Sigma Alpha Iota Treasurer, National Association for Music Educators Treasurer, Missouri Girls State Counselor, St. Joseph Youth Alliance Board Member, Starbucks Barista

When you announce your candidacy for SGA president, people ask one of two questions. The first is one of concern: “Are you crazy?” The second is one of curiosity: “What’s your platform?”

My answer to the first: Yes, of course, but one has to be a little crazy to do this. And the second? Allow me to explain.

For the past four semesters, I have served as a student senator under two SGA presidents, first Alison Norris and now Jacob Scott. My Monday nights have consisted of weekly senate meetings where I’ve discovered the right way to pass legislation, the “could’ve been better” way, and all the headaches, office hours, late nights and nasty articles in between.

Every year, we seek bigger, better and more, as university students should. Sometimes, though, the good intentions of student leaders are not so widely accepted. This causes one to wonder what could have been done more effectively.

My answer: better communication.

Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw once claimed, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

This is a concept that pertains all too well to Griffon Country. All of us have questions about the appropriate use of student fees. Too much is collected that offers too little benefit for students. And that’s the result of poor communication between campus administrators and the SGA executive board. The root of our problems boils down to this: Student leaders aren’t communicating with those they represent.

As a current representative of the student voice, it has become my mission to question the effectiveness of SGA and how it could improve. Leaders often assume students will come to them with their interests and needs even though many students aren’t even aware of the ways SGA can assist them. As a result, MonTerio Seewood, vice-chair of campus advancement, and I are currently working to pass legislation that would ask each senator to represent specific academic departments. Instead of waiting for students to find us, we want to reach out to them.

If elected, I promise to continue that essential need for better communication. Here are a few suggestions.

• First, the SGA will do a better job announcing its agenda, sharing clear minutes of its meetings and giving students ample opportunities to speak to issues that concern them.
• Second, the SGA will make effective use of both its website and campus email. The website should highlight important current issues and make it fast and easy for all students to access news and information. Moreover, we should send weekly emails to students informing them and giving them easy ways to respond.
• Third, we should work more closely with The Griffon News. While it’s their job to report the news, it’s our job to make it readily available and to work with them to connect to students.
• Finally, of all the things we must communicate better, among the most important is the SGA budget. Our current budget is online. More than $400,000, but I challenge you to clearly determine exactly where your money goes. And don’t get me started with the Student Success Fee. There are still numerous questions from students concerning what those funds are being used for. We must not only make clear where the money is going but also give students more input into where it should go.

As SGA president, my mission would be to keep students better informed of the ever-changing issues on our campus. More importantly, I would find ways for Missouri Western students to inform me. Communication in my administration will be two-way.

As president, ensuring the money SGA allots to student organizations is being used in the most beneficial way is paramount. This includes money being properly budgeted and allocated by the organizations. Programs that organizations hold should reflect their outlined objectives.

Many students may ask, what is the student success act? The student success act is funded by the student body of MWSU to support the university, in the light of the expected budget cut. However, the expected budget cut never came to fruition, yet, the act is still active. The money from the fee will still go to the expected departments outlined in the act. I support the student success act in the spirit that it will go towards improvements and other university needs.

During my last three years as a resident, it has come to my attention that many students do not fully understand SGA’s function and its relationship to WAC. I want to see WAC become well known to the students as the programming entity of SGA. Promoting the function of WAC will help with the division of branding SGA as its entity.

Issues critical to the students are not limited to those which are publicly apparent, but include the private concerns of every student. I am passionate about the success of this university and I know that successful students are part of a successful university. So, in turn, I am determined to make sure that the student body gets the most out of their college experience at MWSU through the means of SGA.

Both soldiers Patrick Edward Myers of Spartanburg, S.C., and Isaac Lawrence Young of Ash Grove, Mo., were friends stationed at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas.

They were both sitting around on a Sunday night watching football, drinking a few beers and just doing the general friend thing. There was also a third unnamed individual in attendance.

Once Young started in with a case of the hiccups, Myers produced a gun in an attempt to scare the hiccups out of Young. Unfortunately for Young, Myers ended up shooting Young in the face and killing him.

Myers had stated that he thought the gun had rubber bullet rounds in the clip and it was all a total accident.

Myers was charged on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012, of manslaughter, and Justice of the Peace Garland Potvin set his bond at $1 million.

This story actually kind of harkens back to a story from last year, right here in St. Joseph.

Officer Jason Strong had shot officer Dan De Kraai in the back and killed him during a training session at an empty St. Joseph school building on Sept. 15, 2011.

Apparently De Kraai had asked to be shot in the back so he would know what being struck by a rubber bullet felt like.

Strong had simply said that he “did have” a special gun that fired rubber bullet rounds and hadn’t realized he had switched back to his official firearm before the incident took place.

In Young’s case, he could have just as easily asked Myers to do something about his inconvenient hiccups, so these both are really about identical cases.

If Strong can walk free on the streets today by saying “It was an accident, I thought there were rubber bullets in the gun,” then Myers should also get to walk free for saying the exact same thing. Either that, or Strong should have been charged with manslaughter and have a $1 million bond as well.

It seems as though some sort of favoritism is shown towards certain individuals. If that favoritism is shown towards people who hold certain jobs or have money is certainly debatable, but one needs not look farther than these cases to see that there is indeed a problem with the court system.

Whatever the case, it seems as though good gun safety practices seem to be a thing of the past.

I was a student of Geology at the University of La Plata, and one morning, when headed to a Physics class, I noticed many students were turning around and yelling “Run, run!” We found out there was a bomb in one of the classrooms.

Things were getting worse and worse. At night I could hear shooting out in the streets and I was wondering what was happening. I just wanted to go to school.

One evening, I gave a fellow student my pass to eat dinner at the university’s cafeteria, a huge room on the second floor that was surrounded by large windows. I was not feeling well and decided to stay in my room. That day, the Argentine Army barged into the cafeteria, shooting at the innocent students. Many got hurt, or shot at, and others attempted to jump through the windows onto the grounds below from the second floor. The next day, I read in the paper about the incident and decided I needed to go back to my home town for a while. Soon after that, the University of La Plata closed its doors to all students.

I believe many could have survived or saved their lives if they had some way of defending themselves. People were taken from their homes at gunpoint. The element of surprise and not being informed about what was going on had a lot to do with this too; people were not even sure why they were taken away. I believe educators and good citizens need to be trained and have access to guns to protect and defend themselves, and maybe others.

Written by: Adam Hamby (Freshman)

Since practically childbirth in America (especially in the Midwest), we’ve heard all of the wonderful things about Christianity and the Christian Religion.  In fact, from a young age, most of us have probably been indoctrinated into the religion and belief system, too small to even give our consent.  It’s no secret that children are indoctrinated young. In fact, it’s often a topic of bragging rights for a devout church leader or youth minister, that he’s “saving the children”.  A study conducted by the International Bible Society showed that 85% of people become “saved” before the age of 15.  In this context, “saved” is practically synonymous with “indoctrinated”.  Have you ever heard of the 10-year-old Republican or Feminist?  Of course not. We would feel ashamed using that terminology concerning such a young person, who isn’t old enough to fully understand and decide whether they belong to such a complicated belief system.

Sidestepping the more obvious problems that Christianity create for American Culture, such as the irrational phobia and hatred of homosexuals, the rejection of globally-accepted scientific facts such as evolution, and the more than somewhat disturbing belief that the Earth is merely 6,000 years old and that global warming is an elaborate hoax, I want to focus on a more subtle and lesser known problem that Christianity presents. As a student studying psychology, I think people might be surprised to find how psychologically and emotionally damaging Christianity can be, upon a deeper analysis of the message.

The entire foundation of the Bible, the premise on which it was built, is the very idea that there is something terribly wrong with you. So wrong in fact, that God had to send his own son to be brutally murdered to forgive you for what you did (even before you did it). Ignoring the fact that God’s best plan for our salvation turned out to be live human sacrifice, I’m not sure that the doctrine of original sin, or even sin in general, is healthy. It is absolutely unfair to tell a child that there is something inherently wrong with them, a corruption that they cannot fix, without the help of a divine being. Yet this is exactly what we do. How can anybody accept Jesus’ sacrifice without first admitting their own sinfulness? As a person devoting my career to helping others, I can’t help but see the psychological damage we’re doing, even at a young age, to an otherwise perfectly normal child. These ideas of sinfulness, corruption, and unworthiness stick with us into adulthood. Without any basis, many of us are convinced, from a young age, that there is something corrupt within us, and that we are indebted to an invisible, undetectable being, even before we are born. I have seen the damage this type of belief system can do firsthand, again and again.

The truth is, we are all beautiful. The truth is, there is nothing inherently wrong with us.  And the truth is, if you do need to be forgiven for something, the most important person to seek forgiveness from is yourself. Remember that the next time someone tries to make you feel bad about yourself in the name of religion.

After watching CNN, Fox News and any other news broadcast, it is apparent that the broadcasts care only about the facial expressions and body language of current president Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

Many voters have very little knowledge of what either of the candidates stand for in regards to social policies and economic plans.

There is little reason for United States citizens to vote when they care more about Snooki’s baby photo than how Romney plans taxes.

Social media is a major campaign booster and receives much attention from younger voters, but the info that is seen on the social networks is nothing upon which to base a vote.

The campaigns for both major candidates have social network posts with a photo and catchy slogans while the news broadcast channels describe body language. These two campaign boosters visuals will not allow voters to formulate a proper vote.

There is even reason to believe that citizens today do not even know that there are four other presidential candidates. Candidates from the Libertarian, Green, Justice and Constitution Parties do have a theoretical chance of being elected, but their campaigns are so limited that it takes proactive voters to research these candidates.

If voters took a few hours out of their days, they would realize that the Libertarian Party endorses gay and lesbian rights just as Obama now does.

Citizens who fail to understand the policies and topics that matter to being commander-in-chief and a major deciding factor on important bills should not have a place at the polls.

This failure is why there is a problem with voting.

For something unexpected to the old routine tradition, take this Christmas season a few steps farther to get some new “joys” out of the gift of giving.

Instead of getting that happy feeling out of giving someone that brand new video game or phone they wanted, how about giving a set of golf balls to someone who has never been golfing in their life.

We have all gotten that crappy oversized sweater on Christmas with a giant Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer on it, or something to that effect, and we all know we are never going to wear it. The person that gave that gift was probably laughing on the inside when they got it for you anyway.

Don’t just let that sweater sit in your closet for another year collecting dust and moth holes. Try getting a joy out of it you would never imagine. Repackage that gift and watch someone else’s face when they pull it out of the wrapping.

Sure that may seem a little sinister, but the joy you get from that persons look of shear confusion is equally comparable to the other type of joy you get when you give them the gift they wanted.

Why does Christmas have to be so serious about the gifts you give? How about we make it “Have a Christmas Fools Day?” it’s way more fun.

Put one single sock in a tiny box, then put that box inside another box, then put that box… okay, you get the idea. By the time the person finally gets to their brand new single sock, laughs will be swarming the air.

If you are worried about hurting other people’s feelings, then by all means, get them what they wanted and just wait to give it to them after you have experienced your new form of joy from giving.

Plus, do you really need another inevitable package of socks? With this new bit of useful information at hand, just about anybody could possibly see how giving is way better than getting for Christmas.

Mr. Hunt’s comments reflect disdain for general studies requirements, and they also bring to light a now common perception about the purpose of higher education, specifically, that the only reason for earning a college degree is to get a job.

Although it’s true that a college degree leads to more stable employment and higher earning potential, an undergraduate degree provides much more that is not quantifiable. The American higher education model developed around the premise of learning for learning’s sake. Courses in the liberal arts and sciences help students understand the complex world in which they live.

Engaging in inquiry about history, science, religion and the fine arts, for example, heightens our understanding of how society functions and teaches us to reflect on our past, in order to address the challenges of our present. Reading great literature and studying other societies and cultures builds awareness and acceptance of difference.

All of these abilities not only groom students for working in a professional environment, they prepare them for living in an ever-changing world. From an employer’s point of view, the skills developed through general education are crucial: how do you teach an employee to problem solve, address sticky ethical issues or communicate with people from different backgrounds? How do you train an employee to be flexible, to interpret data, and to speak and write effectively?

General education provides the tools that we all need to lead productive and fulfilling lives.

Susie Hennessy

French professor

Worldwide news providers like CNN have started to turn some viewers into reporters of life changing events happening right in front of them. The station has even deemed these brave civilians, “iReporters”. With the capability of social networking websites becoming more and more attainable and with new technologies coming out every day it’s no surprise that most videos that are shown on most news channels are found on the internet and are uploaded by individuals caught in the action.

For years now Citizen Journalists have been under scrutiny from professional journalists, because some are covering stories before them and sometimes even right alongside them, and because they may or may not have formal training to report on an event to the highest possible caliber that reporters do. But what if they do and they just haven’t found a job yet? What if these citizen journalists those real reporters seem to disdain so much cover angles that a reporter had yet to even consider? What if a citizen journalist has the potential to become a real journalist, but doesn’t have the monetary means to become properly educated?

Thanks to websites like Blottr and Wikinews, citizen journalists have actual websites besides their blogs and Twitter and Facebook’s to post current news in their areas. While some of their skills may not be as good as the professionals, they still have forums to put amateur work on to so that on the off chance their work can to be seen by possible job recruiters.   While some journalists may not like the new “norm” of what citizen journalists are becoming to the world of media and reporting, they don’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon.

Every fall semester since 2009, I have spent the first two and a half months trudging the hills from over-flow parking to Murphy Hall. Spring semester is not as awful, nor is summer, but fall semesters are just horrible for a student hunting for available parking close to where the buildings where their classes are held.

Walking two blocks in the rain, in the wind, in the snow and in the cold is not much fun. In fact, it is enough to make this student want to stay home at times. Trudging up and down hills with a heavy bag of books is not easy for some students. There are many non-traditional students on campus, who are not disabled, but they are older and it is physically harder on these students to carry heavy book-bags those distances.

As a student, I generally arrive on campus twenty minutes early, spend the first ten minutes circling parking lots and eventually end up racing to overflow parking. The next ten minutes are spent parking and then almost running the approximate two city blocks to my classes in the Poppelwell, Murphy and Eder buildings.

One would think that the population increase of the student body would alert Administration that increased parking would become necessary. Administration does not seem to see the increased problem, because after-all there is more than enough faculty parking. So, when administration looks out a window, they see empty parking spaces and assume that additional parking is not needed. Unfortunately, these empty spots belong to faculty; any students caught parking in these marked spots will receive a minimum $25 fine.

The parking problem could be easily remedied by adding a back row of parking to several of the parking lots, such as the library parking lot, the lot in front of Eder, Poppelwell, and Potter Halls. The only loss would be to a small amount of grass out towards the street. I have never seen anyone walking or sitting, or studying in this grass. Not many people are interested in walking through parking lots to go sit in a small amount of grass with the busy street on one side and parking lots on the other.

As if the lack of parking spaces in lots close to specific buildings is not enough, the inconsideration of other students driving on campus can be very irritating. If you are waiting on a student that has approached their vehicle, turn on your turn signal, so that other drivers know to go around, instead of lining up behind you, and blocking traffic.

If someone is waiting to get into a spot, but have to wait until the car completely moves to get into it and you can clearly see this, do not jump the gun and steal the spot just because you can get in faster. I have had this done to me, and I have seen it done many times. It is just rude, and you never know depending on who it is, doing this may invoke road rage.

There are a few things students can do to help with the over-crowded parking lots. If you are driving a motorcycle, pull in close enough so other motorcycles may share the spot. Three motorcycles can easily fit into one spot, this opens up two spots for cars or trucks. This semester I have seen this done on campus for the first time, and I applaud those of you who already do this, but to the ones who do not shame on you.

Drivers of large trucks should also try to be more considerate and park between the lines, and not on them. I have seen many drivers park almost diagonally; with the tail of the truck jutting at an angle out into other parking spots. Not only is this illegal according to the parking guidelines that Missouri Western enforces, but it is just plain rude. Slow down and be more considerate, not only would your kindness be helpful to other students, but you would be saving yourself a fine.

Increasing parking by removing a small amount of grass would not only help with the problem of parking on campus between 8am and 4pm. Overflow parking would become less student used and open up for increased visitor parking.

Admit it, we have all seen television shows or read about how women need to have the perfect body.

We are all taught to love our bodies no matter what, but how are you supposed to do that when the media has a negative effect on women’s body type?

There are so many people I know from my college, hometown, softball team and  family that are under so much pressure just to look one way. It’s like society wants you to be a certain weight, a certain jean size, or even a certain height.

Obviously everyone I know is different, and anyone you know can probably tell you something that they don’t like about themselves. It might be that they are too fat, too skinny, have a belly pudge, have love handles, have thunder thighs, oh wow I could go on and on about what girls portray themselves to be.

The thing about it all is, is that no matter who you are no woman is really accepting of her looks or body type. You watch shows, you read magazines, you see Victoria’s Secret models and you think that they have the perfect body and that they are confident. Did you know that with that perfect body they portray, a lot of it comes with Photoshop?

Even the people you think are perfect look at them every single day and continue to see flaw after flaw, just like we all do every day. We cannot keep putting ourselves down every single day because it isn’t doing us any good. Stop trying to have that perfect body because it probably is not ever going to happen, or at least you will never be fully satisfied with your body.

I have played softball my entire life and I have never had small legs. I have bigger legs because as a catcher I relied on my legs a lot. When it comes to hitting, do I want to have skinny legs because if that happens the ball I am about to hit will not ever leave the infield. No matter how much I don’t like my thighs, or my body, I wouldn’t change a thing, because I know that no matter how more fit I would like to be the cycle never ends there.

Now the next time that you look in the mirror and you see all those flaws remember that there is no such thing as perfect. Also, do not go wishing you had this girl’s arms, or that girl’s abs, or that girl’s legs because your body is shaped in a special way.

Both soldiers Patrick Edward Myers of Spartanburg, South Carolina and Isaac Lawrence Young of Ash Grove, Missouri, were friends stationed at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas.

They were both sitting around on a Sunday night watching football drinking a few beers doing the friend thing. There was also a third unnamed individual in attendance.

Once Young started in with a case of the hiccups, Myers produced a gun in an attempt to scare the hiccups out of Young. Unfortunately for Young, Myers ended up shooting Young in the face and killing him.

Myers had stated that he thought the gun had rubber bullet rounds in the clip and it was all a total accident.

Myers was charged on Tuesday Sept. 25 2012 of manslaughter, and Justice of the Peace Garland Potvin set his bond at $1 million.

This story actually kind of harkens back to a story from last year, right here in St. Joseph Missouri.

Officer Jason Strong had shot Officer Dan De Kraai in the back and killed him during a training session at an empty St. Joseph school building on Sept. 15 2011.

Apparently Kraai had asked to be shot in the back so he would know what being struck by a rubber bullet felt like.

Strong had simply said that he did have a special gun that fired rubber bullet rounds and hadn’t realized he had switched back to his official firearm before the incidence took place.

In Young’s case, he could have just as easily asked Myers to do something about his inconvenient hiccups, so these both are really about identical cases.

If Strong can walk free on the streets today by saying “It was an accident, I thought there were rubber bullets in the gun,” then Myers should also get to walk free for saying the exact same thing. Either that or Strong should have been charged with manslaughter and have a $1 million dollar bond as well.

It seems as though some sort of favoritism is shown towards certain individuals. If that favoritism is shown towards people who hold certain jobs or have money is certainly debatable, but one needs not look farther than these cases to see that there is indeed a problem with the court system.

For instance the smoking ban is not only a carpet ban on every place on campus but makes no “safe environment” for smokers themselves. The University is “supposed” to provide a less than hostile environment for learning. How can a smoking student learn when they are stressed from withdrawals and busy hating the school for it? It scatters the focus of the student and therefore inhibits learning, which last time I checked was NOT the mission statement of any upstanding university.

Now the lifting of the alcohol ban is laughable but is also a cause of great agitation to on-campus residents. The ban being lifted in every academic building and yet the residence halls are to remain dry? It’s complete crap. Having been to a few events here that were well catered by our on-campus food service I was shocked to see alcohol being served in Fulkerson Center to alumni. It was and still is my belief at this time that allowing any alcohol on campus for any reason and not allowing the students to partake is hypocrisy. I know at some point in life the vision of fairness that is pursued by every individual is shattered due to some reason or another but extending a beer to an alumni while telling a student over the age of 21 no is a major double standard. I think the School senate and faculty have forgotten that WE THE STUDENTS are the reason that; they are employed, the school exists, they enjoy their position of power, and the reason that alumni are created in the first place. Without WE THE STUDENTS the Faculty would be unemployed and/or seeking employment, the school would be closed, and what would a Missouri Western alumni be?.

In Closing I would like to take the time to remind the faculty senate and the school board that trying to ban tobacco to control the behavior of students while promoting alcohol to alumni can and may very well get messy once people see the double standard