4.19.11

Page 1

‘F a i r ’ f l a i r

Fashion show tur ns heads with classic style

P a ge 4

Tuesday • April 19, 2011 • Vol. 104 Issue 28

Briefs Man falls from second level of JQH

A man fell from the second level of seating at JQH Arena Saturday night during the Elton John concert. The name of the man and the extent of his injuries have yet to be released.

Bear Park South hours extended

The Department of Safety and Transportation agreed to extend the parking hours at Bear Park South until 3 a.m. This decision was based on input from SGA in the form of a resolution and relevant lot utilization data, along with a review of the operating hours of buildings in the vicinity of Bear Park South.

Provost Q&A leads to Tuesday meeting

Elections were held at the Faculty Senate meeting on Thursday, April 14. Christopher Herr, associate professor of theater history, ran unopposed for the position of chair-elect. Cynthia Hail, of Childhood Education and Family Studies Department, also ran unopposed for the position of Secretary. Both candidates were elected. A Q-and-A session with the provost, Belinda McCarthy, followed and lasted the remainder of the meeting. The session included a presentation by the Department of Media, Journalism and Film regarding an experimental section of the Introduction to Journalism class. The meeting ended when a motion to adjourn and continue the meeting as a carryover meeting passed. The carryover meeting will take place at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in Glass Hall 344,

Date set for Bee Payne-Stewart Strut

The 5th Annual Bee PayneStewart Strut is slated for Saturday, April 30. The 30-minute, mile-and-a-half walk through downtown Springfield begins in front of Mediacom Ice Park at 10 a.m. with check-in starting at 9 a.m. The annual event is a special community-wide fundraising project and partnership event designed to raise money for the women's athletic programs at Missouri State University, Drury University and Evangel University. The Strut also provides funds for the SpringfieldGreene County Park Board Youth Programs and WIN for Springfield.

Calendar

April 19 to April 25

Tuesday

SAC meeting 4 to 5 p.m., PSU 313 “Marketing the Global Graduate” 5 to 6:30 p.m., PSU fourth floor Student Senate meeting 5:30 to 8 p.m., PSU 313

Wednesday

Graduate Student Council meeting 5 to 6 p.m., PSU 312C Interfraternity Council meeting 5:15 to 6 p.m., PSU 313 Panhellenic Council meeting 6 to 7 p.m., PSU 313

Thursday Spring Holiday no classes/offices open

Provost Open Forum 3 to 5 p.m., PSU 400 Students for a Sustainable Future meeting 4 to 5 p.m., Temple Hall Pit

Friday

Spring Holiday no classes/offices closed

BiGALA chalkings vandalized during Equity Week By Amanda Hess The Standard

One of the pillars for Missouri State’s public affairs mission is cultural competence, a value that took center stage during last week’s Public Affairs Conference due to comments written on the walkways of campus. BiGALA wrote inspirational quotes in chalk on campus sidewalks on April 11 to promote their Equity Week, only to find the next day that people had commented on the quotes. BiGALA is Missouri State University’s Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Ally Alliance. With quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr., William Shakespeare and even Lady Gaga, BiGALA said all of the quotes promoted love for

oneself, love for others and equal rights. The quote by William Shakespeare said, “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; thus is winged cupid painted blind.” Beneath it the next day someone had written, “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” Other comments next to BiGALA’s chalkings throughout campus were, “Over tolerance is an intolerance to your morals,” “A child knows having two moms isn’t right” and “v + v = no reproduction.” Brandon Vescovo, a secretary to BiGALA, said the original chalking was commented on both Monday and Tuesday night. “When it happened the first night, I had a gut feeling it would happen again,” he said. “It dis-

appointed me and reflects poorly on the people of Missouri State. This has never happened before in the three years I have been here. There’s never been this type of vandalism or open hate towards our chalk or BiGALA’s actions.” They wrote the quotes to lead up to their event on April 15, the Day of Silence. For the Day of Silence, people tape their mouths closed to signify the isolating silence gay and lesbian students feel because of their sexual orientation. BiGALA also hosted a bake sale where all proceeds go toward educating local counselors to help students confused or conflicted with their sexual orientation.

See CHALKINGS page 2

Bush confronts global health Africa trip inspires new life calling By Jon Poorman The Standard

On a trip to Africa with her family, Barbara Pierce Bush remembers standing next to a tiny 7-year-old African girl who was lying on the ground, dressed in her fanciest white and lavender dress. Bush did not know the details of the child’s life but knew that she was too sick to stand on her own two feet and probably wouldn’t live much longer. “For me, as a 21-year-old, this was an unbelievably hard thing for me to wrap my mind around,” Bush said of the experience. From that moment on, Bush knew that she had found a new calling in life: taking on global health issues in a way that would truly make a difference. Bush went on to become the founder and president of Global Health Corps, a non-profit organization that aims to improve the quality of health services worldwide and to build a new movement of health leaders. Bush shared her knowledge of global health issues with a crowd of 700 last Wednesday at Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts as part of MSU’s Public Affairs Conference. Her presentation was titled “One Person can Make a Difference: Confronting Today’s Global Health Challenges.” “One person’s determination can change the lives of so many others,” Bush said. “This is especially true in several countries around the world where extraordinary suffering like poverty, malnutrition and disease can be eased with very basic supplies.” Bush said when she returned from Africa, she went back to college and began taking as many

Michael Gulledge/THE STANDARD

Public Affairs Conference keynote speaker Barbara Bush shared stories of her experiences in Africa that led her to the founding of the nonprofit organization Global Health Corps. health classes as she could. It was through her studies that she came across some global health statistics that really struck a chord with her. “Every year, child birth — which should be an occasion of pure joy — kills as many as 500,000 women,” Bush said. “Approximately 9 million children under the age of five die each year needlessly from preventable and treatable illnesses.” It was statistics such as those that inspired Bush to get involved in a big way, which led to the creation of Global Health Corps. Bush said her organization targets people in their 20s who want to start making a difference as soon as they graduate from college.

“(Global health issues) pose an unbelievably formidable challenge,” Bush said. “ But just as formidable as this challenge, what I’ve found is that it cannot beat the optimism of a new generation of leaders who are committed to solving these problems.” After the speech, MSU students shared their opinions of what Bush had to say. “My impression is that she’s just trying to make a difference in this world and doing what she can,” senior Zach Appling said. “She saw a need and she’s filling it. I really hope she’s successful. This is a big endeavor to take on.” Junior Kathleen Tims said

although Bush’s speech was interesting, it was not instructive enough on how students can get involved. “She didn’t really give venues,” she said, “like if you have passion, what you can do with it. It was just like, ‘Hey if you’ve got passion, step up and go for it.’ That didn’t seem like the most motivational thing to actually get something done.” Bush was the keynote speaker for MSU’s Public Affairs Conference last week, which included five other plenary speakers. The theme for this year’s conference was “Leading in a Global Society.” To find out more about Global Health Corps, go to their website at www.ghcorps.org.

Organizations feel effects of smoking ban By Jason Johnston The Standard

The Heart of the Ozarks Sertoma Club allows smoking at its bingo night every Thursday, a practice that must stop on June 11 because of the smoking ban in most enclosed Springfield businesses. “I think we should have been exempted from this ordinance,” said Powell McHaney, a Sertoma Club volunteer who has helped with the bingo night since 1996. “The deal is we are not pro-smoking. We are pro-charity.” The Sertoma Club raised more than $210,000 in 2010 from bingo and most of it went to the Boys & Girls Club of Springfield while the rest went to similar charities like Big Brothers Big Sisters, McHaney said. Bingo is the Sertoma Club’s biggest fundraiser. The citywide smoking ban passed on April 5 with a vote of 11,201 to 9,795. The petition was sponsored by Clean Air Springfield, an organization that was endorsed by the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association.

Josh Campbell/THE STANDARD

The Sertoma Club will no longer be able to smoke at their bingo fundraisers. Clean Air received more than $82,000 in contributions, according to an April 15 committee disclosure report on the Missouri Ethics Commission website About 180 to 200 players attend

each bingo night and around half of them are smokers, McHaney said. “The average spend-per-player is between $80 and $90, which blows my mind to be honest with you,” he said.

McHaney said the smoking ban presents a big problem for the Sertoma Club’s bingo nights. “The problem with the smoking ban is that they can go to other venues pretty close by,” he said. “I mean, they can even go to the Indian casinos in Oklahoma — which are only an hour away —and smoke all they want while playing slot machines or bingo. We have competitors in small towns around the area that are going to allow them to smoke.” McHaney said he is worried the revenue-stream for the kids will dry up. McHaney said when he was at the original City Council meeting where the smoking ban was presented. There, Josh Garrett from the American Cancer Society suggested if the City Council exempt bingo halls then every bar will have bingo to get around the ordinance. “That is ridiculous because you have to be a registered charitable 501(c)(3) organization, and you have to be licensed by the state highway patrol, which is basically a See BAN page 8


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.