AWOL - Issue 025 by AWOL Magazine

spring 2019 | issue 24

cover story

lonely lonelystreets streets transgender and homeless in the district

in this issue: defining the au experience inclusive excellence campus battlegrounds

letter from the editor spring 2019 | issue 24

mission AWOL Magazine aims to continue pushing both ourselves and American University to be more critical of issues that deserve to be understood with nuance; to work subversively when dismantling barriers that suppress certain voices; to love irrepressibly when it comes to serving our community. We ignite campus discussions on social, cultural and political issues. We want to make our campus more inquiring, egalitarian and socially engaged. Our stories have an angle, which is different from having an agenda. Our reporting is impartial and fair, but our analysis is critical and argumentative. We were independently founded by American University students in 2008. While we are still student-run, today we are housed under AU’s Student Media Board. AWOL is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press and Generation Progress Voices Network. This publication has won awards at the National College Media Convention, and its writers have won awards from the Society for Professional Journalists and the College Media Association.

editorial editor-in-chief Katya Podkovyroff Lewis managing editor Taylor Sabol creative director Ben Black Michael Karlis web director staff editors

William Fowler and Savanna Strott

copy editors

Kayla Benjamin, Katherine Long, Chloe K. Li, Alec Schemmel, Noah Vehafric, and Grace Vitaligone

artists

Ben Black, Kavi Farr, Estella Fucelli, Chloe Ifill, Caroline Lougee

writers

McKenzie Beard, Lana Green, Erica Johnson, Ava Kowalski, Kelly McDonnell, Veronica Pacheco, Katya Podkovyroff Lewis, Kaela Roeder, Shane Matheu Ryden, Taylor Sabol, Claudia Stephens, and Maaz Qureshi

find us online website issuu twitter facebook

www.awolau.org www.issuu.com/awol @awolAU www.facebook.com/awolAU

dear readers, This semester, AWOL reestablished itself and further enforced our mission as a publication, pushing both ourselves and American University to be critical, subversive and irrepressible. After coming face to face with trials and tribulations, AWOL was proclaimed by one student as ‘the voice of the people’ during a student body event. With the expansion of new writers and the welcoming of new editors, we had to push ourselves to question the actions of the student body and administration without crossing ethical lines. We struggled to balance the moral responsibility of our passions while presenting ourselves as journalists. AWOL, to me, represents the best that journalism — and the university — has to offer. Being a part of AWOL since my freshman year, this organization has comprised of my daily life over the past three years. Students come to D.C. and AU with dreams of changing the world. Investigative journalism is undeniably an agent of that change. By shedding light on important issues and holding our leaders accountable, our publication is making a measurable impact on the way our peers interact with issues on campus and in the District as a whole. Attempting to address these concerns as well as work on the integrity, transparency, and thoroughness of AWOL, I collaborated with my staff in restructuring fundamental day to day tasks in the AWOL office. Increasing our readership and student participation, I have been honored in steering the AWOL ship at sea, reminding our staff that we may have a critical angle but not a political agenda. The stories of this issue bring us to the creation of this mission. The cover story discusses the ways in which homelessness and discrimination, due to stigma, rejection, and violence, can often affect the mental health of LGBTQ youths. This issue further unpacks AU controversies from the introduction of AUx courses to Student Media’s role at AU. This issue further covers topics we’ve discussed in previous issues dealing with gentrification, inclusivity (or lack thereof), student debt, and campus identity. However, it also introduces newer topics such as the over fascination of serial killers in popular culture (written by yours truly), an opinion piece on what is like growing through the identity of a queer man in the age of social media, AU’s environmentally friendly future but chemically toxic past, and more. But by no means am I or AWOL perfect and we continue to grow from our mistakes, so we ask to be held accountable. This semester AWOL has not only updated our Constitution in regards to positions and organizational hierarchy but we have devoted more time than in semester’s neglected past towards a subject thrown very loosely among the AU community and that is towards a discussion on diversity. Prior to the print publication, Student Media Board co-chairs, Reina DuFore and Awais Ahmad, led a Diversity Discussion event thanks to AWOL’s very own incoming 2019-2020 Web Director, Chloe Li. It was during this discussion that I became cognisant of issues AWOL, as well as other Student Media organizations, are facing: diversity in the newsroom. At risk of un-telling the stories our writers and their sources are giving us, I hope to further push AWOL to promise that as journalists, although we pride ourselves on holding those in power accountable, AWOL is not above that standard. I urge the future AWOL leadership to address issues regarding microaggressions or diversity when they occur, and in a proper manner at that. I urge AWOL and our readers to understand that while objectivity is the gospel of journalism, it is also it’s fatal flaw; for it may be impossible to be objective when one’s identity crosses into what the writer is passionate about. As important as it is to facilitate ongoing dialogue surrounding these issues, it’s more important that we set an example through action. I urge the future of AWOL to cultivate conversations and a community where diversity is more than just a buzzword but an objective; where diverse perspectives are encouraged, edited considerately and not taken out completely; where conversations arise out of praise and not only out of punishment. Journalism is the art of being comfortable getting uncomfortable and I urge the future of AWOL to take this discomfort and face it head on. Because while all of our stories call out some form of injustice, a large number of them also provide us with actionable tools for effective resistance. We have a responsibility to fight for what’s right. Education and resistance has been our part, now it’s time to do yours. In solidarity, Sincerely,

katya podkovyroff lewis editor-in-chief

campus life

opinion

04 defining the au experience

AUX'S IMPACT ON STUDENTS Ava Kowalski

IN PURSUIT OF COMMUNITY Shane Matheu Ryden

Many students are critical of AUx as a newly required course, but what many don’t realize is that administration wants to hear that student feedback.

Lured by the prospect of validation and acceptance, gay men flock to online spaces only to find themselves vulnerable to manipulation.

07 campus battlegrounds TESTING WAR CHEMICALS AT AU Erica Johnson As AU looks to build an environmentally sustainable future, the remnants of its past unearths new challenges.

politics 26

STUDENT JOURNALISTS' INFLUENCE Kelly McDonnell Lorem ipsum

all work and little pay

Paying the price of a reputation.

the district 28

The diverse community of public artists responsible for the creation of art in DC explain what unites and divides them.

14 inclusive excellence

WHERE IT COMES FROM AND WHERE IT'S GOING Maaz Qureshi Everyone is talking about inclusive excellence but what exactly does that mean and what is AU doing to promote it?

culture

COVER STORY

19 lonely streets TRANSGENDER AND HOMELESS IN THE DISTRICT Lana Green The LGBTQ community faces adversity with homelessness and unemployment.

GENTRIFICATION'S EFFECTS ON WEALTH IN DC Veronica Pacheco

professor profile 33

dr. omékongo dibinga MUSIC AND ART MANIFESTING INTO SOCIAL JUSTICE Taylor Sabol

THE FASCINATION OF SERIAL KILLERS IN POP CULTURE Katya Podkovyroff Lewis

health

the color of wealth Nonprofits and their fight to help residents affected by a changing D.C.

16 killer looks With serial murder on the decline, audiences turn to entertainment media for their true crime fixations.

writing on our walls DIVISION IN THE PUBLIC ARTIST COMMUNITY Claudia Stephens

RAS' EXPERIENCE AT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY Kaela Roeder Freshmen RAs have come forward to share their frustrations with their jobs, specifically with their training and what the "other duties as assigned" really is.

collegeʼs newest club DROWNING IN STUDENT DEBT McKenzie Beard

09 power to the press

a queer conditioning

A conversation with AU professor, motivational speaker, and perfomer.

photo essay 35

national treasure Ben Black A look at the Northeast's only National Park

multimedia team photography & videography director

Melany Rochester

podcast directors Maddi Cole Braeden Waddell pr director

Verónica Del Valle

podcast assistants Sasha Fernandez Shane Matheu Ryden pr assistants

Kate McKenna Caroline Morgan

podcasters

Nell DeCoursey Brennan, Shannon Durazo, Greta Gatlin, Maddie Haines, Ethan Lipka, Grace Vitaglione, Verónica Del Valle, and Therese Wilson Audio Editors: Timothy Madden and Zachary Mills

awol podcasts listen for free at awolau.org or your favorite podcast listening app. BISEXUALI-TEA

5 episodes

Bisexuali-tea is a biweekly podcast produced by AWOL and hosted by Rin Ryan and Sasha Fernandez. The show discusses various topics related to LGBTQ+ life in college.

RIPPED FROM THE WALL

2 episodes

Over the course of one semester, Ripped from the Wall has investigated substance abuse at AU in order to better understand the issue and the university’s response to it.

letter from the directors dear listeners and readers, This semester, the amazing Ripped From The Wall team has continued its mission to uncover and discuss structural problems at American University through investigative, subversive reporting. In particular, the team produced the second and third episodes of Addiction at AU, a three-part series that addresses the high rates of substance misuse within the student body, as well as the university’s policies on combating addiction on campus. This investigation included conversations with students, faculty, the staff at AU’s Counseling Center and the Health Promotion and Advocacy Center, and even President Burwell. The series outlined the ways in which the university addresses substance misuse, and discusses the stigma around discussing addiction. But, the team was left with several unanswered questions: why doesn’t the university provide students with training on the use of naloxone, a life-saving medication that can reverse opioid overdose? And, after months of reporting, why isn’t there more transparency for students to learn about the programs the university offers to address addiction? The RFTW team then moved on to discuss internship culture at American University. Through a series of interviews with AU students, staff members at the AU Career Center, and the university’s office of admissions, the team saw a particular issue with internships offered in Washington: lack of payment. This reporting uncovered a cycle in which students feel pressured to do internships, but may not have the financial capability of working without pay. This led our reporters to speak with Carlos Mark Vera, a former AU student and the co-founder and executive director of the advocacy group Pay Our Interns. Our investigation found that the ability to do unpaid internships is often a privilege, and that a way to address this issue is to open up a dialogue about the importance of paying interns for the work they do. The Bisexuali-tea duo, Sasha Fernandez and Rin Ryan, continued to produce their podcast on a biweekly basis. This semester, the pair saw a newfound success on a worldwide level. With over 4,000 total downloads, Bisexuali-tea has become popular across age groups and countries as one of the only bisexual-centered podcasts on the scene. Bisexuali-tea won the award for Best Podcast at the College Media Awards, the same honor that was given to RFTW last year. We also produced the first live show of Bisexuali-tea this March at the Davenport Coffee Lounge with SOC Week. For the first time, Fernandez and Ryan had the opportunity to speak in front of their fellow students and professors. The topic was queer fashion, and the Dav was packed for the show. We are incredibly proud of the work they have contributed to the AWOL podcasting team this semester, and are thrilled to see it continue in the year to come. We are so proud of the growth and the success the podcast team has had over the 2018-19 school year. As a team that is only two years old, we are so happy to see the passion for podcasting take off in the AU community. We can’t wait to see what next year holds. All the best, maddi cole and braeden waddell podcast directors

COMING SOON:

In the second half of this semester, the RFTW team researched unpaid internships in Washington. The team uncovered a cycle in which students felt pressure to do internships, but may not have the financial capability of working without pay, and identified ways to create a more open dialogue about internship culture.

campus life

defining the au experience AUx'S IMPACT ON STUDENTS Written by Ava Kowalski | Art by Chloe Ifill

You walk into class. You find lounge chairs arranged in a circle in a room labeled ‘lounge.’ You take a seat, and you share your “highs” and “lows” of your week. The topic of today’s class, you learn, is “Whose Privilege Is It, Anyways?” and your first exercise is to write a journal entry of the ways in which your identity has impacted your privilege.

run of a course–that a select group of students took in 2016, according to the AUx website. After several years of piloting and making adjustments to the program, AUx launched as a mandatory freshman course in the fall semester of 2018. AUx has been the center of heated discussion among students since its inception.

This is a typical American University Experience, or AUx, class.

“Honestly I feel like most people see it as a pretty strong negative about the freshman experience,” Silvio Renna, a freshman currently enrolled in AUx, said.

AUx is a one and a half credit course recently added to the required course curriculum for freshmen. In their first semester, freshmen take AUx1, which is intended to help them adjust to life in college by educating them on campus resources and topics such as health and wellness, budgeting and academic success. In the following semester, freshmen take AUx2, which is designed to create a safe space for students to acquire the skills and knowledge needed to participate in difficult conversations surrounding topics like race, privilege and identity. Instead of traditional professors, AUx is mostly taught by a group of firstyear advisors who are accompanied by a student assistant called a “peer facilitator.” This is not the first time AUx has been implemented at the university. AUx was first proposed in 2015 and began as a pilot program–essentially a test-

Many first-year students have strong opinions about AUx, ranging from utter opposition to gratitude for the valuable lessons they believe the course offers. Whether they love it or hate it, students taking AUx have expressed a great deal of criticism. What many students do not know, however, is that the administration is highly interested in hearing student feedback in order to make needed changes and the improvements that students want to see. Many students enrolled in AUx have argued that they do not find much of the material taught in AUx to be valuable, or that the class should not even be required in the first place. Renna, for example, said it should be entirely optional or required as a onetime workshop, similar to the online alcohol use workshop freshmen must complete.

Because the course is mandatory, Renna explained, it makes students more resistant to the curriculum. “When people are not invested in [the class], it trivializes it and makes people more resistant to the ideas that are presented to them because they have to deal with them rather than letting people come to their conclusions on their own,” Renna said. Students also criticized the course as being too political or biased. PJ Chandra, another freshman taking AUx, said it is difficult to feel comfortable expressing opinions in discussions if they do not align with the political views of the professor or students. He is not the only student who feels this way. Renna and Jonathan Mao, another freshman, attested to the overly political nature of the class. Many students also find the unique setup of the class and curriculum hard to take seriously. The lounge set-up of AUx makes it “feel like preschool,” freshman Aidan Kenig said. Students are also unclear of true intentions and value of the course. “I didn’t know what AUx was for the first two weeks,” freshman Lindsey Lieb said. “I thought, ‘why am I taking a class that doesn’t make any sense?’” Peer facilitators are aware that there are student complaints.

awol maga zine “I know there've been a lot of conversations about whether the assignments are valuable to the class,” Yaz Hanouneh, a peer facilitator said. “A lot of students, at least from my perspective, believe that they're not really all that valuable,” Although many freshmen are opposed to AUx, upperclassmen and administrators defend AUx as a requirement. “I do think it should be required because I've seen how it's benefited students,” Sam Frank, a current peer facilitator, said. Frank was also one of the first students enrolled in the original pilot program back in 2016. “By sophomore year, and definitely by junior year, you'll see the benefits that are reaped from AUx.” One of the main intentions behind the course is making students aware of resources before they need them, according to Jessica Waters, dean of Undergraduate Education and vice provost for Academic Student Services. “I think one of the struggles with AUx we've certainly heard from students is they're not sure that they need all of the information that's provided,” Waters said. “We're looking at that, and we're listening to that.”

What many students do not realize is that Waters and other administrators behind AUx want student feedback. “We always invite students to come and talk to us, tell us how we can improve the curriculum, how we can improve the classroom environment,” said Izzi Stern, AUx Program Manager. “We take that feedback really seriously and we want to make it the best course that it can.” Since AUx is a new course, its administration, which is made up of faculty and staff of different disciplines, is eager to receive student feedback This will allow them to judge what is and is not working, according to Stern and Waters. The administration meets weekly to evaluate student feedback and discuss what changes need to be made to improve the course. “I think sometimes there can be a perception that the administration rolls out a program and that's it, we're not going to make any changes. That's not what this is,” Waters said. “From the beginning, AUx has been a program that has gone through modifications and changes based on feedback from the entire community.” One of the first major changes to AUx was the addition of a unit on budgeting. After students voiced their desire to be taught how to manage Eagle Bucks and other costs of college, the administration took those concerns into account. The following year, a unit on budgeting was implemented, according to Stern.

Another significant change to the course was the amount of time students had to complete assignments. As a pilot, AUx was rigorous and work-intensive, with assignments due every week. After receiving student feedback, administrators reformed the course so that there are only three major written assignments, which are due typically a week and a half after students learn the topic. “AUx has always been extremely receptive to feedback,” Frank said. The past curriculum for AUx is very different from that of the current course, according to Hanouneh. The order in which content is taught, the material covered in each unit and styles of assignments have been changed based on what was popular and what felt important. Administration allows students to voice their feedback through multiple outlets. Stern suggests that students do so by attending events hosted by the AUx administration, such as study breaks, which are advertised via social media and the weekly freshmen newsletter “Tuesday Newsday.” Students can send feedback through email, either directly to administrators or to the program’s general address at AUexperience@american.edu. Students are also encouraged by the administration to share their thoughts with their AUx teachers, peer facilitators and members of the AUx leadership such as Stern and Waters. “My policy is that I will meet with any student who wants to meet with me,” Waters said. As an additional way to gauge student feedback, the administration has conducted focus groups and universitywide “calls.” The latter, however, has not been successful since very few students attended.

“Last semester we did universitywide calls where I said, ‘hey, anyone

campus life who wants to come talk about AUx, come find me,’ and students actually didn't show up to those, which was frustrating,” Waters said. Despite the efforts of the administration to acquire and evaluate student feedback, there is an apparent disconnect between the administration and students. Many students are not aware of how to give feedback or how valuable it is to the administration of AUx.

Kenig agreed that AUx administration should rethink the ways in which they acquire student feedback. A better option, he suggested, would be an online survey or written questionnaire that students must fill out in class. They could even make it count for

“Last semester we did university-wide calls where I said, ‘hey, anyone who wants to come talk about AUx, come find me,’ and students actually didn't show up to those, which was frustrating,” Waters said.

“I don’t know of any way to give feedback, but I know that they want our feedback,” Kenig said. Kenig explained that although his peer facilitator has voiced the program’s desire for student opinions of the course, there has been no clear way of doing so, aside from the end-of-thesemester student evaluation. Of six students interviewed, only one said he was aware of ways to provide feedback about AUx. As for the focus groups and universitywide calls, students said they did not attend because of the lack of advertising and communication about the events. Anushe Ashraf, another freshman taking AUx, said that if more students knew of such events and knew that their input would make a difference, they would be much more likely to attend, “I think admin posting a flyer in random places in MGC being like ‘hey come listen to us,’ –no one is going to listen to that flyer, remember that date,” Ashraf said. The most effective way to reach students is by publicizing events through social media, word-of-mouth, and through peers or youth, according to Ashraf.

participation points, Ashraf added. Students may be unaware of the changes that have been made since the pilot, or that AUx was even a pilot in the first place, and that more changes are being discussed every week. As a peer facilitator, Hanouneh sees the changes being made to AUx behind the scenes. However, “that's not always being communicated to the students who are currently taking the class or to prospective students.” Hanouneh said. “I think that's something we could be doing better on because the program has evolved and changed a lot based off of the feedback, but nobody really knows that.” The administration of AUx said it is committed to improving the course for future students. “I think every year and every semester, we move a little bit further towards making it better, but there's still more work to be done. Absolutely,” Stern said. “This is not something that we sit here and say, ‘oh, we've perfected it. It's never going to change.’ This is going to be long standing. We want that student feedback.”

Ava Kowalski is a freshman majoring in Journalism.

awol maga zine

campus battlegrounds TESTING WAR CHEMICALS AT AU Written by Erica Johnson American University has positioned itself as a leader of environmental sustainability among college campuses. However, buried underneath the foundations of the campus are the remnants of one of the nation’s largest Formerly Used Defense Sites. McKinley Hall, where the School of Communication now resides, was the home of a chemical testing lab during World War I. It was not the shiny new building that students know today. During WWI, it was an unfinished, forlorn building on a fledgling campus. The 1900s were a precarious time in AU’s history. When WWI started in 1917, AU was still a struggling institution located in a place that was undeveloped. The University opened its doors with only 28 students, five of whom were women. The board of trustees reached out to Woodrow Wilson in a letter offering up the university “to be used as the purpose of the Government may desire. The campus may be used either for a camping ground for troops, for gardening and raising products for the Army, or for such other purpose as you may elect.” Secretary of War Newton Baker accepted the offer and created the American University Experiment Station, the largest chemical weapon facility in the nation.

Concerned about Germany’s use of toxic gases in WWI, both America and Europe were in a chemical arms race to defeat German forces before they completely harnessed the usage of poisonous gas. At the beginning of the war, the United States lacked the

Secretary Baker and T.H. Bliss greeting students on the steps of American University Training Camp – Library of Congress

When WWI ended, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave the land back to AU, including the unfinished building called the Mary Graydon Center. The Mary Graydon Center was supposed to become the new chemical testing lab.

the history of the McKinley building were conveyed in the End of Semester Update memo released on May 2, 2014, from President Neil Kerwin. One of the few university-wide communications that mentioned anything regarding the American University Experiment Station. It was a seemingly innocuous memo about the overall outlook of campus activity, which ended with the report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It briefly mentioned that the corps was continuing an investigation in Spring Valley and honing in on American University-owned property at 4825 Glenbrook Road.

Today, the Mary Graydon Center, is the epicenter of campus life. However, neither the origins of its creation, the intended purpose of its use, nor

At the time the memo was released, 160 pounds of glassware and seven pounds of metal debris, related to the American University Experiment Station had been

capacity to make chemical weapons or defend itself against a chemical attack. The Bureau of Mines was the only government agency with the resources and knowledge to help America defend itself against German gas attacks. The US Chemical Warfare Service evolved out of the Bureau of Mines.

campus life removed. This project was scheduled to finish in the spring of 2015. But by mid-summer it was evident that the process was going to take longer than anticipated. Kerwin released another memo on July 24, 2014, extending the timeline to the summer of 2017. These memos were signs that something was awry with the project. The limited information and historical context presented problems for the administration and the AU community alike. On December 1, 2014, another memo was released. This time it was from the President’s Chief of Staff, David Taylor, who offered only slightly more information about the Army Corps of Engineers’ activities. It stated that they had been conducting cleanup operations for more than 20 years to remove WWI material and that the presence of the chemicals dates back to 1917-1918. However, the cleanup is not the only thing that goes back 20 years. Officials from American University reached out to the Army Corps of Engineers in 1986 “to inquire about the possibility of chemicals being buried on campus and potential waste left behind that maybe we need to worry about,” according to Dan Noble, Baltimore District of the Army Corps of Engineers’ Spring Valley project manager. Documents were searched, but nothing material emerged. This predates the Corps’s cleanup efforts on AU’s campus, which started in the late 1990s, by about 10 years. The local community is consistently informed about American University’s history and the progress made regarding cleanup. The Army Corps of Engineers sends out a newsletter to every private household in the boundary of the

Courtesy of the American University Courier

Formerly Used Defense Site two or three times a year. This includes roughly 1,300 households. There’s also a Restoration Advisory Board comprised of community members, regulators, and a representative from American University, said Chris Gardner, an official in the corporate communications office of the Baltimore District of the US Army Corps of Engineers. The Restoration Advisory Board meetings are held every other month. Despite American University’s involvement on the Restoration Advisory Board, communication about the cleanup to the campus population remains sparse. While cleanup to date has not resumed, and no other memos have been released, issues still arise. The groundwater in two well locations located in the south campus, Glenbrook Road area within the Formerly Used Defense Site contains levels of arsenic or perchlorate above Environmental

Protection Agency standards. Perchlorate is common at military bases in the production of rocket fuel, missiles, fireworks, flares and explosives. It can be speculated that there was testing of rudimentary rockets at the American University Experiment Station but very little information exists on that project. In Spring Valley, this groundwater is not used as a source of drinking water. While the Army Corps of Engineers has accepted responsibility for the contaminated groundwater, the path forward remains unclear. Monitoring of the groundwater will continue until a resolution is reached. To date, there has been no documentation found that could identify all of the chemical testing pits on AU’s grounds.

Erica Johnson is a graduate student studying strategic communication with a journalism emphasis.

awol maga zine

power to the press STUDENT JOURNALISTS’ INFLUENCE How AU student media navigate an anti-journalist climate Written by Kelly McDonnell Despite the growing anti-journalism sentiments in the United States, American University student journalists feel like they are still being respected on campus by other students and by administrators, even in the face of some challenges. In recent years, anti-journalism rhetoric has become rationalized and normalized. As shown by a poll by the Pew Research Center, political parties are divided on how effective media is, with only 34 percent of Democrats and 11 percent of Republicans believing that the news they receive is trustworthy. A tense reporting environment has not been affecting only professional journalists. Student journalists often face harsh criticism and even censorship, according to the Student Press Law Center, a nonprofit organization that supports high school and collegiate journalism. For AU’s own student media, student journalists have experienced reporting challenges.

In February, an AWOL writer, Noah Vehafric, was told to leave a Dining Advisory Board public meeting after he identified himself as a student journalist, according to a previous AWOL story. In May 2017, The Eagle, another on-campus University publication, reported that writers for The Blackprint were denied entry to cover the press conference that followed a racial incident when someone hung bananas in nooses from trees. An AU student, Tom Lynch, who was covering the protest for NBCWashington

following that incident in May, was also removed from campus, according to a story by the Washingtonian. Chris Young, AU’s student media advisor, had 10 years of reporting experience before taking the position that he describes as being the “liaison between students and university administration.” Young said he takes his role very seriously in ensuring that the administration understands why student media are important. “This is a school that prides itself on having a very robust, a very strong, communications division … specifically a journalism program,” Young said. “If we are going to tell prospective students that we have a very strong journalism program, [the university] should be huge advocates for empowering student media and helping them do the best job that they can.” Sommer Dean, a staff attorney for the Student Press Law Center, provides student journalists with legal support and ensures that they experience their free press rights. The hostile climate that journalists now face affects students. Dean said that while they must fight the “fake news” rhetoric, student journalists are also proving themselves as reputable reporters. Dean said that over the past few years, the Southern Poverty Law Center has received lots of students asking for assistance when covering sexual assault,

faculty misconduct, or student drug use. “Administrations don’t want that covered,” Dean said. “So student journalists often face systemic censorship.” Censorship at private universities is more pervasive because they are not being held to the same First Amendment standards as public universities, according to Dean. Censorship can come from administrations limiting student media funding or bullying reporters off a story, such as threatening students with academic probation. AU has the right, as a private university, to censor student media. “Luckily they choose not to do that,” Young said. The Editors-in-Chief of The Blackprint, Jenna Caldwell and Alexis Arnold, said that they don’t think the university intentionally challenges their organization as a free press. Both editors agreed that because the publication started recently in 2016, their stories are not yet taken seriously. Caldwell explained that the paper’s “focus on people of color makes [it] not seen as an official publication.” When The Blackprint was barred from the 2017 press conference, Caldwell said that it was “administration saying we are not welcome.” Arnold added that the administration does not respond to The Blackprint because they “assume it’s a hit job,” or that the story is only being written to attack administration. When The Blackprint continued to be vocal about the administration and campus events, then the AU administration began to include The Blackprint as a respectable student media outlet, Caldwell said.

campus life

Despite frustrations that both editors said the publication faces, Arnold said that they are very much able to be creative and publish stories about student experiences and administration without fear. “Administration knows they don’t have jurisdiction over us,” Arnold said. “We’ve never been told, ‘You can’t publish that.’ The only thing that restrains us is our morals and ethics as journalists, and we do do our best to hold ourselves to the highest standards.”

“If we are going to tell prospective students that we have a very strong journalism program, [the university] should be huge advocates for empowering student media and helping them do the best job that they can.”

To maintain professional standards, Student Media Board Co-Chair Awais Ahmad said that student journalists need to maintain “trust with the university.” However, Awais noted that trust has to be balanced with students’ roles to hold administration accountable. “We don’t want to make enemies with the administration, but there are things we have to report on,” he said. Ahmad described his position as a liaison between student media and other student organizations, like AU Student Government. He also described how AU’s administration is open to a free student press, even if they have the power to censor them as a private institution. Ahmad said that, because of the support student media gets from other students, administration is less inclined to tell student journalists what can or can’t be published.

“Students trust student media for the information they know they can’t get anywhere else,” Ahmad said. He knows this by just scrolling through his Facebook wall and seeing his friends share articles from AWOL, the Blackprint or The Eagle. In a climate where journalists are becoming less trusted, Ahmad said “it’s a bigger responsibility that student media maintains objectivity and truthful reporting.” Joseph Campbell, a professor in the School of Communications, said that it is not uncommon for organizations being approached by journalists to assume that the story is a “hit job.” According to Young and his experience with student journalists, every year student media have trouble getting responses from administration or can’t find sources who want to talk, for fear of being misconstrued or portrayed negatively.

Even for stories that may not paint a source in the most positive light, Young said that student journalists still need to be transparent with these sources so no one feels like they have been “blindsided.” Student journalists understand the importance of facts and telling the truth, Young said, but it’s important for students to understand that the general public doesn’t really understand what reporting is. “It’s important to teach the public on how good journalism is produced, how the sausage is made,” Young said.

Kelly McDonnell is a sophomore studying journalism and cinema studies.

awol maga zine

all work and little pay

RAS' EXPERIENCE AT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY Written by Kaela Roeder | Art by Caroline Lougee Koji Wieber and Isabel MacCay, both former freshman resident assistants, have had mixed experiences with their job. This is true for several other RAs. These problems are a result of vaguely worded contracts full of grey areas and unclear guidelines.

the job description, current RAs have requested to comment anonymously out of concern for losing their job.

These problems include the training process, unfair pay, and the RAs being swept into other responsibilities that ultimately are defended by using the “other duties as assigned” clause of their contract.

Whether or not RAs have gone through training procedures before, each semester there is an intense training curriculum that the RAs must go through. In the fall, there is a 12-houra-day, six-days-a-week training period that lasts for two weeks. Most of the day, RAs are in presentations and lectures.

Both Wieber and MacCay stressed how valuable the job was to them, particularly having the honor of mentoring and getting to know so many students in their time. However, because of the training process, the number of hours worked versus compensation received, and an overwhelming number of responsibilities they had to undertake, they found themselves unhappy with the role. “RAs’ problems are swept under the rug a lot,” Wieber said. “There are a lot of other problems on campuses that need to be addressed...but [treatment of RAs] is a big problem and will continue to be for a while.” Wieber was an RA for three semesters, working in Clark Hall for fall 2017 and Letts Hall for spring and fall of 2018. MacCay was also an RA for three semesters, working in Nebraska Hall in the spring of 2017, Letts Hall in the fall of 2018, and Leonard Hall in the spring of 2018.

Because of the “Team Member” and “Community Facilitation” clauses in

One of the problems highlighted most was the training process that RAs complete each semester.

Around 9 p.m., when RAs are done for the night, they must work on their bulletin boards and door decorations in preparation for their residents to move in. Some are up until 1 or 2 a.m. after a twelve hour training day, then have to wake up at 8 a.m. the next day for more training. “You are getting paid a flat amount, and a lot can get shuffled under that umbrella,” said Wieber. He alluded to the “Other Duties As Assigned” clause in the job description as well as the housing stipend RAs are given. RAs at American University are given free housing and a $350 stipend each month. RAs are not given a meal plan, yet many are required to purchase one. MacCay, a senior in her final semester who left the job after becoming a parttime student, also expressed concerns with the intense regulation of the job. In the fall of 2017, the administration changed from Housing and Dining

to Housing and Residence Life. With this shift, new policies included each hall having to have ten “events” per semester. These events can be movie nights or other activities to provide the residents of the floor a way to bond and have a positive activity to go to. In the fall of 2018, this became more regulated, with the requirement to have two events per month instead of the general ten throughout the semester. “It took away agency from the RA… I would put on programs when I felt my floor needed them,” MacCay said. She recalled a time when she wanted to address an incident on her floor with an event to educate. This instance was in a month when she already completed the two programs for that month. While Housing and Residence Life subsidized it, the extra event would not count towards the final ten she needed to fulfill her job requirements.

campus life “At the end of the day, I can’t do supplemental programs and ten programs. I need the programs that I do, that meet my floor’s needs, to count as my job requirement,” MacCay said. “That focus came from a very good place, but a lack of knowledge of what the RAs were already doing.” The RA job description as of the 20192020 hiring process outlines the several responsibilities and expectations that an American University RA must fulfill. This document includes GPA requirements, meetings to attend, role model expectations, and several other points. The “other duties as assigned” section of the job description is the center of

For example, this past spring semester, RAs were forced to volunteer for New Eagle Day, an event that welcomes prospective students to American University. The administration made this event mandatory for RAs to attend because “it is extremely important to have all hands on deck for this event as [RAs are] expected to make these incoming students and their families feel welcome.” RAs were not compensated for this event. RAs are written in the job description to be “team members” and “role models” in their contract. While RAs are expected to be role models to their residents and on campus in general, it was questioned

Still, RAs do not often come forward to the administration. Lisa Freeman, the director of Housing and Residence Life, oversees the “experiential” piece of housing. Her role focuses on overseeing RAs, Desk Receptionists, and Community Directors. She also oversees crisis management. When asked about why this event was given to RAs, Freeman said, “I would not limit the ‘other duties as assigned’ as solely those two areas [emergency or unforeseen circumstances]...it is not limited to those two areas you identified.” Yet, the “other duties as assigned” clause states: “The nature of the RA position does not allow for all duties to be explicitly described. There will be times when hall staff are requested to assist in an emergency or other unforeseen circumstance. These situations will be presented as thoroughly as possible at the time of need.” In response to New Eagle Day specifically, Freeman said “it was a yearly activity that students were involved in and not sprung on students at the last minute.” “The minute we start listing things, if we leave something out, we are bound by the list we created. We don’t try to use this in a way that is reckless, we make sure what we ask staff to do aligns with the work that they do,” Freeman said. Yet, the “other duties as assigned” clause causes this very issue. Many RAs do not come forward with these complaints to the administration.

frustration for many RAs. Several jobs assigned are not seen as an “emergency” or “unforeseen circumstance” in several RAs’ opinions.

within the RA community that this job was assigned only to RAs, and only to freshmen RAs.

“There is not much incentive to come forward and say something for fear of repercussions or push back from your supervisor,” Wieber said. “It is hard to push back against, because it is technically in the contract that you signed.”

awol maga zine Freeman urges students to come forward. There is a student staff advisory council that provides space for RAs to express their concerns about the job. For individual concerns, the RA is encouraged to meet with their Community Director. The council meets typically every other week.

or their superiors, the Community Directors of buildings. Both current and past RAs agree that the Community Directors specifically are not to blame in the matter. Rather, the problems with the job are in the contracts, the training process, and that

“The minute we start listing things, if we leave something out, we are bound by the list we created. We don’t try to use this in a way that is reckless, we make sure what we ask staff to do aligns with the work that they do,” said Lisa Freeman, the director of Housing and Residence Life.

“I am big on having an open door policy,” Freeman said.

there are several grey areas that allow for the job to be exploited.

wouldn’t be able to have a GPA higher than 2.5,” MacCay said.

There is also a large difference in responsibilities between freshmen and upperclassmen housing. RAs interviewed believe this difference is not being taken into account.

It is a question of whose responsibility it is to solve this issue, and when that would occur.

The “other duties as assigned” clause is a root of several issues RA’s struggle with the role. The expectations for RAs do not put into consideration the academic responsibilities the students have.

“There is a huge disparity in placements as an RA,” MacCay said. “If you are in Nebraska, you have a whole apartment to yourself with less than half of the [number of residents] of other halls. In general, you do a lot less work and receive a much better living situation.” Other examples of disparity include freshman RAs holding required “intentional interactions” with each resident of their floor. The RA must meet with each resident twice a semester to check in on how the student is doing. A follow up email is sent to the community director for proof. While worthwhile for mentorship, one RA must contact upwards of 50 residents twice a semester. Yet, a large number of RAs have stressed that these problems are not necessarily a reflection on the current administration

This issue is not exclusive to American University. RAs at George Washington University attempted to unionize in the fall of 2016, but the Service Employees National Union Local 500 withdrew days before the vote after months of organizing. The director of higher education at the union, Anne McLeer, stated it was because the timing was not “ideal.” The vote was before finals exams at GW. They would have been the first private university to have resident advisors unionize. “I want to push back on the notion that it is just AU, it's really not,” Wieber said. American University’s issues in treating RAs also affects their work as full-time students. MacCay shared the academic pressures felt while she was an RA. “While I felt like my direct bosses were very supportive of academia, I felt there was an overall misunderstanding of what it takes to be a good student. If I was the best RA I could have been, I

“No matter the school you’re at, it is just going to be a problem, because there are so many underlying issues,” Wieber said.

Kaela Roeder is a junior studying journalism with a minor in anthropology.

campus life

inclusive excellence

WHERE IT COMES FROM AND WHERE IT'S GOING Written by Maaz Qureshi | Art by Chloe Ifill In the academic years 2014-2016, there were 15 offenses at American University that were characterized as hate crimes, according to AU’s latest annual security report. After the election of AU’s first black female student government president in the spring of 2017, bananas hung in nooses sparked outrage on campus and made national headlines. In the fall of 2017, the campus was vandalised with posters of confederate flags. On Jan. 30, 2018 AU President Sylvia Burwell launched the Plan for Inclusive Excellence, part of a $60 million annual diversity initiative, following the incident of confederate flag posters. “Inclusive excellence is about how do we actually create a new normal in this institution,” Amanda Taylor, Assistant Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at American University, said. “Most immediately [the Plan for Inclusive Excellence] comes from the acts of race hate and bias on the campus in fall 2017.” This is not the first time such inclusive work has been done on campus, according to Taylor.

Similar programs, including the newly required freshman American University Experience (AUx) class that discusses race and bias, have been piloted for years. However, these separate efforts are most effective when aligned under a broader strategic plan, Taylor said. “The Plan for Inclusive Excellence is a campus-wide initiative, meaning there has to be actors at every part of the institution engaged in the work, not just one office,” Taylor said. But what exactly does “Inclusive Excellence” mean? The Association of American Colleges and Universities’ (AACU) Inclusive Excellence Plan lists four elements colleges need to have for inclusive excellence. These include offering the courses best fit for the university; establishing an accessible, academically-challenging environment; highlighting and appreciating cultural differences; and fostering a community welcoming of its diversity. “Inclusive Excellence is a framework from AACU that’s used by many institutions,” Taylor said. “It's a way of ensuring we get to the systematic and structural change.”

The AACU Plan was created after the use of racial quotas was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2003, since it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment. The AACU Plan aimed to promote diversity while still remaining selective in admissions. The danger of traditional methods of selection like standardized test scores, GPA, and extracurriculars, is that they overlook candidates who, because of socio-economic conditions, cannot fit this definition of success and thus have been historically underrepresented, according to the AACU plan. While immediate actions, like including people of color in admissions brochures, give the appearance of diversity, the AACU Plan cautions that such changes are surface-level and should not become substitutes for implementing deeper, value based-changes in the school. “Admissions is really key,” Taylor said. “An important question is who gets to the door in this uneven environment that folks have to navigate, and so the key for us right now is partnerships.” One partnership has been a Dual Enrollment Program between the AU School of Education and DC Public Schools that welcomes 12th grade students to take college-level education classes to prepare a new generation of diverse teachers.

awol maga zine The AACU plan explains that the most visible parts of a university are its image, such as brochures aimed at prospective students, parents and visitors. However, the deepest parts are its core beliefs and values. These values make up the structure of every office, facilitate the

Aaliyah Charania, a SAC member, said SAC typically receives the concerns of minority groups on campus, such as the South Asian Student Union or the NAACP. They try to address those concerns by seeking additional training for faculty and staff, but more

“It’s really new, and it hasn’t existed for a long time, so we’re looking at what we want to do and who’s involved,” Brock said. “It’s not only about being on the council, but what you’re doing individually beyond the council. If you’re expecting to become an organizer

“I think it’s the culture of the campus, and that’s why they put [the SAC] here to help change the culture of the campus. If the campus culture shifted, then incidents won’t happen as often because students won’t see it as an acceptable form of behavior," said Aaliyah Charania, a Student Advisory Council (SAC) member. communication between students and administration and dictate how the school admits new students. “Diversity is about having diverse people and ideas in your organization at every level, and that's key,” Taylor said. “But inclusion is about how do we create a new normal in this institution whereby ideas and perspectives of all individuals, with specific attention to folks whose voices have historically been structured as marginalized, are actually deeply engaged and valued, which is different than having people who look different.” Changing AU’s values can be achieved by creating bureaucratic roles that are powerful enough to have an impact on curriculum, campus climate, and demographic makeup of the student, staff, and faculty populations, according to the AACU plan.

One way AU’s Inclusive Excellence Plan has done this is by creating the Student Advisory Council (SAC) to include the opinions of students about campus culture. The SAC conducts bi-weekly meetings where members discuss the goals of the President’s Council on Diversity and Inclusion (PCDI) and concerns from student body, and they act as the “ears” of Fanta Aw, Vice President of Campus Life, according to Rafael Cestero, co-chair of SAC.

importantly, make it mandatory as well. SAC tries to prevent hate crimes by catching problematic behavior from students before incidents can occur and taking proactive measures, according to Charania. “It’s constantly happening, and it just got caught on camera. I don't think these incidences are random,” Charania said. “I think it’s the culture of the campus, and that’s why they put [the SAC] here to help change the culture of the campus. If the campus culture shifted, then incidents won’t happen as often because students won’t see it as an acceptable form of behavior.” However, Aaliyah and other SAC members believe that change will not occur for a while. “Well this is our first year, and change is a really slow process. But we’ve set the groundwork for things that will happen later,” Charania said. “For instance, we met with someone who creates curriculum for professors on how to train them for pedagogy or how to be more aware of biases in classrooms.” Eric Brock Jr., another SAC member, said that instituting change does not come from having a seat on the SAC, but rather being a social organizer and committing everyday to making the change.

on the council, then you shouldn’t be on the council. You should have already been an organizer.” During Inclusive Excellence training from Taylor, some RAs were not satisfied with the work that the PCDI has done on cultivating a more inclusive campus climate. “A lot of what’s going on is buzzwords, but what are you actually doing to address and change people’s way of thought?” said Alyssa Bailey, an RA and AU Ambassador. Taylor and SAC members would like to see everyone have a more inclusive mindset, so that their roles are no longer needed. “I think we’ll know we’re there when we don’t need Inclusive Excellence Plan anymore because everyone is doing Inclusive Excellence,” Taylor said. “And we’ll know when we have a new normal when we have sense of belonging that doesn’t have gaps by any social identity, perspective, or political ideology.”

Maaz Qureshi is a sophomore studying international service.

c u lt u r e

With serial murder on the decline, audiences turn to entertainment media for their true crime fixations.

Written by Katya Podkovyroff Lewis | Art by Chloe Ifill

Trigger warning: Topics such as sexual assault, rape, dismemberment, and murder will be discussed throughout the course of this article. From the wildly popular Netflix show “You,” starring Penn Badgley, former “Gossip Girl” star, playing a boy-nextdoor bookstore clerk who happens to be a stalker, to the trailer for “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile” having Zac Efron playing serial murderer Ted Bundy, audiences have turned to social media to discuss the growing fascination with serial killers, stalkers, mass murderers, and the like. In many ways, true crime culture’s ongoing fascination with evil men like Bundy and the problematic reception of Joe on “You” seem to go hand in hand. Released 30 years to the day of when Bundy died in the electric chair at Florida State Prison, the four part Netflix docu-series "Conversations with A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes," painted a darker picture of the convicted serial killer, whose deeply troubled psyche led him to carry out an estimated 30 murders. In the film’s trailer, Efron-as-serialkiller grins, winks and charms to the tempo of a catchy rock tune. “If you didn’t know better, you’d think you were watching a preview for a fun and fast caper about a relatively harmless criminal in the style of “Catch Me If You Can,” rather than a biopic about a monster,” said Jack Levin, Northeastern professor, researcher and author.

"I've seen a lot of talk about Ted Bundy’s alleged hotness and would like to gently remind everyone that there are literally THOUSANDS of hot men on the service – almost all of whom are not convicted serial murderers," the tweet from the official Netflix account reads. Badgley similarly responded to the hordes of online fans who admitted to finding his “You” character attractive, to actively rooting for Joe in spite of his blatantly violent and controlling tendencies. “Penn Badgley is breaking my heart once again as Joe,” one Twitter user wrote. “What is it about him?” “A: He is a murderer,” Badgley matterof-factly replied. Although one fictional and one biopic, these films and tv shows are not the first of their kind. “My Friend Dahmer,” the 2017 movie was originally written as a 2012 comic book by John Backderf, a comic book artist known as Derf, who went to the same school as Jeffrey Dahmer. His account of their friendship and growing up with a serial killer, was marketed as: “There was always a darkness about him.” Dahmer, also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, was an American serial killer and sex offender who committed the rape, murder, and dismemberment of 17 men and boys from 1978 to 1991. Killed by a fellow prison inmate in 1994, Dahmer had become infamous just a few short months after his arrest in 1992. However, the fascination of cannibalism is one that has also been

explored such as in the “Hannibal” movie and, later, television series. Thomas Hargrove, investigative journalist and founder of the Murder Accountability Project further explained that, “we’ve been fed a line that serial killers are fascinating, evil geniuses whose misdeeds warrant a near-obsessive degree of analysis.” Hargrove founded the nonprofit in 2015 to track unsolved homicides nationwide. Authorities in Youngstown, Ohio, and Gary, Indiana, opened new homicide investigations in 2010 as a result of Hargrove’s findings. The algorithm’s identification of 15 unsolved strangulations in Gary was corroborated in 2014 with the arrest of Darren Deon Vann, who confessed to killing women for decades and then took police to abandoned properties in Gary where the bodies of six previously unknown strangulation victims were recovered. However type-casting the charming serial killer has also been a theme of public debate. Badgley, whose character on “Gossip Girl” turned out to be yet another man prone to stalking the people he hoped to control, put it as such: “Would anyone else be considered unassuming on the side of the street standing there too long? It’s pretty evident that no one but a young, handsome white man could do that.” Refinery29 writer Ashley Alese Edwards declared as much. “The Ted Bundy of America’s consciousness is a myth,” she wrote. “Bundy was not special, he was not smarter than the average person; he did not have a personality so alluring that his female victims could not help but simply go off with him. ... What Bundy did have

awol maga zine was the power of being a white man in a society that reveres them.” However, the “types” of serial killers range far and wide according to Dr. Michael G. Aamodt, an American industrial and organizational psychology professor at Radford University who has published more than 50 professional journal articles and presented more than 100 papers at professional conferences and also began the foundation of the Radford Serial Killer Database. Today, Aamodt works with Hargrove in the MAP for compiling the largest nongovernmental serial murderer database in the world. According to Dr. Aamodt, documentarians, filmmakers, and showrunners eagerly dive into the minds of these predators, hoping to shed light on the inner demons that make our sociopaths tick but often, the mystery is less complex. “I think that there is certainly more of a fascination with serial killers than kidnappers or people who rob banks but if you think about throughout history, like Bonnie and Clyde, there have been criminals who have taken society’s interest and really make good movies,” Dr. Aamodt said. Levin, who has spent his career studying murder and violence, was among the first to conduct a comprehensive study about serial killers in the early 1980s. With numerous television appearances and nearly three dozen books to his name, Levin is so widely known in the field that Charles Manson had a nickname for him: “Jack the Jackal.”

“Why don't we want to believe that beautiful people can do terrible things?” Levin said. “Certain people have always been drawn to those who violate the

social contract, parading their edginess by wearing pictures of Charles Manson on their T-shirts, or writing to serial killers in prison.” Levin’s latest book, with co-author Julie Wiest, “The Allure of Premeditated Murder”, examines the motivations of killers who plan their attacks. Drawing on his extensive research and interviews with convicted murderers over the years, including Manson, the sociologist helps us understand what sets apart serial killers and mass murderers from other violent perpetrators. According to Levin, serial killer is conventionally defined as a person who murders three or more people in a period of over a month, with “cooling down” time between murders. Dr. Aamodt, however, noted that this “cooling down” time has been a difficult element to agree on which is why the greater importance is usually set on the number of incidence. Meanwhile, mass murderers, unlike serial killers, kill a large number of people, typically at the same time in a single location. Hence, mass shooters are known as mass murderers rather than serial killers. Nonetheless, Levin noted that while there has been a

conventional shift in society due to greater exposure to mass killers opposed to serial killers, the sentiment remains the same: there are those who are fascinated, those who are terrified, and those who are resemblant. “They have certain skills which allow them to get away with murder for a long time,” Levin said. They lack a conscience, but are well versed in the art of manipulation. In many cases, the perpetrators are eventually caught, said Levin, but unfortunately not before they’ve amassed a significant number of victims. “It is interesting though that there has been a substantial decline in the number of serial killings in the last 30 or 40 years because really, the heyday for serial murder was really the decade of the 70s and 80s,” Levin said. However, the problem with catching serial killers is partially due to the volunteer reporting system of police departments to report to the FBI, according to Hargrove. “They can’t demand that police departments participate and they can’t enforce anything so it’s a voluntary

c u lt u r e reporting system which is obviously problematic,” Hargrove said. Hargrove explained that while Levin’s claims that serial killers’ heyday were the 70s and 80s is a common one, the problem with analyzing the increase or decrease of serial killers as a whole has been due to the creation of the term in the mid-70s. “Serial murder is on the decline, we’re far less likely to kill in a series than we were 30 years ago and we aren’t quite sure why,” Hargrove said. “But maybe it’s because the FBI created the term serial murder in the mid-70s and that then became the plot of several hollywood movies and TV shows so even though it might have been in the entertainment sector, we also started talking about them more.”

one exception is serial murder where women victims disproportionally are the victims of serial killers. Then, Levin notes individuals who may be perversely interested in serial murder. “There are a few fortunately, only a few, individuals that actually identify with the serial killers,” Levin said. “They would love to take lots of lives, have a large body count, torture, or make victims suffer, but they have a conscience that stops them.” Levin later said, “At best, they seem to just be able to read and view serial killers from the media and that makes them live vicariously through the exploits of their heros. This bothers me because these are the potentially dangerous people who might ultimately become too much like the people they

"Why don't we want to believe that beautiful people can do terrible things?” Jack Levin, Northeastern professor, researcher, and author said. “Certain people have always been drawn to those who violate the social contract, parading their edginess by wearing pictures of Charles Manson on their T-shirts, or writing to serial killers in prison.” Hargrove said he thinks the public fascination with serial murder is possibly tied with their decline, and thus, an urge to have it increased in entertainment media. But Hargrove is also one to point out that courts have also been becoming more proactive on seeing signs for psychopathic behaviour.

idolize but fortunately, I think there are very few.”

Levin on the other hand also added that the vast majority of people who happen to be fascinated with serial murder see it as an escape.

Levin emphasized though that the most unfortunate thing is that when society makes celebrities out of monsters, further encouraging the copycat phenomenon. This tactic as been utilized by mass and serial murders for decades, further encouraging these killers to leave messages behind. But Levin theorizes that if the news media coverage focused more on the rescuers rather than the murders, society would have a new copycat phenomenon on its hands.

“There are people who are scared to death, they’re concerned that they might be the next victims but I think this is especially true of women who happen to be interested in serial murder,” Levin said. Yet, according to Levin, most homicide victims are men, not women but the

As for where the fascination for serial killers stems, Hargrove says he’s unsure if it has more to do with the desire to weed them out rather than romanticize or sexualize them.

“Maybe people would want to save lives rather than take them,” Levin said. “If we were to pay more attention to the good people in our society, we might actually find more who imitate them and in other words, we could use this phenomenon to help us not hurt us.”

Katya Podkovyroff Lewis is a senior studying journalism and international relations.

cover story

lonely streets

TRANSGENDER AND HOMELESS IN THE DISTRICT The LGBTQ community faces adversity with homelessness and unemployment.

Written by Lana Green | Art by Caroline Lougee

Ashanti Carmon, a transgender woman, was killed in Prince George’s County on March 30 of this year. Homeless and rejected by her family for being transgender, Carmon began selling sex at 16 years old. It was on Eastern Avenue, while walking back to her boyfriend’s home, that she was shot multiple times and killed. In 2018 alone, advocates of The Human Rights Campaign tracked 29 deaths of transgender people in the United states. Eighty-two percent were women of color. “We need to step up and speak out if we’re going to expect people to agree to help,” said Dennise Tibbs, a transgender woman and employee at Casa Ruby. “There are people who will ignore you and look the other way. It’s sad that people are out here on the streets, and they don’t even bother acknowledging us.” The LGBTQ community faces adversity with homelessness and unemployment. According to a study published by the University of Chicago, LGBTQ youth are 126 percent more likely to experience homelessness than nonLGBTQ youth. The District's 2017 Homeless Youth Census found that 31 percent of young people experiencing homelessness “identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, or queer/ questioning,” and 6 percent identified as transgender. George Membreño, director of youth housing at the local nonprofit Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders, said there are multiple reasons why youths end up homeless. “One of those [reasons] is family rejection,” Membreño said. “We’re looking at kids who have been kicked out of their homes because of their gender and sexuality expression and identity. In those situations they are kicked out disproportionately more than their heterosexual peers.”

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, stigma, rejection, and violence can often affect the mental health of LGBTQ youths, who are three times more likely to experience mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders. The Alliance also states that suicide is a leading cause of death for LGBTQ people between the ages of 10 and24, and between 38 and 65 percent of transgender individuals experience suicidal thoughts in their lifetime. “We know that systematically, kids who are part of the community are discriminated against much higher and so there are higher rates of depression, higher rates of substance abuse, and higher rates of mental health needs because of that rejection,” Membreño said. Casa Ruby is the only bilingual LGBTQ organization that provides a drop-in center and youth transitional housing program. Homeless LGBTQ youth are given the opportunity to have a safe space with food, shelter, with other social services such as case management and programs that help youth attain a government issued I.D. Noura Moira, a transgender woman and employee at Casa Ruby, explained her experience with homelessness. “You can’t talk to someone if they don’t understand you,” Moira said. “I talked to so many people, no one really understood what I’ve been through. You really feel alone. That makes you feel down, like suicidal. You think your life has ended.” Moira, an immigrant from Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, escaped 15 months of torture in Saudi Arabia after coming out as transgender. After hours on a plane, where her wounds prevented her from leaning back in her seat, she managed to enter the United States as a visitor. Moira spent years escaping her family and her husband’s family, who sent people after her to kill her in Arkansas, forcing her to flee to Virginia. Her ex

husband, who Moria met and married in Virginia, was sent back to the Middle East by his family to endure conversion shock therapy so he could be straight. “It was so scary having to escape,” Moira said. “You need to smile so that no one suspects something. If they [security and officers at the Saudi Arabia airport] suspect something they cut you or kill you.” Moira continued to explain that if the United States did not accept her asylum request, she would be sent back home and killed. “Even when you arrive to the United States, you need to talk to the officers and pretend everything's okay and you’re there to visit because you don’t want to go to jail,” Moira said. “If you tell [customs] you want to apply for asylum they will put you in jail for–I don’t know how long. If they believe you after the investigation they will release you, but if they don’t believe you and send you back that’s the end of your life, that’s it.” Moria said. Bianca Carter, a transgender woman also employed at Casa Ruby, also ended up homeless because of family issues. “My father put me out at 17 because he couldn’t deal with me being transgender and me living my truth,” Carter said. “He didn’t feel comfortable, and I think that was the biggest thing, but I felt comfortable.” Tibbs explained how Casa Ruby helped her find a home and a supportive community. “For me [Casa Ruby] is a stepping stone, but it's a big stepping stone because I’m not only using my resources, but I’m using the outside world to help me get further,” Tibbs said. “I’ve been held back by my own family for so long, I don’t even bother talking to them on the phone.” LGBTQ youth can face rejection and violence at home. According to the National Resource Center on Domestic

Violence, a 2015 survey among transgender respondents found that 47 percent of respondents were sexually harassed, 9 percent were physically assaulted in the past year because they are transgender, and 65 percent have experienced homelessness due to domestic violence. Annie Miller, another resident at Casa Ruby, said it was a place to go when there was no where else to turn. “I used to stay with my parents but I didn’t like staying there because there was no support,” Miller said. “It was basically a roof, but there was no support and no guidance and that’s what I was looking for. To this day I’m still trying to do it.” Casa Ruby fills a void for the homeless LGBTQ community, as it is difficult for them to find shelters. Moira, like many other transgender people, faced discrimination in shelters before she found her way to Casa Ruby. As a woman above 30 years old, many of the youth LGBTQ-friendly housing was not accessible. Transgender individuals often face discrimination in shelters

After work, Moira packed her things and left for another shelter. “I went to another shelter called Patricia Andy” Moira said. “The police came and did an investigation, but nothing really happened.” Carter found that Casa Ruby was essential to her safety and success in the future. Finding a shelter that is LGBTQ friendly can allow members of the community to focus on employment and moving forward in their life once they feel safe. “It was helpful, because I was on the streets for a long time,” Carter said. “When I got in here, and I got into the houses I felt so much better. I could take a shower, I could go into a house, lay my head down, and be safe.” According to the Center for Transgender Equality, one in five transgender people have been discriminated against while seeking housing. Carter expressed that it was harder to be homeless as a transgender woman because people assume homeless, transgender women of color are sex workers.

“It’s real hard in DC money wise,” Miller said. “Trying to find affordable housing is really hard. Most of the apartments that I’ve seen or know about are $1,000 and up. Unless you want to live in a bad area where you have to watch your back or not feel safe.” Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not include sexual orientation. It’s remained federally legal for employers to discriminate based on sexual orientation. Although the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission produced guidelines that Title IV does protect sexual orientation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures many federal courts decline to interpret it that way.

“My ID might say something else, but deep down this is not who I am. So it shouldn’t even matter what my ID says or my Birth Certificate says,” Tibbs said. “At the end of the day I am who I am and if you can’t see that I can’t work for you. You have to respect everybody.” because most homeless shelters are divided by gender. When Moira tried a woman’s shelter she found a note on her locker that made her feel uncomfortable and fear for her life. “They wrote ‘this is a woman’s shelter, not for faggots, leave before we kill your ass,’” Moira said. “I looked at the note and said, okay let me go and finish my job first.”

“Being on the streets isn’t the easiest thing,” Carter said. “You have one stigma that you’re a trans black woman and then you have another one that everyone thinks that you are a prostitute to get your money.” Affordable housing is difficult to find in DC. A one bedroom home averaged $395,500 according to trulia.com and the average rent of a one bedroom apartment is $2,139. For a person that makes $2.50 an hour, like Carter, this is not affordable.

Nineteen states, D.C., and Puerto Rico outlaw discrimination by private and public employers based on sexual orientation through state law. Although there are state laws prohibiting discrimination, there is no federal law that protects the LGBTQ community from employment or housing discrimination based on sexual orientation. Dennisse Tibbs graduated high school with a 4.0 GPA and graduated from Job Corps in Southwest DC.

shouldn’t even matter what my ID says or my Birth Certificate says,” Tibbs said. “At the end of the day I am who I am and if you can’t see that I can’t work for you. You have to respect everybody.” LGBTQ youth that do end up homeless often face discrimination and violence. The Humans Rights Watch found that since 2013, 128 transgender and gender-nonconforming people have been killed in the U.S.. Bianca Carter expressed the struggle against violence she sees within her community. “I have faced discrimination in the job market, that’s why it’s been hard to find employment so far this year,” Tibbs said. “Although I’m trans, I feel like I should be respected by my pronouns.” Transgender individuals can face work discrimination when it comes to employee work benefits, pronouns, and hiring practices. Transgender people can get their ID legally changed to their preferred gender and name, but this can cost more than $55--more than many homeless youths can afford. “My ID might say something else, but deep down this is not who I am. So it

“I would say the ‘T’ part of LGBTQ, gets the most crime and the least justice,” Carter said. “The feminine gays, and the gay men can kinda get a pass because they can go out on the street dressed like a man and still act feminine. People see a man on the outside and really don’t care. They see a transgender woman and they clock you and say that you’re born a man. Either they accept you, or they want to fight you. It shouldn't be like that, but it is. I wish it were better,” Carter said. Carter continued to explain that it’s not enough for her to feel like a woman, she feels pressured to appear as a cis woman to protect herself from violence.

Carter said, “Some men allow us to be transgender women and live our truth. Some men just don’t like it at all and they will kill you. That’s the scariest thing about it. I feel like I have to look like a woman every day, and I have to look passable as a woman everyday because if I don’t someone’s gonna try to hurt me.” Carter had multiple experiences where she felt like she had to conform to stay safe. Carter recalled an experience on a bus in Northeast D.C. where a man spit on her and said “I don’t like transgender women--what are you gonna do." “Even if we don’t get accepted as one, we should be accepted as something rather than nothing. We are human, just like everybody else,” Tibbs said.

Lana Green is a freshman studying journalism and CLEG.

opinion

a queer conditioning IN PURSUIT OF COMMUNITY

The LGBTQ community faces adversity with homelessness and unemployment. Written by Shane Matheu Ryden | Art by Kavi Farr

A young gay man will act on his urges naively in order to discover his identity. A young gay man will use whatever resources are available to him in order to find his community. A young gay man will want to realize his sexuality and have it validated. Yet too often, a young gay man will walk into his own abuse unaware of his mistreatment and without a complete understanding of how he got there. Forty percent of gay men report having experienced sexual violence in their lifetime, according to Human Rights Campaign. Many of us have been that young gay man and many more will be. A generation of queer kids is growing up into a world that has yet to recognize their sexuality as normal. With gay marriage becoming legalized in more and more countries, with conversation therapy being made illegal in more and more states, there’s a misguided notion developing that the issue of gay rights has been handled and that there is no room for improvement.

But, when 40 percent of gay men report experiencing sexual violence the plight of homosexual youth cannot be ignored. Limited in how they access their community, and constrained in how they explore it, queer people, and especially young gay men are flocking to apps to find others like them. In some instances, it can lead to friendships and to the romantic connections they’ve ordinarily been deprived of, but more often than not it leads to sex.

The “community” offered through these apps is nothing like the access of their straight peers. The userbase of these apps is populated by men of all ages and experience levels. These men have varying intentions, but more often than not, they are sexual. For the young gay man, there is an opportunity on these apps–convenience without parallel in their physical reality. The situation entices these young men to join and to create a profile, only to find themselves part of a common narrative. This is one where exploratory interests lead them down a path that ends in the theft of their innocence and the commodification of their bodies. The two most popular social networking apps specifically targeted at queer men are Grindr and Scruff. As of 2019, Grindr has 3.8 million daily users, while Scruff maintains over 15 million. The majority of their users are young gay men. As reported by the data collection company Statista, as of January 2018, 23 percent of the men using Grindr were between the ages of 18 and 24. The draw to these apps is directly correlated with what gay men lack in their own adolescence. In Grindr’s mission statement, they claim to offer “a safe space where you can discover, navigate, and get zero feet away from the queer world around you.” They usher their users to “keep exploring, ” but the dangers and possible implications of that exploration go unexplained.

In a society where heterosexuality is the default sexuality, straight youth have an ability to freely engage in sexual and romantic flirtation with their peers in a way that gay youth cannot. They do not have the looming anxieties which are a central part of the queer experience. A defining experience of many gay kids is the fear of rejection and an internal sense of otherness as they start exploring and forming their identity. I spoke with a queer neuropsychologist, Dr. Sidney Binks, about the early mental health issues which affect boys when defining their identity. Binks noted that the issues start early, “by being forced through a heteronormative family, gay kids were feeling an inability to develop healthy self-esteem and not being reinforced for who they actually are. It starts very young, and then going into a peer group situation it compounds itself.” It’s an internal struggle that becomes an outward one. The exploration and development of one’s identity can have behavioral changes that are often criticized and shamed. Gay youth are often burdened by an internalized homophobia that demands they change themselves to protect their wellbeing. It’s no wonder that young gay men seek these online platforms because it helps them to access spaces solely populated by people like them. Despite massive discrepancies in other dimension of their identities, in age, intention, and

life knowledge, gay kids will engage with the queer people online because it’s often their only shot at having their queer identity validated. In many cases, kids join these 18+ apps when they’re underage because they want their identity to be recognized. Last month, a story at The Verge referenced Tinder and Grindr because of criticism they received in the wake of a police investigation. Reporting referenced by The Verge concluded that “law enforcement officials in the UK have investigated more than 30 cases where children evaded age requirements on dating apps and were later raped, according to public records obtained by the outlet. The report also found another 60 cases involving sexual exploitation of children on dating services.” Children feeling the need to join apps with overt sexual tones to explore their identity is emblematic of a global

men lie about their age or appearance while using apps as Grindr and Scruff. This discrepancy in age and experience combined with the overt themes of spontaneous and casual sex supported by the app’s structure lend themselves to sexual and romantic experiences which are more often than not, uncomfortable and unfulfilling. The nonprofit TimeWellSpent conducted a survey of 200,000 iPhone users. They uncovered that Grindr had the most unhappy users of any app available for download; with 77 percent of its users reported feeling unhappy after using the application. Why then does the urge to use these apps continue and return? Why are millions of men coming back to a platform which so consistently creates distress? Even if for the sake of “community”? This was the big question in my mind when I stumbled upon the work of gay psychiatrist Jack Turban, a reporter for

As reported broadly by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, “LGBTQ individuals are almost three times more likely than others to experience a mental health condition such as major depression or generalized anxiety disorder.” It starts early in life. The simple desire for community, validation, recognition, and affirmation, is universal. But as gay men exist, in deprivation of basic luxuries afforded to their straight peers, this simple desire motivates activity with an incredible potential for selfharm. I grew up in Southern California, an hour north of Los Angeles. I am white, and I grew up in a predominantly white, upper-middle class area. I had a stable home and a strong support system of family and friends. My schooling was inclusive. In most every area of my life, I maintained incredible privileges.

"By being forced through a heteronormative family, gay kids were feeling an inability to develop healthy self-esteem and not being reinforced for who they actually are. It starts very young, and then going into a peer group situation it compounds itself,” said Dr. Sidney Binks, a queer neuropsychologist. problem. There is a lack of resources and attention given to a developing queer generation.

Vox. The evidence he cited affirmed much of what I have heard in my own experiences talking with other gay men.

Young boys join these apps and advertise themselves to an audience of men who are older and more experienced. They’re prompted to share such factors as their height, weight, location, STD/HIV status, and sexual preference. The pool they access is populated by men of any age who can message and interact with these young boys without restriction.

“Neuroscientists have shown that orgasm causes activation of pleasure areas of the brain like the ventral tegmental area while deactivating areas involved with self-control,” Turban said. “And these patterns of activation in men are strikingly similar to what researchers see in the brain of individuals using heroin or cocaine. So when a neutral action (clicking on Grindr) is paired with a pleasurable response in the brain (orgasm), humans learn to do that action over and over again.”

Compounding this problem even further is the issue of lying on these apps; as reported by the Star Observer from an online survey, three in ten gay

It’s comparable to an addiction, and so are its complications.

Superficially, it would seem I had all of the ingredients for a healthy coming out process. But it was only through Grindr that I could interact with other gay men. It was only through an app that I could talk openly and uninhibited with another person like me. Bullying through middle school and in the early years after my coming out ingrained me with a staying sense of anxiety, a fear of rejection. I accessed these apps so that I might not feel so shameful of my identity. I went online to find people like me. And I did, occasionally. But I more often found men whose only common ground with me was in our homosexuality. In experience, age, and intention, we varied greatly. But when one is, for the first time in their life, offered the chance

awol maga zine at an interaction with another gay man, you jump for it. I jumped for it. Two years after joining Grindr and Scruff, I have been a victim of sexual violence. I have seen my sexual self-disassociate from my passive identity. I have been lied to. I have been coerced. I have been manipulated, and seen my body commodified due to sexual interest. Many of my struggles and pitfalls were product of my own mistakes, bound up with issues in selfesteem that started early on. However, as I’ve grown and had the opportunity to speak with other queer men, and other queer people, I have come to realize my experience to be the same as many of my peers. We are often conditioned in the same ways by our heteronormative society, pushed to the same ends to find our community, and while these apps may not directly carry the greater blame for our circumstances, they carry a promise: that what we find online is our community, when it is not. Dr. Sidney Binks said about Grindr and Scruff, “For gay kids who don’t really know other gay people yet their own age, it’s there. Maybe it’s the equivalent of looking at Playboy Magazine from my day, but it’s fraught with a lot more danger...The possibility for trauma and things not going well. Looking at a picture is a lot different than potentially meeting somebody.” These apps endow young gay man with a volatile power. The urge for community might draw them to these apps, but the sex will keep them. And it’s quite possible that soon enough the association between the two will cement itself. They will be understood together. Any ‘community’ offered through these apps is insufficient when it comes to the real need for connection. I’ve spoken specifically on gay men, but these issues really impact every member of the queer community.

The plight of queer women, and queer people of color is even more severe

in most every instance. Young queer people join these online spaces to find their identity validated. Instead they are often sexually manipulated and forced to mature faster than their peers. Anonymity is common. Intentions are disparate. The unequal power dynamics that come with the differences in age and experience breed inequality and endanger consensual sex. A generation of queer people come up in a world which does not broadly reaffirm their sexual identity. The consequence is their innocence. The consequence is violence.

Shane Matheu Ryden is a freshman studying journalism and anthropology.

collegeʼs newest club

DROWNING IN STUDENT DEBT

Morgana Yellen was, at first, hopeful when approaching American University’s Financial Aid Office. However, she left with little to show besides a new membership to a quickly growing club. The club, whose 44.7 million members suffer from student loan debt, is predominately made up of adults under the age of 30 . This is as a result of an increase in borrowing to fund education over the last several decades, according to the Federal Reserve. “They told me I don’t qualify,” said Yellen. She said the university told her that her mother’s retirement savings were the source of her ineligibility. “They’re retirement funds, not for tuition, and if she used them to help me pay for college, she could never retire. She’s 70 now and still working.” After years of looking at quickly raising tuition prices, mounting student loan debt and the shortfalls of higher education, researchers have concluded that the current method of financing college is not sustainable. That bubble may soon burst. Private colleges like AU are attempting to adapt their financing methods to preserve the institution, but is it too late?

sustaining privatized higher education With political platforms centered around affordable education, student loan debt, and tuition-free colleges, a conversation about economic reform in higher education has sprung up. Slowly across the country, states are adjusting

how students who attend their public colleges pay for schooling. Across the country, there are more than 400 College Promise Programs reimagining how students can fund their education. These initiatives provide a financial aid award, dictated by factors like grade point average and location, beyond state and federal aid in order to fund students’ higher education, according to an analysis published by the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. These programs have garnered much attention in recent years from students and private universities that do not supply such bold programs. Private universities are attempting to stay afloat amidst rising trends of students seeking out alternative methods for financing their educations. According to a study by the consulting firm Kaufman Hall, their current plan is faltering. The study states that 47 percent of financial planning staff at universities in the United States believe that the current tuition-reliant model is not sustainable when paired with rising expenditures. According to American University’s Assistant Vice President of Budget and Finance Nana An, the school intends to shift the budget to maximize economic efficiency. AU is similar to other colleges that currently operate under an unsustainable model. “Our reality is that we need to do a better job in fundraising to increase scholarships,” said An. “We need to diversify our revenue, look at [things

like] fundraising, etc., and at the same time, we also look at the expenditure side to see whether we could do a better job in terms of managing our resources.” When asked how the free tuition movement affects the price of AU An said, “as a private institution, something similar to that wouldn’t be viable [here.]” To make AU more affordable, An said an increase in fundraising and alumni support would build the schools reserve. “By doing so, we won't have to rely on tuition revenue as much as we currently do,” An said. An blamed several factors for the university’s high sticker price and inability to provide more aid. She said that AU is a young institution with young alumni, despite its 126 year lifespan, creating a lack of funds flowing back into the school. An also highlights the diverse and international student body at AU and a change in student demographics. “We tend to have more students coming from the Midwest instead of the Northwest region,” An said.“[Along with increasing minority students who have more need.” As for the minority students An speaks of, approximately 86.8 percent of black students took out loans to finance higher education compared to 59.9 percent of white students, says the National Center for Education Statistics. After graduation, the Federal Reserve says that these individuals, specifically black and Hispanic borrowers, are more likely to fall behind and/or default on their loan payments and are

Written by McKenzie Beard | Art by Estella Fucelli

awol maga zine

In the student debt crisis, young college students must decide how much they value their education and weigh their future economic prosperity against it. “It’s disturbingly similar to what happened to tank the mortgage market,” said Barmak Nassirian, American Association of State Colleges and Universities Director of Federal Relations. In fact, these researchers estimate that the financial bubble is set to pop any minute. Data produced by the Federal Reserve states that outstanding student debt, at roughly $1.53 trillion, currently exceeds auto loan debt,at $1.1 trillion, and credit card debt,at $977 billion. Close to 20 percent of student loan borrowers owe more than $100,000. Despite these statistics, students continue to take out massive student loans to finance their educations. Today, one in four Americans owe an average of $37,172 in student loan debt. Many of them, like students at AU, will struggle to repay it.

To rationalize taking out large sums of debt, many students wager their future economic prosperity under the notion that the benefits of an alumni status

$ $

conomists have compared the student debt crisis to the other economic plights of the last several decades in the United States. Financial markets like the dot com boom of the late 90’s along with the housing crisis in 2008 are frequently described as bubbles, created when the pervasiveness of risk overtakes the financial capabilities of buyers. People buy things on credit that they cannot afford to repay solely because they see others doing so, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

COLLEGE

justifying debt in the face of an impending economic burst: theory versus reality

less likely to have repaid their loans compared to their white peers.

“It would be nice to try to seek out an internship, but I don't have time. I could’ve tried to pursue one this semester, but I had to take a minimum wage job that isn't relevant to what I want to do just because I need the money,” Yellen said. Even if I got [an internship], I would have to take on another paid job as well.”

what about when the bubble bursts?

from a prestigious university will be worth the upfront costs. “At the end, is a college degree earned from American University what you want? You carry the status as an AU alum for the rest of your life. Are you willing to think about that value proposition for all the years to come? Is it worth it?,” An said. While students attend elite colleges for an opportunity, for those who have to work, the financial burden prevents these students from taking full advantage of all the opportunities prestigious colleges use to justify their high tuition prices. When asked how her student loan debt affects her while studying at AU and her involvement on campus, Yellen said, “Outside of school I work 20 plus hours a week, and sometimes I need to take on an extra shift. There are times when I have to pull an all-nighter and then go to the next day of classes. School should be my first priority, but I have to go to work.” This pressure is something that many students on campus don’t experience, though, for students financing their own educations, a wide variety of factors come into play.

Historically, prestigious colleges and universities boast an impressive alumni group and claim to offer their students the best resources to prepare them for the workforce. However, for students like Yellen to reap the benefits of these assets, they are forced to take out tens of thousands of dollars in loans. The Institute for College Access & Success reports that two out of every three graduating seniors reported leaving their universities with outstanding debt in 2017. There is no definite way to tell when the student loan bubble will burst, or how the consequences will alter higher education.American University prides itself on molding students into lifelong learners who know the world inside and out. However, the methods required of many students in order to attend the university leaves them with a lifetime of debt. “I’m not exceptional,” Yellen said. “So, they don’t care that I’m here. They just don’t care.”

McKenzie Beard is a freshman studying journalism and women and gender studies.

the district

writing on our walls DIVISION IN THE PUBLIC ARTIST COMMUNITY Written by Claudia Stephens | Art by Kavi Farr

Cory Stowers is the art director of Art B.L.O.C DC, an organization that is contracted by neighborhoods and businesses to create public art in Washington. Stowers and ART B.L.O.C DC painted a mural at the intersection of 14th and U street, an area known as Black Broadway. However, they quickly ran into a problem. “I got permission from the business owner, but the building owner didn’t know anything about [the mural],” Stowers said. “As the team was finishing, I got a call from [the building owner] saying she didn’t know what Black Broadway meant and if the tenants of the jazz club in the building would be offended by it.” Stowers agreed that if the owners of the jazz club, another tenant in the building, or the building owner were against the mural, Art B.L.O.C DC would take it down right away. He never got a call back. The mural “Black Broadway” consists of a blacked-out wall and white letters honoring the area’s history of showcasing black artists, performers, and patrons. The final line reads: “Black Broadway is sacred and must be preserved forever.” Now, it serves to highlight historical context of the area’s civil rights history, and is a widely recognized symbol of the neighborhood. Although Art B.L.O.C DC is contracted for public murals by the District and

private businesses, most of its members are traditional graffiti artists part of a crew called the Double Down Kings, which was established in 1994 with Stowers as its president.

use of aerosol paints, usually in letter based designs, while street art is seen in stencil and sticker work, according to Mutafa. He also identifies a clear gendering of these terms.

The word graffiti is synonymous with vandalism and is a sign of urban decay. To many urban dwellers, any street art is ‘just graffiti'. However, the public art community, as it’s called, is made up of graffiti, street, or fine artists. From an outside perspective, there may seem to be a lack of division between these categories, but artists within the community are quick to distinguish their differences.

“When I think street artists, I usually think women,” Mutafa said. “When I think graffiti artists, I usually think men. Of course there are women who are graffiti writers and men who are street artists, but I think in terms of popular media and who they call street artists and who they call graffiti artists, there definitely is a gender dynamic.”

To Stowers, graffiti, compared to other forms of public art, represents individuals.

Although there is disagreement within the public art community as to what qualifies as graffiti or street art, many artists do not confine themselves to only one art form.

Even though Stowers identifies himself as a graffiti artist, much of the work he does through Art B.L.O.C. D.C. are public murals rather than graffiti. For him, pursuing public art opens a new audience to interact with, an impact that is not accessible through graffiti.

Other members of the public art community, such as Mazi Mutafa, do not necessarily agree on this definition.

“It allows us to have conversations in the public forum about public art, as opposed to graffiti, which is where most of us get our start,” Stowers said.

Mutafa, co-founder of the hip-hop nonprofit organization Words Beats & Life, said the largest differences between graffiti and street art are the different techniques the artists use. The work of graffiti artists can be recognized by the

Mutafa’s non-profit not only creates public art but also coordinates art programming for youth in the District. The programming focuses on drawing connections between graffiti, street art,

awol maga zine and fine art, and teaches students how to make public art of their own. “We want our students to have access to all three kinds of languages,” Mutafa said. “Our artists don’t limit themselves to one discipline, and neither do we as an organization.” Alex Goldstein is the director of The Fridge, an independent art gallery located near Eastern Market in southeast Washington. His interest in art began at the age of ten, seeing artist lofts in New York which encouraged him to create his own graffiti. He considers The Fridge to be a place where those who started with graffiti and vandalism art, like him, can pursue a new seriousness regarding their craft. “The gallery has been a channel for many artists that have been doing illegal art for years to feel legit,” Goldstein said. Goldstein’s artistic beginnings in graffiti have led him to a career of impactful work and one of the only successful independent galleries left in the District. He believes that other artists

The Fridge has even featured Borf, a street artist originating from the District, in his first solo show. He has now gone on to collaborate in projects with world-renowned street artist Banksy.

Goldstein is hoping to create issuebased exhibits in his gallery that will highlight themes such as mental illness and substance abuse. He hopes it will lift the silence surrounding these problems caused by stigma.

Stowers and Art B.L.O.C. DC, on the other hand, believe their art’s purpose is to provide contextual identity and history for areas of Washington, especially those targeted by gentrification and displacement. They

“It’s going to be a vehicle for conversation between artists and viewers,” Goldstein said. For Mutafa and Words Beats & Life, artistic efforts should not only look to

“Graffiti is strictly about the author because the artwork itself is the signature of the artists, not necessarily an image or something of that nature,” Stowers said. “For the most part, the direct focus of graffiti is a kind of self-promotion.” can also begin their career in graffiti or other “illegal” art, but can lead into bigger, legal projects. Goldstein and The Fridge works to highlight up-and-coming local artists by hosting exhibits featuring artists ranging from Washington-based fine artist Joel Vincii to the DC Street Sticker Expo, which is made up of stickers sent in from 500 to 700 artists worldwide. The 10-year-old gallery has launched around 1,000 artistic careers.

“Now, many of them are very successful muralists. Street art is the top of current modern art,” Goldstein said.

create murals such as Black Broadway to reassure the original community of their importance and educate visitors unaware of the neighborhood’s history.

start a dialogue between artists and the public, but also between different public artists who have distanced themselves from each other.

“A wall or alley that once didn’t have any sort of public value all of a sudden becomes a point of gathering and attention for the community,” Stowers said. “It creates a space, or recreates the space and in an aspect that adds value to the community.”

“More and more we’re trying to work against efforts to separate artistic communities in hip hop, and really try to get people to collaborate more together,” Mutafa said. “We believe that what will come with that is more beautiful, collaborative, impactful work.”

Despite all these differences, there is one thing that the public art community seems to agree on: art’s power lies in its ability to start conversations.

Claudia Stephens is a freshman studying international relations.

the district

the color of wealth

GENTRIFICATION'S EFFECTS ON WEALTH IN DC Story by Veronica Pacheco | Art by Kavi Farr Over the years, gentrification has become a household word for thousands of D.C. residents who are unable to afford to live in increasingly expensive, renovated housing and neighborhoods. D.C. has the highest percentage of gentrification in the country, according to a 2019 study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. The study found that 41 percent of the district’s eligible neighborhoods have undergone gentrification between 2000 and 2013. Community leaders are also reacting to the worsening reality of the District. What was once the majority black and middle-income is now increasingly white and wealthy. Dominic Moulden, a resource manager for the non-profit organization, Organize Neighborhood Equity or ONE DC, is one of many that are advocating against this pressing issue. “People will say illogical things like gentrification is good,” Moulden said. “So I ask people, how is it ever good for people to be removed against their will?” The idea of residents no longer being able to afford to live in their own communities is nothing new. As an issue that stems back decades, gentrification and D.C.’s wealth gap has only gotten progressively larger over time.This growing divide has become more noticeable when comparing the eight different wards in the District, which have staggering differences in median income. Ed Lazere, executive director of the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, defines

gentrification as “a community that is changing when a neighborhood that is largely low-income and often people of color or immigrants where that community has an influx of higher income and often white people.” While the definition appears clear-cut, its history in Washington, D.C. has been more complex in terms of the influx of new residents versus previous residents. Between the years of 1980 to 2015, there has been a decline of 135,000 African-American residents and an

increase in 66,000 white residents in the District, according to a Greater Greater Washington study. However, in the same time span, there has been a large influx of Hispanic and Asian residents, about 50,000 and 17,000 respectively, in the District. While this may not be an exclusively black and white issue, this does not take away from the longtime residents’ inability afford to live in their renovated neighborhoods.

awol maga zine Lazere discusses the implications of historical discrimination against communities of color in today’s economic climate based on his policy research at the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. “Our history of cultural and institutional racism has just consistently denied opportunities to black people and other people of color,” Lazere said. “[This has been] resulting in enormous differences in income and wealth and power.” Certain neighborhoods face even greater changes in population and racial makeup than most. One example is the Shaw neighborhood, which has

“The way to think about this is we are organizing to build power, so people have a right to the city,” said Moulden. “And so we organize through political education and we help focus on associations to exercise their right. We help get buildings as housing cooperatives.” faced massive decreases in the black resident population. In 1980, Shaw was 78 percent black. However, by 2010, the population decreased to 44 percent, according to NPR. While the D.C. local government has developed different economic development strategies to try and promote affordable housing for all residents, local organizations have decided to take matters into their own hands. Through active research, hands-on community outreach, and educational training, these organizations are trying to help promote equity and opportunity for all of the District’s residents. The D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute was established to influence D.C. policy and budget decisions, in the hopes of supporting vulnerable communities in the District and reducing poverty and income inequality as a whole.

“Home-owning was a key source of

acquiring wealth in this country,” said Lazere. “So the fact that black people have been shut out of education and jobs that would allow the ability to buy homes just also means that they don’t have the wealth now to absorb the incredible increases and rising costs around them.” The effects of discrimination and lack of opportunity for targeted groups in the United States has left an effect on the current generations of D.C. residents and homeowners. “They’re just vulnerable to rising rent and unable to get a toehold through homeownership now, even if that discrimination isn’t the same level as it was in the past,” said Lazere. There are numerous other nonprofit organizations who are trying to help communities and specific neighborhoods affected the most by this ongoing issue. ONE DC was founded in 1997 in the

hopes of using grassroots and direct action to create and preserve social and economic equity for people of color and lower-income workers in the Shaw district. Moulden works in recruiting interns and volunteers to help raise the necessary funding and materials to continue community organizing within the organization. “The way to think about this is we are organizing to build power, so people have a right to the city,” said Moulden. “And so we organize through political education and we help focus on associations to exercise their right. We help get buildings as housing cooperatives.” Moulden also noted how ONE DC is collaborating with two Latinx groups in the District, Dulce Hogar Cleaning and Co-Familia Child Care cooperative. These worker-owned cooperatives also help residents who wanted to start their own businesses, as a result of needing more affordable housing and better

the district job opportunities. This is one solution to the numerous issues regarding rehousing, affordability, and overall wages. These issues in Wards 7 and 8 do not apply to the entire District, as other areas have residents with higher incomes on average. The current location of American University is in Ward 3, which according to the D.C. Economic Strategy, had a median household income of $122,680 between 2013 and 2017. This is the highest-income ward in the District. In contrast, areas, such as Deanwood in Ward 7, earned a median income of 40,021 and Anacostia, which is in Ward 8, earned a median income of $31,954 in 2017. Leah Garrett, Vice President of Development and Communications at Community of Hope, works on helping many of these low-income residents in Wards 7 and 8 afford housing and healthcare. These initiatives include hiring residents of their targeted neighborhoods to work for the organization and providing temporary housing for residents who can no longer afford their current homes. “Our rapid rehousing program provides short-term rental and utility assistance, along with case management, to those families experiencing homelessness”, said Garrett. “We know that within a few months of assistance, our families can become stably housed for years to come.”

are optimistic about what they can accomplish. Moving forward, Moulden hopes to continue on the path towards effective and meaningful action by partnering with other organizations in achieving equity for low-income residents and gives his insight on what needs to be done next. “Number one: work together more consistently. Number two: we have to leave more discipline, organization and make principal decisions, “ said Moulden. “And then number three: we have to stop the in-fighting. There’s too much competition and fighting amongst organizations and that needs to stop.” In terms of the local government’s role in preventing the effects of gentrification, Lazere is hopeful the D.C. government has the resources to help their residents. “The city has all of the tools that we need to preserve existing affordable housing,” Lazere said. “Really the question of the matter is, well, do our policymakers care enough about preserving D.C.’s economic and racial diversity and maintaining and honoring our history has a majority black city?”

Veronica Pacheco is a freshman studying international studies with minors in communication and Spanish.

By establishing numerous apartment complexes throughout the District, Community of Hope has been able to help residents who can no longer afford to live in their homes. "Without this program, families in D.C. often enter the overcrowded shelter system," said Jamey Burden, Vice President of Housing Programs and Policy at Community of Hope. While the solutions to combat the effects of gentrification will not create change overnight, community leaders

PROFESSOR PROFILE

omékongo dibinga MUSIC AND ART MANIFESTING INTO SOCIAL JUSTICE Written by Taylor Sabol Photo provided by Omékongo Dibinga Omékongo Dibinga is a motivational speaker, trilingual poet, TV talk show host, rapper, and professor of crosscultural communication at American University. His Urban Music Award winning work has best been described by Nikki Giovanni as “outstanding, exciting, and new while being very old.” His book, “From the Limbs of My Poetree” was described by Essence Magazine as “a remarkable and insightful collection of exquisite poetry that touches sacred places within your spirit.” He was one of 5 international recipients out of 750,000 to win the first ever “CNN iReport Spirit Award.”

I know that currently you’re teaching the complex problems course Global Hip Hop and Resistance. What is that class about and why did you choose to teach this class?

Yeah, so one of the things I’ve learned is that there are many people of all ages, even people my age and I grew up as hip hop was starting, who just aren’t really that familiar with hip hop’s power. They pretty much associate hip hop with whoever their favorite artist is, whether it's somebody they came up with for a long time like LL Cool J or Will Smith or current guys like J.

Cole. They identify with the music that they listen to. People don’t know for example, in Portugal, when youth were protesting in the 90s, they were playing MWA songs, you know “F the police”. Or in the Arab spring, from a couple of years back, all of that started from the words and the work of a rap artist. And so, people don’t realize wherever there’s been resistance in the past 30 or 40 years, particularly with young people, hip hop has been a part of that. So I just want people to understand the music beyond something they just bop their heads to. I don't see any other music form in recent years having been used as a tool of resistance on this large scale as hip hop so I wanted students to be aware of that.

cultural communication, we touch on issues from homophobia to black lives matter to disability to sexism, the list goes on and on. And I tell them, when you leave my class, depending on the circle that you are in, you may not have to have a conversation about any of these issues anymore because they don’t affect you. But if you’ve learned about it, and you’ve learned that you can make a change, can you do that? Can you help be the voice for the voiceless? That’s what I mean when I say I want everyone to just take a stand- either for themselves or for people who need help taking a stand.

You talk about inspiring all to take a stand when they witness an injustice. I was wondering if you could elaborate on what that means to you.

Behind any movement, there has been music in some way, shape, or form. Even if you go back to slavery, the roots of hip hop are African so we talk about hip hop being a transition from African music. But, drums being outlawed you know. But that was a tool for communication. And through song, things that became the Negro spirituals, those type of things were about escaping plantations, about rebellions, and so music has always been used. I

So, I tell students in my class, I want them to be educated and scholarly. But when they leave my class, I want them to be more activist minded. I want them to just give a damn about something. In my other class, cross

How can music and art manifest to social change?

think a lot of people who are musicians need to understand that more. There’s always been a message in the music, and not always just resistance, some is just feel-good party dance, but there is a revolutionary side to it that has always been there that I think people need to understand, particularly in a time and space where we need it now more than ever. As the hip hop industry has become more commercialized, has that changed the movement for social change?

It hasn't changed the movement cause the movement continues, but it is harder to get a voice in mainstream hip hop with a revolutionary message. So, mainstream hip hop isn’t as much a part of the resistance movement as it used to be. So if you back in the 90s, you have groups like NWA, and triqual quest?, and public enemy, so some were more militant, but even if you look at some NWA’s lyrics, beyond some of the things people consider to be misogynistic, there were real messages there about police brutality, drug proliferation, about not having . So even on those levels, more of the music that was broadcasted was uplifting, or not even necessarily uplifting but educating. Conscious-raising. And now it is not so much the case. And in a Trump presidency world, you do have people becoming more vocal. I think some rappers have become more complacent under Obama cause they thought some things were cool. But what you also see is mainstream artists like Jay Z who put out music that could be conscious-raising but they don’t get airplay on the radio. Minority Report, Jay Z’s song about Hurricane Katrina,- powerful song, couldn’t get played on the radio. Despite him being at the height of whatever people call mainstream hip hop. Still face a little bit of backlash from what mainstream audiences want from their artists. But many of them are still doing it anyway but we have to do the work to listen to it. Cause its not likely that the social conscious, uplifting, revolutionary song is going to be the single of somebody’s album.

You’ve worked as a motivational speaker. What inspired you to go that route and what are your main messages?

As a kid, I was bullied a lot, because of my name, my background. I was depressed a lot, I was suicidal in my 7th grade year. I came out of that by learning more about black history and that inspired me to want to do more to make my ancestors proud, make my parents proud. As I was doing that, that’s when I started to get into the work of Nikki Giovanni and Maya Angelou. If I started to learn things from them, I started to share their messages with other people in my community. My parents would organize community events and I would perform poems by Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes to motivate other people. Then I started writing my own stuff. The roots of my motivation was as I started to learn about myself, I wanted to help other kids learn about who they were. As I got older, I started writing my own poetry, hooking up with actual motivational speakers. And there was a study that came out, I think Harvard did it, that said if you hear a negative comment once, you have the hear the positive opposite 16 times before you believe it. So I just wanted to be one of those 16 positive voices that people can hear. What has your work with youth been like in general? Youth development work- How has that work motivated you?

When I talked to you earlier about being one of those 16 voices, I want to get into the lives and minds of as many young people as possible. I was in Rwanda doing work in orphanages or i’ve been in prisons here. I know a lot of decisions that young people make come from the lack of presence of some people in their lives. I just want to let them see something different. A lot of students or young people i run into say, “I’ve never seen or had a black professor.” So a lot of people think that’s not even possible and I’ve heard that from not even black students. I want to show them- you can do hip hop this way, you can do motivation this way, you can have a career as an upstander this way. I just

want them to see different options and I wanna let them know that whatever they’re going through, they can overcome it. There are better days ahead for them. Young people need hope and I just feel like we’re throwing them away. And I wanna let them know that they can help other people, as leaders as well. I want to promote diversity of thought on our campus. If you take my course, whether you love it or hate it, you’re gonna get diversity of thought.

Taylor Sabol is a senior studying public health.

photo essay

national treasure A LOOK AT THE NORTHEAST'S ONLY NATIONAL PARK

photos by ben black During my trip to Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine, last summer, I fell in love with the nature that surrounded me and the disconnection that I felt from the rest of the world. From the 5 AM sunrise atop Cadillac Mountain to the cool ocean waves that crashed against the rust-colored cliffs, the natural landscape of Acadia enveloped me in peace and serenity.

lovE awol ? hAte awol ? get

involved

awolau@gmail.com

NATIONAL TREASURE

PHOTO ESSAY BEN BLACK