Griffon News Issue 14

NON-PROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PA I DPERMIT NO. 32St. JOSEPH, MO

Vol 95 | Issue 14 griffonnews.com February 7, 2012

Cut from the cloth of history: Assistant Dean of Student Development Isaiah Collier discusses what black history month means to him.Page 5

Western men and women both have a strong opportunity to make the MIAA tournament.

Page 8

This week’s editorial addresses campus maintenance’s lack of adequate snow and ice removal. Page 6

Appropriation plan hits Western hard

When considering Mis-souri Gov. Jay Nixon’s ap-propriation plan for higher education, Missouri Western officials say a look under the hood may be in order.

Nixon is calling for $34 million for higher education. Missouri Western could re-ceive a boost of 3.4 percent after meeting certain criteria.

Dr. Robert Vartabedian, university president, said the problem is that the budget isn’t clear unless it is closely examined. He said he went back and read through Nix-on’s transcript of the speech and discovered the fine print, which call for Western to re-ceive a 1 percent decrease in its base appropriation.

“I hate to have people get-ting excited for this money, when the proposal by the governor isn’t really there,” Vartabedian said.

Nixon proposed a per-formance-funding formula where universities would re-ceive funding-based require-ments. Western received four out of five of the require-ments, which leaves 80 per-cent of funding for the uni-versity. The reason it didn’t receive the 100 percent is due to graduation rates being

low.Western ranks last in full

student equivalency fund-ing and would now receive a reduction in its base appro-priation of $260,000. The pro-posed budget of $34 million -- if passed through the legis-lature -- would allow Western to receive around $725,000 over last year. Rep. Mike Thomson (R-Maryville), who heads the House Higher Ed-ucation Committee, believes the proposed budget needs to have the justification and rationale as to why schools get the support they receive.

“I know that Missouri Western feels that they’re not given support equitably ac-cording to some of the other state universities,” Thomson said. “We all feel we need more money and education already makes up 47 percent of the state budget.”

The $725,000 boost the uni-versity would receive would be lowered further consider-ing unfunded mandates that would need to be paid for first. Vartabedian said that instead of a 3.4 percent in-crease, Western would be at 2.4 percent.

Cale Fessler, vice presi-dent of financial planning, said the 1 percent cut in the base funding is something the university will need to examine, as to its effect on

budgeting.“The proposal is still

in its first stages,” Fessler said. “I be-

lieve there will be changes.”

Matt Hunt | News Editor [email protected]

Dance to the beat of history Dance to the beat of history All month long there will

be a long list of things to do to celebrate; from cultural mov-ies to a taboo talk event, the Black Student Union and the Center for Multicultural Ed-ucation are hoping to bring a lot of passion and excitement to the table this year.

One of the most exciting events that is coming to cam-pus is accomplished actor Gregory Gibson Kenney who will be performing “Rosa Parks: Please Keep Your Seat.” Kenney has performed in such films as “Silence of the Lambs, Jackson’s: An American Dream” and “The Wonder Boys,” as well as many commercials, printed advertisements and theatri-cal performances. Kenney also operates an organiza-tion called “EDUCATE Us” where he travels to schools and colleges performing a 30 minute monologue fol-

lowed by an optional 15- minute question and answer session. Each monologue he performs portrays a histori-cal figure and their triumphs, trials and goals.

Surprisingly, it is not as difficult as one may think to get talent of Kenney’s caliber to come to Western. CME program assistant Jordann Barron explains.

“Because of how early we plan it, it’s a lot easier,” Bar-ron said. “Because we are a university and it is educa-tional, they are more than happy to come and help out.”

While most students were at home with their families, CME was already hard at work planning out Black History Month activities.

“A semester ahead of time is when we start planning for things,” Barron said. “Over Christmas break we were here for two weeks after the students left and that’s nor-mally when we do most of our planning.”

BSU chair of major at-tractions, Leah Hayes, talks about why she feels Western needs such a large variety of events as well as why they structure them the way that they do.

“We don’t want anything to be like a lecture,” Hayes said. “I mean we are students too and we don’t want to go to class and then go to an event that is another lecture. We want it to be fun and we need to learn to progress; we feel like we really need to ed-ucate the campus on this and sometimes certain groups of students might feel like they aren’t represented and you know, this is our month to let the campus know we are here and we appreciate our heritage and come and join us in celebrating.”

BSU president Tobias Pointer also feels strongly about having Black History Month come to Western.

“It’s important so you can get a facet of more than one race on campus,” Pointer

said. “I would say that a lot of black and, not necessarily white, but a lot of cultures don’t mesh well because they simply don’t know about each other’s culture; so that’s why we try and have plenty of events out there where we have more than one facet of culture, so you can get to know each other.”

One of these events is go-ing to be a game night, Hayes goes on to explain.

“It’s just like playing a game of Jeopardy and people can win prizes and things like that,” Hayes said.

These are just a few of the events that are coming this month. For a complete list contact the CME department at [email protected] or 816.271.4150. There is also a mass email with a full list of the events to come and informational posters around campus.

Andy Garrison | Opinion [email protected]

SEE HISTORY PAGE 2

Albert Shelby | Asst. News Editor [email protected]

On a day where love is shown in a variety of ways, WAC will host the “Heart Your Union” event from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. upstairs in Blum Union and the event is free for all students.

The event will be treated as a welcome fair to all stu-dents who are new and also returning back to school for

the second and final se-mester of the year.

Lauren Dillon, president of WAC compared the

event to the same welcome fair students participate in at the beginning of the year.

“Heart Your Union is on Valentines day so that’s why we went with the heart theme,” Dillon said. “We compare it to Western Warm-Up, like the wel-come fair that you have on

the first day of school. We want to help people be-come more familiar with the student union and what resources you can find there.”

Dillon noted that she wanted students to see that there were more than just food and book store sourc-es in blum.

There are many other resources available for stu-dents to take advantage of.

“It’s kind of a second se-mester welcome fair,” Dil-lon said. “We also want to give it a Valentines touch by giving out snacks and the Health Center will be doing free HIV testing to go along with Valentines Day and the whole relationship thing.”

SEE HEART PAGE 2

Western addresses nursing shortage with future changes

With a nurse shortage around the corner, Missouri Western’s nursing program is looking to make changes over the next several years.

In a 2012 report that appeared in the American Journal of Medical Quality, it

was predicted that there will be a shortage of nearly 2,000 nurses by 2030 in Missouri. The state of Kansas will fall short by nearly 4,000.

“Due to the new healthcare plan, many will seek shorter hospital stays and community based nursing,” Chair of the Nursing Department Dr. Kathleen O’Connor said.

O’Connor said that the average age of working registered nurses is 47. The average age of an RN is 44.5 ,according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. As they reach retirement age, there aren’t enough workers to replace them so many of them are choosing to work past their retirement date.

O’Connor said that Western is addressing the potential nursing shortage by preparing for re-accreditation of their Bachelor of Science in nursing program and an initial accreditation of the Master of Science in nursing program. Students, alumni and administration will take part in the evaluation and audit

for three days the first week of March. The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education is a nursing education accrediting agency dedicated exclusively to the accreditation of bachelor’s and graduate degree nursing education programs.

“There is so much potential in the profession,” O’Connor said. “The best thing about

this field is the diverse job opportunities, from public health and hospice to community settings.”

O’Connor said that Western will be focusing on expansion of the RN to BSN program and the newer MSN program.

Joyce Stevenson | Staff [email protected]

SEE NURSING PAGE 2

WAC to host event on Valentine’s DaySEE FUNDING PAGE 2

Joe Snapp | Graphics Editor

proposed $34 million for higher education.

Missouri Westernwill receive 3.4%out of the proposedof $34 million.

Governor Nixon

Each universitywould receive betweenthree to four percentdepending on performance.

Western passed four out of fiveperformance guidelines. Westernreceived four because of the graduation

rate.

Joyce Stevenson | Staff Photographer

NEWS February 7, 2013

The Griffon NewsPage 2

�N�E�W�S� �N�O�T�E�S

Missouri Western Sends Data Notice

Missouri Western State University sent out a no-tice to affected individuals that a computer hard disk drive containing confiden-tial data, including names and Social Security num-bers, was temporarily out of the university’s posses-sion. The university does not believe the information has been misused in any way. Missouri Western is sending a notification let-ter to approximately 3,000 students recruited by the university between 2005 and 2009.

PRA International to Hire New Grads

PRA is a leading global clinical research organiza-tion looking for new grad-uates. For more info and to apply, visit https://sjobs.b r a s s r i n g . c o m / 1 0 3 3 /ASP/TG/cim_jobdetail.asp?partnerid=185&siteid=5199&AReq=10936BR&Codes=WLI Application dead-line is February 18, 2013.

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

[email protected]

Wednesday, Feb. 6• Foreign Film Series: ‘Nobody Knows Anybody’ 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 7

• First Thursday Noon Concert Series 12:10 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 8• Softball Cameron University 10

a.m. - Durant, Okla. 10 a.m.

Friday, Feb. 8• Softball Southeastern Oklahoma

State University 12 p.m. - Durant, Okla. 12 p.m.

CALENDAR OF EVENTSCAMPUS CRIME REPORTS

CAMPUS INFORMATION

1. Stealing 11:59 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 19, Downs Drive

2. Stealing 1:49 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 24, Downs Drive

3. Traffic Offense 12:57 p.m., Friday, Jan. 25, Downs Drive

4.Traffic Offense 12:57 p.m., Friday, Jan. 25, Downs Drive

Canvas is Now Accepting

Submissions

Canvas, MWSU’s stu-dent art and literary magazine, is accepting submissions from current students, alumni, faculty, and staff. The deadline for submissions is March 1. Our 2013 edition will be available in May. The cri-teria for submissions are as follows: up to fifteen piec-es of at. Note: All pieces will be published in black and white except for three exceptional pieces.

1.4. 2.3.

FUNDINGCONTINUED FROM FRONT

Monday, Feb. 11• Chinese New Year Festival 4:30

p.m.

Tuesday, Feb. 12• ‘Africa: The Serengeti’

Planetarium Show Agenstein Hall 147 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday, Feb. 13• Griffon Women’s Basketball vs

Washburn, MWSU Fieldhouse 5:30 p.m.

The funding Western would receive after the 1 per-cent cut would most likely go toward deferred mainte-

nance on campus. Vartabe-dian and Fessler believe that after the legislature’s sorting of the budget, they will have a better handle on where the funds will be placed.

“You can’t have a building roof cave in on students,”

Vartabedian said.Western has been build-

ing up its reserves after the appropriations increase last year and might consider opening the reserves for one-time emergencies. Vartabedi-an and the university’s Board

of Governors have discussed using $800,000 of Western’s $8.3 million in reserves. Var-tabedian has expressed his concerns toward taking out too much from the reserves in case problems occur later.

“We don’t want to take too

much out because the legis-lative cycle could get worse,” Vartabedian said. “We will try to be as democratic as possible but stay fearful to go under the $7 million level in the reserves.”

Western predicted to receive 3.4 % increase

Administrative Coordina-tor Kathy Kelly was the cre-ator of the program a couple of years ago and she started it to lend a hand to students on campus who wanted to get familiar with their stu-dent union.

“This will be the third year,” Kelly said. “We felt

like we had this union with all these student friendly programs similar to CSE and there resources. My goal was to show students everything the union had to offer to stu-dents and organizations.”

MonTerio Seewood, stu-dent senator at Western said he attended the event last year. He found the program very useful and felt that stu-dents walk away learning more than expected.

“It was a great experi-

ence,” Seewood said. “It gets students more aware of their school while also checking on their health. They have a lot of events that will benefit not only the university but the students as well.”

Dillon believes that stu-dents should keep in mind that this is spring semester and that different organiza-tions are trying to fill future vacant positions as well as recruiting for fraternities and sororities.

“Greeks start to recruit in the spring,” Dillon said. “This is the time for other organizations to recruit for members. WAC has a table and we talk about upcoming events we have coming up later on in the semester. Tu-toring and career resources will also be available for stu-dents.”

Dillon said keep in mind that some students are enter-ing Western for the first time this semester and this should

help them get more comfort-able.

“We all forget that there are those students that did not come in first semester so they don’t get to do some of the things that other stu-dents may have done first semester. This is our way of sharing that experience with them.”

HEART CONTINUED FROM FRONT

Event coordinator lends hand to students

These are the two areas that she sees the most po-tential for growth given the resources available at Western. She says there is no room for growth in the current RN program due to limited resources including space and faculty. O’Connor is unaware of any plans by the university to expand the department resources in the future.

“Employment is available in hospitals, schools, public health departments and out-patient clinics,” O’Connor said.

Many students choose to continue their education to become nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists, clini-cal nurse specialists, nurse educators, executives and researchers. The Nurse Prac-titioner role will continue to dramatically increase. West-ern has averaged 89 BSN graduates in the last three years since it was created.

Western has a criteria set by the Missouri State Board of Nursing. One hundred qualified students are admit-ted to the RN program year-ly. The program is structured to have 10 students for every faculty member. Yearly, ap-proximately 15 percent of

applying students are turned away.

“10 years ago, we were ad-mitting 80,” Dr. O’Connor said.

The 100 RN students are divided in half for the fall and spring semesters. Cri-teria for acceptance is as fol-lows:

- Completed application submitted to Nursing CAS www.nursingcas.org (stu-dents apply at the end of their third semester at West-ern and receive word of ac-ceptance or denial during the fourth semester)

- ACT composite score of 20 (if student has a minimum of 30 college credits and meets other admission cri-teria, the ACT requirement may be waived)

- Completed or be cur-rently enrolled in all general studies and nursing support courses (support courses must be completed with a grade of “C” or better)

- A minimum cumulative GPA of 2.7

Dr. O’Connor said that maintaining the highest GPA possible can increase your chance of admission to this program. Early acceptance to high school seniors and first time freshman at West-ern is offered if eligible. Me-gan Hunt applied to the RN program twice and was de-nied each time. Her anatomy grade was one point below

the requirement. She is cur-rently in UMKC’s nursing program.

“If I hadn’t transferred to UMKC I would still be wait-ing to be accepted,” Hunt said. “If Missouri Western was really concerned about the nursing shortage they should open up the enroll-ment considering over 300 apply to the RN program.”

She said the class sizes were too large and there wasn’t enough one-on-one time with professors.

Megan Langdon was ac-cepted into the RN program on her first try. Since then, she has changed her major to Health Information Technol-ogy. She said the six hours or more of lecture were difficult to manage and suggests they

be split up into shorter class periods.

Northwest Missouri State University doesn’t offer a BSN degree. Northwest re-cently entered into an agree-ment with North Central Missouri College in Tren-ton, Mo to offer pre-nursing students the opportunity to study for RN certification. Northwest pre-nursing stu-dents can take classes with NCMC faculty at the North-west Technical School cam-pus in Maryville.

Highland Community College accepts 40 students in its licensed practical nurse program. Their LPN to RN program accommodates 20 students. They report they get 2 to 3 times that many ap-plicants for their programs.

There are many Associate Degree Nursing programs in the area. Dr. O’Connor said that MWSU receives several transfer students each se-mester that pass the criteria required for the RN program.

”The (Western) classes were beneficial when it came to clinical work,” Langdon said. “The clinical course has a ratio of no more than 10 students per clinical instruc-tor. There are practical train-ing opportunities available in the St Joseph and greater Kansas City region.”

O’Connor said that she has been constantly receiving emails from December grad-uates telling her where they have gotten hired.

NURSING CONTINUED FROM FRONT

Only 100 nursing students accepted each year

Two nursing students practice on a simulated baby during class. Joyce Stevenson | Staff Photographer

NEWSFebruary 7, 2012


Spring Greek rush successfulMissouri Western’s spring

rush took place last week. Assistant Dean of Student Development Isaiah Collier said that the process in the spring is less formal than that in the fall. He also said that there are advantages to rushing in the fall, rather than the spring.

“If you rush in the fall time you have more time to get to know your fraternity broth-ers or sisters as opposed to rushing in the spring,” Col-lier said. “By the time you get finished with your edu-cational sessions, which tend to last six to eight weeks after the informal process, pretty much the semester is over.”

Last week all three social fraternities recruited new members while only one so-rority, Alpha Gamma Delta, recruited new members. Unlike fraternities, sorori-ties have a cap for recruit-ment for the entire year. If the sorority meets that cap, then they can’t recruit in the spring.

Claire Hendren, the vice president of recruitment for Alpha Gamma Delta, said that she reason she joined a year ago was to meet new people.

“My favorite thing about greek life is having a big group of friends that I’m comfortable with that I can go to in any situation,” Hen-

dren said.Alpha Gamma Delta had

three recruiting events last week. On Monday, they had afternoon tea, on Wednesday ,they had a game night and on Friday a craft night. Hen-dren said the events were successful and that she was hoping for ten new recruits.

“Somebody should join AGD because we are the

most eclectic and we have the highest GPA,” Hendren said. “And we have a really strong sisterhood.”

Alpha Gamma Delta’s av-erage GPA among its active members is 3.23. Phi Delta Theta has a 2.72 average GPA among its members. Phi Delta Theta President Ethan Kelley said that it’s the high-est among the fraternities.

Kelley also said there are many reasons why someone should join Phi Delta Theta.

“We’re the largest on cam-pus,” Kelley said. “We have the highest fraternity GPA on campus. We haven’t lost any intramural sports in 10 years.”

Kelley said that roughly four students were given bids. Phi Delta Theta had

three events last week. Last Monday they had an in-formational night, then on Wednesday they attended the basketball game and on Friday they had a video game tournament.

“We had a large amount that went out to the basket-ball game to cheer for the Griffons,” Kelley said.

Kelley, who rushed in the fall of 2009, said there are benefits and downsides to rushing in either the fall or spring.

“The fall is a lot busier a schedule,” Kelley said. “There’s a lot more going on. It’s harder on your schedule in the fall.”

A Chinese New Year cel-

ebration will hit Western's students with traditions not seen before.

To the Chinese culture, the New Year celebration is the most important traditional holiday. The New Year cel-ebration marks the end of winter season, and spring season begins on the Chinese calendar. Missouri Western will be introducing students to new cultural events and activities.

With the help of Chinese professor Juan Wang, the Chinese community will take part in helping with the

festival.“It’s like Christmas, family

members get together for a new year,” Wang said.

The theme this year for the Chineses New Year celebra-tion is, "Year of the Snake." Students will be able to at-tend this event on Monday, Feb. 11 in Blum 218 at 4:30 p.m.

The New Years celebra-tion for those of the Chinese culture shows the year of the Black Snake is going to be an exciting year for many in the world.

The Chinese New Year celebration is a great way for students to learn about a new cultural experience and it encourages others who

want to take part in a foreign language. Students who at-tend will receive a better un-derstanding of Chinese cul-ture, traditions, legends and customs. Western student

Fan Biao said he feels that students will learn more by attending the festivals that Western plans to provide for students, faculty and the St. Joseph community.

“They will get to see how Chinese people celebrate their new year and that it’s a time for families to share their happiness,” Biao said.

The New Year Festival will also provide many activities for students to get the cultur-al experience. There will be different stations available for students who want to experience listening to Chi-nese music with folk instru-ments such as the Erhu and the bamboo flute. Likewise, students will get the chance to make dumplings, lanterns and houses. Samples of tradi-tional dumplings and other Chinese food will be served and, weather permitting, a sky lantern will be launched.

As a Chinese professor here at Missouri Western, Wang is excited to show students how important the Chinese celebration is and he looks forward to a great turnout.

“Come and experience the people and culture as well,” Wang said.

Along with Wang, Western student Yawel Zhu said he recommends classmates to attend the Chinese New Year Festival, especially if they want a better understanding of Chinese culture

“The experience will be a lot of fun and it’s a great way to learn a different culture,” Zhu said.

Krista Hague | Staff [email protected]

Western prepares for Chinese celebration

The search for the next Vice President of Student Af-fairs is underway.

In the next few weeks, Mis-souri Western will welcome four candidates to share why they are the best person for the job.

The employment contract of Dr. Esther Peralez, former vice president for student affairs, wasn’t renewed and the position has remained empty since March 2012. Dr. Judith Grimes, interim vice president for Student Affairs, along with Dr. Jeanne Daf-fron, provost and vice presi-dent of academic affairs, have worked closely since that time to ensure the de-partment continued to func-tion.

Grimes is among the can-didates for the highest posi-tion in Student Affairs. She has spent the last 15 years at Western and made her case on Feb. 1, when she gave her presentation to the commit-tee and guests on what she can bring to Student Affairs.

“We understand that the main goal in Student Affairs is to ensure that students graduate,” Grimes said.

Relations between The Student Government As-sociation and the office of Student Affairs was one of the top priorities for student leaders. Student Governor Brian Shewell said his office works closely with the vice president of Student Affairs and feels Grimes gave an ex-cellent presentation.

“My job is to voice the con-cerns to the administration,” Shewell said. “Grimes has been with Missouri Western for years, she knows the stu-dent body and gave a great presentation.”

Grimes said the depart-ment of Student Affairs is fun and the position of Vice President would be a privi-lege if she was given the chance to serve.

“You need energy in a po-sition like this,” Grimes said. “The vice president deals with pretty energetic stu-dents and it becomes more of a mentoring opportunity.”

The top priority of Grimes’ presentation to the commit-tee was looking for solutions to ensure that students at Western decide on a degree and graduate in a timely manner. She said the univer-sity needs the right resources

to ensure its students in-volvement in organizations. She believes this office needs a leader who is able to work well with the students.

“We need to make sure that students graduate,” Grimes said. “However, we need to make sure that our students are prepared for the work-place once leaving Western.”

Vartabedian expressed that half of the university’s student body are first-gener-ation students. He said this is often times a new experience to students and they need someone in Student Affairs who understands that.

“I’m a first-generation col-lege student myself,” Var-tabedian said. “It’s part of the mix and is important in the decision for the next vice president.”

Three other candidates still have the chance to present their case on why they will be the best candidate for the vice president of Student Af-fairs. Mark Stier, director of residential living and hous-ing is among the candidates and will present on Feb. 4 at 2:00 p.m. in Hearnes Center 102.

Dave Hon | Senior [email protected]

Western aims to fill two top positions The search for the next as-sociate vice president of fi-nancial planning is in its ear-ly stages just days after Rick Gilmore, the previous associ-ate vice president, retired. Cale Fessler, vice president for financial planning and administration, is currently searching for a new associate vice president to replace Rick Gilmore. After 26 years of serving Missouri Western, Gilmore retired in January. Since then, plans to find a new as-sociate vice president have slowly started to form. However, those involved in finding his replacement are aware that this process takes time. Shelly Scott, re-cruiting specialist for hu-man resources, believes the process will not happen overnight or even within the next month, most likely. The applications for the position have been released and the decision is one that’s made with the top administrators of Western. “I’m not sure if they’ve done anything yet,” Scott said. “But we have posted

the position.” Kylee Strough, chair of the board of governors, meets regularly with other board members to discuss certain events pertaining to West-ern. She is also invested in the university’s goal to find a new associate vice presi-dent for financial planning as soon as possible. “Although I’m not aware of any deadlines or possible candidates as of yet, I know that Cale Fessler wants to get that position filled as soon as possible,” Strough said. Fessler agrees that he is eager to find a new associate vice president to help man-age the various accounting and finance departments at Western. However, he un-derstands that decisions like these can’t be made over-night. “These things take time, but we’re currently in the process of the preliminary review for the job descrip-tion,” Fessler said. “Right now, we’re looking over the responsibilities and qualifi-cations of the position so that we can put together an appli-cant pool.” While there is no list of potential candidates at this

time, Western has been inter-nally and externally adver-tising the position. Fessler is most likely looking for simi-lar credentials to that of the previous associate vice presi-dent Mr. Gilmore, Strough said. “Cale Fessler might also be trying to find someone with skills to compliment his own,” Strough said. “That way, he can help to build a stronger department.” Fessler said that his job involves financial planning and oversight as well as ac-counting, budgeting and financial aid services. He works very closely with hu-man resources and has meet-ings with its members fre-quently. The associate vice president of financial plan-ning will most likely help to keep track of these various departments along with Fes-sler, who is also fairly new to Western. “We have a great staff here at Missouri Western,” Fessler said. “Everyone is helping out so that we can find a new associate vice president as soon as possible.”

Interviews beginning soon for associate V.P.

The members of Tau Kappa Epsilon pose for a quick picture during their rush week. The greeks hosted events including a video night, game night and movie night. The TKE’s held a dodge ball game and a grill out. Gilbert Imbiri | Asst. Photo Editor

Matt Hunt | News [email protected]

VP of Student Affairs search begins internally Daniel Cobb | Staff [email protected]


FEATURESFebruary 7, 2013


Free t-shirts

February 14thBlum Union Upstairs

11am-2pm

Novelty acts include: Free Flip Book and Graffiti Wall

Free HIV and Aids Testing

HeartYourUnion

When you walk into Pot-ter Hall, the hub of Western’s art department, you might see decoupaged newspaper sculptures in the hallway, massive canvas paintings on the walls or clusters of students talking about their latest masterpieces, using words and phrases like, “palette knife,” “darkroom,” and “crosshatching.” Beyond these visuals, you might not know much about Potter Hall or about Western’s art department, but after look-ing deeper, you may dis-cover that this department is exactly where you, and your creative mind, belong.

“The art department offers students a well-rounded, in-terdisciplinary approach to making art, providing them with experiences in a variety of media in addition to their chosen major,” art professor Geo Sipp said. “Our pro-gram is well-respected and growing fast. It has excellent synergy.”

Sipp has been a professor at Western for 12 years. His artistic journey took him to a lot of different places be-fore he ended up teaching on our campus. He began his collegiate career at Clemson University in South Carolina and continued his education at Georgia Southern Univer-

sity, The Portfolio Center in Atlanta, Georgia and In-dian River Community Col-lege in Florida. Sipp enjoys

teaching at Western because he is able to teach diverse courses lead the programs that he oversees on his terms. He spent more than 20 years working in New York City as an illustrator.

“Western’s art department is unlike others because the professors are all established artists themselves and the small class size allows them to form relationships with all of the students,” senior art education major Ellie Green said. “I know I’ve learned a lot from them, but it doesn’t really feel like school because it’s such a friendly environ-ment.”

Green plans to get a job teaching art at the elementa-ry or high school level when she graduates. Eventually, she wants to get a masters degree in art as well. She feels that the general knowl-edge in art history and basic artistic concepts that she has gained at Western have re-ally prepared her to pursue being an art teacher in the future.

“I think my major will ben-efit me because I was exposed to a good base of knowledge in most forms of art making, so even if I’m not great at cer-tain things myself, I will be able to explain it to my stu-

dents,” Green said. “I think that’s an important part of the art education program. It focuses on pedagogy, but you’re also expected to have hands on experience in a wide range of media, so you will at least be able to know how to do it.”

The courses offered by Western’s art department delve into a ton of different hands-on mediums to give students a well-rounded knowledge of their crafts, mediums like drawing, painting, ceramics, print-making, photography, sculp-ture and digital animation. By marrying studio courses with history courses, the art programs at Western give students a wider range of both information and per-sonal experience.

“Prospective students should consider majoring in an art-related field because the program is set up to give you all the tools you will need to pursue any disci-pline in art or a combination of many,” Green said. “How-ever, you should be pre-pared to work. I think a lot of people major in it because they think it will be easy, but they don’t really know what they’re getting into.”

The major programs of-fered by the art department may seem intense, but for a student who is wanting to pursue art as a career, they

are very beneficial. Among some of the department’s most popular major pro-grams are graphic design, studio art and digital ani-mation, which is the newest addition to Western’s list of art major options. There are a wide array of courses of-fered, ranging from typogra-phy to woodblock printmak-ing.

“Based on the production of art, I really enjoyed wood-block printmaking because I’m not big with working with technology, and this was exactly the opposite,” Green said. “Carving into wood is a very visceral form of art making and it was so much fun.”

Even though there are a plethora of majors, minors, and emphases to choose from, students don’t have to pick just one. In the art department, students have the ability to overlap degree programs. In fact, this is em-braced by the art department so that each student is able to finish with a program that was tailor-made for them.

“A student may empha-size in a variety of specialties including Drawing, Paint-ing, Printmaking, Graphic Design, Digital Animation, Photography, Sculpture, Il-lustration, plus minor in Art History,” Sipp said. “We have a program that can be designed to fit students’

needs and aspirations.”For students who are pas-

sionate about art, or who have been on the fence about pursuing it as a livelihood, Western has a home for you in the art department. Potter Hall is bursting at the seams with talented artists and ex-perienced professors, so if you’re willing to put in the work and creativity, you can follow your dreams of mas-tering a paintbrush, a piece of charcoal, or a chisel all the way to graduation day.

“Work diligently; don’t ever let up. Be intellectually curious, well-read and hone your writing and communi-cation skills,” Sipp said. “As-pire to be the best, not just among your classmates, but

among all those you admire working professionally in the discipline. Being tenacious at improving one’s skills in all the above-mentioned will help greatly.”

Jourdan Ryan | Features [email protected]

Creative careers Students work long hours as they aim for artistic perfection

Western artists show what they’re made of with creative pieces. *Submitted Photos

A leader on campus and role model to many students, Isaiah Collier knows all about the unsung hero.

Collier, assistant dean of student development, re-flected on the significance of Black History Month, and the men and women that made the movement a suc-cess.

“The Civil Rights Move-ment wasn’t just Martin Lu-ther King, Coretta Scott King, and Malcom X,” Collier said. “It was more than that. There were so many other unsung heroes that made the Civil Rights Movement a huge success.”

While Collier thinks that black history should be cel-ebrated year round, he elab-orated on the importance of having a designated month.

“I feel like Black History month should be celebrat-ed. It should be celebrated throughout the entire year

definitely,” Collier said. “But I think that Civil rights leaders have fought so hard for just the month itself so I would hate to do away with it totally.”

Collier not only celebrates Black History Month in re-membrance of Civil Rights victories, but also to bring awareness to African Ameri-can culture.

“If you look at Black His-tory month in its entirety, I think it definitely exposes students to a particular race that they might not be aware of,” Collier said. “Whether it is customs, food, or heritage.

I think that students can pick up so much information from just the heritage alone.”

The sponsor of Western Ac-tivities council and leader of many other campus events, Collier said the students in-spire his work.

“The students is what I en-joy most about campus,” he said. “Every student is dif-ferent and brings a different amount of energy to the table every day.”

Collier encourages all stu-dents to attend the events hosted by the Center for Multicultural Education and the Black Student Union.

Isaiah Collier poses with (left) Justin Edwards, comedian Donnell Rawlings and Kathy Kelly at the WAC comedy show that Collier helped put on. *Submitted Photo

FEATURES February 7, 2013


FOR YOUR EYES ONLY...HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE

INVITES YOU

HOSTED BY: THE DIVISION OF STUDENT AFFAIRS

FULKERSON CENTERFEBRUARY 7 8PM TO 10:30PM

THE MISSOURI WESTERNCASINO ROYALE

to

Getting to class is hard enough when you live in the same town as your col-lege campus. Imagine how much harder it would be to be a dedicated, prompt stu-dent if you lived outside of the confines of Saint Joseph. The question of commuting to college or living on cam-pus is a question that a lot of students have to grapple with.

Western student Britta-ny Allen commutes to her classes from Albany, MO every week.

For most students the decision is easy based on what kind of college expe-rience you’re looking for and your financial situation. But for some the decision is more difficult, especially for college students straight out of high school. Most of them have not lived on their own before and frequently have a misconception of what dorm life or commuting will be like.

Missouri Western student Brittany Allen commutes from Albany, Mo four times a week and says that with

$300 a month in gas it is bet-ter than the housing and meal plans that MWSU of-fers. With combined meal plan and housing, some costs total up to nearly $5,000 for each semester even before tuition. Although living off campus can save money it does have its disadvantages.

“I miss a lot of class be-cause on some days I only have one” said Allen, “I lose motivation to make the hour

drive.”Allen also said that a

strategy she tries to use as much as possible is to take online classes. Online classes allow students to get their credits in the com-fort of their own home no matter how far away they may be. Another popular method for commuters is to stack classes on only certain days so they don’t have to make the drive as often.

With every disadvantage there is an advantage to living off campus though. Aside from saving money many students who rent

a house or an apartment like the freedom it provides. Cody Kinnaman, another MWSU commuter, has lived on campus before and says he prefers living off campus.

“It’s nice to be able to choose your own room-mates,” said Kinnaman “and not have to show an I.D.

just to go to your own room when you come in after mid-night.”

Although living off cam-pus can save you money and give you more freedom, some will say you miss out on the full college experience by not living in the dorms.

Missouri Western students Natascha Kracheel said she likes living in the dorms be-cause anytime you are bored you can just go across the hall to find your friends.

“I think dorm life is an im-portant experience because if you can live so close to strangers and still manage to get along you’ll learn to be more considerate yourself.”

So what are you really pay-ing for whenever you live on campus? It isn’t just the room and food, but the experience to be with so many new and interesting people. Although, with tuition rates only going up and student debt becom-ing more of a problem each year, we all must decide if dorm life is worth our dollar.

Make the drive R live on campus?

“I miss a lot of class because on some days I only have one, I lose

motivation to make the hour drive.”

-Brittany Allen

Jason Ruckman | Staff [email protected]

Western student Brittany Allen commutes to her classes from Albany, MO every week. Jason Ruckman | Staff Writer

Cut from the cloth of

historyIsaiah Collier

Katelyn Canon | Managing [email protected]

Assistant Dean reflects on roots

There were so many other

unsung heroes that made the Civil Rights

Movement a huge success.

“

”

CAMPUS VOICE

OPINIONS The Griffon NewsPage 6

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 [email protected]. Copy and advertising must be received by noon Friday, the week prior to publication.

Guidelines for letters to the editor:• All letters to the editor must be typed and double spaced. Letters must be no longer

than 350-400 words and guest columns no longer than 500 words. Letters and columns will be edited for style.

• All letters must include signature and identity verification information, such as phone number. The Griffon News reserves the right to edit all letters for length and Associated Press style.

• The Griffon News will not withhold names under any circumstances. Anonymously submitted letters will not be published.

• Views expressed on the opinion pages are not necessarily those of The Griffon News staff or Missouri Western State University.

Managing EditorGraphics Editor

News & Online EditorAssistant News Editor

Photo EditorPhoto Editor

Assistant Photo EditorSports Editor

Assistant Sports EditorFeatures Editor

Opinions EditorMultimedia Editor

Design ArtistDesign ArtistAd Manager

Senior EditorFaculty Advisor

Eboni LaceyEditor-in-Chief

Katelyn CanonJoe SnappMatthew HuntAlbert ShelbyEvan Roberts Tevin Harris Gilbert ImbiriKyle InmanChristian MengelJourdan RyanAndy GarrisonBrian DuskeyLauren DillonHanna Greenwell Mika Cummins Dave HonBob Bergland

The Griffon News Staff

Sean McConnellFreshman

“Didn’t really have a reaction to

it (the email). I just kind of glanced

at it.”

“I’m glad I haven’t been

here that long.”

“Pretty mad because if that’s my information

out there that’s not cool!”

“I’m glad that’s not me and I

really feel sorry for the people

who are freaking out right now!”

February 7, 2013

Recently, several bills have been tossed around in Jeff City, proposing arming teachers in schools and cam-puses in Missouri.

I think that is a rash and hurried decision, full of more holes than a week-old target at a firing range.

The first problem is that we are basically talking about arming some of the most underpaid and overstressed employees on the planet in the place that is causing most of their stress.

If we were to even prop-erly entertain the notion, we would have to then consider

regular mental health eval-uations and a lot of train-ing; not just firearm train-ing either, they would need combat scenarios and train-ing in the form of quickly and accurately recognizing enemy and friendly targets within a fraction of a second.

This alone would cost an astronomical amount of funding somehow magically produced in an area of our society that is already gross-ly underfunded.

We wouldn’t just be task-ing our teachers with the job of teaching anymore; we would be tasking them with

the enormous responsibil-ity of armed security while probably maintaining the same low salaries they cur-rently possess.

Not to dumb it down or anything, but if taken to a broader arena this is kind of like allowing McDonalds employees to carry concealed weapons on them because sometimes they get robbed.

In fact, it’s a stretch to imagine any company arm-ing employees because of an ambiguous threat of work-place violence.

Most college shootings are performed by college

students. If anything, the knowledge that a teacher is armed basically just paints a target on them. I can’t think of a school shooting where the shooter thought they were making it out alive any-way, so they would probably just go for the teacher first. By the time any other armed teacher could get to them the damage would probably already be done.

Another issue to consider is managing the aftermath. Police officers currently undergo a massive amount of scrutiny even when using something less-than-lethal like a Taser, how much worse the scrutiny would be if a teacher discharged a firearm on a campus. That would be a logistical nightmare.

As far as I know, walls, doors and long hallways don’t make for good bullet catchers. What would hap-pen to all those stray bul-

lets that teacher fires off that don’t hit the guy? Sure the shooter is down but what about the nine students dead on the other side of the wall from the rounds that came from the teacher’s firearm? The fact remains that there is absolutely no safe direction to fire a handgun on a crowded campus without some kind of bystander body-count. One would imagine the first time a student dies, even if it is an accident, because of a teacher’s bullet that teacher is probably going to have some issues coming to terms with something that heavy on their conscience.

I don’t presume to know the answer to school shoot-ings overall, but it seems to me that in the realm of solu-tions this one is probably not the most solid.

Western’s school closing policy for weather events needs to loosen up or get better supplies to combat the conditions.

In the aftermath of the freeze followed by snowfall recently, there have been many reports and witnessed events of students falling on the still slippery sidewalks around campus.

Physical Plant Director Lonnie Johnson explained the strategy for combating this specific weather event.

“Our staff of six grounds-keepers follows a prescribed sequence of snow removal based on priority of areas and times by which they need to be ready,” Johnson said. “In this particular event, we were notified by the univer-sity police around 2 a.m. and our crew arrived on campus later that morning.”

Johnson goes on to break down areas of prior-ity around campus for snow and ice removal.

“Their first priority is always roads and parking lots so people can be as safe as possible once they reach campus,” Johnson said. “Sidewalks are worked on at the same time as men are able to shift from lots to walks. Sidewalks/roads and lots must be bladed sufficiently

before any type of melting product can be applied.”

Unfortunately, it appears that Western is using a sub-par grade of chemical and supplies to deal with the conditions.

“Of course, these prod-ucts only work well at temps above 25 degrees,” Johnson said. “We also use a mixture of sand/gravel on surfaces. We treat areas throughout the day as warranted.”

In other words, the ice melting products Western

uses only have a seven degree effective range when taken from the freezing tem-perature of 32 degrees.

If Western continues to keep the campus open through sub-zero storms then that is just not accept-able.

They need to use an ice-melt compound such as cal-cium chloride that is effec-tive to 25 degrees below zero to keep the campus path-ways ice-free.

Johnson goes on to explain

how keeping the campus fall free is close to impossible in these conditions.

“As with any event where snow/ice is involved, the chances of someone falling is always there,” Johnson said. “Nothing we could do would ever prevent some-one from slipping on an ice/snow covered surface. Maybe if we could bring the weather from Florida to northern Missouri, we could make that happen.”

Since the case is such that

fighting the ice in snow storms below 25 degrees is impossible with the prod-ucts Western currently uses, then we either need better chemicals or the administra-tion needs to examine the well-being of the students and faculty more closely when these storms arise and be more open to closing the campus for the day before someone gets seriously hurt.

I wear a bra everyday… and I’ve most certainly never burned one.

Yet, I still qualify myself as a feminist and have for a while.

Although some people might still perceive femi-

nists as radicals in need of underwire support, femi-nists should also be looking for support in other places, namely from men.

Typically, when feminism is brought up in conversa-tion it seems like the male

response is usually “I’m for equal rights, but I’m not a feminist.” That needs to change.

It seems that a common misunderstanding about the ongoing feminist movement is that men can’t or shouldn’t be a part of it. The opposite is true.

For the feminist movement to be successful more men need to identify themselves as such.

America has changed a lot since the 1960s, when wom-

en’s liberation began, and men’s involvement should too. Its no longer a women’s issue, but a social issue.

Men need to take part in the conversation before change will be accomplished.

There is still several areas that need to be addressed in America’s workforce before there will be true equality.

The process for wages and benefits negotiation and pro-motions should be appropri-ated fairly, but this change

won’t happen overnight. Women’s suffrage first

began in the 1900s, and atti-tudes are slowly shifting to reflect that, but you can’t legislate hearts or minds. This attitude must start with the male leadership in the workforce. They must rec-ognize that women have been sidelined for centuries in the US. The time for this valuable demographic in our workforce to be called upon is now.

Editorial: Western slipping up in inclement weather

Winter weather hit campus on Wednesay, February 1. Missouri Western still had classes, much to the surprise of many students.

Feminism is missing men

Jessica HelmFreshman

Trent MossFreshman

Amanda FrancisFreshman

What is your reaction to

the Western’s harddrive

security breach?

Gilbert Imbiri | Asst. Photo Editor

MO guns MO problems

SPORTS February 7, 2013


Men come up one point short in defensive contest

March Madness is around the corner

Every basketball fan knows the best part about February is March being only a few days away. For both men and women’s basketball, March madness is still a likely pos-sibility.

The Griffons chances of getting nudged out of mak-ing the MIAA tournament would normally be much higher at this point, but due to conference expansion, this year’s tournament will seed 12 teams instead of eight.

A cool thing about the big change in the tournament is the top four seeds will now have the first game off. This means the No. 8 seed and the No. 9 seed will play each other first, and the winner of that will play the No. 1 seed. The No. 7 seed will play the No. 10 seed and the winner of that will play the No. 2 seed, and so on.

Unfortunately for the women with just four games left, they are currently sit-ting in eighth place, mean-ing they could win out the regular season, and still be in about the same place as they are right now. The No. 8 and No. 9 seeds are arguably the worst two seeds a team could draw. The first reason is be-cause the first game is going to be against a team whose season has been almost iden-tical to your own. There is no clear favorite, and it’s all about who happens to be playing better on that night. The second reason is because the best case scenario is you win your first game, but have to play the top team in the MIAA next.

The (13-7) women have greatly improved from last year when it comes to equilizing where the points come from. Every team knew last season that Jessica Koch’s scoring was the key to Griffon offense. This season’s scoring has started with the double-double machine, Heather Howard, who is averaging 13 points and 10 rebounds a game. Right behind Howard is Lanicia Law-rence and JaQuitta Dever with eight points a piece per game, and Alicia Bell with 7.9 points per game just behind them. Teams have found out that How-ard needs to be doubled up if they want to stop her buckets. The good thing about that is that Western now has multiple scoring options if they can just find the mismatches.

The truth is the women are sitting pretty golden right now. They’ve had it in them to beat anybody all season. Hopefully they can piece their strengths together at just the right time to be the dark horse of the tournament.

Even more unfortunate for the men, they are cur-rently sitting at No. 12 right now. They have no choice but to win now and keep winning if they don’t want to be one of the three joker teams who can’t make it into a 12 team tournament in a 15 team conference.

Even with a spot in the tournament still being possible, it’s not looking good for what could come ahead. If Western can hang in there and make the tour-nament, it will most likely be the No. 12 or No. 11 seed due to their tough re-maining schedule.

This means they will end up playing the No. 5 or No. 6 seed in their first game, which for them would feel like a No. 1 or No. 2 seed. The No. 5 ranked team as of now has only five losses.

The (8-12) men usually don’t have a problem hold-ing their own with their zone defense. The scoring has been the reason for the losses. Big man Cedric Clinkscales has been the only real consistent scorer with 13 points a game, he

has made over half his shot attempts. As a team, Western is shooting 43 percent from the field and 31 percent from the arch.

It’s no surprise the men are sitting in dead last in scoring offense in the MIAA with just 66.2 points per game. West-ern doesn’t crack the top 10 in any of the scoring catego-ries. The only category they have handled the turnover margin. Western has a plus 2.7 turnover margin thanks to their 8 steals a game.

The road is definitely look-ing bumpy, but it’s doable. Who knows, maybe the midseason announcement of Tom Smith’s retirement will boost the confidence of the team enough to beat the odds. To do so, they will have to find some consistent perimeter scoring.

A similar story worked out good enough for the Ravens to win the Super Bowl, why wouldn’t it work for the Grif-fons?

Christian Mengel | Asst. Sports Editor [email protected]

RA of the Month

Name: Ceasera Robinson

Hopes as an RA:

Time as an RA::

Favorite Part of Living on Campus: Having movie night with my friends.

Vaselakos Hall

Fun Fact About Me:I am currently learning 3 languages.

This is my first year.

Putting on programs and getting to know the residents.

RA of the Month

Name: KiaraRobinson

Time as an RA::

Favorite Part of Living on Campus: You’re able to be more involved. I also like that the C-Store is open until 1am; I

Fun Fact About Me:I am a very goofy individual. I love being

upbeat and keeping the people around

Scanlon Hall

LOVE smoothies.

me happy.

Hopes as an RA:

One semester.

I’m looking forward tomeeting new people & helping them throughout their college experience.

Western (8-11, 4-7) played at the pace it wanted, but came up short in the fi-nal moments 57-56 against Pittsburg State (12-5, 5-4) in physical game at the MWSU Fieldhouse.

“I’m not going to sit here and fault the players,” Coach Tom Smith said. “We made the effort, lost by one and had complete control of the tempo best for us. I thought we did what we needed to do to keep the game slow and used our timeouts and sets.”

The Griffons had a chance to make the go-ahead basket, but a missed shot rolled near-ly all the way to the other end of the court taking precious seconds off the clock. Pitts-burg State tracked the ball down and went to the free throw line where Kaleb Por-ter missed two free-throws.

Western had one last chance with 2.5 left on the clock and down by one point, but they had to go the entire distance which wasn’t possible. Dzenan Mrkaljevic was forced to throw up a 3-point shot that was far too deep to stand a chance at go-ing in and the game ended.

“A lot of people like to talk about what happened throughout the game, but this came down to the last minute and a half,” Smith said. “At least three times we had chances to come up with the rebound and give us possession back with a chance to score. Whether we would have or not, I don’t

know. But it would have giv-en us the opportunity.”

Great work on the defen-sive end allowed the Griffons to control the action for most of the night despite shooting just 32 percent from the field for the game while the Go-rillas hit at 41.7 percent and got out-rebounded 42-33. Western was also without it’s leading backcourt scorer, point guard Adarius Fulton because of concussion symp-toms.

“We just try not to give up baseline,” Kalvin Balque said. “On film, they were just getting baseline and the big guys were scoring all their points. We tried to keep them off baseline and we did that.”

Cedric Clinkscales led the Griffons in scoring with 15 points and added eight re-bounds while Balque added an efficient 11 points in 15 minutes of action on 3-for-4 from the field including hit-ting his only 3-point attempt and was perfect in four at-tempts from the foul line.

Balque’s seven point spurt in the first half was a big spark in taking a 27-23 lead into the halftime break. He provided some excitement for the crowd when he was able to dunk in a lob in tran-sition that appeared to be heading for the bleachers.

After scoring a career-high 17 points last game, Mrkaljevic had a rough out-ing from the field, hitting on

2-for-14 from the field and 2-for-8 from 3-point distance. However, he led the Grif-fons in rebounds by pulling down nine. Western made just 7-for-24 from 3-point distance.

The Griffons return to ac-tion against Northeastern University at 3:30 p.m. Sat-urday at the MWSU Field-house. Western will need to come up with some wins in this brutal stretch of top MIAA competition to keep post-season hopes alive.

“There’s a little more pres-sure on us now,” Balque said. “We really need these wins. We are just going to come in tomorrow and get better.”

Kyle Inman | Sports Editor [email protected]

Reed Mells looks for the open man for one of his four assists against Pittsburg State. The Griffons fell 57-56. Evan Roberts | Photo Editor

The Griffons closed out Wednesday’s game with a 70-65 win against the Pitts-burg State Gorillas, and may have given the team a turn back towards their winning ways.

After lagging just behind the Gorillas virtually all night, the Griffons high pres-sured defense and physical toughness showed to be too

much in the end. Western’s coach Rob Edmisson felt like pulling out a win after those three conference losses is a huge boost for this team’s confidence at this point of the season.

“It’s a big win,” Edmisson said. “It didn’t matter who we were playing. We needed to win and to win against a very quality team is a big thing too.”

Shooting has not been a strength for the Griffons this season, and was especially

rough during their three losses where they shot just 34 percent from the floor. It’s no secret that the team has got-ten the job done so far this season from their vicious de-fense, the same defense that forced Pittsburg State into giving up almost twice as many turnovers as the Grif-fons. They proved within the last few minutes that their defense allows them to hang with the best, and their of-fense finishing strong on top of that can produce wins.

With about five and a half minutes left in the game, Western’s senior guard, Ali-cia Bell, pressured Pittsburg State’s point guard into a jump ball and a turnover, which was the first for a se-ries of turnovers that helped the Griffon’s seal the deal.

Christian Mengel | Asst. Sports Editor [email protected]

Women grind out of three game skid to win 70-65

To view the full story, visit GriffonNews.com

Western women fell 73-56 to the Northeastern RiverHawks Saturday afternoon at the MWSU Fieldhouse. The Griffons ran out of gas in the second half and couldn’t cut into the large Northeastern lead.

Senior Brittany Griswold shoots a field goal in Looney Complex in Satuday’s contest.

“I feel like we came out a little weak. It’s just one of those days,” guard Cassey Sobaski said. Missouri Western shot 22-for-66, 33.3 percent from the field and 29.2 percent from behind the 3-point line going 7-for-24.

“You got to make bas-kets,” Coach Rob Edmisson said. After the game was tied at 11-11 with a Brittany Griswold lay-up, Northeastern went on a 8-0 run putting the score to 19-13 with 7:37 left.

Needing a spark, Edmisson put in Sobaski and she led the charge to put the Griffons on a 10-0 run and a lead. Sobaski had 10 points off the bench.

“I’ve always been a 3-point shooter and I work hard on that everyday,” Sobaski said. Western led the game 27-23 with 3:19 seconds left in the first half.

“I thought we came out in the first half right in it. Our guards did a tremendous

job switching,” Griswold said.Going into halftime,

Western was down 30-29. In the first half the Griffons only attempted two free throws and made one of them. Northeastern went 9-for-17 from the free throw line.

In the second half, after a Griswold 3-pointer,

Northeastern went on a 5-0 run to make the score 34-39 at the 15:10 mark. Griswold scored five straight points for Western to close the lead to 39-42 but Northeastern went on another run, scor-ing five consecutive points to make the score 39-47 at 12:39. “They got easy lay-

ups on us,” said Griswold.Then Western started to

run out of gas at the 11:06 mark when the score was 43-47 Northeastern leading. Northeastern went on a 9-0 run making the lead 43-56 with 8:08 left in the game, Western couldn’t come back from the deficit. “We just lost momentum,” said Griswold.

Griswold had 16 of the Griffons 27 points in the half. Griswold had a game high 22 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

“It’s unfortunate when you lose to look at individual performances when Sobaski came in and knocked down shots and Brittany came in and played good,” Edmisson said. Missouri Western out-rebounded Northeastern 40-37 but had more turnovers than the Riverhawks with 16 while Northeastern had 13.

“We just have to have everybody step up offen-sively. We have the talent, we just have to get tough,” Griswold said.

SPORTS January 31, 2013


Western men (8-12, 4-8) started hot, but it didn’t last as Northeastern State University (15-5, 8-4) got warmed up and handed the Griffons their second con-secutive loss at the MWSU Fieldhouse 73-61.

Alex Tuluka-Mfumupembe got things going early with back-to-back 3-pointers which gave the Griffons a 6-0 lead. Reed Mells added a 3 and a Cedric Clinkscales layup put the Griffons up 11-3 early.

“You could tell the energy level wasn’t good for us after the first eight minutes,” coach Tom Smith said. “The thing that bothers me the most is it’s the first time I can say that we didn’t give much effort.”

It was all Northeastern State for the rest of the game. More specifically, it was all point guard Bryton Hobbs. Hobbs penetrated the Western zone defense when he had a man in his face and made open shots when the defense backed off. He f in i shed wi th 3 2 p o i n t s o n 1 0 - f o r -17 f rom the f i e ld and a d d e d n i n e re b o u n d s

and three assists.“Hobbs did everything,”

Smith said. “All around he was just the best player on the floor and one of the smallest. We knew he

was good coming in.”Western shot just 41 per-

cent from the field and wasn’t getting the type of shots in the offense that they wanted. When they got

good looks, they couldn’t put enough of them down to keep the game close.

“We are just settling for shots that we can always get,” Dylan Frantz said.

“We’ve just got to get it fig-ured out, we have to dig in as a team and be smart, get the best shots that we can.”

“I just feel like we all just need to have confidence in

ourselves and play togeth-er more,” Frantz said. “We have to want it; we have to come with more focus and intensity and maybe our shots will start falling.”

Part of the reason for the loss is that the Griffons were beat on the glass 39-24.

Cedric Clinkscales led the Griffons in scoring with 13 points while Dzenan Mrkaljevic added 12. Frantz added seven points and five assists.

The Griffons will now try and refocus to avoid missing the MIAA post-season tour-nament where 12 out of the 15 teams in the conference get in. Western is currently sitting at No. 12.

“It’s all about practice,” Tuluka-Mfumupembe said. “We need to go harder and come with a lot of energy. We are playing like we are on the top of the league and we aren’t and I don’t under-stand that. Every game we need to come harder and be some dogs out here.”

The Griffons will get a boost in leadership and defense with the return of point guard Adarius Fulton who has missed the last two games with concussion-like symptoms. Western returns to action Wednesday, Feb. 6 at Washburn in Topeka, Kan.

Dylan Frantz looks for the open man against Northeastern State. He led the Griffons with five assists. Photo by Jason Brown | Photo Contributor

#gogriffs

forReady Ready

Check out our Spring Sports insert in next week’s Griffon News.

Kyle Inman | Sports [email protected]

Griffons fail to capitalize on hot start; Cold shooting stunts Western offense

Senior Brittany Griswold shoots a field goal in Looney Complex in Satuday’s contest. Tevin Harris | Photo Editor

Women come up short against Northeastern

Gary Smith | Staff [email protected]


Andy Inman and Chad Hammontree | Design Artist and Graphics Editorr

of the WEEKBrittany Griswold

ATHLETE#3 - Forward

Andy Inman and Chad Hammontree | Design Artist and Graphics Editor

3

Brittany Griswold

Brittany Griswold scored 22 points on 9-for-14 from the field and added seven rebounds against Northeastern State. Earlier in the week she scored 14 points on 6-for-15 in the win over Pittsburg State. Griswold holds averages of seven points and three rebounds on the season for the 13-7 Griffons.

Next home game: February, 13th@ 5:30 p.m.

against Washburn University.

Documents

Griffon News Issue 14