The Argus

By Tia Sprengel, Managing Editor

It’s not every day men get to strap on heels and women have a chance to suit up. But everyone will have the opportunity to do just that at the Illinois Wesleyan University Pride Alliance’s second annual Drag Ball tonight at 7 p.m. in the Memorial Center’s Young Main Lounge.

Originating eight years ago, and initially dubbed the “Tranny Ball,” the event, which will take place this evening, has gone through many modifications. Aside from a name change, the ball has evolved from a simple dance to a full-out drag extravaganza, including both scheduled performers and an amateur show.

An event like this brings awareness to a subset of the LGBTQ community that is generally misunderstood and carries negative connotations. The words “drag” and “drag queen” are highly stigmatized and are oftentimes viewed with disapproval, or direct contempt.

By presenting drag in a fun and relaxed atmosphere, the Drag Ball provides a safe and welcoming introduction to this subculture, which, it is hoped, will begin to alter some of the many stereotypes about the drag community.

“The Ball is an effort to break down stereotypes, encourage acceptance and empower students to have their own identities while learning about others,” said Drag Ball performer Reggie Cooke.

Chase Miller, another performer to be featured at this year’s Ball, agrees. “So many people have said ‘drag queens scare me’ so we wanted to give the students that exist in the melting pot microcosm that is IWU a chance to see that there is nothing abnormal or scary about drag,” Miller said. “Drag performers are artists. Their medium just happens to be makeup, clothes, and prosthetics, and it is important that people get that.”

But Pride realized that only featuring set performers is not enough. To incorporate students in the excitement of drag and give them a chance to experience and learn about the culture, Pride would need to convince the campus to play a part in it.

“We added the amateur show this year to increase participation and foster involvement with the community,” said former executive board member and one of the organizers of last year’s Ball Katie Rose Brosnan.  “An experience like this is important because it establishes points of empathy between members of the LGBT community and others.”

Not only does Pride’s Drag Ball introduce students to the drag community, it also raises money for a charitable cause.  The proceeds go to the McLean County AIDS Task Force, which provides prevention programs as well as free testing, support groups, and counseling.

n the past few years, though, the AIDS Task Force has lost both federal funding and their building. Since a main pillar of the group is its ability to give free services and financial assistance to those with AIDS, these losses have placed a great deal of stress on the AIDS Task Force. Pride is hoping to offset this burden with the funds they raise at tonight’s show.

“Our donations help to keep the Task Force running and able to provide their excellent services to the community,” Cooke said.

A $3 contribution is requested at the door but other donations may be made at various points throughout the show or, if you’re feeling adventurous, may be given to the performers themselves. If you hold the donation in your hand, the performers will take it from you as they see fit.

If you hold it in your mouth, you might not be the only person on the floor that’s up for a little adventure.

But just remember the performers are not exotic dancers. Pride asks, that attendees be respectful to both those onstage and those around you if you decide to give donations directly.

“Overall, Drag Ball is an imperative educational opportunity presented in an incredibly fun and proactive manner,” Miller said. “I mean, where else can you don a pair of absolutely fabulous pumps, dance for your life, and raise money for a great cause? Nowhere, that’s where.”

By Mary Nicholas, News Editor

A carefree 1 a.m. McDonalds run quickly turned to chaos on the morning of Wednesday Jan. 25, when a car, holding two female IWU students, was struck by an intoxicated driver.

The accident occurred as the students were parallel parking on the corner of Main Street and University in front of the Kappa Delta House.

Sophomore Katherine Tatar was trying to ease into her parking spot when a driver smashed into the rear end of her car, though the other three lanes of the one way street were devoid of any other traffic.

“I never saw her coming,” Tatar said. “It was out of the blue–being rammed into and then hitting the car in front of me extremely hard. My car was totaled”

The car Tatar was driven into and the other woman’s car were also totaled in the collision. The responsible party then “tried to flee the scene but her car was damaged enough that it wouldn’t go,” Tatar said.

When Tatar attempted to exit her car, the door was so damaged “it just kind of fell off.” But by this point most of the girls in the Kappa Delta house had heard it and come outside to help.

Tatar found that having her sorority sisters enabled her to take control of the situation. “They helped me stay calm enough to deal with the tow truck company, the EMTS and the cops.”

At this point the students trying to resolve the situation encountered a roadblock with campus security.

Since the police were already dealing with more pressing aspects of the wreck, several girls turned their attention to identifying the cars.

Several of Tatar’s sisters, called campus security twice, but received no answer. The lack of responsiveness lent a further sense of unease to the crime scene.

“While my situation was not an emergency to them since there were already so many police officers, what would happen if there really was an emergency on campus and they didn’t answer the phone? Now I’m not sure if they would be available in the middle of the night when they could potentially be needed most,” Tatar said.

A few Kappa Deltas, including Senior Kasey Gale Evans, went in person to the campus security building, but the in-person response received by the students was more unsettling still than the unanswered phone call. “They didn’t seem to think our situation was very important,” Evans said. “It felt like they didn’t even want to open the door.”

And “once there, campus security was of no immediate help and mostly a frustration,” Tatar said of the security members who eventually arrived at the scene of the accident.

By then the police had confirmed the woman had been driving under the influence of alcohol and charged her with a DUI. “How the accident even happened didn’t make sense until I found out [the woman] was intoxicated,” Tatar said.

Tatar was taken to the hospital by ambulance with a bump on the back of her head. This headache wasn’t lasting, but the minds of the involved Kappa Delta members were still troubled by thought of campus security.

“The members of security we spoke with viewed the situation as resolved, but the moment we contacted higher authorities, namely President Wilson and Dean Carney-Hall, they took immediate, decisive action,” Evans said of the girls’ email campaign which took place the following day.

Administrative investigations revealed a flaw in the plan of the nighttime security calling system. Calls were directed to one officer. His phone would ring six times, but if he was out on patrol, calls would then be forwarded to a second officer. If he also was out on patrol, after another six rings, calls would be forwarded to a dispatch center, which would answer immediately.

“But in a real emergency, a student might not be able to wait for twelve rings,” Carney-Hall said. “We have since altered this set-up so that after four rings the call directly forwarded to the dispatch center.”

“I hate this is what happened,” she added. “Students should expect better service and responsiveness. So I’m glad we had a chance to resolve this issue.”

Tatar is gradually moving forward again but the reminders of the accident have not faded completely. “There are still a few chunks of my car in front of the house which haven’t been cleaned up yet. And when I get another car, I won’t be parking on Main St. anymore.”

“It’s not because I don’t think the community is safe or that this would happen again,” she said. “It’s more of a personal thing about remembering the bad experience.”

Dave White of the Bloomington Police Public affairs unit cautions students about encountering drunk drivers in the future. “You never know when one might veer into your oncoming lane, run a stop sign, or speed. Being mindful and alert that they might be out there is about all that anyone can do,” he said.

“It’s not really something anyone can prepare for,” Tatar said in agreement. “My only advice is to stay calm and remember, cars are replaceable; people are not. If everyone involved can walk away unharmed, then be thankful.”

Sophomores Amanda Magallon, Hannah Smith, Cassie Mellen, Erin Levy and Jenny Boll pose in front of the Mediterranean Sea on the first day of a scenic tour.

By Jackie Connelly, Staff Reporter

This year, five students are going where no Illinois Wesleyan University nursing major has gone before.

Sophomores Jenny Boll, Erin Levy, Amanda Magallon, Cassie Mellen and Hannah Smith just kicked off their spring semester in Barcelona, Spain—an option that, prior to 2012, was never available to IWU’s future nurses.

While it may be tempting in light of the situation’s lack of precedent, “we’re not calling them guinea pigs,” said Vickie Folse, associate professor and director of the School of Nursing. “We’re calling them pioneers.”

A unique opportunity

Previous study abroad programs for nursing majors, restricted to either May Term or summer timeframes, fulfilled general education or elective requirements. But they did not offer continued immersion in the nursing sequence.

“When choosing IWU, I knew there was not a chance for me to spend a whole semester abroad,” Magallon said. “I was fine with that. I had accepted it.”

But recently, the School of Nursing revised its curriculum and teamed up with IWU’s Spain Program to develop, for the first time, “the wonderful opportunity to stay in the nursing sequence while studying abroad,” Folse said.

“I am sure it is the only program in Illinois—and possibly the entire U.S.—that allows nursing students to continue their major classes while living abroad,” said Carolyn Nadeau, Byron S. Tucci professor of Hispanic studies and this year’s Spain Program director.

Past study abroad options for nursing majors have been limited due to the School of Nursing’s emphasis on clinical experiences. According to Folse, state law requires direct patient care by students to be supervised by a nurse with at least a master’s degree.

To meet these standards, the School of Nursing deliberately chose to accommodate study abroad into second-year coursework, where the time commitment to clinical involves far fewer hours than upperclassmen’s and is more easily replicated abroad.

“In Barcelona, the students are getting real observational experiences in their clinical experiences, as well as the opportunity to speak to patients and families in Catalan,” Folse said.

Though students will substitute observational clinical experiences in Barcelona for the direct patient care performed by sophomore nursing majors on campus, the program requires them to return at the end of the semester and spend May Term working with patients.

“This means the nursing students who study with the Barcelona program are actually getting additional patient contact,” Folse said.

Time for class…in Stevenson Hall

To ensure program participants don’t miss a beat in their required sophomore nursing courses, professors Carolyn Jarvis and Susan Swanlund are utilizing state-of-the-art Polycom technology to connect to them through a live video stream of classes taught on IWU’s campus.

“Polycom is the product of a grant to fund synchronous learning,” said Folse, who explained the professors have altered their schedules to accommodate the seven-hour time difference and avoid conflicts with potential weekend excursions.

“This isn’t just online learning,” Folse said. “Polycom allows the students abroad in Barcelona to be actively engaged in the classroom here on campus, and it also allows IWU students to live vicariously through their classmates’ cultural immersion.”

Between their clinical experiences, Polycom classes, a general education course taught by Nadeau and one elective, “each student has a class schedule similar to what a sophomore nursing major on campus would have,” Folse said.

Reaping the benefits

According to both Folse and Nadeau, the already significant need for Spanish-speaking nurses in the United States will continue to grow exponentially in years to come.

Because clinical experiences in Barcelona will force students to engage in a bilingual, multicultural setting, the program “is a fantastic way for nurses to immerse themselves in Hispanic culture, speak Spanish all day every day and really improve on their language and cultural skills,” Nadeau said.

While the students have mixed feelings about how they will handle clinical in a different country, they look forward to gaining this useful expertise.

“Having such a diverse background will make me a unique addition to any health care team because of my extensive knowledge of different health care systems,” Smith said.

“It will be amazing to utilize Spanish in the workforce,” Magallon agreed. “The real challenge will be interacting with actual patients in a different language and country. It’s exciting, but terrifying.”

Not missing a thing

Of course, all pioneers are bound to encounter a few roadblocks. Between technical difficulties with the Polycom system and contrasting resource availability, adjusting to culture shock has been no walk in the park.

“I never thought I would miss The Ames Library, but I do,” Magallon said.

“I was so used to having all my professors and classmates always available,” Smith added. “We no longer have that luxury.”

But by posting lecture slides to Moodle, administering exams in the classroom rather than online and making tutors available via Skype and email, the nursing faculty is doing all it can to make the transition from Bloomington to Barcelona a smooth one.

“Every challenge is surmountable,” Folse said. “We’re really attempting to create for them the same resources they would normally have here on campus.”

In the meantime, Boll, Levy, Magallon, Mellen and Smith plan to take advantage of every opportunity the program has to offer. “I wanted to study abroad to experience a different culture in a non-vacation setting,” Levy said. “But it has been tough trying to focus on studying while exploring a new city. We don’t want to miss out on anything.”

And whatever the downsides, “the five of us are going through it together,” Magallon said.

That pervasive sense of comradeship between School of Nursing students, faculty and alumni suggests that at the end of the day, any struggle will be well worth the trailblazing adventure.

“I’m elated to have this opportunity,” Smith said. “I know how many former IWU nursing students would have loved being able to do this.”

By Chris Francis, Editor-In-Chief

“If you see a wrong somewhere, would you try to make it right? If you see someone being mistreated, will you say something?” asked Barbra Malone, a member of The United Community Gospel Singers of Bloomington-Normal.

Malone’s question reflected the spirit of the 22nd annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Fellowship Dinner featuring guest speaker Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White.

Held at 5 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 23 in the Memorial Center Young Main Lounge, the honored guests of the dinner included Gospel Singers’ Executive Director Reverend James E. Sims, Sr. and Illinois Wesleyan University Provost Jonathan Green in addition to White.

Guests of the dinner, with the specially honored Sims family and the Gospel Singers themselves, were served dishes planned and created by Pearl Johnson, an employee of IWU who originally designed the Fellowship Dinner’s meals 22 years ago.

“The Gospel Singers have been co-sponsoring this event with [Illinois Wesleyan University] for 22 years now,” said James Joyner, deacon of Bloomington’s Loving Missionary Baptist Church and Committee Member of the Gospel Singers. “You cannot believe the number of hours it takes to put this together every year.”

Following the dinner, White gave his address, detailing his many projects undertaken to improve the inner-city of Chicago and other locales around the state.

Having a heart for inner-city youths, he explained his vision for the next generation of Chicago young adults. “Every day make sure you put something new between your ears,”

White said addressing the substantial high school and college student portion of the guests. “We always want you to look up, and the only time you look down is to tie your shoes.”

Aside from this, he also emphasized the importance of blood and organ donation, citing how one of his tumblers had tragically died, but his death resulted in the saving of multiple lives via organ transplants.

White concluded his speech with his memories of Dr. King during White’s time as a college student in Montgomery, Ala. in 1955, the year of the anti-segregation bus strikes and in the midst of White’s bids for fraternities at Alabama State University.

After hearing that Dr. King would be speaking at a church in town, White and several friends attended. “We walked two miles there, and we ran two miles back to tell our friends and roommates and whoever everything we heard Dr. King say,” White said in his address.

White explained how he eagerly became a member of the Montgomery bus strikes after hearing Dr. King speak. “We were able to break the back of the transportation system,” White said.

Following White’s address was a performance by the nationally touring Jesse White Tumblers—a team of inner-city youths who are coached by White himself and perform tumbling acrobatics.

“I was worried that the ceiling of the [Young Main Lounge] might not be high enough,” White said before leaving to change into his uniform. And when the Tumblers brought out the trampoline for their jumping acrobatics, White’s concerns were almost the case, though there were no injuries.

“Had the room been larger and the ceiling been higher, we could have really put on a show,” White said.

The evening closed with a chorus of “Faithful is Our God” sung by the Gospel Singers backed by a small ensemble of piano, drums, and bass guitar, but the last word was given by Jesse White, “I hope you all leave here with a better feeling toward your fellow man and woman.”