The Student Newspaper of Saint Joseph’s University
Volume XCVI | Est. 1929 | www.sjuhawknews.com
Oct. 4, 2017
Unidos por Puerto Rico VIVIAN MILAN ’18 Editor in Chief Rodrigo Corral ’18, lost contact with his family at 8 a.m. on Sept. 20 when the eye of Hurricane Maria closed in on San Juan, Puerto Rico. “I lost complete contact for about two or three days,” Corral said. “I still have friends who have no communication with their loved ones.” Hurricane Irma hit Puerto Rico on Sept. 6, followed by Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 storm with winds reaching over 100 miles per hour. This left the entire island without electricity, or clean water and with only limited transportation out of the country. Corral, who was born and raised south of San Juan in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, felt frustration and helplessness while his family was in Puerto Rico experiencing the hurricanes and he was on campus at Saint Joseph’s University. Currently, there are 55 active undergraduate students at St. Joe’s from Puerto Rico. Corral said that he, along with other Puerto Rican students on campus, felt they were more informed of what was going on in Puerto Rico than those living through it. “What made it even worse was that my parents, once they lost communication, didn’t know what was going on around them,
A bake sale held for Puerto Rico raised $2,000 (Photo by Luke Malanga ’20).
but we did,” Corral said. “We knew everything that was going on on the island and they didn’t know anything.” Camila Acosta ’20 shared similar sentiments with Corral, believing that people in the United States were more aware of what was going on in Puerto Rico. “It was definitely frustrating,” Acosta said. “We just had to wait because we could see pictures on the internet and everything, but we couldn’t talk to our parents to see how they were feeling or what they were going through.” Cristina Bonnin ’18, was unable to communicate with her family for five days after Hurricane Maria. Her family had to drive over an hour from their home in Ponce, which is on the southern part of the island, to San Juan just to be able to contact her. “It [was] just hard, not knowing if they were okay or not,” Bonnin said. Acosta felt that the hurricanes provided her with a newfound appreciation of talking to her parents. “You don’t even treasure a phone call with your parents until you don’t have it,” Acosta said. “You see all these other people and they just lost everything. And you’re still here, and even though you’re suffering because you feel for your country, you still have all of this and then there’s people who have nothing as of now.” The First Lady of Puerto Rico, Beatriz Rosselló, created an organization entitled “Unidos por Puerto Rico,” or United for Puerto Rico, to help aid relief in the country.
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Members of Kappa Alpha Psi perform a stomp routine as students watch in excitement (Photo by Charley Rekstis ’20).
BSU event provides community CHARLEY REKSTIS ’20 News Editor Saint Joseph’s University’s Black Student Union (BSU) hosted its second annual Meet the Greeks and Welcome Back Cookout at the Campion Courtyard on Sept. 29. Organized by BSU members and the Office of Inclusion and Diversity (CID), this event introduced African American fraternities and sororities in Philadelphia, showcasing their traditions to students in attendance. The first Meet the Greeks was held in November 2016 and was organized by Brittany Stokes ’16 as work study project with a goal of relating the mission of Student Inclusion and Diversity to something that she was personally interested in, which in this case was Greek Life. “The original goals for this event remain the same - to expose SJU students to NPHC [National Pan-Hellenic Council] organizations and increase the diverse representation in Greek Life at SJU,” said Natalie Walker-Brown M.S., director of Student Inclusion and Diversity. The BSU’s new co-presidents Alexis Wilson ’19 and Milan Morris ’19 were happy with
BRUCE HOWARD ’20 Special to The Hawk
how the event turned out compared to last year. Morris was happy to see people interested in the African American Greek Life. “[Our goal is] to see that our first event is flourishing and that there are people willing to back us up but also for people to be able to join and get information about the citywide Greek Life,” Morris said. “Hopefully people will be interested in them, and will sign up for those organizations so they can maybe bring them to campus.” According to Wilson, the BSU’s mission is about making everyone feel included while also serving a wider purpose of giving back to the community. “BSU was a group created under the Office of Inclusion and Diversity, and it provides a safe space for minority students on campus, but particularly black students,” said Wilson. “We’re looking to get involved in service and also provide opportunities to learn and connect with others here on campus.” The highlight of the event included dance performances by fraternity and soror-
ity members representing their respective organizations. Each of the fraternities and sororities have unique routines, derived from the tradition of “stepping” which are presented as dance rituals. Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, and Sigma Gamma Rho were the sororities represented at the event. Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, and Alpha Phi Alpha were the fraternities. Each organization introduced their chapters to benefit not only themselves, but also the surrounding community. Alpha Phi Alpha is the fraternity that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was part of as a student at Boston University in 1952. A moment of pride for King was when he received the Alpha Award of Honor at the 50th Anniversary Convention of Alpha Phi Alpha. Alpha Phi Alpha’s mission is to develop leaders, promote brotherhood and academic excellence, while providing service and advocacy for our communities. Their motto is “First of all, Servants of all, We shall transcend all.”
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Police safety videos lose sight of race issues ALEX KARPINSKI ’20 Hawk Staff After brainstorming ideas for their social entrepreneurship class, a group of 36 first-year students at Saint Joseph’s University decided to create a series of videos that would teach drivers what to do when pulled over by police. “I thought it was an absolutely terrific idea because it’s not taught in driver’s ed and this has become an issue on a national basis,” said Marc Kramer, Executive in Residence in the Erivan K. Haub School of Business. “It’s always been kind of an issue, when people just don’t know what to do when they’ve been pulled over.” After much discussion, planning and research, the students created a website called PoliceSafety.net. The website includes a series of instructional videos, developed
with the help of the Lower Merion Police Department, which address ideas Kramer believes are not taught at the moment. “It’s definitely fulfilling a need that’s not out there,” Kramer said. “When you took your driver’s test did anybody teach you this? Was this in the driver’s book? So the students really hit on something that was needed, regardless of the circumstances that we’ve seen. It’s something that needed to be done and they did it.” According to a 2011 study taken from the most recent Police-Public Contact Survey released by the U.S. Bureau of Justice, an estimated 42 percent of face-to-face contacts U.S. residents had with police occurred during a traffic stop.
According to Aisha Lockridge, Ph.D, associate professor of English and director of Africana studies, the type of procedure discussed on the website is not the issue for African Americans during traffic stops. “I don’t think the protocol is at issue,” Lockridge said. “I think it’s good to have some protocol. But I don’t think for a black person that following the protocol is what’s going to keep you safe. It’s just not. I think what’s going to keep you safe is a lot of luck.” Austinn Reid ’18, an interdisciplinary health services (IHS) major, has been stopped multiple times by police while driving. As an African American, he understands the fear of being stopped by police.
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