Author: kevinpatrickokeeffe

Greek Life preparing impeachment complaint against ASLMU president

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Originally published in the Los Angeles Loyolan. For original, please refer to: Greek Life preparing impeachment complaint against ASLMU president – Los Angeles Loyolan.

Information is currently being compiled for the purpose of filing an impeachment complaint against current ASLMU President Bryan Ruiz, according to Greek Council President Lauren Coons.

Coons said that the decision was made in the last 10 days, and the complaint will be made on behalf of everyone in Greek Life. She referred to Ruiz’s presidency of the off-campus chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE), colonized last semester, as the reasoning behind the complaint.

“SAE has been on Greek Life’s radar for a long time,” Coons said.

Members of Pi Beta Phi sorority were informed of the potential complaint during their chapter meeting on Sunday, Chapter President Ellen Zirkelbach said. According to Zirkelbach, the chapter’s Greek Council delegate, junior business administration major Deanna Walker, also sent out an email to members with more information on the complaint.

Though she couldn’t place an exact time frame for the filing of the complaint, Coons said it would likely be filed sometime in the next two weeks. However, Zirkelbach said that according to Walker’s email, Greek Council’s executive board would be attending this Wednesday’s ASLMU Senate meeting to file the complaint.

According to the ASLMU bylaws, an impeachment complaint can be filed by any undergraduate student. The complaint must be presented to the Senate with a list of possible witnesses, as well as “a description of the alleged improper conduct and the grounds for impeachment.” Should the Senate motion to commence the impeachment proceedings, a hearing would be held during the next weekly Senate meeting “to determine the validity of the complaint.”

A statement was released on ASLMU’s Facebook page at approximately noon today that was signed by Ruiz. In the statement, Ruiz preemptively responded to two issues he deemed likely to be brought up by the Greek community’s impeachment complaint. He also said that he had stepped down from his position as SAE president – former Vice President Nick Mecham has been named the new president. Ruiz also encouraged attendance at tomorrow’s Senate meeting.

The statement was soon pulled down – screenshots of the post can be found in the images of this story. Ruiz clarified with the Loyolan that the post was taken down because it was his personal opinion, not the opinion of ASLMU as an organization, and therefore would be reposting the statement on his personal Facebook page. At approximately 10:10 p.m. on Tuesday, Ruiz  slightly edited the statement and posted it to his personal Facebook page. Ruiz declined to comment any further beyond his statement.

The ASLMU bylaws can be found on the organization’s website. ASLMU Senate’s weekly meeting is held in the Hill on the fourth floor of Malone every Wednesday at 1:15 p.m.

Pope’s resignation: Opportunity for change

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Photo Credit: Associated Press

Photo Credit: Associated Press

Originally published in the Los Angeles Loyolan. For original, please refer to: Pope’s resignation: Opportunity for change– Los Angeles Loyolan.

Change can be a good thing, but how can you say that when the supposed reason for the change is anything but good?

It’s pretty grim to celebrate someone’s allegedly poor health, but Monday’s announcement that Pope Benedict XVI is stepping down from his position – the first such resignation in almost 600 years, according to the article “University reacts to the Pope’s resignation” appearing on Page 1 of this issue – isn’t what I’d call “bad news.”

It’s the perfect time for major transition and progression for the often socially conservative Roman Catholic Church, which is, in my opinion, quickly losing touch with young people like myself. Many in my demographic were baptized Catholic, myself included, but quickly became disillusioned with the Church’s outmoded teachings on the role of women in the church and, especially in my case, homosexuality.

The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger took his place as the head of the Church in 2005 after the death of Pope John Paul II, and since then has managed to remain frighteningly stagnant on social issues, particularly about gay men and women and their relationship to the Church. As recently as last Christmas, according to theHuffington Post article “Pope Benedict Takes Anti-Gay Marriage To New Level In Christmas Speech On Family Values,” Pope Benedict XVI called homosexuality a “manipulation of nature.”

“People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being,” Pope Benedict XVI continued. “They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves.”

For the patriarch of a multinational organization to say something so startlingly archaic is, in my opinion, a sign that the Church itself is completely behind the times for most of the Western world. Additionally, there’s Pope Benedict XVI’s inactivity in properly responding to the Church’s sex abuse scandals. According to the Guardian article “Pope Benedict ‘complicit in child sex abuse scandals’, say victims’ groups,” the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) considers the pope’s lack of transparency about sexual abuse by clergymen to be “terrible.”

The general accusation against Pope Benedict XVI, according to the same article, is that despite his knowledge of clerical sex abuses, he has, for the most part, done little to respond to them. As the article quotes SNAP Executive Director David Clohessy as saying, “He knows more about clergy sex crimes and cover-ups than anyone else in the Church, yet he has done precious little to protect children.”

Though all the details in those cases are still being scrutinized, there’s no doubt in my mind that it is all yet another sign that the Catholic Church needs to become more progressive and more transparent. While the Catholic Church is proud of its traditions, they won’t mean much if membership in the Church dwindles – and according to the Slate article “He Didn’t Finish What He Started,” that’s exactly what’s happening.

In my opinion, the Church is in a position to make the biggest sweeping reform since the Second Vatican Council started in 1962. Vatican II changed the spoken language of the Mass from Latin to a colloquial tongue as part of an attempt to make the Church less imposing and more a part of traditional family life. However, it could be argued (as the aformentioned Slate article does) that it wasn’t enough to keep younger people involved. A more drastic shift in the Church could occur should a more progressive figure become pope, wherein things like homosexuality would be brought into a more contemporary context.

However, I’d bet that’s not going to happen. In January of this year, according to the Reuters article “Pope Benedict names new cardinals who’ll choose successor, mostly Europeans,” the retiring patriarch named an additional 18 conservative European cardinals who will participate in the papal election process. This decision raised the number of Europeans among the 125 cardinal electors to 67. This means that instead of a more diverse choice from another continent, we’re likely to see yet another conservative European.

Still, if I could implore the Catholic Church to do one thing, it would be this: Consider Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation as an opportunity to appoint someone new and different. Progress as an organization. Move beyond where you were and into present day.

The Church is quickly losing touch with our generation, and things aren’t going to get any better if the next pope stays the course. This is a changing world, and now is the time to move along with it.

A different kind of Valentine

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Originally published in the Los Angeles Loyolan. For original, please refer to: A different kind of Valentine – Los Angeles Loyolan.

Having a tough time finding that ‘perfect someone’ this Valentine’s Day? Bored with the ‘same old same old’? Do you feel like the opposite sex just isn’t cutting it anymore?

This Valentine’s Day, I challenge all straight-identifying, single Lions to try something new: experiment with the same sex. Sure, you may have never thought about it before, and it might not be your cup of tea. But maybe, just maybe, the idea has been there for a while, gestating in the back of your mind. You might be a lady harboring a girl crush on Mila Kunis. Or, maybe you’re a bro who secretly loves Ryan Gosling movies – or just Ryan Gosling.

Regardless of your past relationships, there’s no better time than now to shed your inhibitions and give experimentation a shot. Here are my top tips for all you single ladies and gents who are just a little bi-curious.

1. Don’t restrict yourself to experimenting at LMU.

Take it from a guy who’s attempted to date among the approximately six openly gay men on our little campus: You’re better off away from the bluff. If you’re of drinking age, heading to the bars around UCLA and USC can reap some long-term rewards.

Then again, if you’re bar hopping and only queer for the evening, why on earth are you wasting your time anywhere besides West Hollywood? Eleven, Micky’s and Gym Sportsbar are all distinctly different but great bars with different styles, meaning curious guys will be able to survey several different flavors of dude.

Ladies, your bar options are unfortunately slimmer, but you can try out the Palms Bar for an all-lesbian experience. Then again, girls can also go to pretty much any non-gay bar and find at least a dozen drunk women looking to get Sapphic. Y’all will be fine.

2. Master the eye language.

Despite what you might think, not every homosexual is trying to get into your pants. So, you’ll have to learn the lingo, but lucky for you, it’s all in the eyes.

Ladies, I unfortunately can’t speak to this as well for you as I can for men, but the biggest tip I can give is to never approach someone before locking eyes across the room. Why? It’s actually universal to all sexualities: Think about if someone you weren’t interested in was trying to make eye contact with you. What would you do? That’s right, you’d turn away. So, if the eye contact sticks, that’s your signal to dive in. Don’t worry about the chase – if you’ve kept up eye contact, he or she is definitely interested. Go for the gold.

3. Above all else, have an open mind.

Like I said, experimenting isn’t for everyone. Some people just aren’t into it. For others, it requires an openness that can be difficult to muster. But if you’re interested in trying things out, make sure to really commit to it. Flirt it up and have a good time. Worst-case scenario, you wake up in the morning and think, “Well, never doing that again.” At least you tried something different. And maybe, just maybe, you wake up with the number of someone wonderful you might never have expected to date. That’s the kind of dream most people would kill for on Valentine’s Day.

Bigelow and Boal’s Twin Protagonists

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Watching Zero Dark Thirty for the first time, I was fully invested in the story of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. As a docudrama about one of the most formative events in our nation’s history, I was riveted. It was gripping.

And then, in the movie’s final moments, I realized it isn’t about that at all. It’s about one woman, Maya (Jessica Chastain), a character dancing between the lines of real and imagined. It’s about her drive to achieve her goal, her total devotion to her craft and her aimlessness upon realizing that she had finally achieved what she had spent her whole life doing. As she says to her boss over lunch when asked what else she’d worked on besides Bin Laden in her career at the CIA:

“I’ve done nothing else.”

Spoilers from here on out on both Zero Dark Thirty and “The Hurt Locker.”

The line almost feels comic when first delivered – Maya is portrayed as hellbent on her goal, and though effective, her methods sometimes trend toward the ridiculous. Of course she’s done nothing else! Then, in the final scene of the film, we see Maya shed tears when asked the one question – perhaps in her entire life – that she’s been unable to answer:

“Where do you want to go?”

Maya is a woman recruited right out of high school and trained her entire life for one goal: the hunt and capture of Osama Bin Laden. She has, quite literally, nothing else: no friends, no notable family, no goal. She’s a dog who has finally caught her tail: what now?

Chastain plays the final scene beautifully, almost gasping for breath through the tears, in utter disbelief that she’s reached this point in her life. It’s reminiscent of another scene in another Kathryn Bigelow/Mark Boal collaboration, The Hurt Locker.

Much like Maya in ZDT, the protagonist of The Hurt Locker is single-minded in his ambition and goals. Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner) is an adrenaline addict who is the best at what he does: deactivating live bombs. The most intense situations don’t faze him. But a simple trip to the grocery store after returning home to his wife and child perplexes him. He can’t handle being bored, and ordinary life bores him. So he reenlists so he can continue his live-wire work.

Maya and James are both fascinating characters not despite what we don’t know about them, but because of it. We don’t learn about James’ family until the very end of the film, but we’re never given more information about him than is necessary. Maya is a total blank slate, to the point where she appears to be nothing but a cipher for the film’s plot. Then, of course, you realize exactly how pertinent she’s been the whole time.

Bigelow and Boal are an interesting partnership, because they work on a similar wavelength. Both like logical, journalistic story settings, but both appreciate having a flesh-and-blood, relatable character at the center. Both embrace the best parts of docudrama while avoiding creating unemotional works. And both appreciate a tough-to-love character that is nonetheless utterly fascinating. It’s no wonder their collaborations have been so successful – and why Maya and James are so similar.

The two protagonists have much in common, and even their differences are telling – especially Maya’s lack of roots versus James’ family at home. At the end of the day, James would envy Maya; a rootless existence filled with nothing but dismantling bombs is his paradise. Similarly, Maya would prefer a world where she could chase Osama Bin Laden forever. Ultimately, however, James can reenlist, but Osama is dead, and Maya is left without any hope, completely unprepared for the world she hasn’t truly been in since high school.

Maya and James feel like spiritual twins, partners who might realize that they aren’t alone when recognizing their own traits in the other. Most importantly, they are the passionately beating hearts at the center of their films. Without those hearts, despite Bigelow and Boal’s best efforts, I think the films would have been so much less than they are. It’s easy to hope that Maya and James might be revisited in a future work, but I think I prefer my understanding of them still incomplete. It’s not what we know that’s most fascinating, after all – it’s what comes after.

Greek Week shifts focus to interfraternalism

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Originally published in the Los Angeles Loyolan. For original, please refer to: Greek Week shifts focus to interfraternalism.

Greek Week

Photo Credit: Leslie Irwin | Loyolan

Before this year’s Greek Week commenced, community anticipation for the upcoming celebration of Greek Life was struggling to overcome mixed feelings regarding changes to the week’s structure.

“In the beginning, everybody was pretty concerned,” said senior psychology major Lisa Flanigan, president of Kappa Alpha Theta. “For a while, when we didn’t have anything figured out and we didn’t really have ideas of how to make Greek Week work … it was a subject that didn’t really go over well.”

Junior political science major Michael Hanover, president of Sigma Phi Epsilon, agreed, calling the community’s response “between negative and [mixed]” before the week began.

“The idea behind the changes … [was] building a certain level of respect that, according to some, has been absent in past years between organizations. I believe, wholly and truly, that the changes were motivated by the right sentiment,” said Hanover. “The reaction has fallen off from that complete level of positivity.”

“Change is never easy,” said Assistant Director of Student Leadership and Development and Greek Adviser Dan Faill. “But I truly feel it was the best move … and I was pleased at the overall reaction from chapters to combine into larger teams for Greek Week, an idea that was brought forward from chapter presidents at the fall Greek retreat.”

Said conglomeration has paired one fraternity, one sorority and one “multicultural chapter” in each team, according to Faill. This plan was met with enthusiasm from some individual organizations, especially Sigma Lambda Gamma, according to Chapter President Nina Garofalo, a senior English major.

“We felt we weren’t included in the camaraderie of Greek Week, and so [the new system] gives us an opportunity to make friends and not be so competitive about it,” Garofalo said. “We’re already so proud to wear our letters, so we don’t feel like we need to prove ourselves.”

This interfraternal pride was purposefully designed as one of the overarching goals of Greek Week, according to Co-Vice President of Greek Week Sean Daly, a senior communication studies and theatre arts double major.

In addition to the conglomerate teams, the other major change was the separation of Greek Week from Lip Sync and Stroll Off, according to Co-Vice President of Greek Week and junior psychology major Penney Azizi. Lip Sync and Stroll Off, once the culminating event of Greek Week, was moved to early September this year due to scheduling conflicts in booking Gersten Pavilion.

“Certainly, Lip Sync was a great way to cap it off, but was there anything that the Greek Week VPs could have done about that?” said Hanover. “According to what they’ve said, I don’t think so, and I trust them on that.”

Substituting for Lip Sync will be the All-Greek Masquerade Ball, a formal event on Saturday in Burns Back Court, where winners of the week will be announced.

Other changes included a redesigned football tournament with only one day instead of two, and a restructured obstacle course that involves more team members and a chariot race leg, according to multiple sources.

While final judgment on the week’s redesign has yet to be rendered, before it even began, individuals from within the community had disparate reactions to the week’s true meaning.

“I really appreciate all the work they’ve put into this Greek Week and making it more interfraternal, really trying to bridge those gaps,” Garofalo said.

“It’s all about being Greek, not necessarily about what letters you wear, and the community as a whole,” Azizi said, echoing Garofalo’s sentiments about inter-fraternalism.

Flanigan, however, emphasized personal chapters saying, “I think it’s positive, because you’ll still have your own pride for your own organization.” But, she added that through Greek Week, individual chapters would be “breaking down the barriers between different organizations.”

Hanover said in summary, “On the one hand, any … time of change brings about some strife from somewhere or another in the community. On the other side of it … to make big changes like that, you have to be bold to do that, and if you go there you’re gonna make some mistakes too. You can’t make big changes like that and expect that it’s gonna please everybody.”