THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013 EXCELLENCE SINCE 1909 THE UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT-PRODUCED NEWSPAPER tmn.truman.edu/theindex

Women’s soccer team starts GLVC play with two wins

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SPORTSLong-distance couples find ways to stay con-nected

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FEATURESNew Public Works Director Alan Griffiths answers questions

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NEWS

VOLUME 105 ISSUE 5 © 2013tmn.truman.edu/theindex @trumanindexwww.facebook.com/TrumanIndex

BY ANDI WATKINS DAVISStaff Reporter

The inaugural class of the Missouri School of Dentistry and Oral Health will start classes Oct. 1 in Kirksville.

Orientation for the first class of 42 students will begin Sept. 25, Dean Christopher Halliday said. He said the school’s goal is to train den-tists who are aware of the unmet oral health needs of a large segment of the population.

“We want to make sure our students are aware of the fact that oral health is an integral part of overall health,” Halliday said.

He said MOSDOH is an important school because students will spend their first two years with the school at the Kirksville campus doing pre-clinical training, but the entire class will move to St. Louis during the third year. There, students will receive clinical training. Fourth-year students will then receive further clinical training at other offices throughout the state, he said.

This training is important because it gives students a chance to actually work in a feder-ally qualified health program, he said.

“Our students will be doing clinical training in facilities which directly address the needs of underserved, uninsured and otherwise dis-advantaged population groups,” Halliday said.

MOSDOH also will use teaching staff from its partner schools, which include the Kirks-ville College of Osteopathic Medicine, its Arizona campus and Truman State, Halliday said.

Dale Dewan, MOSDOH integrated human sciences director, said the 42 first-year stu-dents will enroll in 13 courses during their first semester. Only a few of the courses will last the entire semester, while the rest will be administered in a series order where each class will not begin until the previous has end-ed, he said.

Students will have integrated courses that incorporate a small amount of lecture with more hands-on and group work, Dewan said. He said MOSDOH hopes to offer the students teamwork and public speaking experience, as well as the required dental curriculum.

Truman biology professor Tim Walston said he is teaching a medical genetics course as part of the partnership with MOSDOH. Walston said his course will last only a day and a half, but he is looking forward to incorporat-ing new styles of teaching into the course. Tru-man chemistry professor Dana Delaware will teach a molecular cell biology course.

Halliday said MOSDOH should fit well with the Kirksville community because of the in-stitution’s strong orientation toward service to the community and students at the school. Additionally, he said students will participate in dental health educational activities for the community and some will return to work in Kirksville during their fourth-year clincial training.

The dental school is looking to expand its course offerings to accommodate class sizes of as many as 60 students, but not until after the first class of 42 students graduate, Halli-day said.

New legislation requires higher levels of critical thinking in classes

BY SARAH-WONDER AGBEHIAStaff Reporter

Effective Dec. 31, undergrad-uate degree programs at Tru-man State will be required to plan and begin implementation of critical thinking frameworks within their courses.

The proposal by Pathways Critical Thinking Task Force, composed of the Undergradu-ate Council and Faculty Senate, resolved to adopt the frame-work as “an institution-specific measure for the performance funding model approved by the Missouri Coordinating Board of Higher Education,” according to the resolution.

The framework the task force provided also includes the de-fining concepts of critical think-ing, common vocabulary for the development of the plan and a critical thinking rubric that will be flexible to individual faculty alterations.

The desired outcome will be for Truman graduates to have the ability to understand and articulate well-reasoned argu-ments, business administration professor Debra Cartwright said during her presentation “Department Critical Thinking: What a Plan Should Look Like” Aug. 15.

Cartwright said this resolu-tion will be aimed at develop-ing or improving higher-order thinking skills that always have been central to the liberal arts.

“The attention turns to the departments,” said Mohammed

Samiullah, physics professor and department chair.

Each department has to come up with their own plan for how to introduce the language of critical thinking to their stu-dents in the courses, and they also have to identify how those skills will be reinforced in later classes, according to the resolu-tion.

Samiullah said the resolution aims to standardize the defini-tion of critical thinking among every department so every stu-dent becomes familiar with the concept.

One addition to the resolu-tion, communicating effectively, normally is not a part of critical thinking framework but Truman always has emphasized writing and communicating as impor-tant component of the liberal arts and sciences aspect of the

University, Samiullah said.“Any idea should be able to be

communicated effectively,” Sa-miullah said. “Critical thinking is something that a lot of people can say they do, but we want to make sure students are able to actually practice. It is not just something we want the students to say they do — it’s something we want them to be able to do. The objective is to be able to en-hance the ability of the students to that regard.”

Kara Boschert, senior phi-losophy and religion major, said all of her classes focus on critical thinking.

Boschert also said with the constant scare about the job market, the University should continue to spend time focusing on the humanities. She said hav-ing critical thinking skills gives you an edge and allows for bet-

ter problem solving. “The critical thinking abilities

I gained while I was at Truman continue to serve me well, not just at work but socially,” alum-nus Bob Voyles said.

He said critical thinking is an ability all Truman graduates should have.

“If you don’t want to think critically, go to a different school,” Voyles said. “Truman is supposed to be a liberal arts university, so that’s what it’s all about.”

Voyles said implementing the critical thinking framework in lower-level classes might be dif-ficult to make it effective, but ul-timately Truman alumni should be able to have these skills.

Depending on how the reso-lution is executed, it would be helpful to the University, Boschert said.

Months of scarce rain have damaged farmer’s crops

BY ROSIE SWINGLEStaff Reporter

The yellowed grass of Truman State’s Quad shows the harsh effects of this summer’s ongoing drought.

According to the most recent weekly weather report and crop bulletin from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website, Adair County and 17 other northern Missouri counties have been experiencing a severe drought since the beginning of June. Rainfall in Kirksville since then only has reached 39 percent of the annual average expect-ed during this period, ac-cording to the website.

Mike Seipel, agricul-tural science department chair, said he has followed the drought’s progression during the summer. Seipel said before July, Kirksville’s rainfall was more than the

annual average because of plentiful rain during late spring. But this pattern did not continue for farmers across northern Missouri and southern Iowa.

“August was when we really tipped over into drought,” Seipel said.

Seipel said the county’s classification as a severe drought, or the second level on the USDA’s four-level scale, means there is a shortage of the crucial top-soil moisture necessary for the optimal yield of crops. Though this impact is only a short-term effect, it can seriously damage a local farmer’s profit depend-ing on the period of the crop season affected by the drought and the local farm-er’s crop insurance.

According to an article from heartlandconnection.com, the 2012 drought that scorched America affected 63 Missouri counties and was deemed a federal di-saster. The federal disaster classification allowed farm-ers to collect federal com-pensation for the natural destruction of their crops.

Macon County farmer Scott Coleman said he re-cently implemented an irri-gation system to counteract some of the effects of north-ern Missouri’s arid summer environment.

Coleman said his corn crop will be between 70 and 80 percent of the usual yield. But he said he also grows soybeans, which rely heavily on late-summer rain during July and August. He said soybeans are in more danger of failure this season. Coleman estimated his bean crop will be any-where between 70 and 75 percent of its normal yield, depending on whether the remainder of the season brings more rain.

Local farmers like Cole-man are implementing measures to prevent the drought from affecting their yield.

Coleman said the sprin-kler irrigation system en-sures some of his crop won’t be entirely reliant on rainfall. While only 15 to 20 percent of his crop is with-in the pivot zone, or the area that the water spray

reaches, Coleman said the corn crop within that area will yield 110 percent of its usual amount. However, us-ing irrigation systems are no simple matter.

“I’ll spend 50 to 70 per-cent of my time working on irrigation every day,” Cole-man said.

Senior agricultural sci-ence major Francois Mak-arewicz discussed the sub-tle impacts of the 2013 rain season on Truman’s crop production.

“[The drought was] much less severe than last year’s drought,” he said.

Makarewicz said the vegetable production had little to no harm from the late season drought. In fact, some crops actually provid-ed an exceptionally higher yield because of the above average rain fall earlier in the season, he said.

“Last year, we only har-vested 45 bales of hay in two cuttings. This year, we harvested 88 bales just in that first cutting,” he said.

Northern Missouri suffers summer drought

Amanda Atwell/IndexDried soil found on the University Farm. Kirksville experienced a level two drought on the USDA drought scale during August, meaning the topsoil lacked enough moisture. However, this summer’s drought was not as intense as last summer’s.

University passes critical thinking resolution

Dental school to open