themaneater The student voice of MU since 1955
Columbia, Missouri • Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Vol. 77, No. 10
themaneater.com
Student leaders take on diversity issues AMANDA CAPUA Staff Writer
COURTESY OF THE WHITE HOUSE MEDIA AFFAIRS
President Barack Obama speaks on the telephone during a conference call with students from various college publications in the Oval Office on Monday. The call provided college journalists the opportunity to ask the president questions, most of which related to higher education.
Obama talks student debt, affordability in conference call SAMANTHA SUNNE Senior Staff Writer In a conference call Monday with several college publications, including The Maneater, President Barack Obama expressed his intention to make college more affordable and help students graduate without debt. Obama said he wants to
increase financial aid funding, investigate the rising costs of public universities and keep in place a change in health care policy that allows people to stay on their parents’ insurance plan until age 26. “All of those things can be helpful in moving us forward, but the single most important thing I’ve got to do is make sure that we get this economy back
Honors College Director Stuart Palonsky will be stepping down from his post at the end of the academic year. Palonsky will be staying on as a professor within the College of Education, where he will be teaching language and writing. He also plans to continue to teach courses within the honors humanities sequence. “We won’t be saying bye permanently,” Honors College Associate Director Julie Melnyk said. In preparation for the change, MU will gather a committee to conduct a review of the Honors College
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and the programs it supports. Professor John McCormick and Gary Smith, director emeritus of enrollment management, will lead the committee, but the rest of the committee has not been selected. The review committee will have their report and recommendations finalized by March 1, and then an interim director will be appointed to the Honors College. The interim director will focus on the short term goals identified through the review and will begin serving June 1. They will work with Palonsky through Summer Welcome to define and clarify the goals of see HONORS, page 6
see DIVERSITY, page 6
on track,” Obama said. He said his three priorities regarding education are to make it affordable, ensure that it prepares students for the jobs of the future and to assist students in graduating. Obama said, starting in 2014, student loan payments will be capped at 10 percent of a persee OBAMA, page 6
Honors College director plans to resign at end of academic year MEGAN HAGER Reporter
Several student leaders have joined together to address diversity on campus with a goal to unify students through education about the different minorities that make up MU. “Our goal is to coordinate with the office of the Chancellor’s Diversity Initiative to get diversity up,” Legion of Black Collegians President Lisa White said. MU Chief Diversity Officer Roger Worthington and Missouri Students Association President Tim Noce called the original meeting of the student leaders three weeks ago. Noce said the group is already looking into some aspects of diversity initiatives but that, in
some cases, it could take time before any results are seen. Noce said leaders from Four Front, the Legion of Black Collegians, the Asian American Association and the Graduate Professional Council were all present at the first meeting. Other groups have been invited to participate in the upcoming meetings. At the first meeting, those present discussed the upcoming Diversity Summit. The Diversity Summit, a two-day event of workshops and panels, begins Oct. 20 and ends on the evening on Oct. 21. Four Front Co-Chairperson Kiran Kaur said the purpose of the summit is to discuss student involvement with diver-
HONORS COLLEGE Honors College Director Stuart TIMELINE Palonsky has served in his position for 20 years.
1990: The Honors College Community Involvement Program was created. 1990: Palonsky began as Honors College Director. October 2003: Faculty Council discussed the idea of moving the Honors College into its own academic unit. November 2004: Honors College received a $300,000 gift for a minority student scholarship. December 2005: MU Honors Student Organization established. February 2010: Honors College Ambassadors proposed new registration system for their students. September 2010: Palonsky announced he is stepping down. Source: Boone County Sheriff’s Department news release SPENCER PEARSON/GRAPHICS ASSISTANT
CHARLEY FIELD/THE MANEATER
Sophomore Daniel Slominski studies on his laptop Monday in Ellis Library. The library now offers a texting service that allows students to send questions to the library from their phones.
Students can "Ask a Librarian" via text ALLY MCENTIRE Staff Writer The Ask a Librarian program is offering a new service allowing students to text questions to MU libraries to get quick answers. The service began this summer, but with the beginning of the fall semester, there has been some increase in its use and people’s awareness of the program. Students text “askmu” to 66746 to ask a question which is sent to a librarian at Ellis Library and answered via text.
On themaneater.com
All that jazz
Listen to The Maneater's Word on the Street podcast for student reaction on Columbia's increase in sobriety checkpoints.
The MU jazz program celebrated the release of its first CD, Vertigo, Thursday evening at the Missouri Theatre. Arts, page 15
Students also have the option of texting “otto” to the same number to have their question answered by the Health Services Library. There is no limit to the number of questions a student can ask, but normal messaging rates charged by the carrier apply. “The system itself is very nice,” Ellis librarian Rhonda Whithaus said. “When a text message is received, it sends a message to the librarian’s e-mail, which includes a link see TEXT, page 6
'Fantastic Four' tailbacks Four Missouri football tailbacks reached the end zone Saturday in the Tigers' win against Miami of Ohio. Sports, page 19