THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2023
McKemy Center to see more programs
MARYVILLE, MISSOURI
NWMISSOURINEWS.COM
SIDNEY LOWRY Managing Editor | @sidney_lowry
After approval from the Board of Regents in October 2022, the McKemy Center for Lifelong Learning is in the middle of renovations for expansion in the School of Agricultural Sciences. In the 1990s, the McKemy Center was used as an agricultural mechanics lab and classroom before the courses moved to the Thompson-Ringold Building. Director of the School of Agricultural Sciences Rod Barr said with the pending demolition of that building, these renovations are taking the space in the McKemy Center back to its original roots. “At that point, we started to look
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at different locations on campus and came back to probably the best location was the McKemy Center because that’s where it used to be. It was kind of designed for that and had a lot of open space,” he said. The renovations include the addition of laboratory spaces, equipment, as well as safety upgrades to support the systems management for manufacturing and the agribusiness program. Along with supporting the existing programs, there will be certification courses through Lincoln Electric for welding, four Snap-on certifications like precision measuring and multimeter, AC-DC electric certifications and more.
INCREASING
INCLUSION
@THEMISSOURIAN With the change in space, Barr said they are looking into bringing back programs that haven’t been offered since the change in space. “We have courses on the books that haven’t been taught for several years and are now bringing those up to date to allow us to do that,” Barr said. “We will pursue a minor in systems management to broaden the scope of what that offers. So from a programming standpoint, yeah, we will kind of go back to where we used to be modified, but broaden the scope to include more than just agriculture.”
SEE MCKEMY | A4
State teacher salary causes division LAKEN MONTGOMERY News Reporter | @lmontgomerymiss
In the academic progress, there were 986 domestic underrepresented students on campus — 86% of these students finished with good academic standings. Mallett said there is still work to do with the freshmen class, specifically. Though there is a trend of increase with the average GPA within classifications, rising from 1.79 with freshmen to 3.2 with seniors. There is a breakdown in statistics between Black, Hispanic, Asian, White and multi-race students. In the spring 2022, the GPA for domestic underrepresented students was 3.03 in comparison to white students, 3.23. This is a significant improvement from years ago when 82% of underrepresented students had a GPA of 2.0 or higher.
Low teacher compensation is not a new issue in the United States, but within the last couple of years, it is becoming more urgent. It not only affects the current teachers trying to make a living, but also future generations by making it difficult to live off of a teaching career. Timothy Wall, director of the School of Education, said 18% of Northwest students majoring in education despite the compensation that challenges the position. Northwest started out as a teaching school in 1905, preparing students for a career in education. Even though Northwest has broadened and started allowing other degrees, it still prides itself with its education program. “I believe our reputation for high-quality educator preparation, coupled with a 100% placement rate in employment, helps us attract amazing future teachers and leaders. Plus, we have the best faculty in America,” Wall said. Missouri is the sixth worst state in paid salary for teachers with an average of $51,557, according to a study done in 2022 by usafacts.org. Around 8,000 Missouri teachers don’t even meet that average and make less than $38,000 a year. Ninetyseven percent of teachers admit that their salary is insufficient to live off of. Missouri’s governor and legislature have proposed a temporary solution, increasing the minimum salary from $25,000 to $38,000. The state will also provide funds to support 70% of salary costs within the program, the remaining would need to be covered by local school districts. This problem is not only restricted to Missouri, it affects schools across the nation. In 28 states, college educated teachers are paid a teacher wage penalty from 2% all the way up to 32.7%, meaning that the average wage paid to employed workers in a specific occupation in the area of the intended employment is less than the wage paid to cover employees. Logan Lightfoot, superintendent of Maryville R-II School District, said based on what state he worked in, the actions taken to fix this pay gap changed.
SEE DIVERSITY | A4
SEE UNDERPAID | A4
HANNAH CLAYWELL ASST. NEWS EDITOR
Assistant Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion Justin Mallett discusses the state of diversity and inclusion. Mallett covered the academics of underrepresented students and the changes that have been seen in the past semester.
Mallett talks diversity, inclusion progress
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HANNAH CLAYWELL Asst. News Editor | @Hannah_9504
ustin Mallett, assistant vice president of Diversity and Inclusion, gave an address about the state of Diversity and Inclusion Jan. 16 as a part of Martin Luther King Jr. Week activities. The address focused on academic progress, programming and academic partnerships. The address focused on the things that are working for Diversity and Inclusion. Mallett said that the purpose of the address is to inform all of the work that has been done by DI. “The reason why we started doing this, this is the second year we’ve done it, is because we wanted to create transparency within our office about the efforts and the works we are doing to create and foster an inclusive environment,” Mallett said.
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