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Universitas: the magazine of Saint Louis University
No full textWinter 2020 issue of Universitas: the magazine of Saint Louis University.10 facts about SLU-Madrid
Page 14
RECORD-SETTING
CLASS
Page 20
NEW CAREER
CENTER
Page 24
ST. LOUIS JESUITS’
CONCERT
Page 26
FACULTY EXPERT ON
VICE PRESIDENCY
Page 30
WINTER 2020 | 1
VOLUME 46, ISSUE 1
EDITOR
Laura Geiser (A&S ’90, Grad ’92)
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Amy Garland (A&S ’97)
ART DIRECTOR
Matt Krob
CONTRIBUTORS
Jessica Ciccone
Marie Dilg (Grad SW ’94)
ON CAMPUS NEWS STORIES
University Public Relations
Billiken Media Relations
ON THE COVER
SLU-Madrid students in Plaza
Mayor in the heart of Madrid
Photo by Fernando Béjar
Universitas is published by Saint Louis
University. Opinions expressed in
Universitas are those of the individual
authors and not necessarily those of the
University administration. Unsolicited
manuscripts and photographs are welcome
but will be returned only if accompanied
by a stamped, self-addressed envelope.
Letters to the editor must be signed, and
letters not intended for publication should
indicate that fact. The editor reserves the
right to edit all items. Address all mail to
Universitas, DuBourg Hall 39,
1 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63103.
We accept email at [email protected].
Postmaster: Send address changes to
Universitas, Saint Louis University,
1 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63103.
Website: slu.edu/universitas
Universitas is printed by Breese
Printing and Publishing
Worldwide circulation: 123,557
© 2020, Saint Louis University
All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part
without permission is prohibited.
New and returning students gather at the first 9 p.m. Mass of the school year in St. Francis Xavier College Church.
PHOTO BY STEVE DOLAN
F E ATU R E S
D E PARTME NTS
14
¿Sabías?
Ten facts about SLU-Madrid that might
surprise you. — By Laura Geiser
20
Top Class
The freshman class is the largest in
SLU’s history. — By Marie Dilg
24
Beyond Career Fairs
SLU’s Career Services focuses on preparing
students for life after SLU. — By Marie Dilg
26
Coming Home
The St. Louis Jesuits music group says farewell
with a sold-out concert. — By Amy Garland
30
Vice Presidential VIP
Law professor Joel K. Goldstein is the
nation’s top VP expert. — By Jessica Ciccone
2 On Campus
Women’s soccer A-10 championship ///
Record fundraising year /// Nursing school’s
new name /// Midtown development update
/// Rankings /// Opus Prize
34 Class Notes
35 Alumni Spotlight
Angela Lewis (A&S ’04, Grad A&S ’07)
36 How I Got Here
Jim Dean (CSB ’88)
40 Letters to the Editor
41 In Memoriam
44 By the Numbers
45 The Last Look
That is certainly what our campus in
Spain aims to achieve — and accom-plishes
with great success. From
signage to statutes, SLU-Madrid succeeds at
carrying out our branding. But much more
than that, it lives our mission. This campus
shares our vision for building a better world
with more Jesuit-educated graduates. To do
so on the global stage is a testament to the
power of a SLU education.
The stories I hear from our students, both when I visit SLU-Madrid
and those who come back to St. Louis after spending time
studying abroad, never cease to amaze me. Their stories and experi-ences
remind me why I was called to higher education.
As you will see in this issue, our students absorb culture through
their time with señoras, or host families, who help broaden their
perspective of Spanish culture. (Read more on page 16.) Learning
does not stop when our students leave class — and in this increas-ingly
connected world, it is more important than ever to lead them
to become informed global citizens.
The excitement we feel at SLU crosses international waters, and
I’m thrilled this issue brings you a flavor of the pride we feel for
our Madrid and St. Louis campuses. From regional development
to record-breaking enrollment and fundraising, we certainly look
forward to sharing our good news.
The start of our third century and SLU-Madrid’s 52nd year
brought a record-setting year for us at Saint Louis University.
Our freshman class in St. Louis broke all enrollment records with
1,900 students, surpassing our previous largest class by 200 students.
(Turn to page 22 to learn more.) SLU-Madrid continues to draw
hundreds of students from dozens of countries who learn and grow
together.
And thanks to our generous donors, we once again raised a record
amount in gifts for scholarships, academics, research and other ini-tiatives.
We are well on our way to our 550 million SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital and
Ambulatory Care Center. All will open this fall.
SLU is also proud to be involved in developments that lead the
resurgence taking place in the city’s central core, such as the redevel-opment
of homes in the Gate District West neighborhood near the
hospital, and the forthcoming City Foundry. (Read more on page
13.) As we share in the story about Gate District West, we are grate-ful
to our St. Louis community neighbors for sharing our vision for
and commitment to growing stronger together.
In closing, I ask that you remember how these stories and the
many initiatives behind them help fulfill our noble mission.
I also ask that you share our exciting news with those you know
who are young — or young at heart — who are seeking higher edu-cation.
Tell them about SLU and your experience. Our world always
benefits from more truth-seekers and servant leaders who are Jesuit
educated.
May God bless you and Saint Louis University.
Dr. Fred P. Pestello
President
I cannot tell you what it’s
like to step off of a plane
after an eight-hour flight
to Europe, only to walk
onto a campus that feels
just like home. Or perhaps
I don’t have to tell many
of you — those of you who
have studied at or visited
SLU-Madrid, or our
international students in
St. Louis.
PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE
PHOTO BY FERNANDO BÉJAR
Pestello talks with students outside of
San Ignacio Hall at SLU-Madrid.
2 | UNIVERSITAS | THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y WINTER 2020 | 3
ON CAMPUS
Women’s Soccer Wins A-10 Again
The Billikens women’s soccer team defeated
George Washington 3-1 in the Atlantic 10
Conference Championship title game in November,
securing its second straight A-10 Championship
crown.
Senior Courtney Reimer was named the most
outstanding player of the championship. Senior
Emma Farley, sophomore Hannah Friedrich, senior
Alli Klug and graduate student Mary Niehaus joined
her on the All-Championship team.
Over the season, SLU extended its school-record
unbeaten streak to 16 games. Already the
winningest class in SLU women’s soccer history, the
Billiken seniors registered their 64th victory.
The team lost to Notre Dame in the first round of
the NCAA Championship.
Reimer
Celebrating with
the A-10 trophy
Reimer (center) hugs
Annabelle Copeland
(left) and Farley.
Farley
The team celebrates at Robert R. Hermann Stadium on campus.
PHOTOS BY BILL BARRETT
4 | UNIVERSITAS | THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y WINTER 2020 | 5
ON CAMPUS
University Offers New Academic Programs,
Begins Comprehensive Review Process
Saint Louis University began offering many new academic programs in the fall,
including:
UNDERGRADUATE
Bachelor of Arts
in Leadership and
Organizational
Behavior
Bachelor of Science
in Health Care Ethics
Minor in Dance
GRADUATE
Master of Science
in Biostatistics and
Health Analytics
Doctorate in
Education Policy and
Equity
GRADUATE CERTIFICATES
American Studies
Cybersecurity
Strategic Intelligence
Women’s and Gender
Studies
The University also started a formal review of its academic programs. In spring
2019, the provost established the Academic Portfolio Review Committee, tasked
with analyzing and making recommendations to the provost about the size
and academic scope of the University’s portfolio of offerings. This process will
eventually become a regular assessment tool for all graduate and undergraduate
programs.
Led by faculty, the committee has representatives from the student body and
administration. Dr. Mark Knuepfer, a professor in the School of Medicine, serves
as the committee chair.
Signature Beam: Students, faculty and staff signed their
names and good wishes on the beam that would complete the topping-out
of SLU's new Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building.
Saint Louis University leaders, St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, trustees,
students, faculty and staff members marked the topping-out of the
University’s new 4 million in support of the
School of Nursing and Accelerating Excellence: The
Campaign for Saint Louis University.
In recognition of Valentine’s history of philan-thropic
support of SLU totaling nearly 3.75
million
Supported by a five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Dr.
John Morley, professor of internal medicine, and Dr. Marla Berg-Weger, executive director
of SLU’s Geriatric Education Center and professor of social work, will partner with multiple
educational, patient care and service organizations in educating, studying and caring for
older adults.
COMMUNICATION
WITH PARENTS OF
SICK CHILDREN
2.1 million
Addressing the need for better pain medications, Dr. Daniela Salvemini and her colleagues at
the Henry and Amelia Nasrallah Center for Neuroscience at SLU will investigate a promising
pain-signaling pathway in the hopes of opening up a new avenue for pain medication research.
CELLULAR
CHANGES WITH
HEART DISEASE,
DIABETES
1.8 million
Chemistry professor Dr. Jim Edwards (A&S ’99, Grad A&S ’01) received this National
Institutes of Health grant to understand cellular changes that could lead to better therapies
for diabetes and heart disease. Dr. Chris Arnatt, assistant professor of chemistry at SLU, is
also a principal investigator.
OBESITY, CANCER
IMMUNOTHERAPY 1.7 million Dr. Ryan Teague, associate professor of molecular microbiology and immunology, will study
how obesity influences outcomes for cancer patients being treated with immunotherapy.
ANTI-DIARRHEAL
DRUG 30 Million
in Bid to Better Manage Pain
In one of the biggest investments in research com-mercialization
in Saint Louis University’s history,
BioIntervene, a biopharmaceutical company founded
in 2014 by SLU pharmacologist Dr. Daniela Salvemini
has raised 8.3 billion by 2024.
Neuropathic pain affects between 15 and 20 million
people in the United States. Exceedingly difficult to treat,
this type of pain can occur after injuries to the nervous
system due to trauma, disease or exposure to neurotox-ins,
including after chemotherapy. There is a need for
new medications that do not cause side effects and addic-tion
the way narcotic pain killers do.
“Having the opportunity to translate one’s discover-ies
from the bench to the bedside is a dream come true,”
Salvemini said. “I am hopeful that our efforts will lead
to the alleviation of suffering while helping end the opi-oid
crisis.”
Salvemini discovered that alterations in signaling within the body contribute to
the development of chronic pain states and that compounds that target a key recep-tor
can “turn off” pain signals, providing relief from chronic pain of various types.
This discovery, she noted, provided the starting point of her collaboration with
Dr. Kenneth Jacobson, chief of the molecular recognition section, in the laboratory
of bioorganic chemistry at the National Institutes of Health.
Salvemini
SUBMITTED PHOTO
6 | UNIVERSITAS | THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y WINTER 2020 | 7
ON CAMPUS
SLU Research Institute Grants Second Round of Funding
The Saint Louis University Research Institute awarded its second round of
funding last summer: More than 1.8 million
going to 15 faculty members.
Among the 13 faculty who received grants in this second round are:
Miriam Cherry,
professor and co-director
of the William
C. Wefel Center for
Employment Law, who
will study methods
of online justice such
as amateur sleuths
gathering online
to collect clues in
cold cases, workers
sharing information
online about abusive
labor practices and
people using the
Internet to mount
harassment campaigns.
Dr. Terra Edwards,
assistant professor of
anthropology, who
will finish a book
manuscript, Going
Tactile: Life at the
Limits of Language.
Her research focuses
on the protactile
movement, which
advances the claim
that hearing and vision
are not necessary for
things like greeting
people or joining or
leaving a conversation.
Dr. David Ford (A&S
’80), professor of
biochemistry and
molecular biology and
director of the Center
for Cardiovascular
Research, who will use
new technology to
investigate endothelial
and epithelial barrier
dysfunction. This
technology will be
used in the planning
for a SLU Sepsis
Center and the SLU
Institute for Drug
and Biotherapeutic
Innovation.
Jesuits Reckon with the Legacy of Slavery
In late August, Jesuits of the USA Central and Southern (UCS)
Province began contacting individuals believed to be descen-dants
of people held in slavery by 19th century Jesuits, including at
Saint Louis University.
This is the latest work of the Slavery, History, Memory and
Reconciliation Project, which started in 2016 as a joint initiative
of the UCS Province and the University. The goal is to find a path
to reconciliation by illuminating the lives of the people who were
enslaved and connecting with their descendants.
Historians have long known that when Jesuits established mis-sions
in St. Louis, they relied on the labor of enslaved people to help
those missions survive. To reveal the stories of courage and resil-ience
among those who were enslaved and to trace their families
forward, researchers have combed through thousands of docu-ments,
including financial ledgers, Church records and personal
journals.
Dr. Jonathan Smith, SLU’s vice president for diversity and com-munity
engagement, is leading the project for the University. To
undertake a conversation about SLU’s next steps, Smith plans to
assemble a working group that will include students, faculty, staff,
alumni, trustees and descendants.
To learn more about the project and to read the stories about the
people who were enslaved, visit shmr.jesuits.org.
SLU Launches Geospatial Institute
Anew Geospatial Institute at Saint Louis University will support
research, training and innovation in the rapidly growing fields
of geospatial science and technology.
Also known as GeoSLU, the institute brings together faculty and
students from various disciplines to use geospatial research tools
to solve challenges and to enhance graduate and undergraduate
education.
The institute’s primary areas of research will include artificial
intelligence, machine learning and informatics.
In launching the Geospatial Institute, SLU seeks to strengthen
collaborations with other universities, including the University of
Missouri System schools, Washington University in St. Louis and
Harris-Stowe State University, as well as innovation partners in the
region, including Cortex and T-Rex.
GeoSLU also builds upon SLU’s existing relationship with the
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). In January 2019, the
University signed a partnership agreement with the NGA, and the
organizations partnered on the GeoResolution conference last April.
Dr. Vasit Sagan, associate professor of earth and atmospheric
sciences, is the institute’s faculty director. Robert Cardillo, former
director of the NGA, advises the institute as part of his work as a
distinguished geospatial fellow at SLU.
For more information, visit slu.edu/geoslu.
Nancy McNeir Ring Award
Presented for Excellence
in Teaching
Dr. Katie Kelting, assistant professor of mar-keting
in the Richard A. Chaifetz School of
Business, was selected as the recipient of SLU’s 2019
Nancy McNeir Ring Award for excellence in teach-ing.
Lauded by students for her emphasis on teaching
them the value of ethics in the business world, Kelting
joined the SLU faculty in July 2016 and is director of
the business school’s Behavioral Research Lab. On
a national level, she is a Women in the Marketing
Academy Fellow, among her many fellowships. She
addressed graduates during December’s midyear
commencement at Chaifetz Arena.
Kelting
PHOTO BY STEVE LONG
PHOTO BY STEVE DOLAN
Special
Guest Star:
The Stanley Cup makes
a stop on campus during
Homecoming and Family Weekend
2019, giving fans of the 2019 NHL
champion St. Louis Blues hockey team
the opportunity to make lasting memories.
SLU, Urban League Honor MLK’s Legacy
At their annual memorial tribute honoring civil rights leader the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan. 16, Saint Louis University and the Urban
League of Metropolitan St. Louis honored those carrying forward King’s legacy of
activism and advocacy for racial equity and justice across the St. Louis region.
The keynote speaker, noted journalist and author Roland Martin, told the crowd
in SLU’s Busch Student Center that “leaders step up when it’s time to lead.” He chal-lenged
those attending the tribute to recall King not as a mascot, but for his radical
commitment to social justice a
Universitas: the magazine of Saint Louis University
No full textSummer 2025 issue of Universitas: the magazine of Saint Louis University.President Pestello looks back on 11 years of leadership
PAGE 10
THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y
SUMMER 2025
UNIVERSITAS THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY Message from the First Lady
Beginnings and endings are
filled with anticipation
and a sense of adventure.
What is next is unknown
and ready to be created.
Eleven years ago, Fred and I drove
into St. Louis ready to begin his tenure
as SLU’s first lay president and my role as
the first first lady. We are now approach-ing
the day when we step out of our roles
and begin a new chapter of our lives in
this great city.
As we move toward this momentous
transition, it is gratifying to take stock
of the accomplishments we have marked
and the challenges we have faced together.
As Fred notes in his interview (page 10), SLU
and Midtown have grown and transformed
in remarkable ways — strengthened and sus-tained
by SLU’s Jesuit mission and values.
I had the joy of creating the role of first lady
at this historic institution, bringing my own
experience as a scholar of sociology and a
former department chair to the work. It was
a privilege to join the SLU community as we
celebrated the milestones and responded to
the challenges of the last decade.
In one of my favorite events during our time
at SLU, we honored the University’s bicenten-nial
with a moving Mass under the Gateway
Arch.
On numerous occasions, we were warmly
welcomed to the Madrid campus, and we have
cherished getting to know the people and the
city that make SLU-Madrid so special.
I had the opportunity to help the St. Louis
Literary Award, one of the first initiatives I was
invited to support, become more embedded in
the life of the Saint Louis University campuses.
We responded to the unprecedented chal-lenges
of the COVID-19 pandemic — with me
teaching, virtually and then in person, and
Fred leading the University in those early days
of lockdown from the third floor of our house.
In 2017, we began a new tradition, joining
students, faculty, staff and alumni to bless
and light the tree each December at Christmas
on the Quad. We also hosted an annual
Christmas dinner for the Jesuits who call our
campus and our city home.
And at the end of every semester, Fred and
I have wished students luck on their final
exams with cookies, pretzels, ice cream or
other study day treats.
We know there are many things we will
miss as we leave our daily engagement with
campus, but we are looking forward to engag-ing
with St. Louis and campus in new ways in
the years ahead.
I wish President-Elect Ed Feser and incom-ing
First Lady Kathy Feser many blessings as
they assume these roles, which Fred and I have
loved and treasured.
I thank you, Billikens, for filling the past 11
years with grace, joy and countless memorable
moments.
Dr. Frances G. Pestello
First Lady
10
Selfie-Reflection
In a candid Q&A, outgoing
President Dr. Fred P. Pestello
looks back on his time at SLU.
— by Laura Geiser
18
Reaching Research 1
SLU’s new R1 classification affirms
its place among elite U.S. research
universities.
— by Clayton Berry
22
Moments and
Milestones
Recapping
the events,
achievements
and
challenges
SLU faced
during
the last 11
years.
— by Amy
Garland
FEATURES DEPARTMENTS
2
ON CAMPUS
Introducing
Dr. Edward Feser
Commencement
Center for
Bosnian Studies
MLA honor
10 million gift
Softball history
30
CLASS NOTES
33
How I Got Here:
Dr. Tiffany (Brown) Anderson
(Ed ’94, Grad Ed ’01)
— By Amy Garland
34
Alumni Merit Awards
35
Alumni Spotlight:
Andy Hahn (A&S ’97)
— by Debbie Dugan
37
IN MEMORIAM
41
THE L AST
LOOK
VOLUME 51, ISSUE 2
EDITOR
Laura Geiser
{A&S ’90, Grad ’92}
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Amy Garland {A&S ’97}
ART DIRECTOR
Matt Krob
ON CAMPUS NEWS
STORIES
University Public Relations
Billiken Media Relations
ON THE COVER
SLU President Dr. Fred
P. Pestello takes a selfie
as confetti falls during
his final commencement
as president on May 17.
Photo by Sarah Conroy
Universitas is published by
Saint Louis University.
Opinions expressed in
Universitas are those of the
individual authors and not
necessarily those of the
University administration.
Unsolicited manuscripts and
photographs are welcome
but will be returned only if
accompanied by a stamped,
self-addressed envelope.
Letters to the editor must
be signed, and letters not
intended for publication
should indicate that fact.
The editor reserves the
right to edit all items.
Address:
Universitas
DuBourg Hall 39
1 N. Grand Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63103
Email address:
[email protected]
Website: slu.edu/universitas
Universitas is printed by
Progress Printing Plus
Worldwide circulation:
103,000
©2025, Saint Louis University
All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole
or in part without
permission is prohibited.
President Dr. Fred P. Pestello and First Lady
Dr. Fran Pestello exit SLU’s commencement
ceremony for the last time on May 17.
PHOTO BY SARAH CONROY
SARAH CONROY
2 UNIVERSITAS / THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY SUMMER 2025
On campus
Dr. Edward J. Feser, a Roman Catholic, Jesuit-educated
leader in higher education, will become Saint Louis
University’s 34th president on July 1.
“Saint Louis University is a remarkable institution
with an impressive history of impact, and it will be both
exciting and a privilege to lead it,” Feser said. “I am
thrilled at the prospect of joining the SLU community
and contributing to the University’s outstanding legacy.”
Feser grew up in the Pacific Northwest and attended a
Catholic high school in Red Bluff, California. He earned
a bachelor’s degree from the University of San Francisco,
a fellow Jesuit institution, before graduate school at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He comes to SLU after eight years as provost and exec-utive
vice president at Oregon State University (OSU), a
land-grant institution with more than 38,000 students,
a 1.8 billion budget and 213 million
Collaborative Innovation Complex — now under con-struction
— to foster interdisciplinary research, powered
by artificial intelligence and accelerated computing, and
expanding arts and humanities programs.
Inclusive Excellence: Achieving record-setting diversity in
student enrollment while working to diversify the faculty
and embed equity and inclusion across OSU’s operations.
Budgetary Innovation: Implementing a new shared
responsibility budget model to advance transparency and
financial stability.
GUIDED BY SERVICE, COMMITTED TO COMMUNITY
Throughout his career, Feser’s leadership has been rooted in
the Jesuit ideals of promoting justice, nurturing the whole
person and contributing to the greater good.
“I am deeply grateful to Dr. Feser for his willingness to
serve in such an important role. His experience as a scholar
and administrator makes him uniquely qualified to lead a
place as complex as SLU,” said Thomas P. Greene, S.J., the
provincial superior of the Jesuits USA Central and Southern
Province. “But even more, I was heartened to hear of his
desire to use education to engender hope in the young, his
commitment to the University being leaven for the city and
his dedication to the University’s Jesuit, Catholic identity.”
“The rigorous and holistic Jesuit education I received at the
University of San Francisco — grounded in experiential learning in the city
itself and the principle that one should lead an active life of service to oth-ers,
especially the least among us — shaped my values in ways too many to
count,” Feser said.
A scholar of city and regional economic growth and development, Feser
strongly believes that all universities must be partners in serving and
improving the well-being of the communities they call home. At OSU, his
community-focused efforts included:
Downtown Hub: Opening the OSU Portland Center in downtown Portland,
which anchors the university’s strategy in the city, including programs to
support expanded pathways to OSU for students from diverse backgrounds.
Community Partnerships: Growing the OSU-Cascades campus in Bend,
Oregon, and collaborating with local leaders to launch the development of
a campus-based innovation district to support regional economic develop-ment
goals.
Economic Development Leadership: Serving on boards and commissions
to address economic development, workforce strategies and public policy
challenges.
SLU’s President-Elect at a Glance
PERSONAL DETAILS
Dr. Edward J. Feser
57 years old
Married to Kathy Feser, a school district
environmental sustainability coordinator
Two adult children, Jack and Mary
EDUCATION
Ph.D., University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, 1997
M.R.P., University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, 1994
B.A., University of San Francisco, 1989
ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP HISTORY
2017-2025 Provost and Executive Vice President,
Oregon State University
2015-2017 Interim Vice Chancellor for Academic
Affairs and Provost, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
2012-2015 Dean, College of Fine and Applied Arts,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2011-2012 Division Head, Innovation, Management
and Policy, Alliance Manchester Business School,
University of Manchester, United Kingdom
2007-2011 Department Head, Urban and Regional
Planning, University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign
FACULTY APPOINTMENTS
2017-2025 Professor, School of Public Policy,
Oregon State University
2007-2017 Professor, Department of Urban and
Regional Planning, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
2008-2017 Professor, Department of Agricultural
and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
2011-2012 Professor and Eddie Davies Chair of
Entrepreneurship, Alliance Manchester Business
School, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
2004-2007 Associate Professor, Department
of Urban and Regional Planning, University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2003 Associate Professor, Department of City and
Regional Planning, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
1997-2002 Assistant Professor, Department of
City and Regional Planning, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill
Introducing SLU’s
Next President
BUILDING ON PAST PROGRESS AND CHARTING A PATH FORWARD
Feser’s appointment follows an extensive national search led by a committee
of SLU trustees, faculty, staff, students and members of the Society of Jesus.
The University’s board of trustees voted to approve his appointment during
its Dec. 6 meeting.
Feser will succeed Dr. Fred P. Pestello, who announced in March 2024 that
he would step down at the end of June 2025.
“President Pestello’s vision and outstanding leadership are evident in the
success of SLU students, its excellent faculty and staff, its impressive growth
in research scale and impact, the depth and quality of its partnerships and
impact in St. Louis, and the achievements of Billiken student-athletes and
teams,” Feser said. “I’m excited to work with the SLU community to build on
Dr. Pestello’s accomplishments and advance Saint Louis University as one of
the finest urban research universities in the country.”
“Dr. Feser has the knowledge, experience, skill and values to serve as the
next steward of Saint Louis University’s noble mission — working for and
with the campus and the region to create new possibilities for a thriving,
hope-filled future,” Pestello said.
Look for more on Dr. Edward Feser in the next issue of Universitas.
3
SARAH CONROY
5
Class of 2025 Celebrated at
Spring Commencement
– photos by Sarah Conroy
Accounting Prof Honored
with Ring Award
Neil Jansen (Grad CSB ’98), an
associate professor of account-ing,
won the 2024 Nancy McNeir Ring
Award for Excellence in Teaching.
He was recognized during the
202 4 m idyea r commencement
ceremony at Chaifetz A rena in
December, during which he gave
the commencement address.
After starting his career in the
financial services industry, Jansen
joined SLU in 2008. He has been
the d i rec tor of the Master of
Accounting program since 2010
and an associate professor since
2024, winning several faculty and
teaching excellence awards along
the way.
The Nancy McNeir Ring Award,
named for the University’s first
dean of women, was established
in 1966 by SLU’s chapter of Alpha
Sigma Nu, the national Jesuit honor
society.
Jansen at the 2024 midyear
commencement
SARAH CONROY
SARAH CONROY
MED SCHOOL
RECEIVES
10 million gift, one of the
largest contributions in the
school’s history.
The gift came from a patient
who wishes to remain
anonymous in honor of Dr.
Gerald A. Maguire (Med
’91), a psychiatrist who
also pledged 10 million gift will
enhance medical education
and research at SLU:
2 million to fund the
Gerald A. Maguire, M.D., and
Joanne S. Maguire Endowed
Chair in Neuropsychiatry
Research and Education
$5 million directed toward
a future state-of-the-art
health education center
Maguire is the director
of residency training in
psychiatry at College
Medical Center, a teaching
hospital in Long Beach,
California, and the faculty
director of graduate medical
education at Oroville
Hospital, which serves his
rural home community in
Northern California.
Co-author of Without
Hesitation: Speaking
the Silence and Science
of Stuttering, Maguire is
considered the world’s
leading authority on the
pharmacologic treatment of
stuttering. He founded the
first clinic dedicated to the
scientific study and medical
treatment of the condition.
Pestellos Gift New Sculpture to SLU
Before stepping down as Saint Louis University’s
president this summer, Dr. Fred P. Pestello and First
Lady Dr. Fran Pestello offered a gift to SLU.
During a reception in Pius XII Memorial Library in
April, the Pestellos helped unveil a new sculpture they
donated to the University: “Land, Labor, Legacy” by Kyle
and Kelly Phelps. The sculpture is about 20 inches tall
and features four adult figures, one holding a child. The
figures represent enslaved persons of African descent
and members of the Osage Nation.
“We know the importance of art to inspire, to provoke,
to deepen understanding,” Fred Pestello said. “This
work speaks to us, and it speaks to the mission of this
institution.”
The Pestellos met the Phelps brothers more than two
decades ago, when Fred Pestello hired them to teach at
the University of Dayton. Their work is in the NAACP
National Headquarters as well as in the permanent col-lections
of art museums in Racine, Wisconsin; Asheville,
North Carolina; Canton, Ohio; and San Angelo, Texas.
FROM LEFT: Edward Ibur, executive director of the St.
Louis Literary Award, Dr. Cathleen Fleck, chair of the
visual and performing arts department, and Pestello
discuss the sculpture at its unveiling in April.
SLU Joins Center for Research Libraries
Last August, Saint Louis University Libraries joined
the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), an interna-tional
consortium of more than 200 university, college
and independent research libraries.
Jennifer Nutefall, dean of libraries and museums,
said the CRL gives the SLU community access to the
resources of the other consortium members. She sees
membership in CRL as recognition of the quality of work
throughout SLU’s libraries.
CRL member institutions include Harvard University,
Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Notre
Dame and the University of California system.
On campus
UNIVERSITAS / THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE O 4 F SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y
FROM TOP: Doisy College of Health
Sciences graduates Kirti Madhu (left) and
Emma Pearl Capulong embrace during
commencement; Pestello (back, center)
and First Lady Dr. Fran Pestello (left)
take a selfie with graduates after the
ceremony; Sam Deeljore, a SLU employee
and new graduate of the School for
Professional Studies, hugs his daughters,
Agni Deeljore (left), graduating from the
School of Social Work, and Jaya Deeljore,
graduating from the College of Arts
and Sciences, before the ceremony.
SUMMER 2025
Saint Louis University’s commencement ceremony on May 17 at
Chaifetz Arena featured outgoing President Dr. Fred P. Pestello as
the speaker. In an address that highlighted his career from radio host
to university administrator, he advised students: “Here is what
matters, Billikens — wherever your path takes you: Continue
to lead with love and mercy. And never vary from the quest to
make ‘things the way they ought to be.’ I wish each of you as
magnificent a journey as I have had.”
The ceremony also included remarks from Emma Lercher, a
student graduating from the College of Arts and Sciences, who
encouraged the Class of 2025 to share their gifts.
SLU also conferred honorary degrees upon three individuals. This
year’s honorees were former trustee Patrick (CSB ’77) and Peggy
Sly, who were honored for their community support, and Tom
Smolich, S.J., who was recognized for his leadership of the Jesuit
Refugee Service.
UNIVERSITAS / THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY SUMMER 2025
On campus ATHLETICS
Literary Award Brings Renowned
Writers to Campus
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead
received the 2025 St. Louis Literary Award from
Saint Louis University on April 9.
“Read, read, read to find out what kind of writer you
want to be. Write, write, write to find out what kind of a
writer you are,” Whitehead told audiences.
His novel The Underground Railroad won the National
Book Award and the Carnegie Medal for Fiction. The
Nickel Boys won the Pulitzer Prize, the Kirkus Prize and
the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.
Next year, Jhumpa Lahiri will come to St. Louis to
accept the 2026 St. Louis Literary Award. Lahiri has
written short stories, nonfiction, poetry and several
novels, including The Namesake. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning
collection of short stories, Interpreter of
Maladies, will be the featured title for the 2026 Campus
Read program. She will receive the award on April 8,
2026, and will offer a craft talk the following day; both
events are open to the public.
Whitehead speaks at the Sheldon Concert Hall in April
after receiving the 2025 St. Louis Literary Award.
Alum’s Biopic in Theaters This Fall
This October, Saint Louis University alumni will get
the chance to see the life of a fellow Billiken depicted
on the big screen.
John O’Leary (CSB ’99) came back to campus in 2023
for the filming of Soul on Fire, a major motion picture
based on his 2016 bestseller On Fire: The 7 Choices to
Ignite a Radically Inspired Life.
The film depicts how O’Leary nearly burned to death
in an accident when he was 9 years old — and how his
recovery shaped his life.
The movie was filmed in St. Louis, including several
locations on SLU’s campus. Members of the SLU commu-nity
served as extras and shadowed the director and crew.
Soul on Fire is scheduled to debut in theaters across
the country on Oct. 10, 2025.
ENGLISH PROFESSOR WINS
PRESTIGIOUS MLA PRIZE
Dr. Jonathan Sawday received
the James Russell Lowell Prize
for the most outstanding book
published in 2023, for Blanks,
Print, Space, and Void in English
Renaissance Literature: An
Archaeology of Absence.
The prize is the Modern
Language Association’s top
honor. Sawday, who joined SLU in
2009 and holds the Walter J. Ong, S.J., Chair in Humanities in the English
department, is the 55th recipient of the award and the first from SLU to
receive the honor.
SLU CELEBRATES
TRUMAN SCHOLAR
Sam Aitchison is the sixth student
in Saint Louis University history to
be honored with the prestigious
Truman Scholarship.
Aitchison, a junior majoring in
finance, leadership and human
resource management, and
Catholic studies, is one of 54
college students from 49 U.S.
colleges and universities selected as
2025 Truman Scholars. The award
is the premier graduate scholarship
for aspiring public service leaders in
the United States.
He plans to pursue a master’s degree in secondary or higher education
with the goal of teaching and, eventually, working in administration.
STUDENT EARNS PRESTIGIOUS GOLDWATER SCHOLARSHIP
Pascal Sikorski, a junior majoring in computer science, earned a
Goldwater Scholarship, a national undergraduate award for students in
STEM who intend to pursue a career in STEM research after graduation.
Sikorski wants to earn his doctorate in
computer science and become a professor.
Last summer, he was a researcher at
California Institute of Technology as
a WAVE Fellow in the Advanced
Mechanical Bipedal Experimental
Robotics Lab. This year, he will
conduct research at Oregon
State University on robotic
manipulation workflow alongside
humans in the environmental
sector.
Sawday
Provost Dr. Mike Lewis (left) and
President Dr. Fred Pestello (right)
congratu
Universitas: the magazine of Saint Louis University
No full textSummer 2023 issue of Universitas: the magazine of Saint Louis University.S U M ME R
2 0 2 3
24
HOURS
AT SLU
ONE DAY IN
THE LIFE OF
SAINT LOUIS
UNIVERSITY
Page 6
PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE
VOLUME 49, ISSUE 2
EDITOR
Laura Geiser
{A&S ’90, Grad ’92}
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Amy Garland {A&S ’97}
ART DIRECTOR
Matt Krob
CONTRIBUTORS
Marie Dilg {Grad SW ’94}
Bridjes O’Neil
ON CAMPUS NEWS
STORIES
University Public Relations
Billiken Media Relations
ON THE COVER
Photographs from
“24 Hours at SLU”
Universitas is published by
Saint Louis University.
Opinions expressed in
Universitas are those of the
individual authors and not
necessarily those of the
University administration.
Unsolicited manuscripts and
photographs are welcome
but will be returned only if
accompanied by a stamped,
self-addressed envelope.
Letters to the editor must
be signed, and letters not
intended for publication
should indicate that fact.
The editor reserves the
right to edit all items.
Address all mail to:
Universitas
DuBourg Hall 39
1 N. Grand Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63103
We accept email at:
[email protected]
Website: slu.edu/universitas
Universitas is printed by Breese
Printing and Publishing
Worldwide circulation:
132,438
©2023, Saint Louis University
All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole
or in part without
permission is prohibited.
SLU’S SPRING COMMENCEMENT
CEREMONY WAS ESPECIALLY
JOYFUL.
Graduates filled the floor of Chaifetz
Arena, extending into several rows of
overflow seating. Mortarboards were
adorned with creative embellishments.
Student speaker Zahva Naeem (A&S ’23)
eloquently urged her colleagues to “live
kindly, love freely and learn adamantly.”
And we were brought to collective tears
by the powerful address of commence-ment
speaker and Chaifetz School of
Business alumnus John O’Leary (’99).
As the graduates joined me in a jubi-lant
shout — they are indeed members
of the SLU family FOREVER! — the emo-tion
was as palpable as the confetti and streamers that fell from the rafters.
After the ceremony, our newest alumni rejoined their loved ones on the
grounds surrounding the arena and lingered in the sunshine of a beautiful
spring day. I think I took photos with a line of graduates and families that
didn’t slow for a solid hour. It’s possible I have never smiled so much — and
every grin was from my heart.
Our end-of-year celebrations condense years of challenge, triumph and
transformation into a handful of poignant moments, each dense with
memories and meaning. SLU’s 2023 graduates — who navigated some of
the most difficult years of any of our lifetimes — earned every exuberant
minute of their graduation day.
This issue of Universitas is similarly filled with images and stories that
speak to the heart of the SLU experience. Photos that beautifully capture a
few of the countless ways that SLU faculty, staff and students live our mis-sion
on any given day (page 6). Profiles of students who crossed the globe
to make SLU their home (page 15). Stories that illuminate the potential of
Jesuit education to create community, expand intellectual horizons, and
cultivate wholeness within the confines of a correctional facility (page 18).
As alumni of Saint Louis University, you know well the power and poten-tial
of Jesuit education. You carry your own collection of Billiken memories.
You might recall the moment you conquered an equation that you were
certain was outside of your abilities. Perhaps you can picture the work of
art that irrevocably shifted your perspective. Maybe you continue to repeat
words from a text or professor or classmate that resonated far beyond the
day you moved your tassel to the left side of your mortarboard.
PHOTO BY SARAH CONROY
PHOTO BY SARAH CONROY
As members of the SLU family (forever), you
extend the impact of these moments in each
of your lives and communities. You rely on the
wisdom you have earned, during your days at
SLU and in the years since, to make unique and
transformative contributions to the greater
good.
In moments of joy and times of difficulty, you
remember what it means to be a Billiken. And
you commence.
May God’s blessings be with you this summer,
and always.
Dr. Fred P. Pestello
President
Features Departments
6
24 HOURS AT SLU
A photo essay covers
one day in the life of
Saint Louis University.
15
GLOBAL REACH
An increase in
international graduate
students expands SLU’s
worldwide impact.
– By Marie Dilg
18
MINDS UNCONFINED
SLU’s Prison Education
Program opens minds and
changes lives.
– By Amy Garland
2
ON CAMPUS
Women’s basketball postseason /// Commencement recap
/// New deans /// Public health grants /// Ring Award winner
/// Student honors /// Neil Gaiman visit
23
CLASS NOTES
25
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Katey (Marcinkowski) Howes {DCHS ’99, Grad DCHS ’01}
– By Bridjes O’Neil
26
HOW I GOT HERE
Tim Bantle {A&S ’00} – By Amy Garland
29
IN MEMORIAM
33
THE LAST LOOK
A runner at dawn at the Medical C SLU President Dr. Fred P. Pestello (right) poses for a photo with a enter Stadium on April 11
graduate after the spring commencement ceremony.
2 UNIVERSITAS THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y SUMMER 2023 3
ON CAMPUS
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL MAKES HISTORY
Women’s basketball secured the first NCAA Tournament bid
in program history with a 91-85 overtime victory over top-seeded
Massachusetts in the Atlantic 10 Championship final in
March. The game was also the first time the Billikens played in
an A-10 Championship title game.
The team members, who ended their first season under Coach
Rebecca Tillett at 17-18, started the year by finding their
footing together and finished strong with 11 wins in their final
13 games.
Working together brought conference honors, including All-
Atlantic 10 second-team selections for senior forward/center
Brooke Flowers and senior guard Kyla McMakin. Flowers was
selected as the A-10’s co-Defensive Player of the Year and as
a semifinalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year
award. She was joined on the league’s All-Defensive team by
senior guard Julia Martinez, who also earned Most Outstanding
Player honors at the A-10 Championship.
In the NCAA first-round game, Flowers scored a team-high 17
points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds. McMakin and
guard Camree Clegg also scored in double figures in the team’s
95-50 loss to the Tennessee Lady Volunteers.
University Names
Two New Deans
Dr. Donna LaVoie
DEAN, COLLEGE OF ARTS AND
SCIENCES
LaVoie served as interim
dean since 2020,
overseeing the Arts and
Sciences reorganization,
where some programs moved to the new
School of Science and Engineering. Before
that, she was associate dean in the college
for 12 years. A professor of psychology, she
has been at SLU since 1995.
Dr. Gregory E.
Triplett Jr.
DEAN, SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND
ENGINEERING
The inaugural dean for
Science and Engineering,
Triplett most recently was
senior associate dean for academic affairs
at the Virginia Commonwealth University
School of Engineering. He joined VCU in
2016 as a professor and associate dean for
graduate studies. He began his academic
career in 2011 at the University of Missouri
in Columbia, where he was an associate
professor, lab director and associate
director of Mizzou’s honors college.
SLU Partners With Jesuit Organization
to Educate Refugees
Saint Louis University is partnering with Jesuit Worldwide Learning
(JWL) to offer a bachelor’s degree to international students displaced by
conflict, lack of opportunity and poverty. The first cohort of students will
start in October and are presently in refugee camps in Kenya and Malawi.
Based in Switzerland, JWL is an international higher education program
that serves students in war zones, refugee camps and impoverished coun-tries.
Partnering with academic institutions, JWL operates more than 50
learning centers in 20 countries across Asia, Africa and South America.
JWL students will graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in general studies
through SLU’s School for Professional Studies.
The program offers a bachelor’s degree free of charge to interested refu-gees
in the camps who meet eligibility requirements.
The students will begin their time at SLU with 30 credits already
completed through either Creighton University or Xavier Institute of
Management in India’s one-year certificate program. Once enrolled, they
will be full-time students with access to all forms of SLU support.
FROM LEFT: SLU Provost Dr. Michael Lewis; Dr. Martha Habash,
USA JWL academic director and Creighton University professor;
University President Fred P. Pestello; and Dr. John Buerck (Grad
Ed ’93), interim dean of SLU’s School for Professional Studies
PHOTO BY SARAH CONROY
Gaiman Receives the 2023 St. Louis Literary Award
Neil Gaiman, the 2023 St. Louis Literary Award honoree, summed up his
life’s work: “The job of a writer is to leave the world more interesting.”
Gaiman accepted the award from the Saint Louis University Libraries at
a sold-out event in April at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The same day, he was
named one of Time magazine’s Most Influential People of 2023.
Best known as a novelist, Gaiman writes in a variety of forms. His work
includes Coraline, American Gods, The Graveyard Book and The Sandman.
To close out the ceremony, Edward Ibur, executive director of the St. Louis
Literary Award, announced that Jamaica Kincaid will come to St. Louis next
year to accept the 2024 award.
Kincaid explores themes of colonialism, gender and sexuality, racism,
class and family in her work. A professor in African and African American
studies and the Department of English at Harvard University, Kincaid wrote
the novels Annie John, Gaiman accepts the 2023 St. Louis Literary Award. Lucy and See Now Then.
PHOTO BY SARAH CONROY
The women’s
basketball team
and coaching staff
celebrate their victory
in the Atlantic 10
Championship final in
Wilmington, Delaware. PHOTO BY MITCHELL LEFF/ATLANTIC 10
4 UNIVERSITAS THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y
SUMMER 2023 5
ON CAMPUS
SLU HONORS CLASS OF 2023
The Saint Louis University spring graduation
celebration culminated with the commencement
ceremony May 20 at Chaifetz Arena.
New York Times best-selling author and
motivational speaker John O’Leary (CSB ’99)
delivered the 2023 spring commencement
address.
As a child, O’Leary was so badly burned in an
accident that doctors gave him less than a 1%
chance of survival. He detailed his recovery
in the 2016 bestseller On Fire: The 7 Choices
to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life. His second
book, In Awe: Rediscover Your Childlike Wonder to
Unleash Inspiration, Meaning and Joy, was also a
bestseller.
O’Leary joined former St. Louis Alderwoman
Marlene Davis and veteran actress Marianne
Muellerleile (A&S ’71) in receiving honorary
doctoral degrees.
Davis was alderwoman of the City’s 19th Ward
for 16 years before retiring in April. She helped
facilitate the transformation of SLU’s Midtown
neighborhood.
During Muellerleile’s 50-year career, she has
appeared in more than 180 television series,
including the soap opera Passions, and more
than 100 national commercials, including Geico’s
“Aunt Infestation” ad. Her movie credits include
The Terminator and Memento.
New graduates are encouraged to keep up with
SLU events and activities from coast to coast by
updating their contact information at alumni.slu.
edu/stayconnected.
PHOTOS A, G AND I BY STEVE DOLAN / PHOTOS B-F AND H BY SARAH CONROY
Researcher Gets NIH Grants
to Help Prevent HIV and HPV
Dr. Juliet Iwelunmor, professor of
global health and behavioral science
and health education at the College for
Public Health and Social Justice, received
a grant in 2018 to develop and implement
a crowdsourcing framework for at-risk
youth in Nigeria. Now she is using the
framework to identify young people in the
United States who could become the next
generation of HIV researchers, leaders and
innovators in the field.
She was awarded a five-year, 1.76 mil-lion
grant from the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to
create NIAID STAR (Stimulating Training
and Access to HIV Research Experiences). A
partnership across four universities — SLU,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
Georgia State University and Texas A&M
University — STAR focuses on bottom-up
strategies for youth engagement in HIV pre-vention
research, involving young people as
leaders of HIV prevention interventions.
Iwelunmor also recently received a
five-year, 2.83 million grant from the
National Cancer Institute to enhance
the understanding of HPV prevention in
resource-constrained settings. Using the
crowdsourcing framework, she aims to
increase essential human papillomavirus
(HPV) vaccination and screening to lower
incidents of cervical cancer among girls
and women in Nigeria.
Iwelunmor
HONORS & AWARDS
HISTORY PROFESSOR WINS
2022 RING AWARD
Dr. Mark Edward Ruff received
the 2022 Nancy McNeir Ring
Award in December and, in keep-ing
with Saint Louis University
tradition, delivered the midyear
commencement address.
The award — SLU’s highest honor for teaching — was established in 1966
to acknowledge faculty who display special dedication to students. It is
named for the University’s first dean of women.
A SLU history professor since 2004, Ruff was a unanimous selection for
the award.
SLU COMMENDS ANOTHER TRUMAN SCHOLAR
Gabby Chiodo is the most recent — and fifth-ever — SLU student to receive
the prestigious Truman Scholarship. (See the photo on page 10.)
Truman Scholars demonstrate leadership potential, a commitment to
a career in government or the nonprofit sector, and academic excellence.
Chiodo is one of 62 scholars selected this year from a pool of 705 candidates
nominated by 275 colleges and universities.
Chiodo is a political science and communication double major with
minors in political journalism and women’s and gender studies. She is a SLU
Presidential Scholar and a member of the University Honors Program, as
well as a managing editor of The University News.
ALUMNI EARN 2023 FULBRIGHT AWARDS
Three members of the SLU community were selected for the Fulbright U.S.
Student Program, designed to expand perspectives through academic and
professional advancement and cross-cultural dialogue.
In partnership with more than 140 countries, the Fulbright U.S. Student
Program offers opportunities to graduating college seniors, graduate stu-dents
and young professionals. Participants pursue graduate study, conduct
research or teach English abroad.
Adam Ryan (A&S ’22, CSB ’23) received a Fulbright Combined Award to
Austria. He will conduct political science research at the University of Vienna
while serving as an English teaching assistant at a secondary school.
Sierra Zima (CSB ’20) received a Binational Business Program to Mexico
award. She will participate in an internship while pursuing an MBA.
Krysta Couzi (PH ’23) received an English Teaching Assistantship to Ghana.
STUDENT WINS AWARD FOR CANCER RESEARCH
Kavya Harish is one of 10 recipients of the American Association for Cancer
Research (AACR) Award, joining students from other prestigious univer-sities
such as Yale, Harvard and Cornell. The award is available to college
juniors and includes all-expenses-paid trips to AACR conferences for two
years and funding to continue cancer research.
Harish has been researching the regulation of the ribosomal machinery in
cells and attempting to inhibit protein production. By doing so, she’s shown
that previously unrelenting cell growth can be controlled, which can help
regulate certain cancers.
PHOTO BY SARAH CONROY
Ruff
PHOTO BY SARAH CONROY
A. Honorary degree recipients
(FROM LEFT) Muellerleile,
O’Leary and Davis
B. School of Education graduates
(FROM LEFT) Vicky Casazza, Riley
Hercules and Grace Hoover
C. Student speaker Zahva
Naeem (LEFT) and O’Leary
D. Dr. Manisha Ford-Thomas,
director of housing and
residence life, celebrates
earning her doctorate.
E. Confetti and streamers shower
the graduates following the
main commencement ceremony.
F. School of Medicine
graduates Tiffany Ju (LEFT)
and Stephanie Chen
G. SLU President Dr. Fred
P. Pestello addresses
the graduates.
H. School for Professional
Studies graduate Sai
Rohith Thatla celebrates.
I. O’Leary delivers the
commencement address.
A
D
G
B
E
H
C
F
I
6 UNIVERSITAS THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y SUMMER 2023 7
A LOT CAN HAPPEN IN ONE DAY.
THIS APRIL, UNIVERSITAS ATTEMPTED
TO CAPTURE IT ALL.
24 HOURS AT SLU
THERE WAS NOTHING PARTICULARLY EXTRAORDINARY
about Tuesday, April 11, 2023, at Saint Louis University. It
wasn’t commencement day or homecoming or the first day
of classes. But that very ordinariness made it perfect.
For years, the Universitas staff has wanted to share
with readers all that happens in one day at Saint Louis
University — from midnight to midnight in both St. Louis
and Madrid.
It was a tall order that required multiple photographers
on two continents. And, of course, what they captured just
scratches the surface.
Though this photo essay captures only a few fleeting
moments from a day in the University’s life, it illustrates
the vibrance of campus and the depth of SLU’s impact.
Follow the photos from the wee hours to late night and see
what a difference a day makes.
12:07 A.M.
12:07 A.M.
All is quiet along Grand
Boulevard. From left,
foreground: Grand
Hall, DuBourg Hall
and St. Francis Xavier
College Church
PHOTO BY STEVE DOLAN
MIDNIGHT - 1 A.M.
1:01 A.M. Anita Hardin (left)
and Alexandria Wilson
monitor campus from the
Department of Public Safety
communications center.
PHOTO BY
STEVE DOLAN
While St. Louis (mostly) sleeps, the Madrid Campus
starts its day. Students Abigail Amane (left) and
Claire Elah Doua talk in the San Ignacio Hall library.
PHOTO BY ÁNGEL GARCÍA LÓPEZ
Instructor Yolanda Granado
(far right) leads SLU-Madrid
students in a flamenco class.
PHOTO BY
ÁNGEL GARCÍA LÓPEZ
11:22 A.M.
(MADRID TIME)
SLU-Madrid
students enjoy
the patio behind
Padre Rubio Hall.
PHOTO BY
ÁNGEL GARCÍA LÓPEZ
1 - 2 A.M.
2 - 3 A.M. 3 - 4 A.M.
9:32 A.M. (MADRID TIME)
10:22 A.M.
(MADRID TIME)
4 - 5 A.M.
8 UNIVERSITAS THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y SUMMER 2023 9
5 - 6 A.M. 6 - 7 A.M. 8 - 9 A.M. 9 - 10 A.M.
5:44 A.M.
9:57 A.M.
6:58 A.M.
Back in St. Louis, 8:16 A.M.
student workers
fold towels at the
Simon Recreation
Center front
desk before the
facility opens.
Student Susan
Rippee finishes a test
during her “General
Chemistry II” lab
period.
The sun rises over early-morning runners
at the Medical Center Stadium.
Research assistant Keith Blomenkamp
works in Dr. Jeffrey Teckman’s
lab in the Doisy Research Center,
investigating pediatric liver disease.
PHOTO
BY STEVE
DOLAN
PHOTO
BY SARAH
CONROY
PHOTO BY
SARAH CONROY
PHOTO
BY SARAH
CONROY
7:15 - 7:42 A.M.
Students Suzanne
Tran (top right), Tran
Quach (bottom left)
and Carolina Cifuentes
Milla (bottom right)
prepare breakfast at
the student-run Fresh
Gatherings Café in the
Allied Health Building.
PHOTOS BY
SARAH CONROY
7 - 8 A.M.
10:53 A.M.
Students cross
Grand Boulevard
during a busy class-change
period.
PHOTO BY
SARAH CONROY
10 - 11 A.M.
10 UNIVERSITAS THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y SUMMER 2023 11
Pestello has lunch with students
in Grand Dining Hall.
Pestello joins a campus tour
and talks with prospective
students and their families.
11 A.M. - NOON
University President Dr. Fred Pestello (right) and Provost Dr. Michael
Lewis (left) surprise Gabby Chiodo during her class in Morrissey Hall
to share the news that Chiodo had been named a 2023 Truman Scholar.
Chiodo, the fifth Truman Scholar in SLU history, was selected for
demonstrating outstanding leadership potential, her commitment to a
career in government or the nonprofit sector, and academic excellence.
Dr. Barnali Gupta,
Edward Jones Dean
of the Chaifetz
School of Business,
greets a student
during an “Office
Hours with the
Dean” event in the
Shanahan Atrium
of Cook Hall.
Prof. Molly Wilson, associate dean for
research and engagement at the School of
Law, teaches a contracts class in the Pruellage
Courtroom in Scott Hall.
PHOTOS
BY SARAH
CONROY
PHOTO BY
CRISTINA
FLETES
PHOTO BY
STEVE DOLAN
11:16 A.M.
12:15 P.M.
1:02 P.M.
NOON - 1 P.M. 1 - 2 P.M.
2:34 P.M.
Dr. Vithya Murugan,
assistant professor of
social work, instructs
students in her “Intro
to Social Work” class
in Tegeler Hall.
PHOTO BY
CRISTINA FLETES
2 - 3 P.M.
3:34 - 3:59 P.M.
The Billiken softball
team practices at the
Billiken Sports Center.
Clockwise from top
left: Head Coach
Christy Connoyer
(center) talks to the
team; Chloe Rhine
throws the ball while
Kendall Johnson (right)
gets ready to field;
Abby Mallo bats from
a tee; Kaili Hanner
winds up to pitch.
PHOTOS BY
CRISTINA FLETES
3 - 4 P.M.
11:59 A.M.
11:25 A.M.
12 UNIVERSITAS THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSIT Y SUMMER 2023 13
4:01 P.M.
Campus Kitchen
student volunteers
(from left) Elise
Hallstoos, Nhu Nguyen,
Sarah Sargent, Hao
Huang and Alicia
Avellaneda-Cruz walk
meals across Grand
Boulevard to deliver to
residents of the nearby
Council Towers Senior
Living Apartments.
PHOTO BY STEVE DOLAN
4 - 5 P.M.
5:25 - 6 P.M.
Students take advantage of a
warm spring day to be outside.
Clockwise from top left: Riya
Patel (right) and friends on
a hammock near DuBourg
Hall; Madi Baylor (left), Ella
Bolling and Joe Feder (right)
at the Cupples House bridge;
(from left) Andrew Kowalski,
Claire Robinson, DeAndre
Westbrook and Andrew Siemer
at the Dr. Jonathan C. Smith
Amphitheater; and Elizabeth
Monzu at a table overlooking
Lipic Clock Tower Plaza.
PHOTOS BY SARAH CONROY
5 - 6 P.M.
6:27 P.M.
The cast of Clue the
Musical — from left,
students Makaina
Woods, Marshall Self,
Allie Thornton (seated),
Jake Allen Olson,
Sophie Smith, Aadi
Kadam and London
Kimble — rehearses
in the Main Stage
Theatre in Xavier Hall.
PHOTO BY SARAH CONROY
6 - 7 P.M.
Tan France, host
of Netflix shows
Next in Fashion and
Queer Eye, speaks to
students in the Wool
Ballrooms in Bu
Louis Vierne and the Evolution of His Modal Consciousness
No full textThesis (D.M.A.)--University of Washington, 2018University of Washington Abstract Louis Vierne and the Evolution of His Modal Consciousness Jonathan Bezdegian Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Dr. Carole Terry Music During my years of organ study I have always been perplexed by the harmonic language of Louis Vierne (1870-1937), particularly in his 24 Pièces de Fantaisie. After reading a breadth of literature on the organ music of France after the French Revolution, the Paris Conservatoire, the progression of organ construction, the subsequent development of symphonic organ composition and improvisation, organ scholars have not discussed how to approach this music in terms of analysis, nor created a system to outline such an approach. Throughout Vierne’s Mémoires he constantly recalls his desire (and the desire of his colleagues), to escape French compositional norms and employ a new form of “daring modernism.” In Rollin Smith’s book, Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre-Dame Cathedral, the author mentions that Vierne’s harmonic language has been codified in the modes of limited transposition. To date, scholars have not found any harmonic or analytical evidence to verify that this apparent modal consciousness is, in fact, true. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation will trace this harmonic evolution through Vierne’s life and education, the organs of Cavaillé-Coll, and through Vierne’s compositions. My analysis of Vierne’s selected compositions will illustrate that this modal awareness is plausible. By briefly analyzing the “Scherzo” from the 6ème Symphonie, it seems that this once loosely used modal writing (at least for Vierne) began to evolve and become more logical. Not only does this help to prove Smith’s point, but it will also give organists a new look at Vierne’s music through a harmonic, analytical lens, one that has not been attempted before
Paranoia and irony in the Anglophone dectective narrative and the novels of Umberto Eco
No full textThe thesis provides a reading of Umberto Eco's three novels, The Name of the
Rose, Foucault's Pendulum, and The Island of the Day Before, that, while it
acknowledges the importance of the Italian literary tradition in which they stand, also
seeks to explain why their author appeals so frequently to literary models outside
Italy, and in particular the Anglo-American detective genre.
Chapter One explains Eco's relationship to the development of Italian literature
through his lifetime. It is noted that Eco is beginning, both in his semiotics and his
fiction, from a position where post-structuralism has been extensively explored by
neo-avant-gardew riters. Eco positions himself alongsides uchw riters as Italo Calvino
and Jorge Luis Borges, who wish to explore the ludic possibilities of working within
structures, while all the time acknowledging the epistemological limitations of so
doing. Eco's chosen structure, more often than not, is the highly defined genre of
the detective story.
From here, the following chapters engage in close readings of the three novels,
with particular emphasis on The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum,
demonstrating that they explore problems of interpretation central to the detective
narrative. In doing this, they display an intimate knowledge of generic developments
within the detective tradition, and of the philosophical and aesthetic uses made of the
genre by other writers. The embedding of intertextual references to other detective
narratives within Eco's novels is an important factor, as they come together to form
a narrative of epistemological inquiry that itself follows Eco's philosophical progress
through the years. In short, the novels, inter alia, map a systematic inquiry into the
possibility of systematic inquiry. They reserve the space to engage in such an ironic
and self-referential project precisely through their fictionality
University News - Volume 096, Issue 012 (December 1, 2016)
No full text12 pages.Vol. XCVI No. 12 A student voice of Saint Louis University since 1921 Thursday, December 1, 2016
INSIDE SCOOP:
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concert at the
Peabody
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picks are a sign of
what’s to come
Page 9
Political Round Table hosts
event on the state of St. Louis
On Monday, Nov. 21,
2016, a panel of students and
professors addressed “the
role our individual identities
and experiences play during
classroom discussion” as de-scribed
in an email SGA sent
to all students.
The panelists included
Dr. Karla Scott (communica-tion
and African American
studies) and Dr. Laurie Shor-nick
(biology) along with
students Noelle Janak (Af-rican
American studies and
women and gender studies),
Graham Vogt (Spanish, eco-nomics,
and international
studies), and Grant Mayfield
(political science and com-munication)
who served as
moderator of the panel dis-cussion.
Scott, who teaches in
both communication and
African American studies,
first pointed out that some
identities are “agent identi-ties,”
meaning that they are
afforded power and privi-lege.
Shornick, a biology pro-fessor,
then shared her per-sonal
experience of being
By PATRICK HYLAND
Staff Writer
harassed by a professor while
she was a student in college.
As one of three women
in the biology department
of her university at the time,
Shornick noted that the pro-fessor’s
actions went without
comment by other students
and faculty.
She explained that, “[Her]
only recourse was to change
my major.”
Janak, who now stud-ies
African American stud-ies
and women and gender
studies related to the feeling
of not going to class because
she did not feel safe to be
there.
She recounted how one
of her white, male profes-sors
continually shut down
students of color from con-tributing
to the classroom
discussion.
Often fearing retribution
and simply not being under-stood,
Janak shared how she
often will not say things in
class because she does not
want to deal with the after-math.
Noting how varying per-spectives
and identities can
be shared in teaching, Shor-
See “Identity” on Page 3
As many were prepar-ing
to leave St. Louis for the
Thanksgiving holiday last
Monday evening, a group of
close to 100 gathered at 5:30
in the Sinquefield Room to
discuss the condition of the
city.The event, entitled “A
City on the Rise: The Cost
of Prosperity,” was hosted
by Political Round Table, a
non-partisan political orga-nization
at SLU. It included
a free formal dinner and was
open to the public.
For the first half of the
evening, attendees heard
from Michael Allen, founder
and director of the Preserva-tion
Research Office in St.
By KRISTINA DEYONG
Staff Writer
See “PRT” on Page 2
Kristina DeYong / The University News
PRT: Michael Allen, PhD, spoke to students about the many issues facing St. Louis City and the surrounding region.
Courtesy of Silvana Siddali
JESUITS: This poster is from the musical production
“Let’s Get Together,” directed by Jesuit Fr. Daniel Lord.
Louis.
He spoke at length about
the successes and signs of
growth St. Louis has seen
recently and condemned the
panic over “urban crisis” in
St. Louis and other cities.
“It is harmful ideology to
call cities victims of ‘urban
crisis,’” Allen said. “These
same issues, this same cri-sis,
has been going on for
decades. This state of emer-gency
mentality tends to lead
to short-term solutions.”
Allen also spoke of the
deep divide between St.
Louis City and County. He
stressed the need for the
state to begin to fund its cit-ies
equally in relation to its
For the 2017
symposium, the
theme concerns
the Jesuit influence
on art. The Jesuits
have had an impact
on various art
forms, whether it
is stained glass,
architecture, music
or even plays.
Panel talks
identity in the
classroom
‘Jesuits and the Arts’ Symposium this April at SLU
By MEGAN HAMMOND
News Editor
On April 18, 2017, the
Saint Louis University li-braries,
the College of Arts
and Sciences and the Jesuit
Archives: Central United
States is hosting the third an-nual
Jesuit Student Research
Symposium. The theme is
“Jesuits and the Arts.”
Dr. Silvana Siddali of the
department of history, Tim
Achee from Pius Memorial
Library and Dr. Dave Miros
from the Jesuit Archives be-gan
the symposium.
Siddali explained that
the three of them were sur-prised
and disappointed that
SLU was not conducting any
events concerning Jesuit his-tory.
2014 marked the bicen-tennial
of the Jesuit restora-tion
after the Jesuit order
had been repressed. After
being founded again, the first
generation of Jesuits came to
the United States to conduct
missionary work.
Achee, Miros and Sid-dali
felt that the bicentennial
should be celebrated at SLU
and that students should be
involved. The symposium
was created and both under-graduate
and graduate stu-dents
presented their papers
on Jesuit history.
After their success, the
three decided to host the
event annually. The next
year’s theme was about race
and the Jesu-its.
S i d d a l i
said the con-troversies
at
and around
Ferguson in-spired
the
trio to cover
the topic. The
focus was on
SLU and slav-ery,
but there
were also pre-sentations
on
Native Ameri-cans
and Jesu-its.
The race
and Jesuits
synposium was well-re-ceived,
but Siddali said that
attendees were somewhat
surprised by SLU’s history
with slavery.
The symposium brought
to light that SLU really had
not done anything about
their negative history.
Siddali went to the office
of the University’s president
and shared that people were
inquiring about SLU’s past
with race. In response, the
research project concern-ing
SLU and slavery was
started and is currently be-ing
researched by several
faculty mem-bers
from the
department
of history.
The foremost
researcher is
Dr. Nathaniel
Millett.
The proj-ect
will be
f e a t u r e d
prominently
among SLU’s
bicentennial
programs in
2018.
S i d d a l i
shared that
the SLU and
slavery project showcases
the mission of the symposia:
“We were hoping that these
symposia would bring our
students more in line with
Jesuit history.”
For the 2017 symposium,
the theme concerns the Je-suit
influence on art. The Je-suits
have had an impact on
various art forms whether it
is stained glass, architecture,
music or even plays. Siddali
expressed her excitement
about working with students
from various disciplines on
their research.
Surprisingly, Jesuits have
even been involved with the-atrical
performances. Siddali
said there are several plays
that can be found in the Je-suit
Archives.
Beginning the call for pa-pers
now, the deadline for
proposals is Monday, Jan. 30,
2017. Both undergraduate
and graduate students can
submit proposals.
The proposal will be re-viewed
by a panel and pre-sentations
will be 20-min-utes
long. Final papers are
due Monday, April 10, 2017.
Contact Dr. Silvana Sid-dali
at [email protected] with
questions or for more infor-mation.
Siddali said she will
even assist with topic choic-es.
All are invited to attend
the symposium to hear pre-sentations
on April 18, 2017.
It will be held in Saint Louis
University Museum of Art
(SLUMA) and there will be
food and refreshments.
more rural or suburban ar-eas.
“Much of the money and
power has been transferred
out of the city to the sub-urbs,
yet the city govern-ment
is blamed for regional
problems,” Allen said. “The
city must stop being seen as
a separate land.”
He emphasized the need
for the next generations to
become involved in reshap-ing
local politics, and stu-dents
had a
chance to do
just that dur-ing
the sec-ond
half of
the evening.
Once Al-len
finished
his address,
the night was
opened up
for discus-sion.
Each of
the numer-ous
dinner
tables set up
were desig-nated
with
a different topic of interest,
including politics, homeless-ness
and poverty, start-ups,
transportation, media and
more. Each table and its top-ic
was assigned at least one
expert in the area.
At the politics table, al-derman
Joseph Roddy of
Ward 17 and alderwoman
Marlene Davis of Ward 19
talked with students about
the complexities of politics
and the importance of local
involvement.
“Most of the important
stuff that’s going on hap-
2 December 1, 2016 NEWS
Continued from Page 1
PRT: St. Louis’ problem of division is highlighted
“
“
Massage therapy
is more helpful
than medications
for back pain,
especially low
back pain.
Anne Childers, owner of Indigo
Massage and Wellness
PRT: Students pose for a picture after Dr. Michael Allen’s talk on the problems facing St. Louis City in the Sinquefield
State Room in DuBourg Hall. The talk focused on the many factors that continue to divide those in the St. Louis area.
Kristina DeYong / The University News
pens in neighborhoods, and
college students tend to be
a little insulated in their
dorms,” Roddy said. “Nation-al
politics are a lot easier to
follow, and so many college
students know they’re go-ing
to end up moving some-where
else. I think it’s hard to
get really interested in local
government until you settle
down a little bit. When you
own your house, you’ll care a
little more about your neigh-borhood.”
Denish Jaswal, president
of Political
Roundtable,
said that this
interest in
local politics
is exactly
what the
State of St.
Louis event
is meant to
encourage.
“St. Louis
is a city that
is starkly
divided be-tween
af-fluence
and
poverty, and
we feel that
continually staying with
our bounds of affluence and
privilege is a disservice to the
city we call our home,” Jas-wal
said. “[Political Roundta-ble]
works to bridge the gap
between these two realities
of St. Louis with this event
every year.”
Alderwoman Davis spoke
of the importance of linking
political involvement with
serving the community you
are a part of. “Being involved
in politics is hard work! It’s
not just sitting around in
a suit, looking important,
saying things that make no
sense half the time,” Davis
said.
“You’ve got to know and
understand and be willing
to do what is needed to help
people. That means spend-ing
Saturdays cleaning lots,
cleaning alleys, helping paint
porches...communities wel-come
volunteers for their
projects.”
This advice comes at a
time when student interest
in politics is at a high point.
“This past election cycle
has definitely amped up
interest in politics here at
SLU,” Jaswal said. “Hopefully,
some of this will lead to more
than just isolated talk and
translate into action. Given
Trump’s upcoming contro-versial
presidency, I think
that there is much room for
both talk and action from
people who previously felt
that politics did not affect
The Clock Tower Accords impact
on enrollment efforts
By PATRICK HYLAND
Staff Writer
The Clock Tower Ac-cords
website tells only part
of the story about the Uni-versity’s
efforts to support
community-based initia-tives.
While many initiatives
are detailed in the October
2014 agreement, not all of
them originated at that time.
The University has made
efforts towards at least some
of the initiatives long before
October of 2014. In fact,
Jay Goff, VP of Enrollment
and Retention Management
mentions the University’s
efforts and commitment to-wards
diversity as the main
reason why he came to SLU
in the first place, back in
2012.
The fifth Clock Tower ac-cord
specifically mentioned
developing bridge and
summer programs to bet-ter
support students in the
Normandy and Shaw neigh-borhoods.
William Perkins, Direc-tor
of Pre-College and Ac-cess
Programs recently high-lighted
how the University
has worked on partnership
programs with Roosevelt
High School in the Shaw
neighborhood, creating a
bridge program to improve
the college readiness skills of
middle and high school stu-dents.
The University also
agreed to increase its sup-port
for schools in the im-mediate
area. In working
within the geographic zone
around SLU’s campus, Uni-versity
officials have found
that not all area schools are
resourced well enough to
support all types of college
preparatory programs. The
larger educational gap that
exists cannot be bridged
through a simple tutoring
program, for instance.
According to Dr. Jona-than
Smith, the issue is larg-er
than just dropping a doz-en
undergrads off to tutor
students once a week. The
University plans to continue
investigating ways to work
with the underserved in and
around the Normandy and
Shaw neighborhoods, ac-cording
to Smith.
With the additional staff-ing
in pre-college and access
programs and student finan-cial
services, SLU increased
its outreach efforts through-out
the metro
area by of-fering
more
college readi-ness,
college
a dmi s s i o n s
and financial
aid work-shops.
In
2015-16, SLU
e n r o l lme n t
and retention
management
staff sup-ported
over
110 of such
programs. In addition, the
Office of Admission now
makes at least two visits each
year to high schools with the
highest underrepresented
student populations in each
of the University’s metropol-itan
focus markets: Chicago,
New Orleans, Memphis,
Denver, Los Angeles, San
Jose, Dallas, Houston, Bos-
University officials
have found that not
all area schools
are resourced
well enough to
support all types of
college preparatory
programs.
them or those that they
cared about. It has definitely
jolted folks to become more
aware, so I hope their inter-est
is maintained.”
Davis, too, hopes that
young people will continue
to be interested in politics.
“Older generations have
not made an effort to bring
young people aboard so that
they can get direct informa-tion
and knowledge,” she
said. “We just said ‘we got
this,’ and did our own thing.
But there’s nothing you can’t
learn by educating yourself.”
Roddy encouraged stu-dents
to read local newspa-pers
like the Post-Dispatch,
citing them as more credible
than most ideologically driv-en
websites.
He mentioned that all
committee meetings are
available to watch on You-
Tube, and all board meetings
are on public access cable.
“
“
St. Louis is
a city that is
starkly divided
between affluence
and poverty...
continually staying
with our bounds
of affluence and
privilege is a
disservice to the
city we call our
home.
Denish Jaswal, PRT President
Massage Therapists from
Indigo Massage and Well-ness
will be on campus from
Monday, Dec. 5 to Friday,
Dec. 9, offering morning,
afternoon and evening ap-pointments
for students
at no charge. The program
is funded by the Wellness
Fund, which all University
students pay into each se-mester.
Students are eligible for
one free massage during
the week of final exams, and
can choose between a chair
massage or table stretch-ing.
All massages will take
place on the lower level of
Pius Library, in room LL6.
The room is located at the
bottom of the staircase next
to Eienstein
Bagels. Stu-dents
must
schedule an
appointment
using the
links pro-vided
in this
week’s SGA-Weekly
Up-date
email.
A n n e
C h i l d e r s ,
owner of Indigo Massage
and Wellness, which is the
company that will be provid-ing
the massages to students,
says that “There is recent re-search
that shows that mas-sage
therapy is more helpful
then medications for back
pain, especially low back
pain.” Anne also notes that,
“A common misconception
with pain is that where you
feel the pain is where the
problem is. This isn’t always
true. There are referred pain
patterns and we look at the
body as a whole when as-sessing
pain.” Students are
encouraged to let the mas-sage
therapist know of any
pain or tension before their
massage. Not all students are
aware of where they carry
stress, but those that do
should let the therapist know
beforehand.
Anne recommends get-ting
the most out of a mas-sage
appointment by “engag-ing
in deep, slow breathing
and entering into a state of
stillness.” She notes that the
proven benefits of massage
include: “relief of muscle
tension, reduction of stress,
improvement in blood and
lymphatic flow, soft tissue
relaxation and over-all men-tal
and physical well-being.”
Anne believes that stu-dents
should actually consid-er
regular massage therapy
since, “Students experience
periods of time dealing with
high levels of stress and
pressure.” Massages, in fact,
“can provide a release of
para-sympathic chemicals
( s e r a t o n i n ,
endorphins)
and reduce
the chemicals
released by
the sympathic
nervous sys-tem
(adren-alin,
epineph-rine).”
These
very chemi-cals
can af-fect
overall
performance and self-aware-ness,
according to Anne.
Other tips of getting the
most out of a massage are
drinking a lot of water both
before and after the massage,
eating wholesome foods, ex-ercising
regularly, resting as
much as possible, drinking
alcohol only in moderation
and not overeating.
Appointments begin at
10 a.m., Monday through
Friday, and end at 3 p.m.,
before picking up again at 7
p.m. and running until 9 p.m.
Spots are available for 42
students each day, and will
serve 210 students through-out
finals week. Students
should have their SLU ID
ready to show the therapist
at their appointment time.
Free massages
offered in Pius
during finals
By PATRICK HYLAND
Staff Writer
ton and Washington, D.C.
Research conducted by
both outside agencies, as
well as within SLU, indicated
that SLU could increase the
underrepresented student
population by broadening
recruitment beyond tradi-tional
high school students.
More lo-cally,
the en-hanced
en-rollment
plan
is to include
“multiple ac-cess
points”
for first-gen-eration
col-lege
and dis-a
d v ant a g e d
students to
become Bil-likens.
The
new transfer
articulation
plan will start with St. Louis
Community College in the
launch of the 2+SLU pro-gram,
which will operate as
a bridge and college comple-tion
effort for all area high
school graduates. Serving as
a dual admission program,
students will take prescribed
classes at any St. Louis Com-munity
College campus.
Participating students will
be admitted to SLU as long
as they maintain a minimum
college GPA of 2.75 in at
least 10 college courses. A
GPA of 3.25 will make a stu-dent
scholarship-eligible.
An earlier article on the
Clock Tower Accords, pub-lished
on Nov. 3, 2016 men-tioned
that there was no
update from the University
in regards to a possible na-tional
conference on racial
equality.
Dr. Jonathan Smith, Chief
Diversity Officer, has since
clarified that, indeed, the
University is planning on
holding just such a confer-ence
in the Fall of 2017 or
the Spring of 2018. Smith
also clarified that while there
may not be an officially des-ignated
“diversity speaker
series,” certainly the spirit
of that accord is being met
through funding he has been
able to offer to bring speak-ers
such as Janet Mock to
campus. Mock is a transgen-der
rights activist and author
of the New York Times best-seller,
“Redefining Realness.”
She is scheduled to speak in
March.
Courtesy of SLU
Clock Tower: SLU seeks to aid local students through college preperatory programs
NEWS December 1, 2016 3
THE SLU SCOOP
All Information Provided by Department of
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Be a Responsible Billiken
STOP. CALL. REPORT.
314-977-3000
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Wednesday, November 16
1:28 p.m. PROPERTY DAMAGE / CRIMINAL
A Saint Louis University student reported the theft
of his wallet and contents, along with his cellular
phone, from his backpack that he had left in an un-locked
locker in the first floor men’s locker room.
The student declined contacting St. Louis Metro-politan
Police. Building management was made
aware of the incident, along with the Department
of Public Safety Investigator
Thursday, November 17
10:06 p.m. TRESPASSING
An individual, who was reported by Saint Louis
University maintenance staff as being observed at
two different bike racks on campus, was detained
by Public Safety officers, and found to have a set of
wire cutters in his possession. The subject, who
had no affiliation with the University, was subse-quently
conveyed to the Wool Center holdover, for
further investigation. A Regional Justice Informa-tion
Systems computer check revealed no active
holds on the subject, but did reveal a number of
previous arrests. The subject was released with a
warning for trespassing.
Thursday, November 28
11:43 a.m. ACCIDENTAL INJURY
A Visitor to College Church fell on the steps while
exiting through the Northeast doors. Church staff
contacted 911 and DPS. St. Louis Fire Department
Medic unit #23 responded. The victim had a small
abrasion to the top of the head but denied injury
and refused medical attention. The victim walked
to his vehicle and left the area without further inci-dent.
Photos taken and attached to report.
Friday, November 29
1:19 a.m. VMCSL
Officer responding to a “confirmed odor” assist
with Res. Life was handed 3 bags containing small
amounts of a green leafy substance by the occu-pants
of the room. All three occupants admitted to
smoking marijuana in the dorm room.
Let Us Introduce You:
Matthew Gannon
IDENTITY: Students gathered to listen to faculty members Dr. Karla Scott and Dr. Laurie Shornick and students
Noelle Janak and Graham Vogt talk about their identities and experiences. Grant Mayfield moderated the panel.
By PETER FURLOW
Contributor
Junior Matt Gannon can
be seen (or heard) all across
campus. If you haven’t seen
him giving tours to prospec-tive
students as a SLU Am-bassador,
you may have seen
him enthusiastically sport-ing
his orange Oriflamme
shirt. Or you may have heard
him on his own KSLU radio
show, “MG²,” which airs ev-ery
Monday at 6 p.m.
Because of this involve-ment,
as he walks down
West Pine there are seem-ingly
no strangers. But it was
not always this way.
Gannon arrived at SLU
as the only person from his
all-boys Jesuit high school in
Washington D.C. He came
to SLU originally because he
was interested in the engi-neering
program at SLU as
well as his firm commitment
to the Jesuit mission.
SLU allowed him the op-portunity
to experience a
new beginning in an unfa-miliar
place. He had an in-teresting
campus visit that
lead to his decision to attend
SLU.
“I fle
University News - Volume 098, Issue 009 (January 31, 2019)
No full text24 pages.VOL. XCVIII No. 9 / January 31, 2019
Cover Design by Rebecca LiVigni
UTHE UNIVERSITY NEWS
70 Years Later...
f this happens to this kid, could it
happen to us?” said John Waide, a
40-year historian and SLU alumus,
as he questioned the phenomenon
that took place on SLU’s very own
campus in 1949.
Even today, the exorcism
of St. Louis is only dared to be whispered in ru-mor
or heresay. Now, on its 70th anniversary, the
question of what exactly happened still haunts
us—especially with the exaggerated portrayal of
the events from the 1973 movie “The Exorcist.”
Contrary to popular belief, there is more to the
story than a creaky fourth floor in the oldest
building on our campus.
Robbie Mannheim, the alias for the child
who fell victim to these chilling events, experi-enced
strange symptoms for four months in 1949.
His troubles began with peculiar noises, such as
scratching and dripping, as well as various ob-jects,
including holy water being thrown against
the wall—until one day, he became the target. He
discovered several marks engraved on his body
spelling bone-chilling messages of “Hell” and lat-er,
“Louis.”
With the situation worsening in their
Maryland residence, Mannheim’s family took the
message “Louis” as a sign to move him to the St.
Louis area to live with relatives. It was also the
place where his recently deceased aunt had lived.
These strange events started to take place around
the time of her death, after he had apparently
tried contacting her using a Ouija board.
But that was only the beginning.
Mannheim’s condition still worsened
in the Bel Nor home in St. Louis. A relative of
Mannheim’s who was attending SLU and was an
inhabitant of the Mann-heims’
home confided in
one of her professors, the
Rev. Bishop, about the
crisis. This spurred the
involvement of several
SLU faculty and priests.
One in particular, the Rev.
Bowdern, recognized that
something was not right.
Bowdern and oth-er
SLU faculty then decid-ed
an exorcism was necessary as a last ditch effort
to rid Mannheim of whatever—or whoever—was
tormenting his spirit. Bowdern attempted the
exorcism rituals several different times despite
growing opposition from Mannheim. On Easter
weekend, while Mannheim was staying at the
Alexian Brothers Hospital, Bowdern knew that his
efforts had finally worked when Mannheim ex-claimed
suddenly that “[He] was gone.”
Waide recounts conversations that he had
with two relatives of Bowdern, the primary exor-cist,
and offers that he found it “particularly com-pelling”
that “they both said that Father Bowdern
had lost nearly 40 pounds over this ordeal” as well
as the fact that “he truly believed that he was in a
battle with the devil, a true possession.”
To what extent did Mannheim’s mon-strosities
reach our SLU campus? At least to
Waide’s knowledge, it did not happen in the loca-tions
generally speculated. In fact, Waide claims
that Mannheim was never in places like DuBourg
or Verhaegen Hall, rather he had been moved back
and forth between the old rectory of St. Francis
College Church and his home in Bel Nor for sev-eral
weeks during the exorcism. The rectory has
since been torn down to make room for a new rec-tory.
Beyond SLU, Mannheim’s story has in-fected
pop culture. In addition to the book “The
Exorcist” published in 1971, the film rendition
based on his story was produced soon after. Sev-eral
other movies portraying other exorcism ep-isodes
followed, as well as a more recent docu-mentary
released in 2015, titled “Exorcism: LIVE”
which offers an in-depth look at the St. Louis
house where Mannheim had lived. Even Waide’s
presentations about the exorcism have been at-tended
by thousands. “People are fascinated by
it,” said Waide.
Randy McGuire, a colleague of Waide’s,
interviewed the author of “The Exorcist,” William
Peter Blatty. In this interview Blatty makes an im-portant
connection between the significance of
the book and movie to its title. “Everyone misses
the point of the book and the movie,” said Blat-ty.
”It was about the priests and what they do to
help the boy.” Blatty’s statement highlights the
significant efforts of Bowdern, Bishop and many
other SLU faculty in the
treatment of the boy and
their willingness to help
someone in need.
Waide acknowledges
that he himself still “has a
lot of questions” that have
gone unanswered. He does
not identify as a skeptic in
the matter, but rather en-courages
those that want
to learn more to “be crit-ical
in their evaluations and studies.” He suggests
looking to resources such as the published diary
of Bishop, who was one of the SLU exorcists. The
full version is included in the book “The Posses-sion”
by Thomas Allen, who is another expert on
the ordeal.
To sum up the entire ordeal, Waide states
that “people believe what they want to believe.”
Whether you are a believer or a skeptic,
there is no escaping the fact that the infamous
exorcism of 1949 is—and will always be—a part of
SLU’s history.
THE EXORCISM THAT HAUNTS SLU 70 YEARS LATER
"I
02 NEWS
By CAROLINE LIPSKI
Staff Writer
(Rebecca LiVigni/The University News)
“He discovered several
marks engraved on his
body spelling bone-chilling
messages of
‘Hell’ and later, ‘Louis.’”
“Women often resort
to using rags, paper
towels, toilet paper
and even diapers
during their monthly
cycle in order to overt
the extra funds.”
News 03
n Ethiopia, the
school dropout
rate for girls re-mains
at a stag-gering
51 per-cent,
according
to the Dignity
Period project, a
main cause for
dropouts being the lack of access
to menstruation products.
Despite taking place half-way
across the world, this prob-lem
is not foreign to St. Louis.
Women of low income
populations in St. Louis strug-gle
every day for the essentials:
enough money for their rent, food
and bills. However, one basic ne-cessity
is not often regarded as
essential—menstrual products.
The simple reality for
these women is that it is essential.
According to Plan International,
1 in 10 women struggle to afford
menstrual hygiene products when
they need them—a problem that
is far more prevalent for women
in low income populations.
This reality was the mo-tivation
for Anne Sebert Kuhl-mann,
Ph.D.
Kuhlmann, a professor
and master’s program director of
public health at SLU, realized her
study on low income women’s
menstrual health in St. Louis was
more necessary than she ever ex-pected.
“About 64 percent of the
low income women that we sur-veyed
could not afford menstrual
hygiene products in the past year
when they needed them,” Kuhl-mann
said. “We thought we would
document some need, but when
we talk about 64 percent of the
women that we talked to, that’s
very pervasive.”
Kuhlmann credits the
“economic cost of being a wom-an”
for this
incredibly
high statis-tic.
“ I f
you think
about a
man and a
woman liv-ing
on very
l o w - i n -
come, mak-ing
ends
meet, there
are additional costs that women
have in order to participate fully
in society, that, in this case, men
don’t have,” she said.
Kuhlmann claims that
there is an “economic cost of
having to provide extra supplies,
yet we have nothing in our safety
net system that helps provide for
them.”
With no safety net in
place, women in low income pop-ulations
already face a unique
challenge; however, that is not
I
the extent of their economic obsta-cles.
The extra “cost of being a wom-an”
can also be seen in the selective
exemption of items subject to a sales
tax.
According to NPR, items like
ChapStick, Viagra and dandruff sham-poo
have no sales tax in many states
due to their “healthcare” uses; how-ever,
period products are taxed this
way—or even luxury taxed—in some
places.
This can increase the price
of period products by 10 percent of
the item’s
amount, ac-cording
to
Kuhlmann’s
research—a
significant
increase for
many wom-en.
Because
of this, wom-en
often re-sort
to using
rags, paper
towels, toilet
paper and even diapers during their
monthly cycle in order to overt the
extra funds.
Menstrual hygiene is not de-tached
from other areas of a woman’s
life, either; the effects of a woman’s
period can extend into other areas of
health and lifestyle.
“Women often miss school
or work because of their periods” and
“because of not having products,” said
Kuhlmann.
According to Kuhlmann, this
is especially true for women working
hourly jobs that don’t provide sick
leave. By missing a day or two a month
due to a lack of menstrual products, it
can disturb their economic stability—
in addition to their mental health.
“It can affect your job. It can
affect your progress in education. You
can also imagine how it affects a wom-an’s
self-worth and dignity, not being
able to care and provide for yourself,”
said Kuhlmann.
Fortunately, though, Kuhl-mann
believes the study was pub-lished
at the perfect time for a reso-lution.
Dignity Period, in partnership
with the St. Louis Alliance for Peri-od
Supplies, is starting a program in
St. Louis to dispense reusable pads
to women in need. The Alliance will
work similarly to the Diaper Bank in
St. Louis in that they will purchase,
collect and store menstrual products,
then partner with organizations that
work directly with women from low
income populations to distribute
them.
Although this is a great re-lief
to the problem now, Kuhlmann
thinks the key to creating a lasting
solution is in policy-making. Since
2017, there’s been a bill in the Missou-ri
House focused on taxing menstrual
hygiene products and diapers at the
lower food sales tax rate. However, it
has not received a hearing.
Kuhlmann hopes that because
of how widely the study has spread,
particularly in an upcoming issue of
the esteemed publication “Obstetrics
& Gynecology,” it will help illustrate
the importance of this issue.
“We will have to see at this
legislative session with this new
awareness whether the bill is intro-duced
again and whether it receives
a hearing in the legislative process,”
said Kuhlmann.
Kuhlmann’s study has made a
large impact on the St. Louis commu-nity,
as well as the nation. But what’s
made her feel the proudest through-out
the entire project is bringing
awareness to the issue. “We thought it
would generate some attention, but I
think it’s gone way beyond what we’ve
imagined,” she said.
Knowing that people will see
the problem’s magnitude and use it
to establish and expand programs to
help St. Louis women is what Kuhl-mann
desires for the future.
However, Kuhlmann’s ulti-mate
hope is that her work will be a
stepping stone to finally ending wom-en’s
struggle to afford menstrual hy-giene
products, period.
By RILEY MACK
News Editor
Photo Courtesy of Diane Chatman
NEW SLU STUDY GAINS NATIONAL ATTENTION
ate Tuesday and into
Wednesday, much of the
Midwest experienced plum-meting
temperatures that
froze even the grittiest
Americans. While the wind
chill in St. Louis did not
plummet to Chicago’s degree, its sub-zero
temperatures resulted in school cancella-tions
and early closures of businesses. At
approximately 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Kent Por-terfield,
Saint Louis University’s vice pres-ident
for student development, sent a cam-pus-
wide email warning students, staff and
faculty of dangerously low temperatures and
the clothing that should be worn to avoid
frostbite.
But what if students could not afford
warm winter coats?
What if they did not have a suitable
place to sleep?
While many SLU students are priv-ileged
enough to have a warm place to stay
and proper clothing during the polar vortex,
student Devonn Thomas believed Porter-field’s
email should have addressed those
who did not have access to such commod-ities.
She wanted a shelter to also be made
available for the homeless community out-side
of SLU.
Thomas wasted no time to address
her concern with Porterfield and Jonathan
Smith, vice president for diversity and com-munity
engagement. “At 3 p.m., I walked to
[Smith’s office] and said that we need some
place for people to stay tonight because it
was cold out,” Thomas said. “He hesitated for
maybe 30 seconds, and said ‘Devonn, what
are you talking about?’ I told him that people
are cold, and we have so much access at SLU.
It makes no sense to not use our resources
for people who need them.”
The likeliness of acquiring a space
last minute was slim, though, according to
Porterfield. Out of the activist organizations
that Thomas reached out to to implement
the initiative, SLU’s Labre became an inte-gral
factor in enabling its success.
“[Dr. Porterfield and Dr. Smith] fig-ured
things out administratively, like how
we have a building,” Thomas said. “I chose
Il Monastero at first because I knew that it is
a nice building and had private rooms. There
were a bunch of rapid-fire ideas coming out,
so we talked to Tim Huffman, who is the
leader of Labre, and he agreed to help staff.”
Il Monastero sheltered 11 people
in its 12-room facility from 7 p.m. Tuesday
to 9 a.m. Wednesday. By early evening, over
25 students, faculty and staff donated coats,
gloves, hats and scarves for the homeless to
use. Thomas explained that patrons were
able to watch movies and play games in the
separate spaces while enjoying a cooked
meal. Separate bedrooms also allowed for
privacy and inclusivity of the LGBTQ+ com-munity,
according to Thomas.
“So many shelters are not inclusive
of people who are queer and trans,” she said.
“It is their active choice to have non-gen-dered
spaces and non-gendered rooming,
and it is important to us because we know
what it means to be marginalized on the
margins. They are already homeless, but
some are homeless and trans or homeless
and queer.”
Thomas, Huffman and Labre stu-dents
sheltered the homeless through Thurs-day
morning – but on Wednesday night, oc-cupants,
which included the homeless and
volunteers, were housed at Manresa Center.
STUDENTS SHELTER A COMMUNITY IN CRISIS
L
04 NEWS
By MEREDYTH STAUNCH
Editor-in-Chief
Photo Courtesy of Riley Tovornik
SAVANAH’S
SGA UPDATE
JAN. 23, 2019
Legislation passed:
Remaining empty Senate seats were filled.
Men’s Club Volleyball was provided Spot Funding
for an upcoming competition.
The Ignatian Action Team was provided Wellness
Funding.
JAN. 30, 2019
Legislation passed:
Pencils of Promise was provided New Charter
Funding.
Women’s Club Volleyball was provided Spot
Funding for an upcoming national competition.
German Club was chartered as a Chartered Stu-dent
Organization.
Spanish Club was chartered as a Chartered Stu-dent
Organization.
The facility allowed for 30 occupants, and 27
stayed the night.
While the initiative was successful in
providing the necessary clothing and room
and board, Huffman expressed how there
were multiple ways of responding to the cri-sis.
“Clearly, it was a weather crisis,” he said.
“[The question was raised as to whether] we
should open a new shelter or could we have
supported an existing shelter. My dream is
that this the start of a very serious conver-sation
in which we think about our roles in
the community and how we can respond and
plan better.”
Huffman said that he is proud of how
quickly SLU responded to helping the home-less,
but he also said that the community
should not stop with just sheltering.
“We wouldn’t need emergency shel-ters
if we were better at housing people,”
Huffman said.
The President of the Student Government
Association’s decision to sign a Student Body
President’s Comment on a Title IX Proposal to
the United States Government was affirmed. The
comment was also signed by numerous universi-ties
across the United States.
or women during
World War II, it
was Rosie the
Riveter telling
them “We Can
Do It” that mo-tivated
them
to step into the
male-dominat-ed
workforce; for college-aged fe-males
today, it is breaking the glass
ceiling.
Women in majority-male
workplaces can expect to face
struggles like a large wage gap, a
lack of respect from coworkers and
clients, feeling as if they are work-ing
under a microscope and higher
reports of sexual harassment, ac-cording
to Pew Research.
The key to helping
strengthen the number of females
in male-dominated workforces is
encouraging them at college ages
to continue on their path. Many
women throughout college are dis-couraged
by professors, mentors
and even parents to go into careers
that society has deemed more mas-culine.
Because of this pressure,
many female students do not grad-uate
with the degree they intended.
However, Christina Con-nell,
an aviation flight science ma-jor
at SLU is one exception.
Since Connell is one of two
female aviation students in her ju-nior
class, she is already experienc-ing
how unequal the ratio of gen-der
is within the aviation field – a
historically male-dominated field,
with over 93 percent of all pilots
being male.
“I came from an all-girls
Catholic high school. My parents
joke that I went from an all-girls
school to an all-boys school,” said
Connell.
Connell discovered her
dream of being a pilot because of
her parents, who are both pilots for
United Airlines. Being behind the
controls for the first time made her
realize how much she wanted to
make it her career. After that, she
loved “the empowerment aspect”
of telling everyone what she want-ed
to do with her future.
Without growing up sur-rounded
by aviation, however,
Connell may have never found her
passion. Aviation “is not exposed
to women as much as it is exposed
to men,” she said.
Marketing, media and the
environment begin to influence
a person’s future career choice at
a young age. For example, when
computers were first marketed to-ward
boys in 1991, the number of
females in computer science ca-reers
experienced a drop.
Although, Connell and
other young supporters have be-come
advocates for women find-ing
their place in male-dominated
work forces. Connell is the pres-ident
of an organization at SLU
called Women in Aviation, which
gives out scholarships and exposes
the next generation to the field of
aviation.
Her predominant motiva-tion
through the club is “exposing
younger girls to this opportuni-ty
and showing them that even if
you can’t fully pay for it, there are
scholarships out there,” Connell
said.
This is just one way in
which women can be exposed to
new fields that are notoriously
male dominated. Across the coun-try,
there are similar organizations
that aim to close these gaps.
At SLU alone, other orga-nizations
like Society of Women
Engineers and American Medical
Women’s Association offer female
students support in navigating
fields with statistically less wom-en.
The encouragement and
promotion of women in these fields
are ways that these fields can be-come
more diverse. Not only will
this help women to be more rep-resented,
it advances women’s ef-forts
in the workforce in regard to
pay and developing a positive work
atmosphere.
Like women everywhere,
Connell looks to the future, stating,
“I want to fly with my mom one day.
She has eight years until she retires
from United – hopefully, we would
be the first mother daughter crew
at United in San Francisco.” This
sentiment more broadly reflects
SOARING THROUGH THE GLASS CEILING
F
News 05
Illustration Courtesy of
Ashlee Kothenbeutel
DPS
REPORTS
On 1/28, it was discovered that
three pounds of beef short ribs
were stolen from the lower
level produce cooler of the BSC
sometime over the weekend.
The cooler was supposed to
have been locked, but it is sus-pected
that a new employee left
it open by mistake.
On 1/29, DPS was notified of a
student’s experience returning
to her unlocked car to find a
middle-aged man, dressed in
all black, sitting in the driver’s
seat. The student watched from
afar as the suspect exited the
vehicle and walked out of view.
There appeared to be nothing
missing within the vehicle. DPS
were also contacted by anoth-er
student who had witnessed
a similarly described suspect
looking into her parked car.
At 1:31am on 1/30 a DPS of-ficer
encountered a non-SLU
affiliated individual near the
vending area. SLMPD were
notified and took custody of
the individual after the DPS
officer made a REJIS check,
revealing that the suspect had
two active warrants.
By RILEY MACK
News Editor
the dreams many women have
when making their career choices.
The future of these indus-tries
depends on drawing from a di-verse
workforce that cultivates an
environment that inspires and wel-comes
everyone. Just as Rosie the
Riveter signified a milestone for
women during World War II, wom-en
like Connell continue to break
glass ceilings.
06 Arts and life
ehinde Wiley, who
painted President
Obama’s official
portrait for the
Smithsonian Na-tional
Portrait
Gallery, current-ly
has a featured
collection at the Saint Louis Art
Museum until Feb. 10. In these 11
stunning portraits, Wiley reinter-prets
classical works of Western art
to replace white, often aristocratic
subjects with African Americans
from St. Louis and Ferguson. Eight
of the original pieces Wiley uses
as inspiration can be found in the
Saint Louis Art Museum.
Although Wiley’s subjects strike
nearly the same poses as the land-ed
gentry of the works in the muse-um,
he adds several twists that give
this collection a full life of its own.
What is most extraordinary about
them is that they are all from north
St. Louis and Ferguson and were
approached on the street by Wiley
himself. It is incredibly uncommon
and refreshing to see everyday
people portrayed with the same
dignity as that of the president.
A lover of art history, the 41-year-old
Wiley’s reinterpretation is pur-poseful.
He grew up in South Cen-tral
Los Angeles, and his interest in
art began at a young age when his
mother enrolled him in after-school
art classes. His work seeks in part to
address the absence of positive de-pictions
of black people in Western
art, particularly portraiture, which
has historically been reserved for
only the most wealthy and privi-leged
individuals. Wiley stated in
one interview, “I wanted to be able
to treat them with the same loving
hand, with the same attention to
detail that was devoted to some of
the most powerful people in
University News - Volume 097, Issue 002 (September 21, 2017)
No full textNo issue number. 24 pages.University News t
he
Visit us on Facebook or at unewsonline.com
A student voice of Saint Louis University since 1921
#200yearslater
As Saint Louis University approaches its 200th year, students supporting revisions
to the Clocktower Accords have started using #200yearslater to represent the
University’s continued need for improvement since it was founded in 1818.
2 September 21, 2017 News
On Sunday, protesters marched down
Grand Blvd. after Jason Stockley was
found not guilty in the killing of Anthony
Lamar Smith. As they marched towards
Saint Louis University’s campus, police
blocked the entrance to West Pine, only
allowing university students to pass, and
the larger protest moved on.
Student demonstrators marched on
towards the clock tower and through the
Busch Student Center, eventually stop-ping
at the plaza between the BSC and
the Science Quad. It was here that SLU’s
President, Dr. Fred Pestello, met with stu-dents
about the racial climate on campus.
The verdict was announced on the
morning of Friday, Sept. 15. Since then,
many students have participated in dem-onstrations
promoting justice. Last year,
Stockley was charged with first degree
murder after the killing of Anthony
Lamar Smith in December of 2011.
Following a high-speed chase through
the north part of St. Louis City, Stockley
killed Smith with five shots at point-blank
range.
Stockley has been criticized for many
actions that occurred that day. Criticisms
include the fact that he was armed with a
personal AK-47 rifle, which is against St.
Louis Police Department policy. During
the chase, Stockley yelled, “I’m gonna
kill this mother f-----, don’t you know it.”
Forty-five seconds later, Smith was dead.
Several video recordings from
building surveillance, the in-car police
camera, and bystander cellphone footage
captured the event as it unfolded and are
posted at the end of this article.
Police allege that Smith was armed,
though forensic tests found only Stock-ley’s
DNA on the weapon. The pros-ecution
argued that Stockley may have
planted the gun in the car, following the
incident. Video evidence shows Stockley
return to the police SUV moments after
the shooting, rummage through a duffle
bag and return to Smith’s car to sit in
the driver’s seat where the gun was later
discovered.
Judge Timothy J. Wilson, a SLU un-dergrad
and law alum, began the text of
his findings and verdict by stating that he
“shall not be swayed by partisan inter-ests,
public clamor or fear of criticism.”
He later went on to write, “This court, in
conscience, cannot say that the state has
proven every element of murder beyond
a reasonable doubt or that the defendant
did not act in self-defense.”
Since the verdict was announced sev-eral
days ago, it has prompted hundreds,
perhaps thousands, to take to the streets
over the weekend and into this week.
Locations across the city from down-town
to the Central West End and The
Loop also saw demonstrations character-ized
by marching, organized chants and
speeches by activists and community
leaders. One such speech by Rev. Clinton
Stancil, Senior Pastor of the Wayman
AME Church, explained part of the strat-egy
of the weekend’s protests.
On the steps of City Hall, Rev. Stan-cil
explained how protestors could grab
the public’s attention by disrupting the
regional economy. “You kill our children;
we will kill your economy. We will kill
“Show me what a family looks like”
INSIDE
SCOOP:
ARTS
SPORTS
OPINION
“IT” Review
Page 6
Women’s soc-cer
rockets
through
nonconference
play
Page 16
Guest Essay:
Students React
to the Stockley
Verdict
Page 23
By Grant Mayfield
Staff Writer
Emma Carmody / The University News
PROTEST: Protesters take to the streets after Jason Stockley was acquitted in fatal shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith.
See “Protests” on page 3
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
through a megaphone on Friday.
Tensions with police have been
high throughout the last several
days. Kevin Nevels, a 45-year-old
black man, tried to get through to
a black police officer in full riot
gear outside the police academy
on Friday.
“I know you’ve been racially
profiled; I have too,” Nevels told
him.
Nevels later told The University
News that, by participating in
protests, he is trying to appeal to
good officers. He said that people
think “if you speak out against
injustice, then you’re anti-police,
anti-law.”
On Monday evening, another
protester, Caitlynn Vann, who
runs a nonprofit for low-income
girls in St. Louis, said she “just
hopes people keep listening.
There’s clearly a problem and this
many people don’t get upset if
there isn’t one.”
Some property damage was re-ported
following the protests. SLU
senior, Connor Williams, who has
participated in protests every day
since the verdict was announced,
described what happened toward
the end of each night. “I’d say
there’s a marked transition from
when the organizers that plan
everything leave. Saturday and
Sunday night, they made a clear
point that they were leaving, and
that’s when things got incited--45
minutes to an hour after they left.”
When asked about property
damage, Noelle Janak, a SLU
senior and activist called it “righ-teous
anger.” They went on to say
that “if you value broken windows
over black lives, then you are on
the side of white supremacy.”
“We’re fighting for justice,” SLU
sophomore Devonn Thomas said.
“If the courts are unjust, that’s
what we have to do.”
News September 21, 2017 3
By Grant Mayfield
Staff Writer
On Aug. 9, 2014, an unarmed 18-year-old,
Mike Brown, was shot and killed by Of-ficer
Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo. Over
the days and weeks that followed, Fergu-son
and the whole St. Louis region became
the epicenter of a national movement that
would later become known as Black Lives
Matter.
On Oct. 8, 2014, another 18-year-old,
VonDerrit Myers, was shot and killed by
Officer Jason Flanery in the Shaw neighbor-hood
just south of Saint Louis University.
The combined outrage of the two killings
separated by a few months and less than 20
miles led to further protests involving hun-dreds.
Over the next 10 days, protests oc-curred
on campus with a combination of
students and community members.
This included the Occupy SLU move-ment
in which demonstrators camped out
at the clocktower from Oct. 13-18. The oc-cupation
ended when the University, along
with two community organizations, signed
onto The Clocktower Accords. These 13
statements represented steps the University
agreed to implement in order to improve the
experience of black students on campus and
invest in the St. Louis community.
The University received praise for the way
they responded to the occupation including
a personal letter from then Attorney Gen-eral,
Eric Holder. Now almost three years
later, few of the accords have been realized.
Among the accords that have been en-acted,
the 11th accord “to create a Special
Assistant to the President for Diversity and
Community Engagement,” was accom-plished
with Dr. Jonathan Smith filling the
role. His position was renamed to Chief
Diversity Officer and then a second time to
his current title, Vice President for Diversity
and Community Engagement.
While Dr. Smith may have a position in
the administration, many say his office lacks
the resources to effectively improve campus
life and accomplish the remaining accords.
During a teach-in at the Busch Student Cen-ter
on Tuesday, a student activist described
the apparent disconnect. “Any time some-thing
involving black or brown students
comes up, Dr. Pestello puts it on Dr. Smith.”
Following protests this weekend, a group
of student activists to propose revisions to
the Clocktower Accords. The students, with
connections to the Student Government As-sociation,
Black Student Alliance, and the
Diversity Leadership Cabinet, laid out more
specific goals to include Black students as
well as students of other marginalized iden-tities
such as, immigrants and LGBTQ+ stu-dents.
Speaking to SLU’s mission to be for and
with others students,“The Clocktower ac-cords
must be recognized as an amendable
and non-static set of agreements to represent
the changing needs of POC and Black peo-ple
on this campus and in the surrounding
community. This will be achieved through a
good-natured collaboration between a com-mittee
of marginalized students, SGA and
administration.”
Students involved in writing the updated
Revised, Not Forgotten
Emma Carmody / The University News
CLOCKTOWER: Students in Grand Dining Hall push for the revisitation and
revision of the Clocktower Accords.
Protests continue across St.
Louis
Continued from Page 3
See “Clocktower” on page 5
Emma Carmody / The University News
PROTESTS: Protesters quickly take a stand against police bru-tality
after the ruling was announced.
op-portunity
Margaret Atwood becomes the 50th
recipient of St. Louis Literary Award
On Tuesday, Sept. 19, author and
poet Margaret Atwood joined the
ranks of many literary giants who have
received the St. Louis Literary Award.
The ceremony was opened by the
President of the Saint Louis Library
Associates, Lana Pepper, and also
included a speech by the Chairman of
the Selection Committee, Ted Ibur.
As a writer, Atwood has never shied
away from heavy-hitting topics within
her works. In her MaddAddam tril-ogy,
she tackled issues such as genetic
engineering, ethics in science, climate
change and corporate greed. In “The
Edible Woman,” the main character
struggles with alienation and a loss of
her identity. And most famously, in
“The Handmaid’s Tale,” Atwood ad-dresses
power dynamics and women
who have been subjugated by the
society they live in.
In her acceptance speech, Atwood
specifically spoke about the recent pro-tests
in the St.
Louis area and
the current
issues with the
police. While
some visiting
perform-ers
such as
U2 and Ed
Sheeran can-celed
shows
due to the
protest, At-wood
altered
her acceptance
speech in or-der
to directly
address the
issues many are having with the police.
“Every country has police. They
are supposed to serve, protect, arrest
potential but not proven criminals, and
turn them over to the justice system
for trial. That’s a
hard job with a lot
of pressure,” Atwood
said. “But a country
in which the police
act as judge, jury
and executioner is a
police state.”
In her speech,
Atwood cautioned
that the change
from democracy
to a police state is
not a swift change,
but something that
happens in steps
due to the actions of
the police and the
society accepting those actions.
“Countries do not become police
states overnight. They get there by steps.”
Atwood noted. “One step after another is
tolerated and accepted, so then that the
bridge between democracy and the police
state will be crossed, and then that bridge
will be burned.”
Atwood also urged listeners to pay at-tention
to issues involving police brutality
and discrimination, saying “Please honor
your own pledge to the flag – liberty and
justice for all. All means all. Justice means
not merely the administration of laws –
the Nuremberg Laws were laws, the Fugi-tive
Slave Act was a set of laws, but just
and fair laws upheld and administered
without discrimination. Please don’t settle
for less.”
Atwood frequently covers the issues of
police militarization and civil disobedi-ence
within her works, especially within
“The Handmaid’s Tale.” In her speech, At-wood
also stressed that she does not write
dystopian novels, and that her novels
should be looked at as potential futures
and many have plausible explanations.
In her acceptance speech, Atwood also
defined what art meant to her. “Who is
art for? What is art for?” Atwood said.
“Learning, teaching, expressing ourselves,
entertaining, enacting truth, celebrating,
or even denouncing and cursing. There’s
no general answer.”
Atwood also discussed the roles of
art in society and the role that people
like to give her in art, saying “There are
acceptable gender roles in the arts as in
other facets of life, and there are some
fairly strange ones available to women.
By available, I mean that people feel free
to project them onto you without feeling
they are doing violence to the limits of
your gender.”
The presentation of the St. Louis Liter-ary
Award finished with a brief question
and answer segment moderated by Jen-nifer
Buehler, a professor in the School of
Education at SLU. Questions came from
the audience and Buehler and covered a
variety of different topics such as “The
Handmaid’s Tale” at the Emmy’s, works
that Atwood has been unable to complete,
and how being raised by scientists has
affected Atwood’s way of looking at the
world and writing.
Atwood has several more upcoming
adaptations of her works. “Hag-Seed,”
a retelling of Shakespeare’s “The Tem-pest,”
is currently being discussed for
adaptation into a play at the Northeast
Correctional Center in Bowling Green
before appearing in theaters in St. Louis.
Another, “Alias Grace,” will be premier-ing
on Netflix on Nov. 3.
Atwood herself will be featured in a 30-
minute show that will be released on Oct.
9, at 9 p.m. on Channel 9.
Victoria Segovia / The University News
MAVERICK MARGARET: Margaret Atwood answers audience questions after receiving her award.
By Emily Miller
News Editor
“
“
Please honor
your own pledge
to the flag –
liberty and
justice for all.
All means all.
Margaret Atwood
4 September 21, 2017 News
Let Us Introduce You:
Nick Dolan
Nick Dolan is an unsung hero of
Saint Louis University. His college
career hasn’t begot him a pleth-ora
of awards or accolades, but
his meritorious character speaks
louder than any empty symbol or
lip service.
Dolan is majoring in meteorol-ogy
at SLU and is hoping to pursue
a career in weather-prediction af-ter
college. From a very young age,
Dolan was always fascinated and
excited by weather, leading him to
seek out more and more knowl-edge
on the subject. Throughout
his youth, Dolan could often be
found scanning the internet or
the weather channel for incoming
weather anomalies. Despite his
love of weather, Dolan never re-ally
planned on formally studying
it. Going into college, Dolan hadn’t
picked a major; it was his fresh-man
year roommate who finally
convinced him to do meteorol-ogy.
“I was thinking about doing
mechanical engineering but then,
I was like, ‘[Forget] that, I’m going
to do something that I like.’” Dolan
explained that his reason for loving
By Tannock Blair
Associate News Editor
weather is its unpredictability.
Dolan feels drawn to a profes-sion
that attempts to predict
that which is unpredictable.
Even today, experts are nowhere
near total accuracy. Dolan’s ap-proach
to weather-prediction is
informed by one of the mottos
he lives by: “Expect the unex-pected.”
Dolan is also a student-ath-lete
on SLU’s Cross Country
and Track and Field team. As
a kid, he had tried many dif-ferent
sports from baseball to
basketball, but it wasn’t until
4th grade, after running well at
a local track meet, that he real-ized
he wanted to start focusing
on running. Dolan’s philosophy
of running is simple: “I value
dedication,” he said, admit-ting
that while talent can play
a role, success always comes
down to hard work. While
some athletes have routines
and superstitions, Dolan
claims he doesn’t need this to
feel comfortable before a race.
As he puts it: “I have pairs of
socks that I will race in, but I don’t
think of them as lucky socks.” For
him, it is more important to make
healthy decisions on and off the
track. Training doesn’t just hap-pen
in the allocated time from 4
p.m. to 6 p.m. every day; you must
live and breathe it, according to
Dolan. In his first two years of col-lege
athletics, Dolan was injured.
He ran only a handful of races in
those two years and was forced
to cheer his teammates on from
the sidelines. Despite this im-mense
setback, Dolan stuck with
it, standing by his team and never
giving up where most would have.
In fact, many athletes did quit
the team in those two years with
much less-affecting injuries. No
one currently on the Cross Coun-try
or Track and Field teams with
injury has stayed on as long as
Dolan has. He explained, “I didn’t
want to be a quitter. Once I start
something, I continue to do it. I’m
not going to let anything stop me
from doing something.” Although
Dolan is finally healthy enough to
race this season, he still has a long
way to go before he is satisfied.
Clocktower Accords Revised
accords spoke to their
motivations. “We saw this
as an opportunity to push
for the mission of this
school, to push for what
the original accords were.”
Even as SLU has been
handed the basic needs of
Black students, it’s seems
that the school continues to
fall short.
One of the writers told
the University News “this
happened really naturally
and organically.” Another
student added, “The reason
we updated the accords is
because racial issues aren’t
stagnant and the thing
that’s supposed to address
them should not be stag-nant
as well.”
The revisions were de-signed
with three larger
frames in mind: the St.
Louis city and region, SLU-specific
academic goals,
and opening the SLU ad-ministration
to more peo-ple
of marginalized back-grounds.
As to the urgency
of the revisions, one stu-dent
commented, “Often
times, after four years, the
administration can kind of
wait us out. With the origi-nal
Clocktower Accords it
kind of felt like the admin-istration
was just waiting us
out. Just waiting until that
last class left.”
Students of various
identities have taken part
in demonstrations over the
last six days. One of the
writers of the Clocktower
Accords revisions spoke
to this saying, “It’s not just
black students pushing it.
It’s the campus. And the
administration sees that.
I do believe that when Dr.
Pestello came out and sat
with us that day (Sunday),
he did see not just black
students, not just people
of color, not just LGBT
students, [but] he saw the
white students — the stu-dents
that make up the
majority of this campus —
supporting the accords.”
Students support-ing
the revision process
passed out copies of the
accords at the crosswalk
on Grand Boulevard on
Wednesday and are using
the hashtag #200Years-
Later. The hashtag is a nod
to the upcoming bicen-tennial
and was created to
represent the ongoing im-provements
our Universi-ty
must undergo, even 200
years after its founding.
THE SLU SCOOP
All Information Provided by Department of
Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Monday, Sept. 18
7:01 a.m. THEFT
Both wheels were stolen off of a student’s bicycle
outside of Marchetti Towers East in the time be-tween
4 p.m. on Sept. 17 and 6:50 a.m. on Sept. 18.
Monday, September 18
8:57 p.m. ACCIDENTIAL INJURY
A student reported falling off of an office-styled
chair, knocking her head on either the floor or the
chair. EMS was called, and the student declined
any further medical attention.
Be a Responsible Billiken
STOP. CALL. REPORT.
314-977-3000
witness.slu.edu
dps.slu.edu
Tannock Blair / The University News
Continued from Page 3
News September 21, 2017 5
September 21, 2017
[email protected]
Natalie Riopelle, Arts Editor
Chandana Kamaraj, Assoc. Arts Editor Entertainment & Arts
‘IT’s’ here
By ALEXIS STOGNER
Contributor
Based on Stephen King’s best
selling 1986 novel of the same
name, “IT” is centered around
a group of seven children who
call themselves “The Losers
Club,” and the horrific events
that shape their lives one sum-mer
in their hometown of
Derry, Maine. Every twenty-seven
years, “bad things” begin
happening in Derry, often in-volving
the disappearances or
deaths of the town’s children.
When Bill’s (Jaeden Lieberher)
little brother Georgie (Jackson
Robert Scott) goes missing,
Bill devotes all of his time to
finding answers regarding his
strange disappearance. Mean-while,
each individual member
of The Losers Club has their
own encounter with Pennywise
(Bill Skarsgard), an evil clown,
although no one else sees these
encounters or believes them to
be real. “IT” introduces the au-dience
to each member of The
Losers Club, showing sequenc-es
of their individual terrifying
encounters with Pennywise.
Once the children form a
friendship and put the pieces
together, they discover that
IT is an evil entity that takes
on the form of whatever they
are most afraid of (ranging
from abusive parents to — you
guessed it — clowns). The Los-ers
decide to work together to
defeat Pennywise and save the
town’s children once and for
all. With a running time of over
two hours, the movie paces it-self
and distributes its scares
pretty well before its emotional
ending, although it does rely
heavily on jump scares, and the
movie’s trailers did give away
some of its best moments. The
characters’ wardrobes along
with the film’s soundtrack add
a layer of 80s nostalgia (which
make sense, given that “IT” is
set in 1989).
For me, the highlight of the
film was the children them-selves.
The Losers Club was
made up of an incredible team
of young actors and actresses
who were brilliantly cast, and
LouFest is the traditional two- carried the film from start to
day music festival that brings
local and established bands to
Forest Park for St. Louisans to
rock-out to while also having
access to great local eateries.
This tradition has been oc-curring
annually since it was
founded in 2010, having many
well-known bands, such as the
1975, Hozier and the Killers.
This year, though, LouFest was
not prepared for the turnout it
received on Saturday.
Volunteering behind the
scenes for LouFest really
showed how drastically unpre-pared
its coordinators were for
the first sold-out day. Another
new challenge for LouFest was
that where they usually hold
the festival at in Forest Park
was being renovated, forc-ing
LouFest to relocate to the
Muny grounds. This location,
being a smaller, more compact
area, made it more difficult to
deal with the crowds. It did not
help that LouFest was dealing
with its first sellout occasion on
LOUFEST Recap
By MADISYN SIEBERT
Staff Writer such tight ground
University News - Volume 099, Issue 008 (January 23, 2020)
No full textMislabeled as Volume XCVIV. 24 pages.VOL. XCVIV No. 8 / January 23, 2020 UTHE UNIVERSITY NEWS
Our
Our
Billiken blizzard
causes a snow day
page
17
L
02 NEWS
Photo Courtesy of Amelia Flood.
ast Thursday, Jan. 16,
SLU hosted its annual
memorial tribute for the
Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr., honoring the life and
legacy of King as well as
those in the St. Louis area
that exemplify King’s vision of justice and
racial equality.
The event is held each year as a remind-er
of King’s visit to SLU in 1964, when he
addressed a crowd of nearly 4,000 in the
former West Pine Gym. King’s visit to SLU
in 1964 came just two days before he was
honored with the Nobel Peace Prize and
two months before his “I Have a Dream”
speech.
For the past nine years, the Universi-ty
has organized the memorial tribute
to mark King’s visit, with an awards cer-emony
that recognizes those working in
King’s legacy in the St. Louis communi-ty.
The memorial tribute also features a
keynote address by a notable voice for
civil rights. In years past, keynote speak-ers
have included Martin Luther King
III, King’s eldest son, and UN Ambassa-dor
Andrew Young, both influential civil
rights figures.
This year, the noted journalist, author
and television personality Roland Martin
gave the keynote address. Martin, who
has written three books, including “Speak,
Brother! A Black Man’s View of America,”
has made an illustrious career discussing
current events from an African-American
perspective.
Martin was named journalist of the year
in 2013 for his efforts to chronicle issues
facing African-American voters during
AWARDS
CEREMONY
HONORS
MLK’S
LIFE &
LEGACY
By CONOR DORN
Associate News Editor
Memorial tribute
features St. Louis
community
leaders with
keynote speech
from Rowland
Martin
the 2012 presidential election, including
voter suppression and intimidation. In
2008, he received the President’s Award
by the National Association of Black
Journalists for his multi-platform advo-cacy
work.
Before Martin’s keynote address, the
audience heard remarks by President
Fred Pestello, Ph.D., and SLU alumnus
Michael P. McMillan, the president and
CEO of the Urban League of Metropoli-tan
St. Louis.
Pestello and McMillan were joined
by the Vice President for Diversity and
Community Engagement, Jonathan
Smith, Ph.D., in an award ceremony hon-oring
those in the St. Louis community
furthering Dr. King’s legacy.
Though the recipients devote their en-ergies
to a diverse array of causes, from
education inequality to health care re-form,
they are united by their commit-ment
to leading lives of public service
following Dr. King’s example.
To begin the award ceremony, Denise
Hooks-Anderson, M.D., an assistant pro-fessor
in the Department of Family and
Community Medicine, was awarded the
Donald Brennan Humanitarian Award
for her advocacy work related to health
disparities and inequality.
The Organization of the Year Award
was accepted by Wendell Kimbrough on
behalf of Area Resources for Community
and Human Services (ARCHS). The or-ganization
“funds and strategically en-hances
initiatives that improve the lives
of children and families” in especially
disadvantaged areas of St. Louis.
Art McCoy, Ph.D., the superintendent of
the Jennings School District, was award-ed
the Education Leadership Award for
his efforts to combat inequality in edu-cation.
Under his leadership, the classes
of 2017 and 2018 in the Jennings school
district achieved a remarkable 100 per-cent
graduation and career or college
placement.
Congressman William Lacy Clay was
honored with this year’s Political Lead-ership
Award. Clay serves as Missouri’s
senior Democrat in Congress. Currently
in his tenth Congressional term, Clay
is the Chairman of the House Financial
Services Subcommittee on Housing,
Community Development and Insur-ance.
In that capacity, he has advocated
for fair housing and consumer protec-tion
and fought discriminatory practices
such as redlining.
In his acceptance remarks, Clay empha-sized
his debt to King and his legacy as
well as other civil rights leaders, echoing
King’s famous declaration that “Anyone
can be great because anyone can serve.”
The final award was the inaugural
Whitney M. Young Humanitarian Award,
which was given to Michael and Neomi
Neidorff. Neidorff is the president and
CEO of Centene Corporation and has
worked to implement programs and ser-vices
under Medicaid and Medicare.
The event was capped off by Roland
Martin’s keynote address examining
King’s life and legacy. At the outset of
his address, Martin made it clear that
his remarks might be tough for some to
hear. He warned the audience: “It is my
job to make people uncomfortable.”
Martin’s speech focused on King’s leg-acy
in the 21st century, asking the au-dience
to avoid appropriating King and
his legacy and instead focus on imitat-ing
his commitment to political action.
Martin issued a challenge to the audi-ence—“
Don’t you dare quote Dr. King
unless you are willing to live like Dr.
King.”
For Martin, King was more than just a
man who gave speeches on racial equal-ity,
but a man radically committed to
social justice in all spheres of life who
paired his electrifying speeches with
tangible political action.
Martin challenged his audience to live
as King lived, striving for direct and sus-tained
action on behalf of the marginal-ized
and downtrodden.
News 03
By MIKHAIL FAULCONER
Staff Writer
he SLU chess
team finished
2019 with a
string of high
finishes in re-cent
tourna-ments.
They
now look forward to the Presi-dent’s
Cup, or “Final Four,” the
collegiate national championship
of chess in early April.
After taking the Midwest Col-legiate
Chess and Blitz Cham-pionships
in October, the team
travelled to China in November
and took third place at the World
Prestigious University Chess Invi-tational,
placing ahead of presti-gious
universities such as Harvard
and Oxford. The team also defeat-ed
its host, Nankai University.
SLU chess team coach and
grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez,
the first grandmaster from Cen-tral
America, stated that this was
the team’s first time competing
internationally as a team, al-though
most of the team’s mem-bers
have competed extensively
as individuals in the past.
Then, SLU finished again in
third place at the competitive
Pan-American Intercollegiate
Chess Tournament, which deter-mined
which teams would com-pete
in the President’s Cup in New
York. The Pan-American Tourna-ment
is different from most col-legiate
chess tournaments in its
structure.
Ramirez explained, “It’s a very
unforgiving tournament, simply
because it’s a very short event.
Tournaments of this strength are
usually nine rounds long, which
gives a little more wiggle room for
mistakes ... In this case, we had it
really rough. We got defeated by
Texas Tech, which is one of the
best universities in the country,
and the fact that we got matched
in the last round with number one
by rating, which is Webster Uni-versity.”
SLU went on to defeat Webster,
which has won five of the last
seven national championships, in
the last round of the Pan-Amer-ican
Tournament. SLU Chess
Team grandmaster Alex Ipatov,
currently ranked 142nd amongst
active players in the world by the
International Chess Federation,
defeated Aleksander Lenderman,
ranked 131st, of Webster, which
Ramirez said was the highlight
of the tournament. Ipatov com-mented,
“[Beating Webster] felt
very good. They are our arch-ri-vals
and the highest ranked colle-giate
team in the nation. We are
second.”
In 2018, SLU placed fourth at the
President’s Cup. Fellow St. Loui-sian
Webster University also qual-ified,
whose team has won the
President’s Cup five times in the
last seven years. SLU will again
face off against Webster and Tex-as
Tech, as well as the University
of Texas at Dallas, in New York
this April. In contrast to other
tournaments, the President’s Cup
features only classical chess, in
which matches can last for hours
as opposed to minutes in blitz or
other formats. In addition, teams’
aggregate scores are as import-ant
to winning the tournament as
victory in individual matches.
Founded in 2015, the team has
expanded from five to thirteen
members, which allows them
to field multiple sets of players
within a single tournament. The
SLU Chess Team features six male
and two female grandmasters.
Ramirez commented that the
team has also grown closer and
developed more chemistry in a
relative short period of time since
its founding.
Another factor conducive to the
team’s success and in attracting
new talent is St. Louis’s chess en-vironment.
Ramirez said, “There’s
no other city that has the cur-rent
chess ambiance in the U.S.
or maybe in the world. I think for
chess players it’s kind of a mec-ca.
There’s always top level chess,
lectures, opportunities ... we have
the resources to be one of the
best.”
T
ast month,
Ameren Mis-souri,
an energy
company based
in St. Louis, be-came
the latest
group to assist SLU in redevelop-ment
projects that are currently
underway in the neighborhood
after their donation of a 2.1-acre
site to the university.
The site, which sits just past
the Metrolink station near SLU’s
Medical Campus, was once home
to an electrical substation. But af-ter
Ameren began using a differ-ent
substation, the site became a
storage place. The property is re-portedly
worth around 500
million and has currently raised
1 billion
has been invested in the area for
various projects, including the
SSM Health Saint Louis Univer-sity
Hospital, the City Foundry,
the Amory project and the Iron
Hill development site. These sites
will hopefully inspire new restau-rants,
retail space, homes, hotels,
apartments and medical services
to arise in the area.
According to Brooks Goedeker,
the Executive Director of the St.
Louis Midtown Redevelopment
Corporation, there are no de-cisions
made on the use of the
Ameren site yet.
The Chairman and President of
Ameren Missouri stated that he
believed SLU had the “right vi-sion”
to use the property in a way
that will compliment the projects
currently underway in Midtown
St. Louis.
According to Daniel Monti,
Ph.D., a sociology and anthropol-ogy
professor at Saint Louis Uni-versity
who specializes in urban
redevelopment, SLU-sponsored
residential development in Mid-town
is attractive because resi-dents
will see their neighborhood
as a part of a large institution.
“Think of it like a mall,” said
Monti, “SLU is like its flagship
store.”
Monti said that the redevel-opment
of the area is important
because everyone would prefer
great neighbors as opposed to
vacant space. While parts of the
Midtown area have taken decades
to develop and become safe in-vestments
for developers and
institutions, Monti believes that
the new projects being sponsored
by SLU will be successful in their
goal of making this part of St.
Louis an even better place to live
and do business.
L
By SAVANAH SEYER
Staff Writer
(Riley Mack / The University News)
AMEREN DONATES
2,000 in scholarships when the
program officially launches. SLU’s
Division of Student Development
is providing the resources to get
the esports program off the ground.
“I don’t have to know how to play
esports to understand that this
program makes students excited
to learn and feel a deeper sense
of belonging in the SLU commu-nity.
That is what matters most,”
said SLU President Fred P. Pestello,
Ph.D.
The home of the new varsity pro-gram
is a space recently converted
by the university in the lower level
of the Busch Student Center known
as the Esports Gaming Lab. The lab
features 12 stations for PC gaming
and three large TV monitors with
the three major gaming consoles
(Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Nin-tendo
Switch). This space will be
open for general student use when
the varsity team isn’t practicing.
The official ribbon cutting cere-mony
for the Esports Gaming Lab is
on Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 3 p.m. Until
the ribbon cutting ceremony, the
lab is not officially open to general
student use.
In an effort to help guide the ef-forts
of SLU’s new esports team,
an advisory group of students,
faculty, staff and administrators
was recently formed. Senior Nich-olas
Chiu, who was the founder of
SLU’s club esports team in 2017,
serves as the varsity program’s di-rector.
SLU’s eSports Club, founded
by Chiu, originally started out as
a club for players of Super Smash
Bros, a popular fighting game. The
club has since branched out into
other games to become the Univer-sity-
sponsored esports team that it
is today.
In regard to what led to the push
for the Esports Gaming Lab, Chiu
stated, “It got to the point where we
needed more space and branched
out to more games, there’s a huge
community outside of just the
Smash Bros. community, especially
at SLU.”
Another factor that played a siz-able
role in the establishment of
SLU’s esports program and the
building of the lab was the recep-tion
that Chaifetz Arena’s hosting
of the North American Spring Split
for League of Legends last year. The
event sold out Chaifetz in only two
days and showcased how much of
a demand there was for an esports
program among the SLU communi-ty.
The Esports Gaming Lab in the
BSC will serve the dual purposes as
both a recreational and competitive
space for gaming, at least during
the first semester. The varsity side
is in the back with all of the com-puters
while the spaces with the
TVs and consoles are for general
student use when the varsity team
is not using the space. “Eventual-ly
we’re probably going to move a
bunch of these recreational video
games to the Bill Grill,” said Chiu.
While this space is still in the
process of construction, the plan is
to put these recreational consoles
in the back of Bill Grill near where
the pool tables are. The idea for
this renovated section of the Bill
Grill with the recreational consoles
is to be like a “PC cafe” where you
can “get a drink, where you can get
food, and sit down and relax,” ac-cording
to Chiu. However, since the
Esports Gaming Lab was built for
SLU’s new esports program, the lab
will primarily serve the purpose as
a practice space for the program’s
varsity teams.
With 12 state-of-the-art PC gam-ing
stations installed as a part of
the lab, Chiu believes that this
space will greatly contribute to the
success of the esports program.
Though the technology and reno-vations
may seem extravagant to
some, the team believes it will be
key to their success as a program.
“Some [players] say that when
a game doesn’t run well enough,
you could misclick or something
like that,” said Chiu, “but when
you come here, it’s a whole differ-
E
(Jack Connaghan / The
University News)
At 12:29 a.m. on Jan. 18, a student
contacted the office of Public
Safety after drinking eight shots
of tequila and requested medi-cal
assistance. The student was
conveyed to Barnes Hospital for
treatment.
At 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 18, a SLU
student was found in an intoxicat-ed
state just before the SLU basket-ball
game. Chaifetz First Aid Staff
was called and the student was
escorted out of the game for treat-ment.
St. Louis City EMS transport-ed
the student to SLU Hospital for
further medical attention.
On April 7 at 7:29 p.m., a man
who attended the cheerleading
event at Chaifetz Arena exited
the building. He walked behind
his vehicle and began to urinate
when a DPS officer spotted him
and took him into custody. He
was released soon after.
By COLIN THIERRY
Staff Writer
ent game. [Players] are in a space
where they can talk to each other.”
Chiu stated that this dynamic is
especially important because a lot
of online gaming is usually played
alone, where players communicate
over headset but not in person.
“[The lab] is really nice for play-ers
to talk one on one and really go
over the problems they have as a
team but also as students a
University News - Volume 100, Issue 002 (February 25, 2021)
No full textSpecial issue on the "State of the University" following the COVID-19 pandemic. Mislabeled as Volume XCVV. 24 pages.VOL. XCVV No. 2 / February 25th, 2021 UTHE UNIVERSITY NEWS
COVER DESIGN BY REBECCA LIVIGNI
State of the University
n Feb. 18, it was an-nounced
that SLU is ex-pecting
to receive a new
round of Higher Educa-tion
Emergency Relief
Fund (HEERF) aid, part
of the larger Corona-virus
Relief and Economic Securi-ty
(CARES) stimulus bill that was
passed in March 2020.
With a price tag of just over 14 bil-lion
was given to the Office of Post-secondary
Education in order to
create the Higher Education Emer-gency
Relief Fund (HEERF).
The new round of funding comes
after an announcement by the U.S.
Department of Education in January
that an additional 2.5 million would be
provided to students demonstrating
“exceptional financial need.”
This portion of the relief fund is
meant to address direct student fi-nancial
aid, and SLU will be distrib-uting
the aid through immediate,
need based grants, and “unexpected
expenses” grants.
The need based grants are au-tomatically
distributed to Pell grant
recipients, while the unexpected
expenses grants, which are capped
at 5.14 million.
During the first round of HEERF
funding, 10 million.
The second round of HEERF
funding comes at a time when SLU,
like many colleges across the U.S.,
O
02 NEWS
(Grace Dunlavy/The University News)
are struggling financially. Entering
the pandemic after a record setting
year for enrollment and projecting
a budget surplus of several million,
SLU projected a total budget defi-cit
of 4-$8 million dollars.
President Pestello outlined some
of the deficit reduction measures
taken in an email to SLU students,
faculty and staff last year, which
included suspension of retirement
matching, faculty travel and merit
increases.
In addition, SLU is in the midst of
an academic portfolio review, which
could potentially result in elimina-tion
of academic programs and fac-ulty
positions, though the extent of
these changes will remain unknown
until the review concludes next year.
As was the case for the first
round of aid, the new round of
CARES Act funding helps offset
some of SLUs deficit issues, and ex-tends
assistance to students who
need immediate relief, but it is only
the start of SLU’s path to recovery.
By CONOR DORN
Associate News Editor
SLU
ANNOUNCES
NEW ROUND OF
CARES ACT
RELIEF
Through the Higher Education
Emergency Relief Fund, SLU will
recieve CARES Act aid in order to
assist students and cover financial
losses caused by the COVID-19
pandemic.
News 03
By KLAUDIA WACHNIK
Staff Writer
esuit Hall, lo-cated
on Lindell
Boulevard, has
existed at SLU
for one hundred
years, with ini-tial
construction
completed in 1921. Originally the
building was known as the Mel-bourne
Hotel, one of the most
illustrious hotels within the Mid-town
St. Louis area. It was later
purchased by Saint Louis Univer-sity
and served as a residential
space and later a women’s dormi-tory.
In 1973, the Jesuit communi-ty
and the University agreed for it
to become a residential space for
Jesuit members of the SLU com-munity.
As time has gone on and the hall
has continued to house individ-uals
for a century, normal wear
and tear has occurred. Recent-ly,
Neighborhood Properties of
Clayton bought the building with
plans to rehabilitate the building
and update its systems. While
only approximately 65 people live
in the building currently, mainte-nance
and repairs will expand the
housing capacity.
The exterior of the building will
remain the same, and the cur-rent
plan is to turn the hall into
an apartment complex, adding
retail spaces on the street level of
the building and a parking lot. In
addition to Jesuit Hall itself being
changed, there are also plans to
have a second apartment complex
built with a corresponding park-ing
lot and retail on the street
level.
Fr. David Suwalsky, S.J., Vice Pres-ident
of Mission and Identity at
SLU, commented on the develop-ment
of Jesuit Hall at SLU: “ It’s
going to bring a lot of people into
the Grand Center Arts District
in Midtown here. And I’m sure
they’ve got it in their mindset, a
number of those people would be
students.”
The new Jesuit Hall is to be built
on SLU’s north campus. The space
would include private residen-tial
halls that could house 20 to
25 Jesuits, a chapel and a dining
hall. Suwalsky spoke on the im-portance
of a more present Jesuit
structure on campus, stating: “We
really want the Jesuits residents’
[place] to be seen as a place for
hospitality and a strong support-er
of the University’s mission....
There has been a Jesuit commu-nity
at St. Louis University since
1829. And so this is just an oppor-tunity
for us, both the universi-ty
and for the Society of Jesus to
assert that the Jesuit community
is part of the fabric of the univer-sity.”
Currently, fundraising is under-way
for the new Jesuit Hall, and
the original Hall on Lindell is to
start site preparation for renova-tions
by the end of February. Both
projects are on a similar timeline,
with hopes for completion by
spring of 2022.
J
or more than
fifty years, St.
Louis Univer-sity
Library
Associates has
had the hon-or
of confer-ring
the annual St. Louis Literary
Award on a distinguished living
writer. Since its inception in 1967,
the award has been given to play-wrights,
novelists, historians and
many of the most important writ-ers
of the 20th and 21st centuries,
including authors as renowned as
W.H Auden, Joan Didion and Don
Delillo. Though the pandemic has
forced the Library Associates to
reschedule and rethink how the
award program is conducted, the
tradition will continue. To make
up for last year, 2021 will feature
two separate award ceremonies;
the first, scheduled for April, will
honor the 2020 recipient Michael
Chabon, and the second ceremo-ny
will follow in November and
will honor 2021 award winner,
Zadie Smith.
Chabon was initially
named the 2020 recipient of the
St. Louis Literary award last fall,
but his award ceremony was post-poned
until April of this year and
converted to a virtual format in
light of the pandemic. Though the
ceremony is typically hosted here
in St. Louis and in normal times
affords the opportunity for the lo-cal
St. Louis community to gather
in an unusually intimate setting
with the author, the switch to a
virtual ceremony is not without
its perks. Edward Ebur, the exec-utive
director of the award and
host of the St. Louis University
“Craft Talks” series, revealed ear-lier
this month that the virtual
ceremony would be hosted by
St. Louis native and “Mad Men”
star John Hamm, with Ebur writ-ing
that it “was important to do
something a little more out of the
box for this year’s virtual cere-mony”
to make up for the virtual
format. Hamm is well suited for
his role as moderator, having re-ceived
his BA in English from the
University of Missouri-Columbia,
and already has experience with
the format, including moderating
a discussion on the musician John
Tweedy’s memoir at The Pageant.
Chabon was born in
Washington D.C in 1963 and drew
critical acclaim for his debut nov-el
“The Mysteries of Pittsburgh,”
which grew out of a master’s the-sis
on UC Irvine and was later
adapted into a movie. His second
novel, “Wonder Boys,” was equal-ly
well received and also adapt-ed
into a movie starring Michael
Douglas. Chabon won a Pulitzer
Prize in 2001 for his novel “The
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier
and Clay,” and it is this work of
Chabon’s that has been selected
for the 2021 Campus Read at SLU.
The second award cere-mony
of the year, which is sched-uled
for November and is ex-pected
to be held in person, will
honor the English novelist Zadie
Smith. Like Chabon, Smith’s de-but
launched her literary career,
publishing “White Teeth” in 2000
when she was just 24 and finish-ing
her final year at Cambridge
University. It was ranked by The
Guardian as one of the top 100
most important books of the 21st
century. She went on to publish
three more novels, “The Auto-graph
Man,” “On Beauty,” and
“NW.”
Smith’s most recent
publication, “Intimations,” is a
collection of six essays written
from New York during the lock-down.
Smith began writing the
essays soon after the lockdown
was announced, and her probing
essays meditate on the devasta-tion
caused by the pandemic and
the death of George Floyd, among
other themes. She has donat-ed
all proceeds from the book to
charity. Announcing Smith as the
2021 recipient, executive director
Ibur praised her work as dynam-ic
and influential and said: “Ms.
Smith’s novels, essay collections,
and short stories reveal a mas-ter
storyteller whose works are
thought-provoking, often humor-ous,
and always unpredictable.”
F
By CONOR DORN
Associate News Editor
(Andrea Porter, The University News)
CHABON, SMITH RECEIVE
STL LITERARY AWARD
JESUIT HALL
PROJECTS UNDERWAY
04 NEWS
(Rebecca LiVigni / The University News)
On Tuesday Feb. 9, Saint Louis Univer-sity’s
Division of Student Development
sent out an email to all SLU students
about tightening COVID-19 restrictions.
It had only been a couple of weeks since
SLU students had moved back to campus
after a lengthy winter break, eager to see
their friends again. It was also just after
the 2021 Super Bowl, when many came
together to enjoy the sport of football,
the various commercials, and to just sim-ply
enjoy each other’s company. How-ever,
this socialization greatly worried
officials at SLU, fearing it would compro-mise
their COVID-19 plans. SLU’s email
showcased this fear, with an opening as
follows:
“We’re on the brink of implementing
severe COVID-19 restrictions because
some students, it appears, have just giv-en
up. But you can change our minds.
How? No more birthday parties. No more
large gatherings in off-campus apart-ments.
No more on-campus parties. No
beer-pong parties. No Mardi Gras par-ties.
No more hanging out after meals,
without masks on, while sitting too close
to one another.”
The email detailed various violations
of SLU’s public health safeguards, such
as 70 complaints about multiple par-ties,
that had increased the number of
on-campus positive cases of COVID-19.
The email also contained a warning of
the more severe measures?restrictions
SLU would implement should this be-havior
continue: Indefinite suspension
of building-to-building visitation, sus-pension
of all in-person non-academ-ic
events and activities, and closure of
recently-opened residence hall lounges
and common areas being a few of these
restrictions.
Some students were so upset and hurt
by the email that they responded to
it. Sophomore Selena Mueller wrote a
lengthy email explaining how she felt af-ter
reading the message. As she explained
the lack of respect that she felt, she also
went into detail about the things that
the university has done wrong and could
improve on. “It is not the responsibility
of the student body to protect ourselves
when we are living in dorms and apart-ments
that lack the proper precautions
to ensure our safety.” She further wrote,
“Explain to me why every hand sanitizer
dispenser in my building is broken. Ex-plain
to me why multiple staff members
and food workers have refused to wear
their masks correctly in the presence of
students. Explain to me why SLU did not
predict the correct amount of housing
for positive cases.”
To learn more about the student body’s
perspective on the email, The University
News put out a survey to collect a diverse
range of reactions and opinions. We re-ceived
100 responses and read through a
myriad of perspectives.
Some students, like Mueller, were up-set,
while others agreed with what the
email had to say. An anonymous senior
wrote, “I liked that the problematic stu-dents
finally got called out. If you didn’t
like the email, you are most likely the
problem. I’m tired of seeing people get
together in large groups and hang out
unmasked. I honestly feel like SLU needs
to do a better job at reprimanding and
punishing students. I’m not looking to
have everyone get sent home again [be-cause]
a fraction of the student body is
being stupid.”
Several students thought the email was
a good way to get the word out about be-ing
safer on campus and thought that
people were overreacting to it. “I have
truthfully been deeply disappointed by
the student response to the email from
Dr. Lohe,” another anonymous senior
said, “I think the email was very tame
in comparison to what could have been
said to students, as well as compared to
some much more drastic measures that
have been taken by our peer institutions
at other Jesuit universities.”
Other students felt differently. “I felt
that I was being talked down to, and
blamed for the ramifications of adminis-tration
decisions to bring back students
in the middle of a pandemic whilst fail-ing
to sufficiently acknowledge the men-tal
health and social concerns of stu-dents,”
said one anonymous junior.
Some students felt that the email was
both helpful and hurtful: “I liked that it
was serious, because people need to real-ize
that partying or hanging out in large
groups without masks doesn’t only affect
them, but the whole student body. How-ever,
I think SLU didn’t claim responsi-bility
over the parts they can control.”
Overall, the majority of the students
that filled out the survey mentioned that
they felt like they were being talked to
like “children” and that the email had
been very condescending in tone. Stu-dents
also felt that the email was quite
“accusatory” as Dr. Lohe wrote, “Don’t
spend Mardi Gras “day drinking” instead
of going to class. (Yes, we’ve heard about
that plan.)” and followed up with, “You
asked for more mental health days in the
calendar, and February 17 is the first one.
Use it as it was intended, not recovering
from a day of partying.” Several students
said they felt that Dr. Lohe had assumed
that everybody would be partying and
disrupting the university’s COVID num-bers.
BreAking point or turning point:
Student reactions to the Student Development email
By MARK BURBRIDGE &
DIANA JAKOVCEVIC
Staff Writers
News 05
Additionally, Mueller explained that
the email “is perpetuating a culture that
turns students against each other,” when
discussing the new Integrity Hotline.
This hotline was intended for students
to anonymously report other students
when there were unsafe actions involv-ing
COVID-19. For example, if someone
found out that someone else had been
out partying, they could report them.
Several students felt that this could be
problematic because students could po-tentially
use this as a way to get people
they did not like or perhaps had a prob-lem
with in trouble, rather than a tool to
help the university. A particular student
said, “I get that we do need to be taking
things more seriously but by essentially
creating a snitch hotline you are destroy-ing
trust between administration but it’s
also destroying trust between students
which is hard to recover once it’s gone.”
The debate on whether students should
report each other or not is still unclear as
there are arguments both for and against
it.
Debra Lohe, then interim Vice Presi-dent
of Student Development and author
of the email, commented on the intense
student response in an interview with
the UNews. “I sent a very tough message
on Tuesday,” shared Lohe. “You may not
like that list, but that’s the next set of
things we would move to if we had to,
and what you can do to avoid that situ-ation.”
However, the strong reactions towards
the email speak to a much larger issue:
COVID-19 fatigue. It has been almost a
year since SLU first suspended normal
campus life, and since mitigation strat-egies
like wearing masks or social dis-tancing
were implemented. Even though
students are now back on SLU’s campus,
the guidelines that are in place, while
promoting safety, also ensure an atmo-sphere
of loneliness. Students do not
have the physical interaction that they
are used to with their peers and it is tak-ing
a toll on their mental wellbeing.
In a Nature.com article, there has been
scientific discussion about isolation and
loneliness affecting physical health.
"Loneliness and social isolation worsen
the burden of stress and often produce
deleterious effects on mental, cardiovas-cular
and immune health." Along with
feeling isolated, young teens, especially
students, experience anxiety and depres-sion,
which has increased severely since
the start of the pandemic. According to
an article published by CNN, the lack of
social interaction during this time of so-cial
distancing is detrimental to student
development as, “Having strong bonds
and strong friendships helps us get
through difficult times -- including times
like these. For some students, isolation
may feel scarier than the virus itself.”
“Socially I’m drained,” one anonymous
SLU junior wrote to UNews, “I want to
be able to go out and do things with-out
the risk of COVID, I want to be able
to do things with people outside of my
‘bubble,’ I don’t want to have to bring
Clorox wipes and sanitizer with me ev-erywhere.”
For many, the social experience is a big
part of the college experience: in this
time of self-discovery, having others to
hang out with is vital. However, the op-portunities
to meet new people and see
old friends have been severely limited.
Large gatherings like parties are discour-aged,
public events like concerts, sport-ing
events and club events have large-ly
been restricted to virtual settings. As
one sophomore put it, “I feel like I'm on
an iceberg that has broken off the main-land,
drifting apart from my friends un-til
suddenly they're acquaintances, and
suddenly they're strangers, and suddenly
they drift out of sight, over the horizon.”
For SLU officials, wanting to enforce
COVID-19 safety measures is under-standable.
However, it is still of ut-most
importance to foster community
amongst SLU’s students. As one anony-mous
junior wrote, “Continuing to shove
more and more restrictions down our
throats emphatically stifles our ability
to flourish as human beings. This is our
home. Show some compassion, SLU.”
(Rebecca LiVigni / The University News)
(Andrea Porter / The University News)
(Celia Searles / The University News)
06 News
n Feb. 17, Michael Lewis, Ph.D.,
was officially appointed as SLU’s
newest provost after serving as
interim provost from July until his
promotion this month.
The provost plays an es-sential
role in setting and achiev-ing
the academic goals of a university. Reporting
directly to President Pestello, SLU’s provost works
closely with faculty and the deans of the academ-ic
departments, ultimately serving as the institu-tion’s
chief academic officer.
The search committee that suggested the
hiring of Lewis emphasized finding a candidate
that showed dedication to “diversity and inclu-sion,”
“transparency and confidentiality” and “our
Catholic and Jesuit mission and identity,” accord-ing
to an email sent by the search committee.
Chaired by Jonathan Sawday, Ph.D., of
SLU’s English department, the search commit-tee
was composed of representatives from the
student body and the university administration,
among others. In addition to these individuals,
outside search consultancy WittKieffer was also
employed to ensure a diverse pool of applicants.
After much deliberation, President Pestello chose
Lewis to serve as SLU’s new permanent provost.
Although he has lived in the midwest for
over 17 years, Lewis is originally from Halifax,
a city in Nova Scotia, Canada. “My undergrad is
from Saint Mary’s University, a smaller mostly
undergraduate university in Halifax,” said Lewis.
“After Saint Mary’s, I decided to do my Ph.D. at
the University of Missouri in Columbia,” where he
eventually met his wife.
- …
