2.25.20 issue of The Standard

Peephole concern Students discover peepholes in dorm can be unscrewed

Hair love Women embrace the diversity of black hairstyles

Lady Bears win

Lady Bears still in contention to host NCAA Tournament

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M I S S O U R I S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y

VOLUME 113, ISSUE 19 | THE-STANDARD.ORG The Standard/The Standard Sports

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020

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Missouri State Strategic Enrollment Plan underway TINSLEY MERRIMAN Staff Reporter @merrimantinsley Missouri State University officials are brainstorming innovative ways to recruit and retain students in the next five years.

To do this, a Strategic Enrollment Management Plan is underway; a final draft is up for release for June 1, 2020.

The Standard previously reported on this plan in response to the enrollment decrease from the fall 2019 semester.

The main objective of the plan is to increase total enrollment by 5% by 2026, but is this percentage obtainable?

David Attis approached the Board of Governors and presented the reasons for enrollment decrease in modern colleges. Attis is a researcher for the Education Advisory Board, an organization that partners with educators to provide insight for success.

His presentation on Feb. 21, named a decline in state funding and a decline in 18-year-old attendees reasons for enrollment decline. He also cited demographic changes, college affordability and competition between universities as obstacles for universities in the modern day.

“The thing to think about is how will college universities, in general, try to navigate a situation that is more than ever dependent on student tuition for their finances — but they don’t want to charge students more money,” Attis said. “How can they find other ways of retaining students, find new types of students to serve and be successful over the long term?”

A solution MSU has proposed to combat the problems Attis presented is the SEM plan. The plan is divided into several parts and committees.

These committees each play a different role in forming and improving the plan.

The increase of 5% the plan promises might sound positive to some, but MSU professor of Media, Journalism and Film Andrew Cline worries that this percentage exists only at face value. Cline said he wanted to know if the number had been thoroughly researched and is verifiable.

“What I really want to u See ENROLLMENT, page 8

SARAH TEAGUE/THE STANDARD

Brandy Tuesday, an advocate for victims of human trafficking, organizes gatherings to spread awareness that trafficking is happening in the Ozarks and to put together awareness materials, like the brochures above, that explain what rape is.

‘Prostitution is paid rape’ Human trafficking, prostitution alive in the Springfield area according to Tuesday, the woman’s pimp didn’t like what he was seeing.

SARAH TEAGUE Editor-in-Chief @sarah_k_teague Brandy Tuesday was sitting in a Springfield bistro when the sight of a gun flashed in her direction.

Nevermind there were other patrons around, mingling and chatting. Nevermind she was scared for her life in a public place during the lunch rush.

Tuesday had the perfect view of a threatening barrel intended for her, and a pimp’s finger rested on the trigger.

“It was a really painful day because that was the first time I’d had a weapon pulled on me at home,” Tuesday recalled.

“I’ve experienced similar instances overseas but that was the first time I’d experienced that back home in the Ozarks.”

Tuesday has spent her life working with women living in sex trafficking, or who have survived sex trafficking, abuse or trauma. That day in the bistro was an opportunity to get to know a woman in a dangerous situation, in need of a calming, hopeful presence. But

A life dedicated to broken places

A few weeks before, Tuesday saw the woman standing near Park Central Square, where Springfield’s Golden Girl Rum Club is located today. Though the rum club wasn’t open then, Tuesday was enjoying coffee downtown and was headed toward her car when she saw a woman sitting on the pavement alone. She walked over.

“We began talking and I asked her if she would like +some hot chocolate or some coffee. I went back and got some and came back and I was going to sit and have coffee with her and she kept looking at this guy across the street.

Whenever she would look at him she would be terrified,” Tuesday said. “I realized that was her pimp.”

Tuesday said she made an unsafe move. She gave the woman her personal phone number.

“That’s dumb,” she said.

SARAH TEAGUE/THE STANDARD

Brandy Tuesday shares her experiences as a global worker against prostitution and trafficking with a group of women at Coffee Ethic.

“Don’t do that. If you want to do something like that, there needs to be a central phone number that you give, not a personal phone number.” Tuesday said traffickers can easily track anyone they feel threatened by — they have to remain in control.

The woman contacted Brandy a few weeks later —

the two decided to meet up for lunch.

“As we’re having lunch together, in walks her pimp,” Tuesday said. “He comes and stands right next to me and he has what appears to be a gun in his pocket and tells me that he has more than one gun and knows how to use it, and to stay away from her.”

Tuesday said this is just one example of how close trafficking and prostitution are to home. After years of traveling, she still wasn’t far from a prostitution operation and an unpleasant encounter with its leader in a Springfield bistro. u See TRAFFICKING, page 8

MSU ad team partners with McCain ‘Black Experience Discussion’ emphasizes Institute in advertising competition what black individuals go through daily LAUREN JOHNS Staff Reporter @lje2017

CONNOR WILSON Staff Reporter @Connor4Wilson

Targeted violence by definition is a calculated act of violence towards a specific person or group of people; this could include school shootings or sexual assault cases. To bring these tragedies to light, Missouri State’s Ad Club and eight other schools are forming teams and partnering with the McCain Institute, founded

by Sen. John McCain in 2012 at Arizona State University.

The McCain Institute aspires to advance security, economic opportunity, freedom and human dignity, as stated by their website.

“Ad Team is a for-credit course that participates in a competition each year with different organizations from

Late Tuesday night in the Multicultural Resource Center Annex under Freudenberger House, students and staff gathered to discuss getting through life as a black person. Dola Flake, diversity transition and support coordinator of the MRC, says being different is being valuable.

Flake said some incoming minority students feel like they have to be thankful to universities for letting them in. She thinks it’s the other way around.

“What we know is the more diverse we are the more innovative their ideas are, they produce better results and better revenue, and ultimately we have to be able to

KAITLYN STRATMAN/THE STANDARD

Morgan George, left, and Lauren McCracken discuss their ad campaign in the “Think Tank.” different colleges across the country,” said Morgan George, campaign strategy director.

According to a recent press release, they will work to spread messages of positivity and inclusivity in attempts to override thoughts of violence and hatred.

“We were all given the

basics of the campaign and basic parameters but each team will have a different take on what the topic means to them,” George said. “In the end, we will have nine totally different and unique campaigns.” u See AD TEAM, page 2

EMMA SULLIVAN/THE STANDARD

Anthony R. Franklin, a mental health clinician, shares his vision for a more connected college. retain people of color if we want to compete with other universities,” Flake said.

The “Black Experience Discussion” was fostered as part of the MRC’s Black History Month slate of events.

While the event itself was set up by the MRC, Anthony Franklin, a mental health

clinician at the counseling center, worked as the moderator. Franklin said he wanted to get people thinking about what issues come up with being students of color, and narrow it down to what can be done to solve these issues. u See EXPERIENCE, page 2

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020

New travel ban on Nigeria affects MSU KENDRA KERNEL/THE STANDARD

The peepholes in Hammons and Hutchens House’s doors are tightly secured, but at one point they could be removed.

Residence Life officials respond to removable peepholes in the dorms DESIREE NIXON Staff Reporter @DesireeNixon17 When students live in a space with strangers, it can be new, exciting and scary; according to students, some of those emotions can be heightened when your peephole is removable. A long-time issue of removable peepholes has resurfaced, prompting the university to conduct an investigation.

In the residence halls of Hutchens and Hammons, some students were messing around with their doors and discovered they could remove the peephole.

“I noticed that you could unscrew it from the outside,” freshman undeclared major Ben Nesler said.

He said he noticed when taking it off the perception from the outside changed and you could see more of the in-

side. At the time, he thought that it would be funny to joke with his roommate. But he did understand it could be a concern if the wrong person found this out.

Much like Nesler, freshman nursing major Seth Arvesen noticed something very similar. He said he was knocking on a door and the peephole started to come out.

He continued to see if it would unscrew and it did. He thought it would be funny to mess with his friends, so he looked in. However, he did not think it would be much of a safety concern.

“It makes noise to unscrew it, so if I was doing anything except maybe dancing to loud music in my room, I would hear it,” Arvesen said.

Nesler and Arvesen think the university has taken the right steps to deal with this problem.

EXPERIENCE Continued from page 1

“Kind of get the jump-start of, ‘What can I do on my end that I can help within a situation?’” Franklin said.

He said while the discussion remained fairly cozy. With about 10 in attendance, it allowed for the discussion to be more intimate.

“If there’s too many people, it might not have that same effect as it has with a more cohesive group,” Franklin said.

“As long as it’s a good group

of people that is very impactful.”

Franklin said hosting events for Black History Month, as well as the other month-long event schedules the MRC holds, helps to provide a more positive experience for all students as well as shed light on mental health.

One issue Flake encountered organizing events held by the MRC is putting too much pressure on students of color to

On Feb. 19, 2020, Residence Life and Housing and Dining Services sent out an email that said, “Maintenance staff members will be inspecting the hardware on your door beginning today.”

“It is good that no one really had to say anything about it and they just (started investigating),” Arvesen said. “A guy just came with a screwdriver and started tightening up the peepholes.”

Gary Stewart, director of Residence Life, Housing and Dining Services was quick to ensure the safety of the students. Upon notification of the issue, the next day the email was sent out and steps were taken to not allow this to continue to happen.

“We will do a sweep to make sure that the peepholes are one, in place, and two, tighten them as much as we can tighten them,” Stewart

said. “They are a part of some of the safety features we offer in the residence hall.”

After this was brought to the attention of Stewart, he said he wants students to know that if someone is caught messing with one of the peepholes, they can be charged with vandalism. That has many repercussions, including suspension from the university.

Stewart reiterated the safety of the students is number one. And if someone caught spying through a broken peephole, they will immediately be brought to the Title IX office.

After that, Stewart will have no control over what happens.

Residence Life advises students to make sure their peephole is attached and to not remove it. If it is not attached, Stewart advises students to tell their resident assistant and maintenance will be there that day to fix it.

ernment is talking about. As far as visas in general, there are different classifications.”

He explained that the most Missouri State History popular visas, the ones that Professor Bukola Oyeniyi are easiest to obtain and are describes the new travel ban only for temporary visitation, on Nigeria as “ludicrous.” are not included in the new In January, President Don- ban. These visas are labeled ald Trump declared that his B1, B2 and B3. administration will add six “The argument (of the additional countries to the trav- Trump Administration) is that el ban list, one there are gaps of them being in security pro“It’s not just Nigeria. This tocol in obtainwent into ef- about prejudice, ing visas, fect on Feb. 22. which it’s about the encouragewill Originally terin 2017, the 2020 presidential rorism in the Trump AdUnited States,” election.” ministration Oyeniyi said. enacted the -Professor Bukola “It’s funny betravel ban in cause here we Oyeniyi heavily popuare talking lated Muslim about the most countries, claiming it was sought after visa. A terrorist just necessary for security against looking for any way to get into terrorist attacks. But accord- the United States.” ing to Oyeniyi, who is SouthSince the U.S. government west Nigerian and also the did not include these categories president of the Nigerians in of visas in the ban, the original America Organization, the argument stands inconsistent new ban on Nigeria shows with the Nigerian immigration policy inconsistency. ban, which only blocks Nige“According to the docu- rians seeking permanent resiments released by the U.S. dency in the United States. government, the ban was ex“It’s not just about prejuclusively limited to immigrant dice, it’s about the 2020 presvisas,” he said. “And it’s very idential election,” Oyeniyi difficult to determine in what u See NIGERIA, page 8 category of visas the U.S. govKELSEY BENACK Staff Reporter @kelseybenack

issue changing is by challenging the culture to become one where it is everyone’s responsibility to participate, step up and take a role in promoting diversity.

“The dominant culture, as well as minority students, faculty and staff have to be working together, equally taking on a responsibility to move those initiatives forward,” Flake said.

Flake began working her EMMA SULLIVAN/THE STANDARD position at the MRC in late September 2019. This month Students congregate in the MRC Annex for an she’s been attending every intimate discussion on minority student life.

BHM event she can. participate and be proactive so than other students.

Flake said she thinks the with diversity initiatives, more The only way she sees this events have been great, but

the attendance leaves room for improvement. A point brought up in the discussion Flake echoed: a lot of times those attending diversity events are required to be there either for a class assignment or scholarship. She said this is something that building interest and changing the culture can solve, so students will be more excited about promoting diversity on campus.

“Diversity and inclusion efforts are addressing issues that are deeply rooted,” Flake said. “We can not address it on a superficial level and expect substantial change.”

AD TEAM Continued from page 1

Samantha Francka, ad team advisor, places emphasis on the real-world experience students can obtain from participating in campaign work.

“In addition to earning course credit, students gain an invaluable amount of professional experience,” Francka said. “You’re completely immersed in an advertising agency environment where assignments and exams are replaced with real-world client deliverables, deadlines and professional presentations.”

According to Francka, the program is hosted by EdVenture Partners, who Missouri State first competed with in 2000.

EdVenture aims to combine industry with education and help students gain beneficial marketing experience.

They have worked with over 900 schools internationally, as stated by their website.

“This organization is a great fit because many of their programs include clients or campaigns that fit our Public

Photo submitted by Morgan George

MSU’s Ad Team is currently working on an ad campaign against targeted violence for the McCain Institute.

Affairs Mission,” Francka said. “I hope students will gain an appreciation for the scope of work they’re capable of producing. This is an opportunity to produce a campaign for a national audience, which is huge for resume building and professional experience.”

Despite the small length of time to complete the project, the team shares an abundance of focus and dedication towards the task at hand.

“We have until the beginning of May to get the project

completed and submitted for judging,” George said. “The challenge is knowing that eight other teams have the exact same mission and that we only have five months to create an impactful campaign. However, I have extreme faith in my team that we can achieve anything we put our minds to.”

In order to keep the campaign vision a secret, George has only revealed the general processes.

“We are making deliverables for The McCain Institute

along with a plans book, or a (bound) document to explain the campaign and research,” George said. “If we are in the top three, we have to create a presentation.”

Missouri State’s Ad Team has competed for over 20 years and has earned 11 national titles thus far, as noted in the press release.

According to Francka, those interested in applying for the 2021 campaign competition should prepare an application in November 2020.

THE STANDARD opinion 3 Understanding addiction is key to ending it TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020 | THE-STANDARD.ORG

LINDSAY FARROW Columnist @lindsayfarrow28 A bead of sweat rolls down my cheek as I step up to the plate one last time. It’s a full count and a “ghost man” is on third anticipating an opportunity to score. I grip the yellow plastic bat tighter, hoping it improves my chances.

No matter what, I’m swinging.

A few things cross my mind the moments before the pitch. First, I should be studying for the fourth grade spelling bee. I refuse to be embarrassed like last year, when forgetting the letter “r” on “hamburger” eliminated me in the third round and emotionally scarred me for life.

The spelling bee will have to wait.

Bragging rights are on the line. This is wiffle ball, a very serious event.

The other thing I analyze is the pitch-

er’s posture, who doubles as my brother. He’s serious and determined to win.

He hurdles the ball towards me and I inhale my last breath before victory.

As I swing with a burning intensity that can only originate from a deep-rooted sibling rivalry, it doesn’t take me a millisecond to realize I missed and was defeated. My brother had won again — he always wins.

Naturally, the defeat was handled poorly by me. I threw the bat towards my brother and cursed him to be a son of a very bad word; The irony is beyond my comprehension.

I went inside to find refuge and practice for the spelling bee. As is tradition, the only way to cheer myself up from the loss of one compe-

tition is to immerse myself in another. My brother remained outside past dark to practice baseball fundamentals, his own version of refuge.

At the time, if I were to go outside and ask him to explain what he thought his future would be like, I imagine it

an addict.

Our country is in the midst of a crisis. It is impossible to ignore the ravenous effects drug addiction, specifically the opioid crisis, has played on our country. Our lives, families and communities are crumbling.

The problem is one that seems to be getting worse. It is a topic that has gained national attention, and it appears we all know, love or have known/loved someone with an addiction.

If you were to Google “overdose,” you would be met with an unmanageable list of news articles reporting deaths from across the country. A majority of these deaths are from prescription opioids, fentanyl or heroin.

So what do we do? What can we do? We can not make people care or

No one expects addiction, but no one is immune to it either. would be a cliche story of a kid who excels in sports and goes to college and marries the girl of his dreams. I doubt he would include a life that is consumed with addiction and a family that is desperate to save him.

No kid would tell you a story like that because no kid wants to become

get better if they do not want to — a painful lesson I know from firsthand experience. How do we get people to understand the complex layers of addiction so we can help treat it and prevent it? What do we do with addiction, which society treats as a disease and a crime?

Understanding addiction is key.

Learning through experience is devastating. Realizing addiction discriminates against no one opens up the possibility to make this discussion possible. It doesn't matter where you live, your age, race, economic status — addiction can happen. And when it happens, when it happens to somebody you love, it changes life forever.

When I think about addiction, I get angry. I get angry that so many people are drowning.

u Read more at the-standard.org.

‘Loveless’: a pitchblack sermon on marriage, lost children DAVID WHEELER Critic @DontTellThe_Elf

Illustration by ALYSSA VANDEGRIFT/THE STANDARD

Doja Cat’s eccentric cow song reaches virality ANNELISE PINJUV Columnist @Annelisepin “Doja Cat.” Ring a bell? Probably, because she and her music have gone viral more than a few times. If you didn’t discover Doja from her viral YouTube video, (the one where she sticks French fries up her nose) you’ve likely heard her songs used as a soundtrack for many popular TikTok dances.

Doja Cat, born Amala Zandile Dlamini, is serious about creating music. Be it “Juicy,” “Say So,” “Cyber Sex” or her classic, “Mooo!,” her songs are almost too easy to bop to. TikTok influencers have no problem creating dances to her songs because of her catchy beat-and-lyric duos. I bet the line “I keep it juicy-juicy. I eat that lunch” is easily singable in your head; you may even know the dance.

Because of her interests in R&B, Hip Hop, Indie Rock and Electronic music, Doja’s style is unmatched.

Her music is bizarre in a way that says “I know how to write, I just don’t care what you think.”

She portrays this sort of bold-yetchill attitude in all of her songs — take “Tia Tamera ft. Rico Nasty” for example — the lyrics may not make sense but the song sure is catchy. Her words sound fluent and match her The Standard Physical address: Clay Hall 744 E. Cherry St. Springfield, Missouri Postal address: 901 S. National Ave. Springfield, MO 65897 Newsroom: 417-8365272 Advertising: 417-

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style, making her music addictive.

Doja enjoys writing about parts of the female body, relationships and even has a song about being a cow.

She clearly writes about anything she wants to.

In a YouTube interview with Genius, she mentions how she thought about making “meme music” that could “potentially reach a wider audience” but how going viral wasn’t her intention for “Mooo!” The song and music video, released in August of 2018, were meant to be just for fun and because she felt like it.

She said in the interview with Genius, “I made the song and the video in one day.” That video featuring Doja in cow print singing about how she is a cow now has a little over 65 million views on YouTube.

After diving into her music, there’s no denying she’s musically and lyrically talented. Her voice is so soothing it’s practically flawless.

This may be because she stays true to herself and her ideas, but it also may be because artistry runs in her blood.

Her father, Dumisani Dlamini, is a South African actor/producer and her mother, Deborah Sawyer, is a famous painter. Doja was always in touch with her creative side; she took piano and dance classes for most of her young life.

When she discovered music was her passion at the age of 16, she dropped out of high school and began actively pursuing a career in the music industry.

It wasn’t all fame and fortune from there on. She mentions in several interviews that life after dropping out was “messy.” She spent time living in trap houses and downloading beats from YouTube to create her own music.

Her intention wasn’t to “go viral” with her out-of-the-box cow song, but that’s exactly what happened. She released her first studio album in March 2018, but the album really started to gain traction after she released the “Mooo!” video.

She released her album “Hot Pink” in November of 2019, which to me is one of the most cohesive, interesting albums released last year.

Many songs of this album are known

by GenZers thanks to viral dances on TikTok. Her laid-back personality is what gives fans something to love and critics something to hate. She’s been “canceled” a few times now, but this doesn’t seem to have any effect on her or her music.

Her “I don’t care” mantra is what keeps people coming back; it’s what lets her thrive. She’s focusing on what makes her happy in an industry that’s main focus is to please others.

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After leaving the theater when I first saw director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Loveless” back in the early months of 2018, I noticed the sky hung low in a dark gloom with the rain moderately beating down, perfectly matching the insurgent dread Zvyagintsev is so keen and proficient in producing.

It's like the universe had aligned, took notice that I had spent good company in despair for the past two hours and saw fit that I needed to feel a little more downcast and utterly oppressed.

Zvyagintsev is one of my favorite living directors, perhaps even the one to outmatch all others currently working whom I deem to be extraordinary, but those who are familiar with his style — his deeply cynical stories regarding marriages and families beset by absolute strife — will no doubt put on a bemused face at this proclamation.Those who like Zvyagintsev must like to revel in consummate, domineering misery.

“Loveless” is now his fifth feature film, and although all his films wallow in quieted catastrophe, I dare say this picture may be his most bleak, which is quite the statement to make. Even I am surprised that Zvyagintsev has gone further down the rabbit hole. There are no mad hatters here, only deep-seated wretchedness performed and appropriated by people who have no more love to give one another anymore — if there ever was any love to give in the first place.

No misstep is there in the film being labeled a tragedy. Like the tragedies of Shakespeare (of whom I love — see there, too, for what makes me click so well with stories involving calamity), “Loveless” leaves questions unanswered, diabolism wins out over good-naturedness and stories end in an even lower state of casualty than what they began in.

This film marks the third writing collaboration between Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin. The pair frequently worked together since 2011’s “Elena,” and what the dissectors of humanity they have become — taking out the heart as they operate, leaving only the dark underbelly of mankind

behind. What a gifted pair they are, truly; one of the great writing collaborators since Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, or Akira Kurosawa and Shinobu Hashimoto.

Shifting now to the narrative at hand, we primarily follow a pair of embittered parents — the narcissistic, material Zhenya (played to great depth by Maryana Spivak, her character often employing a deadly scowl) and Boris (played just as well

by Aleksey Rozin), the drudging workman — who are finalizing their divorce. Seemingly forgotten, their twelve-year-old son, Alyosha, is on the sidelines watching as his parents argue with wounding words.

At first, we do not know how much Alyosha is aware of his parents' wartorn situation. Later do we know with heart-rending certainty when Zvyagintsev's unassuming camera follows his mother leaving a room, her shutting the door at her exit and revealing her son standing behind it, hiding, crying and trying hard to keep his sobbing quiet so as not to draw the attention of his parents, but their deafening verbal brawl would drown out his weeping nonetheless.

We follow young Alyosha at the outset. We watch as he leaves school, later walking in the shallow snow next to a cold stream as he plays with an abandoned ribbon that he soon manufactures into a stick-andstring toy, which he ends up tossing up into a bare-leaved tree where it becomes entangled in the branches. He leaves it behind and goes home.

His mother spares no time for him; she'd rather place her time in the bed of her new lover, or bury her eyes into her phone. By which, there is an overall theme against technology here, with one scene showing Zhenya aboard a train where literally everyone has their phones out, or of a nosing camera pan to a group of girls praising selfies before taking one. Not to mention the fact the film is set in 2012 and keeps mentioning the provincial turbulence between Ukraine and Russia through car stereos as if Zvyagintsev is once again being critical of his home country — as he has done so, specifically, in “Leviathan.”

His father is equally negligent, himself spending his days at a desk

‘Loveless’ injects watchers with bleak narratives fit for a dark, cold and lonely winter day.

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life

TUESDAY, 25, 2020 THE-STANDARD.ORG TUESDAY, FEBRUARY OCTOBER 112, 2019 | THE-STANDARD.ORG

JAYLEN EARLY/THE STANDARD

Scott (left) and Aaron Cooley sit in Glass Hall, where Aaron has several business classes.

Local father-son duo aims to make the world a better place GRETA CROSS/THE STANDARD

From left to right in the mirror, junior social work major Achol Gawg and sophomore journalism major Sha’Diya Tomlin look at themselves in the mirror in Craig Hall.

HAIR LOVE

Celebrating the diversity of black hair PAIGE NEWTON Staff Reporter @PagesofPaigeM Black History Month is dedicated to the celebration and remembrance of African American history and culture. Matthew Cherry, African American director of the short film “Hair Love,” helped create more history of black excellence when his animated short film won an Oscar this February.

The short film centers around an African American father learning to do his daughter’s hair. The film not only celebrates the representation of a present black father, but also an appreciation and respect for black hair.

According to an article

by Rumeana Jahangir for the BBC, after slavery was abolished, black people felt pressured to assimilate into Western culture. This meant styling their hair to look like a white person’s.

It wasn’t until the civil rights movement in the ‘60s that there was a resurgence of natural hair. This came in the form of the afro hairstyle, which became a symbol for black empowerment and pride.

Following that resurgence, black people have reclaimed their hair and are embracing it. Hair was historically, and is presently, a large part of the black community’s identity.

Sha’Diya Tomlin, sophomore journalism major and public relations chair for African Student Association, finds the unique diversity of black hair empowering.

“Nobody else's hair can do what ours can,” Tomlin said. “No one else’s hair can be transformed from curl, to straight, back to curls, then braids and then a slicked back ponytail in a short time.”

Tomlin uses her hair to express herself in many ways.

“I change my hair to match my moods and my outfit,” Tomlin said. “As a black woman, I change my hair the same way everybody else would. It just can do so much more.”

Maureen Baddoo, senior sociology major and president of ASA, finds not only the diversity of her hair empowering, but appreciates seeing girls at a young age learn to love their hair.

Baddoo did not have that experience.

“When I was younger, I used to say I hated my hair because I went to a predominantly white school,” Baddoo said. “It wasn’t until I had little sisters that I learned to love myself and my hair. I wanted them to love themselves.”

Baddoo felt especially in awe and empowered when her little sister dressed as a “black Barbie” for Halloween.

“My little sister for Halloween wanted to be a black Barbie,” Baddoo said. “For her, that meant getting an afro. She had an afro for a week. I never in my life would have gone to school with an afro at eight years old, so that’s what I thought was beautiful.”

While Tomlin and Baddoo both agree on the importance of embracing their natural hair, they acknowledge hair maintenance can take hours and is a tedious process.

Tomlin, who has natural hair, uses Eco Stylers (gels) and hair glue regularly to maintain her curls.

Baddoo prefers styled hair because of how tedious maintaining natural hair is. She wears a bonnet or headscarf to bed so her natural hair maintains moisture. She washes her hair between styles and uses a few spritzes of hair spray every couple days to help maintain her style.

Finding the necessary resources in Springfield to care for their hair poses a problem.

According to Tomlin and Baddoo, the hair products and stylists in Springfield are not only limited, but extremely expensive.

Baddoo, who is from West Africa, said getting her hair braided there would cost roughly $3-$5.

To get the same service in Springfield, it costs roughly $100. Some salons will charge more than that. The price variation depends on location.

“Back in Africa, it’s easy and cheap because it’s all black people,” Baddoo said. “It’s expected, like a white person getting a haircut.

You come here, where it’s less needed, and they can charge as much as they want.”

Tomlin said some girls suffer negative effects from getting their hair done at a salon due to a stylist’s inexperience.

“Sometimes, when we get these protective styles, it doesn’t actually protect our hair because they don’t know what they’re doing,” Tomlin said. “It can be very damaging.”

Tomlin concluded, sharing one last bit of wisdom.

“To all the black girls out there, your hair is beautiful,” Tomlin said. “Don’t listen to what anybody has to say. Your hair is not nappy, your hair is not too much to handle, your hair does not need straightening. Just keep going on your hair journey. Whatever you’re doing with your hair, just keep doing it. Don’t let anybody stop you.”

Baddoo wants black people of all ages to appreciate their hair.

“You can wear your hair however you want,” Baddoo said. “Don’t let people shame you. Just take care of your hair. At the end of the day, just love your hair.”

“To all the black girls out there, your hair is beautiful.”

- Sha Diya Tomlin, public relations chair for African Student Association

Photos by GRETA CROSS/THE STANDARD

(Left) Achol Gawg adjusts her bun in the mirror.

(Right) Sha’Diya Tomlin sits in front of a mirror in Craig Hall.

creative with visual, but it doesn't have to be,” he said.

“It can be non-visual. I'm great with stuff like that.”

I began to overhear a conAaron hopes to make a versation one night as I was change for the future and desitting in Glass Hall eating velop assistive technologies dinner and waiting for a meet- for people with disabilities, ing to start. It seemed to be an specifically visual impaireasy-breezy catch-up sort of ments. He wants to create conversation until I heard one versions of programs like Inof the parties say, “Has any- Design and Photoshop that are one written a story about you accessible for the visually two?” impaired.

I continued to listen. The Aaron considers himself an story is about a father and son activist in the disability comwho are going to college at munity. He has spoken to teachthe same time, but each of ers and students about accessithem has had to confront their bility and volunteered in the own unique challenges. community. In the future, he For father Scott Cooley, a wants to speak motivationally disabled veteran, the chal- about disabilities and mentor lenge is going to college as a others. nontraditional graduate, man“There's a lot of people, aging his busy schedule and people with disabilities who facing an ever-changing tech- see their abilities negatively nological landscape. and I want to help them For Aaron, the challenge is change that perspective and taking on a double major in help them see their disabilities marketing with an emphasis in positively and help them adadvertising and product devel- vocate for themselves,” Aaron opment and psychology with said. a minor in disability studies Aaron dreams of improvwhile naviing and ingating colventing de“There's a lot lege life with vices for the a visual imvisually imof people, pairment. paired. For people with In the example, midst of disabilities who Aaron proAaron tellposes a more ing me about see their abilities portable verhis struggles negatively, and sion of a with math, Braille emI want to help science and bosser and a them change spatial learnvideo game ing, his fa- that perspective.” system that ther interwould allow - Aaron Cooley visually imjects to say that his son paired and does very well in school, sighted people to play tomaking good grades. gether.

“He's an outstanding stuTogether, Scott and Aaron dent, but he worries about are both on track to finish everything,” Scott said. their respective degrees in Aaron agreed.

2021.

“So the trouble is that Scott said his purpose in when I had class with those life has always been to help. aspects, worrying that I'm go“For me, what is important ing to do well because I do in life is service to others,” worry a lot,” Aaron said.

Scott said. “That's really super Accessibility of textbooks important. I want to, with my and computer programs has knowledge I learned in school, been a source of struggle for to be a good steward of the Aaron. Aaron described a feel- land.” ing of burnout and frustration Scott returned to MSU to when consistently trying to pursue his master’s degree in use programs that don’t work plant science. for him.

“This land is not ours,” Some of his classes use Scott said. “And we're only programs like InDesign and here for a short time. And if Photoshop, which are not eas- we keep doing what we're doily accessible for the visually ing right now, we're not going impaired. to have anything left.”

His professors have been Scott describes himself as helpful, Aaron said. One of a tree-hugger and emphasizthe graduate assistants for his es the importance of protectcreative advertising class sat ing and preserving land and down with him to create a water. project for one of his marketScott, who values servaning classes. thood, is incredibly grateful “I would come up with for those who have helped the idea for the ad and how him. When we sat down for it's going to be designed, and the interview, Scott came with she helped me make the a physical list of people to ads,” Aaron said. “I wouldn't thank. have done nearly well in that As a nontraditional stuclass without her, and she dent, Scott says he has to work helped me really understand twice as hard as the average how the visual aspects graduate student. He attributes worked.” much of his success to the Aaron said the help from staff and faculty he works professors and instructors eas- with. es some of the frustration he BJ Miller, an accounting faces. specialist in the office of stu“A lot of departments do dent financial aid, has known care and so the fact that they the father and son for two are caring and that they are years. She works with Aaron trying to make things better, and Scott on financial aid and that really does help with it,” other paperwork.

Aaron said.

“The main thing that Aaron said he does well at stands out to me about Scott creative activities as long as is what a dedicated father he the creativity is non-visual. is to Aaron,” Miller said.

“Most people associate u See COOLEY, page 8 ZOE BROWN Lifestyle Editor @zoe_zoebrown

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020

THE STANDARD

‘Carolina’

THE-STANDARD.ORG 5

MSU history student wins national musical theater songwriting contest M. TODD DEARING Staff Reporter @mtodddearing Emalee Flatness is a history major with a love for bluegrass music and genealogy. She combines her two passions in her song, “Carolina,” which is loosely based on an ancestor who immigrated from the Netherlands in the 1800s, drafted into the Union Army and killed nine days before General Robert E. Lee surrendered. For this song, she won a National Endowment of the Arts Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge in 2019.

“He had a wife and kids,” Flatness lamented. “To give that life up when you’re not even from the country you’re in is painful to think about.”

As a bluegrass musician since she was 10, Flatness was never a stranger to writing and performing songs from a historical perspective.

Her band, Po Anna, played a foundational role in the development of her artistic expression for the past year and a half. She views her love of music and history as perfectly complementary through bluegrass.

Her friend and bandmate, the banjo player of Po Anna, Alex Clayton, said “Emalee writes a lot of our songs, and we have even performed Carolina live with her.”

Clayton said the pair met at the Starvy Creek Bluegrass Festival in Conway, Missouri two years ago and began playing music together shortly after.

“I used to play instruments in my history classes, so it’s ingrained in me that the two passions are intertwined,” Flatness said.

A love for history was also prevalent in her childhood.

She explained her family had

always encouraged a fondness of the subject.

“My parents would always take me to Civil War reenactments, so I was almost forced to like history,” Flatness said. “Eventually, I had a lot of great high school teachers who were great mentors who made me love it even more.”

Flatness went on to say that her experience with history professors while attending college also proliferated her love for the subject.

She has found a niche passion in genealogy, leading her to have great interest in both Norwegian and American history. The traditions held by both cultures are of particular interest to her.

She was encouraged to send her song “Carolina” to the NEA contest by her high school theater teacher.

“She would send me email after email every day making sure I knew that she wanted me to do this,” Flatness said. “I typically do not write musical theater songs, rather I tend to stick to my bluegrass songs, but I found one of my old songs with a great story behind it and figured I could at least turn it into one.”

Flatness said she had low expectations for the song, not really expecting any reply from the NEA. She was shocked when she was notified that it had won the award for the Musical Songwriting Challenge.

“It’s interesting to hear the different versions and levels of production between our version of Carolina and her version with the NEA,” Clayton said. “To hear how my banjo affects our version versus the completely different tone of the NEA version is really interesting, if at least for

GRETA CROSS/THE STANDARD

Freshman Emalee Flatness smiles in Strong Hall, home to her history major. Flatness was a recipient of the National Endowments for the Arts award for her original song “Carolina.” Flatness’ song is now available on Spotify.

me personally.”

Since recording the song, Flatness has expressed an interest in adapting it into a full musical, stating that writing for it was underway with a yet to be determined end date. In the meantime, she is putting most of her writing efforts into her bluegrass music as well as starting a folk music group.

“The most recent song I wrote is about an African American woman who escaped slavery,” Flatness said. “I enjoy writing from these different and interesting perspectives.”

As far as her career goes, she hasn't decided what to do entirely as of yet, but she said music will always be more of a hobby for her.

“I’ll always do music,” Flatness said. “However, I do not see that as my career.”

She stated that ideally, she could continue to write music and perform alongside whatever she does.

Weekly Crossword © 2020 King Features Syndicate ACROSS 1 Tummy muscles, for short 4 Slapstick arsenal 8 Scallopini meat 12 Press for payment 13 Ireland 14 Not working 15 Classic Anne Murray song 17 Location 18 Charlotte’s creation 19 Capitol VIP 21 Pamper 24 Gun the engine 25 Melody 26 Sprite 28 Thin smoky streaks 32 Messy sort 34 Cut the grass 36 Fit of peevishness 37 High-strung 39 Michael Jackson album 41 -- budget 42 Affirmative action?

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53 Tramcar contents 54 Shelter 55 Remiss

GRETA CROSS/THE STANDARD

Digital black and white photographs hang on the wall for the new digital Photography I class’ critique.

New digital photo class causes controversy within department GRETA CROSS Digital Editor @gretacrossphoto Missouri State students, specifically non-photography majors, now have the option to trade out the typical analog photography I course for a digital photo class.

Rather than photographing with black and white 35mm film and developing and enlarging prints in the darkroom, students utilize DSLR cameras or even their smartphones for the class.

Jimmie Allen, a photography professor, teaches two sections of the new course, which were available this semester.

Samuel Lines, an per course faculty instructor, will continue teaching the traditional course.

The majority of students in Allen’s classes use smartphones and the Adobe Lightroom Photoshop mobile app.

The Lightroom app allows users to take photos in RAW image format, rather than the smartphone camera’s standard, which photographs in JPEG. A RAW image file contains unprocessed data from the camera’s image sensor, which has not been compressed. This “raw” data allows photogra-

phers to control the settings of a photograph after it has been captured during post-editing.

JPEGs are compressed, so the image settings can not be changed after capture. Edits for JPEGs are layered on top of the original, which affects the image’s quality each time it is saved.

Under the “Professional” camera setting within the Lightroom app, users can alter the shutter speed, ISO, white balance and focus. However, the camera’s aperture cannot be changed, as most smartphone camera lenses have a fixed aperture.

The course’s core curriculum is similar to that of analog photography, Jimmie said. Students still learn photography basics such as framing, lighting and depth of field, along with being expected to participate in class critiques and complete a final project, aspects that are a part of the original entry-level photo class.

Different from the analog course, students learn how to digitally manipulate an image and print utilizing photographic inkjet printers. In the past, these skills were not taught until Allen’s upper level digi-

tal photography class.

Ashley Cusic, a senior psychology major, said she decided to take the new course because she has an interest in photography but wasn’t necessarily interested in working with film in the darkroom.

“I’ve really enjoyed being able to go in on Lightroom and I’ve enjoyed working with our professor Jimmie, who’s made it a point to let us know that no matter what pictures we’re gonna take, there’s not gonna be a bad picture,” Cusic said. “It’s just, what can we do to make them better? I really enjoy that.”

According to Allen, the main purpose of this alternate class is to allow non-photography students the opportunity to take studio lighting, which originally had two photo course prerequisites.

Some photography majors do not agree with the new class and were upset upon discovering students could utilize smartphones for digital capture.

“I get that they’re opening up a door and they’re trying to get more people in, but they’re opening the door so u See PHOTOGRAPHY, page 8

6

THE STANDARD

sports

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020 | THE-STANDARD.ORG

Missouri State drops three straight at Turface Classic CLAIRE NIEBRUGGE Senior Sports Reporter @claireniebrugge The Missouri State baseball team ended its trip to Tennessee 1-3.

The baseball Bears plated four in Game 1 but didn’t see another run all weekend, getting shutout by three different opponents.

Austin Peay took an early lead in Game 1 with an RBI single in the second inning. That would be their

only run of the day, as sophomore right-handed pitcher Matt Russell held the Governors to just four hits in his five innings pitched.

Senior Ben Whetstone knotted the score in the fourth, but it was the sixth frame that got the Bears rolling. A lead-off double, a wild pitch, two consecutive walks, an RBI single and a sac fly all contributed to a three-run inning for the Bears. Missouri State grabbed the victory, 4-1.

Next, the Bears traveled to Nashville to take on Belmont for Game 2, ending in a 1-0 decision.

The slow-burning contest ended in an 11-inning walk-off home run from the Bruins. Missouri State outhit Belmont 11-6 but stranded eight.

Senior RHP Logan Wiley got the start on the mound, striking out seven in eight innings pitched. Sophomore righty Trey Ziegenbein came in for relief to strike out five, but a

2-0 pitch sent the game-winner over the left-field wall.

In Game 3, Lipscomb handed Missouri State its second straight shutout in a 4-0 win. Both squads had four hits apiece, but Missouri State went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. Despite throwing two 1-2-3 frames, freshman RHP Hayden Minton got the loss. Wood led at the plate, going 2-for-4 for the second time over the weekend.

The baseball Bears saw a third

shutout in Sunday’s game, a 4-0 Middle Tennessee win. Sophomore lefthander Peyton Carson got the loss, his second of the season. Freshman catcher Drake Baldwin led the Bears at the plate going 2-for-4.

Despite the three-game losing streak, Missouri State is off to a better start than last season. The Bears are sitting 3-4, compared to their 1-5 start in 2019. The Bears will visit Oral Roberts on Tuesday, first pitch set for 3 p.m.

Lady Bears inching closer to regular-season title DEREK SHORE Senior Sports Reporter @D_Shore23

GRETA CROSS/THE STANDARD

Sophomore forward Jasmine Franklin shoots a layup in traffic on Sunday. Franklin scored 17 points against Indiana State after scoring five points on Friday against Evansville.

The No. 18 nationally-ranked Missouri State Lady Bears have shown a tendency to be caught sleeping against lesser teams this season.

On Friday night, the Lady Bears hosted Evansville, who entered the game with a 3-21 record and were dead last in the Missouri Valley Conference. Missouri State played down to its opponent but still managed to win 76-62.

A win is a win, according to the team, but the players and head coach Amaka “Mox” Agugua-Hamilton said the team’s performance had to be better.

And the Lady Bears looked more like themselves on Sunday afternoon.

The Lady Bears cruised to a 8258 win over seventh-place Indiana State to close out the homestand.

MSU, which is a perfect 13-0 at home, improves to 23-3 overall on the season and has now won nine straight games.

“I’m pleased with how we came out,” Mox said. “We were clicking on all cylinders again. Obviously, there were defensive breakdowns here and there. It’s never going to be a perfect game, but I liked the way we played through adversity.

“There was a lot of stoppage in play and a lot of times you can lose your momentum. I liked as soon as the ball was back in play, we had our energy. Different people stepped up, and we came out way better than we did on Friday.”

Missouri State shot 10-for-15 from the field in the first quarter for a 25-9 lead after the game’s first 10 minutes.

The Sycamores cut the 16-point deficit down to 29-16 at the midway point in the second quarter. The pace of the game slowed down significantly, but the Lady Bears went into intermission with a 39-23 advantage.

Senior Alexa Willard led the way for Missouri State in the first half with a team-high eight points.

The Lady Bears went on a 5-0 run midway through the third quarter to pick up their largest lead at 51-28. Sophomore Jasmine Franklin capped Missouri State’s strong third quarter with a putback at the buzzer, giving the Lady Bears a 66-38 lead heading into the final frame.

Indiana State got as close as 18 points in the fourth quarter, but Missouri State rolled past the Sycamores for the win.

The Lady Bears defeated Evansville and Indiana State at JQH Arena over the weekend to improve their perfect home record to 13-0.

The nationally-ranked Lady Bears have four games left in the regular season and are still in contention to host an NCAA Tournament regional.

Franklin posted a game-high 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Willard followed with 15 points while junior Abby Hipp had 12 points.

The Lady Bears have plenty to play for the rest of the season.

With two more wins, the Lady Bears can win the MVC regular-season title and earn a No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. The tournament is slated to start on the weekend of March 13 in Moline, Illinois.

Missouri State hasn’t secured an MVC regular-season title since 201112.

The Lady Bears will also likely need to win the remainder of their games to have an opportunity to host two rounds of the NCAA Tournament at JQH Arena. The team’s focus remains on getting back to the Sweet 16 and going even further than last season, according to the players.

“Our ultimate goal is to keep getting better each game and work on the controllables that we can control and work on being consistent,” sophomore Mya Bhinhar said. “That’s really important at this time of the season.”

Missouri State finishes the road schedule next week at Illinois State on Feb. 27 and Bradley on March 1.

The Lady Bears host Valparaiso and Loyola the following week to finish out the regular season.

“We don’t have many games left, but we know we have to take it one game at a time,” Mox said.

“If you overlook, that is when you slip-up. They get it, though. They got it now.”

Former Lady Bear inducted into athletics hall of fame CLAIRE NIEBRUGGE Senior Sports Reporter @claireniebrugge She made history in four short years.

Now her name will be among the greatest athletes to ever wear the maroon and white.

Casey Garrison Powell will be inducted into the Missouri State Athletics Hall of Fame on Feb. 21, etching her name next to all-time greats like Jackie Stiles, Cheryl Burnett and Mellody Howard.

Garrison was a shooting guard for the Lady Bears from 2008-2012 who earned All-Missouri Valley Conference first-team honors all four years of her career. During her time at Missouri State, the Lady Bears went 8051 overall and saw three Women’s National Invitational Tournament appearances.

She became the first Missouri State player to lead in points, assists, rebounds, steals and blocks in the same season — that was her freshman year. Garrison was named MVC Freshman of the Year in 2009.

Garrison’s success only skyrocketed from there. She scored her 1,000th point in just her 57th career game, one of the few to earn that feat so quickly. She was named MVC Player of the Year for her sophomore campaign, becoming the first Lady Bear to receive that honor.

Garrison concluded her decorated career on the all-time MSU list second place in points (2,271), career games (130), scoring average (17.5), field goals and free throws and placed in the top 10 in almost every other category.

Rob Evans, the voice behind the Lady Bears play-by-play on KTXR during Garrison’s stint, said she did anything to win a game, whether that meant shooting because she was making shots or finding assists for her teammates because she wasn’t.

“She could do just about everything from time she stepped on the floor as a freshman,” Evans said. “She could score, play great defense, rebound, pass — every category you could find on a stat sheet she could fill. She saw the floor incredibly well.”

Her teammates remember her as a leader, on and off the court.

“Casey was a great friend — fun, loving, adventurous,” former Lady Bear Morgan Harrington Muench said. “She was always there to talk and always made time for her friends and teammates.”

Harrington, who played alongside Garrison from 2008-2012, said the Bolivar native is more than deserving of the hall of fame honor.

“Casey was a great basketball player, one of the best to come through the MVC, but an even better uRead more at the-standard.org.

Six former Bears were inducted into the Missouri State Athletics Hall of Fame over the weekend.

Blake Boldon, Catherine Dolan Brady, Clay Harbor, Casey Garrison Powell, Martha Rubina and Mike Williams were inducted on Feb. 21-22 at halftime of the men’s and women’s basketball games.

Read all six inductee spotlights at the-standard.org.

Golfer adds her name into history with hard work COLE SUTTON Sports Reporter @ColeSutton23 Missouri State has listed its inductees into the athletics hall of fame for 2020, including a staple of the university’s golf program: Catherine Dolan Brady. Brady was a member of the Bears team from 2008-12, but her love for golf has deeper roots.

Golf has always been a vital part of her life.

“I came from a golfing family, so I was always around the game,” Brady said. “But when I turned 13, I really decided I wanted to seriously start playing. I started with nine-hole tournaments then gradually worked my way up to 18 holes.”

Brady began her career in high school where she attended Parkway West High School in Ballwin, Missouri, about 20 miles from St. Louis.

Brady went on to win the Missouri state championship for the Longhorns her senior year and looked to continue her career in college.

It only took one campus visit for Brady to make her decision.

“I always had the dream of golfing in college, and after several months of communicating with Coach Kane, we planned a weekend for my parents and I to visit,” Brady said. “After meeting the team and taking a tour of campus, I felt at home. By the end of that weekend, I gave my verbal

commitment and never looked back.

MSU always felt like the perfect fit for me.”

She instantly made an impact on the team as a freshman, an impact that head coach Kevin Kane remembers well.

“She tied for first in her first college tournament, so it obviously didn’t take long,” Kane said. “For a freshman to do that right off the bat was pretty remarkable.”

Brady was a bright spot on the Bears squad, but it wasn’t just because of her performance on the course.

“She’s one of the best competitors I’ve ever coached — really knew how to grind and dig deep, really disciplined and worked hard — someone who set a good example and pulled everyone together,” Kane said.

Brady’s mental toughness was one of the many reasons she thrived as a Bear. She is one of 11 golfers in Missouri Valley Conference history to earn all-conference honors all four seasons and was voted MVC Newcomer of the Year in 2009.

Kane discussed how much a person like Brady can mean to a program.

“You can’t have a good team without good leadership and she provided that, plus she’s obviously a great player,” Kane said. “She was

uRead more at the-standard.org.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020

THE STANDARD

THE-STANDARD.ORG 7

Bears secure 12-point win over Loyola Ice Bears win final two road games

AMANDA SULLIVAN Sports Editor @mandajsullivan

STEPHEN TERRILL Sports Reporter @Stevethe2nd

The Missouri State Ice Bears had a few issues scoring, but they managed to win two games over Northern Illinois this past weekend.

The Ice Bears put up 115 shots on the Huskies’ goalies in two games and only scored 12 times.

Northern Illinois came into the series ranked 66th out of 70 teams in the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s Division I. The Ice Bears are ranked 29th.

Assistant coach Brendan McClew said the skill gap between the two teams made the Ice Bears try to make highlight-reel plays on offense.

“You expect players to be in certain positions defensively,” McClew said. “When you’re playing teams that aren’t as good, they are not in those spots — often a couple strides behind. It messes with the flow of the offense, and you try to do too much.”

In the first game on Friday night, a 5-3 victory, head coach Jeremy Law said the Ice Bears played down to the level of their opponent and should have done better.

Even with 52 shots on goal, they still could not mount sustained offensive pressure.

“We were trying to do too much,” Law said. “We played down to their level like we’ve done all season with lower-ranked opponents. They’re the 66th ranked team, and we played like the 65th ranked team.”

Law said the team’s top forward line of center Josh Bell and wingers Hunter Cooley and Alex Rubin — as well as defenseman Chris Brown — played well.

Saturday night, Northern Illinois scored the first two goals.

After trading scores, the Ice Bears had a five-on-three powerplay while down a goal.

It was not the Ice Bears who scored, however. Northern Illinois forward Rodahn Evans got a breakaway and scored shorthanded.

After giving up the shorthanded goal, the Ice Bears scored five

Photos by KAITLYN STRATMAN/THE STANDARD

(Above) Freshman Isiaih Mosley shoots a reverse layup between two Loyola defenders.

(Right) Junior Gaige Prim shoots a jumper.

The Bears are hitting their stride with only two conference games left in the regular season. They head to Valparaiso on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. tip and end the regular season at home against Southern Illinois.

Missouri State defeated Valparaiso 67-60 earlier this season and lost to SIU by two earlier this month.

“If you’re gonna play your best basketball, right now is the best time to do that,” Ford said. “I still think we can play better, so I don’t know if today is our best basketball. We played a good first half, but we’ve still got some things we can do to get better.”

Tennis team drops both weekend matchups

uRead more at the-standard.org.

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The Missouri State women’s tennis Bears dropped both of their weekend matchups at Cooper Tennis Complex. The first came on Friday as the University of Central Arkansas defeated MSU 5-2.

UCA took the doubles point to start the day, beating both pairs of MSU doubles by a score of 6-4 in both matches.

MSU’s singles dropped the final three points in the No. 1, 2 and 6 matches. Junior Claire Martin claimed a point in singles with a 6-1, 6-0 performance. Junior Ellie Burger also took home a singles victory after losing the first set, winning the last two 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The second match on the weekend slate was against the University of

Nebraska Omaha. The Mavericks also defeated the Bears by a score of 5-2 and capitalized in singles matches.

MSU started out the day with a victory in doubles by freshman Alyson Piskulic and sophomore Anna Alons by a score of 6-2. Omaha went on to claim the next two doubles matches to take a point advantage.

Burger continued her momentum from Friday’s victory with another win in singles. Piskulic claimed the Bears’ second point with a 6-3, 7-6 victory as well. Omaha ended the match with victories at No. 1, 2, 4 and 5 positions to get the win.

“This was a tough weekend,” head coach Mallory Weber said regarding the losses. “We competed well but have to execute at a higher level.”

CHRISTIAN CUOZZO/THE STANDARD The Bears next match will be on Junior Ellie Burger swings for a short ball from her the road at Saint Louis University on Friday, Feb. 28, at 12:45 p.m.

Nebraska Omaha opponent on Saturday, Feb. 22.

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COLE SUTTON Sports Reporter @ColeSutton23

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signed autographs for young fans. His limp was not as noticeable as he headed to the locker room. “(Prim’s) not even healthy, and he’s still a good player,” Ford said. “We’re really fortunate to have someone like Gaige Prim — very fortunate.”

Prim’s passing, along with ball movement from others like Owens and senior Lamont West, led the Bears to the 12-point win. MSU is now 1415 overall and 8-8 in Missouri Valley Conference play.

“Our record is not as good as it should be, but we’ve got a good team,” Ford said after the game.

TH

JQH Arena felt the repeat of a Missouri State win over Loyola on Saturday afternoon. Last year, the men’s basketball team defeated Loyola 70-35 at home. This year’s win wasn’t by 35 points, but the Bears did win 74-62.

It all happened because the Bears played some of their best basketball yet in the first half.

“That was basketball worthy to cheer for — that was good basketball,” head coach Dana Ford said.

The Bears shot 59.3% in the first, going 5-for-10 from deep. Senior Keandre Cook stepped up and had his first double-digit first half since playing Drake 10 days ago. His 12 points came in 13 minutes on the court. Cook ended with 21 points, his 11th 20-point game as a Bear.

“He looked like an all-league guard out there today,” Ford said.

Senior Ross Owens continued to be a force for Missouri State, despite ending with zero points. Owens averages 3.9 shot attempts a game since he played 26 minutes against Indiana State on Feb. 1. Ford has said since that game that Owens is a difference maker on the court.

Owens and Cook led the Bears along with junior Gaige Prim. Prim ended the game with 16 points and nine rebounds. He left the game with 3:38 remaining in the second half after Loyola junior Cameron Krutwig went up for a basket and sent Prim onto his back. Ford — along with the rest of JQH Arena — wanted a charge called on Krutwig.

Prim was slow to get up and spent the media timeout working with trainers. He walked up to the timeout huddle with a limp, and sat out the rest of the game. After the game, Prim walked the team’s victory lap and

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THE STANDARD

COOLEY

ENROLLMENT

Continued from page 4

“With Aaron being legally blind, Scott helps Aaron daily; whether it is taking him to class, taking him to get his books or paperwork signed; basically whatever Aaron needs help in; Scott is there.”

Aaron similarly attributes much of his success to his dad and to his professors.

“I have great teachers here and because of them, I will be able to be successful, you know, for the rest of my time here and at work, and that's all because of them,” Aaron said.

Aaron said besides his family and teachers, many of his role models are other blind people.

“I can kind of see what they're better than me at like, orientation

Continued from page 1 mobility, and it kind of makes me want to be better, too,” Aaron said.

“Also blind people that I've heard about that are pursuing math and science and things like that because I used to wonder if it was possible for blind people to do things like that because I wasn't good at those things.”

Aaron has been blind his whole life, so he doesn't think much about it.

His passion, activism and advocacy are what get him thinking about disabilities.

For the future, Aaron recommends requiring disability education for all students.

“I think the world would be a whole lot different.”

know is where that (number) comes from,” Cline said. “Is it merely just somebody thinking, ‘Hey 5% would be great,’ or is there actual research that has gone into that figure and is there a strategy to achieve that figure?”

The Retention and Completion committee oversees retaining students after enrollment to reach the predicted 5%. The two co-chairs are Executive Director Kelly Wood and Dean of Students Michele D. Smith.

Wood spoke on current and future incentives offered to students to improve the retention rate. For example, Wood expanded on the incentive of helping students to become more knowledgeable on how not to over-borrow their student loans.

“Part of this enrollment manage-

said. “I don’t think we should be sacrificing the integrity of the department just to make it easy. If photographers want to be taken seriously, I don’t think we should just be like, ‘Yeah, you can take it on your phone.’”

Senior photography major Danielle Mertens, who works primarily with digital photography, said she believes the new class is the photo department’s way of becoming more inclusive to digital practices.

Mertens said the traditional analog class was overwhelming at first, as she had never taken a photography class before coming to MSU, but she found it essential to her understanding of photography.

“With the advent of rolled film in the late 1800’s, it opened up photography to everybody,” Allen said. “No longer did you have to be a chemist or take a darkroom when you traveled. It opened (photography) up to the masses.

“I think cell phone photography is just another iteration of that in the history of photography,” Allen said.

votion in the end, but all parents have love to give, no matter how deeply buried beneath a fortification of hatred, disdain.

As with any Zvyagintsev film, one knows this story may not end optimistically — its final moments lingering on a crushing final image.

This film also serves as the first in Zvyagintsev's filmography to heavily use an original score. And although its presence is still fairly sparse here, the score by Evgueni and Sacha Galperine rears its foreboding tunes here in moderation, acting as melodic bookends to the film, beginning and ending with a forceful rhythm that (almost literally) hammers into the audience its unforgiving attitude toward humanity, sonically administering the film's dosages of cheerlessness.

Cinematographer Mikhail Krichman (who has photographed all of Zvyagintsev's films) returns once again with his wonderfully framed images. Images soaked with the aesthetic of a murky quagmire, a camera slowly panning, tracking its characters and environment with unassertive voyeurism. Like “Leviathan” before it, Krichman's camera opens

the film with static shots capturing the film's setting — naked trees in the deep of winter, quiet streams of water bypassing shorelines covered in snow and grey slabs of high-rising concrete serving as homes.

Once again is a Zvyagintsev picture shot and scored wonderfully, elevating his bleak narratives to being very beautiful, creating this strange paradox between the very sad coupled with the very beautiful.

“Loveless” is a relentless exercise in pessimism that unhurriedly tells its story. It is as if in the very act of watching this film are we attached to clinical machinery, an intravenous drip slowly administering its prime ingredient of abjection into our veins. Although this may not be as tremendous as his feature film debut in “The Return,” or with “Leviathan” (my favorite of his and one of the very few films I've given a 10-star rating to), “Loveless” still remains one of the finest films of the last decade. Tread carefully, however, for passage into this film begets a heavy heart, but the cinematic reward is nonetheless everlasting.

8.9/10

PHOTOGRAPHY

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wide that it’s not really advertising the photography department correctly,” said Bailey Wilhelm, senior photography major.

Wilhelm said she feels the class has lower expectations than other entry-level art classes.

“You can’t sign up for a Drawing I class and they hand you a tablet and say, ‘Just sketch on the tablet,’” she

WHEELER Continued from page 3

job or in the embrace of his very pregnant girlfriend. The matter is unclear, like a whiff of smoke wafting in a cold, dead night, but Alyosha soon disappears, resulting in his feuding parents reluctantly coming together to form search parties through the city and the outlying forests.

The ground is soggy after the parting of snow, the rivers and streams frigid, and then (with the arrival of a camera movement that slowly reveals a glimpse out a school window) the snow comes back in light flurries, the audience knowing full well the possibility that the missing Alyosha must be enduring the biting cold.

Boris and Zhenya, in their own respective scenes, express with their new lovers how their lives, in one way, ended with the arrival of their son — both expressing at one point or another the regret of not getting an abortion. Yet, one would think the pair wouldn't be capable of de-

TRAFFICKING Continued from page 1

Putting herself in the line of danger to reach those hurting is something she’s strived to do since her beginnings in global work against trafficking. She’s worked through the Assemblies of God in places she’s lived such as the Philippines, Costa Rica and Argentina. She’s also worked for extended periods in Indonesia, Spain, Latin America and other parts of South America.

“When I was doing field work in red light areas and brothels I would sit on beds with women and drink maté and eat pizza in Argentina — they became my friends,” she said.

Her work stems from a desire as a child to serve when she was preparing to go on a trip to Belize. She was only 12 years old, and for months before the trip she fasted a meal a week and prayed over the work her team was to do with children’s ministry and construction. She had a dream before the trip.

“In that dream there were flames of fire and little girls’ faces, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, ‘Brandy, your response to this dream will not only affect your eternity but the eternity of lots of girls around the world,’” Tuesday said.

After this dream she envisioned herself “(spending) the rest of my life down the side of Mount Kilimanjaro, working among a people who had never heard of Jesus, cooking over an open fire without electricity … that’s really what I thought I was saying ‘yes’ to because that was my concept of missions.”

Tuesday says the concept of doing the Lord’s work has taken on a much bigger role, traveling to several countries and working with women. While she hasn’t cooked over an open fire or lived in a village permanently, she said the dream before Belize was important in propelling her forward to what the Lord called her to do.

To this day, she’s still trying to figure out exactly what those little girls’ faces meant. She’s doing her best, she said, and filling her days with ministry to people in compromised situations, lost, afraid and hopeless.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020

lipines that she realized the true toll sex trafficking took. During this term, she researched and educated herself on the HIV/AIDS rates among women trapped.

“I think we look often at prostitution or trafficking as girls having sex for money,” Tuesday said. “And that is very oversimplified. When you’re talking with prostituted women, often how they will describe the situation that they’re in (is) that it’s rape that men pay for.”

“And when you are experiencing 10 or 15 rapes in a shift, typically without condoms, your body is at such incredible risk for HIV, STDs and infections and other comorbidities.”

There is limited research spanning across continents on HIV rates among this demographic — only in south Asia have rigorous studies been carried out to assess these rates for women sold throughout their lifetimes, and a substantial amount of that research was published before 2010.

In a 2008 study published in the Journal of Science, Health and Nutrition, and based on questioning of women involved in the sex trade, only 38% of men were persuaded to wear a condom. Of those same women from India, Nepal and Bangladesh, almost 49% tested positive for HIV. A 2013 analysis published in the American Journal of Epidemiology studied women from the same region, specifically India. The researchers wanted to know — sure, there are numbers declaring a higher rate of HIV in this demographic, but is there a pattern deeper than the fact these women are in “sex work?” “(Our) findings indicate that forced prostitution coupled with sexual violence probably explains the association between sex trafficking and HIV,” the study reads. While this is a more recent study in a similar region, to this day research on HIV rates in this demographic, outside of Asia as well, are difficult to find.

Julie Bindel is a freelance journalist and founder of Justice for Women, an organization that advocates for accused of murder in domes‘Prostitution is paid woman tic violence situations. Bindel has spoken greatly on the idea that “prosrape titution is paid rape,” and that men It was during her time in the Phil- should be the focus of criminal cases

involving prostitution.

In a 2019 column, Bindel states the focus when criminalizing prostitution worldwide, should shift away from the women selling their bodies — often without a choice — and should shift instead to the men who demand the service. In an article for The Guardian, Bindel writes, “If prostitution is ‘sex work,’ then by its own logic, rape is merely theft. The inside of a woman’s body should never be viewed as a workplace.”

When Mariangela Mianiti, a sex trafficking survivor, was asked by the “il maifesto global” magazine why she writes that men are always sexually violent in every prostitutional encounter, she responded with, “I understood it by feeling my body used as a masturbatory object by thousands of men who, of course, know that the sex they buy is unwanted. Otherwise they wouldn’t pay for it. Using cash to buy someone’s entrance into the body is an act of sexual violence in itself per se.

“I know because I’ve lived through it and saw it happen to many others, and not all have survived.”

Whether a woman is paid for sex or not, trafficked women don’t have a choice in what they do with their bodies. The networks of traffickers who coerce women into sexual exploitation often take advantage of more than just one generation of a family.

“The majority of women in red light areas — they’re not going to be able to leave,” Tuesday said. “They don’t have that choice.”

Veronica

Veronica* met Tuesday in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when she was with her second owner. Her first owner sold her the moment he figured he could make more money prostituting her two children instead of her, Tuesday said.

Once sold, losing her children to the same hell she was forced to live in, Veronica had two more children with her second owner. This is when she met Tuesday. During this time, when her youngest was an infant, she realized the second owner was planning to do the same thing the first owner had done — sell her children, again.

Veronica immediately got word to her sister 200 kilometers away — she had to save her kids after watching the first two sold. Her sister rescued her two youngest children before the owner could sell them.

“It was a miracle, it was beautiful…

ment process is to develop some strategies campus-wide,” Wood said. “How can we reduce over-borrowing, for example? That would mean that we need to do some awareness and some help for students to understand their roles and responsibilities about financial aid and paying for college.”

Smith said the reasons why students attend the university is a mixture of physical and academic aspects. She said students will be taught by top professors, and also get the benefits of buildings, such as the Foster Recreation Center and the Plaster Student Union.

“I think our students come here for a number of reasons,” Smith said. She cited academic programs and affordability as reasons students want to stay at MSU. MSU President Clif Smart is a part of the Senior Leadership of the SEM

NIGERIA Continued from page 2

said. “There’s a need for (Trump) to galvanize his supporters. And with Nigerians, the biggest immigrant population in the United States, who would you turn your attention to? Nigerians. They are not only the biggest immigrant group in the United States, they are the most educated.”

According to Oyeniyi, Nigerian immigrants in the U.S. are more educated than even natural-born Americans.

“The Homeland Security Department of Labor has records, and they will tell you that 15% of Nigerians in America have PhDs and no other group, not even Americans, have that kind of record,” he said.

Oyeniyi said he believes the ban is a very poor economic decision. The U.S. claims to want to expand its economy and deal more with Africa.

According to Oyeniyi, Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa, the sixth-largest producer of crude oil, and is the top major supplier of crude oil to America.

“If you want to boost your trade relations with Africa, and you are running away from Nigeria, how do you make that claim,” Oyeniyi said.

While Oyeniyi scrutinized the ban at a national level, Olatokunbo Meghoma, a junior at Missouri State University and a native of Nigeria, said her personal reaction to the ban was simply confusion.

“When news first came out that Nigeria might be on this new travel ban list, I was confused because, as far as I know, Nigerians are typically very successful in the States,” she said.

Her father was planning to come to America to receive advanced physuntil the second owner found out,” Tuesday said. “He became livid and sold her to her third and final owner.”

A few weeks in, her third owner walked into her room with a photo.

“If I think you want to leave, I will go get her,” he said, pointing to the photo. “You know who this is, right?”

Tuesday said Veronica dropped her head when retelling the story — “That’s my youngest daughter,” Veronica said to Tuesday.

“There are so many women who repeat that story in various ways, and I have to respect that,” Tuesday said.

“I can’t say, ‘No, you have to leave.’

Because that infant is not my daughter and it is not my job, my privilege, my responsibility to make decisions for that child’s life.”

But this reality that the many women Tuesday comes in contact with may never get out or may never know the God Tuesday follows can be heartbreaking, she said.

But she continues to return to the broken places.

“Because they matter as humans.”

The Kansas City bust

In July 2019, the FBI conducted “Operation Independence,” a nationwide effort to bust trafficking rings and rescue survivors — adults and children. The Kansas City Division of the FBI participated in the operation, rescuing 35 adults and two juveniles, according to a release published by the FBI on Aug. 7, 2019.

Nationwide, 103 juveniles were found and 67 sex traffickers were arrested.

Kairo’s Hope is an organization in Hannibal, Missouri, building a residential program for women coming out of trafficking or who have experienced sexual trauma. Erycka Mabus, executive director of Kairo’s Hope, spoke on the prevalence of trafficking in metropolitan hubs of the state — St. Louis, Kansas City and Springfield.

“There is a ton going on between (Kansas City and Springfield) because they can advertise for young women there in Springfield, pick them up, hit the interstate and be gone,” Mabus said.

Mabus said it’s important to provide resources without financial burden that can bring women out of darkness, especially in a place between those populated hubs traffickers run to. The 7-month program, which can take in eight to 12 women at once, is set to begin in a year-and-a-half and will provide education on healthy eating habits, exercise, clinical counseling and biblical training.

plan. Senior Leadership oversees all aspects of the plan as well as communicates with the Board of Governors.

Smart discussed a fund for students struggling in their last semester as an incentive to help retention.

“We know students sometimes struggle with paying bills, and so we certainly have looked at creating a couple of funds that students could access in emergencies,” Smart said. “For example we’ve got a last semester fund, for if you’re running out of money and you’re near the end, you can apply for additional funding to help you take your last 12 hours of classes.”

Smart also shared why the committee decided on a growth of 5% in enrolled students. Smart said the “reasonable” growth of 5% in six years is “less than 1% a year.”

The 5%, according to Smart, was set by the majority of planners because it was a “reasonable number over that period of time.”

ical therapy that he could not receive in Nigeria.

“I was worried that it was going to be a complete ban,” Meghoma said.

“As bad as it sounds, I was kind of relieved that it wasn’t and it was only for immigration Visas. It’s still bad.

It’s not a good look.”

Since her father was only planning to visit the U.S. and not immigrate, the visa he had was not banned, so the ban did not affect him or Meghoma.

According to Oyeniyi, since Nigerian MSU students do not have visas in the scope of the ban, they may not be directly impacted by it.

But if Nigerian students have family members that were planning on immigrating to the United States, that will become an issue.

Oyeniyi said he believes if America reelects Trump, the Nigerian immigration ban will not be lifted in the near future. If a new administration comes into office, he believes the immigration restrictions will be lifted.

He stresses the importance of cultural understanding and how a lot of Americans lack it.

“There’s a need for education among the American people,” Oyeniyi said. “Americans need to know about other people.”

This idea of educating oneself on cultures outside one’s own directly correlates with one of MSU’s pillars of the Public Affairs Mission: Cultural Competence.

The travel ban on Nigeria has caused high emotions in people such as Oyeniyi and Meghoma, who made sure to grasp the understanding of the ban. Oyeniyi calls for the American public to do the same.

“The president is saying something, and not many people will see the connection,” he said. “You need to be able to sit back and ask those basic questions.”

Michelle Billionis is the owner of Springfield’s Coffee Ethic, a coffee shop located downtown. Three times, Billionis has opened Ethic’s doors and given Tuesday a platform to start important conversations about her work against human trafficking.

“I just really appreciate her dedication to helping others and see her passion for it and I just really want to help in any way I can,” Billionis said. “And now, I’m super aware of this and I’m learning a ton.”

Billionis says as a mother and community member, Tuesday’s talks have emphasized the importance of awareness that these situations happen anywhere and all the time — even in the Ozarks.

On Feb. 4, Tuesday leaned forward in her seat at Coffee Ethic and shared a story about a Nigerian mafia boss. Six women sat around her, eyes in wonderment watching as Tuesday shared about her perilous journeys across the globe, spreading light.

The table shook and coffee sloshed as conversation swirled around topics like consent, rape within close-knit communities and trafficking attempts in Springfield. A poster sat on an easel at the end of the scarred, jagged table with a young woman’s face.

Underneath, it read “Health, Healing and Wholeness,” three words Tuesday lives by.

She implored the visitors to have difficult conversations with their families. If we talk about these issues and red flags at the kitchen table, Tuesday said, our daughters, nieces and neighbors would know when they are being approached and when others are trying to take advantage of them. This could save them from a life of sexual exploitation.

“It would be so much easier for them to have a conversation with us,” she said. “But if we’re not willing to have those hard conversations around the table, then we’re unfortunately missing an opportunity to create a safe space for those we love.

“We can have an impact. Will we end human trafficking or prostitution?” She asked.

“No, we won’t. We will not end prostitution and we will not end human trafficking,” Tuesday said. “But, we can bring health, healing and wholeness to girls who experience what we cannot stop.” *If names are marked with an asterisk, the name was changed to protect the individual.