New Parking Rules at Avila

New Parking Policy at Avila

            As many people know, the parking situation at Avila is far from perfect. With a land locked university surrounded by neighborhoods,  it is hard to make the parking at the university any better. As the year began many parking tickets were being written all over campus. This is something that was kind of frustrating for people with the fact that people were parking in the only places that were open.

            Recently however campus safety (the people who write the parking tickets at Avila) changed the parking policy. Campus Safety employee, Matt Francois explained the new rules.

            “It used to be all you had to do was meet with Darby after getting multiple tickets and you could get your ticket situation taken care of. But now you get five or more tickets you get a boot put on your car and you also have to have a meeting with Darby. It is also 50 dollars to get the boot removed and after the fifth ticket it is an automatic tow.”

            Matt also stated that there is a positive to this new rule for people that lived on campus stating, “From 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. students can park in any spots on campus except for the handicap spots.”

                                                

                                                         Campus safety employee: Matt Francois

                                                                                 Photo Taken By: Joe Roberts

As you can imagine reactions were mixed with these new rules. Freshman K.C. Moorman reacted saying, “I don’t like the new rules at all. It’s unfair. I pay $30,000 a year to go here I should be able to park where I want. We need more parking spots if they(campus safety) wants to have such strict rules.”

            Freshman Ben Walker stated “I kind of feel like it’s kind of redundant because if you have four parking tickets that’s kind of embarrassing anyway.”

As the reactions differ, one thing is for sure, people should strive to stay under four tickets, as the fifth becomes drastically more expensive. 

Mid-term Week at Avila!

Mid-term Week at Avila!

 

 

                            Above, students Morgan Trokey and Kim Monk show how they feel about midterms. 

 

        Here at Avila mid-terms have quickly approached us and are now in full swing. As many students know this is one of the more dreaded times of the year. With all the studying and in many students case, cramming, it becomes a very stressful week. However, some people feel different than others about mid-terms. Some people have five of them and other people have none. Some students embrace them and are ready to take them head on while others completely dread them.

      Mid-terms can also be harder for people who are student-athletes as they have to go to practice every day and participate in games as well as trying to find time to study and do as college students want to do so drastically, sleep. I went out to ask a few students how they felt about mid-terms and the approaches they may take to help make mid-terms a little better.

      Freshman football player Ben Walker stated, “Mid-terms are awful, especially being a student athlete. I try to study as much as possible in the small amount of free time I have but it’s difficult. I’ve had to pull a couple all nighters and really show myself some will power and studying as much as possible to get the grades I want. I can not wait for them to be over so I can get on to fall break.”

      Kim Monk, in the picture on the right replied saying, “They stink, I don’t like them at all. I understand why we have them and the teachers perspective in giving them but I would definitely prefer to not take them. I think a bunch of small tests over the material we are learning would be much more effective and better for students over one big one. I can not wait for them to be over!”

      Lastly, I spoke to Morgan Trokey, on the right in the picture above, “I don’t have any” Morgan said, “but I bet it would suck to have to take any. I’ve only had my whole college career and it was awful, so I feel bad for the people that have them.”

      As you can see mid-terms are not very popular for the students here on campus. They cause even more stress on them than they already have and also prove to be pretty difficult. But as they week is halfway over the students are becoming more and more optimistic and realizing how close the week is to being over. Just a couple more days till fall break.                      

                                                     

Avila Eagles Football Gets First W!

Avila Eagles Football Gets First W!

 

 

                   Above Eagles tight end Colton Bourland scores  a crucial touchdown before halftime while the clock winds down

                                                           Photo credit to the Avila Eagles Football Facebook page

 

Saturday, September 29^th the Avila Eagles traveled to Lindsborg, Ks to take on the Bethany University Swedes. The Eagles were very confident going in to this game hoping to get a win. To start the game the Eagles drove right down the field and scored with ease. Shortly after that the defense got solid stop giving the ball back to the offense. It started out looking good for the Eagles but play got sloppy.

As the offensive drive started with a 20 yard completion it was looking good till the wide receiver fumbled the ball giving it back to the Swedes. Turnovers were the biggest story of the game for the Eagles. As they had five total turnovers which kept the Swedes too close in the game. Going into halftime the Eagles were trailing 19-14 despite dominating in every aspect of the game. As the team came out in the second half they were a different team and shut out the Swedes both quarters, having a second half score of 21-0 and winning the game 35-19.

I asked the offensive line coach Matt Jones what he thought of the game and also getting that crucial first win of the season, “We played a very good and formidable opponent in Bethany but came out and scored easily to start the game. However, we played very sloppy and beneath our potential giving up many turnover that kept them in the game. Despite the turnovers though our defense played awesome and stopped them from scoring, keeping us in the game. We went into halftime trailing but had a very positive halftime and came out and won the game. The win was needed and it felt good to get it. Last year we didn’t even score a touchdown till week three and didn’t win a game till week seven, so were much more progressed this year. I preach that success and confidence goes hand in hand and after having a little bit of success  in getting that W, we are now getting more confident and are ready to get many more wins this season.”

I also asked a couple of offensive lineman their thoughts on the game and getting a W in the stat column. The first person I asked was left guard Jesse Ruiz, “We’ve played a lot of close games so it was to finally get over the hump and come out with a much needed win.”

Clay Driskill, freshman guard/center was next, “We needed the win to get our season started. It was good to get a win vs. a quality opponent like Bethany, it have us the boost of confidence we needed.”

Avila played Baker on Saturday and had a little hiccup but they play Culver-Stockton this Saturday for homecoming and hope to get a big win. Hope to see everyone out there to support the team.