Feb. 22, 2017

Page 1

Since 1919

Emory University’s Independent Student Newspaper

The Emory Wheel

Volume 98, Issue 18

Printed Every Wednesday

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

SGA

CLIMATE

SGA Delays Elections, Restructure Bill Vote By BriaN SaviNo Arts & Entertainment Editor The SGA election period has been postponed by one week, pushing back information sessions, candidacy declarations, the campaign period and vote. The start of the SGA election and voting period moved from March 13 to March 20 because the 50th legislature of the Student Government Association (SGA) delayed a vote on a bill that details the undergraduate student government restructure. The delay allows constituents more time to understand and “digest” the bill, according to the Speaker of the Legislature and College senior Justin Sia. SGA originally planned to vote on the bill Monday night, Sia said. Elections will finish by the end of March, and officers will be seated at the beginning of April, SGA President and College senior Max Zoberman said. Should SGA approve a proposed undergraduate student government restructure bill next Monday, the bill will go to an undergraduate referendum in which a simple majority is required to pass it. The legislature hosted a town hall in the Jones Room of the Robert W. Woodruff Library on the structure and implementation timeline of the post-

referendum undergraduate government Monday night. Zoberman said that the legislature anticipates passing Bill 50sl24, which would amend the SGA Constitution to reflect the new undergraduate student government structure, next week. The restructure follows the passage of the Jan. 31 University-wide referendum that split SGA into two autonomous graduate and undergraduate branches. SGA will host another town hall Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. in the Jones Room to address constituent concerns and to answer questions. After the town hall, legislators will vote immediately vote, according to Zoberman. Should legislators approve the bill next Monday, it will go to an undergraduate-wide referendum in which constituents will vote online on OrgSync from March 13 to 15. Prior to the referendum, legislators will inform their constituents via emails and town halls about the details of the bill and changes that would be implemented. If a simple majority votes in favor of the bill, the new SGA Constitution will be ratified and information sessions will be held regarding positions available for election, Zoberman said. Zoberman added that April will function as a “transition period” for

See tHeAter, Page 3

Christian garCia/Contributing Writer

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore addresses the impact of climate change at the Climate and Health Meeting to more than 300 attendees at the Carter Center Feb. 16.

See ForMer, Page 3

COMMENCEMENT

Trethewey Choice Garners Indifference By aliSha coMptoN aNd NiraJ Naik Emory Life Editor and Staff Writer

Following last week’s announcement that former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey will deliver the keynote speech at this year’s commencement

CREATIVE WRITING

ceremony, the majority of undergraduate and graduate students The Emory Wheel interviewed expressed indifference toward Emory’s selection. The Wheel spoke to 26 randomly selected students — both graduate and undergraduate — who are graduating this year, the majority of whom said they were unaware of who Trethewey

was or of the commencement speaker selection announcement. All but one graduating student who knew of Trethewey expressed indifference or distaste about her delivering the speech at the May 8 commencement ceremony.

FLINT

SCHOLARSHIP

See StUdentS, Page 4

Poet Laureate Decries Trump Wall Ex-Student Emory Joins Flint Announces Crisis Group Bobby Jones By Julia MuNSlow Executive Editor

At five years old, U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera watched border patrol arrive at a neighbor’s home, pull the family into a van and leave. Nearly 60 years later, he still remembers that day. “Everything was just left,” he told the Wheel. “The land, the house. But we had to pack up because my father worked for them, find something else.” Herrera, the son of migrant farmworkers in California, has come face to face with stories of immigration and deportation throughout his life. Now, in a time of divisiveness in America, the first Latino poet laureate is attempting to break down walls between communities while working under a presidential administration that has threatened to build them. For Herrera, the story of deportation is nothing new. Thanks to a childhood riddled with friends’ and family members’ interactions with border patrol, he’s familiar with issues of immigration, though for many, it’s a new hot topic in national politics. Despite the Trump administration’s threats to deport undocumented immigrants and Trump’s campaign promise to rescind Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which allows certain undocumented individuals deferred depor-

tation, Herrera said he will remain an employee of the Library of Congress. He spoke at Emory Sunday, Feb. 19, reading poems about deportation and immigration in the 12th season of the Raymond Danowski Reading Series. He condemned the “border machine,” the institutions that enforce the U.S.-Mexican border such as detention centers, border patrol, police and the necessitation of being “approved” to cross into the U.S. in an interview with the Wheel. “It’s a vicious machine,” he said. “We use that machine to resolve our sense of nation, our sense of protection, of who we are, but it’s an ugly

NEWS Gore hosTs

EMORY LIFE chai

A&E

climaTe, healTh meeTinG aT carTer cenTer ... PAGE 4

By varuN Gupta Contributing Writer

Scholars

machine.” He compared the “machine” to the U.S. internment of JapaneseAmericans in the 1940s, denouncing the “segregation” caused by the camps. “What kind of nation are we if we use that thing?” he asked. “It’s like having a 50-foot barbed wireshooting, beaming, howling fence with watchtowers around our home to feel like a family … I don’t think I’d want to be that family that way … We’ve turned ourselves into the makers of a sick, border-securitizing machine and that’s our downfall.”

A former Emory graduate student is on cleanup duty a major American environmental and public health crisis. Chris Kolb, executive director of the Michigan Environmental Council, was one of 19 law, environmental science and policy experts appointed to the Environmental Justice Work Group, which Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder created last week to develop materials on environmental and health hazards for the government following the Flint. Mich., water crisis. Snyder’s creation of the Environmental Justice Work Group came amidst the city’s recovery from a years-long crisis in which Flint residents’ drinking water was contaminated with lead. He created the group in response to recommendations from the Flint Water Advisory Task Force, which he commissioned October 2015 to investigate the phenomena. The new group will examine policy issues and develop guidance, training

Four Emory College seniors were named Bobby Jones Scholars: Jason Ehrenzeller, Julianna Joss, Ekaterina Koposova and Joan Shang. The scholarship winners will pursue a paid year of master’s study at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland for the 2017-18 academic year, according to a Feb. 21 University press release. The Robert T. Jones Jr. Scholarship was established in 1976 in honor of late Emory alumnus and acclaimed golfer Robert T. Jones Jr. (29L). Inspired by Jones’ diverse interests and international experiences, the award honors the close relationship between Emory University and the University of St. Andrews via a yearly exchange program. A panel of Emory faculty members, Bobby Jones Scholar alumni and community supporters of the program selected fi-

See Crowd, Page 10

See KoLb, Page 4

See SCHoLArS, Page 4

Christine song/staff

U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera reads his poetry at the Schwartz Center to more than 300 people Feb. 19.

By Nicole Sadek Social Media Editor

‘la la land’ is OP-ED The Problem WiTh SPORTS baseball Wins Pani offers auThenTic, fresh Poised To sWeeP oscars, seT seven sTraiGhT To beGin The our rich, exPensive u.s. PAGE 7 all-Time record... PAGE 10 PresidenT ... PAGE 12 season ... food ... Back Page


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