By Megan GatesThe Standard

In Cairo, thousands ofprotesters have taken to thestreets in the past few weeksdemanding the removal oftheir president, capturingmedia attention around theworld. To many, thesedemonstrations seem like aworld away, but for oneMissouri State student, theywere happening right downthe street.Weston Bland, a senior

Middle Eastern studies andglobal studies major, left forCairo the third week of Jan-uary, intending to stay untilAugust to complete hisstudy away program at theAmerican University inCairo.“I’ve been planning to

study in Egypt since the

spring semester of my fresh-man year when I firstdeclared a Middle Easternfocus to my degree pro-gram,” Bland said in an e-mail. “My studies on theMiddle East focus on poli-tics and language; my advis-er recommended Egypt asthe place to go for both.Cairo’s been the startingpoint for many of the majorpolitical and social ideolo-gies and movements thathave shaped the MiddleEast.”When he first arrived in

Cairo, Bland said the atmos-phere was a bit overwhelm-ing—in a positive way.“The city was constantly

moving and busy. Peoplewere out and about all hoursof the day,” he said. “Streetsand traffic were also rela-tively unorganized. The

driving and pedestrian sys-tem were very aggressiveand based on forcing yourway into places. Despite allof the bustle of the city,most of the people we metwere very friendly and wel-coming and were usuallywilling to help us out withany issues we had trying tohandle the city.”Over time, however,

Bland said the atmosphereof Cairo began to change asprotests against the govern-ment began and curfewswere enforced.“The atmosphere began

to change slightly when theprotests started, although itwasn’t entirely visible untilFriday the 21st,” he said.“The people were stillfriendly; however, there wasa noticeable feeling of stressand apprehension. The

gradually increasing curfewalso changed the environ-ment quite a bit. Social lifein Cairo usually startsaround 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. andtypically goes on until two,three or four in the morning.

With 6 p.m. curfews startingthat Friday and graduallyincreasing to 1 p.m. Tues-day, the streets of Cairowere suddenly a lot

By Jason JohnstonThe Standard

When the blizzard hit the Missouri State Uni-versity campus Feb. 1 through Feb. 2, about 10feet of snow and an inch of ice surrounded theSigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house.“Someone rented a Bobcat and cleaned out

the driveway,” said Zane Eulinger, the vice pres-ident of recruitment for Sigma Phi Epsilon.Missouri State canceled classes for Feb. 1

through Feb. 3 because of snow and ice. On Feb.3, university administrative personnel and staffhad to report from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. if possible.Classes resumed Friday.The Office of Admissions resumed Thursday

to send out and receive applications and com-municate with new and potential students, saidDr. Earle Doman, the vice president for studentaffairs and dean of students. Maintenance per-sonnel and resident hall workers stayed on dur-ing the snowstorm.“We were crossing our fingers when the food

trucks arrived on Wednesday afternoon,”Doman said. “If for some reason they could nothave made it in, we would have been rationingfood for the people who eat on campus.”On Friday, most of the roads were passable if

drivers took their time, he said. If students werein a situation where they felt it was too danger-ous, then hopefully they made arrangementswith faculty, he added.“Our enterprise is education,” Doman said. “If

we can possibly be open, we are going to beopen.”The maintenance crews got on the ice at

about 5 a.m. on Feb. 1, said Bob Eckels, thedirector of facilities management. They got tothe ice before it stuck to most of the walkways,sidewalks and parking lots. The crews used util-ity vehicles with snow blades.He said the university used a contractor to

plow the parking lots on Wednesday morningbecause the snow was heavy.“When we do have snow again, it is very

much appreciated when (commuters) use theBear Park North and Bear Park South to park asopposed to using lots. It becomes difficult whenwe have to clear the lots and cars are on thelots,” Eckles said.

Tuesday • February 8, 2011 • Vol. 104 Issue 19

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VVaalleennttiinnee’’ssnniigghhtt rriigghhtt

PPaaggee 44

BriefsMeeting for studentbody elections infoStudents wanting to run for

student body president and vicepresident, as well as senior classpresident, need to attend an infor-mational meeting at 6 p.m. onWednesday, Feb. 16 in the SGAoffice (PSU 123). Campaign man-agers need to be in attendance aswell.

In case of a class or other fore-seeable conflict, or if you wouldlike additional information, pleasecontact Chief Elections Commis-sioner Sam Hooker at Hook-er2113@live.missouristate.edu.

SGA looking forsustainability leaderThe Student Government

Association is currently seeking astudent from the College of Artsand Letters to become a studentcommissioner on the Sustainabili-ty Commission. Commissioners aid student-

initiated proposals that are sub-mitted to the commission andassist in follow-up procedures.Qualified students with an interestin this position are advised to con-tact Chief Sustainability Commis-sioner Madison Wilson at Madi-son724@live.missouristate.edu.For more information, please

contact Kinsley Stocum, directorof communications, at kins-ley17@missouristate.edu.

Entreprenuer clubwelcomes speakerJack Stack, the founder and

CEO of SRC Holdings, will bespeaking to the Missouri StateEntrepreneurship Club from 5 to 6p.m. tonight in Glass Hall 108.The MSU Entreprenuer Club

has been granted approximately150 seats for the presentation.Seats will be given on a first-come, first-serve basis.

CalendarFebruary 8 toFebruary 14

TuesdayBlood drive 11 a.m.,PSU Ballroom West

“What the Experts Expect in2011” 11:30 a.m., UniversityPlaza Hotel

Student Activities Councilmeeting 4 p.m., PSU 313

PRSSA meeting 5 p.m.,Craig Hall 325

Student Senate meeting5:30 p.m., PSU 313

WednesdayBlood drive 11 a.m., PSUBallroom West

Interfraternity Council meeting5:15 p.m., PSU 313

Panhellenic Council meeting6 p.m., PSU 313

ThursdayBlood drive 11 a.m., PSUBallroom West

Board of Governers AcademicAfairs Committee meeting1 p.m., PSU 317

Board of Governers StudentAfairs Committee meeting3 p.m., PSU 310

Faculty Senate meeting3:30 p.m., PSU 313

Students for a SustainableFuture meeting 4 p.m.,Temple Hall Pit

Staff retirement panel5:15 p.m., Taylor Healthconference room

Board of Governers FinanceCommittee meeting 7 p.m.,Carrington Hall 203

FridayBoard of Governers meeting10 a.m., PSU 313

MondayResidence Hall Associationmeeting 4 p.m., PSU 313

SnowpocalypseWinter weatherstrikes Springfield

Steph Anderson/THE STANDARD

Students roamed the campus, not for class but for the joy the snow brought by lastweek’s storm.

Steph Anderson/THE STANDARD

Students take advantage of the canceled classes last week to play in the snow that covered Plaster Field.

Student witnesses Egypt crisis firsthand

Image courtesy of Weston Bland

Weston Bland was in Egypt when the protests began.

� See EEGGYYPPTT page 9

Michael Gulledge/THE STANDARD

Battles were fought to keep roads and parking lots around Springfield clear of snow.

The Standard Tuesday, February 8, 20112 News

By Amanda HessThe Standard

A new national study has started a con-versation around campus about how muchstudents really learn while in college andpossible ways to improve student learning.The Associated Press published a story

about a new study that looked at more than2,300 students from 24 different collegesaround the country. The study showed that45 percent of the undergraduates that wereobserved did not show any significantincreases in critical reading, complex rea-soning and writing skills after the first twoyears of college.According to AP, the study came out in

a book titled “Academically Adrift: Limit-ed Learning on College Campuses” byRichard Arum of New York University andJosipa Roksa of the University of Virginia.Mary Mobley, a senior history major,

said she can see how students do notincrease their critical thinking or writingskills the first two years.“The first two years are multiple-choice

years,” Mobley said. “You may have oneshort answer question, maybe two, but youdon’t get into real in-depth thinking untilthe last two years. Most of the time itdepends on the teacher though.”Samuel Ledesma, a sophomore special

education major, said he hasn’t learnedmuch more than he did in high school sofar. He believes the main thing studentslearn in the time they are at college is howto balance work and play.Rebecca Latzig, a junior political sci-

ence major, agreed and said most of herbeginning classes were easy.“I didn’t have a lot of required reading

for most of my classes,” Latzig said. “Theteachers made it really easy where readingwas an option; reading didn’t benefit orhurt you. But students aren’t going to com-plain that the work is too easy. I’ve heardprofessors say before that they had tochange their classes because students com-plained if it was too hard.”Mark Rushefsky, a political science pro-

fessor, said he was one of those teacherswho had to change his course plan.He said he used to have more reading

and writing in his Introduction to AmericanPolicy class, but after feedback from stu-dents who said it required too much work,he switched to multiple-choice tests.Rushefsky is not the only teacher to do

so. Numerous others have done the samething.Kathy Shade, the lab coordinator for

Fundamentals of Chemistry and Chemistryfor the Citizen, said she’s noticed a changein students over the past few years and haschanged her classes accordingly.“It feels like students are coming in less

prepared and less willing to want to learnmore,” Shade said.Shade said she has rearranged her class-

es to require more thinking skills, problemsolving and cooperative learning to pushstudents. She requires students to say whythey answered a question a specific wayand encourages students to talk amongstthemselves to figure out problems.Michael Frizell, director of the Writing

Center, said the need for supplemental helpon campus has increased over the years.“The Writing Center sees about 15 per-

cent of the student body, and 95 percent ofthose students were referred to the centerby faculty members,” Frizell said.“The teacher can only teach so much;

it’s up to the students too,” he added. “Notalways is there a connection from a profes-sor’s mouth and a student’s ears. I wouldhope we reach every student, but it’s notpossible. There is a disconnect betweenstudents and faculty.”This disconnect is obvious when it is

shown that students believe classes are eas-ier and teachers believe students aren’t asmotivated or skilled as they used to be. Butif both are true, it’s hard to put blame sole-ly on teachers or students.Stephen McIntyre, a history associate

professor, said he doesn’t think MSU isunique to this issue or worse than othercolleges around the country.“If I had to choose someone to blame, I

would say administrators because they arein a customer service model for educa-tion,” he said. “In business, there’s a needto satisfy customers. We are treating stu-dents and their parents like customersrather than what they are — students.”“I’m not sure in the short run it makes

them happy to be pushed for critical think-ing,” he added. “I’m not saying students

don’t like being pushed, but when weadopt a mental framework of students ascustomers, we do ourselves a disservice onhow to treat them. I’m not sure what wewant is the immediate feeling of happiness.In the long run, I think students will recog-nize the benefits of being pushed to thinkcritically.”Ledesma said he thinks the average col-

lege student doesn’t know what to do thefirst few years at a university because theydon’t realize school is important.“Students will go out and party and

slack off when it comes to school work,”he said. “Until they get the wake-up calland have to get into the college program oftheir choice, they will just try and get bywith the least amount of work possible.”Rushefsky said he blames everyone in

general for student’s lack of increase ontheir critical thinking and writing skills.College is less rigorous than it used to be,he said.“In general, students demand easier

courses and faculty don’t demand as muchfrom their students,” Rushefsky said.“There used to be a comic strip called‘Pogo,’ and one of the strips said, ‘We havefound the enemy, and the enemy is us.’ Ibelieve that applies to this.”With everyone to blame, the only ques-

tion left is how to fix it. Students and fac-ulty had numerous ideas on ways to changegeneral education classes for the better.Tim England, a junior philosophy

major, said his first few years of collegehave been review and basic information.He said that, in high school, there was thesame problem: instead of making it newand challenging, year after year they justrecapped what happened the year beforeand built on that.“I went to a community college, so it’s

not a reflection of this university, but class-es should stop reteaching the basics andpush forward with a strenuous workload,”England said. “A lot of education lacks it.”Justin Wolf, a senior political science

major, said changes would have to be madebefore students even got to college.“Growing up, my parents made me do a

lot of reading, and it helps development,”he said. “I’m not sure if parents are doingenough in children’s early years for build-ing complex reasoning. Maybe a stronger,more in-depth curriculum at the elemen-tary or middle school level would help.More enforcing measures of education ingeneral would help.”

McIntyre said long-term measures ofclasses would be better than short-termmeasures. Students who value the educa-tion they received and the preparation itgave them for their jobs might be a bettermeasure than a teaching evaluation at theend of the semester. Students might notunderstand how much the course helpedthem at that early stage.Frizell said he believes MSU has been

trying to better connect with students inmultiple ways to help them learn.“I think MSU has made great strides in

making it better,” he said. “There are morefreshmen initiatives; we have theBearCLAW, linking courses and Supple-mental Instruction.”Linking courses try to connect two sim-

ilar courses, such as Writing I and Funda-mentals of Public Speaking together tohelp students glean similarities betweenclasses, he said. Supplemental Instructionuses various activities to force students tothink critically with the information theylearn in class. The BearCLAW helps tutorstudents in various subjects, like writing ormath, to help them better understand whatthey are learning.The university still has room for

improvement on its general educationcourses, McIntyre said. He said the biggestchallenge for the university is that teachingcritical thinking is labor intensive, andwith shrinking resources, it is hard to havesmaller classes to make that happen.“There are a lot of factors that can cause

it not to be possible,” McIntyre said.“Class sizes, funding, faculty workloadand expectations can all play a part. Is itrealistic to ask faculty to juggle researchwith multiple writing-intensive classes andeverything else they have to do? Whatkinds of classes increase critical thinkingor writing skills? How can we fund this? Idon’t think we’ve been asking those typesof questions about general educationcourses.”McIntyre said he hopes with the general

education classes being reviewed, coursescould incorporate more ways to improvestudents’ critical thinking.“President Cofer has talked about real-

locating funds; there have also been recentlooks into the general education classes.With this new study that came out, Ibelieve all three items should come togeth-er and find out how to reallocate funds tobetter serve students and fund classes thatwould increase those skills,” he said.

Study reveals critical-thinking issues‘First two yearsare multiple-choice years’

TuesdayFebruary 8, 2011

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Snowy sidewalks are aburden to pedestrians

Last week, catastrophe struck Springfield in the form of … well,some people were calling it “snowmageddon” or “snowpocalypse,”but we prefer to call it like it is: a blizzard.

(Who came up with the name “snowmageddon” anyway? Itsounds like the name of a more-awful-than-usual Jean-Claude VanDamme movie.)

On Tuesday, it snowed all morning and most of the night. It tookthe plows almost two days to clean the streets, and what work theyhad accomplished on Wednesday and Thursday was ruined when itsnowed another two inches on Friday.

City maintenance did a pretty decent job clearing off main citystreets like National Avenue. However, while the streets are clean, thesidewalks are not.

Probably because the city relies on homeowners to clean the side-walks.

Not all students who walk to school live on campus. There are plen-ty of students living in Greek housing and in apartments or houseslocated on the streets surrounding campus who walk to class every day.

With cars still stuck in snow and ice, even more students are prob-ably walking to campus, and they have to trudge through a rough ter-rain of blackened snow and ice to get there. The melting ice makespockets where walkers’ feet sink into the disgusting sludge.

The most difficult part is the gigantic walls of snow and ice wherethe sidewalks meet street intersections, courtesy of snow plowing.

This leaves walkers with a bit of a dilemma. Do you walk on theedge of the street and risk death by vehicular slaughter, or do youwalk on the plateau of sludge and risk slipping/falling/crashing toyour death?

Most of us students are young and able-bodied. Despite beingslightly fatter than we were in high school, we can still scramble overfoot-high walls of snow without too much of a problem.

But what about the other people who walk on sidewalks? Theyoung school kids who walk home from bus stops? The elderly peo-ple who walk to the grocery store and back?

Last we heard, cars didn’t rule the world. Perhaps the city ofSpringfield and its inhabitants should make it safe for all forms oftravelers — motorists, walkers, bikers and hovercraft flyers.

Macs are better than PCsSo your laptop’s

screen has big black linescreeping up the desktop,the hard drive has beenreplaced three times andyou’re not sure what itfeels like to carry a laptopthat weighs less than eightpounds. It’s time for acomputer upgrade, butwhat should you investin? The heated debatebetween everyday usersand computer nerdsacross the globe is simple:Mac or PC?

The memorable com-mercials of the confident,young “Mac guy” versusthe older, heavy-set andaccident prone “PC guy”brought attention, from ahumorous angle, to thebasic differences betweenthe two battling operatingsystems. Macs are indeedPCs (personal comput-ers), but instead of run-ning with Windows, theMicrosoft standard oper-ating system, they usewhat I would argue is themost beautiful and intu-itive operating systemmoney can buy — MacOS X.

When you open yourMac laptop, the naviga-tion through your com-puter is unusually simpleand elegant, not to men-tion stuffed full of usefulfeatures that make yourlife easier and your com-puter fun to use. As anadded plus, unlike thevirus prone Windows OS,Mac OS X is stable andsecure because it is builton top of the Unix envi-ronment, which greatlyreduces its vulnerabilityto viruses, spyware andother harmful malware.

When you first pur-chase a regular PC laptop,you get a computer that ispreloaded with trial soft-ware that is most oftenembedded into the operat-ing system, making it dif-ficult for average users to

uninstall. This trial soft-ware is known for runningads and pop-ups andencouraging you toupgrade to a full editionof the unwanted software.

Macs are different:They are preloaded withan impressive softwarebundle that allows cre-ative but also elementaryusers to edit photos,download and profession-ally edit video footage,publish these video proj-ects through iDVD, edittracks and create tunes inGarageBand and publishthe newly laid tracks toiTunes. Apart from theseseamlessly interactingprograms, you are set upwith a first-class mediaplayer, messaging soft-ware, a speedy Webbrowser, industrialstrength e-mail and calen-dar tools and access toendless applicationsthrough the App Store.

Although Apple com-puters are a favoriteamong creative profes-sionals for their graphiccapabilities and software,the company has made acomputer that is perfectfor the average user, oreven a first-time user,with its user-friendlyinterface.

Apple prides itself onbeing both creative andintuitive. In everythingthey do, they believe inchallenging the statusquo. They believe inthinking differently. As aresult, they make beauti-fully designed, simple-to-use computers that are asimpressive on the insideas they are on the slim,outer aluminum casing.

From the unibodyenclosures that increasedurability to the newlydesigned lithium-polymerbatteries that increase bat-tery life and reduce sizeand weight, Apple consid-ers every element ofdesign and perfects everydetail. With their durabledesign and secure operat-ing system, Macs areknown for outliving theaverage PC by a few extrayears.

As the writers of “TheIndependent Guide to theMac” describe it,“Apple’s advertising teamcould be forgiven if ittook a leaf out of Volk-swagen’s book and high-lighted how many of itsmachines go on and onand on and how many(Macs) get resold onlineor passed on to friends ...Invest in a Mac today andyou could still be enjoy-ing its benefits in 10years’ time.”

PC pushers argue that,with all of Apple’s loyaland sometimes infatuatedcustomers, the companystill only holds a smallportion of the total marketshare of personal comput-ers. At first glance, theMicrosoft-dominatedindustry seems barelyaffected by Apple’sefforts. However,research firms Gartnerand IDC recently releasedtheir quarterly personalcomputer shipment data,offering up a picture ofthe industry’s perform-ance during the last quar-ter of 2010. According toGartner‘s report, Applelanded in fifth place,grabbing a 9.7 percentshare, up significantlyfrom a 7.4 percent sharein the prior-year quarter.

While a nearly 10 per-cent market share may notseem significant, Gart-ner’s report also indicatedthat Apple’s fourth-quar-

ter unit growth in 2010was an astounding 24 per-cent in comparison to thecomputer industry trendof -6 percent.

The college-campusmarket, however, is a dif-ferent number altogether.College students are oftenconsidered “earlyadopters” of new technol-ogy. In a study done byStudent Monitor, aresearch firm that hasbeen tracking higher edu-cation computer sales for22 years, 27 percent oflaptop owners owned aMac, and among thosestudents who were plan-ning to buy a new laptop,47 percent planned to buya Mac.

In a suffering econo-my, Apple’s personalcomputer sales havegrown significantlywhereas other computermanufacturers havedeclined. So, for now,Apple is growing likecrazy, but it still has along way to go in the PCmarket to catch up toWindows. Remember,they are only one manu-facturer going up againstdozens of popular manu-facturers. It willundoubtedly be a gradualchange.

All in all, there aremany reasons to make theconversion from a Win-dows computer to a Mac.With the excellent andrecently improved com-patibility between thetwo, there is nothing thatshould scare you frommaking the switch. Macapplications are great atreading Windows’ files,and the same is true in thereverse, making it easyfor you to work betweenthe two operating systemsif it is necessary. The Macwill be happy in any homeor office, but it is also anexcellent fit in a student’sbackpack.

BBrriittttaannyy

FFoorreellll

Columnist

Other reasons exist to go green besides global warmingThere may be a number of

reasons why it is smart forAmerica to go green, but nomatter what President Obamasays, the threat of globalwarming is definitely not onesuch reason.

After the snowmageddonthat slammed most of Mis-souri last week, it shouldbecome increasingly obviousthat global warming is asham. Over the years, count-less reports have all but com-pletely debunked past globalwarming research, and theAmerican public should quithaving to hear global warm-ing as an excuse for trying tobecome more sustainable andgreen.

Now, people like Al Goremay try to tell you that thecoldness of a winter doesn’taffect the realness of global

warming, but what does heknow? The man flunked outof Vanderbilt Divinity Schooland thought it was a smartidea to be Bill Clinton’s vicepresident. Enough said.Global warming is withoutmerit, and everybody knowsit.

Instead of jumping on thegoing-green bandwagonbecause of propaganda thatmakes about as much senseas a bunch of camels predict-ing a “global cooling,” Amer-ica needs to become more

environmentally friendlybecause it is the most logicaland economically feasiblething to do. It’s no secret that,in the long run, green inven-tions and ideas will save peo-ple money.

America needs to keep upwith its going-green effortsbecause doing so can createjobs. If we make governmentbuildings equipped to begreener, then there you go.New jobs will be created toinstall and produce the ener-gy saving materials. Newjobs can also be created tobuild windmills or evenresearch all possible types ofalternative fuels.

The ozone (which is notreally going to become moreand more depleted and kill usall) is the limit to possible jobcreation. As long as we don’t

go completely crazy aboutthings and spend largeamounts of taxpayer dollarsor impede on individualrights, then all of these ideasare great.

The next reason Americaneeds to embrace greenness(besides Al Gore’s hare-brained global-warming rant-ing) is because our country isway too dependent on foreignoil. Yes, this “dependence onforeign oil” phrase is usuallythrown around a lot duringelections but for good reason.We need cleaner-burning,cheaper alternatives.

In the real world, one ofthe first steps to becomingindependent is getting yourown place to live and saying“bye-bye” to Mom and Dad.Keeping that logic in mind,America is currently a 40-

something-year-old bachelorwho lives in his Middle East-ern parents’ basement. We’retoo dependent. We need tomove out already and stopbeing held hostage by the oil-producing countries.Researching and implement-ing alternative forms ofclean-burning energy willhelp curb that problem andeventually save Americasome much-needed cash.

Lastly, like you all haveheard since your days backon the playground, it’s impor-tant to go green because theworld’s resources may rundry one day. Yeah, this is acheesy, cliché reason, but it’strue. Fossil fuels are non-renewable resources. Whenthey’re gone, they’re gone.On top of that, destroying therain forest and killing thou-

sands of plants and animalsjust isn’t very nice. However,all of this green brouhahacould help us not have toworry about running out ofresources and killing treesand plants as quickly.

So, the main lesson foreveryone to keep in mindtoday is that Al Gore and Pres-ident Obama are both full ofcrap.

Okay, that’s not really themain lesson, even if it is true.

The main thing to remem-ber is that, even if globalwarming is a made-up-scare-tactic-evil-propaganda-lie, itstill won’t hurt America to gogreener. We can get jobs,move out of our Middle East-ern parents’ basement andmake Momma Nature proud.Shouldn’t that in itself be rea-son enough?

GGrreeggEEddwwaarrddss

Columnist

Tell us what you think.Log on at

www.the-standard.org

Cartoon by Rachel Brown

TuesdayFebruary 8, 2011

CalendarFebruary 8 toFebruary 14

TuesdayGender and MusicComposition: A PersonalPerspective 12:30 p.m.,Craig Hall 205

MSU Composition Festival:Concert II with guestcomposer Cindy McTee7:30 p.m., Jaunita K. HammonsHall for the Performing Arts

WednesdayMessy Jiverson with Catty-WOMP and Salad Bar Jam9 p.m., Outland Ballroom

SAC Films Presents: “DueDate” 9 p.m., PSU Theater

Thursday“Musical of Musicals” 7:30p.m., MSU Balcony theatre

SAC After Hours Presents:Skate Night 9 p.m., MediacomIce Park

FridayMoon City Faculty Reading7 p.m., PSU theater

Speakeasy concert 10 p.m.,Outland Ballroom

Musical: “Beauty and theBeast” 8 p.m., Juanita K.Hammons Hall for thePerforming Arts

Jazz Aria concert7:30 p.m., Savoy Ballroom

Queen City Shout concertseries: Archimedian Point7:30 p.m., Borders

SaturdayChris Thomas King concert8 p.m., Nathan P. Murphy’s

Best of the Past Decade FilmFestival 7 p.m., PSU theater

Queen City Shout concertseries: Brian Hom 7:30 p.m.,Borders

SundayMissouri State UniversityConcert Chorale concert7 p.m., Immaculate ConceptionChurch

MondayBitter Valentine 7 p.m. CanvasArt Gallery

SAC Presents: Valentine’s Daydouble feature 5:30 p.m., PSUtheater

Program to teachwith love storyThe College of Humanities

and Public Affairs, BiGALA,VOX, College Democrats andthe Association of Black Colle-gians will host “Shawn andGwenn: a Boy, a Girl, a Virusand the Relationship that Hap-pened Anyway,” at 7:15 p.m. onWednesday in the PSU theater.The program features Shawn

Decker and Gwen Barringer, acouple who have spent the lastdecade traveling the nation,using their relationship to edu-cate the public on safe sex, inti-macy, partner communicationand the HIV infection.The event is free and open to

the public.

Revue to featuretales of romanceThe Gillioz Theatre will

present “Women On Love,” amusical revue chronicling thelove lives of five women, begin-ning 7:30 p.m. on Wednesdayand running through Sunday.Tickets are $15. Students andseniors pay $12.

Valentine’s partyto benefit charityThe Stupid Cupid Cocktail

Party, a charity event benefitingIsabel’s House, the crisis nurs-ery of the Ozarks, will be held 7p.m. Monday at Finnegan’sWake.Tickets for the event are $10

at the door and $8 in advance.Admission includes appetizers,dinner and desserts provided byFinnegan’s Wake, Ophelia’s andAmyCakes Bakery, as well asthe opportunity to participate inthe silent auction featuringitems donated by downtownbusinesses. All proceeds go tobenefit Isabel’s House.

Briefs

How didyou meet?

A. We haven’t yet bec

ause I

haven’t met anybod

y

good enough.

B. We met inclass.

C. We met at a bar/clu

b.

I might have been d

runk.

D. I don’t get out muc

h.

Rate your hotness.A. 10.B. 8 on a good day.

C. Average.D. Please don’t make meanswer that.

What is typicallydiscussed

between you andthe person you’reinterested in?A. Me.B. Books. Music. Lifein general.

C. Brown chickenbrown cow.

D. What are yousupposed totalk abouton dates?

When you’regettingdown tobusiness,

what fills upyour playlist?

A. Tchaikovsky’s“1812 Overture.”

B. A mixed tapeprepared in advance

C. Rap.D. “My Heart Will GoOn” by Celine Dion.

What do you

normally do on

a Friday night?

A. I wait for he/she to find

me.

B. I hang out with friends

and/or go toa bar.

C. Clubbing, raging and

fist pumpingall night lon

g.

D. I play “Call of Duty”

and eat Cheetos.

What is yourgo-to bar inSpringfield?

A. Fedora or Red Room.B. Patton Alley Pub orFinnegan’s Wake.

C. Icon or Zan.D. I don’t go out. I playthe “Harry Potter”drinking game athome.

y

How wouldyou describeyour scent?

A. Chanel. Acqua Di Gio.

B. Shampoo and fabric softener.

C. Ed Hardy.D. Axe and corn chips.

Whatis yourchoice of beverage

?A. Martini. Shaken, not stirr

ed.

B. Boulevard Wheat.

C. Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots!

Shots!

D. Bawlz. PBR, non-alcoholic.

You have ridiculously high standards.Not everyone is as awesome as youthink you are. Maybe you shouldstop quizzing your dates on19th century composersand, for the love ofHades, stop talkingabout yourselfso much.

Thank you for being normal. You shouldhave a perfectly “cute” Valentine’sDay. Though, you know, maybeyou could spice things up a bit.Get freaky. Take your date

Little to Saigon insteadof Applebee’s.OMIGOD!

Ch-ch-changes

Facebook will soonlimit your relationship

status changesYour dating life is like musical chairs.It’s so bad your friends can’t keeptrack of who you’re dating. Slowdown; check out the scenery.Maybe be single for a littlewhile, and definitelyremember birthcontrol.

EHarmony.comSo you’re one of those people whosits and stares at a person you likefor weeks before saying anything.Here’s a piece of advice: It’snot as scary as you think. Or,you know, there’s alwaysonline dating. Talkingthrough a computeris easier thantalking inperson.

Mos t yl D’s

Mos t yl

LLoowweerr yyoouurr ssttaannddaarrddss

A’s

Mostl B’s

and a MovieDinner

Mos t yl C’s

Credits:

graphics by Mikaela Buck,

Sarah Bennett,

Abby Webster

Design by Leah Randazzo

Matt Kile

Bobbie Sawyer Lauren Healey

A. I don’t give. I receive.B. Mixed tape and chocolate.C. Massage oils.D. Flowers. A teddy bear. A balloon. Chocolates. A homemade card with a poem.

What kind of giftwould you give forValentine’s Day?

As Valentineʼs Day swiftly approaches, you may be freaking out about who to ask out, where to go orwhat gift to give. The Standard presents you with a quiz that we hope points you in the right direction.

Crazy little thing called Love

The StandardTuesday, February 8, 2011 5Life

By Bobbie SawyerThe Standard

If you’ve ever longed for the stench of aroommate’s six-week-old pile of laundryfestering in the corner of your joint livingroom or the thrill of a live-in derangedstalker a la the new dorm room screamfest“The Roommate,” you’re in luck. Badroommates are easily acquired, and by ,fol-lowing the guide below, you’ll be sure tostumble across a little domestic drama ofyour own.Check CraigslistWhat better place to find a no-good, ter-

rible roommate than the center of Internetsketchiness, Craigslist? On Craigslist, youcan peruse nameless, faceless roommateprospects, find a date for this weekend andshop for a couch to furnish the shack you’llsoon inhabit, all in one afternoon. It’s basi-cally a one-stop shop for bad decisions.Get a slobIf Craigslist doesn’t work out, you could

always try rooming with your most hygien-ically challenged acquaintance and candi-date for A&E’s “Hoarders” program. Besure to look for someone with an extrava-gant collection of exotic rodents or towering12-foot stacks of magazines and pizzaboxes for the best chance of achieving real-ity show glory and reaching an all-timeroommate low.Reunite with your unemployed friendfrom high schoolYou know the one. He was fired from

Taco Bell. Twice. He would make an excel-lent bad roommate.

Sarah Owens, a senior dietetics major,said on the bad roommate scale, cleanlinessfalls after economic stability in importance.“Cleanliness is a big deal, but if they pay

their rent, I really don’t have a problem,”Owens said. “I don’t want to get evicted.”If, unlike Owens, your idea of excite-

ment is being on the verge of homelessness,track down the least ambitious of your troopand make a go of it.Move in with a strangerWhy ruin the excitement with getting to

know a potential roommate beforehand? Ifyou’re looking for the worst of the worst,take the blind date approach to roommates.By avoiding background checks and gener-al common sense, you take an exhilaratinggamble.Room with someone who hates youRachel Flanigan, a junior theater major,

said the most important quality she searchesfor in a roommate is respect.“You don’t have to be best friends, but it

is a relationship,” Flanigan said. “You haveto respect each other’s space.”A disrespectful roommate with a person-

al vendetta against you could seriously livenup your living arrangement by stealing yourclothes, eating your food and torturing youwith obnoxiously loud and terrible music.What could be worse than waking up to themusical stylings of Nickelback every morn-ing?

By now, most of us have seen“Winter’s Bone.” If you haven’t,then you are one of the few.Just in case you are one of

those few or it’s been a while,I’ll recap: The film tells thestory of 17-year-old Ree (Jen-nifer Lawrence), an OzarkMountains girl who searches forher meth-cooking, bail-jumping father to save her familyhome.“Winter’s Bone” is an all-around good film. It’s realis-

tic, and the story is compelling. The actors were great, andthe Oscar nominations for this film are well deserved.The question, however, isn’t a matter of how good the

film is; it’s why is this such a big deal for southwest Mis-souri?This is the first film that’s been filmed in Missouri

that has received any real attention. It was filmed onlocation in Taney and Christian counties, and it starred

actors from our very own Missouri State. LaurenSweetser and some other students had the opportunity towork on the film.Jayson Wilkins, a recent graduate of MSU, had the

good fortune to get some real-life experience on a film set.How did he score a real internship on a real film set?Craigslist. That’s right. But, just be careful. We all knowhow that can turn out.Anyway, the point is the attention that “Winter’s Bone”

has garnered could mean positive things for southwestMissouri as a growing hub for filmmakers. It’s not neces-sarily going to mean we’re going to see a huge influx ofHollywood filmmakers because, let’s face it, our weatheris what you might describe as unpredictable. But somefilmmakers have been snooping around Joplin, searchingfor locations to shoot the remake of “Bonnie and Clyde”starring Hilary Duff.What this is really going to mean for the aspiring film-

makers of the area is opportunity. We’ve already beengrowing as a hub for rising stars, but now we’re more than

just a spot on a map. People have proven that you canmake an award-winning film here. Who knows? Maybethe next time someone needs a rural Midwest setting,they’ll think about shooting on location instead of build-ing a set.Yet, the biggest opportunities that these kinds of films

are going to bring is something that Wilkins found outfirsthand: networking. Everyone always says how impor-tant networking is, but he never realized just how true thatwas until he started working on “Winter’s Bone.” He saidevery job he has gotten since has been through people hemet while on set.Now, as for the chances at the Academy Awards, there

is no way to tell what the Academy is thinking. It’s defi-nitely cool that “Winter’s Bone” has received some well-deserved recognition.So what’s the lesson to be learned here? Go for it.

There are always films being made in the area. Sometimesthey’re student films, but they’re still an opportunity. Sotake it. You never know where it might lead you.

Roommates: tips to find the best and worst

‘Winter’s Bone’ provides opportunity for local filmmakers

KKaarrmmaannBBoowweerrss

MovieColumnist

For more information onleasing season, checkout our Housing Guide.

If you’ve had your share of bad room-mates, don’t despair. Good room-mates do exist and can be found byfollowing these simple steps:

Talk to friendsSarah Owens, a senior dietetics major,

said she found her roommate by askingfriends and finding a shared connection.

“She's in the same program as me,and I found her through a mutual friend,”Owens said. “I just asked around withfriends to see if they knew anyone whoneeded a roommate.”

Get involvedAlex Harden, a junior marketing major

who lives off-campus with her best friend,said sheʼs found that the best approachto finding a great roommate match isthrough social outlets.

“Try to join a club or group with some-one you have similarities with,” Hardensaid. “Ask through friends.”

Anthony Milfelt, a senior musical the-ater major, lives off campus with threeroommates he met through the theaterprogram.

Milfelt said, though the four werenʼtwell acquainted, their common interestshelped form a bond.

“We all get along. We werenʼtextremely close beforehand. Iʼve heardhorror stories about living with your bestfriend from high school,” Milfelt said. “Itwas good. We got to learn about eachother.”

Log onIf the idea of finding your future living

partner on Craigslist freaks you out,youʼre not alone. But there are a varietyof less-ominous roommate-finder servic-es online.

One such option is Roommate-Click.com, which freshman psychologymajor Taylor Homeyer refers to as the“Match.com of roommate finders.”

RoommateClick.com allows users topost free ads, which include cost prefer-ence, anticipated move-in date, personalrequirements and a descriptive “aboutme” section. Users can browse the ads ofcandidates in their area and contact thebest match.

Of course, with all online ventures,precaution is necessary. Be sure to takea friend along or meet in a public placewhen you decide to contact a potentialroommate in person.

Be openJackee Smithhart, a sophomore math

education major, said itʼs important forroommates to have open communicationabout their personal interests, schedules,likes and dislikes from the beginning.

“During the first week, we had sharetime,” Smithhart said. “We talked and gotto know one another. We had girl time.Your personality definitely comes out atthree in the morning.”

Smithhart said having a good room-mate experience is dependent onpatience and consideration from bothparties.

“You donʼt want to live with someonethat you butt heads with all the time,”Smithhart said. “Be civil and understand-ing that they have to live with you too.”

By Benjamen LoewnauThe Standard

The Lady Bears now find themselves sitting atfourth place in the Missouri Valley Conferenceafter they wrapped up the weekend with two loss-es.

The 67-59 loss on Sunday to the conference-leading Northern Iowa Panthers capped off aweekend for the Lady Bears that started with a 73-68 loss to Bradley on Friday night.

“We’ve got to keep fighting through the adver-sity,” junior guard Casey Garrison said after theloss to UNI. “We’ve got to overcome it.”

After losing to Bradley on Friday night, theLady Bears showed improvements in their play inthe paint by outrebounding Northern Iowa 46-37.

“We rebounded with more passion,” headcoach NylaMilleson said. “We did a lot of detailedthings much better.”

To go along with rebounding and intense playin the paint, Northern Iowa presented the LadyBears with a physical matchup, and as a result 45personal fouls were committed.

Due to their strong presence inside, the LadyBears were able to outscore the Panthers 28-8 inthe paint.

“It was real physical inside, but overall I thinkwe did good,” sophomore forward ChristianaShorter said.

Despite outscoring UNI in the paint, the LadyBears’ only lead of the game was short-lived latein the first half as the Panthers soon pulled away.

“They made big shots,” Garrison said. “I thinkthey got some defensive stops.We didn’t shoot theball particularly well.”

Amajority of the big shots for UNI came fromPanthers’ junior guard Jacqui Kalin who scored agame-high 29 points against the Lady Bears.

Kalin’s 29 points proved to be the dagger downthe stretch that put Missouri State away in the sec-ond half.

“Jacqui Kalin knocked a couple right down in

TuesdayFebruary 8, 2011

WednesdayMen’s Basketball home againstBradley, 7:05 p.m.

ThursdayWomen’s Basketball away atIndiana State, 7:05 p.m.

FridayTrack and Field away at TysonInvitational, 9 a.m.

SaturdayMen’s Basketball away at IllinoisState, 7:05 p.m.

Women’s Basketball away atIllinois State, 7:05 p.m.

Track and Field away at TysonInvitational, 9 a.m.

SundayWomen’s Golf away at ClaudJacobs/Texas State Challenge,8 a.m.

Men’s BasketballWednesday, Feb. 2Evansville 42 35 – 77Missouri State 32 33 – 65Saturday, Feb. 5Indiana State 36 30 – 66Missouri State 31 42 – 73Women’s BasketballFriday, Feb. 4Bradley 31 42 – 73Missouri State 36 32 – 68Sunday, Feb. 6UNI 32 35 – 67Missouri State 32 29 – 59Ice HockeyFriday, Feb. 4Lindenwood 13Missouri State 0Saturday, Feb. 5Lindenwood 6Missouri State 1

Scorebox

CalendarFebruary 8 toFebruary 14

BriefsFootball team waitson letters of intent

After the Football NationalLetter of Intent Party was can-celed on Wednesday, Feb. 2, dueto weather, the Missouri Statefootball team announced thereceipt of letters of intent from 22high school and junior collegestudents who have committed toplay football for Missouri Statethis fall.

Weather complications andschool cancellations have delayedsome commitments, so MSU isstill expecting additional recruits.

Among the recruits are threejunior college commitments:Nate Davis, a linebacker fromGarden City Community College,Randy Richards, an offensivelineman from the College ofSequoias and Clay Spruill, anoffensive lineman from Tyler(Texas) Junior College.

Butzine leads theway for track team

A small group of sprinters andthrowers began preparation forthe Missouri Valley ConferenceChampionships on Feb. 26 and 27by competing at the Fazoli’s/ Bay-mont Inn Invitational this pastweekend.

Ariel Butzine was the story forthe Bears, as the freshman fin-ished second in the 800-meter runwith a time of 2:14.52, which wasthe fastest of any Bear this seasonand the third-fastest of any MVCrunner.

Bears vs. Shockerson national television

The Missouri Valley Confer-ence announced Thursday thatMissouri State will earn a spot onESPN2 as part of its “WildcardWeekend” on Saturday, Feb. 26,when the Bears play their finalgame of the season against rivalWichita State.

The game will mark the sixthtime the Bears have been onESPN’s family of networks thisseason.

Six inducted intoBears Hall of Fame

Missouri State's 2011 Athlet-ics Hall of Fame class includessoftball pitcher Nora CagwinWhitcomb (1996-99), baseballpitcher Kirby Cannon (1977-80),basketball player LaTanya Davis(1992-96), basketball playerDanny Moore (1996-99), foot-ball player Brad St. Louis (1996-99) and volleyball player LinetteWhite Randle (2000-03).

2011 Football RecruitsThe Missouri State football teamhas received letters of intent

from 22 players.

High School PlayersCharleston Antwine (6-4, 290, OL)Robert Booker (6-2, 290, OL)Eric Christophel (5-10, 170, ATH)Dondelaro Crosby (5-11, 200, LB)Richard Darden (6-4, 220, TE)Emerson DePeel (6-4, 300, OL)Corey Feagin (6-3, 230, DE)Robert Fields (6-1, 180, WR)Josh Hampton (6-4, 265, DL)Kierra Harris (5-11, 190, QB)Ryan Heaston (5-11, 175, (ATH)Christian Hoffman (6-1, 210, LB)Maddy Johnson (5-8, 165, RB)Jake Lasater (6-6, 300, OT)James McDonald (6-3, 250, DE)Patrick Morse (6-4, 275, OL)Rufus Sullivan (6-3, 215, OLB/DE)Bernard Thomas (5-11, 172, DB)Jordan White (6-6, 280, DL)

Junior College TransfersNate Davis (6-2, 215, LB)Randy Richards (6-5, 300, OL)Clay Spruill (6-5, 300, OL)

Responding to adversityMichael Gulledge/THE STANDARD

Senior Adam Leonard drives past Indiana State’s Aaron Carter. Leonard finished with a game-high 19 points on 6-for-12 shooting.

By Jon PoormanThe Standard

Adam Leonard had one of the worst games ofhis college career against Evansville lastWednesday as he fouled out with zero points. Heresponded on Saturday with 19 points, most ofwhich came from timely three-pointers thathelped the Bears hold off Indiana State 73-66.

The day after the Evansville game, Leonardtweeted about putting in extra work on his shot:“Just put up 400 (shots). Practice at 2:30. Thenputting up another 250+.”

The work paid off as Leonard went 5-for-8from the three-point line on Saturday against theSycamores.

“I went in the gym the last two days and putup a little more extra shots than I have been,”Leonard said after the game. “It turned out

tonight that it was well worth it.”Senior Will Creekmore has seen what his

teammate can do from the three-point line andknew Leonard would eventually break out of theshooting rut.

“He’s the best shooter in the Valley,” Creek-more said. “It was just a matter of time before hestarted hitting (shots) again.”

Indiana State coach Greg Lansing said histeam prepared to guard against Leonard butcouldn’t always find a way to stop him.

“He’s just a really good player that can makebig shots,” Lansing said. “He obviously did thattoday. It’s just a really good player stepping upand making shots.”

Along with Leonard’s hot shooting, the Bearsused strong defensive play to close out yetanother tight game.

“We just guarded the ball better, I think,” jun-ior Kyle Weems said. “If you just do your ownjob and guard your man, you’ll be fine.”

Missouri State coach Cuonzo Martin said heliked the defensive intensity his team playedwith in the second half.

“I think we did the things we needed to do in

the second half to get stops,” he said. “That wasthe thing I liked seeing in the second half.”

Leonard said the improved defense was duein part to more physical play.

“We felt like we were more physical in thatsecond half than any other half of the season,” hesaid. “We need to keep doing that.”

The Bears were able to hold the Sycamores to30 points and a 38.5 shooting percentage in thesecond half compared to 36 points and 46.9 per-cent in the first half.

Another factor that played into the final out-come was the experience of Missouri State. TheBears were able to make clutch plays, get stopson defense and sink free throws down the stretchto secure the victory.

“You have to have people that aren’t afraid tomake plays,” Lansing said. “You look at Mis-souri State, and they’ve got a whole bunch ofthem, a whole bunch of veteran guys that canmake plays.”

Creekmore said that keeping the team’s goalin mind helps all of them to stay focused on the

Struggles in the Valley

Matt Hart/THE STANDARD

Casey Garrison scored 20 points Sunday.

Leonard powersBears to victory

� See LLAADDYY BBEEAARRSS page 7

� See BBEEAARRSS page 9

The StandardTuesday, February 8, 2011 7Sports

By Adam HammonsThe Standard

The Missouri State Cheer Squadand Sugar Bears recently competedat nationals in Orlando, Fla., andhad a strong showing.For three years in a row, the

MSU Cheer Squad finished thirdplace in the Cheer Division I cham-pionship. It’s a finish many cheer-leaders, including senior DougGaehle, are excited about.“We had a lot of mishaps this

season,” Gaehle said, “so we werereally happy with the routine wetook and overcame those problemswhen we got there.”On Jan. 14 to 16, both the Cheer

Squad and the Sugar Bears went tothe 2011 College Cheerleading andDance Team National Champi-onships in Orlando. The SugarBears also took third place in theDivision I Jazz competition butended with a sixth place finish in theDivision I Hip-Hop competition.“Sixth is still great,” senior

Emily Tod said. “I think we wanteda couple places higher, but it didn’thappen and that’s okay.”Tod said what sets their team

apart from other schools is thecamaraderie among the girls.“I know there are a lot of other

teams that go to nationals that aren’tfriends,” Tod said. “We’re all reallyclose; we’re all good friends. And Ithink that helps out, and it makeseverybody just want to work hardfor each other and want to do welltogether.”Junior Katie Staihr agreed with

Tod.“I think we get the best choreog-

raphers in the area, and we havegreat team chemistry,” Staihr said.“It’s just really widespread. Our tal-ents aren’t all in one spot.”The Cheer Squad also believes

that a close relationship amongteammates leads to success. JuniorFaith Lorhan said the squad isn’tjust a team but a family.“This year we were told by sev-

eral people that this had looked likethe most fun that anyone has everhad when we performed for thefans,” Lorhan said. “Because welooked like we were having funwith each other, more than we’rejust out there to show them some-thing.”Lorhan competed in the Partner

Stunts coed competition withBoston Alverson, finishing fifth outof 15 teams. They were ranked sec-ond going into the event, but Lorhanwasn’t disappointed with the result.“Actually, we were very happy

with where we placed,” Lorhansaid. “We hit our routine; we did allwe could do. We were probably alittle bit nervous, but it was very,very fun. We’re ready to do itagain.”Lorhan said the competition was

tight because only five points sepa-rated them from first place. Fornow, both groups will cheer on thebasketball teams as they finish theirseasons as the Spirit Squad. Whatcomes next is to continue the tradi-tion of the Missouri State SpiritSquad.“We have something to main-

tain; we have that third place,”Gaehle said. “We want to maintainwhere we’re at and our name thatwe have.”

Handball team joins Missouri Sports Hall of Fame

By Harrison KeeganThe Standard

The Missouri State handball team, past andpresent, was inducted into the Missouri SportsHall of Fame Jan. 30.Compared to the Yankees of collegiate

handball, Missouri State has won 11 nationaltitles since 1993, never finishing worse thansecond during that span.“It’s a pretty important accomplishment, not

only for me but for everyone who helped buildwhat Missouri State stands for in the handballworld,” junior Scottie Moler said.The induction marked how far the team has

come since professor Tommy Burnett formedthe team in 1987.Burnett, who still coaches the team, said on

the squad’s first trip to the handball champi-

onships, they finished second to last and didn’thave enough money to buy gas for the drivehome.The team coasted back to Springfield on a

player’s credit card back in the winter of 1988.Now, in 2011, they have received one of thestate’s highest athletic hon-ors.“It’s a throwback to the

way sports used to be,” Bur-nett said. “The kids aren’tplaying because someone isgiving them a scholarship orbecause it’s on ESPN. Theywant to compete. They wantto be the best.We’re the bestteam over the past 18 years,and they take a lot of pridein that.”Burnett said he started

the team in 1987 when he was in administrationto get back in touch with college students.“I enjoy teaching and watching people

learn,” he said. “To me, teaching was neverwork; it was fun.”

The MSU handball team was inductedalongside former Chiefs’ running back PriestHolmes and former Cardinals’ second basemanTom Herr, but Burnett said the handball teamstole the show.“We’ve had almost 300 alumni come

through this program, and91 of them came back forthe ceremony. That wasreally impressive to me,”he said. “It was the firsttime that the hall inductionsold out.”Burnett was inducted

into the Missouri SportsHall of Fame individuallythree years ago for his suc-cess as the handball coach,but he said this timearound was a lot more

gratifying.“This one meant a lot more,” he said. “This

was all about the players. There’s going to be aplaque on the wall with every player’s name onit from 1987 to 2011. I think that’s kind of

neat.”The players, Burnett said, have 130 prac-

tices a year and get no scholarships or uniforms.He said most of his players don’t have any

handball experience before joining the team. Herecruits by talking to former high school ath-letes on campus and through the handball classhe teaches.Moler, who finished in the top eight at the

collegiate tournament for singles on last year’snational championship team, is an exception.He sought out the handball program on his own.“I’m from Iowa, and the reason I came

down was to play handball here,” he said.Burnett said that, despite all of the success

and awards the team has received, the mostimportant thing about the sport happens outsidethose four high walls.“It provides a lot of out-of-class education

for our students, and quite frankly, it keeps a lotof kids in school,” he said.Already one of the most accomplished

teams in Missouri sports history, the handballteam will try to defend their national title Feb.18 to 22 at the University of Minnesota.

The kids aren’t playingbecause someone is givingthem a scholarship orbecause it’s on ESPN.They want to compete.They want to be the best.We’re the best team overthe past 18 years, and theytake a lot of pride in that.

Tommy Burnetthandball team coach

Spirit Squad goes to nationals

our face,” Milleson said.Not too far behind Kalin were

Garrison and Shorter who led theway for the Lady Bears.Garrison managed to post 20

points of her own, while Shorterposted a double-double with 16points and 11 rebounds.

Another bright spot for Mis-souri State was the play of sopho-more forward Tia Mays, who cameup with 10 rebounds and fourblocks.“(Mays) really came out and gave

us a lot of spark,” Milleson said.With the losses over the week-

end, the Lady Bears now sit at 16-7overall and dropped to 7-4 in theMissouri Valley Conference.Friday night’s loss to Bradley

snapped Missouri State’s eight-game

home winning streak that dated backto their Dec. 3 win against EasternMichigan.The Lady Bears now face a tough

three-game road trip that includes amatchup 1:05 p.m. on Feb. 12 atthird place Illinois State.“(It will be) a big two weeks for

us, three very tough places to play,”Milleson said.The next matchup for the Lady

Bears will be at 6:05 p.m. on Thurs-day at Indiana State.

By Harrison KeeganThe Standard

The Missouri State lacrosse teamis hoping its speed can help it win theGreat Rivers Lacrosse Conferencechampionship for the third-straightyear.“We’re going to play very fast,”

said Pat Callaham, first-year headcoach. “For fans, whether they arefamiliar with lacrosse or not, it’sgoing to be an exciting style of play.”The players said the winter weath-

er might be a blessing in disguise as ithas forced the team to focus on con-ditioning.“The weather’s been pretty bad,

but we’ve really been getting after itin practice,” junior Ben Scherer said.“We haven’t been able to put in manyplays, but we’ve been conditioninghard. So we should be in great shapefor the season.”Callaham moves into the head

coaching position for the Bears aftertwo years as the associate head coach.He said the team is doing things dif-ferently this year with the new coach-ing staff in place.

“We’ve actually changed quite abit,” he said. “We’ve brought in someslightly different styles, and I feel likewe’re going to be able to put it alltogether really well.”Senior defender Justin Capar said

the team has noticed a change in theirstyle of play since Callaham tookover.“Our style is more fast-paced this

year, a lot more than in past years,”Capar said.He said three-peating as confer-

ence champs is the team’s mainfocus.“Our goal as a team is to win the

conference championship and win agame in Denver at nationals,” Caparsaid.He said his personal goal is to

become the Bears’ ninth All-Ameri-can since the program started in2003.The team has 30 players, many of

whom started playing lacrosse in highschool. Scherer said his high schoolfriends are one of the reasons hejoined the team.“A couple of my friends play

here,” Scherer said. “We’ve been

playing together since high school.”He said that, although the Bears

will emphasize their speed, they arenot afraid of physical play.“We’re a solid defensive team,”

Scherer said. “We have a lot of goodhitters. It should be fun to watch.”The Bears open their schedule on

Saturday in St. Louis with an exhibi-tion game against Illinois. Althoughthe team has yet to play its first gameof 2011, Callaham said he expects theBears to do very well.“We’ve had excellent attendance

at practice, and from there we’ve hadgreat intensity in every drill,” he said.“The team has looked very good sofar.”Callaham said the team’s style of

play should be very appealing to fans.“We’re really going to push the

tempo up and down the field,” hesaid. “We’ve got a talented group ofguys, offensively, who are capable oflighting up the scoreboard. We planon putting on a real good show forpeople.”The team’s first home game will

be April 1 against Harding at PlasterSports Complex.

Lacrosse team, new coach set for season

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11 national titlesearn recognition

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The Standard Tuesday, February 8, 20118 News

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Weekly Crossword© 2011 King Features Synd., Inc.

Last Weekʼs Puzzle Answers

By Nick SimpsonThe Standard

It’s not the sort of thing theaverage customers of a gro-cery store think of when theypass through the check outline with their final selections.What really goes through themind of a grocery bagger asthey sort each product in yourcart? Is it the work of somemindless automaton or a trulyskilled individual?Every year the National

Grocers Association (NGA)holds a national competition,inviting winners from variousstates to test their skills as agrocery bagger. Last year’swinner was Kyle Perry, repre-senting Martin’s Supermar-kets in Indiana. He achieved agrand prize of $10,000.This year’s competition

will be held Feb. 14 during theNGAAnnual Convention andSupermarket Synergy show-case at the Mirage Hotel inLas Vegas. The competitorsfrom each state will spendValentine’s Day shufflingthrough paper and plastic,fighting for another $10,000prize.Representing Missouri this

year is Scott Hall, a graduatestudent in business manage-ment at Missouri State. Scotthas been bagging groceries foralmost seven years. Whatbegan as a high school job atDierbergs in St. Louis becamea comfortable existence forScott, who has spent two andhalf of his college years bag-ging groceries at the PriceCutter on the corner of Grandand Kansas Expressway.“What’s funny is that it

wasn’t even my idea,” Hallsaid. “When I was 16, mymom got the application atDierbergs and made me fill itout because she wanted me toget off my butt and do some-thing. At first, I didn’t want todo it. But, after a while, I real-ized it’s really not as bad asmost jobs come. It just workedout.”But the difference between

the average student bagginggroceries and a bagging cham-pion are very real, and Halldidn’t realize his affinity forsorting cans and boxes whenhe first took the job.

“Well, it started with a con-test in the store to find our bestbagger,” Hall said. “We couldwin $50, and you could get$10 just for trying. So I figuredI’d try it. It wasn’t that I justrecognized this talent one day.I won the competition andimmediately started practicingfor competition on a largerscale.”Hall said from there he

competed in Price Cutter’scompany-wide competition,

and from there was chosen tocompete in the Missouri state-level competition at Chateauon the Lake Resort in Bransonin October. Having taken thatprize, Hall now looks to thenational level as a real playingfield.“I’ve been trying to get

practice as I work,” he said.“Now that I’m going tonationals, they’ve been sched-uling memore shifts.And nowthat I’m leaving next week,

I’m getting nervous about it,but they’ve had me baggingpretty much every day.”Hall said in addition to the

$10,000 first place grandprize, this year the 25 competi-tors will be clamoring afteranother prize: a trip to NewYork to appear on the “LateShow with David Letterman”where they will be interviewedand have their very own, per-sonal, one-on-one competitionwith Letterman.

But the glory doesn’t stopthere. According to Hall, thegrand champion will alsoreceive a gold-plated registerbearing the name of the cham-pion and the year they werecrowned, valued at around$7,000.Hall leaves for the conven-

tion this weekend, whichbegins on Sunday. He willspend four days in Las Vegaswith all expenses paid, includ-ing the flight there and back.

As nerves start to settle, Hall isgiven chances to reflect on hissuccess thus far.“I never really went into

the job to have fun,” Hallsaid. “There have been a lotof incentives to shine, suchas this competition. Butthere’s also this social ele-ment of it all. I work at a jobwhere I get to meet and talkwith a lot of different people.That’s the part I enjoy.”

Graduate student has competition in the bag

Britney ShryerTHE STANDARD

Missouri State graduate student Scott Hall is representing Missouri in this year’s National Grocers Association bagging championship.

The StandardTuesday, February 8, 2011 9News

Last Weekʼs Sudoku Answers

task at hand.“It’s just a sense of

urgency,” he said. “We’renot going to let this seasonfall apart. We’re going to doeverything we can to keepour dreams alive, and we’renot going to give up.”

Creekmore added 16points andWeems added 13.Nafis Ricks had 11 points.

The Bears next game isat 7:05 p.m. on Wednesdayat home against Bradley (8-16, 2-11).

BBeeaarrssCCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 66

less lively.”The restricted curfew hours made

many people nervous and affectedbusiness hours, Bland said.

“Businesses began running veryshort hours so workers could arrive andleave within curfew hours, and manybusinesses shut down entirely for fearof looting,” he said. “Over the week-end, people nervously rushed around toall the supermarkets and food vendorsto stock up on food before curfewbegan. You could definitely feel a thicktension in the air and a fear of what thenext day could bring.”

Once the curfews began and protestcrowds started to grow, the governmentbegan shutting down access to socialnetworking sites, such as Facebook andTwitter, and text messaging. This madeit difficult to communicate with thoseback home, Bland said.

“Up until Thursday the 27th, I com-municated mainly through Facebookand e-mail. However, we gradually lostaccess to social networking sites byThursday, as Facebook played a bigrole in organizing the initial demonstra-tions on Tuesday the 25th,” he said.“Late Thursday evening, I was able tobypass the Facebook block using aproxy, but at around midnight the Inter-net was completely cut. Texting fol-lowed shortly.”

After cutting access to the Internetand texting, cellular service was cutaltogether, Bland said.

“By noon Friday, we had no meansof communicating with the outsideworld or even to contact each other,” hesaid. “The most common way to usephones in Egypt is to buy a (pay-as-you-go) phone and add minutes as yougo. In the buying rush during curfewbreak caused by the unpredictability ofthe situation, cards to add minutes tophones began to be bought up veryquickly, and it was often difficult tofind phone cards before curfew. Sinceinternational calls tear through phonecards pretty quickly, I would usually

very briefly call back to the states andhave people call the landline in mydorm.”

Kinsley Stocum, a senior creativewriting major and friend of Bland’s,said she spoke with him once on thephone while he was in Cairo.

“He called me late last week askingfor a mutual friend’s number in Spainin case he needed to go somewhere fora few days to hold out,” Stocum said.“We also spoke on the Internet viaFacebook while he still had access tothe Internet.”

Stocum said Bland suggested whatmedia outlets she should follow for anaccurate report of what was occurringin Cairo.

“He mentioned to me that, as far asnews reporting goes, Al-Jazeera andBBC were the ones to watch and toavoid network coverage,” she said. “Hesaid what a lot of Americans are get-ting, what’s being reported, doesn’tmatch up with what he was actuallyseeing.”

During this time, Bland said his andhis fellow students’ safety was theAUC’s primary concern.

“For the first few days after Friday,our dorms were pretty strict about thecurfew and kept us indoors afterhours,” he said. “We also had a smallsecurity detail standing outside ourbuilding after curfew to protect againstthe looters that emerged with theabsence of the police. I’m not surewhere these men came from exactly,but they appeared to be one of the localmilitias that formed after Friday to pro-tect properties and were usually armedwith things like metal poles, nightsticksand baseball bats.”

In addition to the small securitydetail, the AUC had security guards sta-tioned around the building, Bland said.

“We had several security guards onstaff to make sure the appropriate peo-ple were coming into the dorms, andwe even had a guy who would some-times stand on the steps leading into thedorm with a fire house pointed towardsthe street,” he said. “Occasionally, aheavily armed Egyptian soldier wouldcome and stand with our security. Wefelt pretty safe, and the atmosphere

with the guards seemed pretty light andthey often just seemed bored.”

Even though demonstrations weretaking place around the city and theuniversity was concerned for his safety,Bland said he was never extremelyconcerned for his own safety.

“Our dorm in the Zamalek districtwas very well guarded, and for most ofthe protests, there was no tensiontoward Americans,” he said. “Occa-sionally, when walking home, wewould have to walk through demon-strations or find ourselves on the tailend of a march. And often these demosfelt celebratory instead of hostile, andwe weren’t the focal points of atten-tion.”

Despite his feeling of relative safety,Bland said MSU and the Study AwayOffice recommended that he return tothe United States or find an alternativeuniversity to finish his study abroad at.

“MSU and the Study Away Officeheavily recommended that I leaveCairo throughout most of the protestsand began looking for alternative pro-grams for me while the Internet wasdown,” he said. “Throughout my con-versations on the phone and via e-mailwith MSU, they made it clear thatthough they really wanted me out, itwas ultimately my decision whether Ileave or stay.”

John Catau, MSU deputy provost,said students’ safety is the university’sprimary concern in an instance such aswhat has happened in Egypt the pastfew weeks.

“When all this broke, we were ableto make and maintain a fairly regularcontact with the AUC,” Catau said.“However, there were times when itwas a challenge as the Internet andphone service were not a constant.”

MSU had to respect Bland’s deci-sions as an adult about whether to stayin Cairo, Catau said.

“He’s an adult and makes his owndecisions ultimately,” he said. “All wecan do is make recommendations tohim. However, we would do whateverwe could to make arrangements for stu-dents abroad to come home or to go toa safer country to finish their studyabroad. Students’ safety is our ultimate

concern.”Stocum said when she spoke to

Bland that he was conflicted aboutwhether to leave Cairo or to try andhold out for a few more days and hopethe situation improved.

“He said keeping in mind whatMSU would like him to do is conflict-ing with his personal interest in stayingthere,” she said. “He would like to stay,but he said he was getting worn downfrom MSU advising him to come homeor to go somewhere else, which isunderstandable.”

Bland said his respect for MSU andthe knowledge of the stress he wascausing those at home made him decideto leave Cairo for the United Arab Emi-rates.

“Ultimately, my decision was basedout of respect for the advice given tome by the Study Away Office and myadviser,” he said. “We were all gettingour perceptions of the situation fromdifferent sources and had different per-spectives on how safe the situation was,but I could really tell that I was worry-ing people back home and putting peo-ple that I greatly respect under a gooddeal of stress. In the end, I was the onlyone who wanted me to still be in Cairo,and I felt the most respectful thing Icould do for the people who made itpossible for me to get to Cairo was totake their advice and leave. I’m incred-ibly appreciative to have MSU providea practical voice to balance out myambitions.”

Bland said he will finish his semes-ter abroad in the United Arab Emiratesat the American University of Sharjahbut hopes to return to Cairo someday.

“I didn’t have much of a chance toexperience Cairo, but I fell in love withthe city very quickly. And it tears me upto see the wonderful people of Cairo gothrough such turmoil,” he said. “How-ever, it was also very beautiful andinspiring to see so many Egyptians,from so many different walks of life,rise up in the face of repression againsta domineering government and make ahuge impact in the political landscapeof the country. If I had the opportunityto return to Cairo, I would do it in aheartbeat.”

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