September 13 2012
Presorted Standard US Postage PAID Liberal, KS Permit NO.114
www.crusadernews.com
Year 44, No. 1
Liberal, Kansas
Class to honor local firefighters for 9/11 Dawn S house Crusader staff Honoring local firefighters in memory of those who died Sept. 11, 2001, is the basis of a sociology group project at Seward. Sociology students developed the idea for the project through a class assignment and will cook a meal for the local firefighters on Oct. 11. “We are surprised,” said Kelly Kirk, fire chief of Liberal Fire Department. “No one has done this for us before. The event falls on the same night as our monthly meeting.” The meal will be served at the Liberal Fire Station, 110 W. 15th Ave. Crusader illustrations/ Dawn Shouse “We wanted to celebrate on a day that is not The 9/11 memorial located at the Liberal airport was unveiled last so somber. Starting at 5:30 p.m., we hope year. The metal artwork features an original beam from the World to feed about 50 firefighters,” said student Trade Center and remains on display in the airport lobby.
Kara Stump, the group’s facilitator. Seward County Community College/ Area Technical School sociology classes have been performing community service projects for several years. “It’s a great opportunity for students to give back to our community,” sociology instructor Debbie Stafford said. “A few of last year’s projects included a health fair for the Mexican American Ministries, a silent auction for artwork to fund scholarships for the local high school, the creation of a safe park for the Head Start program, and one group helped feed the homeless and fix the homeless shelter. The fireman appreciation event is the first one I know about so far this year.” The group is planning musical entertainment and food donations of hot dogs and hamburger meat.
Those who would like to donate or volunteer for this event may contact Stump by calling 620-428-6356 or emailing KJ Stump27@hotmail.com. Organizers request donations of food only, no monetary donations. To donate or volunteer for this or other students’ projects, those interested may contact Stafford at 620-4171455 or email debbie.stafford@sccc.edu.
Accreditation representatives to visit college for checkup Jose Medrano Editor
Students at ‘Lion King’ musical — Pages 4-5
Courtesy photo
Saints baseball players Tyler Wiedenfeld, at left, T.J. Looney, right, and Garret Smith, not pictured, were in the Denver area playing baseball for the Arvada Colts when the Aurora theater shooting occurred July 20.
We will never forget...? 9/11 editorial — Page 6
Close call in Aurora Three Saints baseball players were staying in Aurora, Colo., during ‘The Dark Knight’ shooting Jose Medrano Editor
Volleyball — Page 7
Staging with Alison Chambers — Page 3
Gunshots, panic and sirens enveloped Aurora, Colo., during a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight” this summer. Three Saints baseball players were in Aurora during the time of the theater shooting. Twelve people were killed and 58 were injured when a lone gunman began shooting July 20. Sophomore baseball players Jack “T.J.” Looney, Garret Smith and Tyler Wiedenfeld were playing baseball for a Denver area team during the summer. Looney, Smith and Wiedenfeld played for the Arvada Colts a summer baseball league team and were in the area when the shooting took place. “My host-dad was a cop, and he got called in the middle of the night to go out to the theater,” said Wiedenfeld, who was living in Aurora with his host family. “I was living close to the theater, and that night I could see the lights flashing and hear the sirens going off,” Wiedenfeld said. Smith was staying with him that night. Both Aurora and Arvada are part of the Denver-metro area.
Wiedenfeld’s host father was an officer who responded to the call. “I was getting texts from him,” Wiedenfeld said. The shooting occurred at an AMC theatre during a midnight premiere of “The Dark Knight.” “We had actually talked about going to the movies that night,” Looney said. “We got back late from a game, so we didn’t go.” Within 20 minutes of the start of the movie, a masked gunman walked in through the one exit door of the theatre and began to fire rounds at moviegoers. Police officers were on scene within minutes of the shooting. Ten people were pronounced dead at the scene and two others died in the hospital due to wounds received. “That night was crazy, there was just so much going on,” Looney said. Several hundred people were in the sold out theater when the shooting began. “Our teammates were wandering the area. They couldn’t go anywhere because there were so many cops and cars there,” Looney said. “A couple of guys from our team went to another theater to watch the movie, and we worried that they were in the theater where the shooting was happening,” Smith said.
“They wouldn’t pick up their phones so we were worried sick about them. Eventually we got to them,” Looney said. None of the Saints baseball players went out to the theater. “I had like seven missed calls and five voicemails from my mom,” Wiedenfeld said. Other parents were concerned as well. “My mom was blowing up my phone that night. When I finally got to talk to her, she was crying,” Looney said. And as the news spread, more calls came in. “I woke up at three in morning with text messages and missed calls from my mom, dad and friends,” Smith said. The events in Aurora did not affect the Saints players’ schedule. Some things did change for the players. “I felt a little bit shocked by what had happened,” Smith said. Wiedenfeld said their coach didn’t let them go out to the movies after what happened. The Saints baseball players finished playing for the Arvada Colts in late July, and are now back at Seward County Community College to play baseball.
Two Academic Quality Improvement Program representatives will visit Seward County Community College/ Area Technical School Sept. 24 and 25 for a quality checkup. AQIP is the accreditation organization that SCCC/ATS is currently partnered with. Accreditation is the recognition of a school or institution for meeting certain guidelines and standards. AQIP evaluates SCCC/ATS to see if it is meeting those standards. The process of accreditation for the college is based on a sevenyear cycle. At the end of the cycle, representatives will visit the college for a quality checkup. “The degrees that students receive are more valuable because they are accredited,” said Dean of Student Services Celeste Donovan. SCCC/ATS credits are transferable because the college is accredited. The two AQIP representatives who will visit SCCC/ATS are Dennis Shaw of Des Moines Area Community College and Brenda Sanchez of Independence
Community College. “The campus visit is a checkup to make sure that everything is on track,” said Dean of Academic Affairs Cynthia Rapp. The visitation on Sept. 24 and 25 represents the end of the first AQIP cycle for SCCC/ATS. The AQIP program also focuses on other areas other than accreditation. “It deals with our retention rate, transfer programs, advisers and faculty,” Donovan said. “Students shouldn’t be worried about the visit,” Rapp said. Students should treat the day like an ordinary school day. The representatives will also tour the facilities of SCCC/ATS. The AQIP representatives will be on the main campus on Sept. 24 and the technical school will be visited on Sept. 25. A group of students will be selected prior to the visit to have lunch with the representatives. Faculty members will also be meeting with the representatives during set meeting times. Students, faculty, or anyone who wants more information can click on the accreditation link at the bottom of sccc.edu.
New recycling effort hopes to create scholarship money Cami S tahl y Crusader staff A new form of recycling is coming to Seward County Community College/Area Technical School. Now plastic items will be turned into scholarship dollars. Jared Haas, a biology instructor at SCCC/ATS, decided to bring a new initiative to help recycle when he saw a plastic bag recycling bin at Dillon’s. Haas contacted Terracycle, a company located in N.J. that recycles almost anything, and has applied to open an account with them in the name of the Development Foundation, so that the Foundation will get credit for SCCC recycling. The recycling bins can hold plastic pens, pencils, markers, highlighters and caps. The credit from the pen recycling will turn into cash for scholarships from recycled items shipped to Terracycle. The college has done this before but stopped. Haas now controls this project. He is doing the project by himself so far, but would like others to help. Another group that is also involved and has been involved with recycling at SCCC/ATS is Pathways, and the club has now taken the lead role in recycling on campus. Don Hayes is the adviser of Pathways. The college now has more recycling bins to alleviate the cans that were in overflow status. “There are about half a dozen more new bins,” Hayes said. More than 30 recycling bins have been installed. Club members will go through the recycling bins and make sure that only recycled
trash are in them. Hayes and the Pathways members are going to take the recycling items to a recycling center somewhere out of town to increase recycling efforts. They plan to pick the center that has the most effective cause. Hayes said the reason he enjoys doing this is because he sees the value in helping students save our planet. “We, at Pathways, recycle for our world because we are part of the world,” Hayes said. Haas stated he is doing his part because he wants to help raise money for student scholarships, raise awareness about environmental issues, and “show people how little changes in their lifestyle can help the environment and the community.” People can help not just by collecting and recycling, but also by informing others and getting them involved. “I think this will be successful if students and employees get involved,” Haas said. People who want to help with the recycling can find a cardboard box in the division office for math and sciPut the pen ence for in the bin now. A new recycling initiative at Seward means pens and plastic will soon add scholarship dollars. Contact Jared Haas at jared.haas@sccc.edu or take items to a cardboard collection box in the math and science division office in the Hobble Academic Building.