INSIDE
Fallon hits the ground running
Mac’s Place to be renovated
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Basketball promotes spirit
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Domestic violence and the NFL
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friDAY
february 21, 2014 Friday High 70, Low 45 Saturday High 73, Low 55
VOLUME 99 ISSUE 62 FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
Bush talks veterans
E vent
Myca Williamson Associate A&E Editor mwilliamson@smu.edu
Courtesy of Sarah Bell
The posters for The Vagina Monologues feature vaginas made of Perunas.
Vagina Monologues return to campus Sarah Bell Contributing Writer sabell@smu.edu The Women’s Interest Network is hosting this year’s presentation of “The Vagina Monologues” Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center auditorium. The proceeds from the event will go towards supporting the Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center. This event has a long history at SMU working to empower women and create a sense of community among the female students. “The Vagina Monologues,” written by Eve Ensler, has been performed since 1996 and has since been the cornerstone for the V-Day campaign. This campaign works to educate people on the realities of violence against women and girls, according to the V-Day website. “It’s the only night we really get to talk about sexual assault in a broader scope of all women,” Co-Chair Angela Uno said. “I think that is so important to the SMU community.” But “The Vagina Monologues” doesn’t just tell stories of assault and rape, it also explores a woman’s feelings during her first period, what childbirth is like, losing one’s virginity and a long list of other vagina-related topics that any woman could relate to. Uno describes the monologues as being the first time that women had been asked about vaginas in general, how they felt and their
experiences as women. “It’s a way to just get people to start talking,” Uno said. Performing “The Vagina Monologues” give students the opportunity to find community support if they have been assaulted. The benefits are not exclusive to women, however; it also gives male students the chance to step into the mind of a woman for one night. “I think it’s important for men to go,” said Heidi Brandenburg, the graduate assistant at the SMU Women’s Center and the advisor to the Women’s Interest Network. “They can see things from our perspective, what we go through as women.” The Women’s Interest Network has been fighting for gender equality at SMU, and “The Vagina Monologues” is just another stepping stone on the path to a more equal campus. “It’s so acceptable for people to talk about men and penises and sex in general,” Uno said. “But when a woman tries to talk about it, it’s so taboo.” The Women’s Interest Network hopes to open up the door to remove that feeling of ‘taboo.’ “I’m hoping that this year will see more student involvement because it represents liberation,” last year’s chair Asia Rodgers said.
Preview
ISA hosts Bhangra Blitz Lauren Castle Contributing Writer lcastle@smu.edu Throughout the school year, the Indian Student Association has prepared for their ninth annual Raas Rave and Bhangra Blitz dance competition, which will be hosted in McFarlin Auditorium Saturday. The event will feature 14 college dance teams from around the country. “R2B2 is my favorite weekend of the year,” said Faith Michael, ISA public relations chair. “I just really like that we have a bunch of the SMU community that come out for this event that… don’t really know what’s going on with the Indian student group.” The event committee chose the 14 dance teams through an audition process. ISA members with Raas and Bhangra experience judged the auditions. The judges watched audition videos from over 30 dance teams. The teams include dance groups from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Washington University in St. Louis. There will be three judges for each type of dance. The teams will be judged on
technique, choreography and cultural portrayal. Attendees will see the dancers performing in traditional attire and with props. Usually in Bhangra, men wear a traditional headdress called “pagri.” Raas dancers use small sticks called “dandiyas.” “People that I spoke to last year who had never seen it before said it was really awesome to see the costumes, the make-up, the dancing,” ISA secretary Myra Noshahi said. “I’ve been obsessed with them from the beginning. They’re great,” senior Nina Rafiq said. “They have traditional songs as well as fusion songs with English and it’s just great music that anyone can relate to. Even if you don’t speak the language, you’ll love it.” Doors will open at 6 p.m. The competition is free for students with a SMU ID. Students are suggested to arrive as soon as possible in order to choose a seat that suits their liking. Non-SMU students can purchase tickets before the event online or at the door. Presale tickets will be available until 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Margaret Spellings, president of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, addressed a packed auditorium at the institute Wednesday. “Any of you who are veterans or actively serving in our military, please stand,” she said. Nearly every member of the audience rose from their red velvet seats, and were greeted with a long round of applause as onlookers honored their service. Spellings and the veterans were joined by former President George W. Bush, second lady Jill Biden other leaders from the military and the public, private and nonprofit sectors for Military Service Initiative Summit on the importance of aiding post-9/11 veterans in the often difficult transition after military service. “I intend to salute these men and women for the rest of my life,” said former President Bush in his address at the conference, poignantly titled “Empowering Our Nation’s Warriors.” The conference focused on the unique needs of transitioning veterans and the vital role Americans have in the process. Martha Raddatz, Chief Global Affairs Correspondent for ABC News, also moderated a discussion on opening up jobs for vets in need of work. There are approximately 2.5 million post-9/11 veterans and a million more veterans will be completing their military service in the next five years. Many of these veterans are disabled and simply in need of someone that cares. “America cared about my
RYAN MILLER / The Daily Campus
After speaking at the Bush Institute, President George W. Bush, Laura Bush and Second Lady Jill Biden cheered on the Men’s Basketball team, who defeated Houston 68–64.
recovery,” said Wounded Warrior Lt. Col. Justin Constantine, who was shot by an enemy sniper while on duty in Iraq. Bush revealed in his address that the institute was working closely with Syracuse University on a comprehensive study of the sometimes traumatic post-service experience that military vets go through. According to the study, which will be entirely released in April 2014, 84 percent of veterans said that the American public is unaware of the issues they face and 71 percent of civilians say they don’t understand the problems veterans struggle with. Many vets face issues reintegrating to society. There is a “public misunderstanding” when
it comes to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which Bush referred to as PTS. According to Bush, PTS is an injury rather than a disorder, which can be treated and is not an obstacle to a successful life. Veterans “are dealing with wounds both seen and unseen,” Biden said. Biden and first lady Michelle Obama co-founded “Joining Forces,” which is an organization dedicated to supporting and honoring military families. Biden, who also teaches English full-time at a community college in Virginia, is the author of the children’s book “Don’t Forget, God Bless Our Troops,” which focuses on military family’s trying experiences. These vets are “Our most sacred
obligation,” she said. According to President Bush, there are only few things he misses about being the president of the United States. Of course, there was Air Force One. “In eight years, they never lost my baggage,” he joked. On a more serious note, however, the former commander in chief made it clear that celebrating the service of military veterans is something he will continue to do even after his presidency. “They are the 1 percent that kept the 99 percent safe,” he said. Two panel discussions and a networking lunch followed the opening remarks. See the full event at www. bushcenter.org.
Metropolitan
Innocence project hosts event at SMU Karly Hanson Contributing Writer kdhanson@smu.edu It felt like one of those roller coasters seen when driving by Six Flags over Texas. A shockwave. Disbelief. Cory Session was 17 when he heard that his brother, Timothy Cole, was convicted of an aggravated sexual assault that he didn’t commit near Texas Tech University in 1985. Even with an alibi, a spotless criminal record and proof of severe asthma when the perpetrator was a heavy smoker, one witness’s identification of Cole as the perpetrator was enough to lock him away for 25 years. “Where are we?” Session said in a recent interview. “What world are we in, what country do we come from? This is the United States.” Thirteen years later, Tim died while incarcerated. It was another nine years before Session and his mother saw Cole’s name cleared by the work of the Innocence Project of Texas (IPTX). “My mother passed away in October last year, and that was her one quest for decades: live long enough to see his name clear, and she got to see a lot more than his name clear,” said Session, who left his job as a legislative aid to join IPTX in 2009, and is now their policy director. Cory Session is coming to speak at SMU along with District Attorney Craig Watkins and three Dallas exonerees, including Johnnie Lindsey, Christopher Scott and Billy Smith as part of a panel in the IPTX Student Organization’s first campuswide event Feb. 26. SMU junior
KARLY HANSON / The Daily Campus
The Innocence Project of Texas’s Student Organization President Steven Evans and Chief Staff Attorney Natalie Roetzel listen as SMU student volunteers discuss their cases and witness profiles at their weekly meeting.
Steven Evans, student president of the IPTX student organization, has coordinated the event as an introduction of the 3-year-old student group and its mission to the SMU campus. The panel will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Hillcrest Room of the Underwood Law Library. “Our work is significant because it’s helping people who cannot help themselves. It’s finding the needle in the haystack,” Evans said. “The innocent person in prison we have a chance of freeing.” The Innocence Project of Texas, founded in 2007, is a nonprofit organization that serves to exonerate wrongly convicted inmates in Texas. The office, headquartered Lubbock, receives 100-150 letters a week from inmates and family members seeking the Innocence Project’s help. In addition to the student organization on SMU’s campus, the IPTX works with students from the University of Texas at Dallas, Texas A&M University and the law school
at Texas Tech University. Both undergraduate and law students sort through the innocence claims mailed to IPTX. The students read and digest cases, take copious notes and then write a memo detailing whether or not the case is winnable and worth pursuit and litigation. The 17 students volunteering this semester at SMU are broken into three groups, each assigned a different case. The cases they read are confidential and cannot be discussed outside of the organization. “My favorite part of working on the cases is reading through the nittygritty details,” Evans said. “There are some comical prosecutors.” To make it to this step of the exoneration process, the claim for innocence must pertain to an inmate convicted of a felony within the state of Texas. On top of these credentials, the cases must also be provable. The screening process is rigorous because, as a small nonprofit, financial resources are limited.
“The cases that we pick and that we actually litigate, we’re usually pretty confident in because we’re not going to spend a lot of time and money on cases that we don’t think we can win,” said Natalie Roetzel, chief staff attorney of IPTX. “We have a lot of faith in the clients that we do choose, and we work very closely with them and very diligently on their files.” While pursuing exonerations of innocent Texas inmates is the more immediate goal of the organization, the overarching mission is to evoke reforms in the legislative system to prevent wrongful convictions from occurring in the first place. “If we don’t learn something from all of our cases then we’ve failed,” Roetzel said. “What we want to be able to do is take these cases, make examples of them and basically demonstrate what reforms might be available to prevent those injustices from happening in the future.”