The index Vol. 109 Issue 22

Page 1

Truman State University tmn.truman.edu THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2018 tmn.truman.edu

@TrumanMediaNet TrumanMediaNetwork

FEATURES | Northeast Missourinative Rhonda Vincent returns for concert Page 7

SPORTS | Women’s basketball closes season in GLVC tournament Page 14

Student Government pushes battery recycling program BY TRISTON DELCOURE Staff Writer Truman State University Student Government has proposed a battery recycling program for campus and taken steps toward making the project a reality. In past years, the Office of Sustainability worked with Student Government to recycle batteries every

TruCare highlights service in March BY RYAN PIVONEY Staff Writer

Truman Alumni Association is hosting its second annual TruCare event, in which Truman State University administration, faculty, students and alumni are encouraged to participate and record service hours. Throughout March, affiliates of Truman are encouraged to volunteer in communities all around the world and submit recorded hours to Truman to serve their communities and show off their Bulldog spirit. The totals will include participants and hours volunteered for the Big Event on April 7. Director of Engagement Stacy Tucker-Potter said the goal is to connect alumni and continue the service ethic important to Truman. “The idea among alumni to do something in conjunction with the Big Event has been around for quite a few years,” Tucker-Potter said. “One of the things that the alumni board was aware of is that not everyone lives in a chapter area, so they wanted to make sure that people outside of chapter areas can be involved in these efforts.”

Last year’s TruCare event

1,300

par ticipants

4,700

hours of ser vice Last year, there were more than 1,300 participants who recorded more than 4,700 total hours of service. Tucker-Potter said as they prepared for this year, alumni relations wanted to maintain the current course but build more recognition for the program. Jordan Smith, coordinator of alumni relations, created the website participants can use to record their service hours throughout the month. She said individuals and alumni chapters are free to volunteer wherever and whenever is best for them, so the event is active throughout March. This year, alumni chapters are working with a variety of volunteer organizations and projects including Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House and Buddy Packs for Food Banks.

semester by organizing battery collection drives. Sophomore voting senator Jared Kolok said previous efforts had been stifled by their infeasibility. Students did not save batteries because of the low frequency of drives and lack of awareness surrounding the events. To address this problem, a permanent installation will be created in the Student Union Building to increase accessibility.

This initiative is a collective effort by Student Government and the Office of Sustainability. Graduate student Becca Elder, sustainability outreach coordinator, said the office works closely with students to educate them about sustainability issues and promote communication between student organizations. The office has many recycling options available for students from battery recycling to rentable compost bins, but Elder

Budget cuts leave staff and faculty positions open

said having a battery recycling bin would greatly assist sustainability efforts on campus. The bin itself is made of PVC pipe, which is inherently fire resistant and safely contains the toxicity of batteries. “We are really working to make sustainability accessible for Truman students, and we hope they will make the effort to be more sustainable and do more things like recycle batteries,” Elder said. See BATTERIES, page 2

Three candidates run for Council BY RYAN PIVONEY Staff Writer

Phillip Biston, Glen Moritz and Kevin Alm are running for the Kirksville City Council seat available in the April municipal election. On April 3, Kirksville citizens will vote for the open city council position. Biston’s seat on the council is up for reelection, so he faces two challengers — Moritz and Alm.

Candidates in the 2018 Kirksville City Council election Kevin Alm

Photo by Nicolas Telep/TMN The registrar position is one of the faculty and staff openings at Truman State University. Budget cuts have forced the University to think of creative ways to fill open positions. BY BRENTLY SNEAD AND JOHANNA BURNS Editor-in-Chief and Assistant Editor

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens’ recommendation for cuts to the highereducation budget forces Truman State University to think critically about open positions. In previous years, the University has eliminated positions while finetuning others as a way to strategically navigate budget cuts without sacrificing the quality of the University. Moving forward, the University will continue to look at open positions carefully while encouraging departments to make difficult decisions after considering creative solutions to the distribution of duties. As of March 6, the University had 11 faculty, eight staff and three administrative positions available for hire. Janet Gooch, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost, said these positions will not be affected by budget cuts, and if a position is listed, it will be filled. Gooch said the University will start to evaluate on a case-bycase, department-by-department basis whether or not the open positions should be filled or if the department should consider an alternative approach. “As new positions come open, we will probably take a real critical look

to see whether the duties of the person who is leaving can be redistributed maybe, or if we could redistribute some of those duties,” Gooch said. Gooch said the University could redistribute duties by funneling all those duties to another position, or only reconfiguring some of those duties and then hiring a part-time position to handle the rest of the responsibilities. For faculty positions, Gooch said this process starts at the department level as deans confer with department heads to evaluate their needs. This process and the hiring requirements won’t change in the face of budget cuts. Departments and their chairs will still submit a position justification form, which establishes why the department needs the position, what the consequences of not filling the position are for the department and its curriculum and what alternative measures have been considered. Then, the deans decide which requests to find alternative solutions for and which to pass to the administration because they have a holistic view of their school, Gooch said. University President Sue Thomas said this is meant to be a collaborative process for the University to determine what decisions make sense in their individual units and within the goals and mission of the University. See POSITIONS, page 5

• Previously ran for City Council, has never served • Wants community members to bring more ideas to the Council • Calling for a total review of city codes and ordinances

Phillip Biston • Current mayor of Kirksville, first elected in 2015 • Prioritizes conomic development and infrastructure improvements • Wants to improve quality of life in Kirksville by improving roads and parks

Glen Moritz • Former mayor of Kirkville, served 2013-2016 • Wants more Council accountability, transparency and advanced planning • Would like to improve Kirksville Regional Airport and surrounding area Election Day for the City Council is April 3, 2018 Biston was first elected April 2015 and is looking for a second term after a year as mayor. He said since he was elected, a lot has happened for Kirksville. Economic development and city infrastructure have been priorities. He said because he was on the council when these projects began, he would like to remain on and see them from start to finish. Biston said he is highlighting the economic development of Kirksville in his campaign. In the last three years a number of businesses have opened or announced intentions to open in Kirksville, including Menards, Hobby Lobby, Marshalls and two hotels. See COUNCIL, page 5

LETTER TO THE EDITOR | Student media fulfills University, community missions Submitted by junior Tyler Hanson Dear Index, Who actually reads you? What do you even do? These, admittedly, were my first thoughts when I found out that Truman published a weekly newspaper. Over the course of my few years here at Truman though, I’ve come to realize that you may well be one of the most important traditions that our university has, benefitting both the campus community and the surrounding Kirksville community as well. You see, my experience with Kirksville didn’t begin when I decided to go to Truman. I grew up here. In fact, it was hardly a decision to go to Truman so much as a given that I would. My family has always been involved with

VOLUME 109 ISSUE 22 © 2018

Truman State University. Actually, that’s not quite true. They’ve always been involved with Northeast Missouri State Teachers College, Northeast Missouri State College, Northeast Missouri State University, and Truman State University. You see, I’m a fifthgeneration Truman student. As such, I’ve gotten to witness the unique relationship between Truman and Kirksville firsthand. One of the things that many incoming students fail to understand is that, while occasionally seeming separate, the Truman community is the Kirksville community. And as such, the students are an integral part of the relationship between Truman and Kirksville. In the same way, you (The Index) are not only Truman’s paper, but Kirksville’s paper. As well as communicating news and events, you

have also served to keep the two sides of the community informed as to what is going on in Northeast Missouri as a whole. Without your integral role, our community would find itself divided, with Truman lacking important information about what is happening on campus as well as in Kirksville. As Joseph Pulitzer once said, “We are a democracy, and there is only one way to get a democracy on its feet in the matter of its individual, its social, its municipal, its State, its national conduct, and that is by keeping the public informed about what is going on.” For those residents of Kirksville not directly involved with Truman, you serve as a window into the world of Truman, communicating both events and stories from the Truman campus

as well as providing fresh angles on larger news stories. For those of us within the Truman life, you serve both as an informative source on relevant issues as well as a way to be in touch with the community around us. You recently ran a piece called “Truman lacks healthy identity” that encouraged students to, “Connect with [their] community and become part of something bigger than [themselves].” You are one of the opportunities to do just that. For nearly eleven decades, you’ve been molded by the identity of every student that had the privilege to work with you. More than that, you’ve preserved the ever-changing identity of each generation within your pages. In many ways, you’ve come to represent who we are. You are our identity. See LETTER TO THE EDITOR, page 3


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
The index Vol. 109 Issue 22 by Truman State University Index - Issuu