Issue 4_The SpringHillian_Fall2020

The SpringHillian

Volume 112, Issue 4 Thursday, November 5, 2020

SGA Takes on Initiatives for Students

BessMorgan Baluyut Reporter

Last month, Spring Hill College’s Student Government Association convened their first in-person meeting of the new school year.

SGA is planning on implementing new initiatives and continuing to pursue the implementation of ones that were proposed last year.

SGA president Matthew Lash talked about several of their administration’s plans and initiatives for the upcoming year.

Lash stated that senior senator, Betsy Blumenfeld, has proposed an initiative to provide kitchen equipment to the community kitchens in various dorms on campus. Students would be able to rent out this equipment when needed. Lash said, “Hopefully that will go well and we’ll be able to implement that further with other rentable housewares that students might not have access to or might not be able to afford. So things like vacuum cleaners, irons, kitchen appliances, and stuff like that.”

Lash said that they are also continuing to pursue various initiatives that were started last year. One of these is an initiative by Senior Senate President Grace Crapps. The initiative would be a freshman mentorship program. Lash explained,

“She [Crapps] is looking at routing it through LEAP to try and overcome a lot of the issues we encountered with it last year.”

Another plan that they are hoping to continue to pursue from last semester is about starting a student

emergency fund on campus. Lash said, “This [fund] would be if a student encountered a sudden unexpected financial burden. Something like if there was a death in the family and they couldn’t afford a flight home, there would be funding available to

them.” He went on to explain that the way in which these funds would be raised would be through T-shirt sales. He said that they hoped to get it started in January when everyone returns to school.

SHC recently announced a tuition reset which essentially cut tuition in half and reduced room and board by about $3,000. SGA Vice President Dionte Rudolph spoke about SGA’s role in this decision. When asked if SGA had any role in the tuition reset decision, Rudolph said “SGA actually was not in the discussions for the tuition reset but right now our goal is kind of like to be a middleman for the student body and the administration. Just getting the word out about it and gathering any questions, comments and concerns that students do have.”

SGA holds weekly meetings Wednesdays at 7:00. The student body is welcome to attend these meetings every week. To stay up to date on what SGA is up to, be sure to look out for their emails and to follow them on Instagram @shcsga.

Student Ministry Hosts Service Week

BessMorgan Baluyut

Reporter

The week of November 2nd-6th Spring Hill College’s Campus Ministry puts on their annual Justice and Service Week.

The theme for this year’s Justice and Service Week is “United We Stand.” The Service, Justice and Immersion Campus Ministry Intern Easton Hollis stated, “with the election, there is so much division and I think that we as student leaders can promote unity with everybody, being able to listen, to actively listen, and advocate for those issues. I think that because the election is this week we can start to see the perspectives of our students and see how we can be more unified no matter what the election outcome.”

The Director of Campus Ministry Colleen Lee explains why they have Justice and Service Week every year, “We do justice and service week because it highlights that part of our spring hill mission and helps students to become engaged in the world and in their community.” She goes on to explain why they chose the week of the election, “this year we chose the week of the election specifically because we thought that was the most tangible way that people would be engaged” she went on to say, “We wanted to make sure that we were providing avenues for students in the Spring Hill community to process through a very historic event in a way that represented our mission.”

In an email sent out by Campus Ministry, they stated

that members of the campus community pledge to “be civically engaged after the election.” When asked to further explain what they meant Lee explained, “The election and voting is one way to be civically engaged. It’s one way of exercising your rights but we know that’s just the first step. What we hope is that students, faculty and staff members take the opportunity to put the attention and the effort that they have been putting into the election into other things as well. We know that no matter what the results are, we are living in a country that’s very hurt and broken right now and so we will have to move and walk past the election and we want people to remain engaged in the issues that they are passionate about during the election.”

makes her personal pledge to justice service in the cafeteria.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

For information on Justice and Service Week lookout for emails from Campus Ministry!

Student

Photo By BessMorgan Baluyut

Student Government Association President Matthew Lash and Vice President Dionte Rudolph.

SHC Center for Online Learning Opens

Olivia McNorton Reporter

Part of Spring Hill’s “Real World Ready” initiative is manifesting through the phasing of 16 undergraduate programs into the college’s Center for Online Learning beginning in 2021 in an embrace of the online learning experience.

On September 20, the college announced it is becoming more accessible and affordable by cutting tuition in half, as well as implementing the newly formed Center into the college’s learning divisions. According to the COL newsletter, the college’s “first learning phase for the Center will be professional certificate-based, to help showcase competency and commitment and ultimately with job advancement” and

currently offers over thirty certification courses.

Geri Genovese, the Executive Director of the COL, revealed that the certification programs are “just one portion” of the new division of the college because it “also includes graduate and undergraduate degree

programs. And that’s where we’re expanding it right now”. She explained that the college plans to add 16 undergraduate programs to the Center over the next three years. “In 2021, we’re looking at putting interdisciplinary studies at the undergraduate level fully online.” she said.

In addition, Genovese said the Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing and Behavior and Cognitive Science undergraduate programs are expected to be part of the first 16 that the Center will offer.

Genovese also speaks of the college’s efforts to redesign the graduate programs that have been taught fully online for years. “We’re going to have an instructional designer work with our faculty, get some faculty development and develop some quality standards and then retool them for an online environment”. According to Study International, “In 2016, 31 percent of students enrolled in master’s programmes reported that it was delivered entirely online,” pointing towards a higher demand for a flexible higher education than ever before.

Spring Hill College President Joe Lee explains the college’s intentions behind the addition of the COL.

“We’re looking to reach out to the adult market” he said “To get into that market, you have to be fully online. That’s what they need. If they have families or if they’re working, they need to do it when they’re available.” The college hopes to attract more of these nontraditional students by adding a division to the college that specifically operates to fulfill their educational needs.“The Center for Online Learning was built to expand the current reach of Spring Hill,” Genovese commented. “It ties with the Real World Ready because what we want students to do is get a degree in a profession that they can then find employment in.”

SHC Receives Sexual Assault Grant

Grace Crapps Reporter

Spring Hill College is now a part of the Reduce Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking on Campus Program as of this October. Acceptance to this program will give the college grants to help provide Sexual Assault resources, which is something that the school had been lacking for the past two years.

It was mid-January 2020 when over 300 students stood in LeBlanc with the lights off and glow bracelets around their wrists. They were attending the second Shed Light On It, an event that discusses the prevalence

of sexual assault on Spring Hill College’s campus, and what the badger community can do better to lower the numbers. Lauryn Bass, member of SHC’s Class of 2020, remembers looking out into the crowd as she asked the them to raise their hands if they felt safe on Spring Hill’s campus: “When I saw the lack of glowing bands raised in the air, I was disappointed, but not surprised,” said Bass. “It was abundantly clear that students did not feel the policies and procedures currently in place were enough to keep students safe.”

Bass conducted a survey after the event asking the student body what they wanted to see more of, “resources,” Bass replied. “The

student body wants more resources from the school.”

From the survey, many of the responses centered around a lack of places to turn to for help. Although they noted Res Life as a possible resource a response deemed this “insufficient.” Many of the responses called for more options and educational programs.

This October, the student body got it’s wish. It was announced that Spring Hill would be the recipient of a grant focused on providing services and resources to address sexual assault on campus and support those who have lived through it. Vice President of Student Affairs spoke on the grant that they just received, “The

grant requires the hiring of a Program Coordinator which will be significant for our campus to help manage our programmatic and victim service efforts. This position will be managed out of the counseling center.”

Abel also mentioned that the grant would increase educational programs for students and help the school pursue “safety enhancements on campus including a mobile phone app that acts as a blue light phone on your phone with one touch.”

Additionally, the grant also requires Spring Hill to partner with a “community criminal justice partner and victim services partner to help create an integrated approach to prevention and

victim response.” Abel said that Spring Hill will be pairing with the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office and Lifelines to help with these efforts.

While Abel is excited for all the safety enhancements that the grant will allow he is “hoping to see greater prevention efforts on campus and to be able to provide a diverse array of programs on the four focal points of the grants.” He believes that education is one of the most critical parts to prevention.

“I believe our efforts will be greatly enhanced through this grant,” and he hopes that it will also enable Spring Hill to provide adequate support to student victims in a much more comprehensive way.

Reporters: Grace Crapps, Tara Summers, Olivia McNorton, Grace Thelen, Jared Jacoby, Andrew Spinks, Bessmorgan Baluyut, Conner Moore, and Genesis Gonzalez

Advisors: Stuart Babington, Gary Wolverton and Bill Rowan

Geri Genovese, Executive Director of the COL

Photo By: Olivia McNorton

Alabama Plans Needless New Prisons

Nicolas Johnson Guest Columnist

Alabama residents are again being taken advantage of and kept in the dark by our elected officials. Many people, as citizens of this great state, have repeatedly warned Gov. Ivey not to proceed with plans of building three mega prisons utilizing taxpayer dollars, and certainly not at an ever-growing expense of at least $2 billion. As evidenced by responses to the plan from both sides of the political spectrum, many Alabamians have concluded that constructing new prisons will not aid in solving our public safety, economic, and public health challenges.

Let us not forget that we reside in a state in which healthcare is--for many--inaccessible, especially in our most rural parts. Let us not forget that we re-

side in a state that is one of the poorest; According to AL.com, the state has recently been ranked as the sixth poorest state in the nation.

Lastly, let us not forget that we reside in a state whose disparity-ridden education system is ranked dead-last in the nation, according to U.S. News. This is abhorrent, nothing we should be proud of, and everything we should address.

I understand why the governor believes there is a need to construct new mega prisons. I understand profoundly that our prison facilities are failing and overcrowded. However, they are failing and overcrowded due to an abundance of incarcerated citizens who should not have been incarcerated to begin with and who should instead be in rehabilitation programs.

They are failing and overcrowded due to a lack of access to mental health-

care. According to Wellstone, North Alabama’s largest behavioral health provider, the state has notoriously closed several mental health facilities since 2012, allegedly in an effort to address budget deficits even as the Alabama Department of Corrections budget swelled. Since being sworn in, Gov. Ivey has shown little concern for improving our mental healthcare system, doing practically nothing to address the lack of access and reverse the adversely impactful decisions made during her time as

Lieutenant Governor.

Needless to say, being a young, African American male raised in the South and having become accustomed to the well-documented lack of regard for communities of color, I feel as if this plan will only further prohibit societal and racial progress within our state and again ignore the underlying issues associated with the failures of our system, and as a result I am frustrated by the Governor’s decision.

There are more effective measures Gov. Ivey could’ve taken that would--for the long term-- solve all or most prison problems, boost the morale of her constituency, and undoubtedly transcend Alabama’s economic and societal limitations and expectations. Those measures include: hiring and placing social workers and educational counselors in all public schools at the primary and secondary levels; expand-

ing Medicaid and equitably expanding access to mental healthcare across the state, and in the process ensuring that those charged with non-violent drug-related offenses are placed in rehabilitation, second-chance programs statewide; and creating opportunities for individuals released from incarceration to ensure they have fair access to jobs that pay a living wage, education, and social programs to help get them back on their feet.

Some people might label these suggestions part of a liberal agenda, but I refer to them as indicative of progress and necessary change. As a young Alabamian, I only desire great things for my state, and I know that despite current (political) divisions, everyone is aware of the difference between right and wrong, and of what must be done in order to move the state forward.

NFL/NBA Should Cut College Obligation

Conner Moore Reporter

about life. The argument is that playing at the collegiate level gives them this opportunity while teaching them life skills and learning new things as well before pursuing their passion.

I think the NBA/NFL shouldn’t make college a requirement because I think athletes at that skill level should be able to make their own decisions and control the outcome of their life.

their one year of play they don’t get anything for that except for medical treatment and a possibility of hearing the words “sorry son you can’t play again,” and that is the worst feeling. Now if you were to get hurt during your rookie season, your contract is structured to help the risk factor of the team and you are still getting paid.

Coming out of high school athletes should be able to enter the draft and start their career off with a running start.

A major conflict in sports is the fact that athletes should be required to attend college for at least one year because they do not possess the maturity nor the physical tools that require them to go

Athletes, like Kobe Bryant and Lebron James, came out of high school and look at their legacy. If the player goes to college and hurts himself that could be the end of his bright career, so the way I see it, players shouldn’t go to college because they do not get paid on injuries.

In terms of money, when a player gets hurt in college for

The NCAA is , in my opinion, a broken system. Instead of working their way into the pros where they can make tons of money for themselves, they are forced into a system where they cannot get paid, cannot make money from promotions and their names, and cannot get an outside job to provide for themselves.

At the end of the day education should never be

EDITORIAL POLICY:

The SpringHillian is published five times each semester from August to December. The views expressed herein do not represent the views of Spring Hill College and are not the views of the faculty, administration, staff or students. They are the views of the individual columnists.

SUBMISSIONS:

The SpringHillian publishes guest submissions at the discretion of the student-editor and section editors. Submissions should be less than 300 words, and editors reserve the right to edit the submissions for length and content. Original writings should be mailed or delivered to: Student-editor, The SpringHillian, Communication Arts, Spring Hill College, 4000 Dauphin Street, Mobile, AL 36608. Submissions may also be sent as emailed attachments to: shcmedia@email.shc.edu.

questioned, but if people can drop out of college to pursue a dream why can’t athletes

forgo their college education to make their dream come true?

The SpringHillian 4 AROUND THE HILL

Right:

Right:

Bottom

Bottom

A fallen tree blocks the passageway to the mailroom.

Photo by: Jared Jacoby

Left: A bench toppled over from the winds of Hurricane Zeta.

Photo by: Jared Jacoby

Right: ‘Do not cross’ tape is put up for the passageway by the tennis courts.

Photo by: Nathan Taylor

The softball dugout suffered in the aftermath of Hurricane Zeta

Photo by: Paityn Desormeaux

AROUND THE HILL

Top of Page: Winners of the Campus Programming Board Costume Contest.

Photo By: Bessmorgan Baluyut

Left: A student takes the guts out of a pumpkin for the CPB annual Pumpkin Carving Contest.

Top Right: Students race to carve their pumpkins.

Bottom Right: A pumpkin carved with the character design of popular game “Among Us.”

Photos by: Conner Moore

STYLE

Spring Hill Students Enjoy Halloween

Jared Jacoby Reporter

Whether badgers want to dress up as their favorite characters, go from place to place to get some candy, or just sit back and watch some horror films, Halloween is a popular time for students, kids and adults to enjoy a spooky atmosphere.

On this Friday on October 30, SGA held an outdoor movie at Rydex where they played Halloweentown. CPB held a costume party mixer at McKinney’s on Tuesday night. Even outside of the events, the café has created some horror-themed treats for the students to enjoy.

“Celebrating Halloween just for like one little bit of time and dressing up like I have makes working through a pandemic a little bit easi-

er.” Senior Jordyn Long said wearing her costume.

“I think it is just important to get people together, so we don’t have being in your dorm room during the entire time,” Junior Laura Williamson said with her costume and mask.

“It’s like a day where you

can let loose, dress up as your favorite superhero or villain or princess or like a ghost.” Sophomore Maddie Braham said. “Or a Pokémon!” shouted Alanis Coburn, a sophomore wearing a Pikachu costume. “Or a Pokémon!” Maddie repeated laughing with Alanis.

“Honestly, with us being in college, it is time to just kind of wind down,” junior Caleb Lyght said. “So, that’s what I see Halloween as.”

Despite the COVID regulations and the workload that

they face in their classes, students have still found a way to enjoy the spooky holiday with their friends. I am Jared Jacoby from Spring Hill Now, hang in there badgers. We’re almost there.

TKE and Tri-Delta Pair to Raise Money

Grace Thelen Reporter

Tri Delta and TKE raised money last week for their philanthropy St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

From Monday October 26, 2020 to Friday October 30, 2020 Tri Delta and TKE paired up to complete challenges for St. Jude to raise money for the families who are in need. This week is something that had just recently started for these two organizations. BessMorgan said that she thinks “this was a successful event and that it seemed people had fun.”

Throughout the week teams were supposed to start raising money and competing with one another to try and be first place. When a certain amount of money had been raised Tri Delta and TKE members did all sorts of challenges throughout the week. A few of the challenges that people participated in were the hot pepper challenge, shaving their hair, and the hot sauce challenge. Colette Conners

Tri-Delta Members Participating in Challenges

who competed in the hot pepper challenge said, “I am happy that I was able to complete this challenge because it was for St. Jude, but the pepper was extremely hot….My mouth and eyes were watering for a while after the challenge was over.”

On Friday an event was

held on Rydex where anyone could come participate. There were tables socially distanced around Rydex and people could come and pay to pie or egg any TKE or Tri Delta member of their choice. BessMorgan commented on the money raised, “I think we raised

around $80 or so the hour that we were out there”. The final winners of this event were a team composed of freshman girls. Around $4,000 was raised in total for this event and all the proceeds will go directly to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

For more information about donating to St. Jude please visit https://www. stjude.org

Blood cake at the café

Photo By: Jared Jacoby

Jordyn and Laura at Costume Mixer

Photo By: Jared Jacoby

Photo By: Grace Thelen

Popular Streaming Services for Students

Madeleine Braham

Reporter

Zoom, Skype, YouTube, and Netflix: websites that have upheld the morale of many people throughout the truly hectic year of 2020.

Spring Hill students have relied on these platforms to fill the social void brought about by isolationism. They have had to adapt to a heavily regulated, post-pandemic world. Badgers find social solace by binge-watching their favorite shows and films on various streaming platforms, but with these platforms come a plethora of binge-worthy choices.

How do Badgers choose what to binge? What do they look for in a series? Are there certain platforms that they prefer over others?

Each of these questions can be condensed into a single overarching inquiry: What does the typical binge session look like for an SHC Badger?

According to a personally cultivated survey that had been issued to 26 students

from Spring Hill College, it was discovered that Netflix is heavily favored.

79.6% of respondents stated that they preferred this service over all others, and 88.5% of students decided to binge TV shows instead of films.

When confronted with the question about whether or not they liked to binge alone or with others, the results were divided. Half of the respondents wanted to binge alone while the remaining

respondents favored binge sessions with others.

The same results were found regarding whether or not students took breaks in between episodes. Half of them liked watching their series with no interruptions whereas the remaining half preferred to take breaks in between episodes.

Three of the students who took part in the study were sophomore students Lorna Salbador, Michael Woolverton, and Adelisca LeBlanc.

Woolverton and Salbador were quite relaxed in speaking about their bingeing preferences. LeBlanc, on the other hand, sat up straight with a reserved, but respectful poise.

She smiled to herself, “As long as it has a good plot and a good foundation, I’ll watch it. Recently I’ve been watching Avatar the Last Airbender on Netflix. Before that, I was binge-watching Horrible Histories on Hulu.”

Woolverton and LeBlanc agreed that Netflix was the prime streaming platform for all college students. Salbador agreed, but she also mentioned that Hulu was one of her favorite streaming services as well. “I usually prefer to watch Netflix and Hulu. Most of what I watch is on Netflix and Hulu. I can’t say which I watch more of, but Netflix and Hulu make up most everything I watch.”

According to Michael Woolverton, the best way to binge a film series is with another person. This was always his preferred method of content streaming, but he

acknowledged that this typically came with its hindrances. “Binge-watching with somebody is enjoyable, and I enjoy doing it sometimes, but it is also very difficult because you can’t always watch it at the same time.”

Salbador admitted that many of her preferred shows were ones she watched alone specifically because it was difficult to watch alongside others. “There are some shows that I’ll watch with my sister or my mom or both.”

She pointed to herself and motioned as though someone was seated beside her, “Mostly it’s just with whoever finds it interesting. If I’m the only one who finds a show interesting, I’ll just watch it on my own. If all of us find it interesting, we’ll watch it together.” Woolverton grinned and nodded in agreement.

Whether one would rather watch the nostalgic classics of Disney+ or the quirky original content of Netflix, a Badger’s binge experience ought to be shared from one badger to the next.

At Spring Hill College, most sports teams have been put on hold due to the Coronavirus pandemic. However, there is one sports team that is still competing and going strong: the Spring Hill College eSports team.

Given the online nature of eSports, it is a sport that can be played safely during the pandemic. It doesn’t require constant contact, traveling is not necessary for every match and each computer can be distanced six feet apart. It is a safe way to get competitive and make connections with others on the Hill.

Despite starting later in the semester, both the coach and the students are hopeful and optimistic about the future of esports on the Hill.

“I’m very much looking

forward to the future with the team here. We all work together, they’re great people and we have a bunch of fun,” said team member Jared Jones.

Head coach Justin Tolbert said, “We’re working on building an Overwatch team, Valorant, League of Legends, and maybe some rumblings

If you are interested, you can visit the eSports room on the first floor of New Hall.

“We’re still looking for more students on campus who are enrolled to come in and join us- even if they aren’t experienced with some of the games. We need bodies right now. We need people who want to compete, who want a chance to win scholarships and prizes and things of that nature,” said Tolbert.

With the spring semester looking hopeful for athletics, many teams are likely to start back up, and eSports will continue, strong as ever.

of [Super] Smash Brothers.”

The team is continuing to compete and hosts regular tournaments for games like Fortnite, Rocket League, etc.

To keep up to date with the Badger’s eSports team, follow their Twitter account @SHCEsports, check out their Twitch account @SHCBadgersEsports or visit their athletics webpage https://shcbadgers.com/ sports/esports.

Drew Spinks Reporter

HILL YEAH!

ON THE SPOT

Do you consider Fall the best time of year?

“Yes because I get to spend time with my friends and family.”

“No because it’s cold”

“Yes because it’s a time of the holidays and it reminds me of the blessings that we have”

“Yeah because I get to to home and see my family and my dogs”

“Yes because I like the fall weather.”

Sophie Bailey

Bear Grindinger

Grace Glynn

Sabrina Cruz

Jackson Maniscalco