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Show THE SIGNPOST Wednesday, March 29, 2000 On Other Campuses &3-s7air-fl(ill mmaDmni tas si Soft Sn cGneeD1 atoaDiintl Page 10 By Michael Precker Knighl-Ridder Tribune SI 1AWNEE, OkJa. Peppy and bright In theirred-and-whltejump-ers, the Bacone College cheerleaders are filing Into the gym before a tournament game. Behind the ticket counter, Angle Burton does a double-take, unable to stop herself from pointing at one of the women and whispering to her friends. "First I noticed the hair," she says, referring to a ponytall snaking all the way down Ragena Waters' back. "Then I thought, 'Gee, she looks a little older than the others.'" Burton quickly adds that she's not being critical or sarcastic. "It's neat," she says. "Most adults that come back to school, you never hear about them getting Involved In things like that. But we're wondering, how old Is she?" The answer Is 43, the prime of life by most any measure. But pair that age with the word "cheerleader" and the reactions range from amazement to resentment, Inspiration to ridicule. "I get bored sitting still," says Waters. "But I'm not going to be a mall walker. I wanted something a little more active. And when I do something, I do it all-out." Her easy smile and low-key manner provide little hint of what a long season It has been: a frosty reception from teammates half her age, a battle for fans' acceptance, a constant balancing act of work, school, motherhood and fun. "There were tough times," says Rhonda Cambiano, the dean of student life at Bacone, a two-year college In Muskogee, Okla., with an enrollment of about 450. "She'd come In and we'd talk and I'd tell Duke rolls out massive fund-raising campaign for men's basketball By TMS Campus DURHAM, N.C. (TMS) That their team failed to make it Into the Elite Eight of this year's NCAA national championship tournament doesn't matter. Duke University Is still beginning a massivefund-raising campaign aimed at fully endowing the costs of Its men's basketball team. The Duke Basketball Legacy Fund would endow the 13 scholarships, coaches' salaries, facility Improvements and other costs for the men's basketball team, freeing funds within the athletic department for other varsity sports. According to federal reports, the operating expenses for the basketball program in 1997-9S were $1,818,780. The Duke Chronicle calculated that under the university's endowment spending rate of 5.5 percent, paving for just those expenses would require a fund of $33 million. The athletic department her, 'You're really Inspiring me.' Her tenacity is something else. She was going to do It no matter what." With no cheerleadlng experience, no background In dance or gymnastics and what she jokingly calls her "spaghetti arms," Waters doubted she would make the squad, which cheers for the men's and women's basketball teams. But now she's proud she stuck it out. "I'm doing what I wanted to do," she says. So, oblivious to the quizzical looks, unperturbed by the controversy and Intent on enjoying the moment, Ragena Waters deposits her young son In the bleachers, picks up her pom-poms and heads out to cheer for the Warriors. This isn't about recapturing adolescence, Ragena Waters insists. She had no unfulfilled high school dreams, nor any idea that the specter of a freckled, bespectacled mom in a cheerleader outfit would lure newspaper reporters and Good Morning America to an obscure college 50 miles southeast of Tulsa. "The only attention I wanted was for the students to say 'hi' to me," she says with a laugh. "I would walk around campus and say 'hi' and nobody would say anything back. I thought, 'How can I change that?'" Enrolling at Bacone Involved a midlife course correction of its own. Waters grew up in Fort Gibson, a small town outside Muskogee. She played flute in the high school band. She graduated ninth In a class of 64, but never thought about college. Looking for a change In the early '80s, she moved to Dallas, where she met and married Kim Waters. Waters worked at various jobs, volunteered for the Girl Scouts and started a couple of home businesses but never embarked on much of a career. After their son Todd was born in 1996, she found hopes to capitalize on the success of Duke basketball and especially coach Mike Krzyzewski. A donor must give a gift of $ 1 million to attain legacy status. Mike Cragg, who will leave his post as sports information director to head the new fund, told the Chronicle that the focus was not on raising a specific dollar amount. "It's a matter of planning for the future and what's best for Duke in the context of making our athletic department better," he said. "And in turn, basketball is an important part of our whole university. The money we raise for this and the stability of the program makes it better for everybody." TMS Campus, 2000 a brochure from a Houston community college In the mall. "I know it sounds dumb," she says. "But for some strange reason I just never knew you could go to college and take one class at a time. I decided I could do this." Waters enrolled at Bacone in fall 1999 for a two-yearcommercial-art program. One day she came across a campus newsletter that asked, "Would you like to be a Bacone cheerleader?" "I figured I'm pretty teachable," she says. "So I went to the Student Life office and I told them I wanted to know what the requirements are. They said there aren't any. I said, 'Am I too old?' They said, 'Heavens, no." Seven women tried out, but Bacone only had five uniforms. "The first day of camp was a Tuesday, and she was extremely uncoordinated," says Cambiano, who was one of the Judges. "By Friday she had made Incredible progress." When they announced the squad, Waters' number was the first one called. "I'm glad I didn't just make it by default because there was nobody else," she says. "I actually beat out two girls. Kristen Terrapin, the captain of the squad, says Waters pretty much had it right. "We were shocked that a42-year-old had made the team," says Terrapin, who's 19. "She was older, she was a lot slower and there's some things we can't do with her. Everybody had their little say-so about it. We had some rough patches." "It's great that she had the guts to stay with It," says Rosemary Reagan, who teaches English and humanities at Bacone. "We were founded as a place to allow Indians to go to college when they Town officials upset over prospect of exotic dancing at bar near U. of Illinois By TMS Campus CHAMPAIGN (TMS) A downtown bar near the University of Illinois that's planning to offer exotic dancing has some students excited, and city officials scrambling to stop the stripping before it starts. News of the nude dancing at a bar named "Mabel's" has upset business owners and city officials, Police Zraslh 113. QffMSzQs By TMS Campus TUCSON, Ariz. (TMS) A University of Arizona freshman found out the hard way that lying isn't the best way to get an extension on homework. Peter Bernstein came up with a scheme to gain more time to finish his philosophy paper by telling police he was robbed and overwhelmed as a result. Bernstein's plan might have worked if Jose D. Sprigg. a detective working the case, hadn't become suspicious r 7""-ji11 ;i p . " i a ; ! mm I v p tv'w mm I i"s ? s ?JZ t ' via - 1 3 1 ' . ' IV'.. i AfTLas ! Js Ragena Wafers, 43, cheers for Bacone College's women's basketball team at the National Junior College Athletic Association tournament. couldn't go anywhere else. Now we're breaking age barriers, too." There are only a few concessions to those barriers, and most fans probably won't notice. Waters is careful to stretch before games, and she spends halftimes with Todd. Although she seems as animated and excited as any of the cheerleaders, Waters admits to being a little winded toward the end of a game, perhaps a little sore afterward. But there are no complaints, nor any second thoughts. "When I was In sixth grade, all the kids would pick on me in school because I was skinny and freckled," she says. "I'll never forget a teacher who told the class, 'Ragena, they only pick on you because they like you.'" All this happened before the cheerleader mom got famous. After the school paper, The Baconian, wrote a story about her, the college who have worked for years to upgrade and revitalize portions of the downtown area. They fear the adult entertainment will drive away family-friendly businesses and pose safety risks. Some business owners are already rescheduling their staffs to ensure men are on duty at night when the bar offers strip shows. "Right in the heart of what we're trying to do is a strip-tease place," Champaign Mayor Jerry Schweighart told the Dally Illini. "(Bar owners) are going to do what 7 know what I did was stupid and messed up." Peter Bernstein, University of Arizona freshman when Bernstein said he hoped "a sanitation worker from the university will find my wallet tomorrow." The next day, a maintenance worker found the wallet in a trashcan not far from Bernstein's dormitory. However, the alleged crime scene was across campus from where the wallet was recovered. Sprigg called Bernstein to his of-fice. and confronted him. Bernstein publicity office asked her permission to send it out as a press release. "I said, Til make you a celebrity. Can you handle it?'" says Ann Shackelford, Bacone's director of public information. "We just sort of laughed." They stopped laughing when the Tulsa World ran a front-page feature last month, which led to a national news wire story, which attracted the attention of everyone from wacky FM radio deejays to the staid Chronicle of Higher Education. An "Inside Edition" crew followed Waters around campus for a day. When word got around that "Good Morning America" was coming to videotape a game, theusually-sparse bleachers were suddenly full. "The Tonight Show" called, but hasn't followed up yet. . Everybody's saying "hi" to Ragena Waters now. Knight-Ridder Tribune, 2000 ever the hell they can to make a buck." If they're not successful in thwarting the exotic dancing altogether, city officials say they're determined to regulate the heck out of It. City council members are considering proposed legislation that would bar alcohol consumption during performances and would require dancers to maintain a certain distance from patrons. The shows are scheduled to start March 24. TMS Campus, 2000 confessed that he made up the story, police said. He was arrested on a misdemeanor charge for making a false report and then released. Bernstein said he was sorry and planned to seek academic counseling. "I know what I did was stupid and messed up," Bernstein said. "I won't do this again." TMS Campus, 2000 |