The University News A Student Voice of Saint Louis University Since 1921
unewsonline.com Spring Fever 2011
Vol. XC No. 26
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Inside: Find out what students have to say about the Spring Fever Concert.
Motion City Soundtrack and Cartel provide talent and entertainment for SLU community >>ARTS
Good Friday tornado slams St. Louis communities Storm serves as safety reminder By KRISTEN MIANO News Editor
Ryan Giacomino / Photographer
Debris is all that remains of junior Kelsey Hayes’ home. Approximately 20 homes in Hayes’ neighborhood were ravaged by a EF4 tornado on April 22.
Airport shuts down, over 200 homes are destroyed in storms By DERRICK NEUNER Associate Sports Editor
No one thinks it will happen to them, but on April 22, an EF4 tornado, the largest storm to hit the St. Louis area since 1967, created a path of destruction through St. Louis County in Missouri and Madison County in Illinois. That night, Saint Louis University junior Kelsey Hayes said she joined her best friend Mary Ray Staples and her family for dinner, an invitation she usually declines. Hayes and Staples live in Bridgeton, Mo., located near Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. KTVI Chief Meteorologist Dave Murray said he closely tracked a severe line of storms traveling southeast across St. Charles County the night of April 22. Earlier in the week, Murray had forecasted a major weather event in the St. Louis area. “It was time to be ready for it,” he said. Around 8 p.m. tornado warnings were issued by the National Weather Service for St. Louis County and St. Louis City. “The sky turned orange and the winds got really bad. You could see outside their house; three trees fell down and we were thinking that must have been the worst of it,” Hayes said. “A piece of a roof fell a foot from my car. After that, I knew I needed to get home.” Hayes said she insisted on return-
ing to her home and had to travel home on foot because the roads were blocked. As she neared her street, she said she couldn’t find her house because the two-story brick house was swept away in the storm “Almost instantly you could smell the gas leak, and I started screaming my dogs’ names,” Hayes said. “I don’t hear any barks; I don’t see any movement. I started … crying and calling my parents. My parents didn’t understand that the house was gone. It’s like it was never there.” Down the street, SLU freshman Tigré Smith and her aunt were looking out the windows at the darkening sky. “The power went out, and you could hardly see outside,” Smith said. “It was really loud. You could hear things hitting the house. Trees were being uprooted … I kept thinking, ‘wow, is this really happening?’ It was horrible.” When the storm passed, Smith’s neighborhood was destroyed. Her aunt’s house was spared with only a damaged roof. As the storm passed through northern St. Louis County, it also impacted Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. Curran Hennessey, a high school senior from East Grand Rapids, Mich., was aboard American Airlines Flight 699, from St. Louis to Chicago-O’Hare. He was traveling home after visiting Washington University in St. Louis. Hennessey’s flight was supposed to leave Lambert around 7:30 p.m., but his flight was delayed by the storm
Ryan Giacomino / Photographer
A jet departs Lambert-St. Louis International Airport on Wednesday, April 27. Plywood has replaced much of the glass in Terminal 1 and Concourse C has been closed indefinitely due to extensive damage.
ON THE WEB>> View more photos from the tornado damage at unewsonline.com. and remained attached to the gate at Lambert’s Concourse C. When the storm hit Lambert, Hennessey said the plane was tossed twenty feet from the gate.
Debris from houses and the airport hit the plane. “It was terrorizing, having the See “Storm” on Page 3
While no one was killed during the tornado in St. Louis on Friday, April 22, over 70 people were killed in storms over the southern United States on Wednesday, April 27. This serves as a strong reminder of what tornados are capable of. At Saint Louis University, there are several systems in place to ensure that students remain safe during storms. “We put in place several allhazard radios throughout the campus,” Connie Tillman, the Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for the Department of Public Safety and Security Services said. “We give out emergency cards that you can carry with the ID for immediate actions. Recently we got access to the list serves for residence halls, and we can send out mass emails to everyone on campus.” But the warnings and messages are not always taken seriously. “I’m usually out on my balcony, watching the storm,” sophomore Jon Levin said. “If it looks like it’s going to turn bad, then yes, [I’ll head to the basement].” DPSSS has done training at SLU101 sessions to explain the tornado sirens, stating that if the siren sounds, there is eminent danger and that they will not go off in St. Louis city unless there is a tornado warning. The SLU Community Emergency Response Team is also trained in tornado preparedness. CERT is a group of students and staff who are trained to assist first responders in the event of a disaster. Facility Services and DPSSS are also trained in tornado damage response and would be notified by a paging system that alerts all primary personnel. Even with all the measures taken, Tillman still worries about how prepared SLU students are for a disaster. “It’s on my mind everyday. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t,” Tillman said. “It’s our responsibly as a community to make sure everyone knows what’s going on. “If you see people walking around when the sirens are off, grab them, bring them inside, and tell them it’s a severe situation.”
SGA moves forward on inclusion Student input sought on Pius XII plan Barbecue event in quad sparks support for oath
By ERIKA MILLER Enterprise Editor
By KRISTEN MIANO News Editor
“We, as students, form a diverse and vibrant university community.” So states the opening line of the new Saint Louis University Oath of Inclusion, a long-term project by the Student Government Association, which seeks to spell out what it means to be an inclusive community on a college campus.
The Oath was officially launched and revealed to the student body at a barbecue held in the quad on Tuesday, April 19. Despite tornado and storm warnings blaring over the radios, SGA President Courtney Anvender said she thought the event was successful. “I think there is a really good energy here, maybe because its not raining yet,” Anvender said, “but I think
it’s cool that students want to see what this is and what’s happened with it.” Though the turn out was promising, several students who attended were just hearing about the Oath for the first time that day. “I’m not really sure what this is,” junior Lizzy Burns said, “but I think diversity, particularly focusing on inclusion within diversity, is important, because you can have diversity and not include people. It’s important to stress the inclusion factor.” To promote awareness of the Oath, members of SGA handed out copies of the text with burgers and root beer that were served at the event. “We have sign up sheets for people to sign up to help in the future,” incoming Vice President for Diversity and Social Justice, Kripa Sreepada said. “We also have surveys asking what students think inclusion is because it’s such a hard concept to define.”
Kati Cundari / Associate Photo Editor
Students sign the Student Government Association Oath of Inclusion in the quad on Tuesday, April 19.
See “Oath” on Page 3
In his April message to the Saint Louis University community, President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., said the University is continuing to explore the possibility of renovating Pius XII Memorial Library, assuring that updates are made to current study spaces. Plans, however, are not definite. The University sent a request for proposal in the fall to identify an architect for the library project. Perry Dean Rogers Partners Architects, an architectural firm based in Boston, was selected to create a set of potential design plans. “Perry Dean Rogers is a leader in their field and is dedicated to building SLU the library it desires and needs,” Student Government Association Academic Vice President Katie Becherer said. Members of Perry Dean Rogers visited SLU the first week of April, kicking off a 20-week design process. Director of Pius Library David Cassens said the three-day
meeting with the architects included a tour of the library and discussion of relevant points about the building and general renovation needs. “We’re very pleased with the architects, I’m sure we’ll have an open exchange with them about the needs we hope will be implemented for Pius Library,” Cassens said. To gather student input, SGA invited students to a town hall meeting with the architects on April 5. Becherer said this town hall was one of the highlights of her time on SGA. “I was so proud to be a member of a student body that asked intuitive questions and offered insightful suggestions,” she said. SGA President Courtney Anvender said the architects were proficient when interpreting what students and faculty had to say during the town hall. Perry Dean Rogers has collaborated on many other university library projects, including work at Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University and Webster University in St. Louis, among others.
“[The architects] understand student culture and know the building needs to be a place that fits our lifestyle,” Anvender said. At the meeting, students were able to ask questions and offer suggestions to the architects that will be incorporated into a number of design proposals to be presented at the end of the design process. See “Library” on Page 3
Rain, rain go away
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