No. 9 (November 5, 2015)

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Vol. XCV No. 9

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A student voice of Saint Louis University since 1919

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Midtown excavation: SLU breaks ground for new dormitory; $100 million invested in housing projects

Javier Muro de Nadal / The University News

GROUNDBREAKING: On Monday, Nov. 2 at 3:30 p.m., a groundbreaking ceremony was held in the Georgetown Parking Lot for SLU’s newest residence hall. The building will be constructed on the corner of Grand Boulevard and Laclede Avenue. This hall is part of a $100 million enhancement plan for student housing, which will be completed in the summer of 2017. It will be made up of a total 528 beds and will also feature a dining hall, classrooms, study lounges and an outdoor plaza.

Student group seeks marrow matches By TIM WILHELM News Editor

In “Walden: Or, Life in the Woods,” Henry David Thoreau wrote, “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.” This November, which the medical community recognizes as National Bone Marrow Awareness Month, SLU’s chapter of Be the Match on Campus wants students to consider donating their bone marrow to benefit the lives of others. Be the Match is a national foundation that orchestrates the bone marrow registry. It manages the database of all potential donors that have registered to give their bone marrow; it acts as a middleman between donors and patients in need of a bone marrow transplant. “We call ourselves Be the Match on Campus,” says copresident Nicole McLaughlin, a senior, “because we are underneath that umbrella.” It is one of a hundred chapters located on college campuses nationwide. McLaughlin traces her devotion to the cause to her sophomore year, when she learned that a person is diagnosed with leukemia or other blood diseases every four minutes. “When I thought about that and let that sink in,” she said, “it really made me feel like something needs to be done about that.” She shares this conviction with eight others who make up the organization’s e-board, running registry

drives and fundraisers. Be the Match on Campus is not a chartered student organization, and thus does not receive funding from SLU, but it is currently in the process of becoming a new endorsed student organization. “Be the Match literally has a cure,” said McLaughlin, “in the form of healthy people that can donate, like Nick [Schlarman].” Schlarman, a senior, serves as the organization’s vice president. He registered through Be the Match on Campus at a blood drive in April 2014. He received a call that October explaining that he was a potential match for a patient. “I was stoked,” said Schlarman. He ended up being almost a perfect match. He flew to Denver—at no out-of-pocket cost—for the procedure. He spent a day recovering and came home the next day. In fact, when I spoke with McLaughlin and Schlarman, on Friday, Oct. 30, he realized that it was exactly a year since he made the donation. Schlarman explained that a strict privacy policy surrounds bone marrow transplants. He doesn’t know who the patient is that he donated to, except that it was a twoyear-old suffering from a genetic blood disease. A year separates the actual donation and when the donor and patient are allowed to meet. “I should be hearing within See “Match” on Page 3

Dialogue focuses on accountability

Ryan Quinn / The University News

MEETING: Around 1,000 members of the St. Louis community gathered in the Wool Ballrooms last Sunday to engage in a dialogue that covered public accountability ragarding social justice and racial equality. By PATRICK HYLAND Staff Writer

Saint Louis University’s Busch Student Center played host to a meeting of about 1,000 activists, organizers, teachers, clergy, lawyers and students on Sunday, Nov. 1, during the Public Accountability Meeting, emceed by Rev. Starsky Wilson of St. John’s Church and Jamala Rogers of the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression. The meeting was called to order by a pair of drummers who brought those in attendance to their feet – repeating the phrases, “It is our duty to

fight for our freedom / It is our duty to win / We must love and support each other / We have nothing to lose but our chains.” Before he even introduced the first featured speaker, Wilson reminded those in attendance that what really mattered was what each person in attendance did after the meeting. After a chant of “This is what democracy looks like,” Rogers referenced a book published in 2010 called “Flak Catchers,” by Lindsey Lupo, which explores the idea that public commissions are little more than tools used by those in power to calm the public

and maintain the status quo. Wilson then reminded the crowd that, unlike the public comission reports of 1968, those in attendance were not prepared to give up power, nor demand that all results be achieved within three or four months. Instead, the public meetings would be sharing public testimony, he stressed; the people are in the driver’s seat. Rogers described those gathered for the day’s meeting as an “army for social and racial justice” that would be sharing momentum and strategies to work together. The first speaker invited to the stage was Derek Laney of

Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment. Laney called Tom Irwin, of Civic Progress, a network of the region’s top CEOs, and Joe Reagan, President and CEO of the St. Louis Regional Chamber, to the stage for verbal commitments to work towards racial equity, specifically through the framework of a 25-year managed fund for that purpose. As Laney described it, he wanted to “hear what they have to offer to the pot.” Alisha Sonnier, SLU See “Accountability” on Page 3


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