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Skywalk Diner now closed, along with Auntie Anne’s GABRIEL BRADY reporter
figuring out if the system could provide the money to families after the rest of the available financial aid money had been accounted for. “We started thinking about the idea of: ‘What if we bundled Pell, MAP, AIM HIGH and SIUE scholarships?’ and asked the question ‘What kind of gaps are we looking at for households of [$63,575] income or less?’ and for us, that gap was fairly small,” Pembrook said. “So what we did was propose the idea of closing that gap.” Pembrook said the decision boiled down to the importance of accessibility to all students. “Our commitment to access is partic-
The pandemic continues to change certain aspects of Dining Services. Most recently, Skywalk Cafe closed, joining Auntie Anne’s as a quick option no longer available to students. Skywalk Cafe, located in the bridge between Founders Hall and Alumni Hall, is one of a few Dining Services locations that has been shut down this semester — although it was open for a short period at the beginning of the semester. Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Jeffrey Waple said its closure was because of low sales, but there are other new dining options to come in the future. One of those new options is a replacement for Eddie’s Kitchen, a dining option in the Cougar Village Commons. “We had [Skywalk Cafe] open at the beginning of the year. But with classes being online, there [weren’t] a lot of people in that area of SIUE, and it wasn’t making much money, so we closed it and repurposed its staff to other areas,” Waple said. “We’re … looking to do some grab and go type of place in Cougar Village in what used to be Eddie’s Kitchen.” Skywalk Cafe was also closed last year due to pre-pandemic construction, so some students who had classes last semester — like freshman marketing major Dylan Perkins, of Havana, Illinois — have never eaten there. “I’d never tried Skywalk, and I guess I have to wait even longer to do that,” Perkins said. “I even had a few classes over there last year, but I never got the chance because it was shut down then. Then, when they opened it this year, I wasn’t even on campus.” According to Waple, Auntie Anne’s did not open back up this semester due to guidelines for the COVID-19 pandemic. Waple said a big problem was working around Starbucks, which is located right across from Auntie Anne’s in the Morris University Center, because Starbucks usually has a sizable line. “One of the things we had to think about was we had to decongest the main thoroughfare of the MUC. We tried to think about how to get people lined up, six feet apart, but still not congest it. It’s a
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Leading by example
I Mackenzie Smith / The Alestle
Upperclassmen athletes are often encouraged to take on leadership roles within their respective sports, but senior guard Mike Adewunmi of SIUE men’s basketball leads in another aspect: activism. Here, Adewunmi directs chants during the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee’s March for Racial Justice on Saturday. SEE MORE ON PAGE 7.
After years of discussion, SIU scholarship to become reality for low-income freshmen JOHN MCGOWAN reporter
The system is joining other schools in Fall 2021 with the SIU System Commitment Scholarship, offering fully paid tuition for incoming students with household incomes of $63,575 or less. SIU System President Dan Mahony said the plan had been in the works since before he started his position in early March of this year. “This was something we started talking about before I arrived officially as president, but after I was named as president … We started talking about it in the spring semester a little bit, and we picked up those conversations over the summer
to try to figure out how we would do it,” Mahony said. Programs like this have been adopted by other schools over recent years. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a commitment that provides free tuition to freshmen with household incomes of $67,100 or less. “I expect that more institutions will be doing something like this in the future,” Chancellor Randy Pembrook said. The scholarship is being made possible by the combination of multiple sources of financial aid, including Pell Grants, the Illinois Monetary Award Program, the AIM HIGH Grant Pilot Program and SIU system scholarships. Pembrook said the process involved
Anti-racism book collection coming to SIUE, thanks to librarian LILY SCHNEIDERS reporter
After seeing a lack of collections pertaining to anti-racism at SIUE, the new diversity and engagement librarian is taking matters into her own hands. Simone Williams, who is the university’s new diversity and engagement librarian and a member of the Anti-Racism Task Force, has made it her mission to create an anti-racism book collection for students and faculty to use to educate themselves on anti-racism and social justice issues. Her collection of texts will cover a wide range of topics, including how to be an anti-racist,
the inner workings of the criminal justice system and other issues affecting minority communities. This new collection will not only allow individuals to educate themselves on these topics, but also provides materials that can be incorporated into course curricula. “SIUE does not have anti-racism resources in place as of now,” Williams said. “The university is going to start putting things in their curriculum about anti-racism for the future.” Williams said she thinks all universities need to do research and have resources available for students and faculty alike to become more educated on these is-
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sues. She also said these types of resources should be available to people of all ages. “I don’t think K-12 amplifies anti-racism enough,” Williams said. “[Providing these resources is] a way for higher education institutions to actually buy into the equitable society for everybody.” This project is not Williams’ effort alone. She sought help from two fellow members of the Anti-Racism Task Force: Jessica Harris, interim assistant provost, and Sandra Weissinger, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology. Both are helping Williams by contributing ideas for the collection. Weissinger said she saw one
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purpose of the collection as limiting the ability for people to use historical ignorance as an excuse for racist or discriminatory behaviors. “What we really wanted to make sure was that everyone — staff or even community members — could access the same educational resources as they made the anti-racism conclusion,” Weissinger said. “It was so important to us that folks were no longer able to say ‘I didn’t know, I didn’t know about the history, I didn’t know that was an act of racism,’ a lot of ‘I didn’t know.’ The one way to fix that was to put it in the library.” Lindy Wagner, the director of
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the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, said she thinks the collection will be beneficial because it will educate more people on these issues and promote understanding across the university. “I definitely think it will be useful, mainly because as our anti-racism resources grow, the more information is available to people on campus. And if SIUE wants to continue on the journey of working towards anti-racism and getting more people on campus knowledgeable about that topic, then the more resources we have the better,” Wagner said. For more information on this collection, visit the Anti-Racism Task Force website.
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‘Monuments in the Age of BLM’ presentation explores history and perception, Edwardsville statue discussed GABRIEL BRADY reporter
This year, there has been a push — both local and international — to remove statues of historical figures with controversial pasts. The Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center held a discussion on the matter, titled “Monuments in the Age of BLM: The View from St. Louis.” Many of the statues now facing heavy debate were erected after the Civil War, as the American education system had to determine how they would explain this part of history, and these explanations varied depending upon location. Erik Alexander, an associate professor of history and one of the presentation’s panelists, said the most popular interpretation of the Civil War in the South is referred to as the “Lost Cause.” “The easiest way to think about the Lost Cause is it was the South’s view of the Civil War. It dominated their curriculum, their textbooks, cultural depictions of the war in a wide range of movies throughout the 20th century and for many Southerners … this was the version of the Civil War that they learned,” Alexander said. Alexander said this concept factors into today’s discussion on Confederate monuments’ role in American history and culture. “According to the Lost Cause, the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery, … white Southerners seceded over other issues than slavery, … the Northern victory in the war was inevitable, the Southerners fought bravely and honorably against an overwhelming foe and Southerners claimed that slavery was a benevolent institution. [Those who subscribed to this idea thought]
slaves were loyal and happy, [and the] Civil War and emancipation were unnecessary, because these things would have faded away,” Alexander said. The presentation was attended by some members of the Edwardsville and SIUE Community, like SIUE Alumni Eryn Coppersmith and Edwardsville resident Emily Klingensmith. Coppersmith and Klingensmith are members of a Facebook group focused on relocating a statue of Edwardsville’s namesake Ninian Edwards, and renaming the plaza it resides in. Coppersmith said one of the biggest problems with idolizing historical figures is the impact it can have on how the country’s past actions are viewed. “We are a colonial nation that practiced enslavement of people for many years in our sovereign national history. We don’t have anything that is not complicated. Honoring any person on a pedestal comes with those complications. We can’t contextualize everyone, including those from that era of our history,” Coppersmith said. “Those characters were not acting in the best interest of what we are now as America.” Klingensmith said the presentation was closely related to the Facebook group’s mission. “[The panelists discussed] that being aware of symbols, and monuments and statues and how they can bring trauma and pain to certain factions of our modern society. I’m not talking about the U.S. as it was, but as it is now,” Klingensmith said. “We are a free and open nation. We are a democracy that says we have justice for all, so what is in public spaces should support all of those people.” One of the more common arguments for keeping these stat-
This statue of Ninian Edwards, Edwardsville’s namesake, stands at the corner of St. Louis and West Vandalia streets. City residents have been calling for the statue to be removed due to Edwards’ role in promoting slavery in Illinois. | Mackenzie Smith / The Alestle
ues, according to Klingensmith, is the idea that the figure in the statue was a normal man of his time. However, Klingensmith said there are other men from their times that were far more progressive. “Edward Coles, [Edwards’] contemporary, was advocating for the end of enslavement and other similar practices. To say [Edwards] was a product of his time, well, Coles is proof he could’ve been different in his time. His encounters with Indigenous people were complex, and incredibly violent too,” Klingensmith said. Associate Professor of Art and Design Katie Poole-Jones, a panelist during the presentation, said she wants to see statues like the one of Edwards removed, but
doesn’t want the discussion to end there. “I want people to remember that there was a Confederate monument in Forest Park, because that’s the only way we can move forward in an honest way toward reconciliation around monuments in general,” PooleJones said. “The worst thing we can do is remove them and assume all is well. We need to continue the discussion. The removal shouldn’t allow the discussion about why the monument was there in the first place and why some people thought it was inappropriate to stop.” Jeffrey Manuel, an associate professor of history and the presentation’s third panelist, said there is a great importance to understanding the story and reason-
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difficult location to operate in the pandemic,” Waple said. Waple said Auntie Anne’s was also closed because it didn’t offer full meals and had staffing issues. “We weren’t sure about the demand from the on-campus population. We wanted to make sure the places we had open were able to provide full meals. We have a couple of [other] places closed as well, [because] we have staffing needs, and some of that staff would have to be repurposed once Chick-fil-A is open, and that’s a higher priority,” Waple said. “It’s also not one of our high revenue venues. Those are the places that give out full meals, and we were working on them more.” Perkins said he thought Auntie Anne’s was one of Dining Services’ more popular locations. “It was just a thing I got a lot and now it’s gone, and that sucks. I honestly feel like the entirety of Dining Services could have been handled a little better rather than just shutting things down,” Perkins said. “Leaving places open with reduced capacity would have been nice.” Some students were sad to see Auntie Anne’s remain closed, like junior mass communications major Brooklyn Wigger of Highland, Illinois, who said she specifically enjoyed the frozen lemonades they sold. “I wish it were open, because SIUE has already lost itself a lot in the COVID crazi-
ing behind the names and memorials around people’s hometowns. “[You should] spend some time walking or driving around your neighborhood or hometown, and become aware of this memorial landscape around you. I think it’s easy, when you think about this, to think about high-level, federal monuments, but I think your eyes can really be opened to all kinds of small ways this plays out in the landscape around you, in a local park, or plaques or even the name of a street,” Manuel said. “For me, at least, taking in the totality of the memorialization, it’s helpful to think about all the ways people are engaging in history.” For more information, check the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center’s website. FINANCIAL AID I COVER
Skywalk Cafe, located on the third-floor bridge connecting Alumni and Founders, reopened at the beginning of the fall semester, as can be seen by the addition of a hand sanitizing station. Skywalk has since reclosed due to low traffic in the buildings. | Mackenzie Smith / The Alestle
ness. I definitely miss it. It’s one less aspect that we have during lockdown,” Wigger said. Regardless of current closures, Waple said he hopes everything will be able to reopen once COVID-19 is gone. “I hope we can open it as we get some normalcy back. We just need to keep looking at the numbers and things, and reposi-
tion people and look at where the demand is for food. There’s a lot of ways it affects people on the ground,” Waple said. “We’ve had a lower amount of foot traffic at the MUC, and [with] what we’ve had to do because of health and safety, all those things play into the de-densify issue.” For more information, check the Dining Services website.
ularly important for people who normally can’t afford [tuition], so this is our way of trying to address that issue,” Pembrook said. “Higher education changes lives, and so we’re trying to find a way that everybody can come to SIUE.” While the commitment will be important for incoming freshmen, the classes of ‘24, ‘23 and ‘22 will not be eligible for the scholarship once it goes into place. Sophomore Music Education Major Brianna Bennett, of Edwardsville, said she was upset she wouldn’t be eligible for the scholarship. “It sucks for the current people who are enrolled because they have now missed the opportunity,” Bennett said. “Dealing with college tuition and stuff – it’s very stressful. At least for me it is, to worry about paying my bills and all that stuff.” According to Pembrook, this commitment will result in an increase in spending of $1 million to $2 million over a four-year period. This continues a trend of an increase in student aid spending at the University over the past four years. “We have been dramatically increasing scholarship support every year since I’ve been here,” Pembrook said. “We’ve gone from $12 million to $18 million in terms of support.” Students interested in learning more about the commitment can visit Financial Aid’s website.
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BY THE NUMBERS COVID-19 at SIUE
New confirmed positive cases (from tests conducted by SIUE and self-reporting):
Sept. 18 - 24: 26 students, 2 faculty/ staff Sept. 11 - 17: 13 students, 0 faculty/ staff Sept. 4 - 10: 11 students, 2 faculty/staff Aug. 28 - Sept. 3: 7 students, 4 faculty/ staff Aug. 21 - 27: 4 students, 3 faculty/staff Aug. 14 - 20: 4 students, 3 faculty/staff Aug. 7 - 13: 2 students, 2 faculty/staff Aug. 1 - 6: 2 students, 1 faculty/staff Total positive cases: 69 students, 17 faculty/staff
Tests conducted by SIUE Sept. 18 - 24: 96 Sept. 11 - 17: 115 Sept. 4 - 10: 54 Aug. 28 - Sept. 3: 63 Aug. 21 - 27: 30 Total tests conducted: 358
Positive cases identified by SIUE testing: Sept. 18 - 24: 0 Sept. 11 - 17: 2 Sept. 4 - 10: 4 Aug. 28 - Sept. 3: 5 Aug. 21 - 27: 1 Total: 12
Percentage of isolation/quarantine space available on campus (as of Sept. 24): 89 percent Sourced from SIUE’s COVID-19 website, as of Sept. 24
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Off-campus residents face different COVID-19 guidelines, consequences than those living in University Housing Axis, one of several student apartment complexes located in Edwardsville, has a mandatory mask policy in place for individuals entering its main office. However, residents report lax COVID-19 guidelines. | Mackenzie Smith / The Alestle
NICOLE BOYD copy editor
Students living in nearby off-campus housing may face repercussions with local police for breaking COVID-19 protocol, but not with their places of residence. Mikayla Blankenship, a sophomore psychology major from Effingham, Illinois, is a resident of Axis, a student apartment complex in Edwardsville. According to Blankenship, the only limitation placed on residents is that they must wear masks when entering the main office. “You have to wear a mask going into the main office area, and then I think that’s really the only rule. But when we do go into the office, the employees themselves aren’t wearing masks, but we still wear ours. So I don’t know if they would enforce it if we came in without wearing them or not,” Blankenship said. Blankenship said she believes there is just as much partying as usual, but it is better hidden. “You definitely don’t see people posting as much about [parties], and if they do it’s more like a private story. Or even without social media, people aren’t as loud, I would say. You don’t really see people walking to and from different apartments,” Blankenship said. Stephanie Fitch, an Axis resident and a freshman nursing major from West Frankfurt, Illinois, said some residents have been reporting parties. “There actually have been a couple parties reported recently. Not that long ago, there was one in the parking lot with, like, 30-plus people and that was reported and cops did come,” Fitch said. Fitch said the only precaution she has noticed Axis taking is that residents are required to make an appointment with office
personnel. “Any time we have to go see the office workers about any maintenance problems or just questions about the apartment, we just have to make an appointment through email or phone call, and then we have to wear a mask or meet outside,” Fitch said. Axis failed to respond to requests for comment. Josh Lindsey, assistant general manager of The Reserve, an off-campus student housing community in Edwardsville, said the facility can communicate safety guidelines, but residents ultimately make their own decisions. “Essentially, residents will be doing what they would like to do. If there are large gatherings, we have had police called from neighboring suites, because a lot of residents that we have are taking this very seriously … Then you have the people that don’t really think the pandemic is anything super important. That’s what it seems like, anyway, but it is,” Lindsey said. “We try to do the best we can, but these are residents. They’re adults that live in an off-campus housing community, so we are not RAs.” Lindsey said residents may choose to report large gatherings to law enforcement. “If there are large gatherings and neighboring suites are being affected by
this, they will call the police, and they have total approval from us,” Lindsey said. The Reserve did place limitations on who was allowed to use the pool due to safety concerns, Lindsey said. “We delayed our opening of the pool for quite some time and reopened that in the middle of July after Pritzker allowed us to do 50 percent occupancy, and although we were allowed a 50 percent occupancy we still had an occupancy limit of 50 people, and it was only residents-only,” Lindsey said. “At one point we had some of our pool monitors out there, so we had community assistance out there making sure everybody had pool passes, and making sure that, obviously, there [were] no big groups or guests around the pool.” Despite COVID-19, occupancy numbers are down only slightly from last year, according to Lindsey. The new leasing cycle will begin the first week of October. “Last year we were at 100 percent occupancy … So we were at 486 residents. This year, we’re at 99.2 [percent occupancy], so we are down to 482, that’s our occupancy right now,” Lindsey said. Enclave declined to comment on their COVID-19 guidelines. For more information about Axis or The Reserve, visit their websites.
Campus spaces find new uses during COVID-19 era VERNON SMITH JR. reporter
With the pandemic impacting every aspect of campus life, those on campus this semester are noticing many changes, including having classes in unorthodox spaces. Fixins’, a restaurant previously located on the second floor of the Morris University Center before closing in the spring, has been turned into a learning environment where classes are held. Director of the Honors Program and History Professor Eric Ruckh said if they wanted to have on-campus classes, changes had to be made. Ruckh is co-chair of the Academic Continuity Task Force, a group who has been working with SIUE administration since the summer to keep students safe this fall. “It was immediately apparent that if we wanted to have any sort of on-ground presence; if we were going to be allowed to have an on-ground teaching presence in Fall of 2020, that we would have to re-configure space on campus,” Ruckh said. Professor of Applied Communication Studies Jocelyn DeGroot is the other cochair of the task force. She said the whole process of finding new spaces started back when the pandemic hit. “March was when the Academic Community Task Force first started … As we went through the summer, we started identifying different places we can use for different classrooms. After the classrooms were assigned, we went around and found all these and identified them and figured out how many people could fit in a room with the six foot bubble, and we had to determine every single classroom on campus its COVID capacity,” DeGroot said. DeGroot said she and the team had to
Fixins’, a sit-down restaurant previously filled with dining tables and a buffet, has now been converted to a classroom space, complete with desks and a projector. | Mackenzie Smith / The Alestle
prioritize where they were going to place in person classes and what subjects had to be taught on ground. “We had faculty identify what modality they wanted to teach in, and we tried to prioritize classes that absolutely had to be in person. That would be labs, arts and creative activities and trying to get some of the freshmen classes on campus, so they had a feeling of that. Once we had that list set, we had to figure out what classrooms they can fit in and that was a lot of piecing together and figuring that out,” DeGroot said. Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Jeffery Waple said a lot of preparation had to be done in order to have on-campus classes. “Cleaning with disinfecting wipes was a major thing ... Providing spray, and wipes to clean off keyboards and monitors, things
that people touched, hand sanitizers in all the places ... We had to make sure there were plexiglass shields in place for the professors who were teaching to make sure there was enough distance. There was a lot of measuring. Putting a table down, six foot distance between the next table. We worked with the IT department because they had to bring in streams, monitors and video projectors and cords and set up chairs that were brought from classrooms that weren’t being used to create that space. There were a lot of technical things going on,” Waple said. Smaller classrooms on campus that would not be big enough to hold in-person classes are still being used, but for different purposes. The SIUE website states they are providing some of the smaller classrooms as study rooms for students to use, and each classroom has preferred seating to ensure
social distancing. Rooms have capacity limits that are shown by the entrance, so they are available to students on a first-come, first served basis. Students are reminded to wear their face coverings while in study rooms. In addition to many of these smaller classrooms being available as study rooms, advisers have been using them to meet with students. “Some of those classrooms are being used for advising appointments. They have been set aside for academic advisers who want to meet privately but relatively safely, if the student wants to have a face to face conversation. Some of those classrooms are being used for students to have places to participate in their online synchronous classes, so they are not going unused,” Ruckh said. Ruckh said adjusting to learning in a new environment may bring challenges, and requires flexibility from all involved. “I would thank them for their flexibility, adaptability and willingness to engage in the important work of learning under less ideal conditions. It’s what we all have to learn how to do, that is to adapt and to be resilient and also to be understanding,” Ruckh said. Learning in a location from a traditional classroom is different, but Waple said he thinks the students are just happy to be learning on ground rather than their computers. “I think the students are happy to be on ground. I talked to some of the students coming in and out of the classroom. Talking to them, they feel that their safety is still in mind, that we are doing our best to protect them,” Waple said. Visit the “resources” tab on the university’s COVID-19 for more information.
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Dress shops find new ways to survive COVID-19 Saying yes to the dress has become a bit harder NICOLE BOYD copy editor
While local formalwear businesses, which rely on large gatherings and events, have taken a hit due to COVID-19, owners are using technology and new ideas to stay afloat. Lydia Herman, owner of Champagne and Lace Bridal in Collinsville, Illinois, said the pandemic hurt sales drastically, so she turned to Facebook while the store was shut down to provide a virtual shopping experience. “I would come into my store by myself and I would do virtual bridal gown tours, because I still had girls getting married through the pandemic. So I actually had girls buy dresses off of Facebook Live … and then I would measure them over the phone and my seamstress would do their dress by measurements that we did on the phone, and we would do a curbside pickup,” Herman said. More recently, Herman has started custom designing face coverings and selling masks for extra revenue. “My manufacturer, who was my dressmaker, makes KN95 masks, so I ordered
Elegant Brides in Edwardsville has multiple showing rooms that allow for social distancing between shoppers while they try on dresses or tuxedos. At sign in, a staff member takes the temperature of each customer. | Mackenzie Smith / The Alestle
Elegant Brides in Edwardsville was probably 500 KN95 masks and provided those as an essential in my store. So once closed for two and a half months, but is reI received those masks, and once we were covering since reopening. “Not only were we not able to sell able to open our doors on [Phase] 4, I became an essential store because I carried dresses for brides who needed them, but [it] required, mandatory masks,” Herman said. also meant that we couldn’t do alterations, “So, I have more masks in inventory than I all our tuxedos were canceled or put off, bridesmaids do gowns.” dresses were Kathy De“We are really fortunate put off, so it Witt, owner of was a long The Dress Shop to have super loyal customtime without in Wood River, Illinois, said ers. Now that it’s been three, those things,” Bridal Consulshe estimates four months since we’ve been tant Gabrielle her sales are Thompson down about 70 back, we’ve been really fortu- said. “Kind of percent. Like the ownHerman, she is nate to have people in, plan- how er of the shop, using other resources to keep ning their weddings for next Dawnelle, has put it, is that her business year. we are realalive. ly fortunate “We actuGABRIELLE THOMPSON to have super ally have started Bridal Consultant at Elegant Brides loyal customa new webpage. ers. Now that We’ve also started online sales of what we have in the it’s been three, four months since we’ve store. We’ve [ran] several sales. Some of been back, we’ve been really fortunate to our brand new dresses were selling at-cost have people in, planning their weddings for or below, just to keep the lights on here. next year.” Many high school students have not We’ve also tried to start a second business where we print t-shirts now,” DeWitt said. been buying dresses, even for smaller gath-
“We were really fortunate to have loyal customers who wanted to shop with us even when ... no one knew what was really happening,” Thompson said. Photo taken at Elegant Brides. | Mackenzie Smith / The Alestle
“I think a lot of us reopened in hopes that we’re going to gain momentum, but that bride is still reserved on whether or not she’s going to get married,” Herman said. Photo taken at Elegant Brides. | Mackenzie Smith / The Alestle
erings or taking photos, according to DeWitt. “In our area, there [were] a few that bought a couple [dresses] to have photos taken, but for the most part, some of our customers, our girls, bought in hope that it would change. So they now have these dresses they cannot wear anywhere, so as far as with school starting again and there not being any homecoming, a lot of them don’t even buy the dresses to have photos taken in because the parents don’t feel like it’s worth it,” DeWitt said. Anna Kruger, a senior at Granite City High School, said she saved her prom dress from last year in the hopes of being able to go this year, but has alternate plans in case she can’t. “Me and my boyfriend are going to go get some cheap, cute clothes and then go out to dinner or something,” Kruger said. “It’s really upsetting because last year our prom got canceled, so I didn’t even get to have a junior prom,” Kayla Hubbard, a senior at Granite City High School, said. “Everyone was looking forward to prom thinking that COVID would be over by then, but [it’s] kind of looking less and less like we’re going to have a prom this year.” Visit the websites of Champagne and Lace, Elegant Brides and The Dress Shop to learn more about their services.
“You had to, as a small business, apply and get grants and the [Paycheck Protection Program]. Anything that’s available, I applied for, because you couldn’t make it without it,” Herman said. Photo taken at Elegant Brides. | Mackenzie Smith / The Alestle
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Former University Hair owners now operating at new location
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JOHN MCGOWAN reporter
After 52 years in the basement of the MUC, University Hair is no more. Former owners Cindy and Terry Knebel have taken up shop at Tribe Hair Salon in Glen Carbon and University Hair’s space has become the Health Service Annex. When the school was closed down in March of this year, so was University Hair. The university had been in contact with the Knebels about coming back, but Terry said it was time to move on. “They quarantined the place, and there’s no possible way I could operate a business because we couldn’t even get back into the building. They had it quarantined off, and they had all kinds of rules and regulations. If someone got sick, they would have to shut the thing down again,” Knebel said. “So, we decided to go ahead and venture out.” The two now operate at Tribe Hair Salon in Glen Carbon, Illinois. Terry works as master barber, and Cindy works as senior hairstylist. Cindy said she’s happy to be working there. “[My coworkers] are absolutely phenomenal. It’s a great shop,” Cindy said. “To be back in a shop where you can watch young people and learn from them and try new things … it’s really been uplifting.” University Hair has been at the university since 1968. Terry started there in 1972, and Cindy joined him in 1988. Cindy said
University Hair co-owners Terry and Cindy Knebel are taking their 48 years of haircutting experience to Tribe Hair Salon in Glen Carbon. | Alestle file photo
she enjoyed her time working at University Hair. “It was probably one of the best experiences I think anybody, as a barber or a beautician, could have,” Cindy said. “Terry and I never would have had the experiences that we had if not for having a beauty and barber shop on a college campus.” After University Hair’s spot was vacant for so many months, it took on a new role at the start of this semester. Health Service has transformed it into the Health
Service Annex, a place that tests and screens students and faculty who are unsure if they have COVID-19 asymptomatically. Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Jeffrey Waple said it was important that Health Service have asymptomatic testing in a separate spot. “We had to have a separate spot because in Health Service we’re not only seeing the symptomatic students, but we’re also providing other health care and mental health counseling that’s in
that functional area,” Waple said. Terry said the two don’t have any plans to go back. “It’s very hard to move a business, I’ll tell you that right now after 48 years, and the University had no guarantees, they might have to shut the whole university down next week because of the pandemic,” Terry said. “There is no harm and no foul on anybody’s part, everyone’s been great.” Waple said future plans for the area are unknown, but for
now it will remain in use for testing. “I don’t know what we will use that space for in the future, but for sure we will be doing some type of screening and testing through the spring term, and maybe longer than that,” Waple said. Students interested in Tribe Salon and Spa can check out their website, and those interested in testing and screening from the Health Services Annex can check out the Health Service website.
CSDI carries out Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month events virtually JOHN MCGOWAN reporter
Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month has begun at SIUE, and it’s continuing through mid-October with virtual events like inclusive conversations, a lotería game and Latin American cooking demonstrations. The events are entirely virtual, but that hasn’t stopped the team from including a wide range, from educational events like “Ally Training – Best Practices: How to Better Serve Hispanic/Latinx Students in Higher Education” to recreational events like “History of la Piñata and Piñata Making.” The events come as a result of collaboration between SIUC, SIUE and Maryville University. Director of the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion at SIUE Lindy Wagner said the COVID-19 restrictions on the events created an opportunity for this collaboration. “Now is a better time to collaborate than any because we’re all going to be virtual anyways,” Wagner said. “My hope is that this collaboration continues. So, even as we move into post-COVID times where things are more in person, I’d love to see still maybe a couple virtual opportunities so that we can continue this collaboration.” SIU’s Hispanic/Latino Resource Coordinator Cristina Castillo echoed Wagner’s statement by saying the virtual events allowed the universities to reach a larger audience. “It was a great opportunity for all of us to collaborate and put our efforts together to reach out to more people and
unite the campuses,” Castillo said. “We’re all in the virtual world, and I think that that has really given us the opportunity to stretch our arms.” This is Castillo’s third year planning Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month, and when she plans events, she bases them on four components: history, culture and traditions, advocacy and contributions. She said advocacy matters to her. “ T h e advocacy is very important, especially in a political environment. The criminalization of Hispanic people as undocumented, or immigrants, or aliens, or the issues with our [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] students make it very important that we bring something about advocacy,” Castillo said. Wagner said she hopes all students attend the events, not just Hispanic/Latinx people. “It’s always important that those who identify as mem-
bers of the community as well as those who do not are all a part of the celebration … A lot of times those who might think of themselves as allies aren’t always coming t o everything,” Wagner said. While the virtual events are pulling numbers in the 40s according to Castillo, there are s o m e w h o m i g h t be turned off by virtual events. Junior Corporate Organizational Management Major Mary Kimberly, of Dixon, Illinois, said she wouldn’t be attending the online events. “I don’t think I’m going to virtually attend anything … It’s a pandemic; I get it,” Kimberly said. “When everything goes online – I don’t know, I feel like it’s homework.
It’s not enjoyable and I’m not connecting to people.” student, junior Another Nursing Major Jorge Esquivel of Highwood, Illinois, said he was excited the month was being celebrated, but he was not thrilled it was online.
“I’m excited about the events because there’s not a lot of Hispanics at SIUE so people get to learn about us and they get to see our culture,” Esquivel said. “I’m a little bummed because it’s virtual, but I understand because that’s a way to keep everybody healthy.” Wagner said she hopes people see this month of events as the start of much more coming from CSDI. “I really hope that people see this as the beginning of some exciting history and heritage month programs for the year … I know we get really fatigued because we’re all in classes and we’re all in programs, but I just hope people choose a couple programs here and there each month to participate in,” Wagner said. Students interested in Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month can check out the events calendar on the CSDI website.
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Taylor case proves morality, legality don’t coincide THE ALESTLE STAFF editorial board
Although the Attorney General’s findings and facts related to the recent charges in the Breonna Taylor case are up for debate, at least one takeaway is clear — the law itself is not always moral. In our office alone, we at The Alestle have a wide range of opinions about the charges brought by the Attorney General. While our opinions vary in regard to whether the Attorney General completed the federal investigation to the best of his ability, we are in agreement about the differences between the law and morality. If we were to assume the Attorney General did his job, that would mean he could not have brought further charges among the officers. Whether or not he did his job to the best of his ability is being discussed all across the country. Either way, the lack of severe charges in the case highlights a problem regarding the
morality of law. The system as a whole should be reevaluated to better accommodate the value of human life. Of the three officers involved in the fatal narcotics raid at Taylor’s home, only former Louisville detective Brett Hankison was indicted by the grand jury on three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment. Each wanton endangerment charge carries a sentence of up to five years. Wanton endangerment indicates that an individual engaged in conduct with a high risk of death or serious physical injury to another individual under circumstances with low regard for human life. In the events leading up to Taylor’s death, a warrant with a no-knock provision was approved by Jefferson Circuit Judge Mary Shaw. While it was debated whether Taylor’s home had been identified in the warrant, an affidavit for the search warrant revealed both Tay-
lor’s apartment and Social Security numbers were listed. Detective Joshua Jaynes, who obtained the no-knock warrant, wrote that he had witnessed Jamarcus Glover, one of the primary suspects in the narcotics investigation, retrieve a package from Taylor’s home and had used the address as his own on several documents. Once the warrant was approved, three officers were assigned to orchestrating the raid. Although police and prosecutors said the officers announced themselves as police prior to entering the home, Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, says he never heard the officers announce themselves. Neighbors have stated they did not hear them either. According to Walker’s arrest citation, he fired a single shot at 12:43 a.m. under the assumption that intruders were breaking into the home. The bullet struck Sgt. Jonathon Mattingly’s leg, and officers Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove returned fire — with
more than 20 rounds. The coroner’s office pronounced Taylor’s time of death at 12:48 a.m., only five minutes after the first shot was fired. The cause of death was six gunshot wounds to her body. The subsequent drug search revealed no drugs within the home. Neither Taylor nor Walker have any drug offenses in their records. There was no evidence beyond the package retrieval to indicate Taylor had any involvement with the narcotics investigation against Glover. Since the raid, Louisville’s Metro Council voted unanimously to ban no-knock warrants in a law named “Breonna’s Law.” However, this provision and the outcome of the court proceedings do not bring justice to Taylor’s death. A 26-year-old emergency room technician, Taylor had an entire life ahead of her — which should have never been ended by the onslaught of six bullets.
that they haven’t changed their terminology to reflect that. I was assigned female at birth, but as a non-binary person, I don’t feel comfortable being called a woman. At times it even makes me dysphoric, meaning discomfort caused by the discrepancy between one’s identity and their assigned gender at birth. Since I’m someone who needs what this university calls “women’s health,” it feels pretty alienating that they box reproductive care into such binary categories. I can imagine it’s even worse for trans men. Due to that label, I don’t know if my identity or pronouns will be accepted if I were to make one of those appointments. It may seem trivial or silly, but these kinds of concerns are extremely common among trans people. Trying to get any sort of medical care as a trans person is exhausting. You have to navigate around things like your dead-
name being on insurance, trying to figure out if it will be safe for you to disclose your identity to your healthcare provider and potentially having to find a new one if you make the wrong judgment. According to NPR, trans people have higher rates of preventable conditions, like HIV, due to lack of health coverage as well as inability to find a healthcare provider that will accept them. A lot of my trans friends have expressed similar concerns about navigating healthcare. One said he was worried because his primary care provider also labels that type of care as women’s health; if he were to change his gender marker on his ID, he would be denied care. A lot of college students, especially those who are far from home, rely on the campus health clinic as their primary care provider, which means if campus healthcare is not accepting, a
transgender student would have a hard time finding somewhere else to go. Transgender people have a long history of medical mistreatment. Many have experienced being denied care, receiving subpar care or being invalidated by healthcare professionals. The future of medical care for transgender people is especially uncertain due to the Trump administration’s recent reversal of protections against discrimination under the Affordable Care Act. Due to this history of mistreatment, many trans people distrust medical professionals. The way to solve that is for healthcare providers to make an effort to be inclusive and use gender affirming language. For Health Service, that should start with removing the outdated label of women’s health and change it to something neutral, like “reproductive health.”
Cissexism in the medical field needs to stop
ALEX AULTMAN lifestyles editor
While society is beginning to become more aware of the existence of trans and non-binary people, the medical field still has issues with cisnormative language, especially in reproductive care. Even SIUE, a university that will take every opportunity to tell you how accepting they are of LGBTQ+ students, still has issues of cissexism in its health clinic. Both Counseling Services and ACCESS have, in my experience, been very gender inclusive, good about asking for pronouns and avoiding cisnormative language. However, I’ve recently noticed on the Health Service website that their reproductive care, such as contraceptives and pelvic exams, is still labeled as “Women’s Health.” Not everyone who needs gynecological care is a woman and I’m disappointed
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Cougar athletes bring BLM movement to campus ALEX AULTMAN lifestyles editor
SIUE Athletics came together this weekend to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement by organizing a march on campus. The march was inspired by the recent attention brought to police brutality, and fueled further by the recent verdict in the Breonna Taylor case. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron stated one officer, Detective Brett Hankinson, was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment for firing into the walls of neighboring apartments, leading to outrage from those hoping for charges related to Taylor’s death. Junior women’s basketball guard Mikia Keith, of Indianapolis, organized the event with the help of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. The event began with a showcasing of Black student organizations on campus. Senior women’s soccer goalkeeper Jensen Schoch, of Orlando, Florida, is president of SAAC. Schoch said she and Keith wanted to make sure Black student organizations felt as welcome on campus as everyone else. “I feel that a lot of the time Black organizations and Black individuals aren’t recognized as much and simply because of bias and stuff like that, so I think part of [Mikia’s] goal in all of this was, while yes, we are promoting Black Lives Matter, we’re also recognizing our community,” Schoch said. “Especially our Black student organizations on campus, because they deserve credit for all the good that they’re doing and they deserve to feel welcome just as much as any other organization.” Before marching, student athletes shared their thoughts on the Taylor case as well as their own experiences with racism. Keith said Black Lives Matter is a human rights issue, not a political one. “Yes, I’m a Black athlete, but first, I’m a Black person and have to deal with the social and racial injustice we face in our day-to-day life. Black Lives Matter is not political; it is a basic human right,” Keith said. “Saying that Black lives matter does not mean that white or any other racial
group doesn’t matter, it means that all lives can’t matter until Black lives matter.” Senior women’s basketball guard Zaria Whitlock, of St. Paul, Minnesota, said in order for things to change, those with privilege need to stand with the Black community. “We’re socialized to fear things we don’t understand and I think people are so afraid to say ‘Black lives matter’ because we’ve never lived in a world where they do,” Whitlock said. “We cannot expect to see change and begin to dismantle systems and institutions built upon hatred unless those with privilege are willing to stand with us and be just as outraged as those of us who are subjected to these injustices.” Whitlock said silence is complicity in the face of racial injustice. “I want to say to every white person who is here today, especially those who self-proclaim as allies ... if you are spectating in silence, it’s a form of betrayal and it’s just as hurtful as those who openly and without question spread bigotry and hate in this country,” Whitlock said. “Silence does not demonstrate neutrality, it demonstrates your complicity with the status quo. It’s not acceptable to sit and watch while human beings are literally hunted in broad daylight by the exact systems and institutions that are supposed to protect us by law.” Another way SAAC is trying to support the Black community is by selling shirts online and at the march, with proceeds going to an anti-racism scholarship at SIUE. Schoch said she and Keith felt it was important to help people in their community. “We have shirts for sale that say the names of those who have been a victim of police violence and also standing together as a unified group and saying that Black lives matter — all sorts of Black lives,” Schoch said. “The money we’re collecting from that is also going to a scholarship across campus, the anti-racism scholarship that the school set up in the aftermath of the George Floyd incident ... We wanted to donate to Black Lives Matter, but we felt that this was better because it affects people in our own community.”
Top: Keith and the SIUE women’s basketball team lead the March for Racial Justice on Saturday chanting “Black lives matter” and “Silence is violence.” Signs read “My Black body is not target practice” and “We will not be silent.” Bottom: Ball State University student Taylor Hall sings her original song “I Can’t Breathe” before the march. Hall is an activist who spreads awareness through her art. I Mackenzie Smith / The Alestle
The march was predominantly attended by athletes, each marching with their respective teams, but there were also other students and members of the local com-
munity. To find out more about SAAC, visit their Twitter. For information about SIUE Athletics, visit their website.
SPORTS in brief NCAA DI fall championships moved to spring
The Division I Board of Directors approved a package of proposals to move Fall 2020 championships to Spring 2021 that will reduce team brackets to 75 percent of their usual capacities and require sites of each championship to be predetermined. Men’s and women’s cross country championships are currently scheduled for March 15, although the Division I Competition Oversight Committee will continue to evaluate the issue due to concern in the membership. For soccer, both the men’s and women’s College Cups are scheduled for May 13-17, with selections taking place April 18. There will be 36 teams in the men’s bracket instead of 48, and 48 in the women’s bracket instead of 64.
Women’s Volleyball championship finals will be held April 23-25, with selections April 4. The NCAA also announced they are extending the recruiting dead period, during which coaches may not have in-person contact with recruits or their parents, through Jan. 1. “While the Council acknowledged and appreciates the growing desire to resume in-person recruiting by select coaches’ associations, Council members ultimately concluded the primary concern right now must be protecting the current student-athletes on our campuses,” Council Chair Grace Calhoun said. For more information, visit the NCAA website. Watch for more updates at alestlelive.com.
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