News
Jamaica Plain Hosts Inaugural TEDx Event
Megan Moore
TEDx Jamaica Plain hosted its inaugural event Saturday at the First Church of Jamaica Plain.
TEDx conferences are different than TED events. TEDx is a program focused on local and self-organized events that aim to bring people together and share a TED-like experience. For TEDx Jamaica Plain, this experience was a combination of live speakers and prerecorded TEDTalks focusing on a theme of joy and purpose.
Websites Blocked for WT Faculty
Megan Moore
While faculty and staff of WTAMU have trouble accessing certain websites on university computers and the university network, students don’t have these restrictions. Through initial research with a faculty volunteer, websites containing terms such as “corsets,” “origin of the word virgin,” “virginity,” “dominatrix,” and in an extreme instance, “Girls Gone Wild,” were blocked to the faculty computer but not to the student computer, which are both property of the academic department.
Student Gov Permits Concealed Carry
Megan Moore
The issue of whether the WTAMU campus will allow and approve concealed carry was settled this week through surveys and senate voting. After three town hall meetings, a collection of senate hearings and a student survey, it was concluded that concealed carry would be permitted on campus. There were 10 in favor of conceal carry, seven against and one abstained in the student senate vote.
Feature
An Uphill Struggle to Change a Last Name
Megan Moore
At 20 years old, Josh Clift-Jinkens has grasped the American dream. He works full time. He goes to school full time at West Texas A&M University, and is also a married homeowner. The American dream, however, is complicated for those who defy social norms. In settling down after his marriage and honeymoon trip to Seattle, Clift-Jinkens was not prepared for the journey that laid ahead and that would soon wear away his newlywed bliss. All he wanted to do was change his last name.
WT Forensics Goes Global ‘One Quarter at a Time’
Megan Moore
The walls collapsed, and just like that more than 1,000 workers were injured. Just like that at least 142 workers perished under heaps of rubble. Bangladesh is one of the world’s leading garment exporters, and because of poor safety conditions and illegally built structures, a factory that makes clothing for European and American retailers tumbled to the ground. It left law enforcement officers, fire fighters and citizens scrambling in the debris searching for life. As this catastrophe made headlines around the world, it gave one West Texas A&M University student the foundation on which to build research for the Forensics Team competition.
Entertainment
‘Spotlight’ Gives Journalists the Justice They Deserve
Megan Moore
There is no other statement that does this perpetually captivating yet heart-wrenching take on investigative journalism justice than to simply say, “Spotlight” gets it so unbelievably right.The film follows Spotlight, an investigative team at The Boston Globe that uncover an outrageously high numbers of child sex-abuse allegations against Catholic priests in 2002. The movie looks at the extensive measures the church went through to cover these allegations up and the blind eye many in power turned to the hellish situation.
Fan Theories Abound After a Death on The Walking Dead [SPOILERS]
Megan Moore
“The Walking Dead” fans have been racking their brains for any way that Glenn (Steven Yeun) could have possibly made it out alive in episode 3. We are pushing for Glenn, a fan favorite, to survive yet another brush with death and have formulated many theories surrounding his escape from the mob of zombies that encompassed him. His fate has not been revealed nearly two weeks later, but we do know for sure that one fan theory has been confirmed to be incorrect.
Sports
WT Graduate Runs from New Jersey to California
Megan Moore
The low hum of the engine and the methodical whooshing as the tires kept traction with the open road, gave Shelby Schnatz the last spark of inspiration she needed as she gazed upon corn fields in Nebraska. The decision was made. She was going to run transcontinental.
“I started talking to my parents about it and of course they were like why would you even want to do that,” Schnatz said. “Everyone finding out was a big step.”
Others responded with a simple “you’re crazy” or “how are you going to do that” to her fast approaching departure date.
WT Graduate Crosses Halfway Point to California
Megan Moore
It was Sunday, and it was cold. Like really cold. Like zero degree windchill cold. The type of cold not a soul wanted to walk in, but the sharp winds whipping through the air and the snow beginning to fall did not stop Shelby Schnatz, West Texas A&M University graduate, from taking on I-27 by foot. She left the parking lot of Hollywood 16 movie theatre, filled with friends and family cheering her on, to begin the last stretch of her transcontinental run to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
“I can’t take the day off because people are being diagnosed with muscular dystrophy every single day,” Schnatz said on Facebook. “It’s time to throw on my winter gear [and] use our muscles to strengthen theirs.”
WT Grad Overcomes Obstacles in Run Across U.S.
Megan Moore
Shelby Schnatz emerged with an entourage of supporters and her eyes set only on one thing, the Pacific Ocean. She wanted to feel the sand and the water and the sun. She had been running for 146 days, a total of 2, 850 miles. Her determination transformed into elation as the pier came into view and a smile slid across her face. It was morning on Jan. 11 and she had made it.
Days later, after crossing the United States by foot and raising more than $10,400 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, she posted a message to Facebook that would recast her run to be more monumental than she had originally thought.
Opinion
Letter from the Editor: Plus Size Means Normal
Megan Moore
Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit edition model announcement was made on Feb. 5 and it made national news not because it’s a highly anticipated edition but because the first “plus-sized” model made the cut. As a woman I highly respect models, especially ones who have the confidence to model in a swimsuit.
I’m no expert on the modeling or fashion world but I know that there has to be some sort of constant critique that comes with that line of work whether it is from professionals or not. But I have even more respect for Robin Lawley, who has been put in the limelight because of her size, a U.S. size 12.
Letter from the Editor: Roles of Women Distorted
Megan Moore
I am female, and I am in a leadership role. At the university level, gender roles in leadership are not properly addressed. The university acts as a safe haven in terms of gender. I’ve known many university level organizations to have female leadership roles, but it wasn’t until I gained my current position as editor, and was actively more aware of life after college that I realized how hard it will be for me after I walk the stage just because of my gender.