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Volume CXVII, No. 1
This Week’s Top Stories
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Thursday, January 22,
2015
Thursday, January 22, 2015
FREE
Students see the world via CPS immersion trips CPS sends students around the world to learn about and serve the global community
Photos Courtesy of Gettysburg.edu
National
International Islamist militants freed about 250 Yazidi captives in Iraq on Sunday. The captives had been held for more than six months, a local official said. Most of those released were either the elderly or young children. Once freed, the former captives walked to a Peshmerga checkpoint southwest of Kirkuk. Yazidis, a pre-Islamic sect of Kurdish descent, are one of the smallest minorities in Iraq. Deadly floods in Malawi cut off tens of thousands of people from food, clean water and healthcare this week. The flood occurred in the southern tip of Malawi. Reports have estimated dozens of deaths to more than 170, which locals expect to rise over the upcoming days. Gift of the Givers, an African organization specializing in disaster response, said Malawi was facing “probably the greatest flood disaster in the history of its existence.” Malawi’s President declared a state of emergency in the areas affected and said an estimated 70,000 people had been forced from their homes. This week’s “Top Stories” were compiled by Brendan Raleigh with information from CNN.com.
Gettysburg College students spent their winter breaks doing more than just celebrating the holidays. Dozens traveled to Morocco, Alabama, Nicaragua, and the U.S.-Mexico border to learn more about the world outside of what they have already experienced.
By Brendan Raleigh News Editor The Gettysburg College Center for Public Service (CPS) offers a number of Immersion Projects each break. When students go home for Winter Break, Spring Break and the first weeks of summer break, those who want to serve communities both domestically and abroad apply to CPS to serve and learn in an unfamiliar destination. The focuses of these projects are also areas of social justice. They have taken place in communities as far as Nicaragua and
as close as Baltimore, Maryland. Various private organizations, separate from the college, collaborate in order to create these projects and facilitate the students’ trips. Participating organizations have included the Center for Cross Cultural Learning (CCCL) and the Lutheran Border Awareness Project. This winter break, CPS hosted four Immersion Projects in Rabat, Morocco; Alabama; Leon, Nicaragua and El Paso, TX. This year’s Morocco trip focused on women’s rights issues as they relate to Islam. The project’s goal was to clear up any miscon-
ceptions that students may have about the relationship between Islam and women’s rights. In addition to meeting women who work in parliament and work to spread the concept of Islamic feminism, students were also able to experience what life is like in Rabat. The CCCL helped facilitate the trip by attracting a list of lecturers including outstanding scholars in the areas of social science, humanities, literature, religion and architecture, as well as artists, journalists, NGO activists, artisans and craftsmen. The Morocco trip was led
by senior Erin O’Connor. O’Connor commented on the trip, saying, “Overall, I think the trip went extremely well. It was the first immersion project in Morocco and I hope this trip continues so many more students can have a similar opportunity and experience.” The Alabama trip dealt with the state’s history regarding the Civil Rights Movement. The state was thrust into the national spotlight when the African American community in Montgomery boycotted the public transportation system to end segregation. The point of the project was
to educate students on the past and present struggles for political, social and educational equality. Students traveled to Birmingham, Tuskegee, Montgomery, Selma and White Hall to experience economic injustice firsthand. The Alabama trip was led by senior Amy Whitehouse. “We learned so much it’s hard to put it all into words,” said Whitehouse. “One thing the group took away was that narrative we learn in school about the Civil Rights Movement just gives us a few ma Continued on page 2
New Greek Recycling Program seeks to save The currently voluntary program seeks to have a larger impact on campus waste disposal B y B rendan R aleigh N ews E ditor Gettysburg College began its Greek Recycling Program last semester as a way of encouraging and helping fraternities to recycle more and produce less waste. Currently the college’s fraternities do not have recycling bins outside of their houses – only trash bins. Therefore, their recyclable waste is disposed of by the same means as non-recyclable material. Aluminum is one of the most abundant materials that is thrown out, rather than recycled, due to the number of aluminum cans present in what recycling intern and Sigma Sigma Sigma sustainability representative Maura Conley calls “weekend waste.” Conley has been integral in the program, serving as a go-between for fraterni-
Inside This Issue
Secret Service agents posted near Vice President Joe Biden’s residence in Delaware heard multiple gunshots near their station on Saturday. The vice president and his wife were not at home at 8:28 p.m., the time of the incident, even though he was expected to spend the weekend in Delaware. Agents observed a vehicle driving away from the house at a high speed directly following the shooting. New Castle Delaware County police are working with the Secret Service and the FBI’s Baltimore division to investigate the incident. President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech called for a simplification of the American tax system, which his administration believes is overcomplicated and designed to favor the rich. The aim of the overhaul is to pay for the President’s new slate of programs which are meant to strengthen the middle class. These changes include the offering of two years of government-funded community college.
Weird News, pg. 2
ties and the college faculty and organizing the “recy cling rescues” so far. She has managed to get Sigma Chi and Alpha Tau Omega on board with the help of Sigma Chi’s Kenny Lewis and Alpha Tau Omega’s Nick Uline. Some sororities and off-campus sororities have also gotten involved. Alpha Phi Omega, the college’s service fraternity, has also helped in the past with the recycling rescues, of which there were two last semester. Gettysburg Research and Action by Students for Sustainability (GRASS) and Rotaract, one of the college’s student service organizations, have also contributed to the recycling rescues last semester. Conley will be leaving to study abroad this semester, however, and she hopes that the program continues to expand in her absence. “We are hoping that
Golden Globe Awards, pg. 3
it is going to grow a lot more, but the college has just started the program,” she commented. This will require two recycling interns to take her place. Currently, the program is completely voluntary, so those involved hope to reach out to all fraternities to step up and represent their fraternity. Conley believes that making the recycling necessary for fraternities may help the program and hopes that the project will implement such a policy in its next phases. One of the current problems with implementing such a mandate is that the Greek Recycling Program has been unable to get the college to purchase recycling bins to place outside fraternities. Conley stated that this is because such orders need to be made in bulk orders around the size of 50 containers,
Jay Smooth, pg. 4
Photo Credit: Maura Conley
The Greek Recycling Program’s “recycling rescues” removed pounds of recyclable materials from fraternity’s trash areas. which could be an expensive venture for the college. Such a purchase would at least partially resolve a problem fraternities currently face, which is not having enough space in the current trash containers to store the used materials, recyclable or not.
The Importance of Supporting Lemonade Stands pg. 5
The facilities request was almost completed, but Conley’s supervisor departed to work at Johns Hopkins before it could be finalized. “A lot of people realize that the fraternity recycling program is a good idea,” said Conley. “It’s just a matter of pushing them to take action.”
Women’s Red vs Blue basketball falls to Debate, Swarthmore, pg. 7 pg. 8