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LUTHER COLLEGE
“Let the chips fall where they may.”
CHIPS
OCTOBER 29, 2015
Serving the Luther College community since 1884.
VOLUME 138, NO. 7
Students discusss Gender-neutral housing: emergency alert Students host Live-In event miscommunication JACOB WAREHIME STAFF WRITER Luther students received an email regarding an assault that took place on campus on Oct. 8. The email, sent out at 1:41 a.m., was incorrectly labeled “Armed Intruder on Campus.” The following day, students received a correction email apologizing for this mistake. However, students have found issue both with the mistake itself and the content of the emails. McKenzie Carney (‘18) was awakened by the notification. Upon receiving the email, she and her roommates were confused and simply went back to bed, according to Carney. She wishes the notification had been sent closer to the time of the event. “I would have been in a clearer mindset,” Carney said. “I would have been more concerned.” Carney says she wasn’t as concerned as she could have been partly because of the time of day the email was received, but also in part because she took the time to read through the whole email. “If you read the information in the first email you would have known that it wasn’t an armed intruder,” Carney said. “[The body of the email] said it was an assault.” Although the subject line was incorrect, the information provided within the email was correct. Mitchell Stenoien (‘17), like Carney, was also upset over the subject line of the email. “Saying that there was an armed intruder, that’s just unprofessional,” Stenoien said. “That shouldn’t have been in the email.” He also commented on the content of the email, which was sent out the following morning. “Some of the recommendations [in the second email] were a little over the top,” Stenoin said. “Just say ‘be cautious’ and have people take their own meaning to that. Have Luther reinforce the idea of security on campus.” Stenoien added that, misinformation aside, his real concern is the lasting effect the emails will have on campus. “I’m worried not so much because it’s dangerous,” Stenoien said. “It’s more so the fact that now people have a reason to be scared. Being cautious and being scared are two different things, and there’s a fine COMMUNICATION ERROR, PAGE 4
LIVING ON THE LAWN. (From left) Ashley Meyers (‘16), Claire Boeke (‘16) and Zora Hurst (‘17) and others camped out on Farwell Clearing in order to visibly demonstrate the need for gender-neutral housing. Anna Jeide / Chips FRANCES STEVENSON STAFF WRITER Continuing the discussion about gender-neutral housing, Black Student Union (BSU) and Luther College Feminists (LC Fems) hosted the Gender Neutral Housing Live-In event on Farwell Clearing this past weekend, Oct. 24 –25, to express the need for action to the Board of Regents and Luther College administration. About 12 tents were set up on Farwell Clearing where about 20 students spent the night camping out as a visual reminder of the need for gender-neutral housing on campus. This action followed the letter of intent sent to President Paula Carlson and the Board of Regents earlier this month. BSU Vice President Zora Hurst (‘17) originally brought the idea for the event to BSU and LC Fems. The groups then decided to make it a larger event. The event was meant to serve as a visual reminder to the Board of Regents. “The cause of the whole thing is that we have no
housing for gender non-conforming or trans students,” Leader of LC Fems Emma Cassabaum (‘16) said. “The direct action is meant to be a reminder to the Board of Regents as they meet this weekend that they need to discuss this issue and that it’s something that is a problem and it’s not going to go away.” The organizations’ goals for the event were to get interim housing on campus for transgender and gender non-conforming students along with a concrete plan to move forward with permanent housing. “For me the ultimate goal, which would mean that the [Board of Regents] are moving along with what we asked for, would be a plan set up for the interim,” Hurst said. “If they don’t establish interim housing then we know that they are not planning to follow through with it.” The Board of Regents, along with the administrators who have been involved with this issue, such as Assistant Dean for Student Life and Director of Residence Life Kris Franzen, Carlson and Dean for Student Life and LIVE-IN EVENT, PAGE 4
Guest lecturer Richard Winter discusses rape culture JESSE ANDERSON STAFF WRITER
THE ERA OF SEXUAL FREEDOM. Winter discusses connections between sexuality, pornography and rape culture. Jesse Anderson / Chips
Luther College Center for Ethics and Public Life hosted psychotherapist Richard Winter M.D. to deliver a series of lectures Oct. 21-22. Winter is a former member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (U.K.) and is professor of applied theology and director of the masters program in counseling at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis. Winter gave a lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 21 titled “Surrendering our Freedom in an Age of Soma: Living on the Edge of Addiction” where he addressed some of the complexities surrounding addiction today in the context of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave
New World.” In his second lecture, Winter presented “The Challenge of Sexual Freedom: Gender Equality and Rape Culture” on Thursday, Oct. 22. This lecture focused on the issue of rape culture, the extent to which it is prevalent throughout the world and possible contributing factors. “We wanted the perspective of a practicing psychotherapist to talk about issues of addiction and issues of sexuality, not just as something theoretical and abstract, but about how people’s lives are actually going,” Director of the Center for Ethics and Public Life Greg Jesson said. Winter outlined features of rape culture in his lecture. “We define rape culture as a culture
in which the victim tends to be blamed, where rape is trivialized by passing around videos of what has happened and laughing about them and where there is often police and college administration apathy and cover-up and a lack of prosecution,” Winter said. The lecture listed a number of statistics about the extent to which this is a problem, as well as the lack of accurate statistics due to instances of sexual assault being underreported. “Rape culture is more prevalent than people realize. It takes lectures like tonight’s to bring awareness so that we can take steps to deal with this issue,” Sexual Assault Advocate for the WINTER LECTURE, PAGE 4