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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Thursday, January 23, 2025 Vol. 78 No. 7
THE student voice since 1960
Running under the slogan “You for You,” You has served as a senator on the Diversity Council since April 2024. The Diversity Council is a group of five senators tasked with ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion are considered in Student Government’s actions. You said she hopes to communicate updates from her position to the student body via student-published media, such as The Alestle and a potential Student Governmentbased newsletter. “I would love to create … a newsletter talking about what we talk about in each board meeting. Not a lot of students know what trustee is,” You said. “It’s such an important position, yet not a lot of students know about it, which I find a little alarming.” You also wants to provide funding to more organizations.
Mo Abuzaneh
Running under the slogan “Mo for More,” Abuzaneh has served as student wellness and equity officer since April 2024. “Students feel disconnected from the decision-making process,” Abuzaneh said. “They don’t feel like they’re making a difference on campus.” Abuzaneh has been a member of Student Government since 2023 and feels he has had a lot of time to get to know the people he would be working with as student trustee. Abuzaneh currently serves on the Parking and Traffic Committee in Student Government, where he gets insight into issues like the cost of parking passes. “We can try to get the parking department more aid from the state or from the SIU System without them having to rely on the tickets and passes.”
Kaelyn Cupil
Cupil is a senior nursing student who served as student wellness and equity officer last year. “I really want to emphasize the problems or plight of Edwardsville students towards the SIU System,” Cupil said. “Since I was so active on campus, I feel like I have a good ear to the ground for what students may want from higher-ups.” Cupil said she thinks she could enact a good amount of change in the short amount of time she would have as trustee, citing her background as the student diversity officer during the presidency of Rahmat Salau. “I came on as student diversity officer in the middle of the term, and I was able to really clean up the student diversity officer role,” Cupil said. “I was able to accomplish a lot in the previous role before. When I’m committed to making something happen for the students, I can follow through.”
Nina Harris
Running under the slogan “A New Voice with Nina,”
Harris currently serves as the senator for military and veteran affairs and is pursuing her master’s in higher education. Harris said she feels students are not being kept in the loop on university processes they should have a say in. “Students have a lot of grievances, and I feel like they aren’t being heard, and things aren’t being done. They hardly ever see anything done about it,” Harris said. “Think about the situation with dining when the fridges were down.” Harris said she always has an open mind to suggestions and feedback and believes she will have support from Student Government and administration during her tenure. “I am already heavily involved on campus. I feel like I’d just be more than welcome to explain,” Harris said. “If you wanna talk to me, come talk to me. I’ll still be me.” “Even though it’s a bit of a short period of time, I feel the support of peers and mentors all the same,” Harris said. The election began at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 22. Voting will close at 9 a.m. Friday, Jan. 24. The winner of the election is expected to be finalized at the Senate meeting on Monday, Jan. 27. Voting is currently open on Get Involved.
ABUZANEH
Megan You
Abuzaneh wants to gather student opinions before meetings as well to inform his vote on certain subjects. “I’m running because I wanna make a difference,” Abuzaneh said.
CUPIL
Four candidates have thrown their names in the ring for the student trustee position, now open after the sudden resignation of former Student Trustee Kaia Ford. Each has different ideas and goals that, if elected, they aim to fulfill in just a few short months.
“I would love to be able to use my platform to provide single-semester allocations to some of these organizations that maybe aren’t really receiving anything from the Kimmel [Belonging and Engagement Hub],” You said. “I have so many thoughts to implement in only three months,” You said. “That’s scary — it really is — but I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t have the resources I’ll have.”
HARRIS
DYLAN HEMBROUGH editor-in-chief
YOU
Student trustee candidates share goals for semester
‘DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAVE BLACK FRIENDS?’ Professor to premiere re-education doc on race in February CHLOE WOLFE lifestyles editor When professors take a sabbatical year, they gather research that is usually published in an academic journal or as a book. Timothy Lewis, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science, spent his sabbatical researching, writing, directing and producing a documentary analyzing the social formation of “race.” Lewis, who is also the chair of the Department of Social Work and the director of Black Studies, said the documentary is meant to encourage conversations about race — a social construct that categorizes people based on perceived physical traits, according to the American Psychological Association. “There’s a lot of stuff about race that people don’t know, so this documentary is designed to give them an upfront and truthful conversation primer about race,” Lewis said. “It does so by interviewing transgenerational Black Americans. These are Black Americans who’ve been alive since before we were integrated. That means they lived across at least two legalized racial systems, and so by that experience, they understand race more holistically.” Other SIUE employees and students also worked on the documentary. Cory Byers, an instructor in the Department
of Mass Communications, helped record The documentary will premiere and edit the documentary. at a reception celebrating Black re“I always like to work with students search at 6 p.m., Feb. 19 in the MUC when I can on projects, just because it’s a Conference Center. great learning experience for them,” Byers The event, BLACK — A Celebration said. “On their own projects, [students of Black Research, will also feature reare] always in charge of producing, which search by other SIUE professors, includhas a lot of stress. ing a book written by Whereas if they’re Associate Professor on the crew, they Tisha Brooks in the can just focus on one English Department thing and learn a lot In essence, it’s like a and another docuwhile they’re there.” mentary produced Before taking clap back against the by Assistant Profeson her current role, social political movement sor and Graduate Director of ComProgram Director munications Nicole against ADEI.” Candace Hall in the Franklin produced, Department of Eduwrote and directed Timothy Lewis cational Leadership. several documenta- Associate Professor of Political Science “In essence, ries. Lewis credits it’s like a clap back her as the inspiraagainst the social tion to make a documentary out of the political movement against ADEI — anresearch that he was originally only plan- ti-racism, diversity, equity and inclusion ning on writing a book about. — by honoring those who research race, “[Franklin said], ‘The book is great, specifically the sociopolitical impacts and but what about a visual mode of getting actions of Black people,” Lewis said. your research out?’ And I thought that Following the premiere, Lewis hopes was an amazing idea,” Lewis said. ”And to show the documentary at the National so the concept of a documentary came Conference of Black Political Scientists in to life, and we’ve been working on it for March. Lewis said he is also working on about the past seven or eight months.” bringing the documentary to a stream“History, if you read it, is one thing, ing platform or YouTube and working but to see it and hear it adds so much with Franklin on submitting the work to more,” Byers said. film festivals.
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Aside from producing a documentary and writing a book, Lewis has also been doing other research with Interim Chair of Political Science Laurie Rice. Their research has focused on Black Lives Matter, “value-driven consumer activism” and generational divides in boycotting through consumerism. “Gen Z was at the forefront of [Black Lives Matter] protests in 2020,” Rice said. “They played a key role in organizing protests across the country via social media … So we were really curious to see Gen Z’s involvement in it, because consumer activism can be costly, especially if rewarding or punishing a company means going to somebody else that’s more expensive.” Their research found that Millennial Black Lives Matter supporters were more likely to boycott and “buycott” — reward a company for perceived “good behavior.” Gen Z was as willing to boycott but less willing to “buycott.” “This [event] is to show, to broadcast, to publicize and to advertise, that studying race is actually a real thing, and that it produces real knowledge that society needs to move forward and to progress,” Lewis said. For more information about the BLACK celebration, visit their Eventbrite. The trailer for Lewis’ documentary is available on YouTube.