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Tuesday, April 5, 2016
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Volume 109, Issue 27 | the-standard.org The Standard/The Standard Sports
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MSU students are questioning rules for co-ed intramurals
More than 100 years in print @TheStandard_MSU/@Standard_Sports
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‘A night in Africa’ banquet
By Emily Joshu @EmilyJoshu Staff Reporter
For the many students who come from athletic backgrounds or are looking for a stress-relieving activity, coed recreational sports provide an outlet of teamwork, athletics and exercise. However, the rules for co-ed recreational sports have been criticized by some students as being sexist and outdated. “All of them are kind of demeaning to women,” Sam Buchanan, sophomore athletic training major, said.
Bailey Vassalli/THE STANDARD
Entertainers performed traditional dances for audience at the annual banquet.
S W E Renovations coming to Ellis Hall, page 13
After helping the club get on its feet two years ago, Omoloja was elected president, then stepped down the following year. Since moving from Nigeria 10 years ago, she was looking for a little piece of her culture on campus. “I wanted a sense of community,” Omoloja said. “I know that campus is sometimes really hard, and if I had other people in my culture that I can relate to, then I would like it more.” Although experiencing the clash of cultures has proven to be difficult, Odun-Ayo said that she would ask for nothing more. “I think it’s a privilege that we can call two places home,” Odun-Ayo said. I absolutely call (Springfield) my home now, and I also do think that Africa is my home, so I count myself privileged to be accepted by two places.” With the help of the African Student Association, African students can readjust to a new culture without giving up their own. The club meets every other Wednesday night at 5 p.m. During meetings, the 10 members usually discuss planning for ongoing projects and current events. “We have something called Nyu-Nyu News, and in that segment of our meeting we essentially talk about articles or recent postings that would be trending somewhere in Africa,” Omoloja said. “After the discussion we talk to the general body and see what they think about this issue.” u See BANQUET, page 9
Selling course materials: NOT ALLOWED Materials given in class are intellectual property of the faculty, selling for profit against rules By Ryan Day Staff Reporter
On March 21, MSU students received an email in their inboxes from the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs entitled “Message regarding Course Notes.” The substance of this email regarded recent emails from various companies offering money for class notes. “Course materials such as PowerPoint outlines, examples, practice problems, etc., are created by faculty members and selling these resources may violate the law,” the email said. It added, “Current MSU policy prohibits the use of university resources for personal commercial activities. Consequently, using MSU email to advertise the availability of these notes and encouraging classmates to access them on commercial websites is not allowed.” However, this email did not offer any specifics on what the consequences might be for students who might, for example, sell a PowerPoint
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outline from class to an outside company or use their school email to tell their fellow classmates to use an outside, commercial website to get class notes. Luckily, there was a second email sent to MSU faculty that cleared some of these questions up. “Course materials that are created and disseminated to students in a specific course are the intellectual property of the faculty member,” the faculty email said. In other words, it is the faculty’s responsibility to enforce students from selling their course materials. This is not to say that the university wouldn’t help them out since in the same section of the email, it reads “Faculty are welcome to contact University Counsel for assistance with a cease-and-desist letter.” However, even this faculty email did not offer nearly enough specifics as to what would happen if a student “encouraged classmates to access (notes or other class materials) on commercial websites.”
E IF Public Affairs Week preview, page 5
On this point, The Standard talked to Dr. Julie Masterson, Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate College, who chaired the group that looked into Intellectual Property implications. While Masterson admitted that someone would have to report a violation of this kind, who used MSU email for “commercial personal gain,” then the next step would be for the university to write a cease and desist letter. If this did not work, however, Masterson was not sure what the next step would be. Masterson was also quick to reiterate that the University’s focus was not on this, but rather on the different methods that could be used by faculty to render sites that purchase course materials or notes needless. Dr. Thomas Lane, Dean of Students who sent out the email to students, as well as a representative from one of the commercial websites, Collegepages.com, did not respond for comment.
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Many of these rules involve giving advantages to female athletes on co-ed teams. For example, in basketball females are awarded three points for making a shot outside of the three-point line, while men are awarded two. In soccer, a person taking a penalty kick must be the same gender as the person who was originally fouled. In addition, flag football awards females nine points for a touchdown and men six points. “As a female, I don’t find any pleasure in being compensated for equal amount of work,” Shelby Philbrook, junior market research major, said. “It only reinforced the idea that women are far less superior to men when it comes to sports.” According to Buchanan, rules such as these can be frustrating because players are not likely to think of these rules as they actively participate. Co-ed intramurals at Missouri State University are mainly based on rules from the National Federation of High School or the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association. However, the rules with Missouri State’s program vary from other schools because there is not a set of national guidelines. “Co-recreational sports were created in intramural sports to start an initiative to get different gendered people to participate in competition together,” Lauren Easter, Assistant Director of Campus Recreation- Recreational Sports, said. “The ideology behind the co-rec rules was to help engage females with their counterparts by giving them an advantage to the game.” In fall 2014, Easter’s department surveyed 124 participants about these rules. Thirty nine percent of participants did not like the goal differential rule in co-ed soccer leagues that gave females two points for a goal while men received one point. “This data was enough for us to change the rule for the start of spring 2016,” Easter said. On the other hand, not all students disagree with the current rules. “It makes an attempt to make sure that boys don’t dominate the game,” Hanna Wilson, senior marketing management major, said. “It’s all for fun, so it’s not that crazy.” These rules are the same for the two types of intramural leagues offered: Just-for-Fun and Top-Gun. Top-Gun is meant for participants with previous athletic experience who are looking for intensity with the competition. “The Top-Gun teams are going to go really hard and not focus as much on giving the girls the shot,” Buchanan said. “I can almost understand why it’s in TopGun, but there’s no reason for it to be in Just-for-Fun. If they could change that, that would be a huge step.” A few recent changes have made the rules seem less advantageous to women. For example, the previous point differential in soccer has been changed to one point per goal, regardless of gender. In addition, rules such as who can touch the ball in soccer and volleyball have adopted more gender inclusive wording by specifying that a
A student organization dedicated to its African roots spread awareness about its culture on Friday, April 1, by hosting a banquet called “A Night in Africa”. The African Student Association provided a night rich in its heritage, offering native cuisine, entertaining guests with live performances, and a fashion show of the traditional pieces worn in their home countries. The night was in support of African students in Springfield, according to vice president Adekemi Omoloja. “The event was just to showcase Africa, and not all of Africa because that’s a lot of countries, but to just to showcase all of the people that we do have here on campus,” Omoloja said. When the club first originated, adviser Theresa Odun-Ayo said the African Student Association was important because it interlocked a variety of cultures that would only benefit the campus atmosphere. “I’ve had experience working with African students and I just saw the need to have that kind of interaction on campus, not just amongst the African students, but also it helps network between the cultures,” Oden-Ayo said. “It gives that support structure and the ability to showcase the culture of where all of these individuals are from.”
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Miranda Roller/THE STANDARD
Sam Buchanan.
By Jenna deJong @Ima_Jen Staff Reporter
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West Plains to receive sanctions, page 8