www.rwuhawksherald.com Vol. 31, Issue 17 FREE
APRIL 4, 2019 OPINIONS | Trump Supports Special Olympics | PAGE 4 SPORTS | Player’s Perspective: Ultimate Frisbee | PAGE 7 FEATURES | Artwork in Commons | PAGE 9 ARTS & CULTURE | What’s New on Netflix? | PAGE 14
It’s a woman’s world More changes made to
Women’s Recognition Ceremony honors female staff, faculty members
U-Fest Kayla Ebner Editor-in-Chief
The university recently announced two more changes to the long-held tradition of U-Fest. Starting on April 27 of this year, U-Fest is now a 21 and older event only. The other major change is the location. The BYOB-style event will now be held in C-lot, the commuter lot across from the tennis courts, instead of the Bayside 200s. On Monday, April 1, an email was sent out to the junior and senior classes which immediately sparked conversation both through word-of-mouth and social media. Director of Student Programs and Leadership Carol Sacchetti said the changes were implemented mainly as “health and safety concerns” for students. “U-Fest is not a student-sponsored event, it is a Student Life event,” she said, making clear that the changes did not come from students. Vice President of Student Life John
Kayla Ebner / The Hawks’ Herald Morganna Beltre, school certifying official at the University College in Providence, reacts to her award as University College Woman of the Year.
Kayla Ebner Editor-in-Chief Any member of the RWU community can name a female staff or faculty member that has positively affected their time at the university. After a “brief hiatus” was taken from celebrating the women at RWU, the 21st annual Women’s Recognition Ceremony was resurrected on Tuesday, April 2 to honor 31 women who go above and beyond at the institution. Faculty, staff and students gathered in the North Residence Hall Great Room to celebrate these exceptional women who were nominated for their contributions. At this event, 31 women were recognized and five of these women were honored as Women of the Year for going even farther with their contributions to the RWU community. This was led by Chief Diversity Officer Ame Lambert who said each and every woman honored deserved to have their
time “in the sun.” “Women are socialized to be in the background…so we become uncomfortable with the spotlight. We don’t want to spend a lot of time in the sun,” she said. Vice President of Institutional Advancement Lisa Raiola recognized the importance of honoring women in a world where they still face oppression on many levels. “When you shut down something that is very powerful, it’s like cutting down a Redwood tree, and it does take a long time to grow back,” she said in her beginning remarks. “Today, we want to put down new roots and celebrate these voices, their contributions, their good and tireless work, and that signature female energy that lifts us up at Roger Williams.” Morganna Beltre, school certifying official at the University College in Providence, was honored to be nominated and said she was very excited to See PANEL page 2
King echoed Sacchetti’s safety concerns. He said the problems they have seen in the past, mostly involving the level of alcohol intake by students, have not gone away, so something had to be done. “I know people were looking forward to it and one of their complaints was the late notice of the changes, but this issue is not a new issue. We’ve been talking about this for years,” he said. “There are just no ideas coming for us from students on how to make this a safer event.” A petition to revoke the changes made was sent out to students and has over a whopping 1,150 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon. The creator of the petition, 21-year-old Greg Stamm, wrote a statement along with the petition: “I will not lie to you, U-Fest will not entirely stop unsafe/underage drinking, there will never be a way to guarantee 100% legal and safe consumption of alcohol by college See U-FEST page 3
Career advice for the LGBTQ+ community Nicole Parent Herald Contributor LGBTQ+ students on campus sipped root beer in Global Heritage Hall, listened to how to navigate their careers and their identities. All students can participate in career week but the Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA) organized Queers, Beers & Careers to give the LGBTQ+ community on campus some advice on how to find their identities in the workplace. “The whole idea of this event was basically to invite our LGBT+ community here to hear from LGBT+ individuals who are already in the work field to give advice about what it is like to be a LGBT+ individual in their field,” Outreach Chair Madeline Leahy said. Six panelists attended the event. According to Leahy, some of the people invited to the event to be panelists declined to attend the event because they were worried about being outed at work. Luckily, the panelists who did attend
Trey Powers / The Hawks’ Herald Kelly Scafariello, former editor-in-chief of The Hawk’s Eye, was one of the panelists at the event who spoke on her experiences in the workplace as a queer person.
the event were not putting their careers in danger by participating. “No one has ever batted their eye at me when I say my girlfriend, then fiancé, then wife,” panelist and RWU alum Samantha Kowlaski said. “I have never hidden who I am from any of my employers. That being said, I do not See LBGTQ+ page 3
