryan College has an equal mix of homeschooled, private and public schooled students. Coming from different backgrounds affects how the groups approach and adjust to college life. Some have had a heavy religious emphasis, others none at all. Some come from a highly structured environment, while others come from a self-motivated one. All of the students have adjusted to Bryan College, both socially and academically.

Public School

Administrators in the public school system do not generally discuss religion openly. However, freshman Tyler Cruver attended Rhea County High School—which is planted firmly in the Bible Belt. Many of the teachers and students were Christians and if a question about religion was raised in class, there was a small discussion on it.

However, freshman J.P. Porter, also public schooled, said, “In high school, they were shy about talking religion. [Here,] I finally get to talk about it with classmates and teachers.”

For the Christian who has grown up attending church, the Bible classes are not difficult. The professors expect a basic understanding of the Bible, and earlier Bible classes are not a prerequisite for taking college-level theology courses. The only students who struggle are those who have not been exposed to basic Bible facts.

Private School

Having taken required Bible classes all throughout their high school years, Christian private schooled students tend to be knowledgeable about basic aspects of Scripture. Christian schooled freshman Brian Burnsed said that he felt his Bible classes were very “biased.” Burnsed said that his school believed that “the King James Version is the Bible you must believe in.”

Along with a dress code, Burnsed’s school also “shunned music” and forbade cheering at their sports games. “The pep rallies used to be so lame,” he said.

He finds the rules at Bryan to be much more liberating than his former school. After being taught one view through high school, he finds Bryan to be made up of many different denominations of Christianity, which is an enlightening experience for him.

Homeschool

“People find out I’m homeschooled and they are surprised,” said freshman Joy Barnett. She does not fit the stereotype of a socially awkward, shy and sheltered homeschooler dumped onto a college campus, seeing people for the first time. Like many homeschoolers, she used multiple different curriculums during her high school years, as well as participated in various extracurricular activities. She also took dual-enrollment classes at her community college, so she was familiar with a classroom setting before coming to Bryan.

Her biggest adjustment to college was learning to work from a schedule. In homeschooling, a student can wake up at noon every day and do homework in his pajamas on the living room floor.

Especially when taught at home during the high school years, families form nucleuses of networks to help each other do school. They push each other toward excellence, as evident from the freshman Presidential Merit Scholars: six of the seven were homeschooled.

Commenting on her homeschooling years, Barnett says, “Everybody knew everybody and was held to high standards.”

None of the people interviewed purposely build relationships with those they share a similar educational background with, but somehow they all came together anyway.

‘Us homeschoolers get along well, and get attracted to each other for some reason,” said junior Rob Franklin.

Public and private schooled students on sports teams spend the most time with their teammates—who are also mostly formerly public and private schooled.

But now, all three groups look less at where their friends are from and more to who their friends are now. Students have replaced their high school identity with the identity of a Bryan Lion.

by Daniel Jackson
Staff Writer

“Hypocritical,” “judgmental” and “discriminatory”—this is what some non-Christians think of the Christianity at Bryan College. But, this isn’t some irate blogger, or a member of the Freedom from Religion group from Wisconsin. These are the opinions of the students at Bryan College who are not professing Christians.

Some come to Bryan because they were offered scholarships to play sports. For Adam, Mike and Mark (their names are changed to protect their identities), America offers a better educational opportunity than their home country. In Europe, an athlete must break into professional sports early—at age 15 or 16—or go to a university, where the athletics are second rate.

America offers a balance for these men between strong athletics and good education. Their decision to attend Bryan was simple—it was the best match from what they understood of the school.

They weren’t prepared, however, for the huge role religion plays in campus life. Although they all knew that Bryan was a Christian college before attending, “they don’t tell you that you will be in chapel three times a week.”

These non-Christians don’t have horns and claws. They sit alongside Christians in classes. They eat the same food and attend the same chapels as any other student.

But they see everything from a whole different perspective.

When Mark first arrived on campus, he was afraid that he could be kicked out or lose his scholarships because he was not a Christian. His parents told him to keep quiet about his views.

“You should never have to ever be scared over being honest,” says Adam.

The Bible classes are hardest for them. Learning with homeschoolers who’ve known what hermeneutics is since the eighth grade and classmates who regularly read the Bible, non-Christians are timid in Bible class. They are scared to ask questions for fear of saying something that is contradictory to what their peers and teachers believe.

More than any of this, they see people who live a fake Christian life—having sex and drinking, yet turning around and judging non-Christians for what they are, not what they do. They see professors who make fun of agnostic and irreligious beliefs, making it hard for them to fully learn about Christianity in those classes.

They see people saying one thing and acting another.

“The church is full of sinners and one of the sins is hypocrisy,” said Ben Norquist, director of spiritual formation. “We’re being refined and redeemed from our sins.”

Having come from an environment that has had very little religious influence, though, their experiences at Bryan have been their first view into Christianity.

For these students, the number of religious rules is chafing. They feel like the campus is controlling and monitoring what they do just like they were juveniles, not full grown adults.

When asked if he would attend Bryan all over again knowing the rules, Mike responded, “It’s split. I love the team. I love to play, but I hate the way I am forced to live.”

Some of their close friends tell them that this is a distorted view of Christianity—forcing people to attend chapel and Sunday church. Adam, Mike and Mark agree. But overall, they have a negative view of Christians after seeing the Bryan community.

However, these students also see another side of Christianity. Some students specifically approach them and become friends, and other teachers listen to what they have to say. ”We don’t have a problem with Christianity, just with specific people,” they say.

They, “see a lot of good in people that you wouldn’t see at home.”

Still, some at Bryan assume that these students have turned their back on God. “I haven’t accepted it, but I haven’t rejected it ether,” Mark answers. “I would rather not be a Christian than be a fake Christian.”