2008-09 Issue 05 Loquitur

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Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008

YOU SPEAK, WE LISTEN

Radnor, Pa.

CABRINI COLLEGE

Pacemaker Winner Vol L, Issue 05

www.theloquitur.com

Multicultural sorority opens new chapter britany wright features editor

blw723@cabrini.edu

Five of Cabrini College’s sophomores are hoping to change the stereotype associated with the word “sorority.” Delta Xi Phi, a multicultural sorority, is under a oneyear trial period and is now accepting pledges for Cabrini’s chapter of the organization. Dana Sciamarelli, math and secondary education major, said, “We want to better the community we live in, not have huge parties.” Sciamarelli, along with her former quad mates Brittany O’Connor, business adminstration/ marketing major Lauren Laird, math and secondary education major, Shannon Mulhern, business major and Spanish minor and Regina Bucher, elementary education major, had been discussing the possibility of organizing a sorority on campus last year. “There are a lot of barriers to break to prove that we’re not bad, and especially not just faking wanting to do community service so that we can have a sorority on campus,” Mulhern said. The barriers they had to break not only are proving the credability of the sorority campus-wide, but in the general formation of the club. First, in order to apply for the college’s recognition of the club was to complete a registration form, have a running executive board, an adviser and five additional students who want to be a part of the club. All general information on how to create a club on campus is located at cabrini.edu/getinvolved. The sorority founders not only completed the necessary guidelines but

SORORITY, page 3

INSIDE

this week’s edition

Catholic relief services/submitted photo

A group of Palestinian students are pictured above at Al-Zaytoon School in Gaza. Over 80 percent of the Palestinians in Gaza live in refugee camps. Catholic Relief Services and their employees are dedicated to helping end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Burcu Munyas, a CRS project manager in Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza was recently interviewed on Cabrini’s campus.

Palestinian youth express need for change christopher r. blake news editor

crb724@cabrini.edu

University-aged Palestinians live a life where freedom seems a world away. Life at times seems without hope. The Gaza Strip, home to more than a million Palestinians, is a conflict-torn area walled off from Israel and Egypt. Over 80 percent of the population in Gaza lives in refugee camps. An e-mail interview with university-aged Gazans and research by Catholic Relief Services reveal the extent of the difficulties they face. Mohammad Al-Rozzi, 23, has lived in a Gazan refugee camp since his birth in 1985 and has

witnessed constant violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2003, Al-Rozzi, applied to a university outside of Gaza to study to become an occupational therapist. Bethlehem University accepted 10 students from Gaza into their program in the West Bank. Al-Rozzi was one of them. However, the students’ hope and excitement would not last for long. Shortly after their university admission, they found out they would not be permitted to travel to Bethlehem to attend the university. Israeli authorities stopped all Palestinians, including students, from leaving the Gaza strip in reaction to explosive rockets fired into Israeli towns from Gaza. Israel controls

all movement in and out of Gaza because it controls the airport and border crossings to the other parts of Palestine, which are separate sections in other regions within Israel. In a complex intra-Palestinian political situation, fighters from the Hamas party forced the ruling Fatah party out of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. This shift in Gazan power threatened Israel since one of Hamas’ charter statements advocates the elimination of Israel.   Gaza became a location from which suicide bombers entered Israel and rockets were launched. As a result, Israel closed the border crossings from Gaza, stopping most commerce and travel. Because of these military and political struggles, young Pales-

tinians’ hopes and ambitions are thwarted by the conflict. The Catholic peacebuilding organization, Catholic Relief Services, has taken notice. “They want a solution. They want change and they want it soon. We have to ask ourselves what can we do to let that happen,” CRS Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza project manager Burcu Munyas said in a recent interview on Cabrini’s campus. In her two years of experience in the region, Munyas, 27, has examined the major issues that college-aged students in Gaza face. The young Palestinians feel isolated because they cannot

PALESTINE, page 3

CRS educates on Sudan mallory terrence editor in chief

mmt723@cabrini.edu diana trasatti copy editor

dlt722@cabrini.edu

How can the largest country in Africa have a region with no medical facilities, large buildings, roads, schools or economy? These are everyday expectations that are taken for granted in most of the world but in southern and western Sudan they are eagerly sought after. Paul Nantulya, peacebuilding and governance manager from Catholic Relief Services Southern Sudan region, came to Villanova University to speak with faculty

and students about the peacebuilding work CRS is engaging in with the people of Sudan. Sudan is the largest country in Africa and has been at war since 1956. Currently, Southern Sudan is working on a new government and trying to implement a peace agreement that was signed in 2005. “Even though in the south we are operating in an environment where a peace agreement has been signed, many stereotypes are still very strong and are very resilient along religious lines, along political lines and along ethnic lines. It makes working in Southern Sudan an extremely

SUDAN, page 3

Nick Pitts/Sports Editor

Paul Nantulya, peacebuilding and govern governance manager from Catholic Relief Services Southern Sudan region, lectures on his work with the Sudanese people in hopes of building peace.

World of blogs

Young artist on display

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