The Alestle Vol. 73 No. 23

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the

NEW SYSTEM PRESIDENT VISITS SIUE

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alestle ALESTLE The students’ voice of SIUE since 1960

COVID-19 FORCES SPORTS TO TAKE A SPRING BREAK page 7

vol. 73 no. 23

alton — east st. louisVoice — edwardsville The Student Since 1960

preventing

covid-19

university officials detail COVID-19-related decisions JOHN MCGOWAN, DAMIAN MORRIS reporters

On March 11, SIUE extended spring break by week in response to COVID-19. Four days later, the school announced that all on-campus courses will be moved online until the end of the semester. Behind these decisions is a team working around the clock to keep up with the news and examine what is best for students.

The core team behind pandemic-related decisions includes the vice chancellors, Director of Health Services Riane Greenwalt, and others. Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Jeffrey Waple said the extension of spring break served to keep students safe and make things easier on the team.

“If we had everyone here –

Kameron Moses, a cashier at United Provisions in St. Louis, is no stranger to precautionary measures. While his job did not require him to sport a face mask and gloves, Moses saw it as the safest bet. “I don’t want it to get in my system,” Moses said. “I want to make sure that I don’t bring it home and that I don’t give it to other people I’m talking to around me.” | Dominick Oranika / The Alestle

see COVID-19 on page 3

Walker’s retirement will not end his time at SIUE DAMIAN MORRIS reporter

After 34 years serving at SIUE in various positions over the years, Vice Chancellor for Administration Rich Walker has announced his plans to retire.

Walker said he will continue to stay involved with the university after his retirement.

“I obviously love SIUE, we @thealestle

@thealestle

love Edwardsville, so we want to stay connected … I still plan on staying in the area, and I still plan on helping the university in any way that I can,” Walker said.

“There’s going to be a variety of volunteer opportunities that I can do for the university, like serve on various boards, for example.”

Assistant to the Provost for Human Resources Mark Bacus had a long working relationship

The Alestle

with Walker that dates back to the 1980s where they were both students together in the public administration degree program here at SIUE. “When he and I were kind of new here, I could tell that Rich was going to serve this university fully. He was not passing through. He may have thought so when he first got here, but I

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see WALKER on page 3

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Following the leader, or making its own path?

How SIUE’s COVID-19 response compares to other schools LINDENWOOD UNIVERSITY -March 16, all classes were planned to be online until March 29.

-Students away on spring break were encouraged not to return to campus.

-March 13: Spring break was extended by one week until March 22.

-All classes will be online until the end of this semester.

DEVRY UNIVERSITY -March 12: All classes will be online until the end of the semester on May 4.

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-March 10: Classes will be online until March 30.

-Afterward, classes will resume as usual.

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This map shows the location of local colleges and their responses to COVID-19.

Most local schools initially extended their spring breaks and expected in-person classes to resume at the end of March or beginning of April. SIUE announced an extension of spring break on March 11 before announcing on March 15 all classes would remain online for the rest of the semester. | Summer Bradley / The Alestle

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-March 16: Spring break was extended by one week until March 23.

-During that week all classes will be moved off campus to online instruction until April 30.

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-March 13: Spring break, which was March 16-20, will be extended until March 30. Classes will then resume as usual.

RANKEN TECHNICAL COLLEGE -Ranken usually only allows 6 absences per semester.

-March 12: Ranken changes absence policy, allowing unlimited absences.

WEBSTER UNIVERSITY -March 11: All classes at the Webster Groves campus, Lieden campus and Vienna campus will be online until April 6.

-March 15: Two students at SLU were tested for coronavirus. The next day, one of the tests was positive.

-March 12: The university moved completely to online classes until the end of the spring semester, with international students either returning home if possible, or living in the dorms.

Information last updated March 17, 2020.

SIUE’S response: Timeline of COVID-19 decisions March 5

SIUE made an announcement warning about traveling abroad during spring break because of COVID-19.

March 6

Vice Chancellor for Administration Rich Walker released a statement that SIUE had begun to follow the CDC’s instructions at the time regarding cleaning and disinfecting the campus.

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY - Classes are online for the remainder of the semester.

Call made March 12 (when there were no confirmed cases); now there are 67.

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY -University suspended March 9 through March 30, moving to online March 16 -42/74 cases are Davidson County where Vanderbilt is located.

March 10

March 11

SIUE sent out emails confirming first cases in Missouri and Illinois.

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

SIUE’s spring break was “extended” through March 22.

-No cases on campus.

Classes will be moved online through at least April 13. Students encouraged to stay or return home. Dorm situation much like SIUE’s.

24 cases in Indiana. Call was made on March 11.

March 14

SIUE sent out emails recognizing the K-12 school closures and making people aware of SIUE’s offices having constant scheduling changes.

PENN STATE UNIVERSITY -Classes will be online from March 16 to April 6 at earliest. No cases on campus. Pennsylvania now has 96 confirmed cases. Call made March 11.

County. Call made March 11.

MASSACHUSSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY - On March 10, call was made for classes to be cancelled March 16-March 20. They then had spring break, and classes were shifted online for the remainder of the semester.

Currently 218 confirmed cases in Massachusetts.

DUKE UNIVERSITY - Online classes until further notice. Eventd restrictions extende until May 7. North s.

Carolina has 40 case (Decision time unknown. Before March 13).

March 17

University Housing announced all residence halls and Cougar Village would close for the semester on March 22.

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY 11 to at YALE OAKLAND es -From March 19 all classat least Aprillin UNIVERSITY The st e UNIVERSITY e. will be on rk now has will be moving -Classes will be of New Yos. Call made -Classes online after spring break; online through the 1374 case they are asking students to . end of the semester. March 10 return home or remain home Michigan has 65 if possible. Currently 68 confirmed cases with cases in Connecticut. Call 16 in Oakland was made on March 10.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY -Classes have been shifted to online. Finals will be taken at home. Decision announced March 6.

Currently 138 cases in Santa Clara county.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES -The chancellor of the college self-quarantined after coming into contact with a person with COVID-19.

-March 10: The university is transitioning to remote class instruction through April 10.

LA County has more than 140 cases, but there are no confirmed cases on campus at this time.

March 15

SIUE announced all classes would move online for the remainder of the semester.

STATE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF FLORIDA -All classes are to go online as soon as possible. 192 cases in Florida. Call was made March 11.

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY - All lectures, seminars, and precepts will move online starting on Monday, March 23 through April 5. New Jersey currently has 267 confirmed cases. Call made March 9.

JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY -There are students who have been exposed to may COVID-19 and multiple com munity members awaiting test results.

March 10: All in-perso clas ses from March 11 thronugh at least April 12 were canc eled MD has 57 total cases with . one in Baltimore County.

Information last updated March 17, 2020.

This map shows the responses of colleges across the nation to COVID-19.

Schools nationwide began to announce moving classes online within the first two weeks of March. Stanford University was one of the first institutions to move all classes online for the remainder of the spring semester, announcing this decision on March 6. SIUE made the same call on March 15. | Summer Bradley / The Alestle

thursday, 03.19. 20 COVID-19 I COVER

all our students, faculty, staff – I don’t think we would be able to plan like we are now,” Waple said.

The team started meeting to discuss the virus at the very beginning of March. According to Waple, things slowly ramped up from there until more and more cases and closures happened. This led to the eventual extension and move online.

“I think as March 6, 7, and 8 turned into 9 and more cases were popping up in the United States … that’s when – nationally – we started to wake up a little bit more,” Waple said.

This shift to all online courses may be daunting for faculty, especially those who are less computer literate than others. The school has hired extra help in order to assist faculty in moving their courses online. Waple said many of the faculty have also stepped up to help others through the change.

“Our own faculty are commenting to each other ‘here’s what I did, here’s a link, here’s how you can do it.’ What’s interesting is people are really rallying around resources that maybe they’ve gotten from another institution or we have here,” Waple said.

There are also many classes that aren’t made to be taught online. Professors for subjects like dance and sculpting are being forced to find work arounds to transition to online.

While COVID-19 is far more serious than anything the US has faced in a long time, it isn’t the only virus schools have had to deal with in recent memory. In 2009 H1N1, a form of swine flu, caused mass panic. Waple said colleges responded to the two viruses

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very differently.

“I was the dean of students at Northern Kentucky when H1N1 came on … It just didn’t have the spreading impact that this one has … Which I think is the big difference. This one is rapidly spreading, and there’s no cure,” Waple said.

Director of Housing Mallory Sidarous said they have clear goals in mind that guide their decisions to move people out of their dorms and shut down as many facilities as they can.

Part of these goals are to promote practices and guidelines encouraged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, including social distancing.

The WHO suggests individuals maintain at least 3 feet of distance between themselves and anyone who is coughing or sneezing.

“We as an institution are doing what we believe is best for the community, and that can be making hard decisions, but it also is important to recognize the role that we play in flattening the curve, slowing the spread, supporting social distancing, and that we have a space to do that,” Sidarous said. “A lot of the decisions are driven by those goals.”

She said before, they were only focused on making the facilities clean to prevent the virus from spreading.

“When this started, we did begin making changes to just higher touch areas, doorknobs, stairwells, were the areas with additional cleaning throughout the day,” Sidarous said. “The consideration [two weeks ago] was just the health and safety of the people that were still currently in the building, people working in the

A sign in front of RunWell, a running shop in downtown Edwardsville, advertises still being open and a clean environment in the face of the COVID-19 epidemic. | Morgan Jackson / The Alestle

building.”

Sidarous said that now, with the quick spread of the COVID-19, they decided it was best to move as many students out as possible to slow down the spread.

“There’s also been additional follow-ups after people are in the building, but it’s also part of the greater, bigger picture in terms of just trying to practice good health, and where we can, help make our impact, which involves higher cleaning to high touch surfaces,” Sidarous said.

Part of the new decisions being made in terms of supporting social distancing is choosing to not just move students out of freshmen residence halls, but upperclassmen residence halls as well.

“We are moving towards ask-

New SIU system president visits SIUE, hears campus concerns JOHN MCGOWAN reporter

SIU’s new system president, Dan Mahony, toured campus on March 4 and 5 to meet with administration members, faculty and student government leaders.

Over his two days at SIUE, Mahony met with the vice chancellors of the university along with the Faculty Senate. Mahony said the meetings let him hear what’s most important to the faculty.

“It gave me a good insight into feelings about the university among this faculty staff,” Mahony said. “With faculty and staff, it’s different concerns about how we do budgeting, how we do planning, all those types of things.”

SIUE’s Student Body Vice President and sophomore business major Maddie Walters, of Elizabeth, Illinois, was one of the student government members who met with Mahony to discuss students’ concerns.

“He wanted to know what concerns we had with SIUE, so the student leaders there brought up some topics we’ve heard other students talk about: issues with Counseling Services and Textbook Services,” Walters said.

One of the jobs of the system president is to split the budget be-

tween both schools. Mahony said that while he doesn’t believe an equal split of funds is the right option, one of his main goals is giving both schools what they need. “[It is] really about developing a budget model that supports what the goals are in the plan and that is flexible enough so that it’s not a static percentage,” Mahony said.

Mahony plans on making big changes as president. He has seven teams working on areas like student success and diversity and inclusion. The results of what the groups decide needs to change will be fed into a new strategic plan being developed during the Fall 2020 semester.

As part of Mahony’s introduction to the SIU system, he will be living in Carbondale until the end of the Fall 2020 semester, where he will be teaching a class on the changing world of sports. He will live and teach a class in Edwardsville for the Spring 2021 semester.

Following the Spring 2021 semester, Mahony will be moving to Springfield, a choice he said he made to not impose any kind of preference for either school.

“Having the president always on the Carbondale campus has a lot of issues with it

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… it almost makes the president the super chancellor of Carbondale,” Mahony said.

John Charles, director of government and public affairs for the SIU system, is one of many in the SIU community who are now working closely with Mahony.

“He is student-focused, and he is very much energized by what’s going on on the campuses, and wants to unify everybody under the SIU family,” Charles said. “[I’m] looking forward to working with him.”

Mahony’s resume includes presidencies at Kent State University and Winthrop University. He said both experiences taught him different things that will be helpful in his position in the SIU system.

“What I learned from Kent State is how you work across multiple different campuses,” Mahony said. “For Winthrop, I think a lot of what I learned was trying to deal with some of the enrollment challenges that we’re all facing right now.”

Students can find more information about Dan Mahony on the SIU system website.

JOHN MCGOWAN 650-3527 @john_alestle jmcgowan@alestlelive.com

ing students in all areas to check out unless they need to request to stay,” Sidarous said. “So there are some populations of students who may have special circumstances that need to request to stay on campus, and students can do that.”

University Housing is considering each request on an individual basis based on how necessary it is for them to stay, while still keeping enough space to be able to provide social distancing.

“We have to be mindful of students that, this is their permanent home and they have nowhere else to go,” Sidarous said.

“Students who need to request to stay can go through a process to do that.”

The decisions being made for the campus are based on rapidly changing news. Waple said keeping up with everything and decid-

ing what to do has been hard.

“The pandemic planning team … is spending so many hours on this that so many people will never see … Because it just doesn’t shut off, right? You can’t really step away from it, except maybe to sleep at night. And then turn on the news and see what the new news is,” Waple said.

Amidst all the uncertainty, Chancellor Randy Pembrook has kept a positive outlook. He said people are strongest at times like these.

“We will get through this …

We will find a way to defeat it. I think that when you have difficult times like this, you see the best in people,” Pembrook said.

For more information about COVID-19 and SIUE’s decisions go to the school’s coronavirus information website.

WALKER I COVER

admirable about Rich, and something that we’re going to miss, is that he has been in this environment in Edwardsville since the 1980s,” Pembrook said.

He said that this has allowed Walker to have a wider knowledge base than just his job, but to be extremely knowledgeable about the community as well.

“He knows a lot about the relationships between the university, the city council, county clerk, county board chair. His knowledge of how processes work, it just amazes me every time that I talk to him,” Pembrook said.

Walker would like to leave the students at the university with a final piece of advice.

“Good luck to everyone; keep studying, keep learning, and don’t let this be the end either for students,” Walker said. “Let your time at SIUE be the beginning for you as well, because the students won’t experience retirement for a while, but they will experience a change like this.”

He hopes students will stay involved with the campus even after they leave, just as he plans to do.

“They’re going to be leaving SIUE in the foreseeable future, but don’t let that be the end of their relationship with SIUE either, because it’s a pretty terrific place,” Walker said. “Whether that means getting another degree of some type, or volunteering, or working with the Alumni Association. Don’t lose your connection to the university; I won’t.”

knew he would set down roots here and that he would become so immersed in, not just the university community, but the actual Edwardsville community, and he has,” Bacus said.

An example that really stood out to Bacus was Walker’s efforts to restore the old Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville.

“That place used to just be an empty barn, and he breathed life into it, it was him specifically.

I remember him driving up behind Rendleman and ask me if I had time to go with him to take a look at a space, and it looked almost like a haunted house. He said, ‘Here’s my vision for this place,’ and he made it happen,” Bacus said.

Bacus gave Walker partial credit for shaping SIUE into what it is today.

“His desire to make this university an actual living place has been remarkable to me, because it wasn’t always that way,” Bacus said.

Bacus said in his earlier years, SIUE was considered a commuter campus.

“There was no sense of ‘this is a living space,’ and it’s been under his guidance and leadership that he’s transformed this into a living place,” Bacus said. “It’s like a mini village.”

Walker has been a strong asset to the institution, and will be deeply missed, according to Chancellor Randy Pembrook.

“The thing, I think, that is so

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The University Museum highlights

HANDS-ON EXPERIENCES DAMIAN MORRIS reporter The SIU campuses are surrounded by all kinds of sculptures and varieties of art.

However, many students don’t realize that much of what they see is part of the University Museum collection.

“There is no one place where the museum stuff is displayed.

Instead, it’s really all over campus,” anthropology professor Cory Willmott said. “It’s really a collection. There’s the collection in a storage facility down by the police services. That is the bulk, maybe 90 percent is down there, and that’s a pretty normal proportion for museums.”

According to University Museum Collections Manager Erin Vigneau-Dimick, the collections are distributed across all three SIU campuses and they sometimes loan out their collections to local supporters, as well as a couple of banks and some other museums.

Both Willmott and Vineau-Dimick agree that the hardest part about running the museum is the lack of staffing.

“Unfortunately, the museum is chronically understaffed, and the current staff, who are fantastic, have only been there for about four or five years,” Willmott said.

This lack of staffing makes it extremely difficult to place labels across the artifacts on campus, according to Willmott.

“Given that there are literally thousands of artifacts out on campus that were not labeled previously, they’re just having a really hard time getting to all of them and being able to put adequate labels on them,” Willmott said.

Vineau-Dimick said the reason they weren’t previously labeled was due to the way people used to look at art.

“A lot of times artwork that’s just up on the wall, it was just a long-standing policy to leave it unlabeled,” Vineau-Dimick said.

“It was an older way of thinking about art that people should just approach art with no interpretation.”

However, there’s been a shift in the way people look at art, so they have to go through and take inventory of everything they have.

“We’re doing an inventory of all the collections that are out on campus over the next couple of years, and as we move through the inventory process, we are placing labels that identify it as part of the museum’s collections, the artist, the date, the materials, stuff like that,” Vineau-Dimick said. “Trying to give a little more information with everything.”

There are many opportuni-

A large fossil of a trilobite, a type of arthropod that went extinct millennia ago. | Morgan Jackson / The Alestle

ties for students to help with the University Museum, according to Willmott.

Anthropology students can choose to research items from the museum, and some have chosen to do this for their senior project where they have the option to make a museum exhibit.

“A lot of universities have museums, but not all of them allow so many opportunities for students to get hands-on experience,” Willmott said. “So for me it’s not just a matter of looking at the stuff, it’s really getting the opportunity to learn how to handle it, how to document it, and learn how to research it.”

Vineau-Dimick has opportunities for students to work for the University Museum as well.

“I have three graduate assistants per term and they primarily come out of the departments of museum studies, history, cultural heritage, resource management and art and design,” Vineau-Dimick said. “The application is open to anyone, but I tend to hire graduate assistants who are interested in this career so that it gives them an experiential opportunity that moves them forward to internships and their potential jobs.”

Integrative studies graduate student Dana Lewis, from St. Charles, Missouri, is one of these graduate assistants.

“I’ve spent the past semester and a half as a graduate assistant for the University Museum and

Department of Anthropology, so it’s a 50-50 split appointment,” Lewis said.

Lewis said she spent her first semester primarily focusing on bringing more accessibility to the museum.

“I spent the first semester over there working on a single project; cataloging the ethnology museum laboratory’s collection,” Lewis said. “So we’re transferring that over into the University Museum’s wider collection so it can be available to more students, a little bit more accessible, putting it in the database so you can do some cross-referencing and that sort of stuff.”

Vineau-Dimick said students get to gain experience through the museum by also having faculty bring students out to the storage facility that are in a class, are doing an independent study, or are doing their graduate thesis.

“It’s a really great training ground for people that are interested to work with us, and that’s pretty unusual because some schools that have museum studies programs or students who are interested in this kind of career don’t have a museum collection on-campus that they can actually get experience working with,” Vineau-Dimick said. “The scale of our collection is great for that.”

Contact Erin Vigneau-Dimick at evignea@siue.edu for more information about the University Museum.

A collection of historical barber bottles, which were used to hold hair products in the late 1800s. | Morgan Jackson / The Alestle

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Toxic masculinity: his and her perspective the question, but I resonated with Bishop the most. Empathy really makes a difference when it comes to people’s thought processes and personalities. Empathy brings us back down to reality.

McGowan: I 100 percent agree with Bishop here. The one thing that separates healthy and unhealthy portrayals of masculinity is empathy.

No matter how competitive or confident one feels, a basic sense of empathy should come first.

Why do you think sexual assault victims are reluctant to come forward?

This question allowed the panelists to tackle both sides of the same coin, regarding women and men being targets of sexual assault and the hesitation for both parties.

“There is this idea that men put in situations of rape and sexual assault is not necessarily held to the same standard and importance as women being involved,” Bishop said. “The idea is that men are strong and not susceptible to sexual assault. It comes down to misogyny and the idea that men should seek out sexual activity.”

Wrobbel brought up the point of learned helplessness and how it is taught to women.

“You go to the police and they ask you what you were wearing,” Wrobbel said. “You go to the department chair and they say, ‘Well, let’s just transfer you to a different class.’ It doesn’t matter what you do. It doesn’t work. It almost never seems to accomplish anything when women say more.”

Abbott-Dethrow: There is a different standard when it comes to how men are treated versus women when they come forward about being assaulted. With toxic masculinity, men are usually pressured into keeping silent about “emasculating” situations, such as being assaulted.

Sexual assault has sadly become a norm for women to deal with, being victims themselves or knowing multiple women who have been assaulted. I think there is always an immediate suspicion of the victim when an accusation of rape or assault comes to light, which is awful. Intense scrutiny makes victims of assault hesitant to come forward.

McGowan: I think it’s obvious why some women don’t come forward: they live in a rape culture that enables this behavior.

Years of objectification and silencing have taught many women that this is OK and what they deserve.

I think in cases where men are sexually assaulted, it ties back into toxic masculinity.

First, men are supposed to love sex, and they’re always supposed to be the dominant one in a situation, so when these things happen, it can be embarrassing for some men and can cause them great shame.

Students can find info about sexual assault prevention and resources at the PEACe website.

Brock and her classmates read through over 100 submissions during the semester.

“We were reading a lot. We were starting to get burnout but trying to make sure every single piece was treated fairly,” Brock said. “Deciding on those pieces was very overwhelming because we had spent weeks just reading and going through them. If you hadn’t sat down and organized which pieces from each packet that you wanted in River Bluff, you had to go back and look at every single packet.”

Brock also had pieces published in the journal, which she said made the selection process interesting.

“You kind of have to take a step back and decide to be quiet during that time because you don’t want what you say about

your piece to influence anybody else because that’s bias,” Brock said. “It was strange to hear everybody talk about it around you and not know it was you.”

Initially, editors were afraid they wouldn’t get enough submissions. Bodden encourages all students to submit their pieces — even those who aren’t confident in their writing.

“I would encourage anyone, if they have a passion for, be it, drawing or fiction or poetry, to submit their work,” Bodden said.

“Even if they don’t get accepted the first time, do not quit because if I had quit, I never would have gotten this opportunity. It doesn’t matter what your major is; you should submit.”

For more information about the River Bluff Review, check its website.

How do you define rape culture?

Professor in the Department of Applied Communication Studies at SIUE, Eric Wrobbel, leads a discussion at a masculinity panel addressing toxic masculinity and healthy ways to talk about different sexual experiences. | Dominick Oranika / The Alestle

ISOBEL ABBOTT-DETHROW JOHN MCGOWAN reporters Toxic masculinity and sexual violence can mean different things to all genders. Dynamic reporting duo John McGowan and Isobel Abbott-Dethrow offer their takes on a panel from the Prevention Education and Advocacy Center tackling toxic masculinity and sexual violence held on Friday, March 3.

Moderated by social work professor Bryan Duckham, the panel consisted of three speakers: junior psychology major Daniel Bishop, of Godfrey, Illinois; senior social work major Louis Jones, of Swansea, Illinois; and applied communications professor Duff Wrobbel.

How do you define masculinity? Who models it well?

Duckham’s first question for the panel brought unsure answers.

While Bishop said masculinity to him was physical agility, Jones and Wrobbel had trouble coming up with a solid definition or role models.

“It’s really hard to define masculinity because I think there’s masculinities … I think it would depend on so many other variables

… so I will refrain from giving a definition,” Jones said.

Abbott-Dethrow: I agreed with Louis Jones on the idea that masculinity cannot be defined singularly.

However, I think there is an underlying theme of strength and power with any given definition of masculinity. Strength and power can be utilized healthily or with toxicity.

When the panel was asked about masculinity models, I also had a hard time pinpointing somebody who models masculinity “well.” I think every human is flawed, especially when it comes to role models of a pressure by society to be strong and in control.

McGowan: I define masculinity as a personal sense of power and confidence, sometimes to an unhealthy degree. Positive forms exist in any person who can get things done and will never turn down a challenge.

Unfortunately, toxic traits like an unhealthy sense of competition and not taking “no” for an answer can come from the same place.

Like Wrobbel, I couldn’t come up with a perfect role model of masculinity either.

The #metoo movement has destroyed my and many others’ faith in the positive role models we saw in places like Hollywood.

What traits should a model of healthy masculinity possess?

anonymous, it was really neat to see the actual people and finally get to know who they are and see who they are during the reading,” Brock said. “We’ve seen their voice on the page, it was really interesting to see their voice in person and see who they were and get to congratulate them.”

Senior social work major Louis Damani Jones from Swansea, Illinois, had two poems published. “A Drive with Norma” is about his drives through the Missouri bluffs on his way to work.

“I really thought ‘what’s the story of somebody in this town and in this area?’” Jones said.

“That’s where the whole concept came from. I thought about the generations that must have passed through those rural towns and the life they may have lived.”

Some writers use poetry

as a way to work through their own feelings and difficult points in their lives. Junior biology major Payton Bodden from Hazelwood, Missouri, wrote a poem titled “Meditation on the Staircase,” which she said is her favorite of the two she’s published.

“That one is about feeling alone and feeling like no one really understands you and sometimes you don’t even know yourself,” Bodden said. “At the end of that piece I talk about wearing size 8 Converse and at the very end I say ‘I’m actually a size 9’ so it’s kind of that feeling of being all alone feeling abandoned and by yourself.”

The River Bluff Review is edited by students in English 494: Literary Editing, which is taught by professor Valerie Vogrin in the fall.

This question from the audience brought varied answers among the group.

Jones said healthy role models should embrace their flaws, and Bishop said a positive role model in masculinity should display a strong sense of empathy.

“I think where we get into the ballpark of toxic masculinity is when someone wants to feel superior or someone wants to feel like they’re dominating … if they have a superior sense of strength or voice for the voiceless and they want to lift them up … that comes down to a sense of empathy,” Bishop said.

Wrobbel, on the other hand, rejected the question, claiming that touting any one form of masculinity only contributes to the problem.

“The minute you say ‘this is the right way and I’m going to try and beat you there’ … that’s a problem … I think if we talk more about this, you’ll find that toxic masculinity in particular tends to come out of people who are in some way or another profoundly lacking,” Wrobbel said.

Abbott-Dethrow: I agreed with and understood everyone’s perspectives when they answered

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This question began a long conversation of the importance of consent and the objectification of women by the media, which were points brought up by Bishop and Jones.

“There are so many layers that come from culture that show how we are raised,” Bishop said. “Rape culture stems from any situation, environment, or scenario where consent is not offered. Some people think a lack of no is still yes and some people are confused by what consent is identified as.”

“The heart of rape culture is the objectification of women,” Jones said. “That creates a climate where you normalize a sexuality where it is okay to verbally treat women like objects.”

Wrobbel came up with an anthropological answer to the question, looking at the definition of culture itself.

“Culture is a set of agreed-upon rules that we all know and use to be able to get by. Rape culture would be any culture with rules of trivializing and normalizing sexual abuse and assault.”

Abbott-Dethrow: I agree with all their definitions of rape culture.

It seems the root of rape culture is the objectification of women, perpetuated by the media, where situations without consent can be plastered across. I believe there is a prominent rape culture in the United States and across the world with how the media portrays sex.

McGowan: To me, rape culture is how our society perpetuates the sexualization and objectification of women. It creates an environment of women that feel devalued and of little worth.

Student creativity put on display in River Bluff Review ALEX AULTMAN reporter

The River Bluff Review, a compilation of student art and writing, provides an outlet for a diverse group of student voices and their artistic visions.

The River Bluff Review showcases student poetry, prose, scripts and various forms of visual art.

Every spring, the journal is published and students come to read their work in front of their friends and families.

Junior mass communications major Tyana Brock of Forsyth, Illinois, said she enjoyed seeing it come to fruition after being one of the students to edit the journal in the fall.

“Because everything was

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Pandemics aren’t all about you – stop acting like it THE ALESTLE STAFF editorial board

In the midst of complete uncertainty and panic, it can be hard for us as college students to look beyond our own fears and frustrations. Some of us are avoiding our emails while others are anxiously checking Blackboard every five minutes. No matter what coping method we are using, one thing is certain: everybody is taking some sort of hit from this virus, something we must be mindful of.

To put it bluntly, there’s nothing like a pandemic to show us we are all human, and we really should care about each other.

At this point in time, being selfish can have drastic consequences. Just because the virus is not a death sentence to you doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do your part to prevent the spread of the virus. According to the CDC, people are the most contagious once they show symptoms. We have an obligation to stay away from others, especially the most vulnerable populations, no matter how much we want to see that new movie, how much “better” we feel, and so on.

On this same note, employers and supervisors have a unique responsibility to be understanding when their employees are sick.

Being short-staffed is not worth putting lives at risk. When possible, let employees feeling under the weather work from self-quarantine so they can still earn the income they depend upon. Be creative in coming up with solutions to limit the financial strain being away from the job causes.

With the push of social distancing, many are fearing adverse impacts on their mental health and those at higher risk of getting very sick with COVID-19.

However, there are ways to show we care about each other without putting ourselves and others at risk. Call up those in quarantine or message them — tell them you are thinking of them, or even set up a FaceTime date. Send care packages filled with movies and other indoor activities, but make sure to properly disinfect everything.

For those who cannot make it to the store due to being highrisk, offer to pick up items they need. Nobody should have to forgo basic needs, such as nutritious food, due to being self-quarantined. Many of our staff members have already seen Facebook friends offering to grocery shop for others, giving a ray of hope to this stressful situation.

College students, faculty and staff are not the only ones feeling

the effects of in-person classes being canceled. The closure of all Illinois schools — both public and private — has left parents and guardians to scramble to find childcare for their kids. For those who depended on schools to feed their kids breakfast and lunch, the closure is extra worrisome. Now is the time to show those impacted they are not alone. Those not meeting for class and who are not at high risk of contracting the virus can offer childcare for family and friends at reduced costs, or even better, for free. Extra income can be spent on picking up extra groceries and delivering to families in need.

Many local businesses are already helping to alleviate some of this stress. For example, on Saturday, McAllister’s Deli in Edwardsville took to Facebook to announce they will be offering free lunch to kids from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday.

A list of other Illinois locations will be offering the same service.

If you work at a restaurant in Illinois, talk to your employer about following suit to help local families out. Even if help cannot be implemented on this large-scale, there’s always something that can be done.

Right now, all of us across campus are facing great uncer-

tainty due to COVID-19. As a staff comprised of both graduate and undergraduate students, we know first-hand how stressful this idea of an “extended” spring break is. We too are waiting for our professors to update us on the rest of our semesters, word from housing as to whether our requests to stay in our dorms have been approved and so on. But we are not the only ones who are frustrated; professors are tasked with transferring content online, and some who are now trying to navigate this don’t even use Blackboard. Department chairs are trying to find creative ways to rework graduation requirements that have been halted by dorm closures and the ban on in-person instructors. Be patient — everybody is trying to figure it out, too.

Treat fellow students, faculty, staff and administration with kindness.

Lastly, let this time change your worldview. We don’t have to wait until the next pandemic hits to help out others and consider their needs. Let’s start sharing the love (but not germs) now.

The fear we are facing now is part of everyday life for others.

It’s time to stop getting wrapped up in the minor inconveniences COVID-19 causes us and start tuning into our common humanity.

College students need the creative arts just as much as kids EMMA DAVIS photographer

Learning how to make mistakes is something that all people must learn. Music, fine art, theatre, speech and creative writing all have one thing in common: to succeed, you have to make mistakes and learn from them.

One of my favorite things about the arts is they are all about self-improvement. Although students may all complete the same assignments, many class grades are based on improvement over time, not necessarily general skill.

Every student comes in at a different level, and most 100-200 level courses are made to be taken by students with varying skill levels. This means whether you have five years of experience or no experience at all, the class will be tailored to you.

This tailoring is achieved with many things, including class size.

There are many benefits of taking classes in the arts, but at SIUE, class size is a big one. Having a small class is beneficial because it helps the students and faculty build more personal relationships with each other.

This more personal learning environment requires every student to participate because it’s difficult to hide behind a class of only 20 other students. A smaller class also allows coursework to be more easily adapted to the individual because faculty can get to know the student and gauge how they are handling the material.

A strong arts education teaches many skills, including perseverance, how to accept criticism, overcoming failure, time management and thinking outside the box.

You will gain skills in the arts that will help you succeed in whatever field you may be pursuing because creative arts can build confidence and help individuals to step outside their comfort zones.

Research is a large component to many STEM careers and learning to adapt to challenges and problem solving are common skills learned from creative arts.

A 2012 study from the Florida State University College of Medicine found that having medical students exposed to the arts strengthened professional relationships, education and self-expression.

This is just one of many studies conducted that show the effects of an arts education in fields where art does not have a direct correlation to the field.

Take THEA 150 for example: THEA 150 is an introductory

class to scenic design and construction. This class teaches you how to identify and operate power tools, follow and create scenic designs, solve problems, realistically build your designs and more.

While this is a theater design class, someone who is majoring in construction or engineering can benefit greatly from the skills gained in this class, not to mention that everyone should know how to build their own furniture.

No matter what your major is, every college student should take creative arts classes in college.

They will help you build skills that will set you apart from other students, like collaboration and how to make mistakes.

EMMA DAVIS 650-3527 @emmaj_alestle edavis@alestlelive.com

sports

contact the editor: sports@alestlelive.com 650-3527 thursday, 3.19.2020

Cougar Athletics had a strong start to spring break play with a series of wins before preventative measures against COVID-19 brought it all to a halt.

On March 12, OVC announced: “effective immediately OVC member institutions will suspend athletic-related activities including all competition and formal practices until further notice due to the COVID-19 public health threat.”

The Cougars did manage to get some games in just under the wire.

SOFTBALL

SOFTBALL

The Cougars won their first game of the Wildcat Invitational against Indiana after scoring four runs at the top of the sixth last Friday, March 6.

Their second game of the day was against Boise State, where they lost 7-1.

They defeated South Dakota 3-0, on Saturday, March 7, then lost 15-2, against Arizona later that day.

The Cougars played their final game of the tournment against Boise State and won 3-2.

The Cougars were set to play at the Cowgirl Invitational March 13-14, but it was cancelled due to concerns about COVID-19.

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alestlelive.com

what you missed: ALEX AULTMAN reporter

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Sports wraps up remaining play under the wire before COVID-19 outbreak cancelations TENNIS

SOFTBALL BASEBALL SIUE Baseball won its first Ohio Valley Conference games of the season, with scores of 4-2, 5-2 and 11-9 against Tennessee Tech last weekend, March 6-8.

The Cougars then fell to Missouri State 13-3, on Wednesday, March 11.

NCAA official says men’s, women’s basketball tournament brackets will not be released

SOFTBALL

WRESTLING Justin Ruffin (157) and Tyshawn Williams (149) finished first place in the MAC Championships last Sunday, March 8.

Both Ruffin and Williams earned bids to the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship March 13.

However, the NCAA announced they would be cancelling all winter and spring championships due to the rising concerns over COVID-19.

SOFT-

GOLF

The Cougars travelled to Alabama during spring break to face Alabama State and Alabama A&M. Their game against Alabama State was cancelled due to weather on March 10. They then defeated Alabama A&M 4-0, on Wednesday, March 11.

BALL

Last Saturday, March 7, SIUE Golf finished 12th at South Dakota State’s Jackrabbit Invitational.

They were set to play at Missouri State’s Twin Oaks Invitational March 2324, which was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns.

Joe Juliano The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)

Selection Sunday. It had been marked on every college basketball fan’s calendar since the first shot went up last November, but was made irrelevant March 12, when the NCAA announced it had canceled its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Or maybe not. Fans still wanted a bracket reveal to know what the people who select and seed the teams in each championship were thinking. Mid-major teams who already had qualified in their conference tournaments craved a bracket to put in their trophy case for posterity.

Alas, with no tournaments, the NCAA announced there would be no men’s or women’s bracket released.

In a statement, NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt noted that 19 men’s and 18 women’s conference tournaments had not been completed, and more than 200 games — 132 for men, 81 for women — were never played. He said, as of March 12, that the men’s committee had just begun its work, and the women’s committee had not yet started.

“The important work of the basketball committees is to set up competitively balanced brackets to determine national champions,” Gavitt said. “I don’t believe it’s responsible or fair to do that with incomplete seasons, especially for tournaments that unfortunately won’t be played.”

Gavitt acknowledged he understood why people wanted brackets released because “all of us want something to fill the void we’re feeling” over the NCAA tournaments’ cancellations.

“Players and coaches want to see their school name on the bracket. Members of the media want to dissect matchups.

Bracketologists want to compare the work of the committees versus what they’ve predicted. Fans are curious for the same reasons. However, anything less than a credible process is inconsistent with the tradition of the NCAA basketball championships.”

Gavitt went on to say there “is not an authentic way to produce tournament fields and brackets at this point without speculating, and that isn’t fair to the teams that would be positively or negatively impacted by manufacturing March Madness.”

Esports commentators tell the story behind gaming JOHN MCGOWAN reporter

When most people think of sports casting, they think of the play by plays, discussion of injuries, and the football field.

Esports casting trades that for strategies, metas, and cooldowns.

Sophomore secondary education major Ben Wilke, of Breese, Illinois, and junior chemistry major Timothy Cockrell, of St. Libory, Illinois, are two commentators for the SIUE Esports Club’s Call of Duty team who want to branch out casting to all esports and establish a commentator’s booth in Bluff ’s esports arena.

Esports commentary is very different from physical sports commentary. Wilke said the biggest differences lie in how video games use variety and technology.

“With normal sportscasting … all the rinks are the same, essentially. With esports casting, specifically with [Call of Duty], all the maps are different … With esports as well, you can kind of choose which player you want to see through their eyes,” Wilke said.

Because casting for esports is so different than other sports, the hosts must be different too. Cockrell said there’s usually two hosts that fill two different roles.

Bluff Hall’s esports arena was officially introduced to gamers on Jan. 16. Esports club president, senior computer science major Jordan Kramer, of O’Fallon, Illinois, was particularly excited to see the arena finalized. “Having this space here allows us all to be in one area, have that chemistry and play together,” Kramer said.

I Mackenzie Smith / The Alestle

“You’ve got one there for the technical knowledge, and the other one is there to help bring up the hype and bring up the comedic relief … I would call [Ben and I] half and half of each to make one whole,” Cockrell said.

Cockrell is currently petitioning for a commentators’ booth for the esports arena.

While not yet approved, he said he wants to turn a small corner of the arena that used to be an advisor’s office into a booth where people can give commentary on esports

competitions.

“We’re going to put good equipment in there, good lighting, we’re going to have a green screen background. We’re going to try and make it something as professional as humanly possible,” Cockrell said.

President of the Esports Club, senior computer science major Jordan Kramer, of O’Fallon, Illinois, said the room isn’t in use right now, so the club would like to add it to the arena.

“It’s definitely one of the top things on our list right now … we’re trying to work out a deal to see if we can get that room,” Kramer said.

Cockrell also said the booth could be a jumping off point to bring in more esports casters for different teams.

“I want to set a standard, and this is a great way of going about that … Some of us already have casters in mind,” Cockrell said.

You can learn more about the esports club by heading to the esports arena in Bluff Hall or by visiting their website.

JOHN MCGOWAN

650-3527 @John_Alestle jmcgowan@alestlelive.com

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