Hate Crimes Community Forum

Photo source: accesscommunity.org

By: Sally Andarge, Social Media Editor

On November 9, Regis hosted a Hate Crimes Community forum in Claver Hall, room 315. Guest speakers at the forum included a panel of law enforcement officials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI, and the Denver Police Department.

Tensions across our campus are high given the recent white supremacist notes that found their way around campus and the March Against Hate to rise against them. In a moment like this, question of hate crimes are inevitable.The forum was timely following the acts of extreme hate that have occurred on our campus in the past two weeks, impacting community members on and off campus.  

The forum kicked off with a few words from Father Fitzgibbons. He called the Regis community to put political difference aside in order to eradicate hate and recognize one another for who we really are.

After his speech, Father Fitzgibbons called the Assistant District Attorney of Denver to give a quick introduction to the history of hate crime law and what exactly constitute a hate crime.

He started by explaining to the audience that there are a series of federally protected classes. Those classes are race, sex, color, religion, national origin, age, and ability. Luckily, Colorado is one of the few states that considers sexual orientation a protected class even though federal law does not. Colorado added sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected classes in 2009.

He then moved on to what constitutes a hate crime. He explained that criminal acts are usually deemed hate crimes when there is evidence of hateful ideology. The example that he gave was the Charleston church shooting, where 21-year-old white supremacist, Dylann Roof, killed nine African American church goers during a prayer service. He explained that it wasn’t deemed a hate crime just because all of the victims were people of color, the evidence that made it a hate crime were his personal journal and social media posts where he had openly racist and white supremacist statements. This allowed them to link his targeted attack on people of color to white supremacist ideology.

It is so unfortunate that in 2018 we still consistently see hate crimes and hate speech. In a time where we find so much progress, alarming events like these still shock us to the reality of deeply founded fear and hate. When faced with these acts as a community, it is critical we understand the law and protections against hate. These events are not isolated to just our campus, in fact, in 2015 there were 107 hate crimes that took place in Colorado alone. We hope that as a community (and eventually as a society) that we will be able to overcome hate.

It's Not Okay To Spread Hate

By: Sally Andarge, Social Media Editor

On Thursday, November 1,  the Regis community was shocked by white supremacist signage posted around campus. Students reported finding “It’s OK to be white” signs posted on every building on campus. Word spread quickly when students started posting pictures of the signs on social media, notifying their fellow students about the signs, and tearing down signs all over campus.

Although this unfortunate event caused a lot of shock and feelings of vulnerability and discomfort, especially for students of color on campus, this is nothing new. The “It’s OK to be white” movement started online in 2017. It was allegedly started so that society’s response to the slogan would push right leaning moderates to the “far-right”. Signs and stickers with the phrase “It’s OK to be white” were posted along streets and on campuses across the U.S.

A few days prior to the incident on Regis’ campus, the same signs were found at the University of Vermont and Champlain College. UVM responded by removing the signage as quickly as possible and released a statement saying they would not support such activity that bolstered white nationalism.

As you may have suspected, the response was quite similar here on Regis’ campus. Many students were uneasy at the open display of white nationalism taking place on campus, so a few students joined Father Fitzgibbons at a lunch time dialogue hosted and organized by Dr. Nicki Gonzales and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. The students voiced their concerns about the signs and the lack of attention given to issues surrounding race in the current political climate.

Students say that Father President was receptive and  wanted to be tactical about how he addressed such issues. Three hours later the student body received and email from the Office of the President. The subject line read, “Call to Reject Hate on our Campus” and was signed by Dr. Nicki Gonzales, Dean Patrick Romero-Aldaz, and RUSGA Student Body President Enrico Gomez.

The email expressed that although Regis as an institution stands by freedom of speech and the free exchange of ideas, they would not “tolerate the use of this principle as a vehicle for hate.”

We hope to see future activism that doesn’t cross the line between free speech and hate speech.

Donating plasma vs. donating blood

(Photo: Axon Medica)

By: Sally Andarge, Staff Reporter

Just a short few weeks ago, Bonfils held a blood drive here on the Regis University campus. Most people are open to the idea of giving blood and possibly saving a life. After all the Bonfils slogan is, “You’re just our type, be a hero today.” Whether it be out of guilt, or out of the goodness of their hearts, people are typically willing to give blood.

But, has that changed? It used to be that college campuses had an abundance of willing donors, ready to have a nurse tap into their veins for the greater good. That doesn’t seem to be the case as of late. Considering the recent trend of donating plasma for money, it makes sense that people would rather go in and donate blood where they are given incentive.

This trend is especially common among the demographic of broke, college kids, looking for some quick cash. When I asked around, I was told that many students go twice a week and get paid about $50 the first few times. After that, you get an incentive for bringing in more people who are willing to donate plasma as well.  

Now, donating is donating, no matter the incentive, but is that affecting blood drives and the way that they function? Should blood centers that target colleges and universities like Regis be changing the way they conduct campus blood drives?

I started to ask these questions when I realized just how easy it is to donate plasma once you find a facility that does so. Considering the nearest one to Regis is about 0.8 miles away, I think it’s fair to assume that these questions pertain to our university as well.

Maybe, there needs to be a way to appeal to students outside of just money, which sounds awful considering we are talking about donating life-saving blood, but it may be necessary at the end of the day, if we need more heroes, stepping up to the needle.

RU or RU not Alert?

(Photo courtesy of Regis University)

By: Sally Andarge, Staff Reporter

Living on campus news tends to spread pretty quickly, especially considering what a small community Regis is, and our generation's knack at social media. But, our Regis University Alert system, seems to often be the last source of information.

The morning of October 29th a couple of Snapchats made their way around campus, one person at a time. The images and videos depicted the several cars that had been broken into behind West Hall the night before. Soon after it came out that the Main Café had also been broken into and vandalized as well. The good thing is that people were well informed and most students chose to move their cars for the weekend, just to be safe.

Four days later, an RU Alert was sent out via email. The email explained what had happened and that there is a police investigation currently taking place. There was also a warning with some safety tips included in the email, the only problem was that the email had come four days too late. A majority of students had already taken precautionary measures to ensure that their cars weren’t vandalized as well.

Another thing people have been noticing about the RU Alert System is that we receive alerts from every Regis campus. For example, last Wednesday, everyone that was subscribed to the RU Alert system received an email explaining that the Thornton campus was on lockdown due to a shooting in the area. Many people were surprised to see that they were seeing this warning considering it didn’t really have any connection to campus life, here at the North-Western Denver campus, but everyone got it none the less. But we don’t just get the big notifications, we also get the small ones like emails about other campuses being closed for the day.

Of course, with a text message and email system like RU Alert, there are bound to be roadblocks and glitches along the way and the system has alerted students of some pretty serious ongoings near or on campus in the past. RU Alert is one of the many ways to keep informed and stay safe on campus and will continue to be for years to come. 

OP-ED: The Rail Jam parking predicament

(Photo: Emily Schneider)

By: Sally Andarge, Staff Reporter

Two weekends ago Regis University held the Rail Jam event in Parking Lot 5, but not without a cost to some students. Weekend Programming and Student Activities got together to bring snow to Regis, along with food trucks, rails for riding and landing, and vendors there to sell some of their winter gear. The rails and snow made for an almost realistic snowboarding experience.

Now, I know what you must be thinking: How was there space for all of this? Well, Residence Life and Student Activities got together in an effort make space for the event by making students move their cars. They did this by sending an email to students who were parked in “reserved areas” the day before the event. The email was sent at 1 p.m. requesting that students move their cars immediately. One hour later students began to get calls if they hadn’t yet moved their cars.

The first call was from one of the event planners explaining that the University would be issuing tickets and towing cars to lot 6 if their cars were not moved by 3:30 p.m., claiming that students should have received emails earlier in the week explaining why they needed to move their cars, even though no such email exists.

Now if you are one of the many people on campus whose day does not end at 3 o’clock, you probably had no idea what was going on or why your phone was being blown up. Finally, the last resort was having one of the ticket distributors call the remaining students threatening to ticket people and flag cars for towing!

As one may expect, this did not go over well with many students. A parking pass for a single semester runs for $200 and $400 for a full year, so one would expect a little more accommodation in situations like this considering how much we pay for parking alone.

Overall, we can agree the entire situation could have been handled much better. Event or not, nothing warrants threats.

Regis Debate breaks out into quarterfinals of Debate Championship

(Photo: Getty Images)

By: Thomas Jones, Staff Reporter

               This past weekend the Regis University British Parliamentary Debate Team competed in the Rocky Mountain Debate Championship at the University of Denver. Eighty teams attended from eighteen different schools from all over the country, spanning from the University of Alaska Anchorage to UC Berkeley to Clemson University in South Carolina. The tournament took place on both Saturday and Sunday, October 21st – October 22nd, with preliminary rounds starting at about 9:00 AM on Saturday and running until a little after 8:00 PM that night, and final rounds, referred to as “Break rounds” in the debate community, starting on Sunday a little after 9:00 AM and concluding around 5:00 PM that night.

               In their first tournament of the year, the Regis Debate Team did quite well; Regis had seven teams in attendance, three of which made it to quarterfinals and one making it to semifinals. When a team makes it past the preliminary rounds of a tournament into the final rounds, such as quarterfinals, semifinals and so on, it’s known as “Breaking,” and the rounds past the preliminary rounds are known as “out rounds;” so the three Regis teams that made it into quarterfinals are teams said to have “broke into out rounds” in the tournament. The first of these three Regis teams which broke to out rounds consisted of Siena Ruggeri, a Senior, and Catie Cheshire, a Sophomore; the second team which broke consisted of Allison Foust, a Senior, and Nicholas Aranda, a Freshman; the third and final Regis team to break consisted of David Cecil-Few, a Senior, and Thomas Jones, a Freshman. Topics in this style of debate change from round to round; the topic in the quarterfinals round of this tournament was, “This house would give judicial leniency to marginalized groups committing crimes against privileged groups.” Of the three Regis teams that broke to quarterfinals, the first team of Catie and Sienna made it as far as semifinals, where the Judges, unfortunately, decided they were not one of the top two teams in the round to progress into the final round of the tournament, however they still did extremely well, making it to the position of being one of the top eight teams in a tournament with eighty. The topic in the semifinals round of the tournament was, “This house prefers a world without sexual attraction.”

               Regis also did quite well regarding individual awards for the tournament. Senior at Regis, David Cecil-Few, attained the rank of the sixth overall speaker. This is quite impressive when looking at the largess of this tournament, containing over 150 other debaters (speakers). This tournament also ranked novice speakers. The designation of Novice in debate means that you are new to this type of debate and this is your first year doing this style of debate. Regis claimed two of the five spots for top Novice Speakers at this tournament, with Regis Freshman Nicholas Aranda being fourth best Novice Speaker, and Regis Freshman Thomas Jones being second best Novice speaker.

               Besides all the awards given out by the tournament, all the Regis debaters did exceptionally well. The other four, not previously mentioned Regis teams in attendance at this tournament consisted of Sally Andarge and Andy Nguyen making up one team, Donald Felbaum and Evanjalina Matoy making up another team, Noah Symmes and Rajat Gupta making up Regis’s third team, and lastly, Brian Brown and Morgan Stevens making up Regis’s fourth and final team. The debate team also showed incredible communal support for each other, continuing to stay at the tournament and support fellow team-mates who made it past preliminary rounds by going to watch their teammates debate rounds, making sure there are friendly faces in the crowd.