SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS The end of Sexual Assault Awareness Month is nearing its end, but there are still several events planned to raise awareness about sexual assault and its prevention.
GOOD TRACK RECORD
The indoor track and field team was named The Daily Eastern News’ team of the year.
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THE
“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID”
VOL. 97 | ISSUE 144
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
c ampus | CONVERSATIONS
Preachers rile students, raise controversial issues By Bob Galuski Entertainment Editor
A
Jacob Salmich | The Daily Eastern Ne ws
Jed Smock of Columbia, Mo., preaches to passing students in the Library Quad on Monday. Smock is a founder of Campus Ministry USA.
Dominic Baima | The Daily Eastern Ne ws
Students surround Jed Smock, showing him a pamphlet from the Sex Cells event. Sex Cells was a informational presentation about not conforming to gender roles. The pamphlet roused further preaching from Smock.
husband and wife stepped outside the Doudna Fine Arts Center steps Monday to preach religious views — and what followed was a battle of beliefs and social issues between them and Eastern students. “We want to warn the wicked and have them repent for their sins,” said Cindy Smock, one of the preachers. More than 100 students showed up to the preaching, filling the steps and spilling out onto the sidewalk and Library Quad to either listen to the duo or protest what they were preaching. Wearing a tiara and holding signs with phrases like “God hates figs and only figs,” Michael Bilek, a junior biological sciences major, paced behind Cindy Smock as she tried to speak to the students. Bilek grabbed another male student from the crowd and kissed him on the lips in front of Smock as she tried to tell the students why the Bible does not allow gay marriage. Bilek said he found out about the speakers through a Facebook post. “And I came here as fast as I could,” he said. Bilek said he liked to keep situations like the students lashing out at the speakers light, if possible. “I know them and some of the students are pretty riled up over this, so I like to interject humor if I can,” Bilek said. Student reaction to the two preachers on campus ranged from yelling at them to actively trying to mock their speech. Emalie Thornton, a freshman secondary education major, ran in front of the Doudna steps, a Bible in her hand, asking those there what they would give for the book. She ended up getting a bag of potato chips for the Bible, which she quickly gave away. Scott Otto, a sophomore sociology major, said the two preachers on campus disturbed him. “As an atheist, I don’t go around
telling people what to believe — people come to me with questions,” he said. Otto said the way Cindy and her husband, Jed Smock, were preaching reminded him of organizations he saw while on tour in Iraq and Afghanistan. “They’re on the cusp of religious extremists,” he said. Otto added that he did not think Cindy and Jed would be violent, but instead it was the relentless way they persisted at talking to the students that reminded him of the organizations. Both Cindy and Jed are part of the organization Campus Ministry USA, which goes around the country to spread the word of the gospel. “We are at different college campuses, anywhere from Florida to Louisiana,” Jed Smock said. Cindy and Jed first garnered attention at the Doudna steps when their lecture attracted students away from the “Sex Cells” presentation — an informational gathering about not conforming to gender roles — going on in the Black Box Theatre of the Doudna Fine Arts Center. Taylor Davis, one of the participants in “Sex Cells” and a senior communication studies major, said the fact that few students were showing up was a clue about what was happening. Davis said “Sex Cells” was not getting the turnout that was expected, and after stepping outside, he said he could see why. “This is actually getting a bigger response,” he said. Davis added that he did not know for certain if the Smocks’ presence outside “Sex Cells” was intentional or not. “I do think their goal was to get a big crowd,” Davis said. Student Body President Kaci Abolt was handing out pamphlets about “Sex Cells” to Jed and Cindy while they were preaching. “It was great timing,” she said. “I was able to confront him and inform him about some of the issues.”
Scrawling his pledge to help out the environment onto a white board, Lucas Schmidt was given a free T-shirt Monday to help commemorate Earth Day. Schmidt, a junior chemistry major, said he pledged to ride his longboard more often than driving his car to help cut down on carbon emissions. Pledging and free T-shirts were only two of the awareness raisers the orga-
She said she joined the club because was looking for an organization that would encompass her idea of how to help Earth’s environment. “I didn’t really see a club that fit,” she said. She said she came across Earth Wise, but it was a much smaller organization when she first found out about it. “I took over and expanded its reaches a bit,” Alberts said. Alberts was running the table where students and community members
By Amanda Wilkinson City Editor
could write out pledges to become environmentally friendly. Ryan Siegel, the campus energy and sustainability coordinator, said he was letting people know about bike rental options for next semester. He said renting bicycles is one of the ways students could save energy. Siegel added that the sign up was just to let him know how many bikes he should have for the initial launch.
EARTH DAY, page 5
CIVILITY, page 5
PREACHERS, page 5
Students celebrate Earth Day, take green pledge nization Earth Wise offered for Earth Day. Under a tent in the Library Quad, members of Earth Wise and other environmental activists helped spread awareness on how students and community members could help the planet. Jennifer Alberts, a graduate student in the biology department and member of Earth Wise, said the Earth Day celebration was Earth Wise’s first attempt at raising awareness.
Students to promote aggressive civility Bringing back the atmosphere of 1960s protests, a communication studies class will host the Promoting Aggressive Civility rally Wednesday. Melanie Mills, a communication studies professor, said for her qualitative research methods class, her five students had to come up with a group project that connects to a public memory. “They’re connecting to a public memory of protests in the ’60s from the vantage point of the present,” she said. “They’re going to be enacting it a little bit differently than the ’60s, but they’re also very much interested in civil rights, which is still a contemporary issue.” Amanda Feder, a communication studies graduate student, said they picked social injustices they wanted to fight with their superhero personas. She said at the rally, they wanted to publicly promote aggressive civility. “It’s not bad,” Feder said, laughing. “We’re just going to do things like hold the door for people, compliment them and have them write down on a sheet of paper like tell us about a time that somebody did something nice for you on campus.” The rally will be from 10:30 a.m. to noon in the Library Quad, but Feder said people can stop by for a few minutes on their way to and from class. She said they will be creating a Facebook page to post what people write after the event. Mills said aggressive civility is a pushback or flip on incivility. “Instead of all that in-your-face incivility that they’ve been feeling and observing, they decided to push back with another way of doing things, which was to be more intentionally civil,” she said. Mills said an example of incivility on campus is religious protestors on campus. “In the spring, sometimes, there are pastors who will set up in the quad and call people names, put-downs basically,” she said. Mills said the students decided to take that same method but instead would be promoting civility by shouting compliments. Feder said it is their way of fighting social injustices like racism, sexism and homophobia by doing small things. “We’re just trying to promote a lot of these better things and fighting these social injustices through interactions with each other,” Feder said. She said they are tired of sitting by and letting things happen like the university’s inadequate response to the Doudna steps chalking.
c ampus | Environment
By Bob Galuski Entertainment Editor
c ampus | rally