The 114th annual commencement took place today. (Photo by Jessi Emmert)

The 114th annual graduation ceremony was today in the Merillat Physical Education and Recreation Complex. The day began with a morning baccalaureate service where Tim Smith, FRHistS, associate professor of history, gave the sermon. Smith urged the graduates to refresh themselves before taking on tough tasks in life, referring to Ecclesiastes 9:11. He also assured them they would be remembered by faculty, staff and students.

The university gave 6 Master of Arts degrees, 9 Master of Education degrees, 64 Bachelor of Arts degrees, 1 Bachelor of Music degree, 120 Bachelor of Science degrees, 17 Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees, 9 Bachelor of Social Work degrees, 3 Associate of Arts and 15 Associate of Science degrees.

Three individuals were given honorary doctorates. An honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree was presented to Dan Wolgemuth, president and CEO of Youth for Christ USA, who was the commencement speaker, for his years of service with Youth for Christ. Rev. Luther Whitfield, senior director of Youth for Christ’s Primetime Community Center in Fort Wayne and senior pastor of New Covenant Worship Center, was given an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree. An honorary Doctor of Humane Letters was given to 1977 Huntington alumni Charles Curie.

Nine-year-old Maggie Kubina (second from left) is pictured with her siblings and grandma at a family reunion. (Photo provided)

Maggie Kubina, a senior biology major, was having a normal day working for the Huntington University maintenance department during spring break. She and the other employees were “joking around, and having a good time,” she said. So she wasn’t expecting bad news when she got the call from her brother.

He was calling to tell her that her 87-year-old grandmother had passed away.

“At first I didn’t believe it,” Kubina said. “I kept asking, ‘Are you serious?’ Once I realized that he was actually for real, I just crumpled to the floor. I didn’t know what I was doing. I just started crying.”

Experiencing the death of a grandparent while in college is not uncommon. According to a Purdue University study, 22 to 30 percent of college students have experienced the death of a family member or a friend in the previous year. Thirty-five to 48 percent are likely to be in their first 24 months of grieving.

Kubina was not the only HU student to lose a grandparent over spring break. Mike Megonnel, a junior math education major, learned of his grandmother’s death over spring break while on a mission trip in Philadelphia. She died of cancer at the age of 72. Megonnel said the death was expected, which may have made it easier to cope with.

“For me, the hardest thing coming back to HU was, ‘How do I tell people?’” Megonnel said.

Megonnel felt like his good friends deserved to know, but didn’t want there to be a “pity party.” Those that he did tell were supportive.

“Anyone I told came up and either gave me a hug or talked to me and told me that if I needed anyone to talk to that they would be there,” he said.

Grieving the loss of a loved one is never easy, Martha Smith, associate dean of student life, director of career development and counseling services, said. Smith has worked as a counselor at HU for 20 years.

“The grief process can take a long time,” she said. “If it’s a disturbance in daily living, that’s when we want to help a person work through [their grief].”

Smith said signs of grieving include lack of sleep, not eating, skipping classes or being consumed with thoughts about the deceased person.

She suggested that friends offer to go with the grieving individual to a counseling session. Often, individuals will not go by themselves, but if a friend offers to go with them, they might be more willing, she said.

Above all, Smith encouraged friends of grieving students to listen.

“Number one thing, just listen to them,” she said. “Get that individual to talk about the person.”

Kubina said that it was the little things her friends did that helped the most as she grieved.

“Express more than just concern,” Kubina said. “Make yourself available just to talk with them if they need it. Wait for them to approach you with it.”

Megonnel appreciated the support of the men on his floor, Baker 2nd. He shared the news with them through their floor’s Facebook page.

Megonnel and his grandmother were very close, he said.

“Most people that are teenagers go on dates with people that are the opposite sex,” he said, “ but I went on dates with my grandma.”

Megonnel had not seen his grandmother since Christmas, but said he has no regrets. Her death made him cherish the things she taught him, he said.

“My grandma and I talked about death all the time,” he said. “She would say, ‘We’re not going to be around here forever so you have to take what you get. Take what God gives you and do the best with it.’ I’ve been trying to do that my whole life. There’s not really a lot that I would change.”

(Illustration by Cate Rinchak)

I was so hoping that the last show I would review at HU wouldn’t be a flop — so much so that I caught myself at the beginning of “The Foreigner” actually looking for things to criticize.

There was hardly anything for a nit-picking reviewer to work with. Let’s just say, the HU theatre experience for me has closed out with flourishing bang and sprinkles.

I admit, I was a bit worried at the start as Dom Corsoe stomped across the Studio Theatre stage in his quintessentially “old boy” khakis and knee-highs with the lanky and laconic Joshua Cookingham. I was momentarily worried — not by their accents, which remained both consistent and charming, but by Cookingham’s line: “I’ve often wondered how does one acquire a personality?”

I was worried because, well, the character wasn’t wondering for no reason — he didn’t have any personality to speak of, and I sure hoped he would pick one up by the end.

Half an hour later, I was uncustomarily laughing out loud at Cookingham’s exquisite miming antics at the breakfast table and his mugging that accompanied the rest of the dialogue. So, nicely done, Josh. You totally had me.

Everyone in the cast delivered solid performances, and several of them were exceptionally good. Meagan Heffner has, by herself, one of the most adorable stage presences possible. Give her an eighty-year-old persona and a Southern accent and she could charm a rifle out of a redneck’s hand.

And, the set . . . The completeness of this set rivaled — if not surpassed — that of “Steel Magnolias,” which has been my favorite set so far. Set design is and has been a strength of the department. It’s all in the detail and the depth, which The Foreigner had in full.

My only reservation with the show had nothing to do with the cast or the crew. I’m just still not sure how I feel about flippant KKK humor or usage, and The Foreigner definitely includes this. I wanted to laugh — the hoods are iconic images and I think as a culture we want to laugh at them. But even in the moment, I didn’t feel like laughing. That and it felt a bit stolen from “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

But in the end, as Corsoe threw out another “I need a drink,” in his raspy British accent, it was still a tight, well-timed, intelligently-acted slew of laughs and excitement that made me wish I could be around for more HUTC seasons to come.

Corean Sanders is one of six incoming freshmen to receive the Horizon Scholarship. (Photo provided)

Corean Sanders’ hands were shaking the day Arthur Wilson sat down at her kitchen table. The Fort Wayne, Ind. senior was a bundle of nerves — he had come to tell her the results of her Horizon scholarship review at Huntington University.

“I had never heard of Huntington University until Arthur told me about it,” Sanders said. “I was a freshman [in high school], and no freshman wants to go to a college they’ve never heard of, so I wasn’t that interested. My junior year, I had my first visit to Huntington. All it took was one visit for it to be my primary option. It was love at first sight!”

After her Horizon interview, Sanders was determined to end up at HU.

“All I could think the whole next day after my interview was, ‘If I don’t get this scholarship, I’m still going to go,’” she said. “HU is where I want to be, and I feel like that’s where God is calling me to be.”

The second day after her interview, Wilson called and asked to meet with her to share how the review went. When he revealed that she had been chosen to receive the Horizon Leadership scholarship, Sanders was ecstatic.

“Every single tooth was showing at that moment,” she said.

Sanders is one of six incoming freshmen selected to receive the Horizon Leadership Scholarship for the 2012-13 school year. Ten students were selected as semi-finalists for the scholarship, and the six recipients were chosen after an application and interviewing process.

Sanders impressed Jesse Brown, associate dean of student development and director of residence life and student programs, in her interview.

“Corean had a positive attitude that she wanted to bring to HU,” Brown said. “She was involved in leadership experiences in Fort Wayne and is motivated to get involved as much as she can. She had a great academic performance and is very interested in maturing into the person that God is calling her to be.”

Brown will be taking over the Horizon Leadership Program from Arthur Wilson next semester. Wilson permanently accepted the position of campus pastor earlier this month.

Sanders felt hopeful about the diversity initiative the Horizon program supports.

“I think that HU is the leader of all the other colleges surrounding it,” she said. “HU is the only college that offers such a great opportunity for minorities. The attempt to increase a diverse population also shows me that HU is subject to change. Change is good and exciting. It helps even more that the HU environment is changing with us.”

Sanders plans to study business management and graphic design in the fall. She is looking forward to it and is thrilled about receiving the scholarship.

“It was a moment I know I won’t forget,” she said.

The Horizon Leadership Program, launched in the fall of 2008, was created by HU and Youth for Christ in a joint effort to attract students of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds to HU. The first-ever Horizon scholarship recipients are graduating this year.

The Horizon scholarship covers each recipient’s full tuition and room and board. Recipients are required to maintain a 2.5 grade point average.

According to HU’s website, the program encourages the development of student leadership through community service, academic success, professional and leadership development, spiritual development and social involvement.

Other Horizon Leadership Scholarships for the 2012-13 school year go to Reneson Jean-Louis and Mirlyne Charles of Homestead, Fla.; Vanessa Robles of San Antonio, Texas; Brianna Cash of Lima, Ohio; and Madison Rhodes of New Haven, Ind.

Arthur Wilson talks with Del Doughty and a student at his reception April 11. (Photo by Jessi Emmert)

Arthur Wilson is glowing. With a huge grin on his face, he leans back in a comfortable desk chair in the office that is his to keep. It has been over a week since he found out he would be the permanent campus pastor at Huntington University, but he is still bubbling with excitement about the news.

“I do feel like my whole life has been a preparation for this experience and opportunity,” he said. “It’s all still surreal in a sense. My wife asked me the other day, ‘Is it sinking in yet?’ and I told her, ‘No, not yet.’”

He said he never would have expected to have this role.

HU President G. Blair Dowden, Ph.D., announced during chapel April 5 that Wilson would stay on as the permanent campus pastor.

Wilson was hired in 2009 as the director of urban scholarship and programming to lead the Horizon Leadership Program. He is also an assistant pastor at New Covenant Worship Center in Fort Wayne. He took on the role of interim campus pastor after Bill Fisher and Bob Henry left last year.

“Last spring we had appointed a committee to look at this position and to undergo a national search,” Dowden said. “When Arthur was appointed, we decided to hold off on that national search for the time being, thinking that maybe we would want to interview Arthur for that position permanently, not do a national search and just name him to that position.”

Dowden said he received positive feedback throughout the year about Wilson’s work in campus ministries. About a month ago, Dowden met with the search committee and said he was confident Wilson was the right choice. Wilson interviewed with Dowden, the search committee and the bishop of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ.

Wilson said the interview process was challenging, but that he found it rewarding to share his heart with the interviewers.

“It wasn’t always smooth sailing,” he said. It was a long journey. I believe sometimes God allows enduring journeys so that we have no other option but to depend on him. With this process I consider that to be the case.”

Wilson found out April 4 that he had gotten the job.

“Based on feedback and based on knowledge that I had about his role and what he was doing effectively, I made the decision, along with Ron Coffey, to appoint him to that position,” Dowden said.

Dowden said he is confident that Wilson has the experience, maturity, wisdom and skills necessary to succeed.

“He has the pastoral background to effectively be involved in this position,” he said. “I think what students sense and what I have observed is that he is a very student centered individual. He cares deeply about students and their spiritual walks of them.”

Rosa Cruz, a sophomore Horizon scholar, agreed. She met Wilson through his work with Youth For Christ three years ago and has built a relationship with him since then, she said.

“He interacts with students and his door is always open,” she said. “He’s not afraid to approach students and you can talk to him whenever you want to.”

Wilson will hand over leadership of the Horizon program to Jesse Brown, associate dean of student development.

Wilson said he still plans to be involved with the Horizon program.

“I love Horizon,” he said with tears in his eyes. “I’m always grateful for what Horizon has done for me. I was meeting with a student today in my office and she was asking, ‘Well what’s gonna happen next year?’ We’re still going to talk. We’re still going to meet.”

Wilson said his first goal as campus pastor is to understand the condition of HU’s spiritual atmosphere, and to bring more consistency to all aspects of campus ministry.

“I want to find a way to take our messages from chapel and extend it beyond that 45 minute experience,” he said, “and make that a part of our discussions, our conversations, our Ekks, our music, so that we are dealing with things that impact students’ spiritual development so they are constantly thinking about these things critically.”

Wilson said he looks forward to building more relationships with students through this position.

“I welcome students to come and share with me,” he said. “I just want students to know that I’m here for them. As a community, I just really believe God is going to do something in our midst that no person can receive credit for, but we’re all going to be left in awe.”

Willis Barber

Complaints. They’re part of our culture. We complain about the weather when it’s too hot. We complain about the weather when it’s too cold. We complain about lots of things, many of them being things that we have no control over. Instead of telling someone that can help change things, we often waste our time complaining to everyone but the person who can change our situation.

In my class recently we’ve begun a new challenge. My cooperating teacher discovered an organization called “A Complaint Free World.” Their main objective is to make people aware of how much they complain, and to help people stop complaining as much.

According to a video on acomplaintfreeworld.org most Americans complain 15 to 20 times a day without realizing it.

They define a complaint as when you’re telling someone about something you don’t like, but they can’t do anything about it. For instance, telling me that you have a headache is a complaint. Telling your doctor that you have a headache is not because your doctor can help you get better and solve why you’re experiencing a headache.

The complaint-free challenge is this: students (and teacher) in my class has a purple wristband from the “A Complaint Free World” organization. During the day, every time they complain they have to switch the wristband to the other wrist.

The goal is to go 21 days in a row without moving the wristband at all, because it takes 21 days to break a habit.

In my class we’re taking it a little bit further — we’re trying not to complain, criticize, or gossip.

I can tell you from experience that this is much, much harder than it sounds. When I first heard about this challenge, I thought it would be a piece of cake, but after doing it for a few days I’ve realized that it’s not easy at all.

I find myself complaining so much more than I ever thought I did. I heard somewhere that a complaint is kind of like bad breath. You don’t always notice it when it’s you, but you always notice it when it’s someone else.

I’m starting to think really hard about the things I say, asking myself if what I’m saying can be changed by the person I’m saying it to, or if there’s a better way to phrase it so that it’s not a complaint.

Even though this has been a challenging experience, I want to encourage others to try this. Even if you only do it for a day or two, I promise you that you’ll learn a little bit about yourself and how others perceive you.

Jonathan Scales

The first time I ever saw Titanic was when it released in 1997. I personally don’t know what my parents were thinking when they took me and my brother along, but I was five and I still remember being enthralled by this epic movie.

Going back to the theater to witness it again was a trip back to my childhood. I remember viewing the Oscars that next year and watching patrons of the film go up eleven times to receive awards for their individual roles. I got older, and it became sort of a guilty pleasure as criticisms rained on the film and on James Cameron. So I can’t say honestly that I remained a true fan throughout the years. However, I can admit that upon hearing that it was going to be re-released on the tragedy’s one hundredth anniversary, I was more than ecstatic. I marked my calendar and anxiously anticipated the day I could venture back to Titanic again.

My expectations were unfortunately shot down. Now, I am not too stingy when it comes to paying for movies, especially when it comes to the Huntington 7, where the tickets are already cheaper than they are back home. I did feel a little cheated when I payed extra for 3-D and received what I got in the auditorium. I don’t know exactly what I had expected, but when I forgot that I was watching a 3-D film, it became all too clear that this was nothing different than watching it in my room. I was still watching the same movie that I had “secretly” seen hundreds of times in my living room back home. I was sitting there thinking, “Did I really pay eight bucks to see this?”

I have nothing against the movie. On the contrary, I absolutely admire the amount of work, effort and time that went into the making of this film. It truly is a beautiful film. Cameron found a story and a tragedy that he could marry to turn into a fantastic movie of epic proportions. So, would I suggest going to see this movie in the theaters? No. Don’t waste your money on that. Just watch it again, or if you are a secret fan like me (well not so secret anymore) watch it late in the night while your roommate is asleep. It’s worth seeing again if it’s been a while.

Keirsh Cochran smokes his pipe on "smoker's corner." (Photo by Jessi Emmert)

Sophomore Jarit Smith opens his drawer, and sorts through various items before he finds what he’s looking for. After grabbing his lighter, Smith taps the bottom of the pack, squeezing the tobacco together. He pulls out a single cigarette, carefully tucking it in the palm of his hand before heading outside.

After a brief walk, he joins a group of about eight students on the corner of North Avenue and Campus Street — “Smoker’s Corner.”

Smoker’s Corner, located across the street from Wright Hall, is a popular spot for HU’s smokers. The small corner is barely a few feet from campus, but technically qualifies as off-campus, so students can light up there without violating HU’s tobacco-free policy.

“I respect them for honoring that and choosing not to smoke on campus,” Nathan Geer, Wright Hall resident director, said.

Students say Smoker’s Corner is about more than just following the tobacco policy, though. Sophomore Josh Doolan said the corner is also a place he enjoys to hang out.

“It is the best experience off-campus,” he said. “It’s probably the most common one people have.”

“The best philosophical conversations I’ve had have been while I’m at Smoker’s Corner,” Freshman Chrystal Montoya said.

“It’s Huntington’s version of the water cooler,” Rusty Boone, a junior, said.
The weather doesn’t seem to deter smokers from the corner either, Geer said.

“I’ve seen them out there in the rain,” he said. “Those are the days that I feel bad.”

While no official records have been kept, some students who smoke on the corner believe there are more students using the corner than previous years, while others haven’t noticed any significant increase. They say there’s an average of three to five students on the corner at a time, while they estimate that the same 25 students use the area.

“I feel like there are more smokers here than last year,” junior Keirsh Cochran said. “It’s become a social thing.”

Smith said he believes there are a lot more smokers on campus than those who frequent the corner.

“When I was a freshman, I didn’t want anyone to know I smoked,” he said. “I would go for a walk and go off-campus and smoke. I imagine it’s like that now. Some freshmen don’t want people to know they smoke.”

Smoker’s Corner is worn from years of HU students’ use. No grass exists on the strip of land anymore, but plenty of cigarette butts and cigarette packs litter the ground. The corner is in front of a fenced-off garden,owned by John Truck, who has given students full-permission to smoke there.

According to HU’s 2011-2012 Student Handbook, “The use of tobacco is not permitted on campus and includes streets, sidewalks or properties contiguous to the university.” But since Smoker’s Corner is owned by John Truck, who allows smokers, it is permitted.

“He’s kind of been accommodating the students as long as they take care of the property and clean up after themselves,” Jesse Brown, associate dean of student development, said. “He’s never said anything about it.”

Brown himself has cleaned up smoker’s corner. He wants to be a “good neighbor” to the residents around campus.

“That’s my concern and the university’s concern,” he said.

Some smokers who use the corner acknowledge the corner is dirty.

“We’ve actually all been giving consideration in picking this up shortly, if we ever actually get a game plan,” Doolan said.

“We’re going to clean them up when we have time basically,” Smith said.
The corner does have a student-owned buttbin where they can place their cigarette butts. It’s chained to the fence, and the key to the lock is passed down to a new student every year who has the responsibility of cleaning the bin.

Charles Brady, a former HU professor who has lived near the corner since 1997, said he doesn’t appreciate the litter.

“We have complained to the college about it because my wife spends her time picking up cigarette butts,” Brady said, pointing to the various buts around his feet. “We said that over where the volleyball courts are, they should put a table…for the kids to sit down and put a can for the butts. That would be a good thing, that’s college property. This is private property over here.”

A move like this, however, would contradict HU’s tobacco-free policy.

According to the handbook, “The use of any tobacco products on-campus and at all university-sponsored events is prohibited.”

“We couldn’t put anything [at Smoker’s Corner] that the university had purchased because then we would be calling that our property,” Geer said.
“As soon as they’ve taken furniture from Wright lounge, we immediately have to go and bring it back because that’s not our property.”

There have been other times when neighbors have called the school, complaining about student smokers on their property. In these cases, the students were told by administration to find another place to smoke off-campus. Brown said it’s the same situation as a student illegally parking on private property.

“We would never tell anyone where they can smoke,” he said. “We would inform students where they can’t smoke.”

Despite complaints, Geer said he doesn’t see the school ever allowing students to smoke on-campus, for financial reasons.

“When you’re a smoke-free campus, there are major insurance cuts the campus gets,” he said. “That’s not a fiscally wise move. You’re not going to gain a lot of students that would offset the loss of insurance cuts by being a smoking campus.”

“For students who attend Huntington and smoke, it can be inconvenient for them,” Brown said. “But I don’t think that’s unique to Huntington. That’s pretty general for a lot of campuses.”

Most students aren’t complaining about not having a place to smoke on campus, Doolan said.

“I have no problem with the corner, actually,” Doolan said. “If the corner wasn’t here, we’d be like ‘Dude, we need a place!’ It’s just a place we associate with ‘Oh, we’re going to come out here and hang out with people.’”

“A chair would be nice, though,” Cochran said.