Tuesday, November 1 7th, 2015 | TechNeWS campu5@technewsiit_com I a: I“: i : EEI 3

President, Provost Forum focuses on core ||T issues
(Continued from Page 1)

brought up in a more directed formi Next, a
biology major made a plea for updated or
improved lab equipment, but because nobody
from that department was at the event, Provost
Bronet directed him to contact officials from
within his major before turning to university,
level administration

Moving on once again to more
general concerns, the next question was
perhaps brought to the forum on account of
Provost Bronet’s history in design fields A male
student of the computer science department
lamented the lack of structured loungeestyle
spaces in outdoor areas of campus, especially
in the vast parkelike areas that split the distance
between many of its academic buildings In
response to that concern, President Cramb
stated that anybody wishing to offer input
on transforming IIT’s outdoor spaces was
absolutely welcome to do so through SGA,
and that if the school wasn’t doing enough to
engage students outdoors, then they wanted to
know about it and act upon it, Bronet chimed
in as well with news that Stetz and others were
currently working on the development of a
new master plan for the campus, examining
how students currently socialize and work
to inform their decisions about how to
shape spaces both indoors and outdoors in
the future The new picnic table area on the
western edge of Life Sciences was brought up
to show how IIT is currently pushing for some
such transformations, but Bronet, like Cramb,
urged those in attendance to provide input so

Quidditch team hosts first

Ahhinaya Iyer
TECHN EWS WRITER

Quidditch is a fictional game picked
up from the world of Harry Potter and adopted
into the ‘Muggle world,’ as Hagrid would say
The game is played amongst seven players, out
of which there is one seeker, two beaters, one
keeper and three chasersi As it is a fictional
game, the rules applied in Harry Potter’s world
cease to exist, but new rules were written down
to make playing the game easy

Saturday evening proved to be a
wonderful time to play Quidditch The weathe
er was sunny with a mild chillness in the air
Fall leaves of orange and red played well with

that the school’s newest projects are actually
those most desired by students,

Before the end of the President and
Provost Forum, there was stilltime for one more
deepereaching, morally important question
The same student who had earlier spearheaded
the exchange over UMII once again took to the
microphone, this time to lament the lack of
belonging for many women at IIT She pointed
to verbal harassment from professors (though
did not cite specific cases) and a perceived
lack of accountability at the institutional level
for such actions, In addition to generally poor
recruitment of women, the student argued,
the university had at times failed to take sexist
speech and actions of its staff seriously, leading
to a selfeperpetuating cycle of uncomfortable
unwillingness to report such occurrences on
the part of students, followed by inaction on
the part of the administration

Provost Bronet was, perhaps for
good reason, the first to speak on the subject,
She pointed to her history as an advocate for
women scholars in her former position at
the University of Oregon, and stated that she
was ready to be a passionate voice at IIT as
well, as long as she could gather actionable
information Being more familiar with the
workings of the university at this point,
President Cramb stressed that reporting from
affected individuals was key, and that speaking
with Stetz, or in extreme cases, with the
University Counsel, was essential to initiating
a process to bring perpetrators to justice,

the uniforms of both teams, which was red for
Scarlet Hawks and Blue for Columbia These
colors were playing across the field, in terms
of the uniforms, leaves, and the equipment,
which was red and white The teams started
coming in at 3 pm and the spirit of compee
tition filled the air with the individual teams
warming up Before the starting of the match,
both teams were running around warming up
and shook hands The match started at 3:30
pm, when the referee blew the whistle,

Each player had a broomstick in his
or her hands; this was a replica of the actual
broomstick used in the Harry Potter world,
If a player dropped a broomstick, they had to
pick it up and run to tag theirpolesi There were

In perhaps his most solemnly passionate
statement of the night, Cramb spoke directly to
the student bringing sexism concerns forward
(and perhaps indirectly to present faculty),
saying “tenure does not allow one to behave
badly and remain tenured"

However, despite those early
triumphs, Cramb soon seemed to hit a
rhetorical roadblock as he did before with
the UMII groupi Returning to the discussion
about anonymous social media outlets used
at times to spread hatred, Cramb suggested
simply ignoring what he considered relatively
“harmless" speech, quickly drawing a
distinction between that and threats when
prompted by an anecdote from the events
at the University of Missouri. Though valid
from a practical standpoint, his advice was
not visibly popular, and the student who asked
the question, in particular, argued further that
simply ignoring hate speech was not acceptable
as a way to reduce it and remove ideological
barriers for women on campus, This issue, as
well as the issue of undocumented students,
brought up differences in administrative
approach between President Cramb and
Provost Bronet While there was obviously no
black and white answer to questions of hate
speech, Cramb tended to take a more careful,
factebased path to discipline than Bronet, who
was focused more onpersonal communication
and advocacy This was perhaps one of the
more interesting places where their responses
diverged during the event, and something to

pay close attention to in the future

While the event itself was only an
hour long, it was important to note different
groups of individuals in the crowd that formed
after one final question had been asked (a
simple query about who managed the farm
plot in the Quad) and Rahul Wadhwani had
made a final joke to cap off the Forum Provost
Bronet made a beeline for the student who
had discussed sexism issues, one of the two
individuals from the College of Architecture
who had spoken earlier made conversation
with the student who was concerned about
their printing situation, and members of OCL
and other offices gathered to discuss much of
what they had heard In the end, the purpose
of the President and Provost Forum extended
beyond the immediate impetus for its existence
The reach of the event went beyond the
MTCC Ballroom, beyond 1:45 on a Thursday
afternoon, and back out through campus, up
IIT Tower, into Crown Hall, over to the West
Loop, and anywhere else touched by those in
attendance The major themes of the forum,
like improving communications between
SGA and administration and encouraging
students to approach their department heads
about longestanding issues, were exhibited
immediately as the crowd dispersed, and with
any luck, will continue to shape the future of
the Illinois Institute of Technology

scrimmage of the season

two different balls, one ball, called a quaffle,
was meant to be thrown amongst the players
and shot into the hoops, while the other, the
bludger, is used to hit the other player down.
Initially, the Scarlet Hawks were playing with
an air of seriousness, which got them a head
start of the other team With more time into
the match, the Columbia University seemed
to pick up pace and were putting up a tough
fight The first match was played for 30 min
utes in which our Scarlet Hawks had a score
total of 150 compared to the 60 points scored
by Columbia It was a good win for the Scarlet
Hawksi

The second half of the game was
even more competitive than the first one Each

player was more determined to win the game
and didn’t miss a goal, Kevin, a freshman at
the college of Architecture stopped a few goals
while keeping along with Alvah, who was def
termine not to let a slip The beaters were more
aggressive towards the end, not only from IIT
but also Columbiai At the end of the game, C07
lumbia beat IIT by ten point scoring 110 versus
the 100 scored by IIT

Although both teams had each won
a game, the experience gained couldn’t be
compared Every player went home satisfied
with a new gained knowledge and zeal to win
more games in the future

SGA meeting focuses on Board of Trustees,
formation of new student organizations

Ahha Dalmia
TECHNEWS WRITER

The last biweekly SGA meeting
took place on Wednesday, November lliThis
meeting was unique, as IIT students got an
opportunity to directly converse with Craig
Duchossois, a member of the IIT Board of
Trustees, Students in attendance got to learn
the important role the Board of Trustees plays
in running IIT, something that some of us were
unaware of

The Board of Trustees carry out the
herculean task of financially and operation,
ally supporting the smooth functioning of
the school, They are prominent business, in,
dustrial, community and professional leaders
who very kindly invest their time, talents and
resources to benefit the university According
to Duchossois, the Board of Trustees at IIT has
a fiduciary duty to maintain students’ values
and the mission of the institution In particue
lar, they are involved in the selection of senior
academics and recruitment of quality faculty
as well as management of IIT’s finances and
implementation of its policies, It was a delight
to hear that the Board of Trustees at IIT make
conscious efforts to listen to the voice of stue
dents in order to meet the needs of student
body better

At the meeting, students received
ample answers to their inquisitive questions
and concerns, Duchossois shared that the
board has been working on building a strone
ger balance sheet and maximize reinvestment
in order to provide better resources to attract

quality faculty as well as to provide competie
tive financial aid to draw the best scholars in
the country He also expressed that to prepare
for the future the board was working on pro,
viding new housing and upgrading existing
housing They are also going to maintain the
current balance between the number of stu
dents and faculty

In addition, Mr, Duchossois clarified
that a great business idea can always find fund
ing in IIT There are tools like the incubator
space for people to use Some students voiced
out a need for a greater variety of companies
visiting the career fair In particular, a student
felt aerospace companies like Boeing should
be invited The board of trustees explained
that students can leverage on alumni network
or get their desired companies to visit campus
by informing them about it, Moreover, they are
trying to solicit Board of Trustees members to
come in and meet students more as they can
employ students in their firms tool The SGA
President added that the gap between students
and the Board of Trustees is in reality pretty
narrow as he meets them on a regular basis and
can present to them formally once a year, He
aptly called himself a resource and encouraged
students to use him to connect with the Board
of Trustees,

Two new organizations made pref
sentations in this meeting, one of which was
approved The first organization to present
was Engineers Inspired, an organization that
aims to build a community that discusses in,
teresting scientific artifacts including projects
in progress, breakthrough inventions and dis,

coveriesi It required a budget of $500 per se
mester for recruitment of around 30 people
The unique selling point of this club would be
that while most existing clubs on campus are
specific towards a major, this one aimed to cre
ate interaction between students from all the
different engineering majors The question
and answer session following the presentation
developed the idea further as a member sug
gested that this organization could collaborate
with other existing organizations to bring in
inspiring speakers and such On discussion
and voting, the SGA panel felt that the idea had
potential to be further developed and hence
decided against approving it at this stage A
constructive piece of feedback discussed was
that this organization requires a clearer vision
and mission statement in order to ensure that
this organization had potential and longevity
The second proposal was presented
by Anne Crotteau, who sought to revive an or
ganization called Illinois Tech Students for Life
that ceased operation about five years ago due
to lack of leadership as well as men and none
Christians feeling excluded, The organization
planned to address these concerns by provid
ing leadership training to interested members
and ensuring involvement of males and those
of different beliefs, The fact that they already
had two men in the organizing committee
would encourage men to get involved and sup,
port the cause Their ultimate vis ion is to create
a “world where women do not have to choose
between the life of their children and complete
ing their education, where all people know and
understand the importance and beauty of life,

and where those who have suffered the loss of
an abortion experience healing through the
IIT community"

Illinois Tech Students for Life basie
cally aims to provide resources to heal wome
en who struggle with issues such as suicide,
depression and the dilemma of conceiving
a child They plan to do this by inviting in
motivational speakers and hold workshops
to address these issues The organization had
garnered a respectable number of attendees for
the two events they organized this semester:
Beach Day and a Students for Life of Illinois
conference They have an upcoming volune
teering event slated to happen sometime this
month open to everyone, but catered toward
new and expecting momsi Up until now, they
have gathered interest from 67 students toward
this cause,

A very useful part of the meeting
were the officer’s reports where the senate
members shares with us the projects they are
working on From now on, these will take place
at the end of the meeting

The officer’s reports began with the
SGA president, Rahul Wadhwani, informing
the board of two events that interested Sen,
ate members could sign up for In addition, he
pointed out that Students Speak is a platform
where students can anonymously voice their
opinion about how to improve administrative
services for IIT students through http://webiiiti
edu/studentsespeaki Students taking this sure
vey are entered in a lucky draw for $150, $100,
$50 or $25 visa gift card, a $20 Starbucks card
or an IIT Nalgene water bottle,