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Illustration by Juhye Bak

On Sept. 26, Associated Student Government met for an emergency meeting to cast a revote in their election of president pro-tempore for the 2009-2010 school year.

Earlier that week, a vote had occurred that was taken through a secret written ballot in possible violation of the Kansas Open Meetings Act (KOMA). KOMA states that government bodies must hold public meetings and keep all voting public.

President Jonathan Krueger quickly organized the emergency meeting after the initial meeting. The revote was done through a simple raising of hands and the outcome remained the same as the first vote.

While we applaud ASG for moving swiftly in correcting its mistakes, The Bulletin regrets that the mistake occurred at all. KOMA requires that secret meetings in which voting takes place are strictly prohibited, and it is surprising that ASG overlooked this fact.

ASG is full of bright individuals who are well-educated in the rules and policies that dictate governmental offices and organizations. It is therefore unusual that no one within the relatively large group voiced a concern that it is against the law to vote in secret. Kansas law is not to be trumped by “Robert’s Rules of Order.”

According to one ASG senator, the secret vote was done to protect the morale of the group and to remove any tensions that might occur due to the outcome of the vote.

We hope that the senators we elected to represent us can be mature enough to respect the outcome of the vote and realize the need to separate any personal differences they might have with their duty as an elected official.

Our concern lies more in the fear that these mistakes might continue, or even become more common in the future if they are not prevented now. It might be easy to excuse this mistake because it was caught by ASG before any negative effects could generate and because it seems like a relatively low-consequence vote in the first place (at least in the eyes of most students who are under-informed about the goings-ons on ASG).

But what if it were to happen again during a more important vote, one more relevant to the student body’s everyday life? The Bulletin hopes that ASG has learned a lesson from this experience and will strive to follow KOMA  in the future.

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Brianna VanSchoelandt

I have many fond memories of my high school’s Homecoming and all the events during Spirit Week. From spray painting the sidewalk to spilling blood while working on the class float, I was dedicated, and I was excited. I dressed up every day of Spirit Week, watched all the parades, and cheered loudly at the games. My favorite part of Homecoming was dressing up for the dance and sharing moments with my friends.

It has been years since I attended a Homecoming game and I miss the feeling of unity I once felt among my fellow classmates. This year, the football players of ESU will just have to try and push through the game with the heavy knowledge of my absence weighing on their minds.

I just cannot get into the Homecoming spirit that I used to enjoy so much. There are many reasons for this conundrum. First of all, I do not feel as connected with my fellow Hornets as I did with my high school classmates. With varying schedules and a student body of 5,500 more people, it is harder to share the same experiences with my ESU classmates than it was with my old high schoolers.

Secondly, I will be missing the game and festivities this year because I do not spend my weekends in Emporia. Actually, because of my work schedule, I do not participate in any extracurricular activities, a situation I am sure many students face.

Another reason I am not excited about Homecoming is a seeming lack of advertisement. The only times I see anything related to Homecoming are the few signs posted around campus telling me to vote for royalty or when I get on the school’s Web site, where there is a Haunted Homecoming 2009 link.

The Web site does a great job of amping excitement for Homecoming. There is an agenda for Homecoming week, from when to vote for Homecoming royalty to when the parade is. There are actually a myriad of activities planned for Homecoming week. Students can purchase a Homecoming button and receive discounts at certain Emporia businesses, go on a tour of ESU to learn of its haunted history, attend a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” performance and dance in costume to the band “Sleepwalk, a Robot.”

Although there are so many activities going on, if I had not looked up the information on the Web site myself, I would have little knowledge of them. If the activities of Homecoming were advertised more I believe there would be more student involvement and excitement for what should be a fun and memorable time.

Another glaring discrepancy I notice between my cherished high school Homecomings and this year’s is the importance of Homecoming royalty. I do not feel as compelled as I once did to vote for king and queen. Probably because I have no idea who the candidates are and I do not have the time to get to know them during the Meet the Homecoming Royalty Candidates portion of the celebration.

There is only a four hour window for the meeting of the candidates, and it all happens in one day. What if I have class during that time? I, like many other students, would not get the chance to meet them and afterwards make an educated decision when it comes to voting for them.

Also, there does not seem to be the same kind of honor in winning royalty in college as there was in high school. Everybody is familiar with the high school Homecoming queen, but I have never heard a song about a college Homecoming queen.

Lastly, one huge reason for my decision to not attend Homecoming is its date. Although it might not have been purposefully planned, Homecoming lands on Halloween (hence the Haunted Homecoming). Perhaps if it were not on a holiday that I enjoy celebrating with friends I would be more apt to attend.

I know I will remember my high school’s Homecomings for years to come, but sadly I do not think I will be able to look back on my college years and say I went to any Homecoming activities.

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Alex Pedersen

In a mere two days, it will be Halloween.

It is a time that has always left excitement in the core of my being. There is just something about the sight of flame colored leaves falling and plastic Frankenstein’s monsters that get me pumped for dressing up like Mr. White from “Reservoir Dogs” and getting hammered off of trash can punch.
Even in a small college town like Emporia, this weirdly wonderful freak-fest of a holiday is always an interesting one. There are bands playing, constant trick-or-treating, parties and, of course, the Haunted Homecoming.
But it saddens me when I ask someone what they are going to be for Halloween, and they reply with apathy. “Meh, I don’t care. I don’t like dressing up. Halloween isn’t a big deal to me.”

I simply do not understand how people can dislike Halloween because, to me, it is a holiday that is not only a socially healthy night of catharsis, but is a wild jumble of historic traditions from every culture associated with it, even Christianity.
Halloween was originally a Celtic holiday celebrated on Nov. 1 called Samhain (which, for some Celtic reason, was pronounced sow-in) which marked the end of summer and the beginning of winter and the new year, according to a Washington Post article.
The Celts believed that spirits could enter the living world during this time to both plague and bless the living. They would offer food and drink outside of their house to appease the spirits and wear costumes, usually made of animal skins, to hide their identity from spirits who would hurt them, according to an article by Bettina Arnold, co-director for the Center for Celtic Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
The Roman Catholic Church, partially in an effort to stop pagan rituals, created All Saints’ Day, or All Hallows Day, on Nov. 1, which was celebrated by dressing up as saints, angels and demons. Oct. 31 then became known as “All Hallow’s Eve,” according to The History Channel.
Native American culture also influenced modern-day Halloween. The pumpkin was unknown to Europeans before they came to America, so original Jack-o-Lanterns were carved out of turnips, according to The Washington Post article.
In America, many initial settlers did not celebrate Halloween very much, but immigrants from Ireland popularized it and, by the 1930s, it had become secular and community based, but was synonymous with vandalism, according to the History Channel. In the 1950s, it became aimed towards young children and now, it is a celebration for both young and old.
Apart from trick-or-treating, getting drunk and wearing slutty costumes, Halloween is sociologically healthy for us. It allows people to partially break social norms, as long as those straying are within other social norms. For instance, only during Halloween is it acceptable to dress as Michael Myers, but it is still not acceptable to actually stab people.
This is obviously an extreme example, but it shows how we can let ourselves go a little bit into a fantasy, but still go back to life as usual the next day. The Washington Post article calls this “ritual reversal” and basically says that it is a designated time to bring up dark issues in a fairly controlled and public manner. All human beings do this and Halloween is just our culture’s version.
So you still have two days. You can be lazy and show up to a party in your everyday clothes, or you can participate in the bonanza of the bizarre and revel in life a bit, before we end up like the ghosts and skeletons we dress up as.
Happy Halloween, bitches.

Alex Pedersen/The Bulletin

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Homecoming History: Crowning of royalty during the 1959 ESU Homecoming.

Emporia State’s traditions for homecoming have evolved, changed names and fallen by the wayside with every passing decade.

“The overall concept of homecoming was for it to be a reunion for alumni,” said Roger Heineken, administrative officer for the Information Service Center, and ESU history enthusiast. “It also used to mark the occasion of the last home football game for the season, and hopefully ‘welcomed the team home’ victoriously.”

The only undefeated football team in ESU history was fielded in 1927 with a record of 7-0-0, according to the centennial addition to the 1963 Sunflower.

A homecoming tradition that has gone in and out of vogue is homecoming royalty.

“During the early 1970s President Visser did away with homecoming royalty since it had many issues, including being based around popularity, and not being very inclusive to different races,” Heineken said. “About 10 years ago homecoming royalty was reconceived in a much more inclusive manner.”

The once common tradition of freshman hazing fell by the wayside, and used to be correlated with homecoming, Heineken said.

“The Letterman’s Club used to sell beanies to freshman that they had to wear till homecoming, or they’d be paddled,” Heineken said. “Also, the freshman weren’t allowed to walk on the sidewalk leading from Commercial St. to campus, where the fountains are, until homecoming or they’d get paddled again. This tradition stopped around ‘63 or ’64, and in the Sauder Alumni Center you can still see the beanies they used to sell.”

Homecoming entertainment has also changed names and types as the years have passed.

“There used to be a scholarship variety show called Curli-Q, and UAC used to host a homecoming concert that happened every year until 1978,” Heineken said. “The concert got cancelled due to its conflict with events like the booked musical. In 1973 the booked musical started, with this year’s being the 37^th.”

The homecoming parade has been a tradition, like royalty, that has come and gone throughout the school’s history. It used to be that groups on campus would build floats to be judged in a competitive manner, and then they were displayed in a lavish parade, Heineken said.

“I remember judging the parade floats in the early ’90s,” said Phil Kelly, professor of social sciences. “It seems to me that there’s less student involvement at events in recent years, but I think that the dual theme of homecoming and Halloween is working really well this year.”

Even within the Emporia community a strong history of alumni homecoming exists, demonstrated most heavily in the Kaffe-Kalatch.

“The Kaffe-Kalatch was a general gathering of alumni as they came and went during homecoming weekend where they met for coffee and visited in the morning before attending any events,” Heineken said. “The event became even bigger with the institution of the Distinguished Alumni Program in 1961.”

Josh Johnson/The Bulletin

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Lowery on one of the sets for “True blood.” Courtesy Photo.

One of HBO’s most popular shows has a fan site run by a staff member at Emporia State. Melissa Lowery, administrative assistant of English, Modern Languages, and Journalism, helped start the Web site in March of last year.

It was the first “True Blood” site of any kind – HBO didn’t even have theirs up by that time.

“We ran a couple of other fan sites and we started them in 2007,” Lowery said. “We were looking for something else, with the new television series coming. I was a huge fan of the books. I saw that Alan Ball had optioned them for a series. I was a big admirer of his work and was excited that he was going to do it.”

“True Blood” also has a following among college students.

“I liked the first season,” said Zack Day, junior English major. “But I feel the second season focused more on the sex and it kind of got overbearing and over took the plot.”

In an untimely manner, the writer’s strike happened and the show was delayed.

“It finally got an air date and we started our site,” Lowery said. “It’s our biggest Web site. We had half a million visitors at one point.”

Lowery runs the site with her co-creator Liz and occasionally a few contributing writers.

“I do a lot of the technical side of things, designing the site, making the database, any technical changes we need to make, updating things,” she said. “Liz and I jointly write articles and interview people.”

They have a radio show Fridays at 10 a.m. that they post through blog talk radio.

“We air interviews when they have them,” Lowery said. “We talk about the show. We’ll do a recap about the last show and give spoilers and the latest news.”

Lowery said that she and Liz created the show because they were interested in the books that the show is based on.

“We wanted a place where we could discuss the show, because we were both big fans of the book series,” Lowery said. “We wanted a place of our own and thought we would maybe get a couple hundred people. It turned into be something bigger than that.”

She has met the cast and has interviewed a lot of people that have dealt with the show.

“You can’t even believe how nice the cast is,” Lowery said. “For as much gore and dark stuff that goes on in the show the cast from the top down is so nice. Alan Ball, he’s amazing, he’s very gracious he’s from the south and has that southern hospitality gene built in.”

Liz, Mel’s partner and resident of Chicago, gathers info and writes articles.

“My favorite cast member has to be Kristin Bauer,” Liz said. “She has so much to talk about and she’s a girl’s girl. She’s someone you would love to go shopping with and have lunch with.”

The two of them were taken to the set of the television series.

“It was so awesome,” Liz said. “The menus for the bar and grill were real. There were scratches on the tables to make them look more real and that people had sat on them before and eaten on them. The paint jobs they did made them look old.”

People seek out the Web site duo to help promote events.

“It’s really flattering to have them actually seek us out,” Liz said. “It’s flattering to be sought.”

““True Blood”” is a television series on HBO created and produced by Alan Ball. It is based on the book series The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris.

To view the site, go to www.true-blood.net.

Felix Ceradsky/The Bulletin

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Emporia State’s Haunted Homecoming events and activities successfully drew students into a haunting display of school spirit.

“I think people are really excited for homecoming this year,” said Lanie Harber, junior communications major. “The decorations are really awesome this year, and I think the ghost walk is going to draw a big crowd.”

Some students were initially apprehensive about the combined theme of Halloween and homecoming.

“I thought the Halloween theme was corny at the start of all this,” said Kris Swearingen, senior English secondary education major. “But now I like it, and it seems like it’s working out really well.”

This year’s homecoming activities included a whitewash event where students could pay money to draw on portions of the campuses sidewalk.

“It’s a great opportunity to promote royalty candidates, organizations and be creative,” Harber said. “It’s just a great ‘express yourself’ event over homecoming week.”

The annual tricycle races were held on Monday featuring the first co-ed team, STAND, the anti-genocide coalition. This year’s winners were the Sigma Pi fraternity.

“I thought it was great this year that there were non-Greek teams and a co-ed team participating,” said Kyra Strobel, senior communications major. “I thought everybody did really great and I am really excited for Sig Pi.”

Faculty and staff watching the event noted the surprising amount of skill the tricycle races required.

“This was certainly a different event,” said Peter Brodie, alumni relations director. “The event was energetic and physically demanding and I’d never be able to do it. It’s great to see such collaboration between students and administration.”

On Tuesday, Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU) held a costume party in the Hornet’s Nest where they played games, and later went to the Inner-Bean Café for snacks and refreshments.

“CRU has always done a Halloween party,” said Kristi Gildner, junior psychology major. “We have a lot of fun playing games and dressing up for this event.”

Some of the costumes at the party included a trio dressed as Brock, Misty and Ash from the “Pokemon” series, a clown, a witch, a cowgirl and gothic forensics girl Abigail Sciuto from the TV series “NCIS.”

“We are trying to get our name out there and let people come and have a good time with our costume party,” said Adriana Claassen, sophomore elementary education major. “I’m really excited for this week and all the activities that are happening this weekend.”

Buttons will be on sale until tomorrow for $1 in the Memorial Union.The buttons provide discounts and benefits at local participating merchants.

Josh Johnson/The Bulletin

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The Emporia State volleyball team came out victorious over the #4 University of Central Missouri Jennies last night, winning a close bout in five matches, 3-2. The last time the two teams met was on Sept. 23 of this season – when UCM walked away the victor with a decisive 3-0 win over the Hornets. ESU was out for revenge and took care of business, taking the match to five sets and winning 25-22, 25-21, 23-25, 17-25 and 15-11

In the first set, the Hornets started off hot with a 5-2 lead. UCM battled their way back to eventually lead by two points, 14-12, when ESU head coach Bing Xu called a timeout. After the timeout, the Jennies continued their dominant play, but the Hornets would not throw in the towel. A pivotal kill by freshman setter/outside hitter and undecided major Katelyn Schmidtberger brought the team back into the lead at 20-18 – timeout was called by UCM first-year head coach Flip Piontek to regroup his squad.

Right Side Hitter Brittney Miller and Middle Hitter Katelyn Kaiser jump to block a spike sent by UCM’s Kelsey Ellis Wednesday night at White Auditorium. The Hornets beat the #4 Jennies 3-2 (25-22, 25-21, 23-25, 17-25, 15-11). Kellen Jenkins/The Bulletin.

A four point swing in favor of Central Missouri would force Xu to call his final timeout of the set with the score 22-20, UCM. ESU would eventually win the set, 25-22, due largely in part to a high energy, psyched-up Hornet squad that set out to take care of business after the Xu timeout.

The second set was a bizarre one. ESU jumped out to an 8-1 lead early in the set with the help of strong defense and several critical errors by the Jennies. After a UCM timeout, a successful comeback effort was made by Central Missouri, tying the game at 9-9.

The Jennies came out strong, leading by as much as four, but the Hornets stayed disciplined and brought the score back to a tie at 17-17. Points were traded back and forth, until great defense and a service error helped the Hornets take the lead at 22-20 – timeout was taken by UCM.

Another service error, a heads-up play by junior setter and business major Ting Liu, and a final kill of the set by senior outside hitter and marketing major Arica Shepard sealed the deal for the Hornets, as they took the set, 25-21. Xu could tell the stark difference in the Hornets play from the last meeting with UCM to this one.

“The last time we played so poorly, and this time they were so ready,” said Xu. “The first two games you could tell.”

The third set looked easy for the Hornets until the very end. At one point, a 5-5 tie turned into a 9-5 ESU lead, thanks to smart playing by the Hornets. A definitive and dominant showing by ESU forced a Jennies timeout at 20-14, Hornets lead. A late surge by UCM turned the game into a 21-18 ESU lead, followed by a Xu timeout. Two more points for the Jennies forced another Xu timeout to regroup the Hornets.

Xu believed his team lacked some qualities that are usually present in most matches.

“We have to play consistently,” Xu said. “From the third game you could tell, they picked up their serving…they tried to go after us every single point.”

A rare service error by Liu and solid offensive output by Central Missouri set the score at 24-22 UCM – the Jennies would go on to win the set 25-23.

Shepard thought that team spirits weren’t in check.

“We weren’t believing in ourselves as much as we should have, and we just can’t do that,” Shepard said.

Set number four started slow for the Hornets, falling to a 5-1 UCM lead. After an unproductive couple of sets for ESU, an extremely rare substitution was made – Shepard left the game. The Hornets were trailing as much as seven before a determined Shepard returned to the game. Shepard knew that her play wasn’t up to par.

“Tonight, I definitely deserved to be taken out,” Shepard said. “It wasn’t my best game, by any means, and I kind of knew it was coming. He was just trying to get, I think, some motivation back out there and motivate me, too.”

Key efforts, both on offense and defense, led the Hornets to take the lead at 13-12, followed by a Jennies timeout. An ESU timeout gave the team a quick break as UCM led, 20-16. Shepard was again subbed out of the game and would not return, as the Hornets dropped the fourth set, 25-17.

The fifth and final set of the evening started off with a 3-0 Hornets lead. Central Missouri would fight back, but it wouldn’t be enough before a timeout was called by Piontek with the Hornets leading, 7-4. Another UCM timeout would come after the Jennies fell down by 4 to the Hornet lead, 11-7. The match rounded off with a victory for the Hornets, winning the fifth set 15-11.

During the match, junior middle hitter and chemistry major Brianne Boner became Emporia State’s all-time leader in block assists.

“It’s something that’s nice,” Boner said. “I’m not really about records, but it’s nice to know that I can help my team out in that way, and that’s really an honor.”

Xu noted the positives of Boner’s presence on the court.

“She brought a lot of fire on the court,” Xu said. “You can tell after she blocks how excited she was, and that pumps the whole team up.”

After the match, Shepard commented on how important the win was for her and her team.

“(I feel) happy and relieved,” Shepard said. “I don’t know why we put that much pressure on ourselves…getting a win like that, that was huge. We needed that so bad.’

Boner also commented on how she felt after the big win.

“It feels great, because we know they’re a really good team,” Boner said. “It feels great to beat a team this good.”

Freshman setter/right sight hitter and undecided major Katelyn Schmidtberger led the Hornets with 18 kills on the night, followed by Shepard with 15, junior right hitter and nursing major Brittney Miller with 12, and Boner with 11. Junior setter and business major Ting Liu added 54 assists, and senior libero and health promotion major Amy Byfield chipped in with 23 digs.

Up next for the Hornets will be a Saturday afternoon match against MIAA opponent Nebraska-Omaha. First serve is set for 4 p.m. in Omaha, Neb.

Shane Wilson/The Bulletin

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Hornet football team hosts Missouri Western for Homecoming

The Emporia State football team will play host to the Missouri Western Griffons for the Homecoming game at 1 p.m. Oct. 31 at Welch Stadium in Emporia. The Hornets look to capitalize on their overtime win over Truman State a week ago, 30-24, against the Griffons, who are currently #3 in the MIAA. The football team is currently 2-7, 1-6 in MIAA play.

The Bulletin

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Women’s basketball ranked preseason #1 in MIAA, #7 nationally

The Emporia State women’s basketball team is currently ranked #1 in the preseason MIAA polls and is #7 in the Women’s D-II Basketball Preseason Top 25.  The #1 MIAA ranking likely spawns from the team’s impressive two-time MIAA championship run from the previous two seasons. The Hornets are the only MIAA team to be ranked in the Top 25 national poll. The team is led by returning first-team All-MIAA selection Cassondra Boston, who averaged 14.9 points per game a year ago.

The team is set to open exhibition play against the University of Kansas on Nov. 8 at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence.

The Bulletin

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Ashley Peaches

Dear Ashley,

Is there really such a thing as a “G-Spot”? Where is it and how do I find it?

Sincerely,

Searching

Dear Searching,

There is really such a thing as a “G-Spot”. And if you know where to look it is not that hard to spot.

The “G-Spot” has been contended as another source of stimulation for the female orgasm. And last year, an Italian researcher, Emmanuele Jannini of the University of L’Aquila in Italy, claimed to have found the said spot, according to BBC. The area in question is a small pile of tissue on the front wall of the vagina just past the opening.

Jannini claims that all women don’t have a “G-Spot” but ones that do should be able to reach a vaginal orgasm. (And for those of you who don’t read my column, it is said that there is a difference between a vaginal orgasm and a clitoral one).

The easiest way to reach the “G-Spot” is the infamous “come hither” motion by inserting your finger into the vagina facing up and curling in towards the hand. You may have to search for it but you should know the spongy mass when you feel it.
Dear Ashley,

How can I tell if my girlfriend is faking orgasms?

Sincerely,

Fooled

Dear Fooled,

If you’ve seen the popular scene in “When Harry Met Sally” you may know that pin pointing exactly if a woman is faking or not is not that simple.

In an ABC news poll, 48 percent of women surveyed admitted to faking an orgasm at least once. However, 11 percent of men said the same thing.

What’s more interesting is the reason the respondents gave for pretending to climax, which includes men. The highest rated answer was “to please their partner.” Because we all know there is nothing worse than making someone think they are doing such a bad job that they can’t even please you. Unfortunately the second answer was “to hurry up and get done.”

So one of those reasons could be why your girlfriend would fake an orgasm; but trying to figure out if she is actually feeling the fireworks is a little more complicated.

Some signs of a real orgasm include flushed skin, heaving breathing, hard nipples, sensitive clitoris afterwards, increased heart rate and vaginal muscle spasms among other things.

If you still aren’t sure, ask her. Then you can help make sure that she will never have to fake again.

Until next time, keep it in your pants.

Do you have a sex, dating or relationship question for Ashley? Email her at entertainment@esubulletin.com.

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