You get the chance to play with all the toys and learn as much as you can, should you decide to seize the opportunity.

Or you can just spin on the merry-go-round until the recess bell rings, throwing you dizzily into the world without a sense of direction.

You see, that little piece of paper you get at graduation is only worth the effort you put into it.

Take “easy” classes to get an “easy” degree and you will just end up with a hollow piece of paper that is “easy” for employers to ignore.

Let’s face it; a four-year degree is pretty common nowadays. Sure, it may make you eligible for an interview, but it guarantees nothing.

Especially in a down economy, competition is fierce.

You’ll not only be competing against other recent graduates, but often against people who have a degree and twenty years of experience to accompany it.

What is going to set you apart?

Rote memorization is great when you need to pass tomorrow’s test, but not so good when you need to recall that information ten years down the line.

You may be a member of 15 different student organizations, but if you only showed up to one meeting each, what do you really have to show for it beyond a blip on a resume?

Network.

Network.

Network.

The more people you know, the more likely you are to know someone (or know someone who knows someone) at your desired place of employment.

Active involvement in student or volunteer groups is a great way to increase your social network and build your resume.

Most of all, learn to have your own thoughts. Critical thinking may not be an academic subject, but it is more vital than any other skill.

Observe your environment and be prepared to make your own judgments.

Think.

Think.

Think.

The recess bell will be ringing soon. The world awaits.

Are you ready for it?

Or will you be throwing up from all that time on the merry-go-round?

-Zach Becker

For the Editorial Board

Since that time, the housing market collapsed, the banks went bust, unemployment reached historical levels, and now we’re looking at huge budget shortfalls in higher education.

Missouri’s higher education commissioner warned of potential 15-to-20 percent budget cuts to state universities, possibly leading to university closures, larger class sizes and even elimination of athletic teams.

And yet, we are still chugging along about to build a superfluous facility that the majority of students will probably never use and which will cost untold amounts in the future to properly staff and maintain.

Worse yet, those who actually need it the most – athletic teams – are specifically being barred from using the facility.

The times where we could afford to lounge down the lazy river are over.

Sure, it would be nice to have another pool, an indoor track, a rock climbing wall, more basketball courts, more gym equipment, and, of course, a lazy river.

The good folks in Campus Recreation have done a phenomenal job helping plan and design this project. It looks like a beautiful building with lots of great features.

But not here and not now.

Not in these economic conditions.

This project should be re-evaluated immediately. We should not be stuck constructing a building just because students four years ago voted to approve the project. It might have made sense then, but certainly not now.

Let students vote whether they think this is a good idea going forward given the current economic situation.

Student fees already paid into this project could be diverted to other, more vital projects, or perhaps just held in a fund. When economic conditions and higher education budgets improve, this idea is certainly still worthy of consideration.

Now, though, is not the time.

-Zach Becker

For the Editorial Board

If you are against construction of the University Recreation Center, join our Facebook group, “MSU Students Against Construction of the University Recreation Center.”

Depending on a students course load, the costs can range from a few hundred dollars to well over a thousand.

But what if it did not have to be that way?

The technology exists now to do away with costly textbooks altogether.

Some textbook publishers already provide online e-text versions of their books for interested students, but even these only offer a marginal reduction on the price of a printed text when accounting for the fact that a student cannot sell the e-text back to the bookstore at the end of the semester.

No, current pricey e-texts are not the answer to this problem.

Instead, we advocate Missouri State to spearhead the creation of free, peer-reviewed professional e-textbooks on a multitude of academic subjects.

The software behind the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia can make this happen. The free, open-source software allows multiple-users to work collaboratively on a project, writing and editing each other’s work.

It saves the changes made by each person in the editing process, allowing writes, rewrites, revisions, and reverts.

Unlike Wikipedia, though, these projects could only be edited by authorized users, which would include professors and select student assistants.

Working under the guidance of professors, these graduate students could write basic content or edit copy in exchange for class credit.

Why would professors work to create a free e-text, you ask?

Well, they have no reason to do so right now, but that can change with the stroke of a pen.

Professors need incentives to work on this project. Contributing to a print textbook provides both financial royalties to the professor and also is factored into tenure and advancement decisions.

Since the e-texts would be free, providing royalties would be impossible; however, the university could easily create job-related rewards for professors who contribute to free e-textbooks.

Better yet, the university could require professors to work on this project as part of their jobs and utilize the books in their classes.

With the professors on board with this project, creation of these e-texts could begin.

The initial technical setup for the project involving the Wiki online software would be minimal.

Writing, editing, and organizing these free e-texts would take a great deal of time.

Professors and graduate students could work from the ground up to create textbooks for hopefully all university classes eventually.

The great thing is that once the ground work has been set, revising and updating these e-texts would be simple, easy and instant.

Each year, professors can take the latest updates they have made and create a new edition for students. Perhaps even an at-cost print edition could be made for students who dislike e-reading.

Most of all, these e-texts would eliminate a college cost barrier, allowing more people to seek a higher education at Missouri State.

– Zach Becker

For the Editorial Board

The overarching theme of the editorial is of sound logic in suggesting greater transparency; however, the author decided to frame the article around two now-resolved cases involving accused Springfield school teachers.

These men and their families already had to go through hell battling these accusations over a several year time frame. One man was acquitted by a jury on charges of inappropriate touching of grade school children. The other had charges of common assault against a teenage student dismissed on the condition that he be clinically evaluated by a psychologist.

Justice was served and both men were cleared, yet here comes the News-Leader publishing their names and pictures once more, dragging them back into the mud just in time for the Christmas season.

Apparently, the News-Leader knows the men are guilty, despite whatever the courts say. “Don’t let accused teachers’ cases slide off public radar.” That headlines says it all. Where the criminal courts failed in their eyes, the News-Leader now wants these men tried under a disciplinary hearing under DESE. Of course, that entity already decided not to pursue action. One man is currently teaching again in the district. The other is actively trying to regain his license.

These men are trying to pick up the pieces of their lives, yet the News-Leader is calling for their heads (and for no logical reason except to create resentment, they included the active teacher’s current salary).

Under our system of government, each man is entitled to due process under the law. These men were cleared under that system of wrongdoing and they and their families should be allowed to return to whatever normalcy they can.

Regurgitating old news like this is not only irresponsible but also destructive to the community. Let sleeping dogs lie.

Zach Becker

For the Editorial Board

That said, we recognize each individual’s right to destroy their own body if they so wish.

However, develop lung cancer on your own time and on your own property! Stop polluting campus for the rest of us!

Recently, talk of a smoking ban at Missouri State University has come up, and we would like to throw our support behind this important measure wholeheartedly.

Beyond the damage smoking deals to the individuals who engage in this behavior, second-hand smoke also pollutes the air and damages the lungs of all who come near.

Designated smoking areas may sound like a good solution to the problem at first, but unless you are going to put the designated areas physically far away from the main campus, smoke will still drift about.

We all have a right to breathe clean air. No one has the right to take that away from us. Smoking creates a blight on the whole campus.

How to enforce this ban, you say?

Simple.

Fines. Lots and lots of fines.

Eventually, students will learn to put the cigarettes away.

Smokers can still smoke if they want to, but just take it off campus.

Students deserve to breathe easy.

-Jennifer Becker

For the Editorial Board

Or, if you do the math, three printed pages per week, per class.

Student Government Association seems to think that is all students deserve to print at the open computer labs on campus, a place students pay a fee to use.

Assuming the average student enrolls in 15 hours each semester (30 hours and 10 classes total for the year) for the roughly 30-week school year, that rounds out to only three printed pages per class, per week in order to avoid exceeding the 500-page limit.

Those three pages for a week of class must cover printed notes, papers, assignments, and whatever else a professor asks students to print.

Were students really beating down the doors begging Student Government Association to limit our printing privileges to 500 pages a year?

You’d think so, given the little signs SGA put out now sitting next to every lab computer terminal on campus that say we did.

For supposedly going green, we wonder how much paper and ink they used printing out those signs?

Couldn’t they have just wrote it on the desktop backgrounds?

In any case, SGA does not seem to have to do much to enforce this quota.

Computer technicians have to worry about implementing and maintaining the system, while lab employees must decide whether to grant or deny extra printing requests.

SGA members just get to sit back, vote to impose a printing quota on the rest of us, and make it appear they are doing something for the environment and the school’s budget.

SGA computers are not located in an open lab, so they can still print as much as they want, whenever they want.

Unfortunately, the students (SGA’s constituents) are the people who will be harmed by this capricious decision.

Some students will avoid the computer labs once they reach the imposed limit, instead printing on their own home ink jets (costing the student money), while other students will just ask to have their printing limit exceeded.

If SGA really wants to get serious about saving paper and money, why allow students to extend the limit so easily? Either set a limit or don’t. Doing neither wastes everyone’s time.

We seriously doubt lab employees really are going to sift through a students print jobs to make sure they are academic-related. Honestly, that should not be their job anyway.

Okay, so one student printed over 25,000 pages last year. That is a ridiculous waste of money, ink, and paper. However, the whole campus should not be punished over the actions of one student.

Instead of a printing limit, we have a better solution to the problem. As before, student printer usage should be monitored by software. However, students should not be limited in printing privileges.

At the end of the year, any student who prints an excessive amount of copies is subject to a print review by members of an SGA board. If, after examining a student’s print jobs, SGA finds that an overabundance of non-academic prints were made, then that student would be required to pay five-cents per-page for anything over 500 pages.

Voila. Under this plan, students would limit their print jobs to academic purposes to avoid the fine, the campus saves paper, ink, and money, students following the rules can print their academic work as needed, and the burden of policing the mandate transfers back to members of SGA, where it belongs.

Going green doesn’t have to mean going cheap.

-Zach Becker

For the Editorial Board

We have a suggestion; leave the car parked at home or at the dorms and ride a bike instead.

Simple, convenient, and non-polluting, it will not cost you a dime in gas money. Plus, you can tone those leg muscles.

Almost half of the trips people make in a city like Springfield are three miles or less, so why not ride a bike instead of driving a car?

Bicycles are not just for little kids or skinny men in spandex suits Riding a bike can be fun, yes, but it is also an extremely effective way of getting where you need to go.

Live a mile or two from campus and heading to class? Forget fighting for parking; ride a bike.

Going downtown for a good time with some friends? Forget about getting a ticket for accidentally parking in a poorly-labeled bus zone and ride a bike.

MSU is ideally located close to the urban center.

Bicyclists enjoy the many bike routes Springfield offers. Also, the local streets are wide enough to accommodate cyclists and drivers.

Uncomfortable riding in heavy traffic? Scope out the side streets instead.

On that note, riders should be aware of the correct way to ride in and with traffic, for their own safety.

Dr. Andrew Cline, journalism professor at Missouri State, also writes Carbon Trace, a blog about cycling in Springfield.

Two things people should know, he says, is that first, riding a bike for basic transport is easy. Second, you belong on the road.

This may seem confusing, because most people learn to ride a bike during their childhood. Riding into traffic is something parents generally frown on.

As Dr. Cline points out, when you come to college, you are an adult, and cycling is a perfect example of a way to embrace adulthood by riding like an adult.

People riding bicycles have all the same rights and responsibilities as people driving cars.

What does this mean? Riders should have a “car mentality,” meaning you may not be a car, you may not look like a car, but you should act like a car.

This may seem intimidating, but studies also show that cyclists who ride in the street and follow the same traffic rules as drivers (not running red lights, yielding, etc) are far less likely to get in an accident.

Dealing with cars is not as challenging as it may seem. On a bike, riders are able to be more aware of their surroundings and can react to dangers better than a driver cocooned in a car.

While cyclists should be responsible, they should also be alert and ready to respond to the mistakes of drivers.

Some people may have the misconception they need a good bike to start riding full time. Dr. Cline says any bike will do, and “as long as it’s in good repair, cheap bikes are fine.”

Students can find inexpensive bikes at yard sales, thrift stores, and on Craigslist.

Local bike shops like Queen City Cycles, located downtown, can easily provide a tune up that will run you a fraction of the cost of any routine maintenance on a car.

Dr. Cline expects Springfield to be recognized as a “Bicycle Friendly City” by the League of American Bicyclists. This means that the civic government uses methods to encourage and support people who use bikes as transportation.

Using a bike as a way to get around town instead of the car will keep you in shape. As Dr. Cline points out, even the light aerobic exercise of pedaling without busting out high speeds on a bike burns a fair amount of calories.

Second, cycling produces no air pollution (well, except for that foul smell of sweat after a long ride).

More people on the road means more attention towards the needs of cyclists. The most obvious reason to ride is simple; it’s extremely cheap.

A good guide to getting started bicycling instead of driving is Drive Less, Live More, an informational booklet produced by the Sustainable Transportation Committee of the Ozarks.

You can download it as a PDF at Dr. Cline’s blog Carbon Trace, located at http://isocrates.us/bike/. It features a Rules of the Road section, a handy map featuring all the bike lanes and routes in Springfield, and many basics on safety and reasons why cycling is a good idea.

It is a great way to learn how to ride like an adult, ditch the car, and hit the street on a bike.

Remember, cycling can be a great way to get around, whether it’s going somewhere to pick up groceries or heading out for a good time. College is about growing up, and trying new ideas and different habits.

We encourage all Missouri State students to dust of their bicycles and get out and ride.

-Nate Bassett

For the Editorial Board

In fact, some of its practices may be in violation of Missouri’s Sunshine Law, which requires government entities to make available information about their meetings and activities to the general public.

But rather than pointing fingers and placing blame, we instead are calling SGA to action.

It is time to appoint an independent SGA auditor, a person paid to assist in record keeping, but also given the authority to make sure SGA meets all open record requirements as spelled out in Missouri’s Sunshine Law.

The independent auditor should also generate weekly reports about SGAs activities and provide them online for the students.

It is time to hold our governing body accountable for its actions. It is impossible for students to make accurate judgments concerning the performance of individual senators and SGA as a whole when simple documents like budgets, attendance, and voting records are either unavailable or incomplete.

SGA touts itself as the “official voice of the student body at Missouri State University,” according to its website.
It is time for it to start acting the part and get its house in order with proper, responsible record keeping.

With the upcoming transition to a new administration, now is a perfect time for SGA to make the necessary changes and appoint an independent auditor.

-Zach Becker
For the Editorial Board

In the coming months and years, MSU President Michael Nietzel will be forced to stretch the financial resources of the university like never before.

How he decides to handle this conundrum will have far reaching consequences for current students, future students, faculty, staff and the university in general.

Even assuming the Missouri General Assembly follows the recommendation of Governor Jay Nixon to maintain current funding for four-year universities for the next fiscal year, climbing enrollment combined with a stagnant budget poses a significant challenge for the university’s number crunchers.

But with all this uncertainty, Missouri State University must take great care in maintaining its most important mission.

Academics.

While cuts may have to be made in areas such as administrative salaries, grounds keeping, research, minor building repairs and perhaps even athletics, the classroom must not be compromised.

Keep class sizes small. Recruit and retain quality instructors. Continue to offer degrees in a multitude of fields, even if some areas prove less cost effective than others.

And beyond anything else, work to make those educational opportunities available to all who seek them.

Keep tuition low. And continue offering scholarships to assist those who might not otherwise be able to attend.

The academic mission of the university must come first.

Available education.

Affordable education.

Quality education.

-Zach Becker
For the Editorial Board

You can learn even more outside of it.

The university is a wholly unique institution in our society. It provides a stage where young adults can work to find themselves, cultivate interests and explore the possibilities of life.

And that exploration doesn’t end in the classroom.

At Missouri State and in Springfield, opportunities abound for enriching oneself.

Internships.

Volunteer activities.

Student groups.

Art.

Theatre.

Cinema.

There are so many chances for students to enhance their life experiences, to help others and help themselves – to expand horizons.

If all you do is go to class, do your homework and study for tests, you are only getting part of the university experience. The opportunities exist, but you have to step up and take them.

Participate in a broad range of student activities.

Volunteer at local schools or nursing homes.

Attend an art show.

Or make your own artwork.

Contribute to your college newspaper.

Escape your normal routines. Test your boundaries. Force yourself out of your comfort zone.

Find out what you truly enjoy. Make friendships that last a lifetime. Discover the things you never thought you could do.

Don’t just graduate Missouri State with a degree. Don’t just graduate knowing a bunch of facts and figures. Graduate with the experience of a lifetime.

Use this time to find out who you are and what you truly want out of life. Explore the unknown possibilities.

The opportunities are out there.

It’s up to you to seize them.

–Zach Becker

For the Editorial Board