The Alestle Vol. 74 No. 12

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vol. 74 no. 12

The Student Voice Since 1960

SIUE officials respond to local TV news report of campus ‘outbreak’ JENNIFER GOECKNER managing editor

The Madison County Health Department and Illinois Department of Public Health offer free COVID-19 testing to the public at SIUE on Saturday, Nov. 14. Participants are given a nasal swab and test tube, along with instructions on how to complete the test themselves. This event came as Illinois reported 11,003 new cases on Nov. 14, according to the New York Times.

I Khoi Pham / The Alestle

Following a recent article from KSDK that claimed SIUE was experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak, university leadership say appropriate safety measures are in place and students should not be concerned about an increase in campus cases ahead of Thanksgiving Break.

Chancellor Randy Pembrook said he wouldn’t use the term ‘outbreak’ to describe the current state of the pandemic on the SIUE campus. The positivity rate for screening tests conducted by SIUE fell at 2.78 percent for Nov. 6-12, according to the university’s COVID Dashboard. This reflects an increase to 29 new cases for the week, up from 14 the previous week.

“If you look back in the last few months, the positivity rates that SIUE has had in our surveillance testing — 1 percent, 2 percent, not even up to 3 percent see OUTBREAK on page 2

Off-campus shooting raises communication concerns One resident avoided being the getaway driver, but she didn’t know it at the time ALEX AULTMAN lifestyles editor

Many students were worried by the Halloween shooting at The Reserve, an off-campus student apartment complex, and confused by the lack of communication, while one woman narrowly avoided her car being used by the suspect to get away.

One SIUE student and Reserve resident reported the shooter attempting to get into her car and asking her for a ride.

She wishes to remain anonymous because the suspect has not been arrested at the time of publication. The U.S. Marshals are currently assisting with the search, according to Edwardsville police.

The student said the suspect approached her car as she was getting ready to go home for the weekend. He walked in front of her car and couldn’t see her at first due to her tinted windows. Once he was

standing in front of her car, he noticed she away and I was like, ‘Okay that was weird.’” was in there and knocked on her driver side A few moments later, he approached window. her vehicle again “ H e from the othknocked on the er side and was window, so I more aggressive. rolled it down “Then he probably an came to my pasinch and I was senger side door like, ‘Yeah? Can this time. That I help you?’ window was also and he was like, cracked and he ‘Hey do you started knockhave Uber on ing on it like, your phone?’ I ‘Can you at least was like, ‘No, just give me a I’m sorry,’ ANONYMOUS STUDENT ride? I need to driver approached by suspect which I did get out of here. [have Uber], I don’t have any but I didn’t money.

I just need to get out of here,’ and I know his situation because at this point I had no idea what was going on because I was like ‘I’m sorry I’m leaving town I can’t guess this had just happened … He was just help you.’ After that happened, he started getting angry, so then he started walking cussing at me and he tried yanking on my

“I had to pull over on the side of the interstate because I was so emotional ... [because] the idea that he had hurt somebody before [approaching my car] had freaked me out.

door handle, so I started to put my car in reverse and ... he ran through my building, 550, so I backed up and that’s when I saw all the cop cars down at 540 and fire trucks and ambulances. I saw him running away and at this point he ran over to the Axis apartments.”

She didn’t discover what had occurred until she got a call from a friend while driving home informing her about the e-lert the school put out.

“Then that was when the police released that there was a shooting and that also freaked me out double. I had to pull over on the side of the interstate because I was so emotional that he could have — I didn’t believe that he would have hurt me besides getting in my car, I don’t think he would have — but like the idea that he had hurt somebody before kind of freaked me out. Also, back in 2018 or 2017 I had a school shooting so it just hit a little close see SHOOTING on page 2

‘Fair Tax’ failure leaves schools preparing for potential budget cuts DALTON BROWN copy editor

After the Illinois Fair Tax amendment failed to pass on election night, many worried there would be substantial budget cuts to K-12 and higher education.

State-funded institutions like SIU have plans in place to prepare for potential budget shortfalls.

SIU System President Dan Mahony said while the implications could affect both the Edwardsville and Carbondale campuses differently, each has safety

nets in place to protect their budgets.

“Any reduction in the budget is going to impact both [campuses] to some degree. Carbondale has usually more of a decline in enrollment, so [they] rely a little more on the state allocation than Edwardsville for those reasons,” Mahony said. “And both campuses this year put in a contingency in their budget, so they … kind of kept back some money for any reductions we might see.”

SIUE Budget Director Bill Winter said the effects of the Fair Tax’s absence will likely not be

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felt directly through the university, but through the state of Illinois.

“The Fair Tax is basically a source of revenue for the state of Illinois, so … I think it would be accurate to say that it doesn’t directly impact us, because the Fair Tax money is not coming directly to us,” Winter said. “However, the state of Illinois has had its own budget challenges over the years, and this was something that was going to help the state … so when you had something that was supposed to help plug a budget hole, and they don’t have it, then

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that likely means that everybody … might receive a budget cut.”

Assistant economics and finance professor Alicia Plemmons said SIUE’s budgeting practices have placed them in a position to be prepared for any state-level budget problems.

“I think SIUE is particularly well off to deal with budget [shortfalls], because it seems like we already have a very conservative approach where we set aside extra money,” Plemmons said.

“We have thought years ahead of time about ‘if there’s a budget shortfall, what should we do?’

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… so I think if there were going to be higher cuts to education, SIUE has already planned for this potential … and I think that they make very smart budgetary decisions that might be able to help them get through if there’s a lack of revenue.”

Winter said SIUE’s approach includes setting aside parts of the budget in case of potential funding problems.

“We’ve asked the vice chancellor areas to hold back a 6 percent budget contingency, so what

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see FAIR TAX on page 2

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thursday, 11.19. 20 OUTBREAK I COVER

COVID-19 at SIUE

New confirmed positive cases (from tests conducted by SIUE and self-reporting):

Nov. 6 - 12: 24 students, 5 faculty/staff Oct. 30 - Nov. 5: 11 students, 3 faculty/staff 14-day new positive tests: 35 students, 8 faculty/ staff All prior weeks positive tests (Aug. 1 - Oct. 29): 135 students, 25 faculty/staff Total positive cases: 170 students, 33 faculty/staff

Tests conducted by SIUE

Nov. 6 - 12: 194 Oct. 30 - Nov. 5: 111 14-day new tests conducted: 305 All prior weeks tests conducted (Aug. 21 - Oct. 22): 909 Total tests conducted: 1214

Positive cases identified by SIUE testing:

Nov. 6 - 12: 10 Oct. 30 - Nov. 5: 3 14-day new positive cases: 13 All prior weeks positive cases (Aug. 21 - Oct. 15): 32 Total: 45

Madison County confirmed cases by day

November 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

633 cases

BY THE NUMBERS

200 190 180 170 160 150 140 130 120 110 100

14

15

Source: Madison County Health Department COVID-19 Dashboard, as of Nov. 16

Percentage of isolation/quarantine space available on campus (as of Nov. 12): 88 percent

Source: Health, Reporting, and Testing page on SIUE’s COVID-19 website, as of Nov. 13

COVID-19’S impact on Madison County

Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced The state is also encouraging Illinoisans during a press conference Tuesday to stay home as much as possible and participate only in essential activities. that the state will enter Tier 3 of resurgence mitigations on Friday.

Tier 3 mitigations include the following: -Retail is limited to 25 percent capacity; grocery stores and pharmacies are limited to 50 percent.

-Bars and restaurants must be closed between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., and indoor dining cannot be offered; casinos are closed.

-Home gatherings should be limited to household members.

Due to these recommendations, SIUE has canceled all in-person university events and meetings through Dec. 4.

Offices and operations will remain open, but hours and occupancy may be limited, according to an announcement sent by university leadership on Nov. 12.

Edwardsville Mayor Hal Patton also issued a local state of emergency on Tuesday to mandate mask wearing and encourage compliance with the new state guidelines.

Source: coronavirus.illinois.gov/s/restore-illinois-mitigation-plan

| Summer Bradley / The Alestle

FAIR TAX I COVER

that means is … we haven’t reduced anybody’s budget, we’re just saying ‘At this point, live on 94 percent of it until we have more information,’” Winter said.

“2020 as a year, including the COVID pandemic, everything else, has been a year of uncertainty, so it’s just a prudent planning tool.”

According to Plemmons, these policies put SIUE in a better position than other schools in terms of budget preparedness.

“There’s a reason why [SIUE] didn’t have to start letting go faculty in droves during the Great Recession back in 2008 when other schools had to,” Plemmons said. “I’ve worked at different universities, but SIUE seems to have this idea that things can go wrong, so they prepare for it when times are good, which I wish more schools did.”

According to the most recent Illinois Economic and Fiscal Policy Report, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration wishes to avoid making cuts to services like education, looking for alternative methods to compensate for the loss of Fair Tax revenue.

“As the cuts that would be required to bring Illinois’ budget to balance would harm education and human services programs and damage essential areas of the state’s economy, the Governor ... will work with the legislature to identify corporate and business tax loopholes that can be closed and tax adjustments that can be made that will minimize the impact to lower and middle-class families,” the report states.

To learn more about how the Fair Tax’s absence could affect the state budget, read the Illinois Economic and Fiscal Policy Report from Nov. 13.

Edwardsville Police and Illinois State Police investigators responded to an off-campus shooting incident at The Reserve apartment complex on Halloween afternoon. | Mackenzie Smith / The Alestle SHOOTING I COVER

that I was that close to a shooter.”

The anonymous source wasn’t the only Reserve resident who found out about the incident much later. Sophomore forensic chemistry major Trae Gorden, of McLeansboro, Illinois, said he didn’t receive an email from The Reserve until later that evening.

“The Reserve was really late on the communication. We did not get a text or phone call or anything. I didn’t get an email sent to me by The Reserve until — I think the timestamp on it is 7:36 in the [evening] and … they didn’t really explain the situation that had happened,” Gorden said.

“They practically just told us there was an incident at The Reserve and they couldn’t give us any description, but I had two emails from the school telling me what had happened and what the suspect looked like.”

Senior speech language pathology major Allison Norris, of Coal City, Illinois, said she was worried for her roommates be-

cause they were walking outside when the police arrived, unaware of what had just happened.

“Initially I was worried because my roommates were, like, out walking around around that time and none of the police officers really mentioned that there was a shooting or that something that serious had happened. We were a little bit bothered by that,” Norris said. “We understood why they didn’t tell us, but we just wish we had been more informed from the beginning. We understand information can’t just be given out to everyone at that moment, because then rumors spread and it gets a lot more complicated.”

The anonymous student said she was also concerned about the late communication from The Reserve because there are residents who aren’t SIUE students.

“I feel like since this was so serious, they should let us know right away as soon as they know,” the student said. “We have an app for Reserve [residents] to use and we didn’t get a message on our community board until later that

night, and there are residents here that aren’t students at SIUE, so I feel like it’s just as important for them to know too.”

Josh Lindsey, assistant general manager of The Reserve, said the email to residents came out later because they did not get confirmed information from the police.

“I was not here on the day of the incident, but basically even when we asked the police what was going on they would not give us a direct answer,” Lindsey said. “We were trying to get some sort of newsletter or information out to our residents, but we were having to go as we were getting information.”

Edwardsville Police Department Major Michael Fillback said officers had made Reserve management aware of what had occurred.

“They were aware that there was a shooting and the suspect had fled the scene. We didn’t ask anyone to withhold information,” Fillback said.

For more information, see The Alestle’s previous coverage.

but between two and three percent — I just don’t think anyone, any in the public health departments [for] the state of Illinois, have used the phrase ‘outbreak’ in terms of those situations,” Pembrook said.

Director of Health Service Riane Greenwalt told The Alestle in an email that she was also surprised by KSDK’s use of the term ‘outbreak,’ especially considering the CDC’s definition of the word: “an increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in that population in that area.”

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Jeffrey Waple said ‘outbreak’ is also typically used to describe multiple cases stemming from a specific time and location, while positive cases in the SIUE community do not seem to share a common source.

While SIUE has seen a slight uptick in its number of cases, as the entire state of Illinois has been experiencing a surge, Pembrook said campus positivity rates have still been well below the rates for the region.

“If you look at the overall record since the start of school, there was one period where we went up a little bit in the eighth and ninth week of the semester, and then last week was higher than other [weeks] had been. I think it was probably related to Halloween and some activities related to that,” Pembrook said.

“But overall, our percentages, positivity rates have been much lower than the surrounding area.”

More of the university’s on-campus isolation/quarantine space was also used in the past week, up to 12 percent, leaving 88 percent available. Waple said most of this space was being used by students who had had a close contact and were quarantining as a precaution.

“Most of that space will be released. We have students in quarantine because of a close-contact exposure, so that’s not a positive rate,” Waple said. “According to Mallory [Sidarous, director of University Housing], we’ll probably be back in the mid-90s after this week, and when we return from Thanksgiving, we’ll be back to 100.”

Waple attributed the university’s low positivity rates to precautions that have been in place since the start of the pandemic, as well as a number of other factors.

However, Waple also acknowledged that positive cases being self-reported means there are likely more cases in the community than the university is aware of.

“There’s probably more faculty and staff that probably have tested positive that maybe have not submitted a self-disclosure form — which, our definition is that you had to be on campus within 48 hours of the positive test,” Waple said.

Due to the recent surge in cases in the Metro East region and throughout the state, SIUE has added more measures to de-densify campus, including canceling all in-person university events and meetings through Dec. 4 and allowing more employees to work from home.

To learn more about positive cases on the SIUE campus and the university’s precautionary measures, visit SIUE’s COVID-19 website.

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Anti-Racism Task Force enacts eight changes, including more bias training JOHN MCGOWAN reporter

After months of the Anti-Racism Task Force meeting, Chancellor Randy Pembrook recently announced they have chosen to implement eight of the most essential recommendations from the group.

The eight recommendations stretch across four categories: communication, access and success, curriculum and faculty and staff, and will be implemented by the end of the year.

According to Pembrook, the team had 78 recommendations in total, and they chose the eight most important ones. Pembrook said it was crucial that the subcommittees finalized their ideas so the school could get a start on action against racism.

“What we did was each of the four subcommittees prioritized their top two items from each of the areas. So, what we’re trying to do is make sure at least those eight top priorities are in movement by December,” Pembrook said.

The first subcommittee of the force focused on communication.

The group’s top two recommendations were to improve the relationship between the Edwardsville and East St. Louis campuses of SIUE and to create a communication hub, or go-to website, in which the East St. Louis campus and its on-campus activities are included.

The East St. Louis Center is

an extension of SIUE that houses a Head Start/Early Head Start program, a performing arts center and a charter high school. Its staff typically works with underserved communities.

Megan Wieser, marketing specialist in media relations for University Marketing and Communications as well as co-chair of the Communication Subcommittee, said they are exploring ideas on how to repair the relationship between the two campuses.

“We’ve heard through the years that sometimes [The East St. Louis] campus community has felt ostracized from the Edwardsville campus … We talked about perhaps creating a shuttle service from East St. Louis to Edwardsville. We talked about perhaps improving the various aesthetics of that campus,” Wieser said.

Wieser said they have already started work on improving communications channels.

“We’ve done just a simple phase one of that. It’s just updating our anti-racism site that we had added, and that’s accessible through the homepage. That was added this summer, but we’ve gone through and tried to create a website that offers easier navigation, and our plans are to expand that,” Wieser said.

Communication has also come in the form of a recent Q&A between administration members and staff at the East St. Louis campus. In it, staff members were receptive to the ideas from the

task force.

The second subcommittee was on student access and success.

Their recommendations were simple: increase scholarships and create more financial assistance.

According to one of the co-chairs for the subcommittee, Director of Student Opportunities for Academic Results Earleen Patterson, it’s important they offer these opportunities to Black students, given their graduation rates.

“We were particularly concerned about Black students …

We’re talking about the lowest graduation representation — these are Black students, and so we are unapologetically stating that has to change,” Patterson said.

Patterson also said they hope to provide scholarships for current students as well as new ones.

“This is not just existing at the level of attracting students, in terms of a caveat for admissions, but we’re also looking at how we can support students who are continuing students — students who are currently at our institution and who are prolonging their time to degree because of work,” Patterson said.

The third subcommittee was on curricular and co-curricular experiences. Their two recommendations were mandatory diversity training for faculty, regardless of tenure status, and diversity and inclusion sessions at student events like Springboard to Success, SIUE’s freshman orientation program.

SIUE does not plan to offer pass/no credit grading this semester NICOLE BOYD copy editor

Unlike SIUC, SIUE is not planning to offer a pass/no credit grading option due to concerns regarding timing and possible long-term effects.

Denise Cobb, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, said the university is not planning to offer the option as they did last spring because this semester was not an unexpected change.

“We entered into this fall without the expectation of using a pass/no credit option this fall beyond its existence in current policy, because we felt like we had planned differently for this semester rather than the kind of abrupt changes that occurred in March and April and May in the Spring ‘20 semester,” Cobb said.

Cobb said SIUE has not received feedback from Student Government indicating that students want a pass/no credit option, as other universities have.

However, Cobb said if student response indicated a need for the option, she would be open to listening.

“It’s not our current plan, but I also, if this is something we need to consider and investigate the possibilities for, I’m willing to have those conversations,” Cobb said.

One concern regarding a pass/no credit grading option is the long-term effect it may have

on a student’s professional career, Cobb said.

“In the short term, I certainly understand why some students would’ve invoked that opportunity in spring of ‘20. In the long term, it’s unclear how it might affect opportunities for students to apply to graduate school, or professional school or for licensure,” Cobb said. “And so we wanted to be really clear that students needed to think ahead because, while a lot of licensure agencies and accrediting bodies were being flexible in the spring, we don’t know in the long term what that might look like.”

According to Cobb, another concern about implementing the grading option at this point is fairness.

“One of the considerations that I do think about is we’ve had students who have dropped courses or withdrawn already, and so changing late in the process, I do think about issues of fairness as well, right? Would those students have dropped or withdrawn had they known that a pass/no credit option would’ve existed? And so I just want to be really careful to think about how to best support students in this moment and how to be fair and equitable,” Cobb said.

Colin Boysen, a junior business major from Carpentersville, Illinois, said while he did not take the pass/no credit option in the spring, he thinks it should be offered again.

“Even though all of my classes are online, I don’t have any of them face-to-face, it’s nice for me to be able to go to the library and study and have those sorts of resources. I know there’s a lot of students out there who are at home or just are not in the best learning environment, so it’s not really their fault if their grades are suffering,” Boysen said. “So I think at least extend the option, even if students aren’t going to use it. Like if a student’s getting a B, they might not need it, but there’s some students who would benefit from that. It would be nice to throw them that lifeline, to say, ‘It’s not your fault that you’re struggling right now, more than usual.’”

Danielle Graf, a sophomore early education major from Warrenton, Missouri, also did not use the grading option in the past, but said she thinks it would help her this semester.

“I think this is the first semester as a whole that we’ve had to do completely online for many students, and also the add-on of like, a lot of students are at home, which adds extra stress for people.

So I think that having a pass or fail option would give students less stress … I mean, it has been super stressful for all of them and I know some teachers haven’t necessarily taken it easier in any way,” Graf said.

See the grading guidance for taking a pass/no credit option on SIUE’s website.

Economics and finance instructor Laura Wolff said it was necessary for the curriculum to improve.

“These are really critical issues facing society. The university’s — part of our mission is to be engaged in the regional news, you know, like what’s going on in our region that is a critical issue. For example, if you’re talking about economics and you’re not mentioning race, there’s something wrong,” Wolff said.

The fourth subcommittee focused on faculty and staff recruitment, development and retention.

Their first recommendation was anti-racism and bias training for both supervisors and evaluators.

The second recommendation was to recognize the invisible labor in diversity initiatives, like time invested mentoring, and the work of the committees themselves.

Director for Equal Opportunity, Access and Title IX Coordination and co-chair of the fourth committee Jamie Ball said along with making sure evaluators are well-trained, they want to make the evaluation process a way to help employees grow. “[A] big thing is using the evaluation process as a really intentional way of developing employees. Because it’s not enough to recruit and hire a strong and diverse workforce, we have got to keep them,” Ball said.

Find out more about the Anti-Racism Task Force on their website.

The Anti-Racism Task Force’s Eight Recommendations Communication:

1. Improve relationship between Edwardsville and East St. Louis campuses 2. Create a communication hub which includes the East St. Louis campus and its on-campus activities

Student Access and Success:

3. Create new scholarships 4. Increase financial assistance for current students

Curricular and Co-Curricular Activities:

5. Mandatory diversity training for all faculty 6. Diversity and inclusion sessions at student events

Faculty and Staff Recruitment, Development and Retention:

7. Anti-racism and bias training for supervisors and evaluators 8. Recognize the efforts of diversity initiatives

| Summer Bradley / The Alestle

Former teaching couple endows scholarship for education students DALTON BROWN copy editor

Come Fall 2021, community college transfer students majoring in education will have another scholarship opportunity: the Poshard Scholarship Endowment.

The scholarship was made possible due to a $100,000 investment from Glenn Poshard, a former SIU system president and congressman, and his wife Jo, a former educator. According to Glenn, their personal connections to education made them want to establish a scholarship like this one, and they plan to add to it in the future.

“We always intended, after my retirement, to start a scholarship program [at SIUE] at some point in time,” Poshard said.

“This was just the time that we chose to get it started, we hope to add to it as the years go by ... Jo and I are both … former teachers and school administrators, and so it’s important for us to locate the scholarship in the [School of Education, Health and Human Behavior] because that’s kind of our background.”

Chancellor Randy Pembrook said he greatly appreciates the Poshards’ generosity and said the scholarship will go far not only within the university, but also in students’ lives.

“When somebody supports scholarships, particularly an endowed gift, it’s a forever gift that

changes lives of students,” Pembrook said. “It’s more than just a gift, it is a way of shaping education for the future.”

Divah Griffin, the director of development for the School of Education, Health and Human Behavior, said the scholarship’s prospective longevity is a result of how endowed gifts work at the university.

“When scholarships are endowed ... there’s a set amount of money that is given, and then that amount of money is invested, and then [the interest] made from those investments are what go out in scholarships each year.

That’s how endowed gifts live on forever,” Griffin said.

This scholarship is for education majors who are community college transfer students with a minimum 3.0 grade point average. Applications will open in Fall 2021, with awards beginning Spring of 2022.

Jo Poshard said she had some advice for future scholarship recipients and potential teachers.

“I would just say that I taught because I loved it, and I never felt that it was a job,” Poshard said. “I would just advise anybody that’s going into education to do it for the right reasons, that they feel a passion about it, they’re dedicated to it and hopefully they’ll have the same experience I did.”

For more information about Jo and Glenn Poshard, visit their website for the Poshard Foundation for Abused Children.

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‘You can’t see the forest through the trees’: Anti-racism panel discusses childhood experiences with race and racism GABRIEL BRADY reporter

Panelists reflected on their experiences with race in childhood and how it shaped them and their current perspectives on race in the final “So You Want to Be Anti-racist?” session of the semester.

Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion and Director of Counseling Services Courtney Boddie said his early childhood experiences were based heavily around assimilating to a white culture. His family moved around the area often, but when he was in third grade, they settled in Troy, Illinois, which is where Boddie said he considers his roots having grown from.

“Many people who pass [Troy] on the highway think about it as a truck stop that then leads into a quiet rural space. So, if you were wondering if I may have been the only person of color in my classes, and in my residential space, and all those sorts of things, never having a teacher of color until college, you would be right,” Boddie said. “One of the things that was so difficult about that experience was that I go to school, and I’m asked to speak, sit, think, interact, et cetera in a specific way.

But I go home, and the types of things we talk about at home, and the way we talk about them, the references, the movies and things, they were never there as part of the experience.”

Jerisha Rutlin, founder of the The Institute of Intrapersonal Development and community partner to the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center, had a very different experience from Boddie.

“My upbringing was quite frankly the polar opposite from Dr. Boddie’s. I grew up in the inner city. I went to and graduated from all-Black schools. All my neighbors were Black, everyone at the grocery store was Black, so we didn’t see a lot of people who weren’t Black. So I didn’t really experience this idealization of whiteness growing up, and for many reasons, I’m grateful for that,” Rutlin said.

“Sometimes, it has caused some issues, particularly when you think

about assimilation, which I never learned. ders. We gain skills and make progress, There wasn’t a reason in my community but sometimes we slide backward and find to learn that, because we were all very sim- ourselves being challenged anew to learn ilar. I didn’t have this sense of ‘the oth- more.”

M c K er’ until colenney is on lege.” the core Accord“In response to [those planning ing to associexperiences], what many team of the ate professor Truth, Racial of psycholopeople do … is retreat to Healing, and gy Liz McKTransformaenney, since what‘s familiar. So, they retreat tion Center. there are to the groups and identities in According to countless difM c K e n n e y, ferent expewhich they have been raised, one’s unique riences peoand are comfortable and safe personal ple can have, experience being socially for them. Sometimes, what helps develconscious is op their own a constant starts to happen here is we interactions struggle. see some universal thinking and experiAdditionalences with ly, McKenabout ‘the other.’ When folks people of ney said this other races struggle is are in this stage, they might early in life. not always a think of themselves and their “One of linear path. the things “ T h e own group as the trees, and that’s imcontinual see themselves very clearly as portant to challenge is remember to stay aware individuals, but see others as is that when of the conwe’re talking versations a forest. Like a monolith, or as about the people are everyone is the same in another Black Amerhaving and ican experithe experigroup. ence, when ences people we’re talking are having.

LIZ MCKENNEY about the When we Associate professor of psychology experience start learning of Latinx about our own identity development, we start learn- individuals, or Asian-American individuing about what other folks go through and als, those experiences are often shaped by experiences of oppression and racwhat their experiences have been, we can ism, whereas when we talk about start to think that we’re playing a game White Racial Identity Theory, like Candy Land and our goal is to start we’re talking about learning at the beginning and go to the end, about racism, and seeing that, and be done and be happy,” McKena n d ney said. “But it turns out that it’s then much more similar to Chutes and Lad-

how that shapes our identity,” McKenney said.

McKenney said these experiences with racism tend to be earlier in life for nonwhite people, and for white people, these realities usually set in later. Once people have these experiences, she said the response can change how they view race.

McKenney used the phrase, “You can’t see the forest through the trees.”

“In response to [those experiences], what many people do … is retreat to what‘s familiar. So, they retreat to the groups and identities in which they have been raised, and are comfortable and safe for them. Sometimes, what starts to happen here is we see some universal thinking about ‘the other,’” McKenney said.

“When folks are in this stage, they might think of themselves and their own group as the trees, and see themselves very clearly as individuals, but see others as a forest. Like a monolith, or as everyone is the same in another group.”

According to McKenney, this struggle is difficult, but very important to both individuals and institutions. Ro Kicker, youth program manager of the National Conference for Community & Justice of Metropolitan St. Louis and a community partner to the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center, said they were very optimistic for SIUE’s future commitment to that struggle.

“I’ve never been more hopeful for change in an institution,” Kicker said. “[Assistant Provost Jessica Harris and the Anti-Racism Task Force have] brilliant vision and this all works like a puzzle. It’s several different parts and pieces coming together to create change.”

The center has announced they will be continuing the series next semester, dates to be determined. For more information, check the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center’s website or the Anti-Racism Task Force’s website.

thursday, 11.19.20

alestlelive.com

page 5

COVID-19 increasing demand for menstrual hygiene products and bras, complicating community distribution NICOLE BOYD copy editor

The Edwardsville and SIUE chapters of I Support The Girls, an organization that collects bras and menstrual hygiene products for people in need, have seen a spike in demand for their products due to COVID-19, but cannot use their usual methods of distribution.

Stephanie Batson, instructor of applied communication studies and adviser for I Support The Girls at SIUE, said demand has increased specifically for menstrual hygiene products. “[Demand] has definitely increased in the period materials, you know, the feminine hygiene stuff, because people are out of work, or they’re working more but they can’t be home. And in my opinion, I think women still need bras and stuff, but there’s just no way to get face-to-face with them to do that,” Batson said.

Alicia Alexander, professor of applied communication studies, co-sponsor of I Support The Girls at SIUE and affiliate director of the Edwardsville chapter, said the organization is currently unable to do their bra-fitting event — during which bras, underwear and period packs are distributed — due to social distancing regulations.

“It’s really fun because it’s our way to connect directly with the people who need our services, and … I have personally fit over 500 women at this point, like lots and lots of people. And that’s really fun, and they feel young and beautiful and come out with a new bra and that’s kind of exciting,” Alexander said.

“So we have not been able to do

any of the bra-gifting events since the shutdown, and so that’s kind of disheartening because that’s where you feel the individual impact, you know; we get hugs; we get tears. People are really excited to get these items. And so we haven’t been able to distribute as many bras as we have in the past.

A lot of centers have no-touch policies on their items.”

Batson said there were other resources at bra-gifting events that individuals may now miss out on in addition to bra-fitting.

“Not only are the individuals who would attend missing out on this element, but there’s also mental health providers, there’s maybe a nurse, or a flu shot clinic or something, and so it’s either in a big gym or a big church or something and so since we can’t walk through or see people faceto-face or set up large events — at one point in time, in I think March or April, [Alexander] still did one, but people had to have an appointment, and even that was restrictive, because if you make the appointment and your boss schedules you to go to work, you can’t go — so it’s definitely impacted how we reach people,” Batson said.

Alexander said one solution has been pop-up pantries including menstrual hygiene in their collection drives.

“The thing that has changed is there has been a little bit more of these pop-ups, like there was actually the pop-up pantry at SIUE. And so those were happening in the spring, and I think they did one in the summer also, where they were handing out boxes of food, and so sometimes we’ve been included in some of those,” Alexander said. “We were, at one of them at SIUE,

where they had period packs that they distributed along with the boxes of food. And then the Glen-Ed pantry in Edwardsville, they did that too for their backto-school program.”

Julia Goren, a junior sociology major from High Ridge, Missouri, and secretary of I Support The Girls at SIUE, said the way menstrual hygiene products are taxed may make it harder for some to afford them each month.

“There are some people who just can’t afford those basic necessities, and while it is a basic necessity, there is a tax in a lot of states on those products, the pink tax. And it raises that price and it makes it so difficult for people who are making minimum wage or even less. It’s just really hard sometimes just getting access to those stores, based on where you live, to access those products,” Goren said.

Batson said upcoming events will be limited due to classes going remote after Thanksgiving Break, but the organization hopes to continue collecting donations in the spring.

“We’ve decided to do one more outreach event with the students, but not plan any drives on campus per se right now. But as spring comes, or even just the spring semester, we’ll have a meeting and hope to do an Amazon wishlist thing where the students share it on their social media, so the students aren’t donating but maybe their parents or their aunts, that sort of thing,” Batson said.

To learn more about I Support The Girls at SIUE or to get involved, visit their Get Involved page. To learn more about the Edwardsville chapter, visit their Facebook page.

Top: Volunteers with I Support The Girls put together period packs for homeless people. Bottom: Donated bras are organized by size for a bra-fitting event. | Photos courtesy of Alicia Alexander

Students find ways to bond virtually through COVID-19 restrictions JOHN MCGOWAN reporter

One of the greatest phenomena of the pandemic has been the trending video games like “Among Us” or “Animal Crossing: New Horizons.” In a world where there has been little else to do, students have been using video games to stay connected.

In on-campus housing, students have been limited by a number of COVID-19 restrictions. Students aren’t allowed to bring outside guests into their residence halls, and when they leave the halls, in-person events have been largely limited.

One student, junior dance major Wittni Cotton, of Teutopolis, Illinois, lives in Evergreen Hall. She said after downloading “Among Us,” she started getting connected with other students in her hallway in no time.

“I actually just downloaded it yesterday because my roommate was talking about it. We were trying to find some people, and we were like, ‘Well we don’t know anybody in our hallway, so let’s just invite everyone from there … We don’t know anybody, so it’s been pretty cool,’” Cotton said.

Cotton said it’s been tough meeting people under the COVID-19 restrictions.

“We can’t meet people in person really unless we have a mask on and are 6 feet apart.

I would definitely consider it way harder [to meet people],” Cotton said.

“Among Us” has been one of the biggest video game successes over the past eight months. According to Steam Charts, the game

peaked at 438,524 concurrent players on PC in mid-September.

Leading up to the election, some politicians like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and former congressional candidate Betsy Dirksen Londrigan used “Among Us” as a way to promote their campaign.

Sophomore secondary education major Ben Wilke, of Breese, Illinois, is the “Call of Duty” Team Coordinator for SIUE Esports. He said “Among Us” became successful for a variety of reasons.

“It was actually released back in 2018 … People are going back and looking at all the older not really out-of-date games that they can still use …

With ‘Among Us’ you have the text features, you can be online, you have a room code. It really does maximize social distancing,” Wilke said.

Wilke has also been using video games to connect with his friends through the pandemic. “[My friend] was in North Carolina since about May. I’m now his roommate, along with

our two friends, and one way we kept in contact with him was we played games online,” Wilke said.

While video games are helping students stay connected, the games they are using to communicate are rapidly changing. While “Animal Crossing” was popular right at the start of quarantine, the appeal has worn off for some. “Among Us” may also see the end of its popularity soon. Its number of daily concurrent players sharply dropped from 336,108 on Nov. 7 to 135,278 on Nov. 9.

Students aren’t exclusively playing trendy games like “Among Us,” though. Graduate pharmacy student Alek Zajchowski, of Rockford, Illinois, has been playing “Dungeons and Dragons” using Roll20, an onl i n e service

that lets users play tabletop role playing games virtually. He said he likes the creativity that “Dungeons and Dragons” allows.

“D and D gives us enough flexibility to kind of turn it into our own game … We can kind of do whatever we want because we’re not even doing a traditional one either. We’re doing a ‘One Piece’ [homemade] kind of D and D campaign,” Zajchowski said.

Zajchowski said playing “Dungeons and Dragons” online with his friends helped a lot through quarantine.

“It gave me something to differentiate each day. Deciding what we were going to do for most of the day gave me some way to be social still … I think it’s been very helpful,” Zajchowski said.

Students interested in online gaming can check out the SIUE Esports Club.

THE ALESTLE WILL NOT PUBLISH NEXT WEEK DURING FALL BREAK page 6

T H E

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share your thoughts: opinion@alestlelive.com 650-3527 thursday, 11.19.20

THE ALESTLE FALL 2020 GRADUATION ISSUE

MADISON LAMMERT editor-in-chief

JENNIFER GOECKNER managing editor

ALEX AULTMAN lifestyles editor

MACKENZIE SMITH multimedia editor

JORDYN NIMMER digital creative director

Pick up your copy on campus beginning Dec. 15.

KHOI PHAM photographer NICOLE BOYD DALTON BROWN ELIZABETH DONALD BROOKE HILL copy editors GABRIEL BRADY JOHN MCGOWAN DAMIAN MORRIS LILY SCHNIEDERS VERNON SMITH JR. reporters SUMMER BRADLEY graphics manager CAMILO ZULUAGA-CAICEDO advertising manager GRACE JOSEPH advertising representative TYMEI DAPPERT JORDAN RICHEY office clerks BROOKE KRANKEL circulation manager ANGIE TROUT office manager TAMMY MERRETT program director

Have a comment?

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

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alestle VIEW

Make Thanksgiving great — get rid of it as we know it THE ALESTLE STAFF editorial board

Please note: This staff editorial reflects the views of the large majority of The Alestle staff, not of each individual staff member.

A historic festivity and opportunity for reuniting with family and friends, Thanksgiving is no stranger to conflict. Once a masquerade to gloss over the injustices against indigenous people by colonizers, Thanksgiving has now become a political battleground, dividing families each year.

With the results of the presidential election settling in, many families are likely to crumble un-

der the tension of their opposing views. We at The Alestle say let the whole holiday crumble.

Families across the nation celebrate Thanksgiving under a guise of gratitude. Some look forward to gathering with loved ones every year, because for some families and friends this is the only day of the year they can all get together.

However, for some, besides great food, all the holiday ever seems to bring is arguments and the denial of truth.

At some point in our lives, most of us have been in a position where we felt as if we had to hide our political views or various opinions to spare others the discomfort of heated dialogue. This feeling becomes rampant during

Thanksgiving, as we’re told to be gracious of the company we keep — regardless of how we align politically or other beliefs we hold.

While there is beauty in the sentiment of having a day devoted purely to gratitude, there is also ignorance related to this holiday.

We ignore our beliefs. We ignore our values. And, perhaps most ironically of all, we ignore what Thanksgiving Day truly meant to indigenous people in the United States.

It’s time we stop ignoring our personal truths and the truth of the holiday. We are driven by conflict, and we are capable of great injustices. This is not something we should carelessly ignore.

As a country, we must em-

brace our past — regardless of how uncomfortable this process may be. The discomfort is well deserved. We should be trading all the turkey, stuffing and tension for honest dialogue and cultural awareness.

Lost in the overwhelming marketing for the holiday, Native American Heritage Day, Indigenous Peoples Day and Native American Heritage Month are often overlooked. We can’t say we’ve truly made progress if we continue to bury our country’s past.

In order to make Thanksgiving great, Thanksgiving would have had to be great in the first place, and we at The Alestle believe it never was.

Small businesses aren’t immune from the ills of capitalism ALEX AULTMAN lifestyles editor

While shopping at small businesses may make us feel like we’re doing something good, they aren’t always better than corporations. Small businesses typically offer their workers worse benefits and — in my experience as well as my friends’ — can have just as toxic of work environments as any other big corporation.

Small business owners are often put up on a pedestal for things like choosing ethically sourced ingredients or using recyclable materials, but they still exploit the labor of their employees for profit. They’re lauded as this pinnacle of the American Dream by Democrats and Republicans alike.

Democrats portray them as an alternative to corporations, while Republicans use them to excuse not raising the minimum wage to

a livable wage.

Employees of small businesses also aren’t subject to the same federal protections as those of corporations. Anti-discrimination clauses in the U.S. labor code only apply to businesses with 15 or more employees (20 or more in the case of age discrimination).

To be eligible for the Family and Medical Leave Act, the business needs to have 50 or more employees.

Any sort of benefits a small business offers, if they even do, are often worse than those from corporations. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, only 25 percent of small business employees rated their benefits as excellent or very good, compared to 58 percent of employees at large businesses.

The work environment of small businesses can be just as toxic as those of corporations. In

my experience, the owners micromanage a lot. One person I worked for a few years ago would watch the store cameras at home and would call the store and complain to the manager if he saw an employee doing something he didn’t like. Working for a small business can be more difficult in some ways, especially considering you have to go to work every day and pretend you like the owner underpaying you, which you wouldn’t have to do if you worked for a faceless CEO. If you look at any news outlet, you can find countless stories about the struggles small businesses are facing due to the pandemic, but those stories mainly focus on the owners. Their employees are also going in and out of work due to changing restrictions. My partner and friends who work for local businesses are worried about how unstable their employment is.

At the same time, you have businesses, especially in the Metro East, who are defying COVID-19 regulations by keeping dining rooms open, not supplying their employees with proper Personal Protective Equipment or not enforcing social distancing or mask usage. This puts both its employees and the community at risk. It shows that small businesses, like corporations, will still prioritize profit over human lives, albeit on a smaller scale.

Generally, businesses factor a wage for the owner into their operating costs and anything left over after the cost of rent, utilities, payroll, etc. is considered profit.

Profit goes directly into the owners’ pockets and their employees don’t see a cent of it. Until small businesses share their profits equally with their employees, they will be unethical and exploitative not unlike big corporations.

sports

contact the editor: sports@alestlelive.com 650-3527 thursday, 11.19.20

THE ALESTLE WILL NOT PUBLISH NEXT WEEK DURING FALL BREAK page 7

alestlelive.com

Basketball discusses unprecedented season ahead VERNON SMITH JR. reporter

SIUE men’s and women’s basketball have announced their upcoming seasons after questions regarding play were left unanswered earlier this fall.

Head coach for the men’s team Brian Barone and women’s head coach Paula Buscher both discussed their upcoming seasons. When Barone was asked about the future of the team playing this year, he said he was excited not just for him but his players as well.

“My general thoughts are excited, everything that has been going on the past several months in all aspects of life right now, and to just have an opportunity to go do what we enjoy doing … it’s something that I’m really pressing on to our team, and our team is accepting that excitement and ready to go. It’s going to be interesting, but it’s going to be a lot of fun while doing it,” Barone said.

Buscher said she is also looking forward to the season, as it will bring unique challenges.

“I’m excited for it and excited for the unknown. The hardest thing for coaches is we try to control as much as we can.

Right now, there’s not as many controllable things that we normally have. We have to reiterate that to our players, we have to be able to adjust … but the fun thing about this is, we are getting excited to play basketball and we are finally letting these young people get back to some normalcy and get on the court and play, and I think that is such a huge positive,” Buscher said.

While there are going to be some changes this season, both coaches said they are looking to make things as normal as possible for the staff and players.

“If you just have the focus of doing your job and going on to the next play mentality, the next game, the next scouting report …

I think there will be some normalcy that comes from that,” Barone said. “One thing that a lot of us saw in this profession and the players on the team is that they have always been playing basketball since they were nine, 10 or 11 years old. To have the break we had, especially in the summer obviously where you couldn’t do what you could have done your entire life. Now getting back to at least playing basketball, having a schedule and having an opponent, I think it would be a little bit more normal then people might initially think. It’s just going to look different with the logistics on the day to day.”

Buscher said in order to make things somewhat normal for her players, they focus on the things they do as part of their regular routines.

“To me it’s about your day-to-day business, it’s about how you approach the game, it’s about how you approach practice. In that essence we are spot on of what we are doing, attacking our practice plan every day, coming back and brainstorming after practice … we are trying to do everything that we normally do. The challenges will be once we start games and start traveling and the first time there will be an issue that pops up … I think it’s going to be the teams that can be the most resilient throughout the year are the ones you are going to find succeeding towards the end,” Buscher said.

Shamar Wright, men’s sophomore guard, said he’s looking forward to getting the chance to step on the court again. “[I’m happy to be] playing with my new teammates and having the experience of playing basketball again … just getting back to the groove of things,” Wright said.

Allie Troeckler, women’s senior guard/ forward also said she was excited to play the game and share the court with her new teammates.

“I’m just looking forward to getting

Men’s * indicates home game

Date

Opponent

* indicates home game

Time

Date

Opponent

Time

Dec. 2

Northern Illinois

TBA

Nov. 25

Purdue Fort Wayne

TBA

Dec. 5

Omaha*

2:00PM CST

Dec. 2

Arkansas State

5:00PM CST

Dec. 9

Valparaiso

TBA

Dec. 9

St. Louis Pharmacy*

2:00PM CST

Dec. 13

Northwestern

TBA

Dec. 12

Kansas City

1:00PM CST

Dec. 18

Morehead State

5:00PM CST

Dec. 18

Eastern Illinois

6:00PM CST

Dec. 21

Eastern Illinois*

5:00PM CST

Dec. 21

Chicago State*

1:00PM CST

Jan. 2

Jacksonville State*

5:00PM CST

Dec. 30

Morehead State

5:00PM CST

Jan. 5

Eastern Illinois

TBA

Jan. 2

Jacksonville State*

1:00PM CST

Jan. 7

Austin Peay*

1:00PM CST

Jan. 7

Austin Peay*

5:00PM CST

Jan. 9

Murray State*

1:00PM CST

Jan. 9

Murray State*

5:00PM CST

Jan. 14

Eastern Kentucky*

5:00PM CST

Jan. 11

Eastern Illinois*

2:00PM CST

Jan. 16

Morehead State*

5:00PM CST

Jan. 14

Eastern Kentucky*

1:00PM CST

Jan. 21

Tennessee State

TBA

Jan. 16

Morehead State*

1:00PM CST

Jan. 23

Belmont

4:00PM CST

Jan. 21

Tennessee State

TBA

Jan. 28

Southeast Missouri

TBA

Jan. 23

Belmont

1:00PM CST

Jan. 30

UT Martin

TBA

Jan. 28

Southeast Missouri

TBA

Feb. 4

Tennessee State*

1:00PM CST

Jan. 30

UT Martin

1:00PM CST

Feb. 6

Belmont*

1:00PM CST

Feb. 4

Tennessee State*

5:00PM CST

Feb. 11

Tennessee Tech

8:00PM CST

Feb. 6

Belmont*

5:00PM CST

Feb.13

Jacksonville State

4:00PM CST

Feb.11

Tennesse Tech

5:00PM CST

Feb. 18

Austin Peay

7:30PM CST

Feb. 13

Jacksonville State

1:00PM CST

Feb. 20

Murray State

TBA

Feb. 18

Austin Peay

4:30PM CST

Feb. 25

UT Martin*

TBA

Feb. 20

Murray State

4:30PM CST

Feb. 27

Southeast Missouri*

5:00PM CST

Feb. 25

UT Martin*

1:00PM CST

Feb. 27

Southeast Missouri*

1:00PM CST

Sourced from siuecougars.com/sports

back on the court and playing games, playing with this new group of girls. We have a lot of newcomers coming in, so I’m excited to see what we bring,” Troeckler said.

THE ALESTLE IS HIRING A

Sports Editor If you: *are passionate about sports *have experience in writing or reporting *are willing to learn from an award-winning newspaper

Apply in MUC 0311 or request an application from director@alestlelive.com

Women’s

| Summer Bradley / The Alestle

To learn more about SIUE’s basketball teams, visit the webpage for the men’s team and for the women’s team. Updated schedules can be found there also.

sports in brief NCAA announces new precautionary guidelines The NCAA outlined new guidelines for sports returning to play in the upcoming months.

The document offers updated rules for athletic departments around the country, like putting outdoor sports under different guidelines than indoor sports. The NCAA also added new rules for student athletes who have contracted COVID-19 in the past, since it can negatively affect the respiratory system.

The new guidelines were created due to requests from the NCAA Board of Governors. Although these new updates follow both national and state guidelines, the NCAA stated student athletes should follow local guidelines as well.

Along with these new guidelines, the NCAA reminded its members of its COVID-19 Concern Hotline. The purpose of the hotline, according to the NCAA, is to report alleged violations of the COVID-19 resocialization guidelines or events being held by schools that put students at risk.

The NCAA’s COVID-19 Concern Hotline can be reached at 833-6612819 or covidconcerns@ncaa.org.

For more information, read the NCAA’s release about these new guidelines.

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