October 20, 2017

Loyola University • New Orleans • Volume 96 • Issue 7 • October 20, 2017

THE MAROON FOR A GREATER LOYOLA

Changes to semester, class length proposed for next year

By Sidney Holmes smholmes@my.loyno,edu @sidneymajee

Changes could be coming to student schedules starting next year, with longer class periods and shorter semesters.

The proposed changes would shorten the length of the fall and spring semesters from 16 to 14 weeks, and class times would increase to make up for the loss of those weeks. Monday, Wednesday, Friday classes would last an hour instead of 50 minutes. Monday, Wednesday classes and Tuesday, Thursday classes would be 90 minutes instead of 75, and single-day classes would be three hours long.

The changes are being proposed to make room for new school terms, called the "J-term" and "May term," which are two-week intersession periods that will take place in January and May. According to Maria Calzada, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, the May term can be implemented without any changes to the current calendar, and it will happen in May 2018, but she said it takes significant work to make the J-term happen, which may include changing the schedule.

Calzada said the J and May terms would allow students to complete a three credit hour class quickly by taking a six-hour-long class Monday through Thursday for two weeks. She said these classes would differ from typical classes offered in the fall and spring semesters.

“The courses are going to be very hands-on and experiential learning in essence,” Calzada said.

Justin Nystrom, university senate chairman, said this new initiative is a part of Project Magis, a plan introduced by Interim Provost David Borofsky to help Loyola gain financial stability.

Project Magis is split into several work streams created by ideas from the community. The initiatives that come from these work streams are headed by members of the Loyola community. Calzada is the leader of the J and May term initiative. Her job is to do background work, such as researching other schools and gathering input from Loyola faculty and students to see if this new schedule is possible.

Calzada said that this schedule is still in an early phase, and it has to go through a few steps before it can become a reality. The university senate and the provost council will vote on the proposal, but Calzada said that their votes are recommendations, because the final decision is made by the provost, who is the chief academic officer.

Another part of the proposed schedule includes a shortened spring break. In the calendar, the Easter holidays run from Thursday to Monday, effectively eliminating three days of the break.

According to Desiree Rodriguez, executive assistant to the provost, the courses taught during the J-term and May Term would charge the same tuition as a regular semester course.

The university senate held an emergency meeting on Sept. 28 where the senators presented many concerns about the new schedule, Nystrom said.

“Anytime you do change, there’s going to be debate,” he said.

Some topics debated were the ability to hold students’ attention and the effects longer classes will have on their mental health. The biology department questioned how the schedule would affect lab times. Other faculty senators wondered how it would impact working students’ schedules outside of school.

Senators proposed alternatives to the schedule changes, such as shortening the Mardi Gras break or starting the fall semester one week early and returning for the spring semester one week later.

Eileen Doll, chairwoman of the languages and cultures department, said her department didn’t comprehend the purpose of this change.

“We don’t really understand entirely why we’re doing this,” Doll said.

She said this change would affect the way languages are taught, because there is the possibility of having longer classes less often.

“Pedagogically, it’s better to have more contact in shorter periods to get more practice and to get more consistent contact with a language,” Doll said. “You have the same material, and you have the same amount of class time, but that

HAYLEY HYNES/ The Maroon

doesn’t give you the same results.

In skills classes, additional contact makes a difference,” Doll said.

Doll added she doesn’t see how J-terms could be useful in the language department, especially for beginner language courses.

“I’m sure there are some benefits, or we wouldn’t be considering this,” she said.

Nystrom said that J-terms aren’t made for every discipline.

“They’re not for everything, and we won’t want them to be,” he said.

Nystrom said that it’s important for senators to not only talk to their department about these proposed schedule changes, but also their students.

“The senate has been pretty effective so far representing the faculty. We need to do a better job of seeing how the students feel about this as well,” Nystrom said.

SGA president Ben Weil and vice

president Blane Mader said that they are unsure about the possible schedule changes.

"We're kind of in the dark around a lot of the information," Mader said, but Weil said that he trusts that it's coming.

Naomi Yavneh, director of the Honors program, has been informing students like Andrew Harper, environmental science junior, about the J-terms and how they could affect their class schedule.

Harper said that the schedule changes seemed like a good idea at first glance, because of the longer breaks, but there are still some worries.

“Monday, Wednesday, Friday classes going from 50 to 60 minutes doesn’t seem like that big of a deal.

The only thing I’m worried about is the Tuesday and Thursday classes, because those are already pretty long classes,” he said.

When it comes to planning his schedule, he said the changes could affect his science labs or his job.

Harper understands how the new terms could be helpful to some students, but he doesn’t see a use for himself.

“As of right now, I would not take classes in the J or May terms, just because I have set my schedule to where I would graduate on time without having to do that,” Harper said.

Although the inclusion of the terms can be beneficial, Harper said, it’s important to get the opinions of everyone who will be affected by the changes.

“It’s not only going to affect the professors that teach the classes, but it’s also going to affect the students who take them, and whether or not they will be able to stay at Loyola because of this change,” Harper said.

New food studies program stresses social justice, service learning

By India Yarborough iayarbor@my.loyno.edu @iayarbor

Milking cows and goats, collecting eggs from chickens and learning about workers’ exploitation during a high school trip to an educational farm in upstate New York changed one Loyola student's view of food forever.

"We were doing organic farming there, and they taught us about food issues," said Julia Gollobit, junior

and Omaha, NE native. “I learned a lot about food insecurity and the problems with the industrial system.”

Gollobit started working with a community garden in her home town around that same time. As her involvement grew, so too did her interest in food justice, and Gollobit decided to study the topic in college with one goal in mind.

"I wanted to make a change," she said.

Gollobit is one of two Loyola students who has adopted food studies

as a major, said program director Daniel Mintz. He expects 10 to 15 more students to enroll in the undergraduate track by next school year.

Food studies – new to Loyola this semester – has three areas of focus, Mintz said: food policy, food systems and commerce and food culture.

“We feel that our mandate is to give students the same sort of indepth education and critical thinking skills that they would develop in other humanities majors,” Mintz

said. “As well as to give them the ability to go out into the working world, or out into the world after college, and make a meaningful contribution wherever they choose to focus their careers.”

Loyola alumna Amy Sins, a New Orleans-based chef and entrepreneur, said food studies is exactly the type of field in which graduates of her alma mater can make a difference. When she discovered the program was an option at Loyola, Sins jumped at the opportunity to meet with Mintz and university officials

to provide advice based on her work in the field because, as she puts it, “food industry is a driving force here in New Orleans.”

“I immediately wanted to be a part of it, mostly because I think in a hospitality city like this, I think a program like that is very important,” Sins said.

She said she notices a need for mentorship in the food business and a need for her employees to better understand how food industry impacts the entire New Orleans community.

See FOOD STUDIES, page 7 LOYOLAMAROON.COM • FB.COM/THELOYOLAMAROON • @LOYOLA_MAROON

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October 20, 2017

THE MAROON

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Theft 5600 Block of Loyola Ave

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Auto Theft 5500 Block of Prytania St

Oct. 12

7:42 p.m.

Simple Battery Domestic La Salle St and Cadiz St

Oct. 14

9:29 a.m.

Residence Burglary 6200 Block of Delord St

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Theft 1700 Block of Robert St

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Simple Burglary Vehicle 2000 Block of Upperline St

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Residence Burglary 1000 Block of Broadway St

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Residence Burglary 7800 Block of St Charles Ave

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Simple Burglary Vehicle 5300 Block of Dryades St

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Simple Burglary 300 Block of Walnut St

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October 20, 2017 The Maroon

3

LIT Conference targets student leaders

By Anderson Leal

By Lacinea Mcbride

aleal@my.loyno.edu

ltmcbrid@my.loyno.edu @lacineat

Aiming to break down stereotypes surrounding leadership, student leaders gathered on campus Saturday, Oct. 14 for the first ever student-led development conference, called the “LIT Conference.”

Marisa Jurczyk, sociology sophomore and the event’s co-organizer, said organizers wanted to show people that leadership doesn’t just apply to extroverts, businessmen and politicians.

“We wanted to help people realize that they can be leaders in their own lives in whatever context that they are in, by just stepping up and being proactive in making use of their gifts and talents,” she said.

Jurczyk was inspired by Loyola’s Emerging Leaders Program, a certificate program providing leadership development experience tailored to freshmen and sophomores interested in honing leadership skills.

“LIT” stands for “leading, innovating and transforming,” according to Brianna Daniels, history junior and event co-organizer.

As student leaders themselves, Daniels and Jurczyk wanted to organize the event specifically around and for students. The two hardly involve professional staff, and made sure to make the event by and for students, something the organizers say has not yet been seen on campus.

“We have been to plenty of events put on by professional staff and there was just a gaping hole where our student leaders weren’t able to communicate with others in the strategic ways they’ve been successful. This is the opportunity for our students to get their voices out,” Daniels said.

Along with their small team,

LACINEA MCBRIDE/ The Maroon

Brianna Daniels, LIT Conference co-organizer leads a workshop during the event. The conference, which was completely organized by students, aimed to break down sterotypes of leadership and encourage students to be leaders in their lives.

Daniels and Jurcyk planned the LIT Conference for almost a year, which involved listening to the needs of peers and drawing interest by tabling.

The planning team had to think of everything from what food to provide at the conference to which rooms were available for workshops. They hope that their extensive planning this year means next years’ organizers will not have to worry about those logistics.

One tactic they used was targeting student organizations directly and looking for motivated student leaders to head workshops. They believe they were successful in organizing a motivated team to lead students through a day of personal development.

Iris Lopez, psychology junior and conference attendee, learned how to market herself, how to look

at the bigger picture when it comes to leadership and the importance of self-care while at the conference.

“By expanding your social circle to people who can have positive impacts on your career goals, networking is an efficient way to get a career advantage. Sometimes it may feel like small tedious tasks are futile to your life or career purpose but patience and self-awareness are necessary to realize your overall effort will eventually lead you to your end goals,” she said.

Monica Ruiz, english sophomore, decided to attend the conference after seeing the organizers tabling in the Danna Center.

“I learned a lot about what it takes to be a good leader and some networking skills to get what you need and build good relationships in the workplace. Everybody should have the opportunity to do it and I hope it

happens again next year,” Ruiz said.

Jurcyzk credits the success of the event to the participants.

“A lot of what the conference becomes depends on the participants.

It was important for us to have a conference by and for students because the students are the most aware of the wants and needs of their peers,” Jurczyk said. “It relieves the pressure and allows students to freely express themselves. We put ourselves out there and hoping for a response.”

Post-conference, organizers and students alike are looking forward to next year. Jurcyzk said the student reaction to the event was overwhelmingly positive.

“The biggest critical feedback we got was that people either wanted longer workshops or more workshops which is a really good thing to hear,” she said.

Loyola cancels Sunday shuttle service to Cabra

By Mairead Cahill mscahill@my.loyno.edu

The university has canceled shuttles to and from the Broadway campus on Sundays, leaving residents who were already dissatisfied with an “inconvenient” shuttle service even more frustrated.

One student even described the sometimes unreliable shuttle service as “crippling” to attendance grades.

The shuttle service previously operated seven days a week, taking students to and from the Broadway campus. The cancellation of Sunday rides is a new development in what was already a long list of complaints residents had about the service.

“It’s very inconvenient,” Skye Ray, mass communication sophomore and Cabra resident, said. “People have study groups on Sundays, people have to get their meals.”

Since the decision at the start of the month to cut Sunday service, the 163 residents that live in Cabra have been left without free transportation to the main campus where they can use their meal plans and access other on-campus facilities.

Some reached out to SGA to voice their concerns and senators are now

Steve Gleason delivers emotional speech

looking into the complaints to see how they can be addressed.

“Regarding the Cabra shuttle system, the issue was recently brought to our attention and we are currently in the process of assigning senators to research the issue before moving forward with any legislation,” Blane Mader, SGA vice president, said. “If students feel like their voices aren’t being heard it’s likely that they aren’t being directed through the correct channels. Students should contact their on-campus senators in SGA and should come to senate meetings in order to have their voices heard.”

In addition to being upset about the cancellation of Sunday shuttles, some residents have voiced concerns that the day-to-day operation of the shuttles is not reliable.

“I think it needs to be brought to attention that the shuttle schedule is not being followed whatsoever by certain drivers and that’s very important because you’re messing with people’s class attendance,” Asha Thomas, Cabra residential assistant, said. “I’ve literally missed the shuttle because a driver has left two or three minutes early.”

Thomas also expressed concern that the current shuttle schedule does not always safely accommo-

date the number of students needing a ride.

“There needs to be another shuttle honestly. I sat in people’s laps twice last week. I tell LUPD every time I’ve got to sit in someone’s lap: who do I need to write to get another shuttle?” she said.

Thomas added that the quality of service is not only inconvenient, but also harmful to residents’ education.

“Cabra has its disadvantages, like you’re off campus and you have to walk and everything but it shouldn’t be crippling to your attendance, it shouldn’t affect your grades that you live in Cabra and I think it is for some people. It’s affecting their attendance grades,” she said.

Nikolina Camaj, Cabra Hall director, uses the shuttle alongside her residents and other Loyola staff and calls it “an important service to our campus”.

“I would encourage those students who wish to use the shuttle at this time to leave earlier during a peak time to ensure they have seats on the shuttle so that they can be on time for class,” she said.

Camaj said any concerns or feedback that students have should be directed toward University Police.

MAIREAD CAHILL / The Maroon

Flyers have been placed around Cabra Hall, informing students that the shuttle service no longer runs on Sundays. Some students are frustrated with the inconvienence that makes it difficult to get to main campus.

Former Saints player Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS in 2011.

Most people who get that news only survive 2-5 years. Gleason will start his seventh year living with the disease in January.

On Tuesday night, in support of National Disability Awareness Month, Loyola hosted Gleason in Nunemaker Auditorium, where he delivered a speech called “No White Flags.” Gleason shared his experience of being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and how his philanthropy foundation “Team Gleason” helps raise money and awareness for the disease.

The event began with a welcoming statement by the Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J., who showed snippets of the documentary “Gleason,” released last year, which tells the story of Gleason’s seven-year battle with ALS. The terminal illness is most common in people over 50 years of age, and yet Gleason is “very...very... very...far from 50,” something he said during his speech.

He was diagnosed at the age of 34.

Though spoken communication and physical mobility are no longer possible for Gleason, he relies on his sense of humor and unyielding determination to help others and overcome his own setbacks.

Through an electronic eye gaze system, Gleason is able to communicate by typing with his eyes and was able to tell his story and crack jokes with the audience. The technology is one that he helped Microsoft develop. After being diagnosed, he asked for their cooperation in the advancement of communication technologies to help those impaired by the debilitating illness.

During his speech, he revealed that his son, Rivers, was the reason he felt he had to put up a fight. He described how just months after being diagnosed, he and his wife found out they were expecting a baby.

“I believe my future will be greater than my past,” Gleason said.

Through his foundation “Team Gleason,” he advocates for legislation supporting those who suffer from ALS. In 2015, his efforts paid off, and the “Steve Gleason Act” was passed.

The bill makes permanent the elimination of a specified payment cap under the Medicare program with respect to speech generating devices.

After his talk, Gleason opened the floor for audience questions, many of which revolved around the technology of Gleason’s communication device, as well as questions targeting Gleason’s ability to persevere.

Alexander Acevedo, marketing sophomore, was not only moved by Gleason’s athletic accomplishment, but his strength to stand up to this new opponent.

“I found it very, very inspiring when he talked about his spiritual journey,” Acevedo said. “His phrase ‘No White Flags’ was very inspiring and as an athlete I hope to overcome my personal obstacles with the same courage Gleason has.”

To close his speech, Gleason took the chance to impart some wisdom to the crowd.

“Our power does not lie within the physical body, but within our soul’s on fire,” Gleason said.

4

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October 20, 2017

October 20, 2017 THE MAROON

Life &Times

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Film • Arts • Food • Music • Leisure • Nightlife

UPCOMING EVENTS 10/24 Mickey Hayes and Brain Child at Gasa Gasa Description: Mickey Hayes and Brain Child, Tibetan Peace Pie and Wes Ragland play at Gasa Gasa.

Location: Gasa Gasa at 8 p.m.

Price: $5

10/24 Salsa Night Description: Students will be able to learn the basics of salsa dancing at this event.

Location: St. Charles Room at 6 to 8 p.m

10/25 Take Back the Night Description: Take Back the Night is a rally and march that calls for the end to gender-based violence.

Courtesy of The Big Cheezy

The Big Cheezy’s Mac N’ Cheezy sandwich. The Mac N’ Cheezy is a submission to the NOLA Mac N’ Cheese Festival. The NOLA Mac N’ Cheese Festival will judge 13 restaurant submissions with a panel of judges and will include a children’s favorite award amongst the prize wins.

Location: Marquette Hall. 5:45 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Cheese it up for first NOLA Mac N’ Cheese Fest

By Andres Fuentes andresafue@gmail.com

Getting their initial inspiration from another young festival — the National Fried Chicken Festival — organizers Kent Broussard and Julie Egren have decided to highlight another food not normally associated with New Orleans: macaroni and cheese.

Together, they founded the NOLA Mac N’ Cheese Festival, with its first celebration starting this Saturday, Oct. 21.

“We have always loved going to festivals and after attending the first Fried Chicken Fest, decided to hold our own festival. We came up with mac and cheese about two weeks later,” Broussard said.

His love of festivals mixed with his passion to show macaroni and cheese to New Orleans birthed the festival.

“Everyone loves mac and cheese, don’t they?” Broussard said. “The Mac N’ Cheese Fest is for anyone who loves good, local music and wants to experience many different varieties of mac and cheese from local restaurants.”

The festival will do more than just serve good food, though. It will also help out good causes.

“We thought a festival would be a good way to raise money for charitable causes.” Broussard said.

The festival aims to donate to Harper’s Hope, Tres Doux Foundation and the Mary Parker Outreach Program.

There are 13 restaurants that will have signature dishes at the festival.

Those will be judged by five judges, including Jay D. Ducote, runner-up in “Food Network Star.”

“It is a huge honor to be a judge for the Mac N’ Cheese Fest. As a lover of mac and cheese, being able to taste so many different interpretations and then serve as a judge is awesome,” Ducote said. “It’s always great to get the community together over something we can all agree on: the power of mac and cheese” Miles Tully Jr. from Melt is excited to be a part of the festival, with dishes such as the seafood stuffed “mac roll”.

“We were super excited about being a part of this inaugural festival,” Tully said. “It’s a double whammy

for us with the dishes. We wanted to source local ingredients and choosing seafood was a no brainer.”

Jason Gonzales from Gonzo Smoke House is also prepared to show off his dishes.

“Our motto is ‘We don’t just smoke meat, we smoke everything,” he said. “We try to be diverse. And when someone walks up to our booth at a festival and sees smoked vanilla ice cream topped with smoked candy bacon on the menu you get a hesitant look on their face before ordering, but after trying the dish, they leave a very happy customer.”

Jean-Paul Martin from Fat Harry’s will also be at the festival, where he is very excited to show off his skills.

“I’m a cook in New Orleans so

food is definitely my passion as well as having a good time,” Martin said.

“Our pork mac and cheese has been one of our top sellers at the annual Hogs for the Cause and honestly it’s cheesy goodness.”

Adam York from the Big Cheezy, which, as the name implies, specializes in cheese, said he is ready to take on the competition.

“We are pairing our house-made ‘Four Cheese Bacon Mac’ with our roast beef and debris gravy for the competition. We will also be serving our ‘Mac N’ Cheezy’ which is a four cheese bacon mac inside a grilled cheese because it’s awesome,” York said.

The festival will be held in Louis Armstrong Park on Saturday, Oct. 21 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Disability Awareness Month embraces diversity in university setting

By Mairead Cahill mscahill@my.loyno.edu @maireadcahill_

Growing up in school, everything took Matt Pashby just a little bit longer than his classmates.Copying down work, writing papers a researching topics would not be as easy for him as it appeared to be to his fellow peers.

“I had teachers pass me off as lazy or that I wasn’t trying hard enough in school,” Pashby said.

But in his sophomore year of high school, he was diagnosed with a set of learning disabilities.

“I have a processing disorder, shortterm memory loss and anxiety when it comes to testing,” Pashby explained.

“The processing disorder means it takes more time for me to do things.

I’ll get the stuff done but it will just take a little longer,” he said.

“The short-term memory loss happens a lot when I’m doing research,

writing papers, when I’m trying to copy. Instead of looking at something once and copying it down on paper, I’ll have to look back and forth like nine times,” he explained.

While Pashby’s learning disabilities affect how he processes information and organizes himself, Pashby has learned to embrace how his disabilities force him to view and approach tasks in a different and often more creative manner.

“I didn’t want to be ‘that kid’ with disabilities, I didn’t want to go to a separate room to take tests,” Pashby said.

Pashby has just finished up as the Recruitment Chair for Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity, and he is also the Assistant Student Director of the Donnelley Center, Interfraternity Council President, a work-study student for Ignacio Volunteers, a member of the 2018 Loyola SMC Bateman team and sits on the Student Advisory Board for Students with Disabilities, all while hold-

ing down two off-campus jobs as well.

“It’s just something that’s different, I have to find different ways of doing things and keep myself in check,” he said.

Pashby thinks it is common for people to underestimate individuals with disabilities.

“I’ve had so many times where people have said to me ‘oh I never thought you would have learning disabilities’ just because of such and such that I’ve done in the past,” Pashby said.

Embracing the diversity and creativity that students with disabilities bring to Loyola’s campus has been the focus of Disability Awareness Month this October.

A variety of sessions have been offered by the Office of Disability Services throughout October to raise awareness of and support students with disabilities in an effort to get the university to have a more inclusive approach.

“We want to encourage discussions on campus that focus on how to promote diverse minds and bodies rather than how to normalize them,” Richelle Voelker, Director of Disability Services at Loyola said.

The awareness month comes at a pivotal time for the Office of Disability Services as they change their approach on how they support and advise students.

“Disability Awareness Month provides ODS with the opportunity to highlight the significant changes we are making as we shift the disability paradigm from the medical model, which views disability as a problem with the individual, to the social justice model, which views disability as a problem with the environment,” Voelker said.

‘With this shift, we hope to improve understanding of disabilities and increase awareness of the resources we can provide,” Voelker said.

Now in his third year at Loyola, Pashby had nothing but praise for the support provided by the Office of Disability Services at Loyola.

“With Loyola, it was really refreshing, they were really accommodating,” Pashby said.

“It was super easy. I just went through a little bit of a formal process just to show them where I was at,” he said.

While he does not rely as heavily on the support of disability services as he did in high school, Pashby has remained a strong advocate for people with disabilities and thinks events such as Disability Awareness Month will help in disabling stigmas.

Although October is drawing to a close, students can still get involved in Disability Awareness Month and can drop into the student success centre or visit their website www.loyno.edu/ success/disabilitiy-services to find out about events and opportunities.

6

WORLDVIEW

October 20, 2017 The Maroon

JOHN CASEY/The Maroon

A student walks out of the Danna Center and tosses a bottle into nearby recycling bins. The bins were intended to be more attractive with hopes of enticing individuals to use them more frequently.

Recycling efforts on campus still evolving

By Hayley Risse herisse@my.loyno.edu

Reduce, reuse, recycle. Plastered on posters and printed on trash cans, these three words, accompanied by three rounded arrows, are the distinguished symbol of environmentalism. In recent years, Loyola’s Sustainability Committee has taken action to increase the amount of recycling bins on campus. However, leaders in the sustainability effort acknowledge that many students are not taking advantage of the recycling resources.

Bob Thomas, chairman of University Campus Sustainability Committee, implemented the newest recycling bins on campus two years ago.

“We decided that we needed some attractive recycling bins. The problem with the blue garbage cans was that they are ugly. It was time

to invest some money into a pretty presence of recycling,” Thomas said.

The recycling bins on campus are single-stream, meaning recyclables can be combined rather than divided by materials. Bins are collected by staff, picked up by Republic Services and brought to a material recovery facility where recyclables are separated.

Thomas’s biggest criticism of the recycling process at Loyola is that it is not multi-stream. Currently, Loyola pays to have its recyclables separated, but if it did this itself, it would be paid by the recycling facility. However, Thomas said that this transition requires more space and staff than Loyola has available.

The Loyola community plays an integral role in the recycling process. Someone especially involved is Bart Gomez, director of custodial services, who said that the community can improve on the recycling effort.

“They use them, but not nearly as much as they could. When picking up trash, there is usually a lot of aluminum and plastic mixed in that could be recycled,” Gomez said.

For most students, this seems to be an issue of convenience. Sean Presti, business marketing junior, explained that he feels obligated to contribute to sustainability efforts on campus, but does not yet actively participate in recycling.

“I like to walk on a clean campus so I try my best to respect the environment, but when it comes to my trash, I will choose simplicity and throw my trash in the nearest one,” Presti said.

Some students originate from parts of the country that have made larger strides in sustainability efforts than Louisiana, offering other perspectives on recycling. Senior California natives Emma Woidtke and Kirby Rittman compared the difference in environmentalism be-

tween regions.

“I went to a high school that always had three bins paired together: garbage, recycling and organics.

It pains me that those options are not on campus and even in the city,” Woidtke said.

But Rittman offered a more positive approach.

“Even if New Orleans is super behind in sustainability efforts, as a school community we can do our part and create a need for change whether it is what light bulbs are used in classrooms or getting rid of styrofoam, which has been illegal in San Francisco for over 10 years,” she said.

Other students, like music industry freshman Kat Trotman, argue that they put forth the effort to recycle, but would be more inclined to do so with an increase of bins on campus.

“I know it’s important to try and contribute to a sustainable lifestyle

anywhere, though I don’t feel super obligated or encouraged to contribute to sustainability by the school,” Trotman said.

Brigid Richwine, president of the Association of Students for Sustainability hopes to make some changes to increase participation in recycling on campus. In her opinion, students do care about environmental impact, but lack access to tools that can change their habits, something she hopes to change.

“My goal is to have recycling bins on every hall rather than just one per building. I also hope to get more education on campus regarding sustainability,” she said.

Thomas argues that while there is far more work to be done, much of Loyola’s sustainability efforts go unnoticed.

“If you add it all up, we are actually doing a lot but sustainability is invisible. People don’t see it. So they think we don’t do it,” he said.

Entergy continues fight for new power plant

By Jules Lydon jmlydon@my.loyno.edu

The ongoing city-wide debate about power supply for the city may soon have an answer.

The question of how the city of New Orleans can boost power, primarily for the purpose of powering an overwhelmed drainage system, has consumed mayoral election forums and city council debates for months, but now the city is revisiting the possibility of a new Entergy power plant in New Orleans East which could solve the problem once and for all.

Over the summer, Entergy New Orleans looked back at a plan to build a $216 million, 226 megawatt power plant on Gentilly Road to replace the currently closed Michoud Entergy power plant.

According to Entergy, “Michoud was shut down before Katrina made landfall in anticipation of storm surges and flooding in the New Orleans area. Since that time, clean-up and repairs have been underway: the facility suffered more than $17 million in damage from flooding (up to six feet) and wind (sustained winds of 88 miles per hour).”

The Michoud plant was the only source of electric power generation inside city limits. Though Hurricane Katrina may have happened more than 10 years ago, this is another attempt to continue revitalizing the city after its destruction in 2005.

The original plan to rebuild began in June of 2016 and has continued since. Entergy expected an answer from the City Council by Jan. 31, 2017 but after introducing its second proposal to reduce the original 226 megawatt plant to 128

megawatt, the vote was delayed further to February.

Several press conferences took place over the summer of 2017, which allowed Entergy to explain the environmental benefits of the 128 megawatt plant, hear public concerns from New Orleans East residents and converse with environmental groups. The company claims the new plant should satisfy future electricity demands to counter potential power surges during New Orleans’ summer months and after hurricanes.

Entergy stands as the only major electricity provider in New Orleans and serves approximately 198,000 electric customers and 106,000 natural gas customers. Since Entergy is headquartered in New Orleans, there are a total of 6,000 direct and indirect employees including 2,200 total Entergy employees and 400

Entergy New Orleans employees.

Entergy pays $800 million in annual local spending including payroll, purchases, services, taxes and contributions.

Bob Thomas, Loyola chairman of environmental communications, stated that the issue itself is “being framed interestingly and framed in a very good way for the long term.

People are saying, ‘don’t build us another Entergy plant based on hydrocarbon fuels, build us infrastructure for sustainable energy.’”

The counterargument against the plant is that it will pollute neighborhoods, contribute to subsidence in New Orleans East and continue to allow Entergy to dodge investment in solar and other renewable energy.

Entergy currently has invested in solar energy but not much in Louisiana.

“As the song says, it never rains

in southern California. What makes environmental and economic sense in other states and countries does not make environmental and economic sense for New Orleans,” Entergy New Orleans CEO Charles Rice said.

The decision to allow a new plant is complex both economically and environmentally. Although the new plant could offer more jobs and is more sustainable as a smaller plant, environmentalists and New Orleans East locals are still concerned that it isn’t as sustainable as possible.

The New Orleans City Council plans to reconvene on the issue for a vote sometime in February 2018.

If the vote passes for the 226 megawatt plant, it would be functioning

by November 2020. If the 128 megawatt plant passes, it would run by October 2019.

7

The Maroon

October 20, 2017

Natural gas platform erupts into flames on Lake Ponchartrain

By John Casey jecasey@my.loyno.edu @J_E_CASEY

On Sunday night, law enforcement officials were overwhelmed with calls as Kenner residents scrambled to report a blast on Lake Pontchartrain. A natural gas storage platform roughly a mile and a half off the shore had erupted into flames in a blast that officials say could be felt by residents on land.

The Coast Guard was dispatched to assist in recovering the eight workers who were on the platform at the time of the explosion. Seven of the workers were recovered and transported to hospitals with injuries, four of whom have been released from hospitals while three remain with critical injuries. The eighth worker remains missing.

The search for the eighth worker was called off Monday evening.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto identified the missing man as Timothy Morrison, a Katy, Texas resident who was a subcontractor on the structure.

The East Bank Fire Department reported that the fire raged through the night and came under control early Monday morning.

According to the Kenner government Facebook page, authorities on the scene reported that cleaning chemicals were responsible for the explosion.

Associated Press

Jefferson Parish, La., authorities and others from other parishes respond to an oil rig explosion in Lake Pontchartrain off Kenner, La., Sunday, Oct. 15, 2017. (Matthew Hinton/The Advocate via AP)

INDIA YARBOROUGH / The Maroon

Renata Massion, Tulane junior majoring in political economy and international development, spreads mulch between rows of crops at Samuel J. Green Charter School’s garden in Uptown New Orleans. Massion works at the site through a partnership with Edible Schoolyard New Orleans, a non-profit aimed at encouraging children to make healthy connections between food and school.

FOOD STUDIES, continued from page 1 “We are the people who are trained in the first line of food safety and food preparation,” she said. “We may seem like we’re just the people shucking oysters and busing your tables and refilling your drinks, but we’re also the people making meals on our days off and serving to those people in need.”

Mintz said participating in serving learning – learning outside a classroom through community engagement – will be an important thread in Loyola’s food studies program.

“We’ve got to think about this in terms of New Orleans,” Mintz said.

“Not only does it have this very rich food culture, there’s also tremendous need relating to food sovereignty and food security in the city.”

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, food

insecurity refers to the economic and social conditions resulting in a household’s limited or uncertain access to nutritious foods. A September 2017 USDA report showed 18.3 percent of Louisiana households, almost one in five, had “low or very low food security” in 2016. That’s six points above last year’s national average of 12.3 percent.

“There are a lot of people in New Orleans who don’t always know where their next meal is coming from,” Mintz said.

He said the university’s food studies faculty works to provide coursework to address food access issues on local and national levels.

Gollobit and her classmate, sociology sophomore Marisa Jurczyk, each said their “Sociology of Food and Food Justice” course, taught by professor Angel Parham, explores

the how and why of the food industry.

Jurczyk said the course also explores human rights issues as they relate to food, and service learning is required.

This semester, Jurczyk volunteers with Edible Schoolyard New Orleans – the same organization Gollobit worked with last semester.

Edible Schoolyard partners with four FirstLine schools in New Orleans to encourage children to make healthy connections between food and school, said Amelia Bird, the non-profit organization’s manager of operations.

Bird said almost 100 Loyola students have volunteered with Edible Schoolyard over the past five years, mainly through class-related service learning opportunities.

Through Edible Schoolyard,

Jurczyk helps maintain the garden – an outdoor classroom – at Samuel J. Green Charter School in Uptown New Orleans. Children at the school help grow plants in the space and then use the produce in cooking classes integrated into the school’s curriculum.

“It’s always empowering to learn a new skill,” said Marsha Bard, certified horticulturist and Edible Schoolyard site gardener for Samuel J. Green Charter School.

Bard has worked with Edible Schoolyard for five years and oversees volunteers at the Samuel Green site. She, Loyola students and Tulane students do what Bard deems the “more difficult tasks” so the elementary school children may have different experiences in the garden.

“When we have good harvest, we’ll give that out to the families,”

Bard said. “We’re trying to make healthy foods more accessible to our kids.”

Mintz said students graduating with a food studies degree will be prepared for a variety of jobs in the food system. Gollobit’s career goals, for example, include working with a non-profit organization like Edible Schoolyard or tackling issues in food policy.

“We want to make sure we’re setting our students up with the kinds of professional connections that let them follow a career path into food, but also let them follow a career path away from food if they find there are some issues they learn about in this program… [they want] to address in some other way,” Mintz said.

8

Champions of Character

SPORTS

October 20, 2017 The Maroon

Loyola becomes one of just 66 teams nationally to be honored as a Champions of Character at the Gold Level this year.

By JC Canicosa jccanico@my.loyno.edu @jccanico

For the first time its history, Loyola has been selected as a Champions of Character Five-Star Institution at the Gold Level by the NAIA. The award is the organization’s highest distinction.

An institution can be honored as Five-Star Champions of Character based on a rating system by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics on the organization’s five key areas: character training, academic focus, character recognition, character promotion and conduct in competition. If an institution scores well enough based on this rating system, it can be named a a Five-Star Institution at either the gold level (100-90 points), silver level (89-75 points) or bronze level (7460 points).

“The gold designation affirms our commitment to the NAIA Champions of Character initiative,” Brett Simpson, director of intercollegiate athletics, said. “The Champions of Character five core values of respect, responsibility, integrity, sportsmanship and servant leadership align well with our Jesuit ideals.

Our student athletes and staff work to pursue excellence each day in all that we do including academics, service to the community and athletic competition.”

Of the 183 institutions to be named Five-Star Champions of Character, Loyola is one of the just 66 that have earned the gold distinction nationally.

“Our team motto for our program

is we are student-athletes and not athletic-students,” said Nick Dodson, head coach of the cross country team. “In character building we find ways to become a better person, teammate, brother, sister, etc. We do this by holding each other accountable for our actions and also learning to choose a positive approach when we have issues amongst each other. This starts with trust amongst us all.”

This is the ninth-straight year that Loyola has been honored as a Five-Star Institution, and the first that the university has been given the gold distinction, according to Loyola Athletics.

“We talk a lot about responsibility of self, team, and others. Some of our most important program expectations are that we take care of ourselves and take care of each other.” said Jesse Zabal, head coach of the volleyball team. “We strive to build each other up, respect our teammates’ work ethic, effort and commitment to this program. I also push my student-athletes to respect each of our opponents and their talents, as well as the officials and their decisions.”

This honor caps off an athletic season where seven Wolf Pack teams were represented at NAIA National Championships, such as the men’s basketball team, women’s basketball team and the swimming team.

“It is these four years that will prepare [our players] for the next 40 years of their life.” said Doug Faust, head baseball coach. “We have so many guys that do things the right way.”

PAOLA AMEZQUITA and JULES SANTOS/The Maroon

Loyola University New Orleans has been named a Champions of Character Five-Star Institution at the Gold Level. The athletes and players of the university’s athletics program represent the school’s Jesuit values on and off the court, according to Simpson.

Basketball team retools for upcoming season

By Ryan Micklin rwmickli@my.loyno.edu @RyanMicklin61

A lot has changed since the Wolf Pack’s historic season came to an end in March after a few notable players graduated.

The offseason wiped away three key players that helped guide the men’s basketball team to a national championship tournament appearance in March — a feat that hasn’t been achieved since 1946.

Seven months later, head coach Stacy Hollowell and his new-look coaching staff are busy finalizing the depth chart and tending to some last minute tune-ups before the season kicks off on Oct. 28.

The depth chart being revised by Hollowell and his pair of first-year assistant coaches, Trey Lindsey and Fred Hunter, might seem a bit different than what fans are used to.

“We didn’t only lose Johnny, we lost Jalen and Nate, too. And those guys had equally important roles,” Hollowell said. “Johnny was an athlete and he definitely brought rebounding to the table, but if you look at what we lost between the three of them, we lost 600 rebounds

between those three guys.”

How do you offset the loss of three players who played an integral part in helping last year’s team make history? You recruit — a task that comes easy for one of the newest members of Hollowell’s coaching staff.

“Trey is a really, really good recruiter and has a really good basketball mind. He studies the game.

He understands the movement of offense, understands the movement of defense,” Hollowell said.

Lindsey helped Hollowell reel in the biggest recruiting class of Hollowell’s tenure to date. Eight freshmen signed with the Wolf Pack over the offseason, giving the team an added boost of versatility and depth.

“This offseason has been very rewarding, as we have had a bunch of first year guys come together from very diverse backgrounds, and through the trials and tribulations that come with offseason conditioning, we have come to form a bond that exemplifies the brotherhood of Loyola basketball,” Ethan Turner, business analytics junior, said.

The team will likely rely heavily on players who have been around since Hollowell began his tenure

with the Wolf Pack in 2014.

One of them is business senior Nick Parker, the Wolf Pack’s leading scorer from a year ago. Throughout the offseason, Parker has been challenged to emerge as one of the team’s leaders.

“We all know that Nick can score it. We need Nick to be more efficient and more effective; able to get us in sets and settle us down and move guys on the floor and communicate to lead us defensively,” Hollowell said.

So far, Parker has been up to the challenge, as he embraces the same “lead by example” mentality that Griffin brought to the team when he was still donning a Wolf Pack uniform.

“Nick has shown some leadership in terms of how he defends and his ability on the floor lends credibility to that leadership,” Hollwell said.

And if the freshmen need any more inspiration, they shouldn’t have to look any further than accounting senior Benjamin Fields.

Fields missed the entire 2015 season and was forced to redshirt last season after suffering a leg injury that put him out for nearly two-and-ahalf years. Throughout the rehab

process, Fields maintained a solid connection with his teammates and provided the team with leadership that extended beyond the game of basketball.

“Ben, through all of his injuries, has been a tremendous leader for us. That has not changed. When he got hurt he committed himself to leading our group and being an uplifting guy,” Hollowell said. “Ben is our spiritual leader on the floor.

From that perspective, he’s irreplaceable.”

Now in his senior season, Fields’ coaches feel he is ready to step foot onto the court again and play for the team that he’s watched fight for wins countless times during his two-year absence.

This Wolf Pack team may not be as experienced as in years past, but that hasn’t deterred Hollowell from holding his team to the same standards and expectations that he laid out for last year’s history-making group.

“My favorite thing about coaching this group is knowing that we can get better everyday, and that’s a challenge for us as coaches and that’s a challenge for our guys as players, and you can see it already

JULES SANTOS/ The Maroon

Mass communication junior Eric Brown squares up for the jumper. The men’s team kicks off their season on Oct. 28.

from where they were day one to where they are now, but just that challenge of knowing that we can improve every day and that we got a nice corps of young guys that we can build on in the future,” Hollowell said.

The Wolf Pack will try to make another run at a national championship tournament appearance this season beginning on Oct. 28 against Southern University New Orleans.

THE MAROON

October 20, 2017

C R O S S W O R D

Across

1. Understand, in slang 5. Greek liqueur 9. Time-traveling TV character 14. Strauss of denim 15. Hair salon sound 16. Setting for much of “Moana” 17. Final bio 18. “Too bad we have to throw out this uneaten food” 20. Asian noodle dish 22. Bro kin 23. Earl Grey, e.g.

24. Shrill barks 26. Word with room or center 28. Storied 31. They may need breaking in 36. Bitter-tasting 37. Sioux City state 38. Doing nothing 39. Small IOU 40. Muppet who loves this puzzle’s four longest answers?

41. Astronaut Armstrong 42. With perfection 43. Blueprint 44. Chevy muscle car 45.Condition caused by 31-Across, at times 47. Snake warnings 48. Darling of baseball 49. Holey kitchen gadget 51. Rooter for the Bulldogs 54. Bro or sis 56. Bennie’s band, in an Elton John hit 60. Hurls competitive insults 63. D-Day beach 64. “I swear!”

65. Lotion additive 66. One of Emeril’s New Orleans eateries 67. Test one’s metal 68. Many a Punjabi 69. Was positive

Down

1. Yucky guck 2. First name in country music 3. Roman poet exiled by Augustus 4. Pet product also used for tire traction

5. Disney’s Lucky Rabbit 6. Behind the times 7. New Mexico tribe with a Sun symbol 8. Goes (for) 9. Searches for water 10. Color TV pioneer 11. Way to go, per Horace Greeley 12. More than dislike 13. Draft category 19. Conflict with planes 21. Listen to 25. Ski resort vehicles 27. Taiwan Strait vessel 28. Trivia quiz fodder 29. Blessing preceder 30. Prickly shrub 32. McGregor of TV’s “Fargo” 33. “Golden Boy” playwright 34. A-listers 35. Tennis great Monica 37. Iona, for one

40. Christmas encouragement 44. “__ la France!”

46. “Woman in the Mists” subject Dian 47. [Snicker] 50. “There, there” 51. Sicilian World Heritage Site 52. Mekong River land 53. Misfortunes 55. Bikini tops 57. Kind of collar or jacket 58. Story 59. “Pygmalion” playwright 61. Bicycle maker turned automotive giant 62. __ Baba

SUDOKU

For the weekly puzzle answers, download our app!

9

EDITORIAL

10

October 20, 2017 THE MAROON

OUR EDITORIAL

The majority opinion of our editorial board

I X

HOWLS & GROWLS

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HOWL to leadership GROWL to being led on HOWL to gourd season GROWL to redundant Howls & Growls

XII

SPARE

GROWL to sentimental scars

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EDITORIAL BOARD

IV

I I I V

Have a howl or growl? Tweet us at @loyola_maroon to be featured each Friday!

Nick Reimann

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TRAN

Editor-in-Chief

Paulina Picciano

III

HOWL to sentimental scarves

3h

GROWL to joining the wrong club

IX

HOWL to sass

Managing Editor for Print

Lily Cummings

Maroon Minute Executive Producer

Hayley Hynes

Design Chief

Barbara Brown

Photo Editor

Erin Snodgrass

News Editor

Davis Walden

Life & Times Editor

Caleb Beck

Wolf Editor

John Casey

Worldview Editor

JC Canicosa Grant Dufrene

2 mo n Chris th tmas ?

VI

Electronic Properties

V

Managing Editor for

V I I

Sidney Holmes

Sports Editor Opinion and Editorial Editor

Katelyn Fecteau

Copy Editor

Jamal Melancon

Senior Staff Writer

Marisbel Rodriguez

Senior Staff Photographer

EDITORIAL POLICY The editorial on this page represents the majority opinions of The Maroon’s editorial board and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Loyola University.

Letters and columns reflect the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of The Maroon’s editorial board.

The Maroon does not represent the opinion of administration, staff and/or faculty members of Loyola.

Letters are subject to editing for length, grammar and style. Please limit submissions to 400 words. Submissions are due no later than 4 p.m. the Sunday before publication.

Please send all submissions — The Maroon, 6363 St. Charles Ave., Box 64, New Orleans, LA 70118.

Email us your letters — letter@ loyno.edu.

Submissions may also be made online at www.loyolamaroon.com.

Illustration by Riccardo Muzzetto

When are we going to talk about schedule changes?

On the off chance you missed the front page, let us reiterate this for you: there’s a high likelihood that your schedule will change.

With the new proposed schedule, the duration of classes would be slightly extended and the fall semester would end early, making the month of December and the beginning of January the new holiday break. Students wouldn’t have to return until after Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This shift will be to introduced to make room for new terms: the January term (abbreviated as “J-term”) and the May term. The May term, however, would already fit in the current academic calendar, but the January term would require schedule changes to fit the calendar.

These new terms would only last two weeks but would meet for six hours at a time Monday through Thursday.

With such crucial changes on the horizon, we’d expect engagement

between faculty and students, but so far departments have remained relatively silent, with the exception of the Honors program. Though, when Honors did inform its students, it was by an email containing a five question survey, which provided students with little context other than informing them what the possible changes to the class schedule would be.

These changes seem sudden and out of the blue, considering many non-honors students are still completely unaware of what is to come.

Of course, a decision has yet to be made, but if this is a serious consideration, where is the call for student input?

It’s obvious that there is a lack of communication on all fronts. The student body deserves easy access to the information regarding the change and needs to be able to voice their opinions and concerns.

Interim Provost David Borofsky and his team have been helpful and

transparent thus far, whether it be through open forum townhouse meetings or availability and willingness to speak with students, so leaving students out of the conversation seems uncharacteristic.

Even SGA has been left in the dark. With that being said, it’s a two way street because it isn’t entirely up to the administration to relay the information to them. Both the administration and SGA must work together and do their part. SGA has a responsibility to ask the questions necessary to inform the students, who they are representing, of these upcoming changes. But instead SGA Vice President Blane Mader said that, at the Board of Trustees meeting last week, it was implied that the schedule changes were already agreed upon, but he “didn’t really pry for it because he didn’t want to sit there and hear [himself ] talk.”

Now there’s no denying the benefits of a J-term and a May term for students who need to catch up on

credit hours, especially when you consider that the six year graduation rate is at an abysmal 56 percent. But during the terms, students should gain more than just a couple credit hours; they need to be educated during this time. Six hours a week for four days a week is intense, but does it really merit the award of the same amount of credit hours a student would receive after completing a course during the regular fall or spring semester?

This raises the question: is it truly the student who will be benefitting from the implementation of the new terms?

A verdict should not be reached without the consolation of the student body since it is the students who will be directly affected by outcome. Before making a decision, Loyola’s administration needs to consider its students and let us have a say in determining what is best for us.

OPINION

October 20, 2017 The Maroon

11

There is a dark truth about disability and abortion

Richelle Voeler Director of Disability Services rvoelker@loyno.edu

Sophie Trist English Writing Junior smtrist@my.loyno. edu

A few weeks ago, my friend sent me a Huffington Post article entitled “A Moral Duty to Abort.” It concerned a letter published in a Dutch newspaper expressing the opinion that with the widespread availability of prenatal testing, there is no excuse for bringing disabled children into the world. Disabled children are nothing but a financial burden on society, and thus parents should face a fine if they do not abort their children. The acclaimed British scientist Richard Dawkins also believes that it is immoral to bring a handicapped child into the world if you have a choice, because the child cannot contribute to society and will be a financial burden. Fortunately, this is a fringe opinion, but as someone who’s been totally blind since birth, I find it highly disturbing. It reminds me of a time, not so long ago, when Adolf Hitler instituted a euthanasia program that took the lives of 275,000 disabled men, women, and children because he believed they cost the German government too much money and did not fit his vision for the “perfect master race.” It reminds me of July 26, 2016, when a knife-wielding man broke into a home for disabled people in a small town outside of Tokyo, killing nineteen patients and injuring another twenty-six. When he turned himself into the police after the attack, he said, “I want to get rid of the disabled from this world.”

All too often, the first question doctors ask when prenatal testing reveals that a baby will have a disability is, “Do you want to keep it?”

In Iceland, nearly one hundred percent of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. In Denmark, 98 percent of babies with Down Syndrome are aborted, 90 percent

Courtesy of Molly Hennessy-Fiske/Los Angeles Times/TNS

A young woman gets blood work done at an abrtion consultation at Whole Woman’s Health Clinic in McAllen, Texas.

in the UK, seventy-seven percent in France, and here in the U.S., 67 percent of babies with Down Syndrome are aborted. If these statistics were about female babies or African American babies, there would be an uproar. But because we’re talking about disabilities here, all I hear is silence.

I do not hate the doctors who recommend that prospective mothers of disabled children have an abortion, and I don’t hate parents who go through with this procedure. They are afraid and ignorant. Raising a disabled child is a daunting prospect, especially if they’re already dealing with poverty, lack of health care, or any of the other factors that lead people to abort their pregnancies. Many popular misconceptions exist about disabilities, but they all boil down to this. Many people believe that the disabled cannot live full, productive lives. I do not feel that I have lived only half a life because of my blindness. I have met many other people who are blind, deaf, confined to wheelchairs, or intellectually disabled, and all of

them love life and are loved by their family and friends. With the proper resources, most disabilities can be reduced to nuisances that can be circumvented and allow people to chase their dreams. We cannot continue to deny pre-born disabled people the right to live based on these misconceptions.

Too often, parents of disabled children are confronted with all the negative worst-case scenarios, while not being told about alternatives and resources available to them. Louisiana has a free program called Early Steps, designed for disabled infants and toddlers and their families. I participated in the Early Steps program for the first three years of my life. Occupational therapists, speech therapists, and a teacher for the visually impaired came to my home to prepare me for my education in a mainstream public school. Families with disabled children can also receive special economic assistance to help with medical expenses and other needs.

The newest resource for families of disabled children in Louisiana is

Exceptional Lives, a website filled with reliable information about developmental disabilities, programs for disabled children, and financial assistance available in our state.

Numerous private organizations exist to provide support and accurate information about disabilities. Doctors should be able to educate parents-to-be about these options and resources instead of simply asking, “Do you want to keep it?”

Recently, Louisiana, North Dakota, and Indiana have passed legislation prohibiting abortions based solely on a baby’s race, gender, or disability. Unfortunately, the Louisiana law is facing court challenges. Upholding these laws would go a long way toward protecting preborn disabled children. I believe that Disability Awareness Month is the perfect time to bring attention to the harm legal abortion poses to the disabled community. Disability is life-altering, but not life-shattering. It can be embraced and overcome. It must be de-stigmatized and accepted.

Libertarians fail at cultural influence in mainstream politics Richard de Schweinitz Economics Junior rgdeschw@my.loyno.

Being a libertarian in today’s intensely partisan politics is to occupy somewhat of a precarious position.

Most Americans don’t really understand what libertarianism is, exactly; for those who identify with the left, libertarians seem to be a confusing mixture of social tolerance and economic ignorance, and to those on the right, libertarians are something of a glib, pot-smoking cousin. More generally, the libertarian agenda is understood by the American public with the overly reductive description “socially liberal, but fiscally conservative”. Besides these generalizations, however, libertarian politics are mostly a mystery to the uninitiated. The irony of this is that libertarians, while they

Disability Services works to reframe diversity

are so little understood, are also the largest political minority, representing the largest third party in the United States – but while the libertarian presence in the United States is large, it is mostly unknown and not particularly influential. This is because, in my view, libertarians have failed to establish themselves on the cultural stage as well as they have on the political one.

Though it is politicians and media outlets who disseminate the most information about politics, it is a political movement’s artists who build it into something more than just a party name. Through their work, artists build the world that they wish to see and to which people will attach themselves, materializing their views and making the positions of their side clear. Artists and media draw attention to certain issues, and they motivate similarly aligned masses of individuals into a driven movement with well-defined goals and principles. The problem with libertarians is that their cultural influence, as compared to their popular presence, is sorely lacking,

resulting in a lack of political vitality. In the United States, cultural figures and institutions are generally categorized into one of the two main sides along the major party lines. Celebrities, TV shows, news networks, businesses, etc. often fall into political alignments, either by their own declaration or by their associations with their consumers.

Both Democrats and Republicans have their clear, outspoken supporters; but when considering what a libertarian is or what he believes, the typical American has little recourse in the media to find answers.

The most well-known self-identified libertarian personalities in contemporary American media are Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and the character Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation – none of whom have a particularly serious connotation.

If libertarians want to be taken seriously in mainstream American politics, they need to take it upon themselves to create cultural influence beyond sardonic critiques of the system. Just like in liberal and conservative movements, it is pri-

marily libertarian art which informs the way that society generally views the libertarian agenda. Self-professed libertarian art is generally not constructive, in that it critiques political systems but rarely provides alternatives for them, and generally doesn’t take itself particularly seriously either. Even Ayn Rand, the novelist and philosopher held up as the paragon of libertarian ideals and whose serious, intellectual works are adored by libertarians, did not identify herself as a libertarian and in fact actively criticized the movement, describing libertarians as a “monstrous, disgusting bunch of people” who badly plagiarized her ideas but gave her no credit for them. The difficulty in creating constructive libertarian political art is that libertarianism is inherently opposed to the adoption of most political policy, explaining the generally critical thrust of libertarian political art and commentary; but without a constructive body of artistic work, the libertarian movement is crippling its own ability to find and motivate its supporters.

The Office of Disability Services (ODS) is working to reframe diversity at Loyola. Often, when people think of diversity, they think of racial and cultural differences. However, we also believe in the importance of neurodiversity, which is a concept where neurological differences are to be recognized and respected as any other human variation.

The neurodiversity movement suggests that we shift paradigms from one based on deficits (medical model) to one based on the cultivation of strengths (social model).

To implement a change in philosophy, ODS realizes we must model the paradigm shift for the institution. Making this shift requires us to recognize the messages conveyed through the name of our office, mission statement, syllabus statement and procedures, and to modify those to be in line with the desired paradigm shift.

To this end, we are changing the name of our office, amending our mission statement and syllabus statement, focusing on the concept of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), working to ensure accessibility and raising neurodiversity awareness in all aspects of our work.

As an example of similar efforts already undertaken on campus to raise neurodiversity awareness, last semester Loyola’s Counseling Center reached out to students who were experiencing anxiety and stress. Recognizing that each person on campus has a unique way of thinking and reacting, the counselors created several postcards with a different term and message on each and disseminated them to the community. It was interesting to see the postcards that individuals had chosen according to what term held significance to them placed strategically in offices, classrooms and dorm rooms across campus.

As unique individuals, we can take different paths to arrive at the same destination.

In another instance, the summer staff members of the Athletic Department reconfigured a workout room to ensure that the equipment in it is accessible to anyone who chooses to use the facility. The staff members recognize that different people access the machines by different means. Again, as unique individuals, we can use different approaches to derive the same benefits.

Clearly Loyola is undergoing remarkable changes that demonstrate its commitment to social justice, diversity and inclusiveness. The ODS believes the time has come for us to emphasize that as our needs and our students change, so should we.

Please join us in celebrating neurodiversity and appreciating the broad continuum of diversity within our community.

The office of Disability Services is located in Marquette Hall, Room 112, in the back of the Student Success Center. Office hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.

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THE MAROON

October 20, 2017