Maroon4_5_19

Loyola University • New Orleans • Volume 97 • Issue 22 •April 5, 2019

THE MAROON For a greater Loyola

University asks College Democrats to disinvite speaker

By Rose Wagner rosemwagner@my.loyno.edu @rosemwagner

Concern about an abortion activist who was slated to speak at a campus event sparked an administrator to nix her invite — leaving the organizers frustrated and questioning their rights.

Two nights before the College Democrats’ April 4 pro-abortionrights panel featuring local politicians and activists, organization President Dylan Ritter received a call from Alicia Bourque, executive director of student affairs, advising that he uninvite one of the speak-

ers because her views were “too extreme,” according to Ritter.

He did.

Amy Irvin, executive director of the New Orleans Abortion Fund, was the only planned speaker associated with an organization that explicitly funds and sponsors abortions.

Bourque said that Irvin’s views contradict those of the university.

“I was concerned that inviting a representative from the New Orleans Abortion Fund, which raises money to pay for legal abortions, ran counter to our Jesuit, Catholic values and the university’s official pro-life stance and fell outside the

realm of the general intention of the program that was communicated to me,” Bourque said in an official statement after declining an interview with The Maroon.

The panel was funded exclusively by the College Democrats and according to the Student Code of Conduct, featured speakers do not have to have views that align with those of the university.

“Any segment of the academic community is free to invite and hear any personality and idea presented in the University forum. Sponsorship of speakers does not imply approval or endorsement of the views expressed, either by the sponsoring

group or by Loyola,” according to the code.

However, certain members of the administration, including Bourque, have the authority to uninvite speakers if, “there are reasonable concerns regarding the safety of the university community or in the event a speaker will unreasonably impact the operations of the University.”

While Bourque did not directly uninvite Irvin, Ritter did not express that Bourque ever communicated safety concerns as the reasoning for her request.

Ritter and his fellow members had felt Irvin was a “vital addition”

to the panel due to her current job as well as her history in public service.

“Being a social worker and working for women all her life, that embodies Jesuit values,” Ritter said.

The panel was created in response to Wolf Pack for Life’s anti-abortion rights diversity panel back in February which featured a variety of speakers from different local organizations.

“We felt the pro-life club had just as extreme of panelists as we did.

Obviously taking a stance and saying that a woman should have

See DEMOCRATS, page 3

‘Violet’ blooms

SGA announces cabinet positions

The Theatre Arts Department wraps its musical production of ‘Violet’

By Emma Ruby eeruby@my.loyno.edu @emmaeruby

Student Government Association President-elect Jessamyn Reichmann presented her cabinet selections to the current senate at the SGA Senate meeting on March 4. All nominations made by Reichmann were confirmed by the senate.

The cabinet, she said, was selected on the grounds of experience, external qualifications and impressions made throughout an interview process.

“I looked at not only how are they qualified, but what do they bring to the team,” Reichmann said. “Planning doesn’t start in the fall, it starts now. We need a general base knowledge of the current state of affairs within SGA to build a cohesive cabinet.”

Digital filmmaking junior Zontre City will fill the role of chief of staff, sociology junior Brandon Vincent will act as chief justice, the director of finance will be sophomore Alejandra Bedoya, director of communications will be mass communication sophomore Lily Cummings and the role of director of programming will be filled by finance junior Brette Baughman.

“This team has phenomenal energy and charisma and is overly qualified,” Vice President-elect Freedom Richardson said.

The senate debated the appointment of Baughman, who did not meet the senate bylaw requiring a director of programming to have held a leadership position within the university programming board for at least a year as a prerequisite to appointment.

According to Reichmann, none of the three applicants for director of programming met that criteria, but Baughman’s experience in other campus organizations assured her Baughman was the right person for the position.

The senate ultimately struck the bylaw indefinitely to allow Baughman to join the cabinet, who will be sworn in April 10.

“I think this team shows the potential of cohesion of student government,” City said. “The culture of this team will work to show what student government can be when we work as one team.”

Musical theater senior Cara Duffaut and musical theater freshman Ryan Wiles perform a scene in Loyola theater arts’ production of Violet. The musical finishes up its two-weekend run this coming weekend, with performances on April 4, 5 and 6 in Marquette Theater. The show tells the story of a scarred woman who embarks on a cross-country bus trip to seek a healing priest and the friends she makes and lessons she learns along the way. Courtesy of KYLE ENCAR.

Leadership program aims to put women at the helm

By Andrew Lang awlang@my.loyno.edu @AndrewWLang

When people picture leaders, many would picture a suit and tie.

Loyola will be trying to change that image into one of a pantsuit too.

Starting April 16 and running through Jan. 21, 2020, Loyola will host a series of courses designed to help develop and train female leaders.

The Women’s Leadership Academy is being launched as part of the university’s efforts to relaunch professional and continuing studies programs at the university.

University President Tania Tetlow, the first female president of Loyola, noted a number of trends that indicate a need for this type of academy.

“We know that there’s a need because when we look out at the city and the region and the country only about 5% of Fortune 500 companies

have women CEOs for example, and that number has been dropping in recent years,” Tetlow said.

The courses will feature a number of accomplished speakers, including New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell and former Senator Mary Landrieu among others. Tetlow said she got immediate yes answers from all the people she asked to speak.

“I think for every woman who has succeeded, there is the hope to help put the ladder down and make it easier for the next generation and we tell ourselves that, whatever we struggled with, that we are making it that much simpler for our daughters and granddaughters,” Tetlow said.

Tetlow said Director of Professional and Continuing Studies Rachelle Matherne spearheaded the creation of the academy.

Matherne said the idea was approved in October 2018 and one of the first things she did was form an advisory committee about how to

Univeristy President Tania Tetlow and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell sit together during Tetlow’s inauguration last fall. Tetlow was in charge of recruiting speakers for the upcoming Women’s Leadership Academy -- one of whom will be Cantrell.

ANGELO IMBRAGUGLIO / The Maroon.

implement it.

“It’s incredible that we have been able to launch a program of this magnitude in such a short turnaround time,” Matherne said.

The speakers will start off the day speaking to all the participants. Then they will break into micro-learning sessions related to the day’s theme. Themes include topics

See LEADERSHIP, page 3

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April 5, 2019 The Maroon

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Administrators worried speaker had too-extreme views DEMOCRATS, continued from page 1 no right to choose, have no right to reproductive sovereignty, that is almost more extreme than providing funding for abortions. The Supreme Court has said that it is a right to have an abortion,” Ritter said.

The College Democrats submitted Irvin’s credentials for approval on March 25 before the credentials of the other speakers and did not receive negative feedback until the call from Bourque on April 2, according to Ritter.

While the group’s executive board initially refused to uninvite Irvin, he said they felt pressured by Bourque.

“I asked (Bourque) multiple times in multiple different ways, ‘Is the school going to not allow us to have this panel if we invite her?’ and she said every time, ‘We really want you guys to disinvite her,’” Ritter said. “She said something along the lines of ‘How you guys organize this panel and this discussion will set a

precedent for future discussions for this topic.’”

Ritter uninvited Irvin on April 2, in what he saw as the best way to preserve the future of his organization.

“Pretty much the entirety of the club are freshmen and I know we have four years left on campus to organize and work on issues like this. I wanted to be able to ensure that going forward we had a good relationship with the school,” Ritter said.

Irvin expressed that she was disappointed in not having the opportunity to speak with Loyola students.

“I very much was looking forward to serving on the panel and talking about the important work that we are doing, especially in lieu of the legislative session that begins next week where already there are several anti-choice bills that have been pre-filed,” Irvin said. “Students have been involved in forming and sustaining the work of the New Orleans Abortion Fund.”

While the College Democrats were able to find two replacements

“It’s tough when you know that there are very blatant restrictions on your free speech.”

— Dylan Ritter College Democrats president for Irvin — state legislative candidate Mandie Landry and Executive Director of Lift Louisiana Michelle Erenberg — Ritter said he is afraid that the situation has impacted the organization’s reputation as well as their ability to express themselves.

“It’s tricky because I understand (the university’s) need to save face and that ultimately their approval and funding comes from the archdiocese. But it’s tough when you know that there are very blatant restrictions on your free speech and your ability to organize on campus,” Ritter said. “They basically, they bullied us into disinviting her and it sucks. It sucks a lot.”

Read Alicia Bourque’s full statement to The Maroon Thank you for reaching out about the College Democrats event.

The College Democrats have been very cooperative throughout this process and fulfilled all the requirements for getting approval for a campus event. They have been working with me and Diana Ward and provided a list of panel speakers on March 25. As we got nearer to the event, I did a little more research on the backgrounds of the various speakers and I was concerned that inviting a representative from the New Orleans Abortion Fund, which raises money to pay for legal abortions, ran counter to our Jesuit, Catholic values and the university’s official pro-life stance and fell outside the realm of the general intention of the program that was communicated to me.

Consequently, I reached out to Dylan Ritter with my concerns and asked him whether he would consider replacing the representative from the New Orleans Abortion Fund with another speaker. Dylan and I had two very cordial conversations, for which I am grateful, as I know this required thinking about a last-minute change to the event. This afternoon, he told me during a meeting with him that the College Democrats had decided to rescind their invitation and go with an alternative speaker.

Respectful civil discourse and navigating complicated issues is an important element of a university education and of daily life. I believe that the discussion tomorrow will be an opportunity to listen to various perspectives on a complex and complicated issue. It’s also an opportunity for us all to use our critical and ethical decision-making skills as we measure our own values against those that may conflict with them.

Female leaders create Women’s Leadership Academy WOMEN, continued from page 1 such as ‘Your Leadership Style” and “How Stress Impacts You.” Much of the training is based around the Myers Briggs Type Indicator Test. This training attempts to help people discover their own leadership style, according to Matherne.

Part of Matherne’s job is looking for gaps in regional education and she said she noticed a gap in education that this academy could help fill.

“Although there are a lot of leadership programs currently in the region and throughout in the state, there are none that focus solely on women,” Matherne said.

The academy will last 10 days with most sessions being roughly a month apart from each other. Eight of the 10 are full-day sessions which will last from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Outside the sessions, participants are expected to complete monthly one-hour meetings with their assigned mentor as well as various reflections on the lessons they learned.

Tetlow said the academy is part of Loyola’s increase in offering lifelong education to the community through non-degree training.

Matherne said she was brought in on May 7, 2018 as part of the effort to relaunch the department which was part of the Project Magis, a strategic planning process that hopes to bring the university to a place of financial stability.

The Academy will have a maximum of 42 participants according to Matherne. Tuition for the academy runs $2,995, though a limited number of scholarships are going to be offered to applicants working at non-profit institutions.

Nearly one-third of the applicants work in the health care field so far. Other industries represented by applicants include education, construction, utilities, banking and media.

One of the reasons this program

Mayor Latoya Cantrell stands side-by-side with Tania Tetlow, Loyola’s first female university president. Courtesy of Kyle Encar.

and others are being created is to help diversify the schools revenue sources.

Tetlow said the goal is to make it so the school is less reliant on any one source of revenue like undergraduate tuition.

“It is healthier for us to have lots of different sources of revenue and that includes thinking about new graduate programs, of our efforts in online education and continuing education,” Tetlow said Several other courses are current-

ly being planned, including programs designed to train tour guides, business grammar courses, notary public preparation and a course on nonprofit fundraising and grant writing.

Matherne said the plan is to run the Women’s Leadership Academy once per year and they are still trying to recruit faculty for the programs.

The goal is to have as many current Loyola faculty and staff to teach the various modules as possible.

Tetlow said a goal of this course is identifying how women are holding themselves back, but that is only part of the problem.

Ultimately, the world needs to change too in order to counter the lack of women in leadership Tetlow said. One example Tetlow identified to support this was negotiating for salary.

“We talk a lot about how women don’t negotiate as much for starting salaries which is true on average,” Tetlow said. “What we don’t talk

about enough is that research shows that women who do negotiate for salaries often get punished for doing it. They are seen as less trustworthy, less loyal.”

Tetlow said she hopes this course provides people with good leadership training and helps them overcome obstacles to their success.

“If half the talent of the world is contained in women, we cannot risk squandering it,” Tetlow said.

SPORTS

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April 5, 2019 The Maroon

Robyn Caire tells the life of a Loyola lifeguard

By Shadera Moore sjmoore@my.loyno.edu @MooreShadera The first thing that hits you upon entering the Freret Garage is the scent of chlorine wafting in way up from the fifth floor.

But according to Robyn Caire, “a lot of people don’t actually know that (Loyola) has a pool,” much less know about the students that protect its swimmers.

Caire, a business senior, is one of the head lifeguards at the University Sports Complex, and even though she spends most of her time above the waves, swimming has always been a part of her.

She said, “ I swam for twelve years, and when I joined a year-round swim team, the only job that would work out with my schedule was lifeguarding. So, anytime you see a lifeguard, usually, they’ve swum before, or it’s the only job you can get when you’re fifteen years old.”

A large part of the shift is spent watching swimmers practice from the stand, but lifeguarding also entails odd jobs such as adding chemicals to the water, cleaning the tile floor, vacuuming the pool and logging the number of visitors in a Google sheet.

“But sometimes you’ll get a little surprise, like a birthday party, and you weren’t expecting to have that many people in the party,” she said.

“Or, it’ll just be a rush usually the day after Thanksgiving a lot of people show up, and after New Year’s a lot of people show up.”

And to deal with both the handful of swimmers and the large groups,

Design by Vanessa Alvarado. Photo by Loyola New Orleans Athletics.

Student-athletes dominate scholar awards

By Madison McLoughlin mmmcloug@my.loyno.edu @mad_mclovin

Business senior Robyn Caire watches over the pool from her lifeguard chair in the University Sports Complex. SHADERA MOORE/THE MAROON.

lifeguards must continually renew their certifications to stay employed. “(The certification program) is usually a week, and the whole week, you’ll watch videos, you’ll practice your skills, and eventually, at the end, you take the test,” Caire said.

“But recently, when I got re-certified in the summer, it was a three-day course and they just went over everything.”

A lifeguard now of six years, Caire enjoys the bonds she has with the familiar faces and sees them as the most rewarding aspect of her job.

She said, “We have two patrons

that come, like, every single day, and if they are not here, they’re sick.

And when they come back, they’ll tell us about it. We’ll be worried. We didn’t get to see (them). We get concerned.”

On the side, Caire gives swim advice and lessons but after she graduates, she looks to step away from the water to pursue her dream of becoming a lawyer She hopes to study law at Loyola or Tulane this fall after passing her LSAT.

Loyola athletics prove the “dumb jock” stereotype wrong with their scholar awards.

In total, 42 Loyola fall and winter athletes have been named to Southern States Athletic Conference All-Academic teams, spanning across nine teams.

In order to be a part of the All-Academic team, a student-athlete must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher, be at least a sophomore and complete the athletic season, according to the Southern States Athletic Conference.

Six out of Loyola’s nine athletic teams have a number of scholarly athletes that are above the average of the number of All-Academic team members for each school.

For example, the average number of All-Academic members of the competitive cheer teams is 3.5,

What Does the Wolf Pack Eat?

Loyola athletes deal with maintaing a good diet

By Emma Ruby eeruby@my.loyno.edu @emmaeruby Weight training, early-morning practices and post-game film breakdowns are all staples of the student-athlete experience, but an aspect of athleticism that often goes unrecognized is the attention to diets that many athletes and coaches strive for.

According to tennis Head Coach Kyle Russell, maintaining a nutritious diet for any student is a struggle, especially when the limited food options of a dining hall are combined with busy student schedules and the tendency of college students to eat less healthy foods.

This uphill battle only becomes harder for student-athletes who often hit the road for games or long tournaments and have limited dining options.

“We try and always find a Panera or something but a lot of places we go there’s not a lot of healthy alternatives and we have very little time to grab food,” Russell said. “We just went on a road trip and were looking for healthy, looking for healthy, but we ended up at an Applebee’s. I was watching what everyone was ordering and just threw my hands up in their air, like ‘what are you guys doing?’ So it’s definitely difficult.”

(ABOVE) The Orleans Room serves up pasta, which act as carbohydrates, and spinach, which is a good source of protein. (RIGHT) Environmental studies sophomore Liam Donovan picks up a plate of pasta in the Orleans Room. (BOTTOM) The dessert section of the Orleans Room is not ideal for student-athletes. ANDRES FUENTES/The Maroon.

On the road, the tennis team tries to eat at places such as Zoe’s Kitchen and Newk’s Eatery but, when fast food is the only option, the team opts to chow down on burgers and fries after their competition.

For baseball player and business management senior Charlie Seiter cooks healthy meals at home at the beginning of the week and eats the leftovers for as long as they last in order to maintain his diet.

But, just as Russell expressed, finding food on the road is a different story.

“It’s difficult to eat well on the road. We’re usually pressed for time, so we have to grab quick meals, usually fast food. We’ll go to better places when possible, but that’s not very often,” Seiter said.

See Food, Page 7

while Loyola has five competitive cheerleaders who are part of the All-Academic team.

Loyola’s men’s cross country, men and women’s basketball, men and women’s swimming, and competitive cheer are all above the average number of team members part of the All-Academic team.

The dance team ties the average, and only the volleyball team and women’s cross country were below average by a fraction of a person.

In addition, Loyola has three conference Scholar Athlete of the Year.

Criminal justice senior Cassidy Wells recently won the award for the cheer team and both cross country teams featured winners with environmental studies sophomore Walter Ramsey and sociology sophomore Sasha Solano-McDaniel taking the award.

10 athletes were also nationally honored with Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athletes awards.

THE MAROON

April 05, 2019

C R O S S W O R D

Across 1 River-end formation 6 Sprinted 9 “Dancing Queen” group 13 Disney mermaid 14 “A Doll’s House” heroine 15 Snow remover 16 *Last bit of decoration 18 “Dirty Jobs” host Mike 19 Casual tops 20 Pressure cooker sound 21 New Zealand fruits 22 Standing tall 24 Off the leash 25 Sentence part 27 Ones gathering for a will reading 28 Kimono-clad entertainer 29 Droop 30 Little devils 33 Pony up 34 *Coastal wetland often exposed at low tide 37 Corrida cry 38 Moving like sloths 40 Spanish river 41 Heart-shaped photo holder 43 Suddenly became attentive 45 Beat the goalie 46 Rural storage buildings 47 Serta alternative 48 Church ringers 49 Gives a hand 50 Religious subdivision 54 Like many ESPN broadcasts 55 Amount of TV watching limited by parents, and a hint to the last word of the answers to starred clues 57 “__-doke!”

58 Harbor structure 59 Slugger Judge 60 Party pooper 61 Pop-up annoyances 62 Mix Down 1 Nutty 2 Only Great Lake that borders

Pennsylvania 3 Ticket booth annoyance 4 Commercial lures 5 Every bit (of) 6 Awaken rudely 7 Fly ball trajectories 8 “Don’t think so” 9 Presupposed by experience 10 *Talks big 11 “Space Oddity” rocker David 12 Fills with wonder 14 “Hold the rocks” 17 Synonym-loaded reference 21 Zen garden fish 23 __ Emanuel, Obama’s first Chief of Staff 24 Attorney’s job 25 Gong sound 26 *Lone Ranger’s shout 27 “2001” computer

SUDOKU

28 Rte.-finding aid 29 Bay Area airport letters 31 Implored 32 Good to go 35 Guacamole, e.g.

36 Jack or hammer 39 State fish of South Dakota 42 Seer’s __ ball 44 How-__: DIY guides 45 Meal at Passover 46 Fancy watch brand 47 Stable studs 48 Gooey mass 49 Etching fluid 51 County Kerry country 52 “Let’s do it!”

53 Take care of 55 Place for a massage 56 Arrest, as a perp

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Life &Times

April 05, 2019 THE MAROON

Film • Arts • Food • Music • Leisure • Nightlife

From Trash to Treasure Orange-colored litter makes up a clownfish sculpture. The Audubon Aquarium of the Americas has numerous recycled trash sculptures like this on display for their guests. ANDRES FUENTES / The Maroon.

The Audubon Aquarium of the Americas goes dumpster diving... for the sake of art

By Andres Fuentes aafuente@my.loyno.edu

A toilet seat, car bumper, bleach bottles and flip flops are all items that can plague a marine environment, but the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas has such items on display as art pieces.

The aquarium welcomed Angela Pozzi’s “Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea” series, which depicts sculptures of animals created with litter found in their environments.

The sculptures range from a great white shark all the way to a clownfish, all made from various plastic household items found along the Pacific coast.

For Stephanie Smith, administrative coordinator for Audubon Educational Programs, the sculptures represent something fun and engaging for the family while also being educational.

“Everyone is really receptive to (the sculptures),” she said. “I like coming out and checking them. Ev-

(ABOVE) A toilet seat and other litter make up the sculpture of a great white shark.

Featured sculptures were made up of litter. (RIGHT) A seahorse sculpture stands on display in the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas. Brooms, bottle caps and other litter make up the sculpture. ANDRES FUENTES/ The Maroon.

ery time you look at them, you see something you’ve never seen before.

It’s just an eye-opening experience.”

Smith says it’s a game of Eye Spy, as families come together to admire the marine-inspired pieces.

“The kids love to take their picture with (the sculptures) and point out objects. A lot of things are common items that you might have,” Smith said.

With the sculptures spreading the message of the dangers of plastic

pollution, the aquarium is also doing their part to help ecosystems all over the world.

“We try to practice what we preach,” Smith said. “Audubon has done our part to cut back on plastic pollution. We have phased out our plastic bags in our gift shops. We offer paper bags or reusable bags.

We’ve also phased out straws at our facility and we don’t use plastic water bottles anymore. We use aluminum cans.”

And while the pieces showcase the effects of ocean pollution, Smith stresses the impact plastic has on life on both land and in the sea.

“Plastic, while you can recycle it, it doesn’t biodegrade. Plastic is here

forever. So (the sculptures) highlight the magnitude of plastic pollution.”

The sculptures will be on display until April 30 at the aquarium and the Audubon Zoo.

World Rhythms Festival celebrates African influence in New Orleans

By India Yarborough iayarbor@my.loyno.edu

Music, food and a nod to history – that was the theme of this weekend’s Congo Square New World Rhythms Festival.

“This festival is a celebration of the African diaspora and its connection to New Orleans,” said Kia Robinson, marketing and communications coordinator for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. “Right here in Congo Square, which is pretty much historic, sa-

cred ground where slaves gathered.

We come here to commemorate those times and remember our ancestors that were here before us.”

That commemoration took place March 30 and 31 at Congo Square in Louis Armstrong Park. Jazz and funk music and the smells of traditional New Orleans cuisine filled the air as Mardi Gras Indian tribes “battled” in a show of cultural unity and local craft vendors displayed their labors of love. And festival attendees came from as far away as Canada to catch a piece of the action.

Canadian Pierre Hamilton vis-

ited New Orleans with friends for the weekend. Hamilton said they stopped by the festival to get a taste of the New Orleans you won’t find on Bourbon Street.

“We wanted to make sure we came and had a real part of New Orleans,” Hamilton said. “I was like ‘I wanna find if there’s a (Mardi Gras) Indian battle or second line – how do we do that?’ And it just so happened that when we were looking it up, there was a festival at Congo Square, which is a place I wanted to come.”

Mobile, Alabama native Sara Wes-

son happened to be in town visiting friends Saturday. She and her dog Benny stopped by the festival not knowing exactly what to expect.

“I kind of just showed up,” Wesson said. “It’s been really cool so far.

There are a lot of really good booths, a lot of really good food, a lot of really good music.”

Robinson said the “intimate” festival – attracting between 5,000 and 7,000 people each year – is sponsored by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. Proceeds from the foundation’s other major events, namely the New Orleans

Jazz and Heritage Festival, make free events like the New World Rhythms Festival possible.

“I think it’s important that we continue doing these free festivals for the community,” Robinson added. “A lot of people aren’t able to visit Jazz Fest, for either financial reasons or geographical reasons, and this particular festival is just a bit of a taste of Jazz Fest.”

April 5, 2019

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THE MAROON

The Orleans Room serves french fries and other salty and fatty foods. However, the cafeteria offers other healthier options that would help student-athletes maintain a better diet. ANDRES FUENTES/The Maroon.

Food plays an important role for student-athletes From Food, Page 4 Maintaining a healthy diet not only helps Seiter build muscle, but it also helps him stay energized and focused on the field. But for some, especially students who don’t have coaches and teammates to help educate them on nutrition, defining what a healthy diet even is can be daunting.

“If an athlete takes the field without properly fueling their body, their performance will not be at its best,” Kelsey Rosenbaum, Loyola’s regional campus dietician, said. “Carbohydrates are the muscles main source of fuel, protein helps repair muscles, and fruits and veggies provide fiber, vitamins and minerals that work against inflammation.”

Psychology sophomore and swimmer Kamy Alexander spends her seasons avoiding the dessert table at the Orleans Room because it’s “bad news.”

“What kind of gas you put into your car affects how it runs, and it’s the same for your body. In order to perform at peak you have to

eat right,” Alexander said.

But a healthy diet is not only made up of giant salads and grilled chicken. Russell also sees it as an education opportunity to bring teammates together.

“I think it’s really just important that they understand how athletes need to eat. Probably the best educators are their teammates,” Russell said. “What happens is the sophomores and juniors will talk with the freshman, tell them ‘you can’t eat that.’ And as they get older they deal with it better.”

The Orleans Room offers a salad bar.

ANDRES FUENTES/The Maroon.

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April 5, 2019 THE MAROON

WORLDVIEW

9

Trump executive order to enforce free speech

By Cody Downey cadowney@my.loyno.edu

College campuses are known for an open exchange of ideas and expression, however, the question still is raised on whether it is like this for all students.

On March 21, President Trump signed an executive order to allow more free speech on college campuses. According to the executive order, it hopes to “encourage institutions to foster environments that promote open, intellectually engaging and diverse debate, including through compliance with the First Amendment for public institutions and compliance with stated institutional policies regarding freedom of speech for private institutions.”

According to Loyola Law School Los Angeles professor Jessica Levinson, the order solidifies what is already being done on college campuses by allowing for freedom of speech. However, Levinson believes that the intent is to benefit conservative students and speakers.

“President Trump and other Republicans have pointed to a couple of incidents where conservative speakers have been essentially run out of their speaking engagements and said, ‘Conservative students don’t have free speech on campus, we need to change that,” she said.

One Loyola student who believes the executive order will be good for campus is biology and physics freshmen Grace Somerville. Somerville has noticed that many times conservatives are left out.

2,000 blue and pink flags wave in the Peace Quad as part of Wolf Pack for Life’s display to spread awareness of the number of abortions carried out each day in the U.S. on April 23, 2018. When the display showed up on campus, it was the source of much controversy. ANNA KNAPP / The Maroon.

“Since the 2016 election, at school I have seen constant groups being outspoken about feminism, LGBT rights, tables to sign petitions against the current United States administration, but I have never seen (on Loyola’s campus) a conservative leaning group having a table or putting up flyers,” she said.

Somerville also feels that she is unable to openly talk about topics she is passionate about without fear of being harassed. One example Somerville gave was the Memorial of the Innocents done by Wolf Pack for Life, where 2,000 flags are plant-

ed in the ground representing the amount of abortions done in a day.

“On other campuses when people do table conservative things or even have the (Memorial) of the Innocents, people always come up and harass them and even get violent,” she said. “They don’t just walk away and roll their eyes like we do to them.”

Somerville isn’t the only one who feels this way. According to a survey done by the Knight Foundation/ Gallup, only 69 percent of students on college campuses believed that conservatives were able to speak

openly and freely about their beliefs.

Moving forward, Somerville hopes that the executive order will change some things on campus.

“I have met so many people who have had professors just tell the class their agenda and just unprofessionally rant about political things to their students,” she said.

“The conservative students, including myself, feel uncomfortable the whole class period because I came to learn about one thing and yet my professor is bashing me and my beliefs without even knowing it.”

For Levinson, she believes that

this executive order could provide diversity of thought to college campuses. However, she also said that it goes against what the First Amendment says.

“The First Amendment is essentially protecting us from government intrusion into telling us what we can or what we can’t say,” Levinson said. “I would view this as the federal government essentially trying to enforce a speech code, where it would be the federal government determining whether or not there is quote un quote free speech.”

Despite this, Levinson said it is way too early to tell if the executive order will cause any major changes to college campuses.

“To the extent that it’s merely redundant, no,” she said. “To the extent that if the federal government decides to aggressively apply this and go to more liberal campuses and say ‘You don’t have enough Conservative speakers. That’s not true free speech,’ then it could change things.”

At the end of the day, Somerville just hopes that this order will allow for more open and respectful discussions on campus.

“Everyday I witness something that just shocks me and all I do is keep walking and don’t engage myself because most of them are never open to a civil discussion, where if we are outspoken they can not just keep walking, they have to yell their opinion and it is very annoying,” Somerville said. “If I respect you, please respect me.”

Democratic party prepares for 2020 election

By Emma Ruby eeruby@my.loyno.edu

Although the 2020 presidential election remains 19 months away, the rhetoric and energy surrounding the Democratic primaries have already begun to take center stage in political conversation. With an announced slogan of “Keep America Great!,” Republican candidate, President Donald Trump seems to be gearing up for another election reminiscent of 2016.

The 16 Democratic campaigns announced does seem to parallel the large numbers of Republican nominees the 2016 presidential election hosted. Dylan Ritter, political science freshman and president of the Loyola College Democrats, is optimistic about the strong numbers.

“I think there can never be too many candidates,” Ritter said. “I think that the more people that are in the race, the more diversity of thought there is, the more competition there is, the more likely it is we’ll get a strong candidate out of the Democratic primaries.”

As for what he thinks will make a candidate strong, Ritter is looking for relatability, honesty, and a genuine interest in policy, all traits that may make a political cynic scoff.

While the list of candidates does flaunt well-known names, such as the ‘B boys’ — Bernie, Biden and Beto — lesser-known Democrats are also joining the fray.

“One of the things that we learned from the Obama campaign

way back in 2008, which feels like so many years ago, is that he started out as a non-entity,” Roger White, political science professor, said. “But very quickly he moved forward. Hillary Clinton was a front runner in 2008 because she had high name recognition but he was able to defeat her in the primaries because he was the right person at the right time.”

Both White and Ritter agree an emphasis on economics is imperative for Democrats in 2020. In 2016, President Trump notoriously won over rural, blue collar areas such as West Virginia, West Pennsylvania and Minnesota, which proved to be a major factor in his electoral success. For Democrats to have a shot at the White House, those voters will have to be a priority.

“I think equity and the economy are so important and that’s like the biggest thing right now,” Ritter said.

“People feel so dissatisfied with their current economic status right now, they feel like they’ve been forsaken by the companies that they work for.

They feel they’re working too hard for how little they’re being paid. All that discontent is being built into a very populist movement.”

Whether or not either candidate will resonate with the discontented electorate in the rust belt and across rural America will undoubtedly be apparent the closer the Democratic primary looms.

“President Trump is using big data. He has the reputation of being narcissistic and spontaneous, but actually he has people working for him who are mining data and find-

ing patterns,” White said. “A lot of his messages that seem obnoxious to a lot of voters are actually carefully tailored towards the discontented electorate.”

Another pivotal piece in the Democratic primary puzzle is a unification of the party, White believes. He said President Trump has already acted as a source of unity for the Democrats, but seeing that unity into the primary will be imperative.

“Richard Nixon said something one time, he ran for governor of California and was defeated, and he said ‘I learned as a Republican I can’t win without the right wing of my party, but I can’t win with only the right wing,” White said.

For Ritter, it will also be important for Democrats to stay unified in the months following the primaries and leading up to the presidential election, unlike in 2016 when many Sanders supporters did not vote in the election. Even if his nominee does not earn the nomination, Ritter will remain loyal to the party. “(Bernie) is who I’m looking at and who I think a lot of young people are looking at,” Ritter said. “You ask students all around Loyola who their 2020 presidential pick is and they’ll say Bernie or Beto. Those are definitely the two biggest names and I think a lot of people like them.”

For White, however, it’s too soon to hypothesize as to who will win the spot against President Trump.

“In a campaign, it’s kind of like March Madness,” White said. “Anything can happen, so you have to be careful of sideswipes.”

A collage of all the candidates, with the exception of Cory Booker and Marianne Williamson, vying to be the Democratic nominee for the 2020 presidential election. Photo Illustration by Ariel Landry.

EDITORIAL

10

April 5, 2019 THE MAROON

OUR EDITORIAL

The majority opinion of our editorial board

HOWLS & GROWLS HOWL to almost Spring Break GROWL to post-2006 Green Day HOWL to Beck GROWL to manipulation HOWL to freedom of speech GROWL to April Fools Day HOWL to Easter soon Have a howl or growl? Tweet us at @loyola_maroon to be featured each Friday!

Illustration by Ariel Landry

Loyola gives College Democrats no choice in having Pro-Choice Panel speaker This week, administrators pressured College Democrats to cancel the invitation for one of its planned speakers — leaving the organization feeling censored.

The event was in a response to a panel hosted last month by the Wolf Pack for Life club, which invited several speakers to campus from various shades of the pro-life spectrum.

The College Democrats sought to express their club values through a panel of their own.

With no funding from the university, the club planned the event for April 4 on campus in the Audubon Room. They arranged for three speakers to attend and present.

Information about these speakers and the panel was provided to the university, and the university approved the event – but took issue with one speaker, Amy Irvin, who was ultimately asked not to speak at the event.

Amy Irvin is the executive director of the American Abortion Fund, something that conflicts with Jesuit and Catholic values.

Just two days before the panel, Dylan Ritter, president of the College Democrats club, received a phone call from Alicia Bourque, the executive director for student affairs at Loyola. Bourque expressed concern with Irvin’s presence on campus

and at the panel, urging Ritter and his fellow club members to disinvite Irvin. According to Ritter, Bourque told them Irvin was too extreme and could potentially reflect badly on Loyola if outsiders were to believe Loyola had funded the event.

The College Democrats were upset and initially planned to keep Irvin on the schedule, but after a sit-down meeting with Bourque – in which they began to worry that refusing her request would negatively impact their club – they disinvited the speaker.

Loyola’s Student code of conduct states that university administrators shall “have the authority to cancel or reschedule a speaker in the event that there are reasonable concerns regarding the safety of the university community, or in the event a speaker will unreasonably impact the operations of the university.”

There is no apparent safety issue present, nor would Irvin’s presence have likely disrupted the operations of Loyola.

Although no member of the university directly cancelled Irvin’s attendance at the panel, it’s appears that they did strong-arm the club into doing it themselves. While this loophole does make the code of conduct inapplicable in the scenario, the university indirectly can-

celled the speaker — there is no way the College Democrats would have done that on their own.

The Student code of conduct also states that “Sponsorship of speakers does not imply approval or endorsement of the views expressed, either by the sponsoring group or

by Loyola,” which is counter to the exact reason given to Ritter and the College Democrats as to why they shouldn’t have Irvin speak.

Also present in the code is the assurance that “any segment of the academic community is free to invite and hear any personality and idea presented in the university forum.”

Although Bourque declined an interview with the Maroon Wednesday night, she did give a statement that recapped what happened and wrote that “As we got nearer to the event, I did a little more research on the backgrounds of the various speakers and I was concerned that inviting a representative from the New Orleans Abortion Fund, which raises money to pay for legal abortions, ran counter to our Jesuit, Catholic values and the university’s official pro-life stance. ... Respectful civil discourse and navigating complicated issues is an important element of a university education and of daily life.”

It seems that Bourque intimidat-

ed the club into canceling the speaker for the image of the university. In doing so, it would appear that she has circumvented the student code of conduct relating to speakers by not directly canceling it herself.

The student rights and freedoms that state that any member of the academic community is invited to hear any idea presented in university forum were violated. Furthermore, the rationale provided as to why Irvin should not speak at the event was also counter to the spirit of the student code of conduct.

We do attend a Catholic school, and built within that are Catholic values that we cannot avoid on campus. Jesuit values are a key part of Jesuit identity, which pertains to student life here at Loyola. And there is no doubt that an abortion activist would be offensive to a significant portion of our community. But hurt feelings aren’t sufficient grounds to violate students’ rights.

In the past, there have been discrepancies in the way that the anti-abortion club and the College Democrats are treated on campus.

Some of these discrepancies were to be expected and could even be justified. However, this particular instance has gone too far in suppressing free speech on campus.

EDITORIAL BOARD Riley Katz

Editor-in-Chief

Erin Snodgrass

Managing Editor

Anderson Leal

Managing Editor for

for Print Electronic Properties Will Ingram

Maroon Minute Executive Producer

Ariel Landry

Design Chief

Cristian Orellana

Photo Editor

Rose Wagner Catie Sanders Tyler Wann Cody Downey

News Editor Life & Times Editor Wolf Editor Worldview Editor

Andres Fuentes

Sports Editor

Kaylie Saidin

Op-Ed Editor

Andrew Lang

Copy Editor

Emma Ruby

Copy Editor

India Yarborough Hannah Renton

Senior Staff Writer 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.

OPINION

April 5, 2019 THE MAROON

11

I grew up unvaccinated due to rhetoric Video games have

changed for the worse

HANNAH RENTON Mass communication freshman harenton@my.loyno. edu

Vaccines are an uncomfortable topic for me. When people bring them up, I usually stay quiet and avoid eye contact. It’s weird having to confess the fact I am mostly unvaccinated and then feel the wave of awkward silence and stares come over me. But it wasn’t always that way.

Growing up in one of the most unvaccinated counties in the country, I was under the illusion for most of my adolescence that vaccines were dangerous. More importantly, my mom was also under this illusion.

And it wasn’t for religious reasons or fears of “catching” diseases and disorders, either. It was the power of persuasive, misinformed people with one or two unreliable sources.

My mother is living proof of the dangers of misinformation, one of the main reasons I believe anti-vaccine rhetoric has become so widespread and out of control.

Since the beginning of 2019, Clark County, Washington has had the second most reported measles outbreaks with 73, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Due to a mix of radical religious groups and ultra-liberal earth-loving “hippies,” vaccines rates have always been below average where i grew up in Clark County, and it was very noticeable.

Many of my close friends from a young age were unvaccinated like my brother and I. I genuinely believed it was common to be unvaccinated until I moved out Washington and was exposed to new, much more normal, and vaccinated, chil-

By Jonathan Marshall marshall.jonathandavid@gmail.com

Illustration by Ariel Landry

dren. It was weird to me when they acted shocked or like I was going to give them a disease. Because I had grown up around this toxic rhetoric, I was convinced these kids were incorrect and their parents were the ones actually harming their children. It wasn’t until I stepped away from my mother’s beliefs and began researching on my own that I realized how misinformed my mother was – and how I needed to get vaccinated, quick.

The most interesting part of all of this is that my mom didn’t start as anti-vaccination. Both my brother and I received shots as infants. It wasn’t until my mom met a group of very convincing men and women at a fitness class that she started reading weird anti-vaccine books and believing the misinformation they were giving her. My mom was open-minded and naive enough to be convinced to turn against doctors and withhold vaccines from my brother and I for years.

And this is happening to countless other parents around the country. Anti-vaccine advocates are using lies and the viral nature of the internet to spread their rhetoric. This is incredibly harmful. People are reading articles or even just headlines, believing a centuries-old invention is actually a way for the government to control us. And there isn’t much being done on a bigger scale.

It wasn’t until the most recent outbreak that Washington State legislation began to change in order to prevent more outbreaks. Since 1979, Washington has allowed parents to exempt their children from vaccines for a variety of rationale, including “personal reasons.” This means, in some cases, parents don’t even need a doctor’s note to receive an exempt.

While schools are supposed to require proof of vaccines or exempt paperwork, the state doesn’t keep tabs on the school districts. Many children are still slipping through the cracks unvaccinated.

I am an example of this. I was unvaccinated for all of middle school, but my school did not ask my mom for any vaccine records or an exempt form until I was in seventh grade. That was after attending the school for five years.

As of January 2019, Washington State legislation is trying to pass a bill to ban “personal exemptions” from vaccines, specifically for the measles, mumps, and rubella, as well as provide educational classes on vaccines for parental guardians.

With Clark County only having a 78% vaccine rate, the passing of this bill will hopefully prevent more children and families from being persuaded against vaccines. Though to many, it seems silly or unlikely for anyone to be convinced against vaccines, words are far more powerful than we assume. To this day, when I ask my mom why she didn’t vaccinate me or my brother, she simply says, “I was absolutely convinced.

They got inside my head.”

Marla Belin was a real woman, not just a victim CHALLEN PALMER English writing junior cepalmer@my.loyno. edu

The first day Marla Belin and I met, she told me about the date she had gone on the night before in excruciating detail. It was my first day back at work since the holidays had ended and she was one of the many new people hired while I was away.

Another server at the restaurant, one I was far more comfortable around, compared the staff change to watching the second season of a show and half the cast being mysteriously replaced — and stated that we all had Marla to thank for it.

Marla Belin ran her own talent agency that sought to discover and support New Orleans artists. She was a server on the side.

She was someone who completely disregarded social cues — whether she ignored them or truly couldn’t understand them, I’ll never know.

She was loud, overly personal and one of the most confident people

I’ll ever meet. It was impossible to overlook her in a room because she made sure everyone knew she was there. She was also brash, passive-aggressive and routinely trying to hide her various micro-aggressions behind a tired “but I’m dating a black guy!”

Marla and I didn’t have a very good relationship, and I still don’t know if she was ever aware of that.

Marla stopped working with us a few months before she was killed.

One day, when I came back to work after the holidays had ended, I compared one of our more eccentric customers to her. Instead of the normal reaction I was expecting to the one joke the whole staff regularly made, I was met with a resounding “do not speak ill of the dead.”

Believing that my coworkers were messing with me, I kept joking around. It wasn’t until my manager told me what had happened that I actually started researching the situation.

Marla was assaulted on Dec. 17, 2018, by a man she knew and previously had a friendship with. NOLA. com reported that, “Belin told police (Tyrone) Fountain had threatened her prior to the attack after she rebuffed his sexual advances.”

This man tackled her to the ground and slammed her head in to the sidewalk enough to hospitalize her until she died from her injuries on Dec. 28, eleven days later. Several reports ruled it a purse-snatching gone wrong.

Tyrone Fountain admitted to beating Marla during a live interview on WVUE Fox 8. Since his confession, more and more attention has been drawn to Marla’s case.

Local news outlets, such as NOLA. com, Fox 8, WSDU and even The New Orleans Advocate have covered different aspects of the case.

Other, less legitimate outlets have picked up Marla’s case as a recent hot-button issue within their specific audiences. The Daily Stormer, an online journal whose cover image calls for an end to white genocide, published a piece about Marla titled “New Orleans: Pro-Black Talent Agency Owner Gets Enriched

by Pet Aspiring Rapper” where they referred to her death as a “divine justice.”

The Unz Review, described as an “Alternative Media Selection,” approached the story from an angle that depicts Marla as their own personal martyr. Their article, titled “Her Name Is Marla Belin: White

Woman Murdered by Black Man in 60% Black New Orleans Because She Refused His Sexual Advances,” argues that since Marla was murdered by a black man, “white privilege does not exist and white lives don’t matter.” To them, the crime happened because he is black and she existed as a white person in a predominantly black area, and not actually because he retaliated after she rejected his multiple sexual advances. A Twitter account named White Habitat has since been sharing the article.

Marla was a lot of different things to a lot of different people. The artists she helped through her talent agency saw her as a member of the family. She was, undeniably, a great person who didn’t deserve what happened to her. No one deserves to be killed for saying no. No one deserves to have their memory tarnished by horrid, bigoted opportunists. Marla Belin was a confident, funny, eccentric, loud, larger-thanlife, complicated human being.

She was a powerhouse of a woman whose memory will last far longer than this momentary perversion.

I’m here to try to break down a strange movement in the gaming development world.

To give a very short background, I’ve played Nintendo games since I was a kid — I practically lived off of the Wii and DS — but had many friends with other games that I played from time to time. These included games like “Call of Duty”” and “Halo,” as well as “Age of Empires” and “Minecraft.” So it’s not only Nintendo, folks!

I feel like the time I was growing up was the “gaming golden age”, and not out of nostalgia. This was the beginning of the era of improving technology, where each game looked more real or beautiful than the last, but no matter what it strove to give players the best experiences possible.

Even during the awkward middle-school years where liking video games was seen as a nerdy thing, gaming was a social thing. Whether it was communally working to find a way around Cynthia’s infamous Garchomp, trying to figure out if his name was Bowser or Browser, or simply arguing over whether “Halo 3” or “Halo Reach” was better — Reach, of course — it was something that drew people together. Like them or hate them, video games were one more thing to talk about, one more thing to relax with after school on the weekends. This was the day and age in which programmers and storytellers united to create stories and experiences that they knew people wanted to witness and experience, something that no other medium does.

So, what’s this trend that I mentioned in the first paragraph?

Over time, there was a definite change in the game development community. Something changed over the past eight years, and that change is in accessibility. As the internet and new technology slowly expanded the many ways that people can both experience and purchase video games, the reason why companies began making games changed.

Now, when I say this I am talking in general: not every gaming studio is like this. But from what I’ve seen and understood, it became less about making good games and more about making good money.

Now that video games have become more accepted and mainstream, a far cry from the 1990s, companies began to realize that you can really make good money off of them. It started small, in the age of “Call of Duty,” but it only grew from there.

To read the rest of this opinion piece, visit www.loyolamaroon. com.

12

April 5, 2019

The Maroon

ADMITTED STUDENT DAYS Welcome to Loyola, Class of 2023!

Loyola University New Orleans is a school like no other, in a city like no other, and we want to help you prepare for your next four years here. So we asked the Wolf Pack,

“What do you wish you had known your freshman year?”

“Everything is slower in New Orleans, so take your time.”

– Gabby Pucci, ’19

“The Monroe Library treats me well during finals ... open 24/7 and with free coffee!”

– Emma Contreras, graduate student, ’20

“Don't let yourself eat at City Diner three times a week.”

– Sam Reich, ’19

“Get out of Uptown and explore!”

– Tori Wilson, ’20

“I wish I knew that every Friday was Catfish and Mac & Cheese in the OR [Orleans Room Cafeteria].”

– Jessamyn Reichman, ’20

“It’s easy to get involved in the community [here] because everyone is so enthusiastic and excited about being here.”

“Great music, better people, late night drives, and Friday's at the Fly [the local waterfront park] ... what more could you need?”

– Brette Baughman, ’20

“There are hundreds of clubs on our campus! Get Involved!”

– Chloe Dupleix, ’20

“You don't have to choose between what you love and your major.

You can have it all here.”

– Zontre' City, ’21

– Caitlyn Morrison, ’22

Submit your enrollment deposit today at loyno.edu/deposit

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