Vol. XCVIII No. 8

Uunewsonline.com

Thursday, October 25, 2012

University Newsthe

A student voice of SLU since 1919

NEWS

>> SGA talks BRC

3

INSI

DE: OPINION

>> Advice for the SLU community

4 ARTS

>> Paranormal Activity

7 SPORTS 9

>> SLU ranked first in A-10

Controversy: Shared governancePatankar defends stance, addresses growing faculty impatience

By KRISTEN MIANO News Editor

The Faculty Council of the College of Arts and Sci-ences passed a vote of no confidence in Lawrence Biondi S.J., the president of Saint Louis University, in respect to his continued support and retention of the Vice President of Academic Affairs, Manoj Patankar, in their meeting on Oct. 11.

“This is a highly-measured step, one that faculty have not taken lightly. After due deliberation, faculty concluded that this is a necessary action,” Jason Fritts, President of the Faculty Council, said in a press re-lease.

The vote passed with 35 council mem-bers voting in favor, 2 against, and 1 ab-staining.

The vote comes in response to Biondi’s continued defense of Patankar after both-er the Faculty Council of Art and Sciences and the Faculty Senate voted no confi-dence in his leadership. According to the motion voted on in the Oct. 11 meeting, confidence was lost in Patankar for a va-riety of reasons, including the failure of shared governance in regards to the cre-ation of new policy and a perceived failure of the Vice President to exhibit correct leadership.

“The faculty has, however, lost all confidence in the current leadership, especially that of Vice President for Academic Affairs Manoj Patankar, to reverse these trends,” the Faculty Council said in their motion. “ In fact, Dr. Patankar has contributed to the decline, harming the reputation of the university and repeatedly demonstrating a failure to understand and employ basic principles and best practices of academic leadership.”

The vote also comes in a response to the perceived damage done by plans to establish policy regarding shared governance, faculty evaluation and the terms of

Going green and Making a Difference

Students are preparing for Make A Difference Day this Saturday after Saint Louis University broke its participation record with 3,000 volunteers last year.

Proving to be one of SLU’s most anticipated events of the year, MADD has annually attracted a variety of volunteers. Stu-dents, faculty, staff, parents and alumni are all invited to gather together on Oct. 27 to celebrate the school year’s largest day of ser-vice.

As the years have gone by, this SLU tradition has only improved with age, growing and advancing ev-ery year.

Jessica Smith, a return-ing volunteer and member of Alpha Phi Omega, SLU’s service fraternity, encour-ages all students to volun-teer for at least this one day.

“I worked with the pub-lic health group my first year,” Smith said. “We went to this nursing home in the section for men and women with dementia. I teamed up with a lady named Miss Dolly. We started carv-ing pumpkins and making decorations, and she lit up! She even began talking about her dog and laugh-ing! Later, they supplied us with lunch, and our coordi-nator walked in saying Miss Dolly has not smiled in five years, and we were the first to get her to smile!”

Another previous volun-teer, Corinne Halsted, says there is more to service than people think.

“The day, in general, is a great reflection on SLU’s mission for the develop-ment of men and women for others,” Halsted said. “It creates this perfect balance of doing something new and helping others all at the same time.”

Senior Shannon Russell, president of APO, has been involved with the organiza-tion for the last three years. She feels it only becomes

By IAN SULLIVAN Staff Writer

By CHRIS ACKELS Senior Staff Writer

In the Coronado Place, there is a pretty typical col-lege apartment. But there is something unique about this humble habitat that Maggie Fleming, Allison Schofield and Hayden Dry call home, and it certainly says something about the school they attend.

Fleming, Schofield and Dry are in three differ-ent sororities. But for the second year in a row, they live together, and call each other best friends.

“We have been friends since freshman year, and joining different sororities didn’t change that,” Dry said.

Dry is a member of Del-ta Gamma, Fleming is the Financial Vice President of Alpha Delta Pi, and Scho-field holds the same posi-tion for Gamma Phi Beta.

“[Living with my room-mates] has given me a chance to get to know women in other chapters,” Fleming said. “The great thing about SLU is that you can be friends with anyone, none of the sororities are really exclusive.”

The fact that these wom-en live together speaks to the inclusive nature of Greek Life at SLU.

Many state schools have houses for their Greek chapters. Each fraternity and sorority has a house on or near campus, and mem-

faculty employment, according to the press release.The vote of no confidence by the Faculty Council

means that as long as Biondi continues to support and keep Patankar in his role as the Vice President for Academic Affair, the College of Arts and Sciences has no confidence in the leadership of either party.

Since the vote was passed, the Business School Faculty Assembly unanimously passed a motion in support of the Faculty Senate’s actions. It is likely that the Faculty Senate will address the most recent vote of no confidence in their up coming meeting on Oct. 30.

On Oct. 16, Patankar issued a letter to the faculty at large calling for a return to collab-orative communication, requesting that attention return to the formation of the Blue Ribbon Committee and look to creating solutions.

“I think there is a lot of misinfor-mation out there and a lack of infor-mation,” Patankar said. “I’m not sure of all the factors that have lead to this escalations, because I’m not in the community to hear the conversations going on.”

Patankar noted that he didn’t feel the vote of no confidence against him made sense, as he not only withdrew the faculty evaluation draft, but he

followed the communication model that was in place. According to Patankar, the way the model works

is that if students, faculty or staff wish to propose a concept or idea, they can bring it to him in an open forum. From there, committees are formed to create drafts and policies, which would then be sent out for feedback.

“In the case of the faculty evaluation policies, we went through all of that. We created a foundational

See “Vote” on Page 3See “MADD” on Page 3

This is a highly measured step, one faculty concluded that this is a necess-ry action.

“”

-Jason Fritts

Kristen Miano/ News Editor

SLU’s Greek Life community housing celebrates unusual unity

Ellen Carnaghan, professor of Political Science, answers questions from students at the Faculty Teach-In, held on Wed., Oct. 24, in the Busch Student Center in an effort to educate students on the recent votes of no confidence.

Kristen Miano/ News Editor

DeMattias Hall serves as a home for all chapters of Greek Life at Saint Louis University. See “Greek” on Page 2

bers of that fraternity or so-rority live in that house for a certain number of years.

Scott Jurgenson is a ju-nior at the University of Missouri, where he lives in an apartment with other members of his fraternity.

“When you are a fresh-man or sophomore living in the house, you pretty much only hang out with your fraternity,” Jurgenson said. “There is a lot of unhealthy competition between hous-es. We’ve had people get in fights solely because they are in competing houses.”

At SLU, Greek leaders have worked to prevent these conflicts between var-ious fraternities and sorori-ties. One method for this is by having Greeks from all

chapters live together. “Our chapters have a

unique situation where typi-cally during their sopho-more year they are living with individuals from almost every other chapter if they choose to live in DeMattias Hall,” said Kristen Clem-ens, Program Coordinator in the Student Involvement Center who works directly with Greek Life. “Because of this communal living, the members often have more interaction with members from other chapters.”

Schofield believes this plays a role in preventing cliques, rivalries and exclu-sivity from Greek Life here.

Aug. 22: release of VPAA Proposals from Faculty Senate Executive Committee to Faculty Senators

Sept. 1: Faculty Senate Ex-ecutive Committee polls Sena-tors on statement condemning the Proposals

Sept. 4: VPAA issues letter to faculty, taking note of controversy and requesting feedback

Sept. 14: meeting of Presi-dent, VPs, Deans, members of Faculty Senate Executive Com-mittee; vote taken to rescind VPAA Proposals passes, 17 for and 9 against

Sept. 18: Arts & Scienc-es Faculty Council meets; Motion is introduced to invite Board of Trustees to provide for a “succession of the senior leader-ship” at the University; that fails, 17 for and 20 against; Motion of No Con-fidence in VPAA is taken off the table; that passes, 35 for and 2 against

Sept. 24: Board of Trustees President releases letter reaffirming support of Board for SLU leadership and a “Blue Ribbon Committee” for advancing University’s Strategic Plan

Sept. 26: Student Government Association meets, hearing presentations from VPAA Patankar and Faculty Senate President Mark Knuepfer

Oct. 2: University President responds to Faculty Senate Executive Committee letter, reaffirming his support for VPAA Patankar and dismissing Faculty Senate concerns

Oct. 11: Arts & Sciences Faculty Council meets, passes Motion of No Con-fidence in leadership of Fr. Biondi, University President, issuing a press release.

Oct. 24: Teach-in scheduled (3:00 - 5:00, BSC 253 A & D), sponsored by College of Arts & Sciences

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

OCTOBER 25, 2012unewsonline.com2 NEWS

Be a Responsible BillikenSTOP. CALL. REPORT.

314-977-3000witness.slu.edu

dps.slu.edu

All Information Provided by Department of Public Safety

and Emergency Preparedness

Friday, Oct. 191:00 p.m. - STEALING OVER $500

Two students left their cell phones, unattended, charging in the [Mon-santo] lab. When they returned the phones were gone.

1:06 p.m. - AUTO ACCIDENT Two contractors collided outside

the entrance to the [Olive/Compton] garage. SLMPD responded and a re-port was filed.

Monday, Oct. 225:10 p.m. - INFORMATIONAL

A DPSEP officer made contact with Patricia Douglas, an aggressive panhandler known to frequent the area. She was given a trespass warning by the officer.

Tuesday, Oct. 231:32 p.m. - INFORMATIONAL

A DPSEP officer observed two subjects (not SLU related) that appeared to be fighting. Upon

intervening it was determined that the subjects were acquaintances and walking through the campus to their residence located on Theresa. One subject was highly intoxicated. Both were warned regarding their behavior while on University property.

THE SLU SCOOP

Let Us Introduce You: Dan White, S.J.22 years later, SLU alumnus returns to College Church

By EMILY CAVALIEREStaff Writer

Twenty-two years away would make any place seem different. In the case of Dan White, S.J., things really are different. As the new pas-tor of St. Francis Xavier College Church and a 1990 SLU graduate, Fr. White has been met with many changes upon his return.

This La Crosse, Wis. na-tive was a history major at SLU, entered the Jesuits upon graduation, and re-ceived his MA in American Studies in ’95.

Since then, he has spent time working in Louisiana, Belize and Australia. Upon his return to St. Louis, White has been able to wit-ness the enormous chang-es that both SLU and the midtown neighborhood have undergone.

Not unlike his time as a student, White has had to adjust to living with a large group of people.

“I live in one of the Bel-larmine houses,” White said. “It’s been good, but I definitely feel the genera-tion gap. I’m 20 years older than a lot of the guys, and they’re all very active,” said White. “And a little bit loud,” he added.

White enjoys running and biking in his free time, and appreciates the fact that SLU is so close to his favor-ite place in St. Louis: Forest Park. SLU is also nearby another one of White’s old haunts: The Moolah The-

Greek: Housing contributes to close community Continued from Page 1

Photo courtesy of the Society of Jesus.

ater. The last movie he saw there was “The Master,” and while he is a Philip Sey-mour-Hoffman fan, he had to admit that the film was “not that great.”

After his time in Louisi-ana came to an end, White said he was very excited to start at College Church.

“I love that the parish and the university are so well in-tegrated.” White said.

He admits that a church that must serve an entire parish as well as an entire university is a complicated place, but he looks forward to the challenge.

“The problem with such a beautiful, old church is just that- an old church.

The air conditioning broke over the summer, which was not good,” White said.

One of the biggest re-sponsibilities that White has taken on is the numer-ous weddings that come through College Church.

There are tons and tons of weddings,” White said.

White has found a more complicated challenge when trying to engage the post undergraduate demo-graphic of young people.

“Culture has changed a lot,” said White. “We need to see how to bring faith into a culture that is not as committed to institutions and is suspicious of author-ity.”

Despite the challenges, White welcomes the chance to serve such a dynamic population.

“I love the energy on a college campus and I like that there’s a lot of inter-esting things going on,” he said. “The midtown area has changed a lot. None of this used to exist,” said White.

After being away from St. Louis for over two decades, White has now concluded that “It has become hip to live here.” Take that, Chi-cago.

The failing church air conditioning was not the only surprise that awaited Fr. White’s return to St.

Louis. “SLU’s campus is just

incredible now,” said White “[During my time as a student], campus ended right by the soccer field and West Pine was still open as a road.”

White appreciates, how-ever, the fact that some things have not changed.

“I love that it is still an urban campus, connected to the city. It is a very civi-cally engaged place. The Jesuits have always been that way.”

White has noticed some changes beneath the surface, as well.

“I have found that the field of concern here has grown considerably… the university is much more intentional about being a Jesuit university. The mis-sion of the school is more prominent.” White recalls that during his time as a student, “nobody could tell you the school’s mission statement. Now, there are more than a few students that probably can.”

White is happy to be back in St. Louis. Upon re-flecting on where life has taken him since his college years, White said, “Sydney [Australia] may have the opera house, but they don’t have an arch.”

I love that it is still an urban campus, con-nected to the city. It is a very civically engaged place. The Jesuits have always been that way.

“

”-Dan White S.J.

“Living in DeMatt is a great experience because you get the benefit of Greek hous-ing, and you also get close interaction with people be-sides just your own chap-ter,” Schofield said.

Many non-Greeks agree. “Everybody is friends

with everybody here, it doesn’t really matter if you’re in a sorority,” said Stephanie Uhrich, a non-Greek freshman. “I have a lot of friends in sororities and fraternities, and I don’t feel like that stops us from being friends.”

Greek Life at SLU is set apart not only by the non-exclusive living situation, but also by the religious aspect.

Nick Smith, S.J., who works in Campus Ministry

and teaches in the theology department, has worked with Greek organizations for years. He serves as the faculty advisor for Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Delta Sigma Phi.

“Greek Life provides op-portunities that have a theo-logical or spiritual element to help students see how it ties into our Jesuit mission,” Smith said.

Campus Ministry spon-sors a Greek Spring Break Mission Trip and has worked with Greek lead-ers to create GRIP, Greeks Rooted in Prayer, a bible study group for members.

Smith also spoke about how the Catholic identity has been an important part of many chapters at SLU. Sigma Alpha Epsilon offers a chapter mass after meet-ings. Members of Sigma Phi Epsilon often sit togeth-

er in College Church for 9:00 p.m. mass on Sundays.Beta Theta Pi organized a candlelight vigil on Septem-ber 11th.

The spiritual side of these fraternities is unique to SLU, and the service el-ement also speaks to their fulfillment of the Jesuit mis-sion.

“The fraternity and so-rority experience should be a positive experience that enhances a student’s educational experience. It is an experience that should be in line with the mission of the University,” Colleen Drazen, Program Coordina-tor at the Student Involve-ment Center, said.

While the Jesuit mission is fulfilled through service, spirituality and religion, it is also fulfilled through inclu-siveness and acceptance in SLU’s Greek Life

NEWS 3unewsonline.comOCTOBER 25, 2012

Presentation discusses impact of female voters

By HANNAH WILEYStaff Writer

When it comes to wom-en’s issues in the 2012 elec-tion, Nadia Brown, an assis-tant professor in Saint Louis University’s Department of Political Science and De-partment of African Ameri-can Studies, and Heather Bednarek, the department chair and associate profes-sor of the Department of Economics, know just how much is at stake.

Along with Linda Mc-Daniel, co-president of League of Women Voters of St. Louis, Brown and Bednarek created a panel discussion and presentation for the Gruenberg Society, a society of female alumnae of the John Cook School of Business. The discussion detailed the role women have in the election and how the female vote can have the largest voice in determining the outcome of the presidential race.

The presentation, “How to Be a Smart Voter: Edu-cate Yourself on Issues Af-fecting Women and Fami-lies in 2012,” was given last Tuesday, Oct. 16 in the John Cook School of Business and outlined the feminist issues of society that have been recognized or neglected during this campaign. The event was co-sponsored by Fifth Third Bank and the Young Wom-en’s Christian Association.

Brown was the first panelist to present on the statistical information that plays into the election. She reported on the heavy sig-nificance of women voters in this election, based off statistical information from previous elections. In 2008, nine million more women voted than men. As femi-nist issues are debate topics ,there is no expectation of the difference in men and women voters to decrease.

“This election will im-pact [women] in significant ways,” Brown said.

According to Brown, this can be attributed to the clash of ideologies on gen-der equality matter, bodily integrity questions and re-productive disagreements between the two political parties. Brown’s research discovered that only 17 per-

Vote: Teach-in aims to involve students

Department of Theological Studies

Presents Catholic Bioethics Lecture

"Healthcare as Vocation: Insights from the Spirituality of Saint Ignatius"

[Type a quote from the document or the summary of an interesting point. You can position the text box anywhere in the document. Use the Text Box Tools tab to change the formatting of the pull quote text box.]

John Hardt, Ph.D. (Boston College) Assistant Professor, Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago

October 29, 2012 7:00 PM

A-B Auditorium Cook School of Business

Co-sponsored by the Manresa Program in Catholic, Jesuit Studies and the Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University. For more information, contact Tobias Winright, Ph.D., at twinrigh@slu.edu.

cent of seats in Congress are held by females. With the number of women vot-ers outweighing that of men, this percentage and the discussion regarding women’s issues between the two male presidential candidates tends to cause negative friction.

“During the second de-bate, we saw issues dis-cussed 20 or 25 years ago. These issues are coming to the forefront because politicians are realizing that women are more likely than men to vote,” Brown said. “Now, women are more civically and politically en-gaged but it’s always a sur-prise that women are under-represented.”

Bednarek’s 10-minute portion of the presentation took a microscopic look into the federal spending of the Office of Management and Budget. Bednarek fo-cused largely on healthcare and why the discussion of the issue is so important.

“My goal was to pres-ent information that would help to provide a bigger frame when evaluating the specifics of various propos-als -- such as programs that would be cut or reformed to help balance the budget,” Bednarek said.

Bednarek said with healthcare being the “pac-man of the government spending pie,” and a budget that is continuously grow-ing at the expense of other government funding proj-ects, women need to under-stand how cuts or additions to healthcare would have an impact on their future.

McDaniel’s approach was less academic and more driven by her pas-sion to educate and inform women voters about the potential the female voice carries this election. Mc-Daniel’s portion of the pre-sentation gave information about what identification is accepted for voting and what state-wide ballot is-sues are prevalent for Mis-souri. She also provided an entire list of websites that can educate voters on the validity of issues presented in the campaign. McDaniel stressed the mission of the organization: to protect the rights of the citizens to reg-ister and vote.

SGA forms panel to assess shared governance

John Schuler/Photo Editor

Faculty Senate President Mark Knuepfer and Student Government Association President Blake Exline discuss the development of the newly formed Blue Ribbon Committee, tasked with resolving the conflicts between Saint Louis University’s faculty and administration. The BRC has decided to make handling the issue of shared governance at the university it’s premier concern, developing two working groups to discuss and develop the idea of shared governance. One group will be student centric, the other faculty centric.

Continued from Page 1 which he presented to both the Medical School and Doisy College of Nursing.

The faculty held a teach-in for students on Oct. 24 to explain why the votes of no confidence occurred. The teach-in not only explained what the vote of no confi-dence meant, but also ex-plained the grievances the faculty had that motivated the vote. These included the break down of shared governance, the stagnant rankings and endowment of SLU as compared to other institutions, the low faculty morale and the apparent “culture of fear” that exists at SLU due to the lack of trust in the administration.

“We are at a historic point at SLU,” said Tim Lomperis, professor of Po-litical Science. “With these votes of no confidence, the people of SLU are stepping out of the shadow of fear

into the sunlight. The up-per administration is losing its legitimacy and its right to rule. We can no longer teach with the integrity we expect to have.”

The faculty also stated that the communication model that Patankar cited was relatively unknown to students and faculty mem-bers prior to the open fo-rum Student Government Association Meeting during which Patankar and Mark Kneupfer, president of the Faculty Senate, addressed the situation.

Faculty representatives went on to say that there was permission to distrib-ute the draft policy to the general faculty as long as it included the word ‘draft’ on it, contrary to what Patan-kar has claimed.

Students are also re-sponding to the situation. In addition to discussions

by SGA, a group comprised of SLU students and alumni has been formed on Face-book.

The group, SLU stu-dents for No Confidence, is a“group of students who want their degree to matter after graduation.”

“No confidence basically means we are not confident in the SLU administration anymore,” said a spokesper-son for the group. “This is a push of students and alumni to see a refocusing on our values as a Jesuit university. We don’t think the current administration is doing a good job of following the SLU mission statement.”

The group stated they are willing to work with the faculty and SGA, but they have no plans for action at this time. Their goal is to ensure that student voices are heard and provide them with the tools to do so.

MADD: Group’s new focus on sustainability

easier to find her way back to MADD every year.

“It’s a unifying experi-ence, not just for APO, but for the entire SLU campus,” Russell said.

Russell and the rest of the APO executive board collaborate each week to create the ads and banners hung throughout campus and to prepare for the event.

“The day itself reflects SLU’s mission [and] its stu-dents’ interest[s] in social justice and helping their community,” Russell said. “The whole goal of this day is to have the biggest impact by reaching out to more areas of community. ”

The number of SLU vol-unteers that participate in MADD has grown exten-sively over the last decade. The Center for Service and Community Engagement co-sponsors the event.

Robert Wassel, Assistant Director for Community Service and Outreach, said he has been personally in-volved with the program for seven years.

“My first year, there were 1,400 volunteers, and now we have 3,000,” Wassel said. “This has added to the national profile for SLU as a service school, one of the largest in the nation.”

For most students, num-bers and statistics are not what draws them to volun-teer.

“I really believe our stu-dents are passionate.,” Was-sel said. “There is a culture of service on SLU’s campus. It’s in our Billiken DNA.”

Continued from Page 1 APO is also partnering with SLU’s Center for Sus-tainability to put together this year’s theme, “Sus-tainability.” With this new theme comes new changes and features.

Groups of volunteers will be working at 25 different public schools, which is an upgrade from the previous 15.

Outside of the class-rooms, 20 sites and 1,000 volunteers will be focused solely on environmental sustainability. These sites include community gar-dens, where volunteers will prepare an area where vegetables and fruits can be grown.

“Many people don’t have access to fresh produce without taking six to seven bus routes,” commented Wassel.

Another group will be working to revitalize Green-wood Cemetery. Unkept and overgrown, the cem-etery is a historical land-mark in St. Louis, holding the graves of Dred Scott’s family. Volunteers will pull weeds and work to support the cemetery’s environ-mental sustainability.

Continuing with the theme, lunches will be served in biodegradable bags provided by Chart-well’s. Instead of T-shirts, re-usable water bottles will be handed out to all reg-istered volunteers to refill throughout the day and keep hydrated.

The MADD opening ceremony will be held at Robert Hermann Soccer Stadium at 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 27th.

document, then I wrote the policy. Then I took feedback from other people on the draft policy and sent it to the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate,” Patankar said. “I was supposed to get feedback, but the draft went directly to the broad faculty community. When they got the document, they didn’t have any background or history of the document.”

Patankar said he was di-rected to collect feedback from the deans and depart-ment chairs, but the Faculty Senate turned down the draft before feedback could properly be collected.

Based on unofficial feedback from general fac-ulty, Patankar said he made changes to the tenure-review portion of the pro-posed faculty review policy,

unewsonline.com

UOPINION

OCTOBER 25, 2012

Editorials are opinion pieces written by the Editorial Board of The University News. The editorials printed in this space represent the opinion of The University News. Commentaries and Letters to the Editor represent the opinions of the signed authors but do not necessarily represent the opinions of The University News.

EditorialsThe University News reserves the right not to publish any letters that are deemed intentionally and/or inappropriately inflammatory, more than the 300-word limit or unsigned by the original author. The following are letters and/or website comments. Because the identities of website posters cannot be verified, all website comments should be treated as anonymous. Actual letters to the editor may be submitted online at unewsonline.com or e-mailed to opinion@unewsonline.com. Please include your cell phone number.

Lettersto the editor

Erika Klotz / Chief Illustrator

Saint Louis University is at a crossroads. The fac-ulty senate’s recent vote of no confidence on Vice President of Academic Affairs Manoj Patankar and the subsequent vote of no confidence on the presi-dent of the university, Lawrence Biondi, by the Fac-ulty Council of the College of Arts and Sciences both indicate that the administration and faculty are divid-ed on how best to run this university.

Ultimately, however, everyone at SLU can agree that they want to make our university reach its fullest potential. Though visions of how to attain that goal may vary, it is important to keep this unifying pur-pose in mind. Moreover, everyone involved must re-member that the way they conduct themselves at this juncture will reflect upon the university as a whole. With that in mind, here is what The University News would like to see from our school’s leadership at this critical time.

To the administration: Listen. This one word sum-marizes the most positive lesson our administration could learn from this ordeal. Listen to the faculty and the students, the people who are most directly invested in this university, and not just to the interest groups that hold the strings (or the purse strings). Greater communication and listening could have pre-vented the difficulties the university now faces, and they can also help us to move forward in the wake of recent events.

To the faculty: Organize yourselves. The greatest asset of the administration is that it is cohesive and acts decisively. The faculty benefit from a diversity of opinions from varied perspectives, but it is important

to become united in the face of challenges. This is especially true when it comes to communicating with the press—trust us, we should know.

Moreover, the faculty need to prepare their argu-ments carefully as they debate the best course of action for this university. Nothing should be done in haste; a balance between determined action and careful consideration is always necessary. After all, their careers are on the line, as well as the value of students’ degrees. Should SLU fail to adapt and ulti-mately plummet in rankings, no one will remember that this was a top-100 school back in our day.

To the students: Become informed. The faculty also bear some responsibility in this regard, and we respect their decision to hold a teach-in in order to inform students about the current state of affairs. We also hope to see more interaction between the Stu-dent Government Association and the faculty.

Furthermore, as one of the primary sources of news on campus, it falls to us at the UNews to cover events as they unfold. Ultimately, though, each stu-dent bears the responsibility of picking up a paper or clicking a link. Students, this is your education on the line; invest yourselves in it.

This is a challenging time for our university, but our actions today will define what this university be-comes in the future. If our university’s leaders among the administration, faculty and students all remem-ber this responsibility and consider this advice, we believe that SLU will continue improving. In this way, we at SLU get that much closer to living up to our mission statement.

When most people think of holidays, they usual-ly envision crowd favorites like Thanksgiving, New Year’s and Halloween. But yesterday, Wednesday, Oct. 24, marked one of the nation’s most appealingly-named celebrations: Food Day.

Though perhaps not as widely recognized as, say, Christmas, Food Day represents a time to show our appreciation for one of life’s bare necessities: food. Sounds like a pretty good deal, right? After all, everyone loves food!

But that’s not all Food Day is about. Accord-ing to the Food Day website, the purpose of the day is to “address issues as varied as health and nutrition, hunger, agricultural policy, animal welfare and farm worker justice.”

Here in the U.S., food is something we often take for granted. How many people at Saint Louis Uni-versity have ever experienced the true hunger that comes from malnourishment? Few have, and we hope that few ever will. But it is important to recognize the complex infrastructure that supplies our victuals ev-ery day and to educate ourselves on the issues sur-rounding food production.

The old adage “you are what you eat” holds true; the unhealthy foods many Americans consume con-tribute to the nation’s health epidemic, particularly heart attacks, stroke, diabetes and cancer. These af-flictions cause hundreds of thousands of deaths each year that could have been avoided by a healthier diet.

The foods we consume affect more than just our health, however. Most foods only arrive on our plates

after a long production and farming process that may be extremely harmful to workers, many of whom live on the other side of the planet. Furthermore, while most of us eat meat, certain animal farming pro-cesses involve excessive suffering for the animals involved. And on top of all that, it is important to rec-ognize which foods are produced using sustainable techniques and which may be causing irreversible harm to the planet.

So what can we do? It’s not like we can just stop eating. One option is to turn toward locavorism, the movement toward consuming more locally-produced foods.

There can be many benefits from eating locally. Food from nearby areas doesn’t have to travel as far to the marketplace, insuring that it will be fresher. This also lowers fuel costs, helps the environment and invests in the local economy. Much locally pro-duced food is also organic, which means fewer hor-mones and preservatives in the food.

Ultimately, the most important thing is that we make ourselves aware of where our food comes from and how it is produced. Purchasing produce from the nearby farmers’ markets in Soulard and Tower Grove is a fun way to improve our diets and support the St. Louis area. There are also a variety of small grocery stores that sell local and organic goods.

So if you missed Food Day, that’s alright—just mark your calendar for next year. And in the mean-time, live in the spirit of the season by trying to eat healthy and sustainable foods.

Finding direction for SLU at a crossroads

Following food from farm to plate

“Freedom of the press—print, online and broadcast—is a basic

right in a democratic society and is valuable in promoting

the development of students as socially responsible persons ...

The University News is a student voice, not the student voice. The views of The University News are the expressions of the students

involved ... If [The University News] can represent a point of view around which discussion may develop, it serves a legiti-mate and needed purpose.”- From The University News’

Charter

The University News is a member of the Associated

Collegiate Press, the Student Press Law Center, the College

Media Advisers and the Missouri College Media Association, a division of the Missouri Press

Association.

First copy, free. Each additional copy, $1.00.

Unews

editor-in-chiefBrian Boydeic@unewsonline.com

managing editorTJ Keeley managing@unewsonline.com

news editorKrisTen mianonews@unewsonline.com

assoc. news editorwolf howardnews@unewsonline.com

enterPrise editorderriCK neUnerenterprise@unewsonline.com

design directorBrianna radiCidesign@unewsonline.com

oPinion editormiChael hoGanopinion@unewsonline.com

sPorts editorCharles Bowlessports@unewsonline.com

assoc. sPorts editorTony Trainasports@unewsonline.com

arts editoralanah nanTellarts@unewsonline.com

assoc. arts editormaGGie needhamarts@unewsonline.com

online editorChrisTopher weBBwebmaster@unewsonline.com

multimedia directoremily diehlmultimedia@unewsonline.com

PhotograPhY editorJohn sChUlerphoto@unewsonline.com

chief coPY editorhilary KoraBiKcopy@unewsonline.com

coPY editorhallie Kaisercopy@unewsonline.com

coPY editorlizzie BarTeKcopy@unewsonline.com

fashion editorJUlia ChrisTensenfashion@unewsonline.com

science editorGaBriele GeerTsscience@unewsonline.com

religion editoradnan syedreligion@unewsonline.com

general managerConnor Berrygm@unewsonline.com

account executivesraChel CamBellnaTalie GrassoniCK sTeinaUer

advisorslaUra Thomsondon hiGhBerGeradvisor@unewsonline.com

the editorial board of the university news recognizes avis meyer, ph.d. as the newsPaPer’s facultY mentor.

2012-13 ediTorial Board

Founded by Claude Heithaus, S.J.

Busch Student CenterSuite 354

20 N. Grand Blvd. St. Louis, MO 63103

Newsroom: (314) 977-2812newsroom@unewsonline.com

Advertising: (314) 977-2813advertisng@unewsonline.com

unewsonline.comfacebook.com/theunews

twitter.com/theunews

Mike Hogan/ Opinion Editor

Responding to racism and privilege on campus

On September 27th, “Racially offensive and stereo-typical language [was] directed to [an] employee by [a] student,” the report of which was received by the Depart-ment of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness on Oct. 4.

The action this student took is absolutely unaccept-able. We, as the Saint Louis University Diversity Leader-ship Cabinet, express our sincerest anger and disappoint-ment. DLC condemns not only the student’s remarks, but also the attitude that fostered them.

This attitude lives under two aliases: racism and privi-lege.

The remarks made, by virtue of being racially offen-sive, are clear examples of hate speech. Such language is a direct attack on someone’s identity, which in turn is also an attack against an entire racial group. These remarks entrench bigotry, the engine of racism, making it doubly hard to fight.

Privilege is the other half of this coin. Although privi-lege in itself sometimes can’t be helped, reactions to privi-lege certainly can. The student clearly felt themselves to be in a position of power over the SLU employee, whom they viewed as unworthy of respect. Offensive remarks, in general, are intended to tear another person down and make them feel small and the offender more powerful. This perceived power differential defines the very heart of privilege. The student acted under the ruse of impunity and the guise of power. This is not how one should act in the face of perceived privilege.

SLU employees, who are rarely appreciated for their dedication and service, deserve to be celebrated, thanked and respected for their hard work. We, as students, must take time to express our gratitude for the services we so mindlessly take advantage of. SLU only functions due to their toil and enduring spirit. Knowing this makes the in-cident such an incredible insult to all who work here,and sends a negative message to every SLU employee.

There is nothing acceptable about racist or privileged attitudes. DLC strongly condemns both of these mentali-ties, the true culprits in this issue. And we offer our hum-blest, most heartfelt apology to the SLU employee who undeservedly had to hear the offensive remarks. Further, we apologize to any member of the SLU community, stu-dent or employee, who has ever experienced similar bias.

Racism and privilege are endemic attitudes, and as SLU’s representative body on all issues related to diver-sity and social justice, DLC urges us all to explore how we understand these two ideologies. We challenge every-one to find the common ground, that deep level of un-derstanding where we can bridge all divisions made by racism and privilege. We need to commit ourselves to cel-ebrating our relevant differences, while also celebrating the innate similarities that make us all human.

The walls need to come down. We need to see each other for who we are, past skin and wealth. And we are all capable of doing this, right here at SLU.

Campus life and a Jesuit education have equipped us with unique resources to combat insidious ideologies and foster accepting attitudes. SLU offers us classes about ra-cial diversity, ethnic and religious minorities, and a wide range of cultures. Chartered Student Organizations host events year-round discussing the implications of racism, sexism, privilege, poverty, healthcare, etc. DLC repre-sents many of these CSO’s in their efforts to promote diversity on campus and organize yet more diversity-re-lated activities.

Student life is rich in opportunities to learn. And al-though moments of disrespect, such as this, are certain-ly not desired, they are also opportunities for learning. With some mindfulness and effort, we can work against the tides of racism and privilege. We can work to adopt accepting mindsets. We can explore the meaning of di-versity and respect.

An investigation of the incident is still ongoing, and at some point it will come to an end. Our personal investiga-tions into the meaning of diversity and acceptance, con-versely, need to be never-ending processes of learning and understanding.

The walls need to come down, and it starts with you. It starts with more reporting and the condemnation of similar events and dispositions. It starts with gratitude. It starts with us.

This is the SLU we believe in. This is the community we are building. This is our SLU.

- The Diversity Leadership Cabinet is the student voice for diversity and social justice concersns at SLU.

For the majority of his administration, Obama’s foreign policy failures have

b e e n able to fly un-der the r a d a r , m u c h l i k e an un-manned drone, if you will. W i t h the re-cent at-

tacks on American embas-sies and the murder of four Americans, including our ambassador Christopher Stephens, this is no longer the case.

While the economy re-mains the most important issue to voters in this up-coming election, foreign policy is now running a close second. Iraq and Lib-ya are unraveling, Egypt is now controlled by the Mus-lim Brotherhood, casualties are at an all-time high in Afghanistan (where have all the anti-war protestors gone?), Syria continues to slaughter its own people, al-Qaida remains a threat throughout the region, and Iran gets closer to develop-ing a nuclear weapon with every passing day.

These issues and more were discussed during the third and final presidential debate this past Monday, which focused on foreign policy. I will admit I was a bit worried about how Rom-ney would perform, given that the economy is his area of expertise, not foreign af-fairs. (Note: Those who crit-icize Romney for his lack of foreign policy experience would do well to remember

OPINION 5unewsonline.comOCTOBER 25, 2012

A critical juncture for SLU, but also an opportunity

Editor’s note: Leading up to the presidential election, each week two commentaries will focus on an issue that is important to voters. One will be written by a representative of SLU Democrats, the other by a representative of SLU College Republicans.

Commenting on foreign policy in the context of this election is a near-impossi-

ble task, cons id -e r i n g b o t h P r e s i -d e n t B a r a c k O b a m a and Gov. M i t t Romney s p o k e a b o u t for e ign

policy issues in all three debates. Through the rhetoric he uses and the as-sertions he makes that are simply false, Romney is the weaker candidate regard-ing foreign policy.

One example of Rom-ney’s weakness as a presi-dential candidate can be found in a statement he made in the second presi-dential debate. Romney de-clared that he would label China a “currency manipu-lator.” He has yet to revoke this statement. Obama countered that Romney had invested in Chinese busi-nesses that were “pioneers of outsourcing.” This begs the question: does America really want to elect a man who insults a country that is a major world financial player? More so, does America really want to elect a man who insults the coun-try where he has his own money invested? This ques-tion can only be answered on election day.

The third presidential de-bate focused exclusively on foreign policy. Bob Schief-fer moderated the debate, and he focused specifically on Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Israel and Iran, Syria, Egypt

and China. First, to be considered

is Syria. Obama has led ef-forts to organize the inter-national community against al-Assad. He has mobilized the moderate forces inside of Syria, in addition to hu-manitarian support and sup-port for al-Assad’s opposi-tion. Romney was unable to actually critique the effec-tiveness of Obama’s actions or to articulate his own plan. He stated, “My strategy is pretty straightforward – to go after the bad guys.” But how is this any different from what Obama has been doing in the Middle East? Under the Obama adminis-tration, Osama Bin Laden was found and killed. Under the Obama administration, the core leadership of al-Qaida was decimated. How is this not precisely “going after the bad guys”?

Second, let us consider Egypt. President Obama expressed no regrets about saying that Mubarak had to go, and emphasized orga-nizing entrepreneurship in Egypt post-Mubarak, Rom-ney agreed; thus this is one aspect of the election where the candidates have no fur-ther reason for dispute.

One of the most impor-tant moments in the debate occurred when Romney couldn’t answer a simple question about military spending. Romney has con-sistently expressed a desire to give more money to the military, specifically tril-lions of dollars to the Navy. The Navy has yet to request this money. The question for Americans remains: how can we afford this? When Obama asked Romney this question and Romney could not articulate a clear

and concise answer, Ameri-cans were again reminded of Romney’s weakness as a candidate regarding for-eign policy. Obama put it best regarding Romney’s foreign policy when he said: “And, you know, we visited the website quite a bit, and it still doesn’t work.”

Obama, on the other hand, articulated clearly his vision for moving forward regarding foreign policy. He stated that future lead-ers need to be thinking about cyber security and cy-berspace – not simply about ships. Voters should keep this in mind on election day.

Obama also spoke elo-quently on America’s role in the world. He stated that the United States “remains the world’s one indispen-sible nation.” He reiterated his accomplishments such as ending the war in Iraq, something that Romney often forgets. Obama then stated that our alliances have never been stronger “in Asia, Europe, Africa, with Israel where we have unprecedented military and civilian cooperation dealing with the Iranian threat.”

The importance of Iran in this election cannot be understated. Romney has repeatedly alleged that the Obama administration hasn’t done enough, but the facts remain that under the sanctions imposed as a result of these newly forged alliances, Iran’s currency has dropped by 80 per-cent, its oil production has plunged, and its economy is in shambles. Romney’s anti-Obama rhetoric again is proven false.

Obama put it best, “The 1980s called. They want their foreign policy back.”

Hey Romney, the 1980’s called... We need a commander-in-chief

Mary Lee Ptacek Kelsey Massa

that he has about as much experience as Obama had upon his election in 2008. So I would call that a wash.)

Really, though, all Rom-ney had to do was appear competent and knowledge-able in order to keep his momentum going. I think he did that and more. He confidently and good-na-turedly articulated the role the U.S. should, and indeed must, play in the world to-day. We must be a strong leader because no other nation can effectively play that role. Peace through strength works, while weak-ness inspires contempt and causes chaos. This is not to say we should be the world’s policeman, but we cannot ignore the reality that other nations look to us for leadership, for support, for monetary aid and, most importantly, for an exam-ple of what freedom really looks like.

Obama is a bit ashamed of America’s legacy and took it upon himself in 2009 to rehabilitate America’s image abroad with his now-infamous “apology tour.” You may not think he was apologizing, and you may even think that the Middle East is entitled to an apol-ogy from the U.S. However, with our embassies burn-ing and our personnel be-ing targeted for assassina-tion, we should all be able to agree that the apology didn’t work. We are just as hated as we were four years ago, but today we are less feared.

Nevertheless, Obama insisted during the debate on Monday that our inter-national influence is in fact greater now than it was four years ago. In keeping with

this narrative, the Obama campaign is attempting to paint Romney as a trigger-happy, war-mongering radical who will ruin the “progress” we’ve made with his bellicose nation-alism. Not only does this contradict Romney’s actual foreign policy approach, it contradicts the Obama campaign’s other favorite characterization of Romney – that he is an automaton, boring, lifeless, uncaring and out of touch with every-day Americans. As Ronald Reagan once said to his own liberal critics, “Fellows, you can’t have it both ways. [I] can’t be both a wild-eyed kook and a square.”

President Obama thinks he can have it both ways. He received the Nobel Peace Prize upon his election in 2008, and has since ordered 600 drone strikes on Paki-stan and Yemen (President Bush ordered 43). Some of these drones targeted U.S. citizens. He apologized for American meddling in Mid-dle East affairs and then increased troop levels in Afghanistan from 19,000 in 2008 to 150,000 in 2010. He supported demonstrators in Egypt and Tunisia and yet remained conspicuous-ly silent during the Iranian people’s protests against the tyrannical Ahmadine-jad. Such inconsistency em-boldens our enemies and imperils our alliances.

Though the mainstream media is loath to point it out, other nations are tak-ing notice of Obama’s lack of leadership; the American people should be paying attention as well. The U.S. needs a commander-in-chief, not a global commu-nity organizer.

On Oct. 11, 2012, 29 members of the John Cook

S c h o o l of Busi-n e s s f a c u l t y g a t h -ered for d i s c u s -s i o n . That dis-cussion led to a motion: “ T h e g a t h -

ered JCSB faculty express confidence in and support of the Faculty Senate and the positions it has taken.” The motion was unani-mously ap- proved. The purpose of the vote was to affirm that the Faculty Sen-ate represents and acts for the faculty. More specifi-cally, the vote affirmed the Faculty Senate’s Sept. 25 vote of no confidence in VP Patankar. Notably, the gathered JCSB faculty did not consider a vote of no confidence in Presdint Law-rence Biondi, S.J. Instead, a number of voices sug-gested that, despite public statements to the contrary, it was likely that in private the administration was ab-sorbing and reflecting upon the signals sent by votes and discussions around campus. It was therefore deemed a prudent and ap-propriate course of action to allow time for reflection and subsequent movement by the administration. If no movement took place, it was suggested that the fac-ulty might choose to con-vene again.

SLU now sits at what is known as a “critical junc-ture.” A confluence of fac-tors have emerged that provide an opportunity to up-end the status-quo. What is the statu-quo at SLU? The status-quo at SLU is a governance structure that, in principle, offers inclu-sion along a number of di-mensions, but in practice, produces a distribution of power that is narrow and unconstrained.

To be sure, SLU has ben-efitted in a number of ways from its current absolut-ist governance structure. When institutions are not inclusive, it is much easier to move quickly and to take advantage of unexpected

opportunities. As best I can tell, Biondi is an opportunis-tic manager, not a strategic planner. His willingness and ability to act boldly when fa-vorable circumstances pres-ent has arguably served SLU well throughout his 25 years as president. Now though, with trust between the faculty and the admin-istration fractured beyond repair, it may be time for a new approach. And Biondi himself and the members of the Board of Trustees may be the group of individuals best suited and situated to lead SLU towards that new approach.

The current critical juncture provides an op-portunity for a change in the governance structure at SLU. A change toward truly inclusive institutions of the sort that will stimulate sus-tainable in-n o v a t i o n , growth, and ult imately a d v a n c e -ment in the rankings.

G o o d governance for a firm or a univer-sity is like the price mechanism in a market. Prices are signals wrapped up in incentives. They signal information about scarcity and value, and they provide incentives for people to act in ways that benefit society. In so doing, the price mechanism pro-duces efficient outcomes.

Inside a firm or a uni-versity, administrators do not have the benefit of the price mechanism to guide their decisions. Administra-tors have to simply guess: how many faculty should be hired and how should they be compensated? How many labs should be built? How many bulbs should be planted? How many statues should be erected? How many students should be admitted and what should each of them be charged? Which programs should be funded, and which should be cut? An administrator backed by a good gover-nance structure has the best chance to choose op-timally in response to these and other questions.

A good governance structure is one that, like

the market’s price mecha-nism, generates informa-tion and produces incen-tives for individuals to free-ly act on that information in ways that benefit the in-stitution. We have snippets of such a structure at SLU, but it is far from complete. For example, the SGA and the Faculty Senate are im-portant information aggre-gating mechanisms capable of channeling information from students and faculty to the administration. We could clearly do much bet-ter though.

For example, faculty are often told that they are not allowed to approach mem-bers of the Board of Trust-ees. I don’t know if this is in fact true or not. I do know that if Board members do not have opportunities to

r e g u l a r l y and freely engage with faculty, with s t u d e n t s and with staff, in set-tings inde-pendent of the admin-i s t r a t i o n , that Board m e m b e r s

are unlikely to have all of the information they need to make wise decisions. We also have a faculty manual that provides for shared governance.

Arguably though, the manual does not currently fulfill its intended role. In particular, from a faculty perspective, the withdrawn workload, evaluation, and recognition policies vio-lated numerous provisions of the faculty manual. If the administration is required to respect the provisions of the manual, how could such policies have been pro-posed? Would the Board not have been both legally and morally obligated to reject the policies? As we attempt to move forward, we must understand the answers to these sorts of questions.

And where might alumni fit in to all of this? What mechanism exists to ensure that the administration and the members of the Board hear from this key constitu-ency? What role might a “Board of Overseers,” pos-sibly elected by alumni, play at SLU?

A better and more inclu-sive governance structure might have helped SLU avoid the conflict in which we are currently mired. I have little doubt that this thought has already oc-curred to the members of the Board of Trustees. It is my great hope, as well as my confident expectation, that behind the Board’s closed doors, discussion of governance questions, such as the ones posed above, are well underway.

To be sure, the members of the Board of Trustees understand the importance of good governance. They are leaders who in all likeli-hood face challenges asso-ciated with governance on a regular basis. These lead-ers are surely well aware of the jeopardy that they face when a governance structure fails to reveal the information they need to make decisions. In our Catholic, Jesuit institution, that jeopardy is all the more acute, as it is moral as well as legal. It is the legitimacy and wisdom of the Board of Trustees that is arguably most diminished by a poor governance structure.

Father Biondi and the Board of Trustees (along with faculty, students, staff, and alumni) endeavor to rocket SLU up and into a new future as a top-50 in-stitution and as the finest Catholic university in the nation. If Biondi and the members of the Board are willing and able, they may be able to seize the day at this critical juncture in SLU’s history.

A new, bold and carefully designed inclusive gover-nance structure could well serve as SLU’s launching pad.

What better way for Bion-di and the Board to prepare for new leadership at SLU in the future, but by setting the stage with a model gov-ernance structure, one opti-mally designed for an age of rapid innovation in higher education?

As the saying goes, “Economists have predicted 9 of the last 5 recessions.” Here’s hoping that this economist’s predictions of change and a bright future for SLU through an optimal governance structure are on the mark this time.

Bonnie Wilson

The current critical juncture provides an op-portunity for a change in the governance struc-ture at SLU.

“”

Bridging baseball and learningOver the past several

weeks, two things have loomed large in the psyches

of stu-d e n t s a n d f a c u l t y a l i k e : midterm e x a m s a n d b a s e -ball! Al-t h o u g h t h e s e activities – both

“Fall Classics” of a sort – have consumed the better part of our collective men-tal resources, it seems un-likely that many of us ever wondered how they might be connected. After all, we associate baseball with escapism, not intellectual rigor. Why should we think otherwise? Here are three reasons why baseball and learning might be seen to go hand-in-hand.

First, there is the issue of intellectual development. George Herbert Mead fa-mously used the metaphor of baseball to capture part of this development. For Mead, the growth of knowl-edge involved “seeing” from many different points-of-view. Knowledge devel-opment is akin to assum-ing different “roles” and understanding how they are connected. Mead ex-plained that baseball is es-sentially the same process. Baseball is a nuanced sport, with player adjustments that often go unseen by the untrained observer. Knowl-edge is similarly nuanced and often lost to individuals who seek only one “right” answer, or swing only to hit a home run.

Second is the notion of situational learning, or how we come to apply and ad-just our knowledge to meet real-life demands. Situated forms of knowing stand in contrast to abstract ways of understanding that remain unbending in response to novel circumstances or changing contexts. Situ-ational knowledge is highly adaptable to the pressures of real life. In this way, situational learning is very much like baseball. The finer points of the game require play-by-play adjust-ments, which can be the difference in winning or los-

ing a game, or even a World Series. Good situational baseball results in runners advancing or even scoring because of where the ball was hit. Like situational baseball, students must also learn how to apply prin-ciples they learn in a class-room to new situations.

Third, baseball is best experienced live. It may be watched on television or listened to on the radio, but almost everyone agrees that the game is best “in situ.” As Walt Whitman is credited with saying: “I see great things in base-ball. It will take people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, [and] give them a larger physical stoicism.” While some may be skepti-cal that watching baseball at Busch Stadium with pea-nuts and beer in hand will make us all heartier, experi-encing a live game opens us to the richness of the sport. In the same way, students’ learning will be enriched if we take them outside the classroom. Many faculty and students at SLU engage in service learning for this very reason. Service learn-ing is a strategy that inte-grates community service with instruction and reflec-tion to enrich the learning experience while fostering a consciousness of social justice. Service learning, much like baseball, chal-lenges learners to adjust to real-life dilemmas, to the circumstances on the field. The Center for Service and Community Engagement at SLU supports service-learn-ing that occurs in spaces all around the region, and all of them are “live.”

Not many professors have begun a class by an-nouncing, “Play ball!” Nor have students ever stood up during their classes to sing “Take me out to the ball game.” But just imagine the wisdom we would share if these things were to hap-pen. Our learning would not be confined to class-room spaces or traditional teaching practices. Instead, our knowledge would be sit-uated. Our learning would be “out with the crowds.” And we would all be round-ing the bases with a Grand Slam.

Read the full version of this commentary online at unewsonline.com

Bryan Sokol

OCTOBER 25, 2012unewsonline.com6 GAMES

CROSSWORD

WORD SEARCH

SUDOKU

LAST WEEK’S SOLUTIONS

LAST WEEK’S SOLUTIONS

unewsonline.com OCTOBER 25, 2012UARTS

October 26

Lee BriceThe Pagaent8 p.m.$21

OUTOn The

TOWnArTs ediTOr’s Picks

MusicOctober 25

The ScriptPeabody Opera House8 p.m.from $34.50

October 26-27

Legacy Jazz QuintetThe Bistro in Grand Center7:30 and 9:30 p.m.$20

October 26-28St. Louis Symphony: The Wizard of OzPowell HallFri and Sat: 7 p.m., Sun: 2 p.m.from $20

Until October 28Les MisérablesFox TheatreThurs-Sat: 8 p.m., Sat-Sun: 2 p.m.from $15

October 25-28In the BloodTouhill Performing Arts Center at UMSLThurs-Sat: 7:30 p.m., Sat-Sun: 2 p.m.$10 ($5 student)

Theatre

Daddy Long LegsRepertory TheatreTues: 7 p.m., Wed-Fri: 8 p.m., Sat: 5 p.m., Sun: 2 p.m.from $16

October 26-27Apple Butter FestivalKimmswick, MO10 a.m.-5 p.m.free

Until November 4

Other

October 28Lemp Pumpkin Carving FestivalLemp Mansion$10

October 31Edgar Allen Poe EveningLemp Mansion7 p.m.$15

It’s the most poignant story of all times that anyone can relate to.

“”

-Lauren Wiley “Cosette”

The fourth time around, the ‘Activity’ is getting pretty normal

By TJ KEELEY Managing Editor

Horror movie franchis-es have long been staples of the Halloween season. From “Halloween” to “Fri-day the 13th” to “Nightmare on Elm Street” and all their sequels, horror fans have been sufficiently satiated around the fall holiday for decades. The turn of the century saw endless instal-lations of the “Saw” fran-chise, but in 2008, “Paranor-mal Activity” arrived for the found footage crowd.

In a brief lexicon lesson, found footage refers to films of the “Blair Witch Project” tradition, which are com-piled to look like film taken by the characters. The idea is that the viewer is placed in the present, experiencing all the scares along with the character. Found footage furthermore limits narra-tive perception and allows for creepy use of off-screen space.

For years, the “Paranor-mal Activity” films have done this brilliantly. “Less is more” is the motto of Oren Peli, the maestro behind the sleeper hit “Paranor-mal Activity.” Made on just $15,000 and grossing over $190 million, “Paranormal Activity” quickly saw a se-quel green light.

The subsequent three sequels have built on the mythology of the first film. A couple hears noises at night and sets up a camera in their home to see what it is. The second film added multiple security cameras. The third took us back 20 years. And now, the fourth is five years in the future

with plenty of Skype. Without spoiling too

much for its predecessors, “Paranormal Activity 4” be-gins by reminding the view-er that we do not know the whereabouts of possessed-Katie and her stolen neph-ew, Hunter. “PA 4” follows Katie’s neighbors. After Katie is mysteriously taken away in a police car, her little boy Robbie is sent to live with the neighbors, in-cluding the main character, Alex. After Robbie starts doing some crazy stuff, Alex and her boyfriend be-gin to record Alex’s house at night to see what the devil’s up to. They see way more than they ever could have imagined.

I am a fan of the “Para-normal Activity” franchise. The films are economical in time and budget. As a re-sult, they are often intimate, taking place in one setting with a very small cast of characters.

In addition, the films orchestrate tension well. In the brief running time (just shy of 90 minutes), the films are often slow burns, constantly teasing the audi-ence with a big scare before blowing the lid off in the last 10 minutes.

As a result, “PA” films mine cheap jump-out scares from everyday situations (a cat jumps in front of the camera), and these scares can become taxing and an-noying.

“I hope Toby kills that cat,” one theatergoer next to me said.

The “PA” movies also ex-cel at carefully crafting their settings. Alex’s room has three doors, causing the viewer to constantly dart

25 years later, ‘Les Mis’ continues to move audiences

By KRISTIN MCGUIRE Staff Writer

The production of Les Miserables at the Fabu-lous Fox exceeded expec-tations on opening night. For someone who has had the entire score memorized since middle school, I was astonished at how incred-ibly moved I was through-out the performance.

As the longest running musical in the world, it is no wonder that this 25th Anni-versary tour is still break-ing box office records.

The plot is intricate and gripping: Jean Valjean steals a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s child and is imprisoned for 19 years. When he escapes and starts life anew, he makes a deal with God and builds a repu-tation as a good and suc-cessful man.

Meanwhile, he is relent-lessly pursued by the justice o b s e s s e d J a v e r t . With over 50 named characters and four l o c a t i o n s s p a n n i n g 14 years in Act One alone, it is impor tant to read the entire syn-opsis be-fore seeing the show!

The rei-m a g i n e d s t a g i n g and scen-ery, for which there is so much hype, was absolutely breathtaking.

Using projections of Victor Hugo paintings and striping away the classic turntable, for which the show has always been as-sociated, was extremely ef-fective.

Some additional material added in this production has made the story easier to follow, as well as more compelling.

But the magnificent, evocative score remains the same, and the tale of a good man, set against the back-drop of the French Revolu-tion, is as powerful as ever.

Standout performances included Peter Lockyear (Jean Valjean), Andrew Varela (Javert), and Bri-ana Carlson-Goodman (Eponine).

Lockyear performed one of the most touching and honest renditions of “Bring

Him Home,” effortlessly ac-cessing his falsetto in this technically tricky number.

Javert, the grudge-hold-ing, rule-abiding villain of the story, was played by Broadway veteran, Andrew Varela, whose classically trained voice suited the role exceptionally well.

Shawna M. Hamic is hilarious as Madame The-nardier, overshadowing her song partner, Thenardier, in “Master of the House.” She perfectly mixed heartless villain with comic relief.

My favorite performance of the night was that of Ja-son Forbach as Enrolas. His character represents the entire movement of the revolution, and without a solid Enrolas, the evening may as well be dull and un-inspired (not to mention he was easy on the eyes!).

An exciting aspect of opening night was the scen-ery mishap in Act II. As the barricade was supposed

to come forward to become the major plot piece for the act, it got stuck, leaving an a w k w a r d couple sec-onds of si-lence.

In order to fix this m a l f u n c -tion, the entire per-f o r m a n c e halted and the curtain came down.

The mishap was handled gracefully, and after a few minutes the performance resumed to the sound of our applause.

Lauren Wiley, who plays the beautiful, young Co-sette, urges students to come out and see the show while they still can: “It’s the most poignant story of all times that anyone can re-late to. It has everything: redemption, the power of love, mercy, romance and battle.”

This fabulous production will be in St. Louis until Oct. 28.

Student and educator tickets are available for $20.00 for select perfor-mances.

This discount offer is available at the Fox box of-fice only beginning 2 hours prior to show time with a current valid school I.D. For more information visit fabulousfox.com.

one’s eyes to and fro afraid they might catch a glimpse of a shadow or a slowly clos-ing door.

Yet, “PA 4” runs into a few problems its prede-cessors narrowly avoided. While all the films have thin characters with sketchy motivation, “PA 4” pushes the boundary of how naïve and skeptical people might be. There are only so many paranormal things that can happen in one house before I’d get the hell out of there. “PA 3” recognized this and exploited it to frightening ends.

Similarly, “PA 4” strug-gles to justify why the characters are still record-ing this or why they wan-der down dark hallways all alone at night. That’s one glaring issue found footage films have. “Cloverfield” foregrounds this problem by having one character bark at the cameraman, “why are you still filming this!?”

While “PA 4” offers its share of thrills and scares, fans of the franchise might be disappointed because it offers little in explanation of the mythology of the franchise. Where “PA 3” opened the story up, “PA 4” seems like just another sequel. One post-credits scene hints at a scary past, but it’s too little too late. In addition, the final 10 min-utes of “PA 4” borrow thrills too close to those in “PA 3.” At the risk of spoiling the ending, I’ll just say: “we’ve seen it before.”

Still, “PA 4” remains sus-penseful, well-crafted and loads of fun to watch with screaming strangers at the cinema.

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

In Paranormal Activity, protagonist Alex (Kathryn Newton) Skypes her boyfriend, unaware that her neighbor Robbie (Brady Allen), who is staying in the house for the weekend, looks on from behind.

The Darkness, the two-story haunted house in Soulard, is ranked one of the best haunted houses by USA Today and has been featured on the Today Show. Located at 1525 South 8th St.,

entrance is $23.

The DarknessThe Central West End will throw a Halloween party and costume contest on Oct. 27 near the intersection of Maryland and Euclid. The annual event is a full day of activities with a grown-up celebration

beginning at 8 p.m.

Central West End Costume Contest

The Tivoli Theatre in the Delmar Loop is home to the cult classic Rocky Horror Picture Show each year around Halloween. Midnight showings Oct. 26-27 and Nov. 2-3

are $10.

Rocky Horror Picture Show

Ghosts and goblins light the way as the Grant’s Farm Halloween celebration

begins with a tram ride to the center of the park. Pumpkin decorating, carousel rides and food fill the night with fall festivities from 6 to 10 p.m. Oct. 25-27. Admission is free,

but parking is $20 per car.

Halloween at Grant’s Farm

The Koken Art Factory show and party theme this year is the Night of the Scarecrow. Live music, drinks, a costume contest and more begin at 7 p.m. and run until 1 a.m. Admission

is $5.

Koken Art Factory Show & Party

The undead will flock to the Delmar Loop this Saturday, Oct. 27, for the St. Louis Zombie Walk. At 6 p.m., participants will gather behind the Starbucks at Leland Avenue and Loop North and continue their path eastward around 7 p.m. Participation is free and open to the public, but a code of conduct must be signed. For more information, visit www.facebook.

com/StLZombieWalk.

St. Louis Zombie Walk

ST. LOUIS HALLOWEEN EVENTS

Dropkick Murphy’sThe Pagaent8 p.m.$21

October 31

Freelance WhalesThe Firebird9 p.m.$18.50

October 26

After experiencing an Excision concert at a music festival in British Colum-bia, Troy Beetles was forever changed by the bass experi-ence of dubstep. He donned the alias Datsik and has been producing music since 2009. He will be performing in St. Louis at the Pagaent on November 3. Datsik dis-cussed his musical journey in an interview last week.

A lot of people are confused what dubstep is. Could you explain dubstep and your sound within dubstep to those that don’t get it?

Dubstep is a hybrid be-tween all genres, except it fuses at 140 BPM and takes crazy, warped bass lines, hip-hop [and] metal and throw[s] it [all] into a blend-er. You get this crazy weird result that is really heavy on the dance floor with tons of swag.

Dubstep has made it to mainstream notoriety. How do you think dub-step will change as more and more genres and money collide with it?

Dubstep has already gone mainstream, and a lot of big celebrities are jump-ing on it. Korn just did a dubstep album.

All the little breakdowns in every new pop song [are dubstep]. [The dubstep genre] is going to divide in two.

All the people who don’t like the mainstream stuff will do more underground

Datsik discusses collaborations and dubstep’s entrance into the mainstream

By JASON MCCOY Staff Writer

stuff, and the underground will continue to drive the genre forward.

In 2011 you worked with metal band Korn. You have often described yourself as working from a hip-hop or rap posi-tion. How was working with a genre that is so polar-opposite from your roots?

It was cool; it was defi-nitely a total challenge be-cause I was working way out of my element and try-ing to do something I’ve never done before.

Working with metal vo-cals and guitars and stuff was a bit weird. It was a really cool learning experi-ence. Getting to meet them

all and chill with them all was a really cool experi-ence, as well.

They are all really cool and passionate. We also had Infected Mushroom on one track in my album.

They are psytrance, [so] it was psytrance, meets metal, meets dubstep and hip-hop. [The album came] from a bunch of different angles, but it turned out pretty cool.

What producer, rap-per or vocalist have you enjoyed working with most?

I really working with this homeboy of mine, Smack The Ripper, he is from Van-couver He’s a good friend of mine so the collaboration

was really easy. I also really like work-

ing with Z-Trip because he such a huge inspiration for me from the hip-hop side of things.

You were recently on a tour with Steve Aoki, and you threw cake and champagne at people.

He has a crazy show, we would go out on stage and do what he was doing. The [most fun] part is when we both get in the raft and do “raver-rafting.”

One time we were both in the raft and we got pushed in the middle of the audience. We flipped the raft and got stuck “out-at-sea,” and we were covered in cake and champagne.

Photo courtesy of Teaghan McGinnis

Troy Beetles, under the stage name Datsik, has been producing dubstep music since 2009.

The xx’s new album: ‘a hipster’s dream’

By STEPHANIE MUELLER Staff Writer

A loud, electronic Halloween

If the History Channel didn’t put enough conspir-acy theories into the world, Booty Halloween 9 surely added some more material. This year’s costume contest and electronic dance mu-sic concert was held at the Scottish Rite Cathedral of the Ancient and Accepted Freemasons.

Observant inhabitants of SLU’s campus may have no-ticed young people dressed in unusual ways entering the ominous marble build-ing across from DuBourg Hall.

The diversion- and en-tertainment-hungry crowd snaked its way down corri-dors decorated with busts of freemasonry’s leaders. After descending several flights of steps, the spec-tacle emerged. Booty Hal-loween 9 was a vast affair consisting of three stages: the main stage, side stage and a VIP lounge.

The first few hours of the concert were slow to build. As local talent mixed and mashed their hearts out, dancers spun hula hoops covered in LED lights in empty places near the front of the stage.

However, the festival started to break into a fren-zy when DJ Excell started his set. Excell’s music was on the house side of elec-tronic dance music, and his mix of kick drum-heavy, repetitive beat music was comforting. As dubstep music takes the scene by storm, it was nice to hear a good house set.

Excell’s music in the side stage room was com-plemented by a video ele-ment known as projection mapping. A team of video DJs worked from the rear of the room to make quartz diamond sculptures appear to pulse by manipulating a projector.

Part of every electronic dance music concert is cos-tume. Dancers spend weeks coming up with new gear to bring to the show. Booty Halloween 9 had no short-age of wacky costumes.

As with every electro concert, it wouldn’t have been complete without a Deadmau5 mouse head. Deadmau5 is an electro art-

ist who has recently taken the scene by storm. His iconic mouse head helmet is found at many electro concerts. Fortunately, this particular festival con-tained only one Deadmau5 impersonator and, despite its overuse, the costume looked good. In addition to the Deadmau5 cliche, many women donned the tired rave boots, tutu and corset theme.

At least 15 men were dressed up as Spartans from the movie “300.” While they didn’t resemble Ge-rard Butler, they looked the part. Many listeners in stilts added to the carnivalesque atmosphere.

After the clock struck midnight, the big names started making appear-ances. The Crystal Method (TCM) was first up on the big stage. Their presence was announced with lasers and robotic spot lights. TCM is a duo that has been on the electro scene for al-most 20 years.

Their style has not been greatly influenced by the wobbly sounds of dubstep. TCM remains true to the two-decade-old genre of trance music.

Most people remember trance as a high BPM vari-ety of electro music that can

Jason McCoy/ Staff Writer

A crowd gathers around the stage at Booty Halloween 9 as color-ful lights and loud music pervade the Scottish Rite Cathedral.

By JASON MCCOY Staff Writer

be rather spastic at times. TCM appeared on the soundtracks of many 90s movies and video games. If you have ever seen a 90s movie involving a scene at a club, you have likely heard a TCM song. The duo end-ed their set with a crowd fa-vorite, their remix of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.”

In the wee hours of the morning, Figure took the place as the headliner of the festival. Figure’s music ex-plored the dubstep area of electro music.

If you’ve heard the wob-bly bass music of Skrillex or Rusko, you can develop an idea of what Figure sounds like. However, unlike Skril-lex and Rusko, Figure adds a horror element into many of his songs.

During one song, Figure mixed Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor” with his otherwise wobbly sound for an absolutely terrifying ef-fect.

Later in the set, Figure clashed Bach with Kanye West’s “Mercy” and Nir-vana’s “Smells Like Team Spirit.” Just a few hours from sunrise, costumed dancers were finally fun-neled through the Scottish Rite’s complex corridors into the cold, fresh air of the night.

The xx are a hipster’s dream, combining the mys-tique of being British with pure, unadulterated talent, mixed in with almost non-sensical lyrics to induce a trance-like soundtrack.

“Coexist,” their new 11-track album, is short but sufficient, the electronica beats and oppositely breezy voices combine to create an ephemeral sound.

The album, as a whole, carries this sound from song to song, each track blending into the next in what becomes a dreamy haze.

In some ways, the cohe-sion is welcome, putting the listener into a sort of trance as they listen to the entirety of the album, unknowing where one song ends and the next starts.

In other ways, though, variety is necessary, leav-ing a listener on the edge of their seat without veering too far off course of a pat-ented sound.

The xx have this signa-ture sound and milked it for all that they could, some-how creating what should be a boring album but not allowing the listener to real-ize this until it’s all over.

Perhaps because it’s the first song on the album or perhaps because it’s so star-tlingly simple, but “Angels,” with its marching band drum backbeat, shines on the album.

The lyrics may not make the most sense but are beau-tiful, nonetheless. “And the

end comes too soon,” they sing, “like dreaming of an-gels.”

An interpret-as-you-will line, the motivation and meaning behind the song is unclear but still extremely endearing.

The harmonies between Oliver Sim and Romy Madley-Croft stand out the most; hauntingly pure and seemingly destined to, ap-propriately, ‘coexist.’

As they alternate lyrics, their words play off each other, a perfect transition from one to the next, de-spite inadequacies in the overall product.

“Try” displays the calm-ing rhythm of Madley-Croft only to be followed with the nonsensical “Reunion” and its weirdly marimba-inspired undertones.

The greatest variety that this album sees, the Disney-esque xylophone, is unnecessary, the song able to stand on its own without this addition.

Overthought may be the most applicable descriptor, the potential for true mu-sical genius clear but one added element on multiple songs throughout the al-bum, ultimately proving too much.

With an almost Smiths-like whispering drawl, “Co-exist” is made to be remixed and exhausted in clubs. Somehow, it’s also made to put a listener to sleep, the repetition and subtlety of the words a perfect lullaby.

The xx shine and will continue to do so in the fu-ture but variety could prove to be the missing element in their grasp for real star-dom as they go on.

OCTOBER 25, 2012unewsonline.com8 ARTS

UOCTOBER 25, 2012unewsonline.com

SPORTSIt’s always sunny in PhiladelphiaMen’s soccer tops Temple and St. Joseph’s, moves to top of A-10

Savannah State Football

WHO TO

FEAR

WHO TO

CHEER

If this isn’t an in-spirational story, I’m not quite sure what is. The longest losing streak in the Foot-ball Championship Subdivision came to an end last Saturday when Savannah State took down NAIA-foe Edward Waters 42-35. The homecom-ing victory was the Tigers’ third win over-all since 2009 and moved them ahead of Norfolk State in the MEAC standings.

WHO TO

JEER

Courtesy of bleacherreport.com

Dave ChristensenWyoming Football Coach

Alex RodriguezYankees 3rd Baseman

The former Mizzou offensive coordinator was suspended for one game and fined $50,000 after a vid-eo surfaced of him cussing out Air Force coach Troy Calhoun and taking shots at his military service. Christensen thought Air Force had faked an injury earlier in the game to buy time after their quarter-back was forced to sit out a play. The incident occurred on Oct. 13 as Wyoming celebrated “Military Appreciation Day” at War Memorial Sta-dium. A link to the video of the incident can be found at UN-ewsOnline.com.

The 37-year-old third baseman, who has five years, $114 million left on his contract, batted .120 (3-for-25) with 12 strikeouts, 0 RBI and even fewer homers in the postseason. So…he’s due for a break-out performance…right?

By BRIAN HAENCHENStaff Writer

Courtesy of Denver Post

Courtesy of Associated Press

Cheaters, cheaters, pumpkin-eatersBy CHARLES BOWLES

Sports Editor

Courtesy of Billiken Media Relations

Adnan Gabeljic (9) takes a breather against Temple. Gabeljic scored a goal against the Hawks in the 77th minute, adding to his season total of four.

The good times keep rolling for the Saint Louis University men’s soccer team as they defeated two Atlantic 10 Philadelphia schools on the road, Saint Joseph’s University on Fri-day Oct. 19, 1-0, followed by a 3-1 victory at Temple.

The wins are important as the victories put the Bil-likens on top of the A-10 conference standings with three games to play in the season. The Bills are now 11-3 overall with a 5-1 con-ference record. SLU’s only loss in conference play is against No. 12 Xavier.

The Saint Joseph’s game was uneventful until the 71st minute when Alex Sweetin notched the only goal of the game. Sweetin scored his fourth goal of the year. Kingsley Bryce made the assist on the Sweetin goal.

Goalkeeper Nick Shack-elford had his fifth shutout of the season and made two saves during the St. Joe’s game as the Billikens rode strong defense to the victo-ry. While the Billikens had 10 corner kicks compared to the Hawks’ one, they were unable to convert on their plethora of opportuni-ties.

The Temple game saw the Bills offense explode, scoring three goals. Temple was leading the A-10 con-ference before the game against SLU.

Raymond Lee scored in the 39th minute, David Graydon in the 46th minute and Adnan Gabeljic in the 77th minute. Gabeljic had a career day, scoring a goal and adding two assists to his score sheet.

While Robbie Kristo con-tinues to lead the Bills with 16 points, including seven goals this season, nine play-ers account for the team’s 29 total goals.

The victory put SLU on top of the A-10 conference standings.

The Billikens will face

Charlotte on Friday and George Washington on Sunday in two crucial Atlan-tic 10 matchups.

Charlotte’s forward Gi-useppe Gentile is the lead-ing scorer for the 49ers. Gentile has seven goals and four assists this season. Another threat that Char-lotte will bring to the table is midfielder Jennings Rex. Rex has scored seven goals and one assist.

Charlotte is No. 21 in the nation. They have defeated one nationally ranked team this season, Coastal Caro-lina. They will be a threat as the team scores 2 goals a game on average this sea-son. The team has 30 goals so far this season. Mean-while, Charlotte is the sixth ranked team SLU will face this season. They are 3-2 in the first five matches.

Charlotte’s goalkeeper Klay Smith has a 0.76 goal allowed average this sea-son and has allowed just 12 goals this season.

George Washington’s Seth Rudolph is the team’s leading scorer with six goals this season. George Washington is 2-4 in A-10 conference play.

All of GW’s goalies have at least a 1.5 goals allowed average this season. GW has had to transition be-tween three goalies this season.

SLU has a tough chal-lenge with Charlotte. The Bills are seeking revenge after they lost to Charlotte 2-1 in double overtime last season, which ended the Bills chance to get into A-10 tournament.

The Bills are in a much better position this season

at the top of the A-10 Con-ference and not fighting for a position to get into the A-10 tournament. The Bills now are a target in ev-ery match. The Charlotte game will be a first tough test as they attempt to hold their position in the confer-ence standings. The Bills hold sole possession of first place with 15 points, closely followed by VCU and Char-lotte with 13 points. SLU will need a strong showing to hold their position atop the Atlantic 10.

In addition to leading the Atlantic 10, the Bills are well-positioned to make it into the 48-team NCAA tournament that begins next month. They are No. 8 in the Ratings Percentage Index and as high as No. 13 in various other national polls.

You don’t care about Lance Armstrong. You didn’t care that he won seven Tour de France titles, raised mil-

lions of d o l l a r s for can-cer, or that he divorced S h e r y l C r o w . A n d now, you definite-ly don’t c a r e that he

cheated his way to the top.This past school year, a

widespread cheating racket at highly selective Stuyevant High School in New York was exposed. Students confessed to texting dur-ing tests, taking photos of exams and using elaborate tapping systems to commu-nicate answers across the room. Similar to Armstrong’s situation, success here was a numbers game. The minis-cule difference between a 94 and a 95 grade point average might mean the difference going to Harvard and a state university.

Listen, no one took no-tice of Lance until he was on about Le Tour de France number four. No one took notice of cycling until a man overcame testicular cancer to compete in the sport’s biggest event. Name one other cyclist. I dare you. That’s why he took perfor-mance-enhancing drugs; the man who should have been dead had nothing to lose. Livestrong Lance has raised over $470 million for cancer so far, more than any one this side of Susan G. Komen. That should be his legacy.

The same way, those kids at Stuyevant had nothing to lose. So what if they get caught cheating? They’ll end up at Big State U where they would have ended up if they didn’t try to cheat their way to the top of the class. And good for them if they didn’t get caught- they’re the un-fortunate product of the cru-el social Darwinism that has developed. Like Lance, they are pressured to win and have been taught to stop at nothing to achieve this goal. They are not taught the value of learning; they are taught the value of appeas-ing those in charge.

How do we stop it though? You virtuous folk at-tending 9 p.m. mass are cer-tainly begging the question now. Ours is a culture that values the ruthless hero, the uncompromising athlete, he who makes it to the top any way required. Not only was Steve Jobs a visionary entrepreneur, he was also kind of an asshole by most accounts. Et tu, Mr. Facebook (and don’t get mad if you’re watching me).

Much the way the iPod has become part of Jobs’ leg-acy, so too has his abrasive-ness. It’s okay to be caustic and unsympathetic, as long as one makes it to the top. So, kids at Stuyevant stop at nothing to be one of the few accepted to Harvard or Princ-eton. And can you blame them? People wouldn’t take notice otherwise, much the same way Armstrong would have been just another feel-good story for Oprah’s couch. They all take notice of what our culture values and stop at nothing to meet those expectations. In a world that increasingly defines success and failure by arbitrarily as-signed numbers, these peo-ple have fought back at the system, gaming the institu-tions that have gamed them for so many years.

We beg our children from a young age to idolize these people, and then throw a John McEnroe-like fit and act confused when they emulate these very heroes. Above all, ours is a culture much too enthralled with sporting competition. Our little sluggers are taught that hitting home runs is more important than getting good grades. Many universi-ties spend more on athletics than on academics.

In the height of the elec-tion season, society and colleges spend more on let than academics. Our sport-ing heroes rise higher and

Women’s soccer sends seniors off in

Tony Traina

The Saint Louis Univer-sity women’s soccer team bid farewell to Hermann Stadium for the year in style. With one of their best weekend performances of the year, the Billikens (4-8-4) tied Saint Joseph’s 1-1 on Friday before blanking Temple 2-0 on Sunday’s se-nior day.

After a Saint Joseph’s goal in just the second min-ute of play, the Billikens fought back to tie the game, finally finding the back of the net behind senior Alli Reimer’s header in the 69th minute off an assist from Jenny Hummert.

After that early goal by Saint Joseph’s Mo Hawkins, the Billikens began a relent-less offensive charge, es-pecially in the second half. They had 11 shots to Saint

By TONY TRAINA Associate Sports Editor

Joseph’s one, the last coming in the 89th minute, another rocket from Hummert’s foot, adding to her team-high of 7 points for the season.

“It would have been great to put one in to go ahead in the final minute, but I’m proud of the team for responding to the early a d v e r s i t y and scoring the equal-izer,” head coach Kat Mertz said in a press release.

Reinert and Hummert both had five shots, continu-ing to lead the Bills offensive attack as they have for much of the season.

The Billikens continued

the momentum on Sunday against Temple, when they honored seniors Reimer, Ka-tie Walsh, Maggie Baumann

and Kaitlyn Doescher pri-or to kickoff.

While the seniors were honored, it was fresh-man Jamei Borges who began the scoring for the Billikens, picking up her third goal of the season in the 36th minute. Borg-es whipped a shot to the

far side of the net off a pass from Jessie Jarrett to jump-start the Billikens offense.

The Billikens picked up another goal fresh out of the locker room in the 45th minute, and then rode

Walsh’s six saves to a 2-0 shutout.

Perhaps Walsh did the most individual celebrat-ing after the game, as she is now tied for second on SLU’s all-time shutout list after re-cording the 19th of her ca-reer.

Well behind the all-time record of 38, Walsh will look to add to her total in SLU’s final two regular season games this weekend. She has five shutouts on the sea-son, putting her at fifth in the A-10.

The Billikens sit at 12th in the Atlantic 10 standings, and will need to win their fi-nal two games of the season at Charlotte and George Washington if they want any chance of making it into the eight-team conference championship. The women also go into their last week-end of competition looking to improve upon their con-ference win total from last season, when they went 3-5-1 in the A-10. They cur-rently sit at 2-3-2.

For now though, first-year head coach Mertz is pleased to celebrate the seniors that stayed with the program, through all the adversity and misfortune. New head coach Mertz is looking to build a program at SLU much the way she did in previous stints at the University of Nevada- Las Vegas and as an assistant at the University of Texas.

“They took a risk and re-ally believed in the coach-ing staff and what we’re do-ing,” Mertz said.

Now, the seniors will look to end their season in style on the road, hoping to gain entrance into the A-10 tour-nament.While the women are on the outside looking in now, a solid weekend show-ing can sneak them into the Atlantic 10 tournament.

The squad takes on a solid Charlotte team followed by a George Washington group that is also looking to qualify for the A-10 Championships.If the 12th-place Billikens manage to qualify for the tournament, they will head to Rhode Island beginning on Nov. 1.

Courtesy of Billiken Media Relations

Senior midfielder Alli Reimer strikes a ball against Saint Joseph’s en route to a 1-1 tie. Reimer scored the Bills’ one goal with a header in the 69th minute.

See “Armstrong” on Page 10

They took a risk and really believed in the coaching staff and what we’re

“”

- Kat Mertz

OCTOBER 25, 201210 SPORTS unewsonline.com

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams just dove into their competi-tive season. The teams de-feated Washington Univer-sity at St. Louis on Friday, Sept. 28, struggled a bit at Butler on Sunday, Sept. 30 and cruised to victory against Western Illinois on Saturday, Oct. 6.

The team started their year at Washington Univer-sity, the men’s team won 10 of the 13 events and the women’s team won 11 of the 13 events.

However, the Billikens faced more competition at Butler two days later. Junior Lizzy Osterman led the way for the women’s team, win-ning the 200-meter freestyle and the 200-meter butterfly. Meanwhile, the men’s team was led by Zack Billingsley, who placed first as a part of

Cross country ready to run in A-10 championshipsBy CHARLES BOWLES

Sports Editor

The Billikens Cross Coun-try team has run its way into the regional rankings. The women’s team is now ranked No.14 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association rankings for the Midwest region. The team will hope that success fol-lows them to the Atlantic 10 Championship this weekend.

A major reason for the success and ranking is the cross coun-try team’s success at the Bradley Classic where the women’s team placed 2nd in the meet. The team was led by Margo Richardson, who placed third overall. Furthermore, all the fe-male runners placed in the top 50 at Bradley.

The team will compete in the A-10 Championship this weekend at Temple Univer-sity in Philadelphia.

“Both teams are poised to do well,” Cross Country Head Coach Jon Bell said.

The women’s side has had a lot of success this season. Richardson has been the top runner on the women’s side for the Bills and set a 6K re-cord at Bradley with a time of 20:37.

Bell has high expectations for the women’s team going

into the A-10 Champion-ships.

“I think that the women’s team is in the top five of the conference,” Bell said.

However, Bell pointed out that cross country is a team sport and that the suc-cess of the team is not up just to Richardson and the other team members.

“Everyone has to do well this meet, particularly Elise Medley. This is her last con-ference championship and if she does well, then the whole team will do well,” Bell

said.For her

i n d i v i d u a l efforts, Rich-ardson was named the Atlantic 10 cross coun-try co-per-former of the week.

On the men’s side, the team will be led by Tim Zellmer and Michael S c o l a r c i . Zellmer and

Scolarci had personal re-cords at the Bradley Classic where they placed 15th and 21st, respectively.

Bell described the men’s team as “young” and hopes they can place in the top 10 in conference.

“Mike and Tim are just sophomores, the men’s side has been interested because all eight of the runners have scored this season,” Bell said.

Bell said that is sort of a “crapshoot” to see who will place on the men’s side at the A-10 championship.

the winning 400-medley re-lay and the 400-freestyle re-lay. Billingsley also won the 50 freestyle to get his third medal of the day.

Next, the Billikens re-turned to their winning ways at Western Illinois. The women’s side won 13 of the 16 events while the men’s side won 10 out of the 16 events.

Taylor Streid placed first in four events. Streid won the 100 fly, 100 free and the 50 fly. Streid was also a part of the winning 200 medley relay team.

On the men’s side, Bill-ingsley, Brendan Hulseman and Will Butzke each won two individual events and were a part of a winning re-lay.

The team has had some good initial results from their first three meets. The swimming and diving team will be competing next on Saturday, Oct. 27 at the Lin-denwood Invitational.

Armstrong: Livestrong, cheaters

Do yourself a favor and catch some SLU soccer

Here’s a few numbers to consider: 432, 487 and 432. These are the attendance figures for the recent men’s

h o m e s o c c e r g a m e s , and two of those g a m e s w e r e a g a i n s t n a t i o n -a l l y -r a n k e d t e a m s . All I know is

that this sickens me. It sick-ens me for two major rea-sons. First, our men’s soc-cer team is very talented, with players who could be in the professional leagues in the next few years. Sec-ondly, our sports teams should provide a source of hope in these dark days.

I know your American sensibilities immediately say, “Soccer? Why, it is so boring.” However, soccer is a beautiful game. It reminds me a lot of hockey. The best thing that I ever heard about soccer was to think about it like hockey on grass. The strategy, triangle offense, the tackle and pushing and shoving -- sounds a lot like hockey, right? Also, with soccer, you have better ath-

letes, a higher endurance of athletes and many other strategic factors that make soccer similar to hockey, but a much better game.

Most people probably would not even recognize anyone on our men’s soc-cer team and that is sad. It is not only a problem for them but for other athletes on campus who deserve recognition for their contri-butions to this school.

Our men’s soccer team is loaded with talent from the goalkeeper to the forwards. Robbie Kristo is the leading scorer of the team who will likely go pro. Two Division One head coaches have said Kristo should be play-ing professionally now; he has an attack first mentality, fights off defenders to get the ball and is the guy that the Billikens call on to get goals when they are down. Kristo has seven goals and two assists this season.

David Graydon, the freshman midfielder, re-minds me at times of Lionel Messi, the best soccer play-er in the world. His foot-work carves up the defend-ers, he has a good touch on the ball, and he sets up

Continued from Page 9

Courtesy of Billiken Media Relations

Senior Margo Richardson ran to a third-place finish at Bradley with a SLU record.

However, he describes it as a good problem to have this season.

“I would just like to be a top 10 programs in confer-ence this season, our best conference finish is 11th so far and placing in the top 10 would be great,” Bell said.

Charles Bowles

Volleyball sets itself up for conference championships

The Billiken women’s vol-leyball team continued their conference season this past week, winning two match-es on the road and two at home.

During the stretch, se-nior Cassie Clark, and junior Grace Bonoma both reached personal milestones.

On Sunday, Oct. 14, the Billikens took on the Char-lotte 49ers in Charlotte, N.C. The Billikens swept the match, taking all three sets by at least 4 points.

The closest set was the first, which the Billikens won 25-21. The second set was 25-18, and the third was 25-15. Senior Carly Marcum led the team with 11 kills and a .500 attack percentage.

The Billikens took on Day-ton at home on Friday, Oct. 19.

The Flyers got the best of the Billikens, winning all three sets by the scores of 25-21, 25-20 and 25-21.

Carly Marcum led the Bil-likens with 13 kills for the match, while Rachel Kra-bacher from Dayton had 14.

For SLU, the highlight of this match was a personal achievement for junior Grace Bonoma. Bonoma be-

came the 15th player in Bil-liken history to reach 1,000 digs for a career.

On Saturday, Oct 20, the Billikens played at home against Xavier. The Muske-teers cruised to a sweep of all three sets in the match. The scores were 25-20, 25-23 and 25-17.

Aleksandra Niemiec and Carly Marcum both led the team with seven kills each, while Musketeers Alex Smith and Sarah Brown had 10 apiece to lead the match.

SLU took a break from conference play to face East-ern Illinois on Tuesday, Oct.

By DJ BARGER Staff Writer

23. The Billikens won the match three sets to one. Af-ter winning the first set 25-19, SLU dropped the second 25-22.

The last two sets went more smoothly with the Bil-likens taking them 25-14 and 25-22. In this match senior setter Cassie Clark recorded a triple-double with 43 as-sists, 14 digs and 11 kills.

Clark’s feat was the first for the Billikens since Sammi McCloud did it in 2006.

The Billiken women’s Vol-leyball team plays next in a match on Friday, Oct. 26 at 6p.m against Rhode Island.

By CHARLES BOWLES Sports Editor

Courtesy of Billiken Media Relations

Sophomore Justin Pasquesi gets out of the water after a race against Washington University in St. Louis.

Courtesy of Billiken Media Relations

Cassie Clarke sets a ball against Dayton.

BILLIKEN BRIEFS

Men’s Basketball

A total of 23 Bil-liken games will be televised this season after FOX Sports Midwest announced it will broadcast 10 games this season. This is in addition to 13 games that will be televised on NBC Sports and the ESPN family of networks.

Men’s Soccer

The Billikens are No. 8 in the NCAA’s Ratings Percent-age Index. The rating is designed to objectively judge a team’s re-sults and strength of schedule. It is one of the most important criteria when deciding the NCAA tournament field.

BILLIKEN SCHEDULE

Men’s Soccer

Volleyball

Field Hockey

SLU field hockey lost 3-0 to Lock Haven on Sun-day, bringing their season record to 1-16. The Billik-ens will celebrate senior day this Friday against La Salle.

Follow us @TheUNewsSports for the latest Billikens sports coverage

Women’s Soccer

Bell hopes the cross country season will end on a solid note with strong per-formances.

The team will be running in Philadelphia this week-end, and there are high ex-pectations to live up to for the championship.

Oct. 26 Charlotte

Oct. 28 George Washington

Oct. 26 at Rhode Island

Oct. 27 at Fordham

Oct. 26 at Charlotte

Oct. 27 at George Washington

Swimming and diving teams begin to hit their stroke

fall harder than anyone else.

In the height of the elec-tion season, society does its best to turn the candidates into athlete-like figures, putting them in a ring sur-rounded by thousands of onlookers on primetime television. They’re judged primarily on body language and ability to assert them-selves as alpha-males.

How does society change from so naively optimistic to pessimistic with the stroke of a 200-page report filed by the USADA? Apparently ev-eryone was gullible enough to think a man could hop on a bike and ride through the French Alps faster than everyone else in a sport no-torious for doping. Seven times in a row.

In the movie “Gladia-tor,” set as Rome is about to meet its demise, a senator says, “The heart of Rome is not the marble of the senate, but the sand of the Colosseum.” The Senator’s name might as well have been John Kerry. As long as a circus is on primetime television, the people are appeased. Lance met his fi-nal demise by living out this maxim. His story is a mi-crocosm of the culture. He did anything to reach the pinnacle, and then it came crashing down. And we sit around wondering how this house of cards of success and prosperity we created came tumbling down.

See “Billikens” on Page 11

I think that the women’s team is in the top five of the

“”

- Jon Bell

OCTOBER 25, 2012 unewsonline.com SPORTS 11

1. Saint Louis2. Charlotte3. VCU4. Xavier5. Temple6. Dayton7. Duquesne8. Butler

9. La Salle10. Massachusetts11. St. Bonaventure12. Richmond13. George Washington14. Fordham15. Rhode Island16. Saint Joseph’s

Men’s Soccer Atlantic 10 Standings

SLU has three games remaining this weekend, including a home game against Charlotte at Hermann Stadium on Friday.

Billikens: Men’s soccer team providing hope and excitement in humdrum Midtown

Continued from Page 10

Billikens fans, you must show up to the game against Charlotte on Friday

“”

-Charles Bowles

other players very well to get assists and goals, which is needed on a good soccer team.

Finally, Marco Heskamp is left back defender who has the mentality of a left wing. Heskamp is a freshman from Germany who has become very important in recent games.

Heskamp attacks up the left side, which is a surprise for many defenders. He is over-aggressive at times, but has contributed in recent games for SLU.

These are just some of the amazing players of SLU’s men’s soccer team. Everyone on the team has the poten-tial to play professionally; you cannot say that about any other team at SLU.

The other major reason I’m sickened about the lack of attendance at the men’s soccer games is the current state of affairs at SLU. I un-derstand that SLU seems to be cracking before our very eyes.

There are votes of no-confidence on our president, students and faculty are an-gry, and each passing day seems to bring more bad news.

I know some might think it is just sports, it is not as important as what is going on academically, and you might be right, but you don’t see the potential that sports have to give us hope.

This is a time where sports can serve as a source of hope and give the univer-sity some common thing to unite us in our dark times. The men’s soccer team is having success around the current mess going around SLU and I believe in them.

The team is currently 11-3 and has grown each and every game. Most students

only get to see the team at the beginning in the season for the spirit competition and rarely see the develop-ment and growth of the team.

Goalkeeper Nick Shackel-ford said that this team and become more of a unit than previous teams. He also be-lieves that the team needs more support for the home-stretch of the season.

The team is an important part of the SLU community, a source of optimism like other sports teams around the nation, and it is especial-ly important now given the current state of SLU.

In Kentucky, the Wild-cats men’s basketball team provides a source of hope for the people in the state. Even when things are going bad in our state, the basket-ball team is something that everyone can bank on as a source of hope, no matter how bad someone is doing individually.

This is a time when peo-ple need hope. I think this is an opportunity for the men’s soccer team to step in above the fray and politics of the university and be a new hope for the university.

I know this goal seems lofty and idealistic, but sports teams have made a major impact in the past, like the Springbox Rugby team who helped to unite a post-Apartheid South Africa.

I’m in no way compar-ing our soccer team to the Springbox team, but I think they could unite the SLU community together and give us a common rallying cry and at least temporarily provide us with hope and a distraction from the dark days that we are facing.

So, Billiken fans, you must show up to the game against Charlotte on Friday night at 7 p.m.

This is an important game for the men’s soccer team and they need support against a nationally-ranked opponent. I know most Bil-liken fans only care about

men’s basketball, but this is important to show soli-darity in our community and give the team and SLU community hope.

It is just before basket-ball season and a perfect opportunity to see a po-tential NCAA tournament team.

The team is ranked No. 8 in terms of Rankings Per-centage Index (RPI) and is beginning to rack up awards in the Atlantic 10

conference and in the na-tional rankings.

Finally, they have poten-tial professionals on the team and seeing them before they become well-known.

It might just be sports, and maybe a sport you know nothing about, but the level of professional play and the source of hope is enough to get me out to the game. This game is more than just a game. It is about making a statement to the administra-tion. So, Bills fans, I’ll see you at the game, and show up as a sign of solidarity for the university.

If you don’t show up, then you might want to recon-sider your priorities because this is important. Not show-ing up is another slap in the face to the SLU community.

URELIGION

Oct. 26-29

Eid Ul Adha - Islam

Oct. 31

All Hallows Eve - Christian

Nov. 1

All Saints’ Day - Christian

Nov. 2

All Souls’ Day – Catholic Christian

Nov. 13

Diwali – Hindu

unewsonline.com OCTOBER 25, 2012

Calendarof

Observences

Missourians are putting up Romney/Ryan signs in their front yards. They have come a long way to be accepting of the Mormon faith, a different attitude than the 1883 Missouri-ans, wherein an estimated 10,000 Mormons were forced to leave Missouri that year, as a result of the Missouri Mormon War.

The former governor of Massachusetts, Willard Mitt Romney’s belief plays a big role in his values and campaign. As a Mormon, he donated about 30 per-cent of his income to char-ity last year.

In an interview, Katy Rasmussen, Saint Louis University’s Political Sci-ence Club president and a Mormon herself, said, “You have to understand that in our faith, charity is one of the qualities we strive for. We are deeply compelled to act on behalf of others and work toward the benefit of all people. We believe in hard work and individual responsibility. We don’t be-lieve in free handouts.”

Rasmussen explained that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Mormon church, does have its own welfare system.

“If an individual partakes in the welfare system, they must first do all they can to take care of themselves and the church will make up the difference,” Rasmus-sen said. “The church then assists in financial planning so that the person can get back to taking care of them-selves in a timely manner.”

The church’s assistance isn’t elaborate, but it helps with everyday needs.

“The financial assistance won’t allow you to live in luxury, but you will have food and shelter and other necessities,” Rasmussen said. “The church tries to help people help them-selves so they can help the most amount of people.”

Romney believes that his proposed policies for the U.S. can help the most people, as he has seen such policies in action through-out the world-wide efforts of the LDS church.

“As a political science

By ADNAN SYEDReligion Editor

A brief look into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

On the weekend of the Sept. 28, a group of SLU students left for a weekend

of fellow-ship and r e f l e c -tion in n a t u r e . The re-t r e a t , led by the Mar-guer i te and Pru-e l l a g e campus

minister, Patrick Cousins, was a re-warding ex-perience.

Two of my friends conv inced me to sign up for the retreat. I de-cided to just take time off from the busy life of school and allow myself some alone time. The 2012 Nature Retreat took place at Saint Louis University’s Reis Bio-logical Station in the east-ern Ozarks.

The clear lakes were just part of the beautiful scen-ery. At the station, there were nice cozy cabins and a great campfire. Instead of using the cabins, we decid-ed to either sleep out under the stars or in tents that we had brought with us.

Retreatants bonded in numerous ways while

Go to www.UNewsonline.com to watch a video blog of the retreat

Politics, religion intertwine

Photo Courtesy of University of Notre Dame

major, I can tell you that politicians are power-thirsty and egotistical, but I can guarantee you that Rom-ney is running because he believes he can help people and his faith has given him that foundation,” Rasmus-sen said.

According to Mormon.org, a website run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormons believe in Jesus Christ as their savior. They regard this atonement as an ability given to them “to become clean in God’s eyes and remove the feeling of guilt that follow our bad choic-es.”

The website explains the history of the faith. The original church that Christ began started to dis-solve over a few centuries, regardless of the efforts of the apostles and their faith-ful followers. This period came to be known as “The Great Apostasy.”

Mormons believe that God restored Christ’s church through Joseph Smith, a 14-year-old boy God selected as his mes-senger and prophet in the year 1820.

“These men appeared as angels and bestowed the priesthood upon Joseph

Smith,” the website said. It said that Smith received his priesthood authority at the hands of John the Baptist, Peter, James and John who received that same “power and authority” from Jesus Christ himself.

According to the web-site, today’s prophet is Thomas S. Monson. He is the “the authorized succes-sor to Joseph Smith. He and the Church’s other Apostles trace their priesthood au-thority back to Jesus Christ in an unbroken chain of or-dinations.”

The Mormon church regards this earthly life as temporary. The belief is that the hereafter consists of immortality. The website states that God will judge all men fairly and reward them appropriately with a place within his kingdom.

The role of the female members, as stated on mor-monnewsroom.org is to “draw strength and inspira-tion from their identity: they understand themselves to be daughters of God with a purpose in life, and they strive to cultivate the attri-butes of divinity—such as holiness, wisdom and char-ity—within themselves…They honor their bodies and minds as sacred gifts,

rejecting anything that de-means them.”

The Book of Mormon, named after Mormon, the ancient prophet who com-piled it, is regarded as sa-cred scripture. The holy book is believed to contain God’s guidance, similar to the Bible. It is believed Smith was visited by an angel Moroni who told him about a record of the ancient inhabitants of the American continent that was buried in a hill.

Moroni said the record contained “the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and was written on thin metal sheets of gold.” Smith then translated the book into English.

The book tells about the struggles of the righteous people of that time who were trying to live God’s commandments. It re-counts Christ’s visit to the American continent soon after his resurrection.

The book details how Christ blessed and healed the American people, per-formed miracles, and gave 12 men the same authority as his 12 apostles whose works are recorded in the Bible.

A common misconcep-tion is that Mormons do

eating the delicious food cooked by Don Highberger. We sang songs around the campfire while devouring s’mores. On Saturday morn-ing, we went canoeing.

“The most breathtaking [thing] about this trip was how the nature surround-ing us was so relaxing, so pure,” Cami Kasmerchak, sophomore, said.

The trees were changing into magnificent autumn colors and the water in the lake was so still and clear.

The guided reflections, t h e fresh air of na-ture and friends around m e h e l p e d me to r ea l i ze that I h a v e b e e n lacking in my a p p r e -c ia t ion of God’s

creation. In attending col-lege in a city, it is difficult to appreciate the nature around us.

This retreat is definitely a rewarding and worthwhile experience. One becomes closer with new friends, and more importantly, becomes one with God’s creation.

not read the Bible and only read the Book of Mormon. This is not true. In fact, they regard both as holy and supporting of each other.

Amy Lutz, president of SLU Republicans, said, though not a Mormon her-self, but friends with sev-eral, “I think people tend to define Mormonism as a ‘cult’ simply because they do not know enough about the religion itself. We tend to fear things we know nothing about, so perhaps that is where that assess-ment comes from.”

Lutz further addressed the misconceptions of the Mormon church.

“I do believe that the prejudiced stereotypes that are laid against Mormons are unfair. Many of the Mor-mons I know are very fam-ily centered, charitable and compassionate,” she said.

Lutz draws parallels be-tween Romney’s faith and her own, which helps her empathize with the gover-nor and others of the Mor-mon church.

“Like Mitt Romney clings to his Mormon faith to guide his life, I cling to my nondenominational Christianity to help me de-termine right and wrong,” said Lutz.

Commentary

niCole Kim

The most breath-taking [thing] about this trip was how the nature surrounding

us was so relaxing, so pure.

“”

-Cami Kasmerchak

Last Wednesday, Oct. 17, the Religion and Politics Symposium was held here at Saint Louis University in Boileau Hall.

The Symposium, fea-turing key speaker David Campbell, primarily fo-cused on the role of religion in social discourse and the way in which it influences social action and civic en-gagement. It also described the intertwining of religion with political views.

Campbell is author of “American Grace: How Re-ligion Divides and Unites Us.” He is an expert on religion, politics and civic engagement and has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, CSPAN, NPR and other media. Campell teaches at Notre Dame. He has been asked to sit in on many dis-cussions concerning Ameri-can politics and religion.

An invocation was given by Sara Rahim at the start of the symposium, on be-half of Interfaith Alliance, a SLU student organization.

“Our purpose this eve-ning is to find the intersec-tion of our religious identi-ties and our civic responsi-bilities, and to ponder the role of faith in political dis-course,” Rahim said.

SLU Professor Richard Quirk followed the invoca-tion with an introduction. Quirk said he believed that there has been a change,

throughout the course of his life in how religion, poli-tics and civic engagement have interacted. Quirk said he remembered a time when social issues, such as abortion and gay rights, did not enter the political sphere.

“To engage in civic com-munity is to re-imagine your faith, and to re-imagine faith is to lift up the communi-ty…and to do so is to value wisdom,” said Quirk.

Afterward, Campbell presented his research. He first commented on “the puzzle,” which he described as a three-part question. How can America be reli-giously devout, religiously diverse and religiously tol-erant?

Campbell illustrated that most Americans get along pretty well with people of other religions. Not only that, but America is a re-ligiously diverse nation, with 30 percent identifying themselves as Evangelical Protestants, 25 percent as Catholics and 20 percent as “nones”(people who don’t identify with any religion). The 25 percent included re-ligions such as Judaism, Is-lam, Mormonism and so on.

Using survey research, Campbell indicated that the number of “nones” had risen greatly in the past decade, going from 5.7 per-cent to 20 percent in early

Speaker focuses on religion and social discourse

By SARAH MALLICKStaff Writer

See “Politics” on Page 13

Dr. David Campbell has established himself as an expert in reli-gious, social and political discourse.

Annual Campus Ministry retreat englightens students in nature

Service Opportunities

Nov. 3

St. Vincent Home for Children

(ahumphrey@saintvincenthome.

org)

Nov. 4

Interfaith Dialogue Workshop

(Temple Israel, 1 Rabbi Alvan D Rubin

Dr., St. Louis, MO 63141)

Nov. 10

New City Fellowship(Lunch Provided, paul@ncfstl.org)

Adnan Syed / Religion Editor

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints seen from the outside. The Temple is located at 12555 North Outer Forty Road, St. Louis, MO 63141

RELIGION 13unewsonline.comOCTOBER 25, 2012

After exactly 50 years of the Second Vatican Council, the Newman Convocation brought back memories for some attendees.

The annual Newman Convocation was an event organized by Saint Louis University’s Department of Theological Studies, in honor of John Henry New-man. Theologians from all over the St. Louis area gath-ered this year to commemo-rate the 50th Anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and reflect on its first docu-ment, “Sacrosanctum Con-ciliarum.” Participants in-cluded theology students, faculty and administration from Fontbonne Univer-sity, Aquinas Institute of Theology, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary and Saint Louis University, as well as mem-bers from local faith com-munities.

Archbishop Robert Carl-son opened the event with a prayer asking God for cour-age and faith and for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our “search for justice.” This prayer was first used at the opening of the Coun-cil exactly 50 years ago, on Oct. 11, 1962. A scripture reading from the prologue of the Gospel of John and a brief ceremony followed.

This year, the convoca-tion was a chance to reflect on the Church and the litur-gy 50 years after Vatican II, a liturgy that students have inherited from the Council and the only one they’ve ever known. Their parents’ generation would have been the very last to experience the Latin liturgy before the results of the Council were enacted throughout the uni-versal Church.

The liturgical aspects of the convocation gave way to the speakers. Open-ing remarks were given by John Padberg, S.J. His talk was a series of vignettes that highlighted the setting and spirit of the Council in its first few days. Padberg called Vatican II “the great-est assembly in the whole Church,” where over 2,500 bishops from around the world gathered in Rome to take part in the Council. It was an event, according to Padberg, that could be summed up in three words said by Pope John XXIII: “Gaudet Mater Ecclesia!” (“Mother Church rejoic-es!”)

Next up was the keynote speaker from the nearby Aquinas Institute of Theol-ogy, Sr. Catherine Vincie, RSHM. Her speech was an academic and extremely detailed summary of the events of Vatican II pertain-ing to the development of the document “Sacrosanc-tum Conciliarum,” also called “The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.” This document was the result of a liturgical renewal move-ment in the 19th century, highly influenced by devel-opments and discoveries in monasteries. Although the development of “Sac-rosanctum Conciliarum” was often complicated, and the debate over it was controversial and fierce, in the end, it was passed by a landslide approval from the council committees and the bishops.

Respondent Jason Schumer, liturgical profes-sor at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary and pastor of St. Ambrose Parish in the Hill, offered a second re-flection on the evolution of the liturgy in the life of the Church. He told the story of St. Louis’ participation in

the liturgical renewal move-ment with Martin J. Hellrie-gel, chaplain of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood in St. Charles and later the pastor of Holy Cross Parish, located in North St. Louis.

Schumer emphasized the importance of not only the physical participation of the laity in the Mass, but also their spiritual involve-ment.

Interior participation, he argued, is the most impor-tant thing to consider when evaluating the genuine in-volvement of the people in the liturgy.

Daniel Finucane, a SLU professor with a doctorate in theology, gave his own reflection near the end of the event about how learn-ing about the new liturgy in high school as an altar boy influenced his faith and ap-preciation for the changes brought by Vatican II.

Some of the changes to

the liturgy, called the Novus Ordo or the New Rite, as a result of “Sacrosanctum Conciliarum” include: the use of vernacular instead of Latin, the priest facing the congregation instead of say-ing Mass ad orientum with his back to the people, and the removal of the commu-nion rail, where Catholics typically knelt to receive the Eucharist on the tongue during communion.

For students, the impact of the event was less vis-ible to discern. Sophomore Mitch McCurren said that the speakers “failed to cap-ture the interest of the stu-dents.”

Many of those who did not have a deep or detailed knowledge of Vatican II were not able to follow through the detailed analy-sis of the featured speaker.

“The speakers were not speaking the vernacular,” said McCurren.

Church celebrates fiftieth anniversary of Vatican II Newman Convocation assembles St. Louis’ theologians and scholars

Continued from Page 12

By KATHLEEN SCHMITZStaff Writer

Using survey research, Campbell indicated that the number of “nones” had risen greatly in the past decade, from 5.7 percent to 20 percent in early 2000. One in three people under age 30 said that they had no religion. Campbell said that people in college have the highest rate of “nones.”

“When asked: ‘Even if they aren’t Christian?’ the chart only changed slight-ly,” said Campbell, showing charts to support his fur-ther analysis. “Americans overwhelmingly believe that good people of other religions can go to heaven.”

“It is socially significant why Americans can get along with those of other faiths because everyone knows someone of another religion who they would consider ‘good and moral’ enough to go to heaven,” Campbell continued.

“This socially shared be-lief is what allows religion to unite us.”

Moreover, he said reli-

gion is now very divisive, politically speaking. He said that religion wasn’t always associated with one political party, or any for that matter.

“Religion has been de-clining since the growth of ‘nones,’ and the reason for [nones] was… the mingling

of religion and politics in the conservative party, the religious right,” said Camp-bell.

As religion and politics became more and more in-tertwined and associated with the conservative party, those who did not endorse the religious right’s views also grew, and so did their

disenchantment with reli-gion.

People’s politics were driving their religion and their reaction to religion. This resulted when social and cultural issues were in-jected into politics.

“How frequently you at-tended church during the Eisenhower era, had noth-ing to do with whether or not you were a conserva-tive,” Campbell said. “The same can’t be said today…Today, we see religion tied up with partisanship, which contributes to the reason why so many ‘nones’ exist.”

Campbell said that change can only occur when politics and religion quit intermingling.

“The current situation will only change,” he said, “when religious leaders stop talking about politics, and political leaders stop talking about social issues.”

It’s difficult to imagine a time when religion wasn’t so divisive, but apparently that used to be the case. Reintroducing that attitude may bridge the gap be-tween religious people and those who are “nones.”

Politics: Religion serving as a unifying device in society, politics

Americans over-whelmingly believe that good people of other religions can go to heaven

“”

-David Campbell

Speaker Sara Rahim addressess students and faculty during a symposuim on politics and religon with special guest Dr. David Campbell.

Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies puts medieval art on display.

The Knights of Columbus Vatican Film Library hosted its 39th Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies Oct. 12-13, in the Père Marquette Gallery of DuBourg Hall.

The annual two-day conference featured papers on topics in medieval and Renaissance manuscript studies, such as codicology, illumination and book production.

The conference included sessions on recipes used by medieval crafts people, depictions of the body in medical and scientific manuscripts and scribes.

Photo Courtesy of Bryan Sokol

John Schuler/ Photo Editor

John Schuler/ Photo Editor

John Schuler/ Photo Editor

Adnan Syed / Religion Editor

Sr. Catherine Vincie of the Aquinas Institute of Theology seen presenting at the podium. The celebration of the 50th anniversary of Vatican II was held St. Francis Xavier College Church.

Adnan Syed / Religion Editor

Archbishop Robert J. Carlson, left, and President Lawerence Biondi S.J., right, listen during the Vatican II 50th anniversary.

OCTOBER 25, 2012unewsonline.com14 ADVERTISEMENT

GET THE TOOLS YOU NEED TO STOP BAD THINGS

FROM HAPPENING. SIGN UP FOR

THE NEXT

NOVEMBER 5TH & 12TH

G R E E N D O T . S L U . E D U

@