Category: News

Sanders Appeals to Local, Young Voters

Written by: Cody Neuenschwander, Franci Mara, Samantha Whiting

Volunteers, some of them IPFW students, gathered in the Bernie Sanders campaign headquarters on Wells Street in Fort Wayne April 26, as they prepared to go out into the community to knock on doors to garner more support for Sanders.

A poll by Harvard University found that 54 percent of those between 18-29 had a favorable opinion of 74-year-old Sanders, a democratic Presidential candidate.

According to Dr. Michael Wolf, professor of political science at IPFW, Sanders’ appeal to young people comes from his “anti-establishment” views.

“Younger voters have grown up in a time of political polarization, that has led them to potentially view politics as being especially negative,” Wolf said. “He’s [Sanders] talking about reform, and moving things that they associate with causing that.”

Those things include money in politics and social inequality, which Wolf said young people view as part of what has led to political polarization.

Another of Sanders’ policies that has been viewed favorably by young people is his claim of free tuition for public universities. However, according to Wolf, Sanders would still have the young vote without that policy.

Janelle Hall, president of the IPFW organization Students for Bernie, held a social event for Sanders supporters at the Fort Wayne coffee shop Firefly on April 19.

The event brought more than just IPFW students. In fact, according to Hall, only a few of the estimated 15 people that showed up were students. Many of them fell into the under 30 demographic.

Hall asked everyone who showed up to stand and say why they support Sanders. Some spoke of Sanders’ political policies; others spoke of his opposition to inequality. An overarching theme, however, was the consistency in his message throughout his political career.

Dria Kirkpatrick, a Sanders supporter, has never volunteered for a presidential candidate before. But, for Sanders, she has gone door-to-door and made telephone calls in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana.

“I truly believe he’s just a voice that covers everyone, no matter if you’re old, no matter if you’re young,” Kirkpatrick said.

Rebecca Burton, another local Sanders supporter, has also never volunteered for a candidate until now.

“I was uninvolved completely. I felt like I didn’t have a voice,” Burton said. “I was just going to vote Democrat because I liked the policies better, but I didn’t actually volunteer for any candidate until now.”

Burton said she is impressed with Sanders’s activism in the past, specifically pointing out his support of the civil rights movement.

“He’s been fighting so hard for us, I can’t just sit back and not fight for him,” Burton said.

She also said that young people want their own place in the government.

“We’re the ones starting this new way of thinking,” Burton said. “We want our government to be for us, and not for money.”

After losing key states in the primary elections to Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, Sanders announced he is considering cutting back on his campaign staff to reserve his resources and elongate his campaign.

According to Wolf, Sanders is behind Clinton in the Indiana polls. Sanders is visiting the IPFW campus Monday and Indiana primaries are on May 3.

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Current Negotiations Over IPFW Governance Remain Unclear

Written by: Franci Mara & Samantha Whiting

IPFW officials had been kept in the dark since the January announcement that the presidents of Indiana University and Purdue University would renegotiate IPFW’s governance by a June 30 deadline, until April 14, when the presidents announced that they will be crafting a new agreement.

The LSA recommendations and report were delivered to Presidents McRobbie and Daniels in January, which had suggested the formation of small oversight groups in order to research each part of the recommendations.

“Since that time they have been in communication, and I am not involved in those discussions at a system level,” Vicki Carwein, IPFW’s chancellor, said.

A possible roadblock in the negotiation process could be the future of the nursing program, according to separate statements from Carwein and Andy Downs, the presiding officer of the IPFW senate.

“IU was very open to say we don’t want to start any of these other discussions until the nursing issue is resolved because for IU that was such a big ticket item for them,” Carwein said.

According to Downs, there have been multiple, unofficial proposals concerning the nursing program. The proposals include the splitting of the undergraduate and graduate nursing programs between IU and Purdue, giving both the undergraduate and graduate nursing programs to IU, or the College of Health and Human Services would become the IU campus and everything else would stay the same.

An oversight group was going to be formed shortly after the recommendations were presented in January, but has yet to be formed. Each of the three universities was supposed to name a representative to lead the oversight groups. IPFW named Vice Chancellor Carl Drummond, Purdue named Provost Debasish Dutta and IU has yet to name their representative.

“Since [the oversight group] doesn’t exist then none of the individual groups that would look into specifics of the proposal have been created,” Downs said.

Carwein said that she wants the Fort Wayne community to know that there are some good things in the recommendations, such as a medical research center, but there are also some problematic aspects of the recommendations. According to Carwein, the oversight groups need to be formed in order to make sense of the recommendations.

“The details of how you make that happen in a way that doesn’t harm existing students in terms of how they’re being educated, and the quality of the educational experience they have and how to actually promote that and make it better, is what they need to be talking about,” Carwein said.

Neither President McRobbie nor President Daniels returned phone calls concerning the negotiations between Purdue University and IU.

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Unclear Future for Helmke Library

Written by: Sarah Updike, Kasey Gerding, Rachel Stephens, Derek Ewing, Logan Harris, Cameron Seaman

Dean of Helmke Library Cheryl Truesdell said the library catalog and databases could change if Indiana University separates from IPFW.

In January, the Legislative Services Agency proposed IU leave its IPFW campus.

IPFW Vice Chancellor of Financial and Administrative Affairs David Wesse said, “The two presidents of both Indiana University and Purdue University are currently in discussions formed by legislation to bring about an amicable separation.”

Until the final decision is reached, the library is planning the adjustments needed to make the shift to a Purdue library.

Truesdell said she hopes this change does not take place.

“IU brings its own special contributions to our area,” Truesdell said.

However, according to Truesdell, if Helmke does become a Purdue library, one of the first things to possibly leave is IU’s catalog IUCAT. Purdue’s catalog, THOR, would then take its place. This could be an adjustment to students who are accustomed to IUCAT.

Not only would the catalog appear different on a computer screen, but Truedell said there is also a chance about 332,000 books would need new barcodes to align with this new catalog. This process would include placing a new barcode sticker on the books.

“It’s not just a matter of putting the new barcode on,” Truesdell said. “You have to link the barcode to the record in the catalog.”

Truesdell said this job would take approximately five minutes per book which adds up to about one year of ten people working  40 hour weeks. This process will only be necessary if any IPFW barcode numbers overlap with those already in the THOR catalog.

According to Truesdell, there is no set number for how much keeping all databases would cost; however, she said it would be the most expensive part of switching to a Purdue library.

According to Truesdell, IU currently provides Helmke with 67 to 100 databases that Purdue does not own.

Truesdell said, “We’re assuming that we would have access to some of Purdue’s databases.”

If IPFW wants continued access to IU’s databases, they may have to pay out of pocket or negotiate a contract with Purdue to cover the cost. If neither of those options work, IPFW would have to discontinue their subscription to those databases, according to Truesdell.

Purdue Trustee Michael Burghoff said there is no final decision yet. Due to this, the fate of Helmke Library remains unknown until the universities come to an agreement.

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IPSGA Aims to Keep Elections Centered on Platforms

Written By: Kale DeVoe, Cody Neuenschwander, Brice Vance

The Indiana-Purdue Student Government Association held open forums to help this year’s student election be more centered on candidates’ platforms. Events like these have not been used in the past couple election years, according to the student government coordinator.

Victoria Spencer, the university staff member responsible for overseeing the function of the student government, said making students aware of the candidates plans if elected between April 18 and April 23 is an issue “we have struggled with.”

“We are trying to bring back more intentional election events,” Spencer said. “It is something that has somewhat gone by the wayside.”

Last year, the student government did not host any forums or debates between candidates because there was only one contested election. Three of the four candidates ran unopposed.

IPSGA hosted two debate themed open forum events with candidates on April 5 and April 6. Spencer said the forums increase student involvement in the elections. Spencer estimated 90 students attended the two events.

Spencer said these events “force the candidates to put themselves out there, and run on a platform…as opposed to, ‘Hey here’s some candy. Please vote for me.’”

Student body president candidate senior Aleksandr Bogun said he was not pleased with the student response to the election.

“After getting people to sign my petition [to run for student body president], I had only ten people ask me what I actually want to do,” Bogun said. “The amount of students that actually care is really small. That shocks me.”

Spencer said she hoped these events would curb disinterest and “make students actually care about this.”

“These students represent you,” Spencer said.

Wade Smith, who is currently in his second year as student body president, dropped out of the campaign. He explained the role of the student body president as being “an advocate for the students.”

“They are a face for anyone to go to if they have questions concerning IPFW or IPSGA,” Smith said.

During his presidency, Smith has led initiatives to bring water bottle filling stations and more recycling bins to campus.

This year, Bogun and sophomore Andrew Kreager are running to fill Smith’s position.

Bogun works for IPSGA as an office administrator, and said he interacts with students daily. He also won Homecoming King in 2015. Kreager is a member of the student senate.

Beyond this year’s organized election events, both candidates use flyers in their campaigns. Bogun and Kreager both said they want their flyers to spur conversation with students about their platforms.

“The main thing is for people to notice you. I am trying to get my name out there,” Bogun said.

Bogun said he wants to connect the university’s departments together to promote and encourage growth on campus. He also expressed concern about students losing places to hang out due to ongoing construction.

Kreager said if he becomes president, he wants to be a voice for students among the potential recommended changes in the LSA report.

“I want to focus on the survey,” Kreager said. “I feel there has been no student input. I feel like getting student support might sway some of the things happening on campus.”

 

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New Coworking Space Coming to Downtown Area

FORT WAYNE – Start Fort Wayne announced the construction of their new coworking facility, Atrium, which will give local entrepreneurs the ability to meet, work and grow their business in downtown Fort Wayne.

The coworking facility, called Atrium, will be located on the second floor of the Hoch Associates building in the heart of downtown Fort Wayne. The 5,500 square foot space will be available to local entrepreneurs through a monthly membership fee and is expected to open in mid to late spring.

According to the founder of Start Fort Wayne, Dave Sanders, in response to ever-changing technology and the ability for businesses to be started directly from a computer, Start Fort Wayne believes that small businesses and entrepreneurship are essentials in the 21st century.

“Start Fort Wayne is here to accelerate the pockets of innovation and entrepreneurship already happening here in our region. We’re seeing more people wanting to step up and create their own businesses and their own ideas,” Sanders said.

Atrium will provide members with conference rooms, desks, offices, wireless Internet, telephones, a kitchen and a stage for presentations.

“We see ourselves as a catalyst for providing resources and services to speed up reactions that are already going on,” Sanders said.

Chad Clabaugh, who works in digital technology, plans on becoming a member once Atrium opens its doors.

“[Atrium] is actually going to cater to the individuals, to people who are just getting started out. Most other places are just like incubators and are designed for, ‘Come in with a business plan, come in with a crew and we will help you if you meet our standards. ‘ Whereas Atrium is more ‘Bring in an idea and we’ll help you,’” Clabaugh explained.

Clabaugh said that many entrepreneurs use coffee shops as an alternative to an office, but that it becomes inconvenient when one needs to make a private phone call or store their extra tools such as computer monitors. Atrium is built as a place where its members have private areas to work and store their work tools, Clabaugh said.

Sanders said that the $300,000 needed to start and sustain Atrium was donated primarily by sponsors including Indiana Tech, the Knight Foundation, the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne, and Greater Fort Wayne Inc.

“This space will be a very exciting space where people will come together and I predict that in the next five, ten or fifteen years some of the best companies will actually come back and their heritage will be out of this space,” CEO of Greater Fort Wayne Inc., Eric Doden said.

Potential members have the opportunity to fill out an interest form, find information about memberships and view the floor plans of the facility on the Start Fort Wayne website.

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COAS Includes Interdisciplinary Course in New Proposal

Written by: Kashay Bowens, Jeran Lantz-Robbins, Charlotte Stefanski, Emily Yager

The College of Arts and Sciences working group recently submitted a proposal in regards to the college’s general education requirement, which included an interdisciplinary education course, something most of the group thought would be a positive experience for students, said Jeff Malanson.

Malanson, the chair of the committee, said the working group spent two semesters on forming the proposal, but one idea they kept coming back to was an interdisciplinary course.

Janet Badia, the director of women’s studies and a member of the working group, said, “In its ideal form it would entail three professors teaching the class together. It would be team teaching importantly in the sense of all three professors being present in the class for all sixteen weeks.”

An example she gave included a class covering the human body. She said each professor would give a perspective from the humanities side, the social sciences side, and the science side.

According to Malanson, the course would be problem based class taken during a student’s freshman year. The course would teach students how experts from each discipline would approach the same topic.

“Instead of an intro to science, it’s a specific issue that they might be passionate about,” Malanson said. “It gives them this opportunity to engage in a more meaningful learning experience from day one that might help them feel more engaged with the university.”

Malanson said the course could also be used as a recruitment tool for the university.

“I’m not saying we’d be the first to ever do it, but it’s not a common thing, and especially not for students who are coming to a regional campus that has far fewer resources than IU or Purdue,” Malanson said.

The group is made up of 16 members, each being from a different department within the College of Arts and Sciences. It was formed in the fall of 2013 when IPFW implemented a new general education program.

“When our general education system changed, it created certain issues in the curriculum that the faculty felt needed addressed,” Nancy Virtue, a French professor and member of the working group, said. “The working group was charged with exploring how we might address certain weaknesses in the current requirements.”

According to Malanson, four of the group members voted against the proposal in its entirety, not just the interdisciplinary course. Those who did not agree with the interdisciplinary course were concerned about the logistics of maintaining the course.

“It probably would be very difficult for smaller departments to lend faculty to teach that course, so it would not have the full flavor of all the College of Arts and Sciences disciplines,” Timothy Grove, an associate professor of physics at the university, said. “I would argue that it’s not really a matter of teaching methods. It’s more a matter of give a dose of this, give a dose of that. It’s more of say filling out a shopping cart list than anything I would consider a teaching method.”

“The next thing up in this process is figuring out how we can actually do this responsibly. We don’t want to adopt a set of requirements that we can’t actually give our students in a meaningful way,” Malanson said.

According to Virtue, the proposal currently sits with the College of Arts and Sciences executive committee, who are currently determining the next steps in how to move forward with the proposal.

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Plans for New Tunnel to Reduce Sewage Overflow in Rivers

Written by: Rachel Abraham, Kristine Lindal, Ali Rairigh, Emily Yager

Fort Wayne, Ind.—City Utilities will begin construction of the $240 million Three Rivers Protection and Overflow Reduction Tunnel project in 2017, according to Kelly Bajic, city utilities professional engineer, to reduce the amount of sewage discharged into the St. Marys and Maumee Rivers during storms.

According to a city 3RPORT and Tunnel Works release, the project responds to a federal mandate for the city to reduce combined sewer overflow from 100 billion to 100 million gallons by 2025.

Matthew Wirtz, deputy director of engineering for the city, said during heavy storms, the sewage system overflows and raw sewage mixed with rainwater flows into the river.

According to Bajic, the tunnel will have a capacity of 31 million gallons, although it will primarily be used for conveyance and not storage.

Wirtz said once the tunnel is constructed, the majority of the flow currently discharging into the river will drop into the tunnel.

The 5-mile tunnel will begin south of Foster Park and run to the existing sewage treatment plant on the Maumee River. According to Wirtz, they will drill 150 to 250 feet into the bedrock where the tunnel will run underneath downtown and around Foster Park. The tunnel will convey flows to the wet weather ponds located north of the Water Pollution Control Facility, according to Bajic.

Wirtz said the construction will take 4 to 5 years because they will have to bore the hole underground, come to the surface and connect the existing sewers.

According to Bajic, 13 drop shafts will be constructed to convey the flow from the near surface sewers down into the tunnel.

“The tunnel itself will be done in a few years, but then getting all the rest of that stuff done will take a couple more,” Wirtz said.

Robert Gillespie, associate professor of biology at IPFW, said he and a team of students have been helping the city monitor river water quality during intense events. According to Gillespie, there are some great students who are eager to work on the tunnel project, helping the city accomplish what they couldn’t do on their own.

Gillespie said once the tunnel is completed positive impacts on water quality could be seen after only one season.

Wirtz said in addition to improving river water quality, the tunnel will reduce street and basement flooding and help move water from homes to the treatment plant faster.

“We’ll still have problems in really large storms, but the more normal, small storms will provide much better protection,” Wirtz said.

“It’s trying to fix something that’s been a problem not only in our community but in a lot of midwest communities,” Bajic said. “There’s a lot of different communities that have combined sewer systems, so it’s not just Fort Wayne.”

According to Bajic, the project is currently in the design phase and the next step for the project is getting documents ready for the bidding process by the end of Fall 2016.

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Inflammatory Statement Found on Diversity Wall Not Considered Crime

Written by: Kashay Bowens, Charlotte Stefanski, Jeran Lantz-Robbins

After the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs found a racial epitaph written on the diversity wall, the IPFW Police were able to identify the individual who wrote the statement. According to IPFW Chief of Police Julie Yunker, the action was not a direct violation of the law.

Ken Christmon, the associate vice chancellor for the department, said his staff discovered the inflammatory statement on Nov. 18, and he immediately contacted the university police.

“We did a very aggressive thing and put out a statement out to let people know that we’re not

going to tolerate this,” Christmon said.  “There is no threat, there is no intent, it does not rise to the level of mass alerts, but it did have a hate tone to it.”

During their investigation, Yunker said her officers took statements from those in the department’s office and reviewed surveillance footage. They were able to identify the individual who wrote the statement and brought him in for questioning.

The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act limits access to a student’s education records, including campus police reports, so the student has not yet been named.

After the investigation, Christmon said the student was not trying to insight fear, but wrote it as a sarcastic statement.

The diversity wall in the department allows students to write their opinions in response to questions and topics proposed by the department in erasable marker.

“The diversity is a free speech wall, we came up with the program because we felt like students wanted to get their voices heard,” said Christmon. “Our original thought was to leave it up there and create dialog at first, because it’s on a free speech wall, but the police department advised us that is was better to take it down.”

“We further affirm that we will not allow a statement of hate to go unchallenged. We will not forget that the words were posted,” Carl Drummond, the vice chancellor of academic affairs, said on behalf of Chancellor Carwein in an email sent out to students. “We remain committed to our cherished values of inclusion and intellectual integrity and to challenging hatred and ignorance with clearer thinking and strong ideas for an inclusive and respectful way of life.”

According to Yunker, what the student did cannot be prosecuted, because it did not fall under the category of a criminal violation.

She said if the student would have used spray paint to write the message instead of the erasable markers provided at the diversity wall, then it would have been a criminal violation. However, since there was no permanent damage, it cannot be considered vandalism or criminal mischief.

Yunker also said the statement could not be considered a hate crime for two reasons, and said, “Hate crimes are actual crimes that exist and have this attribute of some kind of hate against a group. With no permanent damage and no crime, there is no hate crime.”

Indiana is also one of five states to not recognize hate crimes as criminal violations, which Yunker said was another “eye-opener” for people on campus.

With nothing able to be done in a criminal arena, Yunker said the university can take action against the person for having violated the student code of conduct. However, Dean of Students Eric Norman chose not to comment on if he was continuing an investigation.

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Is Sacrificing Sleep Actually Worth the Good Grade?

Finals week is here and IPFW students are cramming to get their last minute study sessions in while finishing up assignments. Some even report forgoing sleep in order work through the night surviving on caffeinated drinks and pure stamina.

Daytime sleepiness, sleep deprivation and irregular sleep are highly common among college student. 50 percent report daytime sleepiness and 70 percent attain insufficient sleep.

Hershner and Chervin conducted a study on sleeplessness among college students and found that most people require seven to eight hours of sleep in order to function properly. It has been found that many bodily systems can be harmed by sleepless nights.

According to former nursing student, Caitlyn Mishler, a number of the body’s functions are negatively affected by inadequate sleep such as lack of appetite, slow immune system, erratic mood swings and neurocognitive consequences.

“It [sleep deprivation] can cause about anything under the sun,” said Mishler. “When you sleep, it’s a time for your body to repair itself and heal from stress of the day, you don’t realize it but actually walking around and being awake is quite a huge thing for your body and if you don’t give your body time to repair itself it will turn on you.”

During sleep, the body produces cytokines which are cellular hormones that help fight infections. People suffering from lack of sleep may be more vulnerable to everyday infections like the common cold and flu.

According to Hershner and Chervin there is a link between insufficient sleep and weight- gain. Due to lack of sleep, levels of the hormone leptin which tells the brain enough food has been consumed, are lower while levels of ghrelin, which stimulates appetite, are higher.

Alia Hoyt, who researched how dangerous sleep deprivation could be, stated that other effects of sleep deprivation involve a lower ability to retain memory, lack of better judgment and problem-solving. During sleep, learning and memory pathways become encoded in the brain, and sufficient sleep is necessary for those pathways to work properly.

“I see this [sleep deprivation] in more college aged students,” Mishler said. “They cram and rely on energy drinks and coffee to sustain them.”

With insufficient sleep, the thinking process slows, it is harder to focus and pay attention.

“I am sleep deprived right now,” Sara Williamson, a senior at IPFW said. “I didn’t really see it as a big deal, everyone goes through this at some point in their college career it wasn’t until I started going through memory loss and time jumps that I started to get scared.”

According to Hoyt, those who suffer from sleep deprivation have an easy solution: unstressed rest. Giving the brain and body time to repair itself in the REM stage of sleep is the best possible solution.

“Unstressed rest is the best cure for sleep deprivation, no sleeping aids or amount of caffeine can compare to a natural nights rest.” Mishler said.

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IPFW Faculty and Students Support Syrian Refugees

IPFW faculty and students organized two events to support Syrian refugees on Dec. 2, including a rally and a panel. The rally served as a peaceful event in response to Indiana closing its borders to refugees, according to Farah Combs and Nancy Virtue, who organized the event.

The rally allowed students, faculty and community members of Fort Wayne to express their support for the Syrian refugees in an outdoor, open-mic setting.

“I wanted to show Fort Wayne, Indiana and the United States in general that people on college campuses are paying attention to these events and they do support refugees,” Elana Merritt, a junior who helped organize the rally, said.

“Our goals were to speak out in support of the Syrian refugees, and to make some sort of public statement in solidarity and support,” Virtue, who is also a French professor at the university, said. “It was a really great opportunity to introduce a competing voice, and to let people know perception is not uniformly against the refugees.”

Three days after the attacks on Paris, Gov. Mike Pence joined at least 15 other governors around the country and said he would close Indiana’s borders to Syrian refugees until “proper security measures are in place.”

As of Nov. 19, 31 governors said the refugees are not welcome in their state, according to CNN.

During the two-hour period, attendees wrote postcards to Pence and signed a petition to allow Syrian refugees into Indiana. According to Combs, the university’s Arabic professor, 100 preaddressed postcards were filled out and sent to the governor.

Qmr Aldik, a Syrian student who came to the United States in 2011, said, “All I want to tell him is that he might be in this position one day, and it’s not their fault to be fleeing their home.”

Montha Thach, a junior at IPFW, was also present at the event. She said she was supportive of the refugees because her own parents were once refugees.

“I just feel like Syrian refugees are not here to threaten us. They’re just here because they want a chance to live just like we do,” Thach said. “As humans, we should all support each other in times of need, so I feel like Mike Pence should open up his heart instead of shutting them out.”

Steven Carr, the director of the university’s Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, said that he saw similarities in the Syrian refugee crisis and when the United States turned down more than 900 Jewish refugees as they were trying to flee persecution from Nazi Germany in 1939.

“Given that we know what the history is now, do we really want to make those same kind of mistakes?” Carr said during the rally. “Do we want to be so cold hearted and so lacking of compassion that we are willing again, despite the historical record, to turn away people who are fleeing persecution?”

However, not all students at the university support the idea of refugees entering the United States. Alexis Taylor, a freshman majoring in business at the university, agreed with Pence’s stance, and said the United States should help the many homeless Americans in the country first.

“I think we would need intense filtering of the refugees to ensure that none of them are potential members of ISIS,” Taylor said. “Plus, we need to help our people first before we can open up to all of these other countries.”

According to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the vetting process a refugee must go through is a 13- step process including screening from the National Counterterrorism Center, the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, DHS, the Department of Defense and other agencies.

Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement that the refugees have the “highest level of security screening of any category of traveler to the United States.”

The panel held later that night at the university aimed to engage the panelists and audience in a conversation about the Syrian refugee crisis, according to Assem Nasr, who moderated the event.

Nasr, assistant professor in the Department of Communication, posed questions to a group of panelists including activists Sam Jarjour, Caleb Jehl and Amar Masri and university professors Ann Livschiz and Jaime Toole.

Jarjour, Jehl and Masri had recently taken a trip to Europe to film a documentary on the Syrian refugee crisis.

During the panel, Jehl said, “By this point they’ve generally taken a boat out across five miles of sea in a little dingy without a pilot. If they’re lucky enough to survive that, they’ve gotten to Greece and they’re taking another boat to somewhere else to walk their way through Europe.”

“The boats were safer than the land they were escaping, that was a common story we heard,” Jarjour, who is a board chair of the Indiana Center for Middle East Peace, said. “We heard people talking about languishing in camps for four years with no hope and no security.”

According to the UN Refugee Agency, about 2 million registered refugees live in Turkey, more than a million live in Lebanon and over a half million live in Jordan.

Jarjour, Jehl and Masri also said the Syrians they met came from many different backgrounds, with most of them being educated. Some of the people they met included doctors, lawyers and pharmacists, who Jarjour said would be an “asset to our community.”

“They happen to be from all walks of life,” Masri said during the panel. “We met factory workers, we met farmers, we met a tractor driver. They just left there for the sake of safety and for a better life.”

“There’s a rich history of Syrian immigration to Fort Wayne that’s 100 years old, and people don’t even realize this,” Jarjour said. “The notion that we can exclude one nationality when they need us most because of that nationality is antithetical to American values, in my opinion.”

Nasr currently works with a group to resettle Syrian refugees in Fort Wayne, and said it’s a matter of when they are resettled, not if.

“We all miss that we’re human at the end of the day,” Nasr said. “Our biggest goal at this point in time is to talk to people and to bring an awareness of we are having people come into the city. We’re going to need to have all of the help that you can give. If you don’t have enough time, money, or resources, at least be generous enough to be welcoming and hospitable.”

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