1 ISSUE 89.14 UNION COLLEGE FEBRUARY 26, 2015 EXAMINING CYBERBULLYING 2 BY RODERICK STICKLE & KATIE MORRISON EXAMINING CYBERBULLYING “Our mentorven’t pred us for this. They didn’t haeats gr 3 RODERICK STICKLE During my elementary years I wasn’t the nicest kid. Wedgies were a regular handout on the playground. One time I even scared a fart out of a kid. I was a little bit of a bully, and I’m not proud of it. My friends and I enjoyed doing what we could to upset the other kids because we got a laugh out of it. Never did I put myself in their shoes or imagine how bullying must have affected them. The internet is kind of like a massive, infinite playground. If you want it, you can find it. There are countless ways to spend your time and amuse your interests. If you want to cruise along the streets of a town you’ve never visited, you can do it. If you want a wife, you can order one from Ukraine. You can even order a barrel of lube, you can. The best part about it is that you can do all this without ever having to leave the comfort of your crumb-filled bed. Except to go to the door and pay for the pizza you ordered—from the internet. And it’s addicting. It can require a large amount of willpower to walk away from that game or actually stop Netflix from playing that next episode. Richard Hen- riques, Director of Information Systems, unsurprisingly says, “We occasionally have students that have a problem that they can’t leave the internet alone and need assistance.” The internet is a place for fun and an incredible tool that has undoubtedly accelerated human progress in ways difficult to grasp. However, like any tool, it can be and often is abused. You can use a hammer to punish a child for spilling the milk, or you can use it to aid in constructing a house. You can use a spoon for cooking heroin, or you can lend it to that little boy who just spilled the milk so he can finally eat his cereal. At every playground you can find a kind of nerdy group of inclusive kids as well as the annoying ones who just like to bother everyone around them. The internet’s incredible accessibility is also its curse. On the playground, you can see the irritating brats that are throwing cheerio-sized pebbles at girls from on top of the monkey bars. On the internet, you can not. Those FEATURED ARTICLE: SAFE & SOUND Union College’s response to cyberbullying’s chilling effects The Danger Online Plaound 4 kids throw metaphorical cheerio-sized pebbles across states, countries, and campuses. This can be done instantly from the convenience of the classroom, the bedroom, and even the restroom. Unfortunately, those rocks can seem the size of mountains, and have the potential to really ruin someone’s day— or career. Here at Union, this phenomenon was most recently evidenced and exploited by last semester’s Yik Yak attack. Behind the veil of anonymity, students were able to call each other out and make personal attacks without ever having to worry about being identified in the process. Some people were blasted pret- ty seriously, and took home wounds. It is difficult to see the damage you are doing when you’re blind to the reaction on your target’s face. The problem is the same with classic bullying. We love to get our big ego pants on and say some things on the internet that will get a reaction, things we would never say in person. We put others down to climb on them and boost ourselves. The internet, especially when accompanied with anonymity, provides the perfect vehicle for making ourselves appear or at least feel more important. Sophomore International Rescue and Relief major Rudy Rodriguez, a com- mon target on Yik Yak, drops a truth bomb. “It really showed how cowardly people are on our campus . . . We hide behind our keyboards,” says Rodriguez. Fortunately, Rodriguez possesses the fortitude of a jaguar, and didn’t dwell on the negativity directed toward him on the social media platform. He only wishes the people saying those things had the gonads to say them to his face. When the internet is abused in a way that hurts other people we perpetuate an unnecessary cycle that also hurts our- selves. We should be working towards building each other up—not tearing each other down. The problem is the internet is hijacking the way we communicate, and kids are growing up with less and less face-to- face human interaction than ever before. It’s dangerous, and can be damaging to the development of social skills if not properly managed. Henriques says, “It doesn’t work well for social interaction, so you end up with an individual that’s not a whole person. They’re kind of stunted. If how you learn to deal with problems is how you deal with them in World of Warcraft of Grand Theft Auto, you’re probably not a pleasant person.” I leave it up to us, Union College. What are we going to do with Cyberbullying? Roderick Stickle is a senior studying Inter- national Rescue and Relief. FEATURED ARTICLE: SAFE & SOUND It is difficult to see the damage you are blind to the rar’s f 5 FEATURED ARTICLE: SAFE & SOUND Stick Wor Hurt Me How we can prevent future “Yik Yak Attacks” KATIE MORRISON individuals to be bombarded in nearly every aspect of life. Our mentors haven’t prepared us for this. They didn’t have to deal with these threats growing up. Because of the Inter- net being new and their subsequent lack of experience, we in turn are unprepared, going into a blind fight. What are we going to do? I was able to sit down and discuss this topic with one of the busiest people on campus: Linda Becker. We discussed practices she believed could help alleviate cyberbullying. Ultimately—it all came down to education. “Education is a huge piece,” said Dr. Becker. “We need to educate students on how they affect people personally. We need to educate on the use of social media.” Junior theology major, Kyle Smith, had similar feelings on the subject. “In some of my classes, we learn how not to be an idiot,” he said. “We learn tact. We learn the time and place for when to say things “Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place using electronic technology such as cell phones, computers, and tablets as well as social media sites, text messages, chat and websites. Examples of cyber - bullying include mean text messages or emails, rumors sent by email or posted on social networking sites, and embar - rassing pictures, videos, websites or fake profiles.” The above quote was taken from a new entry that was added to our student handbook last school year, entitled “Cy - berbullying”. This policy is new because education systems in the past haven’t needed to deal with this. Cyberbullying is a twenty-first century problem. Although these new waves of technolo - gy have provided us with infinitely more opportunities, as Rod mentioned in his article, the threats we now face have compounded axponentially. While bul - lying used to be a schoolyard fight or a spitball in the hair, the Internet and its broad accessibility now allows 6 FEATURED ARTICLE: SAFE & SOUND to people. I believe it’s something that should be talked about more. We could definitely learn better etiquette for social media.” We also need to educate ourselves on the legal ramifications of things we say. A highschool student in Michigan once posted a comment on Facebook about blowing up a school. It wasn’t meant se - riously, but the student ultimately faced felony charges “. . . of making a threat or false report of an explosive or harmful device substance or material.” Although sites like Yik Yak promise anonymity, a line can always be crossed. There have been several suicides due to comments on Yik Yak and lawsuits as a result. Yik Yak was mandated in each instance to re - veal the identities of the “Yakkers”. But does it matter? You shouldn’t feel threatened just knowing your name is attached to the things you say. If you feel threatened, you shouldn’t say it. It’s plain and simple. The simple fact is when you let the words out, you can’t get them back. Even if you ignore them, the effects last. We need to remember the Golden Rule: “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you”. Instead of feeling freed by anonymity and the invisible cloak provided by the Internet to say hurtful things, we should take advantage of the Internet’s reach. We should create rich relationships that allow both indi - viduals to grow, not just the one spread - ing rumors to feel better about himself. Television host and comedic genius, Ellen DeGeneres, said it best: “If we’re destroying our trees and destroying our environment and hurting animals and hurting one another and all that stuff, there’s got to be a very powerful ener - gy to fight that. I think we need more love in the world. We need more kind - ness, more compassion, more joy, more laughter. I definitely want to contribute to that.” Katie is a junior studying business administration. 7 Mor Buck Nebraska’s wage increase helps students earn more on campus EMY WOOD If you’ve been living under a rock (or a pile of books studying for those biology exams), you may have missed the news; Nebraska passed Initiative 425 last November, an initiative to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8 effective January 1, 2015. In January 2016, the minimum wage will increase again from $8 to $9. Not impressed? That’s a spike of 24% within the span of 13 months. But, with the recent talk of wage increases across America, this hardly comes as a surprise. “I believe the wage increase will allow not only myself but other students and employees an opportunity to feel more comfortable about what they are making and for some to provide more to feed their families,” said sophomore exercise science major Devin Alexander. For most college students, working is often a fundamental responsibility. Pay- ing off student debt, buying groceries, paying for the cell phone bill—the costs seem neverending. With the recent minimum wage increase, more of us can breathe a sigh of relief at the end of our month when we open our pay stubs. For Alexander, coming from California’s $9 minimum wage to Nebraska took some trouble adjusting. “Now I feel as if I am earning the amount of work I am putting in,” he said. I’ll do the math for you. A student working 20 hours a week jumping from $7.25 to $8 means an extra $270 over 18 weeks. And, at $9, this means an extra $630. “Working helps me balance my life better,” said Sable Kessler, sophomore Natural Science Education major. “I’m a saver, so it’s nice to have more money now.”But, a change like this doesn’t come without adjustments. So, what does this mean for Union College? “The minimum wage raise was on our radar before it hit,” said Jeff Leeper, Union’s vice president for financial ad- ministration. “It is probably bad timing, but we can use this for our benefit.” With the new Kruger Center up and Jorgensen being torn down, a financial 8 change like this will require a closer evaluation. But, that’s not unusual. Leeper says some adjustments may need to be made after looking at the whole budget, but simply cutting hours just to cut costs won’t be an option. “We live on student workers. We use approximately 200,000 student hours a year. This doesn’t mean there won’t be adjustments in places, but adjust- ments happen even without these kind of changes,” he said. Some of these adjustments may include evaluating the necessity of certain jobs. “Our goal is to educate students and to enable them to go into the world to be a light, wherever [they] are called,” said Leeper. Now, you can feel called into the world with a little extra money in your pocket. While most of us (sorry upperclassmen) won’t benefit from the wage increase, this is definitely a change you’ll want to keep track of. Emy is a sophomore studying communi- cation. We live on sker use appry 200,000 ss a year. 9 RELIGION God is not Amer Taking a look at God in politics ABNER C I wish I could say that God is not in- volved in politics, considering that poli- tics usually carry negative connotations. However, the more I asked people’s opinions and chew on the thought, the more I imagine God using politics in His own ways. Defining politics has the potential to be difficult; Google’s definition is “the activities within a government to achieve power”. But is there more to it than that? How involved is God in politics? “Prob- ably not as much as we would want Him to be,” says Pastor Rich Carlson, Union’s vice president of spiritual life. It might be best to avoid combing Biblical principles with how we want our government to serve our wants. Sam Dinzey, a freshman business and graphic design major says, “Politicians sometimes use God as a marketing tool to win people in their favor.” I’d argue this happens more often than Sam gives it credit for. However, it is difficult to deny that God isn’t involved in government and its nations. God cares about people; so does that mean He’s involved for people’s sake? After the North had a mysterious defeat over the South, Ellen White says an an- gel descended from heaven to intervene. She says, “The sudden falling back of the Northern troops is a mystery to all. They know not that God’s hand was in the matter” (1T 266). So it must be that God is present throughout governmen- tal moments, despite His occasional silence. How do we know when govern- ment actions incorporate His involve- ment? Honestly, I don’t know if we can. Was He involved with Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches and the civil rights movement? Could He have played a part in bringing peace to India through the humble acts of Mahatma Gandhi? Did God help the United States on Doom’s Day to bring a final defeat to the Nazi’s? All these could be possible. I myself like to believe that God steps in at crucial moments; it’s scary to believe 10 RELIGION that, though, because there are times when we wish He would have stepped in sooner and kept six million Jews from being wiped out. However, it’s dangerous to see God in favor of one nation over any other. “God bless America!” As if He didn’t bless other countries. Does God bless one country more than another? That’s hard to say. Gungor, a musical collective sings, “God is not a man / God is not a white man...God does not belong to Republicans / God is not a flag / Not even American / And God does not depend on a government.” It is very easy to confuse what is proper in our culture with what is proper in Jesus’ culture. Once one’s culture and Jesus’ culture cross paths, things get messy. But God is not trying to make us politically correct, because His government is higher and larger and stronger than any of ours. In the book that bears his name, Daniel writes that God sets up kings and tears them down. Which is frightening to me because that means God is using His hand with politics and government. Two things to close: First, let us be extraordinarily careful with how we use God in our favor to make a point in political conversations. We walk a fine line when we do. Second, may you know that whatever He is doing, it is to save His people. Not so much from bad taxes, capitalism, communism or gun laws that aren’t in our liking; God is saving us from this place, this planet, because no matter which government you’re under—this is not your home. Abner is a sophomore studying theology. 11 WELLNESS Union College Takes A Step Ford Reconciliation at last KYLE BERG Standing before the Board of Trustees, I nervously grip the microphone and begin. “There isn’t much written on what happened on this campus during that time, so the bulk of my research was interviews of alumni willing to share their experiences and scouring old yearbooks.” I have 90-seconds to get my point across, share my part in this plan and pass the microphone to Chris Blake. From the 1930s to the 1960s, Union College participated in racial discrimi- nation and segregation on campus. My point was that Union did take part in this, and my part was to insist that a formal apology be made by the college. This realization started just about a year ago as I stood at a piano in Woods Auditorium with a group of students. Some of us, myself included, were less than excited about performing an original production titled “Fifty Years Later.” The play was centered on the Civil Rights movement, an era none in the room, save Dr. Robison and Dr. Lynn, had been around to experience. I lamented going to practice for the first few weeks, especially when we had to sing the protest songs for the Move- ment. Then Oscar Harriott showed up. Harriott, a native of Kingsway, Jamai- ca, and whose father attended Union College in 1946, came to shed some light on why the songs we were singing were so important. It was then that the curtain of naivety was pulled back and I saw a truth that I had blissfully ignored. My church and my school had taken part in discriminating against people of color. Gathered around that piano, Harriott shared with us that his father had to stand with his cafeteria tray in hand until a white student invited him to sit down. If no white students invited him to sit, he was forced to eat standing against the walls of the same kind of room that you and I enjoy our meals in now. When Harriott, a third-generation Adventist, went to college in the ’60s, he decided to attend the University of 12 WELLNESS Nebraska–Lincoln instead of Union. He remembered the stories his father had told him about the college and chose to attend the public university, knowing both were going to judge his skin rather than his character. He continued to tell more stories of segregation and discrimination at Union College from his wife Barbara and Ray- mond Taylor, his brother-in-law. During his senior year, Raymond was not able to room with his best friend, who hap- pened to be white and with whom he had spent all summer working along- side. This deeply wounded Raymond to the point that he left Union College and since then has not stepped foot on this campus, nor in any Seventh-day Adventist church. Harriott’s late wife, Barbara, has a story that is most unsettling yet deeply inspir- ing. The Rees Hall chapel pews used to be segregated. There was a golden cord that separated the last third of the pews, forbidding the students of color from sitting in the front two-thirds of the chapel. During one particular chapel, where white students performed a skit with black face paint, pretending to be people of color in a disrespectful way, Taylor had had enough. She went to her room, came back down with scissors in hand, and cut and ripped the cords from the wall. That night, when practice was over, Harriott’s stories lingered, leaving me unsettled to say the least. I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what to do. I decided I wanted to do more re- search on the subject of Union College’s role in segregation and discrimination during the 1930s through the 1960s. I made it my research topic for Dr. Ed Allen’s research assignment in the class History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Later that month, Harriott came back and spoke for a Martin Luther King Jr. function at Woods Auditorium. Chris Blake’s Conflict and Peacemaking class organized the event, and the cast from “Fifty Years Later” sang a song and performed some lines. The most significant portion of the evening was how Harriott’s stories struck others in the audience—especially Blake’s class, which began to draft up a formal apolo- gy letter on behalf of Union College. After the Board of Trustees heard about the research, process and most impor- tantly Harriott’s stories, they voted to approve the formal apology letter on February 9, only a little less than a year later. “This will go a long way,” Harriott said in regards to the impact the formal apology will have. He believes that more alumni of color may return for alumni weekends and perhaps start the healing process for his brother-in-law Raymond. This was a dark time during our Ad- ventist college history; but by illumi- nating it, reconciliation has begun, and hopefully hearts broken long ago will begin to heal. Kyle is studying language arts education. 13 FEBRUARY/MARCH SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT 22 Union Basketball Tourny 23 3:30-5:00pm A 24 ASB Elections 25 26 Thirtery Meeting 27 Thirtery Meeting 28 Thirtery Meeting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 THUMBS UP / THUMBS DOWN To being able to substantially increase water pressure of a bidet - Isaac May To Student Center chairs that always keep you guessing - Spencer Curtis To throwing golden rocks at Jor- gensen - Joellyn Sheehy To slow-motion videos - Meredith Nichols To music classes with tests - Hanna Gregerson 14 The Clocktower encourages reader feedback and strives to maintain accuracy. If you have comments, email us at cltower@gmail.com. The Clocktower is published weekly during the school year by the Associated Student Body of Union College, 3800 S. 48th St., Lincoln, NE 68506. The opinions expressed are the opinions of the writers and are not to be construed as the opinion of the editors, Associated Student Body, Union College or the Seventh-day Adventist Church. For more content, follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ ClocktowerASB or visit us at http://clocktower.ucollege.edu. Steven Foster Natalie Bruzon Vernée Norman Elena Cornwell Alexis Carnduff Zack Posthumus Brittany Houchins Natalie Bruzon Megan Bolton Melisa Inkelaar Michael Steingas Katie Morrison Stefani Leeper Roderick Stickle Debbie Pinto Emy Wood Jordan Zy Abner Campos Naomi Prasad Nigel Sumerlin Derek Baker Christian Dye Kyle Berg Kevin Niederman Editor-in-Chief Assistant Editor Copy Editor Copy Editor Copy Editor Layout Editor Online Content Editor Social Media Editor Photographer Photographer Sponsor Culture Reporter Culture Reporter Humans of Union College Lincoln Reporter On Campus Reporter Opinion Reporter Religion Reporter Senate Reporter Special Interest Reporter Sports Reporter Technology Reporter Wellness Reporter World Reporter WE ARE #CLTWR Yeah, we’re going to need you to speak up. Like us, hate us or anywhere in between, we’d love to hear why. Have a story you’d like to pitch? We’d love to craft it. Did you just make a big breakfast? 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