At least four students are wounded, none critically, after shots were fired at Morgan State University in Baltimore. Students were told to shelter in place after the Baltimore Police Department was said to have responded to an “active shooter situation” around 10 p.m. The order was lifted around 12:30 a.m.
In the lone home athletic event this week, Ball State looks to continue its MAC momentum in a contest against the Golden Flashes at Briner Sports Complex at 4 p.m. The Cardinals have yet to lose a conference game, sitting at 2-0-2 with a 4-5-2 overall record. Ball State hasn’t lost a match since Sept. 14 and has won or tied five of its last
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In the Sept. 28 issue of the Daily News, Meghan Holt’s illustation byline was omitted on the cover.
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On page 18 , Meghan Holt’s illustator byline was omitted. On page 19, the Daily News was given an incorrect puzzle page.
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THIS WEEK: The temperatures are starting to cool off into more fall-like weather. There is possible precipitation at the end of the week. Expect sunny skies next week.
Waking Up with Cardinal Weather is Ball State University’s first and only morning mobile show focused on getting your ready for the day through local news, weather and lifestyle trends. Waking Up with Cardinal Weather airs every Friday morning at 8 a.m. at @cardinalwx live on Facebook.
Natah Hughes has accepted the role of Facility Assignment Coordinator in the Reservations Office at the L.A. Pittenger Student Center. Hughes is a Ball State alumna and has worked for the Student Center for more than 15 years. She has previously worked with the Reservations Office for five years as Assistant Assignment Coordinator.
Phones and other electronic devices across the United States received an alert Wednesday as a part of a test of the federal Emergency Alert System (EAS). These tests are done every three years by federal law (the previous test was Aug. 11, 2021). The test gained attention as conspiracy theories spread on social media, which were dismissed by experts and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials.
AP: On Tuesday, a vote was called by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida that led to Kevin McCarthy being voted out of his position as Speaker of the House of Representatives. McCarthy will not be attempting to run again for the position, which leaves the position vacant. House Republicans begin voting for a new speaker next week.
Dining confirms plans to relocate Chick-fil-A from the Atrium to North Dining 4 14
JESSICABERGFORS,DNILLUSTRATION
Lindsey Ogle, assistant professor of special education, grew up living with her brother, Matt Ogle, who is on the autism spectrum, who she described as having very limited speech capabilities. Her family watched him struggle to find a job in rural Tennessee.
Even though her brother makes the most of his limited opportunities through volunteer work, he isn’t the only one who’s faced struggles finding employment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in 2022 was more than twice as high for individuals with a disability compared to individuals without one.
Now as a co-investigator for COMPASS (Collaborative Model for Competence and Success) Across Settings (CAST), an intervention project funded by the Institute of Educational Sciences (IES) through a $1,999,999 grant, Lindsey will help high school students with autism across Indiana find their place in society.
“We’re trying to improve their outcomes after high school because we know youth with autism have the worst post-secondary outcomes of any disability category,” she said.
CAST’s main goal is to help individuals with autism smoothly transition out of high school depending on their intended career path, through college or not, by working with parents and teachers
to increase employment chances for each student. The program enables one of the first transitionplanning intervention projects backed up by research to come to both the Department of Special Education and the Department of Educational Psychology. This transition-planning project uses the COMPASS intervention method that begins with a consultation phase where goals are set for each student with plans to achieve them while maximizing the students’ strengths and improving their weaknesses.
“That’s where the youth with autism, if they are able to participate, they’re ideal to be involved in that process, and they absolutely should be able to talk about [employment goals],” Lindsey said.
In fact, Lindsey believes students with disabilities have just as difficult of a time figuring out their careers as their peers without a disability. To her, all adolescents experience self-discovery through a similar process.
“There are so many options and so much potential that it can be hard to choose, so I think every student needs guidance there, and children and adolescents with autism are no different,” Lindsey said.
In her co-investigator role, Lindsey is giving to people with autism in a way she wishes was done for her brother. Her motivation as both a professor and researcher manifests through the influence she’s had in her life, which led her to help others with the same disability.
“If you can target those first few years after high school, then it sets an expectation and opens the door to more opportunity that my brother has not gotten in the same way I hope the students in our study will,” Lindsey said.
The study aims to make the transitional element of leaving high school, which Lindsey compares to falling off a cliff due to the lack of entitled services, much clearer for both the student and parent.
Primary investigator Lisa Ruble, professor and co-developer of COMPASS, mentioned the complexity of adult services causes the responsibility of advocating for post-secondary needs to fall on the parents and their children.
“What’s different about the school system is that there’s federal law that guarantees services, but we don’t have that same law for adult services,” Ruble said. “We’re trying to get all that set up and help the families and the people with autism advocate for themselves.”
Along with parents and the school system, CAST also works with pre-employment specialists employed by vocational rehabilitation within schools to arrange students with autism with experiences providing jobs or college preparation.
“We’re integrating these three different groups that often just work in isolated ways so we’re getting everybody on the same page,” Ruble said.
While finding opportunities, such as jobs, may be difficult, from her experiences working at Hillcroft Services’ ABA Clinic, chief ABA officer
Gina Davenport noticed most individuals with autism in the clinic struggle with communication. Although she mainly works with children and some adolescents, Davenport believes communication is a crucial element to developing a person with autism’s ability to find a job and hold their own in adult life.
“If they’re gonna go out and advocate for themselves, they need to know how to have a reciprocal conversation,” Davenport said. “So we might teach them ‘If you say something, you have to wait for a response and acknowledge that person gave you a response.’”
Davenport said parents sometimes understandably do things for their child, whether having a disability or not, without ever teaching them how to do it. She believes parents teaching their child with autism skills while still at a young age helps them learn to do it themselves in the future.
“When you see somebody struggling, it’s human nature to want to jump in and do it for them, but that’s a perfect teaching moment to teach them how to work through those struggles,” she said.
In terms of understanding autism, Davenport claims it’s difficult for people without a disability to relate if they haven’t been exposed to or interested in it. Even so, she believes educating individuals on the subject matter is crucial to empathizing with the struggles of people with autism.
“We’re definitely getting better with more education now than when I started 18 years ago; however, it still needs a lot of work,” Davenport said.
Contact Zach Gonzalez with comments via email at zachary.gonzalez@bsu.edu or on Twitter @zachg25876998.
We’re trying to improve their outcomes after high school because we know youth with autism have the worst postsecondary outcomes of any disability category,”
- LINDSEY OGLE, Special Education assistant and co-investigator
Ball State will travel to Ohio Friday and Saturday to take on Miami (OH) and Bowling Green. The Cardinals are coming off a two-game sweep of Eastern Michigan, improving their Mid-American Conference record to 4-0. The game against Miami will take place Oct. 6, starting at 7 p.m., and the game against Bowling Green will start at 4 p.m. Oct. 7.
After being on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list for the first four weeks of the season, the Indianapolis Colts star running back returned to practice Oct. 4. Taylor underwent surgery after sustaining an injury versus the Minnesota Vikings in 2022, this will be his first time returning since that injury.
The Cardinals field hockey squad will travel to Davidson College Friday, Oct. 6. Ball State is 5-1 in the last six games, only dropping its latest game to in-conference competition, Kent State, to go to 5-5 overall. Sophomore Fleur Knopert leads the Cardinals with 11 goals and 24 points in the season. The game will start at 6 p.m.
After being shot twice in the chest, Wil McPhillips endured a 447-day journey to return to the court.
It was late October.
Wil McPhillips and his roommates were hosting a private party. McPhillips said an uninvited group came into the house and was quickly asked to leave. When they refused, punches were thrown before the group left the house, but they congregated on the property outside.
McPhillips and a few others went outside to confront the group, where the fighting continued while moving further from the house.
Then McPhillips heard gunshots.
He thought somebody had shot a gun into the air to stop the altercation.
He was wrong.
As everyone ran, McPhillips knew something was different. His breathing was labored and he felt like he was ‘soaked.’
He soon realized two gunshot wounds in his chest caused the feeling. He had been shot from behind.
“I called the cops because no one was by me; I was by myself at this point,” McPhillips said. “I didn’t fall or anything. I just kind of walked away from where the fight was and called the cops. And then I saw a cop car drive past.”
The patrol car had not seen him, so he chased them a few blocks to get their attention. As he ran, he plugged the open wound in his side with his finger.
“I just felt a big sense of urgency, really. I pretty much knew that I felt like at any point I could just fall down,” McPhillips said. “I told [the police], ‘I’m going to go ahead and sit or lay down before I fall down.’”
McPhillips was transported to Ball Memorial Hospital and rushed into emergency surgery for his collapsed lung, which split at the top as a result of the shooting. Additionally, the surgical team performed exploratory surgery, cutting open from his breastplate to his belly button to ensure he was not bleeding internally.
He lost eight units of blood and needed 67 staples.
The moments on the operating table, when he was still conscious, are etched into his memory.
“I was awake on the operating table asking them if I was going to be okay, and they were like ‘We’re trying to help you out,’” he said.
McPhillips was put into a medically-induced coma to give his body time to heal. They put a mask over his face and ‘some big’ needles into his chest as he closed his eyes and contemplated if these were the final moments of his life.
“I was just looking around, and I was like, ‘Dang,
this is it,’” McPhillips said. “I just felt helpless.”
After about 24 hours, he woke up alone in his hospital room with multiple IVs, a tube going down his throat and a tube coming out of his side. He could only communicate with a dry-erase board.
McPhillips said he had two questions when he woke up: ‘Do my parents know?’ and ‘Am I going to live?’
The night of the shooting, McPhillips’ family was home in Tennessee. Bob, Wil’s father, was spending the night in Clarksville, Tennessee, with Wil’s older sister Sarah; they were about two hours away from Wil’s mother, Karen, who was an hour and a half southeast of Nashville in Winchester, Tennessee, with her sister. Karen recalls a normal night with wine and television.
“The most ironic thing is, the thing I was watching on TV was a ‘20/20’ episode of a college with a group of kids at a college house and one of their football players was sitting on the front porch, it was a party, and he got shot,” Karen said. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, those poor parents, that’s horrible.’”
She thought nothing more of it and headed to bed, only to be awakened by the early morning phone call no parent ever wants to receive.
“This is the Muncie Police Department, your son has been shot.”
Karen remembers sitting on the side of the bed, trying to wake up from what had to be a bad dream.
I was just looking around and I was like ‘Dang, this is it.’ I just felt helpless.
- WIL MCPHILLIPS, Graduate student middle blocker
almost two years after a near-fatal shooting, the graduate student men’s volleyball player details his comeback to the court.
“[They said] your son has been shot multiple times, and I just kept saying, ‘Why? I don’t understand,’” she said.
She still has the piece of paper on which she scribbled the information, but said she doesn’t recognize the handwriting today.
The next few minutes were filled with frantic phone calls to the hospital, the police department and Wil’s friends before waking her sister with the news.
“We were just screaming and pacing in the front room, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I have to call Bob,’” Karen said.
Everyone’s reaction was the same: confusion, shock, panic. They had to get to Muncie.
“I was just on autopilot of some sort…I don’t remember driving to Clarksville,” Karen said.
After picking up her husband, Karen insisted on driving. They knew the route from numerous trips to Muncie, but amid the chaos, they found themselves going in the wrong direction.
“I was pretty much in shock,” Bob said. “I was trying to put it [together] because, first off, they said it was three shots, and I’m thinking ‘How’s he still around?’ It turned out there were two, but that’s bad enough… Just a lot of trying to figure out sort of in my head, ‘How does this kind of stuff happen?’”
After Bob and Karen got on the road, Sarah stayed behind with her three kids. She somehow needed to be a mother, while the sister in her could barely handle the current situation.
“I couldn’t go back to sleep,” Sarah said.
“The next day was really hard because it was Halloween. I just had to be an actress because I didn’t want my kids to know because I didn’t know [if everything was alright].”
Bob and Karen made it to Ball Memorial Hospital after leaving midway through the night and were greeted at the door by senior setter David Flores, one of Wil’s closest friends.
“He looked like a ghost,” Karen said of Flores. Karen’s voice still shakes when she talks about the walk to Wil’s room.
“I said ‘I don’t know if I can go in there,’ and the nurse said ‘You’ll be fine, you’ll be fine.’ I was not fine,” Karen said. “To walk in and just see your son there with a breathing tube – they call it a mainline IV – hooked up to machines and lifeless, I pretty much dropped to my knees.
“Usually I would be the strong one for others in the room, I couldn’t [be in that moment].”
They stayed at the hospital for a few hours talking to doctors and other personnel before staying with one of Wil’s friends for the night. When they came back in the morning, Wil’s breathing tube had been removed.
Seeing his parents in his hospital room was a moment Wil said was hard to describe.
“That’s kind of a blur,” Wil said. “Just the fact that I’m lucky that I am not dead… If [the shooter] would have been any closer to me or any farther, a different bullet… It was pretty much inches [and] I could have been paralyzed.”
Bob said that Wil was lucky because the bullets were target rounds, a less effective round.
“I talked to people in the know about [ammunition] and they said ‘Thank God they were target rounds,’ because if they were anything else, he would not have survived,” Bob said.
The bullet casings were recovered at the scene, but the shooter has yet to be apprehended as of Oct. 4.
Bob and Karen hadn’t attended any matches during the COVID-19 pandemic, and because a new coaching staff came in during the off-season, they first met Wil’s coaches in his hospital room.
They also did not know many of the families around the team or the staff with Ball State Athletics, but said the support was overflowing between people back home and people in Muncie.
“A lot of support between Ultimate Volleyball
Club back home, all of the families…and same with the [Ball State] teammates and families that we didn’t even know on his team,” Karen said.
“I want to thank the doctors at Ball State, the two surgeons that worked on him, the lung doctor and the exploratory surgeon, those nurses, coach Donan [Cruz], the coaching staff and [former Director of Athletics] Beth Goetz… we couldn’t have asked for anything else.”
It was a few days later when Sarah talked to Wil for the first time since the shooting.
“I was taking my girl to school, and we pull into the parking lot and Wil calls me,” she said. “That was the first time hearing him since everything happened, so I was a mess on the phone, naturally… I don’t even remember what we talked about, I just remember what it felt like to hear him for the first time.”
Sarah had her first child, Raelynn, when Wil was 12, and he took on the big brother, or the ‘Funkle (Fun Uncle)’ role, as Sarah likes to say, for Raelynn and Sarah’s two younger sons Remmington and Lucciano. Raelynn went to all of Wil’s practices in high school; she cries when he comes home to visit, and she cries when he has to leave.
“She’s grown up watching him play volleyball,” Sarah said. “She talked to him on the phone, and he talked to her as much as he could, but it was really hard for him emotionally.”
When Wil took his first steps after the shooting, Karen remembers looking up to see him walking around the corner with two nurses by his side after being taken off his breathing tube about an hour prior. Wil met his mom for a hug before asking her, ‘Am I ever going to play volleyball again?’
Karen – who refers to her son as ‘Strong Wil,’ – said she had no doubts he would see the court again.
When Wil walked out of Ball Memorial Hospital a week later, his Ball State team was there to greet him.
The road to recovery was beginning, but for months after leaving the hospital, Wil felt like he could barely breathe.
“That was more of a mental thing,” he said. “Going to bed, I wasn’t sure if I could keep myself breathing automatically throughout the night.”
He dealt with the aftereffects of the shooting for several months, including the pops and vibrations in his lungs when he inhaled or the blood he coughed up for three months.
I was awake on the operating table asking them if I was going to be okay and they were like ‘We’re trying to help you out.’
- WIL MCPHILLIPS, Graduate student middle blocker
Continued from Page 07
For a long time following the injury, Sarah remembers it bothering Wil that he had to concentrate on breathing while everyone else did it autonomously.
“He was almost bitter because he was like, ‘I feel weird to be in a room with people who are not thinking about breathing,’ and I could sympathize but not empathize,” Sarah said.
Wil went home to Tennessee to recover while working with the local hospitals in his area. The months following were spent dealing with numerous challenges, including a bout of pneumonia.
During recovery, Karen tended to his injury and surgical wounds, which needed to be cleaned consistently. Wil joked that the hospital “sends you home with holes. They don’t sew ‘em up.”
Karen said, ‘When it’s your kid, you’re going to do it, obviously,’ but she thanked God that she had the courage to do it.
After Wil returned to Muncie, the team began to travel for preseason. That weighed on Wil mentally. His five-person volleyball house was empty.
“I was able to hang out with them and, obviously, I wanted to be freaking playing, but I was happy to just be alive,” Wil said.
With little connection to his teammates, Wil stayed connected to his family through phone calls and texts almost eight hours away.
“While he was with us, it was CT scans, medication, all of that stuff, but by the time he went back to Muncie, and we stayed here, it was a more emotional, mental adjustment for him back there,” Karen said. “So trying to support him and always trying to have a positive thing [was hard]. I just felt like, ‘Ugh, I can’t be there.’ But he found his way through.”
As the Cardinals began their season, Wil was able to attend matches, dressed in sweatpants and a polo, holding his arm against his right side to protect his wounds. The only thing he could focus on was his academics and his recovery.
There was a three-step process for Wil to return to the court: First, he needed to get medically cleared to work out again, second, he needed to be cleared by the athletic training staff to finish his rehabilitation, and third, to work with Jason Roberson, Ball State’s director of strength and conditioning for Olympic sports, in final preparations to play again.
With the athletic training staff, Wil spent a lot of time scraping his scars – a technique called dermabrasion which can improve scarring and help remove damaged or unhealthy scar tissue. While making sure his scars would not clump up
or affect the tissue, Wil spent a lot of time on a stationary bike to get his lungs back into good shape. Roberson said when Wil got to him, his lungs were ‘quite healthy.’
“We started with a very slow progression,” Roberson said. “The musculature was all healed, all the connective tissue, muscle and bone had been healed by that point, but because he had been out for so long, I really took my time to make sure he could rebuild any lost muscle tissue. We started with really light weights, mostly movementoriented…Over the course of a couple of weeks, we built him up to using barbells.
“He was back to doing really well. He’s such an athlete, such an incredible young man. I’d never seen him work this hard in the entire time that I’d been working with him.”
Part of Wil’s work ethic was driven by his absence from the court. He could watch practice, but not participate.
“Wil McPhillips loves volleyball, and that’s all he wants to do right now,” Roberson said. “That was 100 percent motivation for him to do everything he had to do to get back on the court.”
Up until March 2022 (about five months after the shooting), there was still a possibility that Wil could return before the end of the season, but as spring rolled around, he was losing hope.
“I would do anything to get back to playing, and I just didn’t want to miss out on a whole year,” Wil said. “When the doctor told me that I probably wouldn’t play for the rest of the year, I was pretty bummed out.”
Wil remembers hitting a ball again for the first time March 15, 2022. As he became more and more comfortable on the court again, he also became frustrated; he felt the progress he was making but was not yet cleared to play.
“I was telling the trainer, ‘I’ve been hitting balls. I’ve been jumping. Everything’s fine,’ so like, why could I not go into practice and like do the warm-up and do light stuff just to make my mental [health] feel better,” Wil said.
By the end of April, he was a full participant in practice with the team, but the final call was that Wil would not see the court for the rest of the season. He would have to wait until November 2022 to make his comeback.
Wil first saw playing time again in Ball State’s home opener against Harvard Jan. 20, 2023. As the Cardinals huddled in the locker room before heading out to the court, Wil found out he wouldn’t only be playing his first game, he’d be starting in it. “They took a moment in the locker room and had a couple of the other guys who play my position take a second for all the work I did,” he said. “That was really cool for them to do [and] definitely made it more special than it already was.”
With the lights darkened and the crowd roaring, Wil sat on the bench with his head down. It had
been 447 days since the shooting. As Steve Shondell, public address announcer, rang his name into the rafters, Wil experienced a feeling he wasn’t sure he would ever feel again.
He took the court in a Ball State uniform in front of the home crowd, which included his older sister and his niece.
“[After the game] I was crying, I hugged him, and he was very sweaty,” Sarah said. “It was quick, but it was so special.”
Over 400 miles away, Bob and Karen remember being on their feet, cheering in front of their TV during Wil’s return to the court. Wil played all three sets of the sweep and contributed eight kills and three blocks.
Wil saw time in seven matches (23 sets played) in his first season back, tallying 29 kills and 17 total blocks while averaging a .404 hitting percentage.
“I think about [the shooting] every single day, but it still doesn’t feel like reality,” Wil said. “It’s weird, but I don’t really have a choice. I don’t have a choice in how to feel about it. Really, I’m just going to keep rolling with it and seeing what I can do.”
It was an emotional moment for Roberson as well, who oversaw Wil’s recovery, from returning to practice and then taking the court again in a competitive match.
“To watch him practice, and participate in practice and watch him build up, knowing that he was going to play, it was incredibly heartfelt,” Roberson said. “[I’m] proud of him, proud of his work ethic, proud of how hard he worked to get back to where he was.”
Halloween has always been a special holiday for the McPhillips family. Karen makes a special dinner and the family gets together, but since Wil’s shooting, it won’t ever be the same.
“It weighs heavy,” Karen said. “I feel that boiling anxiety, but I’m trying not to make it that.”
“To not say it’s different would be a blatant lie, but in the same breath, we are thankful that he’s still here with us,” Bob added.
Wil McPhillips loves volleyball, and that’s all he wants to do right now.
- JASON ROBERSON, Ball State’s director of strength and conditioning for Olympic sportsSenior middle blocker Wil McPhillips goes to spike the ball against Purdue Fort Wayne April 8 at Worthen Arena. MYA CATALINE, DN
The comedian duo is on tour with former “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart for their “Jon, John & Pete” show. Mulaney and Davidson will be performing Oct. 7 without Stewart at 7 p.m. at Emens Auditorium.Tickets are available on Ticketmaster, and Ball State President Geoffery Mearns announced on X he had 50 tickets to give away for the event. The event will be a phone-free experience.
Westwind Farm and Fiber is hosting a beginner-friendly “Bunny Yoga” class on Saturday, Oct. 7 at 9 a.m. Tickets are required to be purchased in advance on its website. It’s $15 a person and covers the 30-minute yoga class and a treat to feed the bunnies. This event is similar to their “Goat Yoga” event that will next be held in August, 2024.
Madelyn Bracken ReporterAn open, clean and white-walled room with a singular bench. It is quiet. The room is filled with large, heavy and enveloping abstract paintings full of intricate shapes and textures. All are black, white and gray.
The room is quiet, not in an eerie way, but in a meditative way; the paintings are the only areas of interest.
Debbie Ma’s marble dust paintings fill the walls in their first solo exhibition as the New York artist comes to the Midwest.
“These paintings, they contact your eye, and
- ROBERT LAFRANCE, Museum Director
they contact your brain, and they calm you down,” Robert LaFrance, David Owsley Museum of Art Director, said. “People tend to have an immediate liking or reaction to them.”
While this is a unique exhibition, the museum has displayed one of Debbie Ma’s paintings, “Ouarzazate,” since it was purchased by David Owsley in 2016 at an art show in Long Island, New York, before being loaned to the museum. It has been hanging in the gallery since 2017.
“David [Owsley] fell in love with Debbie Ma’s work immediately, as soon as he saw it, and it happened to be her first big show,” LaFrance said. “We’re sponsoring her first one-person-show in the world that she’s had in a public museum.”
Ball State Counseling Practicum Clinic is leading a guided “Mindful Meditation” at Frog Baby Fountain and is taking place each Thursday of October at noon. The sessions will last 30 minutes and all are welcome to come. The goal is to get people to relax and connect with nature. There is no cost, no experience necessary and chairs will be provided.
These paintings, they contact your eye and they contact your brain and they calm you down. People tend to have an immediate liking or reaction to them.”Second-year animation major Ellie Chandler views a piece in the Asian textiles collection on display Sept. 29 in the David Owsley Museum of Art. Chandler has been working for DOMA since last Febuary and enjoys spending time in the space. ELLA HOWELL, DN
The David Owsley Museum of Art presents two new exhibits on textiles and abstract art.
Recent news of books being banned in public schools, academic libraries and public libraries, has many authors, like Indiana’s John Green, expressing their disapproval. In August 2023, the Hamilton East Public Library reshelved its teen section, and books like Green’s “Fault in Our Stars” were no longer on the shelves due to being deemed not “age appropriate.”
According to PEN America, an organization dedicated to uniting writers, celebrating creative expression and defending free speech liberties, over 4,000 book bans have occurred in the United States since fall 2021. PEN America stated an “overwhelmingly” large number of the books targeted for bans are stories by and/or about people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. With these books leaving classrooms and shelves, here’s a list of banned books to read.
Published in March 2005, the coming-of-age story follows the main character Miles “Pudge” Halter and his time at a boarding school where he is seeking a “Great Perhaps,” the last words of François Rabelais. Halter gains close friendships with Chip “The Colonel” Martin, Alaska Young and Takumi Hikohito.
The book culminates with Young’s death, and the rest of the friend group work to learn the details of her death and come to terms with the loss. According to the American Library Association (ALA), the book received 55 challenges in 2022 for LGBTQ+ content and was claimed to be sexually explicit.
The 2019 graphic memoir follows Kobabe’s journey from adolescence to adulthood and their exploration of gender identity and sexuality. The book goes over topics such as gender euphoria, gender dysphoria and asexuality.
It received 151 challenges in 2022 for LGBTQ+ content and was claimed to be sexually explicit, according to the ALA.
2,571
being shot by a white police officer.
“The Hate U Give,” in 2021, was on the ALA’s “Top 10 Most Challenged Books” for profanity, violence and has claims of promoting “an antipolice message and indoctrination of a social agenda.”
The classic novel, published in 1960, deals with themes of rape and racial inequality. The comingof-age story follows Jean Louise Finch,“Scout”, during the years of 1933-35 in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, while her father, Atticus Finch, defends a Black man falsely accused of rape.
The book ranked in ALA’s “Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2020” due to racial slurs and its negative effect on students, featuring a white savior character and its perception of the Black experience.
The 2012 young-adult novel follows the narratives of Omaha, Nebraska, misfits, Eleanor and Park, from 1986 to 1987. The two 16-year-old characters meet on the school bus on Eleanor’s first day of school, and throughout the story, the two connect over comic books and mixtapes of ‘80s music. The relationship between Park, a biracial Korean boy, and Eleanor, a chubby girl with curly, red hair, slowly blooms into a romance.
A first-person narrative from the perspective of the main character Arnold Spirit Jr., or “Junior”, follows his life on the Spokane Indian Reservation and his decision to go to a predominately allwhite public high school. Junior is a 14-year-old Indigenous American cartoonist.
The book, published in 2007, is an epistolary and graphic novel with 65 comic illustrations. On the 2022 ALA challenged book list, it received 52 challenges for profanity and was claimed to be sexually explicit.
The 2017 young-adult novel is narrated by 16-year-old Starr Carter. Carter, a Black girl from a poor neighborhood, attends an elite, predominantly white private school. Carter becomes involved with national news due to her speaking out about her witnessing her childhood best friend, Khalil,
The novel made the ALA’s top 10 for 2016 for offensive language, despite the themes of race and abuse in it, according to ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Blog.
The 1970 novel follows the story of Pecola, a young Black girl in Lorain, Ohio. The book is set in 1941 and focuses on how Pecola is seen as “ugly” due to her mannerisms and dark skin. Due to this, Pecola gains an inferiority complex, and she desires to have blue eyes, which she equates to “whiteness.”
The novel is told from Claudia MacTeer’s first-person narrative, the daughter of Pecola’s foster parents, as well as an omniscient thirdperson narrative. The book is controversial due to it covering topics of racism, incest and child molestation. On the 2022 ALA challenged book list it received 73 challenges for depiction of sexual abuse, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion content, and was claimed to be sexually explicit.
The coming-of-age epistolary novel, published in February 1999, follows introverted and observant Charlie going through his freshman year of high school in a Pittsburgh suburb. Charlie writes letters to an unknown recipient, his “dear friend,” discussing his freshman year and the traumatic events in his life: the suicide of his middle school friend and the death of his favorite aunt.
Themes in the book include sexuality, drug use, rape and mental health. According to the ALA, it received 55 challenges in 2022 for depictions of sexual abuse, LGBTQ+ content, drug use and was claimed to be sexually explicit.
Contact Hannah Amos with comments at hannah. amos@bsu.edu or on X @Hannah_Amos_394.
With book bans happening nationwide, here’s a list of banned books to read.
Fall 2021
Art History and Associate Curator of Asian Art Noelle Giuffrida talks about "Fibers of Being: Textiles from Asia" Sept. 29 in the David Owsley Museum of Art. The other three are Natalia Latham (left), Gabriela Henderson (middle) and Lea Stouder (right), 2023 graduates who also worked on the exhibit. ELLA HOWELL, DN
Bottom Left: Debbie Ma's painting, Ouarzazate, loaned to the museum by David Owsley, hangs in the exhibition Sept. 25 at the David Owsley Museum of Art. MADELYN BRACKEN, DN
Continued from Page 9
While her paintings and other artwork are now her focus, art was not Ma’s first career. She worked in product design for cosmetics companies for 25 years after graduating from Parsons School of Design, a private art and design college in New York, in 1983.
Ma shifted to fine art after visiting a gallery featuring the artist Antoni Tàpies. Ma’s unconventional path has drawn a sense of relatability out of some students who have worked with her during her time spent at Ball State University.
“Especially right after graduating, it’s just incredible to work with someone who’s already made their mark and getting to pick her brain about a few things,” class of 2023 graduate Kate Kimmel said. “To see how she got to her path of success was really interesting, especially coming from someone who was a studio art major also.”
Much like Kimmel, students of the university will be able to hear Ma’s story when she returns Oct. 12 to speak in the recital hall at DOMA at 6 p.m.
“I think students can learn a lot from her in terms of how to be a professional and to be a professional artist, but also how to be an artist who is a professional graphic designer and a professional artist,” LaFrance said.
Her path is not only instructive but both her path and artwork can serve as an inspiration to students.
“I feel like her story illustrates that you can be your own artist,” Associate Director of the DOMA Rachel Buckmaster said.
A room filled with color. Bright reds and blues embroidered with striking gold. Textiles filled with stories and hard work.
The room displays Asian textiles directly from the DOMA collection, brought out of storage, researched and displayed in a project lasting 18 months, most on display for the first time.
“There really hasn’t been a show before in the history of the museum since the 1930s,” Associate Curator of Asian Art Noelle Giuffrida said.
While Giuffrida worked hard on this project, it would not have been possible without the amount of student participation in the form of curatorial interns at the museum.
These students include Cydney Davidson,
Left: Sign encourages visitors to touch the art on the walls in a section of the "Rising to the Surface: Paintings by Debbie Ma" exhibit Sept. 29 in the David Owsley Museum of Art. This area had various interactive elements that encouraged engagement, especially for children. ELLA HOWELL, DN
Gabriela Henderson, Natalia Latham, Kennedy Moore and Lea Stouder.
Their work, as well as the partnership with Ball State University’s Digital Corps, which helped to create QR codes and audio-video elements to increase interaction with the display, have made the short-term exhibit a lasting one.
The exhibit features textiles, both clothing and others, from all over Asia. The vibrant colors and storytelling etched into the pieces themselves provide a different perspective as they encourage the viewer to dive into Asian culture.
“It’s a way to engage with the material and visual culture of Asia and people of Asian descent in a way that feels really hopeful and inspiring. And [it’s] a way to look at history and things today through material objects and to have a greater understanding of what’s happening in the world,” Giuffrida said.
The exhibition is only on display for a short period of time due to the nature of textiles and how they must be protected.
“Textiles are a material that can’t be out in these galleries all the time because they are light sensitive,” Giuffrida said. “They need a temperature that is not too warm. They need not a lot of humidity... So
can only be shown for short periods of time, so this was a chance to show a bunch of them all at once.”
This exhibition, along with Rising to the Surface, will be on display at the DOMA until Dec. 21.
Contact Madelyn Bracken with comments at madelyn.bracken@bsu.edu.
I think students can learn a lot from her in terms of how to be a professional and to be a professional artist, but also how to be an artist who is a professional graphic designer and a professional artist.”
- ROBERT LAFRANCE, Museum Director they, like works on paper, Top: Associate Professor of Bottom Right: Manchu Woman's Jacket hangs on display Sept. 29 in the David Owsley Museum of Art. The jacket, embroidered with silk thread, is also referred to as a magua and is dated from 1880-1900. ELLA HOWELL, DN Manchu Man's Semiformal Court Robe (Jifu) on display Sept. 29 in the David Owsley Museum of Art. The robe comes from the Qing Dynasty in China and is dated 1750-1870. ELLA HOWELL, DN Right: Debbie Ma's marble dust paintings Sept. 26 in the David Owsley Museum of Art. MADELYN BRACKEN, DNMeal prepping has given me the time I needed back in my hectic schedule.
Elaine Ulsh is a second-year computer science and physics major and writes “The Occasional Observer” for the Daily News. Her views do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper.
I love cooking.
But I don’t find cooking as “quick and easy” as everyone says it can be. Recipes that are meant to take 30 minutes end up taking an hour or require ingredients most people don’t have on hand. I don’t have enough wiggle room in my schedule or budget for that.
My mother was one of those moms who would make half the month’s meals in advance and have them frozen for when we needed something quick. Her culinary planning and prepping ingrained in me a strong feel for how to cook — something I carry with me to this day even though I’m out of the house and in a place of my own.
Last year, I had more time to dedicate to cooking food, but it wasn’t necessary. Since I was living on campus, I could use my meal swipe whenever I wanted. I had 14 swipes — that’s a guaranteed two meals a day as long as I used them correctly.
And I didn’t want my boyfriend to have to worry about food either, so we split my swipes, which is actually a lot easier than it sounds. Those meal swipes can go a long way. In doing that, we cooked our other meals in one of the DeHority third-floor kitchenettes probably five to seven times every week.
Before the new school year started, I decided I was going to start preparing a week of meals for both me and my boyfriend. It was a needed alternative instead of stressing out over the when, what and where of cooking during our busy weekly lives.
Honestly, it’s been going great.
When I’m hungry, all I have to do is open the fridge or freezer and heat up a healthy, alreadyprepared meal. When I don’t have to worry so much about cooking, I feel as though I have taken back a very important amount of time in my schedule.
According to a study by the University of Paris, people who prepared meals ahead of time had more fruits and vegetables in their diet than those who didn’t. The study then mentioned meal prepping is associated with healthier diets and lower levels of obesity in both men and women by choosing healthier options and not eating badly due to not having the time to cook.
Health is important to me, and I like feeling in control over what I put into my body. It’s not just about looking a certain way either. It’s not about being fitter or skinnier — it’s about the way food fuels me.
I have a condition that requires me to eat a high sodium, high potassium and high iron diet. And those dining hall meals weren’t making the cut in terms of making me and my body feel good.
I could eat the strictest chicken and rice diet ever, causing a flare-up and feeling absolutely awful. I could also eat like crap and have no energy due to lack of vital nutrients. For me, finding the balance between the two extremes is very difficult, especially as my aging body becomes less forgiving.
These meals we threw together were the epitome of college cuisine: cheap and easy, but not necessarily healthy.
Health is something near and dear to my heart, so with an entire kitchen of my own in the apartment my boyfriend and I now reside in, I have been dedicated to cooking healthy food that tastes amazing too.
Finding time between classes and due dates for a social life can be very stressful for many college students. But for some of us, a cramped schedule can affect more than just when we see our friends. For me, it’s hard to find time to eat, much less cook.
I don’t want to be stressing out about when I can fit cooking into my already hectic schedule. I recognize food is a necessity, so I must consume something, but I don’t want to be constantly thinking about it. I especially don’t want to be spending $100/week buying overpriced dining hall food, which sometimes isn’t even good.
And I definitely didn’t want to be constantly running to some fast-food joint, which I tend to do when I don’t feel like cooking.
This balance can be even more difficult to find when considering my boyfriend’s diet as well. He has a tendency for high blood pressure. This means he needs a low-sodium diet, while I’m the exact opposite.
We’ve known this since I found out about my condition and have dealt with it to the best of our abilities.
Controlling the sodium amount isn’t the problem, but trying to have one meal with two different sodium amounts is. Originally, I was cooking meals with low sodium. But when I started feeling unwell because of it, I realized I couldn’t live a no-salt life anymore. It wasn’t sustainable.
Meal prepping has really changed this dilemma. I can choose ahead of time what I’m going to be eating and how much sodium is in it. I can create a balance. Some food can be made with absolutely zero sodium, while others will give me what I need.
Since my boyfriend is fairly active, I don’t have to worry about his blood pressure as much as I have to worry about my condition.
I can put my health at the forefront and create delicious food I can eat throughout the week without feeling progressively worse.
This is just one example of how the benefits of meal prepping have changed my life. But there are so many more. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, the benefits of meal prepping include saving both time and money, helping with weight control and reducing stress.
As someone who is prone to stress, I am constantly looking for ways to manage it. Meal prepping has been a lifesaver in that regard.
A lot of the stress associated with cooking, at least for me, is whether I have all the ingredients, if I have enough time and deciding what I’m going to cook in the first place. With meal prepping, I decide what I’m going to eat for the week on Saturday, go shopping for ingredients I don’t have and cook at least half the day on Sunday.
Many of the recipes I make take at least an hour each, but it doesn’t have to be that difficult. There are tons of 15-minute recipes on the internet. There are meals that can work around anyone’s schedule.
I choose recipes I enjoy, regardless of how long
it takes. And I can do that because I’m making it beforehand. It helps me feel fulfilled during the week, regardless of the pressures from work, school and other obligations.
I love cooking, and I’ve found a way to fit it into my busy schedule. Doing things I enjoy is essential, but not if they’re going to stress me out to the point that I don’t enjoy them anymore. I think meal prepping has become the perfect fit for me. I encourage others who are struggling with finding the time to cook — and want meals that make them feel full and satisfied — to meal prep with me.
Contact Elaine Ulsh with comments at elaine.ulsh@bsu.edu.
Associate Opinion Editor, “The Occasional Observer”
When I don’t have to worry so much about cooking, I feel as though I have taken back a very important amount of time in my schedule.”
Continued from Page 07
The family has adopted ‘It could have been worse’ as a mantra over the last two years, in addition to Karen’s ‘Strong Wil’ nickname.
“I try to enjoy things more,” Sarah said. “When we’re out spending time with family, just absorbing it. Our lives here are precious and short and not guaranteed.”
Bob, who is nearing 70-years-old, worked almost seven days a week in the trades when Wil was younger.
“For me, it’s enjoying the time you have with them,” he said. “When he comes in, we try to do stuff with him. Before, when he was younger, I worked all the time…Now, I’m like ‘I got to spend time with him.’”
Life goes on for the McPhillips family, despite the entire experience sitting a little deeper every fall when the leaves change colors.
“I don’t think we live any differently,” Karen said. “I wanted him to have the college experience… [Bob and I] didn’t go away for college, and we wanted him to have that experience, and, boy, he got it. But he’s coming out stronger.”
With two more years of eligibility, Wil wants to utilize them by leaving a legacy for the program.
For some Ball State students, Chick-fil-A quickly becomes a routine of on-campus living.
“I go to Chick-fil-A literally every day,” firstyear communications major Avah Miner said.
Despite being tucked into the Atrium, the line of chicken-craving students is usually visible when students enter the Art and Journalism Building.
“I timed it once, I’ve waited in line for like 45 minutes,” Gisele Westfall, first-year elementary education major, said.
However, the location of the popular chain will be moving to North Dining in the near future, according to Ball State University Dining. The move has been tentatively slated for January 2024 and will include an upgrade to the existing location.
“The new Chick-fil-A will not be an express location as it is in the Atrium, we will have [an] expanded menu option,” Karen Adkins, senior director of auxiliaries for university dining and catering, via email. “At this time, we are still putting together the menu.”
Adkins said customers will be able to enter and place their orders from the east side of the North Dining Building (off McKinley Avenue). The area will take up what used to be the grilled food option and will be separate from the North Dining microrestaurants, meaning students will be able to access the location in the same way they do with Starbucks.
“I’m hoping to come in and make an impact that I’ve been waiting to make,” Wil said. “I played more my freshman and sophomore year than I did this past year, which kind of has been tough. But, I don’t have a problem with playing a role [on the team] and I know how that goes.”
Wil, who has coached with Muncie Burris Volleyball and Munciana Volleyball Club in Delaware County, wants to play professional volleyball but knows when his playing days are done, he wants to coach. He believes his experience, while unique, can provide a great deal to potential players.
He reminds himself he is lucky, and there were worse outcomes to his situation.
“Definitely remind myself that people have it worse,” Wil said. “I could walk, I could breathe, my arms were functional, I can still do what I love. For a little bit there, I was definitely scared. Being able to only take half a breath for a couple months is terrifying.”
Wil is open and talkative about the shooting, even making jokes about his experiences. He said it’s who he has been since day one, no matter the setback.
“I try not to worry about little things, because it can end at any moment. [I] just try to enjoy what I can and not take things for granted,” Wil said.
Contact Daniel Kehn with comments at daniel. kehn@bsu.edu or on Twitter @daniel_kehn.
The project is being completed by Pridemark Construction and is currently expected to cost $898,800 according to bid documents.
Construction plans include approximately 1,700 square feet of interior renovation within the first floor of the existing North Dining Facility. The changes include new interior finishes, wall layout and mechanical/electrical systems, according to documents from Purchasing Services.
Westfall lives in North West Hall and said she is personally excited about the move because it will put the location closer to her. However, for Miner, who lives in Woodworth Complex, she said it’s a farther walk than she will likely still make.
“I don’t know how I’ll feel about it in the rain and snow; I’ll have to order from one of those robot things,” Miner said.
The Starship Delivery Robots were rolled out last year and allow students to get food delivered to their location from around campus.
Adkins said the new location will require hiring new staff, as the North Dining location will be much larger.
The Daily News reached out to both Karen Adkins, senior director of auxiliaries for university dining and catering, and Andrew Walker, university content and media strategy manager, about the plans for the Atrium post-relocation. Both referenced an upcoming press release that would come out in October. Walker said there was “nothing else to share,” via email.
While the new location is still under construction, Adkins said university dining and catering is “not quite ready to put that information out” and students can expect more details of the new location and the plans for the Atrium in October.
Contact Daniel Kehn with comments at daniel. kehn@bsu.edu or on X @daniel_kehn and contact Olivia Ground at olivia.ground@bsu.edu or on X @liv_ground_25.
ACROSS
1 Draft pick?
5 Bentley of “Yellowstone”
8 __ Canarias
13 Backs
16 Use, in a way, with “off”
17 Texas Revolution figure
18 Ask
19 Hot
20 Like some accents
21 Uniform item, often
22 Best Original Song Oscar winner for “No Time to Die”
24 March honoree, familiarly
27 21st century explorer
28 Job listing ltrs.
30 Golf shot
31 2002 AFI Life Achievement Award honoree
32 Pandora or Spotify
33 Demolish
34 Rest stop visitors
35 Take the lead
36 Snack brand since 1921
37 Cocky gait
38 Olympian queen
39 Org. honored with a commemorative stamp for its
50th anniversary in 1960
40 Assistant’s job, often
41 Deserving of
42 “Criminal Minds” actress
44 Cut (off)
45 Runners at the corners, say
46 Request to be heard
52 Garden hose gasket
53 TV series that teamed a conspiracy theorist with a doctor
54 Poet whose work helped establish modern Italian
55 Critters with discs on their extremities
56 Wasn’t indecisive
57 Kennel sound
58 “Fuller House” actress Ashley
DOWN
1 __ buco
2 Capital of Shaanxi Province
3 “The Incredibles” designer Mode
4 Loser to Explorer in the first browser war
5 __ Country
6 Volcano where Zeus trapped Typhon, in some myths
7 Agree
8 Chevys retired in 2020
9 Sans __: carefree
10 Odyssey dreamer
11 Behave as required
12 Brake __
14 Occupied, in a way
15 Distort
23 Bugs
24 Really clean
25 Closing words
26 Pie seller, casually
27 Block
29 Media mogul born in Mississippi
31 Summons whose last word is often repeated
34 Minute Maid Park player, to fans
35 Meg Ryan’s screen name in “You’ve Got Mail”
37 Used, in a way, with “off”
41 Mezzo-soprano Beverly
43 Italian noble title below marchese
44 Opulent
45 Well attachment?
47 Drag org.
48 Word with freeze or fry
49 H.G. Wells race
50 Colossal
51 Petrol brand
