When Darla Mallein, associate professor of social sciences, returned to her office last Thursday afternoon around 1 p.m. for an advising appointment, she did not expect to see someone rummaging through her raincoat.

“I knew something was up,” Mallein said. “I asked him, ‘May I help you?’”

The “guest” said that he was looking for someone, and Mallein believed that he may have needed to be in the English department, so she walked him across the building.

“I ran back and looked in my office,” Mallein said. “He had moved my purse and my billfold was gone.”

Mallein spotted the alleged suspect as he was walking out of the English office and flagged him down, asking if he had taken her wallet. She contacted campus police and tried to persuade him to wait for their arrival. He then promptly left out of the office, Mallein said.

“He got $240 I had in my wallet,” Mallein said. “Lucky for me, he did pitch my billfold into a recycling bin on the first floor. The great custodians we have in Plumb Hall found that for me, and I at least got back my driver’s license and all my credit cards.”

This incident is just one in a series of thefts that occurred this semester. Since the beginning of January, campus has been hit with a total of 16 thefts, according to Chris Hoover, director of campus police. This is a dramatic increase from past years, when the amount of thefts for this time frame was only seven in 2012, and six in 2011.

Another theft occurred in the Sunflower office, ESU’s yearbook. A new camera and additional equipment was taken from their office sometime over Spring Break. The Sunflower staff estimates that around $3,000 worth of equipment was stolen.

“Officers are aware of the trend,” Hoover said. “Many of the recent thefts have been associated with items being left unattended. I contacted the department of Res Life and asked that they make notification to residents of the halls regarding awareness and precautionary measures.”

One of the most recent cases was a theft in the art department’s art annex, which was broken into just last week. All the possessions from students’ lockers were dumped on the floor, some of it being used to transport the stolen goods off of the property. According to Patrick Martin, associate professor and interim chair of the art department, around $1,500 worth of university equipment was stolen, in addition to students’ materials and equipment.

“It’s just weird – it’s real strange,” said Joe Sircoulomb, senior glass major and victim of the art annex theft. “Our campus is usually so quiet and safe. If I went to any other school, I wouldn’t be afraid of leaving my stuff out, but I guess I should (be afraid) now.”

Hoover said the list of items being taken is “across the board,” including bicycles, tools, wallets, cash, electronics, cameras and purses. He declined comment on possible suspects – whether they be male or female, or working independently or in a group – because it may “negatively impact investigatory activities.”

In order to prevent theft, Hoover said to secure doors, not to leave belongings unattended and to report any suspicious behavior. If you have any information about the recent thefts or burglaries or suspect that you are a victim, contact Police and Safety at 341-5337.

Wietharn

For the first time since 1415, a pope has given up his position as leader of the Catholic Church, according to Cnn.com. Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation Feb. 11 and officially resigned Feb. 28.

“When Pope Benedict resigned, I was a little shocked, but I realized he was getting to an age where it was difficult for him to lead the church,” said Eric Wietharn, sophomore accounting major.

The process for selecting the new pope began March 12. The papal conclave met in the Sistine Chapel – the required method by law – to begin voting on the newest leader of the church, according to Cnn.com. All current cardinals under 80 years of age must attend the conclave, and a two-thirds majority vote must be reached in order to declare a final decision. By March 13, the chimney on top of the Sistine Chapel released white smoke, signifying a decision was made.

“This is such a big event for the Catholic Church because they have to select a new head of the church, which predominantly occurs after the passing of the previous pope and resigning from being pope is rare,” Wietharn said.

Sister Pat Lynch, office manager of Didde Catholic Campus Center, said the change is important to her because of her vocation belonging to a religious order and also because she is a baptized Catholic, but she said she trusts that God will continue to guide the church, no matter who is in office.

“Most current college students were not even born when John Paul II was elected, so there has only been one Holy Father (Benedict XVI) for those students as they have lived as Catholics until this time,” Lynch said. “In their lifetime, they may see few or many popes, depending on their longevity. But the first change in the papacy is always significant for Catholics.”

Tim Morrow, senior business administration major, said today’s youth aren’t really as religious as their parents or previous generations were, so it was good to be able to put it back into people’s eyes.

“The more people think about it, the more something will get done,” Morrow said.

Wietharn said that he thinks that Pope Francis I will be an effective leader for the Catholic Church.

“His actions have already shown that he is down to earth and has the right mentality to increase participation in the Catholic faith,” Wietharn said.

But Morrow said he doesn’t expect much to change with the election of Francis I.

“How much can one guy do? It’s not really the pope that’s doing it, it’s everybody else underneath it,” Morrow said.

Carrie Kellie, freshman marketing major, and roommate Dominique Staats, freshman psychology major, requested to live together for their first year at Emporia State. The two have known each other for nine years and Kellie said they “get along really well.”
Jordan Storrer/The Bulletin

How early you wake up, cleanliness, what time you go to bed and smoking habits – all of these are aspects that factor into how Residential Life matches students with the perfect mate to share a room in the dorms.

Wade Redeker, director of Residential Life, said their computers are able to start matching roommates based on their responses to these lifestyle questions, but the process becomes more complicated after that.

“It gets more complicated when you get into, ‘Are they an athlete and they want to live with someone in particular, are they interested in those communities?’…so that takes a little bit of a personal touch,” said Amanda Meek, housing coordinator for Residential Life. Meek said matching roommates is like a puzzle.

“I like to think of it as a Rubik’s Cube,” Meek said.

Meek said they do the best they can to match students with a compatible roommate. Smoking, she said, is one of the key factors they take into consideration with housing contracts because “a smoker and a non-smoker never works out.”

Carrie Kellie, freshman marketing major, has known her roommate Dominique Staats, freshman psychology major, for nine years and decided to request Staats as a roommate because she was easygoing and had the same morals.

“We have a lot of the same friends, and we get along really well,” Kellie said. “Also, knowing each other for a long time has made us have good communication.”

Meek said that placements occur on a first-come, first-serve basis, and students who turn in their contracts later are more likely not to get what they requested. She also said the gender of floors may change from year to year based on the amount of males and females enrolled.

Meek said she recognizes that living in the residence halls can make or break one’s experience at Emporia State.

“I try my very best to set people up to have the most successful experience possible, and if they’re having an issue, we definitely try to work with them,” Meek said.

Katlin Fuel, freshman history education major, said that she and her first roommate got along well, but she didn’t have as much luck with her second roommate.

“After a minor conflict that was made into a major one, I moved into my own room at the dorms,” Fuel said.

But Redeker said that even if a roommate experience isn’t ideal, students can always learn something from the situation. This was the case for Fuel.

“If it weren’t for my bad roommate, I wouldn’t be as determined to fight for what I think is right,” Fuel said.

Kellie said the method for choosing roommates is beneficial because the housing contract asks about lifestyles and if roommates have the same lifestyle choices, then they will get along. But Fuel said that she does not think it is very effective.

“When you fill that out, you’re not really being honest and don’t want to seem outrageous or rude,” Fuel said. “After a few weeks, you see how your roommate really is.”

Redeker said the method is very comparable to what other universities use.

“We want people to have as good of an experience as possible,” Redeker said.

To fill out a housing contract with Residential Life for the 2013-2014 school term, visit Emporia.edu/reslife.

During a reading of an excerpt from her book, “Save Your Own Life,” Feb. 18, Amy Sage Webb shared a story about baking with a crowd of nearly 50. Webb has been the co-director of the creative writing program since 1996.
Jordan Storrer/The Bulletin

Amy Sage Webb, professor of English and co-director of the creative writing program, read from her first book, “Save Your Own Life,” a collection of original short stories Feb. 18. for the Visiting Writers Series. The series brings writers to campus so students can see possibilities for their own work and interact with the writers, Webb said.

The Bulletin sat down with Webb after her reading, where roughly 50 students, faculty, alumni and community members crowded the Preston Family Room in the Memorial Union. This is what she had to say:

What is the first thing you can remember that sparked your interest in fiction writing?

I read all the time when I was a kid and used to write stories in my mind, like all kids do. Other kids in the neighborhood, we would write epic tales of what we were doing.

How long did you work on “Save Your Own Life” before you were able to get it published?

I had published almost everything in that book over a period of 10 years and then just put them together in that book. Putting them together was a process of choosing what went together and what didn’t go, taking things out that didn’t match and deciding which of my publications would work well as a book.

Where do the ideas for your plots and characters in your stories come from?

I got most of the stories from things that I teach. There’s a story in there that I created to try to test a narration concept. I knew that I wanted to talk to students about moving the narration without elapsing the time of the story, and so I gave myself the task of doing that, and it turned into an assignment that we do in Fiction Writing called the vignette. So, a lot of those stories came out of questions I had about, “How am I going to teach this to a student?” And so I would go and try it and explore it and try to answer that question.

What does the writing process look like for you? How do you go about creating stories?

I create a lot of pieces as they come to me, and they’re in a lot of different files, and then I start putting them into a structure. Sometimes, if I’ve given myself a task like the vignette, it will come about more linear, more straight through, but most often, it doesn’t. I get pieces of it as I’m working on other things, and I store them up and come back and configure them and re-work them.

What inspires you to keep writing?

Reading and teaching student writers. More than anything, teaching students is an inspiration to write because you are constantly exposed to the problems of story and you come home asking yourself, “How would I fix that? How would I do that?” So, I think that’s cool and then, of course, being inspired by other people’s writing. Also, there’s just a need to write. We all have that part of our brain that is “narratizing” to us…I think it has a real power over our ways – the way we tell a story.

What is the most beneficial thing about being a creative writing teacher?

I get to be around creative, fun people all the time, and I get to help people with things that they value, that they’re personally invested in, and we get to talk about very important, meaningful human issues together.

What is the most beneficial thing about being, yourself, a writer?

You bring something into the world where there was not something before. There’s a satisfaction to that – to forming something. There’s a satisfaction to putting ideas and images together and being able to express them to someone else. It’s intellectually and aesthetically very satisfying to do that.

Do you think fiction writers should be considered artists?

Oh, sure. Writers are definitely artists. They have to understand the history of their craft and all the components of it. They have to apprentice to it fully in the same way that visual artists and other artists have to understand their media… all the arts create something that brings society together and shows society some component of itself. Without the arts, we would all be a little bit crazy.

How did you feel seeing fellow faculty members and students coming to your reading at Emporia State?

It was great. I admire these people – the students and the faculty. I appreciate their work and enjoy working with them and spending time with them, so it was wonderful to see them there as well and to be able to give something, to read something to them. I mean, my day is spent on student writing.

The creative writing program at ESU offers only a minor right now. Would you like to see it developed into a possible major for future students?

There are a lot of students who would like to major in it… it’s an interesting direction. I think you could tie creative writing to other areas of the arts and humanities – philosophy, psychology – to make it a robust and interesting major, to conjoin more with journalism and other forms of writing… however, you never want to get so big that you can’t do what you’re doing as well as you possibly can, and for the number of faculty we have and the number of things that we offer, we’re doing about as much as we can. If we had a bit more staffing, I think there are many more extraordinary things that we could do, but you don’t want to grow beyond what you can do well.