THE
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
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Volume 109, Issue 23 | the-standard.org
More than 100 years in print
Remembering Aaron Eidem Meraz apologizes after anonymous The Standard/The Standard Sports
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student makes a public appearance A MO State professor, decorated captain passed away while helping After MSU closed the informal stranded driver on Interstate 44 investigation into Meraz, the anonymous student appeared at a press conference; Meraz apologized after the conference By Emily Joshu Staff Reporter @EmilyJoshu
Ryan Welch/THE STANDARD
A ceremony was held last Thursday in honor of Captain Aaron Eidem. His memorial service will be Thursday, March 3, from 3:30-4:30 p.m. at the First & Calvary Presbyterian Church located at 820 E. Cherry Street. Interstate 44 to help a stranded driver on the By Hanna Sumpter evening of Feb. 18. Captain Eidem was attemptStaff Reporter ing to help the driver move their car to the oppo@hannasumpter site shoulder of the road. According to the crash report released by the A captain in the U.S. Army and integral member of MSU’s Military Science Depart- Missouri State Highway Patrol, a tractor-trailer ment passed in an automobile accident just over crashed into Eidem’s vehicle which then struck a week ago, but his impact on the students and Eidem himself; he was unable to survive the the university will live on for many years to injuries. come. Captain Aaron Eidem, 37, pulled over on u See EIDEM, page 10
On Thursday, Feb. 25, the Missouri State University student at the center of the case against Assistant Vice President of Multicultural Services Juan Meraz came forward. Monica Villa Meza, a senior sociology major, made her first public appearance at a press conference held on campus by the same students who held a press conference earlier this month. As a recipient of the Multicultural Leadership scholarship and member of Latino Leadership Institute, Villa Meza spent one year working under Meraz and was also a student in his GEP class. According to Villa Meza, Meraz has told Latina females they are not allowed to date, abused power by not allowing his organizations to fundraise, used intimidation tactics such as keeping a blacklist of personally hated students and has spoken badly about administration. He also allegedly sent her flirtatious text messages every morning. “I saw a lot of unethical things, and I don’t support anyone who isn’t doing their job correctly,” Villa Meza said. The university recently claimed that it had dropped its investigation of Meraz as result of Villa Meraz dropping it. “I never dropped the case; it was just closed,” Villa Meza said. The status of the investigation being informal versus formal was not clear to Villa Meza or the students from the Springfield Coalition for Minority Advancement. The coalition was told that the only difference between a formal investigation and an informal investigation was a greater amount of paperwork on the formal side. Villa Meza requested for the investigation to be formal, but Wes Pratt, the chief diversity officer, set the guidelines for it to be informal. “I was told there were no findings, only findings of bias,” Villa Meza said. The case was referred to Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Dee Siscoe and MSU President Clif Smart, who have not contacted
Villa Meza regarding findings. “I have no faith in the university when it comes to handling these issues. They have shown they are more concerned with protecting the university’s name than students,” Villa Meza said. “It makes me question how far they will go to protect someone who has fully violated the policies put in place and goes against everything the university stands for.” Photo from MSU Aaron Strahl, a sen- Juan Meraz apologized ior political for his language in Villa’s science major, recording shortly after the joined the press conference. press conference panel. Strahl, who identifies as a transgender male, stands with Villa Meza due to his own experience as a member of a minority population. “When other students do misgender me, and that happens on a daily basis, I have never had a professor correct anyone. I have never felt comfortable to correct anyone,” Strahl said. “This environment at Missouri State ... we’ve done nothing to equip the faculty to handle that.” Strahl believes that the Meraz case reflects more than just one case of discrimination, but a climate that exists at the university. “This issue is more than Juan Meraz. It’s more than what’s going on with other minority students,” Strahl said. “The university is not competent in dealing with minority students of any population, and even though they claim to protect us, they don’t act on that.” u See MERAZ, page 10
Missouri State University continues its 100-year streak of accreditation
Q&A with your Student Body President
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Cramer: Body shaming in today’s society
fundamental things that a university needs to have in order to exist into the future.” HLC has a set of five criteria that institutions in the region must meet in order to be accredited: the first one is having and following a mission statement, as well as showing how it affects the institution; integrity, or having and following rules and procedures, is the second. The next two criteria focus on teaching and learning; this evaluates if universities have the resources, classrooms, technology, and more to function successfully; the fifth criterion is “teaching what you ought to be teaching.” This includes expectations for what students should learn in a major and what skills students should have for the future.
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Students make plans for some spring break fun
u See REACCREDITATION, page 9
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Missouri State University recently received its accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission, continuing a 100-year streak of accreditations. When receiving accreditations, public and private universities welcome a team from HLC every seven to 10 years. MSU currently welcomes this team every 10 years, which was most recently done last semester. HLC is one of the regional accrediting agencies, which serves most of the states in the midwest. “This gave us the opportunity to have five outsiders on
our campus that saw us in a different light and also gave us some advice on some things that we might want to improve on,” Dr. Tamera Jahnke, dean of the College of Natural and Applied Sciences and campus liaison to the Higher Learning Commission, said. Having an accreditation from HLC makes universities eligible for federal funding, including Pell Grants. In addition, credit can only be transferred between accredited institutions. If either a public or private university does not have this accreditation, it would result in major consequences, likely initiated by the state government. One reason for losing this accreditation would be financial reasons. “If institutions are paying attention, they’re not going to lose their accreditation,” Jahnke said. “These are the most
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By Emily Joshu Staff Reporter @EmilyJoshu
TS R O Bears set for Arch Madness