Indiana Statesman For ISU students. About ISU students. By ISU students.
Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018
Indiana Statesman
@ISUstatesman
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Volume 124, Issue 18
Tricycle Derby comes and goes once again this Homecoming Lauren Rader Reporter
Fraternities, sororities, and on-campus organizations competed for the title of “Hot Wheels” in the annual Homecoming Tricycle Derby on October 12 at the Michael Simmons Student Activity Center. This has been a tradition for Indiana State University’s Homecoming since 1963. The event draws students, faculty, and alumni together to celebrate ISU and its many traditions. The trike races were started to keep students on campus during homecoming festivities and have been a hit ever since. To enter into the trike derby, teams had to qualify with certain times. The women’s race consists of 30 laps and the men’s race is 42 laps. The trike races started at the Old Quad, and consisted of 10
laps around the quad. Each team was composed of six trike riders and one alternate. This year, Sigma Kappa won first place in the women’s division. Izzy Brown, a sister with Sigma Kappa, was excited about the win. “It felt awesome to win. It was awesome to see all the girls’ hard work pay off. They gave it their all.” Brown said. “We celebrated by singing our songs, and then we got our bike hung up at the Ballyhoo, which was an awesome feeling. The girls worked so hard for so long and it paid off. They worked every week training for the race.” It takes hard work and a lot of practice to master the process of trike racing. Speed and agility is required to win the race. Homecoming events are very exciting and popular on Indiana State’s campus. Unfortunately, some events
get postponed or canceled because of weather. The men’s division trike race was postponed to Sunday, October 14 at 11 a.m. Residence Hall Association took first place in the men’s trike race for the second year in a row. Many were very excited for this event. Cassandra Adams, a sister with Gamma Phi Beta, had a great first Homecoming and looks forward to many more. “My first Homecoming was a great experience. I think it was even better because I am in a sorority so I have my girls to support all week.” Adams said. “The trike races were cool. I only went to the women’s since the men’s was postponed due to sleet but it was so much fun to watch the girls race against each other and work so hard even in the cold and rain. It brought a good end to the main Homecoming week activities right before the big game.”
Taking a stroll back to the 90s Chelsea Chapman Reporter
Last Friday, Oct. 12, the National Panhellenic Council members of Indiana State University held their annual Stroll Off event. This event allowed six sororities and fraternities to compete and see who had the best stroll on the stage in Tilson Auditorium. All groups stuck to a 90’s to early 2000’s theme and wowed the crowd with their hard work and dedication to their respective organizations. Grace Allen, a senior studying communication, practiced ten hours a week with her sorority to prepare for this event. “I will be performing with my sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Incorporated,” said Allen. “Basically, the National Panhellenic Council members with different organizations will all be participating in the competition. There is my sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta, Omega Psi Phi, Alpha Phi Alpha and Kappa Alpha Psi.” Each organization was given ten to twelve minutes to perform their show and put their own unique spin into their routine. Some told the story of how their organization was started, and some recreated characters from beloved television shows from the 90’s to early 2000’s. “We all put on our own different show with our organization,” said Allen. “Some of my sisters are going to be in the audience supporting us, but there will be about eight or nine of us on stage performing. I volunteered to be in my sorority’s performance. They asked us who wanted to participate and I volunteered. I’m nervous, but it’s going to be good. We have practiced every
Anna Bartley| Indiana Statesman
Sigma Kappa sorority sister pedals ahead of Alpha Sigma Alpha sister during womens race on Friday evening.
Justice Department announces task forces to tackle international criminal gangs Del Quentin Wilber
Los Angeles Times (TNS)
Kayla Laester| Indiana Statesman
Students perform on stage during Stroll Off on Friday, Oct. 12.
day since the beginning of the semester. One of my sisters whose title is ‘Stroll Master,’ came up with our dances.” Amber Drake, a junior studying Health Science, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Incorporated, helped pass out spirit items to her sisters before the show got started. “I will be up on stage, but I’ll be more backstage,” said Drake. “My sisters will be up there performing, and I’ll be helping with the backstage work. I think today will be good considering we have Delta Sigma Theta back on the yard and Alpha Kappa Alpha, so we can give the campus a wider variety of Greeks that are strolling and performing. I think it will be good and exciting.” Drake has attended this event twice before this year. She said there is always a good time to be
had at the stroll off. “I think the stroll off is important because the people on campus that maybe come from small towns and don’t know what Greek life is can get a taste of what we do and all of the things we do on stage and in public,” said Drake. “It matters to me because it gives us a chance to show everyone how we differ from other organizations on campus and what we can do. It gives us a time to shine, have fun and reach back to where we all started from.” William Hayard, a freshman studying social work, came out to the stroll off after seeing many flyers on social media. “I’m coming to have fun,” said Hayard. “I think it’s important that this event is held to get all of the students together and to participate.
The Justice Department announced Monday it was creating a task force to coordinate the fight against international criminal gangs such as MS-13 and drug cartels from Mexico and Columbia, the latest effort to control cross-border organized crime groups that the Trump administration has trumpeted as a major threat. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the task force would help to better “coordinate our efforts to take each of these groups off our streets for good.” In a statement, Sessions said the task force would focus on five transnational criminal organizations: MS-13, the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Clan del Golfo and Lebanese Hezbollah. Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a foreign terrorist group, long has raised and laundered money in the United States. But several alleged members of the group were charged with terrorism offenses last year, including one man who allegedly was scouting John F. Kennedy Airport in New York for a potential Hezbollah attack. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will lead the task force, while five veteran prosecutors from around the country were tapped to lead investigations and prosecutions against the five groups. The push against Mexico’s
Sinaloa Cartel will be led by Matthew Sutton, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of California. Other prosecutors were named in New York, Florida and in Washington, D.C. “This is about being focused on bringing cases and helping to dismantle these organizations,” said a senior Justice Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning. “These prosecutors have been bringing cases against these groups for decades.” Associate Deputy Attorney General Patrick Hovakimian was named as the first director of Counter Transnational Organized Crime to coordinate strategies and tactics. Hovakimian, a former federal prosecutor in Southern California, has worked in the deputy attorney general’s office since early 2017. Sessions also appointed Adam Cohen, a former prosecutor in Florida who now is a senior lawyer in the Justice Department’s criminal division, to run the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force. That task force was created in 1982 and targets major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations. It was led until last December by Bruce Ohr, but he was removed after he came under fire from the White House for his actions in the Justice Department’s investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign.
Does Harvard discriminate against Asians? The Ivy League goes on trial Jaweed Kaleem
Los Angeles time (TNS)
Harrison Chen and Thang Diep graduated No. 1 from public high schools. Both excelled in extracurricular activities and scored high on their college admissions tests. And both are Asian American. But the similarities stop there. Chen, who was raised by middle-class Chinese immigrants outside Raleigh, N.C., was rejected by Harvard. Diep, a Vietnamese immigrant who grew up in a working-class family in Reseda, Calif., got in. Their experiences have left them with distinct feelings about affirmative action and a federal lawsuit against Harvard that puts Asian Americans at the center of one of the most contentious issues in higher education. Chen opposes the consideration of race in college admissions and plans to join like-minded Asian Americans at a rally in Boston on Sunday, a day before Harvard is scheduled to go on trial. “People should be judged on character and merit,” said Chen, an 18-year-old
freshman at his backup choice, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. “What does the color of your skin have to do with admissions?” Diep, who favors affirmative action, plans to attend a rally a few miles away in Harvard Square in support of the university and its policies. “Removing race won’t advance us to be a more just and equal society,” said Diep, a 21-year-old senior at Harvard. “Rather, it would limit educational opportunities to people from higher classes and a white background.” The primary fight against affirmative action has long been waged by whites who argue that giving special consideration to racial minorities has unfairly denied them spots at U.S. colleges and universities. But in the Harvard case, Asian Americans argue that racial considerations have made them a victim of their own academic success. They tend to get better grades and score higher on standardized tests than other races but claim they are frequently rejected as a result of “racial balancing,” which is akin to racial quotas and has been ruled unconstitutional. They compare themselves to Jewish stu-
dents who faced admissions quotas at elite schools in the early 20th century. “Being Asian American actually decreases the chances of admissions,” the lawsuit said. Citing a Duke University economist’s analysis of six years of Harvard admissions data, it claimed that Asian American applicants who have a 25 percent chance of getting in would have a 35 percent chance if they were white, and dramatically better odds than that if they were black or Latino. It also cited an internal 2013 Harvard report that suggested that admissions of Asian Americans would shoot up substantially if they were evaluated based on academics alone. As it stands, Asian Americans make up 6 percent of the U.S. population and 22 percent of Harvard’s current freshman class. The latter number has been rising since 2010. In responding to the suit, Harvard said studies of its admissions, including its own internal review, have been either inconclusive or flawed. The data used don’t include “essential” application factors such as personal essays and recommendations and excludes recruited athletes and
legacy student admissions, the university said in court filings. A University of California, Berkeley economist who analyzed Harvard’s admissions data found “no negative effect of Asian American ethnicity,” the filings said. For each applicant, the university conducts a “whole person review” that includes considerations of racial and nonracial factors such as socioeconomic background in addition to grades, test scores, recommendations, extracurricular activities and “personal qualities” such as being kind, respected and likable — an approach Harvard said is well within the law. The university and its supporters say that admissions of blacks and Latinos could decline. “If the lawsuit against Harvard succeeds, it would diminish students’ opportunities to live and learn in a diverse campus environment — denying them the kind of experiences that are central to Harvard’s educational mission and critical for success in our diverse society,” Harvard said in a statement. On campus this week, student groups
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