The Alestle Vo. 74 No. 7

MEET THE MAN WHO STARTED LGBTQ+ MONTH page 4

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WHAT’S UP NEXT FOR ATHLETICS IN THE SPRING? page 7

vol. 74 no. 7

The Student Voice Since 1960

BRIEF: Congressman tests positive for COVID-19 after visiting campus

Rick Hensler, of Collinsville, Illinois, leans in to kiss a puppy at Partners for Pets’ pet adoption Sunday at Goshen Coffee in Edwardsville. In addition to getting a new forever friend, patrons who adopted an animal received a free coffee and pastry. Last week, Partners For Pets saw a total of 35 dogs and cats be adopted. Visit partnersforpetsil.org to see the adoptable pets and fill out an application. SEE MORE ON PAGE 8 I Khoi Pham / The Alestle

Counseling Services now available to faculty and staff, free of charge GABRIEL BRADY reporter

As of last week, Counseling Services is offering services to faculty and staff at SIUE completely free of charge Director of Counseling Services Courtney Boddie said while he wanted to offer this option from the beginning, student access was the top priority.

“I’ve always wanted to be a center that provided to faculty and staff as well as students, but I recognize that there are challenges. Besides, students pay for it [through student fees], so they deserve it first,” Boddie said.

Assistant Chair of Applied Communications Studies Josie DeGroot said she was happy to see Counseling Services begin to provide care to faculty and staff.

DeGroot’s studies focus on grieving and loss, and she said that some form of counseling can be beneficial to anyone.

“With the COVID crisis, we’re all dealing with loss. We’ve lost normalcy, and social life, and some productivity, and confidence in the government and a feeling of safety,” DeGroot said. “We’re dealing with a lot of loss, and having someone who can help work through that can be incredibly important.”

This time has been especially

stressful for faculty and staff, according to Faculty Union President Mark Poepsel. Poepsel said there has been a lot more work for faculty and staff due to the pandemic.

“Everybody seems to have critiques for how faculty should work, and we’re just trying to move forward and keep the university going,” Poepsel said. “I’m sure there were a lot of faculty members who wanted this. Practically everything in our lives has been upended.”

Black Faculty and Staff Association President J.T. Snipes said the stress of this year certainly helped push to make Counseling Services more available.

“I don’t remember the exact date, but I believe it was shortly after Jacob Blake’s killing that there was a renewed focus on the support for faculty and staff as well as students,” Snipes said.

“After that, the Chancellor talked with Dr. Boddie about how to make it happen.”

Keeping a balance between counseling for students and counseling for faculty and staff is one of the biggest challenges, according to Boddie.

“There was such a demand for students to have [counseling] that it felt wrong to give this see COUNSELING on page 3

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Representatives Mike Bost and Rodney Davis visited SIUE’s campus last Tuesday to reveal a new grant. Three days later, Bost announced he had tested positive for COVID-19.

The $1.74 million grant was awarded to the Madison County Employment and Training Department, and is a part of the state of Illinois recovery funds. The grant will be used to help give training and education to those who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19, according to the Illinois Business Journal.

Madison County Chairman Kurt Prenzler, SIU System President Dan Mahony and Chancellor Randy Pembrook also attended the event, among others.

The morning began in the Biotechnology Laboratory Incubator in University Park with a press conference about the new grant. Following this, Bost toured the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center on campus and met staff while following mask and social distancing guidelines, according to an email from Executive Director of University Marketing Doug McIlhagga.

In a statement released Friday, Bost announced he’d tested positive the previous night. McIlhagga said contact tracing to identify who Bost had been in close contact with while at SIUE began that Friday. Additionally, he said Pembrook has taken a COVID-19 test and is awaiting results.

Pembrook declined to make a statement. The Alestle will continue to follow this story as it develops.

COVID-19 causes medical community to acknowledge historical mistreatment of Black individuals ALEX AULTMAN lifestyles editor

Discussions around the trustworthiness of COVID-19 vaccines have brought back into the public eye the Black community’s distrust of medical professionals due to hundreds of years of discrimination and abuse. An SIUE pharmacy professor intends to work with other Black medical professionals to vet the vaccine.

Clinical pharmacy professor Lakesha Butler was recently chosen to work on the National Medical Association’s COVID-19 Commission on Vaccines and Therapeutics. The NMA is the largest group of Black medical professionals in the country.

According to an Axios-Ipsos survey, 28 percent of Black respondents said they were likely to get the first round of COVID-19 vaccines compared to 51 percent of white respondents. Butler said the public, particularly the Black community, mistrusts the vaccine due to the speed at which the government is wanting to put it out.

“So there’s just a level of mistrust, just because of this speedy nature of the federal government wanting to approve a vaccine within the next month. And so if we as healthcare providers don’t trust the process, or don’t quite understand the process, we can’t

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expect our patients to either,” Butler said. “We’re just taking an in-depth look into the process ourselves so that we can clearly communicate to the communities that we serve, and the details of the process.”

However, the Black community’s mistrust of the institution of medicine is not new. Associate history professor Bryan Jack said there are many historical and current factors that have contributed to this growing mistrust.

“I think there’s a good reason for that mistrust to run deep, going all the way back to medical experimentations under slavery, all the way up through health disparities today,” Jack said. “When we see, for instance, African American women’s pain not being taken as seriously by doctors and medical professionals ... I think there’s a deep-seated and well-deserved mistrust in that community.”

Sociology professor Corey Stevens said another factor adding to the mistrust of the vaccine is clinical trials applying their effects on white men to other racial and gender categories.

“There’s a history too of us testing medications on, you know, white male bodies, and then applying those to other bodies, like women and trans people and Black people without really knowing what kind of side effects could

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Lakesha Butler, a clinical pharmacy professor, was chosen to work on a COVID-19 commission with the National Medical Association. I Photo courtesy of SIUE Marketing and Communications

occur,” Stevens said. “Although Black bodies aren’t necessarily that different from white bodies … there are differences in the way that these bodies have endured chronic stress and chronic strains over time.”

According to CNBC, Moderna, one of the pharmaceutical companies working on a COVID-19 vaccine, had to slow their clinical trials to ensure they had enough Black participants.

Butler said this gives her hope because it is rare to see companies see COVID-19 on page 2

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School of Business offers new cybersecurity specialization DALTON BROWN copy editor

Starting this fall, the SIUE School of Business is offering a new cybersecurity specialization. Through all-new curriculum and partnerships, this program aims to fulfill large cybersecurity job vacancies in Illinois and around the country.

Tim Jacks, the undergraduate program director for Computer Management and Information Systems, said the program’s main goal is to get students employed in these high-demand areas.

“The number one reason [for this program] at the end of the day has got to be jobs, because there’s a lack of cybersecurity talent in the workforce, and that’s for entry-level, mid-level, executive, every level,” Jacks said. “That’s a lot of jobs, and we want our students to get some of those jobs, because it’s a huge growth area.”

Because cybersecurity is a rapidly changing field, the program relies on partnerships with industry insiders to make sure students are being taught the most up-to-date content possible. SIUE Police Chief Kevin Schmoll said the department will be partnering with the cybersecurity program in a number of ways, including getting students internships with other local cybercrime and law enforcement agencies.

“We have officers that are in the Secret Service for ... the FBI cybercrime unit, and our detectives here that are trained in it, so they’ll be over there speaking with those students that are in those classes,” Schmoll said. “And we can partner with them to get them their internships either with us, the FBI cybercrime unit of Fairview Heights, or the Secret Service cyber unit, and then possibly with the ... Illinois State Police ...

And also intern here with our detectives.”

According to CMIS Chair Anne Powell, internships with the SIUE Police Department themselves, while unpaid, provide a critical service for cybersecurity students in need of an internship.

“There is such a need, and cybersecurity internships are very difficult to find, so [students] have jumped at that and the police have been very generous with, ‘Yes, we can provide your students an internship.

We can’t pay them, but we can get them

the experience,’ and [our students] have been very happy about that, and the police have been very happy with our students,” Powell said.

Students will have several new electives to choose from, according to Jacks, including ethical hacking, or penetration testing, and cybercrime. Jacks said the cybercrime elective covers topics like gathering and processing digital forensic evidence from electronic devices, and the ethical hacking and penetration testing class covers all necessary material for a student to become a Certified Ethical Hacker.

“It’s very popular,” Jacks said of the ethical hacking class. “We had a lot of discussions about how to offer that material, because our industry partners want students that can think like a hacker. Now, that means we have to teach some hacking tools and techniques, but at the same time, we have to emphasize the ethical use of these tools for good.”

The program’s entry in the 20-21 undergraduate catalog says that cybersecurity students will learn various business-related skills in addition to their cybersecurity training. Timothy Schoenecker, Dean of the School of Business, said this will help students develop more well-rounded skill sets that employers are looking for.

“They’re going to be a much more effective cybersecurity professional ... if they understand all aspects of the business,” Schoenecker said. “In the discussions I’ve had with industry professionals ... they think it’s really important for [cybersecurity employees] to be able to not just talk about the technical details, but to be able to communicate that in a way that folks in, let’s say, marketing, or accounting or finance can understand.”

The cybersecurity program’s availability has evoked a range of positive responses, according to Jacks.

“Everybody’s been supportive, from the chancellor’s office to the provost’s office, at a department level, our industry partners ... students are excited about it, and alumni are jealous that they didn’t have an opportunity to do it while they were here,” Jacks said.

To learn more about the new cybersecurity specialization, read its entry in the 20-21 undergraduate catalog.

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News in brief Traditional fall commencement ceremony canceled SIUE has announced it will not hold a traditional graduation ceremony at the end of the fall semester. This follows the cancellation of Spring 2020 commencement ceremonies due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This announcement came Oct. 7 in a message from Kristen Schmalz, University Marketing and Communications’ marketing and events specialist.

In the place of a traditional ceremony, virtual ceremonies will be posted to the commencement website Dec. 18.

According to Schmalz’s message, these ceremonies will include remarks from Chancellor Randy Pembrook and Provost Denise Cobb, as well as recognition of student speakers.

The university is also developing an alternative plan for an in-person cel-

ebration to be held Dec. 19. While these plans are not finalized, they are likely to include an opportunity for graduates to be photographed by the university’s official commencement photographers.

Additionally, graduates would be able to pick up their diploma covers, programs, e-pins and Alumni gifts.

Spring 2020 graduates will also have the option to participate in this in-person celebration. A survey has been distributed to Spring and Fall 2020 graduates to gauge interest in this option. Both spring and fall graduates will also be invited back for an in-person commencement ceremony once it is safe for large gatherings.

For the most recent information about the fall graduation ceremonies, visit SIUE’s Commencement website.

Uber, Lyft offer half-priced rides to and from polls

Both Uber and Lyft have committed to providing 50 percent off roundtrip rides to and from polls on Election Day, amongst other initiatives.

For Uber riders, this discount can be up to $7 per trip, or $14 for a round trip. For Lyft riders, the maximum discount is $10. Both ride services are also providing in-app voter registration.

Additionally, Uber is partnering with several organizations including Civic Alliance, National Voter Registration Day, Vote Early Day and Time to Vote to encourage people to volunteer as poll workers.

Meanwhile, Lyft is working with a number of nonprofit organizations to offer free rides to historically underserved communities. Lyft is also

partnering with the National Disability Rights Network to provide free wheelchair-accessible vehicle ride credits to voters with disabilities.

A poll-finding feature has been added to the Uber app as well. Uber offered local governments in 17 states use of its Greenlight Hubs, which are typically used as help centers for its drivers, as polling places. The company has also announced a partnership between Uber Eats and Pizza to the Polls to launch food trucks. These food trucks will provide free food and music and will be found at various locations between Vote Early Day on Oct. 24 and Election Day on Nov. 3.

Learn more about Uber and Lyft’s voting initiatives on their websites.

Cougar Cupboard collects donations for holiday boxes

Cougar Cupboard, SIUE’s on-campus food pantry, is currently calling for donations to create holiday boxes in time for Thanksgiving.

The list of items to donate includes canned vegetables, canned turkey, instant mashed potatoes, stuffing and other foods typically served at Thanksgiving meals. The list also includes other necessities such as breakfast foods and toiletries.

Those wishing to donate can do so by using the various drop box locations around campus: the Vadalabene Center, Peck Hall, Lovejoy Library, Rendleman

Hall, the Student Success Center, the Kimmel Student Involvement Center and Alumni Hall. Alternatively, community members may make donations online through the You Give Goods website. Donations for the holiday boxes will be accepted through Oct. 23.

All current students, staff and faculty members may sign up to receive a holiday box. Individuals may find the link to sign up for a box on the Cougar Cupboard’s Facebook page. The boxes will be available for pickup from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Nov. 16 - 20 at the Kimmel Student Involvement Center front desk.

COVID-19 I COVER

BY THE NUMBERS

COVID-19 at SIUE

New confirmed positive cases (from

Percentage of isolation/quarantine space available on campus (as of Oct. 8): 95 percent Source: Health, Reporting, and Testing page on SIUE’s COVID-19 website, as of Oct. 9

tests conducted by SIUE and self-reporting):

Oct. 2 - 8: 5 students, 0 faculty/staff Sept. 25 - Oct. 1: 32 students, 1 faculty/staff 14-day new positive tests: 37 students, 1 faculty/ staff All prior weeks positive tests (Aug. 1 - Sept. 24): 69 students, 17 faculty/staff Total positive cases: 106 students, 18 faculty/staff

Tests conducted by SIUE Oct. 2 - 8: 54 Sept. 25 - Oct. 1: 143 14-day new tests conducted: 197 All prior weeks tests conducted (Aug. 21 - Sept. 24): 358 Total tests conducted: 555

Positive cases identified by SIUE testing: Oct. 2 - 8: 2 Sept. 25 - Oct. 1: 7 14-day new positive cases: 9 All prior weeks positive cases (Aug. 21 - Sept. 24): 12 Total: 21

Source: Madison County Health Department COVID-19 Dashboard, as of Oct. 13

Metro East COVID-19 restrictions lifted Friday Indoor dining reopened in the Metro East last Friday, Oct. 9, after more than a month of added COVID-19 mitigations.

These mitigations, which went into effect Sept. 2, were a result of the region’s positivity rate consistently being above the 8-percent threshold established under the Restore Illinois plan. This rate has fallen, with Region 4’s 7-day rolling average standing at 6.6 percent as of Oct. 10.

Under the added restrictions, restaurants and bars were required to operate at 25 percent capacity and close their doors no later than 11 p.m., among other measures.

With restrictions lifted, these businesses may now reopen their indoor dining spaces while following Phase 4 guidelines.

Regional metrics and more information about the Restore Illinois plan can be found on the IDPH website. | Summer Bradley / The Alestle

make an effort to get underrepresented populations in their clinical trials.

“There’s just been a historical disproportionate lack of representation, specifically, underrepresented minorities, more specifically African Americans … There’s also this lack of intentionality of wanting or trying to get underrepresented minorities in clinical trials,” Butler said. “I think that it is certainly a commendable action of this company to want to be inclusive.”

Stevens said one way to foster trust of the medical community is to fix barriers to education that prevent Black people from becoming doctors and medical researchers.

“There’s certainly lots of Black nurses, certainly lots of Black folks in the sort of lower echelons of medical care, and nursing aide and those kinds of positions, but we do need to see this kind of increase in Black folks who are doing research, Black folks who are working as primary care physicians,” Stevens said. “We need to work on those sort of barriers that keep Black folks from getting that kind of education.”

To learn more about the National Medical Association, visit their website.

For more information on how COVID-19 impacts racial and ethnic minorities, visit the CDC page on Health Equity.

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Crisis intervention calls down, Zoom fatigue up NICOLE BOYD copy editor

While fewer people on campus means fewer crisis intervention calls to SIUE police, students may be less likely to seek mental health services in an online format, raising concerns.

SIUE Police Chief Kevin Schmoll said despite the usual surge in welfare checks at the beginning of the school year, often due to concerned parents asking SIUE police to check on their children, fewer people on campus has resulted in a lower volume of calls.

“We had a total of nine [crisis intervention team] calls [between March 9 and Oct. 6]. Five were not transported, four were transported and out of those nine, two were involuntary … so our volume of calls are down because there’s just less people, less students, less residents on campus due to COVID restrictions,” Schmoll said.

Schmoll said all officers who respond to crisis intervention calls are certified in crisis intervention training.

“They know how to talk to the person that they’re dealing with and they can make the determination if they are a threat to themselves or others, and most of the time they can talk them into going voluntarily,” Schmoll said.

Courtney Boddie, Director of Counseling Services and Associate Dean of Students for Diversity and Inclusion, said Counseling Services and SIUE PD work

together to give each other notes, as well as update and modify procedures.

“In general, welfare checks are something that are asked for by another entity beyond the police. So it’s generally the case that the care report would tell us who are all the concerning students, and then those same people may have either self-initiated a welfare check, or may have asked counselors of the Dean of Students to do so,” Boddie said. “And so because, generally speaking, the PD aren’t sort of just arriving to the scene and then making a referral, it’s often sort of like closing a communication loop.”

Boddie said Counseling Services does annual comparatives, so he is hesitant to compare numbers mid-semester. However, he said at this point, the number of students seen by Counseling Services has been consistent. Meanwhile, the number of initial assessments, during which a Behavioral Health Case Manager determines which treatment mode is best for a client, are down.

“What we do see is a massive increase in the amount of outreaches that are being asked for, which, because they’re provided by this set of people who also provide the clinical services, is a way in which our services are being utilized at a higher rate,” Boddie said. “And in terms of the number of students that we’re seeing, I would say that the total number is pretty consistent with what we would expect for the fall semester. What’s down a little bit is our

number of initial assessments.”

Boddie said a survey put out by the Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and the Associate Provost, which collected 1,800 responses, indicated that students are less willing to participate in virtual activities.

“One of the clearest things that people are saying is like, ‘If everything that I have to do, including my interactions with student organizations, have to be done via Zoom,’ then there’s a certain amount of decreased willingness that I think people have to just continue sitting in front of the computer,” Boddie said. “And my sense is that any decreases that we see in those initial assessments probably have to do with, one, ‘not one more thing online,’ even though our services are more accessible than ever, you know, I get tired of looking at the computer too. And then I think the other piece is that when folks face major changes to the basic fabric of life, I think that the adjustment sometimes means that priorities are flipped.”

Counseling Services hosted Virtual Screening Days from Oct. 7 to Oct. 9 to allow students to assess their mental health by filling out a wellness survey.

“The results overall are consistent with other survey results that we have used in our campus community in the past, so there isn’t any significant elevation in what people are reporting compared to the other sets of students that we have used this with,” Lisa Gibson-Thompson, staff counsel-

or and coordinator for outreach and prevention, said.

Lisa Vargovcik, a licensed clinical social worker from Radzom Counseling, said while traditional-age college students seem to be less concerned about contracting COVID-19, they seem more anxious about their workloads.

“I have had some students talk about increased workload, so for this Fall 2020 semester, feeling like there’s a lot more demand for projects and homework, and then some people just not liking or preferring the virtual format,” Vargovcik said.

Jonathan Pettibone, a psychology professor, said the uncertainty of the level of risk may affect how a person responds to something like COVID-19, offering a hypothetical to explain his point.

“Let’s just assume it’s a two percent mortality rate from COVID. If that’s the objective number, some people will subjectively interpret that as riskier than two percent, and some people will subjectively interpret it as less risky than two percent, which is why you get this wide variety of responses in the absence of a common leadership to set a social norm,” Pettibone said. “We’re leaving a lot of things up to individuals, and there are a lot of contextual and other psychological factors that are affecting how we interpret it.”

Visit the Counseling Services website to learn more about their services.

COUNSELING I COVER

thing to faculty, so I put it on the shelf. When the pandemic started, I started getting questions about what we provided and what we could provide,” Boddie said. “It hasn’t stopped being the case that we prioritize students first, but we want it to be available for faculty and staff.”

Boddie said these services are being offered for free, which came as a great relief to Snipes, who said mental health is something everyone should check in on regularly. Snipes also said he has actually used the newly available Counseling Services already, and was glad the counselor hired was one with a diverse background.

“In the same way we keep an eye on our physical health, we need to do so for our minds as well. [The university already provides] an annual medical checkup, and I’m trying to save money, and that can be a huge investment,” Snipes said. “I scheduled and met with her last week, and it was good. Dr. Boddie [was thinking of the Black faculty and staff when he] searched for a practitioner that was culturally informed in their counseling.

She knows Black folks, and she is Black, so I think that matters in terms of a counseling situation. It doesn’t mean she will inherently click with everyone, but it’s important for [a counselor] to be culturally informed about their practices.”

For more information, visit the Counseling Services website.

SIUE sees lack of historically Black and multicultural Greek life, some talk of return ALEX AULTMAN lifestyles editor

SIUE reported their most diverse student body ever this semester, but in recent years three historically Black fraternities and one multicultural fraternity have left campus. SIUE is trying to bring them back, as well as invite new ones to campus.

SIUE currently has seven unrecognized fraternities and sororities. Three are from the National Pan-Hellenic Council, which represents historically Black Greek organizations, and one is from the United Greek Council, which represents culturally-based Greek organizations.

Alpha Phi Alpha is a historically Black fraternity that left campus in 2017 due to violating its national organization’s rules for membership intake, NPHC’s recruitment process, according to senior mass communications major Derric Roberts of Chicago.

He was a member of the fraternity and said he felt the violations were due to the members trying to resolve issues on their own.

“A lot of the issues we were having, we tried to do them ourselves and get things done on our own because we didn’t feel comfortable going to certain people,” Roberts said. “Again, that’s just the naive undergrad, like, you want to do things your way. You want to find the answer your way, and sometimes your way is not always the best.”

SIUE is currently talking with the national organization about Alpha Phi Alpha returning to campus in the near future.

Assistant Director for Fraternity and Sorority Life Tyler Manning said he hopes the Kimmel Student Involvement Center will be able to provide better support to fraternities and sororities to prevent any code of conduct or intake violations from occurring.

“Hopefully, as we continue to return groups, we have better support in place so policy violations like that don’t happen,” Manning said. “We don’t want to see organizations leave campus, because we know our fraternities and sororities are providing a sense of belonging and a home for our students who join.”

Phi Beta Sigma, another historically Black fraternity, also left campus due to intake violations with its national organization.

Associate history professor Bryan Jack was their faculty adviser and said he wasn’t informed by anyone about what happened to the fraternity. He said many student organizations have difficulty sustaining themselves due to various levels of involvement by frequently changing leadership.

“With all student organizations, as people graduate, different people take over and it’s sometimes hard to sustain student organizations when people graduate every year or two,” Jack said. “You may have a group of students who are very involved, then they graduate and maybe the group coming in behind them aren’t as involved.”

SIUE’s chapter of Alpha Psi Lambda, a co-ed Latino-interest fraternity, is currently suspended by the national organization until Fall 2021 due to violations related

Greek life organizations at SIUE RECOGNIZED FRATERNITIES & SORORITIES BY COUNCIL

National Pan-Hellenic Council (historically Black

fraternities and sororities): ◊ Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. ◊ Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. ◊ Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. ◊ Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. ◊ Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. ◊ Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.

◊ Phi Kappa Psi ◊ Sigma Phi Epsilon ◊ Sigma Tau Gamma

United Greek Council (multicultural

fraternities and sororities): ◊ Gamma Phi Omega International Sorority, Inc.

Interfraternity Council (North American

Interfraternity Conference and non-NIC fraternities): ◊ Alpha Kappa Lambda ◊ Delta Chi ◊ Delta Tau Delta ◊ Kappa Sigma

Panhellenic Council (National Panhellenic

Conference sororities): ◊ Alpha Phi International Fraternity ◊ Alpha Sigma Tau Sorority ◊ Alpha Xi Delta Fraternity ◊ Delta Phi Epsilon International Sorority ◊ Kappa Kappa Gamma International Fraternity

UNRECOGNIZED FRATERNITIES & SORORITIES BY COUNCIL

National Pan-Hellenic Council (historically

Black fraternities and sororities): ◊ Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. ◊ Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. ◊ Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

United Greek Council

Interfraternity Council (North American Interfraternity Conference and non-NIC fraternities): ◊ Delta Upsilon Fraternity

to their membership intake process. Manning said this doesn’t mean they will be back that semester due to the possible return of other fraternities and sororities.

“As we’re trying to bring back Alpha Phi Alpha, Phi Beta Sigma and Alpha Psi Lambda, we can’t bring them all back at the same time. We talked through like, ‘Here’s our timeline for all the other groups that we have coming. Can we talk about maybe not fall 2021, maybe it’s spring 2022?’” Manning said. “We want to be intentional in the support

◊ Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity ◊ Sigma Pi Fraternity

(multicultural fraternities and sororities): ◊ Alpha Psi Lambda National, Inc.

Panhellenic Council (National Panhellenic Conference sororities): ◊ N/A

that our staff provides to the new groups, and making sure that they’re all equally supported.”

The university is also looking to bring in Greek organizations to represent other student demographics. Manning said they are hoping to sign establishment agreements with Asian-interest fraternities and sororities.

“An organization that’s not been on our campus before, but they have a good reputation nationally, is Alpha Kappa Delta Phi, and they are an Asian-interest sorority. And then the other

group we were specifically looking at was Pi Alpha Phi Fraternity Incorporated, which is an Asian-interest fraternity,” Manning said. “So, as SIUE becomes more diverse, we want to make sure that there are offerings for really all of our students to join a fraternity and sorority if they are interested.”

Students who are interested in joining an existing fraternity or sorority or starting a new chapter can contact Manning at tymanni@siue.edu or email greeklife@ siue.edu.

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contact the editor: lifestyles@alestlelive.com 650-3527 thursday, 10.15.20

LGBTQ+ History Month prompts advocates to reflect on challenges, past and present JOHN MCGOWAN reporter

As the fight for equality for LGBTQ+ individuals continues in America, advocates and members of the community remember how far they’ve come, and what still needs to be done.

Rodney Wilson, a teacher from St. Louis, originally proposed the idea for a Gay and Lesbian History Month in the 1990s.

He said he wouldn’t have been able to imagine the strides that have b e e n made for LGBTQ+ rights when he first started his advocacy.

“I’ve witnessed enormous change.

T h e thought in ‘94, when I was 29, that one day marr i a g e equality would happen, is a thought I would never have had.

That seemed like an event that might happen in 50 years,” Wilson said.

Business professor and adviser for SIUE’s Gay-Straight Alliance Robyn Berkley said 2003 was the point when real change started to come for the LGBTQ+ community.

“One of the biggest watershed events was Lawrence v. Texas, where they finally said being gay and lesbian is not something that you should be arrested for …

That opened up the door,” Berkley said.

Despite the fact that substantial progress has been made for the community, there are still threats to reduce their rights.

Recently, some Supreme Court justices have questioned the legitimacy of the legalization of samesex marriage. Berkley said people need to be aware of the threats facing the community.

“Many of us feel like ‘I’m doing good now. I can get married if I want to.’ There’s still a long way to go. People can still lose their jobs because they’re gay … These issues are still a concern,” Berkley said.

Almost half of the U.S. states, 23 of the 50, have no explicit prohibitions for discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in state law.

Gay and Lesbian History month was first proposed in January of 1994, celebration of bisexuality was added just a year later.

After that, the month continued to grow into something celebrated by all sexual orientations.

The event was set in October because that is the month the March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights occurred.

Wilson said setting up what would become LGBTQ+ History Month was important to him because history can be empowering.

“Understanding what c a m e before us is important.

Understanding all the various social m o v e ments that brought us to the time we find ourselves in t o d a y matters, and [young people] can find themselves in history,” Wilson said. “There is a reservoir of power that can be found in the people that lived before they lived.”

On the changes he’s seen through his time in the community, Wilson said his definitions of the words “gay” and “queer” have changed.

“It used to be that the word ‘gay’ just covered the whole thing … Young people today, they say ‘queer, queer community, queer studies’ and so on. Maybe that’s a fine word, but for people of my generation that word still stings a little bit,” Wilson said.

SIUE’s Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion is holding events for LGBTQ+ History Month, including a screening of “Moonlight” and a Drag Show Trivia Event. CSDI Director Lindy Wagner said it’s important individuals who are not part of the community also attend the events.

“It helps them understand more about those particular identities, and also helps them get to know people who actually might identify in those ways and want to be more connected on campus as well,” Wagner said.

Students interested in participating in LGBTQ+ History Month can visit the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion’s website to learn more about the events being held.

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COVID-19 creates challenges for some student-owned businesses, helps start others NICOLE BOYD copy editor

COVID-19 has affected many small businesses, including those run by SIUE students.

While some student business owners benefit from the flexibility of online learning, others miss the structure of in-person classes.

Abby Gettemeier, a senior integrative studies major from Pacific, Missouri, runs an earring business called Lobes by Abby, for which she makes earrings out of polymer clay and sells them on Depop. She started her business in July, but the start of the semester changed how she operates.

“I feel like so much of my life is chaos right now because I have no structure, and that has just made the earrings process so much harder because … during the summer I was able to dedicate seven days a week, or seven nights a week, to making earrings, whereas now because of classes I have only been able to work on earrings maybe twice a week,” Gettemeier said. “I don’t know if that would change if we had in-person classes, but I feel like I would be able to have more structure to my life and to my day.”

Emily Whelan, an MBA master’s candidate from Waterloo, Illinois, runs Emily’s Concrete Engraving, LLC. Whelan said she cuts and colors concrete to make it look pretty. As a mother of two, Whelan said the online program

has given her more flexibility to work on both school and her business.

“I’m up at 2:45 in the morning most days, because I spend the first three hours of my day doing all my schoolwork while the kids are sleeping, and then for the rest of the day I’m either working or taking care of the kids or homeschooling or doing their homework or taking care of the house,” Whelan said.

“There’s not ever a good time to do schoolwork, so I just do it first thing in the morning before my day gets crazy. The flexibility is very necessary for my lifestyle.”

Daniel Weeden, a freshman computer science major from St. Louis, runs an embroidery business called Supreme Hustle.

Weeden said since he has two classes on campus, he is still able to network in-person.

“I’ve been doing it since remote learning started and it’s been blowing up. I guess once I got back on campus, I was able to network with more students and see more people, so that increased business,” Weeden said.

Weeden said he was able to embroider masks to drive business.

“When it first started, I was a little skeptical. You know, some people, they wouldn’t want to spend their money on embroidery because it wasn’t a necessity when COVID first struck. But I worked around it and I actually started making masks and that’s

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Senior integrative studies major Abby Gettemeier, of Pacific, Missouri, makes all of her polymer clay earrings by hand and sells them through a business she calls Lobes by Abby. | Photos courtesy of Abby Gettemeier

what kicked it off,” Weeden said.

“I started doing face masks and embroidery on [them] and then I went from there.”

Gettemeier said she started the business as a way to make money after losing her job due to the pandemic.

“I had no form of income and was practically just looking for any form of income that I could possibly have. I didn’t even have my ears pierced, and I was making earrings just for friends and stuff, and then was like, ‘wait a minute, I could probably make

money doing this,’ and so that’s what I did and that’s how I started,” Gettemeier said. “I wouldn’t be able to tell if [COVID] is hurting my business or helping my business because I’m doing it all online.”

Whelan said doing remote learning with her children posed the greatest challenge to her business.

“I couldn’t find a daycare or childcare to fill in and do homeschooling lessons for my kids, so for most of the month of September I wasn’t even able to work. So

it kind of set me on the sideline there for a while, and now they’re back in school, but it’s only 8 [a.m.] to noon so they’re only half days,” Whelan said. “So I still have a very small support system, so that’s definitely my biggest challenge.”

Visit @lobesbyabby or @supremehustleco on Instagram to check out their products. Email emilys.engraving@gmail.com or call 618-612-6698 to learn more about Emily’s Concrete Engraving.

‘It’s just our duty to encourage people to vote’: Art showcase aims to get people to the polls JOHN MCGOWAN reporter

During a typical election year, the walls of Sacred Grounds Cafe in Edwardsville, a popular study spot, are lined with posters of various themes and colors for patrons to take as they wish. This year, the display is hands-off, but the posters are being displayed online.

The display is thanks to The Gogh-Getters, an Edwardsville-based group that showcases local artists. They have been putting together The Get Out the Vote Poster Show for presidential elections for the past 12 years.

The team starts by collecting poster designs from the American Institute of Graphic Arts and local artists, and then displays them. Kerry Smith, a founder of The Gogh-Getters, said the team makes sure to keep most posters bipartisan, and the ones that aren’t represent both left and right points of view.

“All of the AIGA posters — the rules are they have to be bipartisan — so they are simply to encourage people to vote.

On the other side of it, we invite a handful of designers across the country or friends around here to submit designs, and there are no bipartisan rules there. They can do whatever they want, and we did invite people from left and right sides,” Smith said.

Curator for The Gogh-Getters Steve Hartman said they hold the event because of their mission statement.

“It’s just our duty to encourage people to vote. It’s our mission to share art that’s topical, and right now there’s probably nothing more topical than the election coming up,” Hartman said.

The group is composed of four members. Along with Smith and Hartman, Dave Thomas of Dave Thomas Design and Jim Harper of The Corporate Electric Agency contribute as well.

The team usually sets up the show with stacks of posters on the wall, available to take and redistribute as viewers please.

With COVID-19 precautions, only one of each poster will be available on the wall, and the team has instead made all the curated designs available to view, download and print on their website.

“This year is a little bit different because we don’t have as much traffic going through the coffee shop, and we don’t want to encourage too many people touching the wall this time. It could possibly spread germs … I’m not going to stop anybody from walking in and taking a poster that’s there now,” Hartman said.

This year, the show is featuring work from designers well known in the art world, like Robynne Raye, Art Chantry and RJ Shay. One featured artist, Milton Glaser, is responsible for the famous “I Heart New York” logo.

This election is made unique due to it taking place on the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

Smith said they took this into account when collecting designs for the showcase.

Sacred Grounds patrons are typically allowed to take home the art from the Get Out the Vote Poster Show, but this year, patrons can print out their own copy online to prevent the spread of COVID-19. | Mackenzie Smith / The Alestle

“Many of the designs you’ll see on our website and in Sacred Grounds are not only celebrating the 100 years of women’s rights to vote, but they also are from women designers across the country, and they’re really beautiful pieces,” Smith said.

Political science professor Laurie Rice said voting is important, and it’s something people should take advantage of.

“I would encourage young people to use their right to vote. There’s a lot of

people that struggled to secure the right to vote,” Rice said. “It wasn’t something that came easily. It took a lot of effort to expand the right to vote to women, and it took a lot of effort to ensure that all African Americans could actually use the right to vote.”

Students interested in the showcase can visit Sacred Grounds or check out The Gogh-Getter’s website and Sacred Grounds Cafe’s Facebook page.

opinion

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alestle VIEW

Debates are for policy, not personal attacks THE ALESTLE STAFF editorial board

The recent presidential debates proved that personal attacks should have no place in a debate. Certain topics should be off limits, and we at The Alestle agree that these debates should be used strictly for discussing various policies in a direct manner.

President Trump and democratic candidate Joe Biden went head to head in the debate on Sept. 29, but their ideas and policies are still unclear to many.

Personal attacks detract from the intended purpose of a debate.

They not only insult the other candidate, but also viewers who relate to that candidate or their situation. Trump used his time to attack Biden and his family during the debate by bringing up the fact that Biden’s son, Hunter

Biden, was discharged from the Navy in 2014 after failing a drug test. Trump attempted to humiliate Biden’s family, not thinking about the millions of people that would feel attacked by his comments along with them.

The Addiction Center says that almost 21 million Americans face drug or alcohol addiction in their lifetime, and only 10 percent of them seek treatment. Using this platform to tell the country that people with addictions, or people who use drugs, should be embarrassed or ashamed only inclines them to not seek out much-needed treatment.

Not only was Trump’s comment disheartening, but it was unprofessional and full of uneducated reasoning. This detail did not pertain to any question or concern brought up by moderator Chris Wallace, and did not

contribute to Trump’s argument against Biden.

Both candidates shied away from answering the questions asked by Wallace, and the same is true for the vice presidential debate. Not only should the candidates make good use of their time, but they should also respect the time of the voters who tuned into the debate. If either candidate does not have an answer, we would prefer they admit to not knowing, instead of skating around in circles to avoid criticism.

Before the debate, both candidates agreed to follow certain rules, including letting each other speak during their allotted time. However, Trump managed to interrupt Biden at almost every chance possible. Even Wallace became fed up with Trump’s game and lack of regard to the

rules.

According to The New York Times, Wallace said, “I’m just disappointed with the results.

For me, but much more importantly, I’m disappointed for the country, because it could have been a much more useful evening than it turned out to be.”

We at The Alestle feel that these debates should be policy based, not rooted in personal hatred for the other side. We understand competition and feel that attacking the flaws in the opponents’ policies could be beneficial, but when it moves to personal attacks, the argument becomes useless. We also understand that the future of our country relies heavily on voters’ decisions. Voters cannot make educated decisions if the candidates cannot make educated arguments.

Yes, Biden sucks, but let’s not forget who’s in office JOHN MCGOWAN reporter

After the presidential debate, I saw quite a few people on Twitter making fun of democratic candidate Biden for various reasons, including him calling President Trump a clown and his reputation for being forgetful.

However, the worst criticism I heard was that the debate felt like “two children fighting.”

The debate was not two children fighting. If anything, Trump was the only child in the situation, attacking a man who’s fed up with the state of this country.

Biden is a bad candidate, but the only reason he’s being mocked to such an extreme degree is because everything about Trump has been normalized.

If this debate was our first time seeing both of those two up on

that stage, the backlash against Trump would have been enormous. Sure, there are valid criticisms against Biden, too, but they’re nothing compared to Trump.

Our acceptance of Trump’s childishness has made us quick to point out Biden’s flaws, which are minor by comparison. We’re just not used to seeing a candidate who must react to that kind of behavior. For example, while some people might think it’s silly Biden says things like “[Trump is] the worst president this country has ever had,” he’s only saying that because, arguably, Trump deserves that reputation.

Trump very well may be the worst president this country has ever had, or at least the worst in recent history. If we get used to his complete lack of respect for the presidency, the country or its

people, he wins, so please don’t let that happen. Don’t ever let his behavior become the norm because, if you do, the chance of another president like him becomes much more likely.

Like I said, I don’t think Biden is the best choice for a Democratic nominee. As far as I’m concerned, he’s Hillary Clinton all over again: an old, out-of-touch candidate who the Democratic National Committee pushed for, despite the fact the young left-wing voters in this country want a candidate who fights for real change.

Nevertheless, I’m voting for Biden, because the alternative is Trump. Our president has been gaslighting the country for the past four years. He’s a racist and a sexist who has lied to us at every opportunity, and he’s responsible for the deaths of more than

200,000 Americans through his mishandling of a COVID-19 response.

Voting third party is an option, and I respect those who feel the need to vote their conscience rather than choose between evils, but the outcome of voters turning to a third party candidate with slim to no chance of winning is another four years for Trump.

During the protests this summer, Trump threatened to unleash the National Guard to shoot protesters, tweeting “When the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!” So yes, I along with so many other voters want to change America in more drastic ways, but for right now, we should choose the candidate that won’t have us killed for exercising our First Amendment rights.

sports

contact the editor: sports@alestlelive.com 650-3527 thursday, 10.15.20

NEXT WEEK: WORLD OF SPORTS TAKES ON THE ELECTION page 7

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Athletics to face all sports championships in the spring Per the NCAA’s decision, SIUE Athletics will have one packed semester.

GABRIEL BRADY reporter

The National Collegiate Athletic Association recently announced they would be moving their fall and winter championships to Spring 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means some colleges, including SIUE, will be holding competitions for every sport at once, which has led to unprecedented changes.

Director of Athletics Tim Hall said although the championships will take place next semester, there are still many events that have yet to be scheduled.

Hall said most likely, student-athletes will come back in January, most competitions will start in February, and they will end around April or May. “The NCAA gives you a start date, and the conclusion date is when the national championships begin. The [individual] conferences set the schedule, [and] we compete in a lot of different conferences. None of [these conferences’ schedules] are really set in stone,” Hall said.

“There are working groups for sports like basketball and football and other sports. We’re working with administrators and coaches in terms of what would be the best scheduling model for the spring sports.”

The various conferences involved have begun setting up their schedules, but Assistant Athletics Director for High Performance Mark Jamison said there is still much to be done.

“The [Ohio Valley Conference], which is where a lot of our sports compete, hasn’t gotten a lot of their stuff set.

They’ve worked on basketball, but noth-

ing has been finalized, so we don’t know yet,” Jamison said.

Although changing the schedule yet again would be difficult, Volleyball Head Coach Kendall Paulus said it all depends on the progress made toward beating COVID-19. Paulus said the volleyball team and the rest of SIUE’s fall sports were originally unsure if they would be allowed to play a season this year. “ We ’ r e hopeful. We have our eyes on January, and we’re planning for that. But it also matters with how numbers look and KENDALL PAULUS student-athvolleyball head coach letes’ safety, but we’re training for January,” Paulus said. “If we can see someone on the other side of the net next spring, our seniors will feel good and we’ll be good. The team wants to see how their hard work will pay off, and so do I.” Even though conferences and competitions have been pushed to the spring by the NCAA, Jamison said there are some SIUE-specific decisions that have to

be made before conferences and competitions begin next semester. One particular concern is if they can keep fans in the stands.

“We’ve been planning a lot, logistically. We don’t know if there will be fans in here for the upcoming things. In terms of game day operations and facilities, we don’t know what we’ll need for work in order to keep it as close to normal as possible,” Jamison said.

If the COVID-19 response stays as is, Hall said the spring will go ahead with all 16 of SIUE’s sports competing at once.

This has led to some unique problems, according to Hall.

“One new issue is … we will have a significant percentage of all athletes traveling at the same time. When we travel, you usually don’t have more than three teams on the road at any one time because of how the schedule is broken up, but condensing a whole year into one semester is going to be challenging because we only own three buses. We’ll have seven or eight teams traveling at

“We’re hopeful. We have our eyes on January, and we’re planning for that ...

If we can see someone on either side of the net next spring, our seniors will feel good and we’ll be good.

The team wants to see how their hard work will pay off, and so do I.

once, so we’ll need charter buses,” Hall said. “It’s not just that way here, it’s that way at every Division I school.”

According to Hall, this new schedule will lead to some new problems, one of which involves scholarship money for student-athletes returning for a final season.

The NCAA stated in March that any student who was unable to play due to the COVID-19 pandemic could return and play in the next season.

“We need to find scholarship money for students with that additional year of competing. You can’t do more with less [in terms of money], you have to prioritize,” Hall said. “Priorities mean figuring out what needs to be done first. When we make decisions along these lines, that means we have to reallocate resources instead of spending that money on other things we want to do. In our priorities, [scholarships are] what we need to get to first.”

Paulus said the NCAA’s offer to students was thoughtful, but she fears some students will have to decline it.

“A lot of seniors are uncertain if they still will get their final year, especially if we have this last semester canceled like the one in the past. To think of coming back in the next fall for another season throws a wrench into a lot of plans, and we’re just going to wait and help [seniors] in that choice,” Paulus said. “We want them to end on a good season, but some of them might be ready to start going off into the professional world and continue on their path, or have internships lined up.”

For more information, check the NCAA’s website or SIUE Athletics’ website.

alestle asks: Athlete edition

When did you first start to fall in love with your sport?

“I’ve played basketball competitively as well as volleyball up until eighth grade. Then, right before high school, I decided that I just love volleyball a lot more than basketball.

I stopped playing basketball … and just focused on my time playing volleyball.”

Ellen LeMasters, junior volleyball outside hitter

“From the beginning, it was something I [did] for fun with my family, so it was kind of a connection. I had love for it from that.”

Hannah Bagley, junior volleyball outside hitter

“My freshman year of high school when I started to get really good. I saw myself just becoming better than the other girls I was playing around. That’s when I started to notice, ‘I can do something with this.’”

Kelsie Williams, junior women’s basketball forward

“Right after my freshman year of high school I realized that this is something I really loved, and I could not see myself stopping anytime soon.”

Jessica Whiteley, junior volleyball middle blocker

“Eighth grade is when I really got serious with it, that’s when I started club volleyball also with school volleyball. That’s when I started to take it seriously and wondered if I wanted to pursue playing in college.”

Nicole Kijowski, sophomore volleyball defense specialist

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People of all ages gather at Goshen Coffee in Edwardsville on Sunday for a pet adoption event hosted by Partners for Pets, featuring both puppies and cats. | Khoi Pham / The Alestle