ASU health services made health care available 363 days of the year last spring for students with the help of Shannon Clinic.

“I am happy that ASU made these services available because I know as a student I could go to the clinic here and at Shannon whenever I need something and they’ll take care of me,” freshman Theresa Felts said.

In previous years, ASU offered services seven days a week, closing for Thanksgiving and Christmas, said David Rosipal, associate director of Special Events Facilities and Services. To keep the clinic open on the weekends costs about $500.

“It is very important that we’re there for the students and that those services are available,” Rosipal said.

The ASU clinic closed its doors on weekends and holidays last year due to the increasing costs, Rosipal said. Now that ASU has formed a relationship with Shannon Clinic, located on Knickerbocker Road, students may go there on weekends and some holidays to receive the same health services they would receive at the ASU clinic.

“We put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) and tried to engage anyone locally who could provide those services,” Rosipal said. “We received response to the RFP from Community and Shannon, and then presented both to the ASU Senate. We did this without divulging who was offering what. We wanted to be completely fair to both.”

In the end, the ASU Senate chose Shannon’s offer, Rosipal said. Shannon Clinic (also known as Urgent Care South) promises that a medical doctor is always on duty.

The services offered to students cover a wide range of lab tests for an additional cost, he said.

Lab tests include pregnancy testing, rapid strep, rapid flu, respiratory syncytial virus, urine dipstick, occult blood and H-Pylori (screening test for ulcers). Emergency room visits, prescriptions and referrals to another specialist are also offered at an additional cost to the student, he said.

Flat chest panel x-rays and CLIA lab tests would be included in the office visit price, he said.

“If you came into the health clinic Monday through Friday, and we thought you might have an illness, but wanted to get a chest x-ray we would refer you out,” Rosipal said.

All 7,000 plus students can take advantage of these services if they have paid their medical service fee, Rosipal said. The fee is $59.50 per semester, which is about $15 a month, and there are an unlimited number of times students are able to go.

“We have a good relationship with Community and Shannon,” Rosipal said. “So hopefully that allows us to pass the benefits of both health provider agencies to

ASU students.”Whether students go to the ASU health clinic or

Shannon Clinic, they must take their ASU OneCard and medical authorization form, which can be picked up from the residence halls or the ASU police station.

“If you show all of the right materials when you go to the clinics, it helps us to keep offering these services to students,” Rosipal said.

Shannon clinic is two miles away from ASU, and the clinic is looking into a transportation system.

“ASU is a caring community, and maybe, friends can drive you if you cannot drive yourself,” Rosipal said. “We have talked about giving students a ride, but we are still looking into it because we can’t spend money that we don’t have.”

Information on Shannon Clinic’s Urgent

Care South:

• Locatedon:3502KnickerbockerRoad,San

Angelo• Contact:(325)942-8611

RAM PAGE

Page one Shannon Health Clinic offers services ASU off monitoring (cont p.3)

Page two International students’ views RAMS mentor program

Page three Back to school bash Blue and gold beginnings

Page four ASU ranks nationally due to intramural sports

Page five A different opinion of Africa

Page six Soccer preview Ram volleyball schedule Ram soccer schedule

For extra content, archives, and comments, Visit www.asurampage.com

Structured Services To Give ASU Students Best Value For Dollar

Allison PriceStaff writer

Shannon Clinic: Partnership beneficial both financially and health-wise for students

Team effort: Faculty work together to reach goal

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACs) removed ASU off academic monitoring in June 2012.

A division of SACs, the Commission of Colleges, placed ASU on monitoring in June 2010 after some departments failed to meet the minimum compliance standard required in the report ASU must submit to SACs every five to seven years, said Sarah Logan, as-sistant vice president of Institutional Research and Accountability.

“I think we were put on monitoring due to some departments confused about what they were sup-posed to be doing,” she said.

A few of the 84 requirements set by the COC changed before ASU sent in its last report, giving the university some trouble, she said.

“SACs made a change in the rules about a depart-ment’s input and output,” she said. “It just took ASU longer to get reorganized than for the committee to ask us for paperwork.”

Logan said the changes caught ASU off guard. “The report now requires several years of data,”

she said. “By the time we got to the fifth year interim report in 2008, we didn’t have those years of data to give them.”

ASU knew the report was not up to standard when it was submitted, so it was not a surprise when the university was put on monitoring, she said.

The reviewing process of the report was done by members of other universities, she said.

“The people who work at SACs are people at oth-er institutions,” she said. “ASU has faculty and staff on-campus who are actually visitors that do off-site or on-site reviews of other institutions while other people who work at other institutions review ASU.”

It was this peer review that placed ASU on aca-demic monitoring, Logan said.

“The committee isn’t a bunch of people sitting in Washington D.C. who have nothing to do with univer-sities saying ‘This is what ASU should be doing,’” she said.

The departments cooperated, so ASU was taken off academic monitoring, she said.

“The departments did the work and everybody came together,” she said.

Several of the faculty volunteered to aid in the process to bring ASU back up to the required stan-dard, she said.

“Everybody had a part in this,” she said. “From the people we just asked questions to those who were writing and editing the report. There were prob-ably close to 100 people working on it.”

This is great for the school and reflects well on the faculty, junior Kelsey Merritt said.

“I feel like it’s a great example of department col-laboration because it showed what our faculty could really do when they worked together,” she said.

The work on the new report took about a year and a half to complete and was much better this time around, Logan said.

“When the COC committee met this past summer, they were very pleased with all the work that had been done,” she said. “They gave compliments about the report itself, and they were very happy, which led to ASU being taken off monitoring.”

ASU will remain accredited instead of being placed on further monitoring or receiving a warning, Logan said. “Accredited means that courses transfer for students coming in or leaving the institution,” she said. “It also means we can offer financial aid and the diplomas mean something.” That makes regional accreditation a big thing for universities, as otherwise, they would not be allowed to offer these services, she said.

Sawyer RicardEditor-in-Chief

See UNIVERSITY pg. 3

University no longer on monitoring

Students from around the world share their views

Pg. 2

RAMS mentor program shaping first generation students

Pg. 2

RA makes cotton candy during the Dallas Cowboys party at Texan Hall

Volume 80 issue 2 sept. 7, 2012

Photo by: Tim Peevy

Photo by: Rio Valasquez TheUniversityClinicisopentostudentsduringtheschoolweek.

Friday, Sept. 7, 2012Page 2 NEWSEvents Calendar

Get involvedon campus!

Here’s what’s going on this week.

Friday, Sept. 7

Joe Shores- Fistula & Fis-sure - Printmaking Exhibit8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Carr Residence Hall room. 193

Back to School Bash Round Two at 8 p.m. at the PavilionPaint Party 8-9 p.m.Dance 9:30-12 a.m.

Saturday, Sept. 8SARL-Big Brothers Big Sisters Run to Remember 5K run and 1.5 Mile Walk8 a.m. 2235 South Jack-son Street San Angelo, Texas 76904

Football: Rams vs. Chadron State, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.San Angelo Stadium, 1919 Knickerbocker Road

Monday, Sept. 10

LiveWhale Training: 1013 to 4 p.m.Mathematics-Computer Science Building, room 106

UCPC Weekly Meeting5 p.m.Houston Harte Uni-versity Center room 201

Tuesday, Sept. 11

New Client Signup Train-ing Events Library of Documents Network of CentersHow to Improve Your Col-lections: Better Accounts Receivable (A/R) 6 p.m to 8:30 p.m 2222 Dena Drive, Rassman Building, room 100, San Angelo, TX 76909-0001

IM Badmitton, Disc Golf and Tennis Registration Meeting Center for Hu-man Performance at 7 p.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 12

Census Day

TExES Certification Exam (CAT) at ASU 8 a.m.Vincent Nursing-Physical Science Building, room 291

2-in-1Program 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.University Center SpineInternship & Volunteerism in Community Services Careers in Social Work

Laura W. Bush Institute: Eat with the Expert - Green Tea Dinner Party 5:30 p.m.LeGrand Alumni and Visi-tors Center Ballroom

Thursday, Sept. 13

Concho Educators FCU: Free Root Beer Floats2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.Houston Harte University Center, Spine

Submit event re-quests by 5 p.m. Tuesday for Friday publication to ram-page@angelo.edu

ASU has welcomed for two weeks 175 plus international students from 22 countries to study and gain knowledge of the American culture and language.

“My goal for being here is to study English so I can speak it naturally,” junior Park Hyemin said.

The majority of international students are from South Korea, but there are a few students from other countries, International Student Services Counselor Meghan Pace said. Some of those countries include Canada, Mexico, France, Italy, Turkey, China, Australia, Japan, India, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United Kingdom.

“This year we have more international students than we have ever had,” Pace said. “The number of international students has doubled from last year. It is quite a huge success and it’s an exciting time because we have never had so many students before.”

The international students are undergraduates, graduates and English/language learning students.

“The English/language learning program is a non-credit program aimed to help students learn English,” she said. “The object of the program is so they can take regular classes.”

The international students began arriving the week of Aug. 13 and the week of Aug. 20. The students were required to attend a three-day orientation, she said.

“We talk about anything and everything,” Pace said. “It is so different here than from where they used to go to school.”

All international students are required by law to take 12 credit hours and many students end up taking five classes, she said.

“My major is Business Management, and I hope to enhance my English skills and experience American culture,” junior Lee Sang Woo said.

The goal of the international program has the same goal as ASU, which is to grow enrollment. ASU hopes to reach a student body of 10,000, Pace said.

“We want to bring more international students here to ASU,” Pace said. “We feel that it is important for our American students to have some international exposure.”

The International Studies Center shows the students the city bus schedule and how to use it if they want to explore San Angelo, she said.

“All of Texas is so kind,” Woo said. “I really like ASU, and I like to hang out with my friends on weekends.”

The International Studies Center staff helps students by taking them on weekly shopping trips to get necessities they need. There is a sign-up sheet in the International Studies office where students can write where they want to go, Pace said.

“Most students are interested in doing specific things like going to Wal-Mart to buy things they need, Best Buy to get a cell phone or the bank to open an account,” she said. “Over the last two weeks we have been taking those trips every day. Once they get settled, we do a once or twice a week shopping arrangement to try and help them out.”

There are cultural trips that the international students take and one of the most popular is the trip to San Antonio and San Marcos. It is a way for students to get out and explore things, she said.

“We average the cost for the number of students that will go on the trip, and we pay for transportation, a hotel, one that overlooks the river walk in San Antonio, and gas,” she said. “All the students have to do is get in the car and go. Students don’t have to worry about transportation or getting a hotel.”

On the San Antonio and San Marcos trip, the students get to see the Alamo and other historical sites, Pace said.

“The students like to go out and have fun or shop and do things on their own,” she said. “The next day we get up and drive to San Marcos to go to the shopping outlets. They really get a kick out of it. We will leave that night to come back home.”

International students stay at ASU from one semester to a year, or even four years, Pace said.

“There are employment opportunities for international students that they can apply for through the U.S. government and get 12 months of work time,” she said. “Some students find that very beneficial because they find a job fairly easy and get 12 months of work experience before they head back home.”

Most of the international students do not graduate from ASU, but they take their skills with them when they return home.

“Students can use their extra skills while looking for jobs at home, but the majority of students do head home when they are done with their studies,” Pace said.

Students from halfway around the world share their views on experiences International: Students talk about their experiences at ASUAllison PriceStaff writer

The RAMS Program (Raising and Meeting Standards) hosted by the Multicultural Center aims to give incoming freshman an opportunity to gain a mentor and friends to make the transition from high school to college as smooth as possible.

“It definitely provides a good basis of support for the incoming students who have a lot of questions about different things on campus,” RAMS mentor Clayton Banister said.

Adapting to college life can be one of the most difficult things about entering a new school, but RAMS seeks to ease the transition period for new students.

While the RAMS programs welcomes all freshman, they target first generation students “because normally students do not exactly have the guidance in their families just because they have not actually experienced the university life,” RAMS program specialist Robert Garcia said.

RAMS offers a $250 book scholarship that is only available to first generation incoming students. The scholarship may only be used for needed textbooks, Garcia said.

“After the entire semester, we will evaluate who has participated the most and who has been involved,” Garcia said. “We do this through attendance to RAMS sessions, participation in the meetings and in off-campus activities, and we have them write an essay that tells us why they deserve the scholarship.”

Five students are then chosen, and they receive the $250 dollar scholarship, Garcia said.

The organization welcomes upperclassmen to mentor the younger students and help them to remain not only involved in college life, but to stay in school, Garcia said.

To become a mentor one must be an upperclassmen (junior or senior), have a GPA of a 2.0 or above and have attended ASU for one year, Garcia said. Mentors and mentees must all be enrolled at ASU full time and be committed to the university for the duration of the program for that year.

Even though the mentors are meant to be the teachers, second year mentor Catherine McGowan said, “We had a lot of fun with it, and I feel that even as a mentor I learned a lot from it, as well. We all had a great time.”

The RAMS program holds sessions every Tuesday to acclimate students with all the resources ASU has to offer such as tutoring centers, Garcia said.

RAMS also holds events called “Super Saturdays”. “One Saturday out of the month all of us will get together, and

we will do something informative, but also fun at the same time,” Garcia said.

The Super Saturday event for September is called the “Museum Blitz”.

“The morning of Sept. 29, we will be going to the Museum of Fine Arts, the Railway Station Museum and the Nature Center, and we will see what those organizations have to offer,” Garcia said. “We will also be doing some lunches together just to socialize and at the same time learn a little something.”

Assistant Professor of Communication Dr. Flor Madero founded the RAMS program in 2008 and has since seen it grow dramatically.

“When we did the pilot program there were 16 students,” Madero said.

Sixty students attended the first year the organization was official, and now the program has reached “up to 100 students,” Madero said.

The pilot program was formed from a study that was meant to discover any advantages of students having a mentor on campus and “to find out what issues some students had that would cause them to stay and what would cause them to leave,” Madero said.

The academic benefits of the RAMS program have been apparent over the past few years.

“Students that participate in the RAMS program historically have higher GPA’s, more credit hours and definitely more retention,” Madero said.

Although this is just his first year in charge of RAMS, Garcia said he hopes to leave his mark on the program much like Madero did.

“I have always had a passion for helping other people,” Garcia said. “I hope my impact is a positive one in the sense that I am helping students feel pride in what they do.”

RAMS mentor program shaping freshman, first generation studentsProgram: Faculty and students spur student growth and excellenceDillon BrollierManaging Editor

Freshman Eryana Lopez and sophomore Manueal Alaniz after the second RAMS mentor program meeting

Photo by: Rio Valasquez

Friday, Sept. 7, 2012Page 3 NEWS

$1.50DRAFT BEER

midnightrodeosanangelo.com

How long the off-monitoring period lasts for ASU will be decided in November when the COC committee meets to discuss the next fifth year report, she said. “If the committee finds something they don’t like in November, they will make us write a focus report,” she said.

If ASU has to write this report, the university will not be in trouble, she said. The focus report explains any statements that the committee cannot understand.

After the report is sent in, the committee will visit ASU to see if the standards have

been met, she said. “If they still find something

they don’t like, ASU will be put back on monitoring,” she said. “I’m positive we

won’t be on monitoring, though.”

The fact that ASU is off monitoring is great, Merritt

said. “It’s awesome that we’re

still accredited,” she said. “I feel like we should now focus towards the future so that’ll never happen again.”

This would be a good time for ASU to see what everyone could improve on, she said.

Being taken off monitoring

is just a step toward the future, freshman David Butler said.

“We have to keep our university accredited for the good of students and faculty alike,” he said. “I’m hoping we can excel beyond this and become one of the greatest universities in the country.”

University aims to remain off monitoring in next report in November, faculty hopefulContinued from page 1

The Back to School Bash Round Two is today at 8 p.m. at the Pavilion and looks to give students a fun and carefree way to get out on campus after a week of classes.

“The Back to School Bash is designed to show that ASU does not stop doing events after Rambunctious Weekend, but we do events so that students have things to do over the weekend,” AMAS representative Isaias Martinez said.

Some students are not as thrilled about on-campus events as others.

“For me, I don’t go to a lot of school events,” junior Brandon Moss said. “It is hard for me to go to them with other things I have going on.”

However, other students enjoy the on-campus events and see them as an opportunity to meet more people.

“Events like the Back to School Bash give people a chance to rekindle friendships that may have faded over the summer or even build new relationships for those who are new here,” junior Mindy Troutman said. “

It would be great to see more on-campus events, senior Cameron James said. “They are a great way to meet new people.”

The theme for this year’s event is a rave party, Martinez said. There will be many different colors of lights, shirts and face painting among other events.

The event will kick off at 8 p.m. with a “Paint Party.” Students will be given a bottle of paint and will be able to spray it wherever they would like.

“It’s a way to relieve stress and to be a bit messy,” Martinez said.

The Back to School Bash is also a way to welcome back students to ASU, event coordinator Karina Maldonado said.

“It is meant to be a way to meet new people and get excited and have some fun before the whole semester gets going,” she said.

This is the second year for the event and Maldonado said she hopes to improve on last year’s showing.

“Last year we had this event at the CHP, and we did the paint party and held the dance inside the CHP,” Maldonado said. “This year we added the designed shirt giveaway, the UV face painter and the dancers.”

Last year’s event saw 500 people attend and event organizers expect to see more attend this year’s event.

The Center for Student Involvement is working in conjunction with AMAS, the Multicultural Center, the Center for Student Involvement, Student Government Association and UCPC .

Many are grateful to all of the organizations that have contributed to getting this event organized and making this event possible, Martinez said.

Party: Organizations bring students together to celebrateDillon BrollierManaging Editor

SACS main points:

- Nearly 100 faculty working together - 84 requirements met - SACS is a peer review committee - Next fifth year report due in November

Back to school bash looks to expand festivities

Ceremony held for freshman college’s historicbeginning, speakers welcome new studentsExercises: Encouraging students to exceed goals Allison PriceStaff Writer

The ASU Freshman College is holding Sept. 7 a “Blue and Gold Beginnings” ceremony aimed to welcome entering students to the academic community. The ceremony begins at 2:00 p.m. with students participating in team building exercises. Students will be put into groups, and with help from academic depart-ments, student organizations and freshman dormitories, they will be creating flags in honor of their departmental major. “Freshman may participate through their academic department (if they have a major), student organization or freshman residence hall (pre-declared freshman),”

Dean of Freshman College Andy Wallace said. After all groups have finished, students will walk from Centennial Village to the Junell Center with their flags in hand. The Marching Ram Band will accompany students during the walk. The formal ceremony will begin at 3:30 p.m. “Mr. Hector Romo and Mr. Josh Heimbecker will intro-duce Mr. Austin Osmanski and Mr. Alvin Johnson, speak-ers for the formal program,” Wallace said. “The two speakers will remind freshman that their goal at ASU is to meet and exceed their academic goals.”At the end of the ceremony students will receive a class

of 2016 pin, and an organizational fair will be held in the Auxiliary Gym. At the fair, freshman will be introduced to Academic Affairs along with some student organiza-tions and university staff. A drawing will be held for three iPads at the organization fair. “If a freshman gets 15 or more stamps on their aca-demic passport at the organization fair, they will be entered into a drawing for one of three iPads,” Wallace said. “The drawing will be held after the event and an-nounced the following Monday.”

File Photo

Friday, Sept. 7, 2012Page 4 FEATURES

Who says athletics ends in high school?ASU’s students sure don’t say that as the university’s

intramural sports program fields between 700 to 800 students on campus for athletic activity.

ASU was ranked by the prestigious Princeton Re-view in part for its dedication to intramural sports. Out of over 2,500 four-year colleges, ASU was ranked 18th in the “everybody plays intramural sports” category for the 2012 year.

“I think it is awesome,” Jeromey Whitaker, assis-tant director of intramural sports said. “We’re just going to try to improve our numbers and try to improve our participation and create opportunities for students to participate in our program.”

Just like an NCAA program, intramural sports had to be built, but it couldn’t be built with scholarships.

Whitaker said that building this organization starts with the students and advertisement and marketing play a role in getting people to join.

Whitaker said that Rambunctious Weekend gets the word out about intramural sports and getting new stu-dents to join on campus.

ASU’s intramural sports are overseen by the Univer-sity Recreation Center or UREC.

According to the UREC website, “Attendance at a registration meeting is mandatory if you wish to sign up a team,” the UREC official website said. “If a representa-tive is not present at the registration meeting, a $30 fee is required to sign up a team. This fee must be submitted to the UREC Office by 5 p.m. the day after the registra-tion meeting.”

Whitaker said that if a student wants to join and does not have a team, the UREC has something they call, “free agent opportunities” where the student can join a team or the UREC will combine them with a team and it in-

sures no one is left out.According to the ASU website, intramural teams can

be coed or gender specific as well as providing extra leagues depending on the sport.

“I think the intramural sports are great,” senior Marl-issa McNease said. “They give us a way to feel like we are a part of something, gives us something to work towards and gets us out there to meet new people.”

McNease is the quarterback of her intramural team and said she loves the opportunity to show off her skills at the position.

Flag football is not the only sport that is played though. Volleyball, soccer, badminton and softball are just some of the 17 plus sports that UREC supports in their fall and spring seasons.

Just like in collegiate and professional sports, there are those one or two teams that seem to form a dynasty. Teams such as Wolfpack, Vixen and Dynasty have been seen in the final rounds of many different sports.

Junior Kaitlyn Standard said that as a former college athlete, she would try intramural sports soon because she still wants to play the sports she loves in a laid-back setting rather than in the strict rules of the NCAA.

“Our ultimate goal is to get as many students to par-ticipate in our program,” Whitaker said.

Strong ASU intramural program among nation’s bestStephen CoganStaff WriterAnother Year: Flag football kicks off another year of intramural sports

Fall Intramural Regristation Meetings (* all times at 7 p.m.)

Tennis Sept.11 in CHP 203

Disc Golf Sept. 11 in CHP 203

Badmitton Sept. 11 in CHP 203

Volleyball Oct. 16 in CAV 100

Soccer Oct. 23 in CAV 100

Ultimate Oct. 30 in CHP 203Frisbee

Kickball Oct. 30 in CHP 203

Spring Intramural Regristation Meetings (*all times at 7 p.m.)

Basketball Jan. 22 in TBA

Raquetball Jan. 29 in CHP 203

Table Tennis Jan. 29 in CHP 203

Softball Mar. 5 in TBA

Dodgeball Mar. 19 in CHP 203

Sand V-ball Mar. 19 in CHP 203

Photo by: Tim PeevyJeromey Whitaker goes over the rules

for this years intramural football season.

- Marlissa McNease

“[Intramural sports] give us a way to feel like we are part of something, give us something to work towards and gets us out there to meet new people.”

Page 5Friday, Sept. 7, 2012 OPINION

PUBLISHING POLICYPublished every Friday and available to students, one copy per student, the student newspaper of Angelo State University is a public forum, with its student editorial board making all deci-sions concerning its contents. Unsigned editorials express the views of the majority of the editorial board.Ram Page welcomes all letters. Please include your name, classification/position and a phone number and/or e-mail ad-dress for verification purposes. Letters must be signed and be no more than 350 words. The paper reserves the right to edit letters for grammar and clarity, and all letters are subject to laws governing obscenity, libel and privacy. Deadline is 5 p.m., Mon-day. Submission does not guarantee publication. Letters may be mailed, e-mailed or submitted at the newspaper’s office, Room 324 on the third floor of the Porter Henderson Library. Opinions in letters are not necessarily those of the staff, nor should any opinion expressed in a public forum be construed as the opinion or policy of the administration, unless so attributed.

Ram Page Staff

2012-2013A n g e l o S t a t e U n i v e r s i t y

Editor: Sawyer RicardManaging Editor: Dillon BrollierCopy editor: Lisa DeesPhoto Editor: Rio VelasquezStaff Writer: Stephen CoganStaff Writer Allison Price Photographer: Tim PeevyAdvertising Manager: Kaitlynn Glendinning Adviser: Dr. Cathy Johnson

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“Staying inside and drinking water!”

Faneshia JohnsonSophomore

What are you doing to beat the heat?

SidewalkSurvey

Rams visit Africa: A second take on a unique journeySean MotlContributor

In last week’s RamPage, Lisa Dees wrote an emotionally-filled piece on her ministry work in Kenya. Dur-ing the summer, I too had an African experience, only mine was a human rights delegation in Rwanda.

I understand that we were in dif-ferent countries for different reasons, so naturally our impressions are go-ing to be different.

However, I took serious offense to the language and tone of Lisa’s letter. Her letter provided an exact repre-sentation of everything I hate about Western media’s portrayal of Africa or developing countries in general.

Throughout her letter she talked of the absolute “horrors” and “night-mares” the children had endured before entering the orphanage. Fur-thermore, she talked about the “pov-erty and disease-stricken third-world country” that needs saving.

The fact of the matter is that Africa does not need white-people to swoop in and save the day as much as West-erners tend to think.

This is a little concept that I like to dub “moral masturbation,” which is the idea that poor African souls need the ambivalent helping hand of the privileged, when really it is more about the privileged trying to stroke their egos in order to feel better about their status in the world.

Throughout my delegation, I tried to keep in mind a quote from a 1970s aboriginal activist group from Queensland, which reads, “If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time, but if you

have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

It is important to get rid of this idea of charity, and replace it with the idea of dignity.

Charity is just a way of making people feel good about the “differ-ence” they are making in the world. It is quick, easy, but often leaves a mess.

It is important to realize that even though Kenya and Rwanda may bear the faces of poverty, they do not bear the faces of helplessness.

I saw strong, independent, hard-working people in Rwanda. It is a continent (or country) filled with peo-ple who had survived for thousands of years before colonization and will continue to survive with or without Western aid.

I am not saying that all foreign aid to Africa should stop, but I am say-ing that humanitarian efforts should be given in such a way to empower individuals, so that Rwandans can improve Rwanda, and Kenyans can improve Kenya.

In addition, I think it is ridiculous to say that though “they [Kenyans] have nothing… yet they have every-thing.” It is insulting to think that people actually rejoice in their suffer-ing because no one does.

The majority of the time, I think people bear the “life is what it is” mentality. In fact, at one point during my time in Rwanda, our delegation promoted education within a com-munity.

When we asked the children what

they wanted to be when they grew up, one child responded, “muzun-gu,” (literally “the ones who came and took” but also just a general, non-offensive term for white-person).

I absolutely hated that gut-wrenching response. However, it serves as proof that the child knows he does not have it all.

Furthermore, it reminded me that simply because of the color of my skin I am automatically equated with priv-ilege and success.

Lisa, you may not feel like you fit in here, but you certainly do not be-long in Kenya either.

As much as I enjoyed my time in Rwanda, I was constantly aware that I did not belong. I will not apologize for my “selfishness” or “godlessness” because frankly it is beyond my con-trol, and I think it is pompous to ask others to do the same or imply they should feel guilty because of white privilege.

Should people be aware of their privilege? Perhaps. Should people sacrifice everything and donate to Ke-nya? Probably not.

Lastly, the purpose of me writing this letter was not to attack Lisa or her experience.

I am sure it was as life-changing for her as it was for me, and I would not want to undermine or take that away.

However, I did feel compelled to respond because I did not want her perspective to be the only perspective.

Africa is not a desolate, starving, helpless world across the ocean. From

what I saw, development is on the rise, and the people are rather resil-ient.

I will admit that my motives were probably not pure going to Rwanda. I had a very idealistic “save the world” attitude.

However, I struggled with these concepts throughout my time in Rwanda, and now that I am back home I still struggle with them. Mul-tiple times I was forced to ask myself “why am I in Rwanda,” and I do not think I ever had an adequate answer.

Larger, far more complicated is-sues exist when interfering in the lives of other cultures, and I think it is important to be cognizant of those issues.

Each person has the right to draw their own conclusions, but I respect-fully request an open mind. As not-ed by Teju Cole in The Atlantic, the White Savior Industrial Complex is rather controversial.

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Ram Page

“Go to the pool.”

Junior OkematiJunior

“Staying out of it.”

Zach CohenSenior

“Go to the river.”

Duncan Knox Sophomore

P

Friday, Sept. 7, 2012Page 6 SPORTS

File Photo

Senior Hanna Horeis in action for the ‘Belles

Soccer program looks to ride strong start into a successfull season, currently 2 - 0Stephen CoganStaff Writer

It’s football time in Texas. Are you ready?

ASU’s women’s soccer team is 2-0 for the first time since 2007. The team, led by Coach Travis McCorkle, defeated Texas-Permian Basin with a 2-0 shut-out on Aug. 30 and New Mexico Highlands at home in a 2-1 overtime thriller last saturday. The ‘Belles are on the right track toward com-ing back from a disappointing season where they finished 6-9-4 and lost in their Lonestar Conference Championship Tournament quar-terfinal match against Texas A&M Commerce in penalty kicks 1-1 (4-3). With a 2-0 start, the ‘Belles have already gained recognition from the Lone Star Confer-ence in the form of senior goalie Danielle Ed-wards receiving Lone Star Conference Defen-sive Player of the Week honors. The six-foot-one Edwards has allowed only one goal and has made three saves to begin the season.

“We play 90 minutes straight and some-times you have to go into overtime. There is a lot of running involved.”- Senior midfielder Hanna Horeis

The ‘Belles have outshot their opponents 40-6 through 199 minutes of total play this season. The amped up defense has gone along way in filling the void left by the departure of well known midfielder Brandie DeBacker, whose 34 goals over four seasons ranked her second on the ‘Belles all time scoring list. According to senior midfielder Hanna Horeis, the team tries to be competitive in practice to prepare themselves for their competition. “Some teams are more physically aggressive,” Horeis said. “Some of them are more posses-sive, so we just try to train off of that and be competitive in practice to just prepare our-selves.” Horeis said that she feels many people don’t realize how fit you have to be in order to play this game. “We play 90 minutes straight and sometimes you have to go into overtime,” Horeis said. “There is a lot of running involved.” The ‘Belles run themselfs that hard in practice in order to make themselves better as players and in turn, a better team, Horeis said. The ‘Belles have welcomed six new freshmen in addition to the bevy of veterans on the team this year with three more redshirting. While the ‘Belles mean business, junior defender Trisha Killen said that they are more laid-back than serious in the locker room. “We are definitely a team that does not take life too seriously,” Killen said. “We joke around, have a lot of fun, but we also know when it’s times to get serious and to get our minds right to play the game.” Killen said that the team’s greatest need going forward will be passion. “Our team already has a lot of passion,” Killen said. “We all train hard enough, but we don’t want to put all that training to waste, so we all come out strong and we want to get the win.” To get the win, the team will need chemistry, which Killen said is their greatest strength. “I think we are very close-knit as a group,” Killen said. “We can figure out what each other is going to do and how each other plays and we can adjust to it.” The ‘Belles next challenge will be on the road today in Durango, Colo. against Colorado Mesa University.

Upcoming Volleyball Schedule (Home in bold)Colorado Premier Challenge Tournament9/7/2012 12 p.m. CSU-San Bernardino Denver, Colo. 9/7/2012 3:30 p.m Regis Denver, Colo. Denver, Colo. 9/8/2012 TBD TBD Denver, Colo. 9/8/2012 TBD TBD Denver, Colo.

Regular season9/14/2012 7 p.m. Cameron Angelo State 9/15/2012 2 p.m. Midwestern State Angelo State 9/18/2012 7 p.m. Tarleton State Angelo State 9/20/2012 7 p.m. McMurry Angelo State9/22/2012 2 p.m. Abiline Christian Abiline Christian9/25/2012 7 p.m. Texas A&M Kingsville Kingsville9/28/2012 8 p.m. Eastern New Mexico Angelo State9/29/2012 2 p.m. Tarleton State Tarleton

*All home games played at the Junell Center.