Local Australian Victoria Lewis reviews the state of Kansas Page 2
Connor Keating reviews the recently released Super Mario Bros Movie Page 3
Recounting the successful journalist awards season at the KCM convention Page 4
portsDIllon Lecture Series: Bill Self talks how winning has changed for him. Page 6
As final exams approach, one can feel the stress radiating off Hutchinson Community College students. With this stress comes countless hours of studying, crying, or maybe a mixture of both.
That being said, everyone has at least thought about taking the easy way out - cheating. This is especially true for sophomores who will be graduating here in a couple of weeks. It’s the last set of finals before graduation, why not just coast through the last bit of the semester?
As nice as that may sound, it’s important to remember that cheating on exams is wrong - it’s called academic misconduct - whether it’s on finals or regular assignments. Students are reminded at the beginning of each semester that academic dishonesty can have serious consequences, including expulsion in severe cases.
At times people think they’re slick when it comes to cheating, but it isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Getting away with it proves to be more challenging than ever, as many HutchCC instructors have seen their fair share of cheating and know how to spot it.
Matt Wilper, a professor of economics, is one of these instructors. He provided an amusing cheating story involving a research paper.
Said story involved two unnamed students - one student stole the other’s paper and changed the words using a thesaurus. Seems easy enough, right?
Wrong. It didn’t take Wilper long to notice something was off about the students’ work.
“I graded the original paper first, its opening sentence started with informa-
tion about a fiscal policy backfiring,” Wilper said. “Then I read the stolen and thesaurus-changed paper and the same sentence said ‘reverse discharge.’” Wilper spoke with the students and dealt with them accordingly, but laughs about the incident now.
“It reminded me of the Friends episode where Joey writes a recommendation letter for Monica and Chandler,” Wilper said.
Tricia Paramore, the Vice President of Academic Affairs, fittingly had a variety of cheating stories to share as well.
Most of these stories involved ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot developed in recent months.
Students who are repeating a course and have been caught using this AI by providing exact answers from the previous semester. That may seem like a pretty solid idea - if the instructions and expectations for assignments hadn’t been changed.
“Those are pretty easy to spot,” Paramore said.
Paramore has also caught deceptive students during exams on Zoom calls, where they can clearly be seen cheating on camera. They deny it, as one does, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what they are doing.
“At some point, just admit that you cheated and accept the consequences,” Paramore said.
Paramore also acknowledged students who are thinking about cheating on final exams this coming week, advising they don’t do it at all and instead suggesting working a little harder.
“First, consider why you’re struggling. If you’re not studying and doing the work for class, then doing the work is your first step,” Paramore said.
Kelly Clasen, an English professor, didn’t have any outrageous stories to share, but cheating anecdotes from
other instructors have prompted her to “cheat-proof” her final exams.
“Academic dishonesty has become so commonplace due to AI - and technology more generally,” Clasen said.
“Students don’t perceive cheating as being as ethically flawed as they did even a decade ago.”
See Cheating, Page 5
In a small town in Oklahoma, just three hours from Hutchinson, lies a two-year college not unlike Hutchinson Community College.
Students participate in fundraisers, display school spirit at sporting events, and just this April a student was named a Coca-Cola Academic Team Gold scholar, a prestigious national recognition.
This community, however, will be remembered not for academics or athletics, but as a victim of a school shooting.
On Monday, a man entered the Rose State College campus with a gun, shooting and killing a 20-year-old student leaving class.
The recent shooting at Rose State, located in Midwest City, Okla., contributes to a culture of gun violence in the United States. Currently, 2023 has set a record pace for mass shootings, a trend that is uniquely American. From 1998 to 2019, no other developed nation saw more than eight incidents of mass shootings - except the United States, which had more than 100, according to
a study published in CNN.
Another account, published in the Kansas Reflector, identified 366 school shootings since one in Columbine, Colo., in 1999. The closest country to the U.S. in terms of school shootings is Mexico, with eight.
“The trends of gun violence in the country is devastating,” said Gabriella Severud, a college freshman who has previously taken some classes through HutchCC. “There have been way too many mass shootings and the government has done nothing to prevent it from happening again. Children are dying and the government only cares about the money in their pocket.”
Severud expresses a fear for not just her own safety, but for her younger sister, who is currently a student at Hutchinson High School.
“Each year, I become more fearful about shootings and I fear for my younger sister, who is still in high school,” Severud said. “I’m afraid that one day my school or my sister’s will be next.”
Severud is not alone in her concerns either.
Jessi Conner, a South Hutchinson
freshman at HutchCC, confessed to the same anxiety.
“Honestly, I don’t feel very safe,” Conner said. “It’s not something that I think about all the time while I’m at school, but I am consistently aware of the possibility and do worry about it a lot.”
Kansas offers few restrictions in terms of gun laws and experiences a rate of gun violence that falls above the national average. Kansas legislators actively work to maintain loose restrictions, including on college campuses. In 2021, Kansas legislators overrode Governor Laura Kelly’s veto of a law allowing 18-20-year-olds to conceal carry loaded handguns in public without a permit, which translates to college campuses as well. According to the HutchCC 2022-2023 Student Handbook, however, students must be at least 21 years of age to conceal carry on campus.
Kansas, furthermore, does not require background checks for handgun purchases, does not require secure storage to prevent child access, does not ban assault-style weapons, does not ban ghost gun parts, does not ban high-capacity magazine purchases, does not ban conceal carry from individuals
with an assault offense, and does not require school threat assessment teams.
Conner said that she believes Kansas lawmakers have “absolutely not” done an adequate job of addressing gun violence, specifically in schools.
“Politicians have done basically nothing to combat gun violence anywhere, let alone in school,” Conner said. “They consistently find excuses and ways to get around actually addressing the problem.”
Patrick Miller, a Hutchinson freshman, said he supports the Second Amendment but similarly recognizes that there must be restrictions.
“There are too many school shootings,” Miller said.
Kansas lawmakers are currently addressing gun violence in schools, though in a way critiqued by some. In February, the Kansas Senate voted 30-8 on a bill requiring the State Board of Education to approve a National Rifle Association and Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks gun-safety curriculum standard. Wichita Republican Senator Chase Blasi initiated the bill, citing memories of learning how to shoot with his dad.
See Shooting, Page 5
This is just one of the many ways that students may try (and fail) to cheat with.
If I had a dollar for every time someone said to me over the course of the last nine months “why choose Hutchinson, Kansas of all places?” I would be one very rich Australian living in Hutchinson, Kansas.
Choosing to make my way halfway across the world to Hutchinson Community College to play basketball clearly seems a random decision to some, but for me, it was a no brainer.
My home in the sunny city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia is a far cry from this small city in the middle of ‘woop woop’ (that’s Australian for ‘middle of nowhere’), so I was expecting nothing short of an adventure, and an exciting one at that. Now, as my year at HutchCC comes to an end, I can give you a list of the things that surprised me about this little adventure of mine.
Not going to lie, I am not a country girl, and this is the absolute closest I have ever come to ‘country living’. The lifestyle in Hutch is completely different to mine in the big city. People walk
slowly, strangers greet you on the street and there are always at least two tractors parked in every supermarket parking lot.
I must say this slower paced lifestyle was hard to adjust to, and early on in the fall I struggled to fill my weekends. If you know me at all, I am always on the go and struggle to be bored, so I decided to fill these blank spaces in my schedule with long walks to get coffee. It was here that a tradition was born, and I came to look at my weekend strolls as my opportunity to explore the area. One thing I love about Hutch are all the hidden treasures dotted around the place. I make it my mission to find beauty everywhere I go, and even though at first glance Hutchinson may seem devoid of it (especially in the dead of winter) I have managed to find it everywhere. The spray painted
If you know anything about me, you probably know how staunchly opposed to capitalism I am. It’s one of my primary driving forces behind my ideals. You may think that is odd to bring up in a piece about gaming companies, but I promise my socialist ideals are relevant.
Recently, I found myself getting into the trading card game “Magic: The Gathering”. Me and a few friends get together when we can to play with decks we’ve purchased or made. It’s fun most of the time. But because of that interest I have recently been more
closely following news and releases within the MTG community. Which is how I discovered the latest case of Cartoonish Evil perpetrated by Wizards of the Coast. This May will see a follow-up release of cards to the recent story beat “March of The Machines”, known as “March of the Machines: Aftermath”. And as Wizards of the Coast often does, they try to tease a few cards in advance, this is called “Spoiling”. However, it appears that WOTC only likes it when they do that, because when a small YouTuber by the name of “Oldschoolmtg” received (on accident) a few packs of Aftermath cards, and took this opportunity to make a video opening them and discussing them. In response to this, Wizards of the Coast sent members of the Pinkerton Detective Agency to threaten him into returning the cards and deleting the video.
In case you were not aware. Yes, the Pinkertons are still a thing. And
Editor’s note: This column has been printed with permission from the ESU Bulletin
This year has broken me.
The day the 33 professors were fired was a never-ending torrent of mourning faces, broken hearts and ghosts. I saw professors walk in a building I was locked out of and emerge a few minutes later with news that their lives will never be the same.
Even so, the next day was harder.
Sept. 16 was a day of student protest. Over a hundred students came and went from Plumb Hall, protesting the dismissal of their professors.
I began the day with them, sitting watch as police officers walked in and out, saying they were protecting everyone in the building while staking out in front of the president’s office.
I had to go take a Theories of Persuasion exam that day. I did alright, but the rest of the class didn’t seem to do as well based on what I heard from others
in case you were super unaware, the Pinkertons are a private army of union busting thugs that can be hired by any corporation with enough money to do basically whatever they want. They have no legal authority and only get their results through violence and threats thereof. Many people know that the Pinkertons are the primary antagonists of Rockstar’s “Red Dead Redemption”. Yes, you’ve read that correctly. The main villains of a cowboy video game are going around threatening people for stuff they received on accident.
The Pinkertons are also well known for being the folks who were sent to break up a strike, and when that failed they killed 16 men and wounded 23 more.
Either way. This isn’t even the first time Wizards of the Coast have done something this stupidly evil. At the start of the year they announced a change to the license they use for fan creators that would essentially
and what the professor told us. Students were struggling but classes didn’t stop. I had to watch dozens of professors get fired the day before, covered a campus protest, helped direct the Bulletin staff to where I heard there was news and still, I had to leave to go take a test, then come back to resume my watch.
When I came back from the test, I interviewed one of the fired professors. I walked up and down the Plumb Hall stairs with him, following his tiny daughter as she ran around, having no idea her dad was talking to me about a day that not only changed his life forever, but hers as well.
Then that night I had to go back and study like it was a normal day of homework.
That’s the thing about being a student
hearts sprinkled around town that I count, the school’s very own butterfly garden in the fall, the murals on main street now take up my camera roll. If there is one thing I have learnt here, it is to appreciate the little joys in life. One other thing that I can sing high praise of about Hutch is that the locals I’ve met have got to be some of the nicest people on the planet. I am the first one to say that I stick out like a sore thumb here - it’s not everyday you come across a 6-foot-3 red headed Australian walking around in central Kansas. This being said, everywhere I go and every time I open my mouth, I am hardly inconspicuous and the combination of a chatty Victoria and the chatty Hutch locals is nothing short of a match made in heaven. I have spoken to so many wonderful people, all asking for tidbits about my
trek from the land Down Under, and each time I have felt they had genuine interest in what I was saying. I have made more friends with people double my age here than I have ever in my life, and many days of mine have been made by saying a quick good morning to the custodians at the dorms or exchanging laughs with the cafeteria staff. So many people here have made me smile and feel at home when the woes and stress of being an international student came creeping up on me, and they all hold a special place in my heart.
It is very strange to me that I am coming up to my last week living in Hutch. It will certainly be a bittersweet goodbye returning home and no doubt some tears will be shed. I would definitely like to think that I will be leaving a mark on Hutchinson Community College, because I know that it has most definitely left a mark on me.
Victoria Lewis is a Brisbane, Australia sophomore studying journalism
Cartoon by Briana Payne/Collegian
give them rights to all the stuff fans made. In an absolutely cartoonishly evil movie, they tried to claim that they just weren’t making enough money off of the most successful tabletop role-
playing game of all time. When fans canceled their subscriptions in droves, WOTC walked that decision back. However, we can’t really do that with this. We can just sit back and laugh at how entirely
journalist on Emporia State’s campus. I’m working an emotionally gut-wrenching job while also being a full time senior trying to graduate. There’s no way to tell how many hours I work. Some days it feels like I don’t have time to breathe with all my work and classes. I find myself helping staff with their stories at all hours of the day, writing stories in the office until 3 a.m. and sometimes waking up as early as 6:30 in the morning to prepare for interviews and start looking through materials for articles.
There was a night a few months ago where I sat on the floor and cried my way through a mental shattering as I sorted through court documents scattered across the floor and taped torn up pieces of paper covered in Sharpied notes to my bedroom wall trying to organize a
stupid this choice was.
Braedon Martin is a Hutchinson sophomore studying journalism. He is the Opinion Page Editor and the Managing Editor for Design.
story about ESU President Ken Hush missing a legal financial disclosure deadline. I was drowning in the mountain of sorrow I had pushed down, stress from trying to survive finals week, pressure to write multiple investigative articles all at once and the knowledge that no matter what I said and how careful I was, there would be hate coming my way after the article ran.
In 2020, my everyday life stopped because of a global pandemic. This year has been worse for me.
I may have stopped being a college student in September, but this university will be a part of my story and the stories I tell for the rest of my life.
Sam Bailey is a Pilot Grove, Mo., HutchCC alumna, former Collegian Editor In Chief, and is now a senior at Emporia State. Bailey was the 2021 Kansas Collegiate Media two-year college journalist of the year, and also was named the 2023 KCM four-year college journalist of the year.
The build up to “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was one of the experiences of all time
When the film was first revealed it was just a poster with the release date of December (which would later be pushed back) along with the news that Illumination would be the studio behind it. This made many people apprehensive about the film since Illumination’s only good film, “Despicable Me” was also their first film, and since then they’ve been making films like… “HOP”, the worst adaptation of “The Grinch”, and “Toy Story” but instead they’re dogs. So of course people were worried, but then… everything changed!
Where were you when the Mario cast was announced? I was watching the Nintendo Direct live when suddenly I came face to face with that black and white picture of Mr. Chris Pratt set to be the voice of Mario, but it didn’t end there.
Charlie Day as Luigi, “okay sweet, the ‘Pacific Rim’ guy, he fits the role well”, Jack Black as Bowser. “OK movie settle” Seth Rogan Donkey Kong. It was a chaotic blend of big name actors, popular and unpopular, creating more excitement and fear. A day that would live on in infamy.
So is “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” actually good? Yeah, it’s pretty fun.
The plot is that Mario and Luigi are plumbers from Brooklyn who end up in the Mushroom Kingdom, Princess Peach, Bowser, it’s Mario, you already know what the plot is.
The film doesn’t do anything too crazy aside from Bowser’s motive but I’m pretty sure his goals here are the same as they were in “Mario Odyssey” but I haven’t played that game so I can’t 100 percent confirm that.
Character wise none of them are anything too crazy complex, but they all play off of each other well, they’re fun, and they’re entertaining. I liked how much of a prideful jerk
Donkey Kong was, while also being a bit of a bro to Mario, they had a fun dynamic. They made Peach cool and I liked that they made her able to kick butt, but still have a little bit of that damsel in distress that is just a staple of Mario.
Of course I need to address the elephant in the room, the voice actors. They all did great. The only voice that didn’t really work was Cranky Kong who sounded too nasally and not cranky enough.
When it comes to the jokes, I’ll be honest a good chunk of them weren’t that great. The
edgy and dark Luma was definitely the funniest character in the film. I did laugh a number of times during the film but it was mostly during situational and absurd stuff like King Bob-omb dying. Most of the stuff I found funny definitely wasn’t intentional, like when the giant Bullet Bill got launched all I could think of was “Ace Combat Zero” and the whole “It’s Time” scene and that made me crack up, and I also laughed at the after credit scene because it was identical to “Godzilla” (1998)’s and that’s what level my humor is currently at, stupid unintentional references.
One thing that really stood out was the action scenes, all of which went hard. They do a good job of making it exciting, framing everything well, character personalities are not lost within the action, it’s great. The final battle is also very anime so that’s funny as well.
So yeah, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is pretty fun. Look, it’s not the most deep and complex film out there, the characters don’t have arcs, they don’t try to redeem Bowser or anything, this is the Mario movie. It does exactly what it needs to. Truthfully my only big issue is that the characters in the normal world all look like Illumination characters, there’s a dog that looks like it was ripped straight out of “Secret Life of Pets” but if that’s my biggest issue, then the film is doing pretty good.
It’s a fun and enjoyable
film for kids and Nintendo fans, go check it out if you’re one of those. I was going to give it an 8,
but because there was no Wario or Waluigi, I give it 7 uh … stars for once, out of 10.
Thanks to streaming services, movie theaters are somewhat of a dying trend. This was especially the case around COVID, and for good reason. People didn’t want to leave their house and go sit in a room filled with other people. So companies began releasing their movies either exclusively to streaming or, a bit later on, same -day theater and streaming releases.
Now though, COVID seems like a distant memory, yet some companies continue to release their films to streaming at the same time as their theater release.
With the recent Regal bankruptcy closing a number of theaters across the US, it has some worrying that movie theaters might be coming to an end, but there’s something special about the theater experience that we lose when we watch a movie alone at home on our television screen.
If you’ve read some of my past reviews, you might have seen that I’ve reviewed a number of old movies, particularly “Godzilla” movies, when they get theater releases. These are movies I have seen countless times; I own them on old Blockbuster DVDs, so why the heck am I going out of my way to watch them on the big screen? It’s because there’s something lost while watching a film at home.
First of all, is the screen size. There’s a reason why the IMAX exists. Watching a film on the biggest screen possible is awesome, especially when you’re watching big action movies like I am. Heck, even a pretty slow and boring movie like “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” is greatly enhanced by a massive screen. The monster movies that I enjoy usually use lots of low camera angles and when you have to physically look up at the screen, it makes you really appreciate the cinematography all the more. The booming surround sound of a good theater is also really
awesome, especially when watching the big new movies.
Another thing that would seem small but I find really important is the no phones policy, but truly it doesn’t end there. Theaters lack distraction, it’s very easy when you’re sitting on your couch to glance at your phone for a moment and end up missing a chunk of the movie or show you’re watching, and it especially sucks for people like me who watch a lot of foreign films so you can’t just passively listen, you glance at your phone and that’s an entire dialogue exchange you just missed. There are also plenty of other distractions in your own home, but not in the theater. I find that I pay attention and notice more when in that big dark room where my focus is totally on the film before me.
Another thing that can be hit and
miss is the audience around you. Sometimes they can be unbearable. Screaming children, people talking, folks whipping out their phones on full brightness, or that big smelly guy sitting behind you, it can suck. However, sometimes the audience reaction can be great. I’ll never forget the time when I went to see “Jurassic World” in theaters, and when the Mosasaur jumped up and ate the Indominus Rex, everyone started clapping and cheering. Was it cheesy? Yes, but it was fun. It may be rare, but sometimes the audience around you can enhance a film. Too many comments can be annoying, but when someone blurts out something funny once … it’s pretty hilarious.
There are many movies I have grown to dislike after really enjoying them in the theater, so there’s definitely something
special about the movie theater. No matter how big your home TV is, it’ll probably never be as great as watching a great movie on the big screen in a dark room filled with strangers, and an overpriced bucket of popcorn in your hand. It shouldn’t be great, but it is.
Connor Keating is a Halstead sophomore in general studies.Emporia State student
Sam Bailey (left), a former Collegian Editor In Chief, was the 2023 Kansas Collegiate Media’s four-year college journalist of the year. Bailey is pictured with The Collegian’s Ainsley Trunkhill, the twoyear college journalist of the year.
Courtesy photo
For many students, their time in college provides them with a general, basic knowledge to prepare them for a future in their chosen career. Some students even make their way out of the classroom as they get more in-depth experience under the direct guidance of a professional in the field.
For Hutchinson Community College alumna and current Emporia State University student Sam Bailey, the lessons being taught at a desk quickly came to life as she found herself consumed with real-world experience as a student journalist for The Bulletin, the student newspaper at Emporia State.
Bailey chose journalism as a major at HutchCC before her freshman year and soon fell in love with the career. In 2020-2021, Bailey was The Collegian’s Editor in Chief.
“I knew journalism was what I was meant to do when I realized that the long days everyone hated were my favorite,” Bailey said. “I was perfectly happy spending long hours in the newsroom during the stressful days full of problem solving and hard work.”
Following her time at HutchCC, Bailey continued to pursue studying journalism at ESU. A place that initially felt like a safe space to step into her future, now a major milestone that has impacted far more than her education.
One of the most important jobs for journalists is to get the information to their audiences as quickly as possible. Bailey, alongside Bulletin editor-in-chief Cameron Burnett, did just that as they sat outside Earl Carl Center for hours on Sept. 15, 2022, keeping a running count of departments and professors being fired without warning.
“The devastation and panic on their faces changed my reality in one moment,” Bailey
said.
“It was a long day of balancing being as humane as possible to those who lost their jobs and also trying to get the word out about what was happening to them.”
In addition to updating locals about the Hornet 33 (a term used for the 33 individuals fired from ESU), Bailey continued to put out story after story The Bulletin throughout the semester.
The stories brought a variety of feedback from the community and professors around campus.
“For the most part, a lot of people seem to appreciate what I have done this year,” Bailey said. “I have gotten negative feedback on my work, from phone calls telling me how I should have written a lede to comments being made insulting my integrity and work, but I don’t dwell on them too much.”
Aside from facing exhaustion and burnout, Bailey has never regretted anything she has written and continues to push through to pursue journalism.
Her hardwork and dedication were honored at this year’s Kansas Collegiate Media Conference and Convention, as Bailey was presented with Journalist of the Year among four-year colleges in Kansas. Bailey was also the KCM two-year college journalist of the year in 2021.
While the recognition is appreciated, Bailey is more grateful knowing her articles have reached audiences and informed others of what is going on at ESU.
“Journalism is my way of having an impact on the world,” Bailey said. “No matter what I am covering, I am affecting someone, whether by telling their story, holding them accountable or some other form of reporting.”
The last few years have brought heartache and struggle, but Bailey remains strong and has gained more confidence than she had before.
What do we want? Laundry. When do we want it? Now.
Lindsborg freshman Gracie Lambert’s latest laundry troubles in the Hutchinson Community College dorms came about on a March Sunday, where what became a four-hour laundry saga that smooshed her spirits began. Lambert, who lives in Elland Hall, said it all started when she was looking for a dryer, and actually had to go to the other dormitory, Kent Hall.
“I went to all the floors and then eventually had to walk to the Kent basement,” Lambert said.
After paying for two dryers, which did not start in Kent, she finally happened upon an open and working dryer on her third time, that was until “I come back to get my laundry and it’s still soaking wet and someone took my stuff out of the dryer mid way through (its cycle).”
In total, she spent $5 and still “had to hang my clothes in my room.”
“If we have to pay for our laundry, they should at least work and there should at least be more of them,” she said. “It made me mad because I shouldn’t have to be walking like a mile just to do my laundry.”
It’s no surprise for Lambert, as she has been experiencing issues with the laundry since last semester.
“I think this is a problem because it’s happened to me multiple times and I know it’s happened to more people since mid way through last semester to now,” she said.
For Brooklyn Downing of Olathe, it was all smooth sailing on Sunday, until she went to put her clothes in the dryer and “the fire alarms go off, and then I come back and there’s smoke coming out of the laundry room, and so I’m like, is that my clothes? I hope that is not my clothes.”
The fire department was called to Elland to investigate smoke coming from the laundry room, more specifically Downing’s working dryer. She said that while she and the rest of the dorm students gathered outside waiting for
the all clear, “the whole time I was close to tears because it was my favorite load of laundry, all my favorite clothes (were) in there.
“I was really upset, I was lucky nothing happened to my clothes,” she said. “That was the only dryer that was open, and I had to fight for my life to get my clothes dried because I’m trying to compete with other people so that I can dry my laundry.”
In the aftermath, Downing wasn’t told what happened, just that the dryer was now “out of order.” On top of that, she had to pay for the load of drying too. What’s more, Downing was let know that had her clothes caught on fire and been damaged, there would be no reimbursement.
Downing, and her friends Cierra Rivers (Lawrence) and Madyson Popp (Hesston) were all in agreement about shared experiences of paying for laundry machines that doesn’t end up working.
“It’s happened to me like four to five times and I now don’t do my laundry here, I have to drive to a laundromat to do my laundry.” Her main question for management is, “why are we paying for something that doesn’t work?”
There have also been issued of people taking out your laundry so that they don’t have to pay for it. “Someone took my laundry out before it was done so I had to pay for another load and I sat out there and watched,” said Rivers.
Though issues have been reported all school year long, the issues seem to only have gotten worse since payment was required to use the laundry facilities. “I feel like when they were free they worked perfectly fine, or like every once in a while something would happen but then like once we had to pay for it, they all went to SHIT - they aren’t working, they’re catching on fire, they aren’t drying our clothes,” she said. “The washers will fill up with water and then not even wash our clothes, sometimes there are puddles of water.”
For a dorm facility has claims to have laundry equipment, a total of one dryer currently works and a handful of washers; meaning students are left to do their own dirty work and compete to clean their clothes.
By Lynn Spahr Staff WriterRecently, The Hutchinson Collegian staff attended the Kansas Collegiate Media Conference and Convention, which included the annual awards ceremony, at the Drury Inn in Wichita.
The ceremony took place over two days, and speakers covering a wide range of topics were available to attendants. The awards were a chance for collegiate journalists from across the state to connect with each other and possibly professionals.
The Collegian received 49 total awards, a record in recent years. One of these awards was theAll KansasAward for two-year newspapers, which is given to the top publications in various divisions across the
state. It’s the first time in at least seven years The Collegian has won the All Kansas Award for two-year college newspapers.
Two staff members, Ainsley Trunkhill and Laci Sutton, were awarded first and second place Journalist of the Year awards, respectively.
Trunkhill, a Hutchinson sophomore and the Collegian’s Managing Editor ofor Content, was “Happy with the results, not just as an individual, but with the group as a whole. Everyone did an amazing job and should be equally proud of the work that they created.”
The 46 remaining awards were individual, spread across a variety of categories. These range from column writing to page design.
Nina Becaro, Aruja, Sao Paulo, Brazil freshman
First place
Feature Photography
Honorable Mention
Feature Photography
Cole Deutschendorf, Hesston alumnus
Second place
Feature writing; Headline writing; Sports Feature writing
Third place
Front page design; Headline writing; Inside page design
Aubreigh Heck, Las Vegas alumna
First place
Sports news/game writing
Second place
Editorial writing
Third place
Sports news/game writing
Honorable mention
Editorial writing; Front page design; Social media reporting; Sports feature writing
Connor Keating, Halstead sophomore
First place
Review writing
Honorable mention
Review writing
Lizzie Kipp, Hutchinson freshman
Third place
Review writing
Braedon Martin, Hutchinson sophomore
First place
Front page design
Second place
Front page design; On-site copy editing
Honorable mention
Review writing
Danae Moser, Hutchinson sophomore
First place
News photography
Third place
Newsphotography
Mason Poepperling, Buhler sophomore
Third place
On-site copy editing
Honorable mention
Inside page design
Colin Shields, Wichita alumnus
First place
Sports feature writing
Second place
Social media reporting
Honorable mention
Social media reporting
Ben Short, Abilene alumnus
First place
Inside page design
Shelby Spreier, Newton alumna
Second place
Sports photography
Third place
Social media reporting; Sports photography
Honorable Mention
Feature Photography
Laci Sutton, Nickerson senior
First place
Profile writing
Second place
Inside page design
Ainsley Trunkhill, Hutchinson sophomore
First place
Feature writing; On-site copy editing; Profile writing
Third place
Feature writing Brendan Ulmer, Olathe alumnus
First place
Headline writing
Lee Wellman, Holton sophomore
Second place
Feature photography
Combined division,Two-year college newspapers, all yearbooks, magazines
Braedon Martin, Hutchinson sophomore
First place
Column writing
Danae Moser, Hutchinson sophomore
Third place
Photo story in a printed publication
Victoria Lewis, Australia sophomore
Honorable mention
Breaking/General news
Colin
Shields, Wichita alumnus
Third place
Social media marketing
Ainsley Trunkhill, Hutchinson sophomore
Honorable mention
Column writing
The end of the spring semester is here, and the dreaded time of year is approaching. The time where a sense of fear and dread can be felt upon all students who experience the worst horror they could possibly experience: Finals week.
As Hutchinson Community College students vigorously prepare for the tasks at hand, some have started to feel that the good old-fashioned final exam that students have come to know and loathe may actually be a little too old fashioned, and that final projects are the way of the future.
“A hands-on project showing attained knowledge and skills in a class is far superior to a randomly generated exam full of questions” said Heath Hensley, HutchCC Computer Support Specialist Instructor.
Some, however, believe that there are some cases where a final exam is necessary, as it’s not as easy to make a final project for some classes as it is for others.
“It just depends on the class,” Blake McDermott, a student at Hutchinson
Community College, said. “With a lot of programming classes, exams just suck. Questions can be a bit ambitious and those classes are all about applications. With exams for a class like psychology, they just make sense.”
Others take a more middle of the road approach, believing that both have their place and are equally as effective if applied properly.
“As someone who studied history with finals both as projects and tests, they gave us tests throughout the course that covered everything” said Kelsey Dame, transfer specialist at HutchCC. “They were just given after every chapter or section. Both helped, but with a project I felt like I wasn’t studying the same thing over again for a final. I was doing my own research and applying the knowledge throughout the course.”
Whether or not HutchCC professors and instructors decide to start distancing themselves from old fashioned exams or not, it’s safe to say that both projects and exams have their place on the college campus, and whatever helps students with achieve their academic goals doesn’t seem like something to fear after all.
Happy finals week.
This is the week in most college student’s lives that leaves them wondering why they ever decided to pursue an education in the first place. For students, final examinations are the last hurdle to jump before they find themselves free for the summer.
For many students, there doesn’t seem to be much point, except to stress them out. But what about finals week for the professors? Do teachers find a comprehensive final to be helpful, or do they, like the students, wish it was gone?
The consensus seems to be that teachers like the comprehensive final exam. Business instructor Dan “Coach Nac” Naccarato explains why he favors final exams that encompass what was learned the entire semester.
“I like the comprehensive final because it’s a great opportunity to reflect on everything the student learned throughout the entire semester, and that was really the whole point of taking the class,” Naccarato said.
He also said that his finals are low stress, since they’re open notes, but that it gives a great opportunity to think back
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Clasen said because of this fact, all of her final exams are on paper. Students have to hand write final exam responses without the use of technology.
“Though I am generous enough to provide a print dictionary,” Clasen added.
Clasen even cracks down on multiple choice questions by making multiple versions of her exams to give to students.
“Last semester, I had a student get
about the things covered at the beginning of the semester.
For General Biology, the final exam is the last unit exam that’s taken during finals week. This exam is basic and does not incorporate much information from previous units. Gen Bio instructor Ryan Pinkall said that he wishes there was a comprehensive final that was composed of about 75% new material and 25% old material.
“Comprehensive finals are essential for us to gauge your retention,” Pinkall said.
Since General Biology is a general education class, Pinkall said he shares the opinion that it would be good to review the old material and make sure that students have a solid grasp of it. Finals also help a teacher understand how effectively the class is taught. It allows them to see what things stuck with students and what concepts maybe were harder to understand.
“Sometimes, I’m disappointed that things that I thought would stick with a student didn’t, apparently, but then I’m also uplifted at the number of students that do really well on the final,” Naccarato said. “It’s like ‘Yeah, this is stuff that they can carry with them wherever they go in the future.’”
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Senators, furthermore, blocked three amendments to the bill proposed by Overland Park Democrat Senator Cindy Holscher. The amendments would have banned individuals from bringing a gun into a school for instruction, require safe storage of firearms, and ban class materials from including links to information about the NRA, including their messages to join and donate to their political positions.
Kelly Clasen, an English professor at HutchCC, said she believes that these policies alongside other Kansas policies do not “do an adequate job of addressing the problem.
visibly frustrated when he realized his table partner had a different exam version,” Clasen said. “But it saved me from having to deal with academic dishonesty in the classroom.”
So when taking final exams this coming week, it’s essential that students think about the possible consequences of academic dishonesty, especially during finals. Cheating just isn’t worth the trouble, and is sometimes more work than actually studying.
Students should take advice from their instructors and just put in the work - or else they may end up namedropped in a cheating horror story as well.
“Even if I were to receive firearms training, I don’t believe I would be adequately armed or trained to handle a situation in which an active shooter had an assault weapon on campus,” Clasen said.
In 2020 and 2021, HutchCC employees were given the opportunity
to attend a Level One Fire Arms training,sponsored by the HutchCC Safety and Security Committee, including a ses-sion at a shooting range. Clasen chose not to attend.
“I have felt for many years that if I am ever asked to carry a weapon while teaching — or feel I cannot continue teaching safely without carrying a firearm — that will be the day I leave academia,” Clasen said.
Regardless of how it is addressed, gun violence, specifically in schools, remains on the minds of students, educators, and politicians nationally. From a young age, students participate in active school shooter drills, read continuous headlines depicting the tragedies, and in unfortunate circumstances, experience the tragedies them-selves.
Students Patrick Miller, Jessi Conner, and Gabriella Severud all believe the conversation is relevant.
“If you go to any school, it’s relevant,” Miller said. “When it comes to education, it doesn’t matter what level, it’s relevant.”
When the name Bill Self is brought up to anyone, titles like, “Kansas men’s basketball Coach” or “Greatest coach ever” come up.
What most people do not see is how Self promotes a message of success and selflessness. Self was at Sports Arena on April 18th as the headliner of the first Dillon Lecture Series speaker of 2023.
Self reflected on what winning means to him, since he’s done it so much. He’s won 580 games in 20 seasons at Kansas, 17 Big 12 regular-season championships, nine Big 12 tournament championships, and two NCAA national championships.
“Winning for me has changed over time,” Self said, adding that winning should bring a sense of euphoria. But for Self winning is a burden
“The position that I am in at Kansas makes winning more of a relief,” Self said. “Losing is a disaster and winning is a relief.”
When he first started at Kansas, winning was everything but that idea has changed for Self.
“I enjoy winning less now than I did when I was young,” Self said. “The wins never feel as good as the losses feel bad,” Self said when speaking about how he hates losing.
During his engaging talk in front of a large crowd, he spoke about success and used his time at Kansas to prove that a successful mind completes goals.
Self said he feels he has almost perfected his approach to coaching. He said he believes this so wholeheartedly that he does not find him coaching as
much now.
“When a coach has to coach a team all the time, the team is not ready to play,” Self said. Self started to get down to the facts that make someone successful. He preached how having other good people around you makes you better.
“If you are really good at what you do, you shouldn’t be jealous of someone who is also good,” Self said.
People in the crowd would not be able to count on your fingers how many times Self said “Iron sharpens iron.” That was his message to the thousands of attentive people in that arena. He said he believes that having other greatness around you should make you want to be even better than them.
“Being in the Big 12, I have greatness all around me,” Self said, “It makes me teach my team to keep getting better.”
The Week: Grimes had a record breaking week this last week. She became the third player in history in the KJCCC to have 200 career hits.
Grimes
Softball has won four straight games and Grimes went 8 for 12 with eight RBIs as she continues her incredible final season.
Self sees only one way to do this, “Be a sponge. The best way to be successful is to acknowledge what you do not know. That is how you are successful.”
After 45 minutes of great one liners, useful advice, and tons of clapping, Bill Self walked off the stage of the Dillon Lecture Series to a standing ovation. His message of sponge soaking success and his vision on winning stuck with the audience.
This Season: Grimes is now hitting .417 on the season with three home runs and 46 RBIs. She has also played great defense. The softball team has four regular season games left and Grimes looks to help her team keep going into the postseason, as the Blue Dragons look to grab the top seed at the Region 6 Tournament.
Gracie Lambert is a freshman from Lindsborg who has played a key role on the Hutchinson Community College cross country and track teams. She was on the national championship 3,200-meter relay team for indoor track season. Lambert also finished 36th at the NJCAA Women’s Division I Cross Country Championship, helping the Blue Dragons get fourth place.
Running in college has been a challenge for Lambert, with the larger group of athletes all going for the same goal - to get better. However, she pushes herself to overcome mental barriers.
Another change for Lambert was the training schedule. Back-to-back seasons mean consecutive training. Not only does she stay mentally tough, but she also has to maintain her physical health as well.
Baseball
“I had to learn how to prioritize my recovery time to prevent injuries. Training is structured to make you better and it takes time so you have to learn how to be patient and listen to your coach’s advice,” Lambert said.
Prior to college, Lambert would not have hesitated in saying she favors track over cross country. However, her first season in college changed her perspective. She saw major improvements and loved the atmosphere that the team brought. Lambert has a special connection with her cross country teammates and loves that they all support each other in their personal goals.
Indoor track was a new experience that Lambert said she enjoyed. She had to make adjustments, like running on a curve for the entirety of the race but enjoyed being out of the elements. Transitioning into the outdoor season, she likes that times are usually faster with the straightaways that allow her to stride out and build speed.
“Even though this outdoor
All dates are doubleheaders unless noted
Feb. 11, Southeast Nebraska, W 8-5, W 10-7
Feb. 13, at SOUTHEAST NEBRASKA, W 8-4, L 4-5
Feb. 17, at Temple, Texas (one game), L 2-7
Feb. 18, at Hill, Texas (one game), W 8-1
Feb. 19, at McLennan, Texas (one game), L 5-6
Feb. 21, TABOR JV, W 12-1, W 10-0
Feb. 23, at Rose State, Okla. L 13-7; W 5-2
Feb. 25, at Rose State, Okla, L 9-6
Feb. 28, at Northern Oklahoma-Enid (one game), L 12-9
March 1, COFFEYVILLE, W 8-7; W 8-2
March 4 at Coffeyville, L 8-1, L 5-4
March 9, DODGE CITY, L 13-7, W 10-1
March 11, at Dodge City, L 7-2, L 1-0
March 16, at Pratt, W 11-9, W 16-12
March 18, PRATT, W 11-4, W 13-3 March 23, SEWARD COUNTY, W 4-2, L 13-3 March 25, at Seward County, L 8-7 L 11-5 March 30, at Butler, L 8-3, W 11-1
1, BUTLER, W 9-5,
season is coming to an end my expectation is to overcome this hip issue I’ve been battling for a while and enjoy my
last race of the year at nationals,” Lambert said.
The Region 6 track meet is scheduled for May 4-6 in
