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April 11, 2025 Vol. 100, No. 12 @HUStudentPubs Facebook: Harding University Student Publications
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Club shows risk exceeding cast limit Multiple Spring Sing club shows create cast waiting lists after reaching 160 members
Photos by EDGAR CARDIEL
Cast members of the Gamma Sigma Phi, Theta, Pi Theta Phi and Friends Spring Sing show (left) and the Delta Gamma Rho, Omega Phi, Phi Kappa Delta and Friends Spring Sing show (right) perform on the Benson Auditorium stage. Both club shows had to create waiting lists after reaching cast capacity. KENZIE JAMES news editor Hundreds of students participate in Spring Sing every year, but multiple social club shows this year faced the challenge of exceeding the member limit. Club shows are allowed up to 160 members, with a limit of 100 onstage and 20 in the aisles during their show. Spring Sing Director Steven Frye said he spoke with the fire marshal to set this limit to avoid excessive foot traffic in an emergency. “Those people are in the wings or in the lobby or outside, you know, and they have to traffic in and out,” Frye said. “Moving from total darkness to bright light is an issue. So, we capped it at 160... and that was much higher than we’d had before, and we still had people pushing that.” Delta Gamma Rho (DGR), Omega Phi, Phi Kappa Delta and Friends started rehearsals with 171 students interested in being in their show. As the semester progressed a n d
homework increased, some students switched to a smaller role or dropped the show. DGR director Lauren McDuffie, a junior, said the show is now at 156 members. The directors created a waiting list for students who wanted to join the show when others left so as many students could participate as possible. “We had to end up letting some ‘and friends’ go so that our club members could do it, because they kind of get first priority,” McDuffie said. “It was actually really hard… and they were very understanding. We encouraged them to do other shows.” Frye and assistant Emily Hutchenson asked clubs who were over capacity to encourage participants to join the smaller clubs’ shows that still had room. Gamma Sigma Phi (Gamma) director Ethan Basham, a sophomore, said he made the announcement, but he did not think many of their members jumped shows. “It’s just something that, socially, is very different,” Basham said. “When you join a different Spring Sing group, it’s because… either their boyfriend or girlfriend are in it, or a lot of their friends. And as much as we want to say that people are doing Spring Sing because they want to sing and dance, it’s a lot of the social aspect.”
Gamma, competing with Theta and Pi Theta Phi, started with around 170 participants and is now around 140-145 students. TNT and Zeta Rho are also just under capacity with 159 participants in their show. The size of each club’s new class in the fall also factors into Spring Sing participation numbers. Freshmen and sophomores make up much of each club show, so a large amount of new members in a club correlates to higher participation in each show. Spring Sing participation has been larger in the years after COVID-19. Frye said students’ interest was renewed in 2022, which was the first full-scale production after the pandemic. Students’ desire to perform in the production has continued to build as Spring Sing productions added special effects, graphics and stunts. “I know that Spring Sing is becoming a lot more popular because there are a lot of different things that we’re adding,” Basham said. “There’s been a lot more like showy kind of things, at least with costumes. We have tumbling like basket tosses have been in a lot of shows that haven’t been in the past shows.”
Members of various club Spring Sing shows perform in the Benson Auditorium. This year’s Spring Sing theme is Rise, and multiple shows are over or near the 160 person cast capacity.
Honors College hosts annual research conference AMANDA TOYE community editor
The Honors College Undergraduate Research Conference is an annual event that allows students to present research they have prepared throughout the school year. This conference provides students with the opportunity to present individually or with a partner. Sophomore Julia Howell is presenting for her first time regarding the biblical themes in the popular 2023 film, “The Barbie Movie.” “I wrote this paper when I was at Abilene Christian University as a freshman,” Howell said. “We did this whole research project where we could just write about anything concerning the Barbie movie. The first time I had seen that movie I immediately thought that it had Biblical themes and allusions in it so I wanted to write about that. I wrote this paper and then my professor really encouraged me to either speak about it at a conference or publish it.” After transferring to Harding, Howell met with several English and Communication professors and ended up submitting her paper to the Honors College Undergraduate
Photo by JULIANNE BAKER
Former Honors faculty member James Huff speaks to the 2024 Honors College Research Conference in Cone Chapel. This year’s conference will be on April 18. Research Conference, which is how she research any chosen topic to present at the achieved the opportunity to present her work. conference. Sanders and her partner, Danae Sophomore Henely Sanders took a different Lucio, decided to study “The Importance route to presenting her project. While in her of Research as an Undergraduate Student.” research lab this semester, Sanders’ professor Together, they will present their findings asked her to team up with a partner and on April 18.
“We have 31 research grants at Harding, totalling $4.5 million, but we found most people don’t even know about the research going on,” Sanders said. “Out of the 68 people that I conducted my survey on, only 7 percent of them knew there was research going on.” With the amount of funds the University receives for various research, students have plenty of opportunities to conduct their own research. Sophomore Emma Gaskill said she has been conducting her own set of research. “I am presenting on parental reactions to children’s negative emotions and the TV show, ‘Daniel Tiger.’” Gaskill said. “I was familiar with the show, and parents and family dynamics are super interesting to me since I’m going into the field of psychology.” Gaskill’s research is led by the fact that children consume more TV, YouTube and media in general than they used to. Gaskill is hoping to analyze TV shows and help parents decide what media is appropriate for their children. Gaskill’s research has taken her to Las Vegas, Nevada, where she presented her findings Monday at the Broadcast Education Association’s annual convention.