11.02.18

Volume 116 Issue 11

Trinitonian Serving Trinity University Since 1902

9 Should spring semester seniors OPINION have voting power on SGA?

Greek life dir. search continues Allen set to leave position by Nov. 15

JOLIE FRANCIS | NEWS REPORTER jfranci1@trinity.edu

13 Mala Luna attracts big names A&E in music festival’s third year

NOVEMBER 02, 2018

14 Dive team jumps head first SPORTS into season in home opener

Engineers focus on accessibility Sophomores work to design projects for visually impaired NOELLE BARRERA | PULSE REPORTER nbarrera@trinity.edu

Despite inviting two candidates to campus, the future assistant director for Greek life remains unchosen.

A student, staff and faculty search committee has been searching a new assistant director for Greek life, a position currently held by Jeremy Allen, since early September, right after he announced his departure.

Allen plans to leave Trinity by Nov. 15.

“Our search continues. We want this person to be qualified, and a great team member and a good fit,” said Jamie Thompson, director of Student Involvement. “Student Involvement is made up of a diverse set of team members and we each bring our own talents and skill sets to the table, and so someone who helps us diversify those talents is also something we’re looking for.”

Students in Eliseo Iglesias’s Engineering Design III class have embarked on a year-long project with a unique service-learning twist.

Under the guidance of the staff at Student Accessibility Services, groups of students with a required sophomore standing will design devices to increase accessibility for people with vision impairments. At the end of the fall semester, students will have completed their initial plans for the project; by the end of the spring, students will finalize their project and create a presentation to explain their ideas.

Iglesias, visiting instructor in engineering science, is a recent Trinity alumni from the class of 2011 and was inspired to assign this project by a similar assignment he completed as a sophomore.

continued on PAGE 5

continued on PAGE 10

Students in Eliseo Iglesias’s Engineering Design III course work on their projects to design devices accessible to people with physical disabilities. The students worked with Student Accessibility Services to understand common issues that physically disabled people face. Projects include a knife for people with impaired vision. photo by MATTHEW CLAYBROOK

Anderson discusses trustee diversification SGA committee unable to get a student appointed to the board due to confidentiality issues

DANNY ANDERSON explained that the diversity of the Board of Trustees is something that he is trying to improve. SGA attempted to place a student on the board, but this would create confidentiality issues given the topics discuss in board meetings. Instead, the board moved for the appointment of “young alumnus” trustees to be elected by their class for a two-year term. photo by WILL CHRISTIAN

GABBY GARRIGA | NEWS REPORTER ggarriga@trinity.edu Since he took office, Danny Anderson, president of the university, has looked for ways to diversify the Board of Trustees, the 27 people who oversee every aspect of the university, in ethnicity, gender and age. But this diversity

does not include appointing students to the board. Anderson stopped Student Government Association’s (SGA) plan to place a student representative on the board due to confidentiality restrictions.

The board, whose members serve 10–20 years on average, handles the university endowment and oversees the long-term policies

regarding investment and the future of the university. They review reports from Anderson’s leadership team and make policy suggestions based on these reports, but the leadership team will decide whether to proceed with the suggestions. Additionally, the board manages Trinity’s $1.2 billion endowment.

The SGA Trustee Committee formed two years ago in order to push for student representation that could advocate for student interest on the board of trustees. Benjamin Gonzalez, junior opinion columnist for the Trinitonian and chairman of the SGA Trustee Committee, discussed why Anderson decided against this.

“[Anderson’s] argument was that the board of trustees discusses a lot of confidential things that if there was a student on there might not be allowed to know and might not be allowed to share, so it wouldn’t add to the transparency,” Gonzalez said. continued on PAGE 6

graphic by ALEXANDRA PARRIS

Previously, on SGA: TRIPLE THREAT The following covers the SGA meeting on Oct. 31. also receive some upgrades in the lounges, Witt-Winn Residence Hall hallway carpet will be replaced with vinyl, and landscaping will occur between Calvert and CLIMATE CHECK Senior senator Julia Shults asked senators to Miller Residence Halls.

Tynes, Tyson and Tuttle all asserted that there was volunteer to help collect the new plastic bag recycling no plan to increase the size of Trinity’s population or in City Vista.

Adviser David Tuttle asked members to sign posters change the three-year residence requirement.

Tynes refused to supply further information on the for transgender students to show alliance given recent firing of Stacy Davidson. Tuttle criticized how student political events. The posters were later delivered to the reactions have escalated from complaints about firing a PRIDE meeting that evening. well-liked figure to using Davidson’s firing as evidence for larger problems on campus.

VICE PRESIDENT SERIES This week, Sheryl Tynes, vice president for Student Life; Deb Tyson, director of Residential Life; and OFFICER REPORTS Sophomore Cecelia Turkewitz, chief-of-staff, Tuttle, dean of students, addressed members of SGA encouraged members to attend the “Pre-Coalition” and took their questions.

Notably, Tyson detailed the plans to renovate meeting for the Coalition for Respect on Nov. 2 at South, McLean, Beze and Herndon Residence Halls in 4 p.m. It will be the last meeting that Tuttle will be summer 2019. Some rooms in South will be redesigned heavily involved in, as he is stepping away from the into singles. Between now and summer, Prassel will Coalition to be replaced by Tynes.

Meetings are held every Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Waxahachie Room. coverage by KENDRA DERRIG

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TUPD BRIEFS UP IN SMOKE On Saturday, Oct. 27, at 5:07 p.m., a student reported a public trash can smoking in City Vista. Upon investigation, it was found that cigarette ashes had been dumped in the can, causing the smoke but no flame.

PRASSEL HASSLE On Sunday, Oct. 28, at 1:52 a.m., a student reported that another student was intoxicated on the second floor of Prassel Residence Hall. The student was drinking at an off-campus party.

The student was taken to detox.

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TRINITONIAN.COM • NOVEMBER 02, 2018 •

NEWS

Gretchen Daily lectures on climate change

Renowned biologist shares her research on the relation of the environment to emotional health NAOMI SCHEER | NEWS INTERN nscheer@trinity.edu As this semester’s installment in the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series, Gretchen Daily, the Bing Professor of Environmental Science at Stanford University and director of Stanford’s Center for Conservation Biology, spoke to about 400 members of the Trinity community on Thursday, Oct. 25, about the importance of conservation and creating inclusive green growth. Daily spoke about her experience with conservation efforts around the world, which was followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience.

Daily was introduced by senior Molly Lenihan, a biology and Spanish double major. Lenihan has researched milkweed and monarch butterflies with Kelly Lyons, professor of biology, who was instrumental in bringing Daily to Trinity’s campus. “[For the Distinguished Lecture Series,] they try to invite scientists who are doing really relevant and very important work, and obviously [Daily] is doing some really amazing and useful stuff with the InVEST software. She didn’t make it, but she’s used it, and she’s helping implement it across the world,” Lenihan said.

InVEST stands for Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs. It is a software that has been very useful in helping scientists and governments create a unified approach to conservation and economic growth. Daily emphasized the importance of businesses and governments working with scientists and consumers to create a universal method for conservation and to define natural capital.

“Natural capital: what is the value of it? We’re talking about Earth’s lands, waters, all the life forms. Obviously we can’t just boil it all down to a few dollars and cents here and there,” Daily said. “In the Natural Capital Project — this is a big partnership, going way beyond science — there are about 250 partners total around the world developing the ideas and trying to systematize a view and come up with a common way of talking about the values of nature.”

While Daily did research in Costa Rica, she noticed that the country continues to rely on agriculture as it moves into the 21st century.

This reliance has caused worry that deforestation will drive many species of plants and animals to extinction.

“We can’t just boil it all down to a few dollars and cents.”

GRETCHEN DAILY

DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIST LECTURER

“Many native plants are never going to make it outside of their forest habitat, but a lot of the animals can do well out in the cropped fields and pastures if there is forest nearby. That gives us real hope,” Daily said. “This is our hope, to bring [these animals] that are native to Costa Rica into this century.”

Daily spoke more in depth about her experience researching two important species to Costa Rican coffee farms: birds and bees. Coffee

farms are a major source of income for the country, so their success is important to economic development.

“Bees boost coffee yields by 20 percent,” Daily said. “With birds, we found that the main infestation of pests on coffee are suppressed by 50 percent.”

Daily also mentioned the importance of nature’s effect on human mental health. In a study, Daily and colleagues discovered that living in cities heightens the risk of anxiety by 20 percent and the risk of mood disorders, including depression, by about 40 percent. When subjects walked in nature rather than on a busy city street, they scored higher on memory and mood tests while stress and anxiety went down. “[There are] more and more people in cities, less and less time and access to nature, and more and more being hooked into our devices,” Daily said.

First-year Paige Reistle attended the lecture because she plans on majoring in environmental policy. She found the effect of nature on mental health surprising.

“I didn’t realize how big of an effect being in nature had on mental health.

I knew it had something to do with [mental health], but I didn’t realize how big of an impact nature has,” Reistle said.

Daily concluded by speaking about the efforts being made by governments to incentivize green business practices, particularly in Latin America and China. Around 49 percent of land has been zoned to protect natural capital, and these green business practices also benefit citizens and landowners.

“Presently, about 200 million people [in China] are being paid

Daily recently published “The Power of Trees” through Trinity University Press.

Some lecture attendees received a copy at the event. photo by HENRY PRATT

to restore the ecosystem, to restore nature... with the dual goals of poverty alleviation and inclusive growth,” Daily said. “[China is] aiming to completely redo capitalism and bring natural capital [as a] part of the equation of an inclusive green growth model. There is a conception that it costs too much to protect the environment when it’s all we can afford.”

Attendees of the lecture stressed how important the environment is to humans and explained why conservation efforts are important.

“The environment is kind of all we have. I think [Daily] said in the beginning — we have always depended on it, and now it’s depending on us because we’ve taken over so much of the globe, and we’ve done so many destructive activities that if we don’t do something intentionally, it’s going to disappear, and then we’ll disappear afterward,” Lenihan said.

Reistle agreed.

“We need to live, and we live here, so if we don’t fix [the environment], we’re going to die,” Reistle said.

application, but privacy settings will allow them to opt out of this if they prefer.

“One of the great things of this application is the mapping function,” said Jim Holzbach, senior director of Advancement Services. “But if you’re worried about it being right there where your residence is — maybe you don’t like that — so we were able to figure out a way to manipulate the data a little bit so that if someone chooses to hide their street address, we can actually have them appear in a randomized location that’s kind of close to where they reside.”

The new application is a replacement of Trinity’s previous alumni directory, which was available through an internet browser. The platform was found through software vendor EverTrue.

“We had a predecessor to this, called the Trinity Alumni Directory ,through a different vendor called YourMembership (YM),” Holzbach said. “We had that one for five years, leading up to the spring of this year. That had worked out pretty well, but over time, fewer people were using it, so we were kind of looking at this as an opportunity with our finishing out that contract with YM, to look at what new vendors were out there. We asked YM if they had any improvements to offer, and we

looked at a couple other vendors, and the best was this one: EverTrue alumni directory.”

Similar alumni directory applications are available at peer institutions, and Trinity’s app is similar to apps used at these other universities. Auburn University, Bucknell University, Colgate University, Bennington College, Colorado College and Boston University are some of the universities with similar applications.

Ryan Finnelly, senior director for alumni relations, explained why the Alumni Directory app will be important for alumni.

“We always want alumni to be able to connect with one another,” Finnelly said. “We want to keep them engaged with their alma mater: certainly the relationships they build here are key relationships.

There are people who are influential in their lives. We know the culture of Trinity, and those who have walked through the doors are uniquely positioned to continue to people of influence in one another’s lives. We feel that this tool really gives them a chance to keep those relationships going and to discover new opportunities to network with other Trinity alums.”

The Alumni Directory app will be available for iPhone and Android. The new alumni directory will also be available online.

Alumni relations to release directory app Platform switch to help alumni stay connected KAYLIE KING | NEWS REPORTER kking1@trinity.edu

JOY McGAUGH was one of the main players in bringing the alumni directory to a new mobile app platform, coming Nov. 19. photo by GENEVIEVE HUMPHREYS

NEWS

• NOVEMBER 02, 2018 • TRINITONIAN.COM

An application called Alumni Directory will serve as a resource that Trinity alumni can use to connect with each other. Alumni will be able to share their name, class year, contact information and any information that they have available on LinkedIn. The app, available for iPhone and Android, will be released on Nov. 19.

“One of the really neat features of this particular app is that it overlays with LinkedIn,” said Joy McGaugh, associate director for alumni relations. “Your professional information, your industry, any kind of affinity groups that you’re involved with professionally — that will all be available for people to click through the app. A lot of times people don’t necessarily think of their alma mater as the first place to update their information when they get a new job or a promotion, but you will definitely update LinkedIn.” Alumni will also be able to share their home address on the

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Pastor enlightens on exorcism

The Catholic Student Group (CSG) invited a local pastor to address the Trinity community on the topic of demonic possession in the Trinity University chapel. Some CSG members felt that it was important to educate on exorcism because it has been misrepresented in film. The pastor explained that not giving confession, drugs, alcohol and cult activity can encourage demonic possession. FILE PHOTO

CSG invites speaker to discuss demons, possession and cults GABBY GARRIGA | NEWS REPORTER ggarriga@trinity.edu In preparation for Halloween, some Trinity students spent a night learning about the misconceptions surrounding possession, demons and exorcism from Mark Clarke, pastor at St. Anthony High School in San Antonio. As about 40 students snacked on Halloween candy, Clarke spoke about his

personal experiences with the possessed as a Catholic youth pastor and described how young people usually invite demonic spirits.

The Catholic Student Group (CSG) hosted Clarke for members and non-members alike to learn more about the Catholic teachings surrounding exorcism. Senior Luke Ayers, president of CSG, described the importance of the talk.

“The point is to dispel some false notions or ideas that aren’t really grounded in reality about exorcism and what demons actually are — not the Hollywood picture. I believe that Satan and demons are very real and are very evil. When people take those kinds of things lightly, it’s not good. I think to be able to take things like this seriously, we need

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A conversation sponsored by The Contemporary, Trinity Progressives, Tigers for Liberty, Student Involvement, BSU, and SGA.

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to be fully informed and not have wildly false ideas and have all the information so we really can protect ourselves against their influence,” Ayers said.

Ayers and Maria Teresa Kamel, campus minister, worked together to get Clarke to come to Trinity. Kamel thought scheduling the talk around Halloween time would create the most interest and participation.

“I thought it was going to be an interesting thing because it’s Halloween, and it’s also in a lot of movies, so it’s an interesting topic, and I thought it’d be nice to have someone talk about it that actually knew about it. I don’t think you have to be Catholic to think that it’s interesting or spooky,” Kamel said.

Clarke started his talk with a prayer and described his background as a pastor directing campus ministry for the Archdiocese of San Antonio. Because of his role in the Catholic Church, Clarke oversaw ministry for CSG at Trinity from 2012 to 2015. Clarke discussed why he agreed to give the talk.

“Given the fact that Halloween is so close, and November is the month that we honor the dead, it’s a timely topic that I think people have a lot of misconceptions about like demons and cults and that kind of thing. I always like to have the opportunity to tell people the church’s understanding of angels and demons and cults and exorcisms,” Clarke said. continued on PAGE 6

TLearn sticks around but receives upgrades Google Drive plug-in added; site moves to new host KAYLIE KING | NEWS REPORTER kking1@trinity.edu Last November, Trinity’s IT Governance Committee was looking into replacing or improving TLearn, Trinity’s learning management system (LMS). The committee ultimately decided not to replace TLearn but upgraded and moved the site to a hosted server.

A survey was sent out to all faculty members in January before the committee made any final decisions.

“The survey that we did in January basically showed the faculty as a group were generally satisfied with the current tool,” said Jim Bradley, chief information officer. “So instead of spending our time changing, we spent our time making it better.”

One major change to TLearn was transferring the responsibility of the maintenance of the server to another company, eThink. Wendy Apfel, instructional support manager, explained that this switch saved money and resources for the university.

“We used to host TLearn locally on campus, meaning we maintain the server in our server room here on campus,” Apfel said. “We had to spend IT employee resources managing that server, running upgrades on that server, making sure that all the security patches are up to date, making sure antivirus is on it and then the front end of it, making sure all the courses are loading and that all of the day-to-day functions of using TLearn are working.”

Another important change to TLearn is that new plug-ins are now available.

“Plug-ins are little applets that can run on eThink,” Apfel said. “We just got the Google

plug-in working, so now you can connect to your Google Drive and upload files from your Google Drive right into TLearn. There are other plug-ins coming, but how it normally works is that faculty will request a certain plug-in and we can go and make sure that eThink has it and that they support it and they will enable it for us.”

Aaron Delwiche, member of the Education and Research Technology Committee (ERTC) — a sub-committee of the IT and executive staff governance team — was involved in the recent evaluation of TLearn.

“My personal opinion is that we should keep TLearn because I think many faculty members have developed a workflow that relies on TLearn, and they understand it,” Delwiche said. “Although TLearn is not perfect, I think most faculty have figured out how to bend it to their purposes.”

Delwiche believes that if a large portion of the faculty or student body wanted to change from TLearn to a different system, he would support a change.

“But it seems like faculty sentiment was mostly okay with TLearn, and it would have been a lot more work to change,” Delwiche said.

“I think the new TLearn service is pretty great.”

Although TLearn alternatives are not currently being looked into, TLearn is always being evaluated.

“We always keep in mind that there are other tools out there, and we always monitor the market,” Bradley said. “At all times, this is about what the faculty needs and how it serves our mission of instructing students.”

Any further evaluation of Trinity’s LMS will be up to the ERTC.

TRINITONIAN.COM • NOVEMBER 02, 2018 •

NEWS

The future of the Board of Trustees continued from FRONT Following this, the committee moved to place a “young alumnus trustee” on the board.

This alumnus would be elected at the end of their senior fall semester by the class and would serve a two-year term on the board.

Senior Amulya Deva, Student Government Association president, believes this would be beneficial to the student body.

“Essentially, SGA is supposed to advocate for the student body, but we are students. We can tell the administration what we want, but we can only do so much. Having some sort of additional voice that represents students’ interests and our beliefs on a higher level, farther up than the administration, on the board of trustees would be really powerful,” Deva said.

“Having some sort of additional voice that represents students’ interests and our beliefs on a higher level, on the board of trustees, would be really powerful.”

AMULYA DEVA

SENIOR AND PRESIDENT OF SGA

Ultimately, the effort to place a young alumnus on the board was unsuccessful.

However, Deva understands the need to

diversify in terms of ethnicity and gender before age.

“I spoke with Dr. Anderson about the issue and the reason we’re not pushing this anymore is because Dr. Anderson has a plan on diversifying the Board of Trustees. First, he added in people of color then he was adding in women, his next thing is going to be adding in younger people, but you can’t just add 10 new members to the Board of Trustees — it takes time. I completely agree with the people he’s adding to the board because he’s trying to add a different element of diversity,” Deva said.

Anderson discussed the official role that the board plays.

“The Board of Trustees is a group of individuals who, under Texas law are the individuals responsible for the university.

They have the authority to delegate to the president, to the vice presidents and to the faculty the ability to confer degrees to students. They have the responsibility of overseeing the finances of the university to ensure that it perpetuates into the future.

They have the responsibility of representing the good of the whole,” Anderson said.

The board oversees Trinity’s entire endowment, aside from the portion allotted to the student management fund, and how it is spent.

“All private schools have endowments and endowments are earning interest and the Board of Trustees has responsibility for watching how those funds are invested and asking ‘Are we getting a good return?’ They are especially interested in inter-generational equity. It means they have an obligation to try to serve students of today to the best of their ability, but also protect that fund so that it will serve the students of tomorrow,” Anderson said.

The board is legally allowed to have up to 36 members. The board’s governance committee, made up of board members, can choose to nominate additional members.

When thinking about whether to add new members the board, the board considers the number of upcoming projects they have that need support.

“The board has a governance committee that reviews individuals and decides to make a nomination to the board. Once they’ve made a nomination we work to invite and hopefully secure an acceptance from those individuals. Trustees are also key members who help raise funds for scholarships, for new buildings, for projects and looking at both the expertise that’s needed for thinking about things happening at the university but also additional support that they could provide,” Anderson said.

The board works with Anderson’s leadership team, made up of vice presidents from across departments, to make policy decisions.

“One of the key decisions that a board makes is to hire a president. Then almost all boards delegate the workings of the university to the president. We operate under a tradition of shared governance in that we work with faculty senate, with faculty and with SGA to try and look and think about different policies, practices, ways to use our funds, our time and our degree programs that would serve the interests of all of that group,” Anderson said.

Anderson believes that the board is able to support Trinity’s best interest.

“There’s a concern that students believe they’d be there to represent a certain point of view. If you accept an appointment as a trustee, you think about the good for the whole. You’re not there to represent a position,” Anderson said.

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Exorcism lecture clarifies the ritual continued from PAGE 4

The first topic Clarke covered was how he knows if a person is feeling a demonic spirit in their life. Clarke asks the person three questions: Have you gone to confession recently? Do you have issues with drugs and alcohol? Have you ever engaged in any kind of cult activity?

Between each question, he gave an example of someone he had met that had answered yes. He then described how he expelled the demonic influence from that person through prayer and blessings.

“The first thing is always, ‘When was the last time you went to confession?’ Being in a state of grace is incompatible with evil and darkness, so we always begin there. The second thing is issues with drugs and alcohol. They impair your judgment, they make you more vulnerable, you can put yourself in situations that had you been sober you might not have. They diminish your senses and you become more vulnerable [to demonic spirits],” Clarke said.

Clarke also described mainstream forms of cult activity.

“The last one is that invitation, particularly with being in a cult. That could even be like Ouija boards, now they’re so common they’re like toys. Or horoscopes, not just reading for a joke but if you plan your day around that or you go to someone who claims to have that knowledge. If you expose yourself to that or if you don’t trust God who knows all things and knows what’s best for you. If you move away from that and you try to seek power or knowledge apart from God then that in itself is not good,” Clarke said.

Clarke went on to talk about misconceptions surrounding ghosts and haunted houses, leading up to his knowledge about exorcism.

Clarke is not personally an exorcist, but he knows priests who are and he trained briefly in exorcist ministry. The criteria for knowing if someone is possessed by a demon is if the person can speak or understand a language previously unknown to that person, if the person has cult knowledge, if the person has an aversion to sacred objects or if the person can do supernatural physical things. Clarke described the dangers surrounding exorcism.

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“The [last invitation for possession is] being in a cult. That could even be like Ouija boards, now they’re so common they’re like toys.”

MARK CLARKE PASTOR

“I went to Catholic school for high school and I had learned a little bit about exorcism and stuff like that because one of our priests was an exorcist in the past. Overall, I learned a lot more about exorcism than I did before,” Perez said.

Clarke hopes that people learned more about the Catholic teachings from his talk.

“I always emphasize that God wins. I think it’s important to know that that stuff is dangerous and a lot of people might think it’s harmless, but the reality is that it can have consequences,” Clarke said.

Allen’s replacement still pending selection continued from FRONT

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“Exorcism is a religious ritual, so you don’t do it at home. You have to do it in the church because it’s like baptism — it’s a ritual. The only reason you would do it at home would be to protect the identity of the individual.

This work is dangerous. You’re messing around with demons and you have to call it forth. You have to name it and it gets violent, people will fight because it has an aversion to the sacred. It doesn’t want to leave,” Clarke said.

Sophomore Polo Perez attended the talk with other members of Omega Phi Fraternity as an event the fraternity required for Greek life standards. Perez described how the talk built on knowledge he had learned from high school.

The search committee is preparing how to sustain aspects of Allen’s role if the position is still vacant on Nov. 15. The members of the search committee are planning to take on a few of his responsibilities while still continuing interviews.

“It’s likely that we’ll go a period of time with no one in that role,” Thompson said. “But we won’t make a quick decision just because we want to fill the role.”

Part of Allen’s role is overseeing fraternity and sorority life. Every member of the search committee has ties to the Greek community at Trinity, including the two student representatives: junior Brian Guerrero, the president of Omega Phi Fraternity, and senior Sarah Hantak, member of Gamma Chi Delta Sorority and judicial chair of the Greek Life Council.

“My perspective adds a sense of reliability from the student side. Even though it is on the faculty and staff of the committee to look for the qualified candidate, Sarah Hantak and I are on the committee to help provide insight to how a student should be able to relate and trust the person in this position with anything,” Guerrero wrote in an email interview. “[She or

he] needs to be a team player, and a quality supervisor for the Coates aspect of the job, but more importantly someone who has a passion for working with and developing student leaders.”

Along with Greek life duties, Allen’s position also assists in the Coates Student Center (CSC). Heather Haynes Smith, a member of the search committee, worked with Allen last year to review the effectiveness and usefulness of CSC. “It is important when we’re having discussion about candidates that each of us can help speak to what strengths we see in that candidate based on what we know about the role,” Haynes Smith said. “My lens is, ‘How would they run this place? Would they be able to address some of the areas or opportunities for growth that we identified in that plan that maybe have yet to be addressed?’ ” According to Haynes Smith, it’s difficult to separate Allen’s personality from the role when looking for new candidates.

“It’s really hard to remove your bias or preconceived ideas about the person who was in those roles and think more about the actual things that they do,” Haynes Smith said. “You do have to take away the person and look at the skills.”

TRINITONIAN.COM • NOVEMBER 02, 2018 •

NEWS

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Opinion

COMMENTARY Have an opinion? Want others to hear it? For a chance to be featured as a guest columnist, please submit your article to trinitonian@trinity.edu

by Sunday night to be in Friday’s issue of the paper.

SUBMISSION

FROM THE EDITORS’ DESK

Our relationship relies on mutual trust As a reader, you might not always consider how you are in a symbiotic relationship with your college newspaper.

A lot of our work depends on you, our readers. It’s not always easy to be your source of campus news. How well we are able to reflect the campus culture and environment depends on how you interact with us, especially in regards to how you respond to interviews and questions.

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Spring seniors lack voting power in SGA BENJAMIN GONZALEZ OPINION COLUMNIST bgonzale@trinity.edu

When a Trinity student enters the spring semester of their senior year, they no longer have voting representation on our student government. The Student Government Association (SGA) works in calendar-year terms, meaning that every fall, students may run for one of the five senator positions to represent their class, starting the following spring semester.

However, since second-semester seniors will only be at Trinity for half of that term, they have no voting representative on SGA. Last year, SGA began an in-depth revision of their constitution in order to clarify and update various SGA processes. Among these updates was the implementation of a previously unused position: the senator emeritus. The Constitutional Review Committee proposed this position as a long-awaited fix to the lack of representation of second-semester seniors. The senator emeritus is appointed by the president and vice president and serves as a non-voting member of SGA. Essentially, the senators emeriti (of which there are three) serve as advisers to the organization, giving input on funding proposals and other topics from a senior student’s perspective. However, this proposal brought up the question: why not just make full-fledged senior class senators with voting rights?

In my view, it didn’t make any sense for seniors to lose voting representation simply because they’re about to graduate. They still paid tuition just the same as the rest of us, and their impending graduation shouldn’t disqualify them from having a voice on student government.

Besides, much of the power of SGA comes from the allocation of the Student Activity Fund, to which seniors contribute. Nonetheless, the majority ruled, the senator emeritus position was

NOVEMBER 02, 2018 • TRINITONIAN.COM

approved, and we continued on with the other constitutional revisions.

I could never figure out why it would make sense for us to take away voting power from students’ last semester at Trinity. That is, until I talked to Amulya Deva, current president of SGA. Deva pointed out the lack of interest among seniors to participate in SGA. “The older [students] become, the harder it is to get them to run,” Deva said. “We couldn’t give them voting power because then essentially the president and vice president could just appoint their friends and get three extra votes. We decided not to give them voting power but keep them as advisors advocating for the senior class.”

It didn’t make any sense for seniors to lose voting representation simply because they’re about to graduate.

Indeed, the current senior class (class of 2019) has previously shown low interest in joining SGA. At the beginning of the semester, Deva sent out an email asking for applications to fill two senator position vacancies. After the first call, SGA received zero applications for the positions. However, this quickly changed after the second call, when 10 seniors applied for the position.

“I think seniors don’t care as much about SGA because they’re not as invested in the future of the school. Most of us are leaving in a semester, which is not enough time to see the benefits of efforts we might put forth for change,” said senior Kate Windsor, who applied for the position. “The reason that no one applied for the position until the second request was because the application requirements were dramatically slashed.”

Is the apathy of seniors towards SGA the real problem behind voting representation? This hardly seems like an adequate reason to abandon the “senior senator” idea altogether. SGA could do much more to engage with seniors, find out what they care about and pursue it. However, David Tuttle, dean of students and adviser to SGA, offers a more nuanced view of the issue.

“I don’t know that seniors are apathetic. I think their priorities are shifting. Seniors are wrapping up capstone projects or research, they are applying for grad schools or jobs and [focusing] on their meaningful friendships before dispersing,” Tuttle said. “I don’t know who came up with the [senator emeritus] position, but I love it. High impact, low energy.”

Tuttle’s comment shifted my perspective on the issue. Apathy seems fixable, and something that the student body’s representatives should work to improve if they truly want to represent all students’ opinions. However, if second-semester seniors feel as though campus issues are no longer their main focus, that is an entirely different situation. Perhaps we should acknowledge that a senior’s role in the campus community changes over time, and as they prepare for the rest of their life, we should allow them to focus on themselves rather than serve the student body.

As a junior involved in (arguably too many) student organizations, it may seem absurd to me that we fail to represent an entire class for one semester. But from a senior’s perspective, the emails asking them to add another time-consuming commitment might seem equally absurd.

Perhaps there are seniors out there who would love to serve as a voting member of SGA. The very fact that we even have senator emeriti indicates a lingering interest in campus events.

But until the senior class shows that they want a more time-intensive position, it might not make any sense to force it upon them.

Benjamin Gonzalez is a junior anthropology major. He is also an SGA senator for the class of 2020.

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The Opinion section editor and the Trinitonian copy editors will fact-check your work and edit for clarity, legal concerns, grammar and style, but we will not alter your argument. Also, please include your graduating year and major or your position at the university.

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Avoiding social media won’t cure all problems

illustration by ANDREA NEBHUT

NATALIA SALAS OPINION COLUMNIST nsalas@trinity.edu

This week, I set out to prove people wrong about our generation. I went the whole week without using any social media, including Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with the intention of getting through it with ease. I thought I was going to realize how little I really needed it and how older generations are wrong when they say we’re “zombies” or “glued to our phones.” Needless to say, this isn’t exactly how it went.

Soon after the week started, I had to delete all my social media from my phone, just so I wouldn’t be tempted. I realize now that if I had so little self-control that I knew I would click on the apps if they were on my phone, there’s definitely a problem that’ll take more than a week to fix.

The whole week I kept reaching for my phone, wanting to click on one of the apps I had forced myself to delete. I realized that checking my social media whenever I had a second of down time was something I never thought twice about; I just did it all the time. If I wasn’t making an effort to stay off of it, I couldn’t even count the amount of times I check my social media in a day.

A lot of my down time really is spent on my phone, and even if that’s not necessarily a bad thing to some people, it definitely doesn’t sound too healthy to me.

Keeping off of social media was way harder than I thought it would be, but I’m also not going to lie and say that I saw that many benefits to it either. I really didn’t feel any more productive just because I wasn’t looking through social media every time I had a spare minute. That was a bit surprising because part of me thought that I would come out of this week a genius or something because of all the free time I assumed I was going to magically have.

I would say it shocked me to realize how much I missed using social media during this week, but honestly, I’m not shocked at all. I tried having higher expectations for

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myself, telling myself how easy it was going to be, and how I would be some beacon of hope for the older generations who think people our age have a 0.001 second attention span and an overwhelming need for instant gratification and whatever else they say about us.

As it turns out, the claims they make about our generation have some truth in them, at least in my case. I’ll admit that I started scrolling through my own pictures over and over again since I couldn’t be on Instagram.

When something embarrassing happened to me throughout the course of my day, I hate to say that I was actually a little bit sad that I had to remember to tell people to their faces instead of just Snapchatting people in the moment that it happened.

Part of me thought that I would come out of this week a genius or something because of all the free time I assumed I was going to magically have.

What I’m getting at is that this week-long trial was kind of a bust. I got right back on my social media accounts as soon as the week was over. Literally, as soon as I woke up after the week I had carved out for my social media cleanse, I re-downloaded all my accounts and went through them one by one. This is definitely a little embarrassing, but at least now I know that if I ever want to reduce my social media usage, it’ll definitely take more than a week.

I’m not saying that younger generations don’t use too much social media because we most definitely do. According to studies, it’s not good for our mental health, but if there are benefits to reduced social media usage, I can’t say I was able to realize them in one week.

Natalia Salas is a sophomore communication major.

TRINITONIAN.COM • NOVEMBER 02, 2018 •

OPINION

Words of MLK: Memory vs. moments: Beyond mountains Where’s the balance in life?

SAN WILLIAMS GUEST COLUMNIST ewillia3@ trinity.edu Recent events of violence and hatred are so disheartening. In the wake of the pipe bombs targeting Democratic Party leaders and supporters, the killing of two African Americans in Louisville, Kentucky, and the horrific murder of 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, we are deeply saddened. Given such depressing events, it’s easy to imagine that there are intractable mountains of despair looming over our lives and casting dark shadows over the future of our nation.

The mountain of intolerance has towered over our nation for far too long.

Searching for a way forward and needing a word of hope, I turned to a sermon delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. at Temple Israel of Hollywood on Feb. 26, 1965. In his sermon to the Jewish congregation, titled “Moving from this Mountain,” King spoke of the symbolic mountains that we as a nation have occupied for long enough and from which we must move on toward “the promised land of justice, peace, and brotherhood.”

The first symbolic mountain King mentions is the mountain of materialism. This is the mountain that causes individuals to live as if material values are the highest values and concerns in life. Materialism — the unchecked desire for more money, larger houses and a greater abundance of things — can leave us morally bankrupt. King declared, “Through

OPINION

our scientific genius, we made of the world a neighborhood, but we failed through moral commitment to make of it a brotherhood, and so we’ve ended up with guided missiles and misguided men.” If we as a nation are to become what King called “the beloved community,” we must move beyond the mountain of materialism.

Yet another mountain that our nation has occupied for far too long is the mountain of racial injustice. King wrote, “Somehow we must come to see more than ever before that racial injustice is a cancer in the body politic which must be removed before our moral health can be realized.” Since King uttered those words in 1965, there has been a great deal of progress.

It’s thus easy to be lulled into thinking that the cancer of racism has been eradicated from the body politic — or at least is in remission. But then the cancer of racial intolerance reappears in the form of hate speech, police brutality, a criminal justice system that unfairly punishes African American men and so on. Likewise, anti-Semitism continues to cast a shadow over our nation and beyond, a shadow that became a dark night of violence last Saturday. The mountain of intolerance has towered over our nation for far too long.

In his sermon, King also spoke of other mountains, which he named the mountains of indifference, violence and hate. Yet in spite of these great challenges, King was adamant in believing that all these mountains of despair will be overcome. He declared, “And I believe it because somehow the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice … With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”

Isn’t that a word we can all use in such perilous times? May it be said that each of us in our own way has the faith and the courage “to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”

San Williams is the current interim chaplain of Trinity.

• NOVEMBER 02, 2018 • TRINITONIAN.COM

KARA KILLINGER OPINION COLUMNIST kkilling@ trinity.edu This past weekend, I went on a student bus tour of the Isle of Skye in Northern Scotland. Each place the bus stopped could be a desktop background, which is probably why Kanye West and Harry Styles have both shot music videos in Skye. The picturesque scenery was definitely why our tour featured so many “photo stops,” during which we would file out of the bus, look at the beautiful scenery, take some pictures and then leave.

After a few of these stops, I started noticing that most of us were looking at the landscape from behind our phone screens. Our primary goal was looking good in pictures or getting the coolest shot to make into our Facebook cover photo. This realization made me suddenly take on the mindset of a bitter old man ranting about how social media is destroying the youth.

I thought, what are we doing? Look at us in front of this beautiful thing, and we care more about getting pictures of it than actually seeing it.

The thing is though, I’m glad to have the pictures I took over the course of those two days. I’ll probably look back on them for years to come, remembering the breathtaking view we had of the Three Sisters Hills at Glencoe, how brightly colored the seaside shops were in Portree, how cold my right hand was after I dropped my glove in a puddle as we climbed up the Storr. I can never go back in time to relive those moments.

Yet they would be more fully lost had I not photographed them.

We all have this urge to immortalize our experiences. It’s not a 21st century thing, a millennial thing or a Snapchat thing.

My first year at Trinity, we talked in HUMA about the ancient Greek concept of kleos. The word directly

A colorful hostel brightens the street in Portree, a town in the Isle of Skye, Scotland, where Kara visited on a student trip. photo by KARA KILLINGER

translates to “renown” or “glory” but can also refer to the medium that conveys glory, which tended to be poetry or song in ancient Greece.

People cared about Achilles because of his heroic actions, but what mattered infinitely more in the end were representations of those actions, which outlived not only Achilles but also the entire civilization that first celebrated him. In Plato’s “Symposium,” Socrates goes as far as to argue that certain heroes sacrificed their lives for the sake of being remembered. Socrates quotes a dialogue in which the wise Diotima asks, “Do you really think that Alcestis would have died for Admetus or that Achilles would have died after Patroclus ... if they hadn’t expected the memory of their virtue — which we still hold in honor — to be immortal?”

I have taken no heroic actions in Scotland. Still, my life here is so far removed from regular life that I feel deeply obligated to document it. I spam my Instagram story with scenes from Scotland, take pictures of every meal that is even a little fancylooking and write in my journal at least weekly. If I wasn’t writing these articles, I’d probably join other studiers abroad in starting a travel blog to inform both my future self and my faraway friends about how wonderful

a time I’m having. A question does pop into my mind sometimes: am I studying abroad to really experience life in Scotland? Or am I just here to create memories — pictures, stories, Trinitonian articles?

I think everyone studying abroad feels the same urgency to document, even if it’s just to prove to our future selves that yeah, we were really here.

We looked out over the city from the top of a castle. We shopped at supermarkets much smaller than H-E-B. Maybe these memories won’t give us epic renown for generations to come, but we can still hold onto them. Flip through our camera rolls at family dinners. Have adventures to brag about on dates.

No recreation of experience is as full as reality, however. A whole day’s nuances are reduced in a journal entry to, “I had a great time!” and a whole weekend’s journey across Skye becomes an example in an article that’s really about something else.

I am not going to stop writing or remembering or taking pictures.

But I’m trying to remind myself — wherever I go — that memory is supposed to fuel life. Not the other way around.

Kara Killinger is a junior English major.

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HAVE A STORY THAT NEEDS TO BE TOLD? Know a professor or student who embodies what it means to be a Tiger? Email us at trinitonian@trinity.edu to let us know about the people and events that should be covered in an upcoming issue of the Trinitonian.

Pulse

TU Secular Student Alliance in the making New club aims to create a safe space for secular or non-religious students ARSA SPAHR | PULSE INTERN aspahr@trinity.edu The TU Secular Student Alliance is being formed in Trinity University as a way to help students understand what it means to be non-religious and allows for secular students to have a presence on campus.

According to junior Alex Bradley, club president, TU Secular Student Alliance aims to provide a place for students to discuss what it means to not believe in a religion and allow students to be more comfortable with their identity in the community.

“About 25 percent of Americans identify as secular or non-religious, and 33 percent of college students identify as secular or nonreligious,” Bradley said.

Bradley noticed that there was no club that supports secular students and decided over the summer to create the club himself.

"It was a lot easier than I anticipated. I just made sure I had all the papers," Bradley said.

Bradley aims to discuss epistemology and religious beliefs so that the members of the club can have a well rounded perspective.

Bradley also mentioned that the club will

potentially invite speakers to further expand members' perspectives and regularly volunteer for community service. The TU Secular Student Alliance will focus on speaking to religious groups as well as interested students to inform them about what it means to be non-religious.

“I would like to make [the secular students] more visible so that they are more comfortable with their beliefs and have a place to discuss their beliefs freely,” Bradley said.

He has also contacted the national Secular Student Association and has applied as a representative group. According to Bradley, his actions will further legitimize the group’s initiative and allow the group to expand.

Lauren Turek, a professor in the Department of History and club adviser to the TU Secular Student Alliance, emphasized the importance and impact of having a group that helps promote diversity of thought and belief.

“I believe it is important that all students feel welcomed and comfortable here at Trinity regardless of their religious beliefs or lack of religious beliefs," Turek said. "It is crucial that secular students feel they have

a community on campus where they can have open discussion with others who share their values, something religious students currently have but secular students really do not.”

Kirsten Timco, a junior who is involved with the TU Secular Student Alliance, said that the formation of this student group allows for more freedom of dialogue in both political and intellectual conversation.

“Trinity has a gracious free speech policy, which I am personally grateful for, and I think the Secular Student Alliance wants to take advantage of this policy while providing a constant variable for grounds of discussion,” Timco wrote in an email.

Timco also believes that the club will benefit the Trinity community.

“In terms of benefits, I think membership provides a 'safe space,' if you will, for anyone and everyone to participate in judgementfree discussions," Timco wrote.

"We also created the group to assist other organizations on campus and nonprofits in the San Antonio area; these are goals that the national [Secular Student Alliance] set, and we are more than happy to oblige.”

taking into consideration universal design, safety and efficiency and inclusion. Each of the projects will meet a different need that will be beneficial, not just for the population [of people with disabilities], but for all people."

The majority of projects students are developing in Iglesias's Monday section of the class are geared towards assisting people with visual disabilities, while students in the Wednesday section are partnering with Goodwill to create devices that can make working more accessible.

Aidan Denny, a sophomore in the Monday section, wants to update a cooking device called a pivot knife to help people with impaired vision cut fruits, vegetables and meats in the kitchen.

"I really like cooking, so I was looking at chopping, and there's this device already out there called the pivot knife. Basically, it's a cutting board with a knife attachment that has a clamp at the top so that you can insert a knife and chop," Denny said. "An idea we have is adding a guard so that the person using it doesn't have to stick out their thumb to see where the knife is."

"We're considering adding a raised grid so that [users] can literally feel where their cuts should be," said Alex Love, another sophomore in Denny's group.

According to Iglesias, this project offers a unique opportunity for students to learn what it's like to work for a nonprofit company.

"Most of these students, when they graduate with this degree, they'll go to private industry and for-profit institutions; this gives them an opportunity to have that experience working with a nonprofit," Iglesias said.

"When I was at Trinity, I was very thankful that I had [this] experience before I left to work for industry and then went back to grad school."

Students who want to learn more about Engineering Design III can contact Iglesias at eiglesia@trinity.edu.

Trinity's sophomore engineers work on designing devices that intend to improve the lives of people with physical disabilities, particularly of people with vision impairments. Eliseo Iglesias, professor in the Department of Physics, assigned students the year-long project in his Engineering Design III class.

The project is also supervised by Student Accessibility Services. photos by MATTHEW CLAYBROOK

Junior ALEX BRADLEY, president and founder of TU Secular Student Alliance, formed the group so that secular students could have a safe space for more discussion. photos by ELIZABETH NELSON

Students interested in learning more about the TU Secular Student Alliance should contact Alex Bradley at abradle1@trinity.edu or request to join the Facebook group for TU Secular Student Alliance.

Engineers work towards an accessible future

continued from FRONT "We worked on a weed whacker and we worked on modifying it to reduce its vibration, so that people that have sensitivities in their digits [can] operate it for long periods of time," Iglesias said.

The students' mentor for this assignment was originally going to be the San Antonio Lighthouse for the Blind, a nonprofit organization that provides rehabilitation, employment and resources to people with visual impairments. When the Lighthouse was not able to participate, Iglesias reached out to Student Accessibility Services (SAS). "[The SAS staff's] role is to act as a mentor to the students," Iglesias said. "They have connections to different nonprofits around town, and so they're just a resource for students to help them and guide them through through their projects. At the end, once the project is completed, they'll give them feedback."

Both Myeshia Smith, interim director for SAS, and Jessica Reyes, Trinity University's student accessibility specialist, have extensive experience working with students with disabilities. Reyes also has experience designing assistive technology.

"I was an accessibility specialist working for the San Antonio Museum of Art and the DoSeum, assessing galleries and their education programs to make them more accessible to all learners and individuals," Reyes said. "While there, I worked on a project where I partnered with the Lighthouse for the Blind — both here and in San Francisco — to build a three-dimensional map so that individuals who [are] visually impaired [could] navigate independently throughout the museum."

Smith spoke about the students' progress so far.

"We're still in the planning stages, and there will be three different projects for three different groups," Smith said. "They'll be

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NOVEMBER 02, 2018 • TRINITONIAN.COM

NGO gala for children in Gaza Strip

Faculty and students attend local Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance event to help raise money RACHEL POOVATHOOR | PULSE INTERN rpoovath@trinity.edu “If you’re silent then you’re complicit,” said Remi Kanazi, spoken word poet, at the Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance (MECA) annual gala. The fundraiser gala was held at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church downtown San Antonio on Friday, Oct. 19, to raise money for projects helping children in the Gaza Strip.

Judith Norman, professor of philosophy at Trinity, said that the gala raises funds for MECA so communities within the Gaza Strip may recover from bombings and violence from Israeli occupation. According to Norman, because of the occupation, necessary material aid is hard to bring in to the country as everything is monitored by occupation forces.

MECA takes a unique approach to aid communities within the Gaza Strip. Rather than taking over the community, MECA gives financial aid to communities so that community projects — such as poroviding and giving medical assistance, educational enhancement and mental health support groups can function.

“There are a lot of highly trained people in Gaza that just need the financial support,” Norman said.

Norman is Jewish and a part of the national organization A Jewish Voice for Peace.

“We’re a group that works on human rights issues around Israel and Palestine,” Norman said.

Their goal is to work towards ending the Israeli occupation and for the rights of Palestinian refugees and Israeli Jews to be acknowledged.

Norman spoke of her role in taking a stance against the numerous human rights atrocities that occur in the Gaza Strip.

“I feel very close to the situation because I’m Jewish, and I feel that I’m helping combat

anti-Semitism by joining with other Jews and speaking out against injustices ... atrocities are not okay with Jewish people,” Norman said.

Norman’s local chapter in San Antonio, along with other local groups — such as UTSA’s Students for Justice in Palestine and local mosques — help put on this fundraiser gala every year in October. Norman says she and her fellow gala organizers put on the event for two main reasons.

“One is to provide material and humanitarian aid for people in Gaza. We also want to raise awareness about the situation in Gaza. It is a situation that the U.S. has had an enormous hand in engineering and permitting to go forward,” Norman said.

The event began with presenters describing the need to remember the Gaza Strip though it is seemingly a world away from us.

“It’s not a foreign situation, it’s a local situation,” Norman said.

The round tables — at which multiple local leaders and activists sat — were decorated with Palestinian keffiyehs, traditional black and white scarves.

Attendees spent the first part of the evening listening to the accomplishments of MECA in the Gaza Strip.

Volunteers from Trinity — like junior Claire Nakayama — manned the arts and crafts table, all of which were sold to fundraise for children in the Gaza Strip.

Nakayama, who is also the financial chair of the International Humanitarian Crisis Initiative (IHCI) student organization at Trinity, was volunteering through IHCI. “It was really cool to see people come together and meet activists in the local area,” Nakayama said.

Local organizations that worked to provide humanitarian aid to the Gaza strip such as local mosques, UTSA’s Students for Justice in Palestine, and IHCI student organization at Trinity attended the Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance annual fundraiser gala downtown. photo provided by CLAIRE NAKAYAMA

Nakayama also expressed her opinions on Kanazi’s performance at the gala.

“I thought it was great to hear him do spoken word. The energy in the room went up, people were snapping, all the points he was making were really true and were things that no one ever has the guts to say,” Nakayama said.

Daniela Montufar Soria, senior and vice-president of IHCI, intends to create increased participation from all Trinity students at the gala next year.

“Something that IHCI is trying to do is be a hub for volunteer events like this because we really want anyone, member of

IHCI or not, to engage with the local and international community,” Soria said.

Norman also described the immediacy of the issue in Gaza.

“No matter what side of the argument you’re on, we can all agree that these people’s lives are being directly impacted ... we have to do something to help these people who are suffering right now,” Norman said.

Though the next MECA gala won’t be until next year, students can email Norman at jnorman2@trinity.edu for information on working with local or international organizations that are working to provide humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

Maria Teresa Kamel’s path back to campus

2017 Trinity alumna acts as middleman for campus ministry with Our Lady of Grace Parish ANNIKA RODRIGUEZ | PULSE INTERN arodri14@trinity.edu Maria Teresa Kamel, class of 2017 Trinity alumna, is involved as a Trinity’s campus minister and intermediary for Our Lady of Grace Parish on campus.

“I actually started out studying philosophy and journalism at the University of Navarra in Spain. After two years, I decided I was not a philosopher but that I liked reading stories. I eventually chose to continue my education at Trinity and graduated in the spring of 2017 with a degree in English,” Kamel wrote in an email.

Kamel became involved with ministry after graduating by assisting Our Lady of Grace Parish in bringing Catholic ministry onto Trinity’s campus.

“Now on campus, I provide support and guidance for the ministry team and help them bring their ideas to life by helping with the logistical stuff. I go to mass at Our Lady of Grace, but I wasn’t really involved until I started working in Campus Ministry with Catholic Student Group to reserve space in Trinity’s chapel for religious activities like mass and small groups,” Kamel said.

Post-graduation plans for Kamel did not initially involve Campus Ministry, but Kamel explained that her path led her back to San Antonio.

“I had originally moved to Los Angeles after graduation where my plan was to search for God by moving to a Catholic Worker House. It wasn’t until one point in September when I received a call from Susana Nieto asking if I would be willing to take over campus ministry at Trinity,” Kamel said.

PULSE

Kamel emphasized that Our Lady of Grace Parish hired her, and she started working on campus as an associate chaplain to Trinity’s catholic population in September.

“The most important part of my job by far is to be a listener to anyone at Trinity.

College can be such a terribly lonely place with pressure to succeed in everything academically, socially and professionally,” Kamel said. “Sometimes students just need to sit down [and] tell someone they don’t have to see in class the next day that not everything is going as planned.”

Senior Luke Ayers, president for Catholic Student Group (CSG), has been involved with the group for four years.

“I’ve been extremely active in CSG since my freshman year. My favorite part is being part of a community of faith that encourages me in my faith and gives me the opportunity to build up my brothers and sisters as well,” Ayers said. “I love being involved with this community and Our Lady of Grace parish through CSG because it reminds me that I’m not alone.”

According to Ayers, he and Kamel had worked together on the ministry team when she went to Trinity, so it was an easy transition when she became the campus minister.

Kamel also emphasized the importance of the development she’s undergone since graduation as a result of her involvement in faith groups. For both Ayers and Kamel, campus ministry is an emotional outlet they love.

“I think the different faith groups on campus allow students to have a space to explore their questions and doubts, to search for God and to foster an interior life that can sustain them as they pursue more

• NOVEMBER 02, 2018 • TRINITONIAN.COM

Trinity alumna MARIA TERESA KAMEL, campus minister and intermediary for Our Lady of Grace Parish, provides support and guidance for the ministry team. photo by MATTHEW CLAYBROOK

material endeavors. I think we’re all called to walk with each other through our different struggles, and that’s certainly the nucleus of what I do,” Kamel said.

Dianna Fournier, first-year student, is newly involved in CSG after signing up during new student orientation.

“Involvement in Catholic Student Group has framed my entire experience as a Trinity student. I’m able to engage in my faith and worship with a community and that alone has meant the world to me,” Fournier said. “The Catholic Student Group community was absolutely delightful, they really welcomed me with open arms.”

Fournier also spoke of all the opportunities Catholic Student Group has available weekly.

“Catholic Student Group has a zillion opportunities to get together,” Fournier said.

“After every Sunday mass we meet in the chapel reception room for pizza. In addition to men’s small group and women’s small group ... There’s Adoration every Wednesday and Alpha every Friday. Ms. Kamel and the rest of the group are really a gift, It’s impossible for me to communicate the sheer volume of joy it brings to know all of them.”

CSG meets every Sunday at 5 p.m. in Parker Chapel and every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in upstairs Coates.

11

AE Come home to “Fun Home” &

Cut to the Feeling

Carly Rae Jepsen releases new single this Friday called “Party for One,” but it will be a party for us all listening this weekend.

RIP FilmStruck

Streaming service for older, classic, or rare movies announces imminent shut down; hundreds of users will never finish “Barry Lyndon.”

Giveaway provides tickets to Trinity students for local production of play based on popular graphic novel RAFAELA BRENNER | A&E REPORTER rbrenner@trinity.edu

I was lucky enough to see “Fun Home,” the currently running production at The Public Theater of San Antonio this season.

This production — deftly directed by Molly Cox — was my introduction to the show, and the musical grabbed hold of me from its first moments.

Based on the graphic novel of the same name by cartoonist Alison Bechdel, “Fun Home” is a gem of a musical that explores Bechdel’s experiences growing up, coming out as a lesbian and her relationship with her father. The original Broadway production won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2015.

Trinity University’s Collaborative for Learning and Teaching, in co-sponsorship with PRIDE at Trinity, has been able to offer students a limited number of free tickets to select performance dates for the production this fall. I was one of the fortunate Trinity students to get a chance see Fun Home on the first performance date offered by this program, and I was blown away by the show.

The Public Theater staged its production in the small-scale venue of the Cellar Theatre, allowing the audience to experience an intense, close proximity to the stage and actors during the show. I was immediately impressed by the set design, which — in a nod to Bechdel’s graphic novel — featured large-scale illustrated works as well as screens installed to project cartoons and captions which complemented the play’s action.

The honest performances struck me, and the actors’ portrayals of Allison at different stages of her life especially engaged me. Olivia Barron brought a moving performance to mid-sized Allison, who was shown in her years as a young adult, while Shani Hadjian as older Allison was truly endearing as she narrated and commented on the events of the play. These performers were sincerely able to convey Allison’s growth as a character while accompanying the orchestrations with heart-wrenching vocal performances. These musical performances were especially noticeable in the musical’s finale, “Flying Away.”

illustration by JULIA POAGE

“I just felt like I got punched in the stomach. Something about it being so intimate. It was really shockingly visceral, the experience of it, that I needed to sit in my car afterwards in the parking lot of the theater and be like, ‘Whoa. That was intense.’ It was really surprisingly intense, being so close to the action and so involved. I thought that it was very strong; you don’t get that experience very often,” said Nathan Stith, professor in the Department of Human Communication and Theatre.

Allison St. John, a junior who attended a recent performance, emphasized the importance of being able to see Bechdel’s story brought to life.

“I really like [seeing] media and theater representation of LGBT stories, particularly because Alison Bechdel is really influential in the real world. So I liked seeing the story

of a real LGBT person that was worked on by her and with her as well. [It was] really a genuine story,” St. John said.

The opportunity for free tickets issued

by Trinity’s Collaborative for Teaching and Learning comes as part of Hola! San Antonio, their recent program to provide students and faculty with access to artistic performances and events around the city.

Paola Gutierrez, fellow for Collaborative Programs, gave some insight into the goals for the program.

“It’s a really valuable experience to be able to just leave campus and go see a musical or artistic performance that you might not otherwise get to see and to boost Trinity students’ involvement with the San Antonio community in general through promotion of the arts,” Gutierrez said.

11/02

11/03

11/04

11/05

11/06

Betrayal Attic Theatre, 7 p.m.

Diwali Laurie Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Concert in the Park ft. Volcan King William’s Park, 5:30 p.m.

NF Aztec Theatre, 8 p.m.

Hippo Campus Paper Tiger, 7 p.m.

12

If measured by these expectations, it looks like the Hola! San Antonio program has found success: members of the Trinity community who have been able to catch a performance attest to the production’s effect on them as audience members.

“It’s really, really powerful and I was talking to some people after watching [the show] … who hadn’t seen it before, and I forgot how powerful it was,” St. John said.

The Public Theater will continue with performances of “Fun Home” through Nov. 18. The performances are Thurs. - Sat at 7:30 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. For more information on performance dates and tickets, visit thepublicsa.org. For more information on the Collaborative for Learning and Teaching, you can contact collaborative@trinit y.edu.

11/07 K-Pop Night Brass Monkey, 10 p.m.

11/08 Fun Home Public Theater, 7:30 p.m.

TRINITONIAN.COM • NOVEMBER 02, 2018

Mala Luna 2018

MONEYBAGG YO, top, WIFISFUNERAL, left, CARDI B, center, and TYLER, THE CREATOR, right, perform at their respective sets during the Mala Luna music festival. This is the third year of the annual music festival in San Antonio, which takes place outside the Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Auditorium and features acts catering towards a young audience. photos by WOLF ROBINSON

Bad Moon on the Rise Cardi B, Lil Pump and 2 Chainz headline San Antonio music festival over Halloweekend WOLF ROBINSON | A&E REPORTER jrobins7@trinity.edu Smoke, confetti and hip-hop filled the air as fans, their faces glittering, gathered outside Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Auditorium.

Mala Luna, San Antonio’s annual rap-focused music festival, capped off it’s third year over the Halloween weekend.

Artists Cardi B and 2 Chainz respectively headlined Saturday and Sunday nights, each to huge crowds. The lineup also included Young Thug, Lil Pump, Gunna, Blocboy JB, Rico Nasty, and many more.

As any festival should, Mala Luna had its fair share of unpredictable moments.

From water bottle fights between general admission and VIP fans to crowd members holding a baby doll and stuffed sloth toy high above their heads, part of the excitement of Mala Luna seemed to be its somewhat chaotic atmosphere.

Even headliner Cardi B surprised the crowd with her stage banter as she called out the city’s cuisine.

“I don’t know if I’ve even been to San Antonio before, but I ate some of y’all’s food today,” Cardi B said. “It was good, but I’ve been farting all day.”

Saturday night marked the rapper’s first full concert since giving birth to her daughter, Kulture, in July. Though she stepped off stage briefly mid-set, Cardi B delivered an assertive, confident performance, including hits “Bartier Cardi,” “Bodak Yellow” and her newest single, “Money,” as the crowd screamed the words back to her.

On Saturday, it was clear many festival attendees were there largely for Cardi B. Trinity sophomore Ethan Jones, who won free tickets from the Trinitonian’s Mala Luna giveaway, was one of them.

“I waited two hours to see Cardi B, and she was so good,” Jones said. “She was really funny, and I know a lot of her songs, so it was fun.

Despite its hip-hop focus, Mala Luna incorporated Latin inf luences into the festival lineup, integrating the music into San Antonio’s international culture.

Latin artists Becky G and Nicky Jam each garnered large crowds.

Trinity junior Maria Jaramillo Guevara was in attendance at Nicky Jam’s reggaeton performance.

“My favorite show was Nicky Jam,” Maria Jaramillo Guevara said. “His show was incredible from his songs, dancers and fan interactions.”

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT • NOVEMBER 02, 2018 • TRINITONIAN.COM

“Since Nicky Jam sings mostly in Spanish, big parts of his set were him hyping up people from other countries and having great pride in the immigrant population of Texas,” said senior Mia Loseff.

Unfortunately, not every set fulfilled the ideal concert experience for all audience members, especially given the festival’s muddy conditions.

“I saw Lil Pump, and his set was very aggressive,” Jones said. “My shoes were covered in mud at the end of both because the crowd was pushing so much.”

Still, the rowdiness of Mala Luna’s audience demonstrated a high level of audience participation, an important characteristic of a successful festival.

With prominent headliners in its genre, the festival’s young, partying vibe may not be for everyone, but it represents hope for Mala Luna’s continued success in a city where festivals haven’t always f lourished.

13

Sports

THE JIG KEEPS ROCKING:

• Men’s and Women’s Swimming vs. UT-Permian Basin, Saturday, Nov. 3.

• Football vs. Austin College, Saturday, Nov. 3, 1 p.m.

• Men’s and Women’s Soccer and Volleyball prepare for their postseasons.

Trinity’s dive team starts with a splash

The team describes what their practices are like, what the team is like and their plans for the season MEGAN FLORES | SPORTS REPORTER mflores8@trinity.edu Trinity’s dive team is one of the smallest sports programs on campus. Regardless of size, they are one of the most talented and disciplined athletic groups.

Head coach Stan Randall lead the team, who is currently serving his 17th season as Trinity’s dive coach. His impressive coaching resume includes 10 divers with All-American honors. On last year’s team, now sophomore Daniel Valmassei became a men’s honorable mention All-American on the one–meter board at the 2018 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Swimming & Diving Championships.

Valmassei explained that he chose Trinity because of the vast coaching expertise that Randall brings to the team.

“I greatly enjoy the time that we spend with Coach Stan. He has an energy and enthusiasm that I have not seen matched by any other coach in the nation,” Valmassei said.

Valmassei believes that the group succeeds because the tight-knit team constantly pushes one another to improve.

“The small size of our team and the nature of our sport allows us to be very close even if we don’t spend a lot of time together outside of the pool. Although tensions do occasionally flare, they are always brief

and are quickly resolved because we want the best for each other, kind of like in a family,” Valmassei said.

Leading the diving program as captain is senior Duncan MacAskill, a psychology major from Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan.

MacAskill brings a high level of experience and determination to the position.

“I do my best to keep up with all of the team members since our coach wants the captain, whoever it may be, to stay up-to-date with everyone to see how well they are balancing academics and athletics. This keeps us in the right space to perform when it comes time for a competition,” MacAskill said.

In regards to the leadership capabilities of MacAskill, his teammates have glowing remarks.

“Duncan handles most of the communication and organization between Stan and the team.

He also helps calm our nerves and assure us that we are on track for all of our goals, even when we are feeling like we’re behind,” Valmassei said.

First-year Katarina Partalas also commented on the easygoing nature of MacAskill.

“He’s super fun, and he’s a great captain.

It’s nice to have someone older who’s been through the diving team and Trinity experience multiple times. My best friend Maren and I are always laughing and cracking jokes with him,” Partalas said.

In regards to the team’s routine, their schedule is quite intensive. Their practices

First-year diver MAREN MERWARTH finishes her dive from the three meter diving board. During practice, divers work their form, precision and entrance in anticipation of the meets. photo by ELIZABETH NELSON

begin in mid-September and continue until mid-February. To maintain their peak level, they only take the regular student break off for Thanksgiving and about 10 days off for winter break.

“We stay on campus after finals in December and come back to campus before class picks back up in January to get in some intense practices right before our championship season starts. Those of us who qualify for regionals or nationals continue training into March. Those who finish at regionals end practices just before spring break, and those who are fortunate enough to

make it to nationals practice until the week after spring break,” Valmassei said.

Specifically, the team’s typical practice times last about two hours.

“Our practices begin at 3:30. We start off with about 30 minutes of dry land warm-up exercises. This usually includes stretching.

After that, we dive for about an hour and a half.

During that time, we work on polishing our form and takeoffs for the dives we have already learned, the no-splash entry, and occasionally take-on new dives,” MacAskill said. continued on PAGE 15

The importance of sports communities CROSS COUNTRY Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams won the SCAC Championship last Saturday.

WOMEN’S SOCCER The Tigers defeated Johnson & Wales University 2–0 last Saturday. They hold a 14–1–1 record.

MEN’S SOCCER The Tigers tied Colorado College 1–1 on Friday and on Sunday defeated Johnson & Wales 6–0. They hold a 14–1–2 record.

VOLLEYBALL The Tigers defeated both Austin College and Centenary College (LA) 3–1 on Saturday.

Then on Sunday they defeated Southwestern University 3–2.

They hold a 24–5 record.

FOOTBALL The Tigers defeated Hendrix College 38–14 on Saturday.

They hold a 5–3 record.

14

Opinion: Reflecting on how sports have the capacity to unite people AUSTIN DAVIDSON SPORTS EDITOR adavids1@trinity.edu

Last weekend, I helped coach my cousin’s three vs. three soccer tournament. Since his team was all dressed as Minions, I, of course, had to wear my Minion onesie to maintain the theme.

As I stood on the field, watching children chase the ball like bees to honey, sweating because I was wearing a onesie in Texas, I looked around and appreciated how many people where there.

The complex where the tournament was held had 12 fields; beyond the fields was a bouncy castle and a conglomerate of food trucks.

This massive array of fields was packed with families and teams. Each field was overbooked, causing my cousins team to have to wait for almost two hours after their first game to play again.

Each team also provided a candy station; the theme of the tournament was Halloween, so during the wait-times between games, the kids could go trick or treating at the various stations.

From my experiences playing soccer as a kid, this level of civic community was unheard of. The closest thing to something

of this magnitude would be my Little League baseball games. But even then, they didn’t have as many people as my cousin’s tournament.

All around the field, I saw kids playing soccer with each other or watching Fortnite videos on their mom’s iPad with their teammates.

While the kids played, the parents also mingled, discussing — I imagine — work or how ridiculous children are (thankfully, I was the perfect child and never made my mother angry.)

Gatherings like this are essential in creating healthy and vibrant communities.

When I think to the future, of what I want my adult life to be, these kind of gatherings — ones where my kids and I can meet new people and cultivate new friendships — are of paramount importance.

Some of my fondest memories as a child were when the park near my house would have neighborhood parties.

I would hangout with my friends and try to uproot trees while my parents would bond with other parents about how their children never seem to stop destroying things.

Creating new connections is made easier by these gatherings. Through these connections, friendships and communities are born.

A term I used before, civic communities, is a term used in political science to describe a collection of individuals’ connections between their family, friends, neighborhood and city. The bulk of the research done on this topic is by Robert Putnam.

He wrote an influential text, “Bowling Alone,” which discusses the importance of civic communities within the broader

social health of society and how they have drastically declined in the United States.

The three vs. three tournament I went to this weekend was exactly the type of gathering that Putnam would want to see more of in the United States. Through these gatherings, people can begin to mend bridges, have honest discussions about a range of topics and begin to build a collective social trust with their community.

I noticed, however, that the families in this park were predominantly white. My aunt also informed me that participation in the tournament cost $175 a team. For many people in this country, this kind of cost isn’t possible.

The reason I bring this up is civic communities like the three vs. three tournament shouldn’t just be available to the affluent: they should be available to all. A healthy community is made up of many people ranging in ethnicity, economic station and religious identity among other variants.

In the future I plan to raise my children in, I hope that in whatever they do and wherever I live, there are gatherings with my neighborhood and with the people of the city. I want my children and I to meet people from all paths of life, and to begin the process of mending some of the problems in our society.

I think the first step in the long road towards that goal is by having gatherings of people from the vast cornucopia of people that make up the United States. Building civic trust and understanding through events like the three vs. three tournament is what it takes to mend the bridges that have been burned.

TRINITONIAN.COM • NOVEMBER 02, 2018

Women’s Ultimate team takes flight this year President Maddy Walshak and teammates detail what the team atmosphere is like and what it takes to play MEGAN FLORES | SPORTS REPORTER mflores8@trinity.edu

Recreational, intramural and club sports allow students to participate in fun, competitive, physical activities on campus.

The women’s ultimate frisbee team provides a unique way to meet new people while gaining the traditional benefits of playing a club sport in college.

Maddy Walshak, a junior from Houston double majoring in environmental studies and economics, is this year’s team president. Two and a half years ago, she joined the team at the first-year involvement fair and has found the club sport to be one of her most valuable experiences at Trinity.

“Ultimate Frisbee embodies a mentality called ‘Spirit of the Game.’ Ultimate is a self-officiated sport, which means we don’t have any referees, and each player is responsible for calling their own fouls. As a result, each player has to understand the rules and is expected to play honorably according to those rules,” Walshak said.

“It also means that players often have to talk on the field about fouls with their opponents to reach an agreement. No matter how heated things get on the field, we try to always circle up with the other team after to thank them. This fosters a lot of teamwork and support amongst players,” Walshak said.

The team’s organization is supplemented by students and coaches who are appointed to various leadership positions.

“We have two captains, senior Cat O’Shei and sophomore Becca Kroger, who are in charge of helping lead practices and teaching playing technique. My vice president is sophomore Julia Riley. We also have two new coaches this year. They are a couple who recently moved here from Colorado. And play ultimate on a local club team here in San Antonio. They coach all of our games, run practice and have

already had a huge impact on the team with their expertise. The six of us all have a really great relationship,” Walshak said.

Riley especially praised the influence of the team’s new coaches, Jake Johnson and Jaycee Jones.

“We are all very appreciative and respectful of our coaches, but we also try to have a fun time with them. For the past few years, we haven’t had coaches, so having them with us this year has been an amazing experience.

Having coaches allows our captains to focus on playing and encouraging the team,” Riley said.

O’Shei’s experience as a fifth-year student at Trinity has given her the opportunity to watch the team grow.

“We have around 20 people on the roster this year, which is definitely the largest our team has ever been. It’s both a benefit and a challenge, because having more people is wonderful for the future of the program and allows more players to rest between points,” O’Shei said.

In order to reach peak performance during their competitions, the team maintains a consistent practice schedule.

“We practice twice a week, every Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 p.m. through 10:30 p.m. This schedule is held throughout the entire year. We spend the first half of practice doing drills and learning plays, then we usually scrimmage for the last half. Even though we are a competitive team with serious practices, we always have lots of fun and share a lot of laughs at each practice,” Walshak said.

The team practices for long periods of time to mimic the physical demand of games.

“The amount of players on the team varies between years and especially during tournaments. The games are about an hour and 25 minutes long, and we play around four games each day during a tournament. Ultimate frisbee is a lot of running, so the day can be very exhausting,” Kroger said.

Junior ABBY DENNIS, left, alumna MALLORIE GARCIA, behind left, junior SIMONE WASHINGTON, center, and junior KENDRA DERRIG, right, all participated in the end of practice scrimmage last year. FILE PHOTO

The club sport experience allows Trinity’s team to compete against the other ultimate frisbee teams across the country.

“Collegiate Ultimate works in a tournament style of competition. Schools across the country host tournaments on the weekends where teams come and play each other to advance in a tournament bracket and how well each team plays at these tournaments dictates their USA Ultimate college ranking. Towards the end of the semester, top ranking teams compete for the national champion title,” Riley said.

Although the sport can be tiring, the experience in general is well worth the effort.

“People play our sport because they love it, so this leads to a very tight knit community

of ultimate players. Our team is friends with players from all over Texas,” Kroger said.

Walshak hopes that everyone will find an activity they enjoy on campus, and encourages people to do so through ultimate Frisbee.

“Ultimate Frisbee is so much fun, and it’s a great way to stay in shape. Unlike other sports, you won’t be behind if you’ve never played before. We are super accepting of anyone who wants to join regardless of prior experience. When you join our team, no matter who you are, you become a part of our family,” Walshak said.

Anyone who is interested in joining the Ultimate Frisbee team this year can still do so by emailing mwalshak@trinity.edu.

Dive team splashes into season XC at SCAC continued from PAGE 14

Overall, the diving team is looking forward to improving and performing their best in each competition. Both sophomore Anthony Liva and Partalas have clearly defined their personal goals.

“For the rest of the competitions this year, my goal is to throw all of my dives at a consistently high level with the hopes of going to nationals this year,” Liva said.

Partalas echoed these goals.

“My goals are to complete my three meter list, stay consistent throughout the season at meets and become a better diver overall,” Partalas said.

Because he is in his final year at Trinity, MacAskill has given himself slightly different goals.

“As a senior, I am looking ahead to the rest of my competitions with the end goal of qualifying for NCAA’s. I have been the alternate qualifier for two past years, and injured for another year, so as I go into competitions, I do my best to treat all competitions seriously because I only have one year of eligibility left to make it to nationals.

Treating less important competitions as if they carry higher prestige has been helpful for me in the past as a strategy for preparing for higher caliber meets, so I’m hoping this strategy will continue to be successful for me,” MacAskill said.

This week, Valmassei and Partalas received the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Men’s and Women’s Diver of the Week accolades through their impressive performance in the team’s most recent meet at the University of the Incarnate Word.

Given their drive to succeed, Trinity’s diving team is sure to enjoy more strong results at the rest of their competitions this season.

SPORTS

On Saturday, Oct. 28, the Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams competed in the SCAC Championship Meet held at Schreiner University in Kerrville, TX. Both the Trinity men’s and women’s teams won the meet. Senior Molly McCullough won the women’s race, earning her the titles of SCAC Champion and Women’s Runner of the Year. Senior Elliot Blake won the men’s race, which earned him the titles of SCAC Champion and Men’s Runner of the Year.

McCullough also won the SCAC Elite 19 Award, a new award given to a student athlete with a minimum GPA of 3.25 and All-SCAC Honors. For the first time, both individual champions are Trinity runners.

McCullough and Blake are the women’s and men’s co-captains, respectively.

We reached out to members of the team and both coaches and did not receive a response in time for publication. Men’s cocaptain Elliot Blake declined a comment.

Information summarized from Trinity’s Athletics Website.

Sophomore diver DANIEL VALMASSEI is inches from entering the water after he finishes his dive. The finish of the dive is essential when getting full points at a competition. photo by ELIZABETH NELSON

• NOVEMBER 02, 2018 • TRINITONIAN.COM

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E T O V

6 R E B M E V O N , Y A D S E U T Problems voting? Call the Election Protection Hotline at (866) OUR-VOTE • (866) 687-8683

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