INSIDE
Spending tips on clothes
PAGE 2
Men’s soccer wins
PAGE 5
Josh Radnor’s liberal new film
PAGE 6
Rangers prepare for last stretch of season PAGE 5
WEDNESDAY
SEPTEMBER 26, 2012
Wednesday High 95, Low 72 Thursday High 95, Low 72
VOLUME 98 ISSUE 19 FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
REPRESENTATION
Senate discusses diversity, upcoming events
TIM WELCH Senate Beat Writer twelch@smu.edu
SIDNEY HOLLINGSWORTH/The Daily Campus
Sandra Fluke visited campus on Monday to discuss women’s health issues, especially at the federal level.
Sandra Fluke sparks debate AMANDA PRESMYK Contributing Writer apresmyk@smu.edu The Women’s and Gender Studies Program hosted “Economics and Equality: How Obstacles to Women’s Health Care Can Affect Us All” at SMU. Journalism professor Karen Thomas moderated the panel symposium featuring Sandra Fluke Monday night. Charles Curran, human rights professor Elizabeth Scurlock, associate provost and Dedman Law School professor Linda Eads and Ken Lambrecht, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood North Texas, sat on the discussion panel. “I’d like to begin with a caveat: if you’ve come to see how slutty I am in person, you are probably going to be disappointed with the content of my discussion,” Fluke at the start of her speech,
referring to the Rush Limbaugh controversy that first thrust her into the spotlight, said. After responding to “misconceptions” regarding her remarks to the Democratic members of the House in February, Fluke recognized that limiting women’s access to affordable contraceptives deprives a very specific group of women of their rights to health care. She said giving insurers the choice to cover the cost of contraceptives or not is “an incredible personal choice to hand over to your employer.” Eads framed her discussion of women’s health and legislation with regards to constitutional law, stating that the issue could be discussed in terms of constitutional privacy and freedom of religion. “Government cannot control our procreation. Is there anything more an anathema to a human being than to have the government,
to have politicians, control procreation?” Eads said. Curran called a proposed compromise “brilliant in many ways.” The new legislation would allow the government to step in and offset the high costs of contraceptives when a woman’s place of employment or other nonprofit agency offering her insurance coverage is opposed to contraceptives. “No compromise is perfect, but let’s face it – the whole political spectrum today, both left and right, is unwilling to compromise,” Curran said. Lambrecht closed the panel by highlighting the importance of women’s health centers like Planned Parenthood. Legislation, like Title 10, has stripped $75 million from the Texas state budget and led to the closure of 60 Planned Parenthood centers. Despite the reduced budget, Lambrecht said there has actually
been an increase in government and taxpayer spending on women’s care. Thomas and audience members followed up his comment with many questions. The questions posed covered abortion, global women’s health care, social movements, political agenda setting and family planning. The conversation greatly impressed SMU Student Senate Vice President Zane Cavender. “Regardless of personal beliefs or ideals, it is phenomenal that SMU could host this event,” Cavendar said. “It truly demonstrates the caliber of our university and its student body.” Fluke ended the program by thanking the audience for attending and a challenge for future conversation. “Respect and honor each other’s choices,” she said. “No matter one’s personal views.”
HOUSING
Student Body President Alex Mace opened the Senate meeting on Tuesday by swearing in eight new senators. In their oaths these new senators swore to uphold the SMU Senate Constitution and by-laws and represent the interests of their constituency. President Mace then discussed the potential adaptations to the Senate’s policy via the “proactive ad hoc” R&R (Research and Recommendations) Committee. This committee’s job will be to examine the Senate’s extant documents on organization, and explore reform options. The call for improvement in functionality comes in response to concerns raised by constituent student organizations about the Senate’s efficacy in reacting to significant events — such as the vandalism that occurred two weeks ago. Mace also encouraged all senators to attend the town hall assembly, “Elephant in the Room,” on Tuesday evening to support campus diversity initiatives. SMU Chaplain, Stephen Rankin, addressed the chamber saying that the Senate’s members came to their positions because they are “motivated to make life better at SMU.” He further said that when one is extremely busy, it’s “tempting to drop your vision and aim for the incremental,” to “focus
on the doable.” However, he exhorted the senators to “dream big, tackle the big issues and remember to have courage and endurance.” Before leaving the podium, Dr. Rankin added another thought: “Your core values shape the way you think about challenges you face,” and that this implies “an inherently spiritual dimension” to one’s thought process. He asked the senators to think about from where their “core values” are derived, and that he is open to listen to any one of them individually, adding that he “count[s] it a holy privilege to have such conversations.” Next, SMU Program Council representatives Haley Finkenbinder and Lillian Foster talked about their organization’s recent success this semester with events such as the Block Party and Park ‘N Party, and screenings of films The Avengers and The Five-Year Engagement. Further, they discussed their plans for forthcoming events: SMU Saloon, in which the Hughes-Trigg Ballroom will be “turned into Billy Bob’s”; Sweet and Greet, in which SMU athletes and other students will bond over frozen yogurt; and float-building for homecoming, which will be in about a month. Heather Rodenborg, a representative of Perkins School of Theology, addressed the chamber to ask that the money which had been earmarked for a lecturer the school wanted to bring in be given instead to College Hispanic American Students’ (CHAS) effort to bring in a speaker of their own. The speaker in question is Marlene Esperanza, an Olympic boxer, whom Rodenborg describes as “a role model for overcoming oppression.” This generosity was motivated by a call for diversity
See INCLUSIVE page 3
ACADEMICS
Students weigh in on campus versus off campus housing debate CAROLINE HICKS Contributing Writer chicks@smu.edu Their sophomore year, Southern Methodist University students are given the choice to live on or off campus. On the first day of class, sophomore Morgan Siewert, who lives in the BLVD apartment complex on SMU Boulevard, frantically searched for a parking spot in the Binkley parking garage. “Most mornings I have to leave my apartment twenty minutes before my class starts so that I can find parking and then walk to class from there,” Siewert said. Siewert said she sometimes envies those living in VirginiaSnider Residence Hall or in an on-campus Greek house who get to calmly meander to class. Many students chose to stay on campus after their freshman to avoid the inconvenience of commuting. Senior Resident Assistant Travis Miller has lived in McElvaney Hall since his freshman year. He said he loves being on campus now as much as he did then. “Living on campus is
Courtesy of Devin Kerns
Students can study abroad or in Taos, N.M., where SMU has a campus.
Students enjoy travel abroad experiences Courtesy of SMU
SMU’s new residential halls might exacerbate parking problems on campus.
awesome. It couldn’t be more convenient,” Miller said. Only four of the 15 residence halls on campus are restricted to first-year students. Beyond the dorms, there are sorority and fraternity houses open to students who join the Greek community. These housing options provide upperclassmen the opportunity to live on campus. “There seem to be a lot of cool apartments off campus, but I’m enjoying living in McElvaney and think I want to
stay on campus next year. Buying furniture for an apartment would be expensive and somewhat of a hassle,” freshman Harrison Gamble, said. Furnishing an apartment, paying rent and electric bill and gas money can all add up when living off campus. Siewert admits her spending has increased a lot since moving off campus, but she also said the pros of living off campus still greatly outweigh
See COMFORT page 3
JULIANNE WILLIS Contributing Writer jwillis@smu.edu Getting out of the SMU bubble is not always easy, but with Taos and SMU Abroad programs the university offers students many ways to expand their horizons. Senior Houstoun Waring went to Taos, New Mexico in May for the SMU-in-Taos program. “I had a great experience. Having one academic class a day offered the opportunity to enjoy nature and take in the scenery, as
well as to explore Taos. All of the classes include several field trips to important or famous cultural sites in the area,” Waring said. Just 12 hours away from Dallas, Taos didn’t offer too much of a culture shock for Waring. But senior Tony Shallcross discovered living in Copenhagen, Denmark was very different. “I went abroad because it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to spend four months in another country, while taking classes, meeting new people and an opportunity to get out of the SMU bubble we all love,” Shallcross said.
Along with travelling to 12 other countries, Shallcross rock climbed the Cinque Terre, visited a beach in Malta and stood on the historic battlefields of Istanbul. “I can say with one hundred percent certainty that this was the best decision I have ever made,” Shallcross said. SMU Abroad offers opportunities in several continents with exclusive programs at elite institutions like the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics. All schools, especially the Cox School of Business, encourage students to go abroad.