In the spring of 2009, Western stood at 17.7 percent minority rate among students on campus. That number has since increased 2.1 percent which has Western’s minority students at 19.8 percent in spring 2013.

The Asian student number at Western in 2012 stood at 29 and excelled to 47 in 2013 which is an increase of 62 percent. Western places minorities in different categories according to different races. The data shows a decrease in individual ethnicity percentages between the years of 2009 to 2013 due to new categories used for reporting race that began in the fall of 2010.

When compared to other universities such as Northwest Missouri State or Missouri Southern the African American percentage is lower than Missouri Western.  Western stands at a 9.2 percent among African American students with Northwest at 5.75 percent and Southern at 3.87 percent.

Judith Grimes, associate vice president for Student Affairs believes Western has seen a huge change and believes the University will continue to grow over the next several years. She thinks the reason why we have a much larger minority rate is based on the increase of international student population and students who have parents of different ethnic backgrounds.

“I’ve seen a pretty dramatic change over the last 15 years since I’ve been here,” Grimes said. “We have many students who might have one African American parent and the other Caucasian which increases our student minority.”

Missouri Southern State University is similar in comparison to Western with 19 percent of their student body being minority. Northwest Missouri State University remains low with 16 percent rate of their student body being minority. Amy Kotwani, international student services director said she believes Western is still less diverse than other schools but feels it is increasing at a positive rate.

“I think the population of our international students and other ethnicities are growing,” Kotwani said. “There’s a push to bring more international students to Western which would increase our diversity among minorities.”

Minority students at Western believe its university has become more minority friendly over the past 5 to 10 years. Lisa Uketui, a junior said that other students of  the same  Nigerian decent  as her is growing is increasing at  Western and around the state. She believes Western has taken a different view and welcomes all groups of students regardless of their color, race or gender.

“It’s definitely grown,” Uketui said. “We have so many groups of students from different ethnic backgrounds.”

Over 80.2 percent of Western’s students are of the Caucasian race. Bryan Miller, a junior said when he moved to St. Joseph, Missouri he believed that Western would be mostly Caucasian because it’s in the Midwest. The reason he believes that Western has a high Caucasian percentage is due to most students are commuters from surrounding towns.

Miller explained that when he moved here from Texas that things were getting better. He worked for Abercrombie and Fitch as a sales associate and when he started it was predominantly  Caucasians  employed by the company. Over time he said the company changed their view and started hiring more ethnicities which helped their sales.

“I think the school can only get better in terms of increasing their diversity amongst students,” Miller said. “There’s a huge minority awareness and this is a topic that must be addressed  if Western would like to see a higher percentage of races among students.”

HB 70 would give faculty the right to conceal and carry guns on campus during school hours. Western’s faculty have voiced their opinion on whether they agree with the message the bill is trying to portray.

Dr. Robert Vartabedian, president of Missouri Western and Dr. Robert Bergland, faculty senate president both stand in opposition of HB 70. Bergland said he personally wouldn’t like to see anyone carry firearms on campus outside of campus security.

“There are more chances of things going wrong, than there would be a chance of guns serving as a deterrent,” Bergland said.

Faculty have been portrayed as educated, intelligent individuals who are stable enough to handle guns on campus said Representative Mike Kelley, R-Lamar. He said he knows of professors who hide the fact that they conceal and carry on school grounds illegally. The bill would relieve them of hiding the guns.

Dr. David Tushaus, professor of legal studies, said he stands in opposition of HB 70. He said he doesn’t know of any legitimate research that supports allowing guns to be carried by teachers while in school.

“In fact, more research is needed on effective ways to reduce violence,” Tushaus said. “I am not convinced more guns make us safer.”

In recent years, most shootings that have occurred in the United States are in gun-free zones which happen to be schools. Dr. Steven Greiert, chairman of the history department said he supports the bill and believes professors with proper training and responsibility should be given the chance to conceal and carry on campus.

“Let’s face it, a lot of people doing these school shootings are mentally ill,” Greiert said. “We can’t prevent everything that happens in the world, but if we have trained people then they should be allowed to carry.”

The faculty members who were interviewed were in agreement that they don’t see the need for guns on campus. Dr. Edwin Taylor, assistant professor of political science said as a faculty member he also doesn’t support the bill. He said he doesn’t own a gun and doesn’t have any intentions on buying one if the bill passes.

“Arming faculty members would do little to improve the safety of the campus community and would only increase the probability of gun related accidents,” Taylor said.

The Faculty Senate hasn’t met with Vartabedian to discuss the matter of allowing guns on campus during business hours. Bergland said that if the bill progresses out of committee, then he thinks there would a vote from the faculty to either support or oppose the bill.

Delegates and guest on the Republican National Convention floor. Photo by. Ellis Cross, News Editor for the Griffon News

Republican National Convention began this morning with excitement since yesterdays events were canceled due to the tropical storms.

News Editor Ellis Cross has just arrived in Tampa, Fla., where the RNC is to be held. He said that activities start for him today at noon.

Cross stated in his blog thecrossreference.wordpress.com that yesterday at 7:38 p.m. eastern, the Chairman of the RNC Reince Priebus emailed delegates and other “Interested Parties” informing them that the convention will “convene on Monday August 27 and immediately recess until Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 28.

He said the email stated that the RNC’s first priority is ensuring the safety of delegates, alternates, guests, members of the media attending the RNC and citizens of the Tampa Bay area.

“The RNC is working closely with state, local and federal officials, as well as the Secret Service, to monitor Tropical Storm Isaac and preserve Florida’s emergency management resources,” Cross said. “They are expecting participants to experience difficulties due to sustained wind and rain.”

Cross said that the events Sunday, August 26, are still on schedule and will proceed.  He said that the welcome event hosted by the Tampa Bay Host Committee at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., is going as planned.

The crossreference.wordpress.com site states that the convention staff is working around the clock to find alternate housing for delegates in storm-impacted areas.

“Those plans for replacement housing are expected tomorrow morning Sunday the 26,” Cross said.

The convention and coverage from Cross will start tomorrow and will continue throughout the convention cycle. He said that he loves every minute of the experience.

“The weather is great so far but Monday’s RNC has been cancelled as a precaution due to Hurricane Isaac,” Cross said.

For more information on updates from Cross’ coverage of the RNC, please follow his blog at www.thecrossrefernece.wordpress.com or www.griffonnews.com. There will be an update from Cross on Monday, Aug. 27.

Click Here for coverage from Cross from the NRC

Ellis Cross, news editor for the Griffon News and Delegate for the Republican National Convention

One Missouri Western student will have the opportunity to travel to Tampa, Fla. on August 27 to be part of this year’s Republican National Convention.

Ellis Cross, news editor for the Griffon News was elected as alternate delegate by the Missouri Republican State Caucus along with fellow members of the state.

Cross said that students need to pay attention to this election because America is at a crossroads. He said the next election will determine if we will have larger government in our lives or if we will begin to get at the debt that comes with it under control.

“Students must register to vote and educate themselves on the issues and where each candidate stands,” Cross said. “Then they must vote their own conscience.”

The Republican National Convention occurs every four years when a presidential election occurs in our country. This year the likely nominees are presidential candidate Mitt Romney and vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan.

Cross said that they will be selecting the Republican candidate for president by vote of the delegation. He said they will also be voting on the articles of the Republican Party.

“Those are the rules of how the party operates,” Cross said. “There will be many speakers and candidates to talk to and experience.”

Cross said he will be blogging at thecrossreference.wordpress.com and will be sending videos to the Griffon News website. He said that most of the blogs he will be writing will be about what he’s experiencing and what is happening in Tampa during the Republican National Convention.

“My blogs will be loaded with opinion and even some facts,” Cross said.

For full coverage on Cross’ trip to the Republican National Convention, keep up to date on the Griffon News website at www.griffonnews.com and through Cross’ blog at www.thecrossreference.wordpress.com.

The officers of the College Republicans have made their picks for President of the United States to go against President Obama this fall. Each officer of the organization has chosen a different candidate and they all seem to dislike a particular candidate as well, but they all agreed that whoever the nominee is they will support.

Travis Hart, College Republican’s president said that his candidate for President is Newt Gingrich. He believes that Newt has a great plan for America which includes lowering gas prices down to $2.50 a gallon, reforming Medicare, and entitlement reforms.

Sterling Flitcher, College Republican’s secretary said he supports Congressman Ron Paul of Texas for President. He also said that overall he wanted to defeat President Obama and would support any candidate.

It seems  that  the economy is not the only issue  these  leaders are worried about. The officers of the College Republicans believe that the rise of gas prices,  Obama care, and social issues seem to be  major factors for them going into the 2012 elections.

Flitcher said it’s not directly President Obama’s fault for the rise in gas prices. He said that Obama had the opportunity to sign the treaty to Key Stone Pipeline, and he refused to do that.

“That was a way in which he could have helped, but he didn’t, Hart said.”

Jacob Scott, College Republican’s vice president said that he isn’t in favor of the Keystone pipeline. He believes that the government has a responsibility to create conditions for Americans to succeed. Scott said President Obama has an obligation, or any President for that matter, if gas prices are too high then make it possible for us to drill.

“What you do is create fairness through standards and regulation’s to allow for drilling, Scott said.” “So the price of gas can go down, stimulate our economy, and improve our country.”

The organization believes that many of the bills that have been passed over this President should be repealed. Hart believes that Obama Care is a major issue but is not the only bill that should be repealed.

“We can’t just stop at Obama care, Hart said.” “We are the party of reforming, and we don’t want to just replace it, but reform it.”

The opposition has a different approach on the republican candidates and party. Kayla Wiedmaier, pride member said that she believes the Republicans are close-minded, power-hungry, greedy people. She said that a main issue is her support for gay marriage and the opposition of the Republicans who don’t support equality of marriage.

“I think that Republicans are so concerned with what the church thinks, Wiedmaier said.”  “Mainly because the Christians lobby and give money to these candidates, and they don’t stop to think about the nation as a whole.”

He was referring to his presentation, “The Middle East- Then and Now,” where he saw members of the Muslim mosque, United States military, veterans, Christian clergy and other guests in the audience who may have had their own opinion.

He executed his speech, keeping close to the facts. He knows those facts from serving America in Middle-Eastern U.S. Embassies for over 25 years. For a time, Armbruster was a hostage of Saddam Hussein and could not leave Baghdad.

When he was allowed to leave, it was in haste as the embassy group fled to Turkey for refuge. At the time, Armbruster was taking care of his infant daughter alone. He had to send her ahead with another diplomatic family and follow in a 19-hour car ride to Turkey.

“We [the U.S.] are in it for the long haul,” Armbruster said. He explained that peace would come eventually. “Changes result in protest in the Middle East; there will be balance between these tribes and countries but history isn’t written yet.”

He said that technology has been a great avenue of change, but not necessarily the technology that members of the audience may have expected. The introduction of the Internet, as well as social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have improved communications, but those changes started with satellite television, which brought news from other countries. The introduction of the fax machine was equally important, according to Armbruster. The cell phone also came to areas that didn’t have landline phones yet.

Audience member Rony Aboujawde asked a question about the representation of minority groups in the Middle East. He was referring to Christian populations. “Not all Muslims are radicals, the same as not all Christians are non-radical,” Aboujawde said.

Armbruster agreed and explained that Middle Eastern leadership groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, recognize the voices of minority groups and are working out a way that all voices will have some degree of power in the future. “It’s not a forgone conclusion that the majority will suppress the minority,” Armbruster said.

Armbruster told a story of spoiling thanksgiving turkeys during a time when there was no electricity at the embassy. They buried them, only to have them emerge from the ground in the hot sun, to be buried again. Western student Nicholas Brothers, who wants to be a Middle East specialist someday, referred to the story. “I learned today that I may need to bring a shovel,” Brothers said.

Brothers also mentioned the diversity of the nearly record crowd of over 160 attendees to the Eggs and Issues presentation.

Armbruster concluded saying “There are voices on all sides that seek peace. Also, there are voices who are best served by continuance of things as they are.”

The convocation will take place on Thursday, Oct. 7, at 9:30 a.m. in the Looney Complex and will be free and open to the public. In addition, Gingrich will speak at the annual Convocation Dinner, which will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 7 p.m. at the Fulkerson Center in Spratt Hall.

Founded in 1993, the Convocation on Critical Issues was designed to be an oral presentation platform through which students and the community at large could hear from a high-profile speaker on a timely issue in modern society. Past speakers have included Steve Forbes, Colin Powell and Bob Woodward, among many others.

According to Dan Nicoson, vice president for university advancement, Western works with the Washington Speakers Bureau every year, looking at a list of potential speakers and trying to match the speaker with current pressing issues in the nation. From his perspective, Gingrich is a perfect fit for the convocation.

“First of all he is … staying well informed on current issues,” Nicoson said. “Furthermore, his reputation is that he presents an intellectually challenging presentation. Both of [these attributes] fit our needs well.”

Following a career as a college professor at the University of West Georgia and Kennesaw State University, Gingrich ran for a congressional seat in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. After two unsuccessful runs in 1974 and 1976, Gingrich won, holding the seat from 1979-1999. During this time, Gingrich also succeeded Dick Cheney as House Minority Whip from 1989-1995.

Gingrich became a household name in 1994 as a co-author of “Contract With America,” a document outlining the Republican Party’s plans, were they to win the majority in the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. When the Republican Party won, Gingrich was made the Speaker of the House, a position that he held from 1995-1999.

Following his career in Congress, Gingrich has remained a prominent figure in the political spectrum, authoring 19 books and serving as a political analyst.

According to President Robert Vartabedian, the process of selecting a speaker for the convocation consists of four phases: determining who is available with the Speaker’s Bureau, who is affordable, who is available within the time frame and whether or not there is a critical issue at hand that is compatible with Western.

Western’s President Vartabedian feels that Gingrich meets the University’s criteria and then some.

“He offered us eight different alternative topics,” Vartabedian said. “That’s kind of unheard of; usually there’s just a basic speech. I think that was very attractive to some of the people in on the decision.”

From Vartabedian’s perspective, there were two other key factors in the decision, the first of being the need to balance the convocation out politically, as last year’s convocation featured a democratic speaker, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Another factor that makes Gingrich unique is swirling rumors about his future in politics.

“He may be a candidate for the presidency in 2012,” Vartabedian said. “This is the first time in the 17-year history of the convocation that we have someone who very well maybe running for the presidency in two years.”

As of now, it is unknown as to what subject Gingrich will speak about. According to the Washington Speakers Bureau website, www.washingtonspeakers.com, Gingrich’s main speech topics include how to improve America’s economic standing, the Obama administration and leadership lessons.

Regardless of what topic he chooses, it can be assumed from his prolific background and experience that Gingrich will provide the students of Missouri Western a critical take on a timely issue that is important to all.

“[Gingrich]…has an experience and insight into critical issues which I think he can bring to [Western],” said R. Dan Boulware, the former Western regent for whom the convocation is held in honor of. “We like people who speak on college campuses and who are well received by students; that’s very important to me and Newt Gingrich fits that criteria.”

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.[

Aside from the group of protestors standing outside with signs, people did not seem disappointed after Biden’s intense and inspirational speech.

When the intro music started, audience members gradually clapped along, eventually yelling, “Go, Joe!”

During the high points of his speech, people rose from their seats to clap and cheer with escalating enthusiasm.

Erika Baker, a freshman at Northwest Missouri State University, has watched Biden’s speeches on television, but never in person.

“I really, really enjoyed it,” Baker said. “I think that Joe Biden is a great speaker.”

This was the first time Baker has been to a political rally.

“I thought it was a whole new experience to be that close; I was right on the aisle – two rows back,” Baker said. “I shook his hand and everything afterwards, so it was exciting.”

Nathan Bowman, also a student at Northwest, was amazed by Biden’s tone.

“My basic thoughts were that Senator Biden did a terrific job getting people going,” Bowman said. “You could tell he was very passionate.”

Bowman believes Biden really projected towards the climax of his speech.

Heather Fields, a Western student, actually got a picture taken with Obama’s vice presidential candidate.

“I was more excited than I expected to be,” Fields said.

Janie Bland, who traveled from Spickard, MO, has been campaigning for Barack Obama, and thoroughly enjoyed the speech as well.

“That was a wonderful speech and he really spoke to the middle class people,” Bland said.

The opinion of Western student Andrew Trautmon, who is a Republican, differed slightly. He is not a huge fan of Obama or McCain.

“I went in with an independent mind,” Trautmon said. “Really, I’m not leaning with either one.”

Trautmon was not as impressed with Biden’s speech as others were.

“I was a little bit upset with Biden… the first part of his speech seemed like an attack against McCain,” Trautmon said.

If you sneezed at the event featuring Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, a dozen well-trained eyes sharply focused on you. Biden was well protected when he delivered his campaign speech to a crowd of approximately 1,200 people on Oct. 9, in the M.O. Looney Complex. Security was in full force as local law enforcement officers teamed up with Secret Service agents to ensure the safety of the senator and everyone in attendance.

Such security is necessary—and standard—at all public events that feature a presidential or vice presidential candidate, especially this election year. This is an historic election with Barack Obama being the first black candidate for the office of U.S. President.

Secret Service officers were visible near Biden and around the complex, while others were invisible as they mixed in with the crowd.

Around 20 SJPD officers, including the Special Response Team (SRT), four commissioned MWSU police officers and 11 Police Academy cadets were on the team along with an undisclosed number of Secret Service agents. Also on the team was a German shepherd that sniffed purses and backpacks as they entered the building. A metal detecting wand was in use at the entrance as well.

Biden’s entourage while in St. Joseph included one unidentified officer from the SJPD and an unidentified local highway patrol officer.

According to Capt. Jeff Wilson the SJPD and the secret service worked together for a week before the event.

“The Secret Service gave us ample notice to prepare,” Wilson said.

“They notified us last week and invited us to a planning meeting.”

With the number of officers needed, some worked on their day off. SJPD officer Scott Vanover didn’t mind working.

“It’s my day off,” Vanover said. ” I’m working for overtime.”

The event offered a good opportunity for Police Academy cadets to see national security agents at work. Cadet Chase Pollard believed in the need for security and the need for the event.

“It’s essential for Americans to speak their minds,” Pollard said. “It’s important for both sides to be heard.”

Despite the fact that Biden was late, the entire event occurred with no security incidents. When the crowd was clearing after the conclusion, one of the officers, who would not give his name, said the day “went very well.”

The questions, what ifs and hypothetical situations are mounting. Concerns over safety policies and security procedures for college campuses are being called into question across the nation.

Missouri Western’s Dan Nicoson, vice president of university advancement, is confident that if a situation similar to Virginia Tech’s with an armed gunman on campus happened here at Western, it would be well handled.

“We maintain a professional police force 24/7; they are going to do what crime scene expectations are and what our emergency safety plan calls for,” Nicoson said.

Aside from just safety, many questions have been asked about the communication system used to alert the students at Virginia Tech. Many commentators and students feel that e-mail alone is not an accurate way to inform students of possible life-threatening situations.

Jonathon Kelley, director of public safety, said that there are many ways to communicate with students whether it is through e-mail or radio for the commuter students.

“Our initial steps would be to get e-mail out,” Kelley said. “It is the quickest way to get information out to a large group of people at one time. Also, the public safety vehicles have public address capabilities on three of the squad cars, so in a isolated area, that would be one of the tools we could use in our department.”

Kelley predicts that systems will be set up so that campuses can plug into student’s cell phones and send text messages or voice messages to large groups of students.

Nicoson said that campuses will continue to assess communication options.

Another question would be if Virginia Tech’s situation would have been different if better communication systems were in place.

“It might have improved, but wouldn’t have solved the issue,” said Robert Mazur, a Western senior.

Right now the campus has procedures in place for alerting students about dangers on campus include e-mail, a phone tree and public address systems on three public safety vehicles.

If a danger were to happen on campus, Nicoson stated what he believed would be the chain of events.

“Jon Kelley would call his supervisor, Ron Olinger, of financial planning and administration,” Nicoson said. “Ron would then determine if the president [James Scanlon] needs to be notified and probably either me or Kristi Hill because of the communication needs. And I am sure he would notify the Provost [Joseph Bragin].”

As for overall security, Nicoson and Kelley agreed that nothing is totally preventable, and what happened at Virginia Tech could happen anywhere.

Kelley made suggestions about what students can do for self-protection.

“Be aware of your surroundings, be aware of people and what is going on,” Kelley said.

He also stated that if something were to happen, students should get in a room, lock it and remain quiet until law enforcement is in the building.

Kelley said that public safety’s response would depend on the situation at hand.

When dealing with a student who is questionable and a possible threat to others on campus, Kelley said that various offices work together to solve the problem.

“The Public Safety Center, the Counseling Center and the Dean of Students office work closely together to address issues of behavior and inappropriate behavior at times,” Kelley said.

Mazur said he is confident as to the safety on Western’s campus.

“I think it’s [Western] fairly safe,” Mazur said. “Public Safety is active on campus.”

PHOENIX – The Arizona Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to consider the legality of a case in which former University of Arizona students sued the Arizona Board of Regents for increasing tuition by nearly 40 percent in 2003.

In November, an appellate court decided the students are generally entitled to sue the board of regents over the decision to raise tuition. It did not say whether tuition was raised too much.

The regents challenged that outcome and appealed to the Supreme Court, which will decide whether the regents can be sued over tuition hikes.

Both plaintiffs and defendants applaud the step, saying they hope the court will rule in their favor.

“Now it looks like it’s finally going to get decided,” said John Kromko, a former UA student and state legislator, who was among those who initiated the suit. “I think this is a vital state matter that really needs to be decided by the Supreme Court.”

Kromko and three other former students claim the regents violated the Arizona Constitution, which states that the “university and all other state educational institutions shall be as nearly free as possible.”

When tuition was raised by 39.1 percent in the 2003-04 school year, the money was not used just to improve education directly, Kromko said, but also for scholarships, research and building construction.

In his experience tuition increases seldom have direct effects on higher standards in classroom equipment or better-qualified teachers, Kromko said.

“It’s right to give scholarships but it’s not right for university students to pay for those,” he said. “The regents and the universities have not taken any steps to ensure that tuition is as low as possible.”

But the regents say they are the ones to decide what tuition money can be used for. Part of that capacity is to ensure that enough financial aid is available to students who can’t afford higher tuition rates, said Nancy Tribbensee, the general council for the Arizona University System and a staff member of the Arizona Board of Regents.

“We’re pleased that the Supreme Court has accepted review of Kromko,” she said “This gives them the opportunity to reaffirm the regents’ constitutional authority to set tuition rates.”

If the Supreme Court decides it is lawful to sue the regents, the initial case has to be reconsidered by the trial court.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Growing concerns about the spread of human papillomavirus may lead to a vaccine, now available for women, to be administered to men.

Due to the popularity of Gardasil, the HPV vaccine for women, its manufacturer is now researching a male version of the vaccine. The male option, which would be identical to the current vaccine, may be approved by the Food and Drug Administration as early as 2008, said Janet Skidmore, director of Merck media relations.

“There are currently clinical trials being conducted around the U.S. that are sponsored by Merck,” Skidmore said. “The initial results are promising.”

The vaccine is currently offered to men by some doctors under “off-licensed” status, as reported by BBC News.

While generally considered a benign virus in men, HPV can cause genital warts and possibly lead to penile and anal cancer, studies say. The vaccine would be marketed toward gay and bisexual men, who are particularly at risk, according to Skidmore.

Gardasil has been encouraged in women because some HPV strains can cause cervical cancer. Every year, about 10,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and almost 4,000 women die from the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Every year, about 6.2 million Americans acquire a genital HPV infection. Among sexually active men, 1 percent are estimated to have genital warts, but often the symptoms of HPV are not visible, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say.

Currently, there is not even a public test for HPV available for males with the disease.

“It would be wonderful if a test [for men] was made available for public use,” said Alli Matson, the University Health Center’s sexual health program coordinator, who added that a public vaccine for men would help prevent the spread of HPV.

The health center, which has provided Gardasil since October, has immunized less than 100 female students as of February, the most recent record of vaccination, Matson said.

The main reason for the small student interest has been the vaccine’s high cost, Matson said. The vaccination is a three injection process, offered at the health center for $150 per injection.

Currently, the vaccine is only offered to female students ages 9 through 26, and it is not covered by the university-sponsored insurance program.

“Since the health center doesn’t take insurance [for the vaccine], a lot of girls get it done by their home doctor,” she said.

Despite the lack of immunizations, there has been a large amount of interest in the vaccine.

The high costs of the vaccination have led Maryland lawmakers to kill bills that would have required vaccination for schoolaged girls, a measure taken in Texas.

Matson said male students have expressed interest in the HPV vaccine only for their significant others.

“I have not had a single man ask about HPV testing or vaccination for themselves,” she said. “One man once asked why there was no test or vaccine for men, but never said he would consider taking it.”

An official at Planned Parenthood in Silver Spring said she had never heard of a man wanting the shot. Lack of interest for the HPV vaccinations has led the clinic to discontinue the service.

“My understanding is that it is for females only,” she said. Student opinion on the issue was mixed. Senior criminology major Sean Foster said he would gladly take the vaccine. “I wouldn’t want the girl to get cancer because of me. I care about others,” he said.

Others were not as receptive. Richard Lukasik, a sophomore criminal justice major, decided that the risks for men were too low to justify getting the vaccine. “It doesn’t really affect me. I don’t have [HPV],” he said.

Angela Gentile, a freshman letters and sciences major, said she supports males getting the vaccine. “I’m going to get the vaccine — just to be safe,” she said. “I’d like it if guys got it too, just to be considerate.”

PROVO, Utah – A study published by the American Association of University Professors Thursday showed an interesting disparity in the salaries of employees of different universities across the country.

A comparison of compensation for full professors, university presidents and head football coaches at NCAA Division-I universities showed that, on average, a full-time professor makes $101,774, and the average head football coach earns $918,238. Although full-time faculty salaries are up, financial inequality in American higher education continues to increase.

In “Financial Inequality in Higher Education: The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2006-07,” the reports states that overall, average faculty salaries rose 3.8 percent between 2005-06 and 2006-07.

Saranna Thornton, chair of the American Association of University Professors’ Committee on the Economic Status, said the problem with salary inequality is most evident at private universities and is more pervasive at public schools because they are more likely to be Division I-A.

“Nick Saban, head football coach at the University of Alabama, just signed an eight-year contract for a salary of $4 million a year and bonuses for each bowl game the team makes it to,” Thornton said.

However, the entire budget for the school is only $3.5 million a year, she said, basically meaning one person makes more than the entire budget for the school.

“Actions such as this send a bad message regarding higher education,” she said.

Thornton said there are solutions to this increasing gap between salaries of football coaches and full-time professors.

“The NCAA could play a role in promoting guidelines for coaches’ salaries because, as of right now, my research shows that the average head football coach at a Division I-A school makes two times more than the average college president,” she said.

This issue needs to be addressed collectively, not just one university or college at a time, she said.

“Tax payers and state legislators need to demand accountability for the universities they fund,” she said.

Inequality in salaries is sending a bad message not only to the community, but also to the students.

“This is sending a bad message to students when the football coach is making 10 times more than their professors,” she said.“What is more important? What is taught on the field or in the classroom?”

Thornton suggests that the students should demand accountability of the presidents to facilitate fair salaries among all university employees.

Brigham Young University declined to make a comment regarding any individual’s salary at the university.

In order to make sure BYU is keeping up with the national average of university employees, BYU looks at a study in order to compare itself with schools of similar size.

At BYU there are three separate ranks of professors: assistant professor, associate professor and full professor.

“We aim to keep the lower two ranks of professors at the national average of salaries for schools our size,” said Michael Smart of University Communications. “We have found that our full professors’ salaries are a little below average.”

Why would professors teach here for a lower salary, when they could teach somewhere else and make more money?

“Many professors chose to teach here for reasons in addition to compensation,” Smart said.

Most professors feel great support here from other faculty members and students, as well as a belief in the unique mission statement of BYU, he said.

“Also, this area has a reasonable cost of living that is on average lower than locations of other universities our size,” he said.

A 2005 survey published by the Higher Education Research Institution regarding faculty job satisfaction showed 89 percent of BYU professors surveyed said they were very satisfied with their jobs, and on average, only 80 percent of other professors at private universities said they were very satisfied.

Additionally, 92 percent of BYU professors said they were very satisfied with the quality of university students, whereas the national average was only 75 percent. This survey is conducted every three years.

NORMAL, Ill. – With certain research indicating possible benefits of marijuana, many believe Illinois should be one of the next states to legalize it for medicinal purposes.

There are currently 11 states that allow doctors to prescribe the use of medical marijuana, however the protection for those patients isn’t necessarily guaranteed. According to David
Ostrow, director of Ostrow and Associates and founder of the Medical Marijuana Policy Advocacy Project, Federal law makes no distinction between those that use marijuana for medical purposes and those who do not. In other words, while it is legal to prescribe it, the government may not necessarily protect a patient while they are using it. Patients possessing marijuana can be sentenced up to a year in jail, while patients who are
cultivating their own medical marijuana can be sentenced up to five years.

Gregory Halperin, a doctor at the Gailey Eye Clinic said he believes the best application for medical marijuana would be in its use with the terminally ill and cancer patients in relieving pain. “Each of the different drugs and painkillers, both legal and not legal, act in different ways,” Halperin said, “The advantage of a compound like THC is that it does not only affect the pain receptors but helps the mood as well.”

Ostrow said he believes that medical marijuana has many benefits for diseases such as HIV, diabetes and Multiple Sclerosis.

The MMPAP looks to protect patients legally using medical marijuana as well as eliminating obstacles to medical marijuana’s further development. They do so by supporting their beliefs with scientific evidence that medical marijuana actually can help patients.

THC or Tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main drug in marijuana.

According to Halperin, the benefit it adds beyond the pain killing is significant in terminally ill patients who could see a mood improvement as a helpful increase in their quality of life.

That is something that other more traditional painkillers, such as Vicodin or Morphine, cannot provide.

While Halperin said he does not think that marijuana could be used in a small enough dosage to be practically applicable to the eyes, he did not oppose its use in other areas.

“I am not against other practitioners prescribing it if they felt it was appropriate on a case-by-case basis,” Halpernin said.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – He gave in to peer pressure and illegally took a Lortab. He couldn’t  sleep well, so he bought Xanax from another student. He had to stay up to study for finals, so he got Adderall from a friend.

During his college career, he has abused prescription drugs about 30 times, a University of Alabama senior who asked to remain anonymous, said.

He is not an isolated case.

Illegal prescription drug use is widespread at the university, he said, and he has seen an increase in the abuse of these drugs among UA students.

His personal observations correspond to a recent study which found a dramatic increase in prescription drug abuse on college campuses from 1993 to 2005. The study, “Wasting the Best and the Brightest: Substance Abuse at America’s Colleges and Universities,” was released by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

Nearly half of full-time students binge drink and/or abuse prescription and illegal drugs, according to the report, and 1.8 million full-time students meet the medical criteria for dependency of a controlled substance.

Abuse of prescription opioids, or pain killers, increased 342.9 percent; abuse of prescription tranquilizers such as Xanax and Valium rose 450 percent; and abuse of prescription stimulants such as Adderall was up 93.3 percent from 1993 to 2005, according to the study.

Mike Conway, a freshman majoring in political science, said he thinks the abuse of prescription drugs has increased because of the ease of getting a prescription.

“You can doctor shop,” he said. “It’s so easy to fake symptoms, and pharmaceutical companies are pushing doctors to prescribe their drug so they can get their name out.”

David Roberts, a physician at the Student Health Center, said he thinks the increase can be related to the growing medicalization of controlled substances.

“There are many more students who are legitimately prescribed medication,” he said. “We know from other studies that perhaps 15 percent of people who are legitimately prescribed medications will share them with others or divert them.”

Diversion of medications to others is by definition a form of abuse, he said.

He said he also thinks there has been a shift from treating the disorder to maximizing the patient’s potential.

Roberts said he thinks the increase can also be attributed to the use of prescription drugs for recreational purposes.

“I believe that diversion of prescription drugs and inappropriate use of prescription drugs occur among university students both on and off campus,” he said. “But I have no reason to believe that [the number of students] is any greater than other schools of its comparable size.”

Conway said he has been prescribed an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder medication  since he was 6 years old and said he thinks Adderall is the most commonly abused prescription drug on campus because it is liberally prescribed.

He said he has been asked five or more times to share his Adderall and said he thinks students take the drug without a prescription to make school easier.

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Jon Dennis didn’t get arrested during spring break for indecent exposure or public intoxication.

The University of Kansas senior was taken to a Washington, D.C., police station for praying in front of the White House during the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq march on March 16 during the four-year anniversary of the Iraq War.

Before the march, participants sat in on any of 14 different workshops at various churches in Washington, D.C., which dealt with the interface of peace, faith and civil disobedience.

Some demonstrators used that training later that night when they were arrested for stopping and praying in front of the White House.

After the workshops and a non-denominational church service, an estimated 3,000 people held lights that resembled candles, marched and sang while they walked from the National Cathedral to the White House. Some stopped to pray in front of the building while others circled it.

The first 100 people who stopped to pray in front of the White House were arrested for failing to comply with an officer for refusing to keep moving.

The remaining 122 people who stopped, including Dennis, were arrested for crossing a police barrier.

Dennis said there was a lot of cooperation between the protest organizers and the police and that the route to the White House was blocked off for the march.

All 222 arrested people had their hands zip-tied with plastic bands and had their mug shots taken in front of buses that transported them to a local police department. They were given $100 tickets that had to be paid in person at a Washington, D.C., police department within 15 days.

Drizzling rain and brisk winds made the march uncomfortable for the protesters. Sonia
Marcinkowski, Blue Springs, Mo., junior, also marched but decided the weather was too unpleasant to wait around.

“I didn’t want to lose my toes,” she said. The next day, March 17, Dennis took part in a
larger anti-war march from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the Pentagon. He said that the protesters in that march were more hostile than in Friday’s march.

“It wasn’t as moving and it was really negative,” he said.

Dennis received sponsorship from the Oread Friends Meeting, a Quaker religious organization, as well as some help from the Ecumenical Christian Ministries.

Dennis, Marcinkowski and Beth Ruhl, a sophomore who also took part in the peace march, plan to speak at local churches and share their experiences.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Beer pong, flip cup, bar crawls, Thirsty Thursdays, pre-gaming, postgaming… For some college students, drinking has become a way of life. But for many, it may be hard to distinguish between social and binge drinking.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “binge” or “high-risk” drinking is defined as consuming five drinks for males and four drinks for females in a span of two hours.

A drink is equivalent to a 12-ounce beer, four ounces of wine or a one-ounce shot of 100 proof liquor.

Dangerous situations can result from binge drinking, when a person consumes too much alcohol in too little amount of time and his blood alcohol concentration, the percentage of alcohol in blood, spikes above .06.

“There is something called the point of diminishing return,” said Caitlin Knotts, a health educator in the Office of Health Promotion at the University of Virginia and Hoo Knew social norms marketer. “The diminishing return is the high that you feel when your BAC is between .00 and .06. This is when you are relaxed and your inhibitions are a little bit down.”

Knotts said people with a BAC above .06 “don’t get that same high,” and often experience more negative side effects.

Yet when a student is already intoxicated, it can be difficult for him to determine his current BAC. The Office of Health Promotion, a division of Student Health, has provided BAC cards in libraries and gyms. These cards take a person’s weight and the number of drinks he or she has consumed in an hour and give the resulting estimate of BAC level.

“Anytime that your BAC is reaching dangerous levels then you have to look out for impairment of judgment, loss of coordination, [and] nausea,” Knotts said. “If you get really high BAC then there is possible alcohol poisoning and that eventually could lead to fatality.”

Besides the medical dangers of having a high BAC, reaching a state of extreme intoxication can also expose the individual to other risks.

According to Dr. George Tran of Burkeville Medical Group in Burkeville, Va., “Binge drinking could indirectly kill you. Car accidents, homicides, violent crimes and other injuries are all associated with binge drinking.”

Tran noted these dangerous indirect results of alcohol could be more frequent threats then direct effect.

“The actual toxic effect of binge drinking is different,” he said. “It would take a lot of alcohol to kill a young healthy person, although it is still possible.”

Binge drinking not only has physical effects but psychological effects as well.

“Some people may end up having a bad experience and hurt themselves or someone else due to binge drinking,” said Richard Heisterman, Student Health substance use clinician and licensed clinical social worker. “If this happens, they may have to take a step back and reevaluate. What did they do different to cause them to hurt someone else? … If they can learn from their mistakes, it will help them not repeat them next time they drink.”

Despite the negative effects of binge drinking, many people, especially college students, still engage in this risky practice.

“A lot of it is atmosphere,” Heisterman said. “If the people around you are doing it then you tend to mimic that behavior.”

Heisterman added that some people also binge drink in an attempt to deal with their problems.

“They might do it to try to manage or solve problems that may need to be addressed in a more direct way, in which binge drinking does not help,” he said.

Though heavy drinking has many drawbacks, there are ways to drink safely and responsibly while still having fun. Knotts advised students to monitor their BAC and limit the number of drinks they consumed.

“Some good safety precautions are to eat beforehand,” Knotts said. “That will lower BAC. Staying in groups and alternating alcoholic with non alcoholic drinks — preferably water — to make sure you are not getting dehydrated are always good ideas.”

Knotts recommended students take a limited supply of cash when they go to a bar to limit the number of drinks they can consume.

“Also, keeping track of your drinks serves as a really good check on yourself and making sure that you are within your own limits,” she added.

In addition to maintaining individual safety, students should keep a close eye on other drinkers.

“If a friend is showing signs of alcohol poisoning — blue, clammy skin, breathing trouble or no response to a pinch — then take them to the emergency room,” Knotts said.

Though no one will deny drinking is a serious issue on most college campuses, several students said they believe the university does not suffer from a serious drinking problem.

“Although binge drinking is probably an issue for all universities, I don’t think U.Va. is worse than most universities,” second-year student Phillip Sukys said.

First-year student Danielle Johnson expressed a similar sentiment, saying, “Binge drinking is a problem at many universities but not so much at U.Va. It only becomes a problem when it gets out of control and leads to serious injuries.”

The statistics gathered by the university’s Health Promotion Office also offers insight into the drinking culture at the university. According to these statistics, about 60 percent of university students consume zero to five drinks per week. In addition, 15.4 percent do not even drink.

Knotts said the Office of Health Promotion emphasizes the fact that most university students are making healthy decisions by taking precautions when they drink.

“Most people look after their friends, make sure they eat beforehand” Knotts said.

Keeping in mind safe drinking practices enables students to avoid the potentially dangerous consequences that can come with alcohol and focus on ensuring the safety of themselves and others.

Missouri Western students, staff and alumni traveled to Kansas City March 12-19 to volunteer for ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” to help transform the Jacobo family home. The show will air May 13 at 7 p.m.

“I wanted to help out the community, and I wanted to be able to help somebody and know I made a difference in their life,” freshman Mary Reid said.

But the makeover was not the only way in which the Western community helped the Jacobo family.

Kevin Green, president of Kevin Green Homes, contacted Venny Pruitt, coordinator of Kansas City Northland, one of Western’s satellite locations, and informed her of his search for a university that would be willing to donate scholarships to give the Jacobo family children the opportunity to go to college.

Eventually, the issue was handed over the MWSU Foundation.

Vice President of University Advancement and Executive Director of the MWSU Foundation Dan Nicoson said the executive committee for the board of the Foundation voted unanimously to provide tuition, room and board scholarships to all nine Jacobo children.

“When you look at the family’s story… how they sacrifice for each other, continue to serve their church, help neighbors and stay good in school, you realize it’s a wonderful story of family values despite challenges and adversity,” Nicoson said. “We believe education changes lives, and Western’s about access to education. This project demonstrates that.”

Junior Rachel Burton participated Tuesday for filming on Western’s campus with stars of the show, Paige Hemmis and Michael Moloney. She also walked in the Kansas City St. Patrick’s Day Parade, where Western volunteers collected donations for the Jacobo family’s mortgage and other expenses, and she worked within the house, too.

“I like to help people and even the smallest little thing you do for somebody can make a big difference,” Burton said. “I like to make a difference anyway I can.”

Students who volunteered at the site primarily moved drywall and utensils in and out of the house.

“What really impressed me most was who planned each step,” Nicoson said. “The detail and procession of the (construction) planning was remarkable, to be able to accomplish what they did in the time they did.”

Kristy Hill, the director of public relations and marketing, went to the site almost every day with student and staff volunteers to facilitate and speak on behalf of Western.

Hill said the Jacobo family children will be first generation college students, common to Western’s campus.

“It made good sense that this is a family we could and should help out,” Hill said the Jacobo family children will be first generation college students, common to Western’s campus. “This was a very positive experience for Western and the Jacobo family.”

Justine McMullen, a cashier of the business office, her husband Ryan and her 8-year-old son Caleb walked in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

“I wanted to do something fun for our family, and I knew it would help another family – the Jacobos,” McMullen said. “It really makes you feel good to help out other people, no matter who it is. I felt like I was part of something bigger than I could ever do myself.”

The end result was well worth the effort and many from the Western community attended the reveal that Sunday.

“My favorite part was seeing the family come home and seeing their reactions,” Senior Melea May said.

———–

About Jesus Jacobo and His Family

Jesus (age 39) and Michelle (age 38) Jacobo are hard-working parents who have sacrificed everything to keep their extended family together. In addition to four children of their own (Natalie, 18; Antonio, 14; Jessica, 11; Joshua, 9; and Gabriel, 4), they took in five nieces and nephews ( Brittany, 16; Tyler, 11; Angel, 8; Miriam, 8 ½ months) after Michelle’s sister lost custody of her children, rather than lose them to the state’s foster-care system. Additionally, Michelle’s father Grandpa Ray (69) is living in the house and helping to raise the children.

Jesus works more than 80 hours a week as an assembler of cranes to provide for the family. Michelle, who is pre-diabetic and has been recently diagnosed with high cholesterol, is a hardworking housewife. Both sacrifice their own comfort by sleeping in their unheated garage. Three of the boys live in the basement hallway that is often flooded by the laundry room, and Grandpa Ray, who suffers from severe hip problems, sleeps on the living room floor; one of the bedrooms has no heat and get so cold there is ice on the walls.

–Kevin Green Homes (online)

That is the short version of a possible scenario posed by assistant professor of political science Dan Cox, based on one political science theory.

Cox and four other Western professors led a multidisciplinary panel on the war in Iraq last Thursday, which was sponsored by the Alpha Chi Honor Society, with about 70 people in attendance.

“Hopefully, I’m completely wrong,” Cox said later. “Most political theories are wrong,”

However, Cox did remain the lone gun in his convictions about which direction the U.S. will take with regard to Iraq and the Middle East.

“I see Iraq and our involvement in the Middle East differently probably than just about anyone,” Cox said. “I see what we are doing right now – I see it expanding over time. I think it’s unfortunate, but I think it’s almost certain we are going to expand into Iran.” He said he believes that expansion includes the bombing of Iran.

Associate professor of sociology Ali Kamali, who was born in Iran but has lived in the U.S. for decades, said he holds out optimism that bombing Iran will not happen. He also shared his views on how the war in Iraq has been bungled.

“It doesn’t take an intelligent person to see that the current policies of the current administration are inoperative and not working; however, think about who is taking advantage of the situation,” Kamali said. “There is no denying or lack of information that Dick Cheney, President Bush and a couple others actually own and are running oil companies in the U.S. and elsewhere.”

Professor of philosophy Phil Mullins agreed that oil has always been in mind with U.S. policy.

“I’m not sure that our policy ever had any very good, sensible roots…arrogance in recent times,” Mullins said. “But it does seem to me that now we’re in a real pickle.”

And that “real pickle” is something that history professor Dan Trifan feels needs clarification.

“One must differentiate between military invasion and occupancy,” Trifan said. “[This] has changed to occupation.”

Economics professor Reza Hamzaee, who was also born in Iran but has been in the U.S. for over 32 years, spoke about the economic cost of war in terms of missed opportunities in the U.S.: poverty, education, social security, health care and the shrinking size of the middle-class.

“These are all opportunities we are losing because we are putting so much into war,” Hamzaee said. He said that the industries of defense and oil are booming while others suffer.

Kamali also said that there is another important factor in the region’s stability that the U.S. Administration largely dismisses with names like renegades or thugs.

“One of the unspoken factors in international politics is non-governmental key players who make major decisions,” Kamali said. “We have to take them seriously.”

Any discussion about Iraq and the Middle East will inevitably turn to religion, and this panel was no exception.

“My general view is that American policy as a whole has not done a good job of taking into account religious dynamics,” Mullins said. And then there is the Israel factor.

Student Government Association Vice-President Luke Herrington, who is a history/government double major, attended the panel discussion and later gave his opinion about the relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

“As an ally of Israel, we will do what we need to,” he said. “Israel feels threatened, surrounded by a sea of anger.”

Yet, with so many countries in the region – including Israel, Pakistan and India – in possession of nuclear weapons, Iranians also feel threatened, Hamzaee and Kamali said.

All the while, the U.S. possesses over half of the world’s nuclear weapons. It is also the only country ever to use such a weapon against another nation.

Following the discussion, the panel took questions from the audience. Many people stayed after to talk more about the multi-faceted subject of the U.S. involvement in the Middle East.

“I think you have to go after if with an interdisciplinary approach,” said senior Kasi Norris, a government major. “There is not only one view.”

Elizabeth Sawin, professor of English and director of the Honors Program said that perhaps there should be more panel discussions on this subject in the future.

“It is the responsibility and the privilege of the university to give students and the community breadth and depth of understanding multi-disciplinary points of view,” Sawin said.

The Campus Activities Board sponsored the event last Wednesday, along with a showing of the Laramie Project on Tuesday. Janell Banks, president of CAB said that the even cost approximately $9,000.

Judy Shepard took the stage and delivered a message that told a familiar story, promoted acceptance and issued a call to arms.

“She said things that our campus needed to hear,” said Abi Pontius, Western senior.

Western junior and member of Pride Alliance Brad Dixon agreed with Pontius.

“Hearing words of wisdom from Judy Shepard was uplifting and felt like a breath of fresh air,” Dixon said.

Shepard started her presentation with a video depicting her son, Matthew Shepard’s, death and the death of James Byrd Jr. Both men were victims of hate crimes.

Little of stature and soft of voice, the blonde woman started out her speech with some information about herself and a joke.

“With my reluctant membership [to AARP] came my reading glasses,” Shepard said.

She also pulled out a little paper fan and said that she was having personal summers and that the fan was with her at all times to help her through the hot times.

Though her message had a heavy baseline that stemmed from her own son’s brutal murder in 1998, the fingers she pointed were not to the “haters,” as Shepard called them, but rather to all in the audience.

“If don’t tell your stories, if you don’t share your life with your friends and loved ones, if you don’t help them vote for the right people then they don’t know how to help you,” Shepard said.

She said that the GLBT community is responsible for their progress. Being complacent and waiting for someone else to take care of the issues and problems that the community faces is not acceptable.

“You have to tell them what your life is like,” Shepard said.

She also stated that all students should make a difference by contacting their government representatives and letting them know what the needs of the GLBT community are.

Though her voice was monotone and quiet, she made her point about getting involved in the fight for civil rights and liberties for all, especially the GLBT community.

CAB President Janell Banks hopes that Shepard’s message lit a fire under the GLBT community at Western, as well as the allies.

“I think she created an air for allies,” Banks said. “People are joining the Pride Alliance Facebook group as allies. Students now realize the importance of allies for the GLBT community.”

Shepard spoke about the use of allies for the GLBT community.

“We know that by sheer numbers the GLBT community cannot make these changes alone,” Shepard said. “Which is why allies are so very, very important.”

She also spoke of allies and the GLBT community being afraid to speak out about the civil liberties and rights that are denied to the GLBT community.

The fears she spoke of stemmed from fear of rejection, physical harm and discrimination. Shepard also spoke about same-sex marriage. She is a strong advocate for same-sex marriage and breaking down the ignorant reasons that are against same-sex marriages.

She also spoke about hate language and how the gay community isn’t protected under law against hate language. Banks felt that Shepard’s message might have given the GLBT community at Western a voice.

“I think the GLBT community is shy,” Banks said. “She gave it a voice. We can be open about our lifestyles like everyone else.”

Shepard made suggestions for Western to be more GLBT-friendly.

“It’s up to the students to make the difference, write letters to the administrators,” Shepard said.

Paul Shang, dean of student development, was pleased with Shepard’s message.

“It was thought provoking with experience and emotions which makes it real and able to connect,” Shang said. “It was not just intellectual.”

Shepard issued a message to all students in the audience.

“You just need to be who you are; you all need to be who you are. Don’t hold back for any reason,” Shepard said. “You need to respect yourself enough, and respect your friends and family enough to tell them the truth, tell them your stories.”

For Missouri Western professors Pat Scott and Martha Ellison, the news of Matthew Shepard’s brutal murder in October of 1998 represented more than the loss of a life because of anti-gay hate— it meant the loss of a friend.

Both Ellison and Scott met Matthew at the University of Wyoming, where they taught before leaving for Missouri Western in the summer of 1998.

In October 1998 Matthew was 21 and attending the University of Wyoming, working on his political science degree when he was brutally murdered by two men motivated by anti-gay hate.

Scott, the director of the social work program at MWSU, met Matthew through a mutual friend, Walt Boulden. They met for the first time at Matthew’s apartment warming party.

“He had a baby face, but I knew him to have a good time,” Scott said. She also explained that Matthew lived an openly gay lifestyle on campus. He was open, sweet and honest about every aspect of his life, she said.

Scott also alluded that his openness may have been a factor in his murder. Because he was always open and honest, he was also a target for those ignorant and afraid. The two men convicted of killing Matthew testified that Matthew came on to them.

“That wasn’t Matt,” Scott said. “He was never like that; he was a gentle soul.” Ellison readily agreed.

“Matt was a sweet, young, naive gay man who believed people were good,” she said. “He had been to my home. We went shopping together, dined out and saw each other socially often. He trusted people and was not cynical. He was a happy person who would occasionally tease a friend but never in a harsh way. Matt did not inflict his views on anyone; Matt never imposed.”

Ellison also related her personal feelings of conflict between a social worker that should not seek a path of revenge and her anger toward the men who took the life of a good, helpful and giving man. “He would have been a great contributor for society,” said Ellison.

She further pointed out that the men responsible for Matthew’s death were young also. She tried to reason why but admitted there was no justification for the brutal way that they left Matthew beaten and tied to a fence on the open prairie.

“There was no need for this violence,” Ellison said. “If they did not like Matthew or what he stood for, they should have just walked away.”

Both Scott and Ellison heard of the tragedy from a phone call from Boulden.

“It was a rude awakening for a lot of people,” said Scott. The phone call came before the media had reported the attack. Boulden was the family spokesperson at the time and now lives in the Kansas City area, teaching at UMKC and is working at The Resource Development Institute.

Like many tragedies, this one also has some positive results.

“It’s too bad that someone so good and innocent had to pay the price for the good things this event has started,” said Ellison.

The University of Wyoming has a very active Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) group dedicated to educating the public on and off campus to fight ignorance and fear. Matthew’s mother, Judy, travels the country speaking about the tragedy while educating people and promoting a better understanding of gay issues. There are many Web sites devoted to Matthew’s memory such as www.matthewshepard.org and www.matthewsplace.com. “The Laramie Project,” a groundbreaking film for HBO, started with the energy and frustration of Matthew’s murder.

“Matt is now a galvanizing symbol,” said Scott.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Campaign Director of savetheinternet.com Timothy Karr spoke on Wednesday to a lecture hall full of students at Rutgers University, warning them about the dangers that the Internet is facing. He described how Congress was considering passing laws — backed by billions of corporate dollars — that would abandon “net neutrality.”

He spoke about his organization, savetheinternet.com, which was engaged in a fight to prevent the change from occurring, and showed students how they could help.

Karr explained how the organization is a subdivision of the broader freepress.net. Since 2002, a coalition of individuals from freepress.net has been working to save the Internet.

They work to spread awareness about what they believe are serious threats to the Internet’s survival as a tool for communication and democracy.

Karr narrated a PowerPoint presentation that covered some of the history of mass communication and then centered the discussion on the Internet. Net neutrality — which he referred to as “the first amendment of the Internet” – - is the way the Web is currently configured. It is a free and open playing field where the Web sites of large, powerful companies must compete for the public’s attention with bloggers and YouTube.

This atmosphere — which, according to savetheinternet.com, is good for small business and is an unprecedented platform for free speech — is also fertile ground for innovation. Upstarts with great ideas — like Google, eBay and MySpace — have grown into business giants on the strength of public support. This could all go away over time if net neutrality is removed, Karr said.

Internet service providers and other corporate giants have expressed the desire to remove neutrality from the Internet, and have spent fortunes on Capitol Hill trying to get the obstacles removed.

They want to be able to charge Web sites for providing service to them.

In other words, the Web sites that load the fastest will be the ones that can pay the most. In an interview with Business Week Online, Ed Whitacre, CEO of SBC Communications, said, “Why should they be allowed to use my pipes? The Internet can’t be free in that sense.”

ISPs such as Verizon would also begin to favor themselves if neutrality were to be removed.

“Verizon could block or slow access to iTunes, so you will have to use their music store instead of Apple’s,” Karr said.

So what has savetheinternet.com done to stem the landslide of money and influence? The stated purpose of freepress.net is to “engage the public in media policy debates.” They have been trying to keep the interests of mass media conglomerates from influencing policy makers in Washington to the point where the Internet is no longer neutral.

In an effort to spread the word, the activists for the issue inundated MySpace, Facebook, the streets outside senators’ offices and the mailboxes of those senators with protest. Karr estimated elected officials have received 1.5 million letters on the topic from concerned citizens.

The 2006 Congress came to a close without any legislation in favor of removing neutrality from the Internet.

“They (corporations) didn’t count on the public understanding the issue and getting mad,” Karr said.

Karr described to the students in Scott Hall on Rutgers’ College Avenue campus how the mass media is a vital tool to a healthy democracy.

TUCSON, Ariz. – In response to an article by a well-known right-wing author accusing University of Arizona professors and graduate students of indoctrinating students with radical ideas, the Graduate and Professional Student Council has pledged to support the free exchange of ideas.

The article, “Abusive Academics: The University of Arizona,” written by journalist and Fox News analyst David Horowitz, targeted professors and graduate students at the UA and accused them of imposing “ready-made conclusions to controversial issues.”

“Abusive Academics” is one of 10 articles published on frontpagemag.com that accuse academic institutions of indoctrinating students with radical, leftist ideals. Horowitz is the author of “The Professors,” a 2006 book that singles out a hundred university professors for views he considers questionable.

Other universities targeted are Arizona State University, Columbia University and Pennsylvania State University.

“This is a preliminary report on some very problematic courses,” Horowitz said. “I want it to stimulate people to discuss about this issue and I picked courses that are obvious violations.”

Courses that Horowitz focused on in his article ranged from feminist theories and movements to collective behavior and social movements to American Indian studies.

One of the biggest concerns of the targeted professors and graduate students is the affect on academia.

“He has an ideology of the typical professor being more liberal than his own view and his article begins an attack on universities,” said Paul Thorn, president of GPSC.

However, Horowitz said he believes the universities he targeted are teaching courses that are not presenting the issue in a proper way.

“A teacher shouldn’t be teaching either of the sides of an issue, but they should allow students to learn what the sides say and to figure it out for themselves,” Horowitz said.

But some of the professors targeted feel there are other issues involved.

“What he is doing is looking at it as a consumer problem,” Briggs said. “He thinks that taxpayers shouldn’t pay for these programs because they are, potentially, the most controversial.”

The issue is even more charged for graduate students who were targeted by Horowitz, such as Jeff Larson.

“It was low of him to target a graduate student. There is nothing representative of the people he attacks. Picking on him is playground bully behavior,” Briggs said.

For graduate students, being publicly scrutinized may harm chances for future employment.

“To show Jeff and paint him as politically undesirable is essentially hurting him when he looks for work as a professor,” Thorn said.

Horowitz said he feels he did nothing wrong when he wrote his article.

“I’m being respectful and none of it is personal. I didn’t say anyone was an idiot or a communist. I didn’t say anything,” Horowitz said.

Horowitz felt that he wanted to stimulate discussion in students and in how they should be taught.

“I have only said that professors need to respect the fact that students want to disagree and be free to discuss controversial issues,” Horowitz said.

However, people that Horowitz targeted feel he is doing the opposite.

“It is an attack on institutions of academia and how we teach it,” Larson said.

For those in the GPSC, the resolution they passed is a way to create solidarity and to promote the free exchange of ideas and theories in an academic environment, Thorn said.

“I hope the resolution influences the faculty senate, the administration and the board of regents to speak out and to respond to Horowitz’s article,” Larson said.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – As of last Tuesday, the United States Department of Homeland Security made it mandatory for all passengers traveling by plane to present a valid passport when re-entering the United States from cities in Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean.

This move, the first of a two-part process titled the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), will likely affect students with upcoming spring break travel plans in March.

Kristen Middleton, a sophomore, was not aware of the newly implemented requirements.

Although she has not made plans for spring break, Middleton plans to study abroad this summer.

“I guess I’ll have to go and get my passport renewed, but it’s kind of an inconvenience,” she said.

Christi Day, a spokesperson for STA Travel, said that the new initiative will affect students who do not already have their passports, which may result in students planning spring break trips to domestic destinations as opposed to international favorites such as Cancun.

Day also said that students should look into getting their passports now, regardless of what trip they are planning because of the eight to 10-week turnaround on passport applications.

“If you get your passport now, you avoid problems later,” she said.

According to the U.S. Department of State Web site, more than 70 million citizens hold valid passports, which equates to about onequarter of the population. The site also said that the State Department has experienced an increase of passport applications in the past several months and does not expect many hassles.

Christine Siru, a senior, said that she does not think the new requirements are useful.

“I recently got my passport renewed,” she said. “But if you renew it and don’t get it on time, then you can’t go anywhere.”

The second phase of WHTI may be implemented as early as Jan. 1, 2008, and will apply the same passport rule to those crossing borders by land and sea.

The initiative comes as a result of recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. By implementing the passport requirement of all travelers, the government hopes to strengthen border security and facilitate entry into the United States.

“It’s an understandable precaution in order to keep terrorists out of the country,” Angel Cordova, a senior, said. “Every little bit helps but in the overall scope there’s no 100 percent foolproof method.”

Passport Requirements

How to apply for a first-time passport and renew a passport:
-Must apply in person at a passport acceptance facility
-Provide the DS-11 application form, two photographs, proof of U.S. citizenship and a valid form of photo ID
-Fees: $97 for routine service, add $60 for expedited service.
-Follow these steps to renew a passport in person, providing the expired passport as proof of identification.

How to renew a passport by mail:
- A passport may only be renewed by mail if the bearer was 16 years of age or older when it was issued.
- If renewing by mail, complete the DS-82 form and submit along with the expired passport, two photographs and the required fee.

BATON ROUGE, La. – Tensions were high as afternoon turned to dusk, and residents of Brazoria, Texas, wanted the conflict resolved. Young and old, white and black, all wanted their chance at the microphone to voice their concerns to the mayor and city council.

Everyone had a different reason for not wanting a city ordinance banning the use of a certain racial slur. Not only because of the $500 fine, but because not everyone has the same standards of morality.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson called for a ban of the word by entertainers in late November, just one day after comedian Michael Richards appeared on Jackson’s radio show to apologize for his racist rant the week before.

Jackson’s call for a ban wasn’t accepted well by some entertainers, and it is one of many efforts some perceive as trying to impose morality upon the masses.

Some legislators, including Louisiana state Rep. William Daniel of Baton Rouge, think morality issues will be more frequently discussed and voted on in the future.

“I think it is growing,” Daniel said. “I think religious issues are best left to religious places. It becomes very difficult to separate what is a religious issue from a legal issue.”

Daniel said morality issues are the hardest to debate because there is no right and no wrong. Stem cell research has been debated on the floor of the Louisiana House of  Representatives in past years, and Daniel said lawmakers will raise the issue again in future legislative sessions. He said he thinks stem cell research is an issue of science rather than morals.

Across the South in Plains, Ga., some residents in the hometown of former President Jimmy Carter are calling for a crackdown on low-waisted pants.

Members of the Plains City Council said they plan to ask the town’s attorney to determine if they have the authority to regulate the fad known as “sagging.” They said it offends some of the town’s 600 residents and could defer some of the 68,000 tourists.

“It’s gotten to the place where it borders on indecent exposure,” said Councilman Eugene Edge to the Associated Press. “We have a lot of tourists coming here. To have a lot of young men walking around like that, it creates a bad image of the place.”

In 2004, Louisiana lawmakers rejected a similar proposal. The bill would have made it a crime to wear clothing in public that “intentionally exposes” undergarments or certain body parts.

In South Dakota, legislators introduced anti-abortion bill Wednesday that supporters think will lead to a legal challenge of Roe v. Wade. The issue was decided by constituents in a November election, where it failed 56 percent to 44 percent but has since resurfaced.

In Utah a state House committee voted Tuesday six to two to ban abortion, setting the stage for a legal battle if the bill is signed into law. The committee sent the measure to the full House.

As moral legislation continues to draw media attention, University political science professor Jas Sullivan, who specializes in racial and ethnic politics, said morality could become a centerpiece of political platforms for candidates seeking office.

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., defeated Republican incumbent Sen. Jim Talent during this year’s midterm elections and did so with the help of actor Michael J. Fox.

The former actor, who battles Parkinson’s Disease, appeared in television commercials that endorsed McCaskill and her backing of stem cell research. The advertisement influenced national attention to the issue and proved moral issues can define a political campaign.

“People are raised to have certain and different types of values,” Sullivan said. “Abortion is a classic example. It’s a values issue. People have their opinions. You usually can’t change people’s mind. You usually can’t convince people because these are deeply rooted values. You can pass all the legislation you want, but people will make a decision.”

The first female Speaker of the House has proved to be a mover and a shaker. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has passed six bills through the House of Representatives within her first two weeks of taking control.

One highlight of the Democratic agenda is to make higher education more affordable. Pelosi’s initial plan was passed through the House at alarming speed, which was a bill that is proposed to gradually cut the interest rate on federally subsidized student loans in half. The interest rate on federally subsidized student loans is now 6.8%; Pelosi plans to cut that to 3.4% over the next five years.

A federally subsidized student loan is a need based-loan. The lender takes into account the cost of tuition, board and living expenses. An unsubsidized loan is not based on need.

The bill was widely popular receiving a 356-71 vote. Democrats voted 232-0, while Republicans voted 124-71. During Pelosi’s “first hundred hours,” she has passed the
aforementioned six bills at an intense pace.

The student loan bill was rushed through the opening days of congress without hearings, debate or committee authorization.

The student loan bill is expected to get caught up in the Senate where Democratic Senators plan to make the bill more comprehensive.

The proposal will only drop the interest rate on federally subsidized student loans to 6.12% on loans taken out after July 1, 2007. Two years from now (Jan. 2009) the interest rate will have dropped to 4.76%. Only 29% of students taking out federal loans will be eligible for the breaks that this bill offers.

“I would rather see them make money available that is not a loan,” said Director of Financial Aid Lisa Siudym.

One of the main criticisms of this proposal is that it does nothing to slow the constantly rising cost of college tuition, while spending $6 billion of taxpayers’ money. It only helps students while they are paying back loans instead of possibly helping with the cost of college.

“Every year it seems students have to borrow more money because the cost keeps rising,” Siudym said.

Western Senior Jamie Sanger is one of many students who will benefit very little if any from this bill.

“I would have liked to have seen a bill like this pass four or five years ago,” she said. “It would have helped me quite a bit then, but I am glad to see that the government is making an effort to make college more affordable.”

Democrats are still unsure exactly where the $6 billion will come from, but speculations are that other federal student loan programs could be removed completely to fund this bill.

MANHATTAN, Kan. – She embraced him with tears rolling down her cheeks. “This is my only son,” Lisa Alexander said.

Alexander and her husband drove from Drummonds, Tenn., to bid her son, Timothy Jones, farewell.

Jones, a 19-year-old private first class, said he enlisted in the army last year to give back to the people who had a hand in raising him.

“He says ‘I’m not only in the army to protect my country, I am protecting my mama, too,’” Alexander said.

Members of the surrounding community gathered to honor the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, a 3,400-soldier unit, in a deployment ceremony Thursday afternoon in King Field House at Fort Riley.

The date of the soldiers’ departure has not been released.

“There will be no deployment date released due to the safety of the soldiers,” said Deb Skidmore, public affairs officer for Fort Riley.

Among the crowd were mayors Bruce Snead of Manhattan and Terry Heldstab of Junction City.

Brigade commander Col. Ricky Gibbs said the soldiers gave back to the community in many ways.

One example was when they put Willie the Wildcat through basic training to prepare him for the Wildcat football season.

Gibbs said although they had short notice, the soldiers are ready to head to Iraq. The soldiers were dedicated and hardworking throughout the entire training process, he said.

“We have been preparing ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually,” Gibbs said.

A year ago this same brigade had one-sixth of the soldiers it has now and 5 percent of its equipment, Gibbs said.

Now it is fully trained and equipped to serve with the other 132,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, President Bush said in his State of the Union address.

This deployment is part of President Bush’s plan to boost the number of U.S. troops by 21,500 in the coming months to stabilize Iraq.

The Brigade trained last fall in Fort Irwin, Calif., for deployment, and learned in November they will depart this year.

The Brigade is heading to Iraq under the motto, “No mission too difficult and no sacrifice too great,” Gibbs said. Gibbs said a soldier’s job is not easy, and neither is their family’s role in the process.

Pfc. Joshua Fulton, 18, said the hardest thing for him is being far away from his family in Los Angeles. When he was in training at Ft. Irwin, he could not visit his family even though he was 45 minutes away. This will be Fulton’s first tour in Iraq.

Brigade Csm. Jim Champagne said his 11-year old son is supportive of his job.

Champagne said his son sat in front of the television during the president’s speech and wrote an essay to better understand the president’s message.

“It just warms my heart to hear my son say how proud he is of me,” Champagne said. “He is very confident in the soldiers, and they are ready to head out.”

Champagne already has been to Iraq and says he trusts the Iraq security.

He said one of the main obstacles will be the Iraqi soldiers and their level of trust in the new soldiers.

“Once they understand we are there to help it should go smoother,” he said.

This might be a culture shock to soldiers who are traveling to Iraq for the first time, Champagne said.

However, they received extensive cultural training, including basic language classes, and they are ready, he said.

Champagne said if he could say one thing to President Bush it would be, “We are ready to stay the course.”

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – When Nora Spencer heard a year ago that the University of Florida would offer health insurance benefits to partners of gay and lesbian employees, she and her partner thought it was wonderful.

But when the former adjunct professor became eligible for the benefits as the director of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs in August, she realized the plan came with a heavy cost. The plan would give her extra taxable income of at least $5,000, which is why she decided not to use it.

“I just looked at it, and it doesn’t make any sense,” Spencer said.

Almost a year after the university first offered domestic partner benefits, the plan is meeting mixed reception from faculty. While it is seen as a step forward in gay and lesbian rights, those who benefit from the plan said it is not equal to the spouse plan for heterosexual couples and, most importantly, not enough.

Kyle Cavanaugh, vice president for human resources, said 40 faculty members have enrolled in the plan since it was adopted last February. After much debate, UF was the first public university in Florida to adopt the plan.

Though Cavanaugh considers the plan to be a success, he said the taxable income has been a “challenge.”

Under the domestic partner plan, provided by AvMED, employees and their partners pay $90 and the university contributes $445.

The problem, said Cavanaugh, is that the Internal Revenue Service requires that the money UF pays for domestic partners health insurance be treated as “taxable wages” — or extra income. Of the $890 the university pays a month, $466 — more than half — is treated as taxable income. So even though the money never reaches the hands of the employees, they could be taxed for an extra $5,600 a year.

“It’s like a gift, only it isn’t,” Spencer said. Cavanaugh said employees are surprised to learn more about the plan’s “taxable wages.” Because of this “challenge,” the human resources department had to readjust its management system, Cavanaugh said.

They now meet with employees in person to explain the plan benefits.

Linda Lamme, chairwoman of UF’s LGBT Concerns Committee, has worked on getting domestic partner insurance for about 10 years. She praised President Bernie Machen for making the plan a priority but said the plan had inequities.

DAVIS, Calif. – Wal-Mart launched its $4 generic prescription drug program in Florida last September, with the intention of taking it nationwide in January 2007. The program was more successful than first anticipated, according to Wal-Mart spokesperson Jami Arms, and went national by the end of November 2006.

However, while Wal-Mart claims that its intention is to bring affordable prescription drugs to working-class families, skeptics say otherwise.

Generic drugs are identical in composition to their name-brand counterparts yet are more affordable, according to Dr. John Grubbs, director of pharmacy for the University of California-Davis Health System.

“The reason the price is so much less is primarily because the name-brand manufacturer had to do all the clinical trials to get it approved, so they have to recover their cost,” Grubbs said.

Wal-Mart offers 143 different generic drugs spanning categories from allergy to seizure to antidepressants for $4, according to a list released by Wal-Mart. Drugs priced at $4 make up about 25 percent of sales in the company’s pharmacies.

“We just saw such a huge consumer demand for the product and we wanted to offer it to as many people as possible, as soon as possible,” Arms said. “This is Wal-Mart doing what it
always does, which is drive cost out of the industry.”

Some critics, such as Wake Up Wal-Mart, are skeptical that Wal-Mart has the good of the working class in mind, equating the $4 generic-drug program to a publicity stunt.

“Cutting prescription drug costs is obviously a good thing, but to use it as a publicity stunt is completely disingenuous when you fail to provide health care to half of your employees,” said Paul Blank, campaign director for wakeupwalmart.com.

“They were a little misleading in how they announced the program as well. They say it covered 300 prescription drugs when it only covered 140.”

One benefit of the program, according to Blank, is that after Wal-Mart cut generic-drug prices, other large retailers such as Target and Costco followed suit.

“We are proud to have introduced competition to an area where it has been too scarce for too long,” said Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott in a Nov. 27 press release. “And, we hope others will continue to join us in making prescription medicines more affordable and accessible for all Americans.”

In fact, Wal-Mart is now selling many generic drugs at a loss.

“In some cases, the $4 price can be pretty cheap,” Grubbs said. “The price to dispense the drug is about $10. … They are absolutely losing money on those sales.”

This causes people like Grubbs and Blank to wonder if Wal-Mart is being honest about its motives. Both said they think Wal-Mart introduced the program to increase foot traffic in stores and to take attention off of the fact that it does not provide health care for many employees.

Regardless of Wal-Mart’ s intentions, Grubbs said he believes generic drugs will play an increasingly important role in lowering prescription-drug costs and extending health care
coverage to more Americans.

ST. LOUIS – “We’d Rather Be Naked Than Wear Sweatshop Clothing,” was the message presented in a publicity photo shoot held Tuesday by United Students Against Sweatshops.

Krispie Kreme donuts and music with a beat set the scene as 26 students gathered — wearing shorts, tank tops and underwear but baring their legs and shoulders — in front of the cameras.

The semi-nude photographs were taken as part of the organization’s rally to draw attention to the problem of sweatshop labor and how it could affect Saint Louis University.

Before the photos were taken, students listened as John Carroll, a USAS coordinator, said that several pieces of apparel sold in the University bookstore might be manufactured by underpaid workers in the deplorable working conditions in sweatshop factories.

Although the sources of all of the clothing are not known, Carroll said later, the bookstore is unable to claim that all of its apparel is made outside of sweatshops — so far.

The goal of USAS, presenters at the rally announced, has been to encourage SLU to affiliate itself with the Workers’ Rights Consortium, an independent group that works with laborers at identified sweatshop factories to better their working conditions.

If SLU does become affiliated with the organization, Carroll said, the WRC would help to ensure that none of the companies that produce SLU apparel do so with sweatshop labor.

Carroll described a picture of the inside of one of the factories he visited in the Dominican Republic earlier this year: “You can tell this is not a sweatshop because it’s brightly lit, and two people have a lot of space in which to work and they were playing nice music in the background.”

At a sweatshop factory, “I was not allowed to take pictures,” Carroll said. “[It was] darker, smaller; there were more people and they were making swimsuits for Wal-mart.”

More than 40 students listened to the presentation, then some created posters using facts and quotes, provided by USAS, about sweatshop labor around the world. Later, interested students stripped down to their boxers, tank tops and swimsuits and stood behind the posters to create the look of nudity for the publicity photographs.

“It’s a way of getting people’s attention and a way of getting people to open their eyes,” said freshman participant Laura Brandstetter. “It’s important that USAS is trying to get SLU to join [the WRC] that checks up on clothing companies I think we’re really behind the times on that.”

According to the USAS presentation, 163 colleges and universities are affiliated with the WRC. Some participating schools are Boston College, Georgetown University, Tulane University and Loyola University Chicago.

“The cost to SLU will be $1,000, exactly, to affiliate with the Workers’ Rights Consortium,” Carroll said during the presentation. He said that the group had been waiting for a specific number with which they could go forward in promoting the affiliation.

The SLU bookstore is already affiliated with another workers’ rights group, the Fair Labor Association, said Kathryn Jonas, another USAS coordinator. USAS appreciates that the bookstore is associated with the FLA, said Jonas. Still, “just the FLA isn’t comprehensive enough,” she said.

The FLA does its work through corporations, said Jonas, so it is funded by the corporations when it takes action to protect those corporations’ laborers.

“This often presents a conflict of interests,” said Jonas. “But the WRC is funded completely by grants [such as SLU would pay],” she said, because it has “no corporation involvement.”

College interest rates on student loans may be cut in half now that the Democrats are in control of both Houses.

The new House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has stated that if the Democrats gained control they would act immediately to make higher education more affordable by cutting interest rates on student loans in half, and increasing the tax deductibility of college tuition.

This proposal could be passed as soon as next year when congress will reconvene after Christmas.

This is good news to many students and their parents who have become burdened with debt due to the high interest rates.

Beth Murphy, a Missouri Western junior, is one of the many students who could benefit from the lowering of interest rates.

“Basically, if interest rates went down it would help me because I would not be in as much debt after graduation, which is a big concern for me especially if it becomes a challenge to find a job after graduation,” Murphy said.

Murphy is just one of many students who have to take out loans to pay their way through college since many students and parents cannot afford to pay for it themselves.

“I believe if congress could cut interest rates that would help us students who need help paying for school,” Murphy said. “Being a person who is trying to better myself, I feel that I and others like me shouldn’t have to worry about money when we should be focusing on our education.”

Jeff Cunningham, a financial aid coordinator at MWSU, would be thrilled if the interest rates were cut.

“Whatever they could do to help students would help me,” Cunningham said. “If they slashed the interest rates that would cost me less money now and less money later.”

Though this proposal is high on the to-do list for Democrats it may never happen.

Even with control of both Houses the Senate is very narrowly divided with the Democrats holding only 51 seats. Without enough support from Republicans and the president this proposed plan might never become realized.

The Democrats are expecting to redraft the Higher Education Policy that was approved in Congress but was never heard by the senate. This effort may be put behind the renewal of the No Child Left behind Act, an act that the Democrats are eager to begin work on.

Murphy hopes that this proposal will be realized sooner rather than later.

“I hope this proposal goes through, I would love to be debt free before I am 30,” Murphy said.

WASHINGTON – In September, a video game called “Quest for Bush” was released by the Global Islamic Media Front, an organization with ties to al Qaeda.

In the first-person shooter game, also titled “Night of Bush Capturing,” players move through a variety of levels before a final showdown with a character that looks like President Bush. The game also features jihadist music.

The game bears more than a slight resemblance to “Quest for Saddam,” a game created in 2003 by Jesse Petrilla. In that game, players also fight through several levels before a final confrontation with Saddam Hussein.

Petrilla expected some copycats to pop up after he created “Quest for Saddam,” but “Quest for Bush” wasn’t what he had in mind. “I wasn’t expecting it from the terrorists,” said Petrilla.

“What people don’t realize is that the war on terror is fought in the media,” he added. “This is another tool they are using to spread their message of anti-Americanism.”

Petrilla also founded the United American Committee, an organization that lists one of its goals as “unity of all Americans against the threats of Islamic extremism which face our nation.”

On Sept. 10, the UAC staged a demonstration in front of the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, Calif., in which members hung an effigy of Osama bin Laden from a makeshift gallows.

The gameplay in the two games is essentially identical; the major differences between the two are in music and graphics. In “Quest for Bush,” the game missions have titles such as “Jihad Beginning,” “Searching for Bush” and “Bush Hunted Like a Rat.”

Zach Whalen, a Web master, writer and editor with Gameology, a site offering commentary and resources for game studies, offered an extensive comparison of “Quest for Bush” and “Quest for Saddam.”

“There is very little ‘development’ evident in the game,” said Whalen. “It’s a straightforward re-skinning of ‘Quest for Saddam’ that simply exchanges references to Saddam with references to George W. Bush. … Whoever modified this game didn’t have to do any programming at all.”

Whalen also notes that even filenames of graphics are the same. In “Quest for Bush,” the graphics file for the Bush lookalike, is called “Saddam.png.”

“Even to call it a mod is a stretch,” added Petrilla.

Petrilla also created a game called “Quest for Al-Qaeda” in 2002. He defended his games as satire; something he does not believe applies to “Quest for Bush.” “What they’re doing is promoting violence,” he said. “Blasting Americans in the game, it’s certainly not satirical.”

“What I think is important and interesting about both games, however, is the way their programmatic relationship reveals an underlying logical similarity between the anti-Saddam and anti-Bush messages,” said Whalen.

The Middle East-based Afkar Media has produced several video games from an Islamic perspective, but they are far from propaganda. One of their most popular games, “UnderAsh,” features a young Palestinian fighting against Israeli occupation forces. Afkar’s developers have been quick to distance their games from ones like “Quest for Bush.”

David Weigel is the assistant editor of Reason magazine, a libertarian monthly. In Reason’s “Hit & Run Blog,” Weigel said that, unlike anti-Bush games, “Games like ‘UnderAsh’ are inherently more interesting — they’re the creations of fed-up Muslim nerds, not propagandizing Islamists. They’ve got more in common with Mecca Cola than ethnic cleansing.”

Brian Bonner, who runs a right-wing blog called the “The Uncooperative Blogger,” wrote about “Quest for Bush:” “If you are playing this game, you are in bed with the terrorists, plain and simple.”

PITTSBURGH – It’s safe to mix alcohol and energy drinks right?

Wrong.

Mixing caffeinated energy drinks like Red Bull and Full Throttle with alcohol puts unnecessary stress on the body, dehydrating it and “pulling your brain and your central nervous system in two different directions,” Joe Mull, substance abuse prevention specialist from Student Health Services’ Health Education Office, warned.

“Understand that when you’re putting that much caffeine into your body, it’s going to mask the effects of alcohol, and you’re probably going to feel more sober than you are,” he said.

Energy drinks mixed with alcohol is also a concern for the cardiovascular system.

“One of the concerns is that when you have a lot of caffeine, your heart rate goes up, your blood pressure goes up,” Leslie Bonci, director of sports nutrition at UPMC’s Center for Sports Medicine, said.

“Now we have double stress [on the heart] because alcohol dehydrates.” Caffeine appeal aside, Red Bull’s Website lists taurine as a special ingredient in its energy drink, a “conditionally essential” amino acid naturally occurring in the body that cannot be replenished quickly enough during high-stress, physical activities. It also notes “taurine acts as an antioxidant and has been shown to promote detoxification by binding together with harmful substances and thereby accelerating their excretion from the body.”

“What you’re probably seeing is a … tremendous amount of marketing without a lot of substance,” Meg Mayer-Costa, dietitian
in Student Health Services’ Health Education Office, said. “Unfortunately, herbal supplements aren’t regulated in this country, so you end up with a lot of mythical effects. What you’re left with is a caffeinated beverage trying to fight that depressant effect.”

A nonessential amino acid, taurine “doesn’t have any harmful effects, but it doesn’t have any beneficial effects either,” Bonci said.

For Mull, this marketing strategy “is kind of a fancy way of saying that our drink will make you pee.” The best way to recover from a night of drinking is to sleep it off, Mull said, so long as the person is not seriously intoxicated.

“You really impair the body’s healing as fast as it wants to because you’ve added all this other stuff,” Mayer-Costa said.

“The liver does not multitask well,” Mull said. “It doesn’t really focus on anything else until it’s done with the alcohol.”

For a college student that adds several energy drinks to the drunken mix, “you’re going to increase the drunk experience many
times over,” Mull said.

And that goes for the hangover, too.

“The body can only process half an ounce of alcohol per hour — no more, no less,” he said. “[Drinking an energy drink with taurine] is not necessarily going to speed up your body’s processing.”

For the one person in 25 who is a diabetic, the large amount of sugars in energy drinks can also throw the body’s blood sugar levels out of balance. While blood sugar levels may not be the first concern for an average consumer, the calorie content may, despite Red Bull’s Website claiming its product “stimulates metabolism.”

“It really adds up calorically,” Bonci said. “A lot are 200, 350 calories a can, and if you’re going to mix alcohol with that – that’s a lot.” Seth Wimer, sophomore, consumes about one energy drink a week.

“They’re for exams, when I’m writing papers, when I know I’ll be [awake for awhile],” he said.

Wimer says he probably won’t try mixing them with alcohol anytime soon.

“I’ve realized the power of energy drinks after drinking them and not being able to fall asleep. Mixing them with alcohol is probably not a good idea,” he said.

Wimer is more responsible with energy drink consumption than many of those University of Pittsburgh athletes and students that Bonci talks to at UPMC’s Center for Sports Medicine.

“Nobody’s thinking about the possible downsides [to mixing energy drinks with alcohol],” Bonci said. “We just cannot be enamored by some of the claims. If we’re going to consume [energy drinks with alcohol], we must be aware and do so in moderation.”

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Casual sex can be a depressing experience, a recent study said.

A study done for the recent publication of the Journal of Sex Research, “No Strings Attached: The Nature of Casual Sex in College Students” concluded that college-aged women who have a history of casual sex tend to feel more depressive symptoms
after their sexual experiences than men do.

The study found that 18 percent of females and 3 percent of males thought their most recent casual sex experience was “the beginning of a romance,” and this disparity, the authors said, could be the reason for the difference in depressive symptoms.
The study’s sample included 404 undergraduate students in introductory psychology courses at a large public university in the southeastern United States. The study excluded the results from lesbian, gay and non-traditional students — those married or older than 21.

More than half of the students surveyed who were sexually active said they engaged in casual sex — sex with someone who they were not currently involved in a romantic relationship with.

Seven percent of the males in the sample said their recent casual sex experience was “experimentation,” while 14 percent of females described it as such.

The study also found that casual sex occurred more often between friends than between strangers.

Simon Holowatz, a community health educator at Penn State University Health Services, had some concerns about the study’s findings.

People on TV have casual sex all of the time, but the consequences are never shown, he said.

“People have a perception [about sex] that’s not really accurate,” Holowatz said.

Holowatz said a romantic relationship is the best place for sex because there is security in knowing that someone can be open with his or her partner. It creates less anxiety and makes each partner feel more valued, he said.

“People should do what most fits with their values,” said Debby Herbenick, a psychologist and lecturer at The Kinsey Institute at the University of Indiana in Bloomington.

Herbenick said she prefers to use the term “uncommitted sex” rather than casual sex to describe the encounters in the study because it better describes the type of relationship people are engaged in.

“For some people, there are benefits,” she said, adding that practicing communication and sexual skills may benefit people engaged in these kind of non-committed relationships.

AMES, Iowa – The state of Texas has given all who want to enforce the Texas-Mexican border the job of security guards.

Texas has launched a virtual border patrol, using the Internet to broadcast images from 10 cameras set up on the border. Individuals can log on to Texasborderwatch.com, set up a free account and obtain access to the cameras’ images. Officials have asked citizens to log on and report any suspicious activity.

Patricia Hamm, assistant professor of political science and U.S. Latino/a studies program assistant, said Sept. 11, 2001, had a sizable impact on immigration policy within the Untied States. With the threat of terrorism, the potential terrorists and unauthorized immigrants have been considered as one problem and efforts have been concentrated to our southern border.

“The idea is that they [terrorists] are likely to come from the south rather than from the north, [but] there is no logical explanation for that,” she said.

James McCormick, professor of political science and department chairman, agreed that the events of Sept. 11, 2001, had a large impact, specifically on the formation of U.S. foreign policy and border enforcement.

“I think that immigration has always been a perennial issue, but I think with 9/11, we had a bit of a jump-start on the concern about the border,” he said.

The success of programs similar to Texas’ are hard to measure because of the absence of effective data collecting, McCormick said.

“Part of the problem is we don’t have a handle on exactly how much border flow there is, so it’s hard to get real, hard data in terms of the success of the program,” he said.

The reasons why individuals come to the United States illegally are not being dealt with, which has caused some to believe there is another answer, Hamm said.

She said these people have proposed to increase the opportunities to come here illegally.

Hamm said right now, the number of legal visas is very limited. Those who want to come work in the United States and are being recruited by employers are unable to come.

The cameras are encouraging citizens to take the law into their own hands, Hamm said.

“It’s kind of like, in a way, encouraging vigilantism, except you are safer [and] you are just at home,” she said. Due to the recent shift of power in Congress, Hamm believes things will change soon.

“Chances are, we’re going to see changes in direction of immigration policy,” Hamm said. She predicted less support for border enforcement and more support for legalization and guest worker programs.

As an immigrant from El Salvador, Victoria Munoz, senior in Spanish, understands what drives immigrants to come here illegally. “There was no other way to come legally, so we had to come here illegally,” she said. Munoz has since become a legal resident, but doesn’t think the cameras will stop people from coming.

Mario Iniguez, graduate student in interdisciplinary graduate studies, agreed.

The harder the government makes it to get across the border, the more likely they will settle here permanently, Iniguez said. He also said he wondered what the true motivation behind this is.

“It sounds like propaganda to fire up the Minutemen,” he said.

Both Munoz and Iniguez said that immigration reform is the answer. Munoz said the current system treats immigrants from different countries unequally.

“They need to come up with a system that is fair,” she said.

The problem is with the current system of immigration, not the current system of enforcement, Iniguez said.

“It’s not broken borders, it’s broken policy,” he said.

These changes have been implemented in order to create a cheaper, more effective work force, and to better serve their customers, a spokesperson for the company said.

Some of these changes include capping wages, using more part-time workers and scheduling more workers on nights and weekends.

“Wal-Mart is a company that has promoted themselves as being pro-people, but this new policy is anti-people,” Dr. Reza Hamzaee, a professor of economics at Missouri Western State University, said.

Putting policies into affect that are not worker-friendly also opens the company up to the dangers of theft and attracting a lower quality of employee, as well as damaging the loyalty of current Wal-Mart employees Hamzaee says.

“The loyalty of employees to their employer will suffer,” Hamzaee said, “They aren’t going to offer their best to customers. It is a proven theory in labor economics, when loyalty to the employer suffers, productivity will suffer.”

These new policies not only stand to damage Wal-Mart’s standing with employees, but also hurt their reputation with customers of being a people-friendly, family-oriented company.

“This new policy shows customers they’re not taking care of their own, which is a bad message for customers,” Hamzaee said.

Wal-Mart representatives have pointed out that several of their competitors, including Target and Sears have implemented similar changes. However, Wal-Mart surpasses both companies in both profit and size. Last year, Wal-Mart made $312 billion in sales, exceeding the sales of the next five biggest retailers combined, therefore affecting far more people.

Joshua Kalin, a Missouri Western student and Wal-Mart cashier of four months, is among the 42,089 Missourians employed by Wal-Mart. Unlike many full-time employees, Kalin doesn’t feel students who work at Wal-Mart will be affected by the changes.

“I think the wage cap made the people who have been at Wal-Mart for 20 years mad, but the people who aren’t going to be there all their lives can make more, faster,” Kalin said.

The opportunity to make more money faster is important to Kalin, as it is to many other college students who struggle to balance work at school.

“The only raises I get are from evaluations, which happen at least every year, and when you first start, you get one 90 days into your job,” Kalin said, “I got a hefty raise from the 90 day evaluation. I think it was close to five percent.”

“Wal-Mart’s not such a bad place,” Kalin said, “It’s done a lot for customers of lower income, who can’t afford expensive stuff.”

However, balancing the new and more demanding work schedule brought on by the new policy, with courses can create problems for students.

“Student employees suffer from the policy. If students have to work many hours at any time, you have napping students. Their school work suffers, which is not good for their main
investment: education,” Hamzaee said.

From an economic perspective, these changes may be effective in the short term, however Hamzaee believes the company will suffer in the long run.

“There is an Iranian proverb that says if you don’t put the first brick straightly the whole building will be tilted,” Hamzaee said. “This means you must establish a good foundation first. You may keep building high, but the building will eventually fall down. Wal-Mart might benefit from these changes now, but eventually they will suffer.”

A new study conducted by CareerBuilder.com reported that 26 percent of all employers use the Internet to research employment candidates before hiring.

According to the report, which was released Oct. 26, one in ten hiring managers uses a social networking Web site such as Facebook or MySpace to screen potential employees.

After discovering new information online, 63 percent of employers chose not to hire candidates based on their discoveries.

Laura Morsch, career adviser for CBcampus.com, the college-focused division of CareerBuilder.com, said students should realize everything they put online becomes public information.

“One of the most interesting statistics is that of those who dismissed a candidate based on information on the Web, 31 percent had discovered that the candidate had lied about his or her qualifications,” Morsch said. “This implies that candidates are being more honest on their social networking profiles than they are on their resumes.”

The study asked managers to list what types of information discovered online had caused them to dismiss potential employees. The top three reasons were discovering that candidates:
* Lied about job qualifications
* Possessed poor communication skills
* Engaged in criminal behavior

Amanda Peel, business administration graduate student, said she isn’t surprised that so many employers are using the Internet to research potential candidates.

“I understand why, because if people are doing things in their personal lives, it can affect your job performance,” she said. “But there is a point where your personal life is your personal life.”

Peel said she wouldn’t mind if an employer did a Google search on her, but is less comfortable with the idea of an employer surfing her MySpace page.

Freshman pre-architecture major Zach Durbin said he, too, would be uncomfortable knowing a potential employer had researched him online.

“That’s a personal site,” Durbin said of sites such as Facebook and MySpace. “If I want them to know about me, I’ll give them my resume. It’s a site for your friends, not for employers.”

Durbin said if he knew an employer might look him up, he would consider changing the privacy settings on his personal sites, a precautionary move Morsch suggests to all students.

“If you don’t want your interviewer to know that you danced on a bar last weekend, don’t post the pictures,” she said. “If you don’t want your boss to know that you played hooky on Friday, watch your comments page to make sure that none of your friends are giving away too much information.”

In a press release from CareerBuilder.com, Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for the Web site, offered suggestions to students concerned with their online  professional image.

“Remember, everything on the Internet is archived, so there is no eraser,” Haefner said.

* Watch your language – Beware of posting derogatory comments, swear words and dirty jokes, all of which can tarnish your professional image.

* Act smart – Using poor spelling and grammar on your personal sites gives off the impression that you are uneducated, turning away potential employers.

* Keep it private – If possible, change your profile settings so only friends can view your sites, and keep snooping employers out.

* Google yourself – Search your own name periodically to find out what potential employers will find out about you if they do a Web search.

* Explain away – If a potential employer questions you about something he or she found online, have a professional explanation ready.

DeSimone has taught economics at USF for four years, and said he and Chatterji decided to collaborate two years ago after realizing the similarities between their individual research into the relationship between binge drinking and educational achievement.

“Pinka and I had both done some work looking at the educational outcomes of drinking — that’s one of my areas of research now — and Pinka had done some of that research in her dissertation,” DeSimone said. “And so, sort of putting those two areas together would be this project — looking at teen drinking and teen education, looking at the effect of it on their labor-market outcomes.”

Although previous studies have examined the correlation between drinking and wages, these studies were mainly concerned with adults. According to such studies, drinking was thought to be correlative with increased income, as it provided social capital in the form of networking opportunities. Another hypothesis maintained that drinking was associated with increased income as the activity signified expendable income in the first place. It was also thought that improved cardiovascular health often associated with drinking explained the relationship.

DeSimone and Chatterji’s research differs from these other studies as it specifically examines the relationship between high school binge drinking and increased income levels.

“Most — if not all — studies that were previously conducted were looking at adult drinking and adult earning,” Chatterji said. “Most were looking at the contemporaneous relationships between current drinking and current earnings, and we were looking at past drinking and its effect on future earnings.”

Chatterji and DeSimone examined students who were approximately 16 years old in 1990 and who reported binge drinking at least once in the two weeks preceding an interview. The study then examined these same students’ earnings 10 years later, DeSimone said.

“The coefficient on the past drinking while in high school variables is positive and pretty large,” DeSimone said. “So it would imply that 26-year-old males who reported binge drinking at least once in the last two weeks as of the 10th-grade interview earn 6 percent more than others, all else equal.”

DeSimone also said that he and Chatterji’s study took other factors into account, such as achievement, prior income and adult drinking, which could possibly explain the correlation.

“So basically we thought we would answer these pathway variables, and eventually the effect would go away, but all it did was get stronger,” DeSimone said.

The lack of explanatory variables led DeSimone and Chatterji to consider social factors, DeSimone said.

“We based upon our readings of some other studies and just talking to other people and just common sense,” DeSimone said. “We just started guessing that this had to do with  some socialness of these people. They’re the ones who are social; they’re the ones going to parties — drinking parties — in 10th grade, so maybe they’re entrepreneurial in the sense that they’re less risk averse. You know, in the long run, you would think, the entrepreneurs are going to be the ones who have the real high wages.”

Chatterji agreed that the result is most likely due to personality traits like extroversion.

“We speculate that it’s probably not a causal association,” Chatterji said. “It could be that people who binge drink in high school have certain characteristics that we can’t measure very well in the secondary data set.”

DeSimone cautioned, however, that teenage binge drinking does not equate to higher wages.

“Remember that correlation does not imply causation,” DeSimone said. “We don’t believe that this means that because they drink in 10th grade. Males are 10 years later more likely to earn higher wages.

“We think that certainly it’s something, some other factor that we can’t control, that we’re just identifying. So it’s not that they drink (and) they earn more wages. The drinkers have these other qualities, and so it just emerges, the fact that they’re drinking.”

Even though only 5 percent of job candidates admitted to stretching the truth on their resumes, 57 percent of hiring managers said they have caught a lie on a candidate’s resume, according to a survey conducted by CareerBuilder.com.

The June survey, “Resume Lies,” was conducted online and screened more than 2,200 workers and 1,000 employers.

Of the managers who found a lie, 93 percent refused to hire the guilty candidate.

“Honesty and integrity are really valued by employers and even other employees,” Jack Rayman, senior director of Pennsylvania State University Career Services, said. “When you lie about something, most employers are going to dismiss you.”

Scott Sees said he understood the actions of employers who rejected dishonest candidates.

“They’re interviewing someone to find out their work ethic, and there’s already a moral inflexibility built into their resume,” Sees said. “It’s indicative of a larger problem.”

Many employers do not tolerate any inaccurate resume information.

Forty-seven percent of hiring managers said they would immediately write off a candidate who lied on a resume, according to the survey.

“It calls their entire professional history and their professional and personal ethics into question,” said Laura Morsch, career adviser for Career Builder’s college division, CBCampus.com. “If they can’t be honest about employment history, what else are they not being honest about?”

The most commonly caught resume lie involves stretching dates to cover up gaps in employment, according to the survey.

One in five employers said they had found this discrepancy on a candidate’s resume.

Other common lies include creating or embellishing past employers, academic degrees and institutions, technical skills and accomplishments.

Lying on a resume can follow a candidate throughout his or her career, Morsch said.

“The working world is a small one,” Morsch said. “If you get fired from one position for lying on your resume, that really could haunt you for a long time in your professional career.”

Rayman said some candidates think they cannot get an interview without superb credentials, even if the information is false.

“I think they’re just trying to get an edge,” Rayman said. “And some aspects of our society suggest that if you can get by with it, then it’s OK.”

Students should realize that when employers say they are looking for “experience,” the term is more vague than they think, Morsch said.

“Your volunteer work, extracurricular activities and the project you spent all semester on do have a lot of real world relevance,” Morsch said. “Students are more qualified than they think.”

There is a difference between presenting yourself positively and exaggerating your resume, Morsch said.

“Marketing yourself well means taking what you did and putting it in the best possible light,” Morsch said. “Embellishing means boosting your qualifications in order to seem like more than they actually are.”

Rayman said he encourages students to seek help when writing their resumes.

Science Express published a report Thursday recording a successful test of the first invisibility cloak — a year before it was supposed to work.

The experimental data were gathered by a team of scientists, led by David Smith, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and research associate David Schurig. The data demonstrates that the cloak can redirect microwaves around itself and have the waves appear behind it relatively undisturbed — a technique that could eventually be applied to visible light, researchers said.

“One first imagines a distortion in space similar to what would occur when pushing a pointed object through a piece of cloth, distorting, but not breaking, any threads,” Schurig explained. “In such a space, light or other electromagnetic waves would be confined to the warped ‘threads’ and therefore could not interact with — or ‘see’ — objects placed inside the resulting hole.”

Schurig said it was not easy to “warp space” but the scientists solved the problem by using “metamaterials.” These metamaterials, which have unique electro-magnetic properties not found in nature, are what make it possible for waves to be deflected around the object.

“Ordinary materials like glass have an index of refraction. This material does not have a uniform refraction index, so its properties vary as a function of its position,” said Anthony Starr, president of SensorMetrix in San Diego, who helped construct the metamaterials.

Simply put, Starr explained, this means that scientists can control the way the waves bend around a cloak in a manner that would not be possible with materials occurring in nature.

A cloak is perhaps a misleading term for the device Duke scientists have constructed, said Bryan Justice, Pratt ‘05, who aided in the experimentalverification of the project.

“I would call it a microwave shield,” he said.

The cloak, a small device no more than five inches across, is really a series of concentric circles — called split-ring resonators — constructed out of metamaterials, said Schurig, who designed the device.

The team produced the cloak according to electromagnetic specifications determined by a new design theory proposed by Sir John Pendry, chair in Theoretical Solid State Physics at Imperial College London, in collaboration with the Duke scientists. Liheng Guo, a junior, wrote the control software that allowed for automated data acquisition in the 2-D mapping system used to test the cloak.

“I’ve been looking for a new job for a few months, and I can’t find one that pays enough,” Stone said.

Stone is not alone. Economists estimate that the country needs to add at least 150,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth.

There is a changing climate in the job market that is not reflected in unemployment numbers or the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Despite receiving little or no media attention, overall private sector job growth in the United States in the last five years has been running in the negative. There are increasingly more people in the country than there are jobs.

“It’s a pretty complex issue. It’s pretty hard to fit a complex issue into a seven second sound bite,” said Jeff Wilson, coordinator of student employment at Missouri Western. “You can’t really blame it on one thing.”

Wilson acknowledged the significance of the negative job growth numbers as compared to population growth, as well as the fact that it is poorly reported in the news.

“I’m a rabid news junkie,” Wilson said. “(It’s important to) have a vested interest in just knowing what’s happening, and trying to piece it all together, from the national scene to local impact, and why things are the way they are right now.”

Recent figures from the Labor Department show that an average of 137,000 jobs were created every month this year.

That would put present job growth 13,000 below what is needed to keep pace with monthly population growth.

Perhaps part of the reason that the media is only reporting this issue in terms of financial news is that traditionally the benchmark used to describe the state of jobs in the nation are unemployment figures. Although unemployment figures are almost invariably used to describe labor issues, they are not the only overall indicator of employment nationwide.

“The way that unemployment figures are generated is that people are taking unemployment benefits because they have just lost a job,” Wilson said, pointing out that unemployment figures are only one statistic, and do not accurately reflect the number of jobs in the country. “Once unemployment runs out, the government stops counting you.”

“When listening to the news about low unemployment figures, the average person goes, ‘oh, that’s good,’ and that’s the last they ever think of it,” Wilson said, pointing out that these figures are often not a good barometer of job growth.

There is a general perception that if unemployment figures are low, there must be plenty of jobs. When the media presents positive unemployment figures, people often assume that job growth is good.

“I think it’s great,” said senior J.J. Ray, about job growth in the country. “But we could always use more jobs.”

Ray said that he felt heartened about job growth because of low unemployment figures quoted in the media, and because he read in the paper that state and local government jobs were returning.

“I thought job growth was going up,” senior Tim Oswald said, also noting unemployment figures as his source. “I live in a small town,” Oswald said, lamenting the reality of fewer jobs in his hometown of Fairfax, Mo. “Job growth there just isn’t happening any more.”

“Manufacturing jobs that had been here traditionally are leaving.” Wilson said. “Service industry jobs have helped to offset some of that.”

He felt that people that had formerly had manufacturing jobs are now competing with students for part-time positions for less money and fewer benefits.

Linda M. Garlinger, director of career development at Missouri Western agreed that manufacturing jobs are down and service industry jobs are on the rise, but points out that there are other industries that always in need of workers, such as healthcare.

“Regardless of what they say, ‘job growth is up’ or ‘job growth is down,’ employment for college graduates stays about the same.” Garlinger said. “For people with college degrees. It’s easier for them to find employment than it is for people with high school diplomas or less.”

“With a college degree it’s a much better environment to be in,” Wilson said.

Garlinger acknowledged the underreported job growth figures, but had optimism for the future. When talking about Missouri Western student looking for work, she pointed out that these were national figures that would not apply to specific industries in the same way.

“When you’re talking about what the employment rate is, and what the job growth is, I think you have to look within specific industries,” Garlinger said. “Manufacturing is on a downhill slide, but how many of our students are going into manufacturing?”

“We place about 32 percent of our graduates in the St. Joseph community, and that’s been pretty consistent over the years,” Garlinger said, pointing out that there are still many jobs for a college graduate in St. Joseph.

The job growth figures for last month were 51,000 jobs added, 99,000 jobs short of the same target. According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, roughly a million new jobs were created from January 2001 through January 2006. When that figure is compared to population growth, the nation is roughly 7 million jobs short.

Job growth in 2005 was up slightly when compared to population growth, but did not begin to appreciably offset the overall downturn of the previous four years. Job growth compared to population growth is down again this year.

The United States slipped into a recession in 2001, ending 10 years of growth that was the longest economic expansion in the nation’s history.

The economy has recovered since then, and growth has accelerated. Job growth would be expected to follow the economy’s upward movement, but their numbers continue to remain well below expectations. This has been the weakest economic recovery on record in terms of job growth.

Historically, this is not a typical scenario. Job growth has always been significantly larger than population growth on average for most of the last century, with the exception of the Great Depression. If this trend continues, it could have drastic ramifications on the working class of the nation.

These distressing statistics do not seem to be reported in a coherent way in the media. Job growth figures are reported on monthly in stories related to the economy and stock prices, but are almost invariably examined as a comparison of the present month with  other economic indicators. Usually these figures are cited without using population growth as a baseline.

Job growth also affects different states differently. Between the period of 2001 and 2005, 18 states reported negative job growth in the private sector. Ranked 40th of the fifty states in job growth, Missouri figures sank to -1.0 during this period.

Although the reasons for this trend may possibly be traced to certain economic and business policies, the consensus is that there is no one definitive explanation for these job losses.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – About 25 Christian students Thursday took turns confessing their sins on Nyumburu Cultural Center’s amphitheater stage to counter the message three evangelical Christian preachers espoused on the same stage Tuesday — that “real Christians don’t sin.”

“One by one, we are going to come up [on stage], say our name and acknowledge that we have sinned,” said Ryan Penley, the campus director of Campus Crusade for Christ, who organized the event.

Their confessions were intended to rebut the message of three ministers claiming they were free of sin, who told students Tuesday that homosexuality, drinking, smoking and sex before marriage would land them in hell. More than 50 students staged a counter-protest.

The Christian students Thursday attended the event to make clear that the Bible acknowledges Christians do sin, they said, and that Soulwinners Ministries — who staged the demonstration Tuesday — did not represent the mainstream Christians on the campus.

“We don’t think Jesus would have done what [Soulwinners Ministries] did the other day,” Penley said. “Jesus showed love to sinners.”

Students most commonly confessed lying, cheating, judging, disobeying parents and drinking as their sins. Penley’s idea for having Christian students confess their sins came from his frustration with Soulwinners Ministries’ connecting being Christian with committing no sins.

Penley, who organized Thursday’s event by sending an e-mail to various Christian groups on campus, also invited members of the Pride Alliance, the campus group that supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students that organized Tuesday’s counter demonstration.

Penley said it was important to reach out to the Pride Alliance because they had been shown the most hate by Soulwinners Ministries, and hatred toward campus community members was one of the main things Campus Crusade was trying to challenge and diminish.

Although Campus Crusade doesn’t condone homosexual activity, it also doesn’t condone hatred toward homosexuals, and that distinction was worth emphasizing, Penley said.

Sarah Grumet, a senior women’s studies major who is active with the Pride Alliance, attended Thursday’s event because she was so pleased with Tuesday’s outpouring of support from Christians, a group not always known for compassion toward homosexuals, she said.

“I was really impressed with the support [the Pride Alliance] got, especially from the Christian groups,” Grumet said. “It really speaks to the growing amount of acceptance on campus.”

Campus Crusade members Meghan Baker and Meghan Klein said they stayed up until 4 a.m. Thursday morning in their Allegheny Hall suite making a 12-foot sign that read “ALL HAVE SINNED…EVEN CHRISTIANS.”

Klein, a senior fire protection engineering major, was one of the first people to confess her sins on stage. She said what Soulwinners Ministries did on Tuesday was “just wrong.”

“Christians don’t sin? That’s just wrong,” she said. “We’re nothing if not people in need of a savior.”

Throughout Thursday’s event, and between student confessions of sin, Penley jumped on stage and reiterated Campus Crusade’s reasons for gathering: to stand united and offer an apology on behalf of campus Christians to anyone hurt by Soulwinners Ministries, including LGBT students.

Several explanations for the lower prices, down $0.077 per gallon since last week and $0.290 since October, 2005, have been given since costs dipped below $3 per gallon, one of which is political.

With the mid-term elections approaching, Democratic Party candidates and critics have speculated that the Republican administration is manipulating prices to offset criticism of the party’s stringent energy platform.

However, according to David Osleger, a member of the University of California at Davis geology department and former geologist for the Gulf Oil Corporation, the price of oilper-barrel is constantly fluctuating and cannot be accounted for by any particular factor.

“The thing about oil prices is that it is so utterly unpredictable,” he said. “There is no real grand scheme of setting the price of gas at the pump. It is all a reaction to global events and the rapidity of changes regarding issues in the Middle East, the repairing of pipelines in Alaska, Venzuela’s president and numerous other things.”

Osleger added that he feels gas prices could not realistically be affected by political motivations.

“There are so many variables that go into prices at the pump that I cannot conceive a way that the Republican administration could manipulate price,” he said.

John Theobald, chairperson of the University of California’s Oil Forum and professor at UC Davis, said politics are often involved in petroleum-based energy issues.

“That may be a factor, but not an important one,” he said. “I would concede that some political manipulation of price is possible, but the important point is that prices will be rising in the long run.”

According to Theobald, the expectation of a long-term increase in gas prices does not equate to Americans paying less right now.

“We can expect a lot of fluctuation because markets don’t go up or down in a straight line,” he said. “But consumers should expect the price of oil products to increase significantly in the coming years regardless of short-term drops in price.”

Regardless of oil prices, experts contend that the future of worldwide energy consumption will be in conservation and alternative fuels. Research efforts such as those at UC Davis hope to be at the forefront of such discoveries.

Theobald said that while oil is the most convenient fuel in terms of its form at room-temperature and usability, alternative energies are crucial to fulfilling future energy needs.

“It’s important people understand the importance of finding alternatives to oil,” he said. “We need several longrange alternatives, not just one or two viable options. It is also about conservation. We need to study a range of different subject areas.”

Osleger said Americans that have expressed frustration with the price of gas may not realize that costs are comparatively low.

“The prices we pay are extraordinarily low relative to a comparable amount of any other fluid, like water or orange juice,” Osleger said. “The reality is we still pay a very reasonable amount. If gas kept pace with inflation and the amount of oil left in the ground, then we would actually be paying a lot more.”

Osleger added that the United States will reach the point of peak oil in the near future and will have to consider its options.

“We could save enormous amounts of energy if we could get higher miles per hour in our vehicles, better hybrid cars and electric cars to improve our travel,” he said. “And as we look at ways to conserve, we can look toward alternative energy.”

They will set out from there, going through the streets and calling on many more to join them – making a powerful statement: “No! This Regime does not repesent us! And we will drive it out” is the statement that is first seen when the Web page for www.worldcantwait.net is loaded.

But there are no protests being planned in the city of St. Joseph, nor is there that much happening in the state of Missouri. Sure, the big cities like Kansas City and  St. Louis will have a smattering of a few hundred people taking to the streets. Surprisingly enough events are being organized for smaller cities as well, such as Carrolton and Springfield, but no one has organized anything for St. Joe. It begs the questions, is there no liberal voice in Joe town?

One only needs to listen to the music popular with the subculture scenes of Goth and Punk alike to hear the undertones of dissent. Goth and Punk music still sell very well, according to the managers of local music stores Hastings Books, Music, and Video and FYE. One manager of FYE even said he felt that a voice of dissent was still being heard by the citizenry of St. Joe.

Nancy Stohlman, author and editor of the book Live from Palestine and former President of the Denver Chapter of the Liberation of Palestine, feels that the problem is generational.

“The baby boomers were shocked by what they had seen as they grew up…,” she said. “The kids of today have grown up with it ever since and have come to expect it.”

Apathy has often been cited as a cause for the lack of a real rebellion in these times. Limited attention span is another reason, which is pretty funny when you consider how many people are prescribed some form of mood elevator. Mike Miller, sophomore at Western, has two issues that would make him rebel.

“If they reinstate the draft or raise gas to $4.” Miller said.

Willie Gilbert, senior at Western, once supported the current administration, but his views changed due to the Presidents environmental policies. “Environmental ethics are my primary concern, and I think they have already crossed the line,” Gilbert said.

More reasons why people don’t take it to the streets could be that we have become over informed.

“I think large media is to blame,” Gilbert said. “There is so much being said that you don’t know who to trust or believe.”

Some students do not agree with the worldcantwait sentiments.

“I think their garbage about why not to support democrats makes them the most stupid of all groups, and akin to nihilists,” Freshman Justin Peacock said. “Anger without solution is…uh…anger without solution. People should be doing everything in their power to get democrats in power right now. That’s an actual solution. Railing against everyone and everything merely marginalizes the good you’re doing.”

NEW YORK-Users of the online hangout Facebook revolted and won as the site agreed Friday to let them turn off a new feature that drew privacy complaints because it lets others easily see changes made to their personal profile pages.

“We really messed this one up,” Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said in an open letter to users.

The backlash came over Facebook’s decision Tuesday to deliver automated, customized alerts about a user’s closest friends, classmates and colleagues. Users who log on might instantly find out that  someone they know has joined a new social group, posted more photos or begun dating their best friend.

All of the information presented had been available before, but a person had to visit a friend’s profile page and make note of any changes – for example, noticing that the friend now has 103 friends instead of 102, and identifying which one got added.

The feature was meant to help users save time. Instead, Facebook saw thousands of users joining protest groups on the site and signing online petitions. A Web journal was even set up calling for users to boycott the site next Tuesday.

The boycott was called off Friday, as was a protest Monday outside the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.

“We think it’s a good compromise,” said Facebook user Igor Hiller, 17, a University of California, Santa Barbara, freshman who had organized Monday’s protest. “We’re happy with what they’ve done.”

Zuckerberg told The Associated Press on Thursday that Facebook was working on giving users  additional privacy options. The safeguards let users block from feeds entire categories – such as changes to the groups they belong to – while still allowing people to observe such changes by visiting the profile page.

The options were started Friday and essentially let users block all types of feeds if they want. Zuckerberg said Friday such options should have been offered from the start.

“This was a big mistake on our part, and I’m sorry for it,” he wrote users. “But apologizing isn’t enough. I wanted to make sure we did something about it, and quickly. So we have been coding nonstop for two days to get you better privacy controls.”

Facebook has long prided itself on privacy.

A user’s profile details, including contact information, relationship status and hobbies, are generally hidden from others unless they are already part of that user’s network of friends or institution, such as a college.

In addition, users have the option of hiding specific details from certain users, even ones already designated as friends – choosing, for instance, to show photos to college buddies but not to co-workers.

To join, one must prove membership in an existing network using an e-mail address from a college, a high school or selected companies and organizations. As a result, Facebook has fewer than 10 million registered users, compared with some 108 million at News Corp. (NWSA)’s MySpace.

After nearly nine years of study and planning, the U.S. Department of Education issued a draft guidance last Monday calling for colleges to revamp the way they collect and report data on student race, allowing students to choose multiple racial categories.

The move would overhaul a racial reporting system that many feel ignores the presence of mixed-race individuals.

Currently, college students can select only one of five racial categories: black, white, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander and Native American/Alaskan Native. If a student selects multiple ethnicities, only one is counted when the school reports racial statistics to the federal government.

Although some colleges have reworked their forms to let students check multiple boxes for their own internal records, such institutions still use the traditional system when reporting data to the government.

It is unclear how many students have marked multiple categories in past years. More than 6.8 million respondents picked more than one racial category in the 2000 U.S. Census, according to census statistics.

The new system of multiracial identity reporting would also ask students whether they are Latino or Hispanic and divide the Asian/Pacific Islander category into two distinct groups.

Though the idea of including a physical “multiracial” check box drew heavy criticism when proposed by former University of California regent Ward Connerly in 2004, some UC officials say they support allowing students to check multiple racial categories.

“I think the idea of accurately representing one’s racial heritage and identity strikes me as a good idea,” said P. David Pearson, dean of the Graduate School of Education. “Having students identify with a multiracial box would be more accurate in representing our students’ races.”

A UC spokesperson declined to comment on the new proposal.

But Yvette Felarca, director of the local chapter of civil rights group By Any Means Necessary, said the new proposal sounded constructive.

“We support students being able to self-identify with their race as long as it’s specific and it can make campuses accountable for the demographic makeup of their student body,” Felarca said.