April 11, 2024

By Ahna Fleming asst. news editor

Survivors of sexual and relationship violence gathered alongside their allies Wednesday evening for Syracuse University’s annual Take Back the Night event, which was hosted to offer a space for survivors to know they’re not alone.

During the night of healing and community building, Diana VaroLucero, a graduate student studying multimedia, photography and design who helped organize the event, said nighttime symbolizes “rejuvenation.”

“Take Back the Night is not just taking it back to the night where these tragedies happen. It’s also reminding ourselves that it’s never our fault. It’s never too late to heal. We can take back the night to also move forward with healing,” she said.

TBTN is the oldest international movement standing against all forms of sexual violence, according to its website. The mission of the nonprofit organization is to end “sexual assault, sexual abuse, trafficking, stalking, gender harassment, and relationship violence, and to support survivors in their healing journeys.”

S

Dai pleads guilty to antisemitic threats

Dai, a 21-year-old from Pittsford, NY, pleaded guilty to a single count of posting threats to kill or injure another person using interstate communications, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office sent to The Daily Orange.

“This defendant is being held accountable for vile, abhorrent, antisemitic threats of violence levied against members of the Cornell University Jewish community,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in the release. “In the elevated threat environment that we have seen since Oct. 7th, we have been vigilant and stand ready to hold perpetrators of hate crimes accountable.”

Dai is set for a sentencing hearing on Aug. 12 in Syracuse and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, restitution to victims and a maximum of three years of supervised release, according to the release.

Dai admitted to posting on the online forum Greekrank on Oct. 28 and 29 threatening to kill Jewish Cornell students and “shoot up” the university’s dining hall, 104 West, that caters to Kosher diets, according to the release.

He also threatened to “stab and slit the throat of any Jewish man he saw on campus, to rape and throw off a cliff any Jewish women he saw, and to behead any Jewish babies” in another post, according to the release. Dai also threatened to “bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig jews.”

He appeared in court in Syracuse for his arraignment hearing on Nov. 1 and did not enter a plea. Dai was originally set to return to court for a probable cause hearing on Nov. 15, which was postponed.

120 years

C • Eyes to the sky

With a 5K race, campus celebrations and a baseball game, the Syracuse community gathered to watch Monday’s solar eclipse.

N • Shelter from the storm

David Haas, executive director of Sarah’s Guest House, helps provide shelter for those seeking medical care in CNY.

• ‘Coach’s kid’

SU women’s lacrosse head coach Kayla Treanor’s coaching interest stems from watching her father coach high school basketball.

By Kendall Luther news editor Patrick Dai, who made violent threats against Jewish students attending Cornell University in October, pleaded guilty at the James M. Hanley Federal Building & U.S. Courthouse in Syracuse Wednesday.

Unlike previous years, Wednesday’s Take Back the Night event was held inside in the Panasci Lounge and the third floor of Schine Student Center. It featured a student dance performance and a denim decorating activity. lars jendruschewitz asst. photo editor

INSIDE

The best quotes from sources in today’s paper.

NEWS

“We’ve seen the headlines. We know the city of Syracuse leads the nation in categories we should not be proud of.” - Alexander Marion, Syracuse City Auditor Page 3

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CULTURE

“I really survive on my mouth, my mind and my money. And my son, who’s an ophthalmologist, says, ‘mostly your mouth.”

Marvin Druger, Syracuse University professor emeritus Page 11

OPINION

“If Vincent Van Gogh were to draw during the art exam, he would probably be fading into obscurity and mediocrity.”Andy Bian, Syracuse University freshman Page 12

SPORTS

“I completely look at lacrosse in terms of basketball.” - Kayla Treanor, Syracuse women’s lacrosse head coach Page 16

COMING UP

Noteworthy events this week.

WHAT: Kickball Tournament

WHEN: April 12, 4 - 7 p.m.

WHERE: Women’s Building

WHAT: Orange After Dark: Friendship Ball

WHEN: April 13, 7 - 10 p.m.

WHERE: Schine Student Center, The Underground

WHAT: Late Night Ice

WHEN: April 14, 7 - 10 p.m.

WHERE: Tennity Ice Skating Pavilion

David Haas’ efforts provide patients with ‘shelter from the storm’

By Claire Samstag asst. news editor

As executive director of Sarah’s Guest House — a Syracuse-based nonprofit supporting individuals seeking medical care — David Haas frequently gives presentations, conducts tours and speaks with guests who are battling lifealtering experiences.

Haas said he is able to better connect with patients who are going through some of the most difficult situations of their lives through his “hidden handicap” — a stutter.

“I would say it’s a little bit harder on myself because I’m a person who stutters, but that hasn’t ever stopped me from doing my job,” Haas said.

The home seeks to provide shelter, transportation, meals and comfort to patients receiving medical care in central New York and their families, according to its website. Haas described the nonprofit as a “shelter from the storm” for patients or their loved ones who are looking for support.

“We don’t do it for the praise ... just hearing their thanks, their appreciation, how we influence and can change the course of their lives, it really hits home. It really touches your heart each day,” Haas said. “There’s not a day that I don’t get up and I’m not honored to come to the Guest House.”

Paul Wrobel, the accountant at Sarah’s Guest House, said Haas has the “spirit of the place in his soul.” Wrobel added that Haas has a strong dedication to the organization, which he has seen in his work while managing the budget and financing of the nonprofit.

“He’s a very good listener, which is important if you’re a manager,” Wrobel said. “We lose people over time, so you got to have a lot of skills and deal with a lot of different types of people.”

Haas said has always been interested in the “nonprofit realm.” After studying health management at SUNY Oswego and earning a master’s from SUNY Cortland, he went on to work at Arc of Onondaga and then as the manager of adult services at the Learning Disabilities Association of Central New York — now known as LAUNCH — for nearly eight years.

“I knew I wanted to work in a position where I give back,” Haas said. “I’m able to be my empathetic and understanding self, which I think a lot comes from going through life as a person who stutters.”

After being in and out of speech therapy since the age of 4, Haas’s speech therapist encouraged him in 2010 to attend a meeting for the Syracuse chapter of the National Stuttering Association — a nonprofit organization that

aims to provide support to people who stutter — as a “learning opportunity.” At the time, he was not open about his stutter and had never met others with a stutter before.

“Those first few meetings were almost lifechanging,” Haas said. “It definitely helped me accept my stuttering and be more confident and comfortable about stuttering … I’ve met a lot of lifelong friends from the group. It’s helped me to grow into the person I’ve become.”

Within a few years of being in the group, Haas was asked to be its chapter leader.

In 2015, Haas gave a TEDx talk called “Weight of my words,” where he discussed the technicalities of stuttering and how the condition is often “misunderstood.”

“One of my duties that I take very seriously is informing and educating the public on speech disorders,” Haas said.

Renée McCaffrey, a development specialist at Sarah’s Guest House, describes Haas as her “partner in crime.” She said he provides a sensitive and calming energy when people visit the house.

McCaffrey said Haas is “very understated” and that many people don’t know he has such a large following on his social media platforms.

In 2020, Haas began a TikTok account @ syracusehistory, where he posts unknown stories about the city and its history. The account now has almost 300,000 followers. Haas, a Syracuse native, previously told The Daily Orange he is interested in interacting with the history of the city while sharing his opinions on ongoing local issues, such as the removal of Interstate 81.

“I always say, David, you’re a celebrity!” McCaffrey said.

McCaffrey said all in-person events at Sarah’s Guest House had to be canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic, but she did an online appeal to have an event called “Fund The House: Reach Our Rooftop!”

The fundraiser, which aimed to raise $30,000 in 10 days through online video emails, pledged to have Haas climb up to the roof of the house to “reach the rooftop” if it achieved its goal, McCaffrey said.

When they reached their goal, Haas and McCaffrey put a ladder up against the house and filmed Haas pretending to climb it. McCaffrey said the two of them led Sarah’s Guest House to receive the “Outstanding Fundraising Event” nonprofit award from the Central New York Business Journal for their “creativity.”

“I said to him, ‘I have never had so much fun doing a fundraising campaign as I did with that,’” McCaffrey said. “We just had so much fun with it.”

Haas said he is able to better connect with patients who are going through difficult situations in their lives through his “hidden handicap.” surya vaidy staff photographer

Haas said that guests are not charged for their stay but are encouraged to donate $25 per night. The nonprofit holds annual fundraisers, such as a gala and a golf tournament, to raise the funds they need, which he said can be a challenge but “not one they’re ever not up for.”

“It starts with compassion, and that compassion has to show when you do things like fundraising,” said Wrobel, who considers Haas his friend. Sarah’s Guest House is currently going through an expansion that will include 11 more bedrooms and an elevator, Haas said. The house

will also occupy the entirety of the building they previously only had half of, he said.

Haas said he is excited for the expansion because they can house a lot more people and increase accessibility for patients who can’t get upstairs without an elevator.

“It just makes you want to keep going because you know what our house can offer,” Haas said. “We know that the need is great and that our guests are coming from all different places, all walks of life and that our house is very crucial and important in the community.”

csamstag@syr.edu

Syracuse auditor announces Committee on Revenue and Expenses

By Julia Boehning asst. news editor Syracuse City Auditor Alexander Marion

marked his hundredth day in office Wednesday by announcing the launch of a new Committee on Revenue and Expenses with the goal of finding “innovative ways” to increase city revenue amid ongoing state funding concerns.

While the city has received federal funding through President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan, Marion said the relief will run out by 2025. He said the CORE team will aim to find new ways to internally address these financial issues throughout Syracuse.

“Big challenges call for action and creative solutions,” Marion said. “That’s exactly what my office will do to address the fiscal distress facing the city of Syracuse.”

The group, which he plans to appoint “within the coming weeks,” hopes to release a report outlining ways to raise revenue in the city by the end of the year, he said. It will consist of “leading financial and policy experts.”

Marion cited the city’s high poverty rates, persisting racial segregation and rising rent costs as examples of Syracuse’s ongoing financial struggles. While the local governments’ efforts to improve and build more housing will combat some of these issues, he said he believes the city should also address its “existing housing stock.”

In December 2023, Syracuse was ranked second out of large cities across the country for the highest child poverty rates. A few months later, a report from The New York Times revealed that the city had the greatest one-year rent increase — around 22% — among United States cities. “We’ve seen the headlines. We know the city of Syracuse leads the nation in categories we should

On his 100th day in office, Marion announced the launch of a new Committee on Revenue and Expenses to find ways to increase city revenue.

not be proud of,” Marion said. “(These housing efforts are) going to make a great difference to the city of Syracuse and contribute to the ongoing work of revitalizing our neighborhoods.”

Earlier this week, Marion met with local government officials and members of the Syracuse Tenants Union to call on Hochul to add Good Cause Eviction legislations — which protect tenants against rent hikes and unwarranted evictions — into the state’s budget. He said he is also working to analyze the city’s data sur-

rounding existing vacant parcels and building code violations.

Throughout his address, Marion also called on New York officials to allocate more funding towards local governments through the state’s Aid and Incentives for Municipalities program — which he said has not risen proportionally to the state budget.

Since 2012, AIM funding for the city of Syracuse has stagnated at around $71 million annually and has not increased consistently with the

rising costs nationally, Marion said. While the New York state budget has increased by 217% since the implementation of AIM, he said the “support from Albany” toward funding municipalities has not similarly grown.

“(Since 2012), the Syracuse city budget has increased (by) nearly 23%. That’s not profligate spending,” Marion said. “There has been (state) money to fund projects like a half-billion dollar renovation of the Belmont racetrack, a new stadium for my dear Buffalo Bills (and) building a now-defunct film studio in DeWitt.”

Introduced in the New York 2005-06 budget, the AIM program allocates funding to cities, towns and other municipalities across the state. When it was first implemented, then-governor George Pataki promised the state would increase the AIM budget by at least $99 million to $160 million each year, Marion said. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo changed this policy in 2012, keeping the funding at the level of the previous fiscal year.

Syracuse city officials have been working with state legislatures to encourage an increase in funding towards AIM, Marion said. He said he wrote a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul outlining “legislative proposals” to bring more funding into the program.

State Senator Rachel May also introduced legislation to “rewrite” how the state dedicates resources to local governments, Marion said. He thanked her for contributing to the “serious statewide conversation” about providing financial support to smaller legislative bodies.

In his one hundred days in office, Marion has also conducted several audits of ongoing city processes, such as its parking ticket system and its staffing of the Syracuse Police Department, he said.

In March, the city auditor’s office announced

Dark side of the moon

Despite the cloudy weather, hundreds of people stared up at the sky on Syracuse University’s campus to view the total solar eclipse

By Rosina Boehm asst. culture editor

Syracuse is known for its unpredictable weather, and Monday’s total solar eclipse was no different. Every time the clouds cleared enough for the sun to be visible, cheers from Syracuse University community members and visitors echoed throughout the Shaw Quadrangle and front lawn.

“It was really fun when everyone started screaming,” said junior Shira Rozen, who was going to sit on South Campus but was glad she chose to sit on the lawn. “There was an eruption, everyone was so excited. So human. So funny, because I didn’t expect that. It was funny to see it all.”

People from across New York state gathered on SU’s campus for optimal viewing of April 8’s solar eclipse because Syracuse was in the path of totality. The Quad was filled with activities to celebrate the unique event.

Drummers walked through the crowds, the Barnes Center at The Arch hosted a guided

back home. But no, I wanted a full eclipse.”

meditation and the physics department organized tours of the Holden Observatory – a rare opportunity to see the building.

On the Quad, the physics department also pitched a tent filled with booths for bracelet making, eclipse information and eclipse glasses. Junior Shan Carter, a physics major, helped distribute glasses and was surprised to discover people changed their plans just to observe the eclipse in the center of campus.

Across SU, professors canceled classes and some students even skipped them, Carter said. He also didn’t expect the hundreds of people viewing the eclipse on campus.

“I just love seeing everyone come out and have an appreciation for the concept that happens in their universe,” Carter said.

One visitor, 10-year-old Ron, ventured with family and friends to Syracuse from New York City. He skipped school for the once-in-a-lifetime event.

“I’m supposed to be having school today,” Ron said. “But we’re gonna be seeing partial

Ron’s family traveled with Evan Korth, who graduated from SU in 1991 with an accounting degree. He had never brought his wife of eight years or two children, ages 6 and 4, to SU, so the total eclipse was the perfect opportunity for the family to enjoy the moon’s darkness and for Korth to take a trip down memory lane.

“We were looking for a place for totality and looked across the United States and noticed that it was coming to my alma mater, where I haven’t been since 2002,” Korth said. “I dragged my wife and kids up here and we’re having the best time.”

Korth’s kids played with Ron and his siblings during the day. They came prepared with bubbles and a drone to keep the children occupied before the eclipse.

Korth, who now works as a New York University computer science professor, reunited with his friend Andy Lieberman, who graduated in 1992 with a retail degree. The pair, who were brothers in Sigma Alpha Mu, had not seen each other in a decade. On Friday, their fraternity held a reunion in NYC and now they found themselves back on campus to celebrate full totality.

Kalhaku McLester, an engineering senior, has been anticipating the eclipse for years. He said attending SU turned out to be a great opportunity to see totality.

He has had his own setup for planetary photography for years, including several GoPros, a professional camera and his phone. Alongside McLester, engineering senior Noah Goldstein set up two cameras.

“Definitely dipping my toes in a little bit further than I had before,” Goldstein said. “It’s just a nice opportunity to try and try and see the intersection of science and art.”

Matthew Todd and his dog Walter wait on the quad for the eclipse. Proper Eyewear was important as to not damage the eyes.

Goldstein captured videos showing the progression of the moon passing over the sun. He said even though cloud coverage wasn’t the ideal condition, he was still able to capture decent visuals of the eclipse.

Leaving his home at 7 a.m., Goldstein’s dad, Mark, joined him from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mark, an SU alum, doesn’t know if he will be around for the next total eclipse and said this was a great opportunity to enjoy it with his son at his alma mater.

Alex Gilson and Jill Sanders are students at Binghamton University and opted to take the short trip up to Syracuse instead of settling for a partial eclipse in Binghamton. They left around 9 a.m. and expected more traffic coming to Syracuse, but were the first people to claim their spots on the Quad around 11 a.m.

“A lot of cool things to witness and I think we get the

unique experience that we can see totality kind of close to where we were so it wasn’t like a long drive to get here,” Sanders said. “We were probably fine just watching it there. I was like ‘OK, but if we drive an hour and we can see totality, yeah.’”

The two sat in lawn chairs the whole day on the Quad. In preparation for the eclipse, Sanders grabbed ingredients for Gilson’s (not so) secret sandwiches – Italian bread with, preferably, mortadella (if it’s available), genoa salami and cheese.

“I went out shopping for supplies yesterday, and he sent me like three paragraphs,” Sanders said. Gilson and Sanders made a day out of their eclipse travels, shared their picnic and enjoyed the event on campus.

Even though some community members were sad about the cloudy conditions, the SU community still came together to celebrate the total eclipse. When the moon completely covered the sun, darkness blanketed campus at 3:23 p.m., allowing everyone to remove their glasses.

People on SU’s campus cheered until the moon continued on and the sun’s rays shone down on the crowd again.

“This is what I live for,” Carter said. “It’s truly an amazing opportunity to get involved with my community and show what we learned in the classroom and how it applies in the real world.”

Top Left: The sky darkened as the eclipse reached totality. The cloudy weather didn’t dampen the excitement of viewing this rare spectacle in the Syracuse area.

Photo by Joe Zhao asst. photo editor

Top Right: Noah Goldstein hunches over his laptop outside, fine-tuning his equipment for eclipse observation. He was one of many spectators with telescopes on the Quad.

Photo by Micah Greenberg staff photographer

Bottom Right : Students gather on SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry's main quad moments before totality.

Photo by Alexander Zhiltsov staff photographer

Bottom Left: Matthew Todd and his dog Walter prepare for the eclipse on the quad. Proper eyewear was important for all observers to prevent eye damage.

Photo by Lars Jendruschewitz asst. photo editor

Syracuse League of Women Voters encourages local voting

By Delia Rangel staff writer

Joan Durant, co-director of voter services at the League of Women Voters of Syracuse Metropolitan Area, learned the importance of voting at an early age. Now, she and the LWV are on a mission to educate teens and young adults about their voting rights and encourage early participation.

“A lot of the kids we talk to are so young and don’t want to think about (voting) yet, but it’s too bad because we need the vote, we need everybody’s vote,” Durant said.

The LWV is a nonpartisan political organization that encourages active government participation through education and advocacy, according to its website. The LWV has over 800 state and local leagues in all 50 states. Its “Get Out the Vote” initiative is focused on registering teenagers and young adults to vote with pre-registration beginning as early as 16, Durant said.

The LWV will offer presentations in classrooms at Corcoran High School, Public Service Leadership Academy at Fowler and Henninger High School throughout April. LWV volunteers will educate students about the primaries, the New York state Constitution and the New York Equal Rights Amendment — which will appear on the November 2024 ballot. LWV also provides students the opportunity to pre-register or register to vote, Durant said.

The volunteers make personal connections with students, said Dorothy Hares, a Syracuse University alumna and LWV volunteer who described these connections as a “warm feeling.”

from page 1

survivors

Wednesday’s event, held indoors for the first time in the Schine Student Center’s Panasci Lounge, featured a student dance performance, denim decorating activity, ice cream and appetizers, a survivor speak-out, a plant watering release activity and a grounding room.

The planning committee has been brainstorming how to reimagine the event since November. The decision to hold TBTN in the Panasci Lounge was an intentional choice to “re-emphasize that it’s student-centered,” said Kayla Turner, a senior neuroscience and sociology major minoring in psychology who helped plan the event.

In previous years, TBTN looked different — attendees marched through campus with signs and rallied on the front steps of Hendricks Chapel. Event organizers — Varo-Lucero, Turner and Leslie Skeffington, the assistant director for sexual and relationship violence prevention at the Barnes Center at The Arch — said they reimagined the event to “put the planning in the hands of the students.”

No matter what you wear, there’s no excuse for anyone to assault you. You’re seen and heard.

Diana Varo-Lucero talk back the night organizer

“They really wanted a space for healing and community building. I think that speaks to a lot of social justice things that are going on in the world,” Skeffington said. “We need a space for ourselves to know we’re not alone.”

Skeffington said her role at the Barnes Center was created in January. She said Barnes had a full-time SRV prevention specialist before the COVID-19 pandemic, but that after the pandemic it had become a “group effort,” adding that a full-time position was needed. She said she works 40 hours a week and that her job is “very specific and intentional to SRV prevention.”

“There’s been this really long history of folks that do the work that I do thinking that it’s a one size fits all, presenting the same content to every single community, and it’s just not like that,” Skeffington said.

Students and survivors typically respond better to interactive activities like those at Wednesday’s event, rather than “click-through PowerPoint presentations,” Skeffington said.

The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network reports that 13% of all undergraduate and graduate college students experience sexual assault or rape. RAINN found that college-age adults — students or not — are at “high risk” for sexual violence, with college-age women twice as likely to be sexually assaulted than robbed.

SU conducted an assessment of sexual and relationship violence on campus in a 2022 survey, which had more than 1,400 respondents

In the classroom, she uses studying for an exam as an analogy for voting.

“You need to be preparing — not for a quiz, but for more of an extensive exam. You prepare for it so you’re not anxious, when you walk into vote you’ve already gone through that decision process,” Hares said.

Hares served in the Peace Corps in Liberia, a volunteer-based government program that serves over 60 countries, according to its website. During her time in Liberia, she said she was inspired by the many women she met and decided to join her local LWV upon her return to the United States.

“You need to do your homework before you vote, your effort counts,” Hares said.

Voter education is especially important this year with the upcoming presidential election in November, Durant said. In the 2020 presidential election, voter turnout was lowest among those aged 18 to 24, at 51.4%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Samantha Espiritu, a freshman public relations student in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, recalled when her local league visited her high school in April 2023. Volunteers walked seniors through voter registration, Espiritu said.

“It was great that they came into our classes,” Espiritu said. “(Voting) may be something that is on the back of your mind but never gets done. To have it right in front of you in class was quick and easy.”

New York is one of 18 states that permit voter pre-registration at 16, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Preregistration allows teenagers to easily transition

into becoming eligible voters once they turn 18, according to Headcount.

“I was still 17 at the time, and now the election’s coming up in a few months and I’ll be ready,” Espiritu said.

LWV volunteers also table at Le Moyne College and Onondaga Community College and go door-

total — about 6% of SU’s 2022 student population. Approximately 17% of the survey’s respondents reported experiencing sexual harassment, 10% reported experiencing non-consensual sexual contact, 6% reported experiencing relationship abuse and 4% reported having been stalked during their time at SU.

Turner, a member of the TBTN planning committee and director of relationship violence advocacy in SU’s Student Association, is a survivor of sexual violence and a self-proclaimed advocate. She said the theme of this year’s TBTN is the three R’s “reflection, redemption and reclamation.”

TBTN began in the 1970s and its earliest activists protested against sexual violence and lack of safety for women, according to its website. Skeffington said SU and other universities in the United States have held marches and survivor speak-outs for decades.

The event planning committee kept TBTN’s traditions in mind, Turner said, but sought to center the event around students and survivors by planning new activities to create “different avenues of healing.”

Varo-Lucero said she thinks having the survivor speak out in the same space as other activities allows students to “ventilate,” given the intensity of the topic. The planning committee decided to include a “grounding room” where attendees could speak with a staff therapist if they were feeling overwhelmed.

Turner, Varo-Lucero and Skeffington all said the denim decorating activity was also planned very intentionally.

Denim Day is the longest-standing protest against sexual violence, Skeffington said. In Rome in 1992, an 18-year-old girl was raped by her 45-year-old driving instructor. She reported the rape, and he was convicted and sent to jail. But in 1999, the driving instructor appealed the sentence under a claim the sex was consensual. His conviction was overturned in the Italian High Court and he was released, according to Denim Day’s website.

“The judge’s statement was like, those jeans were so tight, there’s no way she couldn’t have helped to take them off,” Skeffington said.

Women in the Italian Parliament protested the judge’s decision by wearing jeans to work. The protest received international media attention and spurred movements worldwide.

The planning committee decided to incorporate denim into the event to remind attendees that there is no excuse for sexual assault.

“No matter what you wear, there’s no excuse for anyone to assault you,” Varo-Lucero said. “You’re seen and heard.”

Denim Day 2024 is on Wednesday, April 24. Millions of people worldwide will wear jeans “with a purpose,” according to its website.

“It’s important to keep that going. All those really harmful rape myths are still out there,” Skeffington said. “Maybe they’re not talked about as directly anymore, but they’re still out there.”

Turner said the plant-watering activity was also carefully thought out. Attendees had the opportunity to write down anything they wanted to release on dissolvable paper and put it in a container of water, which will then be used to water several plants in the Barnes Center, which is a symbol of growth, Varo-Lucero said.

Danis Cammett, a junior in Army ROTC said he attended TBTN because it’s a “phenomenal” event to support survivors, and also an opportunity for ROTC to “come together closer” with the rest of campus.

Cammett said he organized a 5K run — which is being held at 6:30 a.m. on April 11 outside of Hendricks — in honor of survivors of sexual violence survivors in the military. He said sexual violence is a “huge problem” in the U.S. military.

“These people have to be looked after as survivors. We need to take a stand against sexual assault, sexual harassment,” he said. “That doesn’t just mean taking a stand when that happens or after it happens, but that means paying attention to behaviors that we have in our everyday community.”

Turner — who is graduating next month — said Wednesday’s event was “bittersweet” because it’s the last one she helped coordinate, but that it’s been amazing to see how far SU’s campus has come in the past four years.

“It’s a very beautiful (event) because I think resilience and reclamation of survivorship is something that starts with being able to amplify the voices of the oftentimes unheard and unbelieved,” Turner said.

to-door in Syracuse’s Southside neighborhood in an effort to motivate residents to vote, Durant said.

“The representatives we vote for need to represent all of us. We need more people, we need the numbers, we need people to get out there and use their vote,” Durant said.

dsrangel@syr.edu

from page 1

dai

Dai has been using prescribed medication for “severe depression and anxiety” though it “had not helped,” USA Today reported in November. Federal Public Defender Lisa Peebles said in court that Dai has an undiagnosed mental disability and is likely on the autism spectrum. She said his strength as a student “masked an apparent development disability,” citing isolation at Cornell and a three-semester leave of absence from the university.

Within four hours of his last post on Greekrank, Dai wrote an apology letter, which was written under the name “depressed suicidal person,” and accepted the possibility of punishment, CNY Central reported.

Peebles proposed that Dai be released on conditions, such as GPS monitoring. United States Magistrate Judge Thérèse Wiley Dancks said she saw no conditions in which the community and Dai would be safe, according to USA Today.

Dai told FBI agents in a November interview that his posts were intended to vilify Hamas and support Israel, according to CNY Central. He claims that his intent was to “support Jewish students by trying to show that pro-Hamas language is abhorrent,” CNY Central reported.

“The federal felony conviction he sustains today underscores that those who break the law by making violent threats will be found and prosecuted, even if they attempt to hide by posting anonymously,” U.S. Attorney Carla Freedman said in the release.

kaluther@syr.edu

@kendallaluther

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marion

that Syracuse had issued over 62,000 parking tickets in 2023. The report found inconsistencies in the frequency of tickets issued across different times and regions in the city, with some being more commonly targeted than others.

Marion also highlighted his office’s ongoing work to audit the city’s licensing and permitting process. He said he hopes to complete a report reviewing the process by the end of May.

The review will present recommendations for facilitating the process such as improving technology to improve user-friendliness.

Both ongoing audits will include “shortand-long-term solutions” to these issues, Marion said.

“When I was sworn in, I talked about Syracuse being a second-chance city, and this was our opportunity to give our city auditor’s office its second chance,” Marion said. “I’m pleased to report, 100 days in, that second chance looks brighter than ever.”

jmboehni@syr.edu

The League of Women Voters of Syracuse Metropolitan Area will offer voting presentations in classrooms at several local schools throughout April. courtesy of joan durant

As part of the event, members of Creations Dance performed to the song ‘Cranes in the Sky’ by Solange. lars jendruschewitz asst. photo editor

its closing share price to $1 or more for ten business days in a row. As of Wednesday night, the company’s share price was at $0.35.

Phil Hill, an educational technology consultant, said the combination of competition among online program management providers, increased interest rates and regulatory concerns has led to 2U’s “financial crisis.” He added that if the company doesn’t refinance this year, it will go bankrupt.

(SU’s) programs will need to determine (if they) are getting the same services while 2U is so focused on its finances and fixing their situation.

Phil Hill

Even if 2U goes bankrupt, Hill said it will still be able to operate. He added that in any scenario — such as if the company declares bankruptcy, remedies its debt by selling parts of the company, convinces debt holders to refinance the company’s debt or gets acquired by another company — the company will be “focused on their finances and keeping the company financially alive.”

“It’s not a matter of suddenly Syracuse loses its services,” Hill said. “(SU’s) programs will need to determine (if they) are getting the same services while 2U is so focused on its finances and fixing their situation.”

The company’s financial struggles have resulted in restructuring and the mutual termination of relationships with partner universities, such as the University of Southern California — a university that will operate its online programs in-house.

While working with 2U, the company took more than half of USC’s online tuition dollars and contributed to a budget crisis in its social work school, according to the Los Angeles Times. Graduates of USC’s online Master’s in Social Work program filed a lawsuit against USC in May 2023, claiming that the school hid that its online program was outsourced to 2U and said it provides a “fundamentally different” academic experience compared to the on-campus program. On April 2, the Los Angeles Supreme Court issued an order allowing discovery in the case to move forward.

As 2U engages in “constructive discussions” with lenders, improves its performance and “right-size(s)” its balance sheet, the company is not considering any options that would cause the company to cease operations or end programs in which students are currently enrolled, a 2U spokesperson wrote in an email to The D.O.

“2U is taking action to position the company for long-term success,” the spokesperson wrote in the email. “We are confident that we can navigate our current challenges while maintaining the quality of our offerings.”

Student Borrow Protection Center Executive Director Mike Pierce wrote in a statement that the focus for universities, regulators and enforcement agencies is to protect students from 2U’s potential collapse. He wrote companies like 2U are “propped up” by college partners; they have grown dependent on the company to deliver instruction, recruiting, marketing and financial aid to students.

“Students are bearing the burden from risks taken by private-sector ed tech firms like 2U,” Pierce wrote. “The writing is on the wall: 2U is spiraling, and the regulators and enforcement agencies have done nothing to prepare for the inevitable impact this will have on the students who were fleeced or misled by a company working in the shadows.”

Ben Kaufman, a fellow at the SBPC, echoed that SU must remain focused on protecting and mitigating harm for students amid 2U’s financial struggles.

“The biggest question is just, if 2U is facing financial problems, what is Syracuse doing to prepare for the possibility of disruption at 2U, to protect students from bearing the brunt of it?” Kaufman wrote in a statement to The D.O.

Hill suggested that university administrators choose to either negotiate a better contract with 2U, pursue partnerships with other online education providers like Coursera or provide online education programs “in-house” rather than outsourcing due to the “risky environment” of OPMs. He added that 2U’s financial crisis will most likely cause “scrutiny” if SU introduces a new online program in the future.

Contract management and an internal review of SU’s online capabilities will also be an

important factor in making a decision that best benefits online students, Hill said.

There is significant concern among online education activists about the OPM model of companies like 2U, with some wanting it outlawed, Hill said. He said these activists will most likely leverage 2U’s financial situation, the USC lawsuit and increased federal regulations targeting online education to dissuade other schools from partnering with similar OPM providers.

“I don’t think online is going away, but it is just becoming more and more risky because of regulatory issues and financial issues,” Hill said. “It’ll slow things down, but the biggest impact will be in the media and the public perception.”

saolande@syr.edu

flynn ledoux contributing illustrator

educational technology consultant

At 90 years old, professor emeritus Marvin Druger’s birthday party had more than 100 attendees

with current and former members of the SU community.

Dressed in a Burger King crown and a “Hugh Hefner” robe, Syracuse University professor emeritus Marvin Druger received his birthday party guests Sunday in the Heroy Geology Building’s atrium. Sitting on an office chair “throne” with a line of people waiting to speak with him, he celebrated his 90th birthday

“(Druger) has touched so many people's lives and made an impact on so many people,” said Amy Dygert, who worked with Druger when she was a student. “It will be amazing to come together and celebrate him and let him see how many people he's impacted.”

Dygert said Druger is known for his “larger-than-life personality” and is as iconic to the SU community as Otto the Orange. Druger taught BIO 121 and 123 for 47 years and, after retiring from SU in 2008, he “unretired” by continuing to give

campus tours, writing for 55 Plus Magazine, publishing poetry books and teaching over 40,000 elementary, university and adult Syracuse students. Beloved by students and faculty over his tenure, the event was an opportunity for around 100 community members to celebrate him.

One of Druger’s many “Marvinisms,” or mottos he lives by, is that 10 out of 10 people die. This is the main reason he’s “unretired” at 90 — he wants to do more before he has to do less. He is particularly proud of the beautiful life he’s had, teaching tens of thousands of students and living 60 years with his wife, Patricia Meyers Druger, who died in 2014.

University Union will host Lil Yachty, Teezo Touchdown and ISOxo along with student DJ group FEEM for this year’s Block Party on April 26 at 7 p.m.

Lil Yachty is a rapper, singer and songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia. Lil Yachty has dabbled in several genres with his latest album, “Let’s Start

Here,” combining alternative rock and hip hop.

The album debuted at the top of the Billboard Top Rock & Alternative Albums list in January 2023. Outside of music, he’s collaborated with several different brands, started his own nail polish brand “Crete” and launched a frozen pizza company “Deep Cuts Yachty’s

“How Do You Sleep At Night,” “the future of rap rock.” Touchdown has been featured on songs by artists such as Drake, Tyler, the Creator, Travis Scott and André 3000.

2024 Block Party

Rounding out the three visiting performers is ISOxo. After releasing a few singles, ISOxo teamed up with RL Grime for the song “Stinger” and went on an eight-stop tour in 2022. In 2024, he collaborated with Skrillex at OMFG and performed at music festivals like Ultra, Coachella and Electric Forest. FEEM is made up of four SU seniors: Dominic Brancoli, Michael Lieberman, Max Cohen and Anish Vasudevan. The group will “bring their eclectic mix of house, disco, UKG and dance music to their largest space yet,” according to the press release.

Story by Rose Boehm asst. culture editor

Photos by Maxine Brackbill photo editor

Marvin Druger spends his 90th birthday in the atrium of the Heroy Geology Building at Syracuse University. maxine brackbill photo editor

Comedian, actor Sherry Cola is unapologetically herself

By Sydney Brockington asst. digital editor

Audience members shouted out to comedian and actress Sherry Cola throughout her stand-up segment. The show was filled with back-andforth banter as Cola asked some audience members to express their pet peeves and others to guess her age.

“I feel like I’m at Coachella right now,” Cola said Tuesday as she took center stage in Goldstein Auditorium.

University Union and the Office of Multicultural Affairs hosted Cola for Syracuse University’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Commemorative Speaker event. Cola is best known for her roles in “Joy Ride” (2023) and the Freeform series “Good Trouble.” She most recently starred in “The Tiger’s Apprentice,” alongside Sandra Oh, Henry Golding and Michelle Yeoh.

Cola is a rising star in the entertainment industry and named one of “11 Asian American comics who killed it this year” by Entertainment Weekly. Her Tuesday show was one of many events of SU’s AAPI Heritage Month programming.

“I think being a part of the AAPI community is everything. I’m an immigrant. I’m Chinese American. I’m also part of the LGBTQ+ community and I’m also a woman,” Cola said. “We were brainwashed into thinking they were weaknesses.”

A Shanghai, China, native, Cola didn’t see many entertainers who looked like her growing up. Now, she embraces her identity as a superpower. Her tenure on “Good Trouble” helped Cola recognize these powers. She said “Joy Ride” was the first film of its kind as it featured Asian Americans in an R-rated setting.

“The journey is the dream when it comes to being someone like me in the industry ‘cause I feel like society never really rooted for any of my identities, and yet we are resilient,” Cola said.

To Cola, there’s not an “I made it” moment, she said. Her high-profile projects have been both fulfilling and humbling. She originally

started on radio and never loses sight of these roots. After being featured on “The View” and “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” she thanked

trailblazers like Michelle Yeoh and Ali Wong who paved the way for Asian actors. These moments also remind her that opportunities must be earned.

Her show on Tuesday was intimate — ranging in topics from pet peeves to college life. The audience was entranced by infectious jokes as she called out to audience members. SU sophomore Belinda Chan was part of this crowd. She watched Cola’s 2023 film “Shortcomings” and was drawn to her humor. Other audience members were just happy that SU was hosting an AAPI comedian.

“Personally, I don’t really know her but I was glad that there’s someone part of the AAPI community who’s doing stand-up,” SU creative writing student Daphnee Chu said. “I feel like we don’t have a lot of those.”

Cola is always thrilled to do events at colleges and universities, she said. She saw comedian Paul Ogata during her years at California State University, Fullerton. This experience shaped her and led her to Tuesday’s show at SU, she said. Performances like these are vision boards for students who don’t know where to start.

“I’m pretty sure there will be a lot of people in the audience who don’t know who I am,” Cola said. “But just being a student and watching someone express through their craft is really special and that’s what happened to me. That’s the impact it made on me when I saw Paul perform.”

Tuesday’s show ended with a Q&A session hosted by SU senior Celine Wang. Cola described her experiences as a queer woman of color in the film industry.

“It took a while for me to realize that me being unapologetically in my skin and loud about it is only going to be an advantage, but it is terrifying,” Cola said. “Because society, Hollywood, this country thinks of you a certain way and wants you to settle for less. No, we need to take up space.”

sabrocki@syr.edu

SU highlights 2 Hispanic poets in joint ‘Cruel April’ poetry reading

By Ava Lombardi asst. copy editor

All month long, members of the Syracuse community can gather to listen to readings by poets from around the world through the Point of Contact Gallery’s Cruel April poetry series. After last week’s reading by former U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, this week will be the first of the series to feature two artists.

“One is a Mexican poet and one is a Cuban poet, and they have two unique stories to share,” said Bryce Preston, office coordinator for the Office of Cultural Engagement for the Hispanic Community. “Presenting these poets together in the same poetry reading will allow their voices to be understood by the audience both individually and as part of a poetic dialogue.”

Cruel April is a poetry reading series put on annually by Point of Contact Gallery, a nonprofit cultural arts organization in residence at Syracuse University that brings contemporary visual and verbal arts to the city. The series, which is free to the public, will run from April 4 to 25 and commemorates National Poetry Month. Readings take place on Fayette Street, Ostico Street and virtually.

Hispanic poets Marcelo Hernandez Castillo and Dashel Hernandez Guirado will read their work in the Nancy Cantor Warehouse on April 11 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

“Corresponding Voices (Vol. 15),” Point of Contact’s annual poetry publication, features both of the poets. They will read new works from the composition, Preston said.

Originally from Cuba, Guirado came to America in 2016 and received his executive master’s degree in public administration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in 2018. He currently resides in Miami and defines himself as a “painter that also writes.”

“My profession is in visual art, I began painting as a kid and it became my main focus,” Guirado said. “By the time I was 19 or 20 years old, I realized that writing had become an essential part of my creativity.”

Similarly, Castillo, born in Mexico and raised in California, never considered himself “the best writer” but felt that language was the best medium to explore his love for metaphors.

Castillo travels around the country sharing work from his poetry books, “Children of the Land,” “Dulce” and “Cenzontle,” and, more recently, from a manuscript he has been “experimenting with.” He said he enjoys the conversations inspired by his readings and looks forward to the upcoming discussion in Syracuse.

“I learn so much about my poems from other peoples’ reading of them,” Castillo said. “It reminds me that the poems aren’t finished. People give me interpretations on details that I would never think of, and it can be really profound. I am most excited to meet the SU students for this reason.”

As an SU alumnus, Guirado is excited to visit campus for the first time since he graduated. He said he looks forward to seeing old friends and professors and still holds “very fond memories’’ of his time at SU.

Like many Hispanic writers, Guirado writes in Spanish and refuses to write poetry in English. The works he reads publicly are translated from his three original poetry collections, titled “Meditaciones,” “Iluminaciones’’ and “El ancho río del silencio.”

“I love English, it is my second language and I can communicate with it fluently,” Guirado said. “But I didn’t come (to America) when I was a child. My mother language is Spanish, and I simply cannot write poetry in English.”

Preston said the night will include the readings, questions from the audience and a book signing opportunity. The event will be followed by a reception where guests can meet the poets, both of whom “offer a unique perspective” to the Syracuse community, Preston said.

Castillo hopes attendees will show up to the reading with an open mind, ready to welcome

all perspectives and thoughts that will be present in the room.

“I often tell listeners, ‘You don’t have to understand a poem, you just have to experience it,’” Castillo said. “I don’t have expectations of any grand epiphany or understanding of my work. I hope the audience — especially the college students — can slow down for a little bit and just experience.”

aalombar@syr.edu

Stevenson brings new aspects of body horror in ‘The First Omen’

By Sam Chapnick screentime columnist

Advertised on its poster as “the most terrifying movie of the year,” director Arkasha Stevenson comes out swinging and certainlydeliversin“TheFirstOmen,”herfeaturedirectorial debut.Whilethefilmissuretofrightenthosewhoscareeasily (likemyself),thisreligiousthrillerisdefinitelyworthseeing.

Even though its release was just two weeks after Sydney Sweeney’s similar film

“Immaculate,” Stevenson’s “The First Omen” is a pleasant addition to an “Omen” franchise marred by poor sequels and remakes. This film’s combination of incredible acting, striking imagery and a script featuring the devil — or in this case the Antichrist — serves up one nightmarish tale.

A prequel to Richard Donner’s 1976 classic starring Gregory Peck, “The First Omen” explores the origins of the famed numerical

moniker of the devil, “666” and how Damien, the Antichrist, was born.

Set in 1971 Rome, Italy, “The First Omen” follows Margaret (Nell Tiger Free), a young American novice about to take the veil of a nun. Tasked by her mentor Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy), Margaret goes to an orphanage run by Sister Silvia (Sônia Braga) to guide the younger generation back to the church amid the protests and riots occurring throughout the city.

As life around the orphanage becomes more sinister, Margaret is approached by a terrified Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson), an excommunicated priest. The church “will stop at nothing” to remain in power, so Margaret must peel back the dense layers of church secrecy while questioning her own sanity and identity in the process.

In an industry where studios drain the lifeblood from their intellectual property with

Point of Contact Gallery will host Hispanic poets Marcelo Hernández Castillo and Dashel Hernández Guirado as a part of this year’s Cruel April poetry series. joe zhao asst. photo editor

Actress and comedian Sherry Cola performed at Syracuse University this week. Originally from Shanghai, China, Cola embraces her AAPI identity as a “superpower.” joe zhao asst. photo editor

slice of life

Our humor columnist barely survived the eclipse

By Sarah Wells humor columnist

“Thrilling,” “beautiful” or “historic.” That’s how a lot of people described the total eclipse of the sun that happened this past Monday. Me? I described it as a nightmare. Sure, I was really excited when I first heard about it.

“Oooooh, an eclipse?” I said, jumping up and down with glee. “What on Earth is an eclipse?”

As soon as my friends told me what it was, I immediately lost all enthusiasm. I mean, the sky getting dark during the day? That’s weird. Weird and stupid. And also dumb. I’m not even quite convinced it’s science, frankly.

Okay, I’ll be honest with you guys … I may be a little bit afraid of the dark. I think it all started when my cousin locked me in the dryer as a kid. I go to bed at 4:30 p.m. to make sure I don’t even see the sunset, let alone be caught in the dark.

So, upon hearing the TRUTH about the

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“I've accumulated all this information, knowledge and experiences, which I'd love to pass on to people,” Druger said. “I try to do it in my writings, but eventually, it's going to end. It’s closer to the end than it is to the beginning.”

Druger’s health has declined, and he had to sit for most of his party. When he returns to SU to give historical tours, a graduate student pushes him around in a transport chair. However, he said he enjoys the experience of sitting in one spot and talking about the little things he loves.

About 15 years ago, Druger had an emergency surgery because of a sudden twist in his colon. Then, 10 years later, he started having gastrointestinal symptoms. Coincidentally, one of Druger’s former students, Dr. David Nesbitt, was sure it was scar tissue from the first surgery. Nesbitt was right.

Nesbitt said that he saved Druger, but also killed him. Despite being years removed from the surgery, it’s an operation he is still recovering from today.

“I tell everybody that my insides are a mess. They told me it looks like a jigsaw puzzle,” Druger said. “Everything's connected to the wrong thing. And I really survive on my mouth, my mind and my money. And my son, who's an ophthalmologist, says, ‘mostly your mouth.’”

With the New York Times’ obituaries filled with people who died in their 60s and 70s, Druger said he avoids reading that section of the paper. It makes him ask himself, “What the hell am I doing here at 90?”

However, he said his long life is an opportunity to make an impact on as many people as he can, continuing with radio shows and writing. With Chancellor Kent Syverud in attendance, Druger is still devoted to SU.

The two posed with a cardboard cutout of Druger for photographers. While Druger worked at the university, Syverud said he was the university’s “nexus,” exemplifying the importance of celebrating him over a decade after his retirement.

“Every time I saw him, he always had something to tell me we should make better at the university,” Syverud said. “The first thing was the benches between Newhouse and Schine because they were on angles so people slid off the ends and we had to level the benches for Marvin.”

Kay Fiset, a former SU summer session administrator, remembers long conversations with Druger in which he’d tell her tales about anything and everything. Druger’s birthday

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reboots and remakes, “The First Omen” is a breath of fresh air, taking artistic license while flipping the male-dominated horror genre on its head.

“We pitched this through the lens of female body horror,” Stevenson said in an interview with IndieWire.

While this subgenre of horror is normally associated with films like “The Fly” (1986) or “The Thing” (1982), Stevenson beautifully subverts the idea of body horror to tell a timely story about the relationship between religion and body autonomy shown by the way the church wants to use women’s bodies for their own agenda.

Portraying a theme of this magnitude is no small feat. However, Stevenson respects the audience enough to give an artistic interpretation of mature ideas while still managing to entertain. The film has a timely political message, but the script doesn’t lecture this theme of body autonomy to viewers. Instead, the film blends an important message with entertainment, creating a cathartic visual experience where the audience can live through Margaret and create their own meaning.

Together, Stevenson’s background in photojournalism and cinematographer Aaron Morton’s skills perfectly manipulate the camera, creating visual motifs and beautifully grotesque imagery that adds

eclipse, I decided to take action. I was not going to be scared of the dark anymore.

I started by simulating what the solar eclipse was going to look like. To do this, I locked myself in a closet with a colander on my head before turning off the lights. Then, I shone a flashlight at the colander to simulate the sun before covering a hole with my finger to simulate the moon covering it. This all went great before I started hyperventilating and couldn’t get out of the closet. (Apparently, I locked it from the outside?) I lost steam pretty quickly after that. My roommate needed the colander back to make a salad, anyway, so it was fine.

Then, for the first time ever, I actually turned the lights off to go to bed. Sure, I still had my Smurfs night light (it’s always comforting having Smurfette looking at me with her dead eyes), but I actually made it to 9:30 p.m. — five whole hours — before I turned my lamp back on! Pretty exciting stuff. I may have been get-

party was the first time she was back on campus for 13 years.

She said, like many others, Druger always made people laugh. She feels fortunate to have worked with him closely.

“It's very funny when you know somebody pretty well, you know that they're celebrated, but you don’t think about (it) when you're talking to them,” Fiset said.

What sets Druger apart is his desire to be more engaging and encourage motivational learning. Peeking out of his Smith Hall window, he would do “Druger Drops,” which included him throwing answer keys to his tests after students had taken them. He used to even leave his phone open for calls the night before a test to iron out any issues students had while studying.

“You'll remember the experience. You won't remember the information. What kids remember from my class is not the mitochondria, they remember I throw answer keys out the window,” Druger said. “Then, everybody says, ‘Well, this guy's a joker. He's an entertainer. It's not really teaching them anything.’”

Because of his approach, many faculty members would criticize Druger’s teaching style, but he insists that he never diluted the content. The importance of finding what makes each student unique is much more important, he said.

“I sort of think of it like grains of sand on the beach is billions of grains of sand,” Druger said. “You say ‘That's not very important because there are so many of them,’ but every grain of sand is different, and so that makes that grain of sand, special and important”

After going to a private high school, Marcie Swirnow was used to knowing her teachers well. Druger made an effort to understand his students despite the large lecture, she said. He even checked in on his students during their lab periods and asked her to be a part of a Newsweek article about him — which she accepted.

His engaging style has influenced students from his years of teaching and has even been the catalyst for career changes. Swirnow is one such example. Despite graduating with a broadcast and digital journalism degree from Newhouse School of Public Communications, Druger ignited her passion for science with his introductory biology course. From there, she took more classes to go to graduate school for physical therapy.

“My whole career trajectory changed after his class,” Swirnow said. “I had no interest in physical therapy or anything in the science field whatsoever.

to the dread and subtext of the story. The extreme close-ups of bloodshot eyes mixed with the orange color palette add demented artistry. Camera movements are well chosen, crafting an environment of creepy isolation.

What’s sure to blow audiences away is the way Stevenson pushes the boundaries of what can be shown on screens. The film narrowly avoided an NC-17 rating, resulting in the editing of a jawdropping scene in a birthing clinic.

“If we were going to talk about female body horror, we were going to talk about forced reproduction, and we have to be able to show the female body in a non-sexualized light,” Stevenson said.

It is in these envelope-pushing moments that “The First Omen” packs the greatest punch. The film is memorable because of its jumpscares suspenseful sequences, playing off of the wonderfully palpable sense of freedom in Stevenson’s directorial style.

The film didn’t feel like the generic major studio horror film with calculated jumpscares. Instead, Stevenson plays with the camerawork and editing, creating strobelike effects that garner great visual reveals and suspense.

While Stevenson develops her voice throughout the film, she also pays great homage to the original “The Omen.” Stevenson not only reimagines some of the film’s original scares but also creates

ting up and checking the closet for killer dolls every couple of minutes (I accidentally watched “M3GAN” thinking it was the “Barbie” movie), but I’m pretty proud of myself.

When April 8 rolled around, I was ready. I slept with the light off for a few minutes. I had worn a colander. No one was more prepared than me.

Or at least, that’s what I thought before I put on those eclipse glasses. I tried them on inside, and you know what happened? EVERYTHING WAS DARK. I mean, pitch black. Apparently, you can’t see out of eclipse glasses? Did anyone think to warn me about this? No. If someone had warned me, maybe I wouldn’t have thrown up and passed out on the floor of the Schine Student Center in shock and fear.

Turns out, I slept through totality. But all in all, I survived the 2024 solar eclipse. And I only peed myself a little bit. And isn’t that something to be proud of? sswells@syr.edu

I was there for Newhouse. I went from Newhouse to being a physical therapist.”

Outside of the classroom, Druger was part of several different organizations that spread science to the public. Dygert was part of a National Science Foundation Grant program in which Druger was the primary investigator. The grant focused on supporting STEM classrooms in the Syracuse City School District by working with SU students.

Dygert met her now-husband while working on the grant. Whether Druger knows it or not, the Dygert family credits him for their relationship and two sons. Druger would always joke about the couple, too. When they had to go to Washington, D.C. for a grant report, Druger would say the couple could share a hotel room and decrease the cost of the trip.

“We met on that grant and so Marv always would joke that the best thing to come out of that grant was our family because that was almost 20 years ago,” Dygert said. “We started dating, we got married and we've got two little boys now.”

Former students and others close to Druger, including Swirnow and Dygert, sent in testimonials as a present for his birthday. In a letter to Druger, Jeremy Mariani, who graduated from SU in 2013 with a degree in psychology, said he remembers the “Druger Drop” and Frontiers of Science lectures fondly. Mariani was one of the last students to take one of his courses at SU.

Druger’s legacy is “immeasurable,” Mariani said. He said Druger’s energy — even in his last semesters — made the class engaging.

“I think it's fitting for someone of his stature, someone a mentor to so many people, so many students,” Mariani said. “So many researchers that I know have come out of the university, and I've learned so much from him.”

His birthday party reflected 90 years of life that impacted thousands of people like Mariani. The Heroy Geology Building was filled with Druger’s accomplishments at SU, along with many books and publications he was featured in. Throughout the party, Druger joked with his guests and requested an encore from Otto Tunes, who sang “Happy Birthday” after he cut his cake’s first slice. Looking back, he urges others to live life how they want.

“Be there. Don't miss it. If you miss it, nobody can tell you what you missed,” Druger said. “We learn from everything that we do, and everything that we do becomes part of what we are.” rlboehm@syr.edu

a ‘70s nostalgia with sweeping landscape shots and unnatural zoom-ins. Furthermore, composer Mark Korven reuses some of Jerry Goldsmith’s ethereal operatic themes that perfectly crescendo along with the film.

As Margaret, Free gives a beautifully harrowing performance in a role that carries so much weight. She perfectly embodies the intense physicality of the role needed to thrust the audience into this thriller, playing on Stevenson’s directorial fervor.

While the pacing of the script progressed smoothly throughout the first two acts, the story faltered at its climax. When big reveals were needed, the audience was met with densely layered plot points that threatened to wake the audience up from their waking nightmare. Additionally, at some points, the main plot felt a bit predictable, undermining the incredible underlying gender narrative.

“The First Omen” is not only a wonderful ode to Donner’s classic but also to ‘70s filmmaking. Despite some structural problems in the plot, the film’s director and star made up for it. Hopefully, the future holds more films for Stevenson, so she can continue to subvert overused tropes and change the gender landscape of horror filmmaking. spwright@syr.ed @stephaniwri_

CONCERTS THIS WEEKEND

The Song & Dance

Small Town Shade is performing on Friday night at The Song & Dance. Hailing from central New York, the four-piece band is known for their alternative rock sound and has opened for musicians like Love and Theft, Tyler Farr and Frankie Ballard. Tickets are available for purchase online.

WHEN: April 12th at 8 p.m

PRICE: $14.63

Funk ‘n Waffles

Saint Luke and Dipsea Flower are performing this Thursday at Funk ‘n Waffles. Saint Luke, a singersongwriter from Patterson, New Jersey, most recently released “SOS!” in February. Dipsea Flower is a four-piece band best known for their folk-rock sound. Tickets for the show are available online.

WHEN: April 11 at 8 p.m

ARTIST: $13.07

Westcott Theater

Keller Williams is set to take the stage at Westcott Theater Saturday. The singer-songwriter performs bluegrass, folk, alternative rock and reggae and most recently released the album “Droll.” Williams has toured with Yonder Mountain String Band, The String Cheese Incident and more. Tickets to see Williams are available online.

WHEN: April 13 at 8 p.m.

PRICE: $30-$100

The 443 Social Club & Lounge

Coming from Woodstock, New York, Professor Louie & the Crowmatix will visit The 443 Saturday night. The five-time Grammy award nominee’s sound is inspired by rock, blues, gospel and other Americana genres. Inducted into the New York state chapter of the Blues Hall of Fame, the fivepiece band has been performing together for nearly 25 years and has performed at over 150 venues, according to the band’s website. Tickets for the show are available online.

WHEN: April 13 at 7 p.m

PRICE: $23.11-65.75

The Lost Horizon

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WHEN: April 12 at 7 p.m

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International students from China experience art education differently in the

By Andy Bian guest columnist

Editor’s Note: Four years ago, The Daily Orange Opinion section launched a collaboration with SU’s WeMedia Lab. The project, “International Voice,” was dedicated to sharing the perspectives of international students using WeMedia Lab’s WeChat platform to translate articles.

Now, The D.O. is re-introducing the project in the hopes of creating a space for even more international voices. Why do I find it harder to come up with my own creative ideas?

When it comes to recalling the art education that I experienced in China, I feel a huge difference from the teaching style at Syracuse University that I observed. Not to mention, I was in an international school, which already lies away from the ordinary art education in China. Experiencing that style of art education truly would have led me to tears.

“I think it can be incredibly challenging and confusing and disorienting for those students who’ve never experienced this expectation of creativity,” said Sarah Long, an SU professor who teaches CAR137: Introductory Computer Art, about the differences between an American and Chinese art education.

Upon hearing her response, I paused for a moment of reflection, suddenly not feeling surprised. A few days later, while discussing topics of creativity and art, I had a deeper conversation with Long, leading to further reflections from my individuality to a bigger picture.

In my experience, the creative process follows a strict set of steps, being outlined in the syllabus and emphasized by the instructor on a daily basis.

Our instructor would evaluate whether each person’s sketchbook demonstrates experimentations, practices and reflections, which are three grading criteria for the AP 2D design exam. Gradually, I noticed some of my international school classmates brainstorming and experimenting just for the sake of doing so, and creating artwork before conceiving ideas.

Such an approach has the most obvious metric that helps students to align with the “sustain investigation” requirement of the subject. Meanwhile, the polished and “well-supported” ideas can help them earn scores in AP exams that are credible to exchange college credits.

I began to think differently about this approach after taking CAR131 at SU. In class, Long brought a different attitude toward the idea development: there were no prompts for the assignments that encouraged students to think of anything.

“Every student is different, and the creative process is also different,” Long said, “I don’t dictate the creative process, such as using sketchbooks. If the process doesn’t suit them, the students won’t put in their best efforts. My course focuses more on students’ exploration of their own creative process.”

I was shocked after hearing this and wondered how students can make great art without guidance in an introductory course. I pondered the reason why I struggled to generate ideas as she suggested that open-ended ideas are “challenging.”

Long’s teaching style reflects the environment of how American students’ creativity are

nurtured, leading me to a further exploration about dealing with my “idea drought.”

For most Chinese students, it is undeniable that art education for creativity is marginalized. Such education mostly focuses on fine arts: color, sketching, drawing, large proportion, tone etc. In the meantime, most students study for “Yi Kao,” known for China’s college entrance examination for art majors. Students are tested based on their ability to draw more realistically and express textures and details in the way the rubric deems; if Vincent Van Gogh were to draw during the art exam, he would probably be fading into obscurity and mediocrity.

This phenomenon also conforms, from my perspective, to the influence of the utilitarianism of art on Chinese students. There is a mainstream stereotype about art study in China that one needs to be wealthy to study the subject. In addition to this many Chinese students may be deterred from pursuing art by their parents that don’t view an art degree as “valuable.”

“We’re not making (the fine art) for utilitarian purposes, but does that matter for the value of the piece or the object?” Long said. “I would say if anything, it increases the value of it. How much you’re going to pay for a cup to drink out of, it’s probably mass-produced. But if it’s more than just a cup to drink out of and its creative process goes beyond utilitarianism, it could become infinitely valuable.”

She used ceramics as an example during our conversation. In doing so, Long showed me how creativity can work with practicality and as a

就创意与艺术的话题，我与教授畅谈了一番，产生了更多有关自身到 集体的反思。为什么构思属于自己的创意对我而言如此困难？哪怕是我 曾在中国经历过的AP课程艺术教育，也与美国本土的授课风格大相径 庭。即使比传统中国艺术教育开放的多，该课程对于创意的构思也有一 套严谨的步骤，并被老师印在教纲中，日复一日地被其强调着。 “你们是来自中国的吧？那这类课题或许确实不容易。”在我问起教 纲中对于构思的指导方法时，雪城大学电脑艺术课（CAR131）的教授 Sarah Long如是说。反思片刻，我也顿时不感到诧异了。

老师会检查每个人的草稿本上是否展现了实验，练习，与反思。而这 些点也恰好对应着AP课程的2D设计考试的三大要求。因此，这些步骤时 长也逐渐演变成一种形式主义：先画作品再立意；先射箭再画靶。这样 学生最后得以在AP考试中取得理想的成绩。

然而，在我接触了CAR131这节课后，我得知了教授对想法的发展有 着截然不同的态度，比如主题限制颇少，同时鼓励学生大胆去想。 “每个学生是不同的，构建创意的过程也不同。我不会对此作出规 定，我的课程更注重于学生对自己创意过程的探索。”Sarah说。

对此，提前体验过西方艺术课程的我也是感到震惊：不一点点引领学 生的构思，如何能产出保证内涵的作品？为何我会纠结于自由创作？尔 后，教授提及了我作为中国学生的身份。对于中国学生而言，能够做到发 自内心的构思可能会有些困难。

Sarah教授的教课方式是一面镜子，映射了孕育美国学生思想的环 境，让我更深一步的探寻我灵感枯竭的原因。 对于大多中国学生而言，支持创意的艺术教育是毫无疑问地被边缘 化的。中国的艺术教育教育侧重在美术方面，包括色彩，速写，素描，大 比例，调子等等。同时，大多数中国学生所参加的艺考，从来都是以技巧 来分出水平的高低。倘若要比较谁画得更像，让梵高来参加艺考也未必

result inspire new ideas. These ideas made the piece priceless.

Long disregards the idea that art lacks practicality, pointing out that art education is an important factor to inspire creativity which is an indispensable part of human development. Creativity prevents us from being replaced by artificial intelligence and allows us to start the way in various fields, such as film and design.

Long also believes the digital era can still produce artists who can take advantage of technological advancements.

“With the internet and digital art and the computer, people stand a better chance than ever at becoming successful artists. Etsy and even Facebook, they create a venue for a lot of artists, not just visual artists, but also musical artists like musicians,” Long said.

Overall, while it seemed that I was struggling with the topic of the art class, in reality, I was struggling to break free from a common mindset: conformity. Humans prefer to live in their comfort zone with clarity, but in the increasingly fast-paced world of rapid iteration, everything is shrouded in mist. I believe developing the ability to explore one’s own path is essential in creative education and something we need to reflect on daily.

While understanding this pluralistic world, I still have a long way to go in exploring my insights and style as an international student. Whether an international student or domestic student, I encourage everyone to continue to reflect on your relationship with both creativity and conformity.

能拿到高分。在我看来，这符合了艺术实用论对于中国学生的影响。现如 今，中国对于艺术的一种主流观点：家里“有矿”的人才能学艺术。因此 在这样的大环境下，一些中国家庭并不认为艺术学位具有价值。

“也许我们将来不会为了实用性去创作（纯艺术），但会影响到艺术 品本身的价值吗？”Sarah说。“如果有，那也只会使其增值。一个批量 生产的杯子你会花多少钱买？如果是经过创意加工的杯子呢？它会超出 了其实用性，乃至无价。”

访谈时，Sarah用陶瓷举例，在实用的基础上，加入创意元素，给予 启迪，使其无价。而对于艺术没有实用性的担忧，在她看来也是多余的。 艺术教育是启发创意的一个重要途径，而创意是人发展不可或缺的一部 分。创意让我们不会被人工智能取代，也让我们可以在各个领域开路，比 如电影与设计。

同时，Sarah坚信互联网时代可以造就能够驾驭科技的艺术家。

“对于艺术这个饭碗，尤其是有了现代的互联网，比如 Instagram、Etsy、Facebook，人们有了比以往更好的机会和平台来分 享自己的思考过程，收获共鸣。” Sarah说道。 结束了与教授的访谈后，我思绪绵连。表面上看似我是被艺术课的课 题难住了，实则我在试图突破一种人皆有之的思维定势：循规蹈矩。人们 向往活在舒适圈中，并倾向于选择一条规定好的，看得见的的道路。然 而在快速迭代的现实世界，不论那一行业都是迷雾重重。因此，探索自 己道路的能力是必须的，也是我们所需要反思的。

在了解这个多元化世界的同时，作为一名留学生，我在探索自己的见 解和风格方面还有很长的路要走。无论你来自哪里，我鼓励大家去思考 自己与创造性的关系。

Andy Bian is a freshman majoring in Advertising. He can be reached at hebian@syr.edu.

Treanor began her coaching career in August 2016 as an assistant on the Crimsons’ staff.

Treanor’s presence immediately impacted Harvard’s attack, elevating it from 169 goals in 2016 to 206 in 2017. Utilizing a hands-on approach, Miller and Farkes both said Treanor was ready to take over the offense from the moment she arrived.

“She’s a student of the game and I think she gets that from her dad,” Miller said. “They probably watched a lot of basketball film and she was brought around that a lot.”

Division of Student Experience, changing the section’s name to “competitive club sports.” With the change, the university hired Director of Competitive Club Sports Pete Way to oversee the new department.

“It was meant to highlight that our club sports are competitive,” Way said, “and the intent of our support for club sports is to help (them) achieve that sort of collegiate team feeling.”

The new model has also allowed for a more robust club sports staff, allowing players from club teams to communicate with staff easier, Way said. According to Way, students within SU’s men’s club rugby program have seen the most change.

“I talk about rugby every day…We have 45 club sports, and most of them don’t have two (weekly) conversations about them,” Way said.

Way said the university is looking to heighten the profile of SU rugby. Kyle I. Dailey, assistant vice president of strategic initiatives and staff development, said SU is building a new club sports field on South Campus that will have a full rugby pitch. Along with a budget increase, they are working to offer club sports more access to SU Athletics’ gym facilities.

“It’s funny because any of this stuff could’ve happened over the last couple decades, but it’s all happening right now, very much as we speak,” Way said.

Leinster sent one of their coaches, Colin O’Hare, to coach rugby at Syracuse full time for both its men’s and women’s club teams. O’Hare has emphasized each team’s off-the-field training, getting players to think daily about mental health, nutrition and to view the sport more professionally.

“Colin’s a great coach in terms of his rugby knowledge and how he teaches the game and how he can get the team to rally behind him and kind of push forward,” Davis said. “Just the act of having a full time coach gives us confidence that we can compete with these teams.”

With 15 years of rugby experience and a goal of pursuing a career in coaching after graduation, Thompson considers O’Hare’s presence a “lifeline.”

“Having him around has definitely boosted us tenfold and made me a better player, and made me a happier player if I’m being honest,” Thompson said.

Last August, Syracuse hosted the Leinster Rugby School of Excellence camp for the first

from last weekend. “We have a lot of fight left in us and we’re gonna give it all we have until the last game.”

After a scoreless two innings to start the doubleheader, SU cashed in on an error to take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third. Gabby Lantier singled to third and advanced to second on a bad throw by Nitka. Two batters later, Angel Jasso brought her home on a sac fly.

Hendrix and Misken dominated from the hill, but the Raiders knotted the game 1-1 in the top of the sixth. Kiley Shelton sent the first pitch of the inning deep to right center, clearing the wall for her team-leading seventh home run of the season.

In the bottom of the sixth, Syracuse had a prime chance to regain the lead. Pinch hitter Knight stepped in with the bases loaded and one out. Though she grounded into a fielder’s choice, with the force out coming at home plate. Then, pinch hitter Angie Ramos flew out to left, squandering the opportunity.

Neither team scored in the seventh, causing the contest to go into extra innings. With runners on second and third with two outs in the top of the eighth inning, Kara Fusco nailed a hard ground ball. Hendrix was able to stab it with her glove and robbed what seemed to be a sure single.

After the Raiders silenced the Orange in the bottom of the frame, Hendrix stopped a threat in the top of the ninth, setting up Syracuse’s walk-off. Both pitchers pitched complete games as Hendrix gave up five hits and struck out seven. Misken finished with seven hits against and four strikeouts.

After one year at Harvard, Boston College head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein asked Treanor to join her staff. She joined, and the Eagles won the national championship in 2021. Then, Treanor returned to Syracuse when Gait moved to the men’s team and took over the women’s side.

Returning to Syracuse, Treanor has led the team to two deep postseason runs. With her team at SU, she still uses concepts from basketball and her father’s teachings. Cockerille and former SU attack Megan Carney said she often shows clips from college basketball games to compare ideas and break down film,

giving players an alternative way of understanding.

“She would use a lot of examples from it and I think that a lot of her coaching philosophy is from him and being coached by him her whole life,” Carney said.

As Treanor thrives at SU, Mark has remained a coach, too. After retiring from Niskayuna, he joined Union College’s men’s basketball coaching staff as an assistant, serving in the role for the past seven seasons.

This past winter break, Treanor attended her father’s practices at Union. She noticed how the team defended screens, an idea she could translate to lacrosse.

“He always says to me ‘if this was basketball, this is what I would do,’” Treanor said. “And I’m constantly bouncing ideas off of him in terms of strategy.”

Mark has also followed his two daughters and began coaching lacrosse as an assistant on Niskayuna’s girl’s team. But to this day, Mark’s coaching from when Treanor was a little girl is what drives her fondness for the profession.

“I grew up around it and absolutely loved it. And I think I love it so much because my dad really loved it,” Treanor said.

amstepan@syr.edu

@AidenStepansky

time. With coaching from O’Hare, retired Leinster player Sean O’Brien and some SU rugby players, both American and international teenagers came to participate.

O’Hare is also helping expand rugby outreach throughout the northeast. He runs clinics to train players and the coaches who will work with them, increasing understanding of the sport.

Davis said the Syracuse-Leinster connection gives players an avenue to ultimately land a job in rugby if they don’t go pro — something no other U.S. college can offer. Currently, two SU students in Falk’s Sports Management department, one being senior rugby player Carter Lewis, are interning with Leinster.

“We really want to make Syracuse the capital of rugby in the northeast,” Davis said.

In order to do so, Davis said they want the city of Syracuse to host a game between Free Jacks Academy and the Toronto Arrows Academy — two of the best professional teams in the U.S.

Though to truly maximize its partnership

“You just have to really lock in, which is kind of hard to deal with for such a long time,” Hendrix said of pitching nine innings. “Just staying in my own business and doing my own thing helps with those situations.”

As they did in the first game, the Orange scored first in game two. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the second, Tessa Galipeau drew a walk, tallying Syracuse’s first run. Colgate loaded the bases looking to answer back in the top of the third, but Knight struck out back-to-back batters maintaining SU’s 1-0 lead. After the pivotal moment, Knight screamed as she walked to the dugout.

In the bottom of the frame, Kelly Breen mashed her first home run of the season off the scoreboard, extending Syracuse’s lead to 2-0.

The Raiders answered in the top of the fourth as Quinn Livesay doubled and then scored on an error by SU third baseman Peyton Schemmer two batters later. Syracuse’s lead was cut to 2-1.

But again, the Orange came storming back. In the blink of an eye, Galipeau clobbered a line-drive home run to right-center, pushing SU’s lead back up to two.

Julianna Verni replaced Knight in the circle in the fifth and quickly blanked Colgate. After a scoreless sixth from both sides, Verni closed the game in the seventh. Colgate threatened with two runners aboard, but Verni set down the next two batters to seal the sweep.

“It’s just consistent hitting and believing in each other,” Knight said. “And knowing we can all get it done.”

nsjepson@syr.edu

with Leinster and grow rugby in the region, SU’s men’s team wants to form a joint operation with the university’s women’s club.

At the moment, the women’s team, known as the Flamingos, operate separately from the men’s team. Davis said the goal is for the two teams to rebrand under one umbrella of “Syracuse University Orange.”

While the Flamingos have yet to see “transformative change” with the new partnership, they’ve seen more support from the men’s side when finding spaces to practice and having a seat at the table during planning discussions, team president Oluwasayo Kumapayi said.

“The men have a way bigger program than us, but we’re fighting every day to build our program and to let our program be seen,” Kumapayi said.

For the second consecutive year, the women’s team is heading to nationals next weekend after leaving their national qualifier tournament undefeated.

Alongside the initiative, the working group

wants to bridge the gap between the women and men’s alumni organizations, which would make them a stronger presence on campus. The alumni network now meets more directly with SU staff and has more influence over planning surrounding the future of Syracuse rugby, Way said.

Despite not offering rugby scholarships, Syracuse rugby is evolving due to its partnership with Leinster and internal changes within the university’s operation of club sports. Davis said that an on-the-field impact from Leinster’s partnership hasn’t come yet, though the club’s ability to grow the sport has proved more significant.

“The more we’re doing in general, the bigger it’s gonna get and more people are gonna play,” Thompson said. “And then hopefully by 2031 when the World Cup comes around we’ll be set.”

Syracuse’s men’s club rugby team went to Dublin, Ireland, during this past spring break as a part of the program’s partnership with Leinster Rugby. courtesy of wendy cornell

Syracuse’s pitchers recorded 15 strikeouts and allowed just two runs in its first doubleheader sweep of Colgate since 2001. joe

More experience highlights Syracuse’s off-season needs

By Tyler Schiff senior staff writer

In the ever-evolving world of modern college basketball, Syracuse’s 2024-25 roster — like most Power Five teams today — will look drastically different.

The Orange have lost six players to the transfer portal but gained a high-profile center: 6-foot-11 Eddie Lampkin Jr. from Colorado. Rumors continue to swirl around point guard Judah Mintz and whether he’ll stay for a third season. Yet, most signs — including a report from syracuse.com’s Mike Waters on April 4 — indicate Mintz will declare for the NBA Draft.

To grade SU’s offseason so far is tough. This exercise is based on Syracuse’s early action in the portal and what sorts of transfers it should aggressively shop based on the program’s shortcomings in 2023-24.

Here’s a look at what SU needs to do in the seven months before tip-off beckons in November:

Projected Starters:

Judah Mintz/Portal Player TBD, J.J. Starling, Chris Bell, Donovan Freeman (freshman, No. 23 nationally on 247Sports), Eddie Lampkin Jr.

Other Notable Pieces:

Naheem McLeod, Chance Westry, Kyle Cuffe Jr., Elijah Moore (freshman, No. 54 nationally on 247Sports)

What Syracuse needs

On paper, Syracuse has seemingly fixed its most glaring issue from last season: frontcourt depth. The arrivals of Lampkin Jr., McDonald’s All-American Donovan Freeman and 7-foot-2 redshirt freshman William Patterson give head coach Adrian Autry at least four frontcourt options to utilize.

Compare this to 2023-24, where Autry was forced to play Maliq Brown as an out-of-position center for most of the year. Naheem McLeod suffered a season-ending lower leg injury on Jan. 10 and 6-foot-11 backup Peter Carey offered sparse help.

Undersized sophomore guards Justin Taylor and Quadir Copeland split minutes as pseudo-power forwards. While Copeland experienced occasional offensive success, he and Taylor struggled immensely containing taller defensive assignments. Brown played upward of 30 minutes nearly every game. Rebounding battles were lost. Second-chance opportunities for opposing teams ran rampant.

Syracuse’s new-look frontcourt is promising. But it lacks experience — a problem far deeper than SU’s big men.

Scour last year’s successful Atlantic Coast Conference teams. Regular-season title winners

SU hires Dan Engelstad as assistant

By Tyler Schiff senior staff writer

In six seasons with the Mountaineers, Engelstad’s most successful campaign came in 2021. He led the Mount to an NCAA Tournament First Four berth — where they lost to Texas Southern — and a Northeast Conference Tournament Championship in 2021. Engelstad also helped Mount St. Mary’s transition from the NEC to the MidAtlantic American Tournament in 2022-23. He leaves the Mountaineers with an overall 59-90 record and went 8-12 in conference play this past season.

Prior to Mount St. Mary’s, Engelstad spent three years at Holy Cross before coaching for five seasons at Division III Southern Vermont. There, he won New England Collegiate Conference Coach of the Year three times.

Alongside assistant coaches Adrian Griffin and Brenden Straughn, Engelstad joins SU’s staff in head coach Adrian Autry’s second season at the helm. A native of Bethesda, Md., Engelstad holds strong recruiting ties in the Washington Metropolitan Area, according to Thamel. trschiff@syr.edu @theTylerSchiff

North Carolina featured five graduate students and ACC Champions NC State started four. Syracuse, meanwhile, consistently fielded an entire lineup of sophomores. And as of Wednesday, the program lost its most senior member in 6-foot-11 center Mounir Hima.

McLeod returns from injury as a senior and Lampkin Jr. is in his fifth season. J.J. Starling, Chris Bell and Mintz — if he returns — will all be juniors. So long as Autry adds a few more seasoned veterans, the Orange can gradually begin their crawl back to postseason contention.

Analyzing early interest

Roddy Gayle Jr. (Ohio State):

As the No. 30 overall ranked transfer, according to 247Sports, Gayle Jr. is a strong and athletic slasher. This past season with the Buckeyes, the sophomore averaged 13.5 points and 3.1 assists per game. Though Gayle Jr. shot 44.9% clip from the field, he mustered a mediocre 28.2% rate from 3.

Once a consensus four-star recruit out of high school, the Niagara, New York, native received an offer from Syracuse. Now-Siena head coach Gerry McNamara was his lead recruiter.

Primarily serving as a shooting guard at Ohio State, SU could form a prolific, score-first backcourt by pairing Gayle Jr. with Starling if Mintz leaves.

Dakota Leffew (Mount St. Mary’s):

Another attack-minded guard, Leffew holds a similar playstyle to Gayle Jr.: fast and twitchy with sneaky bounce. During his senior year at Mount St. Mary’s, Leffew averaged 17.6 points, 3.9 assists and just over four rebounds.

A near-polished three-level scorer, Leffew is dangerous off the dribble and holds impressive range. He shot 36.5% from beyond the arc in 2023-24 and 43% overall.

Mount St. Mary’s head coach Dan Engelstad’s reported departure for Syracuse as its new assistant likely makes Leffew a sure signing.

Jaquan Carlos (Hofstra):

Carlos led Hofstra in assists (6.3 per game) and placed third in scoring (10.4 per game) across 33 starts last season. The 6-foot guard is a nifty passer and isn’t scared to take his defender on for a mid-range jumper.

Like Gayle Jr. and Leffew, Carlos’ shot is mechanically sound but slightly underpar statistically. The rising senior averaged a 34.4% clip from 3.

Darlinstone Dubar (Hofstra):

The beneficiary of many Carlos passes through their three years together, Dubar is a tenacious rebounder and aggressive inside finisher. This

past season, the junior averaged 17.8 points — almost an eight-point jump from his sophomore year — and 6.8 boards.

Though Dubar primarily operates inside the paint, he made a career-high 183 3s at a 39.9% rate. Standing at 6-foot-8 and 211 pounds, Dubar could be a suitable, more experienced replacement for Brown.

Jyare Davis (Delaware):

Davis began his career at Providence before transferring to Delaware for the 2021-22 season.

In his first year with the Hens, Davis earned Colonial Athletic Association Rookie of the Year honors and was the CAA Tournament MVP. This past season, Davis averaged 17.1 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. His career-high came on Jan. 18 when he tallied 29 against Stony Brook on a perfect 12-for-12 showing at the charity stripe.

According to On3’s Joseph Tipton, Davis will take an official visit to Syracuse on the weekend of April 13.

BJ Freeman (Milwaukee):

An exciting 6-foot-6 combo guard, BJ Freeman’s length and considerable hang time make him an effective scorer at the rim. He’s also an elite catch-and-shoot marksman, 21.1 points on 41.4% shooting last season.

Named to the 2024 Horizon League AllTournament Team, BJ Freeman finished his junior campaign with 103 points across four games: a new conference record.

… And if more leave?

Syracuse’s transfer priorities shift drastically

if Mintz moves on. The 6-foot-4 point guard averaged a team-high 18.8 points, which ranked third in the ACC behind North Carolina’s RJ Davis and Clemson’s PJ Hall. The sophomore also became the seventh fastest SU player ever to reach 1,000 points and earned All-ACC SecondTeam honors.

Aside from Mintz, not many on Syracuse’s current roster are expected to leave. But finding his replacement is daunting. It explains why Autry’s early interest in transfers resides heavily in athletic scoring guards like Gayle Jr., Leffew and Carlos.

Now — just three weeks out from the portal period ending on May 1, and given Engelstad’s sudden hiring — Leffew’s move to SU makes him the probable choice. Yet, time remains and options remain plentiful.

Harvard transfer guard Malik Mack, a Maryland native and former high school teammate of Freeman’s at St. John’s College in Washington D.C., provides an interesting fit. And Autry’s evergreen connections to DMV area recruits make Mack a realistic option. The lefty stands 6-foot-1 and is the reigning Ivy League Freshman of the Year. His playstyle fits the bill of Mintz, along with the aforementioned names.

But rumors remain rumors until SU’s current floor general announces his future plans. If a try at the professional game is realized and Mintz enters the draft? Expect Autry to act fast and scoop up an equally dazzling point guard.

trschiff@syr.edu @theTylerSchiff

Syracuse sweeps doubleheader versus Colgate

By Nick Jepson asst. digital editor

Lindsey Hendrix’s back was against the wall in game one of Syracuse’s doubleheader against Colgate. The game was tied 1-1 and the bases were loaded in the top of the ninth, the second extra inning, with no outs. Hendrix pitched all eight innings before that point, allowing just one run to cross the plate. But the Raiders had a prime opportunity to take the lead and continue SU’s losing streak.

Elizabeth Nitka hit a ground ball that was fielded cleanly by Mackenzie Foster at second, but her throw was low to catcher Laila MoralesAlves. Yet, Morales-Alves lurched forward and picked the ball at home to get a much-needed first out of the inning. Hendrix then got Nora Megenity to pop out to third and, with the next pitch, got Rachel Carney to fly out.

“I was actually kinda stressed the whole time,” Hendrix said. “Coach (Doepking) always says, ‘Just make one good pitch.’ That was the one thing going through my head (in that moment).”

Colgate’s threat was thwarted, giving Syracuse a walkoff opportunity in the bottom half of the frame. After the Orange loaded the bases, Madelyn Lopez was hit by a Bailey Misken pitch, bringing home the winning run.

Following Syracuse’s (18-17, 4-11 Atlantic Coast Conference) extra-innings win in game one, it defeated Colgate (13-23, 3-6 Patriot League) 3-1, securing a doubleheader sweep. After suffering a three-game sweep versus Clemson last weekend, SU won two muchneeded games versus the Raiders to sustain pace in clinching a spot in the ACC Tournament.

“It shows a lot from this team,” Madison Knight said on the importance of bouncing back

Syracuse men’s basketball has lost six players to the transfer portal thus far, opening up major roster needs for frontcourt and point guard depth. aidan groeling staff photographer

men’s basketball

softball

Opponent Preview: What to know before No. 2 SU vs. Clemson

By Aiden Stepansky asst. sports editor

Syracuse hasn’t lost a game in over a month. Since its defeat on March 5 against then-No. 12 Stony Brook, SU has been red hot, starting undefeated in Atlantic Coast Conference play and riding an eight-game winning streak.

In its last two ACC matchups, Syracuse has played the two teams at the bottom of the conference standings. First, it was a 22-12 drubbing over Louisville on March 30. A week later, at Cicero-North Syracuse High School, the Orange rode a 12-1 halftime lead to a victory over last-place Pittsburgh.

With two games to go in the regular season, Syracuse has two conference matchups left. Before it closes the season versus Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Syracuse first travels to Clemson. The Tigers are undefeated in nonconference play but have struggled against ACC foes, defeating just Duke and Virginia Tech through seven matchups.

Here’s everything to know about Clemson (9-5, 2-4 ACC) before it faces No. 2 Syracuse (11-3, 7-0 ACC):

All-time series

Syracuse leads 1-0.

Last time they played… In the first-ever matchup between the two teams, then-No. 1 Syracuse hosted Clemson at Cicero-North Syracuse High School. SU bounced back from an early 1-0 deficit to gain a 6-2 lead after the first quarter. The Orange led the rest of the way, winning 19-10.

Olivia Adamson led the way with seven points (three goals and four assists) while Emma Ward and Meaghan Tyrrell tallied six and five points, respectively. Adamson excelled in the draw control circle, posting a career-high 14 wins. The victory extended SU’s winning streak to 14 at the time.

The Tigers report

The Tigers are in their second year of existence as a Division I program and have had similar results to their inaugural season. Clemson finished sixth in the ACC in 2023 and now sits in seventh place with two games to go.

However, newcomers Claire Bockstie and Natalie Shurtleff have emerged as top threats in their first seasons with Clemson. Bockstie has 52 points after transferring from UMBC while freshman Shurtleff is averaging 2.36 points per game.

Emily Lamparter and Krissy Kowalski have split time in the cage for the second straight season, posting a combined 47.9% save percentage. Clemson’s save percentage ranks

fourth in the nation, according to Lacrosse Reference, a high mark compared to Syracuse’s No. 23 overall ranking.

The Tigers could give SU trouble in the draw circle. Clemson ranks 10th in the nation in draw control percentage, according to Lacrosse Reference. The Tigers have multiple threats on draws, including Megan Halczuk and Ella Little, who each have over 40 wins. Though Syracuse’s Kate Mashewske has been playing her best lacrosse recently, totaling 12 or more wins in four of her last five games.

How Syracuse beats Clemson Syracuse simply has to get ahead early. Yes, it sounds redundant as its last three games

have featured first-quarter leads such as 6-4 versus Louisville, 5-1 against Cornell and, most recently, 7-1 over Pitt. But it’s how the Orange have beat up on inferior teams as of late to reach eight straight wins.

And against Clemson, likely one of SU’s final unranked opponents of the season, the plan stays the same. Syracuse’s skill should overmatch its opponent early and often.

This game should simply serve as a tuneup before Syracuse’s biggest game of the season versus Boston College, a chance to go undefeated in conference play. If the Orange continue to win draws and score early, the Tigers should be no match for them.

Stat to know: -28

Clemson has struggled against ranked opponents this season, posting a -28 scoring differential. Against then-No. 14 Virginia, the Tigers fell by six. Versus then-No. 8 North Carolina, the Tigers were dominated, losing by nine. They played a hard-fought game versus then-No. 5 Notre Dame, losing in overtime. But most recently against then-No. 4 Boston College, they fell 16-4. Syracuse can take control early against Clemson and continue the trend Saturday.

Player to watch: Claire Bockstie, attack, No. 38

In her first season with Clemson, Bockstie is leading it in points, tallying 19 more than the next closest player. At UMBC, she averaged 52.75 points per season, leading the Retrievers in points as a sophomore, junior and senior.

Now a graduate student, she’s averaging 2.64 goals per game through 14 contests while dishing out 15 assists. Bockstie’s best performance of the season came in the season-opener versus Davidson, where she totaled nine points. Though she recently struggled against Boston College, scoring just one goal.

By Daily Orange Sports Staff

No. 7 Syracuse enters Saturday’s matchup with North Carolina following its first backto-back losses this season. The Orange began the streak in South Bend, Indiana, where a five-goal fourth quarter wasn’t enough to come back against No. 1 Notre Dame. Last Tuesday, after the ejection of associate head coach Pat March in the first quarter, SU blew a seven-goal lead in a double overtime loss to No. 8 Cornell.

Now, the Orange have a chance to rebound on the road again in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The Tar Heels haven’t been ranked since Week 6 of Inside Lacrosse’s poll, most recently recording just six scores in a loss to Virginia. UNC defeated SU at home two years ago, scraping by with a 14-13 win after a goal from Chris Gray with 15 seconds left.

Here’s how our beat writers believe No. 7 Syracuse (9-4, 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) will fare against North Carolina (6-5, 0-1 ACC) Saturday: This isn’t the North Carolina of old. The Tar Heels have won five NCAA championships in its history, but since 2017 they’ve only

made one postseason appearance. After a 7-7 season last year, UNC is hovering around the .500 mark once again. With Syracuse coming off an emotional loss, it’s hard to see North Carolina having enough offensive firepower to defeat the Orange.

SU’s keys to victory start with stopping UNC’s leading point-scorer Owen Duffy.

Inside Lacrosse’s No. 1 recruit in the 2023 class has been forced to carry the offense this season with 29 goals and 20 assists. Syracuse has had mixed success dealing with elite individual attacks. Brennan O’Neill scored just once against SU while the Kavanagh brothers totaled two each against the Orange. But against Cornell, Michael Long and CJ Kirst combined for 10.

Syracuse should have enough on the back end to deal with Duffy as well as Logan McGovern and Dominic Pietramala — all three of whom account for over half of UNC’s goals

this season. With March suspended, expect defensive coordinator John Odierna to step up and cultivate a strong game plan to make up for a possible lack of production on offense. North Carolina might hang around in the first half, but Syracuse will separate in the third quarter and get back on track.

Even if the Orange lose out, they still have a 90% chance of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament, per Lacrosse Reference. Yet, make no mistake about it. Saturday is a mustwin game for Syracuse.

By the time it enters Dorrance Field, Gary Gait’s squad will have had 11 days to think about its stunning defeat to Cornell. Nothing went SU’s way following March’s late first-quarter ejection. Its offense was lackluster, the faceoff unit struggled and Odierna’s defense couldn’t pick up the slack.

But with a lot of downtime to recollect itself, facing UNC — the ACC’s worst team — couldn’t

come at a better time.

SU boasts the fourth-highest offensive efficiency in the nation (35.9%) while UNC sits at 38th (29.5%). The Orange have the 19th-best defensive efficiency mark (27.0%) compared to the Tar Heels’ No. 16th-ranked defense (27.0%). Syracuse has delivered major wins over Duke and Johns Hopkins and all of its losses have come by two goals or fewer, while North Carolina has dropped games by six-plus goals to Princeton and Virginia.

UNC is a solid program, though it’s a long way from being in the upper echelon of the ACC. I envision SU putting the Tar Heels in their place Saturday and nabbing a confidence-boosting victory heading into its season-finale against No. 2 Virginia.

North Carolina has been all over the place this season. The Tar Heels dominated their opening two nonconference matchups before scoring less than 10 goals in defeats to Johns Hopkins and Princeton. Then, UNC rebounded with a commanding win over Penn to kickstart a four-game win streak. But a loss to High Point, whom the Orange defeated 19-13 this season, began a disappointing three-game losing streak the Tar Heels are still in.

The topsy-turvy year has led to the Tar Heels having the worst shot percentage, save percentage, goal margin and goals per game in the conference. Their defense is solid, only giving up 10.00 goals per game, but the offense is still reeling from the loss of Gray two years ago. I don’t think they have the firepower to outscore SU Saturday, especially given Riley Figueiras’ high school experience against North Carolina’s thirdleading scorer Pietramala.

Still, Syracuse has to be careful in Chapel Hill, where it lost two years ago by one goal. The Orange lead the ACC with 3.92 penalties per game, which was something that led to their demise against Cornell last week. UNC is tied for 15th nationally in man-up offense, so if the Orange get sloppy defensively, the game could swing in favor of the Tar Heels. But I don’t think it will.

FATHER’S FOOTSTEPS

By Aiden Stepansky asst. sports editor

Kayla Treanor’s coaching career began in elementary school. For her birthday each year, her father, Mark, took her to a Niskayuna High School (New York) boy’s basketball practice. Mark was the school’s longtime head coach and used it as one of her birthday presents.

“Now, I look back at it and I put my hand in a huddle every day with a team,” Treanor said. “But as a little girl that meant the absolute world to me.”

In her third year as Syracuse women’s lacrosse’s head coach, Treanor helmed the Orange to a No. 2 national ranking, just one year after bringing them to the Final Four. While roaming the sidelines of the JMA Wireless Dome, her father’s philosophies that she harnessed from a young age take over.

Mark started at Niskayuna in the mid-1980s before Treanor and her older sister, Alyssa, were born. While serving as a special education teacher, he also was the head football coach. In the winter, he was the junior varsity coach for boy’s basketball and rounded out the school year coaching JV baseball in the spring.

Eventually, Mark zeroed in on basketball, becoming the boy’s head coach for over 20 years and stopped once his daughters got to high school. Alyssa — now the head women’s lacrosse coach at Union College — said her father was methodical in his work. He often went to coaching conventions while being subscribed to multiple coach’s magazines.

“Mark is a very prepared guy and thought out person,” Niskayuna Athletic Director Larry Gillooley said. “How he conveyed those organization and preparation skills onto his kids, I think that helped them benefit as athletes but also as coaches now.”

Treanor and Alyssa played on the wrestling mats behind the bleachers while Mark coached. As they grew up, they became closer to the game, elevating to water girls and studying film with their father.

Though, lacrosse is where Treanor truly encapsulated her father’s coaching methods. She and Alyssa weren’t introduced to lacrosse until they were in seventh and eighth grade, respectively. Meredith McKee, a then-student and lacrosse player at Niskayuna, introduced it to them while babysitting, Alyssa said.

Treanor’s basketball mindset helped her learn lacrosse as she implemented things that Mark taught her. Lacrosse’s offensive game is similar to that of basketball through its picking concepts and though the ball can’t usually be shot from long range, lacrosse has the added advantage of going behind the net.

Defensively, teams rely on a zone or man defense, just like basketball. Former SU midfielder Sierra Cockerille said playing defense in lacrosse without your stick is the same as playing basketball defense. Treanor sometimes has players do one-on-one’s without their sticks, mirroring the movements, according to Cockerille.

“I completely look at lacrosse in terms of basketball,” Treanor said. “I always have. It’s the way that I’ve understood the game.”

Before becoming a college head coach, Treanor acted as one while competing at Niskayuna. After starring on the soccer field in the fall, Treanor excelled on the basketball court. Sarah Neely, Niskayuna’s girl’s basketball coach, taught a few plays, expecting it to take a little while for her young players to learn them. Yet Treanor immediately understood, even asking about secondary options within those offensive sets.

It was the same way with lacrosse. Though fairly new to the game, Treanor translated concepts to fellow teammates, helping them improve.

“She was a coach on the field from day one,” former Niskayuna girl’s lacrosse head coach Peter Melito said. “She kind of understood some of the challenges a coach would face.”

Amid her playing career, Treanor was already preparing for her future. While getting recruited, she told schools she wanted to coach after college. Treanor told then-Syracuse women’s lacrosse head coach Gary Gait that was her passion and what she wanted to pursue.

“She approached the game like a coach’s kid would,” Lisa Miller, SU’s former head coach from 1998-2007, said.

While playing in the 2016 Final Four her senior season, multiple Syracuse alumnae came to support the team. Miller and former goalie Carla Farkes, formerly Carla Gigon, were in attendance. Miller served as the head coach at Harvard while Farkes was an assistant. Everyone knew Treanor wanted to get into coaching, according to Miller. It was just a matter of where. Treanor was offered an assistant position at SU by Gait, but Miller and Farkes said they found out Treanor had a lot of cousins on her father’s side in the Boston area, possibly attracting her to Harvard. And it did.

Kayla Treanor grew her interest in coaching after watching her father, Mark, coach high school basketball

SU club rugby growing program with international partnership

By Cassandra Roshu photo editor

Over spring break, the Hammerheads — Syracuse University’s men’s club rugby team — visited Leinster Rugby’s headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. The team toured the facilities and realized the wealth of knowledge and coaching that they now have access to, junior Brady Thompson said. He added they also gained a better understanding of what rugby

looks like in other countries and experienced a “whole new world” of the sport. They faced off against teams made up of experienced players, learning from them and their coaches.

“They showed us what we could be,” Thompson said. “This is a turning point for us. It’s time to kick into gear and really start pushing for what we can be.”

In 2023, Leinster Rugby — one of the most well-renowned rugby clubs in the world — partnered with

Syracuse University with the goal to integrate rugby into American sports culture. With the 2031 Rugby World Cup set to take place in the United States, the partnership aims to build a strong foundation of the sport for young athletes. It’s the first-ever partnership between an international rugby club and an American university, said Nicholas Davis, SU men’s club rugby team president. The Rugby World Cup is the fourth-most watched sporting event

in the world, and according to Davis, Leinster wants to invest in building the culture of rugby in the U.S. before the country hosts the World Cup.

“It’s a huge motivation for why Leinster partnered with us and why they want this partnership to kind of be a long term thing, not just a short term thing,” Davis said.

The partnership started after SU introduced a new model for competitive club sports in fall 2023. Club sports used to exist under

the sport program unit at Barnes Center at The Arch, which had two branches: club sports and intramural sports, which were both viewed as recreational sport organizations. Club sports were previously funded almost entirely through co-curricular allocations from the university.

Last spring, a working group and leadership within Student Experience decided to make club sports a standalone unit within the

club sports

Syracuse head coach Kayla Treanor has helmed SU to an 11-3 record through 14 games in 2024, including a 7-0 ACC record. courtesy of su athletics see treanor page 13