The Index Vol. 112 Issue 5

Page 1

UCS struggles with staffing

“Science of Happiness,”

page 7

Truman professor publishes 14th book,

page 9

Bulldog basketball gears up for season, page 12

page 6

Truman State University tmn.truman.edu THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2020

tmn.truman.edu

@TrumanIndex

@TrumanIndex

COVID-19 CASES SURGE ACROSS ADAIR COUNTY KENNEDY COOPER Staff Writer

Over the past few weeks, COVID-19 cases have sharply increased in Adair County. Meanwhile, at Truman State University, cases have remained fairly steady. As of Nov. 17, there were 168 active cases of COVID-19 and a total of 1013 confirmed cases in Adair County. In response to this increase, the county has added two more contact tracers and is doing contact tracing all seven days of the week. The health department has completed more than 2,400 contact tracing calls. Adair County is currently in the red zone, according to the White House Coronavirus Task Force report from Nov. 11. A red zone is an area that has reported COVID-19 test positivity rates of higher than 10%. The state of Missouri is also considered a red zone, with more than 245,000 confirmed cases.

“[This pandemic] is very serious for Adair County,” Jim LeBaron, Adair County Health Department administrator, said. “Everyone needs to protect and keep eachother safe.” LeBaron said he encourages everyone to wear masks while in public, wash their hands and follow social distancing guidelines. Even with the large increase of cases throughout Adair County, the amount of cases on Truman’s campus have not spiked recently. As of Nov. 17, there were 25 students and six faculty and staff members with active cases, and 217 recovered cases. “We actually peaked like three weeks ago, and we’ve gone back down,” Scott Alberts, Faculty Senate president and member of the COVID-19 working group, said. “While we are concerned about the community, we’ve seen that the measures we’ve taken on campus have worked.”

See COVID-19 page 3

Racist posters prompt StuGov lobbies community response for mask mandate RACHEL BECKER, ANAKIN BUSH News Editor, Staff Writer Two posters were found along East Normal Avenue featuring hateful speech, including a racial slur. This act initiated several responses including a “there is no place for hate at Truman” campaign on campus, a “you belong here” campaign within the community and a senior capstone project from a Truman State University student. Justin Jones, deputy chief of the Kirksville Police Department, was alerted to the Truman Department of Public Safety. Jones said his department was limited in what they could do about the signs because it had little information. “It is a frustration to me,” Jones said. “I can understand and be empathetic, but the student who took the picture of those signs did not want to talk to police. That hindered us in some way to get a time period.” Jones said some officers canvassed the area where the signs

were reported to be and talked to residents. However, from what the police know, the signs were not breaking any laws, Jones said. “Had they been used to harass somebody or if someone came forward and said, ‘Hey these signs were put in my yard,’ then they would have been at least a peace disturbance,” Jones said. The apartments where the signs were placed were at the corner of Mulanix and Normal streets. Jones said in the past, these apartments were filled with students, however, over time, many Congolese residents have moved into the apartments. He said this is the first time he can remember bigoted posters targeted specifically at Kirksville’s African American community. Jones said the posters were deplorable and he wishes racist acts like this did not happen in his own community. “Overall, I think our community is still made up of goodhearted people who will welcome anyone with open arms,” Jones said. “Unfortunately, there

GENEVIEVE TLUSTOS Staff Writer

A “You belong here” sign sits in a Kirksville yard. The initiative began in response to racist signage found along East Normal Avenue. Submitted photo are bigoted people everywhere, and Kirksville is no different than any other community.” Jones said there was an incident similar to this in March of 2019. Typed up fliers were posted on the edge of downtown at A.T. Still University’s campus. See POSTERS page 5

The Truman State University Student Government lobbied for a county-wide mask mandate throughout the semester but has shifted its focus to improving COVID-19 precautions in local bars and restaurants. Kiren MacLeod, chair of the External Affairs Committee, said several members of the Student Government first met with the Kirksville City Council, which told them that passing a mask ordinance was not in their jurisdiction. Instead, they recommended Student government members meet with the Adair County Health Board. MacLeod said the Health Board told students that passing the mask ordinance was not in their jurisdiction either and recommended the students talk with the Adair County Commissioners. MacLeod said he decided the students should not meet with the County Commissioners because several different people had told him that the Commissioners had rejected a mask mandate several times. MacLeod said while not many city officials support a mask mandate, they individu-

ally support the idea that people should wear masks. “All of them were in favor of people wearing masks, but they didn’t think that passing a mask ordinance would be the most effective way to get people to wear masks,” Adam Barker, co-chair of the Health, Wellness, and Safety Committee, said. “They were kind of vague as far as that goes, but as a general rule, they wanted people to wear masks but voluntarily.” Jim LeBaron, Adair County Health Department administrator, said according to state regulations, the Health Board would have the jurisdiction to pass a mandate, but that the Board was not likely to do so without the support of the Kirksville City Council and County Commissioners. The Student Government members went to the October Health Board meeting, where a mask mandate did not have enough support to get passed. However, LeBaron said there have been about 400 more cases since then. LeBaron said he would be talking to Adair County government and city leaders this week to discuss their next mitigation strategy. See STUGOV page 3

DPS seeks to improve community relations GENEVIEVE TLUSTOS Staff Writer In response to growing scrutiny of law enforcement and calls for the Truman State University Department of Public Safety to be defunded, Public Safety Director Sara Seifert started a new group called TruAlliance. The group was created to facilitate communication between the Truman community and the Department of Public Safety. The group’s creation came after a march and candlelight vigil Sept. 28 protesting the killing of Breonna Taylor. Both students and staff at Truman are a part of the group, with different offices and student groups being represented, including members of the Truman administration, the Kirksville Police

VOLUME 111 ISSUE 5 © 2020

Department and Student Government. TruAlliance meetings, which started Sept. 9, are held every other week via Zoom. TruAlliance was created with the intent of “establishing proactive communication with student groups on campus, enhancing meaningful discussion about topics of importance to students, providing transparency about processes and procedures, and establishing avenues for proactive, rather than reactive change.” Seifert explained that since there are about 7,500 people on campus between staff and students and only 10 law enforcement officers, it is imperative students and staff work together to open communication and build trust. She said campus policing is focused around community, so she wanted to help hu-

manize the officers on campus and allow students to know the people behind the badges. Seifert said one of the themes the group deals with is perception. She wanted to get the students’ perspectives so DPS could better serve and protect students. In one meeting, Seifert said a student of color brought to her attention an encounter they had with an officer where he rested his hand on his gun. Seifert said, to her and other officers, it is a simple gesture they do without thinking about it. However, because the student vocalized their concerns, she was able to bring it to the attention of her officers for them to be as non-confrontational and non-threatening as possible. See DPS page 3

The Department of Public Safety and the Kirksville Police Department teamed up to monitor a student protest this semester. Public Safety Director Sara Seifert started a new group called TruAlliance in an effort to facilitate better communication between DPS and the community. Photo by Anakin Bush


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