Today Student Government Association posted the official language that will be on the ballot for next week’s elections, held April 5-7.

Issues up for vote include the election of a student body president and vice president, senior class president, five proposals for uses of Wyrick Funds and a potential increase in the Student Involvement Fee.

Jacob Swett and Justin Mellish are running unopposed for President and Vice-President of SGA, although students do have an option to vote “no confidence.”

Two candidates are running for Senior Class President; John Gauthier and Corey Honer.

A proposed $9 increase in the Student Involvement Fee is up for a vote, which would up the fee to $26 .The Student Involvement Fee is used by Student Activities Council to sponsor campus events.

As for the Wyrick proposals, the theme this year appears to be signs, banners and marquees.

One projects asks for funding for large campus maps near visitor parking to better direct newcomers around campus at a cost of about $15,500.

Another project involves planting beds with the Missouri State name set in steel letters with back-lighting at a cost of roughly $82,800.

The third project on the ballot asks for about $19,600 to put banners on 68 light poles around campus and paint some campus fences with the Missouri State colors and logo.

For $43,600, students are asked for money to install electronic marquees that will display current events and emergency information to be located in various high-traffic campus areas.

The final Wyrick proposal on the ballot asks to install an electronic counter in Bear Park South to display the number of open parking spaces currently available at a cost of $74,700.

Wyrick funds will go to projects with the most student votes first and then down the line until the funds are depleted.

The full ballot language can be found online at http://sga.missouristate.edu/. Language of the Wyrick proposals is copied below.

Issue 3: Wyrick Fund Project Proposals 2010

Listed below are Wyrick Fund Project Proposals for 2010. You may vote to approve all, some, or none of the projects. Projects will be funded in the order of votes received until the fund is exhausted or until the cost of the projects exceed the amount remaining in the fund.

1)      Wayfinding Signage

a.       This proposal recommends that new basic double-sided wayfinding signs be installed at the entrance of the Visitor Parking Lot (Lot 13), outside the south entrance to Baker Bookstore near the Plaster Student Union, and at the northwest corner of Carrington Hall.  These signs should be roughly 4 foot by 4 foot.  A final sign should also be located at the southeast corner of the Visitor Parking Lot (Lot 13) that is more significant to drive individuals into the main corridor, and it should include both a permanent map and a location for individuals to take their own personal campus map.   This sign should be roughly 4 foot by 6 foot.  These signs should include lettering and directional arrows on both sides pointing to the four major landmarks.  The signs should also be unified in appearance, strongly influenced by Missouri State University colors (Maroon, White, Gray, and Black), and should include strong elements of the university logo.  The total cost of this project would be $15,550.

2)      Four Corner Signage

a.        The proposal includes a half-oval shaped planting bed with a base made to reflect the limestone (including the red-tinted rock) featured in many of the buildings on the main quad to be installed. Furthermore , it would include  four pillars (also made to reflect the limestone) be erected around the new planting beds that have panels and tops that reflect architectural details seen on Carrington Hall.   We also recommend that the current lettering on the cement facades being removed and be replaced with a large stainless steel plate with “Missouri State” cut out of it in the current university lettering.  This lettering should be backlit.  The project also incudes stainless steel plates with cut-out lettering and backlighting be installed at the other three secondary locations.  Total cost for this project is $82,836.

3)      Light Pole Banners and Fence Painting

a.       This proposal would install 68 Banners on light poles in Lots 13 , 15, 18, 22, 25, 35, 38, 40, and 43 that would be designed by a commission of students to promote school spirit, and the fence facing lot 15, the fences facing east towards national, and the fences facing north towards Grand would all be painted with Missouri State Lettering and the Missouri State Bear head logo.  The Total cost for this project would be $19,586

4)      Current Event Marquees

a.       This proposal would install 12 current event marquee screens, to be located in the dining centers, the library, the student union, Bear Park North and South, Park Central Office building, and Brick City that would display current events on the Missouri State Campus, along with emergency notifications.  The total cost for this project would be $43,661

5)      Bear Park South Parking Counter

a.       This proposal would install a car counting system in Bear Park south that would calculate the number of open spaces in the garage and display those on two signs located near the entrances for the garage.  Those signs would also include a variable message system that could display messages such as “Event Parking” or “Upper level closed due to weather.”  The total cost for this proposal is $74,704.70

A group of Missouri State University students are planning to protest construction of the University Recreation Center, a $22.9 building set to break ground next month.

The protest will occur from 2-to-3 p.m. on Tuesday, March 23, outside Carrington Hall on campus.

“There’s a Facebook group of over 150 students against the construction,” said protest organizer and Missouri State student Heather Welborn. “The most commonly posted reasons to rethink the project range from, ‘I’ll never use it,’ to ‘I don’t want to pay for it.’”

Welborn believes the construction is a waste of valuable resources during a time when the budget is incredibly tight.

“My goal is to shed light on an issue many at Missouri State feel strongly about,” she said. “This project is largely an awareness campaign.”

Welborn plans to circulate a petition calling for a student body re-vote “to see if this project is still in line with how students want their money spent.” Students originally approved a $16.5 million renovation of McDonald Arena in 2006, which later evolved into the construction of an entirely new building.

Welborn said students who cannot attend the protest but are interested in the cause should join a Facebook group called “MSU Students Against Construction of the University Recreation Center.” Information about further efforts to stop this construction will be posted there, she said.

“A protest is a great way to increase awareness on campus,” Welborn said. “It encourages student involvement in shaping and questioning the policies that directly effect them. If you hear about the Rec project for the first time through the protest, we made a difference.”

]]> http://www.msu-underground.com/archives/1114/feed 3 http://www.msu-underground.com/archives/1112 http://www.msu-underground.com/archives/1112#comments Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:25:04 +0000 http://www.msu-underground.com/?p=1112 by Zach Becker

Chuck Drury, President and CEO of Drury Hotels, will present a speech at 2 p.m. on Thursday, March 25, in the Plaster Student Union. The event is free and open to the public.

Drury helms the family-owned company that has 130 hotels in 20 states. Drury Hotels has received the J.D. Power and Associates award for excellence for the past four years, “which is just unheard of,” according to Melissa Dallas, head of the Department of Hospitality and Restaurant Administration, which is sponsoring the event.

“Definitely (students) will get some ideas for successful entrepreneurship, delivery of quality goods and services, and be able to hear from a very highly respected leader in business,” she said, noting that Drury rarely conducts public speaking engagements.

“We are very, very lucky to have him hear,” she said. “It should be a very dynamic presentation.”

Featuring a live orchestra, five singers, and 10 dancers, this year’s Spring Dance Concert should provide an engaging and fun experience for the audience.

The performance, titled Fault Lines, features student and faculty performers and will be held March 25-28 at Coger Theatre located in Craig Hall.

The first half will feature three short musical dance pieces, according to Ruth Barnes, Theatre and Dance professor.

Tsiganes, which means “gypsies” in French,” features choreography by Sara Brummel and music by Vittorio Mondi and Astor Piazzola.

A Divine Majority is choreographed by Darryl Kent Clark, while music is by Chopin.

Random Acts of Joy is choreographed by Barnes with music by Paul Shoenfield. Emily Brown provides lighting design for all three pieces.

“It should be kind of silly and funny and hopefully fun for the audience,” Barnes said when discussing Random Acts of Joy.

The second half features a performance of The Seven Deadly Sins, a satirical sung ballet written in 1933 by Germany’s Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht during the early rise of the Nazis.

“It is a disconnected story,” Barnes said. “It is kind of a critique of the bourgeoisie and people who say you shouldn’t sin but actually do.

“They encourage other people to sin in order to get ahead in the world and (they encounter) resistance to that on the part of the girls.”

Brummel directs The Seven Deadly Sins, while Amy Muchnick serves as the conductor and music director.

Choreographing duties for the nine-section piece were divided up between Barnes, Brummel and Clark.

“The styles change from one section of the piece to another,” Barnes said. “It’s a real journey that goes around the United States kind of randomly.”

Matthew Wilson is in charge of lighting design for The Seven Deadly Sins, while scenic design is handled by Renee Simmons and costume design by Cynthia Winstead.

“Just having live music is a major change for us,” Barnes said. “It’s great. We’re excited.”

Tickets are $8 for Missouri State students and can be purchased at any box office, online or by calling 417-836-7678.

The event will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, March 26-27, and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, March 28.

The story of Mary Jean Price was never forgotten, but failed to receive much attention over the years.

Dare To Excel, a promotional publication that reviews the history of the Missouri State University, mentions Price as the first African American applicant to Missouri State – and her rejection – but fails to detail the situation.

In light of the resurgence of interest in her story, students are surprised to learn about this forgotten part of the school’s history.

“She really needs to be brought to the limelight instead of being brushed off into history,” said Jeremy Fain, a member of the Delta Tau Christian fraternity. As far as recognizing the past, he said the school should at least do something to acknowledge her, because we all make mistakes. Still, he wonders, “Should we be responsible for the wrongs of the previous generation?”

But Terry Walls, son of Price, is very insistent on the need for reconciliation.

“If this is what we’re learning, we need to start re-learning,” he said. “It’s a sad commentary this type of apathy exists in 2010. You can’t rectify what you don’t recognize.”

Other students agree as well. Nursing student Stephanie Neuman suggested the school at least say something, maybe apologize outright.

Since the renewed interest in Mary Jean Price, Missouri State officials are still trying to figure out how to deal with this issue.

“Several individuals at the university have seen this story and found it historically interesting and personally inspiring,” Chief of Staff and Assistant to the President Paul Kincaid said in an emailed statement. “The university is still determining an appropriate response.”

Wes Pratt, Coordinator for Diversity Outreach and Recruitment, emailed that, “the best apology for any racial transgressions of the past” was to continue to improve diversity and provide and increase opportunities for all students at Missouri State.

Although diversity on campus has increased 36 percent in the last two years, African American students still only constitute about three percent of the student body.

And despite the assurances of university officials, Walls remains unimpressed.

When he found the letter, he says he was holding a piece of history, which was “no longer a mystery,” forgotten in the years of neglect.

“We have to learn from the past,” he said. “More things change, more things remain the same.”

His concern is that the mindset and apathy towards the issue perpetuate themselves for future generations. To hear students on campus say they have never heard of this story and see how racism continues to be an issue today brings legitimacy to his worry.

“An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere,” Walls said, citing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

To know that injustices have occurred is only half of his concern.

He believes Missouri State must come forward on the issue publicly to bring closure to the issue.

Terry Walls wanted to know the truth; the ugly, racist truth.

In 1950, his mother, Mary Jean Price, became the first African American applicant to Missouri State University (then a white’s-only institution known as Southwest Missouri State College).

The college failed to respond to her application, and a Greene County judge ruled against her when she filed suit against the school for their inaction. Denied the opportunity for an education, Price moved on with her life, but the scar of the racially-motivated denial have never really healed.

Sixty-years later, after wafting through the Meyer Library Archives, her son found the sordid details of how the Board of Regents was prepared to go to the Supreme Court to deny his mother’s admission to the school. Price found originally-confidential correspondence letters that indicated this intent in the file along with his mother’s original application to the school.

In 1950, four years prior to when the Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of Education ordered the desegregation of schools, African American students were unable to attend Southwest Missouri State College unless the studies they wanted to pursue were not offered at Lincoln University, the state’s African American college.

Price, 18 at the time, wanted to be a schoolteacher. She submitted her transcripts and a letter, stating her intentions to study library science, which was not offered at Lincoln.

The college registrar, Guy Thompson, forwarded the letter up the ranks to Southwest Missouri State College President Roy Ellis.

According to facsimile correspondence available from the library archives, President Ellis considered her application a “test case.”

While waiting on the opinion of the college attorney, he mailed four other Missouri college presidents.

In a confidential letter dated November 13, 1950, he related the difficulty of trying to formulate a policy on the admission of potential black students who were eligible under the conditional laws of the time.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., fought for equal rights for African Americans during the Civil Rights movement. He worked to erase racial inequalities such as policies that denied Mary Jean Price admission to Missouri State University in 1950.

“The College should ask a local Circuit Court for a declaratory judgment,” the letter stated. President Ellis related the feelings of the Board of Regents and how they were discussing, “carrying the matter on to the Supreme Court in case the local Court decided the girl could be admitted.”

This conviction to preventing her admission proved unnecessary, as events would reveal. After the college failed to respond to Price, Tac Kaplan hired attorney Irving Schwab to file a lawsuit against the school on Price’s behalf.

But in the declaratory judgment the Board had hoped for, a judge of the Circuit Court of Greene County ruled against Price. Her chances of attending Missouri State were finished.

“Can you imagine being an 18 year old kid, and having your ambitions dashed?” Walls said. “Sixty years later; nobody acknowledges it, as though it never happened. It did happen, and we were a part of it.”

For him, and others, the fact that the story has gone untold for so long is a shock. According to Walls, his mother never spoke about it until he found the letter and local television station KSPR ran a story on it recently.

Although it was good for Price to finally speak on the matter, “it opened up old wounds,” according to Walls. Price never went on to teach and worked as an elevator operator before marrying and having children. She is now in her late 70s.

See Related Story: Students debate how MSU should respond to story of Mary Jean Price

Rebels kidnapped the group of children who were innocently playing soccer, blindfolded them, and cut a deep gash in their wrists, rubbing a mixture of gunpowder and cocaine into the wound to induce hysteria.

Then, rebel soldiers handed the still-blindfolded five-year-old Michel Chikwanine an AK-47 assault rifle and ordered him to fire. Chikwanine obeyed and killed his best friend in the process. Sadly, the nightmare was just beginning.

Students and faculty members packed into Carrington Auditorium on Jan. 21 to hear the heartbreaking story of Chikwanine, a former child soldier from the Democratic Republic of Congo who now acts as a motivational speaker and advocate for oppressed children around the world.

After the being abducted and being forced to kill his best friend, Chikwanine spent the next two weeks of his life participating in village raids and violent acts of all sorts along with the rebel soldiers.

War again threatened Chikwanine and his family when he was 10 years old. First, rebel soldiers captured his father. Then several months later, rebel soldiers forcibly entered the family’s home, where Chikwanine was forced at gunpoint to witness his mother and two sisters being raped.

A child carries shell casings in a rebel camp in the Central African Republic. Photo courtesy Pierre Holtz/UNICEF CAR

Rather than succumbing to the violence and animosity he suffered, Chikwanine, now 22, became inspired to positively affect communities all over the world through education and public awareness. He works closely with two organizations: Me To We, a group dedicated to influencing world change by encouraging others to make ethical and socially conscious decisions, and Free The Children, which engages in building schools, developing water and sanitation projects, and other tasks in impoverished communities.

Chikwanine believes greed is the greatest thing that divides communities and keeps people from living and working peacefully together.

“I think the world today is full of (greed), but (in North America) it is a part of the culture we are born into,” Chikwanine said. “In school we are told to become doctors, professors- things that will serve you instead of the world.”

Chikwanine noted how greed had played a major part in the violence he experienced, citing that in the Congo, certain corporations had paid rebel soldiers to commit violent acts in the interest of securing precious minerals.

Chiwanine believes the antidote to greed is compassion and education.

“We can move away from this (greed) by learning about other people’s cultures and world issues,” he said. “If you love your computer, why not blog about issues that you care about? If you like to read, then read about other cultures. We must appreciate the world for what it is.”

Education is key to learning this compassion and appreciation for others.

“By educating children, you give them the opportunity to broaden their horizons and extend their own lives as well,” Chikwanine said. “Most of the wars start because people are not educated enough. Education allows you to choose the way you think.”

Hundreds of students lingered after the presentation in order to learn more about what they could do to help or participate in one of the organizations Chikwanine mentioned.

Michel Chikwanine

Chikwanine finds it crucial for privileged nations to hear of other countries that are not quite so fortunate. Just as is the philosophy of Me To We, Chikwanine is helping to change the way people think about global crises, and how the smallest of decisions can help bring about justice and revolutionary changes in the Congo and elsewhere.

The event was sponsored by Student Activities Council. More information about Me to We can be found at www.metowe.com. More information about Free the Children can be found at www.freethechildren.com.

Students volunteered their help to many local non-profit and service groups present at the 9th Annual Community Volunteer Fair held on Jan. 27 in Plaster Student Union.

About 50 groups representing a myriad of causes set up booths at the event.

Lori Street, representing Ozarks Public Television, said she spoke to around 40 students during the fair about her group.

“We need volunteers primarily to work during pledge drives to answer telephones,” she said, adding that students can also help with bulk mailings to existing donors and other special events as need.

Ozarks Public Television provides PBS content to the Ozarks area and is funded through donations.

Karl Schmidt of the Southwest Missouri Region of the American Heart Association also was pleased with student interest in the volunteer event.

“Students are interested in not only helping us, but the community as a whole,” Schmidt said. The group had signed up six students during the three-hour event.

Schmidt was primarily working to promote the upcoming Heart Walk, held April 10. The five kilometer walk is a national campaign to promote healthy living through exercise. Groups participating gather donations, with the money going towards medical research and educational programs.

“It helps save lives,” Schmidt said.

Tiffany Warriner, representing the Alzheimer’s Association, found that many of the students who visited her group’s booth knew someone who had suffered from the disease and either wanted to help the cause or wanted more information on Alzheimer’s.

“We can always use volunteers and extra help,” Warriner said. About 20 students had signed up for information at her booth.

The event was sponsored by Missouri State’s office of Citizenship and Service-Learning (CASL).

Service-learning links “academics to the community (in order) to develop the skills, sensitivities, and commitments necessary or effective citizenship in a democracy,” according to the CASL website.

More information can be found at www.missouristate.edu/casl.

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

You might want to think twice next time before swooping in on that perfect parking spot. According to the Springfield News-Leader, a young woman allegedly pulled out an ice-pick and stabbed a man repeatedly after she felt he stole her parking spot at Chili’s Grill and Bar on Sunday.

Luckily for the victim, his injuries were not life threatening. The woman was caught after fleeing the scene but has not been charged yet.

Now this article does leave some unanswered questions. Did she argue with the man first, before pulling the ice pick, or did she just come at him with it immediately? Why did she have an ice pick with her, anyway? How good of a parking spot was it? 

In any case, you know the holidays are almost here when people start stabbing each other over parking spaces. Still, an ice-pick to the baby-back ribs is nothing compared to what people will do to get a Christmas deal on Black Friday (like pushing over a 78-year old woman at Toys R’ Us, or trampling a Wal-Mart employee to death). Unfortunately, sometimes it seems we live in a road-rage, move-it-or-lose-it society. Common courtesy extends only to those we know or like; everyone else be damned.

I guess I should count my blessings, though.

A couple months ago, my truck battery died while my wife and I were parked in the TJ Maxx parking lot. I called my uncle to give us a jump, then pushed my truck back so it was in two stalls so he would have room to pull his car in to jump me. We were just sitting there waiting (obviously with some problem to my vehicle) when I saw these two female teenage Maxxinistas in the rear view looking for a spot to park.

I honestly think they considered ramming me before they noticed the two of us in the vehicle. Instead, they literally crammed into the spot behind me with their tail half out in the road. In the rearview, I see them flipping the bird. As they walked by going into the store, they yelled all manner of profanities our way.

I came out of that situation with a stabbing feeling of how callous and selfish people can be, but perhaps I’m lucky I didn’t come out with a stab wound.