Bryan College Triangle

Corporate SGA met earlier this week to make some major decisions regarding the Student Handbook and upcoming campus events.

Andrew Wilber
Multimedia Editor

A major change of plans for the Carnival Variety Show and a wave of revamped proposals to allow shorts in Mercer and dancing on campus were highlights in SGA’s Corporate meeting Tuesday night.

Because of a conflict with several other events the weekend of the April 21, the 1st Annual Carnival Variety Show will now be held April 26.

Due to the change of time, the event will no longer feature a Ferris wheel. The variety show will happen as planned, however, and the event will now include a hotdog eating contest and dinner served outside in front of Latimer Student Center, according to vice president of off-campus events sophomore Mark Mercier. Read full story »

Dr. Salvatore Musumeci (right) is directing the the second annual Undergraduate Research Conference on March 16. Dr. Brian Eisenback (left), KeriLynn Paulson, Bill Harle and Pamela Hollis are organizing the event / Triangle photo by Anna Katherine Thomas

Tim Baldi
Senior Reporter

In an effort to showcase research happening on campus, the Bryan Center for Undergraduate Research (BCUR) is hosting the second annual Undergraduate Research Conference. On March 16, sixteen students will present their various topics of research for students, faculty and staff. The participating students come from a variety of disciplines across campus including English, Biology and Psychology.

These students submitted ideas in the form of abstracts that were competitively chosen from a group of applicants. An abstract is a 250-500 word summary of a research paper’s purpose, methods of research and guiding ideas.

“Top presentations and papers are eligible to receive cash prizes of up to $200,” said Dr. Brian Eisenback.

According to senior Vincent Smith, the winner of last year’s competition, the conference is an excuse to research questions he has thought about repeatedly. The conference is different this year because more underclassmen are involved, said Smith.

In addition, there are now three awards given to the best papers and three separate awards given to the best three presentations. In last year’s conference, prizes were determined by the top three papers and presentations together.

This year, Smith is presenting on “Achievements Motivated by Guilt and Justified Barriers Built by Shame: Socially Accepted, but Personally Detrimental.” According to Eisenback, other topics include senior Jessica Tameler’s “Freeing the Captives: How Women’s Rights can Reduce HIV in Swaziland” and sophomore Will Jones’ “A Druid Land, a Druid Tune: Peasants, Pagans and Old Myths in the Early Verse of William Butler Yeats.”

“There are some very exciting research projects going happening on campus all year long, and this conference provides an opportunity for students to showcase what they are doing,” said Eisenback.

Dr. Salvatore Musumeci is directing and Eisenback, KeriLynn Paulson, Bill Harle, and Pamela Hollis are organizing the event.

“It is important to remember that God is the God of all disciplines, and this conference is meant to celebrate the pursuit of knowledge in all areas of life,” said Eisenback.

The conference will be on March 16 on the second floor of the Library. Click here to view the conference schedule.

Seniors Jesse Murray, Jeremy Brandon, Jonathan Goff, and junior Jonathan Warner listen to an SGA representative express concerns regarding the future of the group at the corporate meeting last Tuesday. / Triangle photo by Andrew Wilber

Andrew Wilber
Multimedia Editor

SGA members voted down a proposal last Tuesday night that would have effectively shelved student government for one year.

The motion, proposed by student body president senior Vincent Smith, would have disbanded SGA, excluding Events Council, so that the organization’s relevance would be reassessed.

The proposal was supported by Smith and a group of senior members within SGA who fear that the organization has become impotent.

“Part of the problem is the administration has lost SGA’s purpose,” said Junior Class administrative assistant senior Maddie Doucet. “[They] think all SGA does is plan events…. We can suggest rule changes, but they’re not really going to listen. So the advantage of taking a year off is that the administration sees: ‘Hey, we don’t have an SGA and we kind of need one.’” Read full story »

Catherine Rogers
Editor-In-Chief

Students found this offensive sign hung on a tree near Long Dorm last semester / Photo courtesy of Vincent Smith

What started as Diversity Week, ended with campus-wide rumors about racism at Bryan. Students attending chapel on Jan. 25 heard the “racism announcement” and without specifics, questions and speculations began to spread. Students spoke of racial slurs being carved into trees and minority students leaving Bryan at the end of the semester.

When asked to help clarify some of the rumors, Dean of Student Life Bruce Morgan had no comment for Triangle.

The truth, according to Student Body President Vincent Smith, is that Diversity Week was not planned as a response to recent racist acts on campus, but rather was planned at the beginning of last semester as part of the year’s chapel themes.

The week’s theme did, however, raise questions amidst the student body as to whether the Bryan community actually needed a series of lectures on diversity. According to Smith, many students vocalized the feeling that racial or cultural insensitivity wasn’t a problem at Bryan and that caused the formation of the group that made the announcement in chapel last Wednesday. Read full story »

Bryan Family,

Over the course of the last few days, several things have happened in SGA that I think deserve clarification and that we would love your feedback on moving forward. I proposed earlier this week that SGA as an entity be dissolved for the period of one year. Events would still be sponsored and planned under a specific Events Council whose positions are still voted on by the student body at-large and the respective classes. One of the main reasons for the proposed change would be to reevaluate the functions of SGA and how it could best fit with the direction of Bryan College as a whole, to clearly see the essentials that the organization provides. I remain firm in the belief that this proposal would be best for SGA and student leaders on campus, but there are many people whom I respect inside SGA and out of it that disagree with me. I believe in this change, others do not, and disagreement is not a bad thing.

The Corporate Body of SGA will have the final vote on this proposal Tuesday, Feb. 7, at the first Corporate Meeting of the semester. I understand that I have simply given an overview and not many specifics on my line of reasoning, so I encourage anyone with an opinion on this issue to please contact your representative or friends in SGA to ask questions and give thoughts.

Thank you all,

Vincent Smith

Your Student Body President