With April drawing to a close, many Illinois State University students are prepping for upcoming commencement ceremonies. The University will host five ceremonies at CEFCU Arena, with two Friday, May 9 and three Saturday, May 10. On May 9, the 4 p.m. ceremony will consist of the Mennonite College of Nursing and the College of Arts and Sciences Social Sciences. The 8 p.m. ceremony will feature the College of Arts and Sciences Natural Sciences/Mathematics and Humanities. On May 10, the 9 a.m. ceremony will consist of the College of Education and the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts. The 1:30 p.m. ceremony will be for the College of Applied Science and Technology. Last but certainly not least, the 6 p.m. ceremony will feature the College of Business. This is not a ticketed event, and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. More information is available online.

Students for Justice in Palestine at Illinois State University (SJP-ISU) held an “Ecocide in Palestine” protest Tuesday to raise awareness about how the war in Palestine contributes to the climate change crisis. As students walked through the Bone Student Center, March, SJP-ISU’s outreach and organization chair, shared excerpts from Andreas Malm’s climate activism book, “How to Blow Up a Pipeline.” March said that Hurricane Katrina and the Flint, Michigan water crisis represent the dangerous cycle happening throughout much of the world. “It’s just a cycle that keeps repeating itself,” March said. The discussion was then brought back to Palestine and how damaging the war is to the planet. “War is not separate from the climate and it never has been,” March said. According to SJP-ISU’s Instagram, the United States’ military is currently ranked as the top institutional polluter in the world. “The destruction and contamination of the agricultural land, air quality, water supplies and native wildlife in Gaza is a deliberate act of ecocide,” the post read. Several students supported the protesters as they walked by. A renewable energy student shared the importance of supporting a cause like this one. “It can be very isolating [for people] to just sit on their phones and read everything that’s horrible in the world and think, ‘Well, nobody cares,’ or ‘I’m special because I care and everyone else is dumb,’ but they have to get out there and let themselves be a person,” the attendee said. March emphasized the power of community and its role in activism. “It’s really important, especially now, to understand that action is possible and it’s possible in [our] communities,” March said. “We’ve seen how the federal government has worked to suppress protests, especially pro-Palestinian protests, and it’s largely been an intimidation tactic to get people to stop showing up for their communities.” March hoped that the protest would encourage others to support SJP-ISU’s message and similar advocacy efforts. “When [we] see our community stand up for something, we recognize that there is something to stand up for, and I think that is really important for kicking people out of their complacency and realizing that they can be fighting for something too,” March said.

Illinois State University President Aondover Tarhule was among numerous university and college presidents nationwide who co-signed a letter denouncing recent actions by the Trump administration. Over 150 university and college presidents co-signed the April 22 letter, orchestrated by the American Association of Colleges and Universities. The signers ranged from large public universities to each of the Ivy League institutions, excluding Dartmouth College. The letter urged leaders to unite against "the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education." "We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live and work on our campuses," the letter said. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has paused federal funding to several of the country's top universities including Columbia and Harvard. NBC News reported the move was made to pressure those universities to change its admissions processes and penalize student protesters.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and Students Ending Rape Culture at Illinois State University (SERC) is hosting several events throughout the month to show support and raise awareness. SERC hosted its Consent Day event last Wednesday at Schroeder Plaza. Several campus organizations came together to share and explore the different ways consent plays in a student’s daily life. SERC representative Lauren Bounds shared what the organization does for the campus community. “It can mean so much for so many different students[and] it can be really comforting for survivors,” Bounds said. Consent Day is one of the many events SERC hosts throughout April. Different campus RSOs and local organizations attended and discussed the importance of consent. “It is so integral is our daily lives…it can be as small as how we interact with our loved ones, our friends, but also people we’ve never met before,” Bounds said. SERC representative Evan Carr noted that consent is sometimes misunderstood. “There are a lot of misconceptions about when consent is needed and when it’s not. Oftentimes, it is framed around sex in particular, but consent is just the bare minimum requirement for most of our interaction between people,” Carr said. Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, MERGE, Pride at ISU, Queer Coalition, Student Counseling Services, Black Girl Code, the YWCA, OSF Healthcare, Bobzbay Books and Mid Central Community Action were some of the on-campus and local organizations in attendance. Teal ribbons, the official color for Sexual Assault Awareness Month, were available to students. Additionally, OSF Healthcare had a sample test kit for students to learn about the process of sexual assault testing. More information on SERC’s upcoming events for its Sexual Assault Awareness Month campaign is available online.

Illinois State University's Office of Sustainability will host its annual Earth Day Breakfast this week to help raise awareness of environmental issues and promote change around the world. The event will take place from 8-10 a.m. Tuesday in the Brown Ballroom of the Bone Student Center. Attendees will be provided with a breakfast buffet with local, organic and Fair Trade certified foods. Beverages and vegan options will also be available. This year's keynote speaker will be author and climate activist Zahra Biabani. Assistant Director of the Office of Sustainability Christine Bruckner shared why Biabani was selected for the breakfast. “Zahra was selected as the speaker for this year's breakfast after the Office of Sustainability staff read her book, ‘Climate Optimism: Celebrating Systemic Change Around the World,’” Bruckner said. “She brings a very positive and uplifting message of ‘climate wins,’ [or] examples of people and places around the world that are addressing climate change.” Biabani will discuss how communities are creating unique solutions to the climate crisis. Copies of Biabani’s book will be available for purchase, and there will be a book signing following her address. This event is co-sponsored by the College of Business, Leadership, Education and Development (LEAD), the Department of Health Sciences and the Department of Geography, Geology and the Environment. Additional information is available here.

University of Illinois professor and historian Peter Fritzsche presented “Brown Vibe: How Hitler Won Over the Majority in 100 Days” Thursday in Schroeder Hall. This lecture was a part of the Robert G. Bone Distinguished Lecturer Series hosted by the Illinois State University History Department. Fritzsche, who focuses mostly on modern Europe, the revolution, the Third Reich and World War II, walked attendees through the first 100 days of Adolf Hitler’s rule and what it was like to be in Germany then. One of Fritzche’s key points was the Reichstag Election that took place on March 5, 1933, and how the Nazis dominated election crowds while the government took over the remaining German states. “It is the March 5 elections, with the slim majority, but a strong majority in many, many places, that prompted a wave of violence from above and from below against the republican institutions,” Fritzsche said. Along with this election, Fritzsche discussed how the community turned on each other and how there was a lot of tension between citizens in Germany. Fritzsche’s point stuck with the Department of History’s Clinical Assistant Professor Kelly Keogh. “This idea of how quickly people will turn on each other and turn on their supposedly deep-held beliefs to chase after someone like Hitler or this promise of a better tomorrow is scary,” Keogh said. Keogh believed there were a lot of parallels between what Fritzsche discussed and the current U.S. government. “100 days is all it took for [Hitler] to dismantle [Germany], and [I] see how quickly things are deteriorating in this country. There's some really frightening parallels,” Keogh said. Freshman psychology major Ksenia Peric was interested in how Germany’s citizens felt during this period. “One part [of the lecture] was a guy's diary talking about his family's internal relationships politically and how his family interacted with each other, and I found that really interesting,” Peric said. Keogh was impressed with Fritzsche’s storytelling. “I think he was very calculated in how he weaved the narrative so [attendees] could make the connections to the obvious parallels without beating people over the head with it,” Keogh said. Keogh hoped this lecture would inspire people to make themselves aware and stand up for what they believe in. “Some people are too reluctant to call things out as they are; if it looks like fascism, it is fascism. People need to get more educated and aware, and people need to not give up,” Keogh said. Peric thought the lecture was well-organized and would like to see similar events on campus in the future. “I would attend a lecture like this again, I would appreciate it if we had more opportunities to have these lectures,” Peric said.