April 7, 2022

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N • Tree trouble

dailyorange.com

C • TED Talk time

Members of the New York State Hemlock Initiative have been trying to cut down on a predator of Hemlock trees around Skaneateles Lake.

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This weekend, TEDxSyracuse will host the “Paradigm Shift” event featuring seven speakers who have wisdom to share with the Syracuse community.

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S • Local influence Lyle Thompson, who grew up on the Onondaga Nation Reservation, has influenced Indigenous players throughout his college and pro lacrosse career.

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on campus

Unmasked

Clint Smith discusses new book

By Danny Amron asst. news editor

illustration by yiwei he illustration editor

The Daily Orange spoke to students across campus about their reaction to the “YELLOW” masking level

By The Daily Orange News Staff

O

n Monday, March 14, Syracuse University moved to a “YELLOW” COVID-19 masking level. Under the level, masks are no longer required for vaccinated individuals during academic instruction.

The Daily Orange talked to about 100 students across SU’s campus about their reactions to the change. Here’s what they had to say.

Many students said the downgrade to “YELLOW” level shows the pandemic is moving into the right direction. Vincenzo Suarez, a junior entrepreneurship and public relations major, said he felt relieved that SU is doing better.

“I know some people have seen it as like, ‘Oh, we’re not ready for that yet.’ But I see this as maybe it’s a sign that we are doing better and we’re getting better. So for me, I think it makes me feel optimistic and hopeful for the future,” Suarez said.

Meris Rosenberg, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said while many of her professors chose to keep their masks on during instruction, most students in her classes don’t wear masks.

“It’s definitely weird, but I don’t mind it. It’s nice to see people’s faces again,” Rosenberg said. “At least for me, I’ve had the COVID shots. So I feel like it’s not that big of a risk.”

Ophelia DeStefano, a sophomore political science and education major, said it shouldn’t be a problem as long as the positivity rate on campus stays low.

“It also helps because some of the teachers I thought were

more scary, and then they take their mask off and they’re smiling the whole class,” DeStefano said.

Some students said that while they appreciate the switch to a lower masking tier, they don’t think it makes a significant difference considering many students weren’t following maskwearing guidelines before.

“I think it is just fine at this time (to not wear a mask) because even when the COVID mask level was at “RED,” I didn’t see everyone following those rules,” Sitao Wang, an engineering graduate student, said.

Some students noticed a positive social impact resulting from the change in masking level.

Law student Corrine Kalala shared that she appreciates the social aspect of optional masking, and noticed that she hasn’t seen tension or shaming between those who choose to wear a mask and those who choose not to.

Some students thought the university chose the wrong time to downgrade the masking level.

Liam Goff, a sophomore broadcast and digital journalism major, said, while it’s good that SU moved to the “YELLOW” level, switching the mask requirement immediately after spring break without testing lacks foresight. Andrea Sanchez, a junior policy studies and political science major, said she doesn’t agree with letting everyone go maskless immediately after spring break.

“I felt like maybe having a change immediately after spring break and going back to yellow and having everybody

see masks page 4

Poet and journalist Clint Smith spoke to Syracuse University community members about his latest book, “How the Word is Passed,” via Zoom on Wednesday night. The talk was part of the Newhouse School of Public Communications’ Leaders in Communications speaker series.

Melissa Chessher, a professor of magazine, news and digital journalism, hosted the Q&A with Smith.

Smith, who is a staff writer at The Atlantic, spoke about how he sought to create a narrative nonfiction work that chronicled the pervasive nature of slavery on contemporary American society. He noted that some of the most visible examples of this are through the glorification of prominent Confederate figures through monuments, street names and the names of schools.

“The thing is, we know that symbols and names and iconography aren’t just symbols.

They’re reflective of the stories that people tell. And those stories shape the narratives that communities carry. And those narratives shape public policy and public policy shapes the material conditions of people’s lives,” Smith said.

Taking down these statues would help people recognize what has shaped how American history is understood, with emphasis on the way that cer tain communities have been disproportionately and intentionally harmed, he said.

A lthough Smith recently became a journalist by trade through his work at The Atlantic, he said that he still struggles with the label because of the intersectional nature of his work.

“I didn’t go to journalism school or communication school, and I don’t even come from a media background,” he said. “I’m kind of an untraditional journalist. It’s a weird experience and even when the reviews of this book started coming out, because almost every reviewer was like, ‘poet see smith page 4

2 april 7, 2022

about

INSIDE The best quotes from today’s paper.

NEWS t h e i n de p e n de n t s t u de n t n e w s pa p e r of s y r a c u s e , n e w yor k Editor@dailyorange.com News@dailyorange.com Opinion@dailyorange.com Culture@dailyorange.com Sports@dailyorange.com Digital@dailyorange.com Design@dailyorange.com BUSINESS 315-443-2315

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This spring, the paper will be published Monday and Thursday when SU classes are in session. Special inserts are published on Thursdays before home football and basketball games. The D.O.’s online coverage is 24/7, including while SU is on break.

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“It’s actually the college experience that I’ve been wanting, but then again, in the back of my mind, I’m always thinking it still isn’t the safest it could be.”

- Sandra Peña, student Page 3

OPINION “During the fall 2021 semester, Food Recovery Network donated over 5,000 pounds of food, an impressive feat for a student-run organization.” - Owen Hinrichs, guest columnist Page 5

CULTURE “Going to places like secondhand shops has been something that has been part of a community that had to have those resources available to them because they did not necessarily have access to some of the shops.”

- Cjala Surratt, owner of Black Citizens Brigade Page 6

SPORTS “That’s a special family, and they live, love and eat that game up. ... It’s spiritual to them and they make it part of their life and their kids’ life and their family.” Mark Burnam, Lyle Thompson’s former coach Page 12

how to join us If you are a Syracuse University or SUNY-ESF student interested in contributing to The D.O. on either its advertising or editorial teams, please email editor@dailyorange.com.

COMING UP

corrections policy

Noteworthy events this week.

The D.O. strives to be as accurate in our reporting as possible. Please email editor@dailyorange.com to report a correction.

WHAT: Interdisciplinary Disability Dialogues Spring 2022 WHEN: Thursday, 5-6:30 p.m.

WHERE: Virtual

letter to the editor policy The D.O. prides itself as an outlet for community discussion. To learn more about our submission guidelines, please email opinion@dailyorange. com with your full name and affiliation within the Syracuse community. Please note letters should not include any personal information pertaining to other people unless it is relevant to the topic at hand. All letters will be edited for style and grammar.

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WHAT: AAPI Heritage Month Lecture with Michelle Zauner WHEN: Thursday, 7-9 p.m.

WHERE: HBC Giff ord Auditorium WHAT: Mr. ASIA 2022 WHEN: Friday, 5-10 p.m.

WHERE: Schine Student Center Underground

ad that’s going in the folder later

NEWS

dailyorange.com news@dailyorange.com

PAG E 3

april 7, 2022

student association

state

MacNeil, Pierre campaigns discuss platforms Activists work to lower threat to trees

By Louis Platt

senior staff writer

Carri Marschner and her colleagues at the New York State Hemlock Initiative have been studying predators of hemlock woolly adelgid since 2008. So, when members of the NYSHI collected needles containing Laricobius beetles, a naturally occuring method of keeping HWA at bay, in November and released them elsewhere in the state, Marschner felt proud about the accomplishment.

“We can go collect the needles and re-release them somewhere else in New York,” said Marschner, an invasive species extension associate at the institute. “That feels like a milestone for us.”

Eastern hemlocks are evergreen trees native to the eastern U.S., and the trees’ future in central New York — and specifically around Skaneateles Lake — is in flux since HWA were spotted on the trees in central New York in the early 2000s.

This year’s SA presidential race features a total of three presidential and vice presidential tickets, all of which will be available for students to vote on throughout the week until Friday at 11:59 p.m. arthur maiorella staff photographer

By Danis Cammett staff writer

This year’s SA presidential race features a total of three presidential and vice presidential tickets. Jordan Pierre and Lauren Gloster are running under the “Ubuntu” ticket while Breton MacNeil and Skylar Gorczynski are a part of the “Real Deal” ticket. Along with the two pairs, incumbent David Bruen and SA member Adia Santos are a part of the “Pursuing Legacy” ticket.

MacNeil, a junior, is from Hampton, New Jersey, and is majoring in broadcast and digital journalism in the Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Gorczynski is a freshman from Sutton, Massachusetts, and is majoring in physics in the College of Arts and Sciences while on a prelaw track.

Pierre is a junior from Brooklyn, New York, majoring in broadcast and digital journalism

in Newhouse. Lauren Gloster is a sophomore from Harlem, New York, and is majoring in public health in Falk College.

Pierre and Gloster want to open Hendricks’ food pantry to non-SU and ESF students, hold an orientation week event for students of color, bring back meal swipes to the Schine Student Center and open a justice center that allows formerly incarcerated individuals to earn a BA or associate’s degree.

MacNeil and Gorczynski are running on a platform of increasing mental health awarness, sexual assult prevention, meal access, increasing community impact and a revamp of the Student Association.

MacNeil said he’s running to get more involved in on-campus matters.

There is no better time than now to get involved, he said.

“I’ve always wanted, personally, to get involved with the student government here but I always had a tough time finding the free time to do it. And I saw that I had more

time this semester, and I decided to take the leap before it was too late,” MacNeil said.

Pierre said that he has been extensively involved in student matters. He was a part of the #NotAgainSU movement and is currently an orientation leader for the university. Like MacNeil, Pierre also said that he feels now is the perfect time for him to run for president.

“I’m a part of various organizations where I was able to understand the issues and concerns that a lot of students wanted to see change in order to make us students of color feel more acquainted on campus,” he said.

Pierre said he wants to use his own platform to amplify the concerns and voices he has heard. The president of SA, he said, has a lot of power that most on campus are not aware of, and he wants to be a voice at the table with administrators.

Gorczynski previously served in her high school’s student government and said she hopes to use that

experience to help SU students feel more comfortable at the university.

“I really want to see Syracuse be a place I feel at home and hopefully I can help others feel the same,” she said.

As someone who works in the university’s ambulance service, Gloster said she wants to publicize the service. She also wants to make sure students who are a part of marginalized groups get the same access to resources as every student.

“Being in a position within the Student Association, specifically VP and president will allow me to create those changes that the student body deserves to see and deserves to have,” Gloster said.

MacNeil and Gorcyznski have stated a desire to expand meal access, which includes reopening Kimmel, as well as expanding awareness for sexual assault and mental health.

Pierre and Gloster said they will prioritize making Syracuse more see campaigns page 4

national

Biden admin extends student loan moratorium

By Danny Amron

asst. news editor

The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that the student loan moratorium will be extended until Aug. 31, 2022.

“I know folks were hit hard by this pandemic. And though we’ve come a long way in the last year, we’re still recovering from the

economic crisis it caused,” Biden said in a video posted to his Twitter account. “The continued pause will help Americans breathe a little easier as we recover and rebuild from the pandemic.”

Additionally, the U.S. Department of Education released a plan to use the ongoing moratorium to restore the accounts of roughly 7 million borrowers who are in

default to good standing.

This is the seventh time the student loan moratorium has been extended since the onset of the pandemic. The current extension was set to expire on May 1.

“We are still recovering from the pandemic and the unprecedented economic disruption it caused,” Biden said in a statement announcing the extension. “If

loan payments were to resume on schedule in May, analysis of recent data from the Federal Reserve suggests that millions of student loan borrowers would face significant economic hardship, and delinquencies and defaults could threaten Americans’ financial stability.” ddamron@syr.edu @dannyamron_

Those tributaries down there are so steep, and Hemlocks are like the only thing growing on them, so it’s holding back all that soil. And, if we lost them, to get trees established before we had problems with erosion would be impossible.

Teresa Link conservation district technician

Eastern hemlocks make up a significant portion of the trees surrounding the southern and western sides of Skaneateles Lake, where Syracuse gets the majority of its drinking water. Camille Marcotte, the water and ecology educator at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Onondaga County, said the trees are suitable for the slopes around the lake because they can grow tall on steep terrain. The trees are important for preventing soil erosion near the lake and filtering out harmful nutrients from making it into the water, she said.

“Those tributaries down there are so steep, and Hemlocks are like the only thing growing on them, so it’s holding back all that soil. And, if we lost them, to get trees established

see hemlocks page 4

dailyorange.com news@dailyorange.com

4 april 7, 2022

from page 1

masks go maskless after everybody went to every different place in the world — I didn’t think that was the smartest idea,” Sanchez said.

“But at the end of the day, I still wear my mask when I’m in classes because I want to feel protected. And hopefully the fact that we’re all boosted presumably evens it out.”

Sythong Run, a sophomore studying public health and environmental sustainability and policy, also expressed concerns on changing the mask level immediately after the spring break. Run said she’s still wearing masks to better protect herself and others, such as her roommate who has asthma.

Sandra Peña, a sophomore studying biochemistry and neuroscience, decided from page 1

smith and journalist.’ And I was like, who’s the journalist? Who are they talking about?

That’s not something that was a part of my identity, like my personal or professional identity, until recently.”

Smith’s first experience with personon-the-street interviews was on a tour of Thomas Jefferson’s h ome, M onticello. T he guide discussed the fact that Jefferson knew slavery was wrong yet continued to enslave people, which made several members of the tour visually uncomfortable.

“They were clearly unsettled by what they were hearing, and I had a moment from page 3

campaigns inclusive and welcoming for students of color as well as countering food insecurity at SU and the wider Syracuse area. Pierre has proposed a “Black welcome week” for the university. He said students of color would be able to, on a tour, see resources that serve the needs of students of color.

to study remotely for her freshman year because of the pandemic.

“It’s actually the college experience that I’ve been wanting, but then again, in the back of my mind, I’m always thinking it still isn’t the safest it could be,” Peña said. “I feel like the school (moved to “YELLOW” level) to say to the public … ‘We’ve gotten to the point where it’s safe enough,’ but we never know.”

Meanwhile, some students shared that they don’t fully trust SU’s decision when it comes to public health. Anely Vasquez, a freshman psychology major, said while people are happy about the policy change, she worries the positive cases will go up again.

Michele Garten, a sophomore studying advertising, said that whether she masks or not depends on the size of the class she’s in.

“Some (classes are) very spread out so I’m where I was like, ‘I should go talk to them,’” Smith said. “Going up and walking to a group of white people on a plantation and asking them how I feel about slavery is not part of my natural ethos. But I did it. And it was so important that I did it.”

Smith said he decided to write the book because his 15-year-old self was desperate to know why his environment looked the way it did, whether those perceptions were explicit or subtle.

“If the reader leaves the book with one thing, my hope is that it’s a clear sense of how recent this was and that it really was not that long ago,” he said. ddamron@syr.edu @dannyamron_

“It takes the intentionality when it comes to constructing a week that will make us feel as if we know what the resources are for us,” Pierre said.

MacNeil and Gorcyznski have also made it their mission to increase SA transparency and awareness among the student body. Gorcynzki said teaching others around them what the association is would be a good first step.

“We want people more aware because we

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OK,” she said. “But then other classes, it’s super crowded and we’re basically shoulder to shoulder, so they can be uncomfortable sometimes.”

Goff also said while he feels comfortable not wearing masks in his classes that typically have less than 15 students, he would prefer to wear one in larger class settings.

“Sitting in there with a very small group of people in a relatively large space doesn’t bother me too much,” Goff said. “I would say that if I were in a lecture hall setting with maybe 150 (or) 200 students, I would probably prefer having a mask on.”

Some students said that, while they don’t personally feel safe enough to unmask in their classes, they don’t mind other students doing so.

Gabe Eggerling, a freshman studying architecture, said that he still is a little worried about the COVID-19 situation on campus

and still chooses to mask wherever it’s recommended, but it doesn’t impact his view on the masking-level downgrade.

“I don’t think there’s a problem with there not being any mandates on anything,” he said.

“I think if people don’t want to wear a mask right now, there’s no reason to have to wear a mask.”

Some students are comfortable with the decision to downgrade the masking level but feel like the level should only remain if cases stay low.

“I think they’re doing the best they can with what they have, and I would rather us have the option to not wear them than be forced to at this point,” Harlow Arcaro, a senior illustration major, said. “I feel that as long as the COVID numbers aren’t exploding on campus then I feel like we should have the option.” news@dailyorange.com

CLINT SMITH, a staff writer at The Atlantic, details in his book “How the Word is Passed” the power of racist iconography. screenshot want the students here to know the power they really have,” MacNeil said.

Pierre and Gloster’s campaign motto, “Ubuntu,” translates to “I am because you are.” The two changed the phrase into the campaign’s slogan, “We are because you are.”

Pierre said any representative of the student body should live up to this principle because every student representative must be a mirror to their constituents.

“We also (understand) that we are not always going to be the voice for all students. We consider ourselves consensus builders and that we will create spaces to have other people come and vocalize what they want to see changed,” Pierre said.

All three presidential and vice presidential tickets will be available for students to vote on throughout the week until Friday at 11:59 p.m. dwcammet@syr.edu

from page 3

since the 1980s, it has gradually moved north from New York City since then. The Eastern hemlocks die over a few years as new growth is inhibited.

“We think that what kills the trees is actually when you have a very high density of HWA, the tree can no longer get sap out to the end of its twigs to make new growth,” Marschner said. “The tree eventually starves.”

Link said when an Eastern hemlock is significantly affected by HWA the needles of the tree will fall off from simply tapping a branch.

Pesticides applied to the tree bark to kill HWA are effective, take a year to kick in and last four to seven years, Marschner said.

But, she is encouraged by the prospect of the Laricobius beetle to keep the HWA at bay now that it is naturally reproducing in central New York, especially since they have proven they can survive harsh winters in the region, she said.

“The reason that we’re so happy about that is that that means that that population is really thriving, which means that there are places in New York where the winter beetle can just reproduce naturally and succeed,” Marschner said.

While the Laricobius beetle preys on HWA during the winter, the NYSHI is also researching a summer predator — the Leucopis silver flies — to quell the sap suckers during the season of significant mating and reproducing. Marschner said the institute is determined to figure out in the next five years whether the silver flies will establish themselves in New York state as a viable predator to HWA. “We’re not sure if we have establishment of the silver flies, (but) in the next five years we’re hoping to determine whether the silver fly will establish in New York,” Marschner said.

hemlocks before we had problems with erosion would be impossible,” said Teresa Link, the Onondaga County Soil and Water Conservation District’s conservation district technician.

The trees also slow snow melt by creating shade during the winter with their needles.

The prolonged flow o f c old w ater, a s w ell a s the shade created from the trees, keep the lake cooler into the warmer months, which creates a pleasant temperature for the fish t o l ive i n, Link said.

Since the NYSHI began researching predators to HWA, two insects — the Laricobius beetle and Leucopis silver flies — and one pesticide have been recognized to fight the tree’s sap sucking insect, Marschner said. In April 2021, SWCD received a $50,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, according to a press release from the organization. The grant funds the monitoring and control of HWA around Ostico and Skaneateles Lakes.

Link, the grant’s manager, said the money will help the SWCD monitor and control HWA in the Ostico and Skaneateles Lake watersheds. The five-to-seven y ear p roject will include treatment on 1,500 trees in the two watersheds, the press release said. These watersheds provide drinking quality water to nearly 500,000 people in Onondaga County, the release reads.

HWA is an insect that is native to Asia, and since making its way to the U.S., they have thrived on the starches of Eastern hemlock trees from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Skaneateles Lake.

The tiny black insects, which are recognizable by the white woolly mass around where they connect to twigs, prevent sap from reaching the entirety of the branch, Marschner said.

While the insect has been in New York state

lcplatt@syr.edu @JBL__98

OPINION

dailyorange.com opinion@dailyorange.com

guest column

PAG E 5

april 7, 2022

letter to the editor

SU must help decrease food waste Vote for NYPIRG funding this week

By Owen Hinrichs guest columnist

I

t doesn’t sit right with me to be eating in the Brockway Dining Hall with a surplus of food, looking west out the windows over Interstate 81 to a city with one of the highest poverty rates in the U.S. and moderate levels of food insecurity.

Compared to the national average percent of the population living below the poverty line, which was 13.4% in 2021, the city of Syracuse’s was 31.0% in 2019.

Tract 42, the neighborhood bordering the west side of campus, has an average per capita income of $8,608 in 2019.

In the center of the city is Syracuse University, where the total cost of attendance for the 2021-22 school year is $80,039.80, nearly 10 times the amount of money average tract 42 residents will see in a year.

Like the tuition at SU, our dining plan’s cost per meal is also very expensive when compared to other institutions. An article published

by The Daily Orange compared meal plans from SU and six other comparable schools and found that Syracuse had the most expensive cost per meal at $19.59.

Eating this expensive dining hall food in a city where many struggle to put food on the table leaves me wondering where the leftover dining hall food goes. Yes, SU composts food, but I’m not referring to food scraps. When dining centers close, where does the untouched food go?

In an attempt to answer this question I walked into Sadler Dining Hall with the intent of talking to the manager, but the Food Service employees referred me to the Residential Dining Director, who referred me to the food services website.

When I went to the sustainability section on the site, I discovered the Food Recovery Net-

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work. FRN is a national, studentrun organization that donates unused food to local social wellness agencies such as homeless shelters, transitional housing organizations, refugee programs, children’s programs and more.

Zander Leff, one of seven e-board members and the current secretary of SU and SUNY-ESF’s branch of FRN, spoke to me to help me better understand where FRN is currently standing. He said that FRN does three to four “food runs” a day, averaging about 20 pounds per trip. During the fall 2021 semester, FRN donated over 5,000 pounds of food, an impressive feat for a student-run organization.

But there is still lots of food being disposed of. And because these volunteers are full-time students in class all day, many of them can’t volunteer their time during the mornings and afternoons, meaning that all breakfast and lunch leftovers likely go to waste.

Assuming that all SU dining halls produce about 20 pounds of food waste per meal, even after FRN saves about 70 pounds per day, the university is still disposing of a total of roughly 230 pounds of food every day across the five dining halls. And that’s not considering all the food that had been set out for students to eat and can no longer be donated because of contamination issues, meaning that, in reality, there’s even more food going to waste.

Leff said that the pandemic has also presented challenges for the FRN. “It just makes everything harder and everyone more reluctant to participate,” he said.

People are more cautious because of COVID-19, and both dining halls and agencies are likely more reluctant to allow students to enter their facilities. It’s frustrating to me that SU can allow the Carrier Dome to operate at full capacity while meeting COVID-19 protocols, yet the university some-

times won’t allow a few more students to enter the kitchens during the evening at times, as Leff said.

Leff added that food collection isn’t the only issue that FRN faces, Leff said. “It’s oftentimes hard to find agencies willing to accept this food,” he said.

In all, the biggest problem lies in the fact that the university isn’t doing enough to support FRN’s efforts. The organization doesn’t even receive a budget from the university, Leff said, and the student volunteers are not only giving their time but all transportation costs are paid for by the volunteers.

Additionally, SU should help by implementing conventions to educate students about the history of Syracuse, promoting FRN to increase participation of volunteers and minimizing the amount of waste generated in the first place by making less food and donating leftovers.

Supporting the organization enough financially to cover the cost of transportation is the bare minimum SU could do. By partnering with FRN, the university could establish connections with agencies in the area and possibly even collaborate with the city to grow this initiative even further.

Leff said that the way to waste less food is to expand FRN’s outreach through university support.

“Having only seven students run the whole system hasn’t been the most effective means of communication,” he said, and he added that coupling with the university would create “a more streamlined system with protocols, having a more established mechanism.”

If SU is truly committed to “encompass(ing) all sustainability practices within the classroom and throughout operations at the University,” it must do more to support the organizations that are pulling their weight in the efforts toward a sustainable city.

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Owen Hinrichs, Class of 2025

By Our Reader

D

uring this week’s elections, Syracuse University and SUNY College of Environmental and Science and Forestry students should vote yes for the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) chapter on campus. At the end of the ballot, students can vote in the referendum to vote yes or no to continuing to support the chapter as part of the student activity fee. This one important vote will create prosperity for the student body to further the mission of empowering young people over the next few years.

NYPIRG is an incredibly important service to both the SU/ ESF student body and also to the greater community. Every year — even during lockdown — the NYPIRG chapter organizes at least one community food and menstrual product drive to help those in need in central New York, bringing in hundreds of food and hygiene products for donation.

These efforts have brought positive contributions into the wider Syracuse community through increasing accessibility to everyday necessities.

NYPIRG also regularly conducts wide scale non-partisan voter registration services across SU and ESF’s campuses to make sure students know how to register to vote and are aware of upcoming deadlines. Since the chapter’s start in 1973, NYPIRG has registered thousands of students to vote at SU and ESF. NYPIRG has also been the pioneer for helping pass important legislative bills like the first mandatory statewide seat belt law passed in New York state, which was possible through voting efforts towards elected officials.

NYPIRG students also fiercely advocate for college affordability. By routinely meeting with legislators, holding petition drives, holding letter writing campaigns and calling elected leaders’ offices, NYPIRG amplifies the student voice to fight for a more affordable and accessible system of higher education in New York state. NYPIRG knows that with expanded opportunity programs like HEOP and EOP, better financial aid like TAP and Bundy Aid and improved mental health resources on campus students can thrive and have a better

college experience.

Just this March, NYPIRG organized a statewide student empowerment conference open for free to all SU and ESF students to hear from advocates and higher education leaders on the issue of mental health on campus. Participating in these events allowed me to understand how organizations like NYPIRG are shaping opportunities for students to attend college, especially when many of us want a home away from home and rely on financial aid. I personally understand those struggles and am advocating for decreasing waitlists and increasing diversity amongst mental health professionals on college campuses.

SU and ESF students intern with NYPIRG for credit every semester. Working alongside the full-time project coordinator, a team of volunteers and student leaders, the NYPIRG chapter consistently proves that building non-partisan student power can enact real changes for a better, more equitable New York state. As a former intern myself, I enjoyed challenging myself to work with other bright students in improving the livelihoods of the communities around us. No day was the same in taking those initiatives to enact change. I felt a vision to uphold those values of accountability, proactivity and service to uplift the public interests of our society. Knowing that I educated someone else on clean energy or registered a person to vote are small steps towards celebrating the goal of democracy and diversity.

The campus community would suffer without NYPIRG’s nonpartisan voter registration, higher education advocacy, environmental protection actions and events, consumer justice services and community food and product drives. That’s exactly why students should vote yes for NYPIRG SU and ESF this week to continue building student power on campus, across central New York, and the entire state. My experience with NYPIRG throughout the past three years has been nothing short of extraordinary and I hope that other students can play a major part in this dynamic organization.

Together, we can continue the legacy of ensuring that our campus community has a platform for solving issues that most matter to us.

Go Orange!

Bryan Reynoso, Class of 2023

Emily Steinberger

Mandy Kraynak

Anthony Alandt

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6 april 7, 2022

dailyorange.com culture@dailyorange.com

CULTURE

TED Talk time

C

beyond the hill

Black Citizens Brigade to open shop

By Kate Kelley

contributing writer

(Clockwise from top left) Speakers at the event will include Shari Alyse, Nicole Cox, Ava Notkin, William Khabbaz and Geena Matuson. photo illustration by meghan hendricks photo editor

The D.O. spoke to five of the speakers of TEDxSyracuseUniversity

By The Daily Orange Culture Staff

Editor’s note: This story contains details of eating disorders. If you are struggling with disordered eating contact the National Eating Disorder Awareness hotline by calling 800-931-2237 or by going to https:// www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/.

O

n Saturday, April 9, seven speakers will present in the Underground at the Schine Student Center as a part of the TEDxSyracuseUniversity series. The event will start at 2 p.m., with speakers giving approximately 18-minute talks each.

The Daily Orange spoke with five of the seven speakers about their presentations.

These interviews have been edited for clarity and brevity.

William Khabbaz

William Khabbaz is a SU junior majoring in public relations who is originally from Sarasota, Florida. A writer for Zipped Magazine and a brother of Phi Kappa Theta, Khabbaz said he hopes to follow his love for communications, fashion and entertainment to a future career. On April 9, Khabbaz will give a TED Talk on his journey to this point in his life and the intersection of his many identities.

The D.O.: Did you face any challenges in creating and crafting your TED Talk?

Khabbaz: Yeah, I think my biggest challenge has been how deeply sad it is!

There are moments when I cry hysterically through it. That obviously isn’t great — you don’t want to be crying in the middle of your speech the whole time. But I think just the power of reading it and making it more real every single time has let me have the ability to not cry. I’m just nervous that come the day of — it’s a very emotional moment when you’re in front of a huge crowd like that —

that a tear will shed. But I’m okay with that, because I know I can control it.

Ava Notkin

SU alumna Ava Notkin has been busy since graduating in the fall of 2020. Between her 300,000 followers on TikTok to the work she’s done with NBCUniversal for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Notkin has made the transition from academic to working life with her fair share of experimentation.

In her forthcoming TED Talk, “The New Social Currency & Its Effect on our Mental Health,” Notkin pulls from her personal journey with social media, which includes moving to California with her mother during the pandemic.

The D.O.: In a nutshell, what is your TED Talk about?

Notkin: The dark side of social media and how to take back control. So, my main point is that I really want people to understand how media works and how it impacts both our mental health, our physical health, our overall wellness. And not to be fearful of the downsides, but to integrate the knowledge and use social media as a tool. Find the way that it works for you, but don’t allow it to control your lives … (or) perspectives. So often, our generation, especially with this pandemic, has gotten really accustomed to living through our screens. We need to be reminded that this is not reality: it is a part of our reality, but there’s so much more than just pixels and text messages. There’s particles and atoms and feeling and love.

Nicole Cox

Nicole Cox is a senior broadcast and digital journalism major at SU who said she is passionate about health, wellness and most importantly, weightlifting. Cox will give her second TEDx Talk — with the first having occurred at TEDxYouth@Sammamish —

about how weightlifting helped her recover from an eating disorder and allowed her to trust and appreciate her body again. She will speak about how overwhelming it can be as a woman in the weight room and how to overcome the fear of embarrassment and be confident as a beginner, because that is where everybody was once.

The D.O.: Why do you think your topic is important to the SU community?

Cox: When I was a freshman here at SU, I remember being literally one of a couple girls in the weight room. It was very daunting being a young woman in the weight room, but fast forward four years and there are so many women that I feel like are getting more into weight training and trying out lifting. So even from a personal perspective of just what I’ve seen since I started doing it until now, there’s been so much growth and that’s just a message we need to keep pushing.

Geena Matuson

Geena Matuson is an arts technologist, educator and speaker who graduated from SU with her master’s degree in 2019. Matuson’s talk, titled “Reject the Disconnect,” will explore how people can use social media to connect themselves with the world around them.

The D.O.: Why do you think that this talk might be important for the SU community?

Matuson: Whether you work in academia or you’re a student, a lot of us are taught that there’s sort of a narrative to follow, and just a lot of us don’t understand we can actually be ourselves while still earning a living (and) being successful in the way we define it and still living a fulfilled life. I think a lot of people, especially teens, sacrifice a lot of who they are because there’s this fear of, “Oh, nope, I have to get everything right. I can’t make mistakes. Playtime is over,” and really that’s actually going to limit them. see ted page 7

Mother-daughter thrift shop excursions during the pandemic began as a way to pass time for Cjala Surratt and Sarhia Rahim, but they ended up having lasting impacts on the duo. These shopping trips inspired the creation of a local business, and eventually became a way for Surratt to pay homage to her seamstress ancestors and practice sustainability.

Surratt, a Syracuse University alumna, has been building her business, Black Citizens Brigade, throughout the pandemic. BCB is a curated vintage and secondhand clothing company that operates online and through local popup shops. Surratt said the BCB’s mission is to combat fast fashion through the sale of unique, wellmade secondhand garments.

“Supporting the Brigade through purchase from our collection of curated apparel and second-cycle clothing is a conscious approach to intervene in small yet sustainable ways that impact the larger systems,” Surratt said.

Surratt’s daughter and SU freshman Rahim models for BCB and works at the businesses pop-up events. Rahim said that a variety of customers visit the pop-ups and they all appreciate the clothing. She said she associates a community feel with the pop-up events and spoke fondly of her mother’s brand.

“At its core, BCB is not just about clothing, but providing a space for people to connect,” Rahim said.

At the Syracuse pop-ups, Rahim said customers frequently say they wish that Syracuse had more events like it. When meeting shoppers from out of town, they are often surprised that events like BCB popups exist in Syracuse.

The BCB line includes vintage leather jackets, chunky sweaters and patterned shirts which reflect current styles while maintaining the retro aesthetic and quality construction. In addition to secondhand apparel, Surratt plans for BCB to “work with BIPOC artists and creatives for new supplemental products that complement and align with our brand.”

The inspiration behind BCB stems from Surratt’s connection to the history of hand-me-down clothing, she said. She added that she resonated with the history because her family traditions include ”people making clothing, getting secondhand clothing and passing things down.”

“Going to places like secondhand shops has been something that has been part of a community that had to have those resources available to them because they did not necessarily have access to some of the shops, and also didn’t have see vintage page 7

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PAG E 7

dailyorange.com culture@dailyorange.com

april 7, 2022

from the studio

Syracuse Fashion Week to host local designers

By Sophie Cohen

asst. digital editior

A switch in career paths led Lisa Butler — who initially worked for Syracuse Stage — to create Syracuse Fashion Week, allowing local designers to share their work with the Syracuse community for the past nine years.

“Rochester has a fashion week, Buffalo has a fashion week, so I thought Syracuse needed a fashion week too,” Butler said.

Butler is the creator and executive director of Syracuse Fashion Week. This year Syracuse Fashion Week will host three different shows from Thursday through Saturday at Aloft Syracuse Inner Harbor, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and the Washington Place luxury apartments.

Part of the ticket proceeds and donations made during the show will go towards the Food Bank of Central New York. Over the years, Butler said she raised enough money at fashion week to feed 40,000 families and plans to continue to use the food bank as Syracuse Fashion Week’s beneficiary for as long as she can.

Butler’s fashion journey began in 2004 when she opened Bliss Bridal Boutique, her own clothing and bridal couture boutique. Butler originally worked as a manager at the Syracuse Stage, where she became interested in pursuing a degree in costume design.

Butler has always been interested in fashion shows and began doing small pop-up fashion shows by herself around Syracuse.

“As a couple of years went by, people started to become interested in joining me because they had a line or boutique they wanted to show off,” Butler said.

A turning point for Butler and her role in the Syracuse fashion realm came in 2010. Butler, with the help of a few designers, put on her largest show at the Landmark Theatre called Syracuse Style. The show was a success, and in 2013, Butler made Syracuse Fashion Week her business. from page 6

ted

Shari Alyse

Shari Alyse is a writer and speaker residing in Los Angeles. Originally from Miami, Alyse went to school at SU and received her degree in theatre. She is now a published author and speaker for many outlets, including a previous TED Talk. Alyse will be speaking on April 9 about the power of being wrong.

The D.O.: Why do you feel this need to share this story? What do you think will come from this?

Alyse: There is an epidemic, a pandemic, of really not enoughness. In our world, I believe there’s anxiety, there’s depression, there’s so much, there’s social media, which in itself is beautiful for the fact that we all get to connect with

from page 6

vintage access economically that some of their white counterparts did,” Surratt said.

Historically, accessibility and economic inequality have left marginalized groups out of certain clothing stores. Shopping second hand and repurposing hand-me-downs was a practice born out of necessity for the community.

“Looking at the establishments that were downtown reinserts us into the narrative, and not just into the narrative from the perspective of the one that is common, which is blighted neighborhoods and violence,” Surratt said. “And though there were those social challenges going on, there were prospering businesses going back to the 1940s that were integral to the economy and were a safe place for Black people to go when traveling across the country.”

Customers can shop the collection on Instagram or at local pop-ups in Syracuse. The most recent pop-up took place on March 20, at the Westcott Theater. Two upcoming events include the Anti-Fast Fashion Show at Little Shop of Hoarders in Rochester on Friday, April 22, and a pop-up in Albany with the Vintage

Syracuse Fashion Week hosts events biannually, with one in the fall and another in the spring. This year’s spring show will feature 22 different designers and three different themes for each show.

The first show is “Spring Fling” and will focus on spring and summer clothes and accessories. The second show is titled “Local Love” and will feature only locally based stores and boutiques, and the newest show, “Lux” will focus solely on designers’ work that is not yet available to purchase in stores and boutiques.

Elissa Martin is a designer based out of Cicero who will be showing her brand, Altered Eco, at the “Lux” show. Martin is passionate about upcycling and creating eco-friendly designs.

Most of her work comes from taking apart and reworking pieces that already exist and have been worn.

This is not only Martin’s first fashion show, but the first collection she has created with the intention to share her work with others.

“Lisa posted about looking for designers, and I was really scared to apply for it because it’s out of my comfort zone and I have just graduated from Cazenovia College not even a year ago,” Martin said.

Despites the nerves, Martin decided to email her collection to Butler, who loved how different and refreshing the pieces were from what is usually shown at fashion week.

Martin was inspired by birds-of-paradise, tropical birds native to Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia, for her line. She created her pieces during the pandemic when she wanted to “stimulate” and “entertain” herself with brightly colored clothing.

Martin is excited to see her work come to life on the runway when her models’ hair and makeup is done. She feels like she is not only fulfilling her dream, but helping models and stylists fulfil their dreams as well.

“I know it’s going to be a great show. When a model puts on the clothes and feels confident, they’re going to do their best on the runway,” Martin said.

Heather Isabell is the hair and makeup coordinator for fashion week and will be working closely with the designers. Isabell is in charge of finding a hair and makeup team, looking at inspiration on social media and practicing the different looks on herself before the show.

Isabell became involved with Syracuse Fashion Week through her love of editorial work.

She is a bridal stylist and loves doing intricate updos for special occasions. Syracuse Fashion Week has given Isabell the opportunity to “step outside of her box,” she said.

The hardest part about Isabell’s job is finding hairstyles and makeup looks that can be done in 15 minutes. Between dressing the models and redoing their hair and makeup, she said the look needs to be creative but doable.

“In the beginning I was spending too much time on looks, thinking that I needed to go above and beyond, but that’s not the case,” Isabell said.

“For fashion shows, the hair needs to complement the clothes, and it shouldn’t be overpowering.”

Butler is most excited about the “Lux” show that will take place at the Washington Place luxury apartments at 300 E. Washington St. Syracuse Fashion Week has never done a show at this venue before, nor has it done a show highlighting designers’ higher-end pieces.

Butler hopes audience members will walk away with the impression that there are many local boutiques and shops in Syracuse with unique and creative clothing.

“Syracuse is full of creatives and there is a great fashion and creative culture that is here, and I don’t think they get enough recognition,” Butler said.

each other. But it also makes us feel so disconnected. And there’s so much comparison going on in the world. And I believe that if we started questioning the thoughts that we have instead of just accepting them, that there would be a lot more self-acceptance, healing, self-belief, self-trust and self-compassion. And I feel that would shift all of us ultimately into more joy in our lives.

University LA program TV Nation course.

Boden’s April 9 talk is titled “What Game Shows Teach You About Life.” He was unable to speak with The D.O. about his upcoming TED Talk.

Bob Boden

Bob Boden is an Emmy-nominated leader in the unscripted television industry. He has acted as an executive producer, creator, showrunner and more on over 100 television specials and series.

Boden is currently the executive vice president of production and development for Entertainment Studios as well as the executive producer of “Funny You Should Ask,” a syndicated celebrity game show. He also teaches the Syracuse Roundup market on Saturday, April 30. Additionally, Surratt is planning to open a brick-andmortar location on East Washington Street and anticipates a move-in date in September.

As an entrepreneur, this is not Surratt’s first business, but will be her first brick-and-mortar endeavor in which she will join a legacy of Black proprietors in downtown Syracuse.

“It’s important because growing up here, there are a lot of times that the papers will share retrospectives and images of downtown Syracuse, and it’s quite jarring that we don’t see Black and brown people,” Surratt said.

Part of the shopping experience is the story and history behind each piece, and Surratt said that she offers conversations through every garment she sells. The history is central to BCB’s marketing strategy and is shared on the company’s social media platforms.

The promise shown by BCB was recently recognized by Caeresa Richardson, founder of sustainable fashion company Ecodessa. Richardson created the retail incubator program to support African American retail entrepreneurs in downtown Syracuse, through which Black Citizens Brigade was awarded funding to grow their young company, Surratt said.

shcohen@syr.edu @sopcoh

Krystol Austin

Krystol Austin is a SU graduate student from Kingston, Jamaica, pursuing a Master of Architecture. Her passions include bamboo, biophilia, climate change and social justice. Austin won first prize in Gensler’s 2021 Rising Black Designers Scholarship and Design Challenge and has also received the 2021 James A. Britton Memorial Award. She is the first Jamaican to present for TEDxSyracuseUniversity, and her talk is called “Schizophrenic Architecture.” She was unable to speak with The D.O. about her upcoming TED Talk. culture@dailyorange.com

Retail incubator program applicants present their business plan and explain the intended use for the funding before the recipient is selected. Richardson said that BCB submitted “a stellar application and business plan that showed they are poised for future success,” which is why she chose them.

As a woman of color, starting her own company was no easy feat for Richardson. Now, Ecodessa is a successful company with the mission to “empower women to express their social values through their personal style.”

“It is important to me to ensure that I help to build a foundation that helps the next group of business owners so that they do not face the same hurdles in ensuring they are successful in their startup years,” Richardson said.

For BCB, the challenges of opening a brickand-mortar business are ongoing, but Surratt said she feels “validated and empowered” with Richardson’s support.

“I’m learning new things about building codes and permits and aspects that I was not necessarily familiar with, but have found that there are a great number of resources here to help people to support people who desire to go into those spaces,” Surratt said. katekelley03@gmail.com

CONCERTS

THIS WEEKEND Gridline Combining funk, rock ‘n’ roll and soul, Gridline will be playing at Funk ‘n Waffles on Friday night. Composed of members Dan Kottmann, Andrew Yanchyshyn, Zach Schepis and Robbie Elder, the group has opened for artists like Iggy Azalea and Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds with their rock-inspired, soulful sound. The Turbulents, a pop-rock group based in central New York, will be joining Gridline. Tickets are on sale for $10.

Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m.

WHEN: Friday, April 8 ARTIST: Gridline, The Turbulents

DROELOE Vincent Rooijers and Hein Hamers are DROELOE, an EDM group from the Netherlands. The duo will be coming to the Westcott Theater on Friday, with support from indie electronic artist ford. and chillhop musician weird inside. DROELOE, known for their remix of “We Don’t Talk Anymore” by Charlie Puth featuring Selena Gomez, will be stopping in Syracuse as part of their Unexpected Odyssey North America tour. Advance tickets are on sale for $20. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m.

WHEN: Friday, April 8 ARTIST: DROELOE, ford., weird inside

Aqueous Experimental indie rock group Aqueous is making their way to the Westcott Theater on Saturday night as part of their spring 2022 tour. The band, composed of members Mike Gantzer, Dave Loss, Evan McPhaden and Rob Houk, is based in Buffalo and has released six albums since 2009, as well as several live compilation albums. Baked Shrimp, a funk-rock trio from Long Island, will be joining Aqueous. Advance tickets are on sale for $17. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m.

WHEN: Saturday, April 9 ARTIST: Aqueous, Baked Shrimp

Peach Pit If you’re willing to take the drive up to Buffalo, this one might be for you. Indie rock group Peach Pit is playing the Town Ballroom in Buffalo on Saturday night for their “From 2 to 3” tour, in honor of their recent eponymous album release. Singersongwriter Haley Blais will also be supporting the band. Peach Pit is best known for their hits “Alrighty Aphrodite” and “Peach Pit,” which both include their own signature catchy guitar hooks. Tickets are sold out, but can be found on resale starting at $200. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m.

WHEN: Saturday, April 9 ARTIST: Peach Pit, Haley Blais

8 april 7, 2022

dailyorange.com sports@dailyorange.com

from page 12

starling competitive side fueled him throughout his early high school years in Baldwinsville and his travel basketball play with Hart’s City Rocks team. Having played within the program since eighth grade, Starling has played countless summer tournaments, frequently recording high-scoring totals while leading the team to wins.

Now, nearing the end of his high school career, Starling was able to earn one of just 24 spots in the prestigious McDonald’s AllAmerican Game. The closest equivalent to an all-star game in amateur basketball, Hart said to be a “burger boy” is the ultimate accolade for any high school basketball player.

“It’s something special. It’s a fun time where you can finally take that last lap with the 24 best in the country,” Hart said.

Starling was named to the East squad, becoming the first central New York representative in the McDonald’s Game since Syracuse native, and former SU center, DaJuan Coleman in 2012. Last Tuesday, the East beat the West 105-81 in Chicago.

Due to an ankle sprain earlier in the month, Starling was sidelined from the action and watched as fellow East representative Dariq Whitehead of Montverde Academy took home MVP honors.

There’s more to come for Starling, who has 10 more days to heal up before he heads back to Chicago to compete in the annual Jordan Brand Classic in what will be his second AllAmerican game in less than a month.

“He delivered again and again and again all year long,” Emrich said. “He’s no stranger to the spotlight, and he thrives in it after watching him for the last two years. He absolutely deserves this.”

After the Jordan Brand Classic, and after he officially finishes high school, the fivestar will head to Notre Dame, where he’ll be the highest-ranked recruit in program his-

J.J. STARLING is ESPN’s 17th-ranked recruit in the Class of 2022. He averaged 17.8 points per game this season and earned a spot in the McDonald’s All-American Game. courtesy of jim hart

tory, per 247Sports. Starling’s trajectory has changed while moving from Baldwinsville to La Lumiere and to the McDonald’s game, and

it has a chance to be altered even further once he begins play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and possibly the NBA.

“It’s going to be fun to see his college career as it develops,” Emrich said.

trschiff @syr.edu

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dailyorange.com sports@dailyorange.com

april 7, 2022

rowing

Syracuse men’s varsity 8 ranked No. 7 in Coaches Poll

By Nurielle Auguste

contributing writer

Syracuse men’s rowing enters its 2022 season with a varsity eight boat ranked No. 7 in the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Coaches Poll. SU posted a top 10 ranking throughout last season, reaching as high as No. 3. from page 12

thompson

lacrosse’s top Indigenous players. After graduating from UAlbany in 2015 as its top career point scorer, Thompson, along with his three brothers, has used his platform to inspire future lacrosse generations from his background.

“That’s a special family, and they live, love and eat that game up,” Burnam said. “It’s spiritual to them and they make it part of their life and their kids’ life and their family.”

Burnam, who is part Akwesasne and Mohawk, never had plays like those to watch, and he never had many Indigenous players to look up to, especially none with the degree of fame that Thompson and his brothers have, he said.

Growing up in Syracuse, Burnam said his biggest role models were the Onondaga Warriors, the reservation’s box lacrosse team. As often as he’d see them playing on the field, Burnam saw them off it at events like the Green Corn Dance festival, where some players, like Warriors’ goalie John Buck, played bass in the local band.

But to Burnam, that lack of Indigenous influences within lacrosse didn’t matter since he — along with every other Indigenous lacrosse player — was taught to play for the game’s creators. Thompson’s brother, Jeremy, said he and his brother were taught to play the game with a “good mind,” something that began when the family played in their backyard.

Those two-on-two games between the brothers were the foundation of Thompson’s awareness on the lacrosse field, Jeremy said, allowing from page 12

faceoffs consistent. Phaup has won over half his faceoffs in seven of nine games so far and only dipped below 40% once. And for the first time at SU, he’s the go-to specialist, and the only player who has taken a significant number of faceoff reps.

“He’s riding that tsunami, he’s on the surfboard, there’s a huge wave behind him, and he’s taking it in stride. I think that’s where he is right now,” Ragonese said.

Phaup called Ierlan the best faceoff specialist of all time and said he appreciated that the volunteer assistant is from the same generation and can relate to the new faceoff rules. Though most of Ierlan’s prolific collegiate career at Yale was when faceoffs were still taken from the “knee-down” position, he experienced the “standing neutral” grip faceoffs when he transferred to Denver in 2021.

“Unless you’re actively taking faceoffs, like TD, you don’t have either the authority or the wherewithal or the understanding to help a player that’s on the field today,” Ragonese said, explaining that a coach who took faceoffs two decades ago wouldn’t be as helpful because of the rule changes.

Ierlan plays professionally now, but he said that working with a player as talented as Phaup makes it easy for him to have “peace of mind” and balance both his playing and coaching careers. Ierlan’s presence itself is also beneficial for Phaup and Syracuse, Ragonese said.

Most collegiate programs don’t even have a designated faceoff coach, so having someone is “100 times better,” Ragonese added.

Ierlan said a lot of people over-coach the faceoff position. He helps with the positioning of SU’s wings and opposing ones, as well as pointing out good exit spots, Gurenlian said. Phaup and Ierlan watch film before and after games. Sometimes they go one on one. But for the most part, Ierlan places “all

All of the Orange’s upcoming opponents were also ranked in the week 1 poll. Syracuse travels to Redwood City, California, for its season opener against No. 2 Washington, No. 8 Stanford and No. 18 Oregon State this weekend. SU finished fourth overall in last year’s IRA championship — the first IRA Regatta held since 2019 — and all its boats finished in the top 10, too. A lot of the

Orange’s competitors were unable to compete last year due to the pandemic, though.

The varsity eight will be joined in California by the second varsity eight, which is currently ranked at No. 8 in the IRA coaches 2V8 Poll. The third varsity eight, which performed well in a scrimmage against Colgate this past week, is also ranked at No. 8 in the 3V8+ poll.

Following this weekend’s races, Syracuse travels to Annapolis, Maryland, to compete against Cornell and Navy in the Goes Trophy event. The Orange also have events scheduled in Vermont and Massachusetts before traveling to West Windsor, New Jersey, for the IRA Championship in June.

him to see extra defenders even if he was just playing against two of his brothers. And when their mother Deloris called them inside for dinner, Thompson always wanted to stay outside.

Even after meals, Thompson went back outside as if he “had friends out there,” Jeremy said.

Rather than lacrosse just being a game played for pleasure, Thompson embraced the game’s healing nature, which is what the creators intended it to be in the first place, Jeremy said.

“Being a Native American at birth, you’re basically born with a stick, you represent it and then you play until you can’t play anymore,” Syracuse defender Jerry Staats said.

Staats played with Thompson and his brothers at the 2018 World Lacrosse Championship, where they represented the Iroquois Nationals. Thompson and his brothers were the first of a growing list of Indigenous idols Staats began to admire as he grew up on the Six Nations reservation in Ontario.

As Thompson helped lead the Iroquois Nationals to its second consecutive bronze medal, it became clear to Staats why Thompson and his brothers are among the most looked up to Indigenous lacrosse players.

“He really plays lacrosse with a deep passion and he understands that lacrosse was used for him to pursue his dreams,” Staats said. “And I can kind of relate to that because that’s the way that I’m using lacrosse as well.”

Thompson was also unstoppable when he played for the Road Warriors, Burnam’s summer team. Burnam, who was coaching in North Carolina at the time, invited many

Indigenous players to play with the team that summer, and almost all of them came from reservations in New York like Onondaga. He quickly realized that Thompson and his brother Miles had immense potential.

“There was no doubt in my mind that they were going to be stars when they went to college,” Burnam said.

those conversations the following spring at the Haudenosaunee Promise tournament.

Jerome and Marr spent close to an hour talking before heading to the Thompsons’ house to talk until midnight.

The two eventually became the only UAlbany players to win the Tewaaraton Trophy.

In 2014, Thompson and Miles became the award’s first-ever co-recipients.

Years later, having played professionally in every major North American league, Thompson has been able to influence not just Indigenous players, but the game’s next generation, Burnam said. He’s done so through his unique backhand shot and a strong social media presence.

Thompson has become an advocate for Indigenous rights in particular, Marr said.

In 2016, Marr, Thompson’s wife Amanda, and then-National Lacrosse League defender Bill O’Brien drove to the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota for the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. Thompson organized a lacrosse game and spoke in front of roughly 500 people about the sport’s importance in his life and its general influence on the Indigenous population.

“He’s not just somebody that throws a ball around,” Marr said. “He’s always trying to impress on people what the game really means to the Iroquois nation and to the people around the world what it should really mean. That it’s not just a game but it’s just a way of life.”

the trust in the world” in the former AllAmerican to do the rest — like make in-game adjustments — himself. Phaup clarified that he still uses aspects from what Gurenlian, Ragonese and Ierlan have taught him and puts it all together.

“I’m just in here if you need some advice or a sounding board,” Ierlan said of his mindset. “It’s not like I’m out here actively changing what he does. All the success (Phaup) gets because of (Phaup).”

Last year, Phaup texted SU defensive coordinator Lelan Rogers at one point that he was “pretty lost.” The message came after the Notre Dame game, when Phaup went 1-of-8 and got benched early on. This summer, he worked on getting more comfortable with the standing neutral grip position.

“Once you do something enough, it becomes like riding a bike,” Phaup said in February. “I can’t even do knee-down anymore, I’m sure.”

Phaup took live reps on Wednesday mornings last summer against top collegiate faceoff specialists including Mike Sisselberger (Lehigh), Nicholas Ramsey (Yale), Jamie Zusi (Penn), Luke Talago (Jacksonville) and Tyler Sandoval (Princeton). One session was equal to two full seasons of repetitions, Ragonese said.

“He was able to get a master’s course (with) the best guys in the country every single week,” Ragonese said. “He’s like ‘OK, if I see this, I’m going to make this adjustment.’”

That helped Phaup gain confidence in the “standing neutral” grip position. He had a better understanding of how he matched up against certain individuals, a big reason why he struggled for chunks of last season.

Now, Phaup is more comfortable in his own abilities. What he’s doing in the first quarter is rarely the same thing he’s doing in the fourth because he’s got the confidence to make ingame adjustments, Ragonese said.

He’s better at recognizing when he isn’t winning the initial clamp and when he needs to switch to one of many counter moves, Gurenlian

He really plays lacrosse with a deep passion, and he understands that lacrosse was used for him to pursue his dreams Jerry Staats syracuse defender

But Burnam said Syracuse’s John Desko didn’t think Thompson could replicate what he did in high school. Instead, it was Marr who pounced on Thompson. In fall 2009, Marr went to the Turkey Shoot tournament, where he saw Thompson and his brother play while they were being coached by their father, Jerome. Marr talked to Jerome about recruiting the kids, and they continued

nsaugust@syr.edu

cirinoalex19@gmail.com @alexcirino19

JAKOB PHAUP has won 130 of 224 faceoffs this season, a 58% success rate, marking an improvement from his 2021 win percentage. anshul roy staff photographer

said. “If you are willing to make those adjustments in-game, you can really destroy your opponent,” Ragonese said. “And that’s where (Phaup) is doing a really good job this year.”

Phaup said he feels more comfortable with the true plunger, a counter move that requires precise timing. He worked on that “nonstop” this summer, Ragonese said, when Phaup learned to use the motion of turning a doorknob and then stabbing the side of the ball instead of rolling his wrist, Gurenlian said. Once he understood that, there was a “drastic improvement.”

Phaup correlates success on faceoffs with what he calls “flowing.” Some days he gets the initial clamp, some days he doesn’t, but it’s about mentally being able to adjust on the fly and “flush things out.” The biggest thing Ierlan has taught him relates to the mental side of the game and having a clear mind to stay focused, Phaup said.

Phaup’s background is in wrestling, and

he’s not going to try to overpower an opponent.

Instead, he earns the ball back with counter moves, “by playing chess versus checkers,” Ragonese said. Ierlan said Phaup is better than he was at counters.

“It’s a little bit easier to coach someone that’s better at that than I am. So he’s more efficient where I was deficient,” Ierlan said.

Last season was filled with “valleys and peaks” for Phaup, Ragonese said. He’s still had a few “valleys” this year, like the Virginia game where Petey LaSalla finally got the better of him. But for the most part, Ierlan said giving some leeway to a player like Phaup has helped him settle in.

“I just think mentally, he’s in a great spot,” Ierlan said. “I told him, I was like, ‘It’s your ship, we’re going to give it to you and you’re good to go.’” rferna04@syr.edu @roshan_f16

10 april 7, 2022

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high school sports

Jamesville-DeWitt lacrosse looks for 5th sectional title

By Tim Skeval

contributing writer

After winning its fourth consecutive New York State Public High School Athletic Association sectional championship, JamesvilleDeWitt’s season came to an end. Its state title hopes looked promising, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, the state lacrosse tournament was canceled for the second straight year.

The Red Rams haven’t won a NYSPHSAA title in five years, disrupting a steady run as they’ve been to 10 title games since 1986, winning five.

After going 16-2 in 2021, JamesvilleDeWitt’s roster will look very different as it approaches the 2022 season. The Red Rams graduated 12 seniors, with a vast majority currently on collegiate rosters, aiming for their fifth-straight sectional title with an underclassman-heavy roster, one game into the season.

The team is coached by Jamie Archer, who had been at the helm since 2006, where he

has led Jamesville-DeWitt to four state titles.

Archer, a former All-American and National Champion at Syracuse University, said the team will be led mainly by its junior and sophomore classes. The Red Rams only have nine seniors, five of whom were not on the team in 2021.

With all the roster turnover, junior attack Gannon Kessler, a Boston University commit, said that the Red Rams’ athleticism is the strongest it’s ever been.

“We added a lot of athletes to our defense,” Kessler said. “We’ve used spring ball and practice as a way to make sure we’re not just individually good, but able to succeed as a team on the field.”

The Red Rams opened the season on Tuesday against Syracuse City High School.

Sophomore Sam Brazell led the team with seven points, recording six goals and an assist in a 12-4 victory for Jamesville-DeWitt. For Brazell, continuing the JD legacy is something that will remain on his mind this season despite all the personnel changes.

“JD lacrosse is at the top of talks every year,

and that’s credit to the coaches and players who came before us. It’s on us to add another sectional and state championship to our trophy case,” Brazell said.

As the season continues, important matchups are just around the corner. These include home games against West Genesee on April 16 and Victor on April 21, along with road games at Fayetteville-Manlius and East Syracuse Minoa the week of April 25. “(Fayetteville-Manlius) and West Genny are two of our biggest rivals and we always seem to match up against them come playoff time,” senior midfielder Matt Keeler said. “Our biggest game this year though is Victor. They’ve dominated New York lacrosse for years and we seem to never be able to get past them.”

Each year, the Red Rams regularly send players to compete at the next level, the most well known being Jordan Evans, who played for the Red Rams from 2010-13 when he was the top rated midfielder and the No. 1 overall prospect in the nation his senior year.

Junior goalie Ian McIntyre, a Florida

Southern College commit, said that Jamesville-DeWitt’s season-long expectations have lowered because of the roster transformation.

But everytime he enters the athletic foyer, he notices two specific banners in the rafters.

Both display the program’s two undefeated seasons and back-to-back New York Class B state championships in 2010 and 2011.

“This year especially, with people counting us out, it would be extra special to be hoisting a trophy at the end of the year, and have our names sitting up next to the greats,” McIntyre said.

Senior defenseman Ben Schellinger said this season is all about “proving them wrong” since not much is expected from this year’s transformed Red Rams team. The Red Rams have another week until their next game, when they host Auburn High School. The Rams have outscored the Maroon 77-29 over their past five matchups.

“Expectations are always the same,” Archer said. “Use what we learn in practice and let it translate to the field.” tbskeval@syr.edu

high school sports

Seamus Powell’s bond with brother will continue at BC

By Charlie Fellows

contributing writer

Prior to a game against Mount St. Charles, one of the best under-14 hockey teams in the country, head coach Chris Collins’ Rochester Selects squad was lacking personnel, he said. Many of his players had chosen to suit up for their respective high school hockey teams instead, and Collins was left with a short bench.

Anchoring his three-man defensive unit was Seamus Powell, who finished the game with roughly 45 minutes of ice time, according to Collins, helping the team to a 6-4 win. And while Powell was in his final year with the team before aging up to the USA Hockey National Team Development Program (NTDP), the win proved to Collins how committed Powell was to his hockey team.

“It was one of the best wins I’ve had as a coach,” Collins said. “And I did it with Seamus Powell really leading the way.”

Powell would go on to play his next two seasons at the under-17 and 18 NTDP levels,

following the footsteps of his brother Eamon, who is two years older. Eamon also spent time with Rochester as well as Powell’s prior team, the Syracuse Nationals. The brothers have shared the same journey, with youth hockey age limit rules ensuring that as soon as Eamon left for the next age group, Powell would immediately take his place.

Though Powell and Eamon shared the same hockey path, they frequently competed off the ice. At their home in Marcellus, New York, the Powell brothers went against each other in a variety of sports including basketball and baseball, Eamon said, with the two never wanting to admit defeat.

In less than a year, however, Powell and Eamon’s hockey journeys will finally converge, as they are set to become teammates for the first time along the blue line for Boston College next season, a team Eamon has played for during the last two years. Powell will do so after over a hundred games at the NTDP level and various years of Tier I hockey between clubs in Syracuse and Rochester.

Most of those teams posted winning records, but next year, Powell will join his brother on the defensive unit for a Boston College squad that has qualified for the NCAA Tournament just once in the last four years. Collins said he thinks Powell — a 6-foot tall defenseman — is ready to tackle that next level.

“Seamus is a big strong kid. He’s a great skater.

He makes skating look effortless, and I think he’s going to … be a big presence on the back end, great skater (and) good puck mover,” Collins said. “He’s going to solidify the back end there.”

The decision was unilaterally welcomed, as Powell held the program and its winning history in high esteem. He is particularly looking forward to playing under coach Jerry York, he said. Eamon, of course, was also excited.

“I’ve been watching him play hockey since he was really young, so to finally get the chance to possibly play with him … I think that’ll be really cool,” Eamon said.

Despite his freshman status, Powell is no stranger to making an impact in wins. In a fourgame trip to Switzerland this past November

with the NTDP, Powell helped spur the USA U18 National Team Development Program to a perfect sweep over European squads from Sweden, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Finland. Powell, a left-handed defenseman, was a part of a blue line unit that surrendered just five goals during the dominant tour, headlined by a shutout in a 7-0 win over Switzerland.

“It was pretty special for me,” Powell said about the tournament. “That had to be the No. 1 (experience) right there.”

Boston College boasts an illustrious program history, featuring five national titles, including one as recent as 2012. Despite that, Powell remains pragmatic, insisting that he will continue to take things day by day and survey his prospects when the time is right.

Through it all, though, he will have Eamon playing alongside him.

“It’s special,” Powell said. “But you know, it’s just like another guy on the team … but coming from the same family. We all have the same goal: to win a national championship.” cnfellow@syr.edu

men’s lacrosse

Opponent preview: Everything to know about unranked UAlbany

By Roshan Fernandez senior staff writer

Unranked Syracuse will look to get back to .500 on the season when it faces UAlbany, which’ll most likely be the Orange’s final unranked opponent of the season.

From there, Syracuse has four games against ranked opponents to close out the regular season. Syracuse and Albany have played in the Carrier Dome every year since the series began in 2004 (with the exception of 2020, when the season was canceled due to COVID-19), but this will be the first time in the series’ history that SU goes on the road to play at the Great Danes.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Great Danes before Syracuse (4-5, 1-2 ACC) travels to Albany (3-5, 2-1 America East):

All-time series

Syracuse leads the all-time series 17-2.

Last time they played

In 2021, Syracuse won 13-8 behind hat tricks from Brendan Curry and Chase Scanlan.

Stephen Rehfuss added another two goals and two assists.

UAlbany stayed within one goal of the Orange, but SU used a 4-0 run right before

halftime to establish a comfortable grip on the game. Syracuse has won seven of the last eight contests against the Great Danes, with the only loss coming in a 15-3 defeat in 2018.

The UAlbany report

The Great Danes’ rank 62nd in the nation (out of 73 Division I teams) in overall efficiency, according to Lacrosse Reference. Syracuse isn’t much better — sitting at 53rd — but most of the Orange’s problems lie in their defense.

Albany, on the other hand, has an offensive efficiency of 27.4% (51st in DI) and a defensive efficiency of 34.1% (61st in DI), making it more balanced in its feats, per Lacrosse Reference.

The Great Danes sit below .500 this season, which includes an eight-goal loss to No. 6 Cornell and an 18-goal one to No. 1 Maryland.

They don’t boast a particularly impressive offense — unlike years past when they had star attackman Tehoka Nanticoke — or a particularly impressive defense either.

In conference play, Albany lost by eight goals to Binghamton, but beat Stony Brook by two and UMass Lowell by one. Syracuse also played Stony Brook this season, a game where neither team led by more than a goal in the first half. But SU pulled away with an 8-0 run in the second to secure a 14-10 win.

How Syracuse beats the Great Danes

Syracuse clearly has the offensive talent, via the likes of Tucker Dordevic and Curry, to take care of business at Albany. It clearly has the defensive skill to contain Albany’s balanced offense that includes Graydon Hogg (20 points), Camden Hay (19 points), Corey Yunker (17 points) and Amos Whitcomb (16 points).

The Orange just need to avoid a repeat of what happened last week in South Bend, when they had what head coach Gary Gait referred to as an all-around “off day.” Sitting at under .500 with a difficult schedule left, SU can’t afford that.

In that 16-goal loss, the Orange didn’t take care of the ball, didn’t generate much of anything on offense and couldn’t contain Notre Dame on defense. Syracuse shouldn’t need anything particularly special to beat Albany, but it’ll need to play much more fundamental lacrosse than it did a week ago. Limiting mistakes and errors in this game — like turnovers and penalties — and cashing in on open offensive looks will be key.

Stat to know: 70th in turnover rate

Albany ranks 70th in Division I in turnover rate with a clip of 44.7%, according to Lacrosse Reference. That means almost half of the Great Danes’ possessions result in turnovers, a clip that’s the fourth-worst in DI.

Even in its three wins this season, Albany’s turnover rate has been 47.1%, compared to 48.9% in its five losses.

Syracuse struggled to take care of the ball in its last game against Notre Dame, with a season-high 45% of possessions ending in turnovers. If the Orange can do a better job taking care of the ball on their end and forcing a turnover-prone Albany team into mistakes, they should be able to take care of business.

Player to watch: Graydon Hogg, No. 45, attack/midfield

Albany has a pretty balanced attack that features multiple different threats, but Hogg is probably the biggest standout for the Great Danes. The junior leads Albany with 20 points this season on 12 goals and eight assists.

Hogg started 10 of 12 games last season, notching the most goals on the team (29) and the third-most points (38). He had three goals and an assist in the team’s America East Tournament semifinal win over UMBC, in addition to a crucial defensive play on the ride that helped set up the game-winning goal for his teammate. rferna04@syr.edu @roshan_f16

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april 7, 2022 11

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SPORTS

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PAG E 12

april 7, 2022

men’s basketball

Starling’s path to top prospect

By Tyler Schiff staff writer

LYLE THOMPSON is the only UAlbany player to take home multiple Tewaaraton Awards. He and his brother Miles became the only co-recipients of the award in 2014. daily orange file photo

‘A WAY OF LIFE’ Lyle Thompson grew up on the Onondaga Nation reservation and has inspired future Indigenous players

By Alex Cirino

asst. sports editor

S

cott Marr first saw Lyle Thompson take his signature no-look, backhand shot during a UAlbany practice, but he didn’t think it would evolve into much more. He had seen people take a similar shot, but purely by accident, whereas Thompson turned it into an accurate attempt.

Whenever Thompson ran around the left side of the net, he wouldn’t switch hands, instead sending the unorthodox strike toward the net.

“He kind of just talked about it like, ‘Why am I switching to my left hand when I can just keep it in my right hand and reach out and shoot it this way?’”

Marr, UAlbany’s head coach, said.

It was a shot that Thompson turned into his own, and one that his former coach Mark Burnam said revolutionized the game, similar to Gary Gait’s ‘Air Gait’ shot from the 1980s.

Thompson, who grew up on the Onondaga Nation Reservation, has used shots like those to take his game to the professional stage while also becoming see thompson page 9

men’s lacrosse

Jakob Phaup, TD Ierlan merge with faceoffs

By Roshan Fernandez senior staff writer

Syracuse faceoff specialist Jakob Phaup has the NCAA’s all-time faceoff leader as his coach this season. TD Ierlan is a volunteer assistant on SU’s coaching staff and the record holder for every collegiate single season and career record for faceoffs and ground balls.

Only, the two have slightly differing styles.

Ierlan is a “clamp guy” and was successful during his college career because he used technique

and quick hands to win the initial clamp, said Greg Gurenlian and Jerry Ragonese, two of the founders of The Faceoff Academy.

Ierlan called Phaup a “clamp guy” too, but that isn’t his best attribute. Instead, the fifth-year player specializes in a more “roughand-tumble” faceoff style which relies on counter moves to lift the opponents’ stick and get the ball out after they’ve won the clamp, said Gurenlian and Ragonese, his coaches at The Faceoff Academy.

The first day Ierlan came to SU, Phaup told his new coach that

he wanted to stick with the same faceoff philosophy of primarily countering, Gurenlian said. Ierlan didn’t force a change. “(Ierlan has) let Jake be who Jake was before (Ierlan) got there, which is really important,” Gurenlian said.

“Jake was already an All-American, so why tinker with that?”

After leading the Atlantic Coast Conference in faceoff-win percentage in 2019, Phaup became an AllAmerican in 2020, though Syracuse played just five games. But the NCAA’s new rule shifted faceoffs from the “knee-down” position to

the “standing neutral grip.” The change was the equivalent of forcing an All-American basketball player who shoots right-handed to switch hands, Gurenlian said.

It was a difficult adjustment for all faceoff specialists, and for Phaup, it resulted in his worst season (56.7% faceoff win percentage).

Now, Phaup has had the offseason to continue adjusting to the new rules. The results are showing — though his win-percentage has only slightly improved (.588) from last year, he’s been far more see faceoffs page 9

Jim Hart arrived at the Green Tech High School gym amid a packed crowd. The Albany City Rocks founder had arrived with a few friends and promised them that they would be in for a treat — specifically, J.J. Starling, a sophomore from Baldwinsville’s Baker High School.

Roughly 40 seconds into the game, Baker drew up an inbounds play for a 3-pointer. Starling, positioned on the right side of the freethrow line, curled left around the perimeter before catching a pass in the corner and draining the shot.

After forcing a turnover, Starling returned to the same spot, and this time patiently waited for a pin-down screen before sprinting to the top of the perimeter and firing his second 3-pointer with no hesitation.

“He just rose up over the kid and splashed,” Hart said. “I was like, ‘Wow. That was an NBA-level shot.’”

Starling finished with 37 points, including 10 3-pointers in Baldwinsville’s 86-72 win. And after averaging 29 points that season, Starling transferred to La Lumiere in La Porte, Indiana, to round out his high school career. In his senior year, Starling averaged almost 18 points a game and shot nearly 50% from the field. Now, the Baldwinsville native is ESPN’s No. 17 ranked player in the 2022 graduating class, committed to play at Notre Dame — a school he chose over Syracuse, Duke and others — next season.

La Lumiere head coach Patrick Holmes morphed Starling into one of the best combo guards in the country by pitting him against some of the nation’s top talent, Hart said.

“He wanted to learn how to play with other great players, and that’s the opportunity he had,” said ESPN broadcaster Ted Emrich. “A highlevel player goes to a school like La Lumiere late in their high school career because they use it as an onramp to college.”

Starling improved throughout his time at La Lumiere and upped his stock by jumping from a four- to fivestar recruit during his senior season.

He dominated in the National Interscholastic Basketball Conference, which features some of the best high school teams in the country. Emrich said Starling’s impressive final season proved he’s one of the best scorers and overall playmakers in high school basketball.

“Everyone sees the highlights and stuff, but no one sees what he does behind closed doors,” said City Rocks teammate Julian Brown. “When he transferred to La Lumiere, he was already a good player. He just needed that extra exposure.”

As a senior, Starling got frustrated every time he lost at a drill in practice, Emrich said. Starling’s see starling page 8