Attendance policy chang- es at Missouri Western shouldn’t be viewed as an excused absence; check your professor’s policy, it may be tougher than the previous policy. Director of Financial Aid Marilyn Baker said that Western eliminated the over- all institutional policy for 100- and 200-level classes be- cause there were some regu- latory changes that came through the U.S. Depart- ment of Education last year. “Western is not an institu- tion that is required to take attendance,” Baker said. According to Baker, schools Kurt McGuffin stood in the middle of the room and talked to everyone that was near him. Primped in a tan suit and Missouri Western’s colors for the first time, McGuffin finally looked at home. The seventh ath- letic director at Western was introduced to a crowd of over 100 people Monday at the weekly Grif- fon Athletic Luncheon at 36th Street Food and Drink Company located inside Holiday Inn. “This is a committed griffonnews.com Vol 94 | Issue 9 November 3, 2011 NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 32 St. JOSEPH, MO MISSOURI WESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY the news Molly Slattery (3) hugs Kelly Voights right before the national anthem on Senior Night, which was the last game of the season for the women’s soccer team. Jason Brown | Photo Editor When you think of a tee- ter-totter, you probably think about being on the play- ground as a child, rocking back and forth, up and down with your friends as you giggle in your high-pitched, innocent, little six-year-old voice. Something similar hap- pened on the Missouri West- ern campus Oct. 27. Alpha Gamma Delta held their 15th annual 24-hour Teeter Thomas Huitt-Johnson | Sports Editor [email protected][place],” McGuffin said. “I’m excited to be a part of it.” McGuffin, who is currently staying in Scanlon Hall until he settles in to his new town, said that everybody should expect the Griffons to be every- where in St. Joseph. “We’re going to do everything we can to make [St. Jo- seph] proud of the black and gold,” said McGuffin, who has worked at Division I schools Colorado and Kansas State. Caleb Jones | Staff Writer [email protected]Totter-A-Thon. Western’s Alpha Gamma Delta chapter was founded in 1995, and the sorority started the teeter-totter fundraiser in 1997 as a way to raise money for the foundation. Western student Danielle Bryan is the sorority’s Philan- thropy Coordinator. “The fundraiser helps raise money for diabetes research and increase awareness,” Bryan said. “The fundraiser also helps provide grants that help Alpha Gamma Delta women that are in need.” The Alpha Gamma Delta chapter hosts two fundrais- ers each school year, one for each semester. The annual spring fundraiser is known as Mr. MWSU. Mr. MWSU is a pageant that allows male students to showcase their school spir- it. The pageant is divided into five categories: formal, costume, swimwear, talent and school spirit. Last year the pageant raised around $1,700 for the Alpha Gam- ma Delta Foundation. “The pageant is silly and serious at the same time,” Bryan said. “It is a chance for guys to show their spirit and pride in Missouri Western.” The international head- quarters for the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority gives a special recognition for any chapter that raises over $2,000 throughout a full aca- demic school year. “We are named what is called a Jewel Chapter, which is given to chapters that do- nate a significant amount of money to the Foundation,” Bryan said. Charitible work is a big part of the Alpha Gamma Delta lifestyle. New Athletic Director makes first appearance Left: Amanda Boender (18) blocks a hit from a Washburn player. Right: Coach Cory Frederick watches the volleyball team warm up before the match against Emporia State. Far Right: Tahler Johnston poses for the camera while Emporia State players warm up. Jason Brown | Photo Editor Attendance policy absent: Faculty enforcing own policies in classes See new AD page 6 See Teeter page 6 Jerrod Huber | Staff Writer [email protected]Alpha Gamma Delta sorority holds 15th annual Teeter-Totter-A-Thon Two sorority members teeter-tottering for the cause. Megan Thompson | Staff Photographer Athletic Director Kurt McGuffin that require attendance poli- cies for any classes can sus- tain fines regarding the time frame for filing. Schools have 14 days from the final day of class to report atten- dance. Additionally, schools that have attendance policies must have them for all class levels, so the policy could not have been limited to 100- and 200-level classes. Baker said that the best decision they could come up with was to eliminate the 100 and 200-level classes atten- dance policy and go back to To sidestep this problem, a subcommittee from Enroll- ment Development decided that the individual depart- ments and faculty members should establish their own at- tendance policies. Faculty members have handled their attendance policies in different ways. Cynthia Jeney, associate professor of English, said the freshmen games have stopped. “Freshmen have stopped trying to ‘game’ the policy by attending every day until midterm, then disappear- ing. This was, of course, an erroneous assumption that students made that they only had to attend consistently un- til midterm, and we did our best to explain it, but there were still confusions,” Jeney said. Previous Policy: • Attendance required for 100- and 200-level classes • Students allowed to miss class only as many times as they meet per week • Lasts only until midterm See Attendance page 6 Dr. Vartabedian voices his opinion about Missouri Western in the current financial climate. See page 6 Nerf stock has skyrocketed in the St. Joseph area due to Humans versus Zombies. To see some examples of the guns in Western’s arsenal, see page 4. Biology professor Dr. Ashley is “Batty for Bats” on page 5.
Transcript
Attendance policy chang-es at Missouri Western shouldn’t be viewed as an excused absence; check your professor’s policy, it may be tougher than the previous policy.
Director of Financial Aid Marilyn Baker said that Western eliminated the over-all institutional policy for 100- and 200-level classes be-cause there were some regu-latory changes that came through the U.S. Depart-ment of Education last year.
“Western is not an institu-tion that is required to take attendance,” Baker said.
According to Baker, schools
Kurt McGuffin stood in the middle of the room and talked to everyone that was near him.
Primped in a tan suit and Missouri Western’s colors for the first time, McGuffin finally looked at home.
The seventh ath-letic director at Western was introduced to a crowd of over 100 people Monday at the weekly Grif-fon Athletic Luncheon at 36th Street Food and Drink Company located inside Holiday Inn.
“This is a committed
griffonnews.comVol 94 | Issue 9 November 3, 2011
NON-PROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE
PA I DPERMIT NO. 32St. JOSEPH, MO
GRIFFonMISSOURI WESTERN STATE UNIVERSITYthe
news
Molly Slattery (3) hugs Kelly Voights right before the national anthem on Senior Night, which was the last game of the season for the women’s soccer team.
Jason Brown | Photo Editor
When you think of a tee-ter-totter, you probably think about being on the play-ground as a child, rocking back and forth, up and down with your friends as you giggle in your high-pitched, innocent, little six-year-old voice.
Something similar hap-pened on the Missouri West-ern campus Oct. 27. Alpha Gamma Delta held their 15th annual 24-hour Teeter
Delta chapter was founded in 1995, and the sorority started the teeter-totter fundraiser in 1997 as a way to raise money for the foundation.
Western student Danielle Bryan is the sorority’s Philan-thropy Coordinator.
“The fundraiser helps raise money for diabetes research and increase awareness,” Bryan said. “The fundraiser also helps provide grants that help Alpha Gamma Delta women that are in need.”
The Alpha Gamma Delta
chapter hosts two fundrais-ers each school year, one for each semester. The annual
spring fundraiser is known as Mr. MWSU.
Mr. MWSU is a pageant
that allows male students to showcase their school spir-it. The pageant is divided into five categories: formal, costume, swimwear, talent and school spirit. Last year the pageant raised around $1,700 for the Alpha Gam-ma Delta Foundation.
“The pageant is silly and serious at the same time,” Bryan said. “It is a chance for guys to show their spirit and pride in Missouri Western.”
The international head-quarters for the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority gives a special recognition for
any chapter that raises over $2,000 throughout a full aca-demic school year.
“We are named what is called a Jewel Chapter, which is given to chapters that do-nate a significant amount of money to the Foundation,” Bryan said.
Charitible work is a big part of the Alpha Gamma Delta lifestyle.
New Athletic Director makes first appearance
Left: Amanda Boender (18) blocks a hit from a Washburn player.
Right: Coach Cory Frederick watches the volleyball team warm up before the match against Emporia State.
Far Right: Tahler Johnston poses for the camera while Emporia State players warm up.
Jason Brown | Photo Editor
Attendance policy absent:Faculty enforcing own policies in classes
Two sorority members teeter-tottering for the cause.Megan Thompson | Staff Photographer
Athletic Director Kurt McGuffin
that require attendance poli-cies for any classes can sus-tain fines regarding the time frame for filing. Schools have 14 days from the final day of class to report atten-dance. Additionally, schools that have attendance policies must have them for all class levels, so the policy could not have been limited to 100- and 200-level classes.
Baker said that the best decision they could come up with was to eliminate the 100 and 200-level classes atten-dance policy and go back to To sidestep this problem, a subcommittee from Enroll-ment Development decided that the individual depart-ments and faculty members should establish their own at-tendance policies.
Faculty members have handled their attendance policies in different ways.
Cynthia Jeney, associate professor of English, said the freshmen games have stopped.
“Freshmen have stopped trying to ‘game’ the policy by attending every day until midterm, then disappear-ing. This was, of course, an erroneous assumption that students made that they only had to attend consistently un-til midterm, and we did our best to explain it, but there were still confusions,” Jeney said.
Previous Policy:
• Attendance required for 100- and 200-level classes
• Students allowed to miss class only as many times as they meet per week
• Lasts only until midterm
See Attendance page 6
Dr. Vartabedian voices his opinion about Missouri Western in the current financial climate.
See page 6
Nerf stock has skyrocketed in the St. Joseph area due to Humans versus Zombies. To see some examples of the guns in Western’s arsenal, see page 4.
Biology professor Dr. Ashley is
“Batty for Bats” on page 5.
News November 3, 2011The Griffon News
Page 2
Calendar of EventsCampus Crime Reports
If your organization would like to announce an event, e-mail the information to
The Missouri Humanities Council has awarded a grant of $700 to Missouri Western State University and the Alli-ance Francaise of St. Joseph in support of two programs with a focus on French Ca-nadian heritage and musi-cal and cultural traditions in Northwest Missouri.
Dennis Stroughmatt, a French Creole musician and speaker, will come to St. Jo-seph on March 20 and 21, 2012 to perform two musical programs that blend tradi-tional fiddle music, a wealth of stories on the Creole French traditions of Mardi-Gras and songs from story tellers and singers.
Blue Cross named insurance providerMissouri Western State
University has selected Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City to provide medi-cal insurance for employees. Other insurance benefits, including dental, life, long-term disability and vision, will remain with current pro-viders.
‘’The switch to Blue Cross will save the university and its employees about $246,000 next year compared to our current insurer’s quote,’’ said Mel Klinkner, vice president for financial planning and administration. ‘’In addi-tion, Blue Cross has offered to cap any rate increase for 2013 at 13 percent exclud-ing insurer fee tax, giving us time to review our plans for cost-saving options, prepare for changes in federal law coming in 2014 with Health Care Reform, and explore and implement wellness ini-tiatives to improve our claims experience.’’
Swafford steps down
Roger Swafford, director of public relations and mar-keting at Western, will step down from that role at the end of the year and continue as a faculty member in the Steven L. Craig School of Business.
The search for Swafford’s successor will begin after the first of the year. Nicoson will directly oversee the public relations and marketing de-partment until the position is filled.
“My sense is that some stu-dents feel that attendance is valued only by each profes-sor, not by the institution as a whole.”
Professor of English Kaye Adkins basically went back to her old attendance policy, although she has started ap-proaching attendance a little differently.
“I don’t worry about ex-cused or unexcused absences anymore. I talk about sick days -- just as you are allotted at a job -- you are allotted a certain number of sick days in my classes and that’s tied to how many times a week we meet,” Adkins said. “I found that students were getting confused with the excused, unexcused thing, so I found
it much easier to talk about them as sick days you get at work.”
It’s hard for students to take advantage of these changes in attendance policies be-cause they can’t. Excused is excused and unexcused is still an unexcused absence that can affect the financial aid students will receive.
Jacob Scott, SGA execu-tive vice president, thinks that by allowing professors the ability to set their own at-tendance policies it actually provides students flexibility.
“It’s far better to speak to a professor about attendance than to have something handed down from the fed-eral government,” Scott said.
“We’re really big on phi-lanthropy. We like helping others; that is what we’re all about,” Bryan said.
Part of Alpha Gamma Delta’s formal recruitment this fall was Philanthropy Day. The AGDs made squir-rel icepacks, which were giv-en to children that were re-ceiving insulin shots at a local pediatric unit. The squirrel is the mascot for the sorority.
The sorority looks to re-cruit girls with friendly and giving attitudes, like fresh-man recruit Christine Ray.
“I joined Alpha Gam be-cause they seemed so accept-ing of everyone: definitely a drama free group of girls,” Ray said. “It is a good op-portunity for me while I’m in college, and I like the philan-thropy aspect of it all.”
“Expect a lot of hard work. It doesn’t matter where you’re at. It’s about relation-ships.”
McGuffin said that with a veteran staff under him, his job should be not only fun, but easier.
He pointed specifically to basketball coach Tom Smith, football coach Jerry Partridge and softball coach Jen Bagley. All coaches have over 10 sea-sons of experience as a Grif-fon head coach. McGuffin stated that Smith’s 599 win total as a coach impressed him.
The Wichita State gradu-ate beat out a list of over 80 candidates for Athletic Director. He made the final-four cut and gave a short, 20 minute public presentation in September to prove he was good enough for the position. From there, he was chosen as the guy to lead Western as the director of athletics. The job was vacant after Dave Williams’ (2008-2011) con-tract was not renewed.
“We have a unique oppor-tunity here to have the best D2 facility,” McGuffin said. “I’m proud to be here. It’s a
Q How do you think your role as a political commentator has changed since the last time you were at Cornell?
A How has it changed? I’m not sure it’s changed … I have. Because I am older and weaker. But no, the show is pret-
ty much the same philosophically as it was when I started. Hopefully, we’re slightly better at executing it and having it reflect a better version of what I wanted it to be. But as far as my role in it, it’s the same as it was.
QHow do you feel you appeal especially to the college de-mographic?
AIt’s clear: I think a gentleman in khakis is never appealing to a young crowd of go-getters, men and women. The V-
neck sweater can’t be denied. It’s clear I could wear a hoodie if I wanted, but I didn’t. No, I honestly don’t know, and I think that college isn’t monolithic in any way and if there’s anything to it, it’s a time in your life when you might be able to be more focused on thinking about politics or media, and because you’re not as distracted by nine-to-five, that sort of thing. Maybe it’s the subject material that’s the key to it more than anything else.
Q How important do you think it is to separate the politics and the comedy?
A I don’t think there is a separation. There are things to clarify here. The comedy is the way we express our ideas:
That’s satire, you know, satire is just using comedy to express your commentary … so you can’t separate it from politics. But inferred in that question is, I think, this idea of activism, or that it’s a liberal versus conservative polarity — and that’s the thing where I think it gets confused. I don’t think we sepa-rate politics from comedy, but we’re not using the comedy to expressly advance a dogmatic political agenda … if that makes any sense. But it is inherently about politics, so it’s not separate from it, it’s infused in it — that’s the whole purpose of it, is to express our thoughts about the systems. What we think it is is comedy about corruption. But again, those are the types of things we don’t really think about. It’s more like “Oh shit, did you see this clip?” “Yeah, let’s do something on that.” You know, that’s mostly what it is … I should probably make that sound more scientific.
Q You had a whole joke tonight about Dick Cheney and your issues with him. When you sit down to interview
someone like that with whom you disagree with so strongly, how do you prepare for it?
AOh boy … It’s rare that that happens, but you prepare for it in the same way that you prepare really for any
interview, which is: don’t squeeze it too tight, and make sure you’re listening. Because the key to an interview is not setting a trap and having somebody walk through it. The key to an interview is finding an alchemy that creates something in a moment rather than “here’s my prescribed path, I’m gonna walk down it, and I’m gonna drag this cat down the stairs however I want to.” It’s a conversation. And it may be heated, it may be pointed, it may be useless, it may be all those things, but hopefully it’s a conversation that lives in the moment — that it’s not predefined. And you try not to, obviously, punch him. That’s also … I guess hands down, would be the other part. So the first part, and then also hands down. No slapping. Except if it’s Desmond Tutu … and then obviously, it’s on. It’s just on.
Q I also wanted to ask about the idea of polarity. How did we get to such a polarized community, and how do we
get out of that? Do we get out of that?
A Perspective wise, we are a polarized community. But, in 1860, we went to war with each other and a senator sat
on the floor of the Senate and canned another senator so you know, again, are we split? I think if you really look at the divisions of it, it’s more minor than it isn’t, but the largest drivers of the conversation are networks that rely on conflict and sensationalism to gain viewership. So that’s going to be … the fuel that’s put into the atmosphere is mainly that. And so that’s naturally going to color the conversation, and you know, it’s the chicken and the egg — what came first? If you really do look at the two manifestations of that, it’s Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party. Both are expressing a similar frustration with government, one in that they think it’s doing too much and one in that they think it’s doing too little. But I would say that the majority of people probably would view the real discomfort in the country as the symbiotic relation-ship between government and corporations and how corrupt that relationship has become. So again, you have to think … but the two [parties] that get the attention, I don’t think they are in the majority, but they are expressing a pure form of that upset.
JON STEWART
Jon Stewart, a political comedian, spoke to Cornell University students before sitting down The Daily Trojan.
The Daily Trojan
Peter Jacobs | U-WireThe Daily Trojan
Attendance: continued from front
New attendance policy gives students flexibility
Cornell U interviews Jon Stewart
Teeter: continued from front
Sorority teeters for good cause
McGuffin excited to work with veteran staffnew AD: continued from front
Mon - Sat 10:30 AM - 9 PM Sun 11 AM - 8 PMPhone: 816-749-4280 Fax: 816-749-4281
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When one U. California-Berkeley graduate student in the anthropology depart-ment heard from fellow stu-dents marching with Occupy Oakland that police were us-ing tear gas against protest-ers Tuesday night, he headed down into the fray.
Marching down Broadway, the protesters faced off with police as they reached 14th Street, the entrance to the Oakland Commune — dis-mantled by police earlier that morning. More and more people were arriving by the minute, and most were try-ing to maintain a peaceful protest.
But when several people began throwing objects at the police, officers in riot gear and gas masks opened fire with flash-bang canisters.
“They were going off all over the place. As soon as that happened, I grabbed one and threw it right back,” said the graduate student, who asked not to be identified due to fear of retribution.
He sustained second de-gree burns on his hand when he picked up one of the ex-ploded flash-bang canisters.
“Unfortunately Oakland didn’t want to work with pro-testers as other cities are do-ing,” he said. “Oakland City Council should realize that force is not power — it’s just force.
“Everyone involved — even if they’re just donat-ing or passing through and then leaving — that’s power. We’re trying not to exert force but power through mo-bilization,” he said.
Over the past few weeks, the graduate student said he
has walked through Occupy Berkeley’s encampment, but decided that he felt more connected to Oakland’s movement and began volun-teering in the kitchens there the last two weekends.
With its relaxed atmo-sphere and thinner numbers, Occupy Berkeley has been overshadowed by other near-by encampments.
Many of the Berkeley dem-onstrators have been actively participating in Oakland and San Francisco’s occupations. They say that it is important to support other encamp-ments, and that protest-ers from Oakland and San Francisco have been visiting Berkeley’s camp as well.
Many students were pres-ent when violence broke out in Oakland Tuesday night, resulting in the deployment of tear gas, flash-bang can-isters and rubber bullets as well as multiple arrests and
national attention. Others decided to attend the general assembly meeting and march through Downtown Oakland on Wednesday after seeing images from the night before.
Occupy Berkeley’s en-campments — one in front of the Bank of America on the corner of Shattuck Av-enue and Center Street and a larger one in Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park — have been much quieter thus far since an Oct. 15 rally and march as part of an “In-ternational Day of Action.”
Despite a notice issued to Occupy Berkeley protesters Monday ordering them to cease camping out at Civic Center park, participants have not left and say they are not worried about any kind of police intervention.
“I don’t think the Berkeley police will be making any kind of move any time soon, espe-cially after what happened in
Oakland,” said UC Berkeley junior Bo-Peter Laanen, one of the facilitators of Occupy Berkeley’s general assembly meetings. “They haven’t giv-en us any trouble, and their notice didn’t really threaten us at all.”
Protesters have been com-pliant with Berkeley police so far.
“We have been periodical-ly monitoring the group for community and public safety issues and/or concerns and have responded to some par-ticipant’s requests for BPD services,” said Berkeley po-lice Sgt. Mary Kusmiss.
After several protesters addressed the Berkeley City Council at its meeting Tues-day evening — one day af-ter receiving the notice from the city manager’s office — council members expressed the desire to have the issue on the agenda at some point.
David Sterner relived the worst time of his life when he showed his presenta-tion “DUI: A Powerful Les-son” on Tuesday, Nov. 1 in the Fulkerson Center. Tau Kappa Epsilon and the Black Student Union teamed up to invite Sterner to Missouri Western to tell his story. Sterner may have a DUI on his record, but this fact isn’t this worse part.
Sterner first interacted with his audience, asking them to answer several ques-tions about whether they had done this or that while they were drunk. Then he told the college students to wait 10 seconds before they answered his next question: Have you have gotten drunk, driven, then killed your three best friends? Luckily, the crowd stayed silent.
Sterner was 21 when he was charged with three counts of 2nd degree DUI manslaughter on the last day of his spring break vacation in Florida. They were there for six days; five of the days, the TKEs took turns being the designated driver. The sixth and final night, how-ever, nobody wanted to vol-unteer, so they chose the least drunk, Sterner who had a blood alcohol content of .17 — two times the legal limit in Florida.
Sterner played a video of him with his four other friends drinking and having a good time. They took shots. They drove to the bar going over 100 mph. “I better slow down so I don’t get arrested for DWI,” Sterner said in the driver’s seat. They danced
ridiculously. Less than three minutes after the tape stops, his friends were dead. Pic-tures of the crash appeared on the screen.
All five of the TKE stu-dents were thrown from the vehicle as the car hit a tree. None of them wore their seatbelts. Sterner woke up in the hospital a week later, and he was visited by the police.
Sterner was out of sight after he started the video; he returned wearing an orange jumpsuit.
Sterner went to prison for three years. The maximum sentence was 45, but his friends’ parents didn’t want that. While incarcerated, Sterner was beaten up just for being a college student. Nobody likes prison, but if it involved his friends, he would stay there.
“I would’ve gone to the worse prison just as long as I got my friends back.”
He was ashamed of letting
his parents down, but the thought of his best friends being dead hurt him the most.
“I would’ve given up any-thing just to have my friends back for 10 minutes so they could say goodbye to their families,” Sterner said.
Sterner’s words about envi-sioning having to tell his best friends’ parents their sons were dead really hit home with Samuel Goodroad, who is a member of TKE. The other members felt the video and the pictures really added a personal feel to Sterner’s presentation, and some, like Zack Kimmel, couldn’t help but tear up.
“I had to hold back; I was about to cry,” Kimmel said. “I don’t even care if anybody saw me.”
Not a day goes by where Sterner doesn’t think of his best friends, and, unfortu-nately, there’s nothing he can do about it but warn college
students all over the nation.“The message that he gives
is more than what everybody needs to hear, especially if you’re in college,” TKE member Justin Edwards said.
Some other students, like recently crowned homecom-ing queen Jordan Carney, were grateful for Sterner’s presence at Western.
“It was really moving what he did,” Carney said. “I re-ally appreciated him coming to speak, and I just can’t even imagine having to relive that over and over in your head, but if it helps somebody else not have to go to through it, I guess it’s definitely worth it.”
Sterner’s really got across his message to students when he brings up an old saying.
“There is the famous say-ing ‘time heals all wounds,” but it’s just not true.”
This year Missouri West-ern’s Student Government Association decided to shake things up a bit and try some-thing new regarding commit-tees.
Traditionally, SGA met every Monday, and Senators would be responsible for at-tending committees in addi-tion to this weekly meeting, but this year they decided to try a schedule that would al-low for both at the same time.
Jacob Scott, SGA execu-tive vice president, decided that it was time for a change because the previous meeting structure wasn’t getting the job done.
“The committee structure of the past really wasn’t very effective,” Scott said. “It’s kind of like hand-me-down clothes, they just don’t quite fit right, and it [the previous committee structure] didn’t fit this specific year.”
Scott decided it was time for a change and shifted SGA meetings from every week to alternating weeks, which pro-vided a meeting-free week for committee meetings.
Alison Norris, SGA presi-dent, said that this was really Scott’s call and that she de-ferred to him because as ex-ecutive vice president he pre-sides over Senate meetings.
“Jacob suggested this, be-cause he felt that during some SGA meetings we [SGA Sen-ate] didn’t have as much to cover, and if we made it ev-ery other week it would make it [the meetings] more mean-ingful,” Norris said.
Norris also said that Scott felt this would allow Senators a higher level of involvement and engage them in the leg-islative and planning process over previous years.
Norris and Scott both feel that this new design has in-creased involvement in com-mittees, especially in those
not interested in being full-time Senate members.
“That’s [outside student in-volvement] been our biggest success,” Scott said. “We’ve gotten just your average stu-dent who doesn’t want to be a Senator necessarily, but who still wants to get involved.”
Scott said that the Senate meetings don’t operate as ses-sions for discussing legislation as much anymore because that discussion is now occur-ring at the committee level, the way it’s supposed to.
Jordan Carney, director of student relations, says that she definitely sees a dif-ference in the way the SGA Senate meetings run as a re-sult of the committee meet-ings.
“I think they [Senate meet-ings] are going really well,” Carney said. “I feel that the Senate is more active because of the way the committees are structured, and they’re [meetings] kind of more per-tinent to what SGA is trying to accomplish. I also think that the workload is spread out between the senators bet-ter, bringing in more diverse opinions to the legislation be-ing brought to the Senate.”
Noah Green, director of communications, oversees the newly developed commu-nications committee. He is really pleased to be operating under the new structure.
“I have been really, really happy with them [communi-cations committee]; I’ve been really proud of the work they’ve done,” Green said. “They’ve done one survey so far, and we collected over five hundred results, which will help guide our progress for the rest of the year.”
Green said that a benefit to the alternating schedule is the ability to continue to get out and interact with the stu-dent population and see the benefits of the committees’ hard work.
Students and other protestors Occupy Oakland, Calif., one chilly night. Occupy movements all over the nation have interested students in speaking up. The Daily Californian
Oakland Occupation turns violent, police hit protestors with flash-bangs
Several TKE members crowd around DUI speaker David Stern and ask questions about his experiences. Stern was also a TKE in college. Blair Stalder | Features Editor
Features November 3, 2011The Griffon News
Page 4
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One thing that spreads faster than a zombie apoca-lypse is the game itself.
“Humans vs. Zombies” is infecting campuses every-
where.Thanks to the Western Ac-
tivities Council, HvZ is offi-cially legit at Missouri West-ern. The game has grown just enough that not a stu-dent on campus didn’t notice a few bandana-ed maniacs or
Nerfed out versions of Ram-bo walking around last week.
“The best part was run-ning around in a zombie horde,” Josh Smith said, who was awarded first place in the top zombie category. “It was an awesome feeling chasing
the humans with a group of like 20 zombies.”
After HvZ ended at noon on Halloween, the award ceremony was held in Blum Union later that night. Joe Bridgman, one of the mod-erators for HvZ, announced
the summary of the game with the best zombies and winning teams, while Lau-ren Dillon, vice president of WAC, handed out gift cards. The two teams that were awarded were team “Rush” and “Pink Swag.” Teams were not allowed to have more than five players. Ac-cording to Bridgman, Over 200 students were registered to play, making our campus the third largest HvZ game in the nation at the time we played.
As Team Rush member Brian Hamilton went up to get his reward, he referenced the movie “Zombieland” saying, “Remember guys, the first rule is cardio.”
Cardio is the first rule in “Zombieland,” but it’s not necessarily the first rule in HvZ. According to the of-ficial rules on the HvZ web-site, the most important rule is: Don’t be a douche bag.
As weird as it may sound, HvZ is a gentleman’s game, meaning the game will be fun if the players respect the game. Because of the “d-bag clause,” moderators were needed in order to keep to the code. The moderators were basically hidden referees to make sure people wouldn’t try to cheat. You could com-pare it to playing dodgeball as a kid. People who enjoyed playing would have loved someone to watch specifically for people who tried to stay in after they were hit.
“When you sign up, you
are committing to play,” Bridgman said. “We want people to be honorable to the rules. Since this was the first official game on this campus, we didn’t really know what rules people would try to break. We gave a general list of rules and watched what happened so we could see what changes we would need to make for next year.”
One of the changes that will be made for next year is official HvZ bandanas. This will make the players more recognizable and prevent confusion with people who wore similar attire to the players.
Another part of the game that might need some chang-es is the rules for people play-ing who live off campus. There were approximately 80 humans who were never turned zombie, which was way too many. A large num-ber were players who lived off campus. This wasn’t ex-actly fair for zombie players who lived on campus and needed to “feed.”
Although this was the first official game on our cam-pus, it showed to be a huge success. The game will be looked over and changes will be made for the better. For more information about this official rules, visit humans-vszombies.org, the official HvZ website.
There is little doubt that next year’s game will have more players and in turn be even more intense.
‘Zombieland’ in Griffon countryChristian Mengel | Staff [email protected]
(Left) Three students armed with Nerf guns patrol campus on the way to class.
(Above) Two zombies, hungry for human flesh, and one bystander watch as humans run up the hill to escape infection.
Jason Brown | Photo Editor
DON’T FORGET TO DOUBLE-TAP
Funny, musically talented and not afraid to shake his butt, Duncan “Jetman” Mill-er is one of the most outra-geously entertaining students at Missouri Western.
Miller, a freshman music education major, has a huge, outgoing personality that fuels his energy and passion for music and performance. Miller is a member of Phi Sigma Kappa. He sometimes speaks with a very convinc-ing British accent for fun and to show off the fact that he’s
half British.Students may have seen
Miller performing in the percussion pit during one of Western’s football halftime shows. He is the one with the stylish, crazy afro, and he is usually doing a dance that would make even Michael Jackson blush. He is hard to miss.
“The people at the games really get me pumped up,” Miller said. “I love Missouri Western and believe it is the best college in Missouri. Griffon Power!”
Miller has been a musician
since the 6th grade. He grad-uated from North Kansas City High School in 2011. He plays drums, bells and tambourine.
Miller said he first came to Western in 2008 for a Demo-cratic function and immedi-ately fell in love with the uni-versity.
With his outgoing person-ality, Miller has probably al-ready made friends with half the students on campus. It seems everyone knows who Miller is.
Western student Lauren Rhodes has become good
friends with Miller this se-mester. They often eat lunch together and talk or joke around about Miller’s favor-ite NFL team, the Philadel-phia Eagles.
“He is such a fun character to be around,” Rhodes said. “He is always telling jokes or talking about a funny You-Tube video.”
When he is not with friends, he can be found on the foot-ball field. Mike Swope, a Western football fan, said he has seen Miller perform dur-ing the home games this year.
Swope said he feels that
the Golden Griffon March-ing Band, along with Miller’s standout antics, really gets the crowd fired up and into the game.
“My 88-year-old grand-ma loves him,” Swope said. “She usually only goes to one warm weather football game a year, but she has been to every game with me so far; she really enjoys the Western halftime shows.”
Miller has aspirations of becoming a touring musician after he graduates. He has working on his singing and hopes to either sing or play
drums in a band. Miller says he doesn’t have any hobbies, but several interests.
“Hobbies cost money,” Miller said. “Interests are free.”
According to Miller, he picked up the nickname “Jet-man” in high school during the cross country season. Miller loves the nickname, wants to take it from a casual nickname to something more formal.
“It’s going to be my new middle name when I gradu-ate,” he said.
FeaturesNovember 3, 2011The Griffon News
Page 5
A day in the life of “Jetman”Miller adds spunk, spiffy moves to Western’s music program
(Left) Duncun Miller, second from left, entertains along with the other mem-bers of the Golden Griffon Marching Band. (Above) Miller demonstrates one of his many skills. He also plays the drums, bells and tambourine. Jason Brown | Photo Editor
Dr. David Ashley has been teaching for 32 years and for 28 years at Missouri Western. He desires all his students to discover what interests and inspires them. Jason Brown | Photo Editor
Ashley pushes students with inspiration, ‘batty’ attitude
“Submarine” does exactly what a submarine is sup-posed to do: plunge and sink.
Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) is a 15-year-old high school student who is desperate for a mate and craves to keep his distant parents together. Tate jumps on an emotional roller coaster as he falls for mischie-vous pyromaniac Jordana (Yasmin Paige) who agrees to be his girlfriend, but he also finds out that his mother (Sally Hawkins) may be hav-ing an affair with her ex-lover who happens to be the Tate’s neighbor.This dramatic comedy set in Wales is unorganized, ran-dom, dark and will make you snooze. It doesn’t succeed in humor either. It is depressing and slow with all of the elon-gated scenes of Tate staring into space pondering the ob-stacles he must face.
Roberts’ performance was accurate as he played a be-
lievable depressed teenager. However, that is an easy char-acter to play, because it’s very flat. Even when he showed emotion, he was flat. Paige played an atypical teenage girl who thinks love is gross, which is another easy role to play. The parents didn’t do anything, and there weren’t very many scenes with the neighbor. So let’s just say there just weren’t actors and
actresses in this movie that will be receiving an Oscar anytime soon.The only thing going for “Submarine” is its unique style of shots. It is filmed in a unique Baz Luhrmann-Martin Scorsese style with flashbulb cuts and unusual kaleidoscope shots with Tate or Jordana’s face in the mid-dle. An interesting example would be when Tate acci-
dentally pushes a girl into a pond—she falls backwards halfway and freezes. The shot is very creative as she and her things can be seen from all angles, stuck in time.
Other than the style of the shots, though, don’t waste your time. You might as well spend your $1.20 on a Mc-Double at McDonald’s in-stead.
‘Submarine’ sinks and stinks Top Box Office Movies
Dr. David Ashley, a Mis-souri Western biology pro-fessor, has a quote from one of his past college professors, Francis C. Rabalais, taped up in his office: “The biggest burden of all is potential.”
Ashely sure doesn’t want his students to believe they are doing anything less than their best. Ashley was a typi-cal student once, wandering from class to class with no motivation. Midway through his college career was when it all changed for him. Ra-balais was a faculty mem-ber at Bowling Green State University, a university Ash-ley attended. The influence Rabalais had on Ashley was enough to change his life and mindset forever.
“He was my mentor,” Ash-ley said. “What he was to me is what I want to be to my students.”
Ashley has been teach-ing for 32 years, 28 of them at Western. His goal as an educator is to push his stu-dents to not only take on the responsibilities expected of them, but for students to re-alize they need to go beyond just showing up to class.
Additional research or ac-tivities related to a student’s field of interest is a great way to further education. Ashley, for example, was first inter-ested in the field of biology because of his interests in marine biology and helping world hunger.
Ashley soon became inter-ested in bats and their contri-butions to the environment, an interest he still continues to work with today.
Ashley held a presenta-tion in Spratt Oct. 26 called “Batty for Bats.” It was an informational presentation, open to the public, about the basics of bats and their im-portance to the environment.
Students and members of community attended the pre-sentation, including biology health science major Moriah Guldan.
“It was really interesting to hear how beneficial they are to wildlife,” Guldan said. “A lot of people don’t realize how important they are, and they are the people who give them a bad reputation.”
People often picture bats as blood sucking mammals, even though vampire bats are only found in parts of South America. No one re-ally knows how the story of Dracula ended up in Tran-sylvania, since there are no vampire bats there. People also think of rabies when they think of bats. Although bats are carriers of rabies, raccoons are the real kings of rabies. Raccoons and skunks both are higher on the list of carriers than bats, according to Ashley’s presentation.
Ashley has been a strong
supporter of applied learn-ing throughout his teaching career. For years he has taken trips to do studies on multiple subjects, most often involving cave exploring. Some of his biggest contributions to biol-ogy have involved bringing awareness of newly listed en-dangered animals and study-ing environmental changes when certain animals are taken out of the picture. An example would be a study on “white-nose syndrome,” a deadly disease that is rap-idly spreading within the bat community.
Ashley will say that he feels his biggest contribution to the field of biology is being an educator. His biggest goal in his career is to successfully train students who are pursu-ing careers in field of science.
“I want my students to find out what interests them, work their hardest for it, and it will be fulfilling,” Ashley said.
“I dressed up as the yellow Angry Bird for Halloween.”
Kaitlin Fenwickfreshman
“I was a purple witch for Halloween.”
I have been asked to ad-dress how the campus is holding up during these tough economic times and what can be expected in the future.
We are making the best of a challenging economic cli-mate. One recent example of this would be this year’s homecoming celebration. This was the best homecom-ing that I have experienced
in my four years here. The campus-wide signage, the level of student participation, and the general atmosphere of enthusiasm were all quite impressive.
Other points of pride in-clude:
• A seventh consecutive year of record enrollment
• International recogni-tion of our Wildlife Society
• The growth of the arts areas including a new Mis-souri Western Arts Society with close to 200 charter members
• National recognition for the Griffon Indoor Sports Complex as one of twelve noteworthy intercollegiate athletic facilities in the Unit-ed States
I have many other exam-ples of recent accomplish-ments and special recogni-tion for Missouri Western.
My point is that we have not stopped moving forward, and these are highly visible examples of that.
With regard to resources, we are pursuing a number of avenues above and beyond our on-going struggle for funding fairness:
• We are exploring land leasing opportunities of our land in order to generate ad-ditional money.
• We are examining al-ternative energy sources for our campus.
• We are actively seek-ing grants from external agencies.
• Our advancement of-fice has stepped up fund rais-ing efforts and will shortly be preparing for our next capital campaign which will coincide with our centennial celebration.
Regarding our on-going
struggle for funding fairness, we are getting significant sup-port for this from our legisla-tive delegation. In fact, there is an expressed willingness on their part to introduce leg-islation on our behalf. This will literally become a “cam-paign” for Missouri Western as we attempt to move this forward. I think we have successfully communicated
our “need” to our various constituencies, now we are in the “action” phase.
Since the economic free fall in 2008, Missouri West-ern has experienced its share of additional financial chal-lenges. It has not been easy, but we have continued to move in a positive direction. I believe we are now poised to move even further.
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WITH ELLIS CROSS:
Have you read “The 99 Percent Declaration” pub-lished Oct. 7 by the Occupy Wherever people? I have. If you would like to read it you can find it online. It’s about 18 pages long and covers the organization of the group, their intentions, their de-mands and a threat to cre-ate a new political party after their general assembly July 4, 2012, if these demands are not met.
Let me start by stating, I am a Tea Party Patriot and a local coordinator for the group. As you read this col-umn, on its distribution day of Thursday, I am in Wash-ington, D.C., receiving train-ing. To say the least, I’m biased. I would like to think that as a journalist I could get above my convictions about politics, but whom would I be kidding.
I can find common ground with some of the ideas in the declaration. I agree that there needs to be term limits on ca-reer politicians. I also agree that corporate America has
controlled politicians for far too long with large campaign contributions. Those contri-butions are, in some cases, followed by favorable legisla-tion for those corporations. This is wrong and must be stopped.
Let’s not single out cor-porate America too much though. Large union orga-nizations and other not-for-profit organizations also do-nate large amounts and have been receiving favorable leg-islation and cash payments for years. They screamed obscenities in Wisconsin loud enough for the world to hear when things didn’t happen the way they paid for them to happen.
STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS
I’ll bet that got your atten-tion. I was afraid I was losing some of my readers so I fig-ured I would get to the point.
Item 10 of the 20 topics in the declaration is labeled the same as this subheading, and
it got my attention. Most stu-dents leaving college today take about $24,000 of debt into the real world of a dwin-dling job market.
The declaration states that the poor job market is “due to financial collapse directly caused by the unbridled and unregulated greed of Wall Street.” I don’t agree. Wall Street is regulated. Just take a minute and think of all the people that lied during the 1990s and cooked the books to satisfy greedy stockhold-ers. Many are doing time now.
The financial collapse happened when someone decided to make the Ameri-can dream of home owner-ship the American promise and started giving mortgages to people who could not af-ford a home. The unbridled greed came when the “have-nots” were given something the “haves” have worked for for most of their lives. That created an artificial real es-tate market that ended with bad loans that collapsed the
financial market. That, in turn, made the banks stop lending, which caused cor-porate America to hold on to what they have and do noth-ing.
Who can blame them? They see no end to govern-ment regulation and growth. They see no clear answers on Obamacare or where em-ployment and other taxation will be going. The President is in campaign mode and re-fuses to recognize or resolve any of today’s problems.
But, let's assume, for the sake of the argument, that they are right: Wall Street has somehow run amok, and it’s to blame for the lack of jobs. Does it make sense to tax Wall Street corporations enough to forgive all student loans “as reparations for their [Wall Street’s] conduct” as proposed in the declaration?
I think, first of all, you could not get the $1 trillion student loan total paid in full with-out taxing some corporations out of business. This would dwindle the job market even
more. When greedy corpora-tions get taxed enough they take the money and leave the country. That doesn’t help.
I’ll be analyzing this docu-ment more in the future. I welcome your comments.
Forgiving student loans
Your job is to be a student.College students, includ-
ing some Western students, are participating in the Oc-cupy Wall Street movement. With as much as is going on in their lives, how can these students juggle it all?
We are not unemployed. Any traditional college stu-dent has a job: getting an education. They are not part of the 99 percent.
The traditional college student has their way paved: parents pay for health insur-ance, car insurance, gas and sometimes even food. If you want to discuss financial in-equality, maybe you should pay for some things, too.
Now, this isn’t the boat that every traditional college student is in or every person in generation Y. There are people in the 18-25 year-old-bracket that do pay their own way, but not all do.
Fortunate students should not waste their time occupy-ing Wall Street, Pittsburgh,
Kansas City, Mo., or St. Jo-seph. Your job is to learn and find your place in society.
As Thomas Friedman said at September's Convocation, Americans must have the work ethic of an immigrant. While protesting or dem-onstrating has always been branded as an automatic honorable act, in some cas-es it should be perceived as nothing but laziness.
You want a job when you graduate? Work three in-ternships. You want to enjoy your work? Do something you love. You want to have family security? Start sav-ing for your retirement and children’s college educations now.
College students aren’t lazy, they are just confused. Real laziness gets you kicked out of school. Traditional students just lack an under-standing of how the real world operates. Regardless of an education or a diplo-ma, the ideal job may not be
waiting for you six months or two years after you graduate.
Have you ever played the board game Life? Did you ever rip up the board when you got a bad roll? Did you steal the other player’s mon-ey when they got ahead? No, that’s against the rules. Life is a game about you, not the other players. You can’t change the decisions other people will make, only your own. Why would you want to change their decisions? You’re not learning anything from it and neither are they.
If you want to make change, start with you. Standing out-side city halls and financial centers, waving signs about things you don’t fully com-prehend doesn’t get you any-where. What are you achiev-ing from it? There might be some satisfaction that you be-long to a group philosophy, but the point of humanity is supposed to be about the in-dividual's thought. Expand your self, not the herd.
Editorial: Occupy Missouri Western
I’M THE 99%HEY! ME TOO!
ME TOO!ME
TOO!
President Vartabedian addresses current economic climate
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT OUR WEEKLY
POLLS ONLINEat
GRIFFONNEWS.com
This week’s poll:
Do you support the
protestors of Occupy
Wall Street?
Yes, absolutely.
Definitely not.
I’m not sure.
I don’t care.
Occupy what?
GRIFFON STUDENTS AREN’T THE ONLY ONES WITH SOMETHING TO SAY.
over a team that had just six days to prepare for its first match in August.
After a full two months of engagement soccer, the sea-son wrapped up over Hal-loween weekend.
Western finished with a 4-10 record, doubling its win total from a season ago. Though the team missed out on another MIAA tour-nament appearance, and placed last in the division, the Griffons battled through adversity with so many fresh-man playing and a new coach. Throughout the first 10 games, the Griffons saw a 3-7 record, where at the half they were either tied or in the lead in every game.
Edwards believes with recruiting well by adding forwards, his team will be in better shape for a post-season run next year. He also said this season will help out the future.
"I'm really proud of the way they competed," Ed-wards said. "We got the cul-ture established. I got what I'm trying to accomplish es-tablished."
Among the seniors that played their last game in a Griffon uniform is Audrey Henderson. She leaves the program as the all-time lead-er in goals made with nine.
"I want to thank the four seniors especially," Edwards said. "I'm really proud of the way they handled [this sea-son]."
Volleyball entering final push
Coach Cory Frederick said he believes his team is play-ing the best volleyball they played all season.
Two straight losses could contradict that, but he said that didn't exactly matter.
Western dropped three sets to undefeated Washburn last Saturday, one day after losing a 3-2 split set game to Emporia State. The two losses didn't do anything to the Griffons in the confer-ence, as they are still slated at fifth place with a 5-7 MIAA record and 12-13 overall.
"We struggled a bit last week," Frederick said, "but we're playing some good vol-leyball. Win five out of six is our goal."
Frederick pointed to fresh-man Amanda Boender, who hit .667 and added 10 kills Friday nights against Empo-ria, as somebody who might step in and help the team over the next two weeks.
Basketball tip-offThursday night, both bas-
ketball teams will scrimmage for the first time at the Loo-ney Complex, at least the first time against an opponent.
Livin' the Dream, a pro-am basketball team out of Kansas City, Mo., will bring their talents to Western to play the Griffons.
The women's team will tip off at 5:30 p.m. followed shortly by the men, who are scheduled to play around 7 p.m.
Tom Smith, who is one win shy of 600 total for his coaching career, is excited to see his team at home in this exhibition game.
"I've never had any group work harder than this group has worked," Smith said. "I have three freshman for the first time. I can't wait till they're juniors. Hopefully I'm here when they're ju-niors," said Smith, who not only joked about that, but also about how he hopes to survive a sixth athletic direc-tor.
The No. 5 ranked Lady Blues gave Missouri Western a devastating loss with no chance of winning Saturday at Looney Complex.
Western was crushed by Washburn University who won three sets in a row 24-12, 29-27 and 25-20, which gave Western no chance to come back.
“It was a bad loss, but I’m still proud of my teammates because we never gave up and that’s what matters,” se-nior Tahler Johnston said.
Game one was a pretty even match. Senior Hannah Zimmerman put up the first point for Western which was a kill. As both teams went back and forth, eventually the Blues started creeping away and things started go-ing their way. The match at one point was 17-9, but the Griffons never gave up. Un-fortunately, they still lost the match 24-12.
“Washburn gave their best A-game today,” coach Cory Frederick said. “We’ll see
them next time.”Game two started with the
Blues taking the lead early
with an 11-6 run. Both teams committed a lot of errors this match. The Griffons settled
down and started to come back with a great run which tied the game at 19-19, and the Blues took a time out. After the timeout, the Blues took the lead again but the Griffons would not let down, and they tied the game again 26-26. Unfortunately, three back-to-back kills by the Blues was enough to defeat the Griffons that match 29-27.
Game three, the Griffons started on the right track and were having their best game.
They had the lead major-ity in the beginning of the match, but the Blues weren’t far off their trail. In the late beginning the match was tied 11-11, but the Blues wanted it more. They sneaked past the Griffons, which made the match at 14-18 at one point and then eventually defeated the Griffons 25-20.
“I’m still proud of my girls, and there are no other group of women I rather play ball with,” outside hitter Stepha-nie Hattey said.
Western was led by Zim-merman with 8 kills and 17 attempts, followed by Shelby Corkill with 8 kills and 25 at-tempts and Stephanie Hattey with 31 assists.
The Blues were led by Bri-ana Lewis with 11 kills and Jessica Kopp and Jessica Fey with 10 kills. Abby Wittman had 24 assists and Kelsey Lewis had 12 digs. The Blues have had a successful season with a 25-1 record and are 12-0 in the MIAA.
Soccer ends, volleyball enters final stretch
Volleyball team, coach remain positive despite three-set loss
(Top photo) Seniors Molly Slattery and Jeanna Ross hug after their final Missori Western soccer game. (Middle left) Senior Jeanna Ross goes hard at soccer’s senior night. (Middle right) Senior Audrey Henderson dribbles up the field. (Bottom left) Senior Brooke English poses with her obviously proud parents. (Bottom right) Senior Molly Slattery smiles with her parents. Jason Brown | Photo Editor
(Left) Defensive Specialist Sarah Faubel passes the ball. (Above) Middle Blocker Meredith McCormick and Right Side Hannah Zimmerman set up a solid double block. Jason Brown | Photo Editor
MEN’S
WOMEN’S
Sports November 3, 2011The Griffon NewsPage 8
One win in 10 years -- it doesn’t matter anymore. One win this season, that’s what matters.
Missouri Western plays its Highway 71 rivals Saturday afternoon at Spratt Stadium, a game anticipating a record number attendance. But how many fans will be there that sport black and gold? Defi-nitely more than ever, as the student body will not just sit on their hands and fans will storm the stadium. But what about the people outside of Western?
Not only will green swoop down 40 miles from Maryville to see a game that would all but clinch the winner a play-off birth, but perhaps steal the fans of St. Joseph, and turn whatever loyalty and team spirit residing in their hearts green as well.
It’s not out of the question to ask if St. Joseph is North-west’s hometown. Contro-versial? Yes, but what rivalry games aren’t? This game is bigger than it has been be-fore, and that includes last season’s playoff game. Why? Years down the line can be affected by the outcome of Saturday’s game.
A huge crowd, two top 25 teams, playoff implications and a fierce rivalry make Saturday’s football game at Spratt Stadium big time as Western takes on Northwest Missouri State University.
“It is our hated rival, and we are always amped up for this game,” safety Jack Long said. “It’s going to be an in-tense game, no matter what, every year.”
Northwest (8-1) is the No. 3 ranked team in the American Football Coaches Association top 25 and the No. 3 ranked team in the region. Western (7-2) is ranked No. 25 in the AFCA top 25 and No.7 in the region. Only the top six teams in the region will get into the playoffs.
“We realize it’s a contend-ing football team and a team that’s in front of us, and we want to win the game,” Coach Jerry Partridge said. “Our playoff hopes are af-fected by it, but I don’t think they necessarily hinge on it. Certainly a win helps our chances and a loss hurts.”
Breaking either team’s sta-dium attendance record is nothing out of the ordinary for the annual game between the Griffons and the Bearcats. The game set the record for attendance at Northwest last year with a crowd of 10,800. In 2009 a crowd of 10,129 showed up Spratt Stadium and set the attendance re-cord, which was broke by the Chiefs training camp with 10,727.
“Our fans sometimes need to create the excitement for us too,” Partridge said. “I want our student section to get here and get wild and crazy and do whatever they can to motivate our players and have a good time.”
This year’s contest between the two teams has the poten-tial to see the Spratt Stadium attendance record broken again. Safety Shane Simpson can picture fans rushing the
field following a big victory.“The home crowd is al-
ways going to be good,” safety Shane Simpson said. “We feed off energy from the crowd a lot and we are at Spratt, so it’s going to be a perfect set up for whatever is going to happen.”
Northwest holds a 20-10 all-time advantage in the se-ries, including beating the Griffons two times last sea-son. The second game be-tween the schools last year ended the Griffons’ season as Northwest edged Western 28-24 in the playoffs. The two schools are less than 40 minutes apart and are bit-ter rivals, competing for state funds off the field and regional supremacy on the field.
“Sometimes we put too much into it, to be honest with you, the community and the school does, which creates extra pressure on the kids,” Partridge said. “I think the kids want to win the game because it’s the next game for them.”
Partridge is more con-cerned with stopping a po-tent Northwest offense that averages 56 points and 560 yards per game.
“That’s the biggest con-cern to me,” Partridge said. “Can we stop them? No. But I hope we can slow them down enough to score more points than they do.”
“We just don’t want to give up the big plays,” Simpson said. “If we can just stay over the top and not let anything over the top of us, it will be a close game.”
Saturday is the last regu-lar season home game of the season for the Griffons, which means it’s senior night for Long, Adam Clausen, Isaac Collins, Greg Zuerlein, Nic Burrell, Jake Buckwal-ter, Kip Peters, Cody Kre-mer, Thomas Madget, David Fowler, Oliver Pryor, Jesse Engelken and Matt Speaks.
The game will be televised live by the MIAA television network and starts at 2 p.m.
Missouri Western Northwest Missouri
vs.Nov. 5, 2011
Offense:
Michael Hill is coming off his best rushing game of his career. The MIAA Offensive Player of the Week will see a tougher matchup against Northwest, but giving him the ball will make the Bearcats re-spect the Griffons run game. This, in turn, could allow Partridge some time to make good efficient passes against a suspect pass coverage the Bearcats have. Playmakers like Tarrell Downing should also give Western plenty of chances to advance the football down field.
Defense:
David Bass and Ben Pister must put pressure on Christopher. If they can steadily be in the backfield, it will disrupt many of his throws. This could give Jeremy Weston and the rest of the secondary oppor-tunities for some turnovers.
Special Teams:
It’s not a secret the Greg Zuerlein is the best kicker in the MIAA. He currently has made 13 straight field goals. Though that won’t beat Northwest, having great field position each drive will. But the less of Scott Groner fans see, the better off the Griffons might be.
Offense:
Blake Christopher is healthy, and that helps the Bearcats out a lot. Trevor Adams didn’t necessarily do a bad job as the quarterback when Christopher missed time with a hand injury, but Christopher is their starter. He will look to keep the pressure on Western’s offense to match him stride for stride. Northwest averages just shy of 56 points-per-game.
Defense:
With six sacks in the first seven weeks, Northwest finally found the pass rush against Washburn and Missouri Southern. The Bearcats totaled 11 sacks in those two wins, something they would like to carry into this weekend’s game against Western. If they can succeed in that area, it could make for a long day for sophomore quarterback Travis Partridge.
Special Teams:
Jordan Simmons has two kickoff returns for scores this season. And while he isn’t the main return man, Northwest is still able to put him out and use his athleticism. The starting running back will mainly be used on offense though. Todd Adolf is 7-for-9 on field goal attempts this season.
MICHAEL HILLMICHAEL HILLHill broke the school record for most rushing attempts Saturday in Bolivar, Mo. Hill's 41 carries gave him the school record and also
helped Western win its fifth straight game. Hill, who won MIAA Offensive Player of the Week,
also averaged six yards per carry.
As of now, St. Joseph doesn’t exactly stampede the parking lots at Western Sat-urday afternoons. But the majority of them don’t head up to Maryville either. Now that the game has this sort of “win or go home” scenario, fans finally have the oppor-tunity to see both teams play for stakes higher than before, right here in St. Joseph.
So when Todd Adolf or Greg Zuerlein kick off Sat-urday, there should be well over a thousand fans that just want to see football, that just want to see two teams play to the whistle blows. If this is the case, and Western pulls out the win, the fans that leave Saturday’s game will want to see them more. If Northwest wins, St. Joseph will once again wait to see the Bearcats play on television, deep into November, hoping that they keep advancing. Because the Griffons might not be there.
When Western announced Kurt McGuffin was the new director of athletics, he re-ferred to Western becoming St. Joseph’s team, not just the Griffons. A win Saturday will be a huge step.
Griffons seek revenge:No. 25 Western to take on rival no. 3 Northwest
Photos of last year’s game against Northwest. Western was shut out for the first time in thirteen years in an embarrass-ing 42-0 loss. Michael Hill (22), Tarrell Downing (11) and David Bass (91) are returning starters for the Griffons.
