Archive for August, 2011

Here’s a look at the prospects for GCU’s fall sports teams, featuring men’s and women’s soccer, women’s volleyball and men’s and women’s cross country. Visit gculopes.com for schedules, news and features on GCU student-athletes and teams.

History remembers national championship teams, but rarely does it remember those who fought to reach that goal — and the people they are. Even rarer are those who achieve athletic excellence yet consider the striving more important than the success. GCU’s longtime men’s soccer coach, Petar Draksin, is that kind of person.

Any actor can dream of Broadway. Mike Hegeman dreams of a small, 300-seat theatre in west Phoenix — more than 20 years after he performed there as a college student. Forgive him, then, for pinching himself when the curtain is raised Friday on “You Can’t Take It With You,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy that opens the Ethington Theatre Series for 2011-12 at GCU.

Photographed at the new Prescott Hall, soccer players Mitchell Garcia (senior, sports management) and Melanie Johnston (junior, nursing) prepare to dive into a new season. The women’s team has more than 30 new players. The men, coming off a season that led to an NCAA Sweet 16 appearance, also have an abundance of fresh faces. “Our eyes are on the Final Four,” Garcia says. “We have the squad to do it.”

Grand Canyon University has learned of a marketing scam. The scam is targeting financial institution websites and .edu websites; it claims that your privacy has been breached at Epsilon Corporation. A virus on your computer detects you are logging into GCU.edu (or other financial and/or academic institutions’ websites) and a pop-up window, designed to look as though it is from the bank, directs you to a non-American Savings Bank website. It asks you to click through to a site purporting to offer a “free” credit report.

Can anything good come of chaos? Chuck Howard is certain that it can, and he offers Monday afternoon’s “Fitness Chaos” event as evidence. Dozens of students descended on the Student Recreation Center at the end of the first day of fall classes to take part in an introduction to the facility, staged by Howard and members of his training staff.

Our CEO, Brian Mueller, spoke on the subject of transition at this morning’s first Chapel of the fall semester — also the first in the new Arena. “Grand Canyon is transitioning from a small, sleepy college to a large university, and a lot of people are paying attention,” Mueller said. “In this period, there’s an opportunity to create momentum. We’re going to start each week with using this building for worshipping God.” The crowd for Chapel filled the horseshoe of the Arena, with the seven-piece band positioned at the north end of the basketball court.

It promises to be a year of must-see events on campus, with none more important than Chapel and theGathering. The two marquee Spiritual Life events are moving out of their old home in North Gym and into the Arena. Those events will be bigger than they have ever been before.

While their college freshmen attended a new-student orientation in Antelope Gym, parents filed into GCU Arena for an orientation of their own on Friday. Dean of Students Pastor Tim Griffin made some announcements before introducing parents to the people who would be helping to guide their students through the next four years.

A few minutes after 7 p.m. Thursday, the 11-member Chapel Band burst into song and GCU Arena came to life before an audience of about 2,500 new students and their families.