SIUE HOSTS GREATER ST. LOUIS BOTBALL TOURNAMENT
TENNIS SENDS OFF SENIORS, SUFFERS TWO LOSSES
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vol. LXXI no. XXXIII
alton — east st. louis — edwardsville
thursday 04.18.19
Hate crime reported on campus Bias Incident Response Team following up MIRANDA LINTZENICH editor-in-chief
The Faculty Association protest in the Meridian Ballroom during the Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day event. They have been negotiating higher wages with administration. | Jakob Ruffner / The Alestle
Staff Appreciation Day starts in protest HANNAH MILLER sports editor
What began as the annual Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day turned into a protest for higher wages organized by the Faculty Association. “We’d like to put a little heat on the chancellor and the administrators and let them know that we need a raise and not a party. They can say this is an appreciation event, but we don’t feel appreciated,” Faculty Association President and Professor of Music Kim Archer said. Archer said the 25-month negotiation period was too long for faculty to wait for raises. “We’ve been working on
our first contract with the administration for 25 months, and for 11 of those months, [the university] couldn’t even bother to give us a salary counter-proposal,” Archer said. “Now we have their salary counter-proposal, and it’s ridiculously low. The university has $27 million in a cash savings account, and they’re telling us that at $255,000 per 1-percent raise to the faculty, they’re too poor to give us a raise.” Archer declined to provide the university’s counter-proposal, citing ongoing negotiations, but said starting faculty at SIUE currently make a salary of $42,000. According to Vice Chancellor for Administration Rich Walker, the university and the Faculty Association have an agreement to
not discuss negotiations with the press. Walker declined to comment on the protests. “We will honor the agreement that we won’t talk about negotiations in the press, and we continue to meet with [the Faculty Association] regularly. In fact, there’s another meeting scheduled Friday, and we continue to talk,” Walker said. Assistant Professor of Mass Communications Undrah Baasanjav said the protest ended because the Faculty Association delivered their message. Chancellor Randy Pembrook and Provost Denise Cobb were not at the Appreciation Day event during the protest. The Alestle will update as information becomes available.
Over the weekend, two police officers took a report of an incident in Bluff Residential Hall. The incident was reported as a hate crime in the Police Blotter as a student advising another subject made a homophobic slur toward him on April 12. Lieutenant Dustin Brueggemann said the two officers, Shane Mason and Anthony Jones, who took the initial reports, are conducting an investigation. Brueggemann said no violence or property damage occurred. The report was sent to the Bias Incident Response Team and the protocol established by Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Jeffrey Waple is to move forward with contacting the victim and seeking additional information. Bias Incidents are defined as acts — either verbal, written, physical, non-verbal or psychological — that threaten or harm persons or groups on the basis of actual or perceived race, religion, color, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, disability, marital status, civil union status, domestic partnership status, atypical heredity, or military service or veteran status. Waple said BIRT has members in counseling, housing and police, among others, that each look at the alleged incident, gather
information together as quickly as possible and decide if there needs to be a campus response. According to Waple, the incident on Friday was not determined to need a campus response. “In many cases, the perpetrator is not known or not a student,” Waple said. “In this case, it may be a student and our job is to follow-up with that student.” Waple said sometimes looking into the incidents takes patience. “We want to make sure we have the best information possible out to the team, and then we can get the best information possible to campus.” Waple said one of the goals is to have students come forward when something like this happens. “I want our community to feel safe, valued and to feel like they belong here,” Waple said. “When bias incidents occur, [students should] feel comfortable to report to any university official.” The Bias Incident Response Team website cites their policies and protocols, how to submit a report and more. It can be found at http://www.siue.edu/misc/birt/ index.shtml. The Alestle will continue to update as more information on the investigation becomes available. MIRANDA LINTZENICH 650-3527 @mlintze_alestle mlintzenich@alestlelive.com
Delta Lambda Phi no longer a fraternity on campus, end of drag show DARIAN STEVENSON reporter
Founded by gay men, for all men, the InterFraternity Council’s Beta Zeta Chapter of the Delta Lambda Phi Social Fraternity, chartered in 2005, will close its chapter due to low membership after 14 years on campus. Senior theater performance major Joe Simpson, of Chicago, said membership has dwindled over the past few years. “Before we closed, we had a good four [members],” Simpson said. “I joined DLP my freshman year in fall of 2015, and when I came into the chapter we had nine members.” To be formally recognized by Student Government, fraternities and sororities are required to have a minimum of three officers and five enrolled SIUE student members. Assistant Director for Fraternity and Sorority Life Tyler Manning said the Kimmel Student Involvement Center tried to help recruit members for Delta Lambda Phi. “It was a pool of students we could provide to Delta Lambda Phi as an initial list of interested men, and, in the past, we have shared the names of men who had registered for IFC Fraternity Recruitment and did not receive a bid [for Delta Lamb@thealestle
da Phi],” Manning said. Due to closing, the chapter can no longer host their drag show on campus. “We usually have our annual drag show in the fall. We hold it at SIUE in the Meridian Ballroom, but unfortunately, due to not being a recognized student organization after the end of this school year, [we] can’t book rooms or have reservations on the campus,” Simpson said. Simpson said he joined Delta Lambda Phi because it was LGBTQ-inclusive. “What really drew me to DLP was that they were a very openly LGTB-friendly organization, and we accept all male-identifying individuals in the community, no matter if you are trans or not,” Simpson said. Delta Lambda Phi alumnus Morgan Morris graduated in 2008 with a pre-med degree. He said he joined because of the bond the fraternity had and has been active after 13 years regionally and nationally. “You can be a group of LGBT members and get together, and it’s not just a social club. It’s a little more deep in its bond, and I didn’t know that until I really went through the process and got close to my fellow pledge brothers,” Morris said. “From the very beginning I was hesitant, and now 13 years later I am still active in the chapter, in the region and then the country when events come along.” Manning said Simpson came to him @thealestle
with the decision to close the chapter. “[Simpson] asked me to share this information with the rest of the United Greek Council community, and after the end of the academic year and the beginning of the summer, I will send out a message to the rest of the SIUE Fraternity and Sorority community to share the closure of the chapter,” Manning said. According to Manning, steps will be taken once the chapter is officially closed. He advised Simpson that the Bank of Edwardsville account should be closed and the money in the account should be transferred to the Delta Lambda Phi university account for when the chapter returns, and any debts owed to the university should be paid. DLP is allowed to hold their desk space until the end of the academic year. The chapter’s banner will be removed prior to Springboard to Success sessions beginning at the end of May, and the fraternity will be removed from the university website and marketing materials for the 2019-20 academic year. Simpson said he believes the chapter will come back in a few years. “I know there is at least some interest in the organization to come back, but college politics are very interesting on SIUE’s campus and in general college politics,” Simpson said. “Us being the only The Alestle
organization that does openly accept [the LGBTQ community] is kind of a threat to the stereotypical Greek community of heterosexual fraternities.” Manning said he knows this decision was a hard one, but the fraternity is welcome back to SIUE whenever they are ready. “I know this decision was not an easy one for Delta Lambda Phi to make. However, the university looks forward to the return of the Beta Zeta Chapter of Delta Lambda Phi in the future,” Manning said.
| Samantha Kitchen / The Alestle alestlelive.com