By Kevin Cushingberry Jr. Growing up in a single-parent household helped define my childhood. My parents divorced five days before my fifth birthday, so I only have a few memories of living with my father. It’s always been me and my mother against the world, not because I was the man of the house...

By Trenton Blackshear What makes someone a good person? Are people born good? Is doing the right thing an innate instinct? I believe the answer lies not in what a person does, but in why they are doing it. Since life is more than shades of black and white, I don’t believe doing “bad” things...

By Billy Dennis Sporting her iconic pink sneakers, single mom Wendy Davis made national headlines in an 11-hour filibuster aiming to prevent the dismantling of woman’s healthcare in Texas. Now, the state senator from Fort Worth is running for governor of Texas. Davis’ story is one of hard work...

By Gereneicia Foster “She’s pretty to be a dark-skinned girl,” a friend said to me one day as we watched a woman enter a store. I looked at the woman and agreed with my friend wholeheartedly. As I reflect back on it now, I don’t understand why I agreed. The young lady’s skin color was just...

BY KAMETRA LOUD, REPORTER Single men and women everywhere regularly browse online dating sites in search of companionship. So it’s no wonder why advertisers stay in the business of selling love. Commercials showing men and women holding hands, hugging and smiling constantly pop up on the Internet....

BY EMMA HAHN, REPORTER My best friend has bad breath. He is furry and cute, and he loves to chase squirrels. Yes, my best friend is my dog Toby. I got my dog about six months ago from the Mesquite Animal Shelter. His owners left him there because they didn’t have time to care for him. He was matted,...

BY JUSTIN DAVID TATE, LIFE & ARTS EDITOR My dad was a strong presence in every room he entered. With a booming laugh and tall stature, he was a gentle giant, bear-hugging everyone at least three feet off the ground with each introduction. Billy Ray Tate was a Baylor Bears defensive end in the early...

By Trenton Blackshear “Oh my God, I just can’t stand looking at that centerpiece being crooked. This is totally going to set off my OCD.” “Don’t worry, I just lose my cool sometimes. I’m probably just a bit bipolar.” I’m quite sure that most of us have either heard or said some variation...

BY BILLY DENNIS, OPINION COLUMNIST The biology classroom remains the last great hope against the powerful forces of religious indoctrination. Our children’s education is being threatened by a small yet dedicated group of troglodytes in Austin trying to sneak creationism into biology textbooks. Creationism...

By Keturah Jones, Reporter The concept of piggy-back rides never made much sense to me. It seemed lazy for a person to jump on my back and rely on my strength and hard work to carry them where they wanted to go. Why couldn’t they stand on their own two feet and walk like everyone else? There...

By Kristen Dixon, Reporter There is so much more to bullying than just the words and actions used against another person. Bullying can affect someone’s entire perspective. This is exactly what happened to someone very close to me. In 2009, I was in high school. I had friends and goals. So did Hunter Layland....

By Caitlin Piper, Opinion Editor It seems that we can hardly go a day without hearing someone mention a social media website, whether it’s the half-audible remark of a passing stranger or an in-depth debate on the effects of technology in our psychology class. It’s clear that our society has a love-hate...

By Ana Nunez Dining out at least once a week is inevitable for most college students. We tend to eat out when we are bombarded by tasks that leave us with no time to cook a proper meal, when we don’t know how to cook or simply when we get a craving for a specialty item we could never make on our own. However,...

By Floyd Clifton I was under the impression that we the people run our government, and our needs, wants and ideals come first. However, I have noticed that big businesses have more of a say in our day-to-day lives than we do. If you take a moment to look at the political atmosphere, it is apparent...

By Lawanda Mckelvy Back in February, I attended one of the Black History Month events the college hosted. There were several African-American students congregating right outside the library, but they had no interest in taking five steps to come in and attending the event. Many African-American youth...

The Math Spot was founded eight years ago because math and developmental math students demanded more tutoring time. Students expressed the need to visit with their instructor, but they could not meet during their office hours. Students also pointed out that the LAC (Learning Assistance Center) was always...

BY CAITLIN PIPER Whether it was a disapproving stare at my plate of nachos or a PETA sticker slapped inside one of my school notebooks, my vegan sister was always sure to voice her opinion on my diet in the most passive-aggressive way possible. wwI wasn’t the only one experiencing this. While she was never...

By Danyelle Roquemore Our campus is an eco-friendly place, or at least it tries to be. Even though the administration promotes a greener campus, a large portion of the college community isn’t making any effort to help out. When I lived with my mom, we always recycled. She made my sister and me wash...

By Keturah Jones It’s almost 11:15 p.m. and I’m finally arriving home from a long day. My feet hurt and my back aches from rehearsing dance moves for the college’s production of “Hairspray,” in which I play the role of Motormouth Maybelle. I have math homework due at midnight on mymathlab....

By Claudia Guerra One evening as I was cleaning up the aftermath of dinner with my 1-year-old, I asked my husband to get her bath ready. I was expecting him to get the bath started, go into the bedroom and turn on the TV without actually helping me bathe her. To my surprise, he picked her up and carried...

By Anjulie Van Sickle As I watch and listen to the young lady holding her Bible, screaming at the top of her lungs about fire, brimstone and hell, I am rather ashamed. I’m ashamed because I, too, profess the same faith as she does. But unlike her, I am not as hot-tempered. As she preached, more...