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The Merciad
Est. 1929 Vol. 88 No. 9
Mercyhurst university
A Ballet ‘dream’
Wednesday, noveMber 12, 2014
Course offerings increase for J-Term By Jose Nufio Staff writer
Ashley Favata photo
From left to right: Courtney Naughton (senior), Matthew Huefner (sophomore), and Hailey Meert (junior) grace the stage with a performance inspired by Shakespeare’s play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ Full story on page 7.
ResLife training program addresses LGBTQIA issues By Catherine Rainey Staff writer
A group of faculty and staff from three areas of the university have come together to offer a training program about LGBTQIA, or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, or asexual education to students. Father Jim Piszker, university chaplain, Greg Baker, director of Campus Ministry, Trina Marerro, director of the Multicultural Center, and Dr. Judy Smith, director for health and counseling centers, will train all resident assistants (RAs) on how to become allies to the LGBTQIA community during their RA in-service training on January 27. The training program addresses how individuals who identify as LGBTQIA can find their place within the Catholic Church community. According to Piszker, a student came to him three years ago looking for a LGBTQ program, pointing out that surrounding colleges had such programs. Consequently, Piszker created one, starting with
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educating faculty, staff and administration that were interested. This is the first time for Pizsker, Baker, Marerro and Smith to reach out to the student population on LGBTQIA issues. They are working with Residence Life, using residence assistants as their target population. “We were trying to think of a constituency [to train] that would make sense as far as students were concerned and that’s when someone came up with the idea of RAs because they have contact with students all the time,” Piszker said. In the two hour-long presentation that the faculty gave to other faculty, staff and administration, Piszker discussed Catholic theology and its views on homosexuality; Baker talked about the pastoral, or spiritual, side of the church and how to accept people as individuals; Smith discussed the psychological components of homosexuality; and Marrero talked about sexual diversity and how to become an ally. “It is going to be manda-
tory for all RAs,” said Rhina Duquela, assistant director of Residence Life and Student Conduct. “It’s is a form of diversity training. It’s also for personal awareness.” The faculty panel presented the training to a small group of RAs and a few other students invited by the faculty in a focus group on Wednesday, Oct. 29. The faculty asked the students to evaluate the presentation to make sure it was appropriate for a student audience. Monique Litchmore, a senior RA in sophomore area, attended the first training. “I thought it was enjoyable,” Litchmore said. “Right now most of the allies are administrators so its nice to know students can have a student to go to.” John Hermmann, a senior RA in McAuley Hall, will receive the training at the in-service. “I understand why we’re doing it. We’re supposed to be trained in a variety of scenarios. However, I feel it should be a voluntary process,” Herrmann said. Amy Bishop, president of
the Mercyhurst LGBTQIA Equality Club said she was happy that faculty are conducting the training. “It’s exciting that they’re actually fulfilling more awareness,” Bishop said. Piszker said he is glad to be able to conduct the educational training for students. “We’re hoping to make this a safer environment, a more pleasant environment for everybody,” said Piszker. “That’s ultimately our goal.” Marerro is also pleased with the work they have accomplished and hopes to continue spreading awareness about the LGBTQIA community. “I think we’ve made a great impact. My hope for the future is that we reach the North East as well as the Booker T. Washington population because we are all Mercyhurst,” Marerro said. The North East campus and Booker T. Washington Center are branches of Mercyhurst.
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A new J-Term schedule will offer more opportunities to Mercyhurst students. This year the school expanded the course offerings, improving the selection of classes from last year.. Assistant Vice-President of Academic Services Michele Wheaton said the success of enrollment of last year’s J-Term will repeat itself this year. Students will have opportunities to study different subject matters. The philosophy department added a course to the core called “Philosophical Studies.” Robert von Thaden, Ph.D., of the Religious Studies department, is offering a class called “The Apocalypse to Zombie, A to Z.” According to von Thaden, the course aims to examine how “religious and non-religious literature about the end of the world has been used by various cultures as a means to reflect upon, critique, and explain current events.” This is also the first time von Thaden has taught a J-Term class. While students only had one option for study abroad last year, this year they can choose from programs in Belize, Spain, Costa Rica and Ireland. “There are more opportunities and many more students are taking the chance to study abroad and experience different cultures which is really good for them,” Wheaton said. Wheaton said the process this year has been relatively smooth. Teachers have been involved in coming up with courses that would be of interest to students. They have been looking for courses that students could use on their majors or could serve them as electives. After the registration for upperclassman is over, Student Services will offer the available, left-over seats to freshmen. Additionally, a few more 100 level courses will be
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added to give the freshmen more opportunities to register. “I usually go out and I recruit to the faculty and ask them to come up with other offerings. I anticipate that we will probably be adding other options in both J-term and spring, but they will be the lower level courses,” said Wheaton. “That’s just so that we can accommodate seats for all of our students, because that’s paramount to get a decent offering for them to choose from.” Wheaton takes on the job of finding classes for students who couldn’t find one on their own. If a student can’t find classes for the core, there is a possibility that there is something in their major that they are offering as well and that could also benefit them. All these arrangements are coming along, due to the success Wheaton saw in last year’s J-Term. She was surprised by the number of students who wanted to take classes during the J-Term, both in lower and upper levels. Students who took a class during the J-Term had an average grade of B+. “Honestly, it was all positive. I was so amazed. We had almost 80 percent of our students take the J-Term,” said Wheaton. “Even though seniors weren’t required to take it, they did take it because they thought it was kind of cool.” Wheaton hopes that for this J-Term, things will continue to be smooth. She anticipates more travel opportunities coming along in response to to the high student interest and hopes that all students will take the courses they need and are interested in. “We try to help as many as we can, we add whenever as we can. We normally can get students into the class of their choice or one that will work for them,” said Wheaton. “We don’t leave anybody hanging out. I will tell you that, I promise that we care about the students.” @TheMerciad