The All State

» By JENELLE GREWELL – jgrewell@my.apsu.edu

The Foy Fitness and Recreation center celebrated its five-year anniversary on Monday, Jan. 30, with cake and ice cream.

“First and foremost, wow, has it been five years already?” said David Davenport, director of the Foy. “We’ve accomplished so much in five years with yet so much more to accomplish as a department.”

According to a special edition of The All State, the Foy opened in Spring 2007 and replaced the Armory built in 1942 during World War II.

The old Armory housed APSU’s ROTC program.

After the demolition of the Armory began in May 2005, the ROTC program moved to the Memorial Health Building.

The site that used to house the ROTC program now houses a building that offers fitness programs.

“The Foy has added to the component of health and wellness to the APSU community,” Davenport said. He said the Foy has allowed opportunities not only for a healthy mind and body but for socialization, as well.

When the Foy center opened, one of the stories in the edition of TAS was the story of the rock-climbing wall, which is still in use today at the Foy Center.

One of the things that has changed since the opening of the Foy has been the café. According to the special edition of TAS, the café that is now Blondie’s used to be a juice and smoothie bar that offered healthy options. In 2009, the café was renovated into a Blondie’s.

“The growth of the facility and this program has been tremendous. There have been so many opportunities I don’t think the students realize how much is available to them within the Foy and with University Recreation,” Davenport said.

Danveport said the Foy will continue to grow with opportunities and for the APSU community. TAS

» By CHRIS COPPEDGE- ccoppedge@my.apsu.edu

For Elizabeth Kurtz, APSU’s Americorps Vista representative, the issue of service-learning on the APSU campus is a deeply important one.

“This conference is a huge step in terms of exposing our faculty to the service-learning already in place at other Tennessee Board of Regents and Tennessee schools,” Kurtz said.

APSU held the Service-Learning Forum Friday, Jan. 20. The Forum’s main goal was to educate and inform the campus faculty about the service-learning program and its benefits.

Speakers and presenters at the forum included Provost Tristan Denley, Tennessee Campus Contact Executive Director Mani Hull, instructors and students from Southwest Tennessee Community College, Sen. Tim Barnes and the facilitators of APSU’s service-learning program Clark Maddux, Alexandra Wills and Kurtz.

According to Maddux, service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy integrating meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civil responsibility and strengthen communities.

APSU’s goal is to have a permanent, centralized service-learning office on campus within the next few years and, with it, a fully realized service-learning program as outlined by the forum.

“This forum will bring service-learning to the forefront of our pedagogy,” Kurtz said, noting it will help coordinate relationships between community partners and classes who might be interested in working with them.

The service-learning program has a certain criteria that must be met for those who wish to participate, according to Maddux.

It requires 13 to 15 hours of mandatory volunteer work during the semester.

This work must benefit the community at large, not principally the needs of an individual or company.

The designation for service-learning participants will be pre-approved by a service-learning committee or the Provost’s designee.

Students must provide at least two different forms of reflection on the work they have done and their experience.

These can come in many forms, including journals, case studies, portfolios, presentations, papers or online discussions.

In order to assist systematic campus tracking, students will also complete a pre-survey and a post-survey regarding their experience in the service-learning program.

The presence of service-learning at APSU is a fairly recent development, according to Wills. It was not until 2009 that the program began to take shape on campus.

“Student Affairs created a position to enhance student experience with the community through service and volunteerism,” said Wills.

Academic Affairs was also involved, creating undocumented service-learning courses, the Provost’s Service Learning Advisory Board and an inventory of existing service-learning classes and activities.

They developed definitions, criteria, a course proposal process and a proposal for institutionalizing service-learning at APSU as well.

Student Affairs has been involved in helping engage the community, including hosting service-learning themed introductions to college courses, acquiring paperwork and liability forms and tracking service hours.

The work has not always been easy.

“We’ve had to introduce an entire culture of service-learning, educate our faculty about it and get community partners on-board,” Wills said. TAS

» By TRENT SINGER – tsinger@my.apsu.edu

The Govs headed into Saturday night’s Jan. 21 game on a four-game winning streak and came away victorious with a 76-64 win over the Eastern Illinois Panthers.

Led by senior guard TyShwan Edmondson, who ended the game with 24 points, the Govs won their second-straight road game.

Edmondson’s play highlighted the night, making 9-of-18 from the floor and finishing 4-of-7 from beyond the arc. He played all 40 minutes of the game, as well as contributing four steals to the winning effort.

Junior guard Jerome Clyburn scored 18 points and was nearly perfect from the free-throw line, going 12-of-14. Senior guard Josh Terry finished with 11 points, six rebounds and five steals, and senior forward Melvin Baker contributed 10 points, eight coming in the second half.

The team’s recent success began last week, after beating conference opponents Eastern Kentucky, Jacksonville State and Tennessee State at the Dunn Center. That success has carried over for the Governors while playing on the road, winning two road games by at least 12 points against conference opponents SIU Edwardsville and Eastern Illinois on Saturday.

The Govs are currently tied for third place with Eastern Kentucky at 5-3 in the OVC standings and sit behind only Southeast Missouri State (5-2) and the NCAA’s sole unbeaten team in college basketball, Murray State (8-0).

Despite losing 13 of their first 16 games, the team’s five consecutive wins is the conference’s second-longest active streak behind Murray State, who continues to climb the college rankings.

The team will continue to take to the road by traveling to Southeast Missouri on Thursday night, Jan. 26, in what should be an intriguing OVC matchup between second-and-third-place teams. Following that game, they will play UT Martin on Saturday night in the Dunn Center. TAS

» By JENELLE GREWELL – jgrewell@my.apsu.edu

Construction is taking place to dramatically change the landscape of campus. The Housing Phase II construction plan is under way now that the demolition of the Cross, Killebrew and Rawlins residence halls is complete.

The $29 million project of new residence halls for students is scheduled to open at the beginning of the 2013-14 academic year.

“This new project will change campus forever. The positive change to the landscape and overall impression will leave a lasting mark at APSU,” said Joe Mills, director of Housing/Residence Life and Dining Services.

“It is important to tie the buildings together both architecturally and functionally. The quad goes back to the first collegiate model of Oxford and Cambridge. The quad creates a sense of belonging and connectedness to the university. The design will funnel all students from Castle Heights and Phase II together in a common space,” Mills said. “It will just be an open space for student gathering and social interaction.”

One of the changes will include the addition of 404 beds, according to the press release. At the moment, the plan is for upperclassmen to be housed in the new residence halls.

According to a press release from APSU Public Relations, the three residence halls recently demolished were a part of the campus landscape for over three decades.

“Usually, I am not a fan of change,” said Morgan Stephens, freshman psychology major, “but I think that if [they are] changing the landscape of our campus to accommodate more people, then that’s a good thing.”

Another big change will be to the Drane Street area.

The press release states the changes to Drane Street will be to accommodate pedestrian traffic and “enhance the pedestrian nature of the new campus lawn.”

When asked about the changes to Drane Street to accommodate pedestrians, Stephens said she wouldn’t have a problem with less vehicle traffic on the road.

“Whenever there’s change in a situation certain people will just have to adjust,” Stephans said.

Plans for the new housing development include the first residential mall, study rooms, meeting rooms and a kitchen on each floor.

“We are adding a food venue in the bottom of one of the buildings,” Mills said.

When asked about the appeal of new housing development, Stephens said, “Have you seen the parking lots in the morning? I am all for people housing on campus.” TAS

» By ANTHONY SHINGLER – ashingler@my.apsu.edu

Win and they were in.

That is what the Lady Govs had to do on the Death Valley trip over the weekend to qualify for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament for a second consecutive year.

The Lady Govs were in a must-win game Sunday, Oct. 30, against Morehead State. However, Morehead State (9-7-3 Overall; 4-4-1 OVC) had other plans for the Lady Govs. For the second-straight year, they put an end to the Lady Govs season in Morehead. This time, it was in the regular season finale with a dominant 7-2 win.

“We really played our worst game of the season today,” said head coach Kelley Guth. Morehead jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the 21st minute on a header from Brittany Kiracofe.

The Lady Govs cut the Morehead State lead to 2-1 on a penalty kick from Tatiana Ariza in the 29th minute, but the surge from the Lady Govs did not last long.

Morehead State scored a goal in the 37th and 43rd minute for a 4-1 lead headed
into halftime.

Morehead State piled on three more goals for a 7-1 lead. Natalia Ariza added one more goal for the Lady Govs in the 74th minute when she beat two defenders and the keeper for the final score of 7-2.

The Lady Govs were out shot in the game 8-16. They were led by junior Jocelyn Murdoch and sophomore Joceline Quiceno with two shots a piece.

Tatiana Ariza finished the season leading the OVC in almost every offensive category. She is at the top of the stat list in points, points per game, goals, goals per game, assists, assists per game and tied for first in game winning goals.
The Lady Govs finished eighth with a 3-5-1 OVC record (9-8-1 overall). The team was ranked first in attendance, points and goals. They finished second in assists and third in shots. TAS