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Art therapy students file complaint after no-contact order
Event teaches about Ramadan and Arabic calligraphy
Women’s soccer 3-0 in Spring 2022 season
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Thursday, April 14, 2022 Vol. 75 No. 26
Student fee increase pending Board of Trustees approval ALEX AULTMAN editor-in-chief
Student fees may increase by 5 percent for the 2022-23 fiscal year. The fee increase is subject to approval by the SIU Board of Trustees at its meeting on Thursday, April 28. Student Government also voted in favor of the increase at its Senate meeting, but the vote was non-binding; only the Board of Trustees can decide on the fee increase. If approved, student fees would go from $103.20 per credit hour to $108.20 per credit hour. For an average undergrad-
uate taking 15 credit hours, that amounts to an additional $75 per semester. Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Jeffrey Waple says this proposed increase is necessary to maintain current operations under the upcoming minimum wage increases, inflation and would allow for an expansion to some services. The Health and Counseling Services fee is increasing to accommodate for inflation and staff turnover, as well as to remain competitive with market rates for counselors Waple said. Waple also hopes this proposed fee increase will allow counseling to offer more telehealth appointments at
more times. Among other changes: The Textbook Service Fee is increasing to pay for single-use access codes that are being used more frequently in courses. The Information Technology Fee is increasing to pay for software licenses and smart classroom upgrades. The Student Success Center Fee is increasing to pay for cleaning supplies as well as the bonds issued to pay for the construction of the SSC. The Facilities Fee is increasing to gather funds to pay for an upcoming renovation to Rendleman Hall. The Student Publications Fee is in-
creasing to accommodate for inflation and minimum wage increases. Waple said the administration has proposed an increase each year, but the past two years they have been denied by the Board of Trustees. “We’re hopeful that the current increase, though very small, will be supported,” Waple said. “And if not, we will go back and look at it again and see what we can do.” With this proposed fee increase, SIUE’s tuition and fees would remain the lowest among public universities in Illinois.
Academic advisers protest low wages and ‘case overload’ ALEX AULTMAN editor-in-chief
Academic advisers took to the Quad on Tuesday to protest low wages, large caseloads and slow contract negotiations. Dawn Huckelberry, vice president of the Professional Staff Association, said the union contract between the advisers and the university expired July 1, 2021 and negotiations have been slow-moving since then. Huckelberry said the starting wage for advisers has not changed in a decade and there has been a lot of turnover. The maximum caseload for academic advisers that had previously been negotiated is 375. Huckelberry said there are many who now have 500 students to advise. “Because we can’t offer a fair wage, we’ve lost a third of our advisers across campus,” Huckelberry said. “So we’ve lost 13 advisers. They’re working an overload. We’re truly overworked and underpaid to Academic advisers stand in the Quad and chant how many days they have been working without a contract and how many have had | Brandon Wells / The Alestle the point that it’s almost logistically im- to quit in the past year. possible to do our job.” Autumn Wetzler, an adviser in the master’s degree.” School of Education, Health and Human Alford said the large workload imBehavior, said her next available appoint- pacts students’ ability to get appointments, ment is after graduation because she has which can lower their chances of getting a too many students. class schedule that fits their needs. He said “If students want to meet with me, the lack of adviser availability may make they have to wait until May when classes students feel like the university does not could already be care about them. beginning.” WetT i f f a n y zler said. “I have Shemwell, an over 100 emails I adviser in the can’t answer beSchool of Busicause I’m in backness, said the adto-back appointviser turnover has ments.” had a large imRobert Alpact on the staff ford, an adviser in that have chosen Robert Alford, Danie Dobrinich Johns, Autumn Wetzler and John Cummings hold signs the School of Edto stay at SIUE. ucation, Health “It often signifying their membership to the Illinois Education Association union, which indicates and Human Befeels like we’re a that advisers shouldn’t have more than 375 students in their caseload. | Brandon Wells / The Alestle havior, said the training ground advising departwhere people will Dawn Huckelberry ment is nearing then move on to a many of the searches have failed. working at cross purposes with what we’re Professional Staff Association vice president less than 50 perdifferent position “We’ve invested time and energy and doing,” Huckelberry said. “We all went cent of its adviser at another uni- effort into trying to interview candidates to school for almost a decade to learn to capacity. versity because to fill these vacancies and nobody wants do this job, but we can’t continue to do “They’re starting to have a hard time the pay is higher,” Shemwell said. “Right to work here for what we’re offering,” it without a sustainable wage and without retaining advisers and recruiting new now there are only two advisers that are Huckelberry said. enough staff.” ones, which puts a lot more pressure on working exclusively with undergraduate Huckelberry said she cares about her Shemwell said students can help their everybody,” Alford said. “So many of students in the school and we have around students, but can’t serve them as well as she advisers by advocating for them and letting these advisers right now have second jobs 450 to 475 students.” would like because of the lack of staff. administrators know that if working conjust to make ends meet. That’s ridicuHuckelberry said the advising depart“We love our jobs and we’d like to do ditions don’t improve, advisers and their lous. Our positions require us to have a ment has tried to hire more advisers, but them better, but the situation here … It’s students will be severely impacted.
“
We’re truly overworked and underpaid to the point that it’s almost logistically impossible to do our job.”
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BY THE NUMBERS / COVID-19 AT SIUE, SPRING 2022 New confirmed positive cases (from tests conducted by SIUE and self-reporting):
Tests conducted by SIUE:
April 5 - April 11: 4 students, 2 faculty/staff
April 5 - April 11: 1,279
Mar. 29 - April 4: 4 students, 2 faculty/staff
Mar. 29 - April 4: 1,212
14-Day New Positive Cases: 8 students, 4 faculty/staff
14-Day New Tests Conducted: 2,491
All prior weeks positive tests: (Jan. 4 - April 11): 1,042 students, 249 faculty/staff
All prior weeks tests conducted: Jan. 4 - April 11: 31,568
Total active positive cases: 6 students 4 faculty/staff
Positive cases identified by SIUE testing: April 5 - April 11: 5 Mar. 29 - April 4: 2
14-day new positive cases: 7
All prior weeks positive cases: April 5 - April 11: 1,839
MADISON COUNTY DAY BY DAY:
Positivity Rate (as of April 11): 0.28%
25 20 15
Percentage of isolation/quarantine space available on campus
10
(as of April 11): 100%
5 0
Source: Health, Reporting, and Testing page on SIUE’s COVID-19 website, as of April 11. APR 4
APR 5
APR 6
APR 7
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APR 10
APR 11
04.08.22
Two SIUE laptops were reported missing in the Lovejoy Library. A debit card was found in the Student Fitness Center.
04.09.22
Officer responded to a report of male subjects asking someone to let them into a side door of Prarie Hall. Officer advised the male subjects were gone on arrival.
04.11.22
Multiple iPads were reported missing on the East St. Louis Campus. Officer responded to a report of damage to multiple windows and a taillight on a vehicle in the Bluff Hall Parking Lot.
Complaint filed in art therapy program leads to legal action, students feeling neglected GABRIEL BRADY managing editor
One student has filed in court and others feel unheard after a no-contact order was issued among several students in SIUE’s art therapy department. Tyson Longhofer is senior legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, an advocacy group that lists its mission as defending religious freedom for Christians. He is representing graduate student in art therapy Maggie DeJong, who was temporarily issued a no-contact order forbidding her from communicating with three other art therapy students. According to a written statement from Longhofer, although the university has dropped the no-contact order, the reasons behind the order were not originally specified. According to the statement, Dejong and the ADF only knew the reasons for the no-contact order after contacting the university for more information. “After Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter to the university, we discovered that the university discriminated against Maggie for her religious viewpoint simply because several students complained,” the statement reads. “This is wrong and unconstitutional — universities cannot ban students from speaking to fellow students simply for peacefully expressing their viewpoints.” DeJong declined to give an interview, but according to a written statement from her, the no-contact order has been rescinded but the damage has already been done. “Because of these orders, I was unable to fully participate in my classes, go to certain locations
The art installation was created as a call for cultural competency in the art therapy profession, and to highlight the importance of having conversations about accountability. | Photo courtesy of Kelly Baker on campus when the other students were present and fully take part in the academic program,” the statement reads. “All students should be free to express their viewpoints without fear of retaliation and intimidation, and I hope that the university will never let this happen again.” Sadie Tanner-Pobocik is a graduate student in art therapy, and she said she’s known DeJong as long as Tanner-Pobocik has been in the art therapy program. Tanner-Pobocik said she filed a complaint that alleged DeJong was harassing members of the art therapy department on the basis
of religion. “I’m a third-year in the program. We are in the same cohort, we have all the same classes. We have known each other for almost three years now,” Tanner-Pobocik said. “I filed the complaint because I am not a Christian, and [DeJong] has said to me, in the past, and this is what I wrote in the report, … that I am going to hell, that I’m not going to make it when the rapture comes, to the point where I couldn’t speak about religion in class without her jumping down my throat.” Tanner-Pobocik said her complaint was one of many filed
against DeJong. She also said there were some issues with filing the complaint initially. “We tried first to contact the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, and they never got back to us,” Tanner-Pobocik said. Anna Schulz, graduate student in art therapy, took a groups class in the program with DeJong. During the classes, art therapy students discuss and learn about how diverse groups of individuals with different backgrounds can relate on common issues and deal with conflict. “I met Maggie at the be-
ginning of my first year [in art therapy], she was a second year at that time. She was nice enough,” Schulz said. “Within [groups class], she appeared several times wearing various Back the Bluetype regalia, specifically Blue Lives Matter.” Schulz said on one occasion, the course’s professor told DeJong about how some people view those groups as problematic. Since the class was based around discussions of this nature, Schulz said the class discussed the topic see ART THERAPY on page 3
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Student government winners plan to improve student safety LIV KRAUS reporter
Rahmat Salau and Nicole Burbach aim to make campus more safe and welcoming as the newly elected president and vice president. Rahmat Salau, junior accounting major, said one of her main goals is to make housing more efficient for students who choose to stay over break periods. “What’s in the works is that housing is going to create an international student specific housing page that will highlight all the information to students, especially non-traditional students, about summer breaks, housing options, the fees required and that kind of website will be linked to the [International Student and Scholar Services] webpage and that should be live in the early summer,” Salau said. Salau said part of the complaints about University Housing were that students were being charged for arriving at the dorms earlier than expected. She said that they are working to reduce the costs of staying over break periods. “Students who are staying for the entire break period will be offered a discounted price where it’s a hundred dollars for a week,” Salau said.
Nicole Burbach, senior biochemistry major, said that her biggest initiative as Student Body Vice President is to support the senators. Burbach said that whether it’s university wide or specific things within each school, the senators each have certain goals that they wish to implement. “My goal is to be more of a resource for them because, obviously, I will be working on my own things with the president. We’ll be collaborating a lot. I think if I could just act as a resource to the senators, that will make the campus have a larger impact because a lot of the people that get elected, they know what’s going on,” Burbach said. Burbach said that a step that’s being taken to improve safety on campus will be the campus safety walks. She said that these safety walks will have police officers walk around campus with students to identify areas that aren’t safe or made accessible to students with disabilities. “They would identify areas that aren’t safe or areas of low light or any number of things and would try to fix those and report back their findings,” Burbach said. Burbach said that after the campus safety walks, there would be a discussion with the
Newly-elected Student Body President Rahmat Salau said one thing she plans to focus on specifically is housing charging students for staying on campus over breaks. | Damian Morris / The Alestle
administration and campus police on the steps that need to be taken to find a solution. As for improving mental health on campus, Burbach said that they are working with Counseling Services on Certified Peer Educator training. This training helps individuals to recognize and respond to the struggles their peers are facing. The ultimate goal is to make this
Psychology department introduces Online Degree Completion Program LIV KRAUS reporter
The psychology department’s “Online Degree Completion Program” allows students with an associate degree, or close to an associate degree, to earn a bachelor’s degree entirely online. Greg Everett, department of psychology chair, said that the main benefit of the “Online Degree Completion Program” is that it allows students who aren’t able to attend in-person classes to complete a bachelor’s in psychology at their own convenience. “It allows flexibility for folks that potentially work during the day or have obligations and can take classes in a more flexible way than a traditional onground student would be able to do so,” Everett said. Daniel Segrist, professor and associate chair of the psychology department, said that by offering an online completion program, it can help to accommodate different lifestyles. With the program being asynchronous, someone from across the country could even participate. “We developed it with a specific target population. People who want to pursue a psychology degree but, because of their work schedule or life circumstances, attending traditional face-toface, on-ground courses would be really difficult,” Segrist said. Segrist said that there was a strong demand for remote degree programs a couple of years ago. He said that’s when the psychology department began to look into offering an online program of their own.
“We received some information from the university that suggested there was interest in this program and then our department had a committee that looked into this possibility a bit more and looked into what it would take to put the program together,” Segrist said. Everett said that starting the “Online Degree Completion Program’’ has been a time consuming process. The initial discussions with the Office of Online Educational Outreach at SIUE began in the Fall of 2020. “It takes time for the university admission to approve things. It took time for us to figure out how we wanted to structure the program. The creation of any new program has to go up through every level above their department level,” Everett said. Segrist said that there was some initial hesitation about how well the courses would translate online before the pandemic. During quarantine, when everyone was forced to get used to the online format, the idea of an online completion program seemed more possible. “We had some courses, like our statistics sequence and our capstone course, that we did not think would work well as online courses, then the pandemic hit and we found out that technology was enabling us to do things and teach those courses in an effective way, online and before the pandemic I don’t think we were convinced that it was a possibility,” Segrist said. Classes for this program will begin in the Fall of 2022. For more information, visit the psychology department’s website.
training available to everyone. “The whole idea behind it is that other students are more likely to go to their peers or their friends rather than administration, your teacher, or an adult that you see as above you,” Burbach said. Salau said that it’s important to let people voice their opinions and struggles. She said that the entire goal of the stu-
dent government is to act as a liaison between administration and the student body. “Right outside the student government office, there is a suggestion box where you can just drop little notes and the student body president reads it once at least every week,” Salau said. Salau and Burbach will be sworn into office on April 25.
Tanner-Pobocik said. “So, the school rescinded the orders.” Schulz said many faculty members in that day. However, Schulz said the discus- art therapy have stated they stand against this form of intolerance, but, with the sion became very heated. “Things began to escalate toward the no-contact order being rescinded, it felt end of the class, and a lot of comments to her as though administration is not were made and notions [by DeJong] that standing up. “I have seen so many professors make implied people of one specific religion, specifically Christianity, have a different a stance, say ‘This will not be tolerated,’” moral standing, are holier than, even bet- Schulz said. “However, I have seen, additer than others. While those things weren’t tionally, that the administration has not explicitly stated, it was said in a connota- necessarily backed up our professors.” Tanner-Pobocik also said there has tion that made me uncomfortable,” Schulz been support for speaking out against these said. “They were microaggressions.” microaggressions from A Black student outside the university. told DeJong directly “A good chunk of that they were offendthe program is behind ed and frightened by this effort, alumni too,” the Blue Lives Matter Tanner-Pobocik said.” organization. ‘We started an art proSchulz said altest … where a lot of the though DeJong never program got together outwardly threatened and decided the school is any member of the art not backing us up in the therapy department, way we need it to, and so DeJong’s speech and we just kind of said they demeanor were what needed to do better. We upset Schulz as well as had a community meetothers in the program. ing in the art therapy de“It propagated Anna Schulz partment, and just talked an environment that Graduate Student in Art Therapy openly about what was makes many individuhappening and how it was als, including myself, uncomfortable to be on campus,” Schulz impactful and affecting our learning.” The art protest was first hung in said. “Not because we think she, herself, is going to do anything to us, but more so the art and design building shortly after this overall aura of the potential of being spring break. Schulz, among several other of aggressed against based on your identity, are concerned which is something our program, the art DeJong’s classmates, about how DeJong expresses her beliefs therapy program, really stands against.” Tanner-Pobocik said the no-contact may impact future clients who do not order stated that several students in art share those beliefs. “She has shown characteristics that therapy were not to interact with each othdo not paint an ethical practice,” Schulz er, including DeJong. “It was a two-sided effect. It wasn’t said. “I think it’s incredibly inappropriate, just that she could not contact us. the way that the notion of ‘Based on my We were not allowed to contact her,” religious beliefs, as a child of God, XYZ,’ is an excuse for treating people in a frankly Tanner-Pobocik said. Shortly thereafter, DeJong got legal abusive manner.” SIUE administrators, the director of counsel from the ADF. “She threatened legal action if the the art therapy program and SIU’s legal school did not rescind the no-contact,” counsel all declined to comment.
ART THERAPY | page 2
It propagated an environment that makes many individuals, including myself, uncomfortable.”
lifestyles
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Ramadan event teaches students about Arabic culture FRANCESCA BOSTON reporter Egyptian culture, history and traditional Arabic calligraphy were on display last week at the Arabic Club’s Calligraphy Ramadan Night. Ramadan is an Islamic holy month, which can happen at any time of the year, and involves fasting from dawn to dusk and emphasizes prayer and community. Yousra Elbaz, a graduate student in a cultural exchange program from Mansoura, Egypt, was in charge of the event. She said while Ramadan is deeply religious and important for Islam, in Egypt Ramadan is both a religious and secular celebration in which most people participate. She said it is a celebration of family and a time to do good for others. “It’s a very good time to reconnect with your family and
your friends. This is the time of peace, literally spiritually, psychologically, religiously, socially at every level. Let’s say it’s our Christmas,” Elbaz said. Elbaz said in her presentation that during Ramadan, decorations are placed throughout homes and cities. In Egypt, lanterns line the streets and are often given as gifts as well. Elbaz said that many of the desserts and dishes eaten during Ramadan are special, and for Iftar only. Iftar is the breaking of the fast, which is done after the sunsets. Elbaz taught a group of students how to write “Ramadan Kareem” in Arabic, which roughly translates to “blessed Ramadan” or “happy Ramadan.” She said that Arabic calligraphy is an art form, and it can take years to master it. “The Arabic calligraphy used to be used in decoration, and so many palaces and so many mosques in very old times, now
it is used in hotels and such,” Elbaz said. Many of the students shared that they celebrate Ramadan today, but they are from different countries, so their celebrations looked different than the Egyptian celebrations. Junior Aisha Dinceroglu, an integrative studies major from Belleville, Illinois, said she grew up celebrating Ramadan as she is half Turkish and half Albanian. “I want to learn what other cultures do for Ramadan,” Dinceroglu said. The observance of Ramadan will end with the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which takes place on May 2 this year. The Muslim Student Associate will be hosting a Fast-athon event on April 22, where students are invited to break fast with an Iftar dinner and learn about Ramadan with cultural experience booths. For more information, visit Get Involved.
Ramadan is a time of community when many people participate in community service, including providing food for those who cannot afford it and spending time with friends and family. | Clair Sollenberger / The Alestle
Aisha Dinceroglu works on the Arabic alphabet, practicing the letters before writing “Ramadan Kareem” in colorful markers to mimic its bright decorations. | Clair Sollenberger / The Alestle
A group of students show off their works, several of which are decorated with traditional art, as well as their own names spelled out in Arabic. | Clair Sollenberger / The Alestle
SIUE’s ‘Day of Giving’ aims to bring students together LIV KRAUS reporter SIUE aims to bring students together through band performances, food and glow parties. SIUE’s Day of Giving will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 21 out on the Stratton Quad near Lovejoy Library. Julie Babington, senior director of annual giving, said the whole purpose of SIUE’s Day of Giving is to bring everyone together. She said that the idea for this day was inspired by Giving Tuesday. “I’m sure you’ve heard of the national giving initiative called Giving Tuesday. It’s usually in the Fall between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have always participated in that since 2015, but we’ve really just been working to have our own day that’s specific to SIUE,” Babington said. Babington said that each academic unit has their own fundraising goal. She said they are hoping for gifts of up to $10,000 from all constituencies. The overall goal is to raise a total of $350,000. Aside from raising money, Babington said that some departments are bringing
different activities and displays to the Day of Giving event. “Our School of Engineering really rose to the top this year. They’re gonna have the solar car on the quad. We have a STEM table that will have some light up interactive activities,” Babington said. Kyle Moore, senior director of development, said his job is to promote the event within the College of Arts and Sciences to faculty, staff and students. He said that he also reaches out to the community members and alumni to get support for the Day of Giving. Moore said that they’ve been wanting to host a Day of Giving at SIUE for years, but due to the pandemic they were unable to host an in-person event. “We used to do a community breakfast, where we’d bring the community to campus. It was a wonderful event and then COVID happened. This is a chance to rethink and sometimes it’s good to try new things and that’s what we’re doing, trying to bring everyone together with the opportunity to meet an exciting new chancellor and kinda bring the whole community together,” Moore said.
SIUE’s new chancellor James T. Minor will be attending and speaking at the event. Babington said that this would be a great opportunity to meet the chancellor and offer him a warm welcome. The night will start off with a performance from the Midnight Piano Band. Dining services will be providing cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, while The Cup will donate some cupcakes for the event. When the sun goes down at around 7:45 p.m, the buildings will be lit with red lighting and the student glow party will begin. “We have glow necklaces, glow bracelets, glow straws. At sunset, we’ll be lighting the entire campus with a red glow,” Babington said. The festivities do not end there. According to Babington, there are more activities planned to take place after the event. “The Kimmel leadership center is involved with the student work. They have some activities focused on this event,” Babington said. “So as soon as that reception portion is over, the student body has a DJ and all these wonderful activities,” Moore said that with this being a first-
time event, it makes everything new and exciting. He said that it’s a chance to reflect on our successes and build towards the future. “We’re all pretty excited. We’ve been working on it, on the unit level, probably the last three months really digging in and putting our back behind it trying to get money raised and people to come to campus to support the event,” Moore said. Babington said that this event is not only for students, but for all members of the community. SIUE’s Day of Giving event will be family friendly. “There’ll be a number of people across campus. It’s faculty and staff, students of course and our community people,” Babington said. Babington said that they have put a lot of heart into this event and hope to see a great turnout. “We’re looking for people to register. We wanna be able to plan and make sure we have adequate food and drinks available. It is free to attend,” Babington said. Anyone is able to register and see the money that’s already been raised on their website.
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Green Roofs provide research opportunities for students FRANCESCA BOSTON reporter SIUE is home to six green roofs, spread across four buildings, which serve as both a research area to improve the performance of green infrastructure and a way to benefit sustainability. Susan Morgan, a civil engineering professor, has been a part of the Green Roof Environmental Evaluation Network at SIUE since its beginning back in 2004. She said the general use of the roofs is for research by multiple departments across the university including industrial. engineering and biology. “They’ve been established for research, them being the research projects, we’ve incorporated a lot of students into it,” Morgan said. Morgan said they are currently working on moving experimental setups off the engineering building to another building as recent Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulation changes have changed access to the roof. They are still deciding between the Student Success Center and the Science buildings. Serdar Celik, a mechanical and industrial engineering professor, has also been a part of the project for many years. He said
he is always using the roofs as a real-world example in order to teach his students the benefits of green roofs, especially in terms of energy conservation – by saving air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter. “I have been teaching HVAC in the School of Engineering and one of our topics is building insulation,” Celik said. “I have shown students the roof, explaining what the benefits of the green roof are. It has indirectly helped us in terms of teaching on a demonstrative basis.” Green roofs have the ability to increase urban biodiversity, reduce stormwater runoff, as well as filter pollutants and carbon dioxide. Most of the roofs are planted with various species of plant called Sedum, which is a very hardy plant and can survive in a shallow soil depth, according to Morgan. “In the industry, there are all sorts of plants and if you want to go to deeper media depths, you can make it like a garden. People do research and plant natives which have deeper root systems, which make the roof actually weigh more,” Morgan said. “So we tend to go with a much shallower media depth.” Celik said the green roofs
have also been part of solar energy research on top of the Science West building, studying the symbiotic relationship between the green roofs and solar panels. “The scope of the [solar pan-
el] work that we include a green roof there so that we can study the synergies between green roofs and photovoltaic panels because they both actually benefit each other,” Celik said.
A goose preens itself on a Green Roof.
Morgan said SIUE was one of few higher education institutions in the country to be named as Living Architecture Regional Center back in 2018 and has kept that title for the past four years.
| Jihun Han / The Alestle
REVIEW: ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’: more than a meme, less than great EMILY STERZINGER lifestyles editor
| Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures
“Sonic the Hedgehog 2” was fun in the moment, but failed to be much more than an average all ages action-comedy. Personally, a lot of my enjoyment came from the fact that I am a fan of retro gaming, with there being references to the series peppered into the movie. So seeing childhood characters come to life for this sequel was quite nostalgic for me. However, if you’re not a fan of retro gaming or the Sonic franchise, you may not see the appeal. As for the good parts, of which there were still plenty, the action sequences were pretty enjoyable. The fight at the end was particularly fun to watch, and the mech suit Dr. Robotnik (played by Jim Carrey) piloted was well designed. Unfortunately, despite the exciting action sequences, some things about the movie just made me cringe. Obviously, as an all-ages movie, it’s going to have some juvenile jokes which I can tolerate. However, some things, like the use of the dance move flossing (which was already outdated when the movie started production) felt particularly egregious. I enjoyed the cast generally, both returning and new. Ben Schwartz brings a certain charm to the protagonist Sonic, which plays well off of Sonic’s surrogate father figure, Tom (played by James Marsden). Jim Carrey is back as Dr. Robotnik, and brings the trademark over-the-top comedic
acting that he’s well known for. As for new actors, Idris Elba voiced Knuckles and Colleen O’Shaughnessey voiced Tails (though technically the latter showed up in the credits of the last movie). They both gave engaging performances, and fans of the series may notice that the voice actress for Tails has consistently played the character in games and TV shows since 2014. Though the emotional aspect of the movie isn’t really what anybody comes to see this movie for, I couldn’t help but feel touched by the parental relationship Tom and Maddie (played by Tika Sumpter) had with Sonic. Sure, it’s a movie about a blue hedgehog that likes chili dogs, but that doesn’t mean it’s devoid of any emotional resonance, even if there’s only a little. In contrast, I was somewhat disappointed with the relationship between Sonic and Tails, which felt like it built up too soon to have any real impact on the plot. Tails as a character just felt like an expositional character who turned into an ineffectual sidekick, especially compared to Knuckles, who at least had more motivation and backstory. Overall, the movie was reasonably funny with a good set of action scenes, and generally filled its role as an all ages action-comedy. However, it never really went beyond that standard, and most of the enjoyment I got out of the film was because I’ve played the classic Sonic games. If you’re a geek, go ahead and watch it, but if you’re not, you may not enjoy it as much.
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Belief systems should not justify prejudiced rhetoric SIUE ART THERAPY COUNSELING COMMUNITY
Articles are currently circulating claiming the SIUE Art Therapy Counseling program is unwelcoming of Christian views. It’s important to note our small learning community of 33 students is predominantly made up of white, cisgender women—with a large portion of students identifying as Christian. As students, we have experienced the freedom to express our beliefs and value systems in the classroom. In fact, we are encouraged to do so in order to become self-aware art therapists. However, a line is crossed when students use their belief systems to justify racist,
homophobic and xenophobic rhetoric. When Christianity is used as a shield for bigotry, one perpetuates the historical abuses that have occurred and continues to cause tremendous harm. Unfortunately, our program has a history and current reality of students who use their beliefs to justify such harmful rhetoric and action, which creates a toxic and harmful learning environment. Our program is among the top art therapy programs in the country and aspires to train exemplary and socio-culturally attuned clinicians. The three core faculty members have made a point to weave issues of intersectionality, critical self-reflexivity and sociocultural awareness into
most facets of our learning. Our student handbook states, “Our vision is that art therapy counselors cultivate creative, just and healthy communities.” (Student Handbook, 2021, p. 3). If individuals cause harm to fellow students, how can we expect them to not cause harm to clients? As art therapists, we hold positions of power within the therapeutic relationship, and cannot allow this power to be used to hurt the people who seek us out for help. If the university expects to create art therapists who “take reasonable steps to ensure that they are sensitive to differences that exist among cultures” (Student Handbook, 2021, p. 8), how can one overlook the harm cur-
rently being caused in our learning community by the failure to meet this outcome? We must uphold our ethical standards and hold trainees accountable when these standards are not met. To address these concerns, we communally planned an art show and invited community members to engage in the discussion. Now that this conversation has expanded outward, it is necessary to hear our experiences before distorting the issue further. We urge those who have exploited these matters to make a statement that calls for an end to the threats made against members of our community. We invite these individuals to engage in open dialogue with us.
ALESTLE VIEW: Status quo isn’t always the best choice THE ALESTLE STAFF editorial board
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is a common piece of advice, but only serves to reinforce one’s decision to follow the status quo in the face of difficult decisions, even if it goes against their own values. On the surface, the phrase makes sense; there’s no reason to change what’s already working. However, this advice pushes people to look less critically at the systems or structures in place because they assume they are the best options. But if they really are the best options, shouldn’t challenging them lead to a defense proving just that? What it leads to in practice is avoiding counterarguments altogether and ignoring changing societal landscapes by refusing to adapt. No human system is perfect — and rejecting that reality allows issues, however small, to compound over time. For example, politicians will often run on ideas of changing the U.S. for the better on the large-scale, yet instead of challenging the foundations creating the problems, they will make small tweaks within the status quo one way or the other to gain political favor, rather than solving the larger issues, which require
more difficult choices and a larger level of responsibility. An example of this is the U.S. economy. According to data tracking its political-economic system since the early 1970’s, its wages and poverty rate have stagnated, the wealth share for the top one percent has seen drastic increase whereas the bottom 50 percent saw little to no change. Further, the racial wage gap has drastically increased, undergraduate tuition has doubled and per capita healthcare spending is almost five times higher. In a 2018 study conducted by Mackenzie Health ethicist Johnathan Breslin, he describes a manifestation of status quo bias called the default effect, which is the idea that “decision-makers will tend to stick with the default choice even when it conflicts with their stated preferences.” This tends to have two root causes — the status quo effect and omission bias. The status quo effect is where people stick to the status quo in an effort to minimize regret. If a negative outcome occurs from going against the current state of affairs, we are more likely to believe things would have turned out better if we had just stuck with the default, whether or not there’s a logical reason to believe this is the case.
Omission bias is “the greater willingness to accept harms that arise from omissions than from actions.” People tend to feel higher moral responsibility when they feel they are the direct cause of harm than if harm occurs from them avoiding this responsibility. Breslin provided the example of a parent hesitating or refusing to vaccinate their children as they’re choosing to put their children at greater risk, rather than feel responsible in the small chance their child has an adverse outcome. Further, in a research article titled, “Overcoming status quo bias in the human brain,” the researchers found that humans have a much greater tendency to accept the status quo when faced with difficult choices, which leads to more errors in their decision making — even if the status quo conflicts with their chosen preferences and values. Despite the overwhelming drive to follow the status quo, it’s not impossible to fight against it, which is worth fighting to avoid greater harm. In the same study by Breslin, he suggests three potential ways to combat falling into this trap. Although his advice was specifically targeted at clinicians supporting surrogates in making decisions on behalf of patients, much of the same ideas from his first two suggestions can be ap-
plied to a large range of contexts. His first solution is, when laying out options for a decision, to frame an alternative to the status quo as the default option, combating the inclination to immediately choose the “easy out.” The second is to share major decisions with others as a means to spread the responsibility, which minimizes the chance of having to take sole responsibility for the decision, fighting omission bias. When making a difficult decision or looking at the current state of a system or structure, it’s easy to follow the status quo and hope it works out. Afterall, it’s easier to accept being responsible for harm by omission than by a direct decision. However, this bias continues to plague our decision making abilities across the board. While we shouldn’t default to disregarding the current systems in place, we shouldn’t be against considering potential for improvement, or even completely restructuring an imperfect system. Ultimately, learning to challenge the status quo not only works to benefit large-scale systems, but helps to guard individuals from making poor decisions that serve to cause them more harm than making the difficult choice to consider alternative options.
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Thursday, 04.14.22
PAGE 7
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sports
NEXT WEEK: SIUE’S TIM HALL APPOINTED TO NCAA SOFTBALL COMMITTEE
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Women’s soccer remains undefeated, spring season well underway at 3-0 BRANDON WELLS sports editor Following a 3-0 winning streak in their spring season, the women’s soccer team prepare for their next games. Looking back at the past few games, the Cougars have shown their teeth to their last three opponents, Western Illinois, Mckendree and UMSL. In their first game of this season, SIUE faced Western Illinois on March 26, winning with a 2-0 lead. The next game of the season was one of the Cougar’s lower scoring games so far, but still resulted in a 1-0 win against McKendree University. The third and most recent game on April 9 was an SIUE vs. UMSL matchup resutling in a 7-0 win for the Cougars. The team walked away with one of the highest scores they’ve overtaken UMSL with since 1982. With a prosperous few weeks of scoring goals, the team only has two games left in the season, playing against Lindenwood on Friday, and SLU on April 23. While the games have yet to be decided, the last three are indicators of more to come.
Thursday, 04.14.22
SIUE STANDINGS Softball
OVERALL OVC
SIUE Murray State UT Martin Belmont Tennessee Tech Southeast Missouri Austin Peay Eastern Illinois Morehead State Tennessee State
13-23 27-11 22-12 19-11 26-11 20-13 19-19 21-20 2-27 12-27
Baseball
OVERALL OVC
SIUE Belmont Austin Peay Southeast Missouri Tennessee Tech UT Martin Morehead State Eastern Illinois Murray State
14-16 21-11 13-20 23-7 17-12 8-21 14-16 21-8 15-15
Women’s Tennis OVERALL OVC
Murray State Belmont Austin Peay SIUE UT Martin Eastern Illinois Southeast Missouri Tennessee State
9-8 10-7 7-5 14-3 2-14 2-16 13-4 0-9
All stats are from the OVC
Freshman defender Mary Fetter of Blaine, Minnesota, tries her best to stop her opponent, Jaycee Cotton of Waterloo, Illinois. | Jihun Han / The Alestle
UPCOMING Track and Field at Redbird Invitational All day, April 15-16 Baseball at SIUC vs. Siena 2 p.m., April 15 Softball at Morehead State 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., April 15 Women’s Soccer vs. Lindenwood 5:30 p.m., April 15 Men’s Soccer at SIUE vs. Illinois Springfield 1 p.m., April 16
