Charter Bank fulfills stadium pledge

Charter Bank fulfills pledge to University Stadium. Pictured are (left) Chuck Thompson, Charter Bank Regional President and Daryl Dickey, UWG athletics director and football coach.

Star of Bethlehem Physics Presentation

The Star of Bethlehem

a multimedia astronomy lecture

will be presented

Friday, Dec. 16, 7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Math-Physics -- Crider Lecture Hall

Free and open to the public

Suitable for ages 10 years and up.

Travel back in time to ancient Babylonia and watch the star rise in the East. Then go by camel with the Wise Men all the way to Bethlehem, and observe the Heavens again.

Presented by

Dr. Ben de Mayo, Prof. Emeritus of Physics

678-839-4087 or 678-839-4097

bdemayo@westga.edu

Sponsored by the

Departments of Physics & Continuing Education and

the Georgia Space Grant Consortium-NASA

Cowtown String Band Performing in the Library Today

Reception and musical performance featuring the Cowtown String Band exploring the influence of the Civil War on America's musical heritage.

The event is presented as part of the reading and discussion series, "Let's Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War." This series is sponsored by the Ingram Library's Penelope Melson Society as well as a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. The library is also hosting an exhibit of Civil War artifacts from the Antonio J. Waring, Jr. Archaeological Laboratory as part of this series.

The reception begins at 6:00 p.m. with the musical performance beginning at 7:00 p.m. on the main floor of the Ingram Library.

Cowboy Christmas Rides into the Townsend

The University of West Georgia’s Townsend Center for the Performing Arts proudly presents Riders in the Sky on Friday, Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. No matter what age, you will enjoy hours of fun with America’s Favorite Cowboys. Riders in the Sky are comedians whose wacky western wit and songs have delighted audiences from coast to coast.

Celebrating 33 years together including Grammy Awards for Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc., Riders in the Sky gives a saddlebag full of wacky imagination and cowboy music. These four-part harmonizing cowboys have spruced up the bunkhouse, donned their sequined yuletide outfits, and loosed their vivid imaginations to create a holiday musical fantasy for Saddle Pals of all ages. Christmas The Cowboy Way will feature their unique brand of cowboy humor sprinkled with a dash of holiday spice which includes original songs like “Riding Home on Christmas Eve,” “Deck The Bunkhouse Walls,” and “The Last Christmas Medley You’ll Ever Need To Hear.” So put on your merry cheer and saddle up for a holiday evening The Cowboy Way!

Preceding the Riders in the Sky performance, the Townsend Center will continue its annual toy drive tradition. There will be a reception beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the Dangle Theatre. Toy donors and their families will enjoy desserts, hors d'oeuvres and holiday music. An unwrapped toy is your ticket to the reception.

Tickets for Riders in the Sky are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors and military, and $15 for children. Visit or call the Townsend Center Box Office at 678-839-4722 Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. or one hour before show time. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.townsendcenter.org.

Carrollopoly Comes to Town

The Carroll County constitutional officers are now accepting orders for the new board game Carrollopoly.

Based on Carroll County, the familiar and popular family board game style features landmarks, businesses and other recognizable aspect of the community.

“The constitutional officers of Carroll County are looking forward to promoting education in our county,” said Carroll County Tax Commissioner Vickie Bearden. “We feel there is a strong need to fund GED testing, and we want to give high school students a head start on their college education.”

Proceeds from the game will be used to help fund a brand new scholarship fund throughout Carroll County for students and adults. The goal is to help remove obstacles for local residents to gain their GED and open up new and attractive employment opportunities. The proceeds will also provide high school students with scholarship funds.

Read more: Times-Georgian - Carrollopoly comes to town

Men's Basketball Breakdown: The First Eight Games

As basketball seasons go, the 2011-12 version for the UWG men's team has started as well as could be hoped for, as the Wolves are perfect through the first eight games.

This year's Wolves are utlilizing a solid mix of strong defense and steady offense to get to this point undefeated. The start has included blowouts and close-calls, but each has continued to build on what is the best opening to the men's basketball season since the 2004-05 campaign.

Sims on fire early
UWG senior forward Da'Ron Sims has been on a torrid pace thus far in his final season at West Georgia, averaging 20.3 points and 6.6 rebounds per game over the first eight. He is shooting 47 percent from the floor and hitting on 75 percent of his free-throws. Against Columbus State last Saturday, Sims had 10 points and 13 rebounds, his first double-double of the 2011-12 campaign. His points total is also good for tops in the Gulf South Conference.

The Start Historically
A look through the archives of UWG men's basketball shows many solid seasons, but mostly West Georgia would find a loss in game five or six. This year's 8-0 start marks the fourth-best in school history, with the 1972-73 9-0 start next on the list. Fortunately for this year's team, Augusta State is not on the schedule, as the Jaguars have been the team to stop the top three starts in school history.

Read more at UWGsports.com

Refresh & recharge with COSS

The College of Social Sciences is helping students refresh and recharge amidst the stress of finals.

COSS invites students to stop by the Deans Office, Pafford 3rd floor during finals week (12/5-12-8)
from 9am-5pm. The college is providing snacks and drinks for students, and is offering them "Quiet Zones" (Pafford 118 and 220) for a quiet space to study, reflect, and disconnect from the stress.

For more information, call 678-839-5170.

UWG’s Psychology Department to Launch Study of the Senses

The University of West Georgia’s Department of Psychology is currently studying people with synesthesia, a fusion of the senses.

People with synesthesia experience the world on several levels: numbers have personalities; they can taste words; they see colors when they hear music; they experience days of the week, months and even years as circles, ellipses or ovals.

In the first phase of the study participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire about their experiences. If they meet the study criteria, they will be asked to come to UWG’s main campus in Carrollton to participate in two experiments and for a short interview.

A computer will administer the experiments. One of the experiments involves ESP; the other will explore imagination. The experiments and interview will take up to 90 minutes. Participants who are asked to come to the UWG campus will receive movie or book vouchers worth $15 as a thank you for taking part in this study.

Anyone interested in participating in the study, please contact Dr. Christine Simmonds-Moore at csimmond@westga.edu.

Participant data will be stored in coded form and individual names will not be associated with their responses. Data will be analyzed based on general patterns rather than individual scoring. If examples are used in publications and presentations, such examples will only be referred to by use of pseudonyms.

For more information go to http://www.wix.com/csimmond/synesthesiastudy.

Cowboy Christmas Rides into the Townsend

The University of West Georgia’s Townsend Center for the Performing Arts proudly presents Riders in the Sky on Friday, Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. No matter what age, you will enjoy hours of fun with America’s Favorite Cowboys. Riders in the Sky are comedians whose wacky western wit and songs have delighted audiences from coast to coast.

Celebrating 33 years together including Grammy Awards for Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc., Riders in the Sky gives a saddlebag full of wacky imagination and cowboy music. These four-part harmonizing cowboys have spruced up the bunkhouse, donned their sequined yuletide outfits, and loosed their vivid imaginations to create a holiday musical fantasy for Saddle Pals of all ages. Christmas The Cowboy Way will feature their unique brand of cowboy humor sprinkled with a dash of holiday spice which includes original songs like “Riding Home on Christmas Eve,” “Deck The Bunkhouse Walls,” and “The Last Christmas Medley You’ll Ever Need To Hear.” So put on your merry cheer and saddle up for a holiday evening The Cowboy Way!

Preceding the Riders in the Sky performance, the Townsend Center will continue its annual toy drive tradition. There will be a reception beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the Dangle Theatre. Toy donors and their families will enjoy desserts, hors d'oeuvres and holiday music. An unwrapped toy is your ticket to the reception.

Tickets for Riders in the Sky are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors and military, and $15 for children. Visit or call the Townsend Center Box Office at 678-839-4722 Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. or one hour before show time. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.townsendcenter.org.

Stress Free Zone for Finals Week

The library opens on Sunday and doesn't close until Friday, so come do your studying at our place!
Beginning at 8pm, Ingram Library will provide refreshments and space to do your studying and to take a study break during finals week.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will offer yoga workshops to help you manage your stress.

On all nights, we will provide board games for your study break entertainment.

For more information contact Angela Pashia at 678-839-6362 or at apashia@westga.edu.

Civil War Exhibit Opens the Ingram Library

Civil War artifacts and materials are currently on display at the University of West Georgia’s Ingram Library. The exhibit runs through March 2012.

The display features artifacts from the Antonio J. Waring, Jr. Archaeological Laboratory, including salvage from the sunken warship, CSS Nashville. Also on display are items from the library’s special collections. The Fannie Hargrave collection features letters and daguerreotypes of a Carroll County bride whose husband, a Confederate officer, was killed in a raid in Cedartown. In another letter, a Coweta County soldier tells a Villa Rica woman, a mother of seven children, how her Confederate soldier husband died of dysentery and measles in Mississippi.

The public is invited to an opening reception on Friday, Dec. 9, at 6 p.m. The Cowtown String Band will explore the influence of the Civil War on America’s musical heritage.

The exhibit is held in conjunction with the five-part reading and discussion series “Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War,” which begins on Sunday, Jan. 15, with subsequent discussions on alternate Sunday afternoons through March 11. Keith Bohanan, UWG associate professor of history, will lead the discussions.

Participants will read; “March,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Geraldine Brooks; the anthology “America’s War”; and James M. McPherson’s “Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam.”

The exhibit and participation in the book discussion is open to the community. The first participants to register will receive free copies of the books.

To register go to: https://apps.westga.edu/limesurvey/index.php?sid=19159&lang=en.

The discussion series is made possible with a $3,000 grant from the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Penelope Melson Society, the library’s friends organization, provided local support for the series.

The Ingram Library is one of 65 libraries nationwide and one of four in Georgia who received grants to host the series, which will encourage participants to consider the legacy of the Civil War and emancipation.

For more information go: http://uwglibrary.wordpress.com/

Wolves survive on the road, move to 8-0

When you are undefeated, it gets tougher each night out to stay in that position. The UWG men's basketball team had their closest battle since the season opener Saturday afternoon, holding off a late charge from Columbus State for a 60-59 victory.

The win moves West Georgia to 8-0 on the season, the best start at UWG since the 2004-05 season when UWG started out 12-0. To pick up their eighth win of the season, this year's Wolves needed a solid defensive effort Saturday.

The first 13 minutes of the contest were a see-saw battle, but it was Columbus State that drew first blood, opening up a six-point lead in the first five minutes. The Cougars held the lead until the 7:11 mark when junior guard Quincy Hill raced the length of the court for a layup and a foul. Hill was shaken up on the play and Lavon Gray hit the free-throw in his stead, giving the Wolves a 26-25 advantage.

From that point for the remainder of the half, the Wolves would not give up the lead, with the advantage getting as high as six points and as low as two points. Jamarquis Stevenson hit a jumper at the buzzer for CSU that cut the UWG lead to 37-34 heading into the locker room.

Utilizing stellar ball movement, West Georgia went up by as many as eight in the first 10 minutes of the second half, but Columbus State clawed back into contention, cutting the UWG lead to one at 51-50 with 7:37 remaining in the contest.

Read More at UWGSports.com

Judge to Speak at MLK Day Celebration

The Office of Institutional Diversity of the University of West Georgia will host its third annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration on Thursday, Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom. The speaker for the occasion is Judge Penny Brown Reynolds. The theme for the occasion is “There’s Still Work to Do: Seize the Day.” The program is free and open to the public.

Brown Reynolds presides over the renowned internationally syndicated television show, "Family Court with Judge Penny." After earning her bachelor of science, cum laude, from Georgia State University in only three years, she earned a juris doctor from GSU College of Law and a master's degree from the Interdenominational Theological Center, graduating first in her class with highest honors.

As a former prosecutor and assistant attorney general, Brown Reynolds’ eloquent speaking ability and expertise allowed her to serve as a state trial court judge in Atlanta for nearly a decade. Additionally, she is the author and co-editor of "Women and the Law: A Guide to Women's Legal Rights in Georgia." She lectures across the country at colleges and universities, conferences and conventions, while concurrently assisting corporations with diversity issues and crisis management.

For additional information, please call 678-839-5400 or visit our website.

UWG’s Psychology Department to Launch Study of the Senses

The University of West Georgia’s Department of Psychology is currently studying people with synesthesia, a fusion of the senses.

People with synesthesia experience the world on several levels: numbers have personalities; they can taste words; they see colors when they hear music; they experience days of the week, months and even years as circles, ellipses or ovals.

In the first phase of the study participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire about their experiences. If they meet the study criteria, they will be asked to come to UWG’s main campus in Carrollton to participate in two experiments and for a short interview.

A computer will administer the experiments. One of the experiments involves ESP; the other will explore imagination. The experiments and interview will take up to 90 minutes. Participants who are asked to come to the UWG campus will receive movie or book vouchers worth $15 as a thank you for taking part in this study.

Anyone interested in participating in the study, please contact Dr. Christine Simmonds-Moore at csimmond@westga.edu.

Participant data will be stored in coded form and individual names will not be associated with their responses. Data will be analyzed based on general patterns rather than individual scoring. If examples are used in publications and presentations, such examples will only be referred to by use of pseudonyms.

For more information go to: http://www.wix.com/csimmond/synesthesiastudy.

Stay West This Weekend

12/2-12/3 "Photo Snow Globes for Winter Time! Weekends West Georgia
will be hosting Photo Snow Globes in the Ingram Library Nook from
1pm-5pm on Saturday December 3. Come take a break from studying and get ready for winter time!"

12/2-12/3 "The last Stay West Weekend of the Semester is gearing up
today! On Friday December 2 SAC will be hosting SAC-O-RAMA from 3pm-7pm with tons of fun novelties in the HPE Gym, then NAACP will be hosting Exam Pajama Jam in the Campus Center Ballroom from 6pm-9pm with a DJ, tshirts, and fun giveaways.

On Saturday December 3 Art Student Union will be hosting the DADA Art Fest from 12pm-6pm in the Campus Quad and Humanities with lots of fun art to participate in and take home with you! Hope you come out to enjoy these last few events on campus in between studying hard for finals!"

Midnight Breakfast a tradition

The University of West Georgia held the Midnight Breakfast at the Z6 on November 30. The breakfast is hosted by Auxiliary Services and is one of many end-of-the-semester events held on campus for students as they prepare for finals.

"The semester is a lot of work...the students have been through 14-15 weeks of studies and it’s all coming to an end and it’s time for exams," said Executive Director of Auxiliary Services, Mark Reeves. "This is just an opportunity to get everybody together, have some fun right before exams, let the administration serve them breakfast but at the same time get to mingle with them and also to let the students kind of just let their hair down and relax a little bit too."

The students were able to relax and have fun before the approaching finals while enjoying breakfast. The WOLF Internet Radio provided music for the event which brought several students to dance and sing along throughout the event.

The university wishes the best for all students as they approach their finals and of course, congratulations to those who will be graduating at the end of the semester.

CBS to Rebroadcast THE ELF ON THE SHELF, 12/9

by BWW News Desk/Broadway World

The CBS Television Network will present an encore of THE ELF ON THE SHELF: AN ELF’S STORY, an animated feature based on the best-selling holiday children’s book The Elf on the Shelf, to be rebroadcast on CBS as a special presentation on Friday, Dec. 9 (9:30 – 10:00 PM, ET/PT). (Originally broadcast 11/25/11.)

THE ELF ON THE SHELF: AN ELF’S STORY follows one of the many scout elves from the North Pole who helps Santa Calus determine who to put on the naughty and nice lists. Named “Chippey” by his adoptive family, the elf is assigned to help a young boy, Taylor McTuttle, who struggles to believe in the magic of Christmas.

Read more: http://tv.broadwayworld.com/article/CBS-to-Rebroadcast-THE-ELF-ON-THE-SHELF-129-20111129#.TtZVPR5uUOc.facebook#ixzz1fIBcZdMg

Wolves win defensive struggle

by Jordan Hofeditz/Times-Georgian

In a defensive struggle, the University of West Georgia women's basketball team pulled out the 54-38 victory over Georgia College and State University on Wednesday night at The Coliseum.

The Wolves (3-2) continued their up-and-down season by holding the Bobcats to their second-lowest scoring total of the year.

"We knew that they only had one ball-handler and really, [Myeshia Simms] was really the key to their offense. Slowing her down and getting into her in the full court was the key and they did a really good job. That was the main key, slowing her down," UWG assistant coach Alexis Pace said.

Read more: Times-Georgian - Wolves win defensive struggle