’ THE LION S ROAR S O U T H E A S T E R N L O U I S IA NA U N I V E R S I T Y
Hammond, LA
April 11, 2017
Greek Week steps to the music of the movies NATHANIEL CALLAWAY Staff Reporter
Each year, Greek Week ends with the Stepshow, which is an event where different teams made up of fraternities and sororities work together to compete to see who has the best performance and who are the overall winners of the week. The show was held on Apr. 6 at 7 p.m., and the performances each had their own themes, which were “Titanic,” “Ghostbusters,” “Dirty Dancing,” “Willy Wonka” and “Little Rascals.” The winner was the “Willy Wonka” performance. This team was made up of Phi Mu, Kappa Sigma and Theta Chi who were also the first place winners for the week. Cierra Heckmann, a senior kinesiology major who played Willy Wonka in their performance shared what winning the evening was like knowing it will be her last stepshow. “It feels really good to win honestly,” said Heckmann. “Coming from a senior, it feels really good to end the semester on a note like this and to know that all the hard work we put in and late nights, tears and sweat was worth it in the end.” Alec Jones, a junior
marketing major and the one who played Roomie in their performance also talked about what the win meant to him and what he specifically liked about performing in the show. “Last year, it was prolonged because of the flood,” said Jones. “We started this year with a flood too, so there was a lot of setbacks for us, but it’s always good to come out on top. I really like the adrenaline, but hey, that might be just me. I think this is my third one. It’s something I really like to do. It’s something to get me away from my normal life and give me something different, so it’s definitely a lot of fun.” Jones then shared what the show means to him and how he feels Greek Week benefits those who participate. “I think Greek Week isn’t just about individual teams,” said Jones. “Honestly, I think it’s just about every Greek coming together. We see a lot of faces we don’t see normally during the school year and that’s really what it’s all about. Just getting everyone together.” Heckmann also talked about what representing her sorority onstage means to her and what she particularly enjoyed about participating in Greek Week.
Phi Mu, Theta Chi and Kappa Sigma performed their “Willy Wonka” themed performance during the Greek Stepshow. The show consisted of Willy Wonka showing Roomie the Lion the sights of his chocolate factory. The Greek Stepshow involved multiple Greek organizations coming together to both compete and work together to win the evening. Nathaniel Callaway/The Lion’s Roar “It really is a one of a kind experience to not only perform but to do it for something you hold so close to your heart like your fraternity or sorority,” said Heckmann. “And you know winning’s always a plus. Making
memories with your friends and other organizations and making memories with people that you didn’t know before and growing in relationship with people not in your sorority or not in your fraternity is really what I think
this is all about. It was a really good final Greek Week for me. I can say honestly I’ll miss it all.” The second place winners were Sigma Sigma Sigma, Kappa Alpha and Alpha Phi
Alpha with their performance of “Dirty Dancing.” Alpha Omicron Phi, Theta Zi and Pi Kappa Alpha placed third with “Little Rascals.”
Big Event brings community together SARAH HESS Staff Reporter
Teamwork could be seen throughout the Hammond community on Saturday ,Apr. 8 as numerous university students volunteered at the 7th annual Big Event. The Big Event is one of the nation’s largest one-day, student-run services in America where university students volunteer in their college town. This year the university had over 155 students volunteer. There were over 30 organizations that participated in the Big Event such as Greek organizations, Biology Undergraduate Students and Baptist Collegiate Ministry. They helped out around the Hammond and Ponchatoula area with work ranging from household work to projects beautifying campus. Students completed these work projects to express gratitude to local residents that support the university. Despite the Big Event being postponed two weeks due to rain, event coordinator Myranda Triche considered the Big Event a success. “The day, overall, turned out amazing,” said Triche. “The amount of job sites that canceled just perfectly equaled the same
amount of students needed at those sites. The ratio of job site to students was almost perfect. We did have to cancel one job site due to last minute cancellations with multiple teams.” University President Dr. John L. Crain started off the event with some encouraging words and thanks to the dedicated students. “Some of the most important things you learn in college don’t come out of a textbook or from a class,” said Crain. “They come from things like what you’re doing today, so I congratulate you for being here. You being here today and being involved in the Big Event, you’re going to spend your time and energy today making this community a better place to live for everybody in this city. I’m also proud that you’re doing it as a Lion. You’re representing the university, so thank you for that.” Volunteers were assigned to different sites where students would participate in different projects. At one site, the service based honor society Gamma Beta Phi washed two of the Hammond Fire Department fire trucks and offered free car washes to cars passing by the station. While most of the volunteer work was off campus, some on-
campus volunteers included members of the campus organization Project PULL, a freshman success program that pairs freshman with an upperclassmen mentor. Volunteers from Project PULL planted around 20 trees on campus. “We usually do it every year,” said Project PULL member Lele Taylor. “So, this year we decided to do it within the organization. Usually, we just do it individually and just come together, but this year we decided to do it within the organization and come out and do some community service and give back to our school, our community.” Some students were able to help with house projects for one of the professors. Volunteers from Phi Mu sorority and Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity gave a helping hand to Anthony Blakeney, an instructor for the Department of Industrial Technology teaching manufacturing courses. Scotti Dykes, a member of Phi Mu was the one who signed her chapter up to volunteer for the Big Event. “The Big Event is always such a great thing to do every year for Phi Mu,” said Dykes. “We always look forward to it every year, and we love community service and helping others. So, it was a
Students gathered together for the huge community service project The Big Event. This is the 7th annual Big Event that the university has participated in. For this event, students helped out local businesses. Sarah Hess/The Lion’s Roar great opportunity for us to get out in the community and do work for everyone”. Some of the projects done by the volunteers on Blakeney’s farm included putting mulch in his garden, removing weeds and leaves from his bulb garden,
clearing way for a blueberry patch and sealing a deck that students helped to build at last year’s Big Event. Blakeney has been involved with every Big Event held by
see BIG EVENT, pg. 2
Alumni Association holds Golden Silence for deceased alumni NATHANIEL CALLAWAY Staff Reporter
Every year, students, faculty and alumni are invited to the Golden Silence Ceremony hosted by the Southeastern Alumni Association. The event was held on Apr. 3 outside of Pottle at 6 p.m. and included the reading of the names of university alumni who died throughout the past year, a flag ceremony by the Southeastern Army Reserve Officers Training Corps and taps played by Kiersten Jonkman. The event began with President John L. Crain sharing some of the importance of the university family. “Just like a family, we hurt and we suffer when we lose a member of our Southeastern family,” said Crain. “So every year, we gather to remember our friends and loved ones who are no longer physically with us. Those whose lives we honor today, crossed these paths and walked these grounds just like we all do so often. All who have passed before us have left the university a better place as a result of their unique contributions. Today our Southeastern family includes over 65,000 alumni, almost 15,000 students and President John L. Crain lights the candles for the remembrance of past alumni nearly 1200 faculty and staff.” who have died throughout the last year, just after asking those in attendance Crain expressed some words of inspiration to do the same with their candles. Nathaniel Callaway/The Lion’s Roar Weather
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and remembrance. “Our family now spans the globe and our rich diversity reflects that of the world itself,” said Crain. “But even with that diversity, we still share many common values. Certainly remembering those we cherished, is something we all have in common. We can take some comfort that our loved ones live on in our memories. Those memories help move us through the initial grief we experience with the loss of a loved one and it is those memories that help reconnect us with those we have lost.” Crain spoke about what he thought the event meant to the university. “It’s a special event,” said Crain. “You can tell how much it means to people. I always tell our folks while getting ready, “We have a lot of events, but you know for us this one is an easy event.” It’s not a lot of planning because for some of them there’s a lot of prep work, there’s a lot of planning everything out, a lot of stuff that goes into these things. This is a fairly straight forward, simple event, but it’s one of the most meaningful. It really has a lot of impact on people.” Crain also shared how some react to the service afterwards while speaking with
Index
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Campus Life.................................2 Opinions.....................................3 A&E............................................4
Horoscope, Crossword, Sudoku....5 Sports.........................................6 News..........................................8
him and that despite what could have gone wrong, it was a very nice event this year. “It’s just always really heartwarming to hear people, sometimes people I know sometimes people I’ve never met before, thank us for it and talk about how much it means to them,” said Crain. “It’s a beautiful setting, beautiful day. The weather cooperated today, and usually, we have a train come by during this event which is a little bit disruptive, but we didn’t have a train today, so it was really nice how everything came together like it did.” Crain talked about what it meant to him personally. “I’ve been here for a long time and had names in my family read before, so I’ve been in their shoes,” said Crain. “I know personally what it meant to me. I guess you could say I really understand, and I can identify personally with what it means to people. It’s important to us as a university. It really typifies what we talk about with the Southeastern family, and I think it’s a really great event. We usually think about great events because they’re big and splashy and a lot of fanfare, but this in particular is a great event because of the way it touches people.”
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