09.16.19 by Kansas State Collegian

T H E I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E F O R K A N S A S S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y

vol. 125, issue 09

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monday, september 16, 2 0 1 9

Despite student outcry, there likely won’t be a fall break added to university calendar KAYLIE MCLAUGHLIN THE COLLEGIAN

Kansas State students have 80 consecutive days of class between breaks. That’s about double what many other four-year Kansas Board of Regents schools have, but that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. Despite what Jansen Penny, student body president and senior in industrial engineering, quantified as “overwhelming” student support, faculty nixed it, and Provost Charles Taber, who gets final say on the university calendar, indicated he’s not in favor of adding a fall break. “My own view is that we should not make a change to something like the calendar, which has consequences for curriculum, has consequences in a variety of ways … without having clear evidence that in fact it will ad-

dress the issue we are trying to address,” Taber said. The debate on the issue started in May, when the University Calendar Committee first proposed a calendar adding a two-day break in October for the 2022 to 2025 academic years, said Tanya Gonzalez, president of faculty senate and professor of English. The “robust” debate, Gonzalez said, deals with student well-being and mental health, a hot topic among students and faculty as internal reports from the Division of Student Life and Counseling Services indicate increases in usage of services and diagnoses of anxiety disorders and depression. Heather Reed, associate vice president for student life, expressed her support of adding the break to the calendar. She said in the last academic year, Counseling Services saw 6,571 visitors, a

10 percent increase from the year prior. “If a break were allowed in the time of maximum stress in October, we believe more students would be able to manage their stress in a better manner and would be more successful through the end of the semester,” Reed said. Sarah Barrett, faculty senator and Clery Act compliance officer, spoke on behalf of the Emerging Student Issues and Trends Committee. “We believe that providing a small reprieve from classes at a critical time in the academic year will allow students to take a step back, evaluate their semester and leverage the necessary energy to finish their semester on a positive note,” Barrett said.

see page 4, “BREAK”

Infographic by Kaylie McLaughlin | COLLEGIAN MEDIA GROUP

EDITORIAL: Denying fall 2-day break disrupts shared governance

Common read author shares his story, philosophy on writing

NEWS

Group therapy: an option often overlooked by Zandt Durham Sitting across from a therapist in a one-on-one session isn’t the only option at for you at Counseling Services. It might not even be the best form of therapy for you. Counseling Services offers all students group therapy sessions covering topics that range from anxiety to grief. “Group therapy is one of the best treatment options for a lot of the things that people are coming to Counseling Services with concerns about,” Melissa King, group psychologist, said. “But it’s not what people are thinking about.” A first meeting with a therapist at Counseling Services will mostly be a chance for the therapist to get to know you, and they may suggest a therapy group that might be a good fit. One or two licensed staff members lead group sessions of eight to ten students to talk about shared experiences. “What will happen is a sense of ‘I’m not alone’ in those groups,” King said. “This helps students feel more comfortable talking about their experiences as well as help their relationship with their fellow group members.” Some groups are exclusive to certain students, like groups for LGBTQ or graduate students, but most sessions are open to all students. “It’s nice to know that other people are going through the same thing as you,” Haley Egelhoff, freshman in business, said.

see page 3, “THERAPY”

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EDITORIAL BOARD Kaylie McLaughlin Editor-in-Chief Molly Hackett Managing Editor Sports Editor

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The Mission of the Collegian Media Group is to use best practices of journalism to cover and document life at Kansas State University from a diverse set of voices to inform and engage the K-State community. The Collegian welcomes your letters. We reserve the right to edit submitted letters for length and style. A letter intended for publication should be no longer than 600 words and must be relevant to the student body of K-State. It must include the author’s first and last name, year in school and major. If you are a graduate of K-State, the letter should include your year(s) of graduation and must include the city and state where you live. For a letter to be considered, it must include a phone number where you can be contacted. The number will not be published. Letters can be sent to letters@ kstatecollegian.com or submitted through an online form at kstatecollegian.com. Letters may be rejected if they contain abusive content, lack timeliness, contain vulgarity, profanity or falsehood, promote personal and commercial announcements, repeat comments of letters printed in other issues or contain attachments. The Collegian does not publish open letters, third-party letters or letters that have been sent to other publications or people.

CORRECTIONS If you see something that should be corrected, call editor-in-chief Kaylie McLaughlin at 785-370-6356 or email news@kstatecollegian.com

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Architecture grad student wins $30,000 scholarship with ‘nostalgic’ design REBECCA VRBAS THE COLLEGIAN

Kanoa San Miguel said he never thought his project would take him this far. This summer, the Angelo Donghia Foundation recognized his work with a $30,000 national scholarship. “There’s a part of me that doesn’t believe that it happened, just because it’s wild,” said San Miguel, fifth year graduate student in interior architecture and product design. San Miguel, of Longmont, Colorado, found himself drawn to Kansas State for its architecture program, which he saw as a way of combining his passions for art and math. San Miguel said human interaction spaces sparked his curiosity about interior design. “I’m just concerned about the wellness of everyone,” San Miguel said. “How spaces connect to people, and how they give

back. We spend all our time inside buildings, so how do we improve that experience?” San Miguel’s project was designed for the 2018 Steelcase NEXT Student Design Competition. The competition tasked students with designing a real estate and project management firm that supports ever-changing workplace environments. “A lot of my thoughts in initially designing and building the design came from the history of it,” San Miguel said. “A lot of it centers itself around the idea of settlement.” San Miguel’s design reflects the solitude of the prairie and the collaboration of mining communities in Colorado. “You get the sense of nostalgia,” San Miguel said. “But you also, in the forms and the furniture that I chose, it peaks at all the future things too.” Solomon Renfro, fifth-year interior architecture and product

design graduate student, said San Miguel has a unique way of doing projects. “He tends to approach things a little bit more theatrically, with more of a fun and relatable feel.” Renfro said. “Not just making art for the sake of art, but actually trying to move the people he’s making it for.” Renfro, a classmate of San Miguel since their freshman year, got to see the project come together. “Something his NEXT project did pretty well is creating an environment that would be approachable every day, but be something that people would be proud to be a part of still,” Renfro said. “So he had that inherent beauty that art has, but keeping it practical enough to be lived in.” San Miguel said he was surprised by how well his project was received. “You don’t really know how successful your design is until

Group therapy members are there for each other as much as they are for themselves. Each group member will give and receive feedback on how they are handling their role as a group member. There are several groups for students to join, such as Taming Your Anxious Mind, Living With Loss and Understanding Yourself and Others. King said there will be more groups offered in the future. Each group therapy session is $7. For more information on Group Therapy at Counseling Services, go to Counseling Services’ website.

ture with the potential to last 100 years. “Our society is leaning towards disposable things on every scale,” San Miguel said. “Not investing in a house, not investing in furniture and not investing in clothes. So everything has a shorter lifetime, so the quality goes down. And I think we’re approaching a state by which it’s not going to be okay anymore … We’re going to run out of materials or we’re going to run into financial ruin essentially.” Michelle Wempe, professor of practice and K-State alumna, oversaw San Miguel’s work in her studio class last fall. “I think that he had a really strong concept that he was able to visualize and carry throughout the entire process of doing his work,” Wempe said. “So his concept was about the settling of Colorado and the topography that was there, and he was able to take that as an idea and make a

three dimensional reality behind that for an office space.” “He has a really good hand in his rendering style and his ability to communicate things visually and verbally, in all forms,” Wempe added. “He’s a good representation of what we hope our students represent as they get ready to leave college.” In addition to his architecture pursuits, San Miguel has held many leadership positions at K-State. He served as a peer educator for his college and came full circle by becoming the Residential Learning Assistant for the APDesign Cat Community, the same community he was part of his freshman year. “I could not have completed the project without the knowledge and the instruction I’ve received through all four years,” San Miguel said. “It’s really important to me that they’re recognized for that too, because it’s not just my accomplishment.”

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THERAPY continued from page

people are discussing it,” San Miguel said. “To be recognized on that level of platform just makes me insanely happy that everything I’ve learned up to this point, everything I’ve been taught has been able to facilitate this direction.” San Miguel said the scholarship opened opportunities that would otherwise be financially restrictive, as the cost of being in a five-year program is substantial. “I can pursue projects in a different way than I would, I don’t have to be as frugal with the furniture design stuff that I’m doing, or I can experiment with different technology I haven’t touched before,” San Miguel said. “It kind of put me at ease, because it means that the years of my education were kind of culminating to something bigger.” One concept San Miguel said he is eager to explore in future projects is designing furni-

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Hannah Greer | COLLEGIAN MEDIA GROUP

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BREAK continued from page

Several academic colleges’ leadership, Student Health Services, the Office of Institutional Equity, Counseling Services and K-State Police cosigned Barrett’s debate.

THE STUDENTS

Early opposition to the break cited lack of data supporting the idea that adding two days off to the calendar in the fall would really address students’ mental health. Or that October is the right time to implement a break. A survey sent out on social media by Penny, and Ali Karamali, student body vice president and senior in chemical engineering, yielded results that follow trends of increasing stress and unwellness. Close to 800 students responded. One question asked respondents to report when they felt mental health challenges and depression. More than 56 percent of the 773 students who responded indicated they felt as such toward mid-semester, in October. More than 51 percent of respondents cited they felt overwhelmed or experienced higher stress at the mid-semester point as well. Another key finding from the survey indicated more than 95 percent of students said having an extra twoday break would improve academic performance. Also, 78.32 percent said they would return to their permanent home during a break. Penny said many students who provided anecdotal responses to the survey said they are out-of-state students who get few opportunities to return home. An extended weekend would give those students more opportunity to see their families, he said. “This is something impactful,” Penny said. Penny and Karamali said they hoped data from the survey would help inform faculty senate and Taber in the official decision-making process. “A lot of faculty’s draw-

Infographic by Kaylie McLaughlin | COLLEGIAN MEDIA GROUP

backs last time they discussed it at faculty senate was there’s no data to support this,” Karamali said. “We’re not looking at somebody at a different type of school that may have different needs [anymore].” During the Sept. 5 student senate meeting, Student Governing Association unanimously passed a special-ordered resolution supporting the amended university calendar proposed by the University Calendar Committee. Special-ordered legislation and resolutions bypass procedure and their passage serves as expedited approval. Hannah Heatherman, speaker of the student senate and senior in finance, said it’s the first time in more than two years such an action has occurred. The action received multiple debates in the positive and had no criticism as it passed through the body. “Special ordering is not something that you do lightly,” Andrew Booze, chair of Senate Operations Committee and junior in computer science, said. When the calendar came up for faculty senate approval, Heatherman urged the body to vote in favor of it. As part of K-State’s shared governance model, Heatherman

votes in faculty senate as a student representative. Voting against the break “[undermines] the will of the student body” who are the true stakeholders in the situation because their money pays for the university, Heatherman said. “This is the university community trying to sort out what’s best for our calendar and also sort out what we can do to most effectively champion student wellness while maintaining our academic mission,” Gonzalez said. People who oppose the added break are concerned about disrupting academic curricula. Some faculty senators, like Brett DePaola, head of the Physics department, said he was concerned about some programs losing accreditation. Mohammad Hosni, professor of mechanical and nuclear energy, voiced similar concerns. “By taking more days off we have two choices: cram the material into the remaining days of the semester … or just not cover it which means that the students that are paying more are going to get less,” Hosni said. “I respect the students, I do care about their wellbeing, but I’m concerned about teaching less and them learning less.” A recurring denominator in Taber’s argument against adding the break is a peer reviewed study from 2019 conducted at a Canadian university that implemented a fall break. The study polled students before and after a fall break, and determined students felt higher levels of stress after the break. “Student mental health is extremely important to me, but I do not see compelling evidence that an additional fall break would serve this important goal. Without this evidence, I will not change the calendar,” Taber said in an emailed statement. During the Sept. 10 faculty senate meeting, Taber mentioned the study again. “While having a break does have fairly fleeting effects on stressor events, the

overall cumulative effect across the semester was higher stress with the break,” Taber said. Taber said he consulted with professionals in the Division of Student Life and Counseling Services, which puts him in contradiction with Reed and Barrett. One specific person Taber said he consulted is Thomas Lane, vice president for student life and dean of students. Heatherman expressed concern for this, saying when the meeting between Taber and Lane occured, Lane had only been on campus for a month. Penny said he didn’t think Taber spoke to all the necessary parties before coming to a decision. Also, Penny said he felt Taber stepped out of line when he aired his concerns and desire to vote against the calendar early in the process. “I’m personally very frustrated in the way that our process, that’s been outlined, … was disrupted by the Provost’s very intentional comments to all of us,” Penny said. “I think faculty senate should be insulted that he disrupted the shared governance model there to be honest,” Heatherman agreed. “I don’t understand why faculty senate, in the largest part at least in my perception, is okay with the final check jumping into the middle and swaying the conversation.” During the faculty senate meeting, Taber was asked if the debate was essentially unimportant if he still had final say on the decision and his intentions were already clear. “Regardless of what you think I may decide to do after this, I think you should make a recommendation to me that is your honest opinion,” Taber said in response. Taber then left the meeting for a prior commitment. In an email, he said he plans to have a decision made by the end of the week. Do you have an opinion about adding a fall break, curriculum or student mental wellness? Send your thoughts to news@kstatecollegian. com.

K-State defeats Mississippi State to go 3-0 on the season

Meg Shearer | COLLEGIAN MEDIA GROUP

K-State played Mississippi State on Sept. 8, 2018 at Bill Snyder Family Snyder. The Wildcats fell to the Bulldogs 31-10.

ADAM MEYER

THE COLLEGIAN

Kanas State stepped up to the challenge of a true road game on Saturday and pulled out a gutsy 31-24 win against Mississippi State. This brings the series to 1-1. K-State fell to the Bulldogs last year at home 31-10. Redshirt junior quarterback Skylar Thompson had a big game as he threw for 123 yards on 10 passing attempts including a massive touchdown pass late in the game. The Wildcats jumped out to an early 10-0 lead with a field goal from Blake Lynch and a seven-yard touchdown run from senior running back Jordon Brown. The Bulldogs got themselves back into the game with a touchdown run from running Tommy Stevens. K-State then responded as Thompson led a 5 play, 30-yard drive that ended in a one-yard touchdown run himself to get the lead back to 10 points. It looked like the Wildcats

were going to go into halftime with a 10 point lead, but the Bulldogs sneaked in a 35-yard touchdown pass with nine seconds remaining to make it 17-14 at the half. The third quarter was mostly silent until five minutes remained and Mississippi State took its first lead of the game with a touchdown, 21-17. To begin the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs got a field goal to stretch the lead to seven points, their biggest lead of the game. It appeared that with 10 unanswered points the Bulldogs had the momentum to runaway with the game, but true freshman wide receiver Malik Knowles brought the energy back to K-State’s sideline as he returned the following kickoff for 100 yards to tie the game. Thompson then found senior wide receiver Dalton Schoen with a 15-yard touchdown pass to secure the game. The Wildcats will head to Stillwater, Oklahoma, to begin conference play against the Oklahoma State Cowboys after this weekend’s bye.

monday, september 16, 2019

EDITORIAL: Fall break denial ignores students, shared governance On Sept. 10, faculty senate ignored the will of the student body and voted to deny the University’s Calendar Committee recommendation to add an October break for the 2022 to 2025 academic years.

Furthermore, in the decision-making process protocols and mechanisms were interrupted. Prior to the faculty senate vote to kill the amended academic calendar, Student Governing

Infographic by Kaylie McLaughlin | COLLEGIAN MEDIA GROUP

Association special ordered and unanimously approved a resolution on behalf of the student body supporting the calendar. Discussions on the issue centered predominantly around mental wellness and anxiety. Opposition to the break focused on how changes to the calendar could disrupt curricula and cited lack of data to back up the notion that removing two days from the calendar would address the mental health issue. Faculty senate repeatedly called for more evidence. SGA turned the matter over to the students, sending out a survey about the proposed break. More than 750 students participated, and the results yielded a majority decision — most respondents felt most stressed or incurred the most mental health strain in October, when the break was proposed to fall. Most respondents indicated they have wanted to take a mental health day from classes, but couldn’t. Most profound of all, more than 95 percent reported

they felt adding a two day break in the fall semester would improve their academic performance. Kansas State has 80 consecutive instructional days between Labor Day and Thanksgiving break. To put that in perspective, the University of Kansas and Wichita State have half that. Pittsburg State and Emporia State have less than half that. Additionally, Jansen Penny, student body president and senior in industrial engineering, previously said K-State is the only remaining Kansas Board of Regents school to hold more than the 146 required instructional days. Representatives from SGA, the Division of Student Life, the Access Center and the Committee on Emerging Student Issues and Trends spoke up in favor of adding the break. So how is it that the student voice is ignored? How is it that when major parts of the university’s governance system indicate the necessity of removing two

days from the calendar, they are ignored? How can the data collected from K-State’s own students be ignored? K-State’s system of shared governance failed the student body and ignored the most important stakeholders. The shared decision-making process across faculty, staff, students and administrators has crumpled. The system’s power comes from the administration’s willingness to allow the procedures run their course. If the willingness is gone, then the system fails. Provost Charles Taber, who gets the final say in the matter, indicated in an emailed statement that he intends to finalize his decision by the end of the week. The Collegian editorial board implores him to listen to the will of the students he serves and consider the weight of the data that suggests the status of their mental well-being and academic performance. Please send comments to opinion@kstatecollegian.com.

Annual Walk to End Alzheimer's raises awareness STEPHANIE NUTT THE COLLEGIAN

Manhattan’s second Walk to End Alzheimer’s took place in City Park on Saturday morning. The event raises funds to further care, support and research efforts of the Alzheimer’s Association. “We have 700 walkers here and we’re near our goal of reaching $80,000, and I walk in memory and in honor of my mother,” Sheri Storer, member of the walk’s planning team, said. According to the National Institute on Aging, Alzheimer’s disease is an “irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry

out the simplest tasks.” As many as 5.5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s. Most participants at the Walk to End Alzheimer’s have a connection to the disease in some way. It could be that they have Alzheimer’s or dementia, have lost someone to the disease, currently support or care for someone with Alzheimer’s or simply support the cause and envision a world without Alzheimer’s. Participants carried flower-shaped pinwheels on their walk. Different colors represented what, or who, people walked for. Aimee Leicht said she walked in honor of her husband’s grandmother. She said the event means a lot to her and her family. “[I walk to] bring

awareness and hopes in finding a cure someday because this is a horrible disease and just support not only those who have Alzheimer’s but also the caretakers as well,” Leicht said. The Alzheimer’s Association is a part of Sigma Kappa’s chapter philanthropy at Kansas State. The sorority was present at the walk. Sigma Kappa hosts other events to benefit the Alzheimer’s Disease and Research Grant Program, including their Ultra Violet Mudbowl in the fall and Sigma Kappatizers in the spring. The next local Walk to End Alzheimer’s is Sept. 28, 2019 in Topeka. Walk to End Alzheimer’s is still taking donations online.

Sabrina Cline | COLLEGIAN MEDIA GROUP

Members of the Manhattan commuity gathered at the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in City Park on Sept. 14, 2019.

monday, september 16, 2019

OPINION: ‘Kill shelters’ are not muderous operations or the enemy RACHEL HOGAN THE COLLEGIAN

I want to preface this by saying I love dogs. I love most animals, but dogs have a special place in my heart. Most of the dogs I’ve met in my life were adopted from no-kill shelters. But I don’t think “kill shelters,” also known as open-admittance shelters, deserve the bad reputation and hate they sometimes receive. That must sound weird coming from someone who cries at the thought of a sweet, innocent animal’s life being cut short by euthanasia, but even People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which claims to be “the largest animal rights organization in the world,” will argue that villainizing open-admittance shelters detracts from the real problem: breeders and irresponsible owners who don’t spay or neuter their companion animals. If every shelter became a no-kill operation, the homeless animal population would skyrocket. As it is, there aren’t enough safe and loving homes

Alex Shaw | COLLEGIAN MEDIA GROUP

All shelters share the same goal of finding safe and loving homes for as many homeless animals as possible. Shaming “kill shelters,” or open-admittance shelters, detracts from the underlying cause of companion animal overpopulation. for the animals we have. Shelters desperate to adopt animals already accidentally put animals in the care of unfit owners, hoarders and abusers.

Imagine how much more frequently this would happen under the strain of millions — yes, millions — more animals. But that’s not how the

world is. Instead, shelters face a daily dilemma: accept the animals and try to make room for as many as possible, or turn them away to an unknown fate.

And that’s what many nokill shelters do. They turn away the animals that open-admittance shelters will blindly accept. They also shuffle around animals from shelter to shelter, allowing them to suffer in scary, uncomfortable, stressful and unfamiliar environments, for years in some cases. These shelters may even be less “no-kill” than you think. According to NPR, nokill shelters can euthanize up to 10 percent of their waifs and still hang on to their title. The debate between no-kill and open-admittance shelters is more complicated than good versus bad. “Kill shelters” are not murderous operations. Every time I think of a veterinary technician inserting the needle into the vein of a dog who has overstayed its welcome in the shelter, I image they feel a lot like I did when my family suddenly had to let go of our chow-chow mix Mabel because an undetected cancer had metastasized in multiple areas of her soft, fluffy body. That night, the sweetest dog I ever met had her life cut short because it was better to

let her go gently, on a soft blanket with a bit of her favorite food (pizza) in her tummy, than to let her continue to starve and dehydrate herself to death. I smiled through tears, told her I loved her and that it was going to be okay. Because it was going to be okay, or at least better than the alternative. In an ideal world, every shelter would be a no-kill shelter, but there are simply too many stray and abandoned animals to accommodate in terms of space, food, water and veterinary care. At the end of the day, every shelter has the goal of finding safe, loving homes for as many animals as possible. They just do it in different ways. No shelter is the enemy. The real enemy is irresponsible pet owners who surrender their animals or recklessly allow them to reproduce. The real enemy is greedy breeders and the people who support them. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Collegian. Please send comments to opinion@kstatecollegian.com.

Tennis and men’s golf start their fall seasons, other sports continue ADAM MEYER

THE COLLEGIAN

WOMEN’S GOLF

The women’s golf team will participate in their second invitational on Monday as they wrap up the Marilynn Smith/ Sunflower Invitational.

MEN’S GOLF

The men’s golf team begins its season this week at the Golfweek Conference Challenge in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

It began on Sunday and will go through Tuesday.

VOLLEYBALL

The volleyball team (4-4) has a busy week participating in the North Texas Challenge. On Thursday, they will play North Texas at 7 p.m. The Wildcats will play Ohio at 3:30 p.m. and on Saturday they play New Mexico at 10:30 a.m.

TENNIS

T he tennis team will begin its fall sea-

son participating in the Auburn Invitational in Auburn, Alabama, on Friday and compete through Sunday.

CROSS COUNTRY

The cross country team will compete on Saturday in the Jay Dirksen Invite in Lincoln, Nebraska. The men’s team started off the season placing second at the JK Gold Classic in Wichita last weekend.

Luis Villarreal-Reyes | COLLEGIAN MEDIA GROUP

The Wildcats celebrating senior midfielder Laramie Hall’s equalizing goal against Gonzaga. Gonzaga won 3-2 in overtime on Sept. 12, 2019.

monday, september 16, 2019

‘Darius the Great’ author shares his story, philosophy of writing PETER LOGANBILL THE COLLEGIAN

Adib Khorram, author of the Kansas State common read “Darius the Great is not Okay,” received praise and attention for his book last Thursday during his visit to campus. However his writing journey started long before his first published novel. When growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, Khorram started writing fan fiction in sixth grade. He started with the Lord of the Rings, but his interests later shifted to science fiction. “Some of my other friends got in on the writing game,” Khorram said. “So then that was a sort of Star Trek-inspired

space opera, but mostly starring ourselves and our friend group.” As he moved into high school and college, his writing focused more on school assignments. However, the desire to write creatively was sparked again once he took screenwriting in film school, but he didn’t see himself making a career out of it. “If you want to get a screenplay produced, you either have to be independently wealthy, or know someone independently wealthy, and I was neither of those,” Khorram said. “I turned to novels, and wrote a whole bunch of really crappy ones, and then eventually wrote some less crappy ones.” In 2014, Khorram came

across a book that he said opened his mind to the possibilities of young adult fiction. “I read a book called ‘Grasshopper Jungle’ by Andrew Smith, which takes place in small-town Iowa, and two boys accidentally unleash a plague of six foot tall praying mantises on the world, all while one of them is coming to terms with their bisexuality,” Khorram said. “It just kind of blew my mind what you could be doing in young adult fiction these days, and it really reinvigorated me and made me excited to be writing for young adults.” Today, Khorram’s time spent writing often varies. In the morning, he takes time to do the business side of being an author,

answering emails and researching. Afternoons are usually devoted to a certain word count, which he said is typically 1,500 words. “Maybe that’ll take me 30 minutes, if I’m like, really feeling it, and maybe it’ll take me four hours, and I won’t quite make it,” Khorram said. He said honesty and authenticity are what make good writing. “At the end of the day, that’s what it’s really about, is connecting with people,” Khorram said. “If you can be honest about your own struggles, about your own thoughts, about your own feelings, and get them onto the

page, it’s going to resonate with your audience.” This strategy seems to have worked for Khorram, as the common read resonated with many students. Lilli Ward, junior in history and anthropology, said some sections of the book took her by surprise, but she knew exactly what it was talking about. “The fact that [the main character] struggles with depression, I’ve struggled with that before, and I have a very, very, very close friend who struggled with that for a long time,” Ward said. Thomas Leihsing, freshman in wildlife fisheries and conservation biology, said the book was a “tear-jerker.”

100 300 Housing/Real Estate

MANHATTAN CITY Ordinance 4814 as-sures every person equal opportunity in housing without distinction on account of race, sex, familial status, military status, disability, religion, age, color, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation or gender identity. Violations should be reported to the Director of Human Resources at City Hall, 785-587-2440.

Dylan Connel | COLLEGIAN MEDIA GROUP

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Rent-Houses & Duplexes

Adib Khorram visited Kansas State on Sept. 12, 2019, to discuss his book “Darius The Great Is Not Okay,” common read for the 2019-2020 school year.

FOUR-FIVE bedroom 2 and a half bath townhome.$1,000a month. 785-3136-5025.

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Help Wanted THE COLLEGIAN cannot verify the financial potential of advertisements in the Employment/ Opportunities classifications. Readers are advised to approach any such business opportunity with reasonable caution. The Collegian urges our readers to contact the Better Business Bureau, 501 SE Jefferson, Topeka, KS 66607-1190. 785-232-0454.

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“Coming from a super close-knit family, it was kind of hard to see how separated he was from his family, and being able to see at the end how close he became with his family, it was really nice,” Leihsing said. Khorram’s advice to aspiring authors? Be wary of advice. “Try lots of different things, everyone works differently,” Khorram said. “Some people have to write every day, some people can’t write every day. Some people like to make outlines, some people can’t, they don’t work that way. So figure out what works for you, and then keep doing that. If it stops working for you, try something new.”

monday, september 16, 2019

OPINION: Mike Pompeo’s philosophy on human rights should be taken seriously SUAN SONNA

THE COLLEGIAN

While it may seem negligible to some, the philosophy underpinning Mike Pompeo’s Landon Lecture, and his new Commission on Unalienable Rights, should be taken seriously. By that, I mean his ideas should not be dismissed as religious dogma or unintelligible conservative rhetoric. They, like any other philosophy, require serious and sincere engagement from liberals and conservatives. The reason why is simple: the new natural law theory, the commission’s governing philos-

ophy, is one of conservatism’s most influential approaches to moral, political and social philosophy. If liberals fail to engage or familiarize themselves with the new natural law, they will lose ground on the intellectual front — perhaps endangering their cultural stronghold. If conservatives fail to engage the new natural law, they will miss one of the most important intellectual developments of their tradition in the last century.

THE DISMISSIVENESS PROBLEM A paradigmatic example of the dismissiveness problem is Kathryn Joyce’s article in The New Republic about the

philosophers and jurists assisting Pompeo. Joyce passes along a faithful, although incomplete, definition of classical natural law theory: “Natural law — a tradition comprising Ancient Greek philosophy, Catholic medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas, and some Enlightenment-era social contract theory — in its classic form, argues that humanity has certain inherent ‘goods,’ such as marriage or family, that are objective, universal, and, although inspired by God, also deducible through human reason and therefore a proper basis for policy.” So far so good, although more can be said. Unfortunately, after this

Strain on students

Infographic by Kaylie McLaughlin | COLLEGIAN MEDIA GROUP

This infographic, as part of the fall break debate coverage, depicts student responses to the survey sent out by Jansen Penny, student body president and senior in industrial engineering, and Ali Karamali, student body vice president and senior in chemical engineering, on social media. It uses proportionality to show how students responded. More than 51 percent of the respondents reported they incurred the highest levels of stress and felt overwhelmed toward mid-semester, in October.

quote, Joyce’s core problem appears: she explores the new natural law from those outside of tradition and, slowly but surely, becomes more condescending. “‘According to this theory, God established a rational order to the universe, and the rules he has set are thereby ‘laws’ for all rational beings. Aiming at the natural goods for one’s species is thus commanded by God,’ University of Wyoming political theory professor Brent Pickett told me,” Joyce said. This definition is good in that it recognizes that the new natural law theory is axiological. Axiological ethics claim morality is grounded in the pursuit of intrinsically valuable ends or goods. But, Pickett’s definition quickly departs by suggesting the obligatory force of pursuing these goods are the commands of God. This implies that the new natural law is some form of Divine Command Theory, but this is inaccurate. Both classical and new natural law theory claim that its conclusions on moral issues can be discerned by unaided human reason — God is not immediately necessary for figuring out it is wrong to kill an innocent person or steal from the poor. From there, Joyce’s charitability further declines, and her insinuation of ill will and theocratic motivations to new natural law thinkers continues: “As a legal strategy, it’s a better bet than citing scripture.” If you read the entire article, you will find that little is said in defense of the new natural law, and her charitability towards the philosophy depletes. Accusations are levied against certain thinkers, but, once you look into the sources she provides, one finds her accusation is either unfounded or deeply misleading.

THE NEW NATURAL LAW THEORY

I am here to do what Joyce and others should have — provide an unbiased introduction to

Bailey Britton | COLLEGIAN MEDIA GROUP

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sat down with Collegian reporters Pete Loganbill and Kaylie McLaughlin on Sept. 6, 2019 after he gave a Landon Lecture. His lecture focused on unalienable rights. the theory and then analyze its controversial but influential role in American life. The theory begins by assuming human beings can act for intrinsically valuable ends rather than for instrumental reasons. For example, new natural law theorists would say the reason you pursue friendship is not because you merely use people to some end, but you recognize that having a friend is by itself good enough for you to pursue it. It is intrinsically good. The new natural law theorist then argues that there are other basic goods, things worth pursuing and loving, that motivate human action. Among these are life, knowledge, play, aesthetic experience, friendship, marriage, religion and practical reasonableness. By “practical reasonableness”, the new natural law theorist says we recognize it is simply good, without need for further explanation, that we should orient our cognition and practice around the good or the basic goods. Since the theorist has provided some of their views on human nature, this allows them to move on to questions of politics and social justice.

AMERICAN LIFE

When the Supreme Court decided Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, legalizing same-sex marriage, new natural law was pivotal. Robert P. George, professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University, published a paper in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy alongside two students defending traditional marriage with both constitutional and new natural law principles. While their paper caused a stir in the academic world, and the book version of their paper ‘What is Marriage?’ went on to be cited by the Supreme Court, the general public seemed to have dismissed or simply had never heard their arguments. For my purposes here, however, I am not going to reiterate their case. I will only emphasize that their case did not rely upon a single page of scripture but a rigorous jurisprudential method that has been engaged by other scholars.

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