The African American Male Scholars Initiative, a program created as a response to the relatively low matriculation rate of black males in higher education, is entering its third year at Saint Louis University. For one student, it was one of the only reasons he decided to return to SLU.

“I honestly did want to leave SLU,” Chris Walter, Jr., a sophomore in the program, said. “I didn’t see anybody who looked like me or just that I couldn’t relate… It really was AAMS that pulled me to stay.”

For Walter, Jr., the Initiative gave him a sense of community he wasn’t otherwise able to find in his daily life as a freshman psychology undergraduate. The social aspect was also what drew Isaac Singleton, a sophomore pre-law student, to get involved with the program.

“It’s the brotherhood,” Singleton said about his reason for joining the Initiative. “I met some real cool people at AAMS.”

The AAMS Initiative was created three years ago by LaTanya Buck, the director of the Cross Cultural Center, and Stefan Bradley, the director of African American Studies. It is a volunteer based program created specifically for black males in order to assist students in finding academic success at the university level and ultimately graduating.

A poor matriculation rate in the black male community stands as a national issue in higher education.  In the 2009 article ‘Black Males Achieving More on College Campuses,’ written by Michelle J. Nealy, more than two-thirds of black male freshmen across the nation never complete their degrees.

“In 2005, black men at top-tier institutions had a graduation rate of 36 percent, compared to 46 percent and 60 percent for Hispanic and White males, respectively,” Nealy wrote in her article.  A different report by The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education stated that black males made up only 35.2 percent of all black students enrolled in higher education in 2007.

In light of these facts, the Initiative seeks to accomplish its goal of higher matriculation rates amongst black males through three basic components, or ‘initiatives’.

“The first initiative is matching a black male student with a mentor,” Divine Shelton, the graduate assistant for the program, said.

Mentorship acts as the central component of the Initiative. Mentors are African American male staff, faculty, or alumni from the SLU community and are meant to help scholars grow as leaders and active members of the community in addition to helping them utilize important resources and succeed academically.

“One big thing I think [the AAMS Initiative] provides is that we’re paired up with… those who are involved in the field we want to do,” Walter, Jr. said. His mentor is Richard Harvey, an associate professor in the Psychology Department that specializes in industrial organizational psychology.

“[Dr. Harvey] gives me insight about the field of i.o. psychology… specifically as a black male,” Walter, Jr. said.

Both scholars stated that, while their original interactions with their respective mentors were more formal, over time they’ve formed a more comfortable relationship.

Mentor pairings are complemented by workshops and group discussions aimed at helping scholars grow as students and leaders.

College success workshops help new students learn about the academic and career services available to them.

The leadership development workshops are composed of discussions proctored by local leaders and on- and off-campus activities. According to an AAMS Initiative pamphlet, the discussion is centered around “building strong cultural identity, models of leadership, working with groups and creating positive change in your community,”

The group discussions, called ‘Real Talk Sessions,’ serve as a less formal means of developing a stronger historical and cultural identity for black male students.

“Real Talk sessions [are a] safe place for black male students to have… candid talk,” Shelton said.

Topics of discussion have included questions concerning masculinity, relationships and issues affecting the black community. Singleton stated that those discussions have been one of the most influential parts of the program for him.

“We have discussions we normally wouldn’t have on campus,” Singleton said. “We can vent and be truthful with each other.”

In addition to the support provided by mentors, workshops and discussions, students meet individually with Bradley or Buck after midterm grades are released to discuss performance and the semester’s experience in general.

Students enrolled in the Initiative maintained an average GPA above a 3.0 last semester, with one-third of Scholars holding GPAs greater than 3.4.

The AAMS Initiative encourages students attend the course ‘Intergroup Dialogue: Black Male Identity,’ which is already in progress but still open to enrollment. According to the course description, the class seeks to “deconstruct the facile depiction of the one dimensional ‘black male’ that prevails in the academy, media and society at large.”

Shelton hopes that the program can eventually become more rigorous in terms of keeping its students accountable, and that the Initiative might one day include a financial-aid aspect in the form of a “scholarship of some sort.”

Regardless of what changes the AAMS Initiative undergoes in the future, it has already made a remarkable difference for the students enrolled now.

Group makes valiant run to fight cancer

Photo courtesy of SLU Relay For Life
Relay: SLU’s Relay For Life raised $132,311 in 2013, making it the 4th largest collegiate Relay per capita in the nation.

Relay For Life of Saint Louis University was named the 4th largest collegiate Relay event per capita in the nation, hosting 1,300 fauclty, student, staff and community participants and raising $136,000 in donations.

Relay For Life is a 12-hour event dedicated to raising money for cancer research and programs provided by the American Cancer Society, in addition to supporting those who have battled cancer as well as their families and friends.

The nationwide program was inspired by Gordy Klatt, who walked and ran around a track for 24 hours in May 1985 in order to raise money to support the American Cancer Society. Relays events are hosted by various organizations across the country, and they are all centered on a team of fundraisers camping out and walking around a track from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.

Participants collect donations in support of their demonstration. Every event is unique to the organization that hosts it, featuring assorted activities, games and stands offering food and items in exchange for further donations.

According to Amanda Eagan, the co-chair for the 2014 Relay For Life of Saint Louis University, the SLU chapter had raised $132,311 by the conclusion of this year’s event, but that wasn’t the end of the donations.

“Our fundraising efforts continued into August,” Eagan said, “and, during this time, we raised approximately an additional $4,000 which brought our total to a little over $136,000.”

SLU’s achievement of 4th largest collegiate Relay per capita demonstrates the strength of the community surrounding the on-campus event.

“Our steering committee worked hard to plan a fantastic event and to keep participants involved in the process year-round, and the combination of everyone’s efforts ultimately made our event a huge success,” Alex Abbate, the other co-chair for the 2014 Relay, said of this year’s impressive performance. Eagan attributed the success to the unique nature of the SLU student body.

“No matter what their major, where they come from, or what their interest may be, SLU students are focused on bettering not only themselves, but also the community,” Eagan said. “SLU students truly are men and women for others, and the success of our event is truly a testament to the service oriented culture that is found here.”

The Steering Committee, the organizational body for SLU’s event, is set to start work on the 2014 Relay on Sept. 9. Abbate held up the ‘silent rave’ activity as an example of a successful addition to this year’s Relay.

“We had individual Walkman’s for people and we played techno/dance music through everyone’s headphones,” Abbate said. “So a bystander wouldn’t be able to hear any music, but would see a group of people dancing.  It was our first time trying an activity like that.”

Registration for this year’s SLU event is already open at www.slurelay.org.

Community members are encouraged to start getting teams together early and develop unique fundraising events for their groups.

Historically, teams that register a certain number of participants by an early registration date get primary placement on the track and other incentives including free pizza.

“Relay’s wonderful success this year was the result of the hard work of our dedicated participants, above all else,” Abbate said. “We hope to make next year’s event just as successful by recruiting participants early on in the year, keeping donors and participants informed…, and of course reminding people why we Relay – to celebrate and remember those close to us who have battled cancer.”

President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., will retire as president of Saint Louis University on Sept. 1, 2013, Board of Trustees Chairman J. Joe Adorjan said this afternoon in a letter addressed to the SLU community.

The Board’s Executive Committee approved Vice President and General Counsel Bill Kauffman as Interim University President, though he will not be considered for a permanent position in the role. According to the letter, his tenure as interim is intended to continue “for this fiscal year or until such time as a successor is in place.”

In addition to the appointment of Kauffman, the Executive Committee approved a new Office of the Chairman, staffed by Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs Ellen Harshman, Vice President for Medical Affairs Philip Alderson, Vice President and Chief Financial officer David Heimburger, Vice President for Administration Bridget Fletcher, and Vice President for Student Development Kent Porterfield. All SLU vice presidents will also continue in their current roles under Kaufman.

Biondi is expected to take a one-year sabbatical.

“During his sabbatical, he will continue his activities in building national and international support for Saint Louis University, but he will have no day-to-day responsibilities for leadership of the University,” Adorjan said. Biondi is expected to maintain a role in University leadership, to be decided upon his return.

A full search for a new University President is expected to begin after the Sept. 28 Board meeting.

According to a statement released by Saint Louis University, Lawrence Biondi, S.J., announced his intention to retire from his position as President of SLU.

“On Saturday, May 4, Saint Louis University President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., told the University’s Board of Trustees of his intention to retire from his position and to work with the Board on the search process for a new president, which will begin in the fall,” said a statement released by the University.

Biondi announced his retirement again during a gala celebrating his 25th year in the role of President to the greater than 800 people in attendance.

“The event in Chaifetz Arena received approximately $1.4 million in gifts and sponsorships for student scholarships and academic initiatives,” the statement said.

“Just as I helped lead SLU’s transformation when I arrived here more than 25 years ago, I know it is now time for the next transformation to begin,” Biondi said according to the statement. “And, so, with the blessing of our Board of Trustees, I have decided it is time for a transition in leadership for Saint Louis University — time for me to move on to the next phase of my life. This fall, the Board will launch a search for my successor. I will be here as long as they need me, and will do everything I can to make the transition to our next president as smooth as possible.”

According to the statement Joe Adorjan was elected to serve as chairman of the Board of Trustees during their May 4 meeting.

Kristen Miano / Editor in Chief
Students, faculty march in support of ‘No Confidence’ votes.

On Saturday, May 4, the University will host a gala to celebrate the 25th anniversary of President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., in his position; SLU Students for No Confidence is sponsoring an Alternative Gala, outside of the event, protesting Biondi’s continued role as president. The competing events are both fundraising for student scholarships.

Standard tickets to Biondi’s gala are $1,000 per person. The gala has already garnered more than $1 million for scholarships and academic initiatives, according to a University statement.

The final Board of Trustees meeting is also set for May 4. The first presentation by the Climate Assessment Committee will occur during the meeting, at which point the results from the campus-wide assessment, asking for opinions on communication, climate and voice at the University, will be revealed. The Student Government Association will also give a presentation to the Board  in order to voice student concerns.

The no confidence conflict has come to a head in anticipation of the Saturday meeting and following Biondi’s appearance at the SGA meeting on April 24. The meeting generated a large amount of negative feedback from faculty and student groups after Biondi requested the removal of two facutly members.

“After speaking with Mr. Exline, it was our understanding that the Q-and-A session with me would be only with the student leaders, as well as the support staff who normally attend SGA meetings,” Biondi said in a memo on April 30. He also stated that upon seeing the faculty members, he explained his understanding of the situation to SGA President Blake Exline and that Exline agreed and asked the faculty members to leave.

Kristen Miano / Editor in Chief
Roughly 50 protestors marched to Cartier Hall on May 1, calling for the removal of Father Biondi.

“Because the Q-and-A session was planned as a dialogue with the student government representatives only… I believe the criticisms of me regarding my participation in the meeting are groundless, as are any suggestions that I should be censured for the events that took place that evening,” Biondi said.

Exline responded to the memo in his executive report on the May 1 SGA meeting due to discrepancies between his understanding of Biondi’s question-and-answer session and Biondi’s memo.

“There was never a point in time when everyone said this meeting would be closed,” Exline said.

Many senators found Biondi’s visit to the Senate unfulfilling and messy.

However, they discussed at length how they might host a better meeting with the president, as he expressed a desire to appear before Senate every semester to have a dialogue with SGA.

Senators were hopeful about generating stronger communication in the future.

“I think we need to continue to work and commit to doing what we can to have… respectful candor and a dialogue,” Dean of Students Mona Hicks said.

Exline released a statement to the student body following the meeting in which he thanked Biondi for all of his positive contributions, but requested that the Board remove him from his position.

“It is time to bring students, faculty, staff and community together by supporting and directing a change in the presidency of the University,” Exline said.

A “Time for Action” march was held on May 1, with roughly 50 people in attendance. Students for No Confidence members were handing out orange T-shirts with “SLU for No Confidence” written across the front in black.

Orange has become the official color of the movement, and the protestors decorated the campus with orange ribbons and small flags with “NC” written on them.

University administration responded to the protest with a statement.

“The University feels today’s march was a counterproductive effort that had nothing to do with moving SLU forward, but instead was just another unwarranted attack on the University and its president by a small group determined to undermine the leadership of Father B,” the statement said.

“It should be noted that the vast majority of the Saint Louis University community did not participate in this staged event. SLU is a community of 20,000 students, faculty and staff, and the overwhelming majority of these individuals are attending classes and doing their jobs today.”

Wolf Howard / News Editor
Christopher King discussed the health benefits of state parks in Environment Missouri’s April 23 press conference.

Environment Missouri held a press conference on Tuesday morning, launching a campaign to bring more funding to Missouri state parks to help with repairs and upkeep.

According to Environment Missouri state advocate Stuart Keating, Missouri State Parks receive an average of 18 million visitors every year, and have been consistently ranked among the top four state park systems in the country. However, they are beginning to face issues of aging infrastructure and have accumulated $400 million in backlogs for maintenance and repairs.

“Now, more than ever before, we need leaders on all levels to speak out about importance of state parks on our health and our environment,” Keating said at the press conference.

He also mentioned the positive economic effects of the parks, stating that they bring millions of dollars into the state economy.
Christopher King, an assistant professor of environmental and occupational health, talked about the beneficial health aspects to maintaining state parks.

“Access to walking, hiking, and biking trails has been determined to influence levels of physical activity,” King said.

Theresa Reynolds, the president of the Wilderness Adventure Club, provided a student perspective during the conference. “It would be a great loss to SLU students and the St. Louis community if these parks were neglected by our legislature,” Reynolds said.

Environment Missouri will be hosting multiple petition events over the next month to garner more funding support. The timing of the campaign to generate more state parks’ funding is due to an upcoming bond proposal in state legislature.

The Missouri House sent the proposal back to a committee for adjustment on April 23, according to a report by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The proposal would issue $1.2 billion in bonds to “fund construction projects at college campuses, parks and other state facilities.” At least $40 million of the bonds would be allocated to state parks.

“We have to show our legislators, senators, representatives, that Missouri constituents care about state parks, and we use them,” said Kristin McGuire, a senior in the College of Public Health and an intern with Environment Missouri. “The best ways to do that are basically raising awareness, getting petitions signed, things like that.”

The advocacy group is hoping to get Saint Louis University students involved in the campaign. Their first SLU-based event was a Valentine’s Day tabling session asking for petition signatures to support Missouri State Parks. They will also be hosting events in conjunction with Alpha Phi Omega, the service fraternity, as well as the Wilderness Adventure Club and Kayak Club.

Additionally, Pickleman’s, The Shack and Diablito’s have signed coalitions with the group.

“We live in a democracy but we’re really not practicing a democracy unless we’re going out doing things,” McGuire said, encouraging students to get active for things they care about. “Taking part in these kinds of events and expressing your opinions and beliefs to the people you voted into office is incredibly important.”

Saint Louis University Student Government Association’s balance for annual funding in Fiscal Year 14 totaled just over $1.1 million, cushioned by $100,000 which went unused this year due to a Chartered Student Organization planning blunder. With $35,000 of that money reserved for Spot Funding and New Charter Funding throughout the remainder of the coming academic year, this left nearly $1.07 million to be allocated in the funding cycle.

The SGA Finance Committee (FC), chaired by Vice President of Finance Vidur Sharma and populated by committee representatives and senators, began to meet with the 136 Chartered Student Organizations that applied for funding in FY14 on March 22. The Committee heard requested budgets and recommended allocation amounts in accordance with the senate-sponsored Annual Funding Directives.

The directives provide a list of recommended rules for allocating funds to CSOs and explicitly prohibit funds for certain line items, such as money for travel within 50 miles of SLU’s campus or office supplies. However, senate is not strictly obligated to follow the directives, and a vote with the necessary numbers by the senatorial body can override any FC recommendations.
FC recommended a total of roughly $1.04 million, cutting $302,328 from group budgets due to line items that were deemed non-fundable, or 22.5 percent of requested monies. That left $25,767 in Activity Fee funds for funding appeals.

The Student Activities Board received the largest allocation with $274,475. Historically, SAB hosts fall homecoming events, a spring concert and various speakers and events throughout the year. The Great Issues Committee received the second most funding, with FC recommending an allocation of $160,000. GIC hosts speaking events that tend to focus on current social and cultural concerns. They have previously held speeches by Patch Adams, Ehud Barak and others.

The Black Student Alliance received $39,250 in funding. BSA often hosts speakers, as well as an annual fashion show and various cultural events.

FSAE (Formula Society of Automotive Engineers) Parks Racing received $25,444, and SGA received $24,155, these five groups making up the highest individually funded groups in FY14. In total the top-five groups received $523,324, or roughly 50 percent of available activity fee money.

Of the 136 budgets that were heard, 113 student groups received funding without appealing their allocated amount. These budgets were placed in an omnibus bill for the April 13 senate meeting and passed in a vote by senate.
23 groups appealed their funding and appeared before senate to present their case to the larger SGA body. The majority of appeals concerned conferences that were cut from budgets.

Senate funding directives define two criteria that make a conference fundable: “the attained information and experience must be used to benefit the SLU student body,” or “the attained information and experience must be integral to the leadership operations of the attending CSO throughout the entire Fiscal Year.”

Most conferences were struck because FC found that they lacked a strong contribution to the SLU student body. However, many groups were able to demonstrate that the knowledge they would obtain from conferences would help them bring back new events to host on campus.

A lengthy debate took place on SGA’s April 17 meeting concerning senate’s responsibility to follow funding directives, inspired by a second appeal by the SLU Club Tennis.

Vice President of Academic Affairs Richard Joubert made the point that the funding directives were not binding for senators, and that it was up to senate to determine whether a particular budget was worthy of exception.

Senator and Vice President of Finance-elect Parry Draper countered the point, arguing the fact that senators voting the directives into place meant that they had a responsibility to follow the directives, regardless of their contractual obligations.
The current VP of Finance Vidur Sharma also made the point that breaking directives in one vote didn’t imply that directives should be broken again, responding to senators who argued directives were broken in Saturday’s appeals.

A total of $21,590 was granted in first and second budget appeals. Total funding amounted to $1.06 mil.

Thomas Brouster announced his resignation as chairman of Saint Louis University’s Board of Trustees on April 12, a position he took in September 2012.

SLU’s original announcement of Brouster’s election to chairman stated that he had taken a four-year term. Prior to his position as chairman, he played a major role in financing the Doisy Research Center and Chaifetz Arena as the chair of the Board’s finance committee. Brouster has been a trustee since 2001.

“The University understands and respects Mr. Brouster’s reasons for his decision and is pleased he will continue as a member of the Board,” the University said in a statement. “We thank him for his leadership and service as chairman.”

In an article by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Brouster said that his decision to resign was due to the increasing difficulty of managing time between his position on the board and as chairman of Reliance Bank.

He took the role during a particularly volatile period for the University. His election announcement was followed closely by two votes of no confidence in President Lawrence Biondi, S.J.,  in addition to continued conflict between faculty and administrative groups. Since the votes, members of the faculty, staff and student body have placed pressure on the Board to remove Biondi from his position.

Brouster and the Board have since met with the leadership of Faculty Senate and the Student Government Association to talk about concerns and solutions for issues regarding campus climate.

As a response to the conflict, the Board and Faculty Senate agreed to form the Climate Assessment Committee. Brouster and Faculty Senate President Mark Knuepfer made a commitment to continued collaboration in a Dec. 21 joint communication.

The Saint Louis University Undergraduate Philosophy Club held their inaugural, three-day spring conference on the weekend of April 12, featuring keynote speeches by Dr. Elizabeth Schechter of Washington University, Dr. Sara Bernstein of Duke University and Dr. John Bengson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Schechter’s presentation focused on the concept of self in split-brain subjects, or those who have had the left and right hemispheres of their brain separated from each other by the severing of the corpus callosum, an act performed by doctors to treat patients suffering from epileptic seizures. The procedure is no longer utilized in the United States.

The central question for Schechter was whether split brain subjects held two distinct conceptions of a self — one in the left hemisphere and one in the right — or if the subject maintained one self and merely lacked communication between both parts of the brain.

Schecter argued that the right and left hemispheres referred to oneself by collectively constructing a unified idea between the two separate collections of knowledge held by either hemisphere.

Bernstein gave a talk centered on what sort of causal significance omissions have in the world. Looking at statements such as “if I did not water my plants, they would have died,” she questioned whether the possible action, as compared to the actual action, of not watering the plants had a significant role in the plants’ deaths. She concluded that omissions are important to the causal relation, but don’t necessarily cause things in themselves.

Bernstein then argued that the context of a given situation determined what level of relevance an omission has, and what extraneous factors had an important role in the outcome in a series of events.

Bengson’s talk concerned the arguments put forth by some proponents of experimental philosophy, or x-phi, which claimed to prove that intuition — or humankind’s innate sense of knowing — is systematically biased or unreliable.

Studies done by experimental philosophers showed a large difference in responses concerning intuitive knowledge depending on a person’s cultural beliefs, the order of the questions presented and the word-usage present in a given scenario. One would expect there to be little difference in natural, or intuitive, knowledge when asking any number of people a question. The philosophers concluded that intuition was, in certain cases, a faulty source of knowledge because the responses were so varied.

Bengson argued that the studies did not give people an opportunity to demonstrate whether or not they had an instinctive answer to certain questions, contending that in many cases people don’t claim to know something intuitively but merely state their best guess. He also maintained that the questions may have prompted “stray answers,” which departed from intuition and instead followed a line of detailed and extended reasoning. For this reason, Bengson claimed, x-phi’s attack on intuition is false.

Other sessions throughout the weekend included presentations by SLU faculty and students, as well as a panel on intergenerational justice, and social lunches and dinners.

In addition to hosting another philosophy conference next spring, the Philosophy Club plans to hold an additional event in the fall semester focusing on the philosophy of science.
“[The event] would be somewhere between a colloquia and a workshop,” Ben Conover, the president of the Philosophy Club, said. “People would have their thesis papers they’re working on, and hopefully the professors would be willing to [review them].”
The colloquium would be open to all SLU students and Conover hopes to have them in early November or late October.

Briana Kagy / Illustrator

All undergraduates in Saint Louis University’s College of Arts and Sciences have the choice of taking a contract major. A contract major is a student-drafted major that is not officially offered by the University. Instead, a student often develops a sufficiently rigorous curriculum for a less common field of study, such as filmmaking or Sanskrit.

But occasionally students find passion in a discipline that has yet to be widely offered at the undergraduate level, and help to build a new and important program for the University.

The neuroscience contract major was first formed four years ago when a group of 10 students approached faculty with an idea for a new curriculum.

“[The students] were interested in the bigger picture of biomedical science as opposed to the more molecular side of things that you can get from a straight up biology degree,” Tony Buchanan, an associate professor of psychology and one of the founding faculty members for the program, said.

It has since grown to an enrollment of 45 students, larger than many officially established majors in the College of Arts and Sciences, and a proposal for creating an official neuroscience major is nearing its final stages. The only issue that remains for the potential program is finding funding.

As it stands, the proposal requests the addition of two new faculty members with the necessary expertise in higher-level neuroscience and new classes with appropriate lab sections and materials.

“It’s not that the faculty or administration hasn’t tried to fund it… but it’s a very expensive proposition to hire new faculty members, start up new labs,” Buchanan said.

According to Dean of Arts and Sciences Michael Barber, S.J., the question of how to fund has two basic solutions. Although the college could try to move funds around from other university programs to provide the neuroscience major with its necessary start-up funds, he said the best bet is to receive new funding from the Board of Trustees when the proposal is seen in September.

However the budget isn’t decided until December, which is when the administration will know whether they can afford to fund the program.

Still, Barber thinks there is a strong likelihood that the Board will approve the major.

“This would be something that would make us a very distinct university, Barber said of the proposed major. An undergraduate major in neuroscience is still an uncommon offering for universities.

The anthropology program underwent a similar process, transitioning from a contract major to a full-fledged major in 2012. Developing a standalone major would allow interested students to get more focused experience in the world of neuroscience.

“A contract major requires the students to have a lot of independence,” Judith Ogilvie, an associate professor of biology and one of the neuroscience mentors, said. “Students have to take on a lot of responsibilities themselves to make things work.”

According to Barber those in the program are all impressive students, and the curriculum’s current success in popularity and academic performance speaks largely to its potential as a major. Many of the current neuroscience majors are also premedical students, as the study of neurological systems and their role in the human experience is a rapidly growing field in medicine and science.

According to Buchanan, over 30,000 scientists attend the annual meeting for the Society of Neuroscience each year.

“Those people could be doing anything from looking at the molecular basis, the genetic basis of brain disorders, all the way up to… looking at whole people and how the brain works in terms of learning and memory, thinking and decision-making,” Buchanan said.

The program varies from other common premedical disciplines in the scope of its focus. The study of neuroscience is distinct in that it takes a broader view of human behavior rather than focusing on molecular level operations.

Barber said the program would “put us on the cutting edge of research.” He also stated that the proposed neuroscience major speaks well to the University mission, citing the questions about and values focused upon freedom, responsibility, and health in the Jesuit philosophy. Neuroscience takes into account many of these issues through its study of the brain in conjunction with the concept of “person.”

“What our particular curriculum offers is sort of looking at the whole individual, the whole person and how that relates to the brain,” Buchanan said.

In addition to the basic focus on psychology and biology the curriculum ties in concepts from physics, mathematics, philosophy and chemistry in order to help students understand the brain in a holistic manner.

There are currently four faculty mentors available to students who want to study neuroscience, two in the biology department and two in the psychology department, which leaves the professors involved stretched a bit thin in providing appropriate guidance to nearly 50 students.

Any move to a new program wouldn’t be made until the fall semester of 2014, but the potential benefits of offering a major in an exciting and relatively new discipline bode well for the future of the neuroscience program and SLU’s place in the research university community.