Sports | 5
Opinion | 6
Religion | 6
Black Athletes
Is it necessary to have two black cultural clubs?
Merge: A place of authentic worship
February 27, 2020 Collegedale, Tennessee
Lifestyle | 7 Student Spotlight: Black Entrepreneurial Students
Southern Accent
Vol. 75 Issue 16
The student voice since 1926
BCU Night: Hidden Figures
Sheryl Kambuni first female SA president elected in 26 years; Abejar, Peteros, confirmed as VPs
Cheyenne Wilson Staff Writer This Saturday night, Southern’s annual Black Christian Union (BCU) Night will showcase a variety of food, dance and a play featuring the “hidden figures” within black history. To begin the night, students will have the opportunity to taste cuisines from places such as Kenya, Jamaica and Trinidad. From there, students can watch performers do a step dance and watch a play written by Wendell Passie, a second-year freshman and computer information systems major. Cierra Dabney, a sophomore communication studies major, joined BCU in 2019. Dabney serves as BCU’s step dance choreographer. “Even though I’ve been [in BCU] for a short amount of time, I realized the consistency of everyone just trying to figure out how we can improve as a BCU family,” Dabney said. “Personally, I think what means the most is just the unity everyone getting together and being able to have a good time. And most See BCU on page 3
Megan Yoshioka Lead Reporter Junior psychology major Sheryl Kambuni is the first female elected Student Association president since Windi Cockrell was elected in 1994. Kambuni secured 78.22 percent of votes. She enters the position with proposals to improve mental health services, make community service count as cultural credit and build mentorship programs for students through alumni relations.
Her opponent, junior psychology major Luis Moreno, received 21.78 percent.
I never expected myself to be in this position, but now it’s a reality. Originally from Kenya, Kambuni is also the first black female SA president at Southern since 1976. “I feel like it definitely puts the pressure on because now everybody’s looking to see what’s
Village Market alters receipt policy Kelly Gustrowsky Staff Writer The Village Market (VM) recently changed its policy for customers keeping their receipts. Instead of having the option to be given a receipt, customers must keep their receipts to show an employee at the exit as proof of purchase. This is due to the shoplifting occurring in the store according to Jackie Rose, VM manager. Rose, says that although it is hard to tell exactly how much the store loses from stolen merchandise, it is safe to estimate approximately 1.3% of profits. “[If put into dollars], it would be substantial, more than you’d actually think,” Rose said.
Food is a primary source of theft, according to management. Employees often find empty containers denoting goods that have been stolen and either eaten in some remote corner of the store or smuggled out.
Food, although the primary choice of theft, is not the only item fallen prey to shoplifting. Rose said basketballs and pillows have also been stolen. “They’ll get [food at] the hot bar, which is a priced item . . .
Customers checking out at the VM. Photo by Estefania Sanchez
and then go to the salad bar, fill [the hot bar container] up, [and] close it back,” Rose said. In this manner, the customer gets the salad for free. Food, although the primary choice of theft, is not the only item fallen prey to shoplifting. Rose said basketballs and pillows have also been stolen. Dee Franks, assistant manager, thinks the past practice of only handing out receipts if the customer desired it might have contributed to shoplifting. “There was a time period that customer service had made the decision to not hand out receipts if the customer didn’t want it . . . and so that’s where it possibly got ‘loosened up,’” See VM on page 3
so special about women and what they can do to benefit our school,” Kambuni said. Senior marketing major Marcus Abejar and junior management major Nadine Peteros were elected executive vice president and social vice president, respectively. Both were running unopposed. Abejar secured 87.79 percent of votes and Peteros secured 94.84 percent. Current SA president Mark Galvez called all three candidates on election night to
inform them that they won their positions. “At first I was like, ‘No, I don’t believe it,’” Kambuni said. “My brain shut down at that moment because leading up to that, I had been so stressed. But it actually happened. And, then, I was just on the ground for a few minutes. Then I got up and was like, ‘Okay, what’s next?’” “My first thought was, ‘Wow, this is actually happening,’” Abejar said. “I never expected myself to be in this position, but See SA President on page 2
McKee Library announces changes to closing hours
McKee Library Photo by Estefania Sanchez
Stephanie Chavez Falla Staff Writer Beginning next semester, the McKee Library will be closing at 11 p.m. rather than at midnight from Sunday to Thursday according to Deyse Bravo, director of libraries. About five years ago, the library closed at 11 p.m. They decided to make the change to extend its hours upon request of the students. However, now the library will be returning to its previous hours. Bravo, who has worked at the library for nine years, says this change is due to the lack of student attendance from 11 p.m. to midnight. “There are fewer people at 11 p.m. than there is at 9 pm.” said Elisa Fuentes, senior health science major and student library worker. “Statistically, every time I take a headcount… at 9 p.m. it
could be about 60 people. But at 11 p.m. or 11:30 p.m., I’d say it probably drops to a maximum of 15 to 20 people.” According to Bravo, this decision was made by the faculty and staff of the library with the advice of Robert Young, senior vice president of academic administration at Southern. “The reason we decided to make this change is that there is very little library utilization from students from 11 p.m. to midnight,” Bravo said. “We do a headcount every hour… and the numbers during this hour have been very low for the last few years. We want to make better use of the library’s resources by realigning our funding priorities.” The upcoming change to the library has students questioning whether this decision is truly a result of the low number See LIBRARY on page 3