VOL. 121, ISSUE 53
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© 2015 collegian media group
T H U R S D AY, N O V E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 5
THE INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR KANSAS STATE UNIVERSIT Y
INSIDE
H KOBACH H
this issue
facesopposition
3: >> PAGE High schools’
to voter registration requirements
different methods of sex education
years old was at 75.9 percent and only dropped to 63.4 percent over the same period. Carlin said he believes young voters should be the largest group participating because they have more at stake for the future than older voters.
4: >> PAGE ‘American Tet’ sheds light on the life of military families
VOTER TURNOUT
Illustration by Iris LoCoco Secure and Fair Elections Act passed in 2011. As of January 2012, voters became required to bring a photo ID to the polls. Starting in 2013, Kansans had to also provide proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, U.S. passport or naturalization records.
KELSEY KENDALL the collegian
Thursday news briefs
Over 36,000 Kansans have been unable to register to vote due to changes in requirements, according to the Oct. 15 New York Times article, “Voter ID Battle Shifts to Kansas.” Secretary of State Kris Kobach said these changes are supposed to stop fraudulent voting in Kansas, though some argue that it is a barrier against the right to vote for certain groups. “Our objective was to make Kansas elections the most secure voting systems in the country,” Kobach said. According to Kobach, these changes are part of the Kansas
O
compiled by
DANIELLE COOK K-STATE ANNOUNCES NEW SHOWCASE STAGE FOR MARCHING BAND
According to a release from K-State’s Athletic Department, Bill Snyder Family Stadium will soon be home to a permanent showcase stage for the K-State Marching Band, The Pride of Wildcat Land. Athletic Director John Currie, Director of Bands Frank Tracz and student government leadership announced this news Wednesday. The stage will be set in an area below a concourse walkway in the stadium’s northeast corner. The showcase stage, part of Phase IIIB of the stadium’s Master Plan, has been designed specifically for the marching band, which consists of over 400 members. With the help of Tracz, who began assisting in the design process last spring, the stage was designed to better serve the band and was positioned in order to increase band visibility and projection of sound. “Not only will we be seen and heard by areas of the stadium that previously could not enjoy our music, this new area will also increase much-needed storage space for our game day equipment and improve the overall safety of our band members and instruments with a dedicated stairway to the field,” Tracz said. “Most importantly, the new section maintains our important connection to the students, continuing to create an intimidating environment for the visiting team.” Currie also announced Wednesday that $15 million was estimated in project costs and of that amount, $10 million has been pledged. see page
5, “BRIEFS”
TARGETING YOUNG VOTERS
Though Kobach said these requirements will stop fraudulent voting, some have said they feel it stops more than that. “Are we wanting people to vote, or are we discouraging folks from participation?” John Carlin, visiting professor and executive-in-residence in political science, said. To Carlin, the changes in
registration requirements make it more difficult to register. He said that young voters 18-30 years old are particularly inconvenienced because they are the most mobile of the population and may have left their documents with their parents. “I think young people should be outraged,” Carlin said. Carlin also said one thing he tells his students to do is to vote; however, young people have the lowest turnout at elections nationwide. This can be seen in a U.S. Census Bureau study that showed voter participation by citizens 1924 years old was at 50.9 percent in 1964 and dropped to 38 percent in 2012. The same study showed that voter participation by those 45-64
April Mason
K-State provost and senior vice-president File photo by Parker Robb | THE COLLEGIAN
The Collegian will host a live Q-and-A with K-State’s provost and senior vice president April Mason today at 11:30 a.m.
ERIN POPPE
The Kansas State Collegian will host an Ask Me Live session with K-State Provost and Senior Vice President April Mason from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY On this day in 1775, Continental Army commander-in-chief General George Washington condemns his troops’ planned celebration of the British anti-Catholic holiday, Guy Fawkes Night, as he was simultaneously struggling to win FrenchCanadian Catholics to the Patriot cause. history.com
see page
responsible for undergraduate and graduate academic programs on three campuses. Mason has worked closely with the president as a key driver of the K-State 2025 strategic plan and is committed to achieving significant progress toward K-State becoming a top 50 public research university by 2025. In addition to her work
with
the collegian
Kobach said there should be a higher young voter turnout, but that hasn’t been the case for decades. “It’s not as if today’s college-age voters are doing any worse than college-age voters 20 years ago,” Kobach said. Young people have always had lower turnout rates for elections, according to Kobach. “(These requirements) keep a group that historically is unmotivated from actually voting,” Abby Agnew, junior in marketing, said. “They’re like, ‘This is too hard. Why should I try?’” Agnew said these additional registration requirements target young people and disenfranchise them. She said she believes that Kobach is not considering how difficult it might be for students to get their proof of citizenship from their parents, who might have misplaced the documents and have to search for them for long periods of time to help their children.
today. To participate, simply post a question in the comment section. There is no guarantee that every question will be answered. Please refer to the #AML FAQ for more questions.
ABOUT MASON
Since joining the university in January 2010, Mason provides oversight and leadership to the academic dimensions of the university and ensures the university’s academic standards. She serves as the second-ranking administrator,
SOCIAL MEDIA http://www.twitter.com/KStateCollegian http://www.facebook.com/kstatecollegian http://www.youtube.com/user/Ecollegian
4, “VOTING”
on campus, Mason is passionate about the future of higher education in Kansas and across the country. She currently serves as chairelect of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities Council on Academic Affairs and the president of the Association of Chief Academic Officers, an affiliate organization of the American Council on Education.
What? When? Where? #AML
with April Mason, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM kstatecollegian.com/aml
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Zits | By Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman
THE BLOTTER ARREST REPORTS TUESDAY, NOV. 3 Caleb Eugene Lister, of the 1700 block of Cedar Crest Drive, was booked for driving while suspended. Bond was set at $1,500.
Patrick Joseph Arrow, of Wamego, Kansas, was booked for aggravated assault. Bond was set at $8,000. Winnie Darlene Haney, of the 3000 block of Tuttle Creek Boulevard, was booked for battery. Bond was set at $1,000.
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education S E lacking uniformity in high schools
X
For many years now, the topic of sex education in high schools has been a touchy subject. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 22 of 50 states require that public schools teach sex education, and 33 states require students be educated about HIV and AIDS. Even with these national mandates in place, schools still have room to decide how sex education will be taught and what will be included. Some schools teach about abstinence, while others teach students about birth control options and how to practice safe sex. Student experiences differ depending on what high school they attended. For instance, some high schools take the approach of informing their students of the bare minimum and leaving it up to the students to find the rest out on their own. “My health class was honestly a joke at my high school,” Courtney Robles, senior in finance, said. “They only talked to us about pregnancy statistics.
EMILY DYE the collegian
We were not taught actual ways to prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. We were left to figure almost everything out on our own.” At other schools, sex is brought up solely to push an abstinence-only message. Terran Jennings, senior in agricultural technology, said he believes this is not proactive and is not the best way to educate students. “If a school only taught abstinence, I feel like people who start becoming sexually active might not know the risks of STDs or might not worry about pregnancy as much as they should,” Jennings said. “I feel like people who don’t want the school talking to their children about safe sex could be hurting them instead.” In a 2013 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey, 41 percent of high school students reported that they did not use a condom the last time they had sex. In addition, “nearly half of the 20 million new STDs each year were among young people
between the ages of 15 to 24,” according to the center. Lauren Reardon, senior in graphic design, said her sex education courses in high school were considerably more comprehensive and also focused on the many birth control options available. “The high school I went to made us take a health class where we were taught all the different types of birth control,” Reardon said. “I think that’s the best way to inform people. To make them take it seriously and understand (it) fully.” Although Reardon’s sex education classes were more in depth than others, she said she still believes additional steps can be taken to strengthen sex education courses in high schools. “I believe incorporating a sexual assault program within a high school sex education class would be a smart thing to do,” Reardon said. “I mean, while you’re talking about safe sex it is also just as important to educate them on the severity of sexual assault.”
Sex Ed Quick Facts Results from the CDC’s 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance survey on high school students in the United States indicated...
47% have had sexual intercourse.
34% had sexual intercourse during the 3 months prior to the survey.
41% did not use a condom the last time they had sex.
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Review: ‘American Tet’ offers provocative view
NICHOLAS CADY the collegian
“It’s not a pretty play, but it’s not a pretty world.” The quote by “American Tet” playwright Lydia Stryk is appropriate to describe most productions of the 2004 Iraqi War drama, including K-State Theatre’s current presentation. “Pretty” is a word that usually brings something pleasant to mind. “Pretty” might be applicable to the set design, which was handcrafted to represent a dreamy American backyard blanketed in the safety of home, but don’t be fooled; the “pretty” in “American Tet” ends there. The play is a provocative conversation at its core. The script is full of unnerving moments, both at home as well as in foreign lands, which director Samantha Hindle, graduate in theater, said she finds very relevant today. “I was a military spouse for four years, and I think that it’s important for us to look at how war affects us on a micro level as opposed to always looking at it on a macro level, in terms of how it’s affecting nations, the economy and all of that,” Hindle said. “I really wanted to focus on how it impacts families.” The cast has been rehearsing for two months and has valued the exercises that allowed them to escape character and the emotional context of the script, Tori Ptacek, senior in theater, said. “Getting out of character has been tricky, but we do really (have) fun de-rolling activities, and then also sometimes after rehearsal
Nicholas Cady | THE COLLEGIAN
Danny, the young military policeman, played by Jacob Edelman-Dolan, freshman in theater, discusses the damages of war with the disfigured American soldier of the Iraq war, Angela, played by Kelly Serna, senior in psychology, during dress rehearsal of American Tet Monday. I’ll just drive around and listen to music,” Ptacek said. “It just kind of helps Tori come back.” The cast itself is a mixture of old and new faces to K-State Theatre; this is a return to the Purple Masque stage for Ptacek, who plays the role of Elaine Krombacher, a wife and mother struggling with the pros and cons of patriotism. Some of the most powerful scenes were executed by Ptacek and Dinh Phan-Elliott, sophomore in business administration, who portrayed Nuh, the voice of Vietnam and a
silenced people. “I’m a Vietnamese girl so when I read the script, I recognized where I come from,” Phan-Elliott said. “I liked the way the character Nuh showed her emotions about her history, the Buddha, everything. Everything about it is so beautiful.” Phan is a newcomer to K-State Theatre, and as an international student brought a nonnative perspective to the production. “I had many problems with pronunciation and grammar,” Phan-Elliott said. “The way
that actors show emotion here is different from my country. I’ve joined theater while at university in Vietnam, which was really light and funny, so I’m very excited to try this.” The lead male role, Vietnam War veteran Jim Krombacher, is played by Sam Neel, freshman in theater. Neel’s performance as a middle-aged father retired from active duty is harrowing and convincing; it is a true casting victory of collegiate theater. The roles of Krombacher’s
children are played by Kelli Jones, junior in theater, and Jacob Edelman-Dolan, freshman in theater. Jones portrays Amy, the conflict-driven teenage daughter, while Edelman-Dolan plays Danny, the young military policeman whose isolating soliloquies and visit home from Iraq brings raging colors to the black and white world desperately created by the Krombacher family. The chilling Angela Gomez, a disfigured American soldier of the Iraq war, is played by Kelly Serna, senior in psychology. The show’s second act was haunted by the image of the injured Angela, whose painful shrieks and labored breathing will surely leave audiences struggling with the same moral dilemmas experienced by the characters. “When I was researching the play, realizing how many veterans are dying on their home soil due to suicide, I found that veterans are killing themselves at eight times the rate of soldiers being killed in action,” Hindle said. Those who can grasp the themes of forsaken veterans will have truly understood the concepts communicated by the script and Hindle’s vision. “When you see the statistics it’s pretty scary, and so coming at it from a drama therapy perspective, I wanted people to have that awareness that we’re really failing our veterans in terms of their homecoming and their treatment,” Hindle said. “American Tet” opens today at 7:30 p.m. at K-State’s Purple Masque Theatre in West Stadium, with additional performances Friday and Saturday. Nicholas Cady is a junior in mass communications. Please send comments to current@ kstatecollegian.com.
K-State hopes to build on past successes in their final fall tournament CHRIS ROBINSON the collegian
The Wildcat tennis team is heading to Florida to take part in the UTSA Clay Court Invitational, taking place Nov. 5-8. Last time out, K-State put up a strong performance at the Drake Jamboree in Des Moines, Iowa. The Wildcats finished with a 6-3 record in singles and a 5-3 record in doubles. Florida State and K-State are two of 17 teams that will be in attendance. Florida, Clemson, BYU, Virginia Tech, North Carolina State and Georgia are a few of the other teams competing.
The Wildcats will take two players to this tournament, sophomore Carolina Costamagna and freshman Ana Garcia Navas. Navas is having a strong start to her freshman campaign, carrying a record of 5-2 so far this fall. Costamagna isn’t off to a bad start herself; she holds a record of 5-6. Neither players attended the Drake Jamboree, but each will try to improve their records, as well as build on the Wildcats’ success from the tournament. Singles play will begin Thursday starting at 8 a.m. and will continue until 3 p.m. Individual start times have not yet been announced.
This week’s tournament is hosted by Florida State at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, both of which are in Orlando, Florida. This will be the fourth straight year that Florida State hosts this tournament. The tournament continues with the winners bracket and consolation games on Friday and Saturday. All finals will be on Sunday to determine the champions. You can watch the first round and championship round on ESPN3. This will be the last event of the fall for the women’s tennis team.
File Photo by Parker Robb | THE COLLEGIAN
Sophomore Carolina Costamagna prepares to return the ball during a women’s tennis practice on Oct. 7, 2015.
VOTING | Students speak out against ID requirements that deter young voters continued from page
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Kobach said that providing proof of citizenship is not as difficult as some might say. According to him, even a picture taken on a phone would be accepted when registering to vote. “We’re doing everything we can to encourage people to vote,” Kobach said. There is an app, VoteKansas, that gives users information about their voting sites. According to Kobach, it is actually easy to register. Still, not everyone agrees.
COMPLICATING REGISTRATION
“I don’t like any movement that makes (voter registration) complicated or difficult,” Carlin said. “It can be simple.” According to Carlin, technology should make voter registration easier. He said some states have registration open until the day of elections, and Kansas should be doing something more like that instead of throwing out registration forms after 90 days that could
not be completed because the registrant was unable to provide proof of citizenship. According to Austin White, senior in electrical engineering, the voter registration requirements are “definitely a hindrance.” White said allowing photos of a registrant’s proof of citizenship can make the registering process easier for young voters like him, who would have to drive for several hours to get their birth certificates or other accepted documents from their parents.
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FRAUDULENT VOTING
Though White said he thinks photos are easier, they can also prove problematic. Fraudulent voters can use technology to make changes to a birth certificate and still be able to vote, according to White. “Quite frankly, I don’t think (Kansas has) a problem of any serious nature in terms of people cheating,” Carlin said. These registration requirements are just making it needlessly complicated to reg-
ister, according to Carlin. “These are a bunch of additional requirements that we have to figure out how to do,” Agnew said. Agnew said this is not a useful law because voter fraud was never a significant problem, so there is no way to “justify some stupid law.” Katie Thomas, sophomore in finance, said it makes sense to require proof of citizenship to register. She said the laws in America and Kansas pertain to American citizens, so they should be the ones able to vote.
“It’s perfectly fine to require proof of citizenship,” Thomas said. This controversy over registration requirements has put Kobach against many Kansas Democrats, who believe he is barring certain groups from voting. Carlin said these requirements are going to keep voter turnout rates low in Kansas, though to Kobach “the argument (against the new registration requirements) is ridiculous” because of how easy it still is to register.
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SPORTS
thursday, november 5, 2015
Young basketball team searches for consistency TIMOTHY EVERSON the collegian
B
ruce Weber’s basketball team far exceeded his expectations in last Friday’s 80-42 win over Emporia State. “Oh, it was way better than I ever dreamed,” Weber said. “I told (Athletic Director John) Currie, if we lose, don’t be surprised. I mean, I had no idea. We had struggled in the scrimmages against our inner-squad between ourselves. They probably played better than we anticipated and maybe Emporia wasn’t as good as we thought ... We’re just so unknown.” The Wildcats will welcome another Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association opponent in Fort Hays State for their second and final exhibition game of the season. Last week the Wildcats, led by junior forward Wesley Iwundu and senior guard Justin Edwards, threw up a solid overall effort, dominating Emporia State on both sides of the ball. K-State put up 40 points in the first half for the first time since the first game of last season and held the Hornets to zero field goals in more than 13 minutes of game time. Now that Weber has seen some good things out of his players, he said he wants to see these things repeated in their second time out on the court. “Consistency,” Weber said. “Do it again. “The older guys, their numbers are good solid numbers. Now do it again. The younger guys, keep feeling more comfortable.” Weber said freshman guard Barry Brown and freshman forward Dean Wade were both nervous, but they took big steps and now need to start feeling more comfortable. This will be the first time since 2011 that the Wildcats and the Tigers have played, with K-State winning that bout 90-60.
Cassandra Nguyen | THE COLLEGIAN
Junior guard Carlbe Ervin II celebrates after a teammate scored a basket during the men’s basketball game between K-State and Emporia State on Friday in Bramlage Coliseum. The Wildcats defeated the Hornets in the exhibition opener 80-42. Fort Hays looks to start three returners, including senior point guard Craig Nicholson, who led all returners in scoring last season with an average of 14.9 points per game. Weber said he hopes his young-
er players will be up to the challenge of defending an experienced player who knows how to get baskets. Fort Hays State has a really good, experienced player in Nicholson, Weber said, and it remains to
be seen if the Wildcats will be able to control him like they did Emporia State point guard Terrance Moore. After the Fort Hays game, the Wildcats’ season will officially start
on Nov. 13 as they open the season at home with Maryland-Eastern Shore. Tipoff between K-State and Fort Hays is set for 7 p.m. Friday at Bramlage Coliseum.
BRIEFS | 2-plus-2 agreement for WATC students, Equine center groundbreaking continued from page
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WATC STUDENTS OFFERED BACHELOR’S DEGREE PROGRAM WITH K-STATE POLYTECHNIC
K-State Polytechnic Campus and Wichita Area Technical College are offering Wichita students a bachelor’s degree program, according to K-State News and Communications Services. The schools have created and signed a two-plus-two agreement. The agreement lets WATC students complete a bachelor’s degree in technology management from K-State while they live in Wichita and take online classes.
After completing a WATC associate degree, students can then finish the last two years of their education in online K-State Polytechnic technology management classes. “We are proud to partner with one of our educational neighbors and we’re hopeful this program will lead to the progression of prepared and skilled professionals in Kansas,” Verna Fitzsimmons, CEO and dean of K-State Polytechnic, told K-State News and Communications Services.
VETERINARY HEALTH CENTER HOLDS GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY
FOR EQUINE PERFORMANCE TESTING CENTER
The Veterinary Health Center hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for its new $2.8 million Equine Performance Testing Center Wednesday at Mosier Hall. Private donations have allotted for more than $800,000 of the project. According to K-State Today, the center includes an indoor riding arena, indoor examination area, radiology suite, farrier space and consultation room. There area about 2,500 services provided each year by Veterinary Health Center equine clinicians, almost half of which deal with performance-related disorders.
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