Rodney Roberts, a mentor to Missouri Western under-classmen for the past year, doesn’t think that campus is safe for his students any-more.

After a Feb. 27 altercation between two officers and for-

mer Men’s basketball player Lavonte Douglas, students have expressed their con-cerns with the Police Depart-ment’s relations with stu-dents.

Roberts, a Founder and the President of the Gentlemen of Color Association, a men-toring program for African-American underclassmen, thinks that Douglas’ situa-tion was poorly handled by the officers on call.

“One of my biggest pet peeves is the fact that stu-dents feel endangered by of-ficers on campus,” Roberts said.

Roberts also thinks that students can’t trust officers after the incident involving Douglas. He said that some girls who witnessed the event were crying because they felt so unsafe.

“I can’t stress enough that there is no reason that the students of this school should feel unsafe, threat-ened or just plain out in fear of our public safety officers,” Roberts said. “Who feels safe around you? You’re not real public safety, you’re bullies. You’re bullies with guns. You’re legal bullies.”

At the time of the incident, Douglas was approached in the food court by Corporal Robert Bidding and Officer Travis Fulton.

Douglas said that he felt threatened by Bidding and Fulton when they ap-proached him in the food court. When Douglas refused to show them his Western ID card, Douglas said they tried to apprehend him. He ran up stairs to the Student Affairs office.

“I feel like some of Lavon-te’s actions, like running up to the Student Affairs office, at no point should a student feel like that’s his only option that he needs to run through a building for his safety to another office. If we employ these officers to protect us, then why are we so scared of them?” Roberts said.

Although Roberts said he has never had any problems with either officer involved in the incident, he said he’s seen Fulton become rude and aggressive with other students.

Roberts said that com-plaints he’s heard from the freshmen he mentors is that Fulton is “aggressive, unfair, racist, stereotypes them and doesn’t really give them a fair shot.”

Roberts said that Fulton has never acted this way to-wards him, but he has seen Fulton treat other students unfairly. Roberts said he has had problems with Officer Nick Scheidegger.

“I have a history with Of-ficer Scheidegger, the guy legitimately hates me, like legitimately hates me,” Rob-erts said. “Other police of-ficers have actually told me like, ‘Stay out of his way, he seems to really not like you.’ There should be no reason for that.”

Tobias Pointer, the current president of the Black Stu-dent Union, believes there is a gap between officers and minorities on campus.

“As usual it’s always a

NON-PROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PA I DPERMIT NO. 32St. JOSEPH, MO

Vol 95 | Issue 21 griffonnews.com April 12, 2013

‘Bullies with guns’Campus police criticized over arrest

Currently the chairperson of the department of nurs-ing and allied health, Dr. Kathleen O’Connor’s du-ties as dean of Professional Studies will begin on July 1. Dr. O’Connor has been at Missouri Western since 1980 and is also a registered nurse in Missouri. She serves as an administrator for the differ-ent programs in the nursing department and she is eager to further her relationship with other departments and programs on the campus.

“ I have worked with the chairs in all of the depart-ments in the college of profes-sional studies for a number of years,” O’Connor said. “Over the years, I have learned some things about their depart-ments. But there is a lot of

things that I do need to learn.”O’Connor said that she

knows in order to be an effec-tive leader, she will have to continue to listen and learn about her roles as Dean. With her term approaching rather fast with the semester almost being complete, she already has her mind on improving.

“My first plan is to learn everything I can about the different departments,”

O’Connor said. “So I can ap-ply the kind of support they need. Another thing I will be doing is helping with the various accreditation appli-cations for the programs. In-cluding engineering technol-ogy, education, and criminal justice. Most of the depart-ments in professional studies have national accreditation from their professional ac-crediting bodies.”

Achieving accreditation is important to O’Connor but more important is maintain-ing that accreditation for longevity. O’Connor noted that she wanted all the de-partments in the university to know that she is looking out for them. She thinks that it will be important for the different units to know that the dean has all of their best interests.

Even though fashion shows normally appear in larger cities such as New York or Los Angeles, WAC hosted a fashion show for all Missouri Western students who wanted to indulge in a fashion show experience.

WAC hosted a fashion show for Missouri Western students on April 4. Several students attended and en-joyed the two hosts of the night Rodney Roberts and DeAndre Diamond.

Crowd excitement filled the Fulkerson Center as nearly 100 Missouri West-ern eyes were all on the fashionistas who walked down the clear lite up rope runway. As many clapped and screamed the models personality and self-esteem boosted from all the nerves of having many eyes watch every move down the run-way.

With 14 Missouri West-ern student models walk-ing down the lit up runway, many admired not only their crazy personalities but their vintage designs. The show had two lines, a thrift store inspired line and a clothing line called COOL created by Western student graphic de-signer Mycah Houston.

The COOL clothing line attracted many students as all smiles and applauses were presented as the mod-els walked by everyone.

“I feel the fashion show went well, bet-ter than I expected,” Houston said.

Fashion varied from vintage cut off shorts to 6 inch stiletto heels. Big

hair and bold makeup tied the looks of the female mod-els. Male models walked in flair with denim jean jack-ets and sunglasses as their style.

Leah Hayes, student and pr personnel for the COOL Clothing Line, really liked how the event turned out.

“It feels good to see how everything worked out and that all the hard work and sleepless nights really payed off,” Hayes said.

Fashion was not the only thing that made students dance in their seats and raise their hands in the air; many enjoyed the upbeat music performances by DJ Sound Ninja with MC Tres (also known as Western student Louis Erby), saxophone player Donovan Gilard, drum player Daniel Cole followed by singer Deondre Ross. It was for the crowd to get excited and have fun during the show.

Charles Flemons, student of Missouri Western, said he felt the event turned out bet-ter than expected.

“I really think all the models did a great job and I loved the music perfor-mance by DJ Sound Ninja,” Flemons said.

Aspen Mobley, student of Missouri Western, felt as though the fashion was the best part of the event.

“I really enjoyed the fash-ion and it’s definitely some-thing I could see myself wearing,” Mobley said.

Dr. Kathleen O’Connor appointed dean of Professional Studies

WAC hosts annual MWSU fashion show

Albert Shelby | Asst. News Editorashelby1@missouriwestern.edu

Kristen Hague | Staff Writerkhague@missouriwestern.edu

Kathleen O’Connor

3OH3!Models Breaunna Conner (left) and Kenya Miller (left) strut their stuff at the 2013 WAC Fashion Show. Tevin Harris | Photo Editor

XV

SammyAdams

Western will host 3OH!3, Sammy Adams and XV on April 12, at the Civic Arena. To see our fea-tures with 3OH!3 and personal interviews, see page six. *Submitted Photos SEE DEAN PAGE 2

SEE POLICE PAGE 2

Western’s theatre department showcases spring musical, Sweeney Todd.

Page 4 & 5

The campus is encouraged to take a stand and support Lavonte Douglas.

Page 8

New basketball coach, Brett Wieberg, plans to help more student athletes graduate.

Page 10

Katelyn Canon | Managing Editorkcanon@missouriwestern.edu

Dave Hon | Senior Editordhon1@missouriwestern.edu

“I can’t stress enough that there is no reason that

the students of this school should feel unsafe, threatened or just plain out in fear of our public safety officers.” - Rodney Roberts,

President of the Gentlemen of Color

Association

“As usual it’s always a lack of communication

with higher power and minorities at Missouri Western State University,”

- Tobias Pointer, Black Student

Union President

“The role of the dean is to really provide support and resources,” O’Connor said, “things they will need to do their work. I will be there to help them. I want to convey any of the requests, issues and concerns to the provost.”

Dr. Judy Grimes is the as-sociate vice president of student affairs and she feels confident in O’Connor. She also feels O’Connor has more than what it takes to support the new dean posi-tion. Grimes was appointed interim vice president of stu-

dent affairs this year. She un-derstands that jobs like the VP of student affairs and the Dean of professional studies are jobs that require a large amount of responsibility. She said that O’Connor would be fully capable.

“I have been here a num-ber of years and have always worked very closely with the dean of professional stud-ies,” Grimes said. “So we welcome them on a daily basis. I am confident that O’Connor will have a very good relationship with the chairs of the departments.”

Grimes noted that O’Connor’s has experience in different fields and also with programs in St. Joseph that could be a factor.

“She has a great amount of experience on our cam-pus,” Grimes said. “She has worked in the community, with different businesses, including Heartland Health, which is a large employer in the city. I think that back-ground and knowledge of Missouri Western will be re-ally helpful to her. She is just an excellent person, very fair and I just think she was an

excellent choice.”O’Connor was very

pleased to receive the ti-tle and more importantly, pleased that the administra-tion had faith in her.

“I feel that I chaired a very busy and complex depart-ment for a number of years,” O’Connor said. “There are many similarities so I think I can translate my leader-ship skills I used chairing the nursing department to be-ing the dean of professional studies.”

If your organization would like to announce an event, e-mail the information to

stories@thegriffonnews.com

Thursday, April. 11• SweenyToddperformancein

PotterHallat7:30p.m.

Friday, April. 12• SweenyToddperformancein

PotterHallat7:30p.m.

Saturday, April. 13• SweenyToddperformancein

PotterHallat7:30p.m.

Tuesday, April. 16• ForeignFilmover“Che”at6:30

p.m.• BlackHolesPlanetariumShow

startsat7:00p.m.

Wednesday, April. 17• ConferenceonChildAbuse

Investigationstartingat8:30a.m.

• SpringJazzConcertstartingat7:30p.m.

1. Stealing 5:56p.m.,Saturday,March23,ParkingLotC2. Stealing 6:29p.m.,Saturday,March23,DownsDrive3. Stealing 5:00a.m.,Monday,March24,ParkingLotK4. DrugPosseion 2:35p.m.,Tuesday,March27,JudaHall

Beshears Hall

Juda Hall

Commons

Leaverton Hall

Griffon Hall

Scanlon Hall

Vaselakos Hall

Missouri Dept. of Conservation

Griffon Spring Sports Complex

Blum Union

Fulkerson Center

Leah Spratt Hall

Hearnes Center

Remington Hall

Murphy Hall

Eder HallPopplewell Hall

Spratt Stadium

Baker Family Fitness Center

Griffon Indoor Sports Complex

Looney Comlex

Wilson Hall

Potter Hall

Logan Hall

Downs Drive

NEWS April 12, 2013

The Griffon NewsPage 2

CALENDAR OF EVENTSCAMPUS CRIME REPORTS

CAMPUS INFORMATION

1.2.3.

4.

�N�E�W�S� �N�O�T�E�S

Missouri Western Spring Jazz Concert

Missouri Western State University music depart-ment will host the annual jazz concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, 2013 in Potter Hall Theater. The concert will feature perfor-mances by the Lab Band, Vo-cal Jazz and Jazz Ensemble. Special guest Dave Scott will perform with the Lab Band and Jazz Ensemble.

Graphic Design Students’ Work Ac-cepted for National

Conference

Shelby Hughes, senior graphic design student from Rosendale, Mo., and Emily Stojevich-Swenson, senior graphic design student from St. Joseph, recently had their work accepted into the Ninth Annual National Student Show and Conference in Dal-las from April 11-13.

This was a highly selective competition with over 1,200 entries from colleges and universities from across the nation.

The conference, sponsored by the Dallas Society of Vi-sual Communications, is the only national creative com-petition and design confer-ence just for students.

Missouri Western Hosts Night at the

Ritz

The Missouri Western State University Ambassadors will host their annual Night at the Ritz, a fund-raiser for scholarships dedicated to nontraditional students, on Friday, April 26.

Night at the Ritz will be-gin with a social with a cash bar at 6:30 p.m. followed by a served dinner at 7 p.m. Admission is $40 per person or $30 for Missouri Western nontraditional students and one guest.

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Grimes confident in O’ConnorDEANCONTINUED FROM FRONT

Students wonder if race plays a role

lack of communication with higher power and mi-norities at Missouri Western State University,” Pointer said. “I believe the issue could have been solved in a much better way than it was.”

Two years ago, former BSU President Leah Hayes started a petition asking Western’s officers to undergo diversity training. Pointer believes this is something that officers would still benefit from.

“I feel diversity training would definitely help them deal with students that they feel are hostile or aggres-sive without having to go through the same route they did with Lavonte,” Pointer said.

University President Rob-ert Vartabedian said that to his knowledge, the officers do undergo diversity train-ing, but he is aware of a sin-gle issue with Fulton.

“I guess it depends on how you define problems,” Var-tabedian said. “I think there was at least one other issue

that was brought up but we investigated it and we inves-tigated it to our satisfaction so I don’t think we would necessarily categorize it as a problem, but there was an is-sue we needed to deal with previously.”

Vartabedian wasn’t aware of any issues with other offi-cers. Chief of Police Jon Kel-ley was unavailable for com-ment.

Student Government As-sociation President Jacob Scott believes that Western’s police force is dedicated to protecting students.

“I don’t know if it’s neces-sarily a problem but it’s an ongoing educational experi-ence,” Scott said. “There’s always a more and more diverse population on cam-pus, people coming from dif-ferent backgrounds and we operate differently. We have a different understanding of authority and it’s important that we recognize our differ-ences and come up with a method in which we handle these situations.”

Scott hopes that the inves-tigation into the Feb. 27 inci-dent is fair and said that SGA leaders could be a resource

for Douglas in navigating the student handbook.

Douglas’s formal hearing with Western administration took place Wednesday at 3 p.m. The result of that hear-ing was not available at press time.

POLICECONTINUED FROM FRONT

University police cars are parked outside Blum. The cars patrol Downs Drive regularly. In addi-tion, officers also patrol inside the buildings on campus. Tevin Harris | Photo Editor

“She has a great amount of

experience on our campus.”

- Judy Grimes

Judy Grimes Associate VP of Student Affairs

NEWSApril 12, 2013The Griffon News

Page 3

Missouri Western is home to one of Missouri’s ROTC programs where students who participate in the pro-gram are also enlisted in the National Guard as well. Wil-son said the ROTC program has around 120 students, and around 30 of those stu-dents are part of the National Guard and will be affected now or later.

Approximately 30 Mis-souri Western National Guard members would ben-efit from a Missouri House bill that would offset $1.5 million of scholarship cuts made by the federal govern-ment.

The Missouri Legislature has combined efforts with the department of Higher Education in drafting legisla-

tion to ensure $1.5 million of tuition assistance will be pro-vided for student veterans in the Missouri Guard.

House Bill 857, known as the “Show Me Heroes Edu-cation Fund,” was brought to the surface by Veteran Com-mittee Chair, Charlie Davis (R-Webb City). The Veter-ans Committee has taken the challenge of reallocating the funds for students who are veterans of the Missouri Guard and Air Guard.

The plan developed when Davis and other members of the Missouri House heard the Federal government may slash the tuition assistance of $5 million that they give the National Guard each year. Davis said he would like to see the state of Missouri put in place the $5 million, but the $1.5 million is just the beginning for what the Mis-

souri Legislature is planning to do.

“The Federal government has failed to inhere to these men and women who signed open-ended contracts, pos-sibly give their lives and to hear that they would not re-ceive the benefit because the Federal Government said ‘nope’,” Davis said. “They are going to pull these ben-efits, and it’s just a tragedy.”

In Fiscal Year 2013, the state of Missouri utilized $2,564,733 in federal funds for over 1,116 veterans of the Army Guard and Air Guard which received state tuition. Davis said the state of Mis-souri can’t help fund the ac-tive Army, Navy or Coast Guard, considering those are Federal level branches. Jo-seph Wilson, senior instruc-tor of Military Science, said he thinks the legislator is

doing the best thing for the men and women who enlist and serve their communities in the National Guard.

“There’s a lot of students who depend on the tuition assistance, considering we have several students who have or are participating in the National Guard,” Wilson said. “Many of our soldiers are hoping that the assistance will be reinstated by August or September.”

Davis said those in the Mis-souri House decided when the Federal government failed, the state of Missouri would stand behind the men and women who are serving in the National Guard to help them further their education.

“The bill cannot help our active Army soldiers,” Davis said. “But those in the active Guard, those are the ones we can help and will help.”

Elway Ching Sam, Army National Guard member and student, said it’s important for the government to come together now and find a so-lution to this problem. He believes it’s fair to provide scholarships to veterans in the Missouri Guard.

“If someone is brave enough to provide the ser-vice for multiple amounts of years, then they should get the full benefits to go to col-lege,” Ching Sam said.

Davis said the bill is now going to rules of approval then it will hit the floor for debate. He plans on the bill being debated on the floor in the next couple of weeks and will head to the Senate and Governor for approval.

His plan is for the bill to be passed by both houses and approved as soon as pos-sible.

Missouri Western State University has officially been named to the President’s Higher Education Commu-nity Honor Roll, which rec-ognizes the volunteering and community of a college or university.

The President’s Higher Ed-ucation Community Honor Roll is a program that high-lights the community service done by higher education in-stitutions.

This program has several goals, such as increasing the awareness of the impact that campus service has on com-munities and recognizing the institutions that are able to provide for those commu-nities.

With 99,500 estimated hours of community service, Grimes believes that those students who work to help out the community of Saint Joseph should be recognized for what they do.

“People do community service because they want to do community service,” Grimes said. “They don’t do it for the recognition, but I believe this is a great oppor-tunity for us to pat them on the back and say, ‘Thanks for what you do.’”

Missouri Western was honored along with 690 oth-er colleges and universities. Student Government advisor Kathy Kelly is very proud of

Missouri Western for giving back to the community.

“I have the utmost respect for those students who are willing to put others first,” Kelly said.

Judy Grimes, associate vice president for Student Affairs, also admires those students who volunteered and continue to volunteer for the community. This is an opportunity to point out how awesome our students are and how much of an im-pact that they make on our community, Grimes said.

Three projects were sub-mitted by Missouri Western for consideration.

A Night Out on the Griffs was a program sponsored by the Missouri Western Stu-dent-Athlete Advisory Com-mittee and allowed parents to drop their children off at the indoor sports facility for an evening of activities, in-cluding basketball, dodge-ball and movies.

More than 100 children took part in the events with over 150 student athletes vol-unteering to make sure that

the children had a memora-ble night.

Operation A Dollar Away, sponsored by the Division of Student Affairs and the Center for Multicultural Education, focused on giv-ing college students the op-portunity to volunteer at the Open Door Food Kitchen, St. Joseph Haven and Second Harvest.

Students helped prepare and serve meals while being educated on the homeless-ness problem in our commu-nity. Food items were also donated by the students to 500 families in the St. Joseph area.

Finally, the College for Kids program, which was also sponsored by the Divi-sion of Student Affairs and the Center for Multicultural Education, brought 40 sixth-grade elementary school students to campus once a month to help motivate them for college. Students who volunteered gained a better understanding of leadership opportunities within local schools and in the commu-nity.

Isaiah Collier, assistant dean of Student Develop-ment, led the College for Kids program, and was very happy that it was considered by Missouri Western.

“It’s really a great honor,” Collier said. “It speaks mea-sures about our students and our program.”

Child abuse will be the topic of a two-day confer-ence being held April 17 and 18 at Missouri Western. Participants will have an opportunity to listen and learn from experts. The con-ference is being held in the Fulkerson Center. It is spon-sored by the Regional Law Enforcement Academy, De-partment of Criminal Justice, Legal Studies, Social Work, Department of Nursing and Northwest Missouri Child Advocacy Center. Break-out sessions will be held in classrooms both days. Ev-eryone must preregister. The forms are available online at wi.missouriwestern.edu/conference.

Kip Wilson, associate pro-fessor of CJLS, says that this is their first attempt to put together so many organiza-tions into one learning con-ference.

“Sandy Hook was a ter-

rible shock, but people for-get that weekly, approxi-mately that many children get killed,” Wilson said, “of-ten by parents who are their caretakers.”

Dr. Gretchen Quenstedt-Moe, assistant professor of Nursing, stresses the value of this conference. Other simi-lar ones charge $300.00. The registration fee for this con-ference is $80.00. If you are a field instructor or MWSU ad-junct instructor, it is $20.00. Students may attend for free. She stresses that everyone must preregister because there is a limit to class size for each session.

“We are thrilled to death to have this opportunity, especially for our pediatric nurses. They will have a bet-ter understanding of how the system works,” Quenset-Moe, said. “It’s about taking responsibility in the commu-nity.”It will be particularly inter-esting to people involved in law enforcement, social

services, healthcare and education. Wilson says it is an opportunity for students and professionals to listen to a wide range of speakers who work to prevent child abuse every day and to fo-cus on the tragedy of abuse.

“We have offered a yearly conference to give back or say ‘Thank You’ to the com-munity for everything they do for our students,” Pam

Clary, instructor of PSS, said. “This is the first time we are joining many disci-plines to host a conference.”

Learning the signs of an abuser is one aspect that can be gained from the confer-ence. One of the 10 presen-tations on Wednesday will be by Catherine Vannier, Family Violence Resource Prosecutor with the Missouri Office of Prosecution Ser-vices. It will cover the signs and symptoms of coercive control and present a link be-tween child abuse, domestic violence and animal abuse. Wilson says an information-al video showing signs of abuse can also be viewed at http://atsweb.uthscsa.edu/webdev/Mckee/Anderst/MIC.html.

“The conference will raise the level of awareness for everyone so that we can ad-vocate for our children,” Dr. Mary Jo Gay, assistant pro-fessor of Nursing, said. “This conference is interdisciplin-ary and will be informa-

tional and educational to all students.”

Of unique interest to par-ticipants will be the special guests, Terry Probyn, Dr. Re-becca Bailey and Jane Dickel, LCSW. They will be conduct-ing a workshop presented by The JAYC Foundation. The foundation was formed by former kidnap victim Jay-cee Dugard. Their topic will be on reacquainting law en-forcement officers and em-ployees with their culture and mission. This workshop will be the last event of the conference from 1-4pm on Thursday.

“I plan to attend and so do many of my fraternity broth-ers from Phi Sigma Kappa,” senior criminal justice major Matthew Morris said.

Corporal John Christian-son, Highway Patrol Troop H officer and Adjunct Crimi-nal Justice Instructor, says that he has assisted other patrolmen in responding to calls that involved abuse. He keeps a watchful eye during

all shifts for signs that indi-cate a hotline call to DFS is needed to investigate the situation.

“If we save one child, then it is worth it,” Christianson said. “This is a good confer-ence because it pulls from many disciplines and pro-vides a voice for victims that don’t have a voice.”

Missouri Legislator will defend student veterans

Once a staff member at Northwest Missouri State University, Mallory Murray is moved in and set to begin her duties as the new Direc-tor of Public Relations.

Murray was the Chief Of-ficer of marketing and de-sign at Northwest where she handled the marketing for the university.

She noted that her new job is similar to her former job at Northwest and she hopes to bring that experience to Mis-souri Western.

“I made ad purchases and I came up with the advertis-ing plans for the university,” Murray said. “I over saw our designers and our web mas-ters as well. The things I have learned in my career will help me at Missouri Western. My knowledge of division II schools, in particular MIAA, will help advance Missouri Western.”

Murray has plans of fur-thering and improving the advertising at Western. She hopes to spread the word the best way she can to help ben-efit the university.

“My goal is to develop a marketing plan for the uni-versity,” Murray said. “We want to help support the university goals as well. I also want to improve and increase the social media presence at Missouri West-ern. And a number of other

things.”Kent Heier, assistant direc-

tor of Public Relations, will work closely with Murray as she embarks in her new role.

Heier was on the circuit committee but was not able to attend Murray’s interview.

“It happened that when Mallory was interviewed, I was out with medical issues so I actually did not partici-pate in the interview,” Heier said. “But those who did said that they are very excited about her joining her team.”

Heier noted that Murray brings in a good attitude and feels that her experience with ads and purchases is some-thing that Western has been missing for a while.

“I think that she is from all accounts a very energetic person,” Heier said. “She has a lot of useful experience in marketing, and in particular, ads and marketing. Having that wealth of experience will prove to be beneficial for

Missouri Western.”“It is very helpful that she

comes from a different school because she understands higher education in general and public higher education in Missouri in particular.’

Jonathan Yordy, executive director of University Ad-vancement, said that he is proud to have found some-one like Murray for the job. He noted that she brings in a variety amount of skills that will help take public rela-tions further.

“Mallory Murray is a dy-namic individual that we were lucky enough to recruit to Missouri Western,” Yordy said. “The position of Direc-tor of public relations and marketing is an important one, so we look forward to someone with Mallory’s en-thusiasm and expertise join-ing our team.”

As for Murray, she has been enjoying her experience at Missouri Western. She said that being able to see the students and staff on cam-pus makes her even more anxious to get started with her job.

“Well I had a great first day,” Murray said. “Every-one that I have seen has been kind and passionate about the university. They seem excited about the marketing and public relations oppor-tunities on campus.”

“I am ready to get my feet wet and help advance Mis-souri Western.”

Daniel Cobb | Staff Writerdcobb3@missouriwestern.edu

Albert Shelby | Asst. News Editorashelby1@missouriwestern.edu

Matt Hunt | News Editormhunt8@missouriwestern.edu

Joyce Stevenson | Staff Writerjstevenson1@missouriwestern.edu

Mallory Murray named PR DirectorPlans to develop a new marketing planMWSU honored for service

House Bill 857 proposed to help Missouri Guard for tuition assistance

Public Relations Director Mallory Murray

5 facts about HB 857

1) The bill would affect nearly 1,116 veteran stu-dents who attend college.

2) $1.5 million is the amount the legislature is asking for.

3) It would affect nearly 30 ROTC students at Western who are part of the Misssouri Guard.

4) It would only affect Air and Army National Guard.

5) The bill has passed the hearings and now head-ed to the House floor for debate, then to the sen-ate.

JAYC Foundation to participate in Child Abuse Conference

The conference will focus on children affected by family-inflicted abuse. *SubmittedPhoto

“Sandy Hook was a terrible shock, but people forget that weekly, approximate-ly that many children get killed, often by parents who are their caretakers.”

- Kip Wilson Associate Professorof Criminal Justice

FEATURES FEATURESApril 12, 2013 April 12, 2013

The Griffon NewsThe Griffon NewsPage 5Page 4

As this year’s play season winds down, director and pro-fessor Tee Quillin, along with the cast and crew, are here to give us Western’s unique ren-dition of Sweeney Todd.

The musical tells the story of a barber whose family was taken from him by a judge, and the barber, named Swee-ney Todd, is assumed dead. Now, back from the grave, Todd goes on a blood-fueled quest to get his revenge upon the judge while simultaneous-ly teaming up with a baker to dispose of his victims by cook-ing them into meat pies to sell to unknowing customers.

Professor Quillin has long wanted to direct Sweeney Todd and now, after many long months of preparation, will get the opportunity to showcase his work in the Pot-ter Hall Theatre on April 11-14.

“I’ve been working on it since late July,” Quillin said, “contemplating and putting ideas together in terms of how I wanted it to happen.”

The process for Quillin start-ed long before casting when he would slowly but surely start bringing people into the fold in terms of a production team, including a set designer, costume designer, lighting de-signer and more.

“We had our first actual pro-duction meeting right before Christmas and casted around

the middle of November,” Quillin said.

Although he has directed over 20 productions, casting was still a challenge when it came to narrowing down who would play certain roles.

“There were some decisions that sort of made themselves. Some people walked in and did the audition and it was just instantaneous,” he said,

“but there were a couple of roles that were difficult deci-sions because of the ability and talent level.”

Adrienne Collins who plays Johanna, the daughter of Sweeney Todd, says that she knew she wanted the role and had memorized every song for the part even before going into auditions.

“Everyone has worked so

hard and we’ve become a family working together on this,” Collins said.

When asked what the most rewarding part of the pro-duction is, Quillin said, “The show itself. I’ve had those moments when sitting in the theatre, I’ll look up every now and then and I’ll forget that I’m directing it for a little bit. I have to pinch myself to tell

myself it’s true because it’s a show I’ve always wanted to tackle.”

The joy of putting the show together comes with a tiring price for Quillin and his cast and crew. In the weeks follow-ing up to the performance, he has been spending 18 hours a week or more in the theatre bringing it all together, and as he puts it, being “the captain

of the ship.” While practices have been running from six in the evening to 11 at night for the cast and crew, there is truly no rest for the weary when putting a new twist on Sweeney’s popular character.

“We’re doing a little bit of a different take on Sweeney. Most productions I have seen have approached Sweeney as a serial killer out for blood and that’s it. I think there’s a whole lot more to him than that,” Quillin said. “I think the story was written to show there was a human being that was transformed into some-thing else. So that’s what I wanted to show, that he actu-ally has a level of humanity to him.”

After all the work the cast and crew has put into this, Quillin describes their rela-tionship as having the feeling of old friends, and although there will be a sigh of relief for Quillin and his team, there will also be a feeling of some-thing missing in the days fol-lowing the final performance.

“There’s always a sort of re-gret to see something you’ve worked so hard on and put literally blood, sweat and tears into just go away,” Quil-lin said.

Until then, we can all look forward to the talent-filled production and get a taste of Quillin’s vision of Sweeney Todd. It should be a bloody good show.

Jason Ruckman | Staff Writer jruckman@missouriwestern.edu

THE BARBER OF FLEET STREET SLICES OPEN WESTERN’S CURTAINS Theatre department showcases ‘Sweeney Todd’

Blair Stalder| Contributing Writer bstalder@missouriwestern.edu

First a phantom, now a demon barberStudent finds happiness in ‘Sweeney Todd’

“Cats," "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," "Fid-dler on the Roof" -- you name it, Missouri Western student Ray Johnson has probably acted in it.

Johnson, who is from Pitts-field, Mass., has acted in around 25 plays and musicals, yet music is his first love. He was in the high school band, sings in a barbershop quartet named "Men in Black," gives voice lessons and says sing-ing overall makes him feel free.

"Singing is like a wonder-ful, wonderful drug," John-son said. "Letting the sound come pouring into my head is a wonderful experience."

Johnson is back in the spot-light again as he will be taking the stage as Benjamin Barker a.k.a. Sweeney Todd in West-ern's production of "Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street." The show will take place in Potter Hall and run Thursday, April 11-Saturday, April 13, starting at 7:30 p.m., and will close on April 14 at 3 p.m.

After being convicted of a crime he didn't commit, sentenced to 16 years in an Australian prison and hav-ing his wife and child being taken away from him, barber Sweeney Todd heads back to London to get his revenge on the judge who decided his unfortunate fate.

Sweeney Todd has a "blood lust" because he wants to get back at the people who de-stroyed what life he had in the first place; during one song in the show, he says "We all deserve to die."

Johnson said Sweeney Todd has a fear of never re-storing the life he once had.

And, as Johnson jokes, "as Yoda would say, 'Fear leads to anger, and anger leads to the dark side and there you go, now you have Sweeney Todd.'"

This character, Sebastian Smith said, sounds nothing like Johnson.

"Ray's just a big sweet-heart," Smith, who is play-ing the character Pirelli, said. "I've come to know Ray as this really nice guy, and it's completely contradictory of Sweeney Todd."

While Johnson has played

the phantom in Western's "Phantom of the Opera," as well as Schroeder in Western Playhouse's "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," he has been able to find his darker side pretty easily as he has given his director chills.

"To see him make that transformation is interest-ing to watch each night," Tee Quillin said. "It's a little frightening at times as a di-rector. There are times when I have to tell him 'OK, cool, hang tight, pull back, don't push yourself … we're just doing this for the blocking tonight, don't worry about it and he keeps telling me I want to go, I want to do this.

"He's that type of actor he wants to go, he wants give it everything and he wants it to be perfect now."

In order to get in the mind-set of Sweeney Todd, Johnson said he cannot imagine hor-rible things that could hap-pen, but recalls losses in his own life, including his dad who died in 2005. He also tries to think about what the character ultimately wants -- revenge on the judge.

"Sweeney is a very patient person," the actor said. "In those moments of waiting, I let it loop -- 'Where's the judge, where's the judge, I want him, I want him.' It spi-rals and gets bigger and big-ger and bigger as it goes, so that definitely helps me pull into some of that more ex-treme emotion."

In most ways Sweeney Todd will be nothing like Johnson.

However, he still finds a way to connect to the charac-ter in a positive way.

"As for as angry and as vi-cious as people are going to remember Sweeney being, I live in the happiness," John-son said, "because once he sets his mind on a task, and as he finds success in his goals, he just loves it and he enjoys everything about his life in those moments. He's a barber in from way back so when he gets to work and shave some-one, he's the happiest he can possibly be. So for me, it's those happy joyous moments in Sweeney's life that make me the most happy and are the most rewarding."

The lights are dimmed, the camera is set and the actors are ready for action. Adrienne Collins, a Missouri Western student, is ready behind the stage, as she is about to take on the role of Johanna in Western’s rendition of Swee-ney Todd.

Collins said she has worked with director Tee Quillin in the past, and she feels that she works hard, fits the char-acter and that her voice fits the songs that Johanna sings.

Johanna is a 16-year-old girl who has had a very sheltered and extravagant up bringing. She’s never really been able to leave home unaccompanied. She has a longing for freedom and she is itching to get out in the world and spread her wings, which really appeals to Collins because she said she’s kind of sensing that in her life right now, being a Ju-

nior in college and wanting to go explore the world on her own.

Collins auditioned for Sweeney Todd back in De-cember and the call backs were that same week.

“Basically, I went in and sang Green Finch and Linnet Bird. It’s Johanna’s main song and that’s all they wanted to hear,” Collins said. “I already knew the piece beforehand and had studied the char-acter. It was very smooth. It wasn’t anything daunting or intimidating or anything like that.”

Collins said she loves Jo-hanna’s music. She loves who that character is because their lives are kind of playing out in the same way right now.

“At the age 15, 16, or 17 years old, people were mar-ried or being courted and seriously pursuing marriage, so the fact that Johanna never has had any kind of love in-terest, I think it has greatly affected her longing of just

wanting to get out and be her own person,” Collins said.

When we first meet Johan-na, Collins said she seems like a sweet modest woman until she meets a guy named Any-thony. Collins said Johanna kind of turns into a Barbie doll or something and falls in love instantly and wants to run away with this man.

“She just has completely lost her mind,” Collins said. “Johanna is kind of ditsy and ends up at the mad house, so that definitely contributes to it.”

Even though Johanna is a supporting role, Collins doesn’t have a ton of lines. The hard part of her role comes with the singing, but it is a challenge she is excited to take on.

“I think the most difficult part was learning the music because the type of songs she sings are tricky.”

JQ Dever | Staff Writer jdever@missouriwestern.edu

Supporting actress prepares for ditsy role

SWEENEY TODDSHOW TIMES

APRIL 11- 137:30 P.M.

APRIL 14 3:00 P.M.

POTTER HALL THEATRE

ADULTS $14

FACULTY/STAFF/

MILITARY $12

STUDENTS $8

Sweeney Todd, played by Ray Johnson, sings along with the Ensemble during one of the musical scenes. Tevin Harris | Photo Editor

Ms. Lovette, played by Alex Richards, hands Sweeney Todd, played by Ray Johnson, his cutting ravor.

Tevin Harris | Photo EditorA man attempts to sell Johanna, played by Adrienne Collins, a bird. Tevin Harris | Photo Editor

Johanna, played by Adrienne Collins, extends her hands to the audience while she sings a roman-tic ballad. Tevin Harris | Photo Editor

Ray Johnson, who stars as Sweeney Todd, and Beadle Bamford, played by Erik Burns-Sprung, speak about Todd’s barber shop.

Tevin Harris | Photo Editor

Ms. Lovette, played by Alex Rich-ards, looks into the crown during a music scene of Sweeney Todd.

Tevin Harris | Photo Editor

FEATURES April 12, 2013

The Griffon NewsPage 6

From MWSU to MTV: Western student gets big break, will showcase talent at concert

Eboni Lacey | Editor-in-Chief elacey@missouriwestern.edu

As most students spent their spring breaks sleep-ing, working and partying, Western student Daniel Cole was performing with T.I., B.o.B, Wale, Kirko Bangz, XV and other members of the Warner Brothers label at an annual South by Southwest concert held in Austin, Texas, which was featured on MTV.

Cole, who noted that this 2012 spring break experi-ence was one of the great-est moments of his life, is now on to bigger and better things as he is drumming for rapper and Kansas native XV at Western’s annual spring concert this Friday.

“I think it’s just a bless-ing to be able to play for someone who’s signed to a label because these things are rare,” Cole said. “I think God’s timing is good because of how this all just kind of laid out. It’s so perfect.”

Cole landed the job through a little luck and having a few connections. A friend he went to high school with, who just so happens to be XV’s cousin, started

touring, DJing and produc-ing for XV and eventually brought Cole on board. The three have been great music partners ever since.

“I’ve actually seen his growth since he was in high school. That’s what’s so dope about my team is that we all did grow together in one form or another,” XV said. “I’ve seen him go from just doing covers of my songs on MySpace and posting them just so I could see them. When he would do those I would be like ‘That’s Daniel Cole.’ And now Daniel Cole is apart of my whole orga-nized mission, my whole band and my live move-ment.”

Cole also helped in get-

ting XV to perform here as he personally introduced the rapper to WAC vice presi-dent Lauren Dillon and invited her to see the two of them perform.

“She saw us perform and just thought it was crazy and amazing,” Cole said. “She was really determined to book XV for the spring con-cert.”

As Cole and XV impressed Dillon and numerous mem-bers of WAC, they are also hoping to do the same with the campus and the St. Joseph community.

“I’m crazy excited,” Cole said about the concert. “I don’t think people really understand how intense it’s going to be. Whenever peo-

ple see XV for the first time, even if they’ve never seen him before, the shows are always crazy and the energy is so amazing. He’s a real-ly good performer. There’s something different about his shows compared to a lot of rappers that I’ve seen.”

Cole, who’s been fascinat-ed with drumming since he was a kid, as his father is also a drummer, got his first start in church at 12 years old when they were looking for someone to keep a simple beat. After his first church performance, Cole continued practicing and perfecting his craft and eventually landed here at Western, majoring in music technology with an emphasis in performance. Cole was also a part of Western’s jazz band and cur-rently is on Western’s drum-line and symphonic orches-tra, as well as a campus wor-ship band called CCF.

In addition to his cam-pus accolades, Cole recently landed a drumming spot with Kansas city band and acrobatic dance group Quixotic Fusion who travels nationally and internation-ally. He also joined forces with Western student and

local rapper Louis Erby and local dj Nick Niemeier, also known as DJ SoundNinja. The three will be the opening act at the concert.

“D.Cole is so tight,” Erby said. “I’m a hundred percent supportive behind D.Cole and everything he does. D.Cole is my brother. Me and D.Cole go way back. Everything that we’ve been building is starting to take shape and it’s pretty tight,” Erby said.

Since freshman year, Erby, Cole and Niemeier have been discussing and hop-ing for a huge opportunity like the one they are being given at the concert. For Cole

especially, this is an opportu-nity for the campus and the community to truly see what fuels his fire.

“Daniel is a very passion-ate drummer,” Niemeier said. “He lives for the music. He’s an excellent performer – nothing less than profes-sional.”

The concert will be held on Friday, April 12 at Civic Arena with the doors open-ing at 6 p.m. and the show starting at 7 p.m. An after party will follow the concert at Headquarters Bar and will last until 1:30 p.m. Students can pick up their free concert ticket in Blum 207.

Jourdan Ryan | Features Editor jhuffman10@missouriwestern.edu

This Friday night, there are going to be a lot of hand signs going up at The Civic Arena in St. Joseph. For Boulder, Colorado natives Sean Foreman and Nat Motte, who make up the band, 3OH!3, their perfor-mance at Western’s spring concert will give fans a taste of what the duo has become famous for, hosting a wild party. With four hit records under their belt, as well as a few notable duets with Katy Perry and KE$ha, 3OH!3 is taking the music scene by storm and they don’t plan on letting up anytime soon.

“We started playing live shows right as we started making music, so that’s very important to us,” Motte said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to put a smile on people’s faces and make them have a good time.”

Snagging this notable band for Western’s spring concert was a real success for the Western Activities Council. Every year, the council scours through tons of information to find and book an artist or group that fits within a certain budget and appeals to a wide array of students. 3OH!3 definitely does that.

“3OH!3 is a very mixed genre of music. There are elements of dance, pop, elec-tronic, rap, and dubstep,” WAC president Lauren Dillon said. “It is the kind of music you want to hear when you go to a party because there is a good beat and it is fun to dance to. I think they appeal to a lot of students because they have a college feel to their lyr-ics because they are words meant for a mature audience and you will be surprised how many songs of theirs you know from going out to parties and clubs.”

For Motte, it’s this “college feel” that rings true in most of their music. The carefree attitude of the band’s lyr-ics mixed with their gritty dance beats come together for the perfect party playlist. It’s this marriage of fun and release that college students can latch onto. And Motte is very happy about that.

“Honestly, we really love playing college shows. We have a history of playing great college shows,” Motte said. “Sean and I both went to college and we graduated.

We had a great time in col-lege, so I think our music kind of applies itself well. Our general montra for our live shows is to put on a party and have fun.”

Doors open at 6 and the party gets going at 7 p.m. Before 3OH!3 brings the boom, two opening acts will

perform, XV and Sammy Adams. XV, also known as Donavan Johnson, will part-ner with Western drummer Daniel Cole and open the show. XV, a Kansas native said he’s ready to bring a crazy show to Western and put Kansas on the map.

“The main thing is that

I’m coming out of a city and a state that has no musical background in hip-hop,” XV said.

“It was always an uphill battle to make my name known being from a place where you go oh ‘Wizard of Oz’ oh ‘Dorthy.’ It’s actu-ally helped me create my

lane. It influenced me greatly because it made me realize how much not fitting in can help you stand out.”

With a show this jam-packed, there’s no way stu-dents won’t get lost in the music. Dillon is excited for students to see what WAC and 3OH!3 have in store for

Friday’s show.“This concert is different

from ones in the past because we usually don’t have three musical acts,” Dillon said. “Students should attend because it will be the biggest party of the semester. We will be giving away giant glow sticks and throwing out beach balls during the concert and all of the per-formers are the kind that you just want to dance to.”

3OH!3, who got their name from their area code in Colorado, are really excit-ed to put on a show in St. Joseph. Tickets are free to Western students and can be claimed in Blum 207.

“I think, for us, performing is all about throwing a party and having fun, us hav-ing fun on stage and mak-ing sure everyone is having a good time,” Motte said. “That’s always been kind of an essential thing at our show and that’s what gets us going.”

3 33O !3H!OHAPRIL 12THCIVIC ARENA

F R E E TO M W S U ST U D E N T S M U ST H AV E ST U D E N T I DTICKETS AVAILABLE IN CSE BLUM 207

OPENS AT 6STARTS AT 7

Joe Snapp | Graphics Editor

3OH!3

XV

Sammy Adams

30H!3 members Sean Foreman (above left) and Nat Motte (below left) will headline Western’s spring concert, following XV and Sammy Adams. The Colorado natives are excited to perform, stating that they “love to party.” *Submitted Photos

3OH!3 to bring the party to Western

Daniel Cole Missouri Western Drummer

Daniel Cole drums at a local event. He will be drumming along-side rapper XV at Western’s spring concert. *Submitted Photos

NEWSApril 12, 2013

The Griffon NewsPage 7

The annual SGA Organi-zational Fair will be held in Blum Union on April 11 from 11-2pm.

Kathy Kelly, SGA advisor, said that all campus organi-zations were encouraged to participate.

Organizations turned in packets containing docu-mentation of events from the year, showcasing what the organization hosted and participated in. Photos from events such as Homecoming, Greek Week and Heart Your Union help the groups show who was the most outstand-ing for the year.

“The judges review pack-ets and talk to organizations at the fair then select the win-ners that will be announced at the annual awards ban-quet,” Kelly said.

This year, the SGA Awards Banquet will be held on April 19. Awards will be giv-en to both the Most Active and Most Spirited Organiza-tion. The Most Outstanding Organization will be chosen within each of the follow-ing: Fraternity, Sorority, Re-ligious, Departmental, and Special Interest. The Advi-

sor of the Year, Glen Marion Community Service Award and the Dean Hoff Outstand-ing Achievement Award will also be presented. Also, the Best New Student Organiza-tion will be announced.

Kelly said that approxi-mately 20 organizations par-ticipate yearly. Phi Sigma Kappa is the oldest fraternity on campus and participates in many events all year. Pres-ident Coltin Ridenour, junior Wildlife Conservation and Management major, said he will be attending the fair and awards banquet.

“We have done a lot this year and we won the Na-tional President’s Award for Community Service,” Rid-enour said. “We are a hum-

ble and diverse organization that does a lot of community service, especially for Special Olympics and autism.”

Students are encouraged to attend and view the array of organization booth displays in Blum. It will be an oppor-tunity to see what is avail-able to get involved with on campus.

Representatives will be available to answer ques-tions. Kelly says that campus involvement creates a better learning environment for student college experience.

Matthew Morris, senior Criminal Justice major, plans to attend the event. He is also a member of Phi Sigma Kappa and has helped with many events this year, in-cluding Homecoming and a campus blood drive.

“We were able to increase the unit of blood donations by 220 percent from last year,” Morris said. “We are very active.”

The winners will receive a trophy. A nameplate with the organization’s title will be added to existing plaques that are hung in the halls of Blum. Information is avail-able on the SGA link at mis-souriwestern.edu.

The ninth annual National Student Show and Confer-ence attracted over 1200 en-tries for judgment but only about 120 are selected for various categories.

The artwork of senior graphic design majors Shel-by Hughes and Emily Stojev-ich-Swenson were selcted for this conference. The national student show and conference is the only competition in the country that is only for stu-dents.

“I really like vintage stuff, like I love thrift shops and so I used vintage colors,” Sto-jevich-Swenson said.

Her packaging projects, titled Kettles and Cups, were blue, red and yellow teabags, boxes and retail bags. The different colors represent dif-ferent flavors such as True Blue, Mandarin Spice and Lemon Zinger.

Shelby Hughes submitted a series of four posters for the Trails West Festival. Hughes’ poster series was one of nine

selected. Emily Stojevich-Swenson

submitted a packaging proj-ect for Kettles and Cups Tea.

Stojevich-Swenson’s pack-aging was one of a few se-lected from all of the entries from all over the nation.

“Its about negative space and designing. It’s whatever you want to read into it,” Hughes said.

The Trails West posters were centered on negative space and had somewhat of an abstract feel to them. The main object in the posters is a hand. The hand holds vari-

ous parts of the posters such as signs and balloons. In one of the posters, the hand is made into a guitar.

“Shelby’s was one of nine posters accepted and Emily’s was one of eleven packag-ing projects accepted,” Te-resa Harris, graphic design professor, said. “There were many submissions. There were 1200 entries, and many categories, but Sarah and Emily were chosen from a small group of submissions in their respective catego-ries.”

The ninth annual National Student Show and Confer-ence was held in Dallas this year in August.

Professionals and directors of creative companies will judge the submissions at the show.

The students that have been accepted into the con-ference will have the oppor-tunity to take part in sev-eral breakout sessions. The participants will also get to listen to keynote speakers at the conference.

Tevin Harris | Photo Editortharris@missouriwestern.edu

The Student Government Association held its meeting on Monday, April 1 to dis-cuss various events and or-ganizations on campus. The SGA was greeted by the vice president for Financial Plan-ning, Cale Fessler, before introducing the newest vice president of Student Affairs, Shana Meyer.

Immediately after taking roll, student body executive vice president, Lauren Up-ton, called Cale Fessler to come forward to introduce himself to the members of the SGA.

“I come from a small, pri-vate school in mid-Missouri, so obviously the state aspect of this is somewhat new to me,” Fessler said. “Howev-er, the need for transparency and communication certain-ly is not new.”

Fessler concluded his speech by telling the SGA that his door is open, and that he’d be willing to dis-cuss any number of matters with students. This doesn’t mean that we’ll always agree about everything at the end of the meeting, but I’m cer-tainly willing to listen, Fes-sler said.

Shana Meyer, the new vice president for Student Affairs, who was given the opportu-nity to introduce herself as well.

“This is my first day on campus at Missouri Western, but I’ve actually been a stu-

dent government advisor for thirteen years,” Meyer said. “I’ve really enjoyed work-ing with the SGA in the past and look forward to working with all of you.”

Judy Grimes, interim for vice president for Student Affairs, is very excited for Meyer to be a part of the SGA.

“She has a wealth of in-formation on how to work with students,” Grimes said. “And it’s clear that she really enjoys her job.”

Grimes complimented Meyer on her experience and

her enthusiasm to work with the members of the SGA.

“One of the first things that she told us before she got to campus as far as what we could do to prepare for her visit was that she wanted to meet with the student lead-ers,” Grimes said.

After the introductions of both Fessler and Meyer, the SGA discussed the variety of events that were planned for the week as well as the vari-ous pieces of legislation that were currently being worked on by the government rela-tions committee. Senator Travis Hart mentioned one of the biggest projects that were currently being pur-sued by the committee.

“We’re currently look-ing into improving parking accessibility on campus,” Hart said. “Once we receive more information on costs and what the best possible solutions for this problem are, we’ll be able to present something to the senate.”

With many different events and projects taking place, and with the introduction of Meyer and the support of Fessler, the SGA is look-ing to make some interesting changes to MWSU towards the end of the semester.

Daniel Cobb | Staff Writerdcobb3@missouriwestern.edu

SGA discusses parking proposalJoyce Stevenson | Staff Writer jstevenson1@missouriwestern.edu

Kathy KellySGA Sponsor

New program at Western to help students manage debt

Student Fair set for April 11Western organizations strive to win at SGA banquet

Two artists head to Dallas

Emily Stojevich-Swenson and Shelby Hughes

(Left) Shelby Hughes brings a taste of country music with a guitar in her poster for the Trails West Festival. (Right) Emily Stojevich- Swenson displays her packaging project called Kettles and Cups Tea. *Submitted Photos

Most students go through school not realizing the magnitude of their student loans, and they aren’t think-ing about what the pay-ment plan will eventually look like after school is over; Western now has a program that will help.

The new program is called SALT and it is the latest brain-child of the respected American Student Assis-tance nonprofit and it is completely free for students to use.

This program does ev-erything from tracking stu-dents’ debts and updating them constantly to help them manage those debts.

It offers alternative sug-gestions to student loans and has scholarship and job search databases. SALT rep-resentatives are available to students 24 hours a day and seven days a week to help them budget almost every-thing financially-related to college.

Western’s Senior Financial Aid Coordinator Tammy Al-len explains why SALT is an important tool for students and who it is most helpful to on campus.

“It’s an effort to help and

it’s basically geared towards our student loan borrow-ers,” Allen said. “Of course, here at Western, we are wanting to do everything that we can to try and offer some assistance for our stu-dent loan borrowers from the time they get here until the time they graduate; try-ing to educate them into bor-rowing smartly.”

Allen also believes that SALT will go far in prevent-ing potential financial disas-ters after college and will help with the transition back into the working world.

“It’s just that we want them to be constantly aware of how much they have bor-rowed so far, don’t borrow any more than you need to and what kind of payment you are looking at as you go along,” she said. “So that when you graduate you are not blind-sided with this six or seven hundred dol-lar payment that you could have maybe found other sources [to finance college] throughout your time at school.”

Aside from programs like SALT, there are those out there who believe if students are willing to work hard enough and endure a little sacrifice students wouldn’t need student loans at all.

Affordable collegeLook for scholarshipsGet a jobList your finances monthlyDaughter of finance

counseling super-star Dave Ramsey, and high-profile fi-nance motivational speaker Rachel Cruze is one such in-dividual and explains how not only college could be free, but also how students could be completely debt-free.

“Yes absolutely it’s pos-sible to go through college debt-free; I think one of the first things that you need to do is look for a college that you can actually afford,” Cruze said. “Meaning you may want to stay in-state and take in-state tuition even if it’s just a communi-ty college for you first year or two just to get the basic courses out of the way.”

Cruze explains a couple of other key things to going through college debt free.

“Second, look for scholar-ships and grants, that’s free

money” she said. “Third, actually get a job and go to work.”

She also believes that if you manage your finances and life-style correctly, keep-ing your credit score at zero, instead of taking a chance on credit cards and loans defaulting, is fine for today’s world.

She claims that as long as you keep bills paid up and stay employed you can even

get a mortgage for a home with a credit score of zero.

“People think that you can’t get a mortgage with-out a credit score, and that’s not true” Cruze said. “There is a process called manual under-writing, and that is where the lending company will actually look at you the person; so they will say have you been on a job consistent-ly for two years and have you been on-time with all of your bills.”

Cruze also believes that you should buy used cars with cash instead of taking

out loans even if that means driving a beater for a while until you can save up for a better vehicle.

If individuals saved their car payment instead of paying it every month the amount of money one would have at retirement is nothing to scoff at.

“Just a little fun trivia, the average car loan is around $412.00 a month, if you in-vested that instead of pay-ing for a car loan,” she said. “And if you did that every month until you were 65, that comes out to about 5.2 million dollars.”

An MWSU alumnus, and Chief Executive Officer for Family Investment Center, Dan Danford, believes that not everyone can go through college debt-free and that sometimes student loans are necessary. At the same time though, like Cruz, he cau-tions against high loan debts for generic degrees.

“Even in Missouri, you can go to The University of Missouri and get a re-ally nice teaching degree,” Danford said. “But, if you finance that whole degree you are going to have 70 or 80 thousand dollars in debt to pay off; and you know what, teachers only start of making 30 or 35 thousand.”

Danford also believes that when buying electronics or things like that, students need to find out the true value of what they are buy-ing, meaning the retail value after purchase, because they may be able to save a lot of cash.

“When I talk to students especially one of the things I talk to them about is what I call the eBay test,” he said. “Before you get ready to buy consumer electronics or any fairly high dollar gear, go look it up on eBay first; you may be able to find what you are looking for used, or the other thing is you may be able to find what you want refurbished directly from the manufacturer that still has the same warranty and everything.”

When it comes to students and finances, Danford says knowledge is good but not enough.

“I doubt if there is any-thing they [students] haven’t heard,” Danford said. “I mean a lot of it is common sense, but it’s also, you got-ta do it; it’s not enough to know it, you have to actually do it.”

Students interested in the SALT program can go to the financial aid office or sign-up at salt@saltmoney.org.

Andy Garrison | Opinion Editor agarrison3@missouriwestern.edu

OPINIONS April 12, 2013

The Griffon NewsPage 8

The Griffon News is written and published by students of Missouri Western State University during the fall and spring semesters. The first copy of each issue is free; addi-tional copies are 50 cents. Content of this paper is developed independently of the facul-ty and administration, or other campus organizations or offices. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas, information and advertising to The Griffon News office, Eder 221, 4525 Downs Drive, St. Joseph, Mo. 64507, or by phoning (816) 271-4412 (advertising and news room). You may also e-mail thegriffonnews@gmail.com. Copy and advertising must be received by noon Friday, the week prior to publication.

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Katelyn CanonJoe SnappMatthew HuntAlbert ShelbyTevin Harris Gilbert ImbiriKyle InmanChristian MengelJourdan RyanAndy GarrisonBrian DuskeyLauren DillonMika Cummins Dave HonBob Bergland

Eboni LaceyEditor-in-Chief

The Griffon News Staff

Most of Western’s stu-dents likely have heard of the relatively new Mowo Confessions feed; if not, it is premised on the idea that students can anonymously post their deepest, darkest or funniest confessions on a public forum.

This model has worked well on other campuses because they kept it at con-fessions and most are pretty funny.

Our version doesn’t really follow any particular model

and is more like a commu-nity toilet used to vomit out the most disgusting, racist, irrelevant and uninterest-ing bile from the depths of the most vapid, self-serving soulless twits.

I can’t hate on everything on there. There are a few that shine through the shit, but mostly it’s garbage.

If people want it to become something usable, they need to stick to actual confessions and not useless crap they were too afraid to post out

in the open.Examples of things that

are not confessions:

*My roommate is such a slut.

*F**k you Becky.

*Jeremy is soooo hot.

I didn’t use any actual posts but went pretty close to the bone just changing some names around to keep the anonymity. The list could

continue but I only have so much space here.

Post confessions with some sort of substance behind them, some sort of entertainment value or humor and this thing really has the potential to take off on social media.

Students need to remem-ber that while they are enjoying the anonymity of being the poster, a lot of the people they are bashing on there they are identifying.

That is not what Western

needs, some twisting online rumor factory that looks like its run by special-needs orangutans. Everyone thinks they are a hard-ass behind a keyboard and a monitor.

That being said, the idea for the online confessional is sound and tried-and-true, and it could be a real-ly fun, entertaining part of Western’s presence if main-tained as what it was meant to be in the first place.

Rise of the keyboard ninja: the ballad of Mowo confessions

After reading the April 4th, edition of the Griffon News and learning our stu-dent President Jacob Scott has proposed reallocation of the Student Success Act Fee I have to cry foul in the loud-est terms possible.

First, that fee was voted upon to ensure that specific programs currently affect-ing student success would be preserved in the event of funding cut backs.

Second, those programs where highly debated and agonized over for several weeks before coming to an

agreement, not only by the committee in charge of it, but by many of the students who learned of the fee proposal at the last hour of debates.

After an agreement was reached; why then are we now proposing reallocation to areas that do not directly affect student success? This sounds like an end run by the administration to use the money agreed upon for their personal success.

Every area proposed by Scott already receives gener-ous funding. The only areas I see as a ligament need is

the health center and disabil-ity services though I do not believe they need as much as proposed.

In fact if I was going to give that much money to those two programs disabili-ty services would get a larger piece of the pie.

While the Theatre Department could use fund-ing that is what tuition is for. As far as the Student Union Building; yes I agree it is in need of some serious renovation and upgrading; yet again I have to say that is what University profits

are for. Finally International Student Services should already be covered by the SSAF fund, so there is no need to reallocate funds to it.

This all sounds rushed and ill-conceived and most likely the brain fart of someone in the administration trying to use the end of Scott’s tenure to reach their goals.

At the very least it should be put to a student vote, which we vacated when we pushed the SSAF through in the first place.

I was against it then with-out a student vote and I

would be now. I did howev-er vote for the fee in the end because of assurances given that specific fund allocation would not be changed and administration would not be able to put their hands in the cookie jar. It looks as though I and many others were duped, shame, shame.

- Clifford PetersenFormer Student

Senator MWSU

Let’s be real for a minute. They’re called dorms.

When I look back on my four years of college, nothing amuses me more than the attempt to re-label the build-ings I lived in as “residence halls.” There is nothing resi-dential about them.

Let’s ignore the fact that you can’t have pets. Let’s also remove that drinking isn’t allowed in our rooms and let’s also ignore that Logan (the building I live in) has a non-smoking policy, even on our balconies, on the books.

What makes the term “residence halls” so ludi-crous is that it makes Juda, Logan, Bashears, Vaseloakos, Leaverton, Scanlon and Griffon Hall sound fancy, as if when you move in, people will be greeting you with a smile, a warm towel and—if you live in Griffon Hall—a full set of kitchenware. None

of this is true.The dorms, as everyone

else in reality likes to call them, are the places you have to live in. The only rea-son anyone lives on campus is for the convenience of not having to pay rent and bills. Maybe they also like being close to their classes. Every student I have ever known with the financial ability to move off campus, does so. And they do it fast.

What makes these places so horrible? Well, they aren’t horrible. I’m not going to complain about my 8x10 foot room while I know there will be several people living in St. Joseph’s downtown park-ing garages this summer. But what I will complain about it is the need for some people in residential life to pretend that living in the “residence halls” is a glamorous life.

There is nothing glamor-ous about sharing a toilet

and shower with three other men. There is nothing won-derful about moldy heating and AC units. There is noth-ing magical about door locks that break every time it rains. This is dorm life.

During my freshmen year, a Resident Assistant—using an extremely snooty voice—corrected me when I called Scanlon a dorm. I was on the phone with one of my friends from high school and the RA, who was eavesdrop-

ping on my conversation, yelled as I walked by, “You live in a residence hall, not a dorm!”

The fact that you lock the front door of the building, each wing of the building, and tell me that I can’t have a toaster does not make this a place of residency. The dorms are a few steps above a prison and several steps down from a $10-a-night motel.

More than anything, living in the dorms is a nuisance. It seems that every time I’m doing something important, RAs have to stop by to put “door deck” on our doors. For those of you who don’t live in campus housing, these are tiny pieces of paper they place on our doors with our name and some glitter or other fifth grade left over art supplies. To be honest, I’d much rather prefer our G-numbers be placed on our

doors so we can stop pre-tending that residential life actually cares.

If you’re still in your early years of living on campus, I figure you have two choices. Either move off campus or move to the suites. Logan, Juda and Beshears have the most privacy and most space per student. Yeah, all your locks might break at once or your bathroom light might go out and mold starts to move in within 24 hours, but at least it’s less like prison. Since living in Juda, no one has checked my ID as I walk into my dorm and no one really cares what we do.

As long as we play nice with our neighbors, every-thing is copacetic.

Doesn’t that sound like the real world?

Where’s the Gold?

CAMPUS VOICE

Dave Hon | Senior Editor dhon1@missouriwestern.edu

Who do you think would make a good

spring concert?

Kayla BlackwellFreshman

Natascha KracheelSenior

Jazmine GoodlowSophomore

Kayla WiedmaierJunior

“Maroon 5 maybe.”

“3OH!3 is my favor-ite. I’ve been listen-

ing to them for a few years and am really

excited.”

“Carrie Underwood, that would be freak-

ing awesome!”

“CHER!!!! In all caps and a bunch of excla-

mation points!”

w/ Andy Garrison

Dorm life isn’t glamorous, nothing residential about it

He fought for you on the basketball court, it’s time for you to fight for him.

Lavonte Douglas, number 34 on Missouri Western’s Men’s basketball team, rep-resented Western on the court for two years. He was a 2011-2012 MIAA all-con-ference tournament player. He averaged 13.6 points per game. Most importantly, Lavonte is a student.

Lavonte isn’t a saint and we won’t pretend he is. Most students at Western have made mistakes and that’s what has lead them here. Former basketball coach

Tom Smith was known for giving his players a second chance and the fact that Lavonte will be graduating in a few weeks is testament to Smith’s philosophy.

All of Lavonte’s hard work, all the time and ener-gy he put into games to get Western another win and all the effort he put into his studies could go up in flames just because one officer has an aggression problem.

Administration has told him he’s a danger to us, but Lavonte isn’t armed. Officers that flippantly spray students with pepper-spray

and then discuss, after the fact, what crime to charge students with are a danger to us. Administration that takes cues from these officers on disciplinary actions and felo-ny assault charges are more a danger to us than a soft spo-ken former basketball player.

If you care about Lavonte, as a student or an athlete, you should tell the adminis-tration that if they expel him, no one is safe. If an officer can be aggressive and claim that he was assaulted, we are all at risk. If Western admin-istration ensures that every student’s past follows them

to St. Joseph, then no one can redeem themselves.

Most importantly, you should help Lavonte because he is you. He is like every student who has struggled in a class. He is every stu-dent who looks forward to graduation. He is every stu-dent who loves his friends and protects them as fast as a 3-point shot when the buzzer sounds. Western isn’t just a university, it’s a com-munity.

Stand up for Lavonte.

Editorial: Stand up for Lavonte

Lavonte Douglas Former Student-Athlete

Students speak out Former senator urges Scott to make $75 fee reallocation a student vote

Please hash tag tweets #standupforLavonte

SPORTSApril 12, 2013The Griffon News

Page 9

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The Griffon tennis team fought gusty winds on Satur-day afternoon as they battled Lincoln University in MIAA match play. Western won its second straight match and third out of their last four af-ter defeating the Lincoln Ti-gers 9-0, improving their re-cord to 6-13 and 2-8 in MIAA play with the victory.

“The wind today wasn’t steady and it was gusting so you feel like you have a handle on your shots with the wind but its hard to man-age and be consistent,” Grif-fon Tennis Coach Ron Selkirk said. “I was glad the girls weren’t too cautious and just let the game flow, learning how to manage the elements. It’s just the matter of being patient.”

The match started off with doubles action and the Griffons soared, get-ting three points with No. 1 Meara Smith and Denise Chiao getting an 8-3 victory.

No. 2 Kayla Dysart and Alys-sa Dougan paired up to defeat Ka-maria Braye and Ashley Rolling 8-1.

“Everybody is fig-uring it out and hitting their stride,” sophomore Kayla Dysart said.

Ceara Boldridge and Jody Goers defeated Gabrielle Quine and Jasmine Daniel 8-4 in the No. 3 doubles.

“I think we started off slow but once we got into the groove we started to play better,” freshman Jody Goers said. “The wind was

really affecting the balls we were hitting but when we are on our game and believe in

ourselves, I feel like we can play with any of

the other schools.”With singles ac-

tion, the Griffons’ Denise Chiao made quick of her opponent, defeat-ing Gober 6-1, 6-0.“In doubles, I

felt like me and Meara gelled pretty

well,” freshman De-nise Chiao said. “I had

to really adjust to wind starting off. I feel like our whole entire team is get-ting mentally tough and positive in every match. “

In No. 2 singles, Kayla Dysart defeated Braye 6-2, 6-0.

“The wind definintly wasn’t a fun thing to play

with but soon as I settled down, I felt like I played pretty well,” sophomore Kayla Dysart said.

Meara Smith pulled out a win against Katrevich in No. 3 singles 6-4, 6-2 and Bold-ridge rolled over Roling 6-1, 6-1. Lindsay Beger won over Quinn 6-4, 6-2 and Alyssa Dougan started off slow but finished her match in a fury over Daniel 6-4, 6-0.

With this win, the Grif-fons dropped the Tigers to 1-8 overall and 0-8 MIAA match play.

“Coming in today, I feel like we’ve definet-ly been playing better and playing with confi-dence,” Selkirk said.

The Griffon’s next match-up is against Baker Universi-ty in Baldwin City, KS. Match play is set to start at 2:00 pm.

Other than the success we’ve already seen this year, spring may end up be-ing the most successful sea-son of sports for both men and women.

Both baseball and softball have shown they have what it takes to win the MIAA, and maybe more.

Baseball has been the scariest team in the league

pretty much all season. The (27-5) Griffons are a pitch-er’s nightmare. They have been leading for much of the season in almost every statistical batting category.

They have knocked in 275 runs, the most by any team this season, which is 48 more runs than the Central Missouri, the team in second. They have the most hits, 382 total, which is 72 more than the team in second, Fort Hays State. They’ve cranked out 40 home runs. Northeastern State is the closest to that mark with 32, and only four teams behind them have hit over 20. Every other team has hit home runs in the teens or even fewer.

If you just took the home runs from Western’s hitters Grant Fink and Bubba Dot-son, they would have 22. That would be enough to be ranked No. 6 in the MIAA.

They are also leading the MIAA in the most doubles, RBIs, slugging percentages and batting averages. Their batting average as a team is .391.

Most hard hitting teams and players also seem to get paired up with the most strike-outs. Western has chosen not to follow those guidelines. De-spite being the hardest hitting team, they are currently tied for the second fewest strike-outs as a team.

It’s not just the batting that is getting it done. Give just as much credit to the pitching and the defense.

The pitching has the low-est ERA in the MIAA at 3.74.

All other teams are four and above. They have given up 195 hits this season, and are the only team to have given up fewer than 200.

They are clearly the team to beat in the MIAA. Softball hasn’t gotten off to the best start, but it’s noth-ing they can’t move on from.

Despite let-ting a few win-ning chances slip away, this team still has what it takes to beat anybody.

With a re-cord of 26-10, they are No. 4 in the MIAA.

They aren’t leading in ev-ery category, but they are among the top in batting.

Home runs are the trend-

ing thing for Western this year. They have 37 home runs of their own, more than any other team.

They’ve stolen 48 bases, the second in the confer-ence, and amazingly, have only been caught stealing twice, the fewest by any team. They are sitting in the top five in the MIAA in batting average, runs, hits, triples and slugging per-centages.

The pitching has the sec-ond lowest ERA at 2.23 and is tied for second for the most wins. Every other pitching category is among the top five.

Fort Hays State and Cen-tral Missouri are the tough-est opponents in softball this year. They both have only lost one game in the MIAA. Western has to prove they can handle those teams if they plan on winning the conference.

They have yet to beat ei-ther of them. Western lost to Central Missouri 1-2 and 0-2. They hung with the na-tionally ranked No. 18 Fort Hays State for 12 innings to lose it 1-2. They got blown out of the water in the sec-ond game 3-11.

Both softball and baseball are in the top of the confer-ence and have a chance to go far in the post season, being lead by arguably the greatest pitchers in West-ern’s history, Jackie Bishop in softball and Brandon Simmons in baseball.

If these teams can live up to expectations, this could easily be the most well-rounded, winning time of the year for the Griffons’ athletic program, and pos-sibly one of the best spring sports seasons in Western’s history.

Christian Mengel | Asst. Sports Editor cmengel@missouriwestern.edu

Gary Smith | Staff Writergsmith16@missouriwestern.edu

275 RUNS

STATISTICSBaseba l l

382 HITS

40 HOME RUNS.391 BAT. AVG.

3.74 ERA

Western’s baseball, softball among the best

Tennis pounces the Tigers

Denise Chiao and Meara Smith play a double against two opponents from Lincoln. Joyce Stevenson | Staff Photographer

MIAA

OVERALL

Womenʼs Tennis Record

6-13

2-8

Weiberg strives to win with character

SPORTS April 12, 2013

The Griffon NewsPage 10

Missouri Western took the series 2-1 against the compet-itive Pittsburg State Gorillas over the weekend; scoring 24 total runs Saturday but just one run Sunday.

Western coach, Buzz Ver-duzco, was happy with the hitting Saturday, but disap-pointed the Griffons couldn’t get anything going against Pittsburg State’s top guy, Matt Stalcup.

“Heading into Sunday we knew we were going to face their best guy and probably one of the best guys in the league, and he was every bit of that,” Verduzco said. “He really did a great job against us; he threw his fast ball hard, his breaking ball was tight and we couldn’t quite get anything mustered.”

Stalcup pitched seven in-nings, had nine strikeouts and gave up just four hits against the top hitting team in the MIAA for his fourth win of the season.

It was almost as if Western hit themselves out of rhythm

after the way they were con-necting Saturday. The Grif-fons knocked in a thundering 10 homeruns on Saturday, six coming in the first game and four in the second.

Western third-baseman, Grant Fink, contributed to those homers, bringing his total on the season to 12; the most by anyone in the MIAA.

“I’m just trying to give my team the best chance to win,” Fink said. “We can’t think ahead, and as hitters we need to take it one pitch at a time and have a plan at the plate. We are a dangerous hitting team that has a lot of weap-ons and consistency, so just being in the now will keep us where we need to be.”

Pitching continued to be great in the series. Brandon Simmons picked up his sev-enth win on the season in the first game Saturday. Pitching was also strong in the second game as the freshman pitch-er, Kyle Kelly carried four strong, scoreless innings on five strikeouts to help Banks Born get his fourth win on the season.

Verduzco is especially glad to have Kelly available now, after he red-shirted his first year.

“When you’re a red-shirt player, you wait and it seems like that year is forever before you get a chance to play,” Verduzco said. “He’s a very humble kid, he’s a competi-tor, got a good fastball and he can get in on people, and he learns too. He’s always trying to learn the game and he doesn’t think he knows it all, and he’s always trying to get better every time he goes out. You can see it in his per-formances.”

Kelly says he loves his role on the team this year coming from the bull pen because he feels it is the ultimate team first type of role, but hopes to one day be a starter.

“Obviously everyone likes to start and I’d be happy if I got the chance in future sea-sons,” Kelly said. “It would mean I would have learned more about pitching rather than throwing.”

No. 24 Western softball had its 12-game winning-streak snapped with two losses Friday at No. 18 Fort Hays State, but resumed winning a day later with a two-game sweep at Nebraska-Kearney.

Despite splitting the trip, coach Jen Bagley felt disap-pointed after a weekend where two of the four games went to extra-innings.

“I would have been happy coming back from that road-trip 3-1, coming back 2-2 has me feeling less than excited especially because of the way we lost just didn’t sit well with me,” said Bagley, whose team is 26-10 on the season.

The winds were gusting about 15-20 miles per hour in Hays, Kan. The first game of the doubleheader featured two of the most dominant pitchers in the MIAA going head-to-head – Jackie Bishop

and Maddie Holub of the Ti-gers.

The pitchers lived up to their billing, both held the opposition scoreless in regu-lation and forced extra in-nings. Neither gave up an earned run on the day.

When a game goes to extra innings, the international tie breaker rule goes into effect. A runner is placed on second base when the inning starts.

“It’s a shame because it takes the control back out of the pitchers hands and puts a runner on base and now it becomes more about defense,” Bagley said of the rule.

Sarah Elliott hit a triple that scored Taylor Anding as the Griffons got on the board first in the tenth inning with no outs.

“That was probably the most solid hit we had all day,” Bagley said. “We felt fairly confident at that point that we would be able to at

least score another run in that inning, but we didn’t.”

An out away from the vic-tory, Hays got a hit that tied the game and sent it into in-ning No. 12 where the Grif-fons couldn’t get a run in and the Tigers scored to win 2-1.

“It was a heartbreaker, but those are the games that are fun to compete in and it stinks that someone has to lose those ball games.”

Western didn’t respond well after losing the close game and was defeated 11-3 in six innings in game two.

“The thing that disap-pointed me the most is how we responded in the second game,” Bagley said. “Noth-ing was right in that second game and as a result they took advantage and beat us handedly.”

Bagley spoke to her team about having the maturity to bounce back and play well after a loss because they could be faced with the same

set of circumstances later in the season.

Saturday the team made the trip to Kearney, Neb. Although the Griffons won both games, Bagley felt that the Lopers were a better team than their 7-21 records suggests.

Western dominated the first game 7-1 behind a strong pitching performance from Bishop and 12 hits.

The second game was an-other overtime thriller that went 10 innings and ended in a come-from-behind victo-ry for the Griffons. Freshman Janie Smith picked up the victory on the mound while Maegan Roemmich hit her sixth homerun of the season to give Western the 8-5 lead after Tiffany Gillaspy scored on an error.

“The positive that comes out of it is you lose the first one(extra-innings game) and find the way to win the sec-ond,” Bagley said.

Brett Weiberg plans to bring back the winning tra-dition that once saw the Western men’s basketball program as a perennial con-tender under Tom Smith, but there are things that he won’t sacrifice to get there.

“It will be a little bit of a process, but I’m willing to be patient,” Weiberg said of a turnaround after three straight losing seasons. “What we wont be patient with is effort and character and trying to do the best we can do. Above everything else, we want to do it with good people and develop a culture of just competing.”

The 38-year-old Weiberg’s only head coaching experi-ence is the last seven years at Northern Oklahoma, where he racked up 125 wins in-cluding a 27-4 record and a conference championship this past season. However, his experience in basketball goes far beyond what his re-sume shows.

Weiberg spent his entire life around basketball and took over the Northern Oklahoma program from his legendary father after serving five years under him as an assistant. He’s taking over for a legend once again

at Western as Smith held the head coaching position for the past 25 years.

“I’m just looking forward to continuing the winning tradition that he’s estab-lished,” Weiberg said. “It’s been done here and been done here for a long time. He will be someone that I will lean on greatly and I’m hoping that will be just fine with him.”

Although Smith built a winning tradition in the past, the team has suffered through three consecutive losing seasons including a 10-17 mark this past season. Weiberg believes he can get the program back to its win-ning ways by finding the right mix of talent and char-acter.

“We are going to play hard, we will play with pas-

sion, we will play together and we are going to have fun doing it,” Weiberg said. “I am a competitor, It’s part of who I am and how I was raised and we are going to have young men in here that will compete every single night.”

Weiberg stated that he will not sacrifice character and integrity when recruiting players. While Smith chose to only get his players from the junior college ranks, Weiberg plans to build a base of players straight out of high school and add transfers to push them over the top.

At Northern Oklahoma, he graduated 80 percent of players with an associates degree and will place heavy importance on making sure his teams graduate at West-ern.

“It’s the promise that I make every single mom and dad when I recruit them,” Weiberg said. “If they are willing to put the effort in then we are going to get them out of here with a de-gree. That’s going to be a challenge and something that we are going to do and really push these young men.”

The hire is Athletic Direc-tor Kurt McGuffin’s second

during his time at West-ern. The first was women’s coach Rob Edmisson, who took the program from nine to 16 wins in his first season. McGuffin has known Wei-berg and his family for eight years.

“They stand for every-thing I think all of us should stand for in athletics and that’s character, integrity and work ethic,” McGuf-fin said. “We’re going to get a guy who has been in it, grew up with it. He was born to coach in my opinion, he followed his dad around to many different spots and lived the game.”

Weiberg says his team will play mostly man-to-man de-fense and will play it tough. His team at Northern Okla-homa led the country in op-ponent field goal percent-age and 3-point percentage last season. Offensively, the Griffons will run a motion offense tweaked to fit the in-dividual talent on the team.

“The way we play gives you a chance to win on the road too,” Weiberg said. “It gives you an opportunity to get physical, be solid and take great shots and really make it difficult for the oth-er team to score. Those are recipes to win anywhere but especially on the road.”

Heavy HittersOffensive explosion Saturday leads to series win

Andy Inman and Chad Hammontree | Design Artist and Graphics Editorr

of the WEEKBrandon Simmons

ATHLETE

#4 - Pitcher

Andy Inman and Chad Hammontree | Design Artist and Graphics Editor

4

BRANDON SIMMONS

Pitcher Brandon Simmons stayed undefeated on the sea-son, improving his record to 7-0 after pitching five innings and giving up two earned runs while striking out two batters. His 204 strikeouts ranks No. 5 in Griffon baseball history and he has a 2.52 earned run aver-age this season.

Christian Mengel | Asst. Sports Editor cmengel@missouriwestern.edu

Kyle Inman | Sports Editorkinman@missouriwestern.edu

Kyle Inman | Sports Editorkinman@missouriwestern.edu

Bre Fleschner looks to score from third base.Tevin Harris | Photo Editor

Softball breaks even away from homeSenior Grant Fink squares up for an extra-base hit. Tevin Harris | Photo Editor

Men’s Basketball Head Coach Brett Weiberg