DANILO PÉREZ IN THE CFL
A&E 8 RUGBY TEAMS SEEK NEW RECRUITS
SPORTS 12
LUTHER COLLEGE
CHIPS
“Let the chips fall where they may.”
OCTOBER 1, 2015
Serving the Luther College community since 1884.
VOLUME 138, NO. 4
Gender-neutral housing moves forward FRANCES STEVENSON STAFF WRITER Luther College Student Senate passed a resolution of support for the Black Student Union’s (BSU) hope to move forward with gender-neutral housing at their weekly meeting on Sept. 24. The BSU approached Student Senate two weeks ago hoping to gain more support, according to Student Senate President Jesus Lucero (‘16). The resolution also has support from Luther College Feminists, Luther College Pride and many other individuals who have expressed support in the past few weeks. “As a Senate, we like to move pretty quickly on things,” Lucero said. “If we can help one student feel a little bit more comfortable here, then we’re helping that one student, which is awesome.” The next step for BSU is to draft a letter of intent with the help of Student Senate. They started drafting this letter Sunday, Sept. 27, at the first BSU meeting after Senate passed its resolution of support. “Student Senate now has a direct hand in writing that letter of intent,” Lucero said. “We are now in solidarity with each other, trying to figure out how to best support each other.” The proposal for gender-neutral housing differs from the current proposal for co-ed housing in Baker Village, which has been in progress for four years. The difference between co-ed housing and gender neutral housing is the differentiaton between birth sex—a binary between male and female—and gender identification, resulting in more of a gray area. This creates issues for students who are “gender queer,” or do not feel that they fit into a gender binary.
IN SESSION. Student Senate members Ashley Meyers (‘16), Tyler Broadwell (‘16), Ashley Kappers (‘16) and Aaron Busch (‘15) discuss the possibility of gender-neutral housing on campus. Frances Stevenson / Chips “We saw Baker Village as an initial step in the right direction,” Lucero said. “But it still presents us with problems with excluding people.” Residence Life has yet to be involved with the co-ed Baker Village proposal or the gender-neutral housing idea
Trigger warnings prompt debate KATY ROETS VOLUNTEER WRITER Trigger warnings have become a hot topic on college campuses recently, and Luther College is included in the growing list of colleges struggling to decide where they stand on the topic, especially in terms of Paideia texts. Trigger warnings are an acknowledgment that a text may contain scenes of emotional or physical traumas which people may have experienced throughout their lives, and they are meant to protect those traumatized from further distressing reactions. “With trigger warnings, you don’t know what’s going to do it,” Assossiate Professor of Psychology Stephanie Travers said. “They are totally unpredictable if individuals have experienced trauma. It could be anything.” The last two Paideia summer reading assignments, “The Book of Unknown Americans” by Christina Heriquez and “Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell, have involved scenes of sexual
violence and other disturbing subjects, neither of which was assigned a trigger warning. Luther’s incoming Writing Director and Assistant Professor of English Mike Garcia will be working closely with the Paideia department. He, like many others, sees both benefit and detriment in utilizing such warnings. “Students may have this genuine trauma in their lives,” Garcia said. “You need to be aware that this is a perfectly legitimate thing to be concerned about. [However,] here are a couple of wellknown cases across the nation, though somewhat rare, of students exploiting the trigger warning. They walk into the classroom with a set of beliefs and they use the trigger warning as a way to avoid reading something that may upset those beliefs.” According to Garcia, trigger warnings are, in theory, a caring approach but can generate concern about how to actually put trigger warnings into practice in an academic setting. TRIGGER WARNINGS, PAGE 4
but supports what students want when it comes to housing, according to Assistant Dean for Student Life and Director of Residence Life Kris Franzen. GENDERED HOUSING, PAGE 4
Adam Carroll presents ‘Financial Wellness’ SIDNEY LARSEN STAFF WRITER Financial expert Adam Carroll presented a lecture titled “Financial Wellness” to Luther students about reducing student debt after college on Tuesday, Sept. 22. Carroll has visited more than 600 colleges in the past 10 years and recently gave two Ted Talks at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the London Business School. According to Carroll, the lecture was designed to calm anxiety about personal finances by preparing students with the knowledge they need to handle their money. Carroll feels that this is important because it is not something that students necessarily learn in college classes. “The idea behind [the lecture] is that most students are not taught personal finance in school,” Carroll said. “They’re taught business finance, economics, how businesses work, but are rarely taught how the fundamentals of personal finance works.” Carroll feels that it is important to use money to live life to the fullest, instead of buying expensive items. He expressed this through his “Build
a Bigger Life, not a Bigger Lifestyle” principle. SAC Leadership Co-chair Molly Jordan (‘16) found his lecture applicable to life after Luther. “He made a lot of really good points, but I think the whole life vs. lifestyle thing is pretty interesting, because it’s kind of a reality check,” Jordan said. “You don’t need to have the most expensive stuff, just build your life.” Carroll told students that living on a budget and using a large part of the household income to “blast away debt” for two years after college is one of the best ways to eliminate student loan debt. He said that it will be hard but beneficial in the long run. According to Zach Stekel (‘17), Carroll’s lecture gave him new perspective. “This lecture has opened my eyes to the possibility of really burning through all of my loans straight out of college,” Stekel said. “Before, I had thought that it was going to take years to get rid of debt from college, but after hearing his story, I am determined to pay off that debt as soon as possible.” FINANCIAL WELLNESS, PAGE 4