Maher stirs MSU
Students protest Sunday’s speaker at Juanita K. H a mm o n s H a l l
P a ge 4
Tuesday • March 22, 2011 • Vol. 104 Issue 24
Briefs
Construction will cause more delays
SGA ballot items available to students
Potential items to appear on the student body elections ballot are now available for the student body to view at sga.missouristate.edu. Issues on the ballot will include student body president and vice president tickets, senior class president, Wyrick Proposals and potential changes to the Student Government Constitution and Wyrick Commission Guidelines. All of these will require a certain amount of thoughtful consideration, and all will have an impact on the future of the student body, SGA said. Students can vote on these issues during elections, which will run from 12:01 a.m. April 4 to 5 p.m. on April 6.
Calendar March 22 to March 28
Tuesday
SAC meeting 4 to 5 p.m., PSU 313 Student Senate meeting, 5:30 to 8 p.m., PSU 313 Exploring Careers: Health Care Panel 1 to 2:30 p.m., PSU 313
Wednesday Exploring Careers: Communication/Arts Panel 3 to 4:30 p.m., PSU 313
Long-range Plan Open Forum 3 to 4 p.m., Meyer Library auditorium “Home Again” 4 to 5 p.m., PSU 314 “Women's History Month: Getting the Vote and Using It” 5 to 8:20 p.m. Interfraternity Council meeting 5:15 to 6 p.m., PSU 313 Panhellenic Council meeting 6 to 7 p.m., PSU 313 Tunnel of Oppression 7 to 11 p.m., Wells House basement Professor Kanan Makiya speaks 7:30 to 10 p.m., PSU 313
Thursday
Greek Week: Philanthropy Fair noon to 4 p.m., North Mall
Group Nutrition Counseling: Healthy Snacks 4 to 5 p.m., Taylor Health and Wellness Students for a sustainable Future meeting 4 to 5 p.m., Temple Hall pit Coronary Health Improvement Project session 5:15 to 6 p.m., Taylor Health and Wellness Tunnel of Oppression 7 to 11 p.m., Wells House basement
Monday
Coronary Health Improvement Project session 5:15 to 6 p.m., Taylor Health and Wellness WikiLeaks Panel 1 to 3 p.m., PSU 313
Recreation Center Information Forum 5:15 to 6 p.m., PSU 317AB
By Damien M. DiPlacido The Standard
Matt Kile/THE STANDARD
MSU and community volunteers made bracelets and collected donations Friday for the Japan relief effort.
Bears ‘illuminate’ Japan Students do their part to aid disaster By Lauren Healey The Standard
Japan’s recent series of disasters is bringing Bears together to collect donations and helping hands for the country in need. The “Bears Bringing Hope: Illuminating Japan” campaign launched Friday with a free concert in the PSU Theater. The concert featured an acoustic/alternative rock show by local performers Berch, Melissa Harper and Nathaniel Carroll. Volunteers collected donations in buckets at the show. Jeremy Schenk, director of the Office of Student Engagement, said SAC President Victoria Culver was at the first Bears Bringing Hope meeting to look at what could be done to raise money for Japan and suggested kicking off the campaign by changing the “Go Green” concert to “Illuminating Japan.” Culver, who is serving as chair of “Bears Bringing Hope,” said it is our civic responsibility to help support those in need. “I have always had a sense of responsibility that drives me to help others,” she said. “I strive to use the skills I have acquired in my various leadership positions to try to help others as much as I can. There is clearly a very strong need in Japan right now; it continues to grow worse.”
Andrew Schiller, a graduate student in the Geography, Geology and Planning Department, said this disaster is very severe because it was one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded. “Japan sits on top of a subduction zone where the Pacific Plate is sliding under the Philippine and Eurasian plates,” he said. “When enough pressure builds up, it will slip in certain spots and cause earthquakes. Japan experiences a couple hundred earthquakes each year and has invested a large amount of resources in construction practices, which reduce the amount of damage caused by earthquakes.” Schiller said when the 9.0 earthquake hit, the structures withstood the effects fairly well but still sustained some structural damage. “To compound the problem, Japan was struck by a tsunami caused by the earthquake,” he said. “When an earthquake occurs under the ocean floor, the movement of the crust displaces the water on top of it. Gravity pulls the water back down, and the energy moves away from the epicenter. “When the waves reach a shoreline, the energy pushes the water onto land and can travel a large distance. Since it is seawater, any fresh water will be contaminated and agriculture will be ruined. Most of the land that is used for agriculture is at a low elevation and is close to the shoreline.” Mélida Gutiérrez, a professor in the Geography, Geology and Planning Department, said that the earlier the Japanese people are helped, the less damage they will experience. “Things will get worse with
time,” she said. “Broken water pipelines may cause cross-contamination between water and sewage. Bodies buried under the rubble that decompose may lead to unsanitary conditions. This may trigger terrible illnesses and can start an epidemic of astonishing proportions. The sooner the country starts cleaning up the mess left by the earthquake, the better the situation for them and the rest of the world. The economies of countries are so intertwined that what happens in Japan will directly affect us, as well as all other countries in the world.” Schiller said it will be a long time before Japan can recover from this disaster, if it ever does. “Japan has to import most of the materials it needs since it has few natural resources — like oil,” he said. “The economy in Japan has been down for years, and with a natural disaster like this, it will only get worse. In one day, the market dropped 16 points. Consider our economy, and then imagine what it would be like if there was a natural disaster that caused damage to the entire United States. I’m not saying we have an economy like Japan, but with as bad as things have been during the past few years, picture how much worse it would be if we had to contend with wide-spread destruction and no resources.” Culver said two of the main ways students can get involved with the Bears Bringing Hope event is to donate to the cause and volunteer. “There will be buckets around campus for the next month, and any donation can help Japan,” she said. “In the Bears Backing Haiti cam-
See JAPAN page 2
A project is underway to replace the deteriorating Kansas Expressway bridge that sits above the Burlington NorthernSanta Fe rail yard on Kansas Expressway between Division Street and Atlantic Street in north Springfield. Several years ago, MODOT decided to begin a rehabilitation project on the bridge’s crumbling deck, said Angela Eden, a 14-year community relations specialist of Springfield’s MODOT district. The bridge’s reconstruction could be a major traffic inconvenience to Springfield’s motorists. The bridge will be reduced from four lanes to only one northbound and one southbound lane, Eden said. “This has been a bridge that we’ve had ongoing maintenance issues with,” she said. “MODOT crews have continually had to patch the bridge. We knew we needed to do something more permanent to fix it.” Lehman Construction of California, Mo., was contracted to complete the rehabilitation project for the low bid of $6.8 million, Eden said. “The bridge deck will be removed one half at a time and some minor repairs will be done to the girders and the bridge’s substructure,” she said. “A new bridge deck will then be put in place.” On March 20, the bridge was closed completely at 8 p.m. and did not reopen until 5 a.m. the next day. “The closing will allow contract crews to re-stripe the bridge,” Eden said. “After reopening it on Monday morning, it will be in the two-lane configuration and will remain like that until Oct. 1.” A detour around the bridge has already been signed, using Kearney Street, West Bypass and Chestnut Expressway. The detour will remain open day and night until Oct. 1, Eden said. Motorists are encouraged to find alternate routes that work best for them. Missouri State alum John O’Connor said he uses Kansas Expressway several times a month. “Fixing a dangerous bridge is a good thing, but it’s terrible because of the amount of daily traffic that uses that road,” O’Connor said. “I’m sure a lot of people are going to be upset about the delays.” See BRIDGE page 2
Art department makes full switch to Brick City By Amanda Hess The Standard
Rachael Seale, a sophomore photography major, has been late to her class in Siceluff all week because her three-dimensional design class moved to Brick City Gallery over spring break. “I am really aggravated by how much time it takes to get to Brick City,” Seale said. “I have to be in Siceluff in 15 minutes from my 3D-design class, and it takes 20 (minutes) on the shuttle, so I’m always late. The buses do what they can, but it takes time to drive from downtown to campus.” She had enrolled in the class in the Art Annex to make sure she had enough time to get to her other class in Siceluff, she said. But that changed when the Art and Design Department completely moved out of the Art Annex and into Brick City Gallery. “My teacher is trying to help us out by starting the class later and ending the class earlier, but it is cutting into my learning,” Seale said. “The class is very time-intensive, and we need that time to do our projects.” Wade Thompson, head of the
Art and Design Department, said the department has been in the process of moving all classes to Brick City Gallery for a while. “Two years ago, part of the Art and Design Department moved to Brick City,” Thompson said. “It was phase one; we moved areas of painting and drawing and the gallery on the first move. What we did over break was move more parts of Art and Design. We moved art education, metals, 2D and 3D classes. As of right now, all of Art and Design has moved out of Art Annex.” Seale said she thinks the department could have dealt with the move in a better way. “We found out a couple weeks before,” she said. “We were never sent emails about it; it was up to the instructor to tell us. We had to make sure we had enough space for our projects and that nothing got broken or damaged in the move. It was definitely stressful.” The move was decided upon quickly, Thompson said. The department was told by the developers the classes were allowed to
Britney Shryer/THE STANDARD
All art classes that used to be held in the Art Annex have since See ART page 2 been moved to the downtown location at Brick City.