The tobacco policy is be-coming law as it enters its final phase.

The Faculty Senate met on Thursday, Sept. 20, to discuss a new policy to make cam-pus tobacco-free. The author of the policy and assistant professor of communications Dr. Christo-pher Bond addressed the senators hop-ing to gain support.

“I think that we as an insti-tution need to set the policy because we need to show that we are responsib le for the health of not only o u r s e l v e s but also col-leagues and especially our s t u d e n t s , ” Bond said.

Dr. Suzanne Kissock, as-sistant profes-sor of legal studies, voted in favor of the policy, and also urged her fellow senators to support the tobacco-free initiative. She said if we are not going to be leaders and apply the scholarly research that is endorsed by literally the world, how is that going to look to others.

“We have our Board of Governors endorsing it, our student’s majority endorsing it, and the faculty is going say we reject this research,” Kissock said. “I think it looks shameful if we deny the fact that this is the right thing to

do.”Eight senators supported

the policy while Dr. Daniel Trifan, Dr. Ian Roberts, Dr. Teddi Deka and Dr. Kevin Anderson voted against the policy.

Trifan, professor of his-tory, said he could under-stand the concern that some people have with second hand smoke. However, in his opinion a perfectly rea-sonable compromise would have been designated smok-

ing areas.“After all, this

is a large cam-pus and we are talking about the open air,” Trifan said. “I can understand that; however, I cannot under-stand a tobacco- free policy be-cause this to me is an attempt to control people’s behavior.”

During the p r e s e n t a t i o n Bond, said that since the end of February, we have had 26 Missouri West-ern employees participate in a smoking cessa-tion program.

“It has been a free program,” Bond said. “All colleges and uni-versities should be tobacco-free.”

S t u d e n t s would have the r e s p o n s i b i t y

to personally abide by the policy. Dr. William Russell, assistant professor of health, physical education and rec-reation, believes the policy is in the best interest for those at Western.

“What we’re looking at and what we are talking about is a policy change,” Russell said.

NON-PROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PA I DPERMIT NO. 32St. JOSEPH, MO

Vol 95 | Issue 28 griffonnews.com September 27, 2012

SEE TOBACCO PAGE 2

The Board of Governors approved to extend policies on the use and sales of alco-hol on campus at Missouri Western.

Instead of just adding a few more locations to the existing policy, the Board of Gover-nors decided there may be allowances for the use and sale of alcohol across the en-tire campus in any facility ex-cept for in the residence halls and the parking lots.

Western had been a dry campus up until April 29, 2008. At that point, alcohol could be served in the Fulk-erson Center, the Enright Room of Spratt Hall and the Kit Bond Incubator.

The presentation of Brazil Cultura rocked the house at Fulkerson Center Wednes-day, Sept. 19, in a romping display of Brazilian music, food and drink.

This is the third time the show has played at Mis-souri Western, according to band leader Ninja Pinto. He took command of the conga drums throughout the eve-ning’s performance.

“We have been performing at schools for years now and have always enjoyed Mis-souri Western,” Pinto said. “We do it all, schools, bars, nightclubs, and we would do a funeral if we get a chance.”

The hard hitting beat may be unusual for a funeral, but at this party it was well re-ceived. President Dr. Robert Vartabedian congratulated

Interim Director of Student Engagement and Residence Hall Director Lisa Hamblen on a wonderful event during the performance.

“We have had a great turn-out and had to even bring in more chairs,” Hamblen said. “Now all we need is for peo-ple to get up and move.”

It wasn’t long until the dance floor filled with adults and children alike.

The event was held in rec-ognition of Hispanic Heri-

tage Month and presented by the Center for Multicul-tural Education.

Brazil Cultura was an event held in recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month and was presented by the Center for Multicultural Education. The event, which was a Brazilian music presentation, included cultural dance, food and authentic musical instruments. Evan Roberts | Photo Editor

Alcohol policy to expand

Brian Ramsay | Staff Writerbramsay@missouriwestern.edu

Katelyn Canon | Staff Writerkcanon@missouriwestern.edu

Matt Hunt | Opinions Editormhunt8@missouriwestern.edu

Faculty Senate endorses new tobacco policy

Brazil Cultura pumps up, brings down Fulkerson

Hill breaks rushing record

Mike Hill rushes through the defensive line against William Jewell. On Satur-day, Hill broke the rushing record after gaining a total of 3,538 yards for his ca-reer and 737 yards for the fall season. To see our full story, turn to page 8.

Evan Roberts | Photo Editor

Ellis Cross | News Editorelliscross2@gmail.com

SEE ALCOHOL PAGE 2

SEE BRAZIL PAGE 2

5 facts about the tobacco

policy:

1. Tobacco penalties do not include fines.

2. Disciplinary action will be enforced (in reference to the handbook.)

3. Policy takes effect in July 2013.

4. All forms of tobacco are prohibited, including electronic cigarettes.

5. GriffonNews.com received 18 hits on this story within 5 minutes of publishing.

Beshears�Hall

Juda�Hall

Commons

Leaverton�Hall

Griffon�Hall

Scanlon�Hall

Vaselakos�Hall

Missouri�Dept.�of�ConservationMissouri�Dept.�of�Conservation

Griffon�Spring�Sports�Complex

Blum�UnionBlum�Union

Fulkerson�CenterFulkerson�Center

Leah�Spratt�HallLeah�Spratt�Hall

Hearnes�CenterHearnes�Center

RemingtonHall

Remington�Hall

Murphy�HallMurphy�Hall

Eder�HallEder�HallPopplewell�HallPopplewell�Hall

Spratt�Stadium

Baker�Family�Fitness�CenterBaker�Family�Fitness�Center

Griffon�Indoor�Sports�ComplexGriffon�Indoor�Sports�Complex

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20122012

All buildings allowed except residence halls

This map shows the revised alcohol policy that now includes the buildings in yellow. Previously, alcohol was only allowed in Fulkerson, the Enright Room of Spratt Hall, the Kit Bond Incubator and the Griffon Indoor Sports Complex.

Following that, the alco-hol policy was amended on June 24, 2010. This change allowed serving of alcohol at the food court tent and the Kansas City Chief’s VIP

hospitality areas, as well as at special events and prac-tice during the Kansas City Chiefs training camp.

Two months later on Aug. 26, 2010, the Griffon Indoor

Sports Complex was added to that policy.

That was the last time any

Griffon News takes a stand on the tobacco ban.

Page 6

Western running back breaks MWSU record for

all-time rushing yards.

Page 8

Read about this music major’s experience with theater in Western plays.

Page 4

see page 8

changes have been made to that alcohol policy doc-ument, despite more and more requests to fulfill people’s wishes to serve alcohol at special events, President Dr. Robert Vart-abedian said.

One such reason is that former board members are being invited to an event called “The Board Emeriti Reception and Reunion.”

“We have about 40 sur-viving members of the past 30 or so years who are no longer members, but still very interested in the university,” Vartabe-dian said. “We thought we would invite them back for a nice dinner and perhaps serve wine, then possibly have them view a planetarium show to ex-perience some of the fruits of their labors over the years as board members.”

They want to have this event in the Remington

Atrium. Currently that is a location where alcohol is not allowed.

In an attempt to get this issue resolved, the alcohol policy was brought up at a recent board retreat. Five new areas were asked to be added to the current policy.

“At the board retreat, they said they would rath-er leave it more open-end-ed than that,” Vartabedian said. “They would like to recommend any facil-ity on campus, other than parking lots and residence halls, could under proper conditions have alcohol for primarily 21 and older events as long as they fol-lowed the proper proce-dure.”

That procedure involves sending a request 30 days ahead of time, going through an approval com-mittee and ultimately go-ing through Vartabedian before final approval is given.

Vartabedian pointed out that in the four and a half years alcohol has been al-

lowed on this campus, there hasn’t been a single incidence. That could have made the board feel a bit more comfortable with opening up the alco-hol policy.

Renovations to the Sta-dium Club are needed and those renovations really have a lot to do with alco-hol being sold or served, Vartabedian explained.

“It’s certainly not as nice a facility as most of the other MIAA schools have for a stadium club or VIP suite press club,” Vartabe-dian said.

In order to get compa-nies interested in making large investments to West-ern and purchase new suites, Vartabedian said it would be a lot easier by saying that the board has already approved alcohol use. So if your company wants a luxury suite and is willing pay the money to get it, the board has al-ready approved alcohol use, he said.

“It’s not necessarily the money we are going to

generate from alcohol that is going towards building those suites,” Athletic Di-rector Kurt McGuffin said. “The idea is that most places that have suites or clubs in sporting arenas or stadiums offer alcohol for those patrons who can afford to have suites and clubs.”

The Board of Governors’ plans are to entice large companies to invest mon-ey in luxury press-type boxes at sports events.

“Most of the time these suites will be on an annual basis between $7,500 and $10,000 a year,” McGuffin said. “Our plan is to build 12 suites, a total of 200 club seats.”

In addition to the policy generating funds for the suites, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jeanne Daffron feels that amending the policy will be a positive thing for the campus and not something to make the university appear unpro-fessional.

“The alcohol’s very con-

trolled and not for stu-dents, it’s not like there is going to be big keg par-ties,” Daffron said. “It’s not that kind of environ-ment at all. So I do want to be sure, that if there is a potential of people not un-derstanding, then it defi-nitely needs to be cleared up.”

If your organization would like to announce an event, e-mail the information to

stories@thegriffonnews.com• Assault 3:23p.m.,Tuesday,Sept.11,JudaHall• LiquorOffense 3:07a.m.,Friday,Sept.14,DownsDrive• Stealing 4:36p.m.,Friday,Sept.14,DownsDrive

NEWS September 27, 2012

The Griffon NewsPage 2

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

CAMPUS INFORMATION

�N�E�W�S� �N�O�T�E�S

Banned Books Reading Scheduled

Oct. 2Missouri Western State

University will hold its 16th annual Reading of Chal-lenged and Banned Books at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2 in the Enright Community Rooms, Spratt Hall 214-216.

Missouri Western students and faculty and members of the St. Joseph community will hold a reading of books that have been either banned or challenged in U.S. schools in recent years. Refreshments will be served following the readings.

Convocation on Critical Issues with T. Boone Pickens on

Oct. 4 T. Boone Pickens’ speech

at Missouri Western will be titled ‘’Leadership and Get-ting Things Done: Reflec-tions on a Lifetime of Come-backs and America’s Energy Future.’’

Ranked by Forbes Maga-zine as one of the world’s richest people, Pickens serves as the chair of BP Capital Management. He is a noted energy activist who is also an innovative, commit-ted philanthropist who has donated nearly $1 billion to charity. His impact on Amer-ican culture reflects his many interests and passions, in-cluding an unyielding belief in the entrepreneurial spirit, leadership and corporate fit-ness, the need for alternative fuel development and pru-dent stewardship of Ameri-can lands.

The event will take place at 10:30 a.m., Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012 in the gym of the Loo-ney Complex.

Homecoming activities begin

Oct. 8This year’s theme for

Homecoming is Disney themed, with a slogan of “Griffon Country: Where Dreams Come True.”

Homecoming t-shirts are available to be purchased for $10 in Blum 217.

CAMPUS CRIME REPORTS

Thursday,Sept.27• PoliticalScienceFilmSeries:

ElectionPolitics7p.m.

Friday,Sept.28• Foreignfilmshowingof‘Eva

Peron’6:30p.m.• GriffonWomen’sSoccervs

UniversityofCentralOklahomaat7p.m.

Saturday,Sept.29• GriffonVolleyballvsSouthwest

BaptistUniversity1p.m.• GriffonFootballvsUniversityof

CentralOklahoma6p.m.

Sunday,Sept.30• GriffonWomen’sSoccervs

NortheasternStateUniversitynoon

Monday,Oct.1• TakeBackTheNight(Shattering

theSilenceofSexualViolence)at6p.m.

• Mid-AutumnDayChineseFestival7p.m.

Tuesday,Oct.2• Foreignfilmshowingof“Paris”

6:30p.m.

The festivities included food and drink from Ara-mark. The menu included Churrasco (BBQ pork) Pao de Queijo (Brazilian cheese bread) and Suco Tropical (Brazilian Punch).

Artful dancing included machetes, sticks, martial arts and several moves in grass skirts seldom seen on West-ern’s campus.

Pinto led the audience in a rhythmic hand clapping ex-ercise. He said that they had tried this at a Latino event re-cently and they did not do as well as this audience.

“Western students have rhythm,” Pinto said. “They killed it.”

Freshman Emily Giljum said she had first been ex-posed to this type of music by a recording in high school.

“I knew I would like it be-fore I came,” she said. “It’s

really upbeat and easy to dance to.”

She confessed though that she didn’t dance during this performance. She claims to be too shy.

The children were not shy at this party and began to fill the dance floor about 45 minutes into the presenta-tion. There was every kind of

dance from the unrecogniz-able to break dancing to re-ally sensual Brazilian moves.

The professional dancers wore every kind of costume from shorts and t-shirts to grass skirts. A couple of the girls were wearing feathers. Yes, feathers.

Dancers perform a martial arts choreography in their grass skirts with sticks in Fulkerson Center on Sept. 19. Evan Roberts | Photo Editor

BRAZIL: CONTINUED FROM FRONT

Brazil Cultura: An evening of exotic food, grass skirts, feathers

ALCOHOL: CONTINUED FROM FRONT

TOBACCO: CONTINUED FROM FRONT

Policy may result in large money investments

“That allows us to make it easier for people to en-gage in healthy behav-iors.”

There is 25.3 percent of Missouri Western stu-dents who smoke on cam-pus -- those figures don’t include staff and faculty. Student Government As-sociation President Jacob Scott said he stands for the minority of students who smoke and use tobacco on campus.

“The administration is well in line with their au-thority to do something about this,” Scott said. “ I don’t necessarily agree with their methodology; I believe it should go to a student vote.”

Brian Shewell, student

governor, stated Western is living on borrowed time in regards to not having tobacco-free campus.

“The students sup-port it in the Senate, and the Board of Governors have already passed a resolution to support it,” Shewell said. “It does look bad that the faculty doesn’t support it, that is my opinion.”

Shewell also comment-ed that students who smoke would have a dif-ficult time finding another tobacco-friendly college.

“If students are not go-ing to come to Missouri Western because we are a tobacco-free campus,” Shewell said. “Good luck finding any university in the state of Missouri that’s not going to be tobacco-free in the next two to three years.”

Tobacco to be banned campus-wide

Facts About The Alcohol Policy

- Before serving alcohol in a building, a request must be submitted 30 days ahead of time.

- The policy includes all campus buildings except the residence halls.

- In the 4 1/2 years that the alcohol policy has been modified, there has not been one reported incident.

NEWSSeptember 27, 2012

The Griffon NewsPage 3

According to Missouri Western’s standards and sta-tistics, some students with a less-than-stellar academic history and full course load are bound to fail.

These students are admit-ted with conditions to prove to themselves and to the school that they can succeed through the Admitted With Conditions program provid-ed here.

“We know that certain stu-dents struggle,” psychology professor Brian Cronk said. “Not that they won’t even-tually succeed, but if they came and took 18 hours, we’re kind of dooming them to failure.”

Vice President for Aca-demic Affairs Jeanne Daffron said the AWC program per-tains to students who have struggled in high school. These students could have had a low ACT score or had a fairly low GPA and were lower in the ranking scale during high school.

“Those characteristics of-ten result in difficulties of being successful in college, hence why we have this pro-gram.”

Cronk believes this pro-gram helps students if they put in the work.

“It’s not their fault that they went to a high school that sucked,” Cronk said. “So we will let them attend

here part time and get caught up. If they prove themselves, then we will let them come back and be full time.”

Director of Student Suc-cess Elaine Bryant thinks a lighter load will help these students succeed in college.

“Our AWC students are required to take a lessened load just to get their founda-tion built,” Bryant said. “Get their reading skills, math skills, writing skills, study skills and their time man-agement skills built upon for

when they are facing their next level of classes.”

There is a contract a poten-tial student must sign with all kinds of expectations and rules they must follow in or-der to gain full time status. The details can be found at www.missouriwestern.edu/advising/awc.asp.

All schools must submit success rate numbers to the Integrated Postsecond-ary Education Data System. If the success rate for that school is not high enough or

those numbers are not sub-mitted by a certain date, then that school could lose some of the state or federal money it receives.

“It’s a Department of Edu-cation that every school must submit official numbers to,” Cronk said. “If we don’t, we don’t get any federal money. That means no Pell Grants and no federally subsidized student loans. So basically we have to do it and use their definitions.”

That dated definition is,

in order for a student to be included in a cohort, they must be a full-time first-time degree-seeking student. Otherwise they will never be included in that cohort (i.e. that group of students who are full-time, first-time fresh-men who end up graduat-ing.)

What this means is that the people in the AWC program will never be included in that cohort because they are not full-time students of 12 hours when they first enroll, regardless of if they succeed in school or drop out.

Other types of numbers that do not count according to the Department of Edu-cation are transfer students or students who take more than six years to graduate if by chance they have to stop out for a family emergency, as well as many other things due to the strict definition set by the Department of Education.

Dr. Gary Rice, associate vice provost of Institutional Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage, is look-ing to change the IPEDS definition with the Student Learning Progress Model. Approximately 20 schools across America with Western being one such school will be using the SLPM.

This program measures different kinds of success. The ultimate goal is to look at situations such as if a stu-dent takes 20 years to gradu-

ate, if they transfer from an-other institution, and if they take a two year break before coming back. All these num-bers would ultimately count towards the IPEDS numbers if things work in the favor of Rice.

Details can be viewed at www.studentlearningmod-el.com.

The AWC program does have a lower graduation rate of 6.45 percent over the last six years as compared to the FTFT six-year graduation rate that stands at 31.34 per-cent. If those numbers were combined, it would bring the graduation rate down, but there are all the other types of students that would hopefully bring that number right back up.

“Honestly, there’s more than trying to get your IPEDS numbers up,” Cronk said. “Too many schools try to gain the system, try to make themselves look really good in U.S. News and World Reports or make themselves look really good in IPEDS.”

Cronk doesn’t necessarily believe in the numbers.

“That’s not what were here for, were here to educate stu-dents. Let’s just pretend this makes our numbers worse. Who cares… really? It’s about, if you can take some-one’s life and make it better, does it really matter if your number goes down a little bit?”

Academic conditions determine graduation rates

Students utilize online courses, technology on the rise

Brian Ramsay | Staff Writerbramsay@missouriwestern.edu

Along with technology, online courses have grown exponentially over the last five years here at Missouri Western. In the fall of 2008, only 30 online courses were offered; now there are 200 accredited courses.

A major reason that num-ber has jumped so drasti-cally at Western is because of Dean of Western Insti-tute Dr. Gordon Mapley and other faculty members who have joined together to make it possible. Over 90 faculty members have been involved in training to teach online courses in their de-

partments.“More and more student’s

schedules are difficult with work and school that online courses are very essential for them to get the degree they are after,” Mapley said. “En-rollment continues to climb because more students are finding it valuable and af-fordable for them.”

Mapley also believes Western’s online courses are cheap yet are of high quality, which benefit the students.

Kay Dickerson teaches ESL and TESOL courses on-line, and she believes these classes are beneficial to peo-ple everywhere.

“It allows Missouri West-ern to draw students from

all over the world and al-lows them to participate in programs that aren’t available at a lot of other institutes.”

As for the ben-efits of the com-munity Mapley, has a plan.

“We have started a $1 million dollar grant to work with the lo-cal industry to help individu-als get 4-year de-grees that will be beneficial for grow-ing business and the economy in the area,” Mapley said.

Greg Kriewitz, profes-sor of physical education,

teaches a PED 101 class to 145 students this se-

mester in the class-room and online. He can see why students like to take online class-es.

“The reason online enroll-ment contin-ues to grow is mainly because

of convenience, gas being almost

$4 a gallon, driving through a busy city

and getting to campus just to fight to find a park-

ing spot is stressful when

you are getting the same ed-ucation from your computer at home,” Kriewitz said. “As a professor of online courses, we put more time into them because we fear that the course will be more scruti-nized so we make a huge ef-fort to ensure that the mate-rial is the same online as it is in the classroom.”

Western alone has 249 students that are only on-line students this semester. Whether it be because they are working, live too far to commute back and forth or would just rather not deal with getting up and dealing with the stress of getting to class, it is very clear that on-line classes are on the rise.

Nathaniel Conant | Staff Writernconant@missouriwestern.edu

Nathaniel Conant | Staff Writernconant@missouriwestern.edu

RETENTION RATES: FRESHMAN TO SOPHOMORE YEAR

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Students Admitted without Conditions have a 6 year Avg. Graduation rate of 31.34%Students Admitted with Conditions have a 6 year Avg. Graduation rate of 6.45%

Graphics Editor | Chad Hammontree

Summer 08 | Fall 08 | Spring 09 | Summer 09 | Fall 09 | Spring 10 | Summer 10 | Fall 10 | Spring 11 | Summer 11 | Fall 11 | Spring 12 | Summer 12 | Fall 12

Growth of Online Enrollment at MWSU: Summer 2008 through Summer 20123000

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

0

296 439

803

1249 1292

661 661865

1254

1828 19462294 2205

2631

Graphics Editor | Chad Hammontree

Western increases international numbers

United Kingdom

Sri Lanka

All over the country and at Missouri Western as well, the numbers of international stu-dents are rising.

In the fall of 2007, West-ern had 10 international stu-dents; as of this semester, we have 52 from 21 different countries.

Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Dr. Judy Grimes is happy to have a wide variety of international students.

“Some students come as freshmen and do four years, while others are here as ex-change students for a semes-ter or a year,” Grimes said.

Not only do the interna-tional students learn here at Western, but professors en-courage the students to put on lectures to teach other students about their cultures. Grimes says there are some other benefits to coming to Western.

“One major advantage of the students coming here is safety, which is very impor-tant for parents when they are sending their kids some-where across the world,” Grimes said. “Another large advantage is our academics; both our undergraduates and graduate programs are see-ing an increasing number of international students.”

International Student Ser

Dire Amy Kotwani says word-of-mouth is what is helping Western gain more international students.

“Our returning interna-tional students are a major part of why we have increas-ing numbers; they take new international students to go get things and get acclimated to the U.S. and college life,” Kotwani said.

Grimes believes interna-tional students impact West-ern as a whole.

“Having students from all over the world gives us a much larger perception of how things are not just here, but everywhere.”

Western has added students from all of these countries. To date Western has 52 internation-al students from 21 different countries.

FEATURES September 27, 2012

The Griffon NewsPage 4

A st r is bornSome students enter col-

lege knowing what their ma-jor will be, and some think they know and then change their mind; the latter has been the case for student Morgan Breckenridge.

A love of Broadway, music in general and a love of per-forming is what persuaded Breckenridge to switch her major from English-journal-ism (to pursue investigative journalism) to a music major with emphasis on perfor-mance.

Breckenridge felt that she did not quite fit into the role of journalist that she had originally sought when de-ciding to attend Western. She changed her mind after be-coming involved in the mu-sic and theater departments.

“I love being around peo-

ple who love music and love performing,” Breckenridge said.

Western’s music and the-ater department instructors Tee Quillin and Roger Hale are glad she changed her mind. To them, Breckenridge has proven to be one very talented young woman.

“She has an amazing voice, it is amazing to watch her work,” Quillin said. “She has just a simple, elegant quality to her voice.”

Breckenridge got her start in music at the age of 12, starting with voice lessons and then moving into church and school choir perfor-mances.

Hale believes Brecken-ridge has a beautiful voice that could go very far in the music world with continued proper training. Hale has worked with Breckenridge

for the last three years. How-ever, Hale says her voice is not the only thing that would help her in the music indus-try.

“Lots of people have beau-tiful voices like Brecken-ridge, but it her professional attitude that makes the dif-ference,” Hale said. “She will go very far if this is what she wants to do.”

Breckenridge, who is now a college senior, expects to graduate in December of 2013, and may continue in school to earn her master’s. She is currently working on her junior recital for her de-gree and is taking the semes-ter off from acting. The junior recital is a requirement of the music degree and requires many hours of preparation.

Breckenridge and a friend now have their own band, “Shut Up and Love It.” They

perform locally and play mostly popular music. While Breckenridge has a love of all music, she prefers to perform what she calls the “People’s Music,” which Breckenridge says is similar to music you would hear on the radio.

Music has always been im-portant to Breckenridge, and once bitten by the perfor-mance bug, it became much more than a hobby. She be-gan acting while in high school in Cameron, Mo.

During her time at West-ern, Breckenridge has per-formed in musicals such as “Phantom,” and last spring’s “Little Shop of Horrors” as lead role of Audrey. Brecken-ridge earned an Irene Ryan nomination through the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival for her role in the play, which allows her a chance to win a $500 scholarship.

Over this past summer, Breckenridge spent her time acting in the 2012 summer theater company West-ern Playhouse’s version of “You’re a Good Man, Char-lie Brown.” Breckenridge played the role of Charlie Brown’s sister Sally, opposite Quillin, who played Charlie Brown. Quillin has both di-rected and acted with Breck-enridge.

“She has such a natural tal-ent with acting; if she would take it up professionally, with a detailed study of the field, she could be very suc-cessful,” Quillin said.

Some people that have in-fluenced Breckenridge are actresses Meryl Streep and Judy Garland, musicians Maria Callas, Kristin Che-

noweth and lead singer Eri-ka Wennerstrom of musical group “Heartless Bastards.”

“These women have a take-me-as-I-am-attitude that I admire greatly,’” Breck-enridge said. “You have to be capable of staying grounded, and learn not to take other people’s comments person-ally.”

Breckenridge has adopted that kind of attitude and feels she has learned to take people’s comments in stride.

“You have to be true to yourself,” Breckenridge said. “It is important to me to be comfortable in my own

skin.”Music and acting have al-

ways been fun for Brecken-ridge, and if given the op-portunity, she would love to make performing her career. No matter what she does for a career, Hale believes Breck-enridge will do great things in the future.

“I could see her moving to Kansas City or even New York to work on her music,” Hale said. “She is very teach-able, she is willing to work hard, and with continued growth, she will go very far.”

Michelle Cordonnier | Staff Writer mcordonnier@missouriwestern.edu

An artist’s adventure:Missouri Western professor Geo Sipp travels to Algeria to show his artwork

Missouri Western art pro-fessor Geo Sipp is about to go on an adventure only few people could ever imag-ine; an adventure to another country to show artwork he created.

Sipp has been working the last several years on a proj-ect with Conger Beasley, Jr., writer and author of over 14 books. This project is po-tentially a graphic novel in-spired by the French-Algeri-an war called “Wolves in the City.”

The art from this graphic novel that Sipp is creating is taking him across the seas to Algiers, Algeria. Sipp said he was contacted to participate in a conference on the 50-year anniversary of the Algerian independence from French colonial rule.Sipp is leaving Oct. 4 to show 23 images of his art that are intended for the graphic novel.

“I think it’s a great oppor-tunity and kind of a dicey thing to do, going to that part of the world today,” Beasley said. “Geo is a very bold and imaginative guy. I’m sure this will give him a lot of in-

spiration.”He is returning on Oct. 15.

While in Algeria, he intends to do plenty of photography and sketches to help with in-spiration on further art for the graphic novel.

Sean Starwars is also a printmaker and is a longtime friend of Sipp. He has en-joyed a lot of Sipp’s artwork.

“Geo has all these differ-ent kinds of images and dif-ferent kinds of drawn media that are going to inform the work of that graphic novel. They’re all so nicely drawn.” Starwars said. “The storytell-ing’s very robust. I guess it’s

not yet done but, panel by panel it’s really some com-pelling drawings.”

This is not Sipp’s first time at the drawing board, how-ever.

“I worked very briefly for Marvel Comics when I first graduated, and when I say very briefly, I mean

very briefly. It was less than a month,” Sipp explained, “They fired me because I worked very meticulously and very slowly.”

Starwars knows how Sipp works and thinks it’s posi-tive.

“His work is so minutely detailed,” Starwars said.

“His drawings are just so rich.”

Starwars is looking for-ward to see what comes of Sipp in the future.

“It’s exciting for him to get to go over there and to be a featured speaker, then just to see what the fall out for him is going to be after.”

Brian Ramsay | Staff Writerbramsay@missouriwestern.edu

Geo Sipp paints, prints and draws. Sipp is working on his prints to show in his exhibit to show in Algiers, Algeria. Chad Hammontree | Graphics Editor

Morgan Breckenridge plays Sally alongside theater professor Tee Quillin as Charlie Brown in Western’s “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” *Submitted Photo

In this tough economy, a penny spent is a penny earned. And in David Ayer’s “End of Watch,” every single penny spent is worth it.

Writer-director David Ayer got his start by writing the screenplay for the 2001 film “Training Day” and has since had some films that he directed, but he has finally come into his own with his latest piece: “End of Watch.”

Where the film lacks in his title suave, it makes up for in its ability to completely hold your brain hostage for 109 minutes.

The story follows Brian (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike (Michael Pena), who are two partnered cops for the LAPD. The story itself isn’t really about any specific job or bust that they make as much as it is about their lives.

Eventually, the two make some really big busts and they get in over their heads which leads to some heavy shoot-outs and quite grue-some scenes, but that is not where this film grabs a hold

of you.One aspect that really

works here is overall feeling of the film. Ignore the fact that the film can get grue-some and pretty violent, the real intimidation within this narrative falls into the lap of psychology.

With the camera work, di-rection, and acting, “End of Watch” constantly has you on the edge of your seat. Ev-ery single second of this film is engaging. It is not predict-able in any sense of the word and it personifies the phrase “theatrical experience.”

The other aspect that really kills and controls the piece is the chemistry between Pena and Gyllenhaal’s characters.

“Buddy Cop” movies come and go. Next to pre-dictable romantic-comedies, there probably isn’t anything we see more of.

This is not a “Buddy Cop” movie.

“End of Watch” is able to break the “Buddy Cop” mold with it’s crazy camerawork, but also with its undeniable on-screen chemistry between its two stars.

Gyllenhaal and Pena are

magnificent. Both really seem to know each other rather well and you can eas-ily buy that they are officers and are comfortable in the blue.

Not to take any credit away from Pena, but Gyl-lenhaal really shines in the role of Brian, buying himself a ticket for some serious Os-car-talk.

One of the huge advertis-ing points for this film has been the “found footage” style of the cinematography.

Take this with a grain salt.While there are a lot of

“found footage” sequences in the film, it doesn’t com-pletely rely on it. Gyllen-haal’s character Brian is in a film class and is recording a lot of the stuff on his job for the class, so there is narrative motivation for “found foot-age,” but the necessity of it is still debatable.

There are a lot of sequenc-es, most notably on some of the “break-ins,” where they pull away from the “found-

footage” idea and push to-wards a general hand-held manic style of cinematogra-phy that really works and grabs you by the nerves and never lets go.

Pena and Gyllenhaal are not the only good perfor-mances in there, either.

We also see an entertain-ing performance from Anna Kendrick (“Up in the Air”) and a very different turn, but strong performance from America Ferrera, who is mostly commonly known as

“Ugly Betty.”“End of Watch” is a cop

movie that is going to even-tually break the mold for most cop movies that we see in the future. So start the Os-car-talk now.

While it could have ben-efitted from just sticking strictly to the hand-held style, the overall experience is extraordinary.

Go see this film in a theater. It is a true experience.

‘End of Watch’: A movie to seeBrian Duskey | Multimedia Editor bduskey@missouriwestern.edu

We give this movie 4.0 out of 5 stars

MOVIE TRIVIA:Jake Gyllenhaal asked to get tased to see 

what it was like while preparing for his role.

www.GriffonNews.comView our video movie review at 

Music performer shines in the spotlight

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FEATURESSeptember 27, 2012

The Griffon NewsPage 5

SEptember 21, 28 • October 5, 12, 19, 26, 2012

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Show your valid college id at any ticekt booth for a $5 discount EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT SEptEmbEr 21 - OctobEr 26, 2012

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Instructor throws a mean backhand, coins the name ‘Kill Shot’English instructor Dana

Andrews is known for his strong liberal stance, a great passion for literature, and his sprinklings of an F-bomb or two into conversations for effect; and when it comes to his hobby of racquetball, he comes to play.

In addition to writing nov-els, and having been an ac-complished screenwriter in Los Angeles, Dana ‘Kill Shot’ Andrews is also an avid rac-quetball player.

Andrews began playing on a whim, with no influ-ences. He started off with a rudimentary version of it.

“I played a similar game called paddleball where I grew up in Florida,”Andrews said. “No one taught me to play, really, just read and

watched others.”There are several of West-

ern’s faculty that join An-drews on the courts and enjoy the sport in their free time.

“Right now there are actu-ally quite a few really good players here,” Andrews said. “Mike Cadden, who is the chair of our department, he is really good; Todd Eckdahl, who is the chair of the biol-

ogy department, he is a very good player; the three of us always play together here on campus and the three of us play against each other.”

Beyond playing on cam-pus, Andrews also ventures downtown to match his skills against other players.

“I play mostly here in town at the YMCA, that’s where the best players in town play.”

English professor and Director of Composition, Dr. Kay Siebler, also knows about Andrew’s rank.

“He doesn’t play pro, but he is very good,” Siebler said. “There are different levels; there is professional, and then there is elite; he is not quite elite, but I think he is in the upper echelon.”

There are several ranks when it comes to skill level in racquetball, Andrews

said. They go as followed:• Pro• Expert• A• B• C• D (novice)Andrews ranks himself in

the high B to low A ranks.Department Chair, fellow

professor, and sometimes opponent, Dr. Michael Cad-den, is all too familiar with Andrew’s prowess.

“He is an active racquet-ball player, he plays in tour-naments,” Cadden said. “He just participated in one this weekend and won a doubles tournament.”

Andrews reinforced Cad-den’s statement by add-ing, “...we actually smoked them.”

Andy Garrison | Staff Writer jgarrison3@missouriwestern.edu

English instructor Dana Andrews often enjoys playing racquet-ball with his daughter. Andrews currently plays at Western and also plays doubles at the YMCA. *Submitted photo

Dana AndrewsEnglish Instructor

Use keyboard commandsHow to: Every day our fingertips

go on an amazing adventure to the magical land of keys. Don’t believe me? Just look underneath your computer screen. Every time we type something, our fingers move like speed demons around these keys. And even though there are 104 of them, we surprisingly remember how to make them work faster and faster.

We do this simply by remembering quick com-mands. Though they are as simple as moving your pin-ky over just a hair and press-ing down, they save us time and save our assignments. Here are some little pointers of how best to learn these little keys and make life just a little easier.

Eboni Lacey | Editor-In-Chiefelacey@missouriwestern.edu

In 2009, Missouri Western hired Dr. Susan Carter as a new vocal music profes-sor who would be capable of introducing musicals to the performance portfolio. It doesn’t hurt that she was also a professional opera singer, either.

Carter began teaching music as she taught at the University of Texas at Dallas for nine years. While teach-ing, she began performing at small venues.

Carter was also raising two children while teaching and performing. One daugh-ter became a musician like

her mother; the other, a pilot who later taught her mother to fly.

Carter moved to Germany and other areas of Europe and began a 20-year career of singing professionally. Cart-er performed throughout much of the world, touring and singing on Broadway and many major stages.

“I enjoyed performing on the big stage, wearing a $3,000 dress, having a full orchestra behind me and thinking ‘I cannot believe I am here,’” Carter said.

After years of having a lucrative career as a profes-sional opera singer, Carter decided to change gears for a while. She began taking

flying lessons from her pilot daughter, and soon earned her own wings.

Carter worked as a corpo-rate pilot for Wal-Mart Stores

Inc. and flew corporate planes for other companies as well.

At the age of 50, Carter de-cided it was time to do some-thing new, so she enrolled at Texas Tech University and began taking classes to earn her doctorate.

After earning her doctor-ate in music vocals in 2009, Carter looked around to see where she would like to teach operas and musicals. Being familiar with the Kan-sas City area, she applied for the position at Western when she learned they were look-ing for a new professor of vocal music.

Shortly after Carter’s ar-rival, Potter Hall began per-

formances of musicals, such as “Phantom” and “Little Shop of Horrors.”

Art professor Eric Fuson, who works with Carter, said that he admires her talent and experience.

“Carter is a talented per-son,” Fuson said. “She brings a lot of operatic experience to MWSU.”

Carter and Fuson teamed up and are currently work-ing on the upcoming “Han-sel and Gretel” performance that Western art, animation and music students are put-ting together.

“It’s been fun to combine forces,” Fuson said. “We work well together, we make each other look good.”

The upcoming perfor-mance of “Hansel and Gre-tel” is a collaborative effort that will offer musicality, act-ing, animation and art. Cart-er works as a stage director, the music director and hosts an opera workshop.

Carter plans on working with students on many more musicals and operatic per-formances for as long as she works for Western.

Professor brings a lot of experience to the table Michelle Cordonnier | Staff Writer mcordonnier@missouriwestern.edu

Susan CarterVocal Music Professor

i enjoyed performing on the big stage, wearing a $3000

dress... and thinking i cannot believe i am

here.”

‘‘’’- susan carter

Andrew Setter and Chad Hammontree | Staff Illustrator and Graphics Editor

OPINIONS September 27, 2012

The Griffon NewsPage 6

The Griffon News is written and published by students of Missouri Western State University during the fall and spring semesters. The first copy of each issue is free; addi-tional copies are 50 cents. Content of this paper is developed independently of the facul-ty and administration, or other campus organizations or offices. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas, information and advertising to The Griffon News office, Eder 221, 4525 Downs Drive, St. Joseph, Mo. 64507, or by phoning (816) 271-4412 (advertising and news room). You may also e-mail thegriffonnews@gmail.com. Copy and advertising must be received by noon Friday, the week prior to publication.

Guidelines for letters to the editor:• All letters to the editor must be typed and double spaced. Letters must be no longer

than 350-400 words and guest columns no longer than 500 words. Letters and columns will be edited for style.

• All letters must include signature and identity verification information, such as phone number. The Griffon News reserves the right to edit all letters for length and Associated Press style.

• The Griffon News will not withhold names under any circumstances. Anonymously submitted letters will not be published.

• Views expressed on the opinion pages are not necessarily those of The Griffon News staff or Missouri Western State University.

Managing EditorGraphics EditorStaff Illustrator

News EditorPhoto Editor

Assistant Photo EditorSports Editor

Assistant Sports EditorFeatures Editor

Opinions & Online EditorMultimedia Editor

Design ArtistDesign Artist

Design ArtistAd Manager

Faculty Advisor

Eboni LaceyEditor-in-Chief

Blair Stalder Chad HammontreeAndrew SetterEllis CrossEvan Roberts Tevin Harris Kyle InmanChristian MengelAlbert Shelby Matthew HuntBrian DuskeyLauren DillonHanna Greenwell Andy InmanKyler PenlandBob Bergland

The Griffon News Staff

CAMPUS VOICE

Should Western ban smoking on

campus?

Check out the full responses at GriffonNews.com

Taylor McDaniel Freshman

Chris Lollar Freshman

Kayla Wiedmaier Junior

“I pay to live here; I believe I should have the

right to smoke.”

“I pay a lot of money to go here, and where else

would I go smoke?”

“I should be able to smoke wherever I want.”

“I don’t smoke, but I think they should be able to

smoke.”

Carly Compton Sophomore

Andrew Setter and Chad Hammontree |Staff Illustrator and Graphics Editor

Editorial: Smoking is a student rightLast week the Faculty

Senate approved a smok-ing policy to ban all tobacco products on campus.

Since the approval by the Faculty Senate, the policy is on its way to the Governances Advisory Council for approval then the signature by President Dr. Robert Vartabedian.

The decision to ban smoking on campus is not only unfair, but seems to take away a freedom for those who attend Missouri Western.

Students pay so much in tuition to attend this institu-tion and to be told they are not able to have a right is completely cruel. The deci-sion to make the campus tobacco free was decided by a group of leaders from each branch of students, faculty, and the Board of Governors. These people don’t repre-sent a majority of those who

are on Western’s campus each day.

The idea that students walking past smokers will inhale cigarette smoke leading to complications from secondhand smoke is untrue. Over 25 percent of students on campus smoke on a daily basis, and that doesn’t include the fac-ulty and staff. Banning all tobacco products seems a bit extreme, since those who chew can’t affect anyone else besides themselves.

We understand that the idea behind this policy is to help students stay healthy. It just feels that the policy is authoritarian in a way to force smokers not to be able to smoke on the grounds. Those who plan to imple-ment this policy and sup-port it need to worry about their own health, and not the health of others.

Voters in Missouri will

decide this November how to vote for a tobacco tax, in which a percentage of that money will be going toward higher education. There is no doubt that Western would have no problem tak-ing their percentage.

Students will continue to use tobacco products, but will do it secretly. This is what happens at universi-ties that have smoke-free policies in place. You can take away the right on cam-pus, but once students and faculty are in private they will continue to use these products.

Before the final step of this policy, we would advise those who have yet to vote on this matter to think about the rights being taken away from a por-tion of those who attend this institution. If we allow these privileges to be taken away, what will be next?

Will the number of student enrollment decrease, or will students continue to smoke even though the policy is

implemented?Stand up for yourself and

the freedom of others and vote against the smoke-free campus.

Voting in these United States of America, at least currently, is not near as pop-ular as it once was.

Throughout the later half of the 19th century, roughly 75% of the entire U.S. popu-lation voted in the presiden-tial elections. In the latest modern elections, the turn-out was slightly over 50%.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries not everyone had the right to vote. However, with the passage of the XXIV and XXVI Amendments of 1964 and ‘71, each American citizen over the age of 18 has had the un-taxed right to vote.

Why then do Americans not turn out to vote in

larger numbers? Why is it important to vote at all? For various reasons many Americans do not care about politics.

However, more than likely at some point in their lives they will curse the govern-ment for messing around in their private lives whether it is because of taxes, regula-tions, or laws.

I therefore argue that it is more important now than it ever has been before, and that, I believe, is because of the size of this leviathan-like federal government.

In a republic such as ours, voting is thus an essential mechanism to defend our rights and it also gives us a voice.

We all joke around that it’s

my right to do this or that: to voice my opinion about a football team, to smoke, or simply to play your Xbox 360. While some of these are more serious than oth-ers, it nonetheless brings to light a good point, that we as human beings do in fact possess rights.

However, the more impor-tant ones such as the right to free speech, assembly, press, privacy, and religion, the right of the people to keep and bear firearms, the right to know what crime you might be charged with, as well the right to a jury and a fair trial, the unmen-tioned rights of the 10th Amendment, and of course the right to vote, are all rights which each and every

one of us should know and care to uphold.

These are the very rights that our republic was cre-ated to defend from foreign invasion, and as WE THE PEOPLE are the true sov-ereigns on whom our gov-

ernment derives its power from, it is our responsibility to hold it accountable from oppressing us and violating our rights by holding our representatives accountable through voting.

Submitted by Sterling Fichter

Student activism isn’t what it used to be. It seems that Missouri Western stu-dents have lost their rights to protest and rally alto-gether.

In the past couple of years we have only seen the “You Can’t Let a Griffon Down” rally form when Western faced budget cuts. The Student Government Association worked to rally a force of students who were not willing to let the budget cuts go to rest. The gover-nor heard their concerns,

but nothing really changed.So for students at Western

they have become noncon-tributory to fight for their rights. There are many issues that students prob-ably don’t even realize have thats been occuring on cam-pus and they could have had a dramatic effect on if they would have joined together.

The Constitution Day event hosted by the politi-cal science club touched heavily on the issue of stu-dent activism and how it

has changed from the start of college to today. The fact is, students used to protest over anything they were dissatisfied with early on when colleges began.

There are many issues to fight for here at home. Western has seen a 2 per-cent increase for educators, but where does that money come from? Western is tak-ing consideration of allow-ing alcohol in certain areas of the university, but not allowed for students who live on campus. The most recent issue is the policy passed to ban smoking and

any tobacco use on campus.These are all issues that

students are being faced with, but don’t get involved in or even told about these events occurring. When you speak to students over the alcohol and smoking policy they feel as if their rights are being taken away.

So what’s the solution? Get involved, form a coali-tion, protest and rally to let your voices be heard. It has been seen many times that students can change not only policy, but the way the Administration takes view

of the students as well.The facts are clear. If stu-

dents work together and fight for a reasonable cause they can make a difference. It most likely won’t happen today, or even tomorrow. However, it will be in the near future. The changes in policy at Western are head-ed for a rude awakening, and the students will voice their opinions and concerns.

It’s the right thing for stu-dents to do. Students are the university, and without them we would have no university.

ElectionVOTE 2012

Students speak out

Opinions Editor | Matt Hunt | mhunt8@missouriwestern.edu

OUT FRONTWITH HUNT Unite your fight

Taylor Gregory Freshman

“I think it’s fantastic they want to ban smoking.”

Faculty Senate endorses new tobacco policy GriffonNews.com recent story comments

Controversial student worker flyers posted

Check out more story comments online at GriffonNews.com. You can also find us on Facebook at facebook.com/thegriffonnews and follow us on Twitter @ GriffonNewsCom.

SPORTSSeptember 27, 2012

The Griffon NewsPage 7

YOUR FUTURE IS CLEARED FOR

TAKEOFF.Receive up to 100% college tuition assistance.

Talk to a recruiter today to learn more.GoANG.com/MO 1-800-TO-GO-ANG

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Rank Team

Men's Golf: Pittsburg State Invitational Standings

123456789

10111213

Washburn UniversityCentral OklahomaCentral Missouri

LindenwoodNebraska-Kearney

Fort Hays StateMissouri SouthernNortheastern State

Pittsburg StateLincoln

Missouri WesternSouthwest Baptist

Missouri Southern 2

Griffon Men’s Golf finished 11th out of 13th at the Pittsburg State Invitational. Weston Apple scored a 156 with a 76 in the first round and an 80 in the second round. He tied for 38th place out of 72. Chad Hammontree | Graphics Editor

Missouri Western suffered a heartbreaking loss in dou-ble overtime to rival North-west Missouri State, 1-0.

The Griffons hosted their conference rival, the Bearcats, for their first MIAA home game of the season on Friday, Sept. 21. Coming off of a win in overtime versus Lindenwood, the team was ready to face its archrivals and duke it out for bragging rights.

In the entirety of their pro-gram history, Western has only beaten Northwest once. Prior to the game, senior goalkeeper Kelly Voigts said this game was more than normal.

“It is our time to change things and we are willing to do, whatever it takes,” Voigts said. “I mean, you want to win every game, but this game has a little something extra.”

Both teams fought relent-lessly throughout the game to put themselves on the scoreboard, but neither of them could get the ball to the back of the net. At halftime

and the end of regulation, neither team had managed to score.

The teams would play over 100 minutes of scoreless soccer before Northwest’s Elizabeth Walde shot from 12 yards out to end the game in double overtime.

Western had 5 shots with 4 on goal, while Northwest had 12 shots with 6 being on goal. Sophomore Katie Kempf managed to get off 2 shots of her own before an in-jury sidelined her for the re-mainder of the game. Voigts had 5 saves on the night.

The Griffons came up short in the second overtime to Northwest, losing 1-0. They fell to 3-4 on the season and 1-2 in MIAA conference play.

“This is our archrival,” Edwards said. “It’s a tough loss; two even teams battling it out. We just made a major mistake in the back and it hurts. I think throughout the game, we were just strug-gling to find ourselves.”

The girls will face MIAA newcomer Central Oklaho-ma at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 28 at Spratt Stadium.

Western soccer loses 1-0 in sudden death

K.C. Ramsell goes for the ball as she attempts a goal against Northwest Missouri State. Tevin Harris | Asst. Photo Editor

Mika Cummins | Staff Writermcummins1@missouriwestern.edu

Volleyball falls to UCM, dominates Lindenwood

Christian Mengel | Asst. Sports Editorcmengel@missouriwestern.edu

The Griffons split yet an-other pair of games over the weekend, picking up a loss to Central Missouri Friday,

Sept. 21, and grabbing the win the next day against Lin-denwood.

Central Missouri--3 Missouri Western--0

(25-19, 25-23, 25-12)

The Jennies came into MWSU Fieldhouse ranked No. 8 in the nation, and played like they were. The offensive game plan was too much for the Griffons to counter. Throughout the night they utilized the height of their main setter, Julia Bates, to keep the Griffons guessing on if she was going to assist or just slam it down. Bates ended the game with 35 assists and eight kills. Coach Cory Frederick knew what needed to be done to stop it, but the girls just didn’t seem to respond well.

“We just didn’t play very smart,” Frederick said. “To be straight forward honest, we just weren’t prepared for whatever reason to move on those balls. We knew what they were going to do, and we just didn’t look like we were ready to play.”

The Griffons put up a good fight for the first two sets, but

looked slow and out of place in the third and final set.

Missouri Western--3 Lindenwood--1

(19-25, 26-24, 25-17, 25-14)

This was a game that was probably considered a must-win for the Griffons, who had lost five of their last seven games coming into this one. The Griffons looked a little rattled still from the night before, but got much better throughout the game.

Junior Stephanie Hattey had another great weekend, racking up a total of 14 kills, 34 assists and 36 digs be-tween the two games.

“We beat Lindenwood by forgetting about the last game against UCM,” Hattey said. “We decided to not pay attention to the score and just play to the best of our abili-ties, and it worked.”

Melissa Cairns attacks the ball attempting to hit past UCM’s outside blocker. Tevin Harris | Asst. Photo Editor

Men’s Golf results at Pittsburg State

SPORTSSeptember 27, 2012

The Griffon NewsPage 8

ATHLETE of the WEEKStephanie

Hattey#6 - Setter/Hitter

Stephanie Hattey racked up 37 assists, 14 digs and 15 kills in two matches over the week-end. Hattey has 291 assists, 144 digs and 105 kills so far in her junior season.

Hill becomes Western’s all-time rushing king, leads nation in yards

(Left) Michael Hill stiff arms an opponent and breaks a tackle versus Nebraska-Kearney earlier this season. (Right) Hill (22) uses a block to gain yardage last season versus Missouri Southern.Jason Brown | Photo Contributor

Griffons stay perfect at Hays

Missouri Western Football improved to 4-0 on the sea-son by defeating Fort Hays State 21-3 in its first road contest in Hays, Kan.

“Fort Hays played their best football all year,” coach Jerry Partridge said. “I don’t think we played our best football, but I wouldn’t say we played poorly. If you’ve been to Fort Hays you know it’s not the funnest trip to take. It’s a long bus ride.”

Quarterback Travis Par-tridge put on a good perfor-mance on his 22nd birthday as he threw for 163 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 37 yards and a touchdown.

Partridge connected with Kyle Knox on a 19-yard pass to put the Griffons on the board in the first quarter af-

ter the defense forced a punt.Hays scored their only

points of the day on a field goal in the second quarter that made it a 7-3 game. On the next Griffon possession, Partridge connected with Tarrell Downing for a 17-yard score to push the lead out to 14-3.

Despite the Griffons turn-ing the ball over twice on an interception and fumble and dealing with some penalties, Hays was unable to capital-ize and the score remained 14-3 at the half.

“We got a win, that’s all that really matters,” Michael Hill said. “They came out there and fought and battled. They have seniors and play-ers that want a ‘W,’ too.

We killed ourselves a little with penalties and minor mistakes, but we got the win.”

Michael Hill became West-ern’s all-time career rushing leader in the second quarter and added to the total with 198 yards on the game. Hill leads the entire country in rushing with 184 yards per-game.

The offensive line has been dominant this season as the Western ball carriers are av-eraging an outstanding 6.6 yards per-carry.

The Griffon defense was relentless all afternoon, sack-ing quarterback Tarean Aus-tin three times and forcing three fumbles which were recovered by Western.

The Tigers were forced to give the ball back to the Grif-fons by way of punt for v a total of seven times on the day.

David Bass sacked and took the ball from Austin in spectacular fashion and ran

it back 47 yards before fum-bling himself and giving it back to Hays. Bass finished with three tackles and a sack.

Ben Pister provided pres-sure from the other end of the defensive line as he made three solo tackles for a loss of yards, had one sack and one fumble recovery. Sean Tray Bryson also got to the quar-terback for a sack.

Defensive back Michael Jordan led the Griffons on tackles with six solo and Dan Ritter recorded five solo tackles.

Despite making 16 first downs, Hays never made it in to the red zone for a chance to score a touchdown.

The Griffons return to ac-tion for the Wendy’s Hall of Fame game at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29 against Central Oklahoma at Spratt Stadium.

Kyle Inman | Sports Editorkinman@missouriwestern.edu

Defense allows 3 points, no trips inside red zone

Michael Hill ran into the Griffon history books on Sat-urday at Fort Hays when he broke Western’s 15-year-old all-time leading career rush-ing record.

“I’m just lucky to be in the position that I am,” the run-ning back from St. Joseph said. “I’m honored to have the record and I’ve just been around great players and coaches the entire time I’ve been here. Every player here made me get it, it’s not just mine.”

Hill ran for 198 yards at Hays and needed just 56 yards to become Western’s career-rushing king. Hill has rushed for 3,538 in his career and his 709 attempts also sets the all-time mark for carries.

Hill has ran for 737 yards so far in his senior sea-son for an average of 184.2 yards-per-game which leads the entire nation in rushing. Hill was third on the list before his near 200-yard outburst at Hays.

“It’s pretty big, but we’re only in game four,” Hill said. “We’ve got a long road ahead of us and that’s awesome that we got to this point, but you have to strive for more.”

Although Hill has proven to be the Griffons’ and the country’s most dangerous weapon, he isn’t worried about teams stacking the box and focusing solely on stop-ping him.

“If they do, then we are go-ing to throw the ball down the field, and they will have to cover that, too,” Hill said. “Travis is a good thrower, and we have good receivers, too, that will catch the ball.”

Hill wasn’t recruited high-ly coming out of Central High School by other teams besides Western. That’s a fact that coach Jerry Par-tridge still doesn’t under-stand to this day.

“I was amazed every time I talked to him that somebody else wasn’t talking to him,” Partridge said. “I thought the 1-AA teams were going

to get on him. I never under-stood why the MIAA wasn’t recruiting him.”

Despite not being at the top of everyone’s list com-ing out of high school, Hill doesn’t walk around with a chip on shoulder or use it for motivation. He just takes care of business.

“I really don’t care,” Hill said. “I’m happy that I’m here, and I wouldn’t change it for anything. “

Hill is an all-around back that shows no weaknesses in his game. He is big, strong, fast, and can do damage on the ground or as a receiver. Offensive coordinator Tyler Fenwick has noticed the im-provement in Hill, even from last season when he led the MIAA in rushing.

“You’ve seen him run away from people this year. I think he’s gotten faster than last year, he’s breaking a lot more longer runs,” Fenwick said.

Fenwick credits Hill’s un-derstanding of the game and work ethic in the film room for a lot of his improvement over his time at Western.

“I think he really under-stands all the little things about being a running back,” Fenwick said. “Over the years, the more carries he gets, he learns and stud-ies himself on film to make himself better. He’s just so strong and explosive and just a good kid. He works hard.”

According to Hill, the people around him deserve

a lot of credit for getting him into the record books, includ-ing being mentored by start-er Thomas Hodges during his redshirt freshman season.

“It goes way back to when I was splitting carries with Hodges and him being a great role model for me,” Hill said. “He did a great job teaching me and helping me out with the plays and stuff.”

Kyle Inman | Sports Editorkinman@missouriwestern.edu

Andrew Setter and Chad Hammontree | Staff Illustrator and Graphics Editor

MIKE HILL’S RUSHING YARD

STATS 2009- 792 YARDS/ 12 GAMES 2010- 704 YARDS/ 12 GAMES

2011- 1305 YARDS/ 12 GAMES 2012- 737 YARDS/ 4 GAMES

TOTAL= 3538 YARDS

Andy Inman and Chad Hammontree |Design Artist and Graphics Editorr