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Students use break for good cause Steele Gamble Staff Writer A handful of students dedicated their spring breaks to a week of participating in multiple community service opportunities in Morgantown, W.Va., as part of TeamVOLS’ annual Alternative Spring Break Trip program. Trip participants gained a sense of community within the team and a heightened awareness of local social issues as they helped complete daily tasks at a variety of locations. Mark Moore, program leader and senior in special education, hopes that the experience will continue to benefit students as they return to their everyday lives. “The biggest goal I had was just making sure the team really came together and knew what we were doing and was making an impact on the area we were going and knowing that what we do can actually be brought back to Knoxville,” Moore said. “The same situations, same scenarios and same people are being affected in the city that we actually go to school to, and it’s possible to make a difference wherever you are.” Madelyn Dancy, sophomore in ecology and evolutionary biology, experienced social issues on a personal level while participating in the program. “While another one of the volunteers and I were picking up trash, this car actually drove by and called me the N-word with the ‘E-R’ on the end and then sped by,” Dancy said. “They came by again, and then they yelled at us to ‘get
back to work, juvenile delinquents.’” The hurtful comments did little to decrease Dancy’s will to serve the community. “I felt good because I knew why I was there, and it was of my own accord,” Dancy said. Dancy said that the driver’s racial slur and false assumption actually increased her desire to serve the community. Abby Espy, sophomore in psychology, also witnessed racism during the same service project from a man thanking her for picking up trash across the street from his home. “It really took me off guard because he asked me about my relationship status and then asked if the guy I was dating was white,” Espy said. Espy said that the man continued to state his prejudice against those of races other than white, but like Dancy, it did not decrease her will to serve the community. “It didn’t really hinder my motivation for picking up,” Espy said. “It just kind of broke my heart. It was kind of offensive.” Espy does not believe that racism is characteristic of West Virginia as a whole despite the fact that the team witnessed it multiple times in one day. “There are going to be those extreme people everywhere you go pretty much, so I think it would be unfair to say that that is based on that community,” Espy said. “I wouldn’t want • Photo courtesy of TeamVOLS to judge people based off that one man’s testi- Members of the TeamVOLS 2011 Alternative Spring Break trip to Chicago gather mony. It’s not fair to everyone else.” downtown after a week of service work. This year students with TeamVOLS traveled to Morgantown, W.Va. to help serve the community and gain a higher sense of See TEAMVOLS on Page 3 social issues that affect all communities.
Fraternity draws Speaker encourages dispelling awareness to tensions about sex, intimacy homelessness Victoria Wright
Emily DeLanzo Design Editor
hosted the event. Jason Campbell, senior in mathematics and secretary of the fraternity, helped coordinate the event this year. “We break away from reality for 12 hours,” Campbell said. “We leave the comfort of our own bed, televisions, cell phone and any electricity to raise awareness (of homelessness) and realize how blessed we are to have clean water and a home for our head.” The brothers of this chapter sleep outside for a full night all the while raising money, clothing, nonperishable goods and awareness for the Knoxville Area Ministries for homeless people.
Come rain, high water or pollen, the brothers of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity exposed themselves to the elements for an entire night to raise awareness for homelessness. Sleep Out for the Homeless, which took place in the Humanities Amphitheater from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning, is a project that started on a national scale as part of this historical fraternity and has been present annually on The University of Tennessee’s campus for four consecutive years. The Kappa Chi Chapter of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity See HOMELESS on Page 3
Student Life Editor Equipped with bottles of lubrication, high-tech musical vibrators and strap-ons, students received a crash course in sex ... education, that is. “I’m probably going to make you feel uncomfortable at certain points,” warned speaker Megan Andelloux at the Fornication 101 event, sponsored by the Issues Committee, in the UC Auditorium Tuesday night. But that was all part of her ploy. Andelloux, certified sexologist and sexuality educator of The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists and The American College of Sexologists, began visiting schools to ease the tension many students feel when discussing sex. “It’s because of a fear of being laughed at or being considered a freak,” Andelloux said. “They just don’t want to disclose, and then they’re not necessarily having
healthy sex lives.” Andelloux dissipated audience anxiety through a series of educational demonstrations of various sexual positions and uses of her toys. Though Andelloux used a myriad of sex toys, she reminded audiences members that they were biologically blessed with free instruments: the hands. When picking volunteers for her demonstrations, Andelloux remained impartial to gender, as she wanted to reinforce that social roles should always remain outside the bedroom. It was Andelloux’s unapologetic dialogue that relaxed students’ previous notions on sex. Attendee Jacob Clark believed Andelloux’s approach provided a fresh perspective on sex education and helped to eliminate repressed issues students often hold about sex. “We all have misconceptions about sexuality in general,” Clark, senior in mathematics, said. “We’re so worried about how others are see-
ing us that we tend to limit ourselves, and not just in the sexual capacity, but in all other capacities. When you’re emotionally guarded, you limit yourself.” Issues Committee member Brianna Radar proposed the idea to bring Andelloux to UT. “I feel like sexual pleasure and sexual health is a huge problem with adults in this country,” Radar, sophomore in the College Scholars Program, said. Radar also felt issues with sexuality and femininity were issues among students. “Often, sex is like an offensedefense thing, like the women plays defense and the man plays offense and it’s not very healthy,” she said. “I feel like it’s not very healthy for females a lot of times.” “Politics don’t belong in the bedroom,” Andelloux said. “I know that a lot of people are like ‘I’m this, so I shouldn’t like this,’ but leave that alone. There’s so much baggage we already carry in, we don’t need to bring in our religion or our politics.”
Tara Sripunvoraskul • The Daily Beacon
iO Tillet Wright takes a portrait as part of her “Self Evident Truths” project on Monday, March 12. Wright’s project focuses on bringing a humanizing face to LGBTQ people across America with the notion that people don’t fit into over-simplified boxes when it comes to sexuality.