SEVEN DATES THAT WON’T BREAK THE BANK
THE ALESTLE WILL NOT PUBLISH DURING THANKSGIVING BREAK
pages 4 & 5
The Student Voice Since 1960 alton — east st. louis — edwardsville
thursday 11.21.19
vol. LXXII no. XIII
Bluff Hall will welcome esports arena next semester JOHN MCGOWAN reporter
Chancellor Randy Pembrook addresses the crowded room at last week’s town hall meeting in the Meridian Ballroom of the Morris University Center. | Mackenzie Smith / The Alestle
‘Quad preacher’ sparks town hall meeting RYAN BIERI managing editor
After weeks of escalating protests on Wednesdays, the university held a town hall meeting to discuss Stratton Quadrangle regular “Pastor Tom” and university policies around speakers on campus. Tom Rayborn, known by most at SIUE as “Pastor Tom,” comes to campus most Wednesdays to preach his interpretation of Christianity. Some campus community members believe Rayborn’s messages contain hate speech and therefore gather every Wednesday to protest Rayborn being on campus. Rayborn allegedly called a transgender student a “demon,” and his messages frequently include talk of hell. Chancellor Randy Pembrook said he met with Gay-Straight Alliance leaders the week before the town hall meeting and afterward decided to use the meeting to ask the campus community for suggestions on what changes students, faculty and staff would like to see implemented. The meeting was broken up into small-group discussions, with tables consisting of a mix of students, faculty,
staff and administrators. There were also copies of the university’s Expressive Action Policy and a First Amendment pamphlet on each table. While the protests originated as a silent protest from some GSA members, other people have begun protesting as well. Last week, some protesters shouted “Your hate is not welcome here” at Rayborn, seemingly in an attempt to be louder than him. Associate Director of Residence Life Rex Jackson said that as a gay man, he’s had rhetoric like Rayborn’s directed at him before, and he felt dealing with issues like this is an unfortunate part of growing up. “I’d rather [students] experience this here where we can have this conversation,” Jackson said. Jackson also said Rayborn being on campus gives students the ability to learn how to protest and voice their opinions in a more controlled environment so that they’re prepared to do so after they leave college. Since SIUE is a public university, it must comply with the First Amendment. In turn, university administrators cannot make restrictions about expression on campus based on the speakers’ content. As long as a speaker is not inciting vi-
olence or fitting the legal definition of harassment, hate speech is usually covered under the First Amendment. Because of that, Pembrook said the SIUE is constrained in the actions it can take. “We’re under some constraints, and I think that’s a hard thing to understand, particularly when you’re upset by things,” Pembrook said. Vice Chancellor for Administration Rich Walker said there was value in allowing open expression on campus, even if that came in the form of hate speech. “It can either solidify your own beliefs — and there are students and faculty who are very supportive of the preacher on the Quad and his message. It also gives you the option to debate or challenge your own beliefs, so you can either confirm your own beliefs, challenge them and say ‘No, I really don’t believe that’ or give you the opportunity to do a peaceful counter-protest,” Walker said. “I’m all for all of those things. But the moment we start restricting what people have to say — censoring, whether it’s speech, or lyrics, or books — it’s the same result. That’s a very dangerous path to go down, in my opinion.” see TOWN HALL on page 2
Professors urge students to examine their implicit biases JENNIFER GOECKNER lifestyles editor
One professor’s recent experience with prejudice has sparked a campus-wide discussion among SIUE faculty about the implicit biases of students. Timothy Lewis, an African-American political science professor, said he has witnessed implicit biases in his students firsthand. Even so, he said that most of his experiences with students have been positive. “The majority of my experiences with students are good, but there are those occasions where you have incidents that you are convinced, based on life circumstances and the fact that I research race and racism @thealestle
in my expertise, that you’re experiencing some manifestation of racism,” Lewis said. “It might not be overt racism, it may be something like an implicit bias, but you know that you’re experiencing that.” Lewis said he has experienced racism and discrimination his entire life, so he knows what that looks like and can recognize it. “Usually people that have experienced racism or homophobia or xenophobia have years of that experience, and so they may not in every instance be able to point to a scientific methodology by which they arrived at a conclusion, but by years of experience, you know what you’re experiencing,” Lewis said. Lewis said he has recently experienced @thealestle
such an instance when a group of his students expressed fearing or being intimidated by him. At first, Lewis said he could not understand why his students would view him this way — he is shorter and weighs less than the average man. Lewis said he then began to suspect this perception of him may be related to his race. “I began in the next class asking them ‘How many of you in grade school or your college have ever had a black instructor before?’” Lewis said. “And I think three of the 37 [students in the class] had a black instructor before. [For] the majority of the class, I was their first black instructor.” see BIAS on page 8 The Alestle
A computer lab in Bluff Hall is getting a fresh coat of paint to open as an esports arena next semester for recreational and competitive use by the esports club. The room will feature 12 gaming computers and gaming chairs along with two TVs and gaming consoles. While it is still unknown what gaming consoles are being put in with the TVs, senior CMIS student Luke Sandidge, of Auburn, Illinois, a member of esports club, said the computers will have NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 graphics cards and Intel Core i5-8400 processors. The Alestle previously reported the arena was originally planned to be built near Cougar Lanes in the MUC, but according to director of campus recreation Keith Becherer it was always planned for Bluff. “The original concept from the innovation grant team was to have it here in Bluff Hall,” Becherer said. “The great thing was that the chancellor’s office and the innovation grant review team and a lot of other administrators see the value in this space.” According to Becherer, they considering the possibility of opening an arena in the MUC, but for now the Bluff arena is a good way to gauge interest. Becherer said he would like to eventually see an arena open in the MUC. “Based on what we’ve seen, based on what the club has accomplished, based on the fact that a lot of our perspective students and current students know about this, I think it’s going to be wildly successful,” Becherer said. The arena in Bluff will have most of what would be offered in a MUC arena, except for a place for audiences to watch. While there are plans to set up a small lounge area in the room, Becherer is promoting live streaming as the main way for audiences to view competitions. Students in Bluff are excited about the arena. Freshman computer science major Zach Fisher, of Cantrall, Illinois, believes it will bring students closer together. “I think it’s a really cool idea. I think it will get a lot more people involved as a community,” Fisher said. “I think it will be good for the whole campus too; anyone can go to it.” The opening of an arena would provide a large improvement for the esports club. According to the president of the esports club, senior computer science major Jordan Kramer, of O’Fallon, Illinois, many of the members have to meet in the MUC to play together, while other members have never met one another because they can only play from their residences. “Having this space here allows us all to be in one area, have that chemistry, and play together. In the MUC … It’s just not realistic for some of our other teams to do that,” Kramer said. An open house will be held for the arena from 2 to 4 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 16 to officially introduce the arena to Bluff Hall. JOHN MCGOWAN 650-3527 @john_alestle jmcgowan@alestlelive.com alestlelive.com