Dean Halt
An article written in the spring of 2014 as News Editor of the Missourian about Northwest halting the search for a dean.
Content
See A7 for a look at professors’
cool possessions.
The
Northwest Missourian
Thursday, April 24, 2014
80,000
78,000
76,000
74,000
78,468
births in
Mo. of
college
class of
2014
76,005
class of
2015
72,000
70,000
1991
1992
V89 | N28
Halt of Booth dean
search causes yet
another roadblock
5,664 fewer
potential students
7.21% decrease
from 1991–95
75,146
class of
2016
1993
73,279
class of
2017
BRANDON ZENNER
News Editor | @brandonzenner
72,804
class of
2018
1994
1995
GRAPHIC BY WES ROCKWOOD | NW MISSOURIAN
Northwest decreased enrollment caused by falling birth rates, graduates
BRANDON ZENNER
News Editor | @brandonzenner
Northwest and other universities across Missouri are working to reach graduation and enrollment goals set by the Department of Higher Education. Missouri’s Big Goal, asks for 60 percent of
adults to receive a certificate or degree by 2025.
In order to do so, Northwest must recruit more
students out of high school to wear the green and
white.
Beverly Schenkel, dean of enrollment management, says Northwest is doing exactly that.
Her data shows that submitted applications increased three or four percent from 2013.
“We’re real happy with the growth that we’re
going to have going into this fall,” Schenkel said.
“In a lot of regions where we recruit, the number
of high school graduates are declining.”
According to the DHE, Northwest’s student enrollment for Fall 2013 was 5,482. Though
Northwest saw a 3 percent decrease since 2012,
vice president of student affairs Matt Baker says
it’s not because of recruitment; it’s about the number of students graduating high school.
“The number of people graduating high school
in the last three years has decreased more than in
the last 10 years,” Baker said. “A lot of the decrease
is because of birth rates.
According to the Department of Health and
Human Services, birth rates decreased each year
from 1991 to 1997. In 1990, the birth rate began to
decline from 16.7 births per 1,000 people to 14.5 in
1997. While there are slight increases in the following years, rates continued to decrease to the
current rate, which hovers around 13.
Northwest has adjusted to fewer students
going to college efficiently, however. The University decided to close the doors to Dieterich Hall in
2013, a move Baker said saved around $100,000.
The University will close the doors to Phillips Hall
in fall 2014 for the same reasons. With the rising
cost of college, Baker says Northwest had to become innovative with its
recruitment strategy.
Becoming innovative also meant a new recruitment strategy. Within the last two years, the
University began working with the higher education consulting firm Noel-Levitz to plan improvements for its marketing and recruitment strategies. Since then, Northwest has launched a more
recruitment-friendly website, which has already
shown qualitative success, Baker said.
“They came in and helped us analyze our own
goals, where we want to be and what are our opportunities,” he said. “The conventional wisdom
in higher ed is it’s cheaper to keep a student here
than it is to recruit them here.”
Schenkel and Baker both believe the switch
has led to more collaboration between student
affairs, support services and enrollment management and are confident the move will lead to more
success.
“It’s a very good sign that we’re able to grow,”
Schenkel said, “it shows that students see value in
the Northwest education, the majors we’re offering and their ability to be successful here.”
Three years.
Students and faculty in the
Booth College have spent nearly that
amount of time without their main
source of leadership and guidance as
the University again halted its search
for a permanent dean.
Head to the employment opportunities page on Northwest’s website,
and you will find an opening for the
soon-to-be vacant provost position.
After nearly three years, no listing
pops up for the Dean of the Melvin
D. and Valorie G. Booth College of
Business and Professional Studies,
however. The Booth College houses
students studying business, agricultural students, communications and
mass media.
“The dean oversees all the different departments and helps set
the course for the way the department is going to go,” said Cody Uhing, student senate president. “What
students see in the classroom comes
from a teacher who needs leadership
from the dean. It’s important to students on a higher level that they really
don’t think about initially.”
The position of Dean of the
Booth College became vacant in 2011
when then Dean Thomas Billesbach
announced his retirement, at which
time Greg Haddock, Northwest’s
vice provost and dean of the graduate
school, was named acting dean.
“My thought process in this
whole thing … was that they’re going
to find the best person for the job. If
that takes a year, if it takes two years,
so be it,” said Matt Walker, department chair for communication and
mass media. “As far as a timeline
goes, it’s not something you kind of
just rush into.”
Stephen Ludwig, chair of the
department of business, was part of
the search committee in fall 2012 and
SEE PROVOST | A7
Curious condition creates colorful college career
1 in 27
1:3
40%
LAUREN MCCOY
AAsst. News Editor | @McCoy014
Pocahontas may be able to feel the forest and paint with all the colors of of the
wind, but senior Liz Christie can read with
all the hues of the rainbow.
“The way I understand it, it’s when the
brain interprets two different senses and
switches them or connects them in some
way,” Christie explained. “I see colors with
my letters.”
What started as a puzzling frustration
turned into an interesting diagnosis when
Christie learned she had a condition known
as synesthesia. Although Christie sees print
in black and white, she sees colors when she
tries to comprehend the text.
Some people with synesthesia can hear
colors or taste sounds, depending on their
variation of the disorder. Documented cases
range from being able to describe the scent
of a white wine as an aquamarine breeze
to the ability to create dishes that taste like
hope or condolence.
Christie said she feels differently based
on each color she sees. Due to what she calls
the personality of the letters, she struggles
with spelling because she spells words how
they feel to her as opposed to their standard
spelling.
The personality of colors also once
came off the page for Christe in another
form as well: music.
Christie came to Northwest with a love
for music and began her college career in
that department. This especially appealed
to her because, before an earth-shattering
confrontation with a professor, Christie
could see colors when she heard music.
“When I could hear sounds with my colors, it depended on the type of energy the
song was giving off, and then I could interpret it based off of that,” she said.
But the neon notes ended for Christie
after a professor in her music major told her
she would never be a teacher due to her disability.
“She told me I wasn’t going to be a
teacher because I was going to make them
challenged in the field of spelling,” Christie
said.
For her, this was the last straw in a long
line of put-downs from someone she looked
up to, and it extinguished her musical passion. After this traumatizing experience,
Christie made the switch to education where
the professor’s words continue to haunt her.
“That has stuck with me the entire time
I’ve tried to become a teacher, especially
when I’m in front of kids,” Christie said.
“They’re going to point out what I’m doing
have a type of
synesthsia
ratio of male to
female
synesthetes have
relatives with
synesthesia
wrong; they’re very inquisitive and blunt,
and they’ll tell you.”
The harsh experience had a silver lining
though: another fiery drive emerged from
the ashes of her love for music.
“When I talk to people about it, they’re
really interested in it,” she said. “I don’t
want to be ashamed of it; my mother was
ashamed of her dyslexia, and she still is, but
I’m an open book. You can ask me anything.”
After changing her major to education,
Christie encountered another tipping point
in the form of a bulletin board in the classroom of a Horace Mann Lab School teacher.
SEE SYNESTHESIA | A7
SHAWNA KINGSTON | NW MISSOURIAN
Senior Liz Christie demonstrated an example of how her brain
interprets letters into colors before she can understand them.
Cambridge University study reveals dangers behind day time napping
RYAN EDWARDS
Missourian Reporter| @RyanaldoEdwards
A 13-year study published in the
American Journal of Epidemiology
revealed that if you are taking naps
during the day, your life is going to be
much shorter.
The study suggests that naps were
linked to an increased risk of people
dying from respiratory diseases such
as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary
Disease. COPD is a progressive disease making it hard to breathe.
Researchers at Cambridge University studied the habits of over
16,000 men and women in Britain,
and what they found was startling.
A third of the participants in the
study died before they reached the age
of 65, and the connection was their
sleepy habits during the day.
“Further studies are needed before
any recommendations can be made,”
the researchers, from the University of
Cambridge, wrote in the May issue of
the American Journal of Epidemiology. “Excessive daytime napping might
be a useful marker of underlying
health risks, particularly respiratory
problems, especially among those 65
years of age or younger.”
The studies show that sleep is an
essential, not an optional, part of your
day. According to the American College Health Association, if you don’t
get enough sleep during the night, you
are prone to take more naps during
the day.
Jennifer Kennymore, health educator at the Wellness Center, says that
the length of a good night’s sleep is
different for everybody.
“The recommendations that I
have seen are that people should get
anywhere between seven and nine
hours of sleep a night,” Kennymore
said. “It also really depends on the individual, as well.”
Besides the risk of shorter longevity, other recent studies show if
Look for the white buildings
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www.nwmissourinews.com
depressed state of mind.
Aveilino Verceles, assistant professor at the University of
Maryland School of Medicine said
in an April 2013 article published by
WebMD that sleep can cause mood
swings.
“Sleep and mood affect each other,” Verceles said. “It’s not uncommon
for people who don’t get enough sleep
to be depressed or for people who are
depressed not to sleep well enough.”
So before forgoing sleep in hopes
of a daytime slumber, keep in mind
you very well could be taking years off
of your life, one nap at a time.
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you force yourself to stay awake either
cramming for midterms or partying
friends, it can eventually take its toll
on your health and learning.
The ACHA says lack of sleep “can
cause the thinking processes to slow
down, problems remembering new
information, slower reaction times
(this most important for drivers), and
it can also lead to faulty decisionmaking, also lead to people taking
more risks.”
People have also reported that the
lack of sleep can cause them to be irritable and cranky when they can’t get
enough sleep, and many have reported that the lack of sleep can lead to a
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JUMPS
CONTINUED FROM A1
said the process has been out of the
ordinary because of budget reductions and the departure of Provost
Doug Dunham.
“It’s been kind of an unusual
process … the first search committee was prepared to bring three
candidates to campus in the spring
of 2012,” Ludwig said. “The University curtailed the search at that point
in time because it didn’t look like it
made sense to be eliminating positions on campus and then hiring another one.”
When the budget cuts and setbacks began, the search was officially halted in Jan. 2012.
“It is an indication of the high
regard others have for the Booth College, its academic programs and its
faculty,” Dunham said in a press release on Jan. 24, 2012. “However, the
fiscal realities make it necessary to
rethink what we are doing and how
we are doing it so that we emerge
stronger, not weaker.”
In fall 2012, the University was
ready to undergo another search.
The committee decided to bring
three candidates to campus, including Jon Hagler, former director of the
Missouri department of agriculture.
Hagler was accused of creating a
hostile work environment by a former employee and was abruptly replaced by Gov. Jay Nixon in October.
“As part of that process, we just
didn’t find an ideal fit in terms of fitting what we were in Booth College
and working with the leadership
team,” Ludwig said. “That was a little
disappointing, but I respect the fact
that we didn’t just fill the position
with a body and we were looking for
the right person. (In 2013) we were
in the process of hiring a search firm
to identify candidates that might be
good prospects, and about the time
that was going on, the provost announced he was leaving.
“With that spot not filled, it
makes it difficult.”
With an interim dean, Ludwig
says the department has continued
to move forward, but the future and
goals of the college remain unclear.
“In terms of casting the vision
for what we want to be as a college,
we don’t really have a cohesive vision
… We haven’t been held back from
moving forward, but we just don’t
have that overall vision of where
we’d like to be as a college that a permanent dean would help provide.”
Nonetheless, the Booth College
continues to function. Haddock continues to serve as acting dean, but
also holds multiple positions within
the University and knows his dean
position is not permanent. Haddock
was unable to comment on the subject because of the undergoing replacement process.
Uhing believes the University
has a tough task bringing in a candidate because of the role’s specificity
and the location of Northwest.
“To find someone who can come
in and take over the role as the dean
of a college that’s primarily business
is tough because you’re going to need
to pull somebody out of a private
sector or from another university,”
Uhing said. “Coming to rural Missouri is that not that big of a draw.
The difference between public sector
salary as a dean and private sector
salary as a businessperson … there’s
a big gap there.”
While Ludwig says the search
is on hold until a provost is hired,
Walker was unsure of its status.
“That’s a good question … I don’t
know. As far as I know, it’s still on
the search committee,” Walker said.
“Truth be told, I don’t know what the
status of it is.”
For now, the desk for the permanent dean of the Booth College
remains empty with no sure end in
sight. Though no path is clear at the
moment, Walker is confident the
University will make the right choice.
“I’m not worried,” Walker said.
“It doesn’t give me any pause or
cause for concern.”
News Brief:
Uhing reelected
Senate president
Students will see familiar faces
this fall in Student Senate. The elections for Student Senate were held
Tuesday in the Boardroom in the Student Union and more than 730 students voted.
The winners are as follows:
Cody Uhing (President). Hope
Garrett (Vice President). Katie Mahoney (Secretary). Tabois Weddle
(Treasurer).
Senior Class Reps.:
Abby Peitzmeier, Caleb Mitchell,
Zac Hawkins, and Adam McNairy.
Junior Class Reps.:
Natalie Long, Lauren Camenzind,
Miranda Lucas, and Rachel Denne.
Sophomore Class Reps.:
Samantha Snodgrass, Hugh
Slaton, Caelan Campbell, and Zach
Nielsen.
Off-Campus Reps.:
Chris Uhlenkamp, Kathy Smail,
Ty Franklin, Anna Nelson, and Alycia
Drost.
On-Campus Reps.:
Hannah Reikofski, Taylor HillZweifel, and Courtney Leeper.
“We have some amazing opportunities to help shape the conversations that happen at the top levels of
the University and the city and we
will continue to represent students.”
Uhing said.
SYNESTHESIA
CONTINUED FROM A1
“I was (downstairs) in Horace Mann, and a teacher
had put different colors with different letters, and it really irritated me,” she said. “I couldn’t understand why I
had such strong feelings about a bulletin board.”
It was a form of this nagging feeling that the letters
were wrong that began Christie’s journey to an explanation for her struggles.
In the early years, her mother, who has dyslexia, believed Christie’s difficulty with writing and spelling was
due to the more commonly known reading disability.
“I can read perfectly fine, it just doesn’t come out the
way it’s supposed to,” Christie said. “My teacher kept
telling her (dyslexia) wasn’t the problem.”
She explained after third grade and the introduction
of technology into the classroom, teachers did not seem
to notice anything, and she made it through high school
due to the wonders of electronic gadgets.
“It’s amazing, spell check gets you through,” she
said. “When you get to high school or college, though,
and you’re doing job interviews or filling out forms in
front of people, it gets very nerve-wracking.”
Though she diagnosed herself after her run-in with
the incorrectly colored letters at the beginning of her
sophomore year of college, Christie was formally tested
the spring of that year and tested 89 percent positive for
synesthesia.
Though the research on synesthesia is sparse, Sean
Day, president of the American Synesthesia Association, believes approximately one in 27 people have some
form of synesthesia.
Christie was given an IQ test and a test where she
was presented numbers and letters and instructed to
give the color she saw when she saw a certain number
or letter.
“They wanted an eye specialist or brain specialist,
but in the end, it was just a typical doctor that tested
me,” she said. “They give you a large scale, like when you
go into Word and try to choose your own color, and they
mix all your numbers and letters up.
“They shuffle through it quickly and you have to pick
Best of luck to the
Graduating Seniors.
A7
the color, and my color was accurate about 96 percent of
the three times they showed me them.”
Day summarized the state of synesthetic research
in an interview with National Public Radio. He said the
brains of synesthetes, people with synesthesia, do appear to be anatomically different–though in the same
breath, he warned that scientists have only studied a few
types of synesthesia so far. One factor appears to be the
thickness of the myelin sheath, which is the fatty covering of neurons that allows neural signals to travel faster.
“In particular, it seems that the neural connections
between different sensory parts of the brain are more
myelinated in people with synesthesia,” he said in the
interview with NPR.
To explain this phenomenon, imagine the connections in a brain are roads and the neural connections
are cars. On smooth roads, the cars can travel faster and
visit more places. Neurons with thicker myelin sheaths
are like these smooth roads: the neural signals can travel
faster and farther, letting them interact faster and more
frequently with each other.
According to the doctor who tested and diagnosed
Christie, her synesthesia could have come from being
shown flashcards as a young child where her brain fixated on the connections occurring between the colors
and letters.
While this condition and the experiences that came
with it may have discouraged some, Christie said it
made her want to help children in the future who could
have a disability similar to hers. Having worked with
adults in special education programs for seven years,
Christie knew she could connect with them on a different level than someone without a disability.
“When a person of a higher authority shuts you
down like that, that affects you dramatically,” she said.
“It affects me in the classroom as a soon-to-be teacher,
and it makes me that much more determined to be a
positive role model and catch those disabilities as they
come up.
“If I had those tools in elementary school, it would
have been a whole different story … a whole different
life.”
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Blotter from the Maryville Department of Public Safety
Apr. 9
There is an ongoing investigation of fraud at the 1100 block of
East Fourth Street.
Apr. 11
Ryan D. Barmann, 20, was
charged with minor in possession and possession of marijuana at the 100 block of North
Walnut.
Michael B. Beard, 23, Gladstone,
Mo., was charged with failure to
comply and permitting a peace
disturbance at the 500 block of
West Ninth Street.
Logan S. Snow, 21, was charged
with failure to comply and permitting a peace disturbance
at the 500 block of West Ninth
Street.
Andrew G. Haudek, 19, was
charged with minor in possession at the 100 block of North
Walnut.
Jesse L. Birkenholz, 22, was
charged with permitting a peace
disturbance at the 500 block of
West Ninth Street.
John R. McCormick was charged
with minor in possession at the
100 block of North Walnut.
Alyssa A. Watson, 20, Raymore,
Mo., was charged with minor in
possession at the 300 block of
North Market.
There is an ongoing investigation of burglary at the 400 block
of West Fourth Street.
Garrett M. Hellon, 22, Blue
Springs, Mo., was charged with
failure to comply and giving
false information to a public
safety officer at the 500 block of
West Ninth Street.
Daniel P. Kerwin, 19, Kansas
City, Mo., was charged with minor in possession at 1000 block
of North Walnut.
Katie J. Retschulte, 20, was
charged with minor in possession at 1000 North Walnut.
Wyatt A. Gauchat, 18, Brownville, Mo., was charged with minor in possession 1000 North
Walnut.
Apr. 12
Lauren A. Farnsworth, 20, was
charged with minor in possession at the 300 block of North
Market.
An accident occurred between
an unknown driver and Laurel
C. Holmquist at the 700 block of
North Buchanan.
Apr. 13
There is an ongoing investigation of larceny at the 301600
block of South Main.
There is an ongoing investigation of property damage at the
300 block of West Fifth Street.
Cassie M. Swanson, 22, was
charged with driving while intoxicated and careless and impudent driving at the 700 block
of East First Street.
Apr. 14
Stefan T. Pyles, 25, was charged
with no valid drivers license
and speeding at the 200 block of
North Country Club.
Alec J. Nelson, 19, was charged
with minor in possession and
disorderly conduct at the 300
block of North Market.
Brittany M. Hall, 19, Smithton,
Mo., was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia at
the 1100 block of North College
Drive.
Veronica M. Bolton, 19, was
charged with driving while intoxicated, failure to maintain
right half of the road and minor in possession 1400 block of
South Main.
An accident occurred between
Kirk L. Francis, 50, and Kurby K.
Aley, 62, at the 100 bock of East
Third Street.
Apr. 15
There is an ongoing investigation of property damage at the
2400 block of South Main.
An accident occurred between
Judith D. Allen, 68, and Vera M.
Holder, 50, at the 1200 block of
South Main.
Apr. 17
Devin J. Krenik, 19, was charged
with minor in possession at the
300 block of North Market.
Micala R. Rounkles, 19, was
charged with minor in possession at the 1400 block of South
Main.
Apri. 18
Tomas R. Lopez III, 18, Turney,
Mo., was charged with speeding at the 700 block of College
Avenue.
Apr. 20
There is an ongoing investigation of property damage at the
300 block of South Main.
cool possessions.
The
Northwest Missourian
Thursday, April 24, 2014
80,000
78,000
76,000
74,000
78,468
births in
Mo. of
college
class of
2014
76,005
class of
2015
72,000
70,000
1991
1992
V89 | N28
Halt of Booth dean
search causes yet
another roadblock
5,664 fewer
potential students
7.21% decrease
from 1991–95
75,146
class of
2016
1993
73,279
class of
2017
BRANDON ZENNER
News Editor | @brandonzenner
72,804
class of
2018
1994
1995
GRAPHIC BY WES ROCKWOOD | NW MISSOURIAN
Northwest decreased enrollment caused by falling birth rates, graduates
BRANDON ZENNER
News Editor | @brandonzenner
Northwest and other universities across Missouri are working to reach graduation and enrollment goals set by the Department of Higher Education. Missouri’s Big Goal, asks for 60 percent of
adults to receive a certificate or degree by 2025.
In order to do so, Northwest must recruit more
students out of high school to wear the green and
white.
Beverly Schenkel, dean of enrollment management, says Northwest is doing exactly that.
Her data shows that submitted applications increased three or four percent from 2013.
“We’re real happy with the growth that we’re
going to have going into this fall,” Schenkel said.
“In a lot of regions where we recruit, the number
of high school graduates are declining.”
According to the DHE, Northwest’s student enrollment for Fall 2013 was 5,482. Though
Northwest saw a 3 percent decrease since 2012,
vice president of student affairs Matt Baker says
it’s not because of recruitment; it’s about the number of students graduating high school.
“The number of people graduating high school
in the last three years has decreased more than in
the last 10 years,” Baker said. “A lot of the decrease
is because of birth rates.
According to the Department of Health and
Human Services, birth rates decreased each year
from 1991 to 1997. In 1990, the birth rate began to
decline from 16.7 births per 1,000 people to 14.5 in
1997. While there are slight increases in the following years, rates continued to decrease to the
current rate, which hovers around 13.
Northwest has adjusted to fewer students
going to college efficiently, however. The University decided to close the doors to Dieterich Hall in
2013, a move Baker said saved around $100,000.
The University will close the doors to Phillips Hall
in fall 2014 for the same reasons. With the rising
cost of college, Baker says Northwest had to become innovative with its
recruitment strategy.
Becoming innovative also meant a new recruitment strategy. Within the last two years, the
University began working with the higher education consulting firm Noel-Levitz to plan improvements for its marketing and recruitment strategies. Since then, Northwest has launched a more
recruitment-friendly website, which has already
shown qualitative success, Baker said.
“They came in and helped us analyze our own
goals, where we want to be and what are our opportunities,” he said. “The conventional wisdom
in higher ed is it’s cheaper to keep a student here
than it is to recruit them here.”
Schenkel and Baker both believe the switch
has led to more collaboration between student
affairs, support services and enrollment management and are confident the move will lead to more
success.
“It’s a very good sign that we’re able to grow,”
Schenkel said, “it shows that students see value in
the Northwest education, the majors we’re offering and their ability to be successful here.”
Three years.
Students and faculty in the
Booth College have spent nearly that
amount of time without their main
source of leadership and guidance as
the University again halted its search
for a permanent dean.
Head to the employment opportunities page on Northwest’s website,
and you will find an opening for the
soon-to-be vacant provost position.
After nearly three years, no listing
pops up for the Dean of the Melvin
D. and Valorie G. Booth College of
Business and Professional Studies,
however. The Booth College houses
students studying business, agricultural students, communications and
mass media.
“The dean oversees all the different departments and helps set
the course for the way the department is going to go,” said Cody Uhing, student senate president. “What
students see in the classroom comes
from a teacher who needs leadership
from the dean. It’s important to students on a higher level that they really
don’t think about initially.”
The position of Dean of the
Booth College became vacant in 2011
when then Dean Thomas Billesbach
announced his retirement, at which
time Greg Haddock, Northwest’s
vice provost and dean of the graduate
school, was named acting dean.
“My thought process in this
whole thing … was that they’re going
to find the best person for the job. If
that takes a year, if it takes two years,
so be it,” said Matt Walker, department chair for communication and
mass media. “As far as a timeline
goes, it’s not something you kind of
just rush into.”
Stephen Ludwig, chair of the
department of business, was part of
the search committee in fall 2012 and
SEE PROVOST | A7
Curious condition creates colorful college career
1 in 27
1:3
40%
LAUREN MCCOY
AAsst. News Editor | @McCoy014
Pocahontas may be able to feel the forest and paint with all the colors of of the
wind, but senior Liz Christie can read with
all the hues of the rainbow.
“The way I understand it, it’s when the
brain interprets two different senses and
switches them or connects them in some
way,” Christie explained. “I see colors with
my letters.”
What started as a puzzling frustration
turned into an interesting diagnosis when
Christie learned she had a condition known
as synesthesia. Although Christie sees print
in black and white, she sees colors when she
tries to comprehend the text.
Some people with synesthesia can hear
colors or taste sounds, depending on their
variation of the disorder. Documented cases
range from being able to describe the scent
of a white wine as an aquamarine breeze
to the ability to create dishes that taste like
hope or condolence.
Christie said she feels differently based
on each color she sees. Due to what she calls
the personality of the letters, she struggles
with spelling because she spells words how
they feel to her as opposed to their standard
spelling.
The personality of colors also once
came off the page for Christe in another
form as well: music.
Christie came to Northwest with a love
for music and began her college career in
that department. This especially appealed
to her because, before an earth-shattering
confrontation with a professor, Christie
could see colors when she heard music.
“When I could hear sounds with my colors, it depended on the type of energy the
song was giving off, and then I could interpret it based off of that,” she said.
But the neon notes ended for Christie
after a professor in her music major told her
she would never be a teacher due to her disability.
“She told me I wasn’t going to be a
teacher because I was going to make them
challenged in the field of spelling,” Christie
said.
For her, this was the last straw in a long
line of put-downs from someone she looked
up to, and it extinguished her musical passion. After this traumatizing experience,
Christie made the switch to education where
the professor’s words continue to haunt her.
“That has stuck with me the entire time
I’ve tried to become a teacher, especially
when I’m in front of kids,” Christie said.
“They’re going to point out what I’m doing
have a type of
synesthsia
ratio of male to
female
synesthetes have
relatives with
synesthesia
wrong; they’re very inquisitive and blunt,
and they’ll tell you.”
The harsh experience had a silver lining
though: another fiery drive emerged from
the ashes of her love for music.
“When I talk to people about it, they’re
really interested in it,” she said. “I don’t
want to be ashamed of it; my mother was
ashamed of her dyslexia, and she still is, but
I’m an open book. You can ask me anything.”
After changing her major to education,
Christie encountered another tipping point
in the form of a bulletin board in the classroom of a Horace Mann Lab School teacher.
SEE SYNESTHESIA | A7
SHAWNA KINGSTON | NW MISSOURIAN
Senior Liz Christie demonstrated an example of how her brain
interprets letters into colors before she can understand them.
Cambridge University study reveals dangers behind day time napping
RYAN EDWARDS
Missourian Reporter| @RyanaldoEdwards
A 13-year study published in the
American Journal of Epidemiology
revealed that if you are taking naps
during the day, your life is going to be
much shorter.
The study suggests that naps were
linked to an increased risk of people
dying from respiratory diseases such
as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary
Disease. COPD is a progressive disease making it hard to breathe.
Researchers at Cambridge University studied the habits of over
16,000 men and women in Britain,
and what they found was startling.
A third of the participants in the
study died before they reached the age
of 65, and the connection was their
sleepy habits during the day.
“Further studies are needed before
any recommendations can be made,”
the researchers, from the University of
Cambridge, wrote in the May issue of
the American Journal of Epidemiology. “Excessive daytime napping might
be a useful marker of underlying
health risks, particularly respiratory
problems, especially among those 65
years of age or younger.”
The studies show that sleep is an
essential, not an optional, part of your
day. According to the American College Health Association, if you don’t
get enough sleep during the night, you
are prone to take more naps during
the day.
Jennifer Kennymore, health educator at the Wellness Center, says that
the length of a good night’s sleep is
different for everybody.
“The recommendations that I
have seen are that people should get
anywhere between seven and nine
hours of sleep a night,” Kennymore
said. “It also really depends on the individual, as well.”
Besides the risk of shorter longevity, other recent studies show if
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depressed state of mind.
Aveilino Verceles, assistant professor at the University of
Maryland School of Medicine said
in an April 2013 article published by
WebMD that sleep can cause mood
swings.
“Sleep and mood affect each other,” Verceles said. “It’s not uncommon
for people who don’t get enough sleep
to be depressed or for people who are
depressed not to sleep well enough.”
So before forgoing sleep in hopes
of a daytime slumber, keep in mind
you very well could be taking years off
of your life, one nap at a time.
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you force yourself to stay awake either
cramming for midterms or partying
friends, it can eventually take its toll
on your health and learning.
The ACHA says lack of sleep “can
cause the thinking processes to slow
down, problems remembering new
information, slower reaction times
(this most important for drivers), and
it can also lead to faulty decisionmaking, also lead to people taking
more risks.”
People have also reported that the
lack of sleep can cause them to be irritable and cranky when they can’t get
enough sleep, and many have reported that the lack of sleep can lead to a
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JUMPS
CONTINUED FROM A1
said the process has been out of the
ordinary because of budget reductions and the departure of Provost
Doug Dunham.
“It’s been kind of an unusual
process … the first search committee was prepared to bring three
candidates to campus in the spring
of 2012,” Ludwig said. “The University curtailed the search at that point
in time because it didn’t look like it
made sense to be eliminating positions on campus and then hiring another one.”
When the budget cuts and setbacks began, the search was officially halted in Jan. 2012.
“It is an indication of the high
regard others have for the Booth College, its academic programs and its
faculty,” Dunham said in a press release on Jan. 24, 2012. “However, the
fiscal realities make it necessary to
rethink what we are doing and how
we are doing it so that we emerge
stronger, not weaker.”
In fall 2012, the University was
ready to undergo another search.
The committee decided to bring
three candidates to campus, including Jon Hagler, former director of the
Missouri department of agriculture.
Hagler was accused of creating a
hostile work environment by a former employee and was abruptly replaced by Gov. Jay Nixon in October.
“As part of that process, we just
didn’t find an ideal fit in terms of fitting what we were in Booth College
and working with the leadership
team,” Ludwig said. “That was a little
disappointing, but I respect the fact
that we didn’t just fill the position
with a body and we were looking for
the right person. (In 2013) we were
in the process of hiring a search firm
to identify candidates that might be
good prospects, and about the time
that was going on, the provost announced he was leaving.
“With that spot not filled, it
makes it difficult.”
With an interim dean, Ludwig
says the department has continued
to move forward, but the future and
goals of the college remain unclear.
“In terms of casting the vision
for what we want to be as a college,
we don’t really have a cohesive vision
… We haven’t been held back from
moving forward, but we just don’t
have that overall vision of where
we’d like to be as a college that a permanent dean would help provide.”
Nonetheless, the Booth College
continues to function. Haddock continues to serve as acting dean, but
also holds multiple positions within
the University and knows his dean
position is not permanent. Haddock
was unable to comment on the subject because of the undergoing replacement process.
Uhing believes the University
has a tough task bringing in a candidate because of the role’s specificity
and the location of Northwest.
“To find someone who can come
in and take over the role as the dean
of a college that’s primarily business
is tough because you’re going to need
to pull somebody out of a private
sector or from another university,”
Uhing said. “Coming to rural Missouri is that not that big of a draw.
The difference between public sector
salary as a dean and private sector
salary as a businessperson … there’s
a big gap there.”
While Ludwig says the search
is on hold until a provost is hired,
Walker was unsure of its status.
“That’s a good question … I don’t
know. As far as I know, it’s still on
the search committee,” Walker said.
“Truth be told, I don’t know what the
status of it is.”
For now, the desk for the permanent dean of the Booth College
remains empty with no sure end in
sight. Though no path is clear at the
moment, Walker is confident the
University will make the right choice.
“I’m not worried,” Walker said.
“It doesn’t give me any pause or
cause for concern.”
News Brief:
Uhing reelected
Senate president
Students will see familiar faces
this fall in Student Senate. The elections for Student Senate were held
Tuesday in the Boardroom in the Student Union and more than 730 students voted.
The winners are as follows:
Cody Uhing (President). Hope
Garrett (Vice President). Katie Mahoney (Secretary). Tabois Weddle
(Treasurer).
Senior Class Reps.:
Abby Peitzmeier, Caleb Mitchell,
Zac Hawkins, and Adam McNairy.
Junior Class Reps.:
Natalie Long, Lauren Camenzind,
Miranda Lucas, and Rachel Denne.
Sophomore Class Reps.:
Samantha Snodgrass, Hugh
Slaton, Caelan Campbell, and Zach
Nielsen.
Off-Campus Reps.:
Chris Uhlenkamp, Kathy Smail,
Ty Franklin, Anna Nelson, and Alycia
Drost.
On-Campus Reps.:
Hannah Reikofski, Taylor HillZweifel, and Courtney Leeper.
“We have some amazing opportunities to help shape the conversations that happen at the top levels of
the University and the city and we
will continue to represent students.”
Uhing said.
SYNESTHESIA
CONTINUED FROM A1
“I was (downstairs) in Horace Mann, and a teacher
had put different colors with different letters, and it really irritated me,” she said. “I couldn’t understand why I
had such strong feelings about a bulletin board.”
It was a form of this nagging feeling that the letters
were wrong that began Christie’s journey to an explanation for her struggles.
In the early years, her mother, who has dyslexia, believed Christie’s difficulty with writing and spelling was
due to the more commonly known reading disability.
“I can read perfectly fine, it just doesn’t come out the
way it’s supposed to,” Christie said. “My teacher kept
telling her (dyslexia) wasn’t the problem.”
She explained after third grade and the introduction
of technology into the classroom, teachers did not seem
to notice anything, and she made it through high school
due to the wonders of electronic gadgets.
“It’s amazing, spell check gets you through,” she
said. “When you get to high school or college, though,
and you’re doing job interviews or filling out forms in
front of people, it gets very nerve-wracking.”
Though she diagnosed herself after her run-in with
the incorrectly colored letters at the beginning of her
sophomore year of college, Christie was formally tested
the spring of that year and tested 89 percent positive for
synesthesia.
Though the research on synesthesia is sparse, Sean
Day, president of the American Synesthesia Association, believes approximately one in 27 people have some
form of synesthesia.
Christie was given an IQ test and a test where she
was presented numbers and letters and instructed to
give the color she saw when she saw a certain number
or letter.
“They wanted an eye specialist or brain specialist,
but in the end, it was just a typical doctor that tested
me,” she said. “They give you a large scale, like when you
go into Word and try to choose your own color, and they
mix all your numbers and letters up.
“They shuffle through it quickly and you have to pick
Best of luck to the
Graduating Seniors.
A7
the color, and my color was accurate about 96 percent of
the three times they showed me them.”
Day summarized the state of synesthetic research
in an interview with National Public Radio. He said the
brains of synesthetes, people with synesthesia, do appear to be anatomically different–though in the same
breath, he warned that scientists have only studied a few
types of synesthesia so far. One factor appears to be the
thickness of the myelin sheath, which is the fatty covering of neurons that allows neural signals to travel faster.
“In particular, it seems that the neural connections
between different sensory parts of the brain are more
myelinated in people with synesthesia,” he said in the
interview with NPR.
To explain this phenomenon, imagine the connections in a brain are roads and the neural connections
are cars. On smooth roads, the cars can travel faster and
visit more places. Neurons with thicker myelin sheaths
are like these smooth roads: the neural signals can travel
faster and farther, letting them interact faster and more
frequently with each other.
According to the doctor who tested and diagnosed
Christie, her synesthesia could have come from being
shown flashcards as a young child where her brain fixated on the connections occurring between the colors
and letters.
While this condition and the experiences that came
with it may have discouraged some, Christie said it
made her want to help children in the future who could
have a disability similar to hers. Having worked with
adults in special education programs for seven years,
Christie knew she could connect with them on a different level than someone without a disability.
“When a person of a higher authority shuts you
down like that, that affects you dramatically,” she said.
“It affects me in the classroom as a soon-to-be teacher,
and it makes me that much more determined to be a
positive role model and catch those disabilities as they
come up.
“If I had those tools in elementary school, it would
have been a whole different story … a whole different
life.”
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Blotter from the Maryville Department of Public Safety
Apr. 9
There is an ongoing investigation of fraud at the 1100 block of
East Fourth Street.
Apr. 11
Ryan D. Barmann, 20, was
charged with minor in possession and possession of marijuana at the 100 block of North
Walnut.
Michael B. Beard, 23, Gladstone,
Mo., was charged with failure to
comply and permitting a peace
disturbance at the 500 block of
West Ninth Street.
Logan S. Snow, 21, was charged
with failure to comply and permitting a peace disturbance
at the 500 block of West Ninth
Street.
Andrew G. Haudek, 19, was
charged with minor in possession at the 100 block of North
Walnut.
Jesse L. Birkenholz, 22, was
charged with permitting a peace
disturbance at the 500 block of
West Ninth Street.
John R. McCormick was charged
with minor in possession at the
100 block of North Walnut.
Alyssa A. Watson, 20, Raymore,
Mo., was charged with minor in
possession at the 300 block of
North Market.
There is an ongoing investigation of burglary at the 400 block
of West Fourth Street.
Garrett M. Hellon, 22, Blue
Springs, Mo., was charged with
failure to comply and giving
false information to a public
safety officer at the 500 block of
West Ninth Street.
Daniel P. Kerwin, 19, Kansas
City, Mo., was charged with minor in possession at 1000 block
of North Walnut.
Katie J. Retschulte, 20, was
charged with minor in possession at 1000 North Walnut.
Wyatt A. Gauchat, 18, Brownville, Mo., was charged with minor in possession 1000 North
Walnut.
Apr. 12
Lauren A. Farnsworth, 20, was
charged with minor in possession at the 300 block of North
Market.
An accident occurred between
an unknown driver and Laurel
C. Holmquist at the 700 block of
North Buchanan.
Apr. 13
There is an ongoing investigation of larceny at the 301600
block of South Main.
There is an ongoing investigation of property damage at the
300 block of West Fifth Street.
Cassie M. Swanson, 22, was
charged with driving while intoxicated and careless and impudent driving at the 700 block
of East First Street.
Apr. 14
Stefan T. Pyles, 25, was charged
with no valid drivers license
and speeding at the 200 block of
North Country Club.
Alec J. Nelson, 19, was charged
with minor in possession and
disorderly conduct at the 300
block of North Market.
Brittany M. Hall, 19, Smithton,
Mo., was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia at
the 1100 block of North College
Drive.
Veronica M. Bolton, 19, was
charged with driving while intoxicated, failure to maintain
right half of the road and minor in possession 1400 block of
South Main.
An accident occurred between
Kirk L. Francis, 50, and Kurby K.
Aley, 62, at the 100 bock of East
Third Street.
Apr. 15
There is an ongoing investigation of property damage at the
2400 block of South Main.
An accident occurred between
Judith D. Allen, 68, and Vera M.
Holder, 50, at the 1200 block of
South Main.
Apr. 17
Devin J. Krenik, 19, was charged
with minor in possession at the
300 block of North Market.
Micala R. Rounkles, 19, was
charged with minor in possession at the 1400 block of South
Main.
Apri. 18
Tomas R. Lopez III, 18, Turney,
Mo., was charged with speeding at the 700 block of College
Avenue.
Apr. 20
There is an ongoing investigation of property damage at the
300 block of South Main.
