SouthernAccent The student voice since 1926 Collegedale, Tennessee Thursday, November 19, 2015 Vol. 71, Issue 10
ACA STUDENTS UNHARMED AFTER PARIS ATTACKS
Candle vigil in Montpellier. Photo by Tyler Rand
Rosana HugHes & Cassie MatCHiM EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & NEWS EDITOR
Paris came under attack on Friday night, Nov. 13 when three teams of Islamic State terrorists opened fire and detonated bombs in coordinated attacks across the city. Seven suicide bombers attacked the national stadium, the Bataclan concert hall and nearby restaurants. As of Tuesday night, the death toll had reached 129 and more
than 350 were wounded. All Southern Adventist University students studying abroad have been accounted for. “There is no problem with our students,” said Pierre Nzokizwa, Adventist Colleges Abroad (ACA) program director and Modern Languages department professor. “Generally, if anything would occur, the student school of origin is immediately informed.” Tyler Rand, senior (ACA Spain) and Lindsey Mitchell,
’15, were eating dinner at a friend’s apartment in Montpellier, about 470 miles south of Paris, when they got the news of the attacks. “We kept checking in disbelief as the death toll rose higher and details of the attacks unfolded,” said Mitchell. Although all students are safe, some reported not being able to get out or back into France due to the borders closing in response to the terror attacks.
“I wasn’t sure how the closing of the borders would affect my return to Spain,” said Rand. “I had a ride back to Spain set up for Sunday afternoon, but since many of the French were concerned about the borders being closed and cancelled most of their travel plans, I was left without a way back to Spain.” Rand said he had to do a lot of re-planning in order to find a way back to Spain and ended up having to travel to western
France, where he was able to find a way back. He said he had just crossed the FrenchSpanish border when they were stopped and questioned by police officers. He said there were about 10 police officers standing in the road and 30-40 police cars. “I found out that around 30 minutes after I left Toulouse last night [Sunday] they started doing raids looking for one of the terrorists,” said Continued on page 4
LATIN AMERICAN CLUB TERMINATED INDEFINITELY Danielle allen LEAD REPORTER
The Latin American Club (LAC) of Southern Adventist University has been discontinued indefinitely for the remainder of the 2015-2016 academic year as of Nov. 9. Because LAC is one of the three flagship cultural clubs on campus – along with the Black Christian Union (BCU) and the Asian Club – the club is often held to a higher standard than others on campus.
These standards include a convocation, vespers and annual Saturday night cultural event. Unfortunately, the LAC executive board did not meet event expectations, according to an email provided by Geovanna Ruiz from Student Services. Ruiz, senior international business management major, who was the president of LAC for the past three semesters. The email addressed the club’s inactivity, following the
LAC Night it had organized and hosted in September: “There was no attempt at doing an easy activity like sponsoring a booth at Fall Festival, where your activity would have been rewarded with money from Student Association.” LAC Night is the first cultural event of the school year, placing addded pressure on officers returning to campus in the fall. Officers may be hard-pressed to gather funds and members for their club. The planning that goes into a
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school-wide event is tremendous and often stressful, said Ruiz. Other LAC executive board members felt that there was often miscommunication among the executive board in terms of coordinating events or scheduling meetings. Many students had mixed reactions to the indefinite termination of LAC. “I think it’s disappointing that it got to the point of being discontinued said Alexa Smart, junior marketing and international studies major.”
Mark Belfort, sophomore clinical psychology major and BCU President, said that he understands the overall stress associated with maintaining one of the largest clubs on campus. “I believe that a situation such as this will cause those who are a part of the Latin American community on campus to come together for a common cause and bring the club back to ... the beauty of the Latin American culture.” Continued on page 4
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