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Volume 110

ACUOPTIMIST.COM | Thursday, May 11, 2023 | 1

Issue 4

A student publication of Abilene Christian University since 1912

BY DANIEL CURD | CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER Seniors gather together for the Senior Candle Light Sendoff.

Top seniors honored at sendoff dinner, devotional BY MACI WEATHERS NEWSLETTER EDITOR

The graduating class of 2023 gathered in Moody Coliseum Sunday for the new Senior Celebration and Sendoff, which included a dinner followed by and a candlelight devotional in the Teague Special Events Center. During the dinner, the ACU Alumni Association gave awards to seniors who excelled in their grades or department: • ACU Honor Man: Conner Crawford • ACU Honor Woman: Mackenzie Bankes • Trustees Awards: Macee Valter, Thomas Sanderson, Lindsey May

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Dean Adams Achievement Award: Dylan Roundtree, Elizabeth Crawford, Stephanie Tran • V.W. and Loreta Kelley Scholarship: Amelia Little and Angel Smith • Mr. ACU: Nate Wade • Miss. ACU: Lindsey May “I think it’s one of their last times to be together just as a class and just be,” said April Young, senior alumni and university relations officer. “But the worship piece that ACU provides at the school that the universities don’t provide is really unique. I think that an added factor to being together is not only they’re together, but they’re worshiping to-

gether and spending time with the Lord together.” The Senior Celebration and Sendoff used to be called the Senior Candlelight Sendoff however, because of the added dinner portion the ACU Alumni Association changed the name for the seniors. “So we started senior candlelight here, and it’s probably been going on 10 plus years with the idea of capping an ACU experience starting with candlelight and ending with candlelight,” Young said. “This year, we felt a need to elevate even that experience and create an addition to it, what we’re calling the celebration part, essentially a senior dinner,

for lack of a better term, that serves as that last element of time where they get to spend time together in a meal and then get to go worship together.” Dinner was provided by The Shed Market, and a speech was given during the celebration by Dr. Phil Schubert, president of the university. The ACU Alumni Association office provided gifts for seniors as a way of welcoming them into the organization. “I think for us, specifically for the alumni office, it allows us for the first time to introduce ourselves as our staff, to welcome these students into the alumni community of ACU,” Young said.

“And so that’s one of the many reasons why we love it. And it’s just a great tradition that we enjoy putting on for the senior class.” After the dinner, Dr. Laura Carroll, executive director of Adams Center for Teaching and Learning and professor of English, led the candlelight devotional in the Teague. Sage Lauderback, senior biology major from Farmington, New Mexico, said that was signifiant because Carroll led the freshman Candlelight Devotional four years ago. “I think getting to be a part of something we did as a freshman and rounding out the four years the same way we have started is really exciting,” Lauderback said.

ACU Museum to reopen full-time in fall 2023 BY MACI WEATHERS NEWSLETTER EDITOR

The ACU Museum reopened and soft-launched seven exhibitions for the ACU community April 20 in conjunction with the anniversary of the class of 1973. The museum was put together in part by students in the new public history track within the Department of History and Global Studies. “In 2019, the Department of History and Global Studies launched a new public history track within the history major which enables our students to specialize in public history which includes work in the museum field,” said Dr. Amanda Biles, assistant professor of history and director of public history in the Department of History and Global Studies. “The department

BY LONDYN GRAY | PHOTOGRAPHER A history of social clubs is displayed at the ACU Museum.

knew that we needed to address the conditions in the museum otherwise the collections in the museum would deteriorate.” The ACU Museum was started by the Women for ACU. In the 1970s, WACU started collecting, building their collection plan and conceptualizing

what they wanted the museum to do and the stories it would tell around campus. The ACU Museum officially opened in the 1980s and was curated by The WACU committee and funded by the WACU organization. The WACU also hired student interns from the history depart-

ment including a named internship, the Mary Manly internship. In recent years, The WACU have been unable to keep the ACU Museum open and curated. “Last year, we spoke to them about a process of transition where the museum would come under the

leadership of myself and the department of history and global studies, James Wiser, dean of the library, and Craig Fisher, associate vice president for advancement and alumni,” Biles said. Biles, Wiser and Fisher worked out a partnership plan to reopen the museum and have it led by student curators who are developing experience to work in the museum field. “This museum had not been open very much in the past couple of years especially because of COVID-19,” Biles said. “In that time period, there was a lot of damage that occurred. There were some insect infestations and some rodent infestations, that was one of the first problems we had to tackle.” The next step for the museum was to re-document all of the collections

ACU’s Information Technology Department is rolling out a new MyACU portal this summer in an effort to enhance students’ online experience, allowing for more customization and easier access. The MyACU portal is home to different resources for students, staff and faculty, including access to student services, personal information, and ongoing news and events on campus. But now, after 18 years of running on the same technology infrastructure, major changes will be made.

Jeff Brawley, director of enterprise applications says many reasons have led to the shift and that it is ultimately to give those in the ACU community what they have been asking for. “We wanted an opportunity to move to new technology that is more advanced that is going to give us flexibility, functionality and features that don’t exist right now,” Brawley said. “It also is an opportunity for IT to do something that is impactful for everyone on campus. It doesn’t matter if you are a student or staff, this is going to have an impact on you in some way.” The core of the site is set to come out this sum-

mer with more features and functions being added throughout the duration of the summer and into the next school year. The site is designed to be much more targeted to the user themselves and their personal preferences and delivers a more modern design and layout. “Think of it as kind of a Netflix experience,” Brawley said. “Whenever you log into the portal, you are going to see announcements that are relevant to you, you are going to see widgets that are relevant to you, you are going to see your courses, your balances, and you are going to be able to customize and tailor that experi-

ence to your needs. The portal will offer content specific customization including aspects such as major, classification, and allows the user to see only what they want to see. On top of the newly renovated portal, one of the biggest features will be a new mobile app set to release in late summer. “One of the biggest requests from our students was a mobile experience,” Brawley said. “Students want to be able to do on their phone what they can do on their laptop. You will be able to do that moving forward with a true mobile app that will closely mimic what you

Wessel welcomes faculty, Sikes to close

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FEATURE

Vic McCracken in ‘Sweeney Todd’ PAGE 2

GRADUATION

2022-23 Graduates

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SPORTS

See MUSEUM, P. 6

Major changes to come to MyACU portal over summer BY WILL DALTON SPORTS DIRECTOR

NEWS

can do on the computer.” Some students are glad a change is being made and are excited to try out the new features and customization. “It definitely sounds like it will make things a lot easier,” said Colby Vaughn, sophomore kinesiology major from Fort Worth. “I obviously don’t know what all the new applications have to offer but just knowing that changes are being made and these changes are being put in place to benefit students is exciting.” The new portal is set to make its release June 2 with the mobile app set to release around a month after.

Alignment of new conference for football PAGE 12

SPORTS

Athletics moves from Nike to Under Armour

PAGE 11