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Volume 93
Issue 12
Next Publication:
Monday, October 22, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
PINE LOG The
The Independent Voice of Stephen F. Austin State University
Page 6
SFA looks to beat
Nicholls Saturday
afternoon for
Homecoming 2012.
43
H
By Katelynn Wiggins
Staff Writer
Last year, SFA’s Office of Student
Affairs logged over 100,000 student
service hours for the President’s
Volunteer Service Award (PVSA).
This year they hope to surpass that
and even “reach 200,000 hours,”
Jamal Smith, graduate assistant
for leadership and service, said.
The PVSA was created in
2003 by an executive order from
President George W. Bush to rec-ognize
American’s contributions
of service within their commu-nities.
It honors individuals who
serve at least 100 hours and groups
that serve at least 200.
Individuals at SFA that log at
least 100 hours are invited to at-tend
the ODK Leadership Awards
banquet in April.
Smith oversees the award pro-cess.
“They will receive a certifi-cate
signed by the president and a
lapel pin.”
Students can submit their ser-vice
hours at anytime through the
AXES portal in mySFA on the my-
Services tab. Hours for March 10,
2012 – Nov. 30, 2012 are due no
By Mackenzie Herring
Contributing Writer
The water in the Surfin’ Steve fountain on campus
will continue to pour purple throughout this week
for Homecoming 2012.
The Traditions Council is hoping the purple water
kicks the school spirit up a notch this week, since it’s
the first time they’ve been given approval to dye the
fountain water.
At the Homecoming 2012 Opening Ceremony,
where purple dye was poured into the fountain
water, several students gathered to watch and pass-ers-
by stopped to observe the start of a new tradition.
Although the event turnout wasn’t massive, stu-dents
have still been taking note of the fountain
throughout the week, especially those in organiza-tions
involved in Homecoming Week.
“I think it really helps make the entire campus
have a more Homecoming and SFA pride feel to it,”
Amber Magill, Driving Jacks risk management direc-tor,
said.
Even students who aren’t involved in Homecoming
Week, as well as teachers and visitors on campus, will
still walk past the fountain and see the purple water
throughout the week.
“I think it’s an amazing new tradition to start,
and I think the first year went really well,” Christian
Gonzales, Driving Jacks vice president, said. “I hope
it’s something Traditions Council does in the future
years, too, because I think the students really liked
it.”
Students can get more information on Homecoming
2012 activities and ways to get involved through the
Involvement Center in the Student Center, or contact
the Traditions Council, at (936) 468-6721.
By Daniel Politi
Writer from the Slate
Before the second presidential debate kicked off, the
conventional wisdom among many political pundits was
that the town hall format did not lend itself well to political
attacks. Boy, were they proved wrong.
The second match-up between President Obama and
exchange about Libya. Conservatives obviously disagree
that Obama won, but — tellingly — there is lots of frustra-tion
that Romney was not able to turn the Libya question
into a touchdown. Let's get to the pundits.
The National Journal's Ron Fournier does a good job
of capturing the eternal contradiction of turning to news
junkies for debate assessment. "Obama and Romney scored
points while turning off independent voters with their
more than ample reason to carry on
the fight."
Probably nothing got his base
more excited than the very end when
Obama managed to unholster a men-tion
of Romney's 47 percent remark, writes the Washington
Post's Jonathan Capehart.
Even if he didn't fully sway undecideds, Obama man-aged
to take "steps towards undoing the damaging dynam-ic
Romney cemented during the last debate" in which the
Republican had managed to portray himself as the agent of
change, writes the Washington Post's Greg Sargent.
That doesn't mean conservatives see it the same way,
of course. Power Line's John Hinderaker writes that while
Student Affairs
aims for 200,000
service hours
By Wendy Kunkel
Special to The Pine Log
To Bob Sitton, SFA alumnus and former Alumni Association director,
SFA will always hold a very special place in his heart. Students might
find him riding around campus on his golf cart when the weather is
nice, his two dogs along for the ride. He shared his 60-year journey
with the University, starting from the suburbs of Cushing all the way
to Nacogdoches.
“From a guy that grew up in an unpainted home with no electricity or
running water, the ride I had down the road of life has been special, but
it would not have happened without SFA,” Sitton said. “Around 1950,
my parents would let me hitchhike down Highway 204 to Nacogdoches
to watch the Lumberjack football and basketball games,” he said.
Ever since he was in eighth grade, Sitton dreamed of becoming a
coach, and upon graduation in 1960, he took a job as head football
coach in Cushing. He worked there for 12 years before coming back to
Nacogdoches in 1972.
“I had decided to move into school administration, until my clock
radio woke me up one morning (to an advertisement) for an (SFA)
alumni director,” Sitton said. “I went to alumni associations at UT,
Houston and Sam Houston to learn a little alumni lingo, and I got the
job,” he said.
He began working on Sept. 1, 1972, and Homecoming
week was one of his very first responsibilities.
“I didn’t take Homecoming 101 at Cushing or SFA, so it was quite an
experience. Over the years, I’ve found that SFA and its current and
former students take it more seriously than any other university I’m
aware of,” Sitton said.
Through the years, Homecoming at SFA has evolved, with many long-standing
traditions remaining and a few in the past unheard of today.
Courtney Schmidt/Pine Log Photo
Traditions Council members Megan Mortensen, Ray Yates and Craig Wright were the
first students to dye Surfin’ Steve’s water purple.
Wendy Kunkel/Pine Log Photo
Bob Sitton poses with his dogs on his golf cart. This SFA alumnus can be seen driving
around campus in his golf cart.
PVSA, page 2 Sitton, page 2
Mitt Romney was red meat for political junkies and parti-sans
alike as the two candidates almost
seemed to play out an episode of
Slate's Political Kombat onstage.
Un d e c i d e d voters? Eh,
they probably weren't fans.
They hate s q u a b b l e s
after all.
So who won in the
eyes of the pundits? It
was pretty even — both
c a ndidate s had good
m o m e n t s and bad ones
— but Obama seems to be
getting the edge for two simple
reasons: He bested his previous
p e r f o rma n c e and appeared
to come out on top on a
heated
point-scoring," he writes. "Democratic and Republican
partisans will find reason to celebrate the debate, but it
likely did nothing to reshape the closely fought race." The
whole thing was "fantastic theater," agrees the Los Angeles
Times' Jon Healey, "but not decisive politics."
Obama came out swinging right from the beginning.
Maybe too hard. The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza
writes that "Obama seemed to be on the wrong side of the
angry/passionate divide in the first 15 minutes" but then
managed to moderate his tone "to the sober/serious yet
forceful persona that he needed." Obama seemed to be
a different person from Denver while Romney somehow
"failed to match the dominance of his first debate, seeming
peevish at Obama's interruptions and appealing to debate
moderator Candy Crowley for equal time," writes Time's
Alex Altman.
Sure it may not have really helped sway any unde-cided
voters, but maybe that's not what was most impor-tant.
Maybe what mattered most to Obama was getting
Democrats excited about his candidacy again after his
lackluster performance in the first debate. If so, he
seems to have done it. Andrew Sullivan for one
seems to have calmed down after his now-famous
panic attack that followed the first
debate. On Tuesday night, Sullivan con-fidently
wrote that "Obama dominated
Romney tonight in every single way,"
adding that the president "gave us all
Obama did better than in the previous debate,
it wasn't the type of p e r f o r ma n c e
that could reverse his decline in
the polls. "The key factor in
my view is that whenever
the candidates t a l k e d
about Obama's r e c o r d ,
Romney clob- bered the
president," he writes. Yet
even Hinderaker expresses
annoyance that R o m n e y
"muffed it to some degree"
when he was asked about
Libya, which should have
Google Images Google Images
Debate, page 5
Pundits think Obama pulled ahead
Bob Sitton reminisces about
previous Homecoming years
Surfin’ Steve dyed purple for the
first time for Homecoming 2012