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THE SAINT | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2013
Words of advice for incoming freshmen
FROM THE CROWD
APPLAUSE TO...
The Corner, for being open on Sundays; Fall weather, for allowing us to enjoy pumpkin-flavored beverages and cozy sweaters; The long, long list of Oscar-worthy movies soon coming to a theater near you; Miley Cyrus, for being Miley; Breaking Bad, for giving us five seasons of some seriously compelling TV; J.K. Rowling, for giving Potterheads something to live for; Subway’s $5 footlongs; The Fulton Farmer’s Market, for having delicious vegetables on a student budget.
HECKLES TO... The Meijer on Beltline, for being impossible to navigate; Vladimir Putin, for acting like a Bond villain; Justin Bieber, for being himself; All the construction taking over GR right now; People who don’t like going to haunted houses; The crappy new TV pilots we’ll be subjected to this fall; Being forced to talk to people on the phone; Ndamukong Suh; for having a really bad temper.
theSaint 2013-2014 E D I T O R I A L B O A R D Editor-in-Chief News Editor Culture Editor
Stephanie Giluk Laura Farrell Paris Close Adviser
Sports Editor Managing Editor
Alyssa Frese Michelle Szczap
Dr. Dan Brooks
*** Please note that the views expressed on this page are those of their respective author(s), and do not necessarily represent the views of The Saint as a whole.
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By Stephen Wright The Saint Reporter Hello! My name is Stephen Douglas Wright. I am a fifth year senior here at Aquinas College. In my time here I’ve had a wonderful and diverse experience. This is not to say there were not difficult times. There were. But with the help of friends, cups of tea and the light of passing time I remember my days here fondly. It’s like they’re all encompassed in one moment my freshman year when I was walking in the woods between Regina and AB and I looked up and really saw the leaves fall, all different colors, slowly, somewhere between stillness and motion, something that escapes words. I want everyone to have as many of these experiences as I have had. So I am laying down some general advice to you, newcomers to Aquinas College, so that you might enrich your time here. 1) Go to tea with Father Jim A well-loved priest named Father Jim resides next door to St. Joe’s at St. Thomas. On Wednesdays and Thursdays at 3 p.m. he invites students over to have tea with him. Some of my best memories of Aqui-
nas have been in his living room/ den/parlor/whatever it is drinking tea. If you go often enough it creates a rhythm in your days. Two of my friends describe it as the highlight of their weeks. If you do decide to go, bring some poetry or a violin or something else creative. 2) Make time to read things that aren’t for classes A lot of us have to-read lists long enough to wrap the world into a giant bough. When you’re feeling cramped by your reading material for classes or by and large just uninspired, pick up something else. The best connections are often the craziest and most tangential. You might find that something you read from Dostoevsky’s Dream of A Ridiculous Man helps you understand the functions of biology (or not, but the principle still stands). On top of this, try reading things that seem opposite to each other. This will help to keep you from getting bogged down into one w ay of thinking that may end up outliving its usefulness. 3) Go on the swing set
you a feeling of flight that tends to leave people gradually. It’s also just fun. 4) Go to the theater shows and improv shows This is really biased because I’m a Theater major, but I find watching shows really inspiring. Both being in a show and watching one demands your presence. So if your head is really flighty it helps to engage something, like a show, which has value but demands that you pay attention and engage with it. And the improv shows are just a riot. There’s a lot of energy that you get simply from being part of the audience, which is huge and giddy. 5) Go to office hours with professors just to talk You should do this because a lot of professors are very interesting both in person and knowledge of their disciplines. You can get an education and a half by making some time to walk to Holmdene, the Academic Building or Albertus to discuss what you’ve learned in class or anything else that’s pertinent.
There’s a swing set by St. Joe’s. You should go on it because it gives
An open letter to Aquinas College students in preparation of Homecoming By Brian Matzke Guest Writer The weekend of September 27 and 28 promises to be a fun time for the Aquinas College community. On Friday night, behind Regina Hall, we will be having a band play and a bonfire party for our students. On Saturday, we will be having a full day of sports and other activities (fur a full schedule check out www. aquinas.edu/homecoming) including a wonderful doubleheader of soccer action. The ladies open up at 12:30 in the afternoon and the men are scheduled to play at 3 p.m. In between games, we will be crowning our homecoming king and queen.
There is also a change in the main stage tent rules. With the goal of building community between all students, staff, faculty and alumni, students under 21 will be allowed to enter the tent. As always, federal and state laws still apply and minors will not be allowed to drink alcohol in the tent (or anywhere else). There will be both internal and external security systems in place to enforce these rules and any violators will be subject to judicial action. That being said, we know that our students are responsible and want to give them the chance to interact and build community. There have also been some complaints from our Eastown and Fulton Heights neighbors in past years
regarding morning and afternoon activities. The Grand Rapids Police Department have been asked to step up their efforts to enforce all policies and we are partnering with them in these efforts. We know that there are a lot of fun things to do this weekend and by being involved and responsible we will all have a great homecoming weekend. Sincerely, Brian Matzke Associate Vice President of Student Affairs
Eastown Street Fair offers some food for thought By Chuck Hyde Staff Writer I went to the Eastown Street Fair last Saturday afternoon. It was a pleasant day, and Wealthy was crowded with hipsters and other denizens of the area looking at arts and crafts, eating locally-made food and signing petitions for political causes that they may or may not know anything about. Overall, it was a great day. I did find one ironic tent placement that struck me in the middle of all of these tents peddling ideas and products, however. There was a tent that was attempting to stop the war on women, feminists standing up for what they believe in. It’s there every year I go, and I like to see them making their presence known and spreading their message. What struck as me as odd was not the war on women tent, but the one right next to it: a tent with beauty products and makeup displaying pictures of what such a company believes is the definition of beauty. Knowingly or not, they were
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perpetuating the very “war on women” that their immediate neighbors were fighting so hard to end. Girls all over this country feel self-loathing over their bodies because clothing and cosmetic companies show them how they should look; the show the “ideal” woman. Of course, there is nothing wrong with wearing makeup or nice clothes, but why does society feel the need to pressure women to become painted stick figures? Each individual should be able to make their own choices and define what it means for them to be beautiful. No Victoria’s Secret model or shirtless man on an Abercrombie & Fitch advertisement can tell someone how they should look. When people such as Mike Jeffries, CEO of the aforementioned Abercrombie & Fitch, refuse to even stock plus-sized clothing for women because they “want to market to cool, good-looking people,” it just reinforces this idea that women have to be thin and stereotypically attractive to be relevant in this world. Weight, makeup, facial sym-
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metry, hairstyle, complexion or any of the other arbitrary guidelines to attractiveness shouldn’t determine a person’s worth. Men and women should be valued by their intelligence, personality and actions, things that actually affect their role in society and quality of their character. In today’s world, men can often get away with being “unattractive,” so long as they are funny or successful, but even successful women, such as Oprah, Adele and many others, come under fire for not conforming to society’s standards for beauty. I hope that we can learn to treat people as people and acknowledge that there is much more to a person than their complexion and the size jeans that they wear.