Wednesday’s assembly saw the chartering of the Student Veterans Association and a presentation by Jeff Fowler concerning university communication issues, among other business.

SGA voted unanimously to charter SLU’s Student Veterans Association, a student group founded two years ago with the mission to promote integration of veterans into college life. Mark Tabor and Eric Sage, the group’s president and vice president, respectively, gave a brief presentation to the chambers.

“Speaking as a veteran of the Iraq war, it was [difficult] for me to come home and be a civilian again,” Tabor said. “There isn’t any club here that facilitates this transition.”

SVA currently has 17 active members and is working to develop a larger presence in the St. Louis community. The group intends to host a food drive this semester, in addition to developing a series of micro-events for Veterans Week and creating a post-traumatic stress disorder initial response system in order to better assist veterans in need.

There was also a presentation given by Vice President of University Advancement Jeff Fowler focusing on the University Communication Task Force, a coalition formed last May with the goals of assessing and addressing university-wide communication issues. SLU’s administration faced repeated criticism last academic year concerning a lack of transparency, opportunity for discussion and feedback concerning important university decisions.

“We know very honestly that we had a number of issues last year, communication being one of them,” Fowler said. “It needed to be addressed so that communication was better both upward and downward throughout the university.”

One result of the task force’s work is the communication feedback tool, a feature on SLU’s website which allows any member of the university community to submit feedback to the University administration. According to Fowler every submission will receive a direct response within five business days.

Fowler also pointed to the open fora and university input during presidential search process as positive indications of improved communication university-wide.

Fowler stated that the task force is still working to develop more effective channels for discussion throughout the university.

The first meeting of the year for SLU’s Student Government Association was brief, consisting primarily of updates from the executive board about happenings around campus in addition to a presentation by representatives from Atlas Week.

SGA President Vidur Sharma provided some new information on the ongoing search for a university president and the future of student housing. According to Sharma the presidential search process is “moving along nicely” and that there were “more sitting presidents than expected.”

Sharma also touched on housing, telling senators that steps are currently being taken to improve the residence options for students.

“Melinda Carlson, the new director of housing… is leading a housing master plan creation,” Sharma said.

The master plan will outline the current and future needs of student housing along with where the university can build, what needs renovation and what to do with the existing stock of residential buildings. It will outline the goals and strategies for university housing over the next 10 years. According to Sharma the plan is to have the master plan done by July 1, which coincides with the date the presidential search committee intends to have a new president in place.

Perry Draper, the vice president of finance, reminded students that Annual Funding Kickoff Meetings will be held on Jan. 30 and Feb. 1.

Vice President of Academic Affairs Ann Knezetic said that plans to alter SLU’s registration process are in their formative stages and asked for comments and recommendations as she begins to draft a “comprehensive list” of issues and possible improvements.

Nebu Kolenchery, an intern with the Atlas program, and Renee Richter, a senator in the College of Arts and Sciences, talked with the chambers about deadlines for anyone interested in participating in Atlas Week. Atlas Week is a weeklong series of events held every spring, during which numerous student groups host internationally-focused speakers, seminars and other productions.

The group is currently accepting nominations for their “Coffee and Conversations” program until Jan. 27. Three members of the SLU community will be selected from the nominations to share their international experiences with students in an intimate setting. The deadline for any other Atlas event submissions is Feb. 5.

Global focus reaches far beyond campus

Photo courtesy of Disability Services Club

After a nine-month effort, the Disability Services Club (DSC) has completed its fundraising campaign for Feed My Starving Children (FMSC), a non-profit Christian organization. The club reached their collection goal of $22,000 on Jan. 4.

The money the group collected paid for most of the 495 boxes, or 106,920 meals, that were packed during the Make A Difference Day site DSC hosted last semester. Volunteers spent the day placing pre-packaged food into boxes to be sent to children in need throughout the world. 36 boxes went to Haiti, 252 to South Africa, 180 to the Dominican Republic and 27 boxes to Ethiopia through a variety of FMSC partners, with 216 meals in each box.

“The process went very well and was extremely exciting,” DSC President Morgan Elliott said. “The most difficult part was the fundraising. Raising $22,000 was much harder than I expected.”

Elliott found the experience inspiring.

“While packing, you get this feeling that you are making a difference for hundreds of children. Even though you are thousands of miles from those children, there is a very personal connection to each child that eats those meals,” she said.

Fundraising efforts were lead by Elizabeth Puzniak, the vice president of DSC. According to Puzniak, the group collected roughly $1,000 through two “Friday Fast to Feed” events held last year. “Fast to Feed” called attention to the difference in the average price of a meal for student’s eating in Busch Student Center, which was calculated to be roughly $8, compared with the $0.22 cost to provide a meal to a child in need. The club asked BSC patrons to give up lunch for the day in order to donate the money that would have paid for their food.

The rest of the fundraising money came from soliciting in local businesses and asking for donations from family and friends.

“[DSC] placed posters around the Central West End as well as donation jars in local businesses to help spread the word of our event,” Puzniak said. “It is amazing how many people stop to donate when you stand around a Schnuck’s and ask for donations.”

Kate Sulkowski, the DSC treasurer, recommended working with FMSC because of her experience with the program in Chicago.

“I had packed before with Girl Scouts and my church at home and never really thought anything of the event,” Sulkowski said. “Then over Christmas break I did another pack and something about this one hit home.”

Once Sulkowski found a packing site for the event and received approval from the University, DSC got to work.

Sulkowski stated that they had the largest MADD site and raised the most money of any group at SLU.

Disability Services Club now intends to assist Good Shepard Lutheran Church with its own FMSC event. The church intends to pack over 300,000 meals this October, and DSC is working to have the date of their packing event coincide with that semester’s Make A Difference Day.

“If we get the funds the church wants to up the meal pack to 500,000,” Sulkowski said.

According to Morgan DSC also hopes to work with the Disability Services Office this semester in order to improve the campus accessibility map, which marks accessible parking, entrances and routes between the Frost, Medical and Law campuses, amongst other important designations.

Senate reform aims to increase competition

With election season coming up for Student Government Association, earning a position in the chambers is expected to be more competitive this year than in the past. A bill passed in the SGA assembly Nov. 13 SGA that shrank the total number of senators from 63 to 43, a 68 percent reduction. Academic and residentially based positions saw the largest reductions.

According to members of SGA, the goal in reducing the size of senate is to create a more efficient and effective student government body.

Under the new organization, academic senatorial positions still make up the majority of SGA. When coming up with the new structure, the task force used a system where every college was given two seats for the first 1,000 students and an additional seat for every additional 1,000 students. Seven academic seats were removed as a result of the system. First year senators were also reduced from five to two, and a transfer student position was created.

Whereas many seats have traditionally been assigned based on housing location, the task force eliminated these seats in favor of two positions reserved for members of the Residence Hall Association (RHA). RHA will hold separate elections to fill these seats. This moves issues related to on-campus housing more explicitly into the realm of RHA. Similarly, graduate student seats were reduced from nine to two and reserved for two representatives elected by the SGA.

Some of the most notable additions to senate are four Diversity Leadership Cabinet seats. DLC currently serves as a committee.

It focuses on discussing and solving diversity issues across campus, but it currently has no legislative power in Senate. With the addition of these seats, the task force hoped to create more discussion about diversity issues in the weekly SGA meetings.

“The biggest difference that I can see [between SLU and peer institutions] is the fact that we have BSA and DLC senate seats,” she said. “Within all of the universities we researched, none of them had anything like these seats. That is something that we are all proud of!”

The voting process won’t change in any drastic way for students, but a reduced number of seats is likely to result in a more competitive election this semester than in years past.

“I am hopeful that the reduced number of seats in this election will generate more competition between candidates,” Election Commissioner Beth Alberty said. “In the past, seats for many constituencies were often uncontested. If the seats are contested in this election cycle, students will have an incentive to engage with and learn about the campaign platforms their potential student representatives.”

The deadline for candidate applications is Feb. 6 at 5:00 p.m. and elections day is set for Feb. 25.

Restructuring SGA is not a new topic of discussion in the chambers, but this is the first time legislation has been passed. The idea of making changes to senate’s format has been talked about for years.

The relatively unusual size of SLU’s student government has been cited as a source of issues with productivity. There have also been multiple conversations in past years concerning the desire of minority groups for more influence in senate.

Sean Worley, former VP of Diversity and Social Justice, started an election reform task force last year to get the idea moving towards action.

“We came up with ideas [last year] but we did not feel that the time allowed for us to make changes to the structure,” Knezetic said.

Reform efforts will continue through the spring semester as SGA works to improve their committee output.

“This semester, we will address the issue regarding the number of committees currently in SGA. Right now, there is not enough collaboration between each committee,” Sharma said. “With a smaller Senate and purposeful committees, I look forward to a productive SGA for future SLU students.”

Campus improv group rising in popularity

League of Laughter (LOL) is set to open for mentalist Chris Carter tonight at 8:00 p.m. in the St. Louis Room, offering up their usual brand of sketch-based comedy.

The League, SLU’s student-based improvisational comedy group, specializes in a comedic style in the vein of the once-popular “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?” playing improv games that take audience suggestions and use them to create a scene. The group usually holds their own monthly performances in Xavier Hall, but opening for a well-established entertainer gives them an opportunity to raise their profile.

“We are really excited to open for a mentalist,” Kunaal Bajwa, Vice President of LOL, said. “Also an audience the size of the [St. Louis Room] typically has more energy and that equals more prompts and overall a fun time.”

According to Michael Baris, President of LOL, the group has been pulling in bigger audiences in recent years. While they used to average 20 people a show, mostly friends of the performers, a recent performance had attendance of roughly 100.

“After a semester of getting better and building our reputation we had a show of 100 in the tiny Black Box Theater [last semester],” Baris said. By the time the theater had filled the group was actually in violation of fire code, which Baris described as a “really good problem.”

As a result the League split their show into two hour-long sessions. Their last performance saw 140 spectators over both performances. However, tonight won’t be their first opportunity to open for a bigger name.

“We were fortunate enough to open for Kate McKinnon, the Saturday Night Live comedian as well. That was really big, that was a fantastic opportunity,” Baris said. “We performed in front of 800 that night and opening up for [someone who is for] a lot of us our favorite comedian… It was a star struck sort of moment.”

The troupe earned their spot when Ana Sontag, a Program Coordinator for the Student Involvement Center, saw them open for McKinnon. She approached members afterwards and invited them to perform again.

LOL meets in Xavier Hall every week in order to practice different improv techniques, get comfortable, and generally help each other grow as performers.

“I enjoy the club’s challenge to make something out of nothing, by taking one prompt and running with it to make a relationship and scene, all while being a hilarious adventure,” Bajwa said.

Baris hopes to maintain recent attendance numbers throughout the rest of the semester, and the troupe is continuing to add to their comedic repertoire with new games and techniques.

Ultimately League of Laughter just wants to bring more smiles to campus.

“Not every student has the money to go to a show at the fox or see a movie, so we give them an hour of entertainment absolutely free,” Baris said.

Wolf Howard / News Editor

 Environmental engineer used to build legos to the ceiling

Becky Mitrovich loved legos as a child; her massive creations required the help of her six-foot-four father to stay standing while she put on the finishing touches.

“I used to build [legos] to the ceiling in the living room,” Mitrovich said. “My dad…would have to hold it and [he would] get really annoyed because it wouldn’t stand by itself until it reached the ceiling.”  Her passion for design and invention began in fourth grade when a civil engineer gave her class a demonstration on bridges. He used a program to show the students what went into constructing bridges, how they stay standing and what happens when the design doesn’t work. Since then she has dreamed of building bridges.

Mitrovich is in her senior year at SLU. She’s studying civil engineering and chemistry, a combination she finds perfect for her more recent interest in environmental engineering. Mitrovich’s focus on environmental engineering is an extension of her aim to help create a cleaner and healthier environment. Indeed, her decision to go into engineering was also fueled by her passion for improving the daily lives of others.

“[Civil engineering] is a lot of basic stuff you kind of take for granted,” Mitrovich said. “You just expect the roadway to be there and you expect to be able to get to where you need to go. So it’s a lot of stuff you need to maintain our lifestyle. I liked that aspect because I felt like I was giving back to the community.”

Civil engineering is more than building roadways and bridges though. Mitrovich is part of a team of innovation scholars (iScholars) in the process of developing a recyclable pen. The iScholars program is multi-disciplinary initiative funded by the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network that promotes entrepreneurship and innovation across SLU’s campus.

The group’s work on producing recyclable pens may serve as an important step in creating a more sustainable community. Office waste is a major contributor to environmental waste and one that’s rarely considered when people talk about recycling and waste prevention.

Though the concept is only in its developmental stages, Mitrovich entered her pen concept in the ‘Real’ Elevator Pitch Competition, an event hosted by SLU’s Center for Entrepreneurship.

Her submission was selected for the next round, and in the next few weeks she will participate in the final round of the contest.

“I get to go downtown to the tallest building in St. Louis…and I have 30 seconds to pitch [the idea to 12 judges],” she said. If judges like a contestant’s idea the contestant receives one of their business cards and whoever has the most cards at the end of the event wins. The first place prize is $2,500.

Mitrovich is a Chicago-area native, born and raised in Oak Park. She said one of the things she appreciates the most about the city is how easy it is to travel from one area to the next, as she likes to stay on the move. However, while she loves her hometown, Mitrovich’s favorite city is London.

“London is the most walkable city I’ve ever been to in my life,” she said. “You can get anywhere you want to go.”

Though she isn’t sure of exactly what she will do when she graduates, Mitrovich wants to do her part to help people.

Wolf Howard / News Editor
Swamped: Audience members hold an american alligator during Jeff Corwin’s talk.

SLU’s campus got in touch with its wild side on Monday when Jeff Corwin gave a talk titled “Tales from the Field,” hosted by the Great Issues Committee. Corwin’s talk centered on sharing his fascination with animals and the way human actions have affected their lives and environments.

“The moment it looked at me, I reached out and grabbed on to it… and it reached out and grabbed on to me,” Corwin, the environmental journalist and Animal Planet celebrity, said of his first encounter with a snake. He was exploring in his grandparents’ backyard, and from that moment he knew he would spend his life with animals.

The same snake was also the reason he became a conservationist: when he saw a neighbor slice the snake in two with a spade after Corwin had been watching it for years, he realized that “sometimes good people make bad decisions because they lack information.”

Over the course of the night, the animal lover brought five different amphibian and reptilian co-stars on stage, along with many eager volunteers, and with each gave an aside as to how humans had affected similar creatures. Corwin reassured anyone worried about dangerous animals at the beginning of his talk.

“If something does happen, I’m very well insured,” he said with a smile.

One guest was an alligator snapping turtle, the largest freshwater turtle in North America. Corwin said that the precise lifespan of alligator snapping turtles isn’t known, and that there are records of people finding flint and musket balls underneath layers of their shells. The turtle is lucky if their offspring grow to become an adult in every five or six years of nesting, and it can take an ecosystem nearly 100 years to replace an adult, which makes it even more difficult for the species to survive if human actions are harming their environment.

The turtle he showed to the audience was found and rescued in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“In all of that morose appearance and its garish mug I see something worth protecting,” Corwin said, expressing his love of all things nature.

The beast that followed required five volunteers to handle.

“I’ve never seen more people excited to go to the emergency room,” Corwin said as he picked out participants from a sea of waving hands.

Once the five volunteers were lined up, Corwin’s assistant carried an American alligator to the stage and placed it along their outstretched hands.

“To me [alligators] are a great example of perfect design,” he said, noting that alligators have existed on the planet essentially unchanged for the past 60 million years. He described them as a “keystone species” because of their tremendous impact on aquatic ecosystems. Through their natural existence they help to keep river tributaries open and provide food and shelter for other aquatic species.

Corwin noted that the American Alligator was an endangered species at one point, but through conservationist efforts they have recovered and maintain strong populations through much of North America. He said their success story gives him hope for other endangered species.

For his final exposition, Corwin called a bright-faced nine-year-old named Elizabeth on stage and brought her face to face with a ten-foot long, 40-pound boa constrictor.

He demonstrated the snake’s tendency to test its environment by flicking its tongue and said that their jaws don’t dislocate, but stretch to fit their prey in their mouths. He went on to talk about pythons that were introduced to a Florida habitat and became an invasive species, thriving in their new environment and destroying the ecosystem in the process.

Corwin ended the night with G.I.C.’s customary question and answer session, during which he told students how they can get involved in conservationist efforts.

SLU’s Filipino Student Association will hold a benefit concert in the Center for Global Citizenship on Dec. 2. Proceeds from the performance will be donated to support relief efforts for those affected by typhoon Haiyan, which devastated the Philippine islands on Nov. 8.

SLU’s office of international services and the Student Government Association will provide additional financial support, and the event will include performances from Bare Naked Statues, the Indian Student Association and the Interfaith Alliance, along with independent performances by members of the SLU and Washington University community. Various St. Louis community organizations have also offered support.

According to Garvaundo Hamilton, SGA’s VP of International Affairs, half of the proceeds will go to Philippine Red Cross. The other donation recipient has not been confirmed at the time of publication.

FSA is also accepting donations in front of Au Bon Pain, located on the first floor of the Busch Student Center, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day. The suggested donation is $5. Donations will also be accepted the day of the concert.

The Wool Ballrooms are about to get a bit more colorful as Saint Louis University’s Indian Student Association (ISA) is set to host its annual Fall Show Saturday night. This year’s performance is called Pyaar: Impossible, or love impossible, and centers on an Indian bachelor coming to America to find love. The show is open to the entire SLU community and according to ISA President Kena Vyas it presents a good opportunity to learn about and experience Indian culture in an exciting way.

“[This is] one of SLU’s largest cultural events where you can participate in a culture in so many different ways,” Vyas said.

The night will open with a full-course Indian meal, followed by a collection of six dancing acts and acapella acts from Astha Acapella and Decadence. Many performances will blend modern American music with Indian music, capturing the multicultural nature of the show. Pyaar: Impossible’s two co-chairs, Esha Sama and Shivani Parikh, have been working on the performance since June.

“We knew we wanted to do something light and fun but [that] also appealed to the entire St. Louis area,” Sama said of their inspiration for this year’s theme. There will be four dances organized by graduating class as well as a more classical piece and ‘North vs. South’ performance that aims to illustrate the differences between northern and southern Indian culture.

“Unlike most classical dances performed at fall show in the past, this piece tells a story and conveys a message, which I hope will be refreshing for the audience and a unique way to begin the show,” Priya Badhwar, the choreographer of the dance, said.

“Song and dance are a really big part of being Indian,” Vyas said, noting that the show will encapsulate many different types of Indian dance and culture performed by different types of students to illustrate the various dance and song forms of Indian culture.

According to Sama, each group’s performance will be noticeably different from the other. As an example, she said the senior class dance is more light-hearted and celebratory of the performers’ final year at SLU, the North vs. South dance will be something of a ‘dance-off’ and the classical piece will take on more religious tones.

Skits will carry the show’s theme in between performances, telling the story of the bachelor as he watches different dances and tries to find a woman to marry. In order to create a more appropriate environment, ISA will be decorating the ballrooms with bright colors, candles and various cultural details.

The night of performances isn’t just the work of a few, as it is coordinated by the 14 members of the ISA executive board and a show committee of 25 people, along with the work of 15 choreographers and several participants.

“It’s nice to see all of ISA come together in [the show] that not only benefits ISA but SLU in general,” Vyas said.

Pyaar: Impossible is set for Saturday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. in the Wool Ballrooms. Tickets are $12 and will be on sale in the BSC for the rest of the week.

Greg Boyle shows the unity in humanity

“There’s a vision that brought you here… And that’s a vision of a world that’s better than this,” Greg Boyle, S.J., said Monday night looking out at the Wool Ballrooms, the room packed wall to wall with spectators.

Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program in the country. His organization consists of a collection of services and businesses aimed at helping former gang members reconcile their past and build a brighter future through education, counseling, job training and many other services, all offered at no charge.

He passed on the insight he has gained throughout his time at Homeboy Industries through the comical and somber tales of some of the people he has worked with over the years. With each story he illustrated the deep human connection that formed between people that are often considered to be worlds apart.

Ultimately Boyle’s message was one of unity and love. He asked the audience to reach out to the marginalized members of society and to find the underlying connections in every human interaction.

“If you stand on the margins and look at your feet, you’ll notice the margins get erased,” he said.

According to Boyle, the people working in his organization benefit just as much as those the organization serves in that they are given an opportunity to experience

“I defy you to define who is the service provider and who is the service recipient,” he said of his work with Homeboy Industries. “It’s mutual.”

The foundations for Homeboy Industries started to come together in 1988 when Boyle saw a flood of kids killed by gang violence. Since the first child he buried as a result of gang violence in 1988, Boyle has counted the number of young people that he buried, totaling 183 last month.

“I count because they don’t count, because they don’t matter to people,” he said.

He claimed that the reason many gang intervention programs don’t work was an improper diagnosis.

“Kids aren’t seeking anything when they join gangs. They’re fleeing something,”

Boyle closed the night with an appeal to companionship and appreciation.

“SLU is not the place you’ve come to. It is always the place you’re meant to go from,” he said. “We go from here to create a community of kinship such that God in fact might recognize it.”