The Review The University of Delaware’s independent student newspaper since 1882
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2014 VOLUME 141, ISSUE 9
FOR BREAKING NEWS AND MORE VISIT UDREVIEW.COM
Muslim students talk overcoming stereotypes one year after vandalism at Islamic Society of Delaware ELIZABETH QUARTARARO Editor-in-Chief This time last year, the local Muslim community came together for a vigil after the Islamic Society of Delaware was vandalized by three juveniles. Sometime between evening prayers, which ended around 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 24, 2013, and morning prayers, at 6:30 a.m., signs in front of the mosque were painted over and fencing was torn from the perimeter of the property and left on the grounds as crosses. Muslim community members came together for another reason a year later, as they do every week: for Friday prayer in Perkins Student Center’s Rodney Room, the makeshift mosque of the Muslim community at the university. Irfan Patel, former president of the Islamic Society of Delaware, delivered this week’s sermon. Patel estimates that there are between 5,000 and 6,000 Muslims in Delaware. “I moved here in 2001, and from that time, the Muslim community has grown at least fivefold,” he said. Abdulkadir Ozden, a graduate student who has held several executive board positions within the Graduate Muslim Student Association, said when he came to Delaware five or six years ago, 10-15 people would get together to share their faith. Now, between
100 and 150 people come together for Friday prayer, he said. In addition to praying five times daily, men are required to pray together on Fridays at noon, Ozden said. At Friday’s service, more than 80 men knelt facing Qibla, which translates to the direction of Mecca, and one female joined on the opposite side of the room. Women are not required to attend Friday prayers, but when males and females pray at the same time, they do so separately. Being Muslim at the university The closest mosque to campus is the Islamic Society of Delaware, about a ten minute drive from campus, Ozden said. But because few students have cars, events held on campus are popular, he said. In order to pray throughout the day, Ozden said he sometimes prays in the library or in his office. These prayers are brief and do not require much space, just a place where the faithful can place something on the ground, as the environment should always be clean. The group is trying to get a room at the university that can be a dedicated daily prayer area—something that’s five square feet or half the length of a long table would work, he said. There are two Muslim student organizations at the university: Muslim Student
KIRK SMITH/THE REVIEW Members of the university’s Musim community gather in Perkins for Friday afternoon prayers. Association, with a mostlyundergraduate population, and Muslim Graduate Student Association. They work as one body, Ozden said. The associations collaborate with other student organizations, such as on an upcoming event about the hijab with national Latin sorority Chi Upsilon Sigma. They also work with Zakat Foundation of
America and the Islamic Society of Delaware for emergency relief, youth education and local development, Ozden said. To be Muslim at the university—or at any college, for that matter—can affect certain social situations, freshman Nasser Alghamdi says. Having friends to talk to or bond with in a college setting can be difficult, he said, because
Muslims do not drink. “Some Muslim countries permit it, but it is prohibited in the religion,” he said. Muslims also do not eat pork, something that comes up when others order a college classic—pepperoni pizza. It’s things like this that people have to get used to, sophomore Mohamed Mageid said. See OZDEN page 3
Homeless community benefits from local and statewide newspapers CASEY BROWN Staff Reporter
KIRK SMITH/THE REVIEW Students chant at the end of the #UDoBetter march a month ago. Three students attended Wednesday’s Title IX information session.
Second of Title IX info sessions poorly attended, raises questions about mandatory reporting MEGHAN JUSCZAK Managing News Editor Just a little over a month after the Sept. 19 rally calling the university to “do better” in cases of sexual harassment and assault, Title IX coordinator Susan Groff held the second information session about the university’s policies. Approximately 25 people attended the event, and of these attendees, three were students. Groff’s presentation was similar to the one she gave at the Oct. 6 session, where she summarized the new governance structure and emphasized the rule of mandatory reporting, particularly for faculty, staff, resident assistants and teaching assistants. The only completely confidential resources on campus, she said, are Sexual Offense Support (S.O.S.), certain counselors at Student Wellness & Health Promotion, the Center for Counseling & Student Development and the Faculty & Staff Assistance Program. She also mentioned that she currently acts as both Title IX coordinator and investigator and said she is “overwhelmed” by the caseload. She said she is working on hiring a new person for the investigator
position. Groff then introduced a panel she created for the question and answer portion. She said she thought they would be useful to assist her in answering questions after her experience during the Q&A at the last information session. The panel included Holli Harvey-Dudlek, assistant director for the Office of Student Conduct; Jim Tweedy, associate director of Residence Life and Housing; Yvonne Simpson, the university police’s Clery compliance officer and Joanne Simpson, the interim prevention specialist at Student Health and Wellness. Women’s studies professor Marie Laberge began by saying she found the mandatory reporting policies to be slightly confusing, especially because she teaches a class on women and violence where such personal topics often come up naturally. Other attendees also criticized the policy, saying they found it unfair that students would often confide with a faculty member and would not have knowledge of the mandatory reporting policies. “I’d like to amplify the fact that a student should have the right to know whether or not what they say—without
NEWS 3
or without their permission— is going to be reported,” one attendee said. “I think it is a matter of their rights.” Tweedy said there are many resources in residence life that attempt to give students information about confidentiality and that students also learn about policies, though they do not receive full details about mandatory reporting rules, in their First Year Experience (FYE) classes. Groff also said that faculty should let students know immediately about mandatory reporting if they are in a situation where they are receiving information about sexual misconduct. “If you have that information—if a student comes to you and says they were sexually assaulted last night in their dorm room, you need to disclose very early on in the conversation that you have to report this,” Groff said. “It’s not your responsibility to ask them what they were doing, where they were[...]you at that point just have to disclose that you have to report, and ask, ‘can I get you help?’ But if you have more information you need to put that on the report.”
POLITICS 4
See GROFF page 3
For homeless communities in major cities, the street newspaper business represents a second chance at making a living. Delaware has its own “street paper” known as Our Independence, which is published in Wilmington and provides aid to homeless community members. Street papers are independent newspapers and magazines that operate as a social enterprise to serve the homeless community by providing interactive services and projects allowing people to engage. Emily Taylor, director of the Philadelphia street newspaper publication, One Step Away, said they do this by reaching out to shelters and/or individuals in the homeless community through presentations and generally word-of-mouth. According to its website, the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) supports and publishes 126 street papers in 41 countries across the globe and has modeled and implemented a self-help system. In this system, people from homeless communities can sign a contract to become street vendors where they buy the newspaper at a fraction of the original cost, usually 25 cents, and then go out and sell their purchased copies on the street for a dollar said Vincent Flannigan, executive director of a Massachusetts street paper Publication called Spare Change Newspaper. John P. Clyne Jr., editor of Our Independence, said the publication was started January 2011 when vendors sold copies of One Step Away, a monthly publication produced by Resources for Human Development, a national non-profit headquartered in Philadelphia. In September of 2011, they began distributing a joint edition of One Step Away supplemented with eight full pages of Delaware-focused news and information, Clyne
EDITORIAL 7
said. “Financially, selling the paper allows homeless vendors to generate income in the form of spending money,” he said. “This empowers them to achieve self-sufficiency and allows them to be able to reach into their pocket and pay for whatever they need. For someone with no other money coming in, this can be a true lifesaver.” Publications such as Our Independence and the Philadelphia paper One Step Away share a common goal to help address issues within our nation such as unemployment and homelessness. According to Emily Taylor and John Clyne, the goal is to provide an opportunity for anyone living on the street to keep up with the latest news about what is going on in the world at an affordable cost. The support and benefit given to homeless individuals through these street paper publications around the country and overseas have changed the mindset of over 250,000 people. Street paper publications have collectively expressed that their goals are to create chances of developing a better life for the struggling members of homeless communities, through various services and projects that the INSP provide.
See TAYLOR page 7
COURTESY OF JOHN CLYNE Street paper publications strive to create chances for a better life.
SPORTS 14