The Gettysburgian February 23, 2017

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Volume CXIX, No. 10

National Milo Yiannopoulos, the former senior editor at Breitbart News, resigned after previous comments concerning pedophilia surfaced. This was accompanied by a rescinded invitation to speak at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference and Simon and Schuster’s cancelation of Yiannopoulos’s new book, Dangerous. While Yiannopoulos has been known to say largely controversial statements, his comments on pedophilia were not accepted as innocuous free speech: “We get hung up on this kind of child abuse stuff.” His comments on sexual abuse were not well received either: “It’s not the worst thing that’s ever going to happen to you. And I know that some people will find that in itself to be an outrageous statement, but it simply isn’t the worst thing that will ever happen to you. Going bankrupt is worse.” Yiannopoulos regrets these comments saying: “I said some things on those Internet live streams that were simply wrong.”

International The Ukrainian president backs more sanctions against Russia after the Kremiln decided to recognize passports issued by separatist authorities. Ukrainian separatists, supported by Russia, have been fighting in eastern Ukraine since April of 2014. Over 9,800 people have been killed in this conflict. Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for separatists has already led to sanctions from both the US and the EU. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov argues that Russia is acting on a humanitarian basis: “The Ukrainian authorities are doing all they can to make life as difficult as possible for the residents of those territories and make it as hard as possible for them to enjoy the most basic rights and freedoms,” also stating, “It’s hard and often impossible to exercise those rights without documents.”

This week’s “Top Stories” were compiled by Joshua Wagner with information from CNBC.com, NPR.org, and abcnews.go.com.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Thursday, February 23, 2017

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GACC exhibit aims to illuminate executive actions B y B en P ontz S taff W riter Since February 10, members of the Gettysburg AntiCapitalist Collective (GACC) have maintained a display in Musselman Library that features cardboard boxes stacked in the shape of a wall that have pieces of paper affixed to the sides with information on various events of the Trump administration. Although the library staff initially considered whether the display complied with the campus posting policy, Robin Wagner, Dean of the Library, now says the display is a “student curated exhibit.” Until last Monday, when two staff members of The Gettysburgian interviewed Wagner and Natalie Hinton, the Director of User Services for the library, a sign was affixed to the bricks behind the display that said “THIS IS THE WALL THAT TRUMP IS BUILDING,” without any identification as to whom was behind the display. That sign has since been removed, and there is now a small stand adjacent to the display that identifies GACC as the creator of the exhibit. Dean Wagner emphasized that the display is supposed to contain “strictly factual information,” and that members of GACC have used government websites, CNN, and The New York Times to compile the vignettes that appear on

students understand all kinds of information, and that this display was just an extension of that goal. “If the display conveys factual, current events news, we want to help people understand it,” she said, later elaborating that the library communicates information through a variety of mediums. “We use books, websites, magazines, social media, etc. to share information; we can use the sides of cardboard boxes too. We reuse everything around here.” Photo courtesy of Morgan Hubbard

the sides of the boxes. As of Friday, February 17, there were eight vignettes depicting various events of the Trump administration including the Senate confirmation of cabinet appointments, executive orders of the Trump administration, and military raids executed by U.S. special forces. To date, no new vignettes have appeared in the display beyond the original eight. K e l l y DiGeronimo ‘17, a student employee of the library, originally proposed the idea on behalf of GACC to the library’s staff. Two reporters posed several questions to DiGeronimo including how the idea was formulated, whether she was concerned with the potentially divisive nature of the “wall” imagery for a “strictly factual” display, how topics are chosen for

the display, and how often the display would be updated. On behalf of GACC, DiGeronimo provided a response to the inquiry, which stated, in part: “The piece is designed as a succinct and informative structure which provides basic information about actions taken by our current executive branch, which includes but is not limited to the President as well as the members of his cabinet. The growth rate and eventual size of this display thus depends on the actions of the executive ... The metaphorical meaning of walls of all kinds are of particular interest to the United States at this time, and we encourage all members of our community to ponder its significance.” An email alias, GACCDisplay2017@ gettysburg.edu has been established to field

inquiries and suggestions for the display. While neither Dean Wagner nor Ms. Hinton could recall a previous display of political news in the library, they did state that other student curated exhibits have been displayed in the library, and that the placement of such exhibits depends on available floor space. For example, as part of the college’s “Year of Food,” students put together an exhibit as part of a Globalization Studies course in the fall. Typically, library exhibits are curated by staff members. Dean Wagner anticipates that this exhibit will remain for the remainder of February before the library will clear its floor space for various spring events. With respect to this exhibit, Dean Wagner says that the library always aims to help

WRite for Us! If you are interested in writing about current events on our campus, email the News editor: Ben Pontz (pontbe01).

Clubs cut short at Student Senate meeting B y J amie W elch E ditor - in -C hief An open forum for club representatives to share their concerns and offer suggestions was cut short at Monday’s Student Senate meeting. The forum was organized by Clubs Liaison Christina Noto in response to complaints she received from clubs about the club representatives’ role in Senate. The forum was intended as a time for clubs to make their voices heard and engage in dialogue with the voting body of the Senate. Senate manages an approximate $100,000 budget and it can be difficult to get access to these funds without being recognized by Senate. One of the requirements of recognition is that the club must send a representative to every Student Senate meeting. It is written in the Senate by-laws that the representative must be engaged in the meeting. Failure to send a representative to Senate meetings will lead to de-recognition.

Inside This Issue

This Week’s Top Stories

Africana Studies conference, pg. 2

Although club representatives are allowed to participate in discussion on motions, they are not allowed to vote, a fact that Noto said has been a point of contention between the senators and some of the club representatives. Noto said clubs representatives have been frustrated with the Senate Executive Board, and she wanted to provide a venue for those individuals to share their ideas. “I believe that we need to find a solution because I don’t want clubs to feel frustrated,” Noto said. “It’s my job to represent them, and I wanted to be sure that their interests are being considered.” Suggestions offered at the meeting included eliminating the requirement for club representatives to come to every meeting, or the ability for one person to represent several clubs. Senator Andy Kellam commented that the discussion was unproductive

This week in history, pg. 3

and moved that the discussion be tabled until next week so that the meeting could move on to budget requests. The motion passed. “When they voted to end discussion I got the impression that the senators just want to be on Senate as a resume booster and don’t really care about the clubs,” Biosphere Senate Rep Jake Marogi said after the Senate meeting. “They just wanted to be in and out as fast as they could. If they truly cared about the clubs, they would have stayed an extra ten minutes,” he said. Marogi said that he was prepared to walk out of the meeting after the motion to end discussion passed, but stayed to support clubs like BSU, GASA and DCF that had budget requests on the table that evening. “If they were going to cut it short when people had their hands up to speak...I wanted to leave,” Marogi said. “If they’re going to belittle club reps

Snowball recap, pg. 4

like that then I don’t want to be a part of it.” Marogi said that the best solution to appease the clubs is to allow the club representatives to vote on budget requests since the clubs are the beneficiaries of those requests and have the biggest stake in what happens to budget funds. Marogi said he was surprised to learn that Senate had already exhausted its primary budget account early in the semester. Marogi said that Biosphere and several other clubs want to organize a trip to the March for Science being held this April in Washington, but it’s going to be difficult to make that a reality. “We’re going to have to fight for $2,000 whereas other clubs got much more money much more easily,” Marogi said. One member of S e nate express ed their frustration with tabling the discussion: Senator Michael Mancuso said following the Senate

Gallery talk on Posada, pg. 6

meeting, “As a staunch supporter of club rights in the senate, I was disappointed by the motion.” Noto echoed Mancuso’s sentiment and said that she is committed to continuing to serve as an advocate for the clubs. “At Monday’s meeting we had some really great discussion about the problems that clubs are having and potential solutions to those problems,” Noto said after the meeting. “It is unfortunate that conversation was cut short. I sometimes feel the frustration that clubs have. I want to do everything I can to speak up for them, ease those frustrations and do everything I can to help them have a say.” “Clubs are very valuable to Senate and it’s unfortunate that they’re frustrated,” Noto added. The clubs discussion is set to continue at the next Senate meeting, which will be held Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. in CUB 260.

Men’s The geography swimming finishes of Servo, second, pg. 7 pg. 7


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