LIBERTY STUDENT NEWS

Liberty University in is cutting tuition rates for next year.  Students will pay a little less than $16,000 for up to 36 credit hours.  That’s a savings of about $540 per student.

Former ghostwriter for Jerry Falwell Sr. and Soulforce founder, Rev. Dr. Mel White will be on CBS Television Reality Series The Amazing Race. He will accompany his son, screenwriter/actor/producer Mike White (who is himself bisexual), set to premiere in a few weeks.

Rev. Dr. White once wrote speeches for Jerry Falwell before coming out as gay and parting ways with the evangelical church.

Former Liberty University men’s soccer forward Joshua Boateng was selected today in the third round of the 2009 Major League Soccer (MLS) SuperDraft.

Boateng becomes the first Liberty soccer player to be picked in the MLS SuperDraft and the fifth Flames soccer player drafted by a MLS team. The midfielder/forward was taken in the third round by the Los Angeles Galaxy,a s the 33rd player overall chosen.

Boateng joins Adrian Bumbut, Osei Telesford, Darryl Roberts and Hollis Donaldson as Liberty players drafted by MLS squads. The previous four players have been selected in the past three years during the MLS Supplemental Draft.

During Boateng’s three years at Liberty, the Flames posted a 32-16-5 record, and last season, won the Big South Championship. For his play during Liberty’s first-ever conference title run, the Accra, Ghana native was named the 2007 Big South Tournament MVP.

This past fall, the forward/midfielder was a first-team All-South Atlantic and All-Big South performer in his final season at Liberty. Boateng compiled 32 points on 13 goals and six assists during the year, tying him for fifth on the program’s single-season points list. His 13 goals also tie him for sixth on the Liberty single-season goal list. The Hermann Trophy candidate ranked 12th in the nation in points per game (1.78) and 13th in goals per game (0.72). Boateng led the Big South in points per game, goals per game and was tied for first in game-winning goals with five.

The Los Angeles Galaxy will be directed this season by Arena, a two-time MLS Cup Champion head coach, winningest U.S. National Team Coach and 18-year Virginia Head Coach. Arena was named the Galaxy’s General Manager and Head Coach in August. Los Angeles’ roster includes David Beckham and U.S. National team standout Landon Donovan.

Mat Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of the Liberty University School of Law, will host Liberty Live, a daily radio program beginning Monday, January 19, on 126 stations of American Family Radio’s new AFR Talk network. Joining Staver as a co-host is Matt Barber, Associate Dean for Career and Professional Development at the law school.

The one-hour live call-in program will air at 4:00 p.m. EST Monday through Friday and will feature leading political and religious leaders, discussing topics of cultural and political interest. Sarah Seitz, Legal Director for the Liberty Center for Law & Policy in Washington, D.C., will provide a weekly update on public policy from the capital. Each program will also bring a fresh analysis of the latest news from a Christian worldview, with an open line forum and an interactive blog. The program will simulcast at AFR.net and will be available for podcast.

On January 21, the day after the Inauguration, Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) is scheduled to discuss what he expects from President Barak Obama’s administration and the 111th Congress. Congressman Franks serves on the Judiciary and the Armed Services Committees.

Staver is Founder of Liberty Counsel, a premier Christian religious liberty legal organization, which sponsors Liberty Live along with Liberty University and Liberty Alliance Action, a nonprofit grassroots lobbying organization, where Staver serves as Chairman.

Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine’s effort to deal with a $3 billion budget shortfall is to phase out tuition assistance for grad students, which LU gets than any other school.

If the proposal passes before the Assembly, the new awards of tuition assistance would halt to graduate students starting in July.

Graduate students currently receiving the grants would continue to get them until they complete their programs.