Friday, January 20, 2017 | Volume 212 | Number 84 | 40 cents | iowastatedaily.com | An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890.
TRUMP’S
AMERICA Max Goldberg/Iowa State Daily
Reflecting on Trump’s political journey before Friday inauguration By Chris.Anderson @iowastatedaily.com
D
onald Trump will swear on Friday to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, officially becoming the 45th president of the United States of America. What to many was a long-shot, idealistic dream or even worst nightmare will become reality at noon in Washington, D.C. Trump has had perhaps one of the most unorthodox political journeys a president has had to date. His journey reflects exactly who he is and the spirit he has promised to bring to the Capitol: that of a political outsider. Steffen Schmidt, political science professor at Iowa State, believes Trump may have trouble adjusting to the political landscape of Washington. “The most unusual thing is that we’ve never had, or hardly in history, a president who didn’t have experience in the public sector,” Schmidt said. “It’s very unusual to have someone who’s used to giving orders in a family business and having them carried out and controlling everything in their economic and social environment. That’s not how the public sector works.” Schmidt said so far, Trump has been successful in doing and saying things presidents normally can’t get away with. Whether this will
TRUMP p4
carry over to his actual presidency remains to be seen. One problem Trump could run into early during his presidency is that of low public support. Although it became evident by Trump’s upset victory last November that polls can be wrong, current polling data shows Trump has the lowest approval rating of all recent first-term presidents taking office. According to Gallup polls, 40 percent of Americans hold a favorable opinion of Trump, compared to the 78 percent Obama had in 2009 before taking office. Schmidt said low approval ratings can be detrimental because Congress pays attention to those numbers. Schmidt also said serious issues with approval ratings could have damaging impacts on Trump’s ability to keep congressional Republicans on his side due to their fears of their own electability. “Republicans are saying, ‘If we jump into bed with Donald Trump on everything, it could drag us down’,” Schmidt said. That being said, Schmidt noted it that was clear Trump touched a raw nerve in many voters pertaining to their dissatisfaction with the current establishment. Republicans, with Donald Trump at the top of their ticket, swept the 2016 elections and are now in control of Congress and the presidency. They also will have a good chance to control the Supreme Court in the future. “There’s going to a completely different perspective in the Republican administration to what Obama has been doing for the last 8 years,” Schmidt said. As president, Trump will be responsible for appointing leaders of various federal agen-
1999 Trump forms exploratory committee for seeking nomination of the Reform Party for President of the United States.
July 19, 2016 Trump officially becomes Republican nominee for president as electors cast their ballots in Cleveland, Ohio.
Dec. 19, 2016 Trump officially wins electoral college vote for 45th President of the United States.
June 16, 2015 Trump announces candidacy to seek Republican nomination for President of the United States.
Nov. 9, 2016 Following the election results Trump officially accepts victory after receiving a concession phone call from Hillary Clinton.
Maddie Leopardo/Iowa State Daily
Laura Doering, candidate for a new admissions position, presents Thursday.
ISU admissions candidate targets student success By Jake.Dalbey @iowastatedaily.com Laura Doering led the conversation at Thursday’s candidate forum for a new enrollment position by presenting her goals, which aim to address issues of student acquisition and keep future alumni happy while attending Iowa State. Doering, a longtime Iowa State contributor and alumna, has been the university’s registrar since 2012 and is one of four candidates for the associate vice president of managing enrollment and student success position. As a member of the registrar office since 1996, Doering has led many projects aimed to help students grow academically, including the ground level development of creating Iowa State’s current learning communities. Signifying the natural interconnectivity of the position in relation to Iowa State as a whole, Doering sees the many moving cogs of the job as integral toward student success. “I’ve had a lot of fun working with amazing and talented teams,” Doering said. “This is something that really interests me in this position, being able to provide support and collaborate with a broader scale of individuals.” Focusing on several important aspects of the job, Doering listed student retention, creating a diverse student group and creating conversations between unrelated colleges as focal points for her strategic enrollment management plan. “I am the type of leader to communicate vision, and it will be a collaborative vision,” Doering said. The vision involves every college on the Iowa State campus staying connected and up to date with news or new data collections. Doering hopes to partner will colleges to create new student success programs for areas of education that need more students and find ways to help colleges that are at capacity to control their population. Citing the growing enrollment of Iowa State, Doering sees “building” as the step toward managing student numbers through building relations and communications.
SUCCESS p4
Ames alliance strives for social justice By Mary.Pautsch @iowastatedaily.com For Iowa State education professor Gale Seiler, the need to advocate for diversity within the Ames Community School District is a serious concern. Various members of the Ames community agreed with Seiler on Wednesday night at the Ames Public Library during “Inclusive Ames - Question 2 Action,” an event organized by the Ames Progressive Alliance (APA). The organization aims to use or create community resources to benefit the city, especially in terms of social justice and empowerment. “Speaking from the viewpoint of Alliance, I don’t want you to avoid challenges,” Matthew Goodman, APA member, said to those in attendance before the event began. “We
ry Janua : al Speci ng Parki
Free
want to bring mass to the goals we make here.” The Inclusive Ames event was created to let the city’s citizens help create resolutions to problems identified by the APA and the Ames community. Wednesday night’s event posed the question, “How can the Ames community empower and equip families and all young residents to help combat discrimination that has been amplified since the election?” Those in attendance were split up into small groups to discuss the proposed question, and discussions quickly turned toward the Ames Public School system. “I’m shocked by the lack of depth [in discussions] around topics of race, religion, anything, within the public schools,” Seiler said. Seiler mentioned that she believes it is important to identify social justice issues
that affect students of color or those who are considered at-risk. In the past, she and others suggested programs to school administrators, but the suggestions were met with resistance. “We had tried to reach out to Ames Middle but had been turned down,” Seiler said. “Then we did go to Ames High, and they were very receptive.” After some discussion among the individual groups, the Ames Progressive Alliance decided to work toward building a plan to identify a set of standards for social justice training in all public schools. The training would be evaluated for its quality and effectiveness. A committee consisting of members of the Ames community plans to contact other school districts across Iowa to see if there are any similar programs that have already been implemented in their schools.
The committee also is seeking to put pressure on Ames Public Schools’ administrators to create a professional development day for teachers and staff for the social justice training to take place, and then create resources for faculty to look back on for reference. The improvement of students’ learning environments and experiences is a longterm goal. One smaller goal to achieve this would be to include younger individuals, middle school students in particular, in future Ames Progressive Alliance discussions. Goodman continued the discussion by sharing his vision of the end results. “The end, end goal for me would be to see reading and math scores rise and nearly every student graduate,” Goodman said. The Ames Progressive Alliance will have a follow-up meeting of “Inclusive Ames” from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Ames Public Library.
Beach View • Sunset View • Sunset Beach 2 Bedrooms with 2 Baths 5 0 M B I C S I n t e r n e t • D i r e c t T V • Wa l k i n g D i s t a n c e • L o f t e d u n i t s a v a i l a b l e
258 N Hyland
www.fpmofames.com
515-292-5020