BSU 04-07-22

Finding A

Lead in to secondary teaser: What are you teasing to here. 00

Lead in to secondary teaser: What are you teasing to here here here. 00

Local business owner brings the community together at the Common Market.

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Kory Gipson, co-owner of the Common Market in Muncie, stands outside his storefront April 1. After purchasing the property in 2016, Gipson said his goal was to strengthen his ties to the Muncie community. GRACE DUERKSEN, DN PHOTO; JOSIE SANTIAGO, DN ILLUSTRATIONS

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DNSports 04.07.22

02

Men’s Basketball

CHANGING FOR CHAMPIONSHIPS Ball State holds introductory press conference for Michael Lewis.

AMBER PIETZ, DN

Kyle Smedley, Daniel Kehn and Nate Grubb Reporters Michael Lewis was officially announced as the 20th head coach of Ball State Men’s Basketball at a press conference April 6.

Lewis was introduced by President Geoffrey Mearns and Director of Athletics Beth Goetz.

“I think all of you know he was an outstanding basketball player and when his playing career concluded a few years ago, he at that time had the most career assists in the history of Indiana University

basketball,” Mearns said. “Of course, that’s relevant because it demonstrates he was an outstanding basketball player, but to me what it demonstrates is that he understands the responsibility of leadership. That leadership is about facilitating the success of your teammates and not necessarily advancing your own success. So his playing career demonstrates his character as a leader.”

Prior to Ball State, Lewis had spent 18 years as a graduate assistant and assistant coach at Texas Tech, Stephen F. Austin, Eastern Illinois, Butler, Nebraska and UCLA, with an overall record of 349-292 with six

VOL. 101 ISSUE: 26 CONTACT THE DN Newsroom: 765-285-8245 Editor: 765-285-8249, editor@bsudailynews.com

The Ball State Daily News (USPS144-360), the Ball State student newspaper, publishes Thursdays during the academic year, except during semester and summer breaks. The Daily News is supported in part by an allocation from the General Fund of the university and is available free to students at various campus locations.

EDITORIAL BOARD Taylor Smith, Editor-in-chief Connor Smith, Managing Editor Grace McCormick, News Editor Maya Wilkins, Lifestyles Editor Ian Hansen, Sports Editor John Lynch, Opinion Editor Adele Reich, Video Editor Rylan Capper, Photo Editor Emily Dodd, Social Media Editor Emily Hunter, Copy Director CREATIVE SERVICES Maggie Getzin, Creative Director Kamryn Tomlinson, Visual Editor Alex Hindenlang, Visual Editor

NCAA Tournament appearances. Lewis played collegiately at Indiana University from 1996-2000.

“Basketball here in Indiana just means more. All of those dreams are wrapped up in Michael Lewis, our new head coach,” Goetz said. “... Michael embodies what basketball means in this state. He embodies the values and commitment of students that define Ball State, and he embodies the competitive spirit and passion.”

Lewis played under Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame head coach Bob Knight at Indiana and later coached under Knight at Texas Tech. As an assistant coach, Lewis worked with the likes of Brad Stevens, Chris Holtmann, Tim Miles and Mick Cronin.

“I’ve been able to take a great deal of knowledge from all of those men,” Lewis said. “Unbelievable people of character, great leaders of programs that have all had success at a high level, and so I’m very comfortable in my own skin and very comfortable in who I am.

And, I can take parts of all of those men and kind of be who I am and put it into how I want to coach and how I want to lead the program.”

As head coach, Lewis said he wanted to impact the lives of his players and win championships.

“I’m hearing, ‘Win championships,’” Lewis said. “I’m not coming back to this state to lose. Like I said, it’s personal for me.

I like what we have in our locker room right now. I’m confident in what we can add to this locker room. I’m very confident in how we can go out and perform on the floor.”

Contact sports@bsudailynews.com with comments or on Twitter @dn_sports.

Lisa Renze-Rhodes, Adviser 765-285-8218, lrenze@bsu.edu The Daily News offices are in AJ 278, Ball State University, Muncie, IN 47306-0481. Periodicals postage paid in Muncie, Indiana.

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CORRECTION

The Ball State Daily News is committed to providing accurate news to the community. In the event we need to correct inaccurate information, you will find that printed here.

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4-DAY WEATHER

FORECAST Oliver Moster, Weather forecaster, Benny Weather Group

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

SCATTERED SHOWERS

PERIODS OF RAIN

MOSTLY CLOUDY

PARTLY CLOUDY

Hi: 50º Lo: 38º

Hi: 45º Lo: 34º

Hi: 41º Lo: 32º

Hi: 55º Lo: 34º

THIS WEEK: A wet end for the rest of the week with a cooldown expected for the weekend. Temperatures will probably pick back up as we enter next week.

START CHECKING, FROM DAY ONE.

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.

DNNews

04.07.22

Village Ventures Theatre and Dance faculty and students share reactions to Village performing arts center announcement.

03

Campus

Ball State raises $1 million in donations Ball State raised approximately $1 million in donations for the fourth annual One Ball State Day April 5. The university celebrated the events with several activities around campus, including treasure hunts, trivia games, virtual panels and a human-sized cardinal nest. A total of 7,199 gifts were received from Ball State graduates and supporters.

Indiana

State to increase post-election audits Indiana Secretary of State Holli Sullivan announced April 1 the state will double its number of postelection audits after each general election. These audits verify all votes are credibly counted and the outcome is legitimate. Sullivan made the announcement at an April 1 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Voting System Technical Oversight Program at Ball State.

National

Student loan moratorium extended

Ball State University owns five properties surrounding the Village in Muncie.

The Board of Trustees approved a plan to construct a performing arts center, hotel, restaurants, apartments and activity center at its March 25 meeting.

The unifying theme for the project is improving arts and culture in Muncie.

GOOGLE IMAGES, PHOTO COURTESY; ALEX HINDENLANG, DN DESIGN

The university has plans to turn this particular site into a hub for the arts including the new performing arts center, a theatrical restaurant displaying student artwork and a best-in-class hotel.

The Biden administration intends to extend the pause on federal student loan payments through Aug. 31.

This will be the fifth extension of the moratorium since it first began in March 2020. A total of 41 million Americans owe a collective $1.7 trillion in student loan debt, totaling more than the U.S.’s collective medical and credit card debt.

ON BALLSTATEDAILYNEWS.COM: BALL STATE REPORTS 13 POSITIVE COVID-19 CASES

DNNews

04.07.22

04

DIVERSIFYING KNOWLEDGE Alumna Maya Bird-Murphy creates nonprofit to educate underprivileged children on architecture and design.

Maya Bird-Murphy, founder and executive director of Chicago Mobile Makers, poses with Professor of Architecture Ana de Brea at a local bar in Spain. De Brea was the sponsor for this Americano Sur study abroad trip.

Hannah Amos Reporter When 2014 College of Architecture and Planning (CAP) alumna Maya Bird-Murphy didn’t see any other Black students in her 2014 CAP class, she said she realized the field — in and outside of school — lacked diversity in both students and employees concentrated in architecture.

In the classroom, she said she experienced “many uncomfortable moments with professors and other classmates.” The “culture shock” led to

Bird-Murphy asking herself how she could change and diversify the world of architecture.

In the 2014-15 academic year, Bird-Murphy’s graduating year, there were 1,193 Black undergraduate students enrolled at Ball State out of a total 16,415 undergraduate students.

“Just suddenly being around only white people was very strange for me, and there were definitely things that happened,” Bird-Murphy said. “It was mostly on the scale of microaggressions … I think in those situations, you kind of just need to try to conform and not shake anything up. So, I was doing that a lot, where I was just trying to get through it.”

Bird-Murphy grew up near Chicago in Oak Park, Illinois. In Oak Park, she said there was more diversity than what she saw and experienced at Ball State, which led her to a “culture shock” upon entering college.

Bird-Murphy said she looked at many different schools before choosing Ball State. One of her major deciding factors was the architecture workshops CAP held for high school students that she attended while in high school. These camps are

Students from the College of Architecture and Planning (CAP) visit Machu Picchu in Peru on their CAP Americano Sur study abroad trip. Students on the trip, including the future Founder and Executive Director of Chicago Mobile Makers, Maya BirdMurphy, learned about the architecture in South America. MAYA BIRD-MURPHY, PHOTO PROVIDED week-long professional workshops giving students an opportunity to explore different architecture fields and hear from professionals.

“It was like the first look into what an architecture studio was going to be like,” Bird-Murphy said.

“It didn’t feel like working to me, so I knew that I really loved doing that.”

While attending Ball State, Bird-Murphy went on two architecture study abroad trips, allowing her to graduate a semester early. She traveled with Ana de Brea, professor of architecture, to South American countries including Argentina, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil, as well as Spain and Portugal.

“I think [the trips] were kind of pivotal for me in trying to figure out what I wanted to do for my career,” Bird-Murphy said. “I really gelled with some professors … who were really thinking about the social side of architecture, so more architecture that cares for people and society.”

Bird-Murphy also connected and traveled with Olon Dotson, interim department chair of the Department of Architecture and professor of architecture, who she has stayed in touch with since graduating. Dotson said Bird-Murphy, as a student,

Just suddenly being around only white people was very strange for me, and there were definitely things that happened. It was mostly on the scale of microaggressions… I think in those situations, you kind of just need to try to conform and not shake anything up...”

- MAYA BIRD-MURPHY, 2014 Ball State graduate and Chicago Mobile Makers executive director

• • • • • •

was “somewhat quiet and shy … and when she had something to say, it was pretty profound.”

Dotson created the social and environmental justice minor and graduate certificate after Bird-Murphy graduated, but he said Bird-Murphy was one of his students who explored those topics with him.

“She traveled to Detroit and joined me on a couple of my excursions up there with students, even after she left Ball State, and saw some of the movements that were going on there,” Dotson said.

Bird-Murphy’s experiences on those excursions further inspired her to make a change in the world of architecture.

“I actually went back to get my master’s of architecture and started to really think about why [architecture lacked diversity] and if I could do anything about it,” Bird-Murphy said. “I felt like I had to represent my race a lot, which is uncomfortable, and we were not really learning about designers of color.”

When she began her master’s degree thesis at Boston Architectural College, Bird-Murphy also unknowingly began what exists today as Chicago

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05 Mobile Makers, a nonprofit aiming to encourage youth to advocate for change in their communities and become “change-makers” through designfocused, skill-building workshops.

While studying for her master’s, Bird-Murphy was also working at an architecture firm where she “was one of the only people of color.” Her time at the firm, along with her experiences in higher education, inspired her to further work and develop her thesis on improving diversity in the architecture field, as well as help low-income neighborhoods through architecture.

After graduating from Boston Architectural College in 2017, Bird-Murphy immediately began working on turning her thesis into a business.

At around the age of 24, she was learning the entrepreneurial side of her nonprofit.

That same year, Bird-Murphy launched Chicago Mobile Makers. Because of her thesis, BirdMurphy said, she was able “to really sit down [and] think about how [she] personally wanted to address the problems that [she] was seeing.”

“A lot of people don’t even necessarily know what an architect is, so why would they ever think

about doing that as their career?” Bird-Murphy said. “That’s why we go around to different neighborhoods and try to make it as accessible as possible to get this education.”

Chicago Mobile Makers hosts pop-up events, which it promotes via its website and social media platforms. During these events, its staff of four people, including Bird-Murphy, visit a neighborhood or public area for a few hours with its truck, which the company purchased in 2019. At these events, Chicago Mobile Makers introduces children to different architectural design elements.

The truck, a retired U.S. Postal Service delivery truck, was what helped Chicago Mobile Makers thrive once the pandemic hit, Bird-Murphy said.

Before COVID-19, Chicago Mobile Makers went into schools for activities. The truck allowed staff to take their activities outdoors, which gave them a busy summer and jumpstarted their best year in 2020.

Because of Chicago Mobile Makers’ public outreach with the truck, more donations came in, and it was able to partner with other organizations.

Chicago Mobile Makers partnered with Instagram for consulting last year, which Bird-Murphy said she hopes to do again.

The organization also hosts longer weekly programs that people pre-register for. The longer programs, which can be up to six months, allow children to explore architectural design in-depth and come away with a deeper understanding of architecture.

“We’ll have a group of kids that are mostly from the same place, or maybe it’s in a school where everybody’s coming from around the same area, and we look at an underutilized area in that neighborhood,” Bird-Murphy said. “The kids actually get to design their positive change for that place.”

Chicago Mobile Makers plans to expand its operations to Boston this spring and is partnering with Boston Architectural College to bring design programs to children in and around the city, according to the Mobile Makers website.

Contact Hannah Amos with comments at hannah.amos@bsu.edu or on Twitter @Hannah_ Amos_394.

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College of Architecture and Planning (CAP)’s Americano Sur study abroad program participants travel to Barcelona, Spain, to study the Casa Mila. Maya Bird-Murphy, former CAP student, learned about the lack of diversity in architecture that inspired her nonprofit, Chicago Mobile Makers. MAYA BIRD-MURPHY, PHOTO PROVIDED

1925 PubHouse takes over space in Muncie’s downtown Marriott.

Grace Bentkowski Reporter For a variety of businesses, staying afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic has been an ongoing struggle. Locations in Muncie, like 625 TapHouse, found it difficult to continue serving the community.

Operating inside of the downtown hotel Courtyard

by Marriott Muncie without a drive-thru window adversely impacted the establishment, Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour said.

When 625 TapHouse closed in fall 2021, Ridenour said the city was on the lookout for another restaurant to take over the space.

“We looked at some local companies, we talked to pizza locations, we talked to other full-service restaurants,” Ridenour said.

In Anderson, Indiana, Ben Morgan, owner of

1925 PubHouse, received a handful of questions from his regular customers regarding whether a second location was coming soon after the opening of his Anderson location in 2020.

“We had some of our regular customers come into our location in Anderson from Muncie, and they asked us if we’ve considered downtown Muncie because of all of the work they’ve done to revitalize the downtown,” Ben said.

When 1925 PubHouse expressed interest in opening a second location in the space inside the hotel, it was a match for every party involved: the Courtyard by Marriott Muncie housing the restaurant, the nonprofit organization Arc of Indiana owning the hotel and the City of Muncie welcoming a new business.

farmers market at minnetrista: indoor market Every third Saturday now through April; 9 a.m.–Noon Connect with local vendors and discover fresh produce, plants, baked goods, and more!

Bartenders work at 1925 PubHouse April 6 in Downtown Muncie. The restaurant features a wrap-around bar with indoor and outdoor seating. RYLAN CAPPER, DN

04.07.22

See GUEST, 18

DNNews

04.07.22

06

The cast and crew of “Skin and Bones” prepare for a rehearsal April 4 in Strother Theatre. “Skin and Bones,” a musical written by two Ball State alumni, opens for the first time April 8. RYLAN CAPPER, DN

Performing arts center announcement sparks hope within the Department of Theatre and Dance.

Grace McCormick News Editor Mackenzie Rupp and Daniel Kehn Reporters Bill Jenkins, chair of the Ball State Department of Theatre and Dance, said he has waited 20 years for his department to obtain more performance space to help students grow in their skills and experiences.

At the Board of Trustees meeting March 25, those hopes were realized with the board’s approval of a plan to build arts-themed businesses in the Village using property it already owns. The anchor business will be a performing arts center for the Department of Theatre and Dance.

“We’re going to have the resources and facilities to match the quality of our students that we’ve never been able to even attract, or equivalent to the top-notch students I’ve had — we’ll just be able to have more of them,” Jenkins said. “It’s going to help solidify and unite our programs, which have been all over campus for so long … I think it is going to be an extraordinary way for us to contribute to the Ball State community as a whole.”

Jennifer Blackmer, professor of theatre and playwriting, said plans for the performing arts center were announced to faculty in the Department of Theatre and Dance a few days before the Board of Trustees meeting. She said she knew the announcement would be important because a department-wide email asked faculty to cancel or pause classes held during that time.

Blackmer has worked in the department for 19 years, directing shows in both Strother Theatre and University Theatre. She said the issues in those spaces have been “obvious for two decades now.”

Blackmer said she specifically remembers

watching a rehearsal for a show she was directing in University Theatre in 2005 when a piece of acoustic tile and plaster fell from the ceiling onto her head. It is because of issues like that, Blackmer said, why the announcement meant so much to the Department of Theatre and Dance.

“To get that kind of news … and we have really been advocating that in order to keep doing the work that we’re doing, we really need facilities that are supportive of that,” Blackmer said.

Blackmer said, of the estimated 12-14 Ball State shows she has directed, students have made the best of their circumstances in Ball State’s current performing spaces. She gave examples of students using boomboxes for sound when audio wasn’t working or strategically blocking choreography in smaller spaces.

“Our students, in particular, have expressed just tremendous creativity over the years in working within the parameters that they’ve had with these spaces,” she said. “But there comes a point when there’s diminishing returns on that, and I think we’ve kind of reached that point.”

Blackmer said the new performing arts center will offer updated resources students are more likely to see when they enter professional jobs, particularly for theatre design and technology students.

Even though current students likely won’t be able to use the performing arts center space, as it’s set to open in fall 2025, Blackmer said she’s told her current students their work is the reason the department is getting updated spaces.

“It’s so important for them to know that the reason this is happening for the department is because of their commitment over the years,” she said. “I’ve tried throughout this entire rehearsal process, as soon as the announcement happened, to let the students know that, ‘I know it’s sad you won’t be here for this part of the department’s journey, but at the same time, it’s happening because of you.’”

Nicole Tate, freshman theatre education major, pinpointed the Cave Theatre in the Arts and Communication Building as an example for needed space. She said black box theaters are usually a full box space, but performances in the Cave Theatre have to navigate around office space. Tate said she is excited for directing majors to have more space

for productions.

Because Tate is new to the Department of Theatre and Dance, she said she doesn’t have a clear picture of how the new performing arts center will affect students.

“I’m definitely excited about it, but I don’t even know the department well enough to say it is going to be a big change,” Tate said. “I feel like everything is a big change for me coming in this year. I know for seniors and faculty, this is like a huge deal, and it will be in the future, too.”

Ball State President Geoffrey Mearns said at the Board of Trustees meeting the university will transform five sites in the Village into a performing arts center, 100-room hotel, apartments and restaurants over the next several years. He hopes construction will begin next year.

Fairmount Properties, a development firm that has worked on renovation projects of other college towns, including Rochester, New York, and Kent, Ohio, was selected as the university’s partner after a two-year review process of different proposals, Mearns said.

“Fairmount Properties is excited to be partnering with Ball State University,” said Randy Ruttenberg, founder and principal of Fairmount Properties, in a March 25 press release. “We met with various community stakeholders over the past year, and we connected with many current merchants and property owners in the Village. We will use a district-wide approach to elevate the Village, and we look forward to collaborating with existing merchants and future tenants to do so.”

Diego Sanchez-Galvan, freshman acting major, said the new additions to the Village will provide performing arts students with more opportunities to be creative.

“I think new spaces for performances would be very beneficial and a great way for us to share even more art and knowledge,” Sanchez-Galvan said.

Sanchez-Galvan said that he “wish[es] it would have happened sooner, but it’s good that it’s [happening] now.”

The university will finance the projects, for which Mearns said he expects to generate $100 million in private investment. A university spokesperson said the performing arts center could cost up to $40 million, which will be funded by the university and gifts from Ball State graduates and friends.

“We are confident that strategically co-locating a performing arts center, arts and culture-themed restaurants, hotel and retail space will provide the blend of amenities that will entice activity in the Village,” said Jim Lowe, associate vice president for facilities planning and management, in a March

I hope that, as an alum, that I would come back and see shows here because of how much it will have affected me. I think it’s definitely exciting news they can use for prospective theater students … because they’ll actually get to experience it.”

- NICOLE TATE, Freshman theatre education major 31 statement. “This holistic approach will be a major step toward creating excitement that will sustain economic growth and community support.”

The Department of Theatre and Dance currently hosts about 20 performances across campus during the fall and spring semesters each year.

Because of additional space and opening its doors to community performances, the new performing arts center is expected to host more than 160 annual performances.

Ruttenberg said at the March 25 meeting he looks forward to Fairmount Properties helping unite and expand Ball State’s campus toward further community development and “helping everybody in the Village to be successful.”

Contact Grace McCormick with comments at grmccormick@bsu.edu or on Twitter @ graceMc564. Contact Mackenzie Rupp with comments at msrupp@bsu.edu or on Twitter @ kenzieer18. Contact Daniel Kehn with comments at daniel.kehn@bsu.edu or on Twitter @daniel_kehn.

ON BALLSTATEDAILY.COM

Read the full version of this story online on The Daily News’ official website.

GROWTH IN THE DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE AND DANCE Since 1996, the number of Theatre and Dance majors has more than doubled at Ball State, with close to 450 current students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in nine different academic programs. Traditionally, more than 1,500 students audition annually for approximately 40 spots in Ball State’s Theatre and Dance Bachelor of Fine Arts performance programs.

Seth Beckman, dean of the College of Fine Arts and professor of music, said programs within the Department of Theatre and Dance may be able to welcome more students with the construction of the performing arts center, particularly the design and technology, dance and stage management degrees.

Source: Ball State Office of Marketing and Communications

DNLife

04.07.22

DREAMING

TO ACHIEVING Ball State sports production alumnus reaches his childhood dream of working for ESPN.

07

Ball Bearings

Local Pastor Breaks the Norm In 2002, Josh Arthur started In & Out Cleaning Services to provide residential and commercial cleaning services, and most of the employees hired are recovering addicts and people with criminal backgrounds.

Arthur strives to provide “meaningful and rewarding employment” and offers his employees a living wage, including an average of 40 hours a week and paid holidays.

Ball Bearings

A Daily Dose

412

For at least 44 percent of Americans, each day is spent drinking at least two to three cups of coffee. Caffeine has developed its own culture, where fixes are not just in coffee, but in energy drinks and caffeinated water. A 20-ounce Starbucks cup of Pike Place Roast contains 410 milligrams of caffeine, and caffeine levels can explain the feeling of withdrawal.

Ball Bearings

Meet Muncie’s local Drag Community

QUINTON ZIELKE, PHOTO PROVIDED

The Mark III Taproom on the corner of Walnut and Adams Streets in downtown Muncie is a home base for Muncie’s drag community, including Kleo Zavich, one of Muncie’s youngest drag queens.

Zavich said the drag scene in Muncie is “small, but mighty,” and she does shows that are often “first-come, first-serve” between the Mark III Taproom and Be Here Now.

ON BALLSTATEDAILY.COM/BYTE: THE BAND CAMINO @ EGYPTIAN ROOM AT OLD NATIONAL CENTRE

DNLife

04.07.22

08

The Common Market displays its painted sign and various murals for those traveling on South Hoyt Ave April 1. The store offers fresh produce, used clothing and a rental space for Muncie community members. GRACE DUERKSEN, DN PHOTO

Local business owner works to better the southside of Muncie through the Common Market.

Sumayyah Muhammad Reporter It doesn’t take long for visitors to see the stories the southside of Muncie has when they notice the neighborhood’s appearance, said Kory Gipson, co-owner of the Common Market.

“It’s undesirable,” Gipson said. “Nobody wants to be down here because when you get down here, it’s rough. Nobody really takes care of the outside of their businesses.”

Before moving to Muncie, Gipson grew up in Fairmount, Indiana. Although Fairmount is not as poverty stricken as Muncie, Gipson said, he thinks the strong ties to the community is one of the beautiful things about Muncie.

“One of the things that happens with poverty is that it’s a stabilizing thing where once people are so poor, it doesn’t matter,” Gipson said.

“People aren’t focusing on skin color, race and gender. It’s actually a really cool community.”

In March 2020, Gipson was asked by his business partner and friend, Mike Martin, to come to the southside of Muncie to see his new project. Now, Gipson is the project manager of Martin’s company, The Plank Brothers, where they focus on creating community resources out of a for-profit concept.

“Once I started working on [the Common Market], I could see how well it was built

to serve the community,” Gipson said. “I got to know the community in the Avondale neighborhood and became engaged in the activism aspect of our mission, and I’ve never looked back.”

As a resident on the southside and co-owner of the Common Market with his wife, Elysia Gipson, and Mike and Jerry Martin, Kory Gipson said he noticed when the local economy began declining, the separation of classes between the north and south sides of Muncie became further defined.

“People love running into one another while out shopping,” Gipson said. “They know each other’s families and have strong ties to growing up here. Although a natural consequence, [separation of economic classes] definitely affected the access to resources and impacted the overall quality of life here.”

Located on 900 W. 8th St., Gipson said the Common Market was very cheap when he and Martin purchased the space in 2016.

Customers experience a sense of community when they walk into the calming atmosphere of the Common Market, he said. The market has a roundtable where people can sit to talk about life with Gipson and other customers. It also features a convenience store where locals can buy their groceries along with coffee and food from the cafe.

“People feel comfortable here,” Gipson said. “They can relax and feel safe here.”

The Plank Brothers’ long-term vision, Gipson said, is to create economic vitality in the neighborhood. With for-profit centers like the Common Market, the Plank Brothers hope to contribute to the economy on the southside of Muncie.

“Real estate on this side of town is considerably cheaper, making our ability to become sustainable easier,” Gipson said. “[The Plank Brothers] have three properties on this side of town overall and can maintain the cost because it’s affordable.”

Jim Cassudakis, Common Market customer, first came to the market last June on a

recommendation from a friend. There, he met the Gipsons and the other owners. Cassudakis said he needs to have a nice, cozy place for a cup of coffee with people in his community, and the Common Market fits the bill. “[Kory, Elysia, Mike and Jerry] have the vision — they have everything I value as far as a place where I feel not only at home, but I can make purchases and I can hang out,” Cassudakis said. “Their vision and life purpose are similar to mine.”

Cassudakis said if anyone is looking for a way to support the southside of Muncie, the Common Market is the place to go.

“It’s an open-minded safe haven and a place that has people in mind, not business,” Cassudakis said.

Last September, Bridges Community Services, a homeless housing organization down the road from the Common Market, closed due to lack of funding. According to Indiana Public Radio, agencies like A Better Way, the YWCA and the Muncie Mission have agreed to continue providing service for Bridges’ clients.

Gipson said the community’s homelessness problem has worsened since the 25-year-old organization shut down.

“There aren’t resources around us that are prepared to fix this kind of problem,” Gipson said. “We’re getting ready to see a gigantic jump, and probably, it’ll be a jump in drug use and drug distribution and all the other problems that go with that.”

Building a relationship with other business owners on the southside of Muncie has been one of Gipson’s missions ever since he and Elysia became co-owners of the Common Market.

This past June, Gipson joined BNI Central Indiana, an international business networking organization providing an environment for business owners to develop personal relationships with dozens of other qualified business professionals.

Because of BNI, Gipson and other Muncie business owners started their own organization, People That Give A Damn. The organization meets at 11 a.m. Fridays at the Common Market to figure out ways to make changes in the community that will be sustainable, long-lasting and can stand up to economic disasters.

“It’s other business owners that want to try to figure out and ask questions like, ‘What is the next step? What is it that we can do to make

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DNLife

This illlustration is inspired by the painted mural on the side of the Common Market building.

a sustainable difference?’” Gipson said. “It’s important because we [are] not going to be able to run this forever. There is going to come a time where I won’t have time to do it and we hope to be able to pass it on to generations after us.”

Robb Riley, co-founder of People That Give A Damn and member of BNI, met Gipson when he came to the group wanting to connect with other businesses. Riley said, for the group to evolve, more people should join the cause. “[We need] people that are not just going to come and visit once but people that want to make this a part of their routine,” Riley said. “The more hands that we have involved in this, the better ideas we get, and more people we have [to] actually do things in the area.”

Because the southside is considered a neighborhood with no representation, Gipson said, there are not a lot of people interested in fixing the rising homelessness and addiction problems the community currently faces.

As poverty is a “daunting problem” and there is no drug rehab facility on the southside of Muncie, Gipson said it’s a $10 million project no one wants to raise the funds to fix.

“That’s getting your hands dirty, and it doesn’t seem like that’s the first direction people want to go,” Gipson said. “There are people here fighting for it, but we are talking about millions of dollars of infrastructure that would need to be created to handle that kind of problem.”

As a project manager for The Plank Brothers, one of the things Gipson focuses on for his project is taking a for-profit concept and then creating community resources. Gipson said the Common Market’s first goal was to provide a safe location for people to get food.

“The very first problem that we understood existed here was safe access to food, so that’s why the first project was a convenience store,” Gipson said.

A way for the Muncie community to be productive against the current homelessness

A guitar and music posters lay quietly on tables inside The Common Market April 1 near Hoyt Avenue. The business offers a sort of safe space for local artists and clubs/groups. GRACE

DUERKSEN, DN PHOTO

problem is to provide jobs for community members and financial literacy training as a way to educate people on basic finances.

“Every one of these profit centers that we can get running, that’s about 20 jobs that we can offer to the neighborhood,” Gipson said. “Through that, we can create training, leadership and education programs. When you start to take your neighbors, and turn them into homeowners, and if you can also give them employment, that’s how we see making this turnaround happen for people.”

Gipson said the Common Market is currently

in the process of installing a handicapped accessible bathroom and adding a kitchen to serve hot food to the community. It will eventually become an artist/entrepreneur co-op where community members can host meetings, teach classes and rent space for whatever they need. The goal, Gipson said, is to provide for the people in the Muncie community who need it the most.

“Being a store owner,” Gipson said, “I engage with a lot of people and, since part of our model involves being problem-solvers, we end up building strong relationships with our

neighbors and taking on a responsibility that means taking care of people.”

Contact Sumayyah Muhammad with comments at smuhammad3@bsu.edu or on Twitter @sumayyah0114.

The more hands that we have involved in this, the better ideas we get, and more people we have actually do things in the area.”

- ROBB RILEY, Co-founder of People That Give A Damn

DN Special Publication

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On Thursday, April 14, The Partnership Project edition will highlight and feature Ball State’s collaboration with Muncie Community Schools — discussing how it has changed the community and also helped to shape Ball State’s legacy as the partnership goes into its fifth year.

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MAGGIE GETZIN, DN

Turn Away No Longer provides new resources to people in the foster care system.

Emily Hunter Reporter

When her step-grandson was placed in a children’s home in Richmond, Indiana, at 7 years old, Tracy Walters and her husband, Jeremiah Walters, hired a lawyer and fought for him with no hesitation. They were given a kinship placement — ­ when grandparents or other extended family members raise a child — and he lived with them for the next five years.

Tracy never became a licensed foster parent afterward, but she said her experience with him and the year she spent in foster care when she was 15 years old was never far from her heart.

During Indiana’s statewide stay-at-home order due to COVID-19 concerns in spring 2020, Tracy said, like most people, she and her husband started paying more attention to the world around them.

After hearing heartbreaking stories about the foster care system and doing their own research, she said they knew God had a plan for them that was greater than binge-watching Netflix through the pandemic.

“I woke up one morning and said, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’” Tracy said. “There’s a lot of kids out there that need safe, loving homes and slip through the cracks … they just need someone on their side.”

Turn Away No Longer, a faith-based, nonprofit organization providing resources and care to foster youth through many different programs, was created from the couple’s desire to help the kids their community was “failing,” Tracy said.

The first program Turn Away No Longer introduced was SwagPacks, backpacks given to foster children filled with various, age-specific necessities designed for emergency or immediate removal.

“God drives us in everything we do,” Tracy said. “We prayed about it, and we just felt that to reach the child with their immediate needs and make them feel loved, the SwagPack was the perfect way to start.”

Each SwagPack includes clothes, a hygiene pack, a blanket, a stuffed animal and an activity based on the child’s age — for example, a coloring book and crayons, a journal or a book.

Recently, fidget and sensory toys were added.

Every SwagPack also comes with a handwritten card from various volunteers throughout the communities Turn Away No Longer serves, such as youth groups and Girl Scout troops.

“It’s just a word of encouragement to let the child know that they are loved and they’re not forgotten,” Tracy said.

Last year, 700 SwagPacks were distributed to the Department of Child Services of 26 Indiana counties through Benchmark Family Services, a network of professional foster homes providing staff and services throughout Indiana and Kentucky.

In August 2021, Turn Away No Longer furthered its outreach by introducing Katie’s Closet, a free foster closet in Madison County.

Any licensed foster family is allowed to shop for the kids in their care, but appointments are required for privacy purposes. Tracy said from August to November 2021, 56 children were able to shop.

Turn Away No Longer’s fundraising focus for 2022 is the creation of the TANL House in Madison County for the Department of Child Services. The TANL House will serve as a safe and comfortable place for foster youth to stay while awaiting placement. It will be equipped with bedrooms, bathrooms, a living area, kitchen, dining room and a backyard while also including office space for social workers.

“When children are removed from their situation, oftentimes they’re taken back to the office,” Tracy said. “They have to sleep on the floors if it’s overnight before they can’t find placement. Statistics have shown that is more traumatic for them than what they just got removed from.”

Everything Turn Away No Longer provides is through fundraising, volunteers and donations.

“None of us take a paycheck,” Tracy said. “One hundred percent of everything we bring in goes right back out to the

DNLife

children of our community.”

Among the organization’s volunteers are five board members, who act as advisors for Turn Away No Longer’s events and programs. They also speak to churches and potential sponsors on behalf of the organization.

Mike Johnson, board member and pastor at Greater Light Church in Anderson, Indiana, said the selflessness of Tracy and Jeremiah and their willingness to help people beyond foster youth is what makes the organization so special.

“With Tracy and Jeremiah, the criteria is, ‘You’re in a position where you need something; what can we do to help?’” Johnson said.

“To me, it is absolutely the love of Christ on display, in probably the greatest way I’ve ever seen.”

Johnson allowed Tracy and Jeremiah to present Turn Away No Longer to his church, and the three have been connected ever since.

“It was one of those things where it was just the right fit,” he said.

“We just kinda mesh, and I love everything that they do.”

Board member Becca Mattson believes in the effectiveness of Turn Away No Longer, especially as a former foster kid herself.

She said she is specifically fond of the SwagPacks, which are given to kids on “what is likely one of the worst days of their lives,” Mattson said.

“To be able to provide them some comfort and something to call their own is incredibly powerful,” Mattson said.

Mattson has a deeper connection to Turn Away No Longer because she considers herself one of the few aged out foster youths who had a favorable outcome.

“To me, these aren’t just kids in foster care,” Mattson said.

“These are also my friends and the people I lived with and the kids that looked up to me that I still love to this day. For me, the most rewarding part is just knowing that because I made it out, I can help them, even if it’s in a little way.”

For Tracy, seeing the smiles on the children’s faces is what makes all of the work and effort worth it.

“If anything else, I’m hoping that this changes how [the children] see things in life, that people really do care and that they matter to people,” Tracy said.

Contact Emily Hunter with comments at ekhunter@bsu.edu or on Twitter @emily_hunter_01 .

Backpacks filled with clothing and toys sit in the bed of a pickup truck.Turn Away No Longer made 700 backpacks or “SwagPacks” in 2021. TURN AWAY NO LONGER, PHOTO PROVIDED

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Watch more of Zielke’s work on “Heroes, History and Hope,” where his main project was a profile on lebron james.

Ball State sports production alumnus wins an Emmy for his work with ESPN and reaches his childhood goals.

Kamryn Tomlinson Reporter Thirteen years old — the age of the youngest Emmy Award winner.

While Quinton Zielke, 2019 Ball State digital sports production alumnus, was nearly twice that age when he won his first Emmy, he said he knew from even younger he wanted to go into sports production and create content worth awarding.

“I have a picture of myself [where] I went as a ‘SportsCenter’ anchor for Halloween when I was maybe 10 years old,” Zielke said.

Zielke said he had aspirations of being on air at “SportsCenter” early in his life, but by navigating sports production throughout his high school career, he found his love for “the video side of it.”

However, when he came to Ball State, Zielke was still set on being on air.

“I [thought] the path for getting on air may still be for me,” Zielke said. “Then I tried it once my freshman year, and I was like, ‘Nah, never doing that again.’”

Chris Taylor, senior director of sports production and Sports Link at Ball State, said he recruited Zielke hard to come to Ball State, and then to be part of Sports Link and the sports production program.

“As I got to know him more, I just knew he was going to be one of our stars and someone that not just our college or our department but our university can be proud of,” Taylor said.

Zielke credits Sports Link for his success.

“They taught me everything I know even though I had a program in high school, [so] I went into college somewhat prepared,” he said. “For my freshman year, I was given opportunities that no other school would offer. The trust that they had for me … They weren’t afraid to throw freshmen, like me, into the fire.”

Taylor said Zielke could work “very well” independently, but he was someone who “everyone wanted to collaborate with.”

“Quinton was really good when he was in the collaboration role,” Taylor said. “He had tremendous ideas, [and] he could

communicate his ideas — communicate a vision.”

Taylor said Zielke was the ultimate teammate, and he was always concerned about his peers in Sports Link and trying to help them “do the best work that they could do.”

“He was incredibly gifted as a storyteller, and I think he really came into his own in his last couple of years at Ball State,” Taylor said. “I think he started doing more stories and seeing that he could become a features producer, which has led him to his role at ESPN, and he just really gravitated to that.”

While Zielke navigated his skill set and where he wanted to be, one thing remained constant — his dream of working for ESPN. Taylor said when he first met Zielke, he was also introduced to Zielke’s dream of working alongside those at ESPN. As four years passed, Taylor said watching Zielke achieve his dream over time was “incredibly humbling.”

“If you would have told me that I’d be at ESPN right now, I would have called you insane,” Zielke said. “As a little kid — even in high school and at the beginning of college — you don’t ever think that you’ll be good enough to work at a place like ESPN.” Zielke said once he got to Ball State, he realized those he

worked with in Sports Link and the digital sports production program would teach him more than anybody else he would have the chance to work with.

“I owe all this success to just my time in Sports Link and the media department as a whole,” Zeilke said. “[It] just does a phenomenal job across the board.”

Zielke said he remembers a conversation about his academic and career-centric future with Taylor in which he told Taylor he was going to be graduating early.

“He said, ‘Yeah, I support you, and you’ll have no problem getting a job,’” Zielke said. “And then, subtly, he just started passing me internship applications.”

Zielke, instead of graduating early like he originally planned, decided to stay at Ball State so he could participate in ESPN’s internship program — which began Zielke’s relationship with the sports network. Taylor said Zielke went to ESPN as a production assistant and, in less than a year, was hired to work for the features unit on “College GameDay.” “There are people at ESPN whose career goal is to work on College GameDay, and I believe Quinton is there,” Taylor said.

“It’s one of the premier programs in sports media.”

13 04.07.22

DNLife

Zielke won his first Emmy for his work on “Heroes, History and Hope,” a three-hour ESPN program using sports to look back at 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic.

QUINTON ZIELKE, PHOTOS PROVIDED; KAMRYN TOMLINSON, DN DESIGN

What Zielke has loved about his time at ESPN is the depth and level of storytelling, which, to Zielke, is “above and beyond what the rest of the world and the rest of media is doing.”

“To learn and be surrounded by some of the best producers in the world in my first year, now two years, the show was in my first year here,” Zielke said. “It [is] just an opportunity like nobody could have ever thought of — never have dreamt of.”

Within his first year at ESPN, Zielke found himself on an award-winning team for its work on “Heroes, History and Hope,” a three-hour ESPN program using sports to look back at 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I saw people I work with, like my colleagues [who] have their Emmys like in [the] background for Zoom meetings, and you’re like, ‘Wow, I’ll never have one of those,’” he said. “And then, literally, I was 11 months into my job, and I did.

“To get a package in the mail with a professional Emmy with your name as a producer on it, it’s pretty insane,” Zielke said.

Zielke said the series, “Heroes, History and Hope,” was “such a beautiful depiction of the year,” which was encapsulated in three one-hour episodes.

“You [have] everything from an offensive lineman taking a season off to go be a doctor to Rudy Gobert, who touched all the microphones days before testing positive in the NBA shutdown,” Zielke said.

Zielke said his main project within the series was an essay with

If you would have told me that I’d be at ESPN right now, I would have called you insane. As a little kid — even in high school and at the beginning of college — you don’t ever think that you’ll be good enough to work at a place like ESPN.” - QUINTON ZIELKE, Ball State digital sports production alumnus Stephen A. Smith, sports television personality and journalist, about Los Angeles Lakers player LeBron James’ life in 2020 — more specifically his impact in the social justice movement and winning an NBA championship.

“As a viewer, you can’t watch [this] and be like, ‘Oh, wow, that’s a cool story,’” Zielke said. “It’s literally everything that you experienced as a human in 2020 — it just happens to be about sports. And yeah, there’s some heroes in the sports world.”

Zielke said receiving an Emmy affirmed what he wanted to do “more and more of,” the power of storytelling and “how drawn people are to good and impactful stories.”

“At the end of the day, like anything in our industry, it’s about having a camera in your hands and sitting down and doing the work and the editing, too — and he got so good at those skills

while he was here at Ball State,” Taylor said. “But that’s all because of his drive and his motivation. I think it’s remarkable.”

Zielke said he is currently working on “College GameDay.” “It’s a big deal to get to work on the show, and [now] I’m starting to work on the NFL Draft, which is pretty sweet,” Zielke said. “I think my future goals are to really hone down on different skills, really perfect my editing and storytelling and take that to a new level to hopefully be able to expand beyond just ‘College GameDay.’” Wanting to move into feature storytelling, Zielke said he wants to interview and film athletes to “really get back into the grind,” and he hopes that winning an Emmy will present new opportunities to “meet some pretty cool people and tell some incredible stories.”

Contact Kamryn Tomlinson with comments at kptomlinson@bsu. edu on Twitter @peachykam.

Benefi ts for service

DNLife

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Volunteers from Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans (WHVV) travel across the state to encourage veterans to take advantage of their benefits in addition to handing out a commemorative book. RYLAN CAPPER, DN Ted Reinke, Vietnam War veteran, fills out a form to receive a commemorative book next to his wife, Marge Reinke, April 5 at the American Legion Post 19. All Indiana Vietnam veterans received a book and pin at the event free of charge.

Bill Frederick, Vietnam War veteran, displays pins on his hat during an event hosted by WHVV April 5 at the American Legion Post 19.

WHVV estimates only half of the 120,000 Vietnam veterans in Indiana are claiming their benefits.

Cardinal

Kitchen Hey, Ball State! Did you know there is a food pantry on campus? We’d love to help you if you need it. Here’s when, where and how:

Located in Ball State

Student Center, Room L-26

Open the last three

Tuesdays of every month

We have groceries and toiletries!

Learn more or donate by emailing cardkitchen@bsu.edu Lynette Burton and her sister, Diana Finney, both members of Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), hand out books to Vietnam veterans April 5 at the American Legion Post 19.

Cardinal Kitchen

DNOpinion

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04.07.22 15 To the administrators, parents and government officials in charge of making these decisions: banning books does more harm than good ... You think you’re protecting the children by shielding them from inappropriate topics, but the only thing they’re being shielded from is reality.”

hen I was a kid, I carried a book with me everywhere I went.

In the same way people never leave their house without their keys or phone, I always had at least one story on me at all times. I took them to school and church. They came with me to grocery stores and on vacations, even funerals and weddings – just in case I got bored.

My parents eagerly supported my habit.

My mom made sure any bags she bought me were big enough to fit a chapter book, and Christmas gifts almost always included selections from my “To Be Read” list.

I’m blessed to have been raised in a Christian household where reading of all kinds, and just as importantly, freedom of thought, was encouraged. In the 1980s, my dad was both a Christian and a Dungeons & Dragons fan and had several of his interests unfairly deemed as “satanic” and “evil.” He knew what it felt like to have his passions scrutinized in that way and didn’t want the same for his daughter.

Books understandably needed to be age appropriate, but nothing was ever “banned.”

As a result of my parents’ encouragement, my love for reading grew as I did. My bedtime stories were from “Narnia,” my favorite Halloween costume was Hermione Granger and I spent all of my birthday money on the newest Rick Riordan book. My dad even begrudgingly read through the “Twilight” novels when I expressed interest in early middle school, just to be sure there was nothing too explicit. As I got older, I was trusted to make those decisions for myself.

In my English classes throughout the years, I absorbed every book that was placed on my desk with varying degrees of enthusiasm — even the most avid readers can find some books boring. To this day, I will happily discuss “Lord of the Flies” with anyone who asks but have easily forgotten the plot to “Cold Sassy Tree.”

My teachers were always sure to give a content warning before we began reading – language and violence in “To Kill A Mockingbird,” for example – but that was

it. There was never a debate about whether or not these books should be read.

I had heard of banned books before, of course. There was a display outside of the high school library highlighting frequently banned books that were available to check out, which I saw as a fabulous act of defiance.

One of my English teachers was always heavily involved in Banned Book Week events when they rolled around in October.

But I always saw it as a far away issue.

In my experience, reading of all kinds had always been celebrated. Surely, the American education system would never fail its students in that way.

How wrong I was.

On Jan. 10, the McMinn County School Board in Tennessee voted to ban the book “Maus” by Art Spiegelman, the son of Holocaust survivors, due to graphic depictions of violence, language and nudity.

According to the minutes from the school board meeting, the vote to remove the book from the eighth grade curriculum was unanimous, despite not having a replacement in mind.

Since then, a book banning frenzy has swept the nation. Schools and libraries in several states have been closely examined for inappropriate material by conservative government officials and angry parents.

Missouri’s proposed banning of The New York Times’ “1619 Project,” which discusses the history of American slavery, is a prominent example of this book banning frenzy.

Amid the chaos, I decided to follow the example of my upbringing and read “Maus” for myself, to form my own opinion. My initial assumption was correct: The McMinn County School Board made a mistake. With the proper warnings beforehand, “Maus” is completely fine for the eighth grade curriculum.

The issues that the board members were concerned with – cursing, nudity, violence – were not added to the book unnecessarily. “Maus” is a novel centered around the Holocaust — violence and dark themes are to be expected. The nudity is not sexual and has minimal detail; it depicts a

woman’s body after she committed suicide in a bathtub, where only her chest is visible above the water. The cursing is minimal as well, and to be perfectly honest, I’ve heard eighth-graders say much worse.

“Maus” is based on a true story, told in the form of a series of interviews between father and son. To not include the violence, the nudity, the language, would be disrespectful and a lie. Students need to learn the truth of history, no matter how dark or disturbing it might be.

Children are smarter and stronger than we give them credit for, especially with the technology at their fingertips. I believe with the proper introduction and guidance, they can handle sensitive topics with a maturity that rivals most adults’.

To the administrators, parents and government officials in charge of making these decisions: banning books does more harm than good. There is a difference between utilizing proper age restrictions and outright banning the content. You think you’re protecting the children by shielding them from inappropriate topics, but the only thing they’re being shielded from is reality. You’re depriving them of the chance to make their own decisions and form their own opinions, which is what allows us to grow as people.

Those who ban books have never been remembered as being on the right side of history.

To the kids and the students who are being affected: Never stop reading controversial books. If a book is considered banned, take it as a sign that it should be read. History is far deeper and far richer than older generations would have you believe.

In “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” Oscar Wilde said, “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”

It’s time to uncover that shame.

Today’s kids reading about the world’s horrors become tomorrow’s adults, determined to not make the same mistakes.

Contact Emily Hunter with comments at ekhunter@bsu.edu or on Twitter @ emily_hunter_01.

ON BALLSTATEDAILYNEWS.COM: REALITY CHECK S1E3: WATERFALLS.

DNOpinion

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RYLAN CAPPER, DN PHOTO; AMBER PIETZ, DN DESIGN

Miguel Naranjo

Columnist, “Cualquiera Bandera” Miguel Naranjo is a freshman journalism major and writes “Cualquiera Bandera” for The Daily News. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper.

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04.07.22

What is the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill supposed to show kids in America? That the things we don’t want to talk about will go away if we shove our heads in the sand?”

When I was still in 10th grade, I found a book called “Same Love” by Tony Correia on the shelves of my school library. It was about a boy named Adam who was sent to a Christian camp to “straighten out” his “condition” when he was outed to his family. In that camp, every figure of authority tried to make Adam ashamed of his homosexuality, and that shame strained the relationships between him and everyone he knew and met.

Adam was just a character in a book, but even so, he was reflective of a real-world person, and his struggles reflective of real-world issues. Now, thanks to the Florida state legislature, more queer kids in Florida—and regrettably, beyond— will have to experience what Adam did.

On March 28, 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) signed HB. 1557 into law. Also officially called the Parental Rights in Education bill, the bill is designed to reinforce parents’ rights to control what their children are learning in schools.

Don’t recognize the name? Its opponents call it by another: the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Most of the amendments the bill makes to the public education section of the Florida education policy have to do with opening communications with students’ parents and making them fully aware of any changes to a student’s wellbeing, giving parents the agency to sue any school district that doesn’t respond to their concerns.

Among these amendments, the third paragraph sticks out like a sore thumb: “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”

Proponents of HB. 1557 say that this bill empowers parents, letting them broach the subject of varying sexual orientations

at a time that they feel is best for their child. However, on March 7, 2022, DeSantis berated a reporter during a press conference who said that the “Don’t Say Gay” bill prohibited instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity.

In this tirade, he said that the bill only says that for kindergarten through third grade, the reporter “pushes false narratives” and he and the Florida legislature are “... going to make sure that parents are able to send their kid to kindergarten without having some of this stuff injected into their school curriculum.”

If I need to spell it out, the appeal of this bill to conservatives at large is that it discourages discussion of topics relating to the LGBTQ community in the classroom, effectively removing the community from public perception. In the grand scheme of things, the “Don’t Say Gay” bill mimics the heavy hand with which conservative parents quash the topic in their own homes.

The issue is not that the topic of sexuality and/or gender identity is being mishandled. It’s that the topic is being handled at all.

DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Florida legislature are cashing in on bigotry and fear. While students hold walk-out protests and signal that the “Don’t Say Gay” bill threatens to marginalize LGBTQ children in schools, DeSantis garners favor with the population with the most value to him: the conservative population old enough to vote.

At the risk of sounding cynical, schoolchildren and their studies being politicized has had and is having horrific effects, but it’s not a new development.

About a year ago, conservative parents flooded school board meetings with complaints about Critical Race Theory (CRT), which argues that racism is embedded into legal systems and policies, according to EducationWeek. When they thought their children were being taught that the United States was founded on

racism and white people are inherently privileged and oppressive, conservatives moved to oppose CRT. Now, teachers have been scared out of teaching race in their classrooms, according to polling by Education Week.

Earlier this year, a wave of conservative parents started bringing complaints to school boards about books that their kids were reading for class and books that were available in school libraries. They read aloud provocative passages from those books about nonstandard family dynamics and romantic dynamics, racial minorities experiencing violence and hardship and young people in sexual situations.

Now, teachers have been scared out of featuring authors with marginalized identities in their classrooms, also according to EducationWeek.

I hope the pattern is clear now. The “Don’t Say Gay” bill is one more act of censorship in a line of several: conservative parents aren’t happy that their kids are exposed to gay media, so now they’re scaring teachers out of teaching about the LGBTQ community in their classrooms. This entire movement is deconstructive; the intent is to stifle and ignore societal issues and changes instead of having to confront them.

The fact that the Florida legislature (or any state legislature, for that matter) is showing its support by exercising its power over public school curriculum is a grim omen for how much cultural effect this movement will have – or rather, how much cultural effect it will restrict.

“Same Love” may have been a storybook, but the people depicted in it and their circumstances are not fairytales.

As someone who has grown up in the K-12 public school system before these restrictions, I fear that other kids won’t have the same chances I had to broaden their horizons and learn to live in a population with ever-growing diversity.

After all, “The House on Mango Street”

by Sandra Cisneros has long been challenged by school boards and, in some cases, banned for “its depictions of domestic and sexual violence,” which are not the focus of that book but instead support the overarching themes of adulthood, maturity and independence.

What is the “Don’t Say Gay” bill supposed to show kids in America? That the things we don’t want to talk about will go away if we shove our heads in the sand? Because, for as long as same-sex couples and transgender people call this country home, that will be wholly untrue.

And, for as long as conservatives want to pass legislature that erases them from students’ view, those kids will grow up to be intolerant of people who are different from them. DeSantis may have touted, moments after signing the bill, that he “...will make sure that parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not an indoctrination,” according to the Associated Press, but the cruel irony is that education allows a person to process the world around them – whether it’s with numbers, words, facts or skills – and this bill will keep students from doing just that.

That’s not an accident, as much as it pains me to write it. Any parent would want to shield their child from something that would harm them. If they think that the LGBTQ community is a danger to their child – consciously or unconsciously – they’ll teach their kid to avoid it like the plague, even if that danger doesn’t truly exist and acting like it does would fuel divisiveness throughout the nation.

The legislature surrounding public school curriculum should serve to expand children’s worldview and make it easier for them to live in the world they’re growing up in. It’s not the legislature’s job to blind students to the reality they live in, even if their parents think that’s a good way to raise them.

Contact Miguel Naranjo with comments at miguel.naranjo@bsu.edu.

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HOROSCOPE FOR April 7, 2022

Written by: Nancy Black

ARIES March 21-April 19 Today is an 8 - Fill your home with love. Beautify your spaces. Cook up something fragrant and delicious. Talk with family about upcoming plans. Listen carefully.

Teamwork pays off.

TAURUS April 20-May 20 Today is a 9 - Follow fascinating ideas. Read, research and study. You can see what wasn’t working.

Make adjustments. Edit and refine. Add illustrations, maps and link sources.

GEMINI May 21-June 20 Today is a 9 - Financial deals come together naturally.

Discuss possibilities and set the budget. Words and actions align. Follow rules carefully. Take care of business.

CANCER June 21-July 22 Today is a 9 - Develop practical personal plans. You know what you want. Dare to dream big. Talk about it with people you trust. Advance with help from friends.

GUEST

Continued from Page 05 “According to the Marriott, The Arc of Indiana and to the city, this was by far the best option, and we are really excited about having this particular company here,” Ridenour said.

For Ben, opening a Muncie location has allowed him to reestablish a connection to his hometown.

“I would hang out downtown all the time,” Ben said, “going to the Rivoli Theatre, other stores, running around downtown, but I really hadn’t been to downtown Muncie for probably 15 years.”

Tyler Morgan, general manager of the Muncie location, said this is a big step for 1925 PubHouse within the Muncie community, not just in food service. While being located on a “fantastic property,” Tyler said, 1925 PubHouse is partnered with an educational program through The Arc of Indiana known as the Erskine Green Training Institute (EGTI).

“This hotel was built … [to have] a hotel and restaurant to supply a post-secondary education for folks with intellectual disabilities,” Tyler said.

1925 PUBHOUSE INFORMATION 625 S. High St., Muncie, IN 47305 765-212-2335 Monday – Closed Tuesday – 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Wednesday – 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Thursday – 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Friday – 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.

Saturday – 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.

Sunday – 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Source: 1925 PubHouse Courtyard Facebook page

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Through the EGTI program, students are enrolled in a 10-12 week program to explore a number of roles within the hotel and 1925 PubHouse. These include housekeeping, hosting, serving and dishwashing.

Tyler said program staff liked what 1925 PubHouse had to offer, like learning how to cook and serve in regard to its menu and staff.

Shedding light on this program is one of his long-term goals for the restaurant, especially since EGTI has been in place since 2016.

“One of my goals as general manager of this restaurant is to make that more known and let people know this is an amazing restaurant but it is also an excellent training facility,” he said. “People need to know that this is going to be a big part of us.”

Ridenour praised the location for being in the heart of the downtown area and being connected to the hotel.

“We’re excited to see what 1925 PubHouse brings,” Ridenour said. “I think it will be a great addition to our downtown and a super addition for the Marriott and its guests.”

Ben wants prospective customers to know about the restaurant’s 30-seat bar, 16 outdoor tables and new renovations inside the establishment while promising “an amazing culinary experience, as well as service.” As the restaurant offers a unique dining experience for Muncie residents with a “downtown vibe,” he also wants to offer a menu on the same playing field.

“Chef Kevin’s menu is what I like to call kind of an upscalecasual,” Ben said. “Hand-cut steaks, prime steaks, lobster, fresh seafood — all on his menu that people are looking for.”

Ridenour said he is hopeful for 1925 PubHouse to provide the city with a wide, new food selection and thinks the menu will be popular among Muncie locals. He added the city is looking into finding more parking options for the restaurant’s customers in addition to the restaurant lot within its first few months of operation.

The restaurant had its soft opening the weekend of April 2 and official opening April 5. Tyler said he has been ecstatic to open the doors to guests who have been eager to experience dining at 1925 PubHouse’s Muncie location.

“We want people to see the place who have been asking us for the past six weeks, ‘When’s Muncie going to open?’” Tyler said. “They’re finally going to be able to get in the place and taste the food.”

Ridenour said he is glad to be adding 1925 PubHouse to the list of restaurants operating within Muncie.

“We think we’ve got some great restaurants downtown, as well as

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some long-term staples that give a wide variety and bring people to our city,” Ridenour said. “We think 1925 PubHouse will add to that as well.”

Contact Grace Bentkowski with comments at gmbentkowski@bsu.edu or on Twitter @gbentkowski.

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