The Alestle, Vol. 76, No. 26

NEWS IN BRIEF

Student government approves new presidential election

After rejecting the election results on Monday, April 10, over questions about the electoral process, Student Government has chosen to hold a new election.

The senate did approve all other election results for the uncontested seats. They have opted to approve a new election for president and vice president, discarding all previously casted votes.

The senate voted to approve a new election for president and vice president, with the stipulation that all previously casted votes be discarded.

Everyone, regardless of whether they voted in the first election, is allowed to vote in the new election which will take place from April 18 at 10 a.m. to April 20 at 10 a.m.

The votes were thrown out after discrepancies were found in the election process. These were brought to the attention of the senate last Monday and during the special meeting on April 13. Roughly 4% of students had difficulty voting through GetInvolved, according to vice president candidate Jared Jess. This, along with voting times of only 36 hours, the election commission was not approved by the senate prior to the election and accusations of a biased election committee were all brought to the attention of the senate during the emergency meeting.

Senators discussed possible solutions to problems in the first election such as extending the voting times, and providing an easily accessible link through social media and email for students who may have trouble with voting.

Voting is now open. Links were emailed to all students’ emails.

04.07.23

The fire alarm in Bluff Hall was activated due to an unknown reason. No smoke, fire or damage was reported and Edwardsville Fire Department cleared the scene.

04.09.23

The fire alarm in Woodland Hall was activated due to cooking. No smoke, fire or damage was reported and Edwardsville Fire Department cleared the scene.

04.12.23

A parking tag was stolen from a vehicle in Parking Lot A.

04.13.23

A subject reportedly exposed himself on a Zoom meeting. Money was stolen from a wallet on the 400 side of Cougar Village.

04.14.23

A traffic accident was reported on East University Drive near South State Route 157.

A debit card was found at the police department.

A backpack was in Founders Hall.

04.16.23

A traffic accident that resulted in property damage was reported in Parking Lot 11.

04.17.23

The fire alarm in Woodland Hall was activated due to cooking. No smoke, fire or damage was reported and Edwardsville Fire Department cleared the scene.

Research shows America’s food systems negatively affects minorities living in poverty

In a three-part series featuring speakers discussing the importance of food and agriculture, Bobby Smith speaks on the impact food can have within Black communities.

Smith is an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana, Champaign as well as the author of a book that pays tribute to his work in the Department of African American Studies.

“We have to re-embed the economy into society,” Smith said. “So we have to use the economy as a way to bring power to the people.”

One way of bringing the economy back into society is to simply bring society to the economy. One of the many examples Smith used is grocery stores, saying that they tend to be sterile places that lack personality and community.

However, in lower-income communities, the opposite is true. Grocery stores are rare in some communities with farmers’ markets taking their place — effectively heightening the sense of belonging within a group of people. Smith uses the example of Dollar General to further his point.

Dollar General — a place that sells food, clothes, toys and more — is common within less ‘welloff’ places. Lower-income families do not have enough money to

purchase name-brand products, so they must fill their stores with items that have been produced locally. This is where farmers’ markets become prevalent.

“Farmers’ markets are hangouts. There’s a band playing in the corner — you got tamales being cooked over here — it’s a social setting,” Smith said. “Social settings aren’t for everybody. It’s not inclusive for everybody. It seems to protect society from what corporate agriculture is doing.”

Corporate agriculture, as Smith said, protects their products instead of the people that they are selling to. Smith says that while protected, these products are killing people.

“This is a matter of life and death. Don’t eat highly processed foods because your body will shut down and attack itself and be diseased. Deceased,” Smith said.

Corporate agriculture often has such a grip on smaller communities because their food is poorly made and accessible, such as drive-thrus and fast food. However, this food is not healthy. This food is not filling and only forces someone to continue to eat more low-quality food to survive off a minimal amount of nutrients.

“It’s willful ignorance,” Smith said. “People know people are hungry, but it’s ‘their problem.’ A lot of them know what’s going on, but turn a blind eye to it anyway.”

In order to fix this issue, Smith suggested that we begin to work within our communities at these food marketplaces to begin the power shift.

“I think it takes people spreading the message,” Smith said. “These kinds of programs and conversations empower people. What’s important about these kinds of programs is it shows people they are not alone in this. So during this talk, we had people who were doing one thing talking to folks who were doing another thing … living in the same community, even though they never talk to each other. I think that’s important because you build collective power.”

Smith pushes the point that power lies within the people. He adamantly believes that commu-

nities have the power to change their state of living.

“I think that it’s going to have to impact those who are in power. Maybe it should be on the local ballot, like on local county boards. That’s where the real work happens, is at the local level,” Smith said.

One of the more individual-centered solutions on the issue of cutting heavily processed foods out of communities is the creation of aquaponic systems. Yashika Mckay was an attendee at the Rehearsing Black Food Futures speech and is the founder of a self-sustaining aquaponics system located in the St. Louis area.

“Aquaponics is where you use fish waste to grow food,” Mckay said. “That way, if you know what your fish are eating, then you

know what your food contains.”

Mckay describes this process as the “first way to grow truly clean food,” with all of the aspects of growth within the farmers’ control. This limits the amount of damaging chemicals that make their way into the food, and assists in creating healthier products, and therefore healthier people.

“I’m thinking from the outside. I want to know what other people are going to think. I just want people to understand how the food system works, and once we understand how it works, we can begin to organize to resist it, to work within it, or use it for our benefit,” Smith said. For more information visit Smith’s webpage at University of Illinois’ website. Reporter Dylan Hembrough contributed to this article.

THEA WELTZIN illustrator

Bobby Smith, pictured here, has researched extensively on the Food Justice Movement. The movement works to provide culturally-appropriate, healthy food for people in underprivileged communities. | Dylan Hembrough / The Alestle

Illinois remains a safe haven for transgender people while surrounding states turn hostile

CHLOE WOLFE photographer BRUCE DARNELL sports editor

As the country becomes more hostile toward transgender people, they have started to consider where they and their families will be safest. Illinois is one of those places.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, 461 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced across the United States in 2023; many of which were anti-trans bills. Illinois has remained comparatively safe compared to surrounding states.

In Missouri alone, 40 bills have been introduced. The bills introduced would provide guidelines for gender-affirming care, education on gender and sexuality within schools and sports among other things.

One such law is SB 49, also known as the SAFE Act, which would prevent medical professionals from performing transitional surgery on minors and prohibit other gender-affirming care used to treat dysphoric minors.

Illinois, on the other hand, has only proposed four bills. State Representative Katie Stuart (D-Edwardsville), explained how these bills will not be taken seriously.

“It would be very rare for these bills to see anything. I think these are the types of bills that get filed for people to rile up their base, and I think none of them will see any debate or discussion,” Stuart said.

As many states surrounding Illinois move to pass bills similar to SB 49, Illinois has yet to pass or entertain any bills that would prevent care for transgender people. Stuart said that this has made Illinois a safe state, though this can change at any time.

“I think right now, [Illinois] can be considered a safe place,” Stuart said. “I think that’s something that we always have to protect and be vigilant about because, as we see, depending on your administration and who is in your

elected assemblies, those things can change.”

With several states passing laws regarding transgender people, those who identify differently with the sex they were assigned at birth are having to think of safety and mental health when deciding where they want to live and work.

Mariah Mack, a gender non-conforming graduate student studying biology, had to deal with this problem after getting a job interview in Missouri.

“I was just afraid of introducing myself and my pronouns.” Mack said. “But it was so much a part of me that it’s like, ‘Maybe I’ll wait for someone else to start that conversation.’ And also, if I get this job, do I want to live in Missouri? Will that be good for me and my mental health in the long term? Will I be able to be me, or am I going to have to live a little pseudo-life for a while?”

Mack is among many who are facing these problems in the U.S. as this legislation is being introduced. Those who live in states with proposed anti-trans legislation are now wondering if they need to leave their homes in order to be safe once again.

Liz Stygar, a sociology instructor, said a similar problem for families who have transgender children.

“It’s hard for me to be totally intellectual about this topic, because I am so emotional about it,” Stygar said. ”I have a friend who has a trans 11-year-old boy, and they’re considering moving to Illinois. Puberty is quickly approaching, and how does that child get the resources that they need? And so, Illinois is turning into a beacon of healthcare in the Midwest.”

While Illinois currently remains relatively safe — for trans people as well as other means of health care such as abortion — this can be subject to change at any moment.

Tristan Sites, a junior online student studying organizational leadership, is an openly transgender man who has had trouble imagining Illinois become like other states in the Midwest.

TRANS RIGHTS TERMS TO KNOW

TRANSGENDER

A person whose gender identity and or expression is different from their sex assigned at birth, and societal and cultural expectations around sex

NONBINARY

A person who does not identify with the man or woman gender binary

CISGENDER

A person whose gender identity aligns with their sex assigned at birth

GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE

Social, psychological, behavioral or medical interventions that affirm gender identity. Medical interventions include surgery and hormone treatments.

SEX

“It’s really painful to think about,” Sites said. “So just imagining how the people in those states must feel — I’m lucky that I live in Illinois and not somewhere else. I can’t imagine anything like that passing because we have Chicago, but I’m sure a lot of the people dealing with it right now thought the same thing.”

Stygar also discussed why they think some of these bills are starting to pop up. She believes social media is the root cause because misinformation runs rampant. This is primarily because of sensationalism and anonymity users are afforded across the internet.

“I think social media on behalf of people showing who they really are and then social media’s spread of misinformation has created a big firestorm,” Stygar said. “If I had to blame one thing, I’d blame social media, and I know that’s reducing a complex problem, but I think people feel anonymous, and they can be really nasty when they feel anonymous.”

Laurie Rice, a political science professor, said she believes the recent surge in anti-trans legislation is due to the rapid gain of rights within the LGBTQ community over the last 20 years. She also cited the shifting opinions of the U.S.

The different biological and physiological characteristics of males and females, such as reproductive organs, chromosomes, hormones, etc.

GENDER

The socially constructed characteristics of women and men —such as norms, roles and relationships of and between groups of women and men.

FTM

Female at birth to male

MTF

Male at birth to female

Supreme Court.

“We’ve seen a pretty significant social change and change in public opinion in a relatively short period of public opinion. And now we see a movement that is reactionary,” Rice said.

Sites said that seeing this movement sprout up has been disappointing due to his belief that progress was being made.

“It’s taken a huge toll on my mental health,” Sites said. “It seemed like we were going forward, you know? Everything seemed like it was getting better, it was being talked about more and seemed like something everyone at least knew about. Having the sudden backslide is incredibly disheartening.”

Elizabeth Kamper, a gender-nonconforming information literacy librarian and assistant professor within the Honors department said they believe this recent trend towards anti-transgender rhetoric is happening because transgender people threaten conservative society.

“Just the existence of trans individuals de-legitimizes the foundations of heteronormativity and white supremacy,” Kamper said. “The hatred has always existed but it’s blatant now because xenophobic voices have been amplified since 2016. They were always there; they were quiet before, but now they’re loud.”

As these bills continue to be introduced and passed, Rice said she believes we will not only see a shift of coalitions within current political parties, but a change in who votes as well.

“On one hand, there’s a group of Republicans that are social conservatives pushing for some of these changes,” Rice said. “But there’s also been a long history of well-organized LGBTQ Republicans. They’ve had a safe place with the Republicans until recently, but with these policies they are no longer safe.”

Rice said this alienation may change the current political landscape in the future.

“We may see some shifting in party affiliation as a result [of the new policies],” Rice said.“The biggest impact will be seen in Gen Z voters as well as young-

er millennials who tend to be big supporters of LGBTQ rights and say that it’s an important issue; the sort of issue that might bring people to the polls who don’t usually participate.”

Although the impact of these bills have yet to be seen, some places are working to ensure safe spaces remain. Stygar and Kamper believe that SIUE has remained a relatively safe space f or transgender people.

“I think most people on campus want inclusivity and want this campus to be a safe place,” Stygar said. “My impression is that most people are on board and there’s just a few people who are resisting.”

Sites said he agrees with the general acceptance of LGBTQ community, and he’s had positive interactions with all of his teachers and fellow students.

“I definitely feel that the staff are more aware and conscious of differences and are willing to learn from them, rather than being put off by them,” Sites said.

The Queer Faculty and Staff Association has worked with The Mensi Project to place menstruation products in all of the bathrooms in accordance with Illinois law. They also serve as a safe space for students.

Kamper, who is the Vice President of the QFSA, says that in the future they would like to have a specific space with “a closed door” for queer students who just need a moment or a place to be themselves.

As these bills continue to be introduced and passed, the people affected by them are continuing to live their lives, but have to remain vigilant. Sites says now more than ever it is paramount for cisgender people to support trans people in any way they can.

“If you have trans friends, stand by them, go to the bathroom with them if that’s necessary,” Sites said. “Be supportive. Be their rock and understand that there are things that they have experienced; fears and anxieties that they experience on a daily basis that you might not understand, but you need to be there to support them.”

The transgender pride flag was spray painted over the rock on the quad in mid-January when anti-transgender bills started popping up frequently. | Chloe Wolfe / The Alestle

NEXT WEEK: METRO EAST EATS FEATURING LOCAL BBQ

‘Bacchae: Reboot’ Ancient greek theater to a modern stage

FRANCESCA BOSTON lifestyles editor

With a minimal set, loud costumes and a completely original script, “Bacchae: Reboot” opened for its world premiere Wednesday night.

Honors Professor Eric Ruckh, currently serving as interim dean of Library and Information Services, was a co-writer for the show along with Theater

and Dance Chair Chuck Harper. Ruckh said the show has been in the works since 2019, when the two had worked together on another play adaptation. The show was a collaboration between the honors program and theater department, with an honors 320A class led by Ruckh and Harper, which aims to break down what tragedy is.

“It was a collaboration of honors and theater; the class was on tragedy and the actors were invited to class at the start of the semester and helped create conversation in class, while the honors students provided the advantage of being an outsider,” Ruckh said.

Pop culture references are used throughout the show such as Family Feud, which helps the audience understand conflict between the Thebes family.

Ruckh said they began working on the script back in Fall 2022 and finalized it by spring break. He said the script focuses on the psychological ideas of power and human nature.

“There is a debate about

the nature of power, about legitimate power, and also what it means to be good,” Ruckh said.

Senior Alexis Houston was part of the honors 320A class and is one of the narrators for the textscape, a spoken word document that several of the class members will read as the audience arrives for the show. She said the class went through all their readings for the semester and pulled out phrases that would help set the mood of the show.

“Most shows have a soundscape, like music, but because

it’s a play, there is a textscape instead. We read lines that we have selected from tragedy we read throughout the semester that help set the narrative for the show,” Houston said.

Senior Garron Orozco, a theater performance major from Houston, Texas, who plays Cadmus and Piss Boy, said that one of the exciting things about the show is the devising aspect, creating a show out of themes and morals and then writers, cast and other creative use their own interpretation and build a show

from the ground up.

“I feel like this show specifically really shows you what devising can be. Because every other scene is a new genre,” Orozco said. “We have musicals, we have serious numbers, we have pure Greek tragedy… and it’s all this huge spectrum,” Orozco said.

Sophomore Astra Megyesi, a theater major from Denver, Colorado, plays Agave. They said the show can be a bit hard to follow sometimes and that one watch isn’t always enough, but it’s wonderful once it clicks.

“Once you do start to understand it, everything kind of clicks and starts coming together and creating this new environment, this new world that you become sucked into,” Megyesi said.

Ruckh said the show was inspired by some of his own experiences as a queer man, but he also drew inspiration from poets and authors for many of the ensemble scenes.

“Anne Carson has helped me understand the weirdness and strangeness of the Greek world. Jorie Graham, a contemporary American poet, uses Greek mythology to explore big ideas, and Madeline Miller, who shows that Greek mythology can be emotionally resonating,” Ruckh said.

The show opened on April 19 and will run through April 23. Tickets can be purchased online and are free with a valid SIUE student ID card.

‘Doing more with less’: Fuller Dome carries on Fuller’s legacy

of the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability board.

game was lost.

The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability presented an exhibition filled with belongings donated from the Fuller Estate in a gallery made possible from a grant by the Meridian Society. The exhibition included several tools and belongings of Buckminster Fuller.

Tovia Black, manager of the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability, said Buckminster Fuller has a long history with this region of the country. Black said that history is something the center wishes to promote as much as possible.

“Buckminster Fuller created the design for the geodesic dome in 1971,” Black said. “He was a humanitarian and an activist, and he was very passionate about helping people understand their connection to the Earth and to each other.”

Ethel Shanklin, president of the Meridian Society, attended the Buckminster Fuller exhibit on April 15 to receive a public thankyou from members

“The Meridian Society is a nonprofit organization, part of SIUE,” Shanklin said. “What we do is send out applications to secure funding for organizations who need it. We assisted in funding the art gallery, as well as the stereo system they have, so I’m here for them to thank us today.”

The Buckminster Fuller exhibition was set up in part to extend gratitude towards the Meridian Society for theirgrants, demonstrating the extensive usage of the gallery they funded. The center has also hosted an exhibition on vessels and pottery in the recent past.

Benjamin Lowder, Director of the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability, agreed with Black that the center was excited about this donation in particular because of the close affiliation Fuller had with these objects.

Lowder used as an example Fuller’s “World Game,” a simulation in which people would have to cooperate to share resources instead of going to war over them. If conflict arose, the

“We just get hijacked by people who want to make money by doing things the old way, or keep power by doing things the old way,” Lowder said. “It would be nice if the human species was proactive instead of preventative, but where we’re at now in the timeline, we’ll probably adopt his ideas out of necessity of survival rather than preventing disaster. It’s a legacy that becomes more important day by day.”

“They have a resonance almost as talismanic objects he invested a lot of talent with,” Lowder said. “These are the ways he communicated his ideas, his genius. That’s how he got his ideas out of his head and into the world.”

Lowder said the Fuller Estate has been donating to the center since 2017. The center runs on donations and fundraisers, as the building is not actually owned by SIUE, instead owned by the building’s board.

“[The Fuller Estate] knows that we’re going to get it out to the community,” Lowder said. “If you give it to a larger institution maybe that has tons of different things, it just becomes one of the many things like that warehouse in Indiana

Jones. That’s not here, and I think that they appreciate that. They’ve also identified this region as the most important region in the world for structures that Bucky actually built.”

Tom Kinsella, a center board member, said...”said the board tries to keep the Dome as updated as possible, not only to keep up with the times, but also to emulate Fuller’s mission.

“We look at this building not so much as a museum piece to honor Buckminster Fuller, but more as a living organism, and we try to treat it the way we think he would’ve treated it,” Kinsella said. “He would want to keep up with the time and science and technology. He wasn’t a static kind of guy.” For more infomation visit the website.

DYLAN HEMBROUGH reporter

The cast preforms a musical number in which Dionysus convinces Pentheus to spy on the women who are commiting “mysterious’ acts in the woods. I Francesca Boston / The Alestle

Benjamin Lowder, Director of the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability (right), extending gratitude to Ethel Shanklin, President of the Meridian Society (center), along with two other members from the Meridian Society (left), on April 15, 2023 I Udit Nalukala / The Alestle

I Francesca Boston / The Alestle

FRANCESCA BOSTON lifestyles editor the chat.”

Running club bounces back after pandemic and is now working to encourage runners of all speeds to be part of a larger community.

Senior Nick Miller, an exercise science major, is president of SIUE’s Running Club. He said that during the peak of COVID-19, the club had shrunk to very few members, but now the club is thriving with over 70 members.

Miller said initially he started with a group of friends he knew would be interested, and from there, started reaching out to other students through advertisements, speaking with various clubs, and creating a more effective group communication through Discord.

“I just saw an opportunity. There was a club that wasn’t active and I had the time and interest,” Miller said. “We created a GroupMe, and started marketing and networking and eventually had to switch to a different platform because it got too big and things were getting washed away in

Junior Conner Lynn is a captain for the club, which means he helps lead runs and does behind-the-scenes work like creating flyers and planning fundraisers. Lynn said he was not a serious runner most of his life, but has loved being a part of Running Club because it is an inclusive and welcoming environment.

“We’re all kind of supporting each other, kind of just giving tips to each other and then also running with each other,” Lynn said.

The club is co-ed and open to all students, no matter their athletic ability or their mile time. Miller said the club is a bit different than other Club Sports at SIUE because they are a non-competitive team, and make an effort to stress inclusivity by creating an environment welcoming to runners of all experience levels.

“There’s this misconception that you have to be the fastest runner and that is not the case,” Miller said. “We’ve kind of taken the other approach which is pretty non-traditional in club sports. We are very recreational and encourage everyone no

matter their pace to join.”

Miller said while the group doesn’t specifically focus on races, one of the main draws for people to join the club was to learn how races work, and often have race fees covered by the club.

“One of the things that the ones that we advertised is free races, as we try to get people introduced into racing, because I think it’s a great atmosphere that a lot of people need to experience, especially if you don’t know what it is like,” Miller said.

The club recently ran in GO! St. Louis, an annual event held in St. Louis, that features multiple race lengths. The club had more than a dozen runners running in everything from 10K to full marathons. Miller said the race was a huge accomplishment with multiple people either running that distance in a race for the first time or setting a new personal best.

“It was just a big win for everyone. Everyone had huge accomplishments. That’s a huge blast. There is just an awesome energy the running community provides on race days,” Miller said.

The club is part of SIUE Club Sports,

and receives allocation. Miller said that is where the majority of the club’s funds came from last year, but with an increase in membership, they have begun to fundraise to help maintain their funds to pay for races.

Madhu Muniganti, a grad student from India, said he joined the club quickly after arriving at SIUE and has found the club to be welcoming and motivating.

“As soon as I got here I looked for [the club] because I really wanted to join something and the club was really awesome. It motivated me as well,” Muniganti said.

Miller said if you are even halfway interested in the club, he recommends giving it a chance.

“School is stressful and can weigh you down, and exercise is one of the best way to lift yourself up, if you’re stressed in school and halfway interested in the club, just give it a shot because you never know the people you will meet. You will be healthier, happier and make friends,” Miller said.

If you are interested in joining The Running Club, visit their Get Involved page, or email Nick Miller at nichomi@siue.edu.

There’s something for everyone through the Educational Outreach

Brock said that classes range from learning a new language to training to use Microsoft Office.

toward anyone interested in learning about bread.

The Office of Online Services and Educational Outreach provides various services, including outings and personal/ professional development classes.

Regardless of whether you’re taking credit courses at SIUE or not, you can take classes through the Office of Online Services and Educational Outreach.

Leslie Brock, assistant director of non-credit programs, said that the outreach program has something available for everyone. While attending these classes does not lead to academic credit, they are highly beneficial for personal growth.

“We offer a variety of programs for people to come in. You just get to come, have fun, and then leave,” Brock said.

“The classes are usually used as personal enrichment or professional development.”

These courses include activities like guided meditation, guitar lessons, and pottery classes.

Among these courses are various bread- making classes through 222 Artisan Bakery and creative art classes through the Macoupin Art Collective.

The education outreach program has allowed local business owners to connect with the community, fostering the opportunity to share knowledge and resources.

According to Trevor Taynor, an owner of 222 Artisan Bakery, hosting bread-making classes through the outreach program has enabled him to connect with a larger audience.

“I just feel really lucky about all this,“ Taynor said. “It’s really easy to work with everybody there … It’s helped me be able to explain bread more easily to everybody.”

Taynor said that his classes are catered

“Really just anybody that wants to learn the science behind baking,” Taynor said. “I kind of give more understanding in that aspect of things rather than just saying ‘here are the ingredients, mix it together and this is how it turns out’.”

Marcella Cloud and Brandace Cloud from the Macoupin Art Collective said that the outreach program has generated interest in their other art classes beyond the program, resulting in increased attendance.

“A lot of the people that come in, will come in for other things, too,” Marcella Cloud said. “They come in and they’re super jazzed about what we’re doing, and then we hand them the class schedule and they get so excited.”

According to Alicia Taylor, the Lifelong Learning Institute’s Program Coordinator, the Educational Outreach program plays a crucial role in enabling

individuals from all over the region to discover, learn, and connect. Through the program, participants can gain new skills, learn about diverse topics, and establish connections with others who share their interests.

Taylor said that in addition to the personal and professional classes, the Educational Outreach program offers services such as a speaker series and tours of local landmarks.

“We do two [faculty-led] lectures every Wednesday during the fall and spring semester,” Taylor said.

Taylor said the tours include places such as the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Taylor said that Educational Outreach is an important part of SIUE’s mission.

“SIUE does a lot more for the area communities than just providing educational degrees,” Taylor said. “We really want to help support and lift up the a rea communities.”

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One final for a class is more effective than multiple

As the end of the semester approaches, the communal stress of campus is felt by everyone. Students are checking grades, preparing for final essays and final projects and professors are trying to get all the semester’s grades in on time.

the start and end of the semester, perceived stress and test anxiety both go down, but burnout goes up. At first, this seems like a good thing. Less stress because of exams is positive, but the most logical reason for it is upsetting: students stop caring.

THEA WELTZIN Illustrator

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Among the final essays, projects and exams are a few cases in which finals and final projects are both being given. In those cases, students are overwhelmed and often pick one final over the other to give thorough attention to, while the other assignment receives less attention and less high quality work.

According to a study from the peer-reviewed journal Health Promotion Practice, stress in college students fluctuates depending on the topic. Between

By the end of the semester, students have already been through the wringer. You’ve at least taken one other exam, and turned in a few projects or assignments here or there. That causes stress. When 13 or 14 weeks have passed, and classes are wrapping up, some students are resigned to their fate. There are rare stories of students saving a grade with a class, but there are more stories of students failing out of classes because of finals.

We are not asking for finals to be done away with entirely. It’s still useful to have an assessment or culmination of a class’

Cry when you feel like

Mental health is important for students to do well academically and in other aspects of life. A great way we can better support ourselves is by crying when we know we need to cry instead of suppressing our tears.

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From a young age, many are taught that they shouldn’t cry when they are upset, whether it’s an attempt at being comforting with a, “Don’t cry honey,” or a threat made like, “Keep crying or I’ll give you something to cry about.” When we are children, the things consistently taught and normalized tend to become a big part of how we carry ourselves as adults.

Holding in our true emotions, like our sadness and anger, is very unhealthy. It builds within us and grows into animosity towards ourselves and/or others. A lot of the time we don’t realize that we’ve internalized

unprocessed negative emotions and we begin to project them in unhealthy ways. It is important for us to process our emotions in the moment that we’re feeling them. It can be so hard when you feel like you just don’t have the time, the space, the energy or sometimes even the ability. But those little moments of effort slowly make way for it to be more natural.

Whether you believe in a God always being with you or not, or a loved one always being with you or not, you can be sure that the one person you will forever have to live with is yourself. For a lot of people, it is hard to be alone with themselves. Sometimes that means being without distractions or addictive substances. A lot of times, those become the coping mechanisms. Instead of healing, it causes you to suppress your emotions and makes unhealthy coping mechanisms more of a habit. That makes

work at the end of the semester. But having multiple assignments count towards a single final grade is detrimental to students’ mental health.

Different kinds of final grades have different uses and purposes. A final exam works well in a STEM class, because oftentimes in those courses, answers are often correct or wrong in a binary sense. An essay makes sense in an English or creative writing course, because the classes are built around writing. Final projects are perfect for art students. Assigning both final projects and final essays, or a project and an exam confuses and stresses students.

It can also take away the importance of one final by assigning two of them. Students are prepared for one final per class. When a class assigns them two, one obviously has to be put aside,

it really hard to connect with yourself. Wherever you are in your healing journey, the smallest moment of effort could be life-changing.

Your body is always talking to you to tell you what it needs. When you start making an effort to listen, it becomes easier and eventually you’ll know what you need emotionally, mentally or physically almost instantly. Sometimes when you’re angry, you just need to let yourself cry.

Some may not have the ability to get their waterworks started. That’s normal. It’s harder to physically cry when your body is so used to suppressing the act of crying. It’s OK to find something to help you get your tears out like listening to sad songs or watching a sad movie. As the master of your mental, physical, and emotional being, it is your duty to yourself to care for yourself that way. No one can take care of you the way that you can.

and another must become the main focus. Professors who assign multiple finals should know that it’s almost a guarantee that most students will prioritize one final over the other.

If professors want to ensure they’re measuring their students’ knowledge of the course, then they should do so in the most efficient way possible. The professor saying, “This is the final, summative assessment, to show all you have learned in the class in one grade,” followed with, “Also, here is another final, summative assessment to show all you have learned in one grade,” is repetitive and counterintuitive to the concept of finals. This May, if professors could show some grace and some understanding, it would be greatly appreciated. Besides, it’s less grading on their part.

thank

A lot of times our tears make other people uncomfortable in a sense of it being an inconvenience to them. That’s where we hear, “It’s OK, don’t cry,” or, “That situation isn’t worth crying over.” No one should try to dictate your tears. No one else has to live with your thoughts, emotions, mental health problems or anything else that comes with you being you. Therefore, no one should allow their own discomfort with your emotions to keep you from the emotional release that you’re entitled to as a human being.

A big issue that keeps a lot of people from crying out their emotions is invalidation. You are valid in what you feel, you just need to handle those feelings in the healthiest way possible. The way you feel will affect the way that you perform in life. It is easier to thrive academically when you’re feeling good mentally and emotionally.

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SIUE conquers the Cougar Classic track meet, breaks records

AUDREY O’RENIC copy editor

Despite a setback brought by weather conditions, the SIUE men’s and women’s track and field teams secured several firstplace finishes and new personal records at the Cougar Classic on April 15.

Kailah Carter, a junior from Bloomington, Illinois, placed first and set a new personal record in the women’s 400-meter dash. Carter said that despite the rain delay and quick-paced schedule, she was able to get adequately prepared for her race.

“[After the delay,] I kind of rushed having to warm up and stuff just because I didn’t know exactly what time my race was gonna go off, but I prepared within enough time,” Carter said.

Carter said that she gave an aggressive start, and used this to push her through to the finish line.

“I made up the stagger pretty quick on the first 200 [meters], and then I was kind of fighting between a competitor from [Southeast Missouri State] the last half of the race,” Carter said. “I just kind of stuck with what I knew, what I’ve been training for, and just ran all the way through as hard as I could to

the finish.”

Carter set her personal best at the previous meet with a

56.74-second finish, and at the Cougar Classic, Carter set her new personal best at 56.30 —

nearly a half-second difference.

“[I had] almost a half a second PR, so I was really pleased with that. Last week I [set a new personal record] at [University of Illinois,] and when we had the home meet I [set a new personal record] again, which I was really happy with,” Carter said. “My goal for [next week] is to honestly beat my previous time — keep the ball rolling, the good energy going.”

Paris Somerville, a junior from Chicago, Illinois, placed first in the women’s 100-meter hurdles with a 14.21 mark — not only a personal best, but also ranking fourth in program history.

“For my win in particular, it was a pretty special win for me because I [set a new personal record] and also got in the all-time top five list for [the 100-meter hurdles,]” Somerville said. “That was a pretty big deal for me, an accomplishment that I didn’t know I would really make.”

Somerville said that she wants to keep improving her time and has long-term goals for the future.

“For my next meet, I definitely want to continue to PR and definitely move up the list

— that’s my long-term goal for the rest of my track career here at SIUE,” Somerville said.

Somerville said that the team was excited and full of energy, especially because it was a home meet — a meet SIUE has not hosted since 2019.

“The team did pretty well, especially at a home meet. Everyone was excited, and despite the weather, everyone was still putting in their best effort for everything, there were a lot of [personal records] and a couple of people also made it to the top five in their events also,” Somerville said. “Everyone accomplished what they needed to do.”

Other first-place finishes include Bobby Nuzzo, a senior from Mundelein, Illinois, in both the men’s 100-meter dash at 10.78 and the 200-meter dash at 21.73, and Maryiah Menicucci, a freshman from Marion, Illinois, who also set a new personal record of 13.27 meters in women’s shot put.

The Cougars track and field teams will compete next week in the Gary Wieneke Memorial beginning at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, April 21 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

NEXT WEEK: BASEBALL, SOFTBALL AND TENNIS PLAY IN WEEKEND SERIES.

Junior Natalia Rodriguez passes a Western Illinois runner. | Winter Racine / The Alestle

Junior Caroline Gwaltney, Freshman Olivia Wolf and Junior Chessy Nikonowicz run around the track together during the mile run event. | Winter Racine / The Alestle