September 29, 2015

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Tuesday, September 29, 2015

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Volume 109, Issue 7 | the-standard.org The Standard/The Standard Sports

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New graduate program emerges at MSU

Due to a high demand for medical professionals, Missouri State University  adds a graduate occupational therapy program By Emily Joshu Staff Reporter @EmilyJoshu

This past August, Missouri State University introduced a new graduate degree to the College of Health and Human Services. The Master’s of Occupational Therapy Program is an entry-level program designed to prepare students to become diversified practitioners in a growing and demanding field. “There was a big shortage and demand for occupational therapy in this area,” Dr. Sapna Chakraborty, the program director, said. “Even in the Cox system and the Mercy system, both hospitals are always looking for more occupational therapists to work. There is so much demand in all the areas, so MSU was the best place to start a program and offer it to the community.” The idea for the program began with a task force of professors and Springfield community members in 2010 who surveyed the area and recognized a lack of occupational therapists. In January 2014, four new faculty members were hired to start the program, including Chakraborty. This program was granted candidacy status in April 2015, which allowed the cohort of students to be enrolled for the following fall semester. Currently, 23 students are enrolled in the MOT program. Until accreditation is granted Kristen Stacy/THE  STANDARD in 2017, the university has proposed that each Students can use practice models cohort remain at about 24 seats. “A national trend is that OT programs start to prepare themselves for realat a certain size and they tend to grow rather world situations.

MSU sets enrollment record

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two people at a time. Safe walks are limited to buildings and parking lots on campus, downtown MSU buildings An argument turns vio- and adjacent parking lots. Students can call 417-836lent, a laptop is stolen or someone brings a gun onto 5509 for a safe walk. campus are some safety concerns addressed in the Safety Videos The safety videos are easiresources below that are provided by the Missouri ly accessible videos that cover State University Safety and how to survive an active Transportation Department. shooter along with tips for “If you feel like some- seven other situations. There thing’s not right, then there’s a are two types of videos stureason for that feeling,” Tom dents can watch. 1. “Shots Fired On CamJohnson, director of the Safety and Transportation Depart- pus” is about 20 minutes long and covers an active shooter ment, said. According to Johnson, the situation on campus. It promost common crime on cam- vides useful tips for surviving pus is theft –– especially bike an attack. 2. Crime Prevention and theft –– and having what JohnSafety videos son calls “situational aware- Personal ness” can prevent some crimes involves nine videos in the and keep students, faculty and series including everyday safety, assault, stalking, theft, staff safe. safe travel, controlling behavior and common sense Safety Blue Lights Students can push a button defense. The running time is on the blue safety lights to receive help from campus between seven and 10 minutes officers. The vertical lights are and is intended for students Free classes concerning an directly connected to dispatch. They also give officers a loca- active shooter situation are tion while cameras are utilized also provided by the Safety and Transportation Departto understand the situation. ment for anyone interested in learning more. More informaSafe Walks Safe Walks is an on-cam- tion on how to stay safe on pus program provided by the campus can be found on the Safety and Transportation Safety and Transportation Department’s page online at Department. It’s available seven days a http://www.missouristate.edu/ week during the night hours. safetran/. Officers can only escort

Anita Lumley Staff Reporter @LumleyAnita

By Lacey Curtis Staff Reporter @Incurtis318

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Staying safe on campus

The Missouri State University system shows an increase in total enrollment including first-time students and others So far, the university has been successful in achieving those goals, according to Donald Simpson, associate vice president for enrollment management. “Our total enrollment has grown between With close to a quarter of a million students enrolled this fall semester, the Missouri State two to four percent each of the past three University system has set another enrollment years, and our enrollment of students from record, beating last fall’s record by 246 students. underrepresented students, both in number The Springfield campus has a total of and percent of the total, has grown as well,” 22,834 students enrolled for the fall semester, Simpson said. Alongside achieving modest growth, the a two percent increase from the last fall semesuniversity hopes to ter. The Missouri State achieve diversity, and so University-West Plains far, it has been successcampus has 1,993 stuful in that aspect as well. dents enrolled. Students from underrepThe main comporesented groups include nent that helped this and ethnicities semester’s enrollment students are enrolled in the races that are not Caucasian. numbers were the Missouri State University Compared to last amount of first-time year, the total number of system students that enrolled. underrepresented stuThat number went up dents grew by 6.4 per13.5 percent this semester, the largest increase at the university cent. This jump in the number of underrepresented students aids in the university’s overall since 1987. The number of graduate students and the goal of maintaining growth, while also creating number of students from underrepresented a more diverse student body. While returning students are an important groups on campus also went up. These number increases helped the overall jump in factor, the number of new students this semester is what really helped the university hit a enrollment. One of the goals of the university’s long- new record. New students from across the range plans is to achieve modest growth — world and from many diverse backgrounds an increase of one to two percent per year — chose MSU for their higher education. Simpson said that through retention and and diversity, which can be achieved by following nine objectives. These objectives recruitment efforts, the university will continrange from increasing the number of pro- ue to achieve both goals of modest growth and grams available to maintaining competitive a more diverse student body. costs of attendance.

rapidly,” Ashlea Cardin, occupational therapy admissions coordinator, said. “We have planned for growth and we expect growth.” The MOT program consists of seven semesters, five of which being didactic classwork and the other two being fieldwork. The last two semesters often involve shadowing an occupational therapist and gaining real-world experience, much like an internship. Students also have the opportunity to utilize the newly constructed O’Reilly Clinical Health Sciences Center. “Students have the best classrooms with the best technology where they can interact with the instructors,” Chakraborty said. “We have really great lab spaces with new equipment where it is set to utilize all the latest occupational therapy treatment interventions in different settings.” This includes a simulated apartment space, a simulated room with a car and a grocery setup. These will be used to show the students the day-to-day experiences of an occupational therapist. One of the 23 members of the inaugural MOT class is Kristen Carnes, who was originally drawn to Missouri State University by its Public Affairs Mission and faculty members. “After meeting our faculty and program head, I would not consider attending any other institution,” Carnes said. “MSU’s program is a balanced blend of evidence-based practice with a heart.” Carnes, who graduated from Southern

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September 29, 2015 by The Standard at Missouri State University - Issuu