Bringing Back Trinity Men’s Lacrosse Team

Trinity University men's lacrosse team
(in black and maroon) hosts
Texas A&M Corps of Cadets on March 5
Photos by Taylor Shelgren

By Taylor Shelgren

Trinity University men’s lacrosse team is both old and new.

It is old because it first started in 1988 when a bunch of “rag-tag” guys came together with a passion and dream of starting a lacrosse team. The boys wore jerseys and pads donated by the Trinity football team and they played their first scrimmage against the University of Texas.

In 1993, Trinity played the University of Texas in the first sanctioned United States intercollegiate lacrosse association game. The lacrosse team continued playing and growing until the spring of 2005, when it stopped playing and the team fell apart.

The current lacrosse team at Trinity, however, is barely 1 year old. The spark was kindled in June 2015, when Trinity student Ben Mulford had a vision to restart the team and the passion to make it great. Mulford double majors in Chinese and political science and just finished his third year at Trinity.

Renowned Filmmaker Tells Story of the Beginning of His Career as a Trinity Student

By Nipuni Gomes

Molina and his crew working on Revelation
Photo courtesy of William Molina

Filmmaker William Molina, ’84, was among Trinity’s last cohort of film majors when, 36 years ago, the university’s Department of Journalism, Broadcast, and Film was in the process of dropping the film component and turning into what is known today as the Department of Communication.

Now an award-winning cinematographer, Molina traced the beginning of his career to his freshman year at Trinity when, although with a limited budget and resources, Molina persevered with a whole lot of passion and determination.

Young Entrepreneurs at Trinity University

Cole Evans rehearses his lines for an Under Amour
entrepreneurship commercial in Trinity’s
Center for the Sciences & Innovation
Photos by Nate Borchers 

By Nate Borchers

When Cole Evans started college at Trinity two years ago, he already had in mind a business idea.

“Coming into college I really knew that I wanted to pursue a business degree mainly because how seriously I was taking the idea of launching Plova,” said Evans. Plova is Evans’ vision of a chewing gum that can replace brushing teeth, designed for businessmen or students on the go who don’t have time to brush teeth.

Evans took this idea to the Cupid’s Cup-Under Armour Entrepreneurship Competition, hosted at the University of Maryland last year. Competing with more than 500 businesses and despite being by far the youngest team, Plova made it to the finals.

Microaggressions, Free Speech, and Political Correctness: A Growing Dialogue on the Trinity University Campus

The April 27 meeting on political correctness
Photo by Nipuni Gomes

This is Part 1 of a two-part series.

By Nipuni Gomes

Toward the end of the past spring semester, amid the stress of preparing for final exams, about 30 Trinity University students still found the time to attend a meeting regarding political correctness and free speech.

They engaged in a heated debate at the April 27 meeting.

“Political correctness is nonsense. We need to throw it out, and we need to go ‘bye-bye,’” said Reece Ringnald, a sophomore and member of Tigers for Liberty at that time, but was later dismissed from the organization.

“We were based off of free speech in this country,” Ringnald said, calling political correctness “a manufactured term.”

His view was challenged by other students at the meeting. “If you’re not able to respect where the other person is coming from, you are not going to be able to convince them of your opinion,” said Benjamin Collinger, a first year student and president of Trinity Diversity Connection.

“I just don’t care!” Ringnald replied.

“Then why are you here?” several other attendees asked in unison.

Microaggressions, Free Speech, and Political Correctness: A Growing Dialogue on the Trinity University Campus

Trinity University Dean of Students David Tuttle
(far left) meeting with students from
the Black Student Union on April 22
Photo by Nipuni Gomes

This is Part 2 of a two-part series.

By Nipuni Gomes

In early April, Tigers for Liberty, a student organization for conservative, libertarian-minded individuals, invited British journalist, entrepreneur, and controversial fringe internet icon Milo Yiannopoulos to speak about microaggressions in Laurie Auditorium.

In his lecture, Yiannopoulos articulated a number of slurs against people of color and feminists, and argued that microaggressions do not, in fact, exist. The lecture was attended by members of both the Trinity community and the wider San Antonio area. Many attendees cheered and laughed during the talk, and named it an exercise of free speech.

“Milo sort of acted like an unnecessary battering ram in that everyone knows who the club is now, so in terms of getting name recognition up, he was excellent. In terms of his lecture, I wasn’t a fan of his lecture,” said Manfred Wendt, a first year student and President of Tigers for Liberty.

Callum Squires: Passion for Soccer and Beyond

Callum Squires playing soccer for Trinity 

Photo by Nate Kizla

By Davis Mathis

Callum John Drysdale Squires has a name that couldn’t allow him to show his Englishness if he wanted. So how did this Englishman end up in San Antonio, Texas for college? The answer is soccer.

He wanted to keep playing soccer. 

“America is crazy about college sports. It’s just such a big culture here, which is weird because no one cares about college sports back home,” says Squires, a junior majoring in German Studies. “They aren’t really even a thing. So when I wanted to keep competitively playing the sport, America was the logical choice.”

TUPD Officer Laura Hernandez

Corporal Laura Hernandez
Photo courtesy of Laura Henandez

By Katie Groke

Corporal Investigator Laura Hernandez is all smiles when she talks about her time with the Trinity University Police Department. “TUPD rocks!” She is also one of only three female officers at TUPD, out of its force of 32.

Now her second year at Trinity, Hernandez has also been teaching a Rape Aggression Defense (R.A.D.) class at Trinity, something she has done in various places for 22 years.

This course is offered as a physical education common curriculum course and is available to female students. Here she and Sylvia Villarreal, also with TUPD, teach young women different self-defense techniques. They also teach their students how to be good witnesses who can help officers get information across the radio. “Each person has something to learn from this course,” says Hernandez.