The Alestle Vol. 74 No. 20

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vol. 74 no. 20

The Student Voice Since 1960

Gov. Pritzker signs criminal justice reform bill

‘WE ARE NO LONGER THE NERDS’

RAYMON TRONCOSO Capitol News Illinois

Comic collectors attending The Metro East Comic Convention talk about how perceptions of comics have changed and how today’s movies and TV shows are creating a new generation of comic book fans. This exclusive online story can be read at alestlelive.com.

I Khoi Pham / The Alestle

‘It’s not time for us to pat ourselves on the back’: faculty discuss racism within SIUE policies, solutions DALTON BROWN copy editor

Faculty and Anti-Racism Task Force members say some of SIUE’s policies can have disproportionately negative impacts on faculty of color.

Assistant professor of political science Timothy Lewis said part of one SIUE policy admits to the implicit biases of students when evaluating their teachers.

“SIUE actually admits in policy 1J7 that people of color, women, non-heteronormative minorities will face racism, sexism, homophobia in their teaching evaluations,” Lewis said.

“Now in the tenure process, the teachers or professors are required to write a narrative in response to teaching evaluations — you know, highlighting what they did correctly and providing strategies for what they can improve on, based off those evaluations — but there’s often racist comments, sexist comments in those evaluations. Well, the policy still requires those professors to still comment on racism, to rehash that trauma, as if there is a teaching practice that can overcome racism when we know there isn’t.”

Elza Ibroscheva, SIUE Associate Provost and member of the Anti-Racism Task Force’s Core Council, said the school has developed a committee charged

with reviewing the student evaluation of teaching policy and drafting solutions.

“This committee, which is comprised of faculty members whose expertise is in quantitative methodology but also specifically in implicit bias, have [begun] their work to look at our current instruments in place, to study this at a larger sort of institutional perspective and to recommend … a path forward in thinking about what our student evaluation of teaching could look like,” Ibroscheva said.

University Policy 1J7 states that student evaluations of teaching may be a contributing — but not determining — factor in considering faculty for tenure. According to Lewis, the very notion of tenure has historically served a purpose of exclusion.

“Tenure in and of itself came out of a system to preclude some from the academic upper class while allowing others in, so tenure started as sort of a gatekeeping mechanism,” Lewis said.

Lewis said the effects can be seen in his own department, which has never granted tenure to an African American professor.

“If someone presumes to tell me that in 60 years, you haven’t found one African American that merits tenure when Black people have been getting PhDs since the 1800s, that’s kind of hard for me to believe,” Lewis said.

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Lewis also said there are no Black faculty in the Department of Criminal Justice, so students are being taught about the justice system from a predominantly white perspective.

Ibroscheva said Black faculty members often shoulder more than their share of advising and assisting African American students and serving on diversity committees, creating a heavier burden for faculty of color.

Gertrude Pannirselvam, associate professor of Management and Marketing and co-chair of the Anti-Racism Task Force’s Faculty and Staff subcommittee, said for some faculty of color, this extra workload can be a choice born of necessity — but those who criticize them for taking it on should consider doing some of the work themselves.

“This comment is easy to make; ‘Oh, they shouldn’t have done so much service,’” Pannirselvam said. “That’s an easy comment to make, and that’s a very ignorant comment to make. That just shows a lack of understanding of why people do some of the things that they have to do.

It’s not because they’re escaping something, it’s because they cannot go to sleep without doing some of the things that need to be done. And so my answer always is, ‘I wish my white colleagues did some of this work.

It’s their burden, pick it up.’”

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While faculty and task force members have clearly identified these and other problems, they’ve also suggested a range of solutions. Lewis said during his time serving on the task force, various recommendations were inspired by other universities.

“One of the recommendations was to remove student evaluation of teaching from part of the tenure evaluation, that students are not experts on how to teach and that faculty members should be reviewing classes and that should be the review mechanism,” Lewis said. “So, some of these recommendations came from University of California, Oregon State University, Pomona College … these were just some of the colleges and universities that we looked at and we saw what we believed to be a fairer and more equitable tenure process.”

According to Pannirselvam, while SIUE is in the learning process, that process is far from over.

“I think we are learning from other schools, we are in collaboration with a lot of different organizations that have been leaders. SIUE is doing a lot of good things, very good things,” Pannirselvam said. “We are way ahead of many of the institutions where I have professional colleagues, but it’s not time for us to pat ourselves on the back. We’re not there yet.”

The Alestle

SPRINGFIELD — Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a criminal justice omnibus bill backed by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Monday, abolishing cash bail, overhauling police certification and reforming use-of-force standards among numerous other provisions.

Pritzker signed the legislation, House Bill 3653, referred to as the “Safe-T Act,” during an event at Chicago State University alongside members of his administration and lawmakers from the Black Caucus.

“This legislation marks a substantial step toward dismantling the systemic racism that plagues our communities, our state and our nation, and brings us closer to true safety, true fairness and true justice,” Pritzker said.

While the legislation received grassroots support from activists, buoyed by the growing national concern over policing following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor last year, the bill faced strong opposition from Republican lawmakers and law enforcement groups.

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, of Western Springs, called the signing “an insult to our first responders.”

“We live in a civilized state where our elected officials’ greatest responsibility is the health and safety of Illinois citizens… At a crucial time when we should coalesce around the good men and women of law enforcement, Governor Pritzker has turned his back on them with his signature on House Bill 3653,” Durkin said in a statement released Monday.

Opponents of the legislation have said it will result in a less safe Illinois and have criticized the process behind its development as lacking in transparency without proper input from Republican lawmakers and the public at large.

Proponents say HB 3653 will make Illinois safer by making the justice system more equitable for Black, Latino, low-income and minority communities that have been disproportionately harmed by disparate policies in sentencing, incarceration and policing.

Members of the Black Caucus have countered claims against the bill’s transparency by pointing to nine subject matter hearings held by the caucus in state

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Fall 2021 semester to have more in-person classes JOHN MCGOWAN reporter

As the COVID-19 numbers start to look more and more promising, the SIU system is planning to make Fall 2021’s schedule more face-to-face than it will have been in the last three semesters.

Assistant Registrar for Curriculum Management and Academic Scheduling Maureen Bell-Werner said there will be far fewer online classes in the Fall 2021 semester than there were in the Fall 2020 semester.

“I would say it’s somewhat between Fall 2019 and Fall 2020.

In Fall 2019, maybe about 10 percent of our classes were offered completely online, and in

Fall 2020, due to the pandemic, more than 50 percent of our classes were offered completely online. Right now, Fall 2021 is looking like not quite a third of the courses are completely online,” Bell-Werner said.

While classes are being moved back to face-to-face classrooms, social distancing guidelines will still be in place. Classes will have lower rosters than usual, and Bell-Werner said the school will be using more spaces than they have before.

“Departments have tried to offer more sections with lower enrollment,” Bell-Werner said.

“We’ve reached out to partners in Student Affairs and some of the other buildings on campus like Birger Hall and the library

and the residence halls to identify spaces that we could use as classrooms for Fall 2021.”

Some departments will also be utilizing Teaching Assistants (TA) and graduate assistants more so than in the past to teach the increased number of sections.

“It really depends on what the department can do. I think that there are some that are probably trying to utilize more TA’s and graduate assistants to help with that,” Bell-Werner said.

SIU System President Dan Mahony said things may never fully go back to the way they were before the pandemic, because some things work better in a socially-distanced format. “[We have] found that for some things, online or hybrid

formats may work better, and so it never may be exactly like Fall 2019 was,” Mahony said. “We’re making decisions based not anymore on the virus as much, and more on what’s the best way of doing this activity or doing this class.”

Though COVID-19 cases are decreasing, the system is still not moving with 100 percent confidence that all will be ready for in-person classes come Fall 2021. Bell-Werner said while they are currently planning to be in-person, they are ready to move more programs online if necessary.

“What we have said from the beginning in these conversations about the fall semester is that it is easier for us to plan

for on-ground and to sort of flip classes online than it is to do the other,” Bell-Werner said.

Junior exercise science major Brian Hallam of Forsyth, Illinois, said he would like to see campus go back to normal.

“Personally, I’m not that concerned, but I feel that there is a possibility of a rise in cases, but I’m really excited just to be back in person, and I’d like to see the campus back to normal because I miss that a lot,” Hallam said.

Junior biology major Ben Theiler of Germantown Hills, Illinois, said he’s OK with the transition under one condition.

“I’m really excited to see everything open back up, as long as we’re not having more cases come up on the rise,” Theiler said.

School of Pharmacy drops standardized test for admissions KRISTINA JOHNSON reporter

SIUE has joined universities around the country in dropping the Pharmacy College Admissions Test as a requirement for the application process.

Dean of the School of Pharmacy Mark Luer said the decision to drop the test was made by the whole faculty. He said they looked at multiple factors, including the costs surrounding students taking and preparing for the test.

“The cost of taking the test [and] the cost of people going through preparations, [it] adds another financial barrier for students to come to SIUE,” Luer said. “[Students] often aren’t sitting where they can [use a] couple hundred dollars to apply.

That would be a cost they would have to absorb to apply to our program.”

According to the Test Prep Review, the registration fee is approximately $210 and an additional $49 if a student applies late.

First year pharmacy student Gabe Comonal, of Romeoville, Illinois, said when he took the PCAT, he and his friends split the cost of one test prep book, which can

be found on Amazon starting at $35.

“What a lot of my friends and I did was, we chipped in on a book and split the cost,” Comonal said. “Whenever one of us would be taking it soon, we’d have them use the book that whole time and [we could] borrow it whenever.”

He said aside from the costs of preparation and taking the test, he believes there are some good reasons to have the test. At the same time, he said he recognizes the burden it may impose on other students.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m either for or against [the test],” Comonal said.

“I understand having it as a requirement … preparing for this major test will help you in your application. I also recognize that not everyone is the best test taker and it’s also another added stress in [students’] lives.”

Luer said even before the PCAT was dropped, other qualities and accomplishments were looked at besides the student’s score on the test.

“We try to take a more holistic view of someone’s academic preparation,” Luer said. “We look at their GPA, their pre-pharmacy GPA and then we also look at their math and science GPA. Those are all kind

of figured in [along with] the PCAT score, then we did an on-site interview and a writing assessment.”

Luer said an important goal is to try and find students that will have the biggest likelihood of success in their program and that sometimes it cannot be identified by a score on a test.

Associate Dean of the School of Pharmacy Jessica Kerr said SIUE’s data of applicants taking the PCAT didn’t show a correlation between higher scores on the PCAT and more success in the program.

She said this was a factor in making the ultimate decision to cut the requirement.

“Knowing that there are barriers that students have with taking the PCAT, we decided based [on] an evidence-based approach specifically to our program,” Kerr said. “With the application cycle here going forward, we will no longer utilize the PCAT as part of our objective markers in the holistic approach review that we do with the students.”

Instead, Kerr said a way that they get to know applicants is by bringing them in for a face-to-face or virtual interview. She said here, they get to look at students more personally.

“Within the interview processes, you know, [we’re] looking at leadership opportunities or leadership development,” Kerr said. “[We’re] seeing if those students are also holistic in their approach with how they handle relationships with others, making sure that they have a strong understanding of lifelong learning as a skill set that is necessary to have while they’re in school, but also as a practicing pharmacist.”

Kerr said dropping the requirement does more than eliminate a barrier for possible future students, it also opens the doors for more applicants with different backgrounds and qualifications.

“When you’re thinking about the PCAT being a possible barrier for a student that is looking at other schools and one school doesn’t have a PCAT [requirement] and the other does, then we are limiting our applicant pool, which means we could be limiting some very qualified applicants as well,” Kerr said.

SIUE will also be dropping their SAT and ACT standardized testing requirements for all 2021 general admissions.

For more information, visit the SIUE undergraduate admissions website.

Cougar Connectors provide guidance for freshmen THOMAS DRAKE reporter

Over 100 upperclassmen have volunteered to be Cougar Connectors and help freshmen navigate their first semester at SIUE. Director of the Honors Program Eric Ruckh said the Cougar Connectors program was inspired by a similar program taking place in Honors.

“I became Honors director in 2013, and originally it had a faculty-to-student mentoring program that was ineffective to be quite honest. And so working with some honor students we, at the time, came up with the idea of developing a peer-to-peer program, upper class honors students mentoring and being available to the incoming group of first year honor students,” Ruckh said.

Ruckh said the program took advantage of the power of having a peer relationship to help first year students in a practical way.

Secondly, it builds and strengthens the honors community.

When the pandemic began, Ruckh said he knew this program from the Honors community could be used to help all incoming freshmen. Ruckh said he gave junior business administration major Colin Boysen from Carpentersville, Illinois, the challenge of making the peer mentorship program a reality.

“I went to Colin and challenged him to figure out a way to take that program as a model and scale it up to a much larger scale to be available to the entire incoming class of 2022,” Ruckh said.

Ruckh said he encouraged and supported Boysen to reach beyond the Honors community and involve non-honors students in the project. Boysen said they accumulated a group of upperclassmen for the student-led organization.

“We put together a fantastic team of 200 upper-class students who went above and beyond to support the program, to support SIUE and the first year of incoming students without knowing any

of them, without knowing much about the program, just knowing that it was a new program. These [are] 200 fantastic students, the best that SIUE has to offer. They went above and beyond to support the campus,” Boysen said.

Cougar Connectors made contact with First Semester Transition instructors to get in touch with incoming freshmen and to set up an upperclassman with a group of freshmen.

“The program was based around FST, so every first year student has to take that and that’s how we formed our groups.

That’s kind of like the foundation of the program. We use their FST courses to group them together and to use complimentary ones to share with them,” Boysen said.

Lexi Burnett, a sophomore nursing major from Shelbyville, Illinois, is the senator for the School of Nursing who is a volunteer for the Cougar Connectors. Burnett said her group of freshmen were mostly nursing students and that made it easier for her to help them.

“Most of the students I had last semester were nursing students like myself, so I was able to offer them a lot of insider advice for tests and things since I had already been there, done that,” Burnett said.

Cougar Connectors will continue for future semesters, but with some changes. Boysen said he wanted to make the freshmen and upperclassmen connection more personal, or pair groups with the same major.

Ian Toberman, the assistant director of the Honors Program who supports and works with the Cougar Connectors, said he wants to use the feedback from the fall semester to improve.

“We’re using that information to experiment with different ways of providing services to students. We’ve got two different groups looking at both the content and how we provide it,” Toberman said.

Students interested in volunteering for the Cougar Connectors can email Boysen at cboysen@siue.edu.

02.19.21 Officer assisted the Dental School with a possibly uncooperative subject. Officer advised there was not an incident.

02.20.21 Officer made contact with subject via telephone due to a welfare check being requested by employer. Officer advised the subject did not need police assistance.

Officer assisted ISP with trying to locate a vehicle. Officer advised the vehicle was not located.

02.22.21 Officer took a report of a student advising another subject was spreading rumors about her. Officer advised student of the student resources that are available to her.

thursday, 02.25. 21

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BY THE NUMBERS

COVID-19 at SIUE

New confirmed positive cases (from tests conducted by SIUE and self-reporting):

Feb. 12 - 18: 6 students, 2 faculty/staff Feb. 5 - 11: 9 students, 4 faculty/staff 14-day new positive tests: 19 students, 4 faculty/ staff All prior weeks positive tests (Aug. 1 - Feb. 4): 310 students, 83 faculty/staff Total positive cases: 325 students, 89 faculty/staff

Tests conducted by SIUE

Feb. 12 - 18: 329 Feb. 5 - 11: 501 14-day new tests conducted: 280 All prior weeks tests conducted (Aug. 21 - Feb. 4): 8,548 Total tests conducted: 9,378

Positive cases identified by SIUE testing:

Feb. 12 - 18: 1 Feb. 5 - 11: 4 14-day new positive cases: 5 All prior weeks positive cases (Aug 21 - Feb. 18): 367 Total: 372

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Madison County confirmed cases by day

February 12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Source: Madison County Health Department COVID-19 Dashboard, as of Feb. 22

Percentage of isolation/quarantine space available on campus (as of Feb. 22): 95 percent Source: Health, Reporting, and Testing page on SIUE’s COVID-19 website, as of Feb. 22

COVID-19’S impact on Madison County All of Illinois’s regions remain under Phase 4 mitigations, which went into effect Feb. 4. These mitigations include the following: -Gatherings of 50 people or fewer -Travel should follow IDPH and CDC approved guidance -All healthcare providers are open -P-12 schools, higher education, all summer programs, and child care open with IDPH approved safety guidance -All outdoor recreation allowed Most businesses, including manufacturing, “non-essential” businesses, bars and restaurants, personal care services and health clubs, entertainment and retail are open with capacity limits and IDPH approved safety guidance.

Source: dph.illinois.gov.

| Summer Bradley / The Alestle

Senate committees between September and November. For nearly 30 hours, lawmakers from both parties, law enforcement, judges, state’s attorneys, legal experts, representatives of the court, the governor’s office and the attorney general’s office hashed out many of the issues that became provisions in the bill, such as the abolition of cash bail by 2023 and police certification.

The office of the governor and Attorney General Kwame Raoul held working meetings over several months starting in July with representatives from both chambers and parties, Fraternal Order of Police groups, the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association.

The actual written legislation was introduced to the General Assembly during the five-day lame duck session in January where lawmakers attempted to pass a year’s-worth of laws in a legislative blitz following the disruption of the regular session by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The final version of the bill was introduced after midnight on the final day of the lame-duck, where it received just enough votes to pass both chambers with less than an hour of floor debate.

Campus groups look forward to in-person events under Phase 4 DALTON BROWN copy editor

After nearly a year of hosting events virtually, some groups on campus are ready to be back in person given the easing of some restrictions under Phase 4.

Student Government is excited to expand on previously-canceled plans for Mental Health Awareness Week according to Kaitlyn Kyle, a senior international studies major from Dupo, Illinois and external affairs officer for Student Government.

“We traditionally have an event called I Have a Reason, which is typically a night of testimonials from students all over campus sharing their mental health stories,” Kyle said. “Because of COVID, it got canceled last year, so this year we’re shifting it to a full week of events, focusing on mindfulness practices, healthy eating … every aspect of mental health awareness that isn’t just your traditional going to counseling or therapy.”

Kyle said that Student Government has planned a blend of virtual and in-per-

son events for that week, which range in subject matter.

“Some of the events we have planned are pre-recorded Zoom classes about eating healthy and meal preparation, we plan to do some crisis intervention training and have a virtual panel with local resources to talk about where students can get help,” Kyle said. “We also plan to have various exercise spaces, tabling events with resources [and] tabling events for people to just stop by and share their stories, or get a positive note and get some nice goodies.”

Matthew Burgess, a sophomore chemistry major from Girard, Illinois and President of SIUE’s Gay-Straight Alliance, said the group has some tentative in-person plans. “[There’s] potential this semester that the Gay-Straight Alliance is going to be hosting a couple in-person events,” Burgess said. “We were thinking like an outside Night Walk event, where it’s a social walk … it’s just for meeting and greeting, though we don’t expect that to exceed 1015 people.”

Burgess is also the secretary for Stu-

dents for Liberty, a group he said hasn’t planned any in-person events for the semester as it was created just before the pandemic and has operated virtually.

Sarah Laux, associate director for the Kimmel Student Involvement Center, said Phase 4 has made event planning easier for the Kimmel staff.

“Before Phase 4, we were pretty virtual,” Laux said. “We’ve been able to expand the programs or the types of things that we can offer, because it’s a lot easier to program for 50 people or 50 percent capacity versus only 10 or fewer — or none.”

Laux said the Kimmel staff is excited to host some in-person leadership programs that were previously canceled last February due to mitigations at the time; while specific dates are being determined, they will likely take place in March and April.

Burgess said in his experience, planning events virtually is much easier.

“When it comes to a virtual event, you can send a message out a week before … so it’s really easy, it takes no time at all to plan something like that,” Burgess said.

schedule was being designed.

“There’s different variations of the COVID virus now that faculty weren’t necessarily thinking about when we were starting to put together next fall’s schedule,” Poepsel said.

Poepsel is referring to the new, possibly more infectious variant seen in Chicago recently, along with others in different parts of the country.

He said that if even one person dies as a result of this increase in face-to-face contact, he would feel responsible.

“It’s not that I’m worried that all [faculty and staff] are going to get COVID and die. If one person died, I would feel horrible if we hadn’t tried to prevent it,” Poepsel said.

Public Health professor Nicole Klein said including faculty and staff into group 1B is a tough issue due to the limited number of vaccines.

“I do think it’s important to keep in mind availability of the vaccination,” Klein said. “Understanding that there’s a finite pool at this point of vaccines and understanding that the more people we add to any pool, the further it pushes back when the people in that pool will likely be vaccinated, because there’s more competition in that pool.”

Klein said she was glad to see SIUE staff included as an important part of the effort.

“I was glad to see in the letter that they sent to IDPH and to Gov. Pritzker that they did include university staff as well. I think that’s an important thing to think about.

You know, making sure we’re sort of one unit,” Klein said.

Public Health professor Jennifer Caumiant said she agreed with Klein, adding it’s arguably more important that university staff receive the vaccine.

“It should also include support staff, and other people on campuses that don’t have the opportunity to work remotely.

Think about all the maintenance faculty, the support faculty and staff; all of those folks who have to be in person,” Caumiant said.

Poepsel said he understands how hard it is to provide vaccines to everyone.

“We’re not making some kind of ultimatum, and we’re not ignorant enough to think that the governor can just make vaccines appear. We need to navigate for ourselves in terms of getting faculty and staff into group 1B. We’re just trying to put our voice out there,” Poepsel said.

Those interested in learning about the vaccination process can go to the Illinois Department of Public Health’s website.

Faculty Association pens letter asking for vaccines JOHN MCGOWAN reporter

With classes moving back to mostly in-person next semester, the SIUE Faculty Association has penned a letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker asking that college and university faculty and staff be added to vaccination group 1B. Illinois is currently in Phase 1B of their vaccination plan. While Phase 1C and Phase 2 do not yet have clear parameters, possible groups would be other essential workers in 1C and the rest of the population in 2, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Faculty Association President Mark Poepsel said SIUE faculty and staff need the vaccine if everything goes in-person.

“If faculty and staff are going to be pushed into face-to-face encounters with students, they need access to the vaccine, or it’s going to make delivering the courses we have scheduled currently really challenging,” Poepsel said.

According to Poepsel, the decision to move to a mostly in-person schedule for this upcoming fall semester was made around the end of the Fall 2020 semester.

He said there are now more worries with COVID-19 than there were when the

“But for the in-person event, typically it would take a student organization three, four weeks to plan an in-person event, and then the school requires that you send in an action plan … two weeks prior, which is reasonable, but … it makes it a lot more stressful, because that four weeks turns into six weeks, because we’ve got to add those two additional weeks you have to have it fully planned by.”

Kyle said she anticipates having events in person will increase student engagement.

“I think … hosting things in person just [brings] more awareness to the issue, and of course, we want our students to actually feel more involved,” Kyle said. “Trying to get the involvement initially will be a little bit harder, but I think a lot of people will be very excited for it, I’m very excited for it.”

According to Burgess, the GayStraight Alliance’s reluctance to finalize their in-person plans comes from past experience.

“The hesitancy is that if we do plan to do some in-person event, we may end up having to cancel it like we have our past three different in-person events that we’ve planned,” Burgess said. “The one that we did have this year, it was a previous Night Walk last semester … it did appear successful from what I heard, but I mean, we’ve had one successful in-person event out of the four or five that we’ve planned.”

While Laux said she understands regulations have been unpredictable for student organizations, the Kimmel staff is doing all it can to communicate effectively.

“Through no fault of anyone, just the circumstances going on, with increasing [positivity] rates, it can feel like a rollercoaster of, ‘Okay, which letter, which number phase are we in?’” Laux said. “We have been trying to get information to our student organizations as quickly as we can, because we know there are inevitably questions of, ‘What does this mean for our event?’ or, ‘What does this mean for our organization?’ so I’m sure it has been confusing, and I’m sure it’s been frustrating, as it has for us as well … we’re just trying to do what we can to keep promoting campus life in a safe way.”

For more information on Student Government, the Gay-Straight Alliance at SIUE and Students for Liberty, visit their GetInvolved pages. For more information for the Kimmel Student Involvement Center, visit their website.

ONLINE THIS WEEK: SIUE ACTIVISTS AND EDUCATORS REDEFINE ‘ALLY’ page 4

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Black History made ...

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photos courtesy of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Marketing and Communications

Notable Black alumni influence not only SIUE, but make large-scale impact NICOLE BOYD copy editor

In honor of Black History Month, The Alestle reflected on Black figures in SIUE’s history who shaped both the campus and the larger community.

Eugene Redmond: From civil rights editorialist to writers club founder

Eugene Redmond, emeritus professor of English and Poet Laureate of East St. Louis, worked as a teacher-counselor at SIU’s Experiment in Higher Education in the 1960s, which provided financial support to disadvantaged students during their first two years of college and offered courses through SIUE’s general studies program.

“It was a continuum of educational activity, and included children from the very early ages all the way up to high school, and so the Experiment in Higher Education picked up where Upward Bound left off at and provided college education,” Redmond said. “Programs were on [Native American] reservations, and Black communities, poor white communities, in Appalachia and other places. So that was one solo program that aimed at lifting some of the communities that had been left behind.”

Redmond said the center did this by restructuring general education courses and giving them names that reflected the student population to meet the needs and dreams of lower income students.

“Something like Sociology 101 or Beginning Sociology Studies on the main campus would be called ‘The Sociology of the Black Child,’ or ‘The Development of the Black Child,’ because most of the students and most of the faculty at EHE were Black,” Redmond said.

According to Redmond, many of the students in the EHE went on to achieve great success, such as Reginald and Warrington Hudlin, who produced “Django Unchained.”

Redmond served as the first Black editor of The Alestle from 1963-1964, and

used his position to further his activism. “[I] was editor of The Alestle, writing civil rights editorials and stories. I went to the March on Washington in 1963 and came back and reported on it in The Alestle,” Redmond said.

Redmond also worked in the St. Louis news industry as a college student, even helping to found a publication.

“The East St. Louis Monitor was founded in 1963, when I went into my senior year, and I helped found it,” Redmond said. “And then earlier, and simultaneously, with the publication of the [East] St. Louis Monitor, I worked with two other papers, helped them get off the ground, and they were the East St. Louis Beacon, [a] weekly tabloid, and the East St. Louis Evening Voice.”

Redmond later started the Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club in 1986, of which Maya Angelou was a trustee.

“The [Writers Club] motto is, ‘We bring aid and comfort — and occasional discomfort — to writers.’ Because you’ve got to be critiqued if you’re going to be a writer … and we accept writers, beginning, intermediate and advanced writers and professional writers,” Redmond said.

In the ‘60s and ‘70s, Redmond was part of a consulting firm that traveled to speak at conferences and educational gatherings to implement more courses focused on Black culture, and to include more of those courses in traditional departments.

“We would lay out what a department, or what a unit in African American Studies, or Native American studies or Asian American studies would look like, because we had experts in all those areas,” Redmond said. “So I was specialized in Black studies, and Black history, Black literature, Blacks in sports and somebody else would specialize in the others.”

Katherine Dunham: The theater’s namesake’s influence lives on

Katherine Dunham, Dunham Hall’s namesake, is remembered for her work between SIU and East St. Louis. Kon-

jit Avent, a fourth year integrative studies graduate student from East St. Louis, co-curated the Katherine Dunham exhibit at the East St. Louis Center. Dunham was born in Chicago, but came to Alton, Illinois as an artist-in-residence for SIU. “Her brother-in-law actually suggested that she worked with SIU Alton ... first.

She actually lived there first, the house is still standing. And then she went from there to SIUE … so she was brought to the area to further pursue her anthropological research,” Avent said.

Dunham then founded the Performance Arts Training Center in East St. Louis, which is known today as the SIUE East St. Louis Center for the Performing Arts. Students participated in PATC while earning college credit at SIUE. “Katherine Dunham has a historical legacy because of all the work she did between SIU and East St. Louis, particularly with the Performing Arts Training Center.

She used dance, anthropology and studies in the Caribbean and African diaspora to bring a communal aspect to East St. Louis during a time that it was really struggling,” Avent said. “She used the arts to help urban youth develop self-awareness and kind of bring some positivity into their lives, and those people are still around today.

That legacy is extensive.”

Avent said the program focused on both performing arts and academics because Dunham believed in developing the entire person.

“The curriculum was like getting an associate degree. You could get dance experience, she taught foreign language, she taught about fine art. And then you would also have to go up on campus to take classes,” Avent said. “Education was very important, because she wanted to make sure people were well-rounded, even though they had the dance experience.”

Johnetta Haley: A life devoted to advancing educational opportunities

Steve Kerber, university archivist and unique collections librarian, said Johnetta

Haley, professor emeritus in the music department, was a memorable activist in the SIUE community.

Before coming to SIUE, Haley helped integrate a Kirkwood middle school in 1955 after school segregation was officially considered unlawful by the Supreme Court. 1,500 people signed a petition saying they did not want Haley teaching their children. However, Haley became so popular that more music classes and larger performance venues were added to the school.

Today, the Johnetta Haley Scholarship is awarded to incoming students who are underrepresented in their intended fields of study.

“Haley was someone who had very significant impact on SIUE, as well as eventually becoming the director of the East St. Louis center,” Kerber said.

At the East St. Louis Center, Haley planned and funded an eye clinic, and persuaded the U.S. Department of Education to allow SIUE to fund the Head Start program in East St. Louis.

According to Kerber, Haley differed from Dunham because while Dunham became a national and international figure, much of Haley’s focus remained on SIUE and East St. Louis.

“Johnetta Haley was a member of the music faculty at SIUE for a number of years, and had a great impact on a number of students, both majors and non-majors, including Chancellor Pembrook …

Pembrook was one of her students, and he regards Johnetta Haley as one of his mentors. Haley really had a tremendous impact and continued to have an impact over the years,” Kerber said.

After her retirement, Haley remained active in community work. She served as the first female board president at Lincoln University, and the chair of the Illinois Committee on Black Concerns in Higher Education. Haley died on Feb. 2, 2021, at the age of 97.

To learn more about the Writers Club, East St. Louis Center for Performing Arts or the Johnetta Haley scholarship, visit their websites.

thursday, 02.25.21

alestlelive.com

page 5

Making a comeback?

Or never gone?

The Alestle explores comic culture online this week

alestlelive.com

and in the making

J.D. Dixon

candidate for mayor of Belleville, Illinois

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oins Illinois G d i v a , D of Alton

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photos courtesy of candidates

Local Black candidates hope to make history in mayoral, alderman offices GABRIEL BRADY opinion editor

There are many Black candidates trying to make history as the first people of their race to hold office. The Metro East is no exception, with many Black candidates for mayor and alderman running to make changes and to make history.

J.D. Dixon, candidate for mayor of Belleville, Illinois, said he’s been politically active for a long time, but he’d never thought about working for change within political institutions. He works extensively with Empire 13, a local grassroots environmental group that also works toward racial equality.

Dixon finally decided to run for mayor recently when people began asking him if he would run for mayor of Belleville.

“I’m an activist first, and as mayor, I would be an activist-mayor. I help run Empire 13, and we deal with police brutality, and we’ve been working for the environment as well. We primarily focus on battling with environmental racism,” Dixon said. “I’ve always wanted to go through the grassroots and protest route for implementing change, but after I was approached about running, I thought about being in that seat as mayor. I could reach out and help the Metro East as a whole.”

Alton, Illinois may also have its first Black mayor in Alton School Board Member David Goins. Goins worked as a police officer in Alton for around 20 years, and then worked as a juvenile corrections officer. Goins has also been the pastor of Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in Alton since 2002.

Goins said he had been approached by people telling him to run for mayor for a very long time — almost 20 years.

“There were little seeds planted in my heart nearly 19 years ago, back when I was in the police department. We had a small sound off [where employees could leave notes], and someone wrote, ‘If David Goins ran for mayor, I’d vote for him,’ and I heard that, and thought it was nice and cute and all, but it wasn’t even on my radar,” Goins said. “As time grew and I got

Fast facts: a breakdown of the candidates’ plans

J.D. Dixon, Candidate for Mayor of Belleville, Illinois (I)

• If elected, he would be Belleville’s first Black mayor.

• Is currently a member of Empire 13, a local grassroots political organization focused on environmentalism and anti-racism.

• Wants to create regular meetings between mayors in the Metro East for pooling resources to help all citizens.

“Hopefully, my idea of a United

Nations in the area, pooling resources to help build up the communities being deprived of those resources, will come to fruition. I’ve gotten a good response, talking to the mayor of East St. Louis, and I’ve spoken to other mayors in the area, and winning the mayorship of Belleville would hopefully boost the response further.”

more into the police department, more people came up and asked me if I planned on running, and I’d say no, not really.”

According to Goins, he didn’t run until it was something he wanted to do himself. He said he wanted his heart to be in it all the way before he made that decision. After he beat a cancer diagnosis, he decided to run, and began preparing to run in June of 2019. However, he said he did not publicly announce his candidacy until December of 2020.

“I didn’t want to do it just based on other’s opinions. I wanted to do it if it was from my heart. But, as I kept getting asked, those seeds were getting watered, and they took root in my heart and began to sprout. In 2016, I had a bout with prostate cancer, and I got radiation treatment, and got it beaten,” Goins said. “I’ve had successful radiation treatment. So, in 2017 and 2018, I began to take inventory of my life … I began to think about life as I got older. I have more years behind than in front. I began to embrace this desire to be more involved.”

David Goins, Candidate for Mayor of Alton, Illinois (I)

• If elected, he would be Alton’s first Black mayor.

• Is currently a member of the Alton School District School Board, Pastor of Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church, former police officer and juvenile corrections officer.

• Focused on COVID-19 vaccine rollout, which he said will help rebuild the economy, and bring back some normalcy.

“They all are connected. If more

people are vaccinated, then we are working on the economy and helping businesses. The economic recovery and rebuilding would help the public safety and schools, and the population decline would slow down, and that’s a big campaign issue I want to fix.”

Committee Member for Madison County’s 26th Precinct Yolanda Crochrell has been involved in local government for some time now. She also serves on the Madison County Housing Authority.

Crochrell said she decided to run in response to the lack of diversity on the Edwardsville City Council. Currently, the Edwardsville City Council consists of only white aldermen despite the fact that the city of Edwardsville is nearly 20 percent non-white.

“I’ve been living in Edwardsville now since 2007, but my husband [has] been here a little longer. I moved from California, and I noticed there is no diversity on the city council,” Crochrell said. “I think it’s time for people of color that are qualified [to] try to stand up and be a part of the decision making in their cities. It’s time for us to be more involved.”

This desire to be more involved was echoed by the other candidates, but, according to Professor of Political Science Andrew Theising, these new jobs always come with a lot of work if real change is

Yolanda Crochrell, Candidate for Alderman of Ward 2 in Edwardsville

• If elected, she would be Edwardsville’s first Black female alderman.

• Is currently serving on the committee for Madison County’s 26th Precinct , member of the Madison County Housing Authority.

• Wants to build bike paths for college students/children/the elderly who she sees walking down the shoulders of I-157.

“I’ve seen people walking on the shoulders of 157. Kids are riding bikes there, and I’ve seen our senior citizens walk down it. Once I’m elected, or if I’m elected, I’d want the bike trails to go there and connect them, starting from the beginning of the highway by Governor’s Parkway.”

| Summer Bradley / The Alestle

desired. Theising also said if the new mayor or alderman is not active enough, their job may become less meaningful and more symbolic.

“When there is a city that has its first African American mayor, expectations are high. There is a belief that things will be measurably different right away. And sometimes, that is the case, but most times, reality is something different.

Even with an African American mayor … the reality is that power structures do not change,” Theising said. “The phone calls to the mayor will be the same, it’s just a different person on the answering side. So these mayors, particularly African American mayors who are really breaking ground, they will have to work in the same structure of the white, wealthy power brokers, like the previous mayor.”

This power structure can be intimidating to join for Black people, and although Goins said his race would normally put himself under deeper inspection, he see ELECTIONS on page 8

opinion

NEXT WEEK: COMPARING REPRESENTATION AND PARODY page 6

T H E

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alestle VIEW

Texas’ extreme winter is no laughing matter THE ALESTLE STAFF editorial board

Winter weather hit the country hard last week, but not as hard as the state of Texas. The severity of the weather in Texas was only amplified because it’s not what Texans and other Southerners were used to — freezing temperatures and inches upon inches of snow. It’s easy for Northerners to joke and feel superior about how people in the South can’t stand any cold. However, this past week proved to be incredibly serious, and not something to shame them for at all.

With a winter storm warning encompassing the entire state of Texas, no one knew what to expect. Eventually, much of Texas lost power due to the extreme weather. The initial cause for the power outage was the weather, obviously. But, the power stayed off because Texas is not well-con-

nected to the power grids of surrounding states, which is incredibly uncommon. The continental U.S. has three power grids: the western grid, the eastern grid and the Texas grid. This decision was not because of a large amount of power production or consumption in Texas; it was an attempt to avoid following some safety regulations and save money. In any time of year, a mass power outage would be cause for concern, but in extreme colds, living without heat proved deadly for some, as almost a dozen Texans died from suspected hypothermia. Some Texans even had to use their trucks to generate power for their homes.

About one day into this nightmare of a week for Texas, it was revealed that U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) left Texas with his family for a vacation in Cancun, Mexico. Since then, Cruz has re-

turned to Texas to help distribute water to Texans. But there were other actions from Texan politicians that shows a lack of understanding. This includes (now former) Mayor Tim Boyd of Colorado City, Texas stating, “Only the strong will survive and the weak will perish” and, “... think outside of the box to survive and supply water to your family,” and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott falsely blaming the power outages on wind and solar energy.

Some may claim that Cruz leaving Texas is not an issue because he is just one senator. He does not have the power to stop the weather instantly, or to flip a switch and return power to Texans or change the structure of the Texan power grid instantly.

However, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D- N.Y.) recently raised over $5 million in aid for Texans, whom she does not

even represent. Raising money does not turn the power back on for Texans, but it’s a start. The money will be donated to many different charities, including the Houston Food Bank, Feeding Texas, Bridge Homeless Recovery Center and more. It’s clear that Cruz attempted to escape to Cancun and was not thinking the situation most Texans were in at all; he was thinking of making his own situation better.

Even if you believe that handouts and aid from the government are beneath you or unnecessary, it is obvious that this is what Texas needs. It is why politicians are elected; they serve the citizens, and the citizens of Texas are freezing and dying. If you can donate to help Texas out of this, then please do. And if you can’t, then at least understand that the terrible deeds of Texas’ politicians do not mean that all Texans must suffer.

of 37 infants born with “moderate to severe genital atypia’’ had genital surgery.

Operations are based on the assumption that looking “different” might cause distress. The key word here is might, as there is insufficient evidence to support this. However, evidence does show the irreversible surgery these individuals often undergo causes physical and emotional harm, according to a report from the Human Rights Watch.

There is a giant toss up when messing with one’s body that is not your own. According to Human Rights Watch, the risk of assigning a child the sex that does not align with their gender identity can be as high as 40 percent. In cases where gonads are removed, the individual is likely to have fertility issues and a loss of sexual sensation, another thing taken away from them without their consent. Furthermore, the child is signed up for a lifelong

commitment to hormone therapy, medical exams and potentially repeated surgeries.

Those who are supposed to know best can be the most misleading: doctors. Of the 17 parents interviewed for the Human Rights Watch’s 2017 report, nearly all of them said they were told medically unnecessary surgeries were “urgent.” However, the only thing urgent was the need to look “normal,” but, if a body is natural, isn’t it “normal” enough? Even though this report gives us hope that things are changing, many have already suffered being looked at as oddities by doctors, having their bodies placed on display to other so-called professionals. We can’t guarantee a child will be bullied for looking “different” than other kids, yet we all understand how uncomfortable it is to have doctors examine intimate parts of our bodies. Now, imagine that on steroids. That’s bound

to cause trauma, and as we hopefully know by now, trauma compounds over time.

The solution is simple: leave the child alone. If it’s not life-threatening and the decision is made solely on making a child appear “normal,” why alter something that doesn’t need to be altered? Fear of bullying is cited often, as discussed above, but even those born with non-ambiguous genitalia, chromosomes and hormones (i.e. those babies society considers “normal”) are not automatically shielded from bullying. In all cases, an infant’s body at birth is completely natural, and in this way, everybody’s body is a normal body. So don’t keep perpetuating that just because someone appears different than our socially-constructed norm they need to be “fixed.”

Until the child forms their own gender expression and expresses a like or dislike for their body, there is no need to interfere.

‘Do no harm’ : Keep hands off intersex bodies

MADISON LAMMERT lifestyles editor

Ruth’s childhood was riddled with surgeries and doctor’s appointments, but she never knew why. When she asked doctors, they never answered. It wasn’t until she hemorraged while having sex decades later that she began to discover the truth. It took breaking into her childhood endocrinologist’s office to see she was born with characteristics of what doctors call male and female bodies.

Though Ruth’s story started in the ‘60s, intersex babies — those whose genitalia, chromosomes or hormones vary from what we typically consider to be male or female — are still going under the knife to make their bodies better align with what society considers to be male or female bodies. According to a 2016 study published in the Journal of Pediatric Urology, 35

sports

contact the editor: sports@alestlelive.com 650-3527 thursday, 02.25.21

READ NEXT WEEK: MEN’S, WOMEN’S BASKETBALL FINISH SEASONS AT HOME page 7

alestlelive.com

SIUE Standings MEN’S BASKETBALL

OVERALL OVC

Men’s soccer wins shutout game against Evansville JOHN MCGOWAN reporter

Men’s soccer pulled a clean win in their first home game of the season against the University of Evansville with a final score of 3-0.

The game was overall steady for SIUE, scoring two goals in the first half and one in the second.

Evansville had some shots on goal near the end of the first half, but SIUE persevered to keep a clean sheet.

In a rundown of the game, junior goalkeeper Tor Erik Larsen said the team could be proud of keeping Evansville’s score at zero.

“We started off really well, pushed them back. [At the] end of the first half they pushed back, but we [stuck] in it; we defended with pride. Then, second half, we got the third goal to put the game away, and then we took pride in

keeping a clean sheet and that’s something we can pride ourselves on going forward,” Larsen said.

Men’s Soccer Coach Cale Wassermann said multiple players on the team helped them keep Evansville from scoring.

“I thought Max Broughton and Jake Meier in the backline along with Tor Erik Larsen – and our whole team in a sense – but those three I think really helped us keep a shutout, keep a clean sheet.

Our major goal for today was [to not] concede any goals,” Wassermann said.

The team wasted no time getting ahead of Evansville, with junior forward Vincent Jackson II scoring first followed by sophomore middle Andres Delascio just seconds later. Jackson said his goal was helped in part due to an assist from redshirt freshman forward Mitchell Murphy.

“We had a little one-two

Junior forward Vincent Jackson II handles the ball in men’s soccer’s match up against Evansville.

Khoi Pham | The Alestle

combo. Mitch Murphy did an excellent job getting behind, crossing, being dangerous, looking at it early. [The] ball came to me and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Excellent team goal,” Jackson said.

Despite the win, Larsen said the team needs to work on controlling the ball.

“We can keep the ball better.

We let them have the ball a little too much. We can do a better job of controlling the game,” Larsen said.

Due to the pandemic, this is the men’s soccer team’s first home game in about a year. Sophomore middle Seth Korenek said the team was excited to be back on the field.

“With the amount of time we’ve had to prepare, with [Spring

2020], [Fall 2020] into now, the team’s prepared for almost a whole year – two semesters – so I think we’ve been ready for this.

A lot of guys are amped up, just excited to get back to playing,” Korenek said.

Wassermann said he was glad the team was able to play on a clean field despite the recent weather.

“Credit to our facilities and grounds crew for clearing the field. We would not have been able to have this game without them. It’s amazing to be at Korte Stadium playing on clean turf instead of white snow,” Wassermann said.

The team’s next home game will be against Western Illinois University at 2 p.m. on Feb. 28 at Korte Stadium.

Softball gears up for upcoming season, faces challenges NICOLE BOYD copy editor

Looking ahead to the upcoming softball season, the Cougars are excited to get back on the field despite a pandemic and a delayed start.

Head Coach Jessica Jones said after the disappointment of COVID-19 cutting last season short, the team is ready to start up again.

“Obviously, we’re coming off of an extremely hard year, you know, with our season getting canceled last year, but I know that the kids are biting at the bit to get on the field and get moving again.

We’ve had a really good start to last season, which was a big bummer,” Jones said.

The team missed their first

few games after the season’s start was delayed due to weather. Jones said missing games is always disappointing, but that it’s just part of the game.

“We chose an outdoor sport, so weather plays a role no matter what. Mother Nature kind of controls us throughout the season. It’s looking like this year isn’t going to be a great weather year, but we’re just going to kind of approach it from a head standpoint of, ‘We’re in a constant rain delay,’ with COVID and all the obstacles and challenges that it poses, as well as the weather itself,” Jones said.

Emily Ingles, redshirt senior pitcher, said in light of challenges such as the delayed start and COVID-19, the team must focus on what can be done rather than

what’s outside of their control.

“It’s a little concerning, having things like COVID or having someone test positive come up, and as much as we want to try not to allow that to happen, we can’t control it. And so that’s why you kind of have to go with the flow,” Ingles said. “And the delayed start, I guess a lot of people are in the same position we’re in, so I think it puts us at ease to let us focus on what we need to do now so we can get ourselves ready for the next tournament.”

Ingles said the team’s main goal is to go to the Ohio Valley Conference.

“Of course we want to get as far as we can. We want to win.

That has always been an expectation for our team, and so we always want to live up to that,”

Ingles said.

Zoe Schafer, redshirt senior first baseman, said she is looking forward to having both young teammates and upperclassmen leaders.

“As far as the team goes, I’m super excited. We’re a young team, we have about eight freshmen, but with COVID, two of us came back, so we have six seniors and then we have another three or four juniors, so we’re kind of split down the middle,” Schafer said.

Jones said she is proud of what the team has overcome.

“I’m extremely proud of these kids and how they’ve handled the obstacles and adversities, and I’m excited to get on the field and see what they can do,” Jones said.

To see the team’s schedule, visit their website.

Belmont Morehead State Eastern Kentucky Jacksonville State Austin Peay Murray State SEMO SIUE Eastern Illinois UT Martin Tennessee State Tennessee Tech

24-1 18-7 19-6 15-8 14-10 13-10 9-15 8-15 9-16 7-15 4-17 3-22

18-0 15-3 13-5 11-6 10-8 10-8 7-11 6-11 6-12 5-13 3-15 3-15

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

OVERALL OVC

UT Martin Belmont SEMO Jacksonville State Austin Peay Tennessee Tech Murray State Eastern Illinois Eastern Kentucky Morehead State SIUE Tennessee State

16-4 15-5 14-9 14-7 12-8 13-8 13-10 10-13 8-14 6-15 6-17 0-20

15-2 12-3 12-6 11-6 10-6 11-7 10-8 8-10 7-11 5-12 3-15 0-18

WRESTLING

OVERALL MAC

Missouri Rider Northern Illinois Central Michigan Buffalo Clarion George Mason Lock Haven Ohio SIUE

10-0 4-1 6-3 3-2 3-2 2-5 0-0 0-0 0-0 2-2

4-0 2-0 5-2 2-1 3-2 2-4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-1

WOMEN’S TENNIS

OVERALL OVC

Austin Peay Jacksonville State SIUE SEMO Belmont Murray State Eastern Illinois Tennessee State UT Martin

2-0 4-2 4-2 3-3 1-3 1-3 1-4 0-0 0-5

0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0

VOLLEYBALL

OVERALL OVC

Jacksonville State Morehead State UT Martin Austin Peay SIUE SEMO Tennessee Tech Murray State Eastern Kentucky Belmont Eastern Illinois Tennessee State

6-0 6-0 3-1 4-2 4-2 4-2 4-2 2-4 1-5 0-4 0-6 0-6

6-0 6-0 3-1 4-2 4-2 4-2 4-2 2-4 1-5 0-4 0-6 0-6

week in review WOMEN’S BASKETBALL The Cougars took losses in their last three games. The team was defeated by Austin Peay 6640. The team took a closer loss against Murray State, with a final score of 68-60. The team was then defeated by Jacksonville State 6147. The team now has an overall record of 6-17.

SOFTBALL

MEN’S BASKETBALL

The men’s team was also defeated by Austin Peay and Murray State, with final scores of 79-57 and 89-62 respectively. The team then faced Morehead State and was defeated 56-48. Sophomore guard Shamar Wright led for the Cougars against Morehead State, scoring 12 points.

TENNIS Tennis took their second loss of the season against Butler, falling 4-2. Freshman Jordan Schifano remains undefeated in singles play, and freshman Fabiola Perez also won her singles match. Redshirt junior Callaghan Adams and redshirt sophomore Vanessa Reinicke took SIUE’s only doubles win.

VOLLEYBALL Volleyball earned back-toback wins against Murray State with final scores of 3-2 and 3-0.

Senior setter Sarah Armendariz picked up a double-double during Saturday’s match with 48 assists and 12 digs. Redshirt junior middle blocker Annie Ellis had nine kills and seven blocks on Sunday.

BASEBALL Cougar Baseball lost their first two games of the season while facing Illinois State at home. The doubleheader resulted in final scores of 6-1 and 9-1.

Redshirt junior infielder Connor Kiffer and redshirt senior infielder Raul Elguezabal picked up all six of SIUE’s hits in the first game.

page 8

alestlelive.com ELECTIONS I page 5

also said his strong connection to the Alton community helped him avoid that.

“First off, no one is flawless except for the Lord. We all have flaws and mistakes … Because you are an African American, you come under more scrutiny, this is true. But because of my relationship with so many people, I have kept safe from that. I have a connection to people all over, in the Black and white community,” Goins said. “I was a police officer for most of my life, so I’ve never lived a life above reproach.

I never made a mistake that made the newspaper for some official misconduct, but everyone has made mistakes and that’s part of growing.”

Dixon said he hasn’t felt too unwelcome in the white power structure yet either. If that should happen, Dixon it would only encourage him to become more involved.

“Being Black and running for office and trying to be the first Black mayor, you’d think it would be crazy stressful, but honestly, in today’s world, especially in the day and age of George Floyd, it’s all of us versus racists. So those same prejudices

and systemic racial cultures aren’t as prevalent as they used to be,” Dixon said. “Many people are starting to see that it is time for change. And there’s a lot to be done and changed and focused on, especially in legislation. So, my race, it’s not something I see as a hurdle. And even if it is, it gives me more drive to create change.”

Since Crochrell is running to add diversity to the city council, she said her race definitely motivated her to create change as well, and although she believes every person has their own experiences, those combined experiences create the melting pot in which we should all live.

“If we, all colors and races, can come together and work, instead of one race doing all the decision making, we will be a stronger community. What I can bring as a woman of color, a white person cannot bring,” Crochrell said. “They do not know my culture. I could not speak for a white person, and a white person could not speak for me.

I think that’s where the melting pot should be. Our alderman and city council should look like our city.”

For more information on the candidates, visit Goins’, Dixon’s or Crochrell’s Facebook pages.

T H E

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