I’ve often wondered what people type in these places and why. Now people can just wonder about me, as always.

Life’s good when you’re strange!

I’ll blog a bit latter today after I get home and unpacked.

Have a great Sunday.

Randy Gingrich is a very personable law enforcement officer and his wife is a teacher. The extended family has of course donated time to Newt’s campaign when ever they could and keep their personal careers on track. Randy seemed comfortable talking to me about his family so I had to ask the very personal questions concerning Newt’s ex-wife and her claims that Newt had asked her for an open marriage during his marriage to her.

His reply seemed very sincere and heart felt. “I remember family vacations with her and how close we were,” Randy said. “I don’t know where this is coming from.” It appeared that he had some answers rehearsed about how the media and others have an interest in seeing Newt’s apparent successes in South Carolina and in the Republican Party diminished.

Local papers here in Charleston put Newt’s debate performance at a B+ and he is favored to win the primary here today.

I can’t help but notice that reading left to right across Yahoo’s opening page today they show photos of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in that order. It appears that mainstream media just can’t give Newt his due. The article’s headline claims that Newt will have continuing problems even if he takes South Carolina.

If you have been following me on Facebook and this column you already know that I feel the winner of every debate is the American voter. I am a small part of media who was there and saw Newt Gingrich literally assaulted by CNN on the onset of the debate.

Like Newt, I was appalled at CNN’s opening of the debates with such a blatant attack on a candidates character. CNN is now talking about redemption and forgiveness after the tongue lashing delivered by Newt. I have seldom personally witnessed the power of the American system of government at its best and worst in the same evening.

It is not my job to declare a winner in these debates or the primary. The winner is determined by the voter. We are facing the most important election of our time. If you are not registered to vote you need to educate yourself about the candidates and the issues.

You can register to vote with the aid of any of the student political affiliations at Missouri Western. I’m sure they would love the opportunity to assist you in registering to vote and give you information about their candidates positions.

If you watched the debate you already know that we witnessed four polished professional speakers and masters of debate. Big deal. Each had many points in the debate that I can agree with. I wish I could take the parts I like from each of them and make for myself the best candidate ever.

Let’s get to the background of the day. First, the stage for these debates had five lecterns this morning and four tonight after Governor Perry dropped. Second, we find that Rick Santorum won the Iowa primary. Santorum had a great night at the debates. Third item, Newt Gingrich’s x-wife is reporting that he asked her for an open marriage while they were married. I don’t believe her story for a minute. Ask any married man. We may think we want an open marriage but we don’t ever ask the wife for permission.

Mitt Romney did well tonight and probably held his lead. He is far to moderate for me. He was forced to explain the difference between his healthcare plan for Massachusetts and Obama care. There isn’t much difference so it shouldn’t have taken near as long as it did.

Then, to the shame of CNN, Ron Paul who practiced medicine for years was overlooked on most responses, even those dealing directly with healthcare.

So, who won? It’s my hope that you the voter won. You were given an opportunity to watch the republican candidates as they attack each other and the president. How much is real? How much is true? It is up to us to find out. If you are looking for me to make up my mind so you can vote the same or opposite because you either think I’m either cool or not, your doing it wrong.

These debates seldom have a clear winner. It is as it always has been. You must get involved and understand the candidates and the issues that are important to you.

It’s possible that these debates, full of displays and posturing, will someday be unnecessary if people begin to get involved and participate in their government. Being there reminded me of the Coliseum in Rome. I watched as these would-be gladiators tore each other’s ideas and policies apart. Sometimes it wasn’t pretty.

There needs to be a better way for candidates to discuss ideas in a more constructive way. There are perks to doing things this way however, I had drinks with Gingrich’s brother. I’ll write more on that later.

If you could only remember one thing about Dr. King, remember that he gave his life to obtain justice for others. His reasoning for enduring assault, arrests and disrespect came from his determination to develop a better future for a more united society where character and personality are more important then color and race. As Dr. King became successful for serving others with peace and respect, certainly we can do the same with our campus and our peers.

Missouri Western students should first be proud of the service and unity established on our campus. Not every school is like our school. From our standing section at every football, basketball and baseball game to our diverse campus organizations that have created a well mixed blend of unity among campus life, our school has created an amazing place for students to feel comfortable, united and respected. Dr. King would be very proud.

Yet, there is more work to be done. This work can and should be done by each and every student. This work involves helping each other out in our classes. Think about how many times you were confused on an assignment or had to miss a few classes. Now think about how many times you needed help to finish an assignment, catch up on work or needed help understanding something. Truth is we have all been there and we all should thank those helpful peers that helped us pass a class which made us another small step closer to graduation. If we continue to help each other out in our classes and academics, we would all be more successful.

Service equals success and success equals service. No one maintains success without knowing how to help others out. Spend just a little more time being useful and available to help others. The reward in return is something better than any ‘A’ you could receive on any exam or paper. Having the feeling that you helped someone become successful assures that you have been an impact to a person’s life. Remember that society remembers greatness not by what a person has done on paper but by how many people a person has touched. Dr. Martin Luther King was an author, activist, global leader and Noble Peace Prize winner. Yet, we don’t remember him for that. We remember him by the millions of people he reached in just one word, sentence or speech. His memory lives on because his words live on and these words motivate us to create a “beautiful symphony of brotherhood” in our school just as he did with our nation. Long live the king.

I filled out the clearance information for CNN a couple of weeks ago and got the word last Sunday that I have been cleared to attend. Look for me in the crowd during the program which will be broadcast live from 8 p.m. till ten p.m. EST tomorrow January 19th on CNN and CNN.com.

I plan to keep everyone at Missouri Western informed about my trip by posting these little stories so follow me on thegriffonnews.com to see how things go.

I have to get up at four in the morning to take the red eye to Chicago and after an hour and a half layover I’ll be headed to Charleston South Carolina to be in the midst of presidential candidates and all that goes with it.

For now I need to get to bed.

Talk to you soon.

I’ve checked in with tonight’s moderator and CNN Anchor, John King. I supplied a question for him to ask. I just want to know how, how soon, and how much can each of the candidates affect the economy in a positive way?

Those of you not following me on facebook didn’t get the part where I hate airports. I love to fly but just don’t like the airports. I think I was meant to have my own private jet.

And, I need an assistant who will work for free.

The Tea Party Patriots have set me up in a very nice three room suite. I will be shooting a video there and have it on youtube soon I hope.

Time is slipping away and I must get ready. The doors open at 5:30 this evening and will close at 7:15. The security is tight as you can imagine.

I will not be allowed to photograph, video, or record anything. I am not even allowed in the area with my cell phone. I’ll just have to go back to tablet and pencil. God I love good old fashion journalism.

I plan to get the information to you as soon as I return to my room tonight.

Stay with me this will get interesting.

Ellis

I’m flying Southwest. It is not my favorite but very user friendly. Also, bags fly for free. I’ll probably send you another message when I reach Chicago.

Sweet dreams.

The night I found out I was staying up late working on our website, GriffonNews.com. In our small community, people knew Quintin worked with Shippert. Somehow, he walked around for seven months, acting relatively normal, with murder on his conscience.

What is done is done. Sadly, the community I call home can’t get passed that. Quintin’s facebook wall remains open and a litany of ignorant, belligerent, and downright hypocritical comments have been appearing on his wall since.

Before I continue it should be noted that I know he confessed to both charges. I recognize that his mug shot, which has been run on national news now, shows no regret in the man’s face. For all intents and purposes, Quintin is a murderer.

What I find further depressing is the actions of the rest of us. We cannot change Quintin. What he has done cannot be reversed. So, when people I went to school with post in his facebook that they will pray for his swift death or hope he gets raped in prison, I want to thank those people. Thank you. I now see how ignorant and soulless you are.

Another posted that if Quintin ever got out, people would murder him. Now, I don’t want to turn this into a column about the death penalty and the moral implications of a society deeming someone unfit to live in it. You, dear poster on his facebook wall, are not society. We have courts, prosecutors, judges and juries to decide those things. Not one man, who has most likely never studied criminal justice or sociology.

Please, for those of you who know Quintin and are connected to his now inactive social networking sites, don’t post there. He’s never going to see it. Do you really think they have facebook in prison? They don’t. You know who does have facebook: his family. His two sisters are finishing their last year at Platte County High and are probably being tortured by their peers already.

My condolences to Miss Shippert’s family, but I also have sympathy for Quintin’s family. For everyone involved, the tragedy won’t end after his sentencing. These things linger, but hopefully not for long.

Another ignorant idea coming out of this is that somehow, Quintin’s rank of Eagle Scout somehow had something to do with his violent tendencies, or that, being and Eagle Scout isn’t as much of an honor as our society says it is. Lighting strikes even the tallest of trees.

I can assure you, that in no way, would the training of the Boy Scouts of America ever play into the amoral killing of an innocent woman. The last line of our Motto is “to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.” Those aren’t just words though, everything in scouting teaches us how to be a good person to ourselves and to each other. I know that scouting has made a significantly positive impact on my life.

Does this mean that Scouting went wrong with Quintin? Not at all. It doesn’t mean anyone around Quintin did anything wrong, including his parents. It means that lightning strikes the tallest of trees, too. Ever since I had known Quintin he was never a violent or angry person. But, sometimes people just aren’t born with something. Our idea of evil is that evil is a possession of some sort, meaning that those who murder in cold blood have evil. Maybe evil is lacking something. Maybe no amount of scouting could fix that ever.

I will defend, protect and adhere to the scouting way of life until I die. The actions of individuals do not reflect on an organization as a whole. If that were true, America, and all countries for that matter, would not be considered great societies to live in.

SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, is an Internet censorship bill that would prohibit websites from displaying copyrighted intellectual properties, or IPs. In theory this sounds like a good idea, but in action it is more detrimental to our country’s freedom of speech than piracy is to the music and film industry.

SOPA states that any website that might “engage in, enable, or facilitate” copyright infringement is subject to penalty under this law. What exactly does “engage in, enable, or facilitate” mean? Simply stated, this means that an IP holder can seek a court order against a website and shut it down due to copyright infringement. This can be anything from a YouTube tribute video, to movie and music download links. What this means for the Internet is that anything the RIAA and the MPAA sees as unfit can be subjected to having their URL blacklisted and made inaccessible to the public.

This doesn’t stop piracy though; the same websites can still be visited and used if a person has the IP address. What this does is create a censored Internet based on what an organization thinks is acceptable. This is way too much power for these organizations, with known agendas, to have.

SOPA feels so much more restrictive and fascist than a country based on free speech and basic human rights should even consider. If we pass this law, our media is no better than the censorship in China. In 1996, China started to ban websites and censor the Internet in fear that information could be subversive to the government. In fact, China employs Internet Police strikingly similar to Big Brother’s Thought Police.

In fact, this not only violates free speech, it also has a negative impact on the economy. Websites that have user submitted content such as Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr could all be affected by this act, not to mention all the future websites that could be affected, or even cease to exist. There’s a good chance that every site you frequent could be affected by this act.

What SOPA is, and what it says it is, are two completely different things. We must act on the rights we have before they are taken away. This is going down a one-way road we won’t be able to return. It’s our duty as US citizens to act against an atrocity that could damage our freedom that we pride ourselves on so much.

There are various foundations that are raising awareness to this bill, the foremost being the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The site www.EFF.org was founded to inform the public about threats to Internet neutrality, which in our technological day and age, is one of our most important assets.

The threat of a censored life has finally come upon us. This doesn’t just affect IP owners, the economy, or some political agenda. This act will directly affect you and your daily life. If you don’t want the possibility of seeing only what a bent organization wants you to see, it’s time for action.

In 2009, Missouri Western Board of Governors voted in favor of renewing Aramarks contract for up to eight years.  They say that Aramark could provide Western with nearly $3.5 million over that span.  What they fail to mention is the $3.5 million is not coming from Aramark, but from the student’s pockets.

A hotdog, chips and a drink will cost you roughly $5 at our Aramark eateries around campus.  A simple hotdog that cost them roughly .40 cents to prepare cost the students nearly $2.  Their daily specials are $4.00 without a drink.  The options are very limited and often less than appealing.   As a manager of a steakhouse for the last 10 years I got a pretty good idea what they pay for some of their products.  To me it seems they take the cheapest route on virtually every product and in turn charge us a premium price.

Why can’t they offer a few $1 options for college students living on a budget?  If Quick Trip can make money off selling $1 dollar hotdogs and taquitos then why can’t Aramark? I understand they are a business and need to make money but there is a big difference between making money and being greedy.  It feels to me like they are taking advantage of students, especially the ones that cannot leave campus to eat elsewhere.

Why does our administration at Missouri Western continue to let Aramark charge us ridicules prices for low quality food?  Aramark blames rising food cost, which is true and a good excuse, but the food they are serving us is downright disgusting.  We cannot even have a function on school grounds without having to purchase food through Aramark at an extremely higher price than many restaurants in St. Joseph would cater for.  They have us stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I heard that Aramark’s food is so bad that on the first day of Kansas City Chiefs training camp in 2010, the Chiefs organization had their own services from Kansas City brought in because of Aramark’s low quality.  My informant that was working for the Chiefs that day clearly heard a Chiefs player say “This stuff is dog food.”  If it is not good enough for the Chiefs, why is it good enough Western students?

I don’t want Aramark to be replaced necessarily, but I would like them to ask students what they enjoy eating and offer some higher quality products.  Another thing that would be nice is if Aramark could offer students some value priced items.  Not every student has $1300 on a flex card.  If they could do this they would probably see an increase of students eating on campus and that would most likely even out their cost for better products.

My book alone was over $200, and then you have to buy the program for the computer. So all together I’m sure I spent around $250 bucks. This is ridiculous for one class that has nothing to do with my degree. However, spending $200 on a book does make me upset, but it isn’t as bad as when you go and return the book. It’s funny, you would think if you spent $200 on a book, that you would get at least $100 back. Well, that would be the case if they weren’t changing the book for the next semester. My Vista Spanish book was brand new, and was only used for one semester. So when I went to return the book to the bookstore, they told me they weren’t taking them back.

I spent over $250 overall on this one class, and get nothing back in return. It makes you wonder why new sites have been created for students to go online and find textbooks at a cheaper rate, and be able to sell them to these sites. Companies such as UsedBooks.com, CheapBooks.com, and eBay are making huge profits and soon they will in my opinion close down these horrible University bookstores.

If students are smart, for the spring semester they will not sell books back to the bookstore, but sell them online. For those who purchased used or rental textbooks don’t expect to see a huge refund from returning your books. I myself have one used textbook and I spent over $100 on it this semester and I can bet you that once I return it, I will be lucky to even get $40. On the other hand, the books that I bought, I will be selling them online to these online textbook sites and in return see an actual profit that I would hope for.

So students don’t make the wrong decision, get smart and do the right thing. Don’t let the bookstore win next semester, and cheat you out of cash for a book that they will sell for the same price or a little lower next semester. Juniors and seniors have seemed to discover that buying books online is the best way to save cash, and they are right. It took me two years to discover that eBay had the books I needed for class at a much lower price.

What I have noticed during my studies is that my major isn’t what you’d call a legitimate major. Missouri Western does not offer a Journalism major. My preferred area of study is actually a concentration of English. That’s what it says on my transcript – Major: English with a concentration in Journalism. It’s really like I’m minoring in the thing I want to do with my life (which I could also do; there IS a Journalism minor).

People who want to major in Public Relations, Botany, or Zoology will run into the same problem. These subjects are only offered as concentrations of much broader areas. And yet students looking to major in French or Spanish (but not German), or Convergent Media, or Music Education have definitive majors. Western also offers the traditional Pre-Med, Pre-Law, Nursing, History, Chemistry majors etc. So why not Journalism?

While Journalism concentration majors (I guess that’s what we’re called) spend most of their time taking classes on literature and textual analysis along with their reporting, publishing, and photography classes, I’m sure other media majors aren’t bogged down by reading and language awareness. And we’re stuck into such a wide category. English majors can minor or have a concentration in quite a few subjects. But there isn’t one large Language major that encompasses all the French and Spanish students.

Don’t get me wrong here – I have NO problem with any students or any majors. It just feels frustrating to people like me (and probably the PR and zoology kids) who are spending our time studying things we may not need, and then maybe getting the job we want but never being able to say, “Yeah, I was a journalism major.”

Much of this abuse occurs in secondary school settings, but even more common finding itself in elementary schools, as well as college campuses, then reaching beyond to cyberbullying. The number of cases is on the rise, being viewed as a leading contributor to homicide and suicide. Most teens believe revenge is the strongest motivation to get back at those who hurt them. Many students find themselves terrified to be in their own school. Some will skip class while suffering from anxiety, depression, withdrawal and low self-esteem which in turn will lead to lower grades or throwing them into social isolation.

The most horrid of these cases will end in suicide. One such case out of many was Jayme Rodemeyer, a 14 year old who killed himself as a result of being taunted for years at school due to his sexual orientation. The torment he endured was relentless. His was a cry for help that came too late. His parents were aware of his suffering. There has to be an accountability held for these bullies and their victims. Programs are being implemented in schools, but it all takes too long. A child must be made to feel secure about talking to a trusted adult. Parents must join forces with the school and devise a plan for their students now.

As long as there is silence, the bully feels he has the chance to do more. Stop him! If a teen is being bullied, get help from someone now. Alert others. Do not stop talking until others listen. Friends, parents and teachers must be on the lookout for these signs. Friends almost always know what a peer is going through. Watch one another’s backs. If you know about a problem, report it. I believe the first course of action is to show a bully no response: walk away, no emails or words. This will eliminate the fuel they need to keep it fun. They will become bored with this and probably stop. Most of all, I believe teens should join in with others who make them feel good about themselves to find true friends. Victims must realize they did not ask to be the target of someone else’s anger. They don’t have to take it. Stay strong. Rise above them. Find courage within yourself, stand strong and hopefully the pain will stop.

In today’s politically correct culture, maybe we should be referring to non-traditional students as mature students. That is assuming a lot of course but I don’t feel many would argue that non-trads at Western are typically more mature than so called traditional students.

Traditional kind of promotes an aura of old fashioned – unwilling to change. While non-traditional brings a feeling of adaptability. Certainly, most if not all of us non-trads have to adapt to college life but to say that we’re the opposite of old fashioned would be a bit of a stretch.

When I try to identify people that I consider to be mature, I mostly think of people that are older. When I think of people that are older than me, I mostly think of people that are somewhat set in their ways. So I guess I’m saying that an element of maturity to me is a hesitation toward change.

Now there is a word that has been thrown around a lot lately.

Recently change has reared its ugly head into the supposedly mature confides of the Non-Traditional Student Center. At least a faction if not all of the non-traditional group have approached this change with anything but adaptability.

I suppose with age comes a comfort level with the way things are. Things have been the same at Western for a while but things are changing that are out of our control. More students are applying and enrolling than ever before. Budget constraints have forced tough decisions. I have always felt that with uncontrollable change there comes a need for controllable change.

I am a non-trad and I consider myself a mature student. I will even admit to being someone who is hesitant toward change. I will also proudly proclaim to be someone that is willing to adapt to a changing situation.

Pride can also be an element of maturity. It is pride in this university that should make us all mature enough to adapt to change. Even if does stray from tradition.

Starting the Fall 2011 semester, attendance policies will strictly be a professor’s personal decision. This means that every Missouri Western educator will have to personally develop an attendance policy that they feel is reasonable for students. Though this gives educators more freedom, it can also become problematic. A professor could require students to miss no classes without a valid medical excuse, or simply fail the course. Then students that have a busy schedule, or that work, or that have children will have an extremely difficult time abiding to this policy.

This new policy also means that a student must pay very close attention to the course syllabus. This will now be the only way a student will know how many classes they can miss before he or she actually begins missing them. Students will have to make sure they are printing off their syllabi because professors have stopped printing them off for us. Students will definitely need to think twice before missing the first day of classes. This might only be absence they have; or at least one of the few.

Though Missouri Western have taken a firm step in the right direction involving attendance, professors should take an even bigger step by eliminating their policies. Professors should not be forced to hold students accountable for being in class. Instead of professors holding students accountable, students need to hold themselves accountable. Then, when students graduate and go into the work force, they will understand what self-accountability truly means.

Checking attendance also takes a huge amount of time from class work, especially with courses that have around 50 to 70 students in them. So with a 50 minute class and 10 minute time to take attendance, students are really only getting 40 minutes of actual useful class time.

If any student thinks they could miss numerous classes and still pass, then let them. Ultimately, it will be nobody’s fault but his or her own. Professors have enough responsibility involving class work, lecture, and creating, checking and grading tests and quizzes. Why don’t we take a little stress off of the many things they have to do on a day-to-day basis? Frankly, no student deserves to be at Missouri Western if he or she can’t be in class in a proper manner. We don’t need any professor to tell us that.

We are making the best of a challenging economic climate. One recent example of this would be this year’s homecoming celebration. This was the best homecoming that I have experienced in my four years here. The campus-wide signage, the level of student participation, and the general atmosphere of enthusiasm were all quite impressive.

Other points of pride include:

• A seventh consecutive year of record enrollment
• International recognition of our Wildlife Society
• The growth of the arts areas ­­including a new Missouri Western Arts Society with close to 200 charter members
• National recognition for the Griffon Indoor Sports Complex as one of twelve noteworthy intercollegiate athletic facilities in the United States

I have many other examples of recent accomplishments and special recognition for Missouri Western. My point is that we have not stopped moving forward, and these are highly visible examples of that.

With regard to resources, we are pursuing a number of avenues above and beyond our on-going struggle for funding fairness:

• We are exploring land leasing opportunities of our land in order to generate additional money.
• We are examining alternative energy sources for our campus.
• We are actively seeking grants from external agencies.
• Our advancement office has stepped up fund raising efforts and will shortly be preparing for our next capital campaign which will coincide with our centennial celebration.

Regarding our on-going struggle for funding fairness, we are getting significant support for this from our legislative delegation. In fact, there is an expressed willingness on their part to introduce legislation on our behalf. This will literally become a “campaign” for Missouri Western as we attempt to move this forward. I think we have successfully communicated our “need” to our various constituencies, now we are in the “action” phase.

Since the economic free fall in 2008, Missouri Western has experienced its share of additional financial challenges. It has not been easy, but we have continued to move in a positive direction. I believe we are now poised to move even further.

This new perk makes sense on many fronts. For one, faculty and staff ticket sales comprised a miniscule part of the athletic department budget. With an athletic department budget of nearly $2 million and total ticket receipts projected at $40,000 most years, employee athletic tickets likely only accounted for a couple thousand dollars at most and thus a tiny fraction of the athletic and university budgets. It’s a perk with minimal cost.

More importantly, the benefit has no doubt increased attendance at home football and basketball games. This is a good thing for the teams. With free tickets, employees and their family members are more likely to come to games, and those extra supporters in the stands can make a difference psychologically at home games. The fact that these punch cards can be redeemed at the game—previously employees needed to go to the athletic department during the day to purchase discounted tickets—makes it even easier for employees to come to games.

From an employee standpoint, attending those games is helpful in strengthening ties and loyalty to the university. From a student standpoint, greater faculty involvement is also a good thing, and no doubt students enjoy seeing their current and former teachers at the games (unless they skipped the professor’s class that day, of course). From an administration standpoint, the free tickets are a nice goodwill gesture, a way of rewarding employees at a time when the university is not able to give pay raises.

As an employee and Griffon fan, I want to say “thank you” to the administration for adding this benefit. As a colleague, I want to encourage my fellow faculty and staff members to obtain a punch card (email Assistant Athletic Director Brett Esely at esely@missouriwestern.edu) and attend sporting events. Go Griffs!

I fail to see anything to be jealous of. I am going to enjoy MU getting killed every single year in football by LSU, Auburn, Alabama, Florida and Georgia. If Missouri fans think that their team is going to be anything more than bottom-feeders in the best football conference in the country, then they are mistaken.

Don’t blame Kansas for not wanting to schedule Missouri. Why is the rivalry ending? Because Missouri went to a different conference. What would Kansas gain by scheduling Missouri? Nothing.

Will I miss the big border war game between the two schools every year? Not really. I have a newsflash for you: Kansas is basketball country. So when the Jayhawks Football team went 2-10 this season or when they went 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl, it really doesn’t matter, and that’s just the way it is. When Missouri fans were celebrating a 24-10 win over KU at Arrowhead this year, Kansas fans were far more troubled by a loss to Duke in basketball that came three days earlier.

The notion that Kansas is scared to schedule MU in basketball is insane. It’s going to take a lot more than a 7-0 start against Nobody University for Kansas to dodge a school out of fear. Mike Anderson was a good coach, and MU was a very dangerous team under him, but he’s gone and in a year or two, all the talent he was able to recruit will be gone too.

Even if Anderson had stayed, there is no guarantee that he would have turned Missouri into a championship caliber program.  Quinn Snyder had the program on track to do great things, making four straight NCAA appearances and two Elite Eights.  Snyder defeated the rival Jayhawks in each of his last two meetings with them but them resigned following the Ricky Clemons scandal.

Frank Haith couldn’t win in the ACC with Miami, and he’s not going to win in the SEC with Missouri. Bill Self has a 132-7 in Allen Field House, a winning percentage of 95, and when he says “Kansas fans don’t give a flip about playing Missouri,” he’s right.

Some people claim that Kansas is great at basketball because Dr. James Naismith jump-started the program. Naismith is the only coach in Kansas history with a losing record (55-60). The program took off under Phog Allen, who coached the Jayhawks for 39 years and led them to 29 regular season championships and a National Championship.

Kansas has the most winning seasons in Division I basketball history, the longest consecutive streak of NCAA tournament appearances, the most first team all-Americans in history, the second most wins all-time, three national championships and eight consecutive Big 12 basketball season championships. When I walk into Allen Field House, I see the jerseys of legends like Wilt Chamberlain, JoJo White, Danny Manning, Jacque Vaughn and Kirk Hinrich hanging from the rafters. The best thing that ever happened to Missouri was a Chase Daniel, a chubby backup quarterback for the Saints.

Explain to me why I should care about a rivalry with Missouri. The Tigers’ last regular season conference basketball championship was in 1994 and the NCAA stripped them of their Elite 8 appearance, vacated their season and forced them to repay $97,000 because a player took things from agents.

Kansas is an elite basketball school. Our rivals are other programs who consistently compete at a high level and win National Championships. Schools like Duke, North Carolina, Connecticut, Syracuse and Kentucky. Yes, the same Kentucky that will beat down Missouri twice a year, every year. So instead of losing to Self and KU, they get to lose to Calipari and UK. Great move.

I loved a good Kansas vs. Missouri brawl in the parking lot of Arrowhead just as much as the next guy, but really I could care less. The hatred for Missouri will still be there for me whether Kansas and Missouri play or not. I will still take pleasure in watching them get squashed in the SEC for years to come. I’ll still find great joy in watching the Gary Pinkel DUI video on repeat. If Missouri wants a game with Kansas, all they have to do is win a few games in the NCAA tournament, and the two schools will meet up.

Since the arrival of Esther Peralez as Western’s vice president for Student Affairs, several staff veterans have left the employ of Western. There’s no beating around the bush, these people were valuable assets to Western and students loved them. Talk to some students and they might tell you they needed them.

Ellen Kisker, Don Willis and Huey Shi Chew are just three of the people that come to mind. Even though these people worked with different groups of students they all have one thing in common, they worked with them individually and relentlessly.

While the plan to move Student Affairs to a more broad perspective of student development and focus on theories and professional competencies may benefit students, it’s hurting them at the same time. Whether it was helping out with visas, finding non-trads scholarships or staying up late to help set up a concert, these staff members were role models of work ethic.

Every employee at Western is here to make a difference in students’ lives. Whether they are a staff member or a professor, they’re here to mentor and teach in some capacity. The question that needs to be answered is that would Student Affairs rather make a large impact in a few students’ lives or a small impact in a lot of students’ lives?

Sure, it’s important to include everyone, but it’s not like people are getting turned away. Stacey Hersh, a non-trad that worked with Kisker, said that she didn’t just work with non-trads. Any student could use the lounge for support.

It’s understandable that Western doesn’t have the budget to hire someone to focus on all of the individual groups of students, but it’s also a matter of priorities. There are more international students on our campus than there ever has been and maybe they need someone whose sole responsibility is integrating them into American culture. Hands down, non-traditional students are the busiest students on campus. Fifteen credit hours, 20 or 40 hour work week, kids, family, job, house payment—maybe they need someone to cut a little leg work out of the equation for them.

Let’s face it, Western isn’t like any other school in Missouri. Besides the low tuition, our open enrollment policy makes us diverse. Whether you’re coming back to school to retrain your skill sets or Western just happens to be the cheapest 4-year university, you’re here to get a degree, find a job and move on.

For some of us that’s enough, and Student Affairs should respect that. At the same time, students should seize opportunities that Student Affairs offers. While Ellen Kisker was here, she was a resource for non-trads. There are many people like her still here. Need a job; see Mathew Greg. Curious about the different cultures and sub-cultures; see Tay Triggs. Having trouble with stress; visit a counselor.

If the direction that Student Affairs is going is making valuable personnel jump ship, maybe that direction should be reassessed.

Writer’s block

When it happens to me, if I’m home, I get a glass of brandy and a cigar and say to myself “What would Hemingway do?” The answer is always the same, he would write about it. So here goes.

Writer’s block happens to all students at one time or another. You stare at a blank screen or page and have many things to say but the words won’t come. You have had 15 weeks of instruction about a topic you’re expected to regurgitate onto a paper or final exam and nothing is happening between your ears.

Students have many things going on in their busy lives. The last thing they need as the intense holiday season approaches is an instructor who is convinced that they don’t have a life. There is shopping, family gatherings, socializing, and a host of other things that distract and fill the brain at the same time.

What we all need is time to think, work, study and write. Finals couldn’t happen at a less opportune time. The key is planning and prioritizing your time. You have to be able to tell your friends and family no. If you tell them you can’t devote time to anything but school they should understand.

But, you have to follow through and use the time you have set aside wisely. To properly focus while studying here are a few things that might help.

Study in an area that is quiet. Having some music on is not a bad thing but make sure you don’t know the songs because your favorites could distract you.

Keep the room a little cool. If the room gets too comfortable you could go to sleep while studying. You also can save a little energy here.

Try to find an area where others are studying such as the library so everyone has the same goal and objective around you. They are less likely to disturb you with loud conversation and other noise.

Lighting should be bright enough to read without eye fatigue. Having the lighting bright also helps keep you from sleeping.

Try to use a desk. Studying in bed is a no-no. Don’t sit or lay on the floor because the pressure points will cause muscle fatigue and limit your ability to continue studying in those positions.

Another great key I have often used is thinking about what I don’t want to do the most. That is a pretty good indication of what I need to do first. Then, when it is out of the way I become energized to continue with new-found strength.

What ever you need to do to keep focused do it. You didn’t come this far to lose your intensity now.

I am telling this from the point of view and perspective that only I can provide. A 19-year-old college student that is getting real sick and tired of having to constantly watch men take advantage of the women in their lives. Not only that, but also that these women are just downright stupid enough to fall for any of it.

I was raised to treat every woman in your life right. It doesn’t matter if it a girlfriend, your mother, someone else’s mother or your grandma. You treat them with respect. Yes, that’s right, the opening up and holding of doors. The gentleman thing to do. When is the last time some of you actually took into consideration the woman’s emotions and held a real, honest to God conversation with her?

Ladies if you haven’t figured this out by now you need too. 99.9 percent of the men around you are complete dicks. They put on the charade of being the nice guy. They will say and do just about anything to make you believe that they are the greatest man of the planet. Before I go any further it needs to be pointed that women can do the same exact things to men, there are bad boys and bad girls and good guys and good girls.

But once they’ve accomplished this they will get everything they can out of you. Men think with their heads, and it isn’t the one of their shoulders. Men want sex, as much as they can get. Once he has had his fill with you, he has no problem leaving you and moving on to the next one.

By the time you ladies realize this, you’ve got this Great Wall-like defense built up around you and it just makes the genuine, nice guy work 500 times harder was really needed.

I’ve come to accept that I have a more mature mentality than most 19-year-old men and that many women are put around the inconsiderate, selfish pricks of our society. It is human nature to feel acceptance by your peers. You want friends. I mean after all this is college.

People show their true colors here, the real person comes out. People drink. People smoke. People party. Some people are driven by sex. Ultimately, you’re going to do whatever you want to do and no one can tell you otherwise.

You hear it all the time; girls want to find a nice guy, someone they can talk too. You know the ones in fairy tales and stuff. Yet, they continue to go after “The Bad Boy,” the badass with the motorcycle that is getting kicked out the club on Saturday nights for starting a fight with the bartenders. Yeah, he’s a keeper.

What all this really boils down to is no matter how hard you try and convince people, we still don’t truly understand the word love. Granted, everybody has his or her own opinions and definitions for love. Just realize, that a lot of the time no one is who they appear to be. Break the charades people.

The media repeated the lie over and over again knowing full well they didn’t have evidence to back it up but did it for their own self-serving reasons or are simply too stupid to know there is no evidence to back it up.

The lie is that Joe Paterno knew a 10-year-old boy was raped by Jerry Sandsusky in Penn State showers and didn’t report it to the proper authorities.

That lie was repeated again by a torch-carrying mob of ignorant journalists until the trustees finally fired Paterno under pressure by the mob in the press who continue to this day, to repeat the lie as if it were fact.

But the more that comes out, the more we see how ignorant and malicious the press was while at the same time, the press ignores the information that exposes them for what they have been.

No one in the news media knows exactly what Paterno was told and knew except that Paterno was told a watered down, non-detailed version of what happened in that shower.

Everyone in the news media ignores this since not knowing doesn’t make good stories.

ESPN analyst Jay Bilas says, ” A 60-year-old man was in a shower with a ten year old boy. That’s all you have to know”.

Really? Grandfathers and fathers, beware if Jay Bilas comes to your town.

The witch hunting has gotten so out of control that Franco Harris, one of the few to stand up and defend Paterno was fired from his job. This happens with fascists when someone dares to speak out about something in opposition to the majority.

But another fact has emerged which makes the torch carriers look worse than before.

In response to news reports of McQueary’s claim that he did go to the police, the local police chief pointed out that McQueary wouldn’t have gone to them in the first place, because the local police have no jurisdiction over a crime that occurs on the Penn State campus. That is the sole jurisdiction of Penn State Campus Police.

This is crucial because if the only agency with jurisdiction over what McQueary witnessed was Penn State Campus police then Paterno did in fact do everything the moralizers said he didn’t do.

Gary Shultz was one of the Penn State administrators Paterno went to with whatever McQueary told him. Shultz was the supervisor and overseer of the Penn State Campus Police. When it comes to reporting anything to the Penn State Campus Police, you couldn’t get any higher than Shultz.

Based on this fact, Paterno did exactly what all the self-serving moralizers said he should have done and in fact, there was no agency other than the Penn State campus police who had jurisdiction and no other agency Paterno should’ve gone to.

This is what happens when ignorant people convinced of all their own self-righteous beliefs band and go on a rampage.

Members of the media like Time Magazine’s Sean Gregory, all wrote or commented that Paterno knew a 10-year-old boy was raped and only reported to Shultz and so evaded his responsibilities when we now know that reporting it to the campus police was fulfilling all of Paterno’s legal and moral responsibilities.

Maybe these ignorant journalists don’t think the Penn State campus police are real police. Maybe they’d like to say that to the faces of the Penn State campus police who were in full riot gear the night of the protests, and had tear gas and firearms at their disposal. The Penn State campus police are as real and have as much authority as any police anywhere. So now the lie that Paterno didn’t do enough by only going to the head of campus police can be put to rest.

Based on known facts, Paterno could sue for libel and he should. The case is so open and shut that it’d never get to court.

There are those in the media that believe Paterno just had to know what went on. They have no proof but they say it anyway. So what did McQueary actually tell Paterno? We don’t know. And neither does one single journalist anywhere.

Just a few days ago, the Citadel, a military college in South Carolina revealed they had something of a child abuse scandal of their own. In the story a CNN reporter wrote:

“In 2007, the college received an allegation that five years earlier, ReVille invited two campers at The Citadel Summer Camp into his room to watch pornography. They did not touch each other, but engaged in sexual activity.”

Kind of missing in specifics isn’t it? The reporter doesn’t say what sexual activity occurred. Was it an out of body experience? Acrobatics? Mind over matter?

Most people are smart enough to figure out what this journalist is trying to say is, they probably engaged in some kind of group masturbation. He could have been specific, but didn’t.

So an experienced reporter for CNN couldn’t state the specifics of a sexual event that took place? Even with time to reflect, with help from an alleged editor, over an event with which they had no personal involvement.

So we’re supposed to believe McQueary gave Paterno specifics when an experienced reporter with all the time in the world to reflect, couldn’t. The irony is if McQueary did tell Paterno all the specifics, Paterno did everything he could have done in reporting it.

There is no other police agency Paterno could have or should have gone other than the head of Penn State campus police, Gary Shultz. What Shultz did or did not do at that point is none of Paterno’s responsibility. Period.

It is not in Paterno’s DNA to sue. He’s always avoided the spotlight and personal publicity.

The legal definition of libel, which in many cases is hard to prove especially in cases involving celebrities or public figures, fits what happened to Paterno like a glove.

Two important elements must be proved. One, the person making the statements knew they weren’t true. Two, the person making the statements knew they would injure and harm the person they were making statements about.

One target would be Sean Gregory and Time Magazine.

Gregory said “Paterno knew a 10-year-old boy was raped in the showers at Penn State and didn’t report it to the authorities”.

No lawyer at Time could defend the fabrication by Gregory.

If true justice were to prevail, Gregory, his editor and many other so-called journalists would lose their jobs for their fabricated, dishonest, and factually challenged reporting.

It is a certainty that journalists who defamed and libeled Paterno would settle out of court rather than risk having a jury speak and probably award millions more than what they could settle for. Paterno, once they agreed to settle, could donate all the money to worthy children’s charities.

The purpose of the libel suits would be principle worth suing over, but the money Paterno would get would also do a lot of good for a lot of charities and help a lot of children and in the end that would be justice too since it was in defense of children that the media justified its smearing and libeling of Joe Paterno.

In all probability Paterno won’t sue. Certainly if Paterno was actually guilty of what those in the mob said he was guilty of, Paterno’s firing and everything that happened subsequently would be appropriate. But Paterno from the first day said otherwise.

We can now add Jemele Hill to the list of the conceited and factually challenged sportswriters. Who, if standards of fact meant anything in journalism would lose her job as well.

She treats Paterno’s knowledge of sexual abuse of children as fact when we know that Hill has nothing to back it up. Even more bizarre is that Hill calls the actual sexual abuse alleged.

In her mind Paterno’s knowledge of the abuse is fact but the abuse itself is only alleged. This is either ESPN’s legal guideline telling her to use the word alleged to protect them from being sued by Sandusky if he ever got an acquittal or Hill’s own twisted point of view.

I realize this is long and I’m probably going to catch heat from people around the community. This is my personal opinion on Joe Paterno. All to often people do and say what everyone else is doing so that they are not called out by their peers and looked down upon. Always speak what is really on your mind, regardless of what everyone else is saying. Period.

On-campus organizations are in full support of Griffon Football. Earlier this week, the Student Government Association bought 300 tickets for students to claim for free. This generous gesture will draw more people to the game against Northwest Missouri State. Because of community support from organizations like SGA, Northwest will most likely face another defeat.

Residential Life is also doing their part in supporting Griffon football. Normally, residents are required to move out on the Friday before Thanksgiving. This year Residential Life has been gracious enough to let resident stays an extra day to support the Griffons in their battle against their rival, the Northwest Bearcats.

Even with a win against Northwest under their belt from two weeks ago, the Griffons still need their fan base to come out and support them. Considering Western has never hosted a playoff game, this gives students an opportunity to see something phenomenal.

With that said, Western has also never won a playoff game. With three chances in the past, last year Western lost to rival Northwest. It won’t take a miracle for the Griffons to beat the Bearcats; they’ve already done it this year. What it will take, though, is community support from students, Western Alum and citizens of St. Joseph.

The list includes things varying from corporations “perpetuating colonialism at home and abroad,” to corporations’ use of the military to prevent freedom of the press. I’m interviewing Nick Brothers soon, who has been involved in this movement locally since the beginning. I really hope he can explain some of this document to me.

Now for a little self promotion….You can see the interview on Griffon Today. Just go to www.thegriffonnews.com and click on the Griffon Today tab. If the video is not there yet keep trying.

I told you I was going to Washington D.C., and I really enjoyed it. Everything seems fine in Washington, and maybe that is the problem. I couldn’t help but notice a sense of denial that there is an economic crisis. I promise I’ll get back to the Occupy topic soon, but let me share a quick D.C. observation.

Almost everywhere you go in Washington D.C. you can see large buildings covering entire city blocks and several stories tall, totally vacant. These building have 48 foot billboards on each side announcing the buildings availability for sale or lease. In the middle of all this available office space is our government, who has started construction of a new office building for members of homeland security. Stop chuckling, you are paying for it.

The local Occupy people are not like the ones I saw in Arlington, Va. They were occupying a park close to “old town” Arlington. It is the type of area where most Americans would have trouble living. A small apartment is thousands per month, and a condo will run well over a million. The area has, in my opinion, some of the best food on earth.

Anyway, in the middle of this “rich” area is a civic park about two city blocks in size where all you can see is tents and bodies. Some tents failed to hide some of the bodies. I think I experienced more live sex in one night than most connoisseurs of that sort of thing see in a lifetime.

Being the journalistic type, I couldn’t help but kick my way through the trash and ask these people some questions. I wanted to know why they were occupying the park. The answer was “to protest.” The question of what they were protesting received a different answer every time, which always seemed to include at least one five syllable word I hadn’t heard before.

Making my way through the entire park I met a quick-witted police officer. I asked him for his opinion of when he thought the protest would end. He looked at his watch and said “around five below.”
More later.

I’ve been asked to help get out the “student vote” and work to get more students registered. I’ve been thinking about that a great deal lately and I hesitate to encourage some students to vote. Stay with me. I’ve been doing a little research about the youth and students of America in an attempt to see what makes them tic.

I find myself to some degree agreeing with Christian Smith, one of the authors of Lost in Transition: The Dark side of Emerging Adulthood. He said in his review of the book titled A Generation Detached, “Frankly, I don’t want the youth to vote. They don’t own property, they don’t pay taxes, they don’t have kids to send to school. They have no financial stake and little moral stake in society and, until they do, I’d prefer they stay the heck away from the polls.”

One of my personal convictions is, if you have served this country in the military you have earned the privilege to vote. Smith goes on to say that sociologist report that what we used to call adolescence has extended into 20 years or more. Young people are not committing to anything. The statistics place the median age for marriage for men at 28 and women at 26. It would appear that the youth of today are more interested in themselves, their needs and delaying adulthood. Students seem to lack a sense of community and good citizenship.

These students are not unintelligent. They just don’t ask questions about morality, or what is important to live a good life. When it comes to politics they seem to have a “don’t ask don’t tell” policy. They don’t want to admit that they have not been educated properly about their government and have little clue how it works. In turn, they don’t talk to friends about political topics.

All of this lack of information leads to believing anything. Uninformed people usually vote for the most popular candidate. After all, everyone wants to be on the winning side, right? Recent history has proven again that the popular vote may not win the white house and the most popular candidate may not be the best for America.

You have less than one year to get ready if you plan to vote. You have been trained to listen to well-informed people. Most students have learned to do research. We have all the tools and professors on campus that we need to educate ourselves. Voters have to ask themselves, what are my convictions? What is important now and what will be important in my future?

The first step in learning is admitting you don’t know something. Educate yourself before voting or just stay home.

The Griffon Football team gave us all something to be proud of on Saturday when it beat rival No.3 Northwest Missouri State for the first time in eight years. The Bearcats are the highest ranked team that the Griffons have ever defeated.

The Northwest offense was averaging 56 points-per-game and had looked unstoppable all season long. With the game and possibly the season on the line, the Griffon defense stood tall in the end causing the Bearcats’ high-powered offense to turn the ball over on downs twice in the fourth quarter to seal up a 31-28 victory.

A loss against the Bearcats would have likely kept the Griffons out of the playoffs. The top six teams in Super Region 4 get into the playoffs and Western was ranked No. 7 going into the game. After the win, the team jumped to No. 4. The third and fourth ranked teams will host a playoff game Nov. 19. That means with a win at Fort Hays State this Saturday, a playoff game at Spratt Stadium is likely.

After shouldering some of blame for a 2-2 start, Quarterback Travis Partridge has led the Griffons to six straight wins and put the silencer on any critics. He is the first player to rush for 100 yards against Northwest in 10 years, and is 1-0 as the starter against Western’s biggest rival. The Griffons are ranked No. 17 in the AFCA top 25, and have a record of 8-2 on the season.

The home crowd was one of the keys to victory for the Griffons on Saturday. The visiting stands were completely packed with Northwest supporters, but the deafening Western crowd drowned out any efforts for them to fire up their team. The student section was filled with painted faces and signs showing support for the players, it was evident how badly we wanted our team to win that game. The Griffon players feed off the crowd energy and the opponent is disrupted by it, and it should be everyone’s goal to make Western an impossible place for the opponent to come get a win.

Just hours after the big win, Griffon Volleyball broke a losing streak of their own, defeating Truman for the first time since 2002. After falling behind 4-0 in the fifth set, the Griffons rallied and won 16-14 in an emotional five-set victory on senior night.

Western could be the site of another special day this Saturday when Men’s Basketball Coach Tom Smith will go for his 600th career win against Fontbonne University at the MWSU Field House. He will enter elite company, becoming only the 6oth coach at any level of collegiate basketball to win 600 games. Only 19 other active coaches have won 600 games. This is his 24th year as the coach of the Griffons. This historical win will only happen once, and Coach Smith deserves a packed house for the game. We should all feel privileged at the chance to witness a Hall-of-Famer reach this historical milestone.

With all these special things happening, there is a buzz around campus about Griffon Athletics. It is important that the players, coaches and fans seize this momentum and continue toward the goal of taking Western Athletics to a championship level.

Griffons are told that they, as students, “are not part of the 99%.” This alone reveals a fundamental misunderstanding about the Occupy movement, and what it represents. One cannot opt out of being in the 99%, it is a statistical measure. While you may not agree with Occupy sentiments for whatever reason, if you or your family made less than $343,000 per annum since 2009, you are in the bottom 99%.

Is it really hard work that guarantees success, anyway? Since 1979, the productivity of the American worker has climbed two-hundred forty percent, while wages have stagnated. New technology alone does not account for that increase. Americans work hard. They work long hours. They do more than ever for virtually the same pay as they did in the 1970s. All the while, the gross domestic product has grown by leaps and bounds. And while our fourteen trillion dollar economy can’t seem to push the median wage over fifty-thousand, the top one percent’s share of the wealth has doubled in the last twenty years. Did every Wall Street executive earn that money with “hard work?”

The article also seems to imply that there is a surfeit of activist sentiment on American campuses that must be quelled by cold, hard reality. I wish that were the case. Despite dismal jobs prospects and a collective student loan debt of nearly one trillion dollars, an opinion piece in a campus publication excuses student apathy and the proto-solipsistic worldview that perpetuates the destructive “look out for number one” attitude that we know for certain does not make the world better. This is ultimately unsurprising however. Students and citizens in general throughout this country have been conditioned to believe that mass movements change nothing. On the contrary, mass numbers of ordinary citizens have changed society in the past, and they can do so in the future.

Yes, your job is to be a student. Just don’t let anyone tell you that you can only learn in a classroom.

Nicholas Brothers
Political Science Major, Occupier
Missouri Western State University

Bibliography

Gilson, D. (2011, July/Aug). Overworked America: 12 Charts to Make Your Blood Boil. Mother Jones. http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/speedup-americans-working-harder-charts

Luhby, T. (2011, Oct. 20). Who are the 1%? CNNMoney. http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/20/news/economy/occupy_wall_street_income/index.htm

College students, including some Western students, are participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement. With as much as is going on in their lives, how can these students juggle it all?

We are not unemployed. Any traditional college student has a job: getting an education. They are not part of the 99 percent.

The traditional college student has their way paved: parents pay for health insurance, car insurance, gas and sometimes even food. If you want to discuss financial inequality, maybe you should pay for some things, too.

Now, this isn’t the boat that every traditional college student is in or every person in generation Y. There are people in the 18-25 year-old-bracket that do pay their own way, but not all do.

Fortunate students should not waste their time occupying Wall Street, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Mo., or St. Joseph. Your job is to learn and find your place in society.
As Thomas Friedman said at September’s Convocation, Americans must have the work ethic of an immigrant. While protesting or demonstrating has always been branded as an automatic honorable act, in some cases it should be perceived as nothing but laziness.

You want a job when you graduate? Work three internships. You want to enjoy your work? Do something you love. You want to have family security? Start saving for your retirement and children’s college educations now.

College students aren’t lazy, they are just confused. Real laziness gets you kicked out of school. Traditional students just lack an understanding of how the real world operates. Regardless of an education or a diploma, the ideal job may not be waiting for you six months or two years after you graduate.

Have you ever played the board game Life? Did you ever rip up the board when you got a bad roll? Did you steal the other player’s money when they got ahead? No, that’s against the rules. Life is a game about you, not the other players. You can’t change the decisions other people will make, only your own. Why would you want to change their decisions? You’re not learning anything from it and neither are they.

If you want to make change, start with you. Standing outside city halls and financial centers, waving signs about things you don’t fully comprehend doesn’t get you anywhere. What are you achieving from it? There might be some satisfaction that you belong to a group philosophy, but the point of humanity is supposed to be about the individual’s thought. Expand your self, not the herd.

Let me start by stating, I am a Tea Party Patriot and a local coordinator for the group. As you read this column, on its distribution day of Thursday, I am in Washington, D.C., receiving training. To say the least, I’m biased. I would like to think that as a journalist I could get above my convictions about politics, but whom would I be kidding.

I can find common ground with some of the ideas in the declaration. I agree that there needs to be term limits on career politicians. I also agree that corporate America has controlled politicians for far too long with large campaign contributions. Those contributions are, in some cases, followed by favorable legislation for those corporations. This is wrong and must be stopped.

Let’s not single out corporate America too much though. Large union organizations and other not-for-profit organizations also donate large amounts and have been receiving favorable legislation and cash payments for years. They screamed obscenities in Wisconsin loud enough for the world to hear when things didn’t happen the way they paid for them to happen.

STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS

I’ll bet that got your attention. I was afraid I was losing some of my readers so I figured I would get to the point.

Item 10 of the 20 topics in the declaration is labeled the same as this subheading, and it got my attention. Most students leaving college today take about $24,000 of debt into the real world of a dwindling job market.

The declaration states that the poor job market is “due to financial collapse directly caused by the unbridled and unregulated greed of Wall Street.” I don’t agree. Wall Street is regulated. Just take a minute and think of all the people that lied during the 1990s and cooked the books to satisfy greedy stockholders. Many are doing time now.

The financial collapse happened when someone decided to make the American dream of home ownership the American promise and started giving mortgages to people who could not afford a home. The unbridled greed came when the “have-nots” were given something the “haves” have worked for for most of their lives. That created an artificial real estate market that ended with bad loans that collapsed the financial market. That, in turn, made the banks stop lending, which caused corporate America to hold on to what they have and do nothing.

Who can blame them? They see no end to government regulation and growth. They see no clear answers on Obamacare or where employment and other taxation will be going. The President is in campaign mode and refuses to recognize or resolve any of today’s problems.

But, let’s assume, for the sake of the argument, that they are right: Wall Street has somehow run amok, and it’s to blame for the lack of jobs. Does it make sense to tax Wall Street corporations enough to forgive all student loans “as reparations for their [Wall Street’s] conduct” as proposed in the declaration?

I think, first of all, you could not get the $1 trillion student loan total paid in full without taxing some corporations out of business. This would dwindle the job market even more. When greedy corporations get taxed enough they take the money and leave the country. That doesn’t help.

I’ll be analyzing this document more in the future. I welcome your comments.

Then I predicted that after the vote “they” (the smoke Nazis) would not let it be the final vote. I predicted they would beat the topic to death till they get their way. Now, again, I’m hearing a rumor. They are planning some sort of action. They are acting like a bunch of spoiled children who think if they keep asking to get their way the answer will somehow change. No means no.

There are no smoking problems on this campus. There are, however, some behavior problems with some smokers. Western’s administration needs to make some changes and campus police need to enforce the rules we have that already address these behavioral issues. Smokers need to keep their butts in the ashtrays and their smoke to themselves.

Allow me to propose some ways to solve this issue and try to make everyone happy. I propose that all ashtrays need to be removed from doorways and non-smoking areas. Designated smoking areas need to be better identified. Students wishing to smoke should go to those well-identified areas and stand there to smoke. If a smoker is outside of Downs Drive circle then they are allowed to have free smoking privileges, but when inside the circle smokers need to share the space responsibly with other students who do not smoke.

It is not difficult. Put your cigarette out before leaving your car. When inside the Downs Drive circle, smoking is only allowed in designated areas and only while you are standing in those areas.

We have to come to some compromises, which allow smokers the privilege while keeping non-smoking areas absolutely smoke-free. It can be done with the help of administration, campus police and smokers.

Another great reason to compromise — if they get their way on this issue, they will soon come after fatty foods on campus. There could be a ban on vending machines with their sugary drinks and high-carb snacks.

To endorse a healthier lifestyle, we would have to disassociate ourselves with The Chocolate Factory and there goes those bagels everyone gets in line for.

Don’t be fooled. They aren’t really interested in your health. If they were they would be talking about a ban on sex. Sexually transmitted disease is the number one health issue on campus. There is a reason the Esry Student Health Services hands out free condoms at the front counter. You will notice they don’t serve nicotine gum.

These are just people who believe that it is OK to force their will on someone else and limit the behavior and privileges of others. Don’t let them get away with it. Keep our campus free!

The events were not completely new, but the reality TV theme really boosted its popularity because students could show their creative sides. Some of last year’s competitions were “Yell Like Hell,” “Goofy Griffon” and the parade contest. This year, the competitions went by the same guidelines, but the theme made the competitions more interesting because students could be creative in what TV show they wanted to adopt (for example, the SAAC chose “American Gladiators”). The event names were also changed to TV shows—“Griff My Ride,” “Dancing with the Griffs,” “The Amazing Griff Race” and “Last Griffon Standing,” which also changed the outcome of attendance because students knew what to expect from the events since they have seen the shows.

By coming up with the theme of TV shows, the students were able to relate to the topic and become more involved with the events. The number of organizations participating in the homecoming competitions increased a vast amount, and a lot of it had to do with the interesting theme. In turn, with more organizations joining the fun, the events began to bring in a lot of students and therefore create better unity within the school.

A huge turnout always equals success. Last year, maybe half of the student section of the stadium was filled for the “Goofy Griffon” event. Three comedians came to do stand-up last year. Did you know that? Probably not, because it was a struggle to fill the first two rows in Potter Theater. This year several students and faculty attended “Dancing with the Griffs” and “Last Griffon Standing” with comedian Josh Blue performing afterward. The Fieldhouse was packed with people. That’s not all. Fraternities and sororities, SAAC and other organizations were rooting on their teams during the “Griff my Ride” and “The Amazing Griff Race.” We’re talking screaming and clapping and chanting for fellow Griffs. This just goes to show that this year was way more successful than the last, hands down.

None of these events couldn’t have taken place without the hard work of Western’s new faculty advisor Kathy Kelly and her crew. They had been planning all the activities for homecoming since the summer, and it showed. Faculty members were also impressed with the amount of students that helped clean Potter stage. Only anticipating around 100 people to show, they were blown away when members of the different organizations (around 200) swarmed the area, throwing away unwanted things and tidying up the whole area.

While homecoming was a lot better than last year, there are some things that can improve. The timing of homecoming week could’ve been scheduled better, considering the soccer team had an away game and had to miss on a lot of the events. We were also very fortunate with the weather, considering it’s usually really cold during this time of year.

The competitions were also cool, but they could’ve been more competitive. For example, “The Amazing Griff Race” wasn’t really a race. It was more of a sequence of challenges that each organization had to go through, one at a time. “Minute to Win it” would’ve been a better choice because it is more intense: A team might not get to move on if it doesn’t succeed in the challenge, plus the audience would get to know who the winner was right away. It was interesting to see people cheering for a race when, in reality, the teams were just completing tasks.

Along with the events, some students were “overwhelmed” with the amount of activities this year and were almost relieved when homecoming was over. While students expected the same ol’ same ol’ boring homecoming, they almost had too much on their plate. With that being said, however, they cannot say this next year because they should know what to expect — after this year, homecoming can only get better.

I was sitting in my room while one of my roommates was channel surfing. He happened to stumble upon “Tosh.0″ and thus changed my new perspective on America’s cyberbullying problem.

You see, it didn’t actually start with Daniel Tosh. In 2002, a video was uploaded of a high school student swinging a golf ball retriever around as a weapon. The Canadian high school student thought, at the time, it would be fun to play “Star Wars” with one of the school’s video cameras.

Let me level with you. We’ve all had these moments. You know, those moments where you’re just jacking around without a care in world — being yourself. This kid made the unfortunate mistake of filming his shenanigans. Those peers that posted the video online made a mistake too, a mistake that nearly cost them $250,000.

According to court documents filed in 2006, this student “had to endure, and still endures today, harassment and derision from his high-school mates and the public at large.” The documents also say that he will most likely have to undergo psychiatric help for the rest of his life. In case you’re wondering, this is cyberbullying.

When I first saw this video, I didn’t laugh. Now, it may be entertaining in the fact that this kid is just having a good time, doing whatever pleases him. Let’s face the facts though, people find this funny because there’s an obese 15-year-old swinging a metal stick around playing pretend. I wonder if anyone would laugh at his face.

You see, this is why Daniel Tosh is even a comedian. He’s like the other million cyberbullies on the internet. They can hide behind keyboards and LCD screens and be malicious to innocent people.

On the episode that night, Daniel Tosh had somehow acquired a video of some kids dare-deviling on bicycles. What was supposed to be funny about this was an overweight child went off a small ramp with a bicycle, fell and broke his arm. As Daniel Tosh replayed the kid crying over and over, he paused to make snide comments about the kid’s weight, how he was crying for his mother and how he shouldn’t have been on the bike at all.

My statement stands: Daniel Tosh is a dick. I can handle bullies on the Internet. They will always exist. When Rebecca Black’s “Friday” came out, someone commented on her YouTube video that she should go kill herself. Good and bad, the internet has given everyone a megaphone.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve laughed at YouTube videos. Antoine Dodson and Rebecca Black are two of my favorite Internet memes, but those are conscious decisions to broadcast on the Internet or elsewhere. Dodson could have refused to interview, or he could have acted like a normal person. Rebecca Black didn’t have to pay someone $10,000 to Auto-tune her voice, especially when she already has a beautiful one. The fact of the matter is, those people put themselves in the public light to be ridiculed.

Most people don’t take Internet memes to a personal level either, but Daniel Tosh does. What he does is nothing short of a verbal attack. By taking someone’s weakest moments, broadcasting them on television and then battering them with insults is an affront to innocent children everywhere.

Daniel Tosh sets a standard for other people. His show is what has made cyberbullying socially acceptable. It’s okay to take the private lives of other people, put them out in the public and them make fun of them.

Comedians have been mocking people forever. Impressions are hilarious. Making fun of public figures is entertaining and sometimes calls to question social issues.Daniel Tosh does not that. If he wants to make light of the fact that childhood obesity is a problem in the US, don’t do it at the expense of a crying child with a broken arm.

Voting responsibly takes hard work. Maybe that’s why most of Americans either don’t vote or choose the “rock star” as Matthew Hunt described President Obama in his article on this page. Voting without doing the work is not voting responsibly. Don’t just take the easy road. Everyone wants to be on the winning team, but that team may be winning because they have enough money for the advertising. That money can also hide an agenda that you may not agree with. You must do diligent research and make up your mind about what is important to you and which candidate best fits with what you feel is important.

One of the reasons voting is hard work is trying to see the forest in all of the trees. Most candidates avoid real issues. The best way to run a campaign is to claim to be for old people and animals. Most candidates stay away from strong moral or political issues. If you search the internet and only look at the candidate’s websites you will find why each is strong on issues that may not concern you. After a while, all of the candidates start looking the same. When there are no real positions or issues the vote count becomes very close. Remember Florida during Bush’s second election?

To really find out where a candidate stands on an issue visit the website for sure, but don’t stop there. Read all about the candidate wherever you can. Ask questions on their website specific to your concerns. If possible, go where the candidate is making a public appearance and ask questions directly. Listen to the news and read articles in current magazines. Remember though, not all media is fair and unbiased.

Walter Cronkite is dead and so it seems to be any pundit who can deliver an idea of his own in a fair and balanced way. I know it can be painful to your ears, but watch that news program that you hate sometime. They will show different sides of the candidate that you may not know exist. If you disagree with a news program’s political position you may still find common ground with what the program exploits as a candidates problem.

Whatever you do, question everything. Don’t repeat everything you see on the internet or received in a social network post without checking it out first. Responsible voters find most of the radical-sounding things they receive on social networks are unfounded.

Whether you fall into the much-worn adult position of the Tea Party who pines for the way things used to be, the cry babies in the Occupy Wherever groups who aren’t happy with their government, corporations, capitalism, banking, police or what they’re getting from their government, or somewhere in between, educate yourself and vote responsibly.

In a city where Missouri Western is such an integral part of the community, it’s no surprise that Western athletes are constantly under the spotlight. On or off the field, these individuals’ actions represent Western in ways that other students’ actions don’t. Then again, this should not be a surprise.

In our culture, all athletes are considered role models. Who they are isn’t limited to how many yards they rush or how many goals they score: Athletes represent who they play for.

When it was discovered that Michael Phelps was using illicit drugs — marijuana — it wasn’t just a matter of drug use. An American gold medalist, someone who represents all of us, was discovered to be disobeying the law. One of America’s finest swimmers and Olympians was a criminal.

Western isn’t a Division I school. The Griffons’ fan-base is students and alum. Our football games aren’t broadcast over national television every week. Regardless, our athletes are still pillars of our community. Thousands of people attend each football game and even more read, watch and cheer. You couldn’t drive anywhere in St. Joseph without seeing Griffon pride somewhere.

In a city where the university plays an integral part in the economy and overall attitude of the community, certain people are closely watched in that community. When these people are responsible for great deeds, ask for no compensation but just ask for them to attend the Griffon football game, that’s a heartwarming story. When Griffon representatives do the opposite and embarrass Western, it is concerning.

Not every athlete should be expected to save babies, but abiding by the rules of the community is a simple request. There are no laws preventing people from embarrassing themselves on social media. On the streets, on the net and on the field, Western athletes are representatives of the black and gold that is on their uniforms. Even when they are not in uniform, they are still Griffons and still athletes.

Take caution, athletes, in everything you do. You aren’t just a student. You aren’t just an athlete. You are a Griffon athlete; take all of your actions into consideration because they don’t just reflect who you are, but who we are.

Western may have found one in Kurt McGuffin.

McGuffin was the first of the four finalists to present his case as to why he should control all operations in the department. He expressed interest to come here as he stated throughout the presentation he likes the area and wants his family to live here.

With that said, Western needed to make him their decision.

This campus has grown immensely over the past decade. The change in Western has run parallel with the change of athletic directors. Since 1999, the Griffons have had seven directors of athletics take charge. That’s an average of less than two years per director. Why?

We understand that some circumstances Western can’t control. Having one director in trouble with the law while another succumbs to cancer are two of them, so hiring a strong candidate, one like McGuffin, is smart for Western.

One thing stuck out in the two-week long candidate presentations, and it was in McGuffin’s speech.

He said that he wanted Western to be St. Joseph’s team, not just Western’s. Though each candidate stated their own bold statement, McGuffin was most trusted to produce. He should help promote Western by doing this.

When he was announced as the new AD, McGuffin cited new upgrades in Looney, such as locker rooms, would be a targeted fix. But nothing put McGuffin over the other candidates than his fundraising skills.

McGuffin held a position at Kansas State for more than 10 years. One major part of his success was that the Wichita State graduate did stay at Kansas State that long.

Whoever questions his ability to stay at one job, although they may be right, have to understand each time McGuffin held a different position at Kansas State, he was promoted.

In 2000, McGuffin served under the athletic development program in Manhattan, Kan. He then was promoted in 2005 to the associate director of athletics.

Three years later, he was the senior associate athletic director for external operations. All of those jobs were an upgrade, which proves that the man has not only performed well, but has done an exceptional job and is good enough to have more duties signed to him.

McGuffin has spent the past two years at Colorado, where he implemented a new annual giving program, which produced a $15 million practice facility.

Bill Snyder, head football coach at Kansas State, was born and raised here in St. Joseph, Mo. He submitted his own beliefs about McGuffin. He said that McGuffin is an exceptional man, and that he will do his best to help Western.

Remember, there is no bigger income in college than athletics. Perhaps now, with a great choice in McGuffin, we will be able to see the income flow in on our way to winning championships. Because that was what this was all about; and if it wasn’t, what was the point of the search?

People drop from Western for many reasons. Those reasons are diverse but generally fall into very few categories. Some have health issues and can no longer attend class. Legitimate health problems happen to well-intentioned students. Those with health problems are easily excused. Others have the noble excuses of family or career changes that no longer permit them to attend class.

Some have no excuse at all. They just give up. Maybe they were disillusioned about their expectations of college life or feel the burden of a full-time class load. Before giving up, there are several things students need to consider.

First, they must consider the financial ramifications of leaving school. As stated above, the time for full or partial refunds of tuition has passed. People leaving now can’t expect to get a refund. They have already paid for the classes, so the best advice is to attend on the off chance they could learn something. Also, they might change their mind after the emotions they are experiencing temporarily have time to pass.

An exit interview is mandatory if students want a transcript of what they have completed at Western. They could start the interview process now with the instructor of the classes they are finding difficult. Instructors don’t always tell students what they want to hear, but they always have advice on ways to improve.

More importantly, students may have to pay back part or all of the financial aid they received immediately if the funds are Title IV financial aid. Title IV funding includes Pell Grants, FSEOG, ACG, SMART and federal subsidized loans such as Perkins loans and PLUS loans. Students could put themselves in a very large hole and it could take some time to work their way out.

Whatever the reason to quit students may be contemplating over the next few weeks, they need to be sure they know the facts before just skipping class. Walking away may seem like the thing to do, but things go wrong automatically.

First the campus is required by law to inform those who assisted with tuition cost that the student has left. The funding agencies will start the collection process automatically.

When students leave without complying with the exit interview requirement, they can’t get a copy of their transcript to enroll again later or use what they have accomplished to get a transfer.

Walking away can be the worst thing to do. Sometimes it is just better to push through. Students that complete the semester can find new respect for themselves while enriching their minds.

In the past seven years, Western has increased its enrollment by 27 percent. We are a growing and diverse university. Most Western administrators would attribute this to the harsh economy. Layoffs give people the opportunity to retrain or finish their education.

If the economy were the only cause, then why has Western seen a sustained increase? Western’s success has little to do with the economy and more to do with its unspoken mission: the success of the individual student.

The largest classes at Western are never over 200 students. Professors constantly make themselves available to students and are always willing to help. If a student needs personalized attention, there are literally a dozen places they can go. Western is the students’ university.

Sure, many of Western’s students are looking for a second chance. They may be retraining for a new job market or are attempting to get their education despite a rough first try, and Western is a right fit for these students. Coupled with a low tuition, personalized attention is what “second-chance” students need.

Western mimics an American philosophy. For nearly 200 years, America has been a second-chance country. Immigrants from abroad would look for jobs and opportunities in America and, to this day, still do. While the Clock Tower is no Statue of Liberty, and students probably don’t look at it as some sign of independence or freedom, the pride is still there.

Western isn’t a Division 1, big school. You won’t find Western athletic merchandise outside of St. Joseph. As a matter of fact, most people outside of Missouri have probably never heard of Western. It is, by definition, a small school.

Nonetheless, the education its students get is all the same as a big school, if not better. That extra 27 percent of students chose the other black and gold because they wanted a hands-on education. They knew that at the Steven L. Craig School of Business wasn’t just about tests and textbooks; it is about experience in the field. Students who graduate from Western leave with more than degrees. They leave with lines on their resumes.

Sure, the majority of students attend Western because it’s cheap. Western is the one of the cheapest universities in the state, but these penny-saving students didn’t have to go to college at all. They chose Western because someone told them the facts. Western has small, personalized classes. The professors are here to teach you, not to dole out work to teaching assistants. If you want more out of your education, the opportunities are at Western.

So, why are you at Western? Is it because your high school counselor told you that if you have a college degree that you’d make more money or it would be easier to get a job? While that is true, that doesn’t explain why in the last seven years Western’s enrollment has increased substantially. Western students choose Western for one reason: to take control of their education.

What used to be the behavior of children on the playground has now entered the high-tech world. Cyberbullying is well defined in our Student Handbook as harassing, teasing, intimidating or threatening another person by sending or posting inappropriate and hurtful email messages, digital pictures, images or web site postings, including blogs and social network systems.

The Wired Safety Group at wiredsafety.org defines it further by stating it is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child. The website also reports that children have killed each other and have committed suicide after having been involved in a cyberbullying incident.

By getting involved as a cyberbully, you can lose your ISP or instant messaging accounts because cyberbullying is a term of service violation or breach of contract with the software provider. Parents are the best defense to correct this behavior and are in the position to make the most difference if their child is the perpetrator or victim.

Schools that try to get involved are often sued and lose the case on the basis that they are trying to exceed their legal authority for actions taken off campus. Students also have the constitutional freedom of speech to help defend their actions, even if their freedom upsets another person.

Wired Safety Group recommends that a provision be added to the school’s acceptable use policy reserving the right to discipline the student for actions taken off-campus if they are intended to have an effect on a student or they adversely affect the safety and well being of a student while in school. This makes it a contractual, not a constitutional, issue.

If it feels like this column is talking about children and not college students it’s because most of the time cyber bullying activities involve children. What needs to be said is that these actions are childish. It is actually a shame that our student handbook even needs to cover this topic. Using electronic devices to anonymously harass people is cowardly.

The best advice to follow if you are a victim according to the Wired Safety Group is to “stop, block and tell.” First, stop. Don’t do anything. Take a few minutes to calm down. Next, block the cyber bully or limit all communications to those on your buddy list. Then tell a trusted adult; you do not have to face this alone. You can also report cyber bullying experience to wiredsafety.org if you are a victim.

Factor in two season-ending injuries - T.J. Fannin and Marcus Thompson - how should Western fare in the second half of the season?

Although Jerry Partridge said he would much rather be 5-0 at this point, three wins out of the “more challenging” part of the season isn’t too bad. The Pittsburg State loss is all of a sudden looking less devastating after it handed No. 1 Northwest Missouri State its first conference loss in six years.

Not to say that Western would beat Pittsburg if the two squared off this Saturday instead of opening weekend, but maybe the first game should be overlooked. Yes, Pittsburg was playing its first game of the season as well, and the Gorillas were the road team, but they knew what they had in Zac Dickey and caught lightning in a bottle with transfer Jon Brown.

Western, on the other hand, saw Travis Partridge start his first game and its defense go up against an offense that is averaging over 37 points-per-game, as well as a Pistol Gun set that drew attention away from Western’s defensive line and standout players Ben Pister and David Bass.

The next three Saturdays, Western has a date set up with teams that have a combined record of 4-11; two of the games are at Spratt Stadium. These games are definitely not chalked up as wins just yet, especially since they are all conference games, but winning the games would set the Griffons up with a 6-2 record. Last year’s 8-3 record sent Western up to Maryville, Mo. for post-season play. Will the committee be so kind this year?

Highly unlikely, considering the MIAA doesn’t receive that sort of superior credit — Pittsburg, Washburn and Northwest are all in front of Western, and don’t forget about the Mules: they’re still around. Three of those teams will probably receive a bid. Four, well, maybe; all five — no. So how about this: On Nov. 5, when Northwest comes to town to play Western, the meeting between the Bearcats and Griffons could actually have a playoff contention scenario, and so that game might actually mean something. Wait. It always means something.

If your cheeks just blushed, then they rightly should have. If you laughed or scoffed, perhaps you should reassess you college career. See, the point of Friedman’s speech was that this type of behavior is over. Do you honestly think that Japanese and Chinese students even think about falling asleep during lectures or speeches? Currently, there are more honor students in China and India than there are students in America.

For those of you who didn’t fall asleep during Friedman’s speech, my apologies for the recap, but the sleeping beauties in row 17 obviously didn’t get the memo. It’s over. Americans can no longer ride on the financial backs of past generations. America’s golden era of economic strength and foreign policy power is collapsing. To even make a living in America, you have to shine, not sleep.

It’s not enough to get a degree any more. It’s not enough to work a job any more. It’s not enough to be an American anymore. We have to participate in America. This is the country that invented the Internet. This is the country that invented the microchip. This is the country that invented individual sovereignty. Why would you squander all of that, that which all those that have come before us have given, on an extra 40 minutes of sleep during a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner’s speech?

That power nap you took wasn’t just a slap in the face of our university, but a slap in the face to our country and its history. Do you think that Irish immigrants were able to power nap when they came to America? Do you think German Jewish immigrants attempted to escape Nazi persecution for an extra 40 minutes of sleep? These immigrants worked and preserved with a relentlessness that Friedman believes can revitalize our country.

As citizens of America we are lucky that we don’t have to worry about the basic necessities of life. In parts of the world, people of our generation aren’t staying up all night and enjoying the luxuries of life, they are staying up from hunger or fear. No one should feel guilty for being an American, but instead seize the opportunity and not waste it.

America is an exceptional country, but not when its best and brightest are sleeping on the bleachers of its universities. As students, we can do better. As citizens, we owe it to those who came before us to not waste the dawn of such of young country. An American has the most freedom out of any citizen of any nation in the world; undisputed. But, what’s the point if we’re asleep?

The student claimed that MWSU received budget cuts because of hard economic times and that the cut shouldn’t be shrugged off onto the students. He preferred we look at cutting things like beautification projects.

For the sake of students feeling better, the author suggested that the increase in tuition be counterbalanced with cuts to administration salaries.

Finally, the student made this statement, “It is time our student representatives and SGA leadership stop behaving like toadies for the administration and defend our interest.”

In responding, for the record, you should know I am not and never have been a student representative or part of SGA leadership. I can, though, understand the need for a tuition increase, and I don’t feel it makes me a “toady” for the administration.

MWSU has increased its enrollment by 18 percent over the past three years, which is higher than all of the other four-year universities in the state. Interestingly enough, MWSU accomplishes this while receiving less state aid per student than all of the other four-year universities in the state.

A much improved, more beautiful, campus likely attracted a few of those new students. Thank you community members, because through your itemized donations we have been able to accomplish most of the beautification projects seen on campus. A thank you is also due to the MWSU administration, because they didn’t take a pay raise over the course of the past three years either.

Now, lets review the reason MWSU received budget cuts. Each year the governor hammers out a budget that he sends to the state legislature, which then goes through a legislative process filled with committee hearings, expert testimony, debate, and, of course, voting from the state legislature.

In the event of a major natural disaster the governor can choose to make certain funding withholdings from almost any government entity receiving state funding. These withholdings forego the legislative process; requiring no hearings, no expert testimony, no debate, and definitely no votes from the state legislature.

A state Representative from Joplin, Bill White, was quoted in the St. Louis Post Dispatch on Aug. 27 saying, “This is why we have a rainy day fund; higher education shouldn’t have to pay for debris removal in Joplin. We have other money for that.”

It should also be noted that the governor’s withholdings closely resemble his own budget that he issued to the state legislature earlier in the year. That budget went through the above process, and came out with MWSU receiving its adequate share of funding. Interestingly enough, the governor chose to sign the budget that went through the legislature instead of augmenting it with his power of a line-item veto. Using the line-item veto would’ve allowed him to set the funding level for MWSU, but he would have also been the only person to blame for the change.

SGA, if you’re now considering the proposed way of dealing with tuition increases by cutting administration salaries by the same percent of increase that the students are facing… please don’t do this.

I’ll admit I’m not a math major, but if this policy were to be put into place we would end up with a very poor administration and eventually none at all. For example, with a policy like this, if tuition were to increase with an average rate of inflation (say three percent annually) then within a decade the administration would have a pay cut of 30 percent. Within two decades 60 percent, three decades 90 percent, and 40 years from now the administration would have to pay to work at MWSU.

Sincerly,

Patrick Graham

Thank you for printing my letter in your paper.  I have been happy with the feedback I have received from many students both agreeing and disagreeing with myself.  There is one area of my letter, however, I would like to clarify for any who found my point vague.

The idea that the proposal I voiced was a “political stunt,” as some have suggested, goes to the heart of the intent of my criticism.  This proposal was not meant as a catch all solution to our budgetary woes, in which case it would indeed be a “political stunt.”  Asking the administration to help bear the burden of a tuition hike by the means suggested would be a symbolic gesture that would help us students swallow the pill of increased tuition.  I see no reason why or student representatives could not be in favor of such a condition on our approval.

Furthermore, SGA’s act of unanimously supporting this tuition hike in a symbolic vote is itself a “political stunt,” the problem being it is a stunt with the administration’s interests in mind, not ours.  By failing to promote student interests and allowing its actions to become talking points for the administration SGA has failed to represent its constituents.  It isn’t the system that the students, myself included, disapprove of; it is the abuse and neglect of the system.

There is no one-stop solution to budget problems, and I am not suggesting that tuition increases are out of the question.  If they are employed, however, they should come only after the students have seen evidence of budgetary cuts that do not hinder the quality of our education and only if they are not unilaterally placed on students.  We want to know the powers that be, specifically those responsible for raising tuition, are sharing the burden.  And we see our student representatives as being responsible for ensuring this.  Perhaps there was an administrative hand behind SGA’s tuition vote and perhaps not.  Either way, we students understand it to be a major missed opportunity.  Because our representatives failed to attach conditions to a bill vital to our interests, symbolic or not, they gave our voices up to the administration’s agenda.

I would like to stress that this is not intended as an attack on any individual’s character or integrity.  Respect is due to all persons willing to make an informed judgment on these issues, whether it is the same as mine or not.  Hopefully this dialogue will continue to provoke MWSU students to engage in thoughtful discussion on the issues we face, both as students and as a university.

Respectfully,

Gary Weidemann

What went wrong?

Senate Bill 389 was supposed to limit increases of student’s tuitions to only the amount of the consumer price index. It was a good piece of legislation at the time. Universities across Missouri were increasing tuitions to offset costs at what seemed to be an alarming rate. The bill was very popular at the time. No one saw or thought about the future.
After Senate Bill 389 universities including Western eased up on tuition increases. For many years when Western could have increased tuition justifiably they didn’t. When they did increase tuition they didn’t actually charge students the increase that was approved by the board.
Meanwhile the cost of operation was going up everywhere. Things such as utilities and insurance were jumping as much as 20 to 30 percent. The number of students entering Western every semester was setting new records. That placed higher demand for faculty and classrooms.
It soon became obvious that we could not continue this course. Western’s administration proposed and the board approved a tuition increase higher than Senate Bill 389 allowed. As Western was about to be hit with a large fine for ignoring Senate Bill 389 the board lowered the increase to just what was needed for the campus to operate. The fine came any way from the state in the form of lower appropriations and then they cut even more for good measure.
The real twisted part of this tale is that Gov. Nixon stated that he approved of these cuts because he was concerned about students and their tuition costs.
Western’s reaction
Missouri Western is operating now with no more faculty than in the early nineties with increases in student numbers going off the chart. Look around you. Faculty and staff positions have been eliminated and combined to the point that efficiency is at an all time high.
Class sizes are larger, and demands on instructor’s time is beginning to result in fewer office hours and less access to students. Students may also notice other services and conveniences such as trash removal from some areas is not being done on a daily basis. The lawn has more weeds than usual and some of the maintenance of buildings is being deferred.
Informed students held a rally during the summer months to protest the severe cuts which resulted in the “You can’t keep a Griffon down” slogan. Some have started a petition to voluntarily pay an additional fee to help offset the cuts. Others have signed a petition to the governor to protest the loss of funds.

The future

Western is looking for grants and funding from other sources. Students are paying more now and are likely to pay even higher tuition in the future. Things might get tough but things may get even tougher on Western if Governor Nixon’s new “performance based funding” is not fairly implemented.
If he is going to base funding on the number of entering students versus the number of graduating students than we are set for even more cuts. That will not be fair.
Western serves a unique student base such as me. I have gained in my personal and financial life by the education I have received from MWSU. I have attended off and on since 1978 and have yet to get a degree. I am not alone. Many students are here to learn something. We are not here for the degree. If serving that type of student lowers appropriations Western may not be able to keep its open enrollment policy.
Gov. Nixon needs to realize that not all students are degree seeking students, and I am the poster boy.

No longer paid for by SGA

One of the main reasons RC was separated from SGA was because many Senators felt that RC didn’t benefit the student body as a whole. While RC was essentially represented by students who lived on campus, it was not limited to simply those students. Most of RC’s money from SGA went toward the programming of on-campus events, usually jointly prepared by Western Activities Council and RC. These events were mainly attended by on-campus students, but were not exclusive.

Now that RHA is receiving its funding from the Residential Life budget, which is an auxiliary budget, those events must be exclusive. Since Residential Life receives its funds from the room and board payments of on-campus students, those events are paid for by only students who live on campus.

Perhaps SGA should have thought about the consequences of excluding so many students out of joint events before proposing and passing a rushed constitution (which was only available for students to read online 48 hours before the vote). The real question that remains is where is the $20,000 that was going toward RC going now. Before, $20,000 was appropriated toward student events targeted at some 1,000 on-campus students. Another $10,000 was allocated toward RC for RA funding, operational funding and scholarships for RC leadership. Essentially, $30,000, which had a purpose last year, is now left purposeless.

The fear that most students should have is that the money will never be used and will roll over into the 2012-2013 budget. This money has the potential to continue to be rolled over.

Maintaining the dorms

With the addition of a new dorm, can Residential Life afford to appropriate $20,000 toward a campus organization? Most likely not. Since maintaining the on-campus housing has been a problem for a while, Western may be adopting the policy of “Build and Abandon,” in which new dorms are built while older ones like Beshears, Logan and Juda are left unmaintained.

While $20,000 would not renovate the old dorms, it could be enough to pay for an extra part-time maintenance employee. Students who live in the dorms should ask the question of what would they rather have: a root beer pong tournament or a new air conditioner? Not to belittle the importance of on campus events, but maintenance should take precedence.

Funding confusion

When any new organization comes to the fore, some disorganization can be excepted. But giving $20,000 to an organization without any solid planning should never happen in the real world. To earn money, it must be shown that you can handle it responsibly. Students should fear that RHA may have the same problem with roll over as past administrations of SGA have had.

To remedy this situation, both SGA and RHA should present solid but separate plans to show students where their money is going. If not for sorting out the funding confusion, but to open a dialogue of what students want.

But once that fan looks at the numbers and notices the competition was not the best, then they begin to question how good this Griffons team will really be.

The first part of the game was a slow start – not a lot of action for the offense – but the defense and special teams were making plays to keep the fans into the game. It seemed as though Western had the field goal kicker out there on the field more than the offense.

The defense made some excellent plays to keep this game a shutout from the beginning. Three interceptions and three fumble recoveries were plenty to keep the momentum going for the team, and with the help of special teams, it was only a matter of time before the offense would take off and begin to put up numbers.

Going into halftime with a strong lead was not good enough for the Griffons. In the third quarter, 21 points were added to the score to boast the differential to 40. The team was beginning to function well on all cylinders. Running the ball became the main strategy for Western. The scheme was working well, so they stuck to it throughout the quarter. The Griffons completed every one of their possessions in the quarter, where in the first half 4-7 possessions resulted in field goals.

Michael Hill had an average game. Nothing stellar took place, but he was a constant worry on this Langston University defense. Hill averaged 4.6 yards a carry, moving the ball in for three scores throughout the game showed his hard work had paid off, even though his numbers were nothing to boast about. Hill ran for under 100 yards and received another 13.

One standout player who kept popping up through the game was CB Isaac Collins, who was making plays on special teams and on the defensive side of the ball. With a blocked punt and the recovery taken all the way to the Langston seven yard line Collins was able to set the Griffons up for their first score of the game.

Early in the fourth quarter Collins was able to make a great interception in a very timely manner. It was the deepest Langston had made it into Griffon territory and while knocking on the door of the red zone, Collins was able to snag an opportunity away quickly.

For the most part, the team did look stellar to this 2-0 Langston team, but the one part of the team that looked weak to everyone was the Griffons quarterback. Travis Partridge seemed to be having problems making smart plays from the get-go of this game. Partridge seemed as though he could not throw on the run, nor could he complete a pass to a player in motion.

In the opening minutes of the third quarter, a 53 yard reception was made by Tarrell Downing. On paper the play looks like a great score, but in reality the receiver had to stop his momentum to come back for the ball, then make a great turn up the field for the score. Partridge never looked completely confident in the pocket. During scramble situations it seemed as though he was unsure of what choices to make.

Throwing for a 50 percent completion rate was not a great showing from this young quarterback against a team of Langston’s quality. With the 18 offensive plays in the third quarter, 11 rushes and seven passes were attempted. The third quarter was such a large success due mainly to the running scheme brought together by the coaches.

This Western team has the ability to have a great season, but with QB questions already being brought up by fans and players, it makes one question: What will happen? If the accuracy questions are brought to light and fixed for this Thursday’s game, then the team will have nothing to worry about except making a run for the playoffs.

At least that’s the word from parking services, and we agree. For years now when students have complained they have been rebuffed by the final and only defensible position: There are plenty of parking spaces for every student, faculty and staff to park on campus.

That is rare. Some universities have solved their parking problem by not allowing freshmen to park on campus at all. They are forced to use public transportation. It is a tough policy but it solves the problem.
Many students keep a bicycle on campus to hasten their trip across campus. Missouri Western State University administration could do more to provide bike racks at every building. Students are hesitant to park bicycles without a secure place to attach them. This makes a bicycle a little less appealing.
Then, if bicycles became the norm, there would have to be the inevitable rules. The concern for the safety of pedestrians would keep bicycles restricted to Downs Drive and other roadways. But, walking your bike from Downs Drive to your building and securing it would be easier than trying to find a parking spot close to your building.

It’s a student problem

It may sound unsavory to some, but walking across campus is a viable solution for most students. Eventually students become acclimated to the parking issue, but the whining of new students is something seasoned students tire of easily.
Everyone wants to park in front of their building. Western could never build enough parking spaces to accommodate every student’s wish, and the additional spaces to handle temporary demand would go unused most of the time. It’s not cost effective and students won’t pay for it.
If the cost of parking seems high now, just imagine the price if there were new multi-level parking garages on campus. Plus, security issues increase inside parking structures, so the cost of security and lighting would increase. Students would whine about the stairs, so we all would have to share the cost of elevators.

When does it end?

Students can solve their problem by arriving around 7:30 a.m. when most parking lots are empty. This is not an option for many but it also solves the problem, and you get the parking spot you want. Parking across campus from the building or area you wish you could have and walking without whining works well also. Some students arrive early for their class and drive through the parking lot over and over till some parking spot opens. This works well if you have the time.
The only true solution is changing students’ minds about what is expected of the campus and what is expected of them. The early bird gets the worm. The second mouse gets the cheese. Life isn’t fair. Grow with it. The only way it works is when everyone knows and understands the rules and plays well with each other.

It seems that your publication has come under the spell of MWSU administration officials in their attempts to falsely convince students that tuition hikes are the answer to decreased state appropriations. Much of your previous issues have been devoted to deriding these admittedly unfortunate cuts to our university while championing the position of the administration and the unanimous bloc of tuition-hiking student representatives. The unanimity of SGA’s favorable position on tuition hikes only proves one thing, though: SGA does not effectively represent its constituents.

If MWSU receives a budget cut because of hard economic times that cut should not be shrugged off on its students. Cuts are difficult, but they can be made in areas that won’t affect the quality of our education. Many cuts are feasible even if they impinge on some peripheral areas that can await more favorable conditions, such as beautification. In an ironic twist on a recently devised slogan, the new tuition hikes are exactly what is keeping us Griffons down. While the administration and SGA weigh in positively on tuition hikes, many students would like an added amendment that could make these increases more acceptable. Let’s cut the administrator’s salaries by the same percent as the tuition increase students are facing. That way, the administration can be sure to do their part in supporting the quality of our education in these troublesome times and we students can see that this burden is truly being shared.

A few years ago, SGA failed to pass a recycling bill that would have skated through a vote had it not been wedded to entirely unrelated student fees. Even though the MWSU administration forced its way with the fees in the end, the bill failed to pass a student vote. That was because the students and some SGA senators refused to accept an underhanded ploy to sneak in additional fees on the back of a popular program. I am sure a silent majority of students feel the same on this “voluntary” tuition hike. We are tired of an SGA being cajoled and bullied by the MWSU administration and of representatives who are apathetic to the interests of their constituents. It is time our student representatives and SGA leadership stop behaving like toadies for the administration and defend our interests. This next election, let’s get an SGA president and some senators that aren’t afraid to buck the MWSU administration if such action is needed. It probably won’t change the way of things in the end, but at least our voices will be heard.

Sincerely,

Gary Weidemann

Eboni Lacey, Online Editor

Who would ever think that in the year 2011 discriminating slurs and obscenities would even be a problem. Today there are more minorities in every profession and attending college then ever before. Diversity  has become encouraged, as most people want different faces representing their companies and their schools.  And with the economy being so terrible, nobody wants to jeopardize his or her career based on one ignorant comment.

However, many cases have been reported of stupid, ignorant altercations being made within the last few months.  The University of Alabama had a huge altercation when students were writing racial slurs like “nigger” on the sidewalks of the campus. In San Francisco, the chief of the Oakland Unified School District’s police department was placed on administrative leave while district officials looked into allegations that he repeatedly used racial slurs against African American and Asian American officers after a day of drinking at a charity golf tournament. These two examples just remind me of how stupid people can be at both work and school when they open their mouths around the wrong people.

For the last few decades, society has taken numerous stands against discrimination, racial slurs, and improper professional conduct. “A fair opportunity,” is what is said to be granted to every employee and every student before they even start working. Yet, what is not said nor granted are the elimination of gossip, talking behind peoples’ backs, rumors and unprofessional conversations. Is it fair that a person can say whatever they want about whoever they want as long as it’s in private conversation? And since it is in private conversation, is it ok to let racial and unprofessional comments slide?

Absolutely not! It only takes one customer, one by-stander, or one professor to hear a comment that should be conducted in “private conversation,” before judgment begins taking place. As professionals, students, staff and workers must make sure that the dialect remains on a professional level. It’s a problem if a student or employee is so comfortable with their peers and coworkers that they speak to them in public as they would at home; with profanity, racial slurs and dialogue that can be perceived as discriminating. Where is the level of professionalism drawn?

I encourage every employee and student to really take a hard look at what you  are discussing when you are on the job or in the classroom. If what you are discussing can be offensive to any race, color, creed or sexuality, then maybe it’s best to leave those conversations outside of the professional doors.

Alison Norris, SGA President

This is a new year and a chance to be involved and make the most of your MWSU experience.

My name is Alison Norris and I am the Student Government Association President. I have been active in SGA since my sophomore year, first as a senator then as communications director and now as SGA President.

SGA will continue to follow our mission statement to be an advocate for the student body, enhance campus life and promote the image of the University. This year my goal is for SGA to not only pass legislation, but to take action and make a difference. I want SGA to not be judged by what we say we will do, but by what we accomplish and I think we are already to a great start.

Since being sworn in as SGA president in April last semester SGA senate has passed funding for a campus wide recycling program with the help of the campus organization SIFE that bill has resulted in recycle bins campus wide. This summer we continued to stay active as we promised by hosting a rally in support of our university and against state budget cuts. The rally had over 150 students in attendance as well as four state representatives. SGA also presented at each registration day about the importance of involvement, and presented at the faculty luncheon about how faculty and students can work together.

Now that school is back in session I have high hopes that we can do much more and with the help of dedicated students, truly make a positive impact on our university. We will continue to work diligently to serve you, by first listening and then taking action. I have confidence in our SGA officers, senate and Western Activities Council that this year will be very productive.

We will continue to seek student suggestions and feedback. Go to http://www.missouriwestern.edu/sga/ and post suggestions for us in our suggestion box.

Alison Norris
Missouri Western State University
President, SGA
anorris2@missouriwestern.edu

The state appropriation cuts go deeper than they appear.

Part of the problem started years ago when Western’s Board of Governors could have increased tuition but didn’t. Then, when they did increase the tuition 2.98 percent they did not actually charge that increase to students. Western soon became a good value and enrollment hit record numbers.

During that time of growth neither tuition nor state appropriations were increasing. The costs of providing a quality education, however, did continue to rise.  To address the impending train wreck, Western’s Board of Governors approved a modest increase of 6.33 percent. When last semester ended, the combined tuition increase was expected to be 9.31 percent.

That was before the Missouri Department of Higher Education (acting under Gov. Nixon’s concern) began to evaluate Western’s waiver of penalty under the Higher Education Students Funding Act for increasing tuition greater than the Consumer Price Index of 1.5 percent.

Let the cutting begin.

A letter posted on the Missouri Department of Higher Education website from the Commissioner of Higher Education David Russell addressed to Western President Robert Vartabedian said the Governor’s office “expressed concern regarding the magnitude of the tuition increase that Missouri Western students will face in the fall.”

The letter states that Russell seriously contemplated not granting a penalty wavier but, “It is difficult to envision a scenario in which the imposition of a fine would be of benefit to the students… as the loss of additional resources would likely result in diminished services, programs, and/or lower or fewer financial aid awards.”

The letter strongly encourages Dr. Vartabedian to consult with Western’s Board of Governors to lower the tuition increase “to bring it in line with increases adopted by the vast majority of four-year institutions.” The Board of Governors reduced the increase to 8.48 percent.

Apples and Oranges

In comparison to other universities across the nation, Western’s increase in tuition is very reasonable. The nation’s largest public University, Arizona State University, increased its tuition by 48 percent in the 2007-2008 academic year. This year, other large public schools have seen an increase of 40-50 percent.

While Western serves only about 6,000 students, it might be more appropriate to compare out tuition to other Missouri schools. Even with the originally proposed tuition increase (9.5 percent) Western would have remained one of the cheapest institutions in the state.

State cuts and dampening on increases in tuition have forced Western to cut as much as they can. Now our administrators are looking at alternatives for revenue, something that shouldn’t have to be done for a public school. This detracts from the school’s main purpose: education. Western is a learning institution after all, not a business that should have to worry about its funding.

What can students do?

If possible, a large donation to Western would be greatly appreciated. Even if a student can’t afford more money than what they are paying, soliciting donations from community members would benefit everyone’s quality of education. Attending Western will cost students more. No student or administrator wants a lack of quality in their education.

Several members of faculty, staff and administration are gone. Everything has changed, even down to the increase of weeds in the lawn because costs are being cut. Administration, staff, students and faculty are suffering all over campus. Everyone is working harder and smarter to keep standards high amidst the turmoil.

Maybe those students who are registered to vote might consider not voting for politicians who show false concern for your tuition increase. The state cut our funding, which will increase tuition costs. They placed the cost of education more on the student and less on the state. Do they do it because they are concerned about students?

Fortunately, students may take several actions to notify their representatives and government leaders of their frustration. Western’s Student Government has already written several letters to our State leaders. As diligent as they are, our Student Government is only a minority of the students. Imagine if Gov. Nixon were to receive 1,000 letters on his desk from students.

For once, an issue has finally arisen that student can agree upon and unite. Regardless of your age, ethnicity, gender, economic mobility or academic status, the lack funding from the state should appall and anger you as a student. Let that frustration be heard.

Dave Hon, Editor in Chief

Now, being 20 years old, I won’t try and pretend I’m a driver of the capacity of, say, Speed Racer. I drive a 2001 Chevy Malibu, which is far from the Mach Five. I think what makes me a better driver than most is the fact that I know that I’m not the best driver.

Yes. Conundrumed, I know. But I know the problem that a lot of drivers have is that they are over-confident of their reaction impulses. You see, if you’re less than a car’s length away from another car on the highway, going 70 miles per hour, there is no way you’re going to stop in time if things go wrong. I don’t care if you’re a goal keeper for Manchester United, no one’s reaction time is that fast.

The biggest problem I have with drivers on the highway is the lack of abiding by speed/car length ratio requirements. You see, if you’re traveling 70 MPH, you should be at least 7 car lengths away from the car ahead of you. Now, in cases of heavy traffic, this is impossible. But on the open stretch of road between Platte City and St. Joseph, there is no excuse.

For those of you with the same frustration as me, I have a solution: slow down. If someone is ‘tailgating’ you, decrease your speed to the minimum 55 MPH on the highway, and watch what happens. In most cases, the driver will quickly swerve into the left lane, without using their blinker.

When they pass you, two things could happen. You might see the driver on their phone, oblivious to the fact that they are driving a ton of metal down an asphalt path at 70 MPH. You see, they are too hung up in their pointless conversation that is has consumed their concentration. Don’t get me wrong: I’ll talk on the phone and drive, but if it starts to impede my ability to focus, I’ll hang up.

Besides someone being on the phone, the other thing you might witness is a look of disgust. This gaze will say, without any words spoken, “How dare you drive THAT slow on my road.” As if they are the only one on the road. Furthermore, the fact that they supported a political candidate and want to adorn that statement on their bumper, gives them the right to drive fast.

For those of you that are reading this and feeling their ears burn, I want to remind you of something. The left lane is called the “Passing Lane” not the “Fast Lane.” Just because you’re in the left lane doesn’t mean you can go 80 MPH.

For any law-enforcement professionals that are reading this, please crack down on aggressive drivers. In my opinion, an aggressive driver is more dangerous than a driver going five miles over the speed limit.

At first, I figured that people only attend events that actually interest them, which is why attendance stays so low. Nobody is going to go to something that they are not interested in. Who wants to be bored? Yet, my thoughts changed when I attended a very “different” event. At the 2011 Drag Show, which was held Tuesday, April 19^th in the Fulkerson center, I was extremely amazed at how many people I saw. The show accumulated over 300 in attendance, with the crowd mostly composed of students. I say people of every race, every age, every gender and every sexuality. Never have I seen such a thing. This really made me think. What in the world did the Pride Alliance organization due that many other student organizations fail at year by year?

After seeing how emotional yet fun the show was, I realized that the show’s significance is what gave it its appeal. The show was accepting of all- not rejecting the different, the insecure or the obscure. Its promotion was about unity and diversity, which is something every one can relate to. When you have an event that engages support of all people and desires all walks of life to attend, then you will have a great attendance.

I challenge everybody that plans events for all campus, to think and act as Pride Alliance- and welcome and accept all people. Perhaps it means a Fashion Show with more then skinny models, or a dating show that has both black and white, straight and gay contestants. Once our campus embraces all, then our attendance will soar.

The other challenge I give is to promote beyond these campus buildings. Tell the community, the alumnus, the faculty; tell anyone who will listen. Go to the Yearbook office and the Griffon News and tell us what you plan to host. Post your events on Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Goldlink and have press releases given out. Tell students why they should come. During the Drag Show, it was expressed numerous times how many homosexuals commit suicide. The reason for the show was to spark self- confidence and make not only homosexuals, but everyone, feel that their lives are worth living. So I What message will you send to students in our next campus event?

Last summer, almost 60,000 fans came to campus to see the Chiefs. The money that was made off the camp wasn’t made off the fans just coming through the gates. It was made off of parking, concessions and other vendors that were selling items at the practices.

The revenue that the camp generated for the community wasn’t as much as some officials predicted that it would, but the exposure and small amount of revenue that the University gets is enormous.

The Griffon Indoor Sports Complex was built specifically for the Chiefs training camp. However, there may be three weeks open for the athletic department to rent out the complex and possibly make up for some of the revenue that would be lost with no training camp, but realistically, it won’t be as much as would be generated with it here.

The exposure that Missouri Western gets with the Chiefs coming here is enormous. It not only helps with national attention on Western, it also helps with getting students into the classrooms as well. If students are looking at colleges to attend and they choose to come to Western because they will have the chance to see the Chiefs training camp, or possibly get an internship with them for the summer, then that should be a success for the school.

When people look at the possibility of training camp not happening, they should realize that the bulk of the money isn’t made off of the camp concessions and merchandise alone. The biggest part that the school profits from is recruitment, both athletically and academically.

The internships that are available with the Chiefs provide a once in a lifetime opportunity for students to work for a professional sports team and put a valuable experience on their resume when they look for a job. Students need to be informed on a back up plan by the athletic department. Right now, many students don’t know what is going to happen if they apply for an internship and the camp is not held at all.

Missouri Western has promoted itself as a hands on learning environment and if we don’t have an opportunity to take part in this, then the students need to be informed so that they, too, can be making arrangements for a back up plan.

The school also provides something unique that not many schools have by hosting training camp. By doing this, it provides something attractive to area high school students and provides an incentive for them to come to Western rather than pay more money and go to MIzzou or UMKC.

If the NFL lockout continues, Missouri Western will have to try and find a way to make up for the lack of exposure that will be brought to the school. These issues aren’t something that can just be shrugged off and taken with a grain of salt and ignored. These are real issues that the school needs to be concerned with and needs to have a more secure backup plan than just hoping that we can get people to rent out the GISC. This isn’t just a money issue, it is an extraordinary opportunity for the students of Missouri Western. The athletic department needs to help keep the students informed on what is going to happen with the training camp situation so that a back up plan can be organized and put into affect This includes the possibility of camp being pushed back and how this will effect class schedules and other things if this is pushed back into the fall semester.

We realize that this isn’t all the athletic department’s fault. We as student’s just need more communication so that we know what is going on and if we need to make back up plans as well.

learned new things, travelled to new countries, experienced much and gained much experience.

There is only one complaint I have about this school, and I suppose you could call it a ‘minor’ one.

It’s that Missouri Western does not offer a Journalism major.My preferred area of study is actually a concentration of

English.

That’s what it says on my transcript – Major: English with a concentration in Journalism.

It’s really like I’m minoring in the thing I want to do with my life.

People who want to major in Public Relations, Botany, or Zoology will run into the same problem.

These subjects are only offered as concentrations of much broader areas.

And yet students looking to major in French, Spanish Convergent Media or Music Education have definitive majors.

Western also offers the traditional Pre-Med, Pre-Law, Nursing, History, Chemistry majors etc. So why not Journalism?

While Journalism concentration majors spend most of their time taking classes on literature and textual analysis

along with their reporting, publishing and photography classes,I’m sure other media majors aren’t bogged

down by reading a language awareness. And we’re stuck into such a wide category.

English majors can minor or have a concentration in quite a few subjects.

But there isn’t one large Language major that encompasses all the French and Spanish students.

Don’t get me wrong here – I have NO problem with any students or any majors.

It just feels frustrating to people like me (and probably the PR and zoology kids) who are

spending our time studying things we may not need, and then maybe getting the job we want but

never being able to say, “Yeah, I was a journalism major.”

The spring concert only had 783 students in attendance. Murals for minds had around 100 people in attendance and not all of those where MWSU students. As I go to different events on campus I relies we students have no pride in our school.

The students who get involved get involved in a lot of activities and that is great, but what about the rest of us who go to class and then go wherever and do whatever it is we do.

 I came to the conclusion that we have no school pride at Missouri Western. I realized that our actions reflect on the campus and also the community surrounding it. I began to think of how much we could do for the community and how much we could do for or alma mater.

If every student gave one dollar we would be able to donate over $6,000.00 back into the community in some way. If 1/6 of the student body showed up to help paint a mural that would be 2000 hands to help create something. As a campus of over 6,000 we can make a difference in our community.

In high school we all took a year book because we were in it. Here they try to give students a year book that they have already paid for and they don’t want it. Why because we aren’t in it. Get involved and be in the yearbook.

This problem is said to be caused by being a commuter campus, but I think that is a cop out. The reason we don’t get involved is because we are too wrapped up in our own lives. Yes we have students with family’s already and yes we have nontraditional students yes we have to work. But those are all excuses. Why can’t we find time to participate and make MWSU a place every student would want to come.

We as students need to be involved in Student Government, Greek life, sports, sporting events and all the other wonderful things that are brought to this campus for us learn from or to have fun at. The convocation every fall has empty seats and MWSU has once in a life time speakers come. We students need to take advantage of what or school offers us before it’s not offered any more.

I challenge every student on this campus to put on their black and gold be a Griffon and get involved even if you have to take a class to do it. I know without my newspaper class I would have never got involved, and now that I am involved with activates offered on campus I won’t ignore a gold link invitation anymore. GO GRIFFS!

There was an article about the SGA President and incoming SGA people concentrating their efforts to enforce the smoking policy of Missouri Western State University and how to deal with the complaints from non-smokers and meeting in the middle for all students to be happy. 

The smokers of cigarettes know to address the problem of trash that is left behind from uncaring people like smokers that leave a bad taste when they view cigarette butts around campus grounds; it’s for all people that come here. 

The passing of the student vote has made SGA become the voice for all students and help with the complaints about smoking and the rules that come with it. The SGA Director is glad the students have spoken in the vote. But, it may become the policy of MWSU anyway because of carelessness of the smokers themselves. 

Due to current financial constraints and to tidy up the campus, this may be the only way for MWSU to clean up the butts.

Employees get a paycheck and the cuts that the campus was dealt needs, to show up somewhere. 

I think that the author is explaining to be thankful of what you have and to respect others that you may affect because human carelessness will have a permanent effect on the campus. It is a privilege and not a right to smoke. 

People need to be aware and respectful of other people and be responsible for the acts that reflect on them. His past article calls it like it is and smokers better listen up. 

My position is that I am thankful that the smokers were there to vote. 

On that day of voting, I was telling people (that were smoking) that they need to vote if they want to continue with the privilege they have. I am a smoker and a firm believer that everyone’s vote counts and if you don’t exercise that right, then you get what you get. 

What I don’t like is that some people are lazy and are not willing to work to get along, like moving the smokers spot to an area that are agreeable for both parties. Now that cigarette butts on the ground have caused an issue, it is clear that we need to move the smoke pad somewhere else. We need to put peer pressure on them to not leave butts on the ground and have some pride in themselves ad help keep the campus clean. Either way, I don’t want to lose what I have and it looks like I’m going to fight to keep it.

Sincerly, 

Brian Gomez

The spring concert only had 783 students in attendance. Murals for minds had around 100 people in attendance and not all of those where MWSU students. As I go to different events on campus I realize we students have no pride in our school.

The students who get involved get involved in a lot of activities and that is great, but what about the rest of us who go to class and then go wherever and do whatever it is we do.

 I came to the conclusion that we have no school pride at Missouri Western. I realized that our actions reflect on the campus and also the community surrounding it. I began to think of how much we could do for the community and how much we could do for our alma mater.

If every student gave one dollar we would be able to donate over $6,000.00 back into the community in some way. If 1/6 of the student body showed up to help paint a mural that would be 2000 hands to help create something. As a campus of over 6,000 we can make a difference in our community.

In high school we all took a yearbook because we were in it. Here they try to give students a yearbook that they have already paid for and they don’t want it. Why, because we aren’t in it. Get involved and be in the yearbook.

This problem is said to be caused by being a commuter campus, but I think that is a cop out. The reason we don’t get involved is because we are too wrapped up in our own lives. Yes we have students with families already, yes we have nontraditional students and yes we have to work. But those are all excuses. Why can’t we find time to participate and make MWSU a place every student would want to come.

We as students need to be involved in Student Government, Greek life, sports, sporting events and all the other wonderful things that are brought to this campus for us learn from or to have fun at. The convocation every fall has empty seats and MWSU has once in a life time speakers come. We students need to take advantage of what or school offers us before it’s not offered any more.

I challenge every student on this campus to put on their black and gold be a Griffon and get involved even if you have to take a class to do it. I know without my newspaper class I would have never got involved, and now that I am involved with activities offered on campus I won’t ignore a gold link invitation anymore. GO GRIFFS!

The best vision for student government to aspire to is one that represents the students — a democracy. While Allison Norris and Jacob Scott should be commended for their ambitions and good intentions, the student body should be mindful of their obligation in the process as well.

On Monday April 18 at 4:00 p.m., Norris and Scott were inaugurated as our president and vice president for SGA.

As Western gets familiar with the new administration of their student government, they should consider the power that the student officials truly wield. SGA oversees a half million dollar budget. If money makes the world go round, then you can certainly demand that student officials can efficiently effect change.

The success of the Norris/Scott administration depends in part on the student’s responsibility to voice their priorities and concerns.

It is the same with SGA. Norris and Scott both gave their wishes and hopes for Western; as Norris said in her previous column, her main goal is to “keep you (meaning students) current on what SGA is accomplishing, what issues we are facing and how you the student can get your voice out there.” This statement is great. Yet, we hope that this statement will be a reality, and not just something used to make a good impression. If Norris and Scott can truly accomplish student concern and getting more students desiring to know what SGA is about, then our campus should have no more complaints for this upcoming year.

Consider it a checks and balances of the powers of government, in this case, student government.  President Vartabedian and the administration serve as the executive branch handing down final decisions with little personal contact with the student body. SGA serves as legislative branch with elected student representatives elected by their own constituents and interest groups. The students fulfill the judicial branch… in the form of a court of public opinion.

The Norris/Scott administration emphasized hearing the voice of students as the cornerstone of their successful campaign.  Now that the votes have been cast and the inauguration is done, the real test will be the results that the incoming SGA administration delivers.

We as a campus must show concern for those presiding over us-which means SGA. Our student body must be attentive of the actions of SGA. This means that SGA must constantly make their procedures professional, constitutional, concise and clear. It’s a checks and balance process.

Measuring the success of our new student representatives will be hard to gauge. As a student body we must first establish our expectations and make them known. Only then can we go about petitioning our elected student representatives to make changes we care about.

We encourage Norris and Scott to go for their goals and establish them on our campus. Get students involved, make students aware and clarify the confused. If they can do this, then our campus will continue to thrive.

As this year approaches its end I can’t help but feel excited for change and new beginnings. On April 18 I will take my oath of office and the new SGA administration will commence. I am ready to lead and with your help and support your Student Government Association will work with you and for you. From day one I plan on getting to work right away and working hard and throughout the summer to establish a solid footing for SGA to stand upon.

I invite you to attend Jacob Scott and my inauguration on April 18, 4:00 p.m. in Blum Union and I invite you to give us suggestions or ask us questions after the ceremony. Our first meeting will be afterwards at 5:00 p.m.

We will have three meetings before summer begins held Monday April 18, 25, and May 2 at 5:00 p.m. in Blum 220. We will establish our new budget, senators will confirm the appointed directors, we will make our plans for summer and establish a date for our retreat.

If you are interested in becoming a senator or an associate senator it is highly encouraged that you attend our first meetings. If you are just curious about our meetings or want to stay current with MWSU issues the gallery is always open to anyone.  Also our meetings will continue to be held on Mondays but, the time will change to 6:00 p.m. starting fall 2011.

I encourage you to always have an active voice and never feel as if your opinion doesn’t matter because it matters to me and it matters to SGA.  I want to know what you think and I want you to take a step toward leadership whether you join senate, WAC or another organization on campus take the steps to be active and make a difference.

I look forward to next year and working for you and I hope to see many of you in the meetings to come.  I hope you will never hesitate to come to SGA for help. Our doors are open and will always be open.

I will continue to keep you current on what SGA is accomplishing, what issues we are facing, and how you the student can get your voice out there.

SGA
Blum Union 220

Dear Western students,

As this year approaches its end I can’t help but feel excited for change and new beginnings. On April 18 I will take my oath of office and the new SGA administration will commence. I am ready to lead and with your help and support your Student Government Association will work with you and for you. From day one I plan on getting to work right away and working hard and throughout the summer to establish a solid footing for SGA to stand upon.

I invite you to attend Jacob Scott and my inauguration on April 18, 4:00 p.m. in Blum Union and I invite you to give us suggestions or ask us questions after the ceremony. Our first meeting will be afterwards at 5:00 p.m.

We will have three meetings before summer begins held Monday April 18, 25, and May 2 at 5:00 p.m. in Blum 220. We will establish our new budget, senators will confirm the appointed directors, we will make our plans for summer and establish a date for our retreat.

If you are interested in becoming a senator or an associate senator it is highly encouraged that you attend our first meetings. If you are just curious about our meetings or want to stay current with MWSU issues the gallery is always open to anyone.  Also our meetings will continue to be held on Mondays but, the time will change to 6:00 p.m. starting fall 2011.

I encourage you to always have an active voice and never feel as if your opinion doesn’t matter because it matters to me and it matters to SGA.  I want to know what you think and I want you to take a step toward leadership whether you join senate, WAC or another organization on campus take the steps to be active and make a difference.

I look forward to next year and working for you and I hope to see many of you in the meetings to come.  I hope you will never hesitate to come to SGA for help. Our doors are open and will always be open.

I will continue to keep you current on what SGA is accomplishing, what issues we are facing, and how you the student can get your voice out there.

SGA
Blum Union 220

While in college, it is your complete responsibility to take advantage of every opportunity possible. Rather it means doing multiple internships, graduating with a major and a minor, staying in school longer to obtain the future you always dreamed of, or being apart of an organization that will help you get the exposure you need, a student must make the proper choices to get them where they need to go. Griffon News is one of those opportunities. We want you to take this opportunity and join the Griffon News.

Being on the Griffon News helps you get exposure as your work will be published and read by thousands of people. It will be something to add to a resume and will help you gain a work experience that is still in a classroom. For Convergent Media, English: Public Relations and English: Journalism majors it is a required course. Yet for Illustration, Animation, Photography, Graphic Design, Speech Communications, English: Literature, Marketing, Business and Communications: Public Relations Majors, it is an opportunity to show your true skills in the field you are choosing for your future.

Though some might say they have no time for a course like this and feel that other opportunities might be a better fit, a student should first consider the specifics. JOU 210 is only a Monday and Wednesday course from 1:00 to 1:50. The assignments include composing stories and/or graphics for the desk of your choice. A student has an opportunity to write on any desk, or multiple desks if they wish. If they continue on the Griffon News, they can apply to be an editor where they will get paid while having the course as well.

If any student has a desire to interview, design, take photos, draw cartoons, communicate with others or be apart of a campus organization that reaches multiple students every week, then they should enroll in JOU 210 and give the newspaper a chance. Every semester the Griffon News looks for new people to bring some different aspect to the newspaper. Whether it’s a different face, a new program, a unique style or all of the above, Griffon News desires something new every semester. Maybe your skills could be exactly what the newspaper is looking for.

Students should always remember that opportunity establishes growth, exposure and an advantage over the average. When it comes to a career, a college degree is a given; most people will have one. Yet, experience will more then likely be the factor that gets the job. So, use Griffon News as a way to get that experience and eventually get that job. So instead of life passing you by, you will be basking in its ambiance.

You would think that the increase in revenue from the Spring Sports Complex along with a higher increase in students bring in more money, yet Western’s growth in size has not led to a further growth in money. Since 1999, Missouri Western has increased from 5,000 students to over 6,000. Our growing rate is the highest among the public universities. Yet, Missouri as a state has been cut 12.2% in education.

Also, Missouri does not increase money for having more students. But, Western wants to continuing striving for a larger size, a more convenient campus, and easier accessibility for students, yet must ask for more dollars to make the vision of better success come true.

It’s as simple as this. If you want better, you pay for it: If you want a steak dinner with all the trimmings, cooked properly in all the right places, you would not go skipping to IHOP. For Western to have the best, it must ask for students to jump on board and bring their wallets with them.
Students should understand that Western is not simply asking for dollars for no reason. It is to keep Western up to date, and a valuable university. A valuable university means a valuable degree from the university, which leads to a valuable career from that degree. Vartabedian even went to student leaders and asked them how they would feel about tuition increase. All of these students agreed to fork over the dollars.

The tuition increase will be $17.61 for credit hour. So for 15 credit hours, the increase will be $264.15. Though the dollar amount is clear, what must be crystal clear is where the exact increase in tuition is going. To make our campus better, and provide a quality university really doesn’t clarify any specifics.
For the Board of Governors to really encourage students to pay these amounts, they are going to have to give up the details. Students understand that Missouri as a state is receiving cuts. Students further understand that costs of growing and expenses are becoming steadily harder for the university to pay. But what’s not understood is where the money is going to due and what the increase will be used for.

We should stand by Western and accept the future burdens being placed on our accounts, even though we know it doesn’t make life any easier. Yet, college is an investment. So, we should just deem this increase as an investment change and hope that somewhere down the line, the pockets getting looser will one day be fatter.

I do think there are certain times when there should absolutely be no cell phones allowed out; like on the day of a test. But on a daily basis when there is only lecturing going on, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me. I can think of several things that are more disrespectful and disruptive to the professor and the rest of the students in the classroom. For example people chomping their gum, clicking their pens, and here’s a big one: listening to their iPod’s in class. Texting seems like such a big deal but I think someone who has an ear bud in one ear with the volume on their iPod high enough that it can be heard by the person 5 seats away seems more disruptive.

If your professor has a problem with you texting in class, listen to them and put your phone away. If you really need to check your phone then simply walk into the hallway for a moment. As of right now this is still just a debate and you should respect your professor’s wishes. Yet until a professor makes it clear that they feel texting is extremely destructive, then I say text away. Obviously the conversation is worth the words missed during lecture.

The University of Connecticut beat Butler on Monday to win the national title. This victory was a great win for Uconn, but it finished up college basketball for the year; so the season ended in a bittersweet moment.

The other major sports that stopped a while ago are the National Football League and college football. These two sports ratings were through the roof every week, along with the controversy that followed. The NBA started a month after these two sports began and also college basketball.

America watched all the major sports at one point this year but slowly the major sports were ending. Now the only sport that remains that is on the top of everyone’s watch list is the NBA. The NBA is another sport that will be ending soon, leaving baseball as the last major sport to watch.

The game of baseball is very complicated for a lot of people to grasp, so it is boring to a good number of people. Not only is it hard to understand, but the game is very long for many people to watch throughout the whole game. 9 innings along with each team getting a turn in that inning, can mean the game could go more than 3 hours each game. Those other major sports that I talked about earlier have an easier concept, and it is not as hard to learn. Baseball has many different categories, not just home runs, but that is the only category someone people know who don’t watch the sport. People who don’t even watch football and basketball get the sport more than any other sport because of the simplicity. In basketball you score points in the basket, and steal the ball and block shots. In football you score touchdowns and intercept the ball. My point is that it is easy to understand these two games, so people are more inclined to watch.

The game of baseball has rich tradition with some of its players like Hank Aaron (the former home run king, and Babe Ruth (the original home run king). The game today has evolved from having a rich tradition, to questions about its many athletes who are now accused of using steroids. This in itself has turned away many people, even the die-hard fans. The negativity is too high in baseball right now, and Barry Bonds (the current home run king) is now in a legal battle because he has been accused of steroid use. His battle is now in a court room to clear his name. Even if his name is cleared, people have already made up in their minds that baseball will never be the same, fan or not.

Though the truth is that we only have four and a half weeks until finals, it’s important for students to not slack off at this time. Fooling around with exams and assignments might have worked in high school, but historians did not term the word “college” for no reason; as the Rome originated word stemmed from collegium, which is defined as an educated group of colleagues consistently working together under a common set of rules. Even the ancient Romans knew college wasn’t for slackers.

April 1 marks the final day to withdraw from courses and April 4 marks the first day of fall registration. These dates make the best performance at the end of the semester extremely vital. No one wants to deal with the stress of failing a course at the end of the semester and having to e-mail an advisor to look up a pin to re-adjust a schedule just to take the course again.

Since students have the option to withdraw from courses before possibly failing and ultimately lowering their GPA, they should take advantage of this opportunity.

However, let’s be honest- accepting the fact that a class is going to hinder more than hurt is a sad thing for a student to understand. Yet, it’s better to accept this fact than allow one course to affect an entire college performance. One D or one F can easily turn a 3.0 GPA to a 2.0 or below, which is not worth the studying, class attendance and hard work that a student has put toward his or her grades.

Not everyone can say they have been to college, so students should feel confident just for the simple fact that they are here at Western in the first place. Now, it’s students’ soul responsibilities to do the best they can while being here in school. Doing the best they can means using every opportunity they have to be a successful college student. It means taking all measures, even if it includes getting tutoring, having private meetings with teachers and asking for extra credit.

At this time in the semester, the question students should ask themselves is whether they are giving 100 percent and truly doing the best they can do. If the answer is yes, then students should pat themselves on the back and keep up the good work for the remaining few weeks of school. Yet if the answer is no, then its time to buckle down, focus and improve those grades.

The mid-term mark is just a check point in this imaginary race towards success. Yet, if you’re barely making it while just jogging in the back in the line, then you will never be the winner. The key is using this time to catch up and regain your strength in the race. This way when you win, it will be your turn to hold up that huge golden trophy, which is called a degree.

The reason it takes a two-thirds vote is because it would remove a privilege (notice that I did not say it was a right) that some students enjoy. It should require that type of majority to remove anyone’s privileges. Don’t believe those statistics that non-smokers push about second hand smoke. If you do a little research, you will find that the information comes from studies in a laboratory.

They are not conclusions based on individuals, just machines that smoked cigarettes backwards without the filter, and guess what? Those fumes are toxic. It’s the same as the smoke from almost anything that burns.  Usually animals in a brush fire and people in a house fire die of smoke inhalation long before their bodies burn.

And don’t think for a minute that the SGA or administration is concerned about your health. If they were they would be more concerned about the number one health problem on campus. What’s that? Sexually transmitted diseases. If you think I’m wrong, just ask the Esry Student Health Services workers. Ask them if you are more likely to die with a sexually transmitted disease from sexual exposure on campus or dying of second hand smoke exposure on campus. If smokers would obey the rules and administration would enforce the rules, then there would be no second hand smoke exposure to anyone but smokers.

I wonder how far students would go to ban sex on campus. Sex is a choice and a God-given privilege. I’ll bet that two-thirds vote seems right to everyone about now.  Enforcement may be tough, though. It is the same with smoking or anything you like to do. I prefer food that is bad for me, soda over water, and my recliner to my treadmill. Some choices I make are bad for me. It is my privilege to make that choice. Students can still buy food that is bad for them, purchase soda in every hallway, and there are far more chairs and couches on campus than exercise equipment.

What really bugs me is that the losers in this case claim that they will try again until it passes. That isn’t right. Why can’t SGA simply tell administration and themselves that they tried and there just weren’t enough votes to change the policy? For some reason government today on all levels uses this type of one-sided tactics.

If a school tax levy doesn’t pass they simply put it back on the ballot and spend more tax dollars campaigning for it until it passes. It is sort of expected that the smoke-banning people will continue to try to get this thing passed but after it passes there will be no more voting.  The opposition to the smoking ban doesn’t get a second chance. The thing will just become law if it passes. Why can’t the NO vote be final?

I first want to say thank you for voting for myself, Alison Norris, and Jacob Scott as your new SGA President and Vice President. We are honored to be serving you. I realize that we were the only candidates on the ballot this year, but I assure you that we will do the best job possible and with our experience and good work ethic, we are the best candidates for the job.

Allison Norris is a Convergent Media Major. She will be graduating in the Spring of 2012. She has played numerous roles at Western such as Lifestyles Editor and Editor-in-Cheif for the Griffon News and Communication Director of SGA.

Throughout our campaign we met with many organizations and student groups that gave us many great suggestions of things they want done. We have kept this list of suggestions and will be using those to determine what we will be doing next year. We are already formulating our plan for next year, but we will continue to listen to your suggestions throughout our term and continue to get your feedback.

Our administration will not just work for the students fall and spring semester, but throughout the summer and winter breaks because Student Government requires year-round vigilance.

I will be emailing applications for new SGA Director positions soon. The positions that will be open are: Director of Communications, Director of Student Relations, and Director of Finance. We will be hiring dedicated students that are leaders on campus and off campus. I encourage all students to apply. Our Directors will be held at a high standard and we will hold ourselves and our directors accountable.

I am excited for the changes and challenges of next year and I am ready to serve the students. My office will always be open to all students and I would like to encourage all of you to bring any issues, concerns or suggestions to me because I will always be happy to listen.

Sincerely,
Alison Norris
Incoming SGA President

Starting the Fall 2011 semester, attendance policies will strictly be a professor’s personal decision. This means that every Missouri Western educator will have to personally develop an attendance policy that they feel is reasonable for students. Though this gives educators more freedom, it can also become problematic. A professor could require students to miss no classes without a valid medical excuse, or simply fail the course. Then students that have a busy schedule, or that work, or that have children will have an extremely difficult time abiding to this policy.

This new policy also means that a student must pay very close attention to the course syllabus. This will now be the only way a student will know how many classes they can miss before he or she actually begins missing them. Students will have to make sure they are printing off their syllabi because professors have stopped printing them off for us. Students will definitely need to think twice before missing the first day of classes. This might only be absence they have; or at least one of the few.

Though Missouri Western have taken a firm step in the right direction involving attendance, professors should take an even bigger step by eliminating their policies. Professors should not be forced to hold students accountable for being in class. Instead of professors holding students accountable, students need to hold themselves accountable. Then, when students graduate and go into the work force, they will understand what self-accountability truly means.

Checking attendance also takes a huge amount of time from class work, especially with courses that have around 50 to 70 students in them. So with a 50 minute class and 10 minute time to take attendance, students are really only getting 40 minutes of actual useful class time.

If any student thinks they could miss numerous classes and still pass, then let them. Ultimately, it will be nobody’s fault but his or her own. Professors have enough responsibility involving class work, lecture, and creating, checking and grading tests and quizzes. Why don’t we take a little stress off of the many things they have to do on a day-to-day basis? Frankly, no student deserves to be at Missouri Western if he or she can’t be in class in a proper manner. We don’t need any professor to tell us that.

The ballot on March 7-8 will have two main issues for students to vote on; the tobacco policy, which will ban tobacco products on campus, and a revised version of the constitution.

Let me guess, this is the first time you’ve heard of SGA wanting to change their constitution. Well, it could be because they did it behind closed doors without any real input from the students. For an organization that claims to be the voice of the students, SGA has lousy ears.

Not only did SGA not seek student input through the use of forums, they also didn’t present it properly to their senate. The revised version that is on the front page of the website wasn’t finished until March 2, yet some how senate approved these changes. Since the discussion apparently took place during closed session, there is no way to tell that what the senate approved is actually what the students will be voting on. Since the revised constitution was not released immediately after the February 28 meeting due to further changes, it can be deduced that senate never saw the final version that will appear on the ballot.

While SGA senators and executive board members can attempt to justify that a closed session was necessary for these revisions, these justifications are frivolous. Missouri Sunshine law states that government meetings must be held in open session, unless the members are discussing specific personnel issues regarding a specific individual. The Missouri Sunshine law was established to prevent governments from making decisions without the public knowing and promote transparency.

Part of this makes sense, seeing how the constitution now includes the $50,000 allocation for the Administrative Coordinator of SGA position. If you’re wondering why no one cared ask you if it was okay to use your student fee money to pay for this position, it’s because no one cared. SGA didn’t ask because they don’t care if over $100,000 their budget, which you pay for, gets shifted around without your approval. They would rather shut the students out of their meetings.

So what’s the next step? Fortunately you, the student, can vote whether or not you want this rushed and revised constitution being the document that your student government abides by. Since you probably won’t have time to read the 16-page document or weigh the changes in your mind, vote for other reasons. The fact that they disregarded your voice, when the association prides themselves in being the voice of the student body, is enough of a reason to just vote no.

Vote no on the revised constitution and remind SGA who they are working for.

Here we go again! Will we ever be rid of this disastrous show known as the “Vagina Monologues?” Having seen the show myself, reluctantly, many years ago, I fail to see how it benefits women to swear and use creative names for their vagina and other body parts. The entire show is utterly degrading and indicative of the low-level that much of American culture has fallen to in 2011. As one example, a lesbian assault on a 13-year old girl was described approvingly, as a “good rape.” Using degenerate language does not “free” women, it simply reduces their dignity. Having the freedom to do something does not necessarily mean that we should do it. Women wouldn’t, or at least shouldn’t, want a man to use the terms they themselves use in this “theatrical production.” If it is improper for one group to use a term, it should be improper for everyone. And, to make matters worse, it is to be performed on Valentine’s Day—a day traditionally devoted to romantic love, unity, and caring for other people.

I am absolutely opposed to violence against women, but there are far superior ways, both morally and economically, to address the issue. How about campus organizations sponsoring a Valentine’s Day dance where couples could sell tickets across campus for some type of prize? A large percentage of ticket sales could be donated to the YWCA to help women who have been assaulted or otherwise abused. On some campuses, I have witnessed students selling flowers around Valentine’s day to support various causes. And if the students believe they would want to put on a play, there are many that emphasize and promote the goodness in people and the dignity of both men and women without debasing themselves in the process. This is not a naive hope for some unattainable utopia, but rather a confidence that university students and faculty can rise above the level of the street and strive for something better. Abuse against women will decline when they are no longer seen as sex objects by men (and women), but viewed with dignity as individuals. Our current popular culture, i.e., music, movies, television, social networking, all conspire against this view of women by essentially saying that sex is all that matters. Why should our students simply follow in lock-step with this superficial paradigm? Where is the innovation and inventiveness of students and faculty? Can’t we think of anything better than what the New York Times tells us is “funny” or “edgy”? Do we have to rely on Broadway or Hollywood or Eve Ensler to tell us what to do? Surely, we can think of something more appropriate, and more innovative, to generate funds for the YWCA than an old, tired show that highlights the worst in human behavior.

Sincerely,

Kenneth Dagel

Kenneth Dagel
Associate Professor of Geography
Missouri Western State University
St. Joseph, MO

“Secede from Secularism”

We understand your outrage. Between new fees, increasing class sizes and now increasing tuition costs, you have a reason to be. But before you start throwing the textbooks out the window, let’s review the facts.

Recently, Gov. Jay Nixon called for a seven percent cut in higher education. This means for Western to retain its quality education the university will have to raise tuition roughly 10 percent. Even though Western still must go through processes to approve the increase in tuition, a tuition raise seems inevitable. Other four-year schools across the state are beginning this same process. Keep in mind though, 10 percent for Western is less than 5.8 percent for most University of Missouri schools.

With that in mind, Missouri Western’s tuition is still one of the lowest in the state. Look at Central Missouri’s tuition, which for 15 hours is around $2,900 for in-state students and Northwest’s tuition is $3,523.35, which is almost $500 more than Western. Even with next year’s increase, Western is still the cheaper deal.

It’s not all about the money though. With most “deals” customers get a cheaper product, but somehow Western offers the caliber of education with the cheapest cost. While the quality has not suffered this year from Nixon’s 2010 cuts, everyone at Western has.

While we are still getting the same education, we’ve had to make bargains; bigger classes, less professors, a cut in operating budgets all over the university

Though the mandated tuition freeze might have put us in a financial woe, since tuition makes up close to 50% of our budget, Nixon was able to ensure us that the students are actually being put first. Scholarship budgets that were once cut are now increasing. Graduate programs are steadily rising, and our population is growing incredibly. The Craig School of Business has also added great features to Western, in addition to all the intern opportunities students have been receiving in every major. With all this in mind, maybe we should just trust Nixon and stay put. A good education is worth paying for, right?

Being a Griffon during this era doesn’t mean beating Northwest dealing with “JuCo, JuCo” from our opponents’ stands. It’s about making the best of a bad situation. As long as you remember that Western administrators have your back, there’s no need to worry about the quality of your education. In return, paying the $200 some extra every semester will help them keep Western gold.

After many years of training camp in River Falls Wisconsin, the Chiefs chose to relocate and come to MWSU in 2010. The significance of this move would later be more than just a change; it would result in the team winning six more games, an AFC West Championship crown and a playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs have not been division champs since 2003. No one saw this coming from a team that has been struggling over the years, with little expectation. I am a Chiefs fan but I also think realistically, and I felt that the team would go 6-10. Well I thought wrong about the potential of what this team could do, and they proved everybody wrong.

Some of the special things that were accomplished this year started off with a win on Monday night football. The chiefs have not played on Monday Night Football in a long time, so the anticipation was high for this one. To give you all a mental picture of how long it’s been, Trent green was our quarterback and Priest Holmes was running in the backfield for the Chiefs.  The Chiefs battled the San Diego Chargers in this game and won a tough game in the end, winning the game 21-14. It was hard as a Chiefs fan to feel like the winning could continue but it did. The Chiefs were the last team to go undefeated at 3-0 and suddenly at that point things started to look promising. The success had me thinking of the camp at our university, and I began to think that was a big part of why the team did so well. My thoughts were that the training camp at Western and the location made it a lot easier for the team to be more relaxed. Being at home made this a great situation for the Chiefs and the fans. The support from the community showed in the big crowd’s everyday at the practices with record numbers.

Chief’s players DeWayne Bowe, Jamal Charles, Matt Cassel, and Tamba Hali benefited from Chiefs camp more than the teams other players, with these players breaking their own personal records. Bowe caught 15 touchdown passes, Charles ran for about 6.4 yards a carry, Cassel had his best season throwing the ball with 27 touchdown passes and Hali led the AFC with 14.5 sacks.  A lot of people would not have believed in a million years that Missouri Western could have given the team that much stability, but it was the foundation for their success.

On Tuesday, January 18 Missouri Western opened up another newly renovated building, notching in another accomplishment in Griffon progress. The new building will offer science-related majors opportunities to new technologies that they will most likely be using in the real world. All of this comes as administrators are facing even more cuts from the state.

Brooke Carter | Photo & Graphics Editor

With these cuts also comes the fear that the building may go to waste. Even with a newly renovated building and new technologies, does this mean Western faculty are prepared to teach with these new technologies? If not, Western may not have the funds to viably support such a facility. These fears are pushed aside with the reminder of Missouri Western’s dedicated staff, faculty and administration.

The quality of education at Western is just a testament to the overworked administration. Dealing with cuts means losing a lot of budget, but somehow Western still appeals to students. Our faculty remains highly distinguished with more professors receiving the highest degrees possible in their fields. Finally,

Missouri Western’s staff remains dedicated through change and cuts as they too weather the harsh state of affairs. We also must make the best of the situation.

With this hard work comes a burden of responsibility for us, though. We should feel lucky and thus act accordingly. A newly renovated building can only be kept in pristine condition if we keep all of the above in mind. If we don’t, our administrator’s hard work could go to waste. Remington Hall has been open for a year and we have been able to handle the responsibility that came with that building. We should also be able to handle taking care of Agenstein.

The opening of Agenstein Hall is just another step up the staircase to a better university. Fortunately, this staircase has no limit; it is as tall as we can see. Missouri Western is only held back by the sad truth of limited resources and time. But, given enough of both Missouri Western will continues to make its way up this staircase to an ever-changing tomorrow.

Many of us are aware of the dangers involved in social networking, but I wanted to take the time to remind everyone and hopefully bring it to the attention of those who don’t.

It is important to realize that any potential employer could easily view your profile, this is why anything you post like pictures, messages and status posts should be kept sensible and appropriate. For those going into politics or other areas of special interest should definitely keep it real because anything you do or say on these sites could end up haunting you and ruin a promising career.

You can’t “take back” the online text and images you have entered. Once online, “chat” as well as other web postings become public information. Almost all of these sites are “cached” by search engines, and photos and text can be retrieved long after the site has been deleted. People have been denied entry into schools and don’t get hired for jobs because of dangerous, demeaning or harmful information found on their personal sites or blogs.

Most sites and services ask you to post a “profile” with your age, sex, hobbies and interests. While these profiles help you connect and share common interests, potential exploiters can and do use these profiles to search for victims.

People can be anyone they want on the internet and that is a real danger. Users posing as someone or something they are not can take advantage of this-and this aspect of social-networking profiles-to reap havoc on anyone they choose. No one is safe from those who want to find you for whatever reason it may be.

It is easy to put your friends at risk as well. Protect your friends by not posting any names, passwords, ages, phone numbers, school names or locations. Don’t post plans or upcoming events on your site. Certainly be careful posting pictures that could reveal sensitive information. Look at the backgrounds of the pictures to be sure you are not giving away identifying information without realizing it. The name of a mall, the license plate of a car, signs or the name of your sports team could all reveal your location. Never post sexually provocative photos of yourself or your friends.

Sometimes you may think you are being clever, releasing only bits and pieces of information about yourself or friends, but smart fraudsters can easily put this information together to know more about you. They could go as far as claiming to be an old school friend to gather more personal information on you.

The key point is that nobody really knows who they are talking to on social networking sites, so think carefully before you post information about yourself or others. Always remember what you post online are not private. Parents, teachers, coaches, employers and admissions officers may go online and find out things about you-from your profile, or from someone else’s. People have lost jobs, admission offers and scholarships.

Going in to the beginning of this new semester when we all will be social networking, keep these things in mind and play it safe.

Well, I say no more. No more crazy, unfair things happening to our peeps and our campus. It’s time for us as students, administrators and employees to stand up for things we know are just absolutely unfair. And how we do this is through me, Eboni Lacey. I am your new Opinions Editor, and my job is to examine and acknowledge the things that need to be changed at our school. This semester I plan to ask, question, study, review and inspect all policies and procedures that are ultimately not in a student’s best benefits. I want students to use me as a source to truly write and complain about things that bug, anger and depress you about our school. Take all those frustrations and do something productive with it by writing about it. Instead of complaining to your peers, why not use your voice and let your beliefs be seen thousands of students and administrators, including Esther Peralez, Dave Williams and Dr. Vartabedian; all that read and respond to many of our articles and issues. Many changes that have been made through our university have been because of the Griffon News acknowledging and responding to certain topics. So, give it a chance and use our 12 issues within this spring semester to let your voice be heard.  John F. Kennedy once said, “We must use our time as a tool, and not a crutch.” So, Missouri Western, we have an opportunity in our time here to change the things we know need to be changed. What will we do with this time? Will we use it as a tool and write in this opinions section about the things that bring us to headaches, heartbreaks, anger and tears? Or will we use this time as a crutch with the excuse of, “I’m leaving here soon, it’s not that big of deal.” The choice is yours!

Until the state budget is finalized in the spring of 2011, we will not know the true extent of our budgetary challenges. All indications are that we will receive a fairly substantial cut in our state allocation. I have heard speculation that such cuts could be anywhere from 8 percent to 25 percent. Obviously, we are hoping to be at the lowest possible end of this range. Furthermore, we have tried to educate the commissioner of higher education and the Department of Higher Education about the unique financial circumstances and recent, rather remarkable accomplishments of Western. Lastly, we are making similar efforts with Governor Nixon and our legislators. My sense is that our message is getting through.

In addition to our efforts to educate the public and the decision-makers about Western’s financial picture and accomplishments, we have taken other measures. We have done a significant amount of belt tightening, and we are planning for even more. You are probably well aware of some of these measures, which include frozen salaries and wages for the past two years, a 20 percent cut in operating budgets, and a suspension of or a major cut in a number of university’s initiatives-just to name a few actions that have been taken. As such, I think that we are doing just about as much as we can to prepare for the financial uncertainties ahead of us.

With all of this said, Western has an impressive list of extremely positive indicators for the future:

We have experienced six consecutive years of record enrollment. We now have 6,134 students, which are 400 more students than just a year ago. According to the Governor’s office, we are currently the fastest growing regional university in the state.

We have a noteworthy 72 percent retention rate. This is virtually unheard of for an open enrollment university as the national average for open enrollment universities is 55 percent. Also, it represents a 15 percent increase in our freshman to sophomore retention rate in a mere four-year period.  I believe that our enrollment increases and our current retention rate represent a very tangible “vote of approval” from our students.
We have some very impressive new or newly renovated facilities on campus, in particular, Agenstein-Remington Halls, new Athletic Facilities, and the new Residence Hall.

Our accreditation outcomes have been universally positive, most recently including prestigious AACSB International accreditation for the Craig School of Business.  

On a daily basis, I am made aware of meaningful student, faculty, and staff accomplishments. Moreover, the testimonials that I hear from people who hire our students make me very proud.

Finally, our community is tremendously supportive of this university. I cannot tell you how many people from this community make a concerted effort to tell me that Western is a huge, transformational factor in this community.

In closing, no doubt we face some financial challenges. However, we need to continue to build on our considerable strengths, our important goal of educational access without compromising academic excellence and our unique mission of applied learning. If we continue to do this, I am convinced that we will transcend our hopefully temporary financial difficulties and have a very bright future.

As a student who has been an associate senator and a senator of SGA, when you have a complaint about SGA, you should talk to a senator or any one of the executive board members or come to a senate meeting, which is open to all students to attend. The senate meeting is at 5 p.m. Monday night on the second floor of Blum. The only way to get correct facts about what is going on with SGA is by attending a senate meeting or talking to a member of SGA. There has been a lot of talk about the administrative assistant for SGA that has been in the paper and other people talking about it, but they are giving out the wrong facts about this position that Kathy Kelly will be filling.

Kelly’s position is not really new, it’s mainly just a change in title and moving her office within the SGA office since she will be doing the same job that she has been doing for years with SGA. Kelly has been helping everyone in SGA for years with training all the officers in the responsibility of all the executive officers and senators, For instance, the director of finance who runs the FOC committee where the clubs and organizations apply for funding for their club events or conferences that the clubs are attending. Once FOC approves their requests, then Kelly sends the money to the clubs account or pays electronically for the tickets, hotel expenses or whatever the approved funding is for. Since the director of finance cannot send the money himself, Kelly will not be taking over responsibilities of any of the executive officers with her new position.
SGA decided to this, since we hired a new vice president of student affairs. Kelly’s responsibilities have doubled compared to our last advisor for SGA, who was an associate dean of student affairs, who has less responsibility than a vice president of student affairs? Dr. Esther Peralez who is the new VP of student affairs and our new advisor for SGA agreed with SGA wanting to make Kelly the administrative assistant for SGA, with this change we will continue to have consistency from year to year within SGA. Having Peralez as the advisor for SGA is a good thing for student government since Peralez is for the students and encourages more students to get involve with student government, and her being a vice president can also help with getting student’s voice with top administration.

Sincerely,
Dan Drope

We have recently purchased 11 SGA suggestion boxes that will be placed in all academic buildings, so that SGA may better serve the students. This will allow students to communicate in a confidential manner and give a more convenient outlet for student expression. Work is also underway for an online suggestion box that will be located on the SGA website by the beginning of next semester. All suggestions will be welcome.
If you are interested in becoming a member of the main voting branch of SGA, the student senate body must vote you in.  Currently, senator numbers have risen to 16, but we still have four spots available for voting members as well as openings for associate senators. To be voted in as a senator you must attend three SGA meetings and maintain a 2.25 cumulative GPA.

The gallery is always open for anyone to sit-in on our meetings. Also, it is the misconception that you have to be a senator to write a bill. You do not have to be in SGA to author a bill, anyone can write a bill as long as a SGA senator introduces it in the meeting. SGA’s Western Activities Council and SGA’s Residence Council meetings are also open for students to attend and will always welcome student opinions.
Whatever you do, whether you join SGA, an organization on campus or simply give us suggestions, we just ask for you to get involved and make a difference. Every voice is important so please don’t waste yours.

Western’s Griffon Gateway program has helped students integrate into the university courses. Students who had struggled before and would have been turned away at other institutions are given a chance through the Griffon Gateway program. Now this program is expanding.

This expansion now includes more students and is changing the name of the program. Any student without a high school GPA of 3.5 or and ACT score of 21 will be placed in the new Admissions with Conditions program. These conditions include only being allowed to take 11 credit hours and student are required to take Griffon Edge. This program only applies to first semester incoming freshman though.
Considering a 21 ACT is a cutoff point for various universities, this number spears to be very high. It is also out of proportion to the even higher 3.5 GPA. Any student with a GPA that high would surely be able to score above a 21 ACT score. Both of these numbers lack any sort of logic as far as requirements.

Also, up to 11 credit hours is a difficult number to achieve when enrolling, especially when one credit hour must be toward the Griffon Edge course. Trying to fill 10 credit hours means taking only 3-4 real classes.
This number could also affect the amount of financial aid these students will be able to receive. The majority of federal and state aid requires the students to take at least 12 hours to qualify for their aid. Without this aid, new students may seriously consider the alternative, Community College.

A community college would allow the student to take more credit hours and take more relevant classes. The student can transfer in with those hours and circumvent the requirements.
The changes to Griffon Gateway will indeed help students achieve if they even decide to enroll at Missouri Western. Because of this, the new program may harm Western’s enrollment figures and thus hurt the amount of financial aid the university receives.

No doubt, this program was designed to help students but the goal of the program isn’t the problem. The logistics of program may cause Western to lose students and eventually lose touch with its mission of being an open admissions school.

I lost count of how many instructors complained about budget cuts while we built the G.I.S.C. and a Spring Sports Complex. Western’s investment into those projects was minimal and the result of a student approved fee, the Chiefs and proactive people. Thanks, in large part to the Max Experience fee and the $5.5 million bond it funds, we got the Chiefs. Thanks to the Chiefs, we got a $3 million Spring Sports Complex, an improved football stadium, and a $10 million indoor facility that will pay for itself and then some.

Western got all of that for $1.2 million in student fees. I am one of multiple students that found summer work through training camp. I was also one of several that were fortunate enough to secure an internship with the Chiefs. Without a proactive Athletic Director that got more attention for an arrest than the money and positive attention he brought to Western, none of us would have had those once in a lifetime opportunities.

If you look at it in the most negative sense, the Max fee is an athletic tax. What other tax allows everyone that pays it to, at their discretion; reap the benefits of the tax? Any student that paid a Max fee can benefit directly from what it provides.

What other student fee has brought national attention to our campus and benefited students and the community? The $105 I paid this semester because three of my classes were in computer labs did not get me an internship. Did the $300 full-time students pay yearly for Facilities Access generate over $13 million in facility improvements in one year? What exposure, job opportunities and revenue came from the $100 full-time students pay a year in SGA fees?

A full-time student pays $120 for Max over a school year. If you never took advantage of the concessions or bringing family members to games with Max, you could get your money back in 12 games. If you don’t have time to make it to 12 games over the course of the year, you probably don’t have time to be a full-time student.

If you can’t go to games or just aren’t interested then look at what improved athletic facilities do for a university. When the athletic department went to students and asked them what they could do, the students said that athletic facilities played a major role in their college choice. It’s also no secret, that successful athletics attract more private donations to universities and increase exposure. Do you think many employers in Kansas City knew about Northwest Missouri State before their football team started popping up on ESPN every year?

Like it or not, high-quality athletics brings more money to a university, which benefits everyone. If sports are good and the facilities are attractive, more people want to donate and more students want to attend. Ask officials at MU, who saw their biggest increase in applications ever after the success of the 2007 football team, what athletics can do for a university. I bet none of them are whining.

We have always had people from different communities in need. An economy that has been in crisis has left more and more people seeking help from food pantries and other nonprofit organizations.

All the government agencies that were put in place to serve those less fortunate have faced cuts, and in some cases been sliced completely leaving needy families with no where to turn.

Jobs are being lost and many families with children are forced to move back home with parents, or move in together to share expenses. Take a closer look and you will see a larger group of people scraping the bottom of whatever will produce things as simple as a meal, or other everyday needs that most of us take for granted.

With the biggest holidays of the year approaching many of these families will be making due with the bare necessities. There’s some help, but not nearly enough to meet the needs of everyone asking.

Not only is this a problem for needy families, but our problem as well, and its time we make an extra effort to give. We are all having tough times, but it doesn’t take very much to make a difference. If everyone at this school (a little over 6,000 students) each gave fifty cents to a food pantry, that’s $3,000, which is enough to feed roughly 150 families a turkey dinner. That’s a very small amount of money, but think of the huge difference it can make. Giving builds stronger communities that will grow and eventually give back. Giving will lower crime rates keeping people from stealing; stealing comes out of our pockets anyway when businesses are forced to raise prices to compensate losses.

The misconception that something or someone else will solve the problem has severe consequences. The families suffering could be yours someday and wouldn’t you like to know that there’s help?

Let’s make a difference this year when it’s desperately needed more than ever. Do you really need that new pair of shoes? Is a new video game more important? Can you skip that one soda in between classes to see that someone eats today or has a nice holiday?
Children are our future and if for any other reason do it for them. Bless each and every one of you who decide to sacrifice something for the good of others and I hope you do. Don’t talk about it, do it. For some, having a happy holiday is up to us to be there for them.

What should Missouri Western do to address the long-standing issue of how to deal with smoking on campus?

Options like smoke shelters or converting the campus to a smoke-free area are both ideas which have been up for discussion. Unfortunately, both of those proposed solutions have been met with student opposition from both sides of the issue. It is difficult from an administrative level to pick a side when defending one student’s rights infringes on that of another student.

Nobody is disputing the fact that smoking has been proven unhealthy to smokers, as well as victims of second hand smoke, but segregation may be the key to finding a compromise.

Cartoon | Brooke Carter

While smoking is not indeed a right, their basic liberty in happiness is still a concern. Every student on campus still deserves the right to have his or her complaints heard and understood as well. Student complaints about second hand smoke and some smokers general lack of respect for other students, is understandable but put yourself in the smokers shoes.

This isn’t a student body problem though. Smokers are constantly complaining about not having a proper place during the winter months to smoke in. While this argument is understandable why should all the students be enablers by building small shelters for them to smoke in.

Nevertheless, we are adults at Missouri Western. The decision to smoke is a personal one, and that right should be respected. That being said, smoking on campus is not a part of that right. It is a privilege. If smokers cannot adhere to the polices outlined, such as not smoking in non-smoking designated areas, then why should their privilege be respected.

At the same time, Student Government and Administrators should enforce these polices. What’s the point of setting them up in the first place if there is not punishment for breaking them?

On the other end, self enforcement is always preferable. Due to smokers not adhering to these polices they soon may face just discrimination.

Why doesn’t Campus Security fine smokers for smoking in the non-smoking areas and use the money to build them a proper smoking shelter. That would Instead some students wish to ban smoking all together If this is the case, how will this be enforced? How can we enforce a new policy when we can’t even enforce the old one?

Proposition 19, if passed on Nov. 2, would legalize marijuana for public consumption in California. This would make marijuana essentially as legal as alcohol: adults over 21 will be able to buy up to an ounce from a licensed cannabis dispensary, use marijuana in a private residence or licensed business, and even grow marijuana for personal use in a 25 square-foot area. Right now the initiative is ahead in the polls, with 48 percent for, 44 percent against and 8 percent undecided (ABC News).

California has always been at the head of sensible marijuana legislation. They legalized marijuana for medicinal use in 1996, and many people feel that the “medicinal” label was put on the bill just to get it passed. Now anyone with a headache in California can get a cannabis prescription for one year. For awhile the federal government tried to stop Californians from getting high, (even though medicinal marijuana is legal by state law, it is still illegal federally) and the D.E.A. would periodically raid California dispensaries. When the number of dispensaries kept rising, and public outcry against the raids got louder and louder, the white house finally declared an end to the prosecution of cannabis clubs.

“It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in October, 2009.

With this huge battle won, marijuana advocates in California began their next move towards full legalization: Proposition 19. This initiative has the potential, if passed, to finally disprove all of the erroneous arguments advocates of “The War on Drugs” have been clinging to all of these years.

Proposition 19 could cripple the Mexican drug cartels’ presence in the marijuana industry, clear up jail cells for actual violent offenders, save money and time for law enforcement agencies to chase real criminals, and even make the government a little money from taxing and regulating it.

Most importantly, as many moms and family organizations have said in supporting the amendment, legalizing marijuana and getting it out of the black market would actually make it more difficult for minors to get hold of it and possibly dispel the myth of the “gateway drug” once and for all. The reason marijuana use leads to other drugs is because to buy marijuana, you have to go to a drug dealer to get it, and that’s not necessarily all they want to sell you.

Another huge step that Proposition 19 would make possible is taking marijuana off of the schedule 1 narcotics list and making it more available research. In her book “The Pot Book,” psychiatrist Julie Holland urges people to look at the importance of opening up cannabis research. Recently scientists have found a new molecule in marijuana called cannabidiol, or C.B.D., which is not intoxicating and they believe may be useful to treat anxiety, depression, and
even cancer, but is nearly impossible to research.

No one knows how the federal government would react to the passage of Proposition 19. So far Holder has simply said that the administration is “strongly opposed” to the initiative. Beyond that, the federal government is currently ignoring the issue and hoping it goes away. But should Proposition 19 pass, they will be forced to either strike down a law that was freely enacted through democratic process, or finally take a logical, reasonable look at drug policy in America.

So tell your friends in California, tell your state and federal representatives here in Missouri, it’s time for a sensible approach to a completely benevolent, nonviolent drug: cannabis.

When Proposition 19 passes, dispels all the myths about marijuana, forces the federal government to address an issue they’ve been ignoring for too long, and allows research on a truly incredible plant, we just might see some actual change in this country.

Due to the lack of a majority of senators, Senate did not vote on the budget during the April 26 meeting. During the summer, Student Affairs—which receives 20 percent of the SGA budget—likely got nervous and induced a vote, which was held via e-mail. There are three problems with this.
• SGA bylaws provide no precedent or provision concerning electronic votes or meetings.
• This meeting was not in accordance with Robert’s Rules of Order.
• The vote was not ratified as required by Robert’s Rules of Order.

Now, this is not just nitpicking. We’re talking about $400,000. This is more than some small towns in the United States get for a total budget.

Also, the question remains, was the budget properly discussed?

With a budget this large, the deliberations should not be taken so lightly as to have final discussion through e-mail. Furthermore, e-mail deliberation doesn’t allow students to attend the ‘e-meeting’ and listen or voice their concerns about how the money should have been used.

The fact is, the budget SGA is currently working with was improperly passed and is null and void. It would seem pointless to discuss any business at a meeting where the majority of the voting body isn’t present. It is also seems suspiciously convenient that when the closed session occurs, SGA all of a sudden had a quorum.

The SGA constitution outlines that the last meetings of the spring semester are some of the most important meetings of the year. If the budget doesn’t get passed in the last meeting, the constitution states it’s should be passed at the next meeting.

But this amount of roll over shouldn’t have been necessary. Since the April 12 and 19 meetings also lacked quorum, SGA should have been able to alert enough senators by April 26 to be able to hold a quorum. Even then, the last day of classes fell on a Monday, May 3, allowing SGA to hold their “emergency meeting” in the public and in accordance to their constitution as well as Robert’s Rules of Order.

Still, much of the blame lies in the SGA senators and this entire situation should also impress upon the current Senators the important role they play. Showing up to Senate meetings is absolutely vital to the operation of the legislative body. Without a majority, the meeting becomes informal, and at anytime during the meeting a quorum is not held business form that point on becomes null and void.

SGA’s current attendance policy seems to have alleviated this problem but still, quorum was achieved later in the Oct. 25 Senate meeting rather than at the beginning.

But how many students understand the tradition that homecoming is founded in? How well do students remember the, “reason for the season” so to speak?

Commemorating homecoming is about more than updating Facebook albums and having new T-shirts made. Often the deeper meaning of the event is lost in the midst of the homecoming revelry.

Homecoming is about tradition. Once a year the students of past and present converge to “come home” and return to their roots. Alumni return to their Alma Mater to witness what improvements and changes have occurred in the years since their own graduation and matriculation.

Truly, we should all consider Western home. This is the place where we work for our educations and earn our degrees.

Remember the things that make Western home to you.

It’s the fog coming off the fly-fishing pond as you race in the back entrance for your 8 am class. Sometimes it is the soft strains of the theme song to Flash Dance marking the passing hours reminds you that you’re home.

Today’s current students should consider the legacy that they intend to leave to their MWSU successors. Each year we should strive to make this school better than it was the year before. We must maintain high stands, and hold ourselves to them as the standards rise.

With record-high enrollment this year, Western is visibly growing. As the size of the Western family continues to grow concurrently, each student bound together by our ties to our university.

As enrollment increases, the need for on-campus housing has also risen. Western has answered calls for those needs by building more dorms. Looking forward to the future, the SGA and the Greek community have often voiced desires to see a move toward the development of Greek housing on campus. This kind of forward thinking and ambition makes Western your home. Commit yourself to being a Griffon and bleeding black and gold collegiate pride. Experience the things that are not outlined in our general education like friends, memories, traditions and values we hold dear to our hearts.

So, naturally, it would make since that a larger government would have more impact on the individual than a smaller government, and I think Newt Gingrich understands this fact, much like he understands ‘2+2=4.’ Now where a lot of Americans differ is their perspective on the impact.

Some believe that the government can play an important and vital role in their lives. I do not. Newt Gingrich spoke about personal sovereign, which isn’t just an important part of being an American, but an important part of being a human. I wouldn’t trade my personal sovereignty for all the security in the world, nonetheless I know some people would.

What Newt Gingrich was essentially getting at is that since we have this personal power and the state has no initial power, that we loan our power to the state, this means that we are responsible for ourselves. This is also the only way we can obtain the Jeffersonian/Scottish Enlightenment version of happiness, because the government can’t give us wisdom. Wisdom, like power, is derived from the individual.

Now, the common point liberals make is that if everyone is looking out for only himself or herself, this can cause a very selfish nation. This argument has many flaws in it mainly the fact that people’s personal wisdom doesn’t add anything to the society as a whole, that if people focus all there energy into bettering themselves and their families that some how the country will suffer.

The Wright Brothers didn’t build the plane at Kitty Hawk for America, they built it for themselves, to prove to themselves that they could do it. In the process though, their individual wisdom added to the collective good of the entire country.

America is nothing more that a collection of individuals, striving to make their lives the best that they can and in the process helping each other. Without the Wright Brothers, Howard Hughes never would have dreamed of an airline, a plane that can double as a boat or even the push-up bra. Individual innovation is the American dream, it isn’t large houses and millions of dollars, it isn’t unlimited health-care or free food for everyone, it’s about making your personal life the best you can with what you have. Even though you have to fight for that, even though you have to be courageous like Gingrich said, at the end of it all, this life was yours and no one else’s. When nature finally takes away your personal sovereignty you should be able to say, “I made it this far because I tried this hard. I tried this hard because that’s the hardest I can try.” Even though it’s over, that wisdom, the wisdom of the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, Howard Hughes and innovators all around America will live on.

Felons with non-violent crimes shouldn’t lose their right to bare arms. I have a felony for receiving stolen property. The property that I received was a book of compact discs.

As a result of this felony, I’m not allowed to possess a weapon of any sort. I can’t have a handgun, a knife longer than six inches, or a bow and arrow.

I’m not allowed to hunt, which I could care less about, but I’m not allowed to protect myself either.

How am I supposed to protect myself if I’m not allowed to have a gun, a crossbow, or even a knife?

If I’m home alone and someone breaks into my house with the intention to kill me, I have to throw an ashtray at him or her and hope for a kill shot.

Not only am I not allowed to possess firearms; I’m not allowed to even be around them.

I can’t even live in a house that has weapons in it. If I were to follow the law as it reads, I wouldn’t even be able to possess the utensils needed to eat a steak dinner.

There should be some criteria for felons and their right to possess firearms especially since the crimes that constitute a felony are steadily increasing.

If you get pulled over on the way home from picking up your grandmother’s medication at the pharmacy, you get charged with a felony for having a prescription that’s not in your name.

If you get caught driving without a license three times, that’s a felony.

If you get caught driving under the influence three times, that’s a felony.

If you are charged with any of these crimes, you are labeled as a felon and you lose your right to bare arms.
Murderers and other violent offenders should not be able to possess firearms because they have the potential to endanger lives but they should be placed in a separate category than non-violent offenders.

I’ve never had a violent crime of any sort in my life but because someone left a couple of Jay-Z CD’s in my car, I’m not allowed to protect my family.

These laws vary in different states but the government still doesn’t have a permanent standard set for felons and their right to bare arms, not one that’s fair anyways.

A lot of the people that fall into the category of convicted felons served our country in the past.

They shot killed and died for our freedom, and now they can’t even own a gun because of some petty crime that our government deems a felony.

These gun laws were created for a reason, to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.

People with felony convictions claim these laws are unfair taking into consideration the nature of their crime. A person with a felony stealing charge doesn’t deserve a gun anymore than a person convicted of murder.

Allowing felons of white collar crimes to own guns would only create loop holes for the violent criminals to crawl through and legally obtain a firearm. There’s no way to balance the laws equally and be fair about it.

Enforcing these laws is hard enough as it is and criminals will always be able to buy a gun where supply meets demand, but there’s no sense in making it easier for them. Most felons who have a gun illegally are more likely to carry and conceal. If they already have a felony conviction and own a gun illegally they don’t have much to lose.

Some felony convicted criminals claim they want a gun to go deer hunting or competition skeet shooting, but how would anyone truly know that’s what they wanted it for. It’s something they should have considered before making bad decisions, and I don’t feel sorry for them.

Nothing much can be done to stop a criminal from acquiring a gun, but the laws are there to protect the people. Criminals don’t care about a book full of statutes. They’re not concerned about the law. They may have to pay more for a gun, but it’s available and the higher prices create an incentive to steal more.

Unfortunately, these laws are creating an artificial underclass of people in this country. Felons have a hard time finding a decent job. They can’t vote or defend their own lives as well as their families. They may even have problems renting a home considering most places do background checks these days.

As far as the law is concerned, felons have handed over their civil rights forever, but only the criminal is to blame.

These laws are great and serve a purpose for the common good shared by society.

It’s impossible to monitor the type of felony committed when deciding what felony constitutes the right to bear arms. It may seem unfair to some and, in a sense, probably is.

However, if felons are allowed to have guns after paying their debt to society, then terrorists are allowed to have bombs after serving their sentence.

The real question is though, where is all this money going to?

There are certain fees that must be allocated toward certain expenses, such as the Max Experience, but even this money may not be used properly. At a Student Government Association meeting last month, it was discussed on the floor that hot dogs and sodas are not being served at all the home sporting events.

Also in relation to SGA, it seems that some of their budget, which is generated by the SGA fee, is missing. After several years of student body growth, the SGA budget hasn’t seen any growth in three years. Where has this money gone?

After yet another year of rising fees, The Griffon News demands better communication concerning student money. This money is, for all intents and purposes, student money. Fees, whether enacted by the student body or by Western administration, are allocated from their inception for certain expenses or additions.

Reasons for recent fees enacted this semester have yet to be communicated to students, nor have students seen any actual additions to computer labs. It appears that this fee was enacted only to maintain current technology levels. While this will benefit students, shouldn’t this be something that tuition takes care of?

The fact that The Griffon News is even asking these questions shows that the communication to students about administrative decisions is almost non-existent. An e-mail sent out prior to fall class registration is not considered a channel, it actually more resembles a warning. What’s the point of even sending out an e-mail to students when you’re going to disregard their voice, as demonstrated by overstepping the student body’s vote on the technology and recycling fee.

Fees are very different than tuition. Students expect this money to be used for specific things, rather than them being thrown into a budget to be absorbed by other institutional entities. The Griffon News, on behalf of the student body requests a report, to be distributed to students, of the fees students pay and what they have been used for in the past three years.

No student at Western can leave without incurring a fee for various things. Whether a student is a business, art or psychology major they pay a fee that has potential benefits, but at this point is Western’s history, students are losing track of what fees go toward what additions and expenses. At this point, it is quite possible that Western’s fees could get as confusing as the US tax code in the future.

The campus and community are all abuzz about the unexpected retirement of long time staff member Ellen Kisker. Many people know Ellen for her passion and dedication to meeting the needs of non-traditional students. But what most people do not know is that Ellen has also devoted a significant amount of her time to meeting the needs of students with disabilities.

Beginning in 1989, Ellen was asked to provide services to students with disabilities in addition to her other duties. As the number of students with disabilities increased, it soon became apparent that a full-time position was needed. Ellen worked diligently to convince the campus to create the Office of Special Needs and to hire Lois E. Fox as the first Special Needs Coordinator. I worked for Lois as a work-study employee when I returned to Western to complete my degree in Psychology. And now, many years later, I occupy the position that was created by Ellen and most recently held by Lois.

Throughout all of the changes that have occurred in the Office of Special Needs (which is now called the Office of Disability Services) the one thing that has remained consistent has been Ellen’s desire to create a welcoming and accessible environment for students with disabilities to pursue their education. To the best of my knowledge, Ellen has been a member of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) committee since 1989 and she has served as the chair of that committee for the majority of those years.

The numerous changes that have been made to our campus since 1989 have made it possible for many students with disabilities to pursue their education at MWSU. And while those changes have been very subtle, the changes are important nonetheless. Each time we improve accessibility on our campus, we remove a barrier and we become a part of each student’s success story.

Missouri Western alumnus, Michelle Ritter ‘00 commented that, “Ellen was the first person I met when I was thinking about returning to college after a debilitating accident in 1995. She never once gave me the impression that I wouldn’t be a successful student and her “can do” attitude made me believe that I could earn a college degree, which I did in 2000! No matter how busy she was, she always took the time to meet with me and made me feel as though no other student was on her mind. It is impossible to calculate how many lives have been forever changed for the better because of Ellen’s encouragement to all to follow their dream of earning a college degree.” She was the true meaning of a “student service” provider and will be greatly missed.

Students with disabilities who have graduated from MWSU have gone on to become counselors, physical therapy assistants, music teachers, college professors, business owners, web designers, etc. These students would all say that Ellen’s dedication to the ADA committee had a positive impact on their ability to be successful at Western.

Either directly or indirectly, every accessible amenity on our campus is a reflection of Ellen’s work on behalf of students with disabilities. From the resting benches that dot our sidewalks, to the automatic doors in every campus building, to the chair lift for the swimming pool in the Looney Complex, Ellen’s legacy of creating a welcome and accessible campus for students with disabilities will live on for many years to come. She will be missed by students, faculty, staff and community members alike.

Michael Ritter

Western’s Convocation on Critical Issues is one of the best programs our campus offers. This year’s speaker, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich will likely continue the convocation’s tradition of presenting different opinions and ideas on the issues of the day, as he should.

But, free speech functions best when engaged by others who see the world differently.

Considering what Gingrich has said in recent months, it seems appropriate to enter the fray.

In May, 09 he called Supreme Court nominee Sonya Sotomayor a “racist,” urging her to withdraw. Her sin: suggesting that judges interpret facts and circumstances, drawing on their background of life experiences–the “wise Latina woman” remark. Shocking!

Too much for Gingrich, who said her words made her unfit to serve and a “racist.”

When former Justice Sandra O’Connor said something similar years earlier, there was little controversy. She is a white, conservative Republican.

Gingrich’s travels since have been equally enlightening. He called President Obama the most “radical” president in American history (see: To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular Socialist Machine); compared supporters of an Islamic Center near ground zero in New York to Nazis; said President Obama holds a “Kenyan Anti-Colonial Worldview,” calling it “the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior;” and just last week at a college in Iowa, Gingrich said: “The other thing you have to do is figure out how you’re going to take on political correctness in universities…They only recruit people who are nuts. You end up with people who are so far left that they are literally not in contact with reality.”

Oh really?

Sure, “red meat” and Iowa are important for wannabe presidential candidates like Gingrich, but he still ought to be challenged to explain these extreme views.

If Obama healthcare (which is not government-run healthcare) is “socialism,” then what about Social Security, Pell Grants, and federal disaster assistance? What is public money for the Chiefs training facilities? What is the Bush bailout of Wall Street?

Equating supporters of an Islamic culture center in New York to placing a swastika near a synagogue is a hateful smear. This coming from someone who endorses greater property rights, but evidently not when owned by Muslims.

Just who is the real “radical” here? And the “Kenyan worldview”? Does anyone believe these comments have nothing to do with the president’s skin color, his father’s ancestry, or another pathetic effort to inject racial fear into politics?

Call it what it is: coded speech that Obama is a Black Muslim from Africa and not an American. And finally, the “nuts” in universities comment, a larger conspiracy I presume, to fully indoctrinate students? I’ve never been on a faculty search committee where a candidates’ political views were discussed or asked. McCarthyism lives!

Gingrich is not the first (nor the last) politician to exaggerate, confuse, and frighten.

We live in a world dominated by the superficial, short attention spans, and less interest ing thinking about public affairs and useful solutions, and Gingrich is not the first (or last) politician to exaggerate, confuse, and frighten. Far better to demonize people, their ideas and backgrounds.

What’s disappointing most about Gingrich is that he can appear to be a man of ideas, intellect, and genuine curiosity, who in the end succumbs to the debased poison of politics.

Maybe he’ll come to Western and try a new approach, but don’t hold your breath. One can only hope to see a few microphones in the aisle at the convocation, providing an opportunity for others to engage and challenge Gingrich.

That would make this year’s convocation even better.

It’s understandable that after losing their director, Ellen Kisker, the students who make use of the Non-Traditional Student Center would naturally be afraid for the future of their center, but when they voiced these concerns, no one responded.

It was only until the group began to organize, with letter writing campaigns, petitions, and peaceful assemblies, that administrators decided to open their ears. Covered in this issue of The Griffon News, President Robert Vartabedian and Chair of the Board of Governors Kylee Strough sat down with Non-trad leadership to finally listen, but that’s not who should be listening.

Mentioned at the meeting, it seems Dean of Student Affairs Esther Paralez has had little communication with the Non-Traditional Student Association, despite the fact that she has the non-trad ListServ, the list containing all the non-trads Western e-mail addresses. Also, it seems that Paralez has yet to visit and take a tour of the non-trad student center since reorganizing their director to manage several student organizations.

What does it say about the future of Student Affairs if other administrators have had to intervene to open communication channels between non-trad leadership and Student Affairs? What other changes is the department planning to make without listening to students and considering all the possible consequences?

No doubt, Western’s Student Affairs was in need of reorganizing, but perhaps the wrong approach is being taken in regards to this situation. Instead of pulling directors away, for reasons yet to be communicated properly to the students directly, why doesn’t Student Affairs assess a situation before making decisions? Had Paralez actually visited the non-trad student center and met with non-trad leadership to further understand the role Kisker played in their lives, maybe this mess wouldn’t be so sticky.

For example, the changes made are supposed to help integrate non-traditional students into student life more, according to administrators. First off, how can 1200 students not be integrated into student life? Yes, there are some non-trads who wish to come to class then go home, but this is obviously because they have responsibilities outside of their academic careers. With such a large population on the student body, how can they not make an impact on Western?

Non-traditional students make Western a special place for many traditional students. They add diversity to the college experience, a diversity that not many other universities have. With such a large population, Western should do as much as possible to accommodate these students, because a large population means a lot of tuition, and seeing as the state is going to further cut Western, it looks as though the university is going to need all the money it can get.

These people are not heroes; they merely read lines from a script.

Some of these actors do admirable things off the set, but if I adopted a child from overseas, would you want my autograph?

Speaking of autographs, what a stupid thing to want, somebody’s signature on a piece of paper.

People hang pictures signed by actors and sports players on their walls.

When I wad into a house that has an autographed picture hanging, I lose all respect for that person.

The first pictures of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s baby were sold for 18 million dollars; that shows the stupidity of the American Public.

I’ll gladly sell pictures of my first born for 18 million. I have spiked hair and a six-pack, but nobody wants to see them because I’m not the star of Fight Club.

I don’t know this person, why would I want anything from him.

I wouldn’t even care to converse with him unless I’m getting paid for my time. If I had a napkin signed by Brad Pitt,

I would blow my nose with it and sell it for double the price.

I don’t put anyone above myself.

I have self-confidence and I’m secure with myself. I don’t feel the need to idol worship.

I know a girl that aspires to be Paris Hilton; what a wonderful idol. She has money, no brains, and sexual escapades posted all over the Internet.

What’s the world coming to when people are admired for being completely clueless and having no common sense, Is this a part of the American Dream too?

I consider myself to be fairly intelligent and I honestly feel like I lose a few thousand-brain cells every time I watch that whore on television.

I think if someone is going to worship an idol it should be someone they know with some common sense of right and wrong.

Someone that has sacrificed themselves for the good of mankind or saved a life is considered an idol to me.

We need to teach the nest generation to look up to people that actually make a difference in this world.

I would rather meet a surgeon that has saved thousands of lives than the girl that takes the male organ well on the Internet, like Pam Anderson and Paris Hilton.

I want my children to look up to doctors, teachers, and philanthropists.

I don’t want my kids running around looking like idiot’s, trying to get the autograph of a sexual deviant.

Many people blame the Islamic religion and the Muslims for 9/11, but that’s just not so, 9/11 was committed by fundamentalist passions of a small group of lunatics. The term fundamentalist is widely misused in the media to refer to terrorists who happen to be Muslim. Calling a Muslim a terrorist is completely inaccurate because fundamentalist Islam is simply a conservative wing.

Muslim fundamentalists are devout people who stringently follow the teachings of Mohammed and encourage Islamic law as the law of the state. Muslim fundamentalists view the United States as secular, ungodly, self-indulgent and obsessed with sex; which they believe is ruining the world.

Jones is the leader of a tiny, unintelligible church in Gainesville, Fla., who sparked world-wide anger over his wannabe five minutes of fame. Even though Jones had announced on NBC that he would not burn the Quran, the wrath he seemed desired to stir had already taken shape.

Ignorance like this is cause for more bloodshed. Furthermore, it puts our troops still in Iraq and Afghanistan, in immediate danger.
Jones is not the only American with this kind of mentality toward the Islamic religion and Muslims. No one should speak with hatred of a religion, it creates more hate, violence and unnecessary killing.

Terror is the opposite of religion. It is brutal, merciless and calls for bloodshed and misery. People with a fascist, communist, racist or materialistic outlook on life should be considered terrorists.

“Islamic terror” is a mistaken concept that distorts the message of Islam. The religion of Islam by no means supports terrorism and terror is considered a sin in the Islamic religion. Muslims resent these kinds of acts and are only concerned about bringing peace and justice to the world.

We can thank the media for implying there’s a relationship between terrorism and Muslims. Almost every report on 9/11 and thereafter, used the words “Islam”, fundamentalists, “Muslims” and “terrorism”, all in the same breath.

How about their media? There’s not much to it and what little information they do get isn’t U.S. friendly, making it easier to generate falsehoods about the American people.
Jones is a jack-ass and simpleton with very little knowledge of what he speaks against.

This one man has taken an already tense situation and created a larger scale of worldwide hatred toward Americans.

Are we still wondering why we are hated so much?

However, on Sept. 10, that is exactly where you would have seen two of the top 8-man football teams in the state. St. Joseph Christian and Stanberry started their game at St. Joseph Christian’s campus, but by late in the second quarter, sever weather had forced the game to be delayed.

Instead of waiting for the weather to pass to finish the game, the two teams and their fans, loaded up onto buses and into cars and headed to Missouri Western. The game would be finished under the lights of the Griffon Indoor Sports Complex.

In Missouri 8-man football, the field is 80 yards long and only 40 yards wide. Therefore, they had to make some adjustments to make the field the same as the outdoor field they just came from. There was no sideline on one side of the field and the 20-yard line was the goal line at the east end of the field.

Now, the question becomes, how can two 8-man football teams play a game on the field, but Western’s own students aren’t allowed onto the field?

Students pay fees to have access to the Looney Complex and the Baker Center each semester and the two facilities arguably don’t suffer much in damages.

If the administration is afraid of the facilities being damaged, they can simply allow students to only use the field and not the other areas like the training rooms and conference rooms. Most students on campus are mature enough to know that if you want to be able to use something, then you have to show that you are responsible enough to take care of the facility.

Another solution would be to increase the fee to use the facilities to cover maintenance and general expenses. Students would most likely accept paying just a little bit more in fees to be able to go spend time with their friends at the indoor and relieve some stress by playing a game of football or soccer.

On the other hand, it is also understandable that the administration, as well as the athletic department, don’t want brand new facilities being torn up or damaged. The Chiefs use the facility when they are here for training camp and only use it when there is inclement weather such as rain or heat.

According to an interview with KQ2, Athletic Director, Dave Williams said there are ideas floating around that a rental fee may be instituted to allow groups to rent out the field area to use whenever available. Student organizations can reserve the indoor complex, but it is unclear

However, this also doesn’t apply to students who don’t belong to an organization because the figure that is being thought about is around $1,500. Not many students have an extra $1,500 laying around to rent out the field to get a few friends together to play football or soccer for a couple of hours.

As of right now, the indoor complex is an auxiliary budget that is just sitting unused by the bulk of the students on campus. The football team uses the indoor complex for practices and various other things, but this is only a small percentage of the students on campus.

Western’s Student Government Association will be hosting an open house today from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. to welcome students to the indoor complex.

However, this seems hypocritical because of the fact that students aren’t allowed on the field after the open house is over.

See the PDF version of The Griffon News for a visual layout.

Obama made it his goal to end all combat operations by August 31, unfortunately there have been complications and this goal was a little belated.

What this goal means though is that not all the United States’ troops will be removed from Iraq.

First, the removal of combat troops is a decision that will positively affect Iraqi citizens and the citizens of the United States.

The reasons for the impact on us are blatantly obvious, the impact of Iraq, not so much. Citizens in Iraq need to be responsible for their own people, including the terrorists.

Our final mission was never a prolonged occupation of the nation but rather a clean-up operation. The borders were nothing more than suggestions and police and military forces could be easily bribed to turn a blind eye to terrorist activity.

If you want a solid example of Iraq’s past look no further than Afghanistan or Pakistan.

Now, even though occupation would appear be the most secure way of eventually deterring terrorist activities, if the past five years have taught s anything it’s that this is not true.

If anything, our 5 year occupation of Iraq has caused more hatred and increased terrorist activities in the region.

We need accountability in the Muslim world from Muslim leaders; otherwise it just feels like tyranny.

What better way to do that than through the training of Iraqi recruits, which has been tried before with very little success.

It’s important to remember though that there is a difference between Nixon’s vietnamization and the Iraq troop withdrawal.

First, the opposing force isn’t as organized as the Viet Cong and secondly Al Qaeda isn’t backed by an international super power (or so we hope.)

The biggest difference is that this isn’t a proxy war, but an attempt at suppressing a rogue terrorist group.

So is making Iraq accountable for it’s radical citizens and occupants a reasonable goal?

I would say yes, mainly because the United States does it every day.

We can’t pull the troops out now because our country isn’t safe yet. We still haven’t found Osama Bin Laden and we need to better train Iraqi security.

If we pull out now, we will have let down the thousands of soldiers that have fought and died for this country.

We have to stand strong and stick to our original plan. We have a new president, that shouldn’t meant that we have a whole new strategy about protecting our country.

In April of 2003, President Bush said, “We will except nothing less than complete and final victory.”

I certainly don’t feel that we have come near complete and final victory.

If we pull out our troops just because we have a new president with different views that makes our country look unstable.

Even the Iraqi politicians are scared of our departure. “All Iraqis want Americans to withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible,” Asnan al Dulaimi, a senior Sunni politician said. “ We’re just afraid of the vacuum this withdraw may cause.”

Obama is taking our country in a completely different direction than our former leader intended.

Obama’s plan is to bring our entire troops home, no matter the consequence.

Just because we have a new leader doesn’t mean that we are a new country.

I think that Iraq and Afghanistan are taking Obama’s talk of withdraw as a sign of weakness.

If terrorists view us as week, they will begin to build confidence and start planning more attacks on the U.S.

I understand that Bush and Obama are different people with different views, but what kind of message does our changing of minds send to terrorists.

Obama has made the US look like a fool and doesn’t have the respect of other countries.

How stupid did he look when he attempted to shake hands with many Russians and was denied by every one of them?

I know the war seems bad because our fellow Americans are dying but the number of deaths in this war are far less than any other.

There are over 400,000 troops deployed in the Middle East and there has only been approximately 4300 deaths in a five-year period.

Terrorism is a problem that can’t go unanswered.

We have to show up for class at least 30 minutes early if we wish to have any hope of finding a parking space.

There are 2,357 general, 113 accessible, and 30 time restricted spaces on campus.

There are more parking passes issued than there are spaces on campus.

You should be able to find a space though according to the logic that students are continuously coming and going.

It is hard to find a parking space on campus but it is possible if you are content with walking for 15 minutes.

Our main concern isn’t the parking spaces on campus; it’s the traffic that surrounds us.

Graphic | Brooke Carter

This money goes to the parking security services department.

We don’t understand why this service needs so much money. Where does it go? What is it used for?

This doesn’t include the money issued by the university.

This money could be used to repair streets or to even extend Mitchell into a three-lane highway or at least to add a few new stoplights to better insure the safety of students.

Mitchell Ave. could easily be made into a three lane road. This would solve a lot of the driving problems on campus.

I’m sure that even if this is your first semester at Missouri Western, you have encountered this problem.

We need to solve the problems surrounding campus. We should save the approximate value of $126,000 for five years and put it towards the fixing of our surrounding roads.

If we fix the problems that surround us, the problems within will be much easier to solve.

This cluster of mass vehicles could possibly cause a head on collision, a small fender bender, or even a student to be hit while walking.

This problem gets much worse when the weather gets bad. In the winter , the lines that separate the parking spaces get covered with snow.

This makes people double park, which in turn gives us even fewer parking spaces.

The university spent a bunch of money on the chiefs training camp, which was a good investment.

They now need to spend a bunch of money on the construction of extra parking lots or the extending of surrounding roads.

Can you think of a better investment than more parking spaces for students?

This investment would benefit most of Missouri Western students and help insure the safety of pedestrians.

The number of students attending Missouri western is increasing each year.

Sooner or later, the university is going to have to face this issue head on and give us some resolution.