Written by Claire Booher
Megaphone Staff Writer

Each year two student athletes are awarded for their hard work on and off the field. The Anchor Award is given to the students who show exemplary academic and athletic skills. They have the fortitude to go above and beyond with their physical and mental skills.

The student Athletic advisory committee presents the award to one male and the one female who they believe embodies the values of student-athletes here at Southwestern University. They nominate several athletes, and then the student body, faculty and staff vote for the winners.

This year, the award was presented to two soccer players. The 2008 Anchor Award was given to seniors Cory Fujimoto and Amanda Gunzelman. With their amazing athletic and academic history, both Gunzelman and Fujimoto were chosen by the committee and the Southwestern community because they believe that these two individuals represent Southwestern student-athletes.
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Written by Caitlyn Buckley
Megaphone Staff Writer

I am someone who tends to buy into fads that make me feel good about myself and my contributions to society. I jumped on the volunteering bandwagon in high school because it let me feel like I was actually accomplishing something that was good for someone besides me. Besides that, it seemed like everyone and their dog spent several hours a week volunteering, whether for noble reasons or just for their resumes. Another trend that allows people to feel like they’re helping the world has been gaining popularity lately: being “green.”

Many people are curious if it does much good when people try to conserve on a personal level, especially with the Campus Energy Challenge going on. It can seem like one person’s efforts do very little to impact the world. That is even the justification that some people use for why they choose not to recycle or turn off the lights – that one person’s efforts don’t make any difference. As can be evidenced by the mission behind the Campus Energy Challenge (to reduce campus-wide consumption by 5 percent by individual efforts), individuals can have an impact on the environment through their efforts to be green just as much as they can by efforts in the opposite direction.

Recycling may seem as though it does little good, especially when people discover that there can sometimes be negative environmental consequences for the recycling process. Yes, the process of recycling sometimes has a waste product at the end. It is also true that it can be costly energy-wise to recycle.
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Written by Rachel Rigdon
Megaphone Editor in Chief

When you look up the definition for “offend” in a dictionary, a number of entries pop up. The top one, in the Oxford English Dictionary, is “hurt someone’s feelings” and later on one of the meanings is to “ruffle someone’s feathers.” I would like to take this opportunity to clarify the purpose of The Megaphool and address the concerns of those who were offended – in one sense of the word.

First and foremost, I would like to apologize to any and everybody who was hurt by any of the content in The Megaphool. Our intention was (and is) never to cause any group pain with our work.

I would like to especially apologize to our older readers who felt maligned by some of the articles. We meant no disrespect but understand that it was, unintentionally, hurtful to some.
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Written by Alma Aguilar
Megaphone Staff Writer

[Editor’s Note: We, at the Megaphone, apologize to Alma Aguilar for the printing error in the textual version of the Megaphone. Due to a printing error, a whole column was lost and never found.]

The Latino Heritage Symposium will take place at Southwestern University in the McCombs Ballroom April 25-26. The symposium’s objective is to address social issues and obstacles that challenge Latinos in their pursuit of success. Among these issues are education, immigration, citizenship, language, identity, health, gangs and drug dealing.

“It’s an event dedicated to help educate the SU and Georgetown communities about issues Latinos and members of other minorities face,” Linda Pena, Latinos Unidos Parliamentarian, said.

They would like to use this event to bring people together to voice their opinions on issues that face Latinos as well as other minorities in our society.
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Written by Giulia Giuffre
Megaphone Staff Writer

The 30th annual Brown Symposium, “Umwelt: Exploring the Self-Worlds of Human and Non-human Animals,” was hosted April 3-4 in the Alma Thomas Theater of the Sarofim School of Fine Arts.

The Brown Symposium was established and funded by The Brown Foundation, Inc.

Every year, one of the Brown chair holders designs the symposium to enhance an interdisciplinary education and present topics in one of the broad areas of study represented by the chair holder.
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Written by Meredith Orf
Megaphone Guest Writer

[Editor’s Note: This is the full version of Meredith’s article about the SU Budget. If you wish to continue where you left off in the text version of the Megaphone, please click here.]

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Tuition/Room & Board Questions
3. Endowment Questions
4. Budget Questions
5. Cost-Cutting Questions
6. Comments

Introduction

Like most students here, I used to take Southwestern’s budgetary decisions for granted, complain idly about tuition increases, and wonder at the mystery of student payroll regulations. At some point, though, your investment (financially, mentally and emotionally) in a school like this has to inspire you to take an active role in understanding — and perhaps improving — it. Otherwise, you’re paying for an education that you don’t really believe in. [Read more →]

Written by Giulia Giuffre
Megaphone Staff Writer

Operation Achievement (OA) is an after-school mentorship and enrichment program that assists selected sixth through eight grade students in the Georgetown Independent School District (GISD). Southwestern University and GISD jointly run the program.