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This theology professor is well-known for using wordplay to make classes pun.

These sets of siblings are leading the way for the SLU tennis team.

This week, commentaries cover Teach for America, feminism and brainwashing.

The Billiken Club rang in St. Patrick’s Day in style last night.

Vol. LXXXIX No. 21 Thursday, March 18, 2010www.unewsonline.com www.twitter.com/theunews

The University NewsSpeaker policy, funding debated

By KRISTIN MIANOAssociate News Editor

Campus racial incidents spark student responses

Diversity. This nine-letter word has re-cently had a huge presence on campus.

In light of reported bias incidents, the Saint Louis University community is see-ing an increase in discussion-based series, special presentations by various student organizations and diversity-focused com-mittees.

Apart from all sponsored events, some students took action into their own hands on Feb. 28 and held a march against hate, which started in front of St. Francis Xavier College Church. The students gathered on the corner of Lindell and Grand Avenue in order to illustrate that they were there together, as a cohesive group, and would, from that point forward, say “No More” to hate.

Those who marched signed their names

on Post-It notes, and by doing so, signed a pledge to actively attempt to prevent the spreading of hate. The notes can now be seen hanging in the windows of the Cross Cultural Center.

In response to the overwhelming stu-dent participation in the march, a Face-book group entitled “SLU Students for Social Justice” has been created, and will serve as a place of information for all those interested in the advocating of social jus-tice.

The collection of various events, dia-logues and activities based around the is-sue of diversity are all a part of SLU’s “Com-munity Dialogue and Diversity Education Series,” and are all sponsored by those officially affiliated with SLU—unlike the grassroots-like march mentioned above.

One event in the series that will be con-Noah Berman / Associate Photo Editor

Atlas Week offers a world of culture, art and diversityBy NIHARIKA GOPARAJU

Staff Writer

Dining changes to spice up variety

By KELLEY DUNNNews Editor

Don’t miss our redesigned website: www.unewsonline.com!

By SEAN WORLEYAssociate News Editor

Chef Leonard Brown serves up a dish of corned beef to a hungry student in the revamped Griesedieck Cafeteria on March 17.

Ryan Giacomino / Photo Editor

Chartwells is rearranging with the intent to bring a new dining ex-perience to Saint Louis University.

“The program needed to be re-invigorated. It was stale,” Resident District Manger Paul Taylor said. “So we conducted a survey in Feb-ruary, and there were some things that we needed to make immediate changes to this academic year.”

The cafeterias in both Gri-esedieck and Reinert Hall have been renovated and new dining op-tions have been added, including a Trattoria, a Chef’s Table and new Hydrate options.

Chartwells also added more self-serve options and created an extended sustainability program to demonstrate how the average diner can make a difference in the envi-ronment.

“Reinert has seen some big im-provements,” freshman Megan Reece said. “It looks great and the food seems better.”

The dining hours in Griesedieck have also been extended. Monday through Thursday, the cafeteria will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The operating hours of the caf-eteria have long been a concern among students, and many are thrilled to see them change.

“This is a great thing,” freshman Sarah Gordon said. “I can eat be-fore work now.”

There are a few new additions to Grand Market, as well. A new Ital-

ian eatery called Tomato Red Head is replacing Famous Famiglia. To-mato Red Head not only serves different kinds of pizza, like thin and stuffed crust, but also serves various kinds of pasta, including ravioli, fettuccini and spaghetti and meatballs. Grand Market now also features a deli counter called Wheat Street Deli, which provides a wide array of sandwich options.

“And soon, sushi will be avail-able,” Director of Marketing Eric Macharia said.

Changes are also being made to the Outtakes options offered in places like the C-store, the Bean and Fusz food court.

“We have expanded the menu, added gourmet breads on all sand-wiches, added new sandwiches to the menu, new petite parfaits and fruit cups,” Macharia said.

Chartwells is making more of an effort to reach out to the student body, as well. It is hosting the first-ever Billiken Street Fest on Wednes-day, March 31. With the promise of food, fun and prizes, Macharia says that Chartwells is hoping students and faculty alike will come out to enjoy the festivities.

Chartwells has also redesigned its Billiken Dining Services web-site. It has been revamped with new features like improved menus, more nutrition information, photo albums and a dining blog.

“The feedback [about the chang-es] has been positive so far,” Taylor said. “That’s what we were hoping for.”

“Cross-cultural under-standing and appreciation of diversity is crucial for the im-provement of an individual,” Michelle Lorenzini, coordina-tor of Atlas Week, said.

Saint Louis University’s Atlas Week is a one-week pro-gram that was created in 2001. During the week, which is March 20 to 27 this year, orga-nizations and departments are invited to coordinate events according to the theme.

This year’s theme is Global and Local Justice: The UN Millennium Development Goal.

The Atlas Committee orga-nizes the week, and has con-siderably grown in the past 10 years.

“I ask students who want

to be involved in the event, and I usually get individu-als with strong interests in international social justice is-sues,” Lorenzini said. “This is perfect, since the point of the program is to raise aware-ness about global challenges among the SLU community, and also to inspire action about global challenges.”

There are a total of 85 events scheduled in this year’s Atlas Week. The Signa-ture Symposium is one of the week’s main events, and it is presented by internationally renowned speakers who have dedicated their lives to issues of political and social justice.

This year, the Keynote Speaker is Huawa Ibrahim, but there is also a special guest speaker, the Haitian Ambassa-dor Raymond Joseph.

Ibrahim’s talk is titled

“Gender Equality and Empow-erment of Women.” Ibrahim is a senior partner and the Pro-Bono Legal Aid Counsel in the General Law Practice of the Aries Law Firm located in Abuja, Nigeria.

“She is one of the top de-fenders of women’s rights in Nigeria, and has successfully challenged convictions under strict Islamic Sharia law in her country,” Lorenzini said. “This event will be held in the Wool Ballrooms of the Busch Student Center Wednesday, March 24 at 5:30 p.m.”

“I cannot wait to see Ibra-him, because she fought for social justice in the most ex-treme and volatile circum-stances. Her successes in defending women against extreme, sexist Sharia laws, especially as a woman her-self, stand as truly inspir-

ing achievements,” fresh-man Priya Sirohi said. “I am highly interested in hearing her story and learning about her ideologies. We should all seek people such as her as role models for social justice and equality, and therefore I am extremely excited that she is coming here to speak.” On Tuesday, March 23 at 7 p.m. in the Wool Ballrooms, Joseph will talk about condi-tions on the ground of Haiti, plans for moving forward and what the SLU community can do to help and get involved.

Jesse Sullivan, special as-sistant to Haitian Ambassador for Relief and Construction and founder of One World at SLU will be accompanying the Haitian Ambassador.

“I’ve done this program for nine years now, and at the end of the week students were

very depressed; they heard about all these problems but didn’t know what to do about them,” Lorenzini said. “That’s why, recently, we have been implementing ways that SLU students can help out in the global community. Jessie Sul-livan is a good example of this.”

Lily Berman, a freshman, said she is looking forward to Atlas Week.

“I am a part of SLU Jews, and they are having an Israeli come teach an Israeli cultural dance to students next week. We will also have a soldier from the Israeli fighting force to share his experiences,” Berman said. “That’s why At-las Week is such a great idea; it is informing students and teaching them that we, as a community, should be toler-ant of other cultures.”

See “Diversity” on Page 3Junior Christie Koets signs a pledge against injustice at SLU for the “We are All Billikens” Wristband Campaign.

More than five-and-a-half hours, seven bills and three items of special business lat-er, this week’s Student Gov-ernment Association meeting came to a close, after much debate and discussion. The first heavily contested bill regarded SLU’s current speaker policy. The proposed resolution was to express Sen-ate’s dissatisfaction with the current draft of a proposed speaker policy proposed by the University administration. The proposed policy differed from the proposal submitted by the SGA committee, leav-ing out aspects including a timeline for submitted speak-ers to be approved or denied, an appeals process which in-cludes student voting mem-bers and a clearer definition of what being a Jesuit University means for the speaker policy. “We want this to express that we don’t feel like we’re there yet,” Vice President for Internal Affairs and co-author Andrew Miller said. “We want to keep working on it before it becomes a policy.” Smith said that, despite the differences, he felt that there had been a lot of progress from the current speaker poli-cy, which he referred to as be-ing “about three lines.” “How many speakers have we turned down? How many student organizations have had a hard time getting infor-mation back? … Probably the same ones we turned down. … Not even a handful,” Smith said. “I know two student or-ganizations that have strug-gled … even with the ugly policy that we’ve got.” In addition, Smith said that mention of a timeline was never part of the discussion, something that First Year Senator and co-author Chris Ackels disagreed with. “This group began working on the policy in October,” he said. “In October, a timeline came up.” Ackels said he felt this was indicative of larger issues. The original resolution in-cluded a clause mentioning that, if the University adminis-tration were to “disregard the resolution and adopt the cur-rent draft without significant revisions, it will be a breach of our shared governance agree-ment.” The resolution was amended and the clause was stricken, but the subject of shared governance brought about debate. “Shared governance is a ver-bal agreement between stu-dents and faculty, and they’re breaking it,” Ackels said. “It’s extremely disrespectful.” Smith said that he wanted to make sure the Senate un-derstood what shared gover-nance meant. “I would argue that if you think shared governance means everyone has an equal place in the decision making process, I don’t think you have a clear understanding,” Smith said. “It doesn’t mean that everybody gets an equal seat at the table.” Another of Smith’s concerns was that the proposal from

See “SGA” on Page 2

News2 The University News Thursday, March 18, 2010

Tobias WinrightTheology professor loves teaching about the environment, used to be a cop

Let Us Introduce You

By ANGIE REPELContributor

This professor supports green initiatives in his everyday life.Noah Berman / Associate Photo Editor

Tobias Winright, assistant professor of moral theology, incorporates puns as well as his experience in law enforce-ment to not only teach but inspire his students. Although Winright has been teaching for 12 years, he has been at Saint Louis University for the past five. He currently teaches “Christian Moral Life,” “Green Discipleship,” “War and Peace in the Christian Tradition” and “Poverty, Wealth and Justice.” “I love teaching here,” Winright said. “The students are very engaged and very intelligent. They take initia-tive. I also get to teach cours-es I am passionate about, like war and peace and environ-mental theology.” Winright believes that

environmental theology is an important part of fulfilling the Jesuit Mission. He sets an example for his students by jogging or biking to cam-pus every day. His “Green Discipleship” course focuses on caring for the earth. “Pope Benedict is being called ‘The Green Pope’ because of his devotion to the environment and many other major religious are doing the same,” Winright said. “This course helps students understand and know how we should live on the Earth and how we should care for it.” Winright is not a typical theologian; he realized his interest in ethics and theology while working for the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department. “During college, I worked full time as a police officer,” Winright said. “Being in the classroom was a break away from my job at night. In my

work, I had to deal with a lot of things that are hidden away from everyday life. [This gave me the] opportunity to think, learn and explore ways to improve myself and make a difference in the world.” Through his work with youth and Campus Ministry at North Carolina State University, Winright realized he wanted to be a professor. “Teaching is my passion,” Winright said. “My advice to students is to discern what your passions are so you can say I get to go to work, rather than I have to go to work. I enjoy seeing students take the ball and run with it —think theologically for themselves; I give them the tools to inform themselves about theology religion and the issues. I take delight when they go on and apply for it themselves.” Winright is probably most known for incorporation of

puns in his lectures. There is even a Facebook group devot-ed to them. A student favorite is his receding hairline joke. “I have been making up puns since third grade. I use them not only to entertain but also to break the ice, and sometimes help make a point,” he said. Although he is a profes-sor, Winright is also an active member of the SLU commu-nity. He directs ethics across the curriculum for all depart-ments, and he is an adviser for the student organiza-tions of Just Earth, Amnesty International and Alpha Phi Omega. “I try to help students to inform themselves on theol-ogy and religion and think about the major issues we face today, from war to embry-onic stem cell research to economic justice to the envi-ronment.”

the students as an “all or noth-ing” plan.

“You can’t divorce the Jesuit mission from the Catholic identity,” he said.

Arts and Sciences Senator Colin Shevlin supported the bill, saying that he would like to see a defined timeline developed.

“I don’t think this bill is nec-essarily condemning anyone or coming on too strong,” he said. “I think we should pass it to express our views and the views of the students.”

In order to pass, the resolu-tion needed 23 votes to attain super majority. Ultimately, it failed with a vote of 22-9-1. Ackels was absent from the vote.

After a short recess, a vote was taken proposing to bring the resolution back to the floor, but that also failed.

Another hot topic issue revolved around establishing funding guidelines for the annual Chartered Student Organization funding meet-ings.

One of the issues that was ultimately changed from the proposed bill regarded fund-ing for speakers.

Previously, the bill stat-ed that only Great Issues Committee could be allocat-ed more than $5,000 for a speaker.

“It’s not GIC’s job to help fund other organizations,” Arts and Sciences Senator Kale Kponee said.

The point was stricken from the resolution, allowing any organization to request a speaker costing more than $5,000.

In addition, Senate voted that there would be a $2,500 cap on money given per CSO toward conferences.

Senate also discussed the funding process for academic and social fraternities and sororities. There was no vote on the matter.

“As a member of a social sorority, we get funding. … We don’t need it,” DeMattias Hall Senator Ashley Garcia said. “As far as social Greeks go, it’s not really a big issue.”

Another issue that was dis-cussed was a tier system for CSO funding, which failed.

“This legislation is too much to swallow,” Arts and Sciences Senator Maxwell Jordan said.

The meeting also featured a presentation from SLU Bookstore Textbook Manager Tricia Polley, who addressed the upcoming book sell-back season.

The bookstore will be implementing a new competi-tion among CSOs this year. Polley said CSOs that sign up for the competition will be given fliers to hand out to students.

Those students will then turn in the fliers when they sell back their books, and the top three CSOs that have fli-ers turned in will win upwards of a $500 expense account at the bookstore, which can be used for any item in the bookstore, with the exception of textbooks.

In addition, Senate voted to support Students for Life’s Pregnant and Parenting Student Assistance, Unite for Sight was charted as a CSO, the Fusion Dance Team was awarded $711.66 to attend a competition in Tennessee and a presentation about the Access Missouri and Bright Flight scholarships.

SGA: Senate debates many tense issues

Continued from Page 1

News The University News 3Thursday, March 18, 2010

PTs bring knowledge to Nigeria

Students on break help othersBy JONATHAN ERNST

News Editor

A group of physical ther-apy students is exemplifying what it means to be men and women for others by shar-ing their knowledge with the global community. Sixteen graduate students in their fifth year of physical therapy school at Saint Louis University volunteered to cre-ate public health posters that will hang in a clinic in Ekori, a village in southern Nigeria. The project was spearheaded by Janet Oberle, SLU assis-tant director of Athletics for Sport Administration and Compliance, who will deliv-er the posters to Ekori this March. Oberle’s involvement in Ekori began a few years ago when a friend from college, who had previously traveled to Nigeria with Doctors Without Borders, asked Oberle to accompany her on a trip to Ekori. There, Oberle wit-nessed firsthand the deplor-able conditions of the village’s clinic, which she says serves 2,500 to 3,000 people. “It had no running water or electricity,” Oberle said. “You work through the entire day until you can’t anymore because there’s no more light. It has such a lack of access to basic aspects of healthcare.” This March, Oberle will travel again to Ekori with a group of pharmacists and clinicians from Springfield, ILL. She was asked to pro-vide health education for the clinic. “The people [at the clinic] recognized they weren’t able to deal with public educa-tion because they were so overwhelmed with seeing patients,” she said. Oberle said she was unsure how to provide health education, so she sought help from Kim Levenhagen, a physical therapy instructor at SLU. Levenhagen teaches

a graduate-level communica-tion course in which students learn about teaching patients the benefits of physical ther-apy, healthcare, exercise and wellness of health. She thought Oberle’s proj-ect would tie in perfectly with the course, so she asked for volunteers from the class to create educational posters about the prevention of health conditions that typically affect people in Ekori. “I thought it would be a real-life application for the students,” Levenhagen said. “It’s more meaningful than a case study on a piece of paper. Physical therapy doesn’t stop in the clinic.” Sixteen students responded with an interest in the project. Among them was Maureen McFadden, who said she vol-unteered because she never had the opportunity to a go on a mission trip, and thought the project would give her a chance to “become involved in a different way.” Also among the volunteers was Gozie Ndolo, who has a more personal connection with the project because her mother grew up in a neigh-boring village of Ekori. Ndolo said her mother was very excited about the project and is going to send copies of the posters to the village in which she was raised. Ndolo said she feels that the project is meaningful to her because she is able to put into practice what it means to be an allied health profes-sional. “Our education is all for a purpose—it’s not about a high-paying job … it’s about using our knowledge to help others,” she said. The students worked in pairs, creating eight post-ers detailing different health conditions, such as fever, goiter and malaria. To make the posters appropriate and relatable for the people of Ekori, the students had to

learn more about the village. They participated in several think-sessions and meetings with Oberle, who shared her experiences in Nigeria. Also assisting in this aspect of the project was Ndolo, who gathered a group of her Nigerian friends from St. Louis to model for pic-tures for the posters. Ndolo’s mother also spoke to the students about growing up in Nigeria. Her involvement, says Levenhagen, made the project more personal for the students. Levenhagen confirmed that the end product was “awesome.” She commends the volunteers for the hard work they achieved on a tight schedule. They had a little over a month to complete the posters, but their dedication and commitment to the proj-ect was inspiring. “The level of energy and enthusiasm of the students was remarkable,” Levenhagen said. “It was really fun to work with them. I am very proud of them.” In the meantime, the stu-dents are eagerly awaiting Oberle’s return from Nigeria. “We’re really excited to see pictures. Hopefully we’ll see some smiling faces looking at our posters,” McFadden said. Levenhagen said she would love to continue to offer her students some opportunities to participate in similar proj-ects in the future. “I’m always trying to find ways in which I can embrace students’ learning in a more realistic way for them to help the community and to make them realize that their capac-ity for learning is great,” she said. Oberle encourages the SLU community to get involved in global projects, as well. “Not everyone’s going to get on a plane and go to Nigeria, but you can do something,” she said. “Never minimize the something you can do.”

When freshman David Gaillardetz decided where to go for spring break, he had one thing on his mind: giving his time to others.

This past spring break, 147 Saint Louis University students traveled the coun-try on 11 different mission trips sponsored by Campus Ministry.

“I am a social work major, and being Catholic, I am called to help those in need and help those who are suffer-ing,” Gaillardetz said. “Giving those people your time and attention means the world to them, and it shows them that people do care.”

Gaillardetz traveled to Galveston, Tex. as he and other students helped a resi-dent whose house was devas-tated by last year’s Hurricane Ike.

The students painted a room and rebuilt walls in the home.

“Ike was the third big-gest natural disaster to hit the United States, and most people don’t even know or remember when it hit,” Gaillardetz said. “These peo-ple are reminded of it every day, and we are showing them that they aren’t defeated, that people do care and they are willing to listen.”

Campus Ministry hosts these trips every year to allow students to “integrate” the Jesuit mission.

“These trips are the inte-gration of the service of faith and the promotion of justice,” Director of Campus Ministry Lisa Reiter said. “It’s a part of the Jesuit Mission, and we try

Sophomore Brianne Keller and freshman David Gaillardetz renovate a home in Galveston, Tex. over spring break.

Submitted Photos by Alexandra Turner

By MADELINE ROTHContributor

Students marched together in unity against acts of hate on Feb. 28. The procession started in front of College Church and ended in front of Rainbow Alliance’s Station of the Cross.

Noah Berman / Associaate Photo Editor

cluding today, March 18, is the “Race Matters” collection of open forum style presenta-tions. “Why Does Race Matter at SLU?” is the final part of the three section series, and will take place today, March 18, in DuBourg Hall Room 157, from 4-6 p.m.

When asked why this dialogue series is important for SLU’s community, Dean of Students Scott Smith expressed that the collection was an essential aspect of initiating important conversa-tions with the goal to reach an action.

“You needed to focus on issues in order to get a call to action,” Smith said.

Another event that will revolve around open dia-logue and communication between students and admin-istrators will be the Student Government Association’s Town Hall on social justice and diversity.

The Town Hall will take place Thursday, March 25, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the Busch Student Center’s Saint Louis Room; there, students

Diversity: Multiple groups plan eventsContinued from Page 1 can speak with administrators

in a round-table format. “The main thing we want

to get out of this is to open up communication between students and administra-tors,” SGA Vice President for Diversity and Social Justice Jamie James said.

James expressed that she anticipates the one-on-one set-ting will allow for beneficial dialogue between students and the present administra-tors.

Though there have been many efforts to increase dia-logue about diversity issues on campus, the events are just that: dialogue.

Until recent initiatives, the only truly visual campaign for an increase in diversity aware-ness was the march against hate.

However, the Great Issues Committee is sponsoring the “We are ALL Billikens” wristband campaign and the Diversity Leadership Cabinet is commencing the Social Justice ribbon campaign.

Originating from an idea posed at a Reinert staff meeting, according to GIC Secretary Alyssa Kernen, the wristband campaign is intend-

ed to unify all those interested in fighting for diversity.

GIC Chair Steve Della Camera expressed that the campaign is not only designed to continue the message of diversity and acceptance, but it is also in accordance with GIC’s mission to spark con-versation about great issues.

“There is no question that race and equality and diver-sity are great issues,” Della Camera said.

Students who partake in the wristband campaign will visually show their sup-port by wearing the Billiken Blue wristbands—which don the “We are ALL Billikens” slogan—and also by signing “commitment boards.”

“The commitment boards are to show the magnitude of students and faculty and staff who support diversity,” Della Camera said.

Diversity Leadership Cabinet’s Social Justice ribbon campaign involves students attaching ribbons to their backpacks, handbags, etc. The ribbons will have a social justice issue that is important to individual students written on them, and will be sported all around campus.

to lure that out and apply it on these trips.”

Sophomore Lauren Schuster also spent her spring break at a mission trip in Mobile, Ala., where she interacted with people who had disabilities.

“It was a really cool experi-ence, and I think I did make a difference,” Schuster said. “I enjoyed the trip, and I encour-age others to go on these trips next year.”

The Mobile mission trip group even brought along a special SLU reminder, since they purchased a Build-A-Bear Billiken doll before leav-ing.

“We wanted to bring some-thing that symbolized SLU, and we ended up taking pic-tures of it everywhere we went,” Schuster said. “We also ended up giving the peo-ple the Billiken at our going-away party.”

Beginning in the fall of 2010, Parks College of Engineering, Aviation & Technology will be offering a Master of Science degree in Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Aviation. Students will not only be able to specialize in a specific field of engineer-ing, but be able to perform research, as well.

“Graduate programs are becoming more of a standard in engineering education,” William Thacker, head of the Physics Department, said. “It will help boost research at Parks.”

Krishnaswamy Ravindra, associate dean of Parks College, echoed these senti-ments, saying that, in cer-tain types of engineering, “an undergraduate degree is not good enough.”

“The stimulus comes from both industry and the pro-fessional societies,” Ravindra said.

He also said that some of the rationale behind starting

By ALLISON REILLYSenior Staff Writer

Parks to offer new grad programsthis program is that under-graduate degrees in engineer-ing and aviation should have a broader base in the basic sciences, fundamental engi-neering and liberal arts.

To encourage the research aspect, a new program called the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience will start. Students selected to participate will work closely on research projects with Parks professors. For this summer, more than 70 stu-dents applied for 15 spots. Forty-eight research topics were also proposed by faculty for the program, demonstrat-ing a strong interest in engi-neering and aviation research in the Parks community.

“This is to serve as a pipe-line to the graduate program,” Ravindra said.

Although fifth-year senior Dan Ironside will not be par-ticipating in SURE, he said that he is interested in this new Master of Science pro-gram for its research compo-nent. Ironside has been con-ducting research with Goetz Bramesfeld, in the aerospace engineering and mechanical

engineering department. The two have been studying the “interaction of aerodynamics and structural dynamics of aircraft.”

“I’ve always considered getting a Master’s Degree,” Ironside said.

He also said that a pro-gram at SLU would make it easier for him to continue his research instead of going to another institution.

“It’s necessary to be com-petitive in programs around the country,” Ironside said. “A good research program attracts undergraduates as well as graduate students.”

“Parks College needs the Master’s program in order to be competitive with other insti-tutions and to serve student needs,” Ravindra said. “The current high-quality under-graduate programs combined with a new graduate program will elevate Parks College to a new level with more and better opportunities for both students and faculty.”

Those interested in the program can find informa-tion at http://parks.slu.edu/current-students/sure.

New graduate programs at Parks will allow students to continue their aviation education.Ryan Giacomino / Photo Editor

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Disordered eating is common. However, it isn’t just the problem of clinically diag-nosed anorexics and bulimics; rather, there is a culture of normalcy surrounding fad diets, semi-starvation and extreme exercise that is damning to all of us.

This is especially true on college cam-puses. We are routinely praised for our rigor, for the way we can abstain from those nachos that all our friends are eating or for the way we can force ourselves to spend two hours at the gym each day. The constant worry over being fat pervades dorm rooms and dining halls, but that feels typical, because our culture of top models make it seem healthy to obsess about food.

We aren’t anorexic, after all. We hold the waif-thin on pedestals and have unrealistic expectations for the way our own bod-ies should look. We loathe ourselves after we eat a pizza, preoccupied with our own perceived weakness around food. Still, we don’t think we have a real problem.

But we do. Even if we technically weigh enough, those facts about diets and eating disorders lining the walk from the Busch Student Center to the clock tower apply to

Editorials

all of us. There is huge pattern of this dis-ordered relationship with food. Most do not think about food in terms of sustenance or tradition or fun, but in terms of calories, and we cause ourselves pain through deprivation of these.

We might not ever become dangerous-ly thin—we might binge on Chinese food before we can get that far—but we are definitely not healthy, not able to look at a plate of food and resist feeling the internal struggle about how much we should eat. Most of us can’t look in the mirror without finding some part of us that we would like to be thinner.

Even if we never diet, even if we seem to eat perfectly normally, the mere fact that there is such an immense amount of guilt surrounding our eating and our body image proves some variant of a disorder. It might be a disorder shared among many of our peers, but it is no less harmful for its prevalence.

It’s Eating Disorders Awareness Week. While that might seem like just another thing to “be aware” of, it is important to take eating disorders seriously. They are more pervasive than we think.

Head men’s basketball coach said it best on Mar. 15: “I don’t want [not making the National Invitational Tournament (NIT)] to diminish the great season the team had, and you can underscore ‘great.’” The coach was voicing his displeasure over the recent snub of the Billikens by the NIT, but raised an excel-lent point that fans should be certain to take note of: this team did have a great season. Not good, but great.

After watching the great play the Billikens had down the stretch (winning eight of their last 10), it could be easy to forget that this is the youngest team in Div. I basketball, a team without a single upperclassman and a team that was select-ed to finish 12th in the preseason Atlantic 10 poll. This team brought Saint Louis University back into the postseason conversation, some-thing they hadn’t done since making the 2004 NIT. By any standards, this team deserves to be commended.

But that is what makes the NIT snub so harsh. How does SLU, a team that fin-ished fourth in the A-10, not get a selection, but Rhode Island and Dayton, the fifth and

Billikens should have made tournament

The NIT lost out on an exciting team this year, and they will next year too, as the Billikens will be dancing in the NCAAs come next March.

“”

During college, I worked full time as a police officer. Being in the classroom was a break away from my job at night. In my work, I had deal with a lot of things that are hidden away from everyday life.

“

”-- Dr. Tobias Winright, As-sistant Professor of Moral Theology

See Page 2.

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seventh place teams, respectively, do? SLU defeated Dayton twice in regular season and split their match-ups with the University of Road Island.

Admittedly, SLU’s rating percentage index (RPI) isn’t as high as one would like it to be. But the RPI argument is irrelevant when teams like North Carolina, North Carolina

State and Northwestern University all get bids with worse RPIs than SLU. And the strength of schedule argu-ment hardly holds any weight either when you look at a team like Illinois State, which got an invite to the NIT, but had a non-conference strength of schedule ranked No. 326 in the nation, a full 100 teams behind SLU’s. Illinois St. didn’t schedule one

BCS-conference team; SLU faced off against four.

It’s difficult to discern which criteria the NIT used. But its faulty standards don’t mat-ter at this point. It’s a shame, though. The NIT lost out on an exciting team this year, and they will next year too, as the Billikens will be dancing in the NCAAs come next March.

33 percent: Six more weeks of arguing about health care

Eating disorders pervade campus life

It’s necessary to be competitive in programs around the country.... A good research program attracts undergraduate as well as graduate students.

“”--Dan Ironside, student, on

the new graduate programs in Parks.

See Page 3.

Quotesof the week

30 percent: Anything, as long as it takes Flex

Posted below are the results from the last issue’s web poll on The University News’ website. Be sure to check our website this week for our next exciting poll: What pieces of American history will Texas include in the new gradeschool textbooks?

www.unewsonline.com

Web Poll:

What really goes on in the dorms over Spring Break?

percent of the vote

0 percent: Ghosts!

8 percent: They are used to film Home Alone IV: Lost in Griesedieck

16 percent: All of the above

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

36 percent: Fr. Biondi tests out all the mattresses in his Spring Break Nap-a-Thon

40 percent: The campus statues come alive and hold dinner parties.

I’ve done this program for nine years now and at the end of the week stu-dents were very depressed; they heard about all these problems but didn’t know what to do about them.

“”-- Michelle Lorenzini, coordi-

nator of Atlas Week.

See Page 1.

[The village] had no run-ning water or electricity. You work through the entire day until you can’t anymore because there’s no more light. It has such a lack of access to basic aspects of healthcare.

“

”--Janet Oberle, SLU Associate Director of Athletics for Sport Administration and Compliance, who worked with Doctors Without Borders in Nigeria.

See Page 3.

I think St. Louis is final-ly starting to realize that we are a real city and we need to start acting like it…. If we want to attract people here, we’re going to need things like [ good public transportation].

“

”-- Ryan Albritton, a worker for City Sound Tracks, a music festival to promote public transportation in St. Louis.

See Page 14.

Quotesof the week

I think the character, Greenberg, was a 50/50 collaboration between me and Ben. He so inhabited the part and transformed the character that I feel only part ownership for him.

“

”-- Noah Baumbach on his new movie “Greenberg.”

See Page 14.

Shared governance is a verbal agreement between students and faculty, and they’re breaking it... It’s extremely disrespectful.

“”-- Chris Ackels on his disappoint-

ment in what he saw as a lack of administrative cooperation.

See Page 1.

Opinion The University News 7Thursday, March 18, 2010

I had never seen a stop sign wrapped with teddy bears and deco-rated with ribbons before coming

to St. Louis. The image will haunt me forever.

My freshman year at Saint Louis University, I decided on a whim to get involved with a tutoring pro-gram for inner-city children. It was just another community ser-vice activity to

add to my resume, until I saw my first teddy bear stop sign. And then another, and another. We were driv-ing into the North Side. We passed three memorials for children who had recently been killed in gang crossfire. Imagine witnessing your seven-year-old best friend bleed to death in front of a bus stop. I hadn’t met a single child yet, but suddenly tutoring became more to me than a resume builder.

Our tutoring group met in an

abandoned Catholic church base-ment in the worst part of town. The leader of our modest group gave me a crash course on the dam-aged school system in St. Louis, but I didn’t believe him until I wit-nessed it for myself. Later, I met junior high students who could not pronounce two-syllable words or do basic multiplication or divi-sion. I met high school students who skipped class regularly but got As by turning in copy-and-pasted essays from Wikipedia, a step above the students who turned in nothing at all. It quickly became clear that very few of these students I tutored would ever make it to a community college.

I’ve lived a life of luck and privi-lege, as have many of us in the SLU community. As I continued my four-year journey through college, I grew increasingly passionate about education in the city. Sometimes it can be extremely difficult to look outside of SLU’s protective bubble into the poverty that surrounds us.

We don’t like to think that, if fate had dealt us different cards, we might never have had the

Commentary

Jenna engstrom

Schools suffer, Teach for America can help

I sometimes get the equivalent of Holly Golightly’s “mean reds.” In Truman Capote’s Breakfast at

Tif fany’s, the mean reds are described as when “you’re afraid and you sweat like hell, but you don’t know what you’re afraid of. Except something bad is going to happen, only you don’t know what it is.” However, unlike

Holly, I do not yearn for the “quiet-ness and proud look” of Tiffany’s to calm me.

The trauma of the childhood that Holly doesn’t want to talk about—of being married at 14 and of running away to form a new life—leaves her with these mean reds. From rural Texas to New York City, Lula Mae Barnes transformed herself into Holly Golightly, who could hobnob with millionaires, claim to be bisex-ual, drop French phrases and still save her neighbor when his horse ran away with him. (If you haven’t read the book, read it.)

When I get the mean reds, I feel caught between two worlds: the trailer I grew up in down in the Ozarks, and the academic space I now claim with a Ph.D. My dad was a child of The Great Depression. Whipped by his parents, sent to another family to live when they couldn’t feed him, and forced to wear his sisters’ hand-me-downs, my dad grew up with a serious chip on his shoulder and little education. Yet despite his illiteracy, he had a brilliant spatial aptitude that served him well as a mechanic and carpen-ter. However, when he got the mean reds, he drank too much and took out his trauma on us.

I was in Ireland recently, in a pub in rural Clarinbridge, sitting amongst old men and our bed and breakfast hostess, Maura, and it was there that I felt my dad’s pres-ence clearer than I had in a long time. He would have chimed in with the accordion player, playing out of tune on his acoustic guitar and singing badly to their ballads. Yet as I looked around the pub, Maura was the only woman there, besides the women in my family. I was in a decidedly masculine space, as I was whenever I was around my dad. His presence was also always threaten-

Commentary

sheri mCCord

ing, and I felt that threat of violence once more amongst these convivial people.

For a young woman alone at night on the streets of Dublin, the threat of violence must have been immense. On Grafton Street in Dublin, I saw a young woman in a blue stocking cap, huddled against a wall, donned all in grey. In the crook of her right arm, a German Shepherd puppy nestled beside her for warmth. Their eyes bore the same sadness, hunger and shame. I could not look at her card-board sign, although I could tell that it was neatly lettered. Although I had no euros, I did have a granola bar. Why didn’t I stop?

The two seemed to be protecting

‘Mean reds’ and the burden daughters bear

each other in a heartbreaking way. The similarity in their dark eyes was too painful for me. I felt ashamed. I didn’t quite feel this way when I passed men, even men with dogs, although I have given them food in the past. Something about this girl and her dog struck a chord with me. Maybe she had run away from a life that was even worse, like Holly Golightly, and had found her ver-sion of “Cat” in the puppy. I’m sad I didn’t give her what little I had. But looking back is one thing; being able to look around now is even more important.

Sheri McCord is a faculty member in the Women’s Studies Department.

Do you want to earn money as a student? Are there skills that you want to refine? Are you deciding

on a career? Finding an on-campus job as a student worker might be a good step. There are several hundred student workers across campus, and their jobs range in experi-ence and skills from a resident adviser to a front

desk worker at a department. There are good reasons why you

should choose a position. Statistics show that students who work at an on-campus job have a higher GPA when compared to their colleagues without jobs; this is because they learn about time management . By fitting a part-time job into your schedule, you are required to manage your time between work, classes, h o m e w o r k , extracurricular activities and other activities.

In addition to managing your time more effectively, on-campus employment can help in your career and skill development. A campus job can be the first step in your career, because you have the opportunity to build skills that will help you in the future. Communication skills are the most important skill to employ-ers. Working at a front desk and handling walk-in traffic, as well as handling incoming telephone calls, can help you develop and build on your communication and your cus-tomer service skills. One of the goals of college is to develop skills to help in your future career, and on-campus employment is a good way to do so.

Take John, for instance. He was a student worker in Career Services for three years until his graduation from Saint Louis University. During his time as a student worker, he developed excellent communication, customer service and time manage-

ment skills. John’s position also helped him define his career goals. Now he is a successful employee at Enterprise.

You can begin to find a job on campus by starting the process early. This can be the key to securing employment. Most jobs are found on CareerLink, at careers.slu.edu. The first thing you will need to do before checking out CareerLink is to know whether or not you are eligible for Federal Work Study funds. If you don’t know whether or not you have been awarded potential FWS mon-ies, check with your parents or the Student Financial Services office.

Once you know your status, you can go to CareerLink and check the available on-campus jobs based on one of these two categories: Federal Work Study (FWS) and non-FWS. Read each job description carefully and consider what skills you want

to develop as well as your future career goals. Apply to all jobs of inter-est using the online applica-tion and submit the application. The application is then forward-ed to the hir-ing department for review. It is important to

be thoughtful while completing the application, and make sure there are no spelling or grammatical errors.

If you haven’t heard anything from the departments in which you applied within one week, follow up with each department to make sure the job hasn’t already been filled and to find out their hiring time frame. Also, be aware that some depart-ments will only review all applicants after the application deadline. Most departments will bring in final candi-dates for an interview, and preparing for this interview can improve your chances of getting hired.

Working at an on-campus job can have a life-long impact. You can have an opportunity to build skills, discover what you like and dislike about a job, and develop contacts that can help you along the way.

Kim Reitter is the director of the Department of Career Services.

Commentary

Kim reitter

Campus jobs provide skill development and experience

A campus job can be the first step in your career, because you have the opportunity to build skills.

“”

opportunity to attend a university like this. But the truth is, poverty keeps children from reaching their full potential every day across the United States, not only throughout inner cities, but in many low-income rural areas, as well. There are many factors that contribute to the low standards of schools in low-income communities. Children from impov-erished neighborhoods face more challenges in their daily lives than their suburban peers. Their schools are under-funded, understaffed and unequipped to meet the extra needs of their students. With the odds stacked against them like this, how could any student be expected to perform at all, let alone perform well enough to make it to college?

This year, I came across a nation-al organization whose goal is to bridge the achievement gap in low-income school districts. In the face of an academic epidemic that has taken root in America, Teach For America takes the best and bright-est students fresh out of college and places them in high-risk schools to make a difference. According to their statistics, only one in 10 stu-dents growing up in a low-income community will ever graduate from college. Approximately 50 percent of low-income students will not grad-uate from high school by the time they are 18 years old, and “those who do graduate perform, on aver-age, at the level of eighth graders in higher-income communities.”

I chose to apply to the third of four deadlines for Teach For America this year. The application process is time consuming, demanding and competitive, and the job itself is not for everyone. It is often stated by corps members that their two-year commitment of teaching in a low-income school was the most chal-lenging experience of their lives.

I don’t know what the outcome of my application and interview pro-cess will be. If I am accepted into the program, I will devote the next two years of my life to helping “bridge the gap.” If not, I will continue to do whatever I can in my spare time to help those children who are suf-fering from an institution that is designed for them to fail.

To juniors especially who are thinking ahead to next year and wondering what new adventures life will bring after college, I encourage you to consider Teach For America. Be a part of an organization that is committed to bringing education to children throughout the U.S. Education is in a state of emergency in many parts of this country, and we can’t back down to the threat. We should never be content with equal opportunity for most.

Jenna Engstrom is a senior in the

College of Arts and Sciences.

Winston Smith, the central charac-ter in George Orwell’s 1984 works for the Ministry of Truth, going through

old newspa-per ar ticles and modifying them to fit Big Brother’s agen-da. He writes in his diary: “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”

M o d i f y i n g and adjusting the past is a means to an end, a way in which the people in power can gain more power, more control. This sort of thing would never happen in a country like America.

Right?Wrong. On March 12, the Texas

Board of Education approved a num-ber of new standards for social sci-ence textbooks that actively re-write or re-word the past. Thomas Jefferson has been removed in favor of John Calvin, learning about the concept of separation of church and state is no longer a requirement, references to capitalism are to be replaced with ref-erences to a “free enterprise system” and, apparently, the board removed the concepts of “justice” and “respon-sibility for the common good” from a list of characteristics of good citizen-ship for grades one through three. (The proposal to remove “equality” failed.) The Texas Freedom Network does a good job of summing up exactly what’s wrong with this new list of standards: http://tfninsider.org/ and if it doesn’t make you want to scream, I have a copy of 1984 you can borrow.

I support an open debate in this country, but children’s history text-books are not the place for religious/political propaganda. If a conserva-tive/Christian/whatever figure is of great historical importance, sure, toss him/her in there, but do not do it as a way to eliminate others. For an ideol-ogy that claims to be pro-American in every way, the conservative major-ity on the Texas Board of Education is stripping away those things that make us who we are. Separation of church and state is absolutely vital to the way this country works—the much vaunted pilgrims were not flee-ing hordes of transsexuals, they were seeking religious freedom.

When it comes to changing “capi-talism” to “free enterprise system,” the Orwellian connotations grow stronger. Capitalism remains capital-ism, no matter if, as one board mem-ber put it, “capitalism does have a negative connotation.” Debating the merits of capitalism, or any economic system, is something that should be

encouraged: Kids are being educated to work in this system and they need to know the ideology behind their workplace. Changing the name does not strip the system of benefits or detriments. For a political culture that often complains about political correctness, this attempt to make capitalism seem like something else is obnoxiously hypocritical.

Changing the past—through omis-sion, through changing the terms, through actual fabrication of a differ-ent history—is always a bad thing. Unless you are basing your modifica-tion of the past on factual evidence, you are committing a crime toward your fellow countrymen. These Texan students are going to suffer for 10 of the 15 board members’ political ideol-ogy.

Moreover, because it’s cheaper to manufacture one textbook for all schools, companies that make books for Texas are likely going to deliver the same product to other states, poten-tially resulting in every American stu-dent receiving this overtly biased ver-sion of the past. As justification for this new standard, board member Don McLeroy said the following: “We are adding balance ... history has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left.”

Academia, unlike the average board of education (as a victim of St. Louis Public Schools, I’ve seen this first hand) is based on research and evidence. This research can be shown to be incorrect, and then modified; editing the information to suit a politi-cal point of view does nothing more than garner power and attention for an ideology.

In a different, arguably better world than this, textbooks would be informative only, with teachers and students allowed to fill in the gaps with opinions and their various politi-cal affiliations. In ours, this is not so. Books such as “Lies My Teacher Told Me” by James W. Loewen cover the disadvantages and biases of assorted textbooks, but none, as far as I am aware, have suffered from such out-right ideological alterations as those soon to be enacted by the Texas Board of Education.

I can’t at this time offer a sugges-tion as to what we could do to improve this situation, but I can say that the best way to prevent these sorts of changes taking hold is to maintain open minds, to try to learn as much as we can about, well, everything, and to encourage that same mindset in everyone we meet. Big Brother only works if we refuse to learn, refuse to question, if we accept political dogma blindly. If we do this, and with a little luck, Winston Smith will forever be out of a job.

Noah Berman is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Commentary

noah Berman

Texas brainwashes kids

Peony Lee/Illustrator

Brenda Joy Smith/Illustrator

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The University News

Mia (left) and Hailee Elmore pose with Jake (left) and PJ Hendrie at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in Forest Park during a practice on Mar. 17. The pair of siblings bring an even greater family feel to their respective tennis teams.

Siblings rule the court for SLU tennis

By BOBBY SCHINDLER Sports Editor

Bobby Schindler/ Sports Editor

It’s common for athletic teams to feel like a family, especially when it comes to college teams. College teammates travel together. They practice and train together, hold study sessions with each other; many even live together. So it’s no surprise when this special connection forms.

“A lot of teams see themselves as a family. I definitely feel that both of our [tennis] teams do, and with this team, it’s a little easier

to do that,” tennis coach Jonathan Zych said. This ease is, in part, due to the fact that some members of the men’s and women’s tennis teams at Saint Louis University actually are family.

Jake and PJ Hendrie on the men’s team, and Mia and Hailee Elmore on the women’s, are brothers and sisters, respectively.

“We really try to think of ourselves as a second family, and with all of these guys on the team that comes a lot more naturally. … Everyone is a lot more comfortable around each other,” Zych said.

PJ, a senior from New Braunfels, Tex., chose SLU over a variety of other offers. “I had actually committed to the University of Texas at San Antonio, but I had one visit left so I tried out SLU because I knew a few people from high school on the team here. Once I got here, I just fell in love with it,” PJ said.

PJ’s brother Jake didn’t take a lot of convincing to want to join PJ at SLU.

“I’d say I was pretty much the reason he came here,” PJ said. “Obviously, with the team and the school being so good, it wasn’t really hard

Men’s and women’s teams feature pairs of siblingsto convince him, but I like to think his decision was 90 percent based on me.”

“I was really fortunate bringing [Jake and Mia] onto the team. They both really wanted to follow their siblings, so I had commitments from them very early on, and it was great because they are both really good players,” Zych said.

Hailee, the senior Elmore, transferred to SLU after spending a year at Indiana University on the track and field team.

“I was injured a lot while running, so it was really

frustrating. I thought about tennis just because I had played it in high school and all of a sudden everything just kind of fell in place,” Hailee said. “I had known Coach Zych from tournaments I played in high school and that made transferring a lot easier.”

Zych had coached in his native Peoria, Ill., prior to coming to SLU, and had met Hailee, a Springfield, Ill. native, during this time.

Hailee shared PJ’s sentiments in wanting her sibling to join her, as well.

“I encouraged her a lot, but I think she wanted to come here all along. She knew how much I loved it here, so that made it easy,” Hailee said.

Mia, a freshman, cites her sister’s transfer, granting Hailee an extra year of eligibility, as a big deciding factor for coming to SLU. “I knew that I would get two years with her instead of just one,” Mia said.

And Mia has been very pleased with her decision.

“It’s been great. She helped me with all of the transition stuff. She showed me around campus and where all of my classes are, and homesickness hasn’t really been a problem at all,” Mia said.

None of the siblings listed any cons with having each other on campus, but that doesn’t mean that some fierce sibling rivalries don’t exist.

“Oh, it can get pretty intense when we play against each other,” Hailee said. “Whenever we practice together we try to just hit around because real matches can get pretty serious pretty fast.”

The same goes for the Hendries.

“Yeah, we used to fight a lot when we played. Now it’s more of a mutual respect kind of a thing, but he still bothers me about the state championship,” PJ said.

Former Bill is a wonder Down Under

Back in November, I was all but certain one phrase would permeate the entire season of Billiken basketball: “If only Kevin were still here.” After all, we have the youngest

team in the nation and, until Januar y, we were m i s s i n g one major piece of the team in Cody E l l i s . T h i n g s l o o k e d dire.

Therefore, I am shocked, and pleasantly surprised, to say that I have only spoken of Kevin Lisch twice since January of this year. The first time was comparing Kwamain Mitchell’s offensive and defen-sive maneuvers to Lisch’s highly successful styling. The second was last week, when I learned that the former Saint Louis University guard led his team to a national champi-onship in Australia.

Can you blame me for won-dering how this team would survive without the sixth-highest scorer in SLU basket-ball history? Lisch was, for the most part, the heart and soul of the squad. He was the glue that held the team together over the Soderberg-Majerus transition; he ran both the offense and the defense. Who could forget the buzzer-beat-er against Richmond to send the game into triple overtime? Lisch’s graduation was sup-posed to present a gaping hole in the Billiken lineup.

So it’s a testament to both Lisch and the current squad that we haven’t brought his name up much. Mitchell, along with Kyle Cassity, has filled the guard spot in nice-ly, while Brian Conklin and Willie Reed, plus late-edition Ellis, have held down the post on most occasions. Though not one person has filled Lisch’s shoes, progress by the sophomores has averted disaster in the wake of No. 21’s absence.

And the Belleville, Ill., native has gone on to super-stardom in the land Down Under. I’m sure Ellis found little humor in the situation, but while SLU was waiting on its hoops star export, the Perth Wildcats imported the leading scorer from the Billikens. To add more irony to the situation, Ellis resides in Perth, and his father Mike Ellis, played for the Wildcats for 10 years, was an assistant and head coach for Perth and won four championships with the club. His jersey, No. 6, is retired.

Now the Wildcats have found renewed success with Lisch. Last week, the for-mer Billiken led the Cats to their fifth National Basketball League title and was named MVP of the championship tournament. Lisch hit five of nine three-pointers on his way to 29 points in a 96-72 win over the Wollongong Hawks. He averaged 12.1 points and 2.3 assists in his rookie year in the NBL.

There was never any doubt that Lisch could play good ball, but the latest achieve-ment further solidifies his place in Billiken basketball lore. There’s no doubt that Fran Dunphy (head coach at Temple) and Chris Mack (head coach at Xavier) are glad Lisch wasn’t allowed to play six years with SLU. But now Lisch, 23, is taking his Jesuit-schooled basketball skills on the road and improv-ing the University’s image abroad, as well.

“D’Lisch,” as his coach calls him, says he’s having fun with this new phase of his life. The Australia media is going ga-ga over its American superstar. He’s already been deemed a hero and national sports star, and is on his way to a plump contract with the Wildcats, should he choose to take it.

“It’s a great situation, and I could not really ask for any-thing better for my first year out of college,” Lisch said.

Of course, as a fan of the Billikens, I’d expect nothing less than thrilling basketball and quick success from the down-to-earth Lisch.

One media outlet called the championship game “The Kevin Lisch Show.” Looks like nothing’s changed.

Commentary

DerriCk neuner

McGinty named as new head men’s soccer coach

By ANDREW BUSHStaff Writer

The wait is finally over for the men’s soccer team at Saint Louis University. On March 10, Mike McGinty, a former associate head coach at the University of Virginia, was named as Dan Donigan’s replacement at the helm of the men’s soccer program.

McGinty is coming off a season at Virginia in which the Cavaliers were crowned as NCAA champions in men’s soccer. Virginia has been one of most successful teams in the nation for the past decade, winning four of the last seven conference titles in the Atlantic Coast Conference, which is widely considered to be the best in collegiate soc-cer. After starting as goalie for Wake Forest University and playing in Major League Soccer, McGinty was an assis-tant coach at Virginia for nine years.

“Mike McGinty brings a winner’s pedigree from the University of Virginia, where as associate head coach he

helped lead the Cavaliers to the 2009 NCAA champion-ship,” SLU Athletic Director Chris May said. “[McGinty] understands and embodies the goals of educating young men, competing for champi-onships and building commu-nity. We fully believe in his ability to move our program forward so that the Billikens not only continue winning Atlantic 10 Conference cham-pionships, but also compete for national championships.”

Former Billikens head coach Donigan announced his resignation from the head coaching job at SLU back on Jan. 22. He is currently the head coach at Rutgers University. Donigan had been a part of the SLU men’s soc-cer coaching staff since 1997.

In an interview with St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Tom Timmermann, Mike McGinty expressed his excite-ment about taking over the head coaching job at SLU.

“I liked the fact that it is currently a really, really good

See “Soccer” on Page 11

Justin Jordan avoids getting fouled in the waning minutes of the Billikens 63-54 victory over Indiana State on March 16. The Billikens will now take on Green Bay-Wisconsin on March 22 at 8 p.m. at Chaifetz Arena.

Ryan Giacomino / Photo Editor

Billikens blow by Indiana State, 63-54, in opening round of CBI

By DERRICK NEUNERSenior Staff Writer

It’s not the tournament they wanted to play in, but Kwamain Mitchell, Willie Reed and the Saint Louis University Billikens pum-meled Indiana State Tuesday night in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational. Mitchell scored 19, including his first-ever collegiate dunk, while Reed added 17 in a 63-54 victory over the Sycamores.

The win puts the Bills (21-11) into next Monday’s

quarterfinals against Green Bay-Wisconsin. The game will tip-off at 8 p.m. Mar. 22 at the Chaifetz Arena.

The Billikens (21-11) had hoped to receive an invitation into the National Invitation Tournament. When they did not, head coach Rick Majerus decided to take his team into the CBI after its parent company, the Gazelle Group, offered the Billikens a place in the 2012 O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic in Kansas City, Mo. Syracuse and Kansas are also confirmed for the tourna-ment.

“I was ready to play another game because the sting from the Rhode Island game really hurt,” Mitchell said. “When we came back, everyone was watching TV to see if we made the NIT, so we didn’t make it there but Coach [Majerus] told us we had a chance to play in the CBI. It was fun to go back out there.”

SLU hit the first seven of its eight shots to set the pace against Indiana State. They would never trail. Up 17-4, the Sycamores would

See “Basketball” on Page 11

See “Tennis” on Page 11

team and a really, really good job,” McGinty said in the March 11 issue. “They’re the Atlantic 10 champs and poised for what I think is sustainable growth in excellence. It’s not a rebuilding type of ground-level head coaching job. It’s an elite-level job.”

McGinty will officially start work at SLU on Mar. 22.

Sports The University News 11Thursday, March 18, 2010

Basketball: Bills advance to quarterfinals in CBI

Majerus upset at NIT snub

Head men’s basketball coach vented some frustration recently when he appeared on WXOS’s “The Bernie Miklasz Show.” “No one can take away the great season we had. It’s just a shame. At one point, we’re being mentioned as a bubble team, and then we’re not a NIT team?” the coach said on Mar. 15.

Ryan Giacomino / Photo Editor

Continued from Page 10

get their chance to get back into the game; the Billikens tallied just one point on their next six possessions, but ISU

tallied just four points in the stretch. The missed chance would be devastating. SLU caught fire again, scoring on four straight, going on a 10-3 spurt.

The Billikens led by as

many as 18 in the first and led by 13 at the halfway mark. Reed scored 13 points on five-of-seven shooting in the first half, including sinking three of his four free throws. Mitchell and freshman for-ward Cody Ellis each added six points in the first half.

As the Billikens so often do, the shooting went cold in the second half. Indiana State took advantage this time, going on an 11-0 run, bringing the tally to 57-48. A free throw by Dwayne Lathan whittled one more point off the SLU advantage, but that was as close as the Sycamores would come.

Offensive rebounds on the next two possessions allowed SLU to drain precious time off the clock, and the Billikens converted six of eight free throws to build a 63-51 lead and render a late ISU three-pointer meaningless.

“I thought the guys responded well, especially psychologically,” Majerus said. “We came out with great energy and enthusiasm tonight ... We did some things well,” Majerus said. “To shoot so poorly and to have such great looks and to still win is remarkable. We made some nice hustle plays and some

nice defensive plays. They are a good club.”

Majerus also comment-ed on the NIT’s snub of his squad. Though SLU beat Dayton twice and finished with three more wins in Atlantic 10 Conference play than Dayton, the NIT rewarded the Flyers with a No. 3 seed in the NIT, much to the bewilderment of Majerus and SLU fans.

“We’ve never been accept-ed as [legitimate],” he said. “We got the short end of the stick. We finished a defini-tive fourth in the sixth best league. There’s a prestige of a climbing program going into the NIT. If you go on the stan-dards the committee uses, we go 11-5, since Ellis arrived, won eight of our last 10 … I am certainly puzzled by it.”

Kyle Cassity tied for the game-high in assists with six in the Bills victory over Indiana State on Mar. 16.

Ryan Giacomino / Photo Editor

Soccer: UVA assistant named new head coach

Continued from Page 10

team and a really, really good job,” McGinty said in the March 11 issue. “They’re the Atlantic 10 champs and poised

for what I think is sustainable growth in excellence. It’s not a rebuilding type of ground-level head coaching job. It’s an elite-level job.”

McGinty will officially start work at SLU on Mar. 22.

Mick McGinty (right) was an assistant at Virginia for nine years before being named the new Billiken head coach.

Billiken Media Relations

Tennis: Family is the name of the game

PJ lost the high school state singles final in his junior and senior years; Jake, however, was able to win the title during his senior year.

“He gets in my face a lot, but he’s a nut and I’m used to it now so I still try to be pretty nice to him,” PJ said.

Zych claims that the closeness of the siblings really aids the chemistry of the team.

“I think the family atmosphere that we have really allows everyone to relax. Everyone is in a great comfort level, which allows the team to focus,” Zych said.

This chemistry has resulted in wins on the court.

The men’s team is currently 7-3, while the women’s team is 8-5.

The men recently posted their third 7-0 victory on Mar. 15 over Indiana Tech. They take on Southern Illinois at home on Mar. 19, while the women battle Southern Illinois at Edwardsville at home the same day.

Continued from Page 10

It’s here.The age of The University News’ brand new, redesigned website has arrived at last.

A digital flip-through of all the print pages? Check.

Brand new blogs? Check.

Photo slideshows? Check.

An attractive design that looks like it’s from this decade? Check.

www.unewsonline.com

Sports12 The University News Thursday, March 18, 2010

March Madness: Editor’s Bracket

Bracket breakdown: A look at the Atlantic 10 hopefuls

As you can see in the above bracket, I feel pretty good about the Atlan-tic 10’s c h a n c e s this year.

I have all three r e p r e -sentat ive t e a m s , R i c h -m o n d ,

Temple and Xavier, advancing

to at least the Sweet 16. Tem-ple, in my view, should even make it to the Elite Eight, at the least.

I have Temple advancing the deepest, despite having the hardest road out of the three teams. A No. 5 seed is a little unfair for the A-10 Champs, considering they boast the 8th best RPI in the nation.

It’s key match-up will come in the second round when it will likely take on Wiscon-sin. The Badgers play a simi-

lar style to Temple. Both are very strong defensively and are very deliberate on the offensive side of the court. If the team can get past that dangerous matchup; I like its chances against either Texas or Kentucky. Speaking of that win, I see a very inconsistent and struggling Texas pull-ing it together just enough to knock out the Wildcats.

Richmond over Villanova may be wishful thinking, but it wouldn’t surprise me. The Spiders saved some of their

Commentary

BoBBy SChindler

See Derrick Neuner’s bracket on our new website:

www.unewsonline.com

Arts 13Thursday

March 18, 2010

Talk to us: call Will Holston314.977.2812, or e-mail arts.unews@gmail.com

UNEWSONLINE.COM

The University News

ArtsThe University News

Music festival aims to put butts in seats for public transportation

By WILL HOLSTONArts Editor

Ben Stiller stars as the title character in writer/director Noah Baumbach’s newest dramedy, Greenberg, out March 26.

Wilson Webb/Focus Features.

See “City Sound” on Page 14

SLU’s Irish is showing at Bill Club

The Irish Student Guild, SLU’s new Irish dance team Elevation and Billikens After Dark honored St. Patrick’s Day March 17 with a full day of events, leading up to a celebration in The Billiken Club. (Top Right) Elevation performs an Irish dance. (Top Left) Junior Norah Scannell performs a song. (Bottom Left) Bare Naked Statues, SLU’s all-male a cappela singing group, enter-tains the crowd. The Billiken Club’s upcoming sched-ule of performers can be found at www.thebillikenclub.wordpress.com.

Photos by Ryan Giacomino/Photo Editor

‘Alice’ is no wonder

Stiller gives drama a shot in new film

By KAITLYN EDMISTONContributor

Chief film Writer

lANDON BUrriS

See “Alice” on Page 14 See “Greenberg” on Page 14

As the logo for the event says, City Sound Tracks arrives March 27.

City Sound Tracks

An upcoming music festival is going to move people, and its plan-ners are hoping that MetroLink will be their transportation of choice. City Sound Tracks, a unique new music festival that attempts to bring attention to the benefits of public transportation in the city of St. Louis, arrives on March 27. The brainchild of originator Michael Koscielniak, the festival is presented by What’s Up Magazine, a local social justice publi-cation. “What’s Up is a non-profit based organization in the city that basically provides transitional employment for homeless people … [This festival is] a great opportunity to publicize this,”

When one envisions a cin-ematic reimagining of the classic Lewis Carroll tale of

Alice and her adven-tures, a short list of direc-tors comes to mind. Such a m a g i c a l , w h i m s i -cal and weird tale r e q u i r e s a certain

kind of vision, and it is no surprise that, with Disney’s backing, Tim Burton was chosen for the job. (Let’s be honest, families aren’t taking their children to see David Lynch’s Alice in Wonderland.) The big question going into the film was whether audi-ences would be getting the visionary Burton that direct-ed Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow, or the unin-spired Burton that gave us Corpse Bride and (worst of all) the intolerable Planet of the Apes remake. Unfortunately Alice in Wonderland ends up fitting into the latter category, though it certainly isn’t as bad as Apes. Burton’s Alice, based on a screenplay penned by Linda Woolverton, follows the now 19-year-old Alice Kingsleigh (Mia Wasikowska, Defiance) who has long forgotten her childhood adventures in Underland, which she had mistakenly referred to as Wonderland. With her father deceased and her mother rejecting her determination to be different, Alice is being set up to marry the dopey Lord Hamish Ascot (Leo Bill). When Hamish proposes to Alice at a ritzy party, how-ever, Alice runs off, following the White Rabbit (voiced by Michael Sheen, The Twilight Saga: New Moon), and tum-bles “down the rabbit hole” into Underland. In Underland, the world’s unusual residents are living under the oppressive regime of the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street) and long for the days when the benevo-lent White Queen (Anne Hathaway, Valentine’s Day) was in charge. If Alice is in fact the Alice, the residents of Underland insist, she will be able to slay the brutish Jaberwocky (an evil dragon under the Red Queen’s con-trol), therefore reinstating the White Queen. As interesting and fan-tastical as this all sounds, the sad truth is that Alice in Wonderland is a gener-ally dull and uninspired film. Alice wanders around parts of Underland, such as the tea party of the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp, Public Enemies) and the March Hare and the castles of both queens; this seems to be mostly just involving all of the characters and scenes one would expect from an Alice film. The movie’s narrative is barely cohesive and, at times,

Ryan Albritton, Koscielniak’s festival associate, said. The idea behind the festival is for attendees to ride the MetroLink trains between two different spots where a train ticket is the only admission they need to the music venues; a variety of bands will be playing throughout the day—one at Tom’s Bar and Grill (20 S. Euclid Ave.) located close to the Central West End MetroLink stop, and one at Union Station. “[Koscielniak] actually came up with the idea. We basically just have one train line, and there’s a lot of cool places right next to these stops … People here don’t traditionally ride and experience these locations and experience these cool places,” Albritton said. The festival is scheduled to begin

at 10 a.m. with bands playing at both venues throughout the day. “The way we’re going to try to schedule it is to try to have people shuttled back and forth,” Albritton said. The last act will take the stage at 10 p.m. at the downtown venue, and Albritton is hoping that they will shuttle attendees to that location for the last two acts of the festival. Albritton has been coordinating the music for the festival, lining up bands and securing sound equipment for the day, and he found the search for bands easier than he had first imagined. “Well, I have a recording studio in

“Life is wasted on people,” groans Ben Stiller (Tropic Thunder, Zoolander), as the titular character in Greenberg. From the mind of Academy Award-nominated writer/director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding) comes the story of a man (Stiller) who returns home to Los Angeles. Greenberg, jobless and at a crossroads in his life, comes home to house-sit for his brother. The dramatic genre is not Stiller’s usual forte. However, after seeing the actor on stage, Baumbach believed he had found the ideal man for the job. “I always wanted somebody

that had a sense of humor to play this part,” Baumbach said. “There is a lot of humor in it. The more authentically it was portrayed, the funnier it would be … I never saw it as so much a different role [for Stiller], but he is the best person to play this.” Throughout the movie, the title character searches for a way to restart his life and confronts many faces from his past. Rhys Ifans (Pirate Radio) portrays his former band mate who is significant-ly more adjusted to modern times, and Greta Gerwig (Nights and Weekends) plays the aspiring singer that catch-es Greenberg’s attention. Before his arrival in Los Angeles, Greenberg has put all of his energy into writing letters to corporations, enter-

prises and small businesses to share his feelings toward their work. “There is something totally futile [about] spitting things out into the ether,” Baumbach said about the character’s actions. To retain authenticity in the plot, the movie was filmed in Los Angeles at the locations named in the script within a period of about seven weeks. As Stiller said, the success of the production was greatly influenced by the director. “I feel working with [Baumbach] is a very spe-cial experience because he approaches movies in a special way,” Stiller said. “Everyone working on the movie was

Arts14 The University News Thursday, March 18, 2010

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Estelle Parsons, Angelica Torn, Amy Warren and Shannon Cochran star as the women of the Weston clan in the touring production of Tracy Lett’s drama August Osage County.

(c) Robert J. Saferstein

‘August Osage’ brings audiences to one hell of a family reunion

Arts Editor

WiLL HoLstoN

Alice: Film trips down the rabbit holeContinued from Page 13

City Sound: Bands sing for a causeContinued from Page 13

Newcomer Mia Wasikowska stars as the titular Alice in Tim Burton’s new 3-D fantasy adventure film, Alice in Wonderland.

Walt Disney Pictures

Greenberg: Baumbach film arrivesContinued from Page 13

Estelle Parsons stars as a pill-popping matriarch in the play. Joan Marcus

When opening a review of the national tour of August Osage County, one is tempted

to use one of many m e m o r a -ble quotes from the show. The best of them might not necessarily be appro-priate to print, how-

ever. August Osage County, the Tony-and Pulitzer Prize-winning deeply dark comedy that originated at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago before transferring to Broadway in 2007, made a stop at The Fabulous Fox Theatre as a part of its current national tour from March 2-14. The more than three-hour play tells the story of the Weston clan, a rag-tag Oklahoma fam-ily brought together by the disappearance of its patriarch. As the characters gather under one roof, secrets are revealed and emotions slowly bubble to the surface before exploding into a chorus of primal anger and despair. Oh … and it’s also hilari-ous. It might sound impossible, but playwright Tracy Letts—whose previous work includes the sublimely weird Bug—is a master with language, craft-ing one of the more impres-sively entertaining plays to come out in the last decade. In the pivotal role of the family matriarch, Violet Weston, Academy Award-winning actress Estelle Parsons—who also played the part on Broadway as one of the replacements for original star Deanna Dunagan—brings a batty, at times deranged, qual-ity to the role. This is an oper-atic, challenging play, and a role like Violet takes a skilled, experienced actress willing to surrender completely to it. Thankfully, Parsons is—as

expected—more than up to the challenge. The heaviest lifting, howev-er, is left to Shannon Cochran in the role of Barbara, the eldest daughter who returns home with estranged hus-band and hormonal daughter in tow. Her character is the constant presence through-out the play, and her personal narrative as the play progress-es is the most real and emo-tionally affecting. Cochran is worn down, willing to appear unglamorous and tired, and her performance is all the better for it. Angelica Torn and Amy Warren play the other two sisters, Ivy and Karen, respec-tively. Torn, as Ivy, is meek and even more beaten-down than Cochran. In order for the audience to buy certain actions on the character’s part later on in the play, any actress in the part must be willing to appear a little bit pathetic, and Torn surrenders herself to it. Karen, meanwhile, is the more broadly comedic character, daffy and clueless, and Warren carefully avoids

making it more cartoonish than necessary, setting her character up for a dramatic reaction near the end of the play that suggests her oblivi-ousness might be a defense mechanism. Overall, this production of August Osage County is an entertaining, absorbing the-atrical experience. The entire ensemble works together admirably, and—despite its long runtime—the play moves quickly. Personally, I could have seen more. Though it has moved on from The Fox, anyone who missed it should keep their eyes and ears open. This is a play to be experi-enced for oneself. The Fox is located at 527 N. Grand Blvd. For more information about The Fox’s upcoming schedule of shows and con-certs, visit www.fabulousfox.com. Visit www.augustonbroad-way.com for more informa-tion about the show and its national tour. A film adapta-tion is in the works.

nonsensical. Characters come and go, and Alice is taken through the motions until she inevita-bly saves the day, and, in the process, rediscovers herself. Surprisingly, the visuals are not as over-the-top and gothic as one would expect from Burton—he seems rath-er toned down throughout the film. This may be due to Disney’s involvement or the PG-rating, but the sets, costumes and visuals seem restrained, a real disappoint-ment considering the film’s 3-D upgrade. Frequent col-laborator Danny Elfman deliv-ers an appropriate, and some-what catchy, score; but it isn’t enough to make up for the film’s other technical deficien-cies. Of course, Burton uses his two favorite actors in the film: his wife Carter and friend Depp. His co-conspirators deliver polarizing perfor-mances: Carter is an absolute delight as the Red Queen; she is funny, bossy and ridicu-lous (digitally enlarged head included), and easily steals every scene she’s in. Depp, conversely, seems to be going through the motions with his obviously overwrit-ten Hatter. He is not wacky or funny, just there. This is capped off by a ridiculous

break dance sequence called the Futterwacken that he per-forms near the film’s finale. Otherwise, most of the acting is serviceable, though Crispin Glover’s (Back to the Future) Stayne—Knave of Hearts who is pseudo-devoted to the Red Queen is another overused and annoying char-acter. Aside from Carter, the best performances come in the form of voice work. Stephen Fry’s (V for Vendetta) Cheshire Cat is perfect, and the smiling feline is one of the few delights of the film; Alan Rickman (Harry Potter films)

is also wonderfully cast as the voice of the hookah-smoking, advice-dispensing Absolem, the Blue Caterpillar. When it’s all said and done, a few decent perfor-mances and 3-D visuals are not enough to make Alice in Wonderland worth going through the looking glass. The film is boring, overlong and not worth the premium 3-D ticket prices (though the film has already been wildly successful). Had Burton been on his game, it could have been a different story instead of the uninspired mess that it is.

the city, so I know quite a bit of musicians,” he said. “Besides that, it was pretty awesome. I filled the band list in three or four days after I sent out the invite. I got tons and tons of contacts from bands that really want to be involved. They’re all doing it for free, because they’re all excited for this.” He believes that the unique-ness of the festival and the underlying message behind it have played a part in interest-ing musicians. “It’s a cool music festival,” Albritton said. “As far as we are aware, something like this has never been done before. They actually wanted to par-ticipate in that and were happy for the invitation … We’re get-ting a great response from bands. We’re having a great response from organizations wanting to sponsor us.” Albritton has been work-ing with Koscielniak on plan-ning the event since it was first conceived as an event to take place in the fall, a date they moved back in response to local politics. “We moved this back because of Proposition A that’s on the ballot for April 6 … We’re obviously in sup-

port if it. The festival itself is officially neutral about it,” he said. Proposition A would increase the sales tax in St. Louis County by half a cent that would go toward sponsor-ing public transportation in the city, funding that has been on the decline for a number of years. “St. Louis used to be a huge transit city with the largest streetcar system in the coun-try at one point,” Albritton said. “The public grew dense and moved out to the sub-urbs, making public transpor-tation less practical … But people still clearly need it … It’s obviously very important for us to have it … I think St. Louis is finally starting to realize that we are a real city and we need to start acting like it … If we want to attract people here, we’re going to need things like that.” On MetroLink’s part, Albritton said that they’re just grateful for the support. “They are aware of it, but they’re not officially involved,” he said. “They’re pretty amazed that we’re doing it, especially right now. They get so much negative feedback from the community for some reason … They’re just real-ly happy that we’re helping them out.”

Though Albritton and Koscielniak are in the pro-cess of starting their own non-profit organization, Tracking Progress, What’s Up Magazine is presenting the festival, as they haven’t officially launched their own. “[Koscielniak] and I both work for them,” he said. “We’re basically planning the event through them because we’re working on getting our non-profit started, but it isn’t official yet.” For his part, Albritton is excited about the festival and hopes that it will attract an audience, specifically a college-aged audience, who realize the need for a strong public transportation system. “We want as many people to come out to this as pos-sible, especially young peo-ple,” he said. “They’re a great resource … If this one goes well, we’re probably going to try to do it biannually.” More information about the festival, including a list of performers scheduled to play, can be found at www.trackingprogress.org, the official website of Albritton and Koscielniak‘s fledgling non-profit. More information about What’s Up Magazine can be found at its official website www.whatsupstl.com.

really dedicated because they respected the script and [Baumbach]. Everybody was there because they wanted to be there.” An additional feature of the production is the origi-nal soundtrack written and performed by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. The album also includes tracks from Duran Duran, Nite Jewel and Galaxie 500. Although many original

scores are composed to fol-low the mood of the scene, this was not Murphy’s aim. “[I] didn’t try to make a soundtrack that always accented the emotions … The goal for me was to make music that worked, that we liked, that seemed true to the characters and the movie, and that made [Baumbach] happy,” Murphy said. Baumbach worked closely with the composer through-out the production and creat-ed additional scenes in order to incorporate the music he

liked. The final product is not exactly what was first con-ceived. Baumbach, however, is appreciative of the additions Stiller made. “I think the character of Greenberg was a 50/50 col-laboration between me and [Stiller]. He so inhabited the part and transformed the char-acter that I feel only part own-ership for him,” Baumbach said. The film will be released in select theaters on March 26.

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