AUGUST 25, 2014
UMKC’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER
VOLUME 82, ISSUE 1
UNIONFEST WELCOMES FRESHMEN Several on-campus organizations welcomed freshmen Sunday with informational booths and free promotional items encouraging student involvement.
FOR MORE ON WELCOME WEEKEND SEE PAGE 3A
PHOTOS BY: TORY FOULK TOP RIGHT: Students drop pom poms in jars according to goals they wish to accomplish during the fall semester. TOP LEFT: Student Organizaton League of Legends Club. BOTTOM LEFT: Booth set up by UMKC’s Conservatory of Dance.
Hospital Hill Ferguson residents housing opens deal with aftermath to students of shooting MAL HARTIGAN SENIOR EDITOR
The University’s first residence hall on the Hospital Hill campus, a $30.33 million project modeled after Volker Campus’s Oak Place Apartments, recently finished construction and now houses its first residents for the fall 2014 semester. The new housing at 25th and Troost Avenue is funded by state bonds and Missouri state tax credits, and features one-, two- and four-bedroom units available for students, second-year and above. The residence hall aims to create convenient and affordable housing options for students in the schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Studies, and houses up to 243 students. An adjacent parking structure available for residents features 196 spaces. The new housing structure has been erected based on students’ requests for more one-bedroom units, according to a September 2013 article by University News. Each resident’s rent includes fees for internet, cable
and all other utilities. Each floor plan includes a private bathroom for each resident, a full-size bed, a furnished living room that includes a couch, coffee table, bar stools and entertainment center, a kitchen with a refrigerator, dishwasher and oven and a washer and dryer. Common areas for residents include a courtyard, outdoor seating and grilling areas, a new fitness center available to both students and residents and a walkway that extends from the residence hall to the Hospital Hill campus. Residential areas are inaccessible to individuals who do not live in the building. The Hospital Hill residence hall is owned and operated by UMKC in order to maintain affordable rent prices for students. One-bedroom, two-bedroom and four-bedroom units average $974, $882 and $774 per month, respectively.
ALEX BISGES STAFF WRITER Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old African-American male, was fatally shot by Officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Mo. According to The New York Times, Officer Wilson shot Brown at least six times – twice in the head and four times in the right arm. Witness Piaget Crenshaw said to The Los Angeles Times, “They shot him [Brown] and he fell. He put his arms up to let them know that he was compliant and he was unarmed, and they shot him twice more and he fell to the ground and died.” A woman identified as Josie by The Los Angeles Times reported that Officer Wilson shot Brown in self-defense. Josie said Wilson stopped Brown and Dorian Johnson for walking in the street. Wilson tried to get out of his car, but Brown pushed him back into the vehicle. Brown struggled for Wilson’s gun and the gun fired once.
“Michael just bum-rushes him, just shoves him back into his car, punches him in the face,” Josie said. “Brown and Johnson ran away from the car after the gun fired. All of a sudden he [Brown] … started to run at him full speed. He just kept coming; it was unbelievable.” Following this event, Ferguson has experienced heavy traffic from an influx of reporters, protesters and emergency relief. The suburb has also been subject to violence, rioting and looting. Parking lots for big businesses, such as Target, have become something of a base camp for journalists, police officers and news crews. The events following Brown’s death have come as a shock to some locals. “It was like any other neighborhood,” said Ferguson resident Donya Williams. “It was quiet because it’s an older community. Kids went out to play. I never felt unsafe or anything.” Williams also suggested media representations of the events have been inaccurate. “They’re making it to be that there is a bunch of violence in that area and normally there isn’t.
It’s typical kids – typical people going about everyday life,” Williams said. “They have made it a whole circus down there … I think that’s one of the reasons I refuse to look at the news because it’s just crazy.” Despite the suburb’s chaotic state, locals and businesses are attempting relief efforts. Restaurants serve free food and church members pass out Bibles and water while law enforcement works to restore order to the town. Brown’s death has prompted arguments of institutional racial inequality among individuals and mass media alike. The shooting has become a tale of systematic segregation and racial hierarchy in the U.S. For many protesters and activists, Brown and Johnson exist as political vessels for debate surrounding unresolved racial issues. “It’s not going to happen overnight,” Williams said. “The community and the police officers have to learn to communicate with each other. There needs to be a better relationship. It’s not something that’s going to be healed in a year from now. It’s just going to take some time.”