AWOL - Issue 023

CRITICAL. SUBVERSIVE. IRREPRESSIBLE. SPRING 2018 ISSUE 023

RETIRING INJUSTICE

AU’S INVOLVEMENT IN THE SERVICE WORKERS' PENSION PROBLEM

STRUGGLING AFTER THE STORM

HURRICANE MARIA'S AFFECT ON HIV/AIDS IN PUERTO RICO

TOXIC COMPETITION

EXPLAINING AU'S INTERNSHIP CULTURE

A NEGLECTED COMMUNITY

A LACK OF SUPPORT FOR TRANSGENDER PEOPLE FACING HOMELESSNESS

CRITICAL. SUBVERSIVE. IRREPRESSIBLE. SPRING 2018 ISSUE 023

Dear Readers,

MISSION AWOL magazine aims to continue pushing both ourselves and American University to be more critical of issues that deserve to be understood with nuance; to work subversively when dismantling barriers that suppress certain voices; and to love irrepressibly when it comes to serving our community. We ignite campus discussions on social, cultural and political issues. We want to make our campus more inquiring, egalitarian and socially engaged.

Our stories have an angle, which is different from having an agenda. Our reporting is impartial and fair, but our analysis is critical and argumentative.

We were independently founded by American University students in 2008. While we are still student-run, today we are housed under AU’s Student Media board. AWOL is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press and Generation Progress Voices Network. This publication has won awards at the National College Media Convention, and its writers have won awards from the Society for Professional Journalists and the College Media Association.

EDITORIAL EDITORS-IN-CHIEFS Rachel Falek, Evie Lacroix Ben Weiss Katya Podkovyroff Lewis Will Fowler Reina Dufore, Michael Karlis, Stephanie Lopez, Paloma Losada COPY EDITOR Savanna Strott WRITERS Alyssa Rotunno, Andrew Klabnik, Ayla Gurbuz, Blythe Collins, Karissa Waddick, Nicole Schaller, Taylor Sabol

MANAGING EDITOR PR DIRECTOR MULTIMEDIA DIRECTORS STAFF EDITORS

ART

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jenn Gaudio PHOTO EDITOR Melany Rochester DESIGN ASSISTANTS Nana Gongadze, Miranda Blum, Rorry Schnick COVER ILLUSTRATION Jenn Gaudio ILLUSTRATION Jacqueline Adams, Nicolla Etzion, Dan McCahon, Katia Rasch, Bex Warner

This semester, we set out to establish a sense of stability after a year and a half of reimagining both AWOL’s mission as a publication and its relationship with AU’s community. Because of this, we have turned inward in our storytelling, focusing a majority of our articles on campus issues. With writers and editors taking a more nuanced approach to critical campus stories, we had to ask ourselves: How do we question the actions of the student body and administration without crossing ethical lines, and how do we balance that moral responsibility with our desire to present ourselves well as journalists?

Attempting to answer these questions over the course of the semester, we found ourselves encountering trial and error. We have learned to be more precise in our language and particular in our fact-checking. We are grappling with how to hold accountable those who would abuse their power without alienating any of AU’s diverse communities, and without becoming intrusive and entitled. We have to make sure to remain true to AWOL’s mission of “envision[ing] a more egalitarian and socially conscious campus community” and to “bridge gaps and make connections between people of different religious and political backgrounds.”

Our shift in focus has created a renewed momentum among our staff where they are excited to investigate the institutions that define life at AU. Beyond the articles in this issue, our writers have taken a dedicated interest in uncovering how much power students truly hold. Specifically, our multimedia staff has explored hazing in Greek Life and the most recent Student Government election.

In last issue’s Letter from the Editor, we wrote that we would aim to “support the communities around us” and to “creat[e] a more diverse and strong-knit community.”

We undertook this by telling stories that impact a multitude of communities on campus.

We tackle the dearth of resources for mental health, the toxicity of our student body’s competitive nature and the different ways students and faculty advocate against injustice.

We are proud to present our 23rd issue, featuring an in-depth analysis of the pension plans of AU food service workers. This story challenges AU’s image as a progressive institution through the stories of 16 veteran employees who cannot retire after 35 years of service.

Our standard of analysis derives from a place of critical love, as we strive to do better by our communities.

We hope this issue makes you angry for all the right reasons.

Sincerely, Rachel Falek and Evie Lacroix

MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Georgia Bergin, Zach Vallese BACK COVER PHOTO Claire Osbourne

FIND US ONLINE WEBSITE ISSUU TWITTER FACEBOOK

www.awolau.org www.issuu.com/awol @awolAU www.facebook.com/awolAU

Want to join AWOL? Write to us: awolau@gmail.com

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3 STRUGGLING AFTER THE STORM HURRICANE MARIA'S AFFECT ON HIV/AIDS IN PUERTO RICO

TRANSFORMING THE WAY AU PERCEIVES MENTAL HEALTH

by Taylor Sabol What it will take to rebuild after the island's devistation

by Andrew Klabnik Mental Health Initiative tries to keep up with the demand for mental health services

6 PITCH IMPERFECT

WHERE ARE ALL THE WOMEN

by Alyssa Rotunno A look inside the audio industry’s gender disparity

CAMPUS LIFE PAGE 9

9 RETIRING INJUSTICE AU’S INVOLVEMENT IN SERVICE WORKERS’ PENSION PROBLEM

by Savanna Strott Retiring food service workers face an uncertain future

13 THE RIGHT TO PARTY

COULD SORORITY-HOSTED PARTIES REDUCE SEXUAL ASSAULT?

by Nicole Schaller Changing practice with alcohol may shift control to women, altering the college party scene

16 DIVESTING FROM

DISAGREEMENT

AU'S ENDOWMENT DEBACLE

by Alyla Gurbuz Digging into AU's ties to fossil fuels

29 PHOTO ESSAY: THE FEELING

by Claire Osbourne An artist's perspective on amxiety

19 WHEN YOU CAN'T GO HOME WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE YOUNG AND HOMELESS

HEALTH

PAGE 33

26 TAKING THE INITIATIVE

by Kim Szarmach How an AU student deals with homelessness

21 TOXIC COMPETITION EXPLAINING AU'S INTERNSHIP CULTURE

by Karissa Waddick The negative side effects of a community that values the internship experience.

33 A SILENT EPIDEMIC COPING WITH MENTAL ILLNESS IN COLLEGE

by Katya Podkovyroff Lewis Students suffering with mental illness turn to AU for help — but how helpful has AU really been?

38 A NEGLECTED COMMUNITY

THE LACK OF SUPPORT FOR TRANSGENDER PEOPLE FACING HOMELESSNESS

by Stephanie Lopez A disproportionate number of transgender individuals are homeless in D.C.

40 ILLUSTRATION: DESIRE

COMBATING SOCIETAL IDEALS OF LUST AND “DESIRE” OF WOMEN

by Jenn Gaudio

42 SHERRI WILLIAMS CREATING A NEW NARRATIVE

by Evie Lacroix Mentoring the next generation of black journalists

AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE MAGAZINE

Struggling After the Storm

Hurricane Maria's Affect on HIV/AIDS in Puerto Rico

In September 2017, life in Puerto Rico completely changed.

Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm with winds up to 155 miles per hour, devastated the island.

Story by Taylor Sabol // Art by Dan McCahon 3

POLITICS Sofía Pérez Semanaz’s family, residents of Puerto Rico, experienced the storm firsthand.

Pérez Semanaz, a junior at American University, was at school while her family endured the storm.

“Maria did cause a lot of disaster, but a lot of this disaster already existed … The storm pulled back the veil on all of the problems in Puerto Rico.”

“[During the storm] my mom was with my brother and they only had one mattress and jugs of water and food in the apartment,” Pérez Semanaz said. “After the hurricane, my mom only had access to water from 6:00 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., then from 12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. and then from 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m..”

unable to access their medication or even leave their homes due to fallen debris, flooding and lack of safe transportation. Many clinics were closed after the storm as well, according to AIDS United Program Manager Julio Fonseca.

The storm created a wide range of problems: food and water shortages, hospital and school closures and water-related disease outbreaks such as leptospirosis.

Fonseca emphasized how people living with HIV/AIDS have struggled with the aftermath of the storm, especially with serious and rare disease outbreaks like leptospirosis.

According to the advocacy organization World Vision, approximately 439,000 people in Puerto Rico remain without power as of March 2017. Residents have witnessed their communities destroyed, their streets filled with toxic, polluted waters and their homes damaged.

“[People with HIV] already have poor immune systems; the destruction and potential diseases from Maria only makes it worse,” Fonseca said.

After the storm, the island’s health care system remains in shambles, according to Pérez Semanaz.

Although the storm has passed, the damages are still present and affect the entire population of Puerto Rico, especially those living with HIV/AIDS. People in Puerto Rico living with HIV/AIDS were already vulnerable before the hurricane due to the lack of health resources to aid their illness and the territory’s declining economy.

“There was definitely drug shortages and shortages of medical supplies in Puerto Rico after both Hurricane Irma and Maria,” Pérez Semanaz said. “They didn’t have enough IV fluids and hospitals use IV fluids for everything.”

According to AIDS United, Puerto Rico has the highest HIV death rate compared to other US states and territories. Additionally, the 20th Annual United States Conference on AIDS in September 2017 revealed that Puerto Rico is the location of 44 percent of all new HIV/ AIDS cases in the US states or territories. These statistics were calculated before Hurricane Maria.

The storm devastated the infrastructure of vital clinics and organizations that provide direct services to those living with HIV/AIDS. These services include HIV testing, vital medicine to prevent HIV from progressing to AIDS and both PREP and PEP shots, according to Fonseca.

clients were able to receive their medications thanks to Caridad, a local pharmacy business.

Our electricity comes and goes though.”

Those living outside of the capital of San Juan faced greater difficulty accessing medication and other care after the storm. Many organizations, such as the Permanent Assembly of People Infected and Affected with HIV/ AIDS in Puerto Rico (APPIA), prioritized relinking patients to their health care.

Ivette González who works for APPIA told the Washington Blade that many of the clients and people she works with still do not have electricity and water to this day. This makes it increasingly difficult to adhere to their medication regimen.

Hospitals were also severely damaged by the storms. Five months later, Ryder Memorial Hospital in Humacao, the region of the island that was hit the hardest Hurricane Maria, is running at 25 percent of its normal capacity.

The majority of the services offered are now only emergency or primary care services.

“The storm hit Ryder Memorial when it was a category 5 ... it was probably the hospital that suffered the most from the storm,” said Jaime Pla Cortes, executive director of Puerto Rico Community Network for Clinical Research on AIDS.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 22,409 people living with diagnosed HIV in Puerto Rico as of August 2017. These residents now face new obstacles in receiving proper care.

“Our clinics tried to provide the most quality services to people living with HIV, despite the Cortes explained that Ryder Memorial stigma here,” said Rosaura López-Fontánez, Hospital, which usually has 165 beds for Executive Director of Puerto Rico Community inpatient services, now has only 40 beds, which Network for Clinical Research on AIDS. “After are all full. the hurricane, we lost so many resources and did not have any funding to restore them.”

“Repairs may cost up to $24 million to fix this one hospital,” Cortes said. “Residents are The organization lost over $250,000 in having trouble getting access to the services equipment, medicine and other lost supplies they used to, especially on this side of the due to Hurricane Maria. island for people with HIV.”

Immediately after the hurricane, many people living with HIV/AIDS in Puerto Rico were

“We, fortunately, were able to reopen a week after the storm,” López-Fontánez said. “Our

According to FEMA response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico was a third of the FEMA

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AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE MAGAZINE

Puerto Rico’s

HIV/AIDS service organizations continue to seek donations and monetary contributions to help serve their clients and address repairs from the storm’s damage. These organizations include AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Bill’s Kitchen, Pacientes de Sida Pro Política Sana (AIDS Patients of Health Policy), and PR CoNCRA.

if the health and safety of Puerto Rican people was not an urgent concern after the storm,” Fonseca said.

Forty military helicopters were sent to the territory to provide food, water, and other basic necessities, Cortes said. Healthcare access was not a priority at this time.

In they days after the hurricane, Puerto Rican authorities requested $94 billion from Congress to cover the damages from the storm.

Congress approved only $5 billion in October 2017.

“We need to determine how to improve hospital infrastructure so they can withstand serious disasters like Maria. From this, we also need to find a way to secure permanent reimbursement from the federal government for this,”Cortes said.

Other organizations, such as AIDS United, have prompted change in other ways as the federal government did not urgently act.

“Our organization really wants to support those living with HIV/AIDS especially in a region that already lacks adequate health resources,” Fonseca said, “This crisis is so much more than safe sex...it’s about helping vulnerable people who just had their hometowns destroyed; it’s

about providing access to preventive medicine when the hospitals and clinics are shut down.”

AIDS Healthcare United collaborated with the San Juan local government to provide generators and other supplies to HIV/AIDS clinics and the homes of people living with HIV/AIDS. They also participated in relief efforts by providing food and drinking water to local residents.

Hurricane Maria exacerbated the existing HIV epidemic in Puerto Rico and other serious problems.

“Maria did cause a lot of disaster, but a lot of this disaster already existed.” López-Fontánez said.“The storm pulled back the veil on all of the problems in Puerto Rico.”

As Puerto Rico looks toward the future, residents hope for the best as they cope with the aftermath of natural disasters that have hit their home.

“I am positive that Puerto Rico will become stronger,” Pérez Semanaz said. “We just have to work with each other to make sure everyone has the access to healthcare they need.”

Taylor Sabol is a sophomore studying public health

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POLITICS

Pitch Imperfect

Where Are All The Women?

Story by Alyssa Rotunno // Art by Jenn Gaudio

W

hen Ana Centina walks into a freelancing job as a sound engineer, she is greeted with stares by colleagues who were expecting a man to do the job, rather than a woman.

Angel Dunkin, a WAM employee. “Trying to get women to jump in and learn it and master it is half the battle. They can do it, they just need to believe they can first.”

Centina works as the director for American University’s audio technology program and as a freelance live sound technician. Like other women in the audio industry, Centina is a rarity and said she is treated differently than her male coworkers.

One of the ways WAM tries to get more women involved in the industry is by hosting music production classes specifically for young girls during their formative years. However, WAM also provides classes for adult women who are looking to break into the industry.

“Being a female in a male-dominated industry is really tough,” Centina said. “When I would work at small venues, the owners would have no confidence in my work so they would hover all over me, constantly looking over my shoulder to make sure I could do it correctly. I think it was subconscious, but they never did that to the male technicians.”

Though WAM receives more young women students every year, some professors in the program see two to three women in a class of 20 men, Dunkin said.

Less than five percent of women were working in the audio industry back in 2000, estimated the Audio Engineering Society (AES), a professional association for those involved in the audio.

According to the Women’s Audio Mission (WAM), a nonprofit located in San Francisco that teaches women how to have audio careers, that statistics has stayed the same for the past 17 years.

“The biggest challenge is that women, in general, are socialized to be afraid of tech jobs and are told it’s something only men do,” said

In AU’s audio program, men still outnumber women. Currently, there are 8 female audio technology majors and 13 male audio technology majors, according to Centina. Moreover, there are 17 female audio production majors and 45 male audio production majors. In the graduate program, there are 12 female students and 22 male graduate students.

This trend is happening at universities across the country.

According to AES, at the Recording Engineers Institute in New York, Male students outnumber female students 5-to-1. The University of Colorado’s Recording Arts Program received only 45 female applications compared to the 170 male applications.

“Audio is a very heavily apprenticeships based industry and I think a lot of power comes from that, but now that there are all of these universities popping up where they’re training you in a professional way how to do audio, so you don’t actually have to put up with these annoying people anymore,” said Alexandria Wood, a full-time live sound freelancer and tour manager in New York City.

However, many of these types of audio education programs are relatively new.

While Centina was looking at schools over a decade ago, there were only three or four colleges with audio technology majors, which often required her to be a full-time musician as well. Now, these majors are popping up in schools across the country.

“Girls don’t always know about engineering unless they have a cousin or a brother who goes to the studio. That’s just the thing,” said Alexis Sullivan, a live sound technician in D.C. “Nobody was going to teach me in the real world. I personally know that, I’ve learned that and… I had to teach myself, so I went to school.”

Due to this, the disparity in the classroom is decreasing, according to Centina.

Over the last ten years at AU, the number of women enrolled in an undergraduate audio program increased four hundred percent from four to 20 women.

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AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE MAGAZINE

GRADUATE STUDENTS

AUDIO PRODUCTION

AUDIO TECH

“It’s a weird industry because to me, as a freelancer, I don’t have an HR Department,” Wood said. “So if somebody treats me badly, I either just have to deal with it or quit. And I have to be okay with that. It’s really frustrating and you also miss out on a lot of opportunities.”

“When I was an undergrad at AU, I was Sheryl Crow were all nominees, no woman has the only female in my year for a long time. I yet to take the award home. convinced my friend to join and we were the only two girls out of 35 students,” Centina said. Wood believes that women face these issues “We have more females in the program now and cannot get ahead due to the industry than we did students in general back in my day. being so heavily freelance-based and “sexist in It’s a great improvement, but there’s still a long nature.” way to go.”

“It’s a weird industry because to me, as a freelancer, I don’t have an HR Department,” Though the education sector is improving, Wood said. “So if somebody treats me badly, it may not necessarily reflect the large-scale I either just have to deal with it or quit. disparity within the industry.

And I have to be okay with that. It’s really frustrating and you also miss out on a lot of In its 40-year history, only six women have opportunities.” received nominations for the GRAMMY’s Producer of the Year award. Though musical Live sound technicians spend their nights in icons such as Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson and music venues where people are drinking and

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AUDIO MINOR

partying. This has lead to a handful of tough situations, Wood said explaining her work environment.

“The lines are more blurred because you’re in this environment of people drinking and going out,” Wood said.“Sometimes coworkers have talked to me very casually about their sex lives in a way that I later found out they didn’t speak to other peers. It’s hard to determine whether it was just because I work in a more of a casual environment or if it was because I’m a girl and they’re trying to sleep with me.”

Centina experienced inappropriate behavior from her peers as well and believes that, along with discouragement, it is what leads to a lack of women in audio careers outside of college.

“The industry doesn’t necessarily reflect university program enrollment for a number of reasons,” Centina said. “When you’re young, you’re more vulnerable and it’s easy to get discouraged. Even if you get good grades and know what you’re doing, it’s easy for girls to switch industries and give up because their male bosses yelled at them and they have no female colleagues to turn to or look up to.”

POLITICS

Organizations such as ProjectHERA, a nonprofit to benefit girls in the music industry in the DMV area, seek to end this issue by creating a support group for women in the industry.

“We provide an outlet for women to connect,” said Cathy DiToro, the founder of the nonprofit. “We try to host events once a month where we can all get together and see we’re not alone, spread awareness and support each other during the rough patches. It’s pretty powerful to have that connection with other women who have gone through what you’re going through.”

ProjectHERA also has a Facebook page, named ProjectHERA’s Music Room, where its members can share articles and resources as well as seek advice from more experienced women. This type of mentorship is something Lauren Migaki, an audio journalist at NPR, believes will help women in the audio industry in the future.

“It’s hard to find a female mentor, but it’s so important,” said Migaki. “I think women feel like they’re undeserving or unqualified of mentorship, but they are deserving. Everyone,

“When you’re young, you’re more vulnerable and it’s easy to get discouraged. Even if you get good grades and know what you’re doing, it’s easy for girls to switch industries and give up because their male bosses yelled at them and they have no female colleagues to turn to or look up to.” especially women, needs someone to look up to and feel comfortable talking to about their career with in order to grow.”

One way everybody can help lessen the disparity is by encouraging and speaking up for women in the workplace, said Migaki.

“It is so important, for men and women, to amplify other women’s voices at meetings,” Migaki said. “There’s this trend for young women to be railroaded or interrupted or ignored and we need to do a better job of letting those voices be amplified and supporting those voices rather than shutting them down.”

Though the audio industry has come a long way, Centina still thinks there is a long way to go.

“I don’t want to be called a female audio engineer, I want to be called an audio engineer,” Centina said. “Once we get there, then men and women will be truly equal.”

Sullivan, thinking towards the future and reflecting on her time in the industry has advice for girls looking to follow in her footsteps.

“We gotta put ourselves out there, you cannot be afraid of a no or getting your neck chopped off. You have to push as much as possible and set that standard for yourself and women to follow in your footsteps,” Sullivan said. “Stay hungry for it, hungrier than the boys.”

Alyssa Rotunno is a senior studying journalism and multimedia.

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AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE MAGAZINE

Retiring Injustice

Au’s Involvement in the Service Workers' Pension Problem Story by Savanna Strott // Art by Nicolla Etzion

A Terrace Dining Room television screen features Leila Williams, the longest working employee on American University’s campus. The screen says that after 51 years of working in TDR, Williams still loves “getting up every day to feed the students, and I love it when they call me ‘Ms. Leila!’ It’s also about time for me to retire!”

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CAMPUS LIFE What is keeping Williams from retiring isn’t her love for her job — she can’t afford it.

AARP recommends that retirees, on average, have 70-80 percent of their yearly income per expected year of retirement saved. AU math and statistics professor Mary Gray suggests that Williams would need to have $23,760 per expected year of retirement saved. She got this number by doubling the national poverty line.

Williams currently has an estimated $16,000 in her pension account.

The normal retirement age of her generation is 65 according to the Social Security Administration. Williams is 77.

Williams isn’t the only service worker with a pension problem. Fifteen other food service workers are 65 or older with 35 years or more experience working on campus. These employees cannot retire because they feel that their pensions are too small to survive on.

“To make ends meet, we have to keep working,” said Christine Hamlett-Williams, one of those workers. She’s been working at AU in the dining program for just over 35 years.

The 16 workers cannot retire because they were not receiving money in their pension fund from 1981 to 2001, according to HamlettWilliams. These 20 years span the time AU contracted the Marriott Corporation to manage all food services on campus.

“We did not realize ... that we weren’t gonna have any pension, and, from what I can understand, the university has been blaming Marriott, I guess. They’re the one that came in [1981] … and that’s when it all switched out,” Hamlett-Williams said.

Food service workers receive a pension through their current employer, Aramark, but the 20 years without pension from Marriott are preventing these 16 workers from retiring, Hamlett-Williams said. Even though AU does not directly employ these food service workers, workers and advocates like Gray want AU to get involved with the issue.

AU started contracting companies to manage dining on campus in 1955, according to

Linda Argo, assistant vice president of External Relations & Auxiliary Services at AU. That put the service workers and their benefits under the management of contracted companies.

Hamlett-Williams and the other workers thought Marriott had a pension plan. In a pension plan, employers contribute to a retirement account for employees as they work over the years. For the contract between Marriott and the union of service workers, Hamlett-Williams says no pensions were given to employees from 1981-2001.

The archived contracts between Marriott and the food service workers are currently held

by Marriott and are not available for public viewing, according to an operator at the Marriott Corporation headquarters. After over 12 calls made to Marriott and multiple voicemails left, including with Leeny Oberg, chief financial officer, Marriott declined to comment by the time of publication. One contract from 1990-1993, obtained from advocate Jim McCabe, shows that Marriot made no contributions to the food service employees’ pensions.

Unite Here Local 25, the union that represented the AU food service workers in their contract negotiations with Marriott in the ‘80s, declined to comment by the time of publication.

Employees started receiving money into their pension funds again in 2001 when AU contracted Bon Appetit to take over dining services, according to Hamlett-Williams.

Bon Appetit did not respond to requests for confirmation by time of publication.

In 2013, AU signed with Aramark to cover dining services. Aramark contributes $1.05 an hour, not exceeding 40 hours, to the pensions of employees who work 20 or more hours a week, according to the 2016-2019 contract between Aramark and the current union, Unite Here Local 23. A raise to $1.20 an hour will happen in May of 2019, the contract says.

“Now, 36 years here later, I’m realizing that there’s been almost 20 years with nothing going into the pension,” Hamlett-Williams said. “We thought we had something until we needed to use it. And that’s when we found out.”

Eventually, the issue of food service workers’ pensions reached McCabe. While managing Blackboard at AU, McCabe heard about the issue from a former AU food service employee, the late Nancy Bryant-Keys, in the mid-2000s.

He notified other faculty about the situation.

Professors Christopher Simpson and Gray started helping McCabe spread the word and trying to get AU involved in the issue. They noted the paradox between AU’s commitment to social justice and the mistreatment of workers happening right on campus.

“I think we owe these 16 people,” Gray said. “I think the university has a moral or ethical responsibility.”

In order to reach the suggested $23,760, Gray proposes that AU donates about $1,200 every month to each of these, making the collective monthly cost for AU just under $20,000.

This is about 0.0004 percent of AU’s current monthly budget of $56 million for fiscal year 2018.

“You can come up with $20,000 a month to get these 16 people to retirement,” McCabe said. He has tried to reach out to several AU administrators to talk to them about the issue, but he says most don’t return his phone calls.

AU’s involvement in the issue is limited. “Since the University has contracted for food service operations in the 1950s, we have not been a part of any union-employer negotiations, nor are we privy to them,” Argo said.

“We’re not even allowed to be involved,” Vincent Harkins, assistant vice president of Facilities Management, said of the collective bargaining between the service workers’ union and the contracted company.

Harkins says he, and AU, can see the contract only after it has been finalized.

In October of 2015, McCabe passed out pamphlets in TDR advocating for better treatment and benefits of service workers. In alignment with a campus policy that outsiders cannot pass out literature at the private university, McCabe, no longer an employee, was arrested.

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AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE MAGAZINE His arrest caused a large reaction from students and faculty on campus.

The Student Worker Alliance (SWA), a student club on campus said their numbers and participation in events skyrocketed after the arrest. The faculty senate produced a resolution supporting better working conditions, wages, and benefits for service workers including “appropriate remediation for retirement benefits to those workers, some with decades of service to American University.”

Now, just a little over two years later, the issue is no longer at the forefront of campus advocacy efforts. SWA only has a handful of active members, and the faculty senate has not mentioned the issue since.

McCabe, Simpson, and Gray all spoke about the importance of student involvement in the issue, but acknowledged their limitations. Students move on and graduate, but the issue remains. They noted that faculty involvement is crucial in addressing the problem.

“To make ends meet, we have to keep working” “[We need to] get faculty to physically show unhappiness with this,” McCabe said. “Like literally show some physical disapproval for the way the university is treating these service workers.”

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"We’re not asking for a lot. But nobody seems to care or want to listen,” Hamlett-Williams added.

“Marriott is long gone, but we’re still here.”

“"""""""""""""

Wages have been another point of concern for workers and advocates. According to Anthony Randolph, a worker representative on the advisory board of Local 23, no discussion about changes in wage has taken place.

Workers like Williams currently making above the minimum wage are not sure if Aramark will increase their wage as the minimum wage increases to $15 in 2020.

“They already consider we’re making too much now,” Randolph said. In conversations with Aramark representatives, Randolph said he was told that D.C. employees already make much more than many of their other employees in other states.

When asked how wages will change, Karen Cutler, Aramark’s VP of Communications and Public Affairs, said that wages will be negotiated with the union. “Aramark is committed to treating our associates fairly, honestly and with respect,” Cutler said.

Wages are also a factor in why the 16 workers cannot retire. Because social security comes from a percentage of the hourly wage, these workers who received the minimum wage or slightly above for most of their time at AU also have little money to support them through social security, according to McCabe.

Year-long employment for AU food service workers depends on the year, Williams said.

Most AU food service workers only work about nine months out of the year. Considering this and their current pension plan, McCabe estimates that their retirement pension is about six percent of their salary and that full-time university staff and faculty pensions are about 10 percent of their salary.

“Why are the lowest paid employees getting pensions 2/3 [as much as] everybody else?”

McCabe said.

The answer depends on if service workers are AU workers. Because they are employed under contracted companies, AU does not oversee these workers. Advocates, however, want AU to help these service workers receive benefits similar to that of its own employees.

“AU insists that they are not AU workers. To me, it’s false on its face, the claim that these aren’t AU workers,” Simpson said. “It’s a dodge used by the administration to avoid coming to grips with the administration’s role in cheating these workers.”

Food service workers would also like to see their benefits become more like those of AU employees, according to Randolph.

“We should have the same benefits as the university workers have, that’s including the pension,” Randolph said.

One university employee benefit that has been extended to service workers in recent years is free tuition for their dependents accepted to AU. Workers and advocates are trying to have AU allow service workers to take classes for free like other AU employees, a benefit the faculty senate asked the administration to consider in their resolution following McCabe’s arrest.

Although she wouldn’t take advantage of the benefit, Hamlett-Williams wants service workers to get tuition remission.

take courses and, you know, be able to stretch out from this,” Hamlett-Williams said.

According to Argo, a program is being created that would allow contract workers to take courses for free but without earning credit.

The program is planned to start in fall 2018.

Yet no matter the change in benefits or wages that come in the future, 16 workers say they can’t retire.

“The university should respect, not only me, but all of us older workers that hung in here,” Hamlett-Williams said.

Some of these older workers feel like they’re getting pushed out because of their age, according to Randolph. He says this pressure comes in the form of schedule, hour, and location changes by the Aramark as well as leaving workers alone in positions that usually are multi-staffed.

“I feel like I done spent 51 years here, let me stay here until I get ready to retire. If I had the money, I would be gone,” Williams said.

“Don’t just push me out.”

For Hamlett-Williams, there is a sense of abandonment.

“We’re not asking for a lot. But nobody seems to care or want to listen,” Hamlett-Williams added. “Marriott is long gone, but we’re still here.”

Savanna Strott is a freshman studying journalism and creative writing.

“I don’t want to see this generation that’s here now going like this. Some of them do want to

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AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE MAGAZINE

The Right to Party

Could Sorority-Hosted Parties Reduce Sexual Assault?

Story by Nicole Schaller // Art by Jenn Gaudio

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aria Szczesny and her friend were having a good time while attending a party hosted by a fraternity at the University of Maryland. Suddenly, a man tried to pin her against the wall.

Her friend stepped in front of the guy and made him leave.

“I hadn’t even seen him in my life before, and he decided that’s just what he was going to do that day,” Szczesny said.

For college women, the fraternity party atmosphere can often be unsafe. Szczesny, a senior and sorority sister at the University of

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Maryland, has felt uncomfortable at fraternity parties on multiple occasions.

“I actually stopped going to [fraternity parties] ” Szczesny said. “Any woman who’s gone to a fraternity party or any other parties happening on campus, that’s going to happen to the majority of them, unfortunately.”

“Not everyone in a fraternity is a rapist, but they are in an environment that’s fertile for toxic masculinity, which is one root cause of rape culture,” said Maya Vizvary, the sexual assault prevention coordinator at American University.

A solution that has floated around for reducing One in five women will be sexually assaulted in sexual assault is for sororities to host parties college, according to a 2014 study by the United instead of fraternities. Vizvary explained that States Department of Justice. On top of that, a the change in power dynamics on who is controlling the parties could affect the college 2007 study by the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice finds that fraternity men party landscape. are three times more likely to commit rape.

CAMPUS LIFE “I think [sorority-led parties] would be better because there’s more control than if going to a frat party,” Vizvary said.

Control of a party would mean women would decide everything — from theme, to what alcohol is being served, to who is invited.

“Fraternities have more potential to manipulate the situation or control what’s happening,” Vizvary said. “I think if sororities were having parties, and inviting who they wanted to come that just puts a lot more control in their hands.”

While some advocate for sorority lead parties, currently all national sororities are not allowed to hold parties with alcohol at their residences.

“I think from a feminist point of view it kind of sucks that sororities have bylaws that say you can’t host parties with alcohol or you have to have very strict rules, and frats just don’t have that,” Szczesny said.

Separate organizations lead fraternities and sororities. The North American Interfraternity Conference is the umbrella organization for 66 national fraternities, and 26 national sororities belong to the National Panhellenic Conference.

The organizations take different approaches to how they lead their groups.

The NIC allows the fraternities to make decisions individually chapter by chapter. On the other hand, the sororities of the National Panhellenic Conference must adhere to standardized guidelines.

“The National Panhellenic Conference is very much a guiding organization that creates policies, and a lot of the decision making,” said Kathleen Tucker, the coordinator of fraternity and sorority life at AU. It is a lot more structured.”

If one sorority wanted to approve parties with alcohol, all 25 other sororities would have to unanimously agree to allow parties with alcohol in their chapters as well.

In a statement by Dani Weatherford, the Executive Director of the National Panhellenic Conference, the reason for this ban on parties and alcohol at sorority houses boils down to centering sororities on empowering women and to provide leadership opportunities.

“Fraternities have more potential to manipulate the situation or control what’s happening,” Vizvary said. “I think if sororities were having parties, and inviting who they wanted to come that just puts a lot more control in their hands.”

“Of course, our organizations are also social by their very nature and chapters do, in fact, host social functions,” Weatherford said. “The key difference – particularly at a time when student safety is particularly top of mind – is that our members don’t host them in their chapter facilities.

If sororities want to throw events where alcohol is served, Weatherford encouraged them to host these events at third-party venues.

Yet, the idea for sororities to host parties remains a possible solution in creating safer atmospheres for college women.

“Some arguments I’ve seen before is women would be able to regulate their houses better,” said Tucker on having sorority house parties.

“That they would be able to lock room doors, that they would be able to control access points, and that they would feel safer in the space that they are in.”

A possible downside for parties held at sorority houses would be the increase in insurance costs for chapters, as well as an increase in liability.

Fraternities on average pay higher dues to cover the insurance for allowing alcohol.

Resistance against sorority-led parties among members themselves source these as the main reasons for not wanting parties.

Lily Brown, the president of the Panhellenic Council at AU and member of Phi Sigma

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AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE MAGAZINE

DESPITE THE MANY VOCAL sorority sisters coming forward and saying they do not want alcohol parties, when conducting an anonymous survey among

112 WOMEN SORORITY

from multiple chapters at four geographically different universities, a different message came out.

When asked if they would like if sororities could host more parties publicly, almost 85 percent current sorority members said “yes”. In addition, around 92 percent thought sorority-led parties would affect the current party scene at their university, and almost 80 percent said they believed sorority-led parties would reduce sexual assault.

The discrepancy between statements from voluntary sorority members and the anonymous survey could be attributed to sorority members feeling the need to represent their sorority chapter, instead of their individual beliefs. One sorority member after participating in the survey shared these sentiments.

“When things are anonymous, I can openly express my personal opinion. When my name is attached, I represent the chapter as a whole.”

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Sigma, expressed why she would not want sororities holding parties with alcohol.

“I don’t really care all that much about throwing parties,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of legal risk when throwing parties.”

Due to the constraints of the National Panhellenic regulations and the concerns in the increase of parties with alcohol consumption, Gracen Blackwell, a sister of the Kappa Delta Chapter at UCLA, does not believe that sorority-led parties would be feasible. However, she did note that she believes sorority-led parties could better monitor the prevention of sexual assault.

Other sorority members share similar thoughts.

Rachel Fariello, a junior and member of Florida State University’s Pi Beta Phi, does not want to take on the responsibility of holding parties. Currently, Florida State has suspended “[The] vast majority of sexual assault in terms all Greek life after a Pi Kappa Phi fraternity of Greek life is when [women are] being led pledge died of alcohol poisoning at a fraternity upstairs at a frat house,” Blackwell said. “I party. think frats are more likely to be like ‘yeah you go bro!’ Whereas if I saw one of my sisters “We shouldn’t have big parties because it walking upstairs with a boy, if we were having keeps [sororities] on the elegant side,” Fariello a party here, I think me, and my fellow said. “It keeps us out of trouble if we don’t officers would be more likely to say, ‘hey have parties. We still hold functions and have what’s going on? What are you doing? Do you philanthropic events.” feel comfortable doing this?’”

Szczesny does not think sororities holding parties would decrease the chance of sexual assault.

“I think it changes who’s providing the alcohol and providing the venue,” Szczesny said.

“You’re just providing another outlet for people to drink.”

Brown and Fariello both pointed out that fraternity houses are better suited for alcohol hosted events. Alumni invest in many of the sorority houses that are decorated with quality furniture and design. Taylor Schnaars, a former member of Kappa Kappa Gamma at the University of Pittsburgh, noted the differences.

“We have a fancy piano, a chef, a maid and nice carpeting,” Schnaars said. “Whereas the frat houses have bare cement walls, no furniture and open rooms. They’re made for parties”

Blackwell, with other sorority leaders at UCLA’s campus, took it upon themselves to change the fraternity party scene on their campus. They demanded the fraternities to implement third-party security at all their parties, have third-party bartenders, as well as each fraternity having a certain number of sober fraternity officers supervising. The fraternities agreed to all their requests.

“The Panhellenic Council refused to hold any more socials with fraternities until something like [the agreed changes] happened, which is what we wanted,” Blackwell said. “We wanted them to take responsibility for what has been happening at their houses. I think it’ll help out a lot.”

Nicole Schaller is a senior studying psychology and journalism.

CAMPUS LIFE

Divesting from Disagreement AU's Endowment Debacle Story by Ayla Gurbuz // Art by Nana Gongadze

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he polar ice caps are melting. Earth’s temperature is increasing. Wildfires are raging. For environmental activists at American University, one way to curb climate change is for AU to divest from fossil fuels.

Divestment is a movement that focuses on the removal of money from the oil and gas industry, whether that be in stocks or other forms of investment.

“It’s getting right at the root of the matter,” said Gracie Brett, a junior in the School of Public Affairs and member of Fossil Free AU (FFAU).

“Divestment is a strong act against the [oil and gas] industry and it would set such a ripple effect.”

FFAU is a student-led organization on campus which seeks to halt all fossil fuel industry investments from the endowment while freezing future fossil fuel investments.

In control of the decision to divest is the Board of Trustees. This is the governing body of AU that makes all decisions on the endowment.

There are 27 members and one student trusteeelect. Of these 27 members, there are four who do not possess voting power, including President Sylvia Burwell and the current Student Trustee, and President-Elect of Student Government, Valentina Fernandez.

The campaign for divestment lead by Fossil Free started in December of 2012. At the

time, students campaigned for two years to get the Board of Trustees to discuss divestment at a board meeting. In November of 2014, the Board released a memo stating that the University would not divest. Since then, the Board has not publicly released any statement on divestment.

Burwell's new tenure as president of AU renewed the divestment debate.

In 2013, FFAU published a student referendum, in which 79.1 percent of the student body who voted supported the Board of Trustees divesting from fossil fuels.

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AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE MAGAZINE In response to this referendum, a group of faculty, and three students were formed to make the Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing in 2013. The group facilitated discussion with Cambridge Associates, who advise the Board of Trustees on endowment matters.

The Committee was tasked with reviewing the students’ divestment proposal. After researching the proposal and what it would mean for AU, the Committee provided their recommendation to the Board.

“The [Committee’s] recommendation was for a sort of thoughtful, careful divestment strategy,” said Daniel Fiorino, a professor in the School of Public Affairs and a member of the committee.

In November of 2014, the Board presented a campus-wide memo outlining its decision based off of the committee's recommendation. They decided to not divest from fossil fuels.

Board's primary responsibility is to fulfill its fiduciary duty to the university.”

According to the memo, divestment would double its annual management fees from $1.1 million to $2.2 million. Four percent of the $558.1 million endowment is tied to fossil fuels.

In an email statement made to AWOL, Mark Story, AU’s director of strategic communications, said that AU does not directly invest in fossil fuels. This means that AU does not have any direct investments in fossil fuel companies.

Investments are tied into commingled funds.

These are assets from several accounts mixed together. Because they are entwined, the board cannot cherry pick what they do and do not want to invest in.

“Recommendations from the campus community have inspired vigorous discussions and prompted the board to look at meaningful ways to remain true to AU's values and support of green initiatives without jeopardizing the board's fiduciary responsibilities,” the memo said. “The divestment movement has highlighted the challenges of global warming as an issue requiring serious thought and ongoing action at AU.” Fernandez held similar beliefs and said that while she agrees with divestment as a whole, it poses many financial risks to students.

“I think it's a really nuanced complex problem and like I'm open to having those conversations but I think me saying ‘let's support, let's divest,’ is very risky,” Fernandez said.

“It’s our [students’] responsibility to use our power to direct [The Board of Trustees] into making choices that are better for communities now and in the future,” said Klaus.

“The Board has thoroughly reviewed fossil free investment as part of a campus-wide effort that involved public discussion, data analysis and work done by a team of faculty, staff, students, alumni and trustees,” said Jack Cassell, Chairman of the Board, in an email statement made to AWOL. “The outcome of those discussions (2014) defined our current policy – that divestment is not an option the Board can take to express a position on climate change.”

One of the main points of the memo was that true divestment from fossil fuels posed too much of a financial risk to donors and the endowment.

“These donors have relied on the Board's fiduciary stewardship to generate the maximum, risk-adjusted return to support the scholarships, fellowships, professorships, construction and other purposes for which the funds were given, regardless of the personal views of board members on climate change or other issues,” said Jeffrey Sine, former Chair of the Board of Trustees in the memo. “The

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Instead of divestment, the Board decided to start the Green Investment Fund to offset the effects of fossil fuel investment. The Green Investment Fund is an investment portfolio that is dedicated to investing in stocks that are not connected to the fossil fuel industry. This fund, now called the Fossil Free Fund, is not tied to the endowment.

Professor Todd Eisenstadt, president of the Faculty Senate and a non-voting member of the Board of Trustees, was a member of the Board while the divestment conversations were being held after the 2013 referendum.

“They decided against [divestment] at that time... they did create a green fund portfolio, which is… still very small, to be honest, but they did make that move,” Eisenstadt said.

The Board of Trustees also directed Cambridge Associates to make sure that managers of the investments related to AU’s endowment evaluated the environmental practices and policies of a prospective investment.

However, the Advisory Committee has stated otherwise in reports on the issue of divestment, published on American University’s Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing webpage.

“Our analysis of AU’s mission and core purposes suggests that the Board would, indeed, fulfill its fiduciary responsibility by adopting a strategy of divestment,” the report read.

The question of profitability has been a burgeoning issue in the divestment movement.

According to The Guardian, as of 2015, companies and portfolios that had invested in the fossil fuel industry grew 62.2 percent in five years, while companies and portfolios without fossil fuel investments grew 69.9 percent in the same five years.

FFAU is seeking Burwell’s endorsement of divestment because they hope it could sway the Board of Trustees to change their stance from 2014.

In January, Brett, along with several other FFAU members, met with President Burwell

CAMPUS LIFE

“We all do this work because we love AU and we want AU to do better,”

and some of AU’s Board of Trustees to discuss divestment.

“Her main schtick was that divestment is one tool in the environmental advocate’s toolbox and that we should just pick another tool,” said Lauren Peressini, an FFAU member and a senior in the School of International Service.

FFAU members saw their meeting with Burwell as a unique opportunity to represent the student's voice, according to Peressini.

The Office of the President did not respond to several requests for comment on the relationship between Burwell and the Board of Trustees.

Hannah Klaus, FFAU member and a junior in the College of Arts and Science, as well as other environmental justice advocates, argued that AU is harming their students’ futures with their decision to keep investing in fossil fuels and that it’s the students who have no power to change this.

“I think they're very good about like, when they're having a student conversation, looking at the students in their room and [calling on them],” Fernandez said.

According to Cassell, the Board strongly affirms that AU must deal effectively and promptly to combat climate change. However, the Board does not have plans to change their divestment policy at this time.

Faculty members who are not on the Board have voiced their dissatisfaction with the administration’s lack of support for the divestment campaign.

“We applaud the commitment of AU students and the dedication shown to address the serious issue of climate change through a wide range of efforts,” Cassell said in an email statement made to AWOL.

“The Board of Trustees need to wake up and smell the coffee, and smell the sulfur and smell the pollution and smell the methane gas and smell all that the fossil fuel industry is emitting,” said Professor Barbara Wien, from the School of International Service.

The students and faculty of AU are not alone in this movement. Other institutions of higher learning, as well as businesses, religious institutions and cities, have also decided to divest.

As of now, Fernandez said she will not put the topic of divestment on the report that AUSG presidents give to the Board as president.

However, she is open to having conversations about such a nuanced problem.

“I wouldn't put divestment directly, but I'd be more than willing to work with Fossil Free AU to find ways to hold the university accountable and [on] their environmental justice goals,” Fernandez said.

Faculty supporters like Wien want to remind “Other universities like Syracuse have divested students that even though taking the initiative their holdings, and some localities and local “It’s our [students’] responsibility to use our on global issues like climate change seems governments have also started to do that,” power to direct [the Board of Trustees] into daunting, they have the potential to influence Eisenstadt said. “That may be in our future, I making choices that are better for communities would expect this issue to come up again.” change. now and in the future,” said Klaus.

“Be creative, think outside the box, get a grip on Recently, New York City committed to divest While Fernandez does not have voting your imagination and project the future,” Wien its pension funds from fossil fuels and is power, she consistently maintains a line said. “We can create a different future.” taking legal action against the industry. The of communication between the Board and city is suing BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, students.

ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell, claiming that these companies knew that burning fossil “A student trustee is there to remind trustees fuels would intensify global warming, according and engage trustees in how decisions impact to EcoWatch. students and communities,” Fernandez said.

FFAU seeks the same accountability for AU. Ayla Gurbuz is a sophomore studying Political Science To Fernandez, it would be beneficial if there and Environmental Studies. She is a member of were more students on the Board because they “We all do this work because we love AU and Fossil Free AU, but her thoughts do not represent the often seek the opinions of students like the we want AU to do better,” Peressini said. organization. student government president.

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AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE MAGAZINE

When you can’t go home

What it's Like to be Young and Homeless

Story by Kim Szarmach // Art by Jacqueline Adams

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CAMPUS LIFE

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here are approximately 1.3 million youth living without a home on any given night in the U.S., according to research by The National Runaway Switchboard. Three years ago, Jarrod Jeffcoat, a sophomore at American University, was one of those youth.

Jeffcoat’s parents divorced when he was three and he was placed under the custody of his mother, who soon remarried a physically and sexually abusive man. When Jeffcoat turned 12 and was legally allowed to choose which parent to live with, he moved in with his father and stepmother in New Mexico. His stepmother turned out to be physically abusive as well, and attacked Jeffcoat on multiple occasions.

“It was a really unsafe, volatile home in New Mexico,” he said. “My dad knew about all of this, but he never really did anything.”

After the second time that Jeffcoat’s stepmother assaulted him, his father divorced the woman and remarried six months later.

Soon after, Jeffcoat learned his father got a job offer in Alaska, but didn’t know how seriously he was considering it. After leaving for a weeklong school field trip, everything in his house had been packed up and his dad and step-mom were gone.

In a panic, he called his dad to find out what was going on. It turned out his father had accepted the new job in Alaska, and Jeffcoat was not welcome to come with him.

“I was like ‘so you’re abandoning me?’ and he said ‘yeah, in a way,’” Jeffcoat said.

At this time, Jeffcoat’s mother had fled her abusive husband and was experiencing homelessness in Virginia Beach, VA, where she soon passed away. With his mother gone, Jeffcoat decided to stay in his father’s house while it was on the market. Eventually, the house sold and the utilities shut off and Jeffcoat was forced to leave. He told his school what was going on and they connected him with Child Protective Services, who sent him to a foster care center.

“I didn’t have a support network, and that’s really damaging for someone’s mental health because I had to rely on myself to get through everything.”

Jeffcoat said he has a hard time talking about the foster care center because the conditions were bad.

“It seemed as if the kids there had been there for so long that they had wilted,” he said. “The system itself had destroyed these kids. They were my age but they were completely different than I am.”

from providing emergency and transitional housing to un-sheltered youth, Covenant House provides meals, free clothing, personal hygiene products, career pathways training and case management, according to Kyle Whitehead, Covenant House Washington’s Communications Manager.

Jeffcoat said he wishes he had access to services like case management when he was homeless.

Jeffcoat eventually left the foster care center and couchsurfed for the rest of his senior year. “It’s extremely isolating because you’re quite Now that he’s a student at AU, he has stable literally on your own,” he said. “I didn’t have a housing during the school year. But, during the support network, and that’s really damaging to winter and summer, he has to find a friend to someone’s mental health because I had to rely stay with or work enough to pay rent on his on myself to get through everything.” own.

Private institutions like Covenant House Jeffcoat, and many of the youth he lived within have saved millions of teens from living on the foster care center, belong to the 43 percent the streets. However, those working to end of youth who have experienced homelessness homelessness know that simply providing who reported experiencing abuse before shelter for one night isn’t enough to end becoming unhoused. homelessness. Jennifer DiNicola, the Crisis Services Manager at NRS, thinks part of the Lindsey Kahney is a Prevention Specialist solution is community organizations working for the National Runaway Safeline (NRS), a together to provide the best services they can. nonprofit that connects youth in crisis with the resources they need to stay safe and off the “We try to do out best to collaborate with other streets. She says that most of the youth who programs throughout the country because the call for help report unsafe and volatile home more we support each other the more we can lives. support the youth we work with,” she said.

“Family dynamics are the main reason most youth are calling,” Kahney said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s abuse going on, but emotional abuse and physical abuse are certainly up there as some of the issues that we talk about.”

Jason Sutton, the director of Career Pathways and Supportive Services at Covenant House, believes that providing education is another key way to help homeless youth find permanent housing solutions and have safe, healthy and productive futures.

NRS helps homeless youth find services in their area, whether it be a long-term shelter, transitional housing or even just a bed for the night. One such place that NRS would direct a young person experiencing homelessness is Covenant House.

“Part of our mission is providing education and career development opportunities to the kids who stay with us,” he said. “That way we can empower them to live their best lives beyond the shelter.”

Covenant House has shelters all across the nation, but in D.C. alone it houses over 100 homeless youth every night. Aside

Kim Szarmach is a senior studying journalism and political science.

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Toxic Competition Explaining AU's Internship Culture

Story by Karissa Waddick // Art by Claire Osbourne

American University shuttles rattle down Nebraska Avenue, covered in pictures of students dressed in sleek business attire adorned with statistics emphasizing “AU Student’s Know Success.”

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AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE MAGAZINE The shuttles, which are now infamous among students as the “Wonk Buses”, display facts about the University including one that reads, “90% of AU students have one or more internships before they graduate.”

To some students, these statistics act as motivators for success. But to others, like Annemarie Baldassarre, the buses emphasize a toxic cultural problem on campus that prioritizes off-campus internships over other valuable experiences.

Felder, who spent her undergraduate years at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, acknowledges that the fast-paced atmosphere of a metropolitan school like AU is not for everyone. An avid sports fan herself, she preferred the atmosphere of a college town where life revolved around Tar Heel basketball.

Still, Felder believes AU attracts students who are looking for the opportunities D.C.’s metropolitan area provides, and says the Admissions department specifically targets those individuals with their marketing campaigns.

Baldassarre, a senior studying business and entertainment, worries that AU students overstress about gaining professional experience in The District.

“I think that’s a large draw for students to come to American University,” Felder said.

“I feel like part of it is the pressure,” Baldassarre “We do specifically market the fact that about said. “At AU people are like ‘oh you need to be 90 percent of you will have some type of this specific person and have all this relevant internship experience before you graduate.” experience or else you’re never going to get hired’ when you get out of college, which just isn’t true. That’s a lie.”

D.C.’s vast opportunities drew Julia Remy, a sophomore on the pre-med track, to AU. According to a 2014 survey conducted by the National Association of Campus Activities “I think the location of AU and the resources (NACA), the percentage of AU students who that it has, and the access to the city, especially complete an internship before graduation is for science [attracts people to AU]. People very nearly 30 percent higher than the national much underestimate D.C. as a science city, ” average. said Julia Remy who is currently interning two and a half days a week at the Center for While Baldassarre believes that some of the Disease Control’s congressional office. pressure comes from students who are trying to climb the ladder into politics, she says that Remy, who hopes to become a physician's the administration plays a role in creating an assistant, sees her internship experiences in unhealthy campus atmosphere.

D.C. as vital to getting a decent job after graduation or getting into a medical school “I think admissions plays a role too, I remember program. when I toured here, you know, [having an internship] was a big thing,” Baldassarre said.

She is part of a growing population of students in the United States who are increasingly tying Andrea Felder, the assistant vice provost for their post-graduate success to internships. the Undergraduate Admissions Office of Enrollment believes that students attend AU While Remy admits that there are plenty of onfor the experiences the nation's capital has to campus activities in classes and clubs that are offer, including internships. important, she says internships open the gates

“At AU people are like ‘oh you need to be this specific person and have all this relevant experience or else you’re never going to get hired’ when you get out of college, which just isn’t true.

That’s a lie.”

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to opportunities that wouldn’t exist otherwise.

“One of my friends has interned for the past year at the National Institute of Health,” Remy said. “Now they are going to pay off the rest of her student loans and she will have a job for two years after graduation.”

For Brian Rowe, the Director of Experiential Education at the Career Center, the networking aspect of internships is one of the reasons they are important to a student’s experience.

“You are learning about your interest in the field, but you’re also meeting people who are doing it,” Rowe said. “Being known as a human being and not just a piece of paper is such an advantage in the job search.”

Rowe interacts with students looking for all types of experiences including internships, student teaching, practica and externships.

Though he says on-campus experiences, including research and student activities, are important, he believes internships are different because they allow students to apply what they are learning to real-life situations.

“The plus side of an internship is you’re going out and you’re using what you learn in academics […] and you’re applying it in a workplace,” Rowe said.

Hannah Campe, a junior majoring in public health and gender studies, said her experience interning for the National Women’s Health Network has provided countless opportunities she wouldn’t have otherwise.

“I am definitely very stressed out this semester, and I only have time to work, go to class and sleep, but I wouldn’t have it any other way because of the opportunities I’m getting,” Campe said.

Not all internships are created equally, according to the NACA’s 2014 survey.

While nearly half of internships are unpaid, the survey found that students who had an unpaid internship were no more likely to get a job before graduation than students who had not partaken in an internship.

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© Cuneyt Dill & The Eagle However, students who had taken a paid internship were significantly more likely to have received a job offer before graduation.

“If I’m paying someone I’m investing in them, so I think employers take it more seriously,” Rowe said.

Rowe cites other concerns with unpaid internships. When internships are unpaid, Rowe said they tend to exclude applicants that can’t afford to take a job with no pay.

“Some students who come from affluent backgrounds are privileged enough to be able to say, ‘my family is able to pay my rent all summer, give me money to buy food and clothes’,” Rowe said. “Some students need to put food on the table and pay for rent.”

Where they can, the Career Center tries to encourage employers to pay their interns at least minimum wage, according to Rowe.

“You have to pay for nice work clothes. Luckily our transportation is free but it’s really hard not getting any compensation for it,” Remy said. “Obviously I would have wanted a paid “I put it in terms of how it would benefit internship, but it’s also the CDC. Other than them. If you pay them, you are going to get an the Senate, it’s really impossible to get any paid applicant pool that is more diverse,” Rowe said. government internship.”

Not all companies are able to pay, though.

Remy wanted to experience working for a government agency that dealt with health care policy, but the internship didn’t pay.

Every other semester, Remy has held a paying job but decided the CDC experience would be worth it. She assumed she had enough in her savings to take on the financial burden of an unpaid internship, and since says it has been difficult.

Eric Hershberg, the director at the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies and a professor in AU’s Department of Government, wonders if growing student loan debt and an increased feeling of pressure to get a job directly after graduation are responsible for the rise in the number of students interning.

According to a 2014 NACA Study, 52 percent of college students had an internship in 2007 compared to the 64 percent of college students who had an internship in 2014. At the same time, tuition prices at 4-year private AWOL » SPRING 2018

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AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE MAGAZINE

universities surged nearly 15 percent from $27,520 to $31,570.

“Unpaid internships are presented as great opportunities, but a lot of the time it’s someone who doesn’t want to pay for an employee,” said Hershberg, who insists on paying all of the interns in his department.

Despite the downsides of unpaid internships, according to the NACA 2014 survey, it is “virtually indisputable” that internships are “positively correlated with an improved chance of getting a full-time job offer.”

Generally, Rowe agrees, but he warns not to get too obsessed with internships. To him, there are other experiences that are valuable.

“I often have to tell students to reign it in a little bit,” Rowe said. “As director of experiential education, I am not advocating for students to go out and do eight internships in four years. That’s too many. You know, I want you to do other things as well.”

Rowe acknowledged that, many times, internships at smaller companies provide students with a greater experience.

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“It may be a smaller organization doing, say international development work or a smaller think tank,” Rowe said. “In those organizations, the intern does a broader amount of work because they have to.”

Others, like Hershberg, believe that the emphasis students put on all internships may become detrimental to their education.

“I worry students are too busy to take advantage of the academic offers the University has,” Hershberg said. “All the lectures and movie showings, they could be missing out on those experiences too. I think students are stretched too thin because of the internship culture.”

Some students, like sophomore Hallie Angelo, who is abroad in Florence, Italy, feel like their non-internship experiences don’t mean as much.

“I feel like I’m just goofing off here. I can’t put this on my resume so what’s the point, other than having a good time?” Angelo said.

However, according to Rowe, studying abroad and participating in on-campus activities allows students to enhance transferable skills like resilience, adaptability and flexibility; all

skills he says are essential to future employers.

The main goal, Rowe said, is to have quality experiences throughout college in internships and extracurriculars, not just a large quantity of them.

While this can be a difficult thing to remember at a school where students frequently participate in several internships, Julia Remy said it’s all about perspective.

“It’s very easy to feel inadequate going to a school like AU, because you’re like ‘I haven’t done a government internship,’” Remy said.

“But then you go back home, and no one has done any internships, and you realize it’s fine.”

Karissa Waddick is a sophomore studying journalism and CLEG (Communications, Legal Institutions, Economics, and Government).

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Taking the Initiative

Transforming the Way AU Perceives Mental Health CURRENT WAIT: Story by Andrew Klabnik // Art by Jenn Gaudio

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hen Brian Fu began his first semester at American University in the fall of 2017, he soon found his mental health declining.

After searching for a student organization that was tackling issues of mental health among college students, and finding none, he and three other students decided to form Mental Health Initiative (MHI), which became an official student organization in February 2018.

Increased rates of counseling center appointments are outpacing college enrollment by a factor of more than 7 to 1.

AU’s Counseling Center is overburdened as well. First-year students Simrnjit Seerha and Samantha McAllister received individual counseling appointments approximately six weeks after requesting services from the center.

After six sessions with an on-campus counselor, they will have to find an off-campus private therapist or psychiatrist.

As MHI was in the process of becoming an official student organization, some of its members spoke with Dr. Traci Callandrillo, the Counseling Center’s executive director, and

voiced students’ concerns over its policies. Fu specifically mentioned the six-visit limit and Lilli Specter, MHI’s communications director, wanted students to have access to counseling on the weekends.

Callandrillo was aware of the complaints and explained that they were doing the best they could with their given budget.

“Their response was interesting,” Fu said. “They would like to do more, but they can’t because of the resources they are given.”

From Fu’s perspective, the Counseling Center cannot be expected to attend to the mental well-being of every student. Some students arrive on campus with a diagnosed mental illness and likely need a psychiatric consultation to receive prescribed medications.

“One in four college students has a mental illness,” Fu said. “That alone would be a monumental task for the Counseling Center to try to take on: not only the general mental health of those people but their diagnosed mental illnesses.”

Students and nonprofits are working to combat the flood of students seeking help.

Active Minds, a nonprofit centered in the District, works with college students to form on-campus organizations to raise awareness of mental illness and encourage self-care among students. Laura Horne, director of programs at Active Minds, says that counseling centers will never be able to satisfy every student’s needs with individual counseling.

“From our side, we feel like it’s important to continue to increase the capacity of the Counseling Center and its services,” Horne said. “At the same time, we may never be able to keep up with this demand in the Counseling Center alone.”

Horne and the students at MHI believe the community needs to have a better understanding of mental health so that students are more willing to discuss it with their peers. Hopefully, fewer students will need to go directly to a counseling center to have their first conversation about mental health.

“It’s really going to be important that we

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as being dangerous when they’re really just misunderstood,” Fu said. “When you have something like anxiety or depression, it can be very easy to imagine someone huddled in a corner, unable to participate in society.”

Another stigma is that mental illness is imagined or an expression of selfishness and narcissism.

take a prevention approach that involves everyone,” Horne said. “Ideally, everyone in the community is trained on how to notice signs that a student is in distress and what to do about that. These demands are not going to be met by the Counseling Center alone. It has to be the entire community.”

In order to reshape communities to support students with mental illness, the underlying cultural issues need to be understood, according to Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University.

Twenge has researched the lifestyles of a generation she has labeled “iGen.” "[iGen are] born between 1995 and 2012, members of this generation are growing up with smartphones, have an Instagram account before they start high school and do not remember a time before the internet,” Twenge wrote in an article in The Atlantic.

Twenge links social media use to an increase in depressive symptoms and finds a correlation between screen time and feelings of loneliness.

Members of iGen are also less likely to leave 27

the house without their parents, drive a car, consume alcohol, go on a date or have sex than previous generations.

Specter has read and agrees with Twenge’s research.

“We’re so worried about what other people think on social media,” Specter said.

Horne is hesitant to scapegoat smartphones as the only source of current issues in mental health.

“I think that we’re all looking for something that we can point to because if we knew what it was we could just focus all our energy on that,” Horne said.

“We wouldn’t call it selfish to eat healthy food or to go exercise because you’re doing it for yourself,” Fu said. “We wouldn’t call those things on their own selfish, but when you call it mental health, it’s selfish.”

These stigmas have a way of delegitimizing mental illness and discouraging people from talking about it. Fu wants mental illness out in the open so that students are more prepared to confront it.

“Society needs to get to the point where colleges are the starting point for where you learn how to take care of yourself,” he said.

It’s possible that stigmas are contributing to the overburdening of the Counseling Center, according to Horne. More students using mental health services should be a sign that they recognize the importance of caring for their mental well-being, but some of these illnesses cannot be addressed by the Counseling Center’s clinicians.

Fu wants to center on the stigmas surrounding mental health at AU, which are hindering “If you needed to get a surgery, you wouldn’t students from practicing proper self-care. question it,” Horne said. “We just get what we One such stigma comes in the form of students’ need, no matter how much it costs. I think this general ignorance of mental illness. goes back to… this idea that mental health is different and rather than paying for it, I’m just “There are a lot of labels. I’m bipolar, and going to handle it in other ways.” that and schizophrenia are really labeled

CAMPUS LIFE

“When you have something like anxiety or depression, it can be very easy to imagine someone huddled in a corner, unable to participate in society.”

This stigma is reflected in public policy. Before the passing of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act in 2008, physical health was prioritized over mental health in insurance plans. The Affordable Care Act in 2010 required insurance companies to pay for depression screenings.

The policies may not have led to considerable change. According to the Mental Health Treatment and Research Institute, as of 2017, 63 percent of behavioral healthcare visits were out-of-network in the District. Behavioral healthcare refers to mental health and substance abuse services.

For MHI, much work needs to be done outside the realm of policy. They may not be able to resolve the overburdening of the Counseling Center’s resources, but they can transform the way the AU community perceives mental health.

An important step in starting positive conversations about mental health is encouraging students to practice taking care of their well-being.

“Everyone has mental health and everyone needs to maintain it, whether they know it or not,” Fu said. “Being one of those ultimate intersections, we have kind of unlimited potential to talk about a lot of different things.”

There is data on the mental health of college students, but AU lacks consistent measurements.

First-year student Sarem Haq is working to collect data on the student body’s overall mental well-being. As a senator for the Campus-at-Large in AU Student Government, he passed a bill in December 2017 to establish a monthly mental health survey of the student body.

While campaigning, Haq reached out to Fu to talk about mental health after he noticed it was a hot-button issue on campus. After Haq was elected, he decided to prioritize mental health legislation.

“I think the first step to being able to legislate on mental health is understanding what issues people are facing and what they think student government should be doing for them,” Haq said. “Acting on information rather than rhetoric is crucial. Not just in mental health

but in any policy that we try to advocate for.”

The Counseling Center has a mental health survey, but according to Haq, the response rate is low and the results are unavailable to students. If AUSG wants to change the way mental health is handled on campus, they need to know what is worth changing.

After the data is collected, Haq hopes to develop a strategic plan for addressing students’ grievances with mental health services oncampus. He wants mental health to remain a focus of AUSG after he leaves office.

For now, Fu wants to emphasize how the student body can help each other.

“We have to turn cold hard facts of ‘statistically there’s more depression [and] anxiety’ into common understanding, compassionate, just, humanness,” Fu said. “The understanding that people struggle and it’s OK.”

Andrew Klabnik is a freshman studying journalism and history

“[MHI can teach students] to keep yourself in the moment, to try your best not to stress and get too anxious about what is coming in the future, but to keep your mind here, now,” Fu said.

Fu hopes to organize community events such as movie screenings and monologues where students can share stories about their experiences with mental illness. He emphasized collaborations with other student organizations, specifically multicultural organizations.

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PHOTO ESSAY:

THE FEELING We all experience anxiety differently. Born from a series of interviews, this series attempts to create a visual language for the physical sensation of anxiety. Each interpretation of a sensation is screen printed over photographs.

Claire Osborn is a senior studying graphic design and studio art

OVERFLOWING AND CRASHING 29

HEALTH

HEAD FULL OF STATIC

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WALLS CLOSING IN

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BUGS ON THE BRAIN

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ACopingSILENT EPIDEMIC with Mental Illness in College Story by Katya Podkovyroff Lewis Art by Katia Rasch 33

HEALTH Kelly McNamara came to American University having never previously sought mental health services before. Walking into the Counseling Center for the first time, McNamara had a glorified view of what was going to happen.

“I don’t think it’s a bad place and I don’t want to lay judgment, but I had a graduate student who was running my sessions and she just wasn’t the best,” McNamara said while reflecting on her AU counseling experiences at her home in New Jersey. “I would come to her with these revelations of mine and she would say it wasn’t it. She was set on a specific thing saying ‘I think you have anxiety and I think that’s your problem’ rather than listening to what I was saying.”

For students with emotional trouble, the transition to college life can be challenging.

From newfound freedom to the rigors of college-level coursework, the pressure and stress take its toll on students.

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, nearly 80 percent of students do not receive mental health treatment. Similarly, the Center for Collegiate Mental Health 2015 Report found that demand for counseling services outpaced that of enrollment growth by as much as 500 percent.

In order to keep up with demand, the Counseling Center has shifted towards a “menu of options for students” and a campuswide approach to mental health.

These offerings include services that go beyond the Counseling Center, such as AU’s RecFit, Peer Wellness, and other health-related programs. Horne suggests training seminars with faculty and students to arm them with the education that they need to notice precursors of stresses of students so they can intervene when necessary.

“It’s kind of hard because [the counseling center is] there for short-term health,” McNamara said. “They’re supposed to refer you somewhere else for long-term because it’s not supposed to be a long-term therapist. So part of me thinks what they’re doing is fine. But one thing they’re not appropriate for is diagnosing. That’s not their role and they shouldn’t put you in a labeled box.”

In 2014, the AU Counseling Center reported a 40 percent increase in the number of individuals they served. Campus resources have since been strained in attempts to deal with the rising student demand for mental health services. According to a 2013 survey conducted at the AU Counseling Center, 91 percent of respondents reported feeling “so stressed they couldn’t function.”

“Universities across the country are seeing an increase in services and there are recommendations of how many clinicians a university should have but it’s about one per 1,000 students I believe,” said Shatina D. Williams, assistant director for Outreach and Consultation. “So AU does keep with that and it’s not an anomaly in relation to other universities.”

"I had to tell her exactly what was going on. So I mumbled ‘eating disorder’ under my breath and she said, ‘What does that have to do with math?’"

As of a few years ago, the campus began a revival of the wellness center, which offers information, workshops and programs to help students learn to manage stress and live a more healthier lifestyle.

Individual therapy is time-limited at AU’s Counseling Center, meaning only six to eight sessions with a clinician are permitted.

“Six to eight sessions allows us to meet with students who are wanting services,” Williams said. “If we didn't put a cap on services, a large contingency of students would never be seen or know what therapy is. It allows, hopefully, everyone who wants to seek services to have them.”

AU’s Counseling Center walk-in hours remain a window between 2-4 p.m. every weekday.

In addition to the support offered at AU’s Counseling Center, the Academic Support and Access Center (ASAC) provides services specifically for students with disabilities, including learning disabilities, Attention Deficit Disorder, and other physical and psychological disabilities.

“There is an overlap between ASAC and [AU’s Counseling Center],” Williams said. “If a student is struggling with schoolwork and needs certain accommodations for them, they go to ASAC. Here [at the Counseling Center], we focus on social and emotional functioning whereas they focus on academic performance and accommodation.”

No level of government has created a legal mandate demanding that schools provide mental health services according to The Jed Foundation. Still, there can be a financial benefit to universities that spend money on these services. “[The university] wants to keep its tuitions without issues of liability, but it comes to the point where we have to decide if we’re going to be transparent and just take the risk for the students,” said Dr. Amanda Berry, a professor of literature.

Healthier students continue to higher retention rates and graduation rates, leading universities across the country to recognize that academics and mental health are deeply intertwined and have taken the approach of integrating the two more clearly.

These universities stand a better chance of retaining students struggling with mental health, while also keeping tuition, according to Berry. That said, there's a big difference between having mental health services and actually getting students to use them.

Students are allowed to take a temporary medical leave, but according to the AU website, “Students should consult with their academic advisor to discuss all options.” At the same time, students can request accommodations such as allowing more frequent excused absences. Having note takers and extended testing periods are also options provided by the university.

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"sometimes faculty members are being asked to help students in ways that we aren’t equipped to because I am not trained as a therapist”

“Technically, students can’t fail just by being absent but if they miss three or five classes, they start to tank and it gets very hazy,” Berry said. “Students appeal grades and I get it, college is expensive. Instead of colleges treating students like consumers, having a label of what is a ‘legitimate’ excuse without diminishing those with anxiety or depression all because John Smith has a hangnail.”

Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent psychiatric problems among college students.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five students living in the U.S. has symptoms of a mental health disorder.

“My mental health came in waves, the first during my freshman year and then this last year,” McNamara said.

faculty members are being asked to help students in ways that we aren’t equipped to because I am not trained as a therapist,” Berry said.

Students have struggled with explaining to their professors and administrators that even though their grades are okay, their mental health might not be.

“I didn’t go to [counseling] when I probably should have,” McNamara said. “I ended up in the hospital a few times. The first three times I didn’t go to the Dean of Students because I just winged it and told my professors. The last time, I reached out because I really did want to do well in my classes. It was helpful to have the letter sent out by the dean.”

The culture of selling colleges as “away-parents” for students makes it more difficult for the students themselves to use counseling services without feeling belittled or too dependent.

As a senior, McNamara is finishing her undergraduate career through courses at a local university in New Jersey while on medical leave “How can colleges, parents, and hospitals status with AU. articulate what students should do?” Berry said. “You’re a grown-up and live on your own While most of her professors were but still live under an institution to take care accommodating, she recounted a particular of you? It’s hard to figure out what you need to experience with a professor whose class in do with that.” which she was already doing poorly.

McNamara said that AU’s culture has been “I was explaining I had personal issue but she repeatedly criticised for being too competitive told me I had to tell her exactly what was going and cut-throat. on. So I mumbled ‘eating disorder’ under my breath and she said, ‘What does that have to “I feel like everyone, especially with social do with math?’,” McNamara said. media, will post on Facebook at the end of the semester, their GPA, how many internships From teaching general education courses they had, how many jobs they had and for the literature department, Berry has this long list of things they want to share,” encountered a range of people who have McNamara said. “There were semesters where struggled with mental illness.

I would compare myself to the AU culture and I was falling behind. That took a toll on my “It’s never about the legitimacy of the event or problems a student is facing but sometimes 35

depression, anxiety, and mental health cycle.”

When alumna Laura Yochelson came to campus without the traditional worries about the “freshman 15”. She had been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa at age 13 and, after a recovery, relapsed at age 15.

By the time she started college, she was again in recovery but said she didn’t really think about the food in choosing her college. She had received a scholarship and placement in an honors program at AU, so that’s where she ended up. But, she found life on campus challenging. The campus culture, she felt, was all about fitting in — and that included some peer pressure to eat more, and not necessarily healthful, food.

“There was pressure to fit in, live a typical college life, eat typical college food,” Yochelson said. “I just didn’t feel supported.”

Yochelson moved back home to Bethesda, after her first semester at AU and managed to work through her recovery before graduation. It would have been “really cool,” Yochelson says if she could have been open about her condition and found a support group to help.

Since McNamara’s medical leave, she has had a chance to experience campus cultures outside of AU. “[Other schools] just don’t have this perfectionistic, do-everything kind of attitude,” McNamara said.

While AU encourages students to be busy with school, internships and extracurricular activities, this doesn’t work for everyone.

Some students who come to AU with a prediagnosed mental health disorder can juggle a busy schedule while others are more vulnerable.

“Sometimes it’s just a matter of asking [for help],” Berry said. “But that can be hard for a freshman making the transition from high school to college.”

Katya Podkovyroff Lewis is a sophomore doublemajoring in Journalism and International Relations.

HEALTH

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Transgender Homelessness:

The Lack of Support for Transgender People Facing Homelessness Story by Blythe Collins // Art by Bex Warner

Charmaine Eccles, a 36-yearold transgender woman living in the District has been dealing with intermittent homelessness for more than ten years. After her bouts with homelessness, Eccles has suffered with substance abuse, addiction, unemployment and eviction.

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“I think that a lot of people have misconceptions that everything’s fine because we have a system where people can go to shelters, but that does not necessarily mean safety.”

“At one point in time, on Christmas Day, I woke up and it was a blizzard outside and I was under a blanket, waking up to a pile of snow, ” Eccles said. “It really wasn’t forced on me. It was a choice and it was more of my addiction that had taken over at that time.”

community understands the mayor’s vision.

“I will say that homelessness, employment and public safety are the top three issues that the transgender community faces,” Alexander-Reid said. “Not just in the District, but around the country and probably around the world.”

One in three transgender people have experienced homelessness at some point in their lives, whether the cause was family rejection, unemployment, or housing discrimination, according to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, done by the National Center for Transgender Equality.

The findings of the U.S. Transgender Survey showed large economic disparities between transgender people and the U.S. population as a whole. Twenty-nine percent of respondents were living in poverty, compared to 14 percent in the whole U.S. population. This high poverty rate is directly linked to respondents’ 15 percent unemployment rate — three times higher than the unemployment rate in the U.S. population at the time of the survey.

According to the same survey, 12 percent of those that responded reported experiencing homelessness in the year prior to completing the survey specifically because they were transgender.

A person is considered homeless if their name is not on a lease. At the moment, there is no explicit legal protection from gender identity discrimination neither at the state nor local levels.

“You cannot get a job if you don’t have a stable home,” said Sheila Alexander-Reid, director of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs. “If you can get [the homeless] in a stable home, then perhaps you can get them to a place where they can get some help and get their lives on track and get employment and education opportunities.”

Alexander-Reid has been the director for almost three years. Since starting at D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office, Alexander-Reid has been a liaison who ensures that the LGBTQ

“Homelessness made me realize the things we don’t appreciate in our lives,” Eccles said.

“Even like sleeping on someone’s couch, or just having any bed to stay in, or just to be in somewhere warm, on a floor. It makes me think that compared to other countries, we have it really good over here. Even with the homelessness, some people live in worse conditions, horrible conditions, in their homelessness.”

According to the 2016 State Equality Index by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), D.C. passed 25 ‘good laws’ between 2004 and 2016. ‘Good laws’ are laws that address nondiscrimination, youth, parenting, hate crime and health and safety in a way that protects citizens. On average, each state, including D.C., passed 9 ‘good laws’, accounting for California as an outlier that passed 132 ‘good laws’ in the same time period.

“The District is rated as one of the top jurisdictions to live in if you’re a member of the LGBTQ community and we’re really proud of that,” Alexander-Reid said. “You can see how progressive we are, and in a way I feel like it is a privilege to be in D.C., where we are protected. I think we’ve done a lot because HRC and National LGBT Task Force are located in D.C. This is the heart where a lot of the fight has taken place.”

Having a strong support system is critical to those who are transitioning, have transitioned, or are simply questioning their gender identity.

Those who said their immediate families were supportive in the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey were less likely to report a variety of negative experiences related to economic stability and health, such as experiencing homelessness, attempting suicide, or facing serious psychological distress.

“Unfortunately, in many cases, a lot of families are not accepting and loving of their family members who are of trans experience,” said Adriana Scott, housing navigation coordinator at HIPS said.

HIPS is an organization that promotes the health, rights and dignity of individuals and communities impacted by sexual exchange and/or drug use due to choice, coercion, or circumstance. Scott performs housing assessments that seek to match applicants with appropriate homes.

“When you’re young and in your 20’s or even in your 30’s, the network of support that you have are family-based and when that really critical network of support dissolves because

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“I think that a lot of people have misconceptions that everything’s fine because we have a system where people can go to shelters, but that does not necessarily mean safety.” you’ve been kicked out of your house because of your identity, it can predispose you to live at or below the poverty level,” Scott said.

of mistreatment, including being harassed, sexually or physically assaulted, or kicked out because of being transgender.

Eccles has bounced back and forth between hotels, couch surfing and living on the street because her family proved to be an unreliable network of support.

“A huge issue that HIPS deals with is that a lot of shelters in D.C. or the surrounding area aren’t all that inclusive,” Mary Pavia, HIPS volunteer said. “For instance, many have coercive policies that require that anyone using that organization’s services must be sober. Also, some battered women’s shelters, for instance, pose an issue for many trans folks as these shelters may not accept them due to their trans identity.”

“I stayed with my sister, who didn’t approve of my gender, so that was pretty hard for her.

There were many of my family members who did not approve,” Eccles said. “They were accepting because they loved me, but they really don’t approve of it.”

According to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, respondents who were rejected were nearly twice as likely to have experienced homelessness as those who were not rejected.

“There is a pretty significant community when you have people who are dropped by their families they find family elsewhere,” Scott said.

“They become a child of an older trans person they become a sister or a brother of a bunch of other folks who are trans. Even though they may not be housed or may have unstable housing, I can definitely say there’s a very strong sense of family here.”

Twenty-six percent of those who experienced homelessness in the past year avoided staying in a shelter because they feared being mistreated as a transgender person.

“The District’s shelter system is unfortunately not the best thing in the world,” Scott said. “I think that a lot of people have misconceptions that everything’s fine because we have a system where people can go to shelters, but that does not necessarily mean safety.”

Seven out of ten respondents who stayed in a shelter in the past year reported some form

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Alexander-Reid’s story happened to be about Eccles. After Eccles told the story at the town hall, Alexander-Reid worked with her to get a job with Unified Communications Center, a government agency within D.C. Eccles was hired as part-time and went on to become full time.

“This enabled her to then go back and be a success story to other transgender women of color who were still struggling,” AlexanderReid said.

The two women stay in touch and AlexanderReid calls to check in with Eccles, even after she got the job.

Pavia, 22, has completed 40 hours of direct service volunteer training about topics such as service provider privilege, crisis intervention “After some months, I was able to gain and harm reductionist tools for counseling employment with a non-profit organization, clients about safer sex and safer drug use. As a the D.C. Center,” Eccles said. “So, it changed volunteer, she carried out street-based outreach, my life. From that, I started getting more needle exchange, condom distribution and involved with the community and I’m actually harm reduction micro-counseling around D.C. employed now with hopes of transferring over twice per month from an overnight outreach to being a 911 operator and moving up in the van. company.”

According to Scott, the majority of the transgender homeless people HIPS sees have been involved in sex work. On the U.S. Transgender Survey, 72 percent of respondents had performed sex work.

“We had a transgender public safety townhall here in the community room,” Alexander-Reid recalls. “One person spoke and I didn’t know her and she spoke about having a shotgun held to her head and she was not doing survival sex work, but she was meeting some friends who had just finished doing some survival sex work.

She was robbed and beaten and had a shotgun put in her mouth – it was horrific. She had asked the police to look into it, so the police looked into it, they arrested the guys who did it.”

Eccles is currently trying to work out a more permanent housing situation.

“Even though I’m comfortable where I’m at now, I’m really not complacent where I’m at,” Eccles said. “I want to have my own place.

I’m doing everything I can to try to improve my credit but I can’t do much. It’s like travel, eating, rent here, it’s not really like I can save much money. It’s hard but I try to make the best of it.”

Blythe Collins is a senior studying journalism and Business Administration

CAMPUS LIFE

DESIRE

This series encapsulates the trials and tribulations of women rape survivors and combating societal ideals of lust and “desire” of women. Art is the ultimate form to convey emotions that some may have never felt, while also affirming feelings and frustrations of others.

*Currently on display at Bringhamton University Jenn Gaudio is a junior studying graphic design and computer science

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Sherri Williams Creating a New Narrative

Dr. Sherri Williams, an assistant professor of race, media and communication in the journalism division in the school of communication is a new staff member at American University. She focuses her research on race and how it relates to media consumption. Before receiving her Ph.D. at Wake Forest, she spent 10 years as a journalist.

This school year, in conjunction with Melissa Harris-Perry of Wake Forest University, Williams started the project: “Black on Campus,” a writing fellowship for Black college students. The yearlong project asks fellows to write to expand the narrative of college students in America. Their work will be published in The Nation. A full version of this interview can be found online.

What drew you to researching the relationship between race and media?

When I was in the 8th grade, we had a current events class. Our textbook was media: we were required to read U.S. News and World Report, Time Magazine, Newsweek, our daily hometown newspaper and also watch the news.

And at the time, in the mid and late 80s when I was taking that class, a lot of the stories that I saw about black people were really centered around poverty and the crack epidemic. And in my real life, I saw that there was much more to the story of black people. There was a lot involved in our areas besides drug use and crime and poverty. So I wanted to start telling those stories.

How did that media consumption affect your development?

It really made me be kind of resentful toward the institution. I didn’t see where [my teacher was] bringing in other narratives too. It’s like if you see that all of the stories we’re reading about certain populations only show them standing in long lines getting free food commodities, why not look for a fuller narrative and they didn’t. And I really resented that even at that early age.

You started Black on Campus with your peers at Wake Forest. Can you tell me about it?

When I finished my Ph.D., I did a postdoctoral fellowship and we did this project

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CAMPUS LIFE with Elle Magazine’s website, Elle.com, called the “Elle Scholars.” The project we produced was called Squad Care. [Harris-Perry and I] thought about doing that whole type of project again. Taking some students and working with them, refining their journalism and writing skills and giving them an opportunity to get a national byline at a high profile media outlet.

I really wanted us to do something based on the students’ experiences and how we can tap into their lived experience as like a source of expertise. With everything that is going on now and has been going on across college campuses, across the country in like the past five years, I thought it would be a good idea for us to focus... on what it’s like to be a black college student on campus right now.

What was your or what is your vision for the future of this program? Is it a one-year project?

Yeah, this is just really a one-year thing. You know one of the things that I think has been important for them to learn and to do is take these kind of abstract ideas and combine them with news values and actually create a new narrative. I want them to really develop some skills and really understand how important their voice can be in terms of documenting history as it's happening because right now some of the same issues that students are dealing with in 2018 are some of the same issues that students were dealing with in 1968.

But there are new manifestations of oppression and also ways in which technology is affecting white supremacy and racism in ways that we haven't seen before.

How is it or why is it important to support emerging black journalists.

Well, honestly, because they needed it. This is a difficult field, it's really competitive and it's just not easy for anybody. But at the same time, journalism still has a lot of whiteness. White supremacy hetero-patriarchy and misogyny embedded into it also. I mean there's a macho culture that exists in a lot of mainstream American newsrooms and this is something that women like me have been talking about for almost 20 years. My first full-time media job was almost 20 years ago. What I'm hoping is that we and others, can start to arm people

with not only the hard technical journalism skills and storytelling but also with some tools to help them navigate some of the rough terrains in newsrooms too.

What are some of those tools to navigate?

One of the things that I tell students in my classes all the time is that because they are young, people have their ideas about millennials being spoiled and entitled and all that. So when you go into a newsroom there are going to be some people who will automatically discount you because you are young. And I tell students one of the ways that you can combat that… is by knowing how to put a story together, knowing how to meet deadlines, knowing how to cultivate sources and knowing how to work collaboratively across the newsroom.

How do newsrooms even attempt to be more egalitarian or more diverse?

I think is important for newsrooms to make sure that they are shifting with the times.

Because one thing that I have found in my own personal experience and even talking to friends and colleagues who have worked in news for a long time, is that sometimes we've worked in newsrooms where there may have been considerable and seismic changes everywhere except inside of the newsrooms where we worked. It's really important for newsrooms to make sure that they are listening to the community. The news industry is really good at documenting wrongdoings of others and challenging others when it comes to oppression and ways in which people are discriminated against. But the news industry isn't always great about doing the same work introspectively.

How do we make sure that when newsrooms attempt to create a more diverse setting they are not tokenizing marginalized people?

I think what news outlets need to be doing is just bring everybody into the coverage of what they already cover anyway. Every year there are stories that news is going to always cover.

What news outlets often do is go to the same well to find their sources instead of going to

the suburbs and talking to some white affluent mother about gas prices or back-to-school shopping… News outlets have to stop looking at inclusive coverage as this big laborious chore because it isn't. Because people of color are just naturally in everything. News orgs don’t have to incorporate white people into their lives just because of the structure of society. I can't think of any ways where people of color can exist in society without actually interacting with white people. So, there shouldn't be any way that a news outlet can continue to cover communities and only cover the same people or one group of people all the time because not only is it not fair, it's not good business. And it's also undemocratic.

It is a theory of journalism that objectivity is a myth and true objectivity isn’t real. Does it your identity affect your reporting?

I think I bring a lived experience and a knowledge of how things operate that other people might not understand. One example [is] the Ku Klux Klan rally that I had to cover during my first full-time writing job at the AP… In our newsroom, there was a big debate about why we shouldn't cover it because we will be giving them more credibility than they deserve just by simply showing up and recycling their story. But really, what I tried to bring to bear there was talking to a lot of different people about exactly what was happening there. I actually walked across the street and asked KKK members about some of the things they said... What I try to bring to every story is giving equal and respectful attention to everyone's voice. The reason why I do that is because I do possess many marginalized identities that intersect to create a really distinct social experience that I have. I am this black woman who has a Ph.D., which that is obviously a category of privilege. I am this black woman who is on paper, middle class.

But I also grew up in a very poor background.

I am Midwestern. I am first generation college.

I am fat. I am all these things that really fused together create, on paper, this really privileged person. I'm not going to discount any privilege that I do have. But at the same time, I have experiences of marginalized and oppressed people that really inform the way that I want to tell stories.

Evie Lacroix is a senior studying journalism and computer science

AWOL » SPRING 2018

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