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Daniella TebibNews Editordtebib@murraystate.edu

Despite last week’s 29 new-ly reported cases, Murray State has one of the lowest overall to-tal number of COVID-19 cases among the eight Kentucky public institutions of higher education.

Murray S ta te ha s repor t -ed 72 positive cases on cam-pus since Aug.1. The only uni-vers i ty that had fewer cases was Morehead State Universi-ty, which has reported 58 cases.

Since students have returned to campuses, 31 private and pub-lic colleges and universities in Kentucky have reported pos-it ive COVID-19 cases as of Sept. 9. The full list, which was compiled by the Kentucky De-partment for Public Health, can be found on TheNews.org.

According to the Kentucky De-partment for Public Health, as of press time, there have been 1,786 positive student cases and 73 pos-itive faculty/staff cases in Ken-tucky colleges and universities.

“I hope every school wants to give regular daily updates so any parents who made decisions about remote learning or in-person learn-ing can make the best informed de-cisions or changed decisions,” Gov. Andy Beshear said. “I think that’s part of our duty to those parents.”

Postsecondary institutions are required to report the number of positive cases on campus ev-ery week day to their local health department. Local health depart-ments then pass the information

a long to the Kentucky De-par tment for Publ ic Health where the numbers are verified.

However, numbers repor t-ed from the Kentucky Depart-ment for Public Health may vary from local health departments and other reported numbers be-cause of the verification process.

The News analyzed the data that each public university has posted on its COVID-19 sec-tion of the institution’s website.

University of Kentucky has de-tailed sections on its COVID-19 Data Dashboard describing what each section of their data in-cludes. The University has a to-tal of 789 positive student cases out of the 28,157 tests conduct-ed s ince Ju l y 20. UK’s data was last updated on Sept. 5.

One policy UK has implement-ed to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 is requiring all stu-dents and employees to com-plete a daily COVID-19 screen-ing if they are going to campus.

According to the University’s COVID-19 site, 68 percent of students and 40 percent of em-ployees are completing the daily screenings. The screening gauges whether or not individuals have experienced COVID-19 symp-toms or have been exposed to someone who has tested positive.

While UK has reported 789 positive cases, the Kentucky De-partment of Health reports 1,221 for the institution. The discrep-ancy comes as UK only reports cases collected at the University.

Western Kentucky University has recorded positive COVID-19

cases within the WKU communi-ty since July 1. As of Sept. 8, they have reported 491 cases on their Reported Cases page out of 2,590 conducted tests. Cases reported by the Barren River District Health Department and individuals who self report are included in the data.

University of Louisville has report-ed a total of 297 positive COVID-19 cases on campus, out of the 20,014 tests that have been performed on campus since Aug. 10, according to the University’s COVID-19 Testing Dashboard. Based on the number of positive cases compared to the total number of tests performed, Univer-sity of Louisville has a 1.48 percent positivity rate. However, the results displayed on its COVID-19 Test-ing Dashboard only include test-ing performed at Campus Health and Bluewater Diagnostic Lab testing sites. UofL Health and off- campus testing are not included.

Eastern Kentucky University has several graphs detailing case infor-mation including whether or not the cases included residential or non-res-idential students on its COVID-19 Data Dashboard. EKU has had a total of 88 cases since Aug. 1.

Kentucky State University’s data shows it’s had a total of 86 cases since March on its COVID-19 re-porting website. Information re-garding positive COVID-19 re-sults of student and employee cases, located on and off KSU’s campus, are provided by individuals or pub-lic health agencies appropriate to KSU campus officials. KSU’s data was last updated on Sept. 2.

Murray State reports low COVID-19 case count

Gage JohnsonEditor-in-Chiefgjohnson17@murraystate.edu

On Saturday, Sept. 12, demo-crat ic Kentucky Senate candi-date Amy McGrath wi l l make her way to the Higgins House in Murray to host a voter registra-tion event geared toward students.

The retired U.S. Marine Corps L i e u t e n a n t C o l o n e l w i l l f o -cus on registering people to vote, how to vote in November and the importance of the election for college students specifically.

This marks McGrath’s second visit to Murray in recent months, as she visited Soup for the Soul on June 20 to discuss the pandem-ic, food insecurity and the con-tinued protests for racial justice. This visit was made prior to the primary election, in which she se-cured the democratic nomination for senate over Charles Booker.

McGrath is a major advocate for lower ing the cost of high-er education. One way she hopes to tackle the issue is by creating a voluntary, paid National Ser-vice Program allowing students to earn a debt-free higher education.

Cit izens and students in the Murray State community can find more on the program on the stu-dent debt page under the “on the issues” tab on McGrath’s website.

M cG r a th hope s t o a l s o e x -pand the student loan forgive-ne s s p rog r am, inc rea se fund-ing pub l i c un ive r s i t i e s a t the federal level and increase funding for HBCUs in her efforts to make higher education more affordable.

Other policy positions of Mc-G r a t h i n c l u d e l o w e r i n g t h e cost of prescr ipt ion drugs and

McGrath to visit Murray

see MCGRATH, page 3see CAMPUSES, page 2

Photo courtesy of Amy McGrath’s Facebook PageAmy McGrath visited Paducah, Kentucky, on Sept. 1.

NewsSportsOpinionFeatures

page 2page 4page 6page 7

Media literacy be-comes prevalent in

COVID-19 era

New Racer One jockey Helmick is ready for action

Bipartisan election agreement puts

Kentuckians’ health first

Alumna competes on ‘Dancing With

the Stars’

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News2 Sept. 10, 2020

CAMPUSESFrom Page 1

Of the 72 total cases reported on Murray State’s campus since Aug. 1, seven have been faculty or staff members and 65 were students. The positivity rate cannot be cal-culated because the total number of tests that have been performed is unknown. Students can be tested at Health Services on campus, the Murray-Calloway County Hospi-tal or a private provider’s office. The University’s COVID-19 Reporting site can be found at https://mur-raystate.edu/racerrestart/reporting.

Morehead S tate Univers i t y has reported cases related to the University since July which in-cludes a total of 58 cases. MSU shows individual case counts for employees, on-campus students

and off campus students on its COVID-19 Dashboard. MSU’s data was last updated on Sept. 8.

Unlike other universities in the state, Northern Kentucky Uni-versity only provides COVID-19 case data on their COVID-19 Regional Statistics page rather than cases specific to the campus.

Beshear discussed his concerns with the rising numbers of posi-tive COVID-19 cases on college campuses after The News submit-ted a question to the governor for his daily press briefing on Sept. 9.

“I’m concerned because at some point, we’re going to have to prove we can or can’t do this,” Beshear said. “That ’s separate from the question of what to do with an outbreak right now versus at this moment without a vaccine, can we reasonably do this without knowing that there’s going to be

outbreaks? It is possible and are we being reasonable as decision mak-ers to believe this many college kids can come together and not do things that will spread the virus?”

Beshear also said the threshold for sending students home and returning to a completely virtu-al college experience should not be based on deaths or positive patients in need of ventilators.

“For a university, I don’t think it can be based on deaths,” Beshear said. “It certainly shouldn’t. We don’t want to lose any students or faculty. It shouldn’t be based on how many people we have an ICU or on a ventilator, we don’t want any students or faculty on that. It ’s got to be based on something else where we say we have just hit the level where it ’s not work-ing and we don’t want to to con-tinue seeing increased caseloads.”

Beshear said he will discuss the new colleges and universities re-porting dashboard and the infor-mation that the institutions will be posting on Monday, Sept. 14 during his daily press briefing.

“When we create a dashboard, we try to put the most important information on it,” Beshear said. “I would encourage, if it’s the student body or the faculty or others who would like to see more information, whether it is on the dashboard or otherwise available, I think that’s an important conversation to have. And especially those...that are on campus, if there’s information that you believe would keep you safer, I hope the administration will listen.”

The News will continue to fol-low and report on COVID-19 c a s e n u m b e r s o n M u r -ray S tate ’s c ampus and oth-er universities across Kentucky.

Dionte BerryContributing Writerdberry11@murraystate.edu

With the continuing pandemic, nationwide protests for the Black Lives Matter movement and an upcoming presidential election, there has been an overload of in-formation in the media, as well as an increase in misinformation.

Media l i te racy i s the ab i l-i t y t o u n d e r s t a n d t h e m e -d i u m o f t e n o n l i n e n e w s and e va lua t e i t s l eg i t imac y.

Research and Instruction librar-ian and liaison for the College of Business Dana Statton Thomp-son discussed the importance of media literacy with The News.

“Being aware and reflecting on your news consumption hab-its is the first step to becoming media literate,” Thompson said.

Becoming literate means un-derstanding the news, where it ’s coming from, who’s writ-i n g i t a n d f o r w h a t p u r -pose as wel l as noticing bias.

“ H a v i n g m e d i a l i t e r a c y means you can look past bias and get to see both sides of a story to try to figure out what is the truth or the agenda of that agency,” Thompson said.

Beyond awareness there are other steps one should take to understand the media they are consuming and i t s leg i t ima-cy. Mike Caulfield, director of Blended and Network learn-ing at Washington State Uni-versity, developed “Four Steps and a Habit” to educate readers on how they should view news.

The four steps for evaluat-ing an artic le are to check for prev ious work, upstream the source, read lateral ly and cir-c le back. Thompson also said it ’s important for the reader to check the emotions of the media.

“If anything i l l icting a ver y strong emotion either happiness, anger, pride or vindication, you may automatically want to share it because you think it ’s right,” Thompson said. “ You should take a pause and reconsider what you’re reading because it may play into our confirmation bias.”

Confi rmat ion b ias i s when people are more l ikely to ac-c ep t s ome th ing a s t r ue be -cause they want to bel ieve i t a s su c h wh i c h i s a v a r i ab l e in the creation of fake news.

“ W hen we read things that already agree with our politi-cal worldview, it ’s a lot easier

for us to share those kinds of things without doing the re-s e a r c h , ” T h o m p s o n s a i d .

M e d i a l i t e r a c y i s i m p o r t -a n t i n l i g h t o f f a k e n e w s . I f p e o p l e w e r e t o p a u s e a n d f o l l o w t h e f o u r s t e p s a n d a h a b i t , t h e n t h e d i s -s e m i n a t i o n o f f a k e n e w s m a y n o t b e a s c o m m o n .

“A l o t o f t h e t i m e f a k e n e w s s o u r c e s w i l l u s e a r e a l image bu t u s e i t i n the w r o n g c o n t e x t , ” T h o m p s o n sa id . “ We a re t r a ined to be-l ieve what we see or to think t h a t p h o t o g r a p h s r e p re s e n t

t r u t h w h e n t h e t r u t h is re-a l l y contex tua l and depends on a lot of different factors.”

Senior pub l i c re la t ions in-s t r u c t o r E l i z a b e t h T h o m -a s i s a l s o f a m i l i a r w i t h c h e c k i n g t h e l e g i t i m a -c y o f ne ws and mak ing su re s h e a v o i d s m i s i n f o r m a t i o n .

“I tr y to avoid going to ran-d o m F a c e b o o k o r Tw i t t e r pos t s tha t have some out r a-geous headline,” Thomas said.

T w i t t e r a n d F a c e b o o k a r e a m o n g s e v e r a l o t h -e r social media platforms that

have been known to have co-pious amounts of fake news.

“Facebook and Twitter just un-covered around a million Russian bots that were publishing under a fake publication that looked legit,” Thomas said. “It was fake news designed to sway our election.”

T h o m a s h a s s e e n f i r s t -h a n d h o w e a s y i t i s f o r fake news to ca tch t rac t ion.

“A couple years ago some Mur-ray State students made a fake post saying there were sharks in Kentucky Lake,” Thomas said.

Media literacy becomes prevalent in COVID-19 era

see LITERACY, page 3

3Sept. 10, 2020 News

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W h e n e v a l u a t i n g t h e v a -l idi t y of onl ine news Thom-a s r e f e r s t o S n o p e s . c o m .

“If you’re in doubt about an ar-ticle you can take the headline or website of an article and go to Snopes.com and search it up and fact-check it,” Thomas said.

Growing up in a highly digi-tal culture, students have their own s ou rc e s the y t r u s t and ways to eva luate the i r news.

A l i s t a i r M a j o r s , s o p h o -m o r e T E S O L m a j o r , g e t s a l l o f h i s n e w s o n l i n e a n d a v o i d s m i s l e a d i n g n e w s b y e v a l u a t i n g t h e s o u r c e .

“Get t ing to know the per-son who is telling the news is a good star t to seeing if i t is credible or not,” Majors said.

W hen hear ing about popu-lar issues in the media Majors is sure to do his own research.

“It ’s important to go beyond and research what is happen-ing because I want to have the objective view,” Majors said. “I want to see all sides of the story.”

Along with Majors, Sophia Nar-di, sophomore international stud-ies major, also gets all her news online, primarily from Twitter.

“Twitter is where news appears first,” Nardi said. “Famous news organizations all have Twitter ac-counts and give constant updates.”

W h e n c o n s i d e r i n g w h a t ’s credible and what ’s not, Nar-di follows sources that are ver-ified. For a source to be ver-ified on Twitter they have to meet mult iple standards, one o f those be ing au thent i c i t y.

Nardi stays away from sourc-es that aren’t verified by twitter.

She is also wary of reporting b i a s and con f i r ma t ion b i a s .

“ P e o p l e c a n b e v e r y b i -a s e d , ” N a r d i s a i d . “ E v e n i f someth ing i s f a l s e they w i l l b e l i e v e i t b e c a u s e i t g o e s a l o n g w i t h t h e i r b e l i e f s . ”

For those who may need help e v a l u a t i n g m e d i a a n d s a f e -ly researching there is a “Re-s e a r c h G u i d e s ” t a b o n t h e M u r r ay S t a t e L i b r a r y we b -s i t e a t l i b.mur r ay s t a t e . edu/ .

“ T h e m e d i a i s n ’ t b a d o r e v i l , ” T h o m p s o n s a i d . “ I t ’s what you do wi th the media tha t de t e r mine s i t s i n t en t . ”

MCGRATHFrom Page 1

and helping provide affordable health care for all Kentuckians.

McGrath also hopes to strength-en the VA, put a halt to its privi-tization and invest in preventing veteran suicide. In order to fur-ther help veterans, she also wants to legalize medical marijuana to improve health care outcomes and help treat ailments said veterans and other citizens might have.

Hoping to strengthen the eco-nomic stability of communities across the state, McGrath also wants to create more jobs with liv-able wages and allow citizens to be able to do more than “just get by.”

McGrath is running against i n c u m b e n t K e n t u c k y S e n a -tor Mitch McConnel l in the upcoming general election on Nov. 3. For more information on some of her pol i t ica l po-s i t ions , peop le c an v i s i t he r website and c l ick the “on the issues” tab to find more infor-mation on her stances regarding COVID-19, foreign policy,na-tional security and much more.

Photo courtesy of Amy McGrath’s Facebook PageAmy McGrath speaks to supporters at a recent campaign stop. McGrath is scheduled to visit Murray Saturday to participate in a voter registration event at the Higgins House on Main Street.

Simon ElfrinkStaff Writerselfrink@murraystate.edu

As Murray State baseball prepares for its upcoming season, Seth Mc-Lemore joins the coaching staff as a volunteer assistant.

After McLemore applied for sev-eral coaching positions, Head Coach Dan Skirka connected with him and deemed him to be a good fit for Racer baseball.

“I’m excited to be here,” McLem-ore said. “I’m excited to learn from the coaching staff and excited to work with these guys. It’s been a really good experience so far. The guys want to get better, they want to learn and the coaching staff is just awesome to work with.”

McLemore spent the first two sea-sons of his collegiate career at South-west Tennessee Community College before moving on to Central Baptist College for his additional two seasons as an upperclassmen.

McLemore became Central Bap-tist’s starting third baseman right away and was named Midlands Col-legiate Athletic Conference Defensive All-Conference in 2015. McLemore hit a solid .293 that year, tallying 44 RBIs and four home runs.

His senior year, McLemore broke the school’s record for RBIs in a single season with 65. He also had 11 home runs that season, hitting an electric .341 in the process. He was named All-Conference, NCCAA All-Region and NCCAA All-American in 2016.

After his collegiate career came to a close, McLemore stepped into pro-fessional baseball for a single season. In the summer of 2016, McLemore played for the Alpine Cowboys, a prominent team from Alpine, Texas, in the Pecos League of Professional Baseball Clubs, a decade-old profes-sional league spread throughout the western United States.

McLemore found success at the plate for the Cowboys, hitting .328 with a .405 on-base percentage and a .500 slugging percentage to boot. Mc-Lemore hit five home runs and drove in 43 runs as a third basemen for the Cowboys. However, a leg injury during his last game with the team forced him into foul territory to do some coaching.

McLemore returned to Central Baptist after his injury and served as a student assistant coach while getting his bachelor’s degree in history. In De-cember 2017, McLemore gave high school ball a try at First Assembly Christian School in Memphis, Ten-

nessee, before moving on in May 2018.McLemore also wore several hats in

the Beach Collegiate Baseball League in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He was first a head coach, then a recruit and finally the general manager of the divisional champions, the Little River Lagoon. 2019 continued to be a big year for McLemore, who spent several months as the associate head coach of the Spearfish Sasquatch in Spearfish, South Dakota.

McLemore also assisted Central Methodist University from 2018 all the way up until his employment at Murray State. He expects to receive a master’s degree in education with an emphasis in athletic administration in December 2020.

McLemore believes his wide variety of coaching experiences around the country will be useful to him going forward.

“The best part about it is getting to teach a bunch of different [players] from different backgrounds,” Mc-Lemore said.

Given all his previous experience, McLemore believes that his opportu-nity at Murray State has the potential to be the most beneficial of all during his career.

“The biggest thing for me is getting

my foot in the door at the Division I level,” McLemore said. “That was an easy no-brainer in the decision-mak-ing process. I know that it’s going to be more beneficial to my career and more beneficial to me growing as a coach.”

SportS4 Sept. 10, 2020

Jakob MilaniContributing Writerjmilani@murraystate.edu

Every school has its own tradi-tions, no matter if it’s in sports or around campus. For Murray State, perhaps the biggest is that of the University’s beloved mascot Racer One.

From being part of the equestrian team to running around the track on race day, Racer One, also known as Vegas, is very busy year-round. While the horse is an important part of the tradition, the jockey is just as important. That’s where se-nior Emily Helmick comes in.

Helmick is a pre-vet and vet-erinary technology major with a chemistry minor. She participates in the vet tech and pre-vet club, as well as the competitive equestrian team. After college she plans to attend graduate school in order to get a doctorate in veterinary medi-cine and become a vet.

Being the jockey for Racer One

is a pretty big deal. So how did Helmick become the new jockey? She says her fascination about the job goes back all the way to fresh-man year.

“My freshman year, I was friends with the jockey,” Helmick said. “So I got to live kind of vicarious-ly through her. I got to go into the games and watch her run and I thought that was the coolest thing ever.”

After her freshman year, Helmick wanted to give the jockey position a shot herself.

“As a sophomore, I submitted an application and did an interview and got on the Racer One team, which are kind of like the body-guards,” Helmick said. “They make sure the track is clear so that we don’t run over anyone.”

After she had lived the Racer One team experience, it was finally Helmick’s turn to saddle up.

“In November of last year I had to go through the process again,” Helmick said. “I sent in an applica-

tion, got an interview, but for jock-ey I have to do a riding portion so they can see that I’m fit to ride the horse and handle it… I had a pret-ty quick turn around to find out I was the next jockey.”

After this long process, Helmick was finally named the next Racer One jockey and couldn’t be happi-er.

“I definitely cried when I received my email to say that I was going to be the next jockey,” Helmick said. “And I promise you the first time I go around that track, there will be tears in my eyes.”

While Racer One is most known for taking off around the track of Roy Stewart Stadium, there’s a lot that goes on throughout the year for the whole Racer One team.

“So obviously football games are the most public thing we do,” Helmick said. “We also [walk in] the homecoming parade. We do various meet and greet events here around campus. Sometimes people will come to us and meet us out

on the field in front of the equine center. One thing we’ve done quite frequently is the eighth grade class from one of the local schools comes and does a scavenger hunt around campus, and the last thing they find is Racer One.”

Despite the pandemic causing abrupt changes to a typical season for Racer One and Helmick, she said it will definitely be a busy time for her come spring.

“With the equestrian team, all of our shows have been postponed to the spring as well,” Helmick said. “So I’ll have all of that on top of my football games, but obviously those football games will take priority… So I may have to miss a couple days here and there but hopefully I can plan ahead.”

To Helmick, the life of the Rac-er One jockey is a busy one, but a fun one as well. Racer One has been racing around the track after Murray State touchdowns for four decades and isn’t going to stop gal-loping any time soon.

Carrying on a traditionNew Racer One jockey Helmick is ready for action

Photo courtesy of Racer Athletics/Dave WinderNew Racer One jockey Emily Helmick saddles up with Racer One.

McLemore to join baseball as volunteer assistant

Photo courtesy of Racer AthleticsSeth McLemore joins the Murray State baseball staff after multiple years of coaching experience.

5Sept. 10, 2020 SportS

Gage JohnsonEditor-in-Chiefgjohnson17@murraystate.edu

After being the frontrunner throughout the NBA season, for-mer Murray State guard Ja Mo-rant has claimed the 2019-20 NBA Rookie of the Year award.

Morant was drafted at No. 2 overall by the Grizzlies in the 2019 NBA Draft and proceded to show exactly why.

The three-time Rookie of the Month led all rookies in points per game (17.8), assists per game (7.3), double-doubles (15) and tri-ple-doubles (2). Morant appeared in 67 games this season and played 31.7 minutes per game. Morant had also set the Franchise sin-gle-season assist record and sea-son assist average record en route to a 34-39 record before having their postseason dreams cut short by the Portland Trailblazers.

The high-flying guard received 99 out of 100 first place votes, while 2019 No. 1 pick Zion Wil-liamson of the New Orleans Pel-icans finished with one first place vote. Williamson played in 24 games, averaging 22.5 ppg and 6.3 rpg

Morant joins elite company in Damian Lillard (2013) of Weber State University, Larry Johnson of UNLV (1991), David Robinson (1989) of Navy University, and Larry Bird of Indiana State Uni-versity (1980), as one of only five mid-major collegiate athletes to go on to win NBA Rookie of the Year since 1979.

Morant said he hopes young athletes can view him as motiva-tion to keep pushing despite not being highly recruited to play Di-vision I basketball.

“For guys, kids who, you know, [are] not heavily recruited right now, this will give them a lot of hope,” Morant said on TNT.

Morant continued, saying he is

extremely grateful, but knows this is just the beginning of his young career.

“This is a blessing and definitely an honor because I put in a lot of

work day in and day out, but it’s all paying off,” Morant said on TNT. “I still have a lot of work to do. I always feel like there is room for improvement.”

Morant wins NBA Rookie of the Year

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Photo courtesy of Bleacher ReportJa Morant earned 99 of 100 first place votes to win 2019-20 NBA Rookie of the Year.

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Editorial Board Gage Johnson Danilla Tebib Cady Stribling Dr. Stephanie Anderson Editor-in-Chief NewsEditor FeaturesEditor FacultyAdvisergjohnson17@murraystate.edu dtebib@murraystate.edu cstribling1@murraystate.edusanderson37@murraystate.edu

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In the midst of a global health pandemic caused by the corona-virus (COVID-19), as a Demo-cratic Governor and a Republican Secretary of State we have proven that we can put partisanship aside to make our elections safer for our people.

We know that working across the aisle to reach a bipartisan agree-ment, regardless of where you live from Washington, D.C. to Frank-fort, Kentucky, during any year, certainly an election year, is all too rare.

We don’t always agree, but we have no disagreement when it comes to protecting the health of Kentuckians during this pandemic, while making sure they are able to exercise their patriotic duty to vote.

On Aug. 14, we announced an agreement to give Kentuckians more options to vote safely leading up to and on Election Day, Nov. 3, 2020.

We put politics aside – there was no political “horse-trading.” We knew we had to get this right for the people of Kentucky.

This was not the first time we’ve worked together for Kentucky’s benefit. Earlier this year when the

coronavirus was intensifying in the commonwealth, we jointly delayed party primaries and then quickly reached an agreement to allow those concerned about their health to vote absentee.

The result of our agreement, we had near record turnout. We had the commonwealth’s highest primary turnout in 12 years – with both Democrats and Republicans taking advantage of voting options that helped to keep them safe.

We believe the primary was largely successful because we worked together in a bipartisan fashion. That bipartisanship not only led to a better product, with concerns on both sides accommo-dated, but it also showed all voters that our new election rules were fair, legitimate and credible.

The plan was not perfect, but we learned from that experience.

Our plan for the general election keeps the best of what worked in the June primary, especially giving voters options to safely cast their votes, and it makes improvements where necessary, including pushing for more in-person voting locations and faster election results.

During this pandemic, Kentuck-

ians will have more than just 12 hours to vote at one polling place on Election Day.

Our plan includes: Expanded absentee voting –

Kentuckians who are concerned about in-person voting due to the coronavirus can request an absentee ballot online at www.GoVoteKy.com or through other methods, all of which require voter identity verification. Voters can return their ballots by mail, or put them in drop boxes we’re distribut-ing, a first for our state.

Early in-person voting – In order to reduce lines and further social distancing, we’re offering three weeks of early in-person voting, including Saturdays, also a first for our state.

Election Day voting – While not every precinct will be open on Election Day, because, for example, some of our regular voting loca-tions are nursing homes, Kentuck-ians are stepping up to serve as poll workers so that we can open as many locations as possible. Our plan requires every county to have at least one vote center, where any-one from that county can go vote, regardless of his or her precinct –

another reform for our state.Finally, Kentuckians who are un-

able to get a photo ID to vote due to the pandemic – whether because of risk of exposure to COVID-19, or because their clerk’s office was closed – can sign a document explaining this concern, present non-photo ID and cast their bal-lots.

We know that there is still a lot of work ahead, including educating Kentuckians on their options and working with local election officials on the implementation.

With all the options available for Kentuckians to vote safely, we are confident that we will see high voter turnout in November, just as we saw in our primary.

In June, we created a nation-al model both for how to enable people to vote safely and for how leaders should work together.

To forge the framework for a safe, successful and historic general election, we have already overcome the largest impediment – partisan-ship.

– Governor Andy Beshear and Secretary of State Michael Adams

OP-ED Bipartison election agreement puts Kentuckians’ health first

Sec. of State Michael Adams (R)Gov. Andy Beshear (D)

Paige Bold/The News Photo courtesy of https://www.sos.ky.gov/

CHEERS....to still being on campus during this global pandemic!

JEERS....to Panera Bread still being closed!&

JEERSJEERS

JEERS

CHEERS

7Sept. 10, 2020 Features

Ciara BenhamStaff Writercbenham@murraystate.edu

In its 40th year, the Mr. MSU pageant is going virtual in light of COVID-19. This pageant is one of Alpha Omicron Pi’s big-gest philanthropy events, but this year the “The Wild Western Men of MSU” themed event met more obstacles than ever before.

Junior Katie Comeaux, the philan-thropy chair of Alpha Omicron Pi, was in for a ride as she was tasked with organizing the 2020 Mr. MSU pageant. In March, Comeaux be-gan preparing for the event by gathering nominations from the various fraternities on campus.

After the fraternities submit-ted their nominations, the con-testants were contacted and Al-pha Omicron Pi began building their show. The show saw a lot of changes as the summer progressed.

“We switched venues, we went from a l ive audience to a l ive stream to a completely virtual vid-eo, and we lost judges and contes-tants,” Comeaux said. “Virtual or online communication was what changed the most. Not being able to share the information and de-tails in person with the contes-tants, my sisters, or other orga-nizations made this the hardest event I have ever put together.”

In order to make a complete show that would be safe for all in-volved, each contestant was required to go through an online process.

“Every aspect of the show was personally filmed and sent to me,” Comeaux said. “With the new Greek life and COVID-19 restric-tions, this was the only feasible op-tion to still have a show this year.”

The contestants were asked to send in three different videos and write an email interview that were compiled into the show’s final video.

First, Comeaux sent the con-testants five different questions to help the judges better understand their personality and character. The contestant ’s responses were then forwarded to the judging panel. Next, each contestant had to film an introduction video that consist-ed of a few dance moves or poses.

“They also filmed their talents and the formal wear section of the competition,” Comeaux said. “This week we are compiling all of their videos along with some videos from our senior members and ju-nior members to make the show.”

This year’s Mr. MSU has its fair share of similarities and differenc-es to the show’s traditional format. While Alpha Omicron Pi are still able to put on a show this year, they were not able to meet in person at all, which changes the whole show.

Tr a d i t i o n a l l y, t h e b oy s i n the show spend a few nights, along with the junior members,

learning a choreographed dance f o r t h e o p e n i n g n u m b e r .

“This year these parts weren’t able to happen,” Comeaux said. “This is also a wonderful week to spend time with your best friends and sisters and make many memories. With COVID-19, this was unattainable.”

Despite these obstacles, the vir-tual pageant does have its ben-efits. Since the show is now on-line, the event can reach beyond ju s t the Murray communi t y. Anyone who purchases a gen-eral admission ticket can watch the show from the link that Al-p h a O m i c ro n P i s e n d s o u t .

The 2020 Mr. MSU pageant will be on Friday, Sept. 11, and the link to the show will be sent out at 7 p.m. and will be avail-able for v iewing anyt ime af-ter that. General admission and raffle t ickets are available for purchase on Alpha Omicron P i ’s Crowd Change webs i t e .

Mr. MSU goes wild west for 40th anniversary

Alumna chosen to display sculpture in MilwaukeeBen OverbyContributing Writerboverby2@murraystate.edu

Murray State’s very own alum-na Maggie Sasso was chosen to display her sculpture, “Too Much Sea for Amateurs—Ma-rooned” as a part of Sculpture Milkwaukee’s 2020 exhibition.

“Too Much Sea for Amateurs—Marooned” is a large, picturesque model of an art deco style light house, topped with a flag dis-playing a red bird. It is construct-ed primarily of steel and polyes-ter fabric. Its earthy, neutral colors are inviting and the darker themes it explores take time to set in.

S a s s o d r e w h e r i n s p i r a -t i o n f r o m h e r o w n e x p e -r i e n c e s a t L a k e M i c h i g a n .

“The sculpture is based off of a l ighthouse that actual ly ex-ists right off the shore of Lake Mich igan c a l l ed the Break-water Lighthouse,” Sasso said.

Her husband’s profession brought them to Lake Michigan, and she said her first year there was a tran-sitional period. Sasso’s husband is an engineer who conducted many dangerous tests for his job.

“I started to develop this inter-esting love and appreciation but fear of that body of water in par-ticular,” Sasso said. “That’s where a lot of that inspiration came from.”

According to Sasso’s description on her website, “‘Too Much Sea for Amateurs’ (2016) investigates long-ing, loneliness, dependability and the certainty of death: universal re-alities reflected in maritime culture.”

Sasso, who grew up in Murray, has lived around bodies of water her entire life. Her fondest memories are of Kentucky Lake on pontoon boats and attempting to water ski but getting dragged under the water.

Sasso and her husband have lived in several other cities with

lovely bodies of water. Yet, Lake Michigan gave her the unique inspirat ion for her sculpture.

“When we moved to the shore of Lake Michigan, I was especial-ly enamored because it has such a beautiful horizon line,” Sasso said.

The Breakwater Lighthouse can be seen from a distance and acts, Sasso said, almost as a logo for Milwaukee. Sasso was fascinated by multiple ele-ments of the lighthouse, which drove the sentiment behind the sculpture.

In order to enter the Breakwater Lighthouse, you must ride a boat across the lake and jump from the boat to a ladder. Sasso said she was fascinated by the reality of how dan-gerous the journey and the struc-ture is. The distance gave her a new perspective, especially for the peo-ple who lived at the lighthouse.

Sasso thought about the people working and isolated in the light-house who could see the city from a distance. Sasso said this was sim-ilar to the way people live in their houses, surrounded by other peo-ple yet alone at the same time.

Although Sasso originally made this piece in 2016 as a more per-sonal story, Sasso said this feeling of isolation has become more relevant recently because of the pandemic.

“Now with the pandemic, I think it ’s a lot more of a universal feel-ing that everybody is having, es-pecially at the beginning,” Sasso said. “I think now we’re starting to figure out how to maybe hang out with some people but safely. With masks and social distanc-ing, we’ve got a better handle, but at the beginning it was so scary to be isolated all of a sudden, and I think that’s a very familiar feel-ing for almost everybody now.”

Sasso received a grant in 2016 that al lowed her to work big-ger than ever before. Because of a tight deadline, she worked with her husband who built the

interior metal structure, and Sas-so hand sewed the exterior fabric with a sewing machine in her studio.

Sasso said it is a large piece that has a very crafted feel to it so when one gets a closer look they can see how many small details there are to make up the imagery as a whole.

Her sculpture contains many universal themes but holds spe-cial meaning for the people liv-ing in Milwaukee, which is where it currently stands outside of the Northwestern Mutual building.

Sasso credits Murray State in preparing her for this sculpture.

“The Murray State art depart-ment has a strong connection with craft,” Sasso said. “It’s definitely an art school, but there’s a strong em-phasis on making things really well

and that’s where I learned how to make things and why making things with precision is so important.”

Murray S tate had an enor-mous impact on the way Sas-so thinks and the skills she uti-l izes as an ar t is t , Sasso sa id.

“We used to say at Murray State, ‘not only can you conceive of making a chair that gets screwed to the ceil-ing, but you can also make the chair and screw it to the ceiling.’ That was sort of the motto at the time.”

Sasso said her sculpture will likely stay there until late Octo-ber or early November, although it is difficult to be certain with the chaos 2020 has brought about.

To l e a r n more abou t S a s -s o a n d h e r w o r k s , v i s -it her website maggiesasso.com.

Cady StriblingFeatures Editorcstribling1@murraystate.edu

Murray State alumna Chrishell Stause is competing on Season 29 of ABC’s “Dancing with The Stars” for the Mirrorball Trophy.

The cast was revealed live on “Good Morning America” on Sept. 2.

Stause, who graduated from the theater department in 2003, s a i d s h e d o e s n’t h a ve mu c h dance experience under her belt.

“ I don’t th ink I c an a t t r i -bute any dance to Murray State,

but I don’t think they are go-ing to want to take credit for it either,” Stause jokingly said.

The “Selling Sunset” star said she had about three weeks to prac-tice her dance moves, and al-though she doesn’t yet have it fu l l y memor ized, she wi l l by the show ’s s ea son p remie re .

“I never had a desire to be a danc-er but that being said, I also think it ’s so fun to just try something new and push yourself out of your comfort zone,” Stause said. “What more fun way than to be on a show.” Stause said there will not be

an aud ience th i s s ea son be-cause of COVID-19, but that won’t keep Racer Nation from watching and vot ing for her.

Elly (Wells) Boyd, also a 2003 Murray State graduate, said she met Stause their freshman year on the bridge between the academ-ic and residential sides of campus.

“I stopped her because I saw her in a black box production and she was fantastic, so I had to tell her how amazing she was,” Boyd said. “She had already faced so much ad-versity to get to that point, just to be in college. I admired her from

the start. Smart, funny, hard work-ing, beautiful and so kind. She is an amazing friend and deserves the world, but I’ ll settle on that Mirrorball for her temporarily.”

Other notable celebrities taking the stage this season are “Tiger King” star Carole Baskin, rapper Nelly and Super Bowl champion Vernon Davis.

Supermodel Tyra Banks wil l host this season’s show, which p r e m i e r e s l i v e o n M o n d a y, Sept. 14, at 7 p.m. CT on ABC.

Show Stause some Racer love and go vote for her on Monday!

Alumna competes on ‘Dancing With the Stars’

Photo courtesy of Maggie SassosAlumna Maggie Sasso was selected for her sculpture to show in Milwaukee.

Features8 Sept. 10, 2020

Cady StriblingFeatures Editorcstribling1@murraystate.edu

Andrea JamesonContributing Writerajameson1@murraystate.edu

Another Racer tradition is right around the corner, but, like most events this semester, it will not happen traditionally. Instead, Fam-ily Weekend will be virtual with similar family fun experiences.

Students, faculty, staff and their families are welcome to partici-pate this weekend, Sept. 11-12, in six virtual activities like the “Bring Your Family Along” scav-enger hunt and the “Racer Fam-i l y Rewind ” v ideo chal lenge.

“Bring Your Family Along” will be a photo scavenger hunt where each student can submit a completed task as an entry for Racer merchandise. For one entry, students can take a picture in their room with a photo of their family, call their family and screenshot the call or take a picture with someone considered to be Rac-er family. For two entries, students can take a photo of themselves at the arboretum, take a photo at a store that offers Murray State stu-dent discounts or take a picture at their favorite off-campus restaurant in Murray. Photos should be sub-mitted to @murraystateuniv using #BringYourFamilyAlong on Twitter.

The “Racer Family Rewind” chal-lenges students to recreate an old family photo with similar poses, outfits and facial expressions with their family members or with their Racer family. The challenge invites participants to video themselves recreating the poses in the photo and to include a photo of the orig-inal picture. The video and picture can then be posted to social me-dia using #RacerFamilyRewind.

Fami l i e s a re a l so we l come to participate in a Racer One Q-and-A, the vir tual JCPen-ney Suit-Up event and more.

Peggy Whaley, director of stu-d e n t e n g a g e m e n t a n d s u c -cess, encourages families to en-gage with these virtual events.

“We hope to return to a face-to-face gathering, lunch on the great lawn and the football game grand experience in the fall of 2021, but for now we are encourag-ing virtual activities,” Whaley said.

W haley sa id i f these act iv-i t i e s a re success fu l they c an be used for next year as well .

Families are still welcome to visit campus, but they must fol-low the Racer Safe and Healthy Guidelines. Visitation to the res-idential colleges is not permitted.

For more information on the Racer Family Weekend events planned for this semester, vis-it murraystate.edu/familyweekend.

Family Weekend

Dionte BerryStaff Writerdberry11@murraystate.edu

With an ominous overtone and a sense of isolation, the “New Nor-mal: The Past Reflecting the Pres-ent” art exhibition utilizes works from the past to comment on to-day’s reality of COVID-19 and so-cial distancing.

The group showing is com-pr ised of p ieces f rom former Murray State students, professors from the art and design depart-ment and artists who have exhib-ited before and visited the school.

The art and design department had another exhibition planned but had to cancel it because of COVID-19. Timothy Michael Martin, exhibit curator and di-rector of Murray State galler-ies as well as associate professor of art and design, had original-ly planned to do non-tradition-al exhibitions that would require hands-on audience participation, but that would not have been

possible because of COVID-19 policies.

With the cancellation, Martin thought in its place he should set up something reflective of what’s happening now.

“We are going through a pan-demic, so we used our current sit-uation as inspiration for a show,” Martin said. “Using our collec-tion at Murray State, we have over 1,500 pieces within the collection to choose from.”

Martin was inspired by a painting in the collection that was represen-tative of the current situation.

“I stumbled across a piece with a figure in the darkness that’s wear-ing a mask over their face and that inspired the ‘New Normal’ exhibit,” Martin said.

The works chosen for the exhi-bition all share similar emotions. Many of the pieces are depictions of empty spaces, figures alone in an ominous setting or people with their faces covered. All of these pieces have original mean-ings by the artists, but have been

reconceptualized through the lens of life now.

“Their pieces may not conceptually be what the artist originally intend-ed it to be,” Martin said. “They had no idea their works would be a re-flection of our time of Zoom classes, social distancing and COVID-19.”

The pieces on display were creat-ed between 1910 and 1990 and are all two-dimensional works, includ-ing drawings, prints and paintings. Martin said he was steered toward curating a two-dimensional exhibit in order to create an open space for guests to social distance.

Despite the age of the pieces, Martin doesn’t see their lack of mo-dernity as relative to their impact.

“A painting or drawing is like a book; just because it wasn’t creat-ed yesterday or within recent time doesn’t mean it can’t be appreciat-ed or interpreted or provide some form of commentary in the present,” Martin said.

Although this wasn’t the original plan, Martin is happy that the cur-rent pieces on display are giving the

audience something they can con-nect to.

“I enjoy when I can tell that the viewer has a connection to a certain work,” Martin said. “These works from the past have this activation of their space and how they were made and created that they can still connect with our contemporary viewers.”

Martin said he’s happy to see these works having an impact because some of them have been stowed away for decades out of public view.

The exhibit also serves as a sym-bol of how current emotions or mo-ments can provoke creativity and serve as inspiration.

“The exhibit encourages people to think critically about our cur-rent condition,” Martin said. “It can also inspire and transform students’ emotive responses and help them obtain understanding of our current situation.”

The exhibit is located in the Eagle Upper Gallery on the seventh floor of the Price Doyle Fine Arts Center and will be on view until Sept. 16.

Exhibit showcases

Cady StriblingFeatures Editorcstribling1@murraystate.edu

Need Line is hosting its third an-nual Dairy Box Give-A-Way on Fri-day, Sept. 11, and University students are more than welcome to join the Murray and Calloway County com-munity and pick up a free dairy box.

Dottie Sager, Need Line case-worker, said the nonprofit is co-ordinating with Prairie Farms, who are providing the dairy prod-ucts, to make the giveaway happen.

Sager said the dairy boxes are a thank you to the community.

The giveaway will be held in the parking lot of Central Park off of Ar-cadia Drive. As people enter the park, volunteers will direct cars to the back of the park to wait in a line that will trickle toward the front of the park.

Sager said the line moves quick-ly, and people shouldn’t be wait-ing for more than 15 minutes.

The Dairy Box Give-A-Way will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. or until the boxes are gone. Although the Give-A-Way is first come first serve, Sager said they will have 1,200 boxes for the community to collect.

Each box contains two gallons of milk, two pints of chocolate milk, two pints of strawberry milk, one sour cream, one cream cheese, one cot-tage cheese and one french onion dip.

Need Line is giving one box per family, but Sager said if people drive together and live separately, they can still collect a box for their household.

“Murray State has been wonderful to us,” Sager said. “I’ve been here for 40 years now and Murray State has been a part of us from the beginning, helping out and sending volunteers over. A lot of professors would have students come over and volunteer for extra credit, so we got to meet a lot of students that way. Of course with COVID-19, it ’s a little different, but Murray State’s been wonderful.”

Need Line hosts Give-A-Way

Paige Bold/The News Need Line will conduct its third annual dairy box Give-A-Way this Friday, Sept. 11, at 4 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Timothy Michael Martin “New Normal: The Past Reflecting the Present” displays art that reflects the realities of COVID-19.

Dionte Berry/The News The art exhibit has commonalities between pieces of shared emotions and people in empty spaces.new normal

will be all virtual