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A student voice of Saint Louis University since 1919
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Women’s soccer splits series
T
By LEXIE VASOS Sports Editor
he Saint Louis women’s soccer team (2-1) traveled to Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill., to play Northwestern (3-1) on Sept. 4. Northwestern’s Niki Sebo ripped a ball over senior Billiken keeper Hanna Benben giving the Wildcats a 1-0 lead, which they would maintain at the end of the first 45 minutes. See “Women’s” on Page 5
Ryan Quinn / The University News
BALANCE: Senior forward Livi Logan-Wood tries to save a ball against the University of Illinois-Chicago at Hermann Stadium on Aug. 28. Logan-Wood has started and played in every game this season and is currently leading the team with four goals.
Synthesis of a crisis: the 21st-century diaspora A year of displacement ignites international debate
Campus group launches program
By TIM WILHELM News Editor
By JOSHUA DEVITT Contributor
The refugee crisis that has gripped Europe for nearly a year, most noticeably in the last month, is a maelstrom of multifarious languages and images. From the outset, political interests create a rhetorical problem: are these hundreds of thousands of displaced people migrants seeking geographical change, or refugees seeking asylum from a legitimate danger? A simple Google search testifies to the problem: media outlets might use one instead of the other, or indeed both, in the same article, suggesting synonymous meanings. Syria’s ongoing civil war, begun in 2011, is the primary cause of this influx of people, which reaches well into the millions. The displaced have travelled by multiple means: those wealthy enough have flown to safety, while a majority embark on the journey by train, on foot, or across the Mediterranean Sea. Maritime travel has provoked numerous reports of shipwrecks and drownings. The New York Times reported Monday that within six months, more than 2,500 people died on the journey from Libya to Italy alone. Another heavily covered incident was last month’s discovery of 71 suffocated refugees’ bodies in an abandoned
The Global Gateway Program (GGP) is a new pilot program here at SLU designed to, according to their website, “instill in undergraduate students international awareness, intercultural competence and commitment to serving the common good.” Drawing on the requirements of five reflection papers, five academic artifacts, 40 hours of service learning and a capstone project, the program aims at creating students with a globally inclined mindset. The Global Gateway Program’s stated goal is to “promote deeper global awareness, provide an introduction to intercultural competence, and instill in students a capacity to be active global citizens.” Although the GGP is not a degree or certificate, students who successfully complete the requirements will be issued a designation on their transcripts. This creates a dynamic learning outcome that fosters independent thought and research not found in other traditional academic models. The power is given to the students to design their own
Michelle Peltier / Adapted from Associated Press photo
PERIL AT SEA : Overcrowded or capsized boats have become the defining symbol of millions of refugees. While the crisis is cast as a uniquely European problem, many say the United States should play a more significant role in aid. truck in Austria. Perhaps the seminal image to come out of the migration phenomenon is that of three-yearold Alan Kurdi’s body, discovered on Turkish shores on Sept. 2. He had drowned, along with others, including his mother and brother, after his boat capsized in the Mediterranean. The father survived and has since buried his wife and sons in their native Syria.
Turkey, historically a threshold between east and west, is a popular point of entry into Europe, which reflects the current political volley of blame occurring in the international media. While Europe blames Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries for not stepping in to alleviate Syrians’ strife, blame also shifts between European countries based on their respective
responses to the influx of people. Despite the dire nature of these realities, acts of benevolence traverse international media: more than ten thousand Icelandic citizens have pledged willingness to shelter incoming refugees, while applauding crowds across Germany greeted arrivals in bus and train stations. Evelyn Meyer, associate professor of German at SLU,
is from Linkenheim-Hochstetten, a town of around 12,000 in southwestern Germany. In the beginning of the refugee crisis, she explained, nearby Karlsruhe took in the refugees arriving in the area, but space to house them was soon exhausted. The city,
See “Crisis” on Page 3
See “GGP” on Page 3