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ACUOPTIMIST.COM | Friday, November 15, 2019 | 1

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A student publication of Abilene Christian University since 1912

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BY DAVID MITCHELL | PHOTOGRAPHER

Students bow after singing a global worship song together at the 2019 Pandemic Ethnos show, performed for the community last weekend.

SGA to hold 2nd annual ‘Litmas’ event BY DILLON DANIEL MANAGING EDITOR

This year’s “Litmas with SGA” will be from 7-9 p.m. on Nov. 19 at the Campus Mall Area. This is the second year that the annual tree lighting will be made an event for students and staff to celebrate. “We want to take what SGA did last year and work with Student Life and Caddie Coupe and make this [year’s tree lighting] even better,”

Lauren Wasson, senior political science major from Denton and president of SGA, said. The event is made for students to come out and celebrate Christmas together and have some fun. “What’s good about this event is that anyone can come as they are and celebrate with one another,” Karissa Nickish, senior speech path major from Melbourne Beach, Fla. and press secretary of SGA, said. “The goal

for this event is that it continues to get bigger with every year.” The event will feature a 35-foot-tall Christmas tree, the A Cappella groups and students from OMA. Weston and the Evergreen and Sterling Williams’ and his band are scheduled to perform. Students will watch the lighting of the tree while drinking hot chocolate and have the ability to take pictures at a vintage

camper photo booth. Other additions to the event this year will include Abi Thrift, student-run thrift business, and a snow machine. The first 200 people to show up for the event will also receive a free Christmas mug. “Before we did this last year, other departments decorated for Christmas, but we didn’t feel there was a lot to see on campus,” Wasson said. “So we wanted an event where all

“So we wanted an event where all the students from different clubs and groups can come together and be involved in something else. We wanted something every student could just have fun and be apart of.” LAUREN WASSON SENIOR POLITICAL SCIENCE MAJOR FROM DENTON AND PRESIDENT OF SGA

the students from different clubs and groups can come together and be involved in something else.

Abilene sustains early wintry conditions BY ANDREW NORSWORTHY STAFF WRITER

On Nov. 11, students greeted Veteran’s Day with gusty winds and chilly temperatures projected to sink down below freezing before the next day. The temperature in the late afternoon sunk to 30 degrees. The temperature coupled with strong winds up to 41 miles per hour created a wind chill of only 15 degrees. Dr. Phil Schubert, president of the university, said, “I don’t like the cold and I don’t like winds where they are over 40 miles per hour and we’ve got both today.” Jaden Roberts, a sophomore nursing major from Corinth, said, “[I’m] running to class. It’s terribly cold.” Seth Spears, a sopho-

BY ANDREW NORSWORTHY | STAFF WRITER

A chilly Veteran’s Day for the Abilene community. more information systems major from Bossier City, La., said, “Honestly, kind of nice. Just layer up.” Weather has had no impact on road conditions or other impact on safety of the community and city as there has been no significant accumulation

of ice or snow that could threaten travel. Classes continued despite the frigid conditions as precipitation was not expected to accumulate on roads. Jimmy Ellison, ACU Police Chief, said, “It’s not as much related to temperature as much as

it is: do we have any kind of freezing rain or icy roadways or snow and ice accumulations that are affecting traveling safety?” The ACU Police Department is monitoring weather conditions and works very closely with the City of Abilene PD

and with TXDOT to monitor road conditions locally and regionally to feed current and accurate information to ACU and make any decisions based upon the weather. Students can expect an alert in the early morning hours if there are any weather updates. Abilene was under a wind advisory until 9 p.m. on Nov. 12. Freezing rain and clouds cleared overnight. “It’s a great reminder that the weather in west Texas is really volatile.” Schubert said. “We’ve got amazing things about Abilene, Texas, but we have to endure the volatility of the weather in November and today is a great example. It pushes us all inside to enjoy the community and the war mth that comes with it.”

The Cabinet to schedule Finals Week events BY ANDREW TOOTHMAN STAFF WRITER

The Cabinet will host five events this semester, including Silent Disco, back by popular demand. The Cabinet is a university funded student organization that organizes and hosts events for students to get better connected with one another in a fun community environment. Events hosted by The Cabinet are free to students, but most are first come first serve.

The first event is sunset painting on Nov. 17. This event will be limited to the first 50 students and will be held at the Grace Museum. Food, paint and canvases will be provided. A hypnotist will be coming to Abilene for the next event on Nov. 21. This event’s location has yet to be announced. The next event will be a showing of Frozen 2 at 2 p.m. on Nov. 23 at the Cinemark Abilene and XD movie theater located near Buffalo Wild Wings. Tickets will

be first come first serve. The Cabinet will release clues on this event on their Instagram. Libby Schwalb, a senior child and family services major from Nashville, TN, and cabinet member, said she is looking forward to the Silent Disco event on Dec. 6 because she is one of the directors in charge of the event. Silent Disco will start at 10 p.m. and will be held in Teague Special Events Center. There will be 300 headsets ready for this event.

“I mostly love seeing people get involved into these free events for students, especially freshmen.” LIBBY SCHWALB SENIOR CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES MAJOR FROM NASHVILLE, TN.

“I am always excited about Silent Disco, but this year I am partnering up with other cabinet members to run this event.” Schwald said. “I mostly love seeing people get involved into these free events for students, especially fresh-

men. All of our cabinet members are different with different ideas on how to have fun, so the variety of these events are fun.” The last event is on Dec. 9, which is Dead Day, and The Cabinet will be hosting a spa day at the Hunter Welcome Center for students to come relax before finals. The spa event will be from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Students can find more information on these events on The Cabinet’s Instagram page @ACUCabinet.

We wanted something every student could just have fun and be apart of.” Even though this is the second year of the event, Wasson said she wished that there was something like this when she was a freshman. Nickish and Wasson said that even if the weather gets a bit colder than usual, SGA will do what it can to keep the event going. However, they also said they are not too worried.

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QUESTION What year did the Hunter Welcome Center open? Be the first to answer correctly by sending your answer to @acuoptimist on Twitter. Winner will receive a prize. Be sure to watch for a new question each week.