The Skyline Newspaper

Cartoon: Created and Designed by Jonathan Smith, Sul Ross Senior

Learning vs. earning: a new student's guide to college

Steve Lang
News and Publications

You've got to be smarter than the dog." -- Cleve T. Lang and others

Welcome, Sul Ross students!

You are now collegians. Like the rest of us, the longer you travel on the road of life-long learning and continuing education, the more confused you are likely to become.

Many of you are the first or among the first in your family to attend college. Some of you may become dog trainers, some entrepreneurs. The following story applies to everyone.

A neighbor of mine in rural Minnesota was a particularly brilliant student. But he had no designs on attending college before a persistent high school mathematics teacher convinced his parents that their son, named Carl, should apply for a scholarship to attend the University of Minnesota, 150 miles and a universe away.

Carl's parents consented, but insisted the family dog, Shep, should accompany Carl lest he grew lonely in the big city. The autumn after graduation, Carl loaded his suitcase, Shep and lunch for the journey into his pickup and departed for college.

A week into the fall semester, Carl was rushed by various fraternities and soon found a home in one of the campus' most notorious "Animal House." He passed his courses by the bare minimum, but his carousing cost him his entire family funding by Thanksgiving. Carl wrote home:

"Dear folks. I love college and all the learning opportunities not only afforded me but Shep as well. A psychology professor has met Shep and determined that he is so intelligent he thinks he could teach Shep to talk.

I am all for the experiment, but it would cost $2,000, so I'm writing to you to get your opinion."

"You know, Henry," Carl's mother said after reading the letter aloud. "A talking dog would be the hit of the neighborhood."

Henry agreed, the money was sent, then spent by spring break.

"Dear folks," Carl's next letter began. "College is great, especially now that I have an old friend to talk to. Shep is very interested in current events and keeps up with CNN, Nightline and other current events programs.

The psychology professor is so impressed by Shep's growing vocabulary that he believes it is possible that Shep could be taught to read as well. Of course, I applaud the idea, but it would cost another $2,000. What do you think?"

"I think it would be nice to have another opinion around the breakfast table after reading the weekly editorials in The Beacon, " Henry told his wife Cora.

Once again, the money was sent, then spent in riotous living by semester's end.

Carl, once a brilliant prospect, packed up his C-plus grades, his suitcase and Shep, then began the long drive home for summer.

Two miles from the farm, the lad looked at the dog, no more learned nor articulate than nine months earlier. He pondered the $4,000 spent on smoke, drink and other entertainment. He thought about explanations.

Jerking to a stop, he opened the door, motioned Shep into the ditch to chase an imaginary rabbit, pulled a shotgun from behind the seat and shot his long-time companion.

Carl chugged into the farmyard, was met by his ecstatic parents and after hugs, Cora went inside to fix a little lunch.

"By the way, son, where's Shep?" Henry asked. "We were looking forward to his take on that Wall Street Journal article on corporate farming."

Carl paused, fixed a sad gaze on his father and said, "I had to shoot Shep, Dad."

"What!!!?"

"It was like this. I was driving home, Shep was riding The New York Times and we were enjoying the scenery. Then, he folded up his paper, lowered his reading glasses and asked, 'Is your old man still chasing the waitress at the Chatterbox Café?'

"Pop, it's one thing to have a talking, reading dog, but nobody needs another gossip!"

"Son," his dad replied somberly, patting Carl's shoulder. "I'm pleased to see that sending you to college was not a waste of money."

Steve Lang's dog states what grows on trees and rests on housetops. "Bark!"

'Petra's Pecado,' 'Always... Patsy Cline' and 'Greater Tuna' Reviewed

By David Johnson
Skyline Reporter

This summer the Theatre of the Big Bend had its 42nd second season, and I was lucky enough to see all three shows performed at the Kokernot Amphitheatre. All were good plays, though not without their specific problems.

The first was 'Petra's Pecado,' an example of bilingual theatre by San Antonio playwright Rupert Reyes. It's difficult to write a play in two languages to be mutually intelligible to those who speak only one language, as well as those with a mastery of both. The fact that he not only made it understandable to an English-only speaker like myself but also genuinely funny is quite an accomplishment. I enjoyed myself tremendously, as I'm sure did most people who saw it.

However, of the three plays, this was easily the weakest. A large part of that is due to the writing, which in terms of plot and execution just had gaping holes. A friend of mine played three separate parts in the play, which may be why I noticed it, but none of them were necessary whatsoever.

The first existed solely to set up a joke at the end, another to be stereotypically gay and get the other characters rolling on the floor (which was certainly quite funny), and the last had a mustache. I say he had a mustache because I can think of nothing else that he did or contributed. He was just there.

That's not to say he was a bad actor in those parts. In fact, there was very good acting; Vianey Sanchez, who played the titular Petra, and Corazon Maxwell, who played foul-mouthed, grief-stricken father Chano Orozco, were standouts, but the rest were also quite good, with one exception. Mandy Mata was tasked with playing the central mover in the play, the Virgin of Guadalupe herself.

Despite critical scrutiny, it was an enjoyable show overall.

The second play was 'Always…Patsy Cline' by Ted Swindley, a very different sort of play from all the rest. It might have been mistaken as a musical, but it was much closer to a tribute concert, complete with live band on stage and frequent audience participation. So call it a "concert with dramatic interludes."

I didn't enjoy this play much at all. I'm not big on concerts and not big on country music, so, surprise, surprise, not big on country music concerts, with or without dramatic interludes.

But in an objective sense it was a pretty good performance. If you like country music, you would like this play, and Patsy Cline has appeal much broader than country.

The band's on-stage characters were all named "Bob" in some way, and they were cool cats. These cool cats named Bob called their group "The Bobcats" in-show, and the entire band was excellent throughout the play.

Justin Badgerow was stellar as usual on the piano, and I was very much impressed by Ricky DeLaO's solo on the electric guitar.

The singer on stage was Brendy McBride, who impressioned Patsy Cline. She didn't really act and she had only a handful of lines in a handful of scenes, but her job was singing, and sing she did, over two dozen songs a night.

She's talented and has a good voice, if not at Patsy Cline's level then certainly still much better than you would expect for a production and setting of this size.

The only actual actor on stage was Shelley Scott, and she was extremely good, especially considering the responsibilities she had. In the course of her storytelling, she used one character, Patsy's fan-turned-friend Louise Seger, to create half a dozen invisible characters, all of which had believability to the point they were nearly tangible. Really, really well done.

'Always...Patsy Cline' was definitely the best tribute concert with dramatic interludes of the summer.

The last play was 'Greater Tuna,' written by Joe Sears and Jaston Williams of Austin, Texas, who both also acted in the original run. It is one of my favorite plays in general, one that I feel universally appreciable whether you're the most ignorant of hicks or pretentious of critics. So it should come as no surprise this was also my favorite performance of the summer.

It did surprise me a bit. Having seen the original on video, and again just a few months before this performance, I was afraid that my bias toward it would prevent me from enjoying this one. My pessimism was misplaced.

Ray L. Hatch, Jr., and Christopher Perkins both did very well playing all twenty, yes, twenty, parts between the two of them, and changing costumes I don't know how many times. There are people whose opinions I trust that consider these two better than the writers. These people are wrong, but not by much.

In fact, in the case of Perkins, Stanley Bumiller was the only part I really didn't feel measured up, and for Hatch, he probably did a better Reverend Spikes than Joe Sears' original, even in the performance I saw where Hatch took in stride an oblivious heckler who finished all of the phrases in the "Cliché Eulogy." But he also hammed up several parts beyond what was necessary, especially the Klansman, which to me was easily the worst part of the whole performance.

Taken as a whole, though, it was a fine production of a fine play that did the original no disservice, and as I said above, I favor Greater Tuna to both others.

In other words, if you could only get hold of one of these plays to watch, you should make it 'Greater Tuna,' but because they were a set of good, diverse plays, you should definitely try to get the videos and watch all of them.

Reflections on a Sucessful Freshman Year

By Spike Miller
Skyline Reporter

It's hard for me to believe that a year has passed since I started classes at Sul Ross. This past Thursday the freshman convocation commenced in Marshall Auditorium as it does every year. As I walked with the procession I began thinking about what made my freshman year a "success." Hopefully through some of my experiences the freshman class of 2007-08 will be able to live up to its full potential as well.

First of all, a good work ethic is imperative to collegiate success. Am I saying that you can't have friends or go hang out and have fun? Of course not.

With a little time management it's surprising how much can be crammed into one day. My day usually started at 7:00 a.m. I would study notes, put the finishing touches on homework and get myself mentally ready for the day.

With every class I was sure to allow time between classes to read or study notes if need be. Needless to say, during the day I didn't see friends very often due to the fact that I was studying most of the time. However, at night I would have no homework left, and I had plenty of time to have fun and hang out.

Another aspect of freshman life that made things more bearable was all of the extra curricular activities I was involved in. My first semester I joined the speech team and the drama club, auditioned for every show and was part of student support services.

All of these things allowed me to meet a lot of people with interests similar to mine, and I made friends quickly.

These clubs and activities allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and feel like I was a part of this school, not just another face in the crowd.

My freshman year wasn't all work; I still got to spend time with the friends I made. However, I did it without sacrificing what was important, my education.

I made some pretty good grades for two semesters in a row, received the Outstanding Freshman in Theatre award, and have a whole year of great memories because I stayed focused and got involved.

As an incoming freshman, school can be overwhelming -- it gets easier. Hang in there and give this thing they call college everything you've got. You just may surprise yourself at how well you do.

Salvia: Popular but Harmful

Nurse John Hughes
Guest Columnist

The health services' listserv I subscribe to posted a comment that Salvia divinorum has seen increased use on college campuses.

The drug's popularity is said to be due to its potent hallucinogen effects, even more so than Marijuana. The other attraction is that this drug is not outlawed in most states.

The federal government is considering adding Salvia to their list of controlled substances. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Salvia was once central to the religious and healing ceremonies of Mexico's Mazatec Indians. Today the drug has no accepted medical use in the United States.

All legalities aside, my nurse's voice tells me that drug abuse is the use of any physiologically altering substance that oversteps pharmaceutical review or approval. I quote myself here that "all drugs are poisons with carefully defined and researched parameters of therapeutic benefit."

The drugs I speak of include alcoholic beverages, over-the-counter medications, prescription drugs and illicit street substances.

Be very wary of marketers whether legitimate or not. Most are only interested in your money and assume absolutely no responsibility for your safety or wellbeing.

Taking drugs without a scientific knowledge of how they affect the body is like performing open-heart surgery on one's self, the outcome of which would not be pretty. Regardless of what people may think about current drug laws, ignoring medical science is a real killer.

"Anyone have any spare change?"

Trey Darby
From the Editor's Desk

Change is inevitable -- except from a vending machine." -- Robert C. Gallagher

Nothing more appropriate could be said regarding The Skyline these days. We've seen quite a few staff changes and we look forward to making some changes to the paper itself.

Long-time advisor Barbara Richerson has retired, and we will miss her. However, we welcome our new advisors, Drs. Brad and Laura Butler, and I am confident we are still in good hands.

Our student staff has seen some changes, too. We have some old familiar faces returning and many bright new faces that have come on board. This year's reporters, photographers, and "office" workers are a diverse group of individuals who span the range of ages, opinions, talents, and even fields of study.

I look forward to seeing the changes that this year's staff will bring to the Skyline. It is the purpose of the paper to deliver to our readers all the news that we can print on six pages. Our intention is that the news will be timely, informative, interesting, diverse, even thought provoking. I am confident that our staff will excel at these goals. However, we need the help of our readers, too.

We hope to reflect the voice of our readers in our news writing and add life to that voice in our photographs.

So, if you have any ideas, concerns, complaints, or questions, please do not hesitate to e-mail the Skyline mailbox at skylineeditor@sulross.edu. We will do our best to publish all mail received but may be limited by space constraints. If you would prefer not to have your correspondence published, just let us know in your e-mail.

Have a great semester and if you develop an aversion to change, there's always the vending machine.