8 research outputs found
Study of the primary cosmic ray composition around the knee of the energy spectrum
No full textAnche nota LNGS 94/100, Giugno 199
Measurement of electromagnetic and TEV muon components of extensive air showers by eas-top and MACRO experiments
No full textCosmic Ray composition around the knee from EAS electromagnetic and muon data
No full textWe report the analysis of the Nε-Nμ, coincident events collected by the MACRO/EAS-TOP collaboration at the Gran Sasso Laboratories. The result points to a primary composition becoming heavier around the knee of the primary spectrum (in the energy region 1015 - 1016 eV). The result is in very good agreement with the measurements of EAS-TOP alone at the surface, wich detects muons with energy Eμ > 1 GeV and uses the same (QGSJET) interaction mode
Temporal analysis of the least energetic events in pulsar data from observations with the high energy stereoscopic system
No full textIt has been more than 60 years since astronomers turned their attention towards the 7֊ray window (> 100 TeV). Nowadays, 7֊ray astronomy has won its place as a separate branch of astronomy in its own right. The present thesis introduces the reader to 7-ray observations in the 〜 100 GeV-100 TeV energy window, but focuses, in particular, on the efforts to describe and detect the pulsed, Very High-Energy (VHE) 7-ray emission from pulsars. Pulsars are highly magnetised {B 〜 101շ G) ， rapidly rotating (P ~ 10—2 s) neutron stars. Periodic radio emission from pulsars has been detected in more than 1,500 cases, in contrast to their 7-ray signature which has been confirmed for only six of them and only up to a few GeV. There are many models in existence which attempt to reproduce the observed pulsed profiles and energy spectra in high energies (optical, X and ๆ rays). Nevertheless, two classes of models are the most popular: the Polar Cap and the Outer Gap models. Both predict spectral cut-offs at tens of GeV, which are consistent with previous upper limits in the VHE range. The six most energetic pulsars have been detected with the EGRET (Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope) instrument on-board the с GRO (Compton Gamma Ray Observatory) satellite. Probing the universe at higher energies requires a different detection technique. The Imaging Atmospheric Technique (lACT) exploits the Earth's atmosphere with the use of large, ground-based reflectors that are very sensitive to Cherenkov light (300-600 nm). The latter is produced during electromagnetic particle cascades, triggered by the interaction of VHE 7 rays with the top atmospheric layers. So far there has not been a confirmed pulsar detection using Cherenkov astronomy. The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) in Namibia is an array of four telescopes, which is sensitive above 100 GeV. H.E.S.S. uses the lACT to reject the lO3 times more abundant cosmic-ray events that suppress the 7-ray signal. The system is capable of stereoscopic observations of the same source with all four telescopes, which further eliminates background events. Despite the fact that imaging with H.E.S.S. is not effective below 100 GeV, lower energy events can still be recorded, along with a large portion of the background. The present thesis deals with the least energetic events (< 100 ĢeV) detectable with H.E.ร.ร., where pulsar 7-ray emission is likely to be present. A very sensitive temporal analysis has been performed in order to identify the potentially periodic events in the large background. The necessary procedures and parameters of the analysis are described in detail, prior to the results. The author has analysed data from two 7-ray pulsars, the Crab and PSR B1706-44, which were seen with EGRET up to ~ 20 GeV, as well as the binary radio pulsar PSR B1259-63, which has not been detected at high energies (> 1 eV). The data were optimised for the lowest energies, and the lowest energy threshold achieved was 75 GeV (in the case of PSR B1706-44). In all cases studied, the author coded and applied a number of periodicity tests that check for significant deviations from random noise. The resulting probabilities were not significantly low to support signal presence. Based on the background levels in the data sets, the author derived upper limits on the integral and differential flux. These upper limits were consistent with the Polar Cap and Outer Gap scenarios, within statistical errors, but constrain the alternative model of a spectrum with a simple exponential cut-off in the case of PSR B1706—44. Despite the lack of detection, these results represent the lowest energies explored with H.E.S.S.， yet
A Novel Airframe Design Methodology For Silent Aircraft
No full textThe impact of noise on civil aviation is not just a localised airport problem, but a global concern, due
to the ever-increasing demands for passenger travel. The challenge of designing a ‘Silent Aircraft’
lies within the development, integration, and optimisation of efficient airframe-engine technologies.
This research study investigates the design of novel airframes with the aim of producing a
methodology that incorporates airframe noise. Studies investigating the design of Broad Deltas (BD),
Blended Wing Bodies (BWB), and Joined Wing airframe configurations are integrated with
innovative propulsion systems designs to identify key parameters in order to design a Silent Aircraft.
The airframe configuration plays an important role in the total aircraft noise, where the novel
airframes that are analysed, are compared to a datum ‘baseline’ aircraft. All novel configurations
show significant improvements in airframe noise reduction, enhanced by the addition of ultra-efficient
propulsion systems, for which integration studies are discussed. The research into novel airframes
uses a developed design methodology which integrates design considerations such as aerodynamics,
performance, and cost models to complement the noise analysis and identify the most silent airframe
configuration.
The research goal was to identify a silent airframe solution for a future viable short-medium range
airliner, where the final solutions described suggest proposals for the future development of aviation.
The proposals suggested describe a short-term solution to the noise challenge, with a longer-term
solution to aid the development of technologies, maturity in technology release levels (TRLs), and
development of a future 2050 medium capacity civil airliner
"The Right to a Job, the Right Types of Projects: Employment Guarantee Policies from a Gender Perspective"
No full textThere is now widespread recognition that in most countries, private-sector investment has not been able to absorb surplus labor. This is all the more the case for poor unskilled people. Public works programs and employment guarantee schemes in South Africa, India, and other countries provide jobs while creating public assets. In addition to physical infrastructure, an area that has immense potential to create much-needed jobs is that of social service delivery and social infrastructure. While unemployment and enforced “idleness” persist, existing time-use survey data reveal that people around the world—especially women and children—spend long hours performing unpaid work. This work includes not only household maintenance and care provisioning for family members and communities, but also time spent that helps fill public infrastructural gaps—for example, in the energy, health, and education sectors. This paper suggests that, by bringing together public job creation, on the one hand, and unpaid work, on the other, well-designed employment guarantee policies can promote job creation, gender equality, and pro-poor development.
University News - Volume 093, Issue 005 (September 26, 2013)
No full text12 pages.Student Government As-sociation
meeting was host
to special guest Bill Kauff-man
as he addressed his
role as Interim President for
Saint Louis University and
responded to the group’s
questions. With a light at-mosphere
and open dia-logue,
the meeting hinted at
a hopeful future and healthy
relationship between the
students and
president.
K a u f f -
man began
by assuring
SGA that he
was there
for them
and was
dedicated to
the univer-sity.
“I really
care about
the institution we share,”
stated Kauffman. “I want you
to know that the senior exec-utive
staff of this university is
dedicated to your success.”
The president also ex-pressed
his desire for a clean
slate from the students and
his goal to eliminate “some
of the noise that [SLU] has
had over the course of the
past year.”
“We can remember our
history, but let’s not live in
it,” Kauffman said. “I have
great confidence in what this
year can be.”
In discussing the search
for the university’s new pres-ident,
Kauffman stressed the
importance of the students’
involvement with the pro-cess
and their engagement
in the opportunity to move
forward. Included in this in-volvement
is a hopeful visit
from the Presidential Search
Committee, who would lis-ten
to SGA’s ideas on what
the student
body is look-ing
for in
their next
president.
K a u f f -
man also
touched on
the universi-ty’s
most re-cent
events,
which in-cluded
SLU’s
new harass-ment
policy as well as the
new sexual assault and re-lationship
violence policy.
He added celebratory com-ments
towards the dedica-tions
of the new Center for
Global Citizenship, Scott
Law Center and the Student
Leader Hall of Fame and
encouraged the group to
SLU students collabo-rated
with Rainforest Ac-tion
Network at a recruit-ment
presentation and job
fair, both held this week.
Protesting against Citibank,
students pushed the bank to
stop funding fossil fuels and
redirect investments toward
cleaner energy sources.
Students chanted “we
won’t work for climate cha-os!”
in the meeting room on
the third floor of the Busch
Student Center after stu-dents
delivered a letter to
the bank’s recruiters and ex-plained
to the room exactly
what they were protesting.
“ N o w
more than
ever we
need to find
alternative,
green ener-gy
so that we
can stop cli-mate
change
and stop the
destruction
of millions
of acres of
land. Banks
can easily help solve this
problem by divesting in the
coal industry,” said Summer
Worthington, SLU student
and organizer of the action.
Along with Bank of
America and
J.P. Morgan,
C i t i b a n k
ranks in the
top three
investors to
the coal in-dustry.
Last
year, these
banks in-vested
a total
of 8 billion
to coal com-panies
that
practice mountaintop re-moval
(MTR) mining. This
method, widely used in the
Appalachian Mountains,
renders the land unusable
and dumps toxic byproducts
in nearby valleys.
These banks are also re-cruiting
SLU students for
future employees.
Citibank was originally
scheduled to attend Wednes-day’s
career fair in the BSC.
However their table was va-cant
on the day of the event.
A placard on their table
read, “Due to unforeseen cir-cumstances,
Citi will not be
able to attend the Career Fair
today.” Protesters showed up
regardless, holding signs and
taking pictures.
“We scored a win against
Citibank when they decided
not to come to the Career
Fair,” Worthington said. “We
are at a crucial point in his-tory.”
According to the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency, 20% of greenhouse
gas emissions come from the
industry sector burning fos-sil
fuels for energy.
This also generates pol-lutants
that have been shown
to damage cardiovascular
and respiratory health. The
goal of the Rainforest Action
Network is to draw attention
to this crucial environmental
and public health issue and
to put an end to large banks
like Citibank giving loans to
the coal industry.
UVol. XCIII No. 5 NEWS ARTS PAGE 5
OPINION PAGE 10
Dancing in the streets,
on buildings
SLU’s search for a new
president set to begin
unewsonline.com
A student voice of Saint Louis University since 1919 Thursday, September 26, 2013
Connect with
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Introducing:
volleyball star
Mallory Dillon
SPORTS PAGE 7
New club provides helpful service
DSC works to help those with disabilities
The Disability Services
Club (DSC) started to take
form in the spring of 2011,
when Morgan Elliott, the
club’s founder and president,
realized that SLU lacked a
safety net for students with
temporary physical injuries.
“It kind of happened due
to my own injuries and the
injuries... of others,” Elliott
said.
She came to SLU with
a broken ankle and found
herself in need of help navi-gating
campus. Her friends
were kind enough to help
her get to most of her class-es,
but without that help she
would have a more challeng-ing
first semseter. When her
friend Kate Sulkowski expe-rienced
similar troubles after
dislocating her knee, Elliott
decided that a change was in
order.
Elliott, Sulkowski, the
club treasurer, Vice-pres-ident
Lizzie Puzniak and
Sonam Vyas, the group sec-retary
founded the group in
the spring of 2012. It started
out as a volunteer organiza-tion
primarily concerned
with temporary injuries.
People who suffered an
injury that required them
to use crutches or a wheel
chair could ask the DSC for
help. Members of the club
would then be assigned to
help a student across cam-pus
by carrying their books
or pushing a wheel chair
– anything to help ease the
process of travelling across
campus in a comfortable and
timely fashion.
Margaret Hennessey, a ju-nior
at SLU said. Hennessey
was coming back to school
in January on crutches and
she was looking for help
getting around campus dur-ing
the winter. Her mother
called the school looking for
assistance and they were di-rected
to Elliott.
“My experience with DSC
was better than I could have
ever imagined,” Hennessey
said. “At first, I thought it
would just be an awkward
walk to class with someone
I didn’t know. Everyone was
so friendly, though, and it
was never awkward.”
The members of DSC did
as much for Hennessey’s
By WOLF HOWARD
News Editor
Kauffman fields
questions at SGA
See “DSC” on Page 3
By WOLF HOWARD
News Editor
See “SGA” on Page 3
Author addresses
self-perception
Bank’s recruiting sparks protest
By KENDRA CRUSE
Associate Arts Editor
Citi: Students protest Citi Bank during a recruitment meeting on Tuesday night.
Kendra Cruse/Associate Arts Editor
The Saint Louis Univer-sity
Philosophy Club hosted
Douglas Hofstadter, the Pu-litzer-
prize winning author
and renowned academic on
Sept. 20. He started his talk
on being a ‘strange loop’ by
commenting on how bacte-ria
perceives.
“[Bacteria] sorts the world
in to two things, directions I
want to go and directions I
dont,” Hofstadter said.
Building up from the
most basic level of percep-tion,
a binary form, he con-sidered
the perception of a
mosquito, stating that they
have certain likes in that
there are places they land to
get nourishment, and they
are more likely to bite some
people than others.
He moved on to the per-ception
of his dog.
“I don’t think my dog... is
thinking about solutions to
equations of general relativ-ity,”
Hofstadter said, jokingly.
However, he said dogs can
form a vocabulary, which is
an important part of higher
intelligence. From there he
embarked on the core of his
discussion by considering
how what one perceives the
most affects what has the
deepest vocabulary, using as
an analogy the false but com-mon
saying about Eskimos
having 50 words for snow.
“We have more catego-ries
for what we experience
most,” he said. He then con-tended
that what we as hu-mans
perceive the most is
ourselves.
As an example he talked
about how people with
Wolf Howard/News Editor
Hofstadter: The professor speaking in Adorjan Hall on
Sept. 20 in support of his book ‘I Am A Strange Loop.’
By WOLF HOWARD
News Editor
We can remem-ber
our history,
but let’s not live
in it. “ “ -Bill Kauffman,
Interim President
Banks can eas-ily
help solve this
problem by divest-ing
in the coal
industry. “ “ -Summer Worthington,
student and protester
With
Disability
Without
Disability
Bachelor’s
Degree
Some College High School Only
12.5%
31.2%
30.6%
32.4%
34.5%
25.9%
Population Education Levels
Percent of Population with a Disability
5 to 15 years old
16 to 20 years old
21 to 64 years old
65 to 74 years old
75 and older
TOTAL
5.1%
5.6%
10.5%
25.6%
50.7%
12.1%
See “Citi” on Page 2 See “Hofstadter” on Page 2
2011 Disability Status Report/
Employment and Disability Institute at
the Cornell University ILR School
2 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013 NEWS
Morgan Elliott came up
with the idea for Disabil-ity
Services Club (DSC)
because of an unfortunate
series of injuries during her
first year at SLU.
“Freshman year I came to
campus with a broken ankle
and was on crutches and had
a really hard time getting
around from class to class,”
Elliott said. “I lived in Fusz
and all of my classes were
in the lecture halls or Ritter,
the opposite side of campus.
I was extremely lucky be-cause
I have a great group of
friends.”
After breaking her ankle
again and hearing from oth-er
students with similar is-sues,
Elliott thought of a way
that she could help people
suffering injuries like hers
that made it hard to get to
class on time.
“I was thinking if I didn’t
have that system I might
have been stuck, and in a lot
worse straits, especially with
how much time it takes to
get across campus,” Elliott
said. “I decided something
needed to be done.”
Th t a something was
the DSC. After getting her
friends Kate Sulkowski and
Lizzie Puzniak on board, she
went to the Student Govern-ment
Association to get the
new club approved. A year
later she was the president
of the newly-chartered Dis-ability
Services Club.
Elliott hopes to expand
her work of helping those in
need by working in the in-dustry
as a biomedical engi-neer
(BME).
“I want to… design either
surgical tools or prostheses,”
she said. “I really like engi-neering;
I like math, but I
also like how that applies to
the bod.”
Her decision to go into
biomedical engineering fol-lowed
a moment of clarity
when she was on vacation
with her parents.
“My parents are… civil en-gineers.
And after 18 years…
of following my parents on
all of my family vacations
and looking at all of these
old houses and… buildings,
I decided I hate buildings,”
she said, laughing. “I will not
design a building.”
So she decided to look
for a line of work that would
combine her appreciation for
the discipline of engineering
and her interest in becom-ing
a doctor. An interest in
biomedical engineering fol-lowed
naturally for her.
Part of her choice to at-tend
SLU was the city feel
of St. Louis. Elliott was born
in Chayenne, Wyoming and
eventually moved to Chatta-nooga,
Tennesse.
“It’s a beautiful city,” she
said of Chattanooga. “Very
scenic, a lot of outdoors
things, but also a lot of city
things… Chattanooga’s not
tiny, but it’s not St. Louis.”
Elliott counts lacrosse as
one of her favorite activities,
which has been the cause of
multiple injuries for her.
“I actually got my thumb
shattered senior year [of high
school] during our rivalry
game senior night. Played
half a game with a shattered
thumb,” she said. “Not my
smartest move.”
Elliott also watches a lot
of Disney movies with her
friends, Mulan being her fa-vorite.
“We all have our own Dis-ney
movie that we like, so we
just end up watching them
all,” she said.
Let Us Introduce You: Morgan Elliott
By WOLF HOWARD
News Editor
DSC founder talks community, engineering, lacrosse
Wolf Howard/News Editor
Hofstadter: On being a ‘strange loop’
All information provided by Department of Public Safety
and Emergency Preparedness
Friday, September 20
1:19 p.m. - FIRE ALARM
A fire alarm was activated due to a dirty smoke detector. Main-tenance
cleaned the smoke detector. The alarm was reset and
the occupants were allowed reentry into the building.
3:54 p.m. - ACCIDENTAL INJURY
A SLU employee cut his left thumb while cutting wood. The
employee was conveyed to SLUH ER by DPS. The employee’s
supervisor was notified.
Saturday, September 21
9:06 p.m. - ACCIDENTAL INJURY
A SLU student reported that he was accidentally struck in the
forehead by another student’s elbow while playing basketball.
The student refused medical attention.
THE SLU SCOOP
Be a Responsible Billiken
STOP. CALL. REPORT.
314-977-3000
Golden Billikens back
for Homecoming
Rooted in a tight-knit
community, homecoming at
Saint Louis University is a
time for families, alumni and
students to come together.
It is here where members of
SLU’s community celebrate
its traditions and mission.
One such tradition is the
Golf Cart Parade, which will
take place on Saturday, Sept
28.
“The parade features
about 50 carts that are dec-orated
by various student
groups and departments
on campus. It’s definitely a
unique experience where
students and staff members
are able to show pride in
their own organization or
office,” said Anastacia Son-tag,
Student Activities Board
(SAB) Advisor.
This year has a special
event marking Oriflamme’s
50th anniversary. The group,
which helps first-year stu-dents
adjust during their
first few weeks at SLU, will
be hosting an alumni recep-tion
on the homecoming
weekend to celebrate their
milestone.
Homecoming organiz-ers
generally spend the ma-jority
of a month getting
things together. Cindy Ai-azzi,
who works on alumni
relations, says that planning
starts 11 months in advance.
“From coordinating alumni
reunions, to setting ath-letic
schedules, to inviting
parents and families, large
parts of the University are
involved in all of the events.”
Aiazzi also has a special
role in planning the 50th
reunion for the Golden Bil-likens
group. She remarked
that, when these alumni
come back, “it is so incred-ible
for them to see how
much SLU has grown.”
Not every event takes
place on Saturday however.
SAB is co-sponsoring an
outdoor movie with Parent
& Family Programs on Fri-day
evening at 9 p.m. that
will show Monsters Univer-sity.
In addition to the other
events on Saturday, Greek
Life is sponsoring a wiffleball
tournament.
Families and students are
also invited to attend the
soccer game, with a firework
show at halftime.
Whatever the event,
many can agree that being
with the SLU community is
the best part.
“Though all of the events
are special, my favorite part
is seeing all of the groups
come together to celebrate,”
said Aiazzi. “Seeing our
Golden Billikens meet our
current students, seeing
parents meet our outstand-ing
Jesuits, seeing our recent
grads gather again at the
soccer game - and seeing our
alumni bring their young
children back to their cam-pus
- it really shows that we
are all Billikens.”
Sontag held the same sen-timent.
“It’s really sweet to see
families reunited after be-ing
away for the last month
since the start of the aca-demic
year,” Sontag said.
“While I have really en-joyed
my first month here, I
miss my family back home
very much,” Freshman Tracy
Gutzke said. “Seeing them
and showing off how great
SLU is will definitely be a
highlight of my freshman
year.”
By JACKIE STACHIW
Contributor
The campaign has al-ready
had some success.
In 2009 the country’s eight
leading banks limited their
funding for
companies
that practice
MTR min-ing
due to
gra ssroots
pressure to
discontinue
the practice.
S i n c e
2011, total
investment
in the U.S.
coal indus-try
has been cut in half. As
the movement has grown,
actions have been show-ing
up on college campuses
across the country, including
a “die-in” staged at Wash-ington
University last week,
where 35 students fell to the
floor at a recruitment event
in order to draw attention
to the public health implica-tions
of MTR mining.
To d a y ’s
s t u d e n t s
are mak-ing
impor-tant
choices
about their
future ca-reers,
some-times
facing
a dilemma
between es-teemed
work
and their
own moral
beliefs.
Many students, locally
and nationally, are making
it clear that they are eager to
work for a healthy climate.
Citi: Students join
national movement
Vacant: The plaque that was placed on Citi Bank’s Ca-reer
Fair table on Wednesday, Sept. 25.
Kendra Cruse/Associate Arts Editor
Continued from Page 1
severe mental disorders like
her sister are often instantly
recognizable in a photo-graph.
“[Abnormal people] seem
to have no awareness of
what they look like nor any
interest,” he said. “They have
no interest in internalizing
styles.” He posited that hu-man’s
are naturally inclined
to notice other people’s
mannerisms, and that this
was in many ways unique to
the species and important
for our sense of ‘I’.
He gave the example of
a moment he remembered
from first grade.
At show and tell he
showed his ability to mimic
his friends signature smile.
For Hofstadter, the ability to
compare oneself to another
and to alter ones image or
thoughts accordingly is a
necessary part of the con-cept
of self-perception.
“Percep-tion
is de-ciding
what
box some-thing
goes
in by using
analogy to
prior expe-rience
or
what is pro-g
r a m m e d
into us by
evolution,” Hofstadter said.
In this respect humans sort
their experience of them-selves
into certain bins, he
argued. As we continue to
gather information about
ourselves through our expe-riences,
our self-perception
develops weight and depth,
which he called an “emer-gent
effect.”
“The per-ception
we
build up of
o u r s e l v e s
has to do
with certain
properties,”
Hofstadter
said. “[Our]
perception
of who we
are becomes
a very real
thing.”
However, he posited that
who we are wasn’t entirely
within our control.
“[I’ve] never been com-fortable
with the term ‘free
will,’” he said. “ I’m comfort-able
with will… To call it free
is a massive delusion.”
He stated that while we
like to attribute causality
to our will, it is a series of
physical and chemical inter-actions
that drives what hap-pens
in the physical world.
“Real causality happens
at the microscopic level,” he
said.
Here he reached the crux
of his term “strange loop.”
For Hofstadter, while we
perceive the world around us
in addition to our own sense
of hunger and emotion, we
don’t have knowledge of how
the neurons in our brain are
firing or what functions are
occurring in our kidneys.
“The nominal ignorance
[the self] has about itself…
that’s the strange part,” he
said.
Continued from Page 1
The nominal
ignorance [the
self] has about
itself… that’s the
strange part “ “ - Douglas Hofstadter,
Philosopher
We scored a win
against Citibank
when they decid-ed
not to come to
the Career Fair “ “ -Summer Worthington,
student protester
Events Calendar
Intercultural Studies Forum
Friday, Sept. 27, 3:00 p.m.
(CGC)The forum is titled “Is Inter-cultural
Dialogue Possible?” It will
discuss successful dialogue amongst
cultures and the challenges involved.
Student Leader Hall of Fame
Saturday, Sept. 28, 4:30 p.m.
(Grand Market) SLU is holding a rib-bon
cutting ceremony for the Student
Leader Hall of Fame, as a demonstra-tion
of appreciation for student lead-ers’
contributions to campus.
to visit and appreciate these
new developments.
The president then dis-cussed
the new office of
chairman structure for gov-erning
the university and
mentioned the collaboration
of efforts involved from se-lect
administrators.
When answering SGA’s
questions, Kauffman re-minded
the group that he
was new to the position and
would do his best to address
their concerns through col-laboration.
“I have pledged to the
university to try to be acces-sible,”
stated Kauffman. “I
want to be available to you.
If there is a need, members
of this body, let me know
about it. Regarding the
search committee and their
communication with faculty,
SGA learned that the com-mittee
fully intends to com-municate
with both faculty
and students alike so as to
reach the university’s needs
with the new president.
Kauffman also assured the
students that a limiting of
power and management of
budget are not being over-looked
and will be keys to a
successful future.
Following the question
and answer session with
Kauffman, SGA progressed
their meeting onto the issue
of spot funding directives.
There is an SGA open
forum for senate reform on
Monday, Sept. 30, concern-ing
possible alterations to
the structure of SGA
The meeting then ad-dressed
the first passing of a
senate bill, which amended
the name of the Information
Technology Services (ITS)
Committee.
Following the bill to re-name
the committee was the
first funding bill, in which
the ITS committe was grant-ed
250 in Special Projects
Funding.
physical difficulties as they
did for her peace of mind.
“No one who walked with
me ever rushed me or was
annoyed that I was moving
slower than them,” she said.
Inspired by the compas-sion
the members of DSC
showed her, Hennessey
joined the club this year to
give back to those that might
share her experience.
In the spring of 2012 DSC
became a fully chartered or-ganization,
and since then
have been able to acquire
funding for to hold a host of
events on campus designed
to educate the SLU commu-nity
about people with dis-abilities
and to help those in
need.
This year the group joined
the Student Success Center
in hosting “Allies for Inclu-sion:
The Ability Exhibit,” an
interactive display designed
to increase awareness about
people with disabilities and
provide historical informa-tion
about the disabilities
movement.
The Exhibit includes an
‘Ability IQ’ quiz that evalu-ates
one’s knowledge about
disabilities in law, commu-nication
and pop culture as
well as a ‘Space Rope’ which
is meant to emulate the
communication distances of
those who are blind or have
low vision.
The Ability Exhibit was
born from an idea put forth
by then-graduate student
Anne Marie Carroll as a
project in Director of the
Higher Education Adminis-tration
program Karen My-ers’
class. Carroll and Myers
have since developed the ex-hibit
into a travelling display,
and high demand has gener-ated
the possibility of creat-ing
a second exhibit.
DSC will also hold the Fri-day
Fast to Feed on Oct. 11,
an ev
Review for Religious - Issue 47.3 (May/June 1988)
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Effective, Nondefensive
Communication Between Clergy
and Religious Women
Robert J. Wicks, Psy.D.
This article is adapted from an invited address presented at the 1986 Annual Vicars
for Religious Eastern Regional Conference on November 7, 1986, at the St. Raphaela
Retreat House, Haverford, Pennsylvania. Dr. Wicks, author of Availability... the
Problem and the Gift, is Professor of Pastoral Counseling and Director of Program
Development in the Loyola College Pastoral Counseling Department; 7135 Minstrel
Way, Suite 101; Columbia, Maryland 21045.
Good communication cannot solve every problem; to think so is naive.
However, good communication can set the stage for metanoia (conver-sion).
Therefore, in light of this all must be done to take advantage of
the opportunity it offers-~even though, as one might expect, the cost of
this conversion (in terms of openness, patience, and persistent assertive-ness)
may be quite substantial.
Considering this cost, from a psychological point of view there must
be a real effort taken to remove all of the unnecessary interpersonal stress
involved through the employment of good communication techniques;
whereas, from a spiritual vantage point we must see the goal of effec-tive
communication and relationship formation between male and female
leaders of the Church as a positive challenge which inspires further steps
toward openness rather than one that is threatening and discouraging, caus-ing
avoidable anxiety.
The movement toward Christian intimacy and interdependence must
then be based on a hope that is very much tied to our faith; for with a
strong faith--even when we are in the midst of an interaction that seems
321
399 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988
to be pulling us apart or are in an apparently complete impasse--we will
never lose sight of the key biblical injunction "Be not afraid."
In the simple words of Paul to the Philippians:
In the name of the encouragement you owe me in Christ, in the name
of solace that love can give, of fellowship in spirit, compassion and pity,
I beg you: make my joy complete by your unanimity, possessing the one
love, united in spirit and ideals. Never act out of rivalry or conceit;
rather, let all parties think humbly of others as superior to themselves,
each of you looking to others’ interests rather than his [her] own (Ph 2:1-
4).
His call must be one that all men and women in Christ must heed.
And clergy and religious women (the term "religious women" is used
instead of "women religious" because it is more inclusive) need to lead
the way in continuing to model this struggle for partnership in ministry.
One of the realities that I believe many of us do not realize about com-munication
between clergy and religious women in this age of occasional
ministerial conflict between women and men is that communication is
better now between these two groups than ever before in the modern
Church.
In the past the dissemination of information may have been easier
and the discussions more comfortable, but if we are to look at commu-nication
as a two-way communication where self-disclosure and the un-covering
of agendas are involved, communication between clergy and re-ligious
women is, in a real sense, a recent post-Vatican II phenomenon.
Prior to this, in many instances because of structures and roles, the in-formation
flowed primarily in one direction; this was not only unfair to
all concerned but it also held back the Christian community because com-munication
is a mainstay of interpersonal vitality.
With these points as a backdrop then, we must enter into the topic
of effective, nondefensive communication between clergy and religious
women with a sense of reality and a deep attitude of hope. If we want,
psychology can provide practical information to help, but we must also
recognize that this is a spiritual movement; tht~s, in this light we have
a responsibility to guide it but an equal mandate not to try to control it.
To do so would only prove both frustrating and disastrous.
In an effort to place sound psychology at the service of this move-ment,
three questions will be addressed:
I. How do people respond to communication?This question is im-portant
because we often have the assumption that communication is nor-
Effective, Nondefensive Communication / 323
mally received with welcome arms and are surprised when this does not
happen.
II. Who is receiving the message? This question is helpful to address
because of the dramatic way a message can be affected, accepted, or re-jected
when there is little reflection on whom we are addressing in terms
of a number of variables.
III. How is effective communication an element in an overall trans-formation
of one’s attitude and response to God? Good communication
is only important if it serves to build up the Kingdom--the Kingdom
within ourselves and the Kingdom among ourselves, that "Sacred
Space" within which we make the spiritual journey.
I. What Are Some of the Ways People May Respond to Communica-tion?
Communication can be greeted in a number of ways including: with
suspicion or paranoia, with unrealistic expectations, or with hope and chal-lenge.
Understanding a bit about each of these types of responses is help-ful
when preparing for or involved in communicating with others.
Suspicion or Paranoia: Alan Paton once said that some persons
"fear social change more than they fear God." Communication often
leads to change, and in the institutional Church there sometimes is a
sense of suspicion or even paranoia about where the current movements
will lead. Nowhere is this more evident than with respect to the move-ment
toward full partnership on the part of women. Quite honestly, al-though
the suspicion and paranoia are not warranted if we have real trust
in the Lord and are healthy psychologically, there is still a reality aspect
to the whole issue which is senseless to bury or deny. Communication,
real communication--which has at its heart the burning desire for inclu-siveness-
is a Trojan horse in the institutional Church today. Inside the
horse is true Christian equality--something that will, as it develops and
grows, bring with it confusion and concern, just as Christ did in his times
to his religious structure. So, although we really must not turn back and
hide ourselves behind former types of organizational breakdowns (to do
so, I think, would be a futile and sinful exercise in misplaced nostalgia
for past structures), th.e question we must not hide through Christian de-nial
or behind "chronic niceness" is whether, in envisioning unity, we
are also prepared to face many systemic questions which may shake us
as a body to the core?
Unrealistic Expectations: Among the unrealistic expectations of com-munications
we sometime~ hold on to are that good communications will
almost always produce comfortable agreement, or somehow if it is done
324 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988
correctly will always be pleasant. Agreement does not occur all of the
time; this is natural. However, some people erroneously believe that if
there is not agreement, it means the communications involved are not
good. This is false because there could be a meeting of the minds but
the minds may not agree. This is an important point to realize in the
Church today. The Church takes time to change; those who have had
time to see the institutional manifestations of the Church around the
world and have reviewed Church history know that the structures often
take time to catch up to the reality of the movement of the Spirit in the
People of God. So, while communications and respect between clergy
and religious women must be at the top of our agenda, to expect that this
will lead to immediate change of certain laws, traditions, and systems
is to court unnecessary frustration.
Another unrealistic expectation is to expect that if communications
are good the results will be pleasant. This is obviously also not true. To
see injustice-~either in our own behavior or others--is certainly not a
joy. As a matter of fact, good communication may bring us closer--
truth has a special power to do this--but we may not feel it because the
issues that divide us may become clearer and we may feel more alien-ated
because we are starting to honestly confront them.
Using the terminology of Merton, in communications our "true
selves" may well see each other and be attracted but at the same time
our "false selves" will probably turn and run for their lives! For in-stance,
let us take the case of a clergyman who is a firstborn male with
an eastern European background. For him to have to face as a result of
communication the possibility that he has been acculturated to see him-self
as the "worthy one," someone to be waited on hand-and-foot, and
that he must somehow in the Spirit of the servant Jesus move away from
this learned style is not going to be easy. Likewise, for a religious
woman to own the fact that she has been displacing some anger she
rightly feels about injustice in the Church onto a particular priest who
has not shown any evidence of sexism but has happened to be nearby
when she was feeling her justified frustration is also not pleasant.
Hope and Challenge: However, thankfully, communication can also
be greeted in a positive way. It can be greeted with a sense of hope and
challenge; and that is the attitude we must all seek to "put on" as we
would seek to put on Christ. Yet this positive Christlike attitude does not
deny that communication takes effort, is easily affected, and often gets
distorted because of past experiences.
Effective, Nondefensive Communication / 325
Gestures never substitute for actions; this all of us probably would
admit to knowing. Yet one of the burdens of the human condition is that
we often make a gesture when we think we are taking an action. This
is especially so in communication. Real communication requires that agen-das
be cleared. We must risk speaking our minds and our hearts, but
often we shy away from this because we can lose face, uncover unpleas-ant
anxieties, or lose our position in the relationship (even though this
position is a matter of self-protection rather than of Christian friendship).
The "bottom line" then is that, even with a sense of hope and challenge,
good communication takes real effort.
II. Who Is Receiving the Message?
Age, socio-economic background, race/ethnic origin, intelligence,
and any number of other determinants will affect how our message is re-ceived.
This is especially important in terms of personality and sociali-zation
as a result of gender.
With respect to personality and communication, given the focus of
this paper, the specific factors which we will treat here are domination
and avoidance.
Domination: Some people have a great fear of being dominated or
influenced while others are themselves dominators. In both cases, the per-son
will receive communications in line with these personality determi-nants.
Sometimes very bad past ministerial experiences will cause this
kind of issue to be at the forefront. An example of this is the person in
ministry who has been--in the name of "Christian service"--pulled
into doing all kinds of work and has filled all kinds of inappropriate
roles. He or she may then respond to communication in what I call a
"pseudojustice" mode. Trying to communicate with such persons about
involvement can be like pulling teeth because of their fear that their own
space will be intruded upon as it has been in the past. With them you
may feel exasperated and feel like yelling: "I’m not trying to control
you. All I’m trying to do is to find out how you would like to serve as
part of the team." The hidden agenda such people have and their past
feeling of being dominated and forced into too many unwanted, possi-bly
unsuitable roles need to surface and be dealt with so communication
and involvement can proceed.
On the other hand, for persons receiving the message who are them-selves
dominators, the problem will be somewhat different. In this case
they show constant concern that if they agree or open up they might lose
necessary control of the situation. In communicating with them, the situ-ation
is also frustrating because if you are not careful you may begin to
326/Review for Religious, May-June 1988
feel that you are in fact gUilty of trying to wrestle control or get away
with something. To such persons, nevertheless, you must express the
idea clearly and question their hesitation so that they can get in touch
with the domination problem they are experiencing. (Th.e more uncon-scious
the problem is, howex;er, the more defensive the person will be
because of a lack of awareness about it and a resistance to looking at it
on his or her part.)
Avoidance: Avoidance of involvement with another person may be
due to a number of reasons. When we are speaking about communica-tions
between clergy and religious women, though, one of the primary
concerns could be the fear of heterosexual intimacy. As we learn from
the psychological literature (for example, Daniel Levinson: The Seasons
of a Man’s Life), this may especially be a problem with males because
of a confusion between genital relationships and nongenital heterosexual
relationships. In Levinson’s words:
A man may have a wide social network in which he has amicable,
"friendly" relationships with many men and perhaps a few women. In
general, however, most men do not have an intimate male friend of the
kind that they recall fondly from boyhood or y.outh. Many men have had
casual dating relationships with women, and perhaps a few complex
love-sex relationships, but most men have not had an intimate nonsexual
friendship with a woman. We need to understand why friendship is so
rare, and what consequences this deprivation has for adult life (p. 335).
For the religious woman, the case may be a failure to have had
enough heterosexual opportunities herself to feel at ease in the situation;
another reason could be a negative history early in life or in ministry (for
example, steps at healthy intimacy either rebuffed or responded to in a
genital way thus producing confusion, anger, or possibly unwarranted
guilt).
Now that we have looked at the above two elements in understand-ing
whom we are communicating with--since the "who" very much de-termines
how a message will be received, let us briefly look at the dif-ferences
communication takes on from the socialization a person receives
because of gender.
Gender, along with the socialization and human development that oc-cur
in line with it, is a very crucial variable in how someone receives
communication. Carol Gilligan (In A Different Voice: Visions in Matur-ity,
Harvard University Press, 1982), Robert Kegan (The Evolving Self,
Harvard University Press, 1982), and Jean Miller (Toward a New Psy-chology
of Women, Beacon, 1976) b.ave shown that recent studies on
Effective, Nondefensive Communication
women’s psychological development characterize them as more open to,
and interested in, affiliation than men. However, of more import is that
these findings, rather than being evidence of regressive dependence, are
reflective of a high level of development that should be integrated with
(male-oriented) differentiation at each level of maturity.
Joann Wolski Conn, in her work Women’s Spirituality (Paulist,
1986), points to this:
¯ . . o..ne should notice the similarities between the Christian goal of un-ion
with God demonstrated by loving care for all persons, and the ideal
of human maturity promoted in essays by Miller, Gilligan, and Kegan.
Gilligan rejects autonomy as the only appropriate goal for human ma-turity
in moral decisions and presents instead a goal which equally val-ues
relationships .... [Kegan] explicitly intends to present a model
which listens as carefully to women’s experience as it does to men’s.
As a result, his model demonstrates how the qualities which have come
to characterize men and women stereotypically--autonomy and relation-ship--
are the focus of life span tasks at every stage of everyone’s de-velopment
.... Miller explains that autonomy as the goal of maturity
is a carry-over from men’s experience and implies that one should be
able to give up affiliations in order to become separate and self-directed.
Women seek more than autonomy as was defined for men; in-deed,
they seek a fuller ability to encompass relationships simultane-ously
with the fullest development of themselves. Too often women are
misinterpreted or penalized for affirming to men a basic truth: every-one’s
individual development proceeds through affiliation as well as dif-ferentiation.
And this development involves conflict which is an inevi-table
fact of life and is not necessarily harmful (60, 61).
The above is particularly relevant for us here because it is the devel-opment
of the female "gender" (as opposed to biological sex), with its
emphasis on affiliation,versus the male "gender," which focuses on sepa-ration,
that determines whether communication will be sought to build
up the Kingdom via an emphasis on relationships or via an attempt to
foster "God’s will" by furthering a truth or cause at the possible ex-pense
of excluding intimacy in the process. ¯
This is not said to disparage men. Jesus in his communication mod-eled
both the male and the female gender (that is, he stood for the truth
but saw charity and relationship as the greatest law). On the other hand,
in an effort to attain equality, it is equally possible for some women to
mistake "machismo" for the masculine gender and seek aggressive
power in their communication rather than an assertive appropriate de-fense
of the truth that will in turn bring us together as brothers and sis-
~i98 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988
ters. Consequently, gender is an important issue when reflecting on the
person with whom we are trying to communicate.
III. Effective Communications as an Element of Overall Transforma-tion
Changes in one’s attitude and approach to life are areas in which thera-pists
have had a long-standing interest. Because of this they are aware
of the resistance to change that people have-~even when there is an ex-pressed
conscious desire to progress. One way of dealing with such re-sistance,
bad habits, or unwanted yet seemingly ingrained negative pat-terns
is to address one or all of the following: behavior, cognition, af-fect,
and imagery. (I am indebted in this section to my colleague Rich-ard
Parsons for his model for therapeutic intervention based on the first
three of the factors just listed.)
This information is important with respect to what we have already
discussed because unless communication is seen as an element of one’s
overall need to be transformed in approaching God, it will not be suffi-ciently
integrated into one’s life to have significant impact on one’s daily
outlook.
For instance, when a depressed person comes in for treatment, the
problem during the course of therapy can be dealt with in each of the ar-eas
listed above; the following is a sample:
Behavior: The person is helped to develop a strategy to get out of
bed and move about since activity and depression do not coexist well to-gether.
Cognition: The person is assisted in recognizing negative thinking,
seeing the link between it and depression, and learning how to correct
for this thinking as a way of dealing ultimately with a negative belief sys-tem.
Affect (emotions): The person is encouraged to express negative emo-tion
(anger) so it is not directed against the self in a destructive fashion.
Imagery: The person is given exercises in positive imagery as a
means of correcting the inordinate negative images that the person fre-quently
has and erroneously believes.
In this way, the person is able to enter upon a process of self-reeducation,
in terms of which, rather than behaving, perceiving, feel-ing,
and imaging negatively, he or she realistically and positively takes
greater and greater hold.
In our openness to grace (using the above model including behav-ior,
cognition, affect, and imagery), similar moves m
