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Volume 93
Issue 14
Next Publication:
Monday, October 29, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012
PINE LOG The
The Independent Voice of Stephen F. Austin State University
Page 6
SFA Lumberjacks still in
contention for Southland
Conference title.
60
H
By Emily Jensen
Staff Writer
Shirley McKellar, a candidate for
the U.S. House of Representatives
in Texas’ 1st Congressional
District, visited SFA Tuesday in the
Spirit Lounge to talk with students
about her platform.
If elected, McKellar said she
would like to propose bills that
drive down the cost of health care,
bring in corporations to East Texas
and stimulate the East Texas econ-omy
by bringing in jobs.
The event was sponsored by the
Student Government Association
after McKellar contacted the
school and requested to speak to
the students. She has visited Texas
College in Tyler, the University
of Texas at Tyler, Jarvis Christian
College and Wiley College.
The 1st Congressional District
of Texas includes the following
counties: Harrison, Panola, Gregg,
Smith, Wood, Upshur, Rusk, Shelby,
Sabine, San Augustine, Angelina
and Nacogdoches.
McKellar is running against
Louie Gohmert. Gohmert has held
his position as congressman in the
1st district of Texas since 2005. He’s
running for his fifth term in office.
Early voting started Oct. 22 and
will last until Nov. 2. The only day
to vote after early voting will be
Nov. 6.
For the past few years, McKellar
has been helping military veterans
receive their benefits from the gov-ernment.
According to her website,
McKellar served in the military for
16 years in the 94th Combat Support
Hospital Unit of Seagoville, Texas.
She served 18 months overseas in
“Operation Iraqi Freedom” and
“Enduring Freedom,” and received
two war ribbons and two medals.
However, McKellar received in-juries
and was forced to return to
the U.S. and spend months in the
hospital.
“While I was there, I recognized
that veterans were receiving some
issues that they should not have
been receiving,” McKellar said.
“They were having problems with
their health care and they were
having problems with their ben-efits.”
After years of work, McKellar
has seen some improvement with
veterans’ benefits.
McKellar also has years of expe-rience
in the medical field and has
her doctorate in nursing manage-ment
from the Columbus College of
Public Health and Administration.
With her medical career,
McKellar created the first com-prehensive
breast cancer center
in the European theater. She has
also done fundraising to donate to
breast cancer research.
With her service in the medical
spectrum of the military McKellar
has seen how foreign healthcare
systems work, and believes that the
U.S. has the superior system. She
would like to see every American
citizen with affordable healthcare.
McKellar also stated that she
would like to bring in more busi-nesses
and corporations to East
Texas to provide jobs.
“The cost of doing business in
our area is much more economical
Representative
McKellar talks
about platform
By Katelynn Wiggins
Staff Writer
The Zombie Apocalypse is
coming to Nacogdoches at 5 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 10. This Survival of
the Fittest Zombie Run is a 5K in-tersected
with a mud and obstacle
run with a twist.
Runners will encounter mud,
obstacles and zombies during the
race. It will begin at the SFA intra-mural
fields and traverse the arbo-retum,
azalea trail and parts of the
ROTC obstacle course.
“The race will end with a slip
and slide that may or may not re-semble
blood,” Dr. Adam Peck,
dean of student affairs, said.
Participants will have the op-portunity
to run the race or be
a zombie. Zombies will receive
makeup from SFA’s theatre depart-ment
to make it more realistic.
“Zombies are encouraged to
get creative,” Peck said. In addi-tion
to the makeup provided, Peck
encourages zombies to dress the
part. “It can be as simple as a
ripped t-shirt.” Zombies will be
given a time to arrive to get their
makeup done, closer to the event.
Their call time will be no later than
3 p.m.
Runners should arrive at 4 p.m.
(an hour before the 5 p.m. start
time) and dress for the mud. There
are only 300 running spots and 100
zombie spots available.
“I’ve noticed a lot of people
doing mud runs, obstacle runs and
color runs,” Peck said. “I’m not re-ally
into zombies, but the idea was
so funny, I just had to do it.”
The Freshmen Leadership
Academy is putting on the event. It
is student-run, but they will have
help from a professional race di-rector.
The director will be there to
chip time the race.
Chip time is technology where
each runner is given a chip to put
in his or her shoe to get an accurate
time from start to finish.
Runners will wear flags, just
like in flag football. “Zombie hot
zones” will be scattered through-out
the course. Zombies will be
restricted to these zones and will
attempt to pull flags off of run-ners
inside the zones. If a runner
completes the course with at least
one flag remaining, they will be
eligible for a grand prize. Runners
who complete the course with no
flags remaining will receive a spe-cial,
secret prize.
While this course is suitable for
the average person, it will resem-ble
a real zombie apocalypse. It is
important for all participants to
be conscious of safety at all times.
“I can’t stress this enough, they
won’t be actual zombies,” Peck
said. “People are going to bump
into each other, but we are asking
zombies to think about safety, and
(runners) can’t hit the zombies.”
The cost is $30 to run in the race
and $10 to be a zombie. Visit www.
naczombierun.com to register for
the event.
“It is going to sell out,” Peck said.
He explained that after the cam-pus-
wide email went out Monday,
registrations filled his inbox.
SGA to bring zombies to campus
McKellar, page 2 Zombies, page 2
Go green with to-go boxes
By Jessica Layfield
Copy Editor
The environment is always a hot button issue on college cam-puses;
making sure campus is environmentally friendly,
availability of recycling stations and now, sustainability.
Across the nation, college and university campuses are finding
ways to update their campus policies to increase sustainability. At
SFA, two students are doing their best to bring sustainability to our
campus.
Drew Luthy, junior, and James McDowell, sophomore, are two of
the founding members of the Sustainability Club, which is in the
beginning stages of becoming a registered student organization. On
Tuesday, as a part of National Campus Sustainability Day, Luthy and
McDowell were outside the Student Center collecting signatures from
students to promote campus sustainability.
One area in which they hope to create a more sustainable campus
is by tackling moving from Styrofoam to-go boxes to reusable plastic
to-go boxes for the on-campus dining halls.
“There are about 5,000 students who eat in the on-campus dining
halls in the Student Center and East College each day,” McDowell
said. “Of those students, a quarter of them use take-out containers.”
“You can always see students walking around with t-go boxes. All of
those will end up at the landfill,” Luthy said. On average, SFA students
use 2,400 to-go containers every day.
Reusable to-go containers are being used at several campuses
including Baylor, the University of Houston and the University of
Arizona, according to McDowell. “Reusable containers will pay for
themselves in time and have several advantages-they fit in a backpack
and they seal better.”
McDowell said after the club becomes an official organization, its
next step would be to try to work with dining s ervices and University
officials to see how they can go about increasing sustainability.
“We’re aiming for small victories. The two main goals of the club
will be education and policy change,” McDowell said.
jlayfield@thepinelog.com
U.S. House of Representatives candidate
Shirley McKellar
Jennifer Roger/Pine Log Photo
Students Drew Luthy and James McDowell are working to start a new group to help SFA go green.