The Alestle, Vol. 76 No. 6

2022 Inductee Hall of Fame list includes author, comedian and more

FRANCESCA BOSTON lifestyles editor

An Illinois state senator and a come dian were among the 10 alumni induct ed into the SIUE Alumni Hall of Fame during Homecoming this year.

Terry Ganey, a mass communications alumnus, graduated from SIUE in 1970. He said that SIUE was the cornerstone of his journalism career, which led to his career as a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He said the communications program had just started and that it was exciting to see the program grow.

“I took a couple of classes in TV, ra dio, and journalism, and enjoyed them and enjoyed the excitement of being in a news room or being in a TV studio,” Ganey said.

Damon Harbison, who earned his

masters degree in business administration in 2004, said that he was blown away that he had been nominated for the Hall of Fame. Harbison, who currently serves as the president of St. Mary’s Hospital, said he was beyond honored to be inducted with the caliber of individuals who have and are inducted into the Hall of Fam. He said he is proud to be an alumnus of SIUE.

“Location, value and reputation are the three top [reasons] I chose SIUE. The val ue was really, really important to me, and then the reputation, [people] would always talk about how the faculty,” Harbison said.

Kathleen Madigan, a mass communi cation alumna who graduated in 1988, said she was honored to be indicted into the Hall of Fame. She said that as a comedian, she doesn’t always feel her work is quite as serious as other professions.

“But it’s very nice that somebody gives you a shout out, [, especially among] people who have done things I would consider it to be more helpful,” Madigan said.

Diana Isaacs, a pharmacy alumna who graduated in 2009, said she was part of the first graduating class for the School of Pharmacy and the relationships she built with her classmates and faculty shaped her experience at SIUE.

“It was really special in terms of be ing part of a brand-new program. When I started in 2005, we were the only class ever, and with only 80 of us, all the faculty knew our names, and we had a really close rela tionship with everyone and just really felt like a family,” Issacs said.

Issacs said SIUE shaped her into the person and pharmacist she has become, giving her the skills to thrive in her posi

tion.

“SIUE helped me to [learn how] com municate that knowledge to be able to help people, and it’s been so important, so re warding in my career,” Issaces said.

The event also honored Bryce Rotter, a dental school alumnus and former dean of the school;, Franklin Boster, who earned his bachelor’s in psychology and masters in behavioral science from SIUE; and Scott Miller, an engineering graduate who cur rently serves on the School of Engineering Advisory Board. Two nursing alumni were also honored, Frank Grasso and Kyle Gif fin, who now co-own G&G Anesthesia. Illinois State Sen. Christoper Belt, who earned his master of public administration in 2002, was also honored on Sept. 23.

For more information on the alumni, read this article on the Alestle’s website.

Leaps of Love has Highland drivers race to defeat childhood cancer

DYLAN HEMBROUGH reporter

The 24-hour fundraiser for Leaps of Love in Highland, Illinois, featured 25 teams of race cars, food vendors, live enter tainment and bounce houses for the kids.

Leaps of Love is an organization ded icated to education on brain tumors and the late effects of childhood cancer. Traci Riechmann of Highland founded Leaps of Love in 2010. Riechmann said she drew on personal experience to help bolster the project.

“My mother had cancer, and then my sister at the age of 16 had cancer after my mom had passed away,” Riechmann said. “I had just seen the need to connect fami lies together.”

Riechmann had previously worked for an organization called His Kids, which fo cuses on all types of childhood cancer.

“Kids with brain tumors have the most late effects of all of them, so that’s why I focus just on those,” Riechmann said.

The idea for Laps for Leaps itself came about 3 years ago, when Riechmann’s son, Brady, was watching a race channel with his friends. Riechmann said from there, the idea blossomed into the 24-hour fundraiser on the Highland Speedway.

Linda Eilerman, also from Highland, was tasked with getting volunteers from SIUE to help out with the event. Eilerman is an SIUE worker in the facilities manage ment department.

“My son is one of the car drivers, and I’m good friends with the director,” Eiler man said. “I like to help out with her events when I can, so I’m here to support.”

Eilerman and Riechmann both said that the fundraiser was a massive amount of work.

“[It was] a big undertaking,” Eilerman said. “They had to get city approval [and] make sure it was O.K. with the racetrack.”

Riechmann said planning really began in April of this year, using Facebook to spread the word and get volunteers, spon sors and racing teams.

“Probably about a month ago was when stuff started getting real,” Riechmann said. “Teams started really signing up for it.”

Chelsea Schumacher, a Highland res ident, first heard about the event from her husband.

“[I heard about it] through the orga nization’s chairman and through my hus band, who is helping with the event as well,” Schumacher said.

Schumacher is also a sponsor for Laps for Leaps. Event sponsors included both individual people and larger organizations.

“They just asked what you would like to donate, and you decide what you can do as a person or a business,” Schumacher said.

Nick Brown of Pocahontas, Illinois, sings for the Benders & Backroads band when he is off duty as a police officer.

“We were contacted by Leaps of Love asking if we would come out here and play for them,” Brown said.

Brown said the Benders & Backroads, a group of four men, have only been per forming together for about a year. Brown

also said this is their typical venue style, though they usually play for four hours at a time. Brown’s band was just one of four live entertainment groups who performed at the event. Jesse Vincent, the Robert Per ry Band and Hideous Gentlemen took the reins throughout the day on Oct. 1.

“[We’re excited about] hanging out with all the people and having a good time with them,” Brown said.

Eilerman said that she had no doubts about the fundraiser’s success once plan ning got underway, especially given Brady Riechmann’s passion for the project.

“I knew it would happen,” Eilerman said. “When they set their mind to a proj ect, it usually comes full force.”

Riechmann said she appreciated the support from the Highland community for her project. Eilerman said that she was glad to see that the event was a success and hopes that it will set the stage for future fundraisers.

“They’ll take it and run with it,” Eiler man said.

There are many resources at SIUE specifically designed for readers and writ ers on campus.

WRITING CENTER

If you’re struggling with certain parts of a paper and need some extra help, the Writing Center works with students during their composition process. Students can book a 30 minute, one-on-one appoint ment with a Writing Tutor in-person, on line or asynchronously.

The Writing Center is located in the Student Success Center. To book an ap pointment, students can log on to siue.mywcon line.com or email wcenter@siue.edu.

Office Hours are Monday & Wednes day 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesday & Thurs day 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

TUTORING RESOURCE CENTER

Students who need extra assistance with their classes can visit the Tutoring Resource Center, where students can find tutors that specialize in different subjects including math, science and psychology.

The Tutoring Center is located in the Student Success Center in Room 1252. To book an appointment, students can log on to http://siue.mywconline.com.

LEARNING RESOURCE CENTER

The Learning Resource Center (LRC) is a public library geared towards helping students and community members reach their academic and professional goals. The LRC provides a variety of services includ ing printing, career development work shops and access to materials from over 400 libraries through the Illinois Heartland Li brary System.

The Learning Resource Center is lo cated at 601 James R. Thompson Blvd., East St. Louis. For more information, you

can visit the Learning Resource Center website, email siue.esl.library@siue.edu or call 618-874-8719.

Hours of operation are Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

MONTHLY BOOK CLUB

Every month the Learning Resource Center hosts a book club that meets in-per son and over Zoom. There is a specific book that participants can receive for free at the Learning Resource Center.

Sarah Kirkpatrick, director of the Learning Resource Center, said the books are chosen in advance by the attendees at the meetings. She said the book club gives people the opportunity to broaden their perspectives and explore different genres.

“We leave it up to the participants to talk about what stood out to them from the book, what they really enjoyed, what they might have struggled with, and let them take the lead on the discussion,” Kirkpat rick said.

The Learning Resource Center is lo cated at 601 James R. Thompson Blvd., East St. Louis. To receive a Zoom link for the book club, you can RSVP by email siue. esl.library@siue.edu or call 618-874-8719.

Each meeting takes place on the last Fri day of each month from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m.

RIVER BLUFF REVIEW

The River Bluff Review is SIUE’s an nual student-run magazine, which features a collection of art produced by students from a variety of different majors, fully run by the students of English 494. The River Bluff Review includes short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction, artwork and more. Sub missions are closed for this semester, but stu dents can submit their creative writing work or art to their website in the future.

For more information, you can email riverbluffreview@gmail.com.

SIGMA TAU DELTA

Sigma Tau Delta is an international En glish honor society for those majoring and minoring in English, as well as graduate students. SIUE’s Alpha Chi Alpha chapter focuses heavily on English language, liter ature and writing while promoting philan thropic causes and community.

To be inducted into SIUE’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, you can visit their web site to see if you meet the requirements and download a membership form.

Metro

LIV KRAUS reporter

are

resources for

and writers

SIUE launches southern Illinois’ first forensic science master’s program on new campus

NICOLE BOYD online/opinion editor

SIUE is partnering with the Illinois State Police, the SIU School of Law, SWIC and the city of Belleville to create the only accredited forensic science pro gram in southern Illinois.

Elza Ibroscheva, associate provost for assessment, accreditation and academic planning, and professor of mass commu nications, said the program is developed in response to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s call for reform related to forensic investigations.

She said there is a shortage of ex pertise because the caseload is so large, but there is not enough qualified labor to adequately complete the tasks needed for an investigation.

“As a result of this shortage, there is a backlog of cases that have not been solved,” Ibroscheva said. “The way in which we could solve this or help con tribute to solving this problem is by be ing able to provide the training that students need in order to be able to be hired in this field because the field of forensic science is so highly dependent upon specific competencies in scientific fields such as such as chemistry, biology, pharmacology, anthropology.”

Ed Navarre, professor in the chemis try department, worked with Luci Kohn, a professor in the biology department, and Corey Ragsdale, a professor in the anthropology department, to develop a curriculum that meets the American Academy of Physics’ requirements for accreditation. He said one aspect of the curriculum is pattern evidence, which concerns things like fingerprints and foot prints, which will be taught by the state police because it is a practitioner’s art, not an academic discipline.

“No one on campus really has that

expertise because no one on campus is trained by the police as a forensic scien tist, so that one has a really strong interac tion and a necessary interaction with the state police laboratory,” Navarre said.

Provost Denise Cobb said the state police also have a lab next door to the former Linden wood campus, which will create opportunities for collaboration, dual programming and internships.

“The Illinois State Police saw an opportuni ty. They’ve long wanted a forensic sciences institute, and there’s a build ing next door with labs and classroom space,” Cobb said.

“It was an oppor tunity for us to think about what hap pens when you co-locate with the Illinois State Police, with others who were en gaged in, whether it’s continuing edu cation for judges or lawyers or other law enforcement agencies, or with the police academy, what happens when you bring all of those groups together into the same physical space?”

Cobb said this is also a unique oppor tunity to have anchor partners in a loca tion where others could build around to address criminal justice and community justice issues together.

“My long-term hope would be that more community-based organiza tions and other law enforcement relat ed activities would take place there so that we build a community of practi tioners and scholars to address pressing challenges,” Cobb said.

Courtney Breckenridge, a research fellow with the Center for Predictive Ana lytics, works on the implementation of the strategic plan. She said they wanted to en sure that educational opportunities were still in the Belleville community after Lindenwood consolidated to their tradi tional campus, but the location is also an opportunity to explore environ mental justice.

“Belleville is surrounded by Superfund sites, so areas of heavy former or current industrial use,” Breckenridge said.

“What does it look like to be training students for ca reers where they’re sampling soil, sam pling water to un derstand contamination levels or to be providing compliance and monitoring for a federal agency?”

Navarre said one perspective they wanted to bring was that instead of cre ating a degree so people could get an entry-level job but give students the ex perience to become leaders and education beyond current practices.

“Those practices change very slow ly, because they need to be very well tested, but then we’re giving people ed ucation in methods and ideas that are going to become the practice,” Navarre said. “Our students are very much the people who could move into the future and become their directors of laborato ries and not just employees, but it would be really running things and then have that future-looking role.”

09.26.22

A wallet was found in the Cougar Lake apartments.

09.27.22

A large crowd was gathered on the Quad in response to an authorized speaker. The crowd was unhappy with the speaker’s presentation, and officers remained for security.

An unleashed dog was reported near the SIUE Gardens. The dog was found, and was reunited with its owner.

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

09.28.22

Four seperate debit cards and a key chain were found in the MUC.

09.29.22

An officer assisted SIUE Housing with an individual wielding a sword in the Cougar Lake Apartments. The subject was informed that swords were not allowed on campus, and the weapon was brought to SIUE PD.

Two traffic accidents were report ed — one in Parking Lot A, and one near the intersection of South University Drive and Supporting Services Drive.

A backpack was found in the Student Fitness Center.

09.30.22

A traffic accident was reported in Parking Lot A8 on the Alton campus.

A hit-and-run was reported in Park ing Lot B.

A wallet was found in the Student Fitness Center.

Supreme Court’s decision creates questions involving the rights of the accused

BRUCE DARNELL reporter

The controversial Supreme Court decision involving the fa mous Miranda rights was over shadowed by other decisions re leased the same week, but is also worthy of concern, according to an SIUE professor who hosted a lecture and discussion on campus last week.

The case involves Terence Tekoh, who sued officer Carlos Vega after he didn’t read Tekoh his rights. Tekoh was found not guilty at trial, but still pursued a suit against Vega.

Political Science Chair and Professor Kenneth Moffett said he hosted the lecture because he believed that it was import ant to inform people about the rights of the accused following the decision.

“This case made its way to the Supreme Court through the appeals process, and the Supreme Court ruled that individual police officers cannot be sued for not informing criminal suspects of their rights,” Moffett said. “The only remedy is that the relevant evidence can be excluded at trial.”

This decision was reached on June 23, just one day before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had made abor

tion legal for nearly 50 years. An other decision that overshadowed Vega v. Tekoh was the NYSRPA v. Bruen decision that restricted gun control in New York state.

“The gun control decision got announced, that took up a significant amount of press that day. The next day, the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade got announced. Those two took up media attention, and this deci sion [Vega v. Tekoh] would have gotten more attention given some of the implications of it, like for example rights being denied at the time with only an after the fact remedy, but because public attention was focused on guns and abortion at the time, this de cision flew under the radar… it’s a limitation on the rights of the accused,” Moffett said.

Some opinions seem to split based upon whether Miranda is itself a right. Tim Kalinowski, a professor of political science, believes that Miranda rights ar en’t a right and that the decision doesn’t change much.

“All Miranda does is warn you of your rights, it itself is not a right,” Kalinowski said.

Kalinowski would later make the distinction of calling them Miranda warnings as opposed to Miranda rights.

“The trial court heard his

objection, that he wasn’t read his Miranda rights, and said that it was because he wasn’t in custo dy. Even with the confession, the jury acquitted, so he then sues the police officer for not having read his Miranda rights. This Court said that under Section 1983, you must have a right violated, and there was no right here, he wasn’t in custody, so Miranda didn’t apply,” Kalinowski said.

Kalinowski doesn’t believe that protecting individual offi

cers from being sued will have any effect on the reading of rights to suspects.

“Police officers want a con viction, so they’re going to read them their rights, or warnings, because they’re going to want the conviction and if they don’t read the warnings in a custody situa tion, then any evidence found would be excluded,” Kalinowski said. “All this really does is keep police officers from getting sued every time someone thinks they

should have been read their Mi randa warnings.”

Given the recent decisions, some have wondered what the Supreme Court may do next. Such an example is a case involv ing affirmative action, notably in the school admissions process. Moffett said it may be reason able to assume that this may be overturned, but a majority con servative Supreme Court does not always set conservative public policy, and so only time can tell.

“

Forensic science is so highly dependent upon specific competencies in scientific fields.”

Elza Ibroscheva, Associate Provost for Assessment, Accreditation and Academic Planning

| Wesley McLachlan / Unplash

LIV KRAUS reporter

Danielle Lee, an assistant professor in biological sciences has contributed to research in teh the world of science extensively. From creating blogs combining science and pop culture to being featured in National Geographic for her research on pouched rats, she continues her contributions to the world of science.

Lee grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, where she first found her love for agriculture.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but I was kind of steeped in ur ban rural gradients my whole life, which is what I study now,” Lee said. “I didn’t even realize how much of all that history and past I still bring with me.”

Lee said her passion for bi ology didn’t start in a classroom, but outdoors. Lee said her moth er worked for the Park Commis sion in Memphis and often took her to work with her.

“In primary school, I didn’t like science,” Lee said. “I felt real ly over my head, but I liked being outside and I liked animals, so if anything it just started with me spending time outside.”

Lee said she originally planned on becoming a veterinar ian. She said after being rejected from veterinary school, she took biology classes at the Universi ty of Memphis to increase her chances of getting in.

“I thought if you like ani mals, a veterinarian was the only job available,” Lee said. “I had no idea the variety of career oppor tunities that existed.”

Lee said she learned that by being a biology research er, she could still get to work with animals.

“I was always asking ques tions about animals. I always wanted to understand their behavior,” Lee said. “That was always my jam. I just had no idea that being an animal behaviorist existed.”

Lee said she was an agri culture major when she was an undergraduate student. She said when teaching, she takes a page from her agriculture professors and focuses on using plain lan guage to explain concepts.

“It’s true what they say, when you teach something, you learn it better,” Lee said. “Some times you learn it for the first time when you have to explain it to someone else, so it’s a good way of learning things.”

During graduate school, Lee worked at Normandy High School for a couple of years, as part of an outreach program. She said she noticed the students had

mixed feelings about science, the same way she did at their age.

Lee said she and the teacher she was assigned to decided to start an after school biology club. She said many of the students who disliked being in class enjoyed the club because it gave them a more hands-on experience.

“The after-school club was kind of where we struck up a balance of introducing good materials and engaging students in science, but we took away the pressure of grades,” Lee said.

Lee said they decided to turn the after-school biology club into a summer program when the school year was wrapping up and many students wanted to continue learning.

Lee said their first blog was Urban Science Adventures, where she wrote up what the students were working on in the outreach program.

“The Urban Science Ad ventures was geared toward kids in their families, because it was about that type of after-school activities,” Lee said. “I wanted to have a vehicle for talking to adults about science topics.”

Lee said The Urban Scientist was a way to talk about science in everyday life and using pop cul ture to make it more engaging.

She said she wasn’t able to keep up with the blog due to her many obligations, but the content is still there to look back on.

“What I do like about blogs

is that a lot of this stuff still lives on in its archives, so the content is still out there and still really rele vant,” Lee said.

Lee said after graduate school, she did postdoctoral re search with a professor who had received a grant to study pouched rats in Tanzania.

“My focus was studying behavioral differences or per sonality in these rodents,” Lee said. “Essentially, I was asked to apply what I had already stud ied and known in field mice to this larger rat.”

Lee said she started working on this research in 2012 and con tinues to work on it today.

“They’re really big rats, so they’re about two and a half,

three feet long from nose to tail,” Lee said. “They’re really large so they can live over really, really large spaces.”

To study the pouched rats, Lee said she puts traps out to catch them, marks them, takes measurements and then releases them back into the wild.

“A lot of my bread and butter is doing what I call kind of short, really quick observational experi ments,” Lee said.

Lee said the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged her and her graduate students to think outside the box. She said they’re using remote cameras to make observations.

“They detect motion and they record behaviors once they’re in view, so we put camer as in places where they are likely to be, or we do things to attract them to where the cameras are and then we can record their be havior,” Lee said.

Lee said to this day, the re search she has done on pouched rats remains one of the highlights of her career.

“I really liked being in the field,” Lee said. “It was a long field season and it was exhaust ing, but my last year, my post doc, I got to spend almost six months in the field really doing all those labs, because I wasn’t sure it was gonna be my last time studying pouched rats, so that was a great time.”

Lee said she finished her time in the field around October 2015. In 2017, she was selected as National Geographic’s Emerging Explorer, a program recognizing scientists, innovators and story tellers for their exemplary work.

“Thanks to the [National Geographic] program, I was able to finally go back, reconnect and do all those things and like, kind of get started, but be able to trav el abroad,” Lee said.

Lee said being able to trav el and do the same things she’s watched people do on TV as a kid has been a dream come true.

“I realized I use science to travel the world because I grew up dreaming about the world, but not actually being able to travel,” Lee said. “Science will take you a little bit everywhere.”

Lee said one of her goals for the future is to expand her re search throughout more physical locations in the region and to be able to work with more high school students.

“I’m looking forward to working with high school stu dents, again, during research, doing some of the local stuff, and kind of adapting new research spots, so creating these field re search sites, but here along the area, working in partnership with communities to do some of these observations,” Lee said.

Lee’s research has taken her many places, and been presented and promoted by different organizations, even National Geographic. | Photo Courtesy of SIUE Marketing and Relations

Rating Graphics and Header by Kirsten O’Loughlin

Brown Bag Bistro’s creamy cuisine isn’t crummy

DYLAN HEMBROUGH reporter

When I stepped into Alton’s Brown Bag Bistro, the first thing I noticed was the homey environ ment. The mason jars over the ceiling fan lights and Scrabble tile menu on the wall were incredibly inviting.

I ordered a bowl of lobster bisque – the larger size – and it was priced well for the amount I

received. After a fair amount of waiting, the soup appeared on the table with three small slices of very stale bread.

As far as taste goes, the bisque wasn’t bad. However, its texture fell short of what I ex pected in a soup – it was a tad viscous. The bread it came with tasted a bit stale as well, but went well with the bisque.

All in all, the soup wasn’t ter rible. It was a tad underwhelm ing, but I got what I paid for.

Kyoto’s Miso soup is miSo-so, not great, not terrible

EMILY STERZINGER editor-in-chief

Kyoto has a great atmosphere and their sushi is someof the best in town, but their miso soup was just not up to standard. Their soup was $3.15, which for the amount of soup I got, was fairly reasonable.

One thing I could tell im mediately was that they used oo much miso in it. There needs to be a delicate balance between the miso and the water,which Kyoto failed to deliver. The soup was also barely hot and failed to stay warm in the five-ish minutes it took to drink it. How ever, the tofu in it was nice.

Overall: not a fan.

Peel Pizza’s soup was pretty, pasty, pricey and pungent

BRUCE DARNELL multi-media editor

I don’t understand theappeal for soup at Peel’s Pizza. It was ex pensive and the flavor was poor. However, it was presented very neatly on a small black napkin and white plate. The entire restaurant seemed to follow the color scheme of orange, black and white. It felt more corporate as opposed to a homey environ ment. Despite that, the service

was extremely kind. The soup cost an excessive 6 dollars for a cup, or 12 dollars for a bowl.

The soup was wild mush room, and was very overbear ing with the mushrooms.There were a few petals of an herb (it may have been garlic) placed on top, but that did little in changing the flavor.

If you can imagine the taste of a mushroom, then that is exactly what this soup tasted like.

Overall, I wouldn’t recom mend it, get some pizza instead.

I Dylan Hembrough / The Alestle

I Emily Sterzinger / The Alestle

I Bruce Darnell / The Alestle

Cleveland Heath has the perfect soup for fall

Cleveland Heath offers two soups – pozole, and a soup of the day. Being a vegetarian, I unfor tunately wasn’t able to try the pozole, so I opted for the soup of the day.

I couldn’t have been happier that I did. The soup of the day when I went, on a Friday, was a potato and leek soup, something I never would have thought to try otherwise.

For $8, the soup was served in a large bowl, garnished with

shredded cheddar cheese and heavily crisped potato chips. The broth was cream-based, but not thick or heavy, and delightful ly seasoned. The potatoes were cooked the perfect amount, and even though I had never tried leeks before, I thought they add ed great flavor and texture.

There were other ingredients and spices that I couldn’t iden tify, as they were blended into the soup, but there was nothing I didn’t like. If you’re looking for a warm, hearty soup this fall, Cleveland Heath is a must-try.

Gulf Shores Restaurant & Grill clam chowder serves side dish at best

DAMIAN MORRIS multi media editor

Upon walking into their Ed wardsville location, I was seated quickly and the waiter was friend ly and attentive, despite seem ing to be the only one working at the time.

I ordered the New England Clam Chowder, which comes to a price of $5.99 for a cup and $7.99 for a bowl, which is about an average price for this type of dish. I ordered the bowl, which also came with soup crack

ers and a corn muffin. The soup was creamy, fairly seasoned and full of potatoes. However, what seemed to be lacking was the clams. After having finished about half the bowl, I had for gotten I was having a clam-based dish as they were the leastnotice able ingredient in the soup.

Overall, the taste was av erage, and while seasoned, not overly packed with flavor. Al though I ordered it as a main dish, I believe it might serve bet ter as a side dish to a more flavor ful entree.

Bann’s Thai vegetable soup is not your grandma’s soup

FRANCESCA BOSTON lifestyle editor

I opted to get takeout for my soup order, and online order ing is excellent for someone who hates ordering over the phone.

Bann Thai’s chicken noodle soup was good, had a light fla vor and was chock-full of fresh veggies. It also came with rice noodles, cilantro, bean sprouts and peanuts on the side, adding to the soup’s various textural and flavor layers.

The soup was delicious but pricey, at around $12.50, but it was a large serving. I ate about half of it and felt comfortably full. I also got Pad Thai with tofu, and be twee the two dishes had a couple of meals.

Service at Bann Thai is won derful and speedy, a wonderful bonus to a good meal.

It was a good dinner for someone looking to get in lots of veggies while still having good flavor.

I Nicole Boyd/ The Alestle

I Damian Morris / The Alestle

I Francesca Boston / The Alestle

First-ever Edwardsville Unity Fest demonstrates oneness in diversity

DYLAN HEMBROUGH reporter

Edwardsville Unity drew a large and diverse crowd in its inaugural Unity Fest on Oct. 1, featuring live entertainment, ed ucational booths and a variety of activities centered around diversity, tolerance and celebrating community.

After seeing the Peace Festival that occurs in Belleville, Illinois, lead organiz er Jesse Allen said he wanted to bring that same spirit to Edwardsville.

“The goal of the event was to put as many different voices and faces into one place as humanly possible in an effort to change the national narrative that we can’t get along,” Allen said.

Allen said Unity Fest could not have happened without a lot of work put in by those involved at Edwardsville Unity.

“This was a complete team effort,” Allen said. “There were so many different people who had to give up their time and attention and money to make this happen.”

Edwardsville Mayor Art Risavy said Allen called his office to introduce the idea of Unity Fest to him, explaining that the organization, Edwardsville Unity, is all about diversity of people.

“It’s a collaboration of people working together to ensure that prejudice and dis crimination have no place in our communi ty and our government,” Risavy said.

Risavy spoke to introduce the event, emphasizing the importance of diversity in Edwardsville. Risavy said diversity was a key part of his mayoral campaign.

“Anything that can support cultural tolerance and harmony in our lives is ev erything we’re about as a city,” Risavy said. “We want Edwardsville to be a city where people are all welcome and feel that they are a part of our community.”

Risavy said the Human Relations Committee, which was present at the event, exists to ensure that the city govern

ment is doing its part to foster a tolerant environment in the community.

“The Human Relations Commit tee communicates to me as a mayor to let me know if we’re hitting the mark,” Risavy said.

Jean Anderson of Shiloh, Illinois, was representing the Metro-East Interfaith Partnership. Originally begun after 9/11 over concerns about how the Muslim com munity was perceived in the U.S., Ander son said it has since grown to include every major religion.

“I was fascinated with the philosophies of these other religions, and I was hungry for knowledge to learn more about them,” Anderson said.

Anderson, a self-described progressive Christian, said she has since made friends with people of a wide variety of religious backgrounds. It was through the Inter faith Partnership that Anderson found out about Unity Fest.

“We jumped on it and organized it in a real short time,” Anderson said. “We just had so much fun thinking of things that would interest people to get them to be en gaged in our booth.”

Lindy Wagner was there to represent SIUE’s Inclusive Excellence, Education and Development Hub. Wagner said that the Hub’s purpose at Unity Fest was akin to its purpose on campus.

“On campus we do a lot of different things,” Wagner said. “In the community, it’s more about the partnerships that we cre ate. An example of that is our LGBTQIA+ History Month poster we brought here.”

Lisa Lang of Sherman, Illinois, attend ed Unity Fest to support the Bahá’í booth and her friends running it. Lang, a Bahá’í herself, said her faith helped guide her to wards an open and accepting worldview.

“I see everybody like a family,” Lang said. “Everybody, no matter what race, no matter what religion, we’re all one.

Lang said that she was raised Bahá’í as

a child. She was accompanied at Unity Fest by her mother, who is also Bahá’í.

“If somebody in another part of the world is hurting, then we’re hurting too,” Lang said. “We’re all one, and we should all be there to help each other out.”

David Roderick, a pastor at Im manuel United Methodist Church, said he loved the fact that Unity Fest was an interfaith event.

“I love … that it tries to draw people from different backgrounds, different cul tures, which is very important to me.”

Roderick said he helped his congrega tion emerge from the pandemic with the Summer of Kindness, in which the church set up in Goshen Market and hosted a vari ety of activities – some church-related, oth ers not. Roderick more recently has found ed Rainbow House, which he represented at Unity Fest, as a way to fix some of the burned bridges between the church and the LGBTQ community.

“What I know from years of ministry and working with folks is that the church has done a lot of harm to the LGBTQ com

munity,” Roderick said. “There’s a lot of people who have been hurt by the church.”

Roderick said that Rainbow House was meant to be a safe space for members of the LGBTQ community regardless of religious affiliation.

“I want to change the narrative,” Rod erick said. “You don’t have to choose be tween your identity and your faith.”

Risavy and Anderson both agreed on the need for communication and openness between different groups of people to pro mote unity over division.

“The world really needs that kind of communication to dispel fears and to re alize much of what we believe we have in common with each other,” Anderson said.

Allen said after Unity Fest that, re flecting back to the event, he thinks it was a good step in the right direction toward changing cultural perceptions of diversity and differences between human beings.

“There will come a time when things get better,” Allen said. “It will happen on an individual level, it will happen on a commu nity level, it will happen on a societal level.”

Sci-fi and fantasy nerds alike gathered at Archon 45 in Collinsville

EMILY STERZINGER editor-in-chief

Nerds of all kinds from far and wide gathered at the Gateway Convention Cen ter in Collinsville, Illinois, for Archon 45 from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2

The main event of Saturday night was the masquerade, an important event at any geek convention. Contrary to what some might think, a masquerade at a convention isn’t a dance, but a showcase of costuming talent from various levels.

The masquerade featured several cos tumes and skits, and even had a propos al happen in the middle of one group’s showcase, “the Norse Pantheon.” The proposal, from Phil Bennett to Danielle Biship, earned the group “Judge’s Choice for Most Romantic.”

The convention also featured several authors, among them was Van Allen Plex ico, who in addition to being an author is an associate professor of political science and history at Southwestern Illinois Col lege. His works include the “Sentinels,” a series of superhero novels.

“Probably I’m best known for the ‘Sentinels’ superhero novels, when I start ed there were not a lot of superhero nov els that were original and independent. There’s nine of them now, so that’s pretty big,” Plexico said.

Another author who tabled at the con vention was Trisha Jones, who has been at tending the convention for 21 years.

“I write urban fiction, and the book series I have out right now has werejag

uars,” Jones said. “I’m proud that I get to come and do events like this, that I get to interact with people who read my books.”

Several musicians were brought on to perform at the convention, including a performance by the Klingon Pop Warrior on Friday night. The Klingon Pop Warrior, also known as Jen Usellis, performed sev eral well-known songs translated into the fictional alien language Klingon, from the “Star Trek” series.

“HIchop means bite me, there’s no word for ‘kiss me’ in Klingon,” Usellis said, while performing “Kiss Me” by Six pence None the Richer in Klingon.

One of the tables featured the group Gateway City Ghostbusters, a local charity group based on the “Ghostbusters” series. Among them were Misty Licavoli and Pat rick Sanfilippo, both dressed in costumes reminiscent of the series.

“I grew up around ‘Ghostbusters,’ so ‘Ghostbusters’ is one of the things that I loved, and I’ve always had a love for it and I love film as an art,” Licavoli said.

Sanfilippo described the group as a merry band of misfits, and said that they try to make sure everybody feels welcome and included.

“Whereas the cosplay community generally does tend to be very inclusive, they also tend to be somewhat exclusive,” Sanfilippo said. “Like, the patch on your uniform has to be two inches from the shoulder in the center and if it’s not there, it’s not accurate, it’s not right. We don’t care, as long as you’re having fun with it.”

Along with various groups and au

thors, many vendors also tabled at the convention, selling largely fandom-themed wares. Katherine Hollingsworth, owner of Sew-it-All Creations, was one of them, and gave some advice to anyone who wants to attend a convention like Archon.

“Basically, to anyone who wants to at tend a comic con or an anime con, they

should go into it head held high knowing that everyone is a weirdo,” Hollingsworth said. “I know a lot of people are always afraid like ‘Oh, what if I’m too nerdy; what if I don’t fit in?’ And it’s like, that’s kind of the reason why these are created.”

For more information on Archon, vis it its website.

Phil Bennett (right) took the masquerade as an opportunity to propose to Danielle Biship (left,) earning the couple “Judge’s Choice for Most Romantic.”

Emily

Grupo Folklórico Panameño, a Panamanian dancing group, invited the crowd to dance with them at Unity Fest. | Francesca Boston / The Alestle

DAMIAN MORRIS Multimedia Editor

OPINION

Cougar

Controversies

HAVE A COMMENT?

Let us know! opinion@alestlelive.com Campus Box 1167 Edwardsville, IL. 62026-1167

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY:

The editors, staff and publishers of The Alestle believe in the free exchange of ideas, concerns and opinions and will publish as many letters as possible.

Letters may be submitted at The Alestle office: Morris University Center, Room 0311 e-mail: opinion@alestlelive.com

All hard copy letters should be typed and double-spaced. Letters should be no longer than 500 words. Include phone number, signature, class rank and major.

We reserve the right to edit letter for grammar and content. Care will be taken to ensure that the letter’s message is not lost or altered.

Letters to the editor will not be printed anonymously except under extreme circumstances. We reserve the right to reject letters.

Yes! Nope.

The name Alestle is an acronym derived from the names of the three campus locations of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville: Alton, East St. Louis and Edwardsville.

The Alestle is published on Thursdays in print and on Tuesdays online during the fall and spring semesters. A print edition is available every other Wednesday during summer semesters.

view

You can grow old, but you don’t have to grow up

THE ALESTLE STAFF editorial board

It’s been said time and time again: the previous generation always tells the younger ones they are living their lives wrong, and that they need to change. Obviously, we’re human. We will grow and change as people as time goes by. But we don’t need to give up on the fun of life just because we’re growing up. With Halloween right around the corner, this is the perfect time to be reminded of it.

Halloween is one of few holidays with a distinct divide between children and adults. If you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, no matter your age, your friends and family will most likely get you gifts, and you’ll do the same for them. On Thanksgiving, it’s customary to have a big dinner with those closest to you, no matter how old you are.

July 4 brings barbecued food and fireworks, and New Year’s Eve means staying up until midnight. Halloween’s main celebration of trick-or-treating in costume is something we, as a society, only expect of children.

Furthermore, Halloween is all about dressing up as something scary, and growing older opens up the door for more fun costumes in many ways. Whereas children’s Halloween costumes are often safer, adult Halloween costumes can be more revealing, which can be fun. Or, if that’s not your speed, there’s much more scary costumes for adults to wear on Halloween. For adults who want to participate but don’t want to leave their house, they could dress up to hand out candy, or even stand in the yard and scare the trick or treaters as they approach. No matter your age, a costume is a great way to celebrate the holiday and get into an

autumnal mood.

Another important factor is one we’ve heard far too much about — the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the last few years, most of us have missed out on a few Halloweens. For some younger teenagers, it may feel like they missed out on their last chance to trick-or-treat, and they’ll be unsure about going back out this year to do what they couldn’t. They should not be afraid. Trick-or-treating should be more than a way for kids to get free candy. It should be a community activity, a way for us all to get back in touch with each other in the modern day.

As time has gone by, some cultures and groups have gained more popularity in the U.S., and some of these cultures are perfectly made for Halloween. A great example of this is cosplay, which is dressing up as a character from a movie or show you enjoy, while

attempting to be as accurate as possible in your recreation. Many cosplayers will use Halloween as an excuse to dress up in costume in public. Additionally, drag culture has gone mainstream recently as well, and just like cosplayers, some drag artists take Halloween as a time to go out in character.

As stated before, previous generations are often highly critical of the newer generation. We would be hard-pressed not to admit that. But Generation Z is reaching early adulthood now, and much research is being done to determine what their future will be like. Regardless of what happens next culturally or generationally, it’s clear that younger generations have a focus and desire to enjoy what they did in childhood more unashamedly than those before them. After all, McDonald’s recently created adult Happy Meals as a promotional concept.

With the end of the wife guy, let’s stop idolizing celebrities

strong personality.

After both Adam Levine and Ned Fullmer were caught cheating on their wives in the past month, many say we should stop idolizing the “wife guy.” Instead, we should stop idolizing celebrities altogether.

In pop culture, a “wife guy” is a man who admires his wife and seems fully in love with her. Celebrity wife guys often dedicate much of their public personas to talking about their wives and how much they love them.

The term became popular with the success of comedian John Mulaney, who based many parts of his stand-up routines around how much he adored his wife, even some of her traits men historically may find not so endearing, such as her

This was a breath of fresh air from the typical “ball and chain” jokes, which only grew Mulaney’s popularity. When the two announced their separation in spring of 2021 and Mulaney had a baby with Olivia Munn shortly after, fans were shocked and disillusioned.

More recently, Fulmer was fired from the Try Guys, a popular YouTube channel that got its start on Buzzfeed, after he was caught having an affair with an employee. What made this so shocking was that he was known as the guy that talked about his wife and kids all the time. Furthermore, he heavily monetized his seemingly perfect relationship. He and his wife traveled to college campuses to give talks about healthy relationships, they published a cookbook together and many of his videos

feature her.

It may seem like an overreaction that so many people have such a strong emotional response to a stranger cheating on his wife. However, parasocial relationships are nearly impossible to avoid in today’s time, when we spend so much time consuming online content. When we watch media personalities over and over again, it’s completely natural that we form attachments to them and their relationships.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing – parasocial relationships are perfectly healthy as long as they don’t overtake real-life relationships. In fact, we can’t help it; our brains have a hard time distinguishing between familiar faces we know in real life and familiar faces we’ve seen in the media.

What’s important to remember is that celebrities are first and foremost a brand. We see

the parts of them that they want us to see, and if they want to be seen as a progressive man who has a healthy, loving relationship with his wife, that’s what we’re going to see (if they have a good PR team).

It’s especially easy to forget this on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, where influencers seem more authentic than the traditional Hollywood celebrity. But this just means they can share even more manufactured shots of their lives rather than just what we would see on talk shows and paparazzi photos.

It’s completely fine to like media personalities and try to emulate them sometimes. Just remember this from a PR major – celebrities are simply commodified personalities curated for our consumption via clicks and likes.

you know the Alestle has a podcast?

AHMAD LATHAN reporter

The Cougar’s basketball pro gram has an experienced new director, Jacob Smith, who has big goals going into his first year with the two teams.

Jacob Smith said his family is excited about his new job po sition due to the fact he is closer to his extended family and spends more time with them.

“They love athletics as well, so being able to spend time to gether surrounded around some thing like that is definitely big for everybody,” Jacob Smith said.

During this job process, he and his wife made the decision to pursue a basketball avenue long term.

“My wife played basketball, so she loves everything about the sport,” Jacob Smith said.

He believes that the char acter he brings to the Cougars program is discipline and he wants to bring it out of his athletes.

Smith said his military expe rience has helped shape his abili ty to communicate and organize time management at an elevated level because they are fast paced.

“Having multiple domains and disciplines that are going to work together and being able to build that up from ground zero was a really good experience for me,”Jacob Smith said.

He said his history with multiple sports exposed him to different facets of the sports world.

“I think that there’s strength in diversity, diversity of thought, diversity of approach and versatil ity and how you coach athletes,” Jacob Smith said. “I believe the best way that you can develop as a coach is spending time with multiple levels of sports.”

Jacob Smith said he wanted to develop and grow as a person and feels like that diversity of experience gave him a wide vari ety of tools and skill sets to apply at this job position.

Samantha Smith, women’s basketball coach, said Jacobs’s experience was one of the rea sons why the staff felt like he was the right person for the job.

“Just looking back at some of the things he had been involved in when it came to professional players, his military background too, was very appealing to us,” Samantha Smith said.

Samantha Smith said the basketball department knew that Jacob was going to help lead their teams and be an extra coach besides those on staff.

“His work with both men’s and women’s basketball, I think, has spoken for itself,” Samantha Smith said.

She said Jacob Smith’s elite experience with professional ath letes will strengthen their gap with other programs in the Ohio Valley Conference.

“I think at our level to find people who have worked with NBA players, WNBA players, and high-level college players in his repertoire is huge,” Sa mantha Smith said. “It is re ally unique compared to some other programs.”

Samantha Smith said during Jacob Smith’s first few weeks during practices, he has been doing well with analytics and progress of their athletes.

While beginning his time with both teams, Jacob said he has hit the ground running while also developing relationships with everyone.

Jacob Smith said he plans to have both squads in the best con ditioning shape possible for the upcoming season.

“I think we are going to be two of the best teams in the entire Ohio Valley Conference without question in terms of our conditioning level,” Jacob Smith said. “There is no one that’s go ing to be able to be in the best shape as we are.”

Jacob Smith said his end goal is to challenge both the men’s and women’s teams because he knows what they are capable of in the long run.

When injuries sideline you, we can help you get back in the game.

David Zhu, MD Orthopedic Sports Medicine

Volleyball players stand out in preseason with strong teamwork

BRANDON WELLS sports editor

Throughout the volleyball team’s preseason, one thing made the difference: teamwork.

Three players stood out during the preseason, howev er. Junior outside hitters Sydney Hummert of Quincy, Illinois and Julia Treichel of Brookfield, Wisconsin and Savannah Christian, a first year gradu ate student and middle block er from Washington, Mis souri. These players were on all tournament teams during

the preseason.

Hummert said she has been playing volleyball since she was eight years old, and that the sport is something she has enjoyed since then.

“My family is super ath letic [and] very into sports, so I think I’ve just grown into that,” Hummert said.

For her own preseason per formance, Hummert said she owes a lot to her teammates for the strong showing and that this season is something she’s looking forward to.

“[My plan is] coming in [and] just putting work in the court

and practice every single day knowing that we are a top team and we can succeed in this year,” Hummert said.

Christian said she has played a lot of sports throughout her life, but that volleyball is some thing she decided to stick with.

“I’ve been playing volley ball since the fifth grade. I kind of tried every single sport like baseball, basketball, soccer, gym nastics and then I tried volleyball too. It’s the only sport I could connect to,” Christian said.

After playing volleyball for so long, Christian said the joy she experiences playing the

sport and her height are what made her get into playing the sport at a collegiate level.

“I’ve been very tall my entire life, so everyone just kind of ex pected me to play at a collegiate level,” Christian said. “SIUE reached out to me and I went to visit Edwardsville [and it] felt re ally homey and I was like: ‘This is where I want to be.’”

Christian said she also enjoys the friendships she has built on the team and that their teamwork has gotten them where they are.

Treichel, like Hummert and Christian, has also been playing volleyball for most of her life,

but she said her reason is based on her family’s history in volleyball.

“I have two older sisters who are nine to ten years older than me who played volleyball and my mom also played volleyball and was a coach,” Treichel said.

Throughout her time play ing, Treichel said she always felt volleyball was a passion to her, and that playing in college was an obvious choice.

“As I got more serious into my volleyball career playing [in] club and in high school, I realized that I couldn’t pic ture myself stopping playing,” Treichel said.