February 2, 2023

The Emory Wheel

Emory community condemns Cop City death

By Mitali Singh and Marian MoSS Asst. A&E Editor and Contributing Writer

As the sun set on Jan 23., a group huddled close together on Asbury circle. Some held bunches of flowers in their arms, kneeling to place them around candles and pictures. Soft guitar lingered in the air.

Emory University students hosted a vigil on Asbury Circle to honor the life of Indigenous environmental activist Manuel Terán, known as Tortuguita, who was shot and killed on Jan. 18 in an altercation with the Atlanta Police Department and Georgia Bureau of Investigation in the forest. They were 26 years old.

Dozens of students, alumni and community members attended the vigil, and many were dressed in black for mourning.

This was the first time in United States history that an activist was killed in an attempt to protest the forest being developed.

Terán was one of the environmental activists living in the South River Forest, also called the Weelaunee Forest to protest the Atlanta Police Foundation’s $90 million proposed Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, coined “Cop City” by activists. This follows the Atlanta City Council proposing the construction of the police training facility in June 2021. Building the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center would require 85 acres of Weelaunee Forest land to be cut down, and in total, City Council leased 381 acres of land to the Atlanta Police Foundation.

The facility aims to “improve morale, retention, recruitment and training” for the Atlanta Police Department and the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department in a state which would have the fourth highest incarceration rate in the world if every U.S. state were a country.

The encampment includes common spaces and kitchens, and the community often holds teaching sessions on the history of the land, guided walks, dinners, book talks and music shows.

When the Atlanta City Council opened for solicited public comment on the facility in September 2021, they received 17 hours of comments.

Of the comments, 70% opposed the Cop City facility on environmental

African American studies Ph.D. program to admit first students

and racial justice grounds. However, Atlanta approved plans later that month.

Officers have been deployed to the site multiple times to start construction, but have been unable to begin development due to protesters on the site.

In mid-January 2022, environmental activists living in the forest escorted several workers who had entered the forest with bulldozers to conduct soil boring and geotechnical engineering tests but lacked the paperwork legally required to do so.

Since December 2022, there have been two police raids attempting to remove protesters from the forest.

On Dec. 13, 2022, The Atlanta Police Department and Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested five environ-

mental activists, who call themselves “forest defenders,” on domestic terrorism charges. The agencies reportedly found gasoline, explosive devices and road flares. While the forest is public land, it is considered trespassing if protesters fail to leave after being ordered to do so. The same day, law enforcement sprayed the forest defenders who were living in the forest with tear gas and forced them off Weelaunee Forest.

Police attempts to remove the protesters — which escalated to the use of chemical weapons — have resulted in the destruction of the forest’s bike and walking paths, community gardens and installations.

Then, on Jan. 18, police killed a forest defender.

The death of Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Terán

At the time of the Jan. 18 raid, Terán was living in the Weelaunee Forest to protest Cop City, which would be one of the largest police training facilities in the United States. At 85 acres, the complex will include shooting ranges, virtual reality shooting simulations, a burn building, neighborhoods and a mock city. Los Angeles and New York City — cities with two of the top three largest police departments in the country — use a 32-acre facility and 21-acre facility, respectively. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Police Department ranks No. 19 in size.

The moments leading up to Terán’s death have been called into question by activists. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation wrote in a Jan. 18 statement that Terán fired first, hitting a Georgia State Patrol trooper before other officers returned fire. Five days later, the Bureau confirmed that Terán legally purchased the firearm they used to shoot the trooper in 2020.

However, a lack of bodycam footage and contradicting witness accounts led to calls for further investigation. The Bureau responded in a Jan. 23 statement, saying that although the officers near the shooting were not wearing bodycams, footage of the aftermath was captured but has not been released.

In an article about the incident, journalist David Peisner — who spent six months in the forest getting to know Terán — said that although it is possible law enforcement is being truthful, officials have given “erroneous” narratives in the past after killings by police, citing

See STUDENTS, Page 2

long ER wait times

By Melina roSS Contributing Writer

Amy Kaku (26C) said it “felt like a drill” was going through her head when she walked out of the Emory University Hospital emergency room (ER) after being told it would be two or three hours before a doctor could see her.

“That’s the prevalence of this issue,”Rachel Wang (26C), who is a friend of Kaku, said. “The longer the wait time, the longer someone is suffering.”

sistently lists Emory hospitals as predominantly “overcrowded” or “severe.”

In an email to the Wheel, Emory Healthcare reported experiencing longer wait times in ERs due to an increase in respiratory illnesses and the closure of Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center on Nov. 1, 2022, which displaced approximately 50,000 ER visits a year across the remaining metro Atlanta hospitals.

wait times to overcrowded hospitals.

“When patients do go there, it can just be overwhelming from a provider standpoint, you have so many patients to see that you’re just overwhelmed,” Steele said. “Your ability to care for all the patients is impeded, just simply by patient volume.”

Hipple reported seeing a similar situation during her wait at CHOA, noting that the waiting room was “packed.”

By Jaden

Contributing Writer

Emory University’s new African American studies Ph.D. program will send out acceptance letters to the first cohort of students by the end of the first week of February, according to Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Religion and African American Studies Dianne Stewart, who also serves as interim African American studies department chair.

The Ph.D. program, which is aiming to accept four students out of 105 applicants for fall 2023, is the first African American studies Ph.D. program in the Southeast and the first African American studies Ph.D.

program at a private university in

The African American studies department expects to enroll four new Ph.D. students each year, according to the program description.

The doctoral program comes 52 years after Emory created the first degree-granting African American studies program in the South in 1971.

Stewart and Charles Howard Candler

Professor of African American Studies Carol Anderson, who is on leave for the 2022-23 academic year, helped establish the Ph.D. program.

“The Ph.D. program in African American studies is something that

See EMORY, Page 3

Kaku’s experience wasn’t a lone incident. Izzy Hipple (26C) said she waited five hours to get her blood drawn and receive the results at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) ER, while Casey Hampton reported waiting a total of 13 hours at two Emory Healthcare hospitals — seven at Emory University Hospital on Clifton Road and four at Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital.

“If it were an emergency, I mean, I guess the only place I’d have to go is the ER,” Hipple said. “I’ve just kind of dealt with it myself because I feel like it’s not worth it.”

This follows a rise in patient complaints about long ER wait times across Georgia. Additionally, the Georgia Coordinating Center con-

“We, like other metro Atlanta health care systems, are seeing higher volumes of patients who need care,” Emory Healthcare wrote. Emory Healthcare noted that they are working to hire additional staff to assist with larger patient volumes.

“Longer wait times may occur and we ask for your patience and grace as we serve all of those who need medical attention,” Emory Healthcare wrote. “We are here to support our community and those who come to any Emory Healthcare hospital needing care.”

Low resources

Emergency Medicine Specialist

Jennifer Steele, who has worked in ERs in the Bronx and Long Island, N.Y. for over 20 years and is not affiliated with Emory, attributed long

“There are only so many doctors and they can only do stuff so fast,” Hipple said. “When there’s that many people, I just can’t imagine they could do it faster.”

Some students have reported negative experiences at Emory University Student Health Services (EUSHS) that have led them to go to the ER instead. Hipple recalled that a nurse forgot to take her vitals when she sought treatment for a “serious health issue” at EUSHS. She also said that a physician’s assistant mistreated her.

“She was extremely rude,” Hipple said. “She was very short with me. She did not listen to anything I was saying, and she told me that I came in with too many symptoms, and we could only focus on one symptom at a time.”

See DOCTORS, Page 3

Sophia Guerieri/ContributinG photoGrapher

illuStration by M atthew ChupaCk/exeCutive editor

$500 IN PRIZES.

Students protest Cop City, point to Emory connections

Continued from Page 1

George Floyd as an example.

“We’re not going to beat them at violence,” Terán said in an interview with Peisner. “They’re very, very good at violence. We’re not. We win through nonviolence.”

The Atlanta Solidarity Fund is currently preparing a legal team to pursue “a wrongful death suit.” Missouri Rep. Cori Bush (D-1) tweeted on Jan. 24 that she was “calling for an independent investigation” into Terán’s death, and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-12) tweeted her support on Jan 25.

Emory students show solidarity

Terán’s death sparked numerous vigils and protests across the country.

On Jan. 23, Emory University students hosted a vigil on Asbury Circle to honor Terán’s life. Dozens of students, alumni and community members attended the vigil, and many were dressed in black for mourning. Attendees brought candles, signs, flowers and pictures of Terán.

Gabriel Eisen (18Ox, 20C), a friend of Terán, gave a speech at Emory’s vigil. He discussed University administration’s ties to the construction of Cop City, mentioning both University President Gregory Fenves and former University President Claire Sterk, who currently serves as a Charles Howard Candler professor of public health.

Fenves is a member of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, which is made up of more than 40 Atlantabased corporate-elite chief executive officers and has expressed support for Cop City’s development. In 2021, the Atlanta Committee for Progress

released a statement noting that former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms asked the committee to “lead a capital campaign to seed the initial private funding for the project,” which they accepted.

Sterk, among representatives from major corporations like Waffle House and Delta Airlines, sits on the Atlanta Police Foundation Board of Trustees, a public-private partnership with the Atlanta Police Department. On Sept. 8, 2021, the Atlanta City Council released a statement saying the Atlanta Police Foundation “intends to fund and build” the facility.

In total, 80% of funding for Cop City comes from private donations.

Eisen said Emory’s connections to Cop City makes the University “complicit in Terán’s death.”

“The main thing Emory should do as an institution is condemn Cop City,” Eisen said. “Emory has so much power in Atlanta. If they were really standing up to what they believed, and for what the students believe, they would formally withdraw support, and put out some kind of statement.”

In an email to the Wheel, Assistant Vice President for University Communications and Marketing Laura Diamond wrote that while the University does not have institutional ties with the Atlanta Police Foundation, community safety is a “top priority” and Emory works with law enforcement on a variety of issues, including public safety.

“We encourage our community to engage peacefully and we reject and condemn violence in all its forms,” Diamond wrote. “Emory is a place where we discuss and debate the issues

that divide us — this is a foundational aspect of our mission to educate. We will continue to support the rights of our students, faculty and staff to share their opinions on this issue and others while reminding our community that individuals are speaking for themselves and not on behalf of the University.”

Lucy Amirani (24C), who attended the vigil, said she got involved with the Stop Cop City movement a year ago through the Sunrise Movement in Atlanta, a community organization that works to fight climate change. She recently joined Emory organizers supporting the movement on campus after hearing of Terán’s death.

“All the speakers were really powerful, especially the ones who actually knew [Terán] and were able to bring their spirit into the event, because a lot of us never actually met them, even those of us who had been to the forest,” Amirani said.

Community reaction

In an August 2021 open letter to the Atlanta City Council, environmental organizations raised concerns about environmental impacts of the project, such as the destruction of a major green space needed to prevent flooding and provide shade and clean air.

The project would also expose surrounding areas to noise pollution and heavy metals used in bullets. Cop City is surrounded by predominantly Black and working class neighborhoods, which have asthma rates in the 94th percentile and diabetes in the 80th

percentile nationally.

Defend the Atlanta Forest, an autonomous social movement, also raised concerns about the “scarred” history of the land, pointing to the displacement of the Muscogee Creek people in the 1800s, and later, the use of land as the Atlanta Prison Farm, a facility that infamously exploited prisoners for unpaid labor, from the 1950s to 1990s.

A few hundred demonstrators gathered at Underground Atlanta on Jan. 21 to protest Terán’s death. Protesters held signs with slogans such as “free the activists, drop the charges” and “body cams for all cops.”

One speaker identified themself as Terán’s friend, stating that the protest also stood for demanding racial justice. Other speakers commented on capitalism’s relationship to climate change. The demonstrators then marched down Peachtree Street the speeches, chanting, “We are all forest defenders. No justice, no peace, no racist-ass police.”

Around 6 p.m., the demonstration escalated when a group of protesters vandalized businesses that support Cop City, including Wells Fargo & Company and the Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters. This resulted in the Atlanta Police Department arresting six protesters. Witnesses alleged that the police “violently slammed several individuals to the ground” and hit a protester with a car, according to a Jan. 22 press release by the Atlanta Press Collective and an NBC News article.

Additionally, Defend the Atlanta Forest tweeted a video of an Atlanta police officer kneeling on a protester’s

neck as they yelled “I can’t breathe.”

Alison Thieberg (25C) attended the protest with her friends.

“When it was just people talking, sharing speeches, that’s when it kind of felt like it was at its best,” Thieberg said. “Even when we were walking in some of the less crowded streets and cars were honking at us in support, it also felt really good.”

Thieberg added that, although she was glad to see some Emory students and faculty, she expected more to attend.

“We live in an area full of protected forests and we benefit a lot from them,” Thieberg said. “We can go on and talk about how it’s important to support it, but I wish we saw more people physically going out and demonstrating that.”

In addition to protests, the Atlanta community held vigils in remembrance of Terán, one of which was held on Jan. 18 in Little Five Points. About 300 people gathered with candles, flowers and signs to sing in remembrance of Terán and give speeches about the violence.

Laura Kearns (01PH) attended a second vigil, which was held on Jan. 20 in the Weelaunee Forest parking lot.

“I felt it was very important to show up and to be there in that place with people who knew [them] and who have the same shared understanding and values of the forest and serving nature,” Kearns said.

— Contact Mitali Singh at mitali.singh@emory.edu and Marian Moss at marian.moss@emory.edu

Doctors blame wait times on low resources, economic issues

Continued from Page 1

Hipple did not receive a diagnosis by the end of the appointment, so she turned to the ER instead. She expressed that she has since “avoided” EUSHS and will likely go straight to the ER in the future.

Emory Emergency Medicine

Services Emergency Medical

Technician Max Walco (25C) said he has witnessed patients being reluctant to seek medical aid due to negative experiences with medical care.

According to Executive Director of Student Health Services Sharon Rabinovitz, EUSHS reviews each complaint about EUSHS and ensures that the student’s needs are addressed in the moment before reviewing processes to ensure that EUSHS optimizes student care.

“We are committed to responding to student feedback, complaints and concerns on an individual basis and have engaged with student groups to gather information,” Rabinovitz wrote in an email to the Wheel. “We are developing a Student Health Advisory Committee to ensure we have intentional and sustained student voices shaping services and access.”

Rabinovitz encouraged students to contact her regarding any issues with EUSHS, noting that she is not currently aware of any outstanding student concerns. She added that Emory created the associate vice president for health, well-being, access and prevention position last year to further enhance their response to heath

issues and prevention.

“We recommend students make a physical appointment or other preventive care appointments such as pap smears, STI testing or contraceptive appointments to ensure proactive support, education and management to prevent illnesses,”

Rabinovitz wrote. “Early mental health support is equally as important at the early signs of impact, i.e., sadness lasting longer than previously, losing interest in activities which you previously enjoyed, difficulty concentrating.”

Long wait times are not unique to Emory. Patients with non-emergent cases will experience prolonged waits, particularly during influxes, according to Steele.

“Wait times get longer and longer because we are taking care of the high acuity patients first,” Steele said. “You don’t tend to come in and out of the ER. A lot has to be done.”

Steele recommended patients go to an urgent care center or similar facilities for issues such as sore throats, colds and fractures.

Grady Memorial Hospital Hospitalist Elizabeth MarshallSmith, who has worked in hospital medicine since 2013 and joined Grady in May 2022, recalled seeing many patients come through the Grady ER to receive dialysis, which is located in another part of the hospital. They took up social resources that could have been better allocated elsewhere, such as receptionists who

were delayed in intaking ER patients while checking in and guiding dialysis patients, Marshall-Smith said.

Patients’ wait time extends beyond the waiting room, according to Marshall-Smith. She has witnessed patients waiting as long as 48 hours in the ER after initial intake because there were no available beds on the floor.

Marshall-Smith added that shortterm bed and observation areas at Grady would benefit patients who do not need to stay in the hospital longer than 48 hours, but still require more than a couple hours of care. Moving a patient into this unit would open up a bed and provider in the ER.

Although hospitals would benefit from hiring more physicians, Marshall-Smith stated that the real issue is that hospitals lack the resources to move patients to beds in appropriate units of the hospital, so they are stuck waiting in the ER.

Economic issues

Another prominent factor in ER wait times is that patients “simply don’t have the money” to afford primary care, according to Marshall-Smith. According to the Commonwealth Fund, 15.7% of Georgia adults reported receiving no medical care due to cost. For every 100,000 deaths in Georgia, 106 result from a lack of health care.

Marshall-Smith explained that not receiving primary care causes

Continued from Page 1

we have worked so hard for and is so necessary, given the situation where we are right now in terms of understanding the inequities in America, how we got here and how we get out,” Anderson wrote in a press release.

Stewart noted that Emory’s program will have the largest collection of African American studies Ph.D. faculty in the United States. The program will be staffed by 14 core faculty from the African American studies department, as well as a network of over 40 affiliated graduate faculty from the Emory College of Arts and Sciences, the Candler School of Theology, the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and the Rollins School of Public Health.

The Emory Wheel

Volume 104, Issue 2

© 2023 The Emory Wheel Alumni Memorial University Center, Room 401 630 Means Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30322

Business (404) 727-6178

Editor-in-Chief Brammhi Balarajan bbalara@emory.edu

Founded in 1919, The Emory Wheel is the financially and editorially independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University in Atlanta. The Wheel is a member publication of Media Council, Emory’s organization of student publications. The Wheel reserves the rights to all content as it appears in these pages, and permission to reproduce material must be granted by the editor-in-chief.

The statements and opinions expressed in the Wheel are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Wheel Editorial Board or of Emory University, its faculty, staff or administration.

The Wheel is also available online at www.emorywheel.com.

“At the same time, we have considered the needs of our graduate program in our hiring plan for the next three years, and we do expect to grow our faculty as we continue to meet important benchmarks that indicate our commitment to excellence and eminence in our teaching, research, engaged scholarship and service to Emory and the wider society,” Stewart wrote in an email to the Wheel.

Located in Atlanta, the cradle of the modern civil rights movement, Emory’s program will provide doctoral students “access to institutions, organizations and local histories and cultures at the very heart of African American political and cultural developments in the South, the U.S. and the broader African diaspora,” according to the program description.

Stewart told the Wheel that the Ph.D. program will encourage more “cutting-edge” research in the field.

“It invigorates not just our research faculty in engaging with the

people’s medical issues to escalate and ultimately requires more hospital resources.

The average salary in Georgia is $18.75 per hour, according to a survey of 1124 salaries. If someone works eight hours per day for $18.75 per hour, a day trip to the ER would prevent them from making $150. However, the average cost of an ER visit is $1,589 for uninsured Georgians. This cost equates to what a person would earn if worked eight hours per day at $18.759 per hour for over 10 working days.

Steele added that some areas, like Queens and the Bronx, have a skewed patient-to-doctor ratio, meaning people do not have access to primary care, even if they can afford it.

“Primary care and preventive medicine is the best way to go,” Steele said. “We literally need more doctors, more providers in these very underserved areas.”

She added that doctors also tend to congregate in highly populated urban settings.

“There are also a lot of physicians that prefer to highly specialize,” Steele said. “If that’s your passion, you do need to be in an urban setting because you’re not going to have a patient population that you can serve in these smaller areas.”

Steele attributed “inappropriately expensive” medical care prices to poor allocation of resources — such as nurses, beds, additional hospital wings and X-ray machines — not corruption.

According to Marshall-Smith, the big difference between Grady and the other hospitals she has worked at is the funding. She stated that while hospitals were not ”rolling in dough,” a greater number of the patients at these hospitals were insured compared to Grady.

If a patient is insured, their payment to the hospital is guaranteed. However, uninsured patients — which make up 18% of Georgia adults — “may or may not pay,” according to Marshall-Smith. Since the care has already been delivered, a lot of care provided by Grady is not being reimbursed.

“The emergency room isn’t a moneymaker,” Steele said. “It tends to be a place that is expected to and is required to catch and read all, and because of that, there’s a lot of patients who have no insurance, there’s failure to pay, and it probably usually operates in the red. So, of course that’s going to influence an administrator’s decision when they’re allocating funding.”

Marshall-Smith added that Medicare expansion would benefit patients.

“As frustrating as those deficits are to deal with, I think they’re doing a pretty good job with what they have to try to limit those deficits and try to give the best care and the best option that we have,” Marshall-Smith said.

— Contact Melina Ross at melina.ross@emory.edu

doctoral students but also brings a lot of energy and vigor to our undergraduate curriculum,” Stewart said. “It was very important for us to truly live into the research and teaching mission of our department, the college and of the wider university.”

In the program, students will participate in theoretical conversations and debates, pondering questions such as what it means to train for a Ph.D. in African American studies and become a public scholar.

“We want students who are deeply engaged and invested in what it means to become a scholar, a producer of knowledge and who are not afraid to live deeply into the mission of African American studies as a discipline from its inception,” Stewart said.

Students will also attend professional development workshops to “have real engagement with alternative career pathways from the very beginning,” Professor of African American Studies and History Walter Rucker, who chairs the faculty committee behind the program’s implementation, noted in the press release.

The program will have three cognate fields for students to choose from: gender and sexuality, social justice and social movements and expressive arts and culture.

The gender and sexuality field will focus on the interrelation between gender, sexuality and race to “shape social understandings of personhood,” according to the program description.

The social justice and social movements field will emphasize African Americans’ individual and organizational efforts to combat structural racism, and the expressive arts and culture field will explore African Americans’ regional, national and

global contributions to this field.

“What is so powerful about this Ph.D. program is that it not only trains scholars, but also trains people to work outside the academy so that they can bring that expertise to public policy positions, to cultural art positions, to [non-governmental organizations],” Anderson wrote in the press release.

The African American studies department expects Ph.D. candidates to complete the program in five to six years. All students will be fully funded for five years and will receive an annual stipend of at least $34,000, along with a tuition remission and health insurance. There will also be an option for a sixth year of funding if needed.

All admitted doctoral students will also be assigned an advising team who will serve as mentors.

“We want to make sure we pour as much mentoring and advising as we can into each student,” Rucker wrote.

Reflecting on why Emory is the first university in the Southeast and the first private university in the South to have an African American studied Ph.D. program, Stewart pointed to the “lack of vision from leadership and a lack of critical mass” at other universities.

“It is truly important to have a vision and a mission of a university that clearly emphasizes support for the mission of African American studies as an ‘intellectual study,’” Stewart said. “In many institutions, that struggle to be seen as a legitimate discipline with research problems that matter is still a question, is still a challenge, is still a fight.”

— Contact Jaden Song at jaden.song@emory.edu

Emory establishes first African American studies Ph.D. program in Southeast

CourteSy of eMory univer Sity

Students and community members raised concerns about long wait times at Emory emergency rooms.

W��������,F�������1,2023 |OpinionEditor:SophiaPeyser(sophia.peyser@emory.edu) AssistantEditors:EllieFivas(ifivas@emory.edu),SaanviNayar(snayar@emory.edu)&ShrutiNemala(snemala@emory.edu)

EDITORIALS

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Professorsandeducationalspecialistsalikehavecalledforuniversitiesto acclimatetoAI,ultimatelyadoptingthe “ifyoucan’tbeatthem,jointhem” ideologytorealisticallyconfrontthe newrealityofschooling.

Thereisanaiveoptimisminthe hopethathumanswillprioritize humanintellectovertheregurgitated androboticthoughtofAI.

AImaybeabletoreplicateorassist withcertaincreativetasks,butitwill neverfullyreplacetheuniqueand unpredictablenatureofhumancreativity.Ifcurrentstudentssettheprecedentofchoosingtoinvestintheirown intellect,ChatGPTanditssuccessors canbeintegratedintosocietywithout completelyoverhaulingtheauthenticityofitsfunctioning.

Oneofthesentencesinthelast paragraphwaswrittenbyChatGPT. Canyouguesswhich?

TheEditorialBoardiscomposedofIsabelleBellott-McGrath,RachelBroun,EvelynCho,EllieFivas,MarcGoedemans,AayamKc,ElynLee,SaanviNayar,ShrutiNemala,NushratNur, SaraPerezandKaylaRobinson.

TheEmoryWheel

TheEmoryWheelwelcomeslettersandop-edsubmissionsfromtheEmorycommunity.Lettersshouldbelimitedto300wordsandop-edsshouldbeatleast500.Thoseselectedmaybeshortenedtofitallotted spaceoreditedforgrammar,punctuationandlibelouscontent.SubmissionsreflecttheopinionsofindividualwritersandnotoftheWheel’sEditorialBoardorEmoryUniversity.Sendemailstoemorywheelexec@gmail.comorpostalmailtoTheEmoryWheel,DrawerW,EmoryUniversity,Atlanta,GA,30322.

TheaboveeditorialrepresentsthemajorityopinionoftheWheel’sEditorialBoard.

“Progressisnevereasy,”President JoeBidendeclaredtoonlookersina crowdedroomonJan.15.“But redeemingthesoulofthecountryis absolutelyessential.”Thesettingof thepresident’srecentremarkswas noneotherthanAtlanta’sdistinguishedEbenezerBaptistChurch— amere15-minutedriveawayfrom EmoryUniversity’smaincampus.

EbenezerBaptistisbrimmingwith history:thisisthesamechurch whereDr.MartinLutherKingJr. workedfrom1960to1968andwhere Sen.Rev.RaphaelWarnock(D-Ga.) currentlyservesasseniorpastor.

Consequently,therecentpresidentialvisithaspromptedconversationsaboutbothGeorgia’shistoric andcurrentroleinUnitedStates culture.Despitebeingcitedasthe cradleofthemoderncivilrights movement,negativeperceptionsof thestateandthebroaderSouthseem topermeateeveryaspectofU.S. society,resultinginthefalsebelief thatthisregionisinherentlyinferior.

Southernaccentsareviewedas synonymouswithilliteracy,and Southernpassionssuchascountry musicareoftendismissedas unsophisticated.“Becauseyouknow, we’reintheSouth,”isacommon

phraseyou’llusuallyhearreiterated asthepunchlineofsomeone’svapid joke.Theseattitudescontributeto theongoingnarrativethatSouthern statesarecharacterizedonlyby extremepoverty,incest-riddenignorants,DonaldTrumpdisciplesand miniMarjorieTaylorGreenes.

Althoughtheschoolistucked awayinAtlanta’saffluentDruidHills neighborhood,ifyou’reanEmory studentwhohaseverhadtoexplain whereourcampusislocated,you’ve probablydealtwiththeseassumptionsfirsthand.Maybeyou’veeven enabledthem.Manyindividuals— especiallyout-of-statestudentsfrom predominantlyblue,urbanlocations —believethattheBibleBeltiswholly unredeemable—aplacemarred solelybytheshamefulhistoryofthe CivilWarandthemanifestationsof inequity.Thisisabitterlyoversimplifiedversionofthetruth.

IamnostrangertotheSouth.I havelivedinsuburbanAtlantafor19 years,andIknowthatthereisanew storyunraveling;it’sonewherethe Trumpflagsontheneighbor’sfront lawnarejuxtaposedbyprideflagsat thelocalcoffeeshopandwhere GenerationZisturningthepolitical tideinitsfavor.Looknofurtherthan Georgiaforevidenceofthepowerof purple:inthelastfouryears,the statehasgonetorunofftwice,with highlysignificantincreasesincivic

engagementevidentinboth instancesdespiteattemptsmadeat votersuppression.Southernstates alsopossessahigherpopulation, moreelectoralvotesandmore membersofCongressthananyother region—allfactorsthatcouldbe criticaltothefuturesuccessof progressivepolitics.Politiciansand self-proclaimedliberalsalikewould bewisetore-examinetheirprejudicesaboutanentireregion’spoliticalpotential.Democratswillonly harmtheirownpartybydownplayingandignoringthepossibilitiesfor changehere.

AsthelateAnthonyBourdainonce said,theSouthisnotpurelya monolith.Despiteitspast,Ichooseto believeinafutureforGeorgiathatis forgedbythelikesofthelateicon formerU.S.Rep.JohnLewis(D-Ga.) andbytheworkofleaderslike formerGeorgiagubernatorialcandidateStaceyAbrams.Ibelieveinthe verybestthattheSouthhastooffer: sharingglassesofsweetteainthe summer,charminghospitalityand alwayslovingyourneighbor— regardlessofwhattheylooklikeor lovelike.Faith,familyandcommunity:I’mproudoftheseSouthern values.TheimageoftheSouththatI knowandloveisverydifferentthan whatyoumighttypicallyexpect.

YoumaythinkI’mbiased,orthat mylivedexperienceasaGeorgia

nativeforcesmetobeoverlysympathetictomystate,butneitheristrue.

Therearemanyvalidcriticismsto bemadeabouttheSouth.Problems suchasracism,poorinfrastructure andlowlevelsofeducationarestill extremelyprevalent,anddenying thesefactswouldbefoolish.But theseissuesdonotexistwithinthe mereconfinesofarbitrarystate boundaries.Perpetuatingtheidea thattheSouthisinfinitelymore bigotedthantherestofthecountry onlyfurtherspolarizationinan alreadydividednation.Italsotakes awayfromthefactthatracialinjusticesarepresenteverywhere.Northernstates—andtheindividualsfrom them—shouldnotoperateona senseofmoralsuperiority,asthey tooarecomplicitinharmingpeople ofcolor.Infact,manypeoplemaybe surprisedtolearnthatJimCrowlaws actuallyhadtheirrootsintheNorth. Butinsteadofdelineatingbetween oneareaasintrinsicallygoodandone areaasentirelyevil,wemustrememberthattheburdenofactively combattingracismisaresponsibility forallcitizens,notjustforthose livinginstatesonceassociatedwith theConfederacy.Americanredemption—fightingbackforthesoulof thecountry—isimpossibleifwe continuetoattributeracialand politicalstereotypestowardonlyone regiondisproportionately.

Trueprogressivismcanneverbe achievedthroughtheostracismofan entirehalfofthecountry.Furthermore,lookingdownontheSouthisa disservicetothevastBIPOCand LGBTQcommunitiesthatexistthere.

GiventheUniversity’sroleasan academicpowerhouseoftheregion, Emorystudentsinparticularhavea responsibilitytoremainvigilantin thefaceofmisconceptionsaboutthe Southandtogetmoreinvolvedin theirlocalcommunities—whetherit bethroughvolunteeringforFair Fight,servinginastudent-runclinic ortutoringinimpoverishedareas.At auniversityknownforitsintegrityof inquiryandwithbillionsofdollarsin itsendowment,cheapinsultsfilled withdistortedstereotypeshaveno place.It’stimetostopmakingthe Souththepunchlineandstartrecognizingitforthecomplex,dynamic demographicthatitactuallyencapsulates.AssumingthattheSouthern regionoftheUnitedStatesisthesole perpetratorofracismisunequivocallyuntrue;instead,itissimplyan elitist,classistandcondescending attitudetoadopt.Itmaybefarfrom perfect,butIthinkI’vefinallycome toappreciatethecomplexitiesthat comprisetheU.S.South.Youshould too.

SafaWahidi(24Ox)isfromSugar Hill,Georgia.

Classifieddocumentsandelectiondenial:Recognizingourpoliticaltribalism

BenBrodsky

TheFBIrecentlyraidedformer PresidentDonaldTrump’sMar-aLagoresortinFloridatoclaim classifieddocumentsTrumphad takenfromtheWhiteHouseduring hispresidency.Inresponse,U.S. Rep.PramilaJayapal(D-WA.) tweeted“DonaldTrumpshouldbein jail.I’mgladtoseetheFBItaking stepstowardsaccountability.”

Ironically,onNov.2,moreclassifieddocumentswerefoundmissing: thistimeinPresidentBiden’sprivate officeandDelawarehome.Inreaction,Jayapalstatedthatitwas "irresponsibletonotdisclosewhen youhavedocuments;"averydifferentresponse.AlthoughBiden'sand Trump’sactionsweresimilarin principle,JayapalchosetoreprimandTrump,theoffenderofthe oppositeparty,moreseverely.

Here’sanotherexampleofconflictingresponsesbasedonparty. Trumprefusedtoconcedehisdefeat inthe2020presidentialelection, drawingwidespreadcriticismfrom Democraticpoliticianseverywhere. Amongtheobjectionswasthe accusationthatTrump’svictorious fantasywasathreattodemocracy— anactunacceptableonanyterms. However,thiswasnotthefirsttime anAmericanpoliticianhadwithheld concession.

Twoyearsearlier,GeorgiagubernatorialcandidateStaceyAbrams, whomIinterviewedinaroundtable lastyear,alsorefusedtoconcedeher race,claiming,“Wedon'thaveto concedeelectionsanymore,b/c whenweconcede,wearecondoning systemsthatareusedtooppressus.”

AllofthecasesI’velistedhave

differences.Yes,BideniscollaboratingwiththeJusticeDepartment morewillinglythanTrump,andyes, Abramseventuallyadmitteddefeat inawayTrumpneverhas.However, wecantakeasmuchfromthe reactionstothesecasesasthe substance.Whentheseheadlinespop uponournewsapps,welargely decideajudgmentofguiltorinnocencebasedonwhichappisbeing used.Left-wingreadersaregenerally quickertojumptoattackingTrump

anddefendingaDemocratina similarsituation,whileright-wingers aremorelikelytodefendtheformer presidentwithoutevidenceof vindication.

Ifindthatthesecasesareless reflectionsonthepeopleinvolved— althoughpossessionofclassified documentsandelectiondenialare notstellaradditionstoacareer— thanexamplesofhowtribalism, loyaltytopartyovercountry,has manifesteditselfinAmerican politics.

Tribalismencouragesablack-andwhiteworldview.Suchthinkingalso fostersadisregardfordebateand alternatephilosophies—theoppositeoftruth-finding.Inordertofind truth,adebatermuststeel-man, debunkthemostlogicallystrong pointoftheopposition,ratherthan straw-man,argueagainstapossibly irrelevantaspectofthealternative opinion.Oneofthemostrelevant examplesofsuchgroupthinkwasthe condemnationofscientistand astronomerGalileoGalileibythe CatholicChurch.WhenGalilei espousedhisbeliefinheliocentrism, thenowwidelyacceptedideathatthe solarsystemorbitsthesunrather thantheEarth,hewasplacedunder housearrest.Thisjudgmentcameas aresultofthefactthatascientific findingchallengingtheideathatthe Earthwasthecenteroftheuniverse alsoimplicitlyquestionedalarger doctrine:thedivinityofaChristian GodandEarthasaholyplanet.In suchanantiquatedscene,weareable

tolargelyagreethatsuchreligious censorshipisantitheticaltoaculture oftruth;butmorerecently,theline betweentribalismandscientific explorationhasbeenblurred. Inpastgenerations,avoterwho agreedwithsixoutof10Democratic policieswouldbeconsidereda Democrat.

Let’ssay,forexample,thatone waspro-choiceandpro-gaymarriage,butanti-gunregulation.This individualisticattitudeallowed

Republicanshavebeensimilarly affectedbypolarization,although perhapstolesserdegrees.Although Trumpsoweddivisionthroughthe Republicanparty,thefactthat Republicanrepresentativeshadto vote15timesbeforeaHouseSpeaker waselectedshouldgiveasenseof currentright-wingdisagreement. Althoughsuchintensedivision amongpartyleadershipisfarfrom positive,Iamstillsomewhatmoved bytheideathatevenpartymembers canstilldisagree.

Americanstofindtheirownspaces withinpolitics.Whiletheydidhave tobitetheirtonguetovotefora candidateslightlyoutoftheircomfortzone,itstilltranspiredina differentwaythaniscurrently accepted.Inleft-wingcircles,I challengeyoutofindoneoutspoken liberalwhopubliclydisagreeswith oneof10traditionallyDemocratic policies.Thistrendofconformity preventsdiscourseandultimately drivessomemoderatevoterstothe right.

Whenthisinternaldivision occurs,wecanbeconfidentasvoters thatdeliberationishappening amongourelectedleaders,whichis ultimatelywhatweelectedthemto do.Politicalcommentatorswhohave hastenedthegrowingdividebetween ideologiesmayimplicitlysupport tribalismintheirstatements.By criticizingtheothersidefor“voting againsttheirbestinterest”or“being uneducated,”theyfailtounderstand analternativeperspective,sometimes,awinningone.Disconnecting fromtheothersideonlyservesto isolateourconversations,remove contextandempathyandprevent truth-findingfromhappening.When wehearaboutinflammatoryheadlineslikeclassifieddocuments,we maybemorepronetotakeaside basedonourtribethanwewould think.Iimplorealltribalmembersto explorealternativeopinionsbefore jumpingtoconclusions.Challenging someacceptedtruthscouldputthe politicalandculturallayoutin perspective:there’sachanceyour tribeistellingyouthatthesunis orbitingyouandnottheotherway around.

BenBrodsky(25B)isfromScottsdale,Arizona.

BEN BRODSKY /ASSISTANT A&EEDITOR

Politicaltribalismisconsistentlyfurtheringideologicaldivides;instead,thoseonbothsidesof theaisleshouldrecognizethatpartisan‘truths’requireopposingperspectives.

BRODSKYINBETWEEN

SafaWahidi

Gilded Mummy Mask. Egyptian. Late Ptolemaic, 197–30 BCE. Linen, gesso, pigment, gold. Gift of the Georges Ricard Foundation. 2018.010.673. Photo courtesy of the Georges Ricard Foundation and the California Institute of World Archaeology. This exhibition has been made possible through generous support from the Forward Arts Foundation, the Morgens West Foundation, Linda and Ira Rampil, James B. Miller, Jr., Sandra Still, and Emily Katt.

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TheBakery’s‘YearoftheRabbit’ exhibitioncelebratesAAPIart

BY ZIMRA CHICKERING SeniorStaffWriter

TheBakeryisdecidedlyoneofmy favoriteart-relatednonprofitsin Atlanta,andIamearnestlyexcitedto attendanyandalleventstheyhostat theirSouthDowntownGallerylocation.Theydescribethemselvesas beinginthebusinessof“creating space,”aphrasethatappliesbothto thephysicalembodiedspacesattheir exhibitions,butalsothemental, emotional,energeticandartistic “spaces”thatareformedwhencreativescometogether.

videogameadaptations

ContributingWriter

Therehavebeenveryfewsuccessfulvideogameadaptationsthatnot onlystaytruetotheirsourcematerial butalsopushtheboundariesofnew contentwhiledrawinginbothold andnewaudiences.Netflix’s “Arcane”wasoneofthefirstvideo gameadaptationsthatbothhardcore fansoftheoriginalgame,“Leagueof Legends,”andawideraudience enjoyed.

Thosewhohadneverplayedthe gamegavetheshowglowingreviews, despitehavingneverinteractedwith theoriginalmaterial.“Arcane’s” positivereceptionwithintheindustryisunfound,especiallyconsidering thereputationofothervideogame adaptations,suchasParamount+’s live-actionadaptationof“Halo.”

Thereinliesthelargestproblem withmostadaptations,videogame orotherwise:theyoftentimesstrive tobesomethingthey’renot.So,it wasnosurprise thatfanswere initiallyskepticalwhenHBO announcedthe adaptationof “TheLastof Us,”foraliveactionseriesonNov.20,2020. Truthfully,theyhadeveryreasonto be.

apocalypticworld.Evenmoreso,it’s astoryaboutlove.Druckmandove furtherintothisideainthepostshowpodcast,starringDruckman andMazin.

“Thisisalovestory,”Druckman saidonthepodcast.“Wewillcontinuetocomebacktothenotionthat loveconquersall,andthat’sproblematic…butespeciallythelovethat aparenthasforachild.It’sprimal andcanleadtothemostintensefear, andthemostintensefearcanleadto themostintensebehavior,including violence.”

Thefirstepisode…sings thehard-hittingnotes ofthestorywhilealso incorporatingnewcontent thatdeepenstheplot.

Withalarge,die-hardfanbase, “TheLastofUs”isagameandstory widelybelovedbymany.Asafan,I wasalsounsure,notingthetrack recordmostadaptationspossess. Withover15hoursofgameplayto packintoanine-episodeseries,it didn’tseemlikeafeasibletask.

HBOalsoannouncedthatthe originalcreatorofthegame,Neil Druckman,wouldbeheadingupthe projectalongsideaward-winning directorandproducerCraigMazin, thecreatoroftheaward-winning HBOminiseries“Chernobyl.”For hardcorefansofthegame,like myself,Iwasnervoustoseewhat MazinandDruckmanhadinstore forthisadaptation.

“TheLastofUs,”atitscore,isa storyaboutlossandsurvivalinan

Inthefirstepisode,whichgarneredover4.7millionconcurrent viewerswhenitdebutedonJan.15, MazinandDruckmandelivereda gut-wrenching,thrillingandtrue-tothe-sourcepremiere.Now,afterjust threeweeksofstreaming,ithas garneredatotalof22millionconcurrentviews,andonJan.27,HBO announcedonTwittertheyare renewingtheshowforasecond season.It’snot difficulttosee why“TheLastof Us”isgarnering suchwidespread attentionasthe openingofthe firstepisode, “WhenYou’reLostintheDarkness,” singsthehard-hittingnotesofthe storywhilealsoincorporatingnew contentthatdeepenstheplot.

Viewersareleftwithahaunting feelingastwoepidemiologistsare interviewedbyatalkshowhost,the interviewtakingplaceinthelate ’60s.Theaudienceisintroducedto theideaofafunguscalledCordyceps thatcaninfectitshosts,preventing decayandcontrollingtheirminds. Cordycepsisarealfungus,which makesthisapocalypticscenariofeel frighteninglyreal.

It’schillingtowatchasthey discusspandemics—anotionweare allnowquitefamiliarwith—andthe possibilitythatthefunguscouldend lifeasweknowit.

Thesecondepisode,whichtakes placeinIndonesia,launchedintoa glimpseofthefirstsignsofthe fungusinhumans.Amycologist

inspectsthecorpseofoneofthefirst humansinfected,pullingtheCordycepsfromthevictim'smouth.The mycologiststartlesback,running fromtheroominapanic.Amanin themilitaryasksherwhatthey shoulddotocontainthefungusand, eerily,shesays,“Ispentmylife studyingthesethings…Thereisno medicine.Thereisnovaccine… Bomb.Startbombing.”

It’shauntingtoseethesetwo scenesplayout,leavingviewerswith asenseofdread,alreadyknowing whattheworldwillbecome20years later,wherethebulkofthestory takesplace.

Neitherofthesescenesappeared intheoriginalgame,buttheysetthe tonefortheupcomingepisodes. MazinandDruckmanimpliedinthe post-showpodcastepisodethatthere willbemajorstorydifferences betweenthegameandtheshow, includingnewcharacters,andI’m excitedtoseewhatthesedifferences haveinstoreforthestory.

StarringPedroPascalasJoeland BellaRamseyasEllie,bothactors bringtheircharacterstolife,carrying theemotionsanddynamicsstraight fromthegameontothebigscreen. Ellieisthecharismaticheartbeatof thestoryandAshleyJohnson’s performanceinthegameisadifficult onetoliveupto.However,Bella RamseyhandledEllie'ssparkbrilliantly,kindlingitintoanimpeccable on-screenperformancethatbreathes lifeintothestory'sfocalpoint.

“Everythingyouthinkyouknow aboutthis,youdon’tknowabout this,”TroyBaker,Joel’sactorinthe videogame,remarksinthepostshowpodcast.“Forme,that’sthe mostexcitingprospectofthisshow.”

It’sthrillingtoseethesmall parallelsbetweenthegameandthe show,fromcinematicstolinesof dialogueandevenbeatsofaspecific action.It'sinthesmalldetailswhere “TheLastofUs”remainsfaithfulto itssourcematerial,whilealsobreakingnewgroundinstorytelling.

TheBakeryhostedanexhibition intheirartisticspacefromJan.20to 22forLunarNewYear,which,in 2023,celebratesthebeginningofthe YearoftheRabbit,orintheVietnameseandGurungzodiacs,the YearoftheCat.Intheveinofhope andprosperitythattherabbitindicates,theBakeryorganizedathreedayexhibitionandartsalefeaturing AsianAmericanandPacificIslander (AAPI)Atlantaartists.Theartists wereencouragedtopushartistic boundariesandsocietalexpectations,withallticketsaledonations goingtoRedCanarySong,anonprofitworkingtowardsjustice,labor rights,equityandsafetyforAAPI massageandsexworkers.The impetusbehindRedCanarySong wasthedeathofanAAPImassage workerinFlushing,NYCthat occurredduringapoliceraidin2017. Itbecameapparentthatsexworkers didnothaveaccesstolaborrightsor collectiveorganizingtoadvocateand protectthemselves,withAAPIworkersbeingevenmoresoaffectedby immigrationcontrolandover-policingofthesecommunities.

Theexhibitionwascuratedby BakeryteammemberandAAPI creative,KarinaTeichert,who,

accordingtothegallerydescription, wantedto“highlightthemajestyof AAPIart”and“inspirefuturegenerationstotakeupspaceunapologetically.”Comingbacktothepowerof space,theBakery’ssmallgallery camealivewithcommunitymembersembracingthemselves,instead ofplayingbytherulesorfittinginto prescribedboxesthattheAAPI communityhasbeenforcedintoby thewhiteAmericanmajority,both historicallyandpresently.Icouldsee AAPIqueerfolkbeingsupportedby theirnon-AAPIpartners,college friendsjoyfullyrecreatingaphoto theyhadtakentogetherfiveyears agoandBakerystaffworkinghardto managethesaleofallthewonderful artworkmadebyAAPIartists.

TheBakeryactsasaplatformfor self-expressionandexperimentation, evidentinthevarietyofartworks, artists,sensoryexperiencesand viewerspresentatthe“Yearofthe Rabbit”exhibition.Uponentering thespace,visitorsweregreetedwith awarm,crowdedentryway,followed

See ART, Page 8

IceSpice’s‘Like..?’continues hit-makingstreak,offerslittlevariation

BY SAM BARTLETT StaffWriter

Munchkins,getexcited!The “PrincessDiana”ofrapisbackand betterthanever.So,expecttoseea signatureredafroandacrylicnails dominatingTikTokandInstagram onceagain.

Ifyou’veloggedontoasocial mediaplatforminthelastfive months,chancesareyou’veheardof BronxMCIsisGaston,betterknown asIceSpice.Therapperfirsttookthe internetbystormwithherAugust single“Munch(Feelin’U).”Thissong establishedIceSpice’sknackfor writingacatchyhook;thephrase “YouthoughtIwasfeelin’you?”went viral.IceSpicethenprovedherselfto bemorethanjustaonehitwonder, followingup“Munch(Feelin’U)” withhersingle“BikiniBottom.”Yet again,shedeliveredacatchyhook withtheline“HowcanIloseifI’m alreadychose,like..?”whichinspired

thetitleforherdebutEP,“Like..?”

Outsideofhermusic,IceSpiceis abuddinginternetpersonality,hoppingonstreamsanddancingwith popularinfluencer,KaiCenat,while growingherownTikTokpage. Consideringhersuccessinthepast fewmonths,anticipationforthe releaseof“Like..?”wasatanall-time high.Fortunately,IceSpicehas deliveredonexpectations.

Followinghertwoprevioussingles,theEP’ssoundfallsintothevein ofNewYorkdrillwithaddedgirlboss energy.Thisisapparentfromthe firsttrack,“InHaMood.”Thetrack, whichwasreleasedasasinglein earlyJanuary,hadalreadygoneviral onTikTokwithasnippetofIceSpice rapping“Likewhat?Let’skeepita buck.”Whilethismomentisa highlight,thewholetrackisan enjoyablelisten.IceSpice’sverseson thissinglestandoutasbeingmuch improvedfromtheverseson“Bikini

COURTESYOF HBO

BY TALLULAH STORY

‘TheLastofUs’setsnewstandardfor

ZIMRA CHICKERING /SENIOR STAFF WRITER AndrewHuang’smixedmedia piece“Origins”displayedat TheBakery’sgallery.

ArtnonprofitemphasizesjoyforLunarNewYear

Continuedfrompage7

immediatelybyatablesellingacold noodledishandsometea.Asthe

scentofgingerfloatedoverthe crowd,clustersofvisitorsadmired crochetedhats,dumpling-shaped jarsandartisticprints,allforsale. Immediatelyfollowingthisexciting entrywaywasasecondarchwaythat siphonedvisitorsintotheBakery’s maingalleryspace,setupwitha varietyofartworksalongthewalls andabeautifulcommunaltablein thecenter,coveredinredtablecloths andceramicjars.Alarge-scale artworkbyAmberlyHuiHood, entitled“Peels,”hangsonthewall acrossfromthetable,andthelabel asksviewersto“PLEASETOUCH.”

AsItentativelyreachedtowardthe squishy,slime-likeartwork,Icould seeclustersoffriendsandnew acquaintancestalking,admiringart, sharingdrinks,laughingandmaking connections.Peopleweretaking photoswhilecelebratingthemselves, theirfriendsandtheartistswhowere presentattheopeningnightofthe show.

OnesuchartistIhadtheprivilege ofmeetingwasDianaLemons(22B), anAtlanta-basedAAPIvisualartist. Shelituptheroomwithhervibrant, homemadenimbuscrownadorned withpaintedredlipsandgolden, floor-lengthdress,bothdesigned andmadebyherforthiscelebratory evening.Lemonsproudlydisplayed twoofherpaintingsandwatched excitedlyaspeopleenteredthespace andreactedtoherworks,unaware thatshewastheartist.Herartworks representedtheembodied,physical

Continuedfrompage7

Bottom”and“Munch(Feelin’U).”

On“InHaMood,”herflowsare sharper,herlyricsaremorememorableandthebeatsaremore dynamic.Bothofherprevioussingles weresmashhits,butmostlybecause ofthecatchyhooks,soseeingthis improvementon“InHaMood”setsa promisingtonefortherestof “Like..?”

IceSpicefollowsupthefirsttrack with“PrincessDiana.”Thistrack’s fastbeat,createdbytheEP’sexecutiveproducerRIOTUSA,ridesperfectlyundertheMC’sswagger-filled confidence.IceSpiceflauntshernew celebritystatuswiththealready iconicline“InthehoodI’mlike PrincessDiana.”Thoughthesong goeshard,IceSpicerepeatsthe chorusafewtoomanytimesforthe track’sshortruntime.Itwouldhave beennicetoseesomeoftheruntime gotoalongerversegivenhowfunthe existingversesare.

In“PrincessDiana,”IceSpice hintsatherrelationshipwitha “gangsta,”andsheexploresthis furtheron“GangstaBoo.”TheBronx MCtapsintoherromanticsidewith herflowbecominglessaggressive thanontheprevioustwotracks, whichworksreallywellwiththebeat.

Speakingofworkingreallywell,Lil Tjay’sinclusiononthistrackisa greatbonus.Therapper’sverseis shortandsweet,butIceSpicestill ownsthissongwithanotherofher memorablehooks.LilTjayandIce Spicecomplimenteachotherwell; theybothareattheirbestonbouncy drillbeatsandtheirvoicesarean excitingcontrast.Hopefullythetwo continuetheircollaborationinthe

experienceofpainbeingturnedinto somethingbeautiful,likethedelicate orchidsthatclimbedupthe humanoidoutlineofherselfportrait.

AsLemonsdescribedit,women experiencebodilypaininamyriadof ways,anexperienceshehascontendedwiththroughoutherlife,but reclaimingthoseexperiencesas

love.Acrossfromthispaintingwasa multimediaworkbyAndrewHuang titled“Origins,”showingabrilliant yellowochrekoifishexplodingoutof thewoodenbackground,ascurling, drippingwaveswrappedaroundits scales.Fromprintstoceramicdishes tosculptures,everyinchofthe gallerywallswerecoveredwith eye-catchingartworks.

AstheBakeryalwaysseemsto achieve,thisone-roomgalleryfelt endless,asthoughIcouldstaythere forhours,eatinganddrinkingwith friendsandlisteningtothestories thateachartworkseemedtowhisper intotheearsofeachvisitorwalking pastit.Thevarietyofartworksand thebeautyofallintersectionalAAPI identitieshighlightedthefactthat theAAPIcommunityisnotamonolithandshouldnotbetreatedassuch inartisticandsocialdialogues. ConversationsofAAPIidentitysat rightalongsideconversationsof queeridentity,gender-basedoppression,relationshipstofood,bodily autonomy,therightsofsexworkers andsomuchmore.

Artsaplenty:aguidetoupcoming concerts,recitalsandmore

BY ALEXANDRA KAUFFMAN CampusDesk

Anne-SophieMutterVirtuosi Concert

Date:Feb.2,8p.m.

Location:CherryLoganEmerson ConcertHall

Cost:$90(GA)|$10(Emory Students)

momentsofgrowthandopportunitiesforunity,especiallyintheAAPI communityatthestartofanewyear, isparticularlyimportant.

Inthatvein,embodiedjoywas felt,unbridled,inmanyofthe artworksondisplay,including NicoleKang’s“Inmygarden,there areflowers,”whichcenteredan Asianparentkissingtheiryoung childasvibrant,verdantbloomsof flowersexplodedinthebackground, seeminglygrowingoutofthatactof

future.

If“GangstaBoo”isthestrongest newsongontheEP,“ActinA Smoochie”istheweakest.Thisisnot tosaythesongisafailure—it’sjust notafullydevelopedidea.Themain problemisasmallbutquestionable productionchoice:theoccasional overlapofIceSpice’sad-libsandher rappingmakesitsoundlikesheis speakingintoacheapgamingheadsetwiththemicturneduptooloud. However,thisproductionmishap doesn’truinthesong;infact,this trackisthemostuniqueon“Like..?”

IceSpice’srappingdoesn’tvary significantlyfromtherestoftheEP; however,thebeatismoresereneand hasadancefeelthatsoundslikeit could’vebeenacutfromDrake’s “Honestly,Nevermind.”Iftheproductionon“ActinaSmoochie”was cleanedupandtherappingadjusted tofitthemoodofthebeat,thissong wouldbethebestontheEP.IceSpice shouldcontinuetoexplorethisroute moreinthefuture.

IceSpiceclosesout“Like..?”with hertwopreviouslymentionedviral singlesfromearlierthisyear.“Bikini Bottom”isfineintheflowoftheEP, but“Munch(Feelin’U)”standsoutas rudimentaryandalmostprimitive whenheldnexttohernewtracks. PerhapsIceSpiceshould’vejustlet thisoneliveonasasingle.

“Like..?”isashortprojectlasting only17minutes,butintheinfancyof hercareerwherethereisn’tmuch varietytohersoundyet,IceSpice’s musicismostfuninsmaller increments.Still,theEPshowsgreat promisefortheMC’sfuture.With thisproject,IceSpicecontinuedto

The“YearoftheRabbit”exhibitionwasaprimeexampleofcelebratingAAPIjoy,whilealsorecognizingthesystemicoppressionand societalboxesthatpresentbarriers forAAPIartistsintheartmarket. 2023,theYearoftheRabbit,is predictedtobeayearofhope,andI cannotthinkofabetterwayto expressthathopethanthrough artworkssuchasthese.

- ContactZimraChickeringat zimra.chickering@emory.edu.

deliverexcellenthooksandshowed smallimprovementsonherverses withacoupleofcleverone-liners: sometimesmakingpunsofherown name,“Ice,you’remakingmemelt.” And,ofcourse,therapper’ssignature lingoshowedupmorethanacouple times.Add“Actinasmoochie”tothe IceSpicedictionary. Morethananythingelse,Ice Spice’spersonalityisthestarofthe showonthisEP. Herconfidenceandattentiongrabbingvoicetookaveragesongs andmadethemintobangers.

WiththisEP,IceSpicehasshown potential,buttheprojectlacks anythingnovel.Becauseofthis, manymayviewherasaone-trick pony.IceSpicecansurelybecomea mainstayintheNewYorkdrillscene, butsheneedstoexperimentandadd somedifferentsoundstohercatalog, trysomenewbeats,varyupherflows andexperimentwithhervoice.Based onreportsandfootageonthe internet,itlooksliketheBronxMCis alreadytakingastepintheright direction,potentiallycollaborating withhyperpopartistPinkPantheress.Allegedly,thetwohavebeen filmingamusicvideoforaremixof PinkPantheress’spopularsong “Boy’saLiar”thatwillfeatureIce Spice.

Asmoreartistsjumpforwardto collaboratewithher,IceSpicecan carveoutaplaceforherselfinthe musicindustrybycontinuingto develophersound.Expecttohear morefromrap’s“PrincessDiana”in thenearfuture.

- ContactSamBartlettat sam.bartlett@emory.edu.

Celebratethe20thanniversaryof theSchwartzCentre’sopeningwitha nightofbeautifulmusicperformed byAnne-SophieMutter,renowned violinist.Musicincludes“TheFour Seasons”byVivaldiandthepremiere ofUnsukChin’s“GranCadenza.”

DooleyNoted:FirstFriday

Performance

Date:Feb.3,5:30-6:30p.m.

Location:EmoryStudentCenter steps

Cost:Free

JoinDooleyNoted,thegenderinclusiveandservice-orientedEmory Acappellagroup,forashowcaseof musictalentatEmory’sFirstFriday event.

CarlosMuseum:LifeandThe AfterlifeExhibit

Date:Feb.4-Aug.6

Location:MichaelC.CarlosMuseum

Cost:$8(GA)|Free(Emory Students)

FeaturingancientEgyptianArt fromtheSenusretcollection,“Life andtheAfterlife”opensinthe upcomingweeksandwillremainall semester.Thisexhibitionfocuseson thehistoryoftheSenusretcollection, featuringartifactsfromancient everydaylife,amuletsandjewelry, religiousitemsandburialitems. Piecesintheexhibitionhighlight facultyandstudentresearch.

LenaiaStudentPlaywriting Festival

Date:Feb.5,2p.m.|Feb.5,7:30 p.m.|Feb.6,7:30p.m.

Location:SchwartzCenterforPerformingArtsblack-boxtheater

Cost:Free

SupportfellowEmorywritersby attendingtheLenaiaFestival,a collectionofstagedreadingsof originalplayswrittenandselectedby Emorystudents.Selectionsinclude, butarenotlimitedto,anabsurdist sci-ficomedy,aChinesefairytale-

inspiredlovestoryandaretellingof theGreekmythofCassandra.

EmoryJazzFest2023

Date:Feb.9,2:30p.m.|Feb.10,8 p.m.|Feb.11,11:30a.m.|Feb.11,8 p.m.

Location:CherryLoganEmerson

ConcertHall

Cost:Free-$10(EmoryStudents)| $30(GA)

Jazzupyourweekendwitha lectureandmultipleperformances featuringWarrenWolf,theEmory JazzFestAllStars,theEmoryBig Band,GaryMotleyTrioandmembersofthestringsectionofthe EmoryUniversitySymphony Orchestra.

TransformingLearning throughStoriesandMusic

Date:Feb.9,7p.m.

Location:EmoryPerformingArts

Studio

Cost:Free

TomWillnerwilltakeaudiences onajourneythroughhisdiagnosisas acancerpatient,integratingstories andmusictotakeaudiencesona transformativejourneyandtouchon topicsofcompassionandtheimpact wehaveintheworld.

AdaLimónPoetryReading

Date:Feb.11,3p.m.

Location:GlennAuditorium

Cost:Free

Award-winningMexican-AmericanpoetAdaLimónwillgiveapublic readingofherpoetryfollowedbya booksigningofhernewestbook, “TheHurtingKind”(2022).Limónis knownforheraccessible,yetprofoundandpoignantpoemscentered aroundthebeautyofnature.

ECMSA:BachBowl

Date:Feb.12,4p.m.

Location:CherryLoganEmerson

ConcertHall

Cost:Free

Haveyoueverwantedtopre-game theSuperBowlwithclassicalmusic? Nowyoucan!EnjoyBach’ssetof Variations,asperformedbyavariety ofon-campusmusicalgroupsand othermusicians.

- ContactAlexandraKauffman atalexandra.kauffman@emory.edu.

ZIMRA CHICKERING /SENIOR STAFF WRITER VisualartistandEmory alumnaDianaLemonsmakes arttoportrayheridentity.

The‘PrincessDiana’ofrapexudesconfidenceonnewEP

The Emory Wheel

Emory Life

Wednesday, February 1, 2023 | Emory Life Editors: Chaya Tong (ctong9@emory.edu), Xavier Stevens (xsteven@emory.edu) or Asst. Editor Jordyn Libow (jeibow@emory.edu)

Faculty and staff adapt to rise of AI-generated text technology

By Jordyn LiBow Asst. Emory Life Editor

Emory University Professor of Digital Humanities Daniel Sinykin will tell you that ChatGPT can make a pretty convincing impression of Krusty the Clown, which is something he discovered in his open, proactive use of ChatGPT in the classroom setting.

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot that was launched by artificial intelligence laboratory OpenAI on Nov. 30. The technology can generate nuanced text responses to short prompts from students, asking it to answer questions or even compose entire papers. This has created anxiety among some education leaders and professors because of the potential for the platform’s human-like writing capabilities to be used on academic assignments.

Sinkykin does not fall into this category. In his Intro to Digital Humanities course, he used ChatGPT to sum up the broad field of digital humanities to the class.

“ChatGPT is pretty good at summarizing broad topics in concise, cogent ways,” Sinykin said.

To demonstrate the capabilities of this overly-criticized technology, he prompted the chatbot to complete the same task, this time in the voice of Krusty the Clown.

“It did a really good imitation of the clown, actually,” Sinykin said.

Sinykin said that his expertise in the digital humanities has equipped him for the rise of new digital technologies like ChatGPT. The program doesn’t fluster him; instead, he said he believes ChatGPT should prompt professors to rethink the way they teach, rather than blame the students for using technology.

“If we’re creating assignments that can be replicated by a computer program, is there something robotic about the assignment that we’ve asked students to produce in the first place?”

By Jessie satovsky

Contributing Writer

Sinykin asked. “Are we thinking hard enough about what kind of learning is happening in the kind of assignments we’re asking for?”

Sinykin said he believes that altering the teaching method could be enough to dissuade students from cheating.

“Maybe ChatGPT will make us think harder about how to give students something that they find valuable,” he said. “It’s partially on us to design things that students find valuable for doing in and of itself, rather than outsourcing to computer.”

On the other hand, head of Emory College Honor Council, Jason Ceijka has focused on what ChatGPT means for a classroom setting in regards to plagiarism and violation of the honor code. Emory’s honor code states that, “Whenever any idea is taken from a specific work … the student should give credit where credit is due.”

Ceijka explained that based on this part of the honor code, the only way a student could ethically use ChatGPT would be if the program was required for a class project. Still, he said that the

student would have to “acknowledge that source” and obtain permission from their professor to use the site.

“Students should not assume that they can use ChatGPT to write essays,” Ceijka said. “That is, by definition, plagiarism.”

Ceijka first heard about ChatGPT in Dec. 2022. He observed a lot of press for it in the education industry, especially within his professional organization, The International Center for Academic Integrity.

He met with Emory colleagues interested in academic technologies and academic integrity on Jan. 17 over Zoom to discuss how academic staff and professors might navigate the challenges posed by this new technology. They focused on locating “faculty experts” who could help facilitate a conversation with those less familiar with this technology about how they can either use it or adapt their assignments to be less concerned about students using it as a form of plagiarism.

Emory’s Honor Council has not yet had to deal with any instances of Emory students using ChatGPT as

a tool for plagiarism. Ceijka predicts that since the technology is so new, there won’t be one standard approach that faculty across the University will take with it.

“Some will really embrace it and use it actively in their classes and others might be more cautious, but I expect we’ll see the whole spectrum,” Ceijka said.

Christopher Blake, a professor of economics at Oxford College, voiced unease about the vast capabilities of the technology.

“My concern lies in the fact that such a disruptive technology inherently causes some to become worse off and some to become better off, even if society is improved,” Blake said. “The only difference between the impacts of the internet and ChatGPT might be the magnitude of the effects, which certainly are unknown but are likely to be greater given the technology’s potential.”

He also said that he fears the advent of ChatGPT will impair students’ critical thinking skills.

“The internet is too vast for one human to digest, interpret, critique, and analyze, but ChatGPT provides additional support that could be leveraged for good or bad,” he said.

Because of his belief in ChatGPT’s inevitable staying power, Sinykin said that our efforts are best spent learning how to proactively incorporate this technology into an academic setting, as opposed to negatively coding it as a cheating device.

“If students can perform at the same level using this technology, then we ought to get students thinking about how to work with this technology, rather than immediately thinking we need to go back into the past or try to halt progress as it’s happening,” Sinykin said.

Jacqui Leigh Russell (25C) said she didn’t know about ChatGPT until one of her professors explicitly stated not to use it in the directions of an assign-

ment.

“I’m scared to use it now,” Russell said. “I’m not really aware of its capabilities and I don’t want to get in trouble for accidentally misusing it. So I’d rather stay away from it to be safe.”

On the other hand, Helen Khuri (25C) expressed optimism about the benefits of ChatGTP, stating it shouldn’t “be something that’s feared.” “I feel like we should work with it,” Khuri said. “I don’t want to write it off as something ‘bad’ just because it has the capacity to be. Part of success is using resources in smart and responsible ways, and AI is the newest resource.”

Sinykin has already started proactively incorporating ChatGPT into work that he assigns to students. In a future assignment, he said he plans to have students attempt to create “the strongest essay they can” using the program. By “learning how to engage with ChatGPT,” he said that they will be able to discover areas in which ChatGPT excels and those in which it fails in replicating human writing.

“Detection is only a small piece of a solution to this,” Ceijka says. “Really, it’s about how we as faculty adjust our pedagogy. And, how do we use different forms of evaluation and assessment to make sure that students are learning?”

Ceijka said that he is optimistic that the academic industry will be able to take on this challenge.

“Most of us recognize this is a new technology and we have encountered other new technologies that have impacted how we teach,” he said. “So, whether that’s the calculator, the advent of the internet, or ChatGPT, universities have responded to these things in the past, and they’ll respond to new technologies as they come on the horizon in the future.”

— Contact Jordyn Libow at jordyn.libow@emory.edu

The Fixie repairs bikes, creates a sense of community

Yellow light illuminates the little room across from the Kaldi’s Depot. Talk and laughter emanate from the open door, allowing easy access to the tools inside if what you need isn’t already out on the tool bench next to the door. Music blares out of a speaker in the corner with anything from French music to rap, depending on the day and which volunteer is on aux.

This is The Fixie, where undergraduate and graduate students come together with faculty, staff and other campus community members to repair skateboards, scooters and bikes. Student volunteers run it every Thursday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at no cost to those who use their tools and services.

The Fixie is mostly filled with bikes on the left-hand side and all sorts of discarded hand tools and knick-knacks on the right. In the back, there’s a room filled with more heavy-duty tools and parts that you can use to fix your bike, skateboard or even an electric scooter.

The shop is essentially a sub-section of the Emory Spokes Council and Emory Bike Social, which are the graduate and undergraduate clubs for biking, respectively. Emory Bike Social was started by Fixie Staff Advisor and

Council board member Benjamin Kasavan (19C, 24L) when he was an undergraduate student at Emory.

Since it’s entirely run by volunteers, the students commit as much time as they want to helping out and are passionate about what they do. However, no experience or knowledge about fixing bikes is required to join. In fact, most of the people who volunteer at The Fixie had little-to-no prior experience, Kasavan said.

“It’s … fun to connect with people in such a light manner while doing something that is engaging so you can teach them stuff, collaborate, sometimes they teach me stuff,” Emory Bike Social Mechanic Chair Sam Bochner (23C) said.

Before joining The Fixie, he selftaught himself how to fix bikes through practice and YouTube videos. He said he was able to learn more about fixing bikes through his years at The Fixie and found a community of people who share his interests.

“It’s a very collaborative, fun, lighthearted environment … a departure from the intensity that is most of college,” Bochner said.

Multiple other members share the same love for The Fixie. Michael To, a cyclist from the Decatur area, found The Fixie through a friend at Emory. Now a regular volunteer, he said he

enjoys spending time with other volunteers and helping people with fixing everything from tires to brakes.

He encouraged students to come to The Fixie no matter how much they know about bikes.

Fixie Volunteer and Emory Spokes Council board member Arventh Velusamy (23G) found out about The Fixie because he had a flat tire and couldn’t find any other bike repair shops in Atlanta, at least not one he could reach with a broken bike. He brought his bike to The Fixie, learned how to fix his wheel and has never looked back.

“You … get all this information,” Velusamy said. “People teach you how to fix bikes, people will teach you how to ride safely on roads … it opens up a lot of information and friends.”

The Fixie is an invaluable part of Emory Bike Social, especially because they offer their services on group ride days. Emory Bike Social’s treasurer, Jake Green (24C), said that the club hopes to get more bikes in the coming year to further their goals of building community, helping students explore Atlanta, introducing bikers to safer ways to get around the city and encouraging students to go biking.

Due to limited bikes, Emory Bike Social President Krish Surana (23C) said there were long waitlists

last semester. Surana said that more bikes and increasing the frequency of group rides from three rides a month to once a week would allow them to increase student participation in the club. Surana spoke to the value of these events, sharing that he knows of three students who met through one of Bike Social’s group rides and are now roommates.

“We have had some great stories of friendship that have been forged through Emory Bike Social,” Surana said.

Kasavan added that the Emory biking community — whether you check out The Fixie or sign up for Emory Bike Social’s next group ride — has opportunities for people of all skill levels.

“If you’re ever interested in biking at all, stop by The Fixie when we’re open,” Kasavan said. “We’re happy to talk about it, and we can show you … how it’s really easy and accessible, and anyone can get into it and do biking.”

— Contact Jessie Satovsky at jessie.satovsky@emory.edu

Natalie Sa Ndlow/Staff Photogra Pher

The Fixie is open every Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m.

a Pril l awyer/Staff CartooNiSt

MARTA and its possibilities on the Atlanta campus

By Xavier stevens Emory Life Editor

As most students venture to other areas of Atlanta beyond the bubble of Emory University, they discover the MARTA, the city’s public transportation authority. The discovery of this service begs the obvious question of why the MARTA is not on the Atlanta campus.

Bus and rail routes proposed by MARTA could change life in and around Emory — one of Atlanta’s largest concentrations of employment at the University, Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the VA Hospital remain without direct access to mass transit and interstates. The public transit would benefit those who commute to campus or work, alleviate heavy traffic and expand a student’s ability to explore a sprawling Atlanta.

The inquiry into the possibilities of the MARTA in Druid Hills started over a decade ago with a proposed light rail transit (LRT), such as a streetcars, through campus called the Clifton Corridor Transit Initiative. The initiative’s routes start at the Lindbergh Center Transit Station in Buckhead and travel southeast, making stops at Briarcliff Road, the CDC, Emory campus, Clairmont campus and ending either in the heart of Decatur or in Avondale.

The Clifton Corridor became part of a referendum (known as T-SPLOST) among metro Atlanta voters in 2012 for a one-cent sales tax that could support $7.2 billion in several transit projects. Voters rejected the tax and referendum by a convincing margin of 24%.

The transit initiative remained fro-

zen for years before regaining momentum again in 2018 with bus rapid transit (BRT) on the table as well as light rail. Over the past five years, the MARTA Board proposed several plans. With help of citizen feedback, they narrowed down 10 options into two BRT routes and one LRT route that the board will choose from this spring.

Betty Willis, Emory government and community affairs senior associate vice president and president of the Clifton Corridor Transportation Management Association, touted the line’s use for employees and students commuting to campus in 2018. For upperclassmen and graduate students living off campus, the MARTA could cut significant time off their commute and expenses such as gas and parking.

But the vote from 2012 signals a worrying lack of public support, and more critically funding, that could halt the Clifton Corridor again before any construction starts. The resounding “no” stems from the history of the MARTA and its relationship to a growing Atlanta.

The MARTA started in 1965 through a similar vote of minimal increase to sales tax and gained funding to construct a bus and rail system.

Jackson McQuigg, a railroad historian and a vice president of the Atlanta History Center, believes that the conditions were just right for this move.

“We were visionary, at least at the local level in 1965, when the sales tax was basically implemented or passed by the voters, and the referendum was approved,” McQuigg said. “It also helped that the [Feds] were doling out big money in the ’60s and o’70s for urban mass transit because of the oil crises at the time.”

The MARTA capitalized on the sales tax implemented by most of metro Atlanta in 1971 and federal support during the 1970s energy crises to build their bus and rail systems within the decade. Both start in the heart of downtown and expand past it in the cardinal directions. Although visionary, the new public transportation soon saw a diminished reputation for its inability to serve Atlantans.

As the city grew in the ’60s and ’70s, many residents, especially the white population at about 160,000, left the city and MARTA’s reach. The solution became rapid highway construction that notoriously split up Bblack neighborhoods, tarnished public transportation’s reputation as an unreliable source of transit and created a city dependent on streets.

The stereotypical connection of public transportation and crime also deterred many from using the MARTA. Residents of Cobb, Gwinnett and Clayton counties, which were overwhelmingly white at the time, voted down the initial public transportation referendum. Gary Wolf, president of Atlanta-based Wolf Railway Consulting, worked on MARTA line projections for the Gold Line built to extend to Chamblee and Doraville. He said that MARTA made several promises about the increased population and economic benefits in those areas that fell through.

“[MARTA] has had these huge predictions of development,” Wolf said. “They said, ‘Oh, Chamblee is going to boom, and Doraville is going to be a boom center. When they built it out east, we were going to have these big office projects around East Lake and Decatur. Well, guess what? Ironically, when they put MARTA in

development, people moved away from MARTA.”

Wolf, a Druid Hills resident, said that he “doubts” Lindbergh to Emory “will ever happen” because he believes that neighborhood residents might push back if the Clifton Corridor reaches a point of construction.

“There would be huge protests coming into my neighborhood,” Wolf said. “We’ll see where it goes, and when you really get down to it, you can put a really good bus system in for about a fraction of the price of rail.”

He finds it more likely the BRT routes of the Clifton Corridor will be approved. Other MARTA proposed LRT routes in Clayton County and the Beltline transitioned to BRT routes after lack of funding and public support. The Clifton Corridor Transit Initiative estimates the light rail system would cost $3 billion and be built in eight to 10 years.

“Politicians get hung up on rail

systems, and the cost of building rail is just so escalated today,” Wolf said. “You could never afford to build MARTA today what you built it for in the ’70s with all these environmental statements, impact studies and all this stuff. It just bogs it all down years and years.”

Efforts for the MARTA at Emory seem bleak to the Druid Hills community. Yet MARTA continues through the public pushback and decades-long process and plans to finalize a route this spring for the Clifton Corridor. It projects service for up to 1,100 residents per hour — a significant step forward for anyone’s ability to get to and from campus, work and their families. For now, students face the limitations of the shuttle service, resort to Uber and sit in the heavy traffic that defines Atlanta.

— Contact Xavier Stevens at xsteven@emory.edu.

Caring for strangers: Emory Helpline offers confidential peer support

By Chaya tong Emory Life Editor

Content warning: This article contains references to suicide and mental health crises

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call Emory Student Intervention Services at 4040-430-1120. To reach The Emory Helpline, call 404.727.4357 from 8:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. If you are outside of Emory, call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.

The people on the phone will never know each other’s names. Once one of them hangs up, the conversation will go unrepeated, though it may have touched both callers deeply. In some cases, that conversation might save a life. But what’s said on the phone stays on the phone. Stranger to stranger.

On a banner off of Asbury circle or on posters in the narrow recesses of White Hall’s bathrooms, students may find an advertisement for the Emory Helpline. The message is simple: call this number if you need support. The Helpline, a confidential, peer support telephone line for students with nonurgent mental health needs, operates nightly from 8:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. when students are on campus. All volunteers and executive board members involved with the Helpline are students, and with the exception of the outreach chair, who facilitates recruitment and publicity events, all volunteers remain completely anonymous.

The Helpline began in 1979 at a time when there was no counseling center on campus. With just 10 volunteers and $200, graduate students and professors in the psychology department, as well as the Dean of Students, founded the telephone line to provide mental health support to students. Since then, the line has grown to become an integral part of Emory, responding to over 100 calls a year on average. Outside

of taking calls, the organization also works to advocate for mental health concerns on campus.

National crisis lines, including the recent launch of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, have increased access to mental health help and resources for people around the country. But the Emory Helpline is unique in its purpose to specifically serve the Emory community.

“One reason to go with talking to somebody on the Emory helpline as opposed to a national line is because we really understand the environment … so we can also tailor our resources that we offer to that person,” Adina Peck (23C), current outreach chair for the Helpline said.

Besides the ability to provide Emory specific resources and support, the Helpline also provides peer support — a connection between students at a similar stage of life, with Emory as a common denominator. Unlike a national line, the Emory line is not reserved for severe crises. Students can call if they need someone to vent to, get advice from or just listen.

Training to take a call for the Helpline is rigorous. In fact, the application and training process take close to a year for potential volunteers to complete before they take their first call.

Applications usually open in October with an interview later in the semester. After that, they undergo training throughout the spring semester.

“Our baseline training involves both didactic and experiential components,” Dr. Irene Daboin Dominguez, the Helpline advisor said. “These cover a wide variety of topics including - but not limited to –– helping and active listening skills, crisis intervention, suicide prevention, cultural humility, gender and sexual diversity, substance use concerns, eating disorders and

intimate partner violence.”

Active members also receive continuing education and supervision from Daboin Dominguez throughout their time at the Helpline.

When a call comes in, the caller speaks directly with a volunteer, who greets them and invites them to share about whatever is on their mind. Rather than giving advice or telling people what to do, the Helpline believes in helping callers understand themselves and learn how to address their situations. It was this mission that drew Peck to join the Helpline.

“It’s more about helping people come to whatever solution is best for their life at that moment and helping people to help themselves was really something that stuck out to me as a group I would want to be part of,” she said. The call is confidential except when callers are at immediate risk of hurting themselves or others, or if there is a minor, dependent adult or elderly person in harm’s way.

For the students working with the Helpline, responding to calls is an investment in the Emory community. Volunteers work shifts until 1 a.m. in the morning.

They work on weekends. They are never recognized or even known around campus. It’s not a job that can go on a resume until post-graduation or something they can ever talk about with friends. But it is far from a thankless task.

“It was hands down the best club organization on campus that I could have gotten involved with,” Hailey Greenstone (22C), an alumni of the Helpline and current first year medical student at Tufts University (Ma.) said. She has seen the skills she learned while volunteering extend past her time at Emory. In a med school course that discussed trauma-informed care and empathizing with patients, Greenstone found that investing in

other people came naturally to her after working at the Helpline. She knows the experience will make her a better physician.

“I could do something powerful there and now I get to continue that legacy in a different setting,” she said.

The people who call the Helpline will never know who they are talking to. They will never be able to thank them for the support they offer. The call will remain an exchange between

strangers, but one that could make a difference.

“The Helpline is so special because it’s a choice that people are making to give up part of their time and a lot of their emotional energy to care for people that they don’t even know,” Greenstone said. “That’s just such a beautiful gift to give.”

— Contact Chaya Tong at chaya.tong@emory.edu.

CourteSy of wikimedia CommoNS

The MARTA established itself in the early 1970s with a rail and bus system through the heart of downtown Atlanta.

WBCA selects fourth player in Emory history

have been selected, and she’s excited to attend the workshop in March.

“It means a lot [to receive the invitation],” Lowndes said. “I’m looking forward to going to this convention and learning more from different coaches and from different players about their experiences and the dedication and precision it takes to be an elite mastermind of the sport.”

Senior guard and forward Mariane Auza and sophomore forward Morgan Laudick are not surprised that Lowndes was recognized for her coaching potential.

Laudick said Lowndes leads the team by example and always energizes the team with her positive attitude. Auza added that Lowndes knows the game of basketball “like the back of her hand” and always encourages her teammates to play at a high level.

“Charlotte is one of the most hardworking players I’ve ever had the pleasure of being on a team with,” Auza

said. “She’s always very optimistic and wants to have fun and always do her best.”

Laudick said Lowndes already possesses many important qualities which are needed to become a successful coach.

“She has a very high basketball IQ,” Laudick said. “She can push you in certain ways and tell you to keep going, tell you to shoot your shot and give you confidence, and I think that would be great attributes in a coach.”

Jackson described Lowndes as a selfless player who works hard to excel in both sports and academics. Lowndes is the type of person who always strives for perfection — whenever Lowndes’ shot hits the rim, she immediately wants to try again until she gets the perfect shot, Jackson added.

“She doesn’t not know how to go 100% at everything she does,” Jackson said. “She’s the sweetest person but the biggest competitor. She doesn’t do anything halfway.”

Lowndes said that she is strongly considering going into coaching after graduation, and Jackson believes that she already possesses many qualities of a great team leader.

“Charlotte will be perfect as a coach because she doesn’t look for gratitude,” Jackson said. “She’s not a taker, she’s a giver. Charlotte’s always the person that can give you criticism but she’s going to flip it and make it positive as well.”

Jackson and Lowndes agreed that the WBCA program is an amazing opportunity for young women to learn new perspectives on the game and serves as a helpful pathway into the world of coaching.

“I think [the program is] great, especially promoting the women’s side and encouraging women that there is an opportunity to be a head coach and lead a team to success,” Lowndes said.

— Contact Madeline Shapiro at madeline.shapiro@emory.edu

Sabalenka continues undefeated streak on comeback tour

Continued from Back Page

No.5 Sabalenka takes women’s singles crown in heavily contested matchup

The women’s singles bracket also had notable absentee players such as two-time champions Naomi Osaka and Venus Williams. With their absences, a few players appeared to be favorites to win the tournament, including Poland’s no. 1 Iga Swiatek and France’s no. 4 Caroline Garcia. Coming off of strong tournament play in the 2022 U.S. and French Opens, they both sought to make their mark in the first Grand Slam of 2023.

A few Americans looked poised to take the women’s singles crown as well. This was the first Australian

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Open since 1997 without seven-time Australian Open champion Serena Williams. Favorites included 18-yearold Coco Gauff and no. 3 Jessica Pegula who showed promise when she defeated a few Grand Slam champions en route to her victory at the 2022 Guadalajara Open.

The fourth round saw a notable victory after no. 22 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan upset Swiatek in a two-set victory 6-4, 6-4. Though Rybakina won Wimbledon in 2022, Swiatetek had a commanding year as well, winning both the U.S. Open and French Open.

Aryna Sabalenka, who was one of the best servers in 2021, became one of the worst in 2022 with 428 double faults and resorted to the greater use of an underhand. Going up against a

Hitting the slopes with the BBA program

powerful hitter like Donna Vekic in the quarterfinals, Sabalenka relied heavily on forehand technique and defense to her advantage. Though this strategy worked with Vekic and Poland’s Magda Linette, Rybakina’s serve coupled with her agility and momentum from winning key matches would prove to be a challenge for Sabalenka in the championship draw.

Sabalenka dropped the first set for the first time in the Open 4-6 after Rybakina rained on four straight points in the final set point. Avenging her first set loss and several double faults, Sabalenka did not waver in the second set. The Belarusian went on a tear, sizing up a 3-1 lead. Compared to the first set, her serves were much more controlled.

With greater athleticism, stronger forehand and improved serves, Rybakina didn’t have an answer for Sabalenka who won the set 6-3. The resurgence by Sabalenka in the second set led to a decisive third set that would determine the next champion.

Both players fired on all cylinders in a hotly contested draw. The set points remained tied until Sabalenka gave the first break of the match 4-3. After Sabalenka won one more point 5-3, Rybakina responded with a wide forehand to make the contest 4-5.

Rybakina’s hopes of a comeback were shattered by the end of the third set after she hit a forehand long beyond the baseline, making the final score 6-4. Sabalenka immediately collapsed to the ground with her hands cover-

ing her face and began sobbing as the crowd cheered. This was Sabalenka’s first Grand Slam title.

As she received the 2023 Australian Open Trophy, Belarus was not engraved as the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) voted to prohibit Russian and Belarussian players from competing for their countries unless they played for a neutral team. Her victory marks the first one for the neutral team since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. After the match, Sabalenka’s rank returned to no. 2 as she remained undefeated in her 2023 campaign.

— Contact Clement Lee at clement.lee@emory.edu

Hill encourages female athletes to be ‘persistent’

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neurship when she first founded her company, had to delegate responsibilities as her business grew. All three women said that working hard and staying consistent contributed greatly to their current success.

“I was not the best soccer player,” Sitch said. “I was fit. I could work hard. I would outwork anyone on any day. That was my biggest strength. I would run fitness in my street with my dad standing there with a stopwatch timing me. Anything I could do to put myself in the best situation to give myself the best opportunity to go after my dreams.”

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were big differences in terms of snow quality at Blowing Rock compared to Colorado, but she still enjoyed skiing again regardless. Most of the snow produced on Sugar Mountain comes from a snow blower, which distributes man-made snow onto the runs. This type of snow tends to freeze faster than real snow, which can create tricky conditions — especially for new skiers.

“We had to ski with all this fake snow and a lot of ice,” Abraham said. “Even though I live in Colorado, I actually haven’t skied in five years, so

it was definitely fun to get back in the swing of things.”

Nakash explained that it’s difficult to find time between school, internships and other extracurriculars to travel to a mountain where she can ski.

“I don’t think I could see myself having another time in the near future when I would [be able to] go skiing,” Nakash said. “I think giving students the chance to go and have a great outof-the-ordinary experience was my favorite part of it.”

— Contact Tallulah Story at tallulah.story@emory.edu

While believing in oneself is crucial, Hill said relying on others for assistance and insight is equally important for maneuvering up the professional ladder. Hill emphasized that while it can take effort to foster connections and form meaningful relationships with others, having a broad professional network is an invaluable asset when seeking new opportunities in the sports industry.

“Every job that I’ve had has been because of someone I knew,” Hill said. “Just being very intentional about networking and meeting people and staying in touch with them, and not just always asking for things but being a resource back to them as well. It’s a give-and-take relationship.”

Story devoted much time and energy into nurturing female relationships within the sports indus-

try during her development of The Sports Power Brunch. Founded in 2019, the annual event brings together female sports professionals in an effort to empower them and celebrate their successes. Within her own business, Story has surrounded herself with women who contribute positively to the workplace environment, as she views those caring inter-female relationships as being crucial to motivating young ambitious women to remain in the business.

port for one another, the more likely men are to back female colleagues.

“In general, I think women need to continue to lift women up and advocate for each other versus breaking us down,” Sitch said. “I also think one thing that needs to continue to improve too is men advocating for women as well, and advocating for us or when we are qualified or more than qualified or overqualified than some other people, then they should be advocating for us. I think if we advocate for each other, I think it will continue to improve and help men advocate for us as well.”

“Sometimes when you get in a [leadership] role, you notice that sometimes women can be mean and nasty,” Story said. “Sometimes it turns younger women off from wanting to get in the business or for them to even excel. There are so many people who I know personally who’ve left the business altogether because someone who was in leadership just had a nasty attitude or wasn’t nurturing.”

In a similar vein, Sitch noted that the more vocal women are in their sup-

When asked what career advice they would offer the collegiate student-athletes in attendance, all three women spoke about the importance of building a community of reliable and driven people. As Hill said, however, improving one’s own professional habits — following through on commitments, independent problemsolving and staying passionate about one’s work — is what makes candidates stand out to employers.

“Being dependable [is important],” Hill said. “That makes a big difference to people when they see that you’re dedicated to what you’re doing. Also being persistent, not taking no for an answer. Just being persistent and not being so easy to just give up and say, “It didn’t go my way. I didn’t get what I wanted. Let me just give up.’”

— Contact Claire Fenton at claire.fenton@emory.edu

Business school students pose for a picture during their ski trip to North Carolina Jan. 18-21.

“In general, I think women need to continue to lift women up and advocate for each other versus breaking us down.”

— Julianne Sitch

Sports The Emory Wheel

Eagle Edge hosts Women in Sports panel

By Claire Fenton Sports Editor

Lowndes earns invitation to WBCA program

By Madeline Shapiro Asst. Sports Editor

Emory University women’s basketball senior Charlotte Lowndes was selected to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) 20th annual “So You Want To Be A Coach” program on Jan. 24.

The program recognizes 62 women’s basketball players from all collegiate levels who demonstrate dedication to the sport. The two-day workshop will take place March 30-31 in Dallas and will give current players a chance to develop essential coaching skills.

Lowndes has been around the game of basketball for as long as she can remember. After playing four years as a starter at Bethesda ChevyChase High School in Maryland, she began her undergraduate career at Wesleyan University (Conn.) and transferred to Emory after her fresh-

man year.

Lowndes immediately relished the competitive nature of Emory’s women’s basketball team.

“I decided that my previous school was not the best fit and I wanted to go to a high academic competitive basketball school that was close to a city, and Emory fit all those criteria,” Lowndes said. “I talked to [Emory women’s basketball head] coach Misha Jackson (13C) and she made the opportunity to walk on, and I went through that process and I’ve been on the team ever since.”

Unfortunately, Lowndes’ sophomore season was disrupted by COVID19. She faced another challenge the following season when she sustained a season-ending injury in the fourth game. Being forced to sit on the sidelines gave Lowndes the unique opportunity to “see the game in a different perspective” and learn more about coaching.

Lowndes applied for the WBCA program with the help of Jackson and assistant coach Alex Berman. After receiving the invitation, Lowndes became the fourth Emory women’s basketball player to be part of the program. Like Lowndes, Jackson also participated in the program in 2014.

“That was an amazing program for me,” Jackson said. “When you’re getting into coaching, it’s a big world and so it’s nice to come in with a smaller community. It’s a great way to network.”

The other Emory basketball alumni who have participated in this program are current Wheaton College (Ill.) assistant women’s basketball coach Allison Chernow (20C) and former Middlebury College (Vt.) assistant women’s basketball coach Savannah Morgan (14C).

Lowndes said that she is honored to

University of Chicago men’s soccer head coach Julianne Sitch has proved that she can compete with the best her entire athletic career. She broke records while playing at DePaul University (Ill.), won a national championship with Sky Blue FC of the Women’s Professional Soccer league during her playing career and is the first female head coach to lead an NCAA men’s team to a national championship. Her resume should speak for itself — yet, Sitch said people still question her ability to hold her own at the Women in Sports panel hosted by Emory Athletics’ Eagle Edge program at the Emory Student Center on Jan. 30.

“I also have had some people that I unfortunately had to work with that told me that females weren’t qualified to coach or to be in the sport,” Sitch said. “I’ve had people now with my current job that have asked me multiple times, unfortunately, about, ‘Do you get the respect from your guys? Do your guys listen to you? Are you able to control the room?’”

Sitch, along with Director of Player Engagement for the Atlanta Hawks Ericka Hill and founder and CEO of LPS Consulting LaTonya Story, spoke to Emory University female student-athletes about the challenges they have faced achieving success in a male-dominated sports industry. Hill, who has worked for the Miami Heat and Atlanta Braves and is now in her fifth year with the Hawks, noted that she struggled to stand up to the “slight biases” perpetuated by her male colleagues at the beginning

of her career.

“When you get in a meeting with your male counterparts, they look to you to take the notes,” Hill said. “It shapes how they look at you. It’s just small things like this, I think. When there’s birthdays at the office or when there’s celebrations, they always look to the woman to go buy the cupcakes and go decorate everybody’s desk and things like that.”

Although today Story can boast that her company’s clients include NBA, NFL, Olympic and WNBA athletes, representing mostly male athletes has not been without challenges. After carving out a niche for herself representing “blue-collar” athletes at a smaller firm, Story did everything in her power to be more “assertive” in going after her clients and do everything in her power to promote them once they hired her.

“I really just did everything I could for them,” Story said. “I was very intentional about trying to position my clients in the best possible light. Even though [one client] wasn’t a quarterback or a receiver or a running back, I tried to make the most I could of that position and then he started to grow and grow.”

Even accomplished sports industry professionals such as Hill, Sitch and Story do not harbor elusive innate talents that automatically open doors. Hill recalled that she lived on a $15,000 annual salary at her first job with the Heat, and, at one point, Sitch worked seven jobs simultaneously to stay afloat while pocketing just a few hundred dollars playing the odd professional game. Even Story, who knew little about the intricacies of entrepre-

B-school students earn PE credit on ski trip Djokovic, Sabalenka take Aussie Open

By tallulah Story

Contributing Writer

Students from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School attended a four-day ski trip in Bowling Rock, N.C. from Jan. 18-21. The trip was an opportunity for current Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and pre-BBA students to obtain their required one-credit physical education (PE) course for graduation.

BBA Council President Dani Nakash (23B) missed out on last year’s scheduled trip, which was canceled at the last minute due to increased COVID-19 cases. The Business School had previously offered this trip for over 10 years, and the last trip took place in 2020. However, the annual trip resumed this year. “All of the administrators were super excited that the trip had come back to fruition since being canceled,” Nakash said.

Students gathered at the Meadowbrook Inn, situated just four miles away from the Appalachian Mountains and Sugar Mountain, where they skied most of the weekend. Even students without prior experience had the chance to ski on both mountains during the trip, spending time taking guided lessons and skiing

on their own.

Nakash noted administrators take attendance “really seriously” because the trip supplements the required PE credit all Emory students have to complete.

Like Nakash, Eve Abraham (23B) also had a chance to attend the trip and enjoyed skiing while also earning PE credit.

“[It’s] what a lot of kids do instead of taking a gym class,” Abraham said. “A lot of people found this to be the easier option. I know that some people that still participated in the ski trip who had already fulfilled their credit requirement just because it seemed like a fun thing to do… they wanted to participate just for fun.”

Not everyone has the chance to go skiing frequently or at all, considering not everyone has access to the sport. Areas with ski slopes are not often close to living areas and the general cost of equipment and passes makes it an opportunity not many students want to pass up.

Abraham moved to Boulder, Colo. when she was younger and has skied in the Rocky Mountains in the past, but she said it had been a while since she’d hit the slopes. She said there

By CleMent lee Asst. Sports Editor

The 2023 Australian Open, which ran from Jan.16 - Jan. 29, was the first without six-time champion Roger Federer in 23 years. The first round of the tournament saw 128 players in each draw with big names such as Rafael Nadal, Andrey Rublev and Tommy Paul competing against lesserranked players.

However, the Open was steeped in absentee players. Australian superstar and fan favorite Nick Kyrgios withdrew from the tournament after suffering a knee injury and the top-ranked 2022 U.S. Open champion Carlos Alcaraz injured his leg training before the tournament.

Nine-time Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic returned to the tournament after being forced to withdraw from the 2022 Australian Open because of his unvaccinated status. Djokovic returned to the Australian court this year looking to start his 2023 Grand Slam campaign and tie Nadal’s major record of 22 Grand Slam championship titles.

Heading into the Open, fans had high hopes for Nadal who held the top seed in this year’s tournament. The action-packed second round saw many surprises and action including American MacKenzie McDonald tactically maneuvering to beat an

injured Nadal, who refused to withdraw, in straight sets (6-4, 6-4, 7-5). This devastating loss added to Nadal’s woes after he suffered an abdominal tear at Wimbledon back in 2022.

Djokovic entered the finals with confidence from defeating Australian Alex de Minaur in the fourth round, Rublev in the quarterfinals and Paul in the semifinals.

Although he seemed to effortlessly dominate his opponents, a hamstring injury coupled with a controversy surrounding his father and the Russian flag disrupted his last week of the Open. Djokovic was also quick to refute the speculation that he faked his injury.

Despite the headlines against Djokovic, he cruised through his opponents with his stifling defense, continuing his 16-game win streak dating back to 2022.

On the other side of the bracket, Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Jiri Lehecka in the quarterfinals (6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-4) and Karen Khachanov in the semifinals in four sets (7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-7 (8), 6-3). Tsitsipas utilized his ferocious forehand during these matches.

Yet, it became uncertain whether Tsitsipas had enough momentum to stave off Djokovic’s strong offensive and defensive play. Throughout the tournament, Djokovic relied on counters to break down his opponents. This

strategy gave him considerable success as he went on to only drop one set in his six matches leading up to the final. Djokovic and Tsitsipas faced off in a highly anticipated championship match on Jan. 29. The match started off with Djokovic dominating the first set 6-3.

However, the next two sets saw a battle of wills. Tsitsipas set the tone with a few highlight plays including a backhand slice in the second set. Ultimately, Djokovic was able to find his spots on the court better than Tsitsipas. A miss by Tsitsipas with the second set score tied at 6-6 gave Djokovic the second set victory 7-6 (4).

Tsitsipas would not give in despite Djokovic’s momentum from the last set. The third set ended in another tie breaker. Djokovic managed to respond to Tsitsipas’ powerful serves with equally powerful forehand shots. Ultimately, Djokovic won the tournament with a well-placed forehand to Tsitsipas’ right side, leading him to scramble for the ball and shoot over the baseline at 7-6 (5).

After shaking hands with Tsitsipas, Djokovic ran over to his coaching staff and collapsed, visibly emotional from what he said in the post match interview was the “biggest victory of my life.”

Wednesday, February 1, 2023 | Sports Editors: Jenna Daly and Claire Fenton | Asst. Sports Editors: Clement Lee and Madeline Shapiro

NAtA lie sAN dlow/stA ff Senior guard Charlotte Lowndes dribbles past a University of Chicago defender during a game on Jan. 27.