Despite a formal protest by the English department in March, the President’s Leadership Academy (PLA), a four-year program intro-duced by the Office of Student Affairs to boost retention of stu-dents of color and first-generation students, launched this summer with a three-week pre-orientation session.

Rough Beginnings

At a March 10 faculty meeting, the English Department formally protested the PLA, asserting they had not been involved in develop-ing its writing component.

“If we had been consulted in the beginning of the program’s devel-opment,” said Writing Program Administrator Tina Kazan at the meeting, “we would have ex-pressed our reservations that the current design of the writing com-ponent, consisting of a few short sessions scattered over three weeks, fails not only to reflect best practices, but also to prepare stu-dents sufficiently for the rigors of college writing.”

In response, PLA director Laila McCloud distinguished the PLA from bridge programs at other in-stitutions, which typically are for remediation and run 5 to 8 weeks.

“There’s a difference in this pro-gram [versus] a bridge program,” she said. “These are not those students [who need remedia-

tion]. We have students who have [scores of] 30 [on their] ACTs and 4.0 GPAs participating in this pro-gram. They’re not students who are academically at-risk. The writ-ing workshops are not geared to get students up to par. The pur-pose of this is to get their feet wet so that when Aug. 26 comes, they’re not like, ‘What is this?’”

Losing Students and Losing Money

In the 2012-2013 school year, the college lost 135 students by attrition, and estimated that the reduction of students will cause a loss of $6.7 million in revenue over four years.

According to the college, 39 per-cent of all the students that chose to leave EC were first-generation college students and 45 percent were students of color.

Some who left were both, pri-marily because of what McCloud calls “social cohesion issues...Par-ticularly [ for] students of color, coming to Elmhurst—being that it is a predominantly white cam-pus, and the number of students of color tends to be a little bit smaller here—so for students who may not be used to that environ-ment that can be kind of a culture shock,” McCloud said.

In attempts to smooth out po-tential challenges that students of color might face, the academic piece of the program is taught by 5 African American professors.

McCloud also said that for first-

generation college students, turn-ing to parents for advice about dealing with certain college expe-riences is not always an option.

“They can’t call Mom and Dad and say, ‘Mom and Dad, I’m hav-ing this issue’ because Mom and Dad may not know. We find that [some] first-generation students maybe have a sister or brother or aunt or uncle who went, but it’s a little bit different if your parents have gone,” she said.

Summer Program

Five full-time faculty taught the academic piece, concentrating on the four areas of reading, writing, oral communication, and quanti-tative reasoning.

Participating students lived on campus for the three weeks free of charge, attending five days of ac-tivities each week.

Associate Dean of Students and Director of Student Success and Retention Desiree Novak elabo-rated on the summer piece, refer-encing transportation as a cost.

“Part of the goal for the sum-mer is to get them connected and start building community, so she [McCloud] has them going to a challenge course, so paying for transportation, having them par-ticipate in that challenge course,” Novak said. “There’s a service proj-ect that this group will participate in, so transportation to get there. Social events, transportation to get there. And they’re going to [Six Flags] Great America.”

At a time of budget deficit for the college, which totaled $3.1 million in fiscal year 2011-2012, the initial investment for the program’s first year stands at $208,528.88, according to a docu-ment entitled “President’s Leader-ship Academy.”

Novak said living costs are also a major share of expenses.

“One of the things that is a huge expense any time you do programs like this—orientation is another one of them—is food and housing, paying for students to eat and live on campus for three weeks,” Novak said. “They don’t live here for free, and they’re not paying to live here. Some of the other operating costs are the lo-gistics of the summer piece Laila [McCloud] has been working on.”

PLA participants also receive a renewable book stipend.

“[The amount] depends on the student’s major,” McCloud said. “We’re just paying for the text-books, so whatever it is for that student, that’s it.”

McCloud mentioned corporate sponsorship as a way to defray costs.

“That’s also where the corpo-rate sponsorship comes in, to kind of help us absorb some of those costs and not diminish the quality of the program,” she said.

After the Summer

Beyond the one-time summer session, PLA participants must meet mandated goals, different

for each of their four years.For example, in their freshman

year, participants must show in-volvement with at least one stu-dent organization, participate in a peer-mentoring program, attend monthly “Success Workshops focused on transition skills” and monthly forums and biweekly meetings with other PLA mem-bers, and “engage in at least five campus events of their choos-ing,” according to the “President’s Leadership Academy” document.

The PLA aims to boost EC’s overall retention rate to 90 per-cent within five years. The rate currently stands at “more than 80 percent,” according to the college’s website.

With the tuition from more retained students, EC projects $1,878,042.12 in net yield by the fourth year of the PLA’s existence.

For students neither first-gener-ation nor of color, Novak assured that services are still available through the Office of Student Af-fairs, listing the First-Year Semi-nar, Weeks of Welcome, and First-Year Student Success Series.

“We do have to think about serving our students as a whole,” Novak said. “There are different pockets and different ways we can support them, and PLA is one of them, but it doesn’t give us the right or permission to not think about the other students in-volved.”

PLA program launches at EC with summer session

Photo by Kim McElhenyEC President S. Alan Ray makes introductory remarks at a PLA session dedicated to him.

BRETT PETOassistant news editor

Opinions

First Year Seminar (FYS) has been a controversial program for students and faculty alike. Th e Leader believes that various FYS courses have inconsistent levels of academic rigor, and therefore are in need of reform.

Th e Elmhurst College Integrated Curriculum (ECIC) Committee, Academic Council, and faculty alike, have attempted to rectify these consistency is-sues since the program’s inception as a pilot in 2007. Th ough academic freedom of professors, wide course variation, and the desire to off er a unique and diverse learning experience are assets to education, they have become the inhibiting factors to the program because it has not been properly reformed.

Since level of academic rigor is the choice of a pro-fessor and their respective staff -person within their FYS course design, we feel some courses can cover ECIC skill tags, while some cannot. Th is is unfair to fi rst-year students required to take these courses.

If EC does not want to infringe on the academic freedom of professors, continue the FYS program’s wide variation of courses, and keep FYS as a require-ment, consistency of academic rigor in the program will remain a problem.

Th erefore, we urge the ECIC Committee and Aca-demic Council to reevaluate the FYS program in one of two ways:

1. Off er all FYS courses to satisfy an ECIC skill tag,We do not feel it necessary to group the FYS pro-

gram in the developmental goal section of the ECIC. And regarding our fi rst solution, this will mean de-signing and ensuring that course objectives include coverage of just one of the many skill tags in the ECIC program.

Th ere are many of these tags to be satisfi ed, and mapping course objectives in such a way would still allow the FYS program’s variation in subject matter, while establishing a free conformity to a universal-ized standard skill tag goal.Th is will aff ord fi rst-year students the same objective criteria in their course experience that is common to other skill-tagged courses at EC.

While there is the concern that this route will in-

terfere with skill tags being earned in specifi c aca-demic departments, FYS courses are all taught (in conjunction with a staff member) by primarily full-time professors, investigating an academic subject matter which they have been at least deemed pro-fi cient to teach. In this way, it is feasible to tag each course, without risking a diminished value in the tag earned.

It’s understandable that tagging FYS courses may pose diffi culties for mapping course objectives, how-ever, an alternative option is possible.

2. Off er all FYS courses with the option of taking them Pass/No Pass.

While providing such an option in the FYS pro-gram may seem counterintuitive within the ECIC model (as ECIC courses cannot be taken Pass/No Pass), we feel the FYS program is very much an entity of its own, so such unique action is appropriate. In this way, FYS courses can remain a part of the de-velopmental goal section in the ECIC. However, still fulfi lling a credit requirement, FYS would be treated more in the fashion of an elective, since it already does not count toward a skill tag, area of knowledge, or a major/minor requirement.

Making a change to the Pass/No Pass option will allow professors to be as academically free as they wish, keep the variety in course off erings, and aff ord fi rst-year students the ability to choose whether the course has an eff ect on their GPA.

Choosing the eff ect on GPA is important because, unlike the developmental goal of English 105-106 writing profi ciency (which we agree is a necessary evaluation to students’ success, and should be grad-ed), FYS courses satisfy a developmental require-ment that was created specifi cally for EC alone, and unnecessarily carries infl uence on GPA. Th is option off ers more fl exibility in the program for academic rigor concerns fi rst-year students may have.

In the current form of FYS, consistency in academ-ic rigor of courses remains a contention. Th e Leader feels either solution will be benefi cial to the FYS pro-gram, and will better serve fi rst-year students as they begin their academic endeavors.

FYS: To tag, or not to tag.

OPINIONS

Since you’re new here, I’ll set up a few hypotheses for your life as a science major at Elmhurst. Th ey’re not specifi c to biology, chemistry, physics, psychology, or any other. Th is happens to all Schaible kids.

Many times over, you will ques-tion your self-worth. Whenever that pesky phylum of fungi eludes the tip of your tongue and the re-sult is an eviscerating glare from your professor, you will consider yourself useless.

Many times over, you will ques-tion why you’re putting yourself through the wringer of four-hour labs and the practicals they en-tail. Is a doctor really whom you want to be? A physical therapist? A school counselor?

Many times over, you will show up bleary-eyed to class, glasses possibly askew, hair possibly looking like a family of rodents recently nested in it. All because the data for your semester project deleted itself on those somewhat untrustworthy computers on the second fl oor of Schaible.

Many times over, students of other—shall we say, less inten-sive—majors will be frolicking in the caramel sunshine, skip-ping through the mall’s verdant grass. Th ey’ll be lobbing frisbees and devouring Chartwells buff alo chicken wraps. And you’ll just be on the sidelines poring over textbook pages drolly describing wavelengths of light.

Most of all, many times over, you’ll contemplate walking away from the life (if it can be called

life) of a science major. You’ll en-tertain the fantasy of telling your professor to shove it—it being a lab report, or practical, or three-foot-tall sheaf of lecture notes—and walk out.

Flick Schaible a middle fi nger and never return.

Th ing is, many of you will. It’s a realistic fact that after the 100-lev-el classes, especially of biology and chemistry, you’ll start see-ing the same people. Fewer and fewer, as the diffi culty endlessly ratchets up.

It may feel like just you and a dozen other people in your or-ganic chemistry class are adrift on a bottomless ocean of homework and tests. With no shore in sight.

But, though all of those are de-pressing hypotheses, I have some uplifting ones.

Th ose people, the same in all your classes?

Some will become your best friends and scoff with you at the business and communications majors singing kumbaya outside. Some will remain just acquain-tances, but you’re all in the same emergency raft.

Th ose professors, not always the same?

No, they likely won’t ever go easy on you, much. But after the shock-and-awe routine of the fi rst few weeks, they will soften in other ways. It’s hard to imagine, but you might just discuss the im-plications of last night’s Breaking Bad episode with your seemingly stuff y psych professor.

Yourself, you thought, always the same?

You won’t be the same. If you do it right, these four fl eeting years right, you may just learn how to live better. Analyze the world bet-ter. See it for all its beauty and, yes, occasional ugliness.

While your professors will in-still objective, rational thinking in you, the subjective, irrational love of science will take root, too. While life will suck, it rarely sucks forever.

I’m reminded of Abraham Lin-coln. He wasn’t a scientist, but of many wonderful things he penned, there’s one that’s apt here.

Whatever you are, be a good one.

Be a good science major. Be a good scientist. You’ll survive.

Under the Microscope Surviving science at EC

BRETT PETOassistant news editor

ILLUSTRATION BY TYLER KERR

It may be time for a new fi t, FYS.

Editorial

FYI for your FYS• Courses are not designed to

satisfy an ECIC skill tag

• ECIC are a requirement for general education expectations to graduate

• A part of the ECIC, and therefore, a graded requirement for fi rst-year students

• Courses satisfy the developmental goals placed within the ECIC

Looking for an escape from the orientation onslaught? Take a stroll through campus, and it will soon become apparent that there are many words engraved in brick, etched in concrete, and molded in bronze. Some are memorials to people, some attempt to impart wisdom, and some are better than others.

There’s T.S. Elliot around the fountain, a highly revered literary figure. Well done, Elmhurst, not too shabby. An exact life-size Rein-hold Niebuhr stands in an eternal lecture. I can certainly vouch for that one. He is a noted influence on Martin Luther King Jr., and his tenacity as a social ethicist is cer-tainly something to emulate.

But shift your feet a bit deeper in campus.

There’s a quaint bronze plaque in the grass East of Goebal Hall, next to the sidewalk. The word “believe” is cast vertically and un-packed as an acronym. It begins: B: Be the best you can be—( forget Niebuhr and Elliot, this is prime stuff), E: Elevate yourself—(I be-lieve I’m floating), L: Love your fel-low man—(I guess women don’t exist)...This continues on to spell the whole word, of course.

If this little gem of inspiration doesn’t afford you one less trip to a self-help seminar, maybe tak-ing a right turn and loping down some stairs will. At the end of your descent, on the left, the “Alumni Rock” lies in wait, next to the dumpsters. As its plaque states, the rock is apparently “energized by all our alumni” and represents that “we are rock solid.”

After such a striking metaphor, if you still don’t have inspiration coursing through your veins, there’s more. The plaque also in-forms us “When you graduate, your energy will also be apart of this rock.” Yes, apart of the rock. Not a part, but apart—as in sepa-rately, not together.

My sense of community is ex-ponentially skyrocketing.

The “Alumni Rock” was origi-nally placed on the West side of the football field. Perhaps the college was displeased with its message, and subsequently relo-

cated it by the dumpsters. After all, when someone shows up with an 8,000 pound boulder, you can’t exactly tell them to return it. It would be rude.

I’m not simply trying to be ir-reverent here. I sincerely appreci-ate with the utmost gratitude the helpful donations from our loyal alumni. They are integral to the success and prosperity of the col-lege, especially one as in debt as ours.

My primary point of conten-tion is when vague generalities are allowed to be put on such a pedes-tal, seemingly in an attempt to be passed as some immutable wis-dom. Generic statements, espe-cially the trite inspirational sort, become empty phrases. They turn into something people want to get behind because they sound nice.

These phrases are passed down and ingrained in us. They are the incessant superficial advice that will plague our ears and fill us with things we already know. Plainly speaking, they’re boring.

As new college students, it will be damning to fall into the para-digms of antiquity. And that is just where these phrases will take you—nowhere new.

But maybe we need these trite metaphors and haphazard acro-nyms to better explicate our val-ues, or perhaps we need to read more books and learn how to spell. This is college, after all.

Every spring, millions of college students walk across a stage to snatch that diploma and bolt into the world at large.

Every year, hundreds of famous people deliver commencement speeches. You know—the kind where they tell students what to do. Carpe diem and all that.

That seems really jacked up to me, though.

Why the hell do we wait until AFTER a student’s academic path has ended to share these ideas?

So I’m going to give you my own list of Shit You Should Totally Do While You’re At Elmhurst. Be-cause I’m cool like that.

And it’s not even a list. It’s two items. Easy enough.

ONE: GIVE A SHIT ABOUT SOMETHING—ANY THING—WHILE YOU’RE HERE.

I don’t mean Candy Crush Saga, or the new Mortal Kombat.

What I mean is this: find some-thing outside of the bubble you’re in right now, and check it out.

And keep doing it, over and over, until you find something that you’re truly psyched, pumped, and passionate about.

You’re probably going to kiss a lot of frogs before you find some-thing that’s beautiful to you.

We’re all skilled at that perfect balance of listening and absorb-ing information--but at an arm’s length, through the prism of our

electronic devices. We know how to compartmentalize and discon-nect when we’re bored. Or uncom-fortable. Or challenged.

What many of us are not good at is being in the moment. We don’t do 100% full attention, fully in the moment very well.

But it’s often in those moments where you’re fully engaged that you find something to care about.

TWO: GROW A PAIR.....OR A THICK SKIN.

We suck at losing. We fail at fail-ing.

I’ve seen fellow students shake with rage and burst into tears at totally constructive comments from other students and from professors.

Nobody wants to be a target of verbal abuse, or take shit from other people. And no one should. But learning to take feedback, to listen to someone’s critical sug-gestions, is important.

And guess what? It will be part and parcel of every damn job you’ll have from graduation forward.

Mistakes aren’t disasters. Fall-ing on your ass is a great way to learn. Think back to when you learned to ride your bike. Training wheels. Wobbly rides. Falling.

And then you got better, and you knew what to do and what to avoid. Soon you were just a big WHOOSH flying past your friends and neighbors.

Yeah, I know. You just want to GET THROUGH. You want to do the work, hit those marks, get those grades and GTFO.

You could ignore these sugges-tions and just hit those marks. You won’t be the first Bluejay to do it, and you sure as hell won’t be the last.

But if you bought the full EC ticket, that’s a long journey right there: four years of school, a few decades of student loan pay-ments.

Finding something to truly be passionate about—to fight about, to disagree about, to defend, to love—might be the thing that makes this whole process worth it.

Dear Class of 2017,

To all of the new freshmen here on campus I would first off like to say, welcome. I am sure through orientation you have been having quite the unique experience that Elmhurst College boasts about so readily. You have probably grown close to your FYS group, enjoyed both icebreakers and activities alike, and even got a taste of what

that Blue Jay spirit feels like.But this is where it ends.If there is one thing that is truly

lacking on this campus, it is school pride. Sure, there are attendances to the sport games—the big ones anyway—but there is never any sense of excitement beyond those first few weeks here.

Most students get involved in the clubs that interest them, or hang out with the close friends they manage to make, and then become so focused on their school work and the few things they are a part of that the school itself sim-ply becomes an afterthought.

The solution to the apathy on our campus is to make it a worth-while place to want to take pride in. That calls for a change in the student culture.

For those of us who have been here for a while, we are already doomed. We complained that the school doesn’t provide opportuni-ties to have fun and that we are a mostly commuter school and whatever other excuse we came up with to avoid the simple fact that we did not ever take that ini-tiative and try to do something.

In short, we were complacent. So instead, we grew up in the culture of “screw Elmhurst,” and plan on passing that down to every new class to walk on to this campus.

In order to change this culture, it is your job, Class of 2017, to tell us, no. You have to take it upon yourselves to want to be a part of this school like never before. Do not just fill the roles that we did, but remold everything to that im-age of school spirit that you want. Take those few traditions we have such as the Midnight Snowball Fight or the Gates of Knowledge book run, and make your own. Know that it is okay to break some rules, have some fun, and make some mistakes because this is a place of learning, and what better teacher is there than experience?

Of course, it is easier to be as we were, but I am urging you not to be. College is what you make of it. If you want to have fun, then go and make your fun. If you want to just ride the stagnant rails of es-tablishment, then do so. But do so always wondering what you could have done with your time here.

The choice is yours.

ConvergencePay Attention

OPINIONS

Loose StomachConcrete, bronze, and empty phrases

CLAYTON DUNLAPopinions editor

PATRICK ERWINnews & online editor

The King of TrollLetter to the class of 2017

JAMES ARRIOLAstaff writer

Did we miss something?Write a letter to the editor.

email us at leadernewsec@gmail.com

Illinois is crippled by political gridlock and financial burden.

But the state is not hopeless.That was the message WLS-

AM radio talk show host and for-mer Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Proft delivered at his Aug. 8 lecture in the Founders Lounge.

His talk was the second install-ment of EC’s “Fixing Illinois: A Great State’s Problems and Prom-ise,” a lecture series bringing local political commentators to cam-pus.

Proft, 41, told Chicago maga-zine earlier this year that he is considering running for governor again in the 2014 race.

He outlined four fundamental problems afflicting Illinois.

“Medicaid, K-12 education, in-frastructure, [and] five-state pen-sion fund,” he said.

Proft was critical of Medicaid, a program where current unfunded liabilities reach billions of dollars in Illinois.

“First of all, it’s bankrupt,” he said.

“Ultimately, Medicaid provid-ers who don’t get paid stop offer-ing services. The people that are truly vulnerable actually see their access to quality health care wors-en.”

A problem with Medicaid, ac-cording to Proft, is that it is a “sys-tem where the consumer has no connection to the producer.”

“It is structurally incapable of doing what it’s meant to do,” he said.

The topic moved to K-12 edu-cation and the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system, much ma-

ligned by Proft for its failures to bring students up to academic par.

“Two-thirds of children in fourth grade can’t read at a fourth-grade level,” he said. “[The system] is set up like it was when Harry Truman was President. You’re paying for CPS. We’re all in on CPS.”

Proft cited a CPS statistic which elicited gasps and moans from the audience.

“Of every one hundred fresh-men, 6 will go on to get a bach-elor’s degree by the age of twenty-five,” he said. “You have people in charge of systems that they don’t want to defend but don’t want to change. The intransigence to change. Why?”

llinois’ poor education system spurs young residents to leave the state, often permanently.

“Only New Jersey exports more of its high school seniors to [out-of-state] colleges than Illinois,” Proft said.

For years, Illinois lawmakers have calculated for eight percent returns on a five-state public em-ployee pension fund spread across the Midwest.

But last year’s returns were negative.

“It’s folly to presume eight per-cent returns,” Proft said, then re-ferring to the General Assembly’s pension fund, which is just fifteen percent funded. “These guys can’t even save themselves. [It’s like] bailing out the Titanic with a tea-spoon.”

Proft, whose “first gig” was as an intern for former Illinois Speak-er of the House and EC professor Lee Daniels, entertained the idea of rebooting the whole state.

BRETT PETOassistant news editor

Former GOP candidate offers fixes for Illinois

Photo by Kim McElheny

Former gubernatorial candidate Dan Proft speaks in the Founders Lounge.

“I could say let’s just rewind the clock to 1818 and start over,” he said. “All of our problems are man-made problems. The welfare state wasn’t brought here on a spaceship.”

He questioned whether Illinois citizens had the “political will to

change the [state’s] political cul-ture.”

“We’re in the bottom 5 of [many] quality-of-life measures,” Proft said. “The political class in this state is very cavalier about people’s lives not their own.”

Proft closed with an indict-

ment of the generation of people currently in power.

“It’s easy to make promises that are the responsibility of future generations,” he said. “Instead of this generation leaving better op-portunities, we’re leaving behind unpaid bills.”

W RLD in REVIEW

Airport fire damages key Af-rican travel hub

An airport in Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi caused serious damage, including a collapsed roof, on Aug. 7. The Kenyatta International Air-port sustained damages to the international terminal. The fire was believed to have been extin-guished, but briefly restarted the following day. The area had been on high alert after a worldwide travel alert, and the fire occurred on the anniversary of fatal terror-ist attacks on the U.S. embassy in Kenya, but officials didn’t link the fire to any terrorist actions.

Gay rights protesters aim to change Russia’s anti-gay laws

The International Olympic Committee’s headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland received a petition Aug. 7 signed by 320,000 protesting Russia’s anti-gay laws, ahead of the 2014 Winter Games being held in Sochi. The laws ban public conversation about gay rights and relationships in earshot of children. The petition, sponsored by gay rights group All Out, included signatures from four-time Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis, NFL linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, and other professional athletes.

Obama promises review of surveillance programs

After numerous scandals and leaks of classified informa-tion about the National Security Agency (NSA) by controversial activist Edward Snowden, Presi-dent Barack Obama pulled back the curtain Aug. 9 on four propos-als to make “appropriate reforms” to U.S. surveillance programs. Amongst the proposals are a re-form of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which governs telephone re-cord surveillance, and “declassify the legal rationale for the govern-ment’s phone-data collection,” said Obama. “It’s not enough for me as president to have confi-dence in these programs,” he con-tinued. “The American people need to have confidence as well.”

Curfew imposed in Kashmir

Kashmir, a territory heavily contested by Pakistan and India and currently controlled by India, experienced more violence Aug. 9 as Hindu residents attacked a march of several hundred Muslim residents wanting freedom from Indian rule. Shops, cars, and two hotels were set ablaze by the mob, as well as a gun store robbed, in the town of Paddar. Police rushed into Paddar Aug. 10—with some troops in armored vehicles—to re-store order and enforce a curfew. At least two people died in the at-tacks.

Publishers contest court ruling against Apple’s ebook price-fixing

Found guilty of conspiring with publishers to raise ebook prices last month, Apple was ordered to terminate deals with five major publishers—but the publishers claim they, not Apple, are being punished. HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin filed a complaint that even though the publishers had signed settlements separate from the court’s deci-sion, the order to terminate con-tracts hurt them, not Apple. “The provisions do not impose any limitation on Apple’s pricing be-havior at all,” the complaint says. “Rather, under the guise of pun-ishing Apple, they effectively pun-ish [publishers that settled in the case].” Apple has continued to say it will fight the “false allegations.”

Six dead in Indonesian vol-canic eruption

The Indonesian island of Palue, east of Jakarta, suffered an erup-tion of Mount Rokatenda Aug. 10, killing four adults and two children trapped in hot ash on a beach. Though an evacuation or-der had been in effect since last October, some of the island’s ap-proximately 10,000 residents ig-nored it. Still, hundreds of people have been ousted from their vil-lages since rumblings in October and March of this year.

Internet Photo Firemen extinguish a blaze outside Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.

NEWS

BRETT PETOassistant news editor