No. 27 May 5

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Bookstore beginsrenting policy

By ANDREA ROYALSManaging Editor

While planning for the up-coming semester, sophomore Joe Denk said he goes online when purchasing his books for his biology major and core classes. Denk said the price tag of these academic texts, even with online deals, of-ten costs him approximately $1,000 per semester- a pricey purchase for any college stu-dent.

Saint Louis University is attempting to relieve some of the finan-cial burdens s t u d e n t s face when purchasing textbooks. Beginning in the fall se-mester, the University books tor e will begin at textbook rental op-tion as part of the an-nual Cash for Books program. According to the University bookstore, the rental option aims to offer students more flexibility when finding books for their courses.

“It irritates me that I have to buy these books that you maybe use only once,” Denk said. “The book renting sys-tem will be great for students, and it is nice to have more op-tions when searching for my books.”

Last fall, Barnes & Noble, the owner of the University Bookstore, offered a trial run at the rental program to more than 300 universities across the country and found that nearly 90 percent of students were satisfied with the option to rent their textbooks.

“This is a very great pro-gram because it gives stu-dents options when searching for books on campus,” Text-book Manager for the Univer-

sity Bookstore Tricia Polley said. “Saving students money is always our goal.”

Polley said that the option of renting books can save stu-dents more than 50 percent of the cost of a newly printed textbook.

Freshman Terra Kreiner, who generally spends $400 on her textbooks each semester, said she usually goes online to sites like Chegg.com to purchase them because she feels the texts at the Univer-sity bookstore are overpriced. However, Kreiner said she

may try the new op-tion to rent them.

“If the bookstore offers rent-al books at a decent price, I will d e f i n i t e l y go there because its much less h a s s l e , ” K r e i n e r

said. “I think that could be a good idea as long as they keep the prices reasonable.”

The rental period begins the day the textbook is or-dered and continues until the last day of the finals each se-mester.

Students are encouraged to sell their used textbooks back to the University book-store so that more lower-priced texts can be sold the following semester. Used books are 25 percent cheaper than new texts. When return-ing used textbooks, students must present a valid SLU ID card and Banner number. Re-gardless of where they were purchased, the University bookstore will accept used texts. Students can visit slu.bncollege.com or mybookval-ue.com to see if their texts are being used in courses at the University for the next semes-ter.

The book renting sys-tem will be great for students, and it is nice to have more options when searching for my books.

“”-Joe Denk

Stress levels related to attitude

By KRISTEN MIANONews Editor

Writer and vegetarian convert Jonathan Safran Foer addressed the Saint Louis University Community during the last event hosted by the Great Issues Com-mittee of the academic year. Held in the Wool Ballrooms in the Busch Student Center, Foer presented a lecture entitled “What We Are and What We Eat,” based on his non-fiction memoir “Eating Animals.” Foer’s presentation discussed the ethical decisions surrounding the consumption of animals.

Curtis Wang / Photographer

GIC speech: More food for thought

Breaking the habit

By JONATHAN ERNSTEditor-in-Chief

Most area schools tighten smoking rules

As a senior at Saint Louis University, Andrew Gelstein often finds himself feeling stressed and anxious after his classes. Gelstein lights up more than 15 cigarettes a day while on campus to get a sense of relief.

“It is something I started freshman year, and at first I did it socially. Then I did it be-cause it gave me something to do, and now I smoke so that I am not stressed after class,” Gelstein said. “I wish I could quit, but no one wants to quit by themselves, and it is so easy to go outside and light up on campus.”

More than 500 colleges across the nation have com-mitted to making smoking on campus more difficult for students like Gelstein by ban-ning the activity completely. Washington University in St. Louis is smoke free, the Uni-versity of Missouri-Columbia has recently committed to going entirely smoke free by 2014 and other universities in the area are currently revis-ing their smoking policies.

“It has been a long evolu-tion. We have worked to make the campus a healthier envi-ronment, and studies have shown that a healthy work environment can lead to a

healthier work force,” Associ-ate Director of the MU News Bureau Christian Basi said.

Currently, SLU and Web-ster University are the only universities in St. Louis that have not begun a revision of their current smoking poli-cies. SLU’s current policy prohibits smoking within all non-residential, University-owned and -leased buildings, on the Medical Center and on sidewalks within 20 feet of building entrances.

“The conversations that we have had in the past to change our policy have been primar-ily based on student interest from year to year,” Vice Presi-dent for Facilities Manage-ment and Civic Affairs Kath-leen Brady said. “I don’t know how effective a ban would be for SLU because it would be difficult to enforce.”

The SLU Medical Center is currently smoke free, and Brady said that enforcement of that policy is proving to be difficult, as cigarette butts are often found outside by the buildings.

“No student wants to walk behind someone smoking; the good thing is that I don’t see many students smoking on campus,” junior Matt Spec-tor said. “There aren’t many ash trays on campus, and so students litter their cigarettes all over.”

The student interest to make the entire campus smoke free resides largely in Smoke Free SLU, a student group created in 2007. The goal of the group is to “make the campus healthier by elim-inating or greatly reducing secondhand smoke exposure through a comprehensive smoke-free campus policy.”

President of Smoke Free SLU, Jean Puccinelli, said that more information needs to be gathered from the SLU com-munity regarding smoking.

“The current enforcement

Shah (Yuqing Xia) / Associate Photo Editor

Freshman Olivia Hunter walks, talks and smokes during a break between classes.

plan at SLU doesn’t work, and it has been a constant strug-gle to get SLU to go smoke free, but it has to keep going,” Puccinelli said.

Smoke Free SLU currently has 10 members, all of which are graduating, and is looking to increase their recruitment efforts for next year. Puc-cinelli said that she is looking for someone to lead the group next year. The group did not file for any funding from the

See “Smoking” on Page 3

Members of the Saint Lou-is University Health Sciences campus have been awaiting the completion of a new out-door recreation complex and education union at the Medi-cal Center since last year. This summer, their anticipa-tion will come to an end.

“We are very excited about the growth down here,” Vice President of the Health Sci-ences campus and Dean of the School of Medicine Philip Alderson said when the proj-ect began.

The growth, which in-cludes a 30,000-square-foot Education Union and NCAA regulated stadium, is expect-ed to be completed in June, University President Law-rence Biondi, S.J., said in his April message.

“Right now, I have all but

Students encouraged to talk about anxiety

With finals a week away, students all over Saint Louis University’s campus are say-ing the same thing.

“I’m feeling stressed,” sophomore Mary Anderson said. “I haven’t really started studying.”

Michael Ross, a professor of Clinical Psychology at SLU, said stress about big events like finals is normal. The stress, however, stems not from the event itself, but from the appraisal of the event.

“The first component of a stressor is that it’s usually some change or something that’s taxing us in some way,

The University NewsA Student Voice of Saint Louis University Since 1921

Thursday, May 5, 2011unewsonline.comVol. XC No. 27

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South campus construction moving forward

Kati Cundari / Associate Photo Editor

From left: Freshmen Maggie Speck-Kern, Eleanor Humphrey and Luke Ducey study for their finals.

and the second piece is how well we think we can cope with that,” Ross said, “so it is our appraisal of the stressor and our appraisal of how we can manage it.”

Ross said that often with the same event, people either accept the stress as an op-portunity or allow it to make them miserable. Those who measure the stress as an ap-proachable challenge often fair better than those who let the gravity of the situation consume them.

“With stress, there are physiological changes that oc-cur and emotional changes. People are more nervous, and we may shake, we may have shortness of breath, and then you have the cognitive com-ponents, which is that worry,” Ross said. “We worry about it, and think about it, and it goes over and over, which is not particularly productive unless we are coming up with plans to do something about it.”

While experiencing high levels of stress, according to Ross, resistance to the stres-sor actually goes up initially. Over time, however, this re-sistance weakens the immune system, making the stressed individual more susceptible to illness. This is why stu-dents commonly get sick af-ter finals—their defenses are worn out.

Meredith Obsorn, a coun-selor in Student Health and Counseling Services, said that the biggest side effect of stress she sees in students is a heightened level of anxiety, which can lead to panic at-tacks and increase drug and alcohol use.

“We did the Missouri Col-lege Health and Behavior Sur-vey, and we had 85.3 percent of students report that stress interferes with their personal

life. That’s a high percentage,” Obsorn said. “We also had 69.7 percent report academ-ics were the biggest source of stress. Time management was 47.2 percent, and finan-cial concerns and social rela-tionships were both stressors as well.”

If a student comes to Coun-seling services to deal with stress issues, the counselors will set up a one-on-one meet-ing to really get to the heart of the matter and discuss tactics for dealing with the stress.

“Stress just doesn’t go away, so we talk about ways to manage it,” Obsorn said. “SLU students report reach-ing out to friends and peers when they are stressed but also to spiritual advisors and academic advisors.”

Students also cited using time management skills, smil-ing and laughing, taking naps, deep breathing, shopping and crying as ways they cope.

Ross also strongly advocat-ed exercise as excellent way to cope.

“There have been several studies that shows exercise has tremendous effects on stress,” Ross said. “Just take a walk, wander around campus or get out and do something.”

Health and Counseling encourages students to seek help if the stress becomes overwhelming or if it drives them to use extreme coping measures, such as drinking heavily, drug abuse or disor-dered eating. When stress starts interfering with life or relationships, talking to some-one is highly encouraged.

Students will continue to battle stress, but many are glad there is an end in sight.

“I’ll be glad when it’s over,” freshman Sarah Harrington said. “I’m looking forward to May 17th.”

By ANDREA ROYALSManaging Editor

one of my classes on the medical campus, so I am over there a lot,” Caitlin McCum-ber, a freshman in the School of Nursing, said. “Every time I see the progress that has been made on it, I get more and more excited.”

McCumber said next year all of her classes will be held on the Health Sciences cam-pus, and it will be nice to have a designated place to do homework.

The Education Union plans include study space, a student lounge, a 225-seat computer-ized lecture hall, a cafe and a state-of-the-art Patient Simula-tion Center. Students can use one of the eight patient simu-lation labs to practice skills with actors as ill patients. The Education Union will also be home to the Office of Inter-Professional Education, allow-ing students from the various colleges at the Medical Cen-

ter to combine resources and to collaborate.

“I think [the Education Union] will offer a great

See “Med Campus” on Page 3

Congratulations, seniors!

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Let Us Introduce YouPhilosophy professor contemplates time travel, lifts weights

Jonathan Jacobs

Noah Berman / Photo Editor

Be a Responsible BillikenSTOP. CALL. REPORT.

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Monday, April 25 3:29 p.m. - PROPERTY DAMAGE A student reported that she parked her vehicle on Laclede Avenue on Saturday evening. She returned to her vehicle on Monday and noticed the door handle had been tampered with. She also noticed the glove box was open and papers scattered about the vehicle. Nothing was missing.

Thursday, April 28 4:17 a.m. - TRESSPASSINGA subject found sleeping on a couch in the commuter lounge in the Busch Student Center was warned, refer-encing trespassing and released af-ter a REJIS computer check revealed no active wants or warrants.

9:05 p.m. - ROBBERY 1ST A student reported he had been a victim of a robbery at gun point as he was walking on the West Pine Mall side of Ritter Hall. The officer put out a description of the suspect and a search was made to no avail.

Sunday, May 1 5:03 p.m. - BURGLARYA student reported that on Tues-day, April 26, 2011, a little before 6:00 p.m. he went to his class and when he returned around 9:00, his headphones and his computer were missing. He said, “The items were in his room when he left for class, but he left his room unlocked.”

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Jonathan Jacobs under-stands the importance of the endurance of both mind and body. As a philosophy profes-sor specializing in the area of metaphysics, Jacobs tosses his mind into the obstacle course of abstract thought on a daily basis. When he is not contemplating the nature of being, however, Jacobs works on his own form.

“I started weight lifting about three years ago, after I had kids,” Jacobs said.

He believes he has found the perfect combination of weight training moves: a med-ley of 310-pound squats below parallel, 360-pound dead lifts, overhead press, bench press, pull-ups and power cleans.

“I lift so I can be strong, which is a fairly useful thing to be in life – lifting heavy things, throwing my kids in the air or avoiding getting injured,” Ja-cobs said. “It’s not much, but I’m happy if I’m stronger each week than I was before.”

Jacobs said he spends as much time with his family as he can. A father of four, he spends a lot of his time play-ing the role of parent, taking his kids to soccer and dance recitals. In the office, how-ever, he is a philosopher with some very unique ways of ap-proaching the subject.

“No, I don’t think time travel is possible,” Jacobs said, “but if I were to think it was possible, it would not be like the time travel in movies. So in ‘Back to the Future,’ he goes back, and he changes things and messes stuff up so he might not exist anymore. That doesn’t make philosoph-ical sense. If he messes things up so he doesn’t exist, then he wasn’t there in the first place to mess things up.”

Jacobs teaches a meta-physics course related to the philosophy of science fiction. While the discussions in class have little real backing, Jacobs encourages his students to construct valid arguments as if they were really possible.

“There are some ways to think about time travel that make more sense than others.

It depends on abstract argu-ments and thinking about the nature of time,” Jacobs said. “It’s the same thing with tele-porting. So like with ‘Beam me up, Scottie,’ and the body disappears and reappears somewhere else. Why isn’t that killing you and just recre-ating someone a lot like you? It depends on your theory of personal identity and what it takes to persist over time.”

He is also working on a course that addresses the philosophy of sports, asking questions like what makes a team a team.

Jacobs became interested in philosophy when he be-gan contemplating important theological questions.

“I thought about the nature of God and the nature of hu-man persons,” Jacobs said. “I was interested in the nature of God, like how can there be three divine persons but

one god. How is it that Jesus is both human and god? And that leads you to think about very abstract metaphysical thoughts, like what is the na-ture of being?”

As part of a grant he re-ceived, Jacobs just finished a conference on the subject of causal power. He stated he was pleased with the turn out, as there were close to 80 peo-ple at every event, some from as far away as Australia.

Jacobs’ passion for the sub-ject really shows through his own philosophy about what makes philosophy a subject everyone can enjoy.

“Philosophy is just an un-usually sustained effort to think critically,” Jacobs said. “What’s unique about philoso-phers is that we do it in a sus-tained manner and in a much more in-depth way. But every-body thinks deeply sometime or other.”

SGA concludes with ‘Best of’ awardsBy KRISTEN MIANO

News Editor

The Student Government Association concluded the year with their final meeting of the 2010-2011 academic year on Wednesday, May 4.

During the meeting, they began with business as usual with an old bill from last week, moved on to charter new stu-dent organizations and then presented end-of-the-year awards, both externally and internally.

The bill to amend the asso-ciation’s bylaws regarding the Vice President of Diversity and Social Justice position finally came to a vote. Last week, the bill was amended so that the position’s name would stay the same. With this change, the bill passed in senate.

The next three bills were to give awards to various in-dividuals. Only two of the recipients were present to

receive the awards, but the senate voted to give awards to Mark J. Zinn, the president of the Community Emergency Response Team, and Ted Kre-mer, the president of Alpha Phi Omega. The awards bills wrapped up with the award-ing of the President’s Award to Vice President of Diver-sity and Social Justice, Oscar Vazquez.

“Oscar brings to SGA a little bit of knowledge on everything on campus, and that’s probably what makes him good at his job,” SGA President Courtney Anvender said. “He won’t be the loudest advocate, but he will always be the advocate for you in the room.”

Normal senate activities concluded with the allocation of $3,358 in spot funding to the men’s and women’s Ultimate Frisbee teams, who qualified for their regional tournament, and the chartering of two new student organizations, the Civil Engineers Club and the

Public Health Undergradu-ate Association, both of which recieved full support for char-tering.

Once the last bill passed, SGA wrapped up the year by announcing the superlatives they had given members of their organization and the “Best of” awards. Best Fresh-man Senator went to First Year Senator Parry Draper; Best Sophomore Senator was Doisy College senator Kripa Sreepada; Best Junior Sena-tor was Krishi Peddada; Best Senior Senator was Black Stu-dent Alliance senator David Rollins; Best Graduate Sena-tor went to Antonio Garcia; and Best Committee Head was Piera Blandon.

Best Overall Senator was given to First Year Senator Joe Woster.

The meeting ended with personal comments from An-vender to each member of the association and the final ses-sion of Pass the Gavel of the year.


News 3

Congratulations Class of 2011!

Join us for your first event as young alumni of Saint Louis University!

Young Alumni Wine Tasting Wednesday, May 25

The Vino Gallery in the Central West End 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Register online: alumni.slu.edu/yawinetasting11

The first 2011 graduate to follow us on Twitter (SLUyoungalumni) will win 2 free tickets to the Wine Tasting!

Smoking: Trend in bans increase on campuses

Continued from Page 1

Student Government Associa-tion during the annual fund-ing process because of this transition in leadership.

“We need to get more stu-dents involved and thinking about the issue that is smok-ing on this campus,” Puccinel-li said.

In the past, Smoke Free SLU has s p o k e n to admin-i s t r a t o r s , SGA and University P r e s i d e n t L a w r e n c e Biondi, S.J., about sur-veys that they collect-ed from stu-dents. Ac-cording to Puccinelli, the surveys have shown that majority of the students and faculty were in favor of a smoke-free cam-pus.

However, the administra-tion wanted the group to con-duct another survey and to gather more information on other colleges’ smoking poli-cies.

Jared Opsal, a gradu-ate research assistant with the TrendsSchool of Public Health, works with colleges around St. Louis to help with revising and improving their smoking policies.

“I think SLU has a lot to learn from these trends around the nation; breathing in that secondhand smoke on

Junior Kayla Dougherty works on a community art piece as a part of Una’s event Take Back the Night on April 28. The event was held in an effort to raise awareness about sexual violence and included live perfor-mances, free food, presentations by several anti-violence groups and a candle-light vigil.

Kelly Hinderberger / Photographer

Take Back the Night speaks out against violence

Student organization promotes Halal food

By WOLF HOWARDStaff Writer

Group’s mission to educate and inform people about options

When schools talk about diversity, food variety is not commonly associated with the discussion. Food, howev-er, plays a large role in many cultures, and it is something the new organization, STL-Halal, hopes to bring into the spotlight.STLHalal is a not-for-profit organization founded by two Saint Louis University students, Haariss Ilyas and Ri-yad Haq.

One mission of STLHalal is to educate Islamic people on the requirements of Ha-lal. Their second mission is to certify restaurants have properly prepared meat and to help them to meet Halal criteria. Halal is meat that is permissible to eat under Islamic law. Meat is desig-nated as Halal if it follows the method of slaughter set forth according to Islamic law. Ac-cording to Ilyas, there is no government regulation of res-

taurants that claim to serve Halal, so there is no way for patrons to be sure they are eating legitimate Halal. STL-Halal will go to restaurants in the St. Louis area and inspect their preparation procedures. If they pass the inspection, a stamp of approval is given to the establishment to demon-strate that they are practic-ing Dhabiha, the designated method of slaughter accord-ing to Islamic Law.

If an organization does not pass, STLHalal will help them refine their methods so they can properly prepare Halal meat. STLHalal’s website has a map of certified restaurants and vendors, along with a lay-out on Google Maps showing the location of each restaurant and vendor.

Washington University in St. Louis adopted a Halal line in early April, utilizing STLHalal as a consultant on the proper preparations and methods they would need to serve legitimately Halal meat in their cafeteria.

“We wanted to make sure there were choices available to all students,” Nadeem Sid-diqui, the resident district manager of WashU’s dining services, said.

According to Siddiqui, the transition was not difficult at all. A line of normal protein was simply swapped out for a line of Halal protein. Further-more, it did not detract from non-Islamic students’ eating habits either.

“For regular students, chicken is chicken; it just hap-pens to be Halal,” Siddiqui said.

However, according to WashU’s estimates, the num-ber of students that will be using the service is small – roughly 50 to 75 students.

“The bigger issue was an opportunity to be diverse and offer choices that are usually not offered on campus,” Sid-diqui said. “It opens up better cooperation between student groups on campus.”

As a student that is famil-iar with restrictions on eating

choices due to his religious obligations, Ilyas realizes how greatly SLU’s campus would benefit from a Halal line. Muslims have struggled to find good dining options on campus.

“I’m eating the egg salad sandwich [at Grand Market] or the black bean burger [at Au Bon Pain],” Ilyas said, finding the options for Mus-lim students severely limited.

His estimates put the num-ber of students that would utilize a Halal line at SLU at more than 200.

An attempt to establish a Halal line last academic year failed because of miscommu-nication between Ilyas and Chartwells. Chartwells Rep-resentative Paul Taylor said that Chartwells is “more than happy to talk to any students about options they want to see.”

Ilyas and his associates plan to meet with Taylor after finals to talk about creating a Halal service somewhere on campus.

campus does have an effect on us,” Opsal said.

According to the U.S. De-partment of Health and Hu-man Services, secondhand smoke contains chemicals known to be toxic or cancer-causing, and the concentra-tion of these chemicals are higher in secondhand smoke than in smoke inhaled by smokers.

SLU professor in the School of Public H e a l t h , P a t r i c i a L i n d s e y , who works c l o s e l y with Smoke Free SLU, said that smoke-free c a m p u s e s are becom-ing trends around the nation for a reason.

“ T h i s is a health issue, and I know what smoking can do for your health. One of my biggest pas-sions is to get people to stop smoking,” Lindsey said. “The goal is to make it difficult for them to smoke, and if we ban it on campus, this will make it easier for them to eventually stop smoking.”

Lindsey said she believes that all college campuses in St. Louis will be smoke free by 2012, and SLU may be the last to switch policies.

“The way it is looking now, SLU will be the last university in the city to go smoke free. It will be difficult to find a policy that works for SLU,” Lindsey said.

The way it is looking now, SLU will be the last university in the city to go smoke free.

“”

-Patricia Lindsey

Med Campus: Complex to include field and track


place to study, hang out with friends, grab lunch or just to wait in between classes,” Cait-lin Spiller, a freshman in the Doisy College of Health Sci-ences, said.

The outdoor recreation complex, expected to be completed around the same time as the Education Union, includes a NCAA regulated soccer field and an eight-lane track. The bleachers in the stadium are projected to hold approximately 600 spectators.

“There are a lot of universi-ties and colleges cutting track and field programs,” Track and Field Coach Jon Bell said. “We are one of the first in the past decade to not only add a track and field team but also to add a facility.”

As of now, the track and field athletes practice at Car-dinal Ritter High School, lo-cated just north of campus. Bell said that while Cardinal Ritter is close to campus, it has been challenging to meet

both the high school’s needs and the University’s needs when sharing a space.

“It will be nice to have our own home,” Bell said, ex-plaining the benefits of the recreation complex. Not only will students be able to play in front of their friends and family, Bell said, but the Uni-versity will also save money when hosting home meets, as travel and other accommoda-tions will not need to be met as often.

Bell said that he expects the University to be hosting home meets within two years. He is currently submitting bids to the University to fund the necessary equipment for home meets, and the Athletic Department may be able to af-ford the equipment within the next year. Equipment could cost up to $150,000 depending on the company vending the products to the University.

Even with the proper equip-ment, Bell said he doubts that the University will be ready to host home meets next year without recruiting officials and volunteers to work at the meets, a process he said could take up to two years. While Bell said he would like to see many of the officials and vol-unteers come from the imme-diate University family, he is also reaching out to track and field fans from the St. Louis community. Officials must be trained and certified by USA Track and Field, while vol-unteers can freely participate in tasks like posting scores, placing starting blocks on the track and counting laps in races.

Bell said his favorite aspect of the outdoor complex is its view of the St. Louis skyline and the Arch, and he said he will be excited to see it during the first home meet.

“The facility legitimizes ev-erything we are doing within the Athletic Department,” Bell said. “We are thankful of Fr. Biondi and his senior staff for committing to doing this project. We are going to make sure we get our use out of it.”

The recreation complex will be open to all members of the University community, including those on the Frost campus.

However, there is concern that the recreation complex and the Education Union at the Medical Center will fur-ther the separation between the Health Sciences campus and the Frost campus.

“I am very much an advo-cate of the University as one large campus. I would like to have students from the north campus feeling welcome to this side of campus,” Alderson said. “We believe students will get a lot out of having a facility where they can relax and get that sense of community.”

unewsonline.comThursday, May 5, 2011Opinion Talk to us:

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What kind of air do you breathe? – More than 500 colleges and universities around the nation have given serious thought to this question, adopting a smoke-free policy for their campuses.

Washington University in St. Louis is already smoke free, and the University of Missouri-Columbia estimates it will have a smoke-free campus by 2014, leaving Webster University and Saint Louis University behind in the race for a clean campus environment. Whether SLU joins the cause or adopts its own policy for a smoke-free campus in the future is up in the air, and the decision falls upon present and future students’ shoulders to either fall behind or catch up.

Smoke Free SLU, a student group, has been pushing for a healthier campus since it began in 2007, and they have left their mark on SLU’s campus. While Smoke Free SLU has not succeeded in making SLU’s campus smoke free, they are responsible for the policy that requires all students to smoke 20 feet away from any doorway.

However, because its 10 members are all currently seniors, ready to graduate, they have no one to whom to pass the torch, to whom to pass the responsibility of caring for a community that neither seems strongly opposed or strongly in favor of having a smoke-free campus.

As active members of SLU’s campus,

students must take on the responsibility to decide whether to follow the current trend or set its own smoke-free policy.

Is smoking prohibited 20 feet from a doorway enough for SLU students? It is not common, but neither is it rare to inhale a whiff of smoke crossing Grand, and as is well known, second-hand smoking is a serious hazard to those who are victims of it. Students who smoke exercise their right to do so every time they light a cigarette and walk through campus with it in hand. Students who do not smoke should also exercise their rights to a clean and healthy environment by voicing their opinion, whether void or valid.

Current policies should be adequately enforced and further research must be done on what SLU students want. Smoke Free SLU’s legacy should be carried on, either to implement current policies more effectively or to move forward with a whole new set of regulations. To be apathetic to issues that affect SLU students’ daily lives is to be numb to a community that continually needs feedback.

Students should take a stance, whether for or against a restructuring of the smoking policy, for the issue is currently revolutionizing colleges and universities across the country. The only position SLU students should not take is that of no position at all.

On Sunday, May 1, 2011, President Ba-rack Obama announced to the world that Osama bin Laden was dead. The man, who was the face of evil for our generation, will kill no more. While this is, rightfully, a proud time for our military and our nation, it is also a moment to reflect on how, after 10 years of sacrifice, our lives have changed.

None of us will forget where we were that September day; no event can erase the heart-break and compassion we felt for our coun-try. That day profoundly changed the way our generation would live and how we would view, not only world events, but each other.

Let us make this clear: This should not be a “hoo-rah” mo-ment for our na-tion. Though he lived a despicable life, bin Laden was still a human. When ex-plaining why his administration will not re-lease a picture of the dead body, Mr. Obama said, “This is somebody who was deserving of the justice that he received … We don’t need to spike the football.” This is the cor-rect precedent to set.

While we can celebrate in the closure of the 9/11 attacks, we must celebrate without being inflammatory. This is a symbolic step forward for our nation, no doubt, and one that may lead us to be more optimistic about our future. It is a chance for us, who have lived through multiple wars and a decline in

American prominence, to re-establish our dreams for the future.

Bin Laden stood for everything this coun-try does not: Suppression, oppression and reckless fear. His death is a reminder to us, the generation about to inherit the world, that we must stand united, that one should never fear to express their opinion, their re-ligion, their gender or their humanity. With bin Laden’s passing, we mark the demise of a symbol of hatred, a man who saw persecu-tion and dehumanization as the only means

to advance his ideol-ogy.

But the war is not over. Though the man may be dead, his ide-ology of ignorance and radicalism lives on. After 10 years and loss of much hu-man life, we must not relent. It is on our shoulders, those who watched in horror as

the towers fell, to ensure that the power of humanity is never persecuted.

Let us take time to reflect on this mo-mentous event in the history of our world. Though our jubilation should be tempered, we must give thanks to those who have made uncountable sacrifices.

May we mark this occasion to rejoice in their success and the legacy of those lost in the name of freedom, and may we honor those who continue to fight so our nation can stand united in the face of evil, one na-tion under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Smoke-free trend spreads nationally,nudging SLU students to make a choice

Bin Laden’s symbolic death gives nation closure

Finals...what?

Camp out in the library

Posted below are the results from our web poll on The University News’ website.

Students share how they will survive finals.

(31 votes total)

How will you survive finals ?

Quotesof the week

“No, I don’t think time travel is possible. But if I were to think it was possible, it would not be time travel like in the movies.

”- Jonathan Jacobs is a philosophy professor.

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Deactivate Facebook

This is a symbolic step forward for our nation, and one that maybe lead us to be more optimistic. “

”

The University News reserves the right not to publish any letters that are deemed intentionally and/or inappropriately inflammatory, more than the 300-word limit or unsigned by the original author. The following are letters and/or website comments. Because the identities of website posters cannot be verified, all website comments should be treated as anonymous. Actual letters to the editor may be submitted online at unewsonline.com or e-mailed to [email protected]. Please include your daytime telephone number.

Lettersto the editor

B*llikens for Choice’s actions were immature I was appalled by the actions of B*llikens for

Choice as they littered the campus with their Eas-ter eggs. This immature act did not fulfill any part of their mission. Seeing Easter eggs reminds me of my childhood, of the joy and hope that comes with Eas-ter. If I had been so unfortunate to open one of these eggs, I would have been disgusted.

Condoms do not promote the deepest meanings of sex. Sex is good and beautiful; the only act in which someone can fully give his or herself to an-other, physically and emotionally in an act and sign of love. Like all things truly good, sex is worth waiting for and should not be given frivolously.

Giving out condoms does not encourage conver-sations about sex. Instead it promotes the primal act. If B*llikens for Choice wanted to educate the student body and get them talking about sex, they should have started conversations with students. People are willing to talk about sex; in fact, they do.

There are even University sponsored events to promote such conversations. For example, Campus Ministry sponsored an “open conversation” about sex. Also S.H.A.P.E. has the annual Sex in the Dark panel at which students can ask anonymous ques-tions, answered by professionals. These programs are open to all viewpoints and facilitate healthy dis-cussion.

Overall, I think the Easter eggs were highly dis-respectful. SLU students should have the decency to be open with their viewpoints. This act was passive-aggressive and immature. Condoms in Easter eggs propagate that sex is “just for fun,” which is highly degrading to the human person, removing the emo-tional value.

In addition, a condom gives no information, is not fully effective against preventing pregnancy, is even less effective in preventing STIs and provides no pro-tection against emotional damage. So I ask B*llikens for Choice, how does surprising someone with a condom inside their Easter egg provide the ability to make good, informed choices and understand the consequences that will follow?

- Claire McKeone is a senior in the Doisy College of Health and Sciences.

“Had they seen the same play? Were they in the same theatre as I was?

”- Noah Berman is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences.

See Page 7.

“It irritates me that I have to buy these books that you may use only once. ”- Joe Denk is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences.

See Page 1.

“I wish I could quit, but no one wants to quit by themselves, and it is so easy to go outside and light up.

”- Andrew Gelstein is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences.

See Page 1.


Opinion 5

A cultural experience. To find a dif ferent aspect of

life. To get out of the Midwest “ S n o w p o c a -lypse.”

To cross “Go to Australia” off my bucket list.

These are all reasons that I decided to visit and study abroad in Australia this semester, but contrary to Australian belief, I did not travel here because of

Oprah.“Are you here with Oprah?” “Oh,

but you have met her before right?” “Then why are you here?”

These exact questions came out of multiple Australian mouths. As I travel to the various cities of Australia, soaking up all of the amaz-ing sights, more and more people tell me I am “such an American.”

F r o m the clothes I wear to my hor-r e n d o u s a c c e n t , b o t h American and faux A u s t r a l i a – which comes off B r i t i s h m o s t times – the A u s s i e s spot my nationality miles away.

On Oprah’s Ultimate Australian Adventure, Oprah and her lucky studio audience were flown to Australia to embark on the ultimate experience.

They visited all seven states and got to do what every visitor wishes they could do with their time in Australia. Granted, if I had Oprah’s budget I am sure I would be doing the exact same.

Unfortunately, my budget is nothing like hers, so I am attempt-ing to do the most with what I have.

My adventures up until this point have been a weekend at surf camp, scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, white water rafting in the Tully River and Mardi Gras weekend in Sydney.

All of which included lots of sightseeing, a boat cruise on Sydney Harbor at night, the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival and visits to Australia’s most famous beaches.

Beaches which were also home to “The Amazing Race’s” 18th sea-son premiere.

What lies ahead on my itinerary is a trip to New Zealand, where my fellow Billiken mates and I will be traveling the country in an RV.

We will be doing various activ-ities along the way, including a glowworm cave tour, a glacier walk and bungee jumping.

Shh…don’t tell my mom! After finals, I will return to Sydney to celebrate Easter with Emily Sieb, and then head to Western Australia with my aunt to visit friends in Perth.

But for me, coming to Australia was and is so much more than trips to the beach and adventures around the country.

It was to prove to myself and my family that I am capable of going out into the world on my own.

I was able to break away from my stereotypical, American college student way of life and actually

see first-hand what the world is like with my own two eyes.

It is an absolutely b e a u t i f u l place that my words cannot do justice.

Though I missed Oprah and her adven-tures while D o w n

Under by only a few weeks, the billboards were up for a month afterwards.

My flight attendant showed me the article on Oprah in my in-flight magazine as I arrived in the coun-try.

I am glad I was not here with her.

Do I wish she was paying for my trip? Yes.

But, I can only imagine the uproar people would have if they thought I was the American sepa-rated from my Oprah travel crew.

The way Australians have now based their travel bureau on Oprah’s visit is slightly sickening to those who want to travel here for their own personal reasons.

Luckily, I am able to say that I am here for myself, by myself, and cannot wait until I can start plan-ning my return trip back to the country that has stolen my heart.

Wilson Fulk is a sophomore in the School of Nursing.

It’s weird to think that Osama bin Laden no longer exists. He’s been this quasi-mythical figure

of looming evil t h r o u g h o u t almost half of my life, the “icon” of international ter-rorism. He was responsible for a great deal of death and mis-ery, both directly and otherwise, and he was a major player on the world stage. Not in the same

level that a head of state is, but he was the sort of person whose actions or inactions always sent those clichéd ripples throughout the international community.

Now, he’s dead. That’s positive-ly bizarre. What was even more bizarre was the level of celebration that erupted after the news broke – CNN kept showing people chant-ing and singing in front of The White House; Times Square was apparently party-city.

And I’d be willing to agree that maybe, what’s underneath the “USA! USA! USA!” talk is a sort of relief at having something the nation can all get together and be happy about. We live in contentious times.

Most of us struggled to under-stand 9/11 back when we were in elementary school, and so we assigned a status of “real-world-Sauron” to ObL. But that’s no excuse to celebrate the death of a fellow human being.

I’m a pacifist. I don’t believe in killing people. I reject the idea that it’s ever a necessity. There are rea-sons, people, reasons, that these kind of horrible things are allowed to happen. Hitler doesn’t become Hitler without the economic scup-pering of Germany; terrorists don’t become terrorists if they’re not locked into desperate poverty; peo-ple don’t break into your dorm and steal your XBox because trickle-down economics is just working so well.

That’s a simplification, but it all comes down to the things people

will do when they’re in terrible situ-ations. I can’t claim to be an expert, but if (a) the news and (b) fic-tion have taught me anything, the downtrodden are the most likely to do horrible things.

Not because they themselves are horrible, but because when you see no way out, Mr. bin Laden and his promise of money for your family seems like an awfully good idea. It should be noted that bin Laden was not at all poor—he was extremely wealthy and used his riches to take advantage of others. Power is just as dangerous as poverty.

I don’t feel joy over bin Laden’s death. I recognize it as a historical-ly and perhaps politically important event, but I refuse to join in with the people shouting “USA! USA! USA!” and running down Laclede.

There’s a passage from George Orwell’s “1984” that deals with what’s going on here, and the fol-lowing is a quote from within that passage:

“In a lucid moment Winston found that he was shouting with the others and kicking his heel vio-lently against the rung of his chair. The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was

obliged to act a part, but, on the contrary, that it was impossible to avoid joining in.”

Impossible to avoid joining in. It feels “good,” doesn’t it, to cel-ebrate the death of a fallen foe? To know that someone responsible for so much misery is gone from the world? I think that’s a misun-derstanding of feeling good—we might feel a sense of relief, or of national pride, or of simple joyous blood-lust, but not good.

I wouldn’t imagine that the peo-ple who were shouting “USA! USA! USA!” feel the same way doing that as they do when they see a beauti-ful sunrise or listen to their favorite song. I know I didn’t when I heard the news. But it’s hard to avoid joining in; we want to feel united in triumph, in success, and that’s why the Two Minutes Hate is so dangerous.

It is dangerous because, like any display of misguided nationalism, it ignores the real issues involved. We’ve taken out Osama bin Laden, but we haven’t won the “war on terror.”

We’ve removed a terrorist, a major terrorist, but unlike with the demise of Sauron, the prover-

bial orcs have yet to disappear. Terrorists—the people who actually commit the horrific acts of bloody murder—do so usually because they’ve been given an incorrect set of ideas about the ways of the world.

They’re susceptible to these views most often because of their personal or familial situation, and that’s the issue we need to shoot in the face. They cheer in the streets after a terrorist strike because they’re wrong about good and evil, just as those of us who celebrated ObL’s death have similar miscon-ceptions.

I’ll run cheering through the streets when we use our resources, financial and otherwise, to work towards elevating the condition of our fellow human beings both at home and abroad.

Let’s embrace this sense of national unity and use it to push for peace, for an end to poverty, for better education; let’s prove that we’re really, as some guy shouted outside my apartment—“America the Great!”

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

Reconciliation, not retaliation, is the true American response

From the clothes I wear to my horrendous accent - the Aussies spot my nationality miles away.

“”

Oprah spotlight and America

stereotypes cloud Australian visit

On April 17, CBS’s 60 Minutes broke a story that shook the pub-lic’s trust in a literary story of

hope and its a w e - i n s p i r i n g hero. Greg M o r t e n s o n , social activist and author of “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time,” was revealed to have exaggerated and fabricated some

of the details and accounts within his best-selling memoir.

Within the novel, Mortenson recounts the warm welcome that he received from a Pakistani vil-lage after failing to finish his climb of the mountain K2 and becom-ing disoriented. After being nursed back to health by the people of the village, he vowed to return and build them a school as repayment, which he eventually did, according to the book. He also writes of get-ting kidnapped by the Taliban and subsequently building more than 100 schools like those he made in Pakistan after raising thousands of dollars for the cause. You can find the remarkable story in the non-fiction section of your local book-store. Or the almost-non-fiction section, if you can find that.

Jon Krakauer, an author who wrote the exposé about Mortenson, said that classifying the memoir as non-fiction would be a mistake. Krakauer claimed that many of the details of the memoir are not quite real, including Mortenson arriving in the Pakistani village and being kidnapped by the Taliban. He also revealed that a significant portion of the money that Mortenson raised in order to build more schools went directly to funding Mortenson’s speaking tour instead.

There really is nothing more to feel about the supposed hero and his story than disappointment. He still deserves respect for some of what he has done but, perhaps, not the same level of respect that he had previously received.

It is similar to the feeling of

believing in something with all you have because you think it is the best in the world when, in reality, it is just good. Not great or the best, just good. And the disappointment sets in.

To all the contributors who donated to Mortenson’s charity, Central Asia Institute: Your inten-tions were good. Even though the majority of that money went towards Mortenson’s book tours instead of building schools, and all revenue from the book tour went directly into Mortenson’s shock-ingly deep pockets, the thought is what counts, right?

Those contributors may be angry and upset that their donations have been misused but, at the root of it, is an utter, irrevocable disap-pointment that can only be traced back to the conceivably fame-hun-gry Mortenson. And disappoint-ment almost has the potential to be worse than anger as Mortenson is likely already realizing.

Those who directly funded the CAI are not the only ones feeling the backlash of the lies. “Three Cups of Tea,” which has been featured as a New York Times Bestseller, has a heavy readership, as well, the bulk of which has already echoed the disappointment of hearing that the book that inspired, motivated and spoke to many is based on false, yet admittedly creative details.

To play Devil’s Advocate, I do feel a little bit sorry for Mortenson. Granted, this “little bit” is insane-ly miniscule, but it does exist. Mortenson was scheduled for heart surgery the week that he was exposed for his lies. The man is obviously not in the greatest health, and, while this is not an excuse for the deception, the critic must be conscious of his circum-stances.

Also, Mortenson did do some good with the money he raised. It was not of the scale described but any good act is a worthwhile act, right?

We are not angry. Well, maybe a little angry, but mostly just disap-pointed. Sometimes, that disap-pointment can be worse.

Stephanie Mueller is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences.

‘Three Cups of Tea’ belongs in fiction

Let me tell you a story about my

friends, Jack and Diane. It’s just a little ditty, really, about these two

American kids growing up in the heartland. In his iconic song, John Cougar M e l l e n c a m p spends four and a half minutes sensationalizing my greatest fear: The inevitabil-ity of an aver-age existence. According to Mr. Mellencamp,

whether or not Jack and Diane know it, pretty soon they are going to realize that life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone.

I’ve always been the type of girl who leaps before she looks. Sometimes this doesn’t end well—like the time I jumped off a rope swing. But sometimes it does—like the time a few friends and I decid-ed on a Friday morning to go to Memphis for the night and wound up in New Orleans for the week-end.

Like prisoners on the run, we burst out of St. Louis at 95 miles an hour, armed with a full tank of gas and a few 80s-rock playlists. Four hours later, as we neared the Tennessee skyline, it dawned on us: We weren’t ready to stop driving.

And that’s how I wound up on Bourbon instead of Beale, chatting with a stranger, a 28-year-old college graduate who happened to be from St. Louis. This charming gentle-man, instead of trying to impress me with his muscles or his wit (it would have been so easy), decided to bestow some unwelcome advice: “Never graduate college. Once you do, life is over.”

Rather than pushing my new friend off the balcony, I stepped back to consider his words. Part of me thinks he might be right. Whether or not I like admitting it, soon I will be a full-fledged adult. I’ll wake up before the sun without complaining and put on a pot of coffee (maybe I’ll like it by then). I’ll putz around in rush-hour traffic. Spend 40 hours a week at work. Attend parent-teacher conferences. Pay taxes. Lather, rinse, repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

My life is a lot of things right now, but it’s not boring. So when the balcony boy finally got around to asking why I traveled to New Orleans, his reaction was similar to everyone else’s: “Wait…you spent three days driving just so you could spend one night here?”

Yes, I did. And I would do it again without thinking. Something tells me I’m not done wandering. It doesn’t scare me that I’m able to leave without notice or purpose. What does concern me is that once I start going, I never want to stop.

We arrived back in St. Louis on a Sunday night, a few souvenir glasses and an unwelcome slip of paper from the Mississippi Police Department as the only evidence of our trip. As we approached the Vandeventer exit, I accelerated a little bit. Why go home when California’s just over 1,000 miles away? Why not the West Coast? And why not now?

Letting go is an awkward process, and I’m pretty sure I’m not doing it right. Instead of making a graceful exit from Saint Louis University, I’m indulging in my every whim. Call me crazy, but I haven’t gotten arrested…yet.

As for Jack and Diane, I never did find out what happened to them. My guess is that they wound up get-ting married and eventually settled down. Jack always wanted to skip town, but Diane told him it wasn’t worth it: “Baby, you ain’t missing anything.”

Diane, something tells me that you need to get out more. Maybe all of you do. Before you get too comfortable, try something: Get in your car, hop on the highway and drive until you can’t see straight. Karaoke in a bar where no one knows your name. Fight and flirt with a stranger. Run into the ocean. Do something that reminds you that you’re not dead yet. And if you ever get down, turn on your radio. Sure they’re cheesy, but there’s something about an 80s-rock ballad that makes me think everything will work out just fine.

I think I was born to run. Pretty soon, it will be the end of the world as we know it, every day just anoth-er manic Monday. Still, I spend a lot of time wishing I could be forever young, living on a prayer and inside the beat of a one-hit-wonder. And even though I’ve had the time of my life free-falling out into nothing, I won’t stop believing. Someone tell Jack and Diane that they better do the same.

Last I heard, those two were still bumming around outside the Tastee Freez; Diane’s sitting on Jack’s lap, he’s got his hands between her knees. He’s a football star, she’s a wistful debutante, and they’ve been sucking on those chili dogs for over 29 years, waiting for something exciting to happen. Just like the rest of us.

Melanie Moriarty is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Dear friends, shut up and listen

Courtesy of Pete Souza / The White House

Starla Salazar / Illustrator

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By Noah Berman

Figger It

Thursday, May 5

9 p.m. Bare Naked StatueS

The Great Grizzly Bear$3 cover charge

Friday, May 6

3 p.m. StudeNt MuSic recital

Saint Francis Xavier College ChurchAdmission is free

7:30 p.m. Guitar eNSeMBle coNcert


Sunday, May 8

6:30 p.m. SpriNG choral coNcert


Monday, May 9

7:30 p.m. WiNd eNSeMBle coNcert

Xavier Hall TheatreAdmission is free

Tuesday, May 10

7:30 p.m.Jazz eNSeMBle coNcert

Xavier Hall TheatreAdmission is free

Friday, May 6

8 p.m.dead MaN’S cell phoNe

Xavier Hall TheatreTickets are $10 for general admission, $9 for seniors, staff and faculty and $7 for students

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Sunday, May 8

2 and 6:30 p.m.dead MaN’S cell phoNe


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Busch Student CenterTickets are $7 in advance or $10 at the door

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Seven Deadly Sins personified in BSA fashion show

Omari Holt would describe Saint Louis University’s Black Student Alliance annual fash-ion show as community ser-vice done in a fun way.

BSA will host its 13th an-nual charity fashion show on Sunday, May 8, in the Busch Student Center.

The theme of this year’s show, entitled “Seven,” is the seven deadly sins: Wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, envy, lust and pride.

Holt said that in the four years he has been involved with the fashion show, it has gotten bigger and better ev-ery year and that it has also gained more participants.

The proceeds from this year’s student-run event will go to Keep a Child Alive, which is an organization that provides treatment and sup-port to those affected by HIV and/or AIDS.

It aims to improve the qual-ity of life for these victims, es-pecially those living in Africa and India.

Executive-board member Kendra King said that KCA helped BSA come up with the funds for this year’s fashion show.

“We wanted to help out another organization on cam-pus,” King said.

KCA currently runs 10 patient-care clinics worldwide and is sponsored by more than 70 organizations, such as Dillard’s and The Walt Disney Company.

In addition, celebrities in-cluding Alicia Keys, Kim Kar-dashian and Jay Sean have en-dorsed the organization. Holt described it as a just cause.

In the past, proceeds from the show have gone to benefit organizations such as Doctors Without Borders and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Last year’s show raised about $1,500.

The executive board for the show consists of seven current SLU students. Holt’s and King’s last names are part of this year’s executive board.

One of the duties of these seven students is to conduct rehearsals with models.

These models include male and female students from lo-cal campuses, including SLU, and from various racial and ethnic backgrounds.

In the past, BSA has aimed to display the work of local de-signers in the fashion show.

The idea of using local designers began last year, and Holt said that they have carried this idea over to this year’s show.

The show will include work from local designers such as Eyekon Klothing, Maison Parvenu and Kid & Clay.

“Because we are in St. Louis, we wanted to show-case what we have here in our hometown,” King said.

According to King, when deciding on the clothing that would be used in the show, the executive board “came up with the stereotypical things that might be associated with each sin.”

They tried to picture what the sin might physically look like.

For example, when look-ing for outfits to match the sin of greed, she said that they looked for clothing that was gold, flashy and had animal print and shiny material.

“The theme directly comes through in the clothing,” Holt said.

Holt also said that these themes do not just come through in the clothing, but they also come through in the attitudes of the models.

For example, for the sin of sloth, the models were di-rected to act nonchalant and laid back and to give off an apathetic vibe.

He said that they came up with a rubric of attitudes that each sin might exhibit.

King said that this year’s show will better showcase the facial expressions and mo-tions of the models.

Tickets for the show can be purchased in advance for $7 at the Cross Cultural Cen-ter in the Busch Student Cen-ter or for $10 at the door. The show will begin at 7 p.m. on May 8.

By SHELBY ROZIERStaff Writer

Musical follows success of ‘60s rock band

Joseph Leo Bwarie (left) and Quinn VanAntwerp (right) play in “Jersey Boys,” which will be showing at the Fox Theatre May 11-29. The musical follows the success of popular ‘60s rock group The Four Seasons.

Photo Courtesy of Joan Marcus

From Wednesday, May 11 to Sunday, May 29, the Fabulous Fox Theatre will open its doors yet again to the Tony, Grammy and Oliver Award-winning Broadway musical “Jersey Boys.”

“Jersey Boys” is a documentary style musical that follows the success of one of the most popular Rock-n-Roll groups of the ‘60s, The Four Seasons. “Jersey Boys” opened on Broadway in 2006 and has since received four Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and one Grammy for Best Musical Show Album.

This time around, there are more than 50 people working with the traveling company, 19 of which are the actors. Swing and ensemble cast member Candi Boyd said, “Being a part of this show is amazing. I remember when I got the call saying I made the show; I was

waiting tables. I was literally at my restaurant, with a tray in my hand. It was fantastic!”

This year’s tour currently marks the third national tour. When “Jersey Boys” hit St. Louis for the first time, the show celebrated the Tour’s highest grossing week to date.

“The feedback we get is amazing. We never have a house that is not almost completely full. We get this overwhelming enthusiasm from everyone who sees the show. I love it!” Boyd said. “I feel so lucky, so lucky everyday to be a part of this cast.”

When casting the show, the producers and director traveled to 11 different cities including New York, Los Angeles, London and Dublin. Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio, two original Four Seasons

See “Jersey Boys” on Page 8

Play is exaggerated comedyActors give larger-than-life performance in ‘Dead Man’s Cell Phone’

There’s a scene in Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” in which Alvy Singer (Allen’s charac-

ter) pulls a preten-tious film-goer out of line and introduces him to the d i r e c t o r he’d been critiquing.

The di-rector – in one of the best cin-ematic mo-

ments of all time-- rips the critic to shreds.

I had a similar experience when I went to see the Saint Louis University Theatre’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s “Dead Man’s Cell Phone.”

During intermission, I was treated to the commentary of the people in the seats behind me, who went on at length about how the play was not as good as the previous time they had seen it and how the director had made a not-very-good-choice in giving the play an exaggerated, extra-comic feel.

Much like Alvy Singer, I could not quite believe what I was hearing. Had they seen the same play? Were they in the same theatre as I was? Be-cause there is nothing about “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” that is not exaggerated or extra-comic.

This is the theatre, not dai-ly life. People are supposed to be larger than life - if they are ridiculous, it is turned up to 11. The same thing applies if they are calm, worried, ner-vous, angry, jealous—whatev-er.

We are not watching our good friends march across the stage, we are watching a story play out in front of our eyes - in the case of “Dead Man’s,” we are watching a surreal situation become in-creasingly more absurd.

As much as I hate it when critics say this, it is a terrifi-cally fun ride.

From Alexandra Wood-ruff’s portrayal of the always-slightly-on-edge Jean to the hysterics of Julia Crump’s Mrs. Gottlieb, all the way to the sardonic narcissism of Mark Holzum’s Gordon (the dead man - to say any more would be spoilers), we watch endless loose-ends play out and (maybe) come to a close.

In the process, we are treated to some wonderfully dark comedy – which I will not reproduce here for fear of spoiling the jokes – but these actors prove to have impecca-ble timing and delivery, mak-ing what should be a tragedy deliriously funny.

It is all part of the exag-gerated, extra-comic feel my neighbors so disliked: Take a morbid if not extraordinary situation and up the tension,

Alexandra Woodruff (left) and Mark Holzum (right) star in the University Theatre’s lastest production of “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” written by Sarah Ruhl. The play will be showing May 6-8 in the Xavier Hall Theatre.

Noah Berman / Photo Editor

the surprises, even the ro-mance until the audience is rolling in the aisles.

Of special note, too, is the set design: Director Tom Martin references Edward Hopper paintings as an inspi-ration in the program, and this visual cue is much in evi-dence on stage.

Set designer Mark Wil-son has constructed a scene drenched in the dark greens, reds and window light sourc-es so beloved of Hopper, serv-ing to keep the play ground-ed, even as events spiral into near-lunacy.

Video projection and screens are put to good use to

build the sense of separation, which looms over the produc-tion. There is an excellent use of paper near the end of the first act, which I will not spoil, but get ready to enjoy.

There are a few problems here and there, of course; no production can be perfect, but I feel as though most stem from the fact that the show is not particularly forgiving of gradual character change.

People continue further and further on their own dark paths until something shocks them in a different direction.

Perhaps that is a commentary on the greater nature of human

kind – I do not know – but in the play, it started to make some scenes seem to be a continuous rewash of pre-vious jokes. That sounds a good deal meaner than it re-ally is; I guess I just look for more scene-to-scene-behavior changes than this production seems to have allowed.

That said, I loved this pro-duction of “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” and I urge you to go see it immediately— seri-ously. What are you doing reading this article when you should be buying your tick-ets? Just remember, as the house lights dim: Turn off your cell phone.

By ASHLEY JONESArts Editor

Play Review

Noah BeRmaN

‘Jersey Boys’ to take stage at Fox Theatre during third national tour

The University Newsunewsonline.comThursday, May 5, 2011

Arts8

EvErything Must go (May 13) I was delighted by the other “Will Ferrell-being-serious” comedy

“Stranger Than Fiction.” The Saturday Night Live alumnus tries out his dramatic chops again in this film adapted from the Raymond Carver short story “Why Don’t You Dance” about an alcoholic who holds a yard sale in an attempt to start over after losing his wife and his job. Carver usually translates well to screen.

1

Summer movie season brings surprises

thE BEavEr (May 20) Jodie Foster directs Mel Gibson and Jen-nifer Lawrence (“Win-

ter’s Bone”) in this story about a man who finds a bea-ver hand puppet and adopts it as his means to communicate. Sounds ridiculous, right? But the trailer looks like an in-triguing take on depression with a blend of comedy and drama. I am curious to see if Foster and Gibson can pull off the high-concept premise.

2Midnight in Paris (May 20) Woody Allen has put out one film per year for about the last

40 years, an incredible feat marked by such classics as “Annie Hall” and such stink-ers as “Whatever Works.” Ei-ther way, Allen has a unique voice and is the godfather of modern American cinematic comedy. This effort unites Owen Wilson, Rachel McAd-ams and Michael Sheen in the city of love.

3M E l a n c h o l i a (May) Lars Von Trier has called himself the best director alive today.

While I do not agree with that, he might be the most provoc-ative, while still demanding to be taken seriously. He has assembled Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland and John Hurt for a sci-fi thriller about two sis-ters who fight while another planet nears colliding with Earth.

4thE trEE of lifE (May 27) I cannot stress enough how much I am look-ing forward to this

film. Director Terrence Mal-ick is elusive, thorough and awe-inspiring. He emerges from hiding to contemplate some his favorite themes: Fa-thers and sons and the loss of innocence in Americana. Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain star in this drama spanning the dawn of time to the 1950s heartland.

5

suPEr 8 (JunE 10)This could be the big-gest stinker on my list, but the trailer for this JJ Abrams/Steven

Spielberg love child evokes the wonder and awe that characterized early Spielberg. Strange happenings ensue in a small town in the summer of 1979 after a group of friends witness a mysterious train crash. This looks like “Clo-verfield” meets Lost. Maybe those unsatisfied Lost fans will finally get some answers.

6 WinniE thE Pooh (July 15)Speaking of nostalgia, wonder and childhood innocence, the trailer

for this journey back to the Hundred Acre Wood about brought tears to my eyes. It looks like we get to hang out with some of our childhood friends such as Christopher Robins, Winne The Pooh, Pig-let and Tigger for 80 minutes. Oh, and Zooey Deschanel is involved…somehow.

7 anothEr Earth (July 20)I am not a sci-fi guy, re-ally. So in this one, we find a duplicate planet

in our solar system. Civilians are offered a chance to visit second Earth, and our pro-tagonist becomes intrigued with this whole multiple-self thing. The trailer for the Sun-dance favorite looks way less concerned with the hard sci-fi aspects and more concerned with the prospect of second chances.

8 friEnds With BEnEfits (July 20)No, we did not see this one already. Instead of Ashton Kutcher, we

get Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis, Patricia Clarkson, Woody Harrelson, Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg and Richard Jenkins. This mid-summer sex comedy looks refreshingly smart and funny. Let us hope it does not get to bogged down in the Holly-wood clichés that it is trying so hard to avoid.

9 ProJEct niM (July)You might have to track this film down on HBO,

but the new documentary from the Oscar-winning direc-tor of “Man on Wire” sounds more than worth it. This doc-umentary chronicles the life of chimpanzee Nim Chimp-sky who was taken from his mother at birth to be raised like a human child. The proj-ect quickly became profound-ly unsettling.

10

Exhibit blends styles of East and West

When walking into the new exhibit Blend of Styles at the Saint Louis University Museum of Art, the audience is immediately treated to the beautiful scenes of rural and industrial China.

For this collection of paintings, the artist Yingxue Zuo melded ancient techniques from his home in China with contemporary Western practices like using oil paint.

The loose and bold strokes in his work are reminiscent of Chinese calligraphy, yet the medium and strokes of painting resemble Western culture more. Zuo’s work shows instances of expressionism, while bonding the Eastern and Western styles together.

The exhibit is made up of 16 paintings that Zuo painted in different regions of China from 2005 through 2008. The exhibit is arranged into different regions that Zuo visited and painted with varying sceneries.

One group of these paintings shows “JiangYuan,” which is a remote village area in North East China. The other groups of paintings show the “Guizhou” province, which Zuo calls a minority village, and “TongHua,” which is the mountainous and industrial area in North East China.

Zuo went to China every summer for the past few years and drove to these areas to paint en plein air for weeks at a time. He enjoys painting outdoors and prefers painting the more provincial areas instead of urban scenes.

“I don’t like painting modern cities. They’re too similar…Provinces are more interesting because of their more primitive and simple lifestyles,” Zuo said.

When looking at the images, the audience is able to experience what his feelings are at the time because he expressed it through the colors.

“The scenery gave me certain feelings, and I tried to express them through these paintings.”

He experimented with his colors, techniques, materials and subject matter in his works. The resulting piece is heavily influenced by impressionism with its expressive and playful paint strokes. Audience members experience a lot of movement and feeling in the way that the images are painted.

Zuo calls painting with oil paint his favorite medium, especially while painting different landscapes, but he also likes to create abstract works and printmaking.

From an early age, Zuo knew that he wanted to become an artist.

He recalls being 17 years old in China and not being interested in anything else besides art. He does caution other young artists that it is not an easy job.

“You must have motivation to do this. You must ask if truly you enjoy it or not. There are no shortcuts in developing and producing art, so if you don’t have the motivation, don’t do it.”

Zuo has lived in St. Louis since 1990. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting and printmaking from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Northeast Normal University-Changchun, Jilin Province in China.

He worked with graphic design at an advertising company for 8 years, while also teaching at Webster University.

He is presently the chairman of the art department at the St. Louis Community College at Forest Park, where he has taught for the last 12 years.

“I do not only teach, but I also learn from my students. They are very creative and can sometimes spark some inspiration in me,” Zuo said.

He still travels to China when he can, where he sometimes conducts tours, workshops and of course paints.

The Blend of Styles exhibit opened on April 15 and remains up at SLUMA through Sunday, May 29.

The gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday and by appointment on Tuesdays. Admission is free.

By RYAN BELMONTEStaff Writer

Not blockbusters, but worth the watch

Daniel Radcliffe (Left) and Ralph Fiennes (Right) play enemies Harry Potter and Lord Voldermort in the last installment of the Harry Potter series “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.” The film is set to open in theaters on July 15. This is just one of the anticipated boxoffice hits of the summer.

Photo Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Summer movie season is fast approaching, and film-goers can expect several blockbusters to hit the boxoffices. These highly-anticipated films include “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2,” “The Green Lantern,” “Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides,” “Trans-formers: Dark of the Moon” and “The Hangover 2.” However, there are many other movies set to open in theaters this summer that have been overshadowed by the blockbuster hype. Our movie reviewer weighs in on what movies he thinks film-goers should check out this summer.

Boileau Hall exhibition allows student artists to showcase, sell artwork

The Student Art Exhibition held its opening reception on April 29. Above, a patron observes the student work on display in Boileau Hall. For many of the senior artists, this exhibition was the culmination of their curriculum. Students had the opportunity to put their work up for sale. The gallery will be holding open viewing hours May 6 and May 7 from 12-4 p.m.

members, helped to decided who the final cast would be.

When asked how an actor makes a successful career, Boyd said, “You know, I get this question a lot, and I think the best answer that everyone in the business can give is to never assume that what you have learned is enough. You always have to keep working. Some of the best dancers I know are still taking dancing lessons. People have to hone in on their weaknesses and grow from them.”

The musical has even made it big with screen actors and talk show hosts such as Eddie Murphy, Halle Berry, Paul Shaffer and Rosie O’Donnell.

Oprah Winfrey was quoted saying, “Go see ‘Jersey Boys.’ It’s just the best show... The biggest musical act on Broadway.”

The Four Seasons sold 175 million records worldwide—all before anyone in the group reached 30. The original members of the group include Frankie Valli, Bob Guadio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi. There are over 33 songs in the show, including 11 that made the Billboard’s Top Ten and five No. 1 hits.

In 1990, The Four Seasons were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“Jersey Boys” opens Wednesday, May 11. For more information and ticket prices call 314.534.1678 or visit fabulousfox.com.

(Left to right) Steve Gouveia, Joseph Leo Bwarie, Quinn VanAntwerp and Matt Bailey play memebers of the ‘60s band The Four Seasons in “Jersey Boys.”

Jersey Boys: Musical includes several Billboard top-ten hits


Commentary

t.J. Keeley

Photo Courtesy of Joan Marcus

(Shah) Yuqing Xia / Associate Photo Editor

Tra unewsonline.comThursday, May 5, 2011Sports Talk to us: Brian Boyd

314.977.2812 [email protected]

The University News

Track and Field

The Billikens par-ticipated in a final tune up event before the At-lantic 10 Conference Outdoor Champion-ships on May 1, com-peting in the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.

Junior Brittney Cloudy finished 10th in the triple jump with a distance of 40-5.5, and senior Maddie O’Quinn finished 10th in the 800-meter race with a time of 2:12.73

On the men’s side, Dahmar Smiles stood out for SLU, finishing 14th in the 110-me-ter hurdles. He also finished 20th in the 400-meter hurdles.

The Billikens will compete at the A-10 Championships on May 7 and 8 in Char-lotte, N.C.

Billiken Briefs

BILLIKEN SCOREBOARD

R

Softball

Baseball

W

L

W

W

W

L

L

W

7-0

1-0

5-1

3-2

11-2

5-1

@ George Washington

@ George Washington

vs. Fordham

@ SEMO

Billikens: All the way from2010-11 Review

What a year it has been for Saint Louis University athletics. Ranging from the uplifting to the controversial, we have seen a little bit of everything. There have been many names, games and phrases associated with the Bil-likens, spanning the entire length of the alphabet.

By BRIAN BOYDSports Editor

and DERRICK NEUNERAssociate Sports Editor

Courtesy of Billiken Media Relations Ryan Giacomino / Photographer

Zto

Alemann, Alex BlowoutsL i g h t l y

r e c r u i t e d out of high

school, the ace of the Billikens pitching staff has blossomed into one of the best pitchers in the Atlantic 10. A stellar freshman season earned the Florida native some seriously high praise: In 2010, he was named the

Carmichael, ChadThe j unior

has been the star of the Billiken

men’s swimming and diving team, becoming the first diver in school history to advance out of the preliminary rounds

Dancing at DukeT h e

Duke Blue Devils are

48-2 at home over the last three years. The Bil-likens had no chance. Yet there they were, the scrappy Bills going head-to-head with the

Elmore, HaileeThe most

d e c o r a t e d player in SLU’s wom-

en’s tennis program his-tory, Elmore helped pro-pel the program to its best finish ever in the At-lantic10 Championships while piling up award after award. Elmore’s list of accomplishments

Frisbee, UltimateY o u ’ v e

seen them on campus tossing a disc, as they

call it. They are the SLU Ultimate Frisbee team, formally known as Team Loki.

This year, they put together a 16-16 record, which made them sixth

Ryan Giacomino / Photographer

GoalkeepingAfter a

r e d s h i r t freshman season at

California, Nick Shack-elford stepped up for the men’s soccer team and had a standout season stopping shots, posting a 0.82 goals against av-erage in split-duty with sophomore Mark Pais.

HomecomingIt’s the

a n n u a l SLU tra-dition of

soccer, alumni and fire-works. Each year, Rob-ert R. Hermann Stadium hosts the men’s soccer team and around 5,000 current students and alumni to revel in mem-ories of past and make

I njuries aboundAs so often

happens, inju-ries become the

unexpected crux of a season. For the men’s soccer team, the losses of senior Jimmy Holmes and junior Mike Roach were insurmountable. What should have been a highly successful first year for head coach Mike McGinty ended in the

J iltedThis past

year was not without its depar tures.

Volleyball head coach Anne Kordes left for her alma mater, Louisville, after seven years and a 146-75 record.

She guided the Bil-likens to three NCAA appearances and three regular season Atlantic 10 titles. Her 2008 squad

K wasa, JustinA f t e r

shat ter -ing his

own school records on a regular basis through-out the year, the senior men’s track and field performer captured an Atlantic 10 Indoor Track and Field Champion-ship. Kwasa took home gold in the weight throw

Lost seasonThe 2010-

11 season will always

be remembered as the lost season of the Rick Majerus era. On Wednesday, Oct. 13, SLU announced that it had re-moved Kwamain Mitch-ell and Willie Reed, the top two players for the Billikens, from the team

Senior awardS

Track and field senior Justin Kwasa (Chicago, Ill.) and women’s tennis se-nior Hailee Elmore (Springfield, Ill.) were named SLU’s Out-standing Senior Ath-letes on May 3.

The awards are presented annually to student-athletes who excel academically, athletically and in the community.

Women’s swim team member Jes-sica Schwarz was given the Inspirational Award, which is given annually to a student-athlete who has per-sisted in the face of adversity throughout the year.

4-0

1-0

@ SEMO

vs. UMSL

vs. Fordham

vs. Fordham

Cody Ellis

Hailee Elmore


Porter Moser


Willie Reed

Courtesy of Billiken Media Relations

AAlex Alemann Benny Estes

A-10 Freshman of the Year and a member of the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American team. This year, the right-hander has posted a 2.48 ERA, sixth best in the conference.

Not bad for a kid who did not even make his high school freshman baseball team.

On the hardwood, the men found them-

selves as both victims and victors in lopsided contests.

A beat-down at the hands of then No.1 Duke early in the year was tough to stomach, but the Bills dished out

some punishment as well, crushing Saint Jo-seph’s, Chicago State and Dayton by a com-bined 72 points later on in the year.

The women scored a big 27 point win against Southern Illinois but were throttled by No. 6 Xavier in February, among other big losses.

of an NCAA Zone Diving Meet.

A two-time All-Ameri-can in high school, Car-michael reached the fi-nals in the 3-meter diving event in March and nar-rowly missed the finals in the 1-meter board.

then-reigning national champions on national television. Ultimately, Duke was just too much.

Though the game was lost, those involved will never forget that the Bil-likens took on the No. 1 team in the nation.

is longer than Mike Ty-son’s rap sheet: Two-time A-10 player of the year, three-time All A-10, three-time Academic All-Conference, 2011 A-10 women’s tennis Student-Athlete of the Year, to name a few. Elmore fin-ished her career as the all-time winningest play-er in school history.

in their conference. The team had a chance to ad-vance further but lost a close match to Kansas to end the regular season. Over 20 students partici-pate as part of the men’s team, which will travel to Denver, Colo., on Friday, May 6, to compete in the regional round of play-off competition.

Pais, a St. Louis native, started 10 games for the Billikens, posting a 6-3-1 record in the net.

On the women’s side, sophomore Katie Walsh established herself in the A-10 by shutting op-posing offenses down, holding them to a 0.70 GAA while being named second team All A-10.

plans for the future. Stu-dents parade in on deco-rated golf carts while past classes feast on food in Tegeler Field. This year, SLU took on Drake in a double-overtime thriller-coming away with the 1-0 victory. Nick Maglasang scored the only goal with just 57 seconds left in the second OT period.

first round of the Atlantic 10 tournament and a 9-7-3 record. For the men’s basketball team, the loss of sophomore Cody Ellis was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The team’s third-best scorer in 2009-10 went down on Saturday, Feb. 5, sending the Billikens on a four-game losing streak.

went undefeated in A-10 play. Also leaving SLU was men’s basketball associate head coach Porter Moser, who took the head coaching posi-tion at Loyola-Chicago. Under head coach Rick Majerus, Moser was the chief recruiter and in charge of scheduling for the Billikens. He also coached SLU in Majerus’ absence.

and finished fifth in the weight throw at the event, becoming the first SLU field athlete to win a conference title.

Kwasa currently holds the school record in five different track and field events and was recently named as the top male SLU Student Athlete of the 2011 class.

and University. SLU fin-ished 12-19 overall, los-ing five games within five points.

Widely regarded as the year that SLU would challenge for the A-10 Conference crown, fans and Majerus, were left wondering, again, if next year will finally be the year.


Sports10

Courtesy of Billiken Media Relations


Shah (Yuqing Xia) / Associate Photo

Shah (Yuqing Xia) / Associate Photo

Xavier

T h e nemesis of SLU ath-

letics. Xavier is the Bil-likens’ “Darth Vader.” Over the past year, SLU has faced the Muske-teers eight times, going 2-6; the only wins were a women’s tennis 6-1 vic-tory and a volleyball 3-1 victory.

Among the losses: Men’s basketball (twice),

VictoriesO n e

h u n d r e d of them, to

be exact. Men’s baseball head coach Darin Hen-drickson reached the century mark on March 20 with a win over South-ern Illinois-Carbondale. Hendrickson, in only his fourth year as head coach, became only the fourth member of the

Tying historyS o f t b a l l

seniors Kris-tin Nicoletti

and Caitlin Trevillyan recorded 103 wins over their four year career at SLU, tying them with last year’s seniors as the win-ningest class in school history.

They led the Billikens, who were coached for the first year by Christy

Ream, TimThe for-

mer Bil-liken soc-cer star

has had himself quite a year thus far on the in-ternational soccer scene. Ream, a defender for the MLS’s New York Red Bulls, earned a spot on the U.S. National Team and has received rave re-views regarding his play. Despite being only 23

PatienceRick Maje-

rus said that the 2010-11

season was the toughest of his career, but also his finest coaching job.

SLU finished 12-19, the first time in Maje-rus’ 24-year career that his team finished below .500. It also put a damper on expectations for Ma-jerus, who, in his fourth

NewcomersThe Bil-

likens also welcomed two new

members to their family: Men’s soccer head coach Mike McGinty and vol-leyball head coach Kent Miller. McGinty was an-nounced as the sixth men’s soccer coach on March 23. He joined SLU after serving as associate head coach at Virginia,

Zych, Jonathan

Meet the man who has engi-

neered the tennis pro-gram’s emergence as a force in the Atlantic 10.

This year, he led his women’s team to their best finish in school his-tory, placing second at the Atlantic 10 Champi-onships. He had three players named to the All-

Woods, Lauren

A f -ter a

breakout junior season in 2009-10 in which she led the team in scor-ing with 14.1 points per game, Woods was named the Atlantic 10’s most improved player for the season.

In her final year as a Billiken, things did not go exactly as planned—not only was her team

UnderwhelmingThis is

p e r h a p s the best

way to describe the wom-en’s basketball season.

Under sixth-year head coach Shimmy Gray-Miller, the Billikens regressed rather than progressed this year, winning only one Atlan-tic 10 game in the midst of their disappointing

S LUnaticsSLU fans

got a new name in 2010 when the

Blue Crew was rechris-tened the SLUnatics.

On average, hundreds of students packed Chaifetz to cheer on the Billikens.

In the coming year, SLUnatics will become even more dynamic; the

Q ualifiedO v e r

the sum-mer, the m e n ’ s b a s e b a l l

team earned an auto-matic berth to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2006. They stormed through the Atlantic 10 tournament, dropping Charlotte in the finals. The Billikens did not have enough fire-

OvertimeT h e

men’s soc-cer team seemed to

have a problem closing out games in 2010.

Either that, or they en-joyed giving Billiken soc-cer fans heart attacks. The team played into overtime five times, go-ing 2-1-2. They include three trips to double-overtime (0-0 split with

Myers, JonT h e

h e a r t of the B i l l i k -

ens’ lineup, Myers has emerged as a legitimate slugger the past two sea-sons.

Even with the depar-ture of superstar Danny Brock, Myers has con-tinued to produce at a high level. This year, the senior leads the team in

Youngsters rising

A pleas-ant surprise

from 2010-11 was the growth of the freshmen of the men’s basketball team.

The four freshmen were thrust onto the court to fill several voids and compete at a level beyond their maturation, but they performed well.

Dwayne Evans was

Kent Miller was hired to replace Billiken volleyball legend Anne Kordes as head coach of the program.

The men’s soccer team went to overtime five times this season, including their Homecoming game against Drake.

Formerly known as the Blue Crew, the SLUnatics have been a presence at Billiken sporting events throughout the year.

Women’s head basketball coach Shimmy Gray-Miller has led the Billikens for six seasons.

Freshman guard Mike McCall had a strong year for head coach Rick Majerus, averaging a team-high 10.4 PPG.

Shah (Yuqing Xia) / Associate Photo Editor

nearly every major of-fensive category. He has started all 43 games for SLU, posting a .326 bat-ting average, one of the best in the conference.

Myers currently leads the Billikens in the fol-lowing categories: Hits, doubles, home runs, RBIs and slugging per-centage.

Oh, and he is a perfect 7 for 7 on stolen bases.

where he won a national championship. His teams won the ACC title four times in 11 years.

On April 4, SLU an-nounced Kent Miller as the new leader of Billik-en volleyball.

He previously served as an assistant at Illi-nois and a head coach at Toldeo, where his teams registered 136 wins in 12 years.

South Florida, 1-0 vic-tory over Drake, and a 0-0 split with Missouri State), a loss against St. Bonaventure and a win against Missouri-Kansas City.

Some of the overtime contests came as a result of offensive woes: The Billikens were unable to get on the board in regu-lation six times during the season.

year as leader of the Bil-likens, was expected to have already visited the NCAA tournament. But this year’s events were largely out of his control, and experts already are predicting SLU will be in the running for a trip to the dance next season. With so much experi-ence returning, it is a strong possibility.

power to hang with the University of Louisville Cardinals, however, end-ing their season in the regionals.

Other notable SLU qualifiers include fresh-man runner Margo Rich-ardson qualified for the USA Junior Track and Field Championships.

Finally, three swim-mers qualified for the NCAA Zone Meet.

years old, Ream has a le-gitimate chance at being named to the U.S. World Cup team.

As a Billiken, Ream was named the 2009 At-lantic 10 conference de-fensive player of the year and was tabbed as a third team All-American. With the Red Bulls, he was a rookie of the year finalist and the lynchpin of their defense.

student body approved a $30 tuition fee which will open the doors to all students (season tickets were previously $135 a season).

University officials and the Student Govern-ment Association hopes this will encourage even more fans to come to the arena and root their bas-ketball teams to victory.

7-22 campaign.The Bil-likens were plagued by defensive woes, allowing opponents to shoot 43.8 percent from the field.

Coupled with an of-fense that ranked near the bottom of the confer-ence in nearly all of the major statistical catego-ries, the Billikens were unable to hang with the rest of the A-10.

100 victory club in SLU history. Hendrickson picked up his 600th total career victory on April 29 against Fordham.

Hendrickson has his team playing solid ball as of late, winning three of their last four. The team currently sits at 25-19 overall and ninth place in the A-10 with a 6-9 league record.

struggling, but her num-bers were on the decline as well.

Woods once again led the team in scoring, but only posted 9.9 PPG and had a 0.5 assist-to-turn-over ratio.

Regardless, Woods has been an impact play-er throughout her SLU career and emerged as a senior leader for the pro-gram.

men’s tennis, women’s basketball and volleyball (twice).

Perhaps most frustrat-ing - the Xavier men’s bas-ketball team advanced to the NCAA tournament while SLU watched from home.

Next year, however, the tides could turn, de-pending on whether or not star Tu Holloway leaves for the NBA.

named to the A-10 All-Rookie team after collect-ing five double-doubles; Mike McCall led SLU with 323 points; Rob Loe collected 106 rebounds; and Jordair Jett led the team with 44 steals.

Their collective efforts often kept the Billik-ens competitive in close games while gaining ex-perience along the way.

Conference team for the second straight season. On the men’s side, he has shown an ability to re-cruit talent, as evidenced by production from first-year players such as Nishaad Balachandran, Joe Flanagan and Patrick Kella.

Remember the name—his programs are on the rise.

Connoyer. She came to SLU this spring after spending five seasons as associate head coach at Southern Illinos, where she compiled a 59-53 re-cord.

This spring, the Bil-likens put together an impressive 29-24 record, nearly matching their 30-win season from last year.

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It takes hard work, disci-pline, skill, unselfishness and the ability to multi-task for

four years to be a s t u d e n t -a t h l e t e . Basically, s t u d e n t -a t h l e t e s have to be dedicated. But they were not born with that dedi-c a t i o n . It comes

through inspiration. It comes through support.

It comes through life les-sons, and sometimes it comes through love.

A good mother provides all of those things. Appar-ently Saint Louis University athletes have had some pretty great mothers. Ask a SLU athlete about their mother, and you are pretty likely to receive some sort variation of the response, “Always there for me.”

Soccer forward Mike Roach claims, “Being a stu-dent-athlete, you have many

ups and downs throughout the years. My mom has al-ways stayed positive no mat-ter what.”

Our mothers mean a great deal to most of us. It is almost impossible for me to describe how much I love my mom or exactly why. But I think it comes down to that word “al-ways.”

Student-athletes (and stu-dents for that matter) live with a lot of uncertainty and pressure. Failure is always a possibility. Perhaps these athletes find security in the unconditional love from their mothers.

Senior basketball forward Lauren Woods said, “I talk to her on a daily basis. She helps me see the bigger picture.”

When it is advice we need, we typically know the first person we call.

Woods said, “She didn’t re-ally play sports herself, but she always emphasizes the life-lessons I can learn from sports. She says it can teach me about myself.”

Junior baseball player and Communication major Marco DiRoma relies on his mother to give him “a level

of strength and confidence to overcome adversity.” He also counts on her for general ad-vice: “She always tells me to keep my grades up because education is just as important as baseball.”

The word “always” can be a very inspirational thing.

Roach said, “When you have a bad game, and it feels like the whole world is on your shoulders, and your mom calls to say she is proud of you no matter what; that is a very powerful thing and it keeps you going.”

Mother’s Day comes every May; no questions asked. You can count on it.

Something seems very fit-ting about that. That same de-pendability might be the big-gest reason why we love our mothers.

This Sunday, May 8, if you are lucky enough to have a mother like these student-athletes thank her because you know you might strike out or lose the game. In fact, you might not make an A on every test or impress every potential employer.

Be thankful for that de-pendable person in your life.

Commentary

Jonathan aupiing

Athletes appreciate motherly loveCommentary


Sports 11


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Congratulations to the Order of Omega Greek Awards Recipients! Awards were presented on Sunday, April 3, 2011 at the conclusion of Greek Week

recognizing both chapters and individual students.

Most Inspirational New Member

Kimi Graviln, Alpha Delta Pi Eric Levenhagen, Sigma Phi Epsilon

Helping Hands Award

Emily Stone, Alpha Delta Pi

Outstanding Greek Community Involvement

Mary Clare Becker, Alpha Delta Pi

Mike Zitzer, Delta Sigma Phi

Outstanding Chapter President Rachel Woods, Zeta Tau Alpha

John Koenig, Tau Kappa Epsilon

Unsung Hero Allison Mecca, Alpha Delta Pi

Samuel Maguire, Sigma Alpha Epsilon

Outstanding Chapter Advisor

Geri Macauley, Zeta Tau Alpha

Chapter Luminary Award

(Honoring one graduating senior from each chapter).

Annie Scardulla, Alpha Delta Pi Andy Murtha, Alpha Delta Gamma

Andy Cassidy, Beta Theta Pi Keeley Farmar, Delta Gamma

Elizabeth Schroeder, Gamma Phi Beta Katie Williams, Kappa Delta

Patrick Leonard, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Katie Shay, Sigma Kappa

Paul Paetow, Sigma Phi Epsilon Dom Derosa, Sigma Chi

Katie Kuchar, Zeta Tau Alpha

Philanthropy Award

Zeta Tau Alpha and Tau Kappa Epsilon

Community Service Award

Kappa Delta and Alpha Delta Gamma

Merit Award

Kappa Delta and Tau Kappa Epsilon

Most Distinguished Chapter Award

Alpha Delta Pi and Sigma Phi Epsilon

No. 27 May 5

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Transcript of No. 27 May 5