The Hutchinson Collegian Friday, October 6, 2017
Campus
Page 3
Miertschin makes music By Merissa Anderson Collegian Editor
Merissa Anderson/Collegian Chris Miertschin, in his first year of directing after finishing his schooling at K-State and University of Georgia, directs the pep band during a football home game early on in the season. Miertschin has high expectations for his bands and says he has already seen improvements since the beginning of the year.
Chris Miertschin, in his first year of teaching, has stepped up to the podium and is now director of the HutchCC symphonic and pep bands. Miertschin recently graduated and hopes to continually improve his bands through his use of creative learning techniques learned during his time at K-State and the University of Georgia. “As far as the Symphonic Band is concerned, tuning and listening around the ensemble are two big areas where I hope to see improvement,” Miertschin said. “Using some non-traditional rehearsal techniques such as changing seating arrangements or having silent rehearsals, where there’s as little talking as possible from players and director, I’ve heard a lot of improvement in those areas.” Although the new style of teaching took a while for some students to warm up to, he has been well received by many.
“I wasn’t too sure at first but now I really enjoy him and he’s a lot of fun,” Clarinet player, Lauren Shwartz said. “He is a little more strict than our last director but it makes us better musicians in the end.” In addition to the changes during rehearsal, Miertschin hopes to make the best it can be by requiring extra effort from the band during the games. “With the Pep Band, having them engaged through a whole game has been the biggest goal I’ve had this year,” Miertschin said. “I’ve been told that in the past, the band didn’t play for the whole game, and certainly not between plays or anything like that. Those things are definitely happening now, and the Pep Band knows my expectations in performances. They need to play well, play a lot, and always cheer for the team no matter what the scoreboard says. We’re there to do a job, just like the team.” The band members are expected to try their best, even with other outside
commitments and Miertschin believes that balancing responsibilities is a skill learned and honed in pep band. “Band helps discipline you and helps you manage your time well,” Miertschin said. “If you talk to the students in the bands here, a lot of them have at least one part-time job, full-time classes, and then a lot of them are in a number of bands here - that’s a lot of work, and a lot of practice time. Being that busy, these students get quite good at managing their time and working hard to get things done. These are the people employers want to hire, because they work hard.” Trinity Wickstrom, trumpet player, appreciates that new rules that have been set in place and has seen the improvement in the bands. “He is good at his job and will strive to make us better with lots of practice,” Wickstrom said. “He is a good director, and can be strict at times but that’s because we have a concert coming up in less than three
weeks. We have several difficult pieces we are working on and he wants everyone focused so we can play the songs 100 percent.” Miertschin strives to make sure the band is a perfect as possible so that the concerts can be the best they can be for the audience. “The thing with band versus some other classes is that we can’t settle for 80%; if a band plays 80% of the right notes, that’s not a concert you want to go to,” Miertschin said. “We have to be 100% on our game all the time.” The Symphonic band will perform their concert “Autumn Colors” on Thursday the 20th at 7:30 p.m. in the Stringer Fine Arts center on campus. Their final concert for the semester, Holiday Greetings, will be on Friday, Dec. 1 in the same auditorium. Additionally, Miertschin hopes to put together a faculty music concert for the students to enjoy next spring. The pep band can be heard this semester playing at all home football games.
Remembering Matthew Shepard:19 years later By Jack Greenwod Staff Writer Matthew Shepard was a 21-year old college student in Laramie, Wyoming. He was openly gay. On Oct. 6, 1998, Shepard was robbed and attacked by Aaron Henderson and Aaron McKinney. He was brutally beaten with the end of a gun and tied to a fence to be left to die. Shepard died Oct. 12, after being discovered the morning after his attack. During coverage of the incident, requests for new legislation to address hate crimes gained momentum. Under existing U.S. federal
law and Wyoming state law, crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation were not prosecutable as hate crimes. Momentum for legislation to include LGBT under hate crime laws began moving forward. The Matthew Shepard Act expands the federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s sexual orientation & gender identity. Despite being killed multiple times, the bill was signed into law by President Obama on Oct. 28, 2009. Following this, Shepard’s mother, Judy Shepard started the Matthew
Shepard Foundation to help combat hate and increase acceptance. Judy Shepard has also published a book about her son titled “The Meaning of Matthew” and a play based on the community Matthew born and died it, “The Laramie Project”, has been produced in colleges and high schools across the globe. It’s a story that shook the world when it happened. It was a major headline on every news channel and newspaper for months. But now, the younger generations may not know that story and how Matthew’s
murder may still be relevant today. Indeed, the passing of the Matthew Shepard Act increased federal hate crime legislation, however that has not prevented them from occurring. Last year, the United States saw the worst massacre on our soil (until being passed recently by the Las Vegas massacre last week.) On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen, killed 49 people and wounded 58 others in a terrorist attack/hate crime inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It is the deadliest incident of violence against LGBT
people in U.S. history. And even more recently, a transgender teen named Ally Steinfeld was brutally murdered for her gender identity. Her eyes were gouged out, her genitalia mutilated and her body burned. Four people were arrested in connection with the murder. So yes, Matthew Shepard is still relevant today. Matthew, along with Steinfeld and the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting (among hundreds of others) are a painful reminder that LGBT people are still being targeted, and are still not accepted in the eyes of
everyone in the world. But for those who have fear in their hearts about being whom they are, Judy Shepard has this to say: “It is our sincerest hope that, one day, the Foundation may be able to close its doors. But the same hate and violence that sparked the Foundation’s formation still exists today, both at home and abroad. We will continue to work tirelessly to ensure safety, visibility and inclusiveness for the entire LGBT community until that ideal becomes reality.”
For more information on the Matthew Shepard foundation, visit matthewshepard.org
Circle K club falls into service Students unimpressed by food By Brenna Eller Opinion Page Editor Most Hutchinson Community College students are unaware of the many clubs dedicated to helping our local community. That being said, they probably haven’t heard of Circle K. Sam Wilson, the district Secretary gave me the inside scoop on Circle K as a whole and the upcoming events. It is a Kansas district community service organization that we have on campus. They do all sorts of handson activities to involve the students at HCC. I asked Wilson what the club was about and she said, “Circle K is the world’s largest student organization focused on, service,
leadership, and fellowship.” She also told me the purpose of Circle K was to give back to the community and that it is a way for students to be involved and help others throughout Kansas. Last week, Circle K had a fall rally in Fort Hays University for two days, where they had the chance to meet with other districts and discuss new events. The members had the opportunity to explore and tour the Fort Hays campus. Afterwards, they provided community service around the Hays area. Next week, the members are dressing up in costumes and for a Halloween party with special needs adults. On Halloween they will also be dressing up for
the annual Trick or Treat fundraiser with UNICEF. Community Day and “STUFH the Bus” are two major upcoming events for Circle K. On October 7th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., there will be a Community Day for HutchCC, where everyone can enjoy an open house, join in on activities provided by clubs on campus, and talk to members of the community. On November 4th, Circle K will be helping with “STUFH the bus”. Students Team Up to Fight Hunger (STUFH) is a nationwide food drive where students fill a school bus with canned foods and other non-perishables to help people who are need.
Sam Wilson/Courtesy Photo Circle K members have fun at Fort Hays during the fall rally. Circle K members will also be attending a party in costumes for disabled adults on Halloween.
By Emma Cox Campus Editor There have been many different opinions going around Hutchinson Community College about the Blue Dragon Grill in the basement of the Parker Student Union. The grill re-opened at the beginning of September and has been open for about a month. Compared to the cafeteria itself, the grill offers pizza, burgers, chicken sandwiches, and fries. One of the pros to the grill is that you can also take the food from the grill to go, so if you don’t want to eat at the union you can take it back to your room. The grill is open from 11 a.m. to
2 p.m. during the week. Sophomore Jané Franklin believes there is much room for improvement. “A con is that they need to be faster at serving students. I had to wait 20 minutes just to get fries that they already had prepared.” Franklin said. There may be extra options for lunch, but not enough options for student’s particular diets. “They need to have vegan and vegetarian options.” Franklin said. A majority of the the student body is still undecided about the outcome of the food. The pizza has been under-cooked at times. “I couldn’t tell where the cheese ended and the
dough began, it was so raw.” Franklin said. The pizza has even come out of the oven burnt and still served to the students. There haven’t been any complaints about the other food served at the Blue Dragon Grill. The potential problem with the pizza could mostly stem from the staff trying to figure out the new pizza ovens. Everything takes some getting used to and they are well on their way to improving. So if you don’t like what they are serving at the cafeteria, the Blue Dragon Grill is an alternative because you can eat pizza, burgers, chicken sandwiches and fries everyday for lunch if you wanted to.
Merissa Anderson/Editor Students wait in line to get their orders of pizza and hamburgers. Although improving, there have been many students dissapointed in long lines and doughy pizza.