April 8, 2021

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C • Historical resonance

N • Campaign annouced

S • Receiving recognition

An SU graduate student wants to improve how atrocities and genocide are taught in school, with special attention to the significance of music and music performance.

Page 7

David Bruen and Darnelle Stinfort have launched their campaign for Student Association’s next president and vice president without opponents.

Page 3

Stephen Rehfuss didn’t receive national attention until this year.

Now, the attack leads SU in points and is finally getting the credit he deserves.

Page 12

Calls for change after police kill Judson Albahm

After Judson Albahm’s death in early March, Rebirth SYR pledged to march for 40 days to honor him and continue to seek justice. Albahm was killed by police officers in Jamesville.

lucy messineo-witt asst. photo editor

Activists and experts say Albahm’s death was the result of failures by the police officers who responded to his mental health crisis

By Maggie Hicks asst. news editor

T

he Syracuse community watched Judson Albahm grow up.

His father owned several shops in the city, and residents knew him through his childhood and into his teenage years, said Hasahn Bloodworth, the founder of Rebirth SYR, a local activist group.

Police officers from multiple agencies shot and killed Albahm, who was having a mental health crisis, after he allegedly pulled out a fake gun. He was 17 years old.

“This could’ve been my son going through one of his episodes,” said Bloodworth, whose son has autism. “I just went about it like it was my own, and we have to take care of our own.” see mental

After Albahm’s death in early March, Rebirth SYR pledged to march for 40 days to honor him and continue to seek justice. Activists and experts said police departments across the country need to improve their responses to people experiencing mental health crises and allocate more funding for support resources.

Renee Binder, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco and the founder of UCSF’s Psychiatry and the Law Program, said police need to be able to recognize when a person is experiencing a mental health crisis. People in crisis aren’t necessarily trying to resist arrest or threaten those around them, she said.

Binder recommended police officers receive crisis intervention training so officers can learn how to de-escalate situations and better understand what a person might be going through.

“Police can trigger a lot of reactions in people, especially people who have had negative interactions with police,” Binder said. Officers need to recognize

health page 4

coronavirus

How the Johnson and Johnson vaccine compares to others

By Maggie Hicks asst. news editor

Syracuse University administered its first doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to students on Wednesday.

SU received an initial allotment of 1,600 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine from New York state and Onondaga County. New York opened vaccine eligibility for all residents 16 years old and older on Tuesday.

Students can sign up to receive a vaccine at the Barnes Center at The Arch online though SU’s patient portal.

As students begin scheduling their first vaccines, here is a breakdown of what the Johnson & Johnson vaccine looks like and how it differs from other vaccines:

What is the Johnson Johnson vaccine?

&

The Food and Drug Administra-

tion authorized the emergency use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for individuals 18 years old and older.

Like the other COVID-19 vaccines, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has not been approved using the FDA’s regular standards. The administration decided to authorize the vaccine for emergency use during the pandemic due to the fact that the benefits outweigh potential

risks from receiving the vaccine.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses a replication of adenovirus, a common virus that often causes respiratory infections. The adenovirus used in the vaccine is modified to produce a portion of the COVID-19 virus, so the body can develop an immune response. But the virus cannot multiply, so it does not cause infection.

People should not receive the

Johnson & Johnson vaccine if they are severely allergic to any of the ingredients in the vaccine, which include citric acid, monohydrate, ethanol and sodium chloride, among others.

How does the Johnson & Johnson vaccine compare to other vaccines?

Unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are common in the U.S.

see vaccine page 4

2 april 8, 2021

about

INSIDE

The best quotes from sources in today’s paper.

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“We are proposing a lot of big things, but that comes with the recognition that we are not going to be able to achieve those things.” - SA presidential candidate David Bruen Page 3

OPINION “Upholding a health care system that denies the marginalized essential resources is not only counterintuitive economically; it is also morally reprehensible.” - guest columnist James Appleton Page 5

CULTURE “If we can accept a fictional world where rabbits can get along with foxes, I see no reason why we can’t live in a world where all races live in harmony.”

— Alvin Huang, MFA graduate student Page 7

SPORTS “We always have known how good he is. It’s just him getting the touches, and now he’s finally getting the touches that he deserves.” - Former SU player Willie Klan on Stephen Rehfuss 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.

corrections policy

COMING UP

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

Noteworthy events this week.

WHAT: AAPI Heritage Month: Mr. Asia 2021 WHEN: Friday, 8-9 p.m.

WHERE: Virtual

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WHAT: Orange After Dark screening: “The Turning” WHEN: Friday, 8-10 p.m.

The D.O. is published weekdays during the Syracuse University academic year by The Daily Orange Corp., 230 Euclid Ave., Syracuse, NY 13210. All contents Copyright 2021 by The Daily Orange Corp. and may not be reprinted without the expressed written permission of the editor-in-chief. The Daily Orange is in no way a subsidy or associated with Syracuse University. All contents © 2021 The Daily Orange Corporation

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NEWS

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PAG E 3

april 8, 2021

student association

state

David Bruen, Darnelle Stinfort launch campaign NY to expand tax credit for insurance

By Richard Perrins asst. copy editor

STINFORT (LEFT) AND BRUEN said their goal is to get students talking about important issues in the hopes that those conversations will spark change on campus. courtesy of david bruen

By Sarah Alessandrini asst. news editor

David Bruen and Darnelle Stinfort are this year’s only candidates for Student Association president and vice president.

We really wanna tackle the tuition problem David Bruen candidate for sa president

The deadline for submitting a campaign passed Wednesday. Voting will be open on MySlice for a week starting April 26, after SA voted at Monday’s Assembly meeting to move the election back two weeks.

Bruen and Stinfort are proposing a fixed tuition program that would guarantee students only pay the tuition rate that was set when they

started at SU for their four years.

SU raised tuition by 3% for undergraduate students for the 2021-22 academic year, which Bruen said is unacceptable.

“We really wanna tackle the tuition problem,” Bruen said.

The pair hopes to tackle problems of financial accessibility at SU, with proposals to implement a tuition-freeze program and free laundry services on campus.

They said their ultimate goal is to start conversations that will lead to lasting change.

“In past years, SA candidates have talked about a few ideas, and that’s it. But they’re not necessarily tying that in with a longer-term vision,” Bruen said. “We’re proposing a pretty bold answer to a lot of the concerns and questions that students have raised.”

The pair’s campaign platform focuses on four main points: financial accessibility, health and safety, academic advancements and community inclusivity.

“We chose those specifically because we felt like there are a lot of problems on campus, and it seemed when we grouped our policies or our ideas that we had together at the time, they fit into those categories the best,” said Stinfort, a junior biotechnology major.

Stinfort said that she and Bruen are planning to create policies that will better prioritize students’ mental health and raise awareness for sexual assault on campus.

They also want to work to increase transparency in the Department of Public Safety and help students feel safe on campus.

The candidates said their ultimate goal is not necessarily to see policies through, but rather to get students talking about important issues in the hopes that those conversations will spark future change.

“We are proposing a lot of things, and a lot of big things, but that comes with the humility and the recognition that we are not going to be able to achieve those

things,” Bruen said.

Bruen, a sophomore studying political science and policy studies, currently serves as SA’s speaker of assembly. Last year, he chaired SA’s Board of Elections and Membership and oversaw the presidential elections.

While Stinfort does not currently hold a position on SA, she said she’s passionate about improving the student experience at SU and hopes, along with Bruen, to increase SA’s engagement with the student body.

“In our case with our platform, we have all these ideas, but we want the students to tell us what ideas are important to them, to prioritize and hopefully make a reality,” Stinfort said.

As president, Bruen said he hopes that the student body will be able to recognize the importance of SA and the impact it has on their lives as students.

“We are trying to make SA a more engaging, more established,

see candidates page 4

on campus

Forum covers reporting on domestic violence

By Kailey Norusis asst. digital editor

Award-winning journalist Natasha Senjanovic explained her process for reporting on stories of sexual assault and domestic violence during the pandemic at a virtual event Wednesday.

The “Surging in Silence: Domestic and Sexual Violence in the Pandemic” event was hosted by the Magazine, News and Digital Journalism department at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.

In October 2020, Senjanovic began work on the project Surging in Silence, a series of articles covering stories of domestic abuse in Tennessee, which she said increased during pandemic stay-athome orders.

“The underlying foundation is that the pandemic is sort of tailor-

made for extreme domestic violence because unemployment, high stress and social isolation leads to the most extreme abuse,” Senjanovic said. “Violent people get more violent in moments of stress.”

Senjanovic began pitching stories about sexual and domestic violence after speaking with people who work with abuse survivors and those still experiencing domestic abuse. Telling the stories of survivors is necessary, she said.

Through conversations with Memphis and Nashville district attorneys, she learned that domestic violence makes up half of all violent crimes in both cities. She has also found in her reporting that other crimes are often traced back to domestic violence.

“Almost all roads of criminal justice lead to domestic violence,” she said. “The vast majority of

incarcerated Americans experienced or witnessed it as children.”

Exploring the background of the abuser can be valuable when reporting on domestic abuse, Senjanovic said.

Substance use disorder is an issue that often leads to domestic violence, which is sometimes overlooked, Senjanovic said. Though substance use disorder may not be the root of the issue, it can cause people to fall back into the same patterns of abuse, she said.

“You’re talking about traumatized people who are inflicting trauma on other people,” Senjanovic said. “We want to hear these traumatized stories, but we don’t necessarily put them in a greater context.”

The only way to break the cycle of abuse is to get to the emotional, psychological and physical causes of the abuse, Senjanovic said.

“If we keep thinking of them as monsters, what are we really understanding of those crimes?”

Senjanovic said.

While Senjanovic believes telling survivors’ stories is important and necessary, she tries to avoid including meaningless trauma in her reporting.

The public often wants to hear traumatizing stories but fails to see them in greater context, she said.

But to present the full complexities of sexual assault and domestic violence, reporters need to shift the narrative to look at the issue in greater depth, she said.

“Only in the last few years have people really begun speaking about intimate partner violence, which is one of the biggest problems, and very few jurisdictions break that down,” Senjanovic said. kmnorusi@syr.edu @KNorusis

More New York residents will be eligible for financial assistance and lower health insurance premiums as part of a federal stimulus package, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in late March.

Residents will have access to expanded tax credits through New York’s health plan marketplace, NY State of Health, Cuomo announced in a press release. The credits and reduced premiums are a product of the American Rescue Plan, which President Joe Biden signed into law on March 11.

Biden first announced the plan to combat widespread economic insecurity as a result of the pandemic. In addition to the expansion of tax credits, the plan covers a wide variety of other measures, such as stimulus payments to individual citizens and financial support for colleges and universities.

Here’s a breakdown of how the American Rescue Plan will impact health insurance in New York state:

Tax credits

Beginning early April, increased federal tax credits, which reduce the amount individuals are required to pay in federal tax, will be available for low- and moderate-income consumers. Individuals with an annual income up to about $51,000 per year and families of four with an income up to around $105,000 will be eligible for lower costs on qualified health plans.

Access to high-quality affordable health insurance is crucial Andrew Cuomo new york governor

People at these income levels already using NY State of Health will have to update their information through the organization. NY State of Health will update its system to automatically apply the enhanced tax credits for eligible consumers and make higher-income individuals eligible by June.

Donna Frescatore, NY State of Health executive director, said in the release that the organization was working to get enhanced tax credits to New York residents “as quickly and seamlessly as possible” to respond to the economic burden of the pandemic.

Extension of the enrollment period

open

NY State of Health will extend the open enrollment period for residents, meaning that consumers will now have until Dec. 31 to enroll in health coverage.

On Feb. 17, Cuomo announced that the state would extend the open enrollment period to May 15. The original extension was in response to Biden’s Feb. 15 executive order to allow more time for U.S. residents see assistance page 4

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4 april 8, 2021

from page 1

mental health that a person may be agitated and unresponsive because they are experiencing delusions — not because they’re resisting arrest, she said.

The Syracuse Common Council recently passed the Syracuse Reform and Reinvention Plan, which outlines steps to reform the Syracuse Police Department’s hiring process, response and community outreach, among other changes.

As part of the plan, SPD will expand its existing crisis intervention training plan to include 25% of the force and train all new cadets. The mayor’s office also said it was willing to redirect resources towards departments that are better equipped than police to handle some situations.

Approximately 12% of the Onondaga Sheriff’s Office patrol deputies are trained and certified as crisis intervention officers, said Sgt. Jon Seeber, public information officer for the sheriff’s office. The department anticipates that 15 deputies will attend training and become certified next month as members of the department’s Crisis Intervention Team, he said.

Some cases should not include a police response at all, Binder said. Some police departments across the country have a system that determines if police are needed. If not, a team of trained mental health professionals responds instead.

Prior to Albahm’s death, his mother called psychiatric workers to help her son at their Jamesville residence. Albahm then left his home, so his mother called 911 for additional help.

When police officers arrived at the scene, St. Joseph’s Comprehensive Psychiatric Mobile Crisis Outreach Team was already there. Dispatchers had warned officers that Judson had a history of mental illness. Although the exact timeline is unclear, four officers eventually fired at Albahm after he allegedly pointed a replica handgun at them.

“When you’re responding to a mental health call, you want to be avoiding hospitalization, avoiding arrest and avoiding someone getting hurt,” said Brandon Hollie, a doctoral student in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Syracuse University.

Hollie is also the regional program director for short-term crisis respite programs with Liberty Resources, a nonprofit behavioral health and social service agency. The person responding to a mental health call should be able to calm the person down without using force, he said.

The way a person speaks to someone experiencing a mental health crisis is often one of the most important parts of de-escalation, Hollie said. Responders should use a calm, soothing voice, but police officers often use firm, threatening language instead, he said.

The Common Council’s plan also elaborates on alternatives to policing models that the city is looking into, focusing on models for from page 1

vaccine and require two doses, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine only requires one dose.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use genetic material that contains the code for portions of the COVID-19 virus protein. When the material is injected into a person’s body, their cells make pieces of viral particles, allowing them to develop immunity to the virus.

The Pfizer vaccine has been authorized for people 16 years old and older, while Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are only available for individuals 18 and older. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine will not be available for younger people until it is further tested on children and teens.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is 66% protective against moderate to severe COVID-19 infections, compared to the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, which are both about 90% effective.

Comparing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the others is not entirely accurate. During trials, Moderna and Pfizer tested for any from page 3

assistance

to enroll in health insurance and reopen enrollment under the Affordable Care Act, an Obama-era piece of legislation that expanded healthcare eligibility back in 2010.

Individuals eligible for other NY State of Health plans, such as Medicaid, Essential Plan

Local activists and experts said that police departments across the country need to improve their responses to people experiencing mental health crises. lucy messineo-witt asst. photo editor

911 response.

But Hollie and Binder said preventing tragedies such as Albahm’s death should begin before the police are called.

Cities should reallocate and increase funding for mental health resources so people with mental health issues can get the help they need, Binder said.

Hollie suggested implementing a 24-hour mobile crisis team so people will always have access to mental health care, especially if it is difficult for them to go to a therapist’s office.

He also said more funding should go toward increasing funds for culturally competent therapists and more mental health professionals in marginalized communities.

“The solution is way before they ever have contact with police,” Binder said. “That’s in getting people treatment, getting them on their

medication, getting family involved, having coordination with mental health services that include mental health treatment, substance abuse treatment, housing, food, relationships.”

Bloodworth and Kayla Johnson, another member of Rebirth SYR, said many police officers in Syracuse don’t know how to handle situations such as Albahm’s, and that the city is not doing enough to improve responses to mental health crises.

She said SPD’s reform plan does not adequately address activists’ demands for policing. Last summer, a coalition of 14 advocacy groups, including Last Chance for Change and Black Lives Matter Syracuse, presented nine demands to reform SPD as part of the People’s Agenda for Policing.

“It’s our boots on the ground,” Johnson said.

“We’re in the community the most. The input

really has to come from the people who are in the community the absolute most. They really know the core issues and the core things that are going on and what people are having trouble with.”

Bloodworth also encouraged young people and members of the Syracuse University community to show support for Rebirth SYR and other local advocacy groups.

Although Albahm was not the first person in Syracuse or across the country to be killed by police, Bloodworth said his death hits even harder given his age.

“No parent should ever have to bury their child,” Bloodworth said. “These kids are the future. He could’ve been the next doctor, the next lawyer, the next police chief. Anything he could’ve been.”

symptomatic COVID-19 infection, whereas tests using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine sought to determine if it protected against moderate to severe COVID-19 illness. The vaccine has shown to be 85% protective against severe infection.

It is still unclear whether the vaccines prevent an asymptomatic infection or if vaccinated people can transmit the virus to each other if they do become infected.

from page 3

support that we get from students will determine how effective we can be at doing the good work on behalf of the students,” Bruen said.

Stinfort said running unopposed will motivate her and Bruen to work harder to prove themselves to the student body.

“This is kind of a test in a way because we still need to get the students to vote,” Stinfort said.

“We’re ready to prove that we are passionate and we are willing to actually put in the work.”

Bruen and Stinfort said they plan to make more of their policies publicly available soon. The main message they want student voters to receive is that they are ready to put in the work and be advocates for SU students, they said.

“If we achieve almost nothing outside of SA, I would be content if I knew that we had made a systemic change in the university or a major cultural change, so that people realize how important SA was and the value that it provides to everyone,” Bruen said.

Are there any specific risks of receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?

Similar to the other vaccines, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has some side effects such as pain, redness and swelling around the injection area as well as headache, fatigue, muscle aches, nausea and fever.

During tests of the vaccine, no one developed a severe allergic reaction, and only 9% reported developing a fever. mehicks@syr.edu @maggie_hickss

and Child Health Plus, can enroll year-round.

Lower health insurance premiums

Depending on enrollment levels, New York residents could receive an additional $700 million in tax credits in 2021 as a result of the American Rescue Plan, according to the press release.

The state has made more than $4.4 bil-

candidates more powerful organization on this campus, so that its influence in decision-making is more clear,” Bruen said. “That only will happen if we inform students about SA, but more importantly, do things that affect their daily lives so they can actually care about what we do.”

SA is the largest advocacy group for students on campus, Bruen said. He would like to see the student body’s involvement in SA extend beyond the election season through the rest of the year.

“Everyone is a part of SA, every undergraduate student,” Bruen said. “It is so important that we realize how important it is.”

Although they are currently running the only campaign, Bruen and Stinfort said it’s important that students vote for SA president and vice president on MySlice when voting opens April 26 to show their support.

“We may be the only candidates for this year, but that does not mean that this election does not matter, because the turnout and the lion available to residents to lower the cost of health plans purchased through NY State of Health since the ACA was passed. Between 2013 and 2019, the uninsured population of the state has been reduced from 10% to 5%, according to the release.

Cuomo said he was confident that New York’s new measures will result in lower healthcare premiums than ever before, which

mehicks@syr.edu @maggie_hickss

scalessa@syr.edu @sarahalessan

he believes should be a priority.

“Access to high-quality affordable health insurance is crucial at any time, but the COVID-19 pandemic has made it even more important to make sure New Yorkers are insured in case they face the virus or other health issues,” Cuomo said in the release. rcperrin@syr.edu @richardperrins2

OPINION

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PAG E 5

april 8, 2021

guest column

After World Health Day, it’s time to prioritize health equity

By Our Reader

O

n Wednesday, the World Health Organization observes World Health Day. This year’s theme is health equity – the idea that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. The U.S. still has a long way to go in order to achieve this goal.

Health equity and equal opportunity are inextricably connected in the U.S. The costs of illness and poor health, as well as the benefits of wellness and good health, are unequally distributed among people.

During the pandemic, we have seen COVID-19 disproportionately impact marginalized communities, especially those of color.

Over the course of the pandemic, African American and Latinx households in New York City have reported losing their health insurance at rates two and four times higher than

white households, respectively, according to the Community Service Society.

Throughout New York state, communities of color constitute 58.6% of the uninsured while only making up 39.6% of the population, according to the United Hospital Fund. Health care costs in the form of medical debt are also rising, disproportionately impacting poor people of color all over New York state. In Onondaga County, for example, 41% of residents in communities of color have been referred to debt collectors because of outstanding medical bills, compared to the 14% of residents in white communities.

The pandemic has put a spotlight on the complex web of health inequities, including the lack of access to insurance and high medical costs that plague New Yorkers. However, it has also given us the opportunity to respond to the threat by prioritizing health equity.

One way to do this is by passing the New

York Health Act, a bill in the state legislature that would address these disparities by making health care a guaranteed right to all New Yorkers.

Opponents of universal single-payer health care will argue that a universal public health care system would be too expensive. In reality, studies of the New York Health Act and National Medicare for All have found that many taxpayers would be paying less than we do now if a universal single-payer program was implemented.

Furthermore, health care spending will go down overall when we eliminate the bureaucratic waste associated with private insurance. It’s important to keep in mind that the status quo is extremely profitable to those who seek to maintain the current system – specifically the health insurance industry, which has seen its profits grow during the pandemic and therefore will try to oppose sensible changes.

Upholding a health care system that denies

the marginalized essential resources is not only counterintuitive economically; it is also morally reprehensible. We must improve the health system in order to create equitable health opportunities for all of us.

By providing comprehensive health care coverage for every person who lives in New York state, regardless of age, income level, place of employment or immigration status, the New York Health Act becomes an important first step to fulfilling the principles of health equity in our state.

This World Health Day, over one year into a devastating pandemic, we have the opportunity to respond to the pain of COVID-19 by passing legislation to make healthcare a right.

We need our political leaders to do the right thing by passing the New York Health Act as part of the state’s pandemic recovery.

James Appleton ‘21

column

Despite progress, women still face inequality in the workplace

By Eleanor Chapman columnist

Z

oom etiquette, networking skills and the power of email follow-ups all feel more crucial than ever during the pandemic. The pandemic has allowed women to gain confidence in the professional sphere, but challenges still remain.

When work and life moved online because of COVID-19, we lost the separation between work and family, which changed how we view our co-workers, said Summer Cerbone, president of Syracuse University’s chapter of The Women’s Network. The pandemic has made us realize that we all have families to care for, regardless of our gender, Cerbone said.

“It’s common for women to not be able to focus on their families while in the workforce without being judged or stigmatized as producing inferior work, but COVID-19 humanized everyone, including men, to the realities of family life,” Cerbone said.

Despite changes to the workplace during the pandemic, women still experience inequality. Women of all races earned 82 cents on average to a dollar that men of all races earned, according to Census Bureau data. This data, which has concerningly persisted into the 21st century, confirms the sentiments and goals of The Women’s Network, which has a national motto of “Redefining Ambition.”

“The word ‘ambition’ has a long history of being stigmatic when used to describe women, who too often have been labeled as ‘trying too hard,’” Cerbone said. “For men, however, being ambitious has always been seen as an accomplishment.”

But what about now? Is it still so incriminating to be a woman and to be ambitious?

Yes, unfortunately. Women have a long way to go for “ambition” to cease being a gendercharged label concerning productivity.

And it’s on-campus support systems like The Women’s Network that help young women find their respective voices as students and young professionals, regardless of men’s sexist opinions. Yet how exactly can these voices be developed, when there still exist so many problematic implications with feminism?

To be a feminist, quite simply, is to advocate for women’s rights based on the equality of the

News Editor Michael Sessa Editorial Editor Cori Dill Culture Editor Sydney Bergan Sports Editor Roshan Fernandez Presentation Director Shannon Kirkpatrick Photo Editor Emily Steinberger Video Editor Rose Skylstad Podcast Editor Moriah Humiston Illustration Editor Nabeeha Anwar Enterprise Editor Gabe Stern Asst. News Editor Sarah Alessandrini Asst. News Editor Mira Berenbaum

illustration by nabeeha anwar illustration editor

sexes. It’s only very recently that more respect and widespread effort has been paid to the feminist movement, as evidenced in historic events of the last decade, such as the Women’s March, the #MeToo movement and the March for Women’s Lives. This progress stands out in stark relief from disappointing statistics such as the gender pay gap. It instead provides hope and empowerment to university women on the brink of entering the real world and finding professional success.

But professional success is not constrained to women of certain education levels, cultures or social classes. It is imperative that young women on college campuses know that they shouldn’t measure themselves based on start-

Asst. News Editor Maggie Hicks Asst. Editorial Editor Megan Cooper Asst. Editorial Editor Hamere Debebe Asst. Culture Editor Louis Platt Asst. Culture Editor Chris Scarglato Asst. Sports Editor Allie Kaylor Asst. Sports Editor Skyler Rivera Design Editor Maya Goosmann Design Editor Yiwei He Design Editor Talley Schroeder Design Editor Sarah Jimenez Miles Asst. Photo Editor Annabelle Gordon

ing salaries or LinkedIn statistics but rather by the quality of their work. They should find joy in that work and in being given opportunities for growth, be it at a personal or associate level.

The road to an equitable and fair workplace for all genders may be long, intersecting and winding, but organizations such as The Women’s Network can hopefully sow the seeds for generational change. Cover letter workshops, job interview pitches and guest speaker presentations represent some of the opportunities offered by the group, all of which promote the practice of selfimprovement to be gained from collaboration.

Since The Women’s Network’s inception at SU in 2017, more chapters have sprouted up across the country at other colleges. In the

words of the founder of The Women’s Network, Jamie Vinick, “I envision a far-reaching, national network of ambitious women who will support one another and provide opportunities for both personal growth and professional advancement.”

With these optimistic words in mind, perhaps we can move forward on this long road toward lasting social change for current and future women in the workplace, knowing that entire networks of women stand with us in numbers.

Eleanor Chapman is a sophomore english and textual studies major. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at echapm02@syr.edu.

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Defiance through music

PAG E 7

april 8, 2021

slice of life

Behind this year’s TEDxSU speakers

By Erin Cashin

contributing writer

AMANDA GREENBACKER-MITCHELL, who previously graduated from SU in 2017 and taught for three years as a music teacher, is now back on campus as a master’s student. emily steinberger photo editor

Amanda Greenbacker-Mitchell is turning her passion for music into educating others about the Holocaust

By Gavi Azoff

asst. digital editor

D

uring a Spector/Warren Fellowship for Future Educators course in 2017, Amanda Greenbacker-Mitchell learned the most horrifying statistic she’s ever heard. In New York state, students typically only receive 70 minutes of education on the Holocaust while in school. And from her experience as a former public school teacher, this information rings true.

Greenbacker-Mitchell is a graduate student working toward her master’s degree at the Setnor School of Music. She graduated from Syracuse University in 2017 and uses music to connect with other cultures and educate people about the Holocaust.

Before returning to SU to pursue her master’s degree, GreenbackerMitchell spent three years teaching instrumental music to students in grades 4-12 in a rural school near Oneonta. As much as she loved working with younger students, the research she’s doing now is best fit for the collegiate level, she said.

Greenbacker-Mitchell’s research focuses on “how to teach about the Holocaust, or in more broad terms, human atrocity and genocide, through music and music performance,” and aligns well with what she learns as a Spector/Warren Fellow.

Growing up with a Jewish history teacher as a father, she learned to love and appreciate history and the stories of humans. As she got older, she realized that music was what she wanted to do in life. Now, both pas-

sions intertwine with her career.

“I fell into teaching about the Holocaust through music, because I know, as a musician, how deeply moving even a piece of music that’s not written about anything, just the sheer sound of it can move people to tears,” Greenbacker-Mitchell said.

But what ultimately changed her career and her whole life was watching the documentary “Defiant Requiem” for the first time.

The film tells the story of Rafael Schächter, a Czech conductor who aimed to sustain courage and hope among fellow prisoners through music in the Terezín concentration camp. The documentary explores how Schächter’s choir members view the “Verdi’s Requiem” as an act of defiance and resistance against see music page 8

Syracuse University professors and students will share their stories and research on Thursday as part of this year’s TEDx SyracuseUniversity event. The talks, centered around the theme “The New Age of Enlightenment,” will last around seven to 18 minutes each.

Hosted by former Syracuse basketball player Eric Devendorf, the event will run from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and will be livestreamed from the Westcott Theater. The six speakers are Bailey Felix, Luca Serio, Noelle Johnson, Tula Goenka, Vedyun Mishra and Zeke Leonard.

The Daily Orange spoke with the presenters about their vision for the talks and the process of creating them.

Bailey Felix

In high school, Felix considered herself the one kid who always had an injury. She went to numerous doctor appointments and found that many doctors didn’t know what to do or how to help.

Felix, a senior bioengineering major, has worked in the Syracuse Biomaterials Institute to research four-dimensional printing shape memory polymers. She wants to use the TEDx platform to make scientific research more accessible to everyone.

Since 2019, Felix has had the opportunity to explore shape memory polymers by conducting research with James Henderson, an associate professor of biomedical and chemical engineering, and Kathleen Pieri, a graduate research assistant.

Figuring out how to explain scientific concepts with everyday language was a challenge Felix encountered while preparing her speech. She started her research sophomore year, and creating the talk reminded her of the different analogies that helped her when she was learning.

Noelle Johnson

from the studio

Senior seminar class curates an art exhibit

By Christopher Scarglato asst. culture editor

Nearly two years ago, Wayne Franits centered his senior seminar class’ exhibit on 19th century painter Winslow Homer’s engravings. When it came time for him to teach the seminar again this school year, the Syracuse University art history professor decided to focus on children in art.

After a year of planning and researching, “Days of Future Passed: Children in World Art’’ will open on Thursday and run until May 24 in the Shaffer Art Building’s Wiezel Gallery. The exhibit will feature 21 pieces relating to children in different historical time periods, such as a 19th century Japanese photograph and a vibrant Dutch

print created by painter Karel Appel in 1971. For their senior seminar, students created wall texts that explain each piece and will be set alongside the works.

Franits said exhibits normally take two to five years of planning, but he began prepping last spring. Emily Dittman, the museum’s associate director, and other staff members helped the professor whittle down the museum’s over 45,000 piece collection to just 21 during the summer.

“If you just look for children in artwork, probably, there’s much more than 21,” Dittman said. “(Franits) wanted a wide array of representations.”

Within the first weeks of his senior seminar during the fall, Franits divided up the 21 pieces and gave each student three to do

research on. Over the semester, students visited the museum and looked at their assigned pieces, with students going into the study rooms for half-hour to an hour appointments, using magnifying glasses and lights to further examine the pieces.

SU senior Giovanna Veiga, along with other students, reported their findings through presentations and eventually created a research paper at the end of the semester. Each student also wrote an approximately 200-word wall text for their assigned works.

Franits worked with Dittman on creating a title for the exhibit, going back and forth over email for a week during the late fall. At the last minute, Franits decided to name his class’ exhibit after the progres-

sive rock album “Days of Future Passed,” by The Moody Blues, which discusses life’s passage and contains a section on childhood.

On Monday, Dittman and preparator Dylan Otts stood inside a nearly complete exhibit, scoping out what was next. Paintings sat on styrofoam, waiting to be installed, and “Madonna and Child,” a diorite statue, had to be pulled from another room. Trying to group different themes together, the two agreed on setting the sculpture with other similar works in the same row.

“That would be nice,” Dittman said.

Otts nodded. And with that, they were one step closer to Thursday’s opening. cscargla@syr.edu

For Johnson, an unforeseen benefit of creating a TEDx Talk is the newfound sense of community at SU. One uniting experience during the pandemic is feeling isolated, she said.

In her talk, Johnson shares her experience of growing up in Southern California without a real-life queer role model and finding a sense of identity and community through queer representation in the media.

In her first year of high school, Johnson was bullied for her sexuality, and she transferred to the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan — where Johnson started to accept and become proud of her identity, and where she wrote her TEDx talk.

Johnson specifically crafted her talk to be accessible to both people in and outside of the queer community.

Johnson is optimistic about the future of queer representation, and she believes that powerful storytelling can be a part of this positive change.

Tula Goenka

Goenka has many accolades and titles attached to her name, but Thursday night, she’ll delve into see tedx page 8

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from the studio

C

Exhibit focuses on trauma people shared during pandemic

By Joey Pagano staff writer

Catherine Spencer started having repressed and manipulated memories at 5 years old, caused by a change in how her body read DNA. She experienced physical and emotional pain.

“My art practice was born out of this pain that I experienced and is a reflection of my own resilience and evolution after suffering,” said Spencer, who, along with Alvin Huang and Jihun Choi, is one of six featured artists at Syracuse University’s Masters of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition at Point of Contact Gallery.

In some of her work at the “Carrying the Thick Present: Fabulation” exhibition, which runs until May 21, Spencer explores misinformation and the overindulgence of digital spaces as a metaphor for her experiences. Digital spaces provide an escape from reality — similar to the

wishes of those suffering.

The artists investigate what makes humanity difficult and complicated in their work in the exhibition, said Sara Felice, director of Point of Contact Gallery. Inspired by the pandemic, the exhibition aims to present the communal trauma of the past year, she said.

Spencer makes art to help cope with her past trauma. For much of her childhood, she lived in the rural town of Scott, New York, and she would escape to the nearby woods to isolate herself from others. In the woods, she would observe the rusty, sharp farming equipment and how the plants pushed back against it.

“It was like they were reclaiming it and thriving despite this foreign object invading this natural space. I would see a lot of visual patterns and relationships between the plants themselves,” Spencer said. “I was always really curious about understanding how the ecosystem worked perfectly together so that these spaces could exist.”

Felice said she and curator Manuela Hansen wanted to unite feelings of isolation, stimulation, grief, loss and community through the exhibit. The pandemic created an overarching theme that connected the art, and Felice thinks of the exhibition as a conversation — one that can only happen through art.

Huang added that he is often frustrated over the lack of conversation about social issues. The M.F.A. candidate was born in New York, grew up in the U.K. and currently lives in Taiwan. He said that his complex identity rarely bothers him.

Instead, he sees it as an advantage, often looking at his work from all three cultural perspectives.

In doing so, Huang, whose work is at the exhibit, considers biodiversity and nature — two of his childhood passions — as road maps for dealing with social issues. “The modern society system creates an illusion that we are apart from nature,” Huang said.

Choi has felt the need to speak out since watching the #NotAgainSU protests unfold, he

was disappointed with the response from SU officials. Being an international student, he was surprised, frustrated and confused about how to contribute to the movement, and had fears about joining it.

Since he has transformed his anger about hate crimes against the Asian and Asian American communities into energy. He has spent months working on films about racial inequity, and as the pandemic hit and anti-Asian racism intensified, his passion for expressing his Asian identity did, too.

“Seeing stories of physical violence and harassment and an ‘unseen’ look in people’s faces towards Asian people brought me to questioning the humanities and my identity deeper to find out why this thing is happening and how I could contribute to the community,” Choi said. “Experiencing these moments shifted my artistic intent and research into the complexities of humanities.” gfpagano@syr.edu

asian american and pacific islander heritage month

Alumnus talks career, understanding identity as Asian American

By Amy Nakamura senior staff writer

Mitchell Kuga grew up thinking as a JapaneseOkinawan American from Hawaii, he had to choose between being gay and being Asian. He rarely saw people who embraced both in the early 2000s.

Today, Kuga is embracing all aspects of his identity and inspiring others to do the same.

The Syracuse University alumnus spoke as this year’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month’s “Paving the Way” Alumni Speaker on Wednesday night. Since graduating from Newhouse School of Public Communications in 2009, he has published work in GQ, T Magazine, The Village Voice, Vice, The Fader, and Condé Nast Traveler.

In 2019, Kuga won the Excellence in Online Journalism Award from the NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists for his award-winfrom page 7

music the Nazis.

The Defiant Requiem Foundation invests in Holocaust education and offers free online educational content and teacher workshops that accompany the film. Greenbacker-Mitchell was one of those participating teachers, which is how she met Maestro Murry Sidlin, a conductor, educator and artistic innovator, and founder and president of the Defiant Requiem Foundation.

Sidlin offers Greenbacker-Mitchell assistance in her research and pursuit of educating people about the story of the Defiant Requiem and how to teach about the Holocaust and genocides in the music classroom.

“Verdi’s Requiem” is a difficult piece of music, one typically performed by professional musicians, Sidlin said. Greenbacker-Mitchell is adapting portions of Verdi’s piece to accommodate the abilities of student musicians.

“She’s very brave to attempt to develop this unique project in a way that will assist from page 7

tedx

being a professor at the Newhouse School of Public Communications and a breast cancer survivor.

Goenka’s talk will focus on her breast cancer journey and how she documented it through photography and multimedia visuals.The preparation process for her TEDx talk has been therapeutic, but choosing to be vulnerable is also a bit nerve-wracking. People have told her, “Oh, but you’re a professor, you’re used to commanding a room,” she said. Goenka is most nervous about the event being a livestream in an empty Westcott Theater.

The professor has wanted to participate in a TEDx talk for a while. She has kept a TEDx logo on her vision board

ning BuzzFeed News piece about how libraries were standing their ground against backlash for hosting LGBTQ programs such as drag queen story times.

Kuga credits an Asian American Studies course he took during his freshman year for helping him fully understand his own identity.

During the course, Kuga learned about the history of Asian Americans in the United States, the model minority myth, the murder of Vincent Chin and anti-Blackness in the Asian community during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

“It really helped me understand that I belong to a lineage and that, by virtue of not living on the continent, I was inheriting this history,” Kuga said. “It also dovetailed with this understanding of what it meant to inhabit a racialized body for the first time because I don’t think I really felt that growing up.”

Permission was the central theme to Kuga’s talk. He encouraged the audience to give them-

selves permission to write, change and ultimately grow into themselves. Kuga described his career path as anything but linear.

After graduating from Syracuse in 2009, he moved back home to Hawaii, where he juggled working in construction with his father and completing an unpaid internship. Through his internship, he was able to write about the Honolulu nightclub scene, cover press conferences, and write long-form stories.

In the late 2010s, Kuga moved to New York City, where he worked as a waiter in a sushi restaurant in Bushwick, a neighborhood in Brooklyn. He says that waiting on tables helped him to become a better writer.

“It made me pay attention,” Kuga said. “It made me learn how to read people, how to listen better.”

The food service job also gave him the ability to talk about food. He later became an editor for SALT, a zine about the New York City food scene.

His work with SALT and other food-related assignments led Kuga down a path of thrilling work about New York City culture beyond the food scene.

Moving forward, Kuga says he is working on a book deal among other stories. He feels that a book is the best way to tell his own story without the pressure of clicks or matching a publication’s voice. After sharing this, Kuga continued to talk about how Asian American stories are often only centered around intergenerational trauma rather than other topics within the community.

“There was kind of a flattening also sometimes of the Asian American experience for white consumption when we only become legible through our suffering,” Kuga said. “I think that’s a very common refrain for writers of color in general, especially in writing for the internet, is that we are only valuable through trauma.” @nakamura_amy

young students get a better idea of the power and beauty of this music and how it inspired the prisoners at Terezín,” Sidlin said.

Though Greenbacker-Mitchell does put a lot of focus on the Defiant Requiem and the message within the film, she also looks at other pieces of music and other artists like musicians Gideon Kline and Hans Krása, who were kept in concentration camps.

Elisa Dekaney, a professor of music education in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the School of Education, is overseeing Greenbacker-Mitchell’s research project and one of GreenbackerMitchell’s biggest influences. Dekaney brings her own knowledge to the table while watching Greenbacker-Mitchell devise her own similar project. Within the lessons that Greenbacker-Mitchell is creating, she sees potential, for musicians, nonmusicians and educators.

“I really don’t think that there will be any transformative change without teachers engaging in tough conversations and the development of the critical analysis of historical documents of what happened, and

an understanding of the human condition,” Dekaney said.

To Greenbacker-Mitchell, music is a connecting force between all cultures. She said that in studying music she is learning more about other people in the world. That is one of the reasons that music is so meaningful to her.

In college, she learned about a cognitive learning theory called cognitive constructivism that resonates with her and her research and future goals.

“Essentially, what (cognitive constructivism) says is, without context, there is no meaning. And without meaning, there is no learning,” Greenbacker-Mitchell said. “To create learning, and long-lasting learning, you have to create meaning. And that’s the bridge. Music is the bridge.”

Music can connect people from around the world and of different cultures, and can be a means of staying connected to one’s own culture. For people living in the ghettos and concentration camps during the Holocaust and World War II, music was one of the few things people had to hold onto, said Alan Goldberg, professor emeritus in the School of

Education at SU. “It’s very important that we realize that, you know, that there were songs that kept people alive in the ghetto,” he said. “They didn’t want to forget.”

While keeping memories and experiences alive is important and a crucial part of education so is making sure some things never happen again.

Part of Greenbacker-Mitchell’s passion for anti-violence education stems from the sentiment “never again,” which is what people say about the Holocaust and never letting such an atrocity happen again. But, said Greenbacker-Mitchell, it’s still happening –– there are still genocides currently going on in the world. She aims to fulfill that sentiment in her own way.

“So if I can, in my small way, through music performance, and in the students that I have, and the teachers that I’m going to help to lead later on, if I can help stop it at that level, at least that much, I feel like I’m doing my part to say ‘never again,’” Greenbacker-Mitchell said. gazoff@syr.edu

for the past several years, but every time she’d think of applying, the deadline had passed. That changed this year, when she followed the official Instagram — keeping a close eye on all of their announcements — and applied for the TedxSyracuse and got accepted.

“A dream come true,” Goenka said.

ents whose children have autism. Mishra and his team designed a project focusing on the combination of sustainability and inclusivity within architecture.

Mishra has now been involved in this project for two years. While he has presented his project at the New York State Green Building Conference, hosted

by SUNY-ESF, and the U.S Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Design Challenge, he knew that TEDxSyracuse would be a powerful opportunity to bring more awareness to the topic.

structed about what is valuable.

Leonard worked in stage and set design in New York City for 18 years, until one year, he realized that he had used and thrown out 75 sheets of plywood. The realization made him question what he was doing, and he assessed his value system and whether he was creating positive change.

He decided he could no longer engage in the theater industry and went to graduate school to create furniture.

Leonard wishes there were more forums like TEDxSyracuse on campus for people to connect and really talk about topics that matter.

Vedyun Mishra

Mishra’s TEDx talk focuses on “responsible architecture,” and part of his aim is to bridge the gap between sustainability and inclusivity within architecture.

A graduate student in the School of Architecture, Mishra wants to highlight that there are not enough discussions about the inclusion of people with autism in the architecture community.

A couple of years ago, Mishra met with par-

Zeke Leonard

Zeke Leonard is an assistant professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and a member of the Environmental and Interior Design faculty. Leonard’s TEDx talk is about value systems and the ways ideas are con-

Editor’s note: Luca Serio is the executive producer of The Daily Orange’s Sportcast. He does not work for the Culture section, nor does he influence its content in any way. ecashin@syr.edu

april 8, 2021 9

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from page 12

dolezaj He finished his career with 960 points, 69th on SU’s all-time scoring list.

But his impact went well beyond scoring.

The 6-foot-10, 200-pound Dolezaj routinely banged bodies with opposing centers with at least 50 pounds on him. Boeheim once compared his passing ability to that of Magic Johnson. Dolezaj seemingly always made the right plays on both ends, and his intangibles quickly became indispensable.

As a freshman in 2017, Dolezaj cracked the from page 12

draw control reason Syracuse secured the comeback win.

“I can’t say enough about Katelyn Mashewske on the draw. Another dominant game, 13 draw controls herself, but really allowing our team to dominate on the draws,” Gait said.

Syracuse (7-1, 4-1 Atlantic Coast) sits third in the conference, with 15.88 draw controls per game. In 2019, All-American Emily Hawryschuk took the most draw controls for SU. In 2020, she had the thirdmost. But without mainstay Hawryschuk, who’s out for the season with an ACL injury, there’s been an opening for others to fill.

Mashewske is third in the ACC, with 5.63 draws per game, and Ella Simkins is sixth, with 4.00. Draw specialist Morgan Widner has stepped up, too.

Even without Hawryschuk, SU’s draw controls are at its highest mark since 2017. In the last three seasons, the Orange averaged 15.1 in 2020, 13.8 in 2019 and 13.1 in 2018. Syracuse didn’t have a single player in the ACC top 10 for draw controls in any of those seasons, and now they have two.

“The work that we’ve been putting in is really paying off right now,” Gait said.

But Mashewske wasn’t always SU’s go-to draw control specialist. She had to work her way up the depth chart. She won 11 in her first three games before earning her from page 12

mural Stewart graduated from Cicero-North Syracuse High School in 2012 and won AP Player of the Year three times at UConn. She won four consecutive NCAA Championships with the Huskies and two WNBA championships in 2018 and 2020. She was also named a Sportsperson of the Year by Sports Illustrated in 2020 because of her outspoken support for social justice causes.

“What those four people we’re going to honor exemplify about Syracuse is resilience and grit, persevering through a lot of difficult times but being triumphant in the end,” said Common Councilor Pat Hogan, of the 2nd District. “That’s what a lot of people in the neighborhoods here have done over the last year, and that’s always been the Syracuse spirit.”

Malfitano enlisted Los Angeles-based muralist Jonas Never, who’s painted several murals of athletes, for the project in Syracuse.

Never’s photorealistic style is what made him stick out, Malfitano said.

“Several years ago, I think the first thing I saw by him was a mural he did of Kobe Bryant, and I thought, ‘This is our guy,’” Malfitano said.

Malfitano wants to start the project in July, but that relies on funding. He estimated the total cost of the project to be about $150,000, with a potential $75,000 commitment from the city. The council passed a funding resolution unanimously last week, but it still needs

starting rotation in late January and never yielded it afterward. He moved SU’s name up the bracket in 2018 after he scored 17 points in the Orange’s first-round upset over TCU, and he averaged 10.3 points and 4.8 rebounds in four NCAA Tournament contests that season.

The legend of the pizza-loving, wiry Dolezaj only grew. He took a charge on Duke star Zion Williamson in 2019. He got his tooth knocked out against Georgetown but remained in the game in 2021. He played in three NCAA Tournaments in four seasons, leading SU by punching above his weight defensively and making smart plays on offense.

Dolezaj’s final season was his most impressive. With starting center Bourama Sidibe limited to 15 total minutes due to lingering knee issues, Dolezaj anchored the middle of Syracuse’s 2-3 zone. And for the last month of the season, including SU’s improbable Sweet 16 run, Dolezaj played through a broken finger on his left hand.

Against West Virginia in the second round, he overcame early foul trouble to help the Orange stave off WVU. Boeheim called him “a terrific basketball player” in the postgame press conference.

“He’s one of the most underrated players in

the country,” Boeheim said. “He’s just a great, great team player. He makes winning plays that are not noticed sometimes, but they’re there.”

Replacing Dolezaj’s toughness and instincts will be a challenge for the Orange. SU has fivestar forward Benny Williams joining the team and Sidibe returning, but it struggled defensively throughout 2020-21 as the back line jelled.

In the meantime, Dolezaj is moving on.

Dolezaj said he never could’ve imagined he’d be at this point four years ago, but now the once-unheralded prospect with one college offer is ready to leave.

first career start against Notre Dame on March 11, when she won 12 draws. She won 13 the following game, prompting Gait to call her the “hottest draw control person in the country right now.”

Mashewske was initially recruited as a twoway midfielder, one who could take draws and stay on the field to help the team. It’s a role she played at Rush-Henrietta High School (New York). Head coach Jim DeWald only coached Mashewske during her senior year but was impressed by the amount of time she put into preparing for draws.

“She basically knew when she was going out there what tendencies were from other players,” DeWald said. “However they were setting up against her, she knew pretty much how to counteract that to her advantage.”

When Mashewske started playing lacrosse in fifth grade, she was taller than everyone else on the field and always took draws because “you can’t teach height,” her father, Tim, said. That’s when she started to study the draw, something she’d improve on as she grew older.

“I would say 85 to 90% of the time, (she knows) exactly where that ball is going,” Tim said. “She said she works at it. If she gets beat, I’m her ‘sounding board,’ she’ll call me.”

When Mashewske was younger, Tim remembers going out to the backyard after tough games to go over what went wrong and how she’d get it right next time. Sometimes, they’d spend two minutes in the backyard on

an easy fix. Other times, they’d be out until it got dark.

Tim and DeWald point to Mashewske’s time watching film as the root of her development as a draw control specialist. Before SU’s game against No. 1 UNC, Mashewske watched UNC’s top draw specialist in three different games to prepare, Tim said.

Syracuse and North Carolina split 12 draws each in the Orange’s first loss of the season.

Mashewske started the game but managed only four wins.

Mashewske hit her first stumbling block against Virginia Tech, just after her career games against Notre Dame. She won five draws, and Gait decided to rotate SU’s draw specialists. “(She) wasn’t in a rhythm for a couple draws, so we put in Braelie Kempney and Morgan Widner, and they both did very well,” Gait said. “We have a group of four or five players that are draw-takers, and they work every day to improve and get better.”

Simkins also came into that game and recorded a career-high eight draws. And Widner, who’s one of the most experienced members of the draw team, is passing down her knowledge to younger players such as Mashewske. Widner does that with players in the Dallas area when she comes back home to Texas, too, said Molly Ford Hutchinson, Widner’s high school coach.

“She’s able to have all this knowledge about the draw but also give the knowledge to others, so she teaches a lot of the kids back in Dallas,”

Hutchinson said.

Like Mashewske, Widner was naturally gifted with height. She also ran the 400-meter in track in high school, which Hutchinson credits for Widner’s speed and quick reactions. Despite all her physical gifts, Widner didn’t have many college offers as late as the fall of her senior year. This spurred Widner to become a true draw specialist, as that’s how she saw herself getting playing time at a school such as Syracuse, Hutchinson said.

By working on her stick skills and wrist action, Widner slowly developed into the draw specialist she is today. It’s also why Gait took a chance on her.

“She was an average lacrosse player, and now, because she’s honed in on this skill, (she) has become one of the best draw takers in the game,” Hutchinson said.

The difference between this year and years prior has been fueled by improved communication, Gait said. After losing a draw, the players huddle together on the sideline and dissect what went wrong and who might have a better shot of winning the next one. The unit — which is comprised of four or five players — communicates well with the players positioned around the circle too, he said.

“They work every day to improve and get better, and they help each other, they support each other,” Gait said.

approval from Mayor Ben Walsh.

The mayor’s office has some reservations about the funding, however, citing that the council did not specify where the $75,000 would come from. Syracuse Chief Policy Officer Greg Loh said that the administration is listening to community input and that the mural could be a “positive addition” to the downtown landscape.

The project has also received private support from local business and organizations, including SU. Malfitano is still looking for more sponsors to help cover the cost, especially if the funding from the city doesn’t pan out.

Malfitano wants the mural to be the first of a series of murals in the city. He wants to showcase Syracuse’s notable figures of all backgrounds and make the murals an inspiration to those who see them.

“I hope (people) look deeper into the stories of these four individuals and realize that there’s a thread here that connects all of us and that Syracuse has played a major role in social justice,” Malfitano said.

The goal of the project is to use public art as a tool of unity, Malfitano and Hogan said.

It would also draw people to downtown and revitalize the community both aesthetically and economically, Hogan said.

“This is probably one of the most important public art projects ever considered by the city of Syracuse,” he said. njrobert@syr.edu | @NickRobertsonSU

A planned mural in downtown Syracuse will feature local basketball greats Breanna Stewart, Earl Lloyd, Dolph Schayes and Manny Breland. courtesy of frank malfitano

dremerma@syr.edu | @DannyEmerman

gshetty@syr.edu

10 april 8, 2021

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track and field

SU alum Katie Zaferes prepares for Olympic triathlon

By Connor Pignatello staff writer

Katie Zaferes broke down in tears at the finish line. Ranked fourth in the world at the time, Zaferes had just finished the triathlon at the 2016 Rio Olympics in 18th place, well out of reach of the medal she hoped to secure.

She had only done triathlons competitively for five years and didn’t realize all of the preparation that’s necessary for the Olympics. The bike portion, Zaferes’ weakest discipline of the three sports that make up the triathlon, was the object of her thoughts. Looking at the tall hill she would have to bike down made her nervous, and she realized that she may not be as ready as she thought.

Since then, the Syracuse graduate has used her disappointing performance in 2016 as motivation. She focused on psychological training, making sure she can overcome obstacles like the frightening hill in 2016. Now ranked the No. 1 triathlete in the world, Zaferes has her sights on the upcoming 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. “(Rio was) not my most proud moment, but it was also something that changed the trajectory of my career,” Zaferes said.

Two decades and 23 ITU World Triathlon Series medals earlier, Zaferes (then Hursey) began running as a sophomore in high school to stay in shape for soccer. In her first spring season for track, Zaferes won Maryland state titles in the 1600-meter and the 3200-meter.

Zaferes was also part of her local swim team

but had never considered a triathlon until her father, Bill, suggested they do one together in the summer after her senior year of high school.

The swim portion was in a pool, and Zaferes had to borrow a bike — and run it up hills when she couldn’t switch gears — but Zaferes and Bill loved their first triathlon together.

The next fall, Zaferes began running for Syracuse’s cross country and track teams, quickly impressing coaches and earning a top-five spot on the cross country team as a freshman. Zaferes broke SU’s school record in the indoor 5,000meter and reached multiple NCAA Regional Championships for both cross country and track, but it wasn’t until her senior year where she found her specialty: the steeplechase.

Zaferes surprised the coaching staff with how quickly she picked up the discipline, said head coach Brien Bell, who was an assistant while Zaferes was in college.

She set the school record in the 3,000meter steeplechase, reaching the NCAA Championships in both her senior and redshirt senior seasons. At the 2011 NCAA Championships, Zaferes finished 14th and earned second-team All-America honors.

“It took going to Syracuse to really understand what being a professional looks like,” Zaferes said.

As a collegiate runner with a background in swimming, Zaferes had the tools to be a triathlete, but she only had minor experience in the sport due to her commitments at Syracuse. But her talent didn’t go unnoticed. Barb Lindquist,

a former triathlete Olympian and founder of the USA Triathlon Collegiate Recruitment Program, invited her to a camp with several other prospective triathletes in the summer between her senior and redshirt senior seasons.

“She had that athletic build, and that transferred to the bike, where I could see that that piece of the three-piece puzzle would be able to come along rather quickly,” Lindquist said.

After graduating from Syracuse, Zaferes returned to USA Triathlon — this time as part of a six-month residency program at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Since beginning her career as a pro in 2013, Zaferes has steadily improved each year. She placed fifth overall in the 2015 International Triathlon Union World Triathlon Series rankings. She placed fourth in 2016, third in 2017 and second in 2018.

“I got in pretty far off of being skilled and talented to begin with. If I wanted to go further, I was going to have to do more,” Zaferes said.

Zaferes began working with U.S. Olympic team sports psychologist Karen Cogan at least once a month after Rio. She began seeing a nutritionist. She began journaling. And, thanks to work with strength coaches and Cogan, she has many more “strategies in (the) toolbox” to motivate herself when she’s not as confident.

Coming into the 2019 Tokyo ITU World Triathlon Olympic Qualification Event — the first event to secure automatic qualification

for the Olympics — Zaferes held the world No. 1 ranking. She finished the swim and was in second place when she mounted her bike for the second section of the race.

But she never saw the barrier.

While looking over her shoulder for competitors, Zaferes crashed into a barrier, eliminating her from the race. She sustained a broken nose, a busted lip and a bruised leg, and she couldn’t raise her arm above her head. The automatic qualifying spot went to her teammate, Summer Rappaport.

Twenty-three stitches and 16 days later, Zaferes was set to compete in the grand final for the 2019 ITU World Triathlon series. She had won four of the first seven races in the series and only needed to finish in 12th place to claim the World Championship, but the course was extremely technical, contained many downhills and was fraught with barriers. Nevertheless, she finished first to claim her first world title.

This time, Zaferes had the confidence to outsprint world No. 2 Jessica Learmonth at the finish and claim her fifth gold medal of the year, she said.

“My mind wasn’t stuck on crashing, and my mind wasn’t stuck on what I couldn’t do or that I might be uncomfortable doing the course,” Zaferes said.

There are still two spots left for Team USA in Tokyo this summer. Still No. 1 in the world, Zaferes intends to be one of them. cpignate@syr.edu

men’s lacrosse

Syracuse’s season finale against Utah on May 8 canceled

By Allie Kaylor

asst. sports editor

Syracuse’s matchup with Utah, originally scheduled for May 8, has been canceled, the team announced Wednesday. The team did not specify a reason for the cancellation and said it doesn’t currently have plans to reschedule a home game on that date.

The game was originally set to be the from page 12

rehfuss Mariano and Lane aren’t surprised. Neither are Rehfuss’ sisters. The Tewaaraton Foundation added him to its watch list last week, and he sits at No. 8 on Inside Lacrosse’s midseason watch list for the annual award honoring the best player in college lacrosse.

He leads SU (4-3, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) with 34 points and is on pace to shatter his singleseason career-high for points and goals. He’s ranked sixth nationally in shooting percentage among players who have taken at least 15 shots, and he’s ranked in the top 20 in points per game. But for Klan, who roomed with and played with Rehfuss for four years, he’s always been “that guy.”

“We always have known how good he is,” Klan said. “It’s just him getting the touches, and now he’s finally getting the touches that he deserves.”

Rehfuss was that guy in high school, despite being undersized and under-recruited. He was that guy as a redshirt freshman transfer from Holy Cross because he made a name for himself as “the party starter” on the field, Mariano said. When Rehfuss touched the ball, teammates knew something positive would come of it. And he definitely was that guy as he led the Orange in assists each of the last three seasons, becoming the lead playmaker even in offenses that mainly initiated from the midfield.

His sisters saw it in the family backyard as their only brother stood by the goal, feeding them passes the same way he now feeds Chase Scanlan and Owen Hiltz. His sister Caroline even turned to her fiance a few games ago and said, “I’ve seen him do that 100 times in the backyard,” when Rehfuss faked the goalie out at the crease and scored.

He always carried a stick around back then, even inside the house, using spin-moves and dodges to dance around his family mem-

Orange’s final game of the regular season and would be played in the Carrier Dome. Now, they’ll play their final two games on the road against Virginia and Notre Dame on April 24 and May 1, respectively.

Syracuse’s season schedule now includes 11 games with five nonconference opponents. The Orange play Albany on Thursday for their final nonconference game of the season. After that, they welcome No. 3 North bers in the kitchen. That didn’t change when he got to Syracuse. Ask any Syracuse player, Lane said, and they’ll have a memory of walking through Manley and seeing Rehfuss throwing against the wall.

“There wasn’t really ever a time where we weren’t trying to shoot and Stephen (shot) more so than me,” Lane said. “I can say I didn’t love the game as much as Stephen does, and that’s something that really sticks out.”

At Syracuse, Rehfuss is “rewriting the same story” from his time at Shaker High School, said Shawn Hennessey, the program’s head coach. Rehfuss flashed his talent during his freshman year and led the team in points as a sophomore before blossoming into a star in his final season.

Every three years, when Hennessey receives a new shipment of Shaker lacrosse jerseys, he sets aside the No. 5 that Rehfuss once wore. It’s not officially retired, but until a player surpasses his program record of 164 assists and 319 goals, it may as well be.

For the newest No. 5 jersey, which came in this school year, Hennessey has a plan. He wants to have Rehfuss sign it this summer before hanging it up on the wall at Precision Lacrosse, a new store that two Shaker graduates opened. Hennessey will also send along Shaker’s only official retired jersey, the No. 37.

The jersey was worn by former Georgetown player Jason Decker, who died in a car crash in 2000.

“Hopefully they’ll be side by side because those are two of the most important people in our program,” Hennessey said.

As a four-year varsity member, Rehfuss revived a program that didn’t win a sectional title between 2000 and 2017. Rehfuss couldn’t find the elusive title, either, losing to the statechampion Niskayuna during his senior year.

But Shaker saw a real “uptick” with the arrival of Rehfuss, Hennessey said.

Now, the SU attack serves as the “measuring stick” for the Shaker program, Hen-

Carolina to the Dome on April 17 for SU’s last home game.

The Atlantic Coast Conference will not have a tournament this season, so the regular season champion will also be crowned conference championship. Syracuse currently sits in last place in the conference, at 4-3, while Duke is the only remaining undefeated team, at 10-0.

Inside Lacrosse still ranks SU at No. 9,

putting all five ACC teams in the top nine teams in the country, along with No. 2 Maryland, No. 5 Denver, No. 7 Lehigh and No. 8 Rutgers.

If the Orange did qualify for the NCAA Tournament, they could potentially have three weeks without a game. The NCAA quarterfinals begin May 22, with Notre Dame and Hofstra as host sites. aekaylor@syr.edu | @cincinnallie

STEPHEN REHFUSS has a team-high 34 points and the sixth-best shooting percentage in the country. courtesy of rich barnes usa today sports

nessey said. During breaks, Rehfuss is a role model who lives down the road from the school and still comes back to shoot with current Shaker players over breaks. One of the program’s current mantras, “wall ball over shooting,” was initially uttered by Rehfuss to Hennessey’s son, Eric, just over three years ago. And Shaker’s coaches now tell the story of how Rehfuss was doing sprints on the Siena turf the day after losing that sectional final. Hennessey said it demonstrates the program’s other motto that Rehfuss inspired: “It’s not what you did today, but what you’re going to do tomorrow.”

“In our small community that we have here for lacrosse at Shaker, those things are irreplaceable,” Hennessey said. “Because this is

a real person doing real things, and anybody can do that.”

For Rehfuss, who’s been a constant presence at SU, not a lot has changed. There’s the little things, like the “C” embroidered on his jersey below the Nike logo and above the “Syracuse” lettering. He’s had to become more vocal as a result. It’s bled into how he interacts with the media, his sister Charlotte said — he keeps responses short and to the point because, even five years after transferring, he still talks best through his stick.

And this year, that stick, often with a candy-cane tape job, has made a statement. Just not one that’s new. armajumd@syr.edu | @aromajumder

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april 8, 2021 11

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SPORTS

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PAG E 12

april 8, 2021

men’s basketball

Stephen Rehfuss is on pace for a career-high year.

But to those closest to him, his team-leading stats are

NO SURPRISE

Dolezaj forgoes 5th year to go pro

By Danny Emerman senior staff writer

Marek Dolezaj’s college career at Syracuse is over.

The 22-year-old senior announced Wednesday on social media that he plans to pursue a career in professional basketball. He’s electing to forgo his extra year of eligibility — a fifth season at SU — and told coach Jim Boeheim earlier in the year that he planned to move on. Dolezaj’s didn’t change his mind, and Syracuse will now be without its mainstay in the frontcourt.

Dolezaj was a Syracuse fan favorite and an emotional center of the Orange for four years. In 131 games for SU, Dolezaj averaged 7.3 points and five rebounds per game. see dolezaj page 9

women’s lacrosse

STEPHEN REHFUSS has finally received national recognition this year. But the redshirt senior has been consistent since high school.

courtesy of su athletics

SU relies on new draw rotation

By Gaurav Shetty staff writer

By Arabdho Majumder senior staff writer

W

illie Klan remembers when he and Stephen Rehfuss were so intimidated by the upperclassmen that the two — who transferred to Syracuse in 2017 — ran 10 p.m. sprints at Manley Field House to avoid crossing paths with them. Former SU midfielder Nick Mariano didn’t talk to Rehfuss until the spring semester, half a year after the attack arrived from Holy Cross. Back then, Rehfuss was quiet.

His stick spoke for him, though. He picked up a hat trick in his debut against Siena, then scored a pair and assisted another two in a comeback win against North Carolina. When the Orange canceled the next year’s fall ball, Rehfuss’ talent continued to impress at unofficial practices held at Tsha’ Thoñ’nhes, an indoor lacrosse

facility that’s part of the Onondaga Nation’s reservation.

He replicated moves he saw other great players make — practicing moves as a kid in his backyard that he saw in the highlight tapes of former Tewaaraton-winner Steele Stanwick — and he showed them off during those unofficial sessions.

Rehfuss went on to lead SU in points and assists in 2018, a feat that former teammates Matt Lane and Klan thought would give Rehfuss a shot at the Tewaaraton Award. But the attack didn’t earn national recognition. Back then, Klan said friends would joke about the Stephen Curry jersey that Rehfuss often wore, laughing that it should really be a sixth-man’s jersey — not because his talent was comparable to that of a sixth man, but because of his recognition.

Now, the attack is finally garnering the national attention those close to him have anticipated for years. Friends and former teammates such as Klan,

see rehfuss page 10

When Syracuse trailed at halftime for the first time this season against Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish led the Orange in every statistical category but one: draw controls.

Syracuse dominated the center circle in the first half 10-2 and continued that momentum with a 12-5 second-half draw performance.

Notre Dame managed only seven wins, the lowest any team’s had against SU all season. A large part of Syracuse’s success was sophomore Katelyn Mashewske’s 13 draw-control wins, breaking the career-high of 12 that she set just days prior. Her 13 wins were the fourth-most in a single game in program history, and head coach Gary Gait praised Mashewske’s play as a see draw

control page 9

city

Planned downtown mural to feature Syracuse basketball greats

By Nick Robertson senior staff writer

As Frank Malfitano traveled the country working in the music industry, he saw dozens of murals on the sides of buildings in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit.

The murals honor significant people in the cities’ cultures and histories, and he wondered if Syracuse could have one, too. When the pandemic shut down music festivals, he got to work turning a mural into a reality.

Malfitano began meeting with artists and sponsors to bring his idea into existence. After months

of planning, it was finalized — a sixstory mural honoring four Syracuse basketball legends on East Onondaga Street in downtown Syracuse. “(Murals) are a prominent part of the landscape. They become a part of the fabric of the community,” Malfitano said.

The project has received strong support from the Syracuse Common Council and multiple corporate sponsors. The plan features four trailblazers of basketball from Syracuse: WNBA superstar and Syracuse native Breanna Stewart, Syracuse University’s Manny Breland and Syracuse Nationals champions Earl

Lloyd and Dolph Schayes.

The four athletes all represent different struggles that face our society, Malfitano said. Breland and Lloyd experienced racism at SU and in the NBA, respectively. Schayes was one of the most notable Jewish athletes of his day and dealt with anti-Semitism in his career. And Stewart is facing sexism as one of the world’s most notable female athletes today.

“We’ve seen a renewed wave of misogyny and anti-Semitism and racism, and we can never progress as a city until we get rid of that,” Malfitano said. “We need creative ways to address it, and that’s what I

love about (the mural).”

Breland is a Syracuse native and was one of the first Black players to be on scholarship for SU basketball in 1953. As a senior, he led the Orange to their first NCAA tournament in 1957, where they advanced to the Elite Eight. He later became the first Black varsity high school basketball coach in New York state and a principal in the Syracuse City School District.

Schayes played alongside Lloyd on the 1955 Syracuse Nationals championship team. Throughout his career, he was named to 12 All-Star games, received six All-NBA First Team

selections and later coached the Philadelphia 76ers. His son Danny played basketball at SU in the late 1970s and was drafted in the first round by the Utah Jazz in 1981.

Lloyd was the NBA’s first Black player in 1950. The Virginia native played most of his career with the Nationals and won an NBA Championship in 1955. He became the NBA’s first Black assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons in 1968 and later served as the Pistons’ head coach for the 1971-72 season.

Both Schayes and Lloyd are members of the Basketball Hall of Fame. see mural page 9