Coach Partridge speaks about his 16 new recruits including the well known Kevin Hart. Photo by Jason Brown

The Nevada native wanted to so badly that he staged a fake press conference four years ago and falsely stated he was going to California to play for the Bears.

The 6-foot-4 offensively lineman soon met his fate.

He was humiliated on national television, and was called a phony and a liar for his controversial decision. Years later, the otherwise intelligent lineman has a second chance.

Hart decided against playing Division I Tuesday, as teams fought to the final day to sign the best players available on National Signing Day. Hart, who has played for Feather River Community College, was one of 16 players that the Griffons inked Tuesday morning. Western football coach Jerry Partridge said that Hart’s physical, and will compete for a starting guard position immediately. He signed with Western four years to the day of his hoax.

“We did our due diligence. We talked to their coaches. I asked him some very pointed questions on the visit,” Partridge said. “I talked about everything with him, every little element of it; every little lie of it. He said ‘Coach I was stupid. I didn’t know how to get off the merry-go-round.’”

Partridge said he understood the amount of attention this player will draw. He has already received phone calls from as far away as Reno, Nev. that want to do an interview with him.

However, Partridge said he forgives Hart for what he did back in 2008, and said Hart is a much more mature man.

“He’s a good kid that made a very untruthful mistake back in his youth,” Partridge said. ”When you do a transfer like that, you’re hoping they can come in and start, or compete in a hurry.”

After Hart held the pretend press conference at his high school, coaches, family members and fans met with him to take pictures while he stood wearing a Cal hat. He claimed to have chosen Cal over Oregon that day. Not three hours later did people start to second-guess what occurred.

Hart said he was duped and said he had been lied to by a scout. It took over three days for the truth to come out, and he pointed to pressure as the reason he staged the gathering. Now he has a chance to help a team win a National Championship.

According to Tom Friend of espn.com, Hart decided against playing for D1 Appalachian State, and opted to play for Western instead. He had an extra year of eligibility if he went D2.

The Griffons bring back 17 starters, which include All-Americans in David Bass and Michael Hill. They also have reliable starters in Tarrell Downing, Ben Pister, Ben Jackson and Shane Simpson. The Griffons return all five of their starters on offensive line, so perhaps Hart won’t see the field so quickly.

Although Hart is the talk of the class, the 2012 signees boast talent that inlclude 10 defensive players.

Perhaps the most talented player is linebacker Jorge Belcher. The Kansas City native recorded 429 tackles — a school record — and was first-team All-State. Partridge would like to redshirt every freshman player, just as he did in 2011. However, if any player on this list sees playing time this season, it could be Belcher.

Another player that fans will soon notice is defensive end Darrian Bass. The St. Louis native is the brother of David, and was heavily recruited by the MIAA.

“One of our rivals, I’m not going to say which one, did a home visit,” Partridge said. “And that big fellow (David) sat in the room with him as they did that home visit. That really helped our cause, I think.”

Local kids that signed on were a pair of Blakes, both from Savannah High School. Linebacker Blake Burson didn’t jump at the opportunity to play football as many would think, he considered joining the military. But he signed on to be a Griffon after weighing out the options. The other player is Blake Deal, a 6’1, 180-pound wide receiver that has great hands according to Partridge.

In the secondary, the Griffons have Donovan Mathis from Springfield, Mo. Mathis attended the same high school as top wide-out Dorial Green-Beckham, who was the nation’s No. 1 receiver according to espn.com and rivals.com.

Outside of the recruiting class, Western announced its 2012 football schedule, almost. The schedule is not complete, but the Griffons meet Central Missouri at Spratt Stadium to begin the season. They also host Nebraska-Kearney, Central Okla., Missouri Southern and Washburn. They have five road games, which includes a trip up north to Maryville to take on Northwest Missouri State, and also the 2011 National Champions — Pittsburg State.

Soccer adds five players

Football wasn’t the only sport to officially sign players. Soccer added five players, and still have work to do according to coach Chad Edwards.

“I have very high expectations going forward,” Edwards said. “I want to attract players that can come in and start right-away. Those are the players I’m looking for, and I think with this class that’s what we accomplished as well.”

The second-year coach said he went right to work back in August, when he took the job as the head coach for Soccer, and grabbed some talent. Among the five include a top defender in Micheala Rouse, who adds on to the athletic pipeline Western has in Kearney, Mo. Western had trouble scoring goals this past season, and forward Brittany Wagner from Kansas City might help solve the Griffons problems.

She could immediately start and adds another scoring threat opposite of soon-to-be sophomore K.C. Ramsell. St. Joseph native Margot Bergeron has signed on to play. She recently spent time at Iowa Central Community College but has transferred and is currently working out with the team and attending classes at Western. To round out the list, Western nabbed Drew Mantlo and Sydney Andrews, both midfielders.

“[Brittany] is a goal scorer; I’m very excited about her,” Edwards said. “She’s a hard worker. I know when she came and played with us over the fall, some of the girls were like ‘who in the heck is this girl?’ ‘Cause she was working her tail off when she was here.”

Andrews will try out for the United States National Deaf team in the coming weeks. Edwards said Andrews is not completely deaf, but the opportunity is great for her and a neat chance.

Kelly Voigts returns at goalkeeper, but as a senior. Edwards said he anticipates on signing a few more players, and one should be a keeper.

The Griffons have one priority they must fix this month, and that is scoring. Coach Lynn Plett hasn’t figured it out yet, but if the Griffons can start shooting a higher percentage, they will likely win more games.

Jessica Koch leads the conference in points score per-game with just over 21. Outside of her though, the Griffons haven’t had much success, especially from the 3-point-line.

Western has shot 34 percent and are averaging 58 points-per-game. The biggest reason to Western’s slow start isn’t coaching, and it isn’t the players on the court. Arguably the best MIAA player — Asheligh Curry — has yet to suit up for the Griffons. Curry, who played for Livin’ the Dream while she did not attend Western, has not been able to play as the NCAA has not made a decision on when she will be able to use her eligibility. It’s highly likely the guard won’t play until next semester, so the Griffons might not see her for a while.

Curry will up the scoring by plenty if she plays the way she did when she last played for Western, back in the 2006-07 season. Until then, Western has to find scoring outside its senior Forward, Koch.

First game up for the Griffons — Fort Hays State. Hays is undefeated as of Tuesday night and may in fact stay undefeated when the two teams play Dec. 10.

A week later Western plays Washburn on the road. Western has a two-week break before it plays on New Years Eve against former MIAA team Nebraska-Omaha.

Flipping the calender to the next year, Western has three straight home games — Northwest Missouri State, Lincoln and Truman State. Northwest is always a fun game, while Truman sits at 6-1 as of now. Lincoln has one of the better defenses in the MIAA, behind guards Arriana Walker and Cierra Emerson. Western’s defense looks good enough to keep the Griffons in each game, but just like any other collegiate team, they must score baskets in order to win.

“We knew what we had to do tonight, and they came out and did it, so it was enjoyable,” coach Tom Smith said. “Tonight we showed we can win.”

The Griffons improve to 6-3 on the season and 1-2 in MIAA play while Southern falls to 9-1 and 2-1 in conference play.

Western connected on 11-14 from 3 point territory and took control from the very beginning. The only lead Southern held was 2-0 and it was quickly erased as the Griffons got out to a 7-2 lead after James Harris hit a 3. The Griffons have struggled at the beginning of games at times this season, but there was no lack of intensity right from the start tonight.

“You got the number one team in the country coming in, so you got to be fired up about that game,” Deionta Mitchell said. “All day the team has been fired up.”

Harris lead all scorers with 26 points and added seven assists and four rebounds. Harris hit 5-for-6 from down town.

“It was just my night really,” Harris said. “They kept coming to me, and I was knocking the shots down.”

Deionta Mitchell matched his career high of 14 points by shooting 4-for-6 from the field and 3-for-4 from long range, including two 3s in a row when it appeared Southern was ready to make a run, down 41-31. Mitchell pushed the Griffon lead up to 47-31.

“Tonight was probably the biggest win I have ever been a part of,” Mitchell said. “Coach let us know tonight if we played as hard as we could for 40 minutes we were going to win.”

Freshman Reed Mells shot 3-for-4, including 2-for-3 from 3 point distance. Mells went for a career high 10 points after scoring nine against Emporia State University last game.

Lavonte Douglas added nine points and six rebounds while Justin Reid showed off his hook shot, scoring six points. Those two, combined with Shawn Tarver, provided tough interior defense.

Southern leading scorer, 6-11 270 pound Keane Thomann, finished with 22 points but didn’t get his first points until he hit two free throws with the Griffon lead already at 21-6.

“He got himself going late,” Smith said. “He just wears at you is the problem you have with him because he is so strong and so big.”

Western utilized team defense in holding Southern to 28-for-67 shooting.

“It’s a family piece,” Harris said. “We are pushing to be one of the best defensive teams in the conference.”

The Griffons will look to knock off another ranked team on Saturday when they travel to Hays, Kan., to face No. 10 Fort Hays State.

With a little more than eight minutes to play in the game and with Missouri Western up by two, the defenseive lineman gave his team the final score.

The Bearcats defeated the Griffons 35-29 Saturday at Spratt Stadium and now take on Midwestern State this Saturday in Wichita Falls, Texas.

“I’ve never scored a touchdown before in my life playing football,” Longacre said. “And I saw that football, and we were down, and I picked it up and ran as fast as I could and made sure that ball was not going to come out so we could get that score. It was big.”

Just after Todd Adolf missed a 26-yard field goal attempt, and the Griffons crowd erupted into a roar, the Bearcats snatched back momentum on the very next play.

Travis Partridge took the low snap, which was supposed to be a design run, and tried to make a play out of it. That’s when the Bearcats D-Line took their second opportunity at a turnover and jumped on him. Just as the ball squirted out, Longacre picked it up and saw nothing in front of him but the end zone.

With 8:01 to play in the game, Northwest took its first lead of the game.

“The effort that we gave today — to have a first quarter like we had and not quit — we were resilient for three hours,” said Bearcats coach Adam Dorrel, who is in his first year at the helm. “I thought our defense was just phenomenal today.”

Western jumped out to a quick 16-0 lead before anybody could blink. The first play of the game saw quarterback Trevor Adams throw a side pass to James Franklin, but the ball was sent backwards, immediately picked up by Griffons Ben Jackson, who returned it to the one-yard-line. Partridge ran a quarterback sneak on the next play to take a 7-0 lead.

The next two possessions for the Bearcats both ended in turnovers, as Shane Simpson took an interception back for a score on the third turnover, which ended the scoring route.

“We certainly had some things that we left out there,” Griffons coach Jerry Partridge said. “We just missed tackles on some of those bigger plays.”

Up 16-0 after kicker Greg Zuerlein missed the point-after-try, Northwest finally settled down and scored on a 51-yard touchdown to David Mosley. Zuerlein connected on two more field goals after he nailed a school record 58-yarder in the first quarter. He made a 57-yard field goal followed by a 52-yard field goal to mark the score at 22-7 before halftime.

Perhaps the biggest play for Northwest in the first half occurred by its defensive line, just as the final touchdown did.

At the one-yard-line, Western’s running back Michael Hill took a delayed handoff from the quarterback, only to be met by a pack of Bearcats and fumbled. Northwest came up with the ball, which could have essentially put the Griffons up 26-7 and make a comeback that much harder for Northwest (10-2).

“We probably should have burned a timeout and ran a quarterback sneak,” Jerry Partridge said. “Honestly that might have been the game right there. We were going to punch it away at that point, we just didn’t do it. It has nothing to do with (Michael Hill); I wouldn’t trade No. 22 for anybody in America.”

The second half was a complete 180 for the Bearcats, as they scored 21 unanswered points to win the game and move on to Wichita Falls to play undefeated Midwestern.

Jerry Partridge pointed to his fake punt decision in the second half as the momentum changer. Up 22-7, the Griffons decided to fake a punt at midfield, but came up four-yards shy and turned the ball over.

From there, Northwest scored on a 35-yard run by Franklin. Follwing that touchdown, Western score on a 38-yard run by Derek Libby. Northwest answered with a 66-yard touchdown, a 20-yard touchdown and Longacre’s score to give the Bearcats the victory.

The win gives the Bearcats a playoff win over Western for the second straight year. Last season, Northwest defeated Western in the playoffs despite being down 17-0 at the half. Two years in a row Western was up double-digits at halftime; two years in a row, the same outcome for the Griffons – a loss.

Western ends the year tying the school record with nine wins. The Griffons, once 2-2, fought an uphill battle just to make it to the playoffs, as they won seven straight, including a victory two weeks to the day over their rival — Northwest. Still, the Griffons see only better opportunities awaiting them, as they bring back a core of juniors that take three years of post-season experience with them. Hill, Jackson, David Bass, Ben Pister and Tarrell Downing, as well as their starting O-Line and and much of their defense all return for the Griffons to try at winning a playoff game and perhaps move on further.

“Missouri Western will certainly be back next year with our huge senior class,” Partridge said. “I got a really good football team coming back next year. I just hate it for the seniors.”

Zuerlein, who has a D-II record for most consecutive field goals made, as well as a college record at all levels for 50-plus field goals made (9) agrees with his coach. Zuerlein, a senior, looks to be kicking on Sundays now.

“(Western) is a great place to be,” Zuerlein said. “I wished I had more eligibility to play here, cause I really like it and they’re going to do great things in the future.”

Photos by: Jason Brown

Student Nick Brewer had the audience laughing when he did his standup, which was just one of the nine different performances that took center stage in Potter Hall Wednesday for the annual Western Activities Council Talent Show.

As opposed to last year, this year’s talent show was very popular. There were 275 students in attendance and around 18-20 students tried out for a spot in the show, which is what WAC vice president Lauren Dillon was pleased with.

“It was nice to have to choose contestants based on the judges scores [during auditions], rather than hardly have anybody try out and make the show automatically like last year,” Dillon said.

According to Dillon, choosing the nine acts was not an easy task; however, the show had to go on. But first, they had to pick a host.

Janell Banks, a Missouri Western alumna, was all over the stage telling her painfully truthful jokes between each 5-8 minute act. Banks is about to hit the road to start her career in comedy, and, judging by the audience’s reaction, she should make a lot of people laugh.

Speaking of comedians, Brewer was the first student to take the mic as he spun lifelike situations in a humorous way with jokes about relationships and Facebook.

After Brewer, the performances continued to show their uniqueness with music. Rachel Cox and TJ Brooks sang solo, Dillon Woolston sang and played guitar to a song he wrote himself, Cody Benowitz played the electric guitar, Louis Erby and 816 to the 314 rapped and Party Rock Mob and Josh Yakovitz showed off their dance moves.

After the acts were over, judges President Dr. Vartabedian, SGA President Alison Norris and English professor Kay Siebler collaborated and chose a first, second and third place prize winners. Receiving the first place prize of $100 would be Josh Yakovitz, whose dance moves were very twisted, tricky and mind-blowing. Louis Erby’s clever rapping would impress the judges for a second place prize of $75, and Party Rock Mob’s creative choreography would take home the third place prize of $50.

Party Rock Mob — consisting of dancers Rachel Monson, Brianna Barnett and Bobby Washington — only practiced a couple days for the talent show, but rigorously.

“She worked us like dogs,” Washington said of Monson, who thought of the choreography in just 45 minutes.

Their dance consisted of several different songs, and they each had a solo song to show off their signature moves.

Norris believes Western students have a lot of talent and could tell the contestants, like Party Rock Mob, practiced a lot on their performances before the show.

“I enjoyed all the performances, and I could tell all the acts put a lot of work into making their performances so entertaining,” Norris said.

Overall, students, like Reggie Jordan, agree with Norris when it comes to the talent level at Western students.

“It was interesting,” Jordan said. “I didn’t know there was so much talent at Missouri Western.”

(Left to right) Vice President Jamal Ahmed, with new members DeAndre Diamond, Shedrick Christian and Mark Bush, show off their alpha symbol as they pose for the picture.

Vice President of Alpha Phi Alpha Jamal Ahmed explains that the hiatus was due to both academics and an established reputation that the fraternity did not adhere to.

“We went through what we call an internal digression,” Ahmed said. “We let our grades slip and put ourselves on a self-made suspension. We were not taking care of business like we were supposed to. We had to get our acts together before we promoted Alpha.”

In the fall of 2010, the Alphas decided to take their personal suspension off and begin rebuilding their fraternity. This rebuilding included pledging three new members: DeAndre Diamond, Shedrick Christian and Mark Bush. Ahmed explains that choosing new members after the suspension was a long process as they were looking for high-caliber members with exceptional quality.

“A lot of guys that were interested did not meet our expectations,” Ahmed said.  “These three gentlemen have went above in beyond in meeting and setting the bar of those expectations. I’ve been talking with these guys for awhile and priming them. I’m very confident.”

In 2010, 2008 and 2007 the Alphas won fraternity of the year. In edition to this, they won organization of the year in 2009. 2008 was also the year the Alphas pledged their last member before the hiatus took place. This member was former Student Government Association Vice President Ernest Chamblee. With all of these accolades, the Alphas have already started planning and preparing to maintain their campus status.

“There is definitely a lot of grandeur coming out after a 3-year hiatus,” Christian said. “We have big plans to uplift the chapter even more and put it back on that pedestal that it needs to be. First and foremost is making sure our own academic standards are met. We want to raise that bar back up to previous years’.”

These academic standards include maintaining a 2.5 GPA and being enrolled in 12 credit hours. The members must also be involved in at least two campus organizations and be a registered voter, along with being a person of outstanding character. Currently, numerous members of the fraternity are involved in organizations that include Black Student Union, WAC, Griffon Arts Alliance and Chemistry Club. One member has even started his own personal cake business.

“Pretty much any and every aspect of student life we want to be apart of,” Christian said.

A major goal of the fraternity is to unite the Missouri Western campus as a whole.

“We had a meeting with Dr. Peralez,” Ahmed said. “[We felt] the minorities on this campus are kind of outcasts. They don’t have much to do. What Alpha Phi Alpha is trying to do is act as an ambassador to unite the campus, giving everybody one group instead of two separate societies.”

According to the Alphas, uniting the campus begins with exposing themselves as positive campus figures. The Alphas plan to host a clothing drive and a pie-an-Alpha fundraiser to raise money for the community. The Alpha’s first event will be held during Alpha week, which begins Nov. 28 and ends on Dec. 3. During the week, the members will host a women’s appreciation day and a formal discussion on sexual education.

“We want to not only uplift the chapter, yet the campus as well,” Diamond said. “What we have planned is to bring a lot of exposure to Western.”

Among exposing positivity on campus, the Alphas plan to maintain a strong brotherly relationship with all of their members.

“With a fraternity you have a more intimate relationship with the members,” Bush said. “It makes you accountable.”

Diamond feels that this brotherhood will be something that he will appreciate even after he graduates.

“For the overall experience the organization is going to make me a better person,” Diamond said. “The time I have with the men is going to be a time I cherish in my life.”

Ultimately, the Alphas want Missouri Western to remember their successes and contributions, just as we remember their historic ancestors that once led our country.  As the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity was the first established African-American fraternity, Missouri Western’s chapter plans to go back to their historic standards of academic achievement, social rights and business administration.

“Our persona is that of business men,” Ahmed said. “We are about our business.”

Chance Umstattd takes a break from drinking his beloved Dr. Pepper long enough to smile for the camera.

“It’s everywhere,” Umstattd said. “It’s so easy to get now.”

When it comes to Dr. Pepper, he just can’t turn it down.

Umstattd’s Dr. Pepper addiction all started when his mom told him that he needed to stop drinking so much Diet Coke. It was then that he found and stayed true to his first love, the “doctor.”

If downing the famous 23 flavors 24 times in one day isn’t enough to prove his love for the drink, maybe going to the original Dr. Pepper factory is. Umstattd recently took a trip down to Dublin, Texas. Dublin is the place of birth for the first ever Dr. Pepper.

“It was the greatest day of my life,” Umstattd said. “I went to Texas to visit family, but I couldn’t pass up seeing the history of Dr. Pepper. My priorities in order are family, Dr. Pepper and then school.”

To most people, putting a drink ahead of school would mean that education isn’t very important to them. This isn’t exactly the case for Umstattd. If you didn’t already know about his love for Dr. Pepper, you would guess that school is what he loves the most.

Umstattd is in his senior year, majoring in Theater & Cinema, hoping to one day work for either, or both, the Kansas City Royals and Chiefs. He wants to be a part of their video production team any way he can, through the editing part or the camera work. He credits the Theater & Cinema faculty for helping reveal his love for video work.

“Dallas Henry is like my Mr. Miyagi,” Umstattd said. “I think that when I look back at school some day, I will realize that his teachings were my biggest influence.”

Theater and cinema definitely isn’t the only thing that he gets involved in. Umstattd gets involved any way he can, from WAC to homecoming committee to the Northwest game half time “flash mob.” He goes from playing “Humans vs. Zombies” to grabbing a roll in the upcoming play, “A Christmas Carol.”

Umstattd actually hated the theater part when he first got into the department. He went from hating to respecting to loving theater while in school. Although he has not acted in a play since his “Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn” performance when he was in the first grade, Umstattd is excited to try stepping back into the spotlight.

However, at first impressions, Umstattd is very shy. He comes from the small town of Adrian, Mo., where everyone knows each other’s names and stories. Stepping from a class of about 50 kids to a few thousand was terrifying at first. He was able to find a comfortable place in college by sticking to his good nature.

“I love that kid,” friend Sebastian Smith said. “No one has ever had a mean or rude thing to say about him.”

Once he got around to meeting a few people, he never stopped. Even with as many people that have met him from all the activities he has been involved with, haters seem to be nonexistent.

“Chance is a one of a kind,” friend Andrew Setter said. “He is a good friend in the fact that he would go out of his way just to make somebody feel better.”

Although he will be graduating in May, his good nature has spread kindness across campus enough so that his influence on people will still be here years down the road.

On Saturday, November 12 the Griffon Football team beat Fort Hays making their final record 8-2. The Griffons are now secured in the playoffs.

The Griffons were down early, but shut out Fort Hays State in the second half on their way to a 55-17 victory Saturday in Hays, Kan.

Western, sitting at 8-2 for the third time in the past five season, looked to assure itself a playoff spot. Unlike in the years prior, the Griffons did just that.

In 2007, Western went to Kirksville and lost 37-28 to Truman State. Two years later, it hosted Nebraska-Omaha, but couldn’t submit a bid there either, as it lost 30-21.

Knowing this, the Griffons dominated the Tigers, though the first quarter was a little slower than they would have liked.

Tigers running back Andre Smith took the first play from scrimmage up the middle for 77 yards, down to the three-yard-line. The next play, Smith ran it in for a score. 18 seconds into the game, the Griffons were down 7-0.

“Our defense was a little lethargic at the beginning,” cornerback Ben Jackson said. “We got things corrected after Washburn, and we’re starting to fire on all cylinders when we have to.”

Travis Partridge drove his team 50 yards on its first drive, before running in a four-yard touchdown tie the game at seven. The Tigers capped off a seven-play drive with another touchdown by Smith to mark the score 14-7.

“We knew they were going to have a burst of energy,” Partridge said. “We knew they weren’t going to be able to stop us and we knew our defense was going to get it done eventually.”

Michael Hill continued to make plays when his team needed him to. Hill, who finished with 182 yards on the ground, scored three of Western’s four first half touchdowns. The junior averaged over seven yards per-carry and led the team in receptions with three.

“Michael Hill had a great game,” coached Jerry Partridge said. “The drive before the half was the huge drive. We just shoved is down their throat and it set the tone at the end of the half.”

On that drive, Western covered 61 yards on nine plays. Hill had seven carries for 50 yards and scored his final touchdown, which put the Griffons up 28-17 before halftime. All season the Griffons have relied on their run game. This game was no different, as Western had 434 yards on the ground.

None of the players were on the 2007 team, but the 2009 season remains in their memories. Senior Adam Clausen said the big difference between those two teams and this year’s is the bounce back Western experienced from the first game of the season, a 34-7 loss to Pittsburg State.

“When we get our backs on the ropes, even during games, we’re just resilient; we know we’re going to fight back and play for 60 minutes every Saturday,” Clausen said. “[Travis] has come so far since that game. It’s night and day from what kind of quarterback he was in that game until now.”

One of the key contributors this season compared to years past has been kicker Greg Zuerlein, a senior transfer from Nebraska-Omaha. He tallied two field goals to give him 18 consecutive field goals made, which breaks the Division II record. The Griffon Indoor Sports Complex may have played a role in recruiting him.

“[The facilities] helped us out with Greg Zuerlein, no doubt it helped,” Jerry Partridge said.

The Griffons now wait their destiny. Though nothing is guaranteed just yet, Western had a No. 4 seed heading into Saturday’s game. Western looks to host its first playoff game ever, which seemed like a far stretch for a team that was once 2-2.

Western bounced back against Hays, once tied 14-14, the same way it did in the season. The Griffons have been on a roll, winning seven straight, just as it ended the game against Hays — 34 unanswered points.

Jackson ended any hope Hays had when he took a 35-yard interception back for a score, giving Western a 42-17 lead early in the second half.

“I got my hands on the ball, and I was just thinking end zone,” Jackson said. “Our defense is starting roll right when its supposed to.”

The No. 2 seed heading into Saturday, Washburn, lost its season finale to Central Missouri to end the regular season, tying the Ichabods with Northwest Missouri State and Western, all at 9-2.

Western finds its fate out at 3:30 today at the Fulkerson Center located on campus.

“I think we’ll be a four; it’s tough to guess,” Partridge said. “It will be Abeliene Christian or Northwest [at home]. It feels great. It’s unbelievable.”

Griffon Basketball Coach Tom Smith goes down in history as one of the 61 coaches in the U.S. to achieve 600 wins in college basketball history.

Smith is one of only 61 coaches in the history of college basketball to record 600 wins. There are only 20 other active coaches who have recorded as many wins.

“It means more than any other milestone because it puts you in a unique group,” Smith said, “a unique group of people that can survive long enough to get that many wins. To have 600 wins is an accomplishment and a milestone that I think is pretty nice.”

The Griffons started off slow, and Fontbonne had a 34-29 lead at half-time.

“You could see almost from the beginning that they were nervous,” Smith said. “I think they were just so jacked to do this.”

The lone bright spot in the first half for Western was the play of guard Dylan Frantz, who shot 5-of-6 in the first half, including 3-of-3 from behind the three point line. The rest of the team combined to shoot 6-26 from the field in the first half.

“We just wanted to get the win so bad, and it kind of hurt us in the beginning,” Frantz said. “My shots were falling, so I just needed to do whatever I could to help the team stay in this game.”

The Griffons battled back and took a 41-40 lead on a Levonte Douglas layup and never looked back. Douglas sparked the momentum for the Griffons when he blocked a shot out of bounds the possession before.

“The team was slacking, so me being a senior and a leader, I had to set the tone,” Douglas said “My adrenaline is still rushing right now.”

Douglas finished with a double-double – 13 points and 10 rebounds — he scored 11 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in the second half.

“I thought he got us going and gave us something inside,” Smith said. “He really played hard.”

The Griffons outscored Fontbonne 41-20 while shooting 50percent from the field in the second half.

James Harris didn’t have one of his better shooting days, but still led the Griffons in scoring with 17 points Harris shot 5-for-14 from the field and made 7-for-10 from the free throw line. He came away with four steals on defense.

Frantz finished with 15 points and T.J. Johnson added eight points, including a big dunk at the very end that set the MWSU Fieldhouse into the celebration for coach Smith.

Many of Smith’s ex-players were in attendance and came out onto the floor to congratulate him when the game was over.

“I was just shocked. I didn’t realize they were here,” Smith said. “They just kept coming and coming. Each guy reminded me of another game. It was wonderful.”

Even though Smith nearly got the win last year against Fort Hays in the MIAA tournament, he is happy that he reached the milestone with this group of players.

“The group last year didn’t deserve to celebrate this like the group this year did,” Smith said. “I know we didn’t play great tonight, but the effort they have given me up until now has been good.”

Frantz, who transferred from Hutchinson Community College, described helping Smith reach the milestone in his first game at Western as an amazing experience.

“I’ve never been a part of something like this,” Frantz said. “It’s really awesome, and I’m just proud we could do it for coach Smith. I’m honored.”

At the Glore Psychiatric Museum numerous mannequin pose as a representation of the many people that were harmed or committed harm to themselves in history.

Probably not, unless you are the man featured in the Glore Museum who ingested these items. As for what happened to him once he ate these things, the Glore Museum can lend more information, along with other eerie displays.

The Glore Museum is located at 3406 Frederick Ave, along with the St. Joseph Museum, the Black Archives Museum and the local Civil War Museum. These museums detail different aspects in time of the rich history of St. Joseph. With more than 22,000 visitors per year, the museums always have plenty of visitors daily.

The museums offer an abundant amount of displays that include artifacts and models that are designed to give the visitor a glimpse back in time. The Glore Psychiatric Museum has been, according to their website, recognized as “one of the 50 most unusual Museums in the country,” and it is also featured in a book called “1,000 Places to See Before You Die in the USA and Canada.”

Kathy Reno has worked for the St. Joseph Museums for 28 years. Reno says she feels that the museums are of great importance to the St. Joseph Community and is partial to the Glore Psychiatric Museum. Her favorite exhibit is of an embroidered sheet that was made by a schizophrenic patient who could not speak, so she communicated through the embroidery.

“My feelings are, when you know where you are coming from it helps understand how far we have actually come,” Reno said. “This is especially true in mental illness.”

As soon as one walks into the Glore, an eerie feeling descends. The treatment displays offer great insight into how they dealt with mental illness in the past. Some are very disturbing and leave the visitor with a feeling of sadness for those who went through them.

The Glore may be the most famous of the museums, but the others do not disappoint. The Civil War Museum is very expansive in detailing the impact it had on St. Joseph and the State of Missouri as a whole. Displays outline the timeline of the Civil War in Missouri, complete with original artifacts that are overshadowed by the original Confederate Flag of one of Missouri’s most famous regiments. No doubt Missouri Western history majors would get an awakening experience from it.

Jackie Lewin, executive director of the museums, has worked for the St Joseph Museums since 1973. She feels that all of the exhibits of are equal importance with its own history.

“It would be extremely difficult for me to single out one to be my favorite,” Lewin said. “I would like to see students and the community to come out and judge for themselves.”

Lewin also encourages any students looking to volunteer or intern to stop by the museum or give them a call. She says the museum has had several Western students work there in the past and some have even designed displays in the museum.

Wilma Walmsley, a retired secretary from Nebraska, said she has been to the museum six times. She continues to bring friends and family to see all the museum has to offer. Walmsley also said she loves history and believes it has great benefits to anyone wanting to learn about the past, whether it be the Civil War or the evolution of methods in mental health. The one thing that really saddens her is the lobotomy display.

“The first time I came to these museum was by accident,” said Walmsley “Every time I come back here I see something new that I must have missed on one of my previous visits; it’s just a wonderful place.”

The museums are very entertaining. It is a great place for Western students to come out and do some research or find a topic for a paper. The museum offers something useful for almost every major at Western. Students in the nursing and psychology departments at Western are usually encouraged to tour the museums. Students can gain admission to all of the museums for $3 with a student I.D.

Misty Ballew (center), Daniel Banks (left), and many other Western students storm the field at halftime for a surprise performance.

“What is she doing?!”

Some students in the Missouri Western crowd at the rivalry football game were yelling at the Northwest Missouri State University students who had rushed to the middle of the field during half time last Saturday. Others were left scratching their heads.

“I was really confused,” onlooker Lauren Dillon said. “All I thought was, ‘Who are these jerks interrupting half time?’ after they came out behind the band members.”

Then she realized one of the “Northwest” students dancing was her friend Robin Ussher.

Ussher and the other three dancers ripped off their green and white clothing to reveal Western gear. The confusion was over; the crowd went wild. They continued breaking it down on the field while several other Western students (46 total to be exact) randomly joined in sync.

Six months ago, student Erin Williams began to think of ideas to market Missouri Western virally for her independent study. ‘How about a flash mob?’ she wondered. Williams took the idea to her teacher, Dallas Henry, and he was on board right away. Williams, her classmate Shaun Allison and Henry did a lot of research on flash mobs at different schools, but they weren’t very popular—which made the idea even more significant. There was one during a basketball game at Kansas University, but the students only did it in the stands, not on the court. Williams planned on having the flash mob actually on the playing field, which would separate Western’s flash mob even more from others.

Williams thought it would be a good idea to do the flash mob at half time during the Northwest football game because nobody would be expecting it. They originally chose Katy Perry’s “Firework” for the song, but then they changed it to The Black Eyed Peas’ “The Time (Dirty Bit).”

“We wanted a steady beat that was good enough to pump up the crowd,” Williams said. “We also wanted a song that the band could jump in and start playing.”

Williams, who has been dancing since she was 3 years old, was deemed the choreographer. She came up with the total choreography in two days, four hours apiece.

“I wanted a dance that was cool and easy to learn for people who don’t dance,” Williams said.

The next step was recruiting students and teaching them the steps.

Everything was approved Saturday before the game, so Williams had them rehearse that night. Only 12 showed up. However, more students became involved as they rehearsed three more times.

“Everybody caught on fast,” Williams said. “Our rehearsals only lasted about two hours each.”

The final time the students rehearsed was on the field the morning before the game. They kept the event pretty quiet, considering the band didn’t know anything about it until that morning. Williams had told the drum line about the flash mob in advance, and member Daniel Cole thought it was nice change for half time.

“I wasn’t sure if it was going to work out at first, but it was a cool idea that broke away from the same old routine of half time,” Cole said.

Henry and other Theatre & Cinema students set up a total of ten cameras around the stadium before the game. By the end of the second quarter, the “flash mobbers” started getting giddy.

“We were really looking forward to the response of the crowd; we wanted to see just how confused they were,” Williams said.

The crowd was confused all right. Two minutes into half time, the “Northwest” students followed the drum line as they left the field. When the music started, that was their cue. The students, like Dan Banks danced during the whole song and enjoyed every minute of it.

“It reminded me of the old days playing football in high school,” Banks said. “It was great to be in the center of the field again. I was hyped up.”

The main goal of the flash mob was to promote Western, and it has been going pretty well considering the YouTube video (which can be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNBr3Osigkk) has received 1,622 hits after only two days of being uploaded.

Banks, who was one of the two cops in the flash mob, thought the video looked very professional because of all the different camera angles. He thought the experience of the flash mob was that much better because Western had defeated Northwest.

“We also won the game, which was just icing on the cake.”

Kyle Inman | Staff

The Griffon men lost in heartbreaking fashion 86-85 against the Fort Hays State Tigers in the MIAA conference tournament Thursday at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, ending their season and leaving head coach Tom Smith with 599 career wins.

P’Allen Stinnet looks to get the ball to Lavonte Douglas during their first round MIAA tournament game against Fort Hays State. The Griffons fell 86-85 on last minute free throws. The game marks the end of Stinnet’s college career. Jason Brown | Asst. Photo Editor

The Griffons got off to a scorching start, shooting themselves to a 21-8 lead with 12:59 left to play in the first half on an Adrian Thomas three-point shot.
Fort Hays fought back by the 9:50 mark to cut the lead to four on a Ben Congiusta 3-pointer. Western held a four point lead at halftime, 44-40.

Both teams traded buckets the entire second half. Fort Hays guard Dominique Jones hit two free throws with nine seconds left in the game to push the score to 86-85 Tigers.

Western had one chance left to advance and keep their season alive with possession of the ball and nine seconds left to play. Griffon guard P’Allen Stinnett had the hot hand all night and found himself double covered when it came down to the last seconds. The ball was swung to an open TJ Johnson, who missed a 3-pointer as time expired.

Senior P’Allen Stinnett scored 26 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and shot 14-14 from the free throw line. Senior Adrian Thomas and junior TJ Johnson both added 18 points while junior Lavonte Douglas chipped in 12. Hays scored 25 points off fast breaks while the Griffons only put in four transition points.

There was 49 fouls called in the game but Smith does not believe officiating was a deciding factor in Western coming up just short.

“Calls are calls. The game was not decided by the officials; it was a very physical game,” Smith said. “I am proud of our team because normally the tough and physical game gets the best of us.”

Stinnett said that he did not have second thoughts about bringing his talents to the Division II level and playing for Western.

“It was up and down, but I don’t regret it. I’ll have it forever; it was fun,” Stinnett said.

Thomas, also a senior, said that this is not how he wanted to go out.

“We knew coming in that this was going to be a roller coaster,” Thomas said. “Me, P’Allen and the other seniors this is not the way we wanted to go out.”

Smith wanted to get historic win number 600 out of the way on Thursday.

“With this environment, it would have been a great place to get my 600th win,” Smith said. “Now I have to wait seven months and schedule the little sisters of the poor for the first game next season, someone that we can beat.”

Women drop close game to Blues 58-55

Matt Gleaves | Sports Editor

On a last second shot from Jessica Koch that just rolled off the rim, the Griffons’ season came to a heartbreaking end with a loss to 20th ranked Washburn 58-55.

Western was looking to cap off a back and forth game with a solid, win against the number two team in the MIAA.

With just 27 seconds left in the game and Western down by three, Alicia Bell stole the ball and took it the length of the court for a layup to make the score 56-55.

Coach Lynn Plett put the ball in the hands of his most reliable player, Koch, for the final shot to possibly win them the game and get them to the second round.

Koch drove in with just over 12 seconds left and put up a layup. She missed the layup but got the rebound and put up another attempt that missed as well. Washburn would rebound the missed attempt and Western would be forced to foul with eight seconds left in the game.

“We were just trying to get to the basket and get the lead and win the game, but that last shot just didn’t go in,” Koch said.

With five seconds left, Bell put up a desperation layup that fell short and ended the Griffons season at a mark of 14-13.

Koch carried the team for the first few minutes of the game, as she scored the Griffons first nine points.

Koch would finish the game with 17 points, leading all scorers, and 11 rebounds, ending the game with a double-double.

“Having Jess go off in the beginning of the game like that was huge for us,” Rachel Luteyn said. “It really gave us the confidence that we could play with them.”

Another key factor in the Griffons’ downfall was their lack of three point shooting. Washburn shot 40 percent from behind the arc, while Western was only able to put in 29 percent from 3-point land.

“I was proud of our defense in the paint tonight,” Plett said. “Seeing that they only made seven shots inside the three point line is discouraging, though.”
Western’s season was defined by several up and down stretches, with the team playing great at times and struggling on the road.

However, this season’s squad helped to restore a sense of pride in the women’s basketball program after the team has struggled with seasons of fewer than 10 wins the past two seasons.

“I will never forget this season and how we came together and didn’t let being picked 11th in the conference affect us,” Luteyn said.

Seniors that will be sorely missed will be Rachel Luteyn and Lauren Nolke.

Nolke shot 43 percent from 3-point range on the year and led the team in three point attempts.

Luteyn recorded 85 blocks on the season as well as leading the team in blocks as well.

The current $1 million shortfall that will grow to over a $3 million short fall by 2013 was discussed at the focus group and three options to solve the budget problem.

The first option would be to reduce personnel. Seventy five percent of Missouri Western’s budget is personnel and insurance. MWSU has grown by 18 percent in the last three years and has the same amount of full time personnel that it had 12 years ago.

“I think that is not an attractive alternative,” Vartabedian said. “I think we should be doing quite the contrary at the rate we are growing right know.”

The second option is to cap enrollment. Capping enrollment on the fastest growing state university in Missouri isn’t seen as a viable option either. This route would have some savings with it. The amount of savings would not be enough to cover the shortfalls.

President Vartabedian has been hosting budget focus forums to alert student of the current fiscal issues facing Western. Austin Gocher | Staff photographer

The last option and what is being recommended to the Board of Governors on March 23, 2011, is to increase tuition by 10 to 12 percent. To put that into a dollar figure Vice President for Financial Planning and Administration Mel Klinkner thinks about $22.00 a credit hour. This tuition increase followed by another one the next year with no projection of how high that one will be, would allow MWSU by 2013 to unfreeze wages and hire more fulltime staff. This would also let the University add to it reserve fund, that it has been operating out of the last few years to cover budget shortfalls.

Director of University Honors Program Elizabeth Latosi-Sawin, believes that people in our region may not be aware of Western’s situation.

“I think the people in Northwest Missouri don’t understand how inequitable funding is for Missouri Western State University,” Elizabeth Latosi-Sawin said.

If the Board of Governors approves the tuition increase that doesn’t mean it will happen. Senate Bill 389 states higher education cannot raise its tuition above the consumer price index. That tuition cap can be raised if the commissioner of higher education approves a waiver. The commissioner can also decline the waiver and fine the institution.

“He can fine us to five percent of our state appropriation, for Missouri Western that is about $1 million,” Klinkner said.

Missouri Western State University has not raised tuition in the last two years. Western has done several things to keep from raising tuition. They have frozen salaries and wages for the last two years. Classrooms have been filled to capacity. They have eliminated administration positions.

“We are already asking the faculty here to do a lot more with a lot less,” Klinkner said.

The Golden Griffon scholarship was reduced. They also cut faculty salaries for summer school. Adjunct faculty has increased by 25% in the last two years.

The cause for the budget short fall comes in for several reasons one is tuition has not been raised in two years.

“The last two years Governor Nixon has made an agreement with the presidents that he wouldn’t cut higher education if they wouldn’t raise it a penny,” Vartabedian said.
Other reasons for the short fall are insurance and utility hikes and other miscellaneous expenses that take around 5% out of the budget every year. These expenses cannot be accounted for ahead of time.

There have been two of these budget focus groups and there are two left. The information provided in these focus groups will be made available on the Board of Governors web site in the coming month. In this focus group there where only three students present. Klinkner did inform us that all 6,134 students were invited to these budget forums. There was a lot of Missouri Western staff present.

The conference started on Thursday at 2:15 p.m. with Anne Dhu McLucas. Mark Rollins was to follow Thursday night at 7:15 p.m. but due to the snow, Mr. Rollins was rescheduled for Friday morning at 10:00 a.m. Joseph Anderson directly followed Mr. Rollins after a short 10-minute break. Mark Mikkelsen, professor of Philosophy, writes the grants and does the scheduling that made The Galileo Legacy Conference possible.

Each event for the conference had between 20 and 40 people in the audience depending on the speaker, the low numbers were attributed to the weather. “These have always been this good, we just want more people here,” Mikkelsen said.

The conference was a joint event between the Biology, history, philosophy and geography departments. This year’s speakers talked about music, visual art and film combining their study and research on the brain with focus on the cognitive processing of aural and visual phenomena.

Each presentation was followed by a short question-and-answer period where the other keynote speakers where prompted to ask questions first, followed by audience members.

“We do this because we want academic programs at Missouri Western to develop further,” Mikkelsen said. “We hope this has positive impact on the further development of courses. We want to see this contribute to that,” Mikkelsen said, “this is all for everybody.”

Anne Dhu McLucas gave a presentation titled The Musical Ear Memory, the Brain and Oral Tradition.

McLucas’s presentation gave a brief history Galileo’s father Vincenzo Galilei, and then she proceeded into her presentation.

She spoke about the wisdoms she would challenge within her presentation and the concepts she would introduce to those in attendance.

“It was really interesting to think how the mind perceives different types of songs, like she gave the example: Happy Birthday versus a popular song, how your mind remembers that differently based on the context you heard it in,” student Jamie Haffner said. “I never considered that.”

“On that Happy Birthday, she said to slow it down and you would stay in the same key, but when I went faster in my head I changed keys I went higher I was like, ‘whoa that is really cool and weird,’” student Matt Musselman said.

Mark Rollins spoke on the Riddle of Style How to understand the fact that world has been represented in so many ways. Rollins showed a picture of a mask that was concave in reality but in the picture looked convex and spoke on the illusion in the mind.

“It’s really interesting especially for the philosophy department to be able to bring in outside philosophers to talk about interesting things like this,” student Josh said.

Joseph Anderson was the last speaker his presentation entitled ‘Steps toward Ecological of the arts.’ Anderson used different movies to depict his theory along with animal behavior.

“He opened up a discussion that doesn’t get opened up much at Missouri Western or anywhere for that matter,” student Ashley Rose said.

Despite the weather, this year’s Galileo’s Legacy Conference concluded with students and faculty having new ideas to ponder.
“These where first rate presentations. These where as good as you would get anywhere and it happened here at Missouri Western,” Mikkelsen said. “Anybody who missed this year’s conference, look for the next one.”

“We are proud of our growth and record at Missouri Western,” Smith said. She also mentioned the expansion of the university despite rising costs of operation and increasing numbers of students. That growth has happened without an increase in state appropriations last year and a proposed 7% cut for this year.

Schaaf meets with constituents on Western’s campus on the second and fourth Fridays of February, March and April to discuss laws and bills relating to state government. These meetings are free to the public and held at Blum Student Union.

“I know Western’s situation. Beth Wheeler (Western’s Director of External Relations) will never let me forget Western and what the proposed budget cut means to this university,” Schaaf said. He sympathized with Smith’s and the board’s position and reminded her that he is an alumnus. Schaaf also reported that the Chair of the Appropriations Committee is from the University of Missouri. “Every time the Senate takes a dollar from one area of the budget to fund another someone complains and they’re probably in a room somewhere talking to their senator right now,” Schaaf said.

Other attendees discussed topics ranging from corporate hog farms and their impact on neighboring farms to the need for tax credits to support the restoration of historic buildings. The Chair of The Landmarks Association Commissioners of St. Joseph Missouri, Nigh Johnson voiced his concern about the proposed budget cuts in historic tax credits from $140 million to $71 million. He claimed that the tax credits returned income to the state at a ratio of $1 of tax credit to $8 of revenue return. “I just don’t understand why the state would want to reduce the tax credits considering their rate of return,” Johnson said.

Schaaf doubted the rate of return. “Remember, I’m from Missouri and you will have to show me proof of that,” Schaaf said. Johnson was quoting from the Missouri Department of Economics’ report that he received a copy of the previous day but did not have the document with him. Schaaf reminded Johnson that ending the tax credits would not mean an immediate gain to the state funds.

“It’s like this,” Schaaf said, “Every group promises that they are too great of an investment not to fund.” He mentioned specifically the drug prevention efforts that promise lower numbers of criminals and lower cost of prisons and law enforcement. “It may be true or not, but after a while the legislature becomes numb to these types of comments and arguments.

International students painted the flags of their home countries as well as the flags of other countries. Brooke Carter | Photo & Graphics Editor

The Griffon Art Society, Student Government Association and International Student Services all teamed up to paint flags inside the word “ONE” along the west entrance to Blum.

Alison Norris, SGA director of communications, helped organize and gather funds for the mural.

Senior Shignya Endale contributes to the new mural. Dave Hon | Editor-in-Chief

“I was trying to think of a location on campus to do a mural because I thought that if we got more murals on campus it would make our university more pleasing to the eyes,” Norris said. “After we got the location I began to think, ‘What is this mural going really be about?’”

Norris said earlier in the year that SGA wanted to get flags for all the international students. Instead of this plan, Norris approached Brandon Paxton, president of the Griffon Art Society.

Paxton said that the mural fit 230 flags in the letters ‘O-N-E.’

“We’re trying to get as many international students as we can to paint their home country’s flag,” Paxton said. “Some are painting two or three flags. It seems like they’re having a good time.”

Paxton said the goal was to represent Western’s international community with the mural.

“I think we’re going to get a good representation,” Paxton said. “It’s not going to be a perfect representation; there will still be some flags that will unfortunately be left off.”

International Student Coordinator Huey Shi Chew said that 15 countries are represented at Missouri Western with 36 students from outside of the United States.

Western students work together inside the west entrance to Blum. Brooke Carter | Photo & Graphics Editor

“We have grown every year, just like the university has grown overall,” Chew said.

Chew said she hopes the mural brings a oneness to Western even though so many countries are represented.

“I think it creates a sense of acceptance when,” Chew said. “When [international students] see this mural I think they will feel that ‘Yeah, this place accepts me and I am one of them.’”

Vice President of Student Affairs Esther Peralez visited with students while they painted the mural.

“One of the President’s goals is to internationalize and diversify our campus,” Peralez said. “You can do it in many ways, you can bring students in but that doesn’t look good enough. But you start changing the campus so it’s reflective of the students.”

Peralez wanted to paint the flag of Mexico, where her parents are from. By the end of the day someone had already painted Mexico.

The move is controversial because fees are not met with enthusiasm but the benefits to everyone could be greater than the cost. The idea of a fee for Esry’s medical services is not new. They charge a fee of between $15 to $35 for their services now when a student uses the facility. The proposed $25 fee will make the services they offer free to everyone.

“We are on a fact finding mission right now,” SGA President, Dillon Harp said.

He says, they a looking at the possibility of the fee and how students will react to the idea. Harp didn’t seem to be very hopeful that students could vote on the issue next month. “Most senators agree that we need more information before we are ready to present anything for a vote.” He did mention, however, that he felt the student body could best be served with a health center that was staffed with medical personnel all day every day. “That is one of the most important features the fee could pay for,” said Harp.

Esry center is open Monday through Thursday with Registered Nurse, Marti Burri from 8 a.m. till 4:30 p.m. The Nurse Practitioner, Elizabeth Roderick is available for clinic hours from 12:30 p.m. till 4:30 p.m. The Administrative Assistant, Angie Beck covers the office on Fridays and helps students make decisions as to what is best concerning their health. “I can check for a fever and refer them to other healthcare providers off campus depending on their symptoms,” said Beck. “It sometimes breaks my heart when someone comes in and I cannot treat them; some agree to wait till Monday for treatment.”

The staff includes Student Nurse, Kayleigh Kreidler who shadows the staff nurses as she learns to handle the clinic which sees about 20 to 25 students each day. MWSU student Raychel Whitaker helps in the office as an assistant to Angie Beck. Beck says, “We would need to add staff if we began seeing more students. It’s a real possibility if every student pays the fee more students would come see us, and that’s a good thing.”

“More students will know more about us and what we have to offer,” Burri said. “The fee would give us money not only to pay for supplies for everything including the paper for the Fax machine, but also for advertising our services.

The services provided by Esry Student Medical Services include everything from simple injections for flu and allergies to treating mental disorders. The nursing staff has the power to write prescriptions and test for everything from strep throat to sexually transmitted diseases. Condoms and Dum-Dum suckers are handed out freely on the main counter in the front office.

They have a partnership with the counseling center and often refer students to that office for stress management, anxiety, depression and eating disorders. They offer pregnancy testing and gynecological services. They are also there for things like blood pressure checks and management. “We also see students with problems that need services outside of campus,” Roderick said. “Since we have a contract with Heartland Hospital we can refer a student there.”

From the moment audience members arrived at the show Monday night, a fun atmosphere was established. Tickets were in the form of little cardboard valentines, bearing messages like “more please” and “Smile, Valentine.” Upbeat music by everyone from Lady Gaga to The Dixie Chicks to No Doubt blared in the Black Box. For audience members expecting to encounter a more somber mood, the energy in the room must have been surprising. While the show does deal with the heavy issue of violence against women, many of the monologues are hilarious.

Lexi Webb performs one of her monologues. The proceeds of the show went to stopping violence against women. Brooke Carter | Photo & Graphics Editor

Notably, Sarah Noe, who is listed in the program as assistant director, performed the role originally held by Mollee Westlake. Westlake was unable to perform due to illness, and Noe stepped into her role last minute. If director Mallory Edson had not made an announcement concerning this change, the audience would not have been able to tell. Noe’s lack of rehearsal time absolutely did not show. She delivered two monologues: “The Flood” and “My Vagina Was My Village.” Her delivery of both monologues was understated, and all the more poignant because of it. Especially impressive was “Village,” where Noe’s character is a woman raped repeatedly by soldiers. Noe’s strong voice easily conveyed the pain, both physical and emotional, that this woman felt. Several women in the audience were brought to tears during this monologue.

Actress Erin Williams was another showstopper. Her monologues “My Angry Vagina” and “Reclaiming Cunt” were perfectly presented. While performing “Angry,” Williams threw her note cards to the stage to punctuate her ranting. This could have been a contrived action, but Williams pulled it off. She stomped around the stage in five-inch pumps, proclaiming her hatred for tampons and speculums (“duck lips”), all while completely entrancing the audience. During “Cunt,” Williams got large portions of the audience to echo the dreaded “c- word” back at her.

All of the actresses performed incredibly well Monday night. The excitement that they felt sharing their hard work with a packed house was palpable in every monologue. Edson helped her cast strike an effective balance between drama and humor. “The Vagina Monologues” at Western successfully entertained and informed, all while raising $1071.05 to fight violence against women. For more information on V-Day, go to www.vday.org

When the weather becomes a major nuisance there are important decisions that need to be made concerning school closings. Amber Colbert has been at Western for one year, and she does not know much about what determines whether the campus closes.

“The weather policy is hard to understand but what I do know is that it has to be an emergency, meaning you can get killed in that type of weather, in order to cancel classes,” Colbert said.

Just this past week, school was cancelled due to severe weather that hit the entire Midwest region. Missouri was one of the areas hit the hardest. St. Louis got an ice storm, and Columbia and Kansas City got huge snowfalls totaling over a foot. St. Joseph got 10 inches of snow.

The school has measures in place within the policy to get the word out to students about school closings. The policy in question leaves a lot of room for administration to make closing campus an informed judgment call.

Student walk to class despite freezing temperatures and bitter winds. Brooke Carter | Photo & Graphics

“Sometimes you know you’re in trouble just by going outside and seeing what it looks like,” Klinkner said. “We try to take it on a case-by-case basis.”
Klinkner also consults with Jeanne Daffron, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, for the academic side of the decision before calling President Vartabedian with his recommendation.

According to Klinkner, it’s rare that the campus will close for several days because of the number of factors that go into the decision to close it in the first place. Klinkner said that the condition of the campus, the main arteries into St. Joseph community and the condition of the interstate all play a role.

“As far back as we can remember, this is the longest we have been closed at one time,” Johnson said. “Usually our closings don’t last more than one day as our crews work extremely hard and long hours to open the campus for business.”

Campus closed Tuesday, when little snow was on the ground.

“We closed Tuesday because we didn’t know when the snow was going to come,” Klinkner said. “After Tuesday we decided with the wind blowing the snow around that there would be no way to clear it by morning.”

In light of the success of shows like Glee, the a cappella genre has experienced a recent resurgence in pop culture. The Blanks, a self-proclaimed “Cool-pella” group boasts a strong fan base. They describe themselves as, “The most interesting a cappella group that has ever sung in a fictional hospital hall on a comedy sitcom.”

Members of the band include Sam Lloyd, tenor; Philip McNiven, countertenor; George Miserlis, baritone and Paul F. Perry, base. This quartet stands apart from other a capella or barbershop style groups. In fact, the group resists being categorized with genres similar to their own.

Perry freely admits that The Blanks came into their a cappella career by happenstance.

“We didn’t have money to get an accompanist. We just started to sing,” Perry said. “We’re not barbershop, we’re barber-not.”

The group’s cult-like following spurned last year’s highly successful national/ international tour, as well as an upcoming UK tour. In 2004, the band released their debut CD “Riding the Wave.”

The group is best known for its role in the highly successful NBC sitcom “Scrubs”.

The group reached success following Sam’s notable role as “Ted Buckland” in the syndicated hospital dramedy. Sam’s performance as the downtrodden underdog of Sacred Heart Hospital earned a great deal of recognition. According to the group’s biography, Sam and the members of The Blanks performed at a cast Christmas and secured the group’s role as “Ted’s Band,” or as they are sometimes known, “The Worthless Peons.”

Rather than simply singing, the group demonstrates their ability to integrate their well known vocals with their sketch comedy backgrounds. By utilizing talking toys, fancy footwork and flawless harmonies, The Blanks pack a powerful punch into their hour and half long show.

Audience member Tara Brock considers herself a big fan of The Blanks so her front row seats were certain to provide a great vantage point of the evening’s performance. Brock, however, was in for an even more exciting night when she unexpectedly became a part of the act. Despite her trepidation about getting involved, she had a good time.

“It was really embarrassing but exciting, and fun!” Brock said.

Currently Missouri Western State University is the overall season sponsor of the Performing Art Association and Missouri Theater. Christina Lund, executive director of the Performing Arts Association introduced The Blanks to the Missouri Theater audience in attendance at the performance on Jan. 29. She expressed her appreciation for the community support the programs have received from the community as well as the University.

“Missouri Western is so wonderful to be our overall season sponsor for this season of performances and additionally we feel very fortunate to have a student from out at Missouri Western who plays an active role on our board of directors, Mr. Karl Wellenkoetter,” Lund said. “[We]  appreciate that connection there in addition to the marketing effort of the university, the full support of the college to the community and then back again.”

According to Lund the event was a success, box office sales reached nearly 700 tickets.

“It was phenomenal,” Lund said. “We sold over half the theater. So that was a very good showing and a very good show of support from St. Joe and the surrounding region.”

The goal of the Performing Art’s Association, as stated by the organization’s mission statement, is to, “Support the development of the Missouri Theater into a regional center for the performing arts.”

Sidebar:

CD Tracks

“Riding the Wave”

Superman

Charles in Charge

Testy Tiger

Facts of Life

Speed Racer

Happy Halloween

Commandos (Attack!)

Flipper Theme

The Full Monty

Tour Dates

2/7/11 Lancashire, UK  at “53 Degrees”

2/8/11 Chester, England at “RB’s Nightclub”

2/9/11 Swansea, Wales at “Sin City”

2/10/11 Aberystwyth, Wales at “Aberystwyth University Students Union”

2/11/11 Cardiff, Wales at “Millennium Music Hall”

Missouri Western recently put into action a plan to both bolster and amplify the university. So far, Western has been able to add a new training facility (occupied by the Kansas City Chiefs for three weeks in the summer), a Spring Sports Complex, new dorm rooms and remodel of Agenstein and Remington halls, with the latter costing over $30 million. These new projects have either been completed or will be completed in the next year and none have cost Western any money. They have been funded by private contributors or different funds.

Western has decided to put some of their own money towards the school. The restrooms in Eder Hall are in the process of a renovation, causing complaints from students and professors. Mel Klinkner, Vice President for Financial Planning and Administration, believes the restrooms had to be fixed at this time.

“They’re really not really up to par with a nice building like that,” Klinkner said. “It’s a high profile area because all our new potential students walk through there with their parents.”

Though the economy has taken a turn for the worse these past few years, Western has actually increased its profits. Enrollment has been steadily increasing in the past decade. With that in mind, renovating the restrooms was not a hard decision to make.

“We had people coming from the Admissions area, Financial Aid: all the folks that are in that building saying it just doesn’t represent us very well as a university,” Klinkner said.

Michael Ritter, Disability Services Coordinator, says he hopes that the restrooms were created to help people with disabilities, even though he knows doing so is a challenge.

“Restrooms are typically the smallest room in any building,” Ritter said. “For a room to be fully accessible, it needs to be large enough to accommodate people who use wheelchairs, scooters, etcetera.”

Ritter says that at a typical university, close to 10 percent of the population need service for disabilities. This includes veterans and other people with health problems. He alone takes care of around 200 people.

Since 1990, when the Americans Disability Act went into effect, Western has made a number of improvements, according to Ritter. Ritter knows there will always be issues that cannot be fixed, but still thinks that Western is heading in the right direction.

“There will always be a certain amount of accessibility issues that cannot be addressed simply because of the topography of out campus,” Ritter said.

Staci Hersh, a disabled student who uses a wheelchair, hopes the administration can do a little more to help her and other students out that have a disability. Her husband drives her around campus to get to classes because she had incidents before where she had trouble getting around campus in her wheelchair.

“There’s only two parking spaces that we can unload where I can transfer from the passenger seat straight to a wheelchair,” Hersh said.

She wants Western to become ADA compliant and accessible, since there are even some classrooms that are not. She had to drop a spanish class last semester because the room wasn’t accessible for her. The entrance to the classroom did not accommodate her wheelchair.

“They can have a specialist come in and evaluate and tell them where they stand,” Hersh said. “I think they said it was like 10 years since they had it done.”

For a public restroom to be ADA compliant, it must follow certain requirements, such as a three foot diameter circle for a wheelchair and a button to assist the opening of the doors. A grab bar might also be included. Klinkner believes Western has met the criteria set by the ADA without rupturing the budget too severely.

“We just have a small amount we have every year that we can use on projects like that,” Klinkner said. “It’s around $500,000 but we try not to spend it all.”

The restrooms in Eder will end up costing close to $50,000, and will be completed some time in February. Other renovations are expected to come soon, though Western would like for it not to come from tuition money. With the right amount of money, Western can look to not only make the university more aesthetically appealing, but also help out those with special needs.

“I have been beating the accessibility drum for many years,” Ritter said. “There is some evidence that people are listening, hearing and responding to that drum.”

The vision for this project dates back as far as 2002 when funding was believed to be near for planning the project, but decreasing state revenues proved to be insurmountable for many years.

In 2007, Missouri finally found a way to fund many of its capital improvement projects for higher education with Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative.
The total amount allocated for the construction of the project was $35.1million; $30.1 million came from Missouri’s Lewis and Clark Initiative funds and $5 million from private contributors, Wes and Patsy Remington, for which the addition was named.

After grabbing a bagel at Einstein Brothers students can now travel to the newly renovated Agenstein. The building will host a myriad of science classes with new technologies. Todd Fuller | News Editor

“When Agenstein Hall opens on Jan. 18, we will have 120,000 square feet of state-of-the-art science and math instructional space,” Nicoson said. “This is double what was in Agenstein alone before the addition of Remington Hall. Agenstein was previously overcrowded and out of date.”

“Applied learning is a major focus at Western and the new research labs in Agenstein will be of great benefit to those engaged in faculty-student research projects. The new classrooms will be brighter and more up to date, providing the best in learning environments,” Nicoson said.

Jeanne Daffron, provost and vice president of academic affairs, said, “This project is essentially complete, with the exception of the planetarium. The completion date for that is sometime in February. I believe that there may be a few small things left to do on the greenhouse, also.”

“It seems to me that the Remington Hall and Agenstein Hall projects have gone well. They were each completed on schedule and look wonderful. The faculty moved in over the break and those to whom I have talked seem thrilled,” Nicoson said.

Mel Klinkner, vice president for financial planning, said that change orders were still coming in so the total cost of the facility is not known at this time. “Part of the plan was to have some endowment money left for the operation, and we [Western Administration] think we’re in the $800,000 range at this point for that endowment, but we’ll have to wait and see,” Klinkner said.

With the completion of the construction projects, Western students will enjoy state-of-the-art labs and some of the newest facilities for research and learning in the state.

Western started the game on the defensive end of the floor and it was evident from the opening possession that the team was sending a message on defense.

The team gave up an early three point shot to UCM’s Ryan Harris. However, Western made him work for the shot by pressuring the ball handler and trying to force the Mules into uncomfortable situations.
The Mules held a lead for the first three minutes of the game but the momentum changed quickly when T.J. Johnson drove into the lane and made a move to free himself up for an open layup.

The Mules inbound pass would be careless and P’Allen Stinnett stole the errant pass and dunked it to help add to the Griffons first lead of the night at 8-5.

Stinnett was given a technical foul for hanging onto the rim after the dunk, but was able to recompose himself and continue playing at a high level.

“I live for plays like that but there’s nothing I can do about getting the technical except go on and keep playing ball,” Stinnett said.

The Griffons would trade baskets with the Mules for the majority of the first half until they were able to shut down the Mules’ offense for a few possessions and take a 10 point lead into halftime.

The second half was all Western. The Griffons lead was cut to nine with 19 minutes remaining in the half, but it quickly swelled to 13 points and then eventually reached a high of 23 points midway through the second half.

Western dominated the Mules in the paint all night, as Brandon Beck pitched in with 12 points and seven rebounds, both of which were a career high. The Griffons finished the night with 46 points in the paint compared to the Mules’ 12.

Western had six players finish the night in double digits, as Stinnett led the way with 22 points, 14 of those coming in the second half.

“This season we have played at a fast-break pace and tonight we were able to slow it down and become a little more deliberate with our offense and it worked to our advantage,” head coach Tom Smith said.

Western’s team defense was a major factor in the win. They only blocked two shots and forced four steals, but relentless effort and playing together as a team on the defensive end of the court.

“Our entire team defense was great tonight and I think it was the main reason for this win tonight,” Brandon Beck said.

One book sale is during April, which usually coincides with National Library week, and the second is usually in October or November. This year the book sale was November 8-12. The library holds the book sales in order to help remove materials the library can no longer use.

Julia Schneider, the library director, says there can be many different items found in the book sales.

Students and faculty scour books placed in the library sale. Andy Inamn | Photographer

“Sometimes you can see a real variety of things, from paperback books to novels to out of date reference materials,” Schneider said.

Many of the items sold in these book sales are out of date reference books or journals that have newer editions available. Other items sold are gifts the library received that were not materials they could use. Many gifts the library receives they use, but not everything received is material that they need or can be used.

During the book sale, hardcover books generally sell for 50 cents and paperback books for 25 cents. Sets of books or journals are priced together as a set. Books that are not part of a set but that may be a collectable item are priced separately as well.

Sophomore Jeremy Howe said he browsed through the book sale and found many items of interest.

“I’m a music student so I bought some of the music scores,” Howe said. “There’s a very good variety of books for any student to look through.”

The money raised from these book sales is kept in a general fund account separate than the library account. Schneider says the library can then use this money to buys things they would not generally be able to afford.

“Through the years, we’ve purchased sound recordings, or lately some popular DVDs or CDs,” Schneider said. “General interest items that we normally couldn’t purchase.”

Schneider also said that book sales have raised anywhere from $200 to $600 or $700 in the past years. She said it varies year by year. It’s not a huge amount of money, but it’s enough to be able to afford some things they wouldn’t normally be able to.

Sophomore Whitney Hollars said she would be interested in taking a look around the book sale.

“I think it would be pretty cool to go look around because you could get some really good deals,” Hollars said. “It would also help the school get some new things that are good for students in the long run.”

Books that are not sold in one book sale are generally kept for the next sale. If they don’t sell after two or three sales, the library sells them to an organization which then sends the items to countries overseas that cannot afford such items.

Sunday at East Hills Mall, the Griffon football team and several members of the St. Joseph community crowded around a projector tuned to ESPN to hear the announcement – Western was in. And not just playing any football team, but the rival Northwest Missouri State Bearcats who previously beat them this year 42-0.

Head coach Jerry Partridge was thrilled that his team made it to the playoffs for the first time since 2006.

“I’m feeling satisfaction, gratitude, everything combined,” Partridge said. “We put ourselves in a position to get this really good break, and that’s all you can ask for. Now we’re in and we’ve got to be road warriors.”

Sophomore Wide Receiver Kyle Knox catches a pass over a Ft. Hayes defender. Western Beat Ft. Hayes 48-21. Dave Hon | Editor-in-Chief

Western will face Northwest on Saturday, Nov. 20 at 12:00 p.m. in Maryville, Mo.

Senior running back Thomas Hodges described his emotions after hearing about the playoffs berth.

“My first year here we went to the playoffs and we haven’t done that since,” Hodges said. “So now that we have the chance, we’ll try to make a run at it.”

After such a tough loss to the Bearcats earlier this season, the Griffons are ready to get revenge. Partridge knows that Northwest is a great team and that the game will be a challenge. He compared the team’s second chance to beat the Bearcats to a mulligan in golf.

“It’s like teeing off and you hit one out of bounds and you’ve got to hit it again,” Partridge said. “But that doesn’t mean the wind has lessened any more. We’ve got a stiff wind right in our face, and that’s Northwest Missouri. So hopefully we’ll play a lot better this time.”

Hodges agreed that Western needs to make a few changes for their second time around against the Bearcats.

“I think sometimes we get into games against great teams like Northwest and we just get so focused on ‘we have to make this play’ that our focus is just too much,” Hodges said. “We just need to go out, relax and have fun.”

Senior offensive lineman Andy Gilmore has similar feelings about the upcoming game on Saturday.

“We always said ‘just get us in the playoffs and anything can happen,’” Gilmore said.

Senior Day started off with a ceremony on the pitch to honor the exiting senior class. After the festivities, the Griffons tried to get their third win of the season.

In the first half, the Griffons showed determination with their high work rate on defense. The Bulldogs put a lot of balls into the box but couldn’t put anything in the back of the net. Senior Jenna Weis stopped six Bulldog shots in the first half, keeping the Griffons in the game. Although the number of chances belonged to Truman State, the best chance of the first half belonged to the Griffons. Senior Kelsey Bowman had her chance stopped after a nice one,two with fellow senior Heather Schmiemeier. Going into the half Missouri Western had three corner kicks and one attempt on goal.

The women’s soccer team finished their season with two wins, 10 losses, and six ties. The women soccer team also celebrated their senior night graduating nine seniors leaving 14 returning players for next season. Photo | Jason Brown

The second period saw the away team turn up the heat on the Griffons back four. In the 59th minute, Truman State broke through with the lone goal of the game. The Bearcat’s Kelsey, Kelsey Twellman netted to put the away side up for good. Western’s chances were few and far between as the only got two shots off in the half. As one would expect player emotions were high before and after the game. Senior Mary Ohm reflects on hers before the game.

“My emotions were all over the place before the game. I was really sad because it was the last game of my career, but on the other hand I was excited to play because it was a great last game for us,” Ohm said.

“We were hosting a team that we could beat and had a chance to come out on top and end the season on a high note.”

Senior Midfielder Jessica Martin was also sad before the last game of the season.

“Going into the game I was very emotional and sad. Soccer is something I love and going into your last truly competitive game of your career is sad and upsetting,” Martin said.

“Especially when your senior season has gone the way this one has.”

Martin and teammates wanted to end the season on a positive but the same thing that has hampered the team all season fittingly hampered the Griffons in the finale. Finishing has cost the team some games this season and with three corner kicks and a some shots on goal, it cost them again. Junior Brooke English knows this is an area the team needs to work on.

“We were getting chances but once again just couldn’t find the back of the net,” English said. “We’ve had a problem finishing chances all year. Its definitely one of our weak spots that will be worked on in off season. We have to finish to win games.”

Head Coach Jeff Hansen and Western fans will not miss poor finishing next year but the nine seniors will surely be missed.

Last year students had to pay one dollar for admission. This year it will be free because the Western Activities Council is co-sponsoring this event. According to BSU President Leah Hayes, last year’s fashion show had to resort to a standing room because it unexpectedly brought in such a large audience.

Now that tickets are free, Hayes expects even more students to show up to this semester’s themed show entitled, “All Falls Down.”

“This year will be pretty packed,” Hayes said. “We are going to try to fit as many seats as we possibly can. To put it into perspective, the audience will be so close to the runway that they will be able to touch the models.”

So far, to be on the safe side, she says there will be around 150 seats available, and students must have a ticket to get in. The sooner students decide to get their tickets, the better chance they will get to see their classmates walk the catwalk.

Perhaps students will recognize classmate Caresse Owens, who walked in the fashion show last year as well. Although Owens is an Education major for now, she desires a modeling career.

Western Students and Models of the Fashion Show practice walking the runway as they prepare for the show which will be on Friday, Nov. 5th at 8:00 p.m. Photo | Debo'ra Baskin

Owens has also modeled for local designers in Kansas City and wore Western student and designer Noel Corrier’s line in last year’s fashion show, “Rip the Runway.”

Corrier, who is pursuing a job in Vogue or designing plus size clothes for women, will also be presenting a line of seven outfits in this semester’s show. Through her work she wants students to see they’re capable of following their dreams.

“Last year nobody really knew I designed clothes,” Corrier said. “I’m not a person to brag, so I kept quiet about it,” Corrier said. “I want people to see how far they can go with designing clothes.”

Corrier is one of six different designers that will be presenting their outfits. The other designers include former Western students Eman Brian and Angelice Henderson, Designer Ragged Edges and Designer Money Grows on Trees (a.k.a. MGOT).

Western student Anthony Jackson will be modeling these various designers’ clothes for his first time on the runway. Although he is fairly new to the fashion world, he wants to make an impact on the crowd.

“I feel we will give the audience inspiration and confidence to get involved,” Jackson said.

Jordan Johnson, who is assisting with the show and wants to design clothes for plus size men in the future, agrees with Jackson and overall wants students to learn from the show and enjoy it so much they keep coming back each year.

“People should see the different creative set of styles we are trying to bring to Missouri Western,” Johnson said. “I want the fashion show to be a ritual.”

Friedman graduated from Brandeis University in 1975 with a bachelor’s degree in Mediterranean studies. Friedman then went on to get his masters degree at Oxford University in philosophy of modern Middle East.

Friedman has won a total of three Pulitzer Prizes. His first one came in 1983 for international reporting in Lebanon. His second came in 1988 for international reporting in Israel. Friedman’s third Pulitzer Prize came in 2002 for his renowned commentary.

Thomas L. Friedman is now a colunmist for the New York Times.

“I am a big believer in saying ‘If you don’t go, you don’t know,’” Friedman said on his website. “Journalism involves a lot of luck—being in the right place at the right time and then taking advantage of it.”

In 2004, Friedman also received the Overseas Press Club Award. Friedman was also given the National Press Club in 2009. Both awards were given for his lifetime achievements in journalism reporting.

President Dr. Robert A. Vartabedian is pleased to have Friedman speaking at the 2011 convocation.

“This continues an 18-year tradition of bringing extraordinary speakers to out university community,” Vartabedian said in news release. ‘’Colleagues at other universities where Mr. Friedman has spoken have been glowing in their reviews.”

Dan Nicoson, vice president for university advancement, is glad to have Friedman as a convocation speaker, especially after so many years of trying to get him.

‘’We’ve tried to book Mr. Friedman for the last three years, but it hasn’t worked out until now. He brings a scholarly approach to his subject, which will be appropriate for our Convocation,’’ Nicoson said in a news release.

Thomas L. Friedman will be speaking at Western on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011, at 9:30 a.m. in the Looney Arena. There will also be a Convocation dinner on Monday Sept. 19. Details for the dinner have not yet been released. The Convocation is free and open to the public.

From landing on an aircraft carrier to flying with the Blue Angels, Garlinger has experienced a lot in her time at Western.

“The lieutenant that was here from the Navy, he had asked me, ‘would you like to fly with the Blue Angels,’ and I said, well yeah,” Garlinger said. “He said, ‘Well, I have to nominate you, and you have to be selected,’ so I hadn’t heard anything and I didn’t think I was selected. Then I got this invitation to go out on this aircraft carrier, and I thought well that’s a good consolation prize. The day I got back from the aircraft carrier, there was a note on my desk that someone had taken a call for me that you have been selected to fly with the Blue Angels.”

Garlinger has been hands on with many of the employers and recruiters, especially the military, as she has fired a howitzer and received expert marks when she tried her luck with a pistol on a Marine Corps firing range.

Steve Potter, a Western counselor, said he remembers working with Garlinger when she first came to Western over 20 years ago, when they shared office space in what is now the Business Office.

Potter said that Garlinger has always been a really adventurous person, never afraid to try new things.

Linda Garlinger (far right) talks with Jamie Grayson and Shirley Wing at Garlinger’s retirement ceremony. Photo | Brooke Carter

Jamie Grayson, a former Western football player, attended the party and talked about how Garlinger affected his life.

“She made an immediate impact in my life,” Grayson said. “She just gave so much of her time, and we really hit it off from the start.”

Grayson said that he has known Garlinger since he was a freshman almost 20 years ago, when the coaches made it a point to introduce the team to administrators and faculty members.

Grayson said that she has always encouraged him to never hold himself back and keep pushing himself forward, which is why he recently made his company JLG Enterprises LLC official in July of this year.

“I think that the alumni that come back and say, ‘thank you,’ and there were several of them here today, that is really rewarding for me,” Garlinger said.

By receiving this grant from the Scottish Rite, Western is saving nearly $50,000. Before the grant was issued, Western was poised to close the downtown campus and move the classes back to the main campus.

Photo | Debo'ra Baskin

Gordon Mapley, dean of western institute, stated that even though Western received one year of free rent, there is still a lot of other cost involved in keeping the downtown campus open.

“We [Western] still have to pay the utilities at the downtown campus,” Mapley said. “They cost almost $50,000 per year.”

Mapley said that the Western Institute really wants to keep the downtown campus open. Mapley said that the Scottish Rite is trying to get more tenants to use their building downtown so that Western is not forced to pay all the utilities themselves.

“We like the downtown campus a lot, but if it doesn’t make sense financially, then we will move the classes back here [Western’s main campus],” Mapley said. “It will be a headache finding room for all the classes, but we can make it work if we need to.”

Western moved into the Scottish Rite building downtown because they wanted a community presence downtown. The building is very large and is home to Western’s Law Enforcement Academy, several non-credit classes and a few credit classes. The building boasts a beautiful 300 seat auditorium, a large cafeteria and several conference rooms.

Martha Greer, director of community arts, said that she enjoys the downtown campus very much and would like to stay their if possible but understands if finances forces them to move.

Greer stated that seniors are the majority of the students at the downtown campus and the location is very convenient to them.

“Parking here is great because you do not have to walk very far,” Greer said. “The location here is very convenient to a lot of people.”

This may not seem like a big deal to some, but for a senior citizen, walking across Western’s large campus could be a real problem if the downtown campus closes.

Greer also emphasized that classes at the downtown campus continue to grow. Greer hopes that the increasing enrollment might play a role in keeping the campus open downtown.

If the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry cannot find more tenants for their building downtown, they can expect Western to move from their building in the near future.

If the Downtown campus closes, Western’s main campus will not be affected too much. Classrooms and classes may have to be moved around a little bit. The only serious problem that could present itself is the already annoying shortage of parking.

Western started off the match on a strong note as they took the lead in all four games, but seemed to struggle closing out the games.

The Griffons have been struggling all year with errors and mistakes in their performance as well as mental errors.

Freshman Stephanie Hattey sets the ball to a teammate so she can spike it against Truman Saturday. Western lost the match 3-1. Photo | Brooke Carter

Western would drop the game 22-25 and would again take an early lead in the second game.

However, the Griffons could not hold the lead and lost the game 25-18.

“It seems like, for some reason, from point 10 to point 20, we cannot finish and win the game,” head coach, Cory Frederick said.

This would continue throughout the match, however, Western was able to steal one away from the Bulldogs in the third set, 25-19.

“We need to cut down on silly mental errors or hitting an easy ball out of bounds and not communicating,” senior Kelli Sicner said.

According to Frederick, his team is not lacking in the physical part of the game. Their trouble is with the mental aspect of the game and finishing games.

“We need to continue to push through and stay up the entire game preventing the mid-game relaxation we tend to have in some games,” Alex Behnke said.

Western would drop the final set of the match 25-20 after, once again, having an early lead and then letting mental errors get the best of them.

Justine Buskirk led the Griffon attack with a .235 hitting percentage and recorded eight kills on 17 attempts.

The Griffons fall to 5-5 in the conference and now the only teams in front of them are nationally ranked teams.

Central Missouri, Washburn, Truman State and Emporia State are the only teams standing in the Griffons way.

Here, Dallas Henry is shooting a commercial entitled “International Harvester.” As he has many attributions, he is now a new face at Western in the film and theater department. Photo submitted by Wheatfieldproductions.com

“I would say my big claim to fame was when I was in a Bud Light Super Bowl commercial,” Henry said.

Along with acting in commercials, he also directed them. Examples include Doritos, GoDaddy.com, Old Spice and TheManRegistry.com. Henry recently won three Gold ADDY Awards, which are advertising-commercial awards, for a National Commercial Campaign for Tennisset.com.
Students may go to the website for his company, wheatfieldproductions.com, and view these commercials and his other works. Henry has also produced the film, “Relapse,” which Steve-O from Jackass is in, and mainly country music videos like Craig Morgan’s “International Harvester.”

“We actually filmed Craig Morgan’s music video in Wichita,” Henry said. “It was a huge hit for him and changed [his] career as far as [switching his music company from] Broken Bow to Sony.”

After living in Los Angeles for eight years working as an actor and director, Henry, who is a huge Chiefs fan, decided to head back near his hometown.

“I’m a Midwest guy,” Henry said. “We mainly shoot the productions in Kansas City anyway, and after recently being engaged, I’m working on settling down.”

When he heard about the teaching position at Western, he was eager to join the university.

“Usually in schools you have to choose either film or theater, but here they mix it and I really liked that,” Henry said. “There’s a lot of opportunity here.”

Since St. Joseph is near Kansas City, he will still be working with Wheatfield Productions while at Western. This semester for Western, his main production is directing Neil Simon’s, “Laughter on the 23rd Floor” comedy.

“I wanted to bring the community in,” Henry said. “It’s something that is very relevant and funny that people, mature audiences in particular, will enjoy.”

The play will take place on Nov. 4-6 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 7 at 2 p.m.

While he is directing that production, he is also teaching Introduction to Film, an on-camera acting class and musical theater technique class; or in other words, classes that his students, like Sarah Hattan, enjoy.

“[Henry] is doing a really good job of making the material relevant and giving examples that the class finds interesting,” Hattan said. “It’s nice to have a class in your schedule you really look forward to. It’s refreshing.”

Senior Josh Morgan agrees with Hattan when it comes to having Henry as a teacher.

“I think he is able to relate due to his real life experience,” Morgan said. “He has a high energy and keeps the class interesting.”

Although Morgan will graduate in the near future and will not be able to take any more classes with Henry, he said he would if he could. Next semester, Henry will be teaching all film classes. Overall, he is thrilled about teaching at Western and is looking forward to the years to come.

“There is a lot of potential here,” Henry said. “We have already started making headway in that, and I’m very excited for the future. I think there will be a lot of good changes coming.”

A soft-spoken Bargen offered listeners some tasteful words with his readings leaving much to be desired. His poetry was very creative and allowed the imagination to take a turn of its own.

David Clewell, Missouri’s 2010-2012 poet laureate, reads his original work at the poetry reading presented by Missouri Verses and Voices & Prairie Lands Writing Project. Photo | Brooke Carter

Everyone who attended had an opportunity to ask questions that were answered carefully and thoughtfully. Bargen was asked about writing and revising.

“The poems in my book are not poems I’ve finished, they are poems I’ve abandoned, Bargen said.

He also commented on writing your thoughts down instead of trying to take an inspiration and putting a lot of thought into writing a finished product. He explained that this way you capture the ideas to work with.

Clewell added to the fact that it could take days, weeks or even years before you return to it and write something clever from those thoughts, but each of those ideas may possibly be the words you are looking for.

“Never throw anything away; what seems to be a disaster could turn out to be a great piece of work,” Clewell said.

Western Creative Writing Professor Bill Church hosted the workshop.

Gingrich, a symbol of Republican power in the 1990’s and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, touched on the problems America is currently facing and what today’s generation must focus on personally and collectively in order for America to remain on top.

“A man can be killed for saying ‘2+2=4’ because the government can’t stand the truth.” -Newt Gingrich on a bumper sticker slogan inspired by George Orwell’s novel, 1984 Photo | Dave Hon

Gingrich, who throughout most of his speech, spoke directly to the younger people in the audience, urged this generation to follow five principles for a successful life, which is also the title of a book he wrote with his daughter, Jackie Gingrich Cushman.

Gingrich, who is a military historian and former college professor, went on to provide several examples of political and historical figures that, in his opinion, beat the odds by following one or more of these principles.

“Abraham Lincoln would be born on a farm that had no lights, learned how to read by the fireplace and have what he guessed later in life was a total of one year of school,” Gingrich said. “He mastered the law, mastered Shakespeare, mastered the Bible and became President of the United States.”

Bill Mayes, a sophomore at Western, was especially impressed with the way Gingrich spoke directly to the younger generation and emphasized the impact this group of people can and would have on America’s future.

“It is important for my generation to have an active role in choosing the path this country takes,” Mayes said. “Whether this is done through voting, becoming actively involved in the cause or fully understanding the issues of the future, my generation must open their eyes and decide together which way this country is going to go.”

Gingrich also discussed five national issues that America will have to battle against at some point over the next decade. Gingrich believes that if these issues are left unnoticed or unchallenged by Americans, a possibility exists that the infrastructure of America could come crashing down.

Referring to the issues, Gingrich asked those in attendance, “Do we want to do the changes necessary to remain the most productive, most If so, you’re going to have to do things, you’re going to have to make changes, you’re going to have to be responsible,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich emphasized that America only works if its people do. If they are not pushed to think outside the box and stand up for what they believe in, the country will surely fall.

“We are the most extraordinary, persistent, inventive and energetic people in history,” Gingrich said. “If you are not actively arousing the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people, actively not encouraging Americans to dream big, actively not trying to teach cheerful persistence, this country doesn’t work.”

R. Dan Boulware, former regent president, and for who’s honor the Convocation is held, provided closing comments on Gingrich’s speech and mentioned that hosting speakers like Gingrich is what this event was meant for.

“Seventeen years ago, this is exactly what we envisioned the Convocation would hopefully become,” Boulware said. “We try to bring in people that you can listen to and that will stimulate your thoughts. We hope we have done that again today.”

Boulware made a point to emphasize that as election time approaches that Americans must stand together in order to win the battle against the challenges Gingrich discussed. “We are not democrats, we are not republicans, we are not independents, we are all Americans,” Boulware said.

Partridge has been at Missouri Western since 1997 when he took over for former head coach, Stan McGarvey.

Since that time, Partridge has slowly, but surely, changed the atmosphere and mind set of Griffon football.

On Sept. 30, 2006, his squad beat Truman State to make him the winningest coach in Western history and is presently the longest tenured head coach the program has ever had.

Coach Partridge watches the homecoming game prior to securing the 100th win. Photo | Jason Brown

As well as coaching as a graduate assistant at Notre Dame and Missouri, Partridge also spent time at the Division I level as the defensive secondary coach for Murray State in Kentucky.

He then returned to Western to be the defensive coordinator under Stan McGarvey for five years. During that span, his defense set 13 school records and held opposing offenses to just 162 points combined during the 1993 season.

Saturday, he reached another milestone against the same foe Truman State, on Homecoming to earn his 100 win.

Partridge’s first career win was recorded on Sept. 9, 1997.

Win number 50 also came in the month of Sept., just eight years later on Sept. 24, 2005.

The next season, he led his Griffon squad to their first ever NCAA Division II playoff appearance.

Coach’s first chance to get win number 100 was two weeks ago against rival Northwest, but the Griffons were shut out 42-0. This week, the Griffons put Northwest in the rearview mirror and played hard to try and get their coach his milestone victory.

However, most of the players didn’t even know that the win would put him at a milestone in his career.

“I didn’t tell any of the guys that it was close to win 100 because I didn’t want them to think about that, rather than win the football game,” Partridge said.

Partridge has also coached close to 200 All-MIAA Conference selections in his 13 years at the helm of the football program as well as 18 All-American players.

He is also known for recruiting several local players and has persuaded many to stay around their hometowns and help turn around a program year after year.

However, Partridge is still focused on what is to come and not dwelling on his milestone victory.

“I wasn’t really thinking about it, I was honestly just glad we got another win and am more concerned about the rest of the season,” Partridge said.

By the time that Partridge puts in, and the dedication and loyalty that he shows to his players, he has gotten the best out of his players both as players and people.

“I love coach Partridge. He’s been great to me as a person and a great coach,” wide receiver, Andrew Mead said.

Coaches that do whatever is best for their team and put the team first are coaches that get the best out of their players. Partridge has been a very selfless person according to quarterback, Drew Newhart.

“He puts in all the time and effort to make sure that we are put in situations to win every week,” Newhart said.

With all of these intangible traits that Partridge brings to the table, it also worth mentioning that he has coached two current NFL players. Both of which, have come from Missouri Western.

Former Western tight end, Gijon Robinson, started 14 games for the Indianapolis Colts in the 2008 season and played in the Super Bowl last season as well.

Last season also saw another former player for Partridge grace the NFL. Former offensive guard, Roger Allen, started one game for the St. Louis Rams and appeared in another.

Clay Rains
The streets of downtown St. Joseph were lined with people on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 9 who came to take in Western’s homecoming parade. In addition to many campus groups, participants in the parade included many area political candidates, and over 20 high school marching bands.

Max the Griffon shakes people’s hands during the homecoming parade. Photo | Broke Carter

“We pulled an all-nighter, from 11:30 yesterday until 5:00 this morning, so none of us have been to sleep yet,” Wormsley said.

Junior Zackary Kimmel’s Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity had a little bit different of an idea for their float, which was prison themed.

“Our theme was ‘St. Joe’s most wanted,’ so we had a prison cell with one of our rushes dressed up like a Truman Bulldog, and a couple more following behind the float like a chain gang,” Kimmel said.

Yell Like Hell

Clay Rains
Potter Hall Theater was nearly packed to capacity on the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 6 as a wild and rowdy crowd took in some student-provided entertainment during the homecoming week’s “Yell Like Hell” event.

Eight campus fraternities, sororities and other student organizations performed homecoming-themed comedy and musical skits on stage that evening.

Sophomore Kayte Fisette of Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority was one of the performers in “Yell Like Hell.” She was responsible for writing her group’s skit that evening.

“I’m a theater major so I wrote our script, and we centered it around a firehouse theme,” Fisette said. “Since we won sorority of the year, it was like ‘the Alphas are on fire.’”

The night was also an opportunity to do some fund raising for future events.

Happy Hours

Robyn Patti
The University Happy Hour homecoming event was co-sponsored by Partners in Prevention and the University Police to help raise awareness of drinking on campus.

Guest speaker Darryl Colberts spoke of his rough childhood of drugs and alcohol and how he came out of the dismay that could have been his life. He is now an investigator for child services in Washington, D.C. and has a powerful message for students at the college level to really be careful with what to get involved in.

After the speaker, the judging began. Out on the courts there were eleven tables with all of the participating organizations and their mixed drink that they created. Many of the organizations had very interesting combinations, but the Non-Traditional Student Association took the crown on the Happy Hour, with their “Passion Cream” mock-tail made with Shatto Orange Cream milk and a passion fruit blend.

Cancer Walk

Eboni Lacey
To raise campus awareness, the homecoming committee hosted a cancer walk in an attempt to benefit the American Cancer Society and spread knowledge about the cancer epidemic. While there was no fee to participate, many student organizations, along with members of the community, decided to join the two mile walk around campus to get involved.

WAC Director of Homecoming Taylor Kram expresses how pleased she was with the event.

“The turnout was good and we had a lot of students there,” Kram said. “Almost every organization had at least 75% to 80% in attendance.”

The first half saw both the Lions and Griffons knock the ball around the pitch nicely.

However, the Lions were the team who had the most opportunities in front of the net.

Griffon goalkeeper Jenna Weis’ net was under siege, as she had to stop four shots on goal and had five other shots in the area.

Western’s midfield kept plugging away at the Lion’s defense and got two chances but couldn’t convert. Head coach, Jeff Hansen, believes that the team’s burning pace in the first half is what they needed to put away the Lions.

“We like to get forward as much as we can. We feel that we can defend pretty well so getting forward and pressuring the other team with our attack is something we focus on,” Hansen said, “When we are successful we go pretty quickly.”

In the second half, the action stayed at a high level. Western’s, Ashlyn Castillo and Mary Ohm, continued to give service to the team’s strikers, but it was still deadlocked. In the 62 minute, the Lions got a smash and grab, as Megan Stueve slotted home a rebound past Weis. Following the flow of the game, the Griffons got the equalizer just 59 seconds after, with Ohm putting a great ball to Abby Widrig.

With both teams feeling the urgency of getting the go ahead goal, the game got chippy.

The referee’s whistle stayed close to his lips, as fouls and yellow cards were handed out.

Throughout the rest of the second half, and the two extra periods, neither team could find the inspiration to get the victory. Western’s Brook English believes the team needs to control the action more.

“I think we let them dictate the pace which left us a little out of control,” English said. “In the future it needs to be us who sets the pace, whether that be fast or more methodical, so that we have control of the game.”

Hansen believes the pace is right but the finishing is something that they could improve on.

Missouri Western Golden Griffon Marching Band has grown a bit this school year, and they hope to get even bigger in the coming years. Western’s Director of Bands Jeffrey Hinton said they added 58 new members to the band this fall, for a total membership of 114.

“That’s up about 15 from last year, and it sounds a lot bigger to us because our brass section has doubled this fall,” Hinton said.

The band used to hold auditions, but in an effort to grow, Hinton said they openly accept new members. They now simply ask that new band members have experience in their high school band, preferably through to their senior year.

Sara Verduzco is one of the freshmen who joined the band this semester, and was previously a drum line member all four years of high school. In addition to football and basketball games, she says her drum line plays in some separate events.

“We do our own rehearsals and have our own special performances, like the pep assemblies indoors,” Verduzco said, “We have our own drill, and our own music for that.”

Golden Griffon Drum major Ashlee Ackley directs the band as they march through the football field. Photo | Brooke Carter

In addition, the annual Tournament of Champions takes place Oct. 12 on Western’s campus. Roughly two dozen area high school bands will compete in front of national-level judges for that event, which the Griffon Marching Band hosts.

In addition to the horn line and drum line, the marching band is also made up of the Golden Griffon Guard, and the Mystics Dance Team. Veteran band member Ambra Garton is the captain of the 12-member dance team. She says that her section is a significant part of the band because of the energy they add to performances.

“Cheerleaders and dancers are basically the ones that have school spirit, and are the ones that get the crowd all riled up, and into the games,” Garton said.

Tahani Atieh, a veteran French horn player in the band and the band’s mellophone section leader, says she thinks the importance of the band lies in how it serves as a recruitment tool.

“I think it really attracts students who are music majors,” Atieh said. “There’s a lot of performing groups that you can be in, and I think it adds overall to the university, and to the Fine Arts department,” Atieh said.

Hinton said he agrees with Atieh, and that he’s happy with the recent growth. He said they hope to eventually have a membership of up to 175 students.

“Our only problem then will be that we won’t have any place to put them,” Hinton said.

Hinton said that if funding ever materializes, an expansion to Potter Hall, or a completely new facility, is a something that Western has placed as one the top priorities for future projects.

So far this season, the Griffons have had what was considered one of the highest scoring offenses in the nation, but the Bearcats found a way to stop it.

“We played horrible; offensively I don’t think we ever really showed up. Defensively we played hard but we made some mistakes and kept some things going for them,” Head coach, Jerry Partridge, said.

On the first drive of the game Western had some trouble getting up the field as quarterback, Drew Newhart, who threw for 119 yards in the game, would be sacked twice.

Northwest made numerous mistakes in the first part of the quarter, getting penalties for roughing the kicker as well as roughing the passer. These mistakes would allow Western to keep the ball in their possession for the first five minutes of play.

A Griffon defender takes down the Bearcat ball carrier Saturday. Photo | Jason Brown

Northwest would be the first to get on the board with a 28 yard pass from All-American quarterback, Blake Bolles, to Jake Soy; putting Northwest up by seven.

The second quarter started on a good note with a Jack Long interception with about 13 minutes left to go in the half, but the Griffon offense just couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity and was forced to punt away to the Bearcats.

The punt would be returned 78 yards by Northwest returner, Jordan Simmons, and would eventually be a Bearcat touchdown, making it a score of 14-0.

The rest of the second quarter would go scoreless as possession of the ball would go back and forth with no results.

Western’s normal points of attack were not clicking on Saturday, with only 48 yards rushing compared to the Bearcats’ 205 yards.

Northwest not only controlled the game in the rushing category, they also topped the Griffons in receiving yards with 314.

“They are a well balanced team with many weapons,” Western cornerback, Ian Thompson said.

Northwest would be the first to strike in the third quarter on a 95 yard drive taking close to six minutes off of the clock, putting the Bearcats up 21-0.

“The game was within reach until they had the 95 yard drive,” Partridge said.

After a few unproductive possessions by both Western and Northwest, Western got the ball with three minutes remaining in the quarter.

Griffon running back Michael Hill rushed for ten yards getting the first down for Western. It finally seemed like Western’s offense was back to its normal attack.

However, Western would find themselves in trouble yet again, when Newhart’s pass was intercepted by Chad Kilgore at the MWSU 44 yard line.

The rest of the game would be controlled by Northwest as they scored three more touchdowns, making the final score 42-0.

As for how the Griffons are going to recover from this loss, Western knows that they need to move on and focus on one game at a time.

“We have already put Northwest behind us, we’ve just got to correct our mistakes. This week all we are thinking about is beating Truman,” Western linebacker, Tom Madget said.

Even though Western didn’t perform up to their potential, the Griffons will dust off their shoulders and prepare for the battle against the Truman Bulldogs this Saturday, Oct. 9 at 1:30 pm.

“It’s on to the next, you’ve got to have a short memory in this game,” Thompson said.

Western falls to 4-1 overall on the season and 2-1 in conference play.

Western started off the game on a positive note when Western quarterback, Drew Newhart, threw a 38-yard completion pass to Adam Clausen to get into Pitt State territory.

Newhart and the Griffons marched down the field and into scoring position, where Michael Hill fumbled on the rush, only to be recovered by David Fowler in the end zone. Western went up 7-0 with only four minutes gone in the first quarter.

The Griffons defense was relentless as Pitt State failed to get on the scoreboard after their first possession of the game.

Pitt State quarterback, Zac Dickey, took matters into his own hands and put the Gorillas up on the board due to his 41-yard rush with about 13 minutes left to go in the half.

The Gorillas running game started to get past Westerns defense too easily in the first half. Western head coach, Jerry Partridge, was still confident in his defense, but just needed to make some adjustments.

Senior wide reciever, Andrew Mead, runs with the ball after making a catch on Family Fun Day Saturday. Photo | Jason Brown

In the first half, the running game wasn’t as successful as Western would have hoped, only notching in 73 rushing yards compared to the Gorillas 175 yards.

Western went into halftime with a 21-18 lead over the Gorillas. It wouldn’t be until the second half when the Griffons finally started pulling away.

The second half brought good news for the Griffons. The Pitt State defense opened up, allowing Western 122 yards total rushing from Michael Hill and Thomas Hodges.

Not only was the running game working for the Griffons, the receivers were doing their jobs as well. Newhart earned 298 yards passing in the contest with the help of his receivers including senior Andrew Mead, who snagged seven passes against the Gorillas.

“The receivers did an excellent job executing and finding windows in the defense, the offensive line gave me adequate time to find the receivers down field. When you have those two combinations it’s easy to complete both,” Newhart said. By the end of the third quarter, the Griffons still had the lead with the score of 34-25, and after a successful drive for Newhart and company at the beginning of the fourth quarter, the gap widened to a score of 40-25.

Coach Partridge had a different plan for extra points after the fourth quarter touchdown. Both teams were chasing for extra points most of the game so Coach Partridge found it important to go for a two point conversion in order to stop the Gorillas from beating Western with their running game.

“We forced them into a throwing attack and I think that’s why we stopped them,” Partridge said.

Pitt state would never catch up to the Griffons as the game ended with the score of 42-25.

After adding their fourth notch to the win column, the Western football team has already changed the focus to their next opponent, the seventh ranked Northwest Missouri State Bearcats.

Michael Hill, sophomore running back for Western, has higher expectations that are above and beyond only beating the MIAA powerhouse this season.

“We don’t want to just beat Northwest, we want to go farther than that,” Hill said.

All Western can do is prepare for the next game on the schedule.

“It doesn’t matter who we play next week, it’s all about what we can control and we can’t control how Northwest goes out and plays the football game,” Newhart said.

Gingrich has achieved a great deal during his career in politics as well as literature. He is a member of the Republican Party and is still involved in politics though in a less visible way.

He first ran for congress unsuccessfully in 1974 and 1976. He gained his seat in 1978. Gingrich served as a member of the House for 16-years before being elected as Speaker of The House in 1995. During the 1994 election Gingrich along with several other prominent republicans crafted the Contract with America, a document detailing the promises made by the Republican Party should they become the United States majority party. This document ensured Gingrich’s success and he became the House Speaker.

Over the next four years Gingrich had his hands full with his high ranking office. He began with pushing all ten items from the Contract with America forward as quickly as possible. He often butted heads with Democratic President Bill Clinton most notably during a budget argument in 1996. He was also named Man of the Year in 1995 by Time Magazine.

Gingrich resigned from his position as Speaker in 1999, but has remained very active in the political world. He has been the author of 21 books, all political in nature. His most recent book is titled “To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular-Socialist Machine.”

His current activities include the production of historical and policy documentaries, which he does with his wife Callista. He also travels extensively to speak at different events all over the country.

Photo Graphic | Brooke Carter

Speaker stirs strong feelings in both students and faculty
Nick McCutcheon
Newt Gingrich will arrive on Missouri Western’s campus as a leading candidate for the 2012 republican presidential nomination at the university’s 17th Annual Convocation on Critical Issues.

Gingrich was the fourth leading vote getter for the party’s nomination in a recent Iowa straw poll. He will deliver a speech titled Jobs, Economic Growth and Prosperity Oct. 7 at 9:30 a.m. in the Looney Complex.

In a statement on his website, Gingrich said Americans can replace job takers with job creators this November. Gingrich helped author the Contract with America in 1994 which helped republicans gain a majority in the House of Representatives. Gingrich’s stop at Western comes on the heels of current house republicans’ Pledge to America, a document with similar intentions.

“Like with the Contract with America in 1994, a new generation of reform republicans is offering the American people a clear choice about America’s future,” Gingrich said.

Professor Jonathan Euchner said that Gingrich has a lot to offer students but that he has a “reputation for being a very provocative guy.”

“I’d like to see him keep his rhetoric at an enlightened educational level and not lower it to the bombast and political rhetoric that he has been dishing out in the past year or two,” Euchner said.

Recently, Gingrich has publicly spoken against US President Barrack Obama and may be entering himself in the presidential arena. According to a recent McClatchy poll, Gingrich and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee tied for third in possibly receiving the GOP presidential nomination in 2012.

“I think Obama gets up every morning with a worldview that is fundamentally wrong about reality,” Gingrich said in an interview with the National Review Online. “If you look at the continuous denial of reality, there has got to be a point where someone stands up and says that this is just factually insane.”

With mid-term elections approaching, Gingrich’s stop could provide Western students with insight into upcoming campaign issues. Professor of communication studies David McMahan said that students could really benefit from having such a prominent political figure on campus.

“For students overall, this is going to be an opportunity for them to experience someone who has shaped politics for the past few decades,” McMahan said. “Whether in office or out of office, Newt Gingrich has been a profound influence on politics in the United States. It’s potentially an opportunity to see a future President of the United States in close proximity.”

Vice President of University Advancement Dan Nicoson said having prominent speakers like Gingrich is unique to an institution of Western’s size. Faculty members agreed with Nicoson that students should take advantage of having a highly visible individual on campus.

“Anytime students have the opportunity to engage in discussions about real meaningful political matters, it’s important,” political science professor Edwin Taylor said. “This is a really visible figure who is a key player in political scenes.”

Gingrich’s conservative stance brings a stark contrast to last year’s convocation speaker Robert Kennedy Jr. Nicoson is part of the group that chooses convocation speakers and sees the need for balance.

“We do try to balance the political perspectives of the speakers over the years,” Nicoson said. “We may leave the presentation approving of what the speaker said or taking exception, but either way we have availed ourselves of the opportunity to listen and then further develop our own views.”

One student organization is particularly excited to see Gingrich on campus. As President of Western’s College Republicans Kelsey Breckenridge said she couldn’t be more pleased with the choice of Gingrich.

“I’m excited to see that the students and community will be able to get a conservative perspective,” Breckenridge said.

Breckenridge also saw the benefit of having a political figure on campus so close to elections.

“I know how difficult it can be to get young people interested in politics and showing up to the polls,” Breckenridge said. “The more people are immersed in the issues the more likely they are to make smart, researched decisions when voting so hopefully this will give some the motivation to understand the issues and realize the seriousness of their vote and how it affects every aspect of their life.”

Nicoson discusses speaker selection
Dave Hon
Dan Nicoson, vice president of university advancement said that during the selection process he and his department attempt to balance a speaker’s political views with past speakers, but that the first variable they consider is price.

“Each year we first try to determine who might be available in a price range that we can make work,” Nicoson said.

Gingrich’s usual speaking fee is $75,750 but the university received a discount bringing the fee down to $50,750. University advancement has already received $38,200 in contributions from sponsors.

“We considered multiple factors in selecting the speaker for the 2010 convocation, just as we do every year,” Nicoson said. “We begin by working with speakers’ bureaus to determine who might be available for a fee we think is workable, who will help us achieve a balance in political or other perspectives, and to do the best we can at achieving diversity in the speakers over the long term. “

Despite the fact that students’ money is not being used to pay for the convocation, Nicoson still feels the Convocation on Critical Issues is an important educational opportunity for students.

“Our eagerness to hear these speakers should not be affected by whether or not we agree with the views of the speakers,” Nicoson said. “For that matter, how do we really know if we agree without hearing them?”  

It has yet to be determined if Gingrich will be taking questions from the floor as past speakers have done, but both Nicoson and Euchner hope that Gingrich makes himself available to students.

Past Convocation speakers have included Bill Bradley, James Carville and Mary Matalin, Sam Donaldson, Steve Forbes, David Gergen, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Jerry Linenger, David McCullough, Dr. Joseph Nye, Colin Powell, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Daniel Schorr, Patricia Schroeder, J.C. Watts and Bob Woodward.

Griffon News asked 100 students across Western’s campus what their five most favorite reality shows are, and over a third listed MTV’s Jersey Shore.
Junior Camila Solano said this show was her absolute favorite.

“I guess I like it because the people are so close to my age that I feel I can relate to it,” Solano said.

Documenting the everyday lives of athlete Bruce Jenner and family, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, tied with American Idol for second place on campus.

In keeping with the spirit of many reality shows though, wouldn’t it be more exciting if we skip the rest of the positive comments from students, and focus on the negative?

Although they may admit to frequently taking in reality TV shows, many students said that watching them is at the bottom of their priority list. Sophomore Elissa Lauren was one of those students.

“I watch them only when nothing else is on because I think they’re pretty stupid and pointless,” Lauren said.

Graphic | Brooke Carter

“I think there’s more behind the scenes than we know, like it’s all fake,” Jenkins said.

Just over a quarter of students said they don’t bother watching reality shows at all. Freshman Nick McIntosh said he’s not into reality TV because of the spoiled characters, and their drama.

“Those people are getting paid good money, but they want to bitch and complain about how bad things are for them,” McIntosh said.

Freshman Heather Glenn is a non-traditional student with children. Glenn said it was the content of the third most popular show on campus, Teen Moms, which concerned her.

“I decided we were done with that show, because a lot of those reality shows are not good for our kids at all,” Glenn said.

Dr. Brian Cronk, a professor with Western’s psychology department, weighed in on what draws many people to reality TV, despite the sometimes-negative subject matter.

“It’s kind of like how we just can’t stop ourselves from looking at a train wreck; like Jerry Springer—no matter how bad your life is, theirs is worse,” Cronk said.

Many non-trads are uneasy about Kisker’s departure. Debra Potter, a nontraditional student at Western, has started a petition in hopes of keeping Kisker.

“I feel for the non-trads; to lose Ellen Kisker in non-trad student services is a travesty,” Potter said. “I knew she was offered a position working with clubs and traditional students and I feel her heart just wasn’t in it.”

Vice President of Student Affairs Esther Peralez explained what duties Kisker was asked to maintain along with working with the non-trads.

The non-traditional student office will not be closing, accodrding to Esther Paralez, vice president of studetn affairs. Here, non-trads lounge in their office, enjoying the company of their peers.

Peralez explained why changes were made for Kisker to move to the Student Affairs office.

“I really wanted to work with non-trads, because the student government has changed their funding and they’re willing to give up to $5,000 for programming and I want to work with non-trads to do that,” Peralez said.

“It appears that money was taken away, but it really hasn’t been taken away because I’m going to give it to them when they tell me what their programming efforts are going to be.”

The budget for the non-trad office has decreased from $79,142 last year to $69,172. Operational budget for the non-trad office last semester was $8,000 compared to this year when the non-trads have no money at all.

Barry Hersh, president of the Non-traditional Student Association agrees with Potter.

“I can see the point in why they wanted to do it and what benefits they’re looking for,” Hersh said. “I think the execution of it could have been done a lot differently with a lot more communication to the students and the staff. We’ve really had to run around and play clean-up for the last few weeks trying to put out fires which obviously are still going.”

Kisker was told she would be the new director of student life and that she would be in charge of student clubs and organizations to make them more active and more organized.

“When I asked about the non-trads they said I would maybe allowed to see them once a week.” Kisker said.“This job demands my undivided attention, I told them I just couldn’t walk away from the non-trads. I just couldn’t do it.”

Many non-trads are worried that without Kisker, the non-trad office will be closed. Potter expressed her views on the matter.

“I’m not worried about losing the community area; my main focus is that we keep Ellen,” Potter said. Potter has collected 300 signatures in hopes of keeping Kisker the director of the non-trads.

‘Lets Talk” is a musical group with three current Missouri Western students and two others who are ready to spread their unique tunes to the world. Consisting of Western student Zach Sauls singing and rocking the guitar, Skylar Smith and Trevor Rowe singing and playing synthesizers, Western students Bryce Shoemaker smashing the drums and Cody Hudson playing the bass guitar-they are unstoppable.

Sauls, Smith and Rowe have been creating music for about two years, and they picked up Shoemaker and Hudson along the way. Rowe believes these musicians aren’t co-workers, but more like non-blooded relatives instead.

Members Trevor Rowe, Bryce Shoemaker, Zach Sauls, Cody Hudson and Scylar Smith practice for the next show at Record Bar in Kansas City on Sept. 28. Submitted Photo

Rowe was the mastermind who came up with the title of the band. What made him think of the simple 80’s style name, however, will remain a secret. Like the great bands Guns N’ Roses and U2, these rebels are too cool for school to use the correct punctuation in their name. Smith and the rest of the gang have the rock star, “I’m going to do my own thing” mentality.

“There are no rules,” Smith said. “The band’s name is whatever we want.”

“Bored Dreamer,” “Wolf” and “Let Your Claws do the Talking” are just some of Let’s Talk’s songs available on www.myspace.com/letstalkband. Smith loves every song they have created, and he will hold on to them forever. These songs blend each instrument with the vocals in a pleasant and unique way that can put anybody in a good mood.

“Our music will soothe your soul,” Smith said.

Every now and again there will be a band that will make good music, however, all the songs sound the same. Hearing the same types of songs can get old. Yet on the other hand with Lets Talk, Western student Toni Dance thinks they are more flexible with their songs.

“The rhythm and beat was enticing for each song, like something I haven’t heard before,” Dance said. “They all had different elements, and none of them sounded like the other at all.”

With influences like family, 80s music and more modern alternative rock, their music doesn’t really fit into just one style of music. Sauls believes Lets Talk’s type of music is mainly indie rock, but it’s more of a big melting pot.

“We’re really a lot of everything,” Sauls said. “We’re too awesome to categorize.”

The band likes to improvise when they are pondering lyrics for songs. One of Sauls’ favorite creations is “Twins” which was, in a way, influenced by the 1956 horror-sci-fi movie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

“Nobody but the band has heard this one before,” Sauls said. “You’re just going to have to come to one of our shows!”

Lets Talk will be performing at the Record Bar in Kansas City on Sept. 28 at 10 o’clock p.m. Be there to support them, and open up to a whole new sound of excellence and let loose.

“Everybody should come to the show because we’re going to blow up!” Sauls said. “We’re awesome.”

The second half was back and forth but the beginning of the action was all Western.

After falling down 7-0 the Griffons put up 28 unanswered points.

The first score was something Western fans have gotten use to seeing in the Drew Newhart era. Newhart hit running back Mike Hill for a 52 yard touchdown down the sideline. The quarterback’s next touchdown pass was to Terrell Downing from three yards out. The touchdown was setup by an interception by Matt Glades, which gave Western great field position.

Wide reciever, Adam Clausen put the Griffons up 21-7 with his eight yard touchdown grab along with Williams’ interception return 80 yards to the endzone.

Senior running back Thomas Hodges looks for an opening in the defense. Photo | Jason Brown

“We got out to a fast start and played well in the first half,” Newhart said. “Our offense was clicking and making plays, and everything was going good.”

Missouri Western wide receiver Andrew Mead believes that the great start was due to the team executing on the field.

“We did a great job executing early and that was due to us just taking what they gave us,” Mead said. “We weren’t hurting our selves.”

The second half saw the Griffons start to turn the punishment on themselves. A fumble by Hill helped Washburn complete their 18-0 run, cutting the lead to three. But at the five minute mark in the 3rd quarter, the game was delayed due to lightning striking in the area.

After over an hour of waiting, both teams took the field again.

The Ichabods picked up where they left off by getting a safety on Newhart, and driving 60 yards down the field to give them their first lead since the first quarter.

“I don’t think the thunder affected the offense at all, they just came out and played physical football the second half,” Newhart said. “ The thunder delay actually took momentum away from Washburn and allowed us time to figure some things out.”

Mead had the same outlook on the break in action.

“I felt the lightning delay hurt Washburn worse than us. They had the momentum at the time and that was not the case after.”

The final quarter saw the Griffon defense and offense return to the poised play they demonstrated in the first half. Western drove down the field converting on two crucial third down plays. The Griffons capped off the drive when Newhart and Hill hooked up for their second touchdown of the day.

A two point conversion gave Missouri Western a three point lead heading into the home stretch. With just about 30 yards to go to get within field goal range. Williams iced the game by grabbing his second interception of quarterback Dane Simoneau.

With the win, Western starts off conference play undefeated. They hope to keep the zero in the loss column when they take on perennial MIAA contender Pittsburg State on Sept 25 at Spratt Stadium on Hall of Fame/Family Day.

The bio bus, which was funded by a $950,000 federal grant, will bring hands-on scientific learning experiences to high school students in the region. Western is located in the heart of the nation’s biotechnology corridor and hopes the bus will inspire students to pursue careers in the industry.

Dean of the Western Institute Gordon Mapley led the charge in securing the bus for Western.

“This is what we do in this region, come learn about it,” Mapley said. “We’re trying to energize people to seek to be scientists and see it as a cool thing to do, that’s what this is all about.”

In addition to bringing scientific experiments to local schools, the bus could be a recruiting and public relations tool for Western. The bus will make visits to state and county fairs as well as national, state and regional science events. The first planned stop is the My Success event at St. Joseph’s Civic Arena Oct. 6 and 7 which is geared toward helping Northwest Missouri high school students choose career paths and colleges.

Missouri Western Biology Department Chair Todd Eckdahl is serving as a consultant for the bus and has seen the potential benefits for the university.

“If these students have a good experience working on scientific experiments on the bus, it may be that they take a look at Missouri Western,” Eckdahl said. “One of the things that Missouri Western is about is trying to improve science literacy and trying to perform community service in St. Joseph and beyond.”

Frances Morgan was selected as master lecturer and demonstrational scientist for the bio bus. Morgan will rely on her professional and educational experiences in the field to develop curriculum and design the experiments performed.

“We need to have all students have the opportunity to acquire the knowledge of what job opportunities are going to be available to them in the future,” Morgan said.

Part of what attracted Western officials to Morgan was her extensive experience and her ability to serve as a motivational tool to students.

“If one student a month gets so turned on to science and goes, I could be a Fran Morgan,” Mapley said, “what a tremendous success.”

Morgan will be assisted by Walter Anderson to design and administer experiments related to data-collection, DNA and RNA techniques and biology applications. The experiments and equipment on the bus will provide the students with experiences they likely would not have received from their high schools.

The Step Africa show was one of the Center of Multicultural Education (CME) and Western Activities Council (WAC) major events as it had one of the biggest audiences with over 400 people. Keisha Caldwell, President of WAC, explains how successful this event was and how proud she is of the CME, as this was originally their idea.

“In the end of spring, the CME and WAC decided to bring more diverse events on campus,” Caldwell said. “We wanted it to bond not only Missouri Western, but also St. Joseph while bringing the importance of culture and individualism. This was the perfect event for that.”

However, this event was more then just a fraternity or sorority step show that many other schools host on a continual basis. Step Africa is the only professional dance company in the world dedicated to traditional stepping.

Defined as a unique dance involving intricate rhythm and sounds, Step Africa’s focus was an educational tool of the history of African Stepping that originated in the 1900’s. Photo | Dave Hon

“We work all yearlong, August through August,” Alfred said. “We never stop; it’s a continuation. I maybe have about two weeks off. But it’s ok, we just rock on.”

Step Africa was originally founded in 1994 as it’s focus was an education tool of the history of African Stepping which originated in the 1900s.

It’s defined as a unique dance involving intricate rhythms and sounds founded from South Africa and used by historical African American Fraternities and Sororities. Alfred explains how their theory involves not only educating, but inspiring students to have fun and go for their passion just like he did by choosing to be apart of this program.

“My passion is teaching and dance so (Step Africa) works for me,” Afred said. “I never let my passion go. We want to teach students to go for their passions. Find what works for you. Make sure you give it all you’ve got.”

Among influencing many students from different races and cultures, Step Africa also influenced Western’s African-American Fraternities and Sororities. Senior Tara Dugger, member of sorority Delta Sigma Theta, explains how the show greatly influenced her sorority.

“It makes you go back to your roots of how stepping got started,” Dugger said. “A lot of fraternities and sororities do a lot of stepping and truly don’t understand it. Step Africa allows you to appreciate stepping and shows a purpose behind it.”

Dr. Robert Vartabedian, president of Missouri Western State University, says that enrollment is up in terms of head count and credit hour production.

“The number of students and how many hours they are taking is certainly up,” Vartabedian said. “It is the largest increase since my arrival here.  An 8-10 percent increase in both categories.”

Growth has been a positive thing for Missouri Western in most aspects.  The extra tuition and fees from the students generates some much needed extra income for the university.  According to Jeanne Daffron, Provost of the University, growth is very good thing.

“I think it is very good for Western and for the region,” Daffron said. “We want to be responsive to those who want to be at Western.  I think it is good for the institution overall and we are pleased that students are choosing Western. It is very good for the state of Missouri and for our region. It is very important that we have educated citizens.”

Walk-in registration helped Western reach the milestone of 6,000 students. Photo | Dave Hon

“We have certainly made headway in all three of those areas,” Vartabedian said. “We give lots of scholarships and we have worked hard on enhancing the look of our campus with new buildings, signage, and evergreen trees.  What we have done has been consistent with what experts say will enhance enrollment.”

Growth has not come without some challenges.  In the residence halls there are more demands for housing than the university can currently accommodate.  Construction on new residence halls has begun in some areas. In some cases they have added more students to classes, although class size remains relatively the same.  There are also more evening classes offered than before.

Although graduation numbers in Missouri high schools are down it seems that people are increasingly aware of the value of a college education thus continued growth in enrollment is expected according to Vartabedian. He visions continued growth of enrollment at Western.

“My guess is that we are probably going to continue to grow and there is significant potential for growth given the fact we are a university of pretty decent size and we have a close proximity to large metropolitan areas,” Vartabedian said.  “I wouldn’t be surprised if we have pretty significant growth for the next couple of years.”

With so many people at the convention center, seeing some of the panels was nearly impossible. One hall had people lining up at the wee hours in the morning, or if the panel was at night they would wait in line for six hours.

Still, the most astounding part of SDCC was how involved the entire city is in the event. Road signs were written in Klingon, secret Flynn’s arcades were opening up in the downtown of San Diego, and of course, local businesses capitalized on the event by passing out SWAG (shit we all get) with their business logo on it.

During the convention I spent most of my time in the exhibition hall, visiting various vendor booths. The hall was so large is was impossible for me to visit every single booth, but be assured, I did take as much swag as people were handing out.

My top three booths were probably the Capcom booth, Tron Legacy booth, and the Walking Dead booth.
The Capcom booth offered attendees a first look and even a chance to play some of their newest games. My personal favorite was Dead Rising 2. Thrashing hordes of zombies in a mock Las Vegas doesn’t get any better, and getting the autograph of the producer on an exclusive poster doesn’t hurt either.

The Tron Legacy booth was filled with new merchandise that will soon be released in November to draw even more attention to the movie. The real reason I enjoyed the booth though was because of the arcade that opened up in San Diego. Flynn’s was a recreation of the actual arcade in the new movie, where they set up the original prop from the first movie. As you were being digitized, you were directed down a hallway to the bar where one of the scenes takes place and the movie preview was on repeat.

Lastly, The Walking Dead booth was one of my favorite discoveries of the trip. I had heard of the comic series before, but never really gave it a good read. Now, AMC has picked up the universe and written a TV script. The first episode will be airing in October.

San Diego Comic-Con is a dream for geeks, much like Coruscant was a dream for young Anakin Skywalker, making the journey was probably easier for me though.

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Chiefs fans gather at Spratt Stadium for the teams kickoff. Photo | Matt Glaves

With training camp being so close to home, the players, coaching staff and MWSU officials noticed a special kind of excitement that surrounded the three week long camp.

“It has been fabulous for us in terms of facilities, closeness of everything and the energy from all the fans at the practices,” Chiefs GM, Scott Pioli, said in a press conference on Aug. 11th.

Not only was the attendance for Family Fun Day massive, the entire camp saw over 60,000 people come through the gates. MWSU and Chiefs officials were predicting 100,000 fans to come to camp but 60,000 was still higher than any camp in River Falls.

The Chiefs are entering their second season under head coach Todd Haley and looking for improvement from last season. Those improvements are things that are being addressed during training camp. Chiefs GM Scott Pioli also brought in a new offensive coordinator, Charlie Weiss, as well as a new defensive coordinator, Romeo Crennel. Haley worked alongside both Weiss and Crennel in New England before the three coaches teamed up again in Kansas City. Now that Kansas City has a group of coaches that are familiar with each other they are hoping the camaraderie will carry over to the team in their new training camp home.

“It’s a great facility to work and concentrate and build camaraderie with your teammates and some chemistry,” Chiefs wide receiver Chris Chambers said.

For Haley and his coaches, training camp hasn’t been all about getting record crowds, rather it has been about making improvements for the upcoming season.

“This is a great setup and facilities but it has also been, in my opinion, a very productive camp,” Haley said in a press conference on Aug 19.

MWSU officials have been in constant contact with Chiefs officials all throughout training camp so that the two parties can find even more ways to improve the training camp for next season to make sure that the fan support remains in summers to come.

Robert Vartabedian, President of the University, was told not to make a public announcement concerning the donators.

The new signs out side of Blum and the Fulkerson Center make the campus easy to navigate for new students. Photo | Dave Hon

On top of the signs, the anonymous company contributed enough money for various fountains around campus and for an addition of evergreen trees to be planted.

Dan Nicoson, Vice President of University Advancement has spear-headed the outdoor campus project, particularly through the planting of evergreen trees.

“We selected evergreens particularly because in the winter we wanted to maintain some color and sense of warmth on the campus rather than everything being bare,” Nicoson said, “So we have quite a few trees on campus but in the winter is gets really bland looking. So we were trying to do something that would both be environmentally friendly but at the same time give us a sense of color and warmth and color during the winter.”

Nicoson said that each evergreen tree costs 300 dollars to donate, so any company can help Western’s outdoor campus project for a minimal cost.

Nicoson said that this project creates a better campus by creating a positive image for the institution.

All of the small projects in the outdoor campus project must be donated to the university, according to Nicoson.

“The University’s budget situation right now is such that there would not be funds available that would not impact the University,” Nicoson said, “So unless we have independent funding sources that want to fund these things we can’t move forward with them.”

Nicoson said that any project that is funded privately will require a lot of work, especially in this economy.

“We’ve been pretty fortunate and had great supporters anyway,” Nicoson said.

Both Nicoson and Vartabedian see the project some day culminating into the construction of an outdoor amphitheater. Nicoson believes that in this current economic climate it will be particularly challenging.

President, Dillon Harp, vice president, Robin Ussher, and student representative on the board of governors, Peter Gregory, took their oath in the lobby of Blum Union.
Former SGA president Josh Todd thinks the inauguration went really well but he’s going to miss SGA.

“The student leaders I worked with (are what I miss most),” Todd said. “They were all amazing and did great things in the last year. Not just SGA leaders, but all the student leaders on campus.”

Many students have said they don’t know much about SGA or who the SGA officers are. Harp’s main goal is to get the word out about SGA. He said it may take more than just sitting in the SGA office.

“We are going to have to go out and do the ground work. If it takes me going outside and shaking everyone’s hand as they walk into the union, I’m going to do it,” Harp said.

Newly elected SGA president Dillon Harp is sworn in to office at Blum Student Union last Tuesday. For the full story of the new SGA administration, see story on page 4. Photo | Sara Baum

The officers have been hard at work since before the election and now are focusing in on what is to come in the next school year. The biggest concern SGA has for next year is involving the students of MWSU. Harp says he wants for students to have a clear understanding of what SGA does and for them to have more of a say than before.

“One of the biggest things I want to do is give back to the students,” Harp said. “I feel like sometimes SGA hasn’t done the most it can for the students.”

Ussher agreed with Harp about getting the SGA word out to the students.

“There are going to be days when Dillon and I are going to be standing out in front of the union and just saying hi and talking to them,” Ussher said. “We’re not going to be strangers to these people that we’re representing because we know that’s not what it’s about.”

Gregory wants to be the best voice he can for the students of MWSU.

“As Student Governor, I will do my best to carry out the responsibilities of my position on the board and represent the student’s interest to the administration,” Gregory said.

Opened in 2007, the Downtown Campus, located in the Scottish Rite Temple, is home to three programs: Pass the Power, a literacy program for adults; Community Arts, consisting of courses in yoga, dancing and clay-making; and the Law Enforcement Academy which had previously been located at Western’s main campus.

Gordon Mapley, dean for Western Institute, has been directly involved with the operations of the Downtown Campus. Mapley explains that the discussions concerning the Downtown Campus are due to concerns that the three programs it houses can’t generate the revenue necessary to cover the building expenses, budgeted at roughly $100,000, or pay the faculty and staff who work there.

“These are things that are important to our community and we want to do these things, but the question is can we do them and do them well in a more cost-effective way,” Mapley said. “I want us to maintain our service in a cost-effective way and right now we’re losing money.”

Photo | Robin Ussher

“[The downtown campus] is expensive and there really aren’t a lot of other things we can do with it,” Mapley said. “It doesn’t make sense to offer credit courses downtown…financially, it costs us significantly more to run the programs at that facility than we can justify given the current budget.”

Western currently pays for all utilities at the Downtown Campus, on top of the $36,000 lease for use of the Scottish Rite Temple. Mapley says that he has four options to move any of the three programs to other locations; as these possibilities are still in the conversation phase, Mapley is not at liberty to go into detail on the options as of yet.

Dan Nicoson, vice president for university advancement, has been involved with the community arts program and notes that the option of moving that program to an arts organization is a possibility.

“We are trying to bring a little more focus on our arts programming at Western and if we could form a partnership with an arts organization that would benefit both of us,” Nicoson said. “Then we’d like to pursue that and there’s a possibility we’re pursuing.”

There has also been discussion about moving the Law Enforcement Academy back to the main campus, where it remained until three years ago. According to Mapley, moving one program back is a very real possibility but is quick to note that if any one program is brought back to campus, Western would lose space for classrooms in return. Mapley maintains that it would be unrealistic to move all three programs to the main campus.

While the discussions remain ongoing, Mapley sees it as a part of answering three key questions facing Western.

“What is best for students, what is best for the community and what is best given the financial situation,” Mapley said.

With the current state of the economy, Nicoson feels that it’s essential for these types of discussions to be occurring, even if there’s no one perfect solution to the problem.

“It’s appropriate for us to be looking at absolutely everything right now,” Nicoson said.

Mel Klinkner, vice president for financial planning and administration, in full agreement, believing it’s healthy to discuss such issues given the financial circumstances facing Western and other universities.

“We’re analyzing everything to make sure is there any way we can save money,” Klinkner said. “If you don’t analyze everything, then shame on you.”

Sandy Rogers, the student development program coordinator, said the concert turnout was not as good as last year, but it was bigger than years before and students seemed to really enjoy themselves.

“We had a thousand tickets for students only on the floor standing. We gave all of those away a week and a half before we stopped handing out tickets. That’s the first time we have done that,” Rogers said.

The Feature band, Puddle of Mudd, is a post-grunge band from Kansas City. They have sold over 7 million albums and they just released a new album called “Songs in the Key of Love & Hate” in December 2009.

One of the original founders of the band, Wes Scantlin, who sings lead vocals and plays rhythm guitar, said that the fans have responded amazingly to their new album. He also said he enjoys playing for college shows.

“The chicks are way hotter and the kids are way more fun because they are younger,” Scantlin said.
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The other featured band was Saliva, a rock band from Memphis, Tennessee, who released their debut album in 1997 and had their single “Always” reach number one on the Modern rock Chart and “Ladies and Gentlemen” reached number two on the Mainstream Rock Chart.

The opener band Burn Halo just released their debut album on March 31, 2009. Their song “Save Me” was used in the soundtrack for the WWE videogame WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009.

Rogers said the turnout for the Spring concerts really depends on the genre of music and that the community seems to respond more to country music than to rock, but the turnout was still very good overall.

“The consensus seemed to be that Saliva may be more of the better performers between Puddle of Mudd and them and a lot of people were surprised by Burn Halo and impressed they didn’t know they were so good,” Rogers said.

Robin Ussher, vice president elect of SGA and chair of the concert, said that in general, students seemed very pleased with the concert and she said she heard numerous people say they had a blast.

“It is no secret that Saliva stole the show,” Ussher said. “They delivered one outstanding performance. As did Burn Halo, they put on an excellent show and have earned themselves some new fans. The general consensus points to Saliva being the highlight of the night, making Puddle of Mudd’s performance appear a bit more lackluster than the rest in comparison. Overall the night rocked, as most would put it. I think it was worth every moment of work we put into it. I’m excited to see the hard rock genre used again in the future because of how well it went over with the crowd.”

Ussher said the only major drawback to the show was its length.

“Three sets with lengthy stage changes made for a long night. Which I believe had somewhat of an effect on the energy level of the crowd,” Ussher said.

Ussher said there was a lot of work that went into the concert, but it was all worth it in the end.

“All in all, I am proud of what WAC has accomplished,” Ussher said. “The advisors of WAC and I have put hours of work into seeing this concert happen.

People ask me if I’m glad it’s over. I tell them no, I’m glad it happened.”

“You couldn’t have asked for worse weather conditions on a project like this; but according to Crossland Construction, we are just two weeks behind,” Klinkner said.

New air conditioning units are put in place on the roof of Agenstein with the help of a crane. The renovations on the hall are scheduled for completion by the Spring of 2011. Photo | Kelly Findley

According to Esther Perález, vice president of student affairs, the Vaselakos renovation will complete a four year renovation plan that was started with Beshears in 2006.

“Once Scanlon Hall was completed, it was necessary to improve the living conditions and appearance of the remaining residence halls on MWSU’s campus,” Perález said. “Scanlon Hall will be five years old and is in need of some small items such as carpet replacement and painting.  The ongoing replacement of toilets in Scanlon will be completed with this project.”

According to Klinkner, the total cost of the two halls’ renovations comes in at just under $1 million, which, according to the Director of Facilities, Lonnie Johnson, will include flooring, painting, tile work, new furniture and lighting.

“The contract has been awarded to Crawford Construction of St. Joseph,” Johnson said. “Work will begin immediately after commencement.”

Not only will resident’s halls be receiving routine renovations, but students will begin to see construction on a new resident’s complex.

Elllison-Auxier Architects, Inc., of St. Joseph has been chosen by Missouri Western’s Board of Governors to design and oversee construction of a new residential hall.

According to Perález, students and faculty have already began meeting with architects to ensure the design is what the students want and will continue to use their input throughout the project.

“Students did a great job of assisting the architects in stating their preferences on floor plans and amenities,” Perález said. “This information was very valuable and has allowed the committee to make some important decisions. As other decisions are made in regards to furniture selection and visual design, we will be seeking input from students.”

Construction on the Chiefs’ summer training facility shows progress. During the past year, students have been able to watch their campus transform at a rapid pace. Photo | Matt Fowler

Priority wants and needs from the students include a single room, ability to fit a larger bed (full), apartment common space, kitchen with appliances, a larger common space that would include laundry, workout area, social area, as well as an outdoor space.

According to Perález, most, if not all, the listed items should be included in the final design.
The spring sports complex, which will be located at the Faraon entrance of campus, was started in December. However, it, too, suffered setbacks due to an extremely wet winter.

According to Johnson, the contractor has completed concrete flooring and is constructing walls at the stadium restrooms and concession building located on the visitor’s side of Spratt Stadium. Excavation work has begun again on the baseball and softball complex as well.

Klinkler explained that the goal is to have the complex complete by the time the fall 2010 semester begins in August.
Although Remington Hall opened for the spring 2010 semester, construction continues right next door with the renovation of Agenstein Hall.

According to Klinkner, contractors are still working on the Remington Hall punch list, but Agenstein Hall has been completely gutted.

“Agenstein Hall will be completed for the spring 2011 semester,” Klinkner said. “All the asbestos has been removed and now they are into the reconstruction—it will be a great facility.”

One item remaining on the punch list for Remington Hall is the heating in the lounge area around Einstein Bagels.
Klinkner explained that the source of heat for that area will come from Agenstein, so students can expect a warmer dining area once Agenstein is complete.

As major construction continues to dominate the campus scenery, Klinkner explained that smaller campus beautification initiatives continue as well.

Signs, like the one at the Faraon entrance, only smaller, will replace the black signs outside each building. This project should begin within a few weeks.

“With budget cuts we are still able to do all this,” Klinkner said. “It’s all auxiliary money; it’s not coming from the students’ fees except for the spring sports complex, which came from the Max Experience fee. The indoor facility funds came from the city, county as well as the state contributing.”

According to Klinkner the new resident’s hall is being paid for by the students who live in the dorms; the signage project was all donations.

“Missouri Western is very fortunate to be able to get all this in this [economic] environment,” Klinkner said. “Just wish we could put money towards faculty and staff.”

The pieces that are on display highlight the different sections of the department of Art: sculptures, graphic design, prints, illustrations, ceramics and a painting. There is even a Flash interactive kiosk by student Stacie Williams.

“I Dream,” (left) a ceramic piece by Beth Penland, and “Axis/Ally industrial Teapots,” (right) a stoneware piece by Sam Perkins are two of many artworks from 15 senior art students being displayed in the Senior Art Exhibit that runs till May 13. For more coverage look at page 7. Photo | Matt Fowler

“In the past we’ve done smaller group exhibits, but we are growing at a capacity that we cannot continue that; we don’t have enough space to do that anymore,” said Professor Hriso, who teaches the senior seminar class that students take as a part of the senior show. “Our senior body has grown so much we have to change how the present the show.”

According to Western’s Research Data Institution, there were 211 art majors in the spring of 2009. This is up from 189 majors in the spring of 2005. Professor Geo Sipp, director of the gallery, attributes part of the growth to new bachelors of fine arts program.

He said because of the growth, having several different senior art shows now would not work because of the strain on the gallery.

“We are having somewhere in the range of 25 to 30 graduates a year, and that puts a great deal of stress on the gallery with its regular schedule. In order to accommodate everybody appropriately we would have to have three shows each semester. Well, that is counter-intuitive because it would inhibit us showcasing anybody else’s work,” Sipp said.

Another break from tradition and a result of the growth is the implementation of a juried process. The jury, which consists of the art faculty members for this first time, decided what would be displayed in the show.

“The best work will be chosen, and it raises the bar for all the students. They have to be good at what they do,” Hriso said.

Sam Perkins, who has eight pieces on display because of his double major in sculpture and graphic design, said that having 15 students showing their artworks presents a difficult challenge.

“It is hard to narrow your stuff down to two to four of your best items after all this work we have done over the years,” Perkins said.

Photo: Matthew Fowler

Lori Duff, who has four pieces in the exhibit, expressed the same concern, but sees a bright side to the issue.

“I feel that we are having a stronger show because this is the best of everyone’s best,” Duff said. “We spent all this time on getting this degree and we only show four pieces, so it bites but you have to look on the bright side and say ‘hey it’s saving me money.’”

She said that when they had the four to five members groups displaying their work, they would spend $250-300 on framing, matting and other materials preparing half-dozen or more pieces for their showing.
The issue with the gallery space and time is part of larger space issue at Potter Hall. In the fall of 2008, the Department of Fine Art lost their second floor gallery to make way for offices for the theatre and cinema faculty.

Sipp says the only solution to the gallery issue is with the proposed renovation and expansion of Potter Hall, and the possibility of new gallery spaces.

“What I would like to see happen is have a gallery space that is for outside exhibitors, a gallery space for students and a smaller specialty gallery that could be for faculty member who wants to show new work” Sipp said.

The exhibit itself contains pieces that highlight the different aspects of the Department of Fine Arts. They are photographs, illustrations, and a painting hanging on the gallery wall. In the center of the gallery are woodblock islands that contain sculpture pieces by Dana Noland, stoneware ceramics that mimic cast iron by Perkins, and graphic design packages by many of the senior art students.

The exhibit will run until May 13.

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The Griffons continue to struggle with getting runs across the plate as they used several sacrifice bunts to move runners into scoring position, but still could not get the runners across.
In a double header on Saturday afternoon, the Griffons used some late offense to sweep both games as Jason Solma hit a walk off single to bring Drew Mannen home and took game two 2-0.

In the finale of the series on Sunday afternoon, the story was the same. Western fought back from an early Truman State lead to score five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and the Griffon pitching staff was able to hold on in the top of the ninth inning to win the game 6-4.

Senior Jordan Bartlett pitches during Western’s game. This weekend, Western swept past Truman State, beating them in all four games. Photo | Matt Fowler

Western’s struggles at the plate are not a new problem. Western has scored more than 10 runs only five times this season.

“We haven’t been getting a lot of offense lately and it seems like, at times, if Isaac Rome and Ian Atkinson aren’t hitting, then we aren’t scoring,” Verduzco said.

The post-season seems more and more unlikely for the Griffons as their struggles continue. According to Verduzco, they will have to win eight of their next ten games to be able to have a chance to continue play past the regular season.

Western will have to face 25th ranked University of Nebraska-Omaha again as well as Emporia State, who is currently ranked ninth in the nation. The Griffons improve to 17-17 overall and 11-17 in the MIAA conference.

“It’s a real joy for me to get the opportunity to be the lead guitarist,” Walter said. Marcus has always had a way of bringing great player’s together.”

Unlike many bands in St. Joseph, The Leading Average plays a wide range of music. While most groups focus on cover music these guys have a tendency to play originals. Most of the band’s covers are 90s’ hits with an occasional remake of a country or soul song.

The Leading Average has been steadily booked around town since Words returned from a trip to Pebble Beach last summer in an effort to gain exposure. Hammerjacks, The Acoustic Café, Magoon’s Delicatessen and Room 107 are just a few out of a handful of bars where you can catch these guys. The faithful crowd of fans that comes out to support them sometimes fills the seating before the first set begins.

Their upbeat tunes and meaningful lyrics, combined with raw talent and positive attitudes make it easy to see why they have such a following.

“It’s cool to see people coming back night after night,” Western music major West said. “I like it when I can look out and see people are enjoying what they are hearing.”
Words and “The Leading Average” together have something special. The way they bounce solos between one another gives their music a jazz band feel without overshadowing Words’ rich vocals and thoughtful lyrics.

“I think it is the responsibility of musicians to always influence for the positive,” Words said.
To check out The Leading Average online before you see them live you can visit: http://www.myspace.com/theleadingaverage.

For more on, bands, local bars and restaurants in St. Joe, see the PDF of our April 8 issue on the front page.

On the offensive side of things, the Griffons had a little bit of trouble getting the bat on the ball. They were only able to string together six hits and two runs. There were no players able to get more than one hit in what turned out to be a pitcher’s dual.

Allison Jones pitches the ball while Ashley Hudson prepares for a hit during Western’s game against Wayne State. The Griffons won both games in the double header last weekend. Photo | Sara Baum

Wayne State third baseman Brittany Greenwood was the only player able to string together a hit for the Wildcats.
In the second game, it was a lot of the same for the Griffons with another pitcher dominating out in the circle. Jonnelle Bleger went seven innings for the Griffons give up four hits, zero earned runs and also had seven strikeouts. Belger improved to 8-6 as the Griffons took game two 3-1.

Western was able to string together seven hits in this game from six different players. Catcher Keri Lorbrt was the only Griffon able to get on base twice as she went 2-3 on the day with an RBI. Kasey Smith and Maegan Roemmich drove in the Griffons other two runs.

For Wayne State, Amber Baird and Michele Hogan each went three innings giving up a combined seven hits and two earned runs. Both pitchers had three strikeouts as the two teams combined for 27 strikeouts in the doubleheader. Center fielder Amy Sandstrom of Wayne State was the only Wayne State player to reach base twice, while infielder Hannah Engelkamp drove in the only run of the game.

Missouri Western improved to (14-14) on the season. They will next face Southwest Baptist in a double header on Friday, April 9 in Bolivar.

People came from as far away as Texas to attend the convention this year which featured two keynote speakers: Dr. Ron Shapiro speaking on Friday and Dr. James Maas, a psychology professor at Cornell University, who presented on Saturday. There were also 17 poster presentations of research and 22 oral presentations.

Shapiro’s presentation is titled ‘’Games to Explain Human Factors.’’

Over 400 educators and students were expected for the Great Plains Student Psychology Convention

Shapiro specializes in designing products, solutions and services that are easier for people to use.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, while non-ergonomic equipment can cause discomfort and stress to the body the use of ergonomic equipment is entirely voluntary.

Deb Shinder knows that the workplace can be stressful on the body.

“Even with a good chair, sitting all day isn’t particularly healthy,” Shinder said. “A lot of people with back problems find it more comfortable to stand, at least for part of the workday.”

Maas coined the term power nap and wrote the best-selling book, “Power Sleep.” His keynote is titled ‘’Everything you need to know about sleep, but are too tired to ask!”

Maas has taught Psychology 101 at Cornell for over 40 years with enrollment in his classes close to 1600 students.

Daniel Tenner has had problems falling asleep but he still manages to nap in the afternoons

“Napping is not sleeping,” Tenner said. “It’s enough to relax yourself and let your thoughts drift off, even while remaining mostly awake.”

Shapiro and Maas were not the only presenters, as over 200 students presented their research at his event.

At last year’s conference at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, Western senior psychology major Kayla Kelder gave an award winning speech.

Kelder then went on to present her research at a larger psychology conference in Chicago where she made some professional connections.

Western Junior and Psychology major Sydney Hendrix enjoyed the event

“It was good,I learned a lot,” Hendrix said “we had to leave for a little while on Saturday, but we came back as soon as we could.”

The play revolves around a father visiting a magician in hopes to find and reconcile with his lost son. The magician shows the father three illusions, or glimpses, into his son’s life and watches the development of a romance his son is involved in.

“It is a story about love for family and romantic love. I think most people can relate to that,” Brown said.

For this production, Brown is using Angels in America writer Tony Kushner’s adaptation of the play, L’Illusion Comique by Pierre Corneille from 1636. Brown says that even though it is Kushner, there is no political commentary and it is family friendly.

“It is not Angels in America. It’s not a typical Kushner. It is very toned down,” Brown said.

Brown has thrown in his own twist to Kushner’s adaptation as well. In each illusion, the time period in which each are set will be different. The first illusion occurs in the early 1600s, the second in the 1800s and the last one is set in modern times.

Western actors Matt Wright and Josh Comninellis prepare to duel while actresses Jenn Douglas and Misty Ballew look on in shock in Missouri Western’s production of “The Illusion,” a play adapted by the contemporary playwright, Tony Kushner. The play will be held in Potter Theater. See page 6 for story and play dates. Photo | Matt Fowler

Student Matt Wright, who plays Calisto, Clindor, and Theogenes thought he was auditioning for multiple characters but soon realized it was the same person.

“At first I thought I was reading for three characters throughout the script,” Wright said. “I was like there is a lot of characters in this play…it then hit me when somebody asked how many characters there are and Brown said there were eight.”

Student Jennifer Douglas, who plays Melibea, Isabelle and Hippolyta, says the play is an interesting challenge because of playing three different characters.

“It’s like every scene is a new play. We had to change our mannerisms, like they way we talk, and try to make it separate but it’s hard not to let it bleed into the next character,” Douglas said.

The play will continue the use of video production in live theatre at Western as well.

“We have video throughout the play,” Brown said. “Each illusion begins with a video and the way we justify that is that the magician and the old man [father] is looking into the crystal ball and what they see in the crystal ball becomes illuminated on the screen.”

That screen is called a scrim. When light hits it from the front, the scrim will appear solid, allowing for the video to be projected on it. When it is time to reveal the scene and the actors behind the scrim, the lights in front the scrim will dim, and the lights behind are brightened allowing the audience to see through the scrim.

“The Illusion” is Brown’s first production at Missouri Western. He has produced other theatre productions before coming to Western last fall.

The Griffons fought back in game one cutting the lead to 11-8 on eight unanswered runs, but the Bearcat pitching staff was able to stop the bleeding and shut down the Griffons offense. Isaac Rome blasted his MIAA leading tenth home run in the first game as well.

Second baseman Danny Conners waits to catch a ball during Western’s game against Northwest. The Griffons lost the first game in the double header on Sunday but won the second 9-7. Photo | Matt Fowler

Sundvold was able to come back out in the second and hold the Bearcats scoreless while his offense scored two more runs for him in the bottom of the second to give the Griffons a 4-3 lead.

“We really showed some fight today which is something we haven’t shown a lot of lately,” head coach Buzz Verduzco said.

The lead wouldn’t last long, though. After holding the Griffons’ scoreless in the bottom of the third inning, Northwest scored two runs in the top of the fourth to take a 5-4 lead just to give the lead back in the bottom of the sixth inning when Ian Atkinson singled home Jason Solma and Nate Jones to give the Griffons a late lead at 6-5.

For the next three innings, the Griffons and Bearcats would trade runs. Entering the bottom of the tenth inning, the Griffons were trailing by one run. With one out in the tenth inning, Vince Romo sent a hard line drive shot down the right field line that just cleared the fence for a walk-off home run that sealed the victory and sent the dugout and bullpen running to home plate to meet him.

“I was really happy for Vince to get that ball out,” Senior pitcher Andy Hebrard said. “The outfield was playing in to cut down Nate at home if something did get through the infield and it just worked out perfect for us.”

The Griffons will next face Central Missouri in a double header, starting on Friday, April 2, at 4 p.m.

Emmanuel Williams prepares for his next ensemble. Photo | Robin Ussher

Williams came up with the line for his designs when a family tragedy hit close to his heart. “When my cousin died I thought it would only be right to name my clothing line after him, even though my last name is Williams,” Williams said.

Williams has been working in the Center for Student Engagement as a graphic design artist. “I just started working here this year,” Williams said. “But I’ve been doing graphic design since I’ve been in college.”

Williams expressed how he wants to be something great in the future. “I want to be a staple in fashion like a Donna Karan or a Yves Saint Laurent,” Williams said. “They don’t know my face but they know my work.”

Black Student Union president Leah Hayes said she is excited about Williams’ work. “I think people enjoy knowing that we have a student designer on the campus,” Hayes said. “I think a lot of people came out to the fashion show because they wanted to see his work.”

Williams said he is excited for the WAC fashion show in April. “I’m going to have all new pieces,” Williams said. Williams provided advice to up and coming designers. “I think you have to put yourself out there,” Williams said. “No one is just going to come up to you and ask if you design clothes, you have to make yourself known and build your career from there.”

Photo | Harvey Jackson

“Personally, I like his clothes,” Berger said. “I don’t know a lot of men who can sew, let alone design clothes.”

Head Coach Tom Smith expressed his reason why Western was unable to close the lead.

Photo | Dave Hon

It also didn’t help that Western underperformed there shooting average, with a 31.1% from the floor compared to the 61% against South Baptist University.

“Like coach said, we [weren’t] hitting any outside shots any way,” said James Bush, “That right there was the key.”

Washburn was also able to use a zone defense against Western which prevented the Griffons from performing par or above. Marcus Rhodes had particular trouble driving the lane.

“In the zone it was clogged up so it was kind of hard trying to get in the lane and find shooters,” Rhodes said, “But then it’s kind of hard when…when you’re a good three point shooting team.”

During the game, Western attempted 26 three pointers and only succeeded in sinking four. Washburn had double the percentage in both three pointers and floor shots. The Griffons were able to nearly tie Washburn’s free throw average, 64.7% to Washburn’s 65%.

Players and coaches on both teams agreed that Washburn’s zone defense, which was new to Western, not only through the Griffons for a surprise, but also destroyed Rhodes usual offensive tactics.

Using such an atypical defensive strategy forced Washburn to give up some of their offensive devices. Washburn Head Coach Bob Chipman acknowledged this trade off.

“We fought them hard on the board, I thought the Zone bothered them, that was probably the difference of the game,” Chipman said, “[William McNeill] didn’t have his offensive game but we won it and he was fighting hard like everybody and they were eventually spending more energy offensively.”

Even with this loss the Griffons still have a chance to compete in the NCAA tournament, depending on which team advances in the MIAA and competes in the championship.

“We haven’t been to the regional since 2003 and we’ve definitely earned it, but there’s still that chance we could get bumped out,” Smith said.

“I just feel like it would be a big disappointment,” Rhodes said shaking his head.

Western faces the best chance of competing in the regional MIAA if the University of Nebraska-Omaha wins the semi final round against Emporia state.

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Western’s win didn’t come easy, even though the Griffons set a momentum reminiscent of the February 27 game.

This rhythm kept them in the lead with at least ten points later in the first period.

Marcus Rhodes hammers the ball around SBU player Stephen Cotten for a solid lay-up. Photo | Dave Hon

As more fouls were being called on the Western and four on both Marcus Rhodes and Dominique Thuston, SBU was closing the point gap putting pressure on the Griffons.

“I just had it in my mind, that if [Koenig] was going to score then he was going to have to jump over me,” Thuston said.

Even though SBU had small victories in the second period, and came within several points of closing Western’s lead, the Griffons held strong with a 61% floor shooting average for the game compared to SBU’s 41.7%

“They were all kind of rhythm shots,” Marcus Rhodes said.

Even though Western has beaten SBU previously, the pressure of this game was still present in both players and Smith.

“Ever since we beat them the last game we knew we were battling,” Justin Taylor said, “We just kind of prepared for them because we knew they were going to come back hard.”

Rhodes agrees and felt the pressure also.

“Man that’s all I’ve been thinking about all week,” said Marcus Rhodes

With this win, the Griffon’s chances of competing in the NCAA tournament have improved. Still, the national committee could overlook Western. Head coach Tom Smith expressed disappointment if that were the case.

“I’ll find a bottle of wine as quick as I can,” said head coach Tom Smith, “You think I’m kidding?”

Tomorrow the Griffons will play Washburn, the eight seed team, at 6:00 PM.

“I think that people are a little more opinionated. I don’t see a radical change when I think about it,” Kissock said. Although Kissock is older the younger generation does think there is a change in students’ attitudes.

Shanice Williams, freshman accounting major, expressed why our generation attitudes have changed.

“The younger generation is around the same age as their parents. These parents are treating their kids like their friends,” Williams said.

English Professor Bill Church reviews class topics as student Lauren Dillon shows great respect. Though quite a simple occasion respect still must be instilled. Photo | Robin Ussher

Not everyone agrees with how Williams feels. Freshman Jacqueline Waters expressed her thoughts on the matter.

“I think the staff and the students give the respect that they get. If they don’t get respect they won’t give respect,” Waters said.

It can be hard to define the differences from 30 years ago to now. The world is constantly changing and so are the people in it. For some people 30 years ago it would be disrespectful if you said the word “liar,” or called an adult a liar. But now it isn’t. In some areas it’s respectful to say no ma’am and yes sir, not just “yeah” or “okay.” Berger talked about how he feels it’s all in how someone is brought up that makes them respectful or not. “ I know with my family if you don’t say yes sir or yes ma’am, you’ll get looked at like you’re crazy,” Berger said.

You may hear a little boy tell his mother to shut up, or hear our workers in the business office get talked to disrespectfully. Does that mean that the child is being disrespectful if the mother allows her son to talk to her that way? If a teacher is being disrespectful to you does that mean you can’t say anything back? Or would it be respectful if you didn’t?

William continues to talk about respect. “I think the majority of students know they need to respect their elders. It’s just you have to give respect to get it.” Williams said.

The fact of the matter is, someone can’t give you respect if they don’t respect themselves. So in the end someone is going to have to be the bigger person. It really doesn’t matter what generation you come from. If you were born in the ‘60s, or in the 1900’s or in the year 2005, it all remains the same. Respect is universal; everyone wants it but not everyone gets it. Everyone learns it but not all know how to apply it. Perhaps if we all applied respect to one another, this controversy would subside.

The conferences kicked off with “Simplicity: The Sustainable Life,” presented by Lisa H. Newton, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Program in Applied Ethics at Fairfield University, Connecticut. She spoke about how people need to cut out all the unnecessary possessions and extravagant lifestyles that some folks have in order to save the planet and ourselves from the depletion of its resources.

Kenneth Dagel, Associate Professor of Geography, presents John Ikerd. Photo by Sara Baum

“We are living, until we die, out of harmony with the natural world, and that is very painful,” said Newton. “We must restore the balance with Nature or die spiritually as well as physically.”

Modern lifestyles and the availability of food, clothing, cars and technologies are increasing the distance between man and his relationship with the world itself. Dr. Newton spoke of the Yanomami tribe in South America, which has survived around 30,000 years without changing the way they live or destroying their environment. They have accomplished this by regulating childbirth so that they won’t use up the resources in the area. If modern civilizations were more careful about how they reproduce and use what the earth gives them, perhaps the planet wouldn’t be a ticking clock towards Doomsday.

“We are a different kind of predator,” Newton said. “We prey without limit. Wherever homo-sapiens show up, everything else dies.”

The second conference focused on the diminishing amount of oil on the planet, and how our reliance on gasoline will play a huge part in our downfall. Presented by Kenneth Deffeyes, Professor Emeritus of Geology at Princeton University, the conference was titled “Beyond Oil: Sustainable Energy”. He spoke of how rising gas prices, the lowering amounts of oil and rampant oil drilling are negatively affecting the planet, leading to a dark outlook of the future.

“Someday, Kansas will look like Iran, with dry holes,” Deffeyes said. “Someday the whole world will look like that. This is how you get there.”
Dr. Deffeyes enumerated on how important it is that society figure out how to run itself 100% on solar power before the natural gases are all gone. By then it would be too late. Fortunately, some action is being taken to wean humanity off of natural gas’ pull.

Dr. John Ikerd presents his philosophy on sustainable energy as one of the conference’s keynote speakers. Photo | Sara Baum

“It’s important to learn when you’re young that there are conservation habits like turning off the lights when you leave the room,” said Deffeyes.
The third conference was titled “Food, Friends, and Faith: Cornerstones of Sustainability”, and was hosted by John Jkerd, Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics at the University of Missouri in Columbia. With the air of a preacher about him, Dr. Jkerd pleaded that everyone do their part to make the world a better place.

“Change always comes from the common people,” said Jkerd.

He spoke of how many common sense changes need to be made if humanity and the planet Earth are to survive.

“We’re not apart from the world, but a part of the world,” said Jkerd.

Dr. Jkerd made a huge point about how economics are running modern civilization, and that the end result of their run is disaster. The economy is draining the planet of its resources, and draining humanity of its will to live. He made dire mention of how the number of young people committing suicide has tripled and quadrupled over the past few decades. It’s a tricky situation, figuring out how to keep society on its feet without screwing things up in the long run.

“Sustainability is about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the future,” said Jkerd. “Changes in thinking like this will not be easy and will not be quick.”

The Galileo’s Legacy Conference of 2010 exemplified many harsh realities that the world needs to face head-on before it is too late. Massive changes in society’s structure must be made, along with many sacrifices. The overbearing theme that each speaker made mention of was that every individual must do their part to create change. It will not just be handed to us. In the end, in order to avoid the disastrous future that films like “Mad Max” display regularly, everyone must become an example of the “heroes” that Fifi spoke to Max about. Each of us will have to be a hero to ourselves and our planet, ultimately leading to the most heroic of deeds: saving the planet, and all life on earth.

Left to Right: Dick Sipe and Steve Warner Mayoral candidates answered questions pertaining to St. Joseph and the community. Photo | Dave Hon

“I believe in giving students and the broader Missouri Western community, including St. Joseph, an opportunity to hear from candidates for public office,” Euchner said. “It’s part of my interest in encouraging greater citizenship and a more engaged public. It’s one of the many important things that political scientists do.”

All of the candidates, who are running in contested races in the upcoming March primary election, responded quickly and positively to Euchner’s invitation.

“I believe our forums have a very good reputation for fairness, good planning, excellent questions and a good audience turnout which the candidates appreciate,” Euchner said.

Audience turnout was fair; however this was the first of several other forums to be held prior to the April 6 general election.

Junior Rick Chaffee, economics, accounting, and business management major, admits he attended the forum for class credit but believes it is important for students to be aware of the issues and where each candidate stands on the issues.

“I think that many students attending Missouri Western will work in St. Joseph upon graduation,” Chaffee said. “For that reason, any issues that deal with the community pertain to them.”

The candidates recognize that Missouri Western is essential to the city’s growth and the city’s involvement is essential to attract students to the university.

“Missouri Western is one of the real jewels of St. Joseph and we need to get more community interaction between the city and the campus,” Sipe said.

Candidates were asked several questions regarding saving businesses in St. Joseph with little focus on bringing in large companies, which Chaffee feels the newly elected mayor needs to focus on business that will bring in manufacturing.

Tyler Rhoad, a bartender at Shaft, who is also a senior at Missouri Western, and President of the Student PRIDE Alliance, attributes the success of the show to its nature of uniqueness.
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“Mardi Gras at Shaft is unparalleled to anything else you will see in St. Joseph,” Rhoad said. “Whether someone is celebrating a birthday, anniversary, or bachlorette party, our drag shows are always entertaining – but Mardi Gras is something special, because it’s all about the party.”

The staff at Shaft spent countless hours of overtime in preparation for the event. With a newly refurbished stage, paint job, and flooring, the bar recently got a major overhaul just in time for 2010’s major festival events.

Rhoad feels that these changes have given Shaft an edge on other Felix Street competitors during the two week Mardi Gras season.

“We are constantly updating the bar and putting hundreds of man hours into improving the customer’s experience while they are here,” Rhoad said. “That’s why we have been able to produce this show for four years and be successful at generating the largest crowd in St. Joseph during Mardi Gras. We recently made some major improvements to the facility, and the compliments haven’t stopped pouring in.”

The event was hosted by Victoria DePaula (Carl Glorioso), who is no stranger to the profession of female impersonation. His performances were featured in “The Pageant,” a worldwide documentary that followed Glorioso, (as Victoria) to capturing the most coveted title in the art of female impersonation: Miss Gay America 2009. Glorioso performs once a month at Shaft, but particularly enjoys hosting Mardi Gras because of the diversity of clientèle that the nightclub offers, and the upbeat, ever changing atmosphere that comes from such a wide variety of club goers.

“You never know who is going to walk through the door here at Shaft,” Glorioso said. “We celebrate diversity and having a fun time, which is what Mardi Gras is all about. We are all here to have a good time, and whether it’s your first time or you’re a regular, as entertainers, we try to make your evening something that you’ll never forget.”

The show featured three other female impersonators, L’oreal, Melinda Ryder, and Sparkle Iman and one male impersonator, River Rain. Each entertainer performed two numbers, with commentary by DePaula in between costume changes. Drew Primm, an alumni of Missouri Western, finds that the playful banter and crude humor during the interaction with the audience is the key to the success of the show.

“With such a big and diverse crowd, the energy in the room is palpable,” Prim said. “You know from the moment Victoria opens her mouth that anything is likely to fall out, she’s great about feeling out the crowd and picking out people to pull on stage or make fun of. With the crowd constantly changing at this venue, you know that everything she says is impromptu – and that makes it even more impressive.”

If you missed the show on the 13th, you will have a second opportunity to catch it during an encore performance that will take place on Saturday, February 27, following the Mardi Gras Parade, which begins at 7 p.m. Entry to the Shaft is limited to the 21-and-over crowd, with a $5 cover charge on show nights. It does get busy, so the staff recommends getting there early to save yourself a seat, and as the people of New Orleans say, “Laissez les bons temps rouler!” (Let the good times roll!).

Western came out with a strong effort on the defensive end as they pulled ahead 11-4 with 11:25 left in the first half. The lead grew to 19-8 and then to 26-15 late in the half. Western was shut out the last 2:27 of the first half, as Truman State finished with a 5-0 run going into halftime.

The turnover battle swung in Western’s favor throughout the game. In the first half, the Griffons forced six turnovers that turned into 10 points. Truman State would eventually turn the ball over 10 times in the games compared to the Griffons five turnovers and 15 assists.

“We were sharing the ball and getting open shots or getting to the rim all night,” senior forward, Quentin Noblin, said.

The second half opened up with Western playing its usual up-tempo style of play and eventually opening up a 10 point lead just over two minutes into the second half. The Bulldogs wouldn’t go quietly though. They battled back to cut the lead down to four.

James Bush goes up for a shot during the Griffons’ game against Nebraska-Omaha. This past Saturday, Western faced Truman State and won the game 68-55. Photo | Matt Fowler

“We worked hard on defense and, for the most part, controlled the tempo of the game,” Dewalt said.

The Griffons would go on to finish the game on a 10-2 run and sealed a place in the postseason MIAA tournament.

Marcus Rhodes tied a career high in points with 26 as he led the Griffons in scoring followed by Justin Taylor with 15 points of his own.

“We were rested and ready to play and played great defense in the first half and had great shot selection in the second half,” head coach Tom Smith said.

The Griffons improve to 15-10 overall and 10-8 in the conference, as well as finding out that they had clinched a spot in the postseason MIAA conference tournament. The Griffons also dropped to ninth in the South Central Regional polls after going 0-2 in regional play last week and will need to improve to climb back to the number eight spot to make it to the Regional tournament.

All of the art displayed in the gallery is part of the faculty art exhibit that began Feb. 3 and will close on Feb. 26.

Students Mallory Edson and Erin Williams focus intently on two of the many paintings by Assistant Professor of Art, Geo Sipp, in the Biennial Art Faculty Exhibition. Photo | Sara Baum

Missouri Western junior Sara Hunt said she thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit last week. She went a few times for her own enjoyment and also attended the exhibit with a class.

The graphic design major thought having a teacher as a guide was beneficial for the students to help explain the different genres and have a better grasp on the individual pieces. It was also nice for the students to hear different interpretations of the art.

“It showed me the different qualities and it was nice to see what the different teachers have to offer,” Hunt said. “There was pottery, wire works, oil canvas, sound and video shows, and photographs. It was very hard to pick a favorite piece.”

Other students who attended the exhibit found the art inspiring. Missouri Western junior Debo’ra Baskin said the exhibit was entertaining because it had a little bit of everything to offer in terms of genre and creativity.

“It was beneficial to see those teachers, my teachers, and the things they teach me in class, being preached in real life through their art work,” Baskin said. “I would really like to see the faculty and teachers put together another show soon.”

The enjoyment of the show is double sided. Faculty and teachers alike enjoy coming together on these projects and always find it entertaining to see what their peers are working on in their spare time.

Eric Fuson, instructor of art at Missouri Western, said the exhibit is beneficial as a way to show students from all areas what Potter Hall has to offer.

“I hope it gives students an opportunity to realize that we create artwork as well as we teach classes,” Fuson said.

Missouri Western Men’s basketball teams upset the University of Central Missouri, #2 men’s basketball team in the nation with a final score 55-49.

The game came down to the last minute of the game with Western leading by 4 points, 51-47. UCM would narrow that to two points with 35 seconds left in the game. Western would rally back and widen that to 6 points to guarantee a victory.

Western’s guard Marcus Rhodes and forward James Bush both scored 14 ports.

Western moves on to play Southwest Baptist Saturday, Feb. 27 and then to the MIAA tournament next week.

“The opportunity to be the first dean of CSB was extremely appealing,” Nitse said. “Especially when I found out that AACSB accreditation was well underway.”

According to Cynthia Heider, associate provost and vice president for academic and student affairs, all of the candidates who interviewed on campus met the position’s qualifications. However, Nitse’s business relationships and accreditation experience helped in making the final decision.

Phillip Nitse said his door will be open to all Craig School of Business students. Photo by Matt Fowler

Kylee Strough, vice chair of the board of governors and search committee chair, also felt that Nitse’s past experience made him her choice for dean.

“What stood out about Dr. Nitse during the process and the interview is his background,” Strough said. “He has experience in the private business sector as well as academia. He also brings knowledge of AACSB and a vision for the future of the Craig School of Business.”

Although the school of business is in the accreditation process with a planned visit from the AACSB this week, Heider explained that administration and the search committee’s goal was to recommend the best candidate and that the decision was not to be rushed based on an accreditation visit.

“Rather than rushed, we believe that quite the contrary is true with a search in process since May 2009,” Heider said. “The position of dean is an important leadership position within all academic units. We believe that our accreditation team would want us to find the best person, which we have.”

According to Strough, the AACSB accreditation team will be pleased with administration’s decision and this week’s visit by the team will be a positive one.

“Accrediting bodies want to know the processes to assure strong leadership and governance of the academic unit is in place,” Heider said. “That is clearly true at Western.”

Nitse said that the Craig School of Business will only be as strong as the students who graduate, which is why he believes in communicating with the students to ensure they are being provided with a supportive environment.

“One of the greatest joys of being in this profession is working with students. I have been an adviser for one or more student groups since 1993,” Nitse said. “I truly believe that if you treat students with respect they will excel when challenged. My door will be open to all Craig School of Business students and potential students to discuss problems or concerns as well as things that are going right.”

Although a search committee was established to find and screen candidates, the final decision would have to come from administration, with the committee making recommendations only.

“The search committee is very pleased that Dr. Nitse was offered the position of dean,” Heider said.

As in the past, the event will be free to Missouri Western students, but other patrons will have to purchase tickets. Ticket prices have yet to be released.

This decision comes later than past announcements concerning the spring concert.

“The process has been difficult,” Executive Vice President Robin Ussher executive vice president said. “We’ve had some obstacles.”

Graphic contributed by the Western Activites Council

“I recognized both of the bands,” Caldwell said, “I saw Puddle of Mudd on TV not too long ago and I recognized Saliva and their songs. I like them.”

Caldwell also professed the rocky start that the band search process went through.

“We couldn’t get our first choice,” Caldwell said, “And we thought ‘man, that would have been a good band.”

The Kansas City brewed Puddle of Mudd reached mainstream heights when their hit single “She Hates Me” reached number 13 on the Billboard Charts.

In 2007, Puddle of Mudd released their album “Famous” which re-launched them on the mainstream, reaching and staying at number one on the Mainstream Rock Tracks and Hot Modern Rock Tracks charts for nine weeks.

Saliva, a lesser known band, is featured in the movie “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” with their song “Click Click Boom.”

Both bands have been featured in different WWE soundtracks with the current ECW theme as Saliva’s “Don’t Question My Heart.”

“Hell of a way to start a tour,” Lead singer Brian Roberts joked. “It’s going to be all downhill from here, right?”

For a band that tallied over 150 shows last year, the Kansas City via The Ozarks group uses nights like this to build morale and to simply have fun.
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“We’re a group of brothers,” Guitarist Brett Anderson said. “We make it through all of this every night and we take it as far as we can. It always feels good to be home though. We couldn’t kick off a tour any place but here in our hometown.”

The band has been steadily gaining national attention with last year’s Novel Sounds of the Nouveau South including an appearance at Lollapalooza and several glowing reviews from the likes of SPIN and Rolling Stone. With this tour, they will cross the country twice and make an appearance at this year’s SXSW festival in Austin, TX. This could be the tour that breaks them out of the Midwest for good.

But of course, the first show always sets the tone of how the rest of the tour goes. From the first notes of Pendergast Machine and on, the band was already approaching the manic energy of a band in mid-tour form but doing it with the intensity that is needed to convey some of the rather dark themes of their last album.

Ha Ha Tonka didn’t pull any punches in recreating the rich, harmonic sounds of Novel Sounds. The band huddled together around the front mics to put a four-part harmony together for Hold my Feet to the Fire which was met with an fifth voice from the near capacity crowd. Even with the band’s deeper catalog cuts from Buckle in the Bible Belt, the crowd kept up with nearly every word.

Even with their last album a mere six month in the rear view, the band was already pulling out over five new songs for the crowd.

“We aren’t recording or releasing an album anytime soon,” Roberts said. “But we always have to keep working and moving what we want people to see forward. Always.”

When this tour finishes in April, the band will be taking a short hiatus before hitting the road for a second leg this summer, including possible stops on the summer festival circuit.

“It is always incredible to see crowds that big and to hit that kind of audience,” Anderson said. “Incredible and strange. [laugh] If we can get there again, it will be fantastic.”

With the phenomenal ability to weave tales of the south from a time nearly forgotten and to make it relevant and above all, personal, to today’s audience, Ha Ha Tonka will be able to take that inevitable next step into the national spotlight.

Western is now the third university in Missouri to become an All-Steinway school.

The ceremony began with a showing of a documentary called “Note by Note,” which showed the process in which a Steinway concert grand—#L1037—was created and assembled. The actual piano was unveiled on stage afterwards, and played by pianist Robert McDonald—a faculty member of Juilliard in New York City—later in the evening.

Jim Hoover, district sales manager for Steinway & Sons, answered questions from audience members. Subjects ranged from basic piano care to how humidity affects the instruments.

“When you have a cold room and a cold instrument, you can feel and hear the results,” Hoover said. “If you’re comfortable as a person, the piano is comfortable.”

He offered a special thanks to music professors in the audience.

“You are the ones who inspired me,” Hoover said.

From left to Right: Mathew Edwards, associate professor and director of keyboard studies, Matt Gilmour, professor and chair of the music department and Nathanael May, assistant professor, accept the All-Steinway certification. Photo by Matt Fowler

“No matter how well you play, you become an extension of it, and it becomes an extension of you,” Hoover said. “I think the world would be in much better shape if we had more musicians.”

A special video acknowledgment from Sally Coveleskie, National Director of Institutional Sales for Steinway & Sons, was shown shortly after Hoover made his closing remarks. She was not able to be there in person, but wanted to recognize the students and faculty of Missouri Western.

“Missouri Western has provided (its students and faculty) with the best instruments possible for the study of music,” Coveleskie said.
President Vartabedian shared a few words as well.

“It’s been an eight-year institutional goal of ours (to become an All-Steinway school),” Vartabedian said. He believes this upgrade will help the university to grow.

“I think we will really be able to recruit and attract students we wouldn’t normally get,” Vartabedian said. “Art may be our only, truly universal language.”

Dr. F.M. Gilmour, chairperson in the music department, noted that all music faculty members were involved in the decision. He thanked the major contributors with a token gift from the university as a whole.

“Here’s a little bit of Missouri Western to take home with you,” he said.

Students were impressed with the upgrade on campus. Caitlyn Carter, a junior at Missouri Western, attended the ceremony and was pleased with Western’s decision to become an All-Steinway university. She is not a music major, but believes this will make Western look more prestigious.

“It kinda shows that Missouri Western is improving,” Carter said.

For much of the first half, neither team could really break away from each other, as the lead swung back and forth.

By the 5:00 mark in the first half, the Griffons started to pull away.

Western relied heavily on three point shots early in the game against Washburn’s zone defense. Key minutes from Brandon Beck off the bench in the middle of the first half helped Western establish a presence in the post as well as open up shots for players like Martin Nolan and Justin Taylor on the perimeter.

“I think Brandon, in the first half, gave us a lift,” coach Tom Smith said.

A designed alley-oop and buzzer beating three by Justin Taylor helped to spark the Griffons at the end of the first half as they went into halftime with a nine point lead.

The Griffons’ hot hand continued in the start of the second half as they locked down on defense and worked the shot clock more on offense.

“We told everybody that the first five minutes of the second half were crucial and we defended pretty well,” said senior guard Martin Nolan, who finished with 13 points
and six assists.

Marcus Rhodes drives to the hoop during Western’s basketball game against the Washburn Ichabods. The Griffons won the game 74-63. Photo by Ryan Richardson

“Our problem was we couldn’t hit free throws,” Smith said.

Tempers flared as Washburn mounted their comeback when Washburn’s DeAndre Washington and Dominique Thuston both received technical fouls after an argument on the court.

The Griffons managed to compose themselves to slowly start to rebuild their lead, despite losing Marcus Rhodes and Thuston to foul trouble and regain a comfortable double digit lead as they went on to win by 11.

“We showed how tough our team is tonight,” said junior forward, Justin Taylor, who led Western with 18 points.

Western improves to 13-7 overall and 8-5 in the MIAA. This Saturday, Feb. 6, the Griffons will take on Missouri Southern in Joplin, Mo. at 7:30 p.m.

McGarrell, a cataloging librarian at Missouri Western for 22 years, lost his only sibling—Flores McGarrell—in the Haitian earthquake on Jan. 12. Thirty-five-year-old “Flo” was born female, but was transgender.

On Wednesday, Jan. 13, the McGarrell family learned that Flo was trapped in a building. He had been having drinks at the Peace of Mind hotel with a friend when the quake hit. Thursday morning, his family received news that his friend had survived, but Flo did not. The McGarrells visited Baltimore last weekend for his memorial service.

His brother, Andrew McGarrell, cataloging librarian at MWSU, honors his brother in a remembrance blog he started after Flo’s passing. Photo by Sara Baum

Flo began working in Haiti in 2008 for a year and a half, directing a non-profit art center for local artists to collaborate and learn from each other. Andrew started a blog shortly after his brother’s passing, in order to share a little about Flo’s history, education, work and travels. (http://andrewmtrav.blogspot.com/2010/01/in-memoriam-my-brother-flo.html)

“Flo had a longtime fascination with Haiti, making some visits and conducting workshops at the FOSAJ (Fanal Otantik Sant D’a Jakmel) arts center in Jacmel,” Andrew wrote. “He decided to fully commit to that, and learn the Kreyol language.”

Kreyol—formally known as Creole—is the dialect of French that is spoken in Haiti.

Flo’s passion for and interest in Haiti revolved around a combination of things.

“He really wanted to let Haitian people (know how to) conserve their (resources) and learn things like composting, but he also made artwork that demonstrated those things,” Andrew said.

Some samples of his work can be viewed at http://blog.art21.org/2009/08/28/inside-the-artists-studio-flo-mcgarrell/.

Kiku Langford, the exhibition coordinator at the Alliance for Visual Arts Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, became friends with Flo through their experience working together at AVA.

She laughed as she shared a about how serious he was about his work.

“His exhibition actually included a lot of plants on hangers, and he was worried about them getting watered,” Langford said. “He would drive down to water them (even though it was several miles away).”

She said he would also create inflatable sculptures, and described one particular incident.

“Somehow, whatever they were using to inflate it, they used flammable gas and not air,” Langford said. “It kind of seemed like he was always flirting with disaster.”

One particularly fascinating aspect of his work was the fact that he did not spend any money on his materials.

“It was all items he would go dumpster diving for,” Langford said. “His goal, I think, in what he seemed to do, was to make his life kind of an art project.”

As an artist, he was a risk-taker, but as a person, he made people feel safe.

“He was just the kind of person that made you think you’ve known them forever. I remember immediately feeling totally comfortable with him,” Langford said.

Born in Rome, Italy, Flo could speak Italian even before he picked up the Kreyol language later in Haiti.

The McGarrell family moved to St. Louis after its full-time residency in Italy when Flo was 8 years old. The move seemed to bring out Flo’s true character.

“Flo’s fearlessness came into evidence: my mother remembers picking (him) up at school with darkened, ominous skies; while other students were huddled inside, Flo was out dancing in the rain,” Andrew wrote in his blog.

Andrew recently learned of a collective blog dedicated to Flo, which includes input from several close friends and people who worked with him.[

This makes for nine wins under the Griffons belt. Beating a top 5 ranked team hasn’t happened for the Griffons since 2002.

The Griffons are now alone in fourth place in their conference, 14-7 overall.

Noblin shoots for two points. Photo by Dave Hon

A celebration and ribbon cutting was held Jan. 19, dedicating the building to Wes and Pasty Remington for their contribution of $5 million towards its construction. The remainder of the over $35 million project was funded by individual donors and by the state’s Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative Fund.

The building was delivered on time and within the budget, Jim Madden, project manager for Lawhon Construction, said.

“We had a couple of last-minute details, but it has all come together,” Madden said.

This fall students and faculty may need just a little more patience as they find themselves strewn about campus during the Agenstein remodel. The new Remington Hall is primarily lab and research space and only contains one lecture hall. Students will have their lab portions of the class in Remington, but the lectures will take place in other buildings. Faculty offices are located in modular trailers in front of the halls.

Madden explained that there has not been any space gained yet, but by next fall the space will be doubled.

“We are well underway with demolition on the other side,” Madden said. ”They’ll move back in Christmas vacation next year.”

Dr. Robert Vartabedian cuts the ribbon to the new Remmington Hall.

“We basically got what we wanted, and we don’t take that for granted,” Eckdahl said. “From the very beginning they asked us what we wanted and they listened.”

Six new labs make up the majority of the building. Prep labs divide the lab classrooms, giving room for storage now, and eventually additional research space.

“In the old building we had to cross list labs,” he said. “Now we can be more dedicated with space. Experiments can be up, and we can leave them.”

Eckdahl added that when Agenstein is finished there will be two more instructional labs, making eight total.

Each classroom is equipped with brand new audiovisual equipment. New computer systems and document cameras broaden the possibilities for lectures. The document cameras have the ability to look in any direction and can be used on a split overhead screen with the computer.

All classroom windows on the south side of the building are equipped with internal blinds that allow teachers to dim the room during presentations.

The math and science departments also received $678,000 from the Western Foundation Capital Campaign to purchase new supplies for teaching and research purposes.

“Each department received about $30,000,” Eckdahl said.

Each floor of Remington is devoted to a department. Mathematics and physics are located on the first floor. Biology is on the second, and chemistry is on the third.

Remington and Agenstein halls are connected by a large atrium. An open-air stairway, reflective lighting and several windows make the new space inviting.

Eckdahl explained that they wanted an inviting space.

“Agenstein didn’t have too many places to hang,” he said.

Each of the three floors in Remington has places for students to study with comfortable seating and wireless Internet.

Along with the new hall came a new dining option on campus. Einstein Bagels is located in the rear of the atrium area.

Jim Mades, Aramark dining services director, said when he was asked about having food in the new hall he said yes right away.

“You look at Einstien in that new building and it screams class, professionalism and a very sharp look,” Maides said.

Einstein Bros Bagels will be open for breakfast lunch and dinner.

in other buildings. Faculty offices are located in modular trailers in front of the halls.

Madden explained that there has not been any space gained yet, but by next fall the space will be doubled.

“We are well underway with demolition on the other side,” Madden said. ”They’ll move back in Christmas vacation next year.”

Dr. Todd Eckdahl, professor and biology chairman, gave details on the new space.

“We basically got what we wanted, and we don’t take that for granted,” Eckdahl said. “From the very beginning they asked us what we wanted and they listened.”

Six new labs make up the majority of the building. Prep labs divide the lab classrooms, giving room for storage now, and eventually additional research space.

“In the old building we had to cross list labs,” he said. “Now we can be more dedicated with space. Experiments can be up, and we can leave them.”

Eckdahl added that when Agenstein is finished there will be two more instructional labs, making eight total.

Each classroom is equipped with brand new audiovisual equipment. New computer systems and document cameras broaden the possibilities for lectures. The document cameras have the ability to look in any direction and can be used on a split overhead screen with the computer.

All classroom windows on the south side of the building are equipped with internal blinds that allow teachers to dim the room during presentations.

The math and science departments also received $678,000 from the Western Foundation Capital Campaign to purchase new supplies for teaching and research purposes.

“Each department received about $30,000,” Eckdahl said.

Each floor of Remington is devoted to a department. Mathematics and physics are located on the first floor. Biology is on the second, and chemistry is on the third.

Remington and Agenstein halls are connected by a large atrium. An open-air stairway, reflective lighting and several windows make the new space inviting.

Eckdahl explained that they wanted an inviting space.

“Agenstein didn’t have too many places to hang,” he said.

Each of the three floors in Remington has places for students to study with comfortable seating and wireless Internet.

Along with the new hall came a new dining option on campus. Einstein Bagels is located in the rear of the atrium area.

Jim Mades, Aramark dining services director, said when he was asked about having food in the new hall he said yes right away.

“You look at Einstien in that new building and it screams class, professionalism and a very sharp look,” Maides said.

“I think it’s similar to the Quincy game it’s just we got down and we had nothing left to lose,” Nolke said. “We just went out there in the second half and just played harder and knew that if we wanted to win we had to stay focused and play ten times harder than the first half.”

Photo by Ryan Richardson

“I came back out and they were holding their own,” Koch said. “I was really proud of them and how they handled that. They were penetrating the basket and doing what they were suppose to do.”

Missouri Western Women’s basketball coach Lynn Plett said Western started doing better on defense in the second half.

“I really believe missed lay ups and free throws are really a reflection on your focus and I think our focus improved,” Plett said. “When things are going well for us we get more enthusiastic and we play a little harder and we play more.”

Western completed the game with 11 assists and 6 steals. Koch scored 15 points and sophomore forward Kristin Bush scored a career high 14 points.

The Griffons are now 5-13 and 3-6 in the MIAA. They will next face the Pittsburg State Gorillas this Saturday, Jan. 30, at home at 5:30 p.m.

Western was down the whole first half of the game, with the Bulldogs shooting lights out from the three-point line. Truman shot an impressive 63.6 percent.

Head coach Tom Smith said Truman played hard the first half, but began to lose stamina.

“They wear themselves out by running their offense sometimes,” Smith said. “They just run it and run it and they get tired and I think they went that stretch of about ten minutes where they didn’t shoot very well, on the other hand we didn’t extend the lead that time either. That hurt us. We missed three free throws and a layup, so we had a possible five points to get an eight point lead and we didn’t.”

In the second half Western came out with a 22-5 run to get back into the game. Down the stretch they added 11-14 free throws to secure the victory. During this time, the Griffons shot 54 percent from the floor, and 60 percent from beyond the arc.

Photo by Ryan Richardson

“We played hard and fought through it,” Thuston said when asked about the three point shooting onslaught in the first half.

Truman also had a huge presence inside the lane with 6’10”, 280 pound, Vesko Filchev from Bulgaria. Senior Marcus Rhodes said practicing with 7’ teammate, Brandon Beck, helps prepare for such tall opposition. They kept the big man frustrated all night long only allowing him four points and eight rebounds. The Griffons seemed to take him totally out of the game, with several three-second violations and offensive charging fouls.

“Beck kind of counters our shots in practice, he makes it harder for us, so when we get to the game and we are playing against a seven footer it makes it easier,” Rhodes said.

Ethan Freeman had a double double for Truman, with 11 rebounds and 12 points. Stefan Garrison had 18 points and Alex Henderson added 15 in the game as Truman’s leading scorers.

Rhodes said what secured the third straight home win was “Sticking together, teamwork, and playing hard.”

Western’s record is now 11-5 and 6-3 in the MIAA. The Griffons will take on Pittsburg State this Saturday, Jan. 30, at home at 7:30 p.m.

Brett Esley, assistant athletics director, said that depending on whom a person talks to, they still say that they are about five weeks behind.

“I think that most construction folks, especially in the Midwest, know what our winters are like. The key thing is once they get it enclosed, they can work all the time,” Esley said. “I feel good about it, as well as most people do, that it will be ready to go on time, at least usage wise, for what the Chiefs are going to need.”

The cold weather is having an effect on the outside workers—especially the roof construction workers strapped to the building. A lot of times the construction workers are not able to work under the freezing point, depending on the windshield factor. The large pieces of sheet metal are difficult to handle in the wind.

Sports Information Director Trevor Berneking said that he trusts the weather should not affect the completion date of the facility.

Photo by Ryan Richarson

Crossland Construction Co., Inc, the general contractor for the indoor practice facility, has not changed their commitment in any way, but the weather has pushed back some of the sub contractors and the pace at which they most work and their work schedule.

Dave Williams, Western’s athletic director, said that he is looking forward to the end result of the Chiefs facility.

“They are commited to do everything in their power to get it done on time which means turning over the facility to us in time for the Chiefs to have their camp here in July,” Williams said.

This will be the second year in a row that tuition has been frozen at Western and other colleges in the state. The latest tuition freeze was agreed to by colleges in exchange for the state cutting higher education funding by no more than approximately 5 percent for the next school year.

As reported earlier, Western officials have already anticipated budget shortfalls and have decided on a number of measures that include suspending sabbaticals and by suspending awards for faculty, staff and administrators to help make up for around $2 million less in the budget for the coming school year.

Missouri Western President Robert Vartabedian said that he and other campus officials are now beginning to make decisions on some additional ways to save money. “Another thing we’re looking at right now is summer school compensation. We’re looking at a different way of funding summer school for our faculty,” Vartabedian said.

Vartabedian says that summer school compensation, normally figured at a percentage of a faculty member’s base salary, could be changed to a flat amount in the future to cut costs. That option is something that Vartabedian said campus officials would make a decision on shortly.

A hiring freeze is another step that may be taken in the future. “We’ll be looking at positions that are definitely needed versus those positions which we can hold off on until after we’ve rode out this financial crisis,” Vartabedian said. “And if you put enough of those sorts of things together, at least you’re making a dent on those $2 million in cuts.”

Western’s Vice President for financial planning and administration MelKlinkner says the campus is also looking at reducing payroll expenditures by having volunteers teach some classes instead of adjunct staff. “How that would work is we may have some classes taught by an administrator such as myself that has expertise in the subject,” Klinkner said.

Klinkner also named the downtown campus as another area they would look at. “We would continue to try to do everything we’re doing downtown, it just may be at a different location. Like in the past, our law enforcement academy was located on-campus, so moving locations may be an option, but we have made no decisions on downtown yet,” Klinkner said.

The first tuition freeze did not allow colleges to raise tuition more than the cost of living in return for no cuts in state funding. This time, Nixon says the agreement goes further. “Next year, for the second year in a row, Missouri students at our public four-year colleges and universities won’t see an increase in their tuition or academic fees—not one penny, period,” Nixon said.

The governor’s latest freeze agreement will mean no tuition increases from Missouri colleges and universities. In exchange, the state will cut funding no more than 5.2 percent. During the freeze, however, schools are allowed to increase tuition and book costs for out-of-state students.

Nixon will be the guest speaker at Western’s winter commencement Saturday, Dec. 12 at 4 p.m. in the M.O. Looney Complex Arena.
Prior to becoming governor, Nixon was elected to a record four terms as Missouri’s Attorney General, beginning in 1992. He also served six years in the Missouri Senate, beginning in 1986.

Nixon is a native of De Soto, Mo. He and his wife Georganne Wheeler Nixon have two sons, Jeremiah and Wilson.
Health gone in a puff

Penny Vanooteghem used to puff away on her cigarette without a care as she folded laundry. Even with two children in the house, she was unaware of the effects smoking had on them. Penny’s children went to school smelling like smoke. Penny also had no idea that living with a smoker increases your chance of getting lung cancer by 20-30 percent.

Penny’s smoking habit came to an abrupt halt four years ago after a cancer scare. Penny had just had a minor surgery and they had earlier been testing for breast cancer when Penny got sick and gave up smoking.

“I was so sick from the anesthetic and I didn’t smoke for four days,” Vanooteghem said. “That was a second chance for me.”

Once those four days had gone by, Penny realized how easy it would be to give up smoking altogether. Penny is now an advocate for non-smokers and really wants to see that the smokers on campus have designated smoking areas away from the doors.

“I don’t like smokers being right outside the doors,” Vanooteghem said “When I smoked, I didn’t realize I smelled like an ashtray. Now it is the last thing you smell before going inside.”

In the fall of 2008, a group called STAND or Students Together Addressing Nicotine Dependence, was created on campus at Missouri Western. Member Mary Beth Reid feels that cigarettes are hazardous and not even worth lighting.

“The CDC says there is no safe level of second hand smoke,” Reid said. “There are over 4,000 carcinogens in one cigarette.”

STAND members educate the public about the dangers of smoking and using tobacco products.

Informational brochures and other literature on how to give up tobacco are provided by STAND. STAND members also work with other peer groups to provide awareness, working at health fairs and other community activities. Members are available to speak at any organization as long as they have a two week notice.

In late September, some of the non-traditional students and even their spouses and children got together on campus and picked up cigarette butts. According to the students, some of the people helping wanted to make the campus a better place and show the non smokers that some people had the manners to use ashtrays provided instead of throwing butts on the ground.

The city of St. Joseph has also jumped on the smoke-free bandwagon with the current decision to accept grant money which will create four new positions in the city for anti-smoking education officials. The CDC is offering the money to provide education for people who want to quit smoking. City Manager Vince Capell assured the public that this money was not part of any plan to push a smoking ban in St. Joseph.

Saint Joseph has a smoke free organization as well called Clean Air St. Joe which has been around since the spring of 1994. According to their Website, 23.6 percent of people who work inside are exposed to second hand smoke. They also show that 30 minutes of second hand smoke exposure has the same effect on heart health as a habitual smoker.

Clean Air St. Joe meets at 5:30 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of every month in the Leah Spratt building room 208. The public is invited to attend although a RSVP is required. There is ample parking in lot C and a meal is provided.

For more information, or to RSVP for a meeting, you can contact STAND or Clean Air Saint Joe through the website casemo.org

As well as being dangerous, cigarettes are getting more expensive. As of April 1, 2009, cigarette taxes jumped from 39 cents to $1.01 in Missouri, giving smokers another reason to quit smoking. Despite the dangers and expense, many people still smoke. Teresa Cooperider has been smoking for the last 23 years and does not foresee quitting anytime soon.

“I enjoy it too much,” Cooperider said. “When I try to quit, I get the shakes. I become a real bitch.”

Penny has been smoke-free for the last four years and she is thrilled with all the money she has saved especially now that cigarettes are so expensive. She has also apologized to the children she once let go to school smelling like chimneys.

Starting Monday, a line will extend from the MWSU bookstore, Barnes and Noble, as students try to get some quick, extra holiday cash by selling their books back.

According to Greg Nikes, Barnes and Noble manager, students who want to sell their books back to the bookstore should attempt to do so immediately after they complete their finals. He cautions students that not all books can be sold back to the campus bookstore.

“Book buyback is driven by the professors,” Nikes said. “If the book is being reused next semester here [Missouri Western], then we will buy back an amount based on the enrollment marked on the professor’s order.”

Nikes urges students to sell their books back immediately following their final exams since there are only a limited number of books they can repurchase from students and a limited amount of time to buyback as well.

“We have to close the buyback off to order the remaining requested books,” Nikes said. “Since we have a shorter turn around from the fall to the spring, we’ll have to quit buyback sooner than from the spring to the fall.”

If a student wants to sell back a book from a class they took during the fall semester, but the class is not offered during the spring semester, students may still be able to sell their books back to be sent to the used book company Barnes and Noble works through, MSB Textbook Exchange.

“Whether the book was purchased at the new price or used, we will refund half of the new book price back for eligible books,” Nikes said. “So students will make either one-half or two-thirds of their money back from the bookstore.”

If MSB does not offer anything for the book, Nikes suggests students should hold on to the book to see if it will be used the following semester.

“The best thing to do if the course is not being offered the following semester is to wait until halfway through the following semester and try to sell the book then,” Nikes said.

Nikes suggests students sell their books back to the campus bookstore to help keep used books on campus, but isn’t against students selling their books using online networks.

“I don’t think it has any effect on textbook prices,” Nikes said. “Prices are generally the same at every college and university across the country.”

Nikes said there are benefits to buying and selling textbooks on campus though. Purchasing and selling books online can include shipping costs for both parties and server charges. Also, if a student purchases a book weeks before classes begin and a professor changes the required text, the student will be stuck with the book unless they purchased it from the campus bookstore.

“Plus, when students purchase books from the bookstore, part of the money actually goes back to Missouri Western,” Nikes said.

Textbook buyback will take place during finals week starting Monday, Dec. 7. The bookstore will be open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Craigslist offers variety of classified, personal ads

Worldwide, Craigslist.org, serves 570 cities in 50 countries. Each city has its own Web page filled with local classified listings in almost every category imaginable. Nine headers divide the very basic web page into areas that include the following: for sale, personals, jobs, résumés, gigs, community, services, housing and discussion forums. Under each header, specific categories further divide the classifieds. Craigslist was designed as a free public service for classified listings.

No membership is required to post or respond to a post on Craigslist. There is no need to join although users can create an account. With the exception of posting job offerings, Craigslist is completely free to use. Since there is no cost is associated, and no membership required, individuals can use the site anonymously.

Since users can post anonymously, buyers are not guaranteed anything. Buyers may be able to talk down a price with a seller, but there is no way to guarantee a sell, until the transaction is complete. In addition, there is nothing on Craigslist that guarantees the identity or honesty of its users.
Buyers must also act fast, because unlike other online market places, there is no way to see how much attention an ad is receiving.
Senior English major Levi Smock used Craigslist to get rid of clutter around his home. “It was easy to make the ads,” he said. “It took me a few minutes to make each ad and it didn’t take long to get some responses… I would use it again.”

Craigslist is updated often, with new postings appearing almost continually. Ads are sorted by the time they are submitted with more recent ads showing up higher in the categories. For users making posts in popular categories, this may require reposting ads often to ensure that other users see it.
Users may also encounter spam and scams since there is no account required to make a posting or respond to one.

Facebook Marketplace safer way to sell, buy textbooks, other items online

Social networking Web site Facebook has been in the classified ad business since 2007. Web site users can utilize the Facebook Marketplace application to sell, buy, rent or give away nearly anything. Facebook is not alone in the world of online classifieds. So what makes Facebook Marketplace stand out in the crowd?

Facebook Marketplace postings can only be made and responded to by Facebook users. Unlike other online classifieds, users know exactly who they are dealing with. Only registered users can make postings, and users browsing can see exactly whose ad they are reading. Since Facebook requires that you set up a free account to respond to ads, users making posts don’t have to worry about spam responses. In addition, users making posts to sell items are required to disclose why they are selling. Marketplace listings can be searched by designated categories, user networks, or by proximity to the user posting.

Facebook users can easily navigate their market place, but not everyone is a Facebook user. Even as Facebook dominates the global social networking market, its own marketplace is rather exclusive. Since only other Facebook members are able to respond to the classifieds, the potential responses to an ad would be seemingly less. For those posting, this creates a smaller market; and for those searching, it gives fewer options. Despite the fact that Facebook has nearly $300 million users worldwide, not all actively use the marketplace.

“I’ve had good luck selling on Facebook but never on the marketplace,” sophomore criminal justice major Jacob Shute said. Shute posted simple ads in his status area. “I think enough people use the site to make it a good tool for selling, Marketplace or not.”

The Western Bookstore is located in Blum Student Union

This will be the second year in a row that tuition has been frozen at Western and other colleges in the state. The latest tuition freeze was agreed to by colleges in exchange for the state cutting higher education funding by no more than approximately 5 percent for the next school year.

As reported earlier, Western officials have already anticipated budget shortfalls and have decided on a number of measures that include suspending sabbaticals and by suspending awards for faculty, staff and administrators to help make up for around $2 million less in the budget for the coming school year.

Missouri Western President Robert Vartabedian said that he and other campus officials are now beginning to make decisions on some additional ways to save money. “Another thing we’re looking at right now is summer school compensation. We’re looking at a different way of funding summer school for our faculty,” Vartabedian said.

Vartabedian says that summer school compensation, normally figured at a percentage of a faculty member’s base salary, could be changed to a flat amount in the future to cut costs. That option is something that Vartabedian said campus officials would make a decision on shortly.

A hiring freeze is another step that may be taken in the future. “We’ll be looking at positions that are definitely needed versus those positions which we can hold off on until after we’ve rode out this financial crisis,” Vartabedian said. “And if you put enough of those sorts of things together, at least you’re making a dent on those $2 million in cuts.”

Western’s Vice President for financial planning and administration MelKlinkner says the campus is also looking at reducing payroll expenditures by having volunteers teach some classes instead of adjunct staff. “How that would work is we may have some classes taught by an administrator such as myself that has expertise in the subject,” Klinkner said.

Klinkner also named the downtown campus as another area they would look at. “We would continue to try to do everything we’re doing downtown, it just may be at a different location. Like in the past, our law enforcement academy was located on-campus, so moving locations may be an option, but we have made no decisions on downtown yet,” Klinkner said.

The first tuition freeze did not allow colleges to raise tuition more than the cost of living in return for no cuts in state funding. This time, Nixon says the agreement goes further. “Next year, for the second year in a row, Missouri students at our public four-year colleges and universities won’t see an increase in their tuition or academic fees—not one penny, period,” Nixon said.

The governor’s latest freeze agreement will mean no tuition increases from Missouri colleges and universities. In exchange, the state will cut funding no more than 5.2 percent. During the freeze, however, schools are allowed to increase tuition and book costs for out-of-state students.

Nixon will be the guest speaker at Western’s winter commencement Saturday, Dec. 12 at 4 p.m. in the M.O. Looney Complex Arena.
Prior to becoming governor, Nixon was elected to a record four terms as Missouri’s Attorney General, beginning in 1992. He also served six years in the Missouri Senate, beginning in 1986.

Nixon is a native of De Soto, Mo. He and his wife Georganne Wheeler Nixon have two sons, Jeremiah and Wilson.

Starting Monday, a line will extend from the MWSU bookstore, Barnes and Noble, as students try to get some quick, extra holiday cash by selling their books back.

According to Greg Nikes, Barnes and Noble manager, students who want to sell their books back to the bookstore should attempt to do so immediately after they complete their finals. He cautions students that not all books can be sold back to the campus bookstore.

“Book buyback is driven by the professors,” Nikes said. “If the book is being reused next semester here [Missouri Western], then we will buy back an amount based on the enrollment marked on the professor’s order.”

Nikes urges students to sell their books back immediately following their final exams since there are only a limited number of books they can repurchase from students and a limited amount of time to buyback as well.

“We have to close the buyback off to order the remaining requested books,” Nikes said. “Since we have a shorter turn around from the fall to the spring, we’ll have to quit buyback sooner than from the spring to the fall.”

If a student wants to sell back a book from a class they took during the fall semester, but the class is not offered during the spring semester, students may still be able to sell their books back to be sent to the used book company Barnes and Noble works through, MSB Textbook Exchange.

“Whether the book was purchased at the new price or used, we will refund half of the new book price back for eligible books,” Nikes said. “So students will make either one-half or two-thirds of their money back from the bookstore.”

If MSB does not offer anything for the book, Nikes suggests students should hold on to the book to see if it will be used the following semester.

“The best thing to do if the course is not being offered the following semester is to wait until halfway through the following semester and try to sell the book then,” Nikes said.

Nikes suggests students sell their books back to the campus bookstore to help keep used books on campus, but isn’t against students selling their books using online networks.

“I don’t think it has any effect on textbook prices,” Nikes said. “Prices are generally the same at every college and university across the country.”

Nikes said there are benefits to buying and selling textbooks on campus though. Purchasing and selling books online can include shipping costs for both parties and server charges. Also, if a student purchases a book weeks before classes begin and a professor changes the required text, the student will be stuck with the book unless they purchased it from the campus bookstore.

“Plus, when students purchase books from the bookstore, part of the money actually goes back to Missouri Western,” Nikes said.

Textbook buyback will take place during finals week starting Monday, Dec. 7. The bookstore will be open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Craigslist offers variety of classified, personal ads

Worldwide, Craigslist.org, serves 570 cities in 50 countries. Each city has its own Web page filled with local classified listings in almost every category imaginable. Nine headers divide the very basic web page into areas that include the following: for sale, personals, jobs, résumés, gigs, community, services, housing and discussion forums. Under each header, specific categories further divide the classifieds. Craigslist was designed as a free public service for classified listings.

No membership is required to post or respond to a post on Craigslist. There is no need to join although users can create an account. With the exception of posting job offerings, Craigslist is completely free to use. Since there is no cost is associated, and no membership required, individuals can use the site anonymously.

Since users can post anonymously, buyers are not guaranteed anything. Buyers may be able to talk down a price with a seller, but there is no way to guarantee a sell, until the transaction is complete. In addition, there is nothing on Craigslist that guarantees the identity or honesty of its users.
Buyers must also act fast, because unlike other online market places, there is no way to see how much attention an ad is receiving.
Senior English major Levi Smock used Craigslist to get rid of clutter around his home. “It was easy to make the ads,” he said. “It took me a few minutes to make each ad and it didn’t take long to get some responses… I would use it again.”

Craigslist is updated often, with new postings appearing almost continually. Ads are sorted by the time they are submitted with more recent ads showing up higher in the categories. For users making posts in popular categories, this may require reposting ads often to ensure that other users see it.
Users may also encounter spam and scams since there is no account required to make a posting or respond to one.

Facebook Marketplace safer way to sell, buy textbooks, other items online

Social networking Web site Facebook has been in the classified ad business since 2007. Web site users can utilize the Facebook Marketplace application to sell, buy, rent or give away nearly anything. Facebook is not alone in the world of online classifieds. So what makes Facebook Marketplace stand out in the crowd?

Facebook Marketplace postings can only be made and responded to by Facebook users. Unlike other online classifieds, users know exactly who they are dealing with. Only registered users can make postings, and users browsing can see exactly whose ad they are reading. Since Facebook requires that you set up a free account to respond to ads, users making posts don’t have to worry about spam responses. In addition, users making posts to sell items are required to disclose why they are selling. Marketplace listings can be searched by designated categories, user networks, or by proximity to the user posting.

Facebook users can easily navigate their market place, but not everyone is a Facebook user. Even as Facebook dominates the global social networking market, its own marketplace is rather exclusive. Since only other Facebook members are able to respond to the classifieds, the potential responses to an ad would be seemingly less. For those posting, this creates a smaller market; and for those searching, it gives fewer options. Despite the fact that Facebook has nearly $300 million users worldwide, not all actively use the marketplace.

“I’ve had good luck selling on Facebook but never on the marketplace,” sophomore criminal justice major Jacob Shute said. Shute posted simple ads in his status area. “I think enough people use the site to make it a good tool for selling, Marketplace or not.”

Photo | Marty Ayers

The Griffon Women played first on Thursday and came out with a bang. The Griffons controlled L.T.D. for the majority of the first half, shooting 42.1 percent from the floor. The Griffons were led by Lauren Nolke who had 11 points and Brenda Saline who had nine. They managed to end the first half 42-27. Unfortunately, during the second half L.T.D. fought back, cutting the Griffon lead to one point at 5:25. But the Griffon women would not be outdone: for the remainder of the second half the Griffons outscored L.T.D. 20-4.

Head coach Lynn Plett thought that Western played slow and didn’t execute after the first half.

“We lacked the attention we need to play hard for 40 minutes,” Plett said. “We fall into lulls during games and then we lose confidence and we can’t execute much of anything correctly and that’s what happened tonight.”

Brenda Saline agreed with Coach Plett.

“We didn’t work as hard as we should have and we lost our concentration on defense several times,” Saline said. “I think we work well together though, but we definitely did not play to our potential tonight.”

The Griffon Men had the opposite effect of the Women’s team, coming out slow and lethargic against L.T.D and then turning the heat up in the second half. The Griffon men led early with a couple quick baskets from Martin Nolan, James Bush and Quentin Noblin, taking of lead of 8-3. However, this would be their biggest lead of the half. L.T.D. took advantage of Griffon mistakes and ended the half with a lead of 39-29. The Griffons only shot 32.4 percent from the field and 11.1 percent beyond the arc while L.T.D. shot 41.9 percent from the field and 33.3 percent beyond the arc.

Missouri Western, behind the hot hand of Justin Taylor, stormed back and took a lead of 44-41 at 14:44. The Griffons shooting hand improved drastically, shooting 43.2 percent from the field on 49 points. Missouri Western also cranked up the defense, allowing only two points off of turnovers and six points in the paint. The Griffon Men were not to be denied and the score was 78-65 at the final buzzer.

Head coach Tom Smith was disappointed with his team’s performance.

“We played poorly, but I personally think it was the pressure of their first home game,” Smith said. “Our rebounding and turnovers were a problem which made our players shoot poorly. We practice hard and we work well together, not tonight obviously, but I think it was just first home game jitters. We’ll get past it.”

Martin Nolan wasn’t happy with his team’s effort, but was thinking positively.

“We played poor, slow defense during the first half, and we didn’t execute what we practiced,” Nolan said. “It’s not going to be a problem in future games though, because we’ll practice harder than we did and learn from our mistakes.”

Over a month after the Oct. 4 incident involving freshman Kai Gray, Michael Carey, executive director, said the local chapter is still being investigated by nationals. An informal investigation conducted by Don Willis, Student Engagement Director at Missouri Western, found that the party was hosted at a private residence and was not associated with any fraternity.

Gene Ryals, president of the Missouri Western Phi Sigma Kappa chapter, agrees that Gray was at a party being hosted at Derrick Mcpherson’s, Vice President of the fraternity.

“It was not a Phi Sigma Kappa party,” Ryals said. “There were all of us there and, like I said before, we were celebrating an alumni’s birthday.”

Ryals stated that the party was not associated with the fraternity because official paperwork to sanction the party had not been filled out, and therefore, not associated with the school.

However, the presence of all of the Phi Sigma Kappa members and it’s location at the vice president’s residence would seem to classify as a fraternity party, according to the national guidelines.

The Phi Sigma Kappa grand chapter risk management policies delineate that any event “endorsed by the chapter, or in any event an observer would associate with a fraternity must be in compliance with any and all applicable laws of the state, province, county, city and institution of higher education….”

“Phi Sigma Kappa does not have a definitive number that determines an event be a Phi Sigma Kappa event,” Carey said.  “We look at several factors, not just numbers of members attending an event.”

Ryals seems to contradict Carey in saying that the number of people does have an effect on the classification of the event.

“[A sanctioned party] would consist of more than half the chapter being there, it would consist of filling out paperwork and getting a venue, not in a house that somebody rents,” Ryals said.

If it is considered a Phi Sigma Kappa event, it would appear to be classified as an open party.

“An ‘open’ party is any party where there is unrestricted access to alcohol is permitted/allowed,” Carey said.  “Additionally, I would include an event
that does not have a guest list.”

Attendees at the party have confirmed that there was no guest list and Gray, a minor, admitted to drinking at the residence.

Open parties are prohibited on the university level and at the national chapter level.

The eleventh section of the national chapter risk management policies statement outline, “The causing or contributing to the intoxication of any person…under the legal drinking age or under the influence of alcohol, and/or violation of an statue, ordinance, or regulation relating to the sale, gift, distribution, or use of alcoholic beverages, shall be viewed as a violation of the Grand Chapter Risk Management Policies.”

The university’s own risk management policies echo the same.

“Open parties, meaning those with unrestricted access by non-members of the organization, without specific invitation, where alcohol is present, shall be forbidden.

The national chapter made no official comment on this incident or the investigation.

Whether they are going to the playoffs is still questionable. According to the NCAA, the announcement of which team is going to the Division II playoffs is Sunday, November 8th at 2 pm CST. Western is part of the super regional #4. Saturday saw several other shakeups (as of the time of posting) in that region with #6 University of Central Missouri losing to #2 Northwest Missouri, 56-14 and #4 Abilene-Christian losing to #7 Midwestern State, 15-13.

The top six teams in the region receive an automatic berth in the playoffs.

If they miss the playoffs, they have a chance of going to the Mineral Water Bowl but the MIAA conference is full of 6-3 conference teams including UNO, UCM, and Washburn. Western defeated both UCM and Washburn. They are currently ranked 3rd in the conference behind UCM but because Western defeating UCM in there matchup this season, that win might help the Griffons. According to the Mineral Water Bowl website, the announcement of who will go to Excelsior Springs on December 5 will occur on November 15. If Western does get in the playoffs then they are not qualified for the bowl.

Lineback Thomas Madget | Photo: Matthew Fowler

About the Game:

Two of the key players of the game were quarterback Newhart and linebacker Thomas Madget.

Newhart, A Harlon Hill candidate, had a mixed day. He completed a 66-yard pass to wide receiver Cedric Houston for a touchdown and threw one more to wide receiver Adam Clausen. Newhart threw two interceptions, though, with one being turnover for a touchdown for UNO. He was 15 of 30 in passing completion.

Madget had 60-yard touchdown yard after intercepting the ball early in the game.