A notable percentage of students are those living on campus. As of the fall of 2016, 84 percent of students and 98.5 percent of first-years live on campus.This high percentage received some attention during the recent Student Senate campaigns and debates, with many cabinets advocating for more flexibility with campus housing policies. But Ernie Stufflebean, associate dean of students and director of residence life, spoke to the rationale of Student Life and the College for having the majority of students living on campus.

“The College’s objective is to have as many Jewell students as possible experience the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in a community that prioritizes learning and engagement, in and out of the classroom. Living in community most effectively prepares students for their future through opportunities to navigate real-life challenges in a challenging yet supportive environment before moving onto the next chapter of their lives,” said Stufflebean.

Another notable percentage is made up of the athletes on campus. In the academic year of 2014-2015, 471 of the 1043 students were WJC athletes. Dr. Darlene Bailey, director of athletics, spoke to the size of the department and how it has changed.

“I am happy with the size of the athletic program. We are at just about the right size in terms of the total roster for most of our sports programs. In a couple of instances, there is still room for growth. Since the 2009-2010 academic year, we have grown the athletic program by about 100 student-athletes. About half of the 100 can be attributed to the adding of men’s and women’s swimming, the rest to deliberately growing the rosters in some of our other sports. For the 2015-2016 academic year, we began with 418 student-athletes. I believe that number could grow by 10 to 15, but that is probably the maximum in the next couple of years,” said Bailey.

Arguably, the second most popular form of participation for Jewell students is Greek life. Currently, about 39 percent of women and 40 percent of men are Greek on Jewell’s campus.

“Panhellenic is very pleased with 39 percent [of] women on campus belonging to a sorority. We aim for all greek women to be actively involved within their chapters and the community. Knowing that almost 40 percent of women at William Jewell College are experiencing leadership opportunities within their chapter and contributing to their community through philanthropy and volunteering is exactly what Panhellenic exemplifies,” said Camille Love, junior chemistry major and president of Panhellenic, the organization in charge of formal recruitment in the spring and that offers other services to the sororities on Jewell’s campus.

Feature photo by Kyle Rivas.

For total and complete transparency, I will let you know that when I last saw Weezer in concert, I cried. Yes, this has happened at previous concerts, and, no, it wasn’t because I was being elbowed in the neck and couldn’t see anything. I have loved Weezer for a significant part of my life, and when you become attached to a band over a long period of time, it becomes a little difficult to be critical of them.

Weezer released their newest album “Weezer (White Album)” Friday, April 1 (no, not an April Fool’s joke). In comparison to other releases in 2016, this has received less attention, and I would argue that it has had less attention than their previous album, “Everything Will Be Alright In the End.” But, in many ways, this new album returns to the original sound that I fell in love with so long ago more so than “Everything Will Be Alright In the End” was able to.

Rolling in only 10 songs, this album opens with a classic-sounding Weezer song. “California Kids” has echoes of the “Green” and “Red” albums. But a real powerhouse of this album is “L.A. Girlz.” This song is catchy as hell, and I have woken up many times with the lyrics repeating in my head. Another strong hit is “Thank God for Girls” (have you picked up on a theme here?). It features hit lyrics such as, “The girl in the pastry shop with the net in her hair / Is making a cannoli for you to take on your hiking trip” and “God took a rib from Adam, ground it up in a centrifuge machine / Mixed it with cardamom and cloves, microwaved it on the popcorn setting / While Adam was like ‘that really hurts.’”

While the lyrics are fun and moderately artful, it is hard to get into this album when it is over so quickly. I don’t want to set a minimum number of tracks for an album to be complete, but 10 is just not doing it for me. In comparison, “Everything Will Be Alright In the End” has 13, and “Raditude” has 14; while “Weezer” (this one has the blue album cover, not a white one) has only 10 as well, it features amazingly strong and classic tracks such as “My Name is Jonas,” “Buddy Holly” and “Say It Ain’t So.” In order for this new album to pull off being so small, the tracks need to have the same punch as the ones I listed above. Unfortunately, in that area, Weezer just doesn’t deliver.

As excited as I was for this album, I am little disappointed. Weezer has a lot of fun with “Everything Will Be Alright In the End,” but in their attempt to return to an original sound, they don’t make the mark. In the iconic words of the best track on “Everything Will Be Alright In the End,” I think that Weezer needs to return “Back to the Shack.”

Competition has been a driving force for me in the classroom. I live on the thrill of being right and of knowing that my professor knows that I have studied what I needed to. When I picture myself in class, I don’t picture myself stomping on my classmates so that I can climb past them. I don’t prepare for class so that I can smash my peers into pulp. I do know that I would much prefer to be the most prepared person in a classroom than the least prepared.

So the issue at hand really is this: why can’t I apply how I approach my competition in the classroom (you know, when I said that I didn’t want to put anyone down in my pursuit of being right?) to how competitive I feel about and around other women.

I don’t want you, reader, to picture the scene from “Mean Girls” when Lindsey Lohan imagines the cafeteria as a watering hole. Instead, imagine something less physical and more similar to the gossipy, bitchy, never voiced internal dialogue of the meanest girl in your high school.

Instead of lunging over tables, I find myself not hesitating to put a woman down because of something trivial. Maybe s1he happens to be speaking to a boy I like, maybe she happens to be wearing something that I don’t like, maybe I’ve literally never met her. It doesn’t matter because I find myself having a gut reaction that I am not too proud of.

We can have a long conversation about how women are or are not conditioned by patriarchal systems to fight each other for the attention of “A Man.” We can talk about how that is heteronormative and not good for the women or men expected to be involved; and, it just wouldn’t get us very far into how I am able to recognize that my behavior is bad and hurtful or why I haven’t changed it.

I think that it is still this way because no one can check my inner thoughts the way my friends can tell me when I’m being “too” “dramatic.” I think it is this way that because I am the only one who can chastise me, who can stop and remind me of how wrong my behavior is. Because who wants to be lectured by the one person who should always be on your side, that is, your inner voice?

At the end of the day, I know who is responsible for fixing my behavior, for checking myself, for stopping those thoughts. At the end of the day, I have to be responsible for what I say, what I do and, just as importantly, what I think.

She had recently been informed via snail mail that she would be deported lest she responded to numerous incident reports and change her actions. Crosley never received the letter because she hadn’t checked her mailbox since second semester sophomore year.

“The letter said I had been given illegal status as a student at Jewell and had to withdraw from my classes and be off campus by March 29,” said Crosley.

Crosley was being deported for numerous rule violations, many of which she said were not made clear to her when she became enrolled as a student.

Her biggest offense was repeatedly being seen walking on the quad grass.

“Everyone was doing it, so I assumed it was okay. I know the grass is important to the school, but I didn’t know stepping on it would lead to deportation,” said Crosley.

She also failed to RSVP to Jewell events immediately following the first email.

“Yes, I did receive multiple reminders about RSVPing, but I always RSVPed by the deadline. The protocol was never made clear- there’s no transparency,” she said.

Crosley was given the day to pack and had to hit the road by 5 p.m. or else she would be fined a $50 “failure to checkout” fee.

“Thankfully my friends were very supportive and helped me pack everything into my tiny suitcase,” said Crosley.

Crosley was set to graduate in May but will now have to have to reapply to Jewell, take Responsible Self again and spend another semester before graduating in December. Crosley hopes her story will enlighten other students of Jewell’s policies, so something similar does not happen to them.

Those involved in Crosley’s early return to Kansas declined to comment on the situation.