The Alestle, Vol. 76, No. 19

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

New changes to Student Government constitution, hopes to bring diverse representation to the senate

FRANCESCA BOSTON

lifestyles editor

After months of revisions and committee meetings, student government put a set of constitutional revisions to a senate vote at the first meeting of the year. The revisions failed to pass, but some remain hopeful the revisions will be in place in time for the spring elections.

In November of 2022, the executive board brought constitutional revisions to the senate meeting. These revisions would add more senators who were meant to represent minority and underrepresented groups.

In the most updated version of the proposed revised constitution, there would be 12 additional senators. Two international student senators, two non-traditional student senators, one student-athlete senator, one military and veteran affairs senator, one students-with-disabilities senator and five senators who would make up the diversity council. The diversity council would be made up of students who receive two endorsements from registered campus clubs of the groups they are hoping to represent. Student Body President Rahmat Salau said this was to guarantee the people in this position were actively working to advance those groups.

Salau said having senators who students can identify with, who look like them, have similar shared experiences and who have understood that student’s plight can provide a sense of comfort for minority students, but to her, it’s more than just providing support.

“Apart from supporting the diversity of people on campus, I think minority students on campus need to have a voice,” Salau said. “There needs to be room for listening to the minority population on campus to make sure that we’re actually reaching all students.”

Another part of the proposed revisions is the criteria for the creation of new senate seats. Under the revisions, if student government wants to add to the senate population in the future, for that position to be approved, the constituents must make up at least 5 percent of the student population for a period of a least 3 consecutive years, and there must be a campus-wide occurrence that triggered the creation of a group to petition to call for the seat to be created.

Salau said that these changes are not a novel idea. Several other local universities, including SI-

UE’s sister school in Carbondale, have amended their constitution to include senators to represent diversity. According to the SIU student government’s website, the constitution was most recently updated in March of 2021 and includes a Hispanic Student Council and Saluki Rainbow Council.

Sophomore Barrett Larkin, who had previously served as the School of Business senator, now serves as the Organization Relations Officer. Larkin was the only senator to vote nay at the January meeting. He said in the first meeting of the year he had tried to pass a motion to put the revisions to a student body vote, but was unable to gather support for the idea. He said that the whole process lacked transparency, which is what made him fight to get the revisions on the ballet.

“[The senate] didn’t know anything about it [at the start]. The committee that had been working on it kind of dropped it in a senate meeting and we were all very surprised at how much things were changing,” Larkin said.

Larkin said another critique was the idea that some students may have more representation than others or that their votes matter more. He said that he believes that the constitution is strong enough now to represent all students now, rather than making revisions.

“So if you are a bi veteran, Latino, in the School of Business, you have [multiple] senators and if you’re just, a white nursing student, you have one senator. Yes, some constituents have more problems, but that is a little awkward to have,” Larkin said.

Junior Madison Sample, Senator for the College of Arts and Sciences, Art and Communications, said she disagrees with that statement. She said there have been plenty of white straight cis male representation, and it is time to move towards more

equitable representation.

“I think that, unfortunately, some students need more representation. They’ve been disadvantaged for a long time, and they need this step up to help get on the same playing field as everyone else,” Sample said.

Sample said she is very passionate about the amendments, as she believes it is something that could be good for not only the student government, but the student body.

“I think it’s important because, as senators, we can only do so much because we’re stretched so thin,” Sample said. “But to have a person who is dedicated to just one group or one issue, I feel like they can accomplish more because they can

be more persistent, about getting certain things accomplished that other senator positions cannot because we have to do too many things.”

The constitutional revisions are not adding any new paid positions. Senators are unpaid positions, while students on the executive board are paid. Salau said that the only executive position being added is an Executive Secretary, but that position will not make any changes to the student government budget or student fees. This is because the position had previously been part of office support, but will now be an elected position.

“The executive secretary will now attend our meetings and take minutes, rather than just serving as office support, so there are no changes to paid positions within the student government office,” Salau said.

At the most recent senate meeting on Feb. 6, it was brought up to the senate to approve the constitution and that the new position be chosen by a committee. According to the student government constitution, if amendments are proposed, they must be presented at a scheduled meeting before being voted on at the next meeting.

Salau said that she brought up this idea because if it does end up on the ballot in March, there will be very little time to appoint

the new senators before the end of the year. She said she wanted to introduce the idea of using a committee to induct the new senators to prevent implicit bias.

“A selection committee of me, the vice president and probably some other senators, executive members to choose to vote who the next senators will be,” Salau said. “The idea is that we could, even while applications are going on, or regular scheduled elections are going, could have those positions open for appointment.”

Salau said that even if the constitution revision ends up on the ballot, which she believes is unlikely, she trusts the student body to make the choice for greater diversity within student government.

Salau said that these constitutions are a chance for her, and the rest of the student government to leave their impact that will change student government for a long time.

“Senators definitely do a good job of it, trying to help people who are not members of their population. But I think there’s something better that can be done,” Salau said.

The next student government meeting will be at 6 p.m on Feb. 20 in the Goshen Lounge, where Salau said she is hopeful the amendments will pass, and the senate will approve the committee selection process.

“

Apart from supporting the diversity of people on campus, I think minority students on campus need to have a voice. There needs to be room for listening to the minority population on campus to make sure that we’re actually reaching all students.”

Rahmat

Salau, Student Body

President

The proposed constitutional revisions failed to pass, but some hope for the revisions to be passed by the time of spring elections. | Image courtesy of Izzy Pruitt

02.01.23

A bush was on fire outside of the 400-wing of Cougar Village. An officer that arrived found that the fire was a controlled burn from Housing.

02.02.23

A pair of Beats ear buds were found in Parking Lot 12.

A traffic accident was reported in Parking Lot E.

An offensive sticker was found on a bulletin board in the 500-wing of Cougar Village. BIRT was notified. A credit card was found in the MUC.

02.03.23

A suspicious person was reported in the 400-wing of Cougar Village. The individual was with the U.S. Census Bureau.

02.06.23

Two SIUE computers were reported missing from Alumni Hall.

An SIUE laptop was reported missing from the Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center.

A mountain bike was reported missing on campus.

A laptop and a computer were reported missing from the Art and Design Building.

A traffic accident was reported in the Bluff Hall Parking Lot.

According to Facilities Management, the trees on the Quad were removed due to a sickness, but will be replaced with new, healthy ones. | Chloe Wolfe / The Alestle

Assistant professor of educational leadership Candace Hall’s documentary “Clusterluck” discusses the Black leadership and community at SIUE.

Hall said she was inspired to produce her documentary by the fact that her department, the School of Education, Health and Human behavior, has a larger Black community than most. Across academia, Black people make up only 6 percent of faculty, Hall said.

“There’s one, maybe two, three is pushing it,” Hall said about how many Black people may be found within a particular department.

Within Hall’s department, there’s more. That is why Hall said she decided to make her documentary.

“The documentary is about community. What it takes to form community, cultivate community and sustain community,” Hall said.

Robin Hughes, the Dean of Education, Health and Human Behavior, helped form the community.

When Hughes first became dean of her department, she found $1.5 million for strategic hires. A strategic hire focuses on hiring African American, Latino and Indigenous people, according to Hughes.

With that money, she decided to do a cluster hire, which is a mass strategic hire.

“In business and higher education, you can do hires of groups of people that have a specific set of skills, or a specific set of accouterments that one may want,” Hughes said.

A main problem within education is that after strategic hiring, there is little work done to keep the recent hires according to both Hughes and Hall. Hughes

said she tried to make sure that her recent hires stayed, but COVID-19 prevented her from continuing that.

That was when Hall formed an idea with her coworker J.T. Snipes to host socially distanced bonfires for their coworkers and their spouses.

“We thought about a safe way, you know, the bonfire became a safe way for us to gather. Right, like we could meet outside, we could be around a fire and not have to worry about the virus,” Snipes said. “And it sort of grew from there. Just this desire for us to be together to know each other, to support each other.”

Despite not being invited to the events at first, Hughes thought Hall should write or film about it. Hughes pushed her to share her story in whatever way she wanted.

“You don’t have to put out ideas through like journals,” Hughes said. “Journal articles that nobody reads. You could always use like film or some other media. Well, she jumped on it. I mean, it was like, right after COVID. She was out filming like she was, you know, the next Spike Lee.”

Hall originally had the idea for “Clusterluck” in 2021, but did not start the documentary until 2022. The whole process took nine months, during which she conferred with the director, Cami Thomas and the production team, about what she wanted to accomplish with the documentary.

The documentary features Hall and the community she has found at SIUE within her department. Some of her coworkers are present in the documentary, including Snipes and Hughes.

Before premiering at SIUE, Hall had the opportunity to share her documentary at the 2022 Association of the Study of Higher Education in Las Vegas, Nevada.

After a successful premiere in Las Vegas, the director of “Clusterluck” convinced Hall to enter it in film festivals.

“Clusterluck” was a semifinalist at the Indie Short Fest in Los Angeles. The documentary also won an award of recognition at The IndieFEST.

Hall described the feeling of winning these awards as “surreal.”

“When I first set out to make this documentary, I was making it for me. Even if it doesn’t go any further I want to be able to say I did it,” Hall said.

Snipes described it as inevitable.

“Dr. Hall is brilliant. And I’m glad that the world is starting to get a glimpse of her brilliance,” Snipes said.

Hall presented her documentary to SIUE on Feb. 2 in Dunham Hall. Hall’s family was in attendance, including her 7-year-old son, Avery Hall and his two siblings.

“It’s so cool,” Avery said about his mom’s documentary. “I can’t believe she made it.”

Following a showing of the documentary, there was a panel discussion featuring Hughes, Senior Advisor at North Carolina State University Joy Gaston Gayles, SIU System President Dan Mahony, Provost Denise Cobb and Assistant Dean Natasha Flowers.

During the panel, speakers discussed their impressions of the documentary and the importance of introducing and keeping community within academia.

Chancellor James Minor discussed bringing more clusters to SIUE. He said the usual practice is to hire someone one at a time and place them in a “sink or swim” environment. That’s where Minor wants to see a change.

“The social science says, you hire people in clusters.” Minor said. “You give them as much support as you can, and you could create conditions that support their success rather than test their ability to swim. So what we want to do is create environments that are welcoming and supportive here at SIUE. And I do think that that requires an inspection of our current practice.”

Mahony discussed how different types of work within academia can be far more impactful than some of the things typically done.

“This wouldn’t fit into most of our personnel review policies after merit, after tenure promotion,” Mahony said. “But yet, this has gotten us far more attention. It’s been far more impactful than most of the articles that I published in some peer-reviewed journal, but yet we’re not counting it. So how do we now think about doing that very differently?”

Within Hall’s department, there are several examples of non-traditional scholarship, including Angel Jones’s use of non-academic language within her articles and Snipe’s podcast “Blacktivism In the Academy.”

Minor discussed wanting to see different types of scholarships throughout the different departments within SIUE.

“I think the way it works in the School of Education, Health and Human Behavior may be very different in engineering and business, in the School of Dental Medicine,” Minor said. “So I think we have to customize the mechanics of such a program.”

After showing her documentary at SIUE, Hall is taking “Clusterluck” to Washington University in St. Louis for a showing Feb. 23.

“I’m really hopeful about what it can mean for our institution, but also what it can mean on a national level,” Hall said.

CHLOE WOLFE photographer

After the viewing of “Clusterluck,” a panel featuring several high-up members of academia discussed some of the problems mentioned in the documentary. | Chloe Wolfe / The Alestle

“I know that they will affect change not just on the campus, not just in the School of Education, Health and Human Behavior, but beyond this particular space,” J.T. Snipes said about his department. | Chloe Wolfe / The Alestle

The Alestle will be on break next week, but will be back with our print edition Thursday, Feb. 23.

SIUE Web Radio offers number of opportunities for students

WOLFE photographer

SIUE’s Web Radio offers students a unique experience to put on their resumes.

Web Radio was founded in 2003 by graduate assistant Lisa Herman.

At first, Web Radio was under the guidance of WSIE, a campus radio, and Frank Akers who also worked there. When WSIE became a part of the Mass Communications department, so did Web Radio.

In 2010, Web Radio was moved under the umbrella of Student Affairs and tied to the student Publications budget. Since Aker’s retirement, the Web Radio program has been run by graduate assistants that are shared with Mass Communications and Student Publications.

Today Web Radio is run by graduate assistant for Web Radio Brian Lowe. When they first got there, Lowe said that Web Radio was dormant.

“So it was basically just a couple of DJs doing their own thing over time, until we’re kind of where we are now,” Lowe said.

Lowe said that when they were hired they began to reunite the program and start promoting again.

A problem they currently face is a low listening rate. According to Lowe, Web Radio is not on any common streaming services so it’s difficult to access.

“It’s not the kind of thing where you can hop on Spotify or Apple Music or YouTube or something like that,” Lowe said. “And again, to listen, instead, you have to get the TuneIn radio app and tune into the radio sta-

tion and that sort of thing.”

Although listening and involvement are not as high as Lowe would want it, Jessica Kuca, the host of “LoFi Grrrl,” said that involvement has grown since she first started after the COVID-19 pandemic. Kuca’s show often involves her playing and explaining an album from her eclectic music collection of everything from lo-fi to indie folk.

“I’ve definitely seen more people take interest in it or actually know what it is because I know personally, before they talked to me and asked me to join, I would walk past the booth in the MUC and be like ‘what is that?’ ‘What is the purpose of that?’ But now I feel like more people are learning what it is or what’s going on. And I think that growth is a really cool thing to watch and be a part of.”

Kuca joined Web Radio after her friend from high school told her about what they did. They started a show together called ‘Bad Theatre Festival,’ where they would create playlists for each other to make musicals based off of Kuca said.

Kuca also explained that even though she does not plan on continuing in media, the skills she has gained from working at Web Radio gave her important skills to use elsewhere.

“And then once they taught me how to use the computer and soundboard and stuff, which wasn’t really that difficult just for my purposes. I just kind of had to press a couple of buttons and walk into the back. And then that was it. But I’m also really bad with technology and that sort of thing,” Kuca said.

Kuca also said she gained confidence. Kuca said she was

anxious at first but has gained confidence over time.

“When we did the ‘Bad Theatre Festival’, it was a really fun experience, especially with my friends and with people I was comfortable with,” Kuca said. “In the environment of essentially just reading something to my friends, I was able to sort of strengthen [my] confidence in myself. I am proud of something that I wrote, even if it’s just like something stupid that we would laugh at the whole time.”

Lowe also cited Web Radio

as a resume builder.

“I still found that being able to put Web Radio as experience on my resume moving forward was kind of nice, because it showed that I had that sort of, frankly, that radio personality capability,” Lowe said. “and in a sense, what that really means to a lot of employers is your customer service abilities are probably pretty, okay. If you can put on a show there’s a decent chance that you can probably work with people well enough.”

For the future, Lowe said

their main goal is to get more people interested in not only listening, but and joining the program. As of right now, Web Radio has about six shows but Lowe hopes to start more shows in the near future and gain more listeners.

“I kind of realized how nice it is in the booth, because it’s just kind of this quiet space that I can play whatever music that I want,” Kuca said, “And it gives me an excuse to just hang out and do homework. While just playing music that I like.”

New university marketing director hopes to build on SIUE brand

DYLAN HEMBROUGH reporter

What goes around comes around: SIUE recently hired mass communications alum Kedra Tolson as the university’s new marketing and communications executive director.

Tolson said returning to the university has been part of a rigorous process she underwent in order to get the job. Tolson said she hopes to use skills she learned at SIUE to enhance the university’s visibility in the surrounding communities.

“It’s a good feeling to come back to the place where I learned a lot of the tactics that I used as a mass comm. student,” Tolson said. “It’s nice to come back and help the university grow in Illinois and outside of Illinois academically and strengthen our reputation with the

students and parents.”

Tolson described University Marketing as the “communications hub of the university” and said she would be working with a wide variety of other university departments.

“I’ll be working very closely with Dr. Minor on enhancing the visibility of the university … with our advertising marketing, enrollment marketing [and] brand awareness type of things,” Tolson said.

Tolson said the marketing department works closely with other areas of the university in order to keep the disparate parts of the school communicating efficiently with each other and with administration.

“We do all types of different communications projects,” Tolson said. “We also distribute a lot of major publications, like for the alumni association and the foun-

dation. We work closely with athletics on a lot of initiatives that they have. We, of course, work with the academic areas and publicize as much as we can about academic areas, faculty and staff and students and all the wonderful things that they’re doing.”

Tolson said she and her team have started preliminary work on a brand campaign for SIUE..

“The first thing the team and I are going to get to work on is working to establish a brand campaign, which speaks to our reputation, which speaks to our awareness in the region about who we are and what we do,” Tolson said.

Tolson said the university’s accomplishments speak for themselves to a degree, but that there is plenty of space to improve upon the school’s image.

“It’s fairly easy for me to brag about the university because

I’m a product of the university and I understand the strengths and values and power of an SIUE education,” Tolson said. “But I think we have room to grow in that area, so I’m going to be working with the team to work on establishing a brand campaign that will hopefully consist of television ads, radio spots, printed materials and such — enough that we get to tell the important story of SIUE.”

Tolson said this new brand campaign requires a lot of thought and research, and could potentially taking up to 6 months.

“Any time you start a brand campaign, you have to do some research, meaning you have to talk to current and prospective students, talk to the community at large, faculty and staff, business leaders [and] alumni,”

Tolson said. “You use the data you have to formulate what your brand platform will be, [and] that’s how you form your talking points. So initially, we will start off on research and consumer insight so we can get real good information on how the community views us.”

Tolson said she is honored to work for the university which taught her, and she hopes to use the skills taught here to help SIUE grow in the years to come.

“I’m excited to become part of the SIUE community and hope that I contribute in a way that really makes us continue to shine,” Tolson said. “I think that I have a story to tell. Being a student who learned my craft – my profession – here at SIUE, to come back is an honor for me, so I hope to do the university proud.”

CHLOE

Brian Lowe does the intro to their show “Vermin Lord Records” which showcases some of the darker songs on their playlist. | Chloe Wolfe / The Alestle

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Dungeons and Dragons club only played monthly board game nights – but now they’re back with a renewed interest in their namesake.

Ryan McMahon, a fourthyear mass communications major from Collinsville, Illinois, and vice-president of the club, said the club is trying to get events started up again, even though it has existed for many years.

One way they are doing this is by hosting a “try day” on Feb. 16, where DND games will be set up and people can walk in and try them.

If you want that kind of escapism, this is a really good way to do it because … none of us care why you do it,” McMahon said. “As long as everyone’s having fun, you don’t have the pressure of being on stage and it’s just hanging out with friends.”

Drake Stevens, a fifth-year English major from Alton, Illinois, and treasurer of the club, said as a school-sponsored club,

they can rent rooms in the Student Success Center or Engineering Building, as well as loan out items they keep in storage. He said after the lockdown, they’re hoping to incorporate more events centered around DND, such as one-shot campaigns that can be finished in one sitting and figurine painting.

“It’s one of those things where people just want to interact, and with Dungeons and Dragons it’s a way to explore your creativity … Dungeons and Dragons is such an open and well-versed game that’s for anyone and everyone, that game can help you explore creativity even if you don’t have skills like singing or art,” Stevens said. “You just need an imagination and a pencil.”

McMahon said the club sets up campaigns through their Discord server, where members can message how many people they’re looking for, the story and the time they’ll play. He said he is usually the dungeon master for three active campaigns at a time, which he said has taught him how to improvise.

He said his favorite moments are when he gets to see his players grow.

“Maybe they come in, play the game and then that’s it, they don’t really interact with other people on our server … over time, we see them start interacting more and more, they show up to sessions a bit earlier, they stay after sessions, hang out a bit longer than normal,” McMahon said.

As a player, McMahon said he learned how to think his actions through because during his first time playing, he didn’t think through an action and it got his character killed.

“I still do things without thinking, but a lot of times I actually give thought to my actions before I just do them,” McMahon said.

Stevens said it’s rewarding to play through a plot and figure out ways to solve issues, as well as great stress relief because you just have to focus on being with your group.

“At the end of the day, Dungeons and Dragons is a game about storytelling and a

group of adventurers and heroes,” Stevens said. “You may not even be heroes, but you tell that story through a collaborative effort, and you just work together with people and make an amazing story.”

Stevens said in addition to their try day, they will also continue their monthly board and card game nights. To learn more, find Dungeons and Dragons on Get Involved.

REVIEW: ‘Knock at the Cabin’ plot could be given away right here

NICOLE BOYD opinion editor

“Knock at the Cabin’’ defied my expectations in the sense that it was a middle-of-the-road M. Night Shyamalan movie.

After M. Night Shyamalan’s hit “The Sixth Sense,” he went on to make more movies including “Old,” known for its bizarre premise and terrible dialogue, “Split,” which was criticized for its portrayal of dissociative identity disorder, and live-action “The Last Airbender” – for which, as a huge fan of the original “Avatar: The Last Airbender” cartoon, I will never forgive him.

I thought there could be no in-between when it comes to Shyamalan’s movies, that is until I saw “Knock at the Cabin.”

The story begins with what appears to be a strange home invasion, as Leonard (Dave Bautista) tries to persuade husbands Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge) to let him and his three companions enter their vacation cabin. They claim that one person between the two

men and their daughter, Wen, must be sacrificed to prevent the apocalypse. What’s worse, they have to choose and sacrifice the person themselves.

Watching the back-andforth between the intruders and family, the audience should be trying to guess what to believe – is this a targeted attack on two gay men, or could the intruders be right about the impending apocalypse? It would have been fun to see clues dropped along the way, but sadly, the interactions can only be analyzed at face value. For example, the intruders keep referencing visions of what will happen if the family does not choose, but we only get a glimpse of what those visions were in the opening credits.

The family’s love for one another is shown through a handful of quick flashback scenes, which are intended to show how difficult such a choice would be for them. However, due to the movie’s odd pacing, we see very little affection between the husbands in the primary plot line. By introducing the hook almost

immediately, the emotional tone starts down and stays down. The flashback of the family having fun in the lake at the cabin would have been much more effective as an opening scene. It also kills a lot of the suspense, since we instantly know where the movie is going to go.

Criticisms aside, the movie isn’t necessarily bad. The plot may be simple, but it is straightforward and enjoyable, and the action scenes provide a decent amount of suspense. All of the actors play their parts well, and Bautista is particularly convincing in his role as a humble, sympathetic (yet large and intimidating) intruder.

While I wouldn’t consider “Knock at the Cabin” especially scary, it’s an enjoyable, easily-stomached thriller. It may not satisfy hardcore horror fans or those who love big plot twists, but if you’re looking to dip your toes into the horror genre or just want a fun hour and 40 minute that isn’t purely comedy or action, there are certainly worse things to watch.

NICOLE BOYD opinion editor

| Thea Weltzin / The Alestle

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Professors studied longer than you’ve been alive

Professors see it all the time: a student rudely interrupts, contradicting something the professor just taught. Female professors and professors of color have it the worst.

instructional faculty are female, they sometimes still have trouble getting the respect from students they deserve.

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Students who refuse to listen to their professors have always been a major issue, but there is a subset of students who actively try to contradict what their professors teach, despite the simple fact that students go to college to learn.

This problem is especially bad when it comes to female professors. As of fall 2022, there are roughly even numbers of male and female instructional faculty at SIUE. However, sexism is still a rampant problem in society and, though 54 percent of SIUE

SIUE, like any college campus, is a microcosm of the wider society around it. Thus, societal problems seep through the campus borders. Last semester’s campus climate survey, the results of which can be viewed online, revealed a host of issues, among them racism and sexism.

In its “Perceptions of bias incident reporting” section, the campus climate survey notes that 27 percent of administrators, faculty and staff have experienced bullying, and administrators in particular were most likely to experience bias via gender discrimination. While this is not an exact number for instructional faculty, this does reflect the trend of sexism present both at SIUE and in

society as a whole.

In addition, the SIU system performed less favorably than peer institutions as a welcoming climate for gender expression.

All of this, coupled with findings on the perceived efficacy of bias incident reports, creates a climate in which minority populations can often feel unwelcome, or even actively snubbed. Female professors are at the forefront of this issue, as they have the most interaction with the student population on any given day.

Some students feel as if they know more about a topic than their professor, and when the professor is female, the dense weight of sexism can rear its ugly head when said student acts condescendingly towards their professor.

This is not to say professors are infallible. We’re all human,

and we all make mistakes. However, even if a professor messes up every once in a while, that is no excuse for a student to be condescending toward them.

Students may not even intend to be condescending, but a good way to avoid this is to think about how to phrase a question respectfully before you raise your hand. Not only is doing this more civil than the alternative, but it is far more productive, too. Simply being polite can avoid needless arguing between professors and students and avoid an atmosphere of tension in the classroom.

Students should also be more occupied with listening and learning instead of trying to prove a point. College is about learning from other perspectives, not just reinforcing your own.

This Valentine’s Day, focus on loving yourself

AUDREY O’RENIC copy editor

When you hear “Valentine’s Day,” odds are you think of flowers, cards, chocolate and the idea of love — which is precisely the problem.

Valentine’s Day, in theory, is the celebration of love itself.

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However, the day’s true meaning has become buried under its rapidly increasing commercialization. Suddenly, Valentine’s Day has become the day when love lives are put on display; it has become a day of expectation, competition and magnification.

The stress caused by the commercial construct of Valentine’s Day can be a lot, in a relationship or not. Social media

falsely magnifies the “perfect” parts of relationships, creating vain competition and high expectations for those in a relationship, and singling out those who are not.

Many single people, like myself, are often left with a low sense of self-worth as they are constantly reminded of their relationship status. It can be disheartening and discouraging to be alone on a holiday dedicated to celebrating those who are together.

It’s not all that easy for couples, either. The immense and growing pressure many couples feel to reach, or even one-up, the unrealistically high expectations set by society is shown in just how much is spent on Valentine’s Day. Americans are projected to

spend $25.9 billion, with an average of $192.80 per person on Valentine’s Day gifts and activities this year, according to the National Retail Foundation.

Love does not equal material objects, but rather the emotional connections we share with another person. Giving gifts can be an expression of gratitude towards another person, but it does not have to be the only way you can show affection. For example, you could clean around the house, write a heartfelt letter or say a simple “I love you” — all of which cost virtually nothing.

Furthermore, we should love all year round. Love must not and arguably cannot be confined to a single day. Healthy relationships, whether it be with a romantic

partner, friend or family member, take time. In order to establish a deep emotional connection, relationships need to grow, bond and experience together, which cannot happen within a single day. This Valentine’s Day, give yourself a little extra love. We do so much for others that it’s easy to neglect ourselves. And if you feel alone, remember you are your own built-in best friend. People can come and go throughout our lives and relationships can flourish and fail, but ultimately, we are our only life-long relationship. Self-love is the most important type of love you can have. So do activities that you enjoy, reflect on your successes and tell yourself, “I love you.”

DAMIAN MORRIS Multimedia Editor

| Thea Weltzin / The Alestle

The Alestle will be on break next week, but we will be back with our print edition Thursday, Feb. 23.

Students take a stab at hosting fencing tournament at SIUE

BRUCE

DARNELL

sports editor

While not usually competitive, the SIUE Fencing Club plans on hosting a casual tournament in March where fencers can compete for fun.

Senior David Wickman, a computer science major, has been the president of the Fencing Club since his sophomore year.

“The Fencing Club is a club to learn and enjoy casual fencing,” Wickman said. “We don’t fence competitively.”

Wickman says that if members wish to fence competitively, then they will be supported completely by the club and its members. There are divisions based on location through which members can compete.

“We mainly fence for the fun of it,” Wickman said. “We put up strips to fence on and we just have a round-robin of who fences who. We fence as much as

we can in the two hours allotted. If you’re new to fencing, we’ll give you a one to two hour basic training and once you’re aware of that stuff we’ll allow you to come onto the strip.”

Zoe Dilks, a sophomore nutrition and dietetics major, is the vice president of the club and helps coach players alongside Wickman. Both Dilks and Wickman are professionally trained fencers with years of experience.

“Me and [Wickman] have the most organized training,” Dilks said. “We’ve gone to fencing clubs outside of college, and everyone else has been taught by me or [Wickman].”

The Fencing Club experienced a growth in numbers since SIUE’s return to in-person learning. While not every person has stayed, the growth has still given way to a few new members.

“Within the first couple weeks we had 18 new people show up,” Wickman said. “Now we have a steady stream of people who come at least once a week,

so we’re doing pretty good.”

Wickman hopes that this may give way to sustainable membership in the future, whether the number of people increase or stay the same since it would allow the club to do more things.

“I’d like to see fencing grow in the metropolitan area, in both the Missouri side and Illinois side, right now there’s not too many clubs around outside of the college clubs,” Wickman said.

The Fencing Club is going to host its first tournament this semester thanks to the Amateur Fencing Association, though they’ve been having trouble finding a space to host it at.

“We were not aware that we couldn’t put tape on the floors in the courts, and the only court we could put tape on is going to be under con-

struction,” Dilks said. “We either need to figure something out for here or rent out the YMCA.”

The tournament is going to be casual, with no rankings and a use of all three fencing blades — the épée, the foil and the saber. The tournament is going to be hosted on a weekend in March either at SIUE or a rented space off-campus.

“I’d really like to have us go to more tournaments,” Dilks said. “We’re getting there already, and I’d like to get peo-

ple into other weapons. Right now we mainly do épée, and I’ve been getting more people to do foil and I’m hoping to get that to be a more mainstream thing in the club.”

The Fencing Club hosts practices every Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and every Friday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, David Wickman can be reached at dwickma@siue.edu.

Men’s basketball bring back momentum with win against UT Martin

GABRIEL BRADY managing editor

The men’s basketball team’s game last week broke their losing streak with their game against the University of Tennessee at Martin. Redshirt junior guard Shamar Wright scored the 1,000th point of his career during the game.

At the start of the game, the team opted to open without their usual center, sophomore Jonathan Kurtas. The team still immediately took possession of the ball. After a missed layup from redshirt sophomore forward DeeJuan Pruitt, redshirt junior forward Lamar Wright rebounded the ball back to Pruitt. After his second attempt, Pruitt scored the first basket of the game.

A few minutes later, Pruitt scored another basket, which was followed by another from UT Martin. However, keeping up the pressure, Pruitt scored a 3-pointer, assisted by redshirt sophomore guard Ray’Sean Taylor.

Despite a possible opening for a 3-pointer from Taylor, he took the option to pass it to Shamar Wright in the paint, who scored a basket.

Before the end of the first five minutes of the game, SIUE firmly had the lead in its hands, with a score of 14-4.

Shamar Wright was knocked to the ground by UT Martin’s defenses while trying to shoot a 3-pointer. He made two of the three shots at the foul line.

After a short defensive gridlock between the teams, with neither being able to score a basket, Shamar Wright broke the tension with a slam dunk at 12:57.

This triumphant moment was his 1,00oth point. And, eager to keep the pressure up, he scored a jump shot off the backboard not even a half minute later.

The teams came back from a UT Martin timeout, and UT Martin quickly scored a basket, and two shots at the foul line. Kurtas, who had entered the game earlier, scored his first basket of the game, bringing the score to 25-8. UT Martin was beginning to make some progress.

The rest of the half continued with UT Martin almost closing the gap between the scores. As the game approached 5:00, Pruitt, Taylor and Shamar Wright all tried for 3-pointers but were unable to score. With four minutes remaining in the first half, the score was 21-34.

Jumping forward, with two minutes left, UT Martin had stopped SIUE’s momentum, but the scores were 27-40. SIUE had maintained a 13-point lead. In the final two minutes of the first half, UT Martin scored no baskets, and Taylor scored two layups, a 3-pointer and a shot at the foul line.

At the start of the second half, the score was 49-27. Sophomore guard Damarco Minor charged toward the basket with the ball, but suddenly stopped and scored the first basket of the final half at 19:20. After this, within 30 seconds, Taylor scored two different layups in the paint for SIUE.

A defensive rebound from Shamar Wright gave Minor a chance to run up to the basket for a 2-pointer inside the defense. UT Martin scored a basket of their own after this, as well

as a 3-pointer, but an assist from Taylor gave redshirt sophomore guard Desmond Polk a clean basket. The score was now 69-46.

From 10:40 until 9:10, the only points scored were at the foul line by either team, but UT Martin broke this streak with a basket. Taylor scored two more shots at the foul line at 8:52, and UT Martin attempted a turnover. However, Polk stole the ball and ran down the court for a dunk.

At 7:53, Taylor scored a basket of his own, despite a hit to the head from UT Martin’s defense. And, thanks to a pass from sophomore forward Terrance Thompson, graduate student guard Jalen Hodge scored a basket as well, bringing the score to 81-57. Despite a few plays from UT Martin, SIUE’s lead stayed strong.

Despite standing amid UT Martin’s defense, Polk scored another dunk for SIUE at 5:00. From 4:50 until 1:30, UT Martin kept up a scoring streak, uninterrupted by SIUE. Kurtas put a stop to this at 1:22, with an easy drop-in on the basket.

UT Martin began another scoring streak after this, but Taylor stole the ball and scored a slam dunk just before the final 30 seconds of the game. However, he did receive a technical foul as well. Despite a few more tries from UT Martin, the final score of the game was 89-75.

After this game, SIUE beat University of Arkansas at Little Rock in an away game thanks to a 3-pointer from beyond half-court from Taylor on the buzzer. The team’s next home game is 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 11 against Eastern Illinois University.

Sophomore center Jonathan Kurtas goes