The Plagiarists

Click on photos to scroll through the gallery!

By: Frances Meng-Frecker, Head Photographer

The six-member Regis professor/faculty band includes Alyse Knorr, David Hicks, and Scott Dimovitz from the English department, Don Bush from the Accounting department, Allison Peters from the Office of the First-Year Experience, and Alex Benedict the Senior Instructional Technologist. They performed in Walker’s Pub on Friday November 2and filled the student center. Students, families, and Regis faculty and staff enjoyed the two-hour concert, danced, and sang along with the band. The Plagiarists played songs from David Bowie to Amy Winehouse to Elvis Presley and many more. It was a joy to watch them perform and do something they love. Everyone had fun and I know for a fact that I am looking forward to their next concert, and I am certain that other people are too.  

Colin Kaepernick and the importance of his message

By: Rose Ferrie, Staff Reporter

For those of you who didn’t know, this past week was Social Justice Week; there were many events pertaining to issues like feminism, anti-hate speech and sustainability. I attended an event regarding police brutality and Black Lives Matter. The Colin Kaepernick talk was a forum to open up the discussion about Black Lives Matter and police brutality, the criminalization of black men and men of color, and what Colin’s actions did for them.

I got to talk to Awah Tilong, the President of BSA, and a few of their members before the conversation to see what their goals were for this event. She said she wanted this to be a space for a productive conversation, for people to speak their truth, and be comfortable to disagree. Minds were not going to be changed in one conversation, maybe not ever, but this was a place to educate and increase apathy.

Once people had settled in, Damien Thompson, faculty advisor of BSA and professor here at Regis, set some ground rules for the night. This was a safe space, speak from the heart without judgement, listen from the heart with no need to agree, don’t rehearse your argument truly listen, be mindful of everyone and let all have a turn to speak.

This program was broken into 3 sections: “speed dating” (fast two person conversations), small group discussion, and a big group discussion. Talking one-on-one with people and asking how they felt about the Kaepernick situation was eye opening. One idea stuck with me and I have continued to ponder it: Did Kaepernick’s kneeling controversy end up distracting people from his initial purpose of raising awareness for police brutality against Black people? He may have had good intentions but his act of kneeling was twisted into a sign disrespect to America and its troops, his purpose was often lost in the media. He was able to disturb millions of Americans weekly Sunday rituals of watching Sunday football, he rocked that boat and started a conversation, just maybe not the one he was hoping for.

The conclusion of the night was that the criminalization of Black boys and men is a serious issue and Colin Kaepernick leveraged his social positioning to make a statement by kneeling during our national anthem. This situation was ostracized from being a peaceful protest for police brutality to disrespecting America and American troops. We are so patriotic that we disregard the racism right in front of us. Racism is rampant and blatantly so in the acts of brutality that affect African American men and boys as well as other men and boys of color. I do not wish to change anyone’s feelings about this situation, the goal of this conversation was not to prove a right or wrong but to get to the root issue: not every American is equal. The importance of what Kaepernick did and what this talk concluded with is that we need to address the attack on boys and men of color. They are being killed because of what they look like by people who should be protecting them. They are Americans and we need to live up to “liberty and justice for all”.

Advocacy Is For Everyone: Lessons from IFTJ

By: Catie Cheshire, Co-Editor in Chief

As part of social justice week, students who attended the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice (IFTJ) in Washington D.C. November 3-5 shared reflections on their experience and plans for future action in an event called “IFTJ, Action, and Healing.” Not everyone who went on the trip participated in the event, but it began with those who did (Natalie Nielsen, Anahi Ramos, Ethan Strouse, Amelia Rouyer, and Kate Penick) sharing memorable moments are lessons learned.

The conference is two days of breakout speakers and advocacy training with a focus on the Jesuit values that can influence how we discuss policy with our elected representatives. The final day of the conference is devoted to meeting with policy aides on the hill and using the advocacy skills learned at the conference. The theme of this year’s conference was Discipleship at the Crossroads.

“The community of Jesuit schools was impressive to me,” Penick said. “The common background we all come from was special throughout the weekend.” Strouse seconded her thoughts with a comedic story about the “mass Mass” that took place Sunday evening on the second day of the conference. That many people from Jesuit educational backgrounds coming together is something unique about ITFJ that Regis students felt defined the conference.

Despite the fact that every breakout session or keynote relates social justice issues back to Jesuit values, Ramos stressed the variety of topics available for conference-goers to pick from. Ramos has gone to IFTJ twice now, and said that this time around she was able to learn about different subjects than she had before. She also stressed that advocacy isn’t nearly as intimidating as she thought.

“The nerves disappear once you’re in the conversation and can share your stories and views and be heard by people who have a say,” Ramos said. For Nielsen, who has attended IFTJ three times and was the student leader of the trip this year, her growth within advocacy from year one to year three of IFTJ has encouraged her to consider a career in politics after she graduates from Regis.

Nielsen used her third year as a chance to learn from others. She expressed that, for her, a lot of the experience was listening to what others are doing and trying to figure out how to bring that back to Regis.

For that reason, the second half of the event focused on actions. The participants shared DOs and DON’Ts for advocacy, and introduced a new event that will take place at Regis in the Spring: Advocacy Day. During Anti-Oppression Week one day will involved Regis students lobbying on Capitol Hill here in Denver.

The other action was participants at the even writing letters to Casa de Paz, an organization that provides support for people whose family members are detained or are coming out of detention centers. Casa de Paz is a local organization that has helped over 1,000 families and counting. The letters were written to express solidarity for people unjustly held in detention and will be delivered to families soon.