The Alestle Vol. LXXll No. 1

vol. LXXII no. I

thursday, 08.22.19

“Imagine a world where it’s easier to get an AK-47 than a VISA!”

“Two mass shootings in 24 hours, leaving 31 people dead”

- Rihanna’s tweet in response to President Donald Trump

“Am I next?”

- BBC article from Aug. 5

“Mom I love you there is a shooting at my school if anything happens I love you so much.”

-Dylan Kraemer, Parkland school shooting survivor, in a text to his mom on the day of the shooting

“Today’s shooting in El Paso, Texas, was not only tragic, it was an act of cowardice. I know that I stand with everyone in this Country to condemn today’s hateful act. There are no reasons or excuses that will ever justify innocent people....”

- tweet by President Donald Trump

“Thoughts and prayers”

With the recent mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, and that less than a day later in Dayton, Ohio, many within the SIUE are reflecting on what campus is doing to protect students, faculty and staff in case instances like these were to hit closer to home.

Starbucks renovations | page 3

campus ministries | page 4

men’s soccer kicks off preseason | page 7

page 2

alestlelive.com

thursday, 08.22.19

Recent shootings raise concerns over campus safety, how to best prevent campus violence MASS shootings in educational settings May 18

2018

Santa Fe High School 10 killed, 10 injured 2 guns, 1 shooter

Feb. 14

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

1999

2006

2007

2012

2014

2015

2017

17 killed, 17 injured 1 gun, 1 shooter

Nov. 14

Rancho Tehama Elementary School 5 killed, 10 injured 4 guns, 1 shooter

Oct.1

Umpqua Community College 9 killed, 7 injured 6 guns, 1 shooter

Oct. 24

Marysville-Pilchuck High School 4 killed, 1 injured 1 gun, 1 shooter

Dec. 14

Sandy Hook Elementary School 27 killed, 2 injured 5 guns, 1 shooter

April 16

Virginia Tech 32 killed, 23 injured 2 guns, 1 shooter

Oct. 2

West Nickel Mines Amish School 5 killed, 6 injured 3 guns, 1 shooter

April 20

Columbine High School 13 killed, 24 injured 4 guns, 2 shooters

all data from The Washington Post * For the purposes of this graphic, mass shooting as an instance in which four or more people were killed by one or more shooters, excluding gang disputes or robberies.

MADISON LAMMERT editor-in-chief

In the wake of recent mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, some members of the SIUE community wonder what can be done to prevent incidents on campus, as well as what the university’s response would be if a mass shooting were to happen here.

Sophomore biology major Claire Farlow, of Lansing, Illinois, said the recent mass shootings, and their frequency, have caused her to be uneasy going into the school year.

“You see it happen so much that you think it’s going to happen to you at some point. I’ve kind of become numb to it honestly,” Farlow said. “I feel like it’s going to happen at some point, [so] I might as well not worry about it. It’s happened to so many people already and they didn’t expect it to happen to them, so you might as well expect it.”

Freshman mechanical engineering major Kyle Richeson, of Waterloo, Illinois, said while there is always a concern in the back of his mind that violent acts could occur on campus, he feels in general.

“I’m not all that concerned,” Richeson said. “With a school this large … it’s a target for people who have those kinds of thoughts and want to commit violent acts, so, in the back of my mind, it’s definitely a concern, but for the most part I do feel safe here and I don’t expect it to happen.”

Campus police undergo yearly active shooter training According to Chancellor Randy Pembrook, the university has a response plan in case a mass shooting were to ever occur at SIUE. A large part of the plan is enacted by law enforcement.

For a number of years, SIUE Police has been doing annual department-wide active shooter training. According to SIUE Police Chief Kevin Schmoll, they use a different campus building every year and have role-players act as victims, hostages and shooters. In order to make the training as realistic as possible, airsoft guns are used.

Schmoll said they work with other police departments from surrounding areas on the training, and these multiple-department trainings continue to grow every year. In the event of a real shooting, many other departments would provide assistance.

“If we had [a shooting] out here, we are going to be communicating for assistance, and Edwardsville monitors our radio so they’re going to send officers to

help us,” Schmoll said. “Glen Carbon, you name it, they’ll be coming from miles and miles away. All the local police departments — [Madison] County, the sheriff ’s departments — they’re going to be here.”

Last year, they brought in the Edwardsville Fire Department to show how to treat victims and how to aid in transporting them to hospitals. According to Schmoll, this is a lesson learned from past mass shootings.

“You’ve seen in some cases — I’m going back to the Aurora shooting, the one out in Colorado with the movie theater — it was taking so long,” Schmoll said.

“They had so many victims that officers were putting victims in the back of their swat cars and taking them to the hospital.”

Schmoll said the officers are also equipped with go bags that contain blood-clotting agents, tourniquets and other first responder supplies to assist victims until ambulances arrive.

Before they can begin treating victims, SIUE and aiding police departments must first locate and stop the threat.

“The initial response is to take out the threat; that’s the first thing that we are going to be focusing on,” Schmoll said. “You take out the threat, and then you move on from there.”

Communication on both ends In an active shooter incident, it may be difficult to contact the police. Schmoll recommends using the Rave Guardian app’s text feature if one is in a situation where they cannot talk to the police.

If an active shooter were to come to campus, Schmoll said the best way to be notified is by e-Lert texts, where information will be released on a limited, need-toknow basis. However, more updates will be provided via email.

“So you’re going to get a text, [and] there’s going to be emergency information. It’s going to be very limited,” Schmoll said. “For instance, it’s going to just say ‘active shooter in Peck Hall, so avoid the area’, or something like that,” Schmoll said. “We get more information out, but we have to push the information out very limited.”

Police offer training to greater campus community For the SIUE community, the police teach interested students, faculty and staff possible tactics to employ when faced with an active shooter.

The training is called the 4E program, which stands for educate, evade, escape and engage.

Schmoll said he saw a need to train select officers to be 4E instructors and to offer the class to the campus community after seeing more and more mass shootings in the news. In addition, such training was already being employed in Missouri schools.

“This is something that we use to educate our students, faculty and staff on, because, like I said, these are happening everywhere and in everyday life,” Schmoll said. “So, this is something that I was passionate about; [I use] a number of my officers as instructors, and it’s a service I think that we should provide here at the police department to our university community.”

The program does not instruct participants to take one particular action if faced with a shooter, but rather teaches them ideas for what to do.

Schmoll said in these types of incidents, it is ultimately up to the individual to decide how to best protect themselves and others.

“We give you all these ideas of what you can do, but the decision has to be made by you on what you can do,” Schmoll said.

“If you can get away, that’s your first option: evade the whole area. You may not be able to get away, so you either have to lock yourself inside of a door and we’ll teach you how to secure that door, even if there’s no lock in it, using stuff in that room or on your body — a belt or something.”

Schmoll said they usually teach the class in groups, and it usually lasts a few hours. If interested in the 4E training, call the department’s nonemergency number 618-650-3324.

Concerns voiced over lack of awareness of community training While many see value in classes like this, some raise concerns that the classes are not as well-known as they should be.

This includes Farlow, who said she would also like to see a class offered specifically for first aid procedures in case an incident were to occur.

“Even if it’s just one class period or two class periods for one week, they should make that mandatory maybe, and all freshmen have to take that class, like a gen ed maybe, but not the whole semester,” Farlow said.

She also suggested the campus enact training on school violence similar to the Not Anymore program used to educate and prevent sexual assault and relationship violence.

Farlow is not the only one who thinks these classes and the response plans should be more well-known. see SHOOTINGS on page 8

WARNING

Signs of a Possible Active Shooter:

1. Direct Threats: This is usually the most common and most obvious warning. These should NEVER be taken lightly. Authorities should be notified immediately such as teachers, principals, counselors, parents — and if these figures can not de-escalate the situation — the police.

2. Admiration and Imitation: If someone admires a previous shooting through conversation, assignments or artwork, it should raise an automatic red flag.

3. School Assignments: Studies show that many previous active shooters write about their plans beforehand for school projects. Some may claim that it is purely fiction; however the teacher should confront the student.

Multiple mentions of an attack should be taken to a higher authority.

4. Indirect Conversation About Shootings: Multiple dreams shared aloud, comments about “needed deaths” and obsessions with guns should be noted and addressed. These comments mixed with an angry or aggressive personality, however, should be taken to authorities

thursday, 08.22.19

alestlelive.com

page 3

Starbucks finishes renovations, open for business LAUREN BRIGGS sports editor

Earlier this summer, SIUE’s campus Starbucks closed for renovations. Besides the interior, there have been changes to outdoor seating, the menu and more.

It is open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the first week of school, and will resume regular business hours next week.

This summer, if a student wanted a coffee or tea on campus, they had to find an alternative to Starbucks. Students could be seen in Union Station picking up glass frappuccinos or heading to Kaldi’s in the Student Success Center.

Kaldi’s was expected to pick up a lot of the business from Starbucks’ closure, going so far as to extend their hours. However, students continued to wait for Starbucks to reopen, as questions over what the renovation would entail continued.

Kaldi’s employee Victoria Cretton said Kaldi’s will continue to have extended openings, at least for the time being.

“Because [Starbucks] has had to have soft openings, right now, Kaldi’s will be open longer,” Cretton said.

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Jeffrey Waple gave some clarity as to what the renovated Starbucks will offer and some of the layout changes.

“By [the] contract that we have with Starbucks, every three

to four years we have to update and renovate the facility,” Waple said.

Prior to the redesign, the Starbucks had lower lighting and people would place their orders near the Goshen Lounge.

Waple said the new interior is brighter and even the queue has changed.

“If you’ve seen it, it’s very light in there now. It’s different wood and different seating,” Waple said. “And the line is going to be queued differently. Where students used to pick up their product, is now where you will order, and the line will kind of come in through the Goshen Lounge. And you will come back towards Goshen Lounge to pick your product up.”

This means that the line is accessible from the doors near the Goshen Lounge; however, it does wrap around closer to the door facing Rendleman. This change appears to be in hopes of easing traffic and keeping lines contained within the establishment.

Sophomore biology student Lauren Austin, of Naperville, Illinois, is a returning student employee at Starbucks. She has some concerns about the remodel.

“I feel like it’s going to get a lot of congestion towards the inside door,” Austin said. “People congregate wherever they get their drinks. And I guess by having it towards the door, people may not be able to get in because

08.15.19 An officer responded to a report of an unruly subject at Evergreen Hall. Bianca A. Nance was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct.

The subject was transported directly to the Madison County Jail for the booking process, due to the subject’s erratic behavior.

08.16.19

Starbucks workers closing on Wednesday after their first day after reopening for the semester. | Spencer Peck / The Alestle

other people are going to be trying to get their food, drinks and everything.”

Waple also touched on the menu changes and confirmed the extended menu.

“There’s some new coffees going in there,” Waple said. “There’s a new nitro coffee, which is pretty strong from what I hear. It’s pretty dark and pretty heavy. And it’ll be a full-service Starbucks. So we’ll be doing the breakfast sandwiches, the lunch sandwiches, and the dinner sandwiches.”

According to Starbucks’

Company Profile, a full menu includes more than 30 blends of coffee on top of pastry and food products.

Unlike some Starbucks locations, there will not be mobile ordering, according to Waple.

With the expanded menu, students can order any order they would at another full-service location.

Students with questions about the menu should stop into the location or checkout Starbucks’ online menu at https:// www.starbucks.com/menu.

Panhellenic recruitment expands, considers new changes for next year JENNIFER GOECKNER lifestyles editor

Panhellenic recruitment sees new changes this year as discussions continue about the possibility of affiliated recruitment counselors in the future and with the addition of Kappa Kappa Gamma.

SIUE is home to five sororities that participate in Panhellenic recruitment: Alpha Phi, Alpha Sigma Tau, Alpha Xi Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma and Delta Phi Epsilon. Kappa Kappa Gamma is entering its first full year at SIUE. Panhellenic recruitment began Aug. 21 with Potential New Member Orientation. This is followed by three nights of events where potential new members learn more about the different groups and determine which sorority they are interested in joining. The process ends with Bid Day on Aug. 25, when new members are matched with their sororities.

The addition of Kappa Kappa Gamma has led to some changes to the process this year. It will look similar to how it has in the past, but those going through recruitment will have an additional organization to choose from and the preference process will be slightly different, according to Tyler Manning, the assistant director for Fraternity and Sorority Life.

“Kappa Kappa Gamma officially chartered and was established as an organization in fall of 2018, and so because of that, women will get to visit five chapters during their first round of recruitment instead of four, as it has been in the past,” Manning said.

Adding another organization has also led to changes in the location of certain events, namely

Bid Day, Panhellenic recruitment’s concluding event.

“With five chapters, we are outgrowing the place we traditionally use in the Meridian Ballroom.” Manning said. “There’ll still be a portion of Bid Day that is happening in the Meridian Ballroom, and then we’ll move the group outside to the Quad to kind of conclude Bid Day and allow our women to, what they call, ‘run home to their chapter.’”

Recruitment counselors play

them throughout it.”

The women selected to be recruitment counselors are trained extensively prior to recruitment.

This training consists of learning guidelines for helping the potential new members as well as learning more about all the sororities on campus, according to recruitment counselor Joy Williams, a junior biology major from Decatur, Illinois. The training included a weekend retreat during the summer and additional training Aug.

A group of Fall 2019 Panhellinic recruitment counselers at their recruitment training retreat. | Photo courtesy of Jordyn Nimmer

a large role in the recruitment process. According to Paulina Fuhrmann, a junior political science major from Collinsville, Illinois, and the Panhellenic Executive Council’s vice president of recruitment, recruitment counselors provide guidance for the potential new members.

“Recruitment counselors are mentors for the women going through recruitment,” Fuhrmann said. “They really help the women to just understand what the process is like and just really guide

12-14, the week before recruitment.

“Over the summer, we had a weekend retreat, and we went and they told us all the rules and like what to wear each night, and then we learned every sorority’s chants because you have to know them for the reveal and everything,” Williams said. “Then we learned every other sorority’s philanthropies, mottos and their mascots, all that kind of stuff, so that we can talk about sororities that aren’t just our own.”

Recruitment counselors are also required to disaffiliate from their sororities. This allows them to provide more unbiased advice to those going through recruitment, according to Fuhrmann.

“We ask [recruitment counselors] to remove pictures from their social media sites of them with their sisters or wearing their letters, [and] we ask them to not wear their letters on campus — those are kind of our big rules that we ask them to follow.” Fuhrmann said. “Of course, you know, they should ensure that they’re being unbiased and that they’re helping the women find where they belong, not where the recruitment counselors think they belong.”

In recent months, there have been conversations about changing this aspect of recruitment and allowing recruitment counselors to remain affiliated with their sororities. These discussions will continue, according to Manning.

“After some thoughts from our chapters, we thought it would be more beneficial to wait until this recruitment period was over, and really as soon as that period is over, which is Aug. 26, [we can] really take the time in September, and then through the rest of this fall semester, to engage in conversations with our entire Panhellenic community about what would it look like for our recruitment counselors not to disaffiliate,” Manning said. “So that conversation will continue, it will be a collaborative conversation between all five of our chapters and our Panhellenic Executive Board.”

The deadline to register for Panhellenic recruitment was Aug. 20. To learn more, visit http:// www.siue.edu/kimmel/greek/cpc_ recruitment.shtml.

An officer responded to a vehicle burglary call at Korte Stadium’s parking lot. The vehicle had numerous items taken from it and a broken window.

The investigation continues.

08.17.19 An officer received a call for parents wishing their child call home. Contact was made and the resident called home.

08.18.19 An officer observed a vehicle cross over the center driving lane and initiated a traffic stop.

Lacharles McNeil Jr. was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence. The subject was transported to the SIUE Police Department where he was fingerprinted, photographed and processed. McNeil was taken to the Madison County Jail as he was unable to post bond. McNeil was also issued a citation for improper lane usage.

An officer responded to the Evergreen Hall parking lot regarding a possible domestic battery. Nicholas J. Leuschke was arrested on a charge of domestic battery. Leuschke was transported to the Madison County Jail per Madison County Domestic Violence Accountability Court policy.

An officer responded to a call regarding unwanted text messages from an unknown caller. The caller was advised to block the phone number making the calls.

An officer responded to a report of a suspicious odor of cannabis at Evergreen Hall. The officer advised there was a smell of cannabis, but was unable to contact the resident.

08.19.19 An officer took a report regarding a threatening voicemail that was intended for a public official that was mistakenly left on the reporting party’s cell phone.

An officer took a report regarding a subject being battered by two subjects at a SIUE event the day before. The subject advised during the incident, her cell phone screen was cracked.

Charges for this incident are pending.

NEXT WEEK ONLINE: READ ABOUT THE ROOT BEER RIOT page 4

lifestyles alestlelive.com

contact the editor: lifestyles@alestlelive.com 650-3527 thursday, 08.22.19

Campus ministries provide unique experiences, share common goals JENNIFER GOECKNER lifestyles editor SIUE is home to many faith-based organizations, including several nondenominational Christian college ministries.

These groups each offer different experiences to members, though their goals are all the same — to provide support and share in their faiths.

A Cross Between Campus Ministry

A Cross Between Campus Ministry is a nondenominational Christian group on campus. It is open to anyone who is interested in learning more about God or growing in their faith, regardless of their religion, sexual orientation or a number of other factors, according to the group’s constitution.

“We are a Campus Ministry of imperfect college students striving to become more like Christ,” the group’s Get Involved page reads. “ACB is full of broken, messed up people who are continually working to grow closer to God and His people.”

Sophomore chemistry major Adam Sullivan, of Palmer, Illinois, has been a member of the group since the beginning of his freshman year. Sullivan said he liked how personable and open the group is. “[This group] just feels really real,” Sullivan said. “Instead of like a traditional service, it’s more of a discussion, so everyone can kind of chip in, and it’s a lot more personal that way. I feel like it’s a lot of interaction, [and] you can kind of hear what other people think, too.”

The group hosts small group meetings at members’ homes each week, which allow individuals to participate in discussions and spend time with other members of the group.

“Every Wednesday night, we’ll go there [to a member’s home], and there’s usually like a little snack or something, then you’ll have the discussion, and then we usually hang out, like play cornhole in the backyard and have a bonfire,” Sullivan said.

The group also hosts larger events, such as their annual Root Beer Riot, which is celebrating its tenth year this fall.

“We also host the Root Beer Riot — that’s actually next Saturday, [August 24],” Sullivan said. “And it’s a fun time where people can come have root beer floats.

And there’s a cornhole tournament and a pong tournament. So it’s a lot of fun.”

CRAVE College Ministry

CRAVE is a college ministry affiliated with Metro Community Church in Edwardsville. It is also nondenominational and open to anyone, regardless of an individual’s religious background, according to the group’s Get Involved page.

Derrick Nichols, of Edwardsville, has been the college pastor at Metro Community Church for the past two and a half years. Nichols believes what makes CRAVE unique compared to other college ministries is the group’s emphasis on empowering individuals through faith and the incredibly welcoming nature of its student leaders.

“People approach the faith in a lot of different ways, and I think what we do in CRAVE that really kind of makes us different is we really seek to empower our students to be the best versions of themselves,” Nichols said. “On top of that, we have an amazing community at CRAVE that is all student-led, which is pretty common for college ministries, but our student leaders do such an incredible job at welcoming absolutely everybody.”

CRAVE hosts weekly experiences at Metro Community Church and small group meetings throughout the week, as well as several community events both on and off campus. One of the group’s events, their Back to School Bash, will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 29 in the Meridian Ballroom.

“We’ll have a big band with lots of music and lights, and we’ll play lots of games, and we’ll do a lot of giveaways,” Nichols said. “So, this year we’re giving away AirPods, flat screens, Keurigs, mini fridges, different things like that, so we’re giving a lot of really cool prizes away. And we just want to have a fun time — that’s a big part of it.”

Cru

Cru is another Christian group that is not affiliated with any particular denomination. Its members come from a variety of religious or nonreligious backgrounds.

The group is open to people from all walks of life who want to grow in or learn more about the Christian faith.

First-year social work graduate student Rachel Denmon, of Edwardsville, has been involved with Cru since her freshman year and said she believes that the group’s focus on inclusion and exploring tough conversations is what sets it apart.

“We really focus on creating a safe place and a place for discussion about things that are uncomfortable to talk about sometimes,” Denmon said.

Cru hosts a variety of small groups that are held at different times throughout the week, according to Denmon.

CRAVE College Ministry members gather after a meeting.

“Weekly, we’ll

I Photo courtesy of CRAVE College Ministry have small groups, so we have those

Members of A Cross Between Campus Ministry pose while on a hike.

I Photo courtesy of Cassie Clark

scattered throughout the week,” Denmon said. “One will be around lunchtime on Monday, that’s a women’s group, and then in the evening we have different co-ed and sometimes just men or just women groups scattered throughout the evening. People can contact us for times and locations for those.”

In addition to these small groups, Cru also holds larger meetings on a weekly basis and other events throughout the semester to provide members with different opportunities to get involved.

“Every single Thursday, we have our weekly meeting called ‘The Source,’ and that will usually be in Fixins’ on campus,” Denmon said. “And in that, we have a speaker and a small group discussion during that weekly meeting, and we always hang out at an after-‘The Source’ event, like going bowling or going out to eat as a group. And then throughout the semester, we have worship nights usually once a month, and other things we just go out and do for our community.”

Revolution Campus Ministry

Revolution Campus Ministry is a relatively new group on campus. The organization was first formed at SIUE in Spring 2017, but it has an older branch at Lindenwood University’s campus in Saint Charles, Missouri.

Physical education graduate student Jacob Sitton, of Bethalto, Illinois, is one of the SIUE branch’s founding members.

Sitton said he believes this group stands out because of the close relationships formed by its members.

“You know, we’re very relational together throughout the week — it’s not just whatever night we do our meeting or church on Sunday or whatever,” Sitton said. “A lot of our guys and girls, they do homework nights, we play intramurals together, we do video game nights.”

Sitton said he also believes the minis-

try’s strict adherence to and direct readings from the Bible makes it unique compared to other groups on campus.

“I think the biggest thing, too, is we don’t water down the Bible, and I think people respect that — that we don’t just say what we think or feel, but we really try to read it and do what it says,” Sitton said.

The group’s biggest draw for new members is their cross chats, which allow individuals to participate in discussions about passages from the Bible and meet other members of the group, according to Sitton.

“We do cross chats every Tuesday night, and we do them out of my house, and I think that’s the biggest draw for our ministry, is the cross chats,” Sitton said.

“And what it is, is it’s essentially like a house party — I call it a house party that you remember the next day because there’s music playing, and everyone brings like Crock-Pot meals. But we do some sort of discussion while we’re there and bring a couple scriptures into it, and maybe it goes a half hour or 40 minutes for the lesson and the rest of the night we’re just kind of hanging out.”

More Options and How to Get Involved

These are just four of the many options for faith-based groups at SIUE. In addition to nondenominational Christian groups, there are also groups that are affiliated with a specific denomination, such as the Newman Catholic Community and the SIUE Lutheran Campus Ministry.

Non-Christian, faith-based groups include the Muslim Student Association, the Secular Student Alliance and Mantra, a group that explores Vedic philosophy.

To learn more about these groups and other faith-based organizations on campus, visit SIUE’s Get Involved page at https://siue.campuslabs.com/engage/organizations?categories=5629.

alestlelive.com

thursday, 08.22.19

page 5

‘Fire Emblem: Three Houses’ is a great mix of tactics, tea parties RYAN BIERI managing editor “Fire Emblem: Three Houses” found the right balance between letting the player host tea parties and letting them absolutely demolish out entire armies.

Traditionally, “Fire Emblem” games have focused mostly on going from one difficult, grid-based tactical battle to another. While the battles are still here and still difficult, the game really shines between the battles.

The core concept behind “Three Houses” is not very impressive: the player, a nameless protagonist, is tasked with leading one of three classes at a monastery into battle and deciding how they will grow their skills.

At nearly the very beginning of the game, the player is given a choice between three Hogwarts-esque houses — the Black Eagles, the Blue Lions or the Golden Deer. Each house has their own roster of 15 to 18-yearolds to order around on the battlefield.

In between the required monthly battles within the player’s chosen class, the game gives the option to explore the monastery and visit students from other classes alongside the other teachers and staff living there, and the exploration is where the game really stands out.

Not only does the player get to deepen their bond with

their students, they can also form bonds with the other classes’ students by sharing meals with them, giving them gifts or treating them to a cup of tea.

If the player does a good enough job impressing the other students with their skills or the depth of the two characters’ bond, the students can even be recruited to join the player’s team – an important characteristic for the latter half of the game.

The exploration mechanics aren’t especially deep or complicated, but the writing makes it worth visiting the monastery at least once a month just to see what everyone has to say about the events happening in the story.

Each character is filled to the brim with personality and even though some of the students’ personalities aren’t pleasant, they’re always interesting at the very least.

Even characters I wasn’t a fan of at the start of the game, like the recluse Bernadetta, get a chance to show major growth and often touch on topics like the lingering effects of serious abuse and trauma or the expectations placed on these children’s shoulders.

Each of the three houses’ stories starts off mostly the same, with a few minor differences.

About midway through the game, each class’ story branches into its own storyline, adding a high amount of replayability with options to change a character’s trajectory.

“Fire Emblem: Three Houses” was released July 26 for the Nintendo Switch, and retails for $59.99 for both physical and digital copies.

| Ryan Bieri / Intelligent Systems

However, once a path is chosen, the player will have to confront the possibility of fighting classmates they failed to recruit before the game went into full force.

Despite its strengths, there are a few things the game could do better. Most notably is the battery drain — this game absolutely kills the Switch. I was lucky to get three to four hours out of my battery, even with reasonably low brightness and on airplane mode.

Additionally, while the three houses have very different stories after the halfway point of each

story, the missions are the same for the first half.

The roster changes kept me going through my second playthrough, but 10-20 hours of repetition might be too much to ask for some players.

It’s also important to note this isn’t a short game — I’m almost at 100 hours after nearly completing my second run, and I think I’m going back for at least a third round.

All in all, “Fire Emblem: Three Houses” walks a nearly perfect tightrope between a visual novel and a hardcore tactics

simulator and works great nearly exclusively on either end of the spectrum.

If the player wants to hang out in the monastery and talk to people, they can use an auto-battle feature to skip most of the combat.

Likewise, if they don’t want to deal with managing the class whatsoever, they can go straight from fight to fight and let the game take care of the rest.

If you’re looking for a good tactics game to kill time with this semester, “Three Houses” is one of the best options out there.

opinion

READ HOW TO STAY ORGANIZED THIS YEAR AT ALESTLELIVE.COM

alestlelive.com

page 6

the

alestle MADISON LAMMERT editor-in-chief

RYAN BIERI managing editor

JENNIFER GOECKNER lifestyles editor

share your thoughts: opinion@alestlelive.com 650-3527 thursday, 08.22.19

Your opinions deserve more than 140 characters.

Write a letter to the editor. opinion@alestlelive.com

LARUEN BRIGGS sports editor JORDYN NIMMER online editor

view Be aware of mental health resources on campus THE ALESTLE STAFF editorial board

SPENCER PECK photographer ERICA GREEN podcast producer SUMMER BRADLEY graphics manager JONAS MALAVE CAMPOS advertising manager NATHANIEL JOHNSON ad representative CRISHAWNA NASH office secretaries ANGIE TROUT office manager TAMMY MERRETT program director

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 2022 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.

We reserve the right to edit letters 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.

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.

For more information, call 618-650-3528.

For advertising, email advertising@alestlelive.com.

Amid a catastrophic increase of mental health concerns from college students, mental health care providers, including those at SIUE, should expand accessibility and care for students in need.

According to the National College Health Assessment conducted by the American College Health Association on 450,000 students at 452 institutions, the odds of a student being diagnosed or treated for anxiety disorder is 68 percent higher than in 2009, 61 percent higher for panic attacks, 40 percent higher for ADHD and 34 percent higher for depression.

Generation Z has some of the highest numbers when it comes to stress, but it also is the generation most likely to seek help.

According to the American Psychological Association, 37 percent of Gen Z is more likely to look towards therapy or professional treatment.

While 37 is not a large percentage by most standards, it is almost double the amount of Baby Boomers seeking help. These statistics show college students are increasingly more likely to need or seek mental health services than their predecessors. The impending

stress of the changing job market coupled with the stress of everyday college life has had a detrimental impact on students, causing them to seek help for many different kinds of mental health concerns.

According to a survey conducted by the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors, anxiety, depression and relationship problems are among the primary concerns for college students.

The survey found 41.6 percent of students seeking mental health services did so because of anxiety, 36.4 percent because of depression and 35.8 percent because of relationship problems.

Even though society still has a long way to go, the stigma behind mental health concerns appears to be slowly fading, perhaps due to many openly talking about their mental health concerns and seeking resources for help.

While one doesn’t have to confide in everyone around them that they are struggling with mental health concerns, it’s important that they find someone to help them work through their problems in a healthy way.

Perhaps not widely known by the student body of SIUE, Counseling Services offers various group sessions to students, one of

which is aimed directly at one of the top concerns among college students according to the survey: relationship problems.

This session, called “Understanding Myself & Others,” allows students to improve their interpersonal skills and gain insight into social dynamics. It also helps students to further develop their communication skills and form healthier relationships with those around them. The students are given the opportunity to work on emotional expressiveness.

For some, connecting with others undergoing similar struggles can be healing, while others see more benefit from one-onone counseling sessions with a licensed professional.

Counseling Services offers private sessions with staff who are trained from a generalist approach, meaning they can help with a large spectrum of mental health concerns.

The limited number of healthcare professionals at Counseling Services may cause students to feel incompatible with the counselor they are matched with.

Therefore, the search to find the right person to open up to may have to be taken outside campus limits.

Students seeking help for

specific mental health concerns, such as post-traumatic stress from sexual assault, might have a preference regarding their counselor’s gender.

Unfortunately, the student’s schedule and counselor availability may not accommodate for the preference — as a counselor who fits the student’s preferred gender might not be available at the same time as the student.

In other cases, students might simply feel uncomfortable opening up to their counselor, or struggle to afford a counselor or find a counselor within their health insurance network.

Although Counseling Services might not work for everyone, students should do their best to prioritize their mental health — whether this means seeking external help or utilizing the mental health resources available at SIUE. While the stigma surrounding mental health concerns can prevent many from seeking help, the beginning of the school year is the perfect time to get one’s mental health in check.

We all need to take care of ourselves in order to reach our fullest potential, and therefore, maintaining one’s mental health should be a priority.

Trump’s internet regulation could be disastrous for everyone RYAN BIERI managing editor

Two weeks ago, Politico revealed President Donald Trump was working on an executive order which has the potential to drastically change how we can use the internet.

After viewing the order, CNN reported it aimed to scale back some legal protections given to individuals and companies who run websites and apps. In short, if someone posts something illegal, it goes from being solely the user’s legal problem to potentially implicating the site itself.

According to both Politico and CNN, the order was designed to help curb “anti-conservative bias” on social media. The idea of some sort of left-wing bias has been growing ever since Alex

Jones was banned from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Whether or not Trump is right in saying there is some sort of mass conspiracy theory level censorship going on online right now, it has to be up to regular citizens and users to put pressure on these companies to fix their issues.

We can’t rely on or even allow the government to wield this level of implied or explicit censorship.

One of the best features of the internet, especially compared to other mediums like radio and TV, is its accessibility. Everyone has the chance to make and distribute whatever kind of content they want, whether it is a vlog seen by hundreds of thousands of people, a Facebook rant about an ex, a picture of dog or even homemade pornography.

Think about how many vid-

eos are being uploaded to YouTube every day. According to Tubefilter, in 2015 YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said 400 hours of content were being uploaded every minute. That is impossible to monitor on a large scale as things are being uploaded.

So if YouTube is being punished for what they feel they need to remove, or keep up, the number of people who are going to be granted access to upload things to YouTube is going to change.

It’s not hard to imagine a YouTube where the only people who are able to upload videos are verified personalities or large companies, which completely defeats the original purpose of YouTube as a platform.

If the government starts imposing punishments on websites for how they moderate or protect

their communities, the simplest, and most importantly, cheapest, way to fix that is to restrict what people are able to post online.

Any sort of government oversight of this scale, especially from the U.S. government, which has historically not understood how technology works at a basic level, could be disastrous.

Unfortunately, with this being suggested as an executive order, there’s not much the average citizen can directly do to stop it from happening if Trump is deadset on pushing these kinds of regulations through.

However, we can still contact our legislators in Congress on both sides of the aisle and do our best to convince them that this kind of regulation is not in anyone’s best interests.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE IN THE AUGUST 29 ISSUE thursday, 08.22.19

sports alestlelive.com

contact the editor: sports@alestlelive.com 650-3527 page 7

Men’s soccer ties in first game with new head coach LAUREN BRIGGS sports editor

Men’s soccer tied their first game of the preseason in an exhibition against the University of Tulsa. This was new Head Coach Cale Wassermann’s first game with The Cougars.

According to SIUE Athletics, the home-field exhibition drew in more than 2,000 fans.

The Cougars and Tulsa’s Golden Hurricane duked it out in front of the crowd for two periods and an eventual penalty shootout.

In the first period, the Golden Hurricane dominated by getting their first and only score within the first 17 minutes. The scorer, defender Alejandro Chavez, would go on to be considered one of the game’s leading players on Tulsa’s end, according to the official box score.

The Cougars made a comeback, but not until the second period when Danel Calvillo scored with one minute left. By the end, SIUE took 6 more shots than Tulsa, ending with 15 total and 6 on goals.

Wassermann told SIUE Athletics in an interview after the game that the eventual shootout was pre-planned on the Cougar’s part. Tulsa narrowly won the shootout at 6-5.

In an interview with The Alestle, Wassermann summarized the first period for the Cougars as offensive, but they began pushing Tulsa defensively into the beginning of the second period. Wassermann said it was a collection of small changes that altered the pace of the game.

Wassermann and the team are currently developing a lineup. However, defender

Kashaun Smith said their main focus for this particular game was general improvement.

“You know, it’s still preseason, and that’s one thing we told the guys,” Smith said. “It doesn’t matter if you started or not, it’s preseason. We are just going out there to work on some stuff, trying to get better for the upcoming season.”

No SIUE player saw more than an hour of field time. Wassermann expanded on this, explaining that it’s multi-faceted — both about physical health as well as preparation. It also takes a professional team to keep the players in shape.

“We take a lot of time and emphasis on the sports science side of things,” Wassermann said. “We work a lot with our Athletic Trainer James Mays and our Director of Sport Performance Mark Jamison. Those guys do a really good job keeping our guys healthy. When you’re putting that much of a workload on the body this early into preseason, we are still really building the fitness levels for our guys.”

He said this approach also helps him and the coaching staff see progress from more players.

Exposure to the field against players they’ve never experienced can produce higher challenges for players. It also shows what work players might have put in over the break.

“We wanted to give at least 15-30 minutes to some of the guys that don’t play as much to give them an opportunity to get a good evaluation. And to see how they kind of improved in the summer,” Wassermann said. “So really, you always try to play every game to win, but for us, we were thinking more long-term of how is this going to help our players get better and to prepare

Lluís Martorell, SIUE Head Coach Cale Wassermann and Lachlan McLean talking on Friday, Aug. 16 at the game against Tulsa . | Photo courtesy of SIUE Athletics

them for our opening weekend when we play Michigan and Michigan State.”

Wassermann is a former recruiting coordinator and assistant coach at Michigan State, but going against them will be more about the team’s exposure to bigger teams than his connections to them.

“At the end of the day, it’s another game for us to focus on as a team and it’s not really about me,” Wassermann said.

“It’s about the guys having the opportunity to play two teams that are in the Big Ten and nationally ranked. And to put ourselves in a position to hopefully get some results.”

Moving forward, Cougars fans can expect to see SIUE’s lineup change and adjust as they meet their needs. Fans can also expect a dynamic game each time as the team makes adjustments and substitutions.

Wassermann says the team also enjoys the support from the local community.

“Obviously, compared to a big school like Michigan State where there’s football and basketball, it’s a little different,” Was-

sermann said. “But I think that can be a good thing, where we really can focus on soccer and school. Because there’s no football, we can get a good crowd. Like, we’ve never gotten 2,000 people at a preseason game at Michigan State. And I think that says a lot about the community on campus, and that they value the program.”

Sophomore Blackburn student, Gabby Lucas, of Granite City was one of the attendees at the game and said she had a good experience.

“Everyone was having a good time.

The game was fun and so was the crowd,” Lucas said. “Everyone was high energy, especially when SIUE scored. Everyone went kind of crazy.”

This weekend, Men’s Soccer are headed for Lexington, Kentucky to go against the University of Kentucky Wildcats.

The Cougars won’t be back at Korte Stadium until they play the University of Evansville on Sep. 6, but be sure to follow them on Twitter @SIUEMensSoccer to keep up with the team.

New Athletic Director assessing programs before changes RYAN BIERI managing editor

The start of the school year is a time of change for a lot of SIUE community members, but newly-appointed Athletic Director Tim Hall said he has no intention of making any major changes just yet.

“My vision for our athletic department is to be a program that is regionally dominant and nationally respected,” Hall said.

Hall said he wants to use his first year in Edwardsville to get to know SIUE and see what the SIUE community would benefit most from.

Deputy Athletics Director Jason Coomer said taking time to learn a new school is standard practice in the world of collegiate athletics. Before coming to SIUE, Hall served as the athletics director for both the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Chancellor Randy Pembrook said there were a few factors about Hall’s previous experience at UMKC and UMBC, like those schools being part of a university system, in an urban environment and similarly sized, that made Hall a good fit for SIUE. While Hall is not from the area, he said his hometown in Northeastern Ohio feels similar to the Metro-East.

He also said one of the only struggles in his move from Maryland to Edwardsville was fitting his six-person family into a Cougar Village apartment while they get

| Photo courtesy of SIUE Athletics

SPORTS IN brief: Tim Hall and his family at a press conference introducing him to the campus community on Aug. 8 | Photo by Howard Ash, Courtesy of SIUE Marketing and Communications

settled and prepare to buy a house in Edwardsville.

Hall said one of his main goals at SIUE is to increase general interest in our athletics programs inside the university and the surrounding areas.

“We’re going to put a strategic plan together to delineate that process in terms of where we’re going, and we want to increase the relationship that all of our stakeholders have with SIUE Athletics,” Hall said.

According to Hall, one way to increase attendance at events is to hold what he called events within events by working with other entities on campus, such as student organizations holding recruitment events or bringing alumni back to be recognized on a particular night.

The other way Hall said he could help drive attendance to sporting events is by helping the school do better competitively.

“Usually a better product on the field or court results in higher attended contests. Let’s face it: everybody loves a winner,” Hall said. “We want our various constituencies, whoever they be, to support us in good times and bad, but people want to have fun at an event or athletic contest, and they want their team to win more than they lose.”

Pembrook also echoed some of Hall’s sentiments about the overall trajectory of athletics at SIUE for the next few years: that SIUE Athletics should continue to strive to produce academically successful student athletes while SIUE looks to improve competitively. “[Hall] said our goal is that we would be in the top half of the conference in terms of where teams finish, and I think we can even move to where we consistently be in the top quartile of the conference,” Pembrook said.

Wrestling receives new Assistant Coach

Wrestling Head Coach Jeremy Spates added Ty Prazma to his coaching staff on Friday, Aug. 16.

Prazma, originally from Granite City, Illinois, is returning to the area as an assistant coach. He is coming back with three seasons of experience at Northern Illinois University as well as a season at the Virginia Military Institute.

Spates said in a press release that Prazma can be expected to handle recruitment, travel, social media and general assistance with the team.

Prazma graduated from the University of Missouri in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in parks, recreation and tourism and a focus in sports management. Additionally, he received his master’s in educational and counseling psychology with an emphasis in positive coaching a year later from the same university.

alestlelive.com

page 8 SHOOTINGS | PAGE 2

Tracy Hancock, a history department secretary and office support specialist, said SIUE should foster more discussions about school violence and make more relevant policies clear to its employees.

“I think it’s something that needs to be gone over for staff and faculty,” Hancock said. “When I went on the webpage, it says that they’ve distributed that information. I don’t remember ever seeing it as a staff member, and I’ve been a staff member at the university for almost 12 years.

I’ve never gotten anything, but they do training every year for sexaul assault, Title IX and all that, which is amazing and great. But I don’t remember ever getting specific information for school violence.

Like, what do we do? What should we do?

[It’s] not as commonly talked about.”

Pembrook recommends resources via email SIUE Chancellor Randy Pembrook sent out an email Aug. 5, the day after the Dayton, Ohio, shooting, to the SIUE community expressing condolences for those affected by the weekend’s events and the other recent shooting in California.

According to Pembrook, he consulted student groups, faculty, staff, Counseling Services and other groups on campus when drafting the email.

He said the main goals of the email were to show the community where they can go if struggling in the wake of these events and to show SIUE is an environment that does not condone hateful messages.

“I think there is a feeling that when

something happens in the world, something that’s not good, that sometimes people don’t quite know what to do with the feelings that they’re having — whether it’s feelings of fear, feelings of anxiety, feelings of helplessness,” Pembrook said. “So, the main thing that we’re trying to do in that is, number one, to make a statement that the things, the situations, the values that lead to that kind of an event — that isn’t reflective of who we are at SIUE.” The email directed students in need of support to Counseling Services and the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, while faculty and staff were told to contact Director of Counseling Service Courtney Boddie for help identifying local resources.

Prevention efforts include entire campus community The police meet with the Chancellor and select leaders on campus to discuss their response plans. Pembrook said this conversation has not always been done on a yearly basis, but with the rise in active shooter incidents, he is pushing for these conversations to be more frequent.

“That is something that we haven’t done every year that I’ve been here but is a conversation that we’ve tried to have, and I feel like, given the things that are going on in the world, that it needs to [be] an annual update,” Pembrook said.

Every Tuesday, the police meet with Housing, Counseling Services, Student Affairs, ACCESS and Title IX. Schmoll said they discuss the contents of their police reports and what departments need to work together to solve issues.

Schmoll said this communication

helps to prevent potential problems and prevent existing problems from becoming larger.

“We work closely together, so hopefully we never have a dangerous situation,” Schmoll said. “We take care of small problems so we don’t have a big problem.”

Schmoll said after the meetings, appropriate actions may be taken, and sometimes this includes separating students or other individuals from the university.

Boddie recognizes that these meetings will not automatically eliminate all threats, but said working as a team helps to prevent and respond to violent incidents to the best of their abilities.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s within the ability of any department or even person to completely prevent some things from happening,” Boddie said.

“Together, we can be thought of as a team that will do what’s necessary to reduce the likelihood that something like this would happen, and in the event that it did, would respond to the best of our abilities.”

Boddie also said even if one does not directly witness a traumatic event such as a mass shooting, they may still develop post-traumatic stress disorder.

Because all counselors in Counseling Services are taught using a generalist approach, Boddie is confident any Counseling Services’ counselor would be well-suited to help a student struggling with stressors relating to these events.

“Here at Counseling Services we take the generalist approach, which means that everyone is trained to work with a broad variety of presenting issues, up to post-traumatic stress that we’re discussing,” Boddie said. “So, I feel confident that it wouldn’t matter who a person was

thursday, 08.22.19

assigned to. That counselor would be competent at using trauma-informed practices and helping really to soothe the physiology because, what essentially happens is that trauma is an event that can eventually lead to post-traumatic stress.”

According to Boddie, statistically if 100 people are exposed to a potentially trauma-inducing event, about 20 will experience post-traumatic stress after the fact.

While preventing campus violence is a cumulative effort by many departments on campus, Schmoll said students also play a large role in preventing such incidents from occurring by reporting suspicious behavior to the police.

“A lot of these times people who are associated with these [mass shooters] come out and say ‘Oh yeah, they were exhibiting these signs and he was saying things about harming people or animals,’ or something along those lines. They kind of wish they would’ve said something to law enforcement, but people aren’t so inclined to come forward and provide that information,” Schmoll said. “I think a lot of these could have been avoided if people just came forward and said something, and the police could have investigated it and maybe stopped one of these mass shootings from happening.”

Students, faculty and staff can call the SIUE Police’s nonemergency number, 618-650-3324, to report suspicious behavior that’s not a threat.

To sign up for e-Lerts, visit https:// www.siue.edu/emergency/elert.shtml.

More information on the Rave Guardian app can be found under the Campus Safety and Security page on SIUE’s website.

HOROSCOPES

By Nancy Black Tribune Content Agency

Aries: March 21 - April 19 A financial challenge or breakdown could arise. Remain forgiving with miscommunications. Ignore rumors and gossip. Adapt to unexpected conditions. You can get what you need.

Cancer: June 21 - July 22 Help others see the big picture. Discuss ideas to increase sales or participation. Prepare for a gathering of friends. You can meet the challenge.

Libra: Sept. 23 - Oct. 22 Consider a financial challenge with shared accounts. Unexpected expenses, misunderstandings or delays could arise. Collaborate patiently. Get expert support. Stay in communication.

Capricorn: Dec. 22 - Jan. 19 Keep your sense of humor with your inner circle. Restraint serves you well.

Avoid spontaneous outbursts.

Tempers could be short. Don’t antagonize anyone.

Taurus: April 20 - May 20 Listen to your intuition. Stick up for your own view. Minimize risks, and strengthen foundational structures.

Don’t go along if you don’t agree.

Leo: July 23 - Aug. 22 New developments could change the assignment. Don’t believe everything you hear. Postpone a financial discussion. This could be a lucky break. Commit or exit gracefully.

Scorpio: Oct. 23 - Nov. 21 Keep a gentle tone with your partner.

Misunderstandings or confusion could cause delays. Adapt to surprises without losing your cool. This pays off later.

Aquarius: Jan. 20 - Feb. 18 Avoid risky propositions with a domestic project. Get multiple bids before investing real money. Adjust to changes. Manage a detailed plan and budget. Envision and imagine.

Gemini: May 21 - June 20 Reflect on recent changes. Finish what you’ve begun. Keep costs down with simple ingredients and materials. Consider a persuasive argument. Plan, schedule and organize.

Virgo: Aug. 23 - Sept. 22 Widen your perspective with travel, classes and teachers. Explore fresh terrain and discover new views.

Adapt to delays or surprises. What you learn has long-term benefit.

Sagittarius: Nov. 22 - Dec. 21 Stay flexible with work changes. Consider what’s best for your health. Things may not go as planned. Avoid controversy, stress or traffic. Nurture your energy.

Pisces: Feb. 19 - March 20 Postpone financial discussions and important decisions. Miscommunications and mistakes could frustrate. Follow through on what you said. Prepare statements and reports.

Consider the message.

(Astrologer Nancy Black continues her mother Linda Black’s legacy horoscopes column. She welcomes comments and questions on Twitter, @LindaCBlack. For more astrological interpretations like today’s Gemini horoscope, visit Linda Black Astrology by clicking daily horoscopes, or go to www.nancyblack.com.)

Follow us on Twitter @THEALESTLE

FOR RENT 3 BEDROOM HOUSE BY PARK! We have two houses for rent; available 9/1!

Rent is $1,100 per mo/each. #1: 3 BR w/2 car garage one block from LeClaire Park. #2: 3 BR w/2 car garage one block from Fireman’s Park.

Email obrecht@mail.com