STUDY ABROAD CONTEST 9
FALL FROLICS 8
MENS SOCCER 15
theTrinitonian
Vol. 115 Issue 13
Serving Trinity University, San Antonio Since 1902
November 20, 2015
Out of Silence and into the spotlight Texas Freedom Network hosts pro-choice performance and panel BY ALEXANDRA URI
NEWS REPORTER
This week the Texas Freedom Network put on the Out of Silence event to raise awareness of women who have had abortions. The project was created with the 1 in 3 campaign by Advocates for Youth. “The whole point of the project is to share art, personal stories and narratives in order to shift the stigma surrounding abortion and humanize all these different experiences that women have had,” said Talia Howard, Texas Freedom Network president. The event featured five vignettes, or short plays, followed by a panel about reproductive justice. “This is a part of our Week of Action for our project, Illuminate Reproductive Justice, which is using art to communicate the narrative of people’s experiences. This was a play part of the art aspect. On Thursday we had a movie screening for Obvious Child,” Howard said. The short plays focused on the true stories of women who have undergone abortions and the affect they have had on their lives. “Millions of women have abortions; why don’t we hear about the success stories? I figured my life out, graduated with honors, I have a career, I make a difference in the world, I’m married to a great guy and we’ve got a beautiful baby. I’m fine, we’re fine. We are judges, doctors, lawyers, teachers, pilots, congresswomen, professors, social workers, we are success stories,” ended the last vignette. The panelists focused on everything from emotional and spiritual health for women who have had an abortion to the actual monetary costs of the procedure.
Students discuss the aspects of abortion with a Pro-Life activist
“My role as a minister is to not necessarily address the stigma, but to help women address their own inner thoughts. It’s almost impossible to change other people’s minds. But if you have an idea within your own self and you stand up strong enough in your own being, then it almost becomes irrelevant. The best way to address stigma is with inner strength,” said Erika Forbes, an interfaith reverend. For some women, the financial cost of an abortion can be too much. The Lilith Fund provides financial assistance for women seeking help in paying for an abortion. “We get about 3,000 people calling our hotline requesting funds because they cannot afford to pay for abortions. We know that restrictions on abortions have been devastating for women; specifically they burden women of color, poor people, people without a means to
photo by Miguel Webber
travel to larger cities or places with abortion clinics,” said Holly Benavides, a board member of the Lilith Fund. The panel also discussed the stigma surrounding abortions and women’s health. “When you’re dealing with stigma, a lot of what I see is that you have to get on a personal level with people. You’re not changing the minds of thousands of people, by telling my sister and having her tell me that I have a friend who went through the same thing and that she knows people. And then telling our parents and having them say, ‘I didn’t know this happened to normal people.’ People stories are very important,” said Jennifer Longoria, a community activist. Longoria also addressed the laws Texas has put in place to make it more difficult for women to receive an abortion. In some cases
Texas lawmakers have made it impossible for women to get the procedure. “When I went in for my initial visit, there [was] a 24 hour limit after my first appointment. After my 24 hours, I had to do a sonogram. Texas law requires me to get a sonogram. I went to back to the doctor and he had to read a list of all the things he was looking at on the screen,” Longoria said. The panel was followed by a question and answer session. Students asked questions about the discussion and how to get involved with women’s reproductive rights issues. The panel recommended that students should vote so lawmakers can hear their voices and organize in their communities.
Trinity football moves to new conference Tiger football makes the transition from SCAC to SAA BY CLINT SCHROEDER
SPORTS REPORTER
This past Wednesday, the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) announced that Trinity University and Austin College would become affiliate members of the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) for football starting in the 2017 season. While the Tigers will face new opponents in 2017, the Tigers’ 2016 schedule will remain unaffected by the conference change.
NEWS...1-4
“All the schools in the SAA are currently booked; Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis are currently in their conference through 2016,” said head football coach Jerheme Urban said. “So our 2016 schedule stays the same. We stay with Redlands and Pacific Lutheran and Chapman and Millsaps on our schedule.” Urban also mentioned that the team will continue to play the double round robin in the later half of the season against their three SCAC conference opponents: Austin College, Texas Lutheran University and Southwestern University. With the lack of football teams in the SCAC conference, scheduling out-of-conference games in order to fill the schedule became a necessity. According to Bob King, director of
OPINION...5-7
athletics at Trinity University, finding teams that have openings in their schedule is quite difficult. “Football games are really hard to find. [The SAA] had a need for scheduling, so we were fortunate that [both of us] had needs at the same time.” Trinity was able to make the move to the SAA because the SAA was also losing members to other conferences. “They had two schools drop out; Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Chicago were affiliate members and before they played the first game of that relationship, they told the SAA that they were leaving in two years,” King said. “So the SAA had some desperation themselves because they needed more games to schedule.”
PULSE...8-9
Knowing the scheduling issue and being aware that SCAC football would likely be struggling to stay operational with only four teams, King said that before the 2015 football season started, he received permission from the SCAC and Trinity to contact other conferences about adding Trinity as an affiliate member for football. The talks between King and the SAA were taking place during the season, allowing Urban to solely focus on coaching the team. “I really tip my hat to our athletic director, Bob King,” Urban said. “He handled all the talks with the SAA commissioner and let me just focus on coaching this fall.” After King contacted multiple conferences throughout the country, the SAA expressed an interest in adding Trinity as an affiliate member.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT...10-12
It just so happens that both Trinity University and Austin College are very familiar with their opponents in the SAA; seven of the eight founding members of the SAA had come from the SCAC. Knowing the scheduling issue and being aware that SCAC football would likely be struggling to stay operational with only four teams, King said that before the 2015 football season started, he received permission from the SCAC and Trinity to contact other conferences about adding Trinity as an affiliate member for football. The talks between King and the SAA were taking place during the season, allowing Urban to solely focus on coaching the team. Continued on page 3
SPORTS...13-16