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Year in review
May 4th, 2010The 2009-2010 school year at the University of Missouri St. Louis consisted of resignations, pandemics and dancing red Tritons. These are our picks of the top UM-St. Louis news stories for this school year. Did the police ever arrest anyone for those assaults? Will Chartwells still be grilling UMSL burgers next year? Did Nixon really freeze tuition costs indefinately? Here are updates to the biggest news stories of the year.
On Sept. 22, Express Scripts, Inc., pledged a donation to the university of $2.5 million, adding to past donations of $1.5 million. The donation was announced at the 18th annual Founders Dinner at the Ritz-Carlton hotel downtown.
Martin Leifeld, vice chancellor for University Advancement, said that the money will go to the College of Business Administration, and partially for “new ideas in circular development.” He also said the university has submitted another proposal to Express Scripts for a donation of $600,000 to go toward the Bridge Program.
Whether or not Express Scripts decides to donate the money will be announced in a few weeks. The Founders Dinner will be held again in the fall to update friends of the university on any and all additional fundraising progress.
Chartwells contract will not be renewed in 2011
Since 2002, Chartwells has been the food service provider for the UM-St. Louis campus.
In February, Student Services hosted food service forums with students and faculty to gauge the opinions of those who utilize and rely on campus dining. They were asked what they thought about the current offerings and what could be done to improve them. The input was compiled and passed on to Chartwells as recommendations for improvement. However, it is doubtful that Chartwells will be able to implement the recommendations, as the university has since decided not to renew the contract with the food service provider when it expires this December.
“The needs of the campus have changed,” Curt Coonrod, vice provost of Student Affairs, said. “There are a lot of things that are different from the university’s side—for example, having more students and more residents needing a weekend meal plan. Chartwells has expressed interest in making some addendums to the contract we had with them and we felt now was a good time to open it up to Chartwells or anyone else to submit a proposal.”
Coonrod said that the information obtained at the February food service forums will be used by the food service committee in the Student Affairs office when they evaluate potential food service vendors in the fall. Tangie Brooks, manager of client relations, said that the new vendor would begin providing service in Jan. 2011. However, Chartwells is allowed to bid again.
Coonrod implied that students will be given an opportunity to get involved in the final decision over the new vendor.
Tuition still frozen
On Nov. 17, 2009, Governor Jay Nixon visited UM-St. Louis to announce that for the second year, all Missouri universities had struck a deal that would allow them to receive 95 percent of their state funding if they would hold all in-state, undergraduate tuition and fees flat. Despite the simplistic nature of the agreement, complications from it have been felt on campus and statewide.
First, there was confusion related to the definition of which student fees would be subject to the agreement, which put several fees on hold, until UM System president Gary Forsee clarified what would be subject to the agreement. Since then, the freeze barely survived the Missouri Senate budget committee. However, the measure is expected to pass with the entire state budget before the legislature’s summer recess.
Can upb top dr. drew?
During the 2009-2010 school year, the University Program Board and Student Life brought a myriad of celebrities to the UM-St. Louis campus. Some of the guests were very well known, such as Dr. Drew, and others could hardly be deemed famous, such as the band that played at the Oak Hall MTV Beach Party last fall, Nothing More.
Katie Magraw, senior, media studies, and executive chair of UPB, said that next year UPB is going to try to bring more big-name speakers to campus, although no names have been confirmed. Magraw mentioned that low attendance at the Mark Zupan and Jeff Corwin events compared to attendance at the Dr. Drew event was frustrating, and that next year UPB would like to bring fewer celebrities to campus in order to spend more money to bring in bigger name stars.
New baseball field still needs work
On March 10, the Tritons baseball team had their first home game in five years at their new field on South Campus. The previous field was torn down when Express Scripts came to campus and unforeseen problems, such as flooding, kept the team from having a home field for so long. Jim Brady, the head Triton baseball coach, said that the new field is a “good start.”
“There are still tweaks to iron out, like we need public restrooms and the elementary school gym we would like to turn into a clubhouse someday. We need to find an area where the umpires can dress … Right now they have to dress in their cars and its not the best situation … Also we need the addition of field lights,” Brady said.
Brady would like to see more fraternity, dormitory and University Meadows students come to baseball games on the new field next year.
Coach Pilz resigns, Tappmeyer ready for new season
On March 3, the seven-season coach of the UM-St. Louis basketball team, Chris Pilz, resigned from his post. It was never confirmed if Pilz chose to leave the team or if he was asked to resign. About a month later, on April 7, the university named Steve Tappmeyer as the new mens head basketball coach.
Tappmeyer is currently most focused on recruitment for next year’s season and said that he hopes to be competitive in the GLVC league in the next year or two.
“I’m not going to make a lot of guarantees, but we don’t want to wait three or four years to be competitive,” Tappmeyer said.
Tappmeyer said his coaching style is different than Pilz’s and the change will be exciting for fans next season.
what’s next for louie?
The 2009-2010 school year was monumental for the new UM-St. Louis mascot. Given a face on Jan. 21 at the literally packed “Pack the Stands” basketball game, and a name on the same date in April, Louie the Triton is now the face of UM-St. Louis athletics.
So what’s next for Louie? According to Lori Flanagan, director of athletics, the university plans to market the mascot as much as possible. “We are going to market him more so that people identify him …when you see Fredbird, you know he is with the Cardinals and we are going to market Louie so when you see him you immediately know he is with UMSL,” Flanagan said.
Flanagan expressed her happiness that students welcomed the mascot and that 500 people helped to name him.
Swine flu hype dies off
With the world panicking about the impending chaos that the H1N1 virus (better known as Swine Flu) was supposed to cause, campus Health, Wellness, and Counseling Services prepared by ordering vaccinations for UM-St. Louis at the beginning of the new school year. On Sept. 25, 2009, the first case of H1N1 was diagnosed at UM-St. Louis.
Since then, Health Services has offered swine flu shots to students for $10 and Chartwells delivered food to infected students’ dorm rooms. Overall, there were a total of 21 cases of H1N1 documented at UM-St. Louis and 380 vaccinations were given out to students, faculty and staff.
The panic over Swine Flu has since died down and the Department of Health recently picked up 40 unused H1N1 vaccinations from Health Services that were due to expire at the end of April. Marie Mueller, nurse practitioner, said there have been “very few” requests for the vaccine as of the last couple months.
Did we find ‘hope for haiti?’
The January disaster in Haiti made quite an impact on the world, but also on the UM-St. Louis campus this school year. The benefit concert “Hope for Haiti,” held on Feb. 11, was one of many efforts on campus to raise money for the devastated country.
Jean-Germain Gros, associate professor of political science and public policy administration, is from Haiti and took part in many of the events.
“The response [at UMSL] has been very supportive of the Haitian plight,” Gros said. “I would have liked to see more fundraising, but perhaps that would be asking too much. I would hope that interest in Haiti will be sustained next year [and that] we continue to focus on it because the reconstruction will take a long time.”
More Express Scripts donations?
On Sept. 22, Express Scripts, Inc., pledged a donation to the university of $2.5 million, adding to past donations of $1.5 million. The donation was announced at the 18th annual Founders Dinner at the Ritz-Carlton hotel downtown.
Martin Leifeld, vice chancellor for University Advancement, said that the money will go to the College of Business Administration, and partially for “new ideas in circular development.” He also said the university has submitted another proposal to Express Scripts for a donation of $600,000 to go toward the Bridge Program.
Whether or not Express Scripts decides to donate the money will be announced in a few weeks. The Founders Dinner will be held again in the fall to update friends of the university on any and all additional fundraising progress.
Campus assaults remain unresolved
On Dec. 8 and 10, 2009, two separate sexual assaults were reported to have occurred on the UM-St. Louis South Campus. Since then, the Bel-Nor and campus police have made no arrests but continue to search for a suspect or suspects in the case. Lt. John Schupp of the UM-St. Louis police department said that it is still an open case, one that is being actively investigated.
Recently, a Clery Release was e-mailed campus-wide notifying recipients of a reported sexual misconduct on April 27. The release stated that the suspect revealed himself and inappropriately touched the victim in the computer area of The Nosh.
Schupp said that the police department has no reason to believe that the recent sexual misconduct has anything to do with the sexual assaults reported last year.
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Feminism, fashion and miniskirts
May 3rd, 2010As popular music has become exceedingly hyper-produced and insipid, it is rare to happen upon a “Top 20” music video featuring an androgynous woman harmonizing with a synthesizer and wearing orange lipstick. This is why, when such happenstance occurred a few mornings ago, the orange-lipped artist seemed worthy of a Google search—after a quick glance at the date to make sure it was not, in fact, 1985.
The artist proved to be Elly Jackson, the 21-year-old English front woman for La Roux (the band name being fitting, considering her lipstick color and hairspray-swept, reddish hair). Picking Google’s brain a little further, a link to an interview with Jackson seemed intriguing. Reading through the interview, however, my feelings on Jackson and La Roux morphed from intrigue to admiration, then confusion and by the end, extreme indignation.
Jackson thinks that the overly sexualized mainstream popular culture, particularly in America, has encouraged mindless conformity, producing dime-a-dozen, big-boobed, tanned and scantily clad women. She believes that a woman can be sexy and not wear high heels or miniskirts. She thinks there is a lack of unique female role models in music for young girls to identify with. These are all reasonable and agreeable complaints.
The rub, however, lies in Jackson’s comments that “real women” can be sexy wearing “a plastic bag,” implying that women who wear high heels or short skirts to feel pretty are insecure and inferior. Jackson even went as far as to say that women who dress that way attract abusive, “arsehole” men. In her own words: “Women wonder why they get beaten up or having relationships with arsehole men. Because you attracted one, you twat.”
Besides the obvious grammatical errors in Jackson’s diatribe, her logic is also quite flawed. In her arrogant attempt to distinguish herself as a strong female trailblazer in the pop music industry, not swayed by the temptation to give in to male sexuality and patronization, she, in effect, used the same trite logic that chauvinist men have for decades. Serieusement, La Roux? Physical violence is never warranted, no matter if the woman “attracted” her abusive boyfriend after walking around in a miniskirt.
In the 1970s, feminists burned their bras and made it fashionable for women to wear pants. Yet, today there are juries that still base the outcome of rape cases on whether or not the victim was wearing a short skirt. When people like Jackson scoff at other women for their attire, it divides the female sex and alienates us from the courageous women who have fought for centuries for women’s liberation.
Sadly, La Roux’s Elly Jackson is not the first to seemingly abhor sexism while simultaneously cutting women down. Actually, it has happened all semester to the fashion columnist at The Current, Sequita Bean. When womens and gender studies students spend their time criticizing Sequita for writing about one of her passions, they are forgetting why women fought for sovereignty in the first place. As Eve Ensler says in “The Vagina Monologues,” “My short skirt is not proof that I am stupid or undecided, or a malleable little girl.” It is Sequita’s prerogative to write about fashion as it is for any woman to wear either pants or a miniskirt, play football or be a working mom. Sequita is an exemplary case of how far minority women and women have, as a whole, come toward equal rights, and as a feminist I am proud of Sequita and her sterling fashion column. It is an honor to have someone as proficient as she take on my role as Editor-in-Chief next year.
And as for Elly Jackson, her eccentricities may be refreshing, but her hackneyed attitude could use a makeover. Let’s just hope it does not involve any more neon military jackets.
Jessica Keil is Editor-in-Chief for The Current.
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The War on Parking may continue on
March 15th, 2010Although the “War on Parking” series was originally intended to be two parts, it is necessary to correct some misinformation in the top story last week. After The Current was released last week, James Krueger, vice chancellor for Managerial and Technological Services, and Curt Coonrod, vice provost for Student Affairs, noticed that Leo Gutierrez’s statements about the parking prices were incorrect. Gutierrez is the manager of Parking Operations, and he stated that Parking and Transportation does not set the price of parking at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. This is true. However, it is not the student curator who sets the prices, as Gutierrez said, according to Coonrod and Krueger.
“The parking fees are set by the chancellor; the student curator has nothing to do with this,” Krueger said.
After correcting this, Krueger also took the time to respond to students’ concerns about the price of parking being too high.
“We understand that the student fee is high. I’m not going to discount that,” Krueger said.
Krueger explained that Parking and Transportation, like the Millennium Student Center or Residential Life, operates as an auxiliary enterprise.
Parking and Transportation does not set out to make a profit—though Kreuger said it would not be inappropriate to do so—but instead sets an ultimate goal to “break even.”
According to Krueger, it can be more difficult to break even for the UM-St. Louis campus than for other campuses.
“For our campus, [breaking even] is somewhat more challenging because we own our own roads,” Krueger said.
Essentially, the money made from parking passes and tickets is used to maintain and build garages, surface parking lots and roads. More specifically, Krueger said that 40 percent of their revenue goes to pay for the most recent three “big garages.”
“Probably the largest expense in Parking and Transportation is what’s called ‘debt service’ on the bonds on the three big garages,” Krueger said. “When we built those three garages, we issued 30-year bonds. So over time, parking fees had to increase as we added each of those garages to help pay for the debt services on the garages.”
Krueger was not the only one who had something to say about parking. Coonrod commented on the idea of employing a flat parking rate at UM-St. Louis instead of basing the price off credit hours.
“With a flat rate, some might be helped, and a lot might be hurt,” Coonrod said. “If you have a flat rate of, let’s say, 200 dollars, and someone’s taking 3 credit hours, a flat rate does not help them. Our average credit hour load is about 11 credit hours. If we were to do a flat rate fee, what would you use to determine that flat rate? If you use the average, there are students who would end up paying a lot more.”
According to Coonrod, it is doubtful that UM-St. Louis will charge a flat rate for parking any time soon, and according to Krueger, the parking fee itself ($18 per credit hour) probably will not be decreased any time soon either.
And until something changes, The Current is not doing any more reporting on parking.
“The parking fees are set by the chancellor; the student curator has nothing to do with this,” Krueger said.
After correcting this, Krueger also took the time to respond to students’ concerns about the price of parking being too high.
“We understand that the student fee is high. I’m not going to discount that,” Krueger said.
Krueger explained that Parking and Transportation, like the Millennium Student Center or Residential Life, operates as an auxiliary enterprise.
Parking and Transportation does not set out to make a profit—though Kreuger said it would not be inappropriate to do so—but instead sets an ultimate goal to “break even.”
According to Krueger, it can be more difficult to break even for the UM-St. Louis campus than for other campuses.
“For our campus, [breaking even] is somewhat more challenging because we own our own roads,” Krueger said.
Essentially, the money made from parking passes and tickets is used to maintain and build garages, surface parking lots and roads. More specifically, Krueger said that 40 percent of their revenue goes to pay for the most recent three “big garages.”
“Probably the largest expense in Parking and Transportation is what’s called ‘debt service’ on the bonds on the three big garages,” Krueger said. “When we built those three garages, we issued 30-year bonds. So over time, parking fees had to increase as we added each of those garages to help pay for the debt services on the garages.”
Krueger was not the only one who had something to say about parking. Coonrod commented on the idea of employing a flat parking rate at UM-St. Louis instead of basing the price off credit hours.
“With a flat rate, some might be helped, and a lot might be hurt,” Coonrod said. “If you have a flat rate of, let’s say, 200 dollars, and someone’s taking 3 credit hours, a flat rate does not help them. Our average credit hour load is about 11 credit hours. If we were to do a flat rate fee, what would you use to determine that flat rate? If you use the average, there are students who would end up paying a lot more.”
According to Coonrod, it is doubtful that UM-St. Louis will charge a flat rate for parking any time soon, and according to Krueger, the parking fee itself ($18 per credit hour) probably will not be decreased any time soon either.
And until something changes, The Current is not doing any more reporting on parking.
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War on Parking: Part 2
March 8th, 2010
Photo by Riki Tanaka for The Current
Last week, the University of Missouri-St. Louis’ War on Parking was brought to light, then Parking and Transportation got its chance to respond. The department claimed no responsibility for the price of parking tickets or passes (saying those are set by the student curator), gave reason for slow shuttle buses and provided advice for avoiding unnecessary tickets for students who drive multiple vehicles.
This was done in open forums in which Leonidas Gutierrez, manager of Parking Operations, answered students’ questions and concerns about parking at UM-St. Louis.
Inevitably, the expense question was raised at the forum, and Gutierrez was ready.
“I don’t know why this question keeps getting addressed at us. The student curator is in charge of the rates. Nobody else but the curator really has influence on these costs. You have to essentially go through the curator and the Student Government Association [to change the price],” Gutierrez said.
Even the president of the UM System, Gary Forsee, is under pressure to do something about parking prices at UM-St. Louis.
“Here there is clearly a question about the price [of parking],” Forsee said.
“At one level it may lend itself to a little focus group; I mean do we need more shuttle capability? Do we need some other things? … But it sounds like there has already been some discussion underway about what could be done…there needs to be some careful collaboration with the students and administration on that,” Forsee said.
Forsee’s mention of the shuttle services is a topic not forgotten by students at the forums. For some students, shuttles could mean an alternative to parking on campus and paying the parking fee every semester.
“I think [the shuttles] can be a good alternative if you metro here and have classes on South Campus and North Campus, and maybe the art building too,” Ethan Chou, chief justice of Student Court, said. “I used to ride the shuttle when I lived back in Oak Hall because it was just more convenient than finding parking on North Campus.”
However, the reliability of the shuttle service at UM-St. Louis has been questioned, raising the question of whether it really is a viable alternative to parking on campus.
“I use the shuttles on a regular basis. Despite this, there have been times when the shuttles are unreliable,” Jonas Kersulis, freshman, electrical engineering, said. “I don’t have any enormous qualm with them, but when they do let me down, it’s a big deal, and I just have to sit there and be late to my class.”
Guiterrez attributes the problem of timeliness and the shuttles to several factors, including unforeseeable setbacks such as traffic, blocked routes and disabled students who require extra help boarding and exiting the shuttles. He also cited “courtesy drop offs” as a waste of time.
“The bus may be driving students on a regular route, and a student may ask to be dropped off at an unscheduled location along the way. This wastes time … In addition, students sometimes wait inside of buildings rather than at the actual stop. This slows shuttles down as well,” Gutierrez said.
Another issue raised at the forum centered on student drivers who drive more than one vehicle.
“I’m curious about whether anything new has been done to assist students who drive multiple vehicles?” Crystal Santamour, senior, biology, asked.
Gutierrez explained that temporary permits can be purchased at the Parking and Transportation Department if a student knows in advance if he or she will be driving a different car.
However, Santamour replied that students do not always know what car they are going to use ahead of time. For instance, Bradley Hult, sophomore, psychology and vocal performance, once lost access to his regular vehicle due to a car accident.
“I was borrowing my dad’s car because of a car accident involving my own,” Hult said. “The office wasn’t open to assist me with a replacement parking pass, and I got a ticket. It was dealt with, but it would have bothered me to have to pay 50 dollars simply because nobody was available to help me.”
By “dealt with,” Hult probably means that he appealed the ticket and the fine was dropped. Chou says that although many of the parking tickets written by Parking and Transportation are “legit,” the Student Court does appeal many of the tickets “depending on the situation.”
Gutierrez also mentioned a Parking and Transportation program that was started to help nighttime students who need a temporary permit after the office closes.
“I have a program called ‘Meet Me in the Parking Lot’ available after 5 p.m. It is now possible to attain a permit even if the office is closed by contacting our nighttime drivers. You have to show your ID and give information, including how you want to pay for the permit,” Gutierrez said.
So, now that the Department of Parking and Transportation has listened to the students and made responses their concerns, the question still remains if anything will be changed. Maybe Forsee’s focus group on parking will pan out? Maybe the Student Curator will demand lower prices? Or maybe everyone will just grumble about it until they graduate?
Since the forums are over, students now have the choice to keep fighting their War on Parking or just waiting to see how it plays out.
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‘August: Osage County’ is hotter than hell
March 8th, 2010
Courtesy / Robert Saferstein 1797: Robert J. Saferstein. From left: Estelle Parsons, Angelica Torn, Amy Warren and Shannon Cochran.
The best theater is like a snapshot of real life, just wittier. “August: Osage County” at the Fox Theater was a look into a reality few would wish on themselves.
The fictional family the play follows could be a synonym for the word “dysfunctional,” but even that word does not fully describe them.
The matriarch, Violet Weston (Estelle Parsons, or the mom on “Roseanne”), is a prescription-pill-addicted grimalkin who drives her husband to commit suicide. This tragic event brings all of Violet’s offspring and their families back to her dusty, sweltering house in Pawhuska, Okla.
Though more coherent than Violet, these characters are not much more sane. Violet’s middle child, Ivy (Angelica Torn), is romantically involved with her cousin. Her youngest child, Karen (Amy Warren), is engaged to a man who tries to seduce a 15-year-old and nearly succeeds.
And her eldest child, Barbara (Shannon Cochran) bore that 15-year-old with a man who is currently sleeping with his student, who is not much older. In fact, by far the sanest person in the house is the one not related in any way to the Weston family. That is Johnna Monevata (DeLanna Studi), the Native American housekeeper. Put all these people together in the same shadowy county house and hilarity is bound to ensue, in a profoundly dry, creepy, and intense sort of way.
Although the house was next to empty compared to other shows at the Fox, “August: Osage County” was one of the best the venue has ever seen.
Within seconds, the audience could go from laughing to gasping, sometimes doing both at once. The superb acting enticed chills to creep down spines, and the writing was profound in its cohesiveness. A further testament to its greatness is that “August: Osage County” is over three hours long, yet it never ceased to transfix.
Shannon Cochran as Barbara is part of the reason why. She commanded the stage, even when her overbearing mother was yelling insults. A standout performance of Cochran’s ended the first act, when her character decided to literally take control of the household, which was quickly becoming a madhouse. She shocked audience members by yelling “I’m in charge now!” at her mother before the lights dimmed, signifying the act’s end. The line reverberated off the theater’s walls, and long after the play ended, audience members echoed it to one another.
As with many of the play’s lines, it became more meaningful as the scenes passed when it became obvious that Barbara Weston not only took Violet’s authority, but was also slowly turning into her mother. Another profound line of Barbara’s was uttered to her daughter, Jean (Emily Kinney): “Thank God we can’t see the future,” Barbara told Jean. “We’d never get out of bed.”
“August: Osage County” will bait audiences with its rapier wit, but theatergoers who make it through the dark comedy will be hooked for weeks after they leave the theater. It is a powerful testament to playwriting, acting and direction. “August: Osage County” is a show that reminds viewers of why live theater is still around, and the intense experience of seeing it live can never be forgotten.
Grade: A+
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