NON-PROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PA I DPERMIT NO. 32St. JOSEPH, MO

Vol 94 | Issue 17 griffonnews.com February 23, 2012

Missouri Western is about to get a political mix-ture for students to choose from. In 2010, the Uni-versity Democrats were formed, and now students are working to create the College Republicans.

Travis Hart, president of college republicans, be-lieved it was time to give students the opportunity to choose a student group that fits their political preference. This past year the University Democrats have been able to recruit, fundraise and be a voice in the political arena for stu-dents on campus.

“We are here to promote the conservative message, in order to help elect Re-publicans running for office,” Hart said. “The college democrats were rather unopposed by a dif-ferent group with different views.”

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and question-ing community is planning an advocacy day in Jefferson City to fight for civil rights.

On Feb. 29, students along with leaders of PROMO, an organization that stands for LGBTQ rights and has a

chapter here in Missouri, will go to Jefferson City to advo-cate two pieces of legisla-tion. According to Dr. David Tushaus, professor of legal studies and PRIDE’s advisor, the bills that students will be discussing with legislators include civil rights legisla-tion and the Safe Schools Act.

“Students will be advo-cating a civil rights piece of legislation that already ex-

ists,” Tushaus said.“This will make it against the law for employers to fire someone for being a member of the LGBTQ community.”

The second piece of legis-lation is to help strengthen the Missouri Safe School Act, Tushaus said.

“This piece of legislation will include a list of groups to be concerned about in terms of bullying,” Tushaus

said. “The LGBTQ is a par-ticular and vulnerable group in our K-12 schools.”

Laura Beal, president of PRIDE, said that this advoca-cy day is very important for all students, and not just for the LGBTQ community. She believes that if it’s not this is-sue that they are fighting for, something will come up one day that students will want to advocate for or against.

“We want all students to go; there will always be is-sues that come up that you will want a voice in,” Beal said. “It just so happens that this issue is towards the LG-BTQ community, and they are ready for their voice to be heard.”

The PRIDE organization and the Legal Studies Asso-ciation have been working to gain student involvement

for students to go to Jefferson City to voice their concerns on this issue. Student Victo-ria Coursen said that no one should be judged for who they are and believes that legislators should listen to the students.

At Western, adjuncts make up about 27 percent of fac-ulty.

Nationally, the use of ad-juncts has risen over 40 per-cent at four-year institutions. Adjunct faculty members work without a contract for significantly less pay than full-time professors.

“We haven’t had any new money, and we’ve had our budget cut every year for the last few years,” Academic Affairs Provst Jeanne Daf-fron said. “When a person leaves a position there are those dollars there, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll use any or all of those dollars for that position. Sometimes we might decide to put a number of these po-sitions on hold. So that frees up those dollars to be used some place else.”

Thirty employment posi-tions are currently placed on hold. Using adjuncts isn’t the only thing the President’s Cabinet looks at and consid-ers when filling positions, fi-nancially it helps the univer-sity deal with the cuts.

“You have to have the re-source, and you have to be

able to pay somebody,” Daf-fron said.

Though adjunct numbers have increased, the universi-ty’s usage is still fairly below the national average, Daffron said.

“I’m fairly comfortable, really, with where we are right now,” Daffron said. “In terms of our use of adjuncts, we did increase. Primarily two years ago we had a huge increase in enrollment, more than we had anticipated. Us-ing adjuncts gives us a lot more flexibility. It’s wonder-ful that we can call on some of these folks.”

Adjuncts are used in near-ly every department to teach and assist in multiple cours-es. Some adjunct instructors are former teachers that have retired and have come back to teach minimal courses, some teach here and at other universities, some have ad-ditional jobs and some are fresh out of college, looking for an opportunity to get their foot in the door.

Budget cuts are affecting all aspects of Missouri West-ern, including the mainte-nance department.

In the last several years, the maintenance staff has decreased by four custodial employees, a painting posi-tion and a mail clerk.

“Our staffing levels are bare bones right now,” Di-rector of Facilities Lonnie Johnson said.

Johnson said that the cam-pus only has two custodi-ans working for each of the academic buildings on cam-pus. One electrician and one plumber are covering the whole campus.

Auxiliary Maintenance Supervisor Steve Conway said he has not heard of any-thing changing in the future regarding the number of hours maintenance employ-ees work or a decrease in the number of working employ-ees.

Johnson said that while the cost of materials continues to go up each year, the operat-ing budget is not increasing fast enough to cover all the areas. Maintenance cannot keep from going over their budget in some areas.

Conway said that he and

several other employees cov-er all the dorms on campus, as well as the student union, commons and fitness center. There are 9 full-time workers and four student workers. They take care of anything that has to do with student involvement.

Auxiliary maintenance has four maintenance techs that take care of maintenance re-quests such as heating, air and plumbing. Conway and and his team get a lot of door

requests.Director of Residential Life

Mark Stier said in case of an emergency he could call on the radio and maintenance would respond. Residential life consists of only the direc-tor, three hall directors and 40 resident assistants. Since residential life does not have its own maintenance per-sonal, Stier relies on campus maintenance for assistance.

The maintenance depart-ment is quite diverse and

encompasses every section of campus. The staff is cur-rently made up of seven different areas: mechani-cal maintenance, building trades, grounds, events/set-ups, custodial, auxiliary maintenance/custodial and mail room/shipping receiv-ing.

The custodial staff works Monday through Friday and also cleans up after college events such as sports and conferences.

Campus maintenance suffers from low staff

Adjuncts make 27 percent of faculty

Western students will travel to Jefferson City to advocate LGBT rights

College Republicans come to Western

Matt Hunt | Asst. News Editormhunt8@missouriwestern.edu

Matt Hunt | Asst. News Editormhunt8@missouriwestern.edu

Natalie Spivey | Staff Writernspivey@missouriwestern.edu

Eboni Lacey | News Editorelacey@missouriwestern.edu

SEE Adjunct PAGE 2

Missouri Western adjuncts pay

MLA recommended minimum compensation for 2011–12

$8,40012 credit hours

$27,20012 credit hours

EACH COLOR BLOCK REPRESENTS A CREDIT HOUR

THE COST OF DEDICATION

SEE Republicans PAGE 2

Ceara Boldridge backhands the ball over the net on Feb. 17. Missouri Western women’s tennis started their season against the Northeastern State Riverhawks. Western was defeated 9-0. Jason Brown | Photo Editor

Tennis opens season with loss to Riverhawks

Trash can be found many places on campus, especially with cuts to campus maintenance. Jason Brown | Photo Editor

SEE LGBT PAGE 2

Former Western kicker Greg Zuerlein prepares for the NFL draft. See page 7

Western student Nick Brothers stays updated with politics. Learn about him on page 5.

Zumba is just one of the op-tions that students have to get fit on campus.

See page 3

Adjunct faculty member Rosetta Ballew-Jennings points out instructions at the beginning of her English 100 class. Jason Brown | Photo Editor

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NEWS February 23, 2012

The Griffon NewsPage 2

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

stories@thegriffonnews.com

Beshears Hall

Juda Hall

Commons

Leaverton Hall

Griffon Hall

Scanlon Hall

Vaselakos Hall

Missouri Dept. of Conservation

Griffon Spring Sports Complex

Blum Union

Fulkerson Center

Leah Spratt Hall

Hearnes Center

Remington Hall

Murphy Hall

Eder HallPopplewell Hall

Spratt Stadium

Baker Family Fitness Center

Griffon Indoor Sports Complex

Looney Comlex

Wilson Hall

Potter Hall

Logan Hall

Downs Drive

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

CAMPUS INFORMATION

CAMPUS CRIME REPORTS

2

4

Thursday, Feb. 23• Galileo’sLegacyConference

‘EnvironmentalRestoration:BenefitsandChallenges’

• 5:00p.m.,‘Fat,Sick&NearlyDead’DocumentaryShowing

• 7:00p.m.,WarandPeaceFilmSeries,“AChild’sCenturyofWar”

Friday, Feb. 24• Galileo’sLegacyConference

‘EnvironmentalRestoration:BenefitsandChallenges’

Saturday Feb. 25• 1:30p.m.,GriffonWomen’s

Basketballvs.SouthwestBaptistUniversity

• 3:30p.m.,GriffonMen’sBasketballvs.SouthwestBaptistUniversity

Tuesday, Feb. 28• 7:00p.m.,“WildOceans”

PlanetariumShow

1. Vandalism 11 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 11, Lot F2. Stealing 3:27 a.m., Friday, Feb. 10, Lot H 3. Trespass 10:49 p.m., Friday, Feb. 10, Scanlon Hall4. Drug offense 9:54 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 4, Scanlon Hall

31

NEWSNOTES

Western offers ACT prep class

The Western Institute at Missouri Western State Uni-versity is offering an ACT test preparation class this spring. The five sessions will be held 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Satur-days from March 3 to March 31. Students must register by 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24.

Experienced instructors will teach students test-tak-ing strategies and review the four subject areas of the ACT: English, reading, mathemat-ics and science reasoning. Students are asked to bring a No. 2 pencil, paper and a calculator to class.

The total cost of the class is $149, including materi-als. To enroll or for more in-formation, call the Western Institute at 816-271-4100, visit the Western Institute in Spratt Hall room 105, or go to the website at www.wi.missouriwestern.edu.

Karen Koy wins Governor’s AwardDr. Karen Koy, assistant

professor in the department of biology, has been named Missouri Western State Uni-versity’s recipient of the 2012 Governor’s Award for Excel-lence in Education.

Among the research proj-ects Koy is pursuing are a multi-year study of verte-brate taphonomy, the decom-position that occurs prior to fossilization; the paleoecol-ogy of fossil outcrops; and the soils in Squaw Creek Na-tional Wildlife Refuge near Mound City, Mo.

‘’Karen is an outstanding example of a teacher who integrates her research in-terests into her coursework, helping achieve Western’s mission of applied learn-ing by allowing students to be involved in high-quality learning experiences,’’ said Dr. Jeanne Daffron, provost and vice president for aca-demic affairs.

.

Rosetta Ballew-Jennings fits in the latter category and feels that teaching as an ad-junct at Western has set her back career-wise.

“I was an adjunct at Texas State University before this, but I had a much better gig there,” Ballew-Jennings said. “Two semesters has broken me. I won’t be back next se-mester.”

Ballew-Jennings feels that Western should consider the labor requirement of ad-juncts specifically.

“I’m on campus 20 hours a week,” Ballew-Jennings said. “I work full-time hours, and I’ll make $10,000 this year. It’s labor exploitation. We ac-tually are not of a lower pro-fessional quality. I actually hold a higher degree than one of my bosses. We do the same things as our perma-nent position peers in this department.”

It should be very rare that adjunct faculty are teaching the same amount of courses as their full-time counter-parts, Daffron said.

“For the most part, folks who teach as an adjunct for us have other full-time jobs,”

she said. “So, you don’t want a full-time job and another job that is toward half-time. That’s just asking a lot.”

History professor and Dean of the history, physi-ology and geography de-partment Dr. Steven Greiert believes that adjuncts are tre-mendously underpaid more so then overworked.

“It’s like a patchwork job,” Greiert said. “You get no benefits, no health care cov-erage, you just get a salary and the salary is low. Let’s say you teach a full load and you’re an adjunct with a Ph.D., you get $9,600. If you live by yourself, that’s below the poverty line by a long shot. $9,600 is next to noth-ing.”

According to Grieret, five adjunct instructors were used for the department this semester, and three were used for last semester. For adjuncts with Master’s degrees, they receive $2,100 per course. Adjuncts with Ph.D.s receive $2,400 per course.

Adjunct Music professor Stephen Molloy, who has been teaching as an adjunct since 2000, feels that adjunct teaching does require a lot of labor, but is well worth it if the instructor loves what

they do.“This takes up the major-

ity of my weekend,” Molloy said. “Our department has been using adjuncts for sev-eral years and it seems to be working well for us. I’ve had very little to complain about since working here. I’ve been pleased as punch.”

Molloy, who also teaches at a community college in Kan-sas City, Kan., feels that the increase in adjunct use has to do more with the change in economy rather than the uni-versity suffering financially. However, every adjunct in-structor has a choice to be at Western, Molloy said.

“I’ve had people say ‘well, you’re not full time, then there must be some benefits that you are not receiving,’

but I’m fully aware of that,” Molloy said. “It comes down to personal choice. Econom-ic conditions right now are dictating that a lot of people hang on to what they got. We know a lot of people around the entire country that are losing their jobs as an result of economic downturn. I never felt that I was person-ally taken advantage of.”

Molloy feels that the true concern about adjuncts should rest with how the stu-dents feel.

“If the students are un-happy about it, that’s when we have to be concerned,” Molloy said. “If they feel that they are not getting as qual-ity of education or feel they are being shortchanged, then that’s a legitimate concern.”

Nicholas Brothers, a mem-ber of University Democrats, believes it is a great thing to have a wide diversity of opinions. He said he hopes the two organizations do not have to be rivals merely be-cause of party affiliation.

“Maybe we should in fact reject that and start build-ing ties now, to prevent things like the gridlock we see in Washington today from continuing into the fu-ture,” Brothers said. “Hope-fully MoWest Democrats and MoWest Republicans will have a chance to partner together during this election year for registration drives, panel discussions and the like.”

According to Sterling Fich-ter, it was time that organiza-tion was brought to Western. He said he tried to start the group back in the fall semes-ter, but with his schedule was unable to achieve his goal. The goal now is to promote the organization to conserva-

tive students on campus.“To enlighten, inform, and

discuss the current political issues of the day with other like-minded students,” Fich-ter said, “and to grow the size and reach of our group and its influence.”

Hart said he has two con-gressmen and the mayor of St. Joseph committed to come and speak to the orga-nization. He believes it will be very beneficial to have these speakers come to cam-pus and speak to students.

Hart is looking toward the future to get significant name politicians to campus.

“I am confident that I can get Sam Graves to come and speak at Missouri Western,” Hart said.” I would also like to see U.S. Senator Roy

Blunt and Missouri Lieuten-ant Governor Peter Kinder come to campus and be guest speakers.”

The college republicans are looking at 2012 as a new be-ginning and are hopeful they can make a change. Hart’s main goal going into the election is to make Barack Obama a one-term president.

“We are hoping to have more structure than other groups on campus,” Hart said. “Maybe they won’t even agree with us, but it’s good to have this group on campus and to finally see a conservative view for stu-dents.”

“I have friends that are gay, and why should they be treated any different?” Coursen said. “They still can do the job no matter who they want to have rela-tions with. That kind of thing doesn’t affect work perfor-mance.”

Tushaus said he feels that students could have an in-fluence on some legislators, even though the legislatures in Missouri are predomi-nantly conservative.

“You have to keep pushing for equal rights,” Tushaus said.“You have to keep go-ing back to the well to get to the place you want, and then maybe we will get to them to understand our concerns.”

The concern Beal feels is that students don’t believe they can make a difference.

“Most college students don’t think they can go somewhere like Jeff City and make a difference,” Beal said. “However, going and speaking to your legislators is a start, and if enough of us take part then maybe we can make a difference.”

Adjunct: CONTINUED FROM FRONT “Two semesters has

broken me. I won’t be back next semester.”

-Rosetta Ballew-Jennings

LGBT: CONTINUED FROM FRONT

Adjuncts feel underpaidProfessor thinks students could have impact on legislators

Republicans: CONTINUED FROM FRONT

College Republicans already lines up conservative speakers

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NEWS February 23, 2012

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Getting students in-volved and active on cam-pus in the month of Feb-ruary seems to be the goal for the members of Black Student Union. They will be hosting multiple events around campus for stu-dents to come out and at-tend.

According to BSU Presi-dent Louis Erby, the stu-dents are who he is look-ing out for. Erby wants to show people that the students will be the main focus for the organization.

‘The students are our main goal,” Erby said. “We’re not trying to please anyone else, but we’re try-ing to inform and provide something for our stu-dents to learn from and be entertained from.”

Every Friday BSU will host a movie in Spratt Hall Room 101. On Feb. 17, the organization played the movie “Get on the Bus,” which is a movie about men with various back-grounds making their way to the Million Man March. Each Friday a movie will start at 7 p.m., and the event is free.

The Black Heritage Ball

will be hosted on Feb. 28. The event goal is to talk about the difficulties that have been presented in the past and also difficul-ties we are dealing with in this generation.

“That’s going to be a very powerful program that will address a lot of the past adversities that we face, from slavery to present time,” Erby said. “A lot of things will be ad-dressed and talked about in a fashion where it will be informational and en-tertaining for everyone at the same time.”

Erby feels the Ball will be a good way for students

to learn about some older incidents that have hap-pened and how they may affect us to today. Erby feels that students and the community should come into the event with an open mind.

“We want students com-ing out being optimistic, open and ready to learn,” Erby said. “We want to take a trip back memory lane and discuss a lot of things that have happened in our past.”

The Heritage Ball is free and will be located in Spratt Hall room 214, but the first 70 students or staffs that RSVP will be

served food at the event. The ball is a black tie af-fair.

The latest program that BSU hosted was on Val-entine’s Day. The event was called the “Language of Love” and it presented poetry and singing by stu-dents. It also featured spe-cial guest Brandon Thorn-ton who goes by the stage name “Explicit.”

According to BSU Vice President Rodney Rob-erts, the event was a fun night out with your Val-entine where you get to be entertained at the same time.

“The ‘Language of Love’

program was a special night,” Roberts said.

“Language of Love” started at 7 p.m. and had a good turnout of students. Student Jordan Blew felt that all the performers where good and she really enjoyed herself.

“It was really good,” Blew said. “I loved the music and seeing people getting up there to per-form was also amazing.”

Black Student Union welcomes everyone to come out to the BSU meet-ings that are held every Tuesday at 5 p.m.

Director of Recreational Services Wonda Berry had a vision that started with a fitness class named Zumba. Zumba is a dance fitness workout that in-volves dancing to interna-tional music. That vision then expanded and three more fitness classes were created to help get stu-dents at Western and the community more engaged in exercising.

“SGA brought it up to us that they would like to have some self-served classes that people could get in shape in,” Berry said. “So we brought up Zumba.”

After doing a survey with participants in the Zumba workouts, Ber-ry decided to add more classes to help bring in more men, and also more students, to participate in the exercising programs. SGA sponsors all of the programs, and they also helped Berry get the three new classes started.

The Toning program was started to help lower the body fat of the par-ticipants. The exercises are

physical, and their main goal is to help develop a better physique.

Toning classes are held every Tuesday in the West Arena from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. The classes are in-structed by Lynae Sand-ers, who feels that one of the main goals of the class is to help her students tone up their muscles one at a time.

Sanders feels that the classes motivate her to stay in shape and to stay active.

“Obviously its good for your health, and it makes you feel and look better,” she said.

Poppy Sullivan is the In-structor of the Turbo Kick and PiYo classes. Turbo kick is a mix of kickboxing and dance moves that are choreographed to high-tempo music. The exer-cise is a cardiovascular challenge that helps with strength and endurance.

Turbo Kick classes are held on Mondays and Wednesdays from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Fitness Center. On Tuesdays, the class is held from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the West Arena.

PiYo classes are held on Thursdays from 6 p.m. to

7 p.m., also in the West arena. PiYo is a mix be-tween Pilates and yoga that focuses on strength and conditioning. The choreography is designed to make participants sweat and helps to tighten abdominal muscles.

Poppy Sullivan feels that the new workouts are something that some students may be inexperi-enced in. Bringing the pro-gram to St. Joseph allows more people to experience the program and hopeful-ly get something out of it.

“It’s something differ-ent,” Sullivan said. “I know there’s not a lot of turbo kick classes avail-able in town. The PiYo class is something new to St. Joe, and I feel that it is definitely something dif-ferent for students.”

Zumba classes will be held every Monday from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. and every Thursday from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the West Arena. Danyelle Jackson will be the instructor for Mon-days and Mark Gomez will be instructing classes on Thursdays.

The classes average from 6-24 students a class and with the addition of

the three programs, Berry hopes to get as much stu-dents as possible to come out and participate.

“Once it gets started and gets going, it will keep adding more people,” Berry said. “We’re trying

to get the classes going and get more people to at-tend.”

A self-defense program will be held Feb. 27 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the gym. The program is cre-ated to teach students on

campus the basic tech-niques of self-defense.

All of the programs are free for all students and no previous experience is re-quired to participate.

Black Student Union plans for Black History Month

New fitness classes hope to keep students exercising

Albert Shelby | Staff Writerashelby1@missouriwestern.edu

Albert Shelby | Staff Writerashelby1@missouriwestern.edu

www.griffonnews.com

Poppy Sullivan leads her class through an obviously energetic session of PiYo. PiYo combines yoga and Pilates to focus on strength training and conditioning. Jason Brown | Photo Editor

With social media and technology growing in popularity, professors in the

Communication Stud-ies, Theatre, and Cinema Department at Missouri Western State University have started using social media sites as helpful tools in the classroom.

Social media sites such as Twitter have come into classrooms as a way of keeping students and their professors connected.

Assistant professor of Communication Studies Christopher Bond is cur-rently using Twitter in his nonverbal communica-tion class. After doing a trial run last semester in his public relations cam-paigns class, he is begin-ning to fully use Twitter to communicate with his stu-dents and for his students to communicate with him and others in the class.

One of the major advan-tages to using Twitter as a teaching aid is creating a community within the classroom, Bond said.

Bond communicates with his students by posting questions and responding to students questions on Twitter. This

gives students a chance to interact outside the class-room. He also noted the importance of having a policy that students must follow. For example, a student would only be al-lowed to tweet a certain amount of times during class to ensure no one is abusing their privileges of tweeting during class time.

Another advantage to using Twitter in the class-room is that it gives pro-fessionals outside of the classroom an opportunity to partake in conversation.

Public relations major Ryan Swafford said that the biggest advantage to

using social media sites is “it brings other people into the discussion.” He used Twitter in Bonds’ class last semester. He said it was beneficial because it helped him “stay connect-ed with other students.” Without these social me-dia sites, students would not get the chance to inter-act with professionals and benefit from their input. Using these social media sites gives students the opportunity to network with others outside the classroom.

“Academics need to change in order for this to catch on,” Dr. McMa-han, associate professor of

communication studies, said.

Not many other depart-ments are using social me-dia sites to connect with students. This may take some time before other de-partments realize the ben-efits of using social media sites.

Bond and McMahan both feel that the com-munications department is ahead of the game with using this technology in the classroom.

“Eventually we will see the utility of this,” Bond said.

With the success of so-cial media sites, it may be sooner than expected.

Sayre Roesle | Contrib. Writersroesle1@missouriwestern.edu

Instructors use Twitter in the classroom to interact with, engage students

FEATURESFebruary 23, 2012

The Griffon News

I have to admit, when I started watching the Red-box movie for this week, I was already convinced that I was not going to like it. It was a rainy early morning, and all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. How much attention I ended up paying to “Take Shelter” is really a testa-ment to what an incred-ible film it is.

“Take Shelter” tells the story of Curtis (Michael Shannon), his wife Sa-mantha (the amazing Jes-sica Chastain) and their deaf daughter Hannah (Tova Stewart); Curtis starts to suffer from vivid nightmares every night. His dreams show him and the ones around him suf-fering terribly because of a crazy, apocalyptic storm. The clouds cover the whole sky and the rain is the color of motor oil. Cur-tis is both convinced that he’s going crazy and con-cerned that these dreams are premonitions. Much of the tension of the film revolves around that very question: is Curtis crazy? Or is he telling the future?

Shannon’s portrayal of Curtis is mesmerizing. Like I said, I was in no mood to watch such a se-rious movie this morning, but Shannon changed my mind. Curtis tries to bury his fear and hide it from those around him, and Shannon does a wonderful job of showing the audi-ence just how all-consum-ing this fear is. When Cur-tis becomes obsessed with building a tornado shelter for his family, Shannon easily shows Curtis’ con-flicting feelings: he knows he is crazy for spending this much time and mon-ey on something they’ll probably never use, but he cannot help himself. It is a true shame that Shan-non was not nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his work in this film.

“Take Shelter” is the

third film starring Chas-tain that I’ve seen in a month, and I have yet to tire of her. She is radiant and amazing, fully em-bodying each character that she portrays. Her per-formance as Samantha is no exception. Samantha is completely devoted to her family, especially when it comes to bettering the life of Hannah. Many of her scenes focus on her inter-acting with the little girl, teaching her new signs and playing with her. The audience would be smart to pay attention to these signs – they become im-portant later in the film. Chastain uses the signs with ease, which shows the care she used when preparing for the role. Sa-mantha works tirelessly to get cochlear implants for her daughter, and when Curtis’ impulses harm the surgery’s possibility, Chastain truly shows Sa-mantha’s rage.

“Take Shelter” is abso-lutely worth the money and the time. The perfor-mances of the lead actors are only two of the high-lights that make this film worth watching. The cin-ematography is beauti-ful and the script is spare and well-written. Watch-ing the movie before a big rainstorm hits is maybe not the best idea though; you may want to start building a tornado shelter of your own, which is not the most relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

Page 5

Colorful compliments and helpful criticism echo in Eder 211 after students read the short stories and poems they have been working hard on aloud. English profes-sor and leader of Writers Circle, Dana Andrews, throws out “That’s good shit, man,” and “You can’t teach that” to his “veter-ans” that have been with the group for semesters.

English professors An-drews and Meg Thomp-son were approached by colleague Patricia Do-naher in October 2007, who had an idea to create Writers Circle as an ex-tension of the Sigma Tau Delta honor society. Do-naher knew Andrews and Thompson had Masters of Fine Arts in creative writ-ing, so she thought they would be perfect for the job.

To Andrews, however, Writers Circle is not a job.

“It’s voluntary; I don’t get paid,” Andrews said,

“but it’s part our job to have service to the depart-ment and to the university, and it’s also fun. We get to see budding writers, peo-ple who have some talent, stuff like that, so it’s fun.”

It is fun and laid-back, which is why Andrews said Writers Circle is not a place where students should go to get help on academic papers. The point of Writers Circle is to help students improve on their creative writing skills, and creative writing skills only, which is what senior Caroline Johnson enjoys about the group.

“There’s a little more freedom [in Writers Cir-cle],” the member of two and a half years said. “You get to choose what you want to do, and it’s not a class.”

Anyone is welcome to come and bring projects or scripts they have been working on (whether it be one-act plays, poetry, short stories, etc.) for critiques from other students, An-drews and English profes-sor Ian Roberts, who has taken over for Thompson.

Yes, critiques. Students shouldn’t expect to just get a pat on the back — Andrews and Roberts are looking to help students develop their writing skills, and one cannot do that without understand-ing viewpoints from oth-ers. However, Andrews’ goal is never to “slam” someone, which students, like longtime member Matthew Kurtz, notices and abides by.

“[Andrews] gives criti-cism at the right amount,” Kurtz said. “We make it a point not to say bad stuff for the sake of saying bad stuff. We try our best to be as constructive as pos-sible.”

Andrews likes to see his students gain confidence in their abilities and take command in their work, and after reading a stu-dent’s piece, Andrews starts off with the negative comments and ends with the positives.

Kurtz says Writers Circle is all about self-improve-ment and said Andrews and Roberts encourage students to figure out how

to fix weak points in a piece on their own. Kurtz also said the professors also have a lot of experi-ence and provide insight of not just how to write a story, but how to make it presentable for publica-tion.

Writers Circle takes place every Thursday at 12:30 in Eder 211. An-drews is a firm believer that there is a writer in

everyone, which is why students don’t have to be in creative writing classes to join the group. Kurtz is a history major, and John-son is a psychology major. Both students are minor-ing in creative writing, and they take time out of their day to write.

Ultimately, Kurtz be-lieves Writers Circle is a good way to get feedback and improve on writing

skills and thinks students should give Writers Circle a shot.

“It’s a good place whether you’re starting out writing or you’ve been working at it for awhile; it’s a good place for ad-vice. You’re not required to come every week, and it’s very informal, so just come by and bring your stuff.”

“Always low prices.”That was what one

Christmas gift card said referring to Walmart, but the only thing out of the ordinary was the picture of a sweatshop as the background.

This card was given to Dr. Jonathan Euchner, a political science professor at Missouri Western. One of his political science stu-dents -- Nicholas Brothers -- gave him the card as a joke, after teasing his pro-fessor for being a “proud Walmart shopper.”

“I just had to give it to him,” Brothers said, “to remind him where those low prices come from.”

Over the years, Euchner has seen Brothers blossom within the department, ever since he first had him in class in the fall of 2009.

“I could tell when I first had him as a student that he followed the news regularly,” Euchner said. “He had a point of view and was curious, and cu-riosity is the most impor-tant thing a student could have.”

This card was just one example of his style and how he has the ability to go to the extreme to voice an opinion, which is some-

thing he encourages ev-eryone to do. Apathy and disengagement is what Brothers sees as the big-gest issue with America.

“People just believe that someone else will fix it,” Brothers says. “Every-body’s voice and hands and feet are needed.”

Another way Brothers stays active in the politi-cal field is involvement. Brothers is a proud and consistent member of the Occupy St. Joseph move-ment, as well as the Mis-souri Western Democrats club. He also is support-ing the idea of building a

generalized political sci-ence organization here at Western for anyone inter-ested in politics.

“I believe in the power of the people to non-vio-lently change a situation,” Brothers said. “I’m a big believer of diplomacy, and I’m a big believer in our ability to actually come to understandings.”

Brothers first gained in-terest in politics the same way he believes most people become interested, by the level of political involvement of their par-ents. When he was just 10 years old he went door to

door with his father, can-vassing for Bill Clinton.

Ever since, Brothers has continued and increased his political involvement in any way possible.

Brothers is still consider-ing graduate school. Even though Western doesn’t offer graduate studies for the political science de-partment, he would most likely continue his educa-tion somewhere in-state. He one day hopes to work on an international level involving human rights to help others.

“Wild Oceans” plane-tarium showing was defi-nitely wild, but not nec-essarily the kind of wild you’d want.

When you first walk in, it feels like a private show-ing because of how few of seats there actually are. Once you sit down and lean your head back in your seat, the entire screen fills your peripheral vi-sion. It was surprising to see how nicely set up the planetarium was.

Once the movie actually started, however, disap-pointment hit.

The first couple minutes is just a trailer for “Won-ders of the Universe,” which is another plan-

etarium screening our campus provides. The next five minutes or so is a brief display of “winter star-gazing,” which is a basic screening and les-son on basic constellation systems. It was very inter-esting, and I walked away from it actually learning some new things.

For the next 45-50 min-utes, “Wild Oceans” was showing. Right from the start, the camera is al-ready filming all over the place. It was tough to know which direction was up, what was down and sometimes confusing on what was even being filmed. The screen was too big for the shot and there was no clear focus, con-fusing viewers with what they should be looking at.

The most difficult part

was the low quality of film that it was shot in. Don’t go in there with the idea that you are watch-ing Discovery channel’s “Planet Earth”; in fact, it was far from it.

The whole storyline was about a large movement of sardines, and how preda-tors from all over meet at this one area to feed. The area is near the south tip of Africa. This gave the makers of the film the idea to have the narrator be a man with a heavy Afri-can accent. This was good thinking, but very hard for the audience. Most of what he was saying was going through one ear and out the other, just because he was almost impossible to understand.

On top of having the headache from the jittery

camera, poor quality and mumbling narrator, the show ended with a roll-er coaster ride from the planet Mars. Although it was clearly computer ani-mated, it was still clearer than the actual show. If you already have a head-ache at the start of the roll-er coaster ride, close your eyes, or else that headache will stay with you all day.

Don’t get the idea that the planetarium isn’t any good. It was actually a shock seeing that good of a set up on our campus. The only bad part was the actual show itself. I’m con-fident that in the future, the kinks will get worked out and we’ll have some high quality planetarium shows soon.

Creativity improved at Writers Circle

Nicholas Brothers takes a stand Film makes audience want to ‘Take Shelter’

‘Wild Oceans’ a little too wild

Blair Stalder | Features Editorbstalder@missouriwestern.edu

Christian Mengel | Asst. Features Editorcmengel@missouriwestern.edu

Caitlin Cress | Managing Editorccress1@missouriwestern.edu

Christian Mengel | Asst. Features Editorcmengel@missouriwestern.edu

(Clockwise, from left) Katie Walkup, Caroline Johnson, Dana Andrews, Ian Roberts and Mat-thew Kurtz work through a meeting of the Writers Circle. Alison Beattie | Staff Photographer

Student Nicholas Brothers is active politically both on and off campus. Michelle Cordonnier | Staff Photographer

allmoviephotos.com

OPINIONS February 23, 2012

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 thegriffonnews@gmail.com. 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 EditorDesign Editor

Graphics EditorAssistant Graphics Editor

News EditorAssistant News Editor

Photo EditorSports Editor

Assistant Sports EditorMultimedia Editor

Opinions EditorFeatures Editor

Assistant Features EditorAd Manager

Faculty Advisor

Dave HonEditor-in-Chief

Caitlin CressAndy InmanBrooke CarterNat LarsenEboni LaceyMatt HuntJason Brown Thomas Huitt-Johnson Kyle Inman Nathan PickmanEllis Cross Blair StalderChristian MengelKyler PenlandKen Rosenauer

The Griffon News Staff

Melinda Pollackjunior

“Good personal skills. They have got to be able to communicate with all of the students since there is

a wide variety of ages.”

“Some one that is open to help people when ever

they need help.”

Tim Barnettsophomore

Steven Talbotsophomore

“Some one who is willing to go outside of their

boundaries and just be willing to help you learn

or better understand something.”

CAMPUS VOICEWhat makes a good

instructor? Tom Keller

senior

“The ability to be flexible with students and

understanding about certain situations”

Jordan Bressmanfreshman

“Someone who doesn’t give up on their students.”

Check out the full responses at

GriffonNews.com

It is important to respect adjunct instructors as if they were full time professors. They do work hard for little pay. Equally important, stu-dents should hold them to the same standard as full-time faculty to keep educa-tion quality high at Missouri Western State University.

Most students do not know if their instructor is full-time or not. That is the way it should be; there shouldn’t be any discernible difference. However, to deliver that level of quality, the adjunct instructor does have to put in more time than they are being paid for. While this is obviously unfair, sadly it is the truth. Because of this, students should appreciate their adjunct faculty just as much or more than regular faculty.

That doesn’t mean stu-dents should show adjuncts more respect, it just means they should understand the situation. Many people in the work force are overworked and underpaid, but students have a better opportunity to make their teacher’s lives

Editorial:rewarding.

This chasm of fairness is likely not to change with the third straight year of severe cuts in Missouri state appro-priations to higher educa-tion. Western has already tightened the belt as much as possible, with adjunct fac-ulty feeling it the most, but many other employees have suffered. It is important to respect all employees here at Western. They all have to strive to master their craft and without a raise in sev-eral years.

On a daily basis, students have the best chance to improve the lives of all fac-ulty members, but especially adjunct faculty. With a small pay and a lot of work, it’s obvious that they aren’t here for the money. They’re here for the students.

When students get a chance, they should thank their faculty for working hard. At the same time, if they feel that the faculty is not teaching at their expecta-tions, students shouldn’t get angry or upset. At the end of the semester, faculty evalu-

ations are a great time for constructive criticism.

While the university fights budget cuts, class size and the number of classes are increasing. The number of full time faculty at Western is going down. At the same time enrollment is hitting record highs every year.

As money gets tighter and tighter at Western, changes are inevitable. Most of those

Students should appreciate adjunct faculty

SGA may be suppressing student voices! The MWSU Administration recently told SGA that student-approved fees would be helpful in off-setting budget cuts to the university. Many senators support these fees, but are afraid the student body may vote against them. So, in order to assure student fees are passed, they would like to keep students from voting on the issue and decide it exclusively in Senate, where it is all but guaranteed to pass.

Here are the reasons they have put forward to explain this:

“Because we can.” Aside from the fact that our parents ceased using

Gary Weidemanngweidemann@missouriwestern.edu

Students beware, SGA avoiding student vote

Obama hasn’t changed shit. No one wants to admit it. Everyone was quick to join in on the “change” train. Yes, after the hell we went through with the last moron as president, change sounded really good. Who wouldn’t vote for change?

Yes you can probably name some good things Obama’s done. It was under his term that Osama Bin Laden was

killed. It’s good to know it only took a decade. I guess you can tell me he ended the war in Iraq. Sure, if you think making the soldiers fight in Afghanistan instead of Iraq is ending a war.

Everyone criticized Newt Gingrich for being racist after he called Obama the “food stamp president.” Once peo-ple checked the facts and realized that there was a 59

Time to “change” Obama; current president adding to debtpercent increase of people on food stamps since Bush’s term ended, those critics kind of shut their mouths. Besides, it wouldn’t be a rac-ist comment even if the facts were false, there are more white people on food stamps than black people.

Imagine how many peo-ple would finally find work if the money spent on food stamps were spent on cre-ating jobs instead. People could actually buy their own food with their own money that they make. Doesn’t that just sound crazy?

At least Obama has paid off some of America’s debt.

Oh, wait, no actually he didn’t pay shit off. He’s had a pretty interesting game plan for it though: Spend 4 trillion dollars in three and a half years. He definitely accomplished that. What do we have to show for it? You’d think that spending 4 trillion dollars would make a pretty noticeable impact on something. Let’s just go through a checklist: Create jobs? No. Lower the unem-ployment rate? No. Bring our military home? No. Decrease home foreclosures? No. Raise the average house-hold income? No. Bailout big ass companies and stop cap-

italism from working how it’s supposed to? Yes, did it do anything positive for the people? No.

It was Obama himself three years ago who said “If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one term president.” I haven’t noticed any improvement since he took office. People need to get it together and look past the good looks and nice speeches. Look at what he’s done and ask yourself if it’s the “change” he prom-ised America.

Christian Mengelcmengel@missouriwestern.edu

“because I say so” as a ratio-nale by the time we were old enough to perform simple reasoning, this justification offers no explanation and is a textbook example of cir-cular reasoning. “SGA will vote on the issue because it can.” Well, students could also vote on the issue. Why? Because they can. In such an important election, why not make sure that all students get the opportunity to deter-mine the outcome? What’s the real reason SGA may cir-cumvent a student vote on student-approved fees?

“Voter turnout is low.”So an election is not cred-

ible if voter turnout is low? First, people have a right not to vote, and if they exer-

cise that right it doesn’t mean we should dismantle our democracy. Second, how would 18 senators vot-ing on an issue concerning 6,000 plus students consti-tute high turnout? Finally, what was the voter turnout for current SGA executive and senatorial positions? If low turnout constitutes an illegitimate election, what is to be done about members of SGA? I have a funny feel-ing proponents of this jus-tification may be reasoning themselves right out of their offices...

“We represent the student body.”

But nearly all senators acknowledge that student support for an additional fee is not high and that the fees, if left for the students to decide, may fail. Some have even admitted this is the rea-son for avoiding a student vote. So how is avoiding a

student vote simply because it jeopardizes the hopes of the Administration repre-senting the student body?

“We know what’s best for the students.”

One prominent SGA offi-cial said that since SGA sena-tors agreed more fees were needed, they only needed to worry about how best to get those fees. Students’ voices don’t matter even in their own representative body! SGA should personally tell their fellow students this. Let your peers know you think 18 senators are bet-ter equipped to speak for the students than the stu-dents themselves. I would even suggest a quota of 340 students each since that is the approximate number of voices you would be consoli-dating into your own.

It is not in a leader to take the easy way out. It may be a challenge to convince the

student body to vote in favor of student-approved fees, but that is the responsibility of the SGA officials who sup-port it. I hope and believe that in the coming weeks some members of SGA will step forward and provide true leadership and repre-sentation for the students. Whether you are for student fees or against them, we can all rally behind the idea that students’ votes should be counted. Concerned stu-dents, it would be great if you join me at SGA meet-ings, 6pm Monday nights on 2nd floor of Blum. Just show-ing up and watching may be enough to guarantee you a vote on this critical issue.

changes are going to be in the interest of saving money. Many employees on campus are going to be producing more in less time and with less resources.

Students also are going to have to be more respon-sible for their own educa-tion. They are going to be in more crowded classroom with less one-on-one time with instructors. There may

also be a reduction in some of the campus’ student ser-vices some day.

It is time for each student to evaluate why he or she is here. Everyone wants to have a good time and be entertained while learning, but students may also have to be more accountable for their education and take their personal studies seri-ously.

Sports February 23, 2012

The Griffon NewsPage 7

NFL Scouts will get a chance to evaluate kicker Greg Zuerlein at his pro day on March 23. He’s already put in the leg work with an outstanding senior season, now it’s just up to a team to draft him in one of seven rounds of the 2012 NFL draft on April 26.

In his one season at West-ern, Zuerlein hit an unprec-edented 9-for-9 field goals from over 50 yards, includ-ing two 58-yard field goals. He led the nation in fields goals per game with 2.6 and the MIAA in scoring with 10.6 points per game. The strong-legged kicker was a First-Team NCAA All-Amer-ican.

“It’s just his natural abil-

ity,” said Jay White, Western special teams coach. “He’s not a big guy, he’s just a lean guy. His initial leg swing is quick and gets the ball up right away compared to someone that’s a lot bigger. The ball just jumps off his leg, and it’s gone.”

According to Mel Kiper Jr., ESPN NFL Draft expert for 24 years, Zuerlein is the top-ranked kicker in the entire draft.

“You haven’t seen Zuer-lein, but he banged home 21 straight field goals this year and showed off range out to 60 yards. He looks like a good one,” Kiper said.

The only unanswered question is how Zuerlein will perform under the pressure that comes with having to hit game-deciding or sometimes season-deciding field goals

in front of NFL crowds. The attendance record at Spratt Stadium is 10,727, while 105,121 people crammed into Dallas Stadium to watch the Cowboys in ‘09. White has no doubt in his mind that Zuerlein has the mental makeup to succeed under the most pressure-filled situ-ations.

“Hands down, I would say he’s a professional,” White said. “Every kick is a pres-sure kick with him, and he wants to make everything, and he’s shown that this year with us.”

Zuerlein spent three years at Nebraska-Omaha, where he was an all-American be-fore sustaining a hip injury that forced him to take a medical redshirt during the 2010 season.

UNO closed down its foot-

ball program and went Divi-sion I in all of its remaining sports. Zuerlein had offers from Nebraska, UCLA, Clemson, Oklahoma State, Kansas and Minnesota to play his senior season be-fore the NCAA denied him eligibility due to the five year rule at the Division I level, according to the World-Her-ald. Division II does not have a set amount of time for eli-gibility.

After coming to Western, Zuerlein hit new career highs in every statistical category and bounced back from the injury, kicking longer and more accurate than he ever had before. He was selected to the East-West shrine game featuring the best seniors in college football and made his only field goal attempt, a 35-yarder.

Greg Zuerlein prepares for NFL draft

Through everything the Griffon basketball teams have had happen to them -- suspensions, injuries, overtime losses and buzzer beater misses -- both teams have one last shot to make the MIAA Tournament March 1 through 4 in Kansas City, Mo.

Both teams play at MWSU Fieldhouse in the Griffons’ final two games of the sea-son. Wednesday, Central Missouri comes to town, and Saturday, Southwest Baptist pays a visit.

By the time this issue comes out, the men’s team should know its fate. They must win both games plus help to make the tourna-ment.

The women, who have a slightly easier route to the tourney, don’t necessarily need a win against Central. If the Griffons bring in the

win, they still have to play the Bearcats and win to go to the tournament. A loss to Central, the same result must occur -- a win against South-west.

“It’s almost like a play-in game,” coach Lynn Plett said. “We have to play good defense. I think that’s the biggest thing we’ve got away from, at least for 40 minutes of not playing really good, solid defense at least for an entire ball game.”

Both teams sit at 4-14 in the conference. Southwest defeated Missouri West-ern 100-99 in overtime back in January. If a split occurs (Western wins Saturday), then Western receives the tie-breaker based off the win over Fort Hays State. If Southwest brings in the win, it wins the tie-breaker based off a 2-0 sweep at the hand of the Griffons.

For Western women, it’s simple -- win Saturday and you’re in.

As for the men, they kept a slim hope alive with a victo-ry against Truman State Sat-urday. The 74-70 moves the Griffons to two games back of the No. 8 seed currently occupied by Emporia State.

If Western defeats both Central and Southwest -- two teams it has previously lost to -- then the Griffons finish the season at 5-15.

That won’t matter unless help arrives.

Emporia must lose both games it plays it finishes 5-15. The Griffons own the tie-breaker because head-to-head they are 1-1, but the Griffons defeated the higher seeded team (Mis-souri Southern).

Western still needs help. Because it was swept by Lincoln, if the Blue Tigers win one more game then they own any tie-breaker. Western also needs to have Truman lose its home finale against Central in order for the Bulldogs to lose out on

an eighth seed.However, a loss Wednes-

day, a Lincoln win or an Em-poria win, none of this mat-ters.

“It’s not who you play, it’s when you play them,” coach Tom Smith said. “[Against Truman] our kids played really well. We controlled the tempo. We went in, and for the first time and hit some free throws late, and did not give up the lead late.”

The men lose three seniors -- T.J. Johnson, Lavonte Douglas and Deion-ta Mitchell. The women lose three as well -- Jessica Koch, Brittany Casady and Alex Noble. Koch needs 40 points to become the all-time career leader in points.

Brittany Griswold will not return this season, as the junior will remain in a boot for the next four weeks.

Nontheless, Saturday’s game against Southwest should be an unpredictable night for both sports.

Men, women have one last shot at MIAA tourneyThomas Huitt-Johnson | Sports Editorthuittjohnson@missouriwestern.edu

Kyle Inman | Asst. Sports Editorkinman@missouriwestern.edu

Womenʼs Basketball Standing School MIAA Overall

      1. Pittsburg      2. Washburn      3. Emporia      4. Central Missouri      5. Fort Hays      6. Truman      7. Lincoln      8. Southwest Baptist      9. Missouri Western     10. Northwest Missouri     11. Missouri Southern

17-216-213-512-611-79-98-104-144-143-153-16

23-323-418-618-619-715-914-109-156-185-217-18

     1. Northwest Missouri     2. Missouri Southern     3. Washburn     4. Central Missouri     5. Fort Hays     6. Southwest Baptist     7. Pittsburg     8. Emporia     9. Truman    10. Lincoln    11. Missouri Western

Menʼs Basketball Standings School MIAA Overall

14-414-513-513-510-810-810-95-134-144-143-15

20-422-519-717-716-817-1014-129-157-194-208-16

Got an opinion?John Doejdoe@missouriwestern.edu?

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Send columns or letters to Ellis Cross at elliscross@yahoo.com

Zuerlein throws the ball before the Northwest Missouri game at Spratt Stadium. Griffons won 31-28. During the first meeting with Northwest Missouri State University, he made all three field goal attempts at 37, 53 and 58 yards. Jason Brown | Photo Editor

(Above) Shawn Tarver (35) bounces into the lane and puts up two points during the Fort Hays game. (Below) Kallie Schoonover (11) looks to pass against Fort Hays. Both teams fell to the Tigers. Jason Brown | Photo Editor

During the match up against Missouri Southern, Zuerlein com-pleted his first long field goal of the year from 57 yards out. Jason Brown | Photo Editor

Zuerlein (31) completes a 58 yard field goal in the first quarter of Missouri Western’s first playoff game in Spratt Stadium. This put the Griffons above the Bearcats 10-7. Zuerlein went on to complete two more fields goals, from 57 and 52 yards. Jason Brown | Photo Editor

SPORTS February 23, 2012

The Griffon NewsPage 8

In a twist of events, the Missouri Western softball team didn’t exactly play who it was supposed to this past weekend.

However, the Griffons won all five games they encountered in the diamond.

After rain cancelled the final two days of the Southeastern Oklahoma State Shootout, the Griffons were on their way home with a 3-0 weekend record before Western coach Jen Bagley received a text from Northeastern State asking if the Griffons would match up with the Riverhawks.

To nobody’s surprise, the team took the challenge and swept them.

“It was the two games you love to play as a team,” said Bagley, referring to the difference in each game -- one, a close pull-through victory, and the second, a dominating performance. “We want to be the team that will go and play on a blacktop. We don’t want adversity to be the reason we don’t succeed.”

The Griffons’ first game against the Riverhawks

was tight. Just as expected, a pitching war between sophomore Jackie Bishop and Riverhawks starter Cayce Coleman occurred.

Through five innings, the score was deadlocked at one run apiece. After Kim Robinson reached second base off of JUCO trans-fer Kendall Sorensen’s sacrifice bunt, another transfer -- Sarah Elliott -- stepped to the plate and belted the ball. The shortstop blasted it over the scoreboard to run in two scores and take a 3-1 advantage.

No more runs were scored, as the Griffons took game one from the Riverhawks.

“Being able to come up with a big hit late in the game from Sarah Elliott,” Bagley said, “to have her power go over the fence, that was exciting.”

The second game didn’t bring as much excitement, save from one inning.

Western dominated Northeastern, ending much hope the Riverhawks had early with a 2-run lead in the first inning.

The Griffons scored seven runs in the top of the sixth to secure the 9-0 victory.

Maegan Roemmich

singled to left, followed by Leah Steele’s base hit that advaned Roemmich to third. Roemmich stole home on the next bat.

The run marked the score 3-0, before Robinson, Sorensen and freshman Tiffany Gillaspy loaded the bases.

Again, Elliott provid-ed a spark, as the junior doubled to right field, scoring Robinson and Gillaspy.

Blair Stalder’s single to center scored Elliott and Sorensen.

Eventually, Stalder and Erin Widgrig would add two more runs to complete the seven-run inning.

Before the two-game series was played in Talequah, Okla., the Griffons defeated New-man 8-1 -- revenge from last season’s 4-3 loss the Griffons experienced.

The Griffons beat S o u t h e a s t e r n Oklahoma State 7-3 and Texas Permian-Basin 12-2 to complete the three-game day.

Before the tournament even started, Western experienced its own trouble outside of the weather.

The Griffons were stranded in Joplin, Mo.

for more than three hours because of vehicle problems, and didn’t arrive to the tournament until 3 a.m.

“For us to go and play on Friday, and do what we wanted to accomplish -- and do it on three hours of sleep -- we are very proud of the effort,” Bagley said. “To be able to deal with adversity and be able to overcome it rather than use it as our crutch, I think that was a big accomplishment on our part.”

Western, now sitting at 9-2, head to Benton-ville, Ark., to play in the A r k a n s a s - M o n t i c e l l o Tournament.

There, the Griffons meet up with Missouri-St. Louis, Southern Arkan-sas, North Alabama and Illinois-Springfield.

Also, Western has rematches against No. 12 Monticello and Southeast-ern Oklahoma State. The Griffons beat both teams. Its first home game is less than two weeks away, as the Griffons play a doubleheader against Quincy Tuesday, March 6.

After winning the first game of its season-open-ing series, Missouri West-ern baseball dropped two straight to fall in its opening series to No. 26 North Ala-bama in Florence, Ala.

“I was very happy with our starting pitching and very happy with the way we played defense,” Coach Buzz Verduzco said. “I think we still have to find ourselves when it comes to the bullpen as far as how we are going to use each guy in what situa-tion. We still have some un-answered questions as far as the relief goes.”

Pitcher Brandon Simmons led the Griffons to a 4-1 vic-tory in the opening game of the series. Simmons went seven innings and gave up only one earned run while striking out six batters and giving up six hits.

Grant Fink hit 2-for-3 for

the Griffons and singled in Spencer Shockley to give the Griffons a 1-0 lead in the sec-ond inning. David Chew hit a RBI single to score Michael Schulze to give the Griffons a 2-0 lead. Fink scored on a wild pitch in the fifth in-ning to give the Griffons a 3-0 cushion. Bubba Dotson added a solo home run in the eighth inning to seal up the victory for Western.

“Hitting was a little disap-pointing. We took too many pitches, and we weren’t as aggressive as we tried to be before we got off the bus,” Verduzco said. “We struck out way too many times looking with too many guys on base. We just overall kind of let the pitcher and the um-pire dictate the strike zone and didn’t really change things by our aggressive-ness.”

North Alabama got the bats going in game two with Matt Bergin on the mound as the Griffons lost 7-2. Bergin

went four innings and gave up five hits.

Fink put the Griffons on the board and tied the game at 1-1 after scoring on a sac-rifice fly in the third inning. The game was tied until the fifth when North Alabama scored three runs in the fifth inning.

Western countered with a run as Chew singled in Jake Graham in the sixth, but North Alabama scored three more runs in the bottom of the sixth to seal up the 7-2 victory.

“If you notice who got all the hits and who were the productive offensive guys, it was the guys who were ag-gressive.” Verduzco said.

Pitcher Nik Jarudo went 7.1 innings for the Griffons and struck out nine batters while only giving up five hits, but it wasn’t enough as North Alabama took the final game of the series 5-3 to im-prove to 7-2 on the season.

The Griffons got out to a

2-0 lead in the second inning as Chew and Schulze crossed home plate. Chew doubled in Schulze and Fink batted in Chew with a single.

Jarudo gave up his first run in the fourth inning off a sac-rifice fly, but the Griffons still held a 3-1 lead after Graham batted in Tony Loeffller with a double.

The North Alabama bats came alive in the eighth in-ning as the Lions scored four runs on three hits after tak-ing advantage of an error by the Griffons.

The Griffons tried to rally in the bottom of the ninth inning with a pair of singles with two out, but it wasn’t enough. Pitcher Ethan Ward took the loss in relief after giving up a run.

“I felt like we were ready to play so all those were pos-itives and now we just have to learn to do that on a con-sistent basis whether we are home or away,” Verduzco said.

Sport: Softball

Year: Senior

Position: Second BasemanStats this week: Hits- 7RBls- 5Doubles-2

BLAIR STALDERBLAIR STALDERStalder helped provide �ve wins in �ve games for the Grions this past weekend. The senior collected seven hits on 15 at-bats for an aver-age of .467. She also took part in a seven-run inning, where Stalder singled to center �eld which ran in two scorers.

Thomas Huitt-Johnson | Sports Editorthuittjohnson@missouriwestern.edu

Kyle Inman | Asst. Sports Editorkinman@missouriwestern.edu

Griffon baseball fall in opening series 2-1

Griffons go 5-0 despite adversity

During the fall double header against Des Moines Area Community College, Maegan Roemmich hits for a single advancing the strong offense for the Griffons. Jason Brown | Photo Editor

Taylor Anding fields a ground ball during an indoor practice at the Griffon Indoor Sports Complex. Jason Brown | Photo Editor

(Top:) Jumping to snag a line drive, Harrison Cobb works on his reaction time during practice.(Left:) Outfielders line up to take fly balls before the season starts. The Griffons have started out slow with a record of 1-2. Jason Brown | Photo Editor