It’s been 20 years since the fall of apartheid in South Africa in 1994. and for the last year now, students and faculty here at the University of Missouri have been assisting the University of Western Cape to help preserve an archive of thousands of photographs, films, artifacts, oral histories and other historical documents related to the struggle for freedom during apartheid.

The Mayibuye archive is housed at the Main Library of the University of Western Cape in Cape Town and Robben Island. Western Cape played a key role in the struggle against apartheid and was the only “colored” university in the country. Many of the thought leaders in the administration of Nelson Mandela came from the university.

The MU College of Education’s School of Information Science & Learning Technologies and the University of Missouri Libraries is working with archivists in Western Cape to digitize much of the archive and make it available online. The two universities have also had a long-running partnership that stretches back into the 1980s.

The Missouri School of Journalism’s role in the archive project is to tell the stories contained in the archive, and we’ll largely be talking about that effort today.

Guests: 
Randy Smith, Professor of Convergence Journalism at MU 
Lauren Langille, Graduate Student at MU 
Kevin Drew, Graduate Student at MU 
Harold Herman, Professor at University of Western Cape, South Africa 

The United States Veterans Health Administration has recently been under national scrutiny, after reports that veterans were on waiting lists at some VA hospitals for more than 30 days… in some cases, dozens of people had died while still on waiting lists to receive care. Moreover, there’s been evidence of efforts at some hospitals to hide evidence of those long waiting lists. Congress is discussing the issue, and the Veterans Affairs Secretary resigned last month. In the meantime, we want to know more about the issues facing the VA system, and how the news might affect the Va facilities here in Missouri.

Guests: 

L. Stephen Gaither, Public Affairs Officer Harry S. Truman Memorial VA Hospital 
Doug Meyer, Director of the Missouri Veterans Commission 

By Phone: 
Stewart Hickey, National Executive Director of AMVETS

For years now the state of Missouri’s infrastructure has been a concern for public officials, politicians and Missourians on the whole. The Missouri Department of Transportation and state legislators have come up with a way to combat the department’s shrinking budget, but it’s up to Missouri voters to approve it. Amendment 7 will be on the August ballot: it’s a three quarter cent statewide sales tax increase on everything except groceries and medicine. It’s estimated to generate 534 million dollars annually over the next 10 years, with all of the money to be spent on a wide variety of transportation purposes in the state. 

Guests: 

Roberta Broeker, Chief Financial Officer for MoDot 
Dave Silvester, Central District Engineer for MoDot

By Skype: 
Amy Blouin, Executive Director of the Missouri Budget Project 

By Phone: 
Senator Mike Kehoe 
Senator John Lamping 
Thomas Shrout, Jr., Treasurer of Missourians for Better Transportation Solutions 

Some believe that learning and listening to music, particularly classical music, at a young age is tied to success in the future. 

In Columbia, there are many efforts to get children interested in classical music: multiple avenues for music education, and even classical music performances in town targeted at kids.

We are talking about how young people in Mid-Missouri are exposed to these influences, and about some of the challenges in reaching them.

Guests: 
Kirk Trevor, Maestro of the Missouri Symphony Society 
James Melton, Coordinator of the Fine Arts Department of Columbia Public Schools 
Greg Hausman, Director of the Columbia Academy of Music 

R Bowen Loftin took over as the Chancellor of the University of Missouri three months ago now, taking the reins from Brady Deaton, who had served as Chancellor for a decade. Now that Dr. Loftin has had time to settle in Columbia, today on Intersection we’ll talk about what he’s learned about MU since he’s been here, and what his plans are for the University’s future.

Guests: 
Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin

Columbia’s city clerk has until Tuesday evening to decide whether the petition known as Repeal 6214 has enough signatures and is valid - and whether the city can continue with its plans, approved last March, with the developer the Opus Group. If you’ve been following this story, you know that this is about another student housing complex planned for downtown Columbia. Those in favor of the plan - including the mayor and a majority of city council members - say increasing the housing opportunities and investment downtown is a good thing. Opponents of the plan say the deal doesn’t do enough to address infrastructure needs or the livability of Columbia’s downtown communities - and they’ve gathered more than 3,000 signatures from Columbia citizens who agree with them.

Guests:

Barbara Hoppe, Ward 6 City Councilmember 

Tracy Greever-Rice, member of Repeal 6214 effort

In Columbia, more than 8 percent of the population is foreign-born, compared with just under 4 percent on average in the rest of Missouri. In Columbia Public Schools, there are 61 different languages spoken amongst the students in the English Language Learning programs. Today on Intersection we’re talking about mid-Missouri’s international communities. Why is Columbia more culturally diverse than other parts of the Midwest? What is life like in Columbia for people from around the world, and how does their presence affect the town as a whole?

Today we’re joined by three guests who work and live on the frontlines of mid-Missouri’s international communities - and two of them were born outside the US, but now call Columbia home.

Noor Azizan-Gardner, chief diversity officer at the University of Missouri.

Eduardo Crespi, a registered nurse and founder of Centro Latino.

Shelly Fair, coordinator of English Language Learning programs for the Columbia public school district.

It’s a new era for Columbia Public Schools...

On Tuesday, Columbia voters approved a $50 million dollar bond issue that is part of a 10-year plan to fund a new elementary school and other improvements, and to finally get rid of the district’s classroom trailers, eventually, for the Columbia school district’s growing number of students. And, as the district moves forward, a new superintendent will be at the helm: Peter Stiepleman has been the district’s assistant superintendent of elementary education, and takes on the role of district superintendent when Chris Belcher retires this June. During the search, the Columbia Tribune's Hank Waters called Stiepleman one of American education’s “hot prospects” who has “shown his stuff” in Columbia. We take your questions and answer some of our own.

Guest:

CPS Superintendent Peter Stiepleman 

It’s been nearly 150 years since the close of the US Civil War, but the effects, and some of the arguments, continue to be felt today. Two years ago, a petition allowing Texas to secede from the US received over 100,000 online signatures, and prompted a response from the White House. Here in Missouri, lawmakers last year pushed a bill to nullify all federal gun control laws in the state. It ultimately failed, but that hasn’t stopped legislators from introducing similar legislation in this session.

Today on Intersection, we’ll talk about the lasting effects of the US Civil War, examine the re-energized states’ rights debate, and talk about other ways the Civil War is felt today.

Guests:

Frank Bowman, the Floyd R. Gibson Missouri Endowed Professor of Law at the MU School of Law

Marvin Overby, a professor in MU’s department of political science

The internet age has brought to us the ability to get large amounts of information, from across the globe, delivered to our fingertips within seconds. This access provides us with a powerful amount of interconnectedness, and information (not to mention entertainment!). But how should this access and interconnectedness be distributed? Should it be available to everyone equally, or should big companies - like Netflix and Amazon - be restricted because of the amount of data they are streaming? What does all of this mean for the economy, democracy and those of us just trying to stream movies at home?

Today on Intersection, well talk about “Net neutrality” - and the debate over controlling the capacity of streaming information on the internet.

Guests:

David Mandy, Professor and department chair, MU Department of Economics

Dana Wollman, Managing Editor at Engadget

Ken Florance, Vice President of Content Delivery at Netflix