The J-TAC (Stephenville, Tex.), Vol. 190, No. 8, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 25, 2010 Page: 1 of 12
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TARLETON STATE UNIVERSITY
THE J
Volume 190 No. 8
THEJTAC.COM Thursday, March 25,2010
The show must go on
■ 'Chorpus Christi' still scheduled for Saturday despite controversy
By RACHEL DUDLEY
Staff Writer
“Jesus was not gay” openly
homosexual, Tarleton Student Director
John Jordan Otte said. “The play isn’t
saying that’s who He is because the
Bible doesn’t say [that], and of course
He wasn’t.” he stated.
Terrence Mcnalley’s one-act
play Corpus Christi, depicting Jesus
as homosexual, remains the center
of a heated debate through out the
university and community. The play
is scheduled for a one-time showing
Sat., March 27 at 8 a.m. in the O.A.
Grant Fine Arts Center Auditorium,
open only to students enrolled in the
advanced directing class producing the
show and their invited family mem-
bers. This is the same day as Texan
Tour, a prominent recruiting day for
prospective students; however, Otte
insist on continuing with the contro-
versial production.
“I chose this play to direct
and produce because I am passionate
about it. I paid for the royalties and
for the scripts. I also chose this play
because I am both gay and a Chris-
tian.” Otte said “We can’t pick and
choose what’s in the scriptures, but I
don’t believe in a God that hates me
for who lam.”
Otte’s cast of thirteen will
take the stage in spite of the critics’
and Christian community’s reviews
of this play calling it blasphemous,
offensive, obscene, sacrilegious and
heretical.
Even though play continues
to offend, Otte accepted the national
coverage, including worldwide social
networking sites such as Facebook and
Twitter, in addition to blogs, radio,
multiple newspapers and national
television news. He is embracing the
coverage in an effort to “help someone
out there” he said.
“It is certainly not a play I
would choose to attend. I person-
ally do find it offensive,” Tarleton
President Dr. Dominic Dottavio said
. He continued to say, “One of the
things I would hope that most people
would understand is that its: a student
selected play, not intended for the gen-
eral public, it’s not part of the Tarleton
series, the direct costs for the play
are borne by the student that chose to
produce it, and it is one of eight other
plays, some of which are classics in
literature.”
As the local Christian com-
munity in “Cowboy Capital of the
World”, Stephenville, Texas, ramp
up their efforts for potential protest
of the play, the Cowboy Church of
Erath County will not be represented
in the picket lines. “Even though we
disagree with the play, we know Jesus
still loves them and we extend that
love also as a church” Associate Pas-
tor Jerry Jones said.
Cowboy Church of Erath
County’s Pastor Werth Mayes echoed
Jones’ statement and added, “My big-
gest concern is the others response to
the very real eternal Jesus who loves
them, who died for them, even though
I may not fully understand their
agenda, I don’t have to. I want them to
experience the same wonderful Jesus
that I have experienced.”
Three hit provisional marks at Tarleton Relays
ters with a 32:38.94 time. Jared
Courtesy: Sports Information
The track teams put on a show for the student body with four first place wins at the Tarleton Relays
on March 11. All-American Garrett Thomas placed first in the 110 hurdles with a time of 23.95 seconds.
By JARON COVEY
Staff Writer
The track teams hosted the Tar-
leton Relays on Thursday, March 11 at the
Oscar Frazier Track in Stephenville. The
Tarleton team brought home five first-
place finishes, along with three athletes
that hit provisional marks.
All-American Kandis Brooks
finished third place in the women’s 100
meter hurdles and hit the provisional mark
by running a 14.37. Garrett Thomas, an-
other All-American, also met the provi-
sional mark in the men’s 110 hurdles by
running a time of 23.95 and finishing first.
Casey Keeter, an All-American in 2008,
won the men’s shot put and reached the
provisional mark with a throw of 16.30
meters.
Chris Haerell had a first-place
finish in the men’s 1500 meters with a
time of 4:00.10 while Gerzain Valenzuela
took first-place in the men’s 10,000 me-
McNeil also won his event, the
5000 meter run, with a time of
15:01.86.
Along with the five first-place
finishes and the three provisional
marks, there were six top three
finishes. Top finishers included the
women’s 1600 meter relay team
which finished third with a time of
4:01.56, and Elizabeth Dominguez
placing second in the women’s dis-
cus with a throw of 41.62 meters.
Dominguez also finished second
in the hammer throw with a throw
of 38.92 meters while Leslie Jor-
dan finished third with a 38.75 me-
ter throw. Tyler Rushing finished
third in the men’s high jump with
a 1.98 meters jump while Andrew
Grant finished third in the pole
vault with a vault of 4.45 meters.
Tyler Stowell rounded out the top
finishers by placing third in the men’s
hammer throw with a 46.88 meter throw.
The Tarleton track teams were
set to compete, March 20 at the Baylor/
Dr. Pepper Invitational in Waco, but in-
clement weather caused the meet to be
cancelled. The track teams will now set
their sights on the UTA/Bobby Lane Invi-
tational in Arlington on Saturday, March
27.
Source: tarleton.edu/welcome
Texan Tour
welcomes future
students
By DREW EUBANK
Staff Writer
Prospective students from across the country will be
visiting campus Saturday for Texan Tour, a campus preview
day for high school students and their families. Texan Reps,
who are current Tarleton students, guide groups on tours and
are available to answer questions from a student’s perspective
throughout the day.
“The reason we like to do Texan Tour is because it’s
student-to-student recruiting,” said Director of School Rela-
tions Laurie Gaiser. “We hear over and over that they were
deciding between two universities and the friendliness of the
people here made the difference: the Reps, faculty and staff.”
Guests will attend a student organization fair and get
to spend time with faculty during the academic open-houses.
“The academic open-houses really help,” Gaiser said. “They
can actually speak one-on-one with faculty. A lot of university
preview days don’t do that.”
Gaiser said that she is excited about showing the
growth of Tarleton, like the current construction projects and
our more than 100 years of history and traditions.
“Last fall’s Texan Tour was a record-breaking tour
with 1,638,” Gaiser said. “The most we’d ever had before was
1,500.”
Texan Rep and Student Body Vice President Ely Borrero said,
“My favorite part of Texan Tour is probably lunch time because
I really like interacting with students and that’s the most influ-
ential part of the day because it’s very laid-back.”
Visitors will see the university first-hand through con-
versations with current students and sessions with representa-
tives from financial aid, academic departments, admissions,
scholarships and Residential Living and Learning.
School Relations Coordinator Jessica Hendrickson
said, “It’s just a great opportunity for them to see all of Tarleton
in about a six-hour period.”
So far, 762 students with more than 1,500 guests are
registered to attend. Guests will travel from as far as Hawaii
and Pennsylvania.
Sexual assault victims unable to find kit locally
By COURTNEY COPE
Staff Writer
Due to the absence of
a local Sexual Assault Nurse
Examiner program, sexual as-
sault victims living in Stephen-
ville and surrounding areas
must travel to Ft. Worth in order
to receive the medical examina-
tion required to obtain forensic
evidence of their assault. The
city of Stephenville is currently
considering adopting the SANE
program.
The SANE programs
were created to provide special-
ly trained forensic nurses and
physicians 24-hours-a-day, of-
fering first response care to sex-
ual assault victims, according to
the National Online Resource
Center on Violence Against
Women. These examinations,
commonly known as rape kits,
can be performed in hospital or
non-hospital settings. Although
Cross Timbers Family Services
in Stephenville was capable of
performing this rape kit years
ago, there are currently no local
SANE programs available and
sexual assault victims who wish
to receive a sexual assault med-
ical examination must travel to
Ft. Worth. Adults who are vic-
tims of sexual assault can seek
a medical exam at John Peter
Smith Hospital, while children
can be treated at Cooks Chil-
dren’s Hospital, both located in
Ft. Worth.
In addition to the
trauma of sexual assault, the
medical examination given
by a SANE nurse can also be
distressing. SANE nurses are
trained in forensic evidence
collection and are required to
conduct an extensive physical
assessment collecting speci-
mens of skin, hair, blood, and
foreign body fluids and speci-
mens if needed. Many times
STD treatment and pregnancy
evaluation are also required
during a sexual assault medi-
cal examination. These medical
professionals are also trained
to respond to sexual assault pa-
tients’ emotional needs and pro-
vide immediate crisis interven-
tion, as well as offer evidentiary
needs for prosecution.
In the event of a sex-
ual assault, it may be hours be-
fore a victim is examined due
to the distance of the nearest
SANE program. Unless a vic-
tim calls the emergency room
prior to their arrival, the wait
could be extended exponen-
tially once they arrive at the
hospital. Vawnet.org states that
emergency department person-
nel often regard the needs of the
rape victims as less urgent than
other patients, and as a result, it
is not uncommon for sexual as-
sault victims to wait four to ten
hours for the exam to be pre-
formed. The website goes on
to say that while awaiting the
medical exam, victims are not
allowed to eat, drink or urinate
so as not to destroy physical
evidence of the assault.
Jodee Lucero, execu-
tive director of Cross Timbers
Family Services, believes that
such a delay in medical atten-
tion can cause additional stress
and trauma to a sexual assault
victim. “One of the first things
most survivors want to do after
a sexual assault is cleanse their
body,” Lucero said “however,
if the sexual assault is reported
soon after the crime occurred
this is delayed due to the time
it takes to travel to and from
the metroplex. This delay can
increase the amount of trauma
experienced by the sexual as-
sault survivor.”
Lucero believes that it
would benefit Stephenville and
surrounding areas to implement
a SANE program, but a lack of
qualified personnel could cause
delays in doing so.
See S.A.N.E, Page 6
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The J-TAC (Stephenville, Tex.), Vol. 190, No. 8, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 25, 2010, newspaper, March 25, 2010; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth591221/m1/1/?rotate=90: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.