The Alestle, Vol. 75 No. 35

THE

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School of Nursing to receive new equipment PAGE 2

Drag show comes to main street at Recess Brewing

New assistant coaches bring new hopes for men’s basketball

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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

the student voice since 1960

Wednesday, July 27, 2022 Vol. 75 No. 35

Increase in funding allows more students to become eligible for MAP Grant LIV KRAUS reporter

With an increase in funding for the Illinois Monetary Award Program (MAP), more students are able to receive money to help cover the costs of tuition.

The Illinois MAP Grant is a needbased grant that’s designed to financially aid families who aren’t able to support the cost of college.

“It’s an Illinois-based program and it’s just Illinois students so it doesn’t apply to SIU Edwardsville students coming from another state,” SIU President Dan Mahony said. “It only applies to people from Illinois.”

Mesha Garner, director of student financial aid, said there are more than 2,800 SIUE students who benefit from the Illinois MAP Grant.

“You would need to complete the FAFSA in order to determine eligibility,” Garner said. “Not all students are eligible for the Illinois MAP Grant; however, many are if they’re in financial need.”

Garner said that financial aid can benefit students by allowing them to use it to pay for other expenses.

“The Illinois MAP Grant is tuition

and fee targeted so that means it goes di- but also reduce the amount of students rectly towards your tuition and fees, while who are eligible and aren’t able to receive some of the students’ other financial aid the grants.” options can extend beyond that,” Garner Mahony said more than half of the stusaid. “It creates more space for your other dents who use the Illinois MAP Grant are financial aid to pay for other things.” first-time college students, which would Mahony said cause them to be many higher edumore affected by cation institutions lack of funding. have been request“Sometimes ing an increase for first-generaThe maximum award in the maximum tion college stuamount awarddents, sometimes last year that a student ed for the Illinois they’re later to could get before the MAP Grant beapply or later to cause it would refill out the FAFspring addition was only sult in more money SA, and therefor students to use fore they’re not $5,496, but now it’s been on tuition and feweligible or don’t increased by $1,700 and er students getting receive the MAP turned down for funding even if now totals $7,200,” the grant. they have that “In the past, financial need,” Mesha Garner sometimes up to Mahony said.

Director of Student Financial Aid 50,000 students Garner said who were eligible the state of Illididn’t get the grants because the money nois decided to increase the award amount ran out,” Mahony said. “By increasing the to see more students eligible for the Illinois amount available for the grants, not only are MAP Grant. we able to increase the amount per student, Meanwhile, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has stat-

“

ed that this year every student who applies will receive a MAP grant, leaving no one on the waitlist for the first time in 20 years.

“The maximum award last year that a student could get before the spring addition was only $5,496, but now it’s been increased by $1,700 and now totals $7,200,” Garner said. “So, students get $7,200 if they are eligible for the maximum award of the Illinois MAP Grant.”

Mahony said that everyone should at least fill out a FAFSA because even if someone comes from a high-income family, they can still be eligible for federal loans.

“There are a lot of students who apply for financial aid,” Garner said. “However, there are more students out there who could benefit that haven’t taken advantage of what’s available for them.”

Garner said she encourages all students to apply for financial aid as early as possible.

FAFSAs can be filed beginning Oct. 1.

“We’re in a different time right now where things are happening where increases are available,” Garner said. “If students don’t want to miss out on the money that’s available to them they should definitely apply early, fill out their documents.”

For more information, visit the Student Financial Aid website.

Lovejoy Library cuts databases to fund staffing DATABASE

RENEWAL COST

COST PER USE

Humanities International Complete

$7,187.70

$4.14

Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstract

$4,439.02

$10.09

Oxford English Dictionary

$3800

$11.62

MORE DATABASES:

EMILY STERZINGER editor-in-chief

Access to 10 databases provided by the library ended on July 1. These cuts were made to allocate funding to staffing the understaffed library.

Eric Ruckh, the interim dean of library and information services, said that $1.8 million of the $3.8 million library budget is spent on electronic acquisitions.

Over 95 percent of the total acquisitions budget is spent on electronic databases.

“The largest part of our acquisitions are used to support electronic resources,” Ruckh said. “The amount that we’re spending on electronic resources has been growing incrementally by way of inflation and beyond for many years.”

Out of its college library peers in Illinois, Lovejoy Library is the most underfunded. Ruckh said that in the past, the electronic acquisitions budget was sustained by letting staff positions go unfilled.

“The library right now is understaffed, critically understaffed. It’s understaffed to the point where basic operations are threatened,” Ruckh said.

Ruckh said in the past, there were

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440 uses during the fiscal year 362 uses during the fiscal year

America: History and Life, Historical Abstracts, PAIS International with Archive, Philosopher's Index, IOP Science, Alexander Street Video, Global Newstream

eight employees doing the work to make resources in the library, physical and digital, discoverable. Currently, there are three employees doing that work.

“They are pressed to their limits. If we lose one critical person, we might lose access to really basic functionality in this library,” Ruckh said.

Ruckh said decisions on renewals were made by looking at cost per use and overlaps of information.

“Some of the databases we cut are covered by other databases and titles. We tried as best we could to think about cost per use and other alternative coverage,” Ruckh said. “Is that enough for a robust collegiate collaborative process? No, but we had to start somewhere.”

Kristine Hildebrandt, a professor in the English department, said her colleagues had some concern about the number of resource uses reported regarding the decision to make cuts.

“They were using some kind of a click model, how many times these resources had been clicked on. A lot of faculty weren’t sure where those numbers were coming from, because they felt like if their own use and their own teaching and their

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1,736 uses during the fiscal year

own classes had been counted that the click numbers would be higher,” Hildebrandt said.

A consultative process to decide which databases should be renewed is in development to be tested in the fall. Ruckh said decisions about renewals were made before this process was available because if the library had waited, funding would not be able to be internally transferred from electronic acquisitions to staffing.

“An annual review process would have multiple data points, would understand and be aligned to norming use against student populations and faculty research, and it would be collaborative,” Ruckh said. “That is, it would involve faculty from outside the library on conversations about databases.”

Allison Thomason, chair and professor of the history department, said she understands Ruckh’s choice in restructuring the budget, but that the losses of certain databases hurt students.

“When we lose ‘America: History and Life,’ which is a really important indexing database for students to do research, and faculty, but mainly our students at all levels -- from undergrad, to our majors, to our masters and doctoral students -- it is a

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very important tool and it hurts to lose it,” Thomason said. “We’re doing everything we can to try and get it back.”

Hildebrandt said she feels the Oxford English Dictionary and Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts were the most important databases to her teaching out of the cuts made. She said the Modern Language Association database is still a good alternative resource, but has its challenges regarding the study of linguistics. “[MLA] gives you much broader responses outside of linguistics. So LLBA has always been more focused and specific to linguistics and language studies,” Hildebrandt said.

Thomason said Ruckh has been “incredibly transparent” about the cuts made, and that he said that no decision is irrevocable.

“We had a meeting with Dr. Ruckh yesterday and it made the faculty feel supported by [him.]” Thomason said. “He’s one of us too, he’s a historian, so he understands the importance of research tools, and our point again was just to make sure these cuts are made equitably according to program needs.”

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Isolation and online learning leaves students behind academically and socially BRANDON WELLS sports editor

After the swift move from in-person to online learning in 2020, students were forced into isolation coupled with online learning. Because of this, many students, both college and K-12, fell behind academically, socially and mentally.

In many ways, students are behind in different subjects depending on how effective their online learning was. According to an article from the New York Times, one such area many students are behind in is reading. This drastic change in reading ability for students who had to try and learn it online left teachers struggling to figure out how to account for more than a year of learning made difficult by COVID-19.

Rebecca Swartz, an assistant professor in teaching and learning, said she believes the pandemic presented many challenges to students due to the sudden collapse of structure and socialization.

“The year and a half that many children were remote learning — especially remote learning [and] especially for young children, that was a very challenging time

because the social situation and routines were so different,” Swartz said. “Many of them left their familiar childcare situation and were at home [and] they weren’t getting peer interactions so that when we all came back to the classroom, children needed to relearn how to interact in real life.”

Swartz also said the lack of hands-on learning was a detriment to many students.

“For a lot of children, they needed the support of an adult and their adults were not necessarily able to sit with them and do Zoom learning. Young children are hands-on, in the moment, social-relational learners, and for a lot of children that led to developmental lags,” Swartz said.

Now that schools are mostly back in person, Swartz said a lot of the responsibility has been placed on the teachers and parents to help bring students back into the learning space and get them reengaged to learn.

“What we’re seeing in classrooms is teachers needing to repair, and parents [also] needing to repair that time and provide those experiences to young children. Those are both academic and social,” Swartz said.

Working with the state of Illinois to help solve this very problem is Natasha Flowers, the director of the elementary ed-

ucation program and School of Education, Health and Human Behavior assistant dean for anti-racism, equity, and inclusion. A program provided by the Illinois Higher Board of Education, the Illinois Tutoring Initiative, has the goal of helping K-12 students catch up in school after being affected by the pandemic.

Regardless of age, many students suddenly felt the after effects of the pandemic soon after returning to school. According to an article from Pew Charitable Trusts, many teachers have seen changes in students with more disruptive behavior and poor mental health being much more apparent than before. This change was caused by the lack of connection many students felt from the structure they had before.

As a mother herself, Flowers said she heard similar concerns echoed by her children in high school and college.

“For them, collectively, it was a struggle because they played sports, they were in other activities … [I think] they did feel a sense of disconnection from their friends they cared about and from their favorite teachers and professors,” Flowers said.

“They try to tell me that they hate school, but they don’t, they love school.”

Wednesday, 07.27.22

NEWS IN BRIEF SIUE stops updating COVID-19 dashboard With a safer future in sight, the SIUE COVID-19 dashboard has been shut down as of July 1, 2022.

This comes after an extended period of time where vaccines have been available and positive cases in the area have been going down over time.

While COVID-19 is not completely out of the equation, SIUE recommends keeping track of infection rates directly from the CDC’s website for county statistics and recommendations.

Currently, Madison County is still seen as a high-risk area for infections, with positivity rates above 15 percent as of July 22, according to the CDC COVID Data Tracker.

While university policies are not requiring mask usage, the CDC still recommends them in most indoor settings.

New equipment gives nursing students better training opportunities NICOLE BOYD opinion editor

After their first fundraiser, the nursing anesthesiology program purchased new equipment, which will offer better visibility and allow students to train sideby-side with instructors.

The nursing anesthesiology program put funds toward a glidescope with video laryngoscope. Glidescopes are used for the placement of breathing tubes during general anesthesia, and the video laryngoscope allows the airway system to be seen via video screen.

Leah Baecht, assistant program director of the nursing anesthesia program and assistant professor, said the glidescope was chosen so students could learn the skills required to place breathing tubes safely while minimizing injuries to the airway.

She said the video laryngoscope, which is the glidescope’s system, allows the student and the instructor to visualize each structure. Rather than the instructor relying on what the student sees, what is seen with the laryngoscope is transferred to a screen so everyone in the room can work together.

“Navigating the anatomy is difficult for students to learn how to do on their own because during direct laryngoscopy, which is the standard of practice and has been for decades, it’s very difficult for two people to see inside the patient’s airway and identify all of the anatomy,” Baecht said.

Baecht said the current glidescope in the lab is the same one she trained on 15 years ago, so it doesn’t have the best optics. She said as current patients have become more complex in comorbidities, there is a need for more airway tools, especially video assisted tools.

“For the difficult airway, the glidescope comes with the video laryngoscope and it also comes with a specialized stylet that would be threaded through the endotracheal tube,” Baecht said. “The officialized stylet is a rigid shape and sometimes in an anterior airway you need a little less rigid of a stylet, and that’s when the bronchoscope can come into play.”

Colton Butler, a third year graduate student in the NA program from Shreveport, Louisiana, said the lab’s current McGrath laryngoscope is functional, but not

07.11.22

Officer took a report from an employee advising a former student was calling and asking “odd” questions about the admittance process to SIUE.

07.18.22

An SIUE laptop was reported to be lost in Peck Hall.

07.19.22

Officer took a report of money and credit cards stolen from a lost wallet.

Officer responded to a report of an abandoned vehicle on South University Drive near Stadium Drive. The vehicle was towed.

A glidescope, pictured here, is used to monitor breathing on a patient, often while under anesthesia. | Photo courtesy of Avante Health Solutions as good as students would like.

“It’s gonna be good for students to get their hands on the actual device they will be using in clinical settings for their emergency or difficult airway algorithm, and that way the first time you see it is not actually in clinicals,” Butler said.

Kevin Stein, chair of the department of nursing anesthesiology and director of the nurse anesthesia specialization, said the new equipment will give students the necessary skills to transition into the clinical setting.

“It really aids in the teaching component of the skill,” Stein said. “The instructor can be side-by-side with the student and really point out not only the airway anatomy but also help with correct placement of the endotracheal tube and that ability for real-time confirmation of correct placement will certainly help.”

Sarah Butler, a third year graduate student in the nursing anesthesiology program from Belleville, Illinois, said the new glidescope has attachments for different sized blades, including those used

for practicing pediatrics.

“The kaleidoscope equipment is the type of equipment that I’ve seen in almost every clinical site I’ve been to so far, so it’s the equipment that is most often used at our clinical sites as opposed to McGrath or the other type of video laryngoscope we currently have in the lab,” Butler said. “I think it’ll be very beneficial for students to actually work with the equipment they’re going to see most often.”

Stein said the fundraiser was the nursing anesthesiology program’s first, and they wanted an opportunity to provide funding for equipment the lab needed. He said as the program grows, there is a higher demand for equipment.

“Any time you have growth in a program and you have more students and more hands coming through and needing access to equipment, you really need to have duplication of certain equipment in order to provide the maximum training opportunities, to maximize your training exposure or opportunities,” Stein said.

“We certainly have a lot of work yet to do.”

07.22.22

Officer responded to an active carbon monoxide detector alarm in the Cougar Lake Apartments.

The affected rooms were evacuated. Edwardsville Fire Department arrived and advised that the alarm was activated due to the water heater. EFD turned the water heater off and opened the doors. EFD advised the building was safe to reenter.

07.23.22

A subject was reported in Bluff Hall at midnight. The subject was advised to leave.

Officer took a report of a suspicious person near Science Building East.

Officer made contact and the subject was a student.

alestlelive.com

Wednesday, 07.27.22

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LIV KRAUS reporter

With many struggling to plan their financial futures in these difficult times, Dylan Marble works to teach financial literacy and long-term planning on his summer internship.

Marble, a senior and business major from Altamont, Illinois is currently working on a financial advisor internship with Northwestern Mutual in Fairview Heights, Illinois. He said the internship is essentially the day in the life of a fulltime advisor, just on a slightly smaller scale.

Marble said he was contracted for the internship in the middle of March. He said from there, the process of training went by fairly quickly.

“I was able to actually start attending their weekly Friday meetings, just to kind of learn more about what’s going on and to learn some of the ins and outs,” Marble said.

Marble said full-time training took place towards the end of May and he started his internship in June, right after Memorial Day. He said his internship has helped him gain confidence for after he graduates.

“I was super stoked and excited for a career opportunity and to get some experience under my belt, but now that I’m fully in depth in the process and the whole work and office environment, I love it,” Marble said.

Marble said on a typical work day, he gets to his internship between 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. and is able to set his own hours.

He said when he gets there, he makes phone calls and talks to people to see if they would like to set up a meeting with him where he can guide them in their financial planning.

“I share with them my passion with the work and am hopefully able to explain to them how important it is to have a financial plan going into life and how that can help peo-

Dylan Marble, pictured here, was chosen as the first subject of the SIUE School of Business’ Summer Intern Spotlight. | Damian Morris / The Alestle ple feel more confident and stable knowing that there’s a plan backing everything that they’re doing and to know some strategies behind that,” Marble said.

“That’s really what’s important to me there.”

Marble said the rest of the day sometimes consists of “closing meetings,” which are meetings that follow the initial conversation once he gets to know the individual and their circumstances better. He said these

meetings are focused on helping people reach their long-term financial goals.

“I’m able to put together a comprehensive plan that just kind of shows on paper what that looks like as far as long-

term for them, like planning for retirement and planning for after retirement even, how that money’s going to come out to them and making sure there still going to be okay,” Marble said.

Marble said the company he works at originally sold life insurance, but has since evolved into developing financial planning. He said he believes the hardest part of his job is avoiding the stigma that he’s trying to sell insurance.

“I think the hardest part is just making sure other people understand that it’s not just one thing or the other,” Marble said.

Marble said he hopes to continue his internship into the fall.

“It’s a summer internship, so those that don’t want to continue can probably cut out closer to when school starts, whatever their choice around that may be,” Marble said. “I believe I just get to continue into the fall as long as that conversation is mutually respectable.”

Marble said even though it can be difficult at times, he finds what he does to be exciting. He said this internship may lead into a potential career for after he graduates.

“This internship has gone pretty well,” Marble said.

“There’s definitely a good possibility as far as moving forward and continuing to a full time position, but obviously nothing is set in stone so that’s the hope for right now.”

Marble said his internship at Northwestern Mutual has helped him to expand his skill set and he looks forward to what will come from his time there.

“It’s really what I’ve been looking for as far as job and career growth,” Marble said.

“As far as being able to get in front of people and help people out as best as I can, there’s definitely a lot of potential to keep going forward with it and I’m super excited to see where it will lead me.”

THE ALESTLE WILL RESUME PUBLISHING IN THE FALL. ONLINE EDITION- TUES AUG. 23 PRINT EDITION-THURS AUG. 25 PAGE 4

lifestyles

contact the editor: lifestyles@alestlelive.com 650-3527

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Wednesday, 07.27.22

Recess Brewing brings drag to Main Street NICOLE BOYD opinion Recess Brewing brought drag kings, queens and a burlesque dancer, featuring Stephanie Six Trombones’ last performance as reigning queen of Metro East Pride.

The night included two songs by each entertainer and a “suicide round,” where entertainers did not know what song they would have to perform.

Oliver Hugh, a drag king from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, hosted the show. He said he was happy to bring a drag show to Edwardsville and people who might not have seen one before.

“I absolutely love that I’ve come to this side of the river. It’s always been in St. Louis and I’ve seen little pop-up ones in Belleville. I know Hannah [the event coordinator] from Kappa in SIUE ... and when she asked me to come to this show, I said absolutely,” Hugh said. “I love the environment that Recess Brewing gives off.

Everybody is super accepting and Recess Brewing is always trying to step up their game for us performers.”

Six Trombones, from St. Louis, said it’s important to bring drag not only to Edwardsville but everywhere, in order to open up worldviews and bring it to those who may not have access to it. She said mainstream TV shows and celebrities are great, but they aren’t physically present.

“It’s not going out and seeing somebody who truly supports you and some-

body that you can, even if I’m buying a drink or you want to take a picture with me, then you have that tangible person there to tell you how much you mean to them,” Six Trombones said.

Six Trombones said although she hates doing makeup and getting into drag, she loves performing and has really loved being Queen of Pride.

“I got to represent at Disney World and all sorts of different places, and seeing a lot of support and just giving the message of a safe space and being a safe person to talk to has probably been the best thing about it,” Six Trombones said.

Mars, a drag king from St. Louis, said he got into drag after dealing with transphobia in his high school’s theater program.

“I hadn’t had top surgery yet when I started drag, and putting on the makeup and putting on the beard that I can’t grow, it gave me such gender euphoria. I was like, ‘Oh, I get a little bit of a high from this,’” Mars said. “And then it culminated into what I am now which is [that] I am a performer, I am the current reigning King of St. Louis Pride, and I’m an advocate and an activist for the trans and LGTBQ+ community.”

Stephanie Six Trombones said she lives by the motto that she doesn’t care what a performer has “down there” as long as they’re doing their job as an entertainer.

“All drag is valid. It does not mean all drag is good. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t giving it their best and not doing

what they can. Everybody is learning and growing constantly and we encompass so many different entertainers,” Six Trombones said. “We have trans individuals. We have what we call AFAB queens, which is like Miss Sarah Shay who performed tonight. She’s assigned female at birth, she goes out there, throws on the heels, throws on the clown paint like the rest of us.”

Mars said drag shows are important to show people that drag is not scary, with a Texas lawmaker hoping to ban drag in the presence of minors. He said while drag shows vary in the age-appropriateness of their content, drag is no different

than theater.

“I can’t believe it’s 2022 and people still think that they can use their religion to dictate other people. And it drives me to be more of an activist than I already am,” Mars said.

Hugh said even though it may seem intimidating, those interested in starting drag themselves should ask an experienced performer for advice, like he did.

“She said do a number you absolutely know by heart, don’t drink a lot and the third one is just have fun. I started doing drag after college and absolutely love it,” Hugh said.

Sarah Shay, an AFAB queen, looks to the crowd in her opening number. | Nicole Boyd / The Alestle

Summerfest at Edwardsville Flea Market brings community together GABE BRADY managing editor After postponing the event due to COVID-19, the Edwardsville Flea Market has held their annual Summerfest once again.

The building functions as a hub for local vendors to sell virtually anything.

It is owned by Rick Ellis and Dan Vetter, where local vendors or businesses can reach out to them to have their items sold in the market. The two purchased the business as a way to keep busy during their retirements.

“About eight or nine years ago, I was a vendor here. It was just something neat to do. I love to shop, and why not love to shop and then resell what you buy to make a profit?,” Ellis said. “When the building went up for sale, we actually decided to kind of just leave our jobs at our companies, and do this as a retirement thing.”

Before retirement, Ellis worked at a law firm in St. Louis for 23 years, while Vetter worked for an airline. Vetter said although he and Ellis had jobs that were not very similar to what they do now, they always enjoyed selling items to the community.

“I was with the airlines for 30 years.

We always loved doing this. It was an easy transition once we figured out what we wanted to do with it,” Vetter said. “It was an easy switch. It was time to get out of the airline business, it’s basically a bus in the sky.”

Vetter said he enjoys the flea market greatly, but it was Ellis who first got him

involved. Vetter also said the duo have changed what they sell over time as well.

“Rick has kind of always done things like this, but then I came along and did it with him … Mainly getting started, it was vintage glass, and whenever we got to owning the business, I got into furniture,” Vetter said.

Selling furniture and other household items, especially for lower prices, is a very important service in a college town according to Vetter.

“We get a lot of college students.

Round about time people start moving into dorms, we try to have quite a bit of very reasonably priced furniture, because a lot of people need that, as well as school supplies,” Vetter said.

While Vetter has been more interested in furniture, Ellis said his interests have moved to making and selling candles.

Longtime customer of the Edwardsville Flea Market Amanda Ratcliff was present for Summerfest. She was selling hotdogs outside the entrance for any hungry visitors. Ratcliff said she’d been visiting the flea market for three years and is always very interested in what’s available.

“It’s a friendly, warm place to come into. There’s always a ‘Hello.’ They’re willing to help you find things and they’re even willing to look out for things that customers are specifically looking for,” Ratcliff said. “The things are ever-changing. If you see something today, you’re going to want to grab it because it will be gone tomorrow. It’s one of my favorite places to visit and shop.”

Ellis also said any items they have for

Rick Ellis and Dan Vetter have always had an interest in selling interesting items to the community | Damian Morris / The Alestle sale may not be on the shelves for long, both because of other customers and because of the need to cycle out the vendors in the space.

“We have 31 vendors’ items in here right now, and there’s a two-year waiting list,” Ellis said. “It would take us at least two full years to get through the whole list of names and be through it.”

Kasey Villanueva, a mother visiting with her husband, mother-in-law and daughter, said she had passed by the flea market many times but never entered.

“I had no idea what would be here, and there’s so many treasures. We’re really enjoying looking through everything, “ Kasey Villanueva said. “I actually found a 1986 edition of Anne of Green Gables, which I was going to give to my daughter.

My sister used to read it to me when we were little, so I thought that would be a fun tradition we could do.”

Kasey’s daughter, Aviana Villan-

ueva, said she found a few things for herself as well.

“I found a green skirt, which I’ve been looking for for a while, a limited edition Wong [from the Marvel Cinematic Universe] Funko Pop and a little heart-shaped thing that I’m going to put jewelry in for a good price,” Aviana Villanueva said.

Ellis said there was nothing bad about his previous job, but the business and community he and Vetter have with the Edwardsville Flea Market is much different and a lot more his speed.

“Each one of the units is a different individual. They come in and they put their merchandise up. You find a little bit of everything here,” Ellis said. “It’s just, you know, I was at a time in my life that when this came, this was an opportunity to do something you love doing.”

For more information, visit the Edwardsville Flea Market’s Facebook page.

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Wednesday, 07.27.22

PAGE 5

Music department strives to provide ‘well-rounded’ concerts ining with the SIU Carbondale orchestra for a joint concert,” Korak said. “They’ll also be combining with our choirs for a performance and that usually happens in April so that’s something to look forward to.”

Korak said there will also be other events coming to SIUE this fall.

“Opera Edwardsville will be coming in December on the 10th and 11th and although it’s not a music department event, it certainly has close ties with us,” Korak said.

Korak said there are two main performing bands that perform throughout the year.

“In the band area, we have two performing groups, the Wind Symphony, which is our highest level of performing ensemble. We also have the Concert Band that I conduct, and those groups will be doing four concerts this year, each one having a different theme,” Korak said.

Rubén Gómez, assistant professor in the music department, said anyone is welcome to play in either band, regardless of being a music major or not. He said it’s likely to see more non-music majors in the University Concert Band.

LIV KRAUS reporter

With performances back and in full swing, SIUE’s music department is ready with upcoming productions set for this fall.

John Korak, department chair of music, said the choir, orchestra, jazz and concert band are the four main areas in the department that are showcased with productions.

“The jazz area will generally feature the Concert Jazz Band, which is a traditional, larger jazz ensemble, with around 20 people give or take,” Korak said. “They will feature jazz combos, groups as small as three people but generally four, five or six people.”

Korak said other upcoming performances from the music department include a Johnetta Haley memorial concert, Suzuki string concert and a faculty showcase. He said there will also be a variety of smaller performances taking place throughout the semester.

“The university orchestra also does four concerts and there’ll be two highlights for them. One is they’ll be comb-

“Concert Band is open to everyone, with the condition that you have played your instrument in high school, that’s the only requirement,” Gómez said.

“The beauty of the Concert Band is that when music majors go to that group, it’s because they want to practice their secondary instrument.”

Gómez said each performance has a theme, which makes it easier to advertise and allows the audience to better engage with the musicians. He said the first concert will be centered around visual inspirations that have inspired composers to write music and the second concert will be centered around cornerstones, or masterworks in the history of wind bands.

Korak said there is a lot that goes into selecting music for each performance. Sometimes, the music is chosen based on what is being taught at the time that will help develop skills in a particular area that will help them grow, and other times it’s centered around a theme.

“Generally, the ensemble directors or the performers try to provide a well-rounded, varied concert that flows together where there aren’t a lot of jagged, abrupt changes, but where things

transition or flow, following some sort of theme or musical stylistic development,” Korak said.

Gómez said he collects music pieces that will fit into the decided theme. He said from there, he looks at what pieces are doable based on the length of each piece and the difficulty.

“Planning these concerts is a long process. I personally prepare my programs with a lot of time in advance,” Gómez said. “I started to prepare for this program in June and the concert is in October, so both concerts are already planned.”

Gómez said each band has around two months to practice for each performance, starting rehearsals at the beginning of the semester. He said the Concert Band spends about two and a half hours a week in rehearsals while the Wind Symphony spends five hours.

Gómez said he enjoys seeing students from different majors come together to perform in the concerts.

“It’s nice to see people from every major in the School of Music,” Gómez said. “It’s very interesting.”

The first concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 19 at SIUE.

SIUE Solar Car Team prepares for future projects during break LIV KRAUS reporter

The SIUE Solar Car Racing Team is a student run, nonprofit organization dedicated to preparing students for their respective careers. The team is made up of SIUE students from a variety of different backgrounds and disciplines and provides an opportunity to learn what it takes to build a solar car, as well as how to communicate effectively with others.

Ryan Vicic, the team’s project director, said originally one of his friends was a member of the team and that he joined it himself after transferring onto campus, before he was involved in anything.

“My friend was like: ‘Hey, you should come join me for this,’ so I came,” Vicic said. “At first I was a little unsure of it, I didn’t feel like I knew anything, but after I kept coming I learned that this was actually kind of fun. Then once I learned the teammates more, became more knowledgeable, I was like: ‘This is fun, I’ll just stick with it, and now I became project director so I’m now in charge of the team.”

Vicic said there are no qualifications needed to join and that the team will teach anyone interested in the car what they want to know. He said they have had nursing students, art students and business students as members.

“Alternative engines are obviously becoming a bigger thing, so we just want to spread awareness and it’s also just fun to

see what we can build and apply all our engineering knowledge to solve this problem,” Vicic said.

Vicic said joining the team taught him a lot more about real engineering applications, because of the theoretical nature of classes.

“In the real world you may use a lot of stuff that you learn but you don’t know what you’re gonna use in the industry, and joining the team actually allows you to develop and work on real engineering,” Vicic said. “You have to problem solve, you have to think about how to solve this problem and come up with a solution by yourself, and that’s good because when you go out into the world, they’re gonna look at that and be like: ‘He’s actually learned something, he’s had to figure out a problem by himself.’”

Zach Crawford, the team’s advisor, said most of the team’s members that built the current car have since graduated and moved on to some very prestigious jobs.

“Our members typically have no trouble landing a nice job after graduation because of the experience they acquire while on the team,” Crawford said. “The COO of Tesla once said he considered “Solar Car” on a resume more important than any GPA. Tesla has attended past races to scout for talent too.”

Crawford said one of the team’s biggest issues is their limited budget and the small amount of funding they receive

Chimera parked at the Crater of the Moon National Park.

“We have the lowest budget of any competing solar car team in North America, there was an anonymous survey a few years back done by our governing body.

Other teams typically have more money to spend on tires than we have to spend on our entire car, but we still finish at least middle of the pack at almost every event we attend,” Crawford said.

Vicic said they are currently working on a new car, a multi-occupant vehicle. He said that in the past, they have only ever done single-occupant vehicles, which makes it a whole new endeavor.

“The new car we’re trying to make is called Chimera, it’s a two-person car.

The year before COVID hit, the team decided they wanted to try multi-occupant, so they designed this new four-person seater. With COVID we had trouble with membership, so our team got smaller since everyone that designed the original four-person plan graduated,” Vicic said.

“Looking at our current car we were like

/ SIUE Solar Car

what if we combine the designs of our current car with what was designed for the four person and we simplified it, so now we have a new two-person. We’re finishing the design work and we’re hoping to actually start building it this year and next year, then summer of 2024 we’re hoping to have the Chimera done and bring it to race that year.”

Vicic says there are plenty of ways to support the team or if interested, become a member.

“We’re looking into doing the DARE car show this August, it’s the first weekend after everyone moves back at Edwardsville High School, so if you want to come to that you could see us,” Vicic said. “We meet every Saturday at one, anybody whenever could just drop by. If you don’t want to join and just want to see the car we could take you through it, or you could email the team to answer questions or set up an individual meeting time.”

REVIEW: Audiences should definitely say ‘Yes’ to seeing ‘Nope’ EMILY STERZINGER editor-in-chief

Jordan Peele’s “Nope” manages to be a frightening, violent horror movie that doesn’t rely on jumpscares or an excessive amount of gore to be scary.

The movie is set on a ranch called Haywood Hollywood Horse Ranch, centered around Otis Jr. “OJ” Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer). The focus at the start is the two deciding how to run the ranch after the unexpected death of their father, Otis Sr. (Keith David) from a coin that shot down from the sky. Nearby is a carnival attraction themed after the wild west, “Jupiter’s Claim.” The attraction is run by a former child actor Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun) banking on his fame following his survival of a

grisly incident on the set of a sitcom called “Gordy’s Home.”

The main antagonist of the movie is a strange UFO that seems to hide in the clouds near the ranch. It appears to be sucking up horses and even people in the area, but the truth underneath the flying saucer’s appearance is much darker.

Daniel Kaluuya played OJ quite well.

This isn’t his first rodeo (no pun intended) with a Jordan Peele movie, considering his breakthrough role was as the protagonist of the movie “Get Out.” He’s proven himself to be a great horror/thriller leading man, but the other protagonist’s casting was a bit of a surprise to me.

Keke Palmer’s performance was a particularly memorable part of the movie. Considering I mostly know her from her Nickelodeon sitcom “True Jack-

son, VP,” I was very impressed by her capability for dramatic acting. Usually I get hung up on former Nickelodeon/ Disney television actors’s roles and can only see them as such, but Palmer was able to break that for me; her acting felt incredibly real.

Real-life film references were incorporated into the movie as well, with a primary example being the direct reference to “The Horse in Motion,” one of the first motion pictures in the world. The Haywoods claim to be direct descendants of the man riding the horse in that film, which brings a sense of legacy to their Hollywood horse farm.

I enjoyed the way violence and gore were handled in the movie. It had some, sure, but it wasn’t a tactless use of it. I mentioned the “Gordy’s Home”

incident before, which was a pretty good example. There was a lot of bloodiness, but the movie had the restraint to keep the actual violence off camera. It may be a disappointment for gore junkies, but for the average viewer, it made the scene more tolerable while still being gut-churning from the sounds of the violence.

The movie also seems to interrogate the authenticity and even the safety of media for entertainment, both live and recorded. Many deaths and general violence come from what starts as general entertainment, and the main characters’ ancestry in film seems to doom their livelihoods in the end.

Overall, the movie was deeply unnerving in the way good horror should be, and I was yet again impressed by Peele’s capabilities as a director and writer, as well as the incredibly vivid performance of the cast.

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Allocation of educational funds only supports the privileged

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Though U.S. public education as a whole is underfunded, the allocation of what little funding is available is distributed in a way that disadvantages already struggling communities.

Because K-12 education across the U.S. is largely funded by property taxes, rich districts tend to have more funding, and poorer ones tend to have less.

This leads to lower quality of education for schools in poorer areas, with frequent understaffing leaving teachers stretched thin, among other problems.

Though this problem is based on economic factors, there’s a racial element to this issue as well. According to the Education Trust, “school districts serving the largest populations of Black, Latino, or American Indian students receive roughly

$1,800, or 13 percent, less per student in state and local funding than those serving the fewest students of color.”

This disparity causes a lot of harm to many communities, especially poorer and/or more heavily non-white communities, which often intersect.

Rural schools are also often at the highest risk of being underfunded. There are high rates of poverty in many rural areas, and statistically according to the Harvard Kennedy school’s Institute of Politics, “urban districts received between 20 to 50 percent more funding than their rural counterparts.”

Last week we at The Alestle condemned gerrymandering within the context of elections, but educational gerrymandering is just as much of a problem. Educational gerrymandering enables segregation, as it groups together the wealthiest communities and poorest communities into

separate districts, regardless of physical proximity.

“So long as we link opportunity to gerrymandered borders and school funding to local wealth, we will never have a fair education system,” said Rebecca Sibilia, CEO of EdBuild.

Though education may be better funded in Illinois than some of our neighboring states, that doesn’t change the fact that the way education funding is allocated in this state perpetuates systemic inequity.

In fact, according to another study from the aforementioned Education Trust, “In Illinois, over 83 percent of school districts are inadequately funded and over 50 percent of schools receive 70 percent or less of adequate funding.”

Illinois is getting better education funding gradually, with Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently increasing funding by $498.1 million to a total of $9.7 billion.

However, this can’t help much if the focus is still on schools in privileged, wealthy communities, with little allocated to those outside of that realm.

There have been fights against the use of property tax as the main factor in education funding before, such as San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez. In this case, it was argued that using property taxes as the main way to decide school funding violated the 14th amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Unfortunately, it was voted down, 5 to 4.

Local wealth shouldn’t be the determining factor when it comes to district funding, and the fact that it is speaks to a deficit in the American education system.

We at The Alestle believe that well-funded education should be available to all students, and not just those with the privilege of living in wealthy areas.

Europeans Do It Better: parental leave excels in other countries JULIANNA BIRKEY copy editor

Maternity leave in America is a laughable, almost non-existent practice that needs to be addressed following the overturning of Roe v Wade. If old white men are going to force women to have children, they should pay them for it.

America is one of the worst countries in which to have a baby, not only because of our health care system and all of its flaws, but also because new parents aren’t given paid time off. The U.S. is the only wealthy country in the world to not guarantee, or sometimes even offer, paid maternity leave.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Britain offers new mothers up to 52 weeks of maternity leave, 39 of which are paid if they meet the employment criteria, six of those weeks paid at 90 percent of their usual salary before a lower amount is used for the rest of the leave. Britain doesn’t just stop at mothers, offering one or two weeks of paternity leave to fathers

as well. The term father includes those adopting, the partner of a pregnant person and same-sex couples under the rules of British maternity leave.

Going above and beyond, Britain also has an option for the new parents to share up to 50 weeks of leave, including splitting 37 of the 39 paid weeks between them, though data points show that most fathers or partners rarely end up taking shared parental leave.

Sweden offers up to 68 weeks of paid parental leave in part of a program pushing for gender equality. The Washington Post writes: “In 1974, [Sweden] became the first country to offer parental leave rather than a gender-specific policy for new mothers.”

New Swedish parents, including those adopting, are guaranteed 480 days of paid leave. A single parent gets all 480 days but when there are two parents, they get 240 days or 34 weeks each, but the time can be transferred between parents. In an effort to get more men to use pa-

rental leave, Sweden introduced a new policy in 2016 that states each parent has 90 days of paid leave that is non-transferable to their partner. It seems to be working: Swedish fathers now take about 30 percent of all paid parental leave.

In America, only nine states and the District of Columbia mandate some kind of paid parental leave. Federal laws only guarantee parents six weeks of unpaid “time off” and not everybody even qualifies. Countries who share a similar policy to the U.S. are all low or middle income countries where it would be incredibly difficult to pay for maternity leave.

According to the Washington Post, the Biden administration drew up a plan for 12 weeks of paid parental leave, but that has yet to be passed and lawmakers are discussing reducing it to 4 weeks.

American moms may still have stitches in their vaginas, they’re dealing with changing bodies, their mental health is in a fragile state and open to postpar-

tum depression, not to mention they have a newborn child depending on them every moment of the day. Still, people want them to go back to work like nothing even happened.

The data shows countries with paid parental leave, or paid maternity leave at the very least, shows that paid parental leave increases mothers’ participation in the workforce and reduces gender pay gaps. Not only are these policies good economically, but they show that the government is recognizing the work and economic contribution parents are engaging in when they care for their children, as well as acknowledging the time it takes to both physically and emotionally recover after giving birth.

It’s time for the U.S. to guarantee new parents the basic human right of a financial cushion that will help them enjoy their time with their baby and have eager workers returning to their jobs. It’s better for the parents, it’s better for the baby and ultimately will prove to be better for employment establishments as well.

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Men’s basketball welcomes two new assistant coaches, hopes for a good season LIV KRAUS reporter Terrance McGee and Kristof Kendrick are bringing their talents to SIUE’s men’s basketball team as the newest assistant coaches.

Head Coach Brian Barone said he is excited to bring Kendrick and McGee onto the men’s basketball team and feels they will make great additions.

“I’ve had a relationship with both of them for more than a decade and have seen their successes on and off the court and they’re high-character people, so I really look forward to continuing to plug in good people with experience and knowledge so our guys can grow with the addition of these two,” Barone said.

Barone said Kendrick radiates positive energy and will help make the team perform better with his coaching.

“He’s phenomenal at engaging people in a way that makes you feel better,” Barone said. “I know that that’s going to impact our team in a way that’s going to be a huge impact that he can bring to the table, along with his successes and connections in being around basketball and recruiting.”

Men’s Soccer

Barone said McGee has experienced playing at a high level and has worked hard, eventually becoming one of the best players during his time at the Missouri Valley Conference.

“I think he’s carried that over to his coaching,” Barone said. “He’s been around some very good players, developed some very good players and as a person he has a high reputation of being a man of high character, so I’m really excited about bringing that on board.”

McGee said he’s known Barone for more than 10 years and he looks forward to helping him fulfill his vision of what he wants for the men’s basketball team.

“I just love basketball in general. It’s been a part of my life for a long time so anytime you start something new and try to build towards something special, it’s always exciting,” McGee said.

McGee said before coming to SIUE, he was an assistant coach for five years at SIU Carbondale under Head Coach Barry Hinson.

“I’ve always been a sports fan, but basketball was a place to get away for a bit,” McGee said.

“I just fell in love with it.”

McGee said he has gotten a chance to work with the guys on

the team. He said he feels they are hardworking and determined for the upcoming season.

“There’s a couple of things that we, of course, have to build on and get better at but I think our guys are locked in,” McGee said. “I think they want it so it’s always real when they’re hungry.”

McGee said his favorite thing about coaching is giving back through his own experiences and getting the chance to invest time in others and watch them grow.

“I get a chance to help these young men reach a dream they’ve been dreaming about for so long,” McGee said. “The biggest thing that gives me joy is being able to help them be a part of their journey and to help them be successful in life no matter what that looks like for them.”

Barone said the last two seasons were difficult because of the breaks, but his team managed to stick together and rise to the occasion. He said he looks forward to seeing his team attack any challenge this upcoming season.

“Our guys are working hard and we’re really looking to make an impact upon one another on this conference coming up,” Barone said.

Women’s Soccer