THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019 • VOL. 123, ISS. 55
THESUNFLOWER.COM
WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1896.
Sri Lanka Vigil
RSO policy requires student orgs to register ‘social hosts’ for events with alcohol BY EDUARDO CASTILLO
A Registered Student Organization “social host” policy is requiring all organizations that are recognized by the university to abide by the “events with alcohol policy.” This requires individuals in RSOs to attend the social host training that the student involvement office conducts. This training is required for any events that have alcohol present. If the event is being sponsored, advertised, paid for, organized, or coordinated by the organization, they are required to register the event through ShockerSync, stating that alcohol will be present and attending the social host training. The training is a presentation that covers the state laws over alcohol, student code of conduct, risk assessment and risk management, signs for intoxication, signs of alcohol poisoning, and the blood alcohol content level. It goes over the details that social host monitors need in the event of an emergency. Social hosts are volunteers from an RSO that monitor attendees’ alcohol use at events. “Typically, events with alcohol tend to have a higher risk of issues that may or may not happen, so we try to provide the students with the knowledge and the resources they need in order to handle these situations should something happen,” Assistant Director for Student Involvement Gabriel Fonseca said. Certifications are not done for groups. Individuals who plan on being sober hosts are required to certify individually, and the certification must be complete before the event. For every 10 attendees at an event, there must be one social host. In the event that an organization did not complete training before an event, the office of Student Conduct and Community Standards will conduct an investigation.
WSU’s Sri Lankan Student Association hosted a vigil Tuesday to honor the lives lost in the Easter Day attacks KHÁNH NGUYỄN/THE SUNFLOWER
Above, A child places a candle during vigil hosted by the Sri Lankan Student Association outside the Grace Memorial Chapel Tuesday. The death toll from the coordinated bombings has risen to 359. Left, flowers were handed out to attendees during the vigil.
‘Hope dies last’
Good Friday service was the last at Fairmount United Church of Christ BY AUDREY KORTE
For the first time in more than a century, the pews of the Fairmount United Church of Christ were empty on Easter Sunday this year. Services have not been held at the church on the corner of Fairmount and 16th streets since the building was closed for structural repairs in December. It was supposed to be temporary. One hundred and twenty-seven years after construction, the church hosted its final service on Good Friday — the darkest day of the year for Christians. Jena Thomison, co-moderator of Fairmount Church, said she felt like she’d lost something. Or someone. “To me, I’ve always thought of her as a person,” Thomison said of the church standing behind her. With declining attendance and aging facilities, the only two United Church of Christ parishes left in Wichita decided to share Rev. Phil Hodson when they hired him Hodson now leads Sunday services
for Fairmount members a few miles away at Pilgrim Congregational Church United Church of Christ (UCC) on E. Harry Street. The 9:15 a.m is for Fairmount people and 11:15 service is for Pilgrim’s parish. “This building is a place of symbolism — a sacred object,” Hodson said. “Objects serve a function, they serve a purpose. And eventually, they will be replaced with new objects that fulfill the same function in a different time. Objects are not eternal.” On the first Sunday of Advent, as parishioners listened to Hodson’s sermon, a beam covering fell from the ceiling onto the pews below — pews that have been sparsely populated the last couple of years. “That thing was 12 foot long,” Pilgrim United Church of Christ moderator Joe Perkins said. “It probably weighed close to 250 pounds and it dropped 30 feet and just barely hit somebody.” “I’ve always wanted to bring the house down with my sermons,” Hodson joked on Friday.
Nobody was injured, but the church had to close the building until its safety was assessed by the city. They found out the ceiling was just one issue that needed to be addressed before the church could reopen, but such repairs were cost-prohibitive for the congregation, which has dwindled in recent years. Rev. Michael Poage was Fairmount United Church of Christ’s longest serving pastor, leading the parish from 1993 until 2010. “I grieve for the loss of the building but I believe the church, the Fairmount people, will continue to minister,” Poage wrote in an email to The Sunflower. Fairmount Church has been involved in university life and helped keep the neighborhood afloat during the last couple decades, he said. Poage said he thinks the closure was avoidable and doesn’t understand why the incident with the ceiling beam has been kept so quiet. Maybe people would have donated money or helped renovate if they’d known,
COURTESY
Worshippers stand inside Fairmount United Church of Christ. In recent years, the congregation has dwindled, making church repairs cost-prohibitive.
he said. But the fact the church is struggling couldn’t have been news. “He said that 10 years ago, the congregation turned down an opportunity to relocate. “I was asked by a nearby mostly African American church whose pastor was a friend, if Fairmount would consider sharing space with his small congregation,” Poage wrote. When he approached the church leadership, the idea was turned down. Poage said the arguments were that, “they would ‘mess up’ the church, they would bring drums, etc.” He said that after 10 years of work
against racism in Wichita, at WSU, and within Fairmount UCC, the response was frustrating. “In the end, in my opinion, racism won the day, among other things brought about by those with money and ‘power,’” Poage wrote. He said he wants the community to know that there’s still hope. “In the local language, there is a saying: ‘Nada zadnja umire’ or ‘Hope dies last.’ I am confident that the hope I saw in action at Fairmount United Church of Christ over the years will continue,” Poage wrote. “In the words of our denomination’s motto: ‘God Is Still Speaking.’”
INSIDE
WAR AND PEACE
EDITORIAL
ONE AND DONE
A thief stole Facilities Servies equipment and fled campus in a cart on 4/20.
Upcoming photo exhibit will showcase Aleppo, Syria, through two different lenses.
Wichita State should find ways to invest in Fairmount even without grant money.
No. 1 Oklahoma shut out Wichita State softball 8-0 Wednesday.
NEWS • PAGE 2
CULTURE • PAGE 3
OPINION• PAGE 4
SPORTS • PAGE 6
CHAINSAW THIEF