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Issue 17 • Volume 125 Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019 www.thesandspur.org
SGA candidates campaign on parking, dining improvements
Pairs present dueling plans to meet students’ needs By Hannah Butcher
hbutcher@rollins.edu
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atthew Weiner (‘20HH) is running for SGA president alongside Sydney Brown (‘21) for vice president. Weiner is the first Holt student to run for the position. With more than 15 initiatives outlined on their campaign posters, Weiner and Brown said their on-campus leadership, communication abilities, and diverse experiences make them the best candidates to lead the student body. Here’s what you need to know about their campaign: Top initiatives Health and Wellness To encourage students’ overall well-being, Weiner and Brown want to add vending machines with vegan and gluten free snacks in easy-to-access locations so students with dietary restrictions can grab healthy
By Ellie Rushing
erushing@rollins.edu
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am Nguyen is running as president of the Student Government Association (SGA) alongside Harrison Loew as her vice president. Nguyen, a junior, and Loew, a sophomore, said that their strong friendship, strong-minded personalities, and self-accountability are what would make them the best pair for the job. Here’s what you need to know about their initiatives and qualifications for the positions: Top initiatives Dining Services Nguyen believes there should be better dining options for students with diet limitations, including students with Celiac’s disease, as well as vegan and vegetarian diets. “It’s not sustainable to eat rice and beans all day every day. So, we want to talk to [Dining Services] about
food on the go. “Right now, most vending machines on campus sell soda,” Weiner said. “They are not being used to their full potential.” Weiner and Brown also plan to place ice machines in every residence hall. This would
Weiner and Brown
allow students to access ice needed for injuries, inflammation, headaches, or simple cold drinks. Digitizing As SGA finishes its Student incorporating some meat substitutes and vegan cheese options.” Parking While the pair did not have specific solutions to solve the campus parking crunch, they
Loew and Nguyen
said they would work to make sure the on-going construction projects limiting spaces are completed on time to bring spaces back as soon as possible. “Accommodating this transition will be difficult,” said Nguyen. “We are going to work our best to re-
SGA ELECTION VOTING GUIDE Election Dates: Monday, March 4 - Friday, March 8
Life App, Weiner and Brown are determined to digitize R-Cards. Doing so would reduce the need for plastic debit and credit cards on campus. “Not everyone has their R-Cards on them all the time, but everyone always has their phone,” Weiner said. The technology would be accessed through the Student Life App and would work similarly to Apple Pay. The candidates also want to build a Student Business Directory that condenses student business information to support student entrepreneurship and provide networking resources.
The Candidates:
Transportation Weiner and Brown agree that transportation is a huge issue on campus, especially as construction bars on-campus parking. “We can’t promise more parking spots. It wouldn’t be feasible,” said Brown. However, the candidates want to partner with ‣ See PAIR 1 Page 2
‣ Friday, March 1 at 7 p.m.
ally pressure Rollins to get the parking garage done as quickly as possible.” Transparency and communication Nguyen said that SGA does a lot on campus, but students do not understand exactly what it does. “We haven’t been the best at sharing that,” she said. She said that relying on others in the communication process has “watered down” SGA’s ability to reach the students, but added that she and Loew would work directly with students to keep them updated with campus projects and initiatives. A second shot at the presidency Nguyen ran for president last year but was not elected into office. She said that this time “everything is different” because now she is honing in on specific issues related to student life. “Last year, my campaign focused on a little bit of everything. ‣ See PAIR 2 Page 2
President: Matthew Weiner (‘20HH) Nam Nguyen (‘20) Vice president: Sydney Brown (‘21) Harrison Loew (‘21) Upcoming Events:
LipSync! event, including candidates’ public platform reveals ‣ Monday, March 4 at 7 p.m.
Public debate between candidates, which will allow presidential pairs to challenge each other’s platforms. Students may begin voting by logging onto Get Involved. ‣ Monday, March 4 to Friday, March 8
Candidates campaign through the week and students can vote throughout each day up to 5 p.m. on Friday. ‣ Friday, March 8 at 5 p.m.
New SGA president and vice president for the 2019-2020 school year announced. Open seats for senator positions will be announced at the end of the semester. How to Vote: Log onto Get Involved between March 4-8. The digital voting service will be on the front page for easy access.
2 Established in 1894 with the following editorial:
The Sandspur • February 28, 2019
Parking cuts disproportionately harm students with disabilities Rollins failed to fully consider its impact on certain populations of the community By Grae Kipping
My teacher struggles as she shuffles hurriedly into the room, 15 minutes late to my music lesson. At only five feet tall she epitomizes the term “little old lady,” and her most recent knee procedures make simple tasks like walking painfully difficult. After taking a seat by the window, she tries to laugh off how the lack of disabled parking had forced her to park illegally and spent the rest of the lesson nervously checking outside to see if Campus Safety had ticketed her. This incident repeated throughout last year with parking lots at full capacity, and with the recent construction and parking closures, I am already seeing the number of similar issues sky rocket. Administration is approaching the situation reactively as a matter of student convenience, detrimentally ignoring the fact that the lack of parking disproportionately impacts low-income students and students with disabilities. Rollins has attempted to rectify the tension caused by parking closure with its new 75-spot parking lot a mile away from campus. However, this does not
even begin to alleviate the total number of parking spaces lost after five more lots closed last week, which total out to more than 200 spaces. The distance from campus is also a serious concern—the shuttle has only a 28-person capacity and an approximate loop time of 25 minutes. It begins running at 7:30 a.m., leaving students with 8 a.m. classes at risk of being late if there are not enough seats on the first trip to campus. Conversely, times of heavy traffic will slow this process down, putting students working unforgiving hourly-wage jobs at risk of being late to class and work. Additionally, because the shuttle service only runs until 5:30 p.m., students who take night classes or need to take advantage of late-night resources on campus will need to walk the mile or rely on someone else’s car. However, the distance with a heavy book bag in oppressive heat or pouring rain not only takes an excessive amount of time, it is often impossible for a student with a disability. Administration is attempting to obtain another 100 spots at a different location off-campus, which some might argue would fully replace the number of spots lost. However—even though the new 100 spots are not promised,
and their distance from campus has not been disclosed—this new lot would still leave us 28 spots short. These issues should have been addressed before construction started, because students are already being put at a disadvantage. We don’t know if disabled parking will be promised or made available in these temporary parking lots. The added time is a cost that working and low-income students pay at a higher price, as time is a deal-breaking commodity when balancing school and hourly
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overlooked,” Brown said.
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Uber to give students discounted ride-share prices. Additionally, they want to add technology that would alert students to how many parking spaces are available in campus parking garages to avoid wasting time. The candidates also want to offer a shuttle that drives students to the Orlando International Airport for free during major holidays. This would aid international students and those whose families live out-of-state. “There is no reason students should have to pay $30 for an Uber when SGA has the money to pay for a shuttle,” Brown said.
Emulating a legacy If elected, Weiner would be the first Hamilton Holt student to be SGA President. He gets his inspiration from current Vice President Greg Taicher (‘19), who was the first student athlete to be elected into an SGA executive position. “It was a great experience having Greg Taicher to help us implement the voice of other student athletes in regards to what they would like to see on campus,” Weiner said. “I would like to emulate this for Holt students, as well as any student who struggles to find their place on our campus.”
Transparency and communication Weiner and Brown both want to focus on increasing transparency with students. Their campaign, titled 2020 Vision, is meant for students, faculty, and SGA members to see Rollins’ future clearly. “Our campaign is focused on starting important discussions and shedding light on issues that are often
Maximizing experience Weiner has been in SGA for three years and Brown for two. The pair have diversified experience in Rollins life, connected to on-campus organizations related to sustainability, academics, gender equity, and even the Board of Trustees. “We have a 360 view of what is happening on campus,” Brown said.
vkipping@rollins.edu
OPINION EXECUTIVE STAFF Ellie Rushing Editor-in-Chief Christina Fuleihan Managing Editor
CONTENT STAFF Alex Candage Head Copy Editor Siobhan Nolet David Smith Hannah Butcher Copy Editors Maura Leaden Assigning Editor Alyssa Malto Headlines Kira Bernhard Photo Editor
DESIGN DEPARTMENT Lya Dominguez Head Designer Dana Wagenhauser Pat Murray Hannah Jahosky Designer Anastasia Rooke Designer / Illustrator
WEB STAFF Kalli Joslin Neny Lairet Katie McCree
Digital Content Editors
BUSINESS & FACULTY Greg Golden
Director of Student Media
Dr. Leslie Poole Faculty Advisor Luis Diego Student Media Graduate Assistant
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PAIR 1 Continued from page 1
PAIR 2 Continued from page 1 This year, we are really narrowing it down to what we think students want,” said Nguyen. A future in politics Nguyen said that she envisions herself as a politician in the future. She was the treasurer for the Rollins Democrats and said that she thought about running in 2020 for a seat in the Florida House of Representatives. “I think I will end up in politics no matter how hard I fight it,” she said. Loew said he is not going to cancel out politics, but is more interested in investment banking. He admitted that he did not vote in the recent election: “I feel like it’s better to keep my hands out of something that I am really not focusing on in my future,” he said.
Graphic by Gracie Street
work schedules. I should know; I’m a low-income, working student. I challenge the administration to begin approaching the impact of this construction on the Rollins community, not just the privileged, able-bodied members, more proactively. We need better additions of temporary parking, proportionate and secured access to accessible spots, and an attitude of urgency. Otherwise, whose interests are Rollins administrators trying to serve?
Expanding experience Loew is currently in his second semester as part of SGA, but he said that this should not limit students’ expectations of his expertise and effectiveness. “I haven’t been involved in SGA as long as Nam has, but I’ve been involved in a lot of other ventures—building my own business, building my own charity, becoming vice president of my fraternity and being vice president of [men’s fraternity] recruitment,” Loew said. “In a professional sense, it brings a very practical and real-world application of certain ways to lead, be more efficient, and get things done.” Nguyen, on the other hand, has been involved with SGA for three years, acting as class senator and PR chair in her first two years. Now, she serves as the academic affairs chair.
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The Sandspur • February 28, 2019
Dining services ditches plastic for Basketball seniors aim for conference spot reusable, recyclable containers Plastic bottles cut from shelves, free reusable bottles will be distributed to students and staff
Graphic by Anastasia Rooke
By Christina Oliviera Victoria Scott
coliviera@rollins.edu; vscott@rollins.edu
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ining Services cut plastic from the shelves of campus stores and eateries by providing reusable and recyclable alternatives. This is a part of its overarching initative to build a more sustainable consumption model for students. Most plastic-bottled beverages in stores and cafes on campus have been replaced with glass bottles and cans, which are more easily recycled. For example, water is now sold in aluminum bottles, and Gatorade comes in cans. When it comes to bottled drinks, the Cornell and Bush cafes are completely plastic-free; Olin library is 90 percent plastic free; and the C-Store lags behind at 60 percent. However, students can now forego single-use beverage containers altogether by opting for reusable to-go cups at all Rollins cafe locations. These green cups can be purchased and returned through the OZZI container station in Dave’s Boathouse. “We were looking for products that were 100 percent recyclable and eco-friendly,” said Heather Wilson, retail manager for Dining Services.
“The motive came from the school sustainability committee and the initiative to be on the same page with the school environment,” Wilson continued. “This is the way America is moving forward with the environment.” Dining Services also purchased 350 large Nalgene water bottles that it plans to disperse to students and staff for free, encouraging them to reduce the use of disposable products. The Nalgene bottles will be given out at a tabling event on Thursday, March 21 from 12 to 1:30 p.m. on Bush Lawn. These changes join an overarching campaign to educate the Rollins community on consumption. Past initiatives include the elimination of plastic straws, the removal of plastic bags, and the Campus Center’s switch to reusable to-go containers and the removal of plastic cutlery. Bamboo utensils are now used for catering functions. Non-biodegradable plastic is one of the largest contributors to world pollution. According to Greenpeace, since the 1950s, only 9 percent of the 8.3 billion tons of the plastic produced was recycled; 12 percent was burned, and a massive 79 percent ended up in landfills and the environment. Around 12.7 million tons of plastic enters the ocean every year. Outside of dining initiatives,
Facilities Services has installed new LED lights in the Olin Library. “The most obvious [advantage] is energy savings, but there are other significant advantages including longer life and reduced maintenance cost, as well as improved light quality for the indoor environment,” said Scott Bitikofer, assistant vice president of Facilities Services. Deborah Prosser, director of the Olin Library, said that the “LED lights are more cost-effective and burn longer, and more environmentally friendly because they burn cooler than other types of lights and therefore keep the heat lower in the building.” These latest changes continue Rollins’ new tradition of considering environmentally-friendly alternatives to everyday products. The Sustainability Program, the office which oversees all sustainability efforts of the college, also run a bicycle rental program, the Urban Farm—which sometimes provides fresh produce for the marketplace dining area—fair-trade initiatives, and the recycling program. If you would like to get involved with sustainability and environmentalism on campus, you can join EcoRollins, an environmental activism club, or EcoReps, a peer-to-peer recycling education program.
Despite Senior Day loss, team remains determined to win final games By Henri Balla
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hballa@rollins.edu
n the day she played the final home game of her Rollins career, Carly McLendon registered a team high of 11 rebounds on the day. McLendon bounced elegantly down the court and remained focused at the net while in constant communication with senior point guard Vernisha Andrews. McLendon and Andrews, women’s basketball’s lone seniors, exhibited leadership throughout last Saturday’s game against Eckerd. However, it was not enough to give the team a win. The team celebrated Senior Day amid its 44-47 loss despite a solid defensive effort. Senior Day is the last home game of senior player’s careers. “It is always full of emotions, but I think we all came out ready to play and really gave it our all,” said McLendon. Despite the game’s result, Andrews cherished the collective effort: “The underclassmen played their hearts out, and that is something I will remember about this game for the rest of my life.” From here, the seniors must focus on advancing the team’s spot in postseason play. It needs wins in the remaining regular season games, which is against Florida Tech on Feb. 27 and Florida Southern on March 2. To win its final games, the team must avoid getting comfortable with leads. This is something it struggled with against Eckerd; the Tars took the initial lead and held onto it for the first half, as the team’s disciplined defense established a 10-point lead. However, confusion in offense eventually haunted Coach Glenn Wilkes’ team as Eckerd caught up in the third quarter, gaining points at the sound of the buzzer. An unfruitful fourth quarter followed, with only sev-
en points in total from both sides and, frustratingly, no change in the lead. Even so, the Tars can be proud to have pushed Eckerd 24 points below their season average. McLendon was mindful of the possibility for even more improvement. “We really had a hard time scoring as well. We had a couple good looks at the end of the game and couldn’t get any of them to fall,” she said. Falling just a few points short has been a recurring theme for the women’s basketball team. Nonetheless, the Tars have shown they are capable of consistency, as demonstrated by the 5-0 start in conference play. More importantly, they are still in a position to secure a spot in the conference tournament. “Luckily, we still have a chance to turn this season around,” said McLendon. “We can win three games in the conference tournament and then get a bid to regionals.” Keeping in mind the importance of the fixtures, Andrews focused on the greater picture. “Twenty years from now you will not remember how many points you scored or how many minutes you played, but you will remember the relationships you have with your teammates,” she said. McLendon struck a similar chord when she said, “I would tell all my younger teammates to enjoy these four years. These have been the best four years of my life, and it has gone by so fast. The wins and losses mean so much right now, but at the end of the day, I’m not going to remember much besides the relationships and life-long friendships I have made with my coaches and teammates.” As the season approaches its decisive stages, the upperclassmen seemed motivated to go out on a high note.
To win its final games, the team must avoid getting comfortable with leads.
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The Sandspur • February 28, 2019
Genocide survivor speaks of healing and forgiveness
Woman tells story of how surviving Rwandan massacre helped her find her calling to help refugees By Hannah Butcher
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hbutcher@rollins.edu
wanda’s international recognition is often defined by the horrific 1994 genocide, but to many of the country’s citizens, the its story should not begin or end there. Ebralie Mwizerwa, a survivor of the Rwandan Genocide, relayed Rwanda’s story of tragedy, strength, and regrowth to a packed classroom of students, faculty, and staff. “Rwanda has risen from ashes. From the genocide, we completely lost the country. But thank God for the leaders who could rebuild and understand and for the Rwandans who could be so resilient to rebuild again. Its narrative has to be continued and known by the world,” said Mwizerwa. The genocide began in April 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War, following ethnic tensions between the Hutu ethnic majority and the Tutsi minority. The Hutu nationalists initiated the mass killings and called for local citizens to engage in the violence against their neighbors, the Tutsis. As a result of this genocide, more than 2 million Rwandans fled the country and nearly 1 million were killed. Mwizerwa hid for weeks with her children, emerging at the end of the 100-day genocide in July 1994 to step over piles of dead bodies, which included members of her extended fam-
ily. This traumatic experience has become integral to her life and career, which she now uses to share her story and promote peace. Mwizerwa and her family came to the United States as refugees and found the opportunity to mend the broken spirits of other refugees. She and her husband co-founded Legacy Mission Village in 2000, a non-profit that helps refugees adjust to their new homes and become active and productive members of their community. Today, she lives in Tennessee and works as the Project Coordinator for the Outreach Foundation, which is a religious charity that hosts missions to provide aid to those in need across the globe. As a survivor herself, Mwizerwa has used the tool of forgiveness to move on and continue to be strong for her family and herself. She said that the wounds are still sometimes fresh for survivors, but forgiveness has allowed her to no longer be a prisoner of the past. Instead, she has become a champion for the future through her work with the Outreach Foundation. Mwizerwa places her faith in God as the true power that allowed for her to be a survivor of the Rwandan Genocide and to be a forgiving individual. Through her spirituality, Mwizerwa survived the Rwandan Genocide while pregnant with her fifth child and surrounded by her other four. “I cannot tell you
how much we faced death. I cannot tell you how much we were saved by the Hand that protected us,” said Mwizerwa. The turning point of her path toward forgiveness began in 2011 when she and her husband accompanied a mission team to Rwanda. There, she encountered some of the Hutus who had killed her loved ones. In this situation, Mwizerwa explained that there were two options: revenge or forgiveness. “The one [thing] we can do is to go to them, acknowledge that we know their mistake, and stand our ground of peace. Peacemaking has never been an easy situation,” said Mwizerwa. However, Mwizerwa and her husband took their forgiveness one step further by performing an act of servanthood. “We took a basin and washed their feet as a sign to them [that] this is it. We are putting this down. We wash it away, and we are your servants,” said Mwizerwa. She did this to prove to the Hutus that she forgave them. Before this, the Hutus were hostile and aggressive because they thought Mwizerwa and her husband were coming for re-
venge. However, with forgiveness does not come forgetfulness. Mwizerwa has still retained the memories of those she lost: her neighbors, uncles, cousins, and mother-in-law. “Today the battle is how should we move on and how should we forgive. People are still stuck in 1994... because of the many things that came their way,” said Mwizerwa. Rwanda has started rebuilding itself from the ground
up through convicting those responsible for organizing the genocide, growing their economy out of poverty, and uniting with one another through pride for their country. The event was hosted by the Africa & African-American Studies Program and facilitated by Dr. J. Scott Hewitt, associate professor and director of teacher education. Hewitt is also the faculty leader for the Rollins field study that travels to Rwanda every other year.
Caroline Klouse
Students and staff stand with Ebralie Mwizerwa (third from the left) after her captivating speech.