March 24, 2017

Loyola University • New Orleans • Volume 95 • Issue 21 • March 24, 2017

THE MAROON FOR A GREATER LOYOLA

Alpha Chi accepts transgender members nationally

By John Casey jecasey@loyno.edu @J_E_CASEY

The national council of the sorority Alpha Chi Omega has announced that it will begin to accept transgender women effective immediately.

A video announcement was released via the national organization’s Facebook on Feb. 17.

The video, starring Angela Costley Harris, national council president, addressed the decision to accept transgender women into the sorority. Harris emphasizes in the video how the change was brought upon by chapters across the nation and was not a move made solely by the national council. The comments on the video were mostly positive.

Laura Jacob Knobel, a recent college graduate, commented on the Facebook video, “So proud to be an Alpha Chi Omega today! Thank you to our National Council members and all who contributed to this decision.”

Older members also voiced their support on Facebook.

“I'm soon to be a 50-year member and I've never been more proud to be an Alpha Chi!” Sue Lance commented.

Others commented, expressing concern over the decision, mainly regarding sorority housing.

“I wholeheartedly disagree with this decision. Will you be allowing these men to live in the Alpha Chi houses and at the same time not allowing other men to visit at late hours?” Kerry Ann Gilmour said.

Her comment received a slew of replies, many of which expressed similar concerns.

Becca Miller, vice president of recruitment for the Zeta Psi chapter at Loyola University, said that this decision has been in the works since 2008.

Chapters across the nation have repeatedly requested information from the national council regarding the status of LGBT individuals as members. These requests led to lengthy deliberation by the national council, which ultimately led to the release of the Facebook video in February.

A summary of the decision, provided by Miller, notes that Alpha Chi Omega intends to use this opportunity to be inclusive and empowering to all women.

"We like to use our phrase 'Real.

Strong. Women,' and that applies to everyone who is a woman, who lives and identifies as a woman," Miller said. "Giving these fellow women a chance to grow and empower themselves in our sorority, and others as well, is advancing the culture of women."

The video also makes clear that this decision was not about any research or study groups, but entirely made based on requests from chapters.

Charlotte Preuss, vice president of public relations and marketing for Alpha Chi Omega's Zeta Psi chapter, is one of many members who are thrilled over the announcement.

"I am not only excited, but also honored to be a part of an organization that recognizes the importance of acceptance and the value of each individual," Preuss said. "Alpha Chi Omega opening its doors to transgender individuals shows not only immense character, but also an overwhelming respect for all women."

Miller said she is encouraged by this decision and the reactions that she has seen so far.

"I can't speak for every single member, but from what I've seen on social media they have been really supportive of national's decision and kind of excited; it's a huge step in equality for transgender women," Miller said.

The next recruitment season for the Zeta Psi chapter will begin at the start of the fall 2017 semester.

See TRANSGENDER page 3 NAASHA DOTIWALA / The Maroon

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March 24, 2017

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March 24, 2017 The Maroon

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Loyola quietly develops transgender resources

By Colleen Dulle colleen.dulle@gmail.com @ColleenDulle

Managing college and gender transition isn’t easy, but Loyola has begun making developments to support transgender students.

Although Loyola doesn’t keep statistics on how many transgender students are enrolled here, according to Patricia Boyett, director of the Women’s Resource Center, the university is starting to develop policies and resources to help these students.

One of the few policies already in place is Loyola’s preferred name change system. Although it wasn’t developed for students who are transitioning, Kathy Gros, director of student records, said three transgender students have already used it for that purpose.

Gros, who manages the name changes, said she feels strongly about helping transgender students feel comfortable at Loyola.

“Changing a preferred name may be a simple step to take care of on my end, but I know how important this is to our transgender population for our university community to refer to them as the gender they identify with,” Gros said.

To change their preferred names, students meet with Gros, provide identification and complete a form.

Students can set up meetings via phone or email. Once the name is changed, students can request a change to their email addresses and student IDs. Students also have the option of entering their preferred name when they apply to Loyola.

Neither Corey Ford nor Jo Gehringer, both transgender seniors, have requested name changes with the university, though Ford is in the process of having his name legally changed. If his legal name changes, the university will change it too.

“I was okay with just talking to professors, but I really cared more about getting official documents the way I wanted,” Ford said.

Gehringer also opted to tell her professors her preferred names and pronouns independently. Gehringer, an English major, said this part was easy for her.

For Ford, an economics student, it wasn’t so simple. There are some

JESSICA MOLINA / The Maroon

Unisex bathrooms can be found in the Monroe Library, pictured here on March 22, as well as in Monroe Hall, Mercy Hall and each of the residence halls. Many of the changes made to assist transgender students at Loyola have gone unpublicized, making it hard for students wishing to use them.

professors he still hasn’t told because he was worried about their reactions.

And even with well-meaning professors, other students aren’t always understanding.

Ford said that in one class, his professor asked the students to introduce themselves with their preferred names and pronouns.

“It was really nice of a gesture, but then a lot of classmates were like, ‘Psh, why do we have to do that?”’

Ford said. “There was one guy who was like, ‘I would like the pronoun she,’ and then everyone starts snickering and he was like ‘yeah, that’s a joke.’”

Another challenge facing transgender students is the bathrooms on campus.

The university has made several bathrooms unisex in recent years, including bathrooms in Monroe Hall, Mercy Hall, Monroe Library and each residence hall.

Both Gehringer and Ford use the Monroe bathrooms if necessary, but

both said they preferred to use the restroom at home before coming to school. Ford said he tries not to drink water at school to avoid having to use the public bathrooms.

“Sometimes I’d rather not go to the bathroom,” Ford said.

Naomi Yavneh, director of the University Honors Program, said one unique challenge in communicating resources to students is Loyola’s Catholic identity. In his 2016 apostolic exhortation, Pope Francis wrote that “biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated,” a stance that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has reiterated.

It can be difficult, Yavneh said, to find a place to display resources for students while not publicizing them so much that they draw criticism from Loyola’s more conservative stakeholders.

Yavneh has helped several honors students, including Ford and Gehringer, through their transitions.

Due to the mental strain involved, both students saw their grades drop in the semesters when they started their transitions.

Ford never withdrew from his classes but did stop attending them.

He is now working to retroactively withdraw from some of those classes with Yavneh’s help.

“I think the combined stress just made me go, ‘I don’t really want to go to school,’ and eventually, through help of friends, I went back,” Ford said.

Gehringer also didn’t withdraw but finished the semester with a few incomplete grades that she worked with Yavneh to remedy this semester.

“It’s been hard to get to class,” Gehringer said last semester. “It’s gotten a lot better, but leaving the house has been scary if I’m dressed a certain way or presenting a certain way. It’s just nerve-wracking for me because I don’t know if people will think I’m weird if they’ve known me a certain way for three years.”

Yavneh hopes to put a “grace period” protocol in place to give students some academic leeway during a gender transition, though these plans are still in development.

In addition to these resources for transgender students, there are programs to educate the community about transgender issues.

The Women’s Resource Center hosted two workshops called Transgender 101 and Transgender 102 last semester. Boyett said she hopes to host another workshop this semester.

Loyola’s Office of Student Involvement also hosts Q-Advocate trainings each semester. These three hour sessions are meant to train students in inclusive language, gender inclusive pronouns, specific issues faced by LGBT students and campus resources and policies related to LGBT students.

See transgender page 10

Campus climate assessment aims to improve campus for students

By Cristian Orellana orellanacristian097@yahoo.com @ceorellana8

JESSICA MOLINA / The Maroon

Students enjoy the sunshine in the Peace Quad on March 22. Loyola has recently decided to conduct a campus climate assessment to understand and improve the student environment on campus.

Rankin & Associates will be conducting a campus climate assessment through fall 2017.

The goal of the assessment is to determine how the attitudes and beliefs of the Loyola community contribute to the overall feeling on campus.

According to Liv Newman, the interim chief diversity officer and co-chair of the Campus Climate Assessment Committee, this is the first campus climate assessment in which Loyola has engaged.

Campus climate refers to “the current attitudes, behaviors, standards and practices of employees

and students of an institution,” according to Susan Rankin of Rankin & Associates Consulting. Rankin & Associates was chosen for the survey because of its cost, comprehensiveness and its experience with higher level educational facilities.

Maria Calzada, co-chair of the Campus Climate Assessment Committee, hopes the project will have a positive impact on students, faculty and staff.

“A campus where students, faculty and staff feel supported and encouraged should result in more happy and successful students,” Calzada said.

The Campus Climate Assessment Committee finished planning and conducting 19 different anonymous focus groups of faculty, staff and students earlier this March. The

next step will take place in October where all faculty, staff and students will be able to participate in the survey. By the spring of 2018, the results will be delivered to the entire Loyola community at the same time.

“We really want a high level of student involvement in the survey,” Newman said.

Using the results from the survey, Loyola hopes to cater to any changes that the school’s population requires and to keep up with what they like. However, getting that knowledge requires participation by everyone, and Newman wants students to get involved.

“Take the survey. Take the 25 minutes to complete it, and let your voices by heard,” Newman said.

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WORLDVIEW

March 24, 2017 The Maroon

WORLDVIEW briefs Latinos report fewer sex crimes amid immigration fears, according to LAPD

ALLICIYIA GEORGE/ The Maroon

Biology senior Rheyanna Lewis (left) listens to Tulane student Jenny Ly (right) discuss ways to allocate more resources to students of color and talk more about race and diversity at Tulane. Women were grouped together at the Elect Her workshop, based on similar political concerns. Lewis and Ly exchanged solutions to race issues at their campuses.

Elect Her workshop trains women in politics

By Alliciyia George atgeorge@my.loyno.edu @AlliciyiaG

The Elect Her program worked to leave college women with lasting political leadership skills, after a training session was held Saturday.

The workshop tied up the Feminist Festival, an 11-day celebration with programs ranging from artistic performances to lectures.

In the United States, 19.5 percent of Congress is female according to the Center for American Women and Politics, and the U.S. ranks 104th for female representation in government in the world according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Running Start, an organization geared toward educating young women about the importance of politics and giving them the skills

to become leaders, is fighting to change that statistic.

Jessica Kelly, director of leadership and programs for Running Start, ran a workshop at Tulane University to conclude the Feminist Festival. The event was sponsored by the Loyola Women’s Resource Center, Tulane’s Women in Politics, College Democrats, College Republicans, Tulane University’s Student Government and the Newcomb College Institute. Kelly shared her favorite statistic gathered from the workshops in the past seven years.

“This last year we pulled all the women that ran for student government after attending this training is that 90 percent of them won their races, so we really know that this training works,” Kelly said.

The purpose of the Feminist Festival was “to celebrate the importance of women in our world,

to help advance gender equality, and to work toward Loyola’s mission of creating a more just and compassionate world,” Patricia Boyett, Women’s Resource Center director, said.

The Elect Her program is a nationwide program campuses can contact to have facilitators come and host a workshop.

Anna Mahoney, administration assistant professor of Women’s Political Leadership, said that Elect Her is designed to create leadership skills that young women can always use. She hopes that the workshop will create a desire for students to run for office.

“Studies show that women’s political ambition declines in college, so we are hoping with Elect Her that we can reverse that trend,” Mahoney said.

Young women are 20 percent less

likely than young men to express interest in a candidacy at some point in the future, according to a study conducted by Jennifer L. Lawless, American University professor and director of the Women & Politics Institute, and Richard L. Fox, Loyola Marymount University professor.

Several Loyola students attended the workshop. Rheyanna Lewis, biology senior, gained insight from attending the workshop.

“One of the activities that we participated in was to write a speech as if we were campaigning for a government position and to focus on relaying our main points about an issue we wanted to discuss,” Lewis said. “This activity reinforced the idea that we should be able to pinpoint what it is we want to advocate for and why we want to and how we would resolve said issue.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The police chief of Los Angeles, a city that is half Latino, found himself in the middle of the national immigration debate on Wednesday after saying there’s a correlation between the Trump administration’s call for stiffer immigration policies and a drop in the number of Hispanics reporting sexual abuse and domestic violence.

“Imagine your sister, your mother, not reporting a sexual assault for fear that their family will be torn apart,” Beck said Tuesday.

Since the beginning of this year, sexual assaults reported by Latinos in Los Angeles have dropped 25 percent, and domestic violence reports by Latinos have decreased by 10 percent compared to the same period last year.

Crime statistics show there were 164 sexual assaults reported by Latinos in the first two months of 2016, compared to 123 in the first two months of 2017. There was also a decrease of 118 reports of domestic violence during the same periods among Latinos.

Jessica Vaughan of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which lobbies for less immigration to the U.S., said it is “extremely speculative” to draw a connection between the drop in crime reporting and fears regarding accelerated efforts to round up and deport immigrants. She questioned Beck’s reasoning for announcing the figures.

“This seems to be somehow politically motivated to try to get people to think increased enforcement is causing problems in the community,” Vaughan said. “I think it is really a stretch to connect this decline with perceptions of increased immigration enforcement.”

Immigrant advocates counter that the unease of those living in the U.S. illegally is forcing victims of violent crimes to fear that any interaction with police could result in deportation.

Harahan residents respond to airport expansion construction

By Anthony Alongi adalongi@my.loyno.edu

Harahan residents living along River Road aren’t getting much sleep these days with all the noise going on behind the levee.

That noise is the result of work being done late into the night as part of the airport expansion project at Louis Armstrong International Airport. Large trucks are filling up with sand and hauling it to the airport to act as landfill. Residents say it has been going on since early last year and has interrupted their quality of life in the neighborhood.

Vincent Adams, who lives on a nearby street, said that the night time disturbances sometimes makes it hard to get to sleep.

“I mean, it’s loud. Sometimes it’s like 8 or 9 p.m., and they’re still back there doing stuff. Which, they got stuff to do, that’s fine. But they got to do it at night? I’m up at 4 a.m. for work, and it can get aggravating, yeah. This is a neighborhood,” Ad-

ams said.

According to Adams, the construction has stopped for the last week or so but that it likely doesn’t mean that it won’t start up again.

“It’ll stop and start and stop and start with these small breaks. So I’m not counting on it,” Adams said.

The noise isn’t the only complaint that residents have about the work being done. A common gripe among residents is all the sand that is being spread throughout the neighborhood by uncovered trucks hauling sand from behind the levee.

Residents, such as Lena Chevalier, said that the sand sometimes makes its way into their houses and yards, and the large trucks used to carry the sand rattle their property.

“My whole house vibrates when they roll pass the street,” Chevalier said.

Chevalier, who moved to Harahan over 15 years ago, said she has never had to deal with anything like this.

“I’m not a complainer, but this isn’t a place where this happens.

Harahan has always been really quiet, and that’s what I’m used to,” Chevalier said.

She said that the sand constantly making its way into her yard has prevented her from going outside and sitting on her porch, an activity that she looks forward to.

“I mostly stay at home on the weekdays, and I like to sit outside.

Hopefully, something happens, so I don’t have to worry about getting sand in my face anymore,” Chevalier said.

Actions have been taken by residents to address the issues that they have had to deal with from airport expansion work.

Residents started passing out flyers to encourage them to call city hall with their complaints. So far, there have been more than 150 statements of complaints.

Charlie and Daphne Wassamire, who own a house directly next to the levee, said that the city is not enforcing its policies.

“There are noise ordinances in this city that are being ignored.

There are air ordinances in this city that are being ignored. They want to do all this work at night, so they can get back and forth to the airport at night without any traffic slowing them down,” Charlie Wassamire said.

Chasse Roth, who recently moved from his home near the levee in Harahan, said that the negligent circumstances from the levee work factored into his decision to leave.

“I didn’t move because of any of that necessarily. But I didn’t like what was going on around there. I had to sweep and mop sand all the time because it would get through my screens. Felt like I was living on the beach almost,” Roth said.

Roth said that he attempted to contact the Department of Environmental Quality multiple times but that nothing was being done about it.

“I’ve left messages, and I even got them on the phone and made complaints. If I didn’t have a life I suppose I could call them all day,” Roth said.

Roth said that the street is cleaned weekly to clear sand away but that it doesn’t do much to get the sand off of people’s homes. Roth also said that pressure washing had become a common practice among residents in the neighborhood.

“If they would push the road back more towards the river and covered the trucks with the sand that would take care of the sand. They work too close to the road, and you can hear everything. Some of it is an easy fix,” Daphne Wassamire said.

Some residents were able to speak to Harahan city council members at a meeting last year and received some vocal support for their cause, but so far nothing has happened.

“It’s an ongoing problem there right now, and I hope it’s taken care of soon. I have a lot of friends in that area all the way down the levee,” said Roth.“All they want is some peace and quiet around there.”

The Department of Environmental Quality could not be reached for comment.

March 24, 2017

C R O S S W O R D

THE MAROON

ACROSS 1. Show affection to, as a dog 4. Barton of the Red Cross 9. The Congo, formerly 14. Martinique, par exemple 15. Archaeological find 16. Bother 17. Track event with batons 19. Night, in Naples 20. Congregational “Absolutely!”

21. “__ beaucoup” 23. Lab rodent 24. Schoolbook, or much of its contents 25. Romantic outing for four 27. “Romanian Rhapsodies” composer 29. Wears away 30. John, Paul and George: Abbr.

31. Under-the-sink fitting 35. For fear that 36. Romantic ideal 39. Farmland measure 42. Steinway or Yamaha 43. Crone 46. Yellow Teletubby 49. Meditative music genre 51. Machinist’s hole maker 55. Ache 56. Announcer Hall 57. Use a loom 58. What aces may count as 59. Black, in Burgundy 61. Players on the same side ... and what the starts of the answers to starred clues can be 64. Hues 65. The “I” in IV 66. High season on the Riviera 67. Grain disease 68. Ruby Dee’s husband Davis 69. Period, e.g.

DOWN 1. High seas bandits 2. Periodic table listing 3. Fax forerunners 4. Bawl 5. The Once-__: “The Lorax” character

6. Mission to remember 7. Houston sch.

8. Biting, as criticism 9. More wacky 10. Period with 365 días 11. For services rendered instead of cash 12. Revolves 13. Driver’s license requirement 18. Aardvark fare 22. The NFL’s Browns, on sports tickers 25. Pour affection (on) 26. Sweetie pie 28. EMT procedure 32. Knock hard 33. Parisian pal 34. Ryder Cup org.

36. Big name in computers 37. Holiday and Days 38. Caviar 39. Firm, as pasta 40. It’s usually locked after parking 41. Attacking, as the fridge

43. Full of ghosts 44. Go along with 45. Prepares 47. L.A. Angels’ division 48. Big galoot 50. Stagecoach driver’s “Stop!”

52. 4:1, e.g.

53. Alternative to odds 54. Theater chairs 60. Classic car 62. CAT scan cousin 63. Fannie or Ginnie follower

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Life &Times

March 24, 2017 THE MAROON

Film • Arts • Food • Music • Leisure • Nightlife

Spider man goes to Cambridge

By Davis Walden jdwalden@my.loyno.edu @DavisWald

Michael Pashkevich, biology senior, was awarded a full scholarship to Cambridge University, where he will focus his doctoral study on spiders and arachnids.

Pashkevich is conducting his ongoing honors thesis study at Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, where he is examining how the conservation of deer in the preserve affects spider richness and abundance in the area.

Pashkevich was the only Louisiana applicant to receive the Gates Cambridge scholarship from over 800 U.S. applicants.

“I think humans are rather discriminatory in how they approach the conservation movement,” Pashkevich said. “There’s a whole other host of organisms that need to be conserved and there’s research suggesting if you conserve the large dramatic things, it could have an adverse effect on the smaller things that need to be conserved, as well.”

With the help of Aimée Thomas, assistant professor in the department of Biological Sciences, and several undergraduates, Pashkevich has collected and sampled 1,394 specimens from a plot of land that deer have access to and another plot of land that the deer have had no access to since 2006.

“Michael’s work is helping us understand the spider community at Jean Lafitte National Park as well as effective sampling techniques for a bottomland hardwood forest spider community,” Thomas said. “Our lab hopes to build upon his work with more research in the future.”

Pashkevich hated spiders until college. He only started to like spiders after going on a trip to Mississippi with Thomas to see what spiders were there.

“She plucked off of its web a large golden orb weaver spider, and just stuck it right on my arm,” Pashkevich said. “I was fascinated by the curiosity of it and the charisma that it had.”

The hike in Mississippi is one of the excursions Pashkevich has done with Thomas, who has taken stu-

LIFE AND TIMES briefs French Quarter Festival announces 2017 daily music lineup French Quarter Festivals Inc. revealed their stage-by-stage roster for their 34th annual event.

Hundreds of local and national musicians will be featured throughout the French Quarter over April 6-9. Notable local musicians for this year’s festival include Aaron Neville, The Porter Trio, John ‘Papa’ Gros and Loyola graduates Naughty Professor.

The festival will kick off on Thursday, April 6 with a parade led by the Mahogany Brass Band marching from Iberville and Bourbon to Jackson Square.

Tennessee Williams Festival returns to New Orleans The Tennessee Williams and New Orleans Literary Festival annual event will take place from March 22 through 26, with panel discussions, walking tours and master classes.

The theme of this year’s festival will commemorate the 100th year anniversary of the “Storyville” New Orleans red-light district closing down. Guest speakers attending this year include NPR’s Roy Blount Jr. and Chicago Tribune advice columnist Amy Dickinson.

The festival provides writing education to over 200 area students every year, and drives roughly $1 million dollars of economic impact every year over the five days.

Photo Illustration by Osama Ayyad

Michael Pashkevich carefully studies a golden orb weaver spider within his Monroe Hall lab. Pashkevich’s honors thesis at Loyola centered around deer herbivory on spider species richness in southeast Louisiana. His work in Cambridge will focus on whether or not spiders can effectively provide a clean alternative to traditional pesticides.

dents to conduct tropical ecology studies in Belize, Guatemala, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.

“People tend to be afraid of animals and habitats they do not know,” Thomas said. “I try to engage students by exposing them to nature in a unique way, such as allowing a spider to crawl on your arm or lying down in the middle of a rainforest to experience nature in a different manner.”

Out of the estimated 200,000 species of spiders around the globe,

only 45,000 species have been documented.

“We’ve only found about a fifth of them,” Pashkevich said. “The scary thing about that is that research shows that spiders are going extinct at the same rate as large mammals.”

Pashkevich stated that while Louisiana is considered to be “well-studied” for its spiders, the state has not had a study on spiders done in 15 years.

“Since Katrina and other large scale ecological disasters, we haven’t

actually seen what spiders are right here in our region,” Pashkevich said.

“I’m also sort of just documenting what we have here and what quantity they’re present.”

At Cambridge, Pashkevich will be based out of the Museum of Zoology.

“I love getting younger kids excited about it [science] and try to encourage them to pursue a career in the sciences, especially if they’re from underrepresented backgrounds,” Pashkevich said.

Southern Rep Theatre set to premiere ‘Sweet Bird of Youth’ play Presented in partnership with the Tennessee Williams Festival, Southern Rep Theatre will be performing their rendition of William’s play “Sweet Bird of Youth” from March 22 through April 16 in Marquette Theatre.

Directed by Mel Cook, the play follows a male escort returning to his hometown as the companion of a failed movie star traveling incognito. Tickets are available for the opening night and onwards for $40.

Students keep poetry alive with DIY festival

By Lily Cummings lrcummin@my.loyno.edu @lilyrain6

Three Loyola students not only read their poems around New Orleans but are planning a three-day festival to showcase their poetry and the work of others.

Jo Gehringer, English senior, opens up her home at 1932 Broadway St. for poetry readings regularly and will host the first night of the 2tender4house: indie lit festival on March 24 through 26.

The festival is the brainchild of several Loyola poets whose aim is to showcase the work of local queer and transgender poets and people of color in an attempt to build a more tight-knit and inclusive poetry community.

The writers in this community said they try to influence one another. Zoe Blair-Schlagenhauf, art and design junior, and Margaret O’Connell, English writing and philosophy sophomore, said they look up to Gehringer. Gehringer, in turn, is influenced by O’Connell, Blair-Schlagenhauf, other Loyola poets around the area and faculty member Peyton Burgess.

“Jo is the reason I started writing,” Blair-Schlagenhauf said. “They [Jo and poet friends] showed me poetry doesn’t have to be inaccessible or have to rhyme.”

Gehringer, Blair-Schlagenhauf and friend Amelia Seidel run a literary magazine they call Tenderness, Yea. Blair-Schlagenhauf will also release her first poetry book at the festival, titled “Chlamydia Summer.” O’Connell and Blair-Schla-

genhauf shared their excitement for the event as they have worked hard to raise money and have poets fly in from across the country.

Blair-Schlagenhauf also credits Gehringer with being a key proponent in starting the Loyola poetry scene. It originally began at Loyola’s 1718 production at the Columns Hotel until Gehringer began opening up her home.

“Sharing that [writing] in a room full of people that are there for it, and listening and attentive and supportive, is probably my favorite thing I do in my life,” Gehringer said.

Blair-Schlagenhauf said there is potential to grow when you share your work with like-minded individuals.

“No one has the same exact words for things,” Blair-Schlagenhauf said.

“Even if we are talking about the

same thing, we describe it in different ways.”

The poets explained that poetry means something different to each of them. While Blair-Schlagenhauf said poetry gives her an opportunity to talk about tenderness, O’Connell commented that poetry for her isn’t the pretentious, inaccessible connotation it sometimes receives but fulfills that desperate want to communicate with people.

“One of the best things about poetry is that it can mean so many things to so many different people,” Gehringer said. “To me, lately, poetry has been about survival.”

O’Connell and Blair-Schalegenhauf also explained that there are many different types of poetry describing them as subtle, conversational speeches and showy-poetry with a reactive quality.

Blair-Schlagenhauf said Gehringer describes it best when she says, “A poem is bad when there are more words than feelings.”

All three poets agreed that humor is important in poetry. O’Connell believes humor humanizes poetry. Gehringer described poetry as telling a joke and said she feels certain lines provide an “aha” moment that can flip your perception of the world.

“It [humor] can break down the walls so they can actually hear what you’re saying,” Blair-Schlagenhauf said.

For locations of the 2tender4house indie lit festival happening March 24 through 26, check out the event’s Facebook group.

SPORTS Baseball team works through early struggles March 24, 2017 The Maroon

By Cole Gautereaux cgautere@my.loyno.edu

7

Men’s basketball reflects on national tournament

By Brian Wollitz

At the midpoint of the season, Loyola University New Orleans’ baseball team holds an overall record of 15-18.

Many of those wins were earned at home, at Segnette Field in Westwego, Louisiana. Despite the team’s impressive 10 home victories, the Wolf Pack faces difficulties while away. Currently, the team holds a record of 1-5 in the Southern States Athletic Conference, with the bulk of their conference games remaining.

Doug Faust, head coach, said that some of the team’s losses may correlate with a few key injured players.

“Considering the injuries and youth of the team, I am somewhat pleased with where we are,” Faust said. “We have four of our main pitchers out and our starting shortstop out. The guys that have stepped up and filled in have done a pretty good job.”

Faust also commends the team’s fierce competitive spirit.

“Our strength to this point has been our competitiveness. We have not done any phase of the game very well, but we go out and compete as hard as we can,” Faust continued.

With team leaders like Alex Lorenzo, business senior; Ben Condara, general studies junior; Joseph Kuchler, psychology junior; Nick Moore, history and pre-law senior, freshman players can expect to learn composure, focus and a desire to continuously improve.

Lorenzo holds one of the best offensive records on the team, yet he said he doesn’t let his ego get the better of him. He advocates for humility, patience and positivity.

“I feel like I have had a pretty good season so far, but nowhere near where it could be. I’ve never really been one to focus on my individual numbers. I just really enjoy playing the way I like to play and not worrying about the end result until the game is over,” Lorenzo said.

As far as senior mentorship, Lorenzo leads by example.

“I’ve never been a very vocal leader, but the one thing I’ve tried to maintain this year as a senior is a sense of togetherness and helping

bawollit@my.loyno.edu @brian_wollitz

MARISABEL RODRIGUEZ / The Maroon

Ben Condara, general studies junior, up to bat during Tuesday’s game against Louisiana State University-Alexandria. The Wolf Pack is set to play Blue Mountain College this Friday, March 24 at Segnette Field in Westwego, Louisiana.

the younger guys understand that individual performance shouldn’t guide the way they act for the duration of the game. Baseball is an extremely mental game, and the players who can deal with the inevitable failure of it usually end up being the most successful,” Lorenzo said.

Like Faust, Lorenzo is proud of the team’s ability to battle back and to fight against early deficits.

“We have had several games filled with late-game heroics and rallies that get us right back into the game.

Not all of them have fallen our way, but the fact that we know we can play with anyone allows us to carry that confidence for 7-9 innings,” Lorenzo said. “The team has really excelled at staying together and maintaining great chemistry through the course of a rocky season. The strong

bond is definitely there; now we just need to put it all together and have it transfer over to the field.”

As for the rest of the season, the baseball team’s goals include playing strong “small ball,” which means playing down to the last inch. It’s seeing the little things, such as bunting and stealing, all the way through to completion.

Condara believes that the team has a recipe for success heading into the second half of the season.

“I feel good about the team at this point. We found a mould that we believe [to be] the winning program.

We’re going to bunt, we’re going to steal bases, and we’re going to try to score as many runs possible,” Condara said.

Condara also said staying focused and playing each game to comple-

tion are the two most important things the team needs to master.

“On the away game you just got to keep your focus. Sometimes it doesn’t really feel like a baseball game anymore, and sometimes it feels more like a trip or vacation. So I’d say that keeping focus and staying in the game the whole time is the most important,” Condara said.

With Condara focused on improving his batting skills, and Lorenzo deadset on getting the younger players up to par with Wolf Pack Baseball, the team zeroes in on conference play in the remaining weeks.

“Our goal is to win some conference series, there’s about 30 games left, maybe a little under, but hopefully more if we make the conference playoffs,” Condara said.

Water Polo team makes a splash in their inaugural year

By Andres Fuentes aafuentel@my.loyno.edu @af_nola

In their first year, Loyola’s water polo team has made progress in trying to establish themselves in the school’s culture.

When Tulane changed their club sports policy, prohibiting Loyola students from participating, Dahlia Martinez, biology freshman, felt like the chance to play water polo was lost. However, this prompted her to start a team at Loyola.

“I was so upset, but after talking with some girls here that were interested in it, we decided we should start a club,” Martinez said. “We saw that it [water polo] was something that could draw in a lot of people. I submitted the proposal and then we had the approval meeting with SGA, and then we got it approved.”

With the club set up, it was Mar-

tinez’s opportunity to shine as the team’s captain and president. She was even the coach for the beginning period of the club.

“Mostly it was me running the first practice with my vice-captain Cat (Catherine Novella),” Martinez said. “The first week was a lot of conditioning because everyone needs to get back into shape and after that the next couple practices were focused on basics and an intro.

Then we got into more disciplined practice.”

The team eventually found a head coach in Sean Creedon, who helped develop the team and condition them for their first tournament.

“The team has definitely come a long way, even in the short amount of time we have been practicing. A few of the players on our team had never played water polo before, so learning all the rules of the game, the positions, etc. takes a long time to work out,” Creedon said.

The new prorgam has struggled to recruit new members and accquire funds to help them, but Creedon is optimistic that they can overcome these difficulties.

“We lack the funds and the equipment to truly reach our potential.

Once we have more equipment, we will be able to practice more of the fundamental skills that will be necessary to improve upon,” Creedon said.

“We want to make sure we continue to recruit players who are going to be dedicated to taking this team to the next level.”

With 14 players currently on the squad, the team is readily looking for anyone who wants to join. With a few scrimmages being planned out for both April and May, there is a chance for newcomers to show off their skills.

“Typically people don’t know about water polo and how aggressive of a sport it is, or how difficult or

demanding it is. So definitely, if they want to come try it out, we’re totally open,” Martinez said.

Experience is not needed to join the club, which initially caused a rough start in performance. However, Catherine Novella, criminal justice freshman and co-captain and vice president, likes what she sees in her team.

“The performance of the team is good. Of course, there was a time where it was rocky, but they are doing pretty well. For our first year as a team, we are pretty close and doing OK. Like I said before, I knew that it was going be a bit rocky, but we are going strong,” Novella said.

With the confidence Novella received so far in the inaugural season, she has nothing but optimism for the team in the future.

“The team will get bigger and there will be more action and success from the team,” Novella said.

After making the national tournament for the first time in 71-years, the men’s basketball team strives for future success after falling in the first round.

The Wolf Pack traveled to Kansas City, Missouri and faced No. 1 ranked William Penn Statesman in the tournament, but lost 100-78.

Loyola was unable to overcome the physical game and was out-rebounded by William Penn 56-31.

Despite the loss, Hollowell said it was a good test for the team.

“Our guys played a solid first half, although we allowed far too many rebounds. They hit shots early in the second half and the ones they missed they cleaned up with rebound put backs. The second half was very physical and it was good for our guys to see the amount of contact that is allowed in the tournament,” Hollowell said.

While in Kansas City, Hollowell said the team did a community service project promoting the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Champions of Character Initiative when they arrived on March 13.

The team also sampled some of the city’s famous barbecue and toured the College Basketball Hall of Fame and the College Basketball Experience, an interactive center with different games, courts, historic info and memorabilia.

Johnny Griffin Jr. business senior and combo guard and forward, said the opportunity of going to the national tournament was something great for the program.

“I think Kansas City is a great city. The tournament was a great experience for us. I think it gives the guys coming back some motivation to want to go back next year now that they’ve had that experience.

They know what it’s like and I think they’ll be well prepared for next year,” Griffin said.

Griffin also believes the team has the potential to achieve bigger things in the future.

“I hope each year that they keep getting better and keep making it farther in the tournament and one day winning a conference outright and getting a ring,” Griffin said.

Griffin said he is proudest about the way his teammates carried themselves off the court this year.

“We know we were friends on the court but off the court we’re all like brothers,” Griffin said.

That camaraderie that Griffin talked about will have to be rebuilt.

However, Hollowell has already started the process in replacing his senior talent.

“We’ve made contact with some guys we really like and hope to bring in a class that is as good as the one we are graduating,” Hollowell said.

With the season over, Hollowell sets his eyes on next season. Currently he has set goals for his players as they shift their focus to the classroom and into the offseason.

“We are looking for our guys to finish up well in the classroom. Our guys need to add strength in the off-season and come back looking to build on this year’s success,” Hollowell said.

8

The Maroon

March 24, 2017

We’re looking for a few good candidates for

EDITOR IN CHIEF Listen to what past editors have said about this job:

AND IT WAS

OF TIMES.

Liz Scott Monaghan, columnist and feature writer, New Orleans Magazine; mass communication instructor and former Maroon adviser Maroon Editor in Chief, Fall 1963-64

“ h i g h - g l a m o u r, Being Maroon editor is

“

HIGH OCTANE STUFF! Nothing beats the power of steering an ultra-eager, ROCKILICIOUS staff to purple mountains majesty!

I mean

Lee Hudson Maroon Editor in Chief, Fall 2009-2010

‘I’m having so much fun I SHOULD BE ARRESTED.’ Michael Wilson, reporter, The New York Times; Maroon Editor in Chief, Fall 1991-92

“

quo te th e g r e a t “ To journalist I.F. Stone,

WOW!

I laughed, I cried, I dropped dropped two classes!

“

PRINT.

Iit was KNEW worth it.

Michael Giusti, Maroon adviser Maroon Editor in Chief, Fall 1999-2000

Basically, “ it’s awesome when

YOU CLICK PDF,

O N F R I DAY S ,

“

THE BEST

if it was all worth it.

BUT NOT ON FRIDAYS.

“

“

There were times “when I asked myself

It was the best of times,

Hank Steuver, feature writer, The Washington Post; 1993, 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writer runner-up.

Maroon Editor in Chief, Fall 1987

APPLICATIONS ARE AVAILABLE TODAY IN CM 328 T he position of editor in chief is open to any full-time Loyola student in good standing. As the chief student officer of T he Maroon, candidates for editor in chief must possess proven leadership ability; above-average competence in writing, reporting and editing; and an intimate understanding of jour nalistic practices including le gal and ethical standards.

RELIGION

March 24, 2017 THE MAROON

9

RELIGION BRIEFS Laptop ban targets Muslim majority nations WASHINGTON (AP) — Under new bans, electronic devices larger than smartphones, such as laptops, tablets and gaming devices, will have to be checked on some international flights.

The ban affects flights from Amman, Jordan; Kuwait City, Kuwait; Cairo; Istanbul; Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Casablanca, Morocco; Doha, Qatar; and Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

About 50 flights a day, all on foreign carriers, will be affected.

With the order affecting flights from predominantly Muslim nations, the U.S. ban may invite comparisons to Trump’s orders barring travel from several Muslim-majority nations, which have been blocked by courts. Early in his candidacy, Trump called on barring Muslims from entering the United States.

But the comparison has its limits.

The travel ban was more severe, separating families and barring students from studying in the U.S. The laptop ban is more of an inconvenience, and its stated reason is to protect the travelers who are affected by it. Still, it’s bound to annoy powerful business people and diplomats, and could affect the travel plans of wealthy tourists sought after by the U.S. travel industry.

Awakening retreat held in Fontainebleau State Park This semester’s Awakening retreat will be Friday, March 24 through Sunday, March 26 at Fontainebleau State Park in Mandeville.

The spiritual event happens once a semester and is an opportunity for students to reflect on their relationship with God and build community through shared experiences. The weekend is sponsored

by University Ministry and put on by students.

The weekend encourages students to share their personal stories related to identity and spirituality.

Students are then given the time to reflect both on their own and in small groups.

Dorothy Day’s grandchild speaks at Loyola Kate Hennessy, the granddaughter of Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, was expected to speak in Loyola’s Ignatius Chapel on Thursday, March 23.

Dorothy Day is considered one of the most significant U.S. Catholics due to her writings and her commitment to living out Catholic social teachings. She is on her way to being made a saint in the Catholic church.

The event, which was sponsored

by University Ministry, the Office of Mission and Ministry, the Office of the University Chaplain, and the Loyola Institute for Ministry, centered around Hennessy’s talk entitled “Dorothy Day: The World Will be Saved By Beauty.” Hennessy is the author of a forthcoming book by the same name. A reception and book signing was expected to follow the address.

The event was also broadcast online as a webinar.

ERIN SNODGRASS / The Maroon

A rider throws beads from a float to crowds near Jackson Square in the French Quarter at the St. Patrick’s Day parade on March 17. The St. Patrick’s Day parade celebrates the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick.

The patron saints go marching in New Orleans celebrated St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, and St. Joseph, the patron saint of Italy, with French Quarter parades on March 17 and 18

By Erin Snodgrass eesnodgr@loyno.edu @erinsnod

Loyola students spent last weekend celebrating both St. Patrick’s Day and St. Joseph’s Day as New Orleanians do best: attending parades.

Block parties and parades rolling in different areas of the city honored the patron saint of Ireland over two weekends.

On Friday, March 17, the St. Patrick’s Day Club held a block party in the Irish Channel featuring Irish music, food, drinks and dancers.

Later that evening, Molly’s at the Market and Jim Monaghan’s Parade rolled through the French Quarter.

Daniel Nisthal, psychology freshman, and Izabella Montagne, so-

ciology freshman, made their way to the Quarter on Friday night to watch the parade and see how New Orleans celebrates St. Patrick’s Day. “I wanted to go to some of the parades the week before and wasn’t able to make it, so I jumped at the opportunity to see St. Patrick’s Day in the heart of New Orleans,” Montagne said.

Nisthal attended a high school founded by Irish immigrants, and spent previous St. Patrick’s Days studying Irish history and writing papers about the holiday.

“Celebrating in New Orleans was way more fun. I got to actually see some Irish traditions instead of just researching them,” Nisthal said.

The parade featured Irish step dancers, stomping groups and Irish-centric floats with parade rid-

ers throwing traditional New Orleans St. Patrick’s Day items, such as cabbages, potatoes, carrots and beads.

“My favorite parts of the parade were definitely the creative floats and the beads I caught,” Nisthal added.

The next day, March 18, the Italian American Marching Club held their St. Joseph’s Day Parade in the French Quarter, along Chartres, Bourbon and Royal streets. The event serves as a heritage march for Italian immigrants and their descendants on St. Joseph’s Day, a Catholic holiday which celebrates Italy’s patron saint, Joseph.

Jimmy Guardiola, music education junior, has spent the last three years marching in the parade, after a friend from high school invited him

to join the club.

“The best part is being with my friends, dancing and having fun with the crowd, getting the audience engaged, handing out beads to all the lovely ladies and giving them a kiss on the cheek. It’s a lot of fun for all,” Guardiola said.

Marchers wear tuxedos and attend a formal ball at the Hilton after the parade is over. Guardiola, who is of Italian heritage, enjoyed the combination of sophistication and partying found at the St. Joseph’s Day celebrations.

“St. Joseph’s is important to me because it’s that lesser known celebration. Everyone goes crazy for St. Patrick’s Day, which is admittedly a lot of fun. However, it’s nice to see that we Italians can go as hard as the Irish, if not harder,” Guardiola said.

Loyola Iranians and Zoroastrians celebrate Nowruz

By Colleen Dulle mcdulle@loyno.edu @ColleenDulle

Courtesy of Firoozeh Roointan

This haft-sin table includes traditional items like fruits. Many Iranians celebrate Nowruz by laying such tables.

This week, 190 million people around the world celebrated Nowruz — literally, “New Day,” — the traditional Persian New Year.

Behrooz Moazami, the Patrick G. O’Keefe Distinguished Professor of History at Loyola, is Iranian and celebrates Nowruz every year.

“Like many other Iranians, I celebrate Nowruz wishing a new spring full of hope, prosperity, health, peace and love,” Moazami said.

Nowruz celebrates the beginning of spring and takes place on the spring equinox — this year, from sunset March 20 to sunset March 21.

Moazami said that he celebrates the holiday by laying a traditional

decorative table, called a “sofreh haft-sin.” “Haft-sin” literally means “seven S” and denotes the seven usual items that lay on the table: sabzeh (wheat, barley or lentil sprouts growing in a dish), samanu (a sweet pudding made from wheat germ), senjed (the dried fruit of the oleaster tree), sir (garlic), sib (apples), somaq (sumac berries) and serkeh (vinegar).

After the table is finished, Moazami said, people will sit in front of it wearing new clothes, a symbol of purification. The table stays up all year long, and though it’s an ancient tradition, “haft-sin” tables are a popular item to post on Instagram.

Nowruz is widely celebrated as a secular holiday, though it has roots in Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest religions, which began in Iran approximately 3,500 years ago.

The holiday’s secular and religious celebrations are indistinguishable, according to Naasha Dotiwala, political science senior and a managing editor at The Maroon.

Dotiwala is Zoroastrian and celebrates Nowruz as a religious holiday.

She said the holiday is often celebrated with sweets and dancing, along with the “haft-sin” table.

Moazami explained why he believes Nowruz has stood the test of time.

“If there is one lesson that continuation of Nowruz for more than 3,000 years in [the] very eventful history of Iran can give us, is that rejuvenation of life and wish of well-being of all can overcome all obstacles.

After all, Nowruz is when the sun begins to regain strength and overcome winter’s cold and darkness,” Moazami said.

EDITORIAL

10

March 24, 2017 THE MAROON

OUR EDITORIAL

The majority opinion of our editorial board

HOWLS & GROWLS HOWL to bags on bags of crawdads GROWL to presidential twitter fingers HOWL to Chuck Berry GROWL to mumble ‘rap’ HOWL to scientific discovery GROWL to science deniers HOWL to rock n’ roll Have a howl or growl? Tweet us at @loyola_maroon to be featured each Friday!

EDITORIAL BOARD Starlight Williams

MCT Campus

Editor-in-Chief

Naasha Dotwiala

Managing Editor for Print

Nick Reimann

Managing Editor for Electronic Properties

Taylor Ford

Maroon Minute Executive Producer

Riccardo Muzzetto

Design Chief

Barbara Brown

Photo Editor

Jessica Molina

News Editor

Caleb Beck

Life & Times Editor

Paulina Picciano

Wolf Editor

Jamal Melancon

Worldview Editor

Brian Wollitz

Sports Editor

Colleen Dulle

Religion Editor

Seán Brennan

Opinion and Editorial Editor

Paulina Picciano

Copy Editor

Hayley Hynes

Copy Editor

Liz Johnston

Copy Editor

Asha Thomas Haley Pegg Osama Ayyad

PR Director Senior Staff Writer Senior 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.

Demonstrators call for the repeal of HB2 in Raleigh, N.C., on April 25, 2016. The state approaches the first anniversary of the bill, widely criticized as anti-LGBT, which has cost North Carolinians jobs, money, performances and events, including this month’s NCAA basketball tournament.

Love thy Neighbor Loyola University has taken action to accommodate for the needs of its transgender students.

The next step is increasing visibility for trans people in the student body When it comes to the widely contested transgender issue, Loyola, an institution priding itself on diversity, inclusiveness and acceptance, is putting its money where its mouth is and working toward accommodation and protection for its transgender students.

Over the last year, Loyola has made several small, yet significant changes in its operations, from an increase in gender neutral restrooms around campus to working case-by-case in offering the best housing situations for transgender students.

Through the Office of Student Involvement, Krewe Leaders and health advocates undergo intensive “Q Advocate” training, which educates on long and short term strategies to be a resource for the LGBT community.

Through the Office of Student Records, transgender students also have the ability to report their preferred names into Loyola’s records so faculty and staff can be conscious of those in transition.

Loyola is not the first university to offer such resources, but with many schools that have yet to adopt these positive changes, it is clear that the Jesuit value of Cura personalis is being both practiced and preached.

As an institution, these are the beginning steps toward inclusivity and destigmitization of the LGBT community, a goal that can only be achieved when the issue is on the table.

As a student body, however, Loyola does little to match this effort.

Instead, the Loyola community mirrors the rest of the country in its treatment of transgender men and women: an unfortunate majority of people seeking to ignore rather than to understand.

Gender fluidity and the gender spectrum are concepts that few people want to talk about and even fewer want to think about.

Like with the rest of the country, those at Loyola who are educated and receptive of these concepts know who they are.

Generally, however, for the majority of people, thinking about the idea that a gender binary might not be accurate — the most basic historical, cultural, social concept of “one man, one woman” — is more than they care to handle.

The reality of the gender spectrum challenges peoples’ entire understanding of the world. This challenge, as history has shown time and time again, has led to the commonplace deaths of those who fall under the LGBT umbrella, both in extremely conservative countries and the United States alike.

As the U.S. continues to warm to the “L,” “G” and “B” parts of the community, who at least conform to the sex-gender binary, the “T” has yet to receive such consolation.

The American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973; “gender identity disorder,” today known as Gender Dysphoria, was declassified in 2012.

Regardless of philosophical or religious beliefs, the fact is that the latest, widely corroborated study

found that 41 percent of transgender and gender nonconforming people attempt suicide in the United States — two out of every five.

Analyzing this and similar studies, experts have tracked the effects of discrimination on transgender people. From being rejected by their family or community to homelessness and poverty, the more discriminatory factors a transgender person faces, the higher chance of suicide.

However, when transgender and gender nonconforming children and teens are supported rather than pushed away, the likelihood of suicide plummets.

Transgender people are discriminated against for the way they are born, misguidedly told that they are mentally ill, told they need institutionalization or are ignored all together.

Not only do these citizens receive almost no protection under the law from discrimination, when they are simply ignored as an alternative to hated, their very existence is invalidated.

They become invisible, further fueling the cycle of incredibly high homelessness and suicide rates for transgender people.

At best, transgender people benefit from the cultural shift that has allowed for the rest of the LGBT community to strive toward equality in this country. This shift in public acceptance is what has led to the increasing number of transgender people coming out at early ages.

This is not fake. Transgender people are not simply confused or “riding a trend.” This is a comprehensive

understanding of human neuropsychology, built on thousands of years of scientific discovery.

There is an overwhelming consensus in the medical community that gender identity is most often established during early childhood, by age four or five. When this is not the case, it happens during adolescence, when sexual identity is formed as well.

More often than many would care to realize, these identities are not congruent with the acceptable male-female status-quo.

Gender is a spectrum, full of different identities than the manly man and feminine woman. Working to destigmatize this concept will be a multi-generational effort, and Loyola’s actions to accommodate transgender people — students at risk simply because they fell on this spectrum a certain way — are integral in laying the foundations for change.

What’s more, though, is that the Loyola community opens its eyes to our fellow humans.

Transgender men and women are pioneers battling on all fronts, and they do not deserve the hate or invisibility they experience — espeically from good people who are too caught up in their own perspective to live empathetically.

These are people. These are neighbors and classmates and co-workers who will already struggle with more hate than anyone deserves in a lifetime.

As Loyola-educated adults, we cannot allow ourselves to fuel this cycle.

OPINION

Mach 24, 2017 The Maroon

11

Restore democracy with Article the First Dr. Stanley Yavneh Klos Visiting Professor, History, Rhetorical Theory A1HR.org

Although much attention has been focused of late on the Women’s March held the day after President Trump’s Inauguration, there have been 32 marches on Washington since the 2009 Tea Party protest that specifically sought legislation to benefit their respective causes.

Such legislation has typically been designed to make changes or additions to taxes and spending laws that, constitutionally, must originate in the House of Representatives.

There are many reasons why citizens have taken to the streets in protest — Democracy Spring, Border Security and Climate Change — but there is one underlying cause of this populist unrest: U.S. citizens have lost their voice in the House of Representatives.

On the last day of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, President Washington, who had remained silent in the debates throughout the proceedings, addressed the delegates for the very first time.

Nathaniel Gorham, one of the signers of the United States Constitution, proposed, “for the purpose of lessening objections to the Constitution, that the clause declaring ‘the number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every 40,000’ be changed to 30,000.”

Washington rose, stating that he “could not forbear expressing his wish that the alteration proposed might take place” because the smallness of the proportion of representatives ensured the security for the rights & interests of the people and that this “appeared to himself among the exceptionable parts of the plan.”

In other words, Washington himself affirmed the importance of limiting the number of people represented by each member of Congress.

The proposal passed unanimously, and two years later, to ensure that districts would remain small, the 1789 Congress proposed — as its very first constitutional amendment — capping congressional districts at 50,000 citizens.

The Bill of Rights, including the original “Article the First,” was

AP Exchange

Former Vice President Joe Biden, joined by Democrats and medical professionals and others, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 22, 2017, to mark seven years since former President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law.

passed on September 25, 1789 — alas, with a one-word error that rendered this original first amendment dysfunctional.

Today, the 1911-1929 House of Representative apportionment acts that capped the House membership at 435 representatives have ballooned congressional district sizes to over 740,000 citizens.

These districts now require Representatives, if they want to get re-elected, to spend between six and seven hours a day seeking funds for their next $1.3 million re-election campaign.

Currently, there are over 11,000 federally registered lobbyists that eagerly provide campaign capital to incumbents and challengers every two years. According to NPR and other sources, lobbyists are writing the House’s bills.

This ever-expanding congressional district model has also forced Congress to increase the number of federally paid “HR Staffers” from 500 in 1910 to over 12,000 in 2016.

These staffers, whose average age is 31, have outsourced legislative policy expertise to the private sector’s federally registered lobbyists.

The members of this 1789 Congress, who passed Article the First, included two future U.S. presidents, three former presidents of Congress, nine Declaration of Independence

signers, four Articles of Confederation signers and 15 U.S. Constitution signers. Moreover, President George Washington, Chief Justice John Jay, Cabinet members Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Edmund Randolph and Henry Knox all worked behind the scenes to constitutionally cap congressional districts at 50,000 citizens.

The framers avidly studied failed democracies such as those in Greece and Rome and were cynical about the future of an unchecked republic with no filter on the passionate protests of the moment.

They framed small congressional districts to provide a small town forum for public opinion, enabling the people to elect representatives who knew them personally to speak in the name of their neighbors.

The benefits of capping congressional districts would be paramount today.

Election cycle “likely voters” would statistically number between 13,000 to 21,000 citizens per district.

Any citizen would be empowered to mount a viable grassroots campaign for Congress, resulting in a House of Representatives comprised of leaders from all walks of life beholden only to their constituents.

Lobbyist and other special interest capital become superfluous in districts comprised of 13,000 to

21,000 “likely voters,” having little or no impact on legislative policy.

50,000 citizen districts eliminate the practice of gerrymandering techniques because the populations will be too small for states’ legislatures to splinter or pack groups without violating laws like the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The current 43,420 people per one Electoral College vote in Wyoming versus 705,454 people per one Electoral College vote in California would be rectified. A 50,000 citizen district results in one Wyoming Electoral College vote equaling the same population as one California Electoral College vote.

The current 435 cap on representatives is a public law, which can be changed to 50,000 citizen congressional district cap with a simple majority vote in Congress.

The debates and letters clearly indicate that the Bill of Rights framers wanted the House of Representatives to remain a deliberative body, answerable to people and devoid of any undue influence by special interests.

It is time for discerning citizens, regardless of their politics, to resurrect public reason by building a bigger House of Representatives.

Visit www.A1HR.org for more information.

Letter to the Editor: Evictionism uses rights in abortion Both the anti-abortion argument and the argument for abortion rights in last week’s issue of the Maroon get something wrong — they don’t look at the property rights involved in abortion.

Although correct conclusions can sometimes be gotten from shoddy foundations, this is rare, and it’s why I believe so many people are unsure or have weak positions on abortion.

The main tenets of evictionism are two-fold. First, that life begins at conception. For a sperm alone cannot eventually develop to become a human being and an egg alone cannot develop to become a human being, while a fertilized egg might.

Secondly, the evictionist position is predicated on the self-ownership of the mother and the unborn fetus, which is hopefully self-evident to all.

The mother of an unborn child owns her womb and has the right to evict an unwanted person from her property at any time. At any point in the pregnancy process the unborn person may be legally evicted under evictionism.

At the same time, the child owns itself, meaning that no direct harm may be done to it by outside actors.

Problems arise pre-viability when the eviction of the fetus would cause its death.

However, there are no positive obligations on the part of the mother.

Just as I may not be punished for not feeding or supporting starving children around the world, the mother of the fetus has no obligation to use her womb to support and shield the fetus from the outside environment.

To force the woman to keep something inside of her which she doesn’t want is to trespass against her in one of her most personal places.

At the same time, a woman has very limited rights under evictionism to partial birth abortions. One legal precedent about eviction is that it must be done in the least

harmful way possible to the person being evicted, and killing an unborn child when you could remove it alive is a blatant murder.

The one exception to this would be if the only way to evict the child would also kill it; in this scenario, the death of the fetus would not be murder, so long as there are no other possible means of eviction.

Under evictionism, the mother has the right to evict the child but not to kill it, unless the only way to save the mother’s life is to kill the unborn child.

Nathan Fryzek, Econonmics junior, nwfryzek@loyno.edu

Letter to the editor The community responds to the page

Competition will beat climate change There is no doubt that the climate is changing and human activity is the primary driver of that change through greenhouse emissions holding heat in the atmosphere.

The problem with the climate change “debate” isn’t the science or corporations and their “greedy” profit seeking—this is an oversimplification of the issue.

In part, skepticism arises from the forecasting of what might be.

Will we have acidic oceans and a billion displaced people with a surface temperature so hot we will all be forced into bunkers with Dr. Strangelove, or will we have smaller numbers of the displaced with changed climates that may make us adopt minimal adjustments to the way we must exist?

The fact that many models exist based on scientific consensus leads people to doubt the claim in the first place; the logic tends to be “if everyone is on the same page, why are there so many different outlooks?”

This can be explained when you sit in a room with a climate scientist and ask for an explanation, but how many have that opportunity?

This, coupled with familial obligations to provide, leads to a focus on the here-and-now rather than the distant future, inhibiting political action. Further, the state that can’t agree on the validity of established climate science is looked to as the exclusive savior from the problem.

The ménage-à-trois of industrial interests, political considerations and environmental interests leads to an ever worsening prognosis.

Corporate interests along with activist groups encourage regulation of a particular industry through the state. Once the regulation is granted, a cost is imposed, and ideally we arrive at the optimum quantity of emissions.

This is fantasy; reality is that once costs are imposed, demand doesn’t stop existing and who absorbs costs—consumer or producer—is based on the elasticity of the good.

Entrepreneurs who innovate technologies that make fuel cleaner and cheaper can never get in the industry to innovate in the first place, due to these new costs.

Established competitors are pushed out of markets, and their cleaner or cheaper technologies and goods go with them. As this happens, the largest powers are ever more insulated in their position and still feed demand.

They lose the only mechanism to drive them to change: competition.

Solar and wind energy are substitutes available in the market created by entrepreneurs, not by Congress.

The way to solve climate change is by innovating new cost-efficient ways of providing energy; the state can’t do that, only individuals with vision can—so let’s get out of their way.

Someone who invents a cheaper, cleaner energy source to power vehicles will do more to stop greenhouse emissions in a month than the Environmental Protection Agency could do in the length of it’s existence.

Entrepreneurs are the only ones able to do to coal and oil what Henry Ford did to horseback travel.

Joe Hyde, Economics senior, jjhyde@loyno.edu

12

The Maroon

March 24, 2017

NAME IN CAPS / The Maroon

Emergency services transport an injured person to an ambulance, close to the Houses of Parliament in London, Wednesday, March 22, 2017. London police say they are treating a gun and knife incident at Britain’s Parliament “as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise.” The Metropolitan Police says in a statement that the incident is ongoing. Officials say a man with a knife attacked a police officer at Parliament and was shot by officers.

Nearby, witnesses say a vehicle struck several people on the Westminster Bridge. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

5 dead in vehicle, knife attack at British Parliament

By Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A knife-wielding man went on a deadly rampage in the heart of Britain’s seat of power Wednesday, plowing a car into pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge before stabbing a police officer to death inside the gates of Parliament.

Five people were killed, including the assailant, and 40 others were injured in what Prime Minister Theresa May condemned as a “sick and depraved terrorist attack.”

Lawmakers, lords, staff and visitors were locked down after the man was shot by police within the perimeter of Parliament, just yards (meters) from entrances to the building itself and in the shadow of the iconic Big Ben clock tower. He died, as did three pedestrians on the bridge, and the police officer.

A doctor who treated the wounded from the bridge said some had “catastrophic” injuries. Three police officers, several French teenagers on a school trip, two Romanian tourists and five South Korean visitors were among the injured.

Police said they were treating the attack as terrorism. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Metropolitan Police counterterrorism chief Mark Rowley said police believed there was only one attacker, “but it would be foolish to be overconfident early on.”

He said an unarmed policeman, three civilians and the attacker died.

Forty others, including three police

officers, were injured.

Islamic extremism was suspected in the attack, Rowley said, adding that authorities believe they know the assailant’s identity but would not reveal it while the investigation was ongoing.

The threat level for international terrorism in the U.K. was already listed at severe, meaning an attack was “highly likely.”

Speaking outside 10 Downing St. after chairing a meeting of government’s emergency committee, COBRA, May said that level would not change. She said attempts to defeat British values of democracy and freedom through terrorism would fail.

“Tomorrow morning, Parliament will meet as normal,” she said. Londoners and visitors “will all move forward together, never giving in to terror and never allowing the voices of hate and evil to drive us apart.”

U.S. President Donald Trump was among world leaders offering condolences, and in Paris, the lights of the Eiffel Tower were to be dimmed in solidarity with London.

London has been a target for terrorism many times over past decades. Just this weekend, hundreds of armed police took part in an exercise simulating a “marauding” terrorist attack on the River Thames.

Wednesday was the anniversary of suicide bombings in the Brussels airport and subway that killed 32 people last year, and the latest events echoed recent vehicle attacks in Berlin and Nice, France.

In the House of Commons, legis-

lators were holding a series of votes on pensions when deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle announced that the sitting was being suspended and told lawmakers not to leave.

Parliament was locked down for several hours, and the adjoining Westminster subway station was shuttered.

Conservative lawmaker Tobias Ellwood, whose brother was killed in the Bali terror attack in 2002, performed first aid on the wounded police officer, who later died. About 10 yards away lay the assailant.

“I tried to stem the flow of blood and give mouth to mouth while waiting for the medics to arrive but I think he had lost too much blood,” Ellwood said. “He had multiple wounds, under the arm and in the back.”

The attack began early Wednesday afternoon as a driver in a gray SUV slammed into pedestrians on the bridge linking Parliament to the south bank of the River Thames.

Former Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski was in a car crossing the bridge when he heard “something like a car hitting metal sheet” and then saw people lying on the pavement.

“I saw one person who gave no signs of life. One man was bleeding from his head. I saw five people who were at least seriously injured,” Sikorski told Poland’s TVN24.

Ambulances arrived within minutes to treat people who lay scattered along the length of the bridge.

One bloodied woman lay surrounded by a scattering of postcards.

Police said one injured woman was pulled from the river.

The car crashed into railings on the north side of the bridge, less than 200 yards (meters) from the entrance to Parliament. As people scattered in panic, witnesses saw a man holding a knife run toward the building.

“The whole crowd just surged around the corner by the gates just opposite Big Ben,” said witness Rick Longley. “A guy came past my right shoulder with a big knife and just started plunging it into the policeman. I have never seen anything like that. I just can’t believe what I just saw.”

The attacker managed to get past a gate into Parliament’s fenced-in New Palace Yard, a cobbled courtyard in the shadow of the Big Ben clock tower.

Daily Mail journalist Quentin Letts said a man in black attacked the police officer before being shot two or three times as he tried to storm into the building.

“As this attacker was running towards the entrance two plainclothed guys with guns shouted at him what sounded like a warning, he ignored it and they shot two or three times and he fell,” Letts told the BBC. The attacker fell to the cobbles just yards from the entrance to 1,000-year-old Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the parliamentary complex, busy with visitors and school groups. Beyond that, a corridor leads to the building’s Central Lobby, flanked by House of Com-

mons and House of Lords chambers.

The prime minister was among lawmakers near the Commons at the time of the attack, and was quickly ushered away by security officers and driven back to Downing Street.

To get that far, the attacker would have had to evade the armed officers who patrol the Parliament complex in pairs, as well as Parliament’s own security staff, who don’t carry guns.

The attack unfolded near some of the city’s most famous tourist sites, including the London Eye, a large Ferris wheel with pods that overlook the capital.

It was halted after the attack, stranding visitors in the pods, with an aerial view of the attack scene.

London Ambulance Service said medics treated 12 people for serious injuries and eight who were less seriously hurt.

Dr. Colleen Anderson of St. Thomas’ Hospital said some of the wounded had “catastrophic” injuries.

The French Foreign Ministry said that three students on a school trip from Saint-Joseph in the Brittany town of Concarneau were among the injured. Two Romanians were also among the injured, the country’s Foreign Ministry said.

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with May by telephone and applauded “the quick response of British police and first responders,” spokesman Sean Spicer said.