TechNews

STUDENTNEWSPAPER OF ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF
TECHNOLOGY SINCE 1 92 8

McCormick Tribune Campus Center
Room 221

3201 South State Street

Chicago, Illinois 60616

E-mail: editor@technewsiit.com
Website: http://www.technewsiit.com

TechNews STAFF

Editor-in-Chief Anoopa Sundararajan

Assistant Editor Annie Zorn

IT Manager Kristal Copeland
David Sobel

Soren Spicknall
Alexandra Detweiler
Kristal Copeland

Copy Editors

Layout Editor Jennifer Coelho
Distribution Manager Reno Waswil
Financial Advisor Vickie Tolbert
Faculty Advisor Gregory Pulliam

MISSION STATEMENT

Our mission is to promote student discussion
and bolster the IIT community by providing a
newspaper that is highly accessible, a stalwart
of journalistic integrity, and a student forum.
TechNewsisadedicated to the beliefthatastrong
campus newspaper is essential to a strong campus
community.

GENERAL INFORMATION

TechNews is written, managed, and edited by the
students of, and funded in part by, Illinois Institute
of Technology. The material herein does not
necessarily reflectthe opinions of Illinois Institute
of Technology or the editors, staff, and advisor of
TechNews.Therewillbe no censorship ofTechNews
publication by the faculty or staff of IIT. Sole
authority and responsibility for publication and
adherencetothevaluesset forthinthis policyrests
with the TechNews staff. This paper seeks to bring
together the various segments ofthe Illinois Tech
communityand strives through balanceand content
to achieve a position of respect and excellence.
TechNews strives for professionalism with due
respect to the intellectual values ofthe university
and its community/Allmaterialsubmitted becomes
the property of TechNews, and is subject to any
editorial decisions deemed necessary.

SUBMISSIONS

TechNews is published on the Tuesday of each week
of the academic year. Deadline for all submissions and
announcements is 11:59 pm. on the Friday prior to
publication. Articles, photos, and illustrations must be
submitted electronically to the TechNews website at
technewsiit.com.

EDITORIAL POLICY

The editors reserve the right to determine if
submitted material meets TechNews' policy and
standards. For more information about our editorial
standards, please email assteditor@technewsiit.com.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters to the editor may be submitted by anyone,
but are subject to review by the Editor-in-Chief.
All letters-to-the-editor become the property of
TechNews upon submission. TechNews does not
accept or publish anonymous letters or stories.

ADVERTISING

Legitimate paid advertisements, from within
or outside the IIT community, which serve to
produce income for the paper, are accommodated.
TechNews holds the right to deny any
advertisement unsuitable for publication. Media
Kits are available upon request. Ad space is limited
and is taken on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Contact the Business Manager at business@
technewsiit.com for more information.

LOCAL 8' NATIONAL ADVERTISERS
To place an ad, contact us via email at
business@technewsiit.com.

 

campus@technewsiit.com

TechNews | Tuesday, October 25th, 2016

Students watched presidential debate with mounting fear for democracy

Andrew Adams
TECHN EWS WRITER

The presidential debates wrapped up
on Wednesday, October 19, with a debate at
the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, Nevada:
The debate featured Democratic nominee
Secretary Hillary Clinton and Republican
nominee Donald Trump: It featured Chris
Wallace, a Fox News anchor, as the moderator
Clinton, according to Politico, won the first
two debates: Going into the third debate,
opinions were divided as to who would win:

The Office of Campus Life hosted a
viewing of the debate in Center Court: People
went in and out throughout the event, with
attendance floating around 50 people: The
crowd featured people from virtually all social
groups and a representative racial and gender
makeup: Among the crowd was a Jill Stein
canvasser who passed out flyers advertising the
Green party candidate’s positions:

The crowd in Center Court was
respectful and quiet for most of the debate,
at times seeming disengaged: There were
exceptions to that, though: At a few moments
throughout the debate, the crowd erupted into
cheers, boos, and most of all laughter: The lines
that spurred these reactions were almost all
personal jabs at the candidates:

The debate had an ostentatious
start since both candidates continued their
psychological manipulation: Trump invited
the mother of a victim of the Benghazi embassy
attacks and the Kenyan born halfebrother of
Barack Obama: Clinton invited two billionaire
critics of her opponent:

Another constant from the last
debate were the interruptions: According to
Time, Trump interrupted Clinton 48 times,
with Clinton only interrupting nine times:
These interruptions mostly consisted of
fleeting comments such as the now infamous
“Wrong!" comments from Trump: There were
some substantive interruptionsithough only
from Trump: These interruptions focused
mostly Clinton’s emails and her character:
Clinton responded to these claims with calm
denials and accusations of her own regarding
Trump’s history with women

This debate also brought up two
specific points that are significant within the
presidential campaigniand the history of
democracyias awhole: The first moment was
when Trump was asked by Wallace directly “Do
you make the same commitment that you'll
absolutely accept the result of the election?"
Trump immediately responded by saying “I
will look at it at the time: I’m not looking at
anything now, I'll look at it at the time" This
reasonably scared a large portion of the media

and the electorate, since America has enjoyed
over 200 years of peaceful transitions of power
between presidents, with losing candidates
respecting the outcome of the election:

The other highly talked about
moment within the debate came at the end
when Trump interrupted Clinton, saying
simply “Such a nasty woman" This statement
made many deeply uncomfortable, some saying
that it had deeply misogynistic tones: Some
media sources such as Vox and the New York
Times published pieces that made it clear this
was an unprofessional and unnecessary thing
to say, going as far as to use it as further proof
that Trump mistreats women: Others leaned
into it and used it, particularly in conjunction
with Janet Jackson’s 1986 hit “Nasty," as
evidence that the system of politics is biased
against women and that Clinton is doing all
she can to break through the proverbial glass
ceiling:

This debate was marred with
insults, interruptions, and an air of tension
that has been unseen in recent election cycles:
That said, Clinton, a symbol of the political
machine’s workings in Washington DC, has
demonstrably beaten Trump, for a third debate
in a row, as shown in scientific polls such as the
CNN/ORC poll:

International Students Feature: Africa

Alexandra Detweiler
TECH NEWS WRITER

Africa is a big continent, and
therefore readers might see “Africa" as the
bold headline of this article and feel irritated
or confused: don’t frown and move on just
yet: Yes, there are a lot of viewpoints to cover
when considering a continent like Africa~and
it should be noted that because the interview
process was volunteerebased, TechNews did
not even come close to interviewing all of
these voiceseehowever, when four of the six
interviewed students were interviewed as
a group, Irewole Akande, Wofai Ewa, Joris
Ekpangbo, and Marc Sednaoui remarked upon
many of the same things and tended to nod
their heads and murmur agreements when
one another spoke: For this reason, this article
is not separated into individual segments by
country, but rather under a large, continental
umbrella:

Four of the international students
interviewed for this article came from Nigeria:
Akande, a fourth year student studying
engineering management, Ewa, a first year
student studying mechanical engineering,
Raji, a first year student studying mechanical
engineering, and Ayantoye, a fourth year
student studying biochemistry and biophysics:
Ekpangbo, a second year graduate student
studying data management, is from Benin,
and Sednaoui, a fourth year student studying
mechanical engineering, is from Egypt:

Firstly, these six international
students mentioned that the weather here was
very different from where they were from:
According to Raji, “it gets a little colder [in
Nigeria], but it doesn’t compare to Chicago"
Ekpangbo mentioned how unfamiliar he was
with needing to wear sweatshirts and scarves:
Akande agreed with Ekpangbo, relaying a vivid
memory of his arrival in the United States in
the winter of 2013: “I came in January and I’d
never seen snow before: I remember it like
it was yesterday I got to Chicago, and in the
airport the A/C [was on] so it’s cold; I had on a
sweatshirt: And thenI walked out of the door,
and the next thing I did was [say], ‘What’s
going on?’ I just like rushed back,::: I go to a
pay phone, I call my uncle and I’m like, ‘I’m
not walking out of this place?" However, while
these particular students may be unused to
Illinois’ snow, the rain in Nigeria is apparently
a force to be reckoned with: According to
Ayantoye, in Nigeria, it can rain for a whole
week straight during the rainy season Because
of this, he says, “I’m not bothered by rain: I
don’t freak out by the rain, onlywhen it snows"

When asked about differences in
food between Illinois Tech and his home
country, Akande answered, “I feel like the food
is a sore topic" Apparently, Akande stated that
the food in the Commons is “ten times" better

than it was four years ago when he first started
to attend school at Illinois Tech: When he first
arrived, he claimed that he was very confused
about the amount of rice served with a meal:
“You serve rice, not rice as a side dish," he
claimed: “I was so confused, like, ‘what’s going
on?’ How can you give someone just a spoonful
of rice? That was, like, scarring for me"
According to Akande, dishes back home are
more wholesome, and rice is served with meat
on the side instead of the other way around:
According to him, when he first found out
that steak could be an entree, he was shocked:
he didn’t realize that was something people
did: “Back home, I didn’t eat a lot of meat,"
Akande noted: “Here, protein is the main dish,
while carbohydrates are the side dish" Ewa,
Ekpangbo, and Sednaoui all seemed to agree
with Akande: “It took me two weeks to find
something I liked," Ewa admitted: “I didn’t like
90% of [the options]: I tried a new thing every
day: Now, I eat about half of the things they
serve in the cafeteria" Ayantoye also missed
the food back home, saying, “personally, I miss
Nigerian food, especially my mom’s food: But I
like the other options I have here too: Mexican
food, Indian food, Chinese food, from other
cultures too" Ekpangbo agreed that the variety
of cuisine in the United States was something
that he liked: “There is this melting pot of
people and countries and you can try a lot
of tastes," Ekpangbo said: “I don’t like pizza
that much, but I’ll try it sometimes, and I’ll
try some noteAmerican food like Colombian
food, Chinese food, Japanese food::: That’s
what is beautiful about food in America:
Back in my country, there’s no Colombian
food I don’t think" Raji also had an opinion
on American food: In his words, “the food is
okay here: It’s just in Nigeria, you get it fresh,
but here it’s chemically processed and full of
all this bad stuff for you: But honestly, other
than that, it’s good here too: It’s way faster"
Akande also mentioned that the time that
Americans usually took to prepare their food
differed substantially from what he was used
to: “Eating is not, like, work: Back home, you
just take your time: You sit down, you have
conversation, you talk with your friends"
According to him, eating meals was much
social back home than it is here in America,
and less rushed: Sednaoui agreed with him,
saying, “Egyptian food requires time to make:
Here, it’s so fast: Eating is a social thing: Even
if you’re eating in a restaurant, you sit with
strangers"

There are also many differences
in general culture, according to these six
students: Akande mentioned that he thought
life back in Nigeria had much more emphasis
on community and the group: “I come from
a satellite town: Everyone knows each other;
you all know your neighbors: You can leave
your keys at home and your neighbors will

take care of them: But here, it’s like, everyone
is just on their own" Additionally, Akande
thought that even the process of raising a child
was more about the whole community than
an independent family, saying that he thought
it was strange when someone complained
about not being able to stop another person’s
child from acting up: People don’t say, “‘Oh,
someone’s child is doing this but I don’t stop
them:’ That’s not what it’s like where I’m
from" According to Ewa, “every adult raises
one child" Raji elaborated upon the same
topic, saying, “you could go to a neighbor’s
house and ask them for almost anything"
Raji thought that life back in Nigeria was
more “family oriented" and “tighteknit" Raji
also thought that people were friendlier back
in Nigeria: “If you walk up to a stranger in
Nigeria," Raji said, “they will say hello, but if
you walk up to a stranger here they will be like,
‘go away:’" Ayantoye thought that it was “more
individualized here" as a whole:

Academically, according to Ewa,
professors in America are much more willing
to assist students: “I think here, the teachers
here are more willing to help: [School is] more
lenient here, less strict" Others seemed to agree
with this: In Ekpangbo’s words, “teachers really
care about you; they’ll talk to you" Back home,
Ekpangbo noted, “teachers will look at you,
but they don’t see you" Additionally, Sednaoui
commented that he liked the flexibility of
being able to choose your own courses: “In
Egypt, everyone is in the same classroom, and
everyone is taking the same classes, so you get
this connection you grew up with: Instead of
switching classes, every core subject [is the
same]: You get this connection with people
you grew up with for all your years" In Egypt,
Sednaoui was used to those in the same major
taking many of the same classes, and that
was a strange transition: According to Raji,
in his opinion “people don’t value education
as much as they should here" Perhaps this is
due to the fact that American students take
the resources that are available to them for
granted: Ayantoye commented on the fact that
he had alot more resources here than he did in
Nigeria: Things such as professors’ ofiice hours
or even an internet connections are luxuries he
didn’t have before: “The resources I’ve received
[as a] student to use are way more than in
Nigeria: You can easily go online and look up
stuff, which I did not have access to when I was
in Nigeria: In Nigeria, all I did was sit in class
and take notes"

While life for these international
students changed drastically in some ways,
they also stayed the same in others: we are
all still human, after all: In Raji’s words, “the
people are different, but honestly they are just
the same" Next week, look for an international
students feature on your peers from Syrial