Bryan College Triangle

By Daniel Jackson
News Editor

During their visit to the hill April 2, twins Josh and Caleb Davis observed an Introduction to Communication class taught by Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Chris Clark, ate twice in the cafeteria (the ice cream was a hit), and now they were about to spend their first night at Bryan in the room of their campus host, John Glenn.

The stop at Bryan was part of the high school juniors’ college road trip, which also involved stops at Anderson University (Anderson, S.C.) and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Josh, who is interested in studying business or maybe law, and Caleb, who wants to study drama, both said the visit to Bryan was different: Bryan was the only college so far that allowed them to stay in the dorms and the only school that allowed them to sit in on classes.

Vice President for Enrollment Management Mike Sapienza said convincing prospective students to visit the campus is a deliberate part of the admissions office’s strategy to convince more perspective students to come to Bryan. They have found that if a student visits the campus and talks to students, they are more likely to attend Bryan.

Sapienza predicts the new class that will enter Bryan in the fall of 2013 will break enrollment records.

“We’re projecting higher and we’re praying for 300 new students, which would be a record enrollment,” Sapienza said.

While Sapienza said the admissions office is tracking toward the goal, he declined to say where the office is exactly in meeting its goal. He also declined to explain what specific strategies the admission counselors are using to reach out to perspective students.

“We don’t share that information, though,” he said,” that’s an internal process.”

The admissions office encourages visitors to sit in on classes and to talk to students. Sapienza said visitors return to the admissions office and say Bryan students were saying the same thing that the admissions department said about the school. It’s not always the case at other colleges.

“We’ll take our chances with our students representing the place,” Sapienza said.

In fall of 2011, Bryan welcomed 294 new students—six students shy of the 300 goal, after 1,038 applied. The next year, Sapienza said the admissions office tried to recruit another 300 students. However, as the summer turned to fall, they revised those projections.

According to Bryan’s institutional fact book, Bryan welcomed 249 new students to Bryan in 2012, 45 students fewer than the year before. That year 978 students applied.

It was a unique year, said Spaienza. The numbers were tracking well in the spring but the summer brought what Sapienza termed “melt.”

Students started calling the admissions office saying they would not be able to attend Bryan. For a lot of those students, Bryan was their first choice school, Sapienza said.

Sometimes the students gave reasons: their dad just lost his job, they didn’t want to borrow more money or they had to retake the ACT to get more scholarship money.

“Money was harder to come by, and it still is,” Sapienza said.

Danielle Dillard, an admissions counselor at Bryan said she and her fellow counselors reached out to more perspective students and have produced more campaigns to persuade high school students to visit Bryan.

While every day is unique, Dillard said she communicates with perspective students through face-to-face meetings, phone calls and email. She also travels to college fairs to represent the school.

When asked if she thinks the admissions office will reach their goal of 300 students, she replied, “We are all working very hard as an office and college to meet this goal. Ultimately, I believe God is going to bring the students He wants to Bryan.”

Prospective students who have been accepted by Bryan College are supposed to pay their enrollment deposit of $100 by May 1.

By Daniel Jackson
News Editor

Students gather around Joni Eareckson Tada, an advocate for people with disability, after chapel / Photo by Amy Bailey

Over the past several years, a relationship between Joni and Friends, a Christian ministry devoted to helping people with disabilities, and Bryan College has been developing.

Bryan’s alumni have gone to work in the offices of the organization, the college recently began offering a course designed by Joni and Friends, and Joni and Friends use Fort Bluff Camp on Dayton Mountain to host their camp for families with children of disabilities. On April 22, Joni Eareckson Tada herself visited Bryan campus for the first time.

A diving accident when she was 17 left Joni paralyzed from the shoulders down. Now 63, she advocates for people with disability. Author of over 48 books, she talks about suffering, disability and Christianity.

Rudd Auditorium was packed for the chapel hour on April 22. Visitors, both young and old, filled the seats and others stood in the back.

She spoke about how people with disabilities bless the church. She said many people who live with day-to-day suffering have to rely more on God. Through living faith, they show faith in God.

“We’re God’s best visual aids. We’re God’s best flannelgraphs,” she said.

At one point in her presentation, she stopped.

“Ken, can you help me a second?” Joni said to her husband.

Ken Tada hopped onstage to help Joni reposition herself.

“Not only can I not breathe,” she said, “I don’t have any balance.”

Earlier in the visit, Ken had to go onstage to help his wife clear her throat. Joni told the audience to pray for her while Ken helped her.

He helped her move forward while she explained that God’s power is made perfect in weakness. She loves depending on her husband because it teaches her to depend more on God, she said.

Bryan Alumna Laura Payne, who works with Joni and Friends as the South East Director, said Joni and Friends created a curriculum called, “Beyond Suffering,” which is the most comprehensive curriculum Joni and Friends have complied.

Last September, the organization also released the curriculum in Braille and Spanish. Bryan offered the course, taught by certified instructors, both last fall and this spring.

Like Bryan, the curriculum emphasizes worldview, thus, there is something of a philosophical connection, Payne said.

“Bryan’s been doing that for over 30 years,” she said.

Payne graduated from Bryan in 1982. While she was here, she worked on the Bryan Triangle.

Many courses on worldview do not address disability, but “Beyond Suffering” fills a need, said Payne, because there are many people who deal with disability, such as U.S. veterans who became disabled through serving in the military.

Payne said Tada came to campus through the connections made through Summit Ministries and John Stonestreet, and through Bryan’s use of the “Beyond Suffering” curriculum.

Joni and Friends also uses Fort Bluff Camp to host its East Tennessee Joni and Friends Family retreats.

The family retreats are week-long retreats for families of a child with a disability.

Dayton’s Lucia Fary, grandmother of sophomore Jay Carpenter, volunteered at the camp for the first time last year. She was assigned to a child.

“You just interact with them and help them have a great time,” she said.

The moms that attend the retreat get pedicures and craft necklaces and get support from the other mothers.

On the first day, the volunteers, about 80 in all, gathered to welcome each family that entered the camp. They gathered with balloons, firecrackers and when a family drove up, they shouted for every child that arrived.

She remembered thinking, “Who cheers the handicapped? No one, not really.”

Darlene LaPlue, a Bryan alum and longtime volunteer with Joni and Friends, said she never realize the need was so great. Now in her 11th year volunteering with the organization, she said people don’t realize the problem because these families are hidden away.

In the retreat that will be held this July at Fort Bluff, the camp will be filled with families, but Joni and Friends still needs volunteers, said LaPlue.

While the future of the connection between Joni and Friends and Bryan will depend on the national organization, Payne said she hopes their relationship will continue to grow.

By Daniel Jackson
News Editor

A behind-the-scenes look at the filming of “Jesus Fish.”

“Jesus Fish” is swimming home.

Spawned from the mind of Bryce McGuire through a writing assignment in an advanced screenwriting class at Bryan College, the 22-minute short film is entering the waters of the film festival circuit. But not before it stops at the place where it was made: Dayton, Tenn.

Two alumni of the film department, Bryce McGuire and Colton Davie, are returning to the hill to show their short film, “Jesus Fish”, Monday April 22 at 8:30 p.m. in Rudd Auditorium.

McGuire said he got the idea for “Jesus Fish” from growing up in a small town and hearing the stories lore, legends and haunting in his small town.

“I remember growing up that my brother had seen this lake monster and no one believed him—of course,” he said.

When Assistant Professor in Communication Studies Chris Clark asked the students in his screenwriting class to create a story, McGuire crafted a story that explored spiritual faith through the account of a lake monster.

McGuire said Clark did not like the story at first. McGuire remembers getting a low grade on the project. But he then revised it over the course of a year and a half, about 37 times, he recalls.

At first, McGuire and Davie wanted to film the story for Spiritual Life Formation to be shown in chapel and then as an omnibus project, but they realized the film was too ambitious.

The two finally got around to filming the story in August 2011, just before they both married and before McGuire left for the American Film Institute (AFI).

McGuire wrote and directed “Jesus Fish,” while Davie worked as the producer and cinematographer for the film.

They finished filming in seven days, and then McGuire hopped into a car packed to the bursting, drove to California in three days and started classes at AFI the next day.

“It was probably very unwise but we had to do it,” he said.

McGuire will graduate with a MFA in screenwriting in June from AFI, one of the top film schools in the country.

He feels that the film program at Bryan prepared him to work with the people who will be making the biggest movies in the next few years.

The stress Bryan placed on worldview helped McGuire navigate the culture-producing Mecca of Hollywood. His Bryan education helped him understand other people’s worldviews, think critically and own his worldview, speaking confidently about what he believed.

McGuire said people in Hollywood respect you if you have a broad view of culture, understanding its many angles. Even the creator of raunchy R-rated comedies care about what’s going on in culture, he said, and they use their art to talk about message and subtext.

Bryan’s film school also taught McGuire skills he needed to succeed in screenwriting.

“Chris Clark is always taking in terms of story,” McGuire said.

People can easily learn the mechanics and style of writing a screenplay, McGuire said. Storytelling is often overlooked.

Clark said he’s seen several scripts for “Jesus Fish,” but he has yet to see the film.

In his Advanced Narrative Writing for Film class, Clark said he asks questions about the script. Who are the main characters? Is there conflict? Is there dramatic need?

“It’s the questions Aristotle was asking 3,000 years ago,” he said.

Davie and McGuire will show the film at the Indie Grits Festival in Columbia, S.C., and Boston’s independent film festival. They are waiting to hear back from other festivals from around the country.

McGuire said if the film does well in one place, word will get around and they will have an easier time getting into other festivals.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of film festivals in the country, said Clark. The trick is getting the film into the distinguished festivals, SXSW, Sundance, Toronto, etc. Other film festivals, such as Nashville’s and Atlanta’s film festivals, are feeders into the Oscar Awards.

McGuire said he wanted to thank the other Bryan students who helped in the production of “Jesus Fish,” such as Bryan Boling and Cameron Lane.

“They played really big roles on that set,” he said.

Recently, McGuire rewatched “Jesus Fish,” after five months of not touching the project. While two years at AFI gave him a new perspective on the film, he is still excited to show it at Bryan.

“This movie isn’t perfect, but it is a wild ruckus ride, and I hope people will enjoy going on the ride with us,” he said.

Click here to see a trailer for “Jesus Fish”

By Daniel Jackson
News Editor

Justin Galemore hands Ryan Wolf a certificate and a pin after inducting him into the Sigma Tau Delta chapter on campus. Sigma Tau Delta is the international English honors society. / Photo by Daniel Jackson

Sigma Tau Delta, the international honor society for English students, is a gathering place logophiles, bibliophiles or those who love the prose of JRR Tolkien or the poetry of Edmund Spenser.

On April 11, the Sigma Tau Delta society on the Bryan hill gathered in the yellow light of the Rhea County room as a heavy rain fell on the roof and sky turned blue-black. Some of the 16 students dressed for the occasion, donning cocktail dresses and ties.

This meeting was the changing of the guard: In this meeting, the society at Bryan elected its officers for the upcoming year and accepted five new members into the society. They also listened to guest speaker Professor of English at Taccoa Falls College, Ga., Donald Williams, who writes poetry and has authored eight books.

Krista Elsten, junior, was one of the new students who were inducted into the society that night. As an English major, she heard about the society often from her professors and fellow students.

She describes the society as a place for “lit nerds.”

Professor of English at Bryan Whit Jones said the society will listen to three to four speakers a year, take trips to the New American Shakespeare Tavern in Atlanta, and around Christmastime, read Christmas classics in the library over cookies and hot chocolate.

Some of these events are open just for the club; others are open to the whole campus.

On April 25, the society will host a poetry slam in Brock Hall.

A poetry slam, Jones said, is “a little like a rapping competition.”

Participants will read their poems and the audience will pick a winner. Jones said a poetry slam is “in your face,” and poets will get immediate judgment on their work by an audience.

Every new member of the society received a certificate and a pin. When students graduate, they can add a chord to their graduation robes to mark their participation in the society. / Photo by Daniel Jackson

Sigma Tau Delta started their meeting by inducting the five new members.

After taking an oath, the new members listened to the history of the society. The society began one year before the Scopes Monkey Trial was held. Sigma Tau Delta was started in 1924 in order to “confer distinction for high achievement in English language, literature, and writing,” reads the society’s website.

The chapter at Bryan was started eight years ago. Jones, who told this part of the history of the society here on the hill, said the society has had its up and down years, but recently he’s seen the society gain more members on Bryan’s campus.

After Justin Galemore, senior, managed the elections of the officers for next year, he said, “That concludes some logistical stuff, so we can now have some fun.”

Professor Donald Williams of Taccoa Falls College, Ga., spoke to the society, reciting his poetry, talking in several languages and speaking about consuming media while remaining pure. / Photo by Daniel Jackson

Williams read some of his poetry and then discussed how Christians should consume media. He said separating from the bad culture is not an option—Christians will still be exposed to it. He said Christians need to focus on good literature and the Bible so that the bad does not affect their minds.

“You keep that stuff washed out by keeping the good stuff flowing through,” he said.

Afterwards, a student asked Williams to speak in Elvish because when Jones introduced him, he said Williams spoke the language fluently.

“My students are always asking me to speak Klingon,” he said launching into the fictional language spoken by the Klingon warrior race of Star Trek. He accented the harsh language with fisted salutes

Then he spoke Elvish, the language JRR Tolkien developed for his trilogy, “The Lord of the Rings.”

Students listened with half smiles as he spoke the language that sounds like a stream flowing over rocks.

“We have to do Old English,” Williams said next.

Old English, the predecessor of modern English, is similar enough to modern English that a careful listener could understand the language.

He launched into the language, a language that sounded like a blend of German, Swedish and French.

One student figured out what he was speaking: The Lord’s Prayer. Williams went line by line, explaining the vocabulary, explaining that Old English pronounces things differently and that once a listener understands the rhythm and stresses of Old English, they can understand it much easier.

By 9 p.m., they were done. The rain outside had lessened. The new members were inducted. And Elsten liked her first meeting.

“It was good. It was fun,” she said.

By Daniel Jackson
News Editor

A view of Bryan’s campus from the water tower. Over the years, a few students have climbed the tower.

At night, the water storage tank hangs like a moon over the skyline. From almost any point on the hill, you can look up and see the structure on the northwest edge of campus.

This is apparent when you look at photos taken from the top of the tower. The campus and the city of Dayton open up below. But climbing that tower? Over 100 feet without any safety equipment?

At least two students have climbed the tower in the last academic school year. It took them several attempts, but on Oct. 28 after 10 minutes on the tower, they descended with photos of campus.

I accompanied two students—one climbed the tower in October, the other never made it to the top—when they made an attempt. It was after dinner sometime in November. The sky had darkened and the streetlights burned yellow when we met in the woods behind the soccer fields. Our boots felt the uneven ground in the dark and we spoke in whispers as we followed a trail that led to the tower.

Up close, the white tower seemed to grow as we exited the woods and walked around the barbed wire fence that surrounded it. By that time, the climbers already found a system for getting past the fence: using the padlock on the gate as a foot-hold up over the fence.

I watched from outside the fence as one of them shimmied up a small pipe that ran up. For the first 20 feet or so, the ladder was obstructed to discourage climbing.

The student’s black boots squeaked on the white metal as he finally wormed his way to the first rung of the ladder. But he decided that the rest of the climb wasn’t worth it. His hands were numb from the metal and he didn’t trust them to hold him the rest of the way.

We walked back.

The man who climbed to the top, The Climber, said cold weather was the reason why he did not succeed when he tried “once or twice” before.

The night of Oct. 28 a full moon illuminated the water tower. The Climber stuffed a backpack with a camera, water bottle, tripod, “toboggan” and, of course, a knife. He brought a friend.

They made it past the fence. They made it past the pipe and they were on the first few rungs of the ladder.

“At this point, we were the furthest we have ever been,” The Climber said.

So they started climbing. The Climber was in the lead. Halfway up, he looked down. The view looked as high as the whole tower looked from the ground.

“We thought, hell, if we fall now, we’re dead,” he said.

They disregarded safety and started climbing up and up. For most of the way, about 100 to 150 feet, the ladder is almost vertical and then for the last 10 feet, it straightens out. By that time, he was gripping the ladder for so long that his forearms grew exhausted. Those last few feet felt like the ladder started to bend up back behind the Climber, he said.

On that night, it was about 40 degrees, and a wind was blowing, swaying the tower, making camera shots blurry.

The Climber and his friend saw a man come out onto his back porch and they quickly moved to the other side of the tower. They stayed there for 10 minutes, taking shots of the campus and of the City of Dayton. When they were done, they climbed down. It took them 45 minutes from the time they left their dorm to the time they returned.

The Climber knew of no one else who had climbed the tower, although he knew of plenty of people who wanted to make the ascent. He climbed, “just really for the thrill of it.”

He described himself as an adrenaline junkie, but this was the first ambitiously crazy thing that he had done.

“Small towns don’t offer too much, as far as that goes,” he said.

He has read websites such as nopromiseofsafety.com, a site run by urban explorer Joseph Carbonale, who climbed the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Climber thought about the legal risks before he climbed. While he doesn’t know the exact penalties for climbing a water tower, he thought he would get a slap on the wrist and a $500 fine.

If he was caught during an ascent, he figured no one would call the water company, since it was late at night. If the police department was called, he and his friend would conceal themselves for half-hour to 45 minutes until the police would get a call and move along.

Triangle tried to contact the Dayton Police Department for comment for this story. However, Chief of Police Chris Sneed was not available to talk about the penalties associated with climbing a water tower at the time this story went to press.

During all the years Director of the Physical Plant Doug Schott has worked at Bryan College, he has never heard of anyone who has climbed the water tower. When Triangle called to talk about Bryan’s polices about tower-climbers, Schott was skeptical. It did not help that I called him April 1.

Schott said the tower is owned by the City of Dayton.

If he ever needed to deal with a student who was on the tower, Schott said he would “focus on their safety and try to get them down safely.”

He would call for them to come down and if they did not climb down, he would call law enforcement.

“My policy is very simple: treat people like adults and hope that they use good judgment,” he said.

The Climber is not the only student to climb the tower. In the spring of 2011, a senior sneaked out of the dorms around 3 a.m. with his friend and made the ascent.

“I did it because my friend was having girl troubles,” he said.

It was cold and windy, but they had a great view of the campus. They watched as fellow students, curfew breakers, attempted to sneak back into the dorms.

He knew of about seven other people who climbed the tower before him.

Like the Climber, the Graduate, too, shared the feeling that comes with flirting with law and life by hanging onto a white ladder in the dark.

“Of course, we didn’t want to get caught,” he said, but there was a more tangible fear: “I was worried about dying.”