2006-02-17

              A student leaving Magill
Hall at 9:20 p.m. the evening
of Sunday, Feb. 5, was
attacked when another indi-vidual
punched him in the face
and then fled. The victim was
not seriously injured and the
suspect has not yet been
apprehended, according to
Illinois Wesleyan Security.
According to Chuck Adam,
director of security, the victim
refused medical treatment,
though his face was swollen.
The victim said that the
attacker had no known
motive. The suspect has not
yet been identified. No
weapons were involved and
nothing was stolen.
The battery occurred at the
west entrance of Magill, at the
door nearest to Dodds Hall.
The victim “was more
shocked than anyone, I think,”
Adam said. He did not
respond physically to the
attack, which was the right
reaction in that situation,
according to Adam. “He did
not escalate his response” and
avoided aggravating the situa-tion,
Adam said. The victim
called Security immediately
and later filed a report with
the Bloomington Police
Department.
No subsequent attacks have
been reported.
Both IWU Security and the
Bloomington Police
Department patrolled the area
that evening, but found no
sign of the suspect, Adam
said. The attacker is described
as a white male, blond, 5'10”,
of a stocky build. The suspect
was wearing a black baseball
hat at the time of the battery.
Adam said that if confront-ed
with a similar situation,
others should respond in the
same way: avoid retaliation so
that the situation will not
become worse, and call
Security right away. Adam
said both the time the incident
occurred and the lack of
motive made it unusual.
Magill residents concerned
with safety issues put up fliers
around their residence hall
after the incident, initiating a
meeting to discuss safety
problems in the hall, said Matt
Damschroder, director of resi-dential
life. According to
Damschroder, the meeting was
not well attended.
The Office of Residential
Life responded primarily to
the victim, as he was “obvi-ously
the person most in need
of attention,” Damschroder
said. He said the incident
Students, faculty and com-munity
members enjoyed a
traditional southern meal on
Sunday night at the Soul Food
Dinner. The annual event,
held in Hansen Student
Center, was sponsored by
Illinois Wesleyan University's
Student Senate in celebration
of Black History Month.
The event, coincidentally
landing on the founding day
of the NAACP as well as
President Lincoln's birthday,
began with a buffet meal filled
with southern favorites
including fried chicken, sweet
potatoes, cornbread and vegan
and vegetarian options.
A slide show of famous
African American individuals
and events in black history
was displayed throughout the
meal. Dinner was followed
with poetry readings and a
singing of Mariah Carey's
“Hero” by first year student
Alicia Plump.
Roger Wilkins, the sched-uled
speaker for the evening,
was unable to make an appear-ance
at the event due to severe
weather conditions. The
replacement speaker was
Illinois Wesleyan University's
Chair of the Physics
Department Professor
Narendra Jaggi.
Jaggi has been a member of
the Illinois Wesleyan
University faculty since 1991
and was named the 2003
Professor of the Year by the
Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching and
the Council for the
Advancement and Support of
Education.
Jaggi's speech began with
the historical background of
African American education
in the United States, including
the different educational
strategies of Booker T.
Washington and W.E.B. Du
Bois.
The speech progressed into
focusing on the opportunities
available to minority students
today. He said that many
minority students are told by
their parents that they should
major in fields such as mathe-matics
and science so that no
one will be able to discredit
them in a career, but that this
is not actually necessary.
“Do not let anyone fool you
into thinking you have a nar-row
choice early in your
career,” he said. He told
African American students to
major in whatever they wish,
even if that is philosophy or
music.
Jaggi ended with a reminder
to African American students
that they should not forget or
look down upon the black
people living in poverty in the
inner cities of the United
States. He said, “Those people
struggling in the inner city are
your brothers and sisters. We
are all in it together.”
Many Illinois Wesleyan stu-dents
came to the Soul Food
dinner for the traditional meal
and speakers, including a
large number of first year stu-dents.
Ian Mobley, a first year
On Thursday, Feb. 9, balls
were thundering down lanes
for IWU and ISU's Bowl For
Kids Sake. Students and staff
participants were asked to
raise $300 per team of six or
$50 per person. The proceeds
were donated to the Big
Brothers and Big Sisters
Organization.
IWU and ISU were both
approached by Big Brothers
and Big Sisters with the idea
this past summer. Big
Brothers and Big Sisters used
this event not only to raise
money, but also to gain more
exposure among college stu-dents
who might be interested
in becoming a part of the orga-nization.
Assistant Dean of
Students Kevin Clark and
senior Betsi Pinkus organized
the IWU community's partici-pation
in the event.
The event was regarded as a
huge success for its inaugural
year. According to Clark, the
collaboration came about
because “everyone felt that it
would be fun to have some
healthy competition between
the two schools. I would imag-ine
we will see more and more
partnerships between us,” he
said.
Collaboration between ISU
and IWU also allowed for a
larger event. IWU prevailed
over ISU in the friendly com-petition.
Dodds Hall received a
traveling trophy to display in
their hall and IWU received a
plaque signifying that they
were the winner of the 2006
Bowl for Kids Sake.
In the event IWU raised
$1,975 for the organization
and a total of $2,750 was
raised overall. Illinois
Wesleyan had seven participat-ing
teams. Although the orga-nization
is highly volunteer
based, Big Brothers and Big
Sisters still has need for the
funds.
"Money raised helps to hire
case managers who are then
responsible for screening,
training and supporting the
match relationships between
the volunteer and child.
Money is also used to provide
our matches activities during
the year," the organization
said.
Those interested in becom-ing
involved on a more direct
level with Big Brothers and
Big Sisters of Bloomington-
Normal should call the organi-zation
at 309-828-1870 or stop
by their office at 603 S. Center.
Students can be on the look-out
for further volunteer and
charity events that will be
organized by IWU.
According to Clark, “IWU's
Student Volunteer Center is
currently developing new pro-grams
and resources for the
students of IWU.”
Last Thursday afternoon, Illinois
Wesleyan students and faculty had the
opportunity to hear from a rising star in
the field of the history of ethnicity in
America. Noted historian Dr. David
Roediger presented Frank Sinatra's “The
House I Live In: White Ethnic Artists and
the Limits of Racial Tolerance During
World War II,” in the Hanson Student
Center.
Roediger, author of several books and
Kendrick C. Babcock Professor of
History at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, addressed a small
but attentive crowd that included IWU
students, community members and facul-ty
from both IWU and Illinois State
University.
He was invited to speak by the history
honor society, Phi Alpha Theta, and the
American Studies Program, with finan-cial
support provided by Student Senate.
“We were very interested in having Dr.
Roediger come to speak with us because
of the influential work he has done on
race and ethnicity in the United States,”
Phi Alpha Theta president Matt Cassady
said. “In this current environment con-cerned
with diversity and understanding
across ethnic boundaries, especially here
in the IWU community, we thought
Roediger's research was extremely perti-nent.”
Roediger's pre-sentation
explored
the attitudes and
biases of
Americans of
southern and east-ern
European
descent who were
victims of prejudice
prior to World War I,
focusing on their
response to African
Americans' struggle
for equal rights dur-ing
the 1950s.
“To center eastern
and southern
European immigrants
in this story is to tell
a somewhat pes-simistic
story,” he
said. “They learn
about the privileges of the ‘white’ race
and come out on the other side not closer
to, but further from the goals of African-
Americans,” Roediger said.
According to Roediger's recent book,
“Whiteness: How America's Immigrants
Became White,” immigrant groups such
as Italian-Americans often faced stiff
prejudice from native-born citizens in the
SPORTS, PAGE 8
Women’s basketball
given 3rd seed
Meet IWU’s new
director of Greek life
First Class
Permit 30
THEARGUS Illinois Wesleyan University
A
FEBRUARY 17, 2006
FEATURES, PAGE 3
Black history
starts with soul
We want the
Revised Gateway
OP/ED, PAGE 4
Weekend We a t h e r
Sunday
Courtesy of www.weather.com
High: 28 Low: 21
Mostly Sunny
Saturday
VOLUME 112 ISSUE 17
High: 27 Low: 12
Sunny
S A R A N O VA K
S TA F F W R I T E R
Students bowl to raise money
for Big Brothers, Big Sisters
A M E L I A B E N N E R
S TA F F W R I T E R
Speaker discusses race, ethnicity
see SOUL FOOD p.8
seeHISTORY p.8
Student attacked outside Magill
S A R A H Z E L L E R
S TA F F W R I T E R
Uma Vyjayanthimala
Kallakuri, a teacher
at Bloomington’s
Nrityamala Dance
Academy, performed
during the chapel
service on
Wednesday, Feb. 15.
This Indian classical
dance performance
was part of the
“Divine Rhythms”
chapel service.
Kallakuri was ranked
as an “A” grade
artist for an Indian
television network,
and the dances that
she performs are
connected to the
different cultures
and ethos of differ-ent
areas.
DEBORAH MATHIS
/THE ARGUS
D A N I E L L E L A U R I T S O N
S TA F F W R I T E R
“I didn’t think that anything
like that would happen right
outside our dorm room.”
A M Y K R A U S
JUNIOR, MAGILL RESIDENT
(From left to right) Seniors Breanne Johnson, Lindsay Sicks, Ashley Whittington, Sarah Mysiewicz, Gen Nehrt and
Julie Clairn break from bowling for kids to pose for a picture. PHOTO COURTESY OF SARAH WHILMS
seeBATTERY p.2
D a v i d
R o e d i g e r
Faculty discuss Gateway
IWU faculty members dis-cussed
and voted upon two
possible options to solve cur-rent
problems with the
Gateway program at Monday's
faculty meeting. Members of
the Curriculum Council pro-posed
the two options to the
entire faculty, as well as to the
Student Senate and interested
members of the campus at last
Sunday's Senate meeting.
Gateway is a required first-year
course intended to pre-pare
students for college-level
writing in future classes.
One approach, known as the
Revised Gateway (RG)
approach, would essentially
preserve the structures and
goals of the current Gateway
system. This includes having
Gateway courses taught by
faculty from a variety of disci-plines,
uniting Gateways
through common educational
goals. As is currently the
case, students would not be
able to count a Gateway
seeGATEWAY p.8
E R I E M A R T H A R O B E R T S
S TA F F W R I T E R