LOYOLAN
Sports Editor Andrew Rezk
is proud that our basketball
team isn’t cheating.
Page 24
EST. 1921
VOLUME 93 I ISSUE 31
Students
strive for
an open
dialogue
Organizations across campus
have sparked up a conversation
about mental health.
Julia Sacco
News Editor
@_JuliaSacco_
Not too long ago, the issue of mental
health on college campuses was something
that would rarely be discussed other than
behind closed doors. Today, LMU students
and organizations on campus are teaming
up to create a movement that will open the
discussion about mental health and combat
the negative stigma associated with it.
Senior entrepreneurship major Jasmine
Foroutan started the Emotive Movement to
empower others to invest in their emotional
intelligence.
“The ultimate point about it is to create
dialogue and to inspire people to realize
that mental health is important, and it
shouldn’t be some type of taboo, and it’s
not weird,” Foroutan said.
The movement will consist of a series of
YouTube videos, in which people will open
up about their experiences with mental
illness and help to start a dialogue among
See Mental Health | Page 2
Kuumba beats the competition
for LMUvs Best Dance Crew
Caroline Burt | Loyolan
LMU's Best Dance Crew, held on Regents Terrace on Friday, March 13, featured LMU dance teams IB Modern, Kuumba Beatz and Radix. Three
judges were responsible for 80 percent of the vote while the remaining 20 percent were based on the audience's choice. The competition
had four rounds: "Michael Jackson Round," "School Spirit Round," "Freestyle Round” and "Show Your Style Round." Kuumba Beatz won the
competition, earning three extra minutes at LMU’s Madness at Midnight For more photos of the event check out Page 16.
LMU Holi Festival
welcomes spring
Caroline Burt | Loyolan
The LMU Festival of Color was held on Friday, March 13 at Lawton Plaza by RHA
to celebrate Holi, a spring festival celebrated by Hindus. The festival signifies the
end of winter and the beginning of spring. Student participants wore white, threw
colors in the air and enjoyed henna tattoos and a food truck.
2015 Common Book
explores social issues
Multiple award-winning
novel “Southland” chosen for
next year’s Common Book.
Anna Sugiura
Asst. News Editor
@anna_sugiura
LMU students will journey through Los
Angeles’ riveting history of racial tension
and police brutality in the 2015 Common
Book, “Southland” by Nina Revoyr.
Beginning the selection process in the
fell of 2014, the Common Book committee
received over 130 nominations for the
2015 LMU Common Book. After months
of deliberation, the 20 -person committee
consisting of faculty, staff and students
narrowed the selection to four books:
“Southland” by Nina Revoyr, “The New
Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, “Men We
Reaped” by Jesmyn Ward and “The Boys in
the Boat” by Daniel James Brown.
“Southland” by Nina Revoyr surpassed
the other options and was picked for its
readability and for its themes of racial
tension, interracial cooperation, love and
community. Additionally, the novel weaves
through a multifaceted history of Los
Angeles, which makes the piece relatable to
LMU students.
Moreover, the committee felt that next
year’s Common Book should recognize one
of the most pivotal moments in Los Angeles
history: the Watts Riots. This August
will mark their 50th anniversary, and the
committee felt that this book would provide
students with the opportunity to reflect on
this aspect of Los Angeles history through
the stories and characters of the novel.
“We want people to appreciate Los
Angeles, not just the Hollywood Los
Angeles. These moments in history are a
part of L.A. that people don’t know or tend
to forget about,” said La’Tonya Rease Miles,
the director of the Academic Resource
Center and
со
-chair of the Common Book
committee.
“We also wanted to encourage students
to connect to that time period because it
tackles very serious issues that are still
happening today,” said Chandler Wright, a
sophomore communication studies major
and Common Book committee member.
The goal of the Common Book is to bring
students together to discuss issues that are
relevant and important.
“We want to get as many members of the
LMU community to read the book, and with
the content of this year’s book being so rich
in historical context and relevant themes,
I have no doubt that students, staff and
faculty will find themselves easily getting
into the book just as I did when I first read
it,” said Wright.
“[The Common Book] is a program
designed to unite the entire campus around
one common book, and we target new
students — primarily new freshmen and
new transfers — and we encourage them to
read whatever the given text is and then also
have a whole series of conversations related
to some aspect and theme to the book,” said
Rease-Miles.
See Common Book | F’age 5
