Cosine's Corner

Soon, very soon the time will come when control of the on-campus television channels will once again fall into student hands! The SGA Technology Committee is preparing a survey for students that will be used to get an idea on what channels should be available on the campus television. It will be deployed on ELLIE (http://ellie.concord.edu) for all students to access. However, at this time it is unclear if it will appear before or at the end of this semester or if it will be printed out and handed out to all returning, on-campus students in the Fall semester at check-in. The survey will bring new channels to the floor like SciFi, BBC, and many others if students so choose. How the channels are chosen is through a package selection from DirecTV. Each package includes several channels and a cost of that package per outlet. For more information about the TV survey contact Lonnie Bowe, Chair of the SGA Technology Committee or Rick Dillon, Director of Housing. The Technology C

The play “How I Learned to Drive” by Paula Vogel is chock full of everything a good play should have and some things some wouldn’t think a good play would have. It’s full of humor, sex, and some dark issues. The play pans out in a series of events starting with a monologue from the main character only known as Li’l Bit. It goes from when Li’l bit is 17 about to enter college and bounces from her apparent present age of a full grown to even younger ages, as young as 11 years old. The story takes place mainly during the 60s when Li’l Bit is a teen. I was lucky enough to be allowed to sit through a half-cue, half-lighting rehearsal to observe the play. The play runs about an hour and forty minutes and does not have an intermission. However, despite this long run time with no intermission it isn’t a hindrance to the audience at all. The play itself is double cast, meaning that each night the cast alternates. Whoever played lead roles the night before plays the supporting cast the ne

To sum up this movie in a nutshell it’d be “this is the manliest movie ever.” With all the action and violence you’ll walk out of the theater with a beard and a new crop of chest hair despite what your gender may be. However, going into this movie expecting a deep, intertwined story is a huge mistake. This movie does not require one, it’s that awesome. The movie is based off of Frank Miller’s graphic novel (comic book to some) “300” and reflects heavily on it. Some may point out historical inaccuracies but since the movie isn’t based on history but a graphic novel and it has characters with giant blades for arms, it’s pretty easy to get past those inaccuracies. When the trailers came out it became an instant favorite of many internet communities and was quoted massively. Even more so since it’s been out for a couple weeks. Places like 4chan.org were particularly enthusiastic about taking various images from 300 and putting in alternate text for a good laugh.

Clarke Buehling is quite literally an international sensation in the musical arts. Touring all over the U.S. and Europe , he performs a unique style of banjo playing hailing from the 19 th century. He performs as a solo artist and with his band The Skirtlifters. Musical talent isn’t his only skill; he has been making his own gourd banjos since 1984 but only takes them as custom orders. He is largely famous for his older style of banjo playing using old sheet music from the 1800s and old rags and jigs from their eras. He’s played this style of music all over the world in places like England and the Netherlands . He has also played at many folk concerts, colleges and festivals around the nation. He plays and teaches the violin, mandolin and guitar, as well. He’ll be playing in M-105 in the Fine Arts building Tuesday April 24, 2007 at 7 p.m.

In an interview with Tim Barnes, Director of the Center for Academic Technologies and he explained the difference between the CAT and the Computer Center and the various tasks that the CAT handles. The main burning question that students seem to want to be answered is “what does the CAT do?” Well, the answer is really quite simple says Barnes, “it’s administrative versus academic.” Put another way, Barnes explained it as a matter who you would report to for something to get fixed. If when someone reports to get something fixed, in regards to technology, they report to a division head (math, science, English, etc.) the people that would show up to fix everything would be from the CAT. However, if they report to a department head (financial aid, registrar, etc.) the people that’d show up would be from the Computer Center .

A couple weeks ago it was reported that the registrar’s office did not have a link to the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), but now they do! But most readers are probably wondering “what’s it matter to me?” Well, that’s what this article is for! It may not be clear what the NSC is to some, so here’s an explanation. The National Student Clearinghouse is a central database that links all of the federal and private loan lenders. The database holds all the information of a student’s enrollment status, estimated graduation date (which can be changed), and other information pertaining to your loans and school information. This seems a bit scary privacy wise, but it’s built to benefit student, educational institution and lenders to keep an easy, open line of communication. And if there’s one thing this campus desperately needs it’s more open communication.

Last week on April 3rd Concord and Bluefield College ’s chapters of Alpha Chi hosted a teleconference between the Center for Academic Integrity and the Executive Director of the Alpha Chi Honor Society. In this teleconference they discussed issues regarding academic integrity and academic dishonesty. This panel of people included student and faculty representatives from Concord University and Bluefield College . It also included representatives from the Center for Academic Integrity (CAI) at Duke University and from the National Alpha Chi office at Harding University . The representatives were: Dr. Dennis Organ - Executive Director of Alpha Chi, Mr. Timothy Dodd - Executive Director of the Center for Academic Integrity, Dr. Rob Merritt - Virginia Kappa chapter Sponsor, Michelle Stubbs - a student from Bluefield College and Kappa member, Dr. Daniel Anderson - Professor of Business at Bluefield College , Dr. Stephen D. Rowe - West Virginia Beta chapter sponsor, Ms. Corrie M

Kimono Japanese Seafood and Steak House is not your typical Asian food restaurant that you’d find in Southern West Virginia . While not being particularly cheap, you’ll get more than what you pay for in food and entertainment. When walking into Kimono you will see some of the standard and traditional decorations of any Japanese steak house as well as seeing the occasional pillar of flame from one of the grills surrounded by a group of people. However, if a reservation was not made in advance you just might be waiting for a few minutes for a grill to open up unless you are there for the sushi bar. While there, it was about a ten minute wait until a grill was available since we didn’t make a reservation. All in all, not a bad wait time for a restaurant that was packed.

Last week I published the article about Fiancial Aid and the registrar's office and I'd like to add some updated information about the registar's office. Quoting from my article: "[Carolyn Cox] had told me that in late 2005 they were supposed to get a link setup with the National Student Loan Clearing House and was told it’d only take a few days to setup. However, they (being the computer center or the CAT) never set it up and have yet to do so as they’ve been in “testing stages” since last spring." It is actually up to the Computer Center to deal with all technologies in all non-academic departments and offices. So this was the fault of the Computer Center. Thanks to Steve Meadows in the C.A.T. for clarifying that for me. Today, a student wide e-mail was sent out from the registrar's office stating the following: "The Registrar's Office is pleased to announce to the students of Concord University that we are officially members of the National Studen